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A new report takes aim at state movie production subsidies for supporting films that depict smoking. Health researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, estimate that 60 percent of the $1.4 billion that states offered in 2008 to attract Hollywood filming went to movies with tobacco imagery.
The researchers tabulated that states gave about $500 million to “youth-rated” movies (PG and PG-13) and about $330 million R-rated movies. Combined, that is more than the 41 states that offer subsidies spend on antitobacco health programs, according to Stanton Glantz, an author of the report and a U.C.S.F. professor of medicine.
“These film subsidies undermine their own antitobacco programs,” Mr. Glantz said. The full report, released Tuesday and funded by the American Legacy Foundation, is available here.
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With the latest research estimating that nearly six million people worldwide will lose their lives to tobacco next year(1), an innovative approach is critical to helping the 43 million Americans who smoke to finally quit. This month, which is observed as Lung Cancer Awareness Month, the national quit smoking program, EX(R) will debut the second phase of advertising and promotions designed to help smokers "re-learn" life without cigarettes.
The campaign will begin airing this month on radio and cable television networks as well as online, in print and through ambient/out-of-home channels. EX is a national quit smoking campaign, sponsored by the National Alliance for Tobacco Cessation (NATC), a two-year old collaborative of state and national public health groups spearheaded by Legacy(SM), creators of the award-winning truth(R) youth smoking prevention campaign. . . .
Most smokers in America - 70 percent - want to quit, but in 2000, only about five percent of smokers were successful in quitting long-term. Quitting smoking is ultimately one of the single most important lifestyle changes one can make to improve and extend their lives. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States; smokers therefore need to be armed with all the available information to make the best, most informed choices about the smoking cessation medications and resources available to them.
A new survey conducted by the American Legacy Foundation(R) (Legacy) finds that the majority (63 percent) of sports fans surveyed are current or former smokers and 76 percent of them have smoked while watching or attending sporting events. The study examines whether sports fans were exposed to secondhand smoke while watching sports; smoked while watching sports at certain venues; or whether those who quit smoking relapsed while watching a game. The survey also examined whether watching sports was a trigger for fans who smoke.
The survey also indicated that 60 percent of sports fans have been exposed to secondhand smoke in the past year while watching or attending sporting events and that 36 percent of sports fans who smoke or used to smoke are extremely or very tempted to smoke while viewing sporting events in their own homes. When the score of the game is close, nearly one third are extremely or very tempted to light up.
Starting this week and through the winter, many smokers will be exposed to new quit smoking messages through the EX(R) national smoking cessation campaign. Legacy, along with the National Alliance for Tobacco Cessation (NATC), announced today that the next round of new ads in its two-year old EX campaign are now being featured during FOX Sports' broadcast of Major League Baseball's American League Championship Series (ALCS) and World Series.
The American Legacy Foundation is a rare example of a public charity being born with a silver spoon. Even before it began operating in 1999, the foundation was bequeathed more than $1 billion from the settlement of a massive lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of 46 states against the country's major tobacco companies. . . .
For the first few years, it seemed a great success. The foundation rolled out hard-hitting and ubiquitous advertising, known as "the truth" campaign. . . .
Then the magic stopped working so well. Since 2003, teen smoking rates have hovered around 22 percent, even as adult smoking has continued to dwindle (to under 20 percent now). After the final really big tobacco payment of $307.9 million came that year (under the Master Settlement), "the truth" campaign continued on a much smaller scale.
But despite spending less on those ads, awarding fewer grants for anti-smoking programs and seeing all the tobacco company contributions end last year, the foundation itself grew wealthier. As expenditures for its primary missions fell, two budget items kept growing: investment fees and salary costs, especially for top executives. . . .
While most nonprofits invest to protect their funds, the Legacy Foundation has pursued an aggressive investment strategy that includes hedge funds, foreign stocks (sometimes accompanied by currency exchange losses), interest rate swaps, two office buildings in downtown Washington and other investments.
Some observers say Legacy is trying too hard to perpetuate itself and the cause would be better served if it spent more of its endowment, which stood at $1.156 billion at the end of fiscal 2008.
The American Legacy Foundation says President Cheryl Healton's salary of $570,000 in 2008 (plus benefits) is about the same as the median for others in large philanthropic endeavors. . . .
(For a more complete rundown of the foundation's annual budget and spending, see the pie charts on these pages.) . . .
The foundation is phasing out its grant program for small innovative programs, for anti-smoking programs in rural areas and among minority groups, and for research. It has spent about $150 million on these grants during its existence.
As for media strategies: Despite embracing social media such as Facebook and YouTube, the ubiquity of the foundation's ads has faded. None has gone viral on the Web. The foundation has attracted fewer than 200 Facebook fans.
Meanwhile, tobacco companies lay out about $41 million a day for advertising.
The American Legacy Foundation(R) applauds Speaker Nancy Pelosi and all those in the U.S. House of Representatives who have worked tirelessly to protect Capitol Hill staff and visitors from the dangers of second-hand smoke.
On Thursday, the House's last two indoor smoking rooms are being cleaned and converted to smoke-free dining areas. It is no secret that secondhand smoke is dangerous - it causes 50,000 deaths per year in the U.S. Our halls of government should be playing a leadership role in ensuring clean indoor air for their staff and the visiting public and setting a positive example for other work places and public spaces nationwide. . . .
The closing of the smoking rooms in the Longworth and Cannon House office buildings is one more indication that we're moving in the right direction and toward a smoke-free America.
Smoking bans, while a necessary and positive trend for reducing exposure to secondhand smoke, have some unintended consequences--especially for women. The August 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine includes a special supplement, Unintended Consequences of Tobacco Policies, a compilation of nine original, peer-reviewed articles focused on examining these unique challenges related to a smoking stigma, childcare and personal safety.
According to the report, low-income women who live in urban areas may have safety concerns about going outside to smoke when smoking indoors isn't permitted. Moreover, childcare and adequate child supervision may be a concern when they go outside their homes in order to avoid exposing their children to secondhand smoke. The reports go on to find that many women of low socio-economic status feel an increased stigma associated with smoking, more so than their more advantaged counterparts. This stigma often leaves mothers in this category with a label of being "bad mothers" and thus, cause additional unintended consequences including resistance to seeking out help in quitting from healthcare providers.
"Women of low socio-economic status have elevated challenges across-the-board when it comes to smoking and access to quit-smoking resources," said Dr. Pebbles Fagan, Health Scientist, Tobacco Research Branch, Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute. "Unfortunately, the articles in this issue find that this group also faces a unique set of consequences related to the evolving policy context of smoking worldwide."
The American Legacy Foundation(R), the National Cancer Institute and the National Cancer Institute's Office of Science Planning and Assessment co-sponsored the supplement.
The American Legacy Foundation(R), the National Cancer Institute and the National Cancer Institute's Office of Science Planning and Assessment co-sponsored the supplement. . . .
Remedies in the supplement's forward are proposed for practitioners to help reduce the unintended burden on the population groups outlined:
-- Ensure that secondhand smoke-related messages target PARENTS, not just mothers, and are delivered in culturally appropriate ways
-- Focus smoking-cessation messages to an individual woman's health, as well as the health of her children and family
-- Build acceptance and trust within the patient-provider relationship to facilitate treatment initiation among women and mothers who smoke
As caregivers across the country mobilize for Sandwich Generation Month in July, the American Legacy Foundation(R) today released the results of a recent survey analyzing the unique concerns associated with tobacco use and prevention for Americans raising their own kids while simultaneously caring for their aging parents - millions of whom have been life-long smokers and are now struggling with the resulting health effects. Lung cancer, heart disease, stroke, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disorder (COPD), which includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, can all afflict aging smokers and can be emotionally and financially debilitating for families forced to cope with them.
The survey, conducted by Opinion Research Corporation, found that 75 percent of respondents with a parent who is a current or former smoker are concerned about their aging parent's current or past smoking or their diagnosis of having a tobacco-related disease. Thirty-four percent of respondents with teenage or adult children indicated that they were concerned about their child's current or potential smoking. About 5% of respondents were "sandwiched" in between: struggling with issues related to both their parents and children smoking. Nationwide, this small percentage translates to more than 10 million Americans in this situation.
The survey highlights the unique position of this group of Americans and their concerns about the impact of the nation's number-one preventable cause of death on their emotional and financial well-being. . . .
"As healthcare reform and the economy dominate our headlines, we simply cannot ignore the burden of smoking on the health of America's families," said Cheryl G. Healton
The University of Illinois at Chicago is leading a $2.9 million National Cancer Institute project to increase demand for evidence-based, Internet-based smoking cessation treatment among young adults.
"Even though many young adults think about quitting and actually want to stop smoking, they tend not to use what we know works - evidence-based approaches to quitting," said psychology professor Robin Mermelstein, director of UIC's Institute for Health Research and Policy and principal investigator of the five-year study.
Young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 have the highest rates of smoking compared to any other age group, but they have among the lowest rates of quitting, according to Mermelstein.
A multidisciplinary team of investigators from UIC, the University of Iowa and the American Legacy Foundation will work with GDS&M Idea City advertising agency to develop interactive, Internet-based ads and evaluate what messages motivate young smokers to use the evidence-based stop smoking program www.BecomeAnEx.org. . . .
The four-part study will develop Internet-based ads, evaluate if the ads are reaching young adults and driving them to Internet-based cessation programs, determine if the approaches are effective, and find out if those who used the Internet-based program were successful in stopping smoking.
The American Legacy Foundation(R) is challenging pet owners to quit smoking for their pets during the month of April, which kicks off Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Month. A growing body of research shows there are no safe levels of exposure to secondhand smoke -- for humans or for animals. And one new study shows that nearly 30 percent of pet owners live with at least one smoker -- a number far too high given the consequences of exposure to secondhand smoke ("SHS").
"Secondhand smoke doesn't just affect people," said Dr. Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH, President and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation(R), the national independent public health foundation dedicated to keeping young people from smoking and providing resources to smokers who want to quit. "While most Americans have been educated about the dangers of smoking to their own bodies, it is equally important that pet owners take action to protect their beloved domestic pets from the dangers of secondhand smoke."
I had lunch, a cup of coffee and a smoke the other day at the offices of the American Legacy Foundation in downtown Washington. I puffed away for a good 15 minutes, savoring the irony.
Here I was, surrounded by zealous anti-smokers -- Legacy is among the nation's most influential and well-funded tobacco-fighting organizations -- yet I had been invited over to partake in all the nicotine I could handle.
Of course there was a catch: What I puffed on wasn't a Marlboro or any other combustible cancer stick. I didn't need an ashtray. The "smoke" was more accurately fog -- small, vaporous clouds. I was trying out a controversial new nicotine-delivery device that somewhat resembles a cigarette but is actually a plastic tube with a glowing LED at its tip.
"If you just suck on it, it should work," scientist David B. Abrams said, handing me an Njoy brand e-cigarette. (That's "e" for electronic; nothing to do with the Internet, except that the devices are sold there in abundance.) Inside the tube is a lithium battery that warms and aerosolizes a nicotine solution; Njoy says it works like a vaporizer.
After a few puffs, I found myself wreathed in a fine mist of nostalgia. . . .
As the Legacy foundation's resident expert on addiction and smoker behavior, Abrams and other researchers are intrigued by the devices but also deeply concerned. Could they become another weapon in the smoking-cessation arsenal? Or could they hook more young people on nicotine and serve as a gateway to tobacco use? The products are unregulated, untested . . .
As for me, I found "vaping" too, well, plastic to be enjoyable. After I left the Legacy Foundation -- established through proceeds of the great tobacco settlement of 1998 and dedicated ever since to saving lives -- I walked past smokers clustered under the eaves of nearby buildings. A tantalizing wisp of tobacco smoke wended its way through the gentle rain, reaching my nostrils. I inhaled. It smelled delectable.
The dangers of heavy and regular cigarette smoking are well known, but researchers have now produced an overview of "light" smokers in the United States.
The examination of intermittent or occasional smokers, which the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates make up one of five smokers in the country, is published in a series of studies and articles in a special March issue of Nicotine and Tobacco Research.
Among the findings:
* Blacks, Hispanics/Latinos, Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders were more likely to be light or intermittent smokers than whites.
* Adults younger than 35 were more likely than older adults to smoke fewer than six cigarettes a day. In addition, though smoking in general decreased among Americans aged 30 or older, light and intermittent smoking rose among adults younger than 30.
* Young adults who smoked but lived in states with stricter policies on smoking or in smoke-free homes were more likely to be light and intermittent smokers.
Today the American Legacy Foundation, the national non-profit organization that created the award-winning national truth® youth smoking prevention campaign and has been a leader in grant-making, research and counter-marketing efforts aimed at saving lives from tobacco, celebrates its tenth anniversary.
As part of a year-long effort to commemorate its first decade, the Foundation today unveiled a new Web site, http://www.mylegacystory.com/ and is encouraging those impacted by the toll of tobacco to log on and share their stories and support the Foundation's work to reduce the deadly toll of tobacco. Legacy was created as a result of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement reached between 46 states, five territories and the tobacco industry.
In response to the ongoing financial downturn and its effect on its long-term reserve funds, the American Legacy Foundation's Board of Directors has made the difficult decision to shift its programs to population-based strategies for maximum impact of the more limited dollars spent.
In accordance with this approach, the Foundation's competitive grant-making program will be suspended and phased out over the course of the next two fiscal years through 2012. The Foundation will honor its existing commitments and fulfill the current round of Legacy Innovative Grants (LIG) and Priority Populations Phase II Grants. All grant extensions will be limited to one six-month, no-cost extension.
This is a sad day for our Foundation, as it forces us to end a program that has meant a great deal to us and to the field. Our grants programs have made remarkable contributions and progress in youth smoking prevention and adult smoking cessation "on the ground" in communities all across the nation.
twenty six of the nation's leading tobacco control researchers and policy experts today called for regulatory control of all tobacco products. They also called for policies that encourage current tobacco users to reduce their health risks by switching from the most to the least harmful nicotine-containing products.
This group of experts, who have devoted their careers to reducing tobacco use, met in a two-year process they called The Strategic Dialogue on Tobacco Harm Reduction (the Dialogue). Their vision: a world in which virtually no one uses cigarettes. Dialogue participants concluded that realizing that vision would have a profound impact on reducing death and disease from tobacco use.
The Dialogue process was led by Dorothy Hatsukami, Ph.D., director of the University of Minnesota's Tobacco Use Research Center and Masonic Cancer Center's Cancer Control and Prevention Programs, and Mitchell Zeller, a former associate commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and currently a health policy expert with Pinney Associates.
The Dialogue members' recommendations appear in the online version (posted February 25) of the peer-reviewed journal Tobacco Control. Their report recommends various ways to regulate tobacco products based on public health needs. It also recommends helping tobacco users who are unable or unwilling to quit to shift to the least harmful nicotine products. Prominent among the group's recommendations are:
* Regulation of all aspects of promotion, advertising, and labeling of tobacco products
* Prohibition of claims touting reductions in exposure to harmful components in tobacco or smoke unless there is sufficient scientific evidence that risk has been reduced as well
* Regulation of harmful compounds in all tobacco products
* Accurate education of the public regarding the relative risks of different nicotine-containing products
* Higher taxes on cigarettes
* Expanded anti-tobacco advertising
* Strong programs to encourage and support tobacco cessation
In addition, the Dialogue embraced the concept known as the "continuum of risk." This principle unified Dialogue participants with differing views on more controversial issues, such as the appropriate role of oral tobacco products.