Tobacco.org

Obama feeling heat to quit tobacco 

Some folks, however, say if Obama wants to smoke, his critics should butt out.

"My take on this would be that he should attempt to not smoke in public but whatever he does on his own time in private is his business," said Charleston city councilman and outgoing state Delegate Dave Higgins, D-Kanawha.

"Quitting is very difficult for most people. Personally, I don't want my commander-in-chief stressed out. If a cigarette will calm him down and let him think better, then I say go ahead for pity's sake. We have bigger problems to worry about than whether President Obama takes a few puffs in private."

Higgins, an ardent Obama supporter throughout the election, smokes a pipe. . . .

Charleston attorney Kit Francis, a legislative lobbyist for R.J. Reynolds, defended Obama's personal choices with a breath of lightheartedness.

"I have heard that President-elect Obama enjoys a cigarette, and perhaps an occasional puff on a cigar, always away from his children, and almost always away from his lovely wife," Francis said. "President-elect Obama is an adult who chooses to enjoy an occasional smoke. I have no problem with his personal choice, and, of course, applaud his decision to smoke away from his children." . . .

Caseman said Obama could reach out and use support organizations that help folks quit smoking.

Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, said his wife took a few stabs at quitting before she could put the lid on it entirely.

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• USSC cigarette ruling has secondhand results in W.Va. 

If tobacco companies deceived smokers of "light" and "low tar" cigarettes, smokers can sue them under state consumer laws, the U. S. Supreme Court decided on Dec. 15.

Five Justices agreed that federal labeling laws do not pre-empt suits in state courts alleging that tobacco companies violated a duty not to deceive smokers.

In West Virginia, the decision allows Circuit Judge Arthur Recht of Wheeling to lift a stay he imposed on all tobacco suits in West Virginia.

Recht, who handles tobacco litigation by appointment of the Supreme Court of Appeals, imposed the stay while awaiting the decision.

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Editorial: Smoking remains one of area's main health problems  

Why, more than 40 years after the surgeon general's warning first appeared on cigarette packs, do people still smoke?

A study released last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with several other health groups and agencies shows smoking remains highest in the South and the Midwest, and people there pay the price. . . .

Obesity has gotten much of the attention lately when it comes to health problems in the Tri-State area and in West Virginia, but tobacco use remains a problem. Smoking is on the decline, and most places in the area have enacted clean-air regulations to restrict smoking indoors. No longer do nonsmokers in a restaurant or a theater have to breathe secondhand cigarette smoke.

As the numbers show, all three states still have far to go in reducing tobacco use.

The area and the three states have worked outward from their antismoking programs to tackle the equally important issues of obesity, fitness and nutrition. But people in this region must not forget that tobacco use -- smoking and smokeless -- remains one of the primary health problems that must continue to be addressed.

Let's not think the war against tobacco use has been won and that we can ease up. As the numbers show, we dare not.

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Moundsville Woman Accused of Burning her Daughter With A Cigarette , Now Faces More Charges  

Police say a Moundsville woman accused of burning the word wimp into her daughter's neck is now facing even more charges.

Sgt. Darren Whipkey says 43-year -old Tammy Smith is now charged with one more count of felony child abuse and another count of malicious assault.

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LETTER: RODU: Smokeless benefits 

I was disappointed to read in the Nov. 20 article "New Snuff Marketing Makes W.Va. Spittin' Mad" comments by West Virginia University researchers and state health officials that misled West Virginia smokers with irresponsible allegations about smokeless tobacco.

Bruce Adkins, director of the state Bureau for Tobacco Prevention, is purposefully misleading when he says, "Here in West Virginia, 4,000 people die every year from tobacco-related illness." He knows that the deaths are due to smoking.

Britain's Royal College of Physicians, one of the world's most prestigious medical societies, documented that smokeless tobacco is vastly safer than smoking. . . .

Modern smokeless tobacco products provide a socially acceptable way for smokers to achieve virtually all the health benefits of being smoke-free without abstaining altogether from nicotine and tobacco.

--Editor's note: The writer's research is supported by unrestricted grants from smokeless tobacco manufacturers to the University of Louisville. The writer says he has no personal relationship or conflict of interest regarding any manufacturer.

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LETTER: GODSHALL: Smoke-free facts  

Regarding "New Snuff Marketing Makes W.Va. Spittin' Mad" (Nov. 20): Several anti-tobacco extremists at the West Virginia health department and West Virginia University are deceiving smokers and the public about the health risks of different tobacco products, about nicotine and about a new smoke-free and spit-free product called snus.

Cigarettes are 100 times deadlier than moist snuff or chewing tobacco, while pasteurized snus poses even fewer health risks (similar to nicotine gum and lozenges). . . .

Smokers have a human right to be informed that smoke-free tobacco/nicotine products are far less hazardous alternatives to cigarettes, and public health officials have an ethical duty to inform smokers of this lifesaving fact.

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He Said It 

"The industry is brilliant, and whatever they want to outspend us by -- $1 million, $10 million, $100 million -- they can do it."

-- Bruce Adkins of the West Virginia Division of Tobacco Prevention, worrying about the impact of Snus, the tobacco industry's newest cigarette substitute.

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New Smokeless Tobacco Worries Experts  

Chewing tobacco regularly increases the risk of developing oral cancers; recent studies have associated heavy use with increased odds of pancreatic cancer, as well. The European Union banned sales of an earlier formulation of Snus in 1992 after a World Health Organization study determined the product could cause cancer. Snus is still sold in Sweden, where it originated, and in Norway.

Health officials in West Virginia analyzed a version of Snus marketed earlier this year in parts of the United States and found it contained five milligrams of nicotine per gram of tobacco, or about two milligrams per pouch serving, said Robert Anderson, deputy director of the prevention research center at West Virginia University.

Since then, he said, the amount of tobacco and the concentration of nicotine in each pouch appear to have increased. "The nicotine in these products doesn't happen by accident," Mr. Anderson said.

The latest packaging does contain more tobacco, 0.6 grams per pouch instead of 0.4 grams, and therefore more nicotine, according to R.J. Reynolds spokesman David Howard.

The disclosure dismayed some public health officials.

"It's so high in nicotine that the probability of becoming addicted to it with utilization of just one tin is going to be very high," said Bruce W. Adkins

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• ADA rule for Lottery takes effect in January 

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Meanwhile, four health-care advocates - state Bureau of Public Health Commissioner Chris Curtis, Robert H. Anderson and Valerie Frey-McClung of the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at West Virginia University, and Bruce Adkins, director of the Division of Tobacco Prevention for the Bureau of Public Health - all urged the Lottery Commission to use the ADA requirement to ban smoking at all racetracks and video gaming parlors.

As the WVU researchers noted: "The ADA, which took effect in 1992, was adopted to provide a comprehensive national mandate to eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities.

"The ADA may be used to protect people with asthma, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, lung disease, women who are pregnant, youth of all ages, and others whose daily activities are substantially limited by secondhand smoke exposure in private and public work places and in other places of public accommodation." . . .

However, Melton said the commission decided not to extend the ADA compliance rules to ban smoking in Lottery establishments.

He said the Supreme Court ruling compels the Lottery Commission to comply with Title II of the ADA, to provide the disabled with access to governmental services, including lottery games.

The issue of whether secondhand smoke poses a barrier to persons disabled with heart or lung diseases falls under Title I of the ADA, Melton said. In other words, that fight falls to the health-care advocates, not the Lottery Commission.

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• New tobacco product being test marketed 

A smokeless tobacco product being test marketed in all Sheetz stores, including those in North Central West Virginia, can give a consumer at least as much nicotine as a cigarette and is targeted toward a wider range of tobacco users, including women.

That does not please state anti-smoking officials, who are already worried about smokeless tobacco habits that can begin as young as age 13 or 14, usually in boys. West Virginia has the highest rate of smokeless tobacco consumption in the nation and the third-highest prevalence of cigarette smoking at about 27 percent of the population.

"We do surveying in middle schools as well as high schools, and we know from doing those that there is a percentage of kids smoking or using spit tobacco," said Bruce Adkins, director of the Division for Tobacco Prevention for the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health, which runs anti-tobacco campaigns including one called "Quit Spit."

Camel Snus, produced by Winston-Salem, N.C.-based tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds Co., are being marketed as an alternative to cigarettes in a world where smokers are finding the numbers of public places where they legally can light up dwindling.

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• New tobacco product alarms some health officials 

the folks who created Joe Camel are hoping Camel Snus will become a hit with tobacco lovers tired of being forced outside for a smoke.

But convincing health officials and smokers like Ethan Flint that they're worth a try may take some work.

Snus _ Swedish for tobacco, rhymes with "noose" _ is a tiny, tea bag-like pouch of steam-pasteurized, smokeless tobacco to tuck between the cheek and gum. Aromatic to the user and undetectable to anyone else, it promises a hit of nicotine without the messy spitting associated with chewing tobacco. Just swallow the juice.

"I think I'd rather throw up in my mouth," says Flint, an 18-year-old West Virginia University student, emerging from a convenience store with a pack of Winstons and a coupon for free Camel Snus. "I'd rather not swallow anything like that."

Reynolds America Inc., the nation's No. 2 tobacco company, can also expect resistance from the public health community. Experts wonder whether snus will help wean people off cigarettes and snuff, or just foster a second addiction. While snus has been around, it hasn't been prominent in this country.

"I think we're all holding our breath in terms of what's going to be coming down the pike," says Dorothy Hatsukami, director of the Tobacco Use Research Center at the University of Minnesota. "There's not much known about these products _ what's in these products, how they're going to be used, who's going to be using them and what the effects of that use will be. ... Will it create more harm or less harm?"

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Experts Say New Tobacco Product Targets Young Adults 

New research at West Virginia University is examining whether a smokeless, spitless tobacco product aimed at young adults is catching on. And the researchers have found that RJ Reynolds' Camel Snus - touted as a socially acceptable way to satisfy addiction - contains surprisingly high levels of nicotine.

"Camel Snus contains more nicotine than most other snuff products," said Bruce Adkins of the state Division of Tobacco Prevention in Charleston. "In fact, the Camel Snus currently being marketed in West Virginia contains double the nicotine of an earlier tested version sold elsewhere in the United States. This provides a new example of the tobacco companies' manipulating nicotine levels without informing consumers."

"West Virginia has extremely high rates of smokeless tobacco use and high rates of smoking," said Cindy Tworek, Ph.D., a member of WVU's Translational Tobacco Reduction Research Program (T2R2). "It would appear that tobacco companies are trying to strategically market new smokeless, spitless tobacco products in these areas of high use, such as West Virginia, and also promoting their use as a way to get nicotine in places where you can't smoke." T2R2 is a joint effort of the Mary Babb Randolph Cancer Center at WVU and the West Virginia Prevention Research Center.

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W. Virginia town shrugs at poorest health ranking 

As a portly woman plodded ahead of him on the sidewalk, the obese mayor of America's fattest and unhealthiest city explained why health is not a big local issue.

"It doesn't come up," said David Felinton, 5-foot-9 and 233 pounds, as he walked toward City Hall one recent morning. "We've got a lot of economic challenges here in Huntington. That's usually the focus."

Huntington's economy has withered, its poverty rate is worse than the national average, and vagrants haunt a downtown riverfront park. But this city's financial woes are not nearly as bad as its health.

Nearly half the adults in Huntington's five-county metropolitan area are obese _ an astounding percentage, far bigger than the national average in a country with a well-known weight problem.

Huntington leads in a half-dozen other illness measures, too, including heart disease and diabetes. It's even tops in the percentage of elderly people who have lost all their teeth (half of them have).

It's a sad situation, and a potential harbinger of what will happen to other U.S. communities, said Ken Thorpe, an Emory University health policy professor who is working with West Virginia officials on health reform legislation. . . .

The smoking rate is pretty high, too, although not the worst. . . .

Local politicians tend to be equally tepid about improving health, said Dr. Harry Tweel, director of the Cabell-Huntington Health Department.

Smoking _ a common sin in West Virginia _ has been hard to control, Tweel said. When the health department tried to restrict smoking in local bars and restaurants, a group of local businesses fought it all the way to the state Supreme Court. (The restrictions were upheld in 2003.) Even hospitals have fought smoking restrictions in the past, Tweel said.

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New snuff marketing makes W.Va. spittin' mad 

In West Virginia, which has the nation's highest rate of tobacco use, officials are spitting mad about R.J. Reynolds test-marketing a new smokeless product in two college towns.

The Winston-Salem, N.C., tobacco company is testing Camel Snus in Morgantown and Charleston with plans to market it nationwide early next year as a product that can be used where smoking is prohibited.

The product is designed to be placed between the upper lip and gum.

"We feel the primary market for snus is college kids," said Robert Anderson, director of the Prevention Research Center in West Virginia University's Department of Community Medicine.

"They want smokers to use snus when they can't smoke. This might be good for business, but not for public health."

So today, during the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout, West Virginia has targeted the new smokeless tobacco products, which health officials say are designed to lure a new generation -- college-age adults and women, in particular -- into addictive tobacco habits.

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• WVU: Tobacco product high in nicotine 

A refrigerated smokeless tobacco product available in West Virginia convenience stores has twice the nicotine content of an earlier version of the same product sold elsewhere in the United States, according to a new study from West Virginia University researchers.

WVU researchers also say that Camel Snus - a type of moist, ground tobacco that comes in teabag-like pouches - has more nicotine than most other traditional smokeless tobacco products.

State public health officials believe tobacco companies such as R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., which makes Camel Snus, may be targeting West Virginia because the state has some of the nation's highest rates of smoking and spit tobacco use.

"With nicotine levels this high, these products are going to be highly addicting," said Bruce Adkins, director of the state Bureau for Tobacco Prevention. "There's no tobacco product that can be used without significant potential health risks."

R.J. Reynolds spokesman David Howard said the company has independent studies that show the opposite of what the WVU researchers found.

The nicotine content of Camel Snus (rhymes with "juice") has decreased over the past two years, he said.

Camel Snus also has less nicotine than the average nicotine content of more than 40 other smokeless tobacco products tested by an independent lab, Howard said.

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