Tobacco Articles: category 2

Recent Cigarette Marketing Campaign Targeted Teen Girls, Study Reveals

spence@harbar.net — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) prohibits tobacco industry advertising practices that encourage underage teenagers to smoke, yet new research out of the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego has found that a 2007 marketing campaign for Camel brand cigarettes was effective in encouraging young girls to start smoking. The study, led by John P. Pierce, PhD, professor of Family and Preventive Medicine and director of the Cancer Center's Cancer Prevention and Control Program, will be published March 15 in an early online edition of the scientific journal Pediatrics. The research, part of a national study on parenting practices, involved 1,036 males and females who were 10 to 13 years old when enrolled onto the study. Between 2003 and 2008, scientists conducted five telephone interviews, which included questions about smoking. The fifth interview was conducted after the start of RJ Reynolds' "Camel No. 9" advertising campaign in 2007. Consistent with earlier research, the new study showed that youth who had never smoked but who reported having a "favorite" cigarette ad at the beginning were 50 percent more likely to initiate smoking.

Cigarette Ad May Have Targeted Teen Girls: Survey Suggests Camel No. 9 Ads in Magazines Caught the Attention of Teenage Girls

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

In a national survey of teens conducted soon after ads for the R.J. Reynolds brand Camel No. 9 appeared in leading women's magazines, 44% of the girls could name a favorite brand, based on advertising. Their average age was 15. In previous surveys, about 10% fewer girls named a favorite cigarette advertisement. The increase in the latest survey was almost exclusively for the Camel brand. The landmark 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) between states' attorneys general and the tobacco industry prohibits all tobacco marketing aimed at children and teens. Since the agreement, the smoking rate among teens has dropped dramatically, from 35% to about 20%. R.J. Reynolds strongly denies marketing to teens, but longtime tobacco trends researcher John P. Pierce, PhD, who led the survey, disagrees.

Getting Teenage Girls to Smoke?

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Anti-smoking activists say an advertising campaign to promote Camel No. 9 cigarettes was a direct appeal to teenage girls. The cigarettes, a sub-brand of Camel, come in a pack with a shocking pink trim and a name that smacks of perfume. Though R.J. Reynolds, the company that makes the cigarettes, pulled the ads in 2008, a new study says they had a big effect on teenage girls. The ads bore a striking resemblance to fashion spreads and ran in women’s magazines like Glamour and US Weekly, which are popular among teenagers. They offered promotional giveaway items like berry lip balm – and cellphone jewelry. . . .

What I love about this article is that below it there is an ad for tax-free cigarettes – let’s promote that to Teens too. . . .

The Google advertising engine used by your website flags interest in cigarettes due to this article’s content. The result, New York Times advertising Tax Free Cigarettes that fast ship and low price. I am glad it was not an article about male erectile dysfunction, we would be treated to other unsavory offers from Google advertising.

Tobacco trends in Slovenia

epha@epha.org — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

EPHA member the Slovenian Coalition for Tobacco Control (SCTC) is actively involved in driving legislative change concerning the harmful health effects of tobacco. While 25% of Slovenians were still addicted to tobacco in 2006, current initiatives and proposals promoted by the SCTC illustrate Slovenia's changing health landscape and the ambition to follow the examples set by some of the old Member States. . . . In recent months, the SCTC submitted a number of important initiatives and proposals to effect legal and executive changes and amendments to the existing Slovenian Restriction of the use of Tobacco Act. They represent an interesting example of how health NGOs can effectively collaborate with government stakeholders. EPHA provides a brief overview of these suggestions :

Did Camel Ads Encourage Teen Girls to Smoke?

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

Does your teenage or college-age daughter read fashion magazines such as Glamour or Vogue? Does she smoke? If the answer to both of those questions is yes, she may have been influenced by a series of advertisements for Camel cigarettes that appeared in those and other magazines in 2007, a new study suggests. The four largest tobacco companies in the United States—including R.J. Reynolds, the maker of Camels—are prohibited from "directly or indirectly" marketing cigarettes and other tobacco products to young people, following the terms of a multibillion settlement the companies entered into in 1998 to compensate 46 states for tobacco-related health costs. But according to the study, which was published this week in the journal Pediatrics, R.J. Reynolds seems to have evaded the terms of the settlement by devising a marketing strategy that—deliberately or otherwise—successfully caught the eye of teen girls and probably encouraged them to smoke.

£23m bid to find the first 'safe' cigarette

news.desk@express.co.uk (Daily Express Reporter) — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT

A TOBACCO giant is pumping £23million into a British research centre to come up with the world's first "safe" cigarette. Scientists at British American Tobacco say they want to cut out some of the 4,000 potentially harmful chemicals found in cigarettes. And they say the new product could dramatically reduce rates of cancer among smokers. But the scheme has been slammed by anti-smoking campaigners who claim such cigarettes would still cause health problems. BAT is tranforming its base in Southampton into a global centre for research and development. It will house 1,100 staff.

Tax increase an optimum tobacco control measure

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

In a report titled “Questions and Answers on Tobacco Taxation in Vietnam” released on March 9, WHO Vietnam said there are no harmful consequences of a tobacco tax increase. It is unlikely that many people will change to cheaper brands or water-pipe tobacco because the cigarette is largely a brand-loyalty product and substitution happens mostly when the price becomes prohibitively costly, the United Nations agency said. At the moment the prices of cigarettes are cheap compared to the increased income and have become more and more affordable. Meanwhile, there is also a clear trend of people switching from water-pipe to cigarettes in recent years, the WHO said. An increase in tobacco taxes could also influence more poor people to give up smoking because their demand is more price sensitive than that of the rich. The move is also unlikely to affect tobacco farmers in the short and medium term as Vietnam imports about one third of tobacco leaves. The WHO said an increase in the tobacco tax would not result in a rise in smuggling because tobacco smuggling was determined by many factors including differences in price, the taste of smokers for smuggled cigarettes, acceptance by the public of smuggled products, the strength and effectiveness of anti-smuggling actions, level of transparency and corruption in a country and the level of control on the retailers’ network. The tax increase would bring in more revenues for the government and is also good for public health. “It is a win-win policy,” the agency said.

Duration of Smoking, Not Intensity, Associated With Reduced Parkinson's Risk

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

In their editorial, Dr. Ritz and Dr. Rhodes point out that the new study showed no association with the daily number of cigarettes smoked at any duration and PD risk. They also further confirmed previous observations that fewer patients with PD smoke, and those who do smoke for a shorter duration and quit earlier than controls who started smoking around the same age. "Together these observations can be interpreted as either neuroprotection from continuous and long-term exposure to smoke components or as reverse causation: patients who later develop PD are more successful in their attempts to quit smoking, an observation which has been attributed to prodromal PD reducing dopamine reward mechanisms before motor symptoms are noticeable," they write. "This dichotomy highlights a key issue in observational research: are observed risk (or protective) factors in fact contributing to disease occurrence or, rather, are they a proxy for an unmeasured factor, such as a 'PD personality' or genetics?" . . . Investigators studying the association between smoking and the reduced risk for Parkinson's disease (PD) have found that the relationship seems to hinge more on the duration of smoking than the amount smoked. . . . Asked by Medscape Neurology to comment on the findings, Marc Wasserman, MD, in Chicago, Illinois, said, "This is the kind of study that neurologists secretly cringe a bit about." It implies, he notes, that smoking in some way reduces the risk for PD. "The nice thing about this study is that it modifies that a bit," Dr. Wasserman said. "It suggests that years of smoking may reduce the risk of Parkinson's — not so much the actual amount of cigarettes smoked. In other words, you'd have to smoke for nearly 30 years to reduce the risk of developing Parkinson's. Hardly worth it, given that 30 years of smoking is far more likely to produce the relatively common and often fatal lung cancer rather than the relatively uncommon and often treatable Parkinson's." Interestingly, Dr. Wasserman adds, "If the study is right, it also suggests that nicotine patches or nicotine replacement is unlikely to reduce the risk of Parkinson's. You'd have to be on such a drug for about 25 years just to reduce the risk slightly."

Joe Caridi: Not just a "smoker's disease"

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

I want to thank you for your article about Caren Gorenberg and her struggle with lung cancer as a non-smoker. Caren's fight is one that I am very familiar with as my wife of 10 years, Dianne, is an 18-month survivor of lung cancer. She is only 40 years old and is a life-long non-smoker. Dianne and I have learned much about lung cancer in the last year and a half and have been surprised as many of your readers were to learn that lung cancer hits non-smokers as well a life-long smokers in devastating numbers. In fact, if lung cancer in never-smokers were classified as its own disease, it would rank as the 6th deadliest cancer in the U.S. . . . I believe that the biggest problem facing lung cancer patients today is that most people believe that it is still a smoker's disease. And smokers somehow deserve to get cancer.

Gainesville nonsmoker with genetic mutation embarks on lung cancer crusade : Gainesville woman suffers from a form of the disease caused by an apparent genetic mutation.

chund@gvillesun.com ( Diane Chun Staff writer) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Caren Gorenberg couldn't believe it when she was told the news in late 2006. She had a mass in her lung. It was cancer. "I had no signs ... not a symptom. I was feeling great. I had no clue that anything could possibly be wrong," she said. "Everybody always asks immediately, 'Did you smoke?' " Gorenberg said. The 67-year-old mother of four is not a smoker, yet she has been diagnosed with one of the most virulent forms of lung cancer. Now she is making it her personal cause to spread the word about lung cancer. It is increasingly showing up in women, particularly in non-smokers. . . . Tarceva has proven particularly effective with patients who have Gorenberg's Exon 21 genetic mutation. . . . "When I first went to the Internet, I didn't find much in the way of hope. Everything seemed to say, 'If you get this, you die,' " Gorenberg said. While contacting research institutions and doctors internationally, Jamie Gorenberg discovered the Bonnie J. Addario Foundation.

After half a century of research on smoking and PD, where do we go now? ($$)

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Smoking duration, intensity, and risk of Parkinson disease

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Conclusions: This large study suggests that long-term smoking is more important than smoking intensity in the smoking-Parkinson disease relationship.

Cigarettes ‘still being tested on lab animals’ : Animal testing is still carried out by major cigarette companies, it has been alleged.

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

Mice and rats were forced to breathe smoke to examine the safety of new ingredients, the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection claimed. The studies were held by Marlboro-maker Philip Morris and Camel manufacturer RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, the group said. 'It is outrageous that, in this day and age, tobacco companies continue to subject animals to these horrific tests when we all know how harmful smoking is to our health,' said BUAV boss Michelle Thew. 'Smoking is a lifestyle choice and it's unacceptable animals should suffer and die for companies to modify their products.' Tests on animals involving tobacco have been banned in Britain since 1997 but the organisation said studies continued in Europe and the US.

POLITO: CDC ignores cold turkey quitters

john@whyquit.com (John R. Polito) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) continues to give millions of cold turkey quitters the cold shoulder despite pleas from tobacco control's leading integrity watchdog, Professor Michael Siegel of Boston University School of Public Health and the former editor of the leading tobacco control journal, Simon Chapman, Professor of Public Health at the University of Sidney. Below is an open letter to the CDC's senior quit smoking scientist from the director of the Internet's leading cold turkey quit smoking forum. . . . Dear Dr. Pechacek, As you know, during 2010 cold turkey will account for more long-term successful quitters than all other quitting methods combined. As senior scientist at the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health (OSH) since 1999, America's lead agency in the war against tobacco induced disease and death, I write imploring OSH to immediately reverse course and end the practice of undermining and discouraging cold turkey quitting attempts, to at last begin supporting their efforts. Dr. Pechacek, OSH is guilty of having taken its eye off the ball. Its mission statement makes it nicotine dependency recovery's integrity guardian, as even the tobacco industry acknowledges that nicotine is the sine qua non of smoking. With due respect, OSH has failed horribly. . . . As the nation's primary tobacco control guardian, it was OSH's duty to investigate, question and expose financial conflicts among "experts" invited to author official U.S. quitting policy. On February 8, 2007, we awoke to front page Wall Street Journal headlines blasting U.S. health officials for allowing pharmaceutical influence to coin policy while undermining cold turkey quitting. . . . Dr. Pechacek, it is OSH's health responsibility to orchestrate creation and deployment of the most effective cold turkey quitting tools smokers have ever seen, including high quality support. While true that roughly 10-12% of unassisted cold turkey quitters currently succeed in quitting for 6 months, how much improvement would be seen if OSH used low cost Internet based programs and existing telephone quit-lines to motivate, educate and support abrupt nicotine cessation? How will it know unless it tries? Sincere regards, John R. Polito

New cessation therapy more like smoking

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT

U.S. researchers suggest delivering nicotine to the lungs may give smokers a good way to kick the habit. Researchers at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C., have been developing a method to deliver nicotine to the lungs that recreates some of the familiar sensations pleasurable to smokers. "We wanted to replicate the experience of smoking without incurring the dangers associated with cigarettes, and we wanted to do so more effectively than the nicotine replacement therapies currently on the market," Jed Rose, director of the Duke Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research, says in a statement. So far the new nicotine vapor delivery system has been more effective at delivering nicotine to the blood stream and providing immediate relief of withdrawal symptoms. Users of the system also report less of the throat irritation experienced with other types of inhalers. . . . Rose presented the findings at the Society for Nicotine and Tobacco Research meeting in Baltimore.