http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/category/ets.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://news.yahoo.com/s/prweb/20081117/bs_prweb/prweb1622234_1 http://tobacco.org/news/274648.html Discussions at Monday's meeting of the Dallas City Council are expected to include possible expansion of the city's smoking ban and both sides of the issue are actively campaigning for their respective positions -- especially the anti-tobacco forces. "Nobody likes to say anything negative about the American Cancer Society, but they are pouring money on a problem that doesn't exist and their contributors should question how they are spending their money," said Chris McCalla, legislative director of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association. The Cancer Action Network of ACS recently mailed full-color brochures against secondhand smoke to local citizens. McCalla says the material misrepresents the issue because "contrary to their twisted tall tales, evidence overwhelmingly supports the benign nature of incidental exposure to secondhand smoke." The IPCPR represents some 2,000 retailers and manufacturers of premium cigars PR Web tony@tortoricipr.com Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jdnews.com/news/smoking_60687___article.html/restaurants_smoke.html http://tobacco.org/news/274640.html The Great American Smokeout is not until Thursday, but area residents have already joined with Tobacco Prevention of Raleigh to show that smoking areas in restaurants cause a decreased air quality level. Two teams of observers visited nine area restaurants - both smoke free and with smoking areas - on Sept. 27 and recently received the results of their tests, said Gary Miner, director of the Tobacco Awareness Program. Smoke-free restaurants averaged a 2.9 percent air quality index which, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, doesn't warrant any health advisories. Restaurants with designated smoking areas, however, averaged a 55.43 percent rating on the index, which is designated as unhealthy for sensitive groups. "People with heart or lung disease, older adults and children should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion," reads the health advisory connected to the rating. "Everyone else should reduce prolonged or heavy exertion." The names of the restaurants are not being released. Jacksonville Daily News missingpapers@oaoa.com (AMANDA HICKEY DAILY NEWS STAFF) Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://media.www.thenews.org/media/storage/paper651/news/2008/11/14/Opinion/Smoking.In.Public.Places.Is.Not.A.Constitutional.Right-3542467.shtml http://tobacco.org/news/274570.html In last weeks paper's "Face Off" on whether smoking in public should be illegal, both authors made valid points. But, I do disagree about smoking areas around buildings - it is not a matter of someone walking an extra 100 feet to get to the entrance away from the smokers, it's the fact that smoke particles are being drawn into the buildings. And, while I agree Jodi Keen's father has provided a wonderful service to his community by being a police officer, he has not been kind to his health by continuing to smoke "for almost 40 years." The greatest gift he can give to himself and his family is to quit smoking. . . . Over the past couple of years Health Services, The Coalition for Clean Air Murray and the Purchase Area Tobacco Coalition for Health have been collecting data regarding tobacco use and the community's concerns regarding use and exposure. The majority, 95 percent of those surveyed, on the Murray State campus, believe second-hand smoke is harmful. Since the Great American Smokeout is next week, I thought that maybe you would like to have some more facts on second-hand smoke. Murray State News Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.starexponent.com/cse/news/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/article/cigarette_smoking_is_bad_for_business/24724/ http://tobacco.org/news/274542.html Go to any convenience store or grocery, and you can hardly get in the door without passing cigarette smokers. Someone who does not smoke can't get away from the chemicals from cigarettes; we have to inhale all this smoke like we're smoking ourselves. Virginia's laws need to reach further to protect non-smokers. You can hardly find a restaurant locally that is smoke-free. Culpeper Star-Exponent Sun, 16 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96950224 http://tobacco.org/news/274532.html Dr. Matthew McKenna, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health, said the prevalence of smoking in America is still "much higher than what we've aspired to." Major reasons for the continuing decline in smoking, McKenna said, include greater public knowledge of its dangers, limitations on tobacco advertising and better information for smokers on how to get help quitting. "One of the most important things is, with the growing awareness of the dangers of second-hand smoke, there is less and less public smoking taking place," he said. "This creates an environment where it's easier for people who are trying to quit." National Public Radio Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/2008/11/09/t9.html http://tobacco.org/news/274528.html Need a nicotine fix? Say hello to the e-cigarette, the world’s first electronic cigarette that gives the human body a simulation of the chemical effect of tobacco smoking. Except that there is no tobacco or nicotine, and that means no health hazard. But the answer to guilt-free smoking may take some time to appear in Maltese shops. That’s because the product has been classified as a tobacco product by the health authorities. The agent for the UK’s Electronic Cigarette Company says he has full certification and lab analyses that prove the product is tobacco-free, and that he was allowed to import it without paying the excise duty that is levied on other tobacco products. But as freely as it is to import the product, the government still decided to ban e-cigarette smoking in public places, after health authorities wrongly assumed that all of its varieties contain tobacco. The e-cigarette substitutes traditional cigarettes by means of an electronic simulation of tobacco smoking. Containing neither tobacco, nor tar, it is a non-nuisance solution for passive smokers. . . . Whereas three of the patent recipes contain tobacco flavourings, the variety imported to Malta is tobacco-free. . . . MaltaToday contacted the Health Ministry to point out that an e-cigarette recipe downloaded from the web showed that there are tobacco-free varieties, but a government official did not accept our source as reliable. In turn, it was sent the full EU-registered patent of the product, which describes one of the recipes as completely free from tobacco. The spokesperson assured us that the information we sent was being investigated, and that until the EU patent is recognised by the Maltese government, the legal position on e-cigarettes remains unchanged. Malta Today ddarmanin@mediatoday.com.mt (David Darmanin) Malta Sun, 09 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.prweb.com/releases/2008/11/prweb1614084.htm http://tobacco.org/news/274499.html If an opinion survey says a majority of South Dakotans believe in global warming, does that mean the state should ban backyard barbecues? According to the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association, that's the same kind of logic currently being used by anti-smoking forces to urge the state legislature to consider extending the current statewide smoking ban during its 2009 session. . . . McCalla also questioned the quality of claims being made regarding secondhand smoke. "The Surgeon General's 2006 Report has been misrepresented by anti-smoking forces who disregard the 108 times that the so-called evidence regarding the health aspects of secondhand smoke is called 'inconclusive' in the report," McCalla said. McCalla further pointed out that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration wrote in 1997 that "field studies of environmental tobacco smoke indicate that it would be very rare to find a workplace with so much smoking that (it exceeded its approved levels)." PR Web Sat, 15 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/duncan/tags/smoking/ http://tobacco.org/news/274497.html For me, banning tobacco in the United Kingdom's bars and restaurants could not have happened soon enough. Coming from California, where tobacco has been banned in public places since 1998, I have always found it shocking to walk into the soupy air of a British pub . . . Surprisingly, according to the News@Nature.com article, many gaps remain in the science of how much damage secondhand smoke does to nonsmokers: But the data supporting the link between second-hand smoke and cardiovascular disease are more controversial. The surgeon general's report states that "pooled relative risks from meta-analysis indicate a 25-30% increase in risk of coronary heart disease from exposure to second-hand smoke." Although most epidemiologists think there is a link, it's the size of the effect that surprises them. "It seems to me that a 25% increase is not plausible," says John Bailar, a biostatistician at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington DC, who thinks the effect should be proportional to exposure, as it is for lung cancer. . . . Despite these concerns, the surgeon general's report takes a hard line on exposure, stating that there is no "safe" level. According to Terry Pechacek, one of the authors of the report and associate director at the Office on Smoking and Health at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia: "Exposure to second-hand smoke for even a short time can have adverse health effects--this is not subject to debate. Compounds in tobacco smoke have the ability to cause cancer in humans, it's just a probabilistic game of whether they will cause death in a certain individual." Meanwhile, back in the United States, there are still numerous states where the fog of smoke remains in bars, restaurants, and workplaces. This includes our nation's capital, Washington, DC, which has no ban. I was there recently in a posh pub in a neighborhood within DC, Georgetown sitting near a woman who was waving her cigarette behind her and in my face--strategically out of the way of her friends. I didn't say anything, but I did wonder if this cigarette, which she was apparently enjoying, would be the one that would trigger that p53 mutation in her or in one of us in the room. A nerdy, uncool thought, perhaps, but it's sad nonetheless that in the country that launched the antismoking movement with the 1964 Surgeon General's report, the fog remains. Technology Review News@Nature.com (David Ewing Duncan's blog: smoking) UK Usa Tue, 10 Jul 2007 04:00:00 GMT http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5745a3.htm http://tobacco.org/news/274479.html Cigarette smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke are associated with premature death from chronic diseases, economic losses to society, and a substantial burden on the United States health-care system. Smoking is the primary causal factor for at least 30% of all cancer deaths, for nearly 80% of deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and for early cardiovascular disease and deaths (1). In 2005, to assess the economic and public health burden from smoking, CDC published results of an analysis of smoking-attributable mortality (SAM), years of potential life lost (YPLL), and productivity losses in the United States from smoking during 1997--2001 (2). The analysis was based on data from CDC's Smoking-Attributable Mortality, Morbidity, and Economic Costs (SAMMEC) system,* which estimates SAM, YPLL, and productivity losses based on data from the National Health Interview Survey and death certificate data from the National Center for Health Statistics. This report presents an update of that analysis for 2000--2004, the most recent years for which source data are available. The updated analysis indicated that, during 2000--2004, cigarette smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke resulted in at least 443,000 premature deaths, approximately 5.1 million YPLL, and $96.8 billion in productivity losses annually in the United States. Comprehensive, national tobacco-control recommendations have been provided to the public health community with the goal of reducing smoking so substantially that it is no longer a significant public health problem in the United States (3,4). . . . Cigarette smoking continues to impose substantial health and financial costs on society. During 2001--2004, average annual smoking-attributable health-care expenditures were approximately $96 billion. Accounting for direct health-care expenditures and productivity losses (approximately $97 billion), the total economic burden of smoking is approximately $193 billion per year. By comparison, investments in comprehensive, state-based tobacco prevention and control programs in fiscal year 2007 totaled $595 million, approximately 325-times less than the smoking-attributable costs (10). Comprehensive statewide tobacco-control programs significantly accelerate declines in consumption and smoking prevalence (4). By increasing their investment in such programs to the levels recommended by CDC, states can further hasten the reduction in cigarette use and reduce the health and economic burden of smoking (3). Centers for Disease Control mmwrq@cdc.gov Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/11-11-2008/0004923288&EDATE= http://tobacco.org/news/274475.html The number of heart attack patients admitted to Michigan hospitals could be significantly reduced if a statewide public smoking ban were implemented, according to a Henry Ford Hospital study. Researchers looked at the average number of hospital admissions from 1999-2006 in Michigan for what is known as acute myocardial infarction, or heart attack, and concluded that a smoking ban could lead to 3,340 fewer admissions annually. "If Michigan were to implement a comprehensive smoking ban tomorrow, we would see a 12 percent drop in heart attack admissions after the first year," says Mouaz Al-Mallah, M.D., Henry Ford's director of Cardiac Imaging Research and lead author of the study. While the study did not look at medical care costs, researchers theorize the reduction in admissions could mean substantial savings to health care providers. The average cost of a heart-attack admission in Michigan is about $16,000. The study, funded by the hospital, will be presented Tuesday, Nov. 11 at the American Heart Association's annual conference in New Orleans. . . . "When you smoke, you're not only hurting yourself but you're hurting me, too," he says. "The bottom line is that even if you save just one heart attack, it is something significant." The study comes in the midst of an ongoing debate in the Michigan Legislature on whether to outlaw smoking in all public workplaces like bars, restaurants and smoke shops. PR Newswire Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2008/11/advocates-opponents-of-dallas.html http://tobacco.org/news/274467.html For the second time in two weeks, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network as mailed out full-color handbills to Dallasites pressing residents to "help us cheer on a healthier, smoke-free Dallas." The mailers come at a turbulent time for the Dallas City Council, which is eminently divided on whether to extend its municipal smoking ban to bars, billiard halls and even the interior of passenger vehicles when children are present. Representatives from the American Cancer Society would not say how many mailers they've sent out or how much money they've spent on them. But with a council meeting on the future of a Dallas smoking ordinance pending Monday, it's clear advocates on both sides of the issue are getting tense. Local tobacco shop Up In Smoke sent out a blast e-mail today urging opponents of an expanded smoking ban to show up in force at Monday's council meeting, which begins at 4 p.m. . . . Dallas Morning News tips@dallasnews.com Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.thedailyitemoflynn.com/articles/2008/11/12/news/news15.txt http://tobacco.org/news/274411.html A study released Wednesday strongly suggests that a statewide public smoking ban and a decrease in overall pollution are responsible for a lessening in the number of fatal heart attacks among Massachusetts residents. . . . "The results in the study refer to the decrease in exposure to smoke and other pollutants," said Joyce Redford, director of the Lynn-based North Shore Tobacco Control Program. "This is exactly why we thought it was such an important public health law. It not only protects the general public, but also the people who work in bars and restaurants." Redford said Lynn was among those communities at the forefront of the initiative, noting that the city was the 100th of the state's 351 cities and towns to pass a local smoking ban. "Lynn went smoke-free shortly before the law was passed at the state level," she said. Lynn Daily Item dicknewton@equitablebank.com (David Liscio / The Daily Item ) Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081113/NEWS/811130358 http://tobacco.org/news/274410.html According to local health experts, the smoking bans in Dartmouth, Fairhaven and New Bedford, enacted in January of 2000, cut heart attack rates within six months, a harbinger of a new study that credits the statewide no-smoking laws with saving an average of 577 people each year since 2004. Nothing else explains the dramatic decline in heart attack deaths that began about a year after the ban on workplace smoking took effect statewide, say the authors of the new report by the state Department of Public Health and the Harvard School of Public Health. "On top of that, it doesn't even count the number of heart attacks people lived through," said Judith Coykendall, who runs the Seven Hills Community Smoking Demonstration Program at the Seven Hills Behavioral Health Center in New Bedford. The decline in fatal heart attacks parallels the various stages in the smoking ban movement, the new study concludes. As was seen in SouthCoast, communities such as New Bedford, Dartmouth and Fairhaven that imposed bans first (in 2000) saw deaths decline first. Those that passed weak laws or waited -- Fall River, for example -- lagged behind until their hand was forced by the 2004 statewide ban, after which they virtually caught up with the leaders. Health officials across the state were excited at the news of the study, which considered factors other than the smoking ban but ruled them all out as explaining the dramatic drop in fatalities. New Bedford Standard-Times surbon@s-t.com (Steve Urbon Standard-Times senior correspondent) Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.milforddailynews.com/news/x1804569930/Smoking-ban-one-factor-in-fewer-heart-attack-deaths http://tobacco.org/news/274409.html Local health care experts are questioning a Massachusetts Department of Public Health claim that a significant decrease in the number of heart attack deaths was due to the implementation of the statewide smoke-free workplace law in 2004. The results of the study were discussed at a meeting yesterday, in what Health Commissioner John Auerbach described as a "headline-grabbing presentation." The Public Health Department and the Harvard School of Public Health reviewed heart attack death data from 351 Massachusetts cities and towns and found an estimated average of 577 fewer heart attack deaths annually than expected since the ban took effect. Dr. Nancy Tomaso, director of cardiology services and diagnostic imaging at Milford Regional Medical Center, said that while there has been a decrease in heart attack deaths, the ban is not the only contributing factor. "It certainly could have played a role, but I don't think it was the only reason," she said in a phone interview. James Dangel, retired chief of cardiology and founding CEO of the heart center at MetroWest Medical Center, said the findings should be looked at with a critical eye. "Is the reduction in fatality greater than the reduction in heart attacks?" he asked. "Other things may have had greater impact." . . . Dangel and Tomaso cited other factors that may have limited fatal heart attacks, such as improved transportation and accessibility to primary angioplasties, the procedure that opens a blocked artery to alleviate the severity of a heart attack. Tomaso also credits statins - drugs that lower cholesterol levels developed in the '90s - for decreasing mortality by 25 percent. Milford Daily News bedwards@cnc.com (Lisa Przystup/Daily News correspondent) Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.heraldnews.com/lifestyle/health/x1772945598/Smoking-ban-credited-for-drop-in-heart-attacks http://tobacco.org/news/274408.html Area anti-smoking agencies have for years fought to keep children from picking up smoking, to get smokers to quit and for everyone to understand the risks. With the help of a 2004 statewide smoke-free workplace law, advocates can claim a victory in saving an estimated nearly 600 lives each year. “They are amazing findings,” said Judith Coykendall, the program manager of Partners for Clean Air at Seven Hills Behavioral Health, based in New Bedford. The state Department of Public Health, which released the study Wednesday, said the number of deaths statewide from heart attacks dropped considerably — by about 577 deaths a year — after 2004, when the ban went into effect. In 2003, according to the report, 3,528 people in Massachusetts died of a heart attack. In 2006, the number fell to 2,461 — a drop of 30 percent. No local data is available. Thomas Carr, a cardiac surgeon with Southcoast Hospitals Group, which includes Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River and others in New Bedford and Wareham, said he’s seen a clear increase in smokers’ awareness that secondhand smoke can be deadly. “When we talk about the five major risks factors for heart disease,” he said. “Smoking is the one that people have an ability to control.” A 2004 study of patients at the two Fall River hospitals found that the number of heart attacks within six months of the new ban fell 26 percent from the same six-month span a year earlier, Coykendall said. “I was so excited when I saw the state come out with this study. It showed that the Fall River data was not an anomaly.” Fall River Herald News gwelker@heraldnews.com (Grant Welker Herald News Staff Reporter ) Thu, 13 Nov 2008 05:00:00 GMT