http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/category/statistics.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.cdc.gov/mmWR/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5843a1.htm http://tobacco.org/news/292253.html The prevalence of tobacco use among adults in the United States has been reduced by half since the 1960s (1,2). Despite this progress, low-income populations, such as Medicaid enrollees, continue to smoke at substantially higher rates than the general population (33% versus 20%) (1). The Public Health Service's Clinical Practice Guideline (2) and the Partnership for Prevention's Call for ACTTION (3) recommend comprehensive insurance coverage of tobacco-dependence treatments without barriers such as copayments, limitations in duration of treatment, prior authorization, and stepped-care therapy. Healthy People 2010 aims to expand coverage of evidence-based treatments for nicotine dependency to all 51 Medicaid programs (objective 27-8b) (4). To monitor progress toward that objective, in 2007, the Center for Health and Public Policy Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, surveyed all 51 Medicaid programs. This report summarizes the results of that survey, which found that 43 (84%) programs offered coverage for some form of tobacco-dependence treatment to Medicaid enrollees in traditional fee-for-service (FFS) Medicaid, with four Medicaid programs adding coverage since 2006 and 20 programs adding coverage in the past decade. Only two states (New Mexico and New Jersey) reported access to tobacco-dependence treatments without any limitations or restrictions. Of the 25 states covering pharmacotherapy for Medicaid enrollees in both FFS and managed-care organizations (MCOs), only 13 covered the same tobacco-dependence treatments for enrollees in both populations. Research demonstrates that providing access to comprehensive tobacco-dependence treatments increases quit rates. Providing Medicaid coverage for these treatments would ensure that all enrollees can access and benefit from these treatments. Centers for Disease Control mmwrq@cdc.gov Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesmh/9665/$File/2008-nztus-quitting-results-nov09.pdf http://tobacco.org/news/292249.html Key Points Introduction This report presents the quitting results of 15–64-year-olds from the 2008 New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey (NZTUS), including, where possible, comparisons with the 2006 NZTUS. Quitting attempts In 2008 an estimated19,600 New Zealanders had quit smoking in the previous 6–12 months. Three out of five current smokers had tried to quit smoking in the past five years, a third of smokers had quit for at least 24 hours in the past 12 months and a fifth had successfully quit for a week before starting to smoke again. Four out of five current smokers said that they would not smoke if they had their life over again. Three-quarters of smokers who had tried to quit in the past 12 months said one of the reasons was for their own health, while a third had tried to quit because of the cost of smoking. Quitting services and programmes Among current smokers, three-quarters had been asked their smoking status by a health care worker in the past 12 months. Māori and Pacific people and those from areas of high deprivation were more likely than the total New Zealand population aged 15–64 years and those from the least deprived areas respectively to have been asked their smoking status by a health care worker over the past 12 months. Over a quarter (27.6%) of 15–64-year-old current smokers had been given advice or information, referred to quitting programmes or given quitting aids by a health care worker in the past 12 months. Māori current smokers were two-fifths more likely than all current smokers aged
15–64, and current smokers living in the most deprived areas were twice as likely as those in the least deprived areas to have been provided with advice or information, referred to quitting programmes or given quitting aids by a health care worker in the past 12 months. A third of people who had tried to quit smoking in the past 12 months (‘recent quit attempters’) had used quitting products or advice in their most recent quit attempt. The most common product used was nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) (19.5%). Quitline was used by one in eight, and general practitioners were used by 6% of recent quit attempters. New Zealand Ministry of Health New Zealand Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/indexmh/quitting-report http://tobacco.org/news/292248.html Summary of publication New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey 2008: Quitting results, focussing on the quitting behaviour of current smokers, is the second report based on the New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey 2008 (NZTUS 2008) data. The first report, Tobacco Trends 2008: A brief update of tobacco use in New Zealand was released in June 2009. This report presents data directly related to smokers’ history of quitting smoking, their reasons for quitting, the products, services and advice they’ve used, and their awareness and knowledge of the different health effects of nicotine and tobacco. Baseline data for monitoring the implementation of the New Zealand Smoking Cessation Guidelines are presented in this report. The data can also be used to monitor progress towards one of the six Health Targets, Better help for smokers to quit, that came into effect on 1 July 2009. New Zealand Ministry of Health webmanager@moh.govt.nz New Zealand Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0911/S00084.htm http://tobacco.org/news/292247.html The 2008 New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey: Quitting Results published today shows overwhelmingly most smokers want to quit, Associate Minister of Health Hon Tariana Turia said. Minister Turia said that helping smokers to quit was a priority for the Government and was one of the six health targets. This report presents the quitting results of 15 to 64 year olds from the 2008 New Zealand Tobacco Use Survey, including where possible, in comparison with the previous survey (2006). Scoop New Zealand Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.pacificnewscenter.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1467:29-businesses-in-violation-of-selling-tobacco-to-minors-&catid=45:guam-news&Itemid=156 http://tobacco.org/news/292245.html Guam Public Law No. 24-278 (also known as the Tobacco Control Act of 1998) mandates the conduct of random, unannounced tobacco vendor compliance inspections each year.� The Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse (DMHSA) in partnership with the Department of Revenue and Taxation (DRT) completed its island wide 2009 monitoring activity. For this current year, 347 businesses were inspected throughout the nineteen villages on the island; twenty-nine (29) were found to be in violation for selling tobacco products to minors and were cited by DRT officers.� P.L. 24-278 prohibits vendors from selling tobacco products to persons under the age of 18 and if found to be in violation, must pay a graduated penalty of anywhere from $500 up to $5,000 per violation. This vendor monitoring activity is federally mandated by the U.S. Center for Substance Abuse Prevention for all states and territories who receive substance abuse prevention and treatment block grant funds.� Guam must provide assurances that the island’s tobacco vendors do not sell tobacco products to individuals below the age of 18. “Guam has the highest tobacco use rates nationwide among youth and adults. Vendor compliance to not sell tobacco products to minors is an effective strategy for reducing tobacco use among youth and eventual health-related consequences.” said David L. G. Shimizu, Director of the Department of Mental Health & Substance Abuse. Pacific News Center Guam Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.wienerzeitung.at/DesktopDefault.aspx?TabID=4082&Alias=wzo&cob=448398 http://tobacco.org/news/292187.html Austria has the highest percentage of 15-year-old smokers, 25 per cent, in Europe, according to a Vienna doctor. Manfred Neuberger, the head of the preventive-medicine division at Vienna Medical University, added the number of Austrian youth who smoked had been steadily increasing since 1997 and that 145,891 Austrians aged 11 to 17 smoked. Noting the average age at which young people began smoking had fallen to 11, he said: "The younger one begins, the worse the consequences will be.” Neuberger claimed the government had been doing too little to get young people not to smoke. "It is easier to buy cigarettes than groceries,” he said, adding the government should use the 60 million Euros in cigarette taxes that young smokers paid annually to pay for a prevention campaign. Neuberger called protection of non-smokers in Austria "a health and political time bomb” and said the country was on the level of the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Hungary, Albania and Serbia in that regard. The doctor cited polls in Styria and Upper Austria that had shown 91 per cent of people who visited nightspots felt harmed by secondary smoke and 60 per cent of them wanted the law on smoking toughened. Wiener Zeitung Australia Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20091016005242&newsLang=en http://tobacco.org/news/292176.html DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/c77b21/world_market_for_a) has announced the addition of the "World Market for Addiction Disorders, 2009-2016, The Future Therapies for Substance Dependence and Impulse Control" report to their offering. The report estimates that the current market for addiction disorders is valued at US$3.2 billion and this is forecast to increase 19% to US$3.8 billion by 2016. . . . Key Topics Covered: Chapter 1. Introduction to Addiction Disorders Chapter 2. The Addiction Pharmacotherapy Market Chapter 3. Alcohol Addiction Market Chapter 4. The Narcotic Addiction Market Chapter 5. Tobacco Addiction Business Wire press@researchandmarkets.com Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20091105005800&newsLang=en http://tobacco.org/news/292175.html Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/91c1b7/tobacco_in_greece) has announced the addition of the "Tobacco in Greece" report to their offering. The Tobacco in Greece report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data (2002-2007), allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be the new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2012 illustrate how the market is set to change. Business Wire press@researchandmarkets.com Thu, 05 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20091016005255&newsLang=en http://tobacco.org/news/292170.html Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/dbf721/nrt_smoking_cessat) has announced the addition of the "NRT Smoking Cessation Aids in the US" report to their offering. NRT smoking cessation value declined for the second year in a row in 2008, although the drop was less dramatic than that of 2007. Declines in 2007 were driven by the huge popularity of Chantix, an Rx remedy launched by Pfizer in 2006, and the growing strength of private label smoking cessation products, most notably private label NRT lozenges, which were approved in 2006. Private label products continued to hamper value growth in 2008, as consumers looking to quit smoking opted for cheaper alternatives. However, the impact of Chantix on the OTC NRT sector was negligible, as Chantix sales actually declined by 30% in the US in 2008. Business Wire press@researchandmarkets.com Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://bgdailynews.com/articles/2009/11/02/news/news4.txt http://tobacco.org/news/292029.html Smoking by women is one of the gravest preventive health concerns in Kentucky. While numerous smoking cessation and public health programs have been initiated to address the problem, Kentucky women continue to smoke in numbers that lead the nation and they are not quitting or even trying to quit, according to health experts at the University of Kentucky. The median state prevalence of current smoking was 22.4 percent, but Kentucky prevalence is 34.7 percent (the next highest was West Virginia at 34 percent), while the median percent of daily smokers who quit is 39.8 percent - in Kentucky, it's only 28.9 percent, according to data from the Center for the Advancement of Women's Health at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Further, the median percent of daily smokers who made a quit attempt was 58 percent, but in Kentucky it was only 43.4 percent. "So we are not quitting in Kentucky," said Dr. Leslie Crofford, the center's director. "We're not even trying to quit." Bowling Green Daily News lswitzer@bgdailynews.com (LIZ SWITZER, The Daily News) Mon, 02 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?vgnextoid=2491b2934e174210VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=Hong Kong&s=News http://tobacco.org/news/291708.html One in four Hong Kong teenagers has smoked, and second-hand smoke can aggravate respiratory symptoms even among smokers. These are the main findings of a University of Hong Kong study published in the latest issue of the journal Pediatrics. Researchers from the university's school of public health said the study was the first to show that exposure to second-hand smoke was associated with increased risk of persistent respiratory symptoms among adolescent smokers. Current smokers who were exposed to second-hand smoke at home for five to seven days a week were 77 per cent more likely to suffer from respiratory symptoms than those who were not exposed, researchers said. If they also encountered second-hand smoke outside home, the percentage of risk was even higher, at 85 per cent. Some 32,506 people aged 11 to 20 were recruited from 85 randomly selected schools in 2003 and 2004 and asked to fill in a questionnaire. The survey revealed 24 per cent had smoked - 9 per cent who were currently smoking, 13 per cent who had tried smoking and 2 per cent who had kicked the habit. South China Morning Post info@scmp.com ( Ng Yuk-hang ) Hong Kong Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/scotland/6447756/More-Scottish-women-die-of-lung-cancer.html http://tobacco.org/news/291700.html Soaring numbers of Scottish women are dying of lung cancer despite survival rates among men improving significantly, new figures show. The increase also bucks the trend for death rates from other types of cancer north of the Border, all of which are going down. Lung cancer deaths in men plummeted by 21 per cent in the 10 years to 2008, but increased by more than 11 per cent among women. . . . However, the figures also reinforced major health differences across Scotland, with those living in the poorest areas 40 per cent more likely to have cancer than those in the wealthiest neighbourhoods. Death rates in the most deprived communities are 75 per cent higher than those in the richest areas. Dr Richard Simpson, Scottish Labour health spokesman, said: "I welcome the general improvement in cancer survival rates, but I am both disappointed and deeply concerned that more women are dying of lung cancer. "This mainly reflects the increase in smoking among women over the past 20 years." Electronic Telegraph UK Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.leaderpost.com/health/Tobacco Saskatchewan costs economy billion study/2149800/story.html http://tobacco.org/news/291670.html Tobacco use in Saskatchewan comes at a hefty price in terms of lives lost to tobacco-related diseases and an annual $1.1 billion hit to the province’s economy, says a new study. The study commissioned by the Canadian Cancer Society Saskatchewan Division, which was obtained by the Leader-Post on Monday, noted that the direct and indirect costs of tobacco are costing every man, woman and child an estimated $1,063. “And only 18 per cent of these costs are offset through tobacco tax revenue,’’ Janet Rhymes, author of the Genuine Progress Index (GPI) Atlantic report, said Monday. Using the most recent provincial data, the report costed out the socio-economic toll tobacco use has on the province’s population. “Although this is an economic exercise, we can never forget the profound life-changing impact for individuals and families who are affected by things like lung cancer, COPD and heart disease,’’ Rhymes said. The Cost of Tobacco Use in Saskatchewan report found that smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke killed 1,561 people in 2005, accounting for about one out of every five deaths in the province. Regina Leader-Post akyle@leaderpost.canwest.com (Anne Kyle, Leader-Post) Canada Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.independent.ie/national-news/smoking-rate-soars-up-to-one-third-despite-ban-1923543.html http://tobacco.org/news/291615.html A THIRD of the Irish population now smokes, a new survey reveals. A survey of 4,082 people this summer revealed that 33pc of the Irish population had taken up or continued to smoke. It is the highest smoking rate recorded here in the past 11 years, according to the EU's 'HELP -- For A Life Without Tobacco' campaign. Despite hikes in tobacco tax, the smoking ban and a new law against the public display of cigarettes for sale, the number of smokers has steadily risen since 2007 when 29pc of the population smoked. The survey, which was conducted between March and September, revealed the largest group of smokers -- 45pc -- is aged between 16 and 30. Irish Independent Ireland Sat, 24 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.officialwire.com/main.php?action=posted_news&rid=33461&catid=789 http://tobacco.org/news/291516.html Tobacco in Canada Sales of cigarettes and smoking tobacco continued to drop in both retail value and volume in 2008. The established government legislation and regulations placed on indoor smoking in public places have already become second nature to Canadians across the country. It is no longer a matter of asking which parts of an office building or sections of a restaurant are for smokers, as the simple answer is none. Those who want to light up are relegated to the outdoors - rain or shine, hot or cold - and that is just fine with the average Canadian. There is no sense of sympathy, even in the winter time, for people who still enjoy or need a cigarette and need to make the trek outside into what are sometimes very harsh weather conditions. Tobacco in Canada report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data (2002-2007), allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be the new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. OfficialWire ui@jquery.com (Press Office) Canada Fri, 23 Oct 2009 04:00:00 GMT