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      USA Today's Smoking and Health Page has lots of Links to latest info. Also try, Health News Links from Oncolink. A search on smoking at Your Health Daily will turn up a host of NY Times articles.

    • 2/26/99 New Tobacco Citations CDC
        The Office on Smoking and Health, part of CDC's National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, is pleased to make available citations of recently published, tobacco-related articles from behavioral, scientific, and technical literature. Please consult a technical, medical, or public library to obtain articles of interest.
    • Men's Health: Smoking compilation of NY Times articles
    • 00/03/15 Pharmacotherapy of Smoking Cessation
          Tobacco use is the number one cause of preventable diseases in the United States. Smoking accounts for more than 400,000 deaths yearly and 30% of all cancer deaths. Primary care physicians have access to 70% of smokers, approximately 60% of whom are perceived to be in excellent health. Recent advances in the pharmacotherapy of nicotine addiction, including nicotine nasal spray, nicotine inhaler, bupropion hydrochloride, and over-the-counter transdermal nicotine patches, have increased the treatment options physicians can offer to smokers. Physicians, especially those in primary care specialties, should familiarize themselves with these products to improve efforts to help their patients stop smoking. This article reviews scientific data on the efficacy of approved medications, benefits, adverse effects, and appropriate use of these products. We also discuss nicotine addiction and treatment for special populations, including women, ethnic minorities, light smokers, and patients with cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases.

    • 01/28/99 Combination Nicotine Replacement Therapies Are the Most Effective Means to Quit Smoking EurekAlert
        Combined methods of nicotine replacement therapy are more effective than using just one, says a study in this week's BMJ. Dr Thorsteinn Blondal and colleagues from National University Hospital in Iceland, along with researchers from Pharmacia and Upjohn in Sweden, found that patients combining the use of nicotine patches with nicotine nasal sprays were twice as likely to still be abstaining from smoking after five years than those who had only used patches.

    • 01/28/99 Study Backs Nicotine Therapy AP
        Smokers who used a combination of a nicotine patch and nasal spray doubled their chances of staying smoke-free for six years, compared to those who used a patch alone, a new study says. The research by scientists in Iceland -- which involved the longest follow-up of any such study to date -- showed that 16 percent of those who used the combination did not smoke for six years, compared to 8.5 percent of those who relied only on a patch. . . . In the study, published in this week's British Medical Journal, scientists at the National University Hospital in Rekyjavik enrolled 237 smokers in a program to help them quit.

    • 01/28/99 Massage May Help Smokers Resist Cravings Reuters
        Individuals who are trying to give up smoking may find relief in massage, which has been shown to improve mood and reduce levels of anxiety and stress hormones. . . While Gallup polls have found that about 75% of smokers would like to quit, smoking cessation programs and medical interventions have had little effect. One reason, say researchers, is the symptoms that accompany withdrawal from nicotine, including anxiety. "Research suggests that massage therapy reduces anxiety," explain Dr. Maria Hernandez-Reif and colleagues with the Touch Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. . . SOURCE: Preventive Medicine 1999;28;28-32.

    • 01/27/99 If They Think Stopping Smoking Is Hard, There's One Man They Should Meet The Scotsman
        "I'm going to cure the world of smoking," shouted ALLEN CARR. She didn't know what to think. She'd been on at him about how he'd have to do something about his bronchitis, but it must have seemed a bit extreme. Fifteen and a half years later, he hasn't saved the world, but he hasn't done bad. The first clinic he opened within six months of that flash of comprehension has led to 40 others worldwide, from Joppa to Jerusalem, Quito to Kent. His first book, Allen Carr's Easy Way to Stop Smoking, has been a best-seller in 20 languages (last year alone, it topped the German non-fiction list and was second in the Dutch: he stopped counting its British sales once it went past a million). He wrote another, more detailed book about nicotine addiction, and has just published a third, on how to stop children smoking. Between the books, the videos and the clinics (he has personally treated 25,000 clients), no man in the world has or is doing more to stub out our cigarette habit. . . From a smoker's point of view, the psychology of Carr's method is spot-on. The drug's to blame, not the smoker. Again, it's basic stuff, but if you realise how you are being manipulated by a chemical and how you then rationalise that feeling (got to smoke: it's a post-meal/post-coital/pre-deadline/coffee/social/firing squad/whatever kind of thing), it's quite easy to change that habitual behaviour. As Derek McGuff, whose Edinburgh clinic is Carr's only one in Scotland, points out: "Giving up smoking is no big deal. The idea that it is is part of the brainwashing." . . . HOW TO STOP YOUR CHILD SMOKING by Allen Carr is published by Penguin

    • 01/27/99 Retinoid Signaling and Activator Protein-1 Expression in Ferrets Given -Carotene Supplements and Exposed to Tobacco Smoke Journal of the National Cancer Institute
        Conclusions: Diminished retinoid signaling, resulting from the suppression of RAR gene expression and overexpression of activator protein-1, could be a mechanism to enhance lung tumorigenesis after high-dose -carotene supplementation and exposure to tobacco smoke. [J Natl Cancer Inst 1999;91:60-6]

    • 01/27/99 Plasma Levels of Insulin-Like Growth Factor-I and Lung Cancer Risk: a Case-Control Analysis Journal of the National Cancer Institute
        Conclusions: Plasma levels of IGF-I are higher and plasma levels of IGFBP-3 are lower in patients with lung cancer than in control subjects. If these findings can be confirmed in prospective studies, measuring levels of IGF-I and IGFBP-3 in blood may prove useful in assessing lung cancer risk. [J Natl Cancer Inst 1999;91:151-6]

    • 01/27/99 New Era In Butting Out Canadian Medical Association Journal
        anada's first nicotine-free stop-smoking drug is "changing the whole nature of smoking cessation," an expert says. Dr. Frederic Bass, head of the BC Doctors' Stop-Smoking Program, says bupropion (Zyban) "reflects our progress in understanding tobacco addiction" and has entered wide use since coming on the market last August. . . . . But Bass cautions physicians against relying solely on the new drug. He advocates a multipronged strategy for the "chronic condition," including counselling lasting more than 10 minutes, long-term follow-up and a team approach. "These are as effective as pharmacology," he says.

    • 01/26/99 Tobacco Compound Found In Fetal Fluids Reuters
        British researchers have found that a nicotine metabolite, cotinine, accumulates in the fluid surrounding a fetus as early as 7 weeks' gestation, both in women who smoke and women exposed to smoke at home or in the workplace. . . "Our results further support anti-smoking advice, suggesting that women should not only stop cigarette consumption before conception, but also avoid environmental tobacco smoke exposure during pregnancy," the researchers write this month in the journal Obstetrics & Gynecology.

    • 01/26/99 Parkinson's Disease Research Findings Point to Environmental Causes Business Wire
        An interesting future direction will be to investigate the role that cigarette smoking may play in protecting against Parkinson's disease. While smoking is traditionally viewed as an activity harmful to the body, Dr. Tanner's group found that twins who smoked were less likely to develop Parkinson's disease than their nonsmoking twin brothers. The reasons are not clear for this association, so the Institute is already actively pursuing research in this area.
    • 01/27/99 Parkinson Disease in Twins / An Etiologic Study [Abstract] JAMA
        Conclusions  The similarity in concordance overall indicates that genetic factors do not play a major role in causing typical PD. No genetic component is evident when the disease begins after age 50 years. However, genetic factors appear to be important when disease begins at or before age 50 years.
    • 01/26/99 Study: Parkinson's Not Inherited AP
        "For the first time, today we can say that for people with Parkinson's disease diagnosed after age 50, it's most commonly caused by environmental factors," said Dr. Caroline M. Tanner of the Parkinson's Institute in Sunnyvale, Calif., who led the study. It is published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. . . Tanner said environmental factors most likely to play a role in typical Parkinson's include exposure to chemicals such as pesticides and herbicides, diet and tobacco smoking. The apparent protective effect of smoking was found in the twins and in previous research, Tanner said. She and Dr. J. William Langston, president of the Parkinson's Institute and senior author, said the protection is probably real, perhaps caused by smoking's stimulation of the liver to produce enzymes that neutralize some toxin that would otherwise provoke Parkinson's. "But there are about 2,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, so we still have a big job ahead of us in finding what chemicals might actually be protective," Langston said. "And we don't recommend smoking to prevent Parkinson's disease."
    • 01/25/99 Parkinson's Risk Lower In Smokers Reuters
        A new study supports previous research that found that smokers may be at lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease. Dr. Jay M. Gorell, of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, and colleagues compared the smoking and alcohol drinking habits of 144 Parkinson's disease patients with 464 people the same age that did not have the disease. They found that the more years a person smoked, the less likely they were to develop Parkinson's disease, a progressive neurological disorder characterized by tremors, muscle rigidity, and difficulty walking. . . . . Even past smokers appeared to be protected against Parkinson's disease, according to a report in the January issue of Neurology.

    • 01/26/99 Researchers Find Genetic Connection To Cigarette Smoking ScienceDaily Magazine
        In two studies featured in this month's American Psychological Association's journal of Health Psychology, researchers discovered that people carrying a particular version of the dopamine transporter gene (SLC6A3-9) are less likely to start smoking before the age of 16 and are more likely to be able to quit smoking if they start.
    • 01/24/99 Gene May Aid in Anti-Smoking Plan AP
        "This is just one small piece of the puzzle" of what influences smoking behavior, said psychologist Caryn Lerman, an author of one of the studies. . . It's at least the third gene to show evidence of an effect on smoking. . . But Ken Kidd, a Yale University geneticist who has studied the genetic marker used by the researchers, criticized the design of the studies and analysis of the results. "I do not accept their conclusions," he said. . . Hamer's group found no sign that the gene affects whether a person gets hooked, but results suggested it can help smokers quit
    • 01/24/99 Researchers Find Genetic Connection to Cigarette Smoking American Psychological Association
        In two studies featured in this month's American Psychological Association's journal of Health Psychology, researchers discovered that people carrying a particular version of the dopamine transporter gene (SLC6A3-9) are less likely to start smoking before the age of 16 and are more likely to be able to quit smoking if they start.
    • 01/24/99 Introduction to the Featured Section: GeneticResearch on Smoking Health Psychology
        Dopaminergic genes are likely candidates for heritable influences on cigarette smoking. In an accompanying article, Lerman et al. (1999) report associations between allele 9 of a dopamine transporter gene polymorphism (SLC6A3-9) and lack of smoking, late initiation of smoking, and length of quitting attempts. The present investigation extended their study by examining both smoking behavior and personality traits in a diverse population of nonsmokers, current smokers, and former smokers (N = 1,107).
    • 01/24/99 A Genetic Association for Cigarette Smoking Behavior Health Psychology
        Dopaminergic genes are likely candidates for heritable influences on cigarette smoking. In an accompanying article, Lerman et al. (1999) report associations between allele 9 of a dopamine transporter gene polymorphism (SLC6A3-9) and lack of smoking, late initiation of smoking, and length of quitting attempts. The present investigation extended their study by examining both smoking behavior and personality traits in a diverse population of nonsmokers, current smokers, and former smokers ( N = 1,107). A significant association between SLC6A3-9 and smoking status was confirmed and was due to an effect on cessation rather than initiation

    • 01/24/99 Waiting To Exhale Without Smoke--And Extra Pounds Chicago Tribune
        "When you're a smoker, you're talking about an average of between 300 and 600 trips to the mouth in a day," he says. "That's the traffic pattern. If you stop smoking, what is one of the earliest tips you hear? Put something in your mouth. It started with candy and gum, then for a few years we got healthy with carrots. Now it's non-consumables--straws, toothpicks." But he says those substitutes keep cravings alive. . . "A lot of people make radical change," he says. "That seems to be a prime contributor to difficulties. If you're quitting, it should be a very quiet ceremony, like putting a baby to sleep. You tiptoe away, you don't poke it and prod it."

    • 01/23/99 Scientist finds plant SOS messages Augusta Chronicle
        During three years of research at the University of Georgia's Coastal Plain Experiment Station in Tifton, entomologist Consuelo De Moraes showed that cotton, corn and tobacco plants send out one signal when they're being attacked by corn ear worms and another when they're being attacked by tobacco bud worms. . . The plants summon a black, half-inch parasitic wasp, known as cardiochiles nigriceps, that is a natural enemy of the caterpillars.

    • 01/22/99 Ex-smokers Gain, Then Lose Weight Reuters
        Smokers who wish to quit but worry about gaining weight may find encouragement in a Japanese study that shows weight gain is usually temporary -- after a few years, most ex-smokers drop to weight levels consistent with those of people who have never smoked. But the number of cigarettes previously smoked per day plays a role in this weight gain, with those who smoked 25 or more cigarettes per day gaining more than those who smoked less, according to a recent report in the International Journal of Epidemiology.

    • 01/22/99 Male Sexual Problems British Medical Journal
        Tobacco consumption also produces immediate and long term effects on erections that are sometimes dramatic.1 Giving up smoking often leads to improvement. It is surprising that impotence is not cited more often as a persuasive reason for giving up smoking.

    • 01/20/99 SMITHKLINE BEECHAM Offers New Option for Smokers - New MINT-FLAVORED NICORETTE(R) Nicotine Gum Hits Stores Today PR Newswire
        The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Nicorette(R) Mint nicotine gum for over-the-counter sale. The seven month approval time-frame demonstrates the FDA's continued commitment to reduce the number of smokers by increasing the availability of treatment options.

    • 01/20/99 Tobacco Plant-Produced Vaccine Helps Mice Survive Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Stanford Researchers Find Business Wire
        Eighty percent of the mice that received the plant-derived vaccine survived the lymphoma, while untreated mice died within three weeks after contracting the disease, the researchers reported in the January 19 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

    • 01/19/99 Cold/Flu Season Takes Its Toll on Busy Women Business Wire
        American Lung Association Offers Health Tips for Women with its New "Ther-MOM-eter" Campaign . . . Smoking puts you at increased risk for cold and flu and also increases the risk for your children. Inhaled smoke further irritates the air passages, worsening a cough and prolonging other symptoms. [This graph only]

    • 01/19/99 How To Avoid Withdrawal Symptoms Electronic Telegraph
        MANY people who want to give up say that they fail because of stress. But the "stress" is more likely to be withdrawal tension from the last cigarette, says Gay Sutherland, of the Maudsley Smoking Cessation Clinic. "You must persist for a month to show you can manage your usual stress level." Long-term studies show that ex-smokers have lower stress levels than smokers. Exercise, particularly swimming, can be helpful.

    • 01/19/99 The Best Ways To Stub It Out Electronic Telegraph
        THE message seems to be: the more the advice, counselling and nicotine replacement (NR), the greater the likelihood of success. (Information based on estimates of those who have stopped smoking for 12 months, except where indicated.) Willpower: one to two per cent success rate: This is the toughest; it is easy to fall by the wayside.

    • 01/18/99 Q&A: CFS sufferer has youth in favor Biloxi Sun Herald
        Q:I know smoking is bad for my health, but at least it won't mess up my sperm like hard drugs can. Right? A:Wrong, tobacco breath.

    • 01/18/99 Lung Disorders Tied To Cancer Risk In Nonsmokers Reuters
        The investigators found that the lung cancer risk increased 94% in those people with a history of emphysema, 73% for chronic bronchitis, and 82% for those with a combination of emphysema, chronic bronchitis and asthma. And the associations remained even after the researchers factored in a past history of smoking or of exposure to secondhand smoke. They speculate that chronic lung diseases may increase the risk of lung cancer through genetic factors, or through causing chronic inflammation and tissue damage.

    • 01/18/99 Smokers Prone To The Blues The Australian
        In a study of just over 2700 Canberra residents, researchers from the Australian National University's psychiatric epidemiology research centre have found smoking is associated with higher levels of anxiety, depression, alcohol misuse, extraversion and psychoticism. . . The centre's deputy director Anthony Jorm said the research . . . is important in helping to understand what motivates people to take up such a harmful habit. "For many, smoking must give short-term rewards that outweigh the long-term risks," he writes in a report of the research, published in the Medical Journal of Australia.

    • 01/17/99 Nobody Gets A Quick Divorce From Nicotine Twin Falls Times-News
        "Some people do manage to say `OK, that's it - I'm quitting,' and then do it, and that works for them," she said. "Others need to go through a class, and some quit over the years in these classes." There's also the option of using a stop-smoking product that contains nicotine to help break the habit, such as Nicoderm or Nicorette gum. For anyone interested in trying this, $5-off coupons are available at the health department until March 31.

    • 01/16/99 In The News: Smoking And Women's Fertility Minneapolis Star Tribune
        Women who smoke may risk having irregular periods, according to a study published in this month's Obstetrics and Gynecology. California Department of Health researchers say this would explain why women smokers are more likely to be infertile and enter menopause at an earlier age than women who don't smoke.

    • 01/16/99Tools to Improve Documentation of Smoking Status Journal of the American Medical Association
        Conclusions: A continuous quality improvement group process aided by an electronic medical record is useful to develop a self-sustaining office system to screen, document, and periodically update smoking status in a consistent place in the medical record. Although screening for and documenting smoking status are only the first step toward helping patients stop smoking, it is an important one.

    • 01/15/99 Panel Urges Research on Health Care For Lesbians The Washington Post
        The committee's report found that a lesbian's sexual orientation does not necessarily put her at any higher risk for a specific disease. Instead, certain risk factors, such as smoking, drinking and higher body fat, may be more prevalent among lesbians than among other women.

    • 01/14/99 ATP Announces Nicotine Inhaler Achieves 15% Market Share in United Kingdom & Excellent Physician Response in U.S. Canada Newswire
        According to Ron Schmid, VP of Communications for McNeil, "the physician's response to the U.S. launch of the Nicotrol(R) Inhaler has been excellent." The Inhaler is the first-ever FDA approved stop-smoking product that provides smokers with the comfort of the hand-to-mouth smoking ritual. The Inhaler delivers small doses of nicotine to satisfy the physical cravings as the smoker tries to quit, but without the harmful tars and toxins of a cigarette.

    • 01/15/99 Dementia? No, It's Just Snoring The Independent
        A 65-year-old man narrowly escaped a diagnosis of dementia which would have left him dependent for the rest of his life on his long-suffering wife, when the real cause of his problems was discovered - he snored. The man, who was a life-long smoker and had chronic bronchitis, was admitted to King's Mill Hospital in Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, because he was having hallucinations during the night and was confused during the day. . . In the man's case, the SLEEP APNOEA combined with his BRONCHITIS caused the oxygen level in his blood to fall very low during the night.

    • 01/15/99 Pulmonary medicine British Medical Journal
        Only two interventions have been shown to increase survival of smokers who develop chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. The first is stopping smoking, which is beneficial at all stages of the disease. . . The second is long term oxygen therapy, which increases life expectancy of patients with chronic respiratory failure. The main goal of other interventions is to relieve symptoms.

    • 01/14/99 Long-term Smoking Tied To Pancreatic Cancer Reuters
        Long-term, heavy smoking -- two packs of cigarettes per day for over 20 years -- appears to be linked to an increased risk of genetic changes that may lead to pancreatic cancer, researchers report. Mutations of K-ras -- a gene found in pancreas cells -- linked to the development of cancer are often found at autopsy in heavy smokers, even smokers who did not die of pancreatic cancer, according to a report in the January 15th issue of the journal Cancer. The new findings provide further evidence that heavy smoking is a risk factor for pancreatic cancer, according to Dr. Bruce A. Ruggeri, of Cephalon, Inc., West Chester, Pennsylvania, and associates.

    • 01/12/99 Smoking Found to Disrupt Menstrual Cycle Your Health Daily (NYT Syndicate)
        Women who smoke may be putting themselves at risk for irregular menstrual cycles, according to a new report. . . The study also suggested that women who smoked heavily were more likely than nonsmokers to have a menstrual cycle in which no egg was released from the ovaries. This may help explain why women smokers are more likely to be infertile and may undergo earlier menopause, researchers reported in the January issue of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

    • 01/13/99 Smoking Closes 'Mortality Gap' Times Of London
        MEN are beginning to close the mortality gap with women, largely because they are more successful at giving up smoking. The latest set of statistics were collected by the Faculty and Institute of Actuaries, which monitors death rates to help to determine life insurance premiums. Its figures, based on the numbers of policyholders who died between 1991 and 1994, show that the average life expectancy for men since 1978 has increased by 14 per cent, while women's has increased only 12 per cent.

    • 01/12/99 Doctor's Diary Electronic Telegraph
        Dr David Jones, writing in the journal Nature, suggests it might be possible to combine the brain-stimulant properties of alcohol and tobacco while reducing the anti-social and health risks of smoking - by developing a tobacco wine. "With a bottle of tobacco wine at their side, smokers will find it easy to give up their cigarettes," he writes. "They will be able to enjoy their addiction without the tars and combustion products (the smoke) which makes smoking hazardous and unpopular." This would certainly be welcomed by our very own Lord Deedes. In his foreword to Murder a Cigarette (by Ralph Harris and Judith Hatton) - a cheerful, but emphatic rebuff to the SS (Stop Smoking) brigade - he observes:

    • 01/12/99 OH: Researchers to examine oral cancer Columbus Dispatch
        Armed with a $4.2 million grant from the government, researchers at the ARTHUR G. JAMES CANCER HOSPITAL will spend the next five years studying what causes oral cancers and how to prevent them. "We want to expand our research into oral cancers,'' said GARY STONER, a James researcher who specializes in chemoprevention, or the creation of drugs to prevent cancer. "This area hasn't been explored heavily and demands attention.'' The grant comes from the NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DENTAL RESEARCH, an arm of the government's NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH. . . The goal, Stoner said, is to find agents to inhibit genetic damage caused by tobacco-related products, thereby preventing oral cancers.

    • 01/12/99 Cancer's 1999 toll is put at 1.2 million The Boston Globe
        Lung cancer remained the leading US cancer killer, with more than 150,000 deaths this year, the [American Cancer Society] said in its annual report. Cases were declining among white men, the society said. They were on the increase among women, probably because fewer men, but more women, were smoking. Cancer was the second-leading cause of death in the United States, after heart disease, the organization said.

    • 01/11/99 IRELAND: Are you going toquit smoking? Irish Times
        Did you make a New Year's resolution to give up smoking? Are you among the 70 per cent of Irish smokers who would like to quit? Are you among the 50 per cent of smokers who have tried but failed to give up cigarettes over the past two years? If so, drop in to the free Stop Smoking session held every Tuesday

    • 01/09/99 US Heart Disease Rate Prompts Calls For Lifestyle Change The Boston Globe
        Heart disease, the biggest killer in most of the industrialized world, is largely preventable by healthier habits . . . While scientists have known for some time that the risk of developing coronary heart disease over a lifetime must be high, the study published in this week's edition of the British medical journal The Lancet was the first to quantify it. Smoking, being overweight, not exercising enough, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure are all known to contribute to the risk. . . If those factors are controlled, a huge proportion of heart disease cases could be eradicated, Levy said.

    • 01/06/99 Munchies can beat bad habits San Antonio Express-News
        You've given up smoking for many good reasons. But now you really need something to keep your hands and mouth busy. Some people reach for snack food. . . But it doesn't have to be that way, said MARGIE CHAPMAN, extension agent with the Family and Consumer Section of the Bexar County Agricultural Extension Service. "Some snack foods are low in fat and good for you," she said.

    • 01/08/99 Smoking Mums Recipe For Tantrums The Courier-Mail
        CHILDREN whose mothers smoked during early pregnancy are more likely to be aggressive and display delinquent behaviour when they grow up. Mothers who smoke early in pregnancy are twice as likely to have children with behavioural problems than those who do not smoke -- and the more the mother smokes, the higher the risk. A longitudinal study, of 4879 five-year-old children whose mothers were patients at Brisbane Mater Hospital, looked at women who quit smoking before pregnancy; who continued smoking at the same level during pregnancy; and those who cut back during pregnancy.

    • 01/07/99 Educational Push Works: SIDS Deaths Decline Chicago Tribune
        Deaths from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) have declined dramatically, thanks to parents who heed medical advice to have their infants sleep on their backs and to decrease the babies' exposure to cigarette smoke. A study of SIDS deaths in California found that from 1990 through 1995, the death rate declined 20 percent among black infants and 41 percent among all others, according to Elizabeth J. Adams of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta . . . in PEDIATRICS, a publication of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

    • 01/06/99 High-dose Beta-carotene May Up Cancer Risk Reuters
        A study in ferrets suggests an association between high-dose beta-carotene supplementation and precancerous changes in lung tissue. The researchers also note that these lung changes were even more pronounced when the animals were exposed to tobacco smoke. Their report is published in the January 6th issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. "Our findings shed light on the potential harmful effects of high-dose beta-carotene supplementation, particularly as it relates to cigarette smoke," Dr. Xiang-Dong Wang and colleagues at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts, report.
    • 01/07/99 Animal study sheds light on link between cancer and high doses of beta carotene supplements NewsEdge
        Researchers explain in tomorrow's Journal of the National Cancer Institute how high-dose beta carotene supplements may have increased lung cancer rates among smokers in two large intervention trials reported in 1994 and 1996. . . A study of ferrets -- which metabolize beta carotene very much like humans -- shows that excess beta carotene stored in the lungs becomes oxidized into products that turn the normal control of cell division upside down.

    • 01/07/99 PATENTS: Method of treating nicotine dependence ($$) NewsEdge
        Abstract: A method of treating a subject afflicted with nicotine dependence with the opiate antagonist, nalmefene is described. The subjects will not gain significant amounts of weight as a result of smoking reduction or cessation.

    • 01/06/99 Advances in the Pharmacotherapy of Smoking...[Abstract] Journal of the American Medical Association
        Since the 1996 publication of guidelines on smoking cessation from the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research and the American Psychiatric Association, several new treatments have become available, including nicotine nasal spray, nicotine inhaler, and bupropion hydrochloride. In addition, nicotine gum and patch have become available over-the-counter. This article reviews the published literature and US Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical company reports on these therapies. Based on this review, clinical logic, and experience, we conclude that pharmacotherapy should be made available to all smokers. All currently available therapies appear to be equally efficacious, approximately doubling the quit rate compared with placebo.

    • 01/06/99 SMOKING Kick the habit Philadelphia Daily News
        If you are still smoking, despite a New Year's resolution to quit, you may have succumbed to a "common misconception about quitting," says Dr. Frank Leone, director of the Tobacco Intervention Program at Thomas Jefferson University. Like: I'll gain weight. . . .Withdrawal symptoms will be unbearable. . .The program I want is too expensive.

    • 01/05/99 Exterminator charged over using bomb of pesticide Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel
        Fredrickson said the pesticide, a nicotine alkaloid, was clearly labeled with a white and red label featuring the universal symbol for poison -- a skull and crossbones. . . The amount of nicotine residue found inside the apartment equaled the content of 37,000 cigarettes, Fredrickson estimated. Authorities don't believe the family will suffer any long-term effects.

    • 01/05/99 Watching for the Warning Signs of an Invisible Killer New York Times
        Most people normally have at most only a few percent of their hemoglobin as carboxyhemoglobin. Smokers have much more than nonsmokers, and those who live or work in environments polluted by tobacco smoke are likely to have even higher levels of carboxyhemoglobin than smokers themselves. [This graph only]

    • 01/05/99 Overcoming Resolution 'Failure': A Solid Mental Preparation Is the Best Guarantee of Success The Washington Post
        Moreover, people who take action and fail within a month are twice as likely to succeed over the next six months as people who don't take any action at all; failure, in fact, is usually part of the equation for success. . . These are the findings of JAMES PROCHASKA, a University of Rhode Island psychologist who has specialized in studying how people alter their behavior. His approach has been used successfully by such organizations as the National Cancer Institute to help people stop smoking

    • 01/04/99 ELAN Receives FDA Approval for Nicotine OTC Patch; Perrigo to Market the Product PR Newswire
        Elan Corporation, plc (NYSE: ELN) ("Elan") and Perrigo Company (Nasdaq: PRGO) ("Perrigo") today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") has issued a letter approving Elan's supplemental New Drug Application ("NDA") to change from prescription to over-the-counter ("OTC") status its Nicotine Transdermal System patch for adult use as an aid to smoking cessation. In its prescription format, the product was formerly marketed as ProStep(R) by Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories.

    • 01/02/99Migraine and stroke in young women: case-control study British Medical Journal
        Coexistence of risk factorsuse of oral contraceptives, high blood pressure, or smoking had more than multiplicative effects on odds ratios for ischaemic stroke associated with migraine alone

    • 01/04/99 Stopping Smoking Tops Resolution List MSNBC
        Kicking the cigarette habit, losing weight and exercising more top the list of New Year's resolutions cited in a new telephone poll of 922 Americans conducted by Marist College's Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. And these goals are right in line with what the American Council on Science and Health, a nonprofit group based in New York, cites as important priorities. . .Focus your efforts on things that matter. . . And yet, while people are fretting about the possible carcinogens in their foods and pondering the potential benefits of the latest supplements, more than 1,300 Americans are dying prematurely each day from cigarette smoking

    • 01/02/99 Smoking Offsets One Illness Denver Post
        Conrad, a 41-year-old schizophrenic, knows from experience that smoking allows him to focus his thoughts and combat one specific aspect of his illness: the inability to filter out background noise in his environment. And so he struggles with a 1 1/2-pack-a-day habit that plays havoc with his health and drains his poverty-level income - but gives him indispensable, though short-lived, relief from his illness. After years of trying to quit, he has resigned himself to a lifetime of tobacco self-medication.

    • 01/01/99 Counseling can be key to quitting smoking CNN
        It is estimated that only 5 percent of smokers who quit cold turkey are able to refrain from smoking for more than a year. The pleasurable effects that many derive from nicotine makes smoking a tough habit to break, said Dr. Steve Adelman of the Harvard Vanguard Medical Association. "Nicotine is one of the most tenaciously addictive substances known to mankind. It's as addictive -- and for some people, even more addictive -- than heroin," Adelman said. . .Following are some common aids to breaking the smoking habit and their estimated costs.

    • 01/02/99 Blowing Away a Bad Habit in 1999 Los Angeles Times
        Several area smokers spoke with RACHEL FISCHER about how they plan to beat the odds. . . It was the whole thing of, "Smoke a cigarette; you'll be cool if you do." I wish I'd never done it. . . Recently, though, I got sick. It was only for two days, but then I could not get rid of the congestion in my chest. I coughed like an old woman. It scared me. . . Every day there's a new study about smoking's effects and I don't want to take the risk anymore. . . The smell is also an issue: The smoke is always on your clothes, and when I'm around kids, they pick it up.

    • 01/01/99 Americans Resolve To Keep On Trying Chicago Tribune
        While the total number of smokers who annually attempt to quit has remained steady for the last several years, the survey revealed, the number of smokers who eschew cigarettes multiple times is on the rise--proof again that for Americans, failing once does not mean failing forever.

    • 12/31/98 CA: Toll-Free Helpline Available for Smokers San Francisco Chronicle
        Martinez -- Smokers who quit after cigarette prices jump tomorrow can get help from a toll-free counseling service. Funds from a 1988 tobacco tax measure, Proposition 99, allowed the state to set up the California Smokers Helpline, where coaches guide smokers through withdrawal. . . The helpline, at (800) 7-NO-BUTTS, sends smokers information and steers them to community resources.

    • 01/01/99 Site Sends Resolution Makers E-Mail Reminders New York Times
        Called the Resolution Reminder, Surratt's site aims to keep you focused on your resolution throughout the year by sending friendly e-mail reminders encouraging you to stick with it (whatever 'it' may be). Now in its second year, the site provides a form with a list of 15 of the most common resolutions, including: Lose Weight, Exercise More, Save Money, Quit Smoking, Advance Career, Follow My Dreams and the all-inclusive -- and arguably most difficult to achieve -- Be a Better Person in General.

    • 01/02/99ANN LANDERS: Here's how to quit smoking Minneapolis Star Tribune
        I recently came across these tips written by Linda Greenhow, coordinator of the nicotine addiction program at the St. Helena Health Center in Deer Park, Calif. They may be helpful if you want to quit smoking. The information sounded good to me, and I would like to share it with you.

    • 01/01/99 FINDINGS: Migraine Sufferers and Strokes The Washington Post
        Women who get migraines are at greater risk of having a stroke than those who do not, according to research published in the British Medical Journal. . . After studying 291 women ages 20 to 44 who had had strokes, scientists said the risk is even higher if the woman smokes, has high blood pressure or uses oral contraceptives.

    • 12/31/98 Smokers Count Down To Butting Out Kamloops Daily News
        The B.C. LUNG ASSOCIATION wants to help those who are trying to get off tobacco by offering quitting tips in a free booklet and on its Internet site. . . The QUIT TIPS booklet is available from the B.C. Lung Association at 2675 Oak St., Vancouver, B.C., V6H 2K2, or by calling toll-free, 1-800-665-5864, or at the Web site at www.bc.lung.ca/quittips.html .

    • 12/29/98 AMA Offers New Year's Resolutions for a Healthy 1999 PR Newswire
        1. Give up smoking or help someone else stop. If you smoke, you should be aware that cigarettes are the only product that when used as directed by the manufacturers, causes serious illness and even death. More than 400,000 Americans die each year as the result of a smoking-related disease.

    • 12/29/98 One-Third of Americans Keep Their New Year's Resolutions, AT&T WorldNet Service Survey Reveals PR Newswire
        With the survey results, AT&T WorldNet Service has created a "New Year's 1999 Resolution" Website (http://www.att.net/resolutions.html) listing America's top 10 resolutions for 1999 and providing direct links to Web sites and services that can help people stick to their resolutions throughout the new year. . . 2. Kick That Smoking Habit -- American Cancer Society(TM)

    • 12/28/98Nicotine Anonymous Offers Help to All Nicotine Addicts; Support Available to Those Who Wish to Stop Smoking 365 Days a Year PR Newswire
        Nicotine Anonymous is a non-profit, 12-step fellowship of men and women helping each other to live nicotine-free lives.

    • 12/28/98 Smoking, Maternal History Predict Hot Flashes Reuters
        Cigarette smoking and a maternal history of menopausal hot flashes may predispose a woman to hot flashes during her own menopause, findings from a recent study suggest. According to researchers writing in the Journal of Women's Health, ``women who reported having mothers with hot flashes were about four times more likely to have hot flashes than those women whose mothers did not have hot flashes.''

    • 12/28/98 The Prospective Relationships Between Smoking and Weight in a Young, Biracial Cohort: The Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
        Over the 7-year follow-up, all smoking status groups gained weight, including continuous smokers and initiators. Weight gain was greatest among those who quit smoking. Weight gain attributable to smoking cessation was 4.2 kg for Whites and 6.6 kg for Blacks. Smoking had a small weight-attenuating effect on Blacks. No such effects, however, were observed among Whites. These results suggest, at least in younger smokers, that smoking has minimal impact on body weight.

    • 12/28/98 Research burns light cigarettes Toronto Globe and Mail
        Low-tar cigarettes have been exposed as a potential hoax with new research that shows these so-called "light" cigarettes may actually cause more heart and lung damage than regular cigarettes because smokers inhale more and smoke more after they switch. The revelation was made before Christmas by the British Columbia governmen . . . But it was a group of researchers at HEALTH CANADA that spurred the development of a new test to measure what smokers draw into their lungs when they light up. B.C. is the first province in Canada to use the new methodology, which was developed at a lab in Kitchener, Ont.

    • 12/26/98 Human Aging Process Is A Medical Mystery San Diego Union-Tribune
        "If people are looking for magic bullets, they're not there," says Sprott. "The best advice we can give to maximize your life span is to give up smoking, fasten your seat belt, and engage in regular daily exercise, some of it load-bearing, to strengthen the bones. Those are the biggies."

    • 12/24/98 PATENTS: Method for treating substance abuse withdrawal (Assignee -- Eli Lilly and Company) ($$) NewsEdge
        This invention provides a method for treating a condition resulting from the cessation or withdrawal of tobacco or nicotine, opioids, ethanol or combinations thereof comprising administering an effective amount of 4-chloro-5-(imidazoline-2-y(amino)-6-methoxy-2-methylpyrimid ine.

    • 12/23/98 PATENTS: Colonic delivery of nicotine to treat inflammatory bowel disease (Assignee -- Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research) NewsEdge
        Abstract: A method is provided to treat inflammatory bowel disease by locally administering to the colon an effective amount of nicotine or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, preferably via formulations adapted for delayed oral release or rectal administration. Further provided is a novel formulation for the oral administration of nicotine comprising a polyacrylic polymer complexed with nicotine.

    • 12/22/98 Smoking Linked To Earlier Menopause Reuters
        A woman's smoking habits, her weight, the number of children she bears, and even her religion may affect the age at which she reaches menopause, according to a study by researchers at New York University School of Medicine. The investigators found that women who smoked more than 10 cigarettes per day were 40% more likely to enter menopause earlier than nonsmokers. . . SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 1998;51:1271-1276.

    • 12/22/98 PERSONAL HEALTH / Where There's Smoke, There Are Respiratory Symptoms Newsday
        Despite initial worry from bar owners about losing business, revenues from bars and taverns have stayed about the same since the ban went into effect, according to Ken August, spokesman for the California Department of Health Services. Go into any California restaurant and bar "and you won't find anyone smoking - not because there are uniformed guards but because people have come to understand the dangers of secondhand smoke," August said.

    • 12/22/98 Anti-smoking Device Uses Hand-to-mouth Approach -- The Business Journal Of Phoenix The Business Journal
        The typical pack-a-day cigarette smoker repeats the same hand-to-mouth motion up to 200 times each day. . . With those rituals and cravings in mind, McNeil Consumer Products Co. has started marketing a new weapon -- the NICOTROL INHALER -- for smokers who have, so far, lost the battle to quit. The Philadelphia health care company, a business unit of Princeton-based Johnson & Johnson, started marketing the smoking cessation device through an agreement with Pharmacia & Upjohn Co.

    • 12/21/98 Educated Heart Attack Survivors Quit Smoking Reuters
        Patients who have a high school or higher level of education are more likely to quit smoking after a heart attack than smokers with lower levels of education, report US researchers. ``The dramatic influence of higher levels of education following the experience of a heart attack suggests that more highly educated older smokers 'learn' from their heart attacks and quit smoking,'' according to a report . . . SOURCE: The Journal of Health and Social Behavior 1998 (December):271-294.

    • 12/21/98 Smoking Puts Home Oxygen Patients At Risk Reuters
        In the December issue of the journal Burns, physicians at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland, describe 21 patients on domiciliary oxygen who suffered severe burns when their oxygen delivery system ignited while they smoked. According to the report, recent surveys reveal that up to half of patients on home oxygen admit to smoking. . . SOURCE: Burns 1998;24:658-660.

    • 12/17/98 Just Say 'Wait a Minute' New York Review of Books
        Earlier this year, for example, a group of researchers at the University of Michigan led by the psychiatrist Ovide Pomerleau published a short report in the journal Addiction. Pomerleau and his colleagues polled four separate groups of people about how they felt when they first experimented with cigarettes: heavy smokers, light smokers, ex-smokers, and never-smokers. What they found is that there are huge differences in how much pleasure people derived from their first few cigarettes. In fact, the amount of pleasure neophyte smokers experienced correlates closely with how heavily they ended up smoking later in life.

    • 12/20/98 Quitter's Lament   Minneapolis Star Tribune
        I have been reading all the quitting-smoking Web sites for support, but they go on and on about how much damage I have done to my body. According to the American Lung Association, I have taken years off my life, inflicted upon myself a long, slow, painful death and have gravely endangered society and my loved ones. I went looking for encouragement and maybe a promise that it gets easier (oh, please, let it get easier!) but now I am morbidly depressed. What's the difference if I destroy my body for six years or for 20? Is there any offering of hope you can give me? Help! Thank you!

    • 12/17/98 Break From Smoking Helps Lungs Reuters
        ``Not only quitting smoking but attempts to quit smoking can prevent some loss of lung function,'' conclude a team of researchers led by Dr. Robert Murray of the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Their findings are published in the December issue of the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology.

    • 12/16/98 Hopkin's Q & A: U.S. vital signs The Baltimore Sun
        Smoking while pregnant can cause low birth weight, can't it? Dr. GUYER: Yes, smoking during pregnancy is one of the most important preventable causes of low birth weight, and women were slightly less likely to report smoking during pregnancy in 1996 (13.6 percent) compared with 1995 (13.9 percent). Since 1989, tobacco use during pregnancy has fallen 30 percent; however, maternal smoking among teens rose from 1995 to 1996, with an increase of five percent reported for younger teens ages 15 to 17 years (to 15.4 percent in 1996) and one percent for teens ages 18 to 19 years (to 18.3 percent in 1996).

    • 12/15/98International Conference on Prevention and Early Diagnosis of Lung Cancer; Varese, Italy BW HealthWire
        On a worldwide basis, lung cancer is the most deadly malignancy; it will cause more than one million deaths this year. Because cigarette smoking is the vastly predominant cause, lung cancer is almost entirely preventable. . . An important aspect of the Conference was a review of new technology that holds the promise of substantial mortality reduction from lung cancer. These new technologies include low dose spiral CT scan, autofluorescent bronchoscopy and molecular markers in sputum cytology. . . The Conference encourages national governments and public health organizations involved in cancer prevention and control to more aggressively address tobacco control and to urgently consider the issues surrounding the early detection of lung cancer.

    • 12/15/98 CA: When Bars Say 'No' to Smoking New York Times
        In their report, the scientists noted that a majority of the bartenders (64 percent) said they "strongly" or "somewhat" disagreed with the smoking ban, making it unlikely that reports of reduced symptoms were inspired by anti-smoking fervor. But 80 percent also said they believed that second-hand smoke had a "slight" or "moderate-to-severe" effect on their health.

    • 12/11/98 OK, take a deep breath Edmonton (Alberta) Journal
        But triggers that could be avoided such as tobacco smoke or exposure to pets, also play a major role in bringing on asthma attacks, the survey found. Despite the fact that 55 per cent of children with asthma reported tobacco smoke brought on or worsened their asthma, 48 per cent of them reported being regularly exposed to second-hand smoke, mostly at home. And nearly a quarter of surveyed teenagers with asthma smoked.

    • 12/15/98 NY: ROCHESTER: Women's deaths by lung cancer rising here Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
        Women in Monroe County have a lung cancer death rate that is higher than the state average and climbing. . . In Monroe County, the lung cancer death rate for women jumped from 39.1 per 100,000 women in 1992 to 50.4 in 1996. The rate for males dropped during the same period, from 67.1 to 63.2 per 100,000 men. Similar patterns are seen in Ontario and Wayne counties.
    • 12/14/98 NY: Lung Cancer Jumps Among N.Y. Women AP
        Lung cancer among New York state women has jumped 40 percent in the last 20 years, an increase some health department officials are attributing to the legions of women who took up smoking during World War II.
    • 12/13/98 NY: Lung cancer takes increasing toll on women Albany Times-Union
        Between 1976 and 1995, the number of women in New York who died from lung cancer jumped from 19.8 per 100,000 to 32.4, while the disease's rate of death among men, though still roughly twice that for women, dropped slightly. "This is probably the biggest and most meaningful cancer trend that there is over the past 20 years,'' said Mark S. Baptiste, the Health Department's leading epidemiologist, in an interview Friday. And the causes behind it are clear: the decades-old boom in the ranks of women smokers.

    • 12/11/98 Smoking Cigarettes Is Associated with Increased Sperm Disomy in Teenage Men ($4.00) NewsEdge
        CONCLUSION(S): Cigarette smoking among teenagers was associated with increases in disomic sperm and a diminution in specific aspects of semen quality. Such defects may affect male fertility and may increase future chances of fathering offspring with aneuploidy syndromes." [PAY PER VIEW: $4.00]

    • 12/11/98 Patches And Gum Can Curb Craving Times Of London
        There is well-substantiated evidence that the likelihood of hardened smokers giving up is doubled if they supplement willpower with patches that deliver a regular dose of nicotine through the skin. These are of variable strength and can be selected to match the person's usual daily intake. The mistake is to choose too weak a patch.

    • 12/9/98 WWW.NICONEWS.COM; The New Online Destination for Smokers Who Want to Quit PR Newswire
        Internet-savvy consumers who want to learn more about how to stop smoking can now visit WWW.NICONEWS.COM, a new Web site created by SmithKline Beecham Consumer Healthcare. Unlike its "stop smoking" Web predecessors, niconews.com will serve as the definitive source for how to kick the habit, providing everything from interactive tools to help you quit, to the latest news about quitting smoking.

    • 12/10/98 Study Revises Treatment Options For Brain Aneurysms Minneapolis Star Tribune
        A Mayo Clinic study published in today's New England Journal of Medicine may hold the answer for some of the estimated 10 million to 15 million Americans who have or will develop a brain aneurysm, a ballooning in a weak spot of a blood vessel wall. . . Wiebers said he recommends that smokers with the condition quit, because smoking appears to increase aneurysm risk.

    • 12/09/98 CA: Study calls smoke-free bars a plus for bartenders' health Sacramento Bee
        Anti-smoking activists are hailing a new study that says California's year-old law that bans smoking in bars has improved bartenders' health -- even those who already smoke. But based on their own observations, local bar owners question the findings. . . "I've heard people say, 'My business is down because of the law and because there's always smokers standing in front of the bar smoking, so some people don't come in,'" Mahan added. "But no one has said they feel better."
    • 12/09/98 CA/ME: Study Airs Benefits Of Bar Smoking Ban Maine Sunday Telegram
        The study comes just four days after a smoking ban went into effect in Portland restaurants . . . studies like this one could help lay the groundwork for future action. . . "It's a very exciting article and gives a lot of fuel to the fire in terms of saying 'Look, secondhand smoke is a major public health issue and we need to clear out our public airways,'" said Dr. DORA ANNE MILLS, director of the Maine Bureau of Health.
    • 12/09/98 CA: Smoking Ban Boosted Health of Bartenders, Study Reports Los Angeles Times
         "We've never had a study like this that tracked health changes following the creation of a smoke-free workplace," said UC San Francisco epidemiologist Stanton A. Glantz, an anti-smoking activist who did not participate in the study.  "The results show that this law is really achieving its stated aim of protecting people who go into bars and who work in bars," he said. "This will make it much more difficult for the tobacco industry to get the law repealed." . . Surprisingly, even among bartenders who smoked cigarettes, the reduced exposure to secondhand smoke led to improved respiratory symptoms and function, the researchers said.  "Even smokers are being made ill in a smoke-filled room," Eisner said.
    • 12/09/98 CA: Smoking Ban Good for Bartenders' Health, Study Says San Francisco Chronicle
        Tom Humber of the Alexandria, Va., National Smokers Alliance, said research on secondhand smoke has produced decidedly mixed results. ``Of all the serious, large-scale consequential work, almost none come up with statistically significant results.'' . . He said promoters of the smoke-free bar law are facing a dilemma: ``If they move to enforce this, the rebellion is going to rise; if they don't move to enforce it, noncompliance will rise.''
    • 12/09/98 CA: After Calif. smoking ban, barkeeps breathed easier The Boston Globe
        Researchers say the findings are among the first to show that secondhand smoke can cause short-term respiratory problems as well as raise the risk of long-term diseases like cancer and heart disease. The new report from San Francisco, said Siegel in an interview, ''documents that not only is this secondhand smoke dangerous for long-term health, it is causing suffering every day'' that the bar workers go to work. Those breathing-related problems, moreover, improved quickly after the smoke was eliminated, said the scientists.
    • 12/08/98 Smoking ban helps bartenders' health Reuters
    • 12/09/98 Study Says Smoking Ban Working AP
        ``Medically, sure, I think we're healthier,'' she said. ``Personally, no, because I have to sneak out into the cold to have a cigarette.''
    • 12/08/98 Smoking Ban In Bars Improves Health Of Bartenders St. Louis Post-Dispatch
        California bartenders saw their respiratory health improve in as little as a month after state law banned smoking in their workplace in January, even if they still smoked themselves, researchers found.
    • 12/09/98 Bartenders' Respiratory Health and Smoke-Free Bars Journal of the American Medical Association
        Results.--Fifty-three of 67 eligible bartenders were interviewed. At baseline, all 53 bartenders reported workplace ETS exposure. After the smoking ban, self-reported ETS exposure at work declined from a median of 28 to 2 hours per week (P<.001). . . Conclusion.--Establishment of smoke-free bars and taverns was associated with a rapid improvement of respiratory health.
    • 12/09/98 Respiratory Health Of Bartenders Improves Rapidly When Bars Become Smoke-free Journal of the American Medical Association
        Mark D. Eisner, M.D., of the University of California at San Francisco, and colleagues report on the observable health benefits to bartenders from a new California law that prohibits smoking in bars. . . The authors note: "In addition to potentially reducing the long-term risk of lung cancer and cardiovascular disease, workplace smoking prohibition appears to have immediate beneficial effects on adult respiratory health." The authors continue: "Our study ... helps confirm the adverse impact of ETS exposure on immediate respiratory health." (JAMA. 1998;280:1909-1914)

    • 12/09/98 JAMA Patient Page - SECONDHAND SMOKE Journal of the American Medical Association
        When You Smoke, Everyone Near You Smokes

    • 12/08/98 AZ: Volunteer smokers Arizona Daily Star
        Volunteer smokers are needed for two University of Arizona studies of medications that help adult chronic smokers quit. Both studies are run by the Arizona Program for Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

    • 12/08/98 Drug Therapies; Nicotine-Like Drugs Enhanced Learning, Memory in Rat Model ($4.00) NewsEdge
        [CW Henderson, 607 words, PAY PER VIEW $4.00] Duke University, North Carolina, behavioral pharmacologist Edward Levin said in a report prepared for presentation at the Society of Neuroscience's annual meeting held in early November in Los Angeles, California, that nicotine-like compounds can actually help restore the ability to learn and remember in rats that have brain lesions similar to those found in Alzheimer's disease patients. The research showed that rats given a drug called AR-R 17779, a proprietary compound, performed significantly better than untreated rats on standard radial arm maze learning and memory tests.

    • 12/08/98 Esophagus Cancer; Obesity, Smoking May Be Responsible for Rise in Cancer ($4.00) NewsEdge
        [CW Henderson, PAY PER VIEW $4.00] One type of cancer of the esophagus has increased more than 350 percent among white men in the past 20 years, and researchers say the reasons may include smoking and an increase in obesity. The study, published in the November 12, 1998, issue of Cancer, reported that annual cases of adenocarcinoma rose from 0.7 cases per 100,000 in 1974- 76 to 3.2 cases per 100,000 in 1992-94.

    • 12/07/98 Sometimes Pollution Can Be Its Worst Inside Your Home The Wall Street Journal
        Secondhand cigarette smoke "puts you in a league of your own" for high levels of nitrogen oxides, particulates and volatile organic compounds such as benzene and toluene, says Tim Buckley, assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. [This graph only]

    • 12/07/98 Packing Smokes With a Wallop Los Angeles Times
        A New Mexico woman who invented a talking cigarette pack 15 years ago as a novelty gag now thinks the devices should be used to discourage smoking. Mae Stangle says money from the recent tobacco settlement could finance mandatory talking cigarette packs that spout such warnings as "Spare your lungs" and "Smoking is stupid." A computer chip in the packs would be activated every time a cancer stick is removed.

    • 12/03/98 Scientists Pursue The Prospect Of A Pill For Quitting Smoking San Diego Union-Tribune
        It's called gamma vinyl-GABA, or GVG, and marketed as Vigabatrin. It's been used in Europe to treat epileptic children for more than a decade, but recent reports of it causing vision problems appear to have stalled FDA approval here.

    • 12/04/98 Advice for the Under-30 Crowd The Washington Post
        Dear Carolyn: Hi! I am in the throes of nicotine withdrawal . . . If death, desiccation and destitution aren't enough to scare off the beast, try a damaged ego: Unless they hang with Gwynnie and Winona, smokers dwell (and, don't forget! die) disproportionately at the lower socioeconomic ranks. Indulge your inner social-climber, and make your quitting stick.

    • 12/03/98 Ex-Smoker Gives Tips On Staying Smoke-Free During Holidays PR Newswire
        "Holidays can be the hardest times to stay smoke-free," says ex-smoker Carla Hess. "Parties and drinking often go hand in hand, and so do drinking and smoking." Millions of Americans choose to quit smoking on the American Cancer Society's annual Great American Smokeout day in November, right before the season of overindulgence.

      Here are US lung cancer/consumption rates by state from CDC/ACS
    • 12/03/98 Women At Greater Risk From Killer Lung Cancer New York Post
        [Note: It's nothing short of astounding that the NY Post should run this story. Has the Murdoch-owned paper finally decided to start informing its readers on the health risks of smoking?]
    • 12/02/98 Women, Lung Cancer Risk Identified AP
        Experts say the British study of 1,601 lung cancer patients marks the first time scientists have discovered a significant difference between the sexes in the risk of small-cell lung cancer. Virtually always caused by smoking, it is the hardest form of lung cancer to treat successfully. The study, presented Wednesday at a conference of the British Thoracic Society in London, showed that women under 65 were 1.7 times more vulnerable than men to small-cell lung cancer, which spreads so rapidly that by the time it is diagnosed, it is usually too late to operate.
    • 12/03/98 Women Risk Most Deadly Lung Cancer The Independent
        The findings reinforced calls by the BTS, the UK's official body of respiratory specialists, for the Government to target teenage girls in its imminent White Paper on tobacco.
    • 12/02/98 New cancer threat for women smokers This is London (Associated Newspapers)
        They say the 'killing difference' between the sexes could be the way women inhale cigarette smoke. However, it might also be that they are more vulnerable to damage by tobacco or that they choose brands which cause more harm.
    • 12/02/98 Women More At Risk From Deadliest Lung Cancer Type Reuters
        ``This may be due to changing patterns of smoking behaviour -- many women took up the habit a decade after men smoked heavily during World War Two. ``Women may also smoke in a different way to men, for example taking shorter, sharper inhalations which could have an effect on the kind and severity of cancer that they develop,'' he added. Another possible explanation is that women may have some hormonal or genetic predisposition to the most deadly form of lung cancer.
    • 12/02/98 Lung Cancer Risk Twice As High For Women Times Of London
        The study found that the small-cell lung cancer was usually so advanced in women before its diagnosis that in 70 per cent of cases it was impossible to operate - the most effective form of treatment. In contrast, nearly half of male patients could be considered for an operation. The study, co-ordinated by the ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS' research unit, used data from 46 hospitals and will enable specialists to check lung cancer survival rates across the country. The results, to be presented to the winter meeting of the BRITISH THORACIC SOCIETY today, will be used to urge the Government to introduce measures in its White Paper on tobacco to cut the number of teenage girls who take up smoking.

    • 12/04/98 A PHARMACOLOGIC STRATEGY FOR THE TREATMENT OF NICOTINE ADDICTION Synapse
        Abstract. Like many psychostimulant drugs, nicotine elevates extracellular and synaptic dopamine (DA) concentrations in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). This elevation has been linked to its reinforcing properties.
    • 12/03/98 Anti-epilepsy Pill Shows Promise In Addictions The Boston Globe
        A small white pill, available as antiepilepsy medicine in 60 countries but banned in the United States, might help control cravings for cocaine, heroin, amphetamines, and even cigarettes, according to several scientists.
    • 12/02/98 HOECHST Epilepsy Drug May Fight Nicotine Addiction, Study Says Bloomberg News
        Hoechst, the world's ninth biggest drugmaker by sales, is seeking U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of SABRIL for epilepsy and is focusing on that effort, said Hoechst spokeswoman Lori Kraut. While the company considers addiction an important area, it has no plans to pursue further studies on it, Kraut said. In the new study, researchers led by STEPHEN DEWEY of the BROOKHAVEN NATIONAL LABORATORY found that addicted rats given the drug no longer pushed a lever to get access to nicotine. And rats who had never been addicted, when given higher doses of the drug, didn't become addicted when offered nicotine, they said. . . The study, published in the journal SYNAPSE, was announced by the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY.
    • 12/02/98 Epilepsy Drug May Help Smokers Quit AP
        Animal studies suggest a European epilepsy drug might one day help people quit smoking by blocking nicotine's effect in the brain, the Energy Department said Wednesday. The department's scientists said last summer that similar animal studies suggested the same drug, known as GVG, might also help cocaine addicts kick their drug habit. ``Nicotine is the most frequently abused drug in the world, and every smoker who's tried knows how hard it is to quit,'' said lead scientist Stephen Dewey of Brookhaven National Laboratory. ``We've shown in animals that the proper dose of GVG can stop nicotine's addictive effects entirely.''

    • 12/02/98 Cooking A Source Of Indoor Air Pollution Reuters
        Even restaurants that restrict smoking can contain potentially harmful levels of airborne particulate matter, according to a report in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health . . . Researchers in Canada and the Netherlands believe cooking fumes are the source of much of this pollution. While cigarette smoke is often the major source of indoor pollution, particulate concentrations are ``influenced by other factors, especially differences in ventilation and cooking emissions."

    • 11/30/98 SMITHKLINE BEECHAM/ SmithKline Consumer HealthCare launches NiqQitin CQ in Europe ($) NewsEdge
        SmithKline Beecham Consumer HealthCare announced the latest step to globalize its smoking cessation business by launching the NiQuitin CQ range of nicotine replacement therapy patches in the United Kingdom, Belgium and Sweden.

    • 11/24/98 Smoke Exposure Affects Fertility Reuters
        Women who smoke may have more trouble conceiving a child than nonsmoking women, Danish researchers report. Their study also suggests that exposure to tobacco smoke before birth impairs fertility in both sexes. Current smoking in males was not found to correlate with reduced fertility, however. ``Data from the present study provide evidence that cigarette smoking is a reproductive hazard even prior to pregnancy,'' conclude Dr. Tina Kold Jensen of Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark, and colleagues. . . SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology 1998;148:992-997.

    • 11/24/98 Smoking Ups Lung Risk in HIV-positive Reuters
        Among people infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), smoking further suppresses immune function in the lung, increasing risk of bacterial pneumonia, acute bronchitis and other respiratory infections, US researchers report. These findings, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, suggest that quitting smoking may reduce the number of respiratory infections among those who are HIV-positive.

    • 11/26/98 Smoking Linked With Very Premature Birth Reuters
        Pregnant women who smoke have an increased risk of having a very premature infant, according to a Swedish study of more than 300,000 births. Dr. Nina B. Kyrklund-Blomberg, of the Karolinska Institute, Danderyd, and Dr. Sven Cnattingius, of Uppsala University Hospital, examined all live births in Sweden between 1991 and 1993. They found that smoking increased the risk of very preterm birth, and the more the women smoked the greater the risk. . . SOURCE: American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 1998;179:1051-1055.

    • 11/27/98 HPV, smoking tied to cervical cell changes Reuters
        Cigarette smoking may be an important factor in the development of virus-related abnormalities in cervical cells, according to researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Their study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, included 258 women infected with the human papillomavirus (HPV) -- a virus associated with genital warts -- who also had cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) I-III, cell changes considered to be precancerous.

    • 11/27/98 MN: BLUE CROSS Plans Line For Smokers Pioneer Press
        The company is working on a program, the first of its kind in the state, to allow members to talk by telephone to a trained counselor about quitting. ``We're pretty excited about it,'' says Michael Moen, director of the center for tobacco reduction and health improvement at the Blues. ``It's something we're looking at as another type of intervention that we can offer.''

    • 11/25/98 IL: Program To Help Smokers Quit Habit Chicago Tribune
        Centegra Health System is offering "Fresh Start," a program designed to help those wishing to kick the tobacco habit.

    • 11/25/98 Variety Of Aids Help Snuff Smoking Habit Arizona Daily Star
        If the increase is making you think seriously about quitting, you might consider the market options. But even then, they may not be enough. ``It's misleading to use a patch or a pill or a spray or a gum and think that will do the trick,'' said Dr. Ken Adler, who practices family medicine in Tucson. ``A very small percentage of cases will do that, but most also need a behavioral change option.'' In other words, counseling - often in peer groups. Some, but not all, sessions are free.

    • 11/25/98 Smoking Does Not Lower Blood Pressure, Study Finds Reuters
        Dr. Gunilla Bolinder of Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm and colleagues studied 135 healthy Stockholm firefighters, fitted with wearable blood pressure monitors. None had been diagnosed with high blood pressure. ``During the 24-hour monitoring, smokeless tobacco users and smokers exhibited systolic blood pressures (in smokers also diastolic blood pressures) significantly higher compared with non-users,'' they wrote in their report, published in the American Journal of Hypertension.

    • 11/24/98 Scientists Finger A Molecular Kingpin In Body's Response To Cigarettes ScienceDaily Magazine
        The finding comes thanks to a batch of genetically engineered mice normal in every way except for the deletion of the gene for the aromatic hydrocarbon, or AH, receptor; these mice had no damage from the same levels of cigarette smoke that caused significant gene damage in their normal brethren. The work, reported in the November issue of Carcinogenesis, clarifies how cigarette smoke has an impact on our molecular machinery and should help researchers in their efforts to prevent genetic damage from the biochemical assault posed by smoking.

    • 11/24/98 Uncle Sam Wants You to Quit Smoking The Washington Post
        The government, thanks to a 1989 ruling from the General Accounting Office, can "use appropriated funds to pay the costs incurred by employees participating in agency-sponsored smoking cessation programs," according to the Office of Personnel Management. Employees who want their agencies to buy them the stop-smoking gum or patches are advised to "provide [anti-smoking] program administrators with a written request.

    • 11/22/98 Study shoots down myth of smoking to lose weight Nando News Network
        Smoking does not help young people keep their weight down contrary to tobacco advertising, new research in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology said Sunday. A study conducted by Dr. Robert Klesges at the University of Memphis in Tennessee found unequivocally that both long-time and recent smokers do not lose weight, the journal reported in its December issue. . . But researchers found, as expected, that smokers who gave up the habit put on a lot more weight than those who stuck with the weed.

    • 12/02/98 FACTS & ARGUMENTS A daily miscellany of information Toronto Globe and Mail
        Four: One marijuana joint coats a person's lungs with four times as much tar as a tobacco cigarette. [This graph only]

    • 11/15/98 Adult and Prenatal Exposures to Tobacco Smoke as Risk Indicators of Fertility among430 Danish Couples. American Journal of Epidemiology
        It seems advisable to encourage smoking cessation prior to the attempt to conceive as well as during pregnancy.

    • 12/02/98 Changes in the Epidemiologic Profile of Sudden Infant DeathSyndrome as Rates Decline Among California Infants: 1990-1995 Pediatrics
        Objectives. To evaluate changes in the rates and epidemiologic patterns of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) after implementation of public health campaigns to promote back sleeping and reduce exposure to cigarette smoke and environmental risk factors for SIDS. . . Conclusion. California SIDS rates declined 20% for blacks and 41% for others between 1990 and 1995. Declines coincided with campaigns to reduce environmental risk factors for SIDS
    • 12/03/98 Smoking does not keep young thin Reuters
    • 12/01/98 Smoking to Stay Slim? Study Clouds the Issue The Washington Post
        So why do so many people think smoking makes them thinner? "That's because if you look at people who've smoked for many years, they weigh a bit less on average than nonsmokers," said Kenneth D. Ward, a member of the research team and a psychologist at the University of Memphis. The reasons for this weight disparity are unclear, Ward said, but it may result in part from the physiological effects of nicotine, which can speed metabolism.

    • 12/01/98 Scent Of Tobacco Smoke Found In Breast Milk The Washington Post
        The more a women smokes, the more her breast milk smells like cigarettes, according to a small study of lactating women by researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia.

    • 11/28/98Plastic coffin nails National Post
        Here's the theory: Give my mouth and hands a nicotine-free replacement for the cigarette and I'll soon toss that filthy habit aside. That's what the makers of Paipo, a "smart alternative" to cigarettes marketed by the Aruman Company in Canada say, anyway . . The next evening, I tried the truly smart alternative: Foregoing the Paipo, I bought Popeye candy cigarettes at the corner store. At 29 cents for 20 pieces of tubular gum, they left a much better taste in my mouth than $8 for three tubes of plastic ever could.

    • 12/01/98 TEXAS uses TIMONIUM firm for women's health videos The Baltimore Sun
        A video series on women's health issues produced by a Maryland company hits the shelves at Blockbuster Video stores throughout Texas this week. The majority of the 10-part series was produced by Timonium-based Milner-Fenwick Inc. for the Texas Governor's Commission on Women. Milner-Fenwick said patrons will be able to check out the series "Healthy Dose of Knowledge" free in Texas. The series covers such health issues as smoking, breast cancer, arthritis and menopause.

    • 11/16/98 He Dropped Vices Along With Extra Pounds Los Angeles Times
        At the same time, I was also winning my fight against beer and cigarettes. I was losing weight, and at the same time I was saving money. My most stubborn opponent was the cigarette. At first, I had an on-and-off battle with this habit. But common sense prevailed.

    • 11/15/98 Tobacco, Alcohol Worse Than Crack During Pregnancy The Spokesman-Review
        The abuse of illicit drugs like crack cocaine by pregnant women has received more attention, but experts say the common, legal drugs -- alcohol and nicotine -- present some of the greatest dangers to unborn babies. ``It's our legal substances that are killing us,'' said Harvey Siegal, director of substance abuse treatment programs at Wright State University. . . ``The biggest substance abuse we have to deal with is not crack, it's not cocaine, it's not alcohol -- it's smoking,'' said Dr. Jeffrey King, medical director for Born Free, Miami Valley Hospital's program for pregnant substance abusers. ``I'll deal with the crack and the alcohol if we could get people to stop smoking.''

    • 11/14/98 Smoking Impairs Thinking The Baltimore Sun
        According to a report presented at the American Heart Association's 71st Scientific Sessions in Dallas, smoking can be added to the list of heart disease risk factors that also leads to a subtle decline in cognitive functioning. Researchers from the University of Maine-Orono . . . found that the more risk factors for heart disease the volunteers had -- including hypertension, diabetes, smoking and obesity -- the greater their mental decline.

    • 11/13/98Alcohol worse than cannabis says 'Lancet' The Independent
        The Lancet says in an editorial that patients are entitled to advice on the likely dangers of cannabis use. These include the risk of accidents when intoxicated, irritation of the lungs, dependence with daily use and subtle cognitive impairment with long-term use. However, compared to the damage wreaked by alcohol and tobacco, these dangers are not excessive. "It would be reasonable to judge cannabis less of a threat to health than alcohol or tobacco, products that in many countries are not only tolerated and advertised but are also a useful source of tax revenue."

    • 11/13/98Where there's smoke, no, er, fire Philadelphia Inquirer
        Despite recent news reports in which researchers and physicians drove home their long-held assertion that smoking is strongly linked to male f, Muir, 48, and some other local tobacco users insist that health advocates are just blowing smoke. "Look, I live right on this block, where anything can happen," said Muir, after lighting up outside his home near Broad Street and Girard Avenue in North Philadelphia. He said he was less worried about smoking and his virility than "what some of these fools out here might do to me."
    • 11/10/98 Campaign Links Tobacco to Impotence AP
        "What a terrible problem for the man because he is so physically addicted," said Elizabeth Whelan, director of the American Council on Science and Health, which opposes tobacco companies. "It will be interesting to see if this motivates men -- especially young men -- to disassociate themselves from that image of impotence." Statistician Steven J. Milloy, who regularly contradicts what he regards as "junk science" and frequently sides with the tobacco industry, said anti-smoking forces are distorting a 1994 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that concluded that smokers are twice as likely as nonsmokers to be impotent.
    • 11/10/98 One-in-Four Virginia Men Faces Heightened Risk of Impotence, Health Advocacy Group Warns PR Newswire
        Citing recent reports in The Wall Street Journal and on the CBS television program "60 Minutes" that cigarette smoking causes impotence in men, the VIRGINIA QUALITY HEALTHCARE NETWORK (VQHN) is calling for an increase in public education on the causes of male erectile dysfunction (ED).
    • 11/9/98 How Impotence Became A Weapon Against Smoking The Wall Street Journal (pay registration)
        Now publicity for Pfizer Inc.'s VIAGRA, the prescription drug for impotence, has transformed male sexual dysfunction from a taboo topic to a publicly discussed health concern. "Absent the Viagra debate, impotence wasn't a commonly discussed topic," says Carla Agar, deputy director of the California Department of Health Services in Sacramento. "I think the discussion surrounding Viagra has allowed us to take the issue of impotence into the public domain." Ms. Agar says her department has heard little criticism of the ad since its launch last summer.
    • 11/06/98Smoking Can Choke Up A Sex Life CBS
        Smoking has been linked to impotence around the world. Studies in France, Sweden, and South Africa all found a greater percentage of smokers in impotent groups than in the general population. Many American urologists, including Dr. Mulhall, say a high percentage of their impotent patients are smokers. When Mulhall informs his patients of this lesser-known side effect of smoking, they are not so much surprised as remorseful.. . Tune in 60 Minutes Sunday, November 8 at 7:00PM ET/PT (Check local listings) to see Wallace's full report.
    • 11/6/98 Add Impotence To The List Of Smokers' Ills-report Reuters
        In a report to be broadcast on Sunday on "60 Minutes," CBS News says a host of researchers and studies have found male smokers are about twice as likely as nonsmokers to suffer some form of impotence. "There is absolutely no question about it. It causes it very commonly," Dr. Cully Carson, chairman of the Urology Department at the University of North Carolina, told CBS about the relationship between smoking and impotence.

    • 11/12/98 Esophagus Cancer Rises in White Men AP
        The study, released Thursday and published in the journal Cancer, reported that annual cases of adenocarcinoma rose from 0.7 cases per 100,000 in 1974-76 to 3.2 cases per 100,000 in 1992-94. . . The researchers suggested one reason for the jump is an increase in obesity among white men over 65, and perhaps smoking. . . The study claimed smoking may be to blame as well, but the rate of another esophagus cancer linked to smoking, squamous cell carcinomas, has declined from 3.4 cases per 100,000 to 2.2 cases per 100,000. Adenocarcinoma rates in black males increased from 0.4 cases per 100,000 to 0.6 cases per 100,000. . . Among women of all races, cases of esophageal adenocarcinomas rose from 0.1 to 0.4 cases per 100,000.

    • 11/12/98 Race Gap Rises in Heart Disease AP
        The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in the 35-to-44 age group, 38.2 blacks per 100,000 died of heart disease each year from 1981 to 1985, compared with 24.3 whites. The CDC researchers blamed a higher prevalence of risk factors among blacks such as smoking, diet and diabetes. They said the disparity also could reflect genetic and biological differences as well as less access to medical care.

    • 11/12/98 Smokers Continue To Light Up After Heart Surgery Science Daily
        Almost three in five smokers who undergo surgery for heart disease continue to smoke after their procedure, according to a study presented today at the AMERICAN HEART ASSOCIATION'S 71ST ANNUAL SCIENTIFIC SESSIONS. . . "We thought that individuals who needed the operations would have been shaken up enough to stop -- but that was not the case for almost 60 percent," Weiner says. . . "It was their first procedure, but many had a long history of heart disease." In this study, it was up to physicians and nurses to encourage patients to stop smoking by referring them to programs, says lead author SHERYL F. KELSEY, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health.

    • 11/11/98 National Survey Shows It Takes Smokers an Average 11 Attempts Before They Quit for Good Business Wire
        Data from a national poll conducted by the HAZELDEN FOUNDATION show how challenging it is for smokers to give up their habit. On average, it took former smokers 18.6 years before they finally quit. The average former smoker tried to quit 10.8 times before he or she was able to abstain from smoking tobacco products.The poll also indicates that two-thirds of current smokers (66.8 percent) have seriously tried to quit smoking at least once. On average, current smokers said they have tried 3.4 times to give up their habit.

    • 11/11/98 'Lifestyle' Drugs Can't Cure Erratic Sales New York Times
        Immediacy is also crucial for smoking cessation drugs. "Smokers get a more immediate feedback with Nicorette than the patch," said Dr. Peter Proctor, a Houston cosmetic dermatologist who used Nicorette 14 years ago to quit smoking. "You get oral gratification with Nicorette, something you want after giving up cigarettes, and you don't really have that with the patch." Even when smokers want smoking-cessation drugs, dealing with their insurance companies can be discouraging.

    • 11/11/98 UK: SB to help smokers Times of London
        SMITHKLINE BEECHAM is to spend £12 million on the UK launch of its smoking cessation patches, which are to be offered with specially tailored advice for each smoker who uses them. The nicotine replacement patches, which will be called NiQuitin CQ in the UK, will come with a free phone number that will allow customers to give details of their smoking habits to SmithKline Beecham. After analysing the information, the healthcare company will within 48 hours despatch a "behavioural support plan" to give the most appropriate advice.

    • 11/10/98 ADVISORY/UCSF to Host Lung Cancer Awareness Rally Business Wire
        To help raise public awareness and support for the nation's deadliest cancer, people living with lung cancer, nationally recognized experts in the field, and representatives from the American Lung Association, will join together on National Lung Cancer Awareness Day at UCSF/Mount Zion Medical Center.

    • 11/9/98 CESSATION: Smoking Parents-to-be 'Should Consider Quitting Together' BBC
        Dr Peter APPLETON, of the University of Wales, and Professor Peter PHAROAH of the University of Liverpool, questioned women who were smoking at the beginning of their pregnancy and after they had had their children. They found that a third of the women's partners reduced or quite smoking and this had a big impact on the women. . . Dr Appleton said: "Addiction is not the only reason women find it difficult to quit. Having other people around who also smoke - partners, family members, friends, workmates - is a known risk factor for continued smoking." . . . The survey, published in THE BRITISH JOURNAL OF HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY, found that partner smoking was independent of social class, emotional support given by the partner and joint planning of the pregnancy.

    • 11/10/98 CESSATION: PATENTS: Time-locked cigarette case ($) U.S. Patents via NewsEdge
        Abstract: A time-locked cigarette case has time-controlled locking mechanism which is manually adjustable by the user and also has a first latch rod which normally retains the case in a closed condition and a second latch rod which moves to retain the case in a closed condition if the first latch rod is jolted to an open position so as to prevent the case from being opened by jolting before the manually set time delay has expired.

    • 11/10/98 New MATRITECH Test Aids Veterans in Battle Against Bladder Cancer PR Newswire
        Like most veterans who were encouraged by military superiors to "smoke 'em if you got 'em," THOMAS MUNROE had no idea of the link between cigarettes and bladder cancer. Now he knows. And he'd like other chain smoking veterans at high risk for bladder cancer to visit their local Veterans' Administration hospitals to learn more about the disease and take a simple urine test called the NMP22.

    • 11/10/98 Guidelines Offer an Earlier Blueprint for the Battle Against Bone Loss New York Times
        According to guidelines issued last week by the National Osteoporosis Foundation, it is now possible to determine a person's propensity for fracture far in advance and offer preventive treatments for most people at risk of developing osteoporosis. This is not a problem to be dismissed lightly. . . Based on studies of many thousands of people, the foundation lists the leading risk factors as: a personal history of fracture as an adult, regardless of what caused it; a history of fracture in a first-degree relative (parent or sibling); current cigarette smoking; and having a small, thin frame [this graph only]

    • 11/10/98 Nicotine-Like Drugs Can Enhance Learning, Memory In Rat Model Of Alzheimer's Disease Science Daily
        DUKE behavioral pharmacologist EDWARD LEVIN said in a report prepared for presentation Sunday (Nov. 8) at the SOCIETY OF NEUROSCIENCE annual meeting that nicotine-like compounds can actually help restore the ability to learn and remember in rats that have brain lesions similar to those found in Alzheimer's disease patients.
    • 11/10/98 Tapping Benefits Of Nicotine / New Compounds Improve Memory Newsday (Long Island, NY)
        Reporting at the Society for Neuroscience meeting Sunday in Los Angeles, Edward Levin and his colleagues at Duke said they also performed another study that suggested a protective role for these substances. In rats, they cut a brain fiber that transports acetylcholine, and the animals that received the compound had no problems learning tasks, compared with others that didn't receive the drug.
    • 11/9/98 Study: Nicotine Can Help Memory, Save Brain Cells Knight Ridder/St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press
        The long-vilified chemical, and designer molecules that mimic it, can improve memory, prevent brain cells from dying and -- as smokers have long known -- markedly reduce stress. The new research on animals explains anecdotal evidence that smoking helps schizophrenics function better, that smokers are less likely to develop the motor disorder Parkinson's disease and that people with Alzheimer's disease using nicotine patches focus better on tasks.
    • 11/9/98 Nicotine-like drugs may slow Alzheimer's Electronic Telegraph (London, UK)
        Inspired by how smoking can help combat the effects of Alzheimer's disease, scientists have developed nicotine-like compounds to separate this beneficial effect from the hazards of tobacco. . . Dr Edward LEVIN, of DUKE UNIVERSITY Medical Centre, North Carolina, told the SOCIETY OF NEUROSCIENCE annual meeting in Los Angeles that rats given a drug called AR-R 17779 performed significantly better than untreated rats on standard learning and memory tests. The compound was developed by ASTRA ARCUS USA, a pharmaceutical company based in Worcester, Massachusetts, which also supported the research study.
    • 11/9/98 Nicotine raises Alzheimer's hope Times of London
        DRUGS that act like nicotine could help to restore the memories of patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to American researchers. They have used a nicotine-like compound to improve the memory of rats, even restoring memory lost as a result of brain damage. Edward Levin, of Duke University in North Carolina, presented the results yesterday to a meeting of the American Society of Neuroscience in Los Angeles.
    • 11/8/98 Compounds Found to Boost Memory AP
        Nicotine-like compounds can improve memory and might one day be used in pills to treat disorders like Alzheimer's disease, according to research on laboratory animals. the scientists told reporters Sunday at the SOCIETY FOR NEUROSCIENCE annual meeting that they're encouraged they can design medications to capitalize on the benefits of nicotine without cardiovascular and other side effects. . . That ability of nicotine to emulate acetylcholine and in essence "trick the brain" has led scientists to target nicotine-like drugs that stimulate the same receptors, said DARWIN BERG, a researcher with the University of California, San Diego.

    • 11/8/98 YEFIM SHUBENTSOV: A RASPUTIN for Smokers New York Times
        Even people who have been cured by Shubentsov have a hard time explaining how he did it. "It was so weird," the novelist ALICE HOFFMAN said. "I was one of those really bad smokers. I was like the sort who sneaked cigarettes during labor. I left there and I had no desire for the thing I'd had before. For a long time I couldn't even talk about it, like if you talked about it, you'd break the spell."

    • 11/3 Smoking boosts diabetic's risk of high BP Reuters
        The report, published in the September issue of the American Journal of Hypertension, found that diabetic smokers had significantly higher blood pressure and heart rates than a group of diabetic nonsmokers. The study is the first to link smoking and blood pressure in diabetes, according to a statement issued by the journal. ``Taking the well-established close association between blood pressure increase and development of diabetic nephropathy into consideration, our findings may suggest that smoking acts as one of the risk factors for development of nephropathy (kidney disease) through elevated blood pressure,'' state Dr. Per L. Poulsen and colleagues at Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark.

    • 11/2 REAL AUDIO: Marketing Menthol National Public Radio
        "All Things Considered" features Dr. Michael Cummings of Roswell Park Cancer Institute on menthol cigarettes and the higher rate of lung cancer in blacks.

    • 11/2 CA: Stop smoking effort San Diego Union-Tribune
        The American Lung Association and Nicotrol nicotine replacement products are joining forces to help 35,000 smokers nationwide quit through a program called "On Your Mark, Get Set, Quit!" In San Diego, the ALA chapter will provide 250 smokers with the tools and choices they need to stop smoking by combining the association's "Freedom From Smoking" behavioral change program with a free, six-week treatment of Nicotrol patches or other products.

    • 11/6/98 Add Impotence To The List Of Smokers' Ills-report Reuters
        Despite attempts by tobacco advertisers to make smoking appear sexy, scientists say its effect can be just the opposite -- impotence. In a report to be broadcast on Sunday on ``60 Minutes,'' CBS News says a host of researchers and studies have found male smokers are about twice as likely as nonsmokers to suffer some form of impotence. ``There is absolutely no question about it. It causes it very commonly,'' Dr. Cully Carson, chairman of the Urology Department at the University of North Carolina, told CBS about the relationship between smoking and impotence.
    • 11/9/98 How Impotence Became A Weapon Against Smoking The Wall Street Journal (pay registration)
        Now publicity for Pfizer Inc.'s VIAGRA, the prescription drug for impotence, has transformed male sexual dysfunction from a taboo topic to a publicly discussed health concern. "Absent the Viagra debate, impotence wasn't a commonly discussed topic," says Carla Agar, deputy director of the California Department of Health Services in Sacramento. "I think the discussion surrounding Viagra has allowed us to take the issue of impotence into the public domain." Ms. Agar says her department has heard little criticism of the ad since its launch last summer.
    • 11/10/98 One-in-Four Virginia Men Faces Heightened Risk of Impotence, Health Advocacy Group Warns PR Newswire
        Citing recent reports in The Wall Street Journal and on the CBS television program ``60 Minutes'' that cigarette smoking causes impotence in men, the VIRGINIA QUALITY HEALTHCARE NETWORK (VQHN) is calling for an increase in public education on the causes of male erectile dysfunction (ED).
    • 11/10/98 Campaign Links Tobacco to Impotence AP
        ``What a terrible problem for the man because he is so physically addicted,'' said Elizabeth Whelan, director of the American Council on Science and Health, which opposes tobacco companies. ``It will be interesting to see if this motivates men -- especially young men -- to disassociate themselves from that image of impotence.'' Statistician Steven J. Milloy, who regularly contradicts what he regards as ``junk science'' and frequently sides with the tobacco industry, said anti-smoking forces are distorting a 1994 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that concluded that smokers are twice as likely as nonsmokers to be impotent.
    • 11/13/98 Where there's smoke, no, er, fire Philadelphia Inquirer
        Despite recent news reports in which researchers and physicians drove home their long-held assertion that smoking is strongly linked to male impotence, Muir, 48, and some other local tobacco users insist that health advocates are just blowing smoke. "Look, I live right on this block, where anything can happen," said Muir, after lighting up outside his home near Broad Street and Girard Avenue in North Philadelphia. He said he was less worried about smoking and his virility than "what some of these fools out here might do to me."
      You can download a humorous cartoon on this subject here

    • 10/13/98 Adherence to the European Code Against Cancer in Relation to Long-Term Cancer Mortality: Intercohort Comparisons From the Seven Countries Study Cancer and Nutrition. Here's the Abstract & Introduction
        the European Code Against Cancer was introduced as a series of guidelines that, if followed, could lead to a reduction in the incidence and mortality of cancer. . . 1) do not smoke; 2) moderate alcohol consumption; 3) increase intake of vegetables, fresh fruits, and high-fiber cereals; 4) avoid becoming overweight, increase physical activity, and limit intake of fatty foods; 5) avoid excessive sun exposure; and 6) apply regulations aimed at preventing exposure to known cancer-causing substances[2].

    • 10/13/98Trace Amounts Of Nicotine Raise Blood Pressure In An Animal Model ScienceDaily Magazine
        Minuscule amounts of nicotine--comparable to the trace amounts found in the blood after only fifteen minutes of exposure to second hand smoke--can trigger the release of chemicals that raise blood pressure in an animal model, report researchers from the University of Chicago in the October 13 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. . . When Peng exposed frog neurons to minute doses of nicotine, they responded by releasing massive amounts of a neurotransmitter called lutenizing hormone-releasing hormone (LHRH).
    • 10/13/98 Activation Of Nicotinic Receptor-induced Postsynaptic Responsesto Luteinizing Hormone-releasing Hormone In Bullfrog Sympatheticganglia Via A Na+-Dependent Mechanism Abstract, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
    • 10/13/98 From Ab Initio Quantum Mechanics To Molecularneurobiology: A Cation-[Pi] Binding Site In The Nicotinic Receptor Abstract, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

    • 10/12/98 CESSATION: Man Quits Chewing Tobacco After Using Computer Game Wire Service: AP
        Guard quit chewing tobacco with the help of a prototype program developed by Herbert Severson, a behavioral scientist at Oregon Research Institute in Eugene, who has been studying "smokeless" tobacco addiction for a decade. He collaborated with computer programmer Tom Jacobs and producer Steve Christiansen of Intervision, a Eugene-based multimedia company. They were supported by a grant from The National Cancer Institute. Prompted by a narrator, program users answer questions about their level of addiction and reasons for quitting. The program creates and prints a detailed personal game plan based on the answers.

    • 10/11/98 Study Fails To Link Passive Smoking With Cancer Electronic Telegraph
        THE World Health Organisation has finally published a study which shows that there is no significant statistical link between passive smoking and lung cancer. As reported by The Telegraph in March, the 12-centre, seven-country European study failed to prove the anti-tobacco lobby's assertion that there is a significant correlation between passive smoking and lung cancer.
      • 03/08/98 Passive Smoking Doesn't Cause Cancer - Official Electronic Telegraph

          THE world's leading health organisation has withheld from publication a study which shows that not only might there be no link between passive smoking and lung cancer but that it could even have a protective effect. . . The study, which has been published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, and is the largest of its kind in Europe, shows that there is "no relationship between childhood exposure to second-hand smoke at home and lung cancer". And it found a "statistically non-significant positive association" between exposure to spousal smoking and lung cancer and for those who work with smokers. The IARC scientists said in March that their findings translated into a 16-17 per cent relative risk of contracting lung cancer if you lived or worked with a smoker. But they now concede that 16-17 per cent is statistically non-significant, implying that it could have been produced by random chance.

    • 10/09/98 Oral Cancer Detection System Endorsed By FDI World Dental Federation PR Newswire
        ZILA, INC., international provider of healthcare products for dental/medical professionals and consumers, announced that the FDI World Dental Federation (Federation Dentaire Internationale) has formally endorsed TOLUIDINE BLUE (Zila's ORATEST(R)), for the detection and management of oral cancer.

    • 10/09/98 EDITORIAL: Smoking and Stroke: a Causative Role BMJ 1998;317:962-763 ( 10 October ) (Survey/cookie required)
        Cigarette smoking is thus a definite independent risk factor for stroke, particularly ischaemic stroke. The mechanisms are poorly understood but may be associated with raised fibrinogen levels, increased packed cell volume, decreased macrophage activity, or changes in lipid biochemistry promoting atherosclerosis. The evidence for a causal association between cigarette smoking and extracranial carotid atherosclerosis is abundant. All smokers who stop smoking will benefit from reducing their risk of ischaemic stroke, irrespective of the degree of previous exposure to smoking

    • 10/08/98 Gene Could Help Predict Colon. Lung Cancer Risk Reuters
    • 10/08/98 Gene Involved In Lung, Colon Cancer Identified Reuters
        Scientists have discovered a gene which is "crucially" involved in lung cancer and colon cancer and possibly some other cancers as well. The finding "may open new avenues for diagnosis and therapy of cancer," report Dr. Glen A. Evans and colleagues from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas this week in the journal Science. According to the paper, Evans and his team discovered mutations in a gene known as PPP2R1B, in roughly 15% of lung and colon tumors they studied. They also found PPP2R1B mutations in normal tissue. This is important, they say, because it suggests that people may inherit these mutations, making them potentially more susceptible to environmental factors known to cause cancer, such as cigarette smoke.

    • 10/08/98 CESSATION: How I Stopped Smoking Health Advocate
        In the spring issue of Health Advocate, we asked you to write and tell us how you overcame a bad habit. Thanks to your many responses, we're delighted to pass some of these tips along to you, our readers, as a way of listening and responding to your needs. Most of the letters we received were from people who quit smoking. No one said it was easy, but all had inspiring and insightful stories to share.

    • 09/15/98 Smoking after Age 65 Years and Mortality in Barcelona, Spain
        American Journal of Epidemiology/Abstract, Am J Epidemiol 1998;148:575-80 This study confirms that the effects of smoking extend to later life in this elderly general population, with a magnitude as great as that seen in previous studies with different populations. In addition, it indicates that stopping smoking after age 65 reduces the risk of dying.

    • 10/07/98 Vitamin C May Cut Lung Disease Risk Reuters
        Vitamin C may help prevent chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), findings from a large study in China suggest. . . In the new report published in the current issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology, a team of researchers studied a group of more than 3,000 people living in 69 rural counties in China. . . . . . As for how much vitamin C is recommended -- "The study can't really answer that question," lead researcher, Dr. Patricia Cassano of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, told Reuters Health in an interview."

    • 10/07/98 Rains Could Produce Mold Graph in Biloxi (MS) Sun Herald
        Two years ago, 30 children in Cleveland, Ohio, became vulnerable to the mold after a massive rainstorm flooded much of the area. Nine children died before doctors discovered a link between their exposure to the mold and to cigarette smoke. Research is ongoing, but an investigation by the CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION suggests toxins from the indoor mold irritate the lining of infants' lungs, weakening developing blood vessels. This eventually leads to bleeding of the lungs. Tobacco smoke in the environment further increases an infant's risk of pulmonary hemorrhage, the report said.

    • 10/07/98 All Licorice Isn't Candy Graph in Arizona Daily Star
        From "The Complete Book ofNatural and Medicinal Cures" . . . Today, licorice is most widely used as flavoring in tobacco products. . . Licorice owes its sweetness to glycyrrhizin, a compound 50 times sweeter than sugar. Every so often, a medical journal will report serious illness from an "overdose" of real licorice. The overdose isn't from taking the herb, however. Usually it's from eating literally pounds of the candy or from swallowing saliva from licorice-laced chewing tobacco.

    • 10/07/98 Bladder Cancer A Common Malignancy Among Men DAWN
        A study conducted by SINDH INSTITUTE OF UROLOGY AND TRANSPLANTATION (SIUT), Civil Hospital, Karachi, reveals the incidence rate of bladder cancer to be on constant rise in Pakistan. It currently accounts for 10 per cent of all cancers among men and three per cent among women. The hospital data collected by SIUT identified smoking and tobacco use as major contributory factors for the disease among 47 per cent of the local patients being treated for the ailment.

    • 10/07/98 BROWN & WILLIAMSON Says Study Finds Minimal Risk Posed By Environmental Tobacco Smoke PR Newswire
        The IARC study appears in today's issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. It determined that if there is any risk at all of lung cancer for living, working or growing up with a smoker, it is too small to measure at a meaningful level. . . "We welcome this new study," said Dr. Sharon Boyse, director of scientific communications at Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation. This confirms what we and many other scientists have long believed, that while smoke in the air may annoy some non-smokers, the science overall does not show that being around a smoker is a lung cancer risk," she said.
    • 10/07/98 'More Smoke Equals More Cancer Risk' The Guardian
        Workers who spend up to 29 years in a smoky environment have a 15 per cent more chance of contracting lung cancer, while people who have worked between 30 and 38 years among smokers have a 26 per cent more chance of exposure to the disease, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, a branch of the World Health Organisation, has concluded. Studies in America, Japan and Asia have previously found a stronger link between passive smoking and lung cancer than the study which is published today. But the new research is significant in that it shows that the greater the exposure to smoke during a person's lifetime, the greater the risk of contracting lung cancer.
    • 10/06/98 Secondhand Smoke Linked to Slightly Higher Lung Cancer Risk Bloomberg
    • 10/06/98 Secondhand Smoke Ups Nonsmokers' Cancer Risk Reuters
        Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or in the workplace run a slightly increased risk of developing lung cancer, according to one of the largest and most exhaustive studies of passive smoking and lung cancer risk. But this risk appears to decline after exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) ends.
    • 10/06/98 Study Finds Secondhand Smoke Risk, But Not To Kids Reuters
        A 10-year study published Tuesday found that adults exposed to secondhand smoke at home and in the workplace have a slightly higher risk of lung cancer, but it found no increased risk to children of smokers. Cancer experts say the study, done across Europe, indicates that passive smoking is a definite, although small, cause of lung cancer. The study was commissioned by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and involved 650 patients with lung cancer and more than 1,500 healthy adults of "all ages" up to 74. . . "Our results indicate no association between childhood exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and lung cancer risk," the researchers, led by Dr. Paolo Boffetta of the IARC in Lyon, France, wrote in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. They study found the increased risk of cancer among passive smokers is about 20 percent

    • 10/05/98 Memory Up In Smoke San Diego (CA) Union-Tribune
        A study over a two-year period of 9,223 people 65 and older who did not have dementia found that those who smoked were more likely to have suffered impairments in short-term memory, time and place orientation, attention and calculation than people who had never smoked, said Lenore Launer of Erasmus University Medical School, Rotterdam, Netherlands. . . "Smoking may damage cerebral functioning by silent small strokes that are not clinically detected," he reported at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology.

    • 10/06/98 Overcoming the Stigma of Lung Cancer Washington Post
        Lung cancer is the leading cancer killer in this country. This year 160,100 Americans will die from lung cancer -- more than all the deaths from breast, prostate and colon cancer combined. Yet many patients feel very alone. Because lung cancer is associated with smoking, patients say they are shunned by the public as well as the medical community. . . There are few support groups for patients with lung cancer. There are no races for lung cancer and no marches on Washington. Few people noticed the first annual Lung Cancer Awareness Day last November 14 . . In addition, patients and their advocates argue that with so much emphasis on the smoking connection, few people understand the medical aspects of the disease. Advocates blame the media for focusing solely on lawsuits against tobacco companies rather than on treatment options.

    • 10/06/98 Smoke This: Genetics Research Begins to Uncloud Who Gets Hooked Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Volume 90, Number 17: September 2, 1998. Page 1254
        Another thread was plucked from the tangled web of tobacco addiction recently . . . When asked whether science will ever untangle the web of genetic and environmental influences on smoking, Kendler says, "You are asking for prophecy. I guess I'm a guarded optimist. These are really complex traits, but the power of our methods, both molecular and statistical, are growing by leaps and bounds."

    • 10/05/98 Alcohol, Caffeine, Smoking Reduce Fertility In Women Reuters
        "Consistent with other research, smoking drastically reduced fertility in our sample," Hakim and her team write in the October issue of Fertility and Sterility. Because of this strong effect, the researchers only examined the relationship between alcohol, caffeine and fertility in the 98 study participants who were nonsmokers.

    • 10/03/98 Passive Smoking May Harm Babies In Utero British Medical Journal BMJ 1998;317:903
        Prenatal exposure to passive cigarette smoke can cause potentially carcinogenic mutations, according to a recent study. Although it is widely accepted that active smoking is carcinogenic in adults, this study (Nature Medicine 1998;4:1144-51) is the first to show that cigarette induced genetic alterations may occur in utero and that maternal exposure to passive smoke is sufficient to induce these mutations.

    • 10/03/98 Nauseating Business New Scientist
        Some scientists suspect that volatile organic compounds are to blame. VOCs come from many sources . . . Now Peder Wolkoff and his colleagues at the National Institute of Occupational Health in Copenhagen have found that, in combination with ozone, one common VOC can produce eye and airway irritation at concentrations much lower than would be needed if it were in isolation. Ozone can enter buildings in photochemical smog from outside and is also produced by equipment such as photocopiers. . . Wolkoff's work was funded by the Center for Indoor Air Research in Baltimore, a body set up by the tobacco industry. Industry documents have revealed that it has funded research into indoor pollution in an attempt to divert attention from the dangers of passive smoking (This Week, 2 May, p 22, and 16 May, p 4). But Wolkoff says that his results won't provide much comfort to tobacco firms. "There are a whole group of VOCs that will react in the same way," he says. They include a widely used lemon scent, chemicals from carpets and linoleum--and VOCs from tob acco smoke.

    • 10/02/98 OPINION: When Smoke Gets In Your Genes Gabriella Sozzi & Marco A. Pierotti, Nature Medicine October 1998 Volume 4 Number 10 pp 1119-1120
        This study provides incontrovertible genetic evidence of the devastating effects of tobacco smoke particularly among the young, who suffer a greater risk from environmental toxicants, such as tobacco smoke, not only because of their smaller size but also because of their physiological immaturity. The time has come to proclaim an end to the exposure of preterm infants, newborns and children of all ages to tobacco smoke.
    • 10/02/98 Gene Mutations With Characteristic Deletions In Cord Blood T Lymphocytes Associated With Passive Maternal Exposure To Tobacco Smoke Abstract, Nature Medicine. Here's the full text
    • 09/30/98 Secondhand Smoke Can Alter Fetal Genes Reuters
        Children whose mothers were exposed to secondhand smoke during pregnancy are more likely than other infants to have genetic defects similar to those associated with childhood leukemias and lymphomas, according to a study in the October issue of the journal Nature Medicine.
    • 09/29/98 Passive Smoking In Pregnancy Causes Gene Mutation In Babies The Independent (UK)
        Pregnant women exposed to other people's cigarette smoke are significantly more likely to have babies with genetic mutations linked to cancer, according to new research. It is the first hard evidence to suggest that passive smoking can cause the same type of genetic damage in unborn infants as that found in adult smokers with cancer.
    • 09/28/98 Smoke May Raise Fetus' Cancer Risk AP
        Pregnant women who are exposed to other people's cigarette smoke might be raising their fetuses' risk of developing cancer in childhood. A study found that babies born to exposed mothers showed higher rates of a kind of genetic mutation in blood cells. This kind of mutation is caused by a particular enzyme, and it is often found in childhood leukemia and lymphoma. . . The study doesn't show a direct link to cancer. . . The findings only suggest that if a pregnant woman is exposed to cigarette smoke, the mutation-making enzyme might become more active in her fetus, raising the risk of hazardous mutations in cancer-related genes. The work was presented in the October issue of the journal Nature Medicine by Dr. Barry Finette, Dr. Richard Albertini and colleagues at the University of Vermont in Burlington.

    • 10/02/98 Polluting Baby's First Room Toronto Star
        And those cigarettes? Smoking increases the risk of numerous problems, including miscarriage, stillbirth and low birth weight. ``Some of my most frightening deliveries have been of mothers who were heavy smokers,'' says Dr. Lynn Wilson, a family physician at St. Joseph's Health Centre and the Addiction Research Foundation. . . Researchers also worry that tobacco and alcohol use may be significantly under-reported by pregnant women embarrassed by their risky behaviour. . . For more information, contact Motherisk at (416) 813-6780 or Breaking The Cycle at (416) 364-7373.

    • 10/02/98 CESSATION: PATENTS: Method, Composition And Apparatus For Reducing The Incidence Of Cigarette Smoking U.S. Patents /NewsEdge (PREMIUM)
        Effective concentrations of nicotine, of a stimulant, and of a sequestering agent are admixed in a liquid carrier. The sequestering agent prevents binding of nicotine with metallic ions which interfere with absorption of nicotine through the lining of the oral cavity. The liquid solution is sprayed into the oral cavity for simultaneous absorption of the nicotine and stimulant through the lining of the oral cavity. . . Patent Number: 5810018 Inventor(s): Monte, Woodrow C.

    • 10/02/98 Teen Males Who Smoke Risk Sperm Damage; Study Links Birth Defects To Tobacco San Francisco Chronicle
        A small but intensive new study of sperm samples taken from 18-year-olds found disturbing links between a ``smoking lifestyle'' and potential birth defects. The research was done at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on samples taken in the Czech Republic, all from young men living in the same region who had just registered for military service.
    • 10/02/98 Study Shows Sperm Defects In Smokers St. Paul (MN) Pioneer Press
        The smoking lifestyle causes genetic abnormalities in the sperm of teen-age men, irregularities that could help explain miscarriages and birth defects linked to a father's smoking, according to a study published today in the journal Fertility and Sterility. Sperm from young men who smoked about 20 cigarettes per day and drink alcohol has either more or fewer chromosomes than nonsmokers, researchers from the Czech Republic and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory determined.

    • 10/01/98 LETTER: Nonoccupational Exposure to Chrysotile Asbestos and the Risk of Lung Cancer Several letters address the asbetos/smoking synergy in the New England Journal of Medicine
        Camus et al. conclude that the EPA overestimated the risk of lung cancer from nonoccupational exposure to asbestos . . . Given the multiplicative interaction between cigarette smoke and asbestos for the sole outcome variable of interest in this study, the lack of information on smoking is a major flaw. . . [Authors' Reply:]Furthermore, we presented some data on smoking habits and argued that confounding could not have accounted for the large discrepancy between the EPA model's prediction and the observed relative risk of lung cancer.

    • 10/01/98 Counseling Plus Patch Helps Smokers Quit Reuters
        People who try to quit smoking with their doctor's help are more likely to kick the habit if they use nicotine patches, according to a study in the current Archives of Family Medicine. . . All of the patients smoked at least a pack of cigarettes a day, according to the researchers, Dr. David Daughton of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, and colleagues. . . SOURCE: Archives of Family Medicine 1998;7:425-430.

    • 09/30/98 Smoking Study Finds It's Never Too Late To Quit Windsor (ONT) Star
        Stopping smoking at 60 almost completely banishes the risk of developing lung cancer in people who do not already have it, according to a leading British epidemiologist. The finding surprised researchers, who say the trend has emerged recently as a result of studies that have followed lifetime smokers into old age. Julian Peto, of the Cancer Research Institute, told a London conference, Avoiding Cancer, this week that while half of smokers would die from their tobacco use, the danger was drastically reduced as soon as someone gave up, however old.

    • 09/30/98 Environmental Pollution And Degradation Causes 40 Percent Of Deaths Worldwide, Cornell Study Finds Cornell PR
        An estimated 40 percent of world deaths can now be attributed to various environmental factors, especially organic and chemical pollutants, according to a study led by David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agricultural sciences at Cornell. . . -- Less than 1 percent of 500 Chinese cities have clean air. Respiratory disease is the leading cause of death in China. -- In China, where tobacco smoking increased from approximately 360 to nearly 1,800 cigarettes per person per year, males smoke 98 percent of the cigarettes. However, mortality due to lung cancer is approximately equal in males and females.

    • 09/26/98 The Cause Isn't Known, But Researchers Have Identified Risk Factors San Antonio (TX) Express News
        The prostate contains the highest levels of zinc of all the organs in the body, and cancerous prostates contain less zinc than healthy ones. Men who work in making batteries, paint and cigarettes, among other industries, risk cadmium overexposure. Cigarette smoking -- Scientists at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston suspect that smoking may make prostate cancer tumors behave more aggressively, causing them to spread and turn lethal.

    • 09/29/98 'Life On The Edge' Took Toll On Blood Flow San Antonio (TX) Express News
        "Peripheral arterial disease is most frequently a manifestation of a more widespread disease known as arteriosclerosis," says Dr. Carlos Encarnacion, an associate professor of radiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center who treats vascular diseases such as PAD. . . But the single most important thing is to stop smoking. As part of "Legs for Life," a national screening program, eight area hospitals will offer free PAD tests through Saturday. If you smoke, if you have nagging leg pain, sores that won't heal or a family history of vascular disease, it may be time to check it out.

    • 09/28/98 CESSATION: Helping Smokers End Their Rituals Philadelphia (PA) Business Journal
        With those rituals and cravings in mind, McNeil Consumer Products Co. has started marketing a new weapon -- the NICOTROL INHALER -- for smokers who have, so far, lost the battle to quit.
    • 09/30/98 Newly Approved Drug Therapies; Drug Name: NICOTROL INHALER CenterWatch

    • 09/29/98 Children, Divorce And Smoking San Diego (CA) Union-Tribune
        Kids whose parents divorce are one-third more likely to become adult smokers than children from intact families, according to a new study from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. "Parental divorce has serious consequences for the physiological well-being of offspring," says Nicholas H. Wolfinger, Ph.D.

    • 09/29/98 CESSATION: Immulogic; Company Developing Vaccines to Kick Nicotine, Cocaine Habits NewsEdge: CW Henderson, 113 words, PAY PER VIEW $4.00
        Trying to quit smoking? That destructive cocaine habit? A U.S. company may have a new approach to helping people overcome some of their addictions.

    • 09/28/98 CESSATION: HANLEY-HAZELDEN Announces Start of New Smoking Cessation Program; YOUR NEXT STEP Provides Structured Program to Help Smokers Quit Business Wire
        Hanley-Hazelden Center at St. Mary's (HHCSM) is announcing the addition of a nicotine cessation program beginning October 5. Your Next Step is designed to help people stop smoking by providing a plan to deal with their nicotine addiction. . . The kit, which can complement a nicotine patch or gum program, is available for $79.95 by calling 1-800-328-0098 or by visiting www.hazelden.org.
      • 09/27/98 A LOOK AT . . . The Meaning of Numbers: The Capability Of Probability Steven Goodman examines epidemiology issues in the Washington Post
          In the 1950s, when the smoking studies were first published, a number of esteemed scientists claimed that smoking was not responsible for the increase, but rather some other characteristic of smokers was to blame. . . the final proof that smoking causes cancer has had to come from the multitude of supporting studies that have made any non-smoking-related explanation for the increased cancers increasingly untenable (the components of cigarette smoke were shown to be carcinogenic in lab animals, smokers who quit experienced lower rates of cancer, and the more one smoked, the higher the likelihood of one's developing cancer). There was simply no better explanation to account for the overwhelming body of evidence than that smoking causes cancer.

      • 09/27/98 FRAMINGHAM: Heart study at 50: New goal; Researchers now target prevention Boston Globe
          The Framingham Study invented the very concept of cardiovascular risk factors - traits such as high blood cholesterol and behaviors such as cigarette smoking - associated with the development of disease. "Framingham has taught us the great lessons of preventive medicine," said Dr. DAVID SATCHER, the US surgeon general. "We know that how we live today can directly impact upon how long we will live tomorrow. We know without a doubt that consuming fatty foods, living a sedentary life, and smoking all contribute to cardiovascular disease."
      • 09/26/98 Heart Disease Study Spans 50 Years AP
          The idea: Go into one small town. Amass volumes of health facts on ordinary 30ish people. . . The result is the FRAMINGHAM HEART STUDY, the longest running major epidemiological project in medicine and certainly one of the most influential experiments ever. "We have a 50-year legacy of scientific advancement, over 1,000 papers published to date," says Dr. Daniel Levy . . . "Fifty years ago, people debated whether cigarette smoking had anything to do with heart disease, whether cholesterol and blood sugar were important," says Dr. Lewis Kuller of the University of Pittsburgh. "What we take as truth today was far from obvious even in the 1970s. What Framingham did was to establish the relevance of these risk factors for heart disease."

      • 09/26/98 Population Based Cohort Study Of The Association Between Alcohol Intake And Cancer Of The Upper Digestive Tract Abstract, British Medical Journal BMJ 1998;317:844-848
          Objective: To examine the relation between different types of alcoholic drinks and upper digestive tract cancers (oropharyngeal and oesophageal). . . Conclusion: A moderate intake of wine probably does not increase the risk of upper digestive tract cancer, whereas a moderate intake of beer or spirits increases the risk considerably.
        Here's the full text
      • 09/26/98 EDITORIAL: Alcohol And Cancer; Still No Clear Evidence To Link Specific Beverages To Specific Cancers British Medical Journal BMJ 1998;317:827-830
          The conclusion so far must be that an association between alcohol and cancer certainly exists for most of the above mentioned cancers. It is still not possible, however, to distinguish between the risk factors associated with different types of beverage, andif a difference should emergewe do not yet understand the underlying mechanism.
      • 09/25/98 OPINION: Science Commentary: Why Wine Might Be Less Harmful Than Beer And Spirits Abi Berger Science editor, BMJ 1998;317:848
          In addition, the types and sites of mutation of the p53 gene (the tumour suppressor gene) that are commonly found within oesophageal cancer cells also reflect the pattern of DNA damage inflicted by nitrosamines. This confirms nitrosamine-like exposure in cases of oesophageal cancer and could explain why beer and spirits cause more cases of upper digestive tract malignancy than wine.

      • 09/28/98 HHS Focuses on Prevention, Detection, Treatment of Cancer US Newswire
          PREVENTING YOUTH TOBACCO USE Each day, almost 3,000 young people in the United States become regular smokers, and nearly 1,000 of them will die prematurely from diseases related to tobacco use. Each year, more than 400,000 Americans die from smoking-related diseases, more Americans than are killed each year by AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicides, illegal drugs, and fires combined.
      • 09/27/98 Clinton Calls for Faster Development of Tools to Fight Cancer Bloomberg
          The president again called on Congress to have the "courage to finish the job" of preventing children from smoking by passing tobacco legislation. "As Americans from all walks of life and all parts of our nation renew our national fight against cancer, we do well to remember that we are doing more than curing a disease. We are curing the ills that disease may cause -- the stigmas, the myths, the barriers to quality care," Clinton said.
      • 09/25/98 They'll Join March To Conquer Cancer San Diego (CA) Union-Tribune. Odd that hardly any stories/marchers address the fact that lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women.
          Breast-cancer survivor Jill Gormley flew to the nation's capital this week, carrying her late husband's picture and dreams that the conquer-cancer march, a mass rally tomorrow led by retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf, will be a powerful battle cry against a disease that kills 560,000 Americans a year. . . "Also, I personally think we should be spending a lot more effort educating people about the dangers of being a smoker, which my husband was for 50 years," she said. Jack Gormley died of lung cancer earlier this year. . . Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in men and women. Smoking accounts for two-thirds of all cancer deaths in the United States.
      • 09/26/98 Marchers See Money for Research as Key to Cancer Cure Washington Post
          Many experts believe the most severe shortages of all are in the field of cancer prevention. It is, of course, cheaper to prevent a disease than to cure it. Yet vital research in the social sciences goes begging: How can people be persuaded to change the poor diets that predispose them to certain cancers and heart disease? How can youngsters be dissuaded from smoking, the greatest preventable cause of cancer? "If we lose the battle against tobacco, we will lose the war against cancer," John Arradondo, a leading advocate of health education, said yesterday on Capitol Hill.
      • 09/26/98 Rates Of Cancer Among Minorities Remain High Graphs in Baltimore (MD) Sun
          Although rural communities have not been widely studied, data show that lung cancer rates exceed the national average most often in rural areas because of high tobacco use, according to the Intercultural Cancer Council, a Houston, Texas-based organization that sponsored the news conference. . . Poverty has been linked with increased cigarette and alcohol use . . .
      • 09/25/98 Cancer Is The Message Of 'The March' USA Today
          'The March is a show of force': Skater Scott Hamilton, a testicular cancer survivor, is interrupting Stars on Ice rehearsals to participate in The March (AP). It's a longstanding American tradition: If you want to draw attention to an issue, stage a march on Washington, D.C. . . According to press materials, The March has a three-pronged mission: To make cancer prevention, treatment and cure top priorities. To demand greater government funding of cancer research, treatment, education and prevention. To ensure quality cancer care for all Americans.
        Here's the website of THE MARCH -- Coming Together to Conquer Cancer
      • 09/24/98 Elderly Who Quit Smoking Extend Lives Reuters/American Journal of Epidemiology 1998;148:575-580
          Quitting smoking, even after age 65, can help individuals live longer, researchers report. "Stopping smoking after age 65 reduces the risk of dying," conclude researchers at the Institut Municipal d'Investigacio Medica in Barcelona, Spain

      • 09/24/98 New Hope for the Millions of Americans Addicted to Moist Snuff, Dip-Style Tobacco Business Wire
          Now an Atlanta-based company called BETTER HEALTH SOLUTIONS is offering a one-box solution to help break the cycle of nicotine dependence brought on by dip-style tobacco. At the heart of the product, THE PINCH SYSTEM(tm), is an herbal tobacco substitute, so much like real moist-snuff that many users have trouble distinguishing it from the real thing. The product, which contains no tobacco and no nicotine, is mixed in with the user's current brand. In the beginning, only a small amount of the mix is the tobacco substitute, but over the course of thirty days, almost all of what the user puts "between their cheek and gums" is the non-addictive herbal substitute.
        Here's the Pinch System Website

      • 09/24/98 'Bad Habits' Study Charts Health Risks Times of London
          EVERYONE knows somebody who smoked, drank, and ate excessively, yet lived to a ripe old age. Yesterday Cambridge University researchers launched a 15-year study to find out why. The team will follow the fortunes of 25,000 people from the Norwich area whose blood samples and health histories were collected for an earlier study. . . Initial funding of £300,000 from the Medical Research Council has enabled the team to start work. If the genes that affect the risk faced by any individual can be identified, it should be possible to tell them more precisely how badly they are likely to be affected by indulging in "bad" habits, Professor Day said.

      • 09/24/98 Trends in the Incidence of Myocardial Infarction and in Mortality Due to Coronary Heart Disease, 1987 to 1994 N Engl J Med 1998;339:861-7
          Conclusions. From 1987 to 1994, we observed a stable or slightly increasing incidence of hospitalization for myocardial infarction. Nevertheless, there were significant annual decreases in mortality from CHD. The decline in mortality in the four communities we studied may be due largely to improvements in the treatment and secondary prevention of myocardial infarction.
      • 09/24/98 EDITORIAL: Death Rates from Coronary Disease -- Progress and a Puzzling Paradox New England Journal of Medicine
          It is possible for trends in these two statistics to move in opposite directions if an increase in incidence coincides with a decline in case fatality rates resulting from the occurrence of less severe infarctions or improvements in acute or long-term management. A more puzzling paradox is the fact that no decline in the incidence of myocardial infarction was observed in the ARIC sample during a period when the prevalence of causal risk factors was reduced. This apparent conflict may be explained in several ways. First, the data of Rosamond et al., if representative and unbiased, may reflect a failure of primary prevention on a national level. This explanation is not likely, given the declines in the prevalence of hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and smoking in our country and the relation of these risk factors to the incidence of myocardial infarction. (13)

      • 09/22/98 Make Your Golden Years Rosy; It's Never Too Late To Reap The Benefits Of New Lifestyle Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette
          "Successful Aging" summarizes the results of the MacArthur Studies - dozens of studies led by 16 prestigious researchers into how people can age best. Rowe and co-author Robert Kahn, a University of Michigan professor of psychology and public health, who together led the decade of research, wrote a prescription for living good old days based on the research. . . "Forget about cancer, when I'm 70, I don't want to be attached to an oxygen tank," said Dr. Cynthia Rosenberg, chief of the geriatrics division at the Western Pennsylvania Hospital and medical director of the West Penn-Vintage Community Care Center for Seniors. "If you smoke, you're not breathing well, so you don't feel as good, and it affects the circulation to your legs," she said. "Most people begin to start feeling better when they quit."
        You can order Successful Aging here (Hardcover, $17.47), or here (Large Print, $19.96)

      • 09/22/98 Experiment On Volunteers Hints Pollution Leads To Cancer UniScience
          Not only do the fumes of diesel engines contain up to 100 times more soot than ordinary gasoline engines, but this "particulate matter " (PM in the jargon) is so tiny -- less than ten microns in diameter -- that it is not caught by any filtering device in our own respiratory system. . . Diesel-driven vehicles are not, however, the only sources of such particles. Not only are they emitted by conventional engines, but they are also abundant in the smoke produced by the combustion of wood, coal and fuel oil. Domestic heating in buildings is therefore another common source, especially in large cities. Whatever their origin, these dangerous particles, according to recent WHO figures, cause the premature death of some half million people in the world every year. These new data raise the issue of how the degree of air pollution should best be measured . . . Many researchers are beginning to say that diesel particles, apart from causing respiratory inflammations, might also be involved in the etiology of lung cancer. Indeed, the particles are of the same size as those in tobacco smoke, and carry similar toxic substances on their surface.

      • 09/22/98 CESSATION: Trying To Quit Vital Statistics, Washington Post
          More than 47 million Americans smoke, and about three-quarters of that group report they would like to stop. Many try, but most fail. A recent survey by the American Lung Association of 1,001 smokers found that many people missed the "rituals of smoking.". . . The association said many smokers are not aware of the variety of products available to help them quit smoking, and it has issued a new guide to help people come up with a plan for their own quitting effort.

      • 09/22/98 The 'Morning-After' Kit; New Emergency Contraceptive Gives Women a Second Chance To Prevent Pregnancy Graph in Washington Post
          Three weeks ago the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the sale of Preven, the nation's first emergency contraception kit available by prescription . . . Who Shouldn't Use It: Women who can't take birth control pills may be advised to avoid emergency contraceptives. These include women over 35 who smoke more than 15 cigarettes per day

      • 09/21/98 JACKSON Says Black Lung Disease Deserves Attention Akron (OH) Beacon Journal
          The United States is so focused on lung disease from cigarettes that Americans have forgotten about black lung disease, the REV. JESSE JACKSON said Monday during a visit to coal- and tobacco-rich KENTUCKY. Hundreds of miners die each year from black lung, an irreversible disease that chokes miners' lungs with scars and mucus.

      • 09/21/98 CESSATION: Trying To Put Out The Light Washington Business Journal
          During a seven-day period, smokers record each cigarette they smoke. The information is plugged into the computer, which programs a withdrawal routine according to each individual's habit. The computer plots a program to last from 10 to 28 days, during which it prompts smokers when to smoke with a beeping sound, gradually increasing the intervals between cigarettes. . . . For adults, the device costs $89.95 and for teens $49.95. It's less for adolescents, said Behar, because they don't have the ability to pay that adults have and because they are a smaller market. Results so far show 29 percent of the teen participants at Herndon High School quit smoking after going through the program, a figure confirmed through chemical tests, Behar said.
        Here's the LifeSign Website Washington, DC smokers can register for a study here

      • 09/21/98 Schizophrenia, Sensory Gating, and Nicotinic Receptors [Schizophrenia Bulletin 24(2):189-202, 1998. National Institute of Mental Health.]
          A series of human and animal investigations has suggested that altered expression and function of the alpha7-nicotinic cholinergic receptor may be responsible for the auditory sensory gating deficit characterized in schizophrenia patients and their relatives as diminished suppression of an auditory-evoked response (P50) to repeated stimuli. This finding, in conjunction with evidence for familial transmission of this sensory gating deficit, suggests a pathogenic role of the gene for the alpha7-nicotinic receptor in schizophrenia. This article considers the possible effects of this dysfunction in a broader context. Not only is this dysfunction consistent with difficulties in sensory gating, but it might also predispose patients to problems with learning efficiency and accuracy. Such learning problems could underlie schizophrenia patients' delusional thinking, hallucinations, and social dysfunction. In addition, heavy smoking in many schizophrenia patients is consistent with the high concentration of nicotine necessary to activate the receptor and with the receptor's extremely rapid desensitization. Finally, the receptor's possible role in cell growth and differentiation should be considered in connection with developmental deficits and other cellular abnormalities in schizophrenia.

      • 09/21/98 Elevated Levels Of Benzene-related Compounds In The Urine Of Cigarette Smokers. Abstract, Int J Cancer 1994 Oct 15;59(2):177-180
          Benzene exposure causes leukemia and lymphomas. Recent epidemiological findings have also shown an association between cigarette smoking and an increased risk of leukemia. . . The results showed that these compounds were present in all urine samples. However, the concentrations were significantly higher in smokers than in non-smokers. . . These results suggest that cigarette smoking is associated with a significant additional exposure to benzene and its related compounds. Furthermore, significant correlations were observed between the concentrations of cotinine, the metabolite of nicotine, and the above compounds. These findings suggest that the exposure originated from cigarette smoking.

      • 09/21/98 Tots Mind if Moms Smoke LA Times
          In November, Californians will vote on the California Children and Families Initiative, which includes teaching young women who are pregnant about the negative effects of smoking. It will also provide smoking cessation assistance to pregnant women. Funding will come from an additional 50 cents-a-pack tax on cigarettes. If you are pregnant or planning a family, here are four good reasons to quit smoking now:

      • 09/21/98 Study: Some Skin Cancers May Increase Future Risk Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
          People with nonfatal forms of skin cancer have a 25 to 30 percent greater chance of ultimately dying from other cancers, such as those of the lung, breast and prostate, new research indicates. . . "Although it sounds like a large number -- 25 to 30 percent -- it's a relatively low risk factor when compared with, say, smoking, which can put a person at a 300 percent greater risk of dying of cancer," said Dr. Michael Thun, an epidemiologist with the Atlanta-based American Cancer Society and co-author of the study.

      • 09/16/98 CESSATION: Is nicotine without the smoke OK? Seattle (WA) Times
          Heidemann, it seems, has plenty of company, although there's no way to know for certain how many ex-smokers use nicotine gum or nicotine patches for months - or years - longer than the six to 12 weeks approved by the Food and Drug Administration. But a federally funded study of 6,000 current and former smokers has found that 19 percent were still chewing the gum after five years, with no apparent ill effects.

      • 09/18/98 Preferences For Chemotherapy In Patients With Advanced Non-small Cell Lung Cancer: Descriptive Study Based On Scripted Interviews British Medical Journal BMJ 1998;317:771-775 ( 19 September )
          Conclusions: Patients' willingness to accept chemotherapy for the treatment of metastatic lung cancer varies widely. Many would not choose chemotherapy for its likely survival benefit of 3 months but would if it improved quality of life. The conflict between these patients' preferences and the care they previously received has several explanations, one being that some patients had not received the treatment they would have chosen had they been fully informed.

      • 09/17/98 Second Chances at Life; 6 Receive Lung Transplants in 2 Weeks at Inova Fairfax Washington Post
          Overbey didn't agree immediately to the transplant. The operation was risky -- and he would have to quit smoking. But he began to think of the things he might miss -- trips out West with his wife and son and, most of all, his daughter's wedding next spring.

      • 09/16/98 Survey: Women Happy After Menopause AP
          About three-quarters of the women surveyed said they had made some sort of lifestyle change when reaching menopause, including altered diets, new forms of exercise, reduced alcohol intake and stopping smoking.

      • 09/16/98 Health News: Even Occasional Smokers Are Risking Their Health Detroit (MI) News
          a recent study conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Office on Smoking and Health shows . . . about 6 percent of smokers, or roughly 3 million Americans, can be called intermittent smokers . . . On average, they smoke four or five cigarettes every third day. Because no one expected this many intermittent smokers, there is little research on this group, researchers say. One study showed that men who smoked one to nine cigarettes daily had nearly five times greater risk of dying from lung cancer than nonsmokers.

      • 09/15/98 Radon in U.S. Water A Small Risk To Health - Report Reuters
          The National Research Council, whose study on radon in water was released on Tuesday, said radon gas from rocks and soil was a much greater danger. . . According to the study, about 160,000 people die of lung cancer each year in the United States. Nearly all of them are smokers or have been exposed to cigarette smoke. The NRC says about 19,000 of these deaths a year can be blamed on a combination of smoking and radon gas, and 160 can be blamed on inhaling radon gas from water.

      • 09/15/98 Lung Cancer Patients At Risk For 2nd Tumor Reuters
          Lung cancer survivors are at risk for developing a second lung tumor, and continuing to smoke cigarettes may play a role, according to a report from a researcher at the National Cancer Institute. . . In his study, based on a review of recent studies examining the treatment and outcome of second lung cancers, Dr. Bruce E. Johnson reports that among patients who have had surgery for non-small-cell lung cancer, the risk of developing a second lung cancer is between 1% and 2% per patient per year. . . SOURCE: Journal of the National Cancer Institute 1998;90:1335-1345.

      • 09/15/98 New Studies Strengthen Growing Evidence Linking Tea to Reduced Risk of Cancer Tea Council of US PR Newswire
          Second International Scientific Symposium on Tea & Human Health Provides Further Proof of Tea's Potent Antioxidant Power, Disease-Fighting Capabilities . . . Lung Cancer: Highlights of other studies presented on the chemopreventive effects of tea included research by Fung-Lung Chung, Ph.D., American Health Foundation, who looked at the effect of black tea on the development of lung tumors in mice and rats. He found that both green and black tea consumption retarded the development of the lung cancer, which was induced by carcinogens found in tobacco. . . According to Dr. Klaunig, ``The results are very promising and suggest that over the long-term, tea may be able to reduce human diseases caused by increased oxidative stress, especially in smokers.''

      • 09/15/98 New Contraceptive Found Not To Raise Heart Risk
          Women who take the new versions of the contraceptive pill do not have an increased risk of heart attack, US researchers said yesterday. They said women who do suffer heart attacks are more likely to be obese, or to smoke. The report, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, was the largest US study to look at the question of the pill and heart attacks in recent years. Dr. Stephen Sidney and colleagues at Kaiser Permanente Medical Care in Oakland, Calif., pooled data from two studies of 1,200 women aged 18 to 44. . . "Women who smoke should not use oral contraceptives and women who have high blood pressure are at a higher risk when they use oral contraceptives,'' Sidney said.

      • 09/15/98 THE WORLD HEALTH REPORT 1998; Life In The 21st Century ­ A Vision For All Executive Summary, WHO
          Cancer will remain one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Despite much progress in research, prevention and treatment, only one-third of all cancers can be cured by earlier detection combined with effective treatment. However, many of the remaining cancers could be prevented by a range of measures, including avoiding tobacco use and adopting a healthier diet. Some likely trends to 2025 are given below: . . Cases of and deaths from lung cancer and colorectal cancer will increase, largely due to smoking and unhealthy diet. Lung cancer deaths among women will rise in virtually all industrialized countries.
      • 09/15/98 Life expectancy declines in Europe MSNBC/Reuters
          Europeans¹ health is deteriorating and life expectancy in the region is declining for the first time in over 50 years, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) report issued on Monday. . . The major causes of death were listed as cardiovascular disease, which was responsible for 49 percent of all deaths in Europe and cancer, with tobacco killing an estimated 1.2 million in 1995, about 13 percent of all deaths.

      • 09/15/98 One Smoker In Four Gets Quitting Advice The Cutting Edge, Washington Post
          Only 25 percent of the smokers were counseled about how to quit, and only 1 percent of all patients received information about how to protect nonsmokers from tobacco smoke. The study was conducted by researchers from the University at Buffalo, the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Case Western Reserve University. They offered several reasons why more doctors don't counsel patients about smoking: They worry that it may take too much time, that their advice will come across to the patient as nagging and that supportive smoking-cessation programs aren't available. . . "Smoking cessation advice is the most important preventive service that clinicians can offer patients who smoke," the researchers said in reporting their findings in the Journal of Family Practice.

      • 09/14/98 Smoking In Pregnancy Affects Fetal Lungs Reuters
          According to a report from British researchers, lung function is worse in premature infants whose mothers smoked during pregnancy compared with the lung function of similar sized infants whose mothers did not smoke. . . The research team, led by senior author Dr. Janet Stocks from the Institute of Child Health and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, UK, tested lung function in 108 premature infants -- including 40 infants born to smokers -- before they were discharged from the hospital. The researchers found that "impaired respiratory function is evident in infants born on average 7 weeks prior to the expected delivery date, suggesting that the adverse effects of prenatal exposure to tobacco are not limited to the last weeks of pregnancy," according to their report in the September 15th issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

      • 09/14/98 Test May Indicate Lung Cancer Risk Reuters
          In a study of 57 lung cancer patients and 82 healthy controls, Dr. Xifeng Wu and colleagues at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, collected white blood cells and exposed the cells to BPDE for 24 hours, and also exposed the cells to another drug that can damage DNA, bleomycin. Those sensitive to BPDE were more than 7 times as likely to have lung cancer, those sensitive to bleomycin were about 4 times as likely, and those who were sensitive to both had nearly 40 times the risk of cancer, according to the researchers. Lung cancer patients who were light smokers and younger were more likely than others to be sensitive to BPDE.

      • 09/14/98 CESSATION: Smoke Won't Get in Your Eyes, But Your Head Will Be Fed The Wall Street Journal (pay registration)
          now there's another gadget to try for the estimated 68% of America's 47 million smokers who say they want to try to kick the habit. Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Consumer Products unit last week launched its NICOTROL INHALER, a device that simulates the hand-tomouth ritual that smokers may miss when they try quitting with the help of other products

      • 09/13/98 Study Shows Women Smokers Have Greater Heart Risk Than Men Chicago (IL) Tribune
          Women who smoke have a 50 percent higher risk of having a heart attack than men smokers, doctors report. Dr. Eva Prescott and colleagues at the Institute of Preventive Medicine in Copenhagen believe women may be more sensitive to the harmful effects of cigarettes because of an interaction between tobacco and hormonal factors. "There is growing epidemiological evidence that women who smoke are relatively deficient in estrogen," Prescott said in a report in the British Medical Journal.

      • 09/13/98 New Lung Conveys New Life; For Longtime Smoker, Transplant Worth Risk Washington Post
          The chance that his body will reject the new lung will always be present, so he will be on anti-organ-rejection drugs for the rest of his life. "You need like an Excel spreadsheet just to keep track of them," his daughter, Elizabeth, said. Despite what her father is going through, Elizabeth and her husband-to-be are both smokers. She said the prospective groom is considering taking prescription medication to help him stop. She vows to quit after her wedding.

      • 09/10/98 British Women Persist In Smoking During Pregnancy EurekAlert/British Medical Journal
          Even though the dangers of smoking are widely established, only one in six women who smoke give up when they become pregnant, claims research conducted by the Health Education Authority and published in this week's BMJ.
      • 09/10/98 Trends in smoking during pregnancy in England, 1992-7: quota sampling surveys British Medical Journal

      • 09/10/98 Immigrant Children Possess Surprising Health Advantage Graph in AP
          Comparatively low levels of smoking, alcohol and drug use during pregnancy by immigrant mothers may help account for a lower rate of low-birth-weight babies and infant deaths, they said. And, healthier diets and supportive family networks also may play a role.

      • 09/10/98 Trends In Smoking During Pregnancy In England, 1992-7: Quota Sampling Surveys British Medical Journal
          The prevalence of smoking and rates of stopping or cutting down on smoking have changed little since 1992. Smoking during pregnancy is a problem particularly for those who are young, unemployed, or from manual groups. Around 1 in 10 pregnant women gave up smoking immediately before they became pregnant, and more than 1 in 6 gave up during pregnancy. Together, these figures (28%) fall short of the Health of the Nation's requirement that a third of pregnant women stop smoking at the start of pregnancy.2 We did not use a biochemical measure to validate smoking status, so our findings are likely to be conservative.

      • 09/10/98 Maternal Cigarette Smoking Is Associated with Increased Inner Airway Wall Thickness in Children Who Die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Full Text, Respir. Crit. Care Med., Volume 158, Number 3, September 1998, 802-806
          This present study has documented changes in airway wall dimensions in infants who have been exposed to consistently high levels of maternal smoking when compared with infants who have died from the same cause but had no exposure to maternal cigarette smoke. We believe this is the first reported study documenting anatomic abnormalities in the infant airway associated with passive cigarette smoking.
      • 09/10/98 Maternal Cigarette Smoking Is Associated with Increased Inner Airway Wall Thickness in Children Who Die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Abrstact, Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med
      • 09/10/98 Respiratory Function Among Preterm Infants Whose Mothers Smoked During Pregnancy Abstract, Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Volume 158, Number 3, September 1998, 700-705
          Thus, impaired respiratory function is evident in infants born on average 7 wk prior to the expected delivery date, suggesting that the adverse effects of prenatal exposure to tobacco are not limited to the last weeks of pregnancy.
        Here's the full text

      • 09/10/98 Maternal Smoking and Infant Lung Function; Further Evidence for An In Utero Effect Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Volume 158, Number 3, September 1998, 689-690
          Maternal smoking has been clearly demonstrated to be associated with increased health problems in infants and in older children (1, 2). Among these are low birth weight, increased rates of sudden infant death syndrome, and increased rates of wheeze-associated lower respiratory illness (WRLI) and pneumonia (2, 3). Wheezing respiratory illnesses and pneumonia are a significant public health problem, occurring in 20 to 30% of all infants and toddlers (4). Lower respiratory illnesses caused by respiratory syncytial virus account for substantial morbidity each year, including approximately 91,000 hospitalizations in the United States each year and $300 million in medical costs (5). Although maternal smoking may also lead to increased rates of asthma later in life (3), much of the impact on respiratory health appears to occur in infancy and the preschool years (6).

      • 09/10/98 CESSATION: Better Health Kick Butt Community Challenge Better Health
          When you sign up for the Challenge you'll be able to take our stop smoking course with addictions expert Debora Orrick. . . You'll learn how to manage your smoke-free lifestyle, deal with weight gain, control irritability, identify and manage stress in a healthy way and plan for your cigarette-free future. You'll also receive weekly homework assignments that will help you evolve into a nonsmoker, as well as several articles and fact sheets to help you sustain the will to quit. Plus, you'll be able to get support 24 hours day.

      • 09/09/98 CESSATION: Action plan may help smokers quit Reuters
          To provide smokers who want to quit with a comprehensive source of information, the ALA has just published the QUIT SMOKING ACTION PLAN. This program was developed by an expert panel chaired by Dr. Edwin B. Fisher, professor of psychology, medicine and pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. The Action Plan describes all of the Food and Drug Administration-approved smoking cessation products, and provides information on support groups, as well as other counseling options.

      • 09/09/98 CESSATION: ATP Announces Nicotine Inhaler's Nationwide Launch PR Newswire
      • 09/09/98 New Survey Shows Smokers Crave Comfort of Hand-to-Mouth Ritual PR Newswire
          Starting today, smokers finally have access to an effective, new tool in the war against a deadly addiction. The new Nicotrol Inhaler (nicotine inhalation system) is a serious, prescription therapy and the first-ever FDA approved stop-smoking product to provide smokers with the comfort of the hand-to-mouth smoking ritual, although the clinical importance of such behavior in quitting smoking is as yet, unknown.
      • 09/09/98 CESSATION: Cigarette Look-Alike Helps You Quit Smoking San Francisco Chronicle
          The latest quit-smoking device hits the U.S. market today -- and it looks a lot like a cigarette. McNeil Consumer Products, a unit of consumer-products giant Johnson & Johnson, said its new NICOTROL INHALER gives smokers "something to hold onto when you're ready to let go."

      • 09/09/98 Women Can Take Action to Prevent Secondhand Smoke Exposure PR Newswire
          Seventy-five percent of Ohio women do not smoke but may encounter secondhand smoke in the home, at work or while visiting businesses where smoking is permitted. Health advocates are encouraging women to take proactive steps towards a smokefree environment and better health during WOMEN'S HEALTH MONTH in September. "Women can use their power as consumers by patronizing smokefree businesses and encouraging others to go smokefree. By voicing their concerns, they can help reduce exposure to secondhand smoke for everyone in the community," said Lou Ellen Fairless, OHIO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH Director.

      • 09/09/98 CESSATION: Addictions; Company Developing Vaccines to Kick Nicotine, Cocaine Habits Vaccine Weekly via NewsEdge
          ImmuLogic, in Waltham, Massachusetts, is developing a vaccine that counteracts the nicotine high smokers crave. It's already begun human testing of its anti-cocaine vaccine. "This is the first anti-smoking treatment that has attempted to neutralize the addictive effects of nicotine," wrote John Illman in a London Observer Service report ("Anti-Smoking Vaccine To Be Tested," July 21, 1998). "The vaccine works by provoking an immune response with antibodies that bind to and neutralize the nicotine, preventing it from reaching the body's nicotine receptors and reinforcing the craving which hooks smokers."

      • 09/03/98 Thromboangiitis Obliterans (Buerger's Disease) The New England Journal of Medicine -- September 3, 1998 -- Volume 339, Number 10
          A 39-year-old man with a 22-year history of smoking one to two packs of cigarettes per day was referred to our hyperbaric facility because of an ulcer on the tip of the third finger of his right hand that had been present for six months (Panel A). He had a four-year history of blanching and coldness of the fingers on exposure to cold, and a previous ulcer of the tip of the left index finger had healed when he stopped smoking.

      • 09/08/98 Smoking Issues; Group/ Some Damage Lasts After Smokers Quit Impotence & Male Health Weekly Plus via NewsEdge
          While it is never too late to quit smoking, some effects of the habit are permanent and irreversible, a consumer group said. Smoking for as little as five years damages virtually every organ in the human body, the AMERICAN COUNCIL ON SCIENCE AND HEALTH, a nonprofit consumer group, said. It has issued a booklet that details some of the damage done by cigarettes - damage that does not go away when a smoker kicks the habit. "We don't want to dishearten or depress smokers - quitting is always healthier than smoking," DR. ELIZABETH WHELAN, the council's president, said in a statement.

      • 09/06/98 CESSATION: Perfect People Need Not Apply To These Self-help Web Sites Seattle (WA) Times
          The Quitnet http://www.quitnet.org/ . . . an online resource and support network for smokers striving to kick the habit. QuitNet provides quitting guides, ugly tobacco facts and a virtual library stacked with information and tips to help you quit smoking. Going cold turkey? Seek solace from nicotine-starved folks in the chat rooms. QuitNet also reports the latest tobacco news.

      • 09/05/98 Cot Death Link To Smoking Parents The Independent (UK)
          A quarter of cot death babies have as much nicotine as habitual smokers in their bodies just before they die, researchers have found. Nine out of 10 had levels indicative of "significant exposure", says a Scandinavian study in the US Journal of Pediatrics. . . The team, led by Joseph Milerad, neonatologist at the Department of Women and Child Health in the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, took samples of pericardial fluid, the fluid present in the sac surrounding the heart, from every child under seven who had died suddenly in the greater Oslo region between 1990 and 1993.

      • 09/04/98 Q&A: Ask The Mayo Physician: Cigar Smoking Is Risky Mayo Clinic
          A. You ask a very important question for which the answer is YES! Cigar smoking has become popular and is frequently portrayed with no warnings about its hazards to your health.
        Here's the NCI Monograph (in useless, obstructive PDF format), and here's the text backgrounder

      • 09/03/98 Lesbians More Likely To Have Breast Cancer Risks Reuters
          Lesbians are more likely to have risk factors associated with breast cancer than are heterosexual women, according to a study presented last week by Drs. Stephanie Roberts and Suzanne Dibble at the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association annual meeting. . . One unhealthy lifestyle, smoking, was more common among heterosexual women but the link between smoking and breast cancer is debatable, Dibble said.

      • 09/03/98 CESSATION: UCSF Study Finds Teenage Athletes More Likely To Quit Using Spit Tobacco With Intervention EurekAlert
          The study, first reported this summer at the International Association for Dental Research meeting in Nice, France, found that 27 percent of spit tobacco users stopped using the potentially cancer-causing substance for at least one year when dental health professionals, with the help of teammates, intervened. . . "High school baseball players who participated in a peer-led team discussion of the negative health effects of spit tobacco use, and who received an oral cancer screening exam by a dentist or dental hygienist who pointed out to players sores in their mouth related to spit use and advised them to stop their tobacco, use were twice as likely to stop using than those players who received nothing," said Margaret Walsh, EdD, UCSF professor of dental public health and the study's principal investigator.

      • 09/03/98 CESSATION: Use and Cost Effectiveness of Smoking-Cessation Services under Four Insurance Plans in a Health Maintenance Organization New England Journal of Medicine (Full text only available to subscribers)
      • 09/03/98 Fully Paid Quit-smoking Plans Work Best, Study Says Dallas (TX) Morning News
      • 09/02/98 Full Insurance for Smoking Cessation Best Approach, Study Finds Bloomberg
          While smokers with full insurance coverage for cessation programs aren't as successful at kicking the habit as those who must help pay, so many more make the effort to quit that complete coverage actually leads to fewer smokers, a new study shows.
      • 09/02/98 Insurance Prompts More Smokers To Quit Reuters
          Smokers are more likely to try smoking cessation programs if they have full health insurance coverage. And even though such smokers are less likely to quit compared with those who have to pay for the programs, the overall effect is that the highest rates of smokers who successfully kick the habit occur in those with full coverage plans, according to a report in the September 3rd issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. "The results of our study provide compelling evidence to support provision of full coverage for smoking-cessation programs," report Dr. Susan Curry, of the Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound in Seattle, Washington, and colleagues.
      • 09/02/98 Smoking Cessation Programs Are Good Investment, Study Funds PR Newswire
          Paying for the full cost of smoking cessation programs may be more expensive for health plans, but it's a major life-and cost-saving investment because fully-covered programs appear to attract twice as many people who potentially will quit smoking, according to a study conducted by Group Health's Center for Health Studies that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine today.

      • 09/02/98 Attention-deficit Linked To Smoking In Pregnancy Reuters
          The researchers found that children whose mothers smoked in pregnancy were more than twice as likely to have attention-deficit disorder, reported lead author Dr. Magnus Landgren, of Skovde Central Hospital in Sweden, and colleagues in the September issue of the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

      • 09/02/98 Study Identifies Red Wine Compound's Activity Against Cancer And Arthritis PR Newswire
          A scientific paper published on August 21, 1998 in the U.S. Journal of Biological Chemistry suggests that TRANS-RESVERATROL, a natural compound found in red wine, may offer new hope in the prevention of cancer, prevention of neurological diseases and in reducing the pain of arthritis sufferers. . . - RESVERATROL is believed to be the compound in red wine responsible for the celebrated "FRENCH PARADOX". This refers to the finding that people in certain regions of France, whose lifestyles include a high incidence of smoking, low incidence of exercise and a high-fat diet, have a lower incidence of heart disease than North Americans.

      • 09/02/98Carcinogen In Smoke Cuts Two Ways Cancer Genes Linked To Cigarettes Wear White Hats As Well As Black BioWorld via NewsEdge
          Bladder cancer's cause-and-effect link to smoking has been known for a long time, but just how dangerous cigarettes are to bladders is a hot research topic. One such researcher is Jack Taylor, who heads the Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology Section at NIH's National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), in Research Triangle Park, N.C. . . Taylor is senior author of a paper in the current issue of Cancer Research, dated Aug. 15, 1998. Its title is "The role of N-acetylation polymorphisms in smoking-associated bladder cancer: Evidence of a gene- gene-exposure three-way interaction." Those three ways consist of the two NAT genes plus environmental exposure, i.e. cigarette smoke.

      • 09/01/98 Pregnant Smokers Linked To Baby Hyperactivity Reuters
          Women who smoke during pregnancy can increase their baby's risk of developing attention deficit disorder and learning difficulties, Swedish scientists said on Wednesday. . . A study by doctors at Gotenburg University in Sweden has now linked the tobacco habit to neurological disorders in children.

      • 08/31/98 Few MDs follow heart guidelines Reuters
          The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) guidelines were issued to guide physicians in helping their patients prevent heart disease. But a new study published in the journal Circulation finds that few doctors are following these guidelines for assessing heart risk and counseling patients, even in patients at high risk for heart disease. . . The researchers found that the majority of patients were screened for smoking, previous heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a family history of heart disease. . . Only 4% of smokers were counseled about quitting

      • 08/31/98 Experts Say Fat Rivals Smoking As Health Threat Reuters
          "This is a pandemic, probably one of the top five public health problems in the world. Scientists are already beginning to wonder whether it will be worse than smoking," Dr Philip James told reporters at the start of the Eighth International Congress on Obesity, which began on Monday in Paris.

      • 08/29/98 Unlocking The Heart's Secrets; Knowledge Gained From The Ambitious FRAMINGHAM HEART STUDY Is Extending The Lives Of Millions Sep. 9, 1998 US News
          In 1948 . . . Seventy percent of men smoked. (Fewer than 30 percent of women smoked, but they were just beginning a 40-year climb to catch up.) . . . The information gathered in Framingham has had a profound effect on behavior and pharmacology. . . In 1960, the researchers found that cigarette smoking increased the risk of heart disease, giving the U.S. surgeon general ammunition for a 1964 warning that triggered a war against the tobacco industry. When the industry responded by proclaiming the safety of filtered cigarettes, Framingham researchers fired back in 1981 with evidence that filters provide no protection against heart disease.
      • 08/29/98 Unlocking The Heart's Secrets; Knowledge Gained From The Ambitious FRAMINGHAM HEART STUDY Is Extending The Lives Of Millions Sep. 9, 1998 US News
          In 1948 . . . Seventy percent of men smoked. (Fewer than 30 percent of women smoked, but they were just beginning a 40-year climb to catch up.) . . . The information gathered in Framingham has had a profound effect on behavior and pharmacology. . . In 1960, the researchers found that cigarette smoking increased the risk of heart disease, giving the U.S. surgeon general ammunition for a 1964 warning that triggered a war against the tobacco industry. When the industry responded by proclaiming the safety of filtered cigarettes, Framingham researchers fired back in 1981 with evidence that filters provide no protection against heart disease.

      • 08/28/98 Doctors Urged To Check More Patients For Oral Cancer Reuters
          Doctors and dentists should look for signs of mouth cancer, which kills about 8,000 Americans a year, during routine physical and oral examinations, U.S. health officials said Thursday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said oral cancer is often easily detected through a simple visual exam, but doctors and dentists do not always look for the often-fatal disease.
      • 08/28/98 Preventing and Controlling Oral and Pharyngeal Cancer CDC
          Recommendations from a National Strategic Planning Conference . . . b) urge oral health professionals to become more actively involved in community health; c) require instruction in preventing and controlling tobacco and alcohol use at all levels of training in dental, medical, nursing, and other related health-care disciplines; . . g) develop and conduct a national promotional campaign to raise public awareness of oral cancer and its link to tobacco use and heavy alcohol consumption;

      • 08/28/98 Carcinogen In Tobacco Smoke Can Be Passed To Fetus The Hecht study, from the British Medical Journal

      • 08/28/98 Gene Combo Ups Bladder Cancer Risk In Smokers Reuters
          Smokers in general have a higher risk of bladder cancer, but those who carry two genetic variations may be at particularly high risk, a study suggests. The genes, NAT2 and NAT1-10, appear to interact with each other and with environmental exposures to increase the chances of developing the disease.
      • 08/27/98 Three-way Gene-gene-environmental Exposure Interaction Shown By NIEHS To Escalate Smoking-related Bladder Cancer National Institute of Environmental Health Services
          Some smokers face a particularly high risk of bladder cancer because of variations in two genes that work together to escalate their already high risk, scientists at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences report. . . Both genes were previously known to have roles in metabolizing a chemical, arylamine, present in tobacco smoke and some occupations, such as those involving petroleum. But surprisingly, while a variation of one of the genes (NAT1) alone increased risk about twofold for smokers, variations of the second gene (NAT2) conveys no demonstrated risk unless the NAT1 variation is also present. When both variations are present, the risk for smokers is highest. For example, someone who smokes 25 years and carries the at-risk copies of both genes has a tenfold higher risk of bladder cancer than someone who does not smoke. The study, conducted among bladder cancer patients at the nearby Duke University Medical Center, Durham, N.C., and the University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill, is reported in the journal Cancer Research, Vol. 58, issue 15."

      • 08/28/98 Medical Sci Systems Test Shows Tooth Loss Risk Reuters
          Medical Science Systems Inc said Tuesday that a study showed that the PST genotype and smoking were found to be the two most critical factors for a dentist to consider in determining how at risk a person is for tooth loss.

      • 08/26/98 CESSATION: PHARMACIA, Others May Gain as Nicotine Replacement Supported Bloomberg
          The World Health Organization has estimated 3 million people die prematurely each year because of cigarette smoking and that 30 to 70 percent of these deaths are avoidable. Smoking cigarettes causes cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disorders and problems during pregnancy, it said. The findings could boost the prospects of makers of nicotine replacement products, such as Pharmacia & Upjohn Inc., SmithKline Beecham Plc, Glaxo Wellcome Plc and others. . . Besides nicotine gum, the company also makes nicotine delivery systems in the form of skin patches, nasal sprays and inhalers, Gustavsson said. Whatever the form, the four members on the European Cardiology Society's nicotine-dependence Working Group on Epidemiology and Prevention said nicotine is an addictive drug and the most risky method of introducing it to the body is through smoking

      • 08/25/98 Medical Science: Smokers More Likely To Loose Teeth Dow Jones (pay registration)
          Medical Science Systems Inc. (MSSI) said a clinical study for its genetic susceptibility test for periodontal disease shows that smoking and the PST genotype are the two most critical factors for a dentist to consider how at risk a person is to loose teeth. In a press release Tuesday, the company said genotype positive nonsmokers are three times more likely to lose teeth, while genotype positive smokers are eight times more likely to lose teeth.

      • 08/26/98 FDA Confirms 69 Viagra Deaths Graph in AP
          In 51 of the cases, patients had one or more risk factors for heart disease such as hypertension, cigarette smoking or obesity.

      • 08/25/98 Smokers On A Deadly Diet Toronto Sun
          A young woman's desire to be thin may be a deadly obsession leading to lung cancer and heart disease, new research warns. A review published today in the Canadian Medical Association Journal says a growing number of teenage women are smoking to control weight and anxiety, and this is increasing their risk of lung cancer and other smoking-related diseases.
      • 08/25/98 Lessons In Women's Health: Body Image And Pulmonary Disease Canadian Medical Association Journal. Anna Day, MD CMAJ 1998;159:346-9
        • Smoking And Related Pulmonary Diseases
            As might be expected, the increased prevalence of smoking among women has been followed by an increase in smoking-related lung diseases, specifically lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). . . To make an impact on the future burden of respiratory illness, we will require further knowledge in the areas of addiction and body image and the political will to deal with advertising targeted at adolescents.

      • 08/24/98 WHO MONICA Project: Preliminary Analysis of Final Results; WORLD'S LARGEST AND LONGEST HEART STUDY PRODUCES SOME SURPRISES European Congress of Cardiology
          changing rates of coronary heart disease in different populations did not appear to relate at all well to the change in the standard risk factors, considered one by one, or in a risk factor score. Large differences in the rate of decline occurred across populations with similar trends in risk factors. . . "The WHO MONICA Project was set up in the early 1980s to see whether the engines driving the changes in heart disease rates were those known at that time to determine risk in individuals ­smoking, blood pressure, cholesterol, and to a lesser extent, obesity. Our initial impression, - of no direct relationship overall in this study, despite reported results from individual centres- does not negate the importance of these factors to the individual and to health education. If you get eaten by a crocodile when you are expecting lions and tigers it does not mean that big cats have rubber teeth! We would not have done the study if we had been sure what it would show, and we needed international collaboration to make it possible. The preliminary results are a bit of surprise but not entirely so.
      • 08/25/98 10-year Trend in Percentage of Daily Smokers 35-64 gif file
      • 08/25/98 Study Casts Doubt On Heart 'Risk Factors' Electronic Telegraph
          THE largest ever cardiology study has failed to find a link between heart attacks and the classic risk factors, such as smoking and high cholesterol levels. The Monica study, which assessed 21 countries over 10 years, found the incidence of heart disease dropping across Europe, Australia and North America. But scientists could find no statistical connection between the reduction and changes in obesity, smoking, blood pressure or cholesterol levels. "Changing rates of coronary heart disease in different populations did not appear to relate at all well to the change in the standard risk factors," the Monica organisers said in the report published yesterday. "This will be a big surprise for many people," said Dr Caroline Morrison, co-principal investigator for the Glasgow contribution to the study. . . A possible explanation was that these four risk factors had been swamped by others
      • 08/25/98 More Middle-Aged Women Are Smoking AP
          An increasing number of middle-aged women are smoking, which could boost heart attack rates, officials from the World Health Organization said Monday. Preliminary results of a decade-long study conducted in 38 countries and presented at the European Congress of Cardiology show a growing number of female smokers between ages 35 and 64. . . In many parts of the world, particularly Asia and Russia, the number of women who smoke has risen by 10 percent to 20 percent, said Dr. Kurt Huber, a Vienna cardiologist. . . In many industrialized countries, fewer people are suffering heart attacks and more people with heart disease are living longer, thanks to improved medical care.
        Nothing on this is posted yet on the European Society of Cardiology XXth Congress Website, but you can search on "smoking" here to turn up numerous presentations.
      • 08/25/98 Women Smokers More Likely To Suffer From Heart Attacks Xinhua via NewsEdge
          Women smokers in the 35-64 age group in many countries are more likely to suffer from heart attacks, said the world Health Organization (WHO) in a press release here Monday.

      • 08/25/98 Passive Smoking Deteriorates Function Of The Large Arteries Christodoulos Stefanadis MD, FESC, FACC, Associate Professor of Cardiology, Athens Medical School, European Society of Cardialogy, 20th Congress (Vienna)
          RESULTS Passive smoking was associated with a significant decrease (approx. 20%) of aortic distensibility, a finding which denotes deterioration of the elastic properties, or in other words, stiffening of the aorta. This deterioration was maintained for the whole of the study (figure).

      • 08/25/98 Even 'Healthy' Smokers Have Signs of Heart Disease The study was first reported in July. Impotence & Male Health Weekly Plus via NewsEdge
          Even " healthy" smokers have subtle damage to their blood vessels, an early sign of heart disease, researchers said. Their findings could help explain why smokers often cannot exercise as strenuously as non-smokers, even when their lungs have no obvious damage - because their hearts are not getting enough blood. . . Writing in the journal Circulation, published by the American Heart Association, Czernin's team said the smokers averaged 14 percent less blood flow to the heart.

      • 08/24/98 Study Shows Mothers Who Smoke During Pregnancy Transmit Cancer-Causing Substances To Newborns American Chemical Society/EurekAlert
      • 08/24/98 Cancer Alert For Babies BBC
          Professor Gordon McVie, Director-General of the UK Cancer Research Campaign, said: "This is absolute dynamite. "Here we have cast-iron, watertight evidence that the baby is exposed to carcinogens thanks to the mother's smoking habits."
      • 08/24/98 Tobacco Byproducts Passed to Fetuses, Researchers Say The New York Times. Here's the item at the Chicago Tribune
          Stephen Hecht of the University of Minnesota Cancer Center said his findings established that the nicotine-derived chemical NNK is not only received by the fetus but processed by the body. The chemical is the only known lung carcinogen found solely in tobacco smoke. "We don't know the rate it is passing through the body or the time spent there, but the study shows substantial exposure of the fetus to a substance known to cause cancer," Hecht said in an interview before presenting his paper on the findings at this week's national meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston.
      • 08/24/98 Tobacco-cancer Link Found In Newborns St. Paul Pioneer Press
          "The message is clear," Hecht said. "Don't smoke when you're pregnant." . . Of the 31 smoke-related samples, 22 had detectable urinary levels of two breakdown products of NNK -- known as NNAL and NNAL-Glue. However, none of the 17 babies of nonsmoking mothers had detectable levels of either product. Hecht said the carcinogen was picked up in the mothers' bloodstreams and transmitted to the fetuses through the placenta. "Some compounds will not be transmitted, others will," he said. "This one will, which is consistent with animal studies." Various laboratory experiments show that offspring of NNK-treated hamster mothers develop tumors of the lung, trachea, larynx, nasal cavity, adrenal glands and pancreas, while offspring of mouse mothers come down with liver and lung tumors.
      • 08/24/98 Pregnant Smokers Pass Potent Carcinogen to Fetus, Study Finds Washington Post
          It remains unknown, however, whether babies born to smoking mothers have an increased risk of developing cancer. Part of the reason it has been difficult to study this question is that parents tend to continue to smoke throughout their child's lives, and many of the children exposed in the womb may grow up to be smokers themselves. "The epidemiology does not show a clear relationship between exposure in utero and cancer later on in life," Hecht said. "This is still an exposure that cannot be good. It can only be bad."
      • 08/23/98 Pregnant Smokers Can Pass Toxins To Baby-study Reuters
          Researchers said Sunday they had the first hard evidence that pregnant smokers can pass cancer-causing substances to their babies. They said they found evidence of nicotine in the urine of newborn babies, which they said proves that tobacco products cross the placenta into a baby in the womb. Stephen Hecht of the University of Minnesota and colleagues said they found by-products of NNK, a chemical derived from nicotine, in the urine of newborn babies.
      • 08/23/98 Carcinogen Found in Smokers' Babies AP
          But a new study announced Sunday at the annual meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston offers what researchers say is the first direct evidence that fetuses of women who smoke actually metabolize cancer-causing agents contained in tobacco. The study, conducted by University of Minnesota professor Stephen S. Hecht and sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, examined the first urine produced by 48 German newborns. . . While researchers found no traces of NNK in newborns of non-smokers, they detected the carcinogen in 22 of 31 newborns of mothers who smoked during pregnancy.

      • 08/24/98 CESSATION: Gummi Candy not Just for Kids; Teens & Adults Have Taste for New Fat-Free, Flavorful Items PR Newswire
          "Gummies are a naturally fat-free food," says Firmignac. "They're not messy to eat like chocolate so you can eat them while at the computer, driving, just about anywhere! We have even heard stories that people who want to stop smoking use gummies to get that oral satisfaction without lighting up."

      • 08/16/98 CESSATION: One Woman's Struggle To Quit Boston Globe
          Suzanne Hook is stressed. It has been a long day at work, the traffic on Interstate 93 is a nightmare, and, worst of all, she's headed for the first session of the quit-smoking class she signed up for in a moment of panic. Not that she doesn't want to take the class. She wants to quit smoking. It's just that she can't imagine giving up cigarettes, and it's kind of hard to do one without the other.
      • 08/23/98 For The Record Boston Globe
          Correction: Because of a reporting error, a story on smoking in last week's Globe Magazine misstated the cause of Clark Gable's death; he died of a heart attack.

      • 08/21/98 SIDS linked to heavy cigarette smoke Reuters
          Infants who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) were more often heavily exposed to cigarette smoke than infants who died unexpectedly of other causes, Swedish researchers conclude. Some experts believe that SIDS is caused by a problem with the body's normal response to oxygen deprivation. Studies have repeatedly identified maternal smoking during pregnancy and nursing as a risk factor for SIDS. The current study suggests a relationship between short-term nicotine exposure and death from SIDS, according to the research team, led by Dr. Joseph Milerad, of the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

      • 08/21/98 Women's Perception Of Risk Of Cancer Focus on breast cancer. Interesting item on smoking in the table. British Medical Journal

      • 08/20/98 Lower Vitamin C In Smokers' Breast Milk Reuters
          "Cigarette smoking is a source of oxidant stress in pregnant women, suggesting that it could be a source of the same in infants exposed in (the uterus)," write lead author Dr. Rosa M. Ortega of the Department of Nutrition at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain, and colleagues. The team suggests that vitamin C deficiency in a newborn "may lead to inadequate antioxidant defenses," and that the level of antioxidants such as vitamin C in breast milk "probably defines the degree of protection it can offer" against the negative effects of normal metabolic processes. [Journal of the American College of Nutrition]

      • 08/20/98 More Health Risks In Children Of Smokers Reuters
          In a household where one or both parents smoke, children are more likely to have unhealthy lifestyles than children of nonsmokers or ex-smokers, according to a study in the August issue of the Journal of Pediatrics. Children of parents who smoke tend to be less physically active, watch more television, have a less healthy diet and smoke more than children of nonsmokers, say the researchers, led by Dr. Valerie Burke, of Royal Perth Hospital, Perth, Australia. In combination, these unhealthy habits may contribute to the reported health effects of exposure to cigarette smoke (passive smoking), Burke and her colleagues suggest.

      • 08/19/98 ZYBAN(R) (Bupropion Hydrochloride) Sustained-release Tablets Now Available In Pharmacies Across Canada CNW
          Zyban(R) (bupropion hydrochloride), the first nicotine-free prescription tablet to help people quit smoking, was officially launched today and is now available in pharmacies across the country. Zyban was cleared for use by the Health Protection Branch on July 31. Accompanying Zyban at no additional cost is a personalized support program called Zyban(R)Plus.

      • 08/19/98 In Depth Health: Lung Cancer CNN
          Numbers: About 178,100 new cases will be diagnosed in 1997. That's about 13 percent of all cancer diagnoses. The incidence rate is rising among women, though not as fast as before, and is dropping among men. . . Signs: Persistent cough, chest pain, recurring pneumonia or bronchitis and sputum streaked with blood . . . Risk Factors: Cigarette smoking

      • 08/20/98 Of Cancer And Drugs: Beware Pot, Cocaine Boston Globe
      • 08/19/98 Increased Cancer Risk Is Seen For Pot, Crack Cocaine Smokers The Wall Street Journal (pay registration)
      • 08/18/98 Study Finds Smoking Marijuana And Cocaine Can Cause Cancer CNN
      • 08/18/98 Marijuana, Crack Smoke May Cause Lung Cancer Reuters
      • 08/18/98 Marijuana, Cocaine Linked to Cancer AP
          Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that smoking marijuana and crack can cause the same precancerous changes in their bronchial cells that tobacco smoking causes well before the smoker gets cancer. The study, reported in this week's Journal of the National Cancer Institute, also found that smoking both tobacco and marijuana or cocaine increased the risk, because those smokers' were more likely to sustain additional precancerous changes. Also, these combination smokers were more likely to have damage to their p53 gene, an important gene in fending off cancer.

      • 08/18/98 Smoking Reportedly a Risk Factor for Crohn's Disease Medical Tribune/Medscape
          Stephen Bridger, M.D., and colleagues of the department of medicine at the King's College School of Medicine in London, studied 36 sibling pairs with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). In each pair, one person smoked and the other did not prior to IBD diagnosis. The researchers also studied a second group consisting of 412 patients with confirmed IBD-197 with Crohn's disease and 215 with ulcerative colitis. "The generalization [made from previous studies] is that smoking is good for ulcerative colitis and bad for Crohn's disease," said Mark A. Peppercorn, M.D., a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Center for Inflammatory Bowel Disease at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, both in Boston. The new study, which looked at the influence of smoking in an intriguing way, supports this notion and adds "one more piece of an evolving puzzle," he said. Medical Tribune: Family Physician Edition 39(13):18, 1998.

      • 08/18/98 Preventing Cancer with Drugs Lexington (KY) Herald Leader
          Jay Timbers is well aware of the dangers of smoking and has tried everything to quit: counseling, a nicotine patch, even hypnosis. Uncertain that he will ever stop, Timbers is trying something different. He is taking two pills a week as part of an experiment to see whether it's possible to reduce a smoker's chances of lung cancer. . . Until recently, developing pills to prevent cancer was not a goal of reputable research laboratories. But today, the likes of Fox Chase are in fervent search of them. They are looking for chemicals -- either found in nature or manufactured -- that can stymie the disease process long before it can be diagnosed, let alone be life-threatening.

      • 08/18/98 Smoking Out The Cause Of Addiction | Genetic Coding May Affect How Hard It Is To Quit San Diego Union-Tribune
          In recent months, several new studies have helped explain how nicotine secures such power. Scientists have found genetic differences that can make nicotine harder to resist for some people, and have learned more about how nicotine baits the emotional centers of the brain. "The era of learning about nicotine is upon us," said Kenneth Kellar, a neuropharmacologist at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

      • 08/17/98 News for Your Health MSNBC
          ORAL CANCER isn't just caused by smoking cigarettes. Chewing tobacco and other smokeless tobacco products can also pose a risk to heavy users. Oral cancer treatment isn't pretty. . . For more general information on smokeless tobacco, visit the Web site for the. American Academy of Family Physicians

      • 08/16/98 One More Reason Not To Chew Tobacco San Diego Union-Tribune
          Here's fresh ammunition for part-time San Diegan JOE GARAGIOLA . . . He may have a new convert in JACKIE MOORE, the Colorado Rockies' bench coach who is back in uniform after recently being struck by a foul ball. The scorcher hit Moore's left wrist with such force that he swallowed his wad of chewing tobacco. Moore had to be taken to a hospital by ambulance because the nicotine rush caused his blood pressure to skyrocket.

      • 08/16/98 Passive Smokers Inhale Six Cigarettes A Year
          PASSIVE smokers inhale the equivalent of just six cigarettes a year from other people's smoke, according to the largest ever study of actual exposure levels of non-smokers. , , , The reliability of such claims has now been thrown into doubt by the measurements of real-life levels of cancer-causing substances inhaled by passive smokers. A team led by Dr Keith Phillips of Covance Laboratories, an independent consultancy in Harrogate, has found that even passive smokers who live and work with smokers are typically exposed to just 0.1 per cent of the dangerous components of cigarette smoke inhaled by smokers. . . Dr Phillips . . . said: "They try to dismiss it by arguing that our research receives support from . . . the tobacco industry. Our findings are completely independent of any influence from the industry."
        Here's the Princeton, NJ-based Covance Site
          Covance Inc. (NYSE: CVD) is one of the largest companies in the $4 billion global biopharmaceutical development services industry. It is the only company in its field dedicated solely to global drug development, with scientific, medical, and managerial capability and expertise at every step of the complete process. Covance aims to help pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies optimize the value of their products and fast-track their introduction to the global health care marketplace.

      • 08/12/98 Vitamin Drink May Benefit Smokers; Antioxidant-rich Beverage Helps Prevent Plaque Build-up MSNBC
          IN THE NEW study, drinking a tomato-based juice fortified with beta-carotene and vitamins C and E ‹ all antioxidants ‹ appeared to interfere with a process known as oxidation, which promotes LDL deposits. Over the course of four weeks, the rate of LDL oxidation decreased in 19 smokers who drank 8 ounces of the vitamin drink each day, according to FRANCENE M. STEINBERG, of the division of metabolism, endocrinology and nutrition at the UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON IN SEATTLE. During the same period, there was no significant change in 20 smokers who drank a placebo drink, she reported in the August issue of the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CLINICAL NUTRITION.

      • 08/12/98 The Natural History of Respiratory Symptoms in a Cohort of Adolescents Full Text, from American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
          Other than personal atopy and family history of atopy, smoking, both active and passive, appeared to be the most important factor associated with the natural history of symptoms. In this cohort, active smoking was linked with current cough and late-onset wheeze and cough, while passive smoking was associated with current symptoms, doctor-diagnosed asthma, persistent cough, and late-onset wheeze. The association between symptoms and passive smoking was related only to the presence of another smoker, with no additional association with the number of other smokers present being shown.
      • 08/98 Smoking and Childhood AsthmaWhere Do We Stand? American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
          The study of Withers and colleagues (1) serves as a reminder that the issue of smoking remains important relative to asthma not only for scientific knowledge but for public health. Children's passive exposure to tobacco smoke remains widespread (23), and there is disturbing evidence that cigarette smoking in adolescents is increasing (24). Thus, it is quite likely that exposure to tobacco smoke will remain part of asthmatic's environment for some time to come. . . Am. J. Respir. Crit. Care Med., Volume 158, Number 2, August 1998, 349-351

      • 08/11/98 Testing Begins on New Test for Early Detection of Lung Cancer PR Newswire
          A new test called TCPP, which may provide lung cancer detection 5 to 7 years earlier than current diagnosis tools, will begin final human trials this month. . . Ninety percent of lung cancer victims are smokers and each day 471 people are diagnosed with the disease. Each day, 420 lung cancer victims die from the disease, a survival rate of 15%.

      • 08/11/98 Antidepressant Helps Smokers Quit Reuters
          The generic antidepressant drug NORTRIPTYLINE appears to help smokers kick the habit, whether they have a history of depression or not, according to a study in the August issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. . . Previous research has shown that the antidepressant BUPROPION can help alleviate these mood changes and help smokers who have quit to stay off cigarettes. To determine whether nortriptyline, a less expensive generic drug, might have the same effects, the authors of the new study tested the drug among a group of 199 smokers who wanted to quit.

      • 08/11/98 A Study Guide to Scientific Studies Not directly on tobacco. Jane Brody, The New York Times [LINK NOW WORKING]
          First, fed in part by media attention to health issues, the public's concern about health and demand for health information has increased significantly in recent decades. Second, few people, including many who report health findings in print or on the air, know how to interpret scientific research or understand the certainties -- and uncertainties -- inherent in different kinds of studies.

      • 08/10/98 USC, UCLA to Study Environmental Health Threats to Children LA Times
          Vice President GORE will announce at the White House today that USC and UCLA will join seven other research centers in receiving federal grants to study environmental health threats facing children, administration officials said. The Centers of Excellence in Children's Environmental Health Research will address two primary areas--the causes of asthma and the effects of pesticide exposure. The aim is to better understand the links between rising asthma rates among children and smog, secondhand tobacco smoke and other pollutants. In addition, researchers will examine children's vulnerabilities to pesticides

      • 08/10/98 Esophageal Cancer Cancer Control: Journal of the Moffitt Cancer Center/Medscape
          Adenocarcinoma of the esophagus is related to acid reflux and now accounts for at least 50% of esophageal malignancies in the United States and Europe.[1] In the United States, black men are at highest risk of developing esophageal squamous cancer, the risk being almost four times greater than that of white men. The risk of squamous cell cancer is reported to increase by a factor of 18 in alcoholics who drink more than 80 g per day and by a factor of 44 in this group if they also have a daily consumption of 20 g of tobacco.

      • 08/10/98 Air Pollution And The Upper Airway: Recognizing Irritant-related Symptoms Hospital Medicine/MedScape
          Specific Pollutants One of the most common indoor air pollutants is environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). ETS is a complex mixture of combustion products . . Otitis media in young children. A number of studies have documented an increased risk of OM in children exposed to ETS. . . Adverse health effects from ETS are not limited to OM; both asthma induction and exacerbation, as well as small, but apparently persistent, decrements in pulmonary function, are linked to childhood ETS exposure. [5]

      • 08/10/98 Heart Rate Variability During the First Month of Smoking Cessation American Heart Journal/MedScape
          Conclusions: HRV increases immediately after smoking cessation and gradually declines thereafter, which suggests that the effect of smoking on autonomic activity rapidly disappears immediately after smoking cessation. HRV remained unaffected by the presence or absence of the withdrawal syndrome. [Am Heart J 135(6):1004-1009, 1998. © 1998 Mosby-Year Book, Inc.]

      • 08/05/98 Q&A: Add Pleasure And Safety To Condom Use Louanne Cole Weston, Ph.D., SF Examiner
          Q: My doctor said that smoking cigarettes can affect my sex life. Is this true? A: Yes. Smoking affects men's sexuality in three ways: * Desire to be sexual. * Ability to get and keep erections. * Fertility.

      • 08/05/98 CESSATION: New Drug May Block Cocaine Addiction Reuters
          An epilepsy drug shows promise as a treatment for cocaine addiction, with tests on animals shedding light on both the biochemical and behavioral aspects of cocaine abuse, U.S. scientists announced Wednesday. The scientists said preliminary results from a decade-long study indicated that the drug VIGABATRIN could possibly also be effective in combating other addictions such as tobacco.

      • 08/04/98 Teenage Girls' Weight Worries May Prompt A Life Of Smoking The Guardian
      • 08/04/98 Girls' Fears Of Being Fat Drive Them To Smoke Times of London
      • 08/03/98 Sad Plight Of Teenage Girl Smokers Revealed The Cancer Research Campaign PR
          THE private torment of teenage girls who smoke has been revealed in a new report by The Cancer Research Campaign. The study of 3,000 girls from Britain and Canada, published today (Aug 4) in the Post Graduate Medical Journal shows that those who smoked were 30 per cent more likely to be overweight and prone to over-eat and twice as likely to be worried about their shape.
      • 08/04/98 Girls Say Smoking Is Aid To Staying Slim Electronic Telegraph
      • 08/04/98 Teenage Girl Smokers Risk Eating Disorders The Independent
      • 08/03/98 Teen Girls Fight Fat With Fire The Globe and Mail
          The same ferocious fear of fat that inspires teen-aged girls to starve themselves also persuades them to smoke, according to a study published today in the Postgraduate Medical Journal. . . The study assessed body weight and smoking habits in 2,768 girls aged 10 to 17 in Ottawa and in London, England . . . Lead researcher Arthur Crisp, a psychiatrist with Atkinson Morley's Hospital in Wimbledon, England, and a professor at St. George's Hospital Medical School in London, said the study exposes the need for a more complex approach to persuading schoolgirls to kick the habit. "Those forces that drive the female desire to be thin are very powerful: They certainly override the prospect of death coming a few years earlier some decades hence," Dr. Crisp said.
      • 08/03/98 Study Shows Girls Use Cigarettes As Slimming Aid BBC
      • 08/03/98 Girl Smokers Likelier To Be Heavy AP
          Teen-age girls who smoke are 30 percent more likely to be overweight and twice as likely to be concerned about their bodies, according to a study released Monday. The study, financed by the Cancer Research Campaign, also found that most girls who take up smoking do so to lose weight. . . The girls who smoked were 30 percent more likely than their non-smoking peers to be overweight, the researchers found. The group was also twice as likely to be concerned about their bodies and to vomit frequently after overeating. Most of the smokers said weight control was the principal reason they took up the habit.

      • 08/03/98 Quitting Smoking Boosts Lungs In Pregnancy Reuters
          Women who quit smoking before or early in pregnancy not only have a healthier baby, they also have a rapid improvement in lung function themselves, a study suggests. "Smoking cessation either before or at an early stage of pregnancy is associated with early, reversible increments of maternal airway function and (average) birth weights that are higher than among women who continue smoking," reported DR. TARUN DAS in the August issue of OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY.

      • 08/02/98 Mood Upbeat Over First-ever Drop Of Cancer Deaths Boston Globe
          Based on government data just released for the first 11 months of last year, 1997 will almost certainly be the first year since statistics have been tracked in which fewer Americans died of cancer than the year before. . . While it is not known precisely what is driving the drop in deaths, one clear factor is that Americans are getting better at detecting cancer early . . Another key, says Rosenberg, is the decline in smoking, especially among men. . . Dr. John Bailar, chairman of the Department of Health Studies at the University of Chicago and a leading critic of the cancer establishment, says the lion's share of credit goes to Pap smears and other early-detection techniques, along with campaigns against tobacco and other carcinogens.

      • 08/01/98 Study Links Calcium And Vitamin C To Gum Health Washington Post/Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
          People with the lowest vitamin C intake were at the highest risk for gum disease, the Buffalo researchers found. The risk was especially true for smokers, because vitamin C is believed to counteract some of the toxins in smoke and helps maintain and repair connective tissue.

      • 07/31/98 Serum Cotinine Concentration and Self-reported Smoking during Pregnancy. American Journal of Epidemiology
          In conclusion, this study showed that pregnant women accurately reported whether they smoked, but cotinine concentration was a better measure than self-report of the actual tobacco dose received.

      • 07/31/98 Drug to Treat Alcoholism Sets Off Controversy in U.S. The New York Times
          Many experts on dependency say the drug -- acamprosate, which would be sold in the United States as Campral -- is badly needed. . . . For some researchers, acamprosate is more than just a promising treatment -- it is an important new weapon in the arsenal against a double addiction of alcohol and tobacco. In recent years, research has shown a strong link between heavy smoking and drinking. An 11-year study by the Mayo Clinic showed that those with a dual addiction were far more likely to die from smoking. "A leading cause of death among alcoholics who smoke is lung cancer," said Dr. David Lewis, director of the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University in Providence, R.I.

      • 07/31/98 Northeast HMOs Give Preventive Care AP
          More patients in New England received preventive care through HMOs than anywhere else in the country, while patients in four Southern states received the least care, according to a federal study. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed adult patients under 65 served by 320 HMOs nationwide in 1996, focusing on mammograms, Pap smears, eye exams for diabetics and advice to quit smoking. . . New England doctors scolded 68 percent of their patients about the dangers of smoking, a lecture that nearly half the patients in the East South Central states escaped.

      • 07/30/98 CDC Praise New England HMOs AP
          The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention surveyed adult patients under 65 served by 320 HMOs nationwide in 1996, focusing on mammograms, Pap smears, eye exams for diabetics and advice to quit smoking. . . New England doctors scolded 68 percent of their patients about the dangers of smoking, a lecture that nearly half the patients in the East South Central states escaped.

      • 07/30/98 BOOKS: CESSATION: Seven Steps To A Smoke-Free Life Provide Road Map To Those Who Want To Quit EurekAlert
          about one in four adults still smoke. Many of them would like to quit, so the American Lung Association and a Washington University in St. Louis researcher have written a book to help them. Called "7 STEPS TO A SMOKE-FREE LIFE," the book, published in May 1998, is based on the American Lung Association's award-winning "Freedom from Smoking" program. Both the book and the program are designed to help smokers better understand their addiction and prepare to quit.

      • 07/29/98 New Smoking Vaccine Developed The London Observer article, at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune

      • 07/28/98 Gum Health Linked To Calcium, Vitamin C The Cutting Edge, Washington Post
          A pair of studies by scientists at the State University of New York at Buffalo have found that people who consumed too little calcium or too little vitamin C had a greater risk of developing gum disease than those whose diets contained adequate levels of both nutrients. . . The second study . . . found that inadequate intake can lead to gum problems, particularly among cigarette smokers. . . The risk was especially true for smokers, because vitamin C is believed to counteract some of the toxins in smoke and helps maintain and repair connective tissue. The studies were presented last month at the annual meeting of the International Association for Dental Research, held in Nice, France.

      • 07/27/98 CESSATION: High School Students Use Product Marketing Classes To Help Themselves Quit Smoking PICS PR
          PICS recently unveiled a new version of LifeSign, designed and marketed exclusively for teenage smokers. LifeSign for Teens and Young Adults is a credit card-sized computer which implements a gradual reduction plan for smoking cessation. . . To help him market his product, Behar enlisted the help of Don Coghlan's marketing class at Herndon High School in Northern Virginia. . . "By having students involved and creating product commercials ‹ in their own language ‹ and communicating that message to their peers, the efforts to reposition our product pointed us to a new and effective way to solve an important social issue, namely how to prevent teen smoking initiation."

      • 07/27/98 Another Big Reason Not To Smoke? Reuters
          "The advantage of the penis from the communications point of view is that it is easy to imagine it shriveled up and shrunken whereas damage to other vital organs such as the heart is much less obvious or easy to visualize," he said
      • 07/27/98 Penis Shock Tactics 'Could Cut Smoking'; Penis Size: A New Weapon For The Anti-smokers? BBC
          The anti-smoking lobby has called for research showing that smoking could reduce the size of a man's erect penis to be used in health warnings on cigarette packets. Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) believes that targeting sexual performance may be a very effective way to persuade people to stop smoking. Clive Bates, director of Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) said: "There may be people out there who don't care at all about the risk of getting cancer later on, but might be really upset if they thought it was interfering with their sex life.
      • 07/27/98 Health Warning: Smoking Can Seriously Shrink Your Manhood The Observer
          This alarming finding has emerged from a study undertaken at Boston University School of Medicine. Two hundred men submitted their erect organs to the scrutiny of the ruler and the answer came back: If you smoke, you are likely to have a shorter erect penis. . . In keeping with the sensitivity of his sex, Dr Pedram Salimpour, one of the researchers, is not talking millimetres - or at least he was not yesterday when all he would say is that the study was 'the biggest ever' of its kind. . . But the secret will soon be out. He emphasised that the findings were 'statistically significant' and that the full extent of the damage would be revealed to the International Society of Impotence Research in Amsterdam next month. The tobacco industry may insist that this pioneering research does not stand up, but the scientific facts are against it.

      • 07/26/98 Report: Depression Causes Impotence Graph in UPI
          A study in the July-August issue of the journal Psychosomatic Medicine says impotence, or erectile dysfunction, is nearly twice as likely in men who have symptoms of depression than in those who don't. . . Physically active men and light drinkers were less likely to experience depressive symptoms or erectile dysfunction. Depression was strongly associated with cigarette smoking, low education or recent changes in marital or employment status.

      • 07/22/98 FDA confirms 39 VIAGRA deaths Graph in UPI
          The U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirms that 39 men have died while taking the anti-impotency drug Viagra. . . Thirty-three of the 39 patients were at increased risk for coronary artery disease due to hypertension, high cholesterol, cigarette smoking, diabetes, obesity or previous heart problems.

      • 07/24/98 Cigarette Smoking Is A Major Risk Factor For Blindness Survey of Ophthalmology, Vol 42, pp 535-547, 1998 [ARTICLE NOT ONLINE]
          As compared to non-smokers, smokers are 2.5 more likely to develop age-related macular degeneration and up to 3 times more likely to develop cataract. While cataract is usually amenable to surgery, age-related macular degeneration is untreatable and blinding in most cases. . . Other diseases associated with smoking are Grave's exophthalmopathy (the bulging of the eyes in relation to thyroid dysfunction), interference with the retinal blood supply ( a group of blinding and sight impairing diseases which are mostly untreatable), acute ischemic optic neuropathy (stroke of the nerve serving the eye) and tobacco-alcohol amblyopia (blindness or visual impairment due to consumption of these materials). The dangerous effects of smoking are transmitted through the placenta to the fetus and therefore offspring of smoking mothers are much more prone to develop strabismus (cross-eyes) than babies of non-smoking mothers.

      • 07/24/98 Smoke Screens ABC
          Wrong. A cigarette is a cigarette is a cigarette. Light and ultra-light cigarettes do contain lower levels of tar. But they can still deliver the same dose of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide as regular cigarettes, says a paper in the July issue of the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE. Light cigarettes can contain just as much nicotine and carbon monoxide as regular cigarettes. How can this be? Turns out smokers compensate for cigarettes' lightness by puffing more frequently or more deeply, or by blocking filters with their fingers or lips, according to researchers from Penn State, Millersville University in Pennsylvania and the University of Vermont. That's why studies have failed to find a reduced cancer risk in light-cigarette smokers.

      • 07/24/98 Radiation Is Called Risk In Cancer Care Boston Globe
          "I think post-operative radiotherapy should not be given routinely. There is clear evidence of a detrimental effect," Dr. Lesley Stewart, who led the research team, said in a telephone interview. . . Lung cancer is the leading cause of death from cancers worldwide. It killed 1.1 million people in 1997 and more than 90 percent of the deaths were related to smoking. The disease has increased fourfold in women in the past 30 years and has overtaken breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death in US women. [SOUCE: The Lancet]

      • 07/22/98 Vitamins May Cut Smoking Risk To Fetus Reuters
          Taking vitamins during pregnancy might reduce the increased risk of fetal death in women who smoke, according to a study. But the risk of fetal death is nearly twice as high in women who smoke as in nonsmoking women, and prenatal vitamins do not eliminate that risk, cautions study co-author Dr. Germaine M. Buck, an associate professor of social and preventive medicine at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

      • 07/24/98 CESSATION: Lifesaver UK's Health Education Authority site
          Welcome to Lifesaver...a website designed to offer the support, advice and motivation you may need to stop smoking for life. . . This site has been organised so you can access information about the effects of smoking, reasons to quit, how to stop, tips on how to get through withdrawal and the benefits of quitting, plus links to further help and related external websites.
        • 07/21/98 Anti-smoking Vaccine To Be Tested London Observer/Scripps Howard
            The vaccine has been developed by IMMULOGIC of Waltham, Mass., which plans to test it shortly on human volunteers. The company has already begun testing a cocaine vaccine on volunteers. This is the first anti-smoking treatment that has attempted to neutralize the addictive effects of nicotine. The vaccine works by provoking an immune response with antibodies that bind to and neutralize the nicotine, preventing it from reaching the body's nicotine receptors and reinforcing the craving which hooks smokers. In other words, you could smoke if you wanted to, but since there would be no "nicotine hit" there would be little point in persisting.

        • 07/17/98 Marijuana Can Damage Human Genes AP
            "Smoking marijuana is every bit as risky as smoking cigarettes," concludes study lead author Dr. Marinel Ammenheuser of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Mutation Research. . . . Ammenheuser noted that many of the young women involved in her study "told us very proudly that they didn't smoke tobacco, that they only smoked marijuana." . . The results? The authors discovered that regular marijuana users had three times as many hprt mutations as non-users. Furthermore, the users' mutation rates were actually slightly higher than those of light tobacco users (5 to 8 cigarettes per day), as assessed in a previous study. This finding did not surprise the investigators, since they say "tobacco smoke and marijuana smoke contain many of the same carcinogens and mutagens."

        • 07/17/98 Secondhand Smoke Exacerbates Asthma Reuters
            Non-smoking asthmatics exposed to secondhand smoke have double the number of asthma-related emergency room visits of asthmatics who are not exposed to smoke, according to a study. "Environmental tobacco smoke exposure is associated with greater asthma severity," say Californian researchers at the University of California, San Francisco. Their report appears in the July issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

        • 07/15/98 Group: Some Damage Lasts After Smokers Quit Reuters
            It has issued a booklet that details some of the damage done by cigarettes -- damage that does not go away when a smoker kicks the habit. . . "We don't want to dishearten or depress smokers -- quitting is always healthier than smoking," Dr. Elizabeth Whelan, the council's president, said in a statement. But according to the group, smoking does permanent damage to the lungs, heart, eyes, mouth and throat, digestive organs, genital tract, and skin -- damage that can only be partly undone by quitting.

        • 07/14/98 Maternal Cigarette Smoking and Child Psychiatric Morbidity: A Longitudinal Study Abstract, Pediatrics
        • 07/14/98 Mom's Smoking Tied To Child Behavior Problems Reuters
            Children born to women who smoked during pregnancy are at increased risk for behavioral problems, researchers report. The study results also indicate that maternal smoking can adversely affect behavior in 5-year-olds. "These findings provide further support for antismoking programs in pregnancy and in young family settings," conclude a team of investigators led by Dr. Gail Williams of the University of Queensland, in Australia.

        • 07/14/98 Alzheimer's Study Implicates Smoking The Cutting Edge, Washington Post
            Smoking more than doubles the risk of dementia and Alzheimer's disease, according to a Dutch study of nearly 7,000 people. . . Nonsmokers who developed dementia did so at an average age of 86. By comparison, dementia struck former smokers at an average age of 81 and current smokers at an average age of 77. . . "Vascular involvement is probably more important than previously thought in the [development] of Alzheimer's disease," researchers said. The new study found that the increased risk from smoking appeared greatest in people without a genetic mutation involving the apoliprotein-E gene (or APOE). . . The study, by researchers from Erasmus University Medical School in Rotterdam and the University of Antwerp in Belgium, appeared last month in the Lancet.

        • 07/13/98 Smoke Signals; Researchers Gleaning Genetic, Chemical Clues About Nicotine's Powerful Grip On Its Users Dallas Morning News
            In recent months, several new studies have helped explain how nicotine secures such power. Scientists have found genetic differences that can make nicotine harder to resist for some people, and have learned more about how nicotine baits the emotional centers of the brain. "The era of learning about nicotine is upon us," said Kenneth Kellar, a neuropharmacologist at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.

        • 07/13/98 "Healthy" smokers may not be UPI
            A team of UCLA researchers reporting in today's issue of Circulation, a journal of the American Heart Association, found that smokers averaged about 14 percent less blood flow to the heart than non-smokers. . . "Though they have no known coronary heart disease we have shown they have abnormalities in what we call vasomotion, or rate of blood flow."
        • 07/13/98 Even 'Healthy' Smokers Have Heart Disease Reuters
            Their findings could help explain why smokers often cannot exercise as strenuously as nonsmokers, even when their lungs have no obvious damage -- because their hearts are not getting enough blood. "The heart beats faster during physical exertion, requiring the coronary arteries to dilate or widen to increase the flow of oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle to keep it pumping properly," Dr. Johannes Czernin of the University of California Los Angeles said in a statement.
        • 07/13/98 Smoking Affects Arterial Stress Response Reuters
            Smoking appears to reduce the ability of the arteries that feed the heart muscle to respond to stress, according to a report. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, also suggest that the longer a person smokes, the more severe the effect on the coronary arteries' ability to widen under stressful conditions . . . The study's authors, led by Dr. Roxana Campisi, studied a group of longtime smokers and a comparison group of nonsmokers.

        • 07/13/98 Smoking Linked To Genital Wart Duration Reuters
            Genital warts are more likely to linger for 6 months or more in men who are smokers compared with nonsmokers, according to a report presented here at the First International Conference on Human Papillomavirus Infections and Cervical Cancer. In a study of 231 men being treated at the Perth STD Wart Clinic in Australia, men with visible warts were younger and nearly three times more likely to be current smokers than men without warts, reported Dr. Jenny McCloskey and colleagues at the clinic. Regardless of the patient's age or alcohol use, patients who had warts that lingered for 6 months or longer were twice as likely to be smokers

        • 07/13/98 Smoking News Latest In Black Health Riddle Richmond Times-Dispatch
            Black smokers retain up to twice as much metabolized nicotine in their blood as either whites or Mexican- Americans who smoke the same amount, researchers found. . . The report was of particular interest to Tompkins, a pulmonary specialist who sits on the Tobacco, Women and Lung Cancer task force of the American College of Chest Physicians. Lung cancer has overtaken breast cancer as the most deadly form of cancer in women, she said. Researchers aren't sure why nicotine seems to latch onto black smokers like guests who've overstayed their welcome. But they offered several possible explanations:

        • 07/12/98 Group: Some Damage Lasts After Smokers Quit Reuters
            Smoking for as little as five years damages virtually every organ in the human body, the American Council on Science and Health, a nonprofit consumer group, said. It has issued a booklet that details some of the damage done by cigarettes -- damage that does not go away when a smoker kicks the habit.
          Here's The Irreversible Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking

        • 07/12/98 Medicare Stance Vexes Emphysema Patients Raleigh News & Observer
            But in a move that has angered many doctors and even more patients, Medicare refuses to pay for the surgery. Insisting that the risks of the relatively new -- and costly -- procedure be studied, it will pay for only half the patients enrolled in a clinical trial. . . "Everyone wants the operation." Dr. Joel Cooper, the Washington (Mo.) University pioneer of the operation, which makes lungs more efficient by removing diseased tissue, has dropped out of the clinical trial, saying it's unfair to turn away so many people. Even physicians at Duke are torn about the study's design, saying they probably already know enough to identify the patients best suited for the treatment.

        • 07/16/98 Lifelines: Take Care When Not Smoking Nature Science Update
            When heavy smokers quit smoking, there are many anecdotal reports and scientific studies showing that mood, the ability to concentrate and mental agility may be affected. But does performance in an abstract psychological test in a lab reflect any impairment in real day-to-day activities? Andrew Waters from the Tobacco Research Section of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, UK and his colleagues now suggest that it does.
        • 07/14/98 Not Smoking Proves Point The New York Times
            It is well known that in laboratory tests, when smokers suddenly abstain from nicotine, for a few hours afterward their mental performance falls and their bad humor rises. Dr. ANDREW J. WATERS, of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, realized that No Smoking Day provided the perfect opportunity to test whether this was true in the real world, too. . . In noting this finding in the current Nature, Waters and colleagues say they do not want anyone to infer that No Smoking Day is a bad idea, but that maybe those one-day quitters should take some nicotine substitutes instead of going cold turkey.

        • 07/09/98 Workplace Smoke Is Harmful Reuters
            Exposure to second-hand smoke in the workplace increases lung cancer risk just as much as exposure to environmental smoke at home, according to a new analysis of the medical research. Five other recent analyses have concluded that workplace exposure to side-stream tobacco smoke does not increase lung cancer risk. But these analyses, "conducted by employees of, or consultants to, the tobacco industry," were based in part on flawed research, according to the author of the new analysis, DR. A. JUDSON WELLS of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania.

        • 07/09/98 Steroids Aid Emphysema Patients UPI
            The same anabolic steroids banned from athletic competitions appear to benefit people with debilitating pulmonary disease who are also malnourished. Scientists reporting on a joint Canadian-Brazilian study in the current issue of the journal Chest say people suffering from Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) often are undernourished as well but gained both strength and weight six months after first taking the testosterone-like drugs.

        • 07/09/98 Hey, I Don't Want To Be Dangerous On The Job OF-HUMAN-INTEREST, UPI
            Just what smokers don't need...an excuse not to quit. . . So, apparently, "The Great American Smoke-Out" held every year in the U.S. should be scheduled for Saturdays.
        • 07/09/98 Campaigners Fume At No-smoking Day 'Joke' The Guardian
            But hopes of calm discussion went up in smoke when the finding was trailed by Nature in a press release headed "and finally: not smoking is bad for you", which had the pressure group Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) fuming. . . . Dr Jarvis, of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund's health behaviour unit at UCL, also inhaled sharply. . . "If it was heroin or cocaine, people wouldn't be treating it dismissively. "Nicotine is a serious drug. We continuously rediscover that, and remind ourselves that cigarette smoking isn't just some kind of social habit. It's a serious kind of drug-taking and it has serious effects on people."
        • 07/09/98 No-smoking Day 'Is Dangerous'
            WORKPLACES become more dangerous on no-smoking day, say researchers who analysed ten years of official statistics on non-fatal accidents. Andrew Walters, of the National Addiction Centre at the Institute of Psychiatry in London, and Martin Jarvis and Stephen Sutton of University College London, investigated the issue because it is known that smokers' mood and mental performance deteriorate within a few hours of giving up.
        • 07/08/98 Quitting Smoking May Seriously Damage Your Health BBC
            They say the most likely reason is a lack of concentration caused by nicotine withdrawal. The scientists say that while this doesn't mean quitting smoking is a bad idea, nicotine replacement therapies should be made more easily availiable.
        • 07/08/98 Accident Rates Rise On 'No Smoking' Days Reuters
        • 07/08/98 Giving Up Smoking Can Be Harmful UPI
            Reporting in today's scientific journal Nature, Dr. Andrew Waters of London's Institute of Psychiatry said nicotine withdrawal can make people goofy, disoriented and confused - and more prone to accidents. He and his colleagues found that significantly more non-fatal industrial accidents occur on the second Wednesday in March, England's National No-Smoking Day, than on the Wednesday before or the Wednesday after the smoke-free day. And this has been occurring for years, he said, ruling out chance as an explanation. The finding should not deter people from trying to stop smoking, Waters says, but it "may suggest that wider use of nicotine replacement might be beneficial."

        • 07/08/98 New Migraine Drugs Tough Call For Some UPI
            Scientists at Erasmus University,in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, have found that new drugs to battle migraine cause blood vessels leading to the heart to contract to the same extent as the established anti- migraine drug sumatriptan . . . Meyerson added that if they are smokers there is one thing all migraine and cardiac patients can do, and that is to quit tobacco. "Smoking makes both conditions worse." says Meyerson.

        • 07/08/98 African American Smokers Have Higher Levels Of Metabolized Nicotine Than Whites, Mexican Americans JAMA Science News Update
        • 07/08/98 Racial and Ethnic Differences in Serum Cotinine Levels of Cigarette Smokers JAMA abstract
            Conclusions -- If higher cotinine levels among blacks indicate higher nicotine intake or differential pharmacokinetics and possibly serve as a marker of higher exposure to cigarette carcinogenic components, they may help explain why blacks find it harder to quit and are more likely to experience higher rates of lung cancer than white smokers.
        • 07/08/98 Nicotine Metabolism and Intake in Black and White Smokers JAMA abstract
            Conclusions -- Higher levels of cotinine per cigarette smoked by blacks compared with whites can be explained by both slower clearance of cotinine and higher intake of nicotine per cigarette in blacks. Greater nicotine and therefore greater tobacco smoke intake per cigarette could, in part, explain some of the ethnic differences in smoking-related disease risks.

        • 07/08/98 TOBACCO-FREE KIDS: JAMA Findings Emphasize Need for FDA Regulation of Tobacco Manufacturing and Marketing US Newswire
            "The tobacco industry has probably known about these effects for years; it's time for FDA to have the authority to keep the public informed about the full effects of tobacco use. . . The findings on the differential effects of nicotine on black smokers also make even more egregious the tobacco industry's targeting of minority groups with their marketing efforts," Novelli said.
        • 07/08/98 Studies Suggest Blacks Absorb More Nicotine Boston Globe
        • 07/08/98 Local Experts Don't Put Much Stock In Smoking Study Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
            Sally Lebowitz, president of the Pittsburgh chapter of Smokenders, said she heard about the studies but discounts them. . . Bill Godshall, executive director of the Squirrel Hill-based SmokeFree Pennsylvania, said the differences between black and white smokers has been studied for years. . . Dr. Ken Perkins, a psychologist and director of UPMC's Women's Smoking Cessation Project . . . said, "Nicotine, after all, is not the carcinogenic enemy in cigarettes. Perkins said belief that magical nicotine thresholds held the key to smoking frequency is antiquated. The number of cigarettes smoked in a day depends more on stress and habit. . . "I don't want to downplay it too much, but smoking is much more than a specific level of nicotine in the body," he said. "I'm not sure what you really do with this."
        • 07/07/98 Nicotine Processing Differs In Blacks Reuters
        • 07/08/98 Nicotine Studies Find Racial Factor LA Times
        • 07/08/98 Blacks Absorb More Nicotine, Suffer Greater Smoking Toll, Studies Say Washington Post
            "It's really important research," said Jack Henningfield, an expert on nicotine addiction at Johns Hopkins University. "It raises a whole bunch of serious questions that need to be answered" about the biology of smoking and proper cessation treatment. "The bad news is, it's 1998 and we're just finding this out."
        • 07/08/98 Blacks Seem Vulnerable to Nicotine AP
            Black smokers appear to absorb more nicotine than whites, which could explain why they have more trouble quitting and run a higher risk of lung cancer, researchers reported today. . . Two new studies published in today's Journal of the American Medical Association don't put the debate to rest, but they suggest that genetic differences play an important role.

        • 07/07/98 CESSATION: Putting Out The Flame; Smokers Who Want To Quit Have More Weapons Than Ever Before Lexington (KY) Herald Leader
            If you're a cigarette smoker -- and about 28 percent of adult Kentuckians are -- chances are, you'd love to quit. Surveys show that about 75 percent of adult smokers want to kick the habit for good. But you've probably also heard that the odds are stacked against you: Fewer than 5 percent of smokers quit successfully in any given year.
        • 07/07/98 One Smoker's Struggle, One Man's Success Lexington (KY) Herald Leader

        • 07/07/98 CESSATION: Smoking: A Quitter's Tale Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
            The power of suggestion, plus $39 and a little willpower, help our intrepid reporter kick the habit

        • 07/06/98 Nicotine: Helping Those Who Help Themselves? Chemistry and Industry Magazine
            As more people have begun to question why people choose to use tobacco, it has become evident that nicotine may have beneficial effects that are 'therapeutic' rather than addictive. These more positive effects are, I believe, essential to why some people use nicotine. In other words, humans may learn that when they smoke they get something good from it, and this may explain why they continue to smoke in spite of the possible health consequences.

        • 07/01/98 Thrill-seeking Genes Found UPI
            At least 20 percent of Americans may be born risk-takers, much more prone than the rest of the population to parachute from planes, bungee jump or become alcoholics, smokers and drug abusers. In a study published in the American Journal of Medical Genetics, UCLA researchers said they found two types of mutant genes play a role in causing and maintaining personality traits that lead to compulsive thrill-seeking behaviors. Lead author Dr. Ernest Noble said 30 percent of the population is born with one of the thrill-seeking genes, and 20 percent with both. Noble told United Press International: "We looked at the DRD2 and the DRD4 genes alone, and they were both significantly associated with novelty seeking. But when both genes were found, we found that novelty seeking really increased dramatically."

        • 06/30/98 CESSATION: Pouches Instead of Patches? American Journal of Medicine item; The Rubin Report, ABC
            Researchers at the University of Alabama argue that although the smokeless stuff may increase your risk of oral cancer, it's 98 percent less harmful than cigarette smoke. . . Some new crutch is needed, the scientists write, because neither nicotine gum nor nicotine patches have been very effective. They only slowly raise blood nicotine levels to about half those produced by cigarette smoking. Study volunteers used Skoal Bandits, chosen because they cause little or no spitting and are imperceptible during use. Also, at the time of the study it was the only smokeless tobacco widely available in individually wrapped doses.

        • 07/02/98 Defective Gene Helps Smokers Kick The Habit Electronic Telegraph [NOTE: This item ran on 6/25 also]

        • 06/30/98 FEEDING THE NICOTINE HABIT: Finding Safer Substitutes for Cigarettes The New York Times
            Heidemann, it seems, has plenty of company, although there's no way to know for certain how many ex-smokers use nicotine gum or nicotine patches for months -- or years -- longer than the six to 12 weeks approved by the Food and Drug Administration. . . The view that nicotine, when it is not smoked, is a relatively benign and possibly beneficial drug is gaining acceptance among scientists as well as physicians, particularly those who run smoking-cessation programs. This dramatic change in attitude has ushered in new and sometimes controversial approaches to treating smokers.

        • 06/29/98 Emphysema Victims Are Told to Wait Up to 5 Years as Clinical Trials Proceed The Wall Street Journal (pay registration)
            Then the government tightened the rules, requiring that certain new surgeries undergo much the same scrutiny that applies to new drugs. In the process, Medicare set off a bitter dispute over ethics, standards and health-care costs. And in the middle of the controversy are thousands of emphysema sufferers anxiously waiting for a procedure called lung-volume reduction.

        • 06/27/98Poisonous Plants and Flowers--A Brief List LA Times
            Lobelia, (cardinal flower, Indian tobacco) . . . Tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum

        • 06/25/98 Pregnancy, Smoking Alarm Sounded Raleigh News & Observer
            Nicotine damages the fetal brain even at levels too low to cause underweight infants, Slotkin writes in this month's issue of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. His article, "Fetal Nicotine or Cocaine Exposure: Which One is Worse?" details numerous research findings, including his own studies on animals.
        • 06/25/98 Smoking's Toll Raleigh News & Observer
            Some facts about pregnancy and smoking

        • 06/25/98 Research Links Smoking With Alzheimer's The Age
            Smokers are more than twice as likely as non-smokers to develop dementia and Alzheimer's disease, according to a new study published in the international medical journal, The Lancet.

        • 06/25/98 Bad Gene May Temper The Desire To Light Up Boston Globe
        • 06/25/98 Cure For Smoking Could Be In Genes The Independent
        • 06/25/98 Defective Gene Helps Smokers Kick The Habit Electronic Telegraph
        • 06/25/98 Defective Gene Is Smoke-resistant Times of London
        • 06/24/98 Liver Enzyme May Contribute To Nicotine Addiction CNN
            How efficiently the liver gets rid of nicotine appears to influence people's smoking habits, according to researchers at the University of Toronto.
        • 06/24/98 Gene Defect Is Why Some People Never Become Smokers Reuters
            For some people, a common genetic defect reduces their ability to metabolise nicotine, the addictive ingredient in cigarettes, making them less likely to become smokers. If they do take up the habit, they will smoke fewer cigarettes.
        • 06/24/98 Gene May Prevent Smoking Addiction AP
            About one-fifth of the nonsmoking population carries a protective version of the gene, said Rachel Tyndale, one of the study's authors. The gene's influence might have saved some 7 million current residents of North America from nicotine addiction, she said. . . Tyndale and colleagues at the University of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, report their findings in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

        • 06/22/98 2 Doctors Quit Emphysema Study LA Times
            Research: A surgeon says the selection process denies some prime candidates treatment. Defenders say the randomness is needed for accurate results.

        • 06/19/98 Smoking Doubles Alzheimer's Risk The Independent
            In addition to the doubled risk of both dementia and Alzheimer's disease, smokers also tended to develop dementia at a younger age. The researchers, who report their findings in the Lancet medical journal, found that smokers who carry the Apoe 4 gene, which has been linked with Alzheimer's, were at no greater risk of developing the disease than non-smokers. However, those without the gene were at four times the risk.
        • 06/18/98 Study Links Smoking and Alzheimer's AP
            Smokers are twice more likely than lifetime nonsmokers to develop Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia, a study published Friday suggests. Results of other studies differ on whether smoking increases the risk of developing Alzheimer's or somehow protects against it. But scientists say the latest study by researchers at Erasmus University in the Netherlands is important because it is the largest to investigate the link -- and the first major project to have evaluated people before they develop brain disease. . . The study in Britain's The Lancet medical journal followed 6,870 men and women ages 55 and older living in a suburb of Rotterdam. It found that smokers were 2.2 times more likely to develop dementia of any kind and had a risk for Alzheimer's disease that was 2.3 times higher than those who had never smoked cigarettes.

        • 06/19/98 Tailor Antismoking Advice, Say Experts Reuters
            Patients who smoke often feel that quitting is up to the individual, and are unlikely to respond to warnings about the dangers of smoking from their doctors, according to a report. In fact, routinely advising patients to stop smoking can undermine the doctor-patient relationship, report researchers at the University of Wales College of Medicine in Cardiff, Wales. Instead, they advise a "patient centred approach" to antismoking programs, which takes into account how patients view themselves and how they react to intervention.
        • 06/19/98 Qualitative Study Of Patients' Perceptions Of Doctors' Advice To Quit Smoking: Implications For Opportunistic Health Promotion British Medical Journal
            Conclusions: Doctor-patient relationships can be damaged if doctors routinely advise all smokers to quit. Where doctors intervene, a patient centred approachone that considers how individual patients view themselves as smokers and how they are likely to react to different styles of interventionis the most acceptable.

        • 06/17/98 Q&A: Smokers Face Psoriasis Risk South China Morning Post
            There are several different forms of this disease, one characterised by small pustules over the palms and soles. It is this form which appears to be associated with smoking. Most studies have suggested a two- to threefold increase in risk of psoriasis in smokers.

        • 06/15/98 CESSATION: Mediconsult.com and Novartis Consumer Health Canada Inc. Launch First On-Line Step-by-Step Smoking Cessation Program [NOTE: NEW URL!] Business Wire
            Mediconsult.com, Inc. (OTC: MCNS - news), selected by Novartis Consumer Health Canada Inc., today launched http://www.habitrol.com/quit/road/, the first step-by-step program on the Web to help smokers quit. The highly interactive site provides education, support and information, as well as self-testing and an on-line "buddy system."

        • 06/14/98 Fighting The Myths Surrounding Cigars Detroit Free Press article swallows "finer things" myth whole. Bergen Record
            "Anyone who smokes a cigar or two a week is better off than someone who smokes a pack of cigarettes a day," said Durrett, 28, who says that's how many cigars he smokes. "I may go two weeks without a cigar. Show me a cigarette smoker who does that." This outlook worries public health officials. . . Levin believes the rising cigar popularity among young adults is a type of rebellion against their hippie parents. Because the parents shunned the finer things, the kids indulge.

        • 06/12/98 Plasma Fibrinogen Levels, Other Cardiovascular Risk Factors, and Age-Related Maculopathy: The Blue Mountains Eye Study Journal of Opthalmology
        • 06/11/98 Smoking Linked To Macular Degeneration Reuters
            Smoking, over- and underweight, previous family history, and high levels of a specific blood-clotting protein are factors that may be linked to increased risk for age-related macular degeneration, a leading source of blindness, researchers report. However, confirmation of these associations "can only be obtained from follow-up studies," say Australian researchers led by DR. WAYNE SMITH of AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL UNIVERSITY in Sydney. Macular degeneration, an age-related disorder affecting the retina, is associated with progressive visual impairment. . . published in the current issue of the ARCHIVES OF OPHTHALMOLOGY.

        • 06/11/98 Heart Clue To Cot Deaths Electronic Telegraph
            HEART scans for newborn babies could prevent thousands of cot deaths, a study says today. Half of all such deaths appear to be caused by a heart abnormality that can be detected in the third day of life, scientists have found. . . Babies with a long QT interval were 40 times more likely to die of SIDS over the next year. Scientists in the team said the link was "dramatic", much greater than known risk factors such as allowing a baby to sleep on its front or smoking by the mother. The reason why a prolonged heartbeat was linked to the deaths is not clear.

        • 06/10/98 Fetal Nicotine or Cocaine Exposure: Which One is Worse? The full June, 1998 Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics article on "Cigarette Babies," from Duke U. Here's the previously-posted June 2 Press Release

        • 06/10/98 The Market for Smoking Cessation Therapies Will More Than Triple Over the Next Ten Years, Predicts Decision Resources PR Newswire
            In 1997, some 156 million people in the world's major pharmaceutical markets (United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom, and Japan) were habitual cigarette smokers and therefore at risk for serious cardiovascular and respiratory ill effects. Each year, in fact, an estimated 3 million people die as a result of complications of cigarette smoking. However, smoking cessation is on the rise, driven by the recent surge in public awareness of the dangers of smoking, legislation banning smoking in many public areas, and the development of pharmacotherapies for treatment of nicotine addiction.

        • 06/09/98 Breast Feeding May Be Significant Source Of Infants' Exposure To Tobacco Products; Study Shows 10-Fold Increase Over Environmental Exposure Alone EurekAlert/Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH)
        • 06/09/98 Study: Babies Get Smoke From Breast Milk, Too Reuters
            Mothers who go into the next room to smoke a cigarette may not be doing enough to protect their babies because the chemicals in tobacco smoke also show up in breast milk, researchers said Tuesday. A study published in the American Journal of Public Health found that even second-hand smoke can show up in a mother's milk, and later in her baby's urine.
        • 06/08/98 Tobacco Byproducts In Smokers' Breast Milk Reuters
            Breast-fed babies whose mothers smoke are exposed to higher levels of tobacco byproducts via breast milk than previously expected, according to a study in the current issue of the American Journal of Public Health. . . Researchers led by Dr. Maria A. Mascola of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston compared levels of cotinine -- a byproduct of nicotine metabolism -- in the urine of 330 breast-fed and bottle-fed babies whose mothers smoked. The breast-fed babies had cotinine levels 10 times higher than the bottle-fed infants, the researchers reported.
        • 06/03/98 Cigarette Risk To Babies Higher; 10-Year Study Urges Sterner Warnings To Pregnant Women Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
        • 06/03/98 Evidence Of Huge Damage From Maternal Smoking Ignored UniSci News
            An award-winning researcher has accused society of ignoring the massive death and disability toll of smoking by pregnant women and mothers. The medical community, government and media have neglected unequivocal scientific evidence that nicotine from maternal smoking causes possibly 100,000 fetal deaths each year as well as massive numbers of crib deaths, according to the Duke University Medical Center pharmacologist. Also neglected are the severe neurological problems in "cigarette babies" of smoking pregnant women.
        • 06/02/98 Health Risk To "Cigarette Babies" Is Neglected, Duke Scientist Charges EurekAlert
            The medical community, government and media have neglected unequivocal scientific evidence that nicotine from maternal smoking causes possibly 100,000 fetal deaths each year as well as massive numbers of crib deaths, according to a DUKE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER pharmacologist. Also neglected are the severe neurological problems in "cigarette babies" of smoking pregnant women. . . PROFESSOR OF PHARMACOLOGY THEODORE SLOTKIN bases his conclusions on a detailed review of research findings, including his own, published in a paper titled "Fetal Nicotine or Cocaine Exposure: Which One is Worse?" in the June issue of the JOURNAL OF PHARMACOLOGY AND EXPERIMENTAL THERAPEUTICS.

        • 06/09/98 With Cigar Use Up, So Are The Dangers Philadelphia Inquirer
            A 1998 government report on cigar smoking and its health effects attributed this resurgence partly to a widespread but mistaken belief that cigars are less dangerous than cigarettes. The truth, according to the report by the National Cancer Institute, is that cigar smoke is tobacco smoke, and that many of its 4,000 different compounds are poisonous or carcinogenic.

        • 06/09/98 Keeping Up With the Young Graph in Washington Post
            These findings support research published this spring in the New England Journal of Medicine, which concluded that people with good health habits -- thin nonsmokers who exercised at least two hours per week -- remain free of even minor disabilities for up to seven years longer than those with poor health habits. The study of 1,741 University of Pennsylvania alumni found that middle-aged people who watch their weight, exercise and don't smoke not only live longer, but also have fewer years of sickness and dependence on others when they get old.

        • 06/08/98 Promising Treatment for Head and Neck Cancer Demonstrates Encouraging Results in Clinical Trial PR Newswire
            Head and neck cancer patients receiving 10 daily injections of an immune boosting product called MULTIKINE, had promising anti-tumor responses after only 3 weeks of treatment, according to the results from a clinical trial presented today at the International Head and Neck Cancer Congress in Hong Kong.

        • 06/06/98 Lung Function Test Predicts Mortality Reuters
            Pulmonary diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide -- a measure of lung capacity -- may be as important a predictor of mortality as blood cholesterol levels and blood pressure, according to a study in the current issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology. . . Pulmonary diffusing capacity varies with determinants of lung capacity that decline with age and as a result of exposure to pollutants, such as cigarette smoke. SOURCE: American Journal of Epidemiology 1998;147:1011-1017.

        • 06/02/98 Nitrosamines Play Important Role In Cancer Linked To Smoking EurekAlert
            The following major review article will appear June 2 in the Web edition of CHEMICAL RESEARCH IN TOXICOLOGY, a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. . . A series of chemical compounds--known as nitrosamines--found in unburned tobacco and tobacco smoke have been strongly linked to lung cancer formation, says Stephen S. Hecht, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota Cancer Center in Minneapolis. In the first comprehensive review in over a decade, Hecht summarizes all the peer-reviewed studies of the biochemistry, biology, and carcinogenicity of these tobacco- specific nitrosamines.

        • 06/03/98 Cigarette Smokers at Increased Risk For Hearing Loss JAMA
        • 06/03/98 Cigarette Smoking and Hearing Loss; The Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study Abstract, JAMA
            Conclusions: These data suggest that environmental exposures may play a role in age-related hearing loss. If longitudinal studies confirm these findings, modification of smoking habits may prevent or delay age-related declines in hearing sensitivity.
        • 06/03/98 Smokers Have Higher Risk Of Hearing Loss Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
        • 06/02/98 Smoking Linked To Deafness UPI
        • 06/02/98 U.S. Study Finds Hearing Loss Among Cigarette Smokers Yes, numbers differ in these 2 Reuters stories
            Researchers on Tuesday added another potential peril to the hazards facing cigarette smokers: Hearing loss. A study of 4,753 adults age 48 to 97 found that smokers had a 70 percent higher risk of hearing loss than nonsmokers. The problem also affects nonsmoking family members who live with smokers, though at a decreased level, it said.
        • 06/02/98 Smoking Linked To Hearing Loss Reuters
            Smoking or exposure to cigarette smoke can be linked to an increased risk of hearing loss, according to a study published in the June 3rd issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. A study of 3,753 men and women between the ages of 48 and 92 found that smokers had a 70% greater risk of suffering from hearing loss than nonsmokers.
        • 06/02/98 Study Links Smoking, Hearing Loss AP
            Lead researcher Karen Cruickshanks, associate professor of ophthalmology and visual sciences at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison, said the findings suggest an association between smoking and hearing loss but more study is needed to determine if a direct cause-and-effect relationship exists. Hearing loss may be a coincidence, Cruickshanks said Monday. "It's most likely that there are many factors that play a role in the age-related loss of hearing, and possibly smoking is one of them," she said.
        • 06/02/98 Study: Cigarette Smokers Suffer Hearing Loss Reuters
            A study of 4,753 adults age 48 to 97 found that smokers had a 70 percent higher risk of hearing loss than nonsmokers. The problem also affects nonsmoking family members who live with smokers, though at a decreased level, it said. Though the exact cause-effect relationship remains undetermined, some earlier studies have speculated that cigarette smoke has a toxic effect on cells in the inner ear which are important to hearing, the report from the University of Wisconsin said.

        • 06/02/98 Women Smokers In Public Housing Lack Health-Risk Facts EurekAlert
            Public education efforts to get young African American women of low socioeconomic status to quit smoking should focus on messages about the specific health risks of smoking and the negative connotation of being addicted to cigarettes, according to researchers. "Young women of low socioeconomic status are an important target for smoking cessation interventions," writes CLARA MANFREDI, PhD, and her colleagues in the June issue of the journal HEALTH EDUCATION & BEHAVIOR. "The health risks associated with smoking are compounded in this age and gender group by risks specific to reproductive, maternal, and child health." Despite these special risks and continuing declines in smoking among the general population, women in the studied population group continue to show high rates of smoking and little motivation to quit.

        • 06/03/98 Health Behaviors Don't Explain High Death Rates Among Poor JAMA
        • 06/02/98 FDA Panel Backs SMITHKLINE Lung Cancer Drug Reuters
            Federal advisers on Tuesday voted to recommend U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of SmithKline Beecham's HYCAMTIN (topotecan) for small-cell lung cancer, the disease most closely associated with smoking. Hycamtin, already approved for ovarian cancer, was recommended for lung cancer patients who do not respond to initial radiation or chemotherapy and whose disease progresses within 60 days.

        • 05/30/98 Health Heresy New Scientist
            But the findings, if confirmed, mean that women with BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations might actually gain a net health benefit from smoking . . . However, some epidemiologists aren't convinced by the new study . . . "If you're making a claim as remarkable as this, you've got to have more convincing evidence," says Richard Peto of the University of Oxford. . ."The small studies suggesting hazards and the small studies suggesting benefits are wrong," he claims.

        • 05/28/98 But Why Do They Do It? The Star (Malaysia)
            Ernest Dichter, author of Psychology of Everyday Living, attempts to answer this question at an interesting website called Why Do We Smoke Cigarettes?


        • 05/29/98 CESSATION: UAB professor says he has the cure for smokers WVTM/MSNBC
            A University of Alabama - Birmingham professor says he has the cure to help smokers kick the habit. But he says that cure is still controversial--using smokeless tobacco instead.
          Here's BRAD RODU's Cessation Page with clinical trial abstracts.

        • 05/28/98 Smoking's New Dangers "Side Effects," Chicago Tribune
            Researchers in the Netherlands report that the gradual decline in cognitive abilities seen in older people apparently is accelerated in those who smoke. . . The Dutch researchers reported to the recent annual meeting of the AMERICAN ACADEMY OF NEUROLOGY that smokers suffered more declines than nonsmokers or former smokers. "When comparing yearly cognitive change, we found current smokers had a significantly larger decline than people who stopped smoking and people who never smoked," said Lenore Launder, an Erasmus researcher.

        • 05/27/98 Hooked On A Feeling | Brain Researchers Unravel Biochemistry Of Addiction San Diego Union-Tribune
            In the past decade, [George Koob, director of neuropharmacology at Scripps Research Institute] and other researchers have learned that drug addiction, drug craving and relapse into drug use are . . . the result of a powerful chain of molecular events that eventually compels an addict to get another fix, hit or drink. . . Nicotine is the most addictive substance. About one-third of people who smoke become addicted. Heroin is addictive in about one-quarter of its users, followed by cocaine and alcohol at 16 and 15 percent, respectively; amphetamines at 11 percent; and marijuana at 9 percent, according to the National Institute of Medicine.

        • 05/28/98 Nonoccupational Exposure to Chrysotile Asbestos and the Risk of Lung Cancer New England Journal of Medicine
        • 05/28/98 EDITORIAL: Asbestos -- Still a Carcinogen New England Journal of Medicine
        • 05/27/98 Study: Asbestos Lung Cancers Overestimated UPI
            They say the EPA method "may also overestimate the risk of asbestos-induced lung cancer in other populations with nonoccupational exposure." Writing in Thursday's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine, scientists from the University of Quebec and McGill University in Montreal studied the causes of death in women living in two Canadian asbestos mining regions. . . . The study is the first to estimate environmental exposure to asbestos and risk of related diseases in people who did not work in the industry, says lead researcher Michel Camus. . . While the findings are "reassuring with respect to lung cancer," the scientists found excess numbers of two other asbestos-related fatal conditions -- two cases of asbestosis, a rare lung condition, and seven cases of cancer of the pleura, the envelope surrounding the lungs. . . Camus says, "I feel more threatened when someone lights up a cigarette near me."

        • 05/27/98 Gene Error Raises Heart Risk 7 Times UPI
            Researchers scrutinizing the DNA of about 11,000 men and women in Denmark find the genetic change reduces the ability of the body to remove "bad" cholesterol. The result puts these people at high risk for developing blood vessel disease that can lead to early heart attacks and death. The findings by Dr. Anne Tybjaerg-Hansen ("TY-BURG") and colleagues from Herlev University Hospital will be published in Thursday's issue of The New England Journal of Medicine. . . Tybjaerg-Hansen, an assistant professor of biochemistry at the University of Copenhagen, says people with the gene should avoid smoking or eating foods high incholesterol and fat.

        • 05/26/98 New Danger Observed in Secondhand Smoke Scripps Howard
            Writing in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, Finnish doctors said that a group of non-smoking men and women lost about a third of their blood¹s capacity to rid the body of molecules that can damage or clog blood vessels. ³The study demonstrates how secondhand smoke could increase the risk of coronary heart disease, a major cause of heart attacks,² said Dr. Timo Kuusi, of Helsinki University Hospital. Specifically, cigarette smoke appears to deplete the body¹s supply of anti-oxidants, including vitamin C.
        • 05/25/98 Secondhand Smoke Breaks Down Blood Vessel "Smoke Screen" EurekAlert
            Reporting in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association, Kuusi and co-author Miia Valkonen, M.D., say that antioxidants neutralize toxic "oxygen-free radicals." These unstable molecules, produced during interactions with oxygen, are found in tobacco smoke. Free-radicals can combine with cholesterol in the blood to make oxidized cholesterol. This is a dangerous form that "sticks" to the inside walls of the blood vessel to form piles of fat, called plaque, that can block the blood vessels or unleash a blood clot, causing a heart attack or stroke.
        • 05/25/98 Secondhand Smoke Depletes Antioxidants Reuters
            Nonsmokers who spend as little as a half-hour in a smoke-filled room suffer a serious drop in blood levels of antioxidants such as vitamin C. What's more, the secondhand smoke causes changes in cholesterol metabolism that might encourage the deposition of LDL, or "bad" cholesterol, in coronary arteries, according to a report in the May 26th issue of the journal Circulation. The study demonstrates that passive smoking "could increase the risk of coronary heart disease, a major cause of heart attacks," said study co-author Dr. Timo Kuusi in a statement released by the American Heart Association.

        • 05/26/98 Childhood Experience Linked To Later Illness; Study Finds Higher Rates Of Physical Problems In Adults Who Grew Up In Dysfunctional Families Washington Post
            Published in the current issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the study was directed by Vincent J. Felitti . . . People who had been exposed to four or more adverse experiences in childhood were 4 to 12 times as likely as those who had not to be alcoholics, drug abusers, heavy smokers or severely overweight. They were also more likely to be smokers, to be obese, to have attempted suicide and to have had more than 50 sex partners . . . Behaviors that seem counterproductive or are dangerous, he noted, can serve a purpose. Felitti cited the case of a current patient, a middle-aged woman who smoked five packs of cigarettes a day until several years ago, when she had one lung removed. . . "It turns out that she's an alcoholic with a long history of incest with her father as a child," Felitti said. In her case, Felitti said, smoking initially served as a way to help her cope and later became an addiction.

        • 05/23/98 Study Shows Smoking Linked To Serious Eye Diseases Jerusalem Post
            To the many diseases whose risk is significantly raised by cigarettes, add another: macular degeneration, the incurable condition causing full or partial blindness in the middle aged and elderly. Dr. Yoram Zolberg, Dr. Mordechai Rosner and Prof. Michael Belkin of the Goldschlege Eye Research Institute Institute at Tel Aviv University reached this conclusion in a survey of eye diseases published this week in Survey Ophthalmology. The authors analyzed studies conducted around the world, looking specifically at the connection between eye diseases and smoking. They concluded that nearly all the serious ophthalmological diseases, some of which end in blindness, are significantly worsened by smoking. . . Pregnant women who smoke also increase the risk of strabismus (crossed eyes) in their babies.

        • 05/22/98 Bedding Not The Culprit In Cot Death The Independent
            COT DEATHS are not caused by the fire-retardant chemicals found in some babies' mattresses, a study for the Government declared today. . . The only clear evidence on the causes of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (Sids) links it to parental smoking, and also to babies sleeping on their stomach rather than on their back.

        • 05/21/98 Why Review Articles on the Health Effects of Passive Smoking Reach Different Conclusions JAMA
            Conclusions.‹The conclusions of review articles are strongly associated with the affiliations of their authors. Authors of review articles should disclose potential financial conflicts of interest, and readers of review articles should consider authors' affiliations when deciding how to judge an article's conclusions.
        • 05/21/98 Effect of tobacco ties on studies examined Boston Globe
            Why do scientific reviews of the health effects of passive smoking sometimes reach contradictory conclusions? The answer appears to lie in whether the authors of the reviews are affiliated with the tobacco industry or not, according to a study in the current issue of the JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. Out of 106 review articles on passive smoking identified for the study by the University of California researchers, 39 found no harmful effects; the rest of the articles did. And of the 39 that found no harmful effects, 29 were written by authors with known tobacco industry affiliations, the study found.

        • 05/20/98 Smoke Helps Voice, Harms The Singer Philadelphia Daily News
            "It's not recommended, but I think it gave [Sinatra's] voice that blue-sy, soulful quality," said Laurie Campbell Wing, a professional speech and communications coach . . .And that touch of raspiness made an already superb voice even more remarkable, said Wing, who said that she smokes. . . One area singer who quit smoking a year ago said cigarettes might have enhanced her singing voice but detracted from it in other ways. "A singer who smokes probably thinks that it adds something to their voice, but I'm just as good a singer now, except that I actually have better range by a few notes," said Nancy Falkow, 27.

        • 05/20/98 Smoking May Protect Some High-Risk Women From Breast Cancer Washington Post
            "In general, we are beginning to rethink the whole relationship between smoking and breast cancer," she said. This is not the first time smoking has been shown to protect against a form of cancer in women. Research over two decades has shown that smoking dramatically reduces a woman's risk of endometrial cancer, a relatively rare cancer of the cells lining the uterus. Like breast cells, endometrial cells also grow under stimulation by estrogen.
        • 05/19/98 Smoking Linked To Lowered Breast Cancer Risk In Rare Cases Dow Jones (pay registration)
            A study published in the May 20 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute raised the possibility that smoking may reduce the risk of breast cancer for women carrying the hereditary BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutation. The study showed that women with breast cancer and mutations in either the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene, an indication of high lifetime risk of breast cancer, were significantly more likely to have been non-smokers than were subjects with the mutations and without breast cancer.
        • 05/19/98 Finding - Smoking May Prevent Breast Cancer Reuters
            The finding both surprised and dismayed the international team of scientists who did the study, but they said it may shed light on some of the mechanisms behind breast cancer. "We would hate it if women started smoking because of this study," Dr. Paul Kleiheus of the World Health Organization, which helped sponsor the study, said. . . "If you can inhibit the breast cancer risk in these women by smoking, then you can also do it by other ways," Kleiheus said. "We believe the most likely mechanism is a down-regulation of estrogen metabolism," he added. "This is a known effect of smoking."
        • 05/19/98 Cigarettes May Have an Up Side Washington Post
            "Smoking may reduce breast cancer risk for these women, but cigarettes sharply increase the incidence of other cancers," said JEAN-SEBASTIEN BRUNET, lead author of a study being published Wednesday in the JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE. "This study is interesting scientifically, but it should not encourage anyone to smoke," said Brunet, a researcher at the WOMEN'S COLLEGE HOSPITAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO IN CANADA.

        • 05/19/98 Lung Cancer And Radon In The Home: First Direct Evidence Of An Effect In The Uk Population Imperial Cancer Research Fund, GlobalLink
            Comments Sir Richard Doll, who also took part in the study: "Most radon-induced lung cancers are produced in conjunction with cigarette smoking and, in the absence of smoking, the number produced would be much smaller. At all levels of radon found in UK homes, cigarette smoking remains the major cause."

        • 05/19/98 Study Profiles SIDS Risk Factors Reuters
            Family history, pregnancy length, maternal smoking, and winter weather are among the factors that may put infants at risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), researchers conclude. SIDS is the leading cause of postneonatal death in developed countries. DR. URSULA KOHLENDORFER and her colleagues in Austria sent questionnaires to the parents of 99 infants who died of SIDS and the parents of 136 healthy infants.

        • 05/13/98 U. Of Colorado Professor Seeking Clues To Addiction University Of Colorado At Boulder PR, Science Daily
            University of Colorado at Boulder Professor Allan Collins has received a prestigious MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health to continue his research analyzing genetic links between alcohol and nicotine addiction.

        • 05/17/98 Lung Cancer In Women Is Quiet, Deadly Epidemic Last week's The New York Times article, at the St. Paul Pioneer Press
        • 05/15/98 SPECIAL REPORT: CURING CANCER: The Hope and the Hype Overview of new biotech weapons, prompted by last Sunday's NY Times article; nothing on tobacco. May 18, 1998 Time Magazine

        • 05/14/98 Vitamin E Among Factors Protecting Against Cancer Of Esophagus, French Study Finds; Butter is Issue PR Newswire
            Researchers in France have found Vitamin E, Vitamin D and phosphorous to be "independent protective factors" working against cancer of the esophagus. Dr. G. Launoy of Caen, France, one of six scientists who reported their finding in the International Journal of Cancer, said their study focused on the risk of esophageal cancer where use of alcohol and tobacco "are held to be the major determinants of the risk."

        • 05/14/98 First Test To Show Low-level DNA Damage UPI
            Researchers have developed a new test that for the first time can directly measure the DNA damage that radiation patients likely suffer, and how quickly the body responds to repair it. . . Chris Le ("Luh"), a chemist at Canada's University of Alberta in Edmonton, who helped develop the test, says other means to detect genetic damage have not been sensitive enough to detect the effects of low-level exposures. . . It could also simply reveal day-to-day cancer risk from smoking, for example, or even aging processes. . . The technique uses antibodies from mice to sense the genetic assault caused by X-ray radiation, and maybe modified to find damage triggered by sunlight, tobacco smoke and other cancer-causing chemicals.

        • 05/14/98 Childhood Abuse Leads To Adult Disease-study Reuters
            Such people were two to four times more likely to smoke, to be generally ill, to have had more than 50 sex partners and thus to have sexually transmitted diseases, and up to 1.6 times more likely to be obese. . . He said people probably engaged in dangerous behaviors to try to wipe out the pain of their childhood. "The smoking of a cigarette, for instance -- a child of that background may experience immediate relief," Anda said.
        • 05/14/98 Adult Health Problems Linked to Traumatic Childhood Experiences Business Wire
            Many of the most common causes of death and disability in this country may be linked to adverse emotional experiences in childhood, according to a study published Thursday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. . . "Abused children may use behaviors such as cigarette smoking, heavy alcohol use, overeating, promiscuity and drug use as a way of coping with damaging experiences much earlier in life," said a principal investigator of the study, Dr. Vincent J. Felitti, chief of preventive medicine at Kaiser Permanente in San Diego.

        • 05/14/98 CESSATION: UCSF Seeks Participants for Smoking Cessation Study On Nicotine Gum Business Wire
            Men and women, age 30 and older, who currently smoke cigarettes are needed for a UCSF study to evaluate the effectiveness of nicotine gum in combination with counseling for smoking cessation.

        • 05/14/98 CESSATION: MCV Study Seeks New, Better Ways To Help People Stop Smoking Richmond Times-Dispatch
            "No-smoking" signs dot the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia. But in the basement of McGuire Hall, the smoking lamp -- or its scientific equivalent -- is lighted. . . "Scientists studying nicotine addiction have come to realize it's just another form of drug addiction," Balster said. "Therefore, they can apply the same methods that have been used to treat other forms of drug addictions." Eissenberg's work combines medical treatments with observations of the behaviors and feelings smokers experience in various stages of withdrawal.

        • 05/12/98 A Fatal Shift in Cancer's Gender Gap A harrowing look at women and lung cancer. Jane Brody, The New York Times
            An epidemic is raging in this country, and no one seems to be paying much attention to it. It is an epidemic of lung cancer in women. . . Although the incidence of lung cancer peaks between ages 60 and 70, many women in their 50's succumb as well. Two women I know who are that age are battling incurable lung cancer. Both were once chain smokers
        • 05/20/98 Jane BrodyThe New York Times article, at San Jose Mercury News
            AN EPIDEMIC is raging in this country, and no one seems to be paying much attention to it. It is an epidemic of lung cancer in women.
        • 05/17/98 Lung Cancer In Women Is Quiet, Deadly Epidemic Last week's The New York Times article, at the St. Paul Pioneer Press
        • 05/11/98 Newest Lung Cancer Treatments Featured; Footage Shot on Site At VANDERBILT CANCER CENTER PR Newswire
            The Cutting Edge Medical Report presents ``LUNG CANCER: NEW HORIZONS OF HOPE,'' an in-depth look at lung cancer. This 30-minute television program documents the many ways in which new treatments are revolutionizing the care that lung cancer patients are receiving. This informative discussion will be led by DR. DAVID H. JOHNSON, M.D., of the Vanderbilt Cancer Center. Dr. Johnson and his colleagues will address topics such as: the role of cigarettes in lung cancer, screening techniques being developed that will be used to catch the disease earlier, the growing importance of cancer centers that use a ``team'' approach to conquer lung cancer, and more.

        • 05/11/98 Air Filters Reduce Asthma Symptoms Reuters
            Portable air cleaners that contain HEPA (high efficiency particulate arresting) filters can remove secondhand smoke from the home, according to preliminary results from a small study presented recently at the American Lung Association/American Thoracic Society's annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois. The study results suggest that the filters may help reduce asthma symptoms in children.

        • 05/11/98 Wake Forest Research Group Find Brain Infarcts Common in General Public Wake Forest U./Newswise
            A surprise may be lurking in the brains of many people -- evidence of silent cerebral infarcts, or dead spots within their brains. Cigarette smoking and uncontrolled high blood pressure may be to blame.

        • 05/07/98 What You Do Know (Quitting Smoking, Lowering Blood Pressure) Can Help Prevent What You Don't Know (Silent Strokes) AHA/Newswise
            How do you prevent something that you don't know is happening? It's not a Zen question, but instead is the problem facing those who study "silent" strokes -- small "brain attacks," which affect as many as 11 percent of people 55 to 70 years old.

        • 05/10/98 Study Shows Women Smokers Have Greater Heart Risk Than Men Reuters/Chicago Tribune
            Women who smoke have a 50 percent higher risk of having a heart attack than men smokers, doctors report. Dr. Eva Prescott and colleagues at the Institute of Preventive Medicine in Copenhagen believe women may be more sensitive to the harmful effects of cigarettes because of an interaction between tobacco and hormonal factors.

        • 05/09/98 Parental Smoking and Risk of Childhood Cancer: A Review of the Evidence Alison J. Thornton, Peter N. Lee P.N. Lee Statistics and Computing Ltd., Sutton, UK; Indoor + Built Environment 1998, 7:2:65-86; BioMednet
            This paper reviews evidence relating parental smoking to risk of cancer in their offspring, based on English-language papers covering the period 1957­1997. . . Various limitations of the studies, including failure to control for confounding variables, mean that the quite weak associations observed between parental smoking and childhood cancer cannot be confidently interpreted as arising from a causal relationship.

        • 05/08/98 As More In U.S. Light Up, Experts Put Cigars Down Austin American-Statesman
            "In many cases the large, premium cigars have the tobacco equivalent of a half-pack of cigarettes," said Shopland, who coordinated the [NCI] report. "Half a pack of cigarettes ... is not an insignificant amount of tobacco to be consuming." Many cigar smokers don't realize that nicotine can be absorbed by the pores in the mouth, causing an addiction, Shopland said. As with other types of tobacco, a person can start out using just a little but become addicted. Many cigar connoisseurs don't buy it.

        • 05/08/98 Smoking Raises "Silent" Stroke Risk Reuters
            "The two biggest risk factors (for silent stroke) were smoking and hypertension, and not surprisingly, they're also the biggest risk factors for major strokes," said Dr. George Howard, study lead author and professor of public health sciences and neurology at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

        • 05/07/98 Passive Smoke Ups Children's Anesthesia Risk Reuters
            "There is strong association between passive inhalation of tobacco smoke and airway complications in children receiving general anesthesia," reported lead author Dr. Eric T. Skolnick in the journal Anesthesiology. "The relationship is greatest for girls and for those whose mothers have a lower level of education," according to Skolnick.

        • 05/07/98 Smokers Unaware Of Cervical Cancer Risk Reuters
            Women who smoke are often unaware that they run an increased risk of developing cervical cancer, according to a study. But it is still unclear whether cigarette smoking itself contributes to cervical cancer or simply represents a group of behaviors that increase risk. When women are educated about the potential risk, however, they find the idea a strong motivation to stop smoking, especially younger women, according to a research team led by Dr. COLLEEN M. MCBRIDE of the GROUP HEALTH COOPERATIVE OF PUGET SOUND, Seattle, Washington.

        • 05/07/98 DRAMATIC DECREASES IN BRAIN REWARD FUNCTION DURING NICOTINE WITHDRAWAL Summary, Nature 393, 076 (1998)
        • 05/07/98 Brain Effects Explain Nicotine Addiction Reuters
        • 05/07/98 Why Quitting Can Be Such A Drag Times of London
            Although nicotine, the active ingredient in tobacco, is much less powerful in its effects than heroin, cocaine or even alcohol, they found that withdrawal from it depressed the reward functions in the brain. This meant that smokers who gave up felt depressed and desperate for another cigarette, they said. The effect of nicotine on the "pleasure centres" was the same as that of other drugs, such as heroin or cocaine.
        • 05/07/98 Why Nicotine Is As Addictive As Heroin The Independent
            Now, experiments with rats have shown that nicotine, the active drug in tobacco, depresses the brain's ability to experience pleasure and respond to chemical "rewards". Researchers from the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, found that rats suddenly deprived of nicotine had to be given much more of a pleasurable reward stimulus to get the same buzz they had before.
        • 05/06/98 Rats' Nicotine Withdrawal Studied AP
            Rats going through nicotine withdrawal showed a brain reaction similar to what's seen in amphetamine and cocaine withdrawal, which might help explain nicotine craving in people who've quit cold turkey. The finding might also help scientists develop better ways of treating the symptoms of nicotine withdrawal, such as depression, anxiety, irritability and craving, all of which interfere with attempts to kick the habit, said Dr. Alan I. Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. NIDA helped pay for the study, which appears in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

        • 05/07/98 CESSATION: Smoking Out A Silent Killer South China Morning Post
            Acupuncture, aversion (smoking to the point of nausea) or even substitute herbal or plastic cigarettes are all used. Nicotine patches give a daily, maintenance dose which does not give the kick of a cigarette so the addictive potential is low. . . While so many devices, courses and quit-smoking classes exist, 80 per cent of former smokers have managed to quit on their own. So what is it that makes them finally quit? "It is a triad of price increase, legislation and education," said Dr Mackay.

        • 05/07/98Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke and the Risk of Adverse Respiratory Events in Children Receiving General Anesthesia Abstract, Anesthesiology, V 88, No 5, May 1998
        • 05/06/98 Children Exposed to Second-Hand Smoke at Greater Risk During Surgery PR Newswire
            For the first time, medical researchers have established a clear link between second-hand tobacco smoke and serious breathing problems for children who receive general anesthesia. Girls are at greater risk, especially those whose mothers have a lower level of education, according to a study published in the May 1998 scientific journal Anesthesiology, the scientific publication of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA). The article was accompanied by an editorial by former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, M.D., Sc.D.

        • 05/06/98 To Cut Radon Risk, Stop Smoking Reuters
            Quitting smoking does more to reduce the risk of lung cancer from exposure to radon than does reduction of radon in the home, researchers report. The research team, led by Dr. David Mendez, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, created statistical models incorporating the risk from radon, characteristics of residential radon exposure, and lifetime patterns of moving from one residence to another. A hypothetical 40-year-old smoker, living in a house with a borderline high radon reading would have a 1.69% lifetime risk of developing radon-related lung cancer, according to their report in the American Journal of Public Health.

        • 05/06/98 CEL-SCI Corporation Announces Promising Clinical Trial Results in Cancer Patients PR Newswire
            CEL-SCI CORPORATION (Amex: HIV - news) announced today the preliminary results of a ten (10) patient head and neck cancer trial using the Company's immune boosting product Multikine(TM) at the Rabin Medical Center, Tel Aviv University, Israel.

        • 05/05/98 Total US Cancer Mortality Will Reach 1.2 Million Before the End of the Century PR Newswire
            According to "ONCOVISION," a new epidemiology forecasting model developed by Datamonitor, cancer will cause almost 1.2 million deaths in the US before the end of the century. . . "Lung cancer will be the single biggest tumor-related cause of death in the US before the end of the century resulting in almost 350,000 deaths," said Datamonitor analyst RICHARD BABBINGTON. Colorectal cancer is the second biggest tumor-related cause of death in the US and will cause over 130,000 deaths in total in 1998. Significantly, by the cessation of smoking and the adoption of diets lower in fat and higher in fiber, virtually all deaths from lung cancer, and the vast majority of those resulting from colorectal cancer could be prevented.

        • 05/04/98 Mother's Profile Tied To Child Fire Risk
            Children of young, poorly-educated mothers may face the highest risks of dying in a fire, according to a study. "Children in (this) highest-risk group had a fire-related mortality rate that was 150 times that of the lowest-risk group," conclude researchers at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Their study appears in the May electronic version of the journal Pediatrics (www.pediatrics.org) . . . . they speculate that young and poorly-educated mothers may be more likely to contribute to dangerous "behavioral and environmental (risk) factors" linked to increased fire hazard. "These include cigarette use, alcohol consumption, use of a space heater, lack of a smoke detector, and residence in a mobile home," according to the authors.

        • 05/04/98 CESSATION: Instant Gratification; Stop Smoking And Feel Immediate Benefits. A New Book Has All The Details. LA Times
            After Quitting For: 20 Minutes: * Blood pressure decreases. . . From "7 Steps to a Smoke-Free Life," by Edwin B. Fisher Jr., PhD, with Toni L. Goldfarb (Wiley), based on the American Lung Assn.'s Freedom From Smoking program.
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        • 05/01/98 Customers' Smoke Kills Waiters: Study Montreal Gazette
            Researchers tested 42 non-smoking employees from 26 restaurants in Montreal, the Eastern Townships and the Monteregie. Most eateries had both smoking and non-smoking sections; employees who participated in the study said they were only exposed to second-hand smoke at work. The study found that working in a restaurant added a one-per-cent lifetime risk of dying from lung cancer and a 10-per-cent risk of dying from heart disease. "This massive risk," Jacques said, "is over and above the likelihood of dying from these diseases for the general population." "If 100 restaurant workers are exposed to smoke in their workplace over 40 years, we can expect one out of 100 of them would die of lung cancer and 10 would die of heart disease," he said.

        • 04/28/98 Lungs Suffer From Growing Up in a Household of Smokers Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons, Newswise
            More solid evidence shows that growing up in a home around smokers has an adverse impact on lung function. The strongest correlation, highlighted in a new study, was with mothers who smoked. Girls seem to suffer more than boys, probably because girls spend more time around their mothers, researchers say.

        • 04/29/98 Smoking May Add to Mental Decline AP
            Smoking after age 65 may hasten people's mental deterioration, according to a study released Wednesday. The study suggests that the mental decline of elderly smokers may be tied to silent strokes -- very small strokes that go unnoticed by their victims, said study coordinator LAURA LAUNER of ERASMUS UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL in ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS.

        • 04/29/98 For the Record Washington Post
            From remarks by PHYLLIS GREENBERGER, executive director of the SOCIETY FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF WOMEN'S HEALTH RESEARCH, at an April 23 press briefing in Washington: Each year more than 140,000 women die of smoking-related diseases, including 62,000 from heart disease, the leading killer of women, and 66,000 from lung cancer, the leading cancer killer of women.

        • 04/28/98 Asthma Blamed On Roaches, Smoking Moms Reuters
            In another study, scientists from New York City's Columbia University looked for a link between parental smoking habits and lung damage in 1, 500 Yale University freshmen. In the study, scientists measured lung function and asked the students questions about their lifetime exposure to tobacco smoke. None of the subjects were smokers themselves, says Columbia investigator Dr. Patrick Kinney. . . "The strongest thing was maternal smoking," Kinney says, adding that the finding makes sense because "children are more exposed to their mothers' cigarette smoking in their home than they are to their fathers', because the fathers smoke more elsewhere."

        • 04/28/98 Single Gene May Hold The Key To Lung Cancer Electronic Telegraph
        • 04/28/98 Gene May Decide The Fate Of Smokers Times of London
            SCIENTISTS in Scotland have shown that a smoker's fate may depend on a single gene. The gene provides a defence against the toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke. When the gene is disabled in mice, they quickly develop skin tumours in response to cigarette smoke. . . "It has long been known that our bodies contain factors which determine our sensitivity to cancer-causing chemicals. Now we have shown that a single gene could be profoundly important in protecting us against cancer." The gene is the one responsible for making an enzyme called gluathione S-transferase that appears to have a protective role, perhaps by helping to break down the toxic chemicals in cigarette smoke, which can otherwise start a tumour developing." . . The findings were reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
        • 04/28/98 Single-gene Clue To The Cause Of Cancer The Independent
            Roland Wolf, of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund's molecular pharmacology unit at Ninewells hospital, Dundee, said: "It has long been known that our bodies contain factors which determine our sensitivity to cancer-causing chemicals. Now we have shown for the first time that a single gene could be profoundly important in protecting us against cancer. That is good news, because it is easier to manipulate one gene than many."

        • 04/28/98 Scientists Develop Vaccine Against Tooth Decay Reuters
            "This will be a significant step to reducing tooth decay," DR. JULIAN MA, one of the scientists, said in an telephone interview Tuesday. Ma and PROFESSOR TOM LEHNER led the team of researchers at Guys Hospital dental school in London that produced the vaccine by genetically modifying tobacco plants to carry antibodies to Streptococcus mutans, which causes 95 percent of tooth decay.

        • 04/24/98 CESSATION: University of Florida Psychiatrists Use Antidepressants to Treat Smoking Addiction Science Daily
            Part of a three-pronged approach that may include nicotine replacement therapy and counseling, the idea is to help smokers kick the habit by tackling addiction at its root: long-lasting changes in brain chemistry that train the brain to expect new levels of pleasure it eventually considers normal. This chemical conditioning occurs gradually, but the changes persist for months after someone stops smoking, setting the stage for relapse, reports UF substance abuse expert Dr. Mark Gold in an article on tobacco smoking and nicotine dependence in the current edition of the "Journal of Addictive Diseases."

        • 04/24/98 Lung Cancer Risk Elevated in Women April 10, 1998 Medscape
            There may be differences between the sexes in the metabolic activation and detoxification of lung carcinogens, making women more susceptible to lung cancer than men.

        • 04/21/98 New Research From Decision Resources Points To Improved Inhaled Bronchodilators As Key Treatments For Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease PR Newswire
            In a new report entitled Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, Decision Resources, Inc., examines this condition and provides detail on epidemiology, medical practice, current and emerging therapies, and economic issues surrounding the disease

        • 04/20/98 Scientists Link Smoking with Crib Death Reuters
            At a medical conference on the condition in Rouen, northern France, researchers expressed satisfaction that infant mortality due to crib death had plummeted in recent years as parents learned the correct way to lay their children down to sleep. Scientists said the remaining deaths could be caused by a variety of factors ranging from smoking to viral or bacterial infections.

        • 04/20/98 New Open Flame Resistant Mattress on Market Business Wire
            Carl Calhoun of Commercial Bedding announced Monday the introduction of the first open flame resistant mattress for residential sale in the State of Florida. Despite the passage of the Federal Flammability Standard, which tests mattresses for resistance to smoldering cigarettes, fires in which mattresses and bedding are the first item ignited, claim over 610 lives in a total of over 31,000 residential fires each year.

        • 04/19/98 Consuming Antioxidants Helps Lung Function, Study Finds Reuters
            Diets rich in antioxidants are linked to improved lung function and may prevent such respiratory diseases as asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis, researchers said yesterday. The study, prepared by CORNELL UNIVERSITY researchers, also suggested that the substances provide less of a benefit for the lungs of people who smoke. In findings presented to the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, the researchers said significant benefits are associated with consuming high levels of antioxidants like beta carotene and selenium, which protect cells from biochemical damage. Patricia Cassano, an epidemiologist in Cornell's Division of Nutritional Sciences, said consuming antioxidants appears to make as much difference in lung capacity as not smoking does.

        • 04/17/98 Lung Cancer No. 1 Cancer Threat To Women Toronto Star
            "I'm passionate about this because lung cancer is such an enormous women's health issue," says Shepherd, a Toronto Hospital oncologist who is chair of the Lung Cancer Site Group of the National Cancer Institute of Canada. She has reason to be concerned: Lung cancer has far surpassed breast cancer as the No. 1 cancer threat to North American women. (It's now four times the rate of 1969.) "But it's not only that," Shepherd stresses. "We're seeing more deaths in younger women (under the age of 50) -- young women who a