and avoiding tobacco to help prevent stroke and other heart and blood vessel diseases. Co-authors are:
To address the high rates of tobacco use among people with mental or substance use disorders SAMHSA in partnership with the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center (SCLC) has developed a portfolio of activities designed to promote tobacco cessation efforts in behavioral health care.
SAMHSA and the SCLC launched the 100 Pioneers for Smoking Cessation Campaign which provides support for mental health
and substance abuse treatment facilities and organizations to undertake tobacco cessation efforts. This program has been expanded in conjunction with state Leadership Academies for Wellness and Smoking Cessation
whose goal is to reduce tobacco use among those with behavioral health needs. Participating states bring together policymakers
and stakeholders (including leaders in tobacco control mental health substance abuse public health and consumers) to develop a collaborative action plan.
NSDUH is the primary source of statistical information on the use of illegal drugs alcohol and tobacco by the civilian noninstitutionalized population of the United states aged 12 years or older.
and the practice has implications for tobacco dependence treatment and policy. Results were given at a poster presentation during the 19th Annual Meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine
and Tobacco held this past week in Boston. The Cancer Institute of New jersey is a Center of Excellence of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical school.
Investigators explored this behavior examining a cross-sectional sample of 496 smokers seeking treatment from the Tobacco Dependence Program
and the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical school and provides help on quitting tobacco use through treatment education research and advocacy.
and director of the Tobacco Dependence Program who is the senior author of the research.
Steinberg and colleagues suggest key components of tobacco dependence treatment that could be affected by these findings include the dosage of medicines prescribed
and Donna Richardson MSW LCSW LCADC CTTS Tobacco Dependence Program; and Michelle T. Bover-Manderski MPH UMDNJ-School of Public health.
The work was supported by the Southern Region Small Fruit Consortium North carolina Tobacco Trust fund Commission North carolina Department of Food and Agriculture U s. Department of agriculture and North carolina Blueberry Council.
#For smokers, low levels of Vitamin d may lead to cancernew research appearing online today in Clinical Chemistry the journal of AACC shows that decreased levels of Vitamin d may predispose smokers to developing tobacco-related cancer.
Of the participants 1081 eventually developed a tobacco-related cancer. The authors determined that the median Vitamin d concentration among these participants was only 14.8 ng/ml
These results show for the first time that the risk of tobacco-related cancers as a group is associated with lower concentrations of Vitamin d.
The data also indicate that tobacco smoke chemicals may influence Vitamin d metabolism and function while Vitamin d may conversely modify the carcinogenicity of tobacco smoke chemicals.
If further research confirms this it would be consistent with previous studies demonstrating the anti-tumorigenic effects of Vitamin d derivatives as well as the correlation of Vitamin d deficiency with favorable cancer-forming conditions and increased susceptibility to tobacco smoke carcinogens.
Interestingly though low Vitamin d levels were connected not with risk of other cancer types. Our analyses show that the association between lower concentrations of plasma Vitamin d
and higher risk of cancer may be driven by tobacco-related cancer as a group which has not been shown before stated author Børge G. Nordestgaard MD DMSC in the paper.
and low on cigarette packages smokers can still easily identify their brands because of color-coding that tobacco companies added to light packs after the ban.
The study was published online March 13 2013 in Tobacco Control. The tobacco industry was found guilty by a federal court in 2006 for deceptively promoting'light'cigarettes as safer after countless smokers who switched to lights died prematurely thinking they had reduced their health risks.
and Drug Administration approval for these products as required by law said study co-author Gregory Connolly director of the Center for Global Tobacco Control at HSPH and professor of the practice of public health in the Department of Social and Behavioral
After the U S. Surgeon general's 1964 report found that cigarette smoking causes disease tobacco companies began marketing light cigarettes with ventilation holes that allowed air to mix with smoke
In 2006 a U s. federal court ruled that tobacco companies should be banned from any future use of descriptive words that convey a false health message.
The FDA--given the authority to regulate tobacco products in 2009 as part of the Family Smoking Prevention
and Tobacco Control Act--subsequently issued its ban. To see whether the tobacco companies were complying with
or circumventing the ban the HSPH researchers examined retailer manuals from the tobacco company Philip morris;
manufacturers'annual reports filed with the Massachusetts Department of public health; national cigarette sales data; and the results of a 2011 national public opinion survey that included questions about smokers'perceptions of their brands being light or regular.
For example the Marlboro Light brand was renamed Marlboro Gold Marlboro Mild was renamed Marlboro Blue and Marlboro Ultra-light was renamed Marlboro Silver.
Other tobacco companies made similar changes. The cigarettes themselves remained unchanged however; the percentage of ventilation in each category of light sub-brands was the same after being renamed
and given a new color descriptor. Ventilation is the principle determinant of whether a cigarette is called light.
This study demonstrates the continued attempts of the industry to avoid reasonable regulation of tobacco products.
and courts to ensure that tobacco manufacturers comply with the law and that their products no longer convey false impressions of reduced risk said study co-author Hillel Alpert research scientist in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences.
and Tobacco research on March 14 2013 in Boston. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Harvard School of Public health.
#Earliest tobacco use in Pacific Northwest discoverednative American hunter-gatherers living more than a thousand years ago in what is now northwestern California ate salmon acorns
and other foods and now we know they also smoked tobacco--the earliest known usage in the Pacific Northwest according to a new University of California Davis study.
The study demonstrates that tobacco smoking was part of the northwestern California culture very early...shortly after the earliest documented Pacific Northwest Coast plank house villages said the study published in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
and the Fiehn Metabolomics Laboratory of the UC Davis Genome Center confirmed tobacco was smoked and likely grown in the region by at least A d. 860.
Perhaps more importantly the researchers say that additional studies may help them better understand the origins of nicotine addiction and the human management geographic range extension and cultivation of tobacco.
Despite the economic importance of tobacco today we know very little about its antiquity said Shannon Tushingham a UC Davis archaeology research associate and primary author of the study.
We believe Native american use of tobacco and other psychoactive plants is quite ancient. The methods we developed provide an important breakthrough which can be applied on even older pipes throughout the ancient Americas.
Prior to this recent testing which used sensitive gas chromatography/mass spectrometry researchers were unsure of the historical use of tobacco on the Pacific Northwest Coast.
whether European traders had brought tobacco to the area much later or if some other plant had been smoked in the pipes Tushingham said.
Historic native peoples smoked a wide variety of plants including tobacco and pipes that researchers found at sites indicate smoking was an important part of ritual activities in the past.
Early tobacco also had less nicotine content--less than 2 percent --and it is more difficult to detect than tobacco today with a nicotine content of 4 to 8. 5 percent researchers said.
After two years of experimentation the researchers developed a chemical process where residue is extracted directly from the stone
and various fragments found at village sites in Tolowa ancestral territory researchers found the biomarker nicotine indicating that tobacco had been smoked.
#Kids exposed to millions of tobacco images/messages every week on prime time UK TVUK children are being exposed to millions of tobacco images/messages every week on prime time television indicates research published online in Tobacco Control.
Smoking and other tobacco content frequently feature in films marketed to kids which is known to spark their interest in starting to smoke say the authors.
More stringent curbs on tobacco imagery in the TV programme schedule could help curb uptake among young people who spend an average of 2. 5 hours in front of the box every day they suggest.
actual use of a tobacco product; implied use; the presence of tobacco paraphernalia such as packs and ashtrays;
and other references to tobacco such as a news report. The authors also looked for appearances of clear and unambiguous tobacco branding and merchandising.
In all the 420 hours of recordings comprised 613 programmes plus 1121 adverts and trailers totalling 25210 part or full minute intervals.
Documentaries (161) news programmes (139) and soap operas (72) were the most common genres. Among the 613 programmes broadcast a third (210;
34%)contained some tobacco content. This occurred at least once in more than half of all reality TV (67%)feature films (64%)and comedy (52%)programmes and in around half of soap operas (49%)and dramas (48%.
%Over two thirds of tobacco content (69%)featured in the 75%of hours of programmes in the sample broadcast before the 9 pm watershed which marks the line between material more suitable for adults than for children.
The break-down of content type showed that actual tobacco use occurred in 245 (1%)of all 1-minute intervals in 73 (12%)of all programmes and (0. 7%)of all adverts/trailers.
At least one appearance of implied tobacco use tobacco paraphernalia or other references to tobacco occurred in 618 (2. 5%)1 minute intervals.
And 66 tobacco branding appearances occurred in 27 1 minute intervals in 18 programmes. Based on the programme content and the sizeable audience viewing figures for young people this translates into 59 million instances of tobacco imagery/messaging 16 million of actual tobacco use
and 3 million of tobacco brand appearances every week say the authors. Tobacco advertising sponsorship and promotion in TV programmes are banned in the UK
but imagery included for artistic or editorial reasons is exempt. Nevertheless the appearance of real brands in fictional programmes such as soap operas is of questionable legality comment the authors who call for the regulations
and guidelines on tobacco content to be reviewed to protect children. We would recommend that future television programming remove gratuitous depictions of tobacco particularly actual smoking
and tobacco branding from programmes aimed at young people or in the UK scheduled before the 2100 watershed they write.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by BMJ-British Medical Journal. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference e
#Study predicts lag in summer rains over parts of US and Mexicoa delay in the summer monsoon rains that fall over the southwestern United states
Exposure to tobacco smoke may be more dangerous than previously thoughtnonsmokers beware. It seems the more you are exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke
--whether it was during your childhood or as an adult at work or at home--the more likely you are to develop early signs of heart disease according to research being presented at the American College of Cardiology's 62nd Annual Scientific Session.
The new data also shows that people who report higher levels of secondhand tobacco smoke exposure also have the greatest evidence of coronary artery calcification a build up of calcium in the artery walls as seen on a low-dose computed tomography scan.
While previous studies have shown a marked increase in cardiac events related to secondhand tobacco smoke authors say this study is the first to demonstrate a clear dose-response relationship between secondhand smoke exposure
Tobacco smoke can damage the coronary arteries of nonsmokers through many different ways which can lead to plaque formation
Researchers then assigned a total secondhand tobacco smoke exposure score based on a how long they were exposed (years) daily intensity (packs per day)
Although his team did not use the standard Agatston score to assess CAC Dr. Hecht said this study further validates the utility of low-dose non-gated CT scans to measure the amount of plaque in the coronary arteries in nonsmokers exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke.
By using this imaging/approach people who have been exposed to tobacco smoke can be evaluated for lung cancer emphysema
if decreasing exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke can reduce new plaque formation and/or cardiac events in this group.
#A billion deaths from tobacco are a key obstacle to global developmentif the world's nations are going to prevent tobacco smoking from causing one projected billion deaths by the end of this century they must:
Make tobacco control part of the agendas of United Nation's and other development agencies worldwide;
not only health but the harm tobacco places on their economy by passing laws to reduce use;
Place health as the centerpiece of any decision on a trade treaty that includes tobacco;
The only entity in the world to benefit if tobacco use is passed down to the next generation of poor children of the world will be warned the tobacco industry Gregory Connolly chair of the meeting and director of the Center for Global Tobacco
This meeting was an historic step to make global smoking history said who two decades ago crafted Massachusetts's tobacco control efforts.
And Dr. Douglas Webb of United nations Development Program warned that tobacco use poses a major health and human development threat.
Avoidable and unnecessary tobacco-linked illnesses strike people in their prime hit the poorest hardest inhibit country productivity burden already weak healthcare systems
Sponsors of the unusual two-day conference on Governance of Tobacco in the 21st Century at Harvard's Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies included WHO the Harvard Global Health Institute the American
Cancer Society and the Institute of Global Tobacco Control at Johns hopkins university. Meeting attendees were warned by speaker after speaker that
unless there is a concerted international effort now the plague of tobacco smoking that has claimed 100 million lives in the Developed Nations will claim a billion in the Developing Nations where smoking has yet to take hold as it did during the last century in the U s. and other Developed nations.
But though the situation was described as dire many nations present showed unity in passing tough national laws based on the World health organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)
Other sponsors of the meeting included the American Legacy Foundation the World health organization the International Development Research Centre the Medical University of South carolina the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project
at the University of Waterloo the O'neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University the Framework Convention Alliance of Action on Smoking and Health the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids
and the Southeast asia Tobacco Alliance. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Harvard university.
#Nicotine lozenges, tobacco-free snuff help smokeless tobacco users quitsmokeless tobacco users who said they didn't want to quit changed their minds
when given nicotine lozenges or tobacco-free snuff in a Mayo Clinic study. The findings are published in the February issue of Addictive Behaviors.
Mayo researchers recruited 81 users of chewing tobacco or snuff with no intention of quitting in the next 30 days.
and 41 received tobacco-free snuff to help cut back their smokeless tobacco use. They were asked to cut back 50 percent by one month and 75 percent by two months.
Participants received eight weeks of treatment and behavioral counseling on tobacco reduction strategies with follow-up to 26 weeks.
Both groups significantly reduced smokeless tobacco use in cans used per week and dips per day and sustained it through the end of the study.
About one-third of study participants continued using 75 percent less smokeless tobacco use 26 weeks after the study
The reason why that is so striking and important to us is had these patients no intention of quitting says addiction expert Jon Ebbert M d. a tobacco researcher at the Mayo Clinic Nicotine Dependence Center.
Through the process of just reducing their tobacco participants wanted to quit and were successful in doing So long-term smokeless tobacco use is associated with cardiovascular disease and cancer.
Previous studies have evaluated the effectiveness of nicotine lozenges and tobacco-free snuff for reducing smokeless tobacco use among smokeless tobacco users not ready to quit
but no comparative effectiveness trials of these two products have been conducted Dr. Ebbert says. The study was funded by the National Cancer Institute (R01 CA121165.
#Researchers find potential new therapeutic target for treating non-small cell lung cancerresearchers at Moffitt Cancer Center have found a potential targeted therapy for patients with tobacco-associated non-small cell lung cancer.
However it had not been linked to environmental carcinogen such as tobacco smoke until now. Tobacco smoke is documented the strongest initiator and promoter of lung cancer.
The traditional model holds that tobacco components promote carcinogenesis through a process that leads to DNA damage.
Recent studies have shown that tobacco smoke can also promote lung cancer through changes in the pathways that regulate cell proliferation and survival.
This study explored identifying and understanding one of the signaling pathways in order to find potential drug targets to treat non-small cell lung cancer.
In this study IKBKE was found to be induced by two tobacco carcinogens: nicotine and a nicotine-derived nitrosamine ketone found in tobacco smoke.
Their findings suggest that IKBKE is a key molecule related to tobacco-induced lung cancer. Since IKBKE kinase is induced by tobacco small molecular inhibitors of IKBKE could have a therapeutic drug potential for lung cancer explained lead author Jin Q. Cheng Ph d. M d. senior member
of the Molecular Oncology Department at Moffitt. Current treatments for non-small cell lung cancer include surgery radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
However patients eventually develop resistance to treatment. There is a great need to better understand the molecular mechanism of resistance
Since the IKBKE kinase overexpression is induced by tobacco smoke and IKBKE levels increase in response to nicotine and nicotine-derived nitrosamine ketone this evidence can be used potentially to develop a non-small cell lung cancer intervention strategy that targets IKBKE concluded Cheng.
#Californias Tobacco Control Program generates huge health care savings, study showsover a span of nearly 20 years California's tobacco control program cost $2. 4 billion and reduced health care costs by $134 billion according to a new study by UC San francisco (UCSF).
Additionally the study--covering the beginning of the program in 1989 to 2008--found that the state program helped lead to some 6. 8 billion fewer packs of cigarettes being sold that would have been worth $28. 5 billion in sales
UCSF has been at the forefront of tobacco research for decades disclosing how the tobacco industry manipulated its products and led the public into cigarette addiction.
as a result of litigation against the major tobacco companies related to their advertising manufacturing marketing sales political public relations and scientific activities.
The new research shows that tobacco control funding is tied directly to reductions in both the prevalence of smoking
and lower health care costs California passed Proposition 99 in 1988 to create a tobacco control program.
The voter-funded state program centers on changing social norms around smoking to reduce smoking and tobacco-induced diseases.
The researchers found a significant association between cumulative per capita tobacco control funding and both smoking prevalence and cigarette consumption per smoker.
Every cumulate per capita hundred dollars spent on the state's tobacco control wound up reducing smoking prevalence by 5 percent and reduced cigarette consumption per smoker by 139 packs a year the authors reported.
Our research shows that large-scale aggressive tobacco control programs not only save lives but make an important contribution to health care cost containment said senior author Stanton A. Glantz Phd a UCSF professor of medicine and director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.
The authors obtained these estimates by comparing smoking and health costs in California with 38 other states that did not have substantial state tobacco control programs or cigarette tax increases prior to 2000.
The results show that the California tobacco control program had a substantial effect on both smoking prevalence
and cigarette consumption per smoker and both in turn had a substantial effect on per capita health care expenditures the study concluded.
The problem is that inflation is eroding the purchasing power of the California Tobacco Control Program at a time
Tobacco companies narrowly defeated Proposition 29 last year which would have increased the tobacco tax to reinvigorate the tobacco control program and to fund medical research.
new tobacco products. What's intriguing and potentially challenging about the introduction of these new products is that they are perceived by many people as being safer products
and alternatives to traditional combustible tobacco says Robin Mermelstein director of the UIC institute and principal investigator of the National Cancer Institute-funded study.
Does it increase their overall tobacco dependence? Or perhaps does it help them reduce their tobacco dependence?
Many young adults and older adults think such products are not tobacco and are not harmful Mermelstein said.
They may even believe that the government has endorsed their safety. Electronic cigarettes also known as e-cigs are operated battery devices that produce a vaporized
The researchers will follow approximately 230 young adults ages 18 to 30 who regularly use non-cigarette forms of tobacco.
and when they use tobacco each day. The researchers will try to assess if the subjects are using the alternative tobacco products in conjunction with cigarettes as a bridge
or a delaying tactic to quitting smoking as a style statement or if they are using the products simultaneously with alcohol or drugs.
Young adults are a big market for tobacco companies as they are often willing to try new products
She and her coworkers also hope to develop new ways to convey factual information about alternative tobacco products to young adults.
Sixteen percent of patients had positive drug screens mostly male who also smoked tobacco. Only 8. 1 percent of controls tested positive for cannabis in urine samples.
These patients usually had no other vascular risk factors apart from tobacco alcohol and other drug usage.
because all but one of the stroke patients who were cannabis users also used tobacco regularly.
and not tobacco said Barber who hopes to conduct another study to determine whether there's an association between cannabis and stroke independent of tobacco use.
This may prove difficult given the risks of bias and ethical strictures of studying the use of an illegal substance he said.
#Genetically modified tobacco plants produce antibodies to treat rabiessmoking tobacco might be bad for your health
In a new research report appearing in The FASEB Journal scientists produced a monoclonal antibody in transgenic tobacco plants that was shown to neutralize the rabies virus.
Then the antibody was produced using transgenic tobacco plants as an inexpensive production platform. The antibody was purified from the plant leaves
Being able to grow safe humanized antibodies in genetically modified tobacco should reduce costs to make treatments more accessible and save more lives.
#Plain packaging of tobacco products would cut smoking, experts sayexperts believe that plain packaging of tobacco products would cut smoking a new study has found.
Tobacco control experts from around the world estimate that two years after the introduction of generic packaging the number of adult smokers would be reduced by one percentage point (in the UK--from 21 to 20)
%and the percentage of children trying smoking would be reduced by three percentage points (in the UK--from 27 to 24%*)
Therefore scientists have used the next best option the expertise of internationally-renowned tobacco control specialists from around the world.
For the study 33 tobacco control experts from the UK (14) Australasia (12) and North america (7) were recruited.
(or have implemented recently) plain packaging for tobacco products. They were interviewed then about how plain packaging--packaging without brand imagery
The tobacco control experts indicated that plain packaging would reduce the numbers of children trying smoking
The UK government recently conducted a public consultation on the possible introduction of a plain packaging policy for tobacco products (from April to August 2012.
#Price cap regulations for UK tobacco would raise £500 million every yearif tobacco products sold in the UK were subject to price cap regulation the system would generate around £500 million (US$750 million) for the government every year without affecting the price
consumers pay reveals a feasibility study published online in Tobacco Control. That amount of cash which takes account of the costs of running an Ofsmoke regulator would be enough to fund smoking cessation services in England
The most recent market data available for tobacco companies currently selling their products in the UK shows that the tobacco industry is very profitable.
The largest player Imperial accounted for just over 44%of the UK tobacco market in 2010 with a profit margin of 67%(net revenue of £911 million;
operating profits of £614 million)--equivalent to £0. 67 profit for every £1 the company receives after paying tobacco duties.
The other major players--Japan Tobacco International represented by its Gallagher Limited subsidiary; Phillip Morris International (PMI;
and British american tobacco (BAT)--also enjoy healthy profits. Taking the RPI-X price cap regulation system
To come up with an appropriate level of profitability for tobacco companies the authors used the profit margins of European firms operating internationally in highly competitive consumer staples markets.
and the rail network to calculate the equivalent costs for the tobacco regulator--Ofsmoke --and came up with estimates of between £15 million (best case) and £45 million (worst case scenario) for both 2009 and 2010.
After taking account of regulatory costs this would leave scope to raise the proportion of revenue the government receives in taxes from tobacco sales by between £433. 6 million (worst case)
This would be approximately enough to fund twice over UK-wide anti-tobacco smuggling measures
and undermine the impact of tobacco duties. And price differentials between brands/products would have to be based on production costs
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