Tobacco & Marijuana
Obama in great health but struggles with smoking
U.S. President Barack Obama still struggles with a smoking habit but is in overall excellent health, his doctors said in a report after Obama underwent a routine medical exam on Sunday.
Obama, 48, visited the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland for his first checkup since taking office just over a year ago.
A team of doctors led by navy captain Dr. Jeff Kuhlman found Obama to be “fit for duty” and said he was likely to remain so for the rest of his presidency.
Obama administration files appeal in tobacco case
The Obama administration asked the Supreme Court on Friday to consider allowing the federal government to force tobacco companies to fund smoking cessation and public education programs, which could cost the industry billions of dollars.
The administration’s filed the appeal after a federal judge and an appeals court rejected the government’s attempt to impose such remedies on the industry as redress for violations under U.S. racketeering laws.
U.S., Altria appeal tobacco ruling to high court
The government and the nation’s biggest cigarette maker separately asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to review a racketeering verdict against major cigarette makers that was upheld by an appeals court last year.
Altria Group Inc’s Philip Morris USA unit wants to overturn the verdict, while the government argues the appeals court wrongly denied the disgorgement of billions of dollars in ill-gotten gains by the tobacco industry.
In May, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed a trial judge’s verdict against the cigarette makers, finding they violated federal anti-racketeering laws by conspiring to lie about the dangers of smoking.
Some Tips to Quit Smoking
It is such a foul habit. It smells, burns holes in your clothes and furniture. Today’s cigarettes are stronger and more dangerous than the fifty’s and sixties. There are more chemicals in them than ever before. How can you stop? I know people who have smoked all their lives from their teens up to their sixties. How did they stop?
Smoking used to be “cool.” Especially for women. They had long beautiful cigarette holders they would put the cigarette in and there you go. They would hold out their arm and put up the little finger and they were considered lovely. Not so today. I haven’t seen a holder around in years.
Let’s stop smoking now you say. How easy it is for someone who has never smoked or who has quit smoking. Get real. It’s just not that easy. Once you start it’s extremely hard to stop. The longer you have smoked the harder it is to quit. Stop pouring money into these manufactures of cigarettes. Stop believing their ads. Enough is enough.
Three Tips to Quit Smoking For Good
Many people take the new year as a chance to quit smoking for good. Here are three ways and tips to help you quit smoking for good so that you never have to think about spending an exorbitant amount of money each year ruin your health again.
Quit With a Friend - Quitting with a friend is a good way to quit smoking for good because you have a mutual support system and someone you can lean on whenever one of you slips. Quitting with a friend simultaneously drastically increases your chances of quitting for good for the both of you because of the cooperative motivational factors.
Make it Official - Telling your friends and loved ones that you want to quit smoking for good earns you their support, but just as importantly holds you accountable for actually quitting. Tell them the specific date that you would like to quit and cut back as you approach that day until you smoke your last one. Your loved ones will certainly be very supportive and thank you for what you’re doing.
Smoking Addiction – 4 of its Worst Results
If you cannot seem to stop yourself from smoking a pack of cigarettes a day, then you may be suffering from smoking addiction. The serious outcome of smoking originated from the day you started the vice and will continue till you decide to quit. The worst results of smoking are cancer and heart attack. Aside from the two mentioned, there are still some dangers involved from smoking which will be discussed below.
Worst Results of Smoking
There isn’t just one worst result of smoking. In fact, there are several results you need to remember. These effects may just help you quit smoking entirely.
U.S. makes progress in tobacco control, group says
The U.S. government took major steps toward curbing tobacco use in 2009 but still needs to do more to fight tobacco-related illnesses that kill hundreds of thousands of Americans every year, the American Lung Association said on Tuesday.
The federal government earned a grade of “A” for giving the Food and Drug Administration power to regulate tobacco, including how companies market, manufacture and sell tobacco products, the advocacy group said in its annual report card on tobacco control.
The American Lung Association was a long-time advocate of granting FDA authority over tobacco. U.S. President Barack Obama signed the FDA tobacco legislation into law in June.
Increased nicotine levels detected in those who light-up earlier
People who smoke their first cigarette within minutes after waking up have much higher levels of cotinine, a by-product of nicotine when processed by the body, than those who wait to smoke, regardless of the number of cigarettes smoked.
“Since cotinine levels appear to reflect the risk of lung cancer, our results suggest that smokers who smoke immediately after waking may be especially at risk for lung cancer,” said researcher Joshua E. Muscat, Ph.D., M.P.H., professor of public health sciences at Penn State College of Medicine. “These people may require a more intensive intervention than other smokers to help them quit smoking on a sustained or permanent basis.”
Results of this study are published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, as part of a special tobacco focus in the December issue.
Chinese ‘herbal’ cigarettes no healthier than regular cigarettes
Despite popular belief and some marketing claims, researchers have found that Chinese “herbal” cigarettes that combine medicinal herbs with tobacco are just as addictive and no safer than regular cigarettes.
“The public needs to be aware that herbal cigarettes do not deliver fewer carcinogens,” said lead researcher Stanton A. Glantz, Ph.D., professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine and Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California, San Francisco. “We hope our findings will help to dispel the myth that they are a safer alternative to conventional cigarettes; they are not.”
Results of this study are published in the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, which has a special focus on tobacco.
Philip Morris ordered to pay $300 million to smoker
A Florida jury on Thursday ordered cigarette maker Philip Morris USA to pay $300 million in damages to a 61-year-old ex-smoker named Cindy Naugle who is wheelchair-bound by emphysema.
The Broward Circuit Court jury assessed $56.6 million in past and future medical expenses against the company, part of Altria Group Inc, as well as $244 million in punitive damages.
The verdict is the largest of the so-called Engle progeny cases that have been tried so far, both sides said.
U.S. stop-smoking efforts stalled, report shows
Efforts to help smokers kick the habit have stalled in the United States, with hardly any recent change in smoking rates, federal researchers reported on Thursday.
Just over 20 percent of the adult population smoked in 2008, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 1,000 people take up the habit every day.
“Overall smoking prevalence did not change significantly from 2007 to 2008,” CDC researchers wrote in the weekly report on death and disease.
“In 2008, an estimated 20.6 percent (46 million) of U.S. adults were current cigarette smokers; of these, 79.8 percent (36.7 million) smoked every day, and 20.2 percent (9.3 million) smoked some days.”
Experts fear Africa “pandemic” from rise in smoking
Africa faces a surge in cancer deaths unless action is taken in the next decade to stem rising smoking levels in a continent where anti-tobacco laws remain rare, U.S. scientists said on Wednesday.
More than half the continent will double its tobacco use within 12 years if current trends continue, the American Cancer Society (ACS) said in a report which found that 90 percent of people living there have no protection from secondhand smoke.
Some African countries have introduced smoking bans but most have not and smoke-free public areas are few.
EU ministers agree to boost tax on cigarettes
European Union states on Tuesday agreed to raise the excise tax on cigarettes by nearly 30 percent to try to reduce smoking and improve public health, a move that could hurt tobacco manufacturers.
The agreement is part of the EU’s drive to combat smoking, which British statistics show kills more than one million men and 200,000 women in Europe each year.
“The directive is intended to ensure a higher level of public health protection by raising minimum excise duties on cigarettes,” the EU said in a statement.
Personalized Telephone Counselling Helps Teens Kick the Butt
Intervention programmes dedicated to eliminating cigarette smoking among teenagers have shown promising results with the impact rate of six-month continuous quitting, say researchers.
The trial launched by researchers at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center could successfully recruit and retain a large number of adolescent smokers from the general population.
Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the study involved 2,151 teenage smokers. Half of the schools were randomly assigned to the experimental intervention; teens in these schools were invited to take part in confidential, personalized telephone counseling designed to help motivate them to quit.
Contraband cigarettes account for 17 percent of all brands consumed by adolescent smokers
Consumption of contraband cigarettes amongst adolescent daily smokers in Canada accounts for 17% of all cigarettes smoked by this age group, and rises to more than 25% in Ontario and Quebec. This behaviour may be undermining tobacco-prevention strategies, as they focus on taxation and minimum age restrictions to curb and prevent smoking, states an article http://www.cmaj.ca/press/cmaj090665.pdf in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) http://www.cmaj.ca.
The study looked at data from 41 886 high school students in grades 9 to 12 from public and private elementary and secondary schools in all 10 provinces who participated in Canada’s 2006/2007 Youth Smoking Survey. From the selected schools, 61% of eligible students participated.
Among the students in grades 9 to 12, 5.2% were daily smokers and 13.1% of these reported cigarettes from First Nations reserves as their usual brand. Smokers of these cigarettes reported significantly higher smoking levels compared with other smokers – 16.8 vs. 11.9 cigarettes per day.
