Writing in the Chicago Tribune, columnist Steve Chapman harshly criticizes the FDA s latest mandate requiring cigarette packs to prominently display graphic warning labels. In addition to demonstrating large government overreach, Chapman says, the new ruling will hardly deter adults or teens from smoking. In fact, drawing on information brought to his attention by ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross, Chapman questions the scientific validity of recent FDA predictions that an estimated 213,000 fewer Americans will smoke in 2013, thanks to the new warning labels.
Harm Reduction
On the heels of the new graphic cigarette warning labels comes a proposed law in Australia that aims to institute plain packaging for all cigarette brands. The Australian government plans to ban company logos on cigarette packs while requiring they be sold in plain dark olive packaging. In addition, all brand names must appear in the same size and style of font; health warning labels will supplant traditional trademark logos.
A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that, among prostate cancer patients, current smokers have an increased risk of prostate cancer mortality compared with non-smokers. Led by Dr. Stacey Kenfield and colleagues from the Harvard School of Public Health, researchers also found that the number of pack-years smoked was directly associated with an increased risk of death from prostate cancer. In this prospective observational study, over 5,300 men diagnosed with prostate cancer between 1986 and 2006 were recruited as part of the Health Professionals Follow-Up study.
The FDA s proposed new graphic warning labels on cigarette packs are causing a stir among pundits and, of course, tobacco companies. The labels depict in lurid detail some of the consequences of tobacco use, such as diseased teeth and gums, and a man smoking through a tracheotomy hole. Yet the real question is whether the imagery will have any impact on the hundreds of thousands of people who take up smoking each year. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius noted the roughly 1,000 young people every day who become longtime smokers, and said, [The labels are] really to make sure that America s young people don t start smoking.
Smokers with children should be aware of a new study linking both ear infections and asthma to secondhand smoke in the home. In their study, just published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, Dr. Summer S. Hawkins and Dr. Lisa Berkman of the Harvard Center for Population and Developmental Studies looked at data collected from over 90,000 parents of children up to 17 years of age in the 2007 National Survey of Children s Health.
Nearly 30 percent of adults in China smoke, a number that just about equals the entire population of the United States. Of these 300 million Chinese smokers, government statistics suggest that one million will die every year. Home to the world s largest smoking population, China demonstrates the consequences of a state-owned tobacco monopoly in a country that, until recently, was without tobacco control legislation and which only now has decided to actively enforce such legislation.
The June issue of Pediatrics confirms that physicians truly can be a significant influence on their teenage patients’ attitudes toward tobacco use. The study, which surveyed over 5,000 11th graders in the Memphis, TN area, found that teenagers whose doctors raised the issue were more knowledgeable about smoking’s detrimental health effects; furthermore, those teenagers who already smoked were more likely to consider quitting within six months of the conversation with their physician.
The list of reasons why no one should take up smoking is endless, and a new study from the Annals of Internal Medicine, led by Dr. Eruna Pradham, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, should provide us with yet another such disincentive.
Today is World No Tobacco Day, and the media have commemorated the occasion from a variety of perspectives. The New York Times today features an article focusing on new state laws that seek to ban or limit hookah use, which many teens and young adults wrongly believe is a safer alternative to cigarette smoking. Paul G. Billings, a vice president of the American Lung Association, tells The Times that such anti-hookah policies are “a top priority” for the group.
An editorial warning about the alleged dangers of smokeless tobacco — posted on a local South Dakota news website, TheDailyRepublic.com — had ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross riled up this morning since it “contained more falsehoods and misleading statements in the fewest words that I’ve had the displeasure to read recently.”
The editorial castigates the tobacco industry, specifically R.J. Reynolds Inc., for its newly launched ad campaign for Camel Snus, which the author wrongly asserts is a smokeless brand of chewing tobacco. In fact, it isn’t — it’s a moist tobacco product in a tiny pouch that doesn’t involve either chewing or spitting.
On his tobacco blog, Tobaccoanalysis.com, ACSH scientific advisor Dr. Michael Siegel, a professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, addresses the misleading claims of a recent article published in Tobacco Control, in which the authors reprimand the tobacco industry for not doing enough to lower the levels of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) in cigarettes over the years.
Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Ron Ramsey released a statement last week proposing that his state approve funding smoking cessation drugs and counseling under their Medicaid program, TennCare. Mr. Ramsey maintains that funding for these cessation methods should remain in the state budget because such programs will “make a difference in the overall health of fellow Tennesseans — all while saving taxpayer dollars in the long-run.” ACSH sympathizes with Lt. Governor Ramsey’s endorsement of tax-payer subsidized cessation programs in his state, but, adds ACSH's Dr.