Someone once said that there’s a little good and evil in us all. As much as ACSH condemns the NYC Health Department for overreaching in its anti-soda campaign, we must give it credit for an anti-smoking campaign that has reduced smoking deaths by 17 percent in the past eight years. The number of deaths fell from 8,700 in 2002 to 7,200 in 2009, and the number of smokers has fallen by a third, the health department reported yesterday.
Harm Reduction
Health officials in Ontario are realizing that the government’s anti-tobacco policies may actually be bolstering the cigarette black market since 43 percent of high school smokers use contraband cigarettes, according to a new study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health published online in the journal Tobacco Control. Traditional tobacco control policies such as increased taxation and age restrictions are increasing the use of lower-priced contraband cigarettes, especially among teenagers since they “are more price sensitive,” says study researcher Davis Ip.
After surveying 50 states and the District of Columbia to document their 2009 Medicaid tobacco-dependence treatment coverage, the Center for Health and Public Policy Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, in partnership with the CDC, found that 47 programs offered the coverage. Since Medicaid enrollees have almost double the smoking rate of the general adult population — 37 percent versus 21 percent — insurers should provide better access and support for people who wish to quit smoking in order to improve public health and reduce medical expenditures.
ACSH s Dr. Elizabeth Whelan comes to the defense of actress Katherine Heigl s decision to use e-cigarettes as a safer, more effective method of kicking her smoking habit for good. In her op-ed published Saturday in The Daily Caller, Dr. Whelan underscores the stagnant rate of smoking among adults over the last five years and emphasizes how e-cigarettes provide a safer alternative to the harmful combustion products of real cigarettes:
Following New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to ban smoking from parks, public beaches and pedestrian plazas like the one found in Times Square, Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. is suggesting a middle of the road approach by creating designated smoking sections in outdoor areas where smoking will be banned. Vallone concedes that indoor smoking sections are futile, but “outdoors I think they are workable,” he said Thursday.
Hall of Fame outfielder Tony Gwynn is being treated for salivary gland cancer — and he’s telling reporters he suspects it was caused by his career-long use of chewing tobacco. Gwynn, 50, told the San Diego Union-Tribune he’s beginning radiation and chemotherapy for the cancer in his parotid gland, which pumps saliva into the mouth.
Japan is attempting to curb its smoking rate — one of the highest in the industrialized world — by imposing a major tax hike on cigarettes. The new tax went into effect October 1. Even though smoking rates have declined in Japan, 37 percent of men and 9 percent of women still continue to smoke — a habit which causes 130,000 smoking-related deaths each year. Despite these alarming figures, smoking is still allowed in most bars, restaurants and cafes and was only recently banned in schools, hospitals and other office buildings in the Kanagawa region.
Last Monday, “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Knocked Up” actress Katherine Heigl promoted e-cigarettes (electronic cigarettes) as her most effective smoking cessation option on the
Six leading tobacco policy experts have proposed mandating that the nicotine in cigarettes be reduced to levels that aren t addictive. Writing in Tobacco Control, the co-chairs of the National Cancer Institute s Tobacco Harm Reduction Network and others argue that denicotinized, non-addictive cigarettes could reduce smoking levels from 23 percent to 5 percent.
After drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline petitioned the FDA Monday to bar dissolvable tobacco products from the market “until their sponsors can demonstrate to FDA that their marketing is appropriate for the protection of public health,” dissolvable tobacco lozenge maker Star Scientific is fighting back by asking the FDA permission to market their product as a lower-risk alternative to smoking. According to Star Scientific President Paul Perito, “Why shouldn’t tobacco users… have an opportunity to know this and make an informed decision? That’s why we took the risk, that’s why we spent the money.”
Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, maker of the Nicorette nicotine lozenges, urged the FDA on Monday to treat dissolvable smokeless tobacco products made by tobacco companies the same way as pharmaceutical-made smoking cessation products — by keeping them off the market until they “demonstrate to [the] FDA that their marketing is appropriate for the protection of public health.” But tobacco companies, such as Reynolds American, Inc., maker of the tobacco lozenge Camel Orbs, argue that they do not market these products as quit-smoking devic
After the American Heart Association came out with a strong statement against the use of smokeless tobacco as a smoking cessation aid, Dr. Gilbert Ross sent them this letter on Sept. 23:
Re: Piano et al, "Smokeless Tobacco Products and CVD"
To the American Heart Association: Physician leaders such as yourselves who consider themselves experts in cardiovascular disease and public health should be deeply ashamed of the recent AHA policy statement downplaying—indeed, denying—even the possibility of using smokeless tobacco to help addicted smokers quit.