A new study by the Jules Stein Eye Institute of UCLA indicates that quitting smoking reduces the risk of age-related macular degeneration, which can lead to blindness.
"This is not a surprise, given the known negative vascular effects of smoking," says ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan. "Cigarette smoking definitely plays a role in age-related macular degeneration."
"On the other hand, smoking actually reduces the risk of old-age itself," quips ACSH's Jeff Stier.
For more information on the myriad lesser-known health effects of smoking, see ACSH's publication Cigarettes: What the Warning Label Doesn't Tell You.
Harm Reduction
Today marks the 33rd annual Great American Smokeout, sponsored by the American Cancer Society. Smokers are encouraged to give up cigarettes today to jumpstart the process of eventually quitting for good.
Resources to help smokers quit are available all over the country today -- for example, New York City is providing free nicotine gum and patches. We only wish they were handing out other harm reduction products as well -- such as snus and other smokeless tobacco products.
As we approach yet another Great American Smokeout -- tomorrow, November 20th -- both good and bad news on smoking abounds.
•The good news is that adult smoking rates in 2007 have dropped below 20% for the first time since this statistic has been recorded with any accuracy. There are now more former smokers than current smokers, and women's smoking rates have declined for the fifth year in a row.
Turns out the truth doesn't matter. The New York City Health Department is standing by TV ads that show children allegedly sickened by exposure to second hand smoke. Only problem is, the deathly-ill kids weren't actually known to be exposed to smoke. They were just stock footage of diseased kids.
But the kids in the pictures have the same diseases caused by second-hand smoke, so that's good enough for the Health Department.
It wouldn't be good enough, though, for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) according to the president of the American Academy of Advertising.
"If they were selling a commercial product, the FTC would surely regulate this misleading ad," said Jef Richards, who is also Professor of Advertising at University of Texas at Austin.
In an apartment building on the Upper West Side of New York, 74th and Broadway, there is yet another controversy surrounding smoking and non-smoking residents.
While most of these issues involve smelling cigarette smoke from one apartment in another adjacent apartment, the debate this time is about the common area by the elevator. A couple doesn't want its four-year-old child to be exposed to the second-hand smoke and wants the smoking residents to stop smoking.
A press release in the New York Sun caught ACSH off guard with its negative coverage of Swedish smokeless tobacco, also known as snus. Sweden is the only country in the European Union (EU) that is permitted to market smokeless tobacco because it joined after the EU placed a ban on the product, and was given an exemption.
This week's announcement by Philip Morris that it plans a "global blitz" to dramatically increase the number of cigarette smokers around the world represents the ultimate public health nightmare.
Bupropion, a drug taken for smoking cessation and prescribed most often for adults, is yielding only short-lived results in adolescents according to an article in the November issue of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. Each year 1.5 million adolescents in the U.S. light up for the first time and 416,000 of those go on to make it a daily habit. The numbers are staggering and unfortunately our current cessation treatment methods are showing little success, and even that success is often short-lived.
November 15th marks the thirty-first annual "Great American Smokeout," a campaign initially undertaken by the American Cancer Society, whose goal was to encourage smokers to quit -- even if only for one day -- hoping this would lead to prolonged abstinence from cigarettes. Through educating smokers about the wide spectrum of smoking-related illnesses, promoting cessation medications and other quitting techniques, restricting areas where smokers can light up, and raising the price of ciggies, the hope is to get the over 40 million Americans still addicted to quit.
This piece first appeared in the New York Post and was noted on NY1 Itch for that day.
The days of deception on the health risks of cigarettes aren't over after all -- although now the distortion's coming from the "good guys."
This morning's New York Times op-ed "A Two-Cigarette Society" by attorney David G. Adams made me think I was reading The Onion. Adams argued that we should have two types of cigarettes, one with and one without nicotine. He is proposing that we start young adults out on nicotine-free cigarettes, so they don't get hooked.
An article in Skeptic Volume 13, Number 3 by Sidney Zion quotes ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan on exaggerations about secondhand smoke's effects: