Category: Smoking

Cancer

Poll Watch: Smoking Rates Range From a High of 29% in Kentucky to Low of 11% in Utah

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According to the latest Gallup Poll

Nationwide, smoking rates range from a high of 29% in Kentucky to a low of 11% in Utah, according to Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index data collected in the first half of 2011.

Each day, Gallup and Healthways ask 1,000 Americans, “Do you smoke?” The January-June 2011 results are based on 177,600 interviews conducted as part of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. These results provide a preliminary picture of 2011 state smoking rates, ahead of the final full-year data, which will be available in early 2012.

As the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout Thursday urges smokers to attempt to quit their habit, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index finds an average of 21% of all Americans saying they smoke in the first half of this year. This has gone unchanged since Gallup and Healthways started tracking Americans’ smoking habits in 2008.

So far this year, there are 18 states with smoking rates lower than 20%, compared with 8 states in 2010, 11 in 2009, and 10 in 2008. There are 11 states with rates of 25% or higher, fairly similar to recent years.

Here is the chart:

Gallup has found that the American national smoking rate is stuck at around 21%. This is historically lower than from the mid-1940s to the mid-1970s where the rate was close to 40%.

Let’s see if with better education we can lower that rate.

Today is the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout – please if you don’t smoke, don’t start. If you do smoke, then please quit.
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Health

U.K Doctors Call for Car Smoking Ban

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A confined area and exposure to toxic posions, what could possibly go wrong? Plenty…..

The British Medical Association is calling on the government to ban smoking at all times in cars, a step that would go beyond regulations elsewhere.

In research released on Wednesday, the group that represents U.K. doctors said the confined environment in cars exposes drivers and passengers to 23 times more toxins than a smoky bar. Children are particularly vulnerable to second-hand smoke since they absorb more pollutants. Smoke can linger in cars long after cigarettes have been smoked.

In countries including Australia, Canada, and parts of the U.S., smoking in cars is banned when children are present. In the U.K., smoking in public vehicles like buses and trains is banned but there is no law against smoking in private cars.

The problem with such bans, as with the cell phone ban is enforcement. What cop has the time to stop everyone with smoke coming out of their window.

But, education as to how smoking in cars is so bad for your health is a good thing.

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Food and Drug Administration

Federal Judge Blocks Graphic Ads on Cigarette Packages

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The ads don’t bother me, but I suppose the law is clear about advocacy and the role of government.

A judge on Monday blocked a federal requirement that would have begun forcing tobacco companies next year to put graphic images including dead and diseased smokers on their cigarette packages.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon ruled that it’s likely the cigarette makers will succeed in a lawsuit to block the requirement. He stopped the requirement until the lawsuit is resolved, which could take years.

Leon found the nine graphic images approved by the Food and Drug Administration in June go beyond conveying the facts about the health risks of smoking or go beyond that into advocacy – a critical distinction in a case over free speech.

More than likely there will be an appeal, but the images will not be placed on cigarette packages for the foreseeable future.

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, urged the Obama administration to appeal the ruling that he said “is wrong on the science and wrong on the law.” He said a delay would only serve the financial interests of tobacco companies that spend billions to downplay the health risks of smoking and glamorize tobacco use.

“Studies around the world and evidence presented to the FDA have repeatedly shown that large, graphic warnings, like those adopted by the FDA, are most effective at informing consumers about the health risks of smoking, discouraging children and other nonsmokers from starting to smoke, and motivating smokers to quit,” Myers said in a statement. “Because of that evidence, at least 43 other countries now require large, graphic cigarette warnings.”

Congress instructed the FDA to require the labels, following the lead of the Canadian regulations that require similarly graphic images on cigarette packs. The cigarette makers say their products have had Surgeon General warnings for more than 45 years, but that they never filed a legal challenge against them until these images were approved.

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Smoking

Chantix IS Unsuitable for First-Line Smoking Cessation

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According to a new study.

The poor safety profile of the smoking-cessation drug varenicline (Chantix™) makes it unsuitable for first-line use, according to a study published in the Nov. 2 edition of the journal PLoS ONE, an online publication of the Public Library of Science.

Varenicline, which already carries a “black box warning” from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), showed a substantially increased risk of reported depression or suicidal behavior compared to other smoking-cessation treatments, according to researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices, Harvard Medical School and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

The researchers found that 90 percent of all reported suicides related to smoking- cessation drugs since 1998 implicated varenicline, even though it was on the market only four years in the nearly 13-year study period. They also found that varenicline was eight times more likely to result in a reported case of suicidal behavior or depression than nicotine replacement products.

The drug looked promising, I suppose. I had some friends who were heavy smokers and they reported the weird feelings and dreams as a result of taking Chantix.

They soon abandoned the program and returned to smoking.

Nicotine is a nasty, highly addictive drug and the best course of treatment is probably not to start in the first place.

“While suicidal behavior or depression appear to be prominent side effects of varenicline, they are by no means the only safety issues,” said Thomas J. Moore, senior scientist at the Institute for Safe Medication Practices and lead author of the study. “Varenicline has been associated with aggression and violence in three studies and carries a warning about this behavior. Its effects on vision, cognition and motor control and other risks have led to its being banned for airline pilots, air traffic controllers, military pilots and missile crews, and restricted for truck drivers.”

Varenicline also is associated with an increase in the risk of serious cardiovascular events, as reported in the July 4, 2011, issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal by Furberg and scientists at Wake Forest Baptist, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.

“We strongly recommend that the FDA should revise the ‘black box warning’ to say what this study and the FDA’s own data show — that varenicline has higher risks for suicidal behavior and depression than other smoking-cessation treatments,” Furberg said.

“We agree with the recommendations of the U.S. Veterans Administration (VA) that varenicline should be prescribed only after failure of nicotine replacement, bupropion or a combination,” he added. “The VA also recommends a mental status examination to assess risk of suicidal or violent behavior prior to prescribing varenicline.”

Tobacco use is responsible for one in five deaths in the United States each year and adds $193 billion to health care costs. It is among the most treatment-resistant forms of drug dependency, with 36 percent of the nation’s smokers attempting to quit each year but only 3 percent succeeding for six months or more, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Here is a video of some of the problems with Chantix:

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Smoking

2.5 Million Children Exposed to Secondhand Smoke in California?

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The answer is yes, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

Despite having the second-lowest smoking rate in the nation, California is still home to nearly 2.5 million children under the age of 12 who are exposed to secondhand smoke, according to a new policy brief from the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research.

Using data from several cycles of the California Health Interview Survey, the study’s authors estimate that 561,000 children are directly exposed to secondhand smoke in the home. Another 1.9 million are at risk because they live in a home where another family member is a smoker, even though smoking may not be allowed in the home itself.

Secondhand smoke exposes children to a greater risk of developing asthma, respiratory infections and countless other ailments. Research shows that children raised by smokers have a greater risk of becoming smokers themselves.

“The next frontier in the campaign against smoking is to reduce smoking at home,” said Sue Holtby, the study’s lead author and a senior researcher at the Public Health Institute, which works with the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research in conducting the California Health Interview Survey. “California’s fight against tobacco has been a major public health success story, but we still need to spread awareness and ensure that every family knows the dire consequences of addiction.”

Other findings:

  • African American children three times more likely to live with smokers
  • Children living in households at or above 300 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) are far less likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke
  • Rural children at greater risk than urban
  • Although Los Angeles doesn’t have the highest percentage of smoking households (10.8 percent) it has a surprisingly high percentage (4.1 percent) of households with children where smoking in the home is allowed, relative to other regions.

The entire policy brief is here.

Again, please for your health, quit smoking or better yet – never start.

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