Category: Tobacco

Dentistry

Snuff Use May Increase the Risk for Heart Failure?

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Yes, according to a new study.

Use of smokeless tobacco (or snuff) may increase the risk for heart failure, mainly of nonischemic origin and chiefly by increasing blood pressure and heart rate, a Swedish study found.

When adjusted for age, the use of smokeless tobacco among a cohort of older men was associated with a more than twofold risk of developing heart failure compared with non-users (HR 2.42, 95% CI 1.37 to 4.27), according to Gabriel Arefalk, MD, of Uppsala University Hospital in Uppsala, Sweden, and colleagues.

When further adjusted for current smoking dose, pack-years of smoking, diabetes, body mass index, occupational classification, alcohol use, and myocardial infarction before baseline, the use of snuff resulted in a hazard ratio of 2.08 (95% CI 1.03 to 4.22), they reported online in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention & Rehabilitation.

The researchers noted the increased use of smokeless tobacco in Scandinavia, but also pointed out that the U.S. is the world’s largest snuff market, with an annual growth rate of 6%.

Ugh! While tobacco smoking rate is decreasing or stable in the United States, smokeless tobacco IS increasing.

While tobacoo consumers may bypass the deleterious atherogenic effects of smoking, the harmful effects of nicotine remain.

“Smokeless administration of tobacco may indeed circumvent the atherogenic effects of smoked tobacco, but it is possible that the potent autonomic and hemodynamic effects of nicotine per se are detrimental for cardiovascular tissues,” Arefalk and colleagues wrote.

In particular, smokeless tobacco “increases epinephrine levels, impairs endothelial function, and increases blood pressure and heart rate.”

Just say NO to the use of tobacco products.

They ARE harmful to your health!

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Health

Study: Menthol Cigarettes Make It More Difficult to Quit Smoking

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This is especially true for African American and Puerto Rican smokers.

Menthol cigarettes make it more difficult for smokers to quit, especially blacks and Puerto Ricans, a new study indicates.

Researchers at the Cancer Institute of New Jersey and the UMDNJ-School of Public Health analyzed tobacco use data from the U.S. National Cancer Institute and focused on white, black and Hispanic current and former smokers.
Click here to find out more!

Overall, the use of menthol cigarettes was highest among females and young adults, aged 18 to 24. When examined by race/ethnicity, menthol cigarette use was much higher among blacks (71.8 percent) than among Hispanics (28.1 percent) or whites (21 percent).

But there were wide variations among Hispanics: Puerto Rican origins (62 percent), Mexican origins (19.9 percent), and other Hispanic origins (26.5 percent), the investigators noted.

The study also found that smokers who used menthol cigarettes were less likely to quit than those who used non-menthol cigarettes, and that this association was strongest among blacks and those of Puerto Rican origin.

“Because our evidence suggests that the presence of menthol may partially explain the observed differences in cessation outcomes, the recent calls to ban this flavoring would be prudent and evidence-based,” the researchers said in a UMDNJ news release.

The study appears Aug. 15 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The United States Food and Drug Administration is considering whether they should ban these tobacco products.

But, we all know what happens when there is a market and something is outlawed. Remember American alcohol prohibition?

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Health

Poll Watch: Smoker’s Concern About Smoking Increases and Ties Record High

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According to the latest Gallup Poll.

Two in three U.S. smokers now agree that smoking is “very harmful” to adults who smoke, tying the most who have ever said so, but still trailing the more than 8 in 10 Americans and nonsmokers who say the same.

The findings are from Gallup’s annual consumption poll, conducted July 7-10, 2011, which measures Americans’ attitudes on many issues involving smoking, drinking, and weight. The views of “smokers” in 2011 are based on 170 respondents who reported smoking any cigarettes in the past week. The 67% of smokers who say smoking is very harmful is up from the past three years, matching the prior high found in 2004. Americans overall have barely budged over the past decade in their high level of agreement that smoking is very harmful to adults who smoke, with 81% saying so this year.

But, what about secondhand smoke?

There is less consensus among Americans that secondhand smoke is very harmful. The percentage of Americans who agree — 54% this year — has been remarkably steady over the past decade, even as new studies emerge linking secondhand smoke to various ailments. The 35% of smokers and 59% of nonsmokers who agree are also within the range that Gallup has typically found.

The chart:

But, the risks of smoking and secondhand smoke are well documented and acknowledged.

The National Cancer Institute estimates that cigarette smoking causes 443,000 deaths each year and that exposure to secondhand smoke causes approximately 49,400 of those deaths. Recent studies have also linked secondhand smoke to behavior and learning problems among children and hearing loss among teenagers.

So, what does this all mean?

Americans’ views about the risks of smoking and secondhand smoke have held largely steady in recent years, even as the percentage who support a ban on smoking in all public places surged to a record high this year. Together, the findings suggest that Americans have largely made up their minds about the risks of smoking, and that nonsmoking Americans want to see more action to protect them from the danger they perceive from secondhand smoke.

For their part, smokers have returned to a higher level of acknowledgment of the risks of smoking and secondhand smoke. Further, these views coincide with slightly lower levels of smoking overall; 22% of Americans now report smoking in the past week, compared with 28% in 2001.

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Health

Americans Do Not Support Bias in Hiring Smokers or the Obese

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According to the latest Gallup Poll.

More than 8 in 10 Americans think it is not right for companies to refuse to hire people just because they are significantly overweight or smoke. Fourteen percent say the practice should be allowed for each.

The views Americans express in the July 7-10 poll are essentially unchanged from prior Gallup readings on the same questions since 2005. In 2003, Gallup also found most Americans saying that if they were in a position to hire someone, it would make no difference to them if that person were overweight (79%) or smoked (74%).

While the new poll found that for the first time a majority of Americans want smoking to be banned in all public places, far fewer people support making it completely illegal in the United States. Taking all these findings about smoking together shows that Americans — while generally in favor of not having others smoke around them — appear mostly supportive of an individual’s freedom of choice to use tobacco.

But, they do favor higher health insurance rates or smokers but not for the very obese.

In contrast to the lack of support for hiring discrimination against smokers, the majority of Americans (60%) say it is justified to set higher health insurance rates for smokers. Thirty-eight percent say it is unjustified.

Similarly, Americans are more supportive of setting higher health insurance rates for people who are significantly overweight than they are of allowing companies not to hire such people (42% vs. 14%). However, the majority — 57% — say it is unjustified to set higher rates just because someone is very overweight.

Here is the chart:

So, what are the implications?

Most Americans say live and let live. As long as YOUR behavior does not affect me, then go for it.

However, a majority does now favor a ban in smoking in public places (as second hand smoke does affect others). But, if you want to eat yourself to poor health and literally to an early death, then it is your business.

As companies across the United States face the challenge of maintaining a healthy, productive workforce and grapple with rising health insurance costs, corporate hiring policies and insurance rates for smokers and very overweight people are becoming prominent issues.

Americans are clear on one point, though — they do not support allowing companies to discriminate against smokers or significantly overweight people when making hiring decisions. Whether a national consensus or corporate policy, however, has any impact on a specific hiring situation is a separate issue. The data confirm that if a man is making the hiring decision, he may be more likely than a woman to discriminate against a very overweight person — similar to what Gallup has found in the past.

Americans are more divided when it comes to how to set health insurance rates for smokers and the very overweight. While a majority say it is justified to set higher rates for smokers, a similar majority says it is unjustified to do the same for significantly overweight people.

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Dissolvable Tobacco

Dissolvable Tobacco Products May Increase Oral Health Disease

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Why, of course, they would, but now there is a study.

A new study has suggested that the new genre of ‘dissolvable tobacco’ products – pop-into-the-mouth replacements for cigarettes – has the potential to cause mouth diseases as well as other problems.

John V. Goodpaster of the Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis and colleagues analysed the complex ingredients in the products and found that it contained mainly nicotine, along with finely-ground tobacco and a variety of flavouring ingredients, sweeteners and binders.

According to them, the first dissolvable tobacco products in pellet, stick and strip forms went on sale in 2009 in test markets in Indianapolis, Ind., Columbus, Ohio, and Portland, Ore.

These products are advertised as smoke and spit-free, but nicotine is a toxic substance linked to the development of oral cancers and gum disease, said Goodpaster.

Health officials are concerned about whether the products, which dissolve inside the mouth near the lips and gums, are in fact a safer alternative to cigarette smoking.

The researchers, however, said there are possibilities that the nicotine in these products may accidentally poison children.

“The packaging and design of the dissolvables may also appeal to children, and some dissolvables, such as Orbs, may be mistaken for candy,” said Goodpaster.

Other ingredients in dissolvables have the potential to increase the risk of tooth decay and one, coumarin, has been banned as a flavouring agent in food because of its link to a risk of liver damage.

“The results presented here are the first to reveal the complexity of dissolvable tobacco products and may be used to assess potential health effects,” said Goodpaster.

The findings are published in ACS’s Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Let’s look as to what the ingredients of these products are.

The Camel Orbs contain finely grained tobacco mixed with “additives such as water, flavorants, binders, colorants, pH adjusters, buffering agents, fillers, disintegration aids, humectants, antioxidants, oral care ingredients, preservatives, additives derived from herbal or botanical sources, and mixtures thereof.”[5] The Camel Orbs come in two styles, Mellow and Fresh. Each pellet contains 1 milligram of nicotine, dissolving in the mouth in 10–15 minutes.[3] The Camel Sticks product is a twisted stick the size of a toothpick
that lasts in the mouth about 20–30 minutes, and contains 3.1 milligrams of nicotine. The Camel Sticks are for insertion between the upper lip and gum, and come in one style, Mellow. The Camel Strips contain 0.6 milligrams of nicotine per strip and come in one style, Fresh.[3] The Camel Strips last 2–3 minutes on the tongue, administering nicotine through thin film drug delivery technology as used in Listerine PocketPacks breath freshening strips. A specific ingredient list naming all additives has not been made public
for any of the Camel Dissolvables brands.

Isn’t it obvious that the tobacco companies who for decades pushed their highly addictive nicotine delivery products (cigarettes, cigars and chewable tobacco) are looking for another delivery method since smoking is difficult with second hand smoke laws and spittng is difficult most of the time?

Please folks – just say no to these products – for your health’s sake.

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