Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Argentina drags feet on tobacco control

As the third-largest population among the 20-odd countries still resisting ratification of the World Health Organization’s 2003 Convention on Tobacco Control (after the United States — notoriously allergic to joining international conventions of any kind — and Indonesia), Argentina is very much in the sights of the global anti-smoking campaign — it thus might or might not be a coincidence that this city was chosen for the sessions of the WHO study group on regulating tobacco products from Monday until yesterday.

Around a quarter of all Argentine adults or some 6.5 million people smoke, reported Dr Douglas Bettcher, Director of the Global Programme for Tobacco Free Initiative, and half of them will eventually die of tobacco-related disease — at the rate of 40,000 a year plus 6,000 victims of passive smoking (the worldwide figures are five million deaths and 600,000 respectively). Underpopulated Argentina needs its people, Bettcher pleaded.

So why the hesitation in joining the mainstream of 169 countries ratifying the convention? Mainly the lobbying of northwestern tobacco provinces (which include Tucumán — curiously the first of four Argentine provinces to enforce smoke-free public spaces thanks to current national Health Minister Juan Luis Manzur) in defence of jobs. But Brazil has a much larger tobacco industry, pointed out Brazil’s Vera Costa e Silva, and has ratified the convention without any jobs being lost — the smoking universe of around a billion people globally does not shrink amid rising world population. Jobs are being transformed by a fast-changing economy anyway. What job losses there have been result from mechanization by a greedy tobacco industry, adds Bettcher, who points out that the earnings of tobacco-growers in Indonesia are less than half other farmers.

Just how far would the anti-smoking campaign like to go in restricting tobacco products, the Herald asked at yesterday’s press conference, pointing out that prohibition of alcohol had given birth to Al Capone while Mexico today is being torn apart by drug cartels. Prohibition is neither feasible nor practical and is not sought, Bettcher replied — it would create the biggest crime syndicate ever with fearsome money-laundering and terrorist links. The study group’s aim would be the strict regulations of convention perhaps carried a few steps further — for example, Australia’s recent plain packaging legislation.

The strategy is to kill the tobacco business by taking away the demand, not banning the product.

The WHO campaign against tobacco continues to be based on the health hazards, as it has been for decades, but there are a few new twists — for example, emphasis on the toxic waste caused by cigarette butts and the attraction of sharply increasing cigarette taxation in these times of exploding fiscal deficits, one of the few areas where taxation is not only safe from being counterproductive but is downright useful in public health terms (Japan, Australia, France and the US have all gone down this road).


In general, the WHO experts feel that Argentina could do much better and would like to see the anti-smoking legislation now in force in Santa Fe (also Neuquén, San Luis and Tucumán) nationwide.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Salem State extends smoking ban to entire campus

SALEM — Salem State College will ban smoking on its entire campus beginning next September, instituting what may be the toughest policy of any public four-year college in the state.

"It appears we're the first university ... in Massachusetts to go in this direction," college spokeswoman Karen Cady said yesterday.

Salem State currently prohibits smoking in residence halls and college buildings. The new policy will extend to athletic fields, walking paths and everywhere else on the college's three campuses.

The policy will apply not only to students and staff, but to construction workers, deliverymen or anyone else who steps foot on college grounds.

The stern action was taken following a yearlong study by a college committee, which surveyed more than 1,200 students, faculty, administrators and staff.

"The university has an opportunity to dramatically impact the health and welfare of the members of our community and guests by making a change in the currently accepted campus smoking practices," Executive Vice President Stanley Cahill wrote in an e-mail distributed around the college yesterday.

"One major concern revealed by the campus survey is that 25 percent of the respondents have respiratory health conditions. ... Fifty-nine percent of all respondents indicated their experience on campus was negatively impacted by secondhand smoke."

Salem State said it will launch a yearlong campaign to prepare the campus for the change to a tobacco-free campus.

There are plans to offer smoking-cessation programs to students and staff and to educate members of the college community about the harmful effects of smoking, secondhand smoke and other tobacco products, Cahill wrote in the e-mail.

The administrator also said that "tobacco cessation products and medicines may be prescribed to our students by university health services professionals."

In addition to tobacco products that can be smoked, the ban will include chewing and smokeless tobacco products.

With this move, Salem State joins more than 260 colleges and universities across the country that have banned smoking and tobacco products on campus, according to Cahill.

In Massachusetts, three community colleges — Cape Cod, Bristol and Mount Wachusett — have taken similar steps, Cady said.

Although the study was initiated by President Patricia Meservey, the collegewide survey showed that "this is the direction the majority of respondents wanted to go," Cady said.

Meservey made the final decision to implement a ban, beginning at the start of the 2011-2012 academic year, based on the committee's recommendation, Cady said.

During its deliberations, the committee considered the potential impact this could have on admissions and hiring but decided that health considerations were paramount, Cady said.

"There will probably be some potential students and employees who will be attracted to us for this reason," she said, "and there will probably be some who might think twice."

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

AUSTRALIA - WORLD SET TO FOLLOW AUSTRALIAN TOBACCO POLICY.

Despite intense opposition from the international tobacco industry, Australia's plan to introduce plain-wrap cigarettes is likely to be followed by other countries, the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon (Nicola.Roxon.MP@aph.gov.au) says.

September 19, 2010 - Australia - plain cigarette packaging will legislation be written to avoid any legal challenge..
The tobacco industry spent a reputed $4 million during the federal election to campaign against plain packaging of cigarettes , criticising the Labor plan as unprecedented.

September 11, 2010 - Australia - documents reveal big tobacco directly involved in stopping move to plain cigarettes in 2012...
But Ms Roxon said the positive reaction of ministers from other Western countries to the policy showed that the tobacco companies' campaign was based on a false premise.

She told the (Sydney Morning) Herald she had encountered "a lot of interest" from health ministers at an Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development conference (OECD) in Paris last week. A key theme of the conference was measures to reduce health costs at a time of tight government budgets. Ms Roxon said that cutting tobacco use was often raised as a solution during discussions at the conference.

Representatives from Ireland, Norway, the European Union and the United States had expressed interest. "From my perspective, the broader the interest there is, the better." The tobacco companies have made clear they will fight this tooth and nail because they think if it gets through here it will be a precedent.

Ms. Roxon: "Interestingly a lot of the other countries were very quick to understand that that fight is actually a bit of a false one because a lot of them are interested anyway. It is sort of an inevitable step along a spectrum of taking action against tobacco. What I was heartened by is the potential that other countries would like to move in this direction irrespective of ours, which makes the tobacco company fight with us a little different. People were pretty gob-smacked about the amount of money the tobacco companies spent during the campaign, especially relative to the amount of money the political parties spent."

Ms Roxon said that among the "very positive" indications she had received was the interest from a senior US health official who had a background in tobacco control. He had told her about legislation giving the US federal government more powers over tobacco content and labelling. (The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act; President Obama signs bill for FDA to regulate tobacco..)

Australia has reduced the proportion of smokers in the population to 15.5 per cent and the death toll from smoking-related diseases has fallen to about 15,000 - down by about 3000 from a decade earlier.

September 23, 2010 - Australia - tobacco tax increase results in more people quitting..
Ms Roxon said she expected drafting of the legislation and the Health Department's assessment of the plain packaging policy to start by the end of the year.

The anti-tobacco campaigner Professor Simon Chapman, of Sydney University, said it appeared the tobacco industry was scaling down its campaign. There had been suggestions that the industry was to continue with a multimillion-dollar campaign during the football final telecasts, but this did not eventuate.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Smokeless Tobacco

Current or previous users should report any of the following signs to a physician:

a sore that bleeds and does not heal
a lump or thickening anywhere in your mouth or cheek
soreness or swelling in the mouth that does not go away
a red or white patch that does not go away
difficulty chewing, swallowing, or moving the tongue of jaw


LIVING WITHOUT

SMOKELESS TOBACCO

Quitting is an ongoing process-You may have slips when you feel a strong urge to use chew.

A slip is normal, but it does not mean you have relapsed-A one-time use of snuff does not mean you are now a failure. Use a slip or occasional lapse to learn how you can deal with that situation next time. It is normal to have slips. Now put your effort into staying off totally.

The main goal is to stop using smokeless totally-If you had a “slip” and used snuff or chew, this may be a situation you want to avoid for awhile or learn to handle differently next time.

Even if you went back to using smokeless again, quit again-Each time you quit, it will be easier.

People who quit tobacco addictions often have to try several times-Make a new plan and quit again-for good!



THE FOUR A’S


AVOID-One way to deal with tough situations is to avoid settings or activities that are high risk situations until you have been off chew or snuff long enough to have more confidence being a non-user.

ALTER-This strategy is to alter you plan to better deal with the urge. Think of ways you can change your pattern of behavior to break up the usual plans.

ALTERNATIVES-When you get an urge to chew, you can substitute gum (sugar-free is best), sunflower seeds (unsalted are best), beef jerky, or herbal (non-tobacco) snuff (like ground mint or clover leaves) for your usual chew.

ACTIVITIES-A lot of people chew or use snuff when bored or sitting around. When you get an urge to use chew, take a walk or bike ride, work out on weights, or any other exercise or activity that can take your mind off the urge to chew.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Another reason to stop smoking: Your pets' health

Amid growing evidence that secondhand smoke is causing cancers and possibly a range of other health problems in pets, many groups are intensifying efforts to encourage people to stop smoking — if not for their own sake, then for their animals'.

Veterinarians are redoubling efforts to warn smokers of the dangers to their pets, and smoking-cessation programs, including Utah Tobacco Prevention and Control, Breathe New Hampshire and smokefreesociety.org, have posted fact sheets or printable fliers on their websites. Some groups are sharing information where animal aficionados gather, including at last month's Dachshund Dash in Oklahoma City, where the Oklahoma County Tobacco Use Prevention Coalition warned of secondhand smoke's dangers to dogs.

And the ASPCA last month linked up with American Legacy Foundation, a stop-smoking group, to spread the word to the pet lovers of the world.

Studies have shown that toxins in secondhand smoke can cause lung and nasal cancer in dogs and malignant lymphoma in cats.

"The evidence is striking," says Steven Hansen of the ASPCA's Animal Poison Control Center.

"Most veterinarians believe pretty strongly secondhand smoke presents a strong danger to dogs and cats with pre-existing respiratory problems," he says. "And extrapolating, why would you expose a healthy animal?"

Although studies showing strong links between smoking and pets are limited to a few cancers, veterinary oncologist Aarti Sabhlok, who treats 40 or more cancer patients a week at San Francisco Veterinary Specialists, believes an "animal in an environment with constant exposure to a toxin, and that would include cigarette smoke, could be at greater risk of developing tumors."

It may seem odd to believe that people who continue to smoke despite the risks to themselves and others might pay heed when pets' health is jeopardized, "but we know people sometimes pay more attention to their pets' well-being," Hansen says.

Indeed, a Web-based survey of 3,293 adult pet owners published last year found that 48% were smokers or living with smokers, and 37% said clear evidence that smoking is harmful to their pets would motivate them to quit or ask the people they live with to quit; 14% said such evidence could prompt them to do all their smoking outside.

"We want people to have the facts," Hansen says. And "if a person needs one more reason to stop smoking, maybe this is it."