No sale of tobacco products today

Traders will not sell cigarettes and other tobacco products on May 31 being observed as the World No Tobacco Day.This will be part of their attempt to create awareness of the ill effects of tobacco, said T. Vellaiyan, president of Traders Association, here on Saturday.

Addressing a workshop on tobacco control, he said profit making alone should not be the motive of traders. They should have social responsibility too. He appealed to traders to educate the public on the evil effects of smoking and use of tobacco products on that day. They should voluntarily join the anti-tobacco campaign launched by various voluntarily organisations.

R.T. Porkaipandiyan, Director of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, said all efforts should be made to put an end to “tobacco terrorism,” which was spoiling the lives of youth in the productive age group of 20 to 40.Of late there had been a rise in smoking habit among women, which would lead to delivery of babies with low IQ and stillborn infants.

Appealing to traders to restrict the sale of tobacco products, he said by this, they were serving a social cause.V. Shanta, Chairman of the Cancer Institute, said tobacco was the root cause for heart-related diseases and cancer. Though all smokers would not get cancer, 90 per cent of the cancer patients were tobacco users.

Early detection could cure cancer. But, it was difficult to detect lung cancer at an early stage. It was mostly caused by tobacco products. Passive smoking was yet another menace affecting children and women. The battle against tobacco could not be won without the active support of traders, who could play a positive role in curbing tobacco practices, she said.

T.G. Sagar, director and dean of the Institute, in his welcome address, said the purpose of the workshop was to target traders in the campaign against tobacco and also to make them aware of tobacco control legislations. Traders should make efforts to motivate the public in creating and maintaining smoke-free public places.

Local students stand up against smoking

Students in Kingman took center stage in the fight against tobacco on Tuesday and Wednesday when they joined thousands of young people nationwide in the 15th Annual Kick Butts Day.

Sponsored by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Kick Butts Day is an annual event where kids educate their peers on the dangers of smoking and how tobacco companies try to target youth.

On Tuesday, students at the Kingman Academy of Learning High School handed out literature and hosted a table displaying visuals of tobacco's dangers along with a graffiti wall for youth to write powerful messages about tobacco's toll on them and their loved ones.

The Kingman High School in Kingman will be doing a similar graffiti/pledge wall as well as a numbers campaign to represent the number of kids in Arizona who start smoking each month at 10 a.m. According to the campaign, tobacco use is the No.1 cause of preventable death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 people and costing $96 billion in healthcare bills each year.

While there has been significant progress in reducing youth smoking, 20 percent of high school students still smokeAccording to the campaign, in Arizona, tobacco use claims 6,800 lives and costs $1.3 billion in healthcare bills each year.

Currently, 22.2 percent of the state's high school students smoke, and 22,900 kids try cigarettes for the first time each year.

Side Effects of Smoking

In today's culture, smoking is considered cool, among the youth and adults alike. However, no one has paid much attention to the effects of smoking, that can lead to irreversible damage on the mind and the body. This damage is not only individual. It even affects our close ones, and our environment. As such, it is important to take a look at the side effects of smoking, and then proceed with a healthier and more suitable course of action.

Side Effects of Smoking Cigarettes

Lots of people already suffer from these side effects, yet sometimes, a fact sheet is required to open their eyes to their invitation to bad health.
Smoking cigarettes not only stains the teeth but over time, can lead to the development of oral cancer. Not to mention its effect on the breath.Not only oral cancer, smokers are susceptible to the development of several other types of cancer, including lung cancer.

Smokers are at an increased risk of developing heart problems and stroke.
Smoking makes the smoker feel lethargic, and disturbs the metabolism of the body. This affects the immunity levels in the body, making it more prone to contracting diseases.The belief that smoking relieves stress is only psychological. It is a belief that is true to the withdrawal symptoms and not an actual cause of smoking.

Smoking strips the skin of its natural glow, and ages the skin by causing the development of wrinkles, dark circles, and a gray skin pallor. It also leads to sudden weight gain.
Smoking is sure to leave a dent in your pocket, and if you calculate the expenses just on cigarettes over a period of ten years, you will see the huge amount you have spent on it.
Lastly, smoking reduces the average life span by almost 15-20 years.

Toxic Dangers to Children from Third-Hand Smoke

Most people recognize potential health risks to the smoker and those exposed to second-hand smoke. Throughout the world, cigarette labels warn of potential impotence, fetal injury, premature births, cancer, heart disease, emphysema, gum disease, and tooth loss. The Surgeon General's report in 2006 on involuntary smoking stated that more than 126 million people are exposed to second-hand smoke with 50,000 deaths annually.

There is another concern--third-hand smoke which contains contaminants of tobacco toxins after visible smoke dissipates. The journalPediatrics 2009, reports a study led by Dr. Jonathan Winickoff of Massachusetts General Hospital. The study included a national survey of 1,478 people and their beliefs on the health effects of third-hand smoke. Two-thirds of non-smokers agreed that it would be harmful to their children, compared to less than half of smokers.

Research has documented the association between smoking in the home and persistently high levels of tobacco toxins well beyond the period of active smoking. These toxins take the form of particulate matter deposited in a layer onto every surface in loose household dust. These volatile toxic compounds off gas into the air over a period of days, weeks and months. Particulate matter from tobacco smoke includes 250 poisonous gases, chemicals and metals according to the National Toxicology Program. Among these are hydrogen cyanide (used in chemical weapons), carbon monoxide (found in car exhaust), butane (used in lighter fluid), ammonia (used in household cleaners), toluene (found in paint thinners), arsenic (used in pesticides), lead (formerly found in paint), chromium (used to make steel), cadmium (used to make batteries) and highly radioactive polonium-210.

Dr. Winckoff stated: "Eleven of the compounds are classified as Group 1 carcinogens, the most dangerous. When you smoke--anyplace--toxic particulate matter from tobacco smoke gets into your hair and clothing. When you come into contact with your baby, even if you're not smoking at the time, the baby comes in contact with those toxins. And if you breastfeed, the toxins will transfer to your baby in your breast milk." He commented, however, that breastfeeding is still preferable.

The study concluded there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke. Small children are especially susceptible to third-hand smoke exposure. They have faster respiration than adults and can inhale near, crawl and play on, or touch and mouth contaminated surfaces. Dr. Winickoff further stated, "Emphasizing that third-hand smoke harms the health of children may be an important element in encouraging home smoking bans. Health messages about third-hand smoke contamination could be easily incorporated into current tobacco control campaigns, programs, and routine clinical practice."

Awareness of children's unique susceptibility to toxins of all kinds should impel us to keep a home environment as pollutant free as possible. Besides stopping future in-home smoking, methods to help resolve the residue problem can include inexpensive measures like opening windows, air- filtering plants and cleaning with non-toxic cleaning products. Additionally, a high-quality and effective air purifier would be a blessing.

Mother of two shot and killed over a cigarette at Edmonton LRT station

EDMONTON — Heather Rae Thurier, the 23-year-old mother of two killed at the Stadium LRT station Friday, was shot over a cigarette, according to her family.
“It was about a cigarette, it started over a cigarette. My family asked, him, the guy, for a cigarette,” said Thurier’s sister, Nicole Gladue.

Gladue wasn’t there on Friday night when Thurier was killed, so she didn’t know how a simple request for a cigarette turned fatal for her sister — only that the man pulled a gun from his bag instead.

Police said the man fired one shot before running away. Thurier, who was hit in the head, fell face down and was pronounced dead minutes later, lying just inside the 112th-Avenue entrance to the station.Thurier’s brother was there with her Friday night and is badly shaken up from witnessing the shooting, but he described to Gladue some of what happened.

“She fell on her face,” Gladue said. “My brother was at her feet.”Thurier came from a large, close family, Gladue said. From an early age, she showed a fierce, protective attitude toward anyone she felt had wronged someone she loved.

“She was everybody’s bulldog. I remember this one time when she was three, she knocked out my brother who’s almost three years older than me, so five years older then her,” Gladue said.“She just ups and clocks him, right. He was picking on me and she got really mad. She wasn’t gonna have that.”

Thurier had a family of her own: a one-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy.

“She loved the kids, adored the kids, talked about them all the time,” said Thurier’s longtime friend, Joshua Nielsen.Nielsen met Thurier in the small town of Willingdon, around 135 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, where she lived parts of her life with her dad.

The two kept in constant contact over the years, Nielsen said.“She was always outgoing, always fun loving, liked to laugh all the time,” he said.

She had just moved to the Coliseum area of Edmonton, Nielsen said, and was excited about returning to the city.

Thurier was a regular user of the services offered by the Mustard Seed Church. She had been at the church Friday evening before she was shot to death.“She was very dear to many community members who are shocked,” said a church staff member.

The young man believed to have shot her is described as between 16 and 21 years old, around five-foot-10 and 160 pounds.Police seized LRT security footage to help with their investigation and were still searching for the suspect Sunday.

Thurier was Edmonton’s seventh homicide victim of 2010 and the third of last week.

Tobacco smoke causes behavior problems in children

A study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives has revealed that children who are exposed to cigarette smoke prenatally and during the first year of their life are likely to develop behavioral problems by the time they are of school age. Particularly problematic during the gestational years, tobacco smoke can more than double the risk of childhood behavior problems.

Scientists from Germany analyzed children whose mothers smoked while they were in the womb as well as children who were exposed to second hand smoke following their birth up until their first birthday. The children who were only exposed prenatally were 90 percent more likely to develop behavioral problems compared to children whose mothers did not smoke at all. Children who were exposed only after birth had a 30-percent higher risk. Children exposed both prenatally and after birth had a double risk of developing abnormal behavior problems.

In order to isolate the true cause of behavioral problems, scientists crafted a detailed questionnaire that aimed to eliminate possible biases that would have altered results, such as external social and environmental factors. When all was said and done, hyperactivity, attention deficit disorder, and social interaction problems were among the primary setbacks observed in the tobacco-exposed children.

Because the negative effects of tobacco smoke were found to be the greatest during fetal development, scientists see an undeniable link between tobacco and developmental problems. The formative years of a child's growth and maturation are severely upset by the presence of tobacco, something sc

Teen Choice Award Winner Tells His Story

The Leon County Health Department Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT) invites Tallahassee youth to hear Chad Bullock, national stand-out anti-smoking advocate, speak.

“Igniting Initiative” is a carefully researched and developed experience that creatively explores the power of socially engaged youth.

Students will be actively engaged with hands on activities and contests while learning how they can create change in their communities.

The presentation is based on Chad’s unique journey from loss to super advocate.

Over 40,000 students have been reached with his message, and they always walk away with a fresh perspective on community involvement and a flair for tobacco control.

His home state governor sums up his one-of-a-kind approach: “Chad is the poster kid for getting in the trenches and advocating strongly and making change happen,” said North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue. She added, “It’s incredible, right here in the heart of the tobacco district, for young kids to make a difference."

Chad Bullock is often referred to as one of the leading anti-tobacco activists in the nation. Bullock developed a passion for tobacco-use prevention in the 9th grade after learning that he had lost a loved one to tobacco. He worked to get smoke-free ballparks in North Carolina, successfully petitioned a major tobacco company to end unlawful marketing and has trained over 35,000 youth to become anti-tobacco activists.

Bullock won the 2008 Do Something Award and $100,000 to continue his anti-smoking efforts and became the first and only “non-celebrity” to win a Teen Choice Award from FOX. His anti-tobacco efforts were recently featured on 35 million Doritos chips packages.

Bullock is the director of a new national anti-smoking activism campaign, called “helloCHANGE,” and currently works with MTV News. He also studies mass communications at school in New York.

FDA issues final rule on youth smoking restrictions

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule containing a broad set of federal requirements designed to significantly curb access to and the appeal of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to children and adolescents in the United States.
The new rule is titled “Regulations Restricting the Sale and Distribution of Cigarettes and Smokeless Tobacco to Protect Children and Adolescents”, and restricts the sale, distribution, and promotion of these products to make them less accessible and less attractive to kids. Among other things, the rule prohibits the sale of cigarettes or smokeless tobacco to people younger than 18, prohibits the sale of cigarette packages with less than 20 cigarettes, prohibits distribution of free samples of cigarettes, restricts distribution of free samples of smokeless tobacco, and prohibits tobacco brand name sponsorship of any athletic, musical or other social or cultural events.
Enforcement of the new rule will begin once it becomes effective on June 22, 2010. The FDA will work closely with states and territories to ensure that retailers comply with the rule. The FDA will also work with the retail community over the coming months to educate them about the new requirements and assist them in understanding how to comply with them and help protect children and adolescents.
Manufacturers and retailers who do not comply with the rule may be subject to enforcement action. The rule was originally crafted in the 1990s by the Food and Drug Administration. After being set aside by the Supreme Court, it was included as a key provision of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. (pi)

Anti-smoking fund cut, smoking rises

In the last three years, New York's once heralded anti-smoking program has been cut three times by a total of 30 percent and as its TV spots, quitters' help line and free nicotine patch programs were scaled back, 105,000 adults started smoking who otherwise might not have.Anti-smoking advocate Russ Sciandra notes the state Tobacco Control Program has been cut far deeper and more often than most areas, and wonders why.

The answers say much about Albany and how its forces have torn at the Tobacco Control Program, one of the quiet casualties of the state's fiscal crisis.

Sciandra said the anti-smoking program faces a formidable obstacle for any cause in Albany: A lack of a shrill constituency that politicians don't dare ignore.

"We don't have clients," said Sciandra, director of the Center for a Tobacco Free New York. "Politically, it doesn't hurt anyone."

All he has is facts: 100,000 more smokers means 25,000 more premature deaths and $1 billion in added cost to the state in government-subsidized health care for the poor and elderly.

"Until people quit, they hate us. And once they do, they don't need us," Sciandra said.

Elections records give some bite to what he considers another obvious factor.

Back in October of 2008, less than a week before the legislative elections would determine which party controlled the Senate, Philip Morris parent Altria Group Inc. contributed $30,000 to the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee when they needed it most. It was the second $30,000 contribution to the committee that year, and was followed by a $50,000 donation in January, when Democrats opened the Senate session in the majority.

It's all legal, just like the $125,000 Altria contributed to the Senate Republican campaign when Republicans controlled the Senate during the 2006-07 session and the $50,000 it gave the GOP committee in November 2008, days after some dissident Democrats threatened to switch the majority back to the GOP.

"There's nothing there," agreed Altria's David Sutton. "It's something we've done for a number of years ... we simply do not lobby on control issues at all." Instead, Altria's was dedicated to fighting more cigarette taxes, trying to get Albany to end its delays in collecting hundreds of millions in taxes on cigarettes sold by Indian tribes, and other issues including fighting for positive programs for youths.

"The government policy side and political side operate completely independent of one another," said Eric Blankenbaker, spokesman for the Senate Democratic campaign. "There is no connection."

Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group chuckled at that.

"It reminds me of the scene in `Casablanca' when the French police chief is arguing that he's `shocked' there is gambling as he gets his winnings," Horner said. "In my opinion, they wouldn't be giving that money to the Democratic Senate unless they felt they were getting something in return." The result is that a program that was once a top priority of Republican and Democratic governors is another casualty of the fiscal crisis in which the state can no longer sustain levels of spending as tax revenues plummet. Even protected programs such as school and hospital aid face some cuts. Schools for example, are fighting a 5 percent reduction.

The latest cut to the smoking program is proposed for $5 million in the 2010-11 state budget, now a month late and under negotiation.

"Do we like it? Of course not," said Claudia Hutton, spokeswoman for the state Health Department. "But I don't know of any program in the Health Department that is an entitlement that isn't taking a whack."

Some of the cuts were pushed by the Legislature, as it sought a deficit reduction program in December that spared school aid and some other funding.

Hutton doesn't dispute Sciandra's trends or the cuts so far. She said whenever tobacco is taxed more, or whenever more TV ads and programs like free nicotine patches are offered, smoking declines including smokers who cut back. Lift those even briefly, and smoking increases.

"You can see this kind of swing that quickly," Hutton said. "Ideally, we would never have a period without tobacco advertising and not one minute when the help line isn't open."

Australian Cigarette Packaging Censorship - Has it gone too far?

The Australian government is moving to have cigarette company/brand logos removed from packages and replaced with graphic images of diseased lungs. The only thing that would differentiate one brand from another would be some small generic text with the brand's name. Tobacco companies are already complaining that such packaging will reduce sales. But, isn't that the point?

The whole Australian proposal got me thinking, the "Tumor Pack" concept could have some useful spin-offs. Why not beef up other warning labels? Or, create frightening labels where there weren't ones before? Here are three such possibilities:

1) Alcohol – In the US, alcohol is currently labeled with the ABLA warning: “(1) According to the Surgeon General, women should not drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy because of the risk of birth defects [INSERT GRAPHIC IMAGE HERE]. (2) Consumption of alcoholic beverages impairs your ability to drive a car or operate machinery [INSERT GRAPHIC IMAGE HERE], and may cause health problems [INSERT GRAPHIC IMAGE HERE].

2) Hairdryers – Here is part of the label from my wife’s hairdryer: “Keep away from water! Danger! ‘Unplug It!’ Do not remove this tag! Warn children of risk of death by electric shock! [INSERT GRAPHIC IMAGE HERE]”

3) Automobile Airbags – “Warning! Death or serious injury can occur. [INSERT GRAPHIC IMAGE HERE] Children age 12 and under can be killed by the air bag [INSERT GRAPHIC IMAGE HERE] … Never put a rear facing child seat in the front… etc…”

Admittedly, some of these images might seem a bit macabre and disturbing. Certainly, images of dead or injured children are bound to be controversial, but consider the lives saved. Are smokers the only ones we want to attempt to scare into safety? Or is it the addictive nature of smoking that seems to require stronger and more disturbing measures to be taken in an attempt to improve public health?

Think about it. If you are someone who may be apt to put hairdryers in the tub while they are plugged in, you may be a bit dim, but you’re probably not a stupidity addict. In fact, you probably won’t be around long enough to find out if such behavior could be addictive. However, keep smoking in spite of calm warnings about how bad it is for your health, and how it could kill you, and there may be other factors at play.

Whatever the reasoning… cigarettes will probably have graphic labels long before any of the others will. Alcohol, well… we don’t want to scare people off of it completely, right? I mean, there is such a thing as moderation. And, what red-blooded American wants to look at pictures of children with birth defects, and bloody accident victims while partaking in his/her well-deserved after-work beer (assuming that red-blooded American still has a job.) And hairdryers? Well, let’s be honest… two words: Natural Selection. Airbags? We are trying to get our auto manufacturers back on track, fiscally. Just think about how mini-van sales will plummet if little Billy and Annie have to look at images of disembodied children next to their built-in, in-car DVD system.