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TRICE: Tribune writers' New Year's resolutions for 2009  

I know that smoking is one of the hardest addictions to break. Still, my New Year's resolution is for President-elect Barack Obama to try once again to kick the habit.

In a February, 2007 interview with CBS's "60 Minutes," Michelle Obama said that she wouldn't allow her fear of her husband being shot to prevent him from running for president. "As a black man, you know, Barack can get shot going to the gas station," she said.

Well, "as a black man" his risk of dying from lung cancer is all too real.

The American Lung Association says that in 2006, 27 percent of black men smoked compared to 24 percent of white men.

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Leader of Guinea For 24 Years Dies 

President Lansana Conté of Guinea died after an illness, Prime Minister Ahmed Tidiane Souare said early Tuesday.

Mr. Conté, a chain-smoking and reclusive diabetic who was in his 70s, had governed the country since 1984, when he seized power after the country’s first president, Sékou Touré, died in a hospital in the United States.

The government said Mr. Conté had died after a long illness.

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Surprising Results on Smoking Research Hispanic Versus White Female Smokers 

The nation's first scientific study on the relationship between smoking and respiratory disease among Hispanic versus non-Hispanic white (NHW) women revealed that NHW women smokers were at greater risk of developing airflow obstruction and diminished lung function than Hispanic women who smoke - a surprising finding given that many diseases more adversely affect ethnic minorities. Smoking-related respiratory diseases are a major cause of death among all women.

The objective was to evaluate the risk of airflow obstruction and to assess lung function among Hispanic and NHW female smokers in a New Mexican group of participants.

Lead investigators at Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI) - in collaboration with the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles - conducted the study, which was financed by the Tobacco Settlement Commission of New Mexico. Of the 1,433 women who participated, 248 (17.3 percent) were Hispanic, 830 (57.9 percent) were current smokers, 517 (36.1 percent) smoked 40 pack-years and 422 (29.4 percent) were obese.

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Tobacco giant postures as civil rights victim 

Mother Jones has an interesting take on last week's Supreme Court hearing in the decade-long battle in which cigarette-maker Philip Morris was ordered to pay the widow of a Portland janitor $79.5 million. Stephanie Mencimer, a reporter in Mother Jones' Washington, D.C., bureau offers an angle that was pretty much overlooked by other media. Here's the top of it:

Philip Morris, America's largest cigarette company, compared itself to the NAACP. . . .

The tobacco company has declared itself a civil rights victim, says Ray Thomas, one of Williams' lawyers. "That they have the gall to do that shows how brazen they are," he says.

No matter how you feel about the size of the $79.5 million judgment, you have to agree that "gall" is just about the right word for the tobacco giant's legal smoke screen.

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Surprising Results on Smoking Research Hispanic Versus White Female Smokers  

The nation's first scientific study on the relationship between smoking and respiratory disease among Hispanic versus non-Hispanic white (NHW) women revealed that NHW women smokers were at greater risk of developing airflow obstruction and diminished lung function than Hispanic women who smoke - a surprising finding given that many diseases more adversely affect ethnic minorities. Smoking-related respiratory diseases are a major cause of death among all women.

The objective was to evaluate the risk of airflow obstruction and to assess lung function among Hispanic and NHW female smokers in a New Mexican group of participants.

Lead investigators at Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute (LRRI) - in collaboration with the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles - conducted the study, which was financed by the Tobacco Settlement Commission of New Mexico.

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• Racial slur causes mistrial in Broward County tobacco case  

A Broward judge declared a mistrial in the case of a Cooper City widow suing cigarette maker Philip Morris over the death of her chain-smoking husband after a witness used a racial slur.

Robert Proctor, a Stanford University history professor and an expert witness for the widow, used the ''N word'' in court in an answer to a question from a Philip Morris lawyer about the educator's research into the tobacco industry.

Proctor did not use the ''N word'' pejoratively, said Alex Alvarez, a lawyer for Elaine Hess, who claims her husband's 1997 death from lung cancer was caused by his addiction to nicotine.

Rather, Proctor was explaining how he uses the word as a ''key'' search term in conducting research, Alvarez said. Proctor is the author of Cancer Wars: How Politics Shapes What We Know and Don't Know About Cancer.

Nonetheless, Philip Morris lawyer Kenneth Reilly objected and asked Circuit Judge Jeffrey Streitfeld to declare a mistrial.

''The judge thought that was prejudicial and granted a mistrial,'

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Use of 'N' word causes mistrial in landmark tobacco lawsuit  

A Broward Circuit Court judge declared a mistrial Thursday in a landmark tobacco case of a Cooper City widow suing cigarette maker Philip Morris on a wrongful-death claim.

An expert witness, on the second day of trial, used a racist term -- the N-word -- while explaining his research into a project about racism in the tobacco industry, said Gary Paige, an attorney for Elaine Hess, the widow of Stuart Hess. . . .

Robert Proctor, a professor of history of science at Stanford University, triggered the mistrial while explaining that research into the topic cannot be done without using the N-word, Paige said.

"He mentioned it within context of his research project," Paige said. "But the judge felt that the context the jury heard it within was prejudicial ... that the jury was hearing about racism by the tobacco industry."

Two of the jurors and one alternate were African-American, Paige said.

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'N word' cause for mistrial in smoker's lawsuit  

A Broward judge Thursday declared a mistrial in the case of a Cooper City widow suing Philip Morris after a witness for the woman used an inflammatory racial term.

Robert Proctor, a Stanford University professor, used the ''N word'' during a response to a question from a Philip Morris lawyer about the educator's research into the tobacco industry. Proctor is working on a project about racism in the industry.

'It wasn't so much the `N word' but the linking of the tobacco company with racism,'' said Alex Alvarez, a lawyer for Elaine Hess, who claims her husband's death from lung cancer in 1997 was caused by his addiction to nicotine in cigarettes.

''He's writing a book on racism in the tobacco industry,'' said Gary Paige, who also represents Hess. ``In order to do that search, you have to use racial terms [to search the industry's] archives. ''

Philip Morris lawyer Kenneth Reilly objected and asked for a mistrial. Judge Jeffrey Streitfeld thought the term was ''prejudicial,'' Paige added. The jury included two African-American women and an African-American man served as an alternate.

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New Tobacco Research Finds Minnesota's Latino Population Smoking Significantly Less than General Population 

Results from the first quantitative study measuring tobacco use in Minnesota's Latino communities were released today by Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES), Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) and ClearWay Minnesota(SM). The report, titled "Tobacco Use in Minnesota: A Quantitative Survey of Members of Minnesota's Latino Communities" found adult Latinos overall are smoking at a rate lower than that of Minnesota's general adult population -- 13 percent as compared to 17 percent. The Latino smoking rate equates to more than 25,000 Latinos who still smoke. Additionally, the report found that only 4 percent of Latina women smoke, a considerably lower rate than the 16 percent of women who smoke in the general population.

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• Farmworkers union steps up RJR push 

An Ohio-based farmworkers union put R.J. Reynolds, North Carolina's tobacco giant, in its sights more than a year ago.

Now, as the campaign heads into its second year, union officials say they are more determined than ever to push the Winston-Salem cigarette maker into a deal that could unionize as many as 30,000 tobacco fieldworkers.

Earlier this month, union supporters hand-delivered hundreds of postcards signed by union supporters to members of the company's board of directors. They say it is the beginning of a push that will target board members and other companies that do business with Reynolds.

If those measures fail, they say, they will move on to a national boycott of the company's products, which include Winston, Camel and Salem cigarettes.

"If anybody in the country needs a union, it's these workers," said Baldemar Velasquez, president of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, known as FLOC. . . .

Velasquez says tobacco workers are more vulnerable than other farmworkers, because the nicotine in the tobacco leaves can sicken and dehydrate them. Many also are in the country illegally

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Smoking's Effect on Child Weight May Vary by Race  

Studies have linked prenatal smoking to a higher risk of childhood obesity, but new findings suggest that effect may vary based on race and ethnicity.

In a study of more than 155,000 preschool children, U.S. researchers found that the link between mothers' smoking during pregnancy and their children's risk of obesity was most clear among white families.

In contrast, only heavy prenatal smoking was tied to childhood obesity among African Americans. And there was no clear evidence that it raised the odds of obesity among children of Hispanic, Native American or Asian descent.

Dr. Andrea J. Sharma and colleagues at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report the findings in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

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BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Club specializes in stogies 

With an economy in the doldrums and a recently enacted ban on smoking taking shape in Glendale, Tom Williams realizes that the Brand Cigar Club faces significant challenges as it navigates the region's choppy waters.

But Williams, the retail manager of the shop that reopened Nov. 1 after a nine-month hiatus, is poised to capture a significant portion of the disaffected smoking population who are now precluded from lighting up in most public places around the city.

"We have the biggest population of Armenians in this country, and they smoke," Williams said. "They are looking for a place."

The Brand Cigar Club at 154 S. Brand Blvd. first opened in 2003.

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SPLC should fight tobacco industry  

Over the last few years, I questioned the Southern Poverty Law Center on 'why' they continue to be 'silent' in the growing global fight against big and brutal tobacco. . . .

Now, this Montgomery-based nonprofit is attempting to bankrupt the Imperial Klans of America with their Kentucky lawsuit.

Why not bankrupt the heartless tobacco industry for all the past and present long-suffering pain and deaths inflicted upon the poor and minorities?

'In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends,' said Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

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Lung Cancer Genetics Different in Black Patients: Study  

Non-small cell lung tumors tend to have a different genetic makeup in blacks than in whites, a finding that may explain why treatment and outcomes are different among races, a new study says.

In blacks, the tumors are more likely to carry more copies of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene and fewer mutations of EGFR itself, according to researchers who presented their findings Nov. 13 at the 2008 Chicago Multidisciplinary Symposium in Thoracic Oncology. Previous studies have shown that more copies, regardless of mutation, predict patient responses to EGFR inhibitor drugs, such as erlotinib and gefitinib, the researchers said.

Blacks with this type of lung cancer typically do not fare well, based on past studies.

"The findings of this study were surprising, since it was not expected that drug-sensitizing EGFR mutations would be so rare in this patient population,

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A TV in the Bedroom: Implications for Viewing Habits and Risk Behaviors During Early Adolescence  

This study examined associations between bedroom television, media use, and adolescents' health risk behaviors. A sample of 1,017 12- to 14-year-old adolescents completed computer-assisted interviews at baseline and 2-year follow-up. Among White adolescents, having a bedroom television predicted risk-promoting media use practices and significantly greater odds of initiating health risk behaviors--cigarette smoking and sexual intercourse--over 2 years. Although significantly more Black than White adolescents had a bedroom television, bedroom television was unrelated to Black adolescents' media use practices or health risk behaviors. Research is needed to understand ethnic differences in family media use and consequences for adolescent development.

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