Tobacco.org

• Study: Pregnant women who reduce smoking have fewer pre-term deliveries 

Pregnant women who reduce smoking to less than half a pack a day - even if they don't quit altogether - can significantly lower their risk of delivering premature babies, according to a new Charleston Area Medical Center/West Virginia University study.

Twenty-five percent of local women who smoked eight or more cigarettes a day had pre-term deliveries, the study found. But only 10 percent of women who smoked fewer than that number of cigarettes each day had premature babies.

Also, no women who smoked fewer than eight cigarettes delivered babies classified as "very premature," before 32 weeks.

The findings are especially important in West Virginia, where about 27 percent of women smoke during pregnancy - the highest rate in the nation. . . .

Bruce Adkins, who heads the state's tobacco prevention division, said even a few cigarettes a day can poison a fetus, causing brain and muscle damage.

"We emphatically say that the only way to completely reduce the risk of fetal injury is for the mother to completely quit, Adkins said.

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Lung cancer deadliest tumor for Australia women  

Lung cancer has overtaken breast cancer as the biggest killer of Australian women with cancer, as females who started smoking in the 1970s and 1980s as they gained equal rights with men are diagnosed with the deadly disease.

More than 50 Australian women lost their battle with lung cancer every week in 2005 and the number will rise to almost 65 female deaths a week in 2010, said a report released on Friday by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

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• Heavy smoking among women highlighted  

Research published today found nearly half of Irish women surveyed are heavy smokers and more women than men wanted to quit smoking.

The findings from a Nicorette survey found 45 per cent of Irish women are heavy smokers, compared to 55 per cent of Irish men. Heavy smokers were defined as those who smoke more than 15 cigarettes a day, with the average Irish smoker smoking 17 cigarettes a day.

When asked about quitting smoking, 68 per cent of Irish women said they would like to quit compared to 58 per cent of their male counterparts.

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Many pregnant women still smoking, Alberta study of 28,000 shows ($$) 

A disturbing number of women in Alberta are smoking during pregnancy despite the well-established risks to both the mother and the fetus, a new provincial study has found.In what is billed as the largest study of its kind ever undertaken in Canada, the Alberta government tracked chemicals, metals and minerals in the blood of pregnant women and, in general, found levels of contaminants on par with or lower than accepted levels nationally and around the world.

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• Teens Girls Smoke Now, Pay Later With Larger Waistlines As Adults 

Remember the cool girls, huddled together in high school restrooms, puffing their cigarettes? Well, here's consolation for the nerds in the crowd: Those teen smokers are more likely to experience obesity as adults, according to a new study from Finland.

Girls who smoke 10 cigarettes per day or more are at greatest risk, particularly for abdominal obesity. Their waist sizes are 1.34 inches larger than nonsmokers' waists are as young adults, according to the study in the February 2009 issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

But smoking in adolescence did not necessarily predict weight problems for men, according to the study.

Scientists know a correlation exists between women's weight and smoking, said lead study author Suoma Saarni, a researcher with the Department of Public Health in Helsinki.

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Gender as a Moderator in the Association of Body Weight to Smoking and Mental Health  

Results. Relative to their healthy-weight counterparts, overweight or obese men were less likely to smoke, whereas overweight women were more likely to smoke. Mental health problems were not related to relative body weight among men. However, overweight or obese women were more likely than were their healthy-weight counterparts to have a negative self-assessment of mental health, and obese women were more likely to have a mental health problem. In addition, underweight women had increased odds of being a smoker and having mental health problems.

Conclusions. The results indicate that gender has a moderating role in the association between body weight and both smoking and mental health. Gender-specific analysis rather than adjustment for the impact of gender in analyses is a promising avenue for future research.

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• Tobacco smoking as a risk factor for major depressive disorder: population-based study  

Results

Among 165 people with major depressive disorder and 806 controls, smoking was associated with increased odds for major depressive disorder (age-adjusted odds ratio (OR)=1.46, 95% CI 1.03-2.07). Compared with non-smokers, odds for major depressive disorder more than doubled for heavy smokers (>20 cigarettes/day). Among 671 women with no history of major depressive disorder at baseline, 13 of 87 smokers and 38 of 584 non-smokers developed de novo major depressive disorder during a decade of follow-up. Smoking increased major depressive disorder risk by 93% (hazard ratio (HR)=1.93, 95% CI 1.02-3.69); this was not explained by physical activity or alcohol consumption.

Conclusions

Evidence from cross-sectional and longitudinal data suggests that smoking increases the risk of major depressive disorder in women.

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Smoking rampant among pregnant women in Alberta 

A new report that shows a startling number of women in Alberta smoke while pregnant provides a clear warning sign the province's approach is falling short, a University of Calgary researcher says.

A recently-released 2005 Alberta Health and Wellness study examined 28,484 samples from pregnant women randomly selected from 50,599 serum samples used for a provincewide bio-monitoring test from January to December 2005.

It found that the levels of cotinine--a nicotine metabolite and marker of cigarette smoke exposure-- were unusually high among expecting Alberta women, particularly those in northern Alberta and younger than 25-years-old.

According to the study, between 25 to 32 per cent of former and current smokers lit up regularly during their most recent pregnancy. The national average is 19 to 22 per cent.

This, despite a provincial government strategy to reduce 2000-01 smoking rates in pregnant women from 32 per cent to 12 per cent in 2010-11.

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• Lung Cancer Becomes Deadliest Tumor for Women in Australia  

Lung cancer overtook breast cancer as the deadliest tumor for Australian women for the first time, a report showed, even as it killed fewer men. The trend will probably continue, reflecting decades-old smoking patterns.

Lung cancer killed 2,716 women in Australia in 2005, the most recent year for which data are available, compared with 2,707 breast-cancer deaths, the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare said in a report today from Canberra. The disease accounted for almost one in five of the nation’s 39,000 cancer deaths, making it the most lethal cancer for both sexes.

The report predicts lung cancer will kill more women and fewer men until at least 2010, reflecting smoking trends in the 1970s and ‘80s when the habit became more common among women as men were giving it up, said Ian Olver, chief executive officer of Cancer Council Australia.

“Women were beginning to come into the workforce and beginning to adopt the patterns of male lifestyles,” Olver said in a telephone interview yesterday. “Barriers were being broken down and that included the good things and the bad things.”

Lung cancer will probably increase by 0.4 cases for every 100,000 women each year, and fall by 1.1 cases in every 100,000 men, assuming 2005 trends continue, the report predicts.

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Lung cancer to overtake breast cancer  

Lung cancer will soon kill more females than breast cancer as women lag behind men in getting the anti-smoking message, according to the latest snapshot on Australian cancer rates.

Today's report by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare reveals that women who took up smoking in the 1970s and 1980s are now paying the price, as lung cancer outstrips breast cancer as a cause of death for the first time.

The report, Cancer In Australia: An Overview 2008, predicts that lung cancer rates in women are expected to grow by 0.4 per cent a year until 2010 but will fall by 1.1 per cent for men.

"It's tragic because there is not a lot you can do to prevent breast cancer but there is no reason for having so many people diagnosed with lung cancer when it stems from smoking," the chief executive of the Cancer Council of Australia, Ian Olver, said yesterday.

He called for a price rise on cigarettes and continued graphic advertising campaigns outlining the broad range of smoking's side effects, such as cardiovascular and gum disease.

"One in five people are smokers, so the advertising campaigns are graphic, but they need to remain as intense as they are now to make sure people get the message," he said.

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Gasp takes grasp: lung cancer top killer of Australian women 

Lung cancer has overtaken breast cancer to become the No 1 killer of Australian women, a new report says.

The ACT has the lowest incidence of lung cancer in the country but Canberrans suffer some of the highest rates of breast and prostate cancer.

Australian women took up cigarettes at a growing rate in the 1970s and 1980s while the smoking rate among men fell.

As a result, national lung cancer rates for women are predicted to grow 0.4 per cent every year.

The ACT averages nearly 32 cases of lung cancer per 100,000 residents, the lowest rate in the country.

The Northern Territory reported the highest rates of lung cancer with 53.6 cases for every 100,000 people, followed by Tasmania with 50 cases.

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Cancer on the increase 

TONY EASTLEY: For the first time breast cancer is no longer responsible for the greatest number of cancer deaths among women in Australia, but the bad news is that cancer generally is on the rise. The number of new cases per year has passed 100,000.

Thankfully though survival rates have steadily increased as well, as Simon Lauder reports.

SIMON LAUDER: In the 1970s and 80s women were being targeted by ads like this:

(Excerpt from advertisement)

WOMAN: Slimmer than the fat cigarettes men smoke, Virginia Slims...

SIMON LAUDER: Now the bad habits of decades past are starting to hit home. The Institute of Health and Welfare has found lung cancer is now killing more women than breast cancer.

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• Lung Cancer: Still the Biggest Cancer Killer, by Far  

It's the leading cause of cancer death in the United States, killing more people each year than breast, prostate, colon, liver, kidney and melanoma cancers combined.

It's typically discovered too late to be treated successfully, with about 85 percent of victims dead within five years of diagnosis.

And nine out of 10 cases of the disease are tied to a single behavior -- smoking.

Lung cancer killed 160,390 people in 2007, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance. That's an average of 439 people a day.

And tobacco caused 90 percent of those deaths, according to the U.S. National Cancer Institute.

"Smoking is the most lethal legal activity in our society," said Dr. James Mulshine, a professor of internal medicine and associate provost for research at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. . . .

"At this point, the progress in decreasing lung cancer death rates is due solely to men quitting smoking since the early 1990s," said Dr. Michael Thun, vice president of epidemiology and surveillance research for the American Cancer Society.

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Smoking is the most lethal legal activity in our society.
Dr. James Mulshine, a professor of internal medicine and associate provost for research at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. Lung cancer killed 160,390 people in 2007, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance. That's an average of 439 people a day.

Cigarettes are women's deadliest enemy  

SMOKING-fuelled lung cancer has overtaken breast cancer as the biggest killer cancer for Australian women.

Increased smoking rates among women in the 1970s and '80s are now costing thousands their lives, with projections revealing the situation will get much worse.

Figures released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare show one in five cancer deaths -- 8511 a year - is now attributed to smoking.

In 2005, 2716 women died from lung cancer, passing for the first time the 2707 deaths from breast cancer.

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Quitting Smoking Tougher on Women  

Women who quit smoking tend to suffer more intense withdrawal symptoms, such as depression, anxiety, poor concentration and weight gain, a new report says.

Whether men or women tend to be more successful at ending their cigarette habit was not determined by the report, published in the December issue of Mayo Clinic Women's HealthSource. But the study noted that after gaining an average of 5 to 10 pounds during withdrawal, some women start smoking again.

"People need to realize that if they have a relapse, they can learn from it," Patrick Draper, a tobacco treatment specialist at the Mayo Clinic's Nicotine Dependence Center, said in a news release issued by the clinic. "The only way to stop smoking is to keep trying."

Most people require four to six tries before successfully quitting, and Draper suggested four key steps to help end the addiction:

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