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The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health was held in Washington DC, July 12ˆ14, and was attended by over 4000 people. This impressive number of advocates, scientists, and clinicians did not, however, establish consensus on some key policy issues.
A well-attended session on harm reduction showed a lack of consensus. . . .
Reducing toxins in tobacco and overall tobacco use through restrictions on smoking and cost increases seem to be prudent steps towards harm reduction. Promoting certain types of tobacco use in place of others is fraught with dissent, as well as the real danger of reducing cessation and undermining prevention. It is plausible that a regulatory approach that embodies harm reduction could reduce disease risk in continuing tobacco users, while also contributing to cessation and prevention eff orts. In the meantime, the dissent seen at the World Conference is likely to continue.
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The American Lung Association of Hawaii cautioned college students today against a growing campus fad of smoking with water pipes, called hookahs.
Association President Sterling Yee said in a news release that water pipe smoking potentially is more dangerous than cigarette smoking because users are exposed to larger amounts of nicotine, carbon monoxide and other toxins.
However, a couple who operates the only licensed hookah service in Hawaii says using a water pipe is not smoking, which they oppose, but is "vaporizing."
"When you light up a cigar or cigarette or any type of tobacco or nontobacco, you're causing combustion to occur," said Renee Hollison Betamour. No combustion is involved with smoking a hookah, she said. "It's closer to aromatic therapy."
Several sessions were devoted to hookah smoking at a recent World Tobacco Conference in Washington, D.C., said Bert Kobayashi, who attended with Debbie Odo as Hawaii Lung Association representatives. . . .
But Renee and Mohammad Betamour say water pipe smokers are only inhaling steam. "It's closer to cooking than smoking," Renee said.
On the day deemed No Tobacco Day by the World Health Organization, a controversial University of Alberta researcher launched a website promoting chewing tobacco as a smoking alternative.
Carl Phillips, who received a $1.5-million research grant last fall from a company that makes Copenhagen and Skoal chewing tobacco, said going smokeless with chewing tobacco is almost as good as quitting tobacco altogether.
``I agree with most everything in terms of the message for trying to help people quit smoking, but I think it's unfortunate that the World Health Organization has decided to lump all tobacco together,'' said Phillips, whose new website is www.tobaccoharmreduction.org.
He spoke just before the local Tobacco Reduction Network came together to support the aim of the WHO.
Ramadoss called on Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, who congratulated him for being conferred an award by the American Cancer Society for his efforts to reduce the consumption of tobacco products.
Welcome to the Webcast and Blog page of the 2006 Conferences held in Washington, D.C. July 8-15, 2006. Here you can watch and listen to a variety of coverage including webcasts from all of the plenary sessions, plus audio blogs from Dr. Len Lichtenfeld of the American Cancer Society. This page will be updated daily, so check back often or bookmark this page. . . .
Saturday, July 15, 2006 - Tobacco Industry Acadamy Awards: Video Webcast || Audio-Only Webcast
The Tobacco Inudstry Academy Awards is an opportunity to recognize tobacco companies for continued innovation in selling death worldwide. Hundreds of nominations from around the world were received and this event unveils the awards winners in a parody, though all of the industry examples are real.
"Smoking is the single greatest avoidable cause of disease and death." This was the primary conclusion of the United States Surgeon General's most recent report on tobacco as presented to the Itasca County Health and Human Services Board of Commissioners on Tuesday by Itasca Public Health nurse Ruth Pierce. She gave a presentation regarding her recent trip to the world tobacco conference this summer. Thousands of attendees in the professional health field from around the world convened in Washington D.C. and discussed how policies they have recently enacted to curb tobacco use have succeeded in improving the health of their citizens. "I learned the issues are basically the same in all places," said Pierce as she told commissioners how several countries have adopted regulations against smoking in public. "In Ireland, they have made all of their pubs tobacco free."
BREMEN - For the past six years, Tobacco Free Marshall County has been working to inform local residents of the dangers of second-hand smoke and to drive legislation for a smoke-free ordinance throughout the county.
Now, armed with new information and resources from member Mark Neidig's recent trip to the World Congress on Tobacco OR Health in Washington, D.C., the group feels one step closer to reaching its goal.
“It was a source of inspiration,” Neidig said of the congress.
One of 4,000 to attend, Neidig represented both Tobacco Free Marshall County and Community Hospital of Bremen, where he is executive director of the foundation. At the congress, he networked with national and world leaders on what they are doing to implement or maintain smoke-free policies.
“Fourteen countries are already smoke-free. It's startling,”
The World Health Organization meets this weekend in Washington D.C. to discuss strategies for preventing tobacco-related health problems. Debbie Elliott speaks with Dr. Armando Peruga, a participant and the team leader for Pan-American Health Organization's tobacco control and consumer health program.
Smoking among women is rising sharply at the same time rates among men are falling. That's the finding of a new report called Turning a New Leaf: Women, Tobacco and the Future, released at the 2006 International Cancer and Tobacco Control Conferences in Washington this month
The report calls attention to the health threat that tobacco use is posing to women in the 21st century. Twelve percent of the world's women smoke and by 2025, the projection is 20 percent if current trend continues according to Lorraine Greaves, executive director of the International Network of Women Against Tobacco, who authored the report. . . .
Health experts at the 2006 International Cancer and Tobacco Conferences, where the report was released, called on the global community to implement the United Nations Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. That agreement, ratified by 134 nations, bans tobacco advertising, requires health warnings on tobacco products and advocates smoke-free public spaces. Greaves says it is urgent that nations accept these provisions.
"Even if their rates of women smoking in their population are still low at two or five percent, they should come in with gender-specific cessation programs right away and not wait until the problem is at 50 or 60 percent."
Smoking in the movies continues to prompt American youth to start smoking, public health experts said today at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health, taking place in Washington, D.C. this week. Experts from the American Legacy Foundation®, a national public health foundation devoted to prevention and cessation of tobacco use, and Dartmouth Medical School today released a new report finding that American youth continue to be exposed to smoking images in youth-rated films.
This information comes on the heels of the July 7th announcement from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, which cited information from a previous study indicating that after decades of decline, smoking in the movies increased rapidly in the early 1990s and – by the year 2002 -- was back to levels last seen in 1950.
“This news is a wake-up call to public health officials and other leaders,†said American Legacy Foundation® President and CEO, Dr. Cheryl Healton. “We have seen a downward ‘ratings creep,’ in which studios are shifting depictions of smoking into teen-rated films, and research continues to prove the link between young people seeing smoking in movies and starting to smoke.†Teen-rated films are those movies earning G, PG and PG-13 ratings.
The American Legacy Foundation® and Dartmouth Medical School research – titled First Look: Trends in Top Box Office Movie Use, 1996-2004 – shows that despite a significant decline in the number of tobacco depictions in R-rated movies, no such decline was observed within youth-rated movies during the same nine year period.
A new global survey published by the World Health Organization and collaborating American and Canadian Health Agencies finds that young people are facing increasing health risks from secondhand smoke. Health experts meeting at the 2006 International Cancer & Tobacco Control Conferences this month, [July 10-14] in Washington say the survey is a useful tool to understand the impact on children of secondhand smoke -- also called passive smoke or environmental tobacco smoke.
The Global Youth Tobacco Survey focused on 13-15 year olds in 132 countries. Wick Warren of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the survey of school-age respondents paints a disturbing picture. "It shows worldwide about half the kids are exposed to smoke in public places, and that's not good news," he explains. "In some places, in some regions it reaches as high as 80 percent. That's terrible news. The goal is zero percent. So until we reach the goal we have a problem."
Tobacco use can cause workplace productivity to go up in smoke, according to experts at a recent conference on tobacco who suggest that employers have an interest in helping employees stub out the habit.
U.S. employers lost $92 billion in productivity attributable to smoking-related deaths last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Dr. Corinne Husten pointed out during the “World Conference on Tobacco OR Health” in Washington, D.C.
That does not include smoke-related illnesses and absenteeism that cut productivity, she said. Direct medical costs associated with smoking totaled more than $75 billion annually.
Tobacco is a leading cause of lost production time, more than alcohol abuse or family emergencies, Husten said, citing the American Productivity Audit, a national survey of more than 29,000 workers.
“Businesses do not really understand what [it] is costing them to deal with this issue,” the CDC’s acting director said. . . .
In its booklet Save Lives, Save Money: Make Your Business Smoke-Free, which was distributed at the conference, the CDC offered the following advice in creating a smoke-free business:
Businesses do not really understand what [it] is costing them to deal with this issue.CDC acting director Dr. Corinne Husten
U.S. cigarette sales fell more than 4 percent in 2005 and 20 percent in the past decade -- perhaps the greatest and most unsung public health achievement in the United States in recent years.
Unfortunately, the U.S. experience is not being replicated globally. Instead, thanks largely to the efforts of Philip Morris and the other global tobacco companies, smoking rates -- especially in the developing world and particularly in Asia -- are on the rise.
The impact is especially severe for women. . . .
There is a glimmer of good news, however. The policy interventions that have reduced smoking rates in the United States and other industrialized countries work in developing countries, too. And there is a growing global public health movement to get these policies enacted around the world. Thousands of activists, doctors, scientists, lawyers and other public health workers came together in Washington this month for the triennial World Conference on Tobacco or Health to celebrate achievements and share strategies.
The United States has largely stood on the sidelines or even hindered efforts to get sound anti-smoking rules enacted worldwide. It's time for that to change.
The United States has a particular obligation to act for public health, because its companies have been the key purveyors of tobacco-related disease and because historically the U.S. government has worked on behalf of Big Tobacco to open up markets in developing countries. . . .
The first step for the United States to advance a global public health agenda on tobacco is to ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. . . .
Second, the United States should exclude tobacco products from the trade agreements it negotiates. . . . Third, the United States should devote a small portion of its international aid budget to tobacco control. Invested wisely, an annual allocation of $50 million to global tobacco control could have dramatic effects. Because reducing smoking-related death and disease depends on policy changes, investing in tobacco control is very cost-effective.
Finally, the federal government should give close scrutiny to the plans of Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, to split Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International into separate companies. Would an independent Philip Morris International, perhaps immune from concerns about its reputation in the U.S. market or litigation in U.S. courts, behave even more irresponsibly? Could the government institute measures to avoid such an outcome?
Finally, the federal government should give close scrutiny to the plans of Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, to split Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International into separate companies. Would an independent Philip Morris International, perhaps immune from concerns about its reputation in the U.S. market or litigation in U.S. courts, behave even more irresponsibly? Robert Weissman and Mary Assunta, in an op-ed in the Washington Post on the tobacco threat to developing nations.