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HANSEN: Smoke-free air is a matter of social justice, equality 

On April 16, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. -- having been arrested for protesting injustice -- penned an open letter now known as the "Letter from Birmingham Jail." In it, King declared, "We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." . . .

Blacks suffer from heart disease, lung cancer or strokes caused by secondhand smoke exposure at higher rates than whites, and smoke-free policies are the only proven way to make a dent in that disparity.

Alabama, in a tie with California, was recently given an honor by ANR for leading the nation in passing local smoke-free laws in 2011. The citizens and workers of Birmingham should be proud that the largest city in the state just joined an elite group of nearby municipalities which includes Clay, Fairfield, Fultondale, Midfield and, most recently, Warrior.

The bottom line is this: As we learn more about the damage tobacco smoke does, not only to the smoker, but also to innocent bystanders, we become obligated to protect those being burdened by others' destructive choices. . . .

Everyone must be included in these protections. As King professed in that stirring letter: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." That is why the Birmingham City Council's bold action on April 17 to strengthen the rules already in place will be remembered as a step toward health equality for all who live, work, learn and play in the Magic City.

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Smoking, Grass Root Advocates Urge DC Council to Tax Blunts, Cigars 

At gas stations in the District of Columbia, fuel is not the only popular product sold. Surprisingly, cigar products, such as the brand Phillies Blunts, are also amongst the fastest selling products at gas stations as well as convenience stores, and drug stores particularly in Wards 7 and 8 according to advocates.

This brand has become so popular that "blunts" have become a term of art for the entire category of cigar products often sold individually and in many cases to youth.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that day in the United States, approximately 3,800 young people under 18 years of age smoke their first cigarette, and an estimated 1,000 youth in that age group become daily cigarette smokers. The District suffers $626 million a year in health and other additional costs due to smoking and other tobacco products according to the American Lung Association.

For African Americans, while smoking rates remain conspicuously lower than those for other adolescents, over the past 20 years, cigar smoking has increased.

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The influence of Hispanic ethnicity on nonsmall cell lung cancer histology and patient survival  

Tobacco brands target black youth, study finds 

• Tobacco brands target black youth, study finds 

Tobacco marketing is targeting California's low-income and African American youth, according to researchers who examined advertising throughout the state.

Academic researchers funded by the state's Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program found that there was greater visibility of menthol cigarette advertising at retailers near high schools where there are larger African American student populations.

According to the most recent statistics issued by the Federal Trade Commission, the tobacco industry spent $10 billion on marketing in 2008.

"There is a systematic targeting (of disadvantaged communities) by the tobacco industry, which is an extraordinary public health problem," said Lisa Henriksen of the Stanford Prevention Research Center, who presented the research at a legislative briefing in Sacramento last week. "The addition of menthol to cigarettes makes it easier to smoke and more difficult to quit."

Henriksen's research, published last year, found that as the proportion of black students increased at a California high school, so did the share of both menthol-related advertising and Newport brand promotions at nearby retailers. The study looked at all cigarette advertising, but specifically analyzed promotions and price discounts for Newport and Marlboro, two of the most popular brands with underage smokers, researchers said.

The University of Michigan's Robert Lipton also presented research at the briefing showing that in the Los Angeles area, communities that tended to be dense, poor and minority had greater rates of underage tobacco sales.

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• Hispanics Seem to Have Better Odds of Lung Cancer Survival 

Hispanic people with lung cancer tend to live longer than white or black people with the disease, according to a new study.

Researchers say Hispanics' increased likelihood of survival may be due to genetic factors or environmental advantages, such as lower rates of tobacco use.

In the study, the researchers examined diagnosis and survival data on cancer patients from a national database that pooled information from U.S. cancer registries.

They identified 172,000 adults diagnosed with any stage of the most common form of lung cancer, known as non-small cell lung cancer, between 1988 and 2007. Of these patients, Hispanics had a 15 percent lower risk of death during the study than whites. This was true for both U.S.- and foreign-born Hispanics.

The study, published online in the journal Cancer, pointed out that Hispanics tend to have better odds of survival despite facing more obstacles to health care and higher rates of poverty than other groups.

"This is important because it shows that our findings are indicative of the Hispanic population in general and not specific to specific groups of Hispanics," lead study author Ali Saeed, an M.D./Ph.D. candidate at University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, said in a journal news release.

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• GLANTZ: Prop 29 opponents California Taxpayers Assn and California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce have financial ties to Philip Morris  

The California Taxpayers Association (CalTax) and the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, which signed the "No on 29" ballot arguments have long histories of working with the cigarette companies, including "donations" from Philip Morris over the years.

You can see the documents in the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library on them by clicking on these links for CalTax and California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce.

Without much looking, I found payments totaling $30,000 to CalTax from Philip Morris in 2000 and 2001 and totaling $35,000 to the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce in 1998 and 1999. My guess is with a little more looking one could find lots more.

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Tobacco display ban in large stores boosts overall sales in small shops 

• Latest research confirms genetic susceptibility to lung cancer 

Previous research has shown that Asian patients with lung cancer are more likely to harbor epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations. Furthermore, Asian patients with lung cancer are more likely to be non-smokers than Western patients with lung cancer. Research in the May 2012 issue of the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's (IASLC) Journal of Thoracic Oncology goes deeper, investigated genetic factors and smoking exposure in Japanese lung cancer patients.

Researchers looked at the genetics of 716 Japanese patients with lung cancer and 716 without. They found, "the variants rs12914385, rs1317286 and rs931794 localized to the CHRNA5-CHRNA3-CHRNB4 cluster on chromosome 15q25 modified the impact of cigarette smoking on lung cancer risk, but showed no statistically significant major effect on the risk of lung cancer." They conclude that there is a significant difference in the impact of smoking on lung cancer risk among former smokers between those with and without genetic risk.

The study also suggests that "a suggestive difference in the impact of rs16969968 and rs8034191 on the 15q25 loci by EGFR status on lung cancer risk."

The authors conclude that the 15q25 genetic region should be studied further.

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Aspirin and Lung Cancer Risk in Asian Women 

• Quid Pro Quo: Tobacco Companies and the Black Press [American Journal of Public Health] [FREE FULL TEXT] 

As advertisers, the tobacco companies sought and received favored treatment; publishers justified their position by claiming that they could not survive without tobacco advertising. 186 But this position did not merely violate an abstract principle. Ethnic media, and African American media in particular, have a ''triple rolereinforcing ethnic identity, transmitting culture, and facilitating advocacy and political participation.''27(p213) As a Black press historian said, ''The black press was never intended to be objective. . . . It often took a position. . . . This was a press of advocacy.''25 If African American readers across the decades of the last century assumed that the Black press advocated positions on their behalf, then the quid pro quo we have described takes on new significance. NNPA newspaper readers likely expected that publishers had their best interests at heart and assumed that they conveyed complete, accurate information about tobacco's harmfulness and about public policy measures to reduce it. These publications' apparent prioritization of serving the tobacco industry over safeguarding their readers' health suggests that they may not have fully appreciated the extensive harmthat tobacco caused the Black community. The NNPAtobacco alliance was understandable in earlier decades, when advertisers were fewer, evidence of tobacco's harmfulness to health was unclear, and the industry was actively working to further the ''controversy'' idea. But the alliance continued even as the evidence became irrefutable and African American communities began resisting tobacco marketing and industry overtures. . . .

Conclusions

Today's tobacco-related health disparities among African Americans1-4 result from numerous intertwined factors. Historic racial oppression surely contributed to the NNPA's willingness to continue to serve industry interests because it feared losing the Black press's voice without tobacco money. Yet, this does not seem to fully explain the continuing ties still linking many African American leadership organizations to tobacco industry patronage. 209-214 Recently, a Wall Street Journal article described how an African American public relations consultant and founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists pitched an editorial opposing a menthol cigarette ban on behalf of the firm's client, Lorillard tobacco company (maker of the leading menthol brand).215 Progressive African American leaders have called for a reevaluation of these relationships. The quid pro quo some organizations still sustain with tobacco companies is the legacy of an inequitable trade that has contributed to incalculable harm to African American communities.

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• Asian tobacco farmers sign pact to defend land, livelihood 

REPRESENTATIVES of about 30 million tobacco farmers and workers from Asian countries, including the Philippines, signed a joint declaration in Kuala Lumpur calling on their respective governments to oppose draft policy recommendations contained in the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

The recommendations which they said were being pushed by “special interest groups” in WHO’s FCTC aim to cap tobacco farming production, restrict the available land for tobacco farming, deny farmers their political and commercial rights to engage with their governments, and ban contractual relations between farmers.

Tobacco farmers from the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia gathered recently in Malaysia for a three-day Asia Tobacco Forum (ATF) in their bid to defend their land, jobs and livelihood

The forum was formally opened by YB Dato’ Hamzah Zainudin, deputy minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities of Malaysia. It was organized by the International Tobacco Growers Association (ITGA) and the Pitas, the Kelantan Tobacco Growers and Curers Association of Malaysia represented by its Chairman Norman Mohd Noor.

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• Cities snuffing out hookah lounges  

Hookah lounges have found themselves increasingly unwelcome in the Twin Cities as more communities try to snuff out the growing Middle Eastern-style smoking.

Hookah advocates are fighting back, saying they're victims of discrimination. Last week, Saeed Kiblawi's tobacco license for his Flamezz Hookah Lounge was revoked by St. Anthony city leaders even though he successfully fought the city in court.

"Why is it they don't want us there?" said Kiblawi, 32, who moved to the Twin Cities from Lebanon 17 years ago. "I honestly can't see any reason but my background."

City leaders counter that they tightened the tobacco law for the same reason other cities have: protecting people from the hazards of smoking.

"It wouldn't have made any difference who it was," said St. Anthony Mayor Jerry Faust. "We would have still looked at it as a public health issue."

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NYC Health campaigns decrease number of Asian smokers  

In efforts to reduce the smoking population, the New York City Health Department launched the annual Nicotine Patch and Gum Program last week. This year, it will step up its appeal to Asian smokers by creating graphic ads in Chinese and offering a membership to Chinese speakers who call 311 to help them quit smoking.

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Understanding Tobacco Use among Urban African American Adolescents Living in Public Housing Communities: A Test of Problem Behavior Theory