Tobacco.org

• Federal judge queries govt, tobacco firms on ruling as 2 other cases over FDA rules are sorted  

A federal judge on Thursday asked the Justice Department and America's largest cigarette makers whether she should delay an order in a 12-year-old lawsuit against the tobacco industry while other courts decide newer cases challenging new tobacco marketing restrictions and graphic cigarette warning labels the government has proposed.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler in Washington ordered the parties to submit their views in the case in which she found the companies, including Philip Morris USA, maker of top-selling Marlboro cigarettes, masked the dangers of smoking.

Kessler said the corrective advertising that the Justice department wants the industry to be required to pay for under her 2006 ruling are "significantly different from the verbal and pictorial advertisements" required by the Food and Drug Administration under new authority it gained in 2009.

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FDA Panel: Ban on Menthol Cigarettes Would Boost Health 

In a long-awaited decision, an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday said that menthol cigarettes are harmful and their removal "from the marketplace would benefit public health in the United States."

The Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee also said that menthols' minty flavor may make smoking more attractive, spurring youth and especially blacks (who tend to favor menthol cigarettes) to try the habit.

"Menthol cannot be considered merely a flavoring additive to tobacco. Its pharmacological actions reduce the harshness of smoke and the irritation from nicotine, and may increase the likelihood of nicotine addiction in adolescents and young adults who experiment with smoking," the panelists said in their report. "Furthermore, the distinct sensory characteristics of menthol may enhance the addictiveness of menthol cigarettes, which appears to be the case among youth."

In fact, the experts said that a close look at the data suggests that menthol cigarettes "contributes to nicotine dependence in at least the 30 percent of adult smokers" who use them.

The panel did say that menthol cigarettes pose no greater health risk to smokers than other cigarettes in terms of their odds for lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses.

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Retailers: Scary cigarette pictures won't hurt NYC sales 

Each March, the Big Apple sponsors a program where New Yorkers are encouraged to quit smoking and given free nicotine therapy with gum and patches. Last year, 40,000 people participated and Ms. Kansagra anticipates a similar number will come forward this spring. The initiatives appear to be working--smoking-related deaths in New York City declined to 7,200 in 2009, a 17% drop from 2002, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene announced last month.

Local cigarette sellers have already noted a decline, though they attribute it to the high cost of cigarettes more than an awareness of health risks. In July, a new state sales tax added an extra $1.60 to every pack--many run over $12 now. Several vendors think an addition of graphic images won't have an effect; many New Yorkers can't afford the habit anymore.

"Sales of cigarettes are so low for me right now that it won't make a difference," said Mickey Kumar, who runs a newsstand on East 42nd Street. "The price keeps going up [so] that I can't keep track anymore." Right now, Mr. Kumar is selling packs for about $12.50. He said many of his customers go outside the five boroughs.

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VIDEO: Congress Enacting Most U.S. Laws Since '60s Gets No Respect  

The 111th Congress returned to Washington this week with a record of legislative achievement that rivals President Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society.” Voters may show their thanks by throwing lawmakers out of office. . . .

Congress also passed laws to help ensure pay equity, enabling women to pursue lawsuits claiming they were underpaid, and allowed the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the tobacco industry, resulting in restrictions on cigarette marketing. . . .

After getting authority from Congress to regulate the cigarette industry, the FDA in March banned cigarette makers from distributing branded merchandise such as T-shirts and sponsoring sporting or entertainment events. . . .

Durbin said he has “no regrets” on any of the votes Democrats took to pass Obama’s legislative agenda. “But those achievements were yesterday and elections are about tomorrow.”

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Fifth-grade student wins statewide essay contest 

Caleb Kelly had a surprise waiting for him at the Jacksonville Police Department on Friday.

The fifth-grade student from Pinewood Elementary School learned during a short presentation that an essay he wrote during the school year was not only the winning DARE program essay for his class, but was also the overall winner for the state of Arkansas. . . .

Caleb's winning essay

Hi, my name is Caleb Kelly. I am in Ms. Ezell's class, and I go to Pinewood Elementary. I am going to tell you how the DARE program has helped me a lot. In this program, I have learned about the DARE Decision Making Model which means: define, assess, respond, and evaluate. I can use this in many situations. Let's say my best friend offers me a cigar. Here is how the model would work. First, I would "define" the problem here, which would be that someone is offering me a cigar. Then I assess the problem: "do I smoke or not?" After that, I would respond, "No, I don't want heart disease, so I am not going to do it."

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Antismoking Efforts Lose Ground to Obesity Fight 

When the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation decided in 1991 to take on Joe Camel, it became the nation's largest private funding source for fighting smoking. The foundation spent $700 million to help knock the cartoon character out of advertisements, finance research and advocacy for higher cigarette taxes and smoke-free air laws and, ultimately, to aid in reducing the nation's smoking rate almost by half.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation took on Joe Camel in the 1990s. It is now spending $500 million to battle childhood obesity.

But a few years ago, the Johnson foundation, based in Princeton, N.J., added another target to its mission, pledging to spend $500 million in five years to battle childhood obesity. As the antiobesity financing rose to $58 million last year, a new compilation from the foundation shows, the organization's antismoking grants fell to $4 million.

The steep drop-off in private funds illustrates the competition under way for money as public health priorities shift. . . .

The changes in financing are also evident across the country. State governments have used tobacco's billions to balance their budgets while cutting $150 million from antitobacco programs over the last two years. . . .

One in five Americans still smokes.

But one in three is obese.

And competition for attention is growing between the two biggest issues in public health.

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School-based smoking prevention programs ineffective 

Smoking prevention programs in junior high or high school have little influence on whether teens choose to light up or not, according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

"Our study shows there is little evidence to suggest that existing school-based smoking prevention programs produce long-term reductions in smoking prevalence among youth," says the study's first author, Sarah Wiehe, M.D., M.P.H., assistant professor of pediatrics, Division of Children's Health Services Research at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

The researchers reviewed eight randomized, controlled smoking prevention trials with follow-up smoking data through at least 12th grade or age 18. Data from the popular Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program were included in the final analysis.

Seven of the studies, including Project DARE, showed no statistically significant difference in smoking prevalence between students enrolled in school based smoking prevention programs and students not enrolled in this type of program. Only one program, Life Skills Program, had fewer smokers at long-term follow-up than in control schools.

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• URI program aims at curtailing risky behavior in middle school 

Statewide, 3,400 sixth graders -- roughly a third of public school sixth graders -- are participating in a $3.5-million research experiment, Project BEST. Designed by researchers at the University of Rhode Island, the computerized program aims to guide pre-teens away from smoking and drinking before those risky behaviors take root, as well as encourage them to eat right and exercise.

The program, financed by a five-year grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse, is being run by URI's Cancer Prevention Research Center, which conducted similar projects for older students and adults in the 1990s that showed improvement, according to the center.

The computer survey asks the students a series of questions and provides support in curbing risky behavior. The students' answers trigger follow-up questions specific to that student. Researchers hope Project BEST's personal approach will help it succeed where other programs targeted toward preventing risky behaviors among middle school students have failed.

"We haven't had a lot of success so far with classroom approaches in health class or with DARE officers talking to kids,"

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D.A.R.E. ESSAY 

D.A.R.E. no more 

Logan elementary schools are bidding farewell to the D.A.R.E. program.

The program, designed to teach kids to resist drugs and violence, will be replaced by N.O.V.A., a program teachers and Logan police officers say does a better job of preparing students to face today’s challenges.

Like the D.A.R.E. program, N.O.V.A. teaches kids to resist drugs, alcohol, cigarettes and violence, but it also deals with a broader range of issues facing today’s kids, said Det. Denny Bird of the Logan City Police Department, who has taught D.A.R.E. to Logan fifth-graders for the past few years.

“It has everything D.A.R.E. does and a ton more,” Bird said.

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• Patrons praise store's new policy 

PROVO - On his first day running a beer-and-cigarette-free store, Paul Ream said he has heard only one complaint, but lots of praise.

"The complaint was that I shouldn't force my values on others," Ream, owner of Ream's Family Foods, said Friday. But he said he has received a surprising amount of praise for his action.

Customers at the Provo grocery store said they didn't mind that there was no beer on the shelves or cigarettes behind the courtesy desk.

In fact, some said they came to the store Friday for that reason.

"When I saw it in the paper, I said we're going to Ream's," said Nina Childs of Provo, who was shopping with her husband, Ardeen.

Ream decided to stop stocking beer and cigarettes after his 9-year-old daughter, Shyanne, asked him why he sold "drugs" in his store.

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When I saw it in the paper, I said we're going to Ream's.
Nina Childs of Provo, UT, on Paul Ream's decision to stop stocking beer and cigarettes at his store, Ream's Family Foods.

Store ends sales of tobacco, beer 

While taking a D.A.R.E. class at school, 9-year-old Shyanne Ream asked her father once why he was "selling drugs" at his Provo grocery store. Paul Ream stopped and thought - and now he is acting. The owner of Ream's Family Foods at 2250 N. University Parkway is taking all the Budweisers and the Coors and the Camels and the Marlboros off the shelves. In fact, Thursday was the last day customers could buy beer, cigarettes or other tobacco products at the store. Ream said the decision to rid his store of alcohol and smokes started when Shyanne enrolled in D.A.R.E.

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LETTER: Reader Response: School Drug Testing  

• Monitoring Progress Toward Achieving Maternal and Infant Healthy People 2010 Objectives --- 

The HP 2010 objective for this indicator (objective no. 16-17c) is that 99% of pregnant women will abstain from cigarette smoking. Because PRAMS does not collect data on tobacco use during the first or second trimester of pregnancy, for this analysis, abstinence from smoking during pregnancy was defined as abstinence from smoking during the last 3 months of pregnancy. In 2003, prevalence of abstinence from cigarette smoking during the last 3 months of pregnancy ranged from 72.5% in West Virginia to 96.1% in Utah (Table 2). No state achieved the objective for abstinence from smoking during pregnancy. During 2000--2003, prevalence of abstinence from cigarette smoking during pregnancy increased significantly only in Utah (Table 6); for the other states, prevalence of abstinence from smoking during the last 3 months of pregnancy remained relatively unchanged. . . .

The HP 2010 objective for this indicator (objective no. 27-6) is that 30% of smokers will stop smoking during pregnancy. For this analysis, smoking cessation was defined as the report of any cigarette smoking during the 3 months before pregnancy but no cigarette smoking reported during the last 3 months of pregnancy. In 2003, prevalence of smoking cessation during pregnancy ranged from 30.2% in West Virginia to 65.8% in Utah (Table 2). All states achieved the health objective for smoking cessation. During 2000--2003, prevalence of smoking cessation during pregnancy increased significantly (Table 7) in Utah; for the other states, trend analysis indicated that prevalence of smoking cessation remained relatively unchanged. . . .

No state achieved the HP 2010 objectives for three indicators in the preconception period that affect maternal and child health outcomes (intended pregnancy, multivitamin use during the month before pregnancy, and physical abuse during the 12 months before pregnancy). For behaviors in the prenatal period, results were mixed. No state achieved the objective for abstinence from smoking during pregnancy. However, all states included in this analysis achieved the objective for smoking cessation during pregnanc

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Falklands Students Dare a NO to Drugs, Drink and Tobacco 

A DARE Graduation took place at the Infant/Junior School on Thursday, 03 August 2006.  In his introduction Sergeant Dave Roberts of the Royal Falkland Islands Police said that the DARE programme in the Falkland Islands has been going for eight years now and that nearly 400 students in Year 6 have received their DARE Certificates.  During that eight years the course had been adjusted to reflect the problems that young people were facing today.  He emphasised that DARE was not anti-alcohol but he did say that as adults these students needed to know how to drink sensibly.  However, he said that DARE WAS anti- smoking and anti drugs. 

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