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Cigarette butts are one of the most littered items in country 

Group Brings Attention To #1 Litter Problem In America: Cigarette Butts  

• More than Half of Americans Polled Don't Know that Cigarette Butts are the No. 1 Littered Item in the Nation  

Last year, according to 2011 The Tax Burden on Tobacco report, Americans purchased more than 287 billion cigarettes. A vast number of those cigarette butts, including the filters, will be flicked into the environment, landing along waterways, parks, beaches and public roads.

According to new research conducted by Legacy®, a public health non-profit located in Washington, DC, more than half of the Americans surveyed last month reported not knowing that cigarette butts are the number one littered item every year on U.S. roadways and beaches. In observance of Earth Day on April 22, Legacy is working to raise awareness about the negative impact cigarette filters and discarded cigarette butts have on the environment. Cigarette butts contain heavy metals that can leach into waterways, posing a lethal threat to aquatic life. They are costly to local communities to clean up and dispose of as well.

According to environmental cleanup reports, nearly 2 million cigarettes or cigarette filters/butts were picked up internationally from beaches and inland waterways as part of the annual International Coastal Cleanup (ICC) in 2010, including more than one million from the United States alone. Cigarette butts account for more than three times the number of any other item found over the past 25 years of ICC cleanups. Research shows that cigarette butts have potentially toxic effects on ecosystems. In one laboratory test, one cigarette butt soaked in a liter of water was lethal to half of the fish exposed.

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VIDEO: Legacy Tobacco Documents Library 

VIDEO: Lung Cancer Legacy Of Smoking Woman 

Five Years After the Release of the Institute of Medicine's 2007 Tobacco Report: Is the Blueprint for the Nation on Track to End the Tobacco Epidemic?  

New Study Calls Attention to Tobacco's Disproportionate Impact on Poor Nations  

Tobacco is the world's number-one cause of preventable death - responsible for nearly 6 million deaths annually. A new supplement published in the journal Cancer Causes and Control calls attention to the burden of tobacco-related inequalities in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, many of which have been targeted by the tobacco industry's deceptive marketing practices. The supplement, funded by the National Cancer Institute, features 11 studies showing the disproportionate impact of tobacco use, secondhand smoke exposure, and tobacco-related cancer and disease among those of lower socioeconomic position (SEP) and, in some cases, by gender and race/ethnicity.

"Tobacco's impact has reached epidemic proportions around the world," said Dr. Donna Vallone, Senior Vice President for Research and Evaluation at Legacy and co-editor of the special supplement. "This special issue confirms what we have known in public health for many years: tobacco is NOT an equal opportunity killer, and it impacts the health and economies of poor nations," she added. According to the World Health Organization, nearly 80 percent of the world's one billion smokers live in low- and middle-income countries.

Findings from the special supplement add to our understanding of how global tobacco use affects low and middle income countries

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U.S. Appeals Court Ruling Another Major Setback for Much Needed Graphic Warning Labels for Tobacco Products  

• The Effects of Smoking-Related Television Advertising on Smoking and Intentions to Quit Among Adults in the United States: 1999–2007 

Objectives. We investigated whether state-sponsored antitobacco advertisements are associated with reduced adult smoking, and interactions between smoking-related advertising types.

Methods. We measured mean exposure to smoking-related advertisements with television ratings for the top-75 US media markets from 1999 to 2007. We combined these data with individual-level Current Population Surveys Tobacco Use Supplement data and state tobacco control policy data.

Results. Higher exposure to state-sponsored, Legacy, and pharmaceutical advertisements was associated with less smoking; higher exposure to tobacco industry advertisements was associated with more smoking. Higher exposure to state- and Legacy-sponsored advertisements was positively associated with intentions to quit and having made a past-year quit attempt; higher exposure to ads for pharmaceutical cessation aids was negatively associated with having made a quit attempt. There was a significant negative interaction between state- and Legacy-sponsored advertisements.

Conclusions. Exposure to state-sponsored advertisements was far below Centers for Disease Control and Prevention–recommended best practices. The significant negative relationships between antismoking advertising and adult smoking provide strong evidence that tobacco-control media campaigns help reduce adult smoking. The significant negative interaction between state- and Legacy-sponsored advertising suggests that the campaigns reinforce one another.

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U.S. Surgeon General: Young Adults are “Prime Targets” for Tobacco Advertising and Marketing  

Today, U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin - the leading authority on public health in the United States - released a report providing the most current and comprehensive analysis of tobacco's impact on our nation's young people. Drawing on research from a number of disciplines, the report examines the social, environmental, advertising and marketing influences that encourage youth and young adults to initiate and sustain tobacco use. The report confirms what we all know to be an absolute truth in tobacco control: nearly all tobacco use begins during youth, and the tobacco industry continues to use marketing and advertising to target young adults.

A Report of the Surgeon General: Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults concludes that there is sufficient evidence for a causal relationship between smoking and addiction to nicotine, beginning in adolescence and young adulthood. Young people are especially vulnerable to societal and environmental influences to try tobacco. The report concluded that young people are more likely to smoke if their peer groups smoke; if they perceive smoking as normal; or if their peers are anti-social. Additionally, for generations, young people have been a consistent target of tobacco industry marketing, with teens and young people continually bombarded by images of smoking in media and movies. The Surgeon General confirms that 88 percent of daily adult smokers begin by age of 18 and 99 percent begin by the age of 26.

Smoking in the United States is truly a youth and young adult epidemic, and we cannot let this go on any longer. Tobacco prevention initiatives that work to curb smoking initiation, not just for teens, but also for young adults, are of critical importance

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• Interview - Smoking Ban Helps Fill Restaurants  

EU Commissioner on Health and Consumer Policy John Dalli arrived in Bulgaria yesterday to express his support to the forthcoming ban on smoking in public premises. He had meetings with Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and members of the parliament. EU Commissioner Dalli presented the European project “Ex-Smokers Are Unstoppable,” . . .

- You have explained that the smoking ban will not affect negatively the hotelkeepers’ business. Would you assuage these fears for restaurant keepers as well? They are afraid that the smoking ban will drive away many of their customers.

- Similar fears have been voiced in many countries that approved the ban whenever it came to a debate of the in-door smoking in public places. Practice shows, however, that the busness of the hotelkeeper had not suffered losses. These facts can be checked out if you see the statistical reports of other EU countries.

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EU Commissioner John Dalli presents “Ex-smokers are Unstoppable” campaign in Sofia  

EU Commissioner John Dalli has on Thursday presented the innovative anti-smoking campaign of the European Commission “Ex-smokers are Unstoppable.” Earlier during the day he held talks with PM Borisov who presented Sofia’s plans for a smoking ban as of 1 June 2012. Mr Dalli praised the decisive steps of the government and noted that according to the EU directive the ban should be introduced until the year-end.dart daily reads.

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• Dual Users of Both Cigarettes and Cigars Are More Likely to be Young, African-American, and Male 

To date, however, the FDA has not exercised its authority to assert jurisdiction on cigar products.

Although the tax structure is not a part of the act, tax treatment of cigars differs from cigarettes, making many cigar products less costly. This is concerning, as there is a direct correlation between higher costs and lower consumption of tobacco products.

Cigars can be just as harmful as cigarettes. Like cigarettes, cigars pose significant health risks, contributing to cancers of the mouth, lung, esophagus, and larynx and possibly contributing to the development of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. In order to more fully understand tobacco use patterns, researchers from Legacy - a national public health organization dedicated to helping people quit smoking or never start - analyzed the demographics of a sample of people who smoked cigarettes and cigars.

Researchers found that this subgroup of dual-use smokers fit a different profile than cigarette-only smokers. Results from the study show that adult smokers who indicated that they use both cigarettes AND cigars (12.5 percent), were more likely to be young, African American, male, of low educational attainment and unemployed, compared with cigarette-only smokers.

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Millions of Smokers Don't Tell Docs that They Light Up 

More than one smoker in 10 tries to hide his or her tobacco use from physicians, according to a survey by an anti-tobacco group.

Top reasons cited by the 13% who said they concealed their smoking habit were wanting to avoid a lecture and being ashamed, the American Legacy Foundation reported.

The findings mean that doctors and nurses are missing important health information on more than six million U.S. smokers, warned Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH, president of the organization.

"Healthcare providers play a critical role in reaching smokers with appropriate messages and resources for quitting, especially now that insurance coverage has expanded to include some smoking cessation treatments," she said in a press release.

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• National Survey: One-in-Ten Smokers Reported They Have Concealed Their Smoking From Health Care Providers  

New results from a national survey show that one-in-ten smokers (13%) in the United States did not disclose their smoking status to their health care providers (HCP), who are among the most important resources that a smoker could have in quitting successfully. Furthermore, social stigma around smoking may contribute to why smokers sometimes keep their smoking status a secret from their doctors. The survey of 3,146 adult participants in the U.S. (smokers and former smokers) was conducted using the web-enabled KnowledgePanel®, a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. population.

Researchers from Legacy®, a national public health organization dedicated to building a world where anyone can quit, say that while a majority of smokers did admit their smoking status, only one-quarter sought help from their doctors or health care providers during their last quit attempt. Although most smokers surveyed stated they are honest with their health care provider (HCP), one in 10 smokers reported they do not disclose their smoking status. The findings have important implications for how HCPs can more effectively reach smokers with resources to help them quit.

"Health care providers play a critical role in reaching smokers with appropriate messages and resources for quitting, especially now that insurance coverage has expanded to include some smoking cessation treatments. It becomes a missed public health opportunity if what amounts to more than six million smokers in the United States do not talk to doctors and nurses about smoking and quitting," said Cheryl G. Healton, Dr PH, President and CEO of Legacy. . . .

To address the void between doctors and all smokers, Legacy has developed a guide for HCPs with strategies on how to conduct more meaningful and effective conversations with their patients about smoking and quitting. "If we can start the conversation by acknowledging smoking behavior, we can get smokers on a path to quit," Healton said.

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