Last November, Mercy Tiffin Hospital promoted the Great American Smokeout with a press release in which some alarming statistics were listed: Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Tobacco use causes cancer, heart disease, chronic bronchitis, asthma and emphysema. Each year, an estimated 438,000 Americans die as a result of smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke.
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It seems that the antismoking lobby has gone a little overboard with coaxing people to give up smoking, as the government is currently planning to introduce new kits for people who would like to give up smoking. Apparently, starting from the New Year people will be provided free coupons to exchange for Quit Kits that will be used to help in people quitting the habit.
The Quit Kits will include tobacco patches for a trial of one week. The new measure has been implemented to help people pledging to give up smoking as part of their News Year resolutions. Ream more »
The governor wants it. The Chamber of Commerce wants it. The medical community is clamoring for it and most states already have it.
So maybe, just maybe, 2011 will be the year the Indiana General Assembly crushes out the influence of the tobacco lobby and other special interests and strikes a sweeping blow for Hoosier health.
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The number of smokers in St. Lawrence County has dropped eight percent in recent years, but experts are concerned that a 10-year decline among youth might have halted. Local experts say their goal is to stop people from smoking before they start, so they are focusing on keeping young people from lighting a first cigarette. “Ninety percent of current adult smokers started at or before the age of 18,” said St. Lawrence County Tobacco Program Coordinator Ben Todd. Ream more »
A new study has found that smokers who find out they have cancer may experience more pain than cancer patients who are nonsmokers, reports CNN Health.
After a survey was conducted that included 224 cancer patients with several different diagnoses, researchers asked each one about pain severity, distress from pain, and how pain affected their everyday life. The results showed that cancer patients who smoked experienced much more severe pain than those who never smoked or were ex-smokers. Ream more »
There may no longer be smoke, but there is still fire among opponents of Wisconsin’s five-month-old smoking ban. Gov.-elect Scott Walker dislikes the ban, and in early November incoming state Sen. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said that although a repeal is unlikely, Republicans are discussing a modification of the law.
But last week, the state Department of Health Services released a study of indoor air quality in taverns that showed how well the smoking ban has worked and why it should remain intact. Ream more »
Massachusetts ranks 37th in the nation when it comes to funding anti-tobacco efforts, and tobacco control specialists in Berkshire County — where the smoking rate is above the statewide average — say the state’s financial strain is impacting smoking cessation and prevention efforts.
“This is the life we live now,” said Joan Rubel, project coordinator of the Northern Berkshire Tobacco-Free Community Partnership at Berkshire AHEC. “I think what’s in place in the state is an infrastructure at a very low level of tobacco cessation and prevention work.”
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Anti-smoking groups are urging Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq to stick with her department’s plans to increase the size of warning labels on cigarette packages, rather than capitulate to the tobacco industry.
“The research commissioned by your department shows clearly that the larger the warning, the greater the positive impact it will have on its intended target audiences,” eight of the organizations said Wednesday in a letter to Ms. Aglukkaq. Ream more »
Despite receiving billions through a 1998 tobacco settlement, states are slashing budgets for tobacco prevention programs, dropping funding to its lowest level in more than a decade, a new study shows.
States are to receive $25.3 billion in tobacco taxes and revenue for fiscal 2011 from the multi-state tobacco settlement. But they are spending only 2% of that money on programs to prevent smoking or help smokers quit, according to a report released in November by the American Heart Assn., American Lung Assn. and others.
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WITH WORRIES about the economy and stress over the Thanksgiving holiday, you may have forgotten that Nov. 18 was the Great American Smoke Out. This annual event encourages Americans who smoke and or use tobacco products to quit for a single day, with the hope that they will eventually quit for good.
Quitting for good is not only the healthiest thing to do, but the most intelligent, too. During the recent holiday, I had the displeasure of reminding a relative of the oh-so-obvious facts about the dangers of cigarette smoking.
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