Tobacco News

Smoking is both a physical addiction to nicotine and a learned psychological behavior, so the best way to quit is to attack it from both sides, says Sarah Shelton of the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

“Quitting smoking is a process of eliminating the physiological dependence on nicotine and re-learning how not to smoke,” says Shelton, manager of research and evaluation at the Brown School’s Center for Public Health Systems Science.
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Did you know that smoking is bad for you? Of course you know that, everyone knows that. Everyone knows that, and yet it is estimated that we have ten million smokers in the UK alone.

A smoker is more likely to have heart attack than a non-smoker, their risk of a stroke is increased and it isn’t just lung cancer a smoker needs to worry about, you can add oral cancer, uterine cancer, liver cancer, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, stomach cancer, cervical cancer and leukemia to the list.*
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Top-line, unpublished results from a multicenter, randomized, placebo-controlled trial suggest the smoking-cessation drug varenicline (Chantix, Champix, Pfizer) helps patients with a past or present diagnosis of major depression kick the habit.

In a press release, Pfizer announced that subjects in the varenicline group were significantly more likely to meet the study’s primary end point of four-week continuous quit rate between weeks 9 and 12 compared with those in the placebo group (35.9% vs 15.6%). Ream more »

Smokers trying to quit smoking have been advised to utilise ‘Quit Smoking Clinics’ at government health clinics instead of resorting to electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes).
Assistant Minister for Public Health Dr Jerip Susil yesterday cautioned that any form of smoking be it in cigarette, pipe or liquid form was harmful as long as it contained nicotine or carbon. Ream more »

The Department of Public Health and Human Services Montana Tobacco Quit Line has expanded its cessation benefits to help Montanans quit using tobacco.

For a limited time only, DPHHS has added a second choice to its Nicotine Replacement Therapy to include a two-week supply of nicotine gum or lozenges. This offer will complement the four week supply of nicotine patches already provided to Quit Line clients.
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Rising prices and growing public awareness are resulting in large numbers of Rotorua smokers trying to quit.

“It is really hard to quit smoking,” Lakes District Health Board Smokefree project manager Pip King said.

About 5000 New Zealanders die annually from smoking-related illnesses.
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As many as 24.3 million adults in India are hardcore smokers, who are simply not interested in quitting despite knowing that the diseases associated with smoking.
These estimates have been given by the scientists from the Public Health Foundation of India and Maulana Azad Medical College.
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Need an incentive to quit smoking? How about the chance of winning cash prizes up to $2,500?

That’s what the Quit Now Indiana Contest is offering Hoosier smokers if they quit tobacco during the month of October. The contest is part of an ongoing statewide campaign, known as Quit Now Indiana, which links tobacco users to cessation resources. Ream more »

“The single reason for the dominance of the tobacco problem is that someone is selling it, whereas no one is selling diphtheria or tuberculosis.”

We all know tobacco kills many Australians – far more than illicit drugs, traffic deaths, homicides, suicides, fires, other injuries, and alcohol put together.
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For some smokers in California, quitting just got more lucrative as certain smokers are now essentially being paid to try to quit.
In two decades of smoking, Benjamin Govan quit once. He’s thought about joining programs many times.
“It’s just easier not to … not to get involved with it,” said Govan. Ream more »