Fewer Fargo High School students smoking, binge drinking

By Helmut Schmidt | Fargo Forum
FARGO – The percentage of Fargo High School students taking up cigarette smoking is dropping fast, and fewer students are binge drinking.

But other risks are coming to the fore, including what appears to be higher rates of depression and thoughts of suicide. Students also report a high rate of texting, emailing and talking on cellphones as they drive.

One out of five Fargo high school students polled were bullied electronically, while nearly one in 10 students said they were physically hurt by someone they were dating.

Statistics from the 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey paint a stark picture of the challenges faced by youths today, said Ron Schneider, a counselor at Fargo’s Woodrow Wilson High School.

Presenting the survey results and trend data to the School Board Tuesday, Schneider said it’s vital for family, teachers and school officials to make connections with young people.

“The more connections, the more relationships, the less likely they get involved with negative behavior,” Schneider said.

Among the findings:

  • Depression is a problem that’s either on the rise, or it has become more acceptable to talk about, Schneider said. “My guess is it’s a little of both,” he said. In 2013, 26.9 percent of Fargo students polled in grades 9-12 felt sad or hopeless almost every day for two or more weeks straight, up from 22.7 percent in 2009, the survey showed.
  • Of those surveyed, 16.8 percent had seriously considered suicide in the previous year, 12.4 percent had made a plan about how they would attempt suicide and 11.6 percent had attempted suicide one or more times in that year.
  • About two out of three young drivers are so hooked on their cellphones they can’t put them down when driving. Among Fargo students surveyed, 57.3 percent said they had texted or emailed while driving in 2013. Meanwhile, 67 percent of Fargo students said they had talked on a cellphone while driving in 2013.
  • In Fargo, 8.6 percent of students surveyed in 2013 reported being hurt by someone they dated, with that rising to 9.7 percent statewide.
  • Also, 10.1 percent of Fargo high school students in 2013 said they had been physically forced to have sexual intercourse, compared with 7.7 percent of those polled statewide.
  • About 20.1 percent of Fargo students said they had been electronically bullied, compared with 17.1 percent statewide.
  • Nearly a third of Fargo students, 28.7 percent, said they had an alcoholic drink in the last 30 days. It was 35.3 percent statewide.

Drug use

Schneider said it appears that the use of other chemicals has stabilized.

  • In 2013, 19.6 percent of Fargo students had tried marijuana in the last 30 days, compared with 15.9 percent statewide.
  • About 10.7 percent of Fargo students said they had sniffed glue, huffed from aerosol cans, or inhaled paints or spray to get high, while 5.6 percent said they had used methamphetamines.
  • In 2013, 20.5 percent of Fargo students said they had illegally used prescription drugs such as OxyContin, Percocet, Vicodin, codeine, Adderall, Ritalin or Xanax.
  • About 13.5 percent of Fargo high school students used over-the-counter drugs to get high in 2013, while 10.8 percent said they had used synthetic drugs such as K2, Spice or bath salts.
  • About 12.5 percent of students polled in 2013 said they had attended school drunk or high in the last 30 days.

Some positives

  • Regular smokers, Fargo teens who had smoked a cigarette on 20 of the last 30 days before the 2013 poll, dropped significantly, from 11.1 percent in 2009 to 3.9 percent in 2013.
  • About 21 percent of Fargo students reported smoking cigarettes, cigars or using chewing tobacco, snuff or dip in the last 30 days in the 2013 poll.
  • Binge drinking declined, as 17.7 percent of Fargo students in 2013 said they had five or more drinks in a couple of hours, compared with 23.9 percent in 2009. Statewide, 21.9 percent reported binge drinking in 2013, compared with 30.7 percent in 2009.

Sexually active

Many young people reported that they were sexually active. Of the students surveyed in 2013:

  • 39.7 percent of Fargo high school students reported that they had sexual intercourse, compared with 44.9 percent statewide.
  • 12.4 percent of Fargo students said they had sex with four or more partners during their lives.
  • 51.7 percent of Fargo students said they had used a condom during their last sexual experience, compared with 56.3 percent statewide.

http://www.inforum.com/content/fewer-fargo-high-school-students-smoking-binge-drinking

LLOYD OMDAHL: Legislature questions intelligence of voters

By: Lloyd Omdahl, Grand Forks Herald
Measure 4 on the November ballot is the latest attempt by the Legislature to restrict citizen use of the initiative process by which voters can propose measures for a vote of the people.
If passed, it would prohibit the secretary of state from putting on the ballot any citizen proposal that would direct the expenditure of money for a specific purpose. Apparently, legislators question the intelligence of the voters.
This is the latest in a never-ending series of attempts by the Legislature to make it more difficult for North Dakotans to use the initiative. In the past, most attempts have been aimed at raising the number of signatures required for filing petitions. They all failed.
This time, the Legislature wants to be sure that it has exclusive control over the huge surpluses in the state treasury. It is afraid that citizens who see neglected needs will win the support of the electorate to appropriate money.
The Legislature should be reminded that these surpluses would not exist without the adoption in 1980 of a measure initiated by the people to add a 6½ percent tax on oil production. The Legislature was doing nothing about the puny oil tax it had levied 25 years earlier.
Let’s look at the Legislature’s track record.
First, there’s the Legislature’s mismanagement of the money from the tobacco settlement in which North Dakota was awarded over $800 million. Even though Former Attorney General Heidi Heitkamp won the lawsuit, the Legislature was quick to grab the money for programs other than fighting tobacco addiction.
To get the Legislature back on track, Heitkamp and other tobacco fighters initiated a measure directing the Legislature to spend tobacco settlement money on tobacco addiction. The voters approved the measure.
But the 2013 Legislature, in a petulant fit, refused to accept the decision of the voters. It started stripping out key provisions of the initiated measure. The effort failed only when the leadership could not muster the two-thirds vote needed to change an initiated measure.
Meanwhile, the Legislature held the appropriation hostage until the last day of the session when it relented and belligerently approved funding the program to fight tobacco addiction.
By proposing Measure 4, the Legislature is telling North Dakotans that they are not to be trusted with money. Many residents feel the same way about the Legislature. That is why we have provisions in the state constitution for the initiative and the referendum.
There are pressing needs that have been neglected by the Legislature and may require initiative petitions to appropriate money in the future.
One is the need for more support for clean water, conservation and parks. Even if Measure 5 proposing a significance increase in such funding is defeated, the need will not go away. A new initiated measure may be necessary.
A recent public opinion poll revealed strong public support for such programs.
Another critical need is funding for statewide preschool education. The last session did nothing except authorize cash-strapped school districts to raise their own money for preschool. There is wide public support for preschool education. This may require an initiated measure.
Generally speaking, the governor and the Legislature have done quite well with state money. Nevertheless, the Legislature sometimes develops blind spots when it comes to new needs and new opportunities.
Historically, North Dakota voters have been very responsible in dealing with money issues on the ballot. There is no justification for questioning their intelligence. Measure 4 is an unnecessary restriction on citizens participating in their government.
http://www.grandforksherald.com/content/lloyd-omdahl-legislature-questions-intelligence-voters

Raise tobacco tax to discourage kids

By KATHLEEN DONAHUE Bismarck

Almost all tobacco users became addicted before age 26. Thousands of kids try their first cigarette every day.

In recent years, declines in youth smoking rates have stalled and the use of other tobacco products by youth has actually increased.

The tobacco companies are aware of these trends and spend millions of dollars on new products and deceptive marketing with the goal of turning children into lifelong customers.

Advertising influenced my cousin to start smoking at an early age. Years later, his tobacco use cost him his life. I want to make sure no family experiences such a loss.

One of the best ways to prevent kids from ever starting the deadly addiction is to increase the price of tobacco products so they can’t afford to purchase them. States have been successfully using this tactic over the past decade by increasing local tobacco taxes.

I’m suggesting we raise North Dakota’s cigarette tax significantly. This one simple act can keep nearly 7,900 North Dakota kids from ever becoming adult smokers. And more importantly, it means that more than 4,700 tobacco-caused deaths like my cousin’s untimely passing would be prevented.

North Dakota, this is a win-win idea. You can decrease long-term health care costs and protect our children. I urge you to write your legislators and ask them to consider increasing North Dakota’s tax on all tobacco products. It’s the right choice for our kids.

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/opinion/mailbag/raise-tobacco-tax-to-discourage-kids/article_94347622-4046-11e4-a807-af727e9b9e46.html

Concordia campus goes fully tobacco-free

By Grace Lyden | Forum News Service
MOORHEAD – Following the lead of college campuses around the country, Concordia College at Moorhead is now fully tobacco-free.
As of Aug. 18, the college prohibits the use, sale or distribution of cigarettes, cigars, pipes, hookahs, electronic cigarettes and any other smoking products, as well as smokeless tobacco products, such as chew and snus, on campus grounds.
“We felt that what we wanted to do was be as comprehensive in this as possible,” said Sue Oatey, Concordia’s vice president of student affairs.
According to a survey done by Concordia’s Student Government Association in 2013, 88 percent of Concordia students did not use tobacco products on campus and 70 percent supported a tobacco-free policy.
Those statistics make it surprising that the move didn’t happen sooner, as it did at other colleges in the Fargo-Moorhead area.
Minnesota State University Moorhead went tobacco-free on Jan. 1, 2008. Two years later, North Dakota State University’s smoking ban went into effect March 1, 2010.
And in the past five years, the number of smoke-free campuses nationwide has soared.
Just 365 campuses were smoke-free in October 2009, compared to 1,372 campuses in July 2014, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation, a group that tracks those numbers.
Alyssa Coop, president of Concordia’s student government and a senior at the college, said her understanding was that a smoking ban had been often discussed but also often tabled.
“It’s kind of come and gone,” she said. “Every once in a while, the administration will make headway on it, but it seems to take a while to get through the red tape.”
That’s why the SGA wasn’t confident when they started working with Oatey and others on this proposal two years ago.
“We really didn’t have high hopes for it,” Coop said. “We didn’t know if it was going to be time for it or not.”
Now that it is in place, though, Concordia’s ban is one of the nation’s most comprehensive because it prohibits smoking products, smokeless products and also e-cigarettes.
E-cig debate
E-cigarettes have been a point of debate on numerous college campuses.
They’re marketed as a better option for public use due to reduced secondhand smoke effects, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization have questioned those claims and called for stronger regulation.
Just 176 of this year’s 1,372 smoke-free campuses also prohibit e-cigarettes, according to the ANRF data, and three of those are now in Fargo-Moorhead.
MSUM released a statement March 13 that e-cigarettes would be added to its tobacco policy, citing the lack of FDA regulation and also a 2014 U.S. Surgeon General report that said e-cigarettes constitute tobacco use.
NDSU also recently added e-cigarettes to its policy to be in compliance with state law, said Janna Stoskopf, NDSU dean of student life.
North Dakota is one of two states that specifically prohibit using e-cigarettes in 100 percent smoke-free venues, according to the ANRF July report. The other is New Jersey.
NDSU differs slightly from Concordia and MSUM because while the campus is smoke-free, smokeless tobacco is allowed.
Stoskopf said students who spearheaded the ban were intentional about that choice.
“They thought they would have the best possible success based on the notion of secondhand smoke and the impact of that on others,” she said.
Slightly more than two-thirds of smoke-free college campuses – 938 of the 1,372 – are also tobacco-free, according to the ANRF.
There have not been efforts to change that aspect of NDSU policy, Stoskopf said.
http://www.inforum.com/content/concordia-campus-goes-fully-tobacco-free

CVS stops selling tobacco, offers quit-smoking programs

Jayne O’Donnell and Laura Ungar, USA TODAY

CVS Caremark plans to stop selling tobacco products in all of its stores starting Wednesday — a move health experts hope will be followed by other major drugstore chains.

CVS announced in February that it planned to drop tobacco by Oct. 1 as the sales conflicted with its health care mission. To bolster its image as a health care company, CVS will announce a corporate name change to CVS Health. Retail stores will still be called CVS/Pharmacy.

CVS, which has 7,700 retail locations, is the second-largest drugstore chain in the USA, behind Walgreens. It manages the pharmacy benefits for 65 million members and has 900 walk-in medical clinics.

The American Pharmacists Association called on drugstores to stop selling tobacco in March 2010 and several small, independent chains have done so, APA spokeswoman Michelle Spinnler says. CVS is the first large chain to stop tobacco sales.

“CVS’ announcement to stop selling tobacco products fully a month early sends a resounding message to the entire retail industry and to its customers that pharmacies should not be in the business of selling tobacco,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “This is truly an example of a corporation leading and setting a new standard.”

CVS is also launching a smoking-cessation campaign that will include an assessment of the smoker’s “readiness to quit,” education, medication support to help curb the desire to use tobacco and coaching to help people stay motivated and avoid relapses.

CVS says research shows its decision will have a big impact. A study the company is releasing Wednesday in the journal Health Affairs shows bans at pharmacies in Boston and San Francisco led to more than 13% fewer purchasers. Smokers didn’t just switch where they bought cigarettes and other tobacco products, some stopped buying them altogether. About 900 households in the two cities recorded everything they bought after the bans went into effect.

Troyen Brennan, CVS’ chief medical officer, says if the results were extrapolated for pharmacies across the USA, it would lead to 65,000 fewer deaths a year.

Ellen Hahn of the Tobacco Policy Research Program at the University of Kentucky says one chain not selling tobacco will have a limited effect, and other tobacco control strategies, such as price and tax increases and smoking bans, have been shown to be more effective.

Still, she said, “every little bit helps because they are such a large chain. If every pharmacy would follow suit, that would be best. But this sends a clear message that pharmacies should not be selling tobacco.”

Audrey Silk, founder of Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, or CLASH, a national smokers’ rights group based in New York City, says CVS has every right to change what it sells, but she believes the company is falling for the anti-smoking “crusade.”

Pharmacies no longer sell just medicines, she said, “they have turned into grocery stores. They sell candy. They sell beer. CVS Health? It’s a perception war. … Tobacco is legal. They’re engaging in public coercion by not selling cigarettes.”

CVS says its tobacco sales total about $2 billion a year.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls tobacco “the single most preventable cause of disease, disability and death in the United States,” saying 443,000 people die from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke each year.
Tobacco deaths are very personal to two top CVS executives. CEO Larry Merlo’s father died of tobacco-related cancer at age 57 and the mother of CVS/Pharmacy President Helene Foulkes died five years ago of lung cancer from smoking.
After its announcement in February, Foulkes says CVS was deluged with personal stories from customers who had quit smoking. Many said it was the “hardest thing they had ever done,” she says. The company is determined to make it easier for them, she says, because it simply makes sense.
“The contradiction of selling tobacco was becoming a growing obstacle to playing a bigger role in health care delivery,” Merlo says.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/09/03/cvs-steps-selling-tobacco-changes-name/14967821/

World Health Organization: Public Health Rules Needed to Curb E-Cigarette Risks

by Katie Weatherford, Center for Effective Government

Contrary to industry advertising, a new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) finds that electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and other electronic nicotine delivery systems pose significant public health hazards because of toxins emitted from the devices. The agency recommends that countries adopt e-cigarette rules to prevent misleading marketing of the products and to educate the public about the potential health risks involved.

E-Cigarettes Emit Dangerous Toxins

E-cigarettes contain a battery that heats a nicotine fluid inside the device until it produces a mist-like aerosol that the user can inhale. According to the WHO report, the aerosol contains “nicotine and a number of toxicants” that pose health hazards to users and non-users, especially pregnant women and children, contrary to claims that these devices release nothing more than water vapor. Nicotine use is linked to long-term adverse effects on brain development. Moreover, the aerosol typically contains “some carcinogenic compounds,” including formaldehyde.

Although the report finds that adult smokers who completely switch from regular cigarettes to e-cigarettes will be exposed to lower levels of toxins, WHO warns that the “amount of risk reduction . . . is presently unknown.” The report also notes uncertainty about whether second-hand exposure risks from e-cigarettes are lower than regular cigarettes.

Marketing Contains Unsubstantiated Claims, Targets Children

The WHO report also takes misleading marketing to task, noting the frequent use of unsubstantiated claims about e-cigarettes in product ads. According to the report, there is insufficient evidence that using e-cigarettes will help people quit smoking, yet ads commonly market e-cigarettes as a smoking-cessation device. Other marketing tactics may even encourage more frequent smoking.

For example, many ads promote using e-cigarettes in places where regular smoking is banned. WHO cautions that this could interfere with the intent of smoke-free policies, which “are designed not only to protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke, but also to provide incentives to quit smoking and to denormalize smoking . . . .”

Moreover, e-cigarette marketing has “the potential to glamorize smoking,” which may encourage nonsmokers and children to start using e-cigarettes. The endless variety of designs and flavor options can also appeal to adolescents.

WHO Recommends Developing Public Safeguards

The WHO report says, “Regulation of [e-cigarettes] is a necessary precondition for establishing a scientific basis on which to judge the effects of their use, and for ensuring that adequate research is conducted, that the public has current, reliable information as to the potential risks and benefits of [e-cigarettes], and that the health of the public is protected.”

The report will be a topic of discussion this October at the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The Convention is an international effort to address global tobacco use. The report calls on the 179 countries that are parties to the Convention to adopt new standards to protect the public from the hazards associated with e-cigarettes. Such safeguards would:

  • Prohibit claims that these products can help people quit smoking until manufacturers provide sufficient scientific evidence to support the claim and gain regulatory approval

  • Ban indoor use of e-cigarettes unless it is proven there are no health effects from second-hand exposure

  • Restrict marketing by requiring that all ads, promotions, or sponsorships provide warnings, encourage people to quit smoking, in no way promote use by nonsmokers or adolescents, contain no images, words, etc. associated with a tobacco product, and more

  • Require that manufacturers design products to reduce exposure to toxins, make information about contents and exposure levels available to users, register products with a governmental body, and report design and emissions information to a governmental body

  • Prohibit sales to people under the age of 18 and ban fruit, candy-like, and alcohol-drink flavors unless and until it is proven that these flavors do not appeal to minors

To ensure strong public health protections, the global community must adopt WHO’s recommendations so that people understand the risks associated with e-cigarettes and adults can make informed choices about whether or not to use them.

Protecting Public Health in the U.S.

Although the U.S. is a signatory to the Convention, it has not yet ratified the tobacco control treaty. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is taking some steps similar to WHO’s recommendations.

FDA proposed a rule in April that would ban the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 18. The rule would also require e-cigarette manufacturers to register with the agency and report the manufacturing process and ingredients used in their products. Moreover, companies would be required to place health-warning labels on e-cigarettes.

However, some tobacco control advocates believe the proposal does not go far enough and are urging FDA to prohibit manufacturers from marketing candy-flavored options that attract children. The Center for Effective Government and other health and safety groups also heavily criticized the FDA’s decision to discount the benefits of the proposed rule by 70 percent, which the agency claims is necessary to account for the “lost pleasure” from reducing tobacco use.

FDA is currently reviewing public comments and considering any changes to its draft rule. We hope the agency will correct its flawed benefit calculation and move forward with strong safeguards without delay. The U.S. should also ratify the treaty and communicate its support for global efforts to combat the tobacco use epidemic.

http://www.foreffectivegov.org/node/13198

Q: Is hookah or water pipe smoking a safe alternative to cigarettes?

By Sanjay Gupta, MD

A: Absolutely not. In fact, as Daniel Neides, MD, medical director of the Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic points out, hookah smoking “may actually be worse than smoking.”

Hookahs are water pipes in which charcoal is used to heat up flavored tobacco. An ancient form of smoking that originated in the Middle East and India, it has become increasingly popular among American adolescents and young adults. Roughly 1 out of 5 U.S. high school seniors had smoked a hookah in the past year, according to recent data.

The hookah’s gaining popularity is largely due to the misconception that it’s not harmful. That’s not the case. “First, the tobacco used in hookah contains the same cancer-causing agents found in cigarettes,” Dr. Neides says. “Secondly, there is charcoal that is used to heat the tobacco, which gives off carbon monoxide and heavy metals as a by-product when it is heated.”

A hookah session usually lasts longer than time spent smoking cigarettes, with hookah smokers puffing more frequently and inhaling more deeply. A 2010 study reported the amount of smoke inhaled during a hookah session can be nearly 200 times the amount inhaled when smoking a cigarette. Earlier this year, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, found that hookah smoking raised nicotine urine levels as much as 73 times.

Neides adds that because water pipes are usually smoked in specialty hookah shops or bars and shared among friends, users are exposed to greater levels of secondhand smoke and are at a higher risk of contracting viruses or infections.

The bottom line, Neides says, is that “hookah smoke should be considered the same as cigarettes and cigars – a very unhealthy habit that leads to chronic disease and death.”

http://www.everydayhealth.com/columns/paging-dr-gupta/is-hookah-or-water-pipe-smoking-a-safe-alternative-to-cigarettes/

The Health Claims Of E-Cigarettes Are Going Up In Smoke

Jasper Hamill, Contributor | Forbes

The sales pitch of electronic cigarette manufacturers seemed too good to be true. Could nicotine addicts around the world really get their fix whilst dodging the health risks of puffing away on cancer sticks?

Sadly for smokers and “vapers”, the answer is far from clear. Over the past week, new evidence has emerged which suggests that E-Cigarettes can be dangerous too – in some cases carrying higher amounts of certain toxins than the blazing tobacco of old.

Researchers at the University of South California have found that although E-Cigarettes are less harmful than ordinary smokes, the vapour emitted by the gadgets contains the toxic element chromium, which is not found in traditional cigarettes, as well as levels of nickel four times higher than in real tobacco. The electronic replacements also contain lead, zinc and other toxic metals, although in lower levels than cigarettes.

English: Two electronic cigarette models. Self...

Two electronic cigarette models. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“Our results demonstrate that overall electronic cigarettes seem to be less harmful than regular cigarettes, but their elevated content of toxic metals such as nickel and chromium do raise concerns,” said Constantinos Sioutas, professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

There is a bit of good news for reforming smokers, as E-Cigarettes contain virtually no detectable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are known to cause cancer. The researchers also said the metal particles were likely to come from the cartridge of the E-Cigarette devices, opening up the possibility that a change in the production process could eliminate the dangerous chemicals.

But this isn’t the only bit of bad news for vape inhalers. In the UK, the BBC reported that E-Cigarette liquid sold in the north east of England was found to contain a chemical called diacetyl, which is used to add butterscotch flavor to liquid tobacco.

Whilst this substance is harmless to eat, it is extremely dangerous to inhale. The chemical is known to cause a serious condition called popcorn lung, orbronchiolitis obliterans, an irreversible disease which scars the lung and makes it impossible to breathe properly. This illness has struck workers in popcorn factories, who are known to breathe in vast quantities of diacetyl, as well as ordinary people who eat a lot of popcorn.

Commenting on the report, Dr Graham Burns, a respiratory expert at Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary, said the illness is often “serious enough to warrant lung transplantation”.

VP, the firm which manufactured the cigarettes, immediately withdrew the liquid from sale, and Lynne White, head of retail distribution, admitted there were concerns about inhaling the liquid on a long-term basis.

“We are very sorry it has happened, we are investigating how it has happened,” she added.

“Because of the small amount the vaper would actually consume it was deemed in the short term there would be no health concerns.

“Long-term yes there could well be, however we decided it was a withdrawal rather than a recall of the product and that was based on Ecita’s (Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association) guidelines.”

But for many health-conscious people, the damage is likely to have been done. Once upon a time, the world didn’t know about the many terrible effects of cigarettes. It was only after a concerted campaign by scientists, doctors and activists that the risks began to be publicized and governments began to act on them. The long term implications of switching to E-Cigarettes have not yet been tested, so anyone using the devices has to ask themselves if they are willing to take the risk of becoming a guinea pig.

Marlboro Cigarettes

Marlboro Cigarettes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The World Health Organisation has issued a report advising that use of E-Cigarettes should be banned indoors and and all advertising stopped until the emerging industry produces “convincing supporting scientific evidence and obtains regulatory approval”.
Backing this call, the British Medical Association board of science deputy chair Ram Moorth said “tighter controls are needed to ensure their use does not undermine current tobacco control measures and reinforces the normalcy of smoking behaviour”.

‘There is a need for research to understand the health impacts of E-Cigarettes on both the user and bystanders, and it is vital that the sale of e-cigarettes is appropriately regulated to ensure they are not sold to minors, and are not aggressively marketed to young people as tobacco was in the past,” he continued.

“Any health claims must be substantiated by robust independent scientific evidence to ensure that the consumer is fully informed regarding potential benefits and risks of E-Cigarettes.”
Are you willing to take the chance and keep on vaping?
For more news and comment, follow me on Twitter @jasperhamill
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasperhamill/2014/08/31/the-health-claims-of-e-cigarettes-are-going-up-in-smoke/

Letter to the Editor: Stop glamorizing the role of tobacco in baseball

Chris Hansen, Washington | The Washington Post

Just weeks after the early death of beloved baseball star Tony Gwynn from cancer likely caused by chewing tobacco, and just days after World Series-winning pitcher Curt Schilling told the world he attributes his cancer to years of chewing tobacco, The Post irresponsibly leads an article about the Washington Nationals with the portrayal of chewing tobacco use as a rally-inducing, lucky superstition [“Nationals’ luck runs out against Phillies thanks to stellar performance by Burnett,” Sports, Aug. 27].

To all the young baseball fans who look to The Post each morning to see if their heroes won last night: Tobacco causes those heroes to suffer nicotine addiction, disease and death. Stephen Strasburg recently stated publicly that he is trying to quit using chewing tobacco but that it is very hard to quit. It is time for the team owners and the players association to eliminate tobacco from baseball, and it is time for the media to stop characterizing tobacco as a quaint part of baseball culture.

Instead of inducing winning rallies, tobacco in baseball induces life-shortening defeats — and that is the only coverage it deserves on the sports page of The Post.

The writer is president of the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/stop-glamorizing-the-role-of-tobacco-in-baseball/2014/08/31/cdd004dc-2e08-11e4-be9e-60cc44c01e7f_story.html

St. Paul OKs ordinance targeting sale of cheap cigars

Article by: PAUL WALSH and KEVIN DUCHSCHERE , Star Tribune staff writers

Over the objections of retailers, St. Paul has approved an ordinance that targets the sale of inexpensive cigars that appeal to young smokers.

The ordinance, passed unanimously Wednesday by the City Council, sets a minimum price of $2.10 each for single cigars, whether sold individually or in packs up to four; for example, a three-pack would have to sell for at least $6.30.

Packs of five or more cigars would not be subject to price regulation.

Currently, cigars can be bought for far less — sometimes for as little as three for $1 and in flavors that make them particularly appealing to young people.

In June, Brooklyn Center became the first municipality in the state to pass such an ordinance. The city has seen a sharp decline in cigar sales since the ordinance took effect.

“This issue is about the underlying problem of the tobacco companies’ intentional marketing to youth and communities of color,” Council Member Dai Thao said during last week’s hearing on the ordinance, which he sponsored.

Jack McNaney, a freshman at Cretin-Derham Hall High School in St. Paul and a member of the Ramsey Tobacco Coalition, said, “It’s not right that you can buy three cigarillos for less than the price of a bottle of Mountain Dew.”

Alicia Leizinger, a coalition program and policy specialist, said Thursday that “St. Paul has taken a strong stand against the tobacco industry’s relentless efforts to addict young people to their deadly products. By raising the price of cheap cigars, they took an important step in breaking the cycle of addiction for the next generation.”

A state Health Department survey revealed that cigars rival cigarettes in popularity among underage smokers.

Steve Rush, director of government relations for Holiday convenience stores, countered last week that the ordinance “will cause us to remove about 70 categories of cigar products” from its 10 stores in the city. “The loss of these sales can be quite serious,” Rush added.

Tom Briant, executive director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, added that the ordinance will punish retailers in St. Paul, where stores have a “virtually perfect compliance” record of not selling tobacco products to minors.

“Consumers who are of legal age to buy cigars will simply go elsewhere,” Rush said. “This is simply harming the honest, ethical St. Paul retailers who are enforcing the law.”

St. Paul retailers have about 30 days to change the prices on cigars covered by the ordinance.

In 2009, a unanimous City Council vote outlawed candy cigarettes and cartoon character lighters. The council cited a study showing that these products encouraged youngsters to take up smoking tobacco.

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/273072601.html