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Higher tobacco taxes save lives

By: Vincent DeMarco, Baltimore

A recent op-ed criticizing Maryland’s tobacco tax increases ignores the most important consequence of these measures: a dramatic decrease in tobacco use by teens that has saved thousands of young people from preventable tobacco-related deaths and serious illnesses (“Md. cigarette taxes have unintended consequences,” Dec. 18).

According to data compiled by the Campaign For Tobacco Free kids, within two years after the 2008 increase in the state cigarette tax, from $1 per pack to $2 per pack, there was a 29 percent drop in teen smoking in Maryland.

That translated into 15,000 fewer high school smokers (some of whom have become non-smoking young adults by now); more than 70,000 kids today who will not become adult smokers; more than 30,000 kids alive today who will avoid future premature smoking-related deaths; and more than $1.5 billion in long-term health care cost savings tp the state.

The Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene recently released a study showing that between 2010 and 2013 there was an 18 percent drop in Maryland teens smoking cigars. This happened at a time when nationally there was no statistically significant change in teen cigar smoking.

This progress, which also resulted in saving thousands of Maryland youth from tobacco addiction and preventable death and illnesses, occurred in part because of the 2012 increase in the state tax on cigars, along with an effective public education campaign by the state health department.

Granted, there will always be some people who will seek to avoid the tobacco tax by going to other states or resorting to smuggling. But very seldom will this involve children, whose lives we are saving in record numbers.

And we know from experience that the drop in cigarette sales in Maryland far outweighed the increase in sales in neighboring states that didn’t increase their tobacco tax. And were are fully confident in Maryland Comptroller Peter Franchot’s ability to prevent and prosecute those who would try to illegally smuggle cigarettes into the state.

In addition to saving lives, tobacco tax increases are good for Maryland taxpayers because they both reduce the health-care cost for tobacco-related illnesses and help fund critical health care programs. The 2008 tobacco tax increase partially funded the expansion of health care to over 100,000 uninsured Marylanders.

Although the Maryland Taxpayers’ Association doesn’t seem to want Marylanders to have these benefits, many independent polls show the vast majority of Marylanders clearly understand these benefits and would strongly support further increases in the tobacco tax to save more lives and money for the state.

-The writer is president of the Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bs-ed-tobacco-letter-20141222-story.html

Cigarette smoking costs weigh heavily on the healthcare system

Reuters via Fox News

Of every $10 spent on healthcare in the U.S., almost 90 cents is due to smoking, a new analysis says.

Using recent health and medical spending surveys, researchers calculated that 8.7 percent of all healthcare spending, or $170 billion a year, is for illness caused by tobacco smoke, and public programs like Medicare and Medicaid paid for most of these costs.

“Fifty years after the first Surgeon General’s report, tobacco use remains the nation’s leading preventable cause of death and disease, despite declines in adult cigarette smoking prevalence,” said Xin Xu from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), who led the study.

Over 18 percent of U.S. adults smoke cigarettes and about one in five deaths are caused by smoking, according to the CDC.

Xu and colleagues linked data on healthcare use and costs from the 2006-2010 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey to the 2004-2009 National Health Interview Survey for a nationally-representative picture of smoking behavior and costs.

Out of more than 40,000 adults, 21.5 percent were current smokers, 22.6 percent were former smokers and 56 percent had never smoked. The researchers used prior data on smoking-related disease and deaths to calculate the proportion of healthcare spending by each person that could be attributed to smoking.

They also adjusted their figures for factors like excess drinking, obesity and socioeconomic status, and calculated the proportion of spending by payer.

In that analysis, 9.6 percent of Medicare spending, 15.2 percent of Medicaid spending and 32.8 percent of other government healthcare spending by sources such as the Veterans Affairs department, Tricare and the Indian Health Service, were attributable to smoking.

Of the $170 billion spent on smoking-related healthcare, more than 60 percent was paid by government sources, they wrote in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Smoking-related healthcare costs affect most types of medical care, said Kenneth Warner at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “Smoking infiltrates the entire body, through the blood stream, and causes disease in many of the body’s organs,” he told Reuters Health in an email.

Along with lung and heart problems, smoking can cause eye disease, skin problems and many cancers including pancreatic and bladder cancer, noted Warner, who was not involved in the new analysis.

“This study shows that, in addition to the human misery it inflicts, (smoking) imposes a substantial burden on the nation’s health care institutions, especially those funded by the public’s tax dollars,” he said.

The true cost of tobacco use may be even higher, Xu said. His study didn’t include medical costs linked to other tobacco products like cigars and chewing tobacco.

In 1964, the Surgeon General gave the first report on smoking and health. Since then, there have been many anti-tobacco efforts, ranging from banning tobacco in workplaces to quit-smoking help lines.

Mass media campaigns can be effective in reducing cigarette use, Xu said. In particular, the CDC’s current “Tips from Former Smokers” campaign is credited with an estimated 100,000 smokers quitting permanently.

The combination of research, publicity, policy and treatment has prevented eight million premature deaths in the U.S. since 1964, according to a 2014 Surgeon General’s report. Based on research published this year by Warner and his colleagues, he said, “Almost a third of the increase in adult life expectancy since 1964 is attributable to tobacco control.”

“Smoking kills about 480,000 Americans each year and remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States. No matter what age, it is never too late to quit,” Xu said.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2014/12/22/cigarette-smoking-costs-weigh-heavily-on-healthcare-system/

KX News: Students Help Draft E-Cigarette Bill

By Steph Scheurer, Reporter

The CDC reports more than 16 million minors live in states where they can buy e-cigarettes legally.

The topic of age limits on e-cigarettes is one that will be brought up during the 2015 legislative session.

Braden Will and Ashti Ali are 7th graders.

But even at a young age, they’re thinking about their safety.

“It’s kind of scary that 12 year olds, even 10 year olds can buy e-cigarettes,” says Braden Will, Simle 7th Grader, SADD.

“We don’t think it’s right that kids our age and younger can buy e-cigarettes because they’re just as harmful as regular cigarettes and so if they start now, then they’ll just get addicted for their whole life and we don’t want that to happen,” says Ashti Ali, Simle 7th Grader, SADD.

So, they decided to do something about it.

“The Simle SADD chapter wrote Representative Larson and said, you know what, we want a bill to protect our youth,” says Kristie Wolff, Program Manager, American Lung Association, ND.

Representative Diane Larson went to Simle, met with the students, and got a bill drafted that would restrict the sale of e-cigarettes to minors across the state of North Dakota.

“Currently several communities across the state have already developed city ordinances that are in place but statewide we do not have an e-cigarette ordinance so it is legal for minors not only to purchase but possess e-cigarettes across much of the state,” says Wolff.

Wolff says e-cigarette use among the youth has tripled since 2011. Currently 40 states prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to minors. North Dakota is not one of them.

“One of the reasons could be because we only have session every other year and so this is one of the first times that our legislators, you know, are going to be addressing it,” says Wolff.

As of September, 18 cities across the state have developed city ordinances that are in place, but Braden, Ashti, and the rest of their SADD chapter hopes their voice will help make this change statewide.

“I like the feeling that we actually kind of get to help with this because it just makes me feel good,” says Ali.

“I think the way the bill came about is amazing because it’s coming directly from those we want to protect,” says Wolff.

E-cigarettes are included in North Dakota’s Smoke Free Law.

Anywhere that traditional tobacco cannot be used, e-cigarettes also cannot be used.

According to a list from the American Lung Association in North Dakota, Dickinson is just one city where e-cigarettes are not restricted from being sold to minors.

http://www.kxnet.com/story/27634626/students-help-draft-e-cigarette-bill

Governor Herbert wants to tax e-cigarette sales in Utah, bring in $10M

By ROBERT GEHRKE | The Salt Lake Tribune

Buried in Gov. Gary Herbert’s budget blueprint is a proposal that is sure to have the users of e-cigarettes fuming.

In a footnote on page 22 of his outline, Herbert is proposing a new tax on e-cigarettes that his office predicts will raise $10 million next year.

Herbert, who boasted his budget is free of tax increases, says he doesn’t consider the new e-cigarette tax to be a tax hike, but rather a change in the way the state treats the products.

“It’s just saying, ‘Here’s a product that should fit under the umbrella of tobacco,’ ” Herbert said in an interview with The Tribune. “It’s a health issue and there are some that think this new e-cigarette that young people are getting hooked on, that’s straight nicotine with good flavors and all that stuff that makes it attractive, should be taxed just like we tax tobacco.”

The governor’s office could not provide specific details of how the new e-cigarette tax would work. There are several options, said Herbert’s spokesman Marty Carpenter, and the governor is willing to work with legislators to find the best one.

Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, an anti-tobacco crusader in the Legislature, said he has met with the governor and representatives from the “vaping” industry and believes the best option would be to tax the e-cigarette liquid, or e-juice, at a lower rate than regular tobacco products, but that it should still be taxed.

Typically, tobacco products other than cigarettes are taxed at 87.5 percent of the wholesale price in Utah. Ray is proposing a rate of about half that for the e-juice. That would add several dollars to the cost of the average bottle of e-juice he said.

“What we have to look at is a fair tax, because tobacco is being taxed and this is a tobacco derivative,” Ray said. “I’ve approached the industry and said, ‘OK, you’re claiming this is less harmful, so let’s go somewhere in the middle, somewhere around 40 percent.’ “

The e-cigarette vaporizers, that turn the juice into steam to be inhaled, would not be taxed. Ray said he hopes the increase in price would be enough to discourage young people from picking up vaping in the first place.

But Aaron Frazier, executive director of the Utah Smoke-free Association, said that upping the price of e-cigarette liquid will mean people will just keep smoking more harmful cigarettes.

“What that’s going to do is protect the tobacco market and drive the price of the e-liquid above and beyond what the price of tobacco cigarettes are,” Frazier said. “Basically, what they’re doing is removing any benefit for a smoker to move over to a scientifically documented less-harmful product and drive them back to smoking tobacco cigarettes.”

Ray said he believes that, within a few years, science will show the health benefits that supporters of e-cigarettes boast about are fiction.

“I think it’s going to be as bad as tobacco down the road,” he said. “People will realize this stuff is not as good as we were told and we’re going to have health problems down the road.”

Frazier said several states have looked at imposing e-cigarette taxes as a cash cow to make up for the tobacco-tax revenue they’re losing because people are using e-cigarettes to quit smoking.

According to the group Americans for Tax Reform, which opposes e-cigarette taxes, Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, New York, Delaware, Vermont, Massachusetts and Maine have all considered legislation looking to tax e-cigarettes, but it has been defeated. In Arizona, an e-cigarette tax is still pending.

Only two states — Minnesota and North Carolina — have an e-cigarette tax in place, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Minnesota taxes the liquids at 95 percent of the wholesale price of the liquids. North Carolina imposes a tax of a nickel per milliliter.

Ray also is planning to once again sponsor legislation to regulate the sales of e-cigarettes. Last session, he ran a bill that got worked over with multiple amendments and was up for passage on the final night when the Legislature adjourned without voting on it.

The bill would require businesses that sell e-cigarettes to be licensed by the state and the retailer could lose its license if it sold e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 19.

http://www.sltrib.com/news/1941695-155/governor-wants-to-tax-e-cigarette-sales

Smoking not 'lesser evil' in mental health treatment settings

By: Maiken Scott, Newsworks
Picture an AA meeting, and a gigantic coffee urn and a cloud of smoke come to mind.
In fact, the two men who started AA, Dr. Bob and Bill W. both died from tobacco-related illnesses.
Public health experts say smoking is still pervasive among people living with addiction and mental illness, and it’s often not seen as a priority in treatment settings.
For example, smoking rates in Philadelphia have dropped significantly over 10 years, but haven’t budged among people with mental illnesses and substance-abuse issues.
Smoking is often seen as a “lesser evil” in mental health and addiction treatment settings, explained Ryan Coffman, tobacco policy manager for Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health. It’s not a priority, and some providers assume it helps their clients cope.
Research shows the opposite to be true, says Coffman. “Individuals living with mental illness and substance-abuse disorders who smoke have more severe symptoms, poorer well-being and functioning, they have more hospitalizations, and are at a greater risk for suicide,” he said.
Research also shows that people who quit smoking along with quitting other drugs have better recovery outcomes.
Philadelphia is increasing efforts to train mental health providers on tobacco-cessation programs, and to provide them with the most up-to-date resources available to their clients, Coffman said.
But for these efforts to really take root, a major cultural shift will have to occur, said University of Pennsylvania psychiatrist Robert Schnoll, who studies tobacco cessation.
“Research indicates that upwards of 25 percent of mental health care facilities still permit smoking on the grounds and on the premises,” he explained. “There’s pervasive use of cigarettes, or cigarette breaks, as a reward for pro-social behavior, so that’s certainly one of the issues we need to address going forward.”
Some providers think their clients don’t care about tobacco cessation, he said, or don’t understand the benefits. Some also simply don’t see it as their responsibility.
Research also indicates that smoking rates are high among people who work in mental health treatment settings, Schnoll said.
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/homepage-feature/item/75483-smoking-not-lesser-evil-in-mental-health-treatment-settings?linktype=hp_impact

Don't fall for tobacco industry e-cigarette smokescreen

By Michaeline Fedder, Deborah P. Brown and Bonita Pennino
No one should have to choose between their health and a paycheck. Which is why, with all that is still unknown about the dangers of e-cigarette use, we must put public health first and prohibit the use of these unregulated products in all workplaces, including restaurants, bars and casinos. Unfortunately a bill recently passed by the Baltimore City Council purporting to ban e-cigarette use in the city allows restaurants, taverns and casinos to opt out, which not only weakens Baltimore and Maryland’s longstanding and popular smoke-free laws, it threatens the health of many city workers. We urge Mayor Rawlings-Blake to see through the tobacco industry smokescreen and use her power to veto this ordinance.
Turning the clock back by allowing the use of e-cigarettes in public places could create a host of new problems — encouraging new tobacco users, reversing efforts that have made smoking socially unacceptable, creating enforcement confusion for business owners and the public, and potentially putting the health of Baltimore’s restaurant, bar and casino workers and patrons at risk.
While e-cigarette manufacturers may make unverified claims that the ingredients are just “water vapor” or “safe,” without further research and federal regulation there is no sure way for e-cigarette users to know what they are consuming. Nor is there any way of knowing what nonusers are exposed to and the extent of the risk to their health. There are hundreds of types of e-cigarettes on the market today, and the products vary considerably by ingredients and quality control and assurance. Prohibiting the use of e-cigarettes in workplaces, restaurants and bars can protect the public health by preventing nonusers from being exposed to the potentially harmful chemicals in these products.
An increasing number of studies have examined the contents of e-cigarette aerosol. Unlike a vapor, an aerosol contains fine particles of liquid, solid or both. Propylene glycol, nicotine and flavorings were most commonly found in e-cigarette aerosol. Other studies have found the aerosol to contain heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and tobacco-specific nitrosamines, among other potentially harmful chemicals. A 2009 study done by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found cancer-causing substances in several of the e-cigarette samples tested. FDA tests also found nicotine in some e-cigarettes that claimed to contain no nicotine.
The public should know more about e-cigarettes before allowing users to expose others to potential dangers. Studies have already shown that the use of e-cigarettes can cause short-term lung changes and irritations, while the long-term health effects are unknown.Both exposure to and health effects of secondhand aerosol from e-cigarettes require further research, but preliminary studies indicate nonusers can be exposed to the same potentially harmful chemicals as users, including nicotine, ultrafine particles and volatile organic compounds. This exposure could be especially problematic for vulnerable populations such as children, pregnant women and people with heart disease. No worker or patron should be subject to inhaling the unknown aerosol emitted from electronic smoking devices.
By passing this reckless measure allowing the use of e-cigarettes in workplaces, Baltimore City Council members have fallen for the tobacco industry’s tricks. We are all too familiar with the age-old tactics of the tobacco industry such as designating smoking areas and notifying the public when smoking is allowed. We learned the hard way that these strategies do nothing to protect the health of workers and patrons from the dangers of secondhand smoke. These tactics are nothing but a ruse to promote smoking in public places, thus continuing addiction to a deadly product and guaranteeing sales of cigarettes well into the future. We should not repeat the same mistake now in Baltimore with e-cigarettes. No one, regardless in which section of a restaurant, tavern or casino they are working, dining or gaming, should have to choose between their health and a good job or a good time.
It is well understood that smoke-free laws are popular in Maryland and should not be weakened. And laws prohibiting the use of e-cigarettes in public places are steadily on the rise — with 156 municipalities and counting already prohibiting the use of e-cigarettes in all workplaces, including restaurants, bars and gaming facilities. Everyone has the right to breathe safe smoke-free and aerosol-free air in their place of work or leisure, and Mayor Rawlings-Blake should protect that right by vetoing this ordinance.
Michaeline Fedder is director of government relations in Maryland for the American Heart Association; Deborah P. Brown is president and CEO of the American Lung Association of the Mid-Atlantic; Bonita Pennino is the Maryland government relations director for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network.

​Hookahs deliver toxic benzene in every puff

Many young people consider hookahs a hip and safer way to smoke, but a new study finds fumes from the water pipes contain the toxin benzene.
Benzene has been linked to an increased risk for leukemia in prior research, according to a scientific team reporting Nov. 21 in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
“In contrast to what is believed, hookah tobacco smoking is not a safe alternative to smoking other forms of tobacco,” study author Nada Kassem, associate director of the Center for Behavioral Epidemiology and Community Health at San Diego State University, said in a journal news release.
Researchers analyzed levels of S-phenylmercapturic acid (SPMA) — a metabolite (byproduct) of benzene — in the urine of 105 hookah smokers and 103 nonsmokers exposed to smoke from the water pipes.
After an event in a hookah lounge, SPMA levels were four times higher than normal in hookah smokers and 2.6 times higher than normal among people who had attended but hadn’t puffed on a hookah. After a hookah-smoking event in a private home, SPMA levels were two times higher among hookah smokers, but normal among nonsmokers.
“Hookah tobacco smoking involves the use of burning charcoal that is needed to heat the hookah tobacco to generate the smoke that the smoker inhales,” Kassem explained.
“In addition to inhaling toxicants and carcinogens found in the hookah tobacco smoke, hookah smokers and nonsmokers who socialize with hookah smokers also inhale large quantities of charcoal combustion-generated toxic and carcinogenic emissions,” she said.
Kassem believes that “because there is no safe level of exposure to benzene, our results call for interventions to reduce or prevent hookah tobacco use, regulatory actions to limit hookah-related exposure to toxicants including benzene, and include hookah smoking in clean indoor air legislation.”
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_149609.html
Copyright © 2014 HealthDay. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
HealthDay

UTTC to renew tobacco-free status

BISMARCK (UTN) – When the national day to quit smoking comes up next week, United Tribes Technical College will fortify its ban on commercial tobacco use and emphasize the college’s cultural heritage.

UTTC President Leander “Russ” McDonald will proclaim November 20 as “Honoring Tobacco Day” on campus, the same day as the American Cancer Society’s “Great American Smokeout.”

A proclamation signing is set for 9 a.m. on Wednesday, November 19 in the college cafeteria.

One year ago during the annual smoke out, United Tribes became the first tribal college in North Dakota to adopt a comprehensive Tobacco-Free Campus Policy. It prohibits the use of all tobacco-derived products sold commercially, including e-cigarettes, to counteract their lethal and addictive affects.

The policy makes one culturally significant exception. Traditional tobacco uses that have been observed in Native American settings for generations are permitted. UTTC honors spiritual, cultural and ceremonial tobacco uses as “keeping tobacco sacred.”

            Attending the proclamation signing will be students from Theodore Jamerson Elementary School on the college campus. Prizes will be awarded to youngsters in grades K to 8 who designed the best anti-smoking posters to help observe the smoke out. Light refreshments will also be served.

UTTC’s Tobacco-Free Policy was developed by the college’s Wellness Circle. The group was named the 2014 “Public Health Team of the Year” by the North Dakota Public Health Association, in recognition of the initiative.

For more information about the United Tribes Tobacco-Free Policy, visit the college’s website: http://www.uttc.edu/tfree/.

Cigars Loaded With Harmful Toxins, Study Shows

(HealthDay News) — Some cigar smokers may believe they face less health risk than if they were smoking cigarettes, but a new study casts doubt on that notion.
Researchers say that cigar smokers are exposed to high levels of cancer-causing agents and other toxic substances, which suggests that the habit is as risky as smoking cigarettes.
None of this came as much surprise to lung experts.
“In spite of the fact that cigar smokers don’t inhale, more attention needs to be paid to the damages of secondhand smoke, and to acknowledge that no smoking is safe,” said Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.
“It is well known that secondhand smoking causes asthma, as well as a possible increase in the risk for lung cancer. The cloud around a cigar smoker’s respiratory system is tantamount to this phenomenon,” Horovitz said.
Cigar use in the United States more than doubled from 2000 to 2011, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The findings are reported Nov. 7 in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.
In the new study, researchers analyzed the presence of five chemical signals of tobacco exposure in tests conducted on more than 25,500 Americans.
Two of the biomarkers — cotinine and 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol (NNAL) — are specific to tobacco. The other biomarkers — lead, cadmium and arsenic — are not tobacco-specific and can come from other sources.
The study found that cigar smokers — whether or not they also smoked cigarettes — carried higher levels of cotinine, NNAL, cadmium and lead than people who did not use tobacco. Cigar smokers with a history of cigarette use had much higher levels of cotinine and NNAL than cigar smokers who did not smoke cigarettes.
Also, levels of NNAL in daily cigar smokers were similar to those of daily cigarette smokers, according to the study.
“Cigar smoking exposes users to similar types of harmful and cancer-causing agents as cigarette smoking,” lead author Dr. Jiping Chen, an epidemiologist at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Science, Center for Tobacco Products, said in a journal news release.
“Once differences are accounted for in frequency of use, the levels of NNAL, a strong carcinogen, are comparable in cigar and cigarette smokers,” Chen said.
Another expert in respiratory health agreed that cigars are probably no better than cigarettes when it comes to health.
“This is especially significant because, although youth cigarette smoking has decreased, high school students in the U.S. are twice as likely as adults to smoke cigars,” noted Patrician Folan, director of the Center for Tobacco Control at North Shore-LIJ Health System in Great Neck, NY.
“Frequently, cigars are cheaper and are available in a wide variety of flavors that appeal to adolescents and young adults,” she said. “This combination of factors makes cigar smoking more attractive to young people, who may have the perception that cigar smoking is less harmful, especially due to flavors like chocolate, grape, strawberry and peach.”
More information
The American Cancer Society has more about cigar smoking.

SOURCES: Len Horovitz, M.D., pulmonary specialist, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; Patricia Folan, RN, director, Center for Tobacco Control, North Shore-LIJ Health System, Great Neck, N.Y.;Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, news release, Nov. 7, 2014

http://consumer.healthday.com/cancer-information-5/smoking-cessation-news-628/cigars-loaded-with-harmful-toxins-study-shows-693504.html

The Taste Of Menthol Cigarettes Is Not Worth The Lung Complication Risk Compared To Regular Tobacco

By
Due to their minty taste and aroma, menthol tobacco products are often found more preferable than the bitter aftertaste and smell of regular cigarettes. Unfortunately, many smokers harbor the misconception that switching to menthol can help with smoking cessation. A recent study published in the journal Respirology has revealed that although better tasting than regular cigarettes, menthol cigarettes carry a higher risk of developing lung disease and being hospitalized as a result of complications.
Researchers recruited 1,941 regular cigarette smokers and 3,758 menthol smokers to compare each group’s overall health condition over the course of 18 months. Participants were between the ages of 45 and 80 and smoked at least 10 packs of cigarettes each year. The research team found that menthol smokers were more likely to be young, female, or black. Regular cigarette smokers were able to cover a longer distance in six minutes, while menthol smokers were more short of breath.
Although both groups had similar frequencies of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) “exacerbations” — worsening of the condition — throughout the study, menthol smokers had a higher frequency of severe exacerbations at 0.22 per year, compared to 0.18 per year for regular cigarette smokers. Using menthol cigarettes as opposed to regular cigarettes was also associated with a 29 percent higher risk of severe lung disease exacerbations.
“We were surprised that menthol smokers, compared to non-menthol cigarette smokers, reported more severe exacerbations and had greater odds of experiencing severe exacerbations,” Dr. Marilyn Foreman of the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Ga., told Reuters Health in an email. “Frequent exacerbations do affect quality of life and may result in greater loss of lung function over time.”
According to the Food and Drug Administration, over 40 percent of youth smokers and 30 percent of adult smokers in the United States report smoking menthol cigarettes. Following repeated attempts by anti-smoking campaigns to have the FDA ban menthol-flavored cigarettes, the administration recently began a series of studies to gauge the health-related impact of these tobacco products.
Source: Park S, Demeo D, Foreman M, et al. Menthol cigarette smoking in the COPDGene cohort: Relationship with COPD, comorbidities and CT metrics. Respirology. 2014.
Justin Caba is a reporter for Medical Daily focusing on nutrition, fitness, and all things athletic.
http://www.medicaldaily.com/taste-menthol-cigarettes-not-worth-lung-complication-risk-compared-regular-tobacco-309638