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Number of cigarette smokers drops to 15%: CDC

The number of cigarette smokers in the United States has dropped to about 15 percent of the population, its lowest point in decades, U.S. health authorities said Tuesday.
“The prevalence of current cigarette smoking among U.S. adults declined from 24.7 percent in 1997 to 15.2 percent in January-March 2015,” said the report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.
The figures will be updated once the entire year’s data is available.
Smoking continues to be more common among men (17.4 percent) than women (13.0 percent), the report found.
Smoking is most common among African Americans (18.1 percent), followed by whites (17.1 percent) and Hispanics (10.4 percent).
According to the U.S. surgeon general, smoking is known to cause “a host of cancers and other illnesses and is still the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, killing 480,000 people each year.”
Smokers made up 42 percent of the U.S. population in 1965, a fraction that has dropped steadily over the years, according to the CDC.
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/number-cigarette-smokers-drops-15-cdc-article-1.2344374

Reminder: Smoking Hookah For An Hour Is Like Smoking 100 Cigarettes

By Kate Bratskeir, Food and Health Editor, The Huffington Post
You hopefully wouldn’t smoke 100 cigarettes in 60 minutes — that’s five entire packs of so-called cancer sticks.
If you casually dabble with hookah, however, you might not bat an eye at an hour-long smoking session. New research shows lots of young people don’t know that 100 cigarettes and an hour of hookah are about equal in terms of the amount of smoke inhaled — and therefore in the damage they can cause to a person’s health, including increased risk for heart disease, cancers, stroke, blood clots and death, to name a few.
A 2005 report by the World Health Organization found that hookah smokers typically take 200 puffs during an hour-long smoking session, while people take an average of 8-12 puffs per cigarette. Considering the amount of smoke inhaled per method, the organization wrote, a 60-minute water pipe session may be the same as smoking 100 cigarettes or more.
Yikes. If the parallel is surprising to you, you’re not alone. A study just published in the journal Health Education & Behavior found that many young adults believe smoking hookah and cigarette alternatives is a less risky behavior than smoking cigarettes. Researchers analyzed data from 2,871 smoking and non-smoking millennials, roughly 25 percent of whom said they believe hookah is safer than cigarettes. Once again, this is false.
Americans are smoking standard cigarettes at a lower rate than ever before. This is good news. Still, the message that smoking is bad has clearly not effectively carried over to all nicotine-based products. Earlier this year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that for the first time, hookah and e-cigarette use is more popular among young people than traditional cigarettes, and the more recent study showed 62 percent of young adults believe e-cigarettes are less harmful than standard cigarettes.
“This might be associated with differences in advertising messages these groups are exposed to, the variety of flavors these different products are offered in, and in the case of e-cigarettes, possibly an inclination for younger people to attribute more positive feelings toward newer products that are seen as new and ‘techy,’” said the study’s authors, Olivia A. Wackowski and Cristine D. Delnevo of the Rutgers School of Public Health, in a press release.
For now, there’s an ashtray’s worth of contradicting information about e-cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes may be less hazardous than cigarettes because they release vapor instead of smoke, and they don’t burn. Some experts argue that they are safer — though not “safe” — and can help smokers eventually quit their smoking habit altogether. But a recent study revealed that e-cigs can also be a catalyst for conventional smoking: they’re a gateway drug.
While the safety of e-cigarettes continues to be explored, anyone considering picking up the habit should know that they won’t be doing themselves any favors. The same goes for smoking hookah: Both hookah and e-cigs can be addictive, and both transfer cancer-causing chemicals into the mouth and lungs of a smoker.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/smoking-hookah-like-100-cigarettes_55db7783e4b08cd3359ce8af

AARC Times: Cigarette Smoke Makes MRSA Stronger

From the AARC Times, July Issue, Pg. 49

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is already an aggressive bacteria.  Now researchers from the University of California San Diego find that cigarette smoke just ups the ante.  MRSA bacteria exposed to cigarette smoke in their study were more resistant to reactive oxygen species and antimicrobial peptides, as well as better at sticking to and invading human cells grown in the lab.  In a mouse modes, MRSA bacteria exposed to cigarette smoke were more likely to survive, and they also led to pneumonias with a higher mortality rate.

The investigators believe cigarette smoke strengthens MRSA bacteria by altering their cell walls in such a way that they are better able to repel antimicrobial peptides and other charged particles.  “Cigarette smokers are known to be more susceptible to infectious diseases.  Now we have evidence that cigarette smoke-induced resistance in MRSA may be an additional contributing factor, “ study author Laura E Crotty Alexander, MD was quoted as saying.

Grand Forks Park Board still uncertain on tobacco ban

By Charly Haley, Grand Forks Herald

After about 15 people stood up simultaneously during a Grand Forks Park Board meeting Tuesday and told the board they support tobacco-free parks, most board members remained uncertain about banning tobacco use.

“A general issue is, does the Park Board want to keep in fidelity with its mission to promote a healthy lifestyle?” said Jim Whitehead, a representative of the Coalition for a Healthy Greater Grand Forks, to the board.

A ban on all tobacco use, both smoking and chewing, has been discussed by the Park Board for about two years. The idea is championed by Park Board member Molly Soeby, but other board members haven’t stated clear opinions on the issue.

In a back-and-forth between audience members speaking in favor of a tobacco ban, most Park Board members said the answer isn’t simple.

“I don’t think any of us are here to say we want smoking for our kids,” board member Tim Skarperud said. But, “We already have a pretty substantial law in place, and are we here to set laws?”

Board President Jay Panzer agreed.

“Who are we to make additional laws above and beyond what the city has already done?” Panzer said.

Grand Forks city code prohibits smoking at the Park District’s softball fields and golf courses, but that does not include chewing tobacco, and the law does not encompass playgrounds or dog parks, Soeby said.

She offered health statistics in favor of a full tobacco ban, including that more children than adults chew tobacco in North Dakota, at 13.8 percent of children versus 7.6 percent of adults.

Other board members said they agree there are health problems associated with tobacco use, but they still aren’t sure about the effectiveness of a tobacco ban, especially because it would be difficult to enforce.

Board member Paul Barta said he’s also undecided, but he’s leaning in favor of the Park Board “setting the trend” by banning all tobacco use in public parks.

While several audience members spoke in favor of the tobacco ban, none spoke against it.

“You have people here, in chairs, telling you how important this is for Grand Forks,” one audience member said. “Where are they?”

LaDouceur, Skarperud and Panzer said they’ve received several calls from people against the ban, and they want to consider those people, too, in making a decision.

“There are certain people that want to be out in the front like this,” Skarperud said, referring to the audience at the meeting, “and there are certain people we talk to behind the scenes.”

Park District Director Bill Palmiscno said he’s hopeful the Park Board will vote in favor of some sort of expanded tobacco ban, whether that’s banning all tobacco use in parks or extending the smoking ban to all parks.

“I don’t want us to not move forward because we can’t have a compromise,” Palmiscno said. “I would rather get part of this done than nothing done.”

Park Board members did not vote on a tobacco policy Tuesday.

Palmiscno said he’d have Park District staff draft two ordinances — one with a full tobacco ban, and another with an increased ban — to be reviewed at a future board meeting.

http://www.grandforksherald.com/news/local/3670918-grand-forks-park-board-still-uncertain-tobacco-ban

Opinion: A tobacco tax increase would make Maryland healthier

Matthew L. Myers, Washington – The Washington Post

The Dec. 28 editorial “A tax that saves lives” pointed out that Maryland’s push to reduce smoking is not only good public health policy but also good fiscal policy. It helps reduce tobacco-related health-care costs, which total $2.7 billion a year in Maryland, including $476 million paid by the state’s Medicaid program.

That should spur Gov.-elect Larry Hogan (R) and legislators to step up efforts to prevent kids from using tobacco and to help users quit.

Ideally, Maryland would increase its tobacco tax. The last tobacco tax increase, in 2008, helped reduce smoking among youth and adults.

Maryland must also increase funding for its tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which have been cut by more than half in recent years. Maryland will receive $543 million from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes this year, but it will spend just $8.5 million on tobacco prevention. This paltry sum is less than 18 percent of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends. These programs save lives and money. Washington state saves more than $5 in health-care costs for every $1 spent on its program.

Maryland can’t let up; the tobacco industry isn’t letting up in promoting its products. Nationwide, Big Tobacco spends $8.8 billion a year on marketing, including more than $120 million in Maryland. The result: Tobacco remains the No. 1 cause of preventable death. Unless Maryland’s leaders continue to fight this scourge, the state will pay a high price in lives and dollars.

Matthew L. Myers, Washington

The writer is president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-tobacco-tax-increase-would-make-maryland-healthier/2014/12/31/0cbfb454-905a-11e4-a66f-0ca5037a597d_story.html

Cigarette Addiction Affects Men, Women's Brains Differently; Brain Scans Reveal Need For Tailored Treatment

By Samantha Olson, Medical Daily

Smoking is addictive and bad for the body in a laundry list of ways, but it hooks men and women differently. Researchers at Yale University studied the brains of men and women using positron emission tomography (PET) scans. Their intention was to measure the changing levels of dopamine, which control the brain’s pleasure and reward pathways, in men and women’s brains, and published their findings in the Journal of Neuroscience earlier this month.

Dopamine levels increase when addictive substances, such as the nicotine found in cigarettes, enter the body and flood the brain. For the first time, researchers have developed a way to watch the dopamine levels change while a person smokes. Researchers observed the dopamine levels of 16 addicted cigarettes smokers — eight men and eight women — with at least 17 years of smoking behind them.

Each participant was told to smoke one or two cigarettes whenever they wanted while under observation, and they weren’t allowed to use any nicotine patches or medications during the study. The study’s lead researcher Kelly Cosgrove, a radiology professor from Yale University, scanned each of their brains, and pieced each of the images together in order to create a sequence of brain movements.

Dopamine struck women harder and faster in one section of the brain called the dorsal putamen, while men had moderate to low activation in the same area. Men, on the other hand, had much faster and consistent activity in the ventral striatum, while women were only mildly affected. But what did all this mean?

“I think it confirms that strategies that focus on drug reward are likely to work better for men –- these would include the nicotine replacement strategies [like the patch],” Cosgrove, told the Huffington Post. “And for women it highlights that we need different and new medications — ones that target the reasons why women smoke, such as to relieve stress and manage mood.”

Women were more affected by the sensation of smoking, such as its taste and the smell of smoke, while men were more affected by the nicotine itself. Men are much more likely to use chewing tobacco because they don’t care about the cigarette or the activities smoking brings with it; they just want that nicotine. Women, on the other hand, may do better smoking a low-nicotine cigarette, so long as they have a cigarette in hand to take a drag and blow smoke from.

“If [women] are smoking more for the taste and sensory effects, then low-nicotine cigarettes might be an effective way to wean themselves off the regular cigarettes, whereas men might have more nicotine withdrawal and not really get much out of those [low-nicotine] cigarettes,” Kenneth Perkins, a psychiatric professor at the University of Pittsburgh who was not involved in the study, told HuffPost. “The possibility is that they might be a more effective way for women to quit than men, but that’s purely speculative at this point.”

Source: Cosgrove K. Journal of Neuroscience. 2014.

http://www.medicaldaily.com/cigarette-addiction-affects-men-womens-brains-differently-brain-scans-reveal-need-315628

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/

Smoking Rates Continue to Decline

MMWR – MORBIDITY AND MORTALITY WEEKLY REPORT

The CDC recently updated its statistics about current cigarette smoking among adults. In its MMWR article of November 28, 2014, it tracked changes in smoking between 2005 and 2013. In general, the trends of previous years continued. Here are some of the results:

  • The proportion of U.S. adults who smoke declined from 20.9% to 17.8%, a 15% decline during that period. The 17.8% is a modern low in adult smoking prevalence.
  • The proportion of daily smokers declined from 16.9% to 13.7%, a 19% decline and another all time low.
  • Among daily smokers, the proportion who smoked at least one pack per day decreased from 52.1% to 36.4%, a 30% decline. And daily smokers now average 14.2 cigarettes, down from 16.7, a 15% decline.

Thus, there has been a decline in overall smokers, a slightly greater decline in daily smokers and in number of cigarettes smoked by daily smokers, and a major decline in the number of cigarettes consumed by daily smokers.

The profile of smokers is relatively unchanged:

  • Men (20.5%) are more likely to be smokers than women (15.3%)
  • Smoking prevalence is higher among adults aged 25-44 years (20.1%) and lowest among those over age 65 (8.8%)
  • Among ethnic groups, multiple race groups had the highest rates (26.8%), followed by American Indian/Native Alaskan (26.1%), Whites (19.4%), Blacks (18.3%), Hispanics (12.1%), and Asians (9.6%).
  • Smokers continue to be stratified by education level, often used as a marker for social class. Those without a high school diploma had smoking rates of 24.2%, followed by those with high school diplomas (22%), undergraduate college degrees (9.1%), and graduate degrees (5.6%). Those who obtained General Education Development (GED) certificates in lieu of high school graduation had the highest rates (41.4%). It is likely that many of these persons were incarcerated and thus also had medical conditions associated with high smoking rates, such as mental illness and substance use disorders.
  • Persons living below the federal poverty level had higher rates (29.2%) than those above that level (16.2%).
  • LGB adults were more likely to be smokers (26.6%) than straight adults (17.6%).

Thus, the trend of smoking to be concentrated among the less educated, the poor, and the LGB population continued. Not included in this report, but summarized previously by a special MMWR are recent data documenting the much higher rates among persons with behavioral health issues, the groups with the highest smoking rates in the entire population. Notably, those working in the health professions in the United States have some of the lowest smoking rates in the world, with some surveys showing that only 1% of physicians are smokers.

This new report should encourage us that progress, indeed, is happening. But, the slow rate of decline, in the face of all the evidence about the harms of smoking and the accumulating tobacco control policies such as taxes, clean indoor air laws, counter-marketing, and coverage for smoking cessation therapies, is sobering. As smokers increasingly resemble members of marginalized parts of the American community, the risk is that resources for tobacco control will be diverted to other causes. Yet, over 40 million people still smoke, including many of the most vulnerable of us. And close to 500,000 people die each year from smoking-associated illnesses. We need to capture better the sense of urgency buried in those statistics.

Finally, it is important to recognize two new potential threats to the health of the nation—electronic cigarettes and marijuana. Right now the rhetoric about the benefits and harms of these two commodities outstrips the evidence. We do know that the use of the e-cigarette is climbing, and it is highly likely that marijuana use is also increasing in the wake of state legalization efforts. We also know that because these commodities contain immense potential for profit, marketing efforts to promote usage are certain to increase. As we continue our efforts against the harm from using combustible tobacco, we need to track the use of these new potential threats, as well as to assemble evidence about what happens to those who use them.

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

Smoking while using oxygen blamed for fire at Fargo's Sanford Medical Center

FARGO (KFGO-AM) — Investigators say a patient who was smoking while using oxygen caused a fire that injured both the patient and a staff member at Sanford Medical Center in downtown Fargo last week.
Fire chief Steve Dirksen says the combination of pure oxygen and open flame is extremely volatile.  He says it was quick response by hospital employees that prevented a much more serious situation.
The exact nature of the injuries has not been disclosed because of the patient confidentiality law.
Hospital employees who responded to a smoke alarm early Thursday in the room rescued the patient, had the fire out when firefighters arrived and evacuated patients in nearby rooms.
Damage to the room was minor.
http://kfgo.com/news/articles/2014/nov/17/smoking-while-using-oxygen-blamed-for-fire-at-fargos-sanford-medical-center/