Posts

Illinois Could Soon Become The Next State To Ban Smoking In Cars With Children Inside

The Huffington Post  | by  Joseph Erbentraut
Another state could soon ban smokers from lighting up while in a car carrying passengers under the age of 18.
Illinois State Sen. Ira Silverstein, a Chicago Democrat, has proposed legislation (SB 2659) that would hit those who smoke with anyone under the age of 18 in the car with up to a $100 fine.
A vehicle could not be stopped solely as a result of violating the ban, according to bill’s text.
Kathy Drea, vice president of advocacy of the American Lung Association’s Illinois chapter, testified in front of the Senate’s public health committee Tuesday. She said that drivers who light up put their passengers at risk of a smoking-related illness due to the harmful secondhand smoke being experienced within the confined space of a vehicle.
The bill is a “very simple thing that you can do to protect all of our children from a very serious health risk,” Drea added, according to GateHouse Media.
No vote has yet been taken on the measure.
Six other states — Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Maine, Oregon and Utah — already have similar bans on the books, though the cutoff age for child passengers varies from state to state. Puerto Rico has also passed a ban.
The most recent state to pass the smoking ban was Oregon, where a ban went into effect on Jan. 1, 2014. Oregon’s ban includes heftier fines of $250 for a first violationand $500 for additional instances.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/19/illinois-smoking-ban-cars-with-children_n_4818018.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Kids who use snus before age 16 more likely to become smokers

BY SHEREEN JEGTVIG
(Reuters Health) – Norwegians who started using snus before age 16 were more likely to become cigarette smokers than those who started using snus later in life, according to a new study.
Snus is moist smokeless tobacco developed in Sweden. It’s contained in a small pouch, and unlike regular chewing tobacco, it doesn’t make the user spit.
Research suggests snus has lower levels of chemicals called nitrosamines than cigarettes and may be less harmful.
In Norway, snus has become a smoking cessation aid and most older snus users are former smokers.
But snus is also becoming increasingly popular among young Norwegian adults, many of whom have not smoked cigarettes. And although research is divided, the current thinking is that snus use reduces the likelihood of taking up smoking.
The authors of the new study wanted to know more about when people start using snus, to see if that ties into whether they also begin smoking cigarettes.
“I already knew about the research investigating associations between snus use and later smoking, but discovered that snus debut age had not been mentioned in that research,” Ingeborg Lund told Reuters Health in an email.
Lund is a researcher with the Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research – SIRUS, in Oslo. She and her colleague Janne Scheffels published their study in Nicotine andTobacco Research.
The researchers analyzed surveys of Norwegian teenagers and adults conducted from 2005 to 2011.
Out of 8,313 people, 409 were long-term snus users who had started using snus before cigarettes or never used cigarettes. Of the snus users, 30 percent were long-term smokers.
Just over one third of the snus users started using snus before age 16. The researchers discovered those participants had two to three times the odds of becoming lifetime smokers, compared to people who began using snus after age 16.
They also found that early snus users had about the same rate of cigarette smoking as non-snus users. About 23 percent of early snus users were current smokers at the time of the survey, compared to only six percent of people who started using snus when they were older.
“Snus use seems to protect against smoking if the snus debut does not happen too early during adolescence,” Lund said.
She said it’s particularly important to keep teenagers tobacco-free until they are at least 16 years old.
“At younger ages, even if they start with a low risk product such as snus, there is a high risk that they will switch to – or add – other high-risk products, such as cigarettes,” she said. “This risk is reduced when they grow older.”
Since snus use is much less common in other countries, Lund said she doesn’t know if these results can be generalized outside of Norway and Sweden.
Lucy Popova, from the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco, told Reuters Health the new study was “interesting.” She was not involved in the research.
“Earlier initiation of snus basically makes it a gateway to tobacco use, to cigarette use in the future,” she said.
Popova explained that traditional Swedish snus is less dangerous than cigarettes.
“But it’s not harm-free, and (what) is really bad is when people start using both products because of increased rates of cardiovascular disease, pancreatic cancers and other problems,” she said.
Snus is fairly new to the U.S., and Popova said the version made in the U.S. isn’t like the traditional Swedish product.
“A research study found that it’s different from the traditional low-nitrosamine snus in Sweden – it’s not necessarily going to be as low-harm,” she said.
Popova is concerned with heavy promotion for smokeless tobacco products like snus.
“There’s been a lot of studies showing that more advertisement for tobacco products makes it more likely that children will use tobacco products,” she said, “and it’s important to keep youth tobacco-free as long as possible.”
SOURCE: bit.ly/1dP5O2Q Nicotine and Tobacco Research, online February 5, 2014.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/17/us-kids-snus-idUSBREA1G16T20140217

Candy Flavors Put E-Cigarettes On Kids' Menu

by JENNY LEI BOLARIO, NPR Youth Radio
Electronic cigarettes are often billed as a safe way for smokers to try to kick their habit. But it’s not just smokers who are getting their fix this way. According to a survey published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 5 middle school students who’ve tried one say they’ve never smoked a “real” cigarette. And between 2011 and 2012, e-cigarettes doubled in popularity among middle and high school students.
At a middle school in the San Francisco Bay Area, Viviana Turincio, an 8th grader, recently noticed some kids smoking in class — or at least, that’s what it looked like.
“There was a group at the table,” she remembers. “And they were just smoking on the vape pen, and the teacher was right there — and the teacher didn’t even notice.”
Kids as young as 13 purchase e-cigarettes, or “vape pens,” online, where independent sellers don’t necessarily ask a buyer’s age.
That’s because her classmates were smoking an electronic cigarette, sometimes called a “vape pen.” It’s a hand-held, battery-powered device that vaporizes a liquid that is often infused with nicotine. You inhale the vapor through a mouthpiece, and exhale what looks like smoke. In this case the smoke smelled like candy.
“My favorite flavor is gummy bears because it tastes really good,” Viviana says.
Vapor liquids come in various flavors, but teens often prefer dessert-inspired ones, which are more appealing than the smell and taste of burning tobacco. Marleny Samayoa, also in the 8th grade, thinks traditional cigarettes taste too bitter. “It has kind of a weird taste to it, like coffee without sugar,” she says.
E-cigarettes are easier for kids to buy than regular cigarettes. There’s no federal age restriction for how old you have to be to buy them. But some states, including California, prohibit the sale to minors. That’s why middle-schoolers turn to online sites like E-bay, where independent sellers don’t necessarily ask for your age.
“A lot of kids are getting them online,” Marleny explains. “And they’re just introducing it to a lot of other kids, and it just keeps going from there.”
She has noticed the growing popularity of e-cigs on social media sites like Instagram. Look up #Vapelife and the pictures are endless. “I take pictures and do tricks, like blowing O’s,” Marleny says, “blowing them on flat surfaces and making tornadoes.”
Swirling clouds of vapor are touching down in theaters, restaurants and malls, while health professionals are trying to catch up with this new fad.
Dr. Cathy McDonald runs a center for tobacco dependence, treatment and cessation for Alameda County, California. She admits that, “right now we don’t have as much information as we would like.” What scientists do know, she says, is that “ten minutes of smoking an e-cigarette — for a person who has never smoked a cigarette — does cause a noticeable increase in airway resistance in the lungs.”
But, McDonald concedes, “It’s probably better than smoke. And I say that because smoking a cigarette is 4,000 chemicals — 400 are poison, 40 cause cancer.”
Researchers haven’t had the time to do long-term studies comparing traditional cigarettes to electronic ones. But at least among my friends, the smokers who have made the switch say they’ve noticed a positive change. My boyfriend, Gray Keuankaew, is one of them.
“Within the two months that I’ve been vaping, my body feels a little bit more healthy,” he tells me. “So if [there’s going to be] any type of positive benefit, then I’m definitely going to stick to it.”
I’m glad it’s now easier for him to run, but he hasn’t outrun his nicotine addiction. E-cigarettes still contain nicotine — you choose what amount you want. The Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association estimates that e-cigarette sales will surpass $2.5 billion dollars this year. Geoff Braithwaite owns Tasty Vapor, a company in Oakland that sells and distributes liquids for e-cigarettes.
“Our target customer base is those people who felt doomed to a life of smoking,” Braithwaite says. But he admits that adults aren’t the only ones who may be jumping on this new trend. “There’s going to be that novelty around it — it’s a brand new thing, it’s an electronic device,” he says. “That kind of stuff will always appeal to kids; it would have appealed to me.”
Anti-smoking campaigns spent decades and a lot of money to make smoking less appealing to youth – and that helped cut teen smoking by 45%. But cheap prices for brightly colored e-cigs, sweet flavors, and the ability to vape anywhere are putting nicotine back on the kids’ menu. The Food and Drug Administration has said it plans to regulate e-cigarettes, but so far the agency hasn’t issued any rules.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/02/17/276558592/candy-flavors-put-e-cigarettes-on-kids-menu

City moves to ban e-cigarettes for minors

By: Eric Killelea, Williston Herald
The city of Williston is one step closer to preventing the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors.
On Tuesday, commissioners approved the first reading of Ordinance No. 987, which amends the existing ordinance that prevents the sale of tobacco to anyone under the age of 18.
The Upper Missouri District Health Unit approached the board last month, requesting support for implementing the ordinance. Chelsea Bryant, tobacco prevention specialist, said the state currently lacks a law or ordinance to restrict purchase of e-cigarettes and wanted to board to take initiative.
To read more, visit http://www.willistonherald.com/news/city-moves-to-ban-e-cigarettes-for-minors/article_9769aa48-94c9-11e3-aa41-001a4bcf887a.html

TobacNo! Surgeons General and Teens Unite for a Tobacco-Free Generation

By: Chelsea-Lyn Rudder , HuffPost IMPACT Blog
Last week, the Food and Drug Administration released its first youth-oriented anti-tobacco campaign. Unlike previous campaigns, “The Real Cost” does not feature images of smoking-related illnesses, such as cancer and emphysema. In an effort to put a new twist on prevention, “The Real Cost” will attempt to appeal to the millennial generation’s sense of vanity and dignity. Forget the old-school ads, which showed ailing elderly adults and morbid images like body bags in a morgue. “The Real Cost” reminds teens that cigarettes and other tobacco products will rob them of their good looks and bully them into becoming addicted to nicotine. One of the ads features a personified cigarette who pesters a teenage boy, who is trying to spend time with friends, until he gives into his addiction to nicotine and goes outside to smoke.
Everyone hates a bully these days, and I applaud the FDA’s attempt at innovation, but young people know that the real life costs of smoking go beyond trivial and cosmetic implications. The question still remains: How can we move beyond gimmicks and get young people to stop using tobacco products once and for all?
Ritney Castine, 27, has firsthand experience with the real costs of tobacco use. And as a result, has spent most of his life trying to answer that question: “My uncle, who I cared about very deeply died of lung cancer. I wanted to know, what it was that took my uncle away from me. Turns out, it was his lifelong addiction, of smoking a pack of Marlboro cigarettes a day.” Ritney’s uncle passed away when he was only 10 years old, but his death inspired Ritney’s palpable spirit of activism. As a student, Ritney campaigned against the tobacco industry throughout his home state of Louisiana. He was instrumental in the lobbying process, which resulted in a statewide ban against smoking in public places with the exception of bars and casinos. Ritney is now the Associate Director of Youth Advocacy for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a not-for-profit based in Washington, D.C.
This week, Ritney will head back to Louisiana to participate in a summit on February 11 in New Orleans, which marks the 50th anniversary of the surgeon general’s landmark tobacco report. “TobacNo! Tobacco-Free Generation” will bring together former surgeons general, current Acting Surgeon General Dr. Boris Lushniak and tobacco-free youth advocates to review the legacy of the 1964 report and to develop strategies to end tobacco use amongst future generations. The summit is hosted by Xavier University of Louisiana and the Louisiana Cancer Research Center. The event is open to the public and will be live-streamed at TobaccoSummit.com.
Last week tobacco-free advocates scored a big win with the announcement of CVS’s plan to remove all tobacco products from its stores. Calling the sale of tobacco products “inconsistent with our key purpose — helping people on their path to better health,” CVS says that tobacco products will no longer be available at their pharmacies after October 1 of this year. Former Surgeon General Dr. Regina Benjamin, lead organizer of “TobacNo,” issued a statement commending CVS’s actions and urging other companies to take the same steps. “We in public health hope others will follow the CVS example because it will make a difference and help our next generation become tobacco-free.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/chelsealyn-rudder/tobacno-project_b_4757628.html?utm_hp_ref=impact&ir=Impact

E-cigarettes: Are manufacturers using flavors to lure minors to vape?

By Ivey DeJesus | idejesus@pennlive.com , The Patriot-News, Central PA

To understand the concern that the marketing of electronic cigarettes might lure minors into a life of nicotine addiction, consider some of the flavors: cherry, bubble gum, cola, milk chocolate and sugar cookie.
Since their introduction into the U.S. market in 2009, e-cigarettes have grown exponentially in popularity and sales, to the tune of $1.7 billion. Legions of lifelong users have converted to vaping, trading the tar and carcinogens of cigarettes for the seemingly safer alternative.
But with such an aforementioned variety of flavors in e-cigarettes, health experts, substance abuse prevention officials and lawmakers are increasingly concerned that e-cigarette manufacturers are targeting teens.
“They are adding all these interesting flavors and they are pandering to people who are nonsmokers or more specifically kids,” said Dr. Richard Bell, a Berks County pulmonologist and a member of the Pennsylvania Medical Society. “I’m not sure an adult would be attracted to a bubblegum flavor cigarette.”
Bell echoes widely held concerns in the public health community that Big Tobacco is increasingly marketing the electronic devices to minors — using many of the same promotional techniques it used to hook generations to cigarettes — with television and magazine ads, sports sponsorships and cartoon characters.
“Whether e-cigarettes can safely help people quit smoking is also unknown, but with their fruit and candy flavors, they have a clear potential to entice new smokers,”The American Medical Association recently opined.
E-cigarettes are not subject to the federal ban on television advertising. Those calling for action say that much the same same way Big Tobacco used the Marlboro Man, Joe Camel and attractive celebrities to promote their product, e-cigarette manufacturers are doing with modern-day celebrities. 
The market saturation amazes Linda Doty, prevention specialist with the Cumberland Perry County Drug and Alcohol Commission. Doty recently Googled e-cigarettes near her Carlisle office and learned that between the West Shore and Newville, there are 100 e-cigarette retailers, the majority of them convenience stores, which draw heavy traffic from young people stopping in for sodas and snacks.
Doty said she is concerned that the increase in young e-cigarette users is playing out amid a dearth of medical evidence regarding their safety. She said a recent study by the the Smoking and Health Behavior Research Laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University found that 20 percent of middle school students who had tried e-cigarettes said they had never smoked regular cigarettes.
“Even e-cigarette manufacturers recommend that breast-feeding women and those with health complications not use the products,” Doty said. “To me that’s an acknowledgment that this could have potential for harm.”
Indeed, a study last year by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that use of e-cigarettes among teens in 2012 had more than doubled from the previous year. However, at the same time, cigarette smoking among teens continued to decline.
Currently, no federal or state law governs the sale of e-cigarettes. A bill in the state Senate would restrict the sale of the devices to people 18 and older.
Harrisburg resident Keith Kepler challenges the notion that e-cigarettes — and their fruity, candy flavored choices — will lure kids into smoking.
“I’m 57 and, doggone it, I still like strawberry and chocolate,” said Kepler, who began to smoke at 14 and recently quit with the help of e-cigarettes. “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve heard of. I still chew bubble gum. You’re telling me we can’t have things flavored bubble gum, because it will lure kids? I don’t get that.”
http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/02/post_662.html

SADD Conference Talks E-Cigarettes

By Steph Scheurer – email
E-cigarettes are a popular alternative to regular cigarettes and a hot topic.
Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health wants to educate students about the dangers of this product.
A workshop on e-cigarettes is held at the SADD Conference in Bismarck.
Currently there are no age restrictions on this electronic cigarette.
The goal is to educate the students on how the tobacco industry is marketing e-cigarettes to target youth.
“Even though it’s candy flavored doesn’t mean it’s less harmful. We still are learning more about e-cigarettes through the research that is being done. The FDA is not overseeing them at this time so we need to be careful with this product,” says Susan Kahler, Community Outreach Coordinator, Bismarck-Burleigh Public Health.
Kahler (Kay-ler) says she’s hoping that next year there will become a state law that includes e-cigarettes to be age 18 or older.
Bismarck is currently working on passing an ordinance which would put an age restriction on them.
http://www.kxnet.com/story/24696713/sadd-conference-talks-e-cigarrettes

Bismarck bans e-cigarette sales to minors

By LeAnn Eckroth
BISMARCK, N.D. –The Bismarck City Commission on Tuesday banned selling or providing e-cigarettes to people under the age of 18. The new law, approved 5-0, also prohibits minors from using and selling the product.
Violators will be fined up to $500. Minors found having or using the product could be fined up to $70.
The ordinance says minors cannot be sold devices with a heating element — battery or electric circuit — to inhale as if smoking cigarettes, or possess such elements. The devices include those that contain nicotine or simulate cigarette use.
No one objected to the new ordinance at the public hearing Tuesday.
Valerie [Schoepf], a board member of the of the Tobacco Free Coalition, supported it.
“Without passage of this ordinance, it would technically remain legal for an 8, 12 or 17-year-old to purchase e-cigarettes in our community. It’s time to close this loophole,” she said.
“Not only can these be candy-flavored, you can buy cartoon wraps for them to make them visually pleasing, said Mandy Jordan, a representative of the Century High School Chapter of Students Against Destructive Decisions.
To read more, visit: http://bismarcktribune.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/bismarck-bans-e-cigarette-sales-to-minors/article_cc176c66-938a-11e3-b224-0019bb2963f4.html

Officials hope to educate on e-cigarettes

By Matthew Liedke • Daily News
Advocates pushing for tobacco prevention are now having to deal with a new device on the market that isn’t subject to the same regulations as traditional cigarettes.
Jennifer Mauch, Richland County Tobacco Prevention coordinator, said a rising issue is e-cigarettes, and how traditional companies seem to be getting more and more involved.
“Altria, which produces Marlboro products, is among other large tobacco companies that are buying e-cigarette manufacturers,” Mauch said. “I’ve been looking back at the way traditional tobacco products were advertised and the advertising for e-cigarettes seems very much like a repeat.
“I think they are seeing that this is where the market is going, so they are buying it up,” said Mauch, who added that e-cigarettes make up 1 percent of national smoking sales.
The problem with these devices, Mauch explained, is the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t regulate e-cigarette products, as they don’t contain tobacco. This leads to not even knowing what is in the e-cigarette.
“They may be in fact safer than traditional cigarettes, but we just don’t know,” Mauch said. “The issue is that we don’t know how much nicotine is in them, or what else is in them. There are some who say they don’t contain any nicotine, but we don’t know if that’s the case.”
The laws in the different states throughout the country also give challenges to regulating the e-cigarette product. In North Dakota, Mauch explained, there is no age restrictions on the products which she called “a major gateway.”
North Dakota was proactive in another law, though, which bans using e-cigarettes inside all places that traditional tobacco products are not allowed. However, in other states, such as Minnesota, it can still be used inside such places.
“The fear is that it’s becoming a social norm again,” Mauch said. “So it’s like moving backwards.
Currently, Mauch said the best thing she can do is educate the public about e-cigarettes.
“It always starts small,” Mauch said. “At this point we are just trying to educate people and have them realize that we don’t know if this is a safe product yet, so proceed with caution if you plan to use it. Unless they are studied further and regulated, we really want to get people to notice the education that is out there and be careful.”
In terms of her own office dealing with the situation, Mauch said she is currently working with communities and schools to get youth tobacco ordinances in place, which add e-cigarettes to the definitions of tobacco products.
http://www.wahpetondailynews.com/news/article_2055b402-9117-11e3-8f2b-001a4bcf887a.html

FDA launching $115M multimedia education campaign showing at-risk youth 'real cost' of smoking

By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM  AP Tobacco Writer
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is using ads depicting wrinkled skin on youthful faces and teenagers paying for cigarettes with their teeth in a campaign to show the nation’s young people the costs associated with smoking.
The federal agency said Tuesday it is launching a $115 million multimedia education campaign called “The Real Cost” that’s aimed at stopping teenagers from smoking and encouraging them to quit.
Advertisements will run in more than 200 markets throughout the U.S. for at least one year beginning Feb. 11. The campaign will include ads on TV stations such as MTV and print spots in magazines like Teen Vogue. It also will use social media.
“Our kids are the replacement customers for the addicted adult smokers who die or quit each day,” said Mitch Zeller, the director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “And that’s why we think it’s so important to reach out to them — not to lecture them, not to throw statistics at them — but to reach them in a way that will get them to rethink their relationship with tobacco use.”
Zeller, who oversaw the anti-tobacco “Truth” campaign while working at the nonprofit American Legacy Foundation in the early 2000s, called the new campaign a “compelling, provocative and somewhat graphic way” of grabbing the attention of more than 10 million young people ages 12 to 17 who are open to, or are already experimenting with, cigarettes.
According to the FDA, nearly 90 percent of adult smokers started using cigarettes by age 18 and more than 700 kids under 18 become daily smokers each day. The agency aims to reduce the number of youth cigarette smokers by at least 300,000 within three years.
“While most teens understand the serious health risks associated with tobacco use, they often don’t believe the long-term consequences will ever apply to them,” said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg. “We’ll highlight some of the real costs and health consequences associated with tobacco use by focusing on some of the things that really matter to teens — their outward appearance and having control and independence over their lives.”
Two of the TV ads show teens walking into a corner store to buy cigarettes. When the cashier tells them it’s going to cost them more than they have, the teens proceed to tear off a piece of their skin and use pliers to pull out a tooth in order to pay for their cigarettes. Other ads portray cigarettes as a man dressed in a dirty white shirt and khaki pants bullying teens and another shows teeth being destroyed by a ray gun shooting cigarettes.
The FDA is evaluating the impact of the campaign by following 8,000 people between the ages of 11 and 16 for two years to assess changes in tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes and behaviors.
The campaign announced Tuesday is the first in a series of campaigns to educate the public about the dangers of tobacco use.
In 2011, the FDA said it planned to spend up to $600 million over five years on the campaigns aimed at reducing death and disease caused by tobacco, which is responsible for about 480,000 deaths a year in the U.S. Future campaigns will target minority youth, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth and youth in rural areas.
Tobacco companies are footing the bill for the campaigns through fees charged by the FDA under a 2009 law that gave the agency authority over the tobacco industry.
 http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/e2170c9ad67b4bc08ab8228b121857ea/US–FDA-Tobacco-Campaign