ANTI-SMOKING MEDICATIN RE3DUCES ALCOHAL DEPENDECE

Anti-smoking Medication Reduces Alcohol Dependence

By Damilola Seriki at June 18, 2013 

 

 

The saying “kill two birds with one stone” could be getting a whole new meaning after a news release from the National Institutes of Health or NIH for short.  There was a recent study performed by the NIH under the direction of Dr. Raye Z Litten that compared the inter-dependency of anti-smoking medication and dependency of alcohol.

The study proved to be an amazing success and the results have led the team to conclude that with a patient taking anti-smoking medication they are also lowering their dependency of alcohol, if applicable.  The study was primarily based off of a drug called varenicline, or more commonly known as Chantix, which has been proven to help people reduce and even quit the nasty habit of smoking cigarettes.
People in the study showed that as they were taking more of the varenicline or Chantix, that they also seemed to drink less than if they weren’t.  Of course we can also assume that the inter-dependency also deals with ease of access to alcohol.  In my perspective someone that was trying to quit cigarettes (thus why they are taking varenicline in the first place) may intentionally avoid places like bars, lounges, and other venues that serve alcohol.  In order to fully finish this research there would need to be another study to show the inter-connectivity between smoking cigarettes and alcohol.  If the correlation is high, then it would make perfect sense that the act and mentality of wanting to quit smoking would also persuade a person to drink less, not the varenicline.
This was a great study and the team has done an excellent job.  Hopefully they will follow this release up with some more studies and research on the topic.  Be sure to leave your thoughts below in the comments section.

LINK :

1.  http://scicraze.com/2013/06/18/anti-smoking-medication-reduces-alcohol-dependence/

 

DO ANTI-SMOKING COMMERCIALS WORK?

BRAIN SCANS REVEAL THE GRAPHIC IMPACT OF ANTI-SMOKING COMMERCIALS

Due to their exceedingly graphic nature, antismoking TV commercials are hard to miss, but many question if their attention-grabbing tactics actually persuade smokers to quit. A new study claims that brain imaging can determine which aspects of an anti-smoking public service announcement (PSA) will convince a smoker to break the habit.
These findings are extremely fortuitous, as public health officials are searching for new, efficient ways to engage smokers. National efforts to curb smoking have apparently flatlined, as after decades of decline, the adult smoking rate has hovered at 20 percent in recent years, according to reports from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At the same time, states have dramatically cut funding for tobacco prevention programs, as reported in the New York Times, by nearly 40 percent — $250 million — since 2008, which will undoubtedly force public health officials to maximize the reach and impact of future antismoking campaigns.
In what is possibly a landmark study, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at University of the Pennsylvania have found that brain activity can dictate how a smoker will respond to the content and format of a televised ad.  This finding could allow advertisers to streamline the development of PSAs by providing a direct readout for consumer behavior.
"It's one of the first papers to embed concepts from the world of communications into the world of biology," said Dr. Daniel D. Langleben, senior author on the study and a psychiatrist at the Pearlman School of Medicine.
While creating a PSA, communication specialists typically focus on two basic elements: its 'argument strength' (how persuasive is its message?) and its 'sensation value' (does it have enough special effects?). Smokers have long been considered to be sensation/thrill seekers, so for decades, PSAs have often tried to engage this trait with vivid imagery and gripping soundtracks. The results have been mixed. While smokers are more likely to recall flashier ads, there has been limited success with convincing individuals to actually quit.
To determine if neural activity could predict quitting behavior, 71 smokers were asked to view a series of short, 30-second antismoking PSAs, while their brains were scanned by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Each participant watched 16 commercials that had either strong arguments ("If the personal health dangers aren't enough, consider quitting for your children and those you love") or weak arguments ("Smoking makes you less attractive to potential partners.")
One month after the screening, the researchers sampled the subjects' urine for cotinine — a metabolite of nicotine — to see who had changed their smoking behavior.
They found that activation in one brain region, the dorsal medial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC), predicted whether a person would eventually reduce their cigarette consumption.  The largest spikes in dmPFC brain activity were seen when the PSAs had a strong argument, regardless of the level of special effects or pizzazz.
"Thus, greater activation in dmPFC predicts long-term outcomes; i.e., less smoking," said Dr. An-Li Wang, a neuroscientist and first author of the study. She added that these subjects were not seeking treatment at the outset of the study, suggesting that their viewing sessions had a direct impact on their subsequent smoking behavior.
Before Dr. Langleben tells advertisers to add neuroscientists for their staffs, he would like to perform a larger follow-up study where PSAs are precisely tailored to induce specific neural responses in subjects. Although this might spawn 'Manchurian' commercials and highly suggestive marketing, it could ultimately provide empirical variables that can build better ads to deter smoking.
"Overall, what we have here is another substantial step towards objective measures for evaluating health communications," said Langleben.
Co-authors of the study include Kosha Ruparel, MSE, James W. Loughead, PhD, Andrew A. Strasser, PhD, Shira J. Blady, Kevin G. Lynch, PhD, Dan Romer, PhD, and Caryn Lerman, PhD, of the Department of Psychiatry at Penn Medicine, and Joseph N. Cappella, PhD, of the Annenberg School for Communication.


LINK :
  1.  http://www.medicaldaily.com/do-anti-smoking-commercials-work-brain-scans-reveal-answer-245221

2.  http://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=8820706532194535856#editor/target=post;postID=1419890530102021634;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=link

 3.  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/04/130423211716.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fmost_popular+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Most+Popular+News%29

4.  http://esciencenews.com/articles/2013/04/24/anti.smoking.ads.with.strong.arguments.not.flashy.editing.trigger.part.brain.involving.behavior.change 

5.http://www.science20.com/news_articles/antismoking_ads_work_are_not_most_shocking_ones-110188

ANTI-TOBACCO ADVOCATES PUSH FOR BAN ON PATIO SMOKING

 A man puts out a cigarette in Ottawa on Sept. 29, 2009. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Pawel Dwulit 

The findings are based on a series of air quality tests performed on Montreal patios.

Even on an outdoor patio, second-hand cigarette smoke can produce air quality comparable to a smoggy day in Los Angeles or even a forest fire, new research contends.
Ryan Kennedy, a university researcher, said he found poor air quality even there was a breeze and no restrictions blocking the flow of air, such as an awning or umbrella.    
“I think what’s important is for us to remember that tobacco smoke is a Class A carcinogen, and any level of exposure bears a risk,” Kennedy, based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., said in an interview Saturday.
Anti-tobacco advocates are hoping the findings help make the case for a patio smoking ban in Quebec, and across the country.
Several provinces have already banned smoking on patios, including Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Alberta. Yukon has also introduced a ban, along with Ottawa and a number of municipalities on Vancouver Island and in the lower mainland of British Columbia.
Quebec is among the provinces that has so far resisted going that route.
Montreal, in particular, is well-known for its sidewalk cafes and bars.
Bar owners are worried a ban would mean losing patrons, just as they did after smoking was banned inside restaurants and bars.
Peter Sergakis, the head of the province’s bar owner association, said he’s skeptical of the study and plans to conduct his own tests.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Sergakis, who owns several Montreal bars.
“Everybody made terrasses so our customers can go out and smoke. And now they’re telling us they can’t smoke there. What’s going to be next — they can’t smoke on the sidewalk?”

Flory Doucas, a spokeswoman for the Quebec Anti-Tobacco Coalition, said businesses will need to adapt.
Doucas said wait staff are especially vulnerable under the current rules.
“In the case of workers, they are walking back and forth across these areas filled with smoke. This is a health issue,” she said.
Kennedy said some of the air quality measurements he recorded on patios were on par with with levels recorded in Kelowna, B.C. when forest fires ravaged the region a few years ago.

LINKS : 

1.   http://www.citynews.ca/2013/08/04/anti-tobacco-advocates-push-for-ban-on-patio-smoking/ 

 2.  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/study-likens-patio-smoke-to-a-forest-fire-as-advocates-push-for-ban/article13588299/

          
  3.  http://www.guelphmercury.com/news-story/3923925-study-finds-second-hand-smoke-a-risk-even-on-patios-advocates-push-for-ban/

 4.  http://globalnews.ca/news/760785/anti-tobacco-advocates-fuming-over-results-of-second-hand-smoke-study/

 5.  http://globalnews.ca/news/760756/no-more-smoking-on-terraces-say-anti-smoking-advocates/

TOBACCO COMPANIES' DIRTY TRICKS-1

OLD TOBACCO PLAYBOOK GETS NEW USE BY E-CIGS
By
Michael Felberbaum, Mon, 08/05/2013

RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) -- Companies vying for a stake in the fast-growing electronic cigarette business are reviving the decades-old marketing tactics the tobacco industry used to hook generations of Americans on regular smokes.
They're using cab-top and bus stop displays, sponsoring race cars and events, and encouraging smokers to "rise from the ashes" and take back their freedom in slick TV commercials featuring celebrities like TV personality Jenny McCarthy.
Tobacco marketing has been increasingly restricted in the United States, with TV commercials for traditional cigarettes banned in 1970. The Food and Drug Administration plans to set marketing and product regulations for electronic cigarettes in the near future.
But for now, almost anything goes.
"Right now it's the wild, wild west," Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered devices made of plastic or metal that heat a liquid nicotine solution, creating vapor that users inhale. Users get their nicotine without the thousands of chemicals, tar or odor of regular cigarettes. And they get to hold something shaped like a cigarette, while puffing and exhaling something that looks like smoke.
So far, there's not much scientific evidence showing e-cigarettes help smokers quit or smoke less, and it's unclear how safe they are. But the marketing tactics are raising worries that the devices' makers could tempt young people to take up something that could prove addictive.
The industry started by selling e-cigarettes on the Internet and at shopping-mall kiosks. It has rocketed from thousands of users in 2006 to several million worldwide who have more than 200 brands to choose from. Some e-cigarettes are stocked in prime selling space at the front of convenience-store and gas-station counters — real estate forbidden to the devices' old-fashioned cousins.
Analysts estimate sales of e-cigarettes could reach $2 billion by the end of the year. Some say the use of e-cigarettes could pass that of traditional cigarettes in the next decade. Tobacco company executives have even noted that e-cigarettes are already eating into traditional cigarette sales.
The debate over marketing tactics is intensifying as the largest U.S. tobacco companies roll out their own e-cigarettes in a push to diversify beyond their traditional business. People are smoking fewer cigarettes in the face of tax hikes, smoking bans, health concerns and social stigma, though higher prices have helped protect cigarette revenue.
Companies like NJOY and Blu Ecigs are advertising on TV, forbidden for cigarettes for more than 40 years. LOGIC has placed mobile billboards on taxis in New York City. Swisher International Inc., maker of Swisher Sweets cigars, is sponsoring race cars promoting its e-Swisher electronic cigarettes and cigars and has a two-year deal to become the official e-cigarette of the World Series of Poker.
Blu, which was acquired by No. 3 U.S. tobacco company Lorillard Inc. last year, also has sponsored an Indy car and the 2013 Bonnaroo music festival, and its website features a cartoon character nicknamed "Mr. Cool" boasting the benefits of its e-cigarette — evoking the days of Joe Camel.
Decades ago, celebrities like actor Spencer Tracy, baseball player Joe DiMaggio and even future President Ronald Reagan, a one-time actor, shilled for brands like Lucky Strike and Chesterfield.
Now, NJOY features rocker Courtney Love in an expletive-laced online ad and counts singer Bruno Mars among its investors. Actor Stephen Dorff is featured in Blu's TV commercials.
In Blu's latest campaign, McCarthy says she can use the e-cigarette "without scaring that special someone away" and can avoid kisses that "taste like an ashtray" when she's out at her favorite club. The commercials are set to start airing nationwide next week.
Traditional cigarette marketing can't use celebrities or cartoons. Legal settlements and new regulations have long since taken ads off billboards and banned event sponsorships. While they must include health warnings, companies can still advertise cigarettes and smokeless tobacco in magazines that don't have a large youth readership.
The electronic cigarette ads push the same themes as old cigarette ads: sophistication, freedom, equality and individualism, said Timothy de Waal Malefyt, a visiting associate professor at Fordham University's business school and former advertising executive.
That's the problem, tobacco opponents say.
"The ads, themes and messages are precisely the same (as those) used by the tobacco industry for decades that made those products so appealing to young people," said Matt Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
Reynolds American Inc., owner of the nation's No. 2 tobacco company, has said it plans to use TV ads to promote a revamped version of its Vuse brand electronic cigarette that it launched last month. Altria Group Inc., owner of the nation's biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, has declined to detail its marketing strategy for its first electronic cigarette under the MarkTen brand set to launch this month.
The makers of e-cigarettes defend their strategy.
"There's the potential here that e-cigs could do a tremendous amount of good, more good than anything anyone has done on the anti-smoking side since anti-smoking was invented," said Jason Healy, the founder and former president of Blu and now a brand spokesman.
There are a few limitations on marketing. Companies can't tout e-cigarettes as stop-smoking aids, unless they want to be regulated by the FDA under stricter rules for drug-delivery devices. But many are sold as "cigarette alternatives."
Many companies restrict sales to minors but only a couple of dozen states have laws banning it. And while some are limiting offerings to tobacco and menthol flavors, others are selling candy-like flavors like cherry and strawberry — barred for use in regular cigarettes because of the worry that the flavors are used to appeal to children.

LINK :  
          1.  www.manufacturing.net/news/2013/08/old-tobacco-playbook-gets-new-use-by-e-cigs

AMERICAN CITY SHARON TO DISCOURAGE TOBACCO USE

Monday, August 5, 2013 

 

 

Signs at Baxter Memorial Library tell visitors not to smoke on the library's grounds in Sharon, Vt. on August 4, 2013. The library installed the signs following the passage of Sharon's new anti-smoking law. Valley News - Elijah Nouvelage Purchase photo reprints »

 

 

Sharon (USA)— A new policy that recently went into effect is meant to discourage the use of tobacco around town, Sharon officials said.

The policy, which extends to all tobacco products and began on Aug. 1, prohibits its use on all town-owned properties and inside vehicles. It was passed unanimously at a Selectboard meeting in mid-July, said Paul Haskell, the board’s chairman.

According to Haskell, the town-wide policy was a way of combining several disparate and ad hoc policies formed over the years.

“We decided it would be prudent to elevate our thoughts about helping folks quit smoking if they are, and keep folks from smoking, if they aren’t,” Haskell said.

Besides prohibiting smoking on town-owned properties, the policy also states that the town will refer employees and officials who smoke to tobacco cessation programs. In addition, it will reach out to businesses to join the anti-tobacco cause, and promote the cause at events such as Town Meeting.

The issue with the passing the policy is how to enforce it, Haskell said.

“That’s always the $9 million question,” he said. “To be perfectly candid, the town is not going to hire smoking police.”

However, he said, if a town employee were to violate the policy, the Selectboard would look to the town’s personnel plan to sanction him.

That doesn’t mean the town is expecting to hand out several penalties to town employees, Haskell said, considering not all that many town employees smoke or use other forms of tobacco.

To put the plan in place, the Selectboard worked with Cathy Hazlett, the executive director of Health Connections of the Upper Valley, which is based in North Pomfret. Hazlett has pitched anti-tobacco plans to several towns, utilizing grant money from the Vermont Department of Health.

“I think part of our success in Sharon is that the Selectboard in Sharon was right on board with understanding the public health concerns,” Hazlett said. “It’s really important to send the message out, particularly to young people: There is no safe, or safer, type of tobacco product.”

Other towns have been reluctant to adopt such a policy.

Members of the Royalton Selectboard expressed worries about enforcement and the potential for it to infringe on individual rights, according to minutes from last December. Messages left for board members in Royalton were not returned yesterday.

In Sharon, several small signs, all bearing the phrase “Thanks for Keeping This a Smoke-Free Zone,” have sprung up at town landmarks, such as Baxter Memorial Library on Route 14. In fact, the library has two — one stuck to the side of the building, and another in the entryway of the gazebo behind it.

They join several signs that have long been posted at Sharon Elementary School by Health Connections of the Upper Valley.

Judy Tyson wondered if the signs had been put up recently when she ventured onto the gazebo to read yesterday.

“I’m entirely supportive of it,” said Tyson, who lives in Sharon.

She said she was a fan of the inoffensive qualities of the signs, which use a playful-looking, colorful font and background and don’t threaten fines or prosecution.

“That’s a very nice way of doing it,” Tyson said. “It doesn’t offend anybody.”

The policy, said Hazlett, is meant to be a proactive one, to discourage something that isn’t terribly prevalent in Sharon but might one day be.

At the playground of the nearby Sharon Elementary yesterday, resident Kali Livingston agreed.

“That’s good,” Livingston said of the new policy. She watched her 21/2 -year-old daughter, Zowie, play on the nearby blacktop. “I think that anywhere that children are around, there shouldn’t be smoking.”

 LINK: 

          1. http://www.vnews.com/home/7934496-95/sharon-selectboard-passes-policy-to-discourage-tobacco-use

TOBACCO MEASURES SAVE 7.4 MILLION LIVES

A global study shows raising taxes on cigarettes to 75 per cent of their price had the biggest impact, compared with legal smoking bans.

Tax rises on cigarettes save more lives than smoking bans, according to a global study which shows tobacco control measures averting seven million deaths by 2050.
Scientists looked at the effects of six anti-smoking policies introduced in 41 countries, between 2007 and 2010.
Projections of the number of premature deaths the measures were likely to prevent by 2050 produced a figure of 7.4 million.
Increasing taxes on cigarettes to 75 per cent of their price in 14 regions had the biggest impact, which was greater than legal smoking bans.
Tax rises prevented 3.5 million smoking-related deaths while "smoke-free air laws" in 20 of the countries studied averted 2.5 million.
Lead researcher Professor David Levy, from Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington DC, US, said: "It's a spectacular finding that by implementing these simple tobacco control policies governments can save so many lives."
The evidence-based measures, known by the acronym MPOWER, were identified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2008.
They consist of monitoring tobacco use, protecting people from tobacco smoke, warning about the dangers of tobacco, enforcing bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and raising tobacco taxes.
The study targeted 41 countries known to have implemented at least one of the policies at the highest impact level. In 2007, almost 290 million people living in the countries smoked.
The UK, US, France and Germany were not in the list which included countries in Africa, Asia, South America and eastern Europe.
Of the total, 33 countries had put in place one of the measures and eight had adopted more than one.
Computer modelling was used to predict the life-saving potential of the policies.
Turkey was one of the countries most affected by anti-smoking policies. There, tax rises alone were predicted to save more than 1.5 million lives and smoking bans around 880,000.
The findings, published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, also forecast a total of 700,000 deaths averted by health warnings, 380,000 by cessation treatments, and 306,000 by restrictions on tobacco marketing.
Prof Levy added: "In addition to some 7.4 million lives saved, the tobacco control policies we examined can lead to other health benefits such as fewer adverse birth outcomes related to maternal smoking, including low birth weight, and reduced healthcare costs and less loss of productivity due to less smoking-related disease."
Millions more lives could be saved if the control measures were adopted even more widely, according to Dr Douglas Bettcher, director of the department of non-communicable diseases at the WHO.
"Tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death in the world, with six million smoking-attributable deaths per year today, and these deaths are projected to rise to eight million a year by 2030, if current trends continue," he said. "By taking the right measures, this tobacco epidemic can be entirely prevented."

LINK:

              1.  http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1784242/Tobacco-measures--save-7.4-million-lives-

TOBACCO TAX HIKE TO RAISE $5.3b'

A price hike on cigarettes is expected to raise $5.3 billion for the federal government over four years

Smokers are expected to be slugged by a 12.5 per cent tax hike on cigarettes each year for four years.
AAP understands Treasurer Chris Bowen will make the announcement in Sydney on Thursday and that the tax increase will raise $5.3 billion over the forward estimates.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hinted a tax increase was on the cards on Wednesday.
"Cancer is Australia's number two killer and therefore it is a number one priority for the Australian government," Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told reporters.
"I'm the son of a woman who never smoked in her life and she died of lung cancer, we assume through passive smoking."
Health Minister Tanya Plibersek would not confirm a tobacco tax increase but said it could have benefits.
"There's a strong public health case for increasing the price of tobacco," she told Sky News.
Australia spends $31 billion on health care for ill smokers.
"If we see a decline in smoking rates and that causes a drop in excise collection that would be a fantastic outcome," she said.
In April 2010 Labor lifted the cigarette excise by 25 per cent, adding $2.16 to the price of a pack of 30 smokes.
In this year's federal budget, smokers copped a seven cent rise in the cost of a packet of 25.
Anti-smoking groups agree taxing tobacco is an effective preventative measure.
Shadow treasurer Joe Hockey said Labor was hitting people with higher taxes and dressing it up to look like a health initiative.

LINK :  
              1.  http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1794795/Tobacco-tax-hike-%27to-raise-$5.3b%27