News /news/ en patrick.stinnett@edelman.com Copyright 2013 2013-05-24T14:46:30-05:00 acttiontoquithttp://feedburner.google.com Aggressive Behavior Linked Specifically to Secondhand Smoke Exposure in Childhood http://actiontoquit.org/news/Aggressive-Behavior-Linked-Specifically-to-Secondhand-Smoke-Exposure-in-Chi/ http://actiontoquit.org/news/Aggressive-Behavior-Linked-Specifically-to-Secondhand-Smoke-Exposure-in-Chi/#When:14:46:30Z May 24, 2013   Children who are exposed to secondhand smoke in early childhood are more likely to grow up to physically aggressive and antisocial, regardless of whether they were exposed during pregnancy or their parents have a history of being antisocial, according to Linda Pagani and Caroline Fitzpatrick of the University of Montreal and its affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine hospital. No study to date has controlled for these factors.

“Secondhand smoke is in fact more dangerous that inhaled smoke, and 40% of children worldwide are exposed to it. Moreover, exposure to this smoke at early childhood is particularly dangerous, as the child’s brain is still developing,” Pagani said. “I looked at data that was collected about 2,055 kids from their birth until ten years of age, including parent reports about secondhand smoke exposure and from teachers and children themselves about classroom behaviour. Those having been exposed to secondhand smoke, even temporarily, were much more likely to report themselves as being more aggressive by time they finished fourth grade.”

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]]> 2013-05-24T14:46:30-05:00 How Smoking at Home Reduces Property Values http://actiontoquit.org/news/How-Smoking-at-Home-Reduces-Property-Values/ http://actiontoquit.org/news/How-Smoking-at-Home-Reduces-Property-Values/#When:14:44:49Z May 24, 2013   A recent survey of Ontario real estate agents in Ontario found that smoking in a home could lower the value of your property by up to 30 per cent. The survey was sponsored by Pfizer Canada and besides the obvious damage by staining walls and carpets, it can leave a smell that is very hard to eliminate. I remember having a client close a deal and noticed a smell of smoke when they entered the home on closing. I asked why they didn’t notice the smell when they originally toured the home and they said fans were on with electric air fresheners plugged into the walls. That apparently masked the smell that day. It makes sense that a home with a smoky smell or strong odour will be harder to sell as it will deter most buyers. Landlords are permitted to include no smoking clauses in their leases. But they can only evict a tenant who smokes if they can prove the smoking has damaged the unit or is bothering the other tenants.

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]]> 2013-05-24T14:44:49-05:00 CDC to doctors: Help your patients quit smoking! http://actiontoquit.org/news/cdc-to-doctors-help-your-patients-quit-smoking/ http://actiontoquit.org/news/cdc-to-doctors-help-your-patients-quit-smoking/#When:15:38:02Z May 23, 2013   A new anti-tobacco campaign is urging smokers to turn to their physicians for help in quitting. The campaign – “Talk With Your Doctor” – also encourages clinicians to ask patients whether they smoke and to offer them assistance giving up cigarettes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with several national physicians’ organizations, unveiled the initiative Wednesday. Though 70% of smokers see doctors regularly, most try to quit smoking without professional help, said CDC Director Thomas Frieden, himself a physician. A doctor’s advice and assistance more than doubles the odds that a smoker will quit, Frieden said. Doctors can offer counseling, resources, prescription medication and nicotine replacement options. “Every doctor should do everything possible to help their patients quit,” Frieden said. Unfortunately, he said, “it is still too often not part of the routine doctor visit.”

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]]> 2013-05-23T15:38:02-05:00 Teen Exercise: Physical Activity Shown to Help Teens Stop Smoking http://actiontoquit.org/news/teen-exercise-physical-activity-shown-to-help-teens-stop-smoking/ http://actiontoquit.org/news/teen-exercise-physical-activity-shown-to-help-teens-stop-smoking/#When:15:34:49Z May 23, 2013   New results published May 22, JAMA, indicate that of the teens who smoke, those who incorporate exercise are more likely to decrease or quit their daily cigarette use than those who do not. Through prior analysis of the American Lung Association’s Not-On-Tobacco (N-O-T) teen smoking cessation program, researchers initially thought that behavioral modification was the primary component to a successful smoking cessation program, yet these new results suggest that physical activity may have a greater impact on ending a smoking habit than previously believed.Led by researcher Kimberly Horn, EdD, West Virginia University Community Medicine, and funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 233 students ages 14 - 19 from 19 West Virginia schools were randomly assigned to 3 intervention groups: N-O-T group: which incorporated weekly small group behavior modification sessions, N-O-T plus the Quit & Fit (N-O-T+FIT) group: in addition to the above participants used pedometers to track their steps as well as record other forms of physical activity in a log, No Intervention Brief Advice group: participants received standard 10- 15 minute communication regarding youth tobacco cessation and printed materials.

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]]> 2013-05-23T15:34:49-05:00 U.S. Cigarette Makers Boost Discounts as Smokers Turn Away http://actiontoquit.org/news/U.S.-Cigarette-Makers-Boost-Discounts-as-Smokers-Turn-Away/ http://actiontoquit.org/news/U.S.-Cigarette-Makers-Boost-Discounts-as-Smokers-Turn-Away/#When:18:55:21Z May 22, 2013   The U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which has periodically put out a report on tobacco sales since 1967, said on Tuesday that 274 billion cigarettes were sold or given away in 2011, the most recent year for which data was available. A decade earlier, in 2001, major tobacco companies sold or gave away 402 billion cigarettes in the United States. Volume declined in each of the intervening years. The number of U.S. smokers has been declining steadily. As of 2011, roughly 19 percent of U.S. adults smoked cigarettes, compared with about 33 percent in 1980, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Advertising spending on cigarettes, meanwhile, ramped up in 2011 for the first time since 2003, rising to $8.4 billion from $8 billion in 2010.

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]]> 2013-05-22T18:55:21-05:00 Americans Still Making Unhealthy Choices: CDC http://actiontoquit.org/news/americans-still-making-unhealthy-choices-cdc/ http://actiontoquit.org/news/americans-still-making-unhealthy-choices-cdc/#When:15:37:25Z May 22, 2013   The overall health of Americans isn’t improving much, with about six in 10 people either overweight or obese and large numbers engaging in unhealthy behaviors like smoking, heavy drinking or not exercising, a new government report shows. Released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the report found Americans continuing to make many of the lifestyle choices that have led to soaring rates of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic illnesses, including the following: About six of 10 adults drink, including an increase in those who reported episodic heavy drinking of five or more drinks in one day during the previous year. Twenty percent of adults smoke, and less than one-half of smokers attempted to quit in the past year. Only one in five adults met federal guidelines for both aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening exercise. One in three was completely inactive when it came to any leisure-time aerobic activity.

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]]> 2013-05-22T15:37:25-05:00 Smoking During Pregnancy Up Obesity and Diabetes Risk in Baby Girls http://actiontoquit.org/news/Smoking-During-Pregnancy-Up-Obesity-and-Diabetes-Risk-in-Baby-Girls/ http://actiontoquit.org/news/Smoking-During-Pregnancy-Up-Obesity-and-Diabetes-Risk-in-Baby-Girls/#When:16:13:45Z May 21, 2013   Women who smoke during pregnancy increase the risk of both obesity and gestational diabetes, in their daughters, a recent study has found. The study is by Dr Kristina Mattsson, Lund University, Sweden, and colleagues including Dr Matthew Longnecker from the National Institute on Environmental Health Sciences at the U.S.National Institutes of Health, North Carolina, USA. While the relation of prenatal tobacco exposure to negative outcomes in childhood has been much studied, reports on possible adverse effects that persist until adulthood are more scarce and results are inconsistent. In the study using data from the Swedish Medical Birth Register, the authors investigated the relationship between a woman smoking in pregnancy and the chances of her daughter then developing gestational diabetes and obesity.

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]]> 2013-05-21T16:13:45-05:00 Reducing the Appeal of Smoking – First Experiences with Australia’s Plain Tobacco Packaging Law http://actiontoquit.org/news/Reducing-the-Appeal-of-Smoking-First-Experiences-with-Australias-Plain-Toba/ http://actiontoquit.org/news/Reducing-the-Appeal-of-Smoking-First-Experiences-with-Australias-Plain-Toba/#When:16:12:41Z May 21, 2013   December 2012 will remain a memorable day in the history of the fight against tobacco worldwide. On this day, Australia’s world-first laws on tobacco plain packaging came into full effect. Since then, all tobacco products must be sold in standardized drab, dark brown packaging with large graphic health warnings. There are no tobacco industry logos, brand imagery, colours or promotional text. Brand and product names are printed in the same small font below hard-hitting warnings depicting the health consequences of smoking. Tobacco is unlike any other product on the market: the only legal consumer product that kills when used as intended by the manufacturer. Every year, more than 5 million people die because they use tobacco. Another 600 000 nonsmokers die from exposure to second-hand smoke. This makes tobacco one of the leading preventable risk factors for noncommunicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic lung disease and diabetes.

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]]> 2013-05-21T16:12:41-05:00 Heavy Drinking and Smoking Linked to Early Brain Aging http://actiontoquit.org/news/heavy-drinking-and-smoking-linked-to-early-brain-aging/ http://actiontoquit.org/news/heavy-drinking-and-smoking-linked-to-early-brain-aging/#When:15:25:27Z May 20, 2013   New research suggests chronic smoking, excessive alcohol consumption, and increasing age are all associated with increased oxidative damage to brain tissue. Experts say the study is the first to look at the effects of smoking and age on neurocognition in people seeking treatment for alcohol dependency. Researchers say the findings are important because treatment for alcohol use disorders is more effective if a person actively understands and adopts the interventions. Multiple factors may impede cognition during early abstinence including chronic cigarette smoking and increasing age. In the study, researchers discovered alcohol dependent (AD) individuals who currently smoke show more problems with memory, ability to think quickly and efficiently, and problem-solving skills than those who don’t smoke, effects which seem to become exacerbated with age. Study results will be published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View. “Several factors — nutrition, exercise, comorbid medical conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, psychiatric conditions such as depressive disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder, and genetic predispositions — may also influence cognitive functioning during early abstinence,” explained Timothy C. Durazzo, Ph.D., corresponding author for the study.

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]]> 2013-05-20T15:25:27-05:00 Most Americans Have Smoke-Free Rules for Home and Car http://actiontoquit.org/news/most-americans-have-smoke-free-rules-for-home-and-car/ http://actiontoquit.org/news/most-americans-have-smoke-free-rules-for-home-and-car/#When:15:22:10Z May 20, 2013   A national survey finds that a large majority of adults in the US voluntarily apply smoke-free rules in their homes or vehicles. Yet despite this, millions of Americans, many of them children, continue to be exposed to secondhand smoke in these environments, say researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who write about their findings in a study published online in the CDC journal Preventing Chronic Disease this week. Lead author Brian King, an epidemiologist in the Office on Smoking and Health at the CDC, says in a statement: “While almost half of all US residents are protected by 100 percent smoke-free policies in worksites, restaurants and bars, overall there are still an estimated 88 million non-smoking Americans over the age of three who are exposed to secondhand smoke.” The data for the study comes from the 2009-2010 National Adult Tobacco Survey, which classes respondents as having smoke-free rules in their homes and vehicles if they never allow anyone to smoke in them. Tim McAfee, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, says: “We have made tremendous progress in the last 15 years protecting people in public spaces from secondhand smoke.”

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