E-cigarette maker agrees to halt sales in Oregon

A leading distributor of electronic cigarettes has agreed to halt sales in Oregon, Attorney General John Kroger announced Monday.

Kroger said Smoking Everywhere Inc. did not seek U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval and provides no evidence to support claims that its so-called "e-cigarettes" are a safe alternative to conventional tobacco products. He also expressed concern that the company geared it marketing toward young people.

Oregon last year became the first state to go to court to block the sale of the devices, some of which are designed to look like traditional cigarettes.

Smoking Everywhere's electronic cigarettes have a battery-powered heating element and a replaceable plastic cartridge that contains chemicals, including liquid nicotine. The heat vaporizes the liquid for inhalation.

In settling the suit, the Florida-based company admitted violating Oregon's Unlawful Trade Practices Act. Besides no longer selling its products here, the company agreed to pay more than $95,000 to the state Department of Justice. The company's president, Elico Taieb, will pay another $25,000 and is barred from doing any business in Oregon that involves tobacco, nicotine or electronic cigarettes.

Taieb did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Ray Story, a Smoking Everywhere owner who's in litigation against Taieb, did not approve of the settlement. "At the end of the day, he's made some very dumb mistakes, and he's continuing to make those," Story said.

The Food and Drug Administration has clashed with e-cigarette companies on the question of whether the product helps people quit smoking. If it's marketed as a medical device, then it needs FDA approval.

The agency banned the import of electronic cigarettes into the U.S. last year, but a federal judge overruled the action in January. The U.S. Court of Appeals takes up the matter next month.

Story contends Smoking Everywhere is a cigarette company and needs to act as such. That means not advertising on the radio and not selling the product over the Internet, where there's no guarantee it won't be delivered to a minor. Story said he and Taieb have disagreed on that point.

"That's where Smoking Everywhere has an issue, because they're selling it on the Internet."

Story said e-cigarettes are less harmful than conventional cigarettes and less intrusive to nonsmokers. He sharply criticized Kroger for keeping the product away from Oregonians.

"The attorney general there really doesn't know what he's talking about," he said. "A state cannot ban a product without it banning every product within that same category."

The attorney general last year got two travel store chains to stop selling e-cigarettes in Oregon and persuaded another e-cigarette company, Sottera Inc., to leave the state.

Smoking Everywhere declined a request to restrict its Oregon sales, leading to the lawsuit filed almost a year ago in Salem.

Tobacco Control in Ontario Today

The health evidence which encouraged those addicted to tobacco to quit in large numbers began to emerge in the 1960s.
Tobacco industry products have no safe level of use and are highly addictive. They are also the only consumer products that kill when used as intended by those who make them, and kill half of their long-term users prematurely.
No other industry’s products have caused anywhere close to the number of deaths and cases of disease resulting from tobacco addiction—more than 13,000 annually in Ontario alone.
Ontario Medical Review • April 2010 1 severity of addiction of individuals in the 1960s to the 1980s, it is clear that large numbers quit with or without the benefit of legislation, high taxes, or cessation programs.
Beginning in the early 1990s, Ontario governments implemented increasingly comprehensive legislative, programmatic, and financial responses to tobacco addiction. Sales to youth under 19 were prohibited. Workplaces and public places were made smoke-free (a policy extended to vehicles transporting children under 16 in 2009). Retail tobacco advertising and displays were prohibited. In order to reduce addiction initiation,media and programinitiatives intensified targetedmessages to young people. Following the 1994 federal and provincial tobacco tax reductions in response to the smuggling crisis, provincial tobacco tax levels began to climb again. (Ontario’s stalled in 2006 as a result of the proliferation of contraband tobacco, discussion of which follows below.) These advances have led some in themedia and the government to ask whether tobacco control is in fact “done.” Others ask whether tobacco addiction should be categorized as simply one among many other chronic diseases and associated risk factors, such as hypertension, diabetes, physical inactivity, and alcohol and drug abuse.
The absolute number of Ontario smokers today—about 2.1 million — is a much smaller proportion of the population compared to past decades, but still remains relatively high. Some have asked if this can be due to recent immigration to the province from jurisdictions where smoking prevalence is high. In fact, recent survey research data show that:
• The large majority of Ontario smokers speak English at home (1.8million);
• Are white (1.6million);
• Are born in Canada (1.6million);
• Learned and understood English as their first language (1.5 million).

Despite high incidence of addiction in their countries of origin, the same survey found that 9% of South Asian Canadians, and 10% of Chinese Canadians, reported smoking behaviour levels of prevalence that are considerably below the general population average. The picture is different for Ontario’s aboriginals, whomake up 5%(or 106,500) of all Ontario smokers, with a 40% smoking prevalence rate. There are also signs that the impact of efforts tominimize tobacco’s effect on Ontario society may have begun to weaken.
Unlicensed cigarettemanufacturers in Ontario,Quebec, and New York State are distributing illegal cigarettes across Ontario, and have taken up an increasing share of the tobacco market. By 2009, between one in five and one in two cigarettes smoked in Ontario were classified as contraband.

Contraband also fosters an atmosphere of lawlessness and disrespect for authority in many communities where the trade flourishes. Finally, it undermines existing tobacco control programs and legislation. Contraband tobacco is much cheaper than licensed tobacco, is free of government taxes, warnings, and many retail restrictions. The cheapest and most prevalent form of contraband is clear plastic bags of 200 cigarettes. These are manufactured and packaged in a half dozen locations in Ontario, Quebec, and northern New York State

Ontario’s response to the tobacco problemtoday can thus be characterized both by success and the significant challenges that still must be addressed. Physicians face a similar duality: progress in the evolution of treatments and patient outcomes, but challenges with respect to treatment complexity and resources, as will be described in the next section. The simple fact is that there are still far toomany Ontarians suffering from entirely preventable tobaccoinduced illnesses.

Beautiful women smoking cigarettes

Why do beautiful women have to smoke cigarettes?

A cigarette in a woman’s symbolize a certain air of success, mystery, and true femininity. A woman smoker is a like-minded person in the eyes of a man who is a smoker too. Let us take a closer look at female smoking as a means for showing off a woman smoker to advantage.

Female smoking looks very much like some kind of a ritual. A woman puffs at her cigarette to weave up a smoky disguise for the gamut of glances and gazes. A woman’s individuality can be brought to light if you pay attention to the way she inhales on her cigarette and exhales smoke. A woman is apparently in the state of confusion or she is eagerly awaiting something if she inhales rather abruptly and sends the smoke out right away. A woman must be in a thoughtful mood if you can see her cigarette sitting unattended in an ashtray, slowly burning away. You had better watch out if a woman seated at your table keeps her mouth open while exhaling smoke. The woman seems to let the smoke pour out freely. The woman is definitely on the make, and you may end up trapped in her net.

A woman’s character traits and emotions can be revealed through the way she shakes the ash off her cigarette. An intermittent and somewhat fidgety manner of dropping aches indicates a current state of uncertainty or general nervousness. A woman who looks at her hand while tapping on the cigarette with an index finger is most likely to be no stranger to sophisticated sensuality.

Many a time I found myself staring at the women who had cigarettes in their hands. To be honest, I like staring at pretty women without cigarettes too. As far as I am concerned, a woman and a cigarette agree like whiskey and soda. A woman looks sexier with a cigarette in her hand or mouth, for that matter. Smoking is just another way of exhibiting a woman’s fine hands, beautiful lips and a flair for perfect makeup. The method is rather simple yet it works.

Cigarette Smoking More Dangerous for Sick Smokers

Everyone has known for decades that smoking can harm the people’s health, especially those with prostate cancer. For example a recent study after investigated 21, 600 men with prostate cancer found that cigarette smoking not only can raises the risk of generating prostate cancer, but it also intensify the risk of dying because of this dangerous disease.

Scientists explained that prostate cancer is the most frequent cancer in American men with 186, 000 diagnoses in 2008, and 28,000 deaths due to the disease, but the cause is not understood yet. That’s why anti-tobacco researchers continued their research.

This actual study is based on various studies which had the same theme. Sometimes risk factors are not evident in smaller studies only because they are small.
In this study researchers grouped the men into two groups: never smoke and ever smoked. But previous studies categorized them by packs per day. Researchers also did not factor if the men changed their smoking habits and did not look at changes in their disease status.

Eight of the previous studies that looked at over 8,000 men analysis did categorize the men by how many packs they smoked per day and the researchers of this last analyze concluded that the heaviest smokers had a 30% increased risk of dying from prostate cancer when compared to non-smokers.

This recent study also found that among men under age 55, those with a history of smoking were at higher risk of having cancer that had extended beyond the prostate. The risk of having such a disease is higher for current smokers than that for former smokers.

As breast and colon cancer, prostate cancer is more spread in developed states. All diseases appear because of various bad habits. For example, lifestyle factors such as exercise, alcohol consumption, and diet have been shown to be strongly associated with the risk of developing breast and colon cancer. So, the high risk of developing and dying of prostate cancer is bound with lifestyle factors like smoking.

Statistics show that tobacco use is thought to cause about 30% of all cancer deaths and a total of 440,000 premature deaths in the US each year.

Cigarette Smoking More Dangerous for Sick Smokers

Everyone has known for decades that smoking can harm the people’s health, especially those with prostate cancer. For example a recent study after investigated 21, 600 men with prostate cancer found that cigarette smoking not only can raises the risk of generating prostate cancer, but it also intensify the risk of dying because of this dangerous disease.

Scientists explained that prostate cancer is the most frequent cancer in American men with 186, 000 diagnoses in 2008, and 28,000 deaths due to the disease, but the cause is not understood yet. That’s why anti-tobacco researchers continued their research.

This actual study is based on various studies which had the same theme. Sometimes risk factors are not evident in smaller studies only because they are small.
In this study researchers grouped the men into two groups: never smoke and ever smoked. But previous studies categorized them by packs per day. Researchers also did not factor if the men changed their smoking habits and did not look at changes in their disease status.

Eight of the previous studies that looked at over 8,000 men analysis did categorize the men by how many packs they smoked per day and the researchers of this last analyze concluded that the heaviest smokers had a 30% increased risk of dying from prostate cancer when compared to non-smokers.

This recent study also found that among men under age 55, those with a history of smoking were at higher risk of having cancer that had extended beyond the prostate. The risk of having such a disease is higher for current smokers than that for former smokers.

As breast and colon cancer, prostate cancer is more spread in developed states. All diseases appear because of various bad habits. For example, lifestyle factors such as exercise, alcohol consumption, and diet have been shown to be strongly associated with the risk of developing breast and colon cancer. So, the high risk of developing and dying of prostate cancer is bound with lifestyle factors like smoking.

Statistics show that tobacco use is thought to cause about 30% of all cancer deaths and a total of 440,000 premature deaths in the US each year.

Household environmental tobacco smoke and risks of asthma

The reported prevalence of childhood asthma/wheeze is increasing around the world. The changing pattern of these diseases has not been fully explained, in part because of an incomplete understanding of its pathogenesis. The change has been too rapid to be accounted for by changes in gene frequencies. It is also unlikely that it can be totally accounted for by changes in either clinical diagnostic patterns or increased recognition of respiratory symptoms by the general population.
This shift does, however, suggest a role for environmental exposures in the etiology of this evolving epidemic. It is estimated that around 1.3 billion people worldwide smoke, and the number is predicted to increase in the coming years as smoking rates continue to increase among youth, primarily among young girls.
Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is common in children and causes substantial morbidity. Estimates of population attributable risk for household ETS exposure in children range from 9% for asthma prevalence to 25% for hospital admissions due to respiratory symptoms. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately half of the children in the world are exposed to ETS, mostly in their homes. In Taiwan, schoolchildren are not typically exposed in public due to the legislative ban on public smoking and regular health promotion campaigns; home exposure is likely the dominant source of ETS. It was reported that approximately 60% Taiwanese children under the age of 17 were exposed to household ETS, and therefore an estimated 3.3 million children were at risk for adverse health effects from this exposure.
Evidence of the effects of ETS exposure on childhood respiratory outcomes is inconsistent. Although an effect for paternal smoking has been reported, exposure to maternal smoking has consistently had the strongest association with adverse respiratory health effects. The strength of the association between maternal smoking and asthma/wheeze is in part due to larger ETS doses from maternal smoking than from other sources. Although there is evidence that maternal smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of asthma/wheeze in childhood, the effects of in utero exposure on the occurrence of respiratory symptoms have not been extensively studied or compared with other household sources of ETS.
The Taiwan Children Health Study (TCHS) offers an opportunity to investigate the effects of household ETS exposure on the occurrence of respiratory symptoms in Taiwanese children. At cohort entry, we used lifetime tobacco smoke exposure histories to investigate the relationships of multiple sources of ETS exposure with parental- reported respiratory outcomes. The individual and joint effects of parental smoking habits were also examined for associations with early-onset and late-onset childhood asthma.

American Cancer Society to Manage New Effort Against Tobacco in Africa

ATLANTA -The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has given a grant of $7 million over five years to the American Cancer Society to lead and coordinate the African Tobacco Control Consortium, a global coalition of public health-oriented organizations focusing on using evidence-based approaches to stem the tobacco epidemic in Africa. In addition to the Society, the consortium includes the Africa Tobacco Control Regional Initiative (ATCRI), Africa Tobacco Control Alliance (ATCA), Framework Convention Alliance (FCA), Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CTFK), and the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union).

In a part of the world that is notably affected by HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases, cancer is emerging as a serious public health threat. According to the International Agency for Research on Cancer, much of the rise can be attributed to widespread tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death in the world, and according to the World Health Organization, if current trends continue, tobacco use will cause one billion deaths worldwide during this century.

As the managing organization, the Society will collaborate with consortium partners to implement an ambitious tobacco control program across the 46 countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The overall goal will be to reduce tobacco use in these countries by implementing proven strategies at the national and local level. The consortium will:

• assist national governments and civil society to implement policies such as advertising bans, tobacco tax increases, graphic warning labels, and the promotion of smoke free environments that are in line with the requirements of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world’s first public health treaty;

• advocate for further tobacco control resources in the region;

• protect existing laws from tobacco industry efforts to overturn them and halt crucial progress;

• conduct research to improve/inform future tobacco control work.

“We are excited to be part of this important new effort,” said John R. Seffrin, Ph.D., the organization’s chief executive officer. “Tobacco companies have begun to target developing countries as tobacco control efforts in high-resource countries have yielded tough restrictions, and we will make sure that the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have the information and tools to protect their citizens from preventable diseases and death caused by tobacco.”

“This development will be instrumental to help achieve a coordinated response to the rising rate of tobacco consumption and looming tobacco epidemic in the Africa Region,” said ATCRI’s Acting Director, Akinbode Oluwafemi of Nigeria.

As part of its ongoing efforts to save lives and help people stay well, get well, find cures, and fight back against cancer, the American Cancer Society has expanded its efforts around the world. In December 2009 several leaders attended the largest-ever gathering of health and government leaders in Africa for a conference on preventing a projected cancer epidemic in Africa. The Society also funds more than 75 tobacco prevention and cancer control grants in African countries, and has conducted workshops to educate journalists and advocates about tobacco and cancer control issues. It is also a leading voice in the Global Smokefree Partnership, which recently published a report calling for greater protection of Africans from secondhand smoke, and exposing the efforts of tobacco companies to fight against tobacco control progress in African countries.

The American Cancer Society combines an unyielding passion with nearly a century of experience to save lives and end suffering from cancer. As a global grassroots force of more than three million volunteers, we fight for every birthday threatened by every cancer in every community. We save lives by helping people stay well by preventing cancer or detecting it early; helping people get well by being there for them during and after a cancer diagnosis; by finding cures through investment in groundbreaking discovery; and by fighting back by rallying lawmakers to pass laws to defeat cancer and by rallying communities worldwide to join the fight. As the nation’s largest non-governmental investor in cancer research, contributing about $3.4 billion, we turn what we know about cancer into what we do. As a result, more than 11 million people in America who have had cancer and countless more who have avoided it will be celebrating birthdays this year. To learn more about us or to get help, call us any time, day or night, at 1-800-227-2345 or visit cancer.org.For more information on our global programs, now in more than 20 countries, visit www.cancer.org/international



Andrew Becker
Director, Media Relations
American Cancer Society

The tobacco industry

“More people smoke today than at any other time in human history. One person dies every ten seconds due to smoking-related diseases. Research evidence in the past five years shows a bleaker picture of the health danger of smoking than previously realised. Tobacco is the biggest killer, much bigger in dimension than all other forms of pollution.
Children are the most vulnerable. Habits start in youth. The tobacco industry knows it and acts accordingly. This is a medical challenge, but also a cultural challenge. Let us all speak out: tobacco is a killer. It should not be advertised, subsidised or glamourised. Adolescents should not be allowed to mortgage their lives to the seductive advertisements of the industry.
Girls and women are being targeted all over the world by expensive and seductive tobacco advertising images of freedom, emancipation, slimness, glamour and wealth.
Tobacco companies should be accountable for the harm caused by tobacco use. The day I took office I launched the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) to spearhead the struggle to reverse the worsening trends in health caused by tobacco and to add momentum to a critical public health struggle.
The initiative aims at heightening global awareness of the need to address tobacco consumption. It also seeks to build new partnerships and strengthen existing partnerships for action against tobacco; to commission policy research to fill gaps; and, to accelerate national and global policy to implement strategies. The way it works illustrates the way we wish WHO to work in the future making the most of our own resources and knowledge and drawing heavily on the knowledge and experience of others.
Our goals are to:
• build “a vibrant alliance” between WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, and “partnerships with a purpose” with non governmental organisations, the private sector, academic/research institutions and donors.
• try to get more people to work on and support tobacco control activities and ensure that more resources are committed to tobacco research, policy and control.
• develop the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world's first public health treaty. The treaty will only be effective if it works in conjunction with, and builds upon, sound domestic interventions. The good news is that the epidemic does not have to continue this way. There is a political solution to tobacco – a solution routed through ministries of finance and agriculture as well as health and education. We know that tobacco control measures can lead to a reduction in smoking as witnessed among some member states. WHO, the World Bank and public health experts have identified a combination of the following as having a measurable and sustained impact on tobacco use:
• increased excise taxes;
• bans on tobacco advertising, sponsorship and marketing;
• controls on smoking in public places and workplaces;
• expanded access to effective means of quitting;
• tough counteradvertising;
• tight controls on smuggling. These must all be implemented if the predicted expansion of the epidemic as outlined in this atlas is to be prevented. The picture is far from bleak. Globally, we have seen a sea change over the past few years. A groundswell of local, national and global actions is moving the public health agenda ahead.

A message from
Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland
Director-General
World Health Organization

Tobacco use - cause of illness

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death and illness in the United States, causing more than 443 000 deaths each year. The consequences of tobacco use include harms to the health of the fetus, such as low birth weight and sudden infant death; harms to children from tobacco use and secondhand tobacco-smoke (SHS) exposure, including respiratory illness, infection, and decreased lung function; the uptake and establishment of tobacco use and nicotine addiction by the next generation; fires attributable to smoking; the economic costs of purchasing tobacco and tobacco-use materials; litter and debris from tobacco products; additional cleaning and maintenance of facilities in which tobacco is used; the health care and emotional costs of diseases associated with tobacco use and SHS exposure; and the costs to families and society because of poor health and lost productivity.

Most tobacco users (
80%) started using tobacco products before 18 years of age.Initiation of tobacco use is often instigated by exposure to tobacco use by parents or peers, depiction in movies and other media, advertising targeting children and adolescents, and other environmental and cultural factors. The connection between children and tobacco use is so strong that the commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration declared tobacco use a “pediatric disease” in 1995.

Tobacco use is a pediatric disease because of the extent of harms to children caused by tobacco use and SHS exposure, the relationship of pediatric tobacco use and exposure to adult tobacco use, the existence of effective interventions to reduce tobacco use, and the documented underuse of those interventions. This statement provides guidance for providers of pediatric services, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and its members, and summarizes other AAP policies that have addressed tobacco use and control. Because tobacco use has significant effects on children and families, its management has been reviewed in many AAP policies and official documents.

The information and recommendations described in this statement are consistent with recommendations in the other AAP publications cited as well as with tobacco policies from other clinical professional membership organizations, including the Academic Pediatric Association, the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology, the American Academy of Family Practice, 21 the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, and the American Medical Association. The policy is accompanied by 2 technical reports: “Secondhand and Prenatal Tobacco Smoke Exposure” and “Tobacco as a Substance of Abuse.”The AAP recognizes the dangers of tobacco use and SHS exposure to children’s health. Tobacco control was named a strategic priority by the AAP in 2005, and the Julius B. Richmond Center of Excellence (www.aap.org/ richmondcenter), dedicated to the elimination of children’s exposure to tobacco and SHS, was established in 2007 to foster tobacco-control initiatives at the AAP.

Elderly Smokers displeased because Smoking Ban

Elderly inhabitants decided to start a fight against smoking ban, in order to protect the smokers’ rights which want to continue to hang American flags from their apartments and to smoke within their friends.

"HUD don’t care, housing don’t care, we’re like slaves to them", an angry Ann Musk said in opening comments to about 50 Warwick Housing Authority tenants gathered at the Meadowbrook Terrace community room.

The group is worried by the authority’s action by prohibiting smoking at all its lodging complexes, both inside individual units and anywhere on authority property, by Jan. 1, 2011. New inhabitants should accept the new conditions with any other objections.

Also the Meadowbrook tenants have been advised because of recently renovated ornaments which they will no longer be permitted to hang them, including flags. Will be accepted only flags which will be placed in a stand.

Inhabitants became angry not only because smoking and flag bans but because of many other causes. Fr example during a 45-minute organizational meeting, tenants complained that their units have not been painted, and the electrical fixtures have not been renovated and that there is mold in their apartments. Also, they complained that the authority keeps establishing new restrictions.

"They keep taking things away from us", said one of displeased inhabitant, Greene Musk. She explained that quit smoking cigarettes after a heart attack, but she knows how much smoking can mean to people.

After the meeting, Michael Lyckland, executive director of the Warwick Housing Authority, said that there is a no smoking trend for the Housing and Urban Development funded housing units across the country.

Lyckland declared that for the policy, safety and health are major reasons. But the safety and health reasons failed to fly with the tenants.

While there is no set indication, Lyckland said that if a unit is occupied for a long period it will be painted. Otherwise, he explained, as a tradition, a unit is repainted when tenants move out and before new ones move in. He declared that about 20 percent of the more than 500 city elderly housing units are repainted every year.