Most Smokers Want to Quit Few Succeed

Most smokers want to quit and a majority have tried, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report released on Thursday. The CDC numbers show that most tobacco users know that they should stop— but still struggle to kick the habit.

In 2010, 68.8 percent of American adult smokers said they wanted to quit and 52 percent said they have tried to within the past year, according to the CDC report. Nearly 32 percent had used counseling or medications in their efforts, and 48 percent got advice from a health care provider in the past year.

Yet only 6 percent had recently managed to quit smoking altogether.

“More than two-thirds of smokers want to quit smoking and more than half tried to quit last year,” CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden said in a statement. “Smokers who try to quit can double or triple their chances by getting counseling, medicine, or both. Other measures of increasing the likelihood that smokers will quit as they want to include hard–hitting media campaigns, 100 percent smoke–free policies, and higher tobacco prices.”

The CDC used data from more than 27,000 people interviewed as part of the National Health Interview Survey in 2010.

Encouragingly, the survey showed more adults ages 25-64 tried to kick the habit, said Tim McAfee, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. But there’s noticeable variation: Those with more education were more likely to have recently quit than their less-educated peers. Those with insurance are far more likely to quit than the uninsured.

Of particular interest, McAfee said, was the finding that “blacks had the highest interest in quitting and highest number of quit attempts, but lowest success rate — 3.3 percent.”

“This is also a group three times more likely to smoke menthol cigarettes,” McAfee noted. They are also less likely to turn to counseling or medication in their efforts to stop smoking.

“What we’re concerned about, honestly, is that society is losing its enthusiasm for supporting smokers,” McAfee said. “One of our biggest concerns is that many of the states have drastically cut back their efforts, not only because of tough economic times.”

Those cutbacks have occurred as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have made it easier to get quit-smoking services. Until recently, Medicaid did not offer states the flexibility to help smokers quit with medication or counseling, said McAfee; and until recently, Medicare only offered such services to seniors who had already contracted a smoking-related disease, said Ann Malarcher, who led the CDC study.

“A lot of this is momentum that CMS has in Medicaid because they’ve done the math,” McAfee said. Fewer smokers mean fewer smoking-related chronic conditions and hospitalizations—a boon both to the public health and to the CMS budget.

Tobacco use and secondhand smoke kills 443,000 Americans each year, according to CDC data. For every smoking-related death, there are 20 people with a smoking-related disease such as heart disease, cancer, or lung disease.

Most Americans start smoking when they’re young. President Obama started smoking as a teenager, and only managed to quit recently—after years of public struggle. Chewing nicotine gum helped him kick the habit.

Tobacco companies continue to target young people through marketing and distribution campaigns, McAfee said. “We need to be more aggressive as a society around protecting our children—for whom this is an illegal drug—around marketing and distribution practices,” he argued.

The Food and Drug Administration was given the authority to combat the sale and marketing of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to minors through the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The agency announced on Thursday that it has sent out warning letters to more than 1,200 retailers, mostly to chastise them for selling tobacco products to minors.

“Warning letters may be followed by civil money penalties if retailers continue to violate the law,” the FDA said in a statement. The agency has inspected more than 27,500 retail locations so far.

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Students Call For a Smoke-Free Campus

Undergraduate Student Government weighed in on the debate over creating a smoke-free campus Tuesday night by passing a senate resolution calling for the enforcement of designated smoking areas and a clarification of current smoking policy.

The administration will take an official position on changing smoking policy on the University Park Campus once it has heard from the different constituencies for faculty, staff, undergraduate students and graduate students, according to USG Director of Campus Affairs Jared Ginsburg. The other three constituencies’ representatives have passed resolutions, which are used to formally communicate interests to administration.

Residential Senator Marissa Roy, a co-author of the resolution, sees the legislation as an intermediate step toward possibly establishing a smoke-free campus in the future.

“We may be in the direction of becoming a smoke-free campus one day,” Roy said. “[Clarifying designated] smoking areas will be a first step to gauge reaction and get students used to the idea of seeing smoking limited on campus.”

Nearly 65 percent of 1,485 respondents to a USG online poll supported limiting smoking on campus, according to the resolution. A plurality of about 46 percent of the respondents favored a smoking ban and 40 percent favored a change in the university’s smoking policy that includes clarifying the location of designated smoking areas.

“I support a campus-wide ban on smoking contingent upon USC actually enforcing it,” Matthew Prusak, a freshman majoring in international relations (global business) said. “Smoking poses a health risk and it seems like the right thing to do from a health standpoint.”

USG Senate Speaker Pro Tempore Vinnie Prasad, who cast the only dissenting vote, said the resolution does not address the plurality’s views.

“While I agree with the spirit that we need to clarify all rules, I think we should have considered the 46 percent,” Prasad said.

USG had initially planned to vote on the resolution last week but tabled the legislation to settle confusion between two groups of senators — those who wanted administration to take action and those who wanted to clarify the current policy, Roy said.

The new draft added clauses aimed at clarifying and publicizing current USC smoking policy along with asking the administration to take action.

“Students don’t know what the policy is,” Ginsburg said. “They just don’t understand it. We are calling for a very clear announcement by the administration as to what the policy is and where the university falls on the issue.”

The USC Academic Senate and the USC Staff Assembly, the representative bodies of faculty and staff respectively, passed resolutions in 2010 advocating for a smoke-free campus. The academic senate’s resolution cited research findings and recommendations from the Provost’s Work and Family Life Committee, which conducted focus groups on both campuses.

“It’s not out of the realm of the really possible,” said Christopher Chomyn, a senior lecturer in the School of Cinematic Arts and the committee’s chair. “We are not leading this trend. We are way behind the curve for universities adopting smoke-free policies.”

At least 586 colleges have adopted smoke-free campus policies as of Oct. 7, including schools with large campuses such as the University of Michigan and Oregon State University, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.

In September, the Graduate and Professional School Senate expressed its opposition to a smoking ban with a strongly worded resolution that called smoking bans “an encroachment of personal rights.”

“The lack of enforceability was a big problem we talked about,” GPSS President Ryan Estes said. “We thought there could be a lot of alternatives to create a healthier campus than a flat-out smoking ban.”

Chomyn, however, said a ban probably wouldn’t be heavily enforced.

“It’s not meant to be punitive,” he said. “It’s meant to improve the general welfare of our community.”

Because of the negative health effects associated with secondhand smoking, some smokers support the enforcement of designated smoking areas despite the inconvenience they cause.

“I’m a smoker, but I agree with the designated smoking areas,” said Jin Yong-Moon, a junior majoring in music industry. “I may harm other people if I smoke in open areas.”

Chomyn said his committee’s research showed opposition to a ban mostly comes from non-smokers, rather than smokers.

“Most of the people who are smokers seem to be in the favor of it, or at least open to it,” he said. “The push back has been from non-smokers.”

Roy also said she hopes the resolution’s urge to clarify policy will mean students learn there are already designated smoking areas on campus.

“Students in the survey were asking for something that already exists, but they didn’t know were already there,” Roy said.

In the coming months, USG will continue to work on expressing the student body’s opinion regarding USC’s smoking policy.

“USG is going to be the stalwart voice of students,” Roy said. “We want to keep our personal views out of it.”

The resolution will remain effective for two senate terms, taking advantage of a new bylaw amendment that allows each senator to submit one strongly supported resolution to the subsequent senate.

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Passive Smoking Hurts Kids

Children exposed to passive smoking are at risk of developing hearing deficiencies during their adolescence. Hearing deficiencies among adolescents occur mostly in the low frequencies.

The reason for this surprising discovery lies in the repeated ear infections caused by tobacco smoke during the early years of life.

Researchers in New York monitored adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19, all of whom answered a series of questions relating to their state of health and family history.

They also underwent hearing tests and a number of blood tests to determine their level of cotinine, a metabolite of nicotine.

The purpose of these blood tests was to determine their degree of exposure to tobacco. The results, which seem unambiguous, reveal that the higher their cotinine level, the greater the level of hearing loss.

Passive smoking increases the risk of repeated ear infections during early childhood, ear infections can cause damage to the ear drum and thus lead to hearing deficiency.

Passive smoking can also affect hearing development in the very young.

Article by cheap cigarettes.

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Utah gives hookah the hook

Starting in mid-September, Utah bars and clubs cannot allow patrons to smoke most hookah products indoors.

“The purpose of the clarification is to protect people from exposure to second hand smoke. Even minimal amounts of exposure is considered harmful,” said Steve Hadden, a health program specialist in the department’s Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.

Utah banned hookah use in bars and clubs

Nathan Porter, owner of the Murray-based Huka Bar & Grill and Huka Lounge, sought such an exception from the health department, since his businesses opened in 2005. On Monday, he said he plans to sue the state and the health department, saying the rule is discriminatory against hookah smokers.

He said the rule would put him out of business. While hookah-related sales account for 15 percent to 20 percent of his business — the clubs also sell food and alcohol — he said hookah is what his bar is about.

“You take hookah away from the Huka Bar, now what are we? We’ve spent tens of thousands of dollars marketing this business,” he said.

Health officials also fear hookah pipes appeal to young adults, attracted by flavors like apple-cinnamon and chocolate. And the American Lung Association and the World Health Organization have raised concerns about the health effects of water pipe smoking on the smoker, saying it carries similar risks of addiction, cancers and heart disease as cigarette smoking.

Hadden said the health department does not know how many businesses will be affected by the rule change. While there doesn’t appear to be many clubs billed as hookah lounges, some bars offer hookah pipes to patrons.

He said club employees deserve to be protected from exposure to secondhand smoke.

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Best Tips to Stop Smoking | Tips For Stop Smoking

Though tobacco has a well know repute about the outcome on physical condition, smoking remains a vice that each person discovers tough to break. Individual who smoke may feel the require to end that practice, however can’t indeed start doing it since they’re tied to it since a long time. Most liable, persons who wish to quit however discover it tough to do, they search further than help for advises that will make them simpler the objective to quit smoking, these advises might originate from family members, some specialists, and so on. A incomparable tip could break off the chain to that dangerous inclination.

Discover diverse ways to quit smoking

Though well-being check specialists may have incomparable ways on how to quit smoking after a while, in addition there are some ascertained diverse ways to help you quit. They are some instances of what different persons have done to eliminate the inclination:

Tip One: Stably have the hands and mouth busy

Different way of stopping the inclination is doing actions that will hold the mouth and hands busy. That is somewhat that you gotta commit to for a long time, since desire could knock each here and there. Some things that you might do to hold the mouth occupied are singing, whistling, or perhaps gargling with mouthwash, while those that make the hands busy incorporate writing letters, working on a puzzle, sewing or perhaps knitting, amongst other ones. That is a incomparable tip to focus the mind in somewhat diverse keeping away from so the desire of smoking.

Tip Two: Workout Frequently

An essential business that a self who smokes could do to stop smoking is to incorporate a habitual workout typical as an each day action. Workout could help persons handle with tough senses with greater simplicity; in addition doing workout takes different benefits for example boosted heartbeat, heart rate, blood complexity. So, it is indeed worth sticking to a workout plot that gives incomparable results for the condition. With that solution, not save scores of bucks, however get whole lot of the great things about improved cardiovascular shape.

Tip Three: Advance The Food Plan – Attempt Holistic Food Plan

You gotta attempt to advance the food plan also, that could in addition be good to irrevocably quit smoking. You might discovered foodstuff that taste indeed incomparable and could be use to lessen the desire, so eating these foodstuff when you feel the urge to smoke could help. Some meals that could advance the shape and lessen edginess are: fruits and veggies, popcorn without butter, fish and lean meats. Somethings you gotta consider to eat at every day base are apples, carrots and celery. Meantime, you will be capable to fruitfully pass the desire if you drink lot of water, tomato juice or perhaps tea. It is in addition implied eating little foods throughout the day, as it assists to have greater assimilation. As an diverse of eating gum, it’s perfect to hold the mouth with foodstuff that take a long time to eat.

There are a lot of advises that may help you quit smoking, and you might know everything about them, that’s incomparable, however what indeed will make to quit smoking is attempt them. You gotta go little by little, tip after tip, you might start with the every day workouts, for instance, and when that ends up being a typical then it’ll be simpler to start different tip.

I desire these advises will help you start to leave that insecure inclination.

Read more uncovering pieces of writing about topics associated with quitting smoking, further more advises about to quit smoking eternally. Get More Stop Smoking Info, Techniques, Benefits, and so on. Get access to an entirely FREE REPORT that will help you to stop smoking this day.

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Higher Prices Best Way to Beat Smoking Habit

It is rare for much time to pass without a new front being opened by anti-smoking crusaders. This month has seen a particularly high level of activity. Legislation dictating that tobacco products, Lucky Strike cigarettes and advertisements will have to be kept out of sight in shops from next July was passed with the support of all but three Act MPs.

Not to be outdone, George Wood, the chairman of the Auckland Council’s community safety forum, proposed a ban on smoking in inner-city streets. Then, most astonishingly, the Auckland District Health Board said it was looking at refusing to hire smokers.

All these initiatives highlight the pressure on policymakers not only from anti-smoking lobbyists but from a community that has rapidly come to vilify the practice. People once enjoying an acceptable pastime now find themselves literally out in the cold. A wide range of measures have been used to drive that message home, yet about 20 per cent of people continue to light up. Thus new means to persuade that stubborn minority to quit keep being proposed.

To their credit, some policymakers have recognised that some of these suggestions are, quite simply, a step too far.

They acknowledge what many anti-smoking advocates do not – that smoking is a legal pastime enjoyed by a significant number of people, and that their rights must be balanced against other people’s protection from secondhand smoke.

Such was the case when Mr Wood’s plan to have smokers banned from gathering in front of inner-city buildings was rejected. The spectacle of smokers huddling together outside workplaces is certainly unappealing. But if this were denied them, it is reasonable to ask where would they smoke. And if this were the home or the family car, how long before anti-smoking lobbyists would be trying to dictate what happens in these places, even though this is generally considered the individual’s own business?

More questionable still is the Auckland District Health Board’s proposal to refuse to hire smokers, an approach which is said to recognise the responsibility of doctors and nurses “to be positive role models in dealing with patients and the public”. Logically, that means obese people will also not be hired. Like smokers, they hardly fit the health and wellbeing ideal that the board seems to think its staff should embody.

All this posturing by pressured policymakers is largely a waste of time, effort and money. Their initiatives are likely to be no more successful than most of those tried over the past few years – the likes of education campaigns, smoke-free areas, subsidised quit programmes, graphic health warnings on cigarette packets and restrictions on the promotion of tobacco and, now, the display of tobacco products. All have had public support and have been accepted with resignation by smokers. But while the dangers of the practice have been rammed home time and again, a fifth of people still light up.

A wealth of research has shown that, in reality, the best way to reduce the number of smokers is by hiking the cost. Since the turn of the century, however, the tax on tobacco has been raised just twice, once in 2000 and again last year at the behest of Associate Health Minister Tariana Turia. Increased prices are a particular deterrent to youngsters.

New Zealand, however, has failed to acknowledge the effectiveness of this approach, and its excise and sales tax, as a percentage of the retail price of tobacco, is well below that of most comparable jurisdictions. Therein lies the answer for those who want to make the country smoke-free by 2025. Other solutions touted by anti-smoking groups smack of extreme and, ultimately, fruitless fiddling.

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Altria Launches New Products

Recently Altria declared that it will launch its new products -Skoal Sticks and Marlboro Sticks. In such a case, Altria continues to do whatever Reynolds does even if it doesn’t know why.

Earlier, David Howard of RJ Reynolds spoke in an interview about the Camel smoke-free products such as: Camel Orbs, Camel Strips, and Camel Sticks, which are dissolvable tobacco products. In the course of interview, Howard became quite excited over the continued use by the anti-tobacco extremists of descriptors like Candy, Chewing Gum and Mint when criticizing the dissolvable tobacco products. “Camel Dissolvables are only for and promoted to adults cigarette consumers. We specify that in our advertising and point of purchase materials. All our products are labeled with adequate graphic warnings are sold from behind the counter like all other tobacco products to adults legally of age to buy smokes in that State,” Howard stated.
Several anti-tobacco extremist groups as ACS, ALA and CTFK are agitated. They declared victory when Reynolds declared they were removing the Camel Dissolvables from their two exploratory markets. However the victory was not long as Reynolds after some time announced they would start promoting the Camel Dissolvable products in two new exploratory markets - Denver and Charlotte. And now Altria enters the dissolvable’s marketplace with Marlboro Sticks and Skoal Sticks.

The same anti-tobacco extremist groups spent no time in bringing the same charge against the new Altria dissolvable products launching under the Marlboro and Skoal brand names. In its turn, Big Pharma – the maker of nicotine chewing gum in various flavors as Cherry, Fruit Chill, Fresh Mint and many others requested FDA to urge the removal of Camel Dissolvable products from the market last year. Their dissimulation is striking, yet quite familiar.

Bill Godshall, Exective Director of Smokefree Pennslyvania, has long been attempting to eradicate cigarette smoking by providing smoke free alternatives to current smokers. As Bill’s ideas and position express compassion for the nicotine-addicted, many of his former anti-tobacco adherents have abandoned him.

In a recent interview Godshall summed up the fear of the anti-tobacco extremist groups quite simply. “The reason anti-tobacco extremists wrongly state that dissolvable tobacco products are aimed to youngsters is because they don’t want adult smokers to switch from their regular smokes to these far less hazardous alternatives.”

As about the continuous use of the words candy, mints and gum by the same extremists, Godshall added the following, “Anyone who really wants to drop smoking rate among youth would never name these products candy, as doing so attracts youth usage.”

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