Race fans who attend the Indianapolis Motor Speedway – and residents who live near the track – are being warned of a possible link between hot dogs and cancer, Fox 59 reported. A billboard on West 16th Street shows hot dogs inside of a cigarette pack. “Hot dogs can wreck your health,” it reads. The cigarette package has a picture of a skull and crossbones.

The American Institute for Cancer research says one, 50-gram piece of processed meat – such as a hot dog – can increase the risk of colorectal cancer by 21 percent.
Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the U.S., according to the American Cancer Society.
A recent study published in the Journal of Epidemology says that processed foods like bacon and hot dogs do not increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.

California’s adult smoking rate hit a record low last year, 11.9 percent, state health officials announced this week. While smoking prevalence has fallen across the board, the number masks big disparities among demographic groups. The state’s analysis [PDF] shows smoking prevalence by sex, age, school grade and four ethnic groups – white, African American, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific Islander.

But the state’s own research in recent years has revealed wide variations in smoking rates among and within Asian ethnic groups; lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender populations; and people on active military duty. The disparities underscore the challenges of combating tobacco use in different communities.
Take for example African Americans, who have the highest smoking rate of the four ethnic groups represented. More than 18 percent of African American men and nearly 15 percent of women were smokers last year. For African American women, smoking prevalence has remained relatively flat for the past five years.

“This is something we are really struggling with,” said Colleen Stevens, chief of the California Tobacco Control Program. “I don’t think we can clearly say we have all the answers, either to the cause of why it’s happening or the absolute solution.”

Research has shown that there is more advertising of tobacco products in African American communities, Stevens said. A recent study by Stanford University found that menthol cigarettes were marketed in a predatory manner to African American high schoolers in California.

Stevens said the state is working with community leaders and conducting focus groups to figure out how best to decrease smoking among African Americans.

At the other end of the spectrum are Asian/Pacific Islanders. Four percent of Asian/Pacific Islander women and 8.4 percent of men smoked last year – the lowest rates of any ethnic group. But those numbers obscure variations among specific ethnicities and generational differences.

Several years ago, after receiving a bump in funding, the program conducted smoking surveys of several specific populations, including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults; active military personnel; and Vietnamese, Asian Indian, Chinese and Korean adults.

“We really felt we didn’t have a good handle on male, female, one Asian group to another,” Stevens said. “We really tried to figure out where the need was.”

The results revealed huge disparities. Smoking prevalence among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Californians was nearly double that of the general population in 2002. LGBT women, specifically, smoked at a rate of 32.5 percent, compared with 11.9 percent for adult women generally.

Similarly, the smoking rate among Californians actively serving in the military was 33.8 percent in 2002 – well above the 15.4 percent rate among the general population.

While about 12 percent of all Asian/Pacific Islanders smoked in 2002, surveys showed that as many as 41 percent of Korean men ages 18 to 24 were smokers, and assimilation affected Korean men and women differently.

“Korean men, the longer they’re in this country, the better their English, the lower they smoke. Korean women come in smoking very low; the longer they’re in this country … it starts to creep up. It’s a social norm that pulls people,” Stevens said.

Indeed, 36.1 percent of Korean men who spent less than 10 percent of their lives in the United States smoked, the survey showed. By the time they had spent 75 to 100 percent of their lives in the country, smoking prevalence dropped to 31.1 percent.

Korean women, on the other hand, have a smoking rate of 0 percent when they’ve been in the country less than 10 percent of their lives. Among those who had been in the U.S. 75 to 100 percent of their lives, smoking prevalence is 13.2 percent.

Perceptions of and attitudes toward smoking also varied substantially among different groups. Whereas 98.3 percent of Vietnamese men who smoked said they believed smoking harmed their own health, less than 80 percent of Korean smokers strongly agreed with this statement, and about 16 percent slightly agreed.

Aggregating demographic groups “is troubling – especially for populations where the rate is higher,” said S. Alecia Sanchez, director of state legislative advocacy for the American Cancer Society. “We’re very concerned about that because these people are gambling with their health in a way we know is really dangerous.”

Understanding and targeting disparities in smoking prevalence requires more resources, Sanchez said. The American Cancer Society is sponsoring the California Cancer Research Act, which would increase the tax on each pack of cigarettes from 87 cents to $1.87. The initiative has qualified for the next statewide ballot.

A majority of the revenue – $855 million in its first year, decreasing about 3 percent thereafter – would support research of tobacco-related disease and cancer. Funding for the California Tobacco Control Program would increase by three times, Sanchez said.

Since 1988, when California voters approved a 25-cent tax on tobacco products through Proposition 99, the proportion of adults who smoke has dropped 49 percent. A nickel from each pack of cigarettes has funded the state’s tobacco control efforts.

“A lot of progress that’s happened in the state of California has been a result of how that money was invested,” Stevens said. “But there are still 3.6 million smokers in California alone. … So even though our overall prevalence is marvelously low compared to everybody else, we still know we have a lot of work to do.”

California is the second state, behind Utah, to reach a federal target of reducing the adult smoking rate to 12 percent by 2020.

It takes about 15 minutes to take a shower in the morning, 30 minutes to watch a TV sitcom—and about 15 to 30 minutes for the carcinogenic effects of inhaling tobacco smoke to start damaging your DNA. The mutations caused by smoking are linked to the changes involved in turning healthy cells into cancer cells according to a new study from the University of Minnesota and the National Chemical Association.

The report, appearing in the peer-reviewed journal Chemical Research and Toxicology Saturday, found that chemicals in tobacco trigger DNA mutations within minutes of puffing.

“Smoking is going to have an immediate effect on your health,” said Stephen Hecht, an author of the study and researcher at the Masonic Cancer Center and department of pharmacology at University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. “You’re going to start down the wrong path with no delay. As soon as you take the first puff you’re going to start the process.”

The Minneapolis researchers are reportedly the first to study the way certain chemicals in tobacco cause DNA damage linked to cancer in humans.

The research shows that the bad stuff in cigarette tobacco — polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons—creates a metabolite or enzyme that attacks the DNA. Its levels are highest in the blood 15 to 30 minutes after smoking a cigarette – a timeframe that would be similar if an intravenous dose had been administered.

“One cigarette, within a few minutes of smoking it, causes damage to your DNA and damage to your DNA is what causes cancer,” said Dr. Kyle Hogarth, co-director of the upper aerodigestive cancer risk clinic and medical director of the pulmonary rehabilitation program at University of Chicago.

“Literally every mutation represents a crap shoot roll of the dice. It takes one roll of the dice to get the mutation that will give you lung cancer.“

American Cancer Society data notes that smoking causes 87 percent of lung cancer cases and is attributable to at least 15 other kinds of cancer, including pancreatic cancer and acute leukemia.

“I think the key thing is that [this research] demonstrates that there is no such thing as a safe cigarette, or a safe level of cigarette smoking,” Hogarth said.

Deaths attributed to smoking in Illinois totaled 16,600, according to the most recent data reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s State Tobacco Activities Tracking and Evaluation System.

“The science is becoming ever more clear —not that just cigarette smoke is bad, but the changes in your body begin to happen quickly after smoking,” said Danny McGoldrick, vice president of research at the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids in Washington, D.C.

The National Cancer Institutes reported in 2009 that the average age of first use of cigarettes is 15.

“This kind of research [in Minneapolis] shows why keeping kids from starting is so important,” McGoldrick said.

He said the research’s message should be tested with a target audience, especially to determine if young people will respond to it. He said: “It may send us a new path to go down in reaching out to young people.”

Hogarth said: “I look at data like this with hope that it will be the magic bullet to get people to quit or not start.The implications are very real. You don’t have to cut down, you have to cut out.”

This is the first installment in our new series on personal vices. NYU Local writers have plenty of them, but we know we’re not alone. Before I left for NYU my parents made something clear: they would fuck me up if I started smoking cigarettes. They have no hard feelings towards weed or alcohol, but the idea of their niño paying a lot of money to slowly kill himself makes them freak. They also run a fitness/wellness company, there’s that. No one in my high school smoked tobacco, either.

Why, then, is this freshman and supposedly strong willed person falling to the awesome powers of marketing/peer-pressure now?

When in doubt, I ask myself: what would Don Draper do? The answer is almost always look cool while casually smoking a butt. I knew that cigarettes would be big in New York, so I had to brace myself for some type of decision once arriving. It’s easy (read: a cop-out) to say “I’ll only smoke when I drink,” or “it will be casual, not a regular thing,” but not for me. I’ve got an addictive personality, and it’s either go all in or don’t.

As I left for NYU, I made a mental pro’s and con’s list, regarding the benefits of smoking. The result was that I believed I could easily get by and be social without spending twelve dollars on a pack that donkey punches my lungs. I even came up with options in which I can hang around cigarette smoker without feeling the need to smoke:

I could just wall lean and talk to my cool-looking friends who smoke.
I could smoke a huge, Winston Churchill-esque cigar to somewhat prevent the possibility of habit.
I could hold a lit cigarette (as an acquaintance used to do) but never actually take drags from it.
I could be the kid who’s always got a yo-yo instead of a cigarette.
I could always have a joint on me.
But no, I’m slowly evolving (devolving?) into a user. It’s a slow progression (I am yet to smoke more than two cigarettes in a day, and I have not bought a pack myself), but I still notice that it’s happening. I find it even more interesting that direct peer pressure has not really been an issue. A lot of the time a friend will leave whatever place we’re at to go outside and smoke. If previously engaged with said person in an interesting conversation, it is so hard not to go outside and continue to shoot the shit with them (whilst smoking, of course). It is way less likely that I will be offered a cigarette, being that cigarettes are fucking expensive.

Not to mention, it is still only week three of school, and everyone is still searching for a group of friends. I will take any chance given to continue a conversation and form a bond. So far, the majority of every real conversation I’ve had in Hayden dorm has been outside, bumming a cigarette off some other freshman. I catch up with people about what they did in a night while outside leaning against the brick building, American Spirit in hand. After asking a friend why she started smoking here, the response was that “not only is asking for a cigarette the easy conversation starter, it gives me something to do with my hands so I don’t look nervous or awkward when talking to someone new.” That sounds like a solid argument to me.

While countless parents, teachers, and those guilt-tripping Truth commercials have warned me about the dangers of smoking, I really just don’t give a fuck. Sure, I could save myself the health damages and money if I stop now. On the other hand, I’m young and will probably live forever.

Just like Russia, smoking cigarette is now popular among people in Cantabria, with a cumulative decline of 9.3 percent in the first seven months of the year. It has been continued actually. Anyway, cigarettes are still the leading consumption of snuff, far ahead of cigars and snuff pipe and rolling, and the collection grows despite the decline in sales due to the price increases.

This is seen in recent data from the Commissioner for the Tobacco Market. According to these data, at the end of July the region sold 28.3 billion packs of cigarettes, compared with almost 31.3 million in the same period of 2009, representing a decrease of 9.3 percent.
In total amount of sales of snuff in Cantabria (cigarettes, cigars, snuff and pipe rolling), it is reported that the number increased until late July. Sales of Cigarettes remain the most prominent with 20 millions units of cigarette sold starting from 2009. Here lie the sales of cigars, with 16 million units sold (31.3% more than a year earlier), which has resulted in a collection of more than 4.7 million euros (7.1 percent).
For its part, rolling snuff sold until July 26 270 kilos (almost 57% more than the same period of 2009), amounting to more than 2.3 million euros. And with regard to snuff, pipe consumption also increased, from 681-987 kilos, up around 45 percent, which in economic terms was reflected in an increase of 40 percent, from approximately 42 600 euros in the first seven months of 2009, more than 59,600 at the same time in 2010.

Smoking a pack (or two) of cigarettes each day is obviously not good for your lungs. But for those who enjoy an occasional smoke, an obvious question is, “How many cigarettes can I smoke before I start to do some damage?” The sobering answer: Zero. That’s the conclusion of a new study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College and Cornell University in New York.

The researchers recruited 121 healthy volunteers to pee into a cup and submit to a bronchoscopy, a procedure that included removing cells from the lining of the part of the airway that would first come into contact with inhaled smoke.

Smoking status was determined based on levels of nicotine and cotinine (a chemical produced in the body as nicotine is metabolized) found in their urine. The 40 people with undetectable levels of nicotine and cotinine were classified as nonsmokers; those with low levels were considered occasional smokers or people exposed to secondhand smoke; and those with high levels were considered regular smokers.

By comparing the lung biopsies from regular smokers to those from nonsmokers, the researchers identified 372 genes whose expression was triggered by tobacco smoke. Then they checked to see what those genes were doing in the occasional smokers. It turned out that 128 of those genes (34%) had been activated — presumably by cigarettes — including 41 (11%) that were “significantly modified,” according to the study.

Next, the researchers checked to see how much nicotine and cotinine had to be in the urine before changes in the lung cell genes were noticeable. For nicotine, that level was a mere 1.8 nanograms per milliliter — too low to be picked up in tests. In other words, “there was no detectable level” of nicotine that was considered harmless, the researchers wrote. For cotinine, the threshold was 11 ng/ml, only slightly higher than the amount that the most sensitive tests can detect.

Digging further, the researchers found that the two groups of genes that responded most strongly in the occasional smokers were the same two groups that are most active in regular smokers. “These changes in gene expression are likely the earliest biologic abnormalities in the small airway epithelium that lead to clinically detectable lung disease,” they wrote.

Considering that so many people are exposed to secondhand smoke or partake in an occasional cigarette, the findings are significant, they concluded.

Take a trip back in time while touring the Tobacco Valley Historical Village in Eureka. The village was established in 1971 when the Fewkes general store, Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church and the train depot were relocated from the old town of Rexford before it was flooded by Lake Koocanusa. In addition, the village houses the historic county library, Iowa Flats one-room school house, a hand-hewn log home complete with furnishings, a Great Northern caboose and a fire tower from Mount Roberts. All of the historic buildings and artifacts are from the Tobacco Valley area and date back to the 1880s and 1920s.

To aid in visualizing the life of settlers in the Tobacco Valley, each building is furnished with artifacts common to the area and time periods. See printing presses, photographs, home décor, school desks, books, utensils, Christmas treeing and logging tools among hundreds of other historical relics.

The Fewkes general store now serves as the Historical Village Museum. Become utterly lost in history while wandering the aisles of the store. Among the large collection of archival materials there is an extensive catalog of archived written and photographic resources.

How to get there: From Kalispell, take U.S. Highway 93 north to Eureka. The village is on the west side of the highway as you enter downtown Eureka.

By Lido Vizzutti, flatheadbeacon.com, June 14, 2010

Recently the chairman of a retailers’ group wrote in the Herald about his concerns over proposed restrictions around the sale of tobacco products. Health groups are saying the commercial self-interest of those backed by the tobacco industry needs to be set aside if we are to make gains against a disease that annually is responsible for 10 times the number of the deaths that occur on our roads. Following on from the rise in tobacco tax, other moves are being formulated to further reduce the impact of smoking-related diseases. Many different organisations have just finished making submissions to the Maori Affairs health select committee.

The committee’s focus is gathering evidence on the effect of tobacco on Maori communities and to consider the vision of a tobacco-free New Zealand in the future.

The Ministry of Health has also called for submissions on one particular strategy – the issue of removing tobacco displays in retail outlets. Several organisations are working to protect children from a tobacco addiction that, on average, starts below 15 years of age.

Removing these displays is part of a range of measures that will achieve this goal. Opposition from retailer organisations and tobacco companies is designed to protect turnover and profits.

So what do smokers actually think? Most smokers support putting tobacco under the counter, because they do not want their children to smoke.

Smokers themselves won’t be particularly affected by this move. They will still be able to buy tobacco at their local store or any of the usual outlets around town.

Just as they do now, customers will be able to ask for their preferred brand which will be kept in a drawer under the counter or perhaps on a covered shelf.

Many supermarkets have been selling cigarettes this way for years. What the tobacco industry is really worried about is how things will change over time. These displays are ubiquitous and they exist because they work as a de facto marketing tool.

In the near future our children will not see colourful and eye-catching displays of cigarettes sitting on the shelves next to the lollies every time they visit the dairy.

Smokers who are trying to quit will find the job a little easier when they aren’t confronted by shelves full of cigarettes each time they pay for their petrol or go to buy their milk and bread.

By John Loof, nzherald.co.nz, June 14, 2010

The next terror attack on America could be a self-inflicted wound — specifically, a cigarette burn.
Politicians expand tobacco taxes to discourage smoking and to feed their own nicotine-like addiction to public spending. Like so many others, this government action smolders with unintended consequences. Tobacco taxes create a perfect arbitrage opportunity that radical Muslims exploit to collect money for terrorist groups that murder Americans and our allies. Tobacco taxes should be cut, or at least frozen, before they fuel further Islamic-extremist violence.

Consider the first attack on the Twin Towers, which killed six and injured 1,040. As Patrick Fleenor recalled in a Cato Institute study, “counterfeit cigarette tax stamps were found in an apartment used by members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad cell that carried out the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.”

By article.nationalreview.com, June 10, 2010