According to WHO, the tobacco industry spends billions around the year in advertising, promotion and sponsorship. In countries like ours where direct advertising is banned, the tobacco industry usually adopts a technique called ‘surrogate advertising’ in which they promote other products to drill the brand name into the consumer. The long-term goal is a total ban on direct and indirect advertising, promotion and sponsorship, as provided in guidelines to Article 13 of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, can substantially reduce tobacco consumption and protect people, particularly the youth, from industry marketing tactics. To be effective, bans must be complete and apply to all marketing categories.

Currently, it’s believed tobacco kills nearly six million people every year and of them six lakh die due to exposure to passive smoking. While the Section 5 of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act prescribes a complete ban on all forms of tobacco promotions, advertisements and sponsorships, companies get around this loophole by using surrogate advertising which employs similar imagery logos for tobacco and non-tobacco products.

Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, a cancer surgeon at Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital who recently won the prestigious Wilkenfeld Award in the US for his innovative leadership in the fight to reduce tobacco use in India feels that industry manipulates people by forcing them to use their products.  He said, ‘The industry uses strategic tactics to dilute the tobacco control policy. They lobby with the government and see to it that the policies are delayed and weakened before implementation. They promote their products either through indirect advertisements or diversify their products. They showcase as a doing good for the well-being of the society by investing in corporate social responsibility or giving bravery awards.’

‘Second-hand smoke is in fact more dangerous that inhaled smoke and 40 per cent 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,’ said researcher Linda Pagani.

‘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 the time they finished fourth grade,’ Pagani said.

Pagani relied on longitudinal data collected by Quebec health authorities from birth onward on an annual basis. Although no direct causal link can be determined, the statistical correlation suggests that secondhand smoke exposure does forecast deviant behaviour in later childhood, the study found. The very detailed information collated for the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development enabled Pagani to do something no other researcher has done to date: distinguish the unique contribution of secondhand smoke exposure on children’s later deviant behaviour.

‘Previous studies looking at groups of children have generally asked mothers whether they smoked or not, and how much at each follow-up, rather than asking whether someone smoked in the home where young children live and play,’ Pagani said. ‘Furthermore, few studies have looked at antisocial behaviour in the parents and even fewer have investigated the subsequent influence of prolonged exposure to secondhand smoke over the long term.

‘None have taken into account the fact that disadvantaged families are less likely to participate in a long study like this one, which of course skews the statistics,’ Pagani said. The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

According to WHO, passive smoking causes 600,000 deaths every year. Here are 10 facts you should know about about passive smoking. 

Mukhopadhyay said the West Bengal chief minister announced a 10 percent tax hike on cigarettes. ‘Higher prices discourage youth from initiating cigarette smoking and encourage current smokers to quit, but such a move should certainly not be accompanied by suggestions that people should use more tobacco.’

‘We appreciate the tax increase on cigarettes, on the one hand. However, it is shocking to hear the statement encouraging people to smoke more, instead of protecting people of West Bengal from the dangers of tobacco use,’ she said.

The Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) India released by the union ministry of health and family welfare, reveals that about 36.3 percent of West Bengal’s population uses a tobacco product in one or other form. Among these, 21.3 percent people are cigarette smokers, 15.7 percent are bidi smokers, and 21.9 percent use smokeless tobacco.

In a bid to cut down on the consumption of products containing tobacco or nicotine in West Bengal, the office of the commissioner of food safety, under the state health and family welfare department, recently issued a notification prohibiting manufacture, storage, sale or distribution of gutka, pan masala and other products containing tobacco or nicotine as ingredients for a period of one year with effect from May 1, 2013.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced a Rs.500 crore fund on Wednesday to compensate the poorest among lakhs of depositors who have lost their savings in the Saradha chit fund collapse. The chief minister announced a 10 percent additional tax on cigarettes to mop up revenue to reimburse the poor people defrauded by Saradha chit fund, and suggested, with the hint of a smile, that people should smoke more for a few days to help raise the money sooner.

Source: IANS

Researchers said that hookah smoke exposed people to higher levels of carbon monoxide which is especially hazardous for those suffering from heart disease or respiratory conditions. It also exposes users to higher levels of benzene which has long been associated with leukaemia. The main reason scientists embarked on this research was because a number of people wanted to know if switching from a regular cigarette to a water pipe was a wiser option. Since they found no real difference in the amount of danger a smoker puts himself/herself in they suggest that quitting and switching is the best way to go.  Compared to non-smokers, if an individual smokes a hookah everyday, he or she is more likely to be at increased risk for cancer, scientists said.

The UCSF study included eight men and five women, all of whom had previous experience smoking cigarettes and using water pipes. Benowitz and Jacob had the volunteers smoke an average of three water pipe sessions or 11 cigarettes per day. Scientists found that the level of benzene byproducts doubled in urine. When compared to smoking this was a huge leap. Occupational exposure to benzene has been shown to increase the risk of developing leukaemia.Furthermore, the researchers measured carbon monoxide in the breath over 24 hours and found levels 2.5 higher after water pipe use in comparison to cigarette smoking. The differences in the slew of toxins that ended up in the bodies of volunteers were due largely to the fact that the smokers were smoking two different materials, according to Benowitz.

The chief scientist benowitz said that the smoking a hookah is basically burning tobacco over coal with some fruit flavouring. When there organic compounds are burned, they release a toxic substance called, VOC (volatile organic compound) and PAH’s (polycyclic aromatic compounds) which are highly carcinogenic (cancer causing).

The bright side to the study, it found that smoking a hookah reduced the amount of nicotine, (the addictive compound in cigarette) inhaled.

Nicotine activates the dopamine system and reward-related regions in the brain. Nicotine withdrawal naturally results in decreased activity of these regions, which has been closely associated with craving, relapse, and continued nicotine consumption.

One of the critical reward-related regions is the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, which can be targeted using a brain stimulation technology called trans-cranial magnetic stimulation, according to the study published in journal Biological Psychiatry. Trans-cranial magnetic stimulation is a non-invasive procedure that uses magnetic fields to stimulate nerve cells.

It does not require sedation or anaesthesia and so patients remain awake, reclined in a chair, while treatment is administered through coils placed near the forehead. Dr Xingbao Li and colleagues at Medical University of South Carolina examined cravings triggered by smoking cues in 6 nicotine-dependent volunteers who received one session each of high frequency or sham repetitive trans-cranial magnetic stimulation applied over the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

They found that craving induced by smoking cues was reduced after participants received real stimulation. They also reported that the reduction in cue-induced craving was positively correlated with level of nicotine dependence, in other words, the TMS-induced craving reductions were greater in those with higher levels of nicotine use.

‘While this was only a temporary effect, it raises the possibility that repeated TMS sessions might ultimately be used to help smokers quit smoking,’ said Li. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable deaths globally. Smoking cessation is difficult, with more than 90 per cent of attempts to quit resulting in relapse.

 ‘The prevalence of NCDs (non-communicable diseases) such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and cancers is increasing. High blood pressure is a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease; in 2008, 24 percent of all deaths in India was from cardiovascular diseases,’ he said. Major risk factors include unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, tobacco intake, and harmful use of alcohol, he said, adding awareness would be created about the need for a healthy lifestyle.

 The theme of World Health Day 2013 is hypertension or high blood pressure, and Desiraju said this would be a focus area in the national programme. Listing the steps taken by the government for early detection of diabetes and blood pressure, he said: ‘Under the NPCDCS (National Programme for the Prevention and Control of Cancer), about 1.76 crore people aged 30 years and above have been screened for diabetes and hypertension, out of which 7.22 percent were suspected of having diabetes and 6.59 percent hypertension.’

Nata Menabde, WHO representative to India, said: ‘High blood pressure affects one in three adults worldwide and leads to more than nine million deaths globally every year. Many people do not even know they suffer from high blood pressure.’ She stressed the need for action at the community level for prevention and control of this silent killer. Menabde said that in many countries, including India, the out-of-pocket expenditure incurred on NCDs is high, contributing to the impoverishment of households and hitting the poor the worst, as these are chronic conditions requiring long-term and often expensive treatment.

Source: IANS

A similar trend holds true for deaths from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), another smoking-related condition, the New England Journal of Medicine reports. In this case, the risk of death rose from four times greater than it was for never-smokers in the 1960s to 22.5 times, according to the Daily Mail.

Women smokers today start their habit earlier than they did generations ago, and until recently smoked more cigarettes per day. Tobacco use among women peaked in the 1980s, having a health impact that was felt many years later. The study involved more than 2.2 million men and women aged 55 and older and included data spanning the period from 1959 to 2010. 

Men and women who smoked in the current decade were almost equally more at risk than non-smokers of suffering lung cancer, COPD, heart disease and strokes, the research showed. For reasons still not understood, lung cancer rates among men plateaued in the 1980s while the risk of death from COPD in the male population continued to increase. The findings strongly confirm the claim that ‘if women smoke like men, they will die like men,’ says the researchers. Quitting smoking at any age dramatically reduces death rates from all major diseases caused by smoking, the study found.

Paradoxically, there could be a link between higher death rates and the rise in popularity of milder ‘light’ cigarettes, according to study author Michael Thun from the American Cancer Society. He said: ‘The steep increase in risk among female smokers has continued for decades after the serious health risks from smoking were well established, and despite the fact that women predominantly smoked cigarette brands marketed as lower in tar and nicotine.’

‘India was at the forefront in demanding effective and visible picture-based health warnings on tobacco packs at the negotiations of FCTC in 2003. It is regretful that India occupies the 123rd position among countries which have introduced health warnings,’ said Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, executive director, VHAI.

In 2004, India signed and ratified FCTC that required it to carry health warnings on tobacco products’ packets describing the harmful effects of tobacco use on health — a proven strategy to deter people from smoking or chewing tobacco. The warning should be 50 percent or more of the principal display areas, but shall be no less than 30 percent of the display areas according to FCTC.

Although India introduced pictorial warnings on packets of tobacco products in 2008, the new report shows the country lags far behind many countries in giving optimum space to health warnings on tobacco products’ packs. ‘India’s tobacco pack warning covers only 40 percent of the front panel, while there is none on the rear side. This pushed India to the 123rd rank, compared to Pakistan’s 65th and Bangladesh’s 97th rank in the report,’ the VHAI statement added.

Australia, which has been ranked first in the report, gives 82.5 percent space to pictorial warning on tobacco product packs, while Uruguay and Sri Lanka which jointly hold the second rank dedicate 80 percent space to health warnings on the packs.

A survey by the Global Adult Tobacco Survey says India has nearly 274.9 million tobacco users, the third-largest in the world. Tobacco kills nearly one million people every year due to related diseases such as cancer, heart and lung illness.

The international status report on pictorial health warnings was first released in 2008.

Incidentally, for some bizarre reason cigarette packets in India has ex-England captain and Chelsea footballer John Terry’s picture on the cover photo. 

Source: IANS

On the other hand women who don’t quit smoking lose up to 10 years of their life, the Independent reported. The findings show that smokers who continue with the habit after 40 have 10 times the risks of those who stop at 40. 

The risks are highest among the heaviest smokers, but even light smokers, who consume between 1 and 9 cigarettes a day, have twice the risk of dying prematurely compared with non-smokers. Although the figures are drawn from women smokers, experts said men faced a similar risk, according to the newspaper.

Also read: Women and smoking 

Source: IANS

According to the study, pro-smoking apps that show that smoking is ‘cool’ in a cartoon game, and provide a chance to explore the available cigarette brands and even simulate the smoking experience with high-quality, free apps ‘could potentially increase teens’ risk of smoking initiation’. 

The authors searched the Apple App store and Android Market, using the keywords ‘smoke,’ ‘cigarette,’ ‘cigar,’ ‘smoking’ and ‘tobacco,’ and they identified 107 apps that they believe encourage smoking. Most of the apps were free, and some – but not all – included an age-restriction that said, ‘Tap OK to confirm that you are 17 or over.’ The Washington-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a non-profit organisation that advocates for the reduction of tobacco use, found the study ‘alarming’.

‘It is deeply troubling that such a powerful and rapidly expanding marketing tool, one that reaches kids easily and cost-effectively, is being used to promote smoking,’ said Matthew Myers, the organisation’s president. Myers said the study should prompt action to prevent smartphone apps from becoming a new means of marketing cigarettes to kids.