Funding cancer research is top priority, ACS, lawmakers agree

Regional lawmakers from across the Hudson Valley Friday morning discussed the importance of effectively preventing, treating, and eradicating cancer during a breakfast hosted by the American Cancer Society at the Kingston Holiday Inn.

The three topics of focus were the establishment of a Health Insurance Exchange, current legislation banning indoor tanning for minors, as well as legislation protecting children from flavored tobacco products and tobacco advertising.

Some of the flavored cigarettes are Kiss Super slims Menthol cigarettes, Eva Slims Menthol cigarettes.

State Senator William Larkin stressed the importance of making more funding available stating that we cannot fall behind on keeping our knowledge of cancer current.

“We ought to be able to say to Washington stop sending our tax dollars oversees and send it back to the United States of America so that they can make progress in programs such as cancer research,” he said.

Assemblyman Kevin Cahill said that in order for long term solutions to come to fruition it is necessary to change behavior as a government and as citizens.

Assemblyman Peter Lopez agreed saying part of the issue has been focusing on what is to be done from a preventative and well-care standpoint.

“Many of our groups are working on peer networking, educational outreach, seminars, and really changing the healthcare system to encourage people to take more ownership of their own personal healthcare,” he said.

This includes educating people on identifying symptoms so that they are able to report them to physicians early while treatment is most effective, said Lopez.

Ulster County Executive Michael Hein said the fight against cancer is a collective battle and individuals in the county can make a difference right now by eating a little better, being a little more active, committing a few dollars to research, and making sure that they help everyone around them do the same.

Lead Legislative Ambassador for the 22nd Congressional District Neil Eisenberg said it is “crucial we focus on the importance of continued funding for cancer research because the major advancements made in fighting cancer have been directly related to federally funded cancer research.”

Now, Pay $175 for Possessing Illegal Smokes in Ontario

In a bid to boost the number of non-smokers in the region, the government officials of Ontario have called for stricter measures on public smoking.

As per the new guideline that has been issued just this week, anyone found with contraband cigarettes in their possession will have to pay a hefty fine between $100 and $500.

Available at low costs, these cigarettes are a hit among young smokers. According to the findings of a recent study, these illegal contraband tobaccos account for more than 40% of those smoked by high schoolers.

Most of the times illegal cigarettes are being Marlboro brand or Winston cigarettes.

The proposal has been welcomed by the unions and the groups alike, with many feeling that the fine can prompt people to stop buying the illegal cigarettes.

The anti-smoking groups have supported the new legislation and have asserted that if a person will have to shell out $175 fine for a $15 cigarette, he will never again think of doing that.

It is, however, maintained that along with imposition of new rules and fines on the smokers, the government should also tight its grip on the cigar manufacturers.

Commending the decision, the Revenue Minister, Sophia Aggelonitis during a recent media briefing said: “Illegal tobacco is a complicated issue; it is an issue that is multi-ministerial, multi-jurisdictional. We're working with all our partners, and it is important for us to take this first step”.

SGA works on series of new bills

SGA is hoping to make campus safer, cleaner and more efficient for students. Enforcement of the no tobacco rule on campus, the Maintenance Entrance Note Act of 2011 and the Green Fee Committee are all projects on which SGA is currently working.

Tech has been a tobacco free campus for more than a year now, but many students who choose to use tobacco products break this rule on a daily basis and cause frustration to numerous students who choose not to use tobacco products.

"There's nothing really set in stone to enforce that policy because you really can't give a ticket to a student for smoking," said SGA President Sean Ochsenbein. "In that sense, there is no sole person that is out there among the group that is enforcing that policy."

SGA is now trying to come up with a cohesive and realistic way of approaching enforcement of no tobacco on campus. Ochsenbein has talked to students and come up with an idea that might be proposed to the administrative council in the next few weeks.

Another change that SGA hopes to make on campus is raising an awareness of maintenance workers entering residence halls and dorm rooms. During the March 1 meeting, SGA Senator Bo Murphy moved to accept the Maintenance Entrance Note Act of 2011. It was passed with friendly amendments.

The act requires that all maintenance workers must leave a note stating that they were in the room and the reason for their presence.

"It gives security to the student and a little bit of understanding of why someone was in the room," Ochsenbein said.

Yet another change that SGA is hoping to make on campus involves the Green Fee Committee. The committee is in charge of allocating the utilization of Green Fee money. The money comes from a fund that was the result of a bill that was approved Fall 2005, similar to the Student Organization Life Opportunity Fund that was created last year.

"There was a movement about five years ago in the state schools to find money to promote a green initiative on campuses," Ochsenbein said. "Of course, with state funding continually being reduced, students are paying more for their education than the state is, and there's not a lot of funding for those kinds of areas because most of it is going to the education.

"The money that is in that fund will be able to sustain a recycling program on campus that would be professional," Ochsenbein said.

The recycling plan includes putting recycling receptacles around campus in strategic locations where there is a high volume of traffic. The plan also involves having a service that will come to pick up the recycled materials and empty the recycling bins.

Ochsenbein expects all of these changes around campus to be put into effect within the next few weeks.

Menthol Cigarettes Pose No Added Lung Cancer Risk: Study

The risk of lung cancer for people who smoke menthol cigarettes is no greater than that of those who prefer regular cigarettes, researchers report.

The findings echo those of a U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory panel that made headlines Friday when it said a ban on mentholated cigarettes might benefit the public health. While the panel concluded that menthols' minty flavor seems to help people take up smoking more readily, it added that there was no evidence menthols were any more dangerous than regular cigarettes in terms of risks for lung cancer or other respiratory ailments.

The new study, published online March 23 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, seems to agree with that notion. In fact, the researchers found that people who smoke menthol cigarettes might even have a somewhat lower risk of developing and dying from lung cancer than other smokers. a good example of Menthol cigs are Karelia menthol cigs.

But one expert said that no one should be misled by the findings into thinking menthols can keep lung cancer, emphysema and other respiratory diseases at bay.

"While this study finds no difference in lung cancer rates in smokers of menthol cigarettes versus non-menthol cigarettes, it is still inconveniently true that all cigarettes can cause lung cancer, as well as other cancers, heart disease, COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] and circulatory problems," said Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. "There is simply no safe smoking."

The U.S. team analyzed data from almost 86,000 people taking part in an ongoing multiracial study in 12 southern states. They identified 440 lung cancer patients and compared them with more than 2,200 healthy people.

Menthol cigarettes were associated with lower lung cancer incidence and fewer lung cancer deaths than regular cigarettes, according to the study. For example, among people who smoked 20 or more cigarettes a day, menthol cigarette smokers were about 12 times more likely to develop lung cancer than never-smokers while the risk was about 21 times higher for smokers of regular cigarettes.

Menthol cigarettes are no more, and perhaps less, harmful than regular cigarettes, concluded study author William J. Blot, of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center in Nashville, Tenn., and the International Epidemiology Institute in Rockville, Md., and colleagues.

The study authors agreed with Horovitz, however, that there is no safe cigarette.

"Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of premature death in the United States, but undue emphasis on reduction of menthol relative to other cigarettes may distract from the ultimate health prevention message that smoking of any cigarettes is injurious to health," Blot's team noted.

After looking over its advisory panel's report, the FDA will consider whether to ban or regulate menthol cigarettes. According to officials, the first response to the report is due from the agency within three months.

Room to raise state tobacco taxes

Amid the doom and gloom of budget shortfall talk, our legislators have an opportunity to offer some hope. Since 2004 or 2005 there hasn't been a tax hike on tobacco products in Alabama. As usual we find ourselves behind that tax as well.

Lawmakers can raise the current tax by 100 percent and still be behind the national average ($1.45) and behind 29 states, the District of Columbia and three territories which tax tobacco above $1.

Cigarettes have become more and more expensive and even the brands as Astra cigarettes or Beverlly cigarettes are too expensive now.

The increase would be a win-win situation. If people stop smoking, they will experience better health and the state would spend less on health care coverage and have fewer absentees from work due to smoking-related illnesses.

If not, the money could go toward stopping the educational bleeding caused by proration. It could provide books, supply money, lower pupil-teacher ratios, technology for the classroom and a solid investment in the future of our children. Lawmakers could also increase taxes on other recreational killers, such as alcohol. Anything else is illegal, but it is sold in Alabama.

It is time to put education and children first in funding. If there must be cuts in education, let it be after all else has failed.
Mary Hooks
Tuskegee

Words of warning about cigarettes

One shows a mother blowing smoke into her child's face - "Tobacco smoke can harm your children," the warning says. Another one shows a man exhaling smoke through his neck - "Cigarettes are addictive," the picture warns.

There is no difference between cigarettes like Astra brand or Dunhill cigarettes as they all influence our health.

A few even show corpses - one of them dressed in his Sunday's best in a coffin and the other wearing a toe tag - with the strongest warning of all: "Smoking can kill you."
These new labels, which will cover half of a pack and a fifth of an advertisement, may not get the nearly 50 million Americans who smoke to change their habits, said University of Georgia advertising professor Dean Krugman. But they are a step in the right direction.
"I think these will be a marked improvement over what is currently in place," Krugman said. "I think the (Food and Drug Administration) made a wise choice."
The new Tobacco Control Act gives the FDA the power to regulate the warnings on cigarette cartons and advertisements starting in June. It will take another 15 months for the nine new health warnings to take effect.
Krugman has followed the development of the new warnings closely.
He started studying the effectiveness of cigarette warnings in the 1980s and worked with the American Cancer Society and the U.S. Department of Justice to see if they could be better.
Krugman found that the current black and white warning labels, which take up just 5 percent of tobacco ads, weren't very effective at all.
"What we found is that, with black and white warnings, people don't tend to look," he said.
"No matter what the warning says, it's not going to be effective."
The new warning labels are much different and in line with the same used in Canada and several European countries, Krugman said. The FDA settled on nine warnings with a mix of photo and animated graphics.
Gone are warnings like "Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide" or "Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy."
They are replaced by labels that read, "Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease," "Cigarettes cause cancer" and "Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers."
"What we've learned is that there is no room for subtlety," Krugman said. "You need to be direct because you don't have that much time and space."
The FDA still faces an uphill battle. Tobacco companies continue to spend billions of dollars every year on marketing campaigns, Krugman said.
Teenagers and young smokers may not heed the new warnings because they aren't thinking of consequences that can be decades ahead of them.
The new labels may not have an immediate effect, he said. But they will make a difference.
"It's not a matter of cause; it's a matter of influence," he said. "I believe this will be a huge step forward."

Oregon Cigarette Sale, Tobacco Related Cancers Decrease

According to new data released this week, as cigarette sales statewide have decreased, tobacco-related cancer diagnoses and deaths have declined as well. Between 1996 and 2009, Oregon saw a 48% decrease in per-capita cigarette purchase. In Deschutes County, the percentage of adults that smoke has dropped from 19% to 14%. Deschutes County Tabacco Prevention Specialist David Visiko, was a guest Friday morning on Wake Up Bend!, said local public places, like Bend Parks, the County Fairgrounds and St. Charles Medical Center campus going smoke free has helped.

"The latest stat of I saw was about 70% of people who do smoke want to quit. So, when the environment helps to shape their behavior, they're more apt to say ‘OK, I can't smoke here, I can't smoke there, I've been wanting to quit anyway so here we go'."

The Department of Human Services adds second-hand smoke exposure has dropped in the workplace, and more people now report they do not allow smoking in their home.

Visiko said more needs to be done locally to lower that usage number. He said while decreasing, the number of middle school students that light up locally is still higher than the state average.

"I think we need to start changing environments so more people are encouraged to quit or avoid starting such as tobacco price increases, countering any of the tobacco industry advertising in the communities where some of this heavy marketing continues unabated."

Visiko said the state allocated $8 million to fight tobacco, while the tobacco industry spent $134 million in ads in 2006.