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- Category: February 2019
According to a study conducted by Juul and presented Saturday at the Big-Pharma funded SRNT annual meeting, there is no difference between switching from smoking to Juul and quitting smoking cold turkey in terms of the reduction in biomarkers of toxic chemicals. This study adds to the already overwhelming evidence that vaping is much safer than smoking. And it further emphasizes the degree to which the Pennsylvania Department of Health is lying about the relative health effects of smoking vs. vaping. [...]
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- Category: February 2019
An expert pointed out how harmful so-called “heat-not-burn” cigarettes could be and offered tips for effective smoking cessation.
Kim Dae-jin, a professor at the psychiatry department at Seoul St. Mary’s Hospital, said that the new type of tobacco, designed to reduce carcinogens and let users absorb nicotine only, has become another stumbling block for smoking cessation. [...] “Heat-not-burn cigarettes are similar to conventional ones in terms of nicotine addiction because they also deliver nicotine to the brain,” he said.
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- Category: February 2019
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb expressed support Wednesday for raising the minimum age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21.
“We would support that," Gottlieb said in congressional testimony when asked by Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., if he would favor raising the minimum age.
“A lot of the youth access isn’t just 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds going into convenience stores and buying these products," Gottlieb explained. [...]
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- Category: February 2019
We all know that smoking is bad for us. But how many of us know how bad it is for the planet?
From the moment its seeds go into the ground to the moment its dried and shredded leaves are set alight by the world's 1.1 billion smokers, tobacco leaves a trail of untold destruction. Researchers from Imperial College London found that the industry's annual carbon footprint is almost twice that of Wales.
"If we continue to grow tobacco crops to meet the demand, we'll have huge environmental degradation," Vinayak Prasad, [...]
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- Category: February 2019
Hawaii lawmakers introduced a proposal that would ban menthol cigarettes and flavors in tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes and vaping devices. SB 1009 bans characterizing flavors including, but not limited to, “tastes or aromas relating to any candy, chocolate, vanilla, honey, fruit, cocoa, coffee, dessert, alcoholic beverage, menthol, mint, wintergreen, herb, or spice.” The legislation also prohibits the sale of tobacco products “that are in violation of federal [U.S. Food and Drug Administration] labeling requirements or that market to children.”
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- Category: February 2019
People who smoke more than 20 cigarettes a day risk damage to their vision, a new study has shown. "Cigarette smoke consists of numerous compounds that are harmful to health. It has been linked to a reduction in the thickness of layers in the brain, and to brain lesions, involving areas such as the frontal lobe, which plays a role in voluntary movement and control of thinking, and a decrease in activity in the area of the brain that processes vision," said Steven Silverstein, director of research at Rutgers University's Behavioural Health Care unit.
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- Category: February 2019
The report was conducted by a team of researchers hailing from several respected institutions and schools, led by Dr. David B. Abrams of New York University. The team wanted to understand the real-life impact of accepting vaping compared with continuing to treat it as merely an alternative forms of tobacco, as is currently the norm in America. To do this, they went back over years of reports and data to uncover any relevant connections and trends. [...]
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- Category: February 2019
Some variations in the gene LPHN3 -associated with the attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in kids and adults- could favour likelihood to smoke, consume alcohol, cannabis and other addictive substances, according to an article [...]
The findings are based on the study of around 2,700 patients -children, adolescents and adults- from the United States, Colombia and Spain, and it will contribute to provide new genetic tools to improve prevention of addictive behaviours in people with ADHD.
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- Category: February 2019
In Colorado, proposed legislation to ban vaping in public could have a staggering effect on cannabis consumers. House Bill 1076 would amend the state's Clean Indoor Air Act to include all e-cigarettes — meaning that any kind of vaporizer, be it for cannabis or tobacco, would be banned in restaurants, workplaces, and all indoor public areas (including some residential rentals), as well as outdoors within 25 feet of public buildings and workplaces.
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- Category: February 2019
Vaping and smoking have always been intrinsically intertwined, as modern e-cigarettes were only invented as a way to combat the ever-present tobacco epidemic. Despite this base connection, evidence shows that not only is vaping safer than smoking, but it’s approximately 95% safer, resulting in a 57,000 times lower excess lifetime cancer risk between demographically similar smokers and vapers. Making matters worse, Big Tobacco has been weaseling their way into the independent vaping market, [...]
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- Category: February 2019
Smoking prevalence is at an all-time low in England, but over six million people are still smoking. The recently published NHS Long Term Plan hails prevention as a way to save over 500,000 lives across the next ten years, and helping smokers to quit is a key part of the plan.
There are 2.5 million e-cigarette users across the country and we’re used to seeing people vaping. As popularity has increased over the past ten years, so too have discussions about their safety and how effective they are for quitting smoking.
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- Category: February 2019
According to the National Health Interview Survey, cigarette smoking among the American adults (aged ≥18 years) declined from 20.9% in 2005 to 15.5% in 2016. [...] The WHO report reveals that in 2015 there were 29 million fewer smokers compared with 2000. Still, some 1.1 billion people – 20% of the population over the age of 15- are active smokers.
Tommaso Di Giovanni, Director Global Communications, Philip Morris International has a similar point of view, as 'the World Health Organization acknowledges that this number is not going to decrease in the next decade, [...]
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- Category: February 2019
The growing momentum to keep tobacco products out of pharmacies could result in a statewide ban.
Legislation is scheduled to begin making its way through the Capitol this week that would prohibit the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies, and retailers that operate pharmacies. Municipalities, including New York City and Albany County, have already imposed their own bans, and tobacco products were voluntarily removed from CVS pharmacies in 2014.
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Bad experiences with law enforcement are often cumulative: The more negative interactions one has with the police early in life, the higher one’s likelihood of being arrested later in life.
So what would happen if we banned a product from the market that is disproportionately used within black communities—particularly when we know that these communities are more likely to have harmful police encounters?
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The higher the cotinine levels were in the mother's blood during pregnancy, the greater was the child's risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) later in life, showed an epidemiological study conducted by the Research Centre for Child Psychiatry at the University of Turku in Finland. [...] smoking during pregnancy remains a significant public health issue. During 2017, approximately 12.5% of all pregnant women in Finland smoked during pregnancy and 7% continued to smoke throughout their pregnancy.
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- Category: February 2019
Vaping was originally touted to smokers as a safer alternative to cigarettes, but for some teens it's becoming a new addiction.
For Isobel Casey, a Grade 11 student at Seycove Secondary in North Vancouver, the problem hits close to home.
"I have some really close friends who last year didn't touch [e-cigarettes], and now it's every hour," Casey said. "It used to just be some people but now you're seeing everyone get into it."
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- Category: February 2019
Regular vaping among young people remains low in Britain and has plateaued among adults, an independent report led by researchers at King’s College London and commissioned by Public Health England (PHE) has found. The findings show that while experimentation with e-cigarettes among young people has increased in recent years, regular use remains low. Only 1.7% of under-18s use e-cigarettes weekly or more, and the vast majority of those also smoke. Among young people who have never smoked, only 0.2% use e-cigarettes regularly.
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- Category: February 2019
New York City is about to make a decision that will resonate far beyond the five boroughs. In January, City Council Health Chair Mark Levine introduced Ordinance 1362, which would prohibit the sale of flavored e-cigarettes in the city.
“Vaping has reached epidemic levels among teens, with life-long implications for young people who become addicted to nicotine,” said Levine. “One of the tools the industry has used to draw in teenagers is candy flavors like chocolate mint, blueberry, or cherry crush. [...]
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Washington state lawmakers introduced legislation that would effectively make electronic cigarettes unaffordable for the vast majority of Evergreen State residents. HB 1863 would expand the definition of tobacco products to include e-cigarettes and vaping devices and apply a 95 percent tax on such products. Applying draconian taxes to tobacco harm reduction (THR) products would negatively impact public health and create an economic incentive for businesses to move from the Evergreen State.
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- Category: February 2019
British American Tobacco’s (LSE: BATS) share price is trading at tempting levels right now. Its average price in February is over 30% lower than the highest price level seen in the past year. In my view, as a FTSE 100 company with a long history, robust financials and captive demand, it’s a no-brainer that the time is still ripe to buy its shares.
However, the big question in my mind when researching this stock was: how long should investors hold it for? [...]