City to vet smoking rules near businesses, in Bidwell Park

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Smokers might have fewer places to light up if the Chico mayor and the American Lung Association have their way.
The Chico City Council voted unanimously Sept. 20 to pass on the smoking issue to the Internal Affairs Committee for vetting.
A letter from the American Lung Association asked Mayor Ann Schwab that the council consider prohibiting smoking in Bidwell Park, within 25 feet of business entryways and in outdoor dining and bar areas.
Schwab said in order to create consistency with the Chico Area Recreation District prohibiting smoking in neighborhood parks, she thinks the council should consider doing the same for Bidwell.
"I walk in the park most mornings. I always pick up cigarette butts. I walked on Sunday. I picked them all up. And I walked on Monday and I found all of these," Schwab said holding up a baggy full of cigarette butts.
"It's a litter problem. It's a hazard for potential wildfires. To me it's a big problem."
Though government buildings already have restrictions banning smoking within 25 feet of entryways, Schwab said she thinks the council should look at restrictions outside businesses.
The issue could appear on the Oct. 11 agenda for the Internal Affairs Committee, which has yet to be finalized.

Quitting Smoking Improves Memory

Former smokers have a better-functioning memory than those who still light up, a new study finds.

On a practical test of their recollection ability, people who on average had quit smoking for 2.5 years performed 25 percent better than current smokers did. People who had never smoked scored 37 percent better than the smokers.

"We already know that giving up smoking has huge health benefits for the body, but this study also shows how stopping smoking can have knock-on benefits for cognitive function, too," said study researcher Tom Heffernan, a psychology professor at Northumbria University in England.

Lighting up, or learning?

The researchers aimed to measure "real world" memory abilities by sending 69 study participants on a tour of a university campus. Twenty-seven were smokers, 18 were former smokers, and 24 never smoked.

The participants were given a list of 15 locations around campus and an action to perform at each location. For example, upon reaching the library, participants were supposed to remember to check for messages on their cell phones; upon reaching the sports center, they were supposed to remember to ask about the cost of membership.

On average, the smokers performed 8.9 tasks correctly. The participants who had quit smoking averaged 11 correctly performed tasks, and those who had never smoked averaged 12.1. There were no differences between the groups in terms of their IQs, the study said.

Previous studies showed that quitting smoking improves "retrospective memory," which is the ability to learn information and retrieve it later. The new study instead measured participants' "prospective memory," which is the ability to remember to carry out a particular action at some future point in time.

For example, remembering to take medication at a certain time of day requires prospective memory.

Previous research on the effect of smoking on prospective memory yielded mixed results, with some results showing smokers were worse off, and others showing no effect from smoking, the study noted.

How does it work?

Although it is unclear exactly how smoking may interfere with memory, research has shown that chronic smoking is linked to a breakdown, or atrophy, of parts of the brain.

The researchers hypothesized that smoking could damage brain areas such as the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus or thalamus; all of those regions have been linked in brain imaging studies to prospective memory, they said.

Heffernan also has studied the effects of alcohol and marijuana on memory. He and the other researchers acknowledged that their new study was small and relied on self-reports of smoking, which would be subject to inaccuracy and dishonesty on the part of participants. Future work should follow a cohort of smokers and former smokers over time, they said.

The study will be published in an upcoming issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Local campaign hopes to clamp down on candy-flavored tobacco

The photographs show brightly colored cans of spearmint-flavored dipping tobacco, packages of grape cigars and pouches of peach-flavored smokeless "snus" tobacco.
Photographed by area high school students in the Students Working Against Tobacco program, these pictures lining the hall of Santa Fe College's Blount Center are part of the "Sweet Deception" art show launched to raise awareness about the marketing of candy-flavored tobacco products to children.

The local campaign against those candy-flavored tobacco products may soon intensify.
On Monday, the Alachua County Health Department's state-funded Tobacco Free Alachua program will begin meetings of a task force formed specifically to target the flavored tobacco products. An email from Tobacco Free Alachua said the task force will "explore potential policy options" in "limiting or restricting the sale of candy-flavored tobacco" locally.

"They are very much targeted at youth," Marilyn Headley, the membership director for Tobacco Free Alachua, said of the products.

The 2010 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey showed that 7.1 percent of middle school students and 21.1 percent of high school students had smoked a flavored cigar.

A 2009 federal law banned candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes, but it did not apply to other tobacco products.

Headley said that, with the task force meetings just starting, it remains to be seen if the end result will be a campaign urging Gainesville and Alachua County commissioners to pass ordinances banning the sale of the flavored tobacco products.

NY Tobacco Tax $ Up in Smoke

New York state collected $10 billion in tobacco taxes over the last six years -- but spent just 4 percent of that on efforts to stop smoking, the American Cancer Society charged in a report released yesterday.

The ACS also revealed that the state spent even less in the last fiscal year -- when just 2 cents of every tobacco-tax dollar went to programs that encourage youths not to start smoking and adults to quit.

Anti-smoking groups call that a broken promise, noting that Albany raised cigarette taxes and accepted a historic settlement from tobacco manufacturers to end civil actions over the high cost of public health care for smokers.

Bad Food, Tobacco Blamed For 4 Chronic Diseases' Rise

In the WHO's 2008-2013 action plan for the global strategy for the prevention and control of non-communicable diseases, we see that the four diseases not only share four risk factors - unhealthy diets, tobacco use, physical inactivity and the harmful use of alcohol - but represent a considerable burden especially on low- and middle-income countries.

These four diseases are reported to represent "a leading threat to human health and development" and WHO indicates that they are the world's biggest killers, causing an estimated 35 million deaths each year which is about 60 per cent global deaths. About 80 per cent of these deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.

Tobacco and alcohol

If you take a look again at the four risk factors quoted above, you will have to agree that these diseases are largely preventable - we don't have to use tobacco, eat unhealthy diet, drink too much alcohol or sit around all day. In fact, the WHO stated that as much as 80 per cent of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes and more than a third of cancers are preventable when individual focus on eliminating the four risk factors.

Anti-smoking groups want N.J. to increase funding to help smokers quit

For every dollar New Jersey collects in tobacco revenue, it spends less than a penny on programs that help people stop smoking or never start.
Anti-tobacco advocacy groups say they want the state to spend 12 cents, phased-in over four years, to fulfill a "moral obligation," and protect the health of thousands of people who will get sick and possibly die from smoking related illnesses.
Over the last decade, state lawmakers have whittled away spending on state-sponsored smoking cessation programs from $30 million to $1.5 million, said Jennifer Sullivan of the American Cancer Society and coauthor of "Up in Smoke, a report released yesterday. But the state collected $750 million in tobacco taxes last fiscal year and spent $240 million in proceeds from a national settlement with tobacco companies, the report says.
With New Jersey imposing the sixth-highest cigarette tax in the nation, at $2.70 a pack, "We believe the money is there,’’ Sullivan said during a Statehouse press conference in Trenton.
"When you talk to these people they have very often tried to stop smoking but don’t have the support to do it," said Howard Levite, medical director of the Heart Institute at AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center. "This is where the failing of the state is identified."

DetailsFrench government to tackle tobacco smuggling

Smuggling tobacco across borders is big business and particularly prevalent across the Pyrenees, with easy access to Andorra and Spain. With a twenty five to thirty cents increase on the cost of a packet of cigarettes expected in October as part of the governments plan to cut the country’s debt, the temptation to smuggle becomes ever greater.

Across France, it is estimated that twenty five percent of the cigarettes smoked are bought abroad, but in Toulouse, this rises to forty percent because Pas de la Casa, Andorra is just two hours away.

The government estimates that around €3.4 billion is lost in taxes through the purchase of cigarettes abroad and it is not surprising when you consider that a packet of twenty is around €2 cheaper in Spain. Of course, many of these cigarettes are purchased completely legally, but there are organised gangs of smugglers that the customs officers want to target.

Trafficking in the Pyrenees used to involve large amounts of cigarettes in containers, but as the customs officials have clamped down, the smugglers have switched to smaller, faster and more discrete vehicles. With the price difference so large, it is profitable to smuggle just five hundred packets of cigarettes at a time.

Currently, you are allowed to bring in 300 cigarette or 150 cigarillos or 400 grams of rolling tobacco. Living close to the border, I often see the Douane officers setting up check points and I have been stopped on numerous occasions. Along with cigarettes, the smuggling of counterfeit goods is also targeted, such as fake Gucci handbags etc, particularly at the Andorran borders.

The government is under pressure to do something, with state debt spiralling and the threat of ever higher taxes and austerity plans to combat it, cracking down on tax avoidance has never been more important.

DPH backs Tri-Town's anti-tobacco efforts

An established countywide effort to eradicate tobacco use has received a seven-year state grant to help adults quit smoking and keep youths from starting the addictive habit.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health has awarded $37,900 to the local tobacco awareness program for the current fiscal year, which started July 1 and runs through June 30, 2012. The grant amounts for the remaining six fiscal years are subject to appropriation by the state Legislature, according to Tri-Town Health Department director James J. Wilusz.

The state has financially supported the tobacco awareness program since 1994, but Tri-Town has gradually received reduced funding the past several years. The current $37,900 award is down from the $53,000 for fiscal 2011 that ran out June 30.

Nevertheless, Wilusz vows the local program will boost its effort to ensure tobacco users have access to effective cessation programs.

"Seventy-seven percent of adults who smoke across the state want to quit and 66 percent have tried to quit," he said.

Tri-Town, the primary public health agency for Lee, Lenox and Stockbridge, has administered the anti-tobacco campaign for nearly 20 years. It also serves nine other communities: Dalton, Egremont, Great Barrington, Hancock, Monterey, Sandisfield, Otis, North Adams and Pittsfield.

Indonesia's tobacco excise for 2012 to rise 12.2 pct

Indonesia's finance ministry said on Monday that it would raise tobacco excise tariffs for 2012 by an average 12.2 percent, while simplifying the tariffs imposed on different cigarette types.

Indonesian cigarette firms, such as Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna and Gudang Garam , are estimated to produce 268.4 billion cigarettes next year, said Bambang PS Brodjonegoro, fiscal office chief at the ministry, contributing the majority of a forecast 72.4 trillion rupiah ($8.45 billion) in total government excise revenues next year. ($1 = 8,570 rupiah) (Reporting by Adriana Nina Kusuma; Editing by Neil Chatterjee)

£25,000 counterfeit tobacco seized in Cornwall

Trading Standards Officers have seized a large quantity of counterfeit tobacco from premises in mid Cornwall.

More than 125kg of raw tobacco found in black bin liners is believed to a street value in excess of £25,000.

Trading Standards said the money made from sales of illegal tobacco is often used to fund serious organised crime.

Martin Fisher, from Cornwall's Trading Standards, said: "We'd advise smokers not to be tempted by cheap tobacco as they don't know what it contains."

He added: "Whilst this batch of tobacco has not yet been tested, counterfeit tobacco has been known in the past to contain levels of chemicals at over 70 times the strength of legitimate tobacco products."

Trading Standards said counterfeit tobacco is becoming increasingly prevalent, with criminals taking care to ensure their product looks exactly like the genuine brands.

Customers are often fooled into believing they have bought non-UK duty paid tobacco by health warnings which are printed in different languages.

Mr Fisher said: "It is becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between counterfeit and genuine tobacco. The only way to ensure that the tobacco that you are smoking is legitimate is to purchase it through a trusted retailer."