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Tobacco use costs New Jersey almost $5.6 billion in economic costs and lost productivity each year. Once again, the current administration and the legislature failed to include any state funding for New Jersey’s Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program in the approved state budget for fiscal year 2012. Saint Barnabas Institute For Prevention Offers CHILDREN IN THE MIDDLE, A Divorce Education Program For Parents The program is designed for parents who are currently going through a divorce or separation and would like to learn effective strategies for parenting their children during this difficult time. Through this program, parents will learn to think about the situations where conflict usually occurs and better navigate their options; use more effective methods to reduce their emotional reactions to situations and maintain control; and increase their effectiveness with and sensitivity to their children’s needs. February 1 & 8, 6-8PM, $75 per person RSVP to Michelle Buldo, Saint Barnabas Institute for Prevention at (732) 886-4757 no later than January 25. January 6, 2012- Growing Number of Employers Won't Hire Smokers Hospitals are in the forefront of this trend, which aims to promote employees’ health and reduce insurance premiums. Adolescent Obesity as a Risk Factor for High-Level Nicotine Addiction in Young Women Journal of Adolescent Health November 2011 December 2, 2011-Major Increase Seen in Emergency Room Visits Involving Energy Drinks The number of emergency room visits related to energy drinks jumped from 2005 to 2009, according to a new government report. 11/28/11-How a Text Messaging Program Helped Smokers Trying to Quit (The Atlantic, online) -- "Smokers trying to quit who took part in a text messaging program called txt2stop more than doubled their chance of kicking the habit...Half received supportive and encouraging text messages designed to help them stay tobacco-free, five messages a day for the first five weeks and then three messages a week for the next 26 weeks. The other half received text messages every 14 days thanking them for taking part in the study. Messages covered a wide range of topics...[while providing] positive feedback that would help smokers persevere in their attempt to quit." October 10, 2011-Marijuana-Shaped Candy Alarms Parents, Officials Secondhand Smoke May Boost Breast Cancer Risk Women exposed to high levels of secondhand smoke as adults had a 20% higher risk for breast cancer than those who had never been around it. According to Dr. Rada Banat of Riverview Medical Center, "it is important to avoid cigarette smoke in any form." DEA Moves to Make 'Bath Salts' Illegal as Overdoses Rise September 7, 2011 ( UPDATED September 8, 2011 ) — In the wake of a growing number of overdose visits to emergency departments, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has moved to make psychoactive "bath salts" (PABS) a controlled substance. In a statement released today, the DEA announced it is using its emergency scheduling authority to temporarily control methylenedioxypyrovalerone and 2 other synthetic stimulants: mephedrone and methylone. As of September 7, 2011, possessing and selling these chemicals or the products that contain them are both illegal in the United States for at least 1 year while the DEA and the US Department of Health and Human Services mull over whether the substances should be permanently controlled. "This imminent action by the DEA demonstrates that there is no tolerance for those who manufacture, distribute, or sell these drugs anywhere in the country, and that those who do will be shut down, arrested, and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," DEA Administrator Michele M. Leonhart, said in a statement. "DEA has made it clear we will not hesitate to use our emergency scheduling authority to control these dangerous chemicals that pose a significant and growing threat to our nation." In the last 6 months, the DEA has received increasing reports from poison centers, hospitals, and police involving one or more of the now-controlled substances. Increasing Emergency Visits Related to Overdose People who overdose on the bath salts are showing up in emergency departments with increasing frequency, concerned clinicians Edward A. Ross, MD, Mary Watson, MD, and Bruce Goldberger, PhD, from the University of Florida College of Medicine, Gainesville, write in a letter to the editor, that appears in the September 8 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. "Despite growing efforts to ban these products through legislation, [PABS] often skirt substance-control laws and are readily available at low cost," the authors write. Until now easily obtained over the Internet, these bath salts, which have nothing to do with any hygiene product, go by such names as Ivory Wave and Vanilla Sky. The main ingredient in PABS is methylenedioxypyrovalerone, which is structurally related to pyrovalerone and a-pyrrolidinophenone compounds that inhibit norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake and act as central nervous system stimulants. Touted for giving a high similar to that of methamphetamine, PABS are also known as alertness enhancers or aphrodisiacs and are sometimes called "legal cocaine." PABS are taken orally, intranasally, intravenously, or rectally, and doses as low as 3 to 5 mg will produce an effect. The average dose ranges from 5 to 20 mg, and the risk for overdose is high because packages can contain up to 500 mg. Taken orally, the bath salts are rapidly absorbed and produce a rush that peaks at 1.5 hours after ingestion and lasts for 3 to 4 hours. The physical effects of PABS include tachycardia, hypertension, arrhythmias, hyperthermia, seizures, stroke, myocardial infarction, and even death. Behavioral and mental effects include panic attacks, anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations, psychosis, aggressive or violent behavior (such as self-mutilation, suicide attempts, and homicidal activity), insomnia, anorexia, and depression. The consequences of a PABS overdose can be particularly nasty, and clinicians need to be aware of several issues, the authors warn. Individuals who are experiencing symptoms of PABS overdose need to be cared for and monitored in the intensive care unit. In addition, routine drug screens are unable to detect bath salts. Bath salts also can be cut with other psychoactive substances, which can further confuse the clinical presentation, the authors write. Overdose victims may also require physical restraints and high doses of sedatives to prevent harming themselves or others. Treatment involves intravenous benzodiazepines to control seizures or for sedation and intravenous fluids for suspected rhabdomyolysis. July 2011-Medicare Proposes Coverage for Screening and Counseling for Alcohol Misuse and Screening for Depression. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) today proposed to add alcohol screening and behavioral counseling, and screening for depression, to the comprehensive package of preventive services now covered by Medicare. These proposed national coverage determinations (NCDs) are issued under authority granted by the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA), which allows CMS to add coverage of new preventive benefits that are recommended by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and are appropriate for Medicare beneficiaries. Under the new proposals, Medicare would cover an annual alcohol misuse screening by a beneficiary’s primary care provider. The benefit would also include four behavioral counseling sessions per year if a beneficiary screens positive for alcohol misuse. Medicare would also cover an annual screening for depression in primary care settings that offer staff-assisted depression care, so beneficiaries can receive an accurate diagnosis, effective treatment, and follow-up. June 2011-How Secondhand Smoke Affects the Brain Even if you don’t smoke, a new study shows, secondhand smoke affects your brain much as it does a smoker’s. It’s one more reason to steer clear of secondhand smoke in cars and other enclosed spaces. Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable death nationwide. People who smoke are up to 6 times more likely than nonsmokers to have a heart attack. Tobacco also causes cancer. Up to 90% of lung cancer deaths are linked to smoking. But the smoker isn’t the only one harmed by tobacco smoke. Secondhand smoke can make it more likely you’ll get heart disease, have a heart attack or die early. Smokers find it harder to quit if they’re around secondhand smoke. And kids exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to become teenage smokers. A team of NIH-funded scientists decided to take a closer look at how secondhand smoke affects the brains of young adults. About half of the study volunteers were nonsmokers. The rest were tobacco-dependent cigarette smokers. Each volunteer sat in a car for 1 hour while a smoker puffed away on a cigarette to create secondhand smoke. On a different day, the volunteers had a 1-hour car session without being exposed to secondhand smoke. Their brains were scanned before and after each session. The researchers discovered the addictive chemical nicotine—found in all tobacco products—both in the blood and attached to molecules in the brain after exposure to secondhand smoke. This nicotine binding was similar in smokers and nonsmokers. The smokers also had stronger cravings after being exposed to secondhand smoke. “These results show that even limited secondhand smoke exposure delivers enough nicotine to the brain to alter its function,” says Dr. Nora D. Volkow, director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse. May 20, 2011 School Bullying Widely Underreported April 25, 2011 Children with ADHD at Greater Risk of Substance Abuse Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are more likely to use substances including nicotine, marijuana and cocaine, and to develop substance use disorders, a review of 27 long-term studies concludes. Source: Meridian Healtviews May/June 2011 March 2011-Rising Status of Women Linked to More Smoking (Reuters) -- "Millions of women in developing countries risk disease and early death in the coming decades as their rising economic and political status leads them to smoke more...In countries with relatively high female empowerment...women smoke almost as much as men do. Douglas Bettcher, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) tobacco free initiative, said...authorities [need] to act quickly to curb smoking rates among women, particularly in poorer countries." The current Administration and state legislature eliminated almost all state funding for New Jersey's Comprehensive Tobacco Control Program for fiscal year 2011, giving the state a grade of F in Tobacco Prevention Control and Spending.
January, 2011 This first-of-its-kind report breaks down data on health disparities by race, ethnicity, income, and education, including the impact of alcohol and drug use on different segments of the United States population.
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September 15, 2010 Children's hospital admissions for asthma plummeted after passage of a law banning smoking in all enclosed public places and workplaces, a Scottish study found.Before the Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act was implemented in 2006, asthma admissions had increased at a mean annual rate of 5.2% (95% CI 3.9 to 6.6) relative to the rate in January 2000, according to Daniel Mackay, PhD, of the University of Glasgow, and colleagues. Older adults and alcohol use. Having a drink now and then as you get older is not usually thought to be harmful, but alcohol can be a problem for older adults, especially if they take certain medications, have health problems or don’t control their drinking. Alcohol Use and Older Adults, Aging lowers the body’s tolerance for alcohol, and older adults can develop problems with alcohol even though their drinking habits haven’t changed. "Older adults can experience the effects of alcohol, such as slurred speech and lack of coordination, more quickly than when they were younger," says Kenneth R. Warren, Ph.D., acting director of the NIH's National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), which developed the topic. "If you're older and you drink, it is important to understand the implications this may have for your health, safety, relationships and lifestyle. The newest topic on NIHSeniorHealth provides an excellent overview of these issues in a format that is tailored for older adults." Besides information on alcohol and aging, the new topic on NIHSeniorHealth also discusses how much is safe to drink for most older men and women, what precautions to take if they’re on medication and how to get help if drinking is a problem. http://nihseniorhealth.gov/alcoholuse/toc.html July 8, 2010-1 In 5 Preschoolers Display Mental Health Issues in Kindergarten: A new study finds that 1 in 5 preschoolers display mental health issues when entering kindergarten. Researchers studied 1,329 healthy children born between July 1995 and September 1997 in the New Haven-Meriden Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area of the 1990 Census. They found that as children transition to formal schooling, approximately 21.6 percent will have a psychiatric disorder. (Scienceblog.com, 7/08/10) May 2010-medpagetoday - Mental Illness Linked to Tobacco Exposure in Womb VANCOUVER -- Prenatal exposure to tobacco smoke may increase the risk of psychiatric disorders later in life, a Finnish researcher said here. The finding comes from analysis of medical records of 175,869 people born in Finland from 1987 through 1989, according to Mikael Ekblad, a doctoral student at Turku University in Finland. Those whose mothers smoked had up to a 44% increased risk of using psychiatric drugs in adult life, Ekblad reported in a poster session at the meeting here of the Pediatric Academic Societies. http://www.dailyrecord.com/article/20100510/UPDATES01/100510012/Funding+cut+puts+anti-smoking+programs+in+NJ+at+risk April 20, 2010-New York Times - Flavored Tobacco Pellets Are Denounced as a Lure to Young Users A research study and editorial to be published Monday in the medical journal Pediatrics takes direct aim at a novel tobacco product that some critics say too closely resembles Tic Tac breath mints. R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, the nation’s second-largest cigarette maker behind Philip Morris, is test marketing the product, Camel Orbs, along with other dissolvable tobacco products, in three cities. It is part of a broad industry trend to create smokeless products in response to declining cigarette use and the rise of smoke-free air laws. February 15, 2010-New York Times - Hazards: Are Pipe and Cigar Users Blowing Smoke? Pipe and cigar smokers may say they don’t inhale, but a new study suggests otherwise. The study, based on breathing tests in people ages 48 to 90, found that the pipe and cigar smokers had more than double the risk for abnormal lung function that contributes to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a leading cause of death — even if they abstained from cigarettes. Those who also smoked cigarettes were at more than triple the risk. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/health/research/16haza.html?ref=health December 9, 2009 WHO: Smoking kills 5 million every year Tobacco use kills at least 5 million people every year, a figure that could rise if countries don't take stronger measures to combat smoking, the World Health Organization said Wednesday. In a new report on tobacco use and control, the U.N. agency said nearly 95% of the global population is unprotected by laws banning smoking. WHO said secondhand smoking kills about 600,000 people every year. Read the full article at Smoking kills 5 million every year December 7, 2009 Asthmatic Smokers' Lungs Recover when They Quit Asthmatic smokers who quit the habit can reverse lung damage that exacerbates their breathing difficulties, regardless of how long and how often they smoked in the past, a Dutch study found.The lungs of asthmatics who stopped smoking were in similar condition to those of asthmatics who never smoked, based on a several measurements of lung health, including goblet cell numbers and mucus-positive epithelium, epithelial thickness, epithelial proliferation rate, and mast cell numbers, according to a report. Read the article at Asthmatic Smokers' Lungs Recover when They Quit August 21, 2009 Heavy drinking and prostate cancer. Men who are middle aged and older and who have four or more drinks a day, pretty much every day, may be raising their risk of prostate cancer. Heavy drinking increases the risk of high-grade cancer. And these are the cancers that are fast-going and more likely to metastasize and cause death. Alan Kristal of Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center saw this when looking at data on prostate biopsy results and drinking patterns. Regular heavy drinkers were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with high-grade cancer, but drinking less did not raise the risk. And moderate drinking – no more than two a day – is associated with better heart health. So Kristal says it’s another argument for moderation. The study in the journal Cancer was supported by the National Institutes of Health. March 2009-Secondhand smoke: It really may be a downer Secondhand smoke not only can irritate your lungs, it also apparently can blacken your mood as well, a large study reported this week. Non-smokers exposed to cigarette smoke at home or work are more than twice as likely as those not exposed to have major depression, according to a report at the American Psychosomatic Society meeting in Chicago. It's believed to be the first U.S. study tying secondhand smoke to depression; another in Japan came up with a similar conclusion. January 2, 2009-New York Times A New Cigarette Hazard: ‘Third-Hand Smoke’ October 22, 2008-Panel Calls for Vaccine for Adult Smokers For the first time, an influential government panel is recommending a vaccination specifically for smokers. The panel decided Wednesday that adult smokers under 65 should get pneumococcal vaccine. The shot -- already recommended for anyone 65 or older -- protects against bacteria that cause pneumonia, meningitis and other illnesses. CDC reports on tobacco-related cancers About 2.4 million tobacco-related cancers were diagnosed in the U.S. from 1999 to 2004, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lung and bronchial cancer accounted for almost half of those diagnoses. “Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States and the most prominent cause of cancer,” said Matthew McKenna, M.D., director of CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health. “The tobacco-use epidemic causes a third of the cancers in America. If proven strategies were fully implemented to decrease tobacco use, much of the suffering and death that cancer inflicts on families and communities could be prevented.” The estimates are based on data from the CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries and the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology and Results Program. July 30, 2008 The U.S. House of Representatives has passed the Family Smoking and Tobacco Control Act with an overwhelming bipartisan majority. The legislation aims to protect the health of Americans, particularly children, by giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate tobacco products. See press release at: TobaccoFree Kids |
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