U.S. cigarettes triples the risk of cancer

U.S. cigarettes are most harmful of colleagues manufactured in Australia, Britain or Canada. It comprises a variety of nitrosamines (carcinogenic) very high, which increases the risk of cancer, up to threefold. The research supports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), conducted by Dr. Jim Pirkl and published in “Cancer Epidemiology Biomarkers and Prevention. Scientists worked with 126 smokers, considering the brand of “blondes” like and subjecting them to tests to assess the presence of nitrosamines in the lungs, urine and oral cavity. It should be noted that the researchers chose smoking faithful to a single brand and consumers of popular national brands.

The CDC investigation concluded as U.S. cigarettes were the most capable in promoting cancer, and this for two main reasons. First of all, they are made with dark tobacco, while the varieties British, Australian and Canadian tobacco exploit “blond.” In addition, producers of the U.S. favor a particular system of tanning and flavoring, can further increase the percentage of nitrosamines. Doctors involved hope their work can help company to produce safer cigarettes, even if they admit it big and how far from simple. Nor is it certain, in fact, if a reduction of nitrosamines would lead to a reduction of cancer among smokers, since they are involved in the process other chemicals.

Explains Professor John Spangler, of the Faculty of Medicine of Wake Forest University: “There are at least two dozen other carcinogens in cigarettes, not to mention the other 4000 chemicals that can contribute to heart disease and also cause respiratory” . Source: “Study: U.S. Cigarettes Have More Cancer Agents”, CBS News, 1/06/010

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Women Smokers Targeted on 'World No Tobacco Day'

Although cancer death rates for women are generally on the downswing, statistics indicate that female lung cancer fatalities are rising, the American Lung Association (ALA) says.
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More than 170,000 American women die every year from tobacco-related illness, the ALA estimates. And chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), including chronic bronchitis and emphysema, kills more women than men.

To draw attention to the harmful effects of tobacco use and tobacco industry marketing as it pertains to women and girls, the ALA and the World Health Organization are observing World No Tobacco Day on May 31.

The organization hopes awareness of World No Tobacco Daywill encourage female smokers to kick the habit, perhaps with the help of the ALA's "Freedom from Smoking Online" program, which provides both men and women assistance with quitting.

"Quitting smoking is the single most important thing that most individuals can do to improve their health, and World No Tobacco Day is a great day for all to stop using tobacco products," Mary H. Partridge, ALA's national board chair, said in a news release.

In addition to underscoring the importance of quitting, the ALA also seeks to highlight the ways in which the marketing tactics of tobacco manufacturers target women.

"The tobacco industry has a long and shameful history of targeting women and children," said Partridge. "The most recent example is R.J. Reynolds' Camel No. 9 cigarettes, a pink-hued version that one newspaper dubbed 'Barbie Camel' because of marketing that appealed to girls. Advertised as 'available in stiletto' with promotional giveaways of flavored lip glosses and pink purses, it seems clear who R.J. Reynolds was targeting.

Philip Morris consolidates cigarette-making operations in Richmond

Tucked between the new high-speed cigarette-makers and pack-loaders in Philip Morris USA's giant South Richmond plant, there now are lots of head-high, Plexiglas-walled boxes.

Inside, robot-arms load rolls of cigarette paper or package and carton blanks, keeping a continuous feed of material flowing. Overhead, a conveyor belt, also walled in with clear plastic, forms an eight-loop-high spiral of cigarettes.

The extra 3 feet between the cigarette-making machines and the beeping driverless cars that bring pallet-loads full of cigarettes to the loading docks are visible signs of a $230 million investment that the nation's No. 1 cigarette-maker has made to consolidate operations in Richmond.

"We're about 98 percent done," Eric Schardt, director of cigarette manufacturing, said about the changes at the plant, during a rarely offered tour of the secure area.

"And we did it while continuing to produce product."

The investment came as Philip Morris USA, a unit of Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc., consolidated all its cigarette-making in Richmond last July, when it closed its relatively new plant in Cabarrus County, N.C.

With the consolidation and the modernization here, the Richmond plant now makes about 149 billion cigarettes a year.

Adding to the challenge of doing everything in one place is that Philip Morris USA has launched dozens of new varieties in the past few years.

It now makes 27 different kinds of Marlboros in 43 different kinds of packaging. In addition to Marlboros, Philip Morris makes 88 other kinds of cigarettes in 114 packages.

It puts a premium on flexibility and on cranking out lots of cigarettes.

"We can handle orders from 360,000 a day of one brand to 500 million of another, at the extreme," Schardt said.

. . .

Each of the new machines in Bay 1 can produce 10,000 cigarettes a minute, using air pressure to shoot the equivalent of about 3/100 of an ounce of tobacco per cigarette into an endless tube of paper that's moving through its rollers at a rate of more than 22 mph.

That's 25 percent more cigarettes per minute than the old machines, which Philip Morris still uses in Bay 3 of the plant, for the smaller runs of its less popular brands.

One worker minds two of the high-speed machines in Bay 1. Each machine has its own operator in Bay 3.

One reason for having one worker overseeing one machine in Bay 3 is that the paper and unfolded packaging materials must be loaded onto the machines by hand, and often enough at the cost of sore backs and pinched fingers.

In Bay 1, ingredients come on larger pallet-loads that are fed into machines automatically by those robot arms in their Plexiglas-walled boxes.

Another key difference: There is one shipping-case machine for each six of Bay 3's cigarettes-makers. In Bay 1, there is one case machine for each pair of cigarette-makers.

In Bay 3, Robert Warren, manager of cigarette manufacturing, and his crew constantly are juggling to run the 10 different varieties the bay's 18 machines can handle.

In Bay 1, that headache's gone.

Altria employed the equivalent of 4,613 full-time workers in the Richmond area as of Jan. 1. The company won't say how many work at the South Richmond plant -- it keeps data about its production closely guarded so competitors don't get clues about its operation.

. . .

Even Bay 3, though, benefits from other investments.

Hand-held scanners, tracking numbers and tiny quarter-inch-square gray-and-white markings on packaging material signal automated loaders in the adjoining warehouse to pull exactly what papers, foils, films and packing flats each machine in the plant needs, when operators are about to run low.

The old Bay 3 machines have the latest computer monitors: Sensors test the cigarettes shooting out of the machine to make sure each is within tight limits for weight and how tightly the tobacco leaf inside is packed.

There are brand-new testing machines in the filter-making room, too.

Instead of the old days when operators grabbed a handful of new filters and used calipers and a scale to see if they met standards, the new shoulder-high metal boxes can pull filters after they're made.

The machines measure weight and circumference and even blow through air to check what cigarette makers call "resistance to draw," which means how hard a smoker must drag to get a puff.

. . .

A big part of Philip Morris USA's investment in the plant is information technology.

The cigarette-making machines, the pneumatic feed-lines from the tobacco-storage silos in the plant's basement, and its warehouse and the other cigarette-making supplies all talk to each other all of the time -- thanks to technology.

Battered, pistol-shaped hand-held scanners are used all over -- most workers are assigned one, and most have specially installed rubber guards at the corners, too.

"They really get a workout," said Schardt, picking up a particularly well-used scanner.

But then, most days feel like a sprint at the plant.

"From the time the tobacco comes up from downstairs, to pallets of cases being loaded on the trucks, you're talking maybe an hour," Schardt said.

Tobacco giant targets tax-free cigarette sales

Area stores unhappy with tax-free sales of cigarettes by the Oneida Indian Nation have found a powerful ally -- one of the world's largest tobacco companies.

“The state loses revenue. Retailers lose sales. Their employees could even lose jobs. And it adds to the burden on hard-working taxpayers,” reads a recent full-page advertisement paid for by Altria Client Services on behalf of Philip Morris USA. The ad was published in various Upstate New York newspapers.

The ad pictures large hands cradling sand, with grains falling between the fingers.

Oneida Nation officials say they feel betrayed by the stance Philip Morris has taken - saying it's a reversal of the company's previous position, which in the past has provided racking and signage to SavOn and other Indian stores.

“They were like a big brother almost, who has turned around and smacked us for some reason,” said Bob Hilburger, director of business development for the Oneida Indian Nation.

Tobacco industry officials say the ads and the website, Enforce The Law - Collect The Tax Coalition, are not questioning the sovereignty of Indian nations such as the Oneidas, who have built a commercial empire in the western portion of Oneida County and in eastern Madison County, complete with a casino, hotels, restaurants and convenience stores.

“It's really about the policy issue of tax collection,” said David Sutton, spokesman for Philip Morris USA. “It's about leveling the playing field.”

'Need for revenue'

There have been several similar coalitions formed throughout the years to peddle the same kind of message, said James Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores.

Why does Calvin hope this one will have better results?

For one, he said, the effort now has “the leadership and participation of Altria,” which sells close to half of U.S. cigarettes.

Also, the state has a vested interest to collect these taxes now to close its potential $9 billion budget gap, Calvin said.

The sale of untaxed cigarettes from Indians to non-Indians has been a longstanding issue - especially in Upstate New York.

The initial promise to collect those taxes on Indian cigarettes was made by then-Gov. George Pataki, who pulled back from the measure in the 1990s after about 1,000 members of the Seneca Nation blocked the Thruway and other roads -- sometimes with burning tires.

Gov. Eliot Spitzer campaigned for governor on the same promise, but backed away once in office, leaving a gap in the 2007-08 state budget.

Now, Gov. David Paterson is giving collecting the revenue another shot, looking to enforce a law he signed in December 2008 in Utica.

Recently proposed state regulations would limit the quantity of tax-free cigarettes that may legally be supplied to Indian nations or tribes.

'Death notice'

But the longer this tax goes uncollected, the more it is hindering local convenience stores, Calvin said.

“You lose the sale of cigarettes, and you lose the sale of other products,” he said.

Sutton said his company is looking out for the interests of such stores.

“If you have one pool of retailers that we're obviously working with every day, and have another pool of retailers who are not colleting the tax, it's very difficult to compete,” he said.

As for the Nation, it has already made the decision to downplay product placement of Philip Morris' Marlboro cigarettes in SavOn stores, Hilburger said.

“Obviously you're not going to support someone to run expensive ads in the paper,” Hilburger said, adding of the advertisement, “It almost looked like a death notice. It was 85 percent black.”

Struggling to quit smoking? Now you can blame your genes

Smokers who find it hard to cut down or quit may be at the mercy of their genes.

Scientists identified three genetic mutations that increase the number of cigarettes people smoke a day.

Several also appear to be associated with taking up smoking, and one with being able to quit.

The findings could lead to more personalised - and ultimately more effective - treatments that help people stub out their cigarettes.

Three studies published online in Nature Genetics compared the DNA of a total of more than 140,000 people and discovered the desire to give up is down to your genes rather than willpower.

Two of them found regions associated to the number of cigarettes smoked per day that include two genes that have been linked with nicotine dependence and two others that regulate nicotine metabolism in the body.

Mutations in these genes are associated with a small increase in smoking quantity - about half a cigarette a day - but around 10 per cent increase in risk of lung cancer compared with non carriers.

Lead author Professor Kari Stefansson, a neurologist at deCODE genetics in Reykjavik, Iceland, said: 'Smoking is bad for anyone's health. It is even worse for some.

'To some degree these variants suggest those for whom nicotine is more addictive are driven to smoke more, increasing their exposure to environmental risk.

'But given the quite substantial corresponding increases in risk of lung cancer it may also be that they make people more susceptible to the noxious effects of tobacco smoke.

'What is clear is that these variants - which are all near genes that encode nicotine metabolizing enzymes and receptors - are giving us a solid starting point for finding answers to advance personal and public health.'

A third study by Dr Clyde Francks, of the University of Oxford, and colleagues found variants of three genes on chromosome 15 that make people more prone to nicotine addiction. Nicotine is the primary chemical responsible for smoking addiction.

He said: 'Smoking behavior and nicotine dependence are multifactorial traits with substantial genetic influences. There is an urgent need to better understand the molecular neurobiology of nicotine dependence in order to design targeted, more effective therapies.

'These findings have provided further new insights into the biology of smoking behaviour.'

E-cigarettes can help kick the butt

Nicotine delivered via an e-cigarette can help curb the urge to smoke, says new research.

E-cigarettes are electronic nicotine delivery devices that resemble cigarettes but do not use tobacco. They release a small dose of nicotine with each puff.

"The e-cigarettes that we tested appeared to be as effective as a standard nicotine replacement therapy inhalator in reducing the desire," says Chris Bullen, associate professor at the University of Auckland, who led the study.

"Our results indicate that e-cigarettes have potential as a method to help people stop smoking, in the same ways as a nicotine inhalator. However, our findings should be seen as preliminary and need to be confirmed for this and other e-cigarette brands."

"E-cigarettes are popular in the United States and Asia where people report buying them to reduce the cost of smoking, cut down on cigarette consumption, use in smokefree places, relieve tobacco withdrawal symptoms, or help quit smoking," says Bullen.

But this is the first reputable clinical study to actually examine their effect on smokers," says Bullen.

The study compared 40 adult smokers who on different days used a Ruyan V8 e-cigarette delivering either nicotine or placebo; a Nicorette nicotine inhalator; or their usual cigarette, says an Auckland release.

"We found that the device delivered nicotine to the bloodstream in a similar way as an inhalator, reduced the desire to smoke, and was acceptable to most users," says Bullen.

"However further studies are required to examine the potential and safety of long-term e-cigarette use, and a large clinical trial would be needed to determine their effectiveness in helping people stop smoking."

MLB asked to chew on tobacco ban

Major League Baseball and the players' union should "take action to end the use of smokeless tobacco by big-league players," Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, said Wednesday.

Executives from Major League Baseball and the players' association joined U.S. public-health officials to testify before the panel on the prevalence of smokeless tobacco and whether its use by professional athletes influences children.

"Like many generations of Major League Baseball players, I started using spit tobacco because I saw other players doing it, and I thought it was part of being a major-league player," said Joe Garagiola, a television announcer and former player. "This is a dangerous, deadly habit."

Tobacco of all kinds is banned in minor-league baseball, a policy Garagiola urged major-league players to adopt. While major-league players aren't allowed to smoke cigarettes in uniform in view of spectators, chewing tobacco is different, said David Prouty, chief labor counsel for the Major League Baseball Players Association.

"Cigarettes impact the ability to play the game, are banned from public use under a variety of state and municipal laws, and may endanger the health of those in the immediate area," Prouty said. "Baseball players should not be prohibited from using substances that are perfectly legal and available to the general public."

Tobacco companies led by Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds argue they should be allowed to market smokeless products as a safer alternative to cigarettes.

"Some adults who would otherwise continue smoking may be willing to move to a smokeless-tobacco alternative to cigarettes," said James Dillard, a senior vice president at Altria Group, which owns Philip Morris. "Smokeless-tobacco products are substantially lower on the risk continuum than cigarettes."

Health officials say they worry chewing tobacco will have the opposite effect: that it may act as a gateway to cigarettes, and that children could become addicted to tobacco by emulating its use by baseball players.

"We don't let baseball players go stand out in the field and drink beer," Waxman said during the hearing. "The MLB Association won't let them stand out there and smoke cigarettes," and chewing tobacco also should disappear from games, he said.

Waxman last year supported a bill giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority to regulate tobacco products. The law bans tobacco-brand sponsorships of sports and entertainment events among measures aimed at reducing underage smoking.

Nine of every 10 people who die from mouth and throat cancers used tobacco, according to the American Dental Association (ADA).

Tobacco products also are linked to higher rates of gum disease, one of the leading causes of adult tooth loss, the ADA said in an October letter to the FDA.

Terry Pechacek of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Deborah Winn of the National Cancer Institute testified about the links between smokeless tobacco and cancer, and the addictiveness of smokeless tobacco.

Pechacek said smokeless tobacco can cause oral cancer and pancreatic cancer, and has been linked to fatal heart attacks.

Banning use would require negotiations with the players union, said Robert Manfred, an executive vice president for Major League Baseball.

"Like drug testing, the regulation of player use of tobacco products is a mandatory subject of collective bargaining with the players association," he said. "But unlike performance-enhancing substances, smokeless-tobacco products are legal in all 50 states for sale to, and consumption by, adults."