Sat, November 13, 2004
Smoke cops strike Treherne hotelier vows to fight 'fascist law'
By DAVID SCHMEICHEL, STAFF REPORTER
No more messin' around. The province made good on its promise to crack down on cigarette scofflaws yesterday, charging a Treherne hotel owner with ignoring the new smoking ban.
In recent months, Creekside Hideaway owner Robert Jenkinson has become the unofficial poster boy for those opposed to the new legislation, pledging repeatedly to continue to allow patrons to light up in his lounge.
Yesterday, Jenkinson became the first business owner cited under the province's new Non-Smokers Health Protection Act, which came into effect Oct. 1. Jenkinson was charged with six offences under the act and his corporation another seven.
Jenkinson said he plans to fight the charges in court.
"Definitely ... we have every intention of getting this fascist law thrown out," he said yesterday. "Whatever happened to our charter of rights?"
The charges against Jenkinson include providing ashtrays to patrons, failing to display no-smoking signage, and allowing patrons to smoke indoors, said Manitoba Health spokesman Jim Drew.
Drew said the province doesn't want to appear heavy-handed but was left with little choice in the case of Jenkinson, who was issued a written warning on Oct. 5.
The province has already said it won't seek out those who ignore the ban but will act when complaints are lodged.
"Mr. Jenkinson had an opportunity to comply," Drew said, noting the Creekside Hideaway has been the subject of several public complaints.
SURPRISED
Fines for first-time corporation offenders range from $500 to $3,000, while individual first-time offenders face charges of $100 to $500.
Jenkinson said the legislation infringes on his rights, and estimates he'd lose up to 30% of his revenue if he complied.
"None of these people have worked a day in the restaurant business, yet they can dictate what we can and can't do," he said. "They (the province) want to sell cigarettes but they won't let us smoke them inside."
Jenkinson also said he was somewhat surprised by yesterday's events and feels the province is making an example of him.
"I didn't think the government would bully me with so many charges, he said. "Why not just one charge, why 13?"
Jenkinson, who is scheduled to appear in court in Portage la Prairie on Nov. 29, said he plans to comment more on the charges early next week. Until then, customers are still welcome to spark up on his premises.
"For sure," he said. "I'm not guilty until the courts decide I am."
Investigations into other business owners suspected of flaunting the ban are still ongoing, Drew said yesterday.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2004/11/13/712247.html
Butt ban faces test in court
First charges laid
Saturday, November 13th, 2004
By David Kuxhaus
THE first charges under the province's new anti-smoking law were laid yesterday, setting the stage for a court challenge to the controversial legislation. At the centre of the fight is a self-described struggling small-town bar owner who says he's anxious to take on the provincial government. After weeks of warnings and threats, provincial health inspectors finally swooped down yesterday on the Creekside Hideaway Motel in tiny Treherne, laying 13 charges against Robert Jenkinson.
The 36-year-old Jenkinson has openly thumbed his nose at the province ever since the law came into effect about six weeks ago, almost daring inspectors to charge him.
Yesterday, he remained defiant.
"I hope the courts can make amends for what this fascist NDP government has done," said Jenkinson.
He said rural folks have taken plenty of hits this year, from the mad cow crisis to, more recently, increased duties on hogs.
He said they shouldn't now be forced to go outside in sub-zero weather to enjoy a smoke.
Jenkinson is scheduled to appear in a Portage la Prairie court Nov. 29.
Under the law, which bans smoking in public places, individuals can be fined up to $500 and businesses a maximum of $3,000.
Jenkinson said he already has a lawyer, but wouldn't say who it is. He said he will issue a statement next week.
Jenkinson said he's received plenty of support for his stand, including calls from across Canada and the United States, and he's hoping that some of those supporters may help him out with his legal fees. He's even thinking of holding a fundraiser.
"This is all about freedom of choice," said Jenkinson.
Last night, at least one other bar owner seemed eager to join the fight.
"Maybe we should all get together and go after them (the provincial government)," said Jamie Betle, who for the last 20 years has operated the Spruce Woods Pizza and Slider's Lounge in Carberry.
"This is just wrong."
When the smoking ban came into effect, Betle dumped over 100 ashtrays in Healthy Living Minister Jim Rondeau's office in protest.
Since then, he says, his bottom line has been sinking.
Betle said profits for October are down about 24 per cent compared to previous years. He said instead of playing VLTs or pool, customers are huddled outside his back door, smoking.
If the trend continues, Betle said, his overall take will be down $170,000 over a 12-month period.
"That's how much this government is taking out of my pocket," Betle said.
He said he has already cut back on the hours for some staff and may ultimately have to lay some off.
Jenkinson estimates that if he were to prohibit smoking, it would cost him at least 30 per cent of his business.
"I can't afford that," he said. "I'm not like the government who can ban smoking in their casinos and afford to lose millions of dollars."
Jenkinson grew up in Treherne, a community of about 800 people, located about 100 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.
Less than two years ago, he opened up the Creekside Hideaway Motel.
The motel's restaurant seats 36, the lounge 150 and the banquet hall 110.
Last night, Jenkinson said there were about half a dozen people puffing away in the lounge.
He said he's always tried to give his customers a choice when it comes to smoking.
"When you come in through the front door, you can turn left and go into the restaurant, where there's no smoking, or turn right and go into the lounge where you can smoke," Jenkinson said.
It is up to whomever is renting the banquet hall to determine whether smoking will be allowed.
Jenkinson said he wishes the province would allow him to choose how he wants to run his business.
The provincial government said it brought in the law to protect employees from second-hand smoke.
But Jenkinson said he's spent about $90,000 on a ventilation system, which he maintains keeps the air clean.
Moreover, he can't figure out why native reserves are exempt from the ban. Some First Nations have already said they're hoping to lure smokers to their gaming and bingo halls.
"We should all be equal under the law," said Jenkinson.
Officials with the province could not be reached for comment yesterday.
The NDP has said it is not enforcing the ban on First Nations because it doesn't have clear jurisdiction there and isn't willing to risk a court challenge on the issue.
david.kuxhaus@freepress.mb.ca
Wiinnepegfreepress.com
Students' pot use alarms educators
Facing an uphill battle against marijuana, schools say new law sends wrong message
Grace Macaluso, Windsor Star Saturday, November 13, 2004
Danny sucks on the joint like a pro. At 17, he started smoking marijuana shortly after entering high school, and lunch hour is prime time for getting high.
"Everybody does it," says Danny, who asked that his real name not be used. "It's no big deal." He and two other friends pass around the joint as they huddle in an area of Jackson Park that's far enough away from the watchful eyes of Kennedy high school administrators. The marijuana cigarette was purchased just minutes ago from a fellow student - one of a handful of dealers who profit from on-site demand for a drug that has become a fact of life in Ontario high schools.
Marijuana use among teenagers has risen to the point where it has overtaken tobacco for the first time as the second most popular drug of choice behind alcohol, according to a recent study by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. The trend is alarming school officials and politicians, who fear it will only get worse under Ottawa's plan to decriminalize marijuana.
"It doesn't make a lot of sense," says Randy White, Conservative solicitor general critic and MP for Langley-Abbotsford. "Canada should be telling kids not to smoke pot; instead we're telling kids 'you'll just get a fine.' "
Federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler, who reintroduced the legislation earlier this month, insists the bill constitutes a multi-pronged approach that includes tougher penalties for grow-ops as well as funding for a public education campaign aimed at discouraging the use of marijuana and other illicit drugs.
"Cannabis use is harmful and it will remain illegal in Canada," Cotler says. "Combining cannabis reform with this public education campaign will reinforce the message that marijuana is illegal and harmful to one's health."
But the minister's reassurances offer little comfort to principals like Tom Halliwill, who face an uphill battle against pot-smoking students who believe inhaling a joint is no worse than consuming alcohol.
"There are drugs in every school in North America," asserts Halliwill, principal of W.F. Herman high school. "I think it's more socially acceptable; a lot of parents do it. In the media they're talking about decriminalization. Well, kids read the paper, too, and it seems smoking pot doesn't carry the same stigma it had during the '70s."
In fact, in the minds of some students, pot is far less harmful than tobacco. "Cigarettes are worse; they're addictive," says Jason, a Grade 11 student at Herman who didn't want his real name published. "Pot can become habitual, and you know what's in it. It's not like cigarettes that contain chemicals like formaldehyde. Look at what second-hand smoke can do to you."
At F.J. Brennan Catholic high school, principal JoAnne Shea says the eight pot-related suspensions she handed out last year do not reflect the full extent of use among students. "I'd literally have to be policing alleyways," says Shea, adding that the school hears from nearby residents and businesses complaining about kids smoking up.
The majority of Brennan's 1,027 students are not using marijuana during the school day, says Shea. "We're hearing that pot is the drug of choice during the week; on the weekends it's alcohol."
Major challenges for principals include detecting use and catching kids in the act, she says. "We're always trying for evidence; it's easily camouflaged."
And it's affordable. "I was offered some just this morning during food and nutrition class in second period," says Herman high school student Jason, a pot smoker who declined the offer. "Pot is sold in the school on a regular basis."
The going rate for one cigarette is $5, or three joints for $10, he says. "You can make good money."
Identifying drug dealers is also easy, says 16-year-old Kennedy student Derek - not his real name. "Most people that deal are always high," says Derek, who used pot weekly until it started affecting his grades and athletic performance. Now, he indulges "once in awhile, on a Friday when I'm with friends.
"My parents said I can smoke weed as long as I don't get into trouble and continue to do well in school, but they didn't like that I was doing it."
CULTURAL SHIFT
Richard Pollock, a Windsor lawyer and federal prosecutor, attributes the rising use of marijuana to the ever-increasing supply of marijuana from large-scale hydroponic operations in the area. But more troubling, says Pollock, is the cultural shift that has contributed to the growing perception that pot use is acceptable.
"I've prosecuted cases where children under the age of 16 have been caught consuming cannabis out in the open, in public places and not hidden for fear of getting caught. I've prosecuted cases where teens were smoking up and their parents were aware of it.
"This debate (over decriminalization) is taking place in a vacuum without considering how it's affecting the lives and activities of our children."
Under Ontario's Safe Schools Act, a student found to be under the influence or possession of a drug, including alcohol and illegal substances, faces an automatic 10-day suspension, says Vickie Komar, supervisor of social work at the Greater Essex County District School Board. "And, there's always a recommendation to student and families to seek counselling through a variety of agencies that can provide education and support."
While both the public and Catholic boards offer anti-drug workshops and assemblies featuring police officers and a variety of public speakers, schools can't tackle the problem alone, say education officials.
"It has to be a community response; like the campaign against drinking and driving," says Komar. "The message has to be that it's not socially acceptable.
"As long as the message among teens is 'everyone is doing it,' it becomes normal behaviour and it's much more difficult for us to step in."
Even teens who refrain from using pot face intense peer pressure to smoke up, says Katie Moore, a Grade 12 student at Brennan. "People call me a narc, a police narcotics officer, because I want to stop drugs. If you're one to go against it, you're looked down upon."
Determined to spread her anti-drug message, Moore says she's researched the impact of pot, noting the grade on the streets today is far more potent than what was available in previous years. "The THC is much higher. It's going to affect your judgment, especially when you're driving and you're high."
Current growing methods have made pot more potent, said Const. Deb Mineau, spokeswoman for Essex Ontario Provincial Police. In 1960, an average marijuana cigarette contained 0.2 per cent THC - the mind-altering ingredient in pot, says Mineau. Today, the level of THC in an average joint is between five and 14 per cent.
Users like Derek agree that pot isn't a benign drug. "I couldn't concentrate in school," he says. Push came to shove when he began playing competitive hockey. "I was skating real slow. So that's when I cut back."
Still, misconceptions about pot are widespread, says Stephen Gard, Focus Community co-ordinator at the Teen Health Centre.
"It's becoming normalized. I'm being told that it's not that bad. Some teens think decriminalization means legalization."
And some teens, like Bogdan Babos, an 18-year-old student at Herman, doubts the battle against pot can be won. "Obviously it's there. You won't be able to stop them from trying it. I know they're going to try it sooner or later -- it's a given."
Adds Jason: "They've been trying to stop kids from having sex for how long, now? If they want to do it, they'll find a way to do it, so why stop them?"
THE STATS
Drug use among students from Grade 7 through Grade 12 (2003)
Alcohol 66.2 per cent, Cannabis 29.6 per cent, Binge drinking 26.5 per cent*, Cigarettes 19.2 per cent, Hallucinogens 10 per cent
Pot use soared from 6.2 per cent in Grade 7 to 44.8 per cent in Grade 12.
In the spring of 2003, 6,616 students in Grades 7 to 12 from 37 school boards participated in the study by The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health's Ontario Student Drug Use Survey.
* Binge drinking (five-plus drinks on one occasion) refers to the past four weeks time period.
Ran with fact box "The Stats" which has been appended to the story.
http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=ab86babc-b81e-4aa8-b127-53281cff0afe
A smoke break creates icon of the war; now groupies seek out the weary Marine
By Patrick J. McDonnell
Los Angeles TimesSaturday, November 13, 2004 - Page updated at 12:00 A.M.
FALLUJAH, Iraq — The Marlboro man was angry: He has a war to fight, and he's running out of smokes.
"If you want to write something," he tells an intruding reporter, "tell Marlboro I'm down to four packs, and I'm here in Fallujah till who knows when. Maybe they can send some. And they can bring down the price a bit."
Those are the unfettered sentiments of Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, 20, a country boy from Kentucky who has been thrust unwittingly and somewhat unwillingly into the role of poster boy for a war on the other side of the world from his home on the farm.
"I just don't understand what all the fuss is about," Miller drawls yesterday as he crouches — Marlboro firmly in place — inside an abandoned building with his platoon mates, preparing to fight insurgents holed up in yet another mosque.
"I was just smokin' a cigarette, and someone takes my picture and it all blows up."
Miller is the young man whose gritty, war-hardened portrait, shot by Luis Sinco, a Los Angeles Times photographer, appeared Wednesday in more than 100 U.S. newspapers, including The Seattle Times. In the full-frame photo, taken after more than 12 hours of nearly nonstop deadly combat, Miller's camouflage war paint is smudged. He sports a bloody nick on his nose. His helmet and chin strap frame a weary expression that seems to convey the timeless fatigue of battle. And there is the cigarette, of course, drooping from the right side of his mouth in a jaunty manner that Humphrey Bogart would have approved of. Wispy smoke drifts off to his left.
The image has quickly moved into the realm of the iconic.
More than 100 newspapers printed it, although it took the New York Post to sum it up in a front-page headline: "Marlboro Men Kick Butt in Fallujah." The fact that Miller's name was not included in the caption material only seemed to enhance its punch.
The Los Angeles Times and other publications have received scores of e-mails wanting to know about this mysterious figure. Many women, in particular, have inquired about how to contact him.
"The photo captures his weariness, yet his eyes hold the spirit of the hunter and the hunted," wrote one e-mailing admirer. "His gaze is warm but deadly. I want to send a letter."
Maybe it's about America striking back at a perceived enemy, or maybe it's just the sense of one young man putting his life on the line halfway across the globe.
Whatever the case, the photo seems to have struck a chord, and top Marine brass are thrilled. Lt. Gen. John. Sattler, commander of the I Marine Expeditionary Force, dropped in on Charlie Company yesterday to laud the Marlboro Men.
"That's a great picture," echoed Col. Craig Tucker, who heads the regimental combat team that includes Miller's battalion. "We're having one blown up and sent over to the unit."
Miller, though, has been oddly absent from the hoopla. Sattler did not single him out during his visit. In fact, Miller only heard about it from the two Los Angeles Times staffers embedded with his unit. He seemed incredulous. "A picture?" he asked. "What's the fuss?"
And what does he think about the Marines, anyway? "I already signed the papers, so I got no choice but to do what we're doing."
The photo was taken on the afternoon after Charlie Company's harrowing entry into Fallujah under intense enemy fire, in the cold and rain. Miller was on the roof of a home where he and his fellow First Platoon members had spent the day engaged in practically nonstop firefights, fending off snipers and attackers who rushed the building. No one had slept in more than 24 hours. All were physically and emotionally drained.
"It was kind of crazy out here at first," Miller says. "No one really knew what to expect. They told us about it all the time, but no one knows for sure until you get here."
In person, Miller is unassuming: of medium height, his face slightly pimpled, his teeth a little crooked. He takes his share of small-town-hick ribbing from a unit that includes Marines from big cities as well as small towns.
And it has only increased as word of the platoon radio man's instant fame has spread among his mates.
"Miller, when you get home you'll be a hero," Cpl. Mark Waller, 21, from Oklahoma, said yesterday. "They'll put out a big sign: 'Welcome home, Marlboro Man.' "
Miller is now obliged to provide smokes to just about anyone who asks. It's just about wiped out his stash in a town where Marlboros aren't available just yet.
"When we came to Fallujah, I had two cartons and three packs," Miller explains glumly, adding that his supply has dwindled to four packs, not much for a Marine with a three-pack-a-day habit. "I don't know what I'm going to do."
Even in the Marines, where smoking is widespread, the extent of Miller's habit has raised eyebrows.
"I tried to get him to stop — the cigarettes will kill him before the war," says Navy Corpsman Anthony Lopez, a medic. "I get on him all the time. But this guy is a true Marlboro man."
Miller, who was sent to Iraq in June, is the eldest of three brothers from the hamlet of Jonancy, Ky., in the heart of Appalachian coal country.
Never heard of Jonancy?
"It's named after my great-great-great-grandparents: Joe and Nancy Miller," the young Marine explains. "They were the first people in those parts."
His father, James Miller, is a mechanic and farmer, and Miller grew up working crops: potatoes, corn, green beans.
His mother, Maxie Webber, is a nurse. She last talked to her son briefly on Sunday via a satellite phone. He could speak for only a few minutes, enough time to say hello and reassure his family. After the U.S. attack on Fallujah began Monday, family members waited for some message that he was still alive. Days later, they sat in shock as newscaster Dan Rather talked about the photograph. Who is this man, Rather asked, with the tired eyes and a look of determination?
"I screamed at the TV, 'That's my son!' " Webber said.
Others in Jonancy, including his own father, didn't recognize the camouflaged and bloodied man as the boy they knew.
"He had that stuff on his face. And the expression, that look," said Rodney Rowe, Miller's high-school basketball coach. "Those are not the eyes I'm used to seeing in his face."
Back in high school, Miller was an athlete, joining every team that played a sport involving a ball. The school, Shelby Valley High, is located in Pikeville, Ky., the nearest town of any consequence and the home of an annual three-day spring festival called "Hillbilly Days."
Miller was adrift after high school, wondering what to do with himself. His father never wanted him to work in the mines. "He would have been disappointed if I did that," Miller says. "He told me it was awful work."
So Miller enlisted in the Marines in July 2003 after a conversation with a recruiter he met at a football game. His road to fame was paved in Marine khaki.
"What I really wanted to do was auto-body repair," he says. "But before I knew it I was in boot camp."
Now, he says he's just trying to get through each day. His predecessor as platoon radio man was sent home after being injured in a car-bomb attack.
Miller has three years to go in active duty, but he appears disinclined to re-enlist.
And he shrugs off suggestions he may cash in on his fleeting stardom. He has no plans to hire an agent.
"When I get out, I just want to chill out a little bit," he explains. "Go back to my house, farm a little bit, do some mechanical stuff around the house and call it a day."
Oh, and one more thing: "I'll just sit on my roof and smoke a cigarette."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002089907_marlboro13.html
*unionleader.com had same article, page wouldn't load at:
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showa.html?article=47033
Reports still good -PA
I am breathing easier these days.
It has been two years since I quit smoking. That's helped, but it is not the only reason.
A report from my third and final free chest X-ray in the National Lung Screening Trial of the National Cancer Institute showed that my lungs are clear, the size of my heart is normal, my chest is stable and there is no plain evidence of lung cancer.
I am grateful that no problems have been detected in chest X-rays I had on Oct. 25, 2002; Oct. 3, 2003; and Sept. 29 at UPMC Lee Regional Medical Center in Johnstown.
But I will have to keep checking on the possible effects of inhaling cigarette smoke, nicotine and tar into my lungs for 42 years. I quit smoking Nov. 1, 2002. I will receive annual reminders to keep checking as I complete questionnaires concerning my health over the next five years to provide additional information for a national study on diagnosing and treating lung cancer.
The NLST began in 2002 to give men and women smokers ages 55 to 74 an opportunity to receive free annual chest X-rays or computed tomography (CT) scans for three years in a nationwide study to determine whether conventional chest X-rays or CT scans are the best way to detect lung cancer in its early stages.
About 55,000 people are participating in the NLST throughout the nation with approximately 2,200 in western Pennsylvania. The results of the X-rays and CT scans are provided for the participants and their personal physicians. The participants are responsible for scheduling and paying for follow-up tests and treatment if cancer is found.
"It would be great if you can emphasize the need for people to have their third X-ray or CT scan in anything you write," said Dr. Jeffrey Schragin of the UPMC Cancer Pavilion in Pittsburgh. "We have diagnosed 30 cancers to date with most, but not all, in the very early stages. It is important for participants to have all three tests. Some of the cancers have been diagnosed on the second tests and some on the third tests."
Schragin is the regional coordinator for the National Lung Screen Trial in western Pennsylvania. Although the X-rays and CT scans are provided annually for three years and the program started in 2002, it will take a few years to get results of the study, Schragin said. People were enrolled until February of this year, with the second round of screening to end in early 2005 and the third round finishing in early 2006.
He said the study is going well in both the region and the nation. He was pleased to hear that I am still not smoking after two years.
He thanked me for participating in the NLST and writing about it the past two years.
"Congratulations on quitting smoking," he said. "That is not easy to do and you should be proud."
I told him I am proud and I am also grateful for the opportunity to participate in the NLST. Joining the national study gave me the incentive to quit smoking. I was concerned about what I might find out. At the time, it seemed silly to be worried with no plans to quit smoking. So, I decided to try to quit before I got the results of the first chest X-ray.
The good X-ray reports have made it easier for me to breathe and to hang tough on not smoking. When I am tempted, I remember what John R. Como, my dad, told me about three months before he died at age 76 in 1986.
"You really ought to quit smoking, John," Dad said. "But, if you do, you really have to be tough. I quit smoking in the Navy more than 40 years ago and there are still times when I really want to smoke."
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1078&dept_id=151030&newsid=13358211&PAG=461&rfi=9
Healthcast: Test Your Smoking I.Q.
The following Healthcast report by medical editor Marilyn Brooks first aired Nov. 12, 2004, on Channel 4 Action News at 5 p.m.
There was a time that smoking was not only widely accepted, but promoted by celebrities on television. Not any more. These days, most Americans know that smoking is unhealthy.
But how much do you really know? Let's test your smoking I.Q.
1. Is the number of smokers in the United States going up, going down or staying the same?
It's not going up, but it's not going down either. About 50 million people smoke. That's equal to the entire populations of 26 different states.
2. When you take a puff from a cigarette, how many different compounds are you inhaling?
Dr. Karen Ahijevych, researcher: "Believe it or not, you inhale more than 4,000 compounds from a burning cigarette. In that amount are 50 cardinogens."
Ahijevych studies the effects of smoking on the human body.
3. True or false: It's the nicotine in tobacco that causes cancer.
False.
Ahijevych: "Nicotine itself is not carcinogenic, but there are other ingredients in the cigarette smoke that are." -- ingredients such as ammonia and carbon monoxide.
4. If you smoke 1½ packs a day, and you quit now, how much money could you save over 10 years?
Nearly $22,000.
If you or someone you know is trying to quit, experts recommend getting help. Only 3 percent of people successfully quit each year. Studies show that the use of nicotine patches or gum, along with behavioral modification, can increase the odds.
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/health/3915098/detail.html
Smoking Triggers Early Onset Of Pancreatic Cancer
A new study finds tobacco may act as an environmental trigger for patients with an inherited genetic predisposition to pancreatic cancer. The authors of the report say the findings underscore the importance of strongly counseling patients with a family history of pancreatic cancer to avoid smoking. The study will be published in the December 15, 2004 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society.
Pancreatic cancer is rare and poorly studied. What is known is that pancreatic cancer is aggressive, with a five-year survival rate of only 4 percent. A small percentage of patients with pancreatic cancer have first-degree relatives with pancreatic cancer. Smoking has been identified as the single most important risk factor in familial pancreatic cancer. Despite genetic characterization of other hereditary cancers, the genetic component of pancreatic cancer remains a mystery. With such little known about what is now called familial pancreatic adenocarcinoma (FPAC), researchers led by Ted A. James, M.D. of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York investigated the clinical course and outcome of FPAC compared to sporadic pancreatic cancer.
Retrospective review of 826 patients with pancreatic cancer found 30 had the familial form (3.6 percent). Earlier age at diagnosis and a smoking history were marked features among the familial group. The mean age of diagnosis was younger in the hereditary cohort than among those with the sporadic form (57.1 years old versus 61 years old), and more FPAC patients were diagnosed before the age of 50 (36.7 percent versus 18.3 percent). Moreover, patients with FPAC were more likely to smoke than those who had sporadic pancreatic cancer (87 percent versus 66 percent).
The authors of the report conclude, "Patients with a family history of pancreatic cancer must be strongly counseled against smoking, and smokers with a family history of pancreatic cancer should be informed of their increased risk and offered enrollment into a smoking cessation program."
###*theres related news stories I didn't copy
Article: "Risk Factors Associated with Earlier Age of Onset for Familial Pancreatic Cancer," Ted A. James, David G. Sheldon, Ashwani Rajput, Boris W. Kuvshinoff, Milind M. Javle, Hector R. Nava, Judy L. Smith, and John F. Gibbs, CANCER; Published Online: November 8, 2004 (DOI: 10.1002/cncr.20700); Print Issue Date: December 15, 2004.
State-Specific Prevalence of Current Cigarette Smoking Among Adults --- United States, 2003
Cigarette smoking causes approximately 440,000 deaths annually in the United States (1). To assess the prevalence of current cigarette smoking among adults, CDC analyzed data from the 2003 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey. This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which indicated substantial variation in cigarette smoking prevalence in the 50 states, the District of Columbia (DC), Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) (range: 10.0%--34.0%). To further reduce the prevalence of smoking, states/areas should implement comprehensive tobacco-control programs.
BRFSS is a state-based, random-digit--dialed, telephone survey of the U.S. civilian, noninstitutionalized population aged >18 years. In 2003, the median state/area response rate was 53.2% (range: 34.4%--80.5%). Estimates were weighted by age and sex distributions for each state's population, and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. BRFSS respondents were asked, "Have you smoked at least 100 cigarettes in your entire life?" and "Do you now smoke cigarettes every day, some days, or not at all?" Current smokers were defined as those who reported having smoked >100 cigarettes during their lifetimes and who currently smoke every day or some days.
In 2003, the median prevalence of current cigarette smoking among adults was 22.1% in the 50 states and DC (range: 12.0% [Utah]--30.8% [Kentucky]) Smoking prevalence was higher among men (median: 24.8%; range: 14.0%--33.8%) than women (median: 20.3%; range: 9.9%--28.1%) in the 50 states and DC. Smoking prevalence for both men and women was highest in Kentucky (men: 33.8%; women: 28.1%) and lowest in Utah (men: 14.0%; women: 9.9%). In areas other than the 50 states and DC, the median prevalence of current cigarette smoking among adults was 13.6% (range: 10.0% [USVI]--34.0% [Guam]).
Reported by: J Bombard, MSPH, A Malarcher, PhD, M Schooley, MPH, A MacNeil, MPH, Office on Smoking and Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC.
Editorial Note:
Although the prevalence of current cigarette smoking among U.S. adults has declined, the rate of decline has not been rapid enough for the nation to achieve the 2010 national health objective of <12% of adults smoking cigarettes (objective 27-1) (2,3). The median prevalence of adult smoking decreased 1 percentage point from 2002 to 2003, and the national objective for 2010 was achieved in Utah and the USVI. The high prevalence of current cigarette smoking in most of the remaining states/areas underscores the need for increased efforts to reduce tobacco use.
The findings in this report are subject to at least three limitations. First, the BRFSS survey does not sample persons in households without telephones, a population that might be more likely to smoke (4). Second, data for cigarette smoking are based on self-reports and are not validated with biochemical tests. However, self-reported data on current smoking status have high validity (4). Third, the median response rate was 53.2% (range: 34.4%--80.5%); lower response rates indicate a potential for response bias. However, BRFSS estimates for cigarette smoking are comparable with current smoking estimates from other surveys with higher response rates (5).
Comprehensive tobacco control is effective in preventing and reducing tobacco use (6). CDC recommends the following evidence-based interventions as strategies within comprehensive tobacco-control programs: clean indoor air laws, telephone support quitlines, media campaigns, increased excise taxes on tobacco products, insurance coverage for cessation counseling and pharmaceuticals, and health-care system changes that support cessation (7). Substantial variation exists across states in their use of these strategies. For example, in 2002, two states offered Medicaid coverage for all recommended medication and counseling treatments for tobacco dependence, whereas 11 states covered no tobacco-dependence treatments (8). In addition, the average cost of a single pack of cigarettes (which includes state-based excise taxes) ranged from $3.10 in Kentucky to $5.54 in New York in 2003 (9). The majority of states offer telephone support quitlines, and residents of all states soon will have access to a nationwide network of quitlines. Finally, only six states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York) have comprehensive statewide bans in effect on smoking in indoor workplaces and public places.
The more funds that states spend on comprehensive tobacco-control programs, the greater the reduction in smoking (6). However, the amount of money that states spend for tobacco control decreased 28% during the preceding 2 years to $541.1 million, which is less than 3% of the estimated $19 billion states expected to receive from tobacco excise taxes and tobacco settlement money in 2003 (10). For fiscal year 2004 (i.e., July 1, 2003--June 31, 2004), only four states (Arkansas, Delaware, Maine, and Mississippi) were investing at least the minimum per capita amount that CDC recommends for tobacco-control programs (10). Efforts and resources must be expanded if more states are to reduce smoking prevalence to <12% by 2010.
References
2CDC. Cigarette smoking among adults---United States, 2002. MMWR 2004;53:427--31.
3 US Department of Health and Human Services. Healthy people 2010 (conference ed, in 2 vols). Washington, DC: US Department of Health and Human Services; 2000. Available at http://www.health.gov/healthypeople.
4 Nelson DE, Holtzman D, Bolen J, Stanwyck CA, Mack KA. Reliability and validity of measures from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Social Prev Med 2001;46:S3--S42.
5 US Department of Health and Human Services. Women and smoking: a report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Office of the Surgeon General; 2001:24--25.
6 Farrelly MC, Pechacek TP, Chaloupka FJ. The impact of tobacco control program expenditures on aggregate cigarette sales: 1981--2000. Health Econ 2003;22:843--59.
7 Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Guide to community preventive services: tobacco use prevention and control. Am J Prev Med 2001;20(2 Suppl 1):1--87.
9 Orzechowski W, Walker RC. The tax burden on tobacco, volume 38. Arlington, VA: Orzechowski and Walker; 2003.
10 Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association. A broken promise to our children: the 1998 state tobacco settlement five years later. Washington, DC: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids; 2003Available at http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/reports/settlements/2004/fullreport.pdf .
Table of Prevelence of Current smoking
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5344a2.htm
*THE ABOVE REPORT TURNS INTO THIS, I HAVE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ARTICLE YESTERDAY
Adult Smoking Rate Continues to Decline -USA
11/12/2004
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study finds that the overall smoking rate among U.S. adults continues to decline, albeit slowly. Last year, the smoking rate fell to 22.1 percent, one percentage point less than the previous year, the Associated Press reported Nov. 10.
"It's a slow decline, but at least it is still going down," said Dr. Corinne Husten, acting director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. Still, it seems unlikely that the government will meet its goal of a smoking rate of 12 percent or less by 2010.
According to the report, Utah was the first and only state last year to meet the government's goal. California has the second-lowest smoking state at 17 percent, while Kentucky has the highest, at 31 percent.
The adult smoking rate has been dropping every year since 1998. The CDC credited the decline to smoking bans, anti-smoking media campaigns, higher cigarettes taxes, and insurance coverage for smoking-cessation programs.
Thailand signs international anti-tobacco pact
BANGKOK, Nov 13 (TNA) - Thailand has become a member of the World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
"Thailand is the 36th country to ratify the pact, making Thailand one of the founder member countries of the global anti-smoking treaty," said Dr. Hatai Chitanondh, the President of the Bangkok-based Thai Health Promotion Institute, a leading network for the anti-smoking campaign.
A Thai government representative signed the pact on 8 November at the United Nation's headquarters in New York, he disclosed.
The aim of the treaty is to regulate smoking, the advertising of tobacco products and the illicit trade of cigarettes, among other issues.
"The treaty will be in use when four further countries adopt it, which is expected shortly", said Dr Hatai.
He noted that Thailand's national anti-smoking policies are stronger than those of the FCTC, but that Thailand would benefit from the pact, which will control cross-region advertisements launched by international cigarette companies, especially on local cable television's international sports programmes.
If the FCTC is adopted and subsequently ratified by all 40 member countries, the convention will become the WHO's first global treaty on public health. (TNA)--E112, E002
http://www.mcot.org/query.php?nid=32779
Wallace denies effect of smoking ban on trade -UK
ANDREW DENHOLMMINISTERS yesterday insisted they would not be deflected from bringing in tough smoking curbs for Scotland despite protests from the licensed trade.
The warning came from the enterprise minister, Jim Wallace, in an uncompromising speech that disputed many of the licensed trade’s claims about the impact of the Executive’s proposed legislation.
Mr Wallace set out the Executive’s case in a speech to the Institute of Directors Scotland’s annual conference at Gleneagles Hotel, Perthshire.
Jack McConnell, the First Minister, announced on Wednesday that legislation will be launched before Christmas to outlaw smoking in enclosed public places, with a target of spring 2006 for full implementation.
The Scottish Licensed Trade Association, which favours a voluntary approach, has denounced a consultation process as a sham and has threatened a legal battle.
The licensed trade claims a ban could cost 30,000 jobs but Mr Wallace rejected this.
"At the end of the day, once we have listened to all sides of the debate - and we have - ministers need to do what we believe is right," he said.
He said evidence from New York did not back up the "more pessimistic" claims about the effect on trade.
http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1309692004
Danger that 'lifestyle politics' will force out economic issues
WHAT are, or should be, the big issues in government and political life? Whatever one’s views on the Scottish Executive’s proposals this week to ban smoking in public places, the fact that such legislation is now in prospect marks a step change in our perceptions of the business of politics. The proposed ban has springboarded Scotland to international attention, with articles and commentary across the world’s press. It is the boldness of the proposal - unthinkable ten or even five years ago - that has caught public attention. Moreover, the ban will not only be far reaching in Scottish life and behaviour. It will also be keenly studied by the Westminster parliament which may follow suit.
The drive to legislate in Scotland is itself inspired by the introduction of similar smoking bans in New York and more recently Ireland. Indeed, far from politicians being dragged reluctantly down the path of health intervention, legislatures round the world now appear to be in a race to see who can effect the earliest and most effective law. On public health grounds, this is a race to the good. Scotland is one of the unhealthiest nations in Europe - and smoking is a major contributor. Lung cancer rates are 49 per cent higher in Scotland than in the rest of the United Kingdom; and some 31 per cent of Scots smoke, compared with 26 per cent in England. But, ironically, far from this making the Executive more circumspect in its approach on the grounds of voter acceptability, it is cited as an argument to be all the more radical and to go for an immediate and sweeping smoking ban.
"Lifestyle politics" is now taking all before it. Whether it is drug-taking, obesity and eating choices, alcohol consumption or smoking - the cascade of interventions through government education, task forces, health warnings, admonitory advertising and partial or total bans is now a common phenomenon in politics. The right of legislators to intervene has become accepted by voters to a degree that would have astonished our parents’ generation. Half a century ago, foreign affairs dominated the political agenda. The former prime minister, Sir Anthony Eden, represented a generation that could never understand why politicians should concern themselves with health and hospitals; but today there seems room for little else.
Many see in this a wholly welcome and desirable shift in political attention and emphasis: evidence of an extension of the power and influence of legislatures in important fields. But it is not without its dangers. One of these is the rise of, for want of a better phrase, "displacement politics": the elevation of the politics of personal lifestyle change over traditional "big issue" matters such as the economy, or international relations. Legislatures risk being reduced to "cigarette politics" because of an impotence over the bigger macro concerns. Thus we may be seeing less an extension or enhancement of the modern legislature than a massive demotion in which traditional "big issue" matters are increasingly closed to discussion, let alone intervention.
Scotland this week may have presented a perfect example of this displacement effect at work. It was the proposed smoking ban that the First Minister, Jack McConnell, was anxious to see given top press attention. Media interest in his phone calls with the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, over the fate of the Black Watch regiment was not something he wished to encourage. Similarly, the announcement this week of the "refreshing" of Smart, Successful Scotland - the central plank of Executive policy on the economy - was a markedly downbeat affair. This was particularly striking given Mr McConnell’s previous earnest assurances that "the economy is our number one priority". But it clearly was not the number one priority this week - or in many other weeks, for that matter. The Executive should be careful in its zeal for lifestyle politics ranging over smoking bans and hunting bans to child-smacking bans that it does not lose sight of the issues that really shape our lives in Scotland: jobs, growth, investment and prosperity.
THE second danger arises directly from the nature of the new "lifestyle politics": who sets the agenda, and who determines its limits? One of the charges laid against interventions such as smoking legislation is that it is less a reflection of popular preference than the agenda of a politically correct elite that feels its lifestyle choices to be superior and that it has a right to force others to adopt them. Lifestyle politics has, of necessity, to address the objection that parliaments are supposed to represent the choices and preferences of all the voters, not just a certain section, no matter how righteous they may feel themselves to be. This, in turn, has a direct bearing on the public acceptability of legislation and critically on the question of compliance and enforcement. Proscription does not avoid the need for persuasion.
And this is critical, because the rise of lifestyle politics is unlikely to stop here. Already the drinks industry is preparing to fend off legislation by putting health warnings on beer bottles. Whether this will have any more effect in deterring legislation than warnings on cigarette packs had in pre-empting smoking bans is moot. But few of the doctors who put their names to letters this week calling for a smoking ban would challenge the enormous damage that alcohol abuse inflicts on individuals, families and society as a whole. The health - and wider social damage - is colossal, and it would not be at all surprising if alcohol regulation is the next big step. But in the new Prohibition, how exactly will the law be enforced?
And did we really bring universal suffrage parliaments and legislatures into being to pass laws on the minutiae of human behaviour? What of the broader society and economy? What of those things that are not in our personal gift to control, but which a democratic society recognises our right to influence? We should be careful that, in setting out to correct small personal behaviours, we let great social misbehaviours pass unattended.
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1309212004
Miami-Dade Police reviewing use of stun guns after second child shocked with Taser
MIAMI (AP) - Police have acknowledged using a stun gun to immobilize a 12-year-old girl just weeks after an officer jolted a first-grader with 50,000 volts.
Police Director Bobby Parker defended the decision to use a Taser on the 6-year-old boy last month because he was threatening to injure himself with a shard of glass. But Parker said Friday that he could not defend the decision to shock the fleeing girl, who was skipping school and apparently drunk.
According to the incident report, officer William Nelson responded to a complaint that children were swimming in a pool, drinking alcohol and smoking cigars on the morning of Nov. 5.
Nelson said he noticed the girl was intoxicated and was walking her to his car to take her back to school when she ran away through a parking lot.
Nelson, 38, said he chased her and yelled several times for her to stop before firing the Taser when she began to run into traffic. The electric probes hit the girl in the neck and lower back, immobilizing her.
Nelson said he fired "for my safety along with (the girl's) safety." Paramedics treated the girl, who went home with her mother.
Parker said department policy permits officers to use the Taser to apprehend someone, but he said he expected his officers to use better judgment, especially when police had no plans to arrest the girl.
The first incident had already exposed the department to more criticism for its use of Tasers, which it has begun distributing in greater numbers to officers.
The 6-year-old boy was shocked on Oct. 20 in the principal's office at Kelsey Pharr Elementary School. Principal Maria Mason called 911 after the child broke a picture frame in her office and waved a piece of glass, holding a security guard back.
The boy had cut himself under his eye and on his hand when officers arrived.
"The police could have handled this better," said the boy's mother, Kathy Rojas. "They did not have to shoot him."
Parker said that, in light of the disclosure of the second incident, the department will review its policy.