Smoking, obesity claiming more lives in UAE

Dubai: Non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer are killing more people in the UAE because of unhealthy lifestyle, smoking and fast economic transformation, a national health report said.
Deaths due to heart attacks were way ahead of deaths due to traffic accidents. The other killers were stress and high blood pressure, according to the annual report released by the Ministry of Health yesterday.
Dr Mahmoud Fikri, Assistant Undersecretary of Health Policies Affairs at the Ministry of Health and Chair of Higher National Committee for Diabetes, said: "What really worries us is the less physical activity among adolescents."
A school survey showed that children between 13 to 15 years of age spend more than three hours every day on TV and computer games.
This inactivity is expected to turn a large number of residents obese by the year 2015.
The report warns the obesity rates among women will reach 44.6 percent by the year 2015.
"The high obesity rate among children and adolescents is dangerous and this goes back to less physical activity, fast food consumption and high consumption of energy drinks and sugars," Fikri said in the annual report.
The health ministry is also worried that more young adults are smoking and that tobacco consumption was growing despite taking stringent steps.
A school survey showed increasing rates of smoking among school boys which went up to 17 per cent in 2010 as against 14.9 per cent five years ago. Smoking is the main cause of lung cancer and also adversely affects non-smokers in homes such as children and women.
The report highlights the vital role of preventive measures in surmounting the health challenges that pose a danger to society in general, the health policy chief said.
The good news is that infant mortality is down and polio has been eradicated and that the UAE is malaria-free, according to the report.
But to offset the good news the report notes that about 20 per cent of the population will turn diabetic by the year 2030.

Event discourages children, teens from tobacco use

There was plenty of fresh air flowing throughout the Kick Butts Day Health Fair on Sunday at Reading Junior Academy on Kenhorst Boulevard.

The free event sponsored by Adventist WholeHealth Network, a Wyomissing nonprofit health organization, was designed to discourage tobacco use among children and teens.

An acrobatics performance by the Aerial Aires of Blue Mountain Academy highlighted the health fair, which also offered food, door prizes and family-friendly activities from 1 to 4 p.m.

The fair also featured information booths to help prevent children from starting to smoke and to help those with current tobacco habits create a plan to quit and get healthy.

Energy costs, labor big concerns for tobacco growers

The cost of energy and labor are two of the biggest concerns for tobacco growers in 2012, says Brent Leggett of Nashville, N.C., the new president of the Tobacco Growers Association of North Carolina (TGANC).
Creative management of both could be the key to overcoming both.

“That’s especially true if you are using H-2A workers, as we are. H-2A wages have gone up 40 cents an hour, and you have to increase efficiency to manage that.”

Due to the mild winter, LP gas has actually gone down a little in price. “But you don’t know how long that is going to last,” he said.

Leggett uses LP gas as curing fuel for his flue-cured tobacco, but he is looking into converting to natural gas as a cost-savings measure.

Leggett grows tobacco, sweet potatoes, cotton, soybeans, cucumbers and has two roadside strawberry farms.

Most of the tobacco farmers at the annual meeting were very much hoping the 2012 season brings better weather conditions than 2011 did.

“Once again the weather was not particularly supportive in 2011,” said Craig West, a Fremont, N.C., flue-cured grower who ended his term as TGANC president at the meeting. “In most locations the crop conditions were extremely dry and hot early in the season.”

But ultimately, 2011 will be remembered for Hurricane Irene, which subtracted about 150 million pounds of marketable production, according to final estimates, he says. “It likely impacted another 40 to 50 million pounds from stress and bruising.”

Some growers are getting out. “We have no real estimate as to how many (of our) peers will stop growing tobacco in 2012,” said West. “But the alarm bells are sounding and I wonder if the buyers are hearing. Once a grower exits, it is highly unlikely that family farm ever resumes tobacco production.”

Bloomberg to give $220M to end world smoking; New York City mayor wants to reduce tobacco use all over the world

Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire who has made reducing smoking one of his signature causes as mayor of New York City, is committing $220 million to his charity to go toward reducing tobacco use in countries that are home to millions of smokers.

He announced his four-year commitment to Bloomberg Philanthropies at the 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Singapore on Thursday. The new commitment will bring the total amount he has directed to his eponymous charity to over $600 million for anti-smoking efforts since 2007.

"Tobacco kills every day, so we need to keep the fight moving forward and keep the momentum going," Bloomberg said in a statement.

Bloomberg, who made his fortune in the financial services industry, was ranked fifth on the Chronicle of Philanthropy's list of 50 of the "most generous donors" for 2011.

His new commitment will go toward initiatives including smoke-free laws, graphic pack warnings and raising taxes, charity officials said. The focus will be on country-level change, particularly in China, India, Indonesia, Russia and Bangladesh, which officials say account for the largest share of tobacco use in the world.

As mayor of New York City, Bloomberg has steered public health policy to ban smoking in restaurants, bars, parks and beaches; launch numerous advertising campaigns to alert consumers to the hazards of tobacco use; and raise the price of cigarettes through taxes.

James Colgrove, a professor at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and author of "Epidemic City: The Politics of Public Health in New York," said there was a great deal of evidence supporting the tobacco reduction initiatives that Bloomberg Philanthropies and the city have pursued.

"Tobacco related illnesses is a huge global epidemic. It's one of the leading causes of preventable death," he said, adding that Bloomberg Philanthropies is one of a number of organizations that have committed to reducing tobacco use worldwide. "This is a priority for the entire public health and medical profession."

Tobacco is linked to the death of 6 million people worldwide each year, according to the World Health Organization. Most deaths are in low- and middle-income countries.

Bloomberg to give $220M to end world smoking; New York City mayor wants to reduce tobacco use all over the world

Dissolvable tobacco harmless finds FDA panel but promises detailed review

An advisory panel to the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) said Thursday that people who exclusively use dissolvable tobacco products have a greatly reduced risk of cancer and respiratory illness compared with those who regularly smoke cigarettes.

Some anti-smoking advocates, who have steadfastly supported smokeless tobacco products as the better alternative to cigarettes, hailed the acknowledgement by the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee as important for public health as the landmark 1964 Surgeon General's report on cigarette smoking. However some experts are cautious. They say more research is needed to determine whether dissolvable products can have an overall positive societal influence compared with cigarettes.

This is the latest FDA toward the goal of determining whether smokeless tobacco products can be marketed as less harmful, or reduced risk, compared with cigarettes. Tobacco manufacturers, particularly R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., are putting more emphasis on smokeless tobacco sales as consumer demand for cigarettes declines. Reynolds said Thursday in a statement, “Adult tobacco consumers have a right to be fully and accurately informed about the risks of serious diseases, the significant differences in the comparative risks of different tobacco and nicotine-based products, and the benefits of quitting.”

The committee's findings reported that dissolvable tobacco products “were neither well liked nor being widely used by themselves for smoking cessation.” Part of that lack of acceptance, the committee acknowledged, may come from “people having a perception of the risks of dissolvable tobacco products that is exaggerated.” Some anti-tobacco groups claim the risks are the same as smoking a cigarette.

Reynolds has said the flavored, finely milled tobacco products give adults a discreet option in venues where smoking is banned out of concern for secondhand smoke exposure. Reynolds' dissolvable products include Camel Sticks (stick of pulverized tobacco, with flavoring, similar in shape to a toothpick), Camel Strips (tobacco film strips that dissolve in the mouth) and Camel Orbs (similar in shape to Tic Tacs).

The committee said dissolvable products could provide a societal benefit in reducing disease from tobacco use by decreasing the number of smokers through either cessation or preventing the first use of cigarettes. It however cautioned that increased use of dissolvable products also could lead to more smokers by serving as a bridge to cigarettes and/or reducing societal concern about the potential health risks of tobacco products in general.

As a result, the committee said it could not provide a definitive recommendation “since experience is limited and observational evidence on how dissolvable tobacco products might affect use of tobacco products is lacking.”

Sale of smuggled cigarette a big challenge for govt

The ongoing sale of a smuggled brand of cigarette is a big challenge for the Directorate General of Intelligence and Investigation Inland Revenue (IR) Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to check its movement during the national drive against non-duty paid or smuggled cigarettes/ tobacco.

Industry sources told Business Recorder here on Tuesday that the Directorate General of Intelligence IR has started conducting raids on the stockists and wholesalers of non-duty paid or smuggled cigarettes on March 1, 2012. In this regard, the agency would conduct raids on stockists and wholesalers of non-duty paid or smuggled cigarettes/ tobacco in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). The DG Intelligence IR has established a dedicated unit in the KPK for launching the drive from Peshawar along with other areas of the province.

The agency should also check selling of smuggled Pine cigarettes being sold without payment of excise duty and violation of Pictorial Health Warning Laws. Shops in different cities are selling smuggled cigarettes, which is a blatant violation of Pakistani laws. The Directorate General of Intelligence IR should give top priority to stop the selling of the said brand of smuggled cigarette during recent drive in KPK. The agency has also intercepted vehicles carrying non-duty paid smuggled cigarettes/tobacco and movement of such smuggled cigarettes should also be checked in particularly KPK, industry experts suggested.

Parliament enacted numerous laws for reducing smoking, which included the Pictorial Health Warning under the Printing of Warning Ordinance 1979.

However, the blatant and unrelenting sale of smuggled cigarette packs without the Pictorial Health Warning not only depicts the weakness of the government but also undermines the government's health agenda.

Industry experts have disclosed that since the introduction of the Pictorial Health Warning in September 2010, the sales of the smuggled brand has increased.

According to sources, the said brand of smuggled cigarette is being smuggled from Torkham and Chamman. The unhindered smuggling and the subsequent sale of the smuggled cigarettes is a clear indicator of the non- serious attitude of the concerned officials and the overall appalling state of affairs. As per rough estimates, the smuggling of Pine alone causes an annual loss of over Rs 1 billion to the national exchequer, while the overall loss caused by smuggled cigarettes is over Rs 1.65 billion.

The sale of smuggled cigarettes in the markets is a clear violation of a number of anti-smuggling and pictorial health warning laws, but due to poor enforcement such illicit cigarettes continue to be readily available and within easy access, sources opined.

It is worth mentioning that in the first phase of crackdown, the directorate of intelligence IR has launched the drive in KPK, the major producer of tobacco. The intelligence agency would conduct raids on the premises of illegal warehouses of tobacco/cigarettes and sellers of smuggled cigarettes. The raids on the units engaged in evasion of duties and taxes would give a clear and loud message to the cigarette industry to comply with the law and stop selling of smuggled cigarettes.

These raids on illegal warehouses would effectively check the supply line of non-duty paid cigarettes to the market. Later, the drive would be replicated in the remaining parts of the country as well.

Tobacco deliveries increased

Some 14,7 million kg of tobacco valued at US$53,6 million have been sold compared to 12,3 million kg last year which was valued at $37,2 million TIMB chief executive officer Andrew Matibiri said the four floors were performing well and there was no congestion compared to last year.

A total of 150 million tonnes of the crop are expected this year.

“The only issue we have now is about the delivery of tobacco before registration, but we are dealing with farmers as they come,” Matibiri said.

Matibiri said the average price for tobacco increased this year due to demand for the green leaf. The average price for flue-cured tobacco is $3,71 per kg.

With regards to burley marketing, Matibiri said they were still negotiating with potential buyers.

According to TIMB weekly report for the last two weeks of February 2012, tobacco deliveries increased to 5,2 million kg up from 1,3 million kg in the first week of the selling season.

The figure was up 4,2 million kg of tobacco sold during the same period last year.

The 2012 selling season has 40 932 registered growers of which 14 686 are newly registered farmers.

The report said both seasonal and contract prices were favourable compared to the same period last year.

President bans advertizing of tobacco products

Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has signed a law prohibiting the advertising of tobacco products, the president's press service reported on Tuesday.

According to the law, the advertizing of tobacco products, the advertizing of trademarks of goods and services and other intellectual property under which tobacco products are produced is banned on radio and television, including cable, IP, online, mobile, digital and broadcast television and other means of signal transmission.

The advertising of tobacco products is also prohibited in science, science fiction, educational, political, reference, and fiction publications, including printed media, on means of transport, outdoor advertising installations, in places where mass events are held, and on the Internet.

The law also forbids sponsorship using the advertising of tobacco products and names of producers, importers and sellers of tobacco products for TV and radio programs, plays, concerts, sports and cultural events.

Uncertainty remains for tobacco tax hike

Attending the 11th National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing, Minister Miao Wei on Sunday explained to the media that tobacco tax consists of turnover, income and consumption taxes, and the government is looking into whether the measure will have an effect on China's smokers of 350 million.

Miao's comments came two days after Minister of Health Chen Zhu announced that China is planning to raise taxes on mid- and low-end cigarettes, following the tax hike on high-end ones in 2009 that failed to meet targeted reductions of the country's smoking population.

In other efforts, Miao said the health warnings on cigarette packs are being moved from the side to the front, and the government is planning other similar measures to campaign against smoking.

In 2006, China joined the World Health Organization's (WHO) "Framework Convention on Tobacco Control" (FCTC). The following year, the State Council established a group led by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to promote smoking control in China.

African-American smokers face additional pressures

Back in the day, Rebecca Dickerson remembered, smoking was the thing to do.
“It was just cool,” she said.
But what started as something cool in the 1970s became an addiction that would not let go of her for 39 years.
“I got hooked,” she said. “I tried to stop many times, but went back.”
Dickerson became one of 8 million African-Americans in this country who smoke. Tobacco-related diseases kill more African-Americans each year than car crashes, AIDS, murders and drug and alcohol abuse combined, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
For African-Americans, avoiding tobacco requires willpower against far more than nicotine, as a host of historical, cultural, geographical and economic factors come into play. As slaves working in tobacco fields, they smoked to ease their pain. As consumers, certain brands are marketed toward them.
An internal tobacco company memo made public via landmark litigation urged marketers to “take advantage of the relatively small and tightly knit” nature of the African-American community. Many older members smoke and hand down the habit to younger generations, who have difficulty rejecting their elders’ traditions.
“It has been in our history for a long time,” said Kara Endsley, program manager for the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network in Durham, N.C. “We survived the [civil rights struggles of the] 1960s, we got Obama in the White House. We need that same fortitude to fight tobacco … We are free from slavery, but still in bondage.”
She was the keynote speaker at a recent workshop at Edward Waters College that brought together health education experts seeking ways to curb smoking by African-Americans in Northeast Florida. EWC, a tobacco-free campus since 2008, received a grant from the Tobacco-Free Jacksonville Coalition to stage the event.
Helping smokers quit
The key to breaking the smoking habit is to provide affordable, easily accessible no-smoking programs at the community level, Endsley said.
That’s what helped Dickerson kick the habit.
She had many stops and starts. In early 2011, she woke up one morning and told herself the six cigarettes she had left would be her last.
“I decided I wouldn’t buy any more. I was going to enjoy those six,” she said with a chuckle.
Dickerson kicked the habit for two weeks on her own, used nicotine patches to help, then joined the free Quit Smoking Now program sponsored by the Northeast Florida Area Health Education Center.
Now 61, she has been smoke free for 14 months.
“Just being able to be with people in the same predicament I was in … Nobody judged me,” she said.
Another success story is Yvette Perry, 29, who started smoking when she was 18 or 19.
“Everybody was smoking,” she said.
She decided to quit cold turkey a year or so ago because of the cost of cigarettes — $6 a pack — and worries about the possible impacts on her health and appearance.
“One day, I said I didn’t want to smoke today,” she said. “If you have strong willpower to give something up, you can give it up.”
Her timing was critical. Shortly after she quit, she became pregnant.

Medical marijuana group displays message on billboards

Advocates for medical marijuana reform are targeting what may seem an unlikely demographic: senior South Floridians.

And Tuesday morning, they spelled out their message in sky-high letters across two billboards along Sample Road about a mile east of Powerline Road. Tinted sky blue and cloud pink, the 14-by-48-foot billboards are on the north side of the street, visible to eastbound drivers.

"Legalize Medical Marijuana" shouts one, with a godlike hand extending from the heavens, a marijuana leaf in its palm. Facing it is the photo of a senior in a wheelchair and the caption "I'm a Patient Not a Criminal."
Down the road apiece, just after a billboard advertising a service for clogged drains, stands the second big sign. "Reschedule Medical Marijuana" it reads. Below it is a quote from former administrative Judge Francis L. Young's ruling about pot in a 1988 case: "One of the Safest Therapeutically Active Substances Known to Man."

The billboards urge viewers — some 54,500 cars pass that section of Sample Road daily, according to the state Department of Transportation — to learn more at The Silver Tour, the billboards' sponsor.

The Silver Tour was founded by Robert Platshorn, of West Palm Beach, former operator of a '70s pot smuggling operation out of Miami labeled the Black Tuna Gang. Platshorn was released from federal prison about four years ago.

Platshorn, 69, is dedicated to enlightening seniors about the benefits of medical marijuana. He has preached his gospel at temples and community centers. Marijuana, he says, can alleviate maladies common to the elderly, and even replace sleeping pills with unwanted side effects.

"Wouldn't it be kinder to give Mom a joint to smoke and let her go to sleep with a smile on her face?" he said.

While many young people already support legalization of medicinal cannabis, seniors bring a special advantage to the cause. "Seniors are an active political force," Platshorn said. "Seniors vote, seniors have time to contact their representives."

The last Silver Tour show, at a Boyton Beach synagogue in January, resulted in 400 calls to state lawmakers from attendees, Platshorn said.

To celebrate the billboards, about a dozen pro-legalization figures gathered at the All Stars Sports Bar & Grill in a strip plaza near the signs.

There was the legendary Irvin Rosenfeld, 59, the Fort Lauderdale stockbroker who has been smoking some 300 joints a month — approved and provided by the government — to keep a bone disease in check. Also on hand was Charlie Strout, 56, a disabled Marine Corps vet from Pompano Beach who is denied what he feels would ease his spinal injury: pot.

"I would love to try it," he said. "In talking to the doctors, they said it would be very beneficial."

Strout spent $5,000 of his own money to pay for the billboards, which will remain up for a month.

Platshorn is raising money for more billboards and senior tours, and has a 30-minute infomercial in production. "I really want to get something done in this state," he said.