Washington,U.S.A — Only months after the office of the U.S. Surgeon General warned that exposure to on-screen smoking causes young people to start smoking, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has spotlighted the U.S. movie industry’s failure to protect young audiences.

Reversing a five-year decline in movie smoking, from 2005 to 2010, four out of the six major Hollywood studios featured more smoking in their youth-rated (G, PG and PG-13) movies in 2011. Overall, tobacco incidents per youth-rated film climbed by more than one-third above 2010; in 2011, youth-rated movies delivered almost twice as many tobacco impressions to domestic theater audiences as in 2010, topping 10 billion. The three major studios with published policies addressing onscreen smoking — Disney, Universal (Comcast) and Warner Bros. (Time Warner) — saw the sharpest increases in the number of tobacco incidents per youth-rated movie.

“These data show us that individual policies that movie studios created in good faith to address this important public health problem do not stand up,” said Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH, President and CEO of Legacy, a national public health organization dedicated to reducing the tobacco epidemic in the United States. “The only way to ensure a substantial and permanent reduction in young people’s exposure to on-screen smoking is for the movie industry to adopt a uniform set of policies that apply to all producers and distributors and provide structural incentives for lasting change,” Healton added.

The Legacy-funded study “Smoking in Top-Grossing US Movies in 2011″ published today in the CDC’s Preventing Chronic Disease found that the number of top-grossing, youth-rated movies that were tobacco-free dropped 17 percentage points from 2010 to 2011 among companies with policies, and the number of tobacco incidents in their movies climbed from an average of 1 in 2010 to 8.5 incidents per movie in 2011.

Across the industry, youth-rated movies accounted for 68 percent of all tobacco impressions delivered to theater audiences in 2011, compared to 39 percent in 2010. The review was conducted by Thumbs Up! Thumbs Down! (TUTD), a project of Breathe California of Sacramento-Emigrant Trails and the University of California, San Francisco, Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. (Tobacco impressions, an index of audience exposure, are estimated by multiplying the number of tobacco incidents in a film by paid admissions to the film)

“In 2011, the steady progress we had seen since 2005, led by three companies who each demonstrated that smoking in youth-rated movies could be all but eliminated, stopped and slipped backward. The stark difference in performance between those three major studios with policies and the three without all but disappeared last year,” said Stanton A. Glantz, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and lead author of the report.

“The result of this increase in the amount of onscreen smoking will be thousands of more kids starting to smoke,” Glantz added. “That’s why only a uniform, industry-wide R rating policy for smoking will protect kids from exposure to tobacco imagery. It creates a sustainable, voluntary incentive for producers to leave smoking out of films produced to be marketed to kids.”

The problem of smoking in movies is a top public health priority, as the U.S. Surgeon General, the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have emphasized the importance of reducing youth exposure to on-screen smoking.

“The industry knows what these policies are, because they have been recommended repeatedly by health agencies and organizations, civic bodies, youth groups, and, earlier this year, by more than three dozen state attorneys general: the R-rating for future smoking, certification of no tobacco payoffs, strong anti-tobacco spots before any movie with smoking, shown in any channel, and an end to tobacco brand display in movies,” Healton said.

“How many more movies will it take for Hollywood to get the big picture and stop recruiting kids for Big Tobacco?” Healton asked. “When an actor lights up, so does a child. It is time for the media companies and their movie studios to take real, lasting action on this issue.”

To learn more about Legacy’s life-saving programs, visit www.LegacyForHealth.org or follow them on Twitter @legacyforhealth and Facebook www.Facebook.com/Legacy.

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2012 looks set to be the best year yet as the European Commission offers new thinking and support to quit smoking with their innovative campaign, “Ex-Smokers are Unstoppable.”

A New Year is a new start – and the European Commission is dedicated to helping smokers across the European Union to become unstoppable; finally stopping smoking and enjoying a better life. According to a recent survey, nearly 80 percent of people who make New Year’s resolutions will fail to stick to them, as many lose motivation and focus instead on the downside of not achieving their goals.

Uniquely, “Ex-smokers are Unstoppable” offers an inspiring and motivating approach to quitting smoking, inviting smokers to think again about the benefits of giving up cigarettes, which include better health, better social interaction, more money, and of course, a better quality of life.

In less than half a year, over 150,000 smokers in the European Union have registered with the European Commission’s innovative digital tool iCoach, launched in June 2011. This step-by-step personalized support tool has already helped thousands of smokers across the EU to quit and aims to support thousands more to achieve their New Year’s resolutions and become unstoppable ex-smokers in 2012.

iCoach offers:

- Personalized tips and advice to support smokers to kick the habit

- Regular emails to provide support at every step of the journey to a smoke-free life

- A forum to allow smokers to support each other and share their own inspiring stories

- Graphs showing the user’s progress towards their end goal: Becoming an unstoppable ex-smoker

“I am delighted that “Ex-Smokers are Unstoppable” has helped 150,000 smokers so far,” said Commissioner Dalli. “We look forward to supporting many more thousands of smokers to achieve their goal of a smoke-free life in 2012.

As we enter this new year, there is an opportunity to make 2012 the best year it can be as the “Ex-smokers are Unstoppable” campaign will be even bigger and better. I gave up smoking myself some years ago, and I really understand just how great it feels to be an ex-smoker.”

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New results from a national survey show that over one in ten smokers (13%) in the United States did not disclose their smoking status to their health-care providers (HCP), who are among the most important resources that a smoker could have in quitting successfully.

Furthermore, social stigma around smoking may contribute to why smokers sometimes keep their smoking status a secret from their doctors. The survey of 3,146 adult participants in the U.S. (smokers and former smokers) was conducted using the web-enabled KnowledgePanel, a probability-based panel designed to be representative of the U.S. population.

Researchers from Legacy, a national public health organization dedicated to building a world where anyone can quit, say that while a majority of smokers did admit their smoking status, only one-quarter sought help from their doctors or health care providers during their last quit attempt. Although most smokers surveyed stated they are honest with their health care provider (HCP), one in ten smokers reported they do not disclose their smoking status. The findings have important implications for how HCPs can more effectively reach smokers with resources to help them quit.

“Health care providers play a critical role in reaching smokers with appropriate messages and resources for quitting, especially now that insurance coverage has expanded to include some smoking cessation treatments. It becomes a missed public health opportunity if what amounts to more than six million smokers in the United States do not talk to doctors and nurses about smoking and quitting,” said Cheryl G. Healton, Dr. PH, President and CEO of Legacy.

Using a nationally representative panel, researchers surveyed smokers and former smokers to examine issues that might affect a smokers’ decision to conceal their smoking status. The results found that smokers who concealed their smoking from HCPs were more likely to perceive high smoking-related stigma compared to those who had not ever concealed their smoking.

“There has been a significant shift in the social climate around tobacco and smoking in our country in recent years as people recognize the health consequences of tobacco and second-hand smoke. As an unintended result of higher prices of cigarettes, increased measures to ban smoking in public places, and create smoke-free workplaces, many smokers may feel marginalized and less compelled to discuss smoking with their physicians and other providers,” said Healton.

To address the void between doctors and all smokers, Legacy has developed a guide for HCPs with strategies on how to conduct more meaningful and effective conversations with their patients about smoking and quitting. “If we can start the conversation by acknowledging smoking behavior, we can get smokers on a path to quit,” Healton said.

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A study published Thursday December 15 by the American Journal of Public Health provides some of the strongest evidence yet that tobacco prevention and cessation programs not only reduce smoking and save lives, but also save money by reducing tobacco-related health care costs.

The study found that from 2000 to 2009, Washington state’s tobacco prevention and cessation program saved more than $5 for every $1 spent by reducing hospitalizations for heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and cancer caused by tobacco use.  Over the 10-year period, the program prevented nearly 36,000 hospitalizations, saving $1.5 billion compared to $260 million spent on the program.  These are real savings in tobacco-related hospitalization costs from 2000 to 2009, not projected savings in future health care costs.

According to the study’s authors, the total savings are even greater when other tobacco-related health and productivity costs are included, in addition to the hospitalization costs. The study further found that Washington’s smoke-free workplace law and the state’s multiple cigarette tax increases also contributed to smoking declines and health care savings.

This study sends a powerful message to the nation’s elected officials that disease prevention initiatives, including programs that prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit, are essential to improving health and reducing health care costs in the United States. It comes at a critical time as funding for such programs is under attack at both the federal and state levels.

The study shows why Congress should protect the Prevention and Public Health Fund created by the health care reform law rather than slash funding by as much as 68 percent, as some lawmakers have proposed. The prevention fund is a vital source of support for tobacco prevention and cessation efforts, including state and community grants, telephone quitlines to help smokers quit, and media campaigns to discourage kids from smoking and encourage smokers to quit.

The new Washington study provides concrete evidence that investing in prevention can pay tremendous dividends by reducing the very diseases that cost the most to treat. Cutting the prevention fund would be a fiscally irresponsible step backward that would increase health care costs.

This study also underscores how penny-wise and pound-foolish the states have been in shortchanging tobacco prevention and cessation programs. In the current budget year (Fiscal Year 2012), the states will collect $25.6 billion in revenue from the 1998 state tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend only 1.8 percent of it – $456.7 million – on programs to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit, according to a recent report by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other public health organizations.

Despite the growing evidence that these programs save lives and save money, states have cut tobacco prevention funding by 36 percent over the past four years and now provide just 12 percent of the funding recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  It is incomprehensible given Washington’s success that the state has virtually eliminated funding for its tobacco prevention and cessation program this year.

Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 people and costing the nation $193 billion a year in health care bills and lost productivity. The new Washington study confirms that tobacco prevention works to save lives and money.  It makes no sense for elected officials to shortchange programs that are proven to reduce health care costs and save money for taxpayers.

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Wonder why your child’s classmate seems to be more absent than unusual and their seat is frequently empty in the classroom? Well, a new study finds children who live with smokers miss more school due to illness than those who live in households with non-smokers, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics.

Researchers found data from the 2005 National Health Interview Survey, which tracked how many days of school children ages 6 to 11 miss and the reason for their absence. (The study was not without limitations. Children over 12 were excluded from the study because of the possibility that exposure could be due to their own smoking).

The participants of that study were asked to evaluate each child’s general health and to answer the following questions: how many people smoked inside the home, how many school days the child missed due to illness or injury during the previous year, whether the child had three or more ear infections during the previous year, whether the child had a chest cold or gastrointestinal illness during the preceding two weeks and whether the child had been diagnosed with asthma, and if so, whether the child had any recent asthma attacks.

Of the 3,087 children whose information was analyzed for this study, more than 14 percent lived in a home with at least one person who smoked in the house, 8 percent lived with one household smoker and 6 percent with two or more, which represents 2.6 million children nationwide.

Children living with one in-home smoker had an average of 1.06 more days absent, and those living with two or more had 1.54 more days absent than did children living in homes where no one smoked indoors. The research also suggests that families could reduce absenteeism by 24 to 34 percent if smoking was eliminated from their households.

According to the study, about one third of children in the United States live with a smoker. Among children aged 3 to 11, at least 56 percent have detectable levels of a chemical called serum cotinine, which is an indication of tobacco smoke exposure. Cotinine is a breakdown of nicotine in the body and it can be measured by analyzing levels in the blood, urine or saliva.

Researchers like Dr. Douglas Levy, the study’s principal investigator and Assistant in Health Care Policy at the Mongan Institute for Health Policy, agrees this establishes a link between household smoking and two specific respiratory illnesses. But it seems missed school days and health issues are not the only effects of secondhand smoke for young children.

Researchers also calculated the potential costs associated with the need to care for children absent from school due to smoke-exposure related illness. Costs to the family include lost income for parents without paid time off, the costs to employers of the lost work, and the inability of caregivers not employed outside the home to take care of usual household tasks.

The total impact nationwide is $227 million in lost wages and household work for the families of the 2.6 million children living with smokers and for their employers. Overall secondhand smoke affects children’s education, health, and income.

Levy’s advice to parents? “If you are a smoker do not smoke around your kids whether it be at home or in the car. Even better advice is to try to quit smoking.”

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Australia is on its way to be the first nation to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes.

What exactly it means?

Scientists indicated that olive green color is the one which is not attracting when a person looks at a package, therefore all packages will be the same olive green color. Moreover no logos and brands will be on cigarette packages, since it is supposed that having a special brand makes a person more stylish and motivates to smoke even more.

The main goal of Australian government is to reduce overall smoking rate among people, which causes $31.5 billion annually. Not only the wealth of people is diminished because of smoking, in addition healthcare problem is a big issue.

The major harm smoking might cause is cancer, emphysema and heart disease. Furthermore it is estimated that smoking shortens life by 10 years or more. There is a question, why people still continue if they know the direct effect on their health and it may cost a smoker thousands of dollars a year? The answer is addiction.

The same as heroin or other addictive drugs, the body and mind quickly gets used to the nicotine in cigarettes that a person needs to have it just to feel normal.

Despite Australian tobacco companies were not pleased by hearing the news about plain packages and some of them have reacted angrily, Robin Hewings, Cancer Research UK’s tobacco control policy manager, welcomed the news.

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