Posts Tagged ‘smoking’

Recently in JAMA, Bill Dietz and colleagues outline a three-part recommendation to address the long-term consequences of preventable chronic health conditions. They focus, rightly, on smoking and tobacco, physical activity, and nutrition as components of the two leading causes of preventable suffering and premature death. These are important recommendations for healthier generations. We see strengths in […]

Nicotine is fascinating drug that has been delivered for centuries in a lethal form – tobacco smoke. Along with obesity and high blood pressure, smoking is a leading cause of death and disease around the world. As smoking has declined, obesity has risen. At least some of the rise in obesity rates is attributable to smoking […]

People seem desperate to find something that they can call “the new smoking.” The head of England’s National Health System made headlines yesterday by saying: The new smoking is obesity. One in five cancer deaths is now caused by obesity. I do think we’re going to need reformulation to take sugar out of foods, in the […]

Fear and disgust can be powerful motivators. A new analysis in Health Affairs contends that they can also be effective tools for serving the interests of public health. Amy Fairchild and colleagues from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University cite a “contested body of evidence about the motivational effects of fear” to support […]

It looks like Joe Camel might have to give up smoking on the job. RJ Reynolds (RJR), the makers of Camel cigarettes, has announced a no smoking policy for its worksites. People who want a smoke will have to go to a designated indoor smoking area. They can also switch to electronic cigarettes, which is […]

Marketing practices for tobacco, food, and increasingly e-cigarettes can serve to make many people mad. We witnessed first hand this week a prime example in a Senate Commerce Committee hearing about e-cigarette marketing practices. Senator Jay Rockefeller opened up the hearing, saying “I’m feeling on edge about this.” It went downhill from there. Ordinarily Rockefeller is known […]

Lost productivity is the net result of a workplace with less smoking and more obesity, according to a new study of company health examination records for more than 5,000 Shell Oil Company employees over three decades. The investigators observed a stark contrast between effective interventions to reduce smoking prevalence among employees compared to an apparent of […]

Obesity solutions that borrow on strategies from smoking control are surfacing again. The National Obesity Forum in the U.K. advocates for doing just this in their recently published “State of the Nation’s Waistline” report. They say that current efforts to promote healthy lifestyles “cannot be expected to alter the public situation on their own, despite […]

E-Cigarettes don’t burn, but they certainly ignite passions and serve as some sort of psychological test. Some people see an evil new addictive gateway to smoking. Others see an opportunity to completely eliminate cancer-causing cigarettes (and maybe make a buck in the process). FDA is trying to figure out how to regulate them. E-cigarettes use […]