In majority Latino California, Governor Jerry Brown has signed a series of bills that will raise the smoking age from 18 to 21 and will limit the sale of electronic cigarettes, reports the LA Times. "[These laws] will save countless lives, reduce astronomical costs to the health care system, and cost very little because it uses existing enforcement mechanisms," said Senator Ed Hernandez, who authored the bill to raise the age of tobacco products. "Today was an enormous victory for not only this generation, but also for many generations to come who will not suffer the deadly impacts of tobacco." California joins Hawaii as the second state to raise the smoking age and to ban the selling of electronic cigarettes to anyone under 21. According to a recent study, raising the smoking ...
If you want to quit smoking, it is better to quit all at once, NBC Health reports. A study by Oxford University “randomly assigned almost 700 adult smokers to either an abrupt quitting or gradual reduction group. Each person set a 'quit day' of two weeks after they entered the study, and saw a research nurse once a week until then.” After 4 weeks of tracking 700 adults, researchers found that 40% of the gradual group were not smoking compared to 49% of the abrupt quit group. "However, with smoking, the norm is to advise people to stop all at once and our study found evidence to support that," Nicola Lindson-Hawley, lead study author told Reuters Health by email. "What we found was that more people managed to quit when they stopped smoking all in one go than when they gradually ...
Raising the smoking age to 21 could curb access to tobacco products at an early age, which could lead reductions in smoking prevalence, said Dr. Daniel Ouellette, a Henry Ford Hospital pulmonologist. “Most of my patients are diagnosed with emphysema or lung cancer at a relatively young age from smoking, despite the media attention given to the health risks of smoking, and despite them knowing about those risks,” Oulette said. Smoking causes 1 in 5 deaths in the United States and is linked to cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung disease, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, according to the CDC Oulette warns that based on current smoking rates 5.6 million Americans under 18 will die during their lifetime due to smoking and tobacco products.
At IHPR, the team ...
Technology is a promising way to help Latino smokers quit, given the dire health and cancer consequences of smoking and Latinos' adoption of new technologies and media. What technologies are working? Let’s use #SaludTues on Oct. 20, 2015, to tweet information, resources, and tips that can uncover the ways technology can help Latinos kick the habit now (and for good!): WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “Quitting Smoking with the Help of Technology”
TIME/DATE: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT), Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2015
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludToday
CO-HOST: The CDC (@CDCTobaccoFree)
SPECIAL GUEST: The American Lung Association (@LungAssociation) We’ll open the floor to your stories and experiences as we explore: How much do Latinos ...
Smoking is a tough opponent to beat. Quitxt is a new free service that turns your mobile phone into a personal coach to help you quit smoking, using interactive and entertaining text messages, online support, hip-hop music, and videos designed for South Texas young adults by researchers at the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio. The service’s text messages help with motivation to quit, setting a quit date, finding things to do instead of smoking, handling stress, using nicotine replacement if needed, and more. To join, text “iquit” to 57682. “Text-message applications have scientifically proven to roughly double one’s odds of quitting smoking, so we developed Quitxt specifically for young adult Latinos to capitalize on their heavy usage of texting to help them ...
The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) is launching “Fresh Empire” a hip-hop themed anti-tobacco campaign targeted at Latinos and Blacks. “Unfortunately, the health burdens of tobacco use disproportionately affect minority teens – particularly African American and Hispanic youth,” said Jonca Bull, M.D., the FDA’s Assistant Commissioner for Minority Health in a press release. "The 'Fresh Empire' campaign will help reach teens at a key point in their lives when experimenting with smoking can lead to addiction." The “Fresh Start” campaign will target youth ages 12-17 with interactive content, songs and videos by up and coming hip hop artists. "We know from our research that remaining in control is an important pillar of hip-hop culture. But smoking represents a ...
A recent study by the University of Montreal, reveals that toddlers are more likely to be obese if parent's smoke around them. Professor Linda Pagani, who led the study stated that, “By the age of ten, the children who had been intermittently or continuously exposed to smoke were likely to have waists that were up to three-fifths of an inch wider than their peers. And their BMI scores were likely to be between .48 and .81 points higher. This prospective association is almost as large as the influence of smoking while pregnant.” Latino homes are decreasing in smoking habits, according to the American Lung Association. However, Latino families are still at risk of this effect with the overall population of 12.1% of Hispanics still smoking, according to 2013 reports. To ...
About 5 million U.S. Latinos smoke, and lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among Latino men and second-leading cause among Latina women, statistics show. Why is this happening—and how can Latinos quit smoking and tobacco for good? Let’s use #SaludTues on June 23, 2015, to tweet information, resources, and tips that can help Latinos both young and old kick the habit now (and kick the habit for good!): WHAT: #SaludTues Tweetchat: “How to Get More Latinos to Quit Smoking”
DATE: Tuesday, June 23, 2015
TIME: 1-2 p.m. ET (Noon-1 p.m. CT)
WHERE: On Twitter with hashtag #SaludTues
HOST: @SaludToday
CO-HOSTS: U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (@VeteransHealth), the National Cancer Institute (@SmokefreeUS) We’ll open the floor to your stories and experiences as ...
Latinos and blacks are more likely to pick up a cigarette-smoking habit during their 20s, according to a new study, Science Daily reports. The study, published in the journal Addictive Behaviors, looked at longitudinal data and found that, at age 18-and-a-half, 44% of whites, 27% of Latinos, and 18% of blacks smoked cigarettes. By age 29, the trend rose in Latinos and blacks (30% and 31%) and dropped in whites (40%). Study researchers said the findings can help guide interventions targeted to reduce cigarette smoking "at the right ages for the right socio-demographic groups," said Rebecca J. Evans-Polce, postdoctoral fellow at the Bennett Pierce Prevention Center. "In order to better understand why these disparities in substance use behavior exist, we need to look at how risk ...
