NOT PEER REVIEWED
It is my hypothesis that testosterone is increasing in our population
and that this increase is the cause of the "secular trend," the increase
in size and earlier puberty in our children. Therefore, as the continuum
progresses, phenomena will increase if caused by increased testosterone,
and possibly decrease if other phenomena are increased which counteract
the earlier phenomena. This sounds really co...
NOT PEER REVIEWED
It is my hypothesis that testosterone is increasing in our population
and that this increase is the cause of the "secular trend," the increase
in size and earlier puberty in our children. Therefore, as the continuum
progresses, phenomena will increase if caused by increased testosterone,
and possibly decrease if other phenomena are increased which counteract
the earlier phenomena. This sounds really contradictory but it may
explain the earlier increase in childhood ear infections and the current
decline.
Testosterone decreases the immune system. Blacks produce more
testosterone than whites and blacks exhibit more infections, bacterial and
viral, than whites. Therefore, based on the explanation in the paragraph
above, ear infections should increase.
As testosterone levels increase, I suggest this produces earlier
changes in the growth of the head which might increase development of the
eustachian tubes. It is known that the incidence of childhood ear
infections decline upon achievement of a certain level of development in
young children, that is, the eustachian tubes reach a level of growth
which allows drainage of the ear and this reduces infections.
It is known that black children, at 2-3 years, exhibit increased head
circumference growth compared to White and Asian children in a study of
growth after birth (Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 2000 Jan;14(1):4-13).
Head circumference growth may include development of the eustachian tubes.
Therefore, one might predict that Black children will exhibit fewer ear
infections than whites; this is the case (Laryngoscope. 2010
Aug;120(8):1667-70).
Now, I suggest that as the increase in testosterone progresses the
increase in ear infections as a result of the adverse effect of
testosterone of the past are counteracted by the increase in growth of the
eustachian tubes, the incidence of ear infections will decrease. I
suggest this may explain the current decrease in childhood ear infections
as secular trend has been ongoing for a much longer time than the current
decline in smoking.
A controversy has been raging regarding the relative safety of
waterpipe smoking . To investigate the claims of few university students
who smoked waterpipe that waterpipe smoke (WPS) does not cause dental
stains, we compared cigarette and waterpipe smokers.
Two groups each of 10 subjects were selected .One group comprising of
only water pipe smokers (including 9 waterpipe cafe caretakers), the other
made of on...
A controversy has been raging regarding the relative safety of
waterpipe smoking . To investigate the claims of few university students
who smoked waterpipe that waterpipe smoke (WPS) does not cause dental
stains, we compared cigarette and waterpipe smokers.
Two groups each of 10 subjects were selected .One group comprising of
only water pipe smokers (including 9 waterpipe cafe caretakers), the other
made of only cigarette smokers who smoked 20-30 cigarettes daily. All the
subjects brushed once daily, using tooth paste. Thorough oral prophylaxis
was done, subjects were asked not to indulge in any means of smoking other
than what specified. Dental stains were evaluated every 10th day for 100
days.
Dental Stain Grading:
Only lingual aspects of lower anterior teeth were evaluated.
Grade 1- Stain present on the cervical (lower) 1/3rd
Grade 2- Stain present on the cervical and middle 1/3rds.
Grade 3- Stain present on the cervical, middle and incisal 1/3rds.
It was observed that waterpipe smokers did not develop any dental
stains while cigarette smokers had Grade 3 dental stains at the end of 100
days.
Staining of teeth results primarily from coal tar combustion
products.[1] One may assume that coal tar combustion does not happen in
waterpipe smoking , since no stains formed in 100 days. In fact, the smoke
from a single waterpipe use contains approximately the same amount of tar
as 20 cigarettes.[2] However, the tar produced by a waterpipe may differ
from that produced by a cigarette, because tobacco in a waterpipe is not
burnt, but heated.[3] Also, the smoke after passing through the water
bowl loses heat almost completely before reaching the oral cavity.
High incidence of pre cancerous oral lesions has been reported due to
reverse smoking, possibly due to increased intra oral temperature and
different combustion products.[4] In reverse smoking the chemical action
of tobacco is supplemented by the irritant effect of heat. Where as in
WPS, the heat factor is negated. Temperature may be positively related to
tar related tumorigenicity and mutagenicity.[2,3]
This should not let us underestimate the potential ill effects of
WPS. WPS contains charcoal-combustion products as well. The water does
absorb some of the nicotine.[5] Reduced concentration of nicotine in the
WPS may result in smokers inhaling higher amounts of smoke until they get
enough nicotine to satisfy their need and addiction;[6] and thus exposing
themselves to higher levels of cancer-causing chemicals and hazardous
gases such as carbon monoxide than if none of the nicotine was absorbed by
the water.[7]
2. Shihadeh A. Investigation of mainstream smoke aerosol of the
argileh water pipe. Food Chem Toxicol. 2003;41:143-152.
3. Maziak W, Ward KD, Afifi Soweid RA, et al. Tobacco smoking using a
waterpipe: a re-emerging strain in a global epidemic. Tob Control.
2004;13:327-333.
5. Shafagoj YA, Mohammed FI, Hadidi KA. Hubble-bubble (water pipe)
smoking: levels of nicotine and cotinine in plasma, saliva and urine. Int
J Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2002; 40:249-255.
6. National Cancer Institute. Risks associated with smoking
cigarettes with low machine-measured yields of tar and nicotine. Smoking
and Tobacco Control Monograph No.13.Bethesda MD, United States Department
of Health and Human Services ,Public Health Service ,National Institutes
of Health ,National Cancer Institute.2001.
7. Knishkowy B, Amitai Y. Water-pipe (narghile) smoking: An emerging
health risk behavior. Pediatrics. 2005;116:113-119.
NOT PEER REVIEWED
I use an ecigarette filled with vegetable glycerin and flavorings, food items found in any grocery. I do not add nicotine. Aren't the concerns raised by the UCR study nullified for non-nicotine ecigarette users such as myself?
A post-date to this article would mention that on 12/7/2010 the US Supreme court decided ecigarettes are not a 'nicotine delivery system'.
The future regulation of nicotine is the real...
NOT PEER REVIEWED
I use an ecigarette filled with vegetable glycerin and flavorings, food items found in any grocery. I do not add nicotine. Aren't the concerns raised by the UCR study nullified for non-nicotine ecigarette users such as myself?
A post-date to this article would mention that on 12/7/2010 the US Supreme court decided ecigarettes are not a 'nicotine delivery system'.
The future regulation of nicotine is the real issue here. It's an issue that generates much tax revenue and research funding.
As cigarettes become more unpopular worldwide, expect negative ecigarette propaganda to shape future regulations, and thereby shut out foreign comptetitors from the American tobacco market.
Once tough regulations are in place, look for the tobacco industry to jump on the ecigarette band wagon and fund studies that prove how much safer they are than smoking. Why?
Nicotine extraction is cheaper than production, storage and distribution of current products. The result is greater profits and an improved image for tobacco farmers. With increased quality control regulations will come the higher prices needed to comply.
In a nutshell: ecigarettes are just a stage prop without nicotine. Users appear to be quitting smoking in large numbers, yet ecigarettes are banned and cigarettes are not.
Something doesn't smell right here. Ecigarette hatred is contrived to prepare for the re-tooling of the tobacco industry!
Conflict of Interest:
I publish an ecigarette information website, for which I've received no compensation as of the date of this submission.
NOT PEER REVIEWED This article is manifestly wrong in material content.
Hong Kong has in fact, two current large domestic manufacturers of tobacco products, Hong Kong Tobacco Co Ltd and Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Co Ltd.
Moreover the HK Customs Dept are all over the local dial-up-delivery smuggling syndicates to the extent that the tobacco funded front groups ITIC and Oxford Economics had to produce wildly false and flawed
Inform...
NOT PEER REVIEWED This article is manifestly wrong in material content.
Hong Kong has in fact, two current large domestic manufacturers of tobacco products, Hong Kong Tobacco Co Ltd and Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Co Ltd.
Moreover the HK Customs Dept are all over the local dial-up-delivery smuggling syndicates to the extent that the tobacco funded front groups ITIC and Oxford Economics had to produce wildly false and flawed
Information on the supposed level of illicit product availability (suitably decimated by the following reports).
The HK Government gauges smoking prevalence from its Thematic Household survey reports; what is lacking in Hong Kong is the absence of questions in these Thematic Household Surveys seeking information
on how many interviewees had purchased and / or used illicit tobacco in the previous year, the price they paid for it and the frequency of such DNP usage and whether they were concerned that the ingredients / nicotine/tar levels would most likely be far more toxic than the excise DP cancer sticks. Only with the incorporation of this relevant data could the claimed 10.7% prevalence levels be accurately gauged.
In Singapore which has a lower cost of living than Hong Kong, a DP packet of Marlboro retails at HK$ 76 whereas the same DP packet in Hong Kong costs only HK$ 50, meaning tobacco remains affordable and available to HKG youth and there is no tobacco retailer license system, no POS display legislation and no onus on liquor /mahjong / sauna licensees to enforce the anti smoking legislation in their premises. The Health Department Policy Bureau failed to seek an excise increase in the last Budget, according to the Financial Secretary in an RTHK radio interview in Feb 2015. The Tobacco Control Office has just over 100 'enforcement' officers to cover Hong Kong, Kowloon, the New Territories and the Islands area over two shifts meaning they have insufficient manpower to patrol.
http://seatca.org/dmdocuments/Asia%2014%20Critique_Final_20May2015.pdf
http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/early/2015/01/05/tobaccocontrol-2014-051937.full
http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr11-12/english/counmtg/hansard/cm0322-translate-e.pdf
page 7400
http://www.customs.gov.hk/en/publication_press/press/index_current.html
Shows the multiple seizures and arrests.
Hong Kong Tobacco Company Ltd
Address : 3/F Paramount Building, Hong Kong
Tel 25618111
Owner Charles HO Tsu Kwok
https://webb-site.com/dbpub/positions.asp?p=4462
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/people/person.asp?personId=8075652&ticker=1105:HK
https://webb-site.com/articles/bauhiniafound.asp
Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Co Ltd
http://www.nbt-hk.com/
Location: Tuen Mun Hong Kong
http://www.zigsam.at/B_Peel.htm
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1846318/tobacco-worker-43-dies-industrial-accident-hong-kong
Nan Yang also manufacture flavored tobaccos (PEEL)which are sold in the local market
http://english.caijing.com.cn/2004-03-20/110030213.html
Smuggling arrests
http://www.siic.com/en_service_4.html
Nanyang owners
Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Co., Ltd.
Nanyang Brothers Tobacco (short for "NBT")is the largest cigarette manufacturer in Hong Kong, of which main brand is "Double Happiness " and has a history of more than 100 years. At present, "Double Happiness" has been one of the most valuable trademarks in the tobacco industry. The production base of NBT is located in Tuen Mun, Hong Kong. NBT owns advanced manufacturing techniques, and its process of production is completely under computer control and management in order to guarantee the quality of products. The product of NBT is not only sold to China Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao, but also sold to Singapore, Thailand and Korea and so on. In 2011, its sales revenue and net profit reached 2,473 million HK dollars and 610 million HK dollars respectively.
Cigarettes manufactured by Nanyang Brothers Tobacco
Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Co. Ltd., located at Tuen Mun, New Territories, Hong Kong, China
Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Co. Ltd., located at 9 Tsing Yeung Circuit, Hong Kong, China
Founded in 1906. NANYANG means SOUTH PACIFIC.
Current PRODUCTS:
Alain Delon, Centori, Chunghwa, DJ Mix, Just Above, Peel, Polar Bear, Shuang Xi, Texas 5, (The Globe), Wealth
NOT PEER REVIEWED
I refer to the paper entitled, "Regional disparities in compliance
with tobacco control policy in Japan: an ecological analysis "by
Takashi Yorifuji et al in Tob Control doi:10.1136/tc.2010.0414. I agree
with them regarding uneven implementation of legislation for tobacco
control, which has an influence on consumption, and that reflects the
consequences of health and environment directly. In 1995, I was...
NOT PEER REVIEWED
I refer to the paper entitled, "Regional disparities in compliance
with tobacco control policy in Japan: an ecological analysis "by
Takashi Yorifuji et al in Tob Control doi:10.1136/tc.2010.0414. I agree
with them regarding uneven implementation of legislation for tobacco
control, which has an influence on consumption, and that reflects the
consequences of health and environment directly. In 1995, I was a
collaborator in anti- tobacco research at Okayama University supported by the
Japan Society of Promotion of Science, and that time I had an observation:
There was a marked difference of the rate of consumption among different
professionals/occupational groups at Okayama prefecture. Even if
the legislation is well regulated, the disparity will also depend on
the category of professionals consuming tobacco. Of course, this paper did
not investigate that issue. Nevertheless, the scale of disparity
needs to be investigated in different occupations/professions, even in a
prefecture where the anti-tobacco legislation is implemented properly.
I need also to mention how the current trend of tobacco practice and
devices may affect the disparity. Japan Tobacco (JT)
has introduced the "Zero-style-mint," a kind of smokeless tobacco (ST), and
that is an enormous threat to the Japanese people, because you cannot
control ST as you can smoking. Producers are advising to the customers to use this ST in
public places, because there is no issue of second-hand smoke. They are
even propagating this item for use on flights, long-haul trains, including within the no-smoking cars
of the Sinkansen (Bullet Train), when smoking has been banned in both settings long ago. Effective tobacco control in terms of
implementable legislation may be different and difficult for ST,
and that may affect human health differently. Therefore the issue of
disparity of implementation of anti-tobacco legislation may need a review in relation to this issue. Use of smokeless tobacco (ST) with
the gimmicky name of "Zero-style-mint" is shooting up quickly in the
Japanese tobacco market.
In this regard, I feel it is important to add that, in our experience in India, and the SE Asian population living in the
UK, I find it difficult to stop Smokeless Tobacco (ST), such as Paan and
Gutkha products (Quid sachets). These are other forms of ST. Even if you implement the legislation complying with the WHO
framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) 1 it does not help.
Therefore, reinforcing the legislation to control ST and its
health consequences will require extra efforts. Concerning the issue,
this year on 15th February, we had an International Experts' Working-Group
Meeting (vide Proceeding 2) in India. We came up with a
recommendation/declaration to the SE-Asian Governments/policy makers and
the WHO FCTC on how to control ST use in public places, and also a way
to reduce the constraints and disparities in implementing anti-tobacco
legislation on ST. We
are also working as one of the stakeholders of the National Institute of
Clinical Excellence (NICE, UK)3 in order to control ST and reduce
ST related health hazards in the UK.
Anti-tobacco legislation in Japan needs to address ST (eg Zero-style-Mint) in order to reduce the morbidity
and mortality due to current trends of tobacco consumption. Certainly
the disparity of implementation of legislation will influence the
inequalities of tobacco related health and diseases in Japan and it will
worsen the situation if ST is overlooked, and will set back
progress in tackling the legislative disparity in Japan, which has been discussed
in the paper nicely.
References
1. WHO FCTC: World Health Organization. Framework Convention for
Tobacco Control: Guidelines for implementation of Article 5.3. Guidelines
on the protection of public health policies with respect to tobacco
control from commercial and other vested interests.
http://www.who.int/fctc/guidelines/article_5_3/en/index.html
2. Proceedings: International Experts' Working group meeting & Seminar
-workshop on Oral Sub-mucus-Fibrosis(OSF). Centre for Oral Disease
Prevention & Control, Department of Oral Biology & Genomic
Studies, Nitte University, Mangalore, India. Published on 15th February
2011. (Editor: Professor Chitta Ranjan Chowdhury)
3. National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE , UK): Public Health
Intervention Guidance on Tobacco: helping people of South Asian origin to
stop using smokeless tobacco. Smokeless tobacco: South Asians - draft
scope consultation.
http://guidance.nice.org.uk/PHG/Wave23/20/ScopeConsultation
Professor & Director, International Centre for Tropical Oral
Health, PHT NHS Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, Longfleet Road,
Poole, Dorset BH15 2JB, England.
Consultant GCDHTF, King's College London, London. England, UK
President, Institute of Health Promotion & Education (IHPE), UK
Indian office: Nitte University AB Shetty Memorial Institute of
Dental Sciences, Department of Oral Biology & Genomic Studies, Centre
for Oral Disease Prevention & Control, Mangalore-575 018, India.
cr_choudhury@yahoo.co.uk
This is another interesting and useful contribution from Richard
Pollay. It reinforces my arguments made in a 2000 article in Tobacco
Control, that detailed legislation is required to specifically prohibit
POS displays and any industry visual and aural trickery associated with
tobacco product sales.
Ten years ago when we eliminated advertising at POS in Tasmania (Australia), we
were warn...
This is another interesting and useful contribution from Richard
Pollay. It reinforces my arguments made in a 2000 article in Tobacco
Control, that detailed legislation is required to specifically prohibit
POS displays and any industry visual and aural trickery associated with
tobacco product sales.
Ten years ago when we eliminated advertising at POS in Tasmania (Australia), we
were warned that the industry would counter with extravagant and creative
displays of tobacco products. We attempted to pre-empt this but the
industry were very clever and imaginative and found ways of increasing
their displays, so the legislation was amended. We even managed to ban
tobacco product colour coding in shops. Legislation to ban POS displays is
essential to eliminate the last bastions of tobacco advertising. Several
countries and some states have achieved this successfully (Iceland,
Thailand, and many areas of Canada).
The tobacco industry fights these proposals with the same ferocity
and legal challenges that they attach to SHS restrictions. Industry
undertakes the back door lobbying of politicians, the funding of front
organisations representing tobacco retailers which lobby against these
changes and which make the same spurious arguments and lies that they make
against pub and club restrictions i.e. small businesses will all go broke!
Australian states have gradually reduced the size of displays.
However, the last vestiges remain at around 1 square metre. The power
walls have gone in most places, and the tricky marketing bits such as
flags, cartons, counter displays, revolving displays, give-aways, gifts,
special lighting, have mostly been prohibited. This battle goes on in
Tasmania.
One regulatory technique that has partially worked in Tasmania, and
which has led to a major supermarket chain (Coles) putting its products
under the counter, has been to require gruesome graphic warnings, based on
the pack warnings, at POS.
Ultimately all POS advertising, which includes display of products,
must be eliminated. It is clear that these are aimed at young people.
We should also not forget the effects of POS displays on recent
quitters. A poignant letter to a local newspaper from Ina McBride, a lung
cancer survivor, highlights the harrowing effects of being forced to look
at these displays every time one goes into a shop.
Kathryn Barnsley
PhD student at the Menzies Research Institute, and School of
Government, University of Tasmania. No other affiliations.
barnsley@utas.edu.au
References
MURRAY LAUGESEN;, MICHELLE SCOLLO, DAVID SWEANOR;, SAUL SHIFFMAN, JOE
GITCHELL;, KATHY BARNSLEY, MARK JACOBS;, GARY A GIOVINO;, STANTON A
GLANTZ;, RICHARD A DAYNARD;, GREGORY N CONNOLLY;, and JOSEPH R DIFRANZA
World's best practice in tobacco control Tob. Control, Jun 2000; 9: 228 -
236.
AD WATCH:T Harper Why the tobacco industry fears point of sale
display bans Tob. Control, Jun 2006; 15: 270 - 271.
Discussion paper “Strengthening measures to protect children from
tobacco”
http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/agency/pro/tobacco/documents/DISCUSSION_PAPER.PDF
Accessed July 26 2007
Note graphic warning that must be displayed – page 12 of these
guidelines
http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/agency/pro/tobacco/documents/GuidelinesPriceTicketsandOtherMatters2006.pdf
accessed 26 July 2007.
M Wakefield, C Morley, J K Horan, and K M Cummings
The cigarette pack as image: new evidence from tobacco industry documents
Tob. Control, Mar 2002; 11: 73 - 80.
See page 14 Ina McBride letter - Discussion paper “Strengthening
measures to protect children form tobacco”
http://www.dhhs.tas.gov.au/agency/pro/tobacco/documents/DISCUSSION_PAPER.PDF
Accessed July 26 2007
It is my hypothesis of 1994 that increased testosterone increases
breast cancer, as well as other cancers, (International Journal of Cancer
2005; 115: 497). Some report that "testosterone might be more strongly
associated with [breast cancer] risk than estradiol." (Journal of the
National Cancer Institute (U.S.A.) 2002; 94: 606-616). Smoking increases
testosterone in women of childbearing age (Am. J...
It is my hypothesis of 1994 that increased testosterone increases
breast cancer, as well as other cancers, (International Journal of Cancer
2005; 115: 497). Some report that "testosterone might be more strongly
associated with [breast cancer] risk than estradiol." (Journal of the
National Cancer Institute (U.S.A.) 2002; 94: 606-616). Smoking increases
testosterone in women of childbearing age (Am. J. Epidemiol. (2001) 153
(3): 256-264).
I suggest the findings of Johnson, et al., may be explained by
increased testosterone in women who smoke and women exposed to secondhand
smoke.
While a recent editorial in Tobacco Control wonders “Falling prevalence of smoking: how low can we go?”1, in Italy something worrying is happening in tobacco control.
After a constant decline in the past 3 years, in 2006 an excess of a 1000 tonnes of tobacco was sold in Italy2. This means “only” an increase of 1.1% of the total market, but represents also an excess of 50 million of cigarette packs, one for each Italian. This...
While a recent editorial in Tobacco Control wonders “Falling prevalence of smoking: how low can we go?”1, in Italy something worrying is happening in tobacco control.
After a constant decline in the past 3 years, in 2006 an excess of a 1000 tonnes of tobacco was sold in Italy2. This means “only” an increase of 1.1% of the total market, but represents also an excess of 50 million of cigarette packs, one for each Italian. This happened despite the important impact due to the 2005 smoking ban in workplaces, bar and
restaurants, which caused a 6.2% reduction in tobacco consumption. After Ireland and Norway, this was the third important European protection law relating to environmental tobacco smoke.
We don’t know if the arrival of BAT in Italy was the cause of the inversion of the trend of tobacco consumption in Italy, but we are worried: “The multinational cigarette companies act as a vector that spreads disease and death throughout the world”3.
In 2003 our government sold our old and inefficient state cigarette producer ”Ente Tabacchi Italiano” to BAT for €2.325 million4. The company chose for Italy a low public profile. No advertisement (it is forbidden), no sponsorship of popular events. P. Gobbo, now undersecretary to the president, is a former member of the board of directors of BAT. They also sponsored important workshops like the ASPEN workshop (Cernobbio 2004)4 where politicians, bankers and businessmen debated the economic and political future of the country , and cultural events like the opening of the renewed Scala Opera Theatre in Milan and the concert in Rome directed by Riccardo Muti for FAI, an association for the Italian cultural heritage 4. New links with Universities were also established: BAT built up a new laboratory at
Federico II University (Naples) with 35 researchers and asked some other important scientists to collaborate. In Italy we have no restrictions aimed to control tobacco funding to Universities and research centres as in the UK5.
In Milan, BAT is working on “corporate responsibility” with the Catholic University and published a report6 on this issue linking the BAT logo with this important institution, a good passport to the Vatican. Political and religious power, University, and the world of culture seem to be the preferred BAT political targets in Italy.
We are truly concerned about what is happening and what could happen in the next years in the tobacco market in Italy. On May 31st, we celebrated World No Tobacco Day with 300 students of secondary schools in the auditorium of National Cancer Institute in Milan. We made a petition in which we asked that the profits of tobacco market before being distributed to the BAT shareholders should be used to
pay the large costs of new anti-cancer drugs that risk to make our national health system to collapse.
This is the corporate responsibility that we envisage BAT should show in its intervention in Italy.
REFERENCES
1 Chapman S. Falling prevalence of smoking: how low can we go? Tobacco
Control 2007;16;145-147
2 Newsletter REF Tobacco Observatory, 4 n°9, January 2007.
3 Sebriè E, Glantz S. The multinational cigarette companies act as a
vector that spreads disease and death throughout the world. BMJ
2006;332:313-4.
4 Mazza R, Boffi R, De Marco C, Ruprecht A, Rossetti E, Invernizzi G. The
arrival of BAT in Italy. Epidemiol Prev 2005;29:7-10.
5 Tobacco Industry Research Funding to Universities. A Joint Protocol of
Cancer Universities UK, February 2004. Available online,
http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/images/pdfs/jointprotocol.pdf, accessed
26 June 2007.
6 Lorien Consulting.Osservatorio permanente sulla responsabilità
d’impresa. Consumatori e ambiente. I quaderni dell’osservatorio Operandi
(BAT Italy‘s NGO), January 2006. Available online,
www.operandi.it/export/sites/default/documenti/Quaderno_2_vol.def.PDF,
accessed July 24th 2007.
I beg to differ with the statement “Shisha –this word is used
everywhere in the world” {e-letter- Shisha vs. “Water-pipe” : The
Question of a Unifying Term(Kamal Chaouachi)}
The word Shisha is not used everywhere in the world. If it is used,
the meaning is different. In the Indian subcontinent, a region where
hundreds of languages are spoken, the word connoting any type of waterpipe
is ‘...
I beg to differ with the statement “Shisha –this word is used
everywhere in the world” {e-letter- Shisha vs. “Water-pipe” : The
Question of a Unifying Term(Kamal Chaouachi)}
The word Shisha is not used everywhere in the world. If it is used,
the meaning is different. In the Indian subcontinent, a region where
hundreds of languages are spoken, the word connoting any type of waterpipe
is ‘hookah’. Of course, Hindi and few other languages have shisha in their
vocabulary, but it refers to ‘glass’ or ‘mirror’ not to any kind of
smoking.
The terms Hookah, Narghile and Shisha are never obsolete or redundant
and should be employed in the propagation of the research results among
the waterpipe smoking laypeople. But the research community’s need for a
unifying term should not be debatable and waterpipe seems to be the most
appropriate, till a better term is evolved.
Till then, I am sure the researchers involved will have the
discretion to differentiate waterpipe with the household plumbing
equipment terminology just like ‘AIDS’ is differently comprehended from
‘aids’- '3rd person present singular' of the word ‘aid’.
NOT PEER REVIEWED The author appears to believe that the main problem with the FDA is that it is not doing enough to prevent new niche cigarette products reaching the market. This focus of concern is misplaced, given several thousand cigarette products are readily available and smokers are spoilt for choice with or without these new products. I have no great desire to see new cigarette products coming on the market, but is this...
NOT PEER REVIEWED The author appears to believe that the main problem with the FDA is that it is not doing enough to prevent new niche cigarette products reaching the market. This focus of concern is misplaced, given several thousand cigarette products are readily available and smokers are spoilt for choice with or without these new products. I have no great desire to see new cigarette products coming on the market, but is this really the most pressing agenda?
There are important issues for FDA and Congress to address, but on which the author did not comment. Allow me to suggest five:
1. FDA's governing framework for tobacco, the Tobacco Control Act, is unfit for the purpose of managing reduced risk products. It is designed to raise a high regulatory barrier to entry to a market dominated by worst products and to suppress innovation in better products. At the same time, it has protected the existing cigarette trade by 'grandfathering' the thousands of products that were on the market at 17 Feb 2007 and offering them an easy ride for subsequent modifications. A new legislative framework for recreational nicotine products is required.
2. FDA regulation is unlikely to offer a feasible route to market for most vapour products. ?Its approach will cause chaos in the marketplace, even though these products are helping many to quit smoking. The vapour category would be largely wiped out and confined to the tobacco industry's high volume commodity products if FDA proceeds on its present course. That would provide further protection for the cigarette trade and stimulate a black market. Workarounds, a change in the predicate date or simply doing nothing would be an improvement.
3. FDA's approach does little that supports and a lot that suppresses innovation, regardless of whether particular innovations are desirable for consumers. For example, under the proposed framework for vapour products to access the market, a third generation e-cigarette manufacturer would likely need to go through a new and hugely burdensome authorisation (PMTA) to introduce new safety features like temperature control or to improve nicotine delivery through better aerosol science. A notification regime with an FDA right to intervene if the evidence justifies it would be preferable to a cumbersome authorisation regime.
4. FDA applies a bizarre approach to communicating the far lower risk of products like snus to consumers. This starts with a default FDA-imposed warning that is technically correct but not truthful because it is highly misleading ("this product is not a safe alternative to smoking"). It then requires tobacco companies to calculate if they are rich enough, the data extensive enough and whether it is sufficiently in their commercial interest to go through an arduous process to convince the FDA to allow them to change the warning to something more truthful ("No tobacco product is safe, but this product presents substantially lower risks to health than cigarettes") - and face hostile resistance from tobacco control campaigner such as the author. FDA and CDC should be assessing the relative risks of these products, and communicating them clearly - so that public risk perceptions become, as far as possible, aligned with scientific reality.
5. FDA suffers from mission creep - a regulator should not be involved in campaigning. FDA should function, and be seen to function, as a neutral technocratic regulatory agency, leaving the hype to public health bodies like the CDC. In this case, there is a further problem - the scientific foundations of the new smokeless campaign are very poor and undermine FDA's credibility more generally. FDA should stick to its core mission and do it better.
Matthew L. Myers and his campaign would do better to consider the important issues in nicotine regulation, not expend time, money and credibility on marginal issues with negligible public health value.
Conflict of Interest:
I am a long-standing advocate for tobacco harm reduction and run the Counterfactual blog. I have no competing interests with respect to any relevant industry.
NOT PEER REVIEWED It is my hypothesis that testosterone is increasing in our population and that this increase is the cause of the "secular trend," the increase in size and earlier puberty in our children. Therefore, as the continuum progresses, phenomena will increase if caused by increased testosterone, and possibly decrease if other phenomena are increased which counteract the earlier phenomena. This sounds really co...
A controversy has been raging regarding the relative safety of waterpipe smoking . To investigate the claims of few university students who smoked waterpipe that waterpipe smoke (WPS) does not cause dental stains, we compared cigarette and waterpipe smokers.
Two groups each of 10 subjects were selected .One group comprising of only water pipe smokers (including 9 waterpipe cafe caretakers), the other made of on...
NOT PEER REVIEWED I refer to the paper entitled, "Regional disparities in compliance with tobacco control policy in Japan: an ecological analysis "by Takashi Yorifuji et al in Tob Control doi:10.1136/tc.2010.0414. I agree with them regarding uneven implementation of legislation for tobacco control, which has an influence on consumption, and that reflects the consequences of health and environment directly. In 1995, I was...
Dear Editors
This is another interesting and useful contribution from Richard Pollay. It reinforces my arguments made in a 2000 article in Tobacco Control, that detailed legislation is required to specifically prohibit POS displays and any industry visual and aural trickery associated with tobacco product sales.
Ten years ago when we eliminated advertising at POS in Tasmania (Australia), we were warn...
It is my hypothesis of 1994 that increased testosterone increases breast cancer, as well as other cancers, (International Journal of Cancer 2005; 115: 497). Some report that "testosterone might be more strongly associated with [breast cancer] risk than estradiol." (Journal of the National Cancer Institute (U.S.A.) 2002; 94: 606-616). Smoking increases testosterone in women of childbearing age (Am. J...
While a recent editorial in Tobacco Control wonders “Falling prevalence of smoking: how low can we go?”1, in Italy something worrying is happening in tobacco control. After a constant decline in the past 3 years, in 2006 an excess of a 1000 tonnes of tobacco was sold in Italy2. This means “only” an increase of 1.1% of the total market, but represents also an excess of 50 million of cigarette packs, one for each Italian. This...
Dear editor,
I beg to differ with the statement “Shisha –this word is used everywhere in the world” {e-letter- Shisha vs. “Water-pipe” : The Question of a Unifying Term(Kamal Chaouachi)}
The word Shisha is not used everywhere in the world. If it is used, the meaning is different. In the Indian subcontinent, a region where hundreds of languages are spoken, the word connoting any type of waterpipe is ‘...
NOT PEER REVIEWED The author appears to believe that the main problem with the FDA is that it is not doing enough to prevent new niche cigarette products reaching the market. This focus of concern is misplaced, given several thousand cigarette products are readily available and smokers are spoilt for choice with or without these new products. I have no great desire to see new cigarette products coming on the market, but is this...
Pages