Best Tobacco News

Signs and symptoms of cigarette smoking are frequently obvious even to a casual observer. Besides the confirmatory evidence (a person actually smoking a cigarette in public view), nicotine-stained fingers and teeth, the characteristic smell of smoke impregnated clothing and home items, the chronic "smokers cough," the gravelly voice, and often the visible pack of cigarettes and lighter in a person's pocket or purse are signs and symptoms that a person smokes. However, new (teenage) smokers or "infrequent" smokers may exhibit few or none of these signs and symptoms.

Signs and symptoms of tobacco related diseases often depend on the specific illnesses they cause.

Shortness of breath may be a sign of emphysema or heart disease.

Chest pain may signal angina pectoris caused by insufficient blood flow to the heart or a heart attack.

Difficulty swallowing, or persistent hoarseness, may signal a cancer in the mouth or larynx.

Painless bloody urination may mean bladder cancer.

The presence of any of the following common symptoms associated with tobacco use should prompt a visit to the doctor or hospital's emergency department:

These represent the most obvious symptoms of tobacco related diseases.

The country's largest tobacco company says if tobacco is banned in New Zealand it will only help grow an already established black market in tobacco products.

The general manager of British American Tobacco in New Zealand, Graeme Amey, appeared before the Maori Affairs Select Committee on Thursday. this company alos manufactures the well known Kent cigarette brand.

The select committee is looking at the tobacco industry and the consequences of smoking for Maori. British American is the first tobacco company to give a submission at the hearing.

Mr Amey told the MPs that tobacco is an already highly regulated product, and any further regulation or ban would only increase an already active black market trade. He says the Government needs to clamp down on the illicit trade of tobacco products. Mr Amey says prohibition will not stop people from smoking as long as they choose to.

Under questioning from Maori Party MP Hone Harawira, Mr Amey said he did not know how much his company spent on marketing but denied a strategy of targeting Maori and Maori youth. He says British American Tobacco accepts there are significant risks with smoking but at the end of the day adult consumers are making adult choices.

Maori babies exposed to danger - More than half of Maori babies are not getting adequate protection from the dangers of smoking from the moment they are conceived, a University of Auckland tobacco researcher told MPs. Dr Marewa Glover, the university's director for tobacco control research, told the committee she is sick of continued Government negligence on tobacco controls for Maori.

Dr Glover says Government funding needs to be more effective to prevent Maori babies dying at a disproportionate rate. She told MPs 45% of Maori women smoke while pregnant, while 29% are smoking four to six weeks after giving birth, which is two to three times the rate of non-Maori women.

She says there is a fraudulent and fruitless waste of tobacco control dollars by the Government which is undermining efforts to reduce Maori smoking.

The New York state Department of Health, in conjunction with the American Legacy Foundation and the Ad Council, has launched a new national smoking cessation public service ad campaign. Sponsored by the National Alliance for Tobacco Cessation, the "EX" campaign aims to help 46 million Americans — including 2.5 million New Yorkers — quit smoking.

With "re-learn life without cigarettes" as their slogan, the EX campaign has launched three public service announcements, one to be aired on the radio and two to be run on television. This project represents a very interesting idea for those who are interested in quitting smoking and for those who have tried to do that many times before, but they haven’t succeeded.

Everybody hopes the ads will reduce smoking especially among youth. Education and innovative media campaigning are those strategies that should be implemented in the same time for smoking among New Yorkers. He supports the use of emotional advertising and endorsed the link between public education and support lines available for people who want to quit smoking.

What have yet to change are the financial resources available to help smokers quit , so we have had to become even more creative with our public education strategy and are confident that our PSA partnership with the Ad Council will effectively supplement our traditional paid media efforts in this campaign that was what he had affirmed.

As a former smoker, Healton gave one piece of advice to all smokers: "Quit early and quit often”. A smoker tries to quit eight to 11 times on average, and 50 percent of smokers die of cigarette addiction. The campaign has three strategies for helping smokers to: re-learn their thinking on the behavioral aspects of smoking and how different smoking triggers can be overcome with practice and preparation; re-learn their knowledge of addiction and how medications can increase their chances of quitting; and re-learn ideas of how support from friends and family members can have a big role in quitting.