Lung Cancer

Blog Report - Newsweek Blog Talk - MSNBC.com:
"The Deadliest Cancer
Lung cancer kills more Americans than any other type of malignancy—and some of the victims never smoked. But despite grim statistics there is some good news: fresh research offers hope for earlier diagnosis and more-effective treatments.

Follow the conversation with a Technorati Watchlist "

Stop Smoking Educational Items from GASP - SmokeFree Resources

Stop Smoking Educational Items from GASP - SmokeFree Resources:
"Welcome to GASP online containing over 400 stop smoking and tobacco control resources. GASP Smoke Free Solutions offers leaflets, books, activity packs, training materials, displays, posters, models, carbon monoxide monitors and promotional items. GASP can also create tailor made resources for your local needs. We can provide pictures and photos from the collection of images we have gathered over the years. And if you need help with a project or campaign then GASP consultancy is available. Whatever you need - just ask!"

Reaction to death of Peter Jennings - Aug 8, 2005

CNN.com - Reaction to death of Peter Jennings - Aug 8, 2005: "Monday, August 8, 2005 Posted: 1415 GMT (2215 HKT)
Probably another Smoking death
(AP) -- ABC 'World News Tonight' anchor Peter Jennings, who announced in April that he had lung cancer, died Sunday at his New York home, according to the network. He was 67."

Tobacco Smoke Exposure Is Associated With the Metabolic Syndrome in Adolescents -- Weitzman et al. 112 (6): 862 -- Circulation

Tobacco Smoke Exposure Is Associated With the Metabolic Syndrome in Adolescents -- Weitzman et al. 112 (6): 862 -- Circulation: "Methods and Results— Data from 2273 subjects 12 to 19 years of age were examined from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III (NHANES III, 1988 to 1994). Serum cotinine levels, presence of household smokers, and self-report of smoking were used to determine ETS exposure and active smoking. The metabolic syndrome was defined as having ≥3 criteria from the National Cholesterol Education Panel definition. Bivariate and multivariable analyses were conducted. Among adolescents, 5.6% met the criteria for metabolic syndrome, and prevalence increased with tobacco exposure: 1.2% for nonexposed, 5.4% for those exposed to ETS, and 8.7% for active smokers (P<0.001). In adolescents at risk for overweight and overweight adolescents (body mass index above the 85th percentile), a similar relationship was observed: 5.6% for nonexposed, 19.6% for those exposed to ETS, and 23.6% for active smokers (P=0.01). In multivariable logistic regression analyses among all adolescents, ETS exposure was independently associated with the metabolic syndrome (ETS exposure: odds ratio, 4.7, 95% CI, 1.7 to 12.9; active smoking: odds ratio, 6.1; 95% CI, 2.8 to 13.4).

Conclusions— Considering that tobacco and obesity are the 2 leading causes of preventable death in the United States, these findings of a dose-response, cotinine-confirmed relationship between tobacco smoke and metabolic syndrome among adolescents may have profound implications for the future health of the public."

Sad report of Ruth Roemer death, on August 1, after a short illness, at age 89.

Message from Ross Hammond: margross@igc.org
(I am posting this on behalf of Allyn Taylor -- Ruth was an extraordinary person who made a huge mark in the field of public health, not the least of which was the FCTC. She will be sorely missed.)


It is with great sadness that I report the death of our dear friend and colleague, Ruth Roemer, on August 1, after a short illness, at age 89.

For over five decades Ruth was a tireless advocate for the improvement of local, national and global health conditions and being a giant in the field of public health law. A graduate of Cornell Law School, in the 1950s she participated in a landmark study of the law governing the state’s admissions to mental hospitals. Her research, with Professor Bertram Wilcox, resulted in a book and a change in New York law in this realm. In the early 1960s Professor Roemer and her late husband, the eminent Dr. Milton Roemer, joined the faculty of the UCLA School of Public Health. Ruth became the principal organizer and vice president of the California Committee on Therapeutic
Abortion. Her group spear-headed abortion law reform in California in 1967, six years before Roe v. Wade. Over the years, she championed numerous public health causes including fluoridation of public water locally and globally, education and regulation of health personnel, hospital patients’ rights and admissions, and universal health care. In 1987 she was elected President of the American Public Health Association.

For over the last two decades, Professor Roemer made seminal contributions to the field of global tobacco control, starting with a global review of legislation for tobacco control worldwide commissioned by the World Health Organization. Her book, Legislation for Tobacco Control, first published by WHO in 1982, proved helpful to many countries grappling with tobacco control policies. In the 1990s she initiated the idea of an international instrument for tobacco control. I had the great privilege of working with Ruth on the development of the idea of a tobacco control treaty and our 1995 feasibility study for the WHO Executive Board became the foundation for the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Ruth was a relentless
campaigner for the FCTC – pushing and building global support for this legal instrument in its early stages and long before there was much interest in a tobacco control treaty. In her last years, Ruth remained vitally active in global tobacco control, preparing a study on tobacco control legislation for WHO in 2003 and contributing to a new textbook in the field. Her final article on the origins of the WHO Framework Convention was just published by the American Journal of Public Health in June.

Ruth’s extraordinary accomplishments and contributions to local, national and global public health comprised just a small part of the remarkable person that she was. Ruth mentored scores of students, colleagues and friends – often redirecting their careers and working to create opportunities for them. She also had a tremendous capacity to bring people together, building networks of colleagues and friends around the world. She will be terribly missed.

Contributions in her memory can be made to the Ruth Roemer Scholarship Fund at the UCLA School of Public Health. Checks should be issued to the "UCLA Foundation" and on the check write "Ruth Roemer Award Fellowship Fund #3851" and sent to:

UCLA School of Public Health, Development Office
650 Charles Young Drive
PO Box 951772
Los Angeles, CA 90095
USA


Dr. Allyn Taylor, JD, LLM, JSD
University of Maryland School of Law
University of Maryland School of Medicine
500 West Baltimore Street
Baltimore, MD 21205
Email: ataylor@law.umaryland.edu
Phone: 410-706-4206
Fax: 410-706-4808

Framework Convention Alliance Fact Sheets

FCA Fact Sheets
The Framework Convention Alliance is pleased to announce the release of a series of tobacco fact sheets, now available on the internet at:
http://www.fctc.org/factsheets/index.php

These fact sheets are designed for policymakers, NGOs, journalists and others interested in tobacco. They provide summaries of current research, provide responses to common industry arguments, give some guidance on the relevant sections of the global tobacco treaty (the FCTC) and provide sources for more information.
Over the next few months we will have these translated into at least French & Spanish and will be adding new ones on such issues as taxes and agriculture. We currently have the following 10 fact sheets:

1. Tobacco Facts: http://fctc.org/factsheets/1.pdf
2. About the FCTC: http://fctc.org/factsheets/2.pdf
3. Secondhand Smoke: http://fctc.org/factsheets/3.pdf
4. Tobacco Product Regulation: http://fctc.org/factsheets/4.pdf
5. Cessation & Treatment: http://fctc.org/factsheets/5.pdf
6. Searching Tobacco Industry Documents: http://fctc.org/factsheets/6.pdf
7. Warning Labels: http://fctc.org/factsheets/7.pdf
8. Smuggling: http://fctc.org/factsheets/8.pdf
9. Advertising & Promotion: http://fctc.org/factsheets/9.pdf
10. Tobacco & the Millenium Development Goals: http://fctc.org/factsheets/10.pdf

We hope these find you useful in your work and encourage you to distribute them as you see fit. As we will be updating these periodically, we would welcome your suggestions for improving them and ideas for additonal fact sheets. Finally, a big thank you to the many people who took the time to review the drafts and provide incredibly useful and detailed comments.

Cheers,
Ross Hammond, Chair
Policy Committee
Framework Convention Alliance on Tobacco Control
http://www.fctc.org