Can e-cigarettes help end tobacco addiction?

Smoking is a definite no-no for an optimal outcome to an organ transplant. For example, all potential lung transplant recipients are required to be smoke free (tobacco and other substances) for a period of at least 6 months before they are listed as a candidate for a transplant. Tobacco cigarettes eventually kill half of those smoking them and hopefully other jurisdictions will follow New Zealand's lead in implementing programs to help smokers quit the habit.

New Zealand is taking the lead in addressing the harmful effects of tobacco addiction by conducting research comparing e-cigarettes to tobacco smoke, noting “As the e-cigarette delivers only nicotine in a mist of propylene glycol, without the other 4,000 or so other chemicals in tobacco smoke, it is far safer than smoking.”

“The current safety data would therefore suggest that the e-cigarette poses few risks to people, and is safer than continuing to smoke. However, this should be confirmed with data from long-term outcome study.

The New Zealand Ministry of Health has developed a special web site, http://www.endsmoking.org.nz/ecigarette.htm who's aim is to create a smoke-free New Zealand for all New Zealanders. The following is taken from this site:

The most harmful constituents in tobacco smoke include cancer causing gases such as butadiene, heart damaging gases such as hydrogen cyanide and lung damaging gases such as acrolein, not forgetting tar containing nitrosamines which cause lung cancer. Tobacco cigarettes eventually kill half of those smoking them.

Nicotine by itself, although not harmless, is dramatically less harmful than tobacco. This means that we need an alternative nicotine delivery system for the percentage of our smoking population that is so addicted that despite the best efforts of our public health colleagues they still smoke. Accepting that their eventual decision to quit nicotine as well as tobacco may be some years off in the real world, they are at least protected meantime from the severe harms associated with tobacco smoking by using nicotine products such as e-cigarettes.

Also, read the article in medpage today for highlights from the latest research, which suggests that e-cigarettes might help smokers quit.

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Harmful levels of smoke found at outdoor patios

Being a lung transplant recipient with only one working lung to exist on, I'm probably super critical of second-hand smoke but it really bothers me. Last weekend at the local crowded farmer's market there were numerous people smoking cigarettes and pipes mingling throughout the crowds of adults and children. The smokers were oblivious to others around them and I guess they assumed it was their right. I congratulate those jurisdictions who have banned smoking in all public places and hopefully more will follow suit soon.

"Even if a patio is completely uncovered … smoking on a patio can generate very high concentrations of fine particles — those which penetrate deep into the lungs," Kennedy said.

Quebec anti-tobacco advocates push for smoking ban on outdoor patios

CBC News

Anti-tobacco advocates are using a new study to make the case for a smoking ban on bar and restaurant patios.

A researcher at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland found harmful levels of second-hand smoke in a survey of Montreal bar patios.

The study found that a single lit cigarette could create air quality levels comparable to a smoggy day in Los Angeles.

Professor Ryan Kennedy, who conducted the study, says the tests suggests second-hand smoke can be harmful outdoors, even on a windy day.

"Even if a patio is completely uncovered … smoking on a patio can generate very high concentrations of fine particles — those which penetrate deep into the lungs," Kennedy said.

However, the president of the Quebec bar-owners union, Peter Sergakis, says he doesn't believe the study's findings.

He says he plans to commission his own research.

Sergakis says his businesses have not recovered after smoking was banned inside restaurants and bars in Quebec in 2006.

"When they stopped smoking inside, we lost about 25 per cent of the business," he said. "Our clientele is smokers and drinkers."

Quebec to review Tobacco Act

The provincial Tobacco Act is expected to be studied later this month by members of the government committee on health and social services.

David Lefebvre, spokesman for the Quebec council on tobacco and health, says advocates are hoping the study will be taken into consideration.

"The current act risks the health of employees who work on restaurant and bar patios, while it protects the office workers," Lefebvre said in a statement.

Several provinces have already banned smoking on patios, including Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and Alberta.

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Russia imposes smoking ban

Congratulations to Russian authorities for taking this first step to improve the health of their people. Second-hand smoke causes the same problems as direct smoking.

Effective this past Saturday, June 1st, Russian smokers are not allowed to light-up in places such as airports, railway stations and bus stops. Smoking is now banned in public transport, schools, healthcare and sports venues, government offices, elevators and apartment complexes. 

Smoking is still temporarily allowed in pubs, cafes and restaurants, trains, ships, hotels and market places. The ban will be imposed in these areas next year on July 1, 2014.

The cost of a pack of cigarettes will increase to $2 from the current $1. (at these prices it's no wonder that almost half the Russian population smokes).

Russia ranks 172 in the Geobase world ranking for life expectancy as compared to Canada,  ranked 13, France  ranked 14 and the U.S. ranked number 53. 

Ten years ago I met several patients on the waiting list for a lung transplant, all suffering from COPD and carrying oxygen tanks. To this day I still vividly remember one patient sadly saying to me "Why did I ever smoke?" 

Not only does smoking cause lung disease that can only be cured by a lung transplant, it also can cause coronary heart disease, lung cancer, kidney disease and high blood pressure. All smokers are at risk for more than two dozen diseases and conditions and the average smoker will die about 8 years earlier than a similar non-smoker. About half of all smokers will die from smoking, most before their 70th birthday after years of sickness and reduced life style.

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Smokers who quit by 40 can live almost as long as non-smokers: study

CTV News

Smokers who quit while still young can live almost as long as people who never smoked, new Canadian research has found.

While it’s estimated that smoking cuts at least 10 years off a person’s lifespan, new analysis from researchers at Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital finds that people who quit smoking before the age of 40 regain almost all of those potentially lost years.

“The most important message is that quitting works,” lead researcher Dr. Prabhat Jha told CTV News. “Cessation of smoking at an early age -- even up to age 40 -- avoids about 90 per cent of the risk of continuing to smoke.

“And the risk is big. Smokers are looking at a decade of life lost, a decade of good life lost.”

Jha -- head of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael’s -- led a team who examined health records from the U.S. National Health Interview Survey. They also looked at data from the National Death Index, narrowing in on 16,000 people who had died but who had reported smoking earlier in life.

They found that people who never smoked were about twice as likely to live to age 80 than those who did.

But they also found that people who quit smoking between 35 and 44 years of age gained about nine years life back. Those who quit between ages 45-54 and 55-64 gained six and four years of life, respectively.

Jha stresses his team’s findings shouldn’t be interpreted as saying it’s safe to smoke until 40 and then stop. Former smokers still have a greater risk of dying sooner than non-smokers, he says.

But the risk is small compared to the huge risk taken by those who continue to smoke.

Many smokers have the belief that if they’ve been smoking for a decade or more already, it’s too late to quit.

Jha says that’s simply not true.

“Quitting at any age will have benefits, but particularly if you quit before age 40, you get close to never-smoker death rates,” he says.

Jha explains some of the effects of a smoker’s past history linger while others don’t. For example, ex-smokers still have a higher risk of developing lung cancer than those who never smoked, though of course their risk not as high as for those who continue to smoke.

But for other causes of death -- such as a sudden heart attack -- the effects of smoking can be erased with time.

“You can get a sudden narrowing of your artery if you’re a smoker and that leads to a heart attack. But if you quit smoking, that risk pretty much disappears. So it does vary by disease,” Jha says.

The study is also among the first to examine the death rates of the generation of women who started smoking when they were young and kept smoking through their adult lives.

Studies in the 1980s suggested the risks of smoking in these women were low, but this new research suggests they too lose about 10 years of life by continuing to smoke.

“Basically, if women smoke like men, they die like men,” says Jha. “That means about a decade of life lost. Not a few years, but a full decade -- a healthy decade of life lost.”

The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the Disease Control Priorities-3 project of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

All the findings appear in the most recent edition of New England Journal of Medicine.

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Forty per cent of lung transplants come from smokers - UK report

Enough to make you gasp: Forty per cent of lung transplants come from smokers

25 Nov 2012 13:01

Donor organs are in such shortage patients must accept smokers' lungs or risk dying if they can't find another match

Smokescreen: EastEnders Dot Branning

BBC

By Nigel Nelson www.mirror.co.uk

Four in 10 lungs used in transplants come from donors who smoked, the Sunday People can reveal.

But the organ shortage means patients have to accept them - or risk dying if no others become available.

It raises fears patients could end up with lungs from chain-smokers like EastEnders favourite Dot Branning, played by June Brown, 85 - who continue to puff away despite danger warnings on cigarette packs.

Soldier Corporal Matthew Millington, 31, died less than a year after being given the cancerous lungs of a donor who smoked up to 50 roll-ups a day.

Cpl Millington, of the Queen's Royal Lancers, had the double transplant at Papworth Hospital, Cambridge, in April 2007. Months later doctors found a tumour and he died in February 2008.

Cystic fibrosis sufferer Lyndsey Scott, 28, from Wigan, had a double transplant at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, in January 2009 and died from pneumonia a month later. Her family said they were not told that the organs were from a smoker of 30 years.

Health minister Earl Howe, who revealed 39 per cent of transplant lungs were from smokers, insisted patients were still better off accepting them. But he told the House of Lords:  "The transplant team should explain the risks."

Shortage: Donor organs in short supply

 

Since April, 1,859 people had a transplant. But there are still 7,603 on the waiting list and only 759 new donations in that time.

Specialist nurses take a smoking history from donors' families and the transplant team then decide whether the lung is suitable.

An NHS Blood and Transplant spokeswoman said: "Transplant candidates are offered the opportunity to decline them. But choosing to wait may mean a greater risk of dying before alternative lungs become available."

SMOKERS are less than half as likely to get a date, with "ashtray breath" cited as the biggest turnoff in a Letsquit.com poll.

To join the NHS Organ Donor Register, call 0300 123 0000, text ORGAN to 64118.

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Women who quit smoking by 40 can live an extra decade

The Telegraph

Women who stop smoking by the age of 40 dramatically cut risk of early death, enjoying up to ten more years of life, a major new study has found.

The study of 1.3 million women found that quitting smoking by the age of 30 allowed women to avoid up to 97 per cent of the extra risk of premature death.

The results, which are published in The Lancet medical journal, showed that lifelong smokers died a decade earlier than those who did not smoke at all.

Those who stopped at thirty lost an average of a month of life and if they stopped at 40 they died a year younger.

Most of the increased death rate resulted from smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer, chronic lung disease, heart disease or stroke.

The risk rose steeply with the quantity of tobacco smoked, but even light smokers who puffed fewer than 10 cigarettes a day doubled their likelihood of dying.

The authors of the Million Women Study wrote: "Smokers lose at least 10 years of lifespan. Although the hazards of smoking until age 40 years and then stopping are substantial, the hazards of continuing are 10 times greater."

Women aged 50 to 65 were enrolled into the study, designed to investigate links between health and lifestyle, from 1996 to 2001.

Participants completed a questionnaire about living habits, medical and social factors and were re-surveyed three years later. Women were monitored for a total of 12 years on average, during which there were 66,000 deaths.

Initially, 20% of the women were smokers, 28% were ex-smokers, and 52% had never smoked.

Those who still smoked at the three year re-survey were almost three times more likely than non-smokers to die over the next nine years.

Both the hazards of smoking and the benefits of quitting were greater than previous studies had suggested, said the researchers.

Professor Sir Richard Peto, one of the co-authors at Oxford University, said: "If women smoke like men, they die like men - but, whether they are men or women, smokers who stop before reaching middle age will on average gain about an extra 10 years of life."

He added: "Both in the UK and in the USA, women born around 1940 were the first generation in which many smoked substantial numbers of cigarettes throughout adult life.

"Hence, only in the 21st century could we observe directly the full effects of prolonged smoking, and of prolonged cessation, on premature mortality among women."

Professor Rachel Huxley, from the University of Minnesota, said: "In most of Europe and the USA, the popularity of smoking among young women reached its peak in the 1960s, decades later than for men.

"Hence, previous studies have underestimated the full eventual impact of smoking on mortality in women, simply because of the lengthy time lag between smoking uptake by young women and disease onset in middle and old age."

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Secondhand Smoke Causes Hearing Loss in Teens

This article on a report showing that secondhand smoke may result in hearing loss in adloscents is alarming. As scientists study the problem we are learning more about the debilitating and life-threatening side effects of secondhand smoke.

A report, a first of its kind, that assessed all deaths related to tobacco showed that second-hand smoke sickens millions and kills more than 600,000 people worldwide each year, including more than 165,000 children under 5.

The report from the World Health Organization on 192 countries appeared in The Lancet and found more than half of the deaths are from heart disease, followed by deaths from cancer, lung infections, asthma and other ailments. It says that more than two thirds of the children’s deaths are in Africa and Asia, where they have less access to important public health services, such as vaccines, and less advanced medical care. American Cancer Society's Tom Glynn said, “These statistics are sad data.”

Medscape.com
July 18, 2011 — Secondhand smoke (SHS) may result in a nearly 2-fold increase in sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in adolescents, suggesting that monitoring for early hearing loss with periodic audiologic testing may be required in this population.

Anil K. Lalwani, MD, and colleagues with the New York University Langone Medical Center, in New York, NY, reported the findings in the July issue of the Archives of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery.

According to the researchers, recurrent acute otitis media is more common in the nearly 60% of children exposed to SHS in the United States. They suggest that increased risk for otitis media with SHS may be caused by several factors including "suppression or modulation of the immune system, enhancement of bacterial adherence factors, the consequence of exposure to toxins within SHS, and impairment of the respiratory mucociliary apparatus, leading to Eustachian tube dysfunction."

In the current study, Dr. Lalwani and colleagues evaluated cross-sectional data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2005-2006), which included information on 1533 participants 12 to 19 years old who underwent audiometric testing and serum cotinine measurements and who were nonsmokers.

The investigators defined SNHL as an average pure-tone level greater than 15 dB for 0.5, 1, and 2 kHz (low frequency) and 3, 4, 6, and 8 kHz (high frequency).

Exposure to SHS, as determined by serum cotinine levels, was associated with elevated pure-tone hearing thresholds at 2, 3, and 4 kHz and a higher rate of unilateral low-frequency SNHL (11.82% vs 7.53%; P = .04). In addition, multivariate logistic regression analyses indicated a 1.83-fold increased risk for unilateral low-frequency SNHL (95% confidence interval, 1.08 - 3.41).

According to the researchers, there was a direct relationship between the prevalence of SNHL and SHS exposure. Moreover, nearly 82% of adolescents with SNHL did not know that they had hearing difficulties.

"This study demonstrates, to our knowledge for the first time, a relationship between tobacco smoke exposure and hearing loss among adolescents in the United States," they conclude. "These findings may have profound implications in light of the high exposure rates among adolescents in the United States."

This study was supported, in part, by grants from the Zausmer Foundation and the National Institutes of Health/National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities. The study authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2011;137:655-662.

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United States, organdonor.gov

United Kingdom, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Secondhand Smoke May Increase Risk for Nicotine Addiction

Evidence continues to support the dangers of second-hand smoke and hopefully more jurisdictions will join the move to enact smoking bans in public places.

At my transplant center I met many patients on the waiting list for a lung transplant due to COPD. I remember them saying to me "why did I ever smoke?" but, to a person, they had no problem quitting cold turkey when told they would die without a transplant and had to be smoke-free in order to get one.

In addition to the lung disease, heart disease and other debilitating effects that smokers bring upon themselves, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that almost 50,000 deaths per year can be attributed to secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke causes heart disease and lung cancer in non-smoking adults. In children, secondhand smoke causes many serious health conditions, including sudden infant death syndrome, respiratory infections, more severe asthma, low infant birth weight, and chronic middle ear infections.

Megan Brooks Medscape Pulmonary Medicine

May 10, 2011 — Moderate secondhand smoke exposure results in occupancy of brain α4 β2 nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), which may increase vulnerability to smoking and nicotine addiction, new research shows.

Study investigators found that after 1 hour of exposure to secondhand smoke in an enclosed space, a substantial amount of nicotine reaches the brains of nonsmokers and binds to receptors that are normally targeted by direct exposure to tobacco smoke — a finding that has important implications.

"We know that secondhand smoke exposure results in exposed individuals being more likely to become smokers and to have a harder time quitting smoking [if they are already smokers]," first author Arthur L. Brody, MD, from the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Affairs Healthcare System and the University of California, Los Angeles, told Medscape Medical News.

"Our study presents further evidence for the need to limit exposure to secondhand smoke in vulnerable individuals," he added.

The study was published online May 2 in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Priming the Brain

In laboratory rats, long-term exposure to cigarette smoke leads to nicotine dependence and an upregulation of nAChR levels in the brain. Yet, "brain nAChR occupancy from secondhand smoke exposure has not yet (to our knowledge) been demonstrated," the researchers write.

In the study, 11 moderately dependent cigarette smokers and 12 nonsmokers underwent positron emission tomography with the radioligand 2-(18)F-FA-85380, which permits visualization of brain α4 β2 nAChRs, one of the most abundant nAChR subtypes in the brain.

Each participant underwent 2 scanning sessions during which they sat in the passenger seat of a car for 1 hour and were exposed to moderate secondhand smoke or to no secondhand smoke.

During the smoke exposure condition, the mean air carbon monoxide level was 7.4 parts per million (ppm) — significantly higher (P < .001) than during the control condition (0.5 ppm).

For the entire group (smokers and nonsmokers), moderate secondhand smoke exposure led to an average 19% brain α4 β2 nAChR occupancy, the researchers say.

Evidence Supports Public Smoking Ban

"These results show that even limited secondhand smoke exposure delivers enough nicotine to the brain to alter its function," Nora D. Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who was not involved in the study, noted in a statement.

"Chronic or severe exposure could result in even higher brain nicotine levels, which may explain why secondhand smoke exposure increases vulnerability to nicotine addiction," Dr. Volkow added.

The researchers also found that smokers had a 23% increase, on average, in craving with secondhand smoke exposure, and they saw a correlation between nAChR occupancy and craving alleviation with subsequent cigarette smoking. This finding suggests that moderate secondhand smoke exposure delivers a priming dose of nicotine to the brain that contributes to continued cigarette use in smokers, they say.

"This study," Dr. Brody said, "gives concrete evidence to support policies that ban smoking in public places, particularly enclosed spaces and around children.''

This study was supported in part by grants from the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The authors have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

Arch Gen Psych. Published online May 2, 2011.

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Judge's fury after he frees convict to have heart transplant - but doctors refuse because she won't quit smoking

This is a sad case for sure. There are more than 3,000 people waiting for a life-saving heart transplant in the U.S. and so far only 186 transplants have been done this year. Is this a case of smoking addiction being so strong that it's more powerful than the will to live? Or, is it just that the individual involved doesn't comprehend that her life is at risk? Regardless, there are many deserving potential recipients out there who would cherish the donation of a new heart and not dishonor the donor and his or her family.

Dailymail.co.uk.
A judge who freed a criminal for a life-saving transplant has reacted with fury after finding out the 48-year-old woman hasn't been allowed a new heart because she won't stop smoking.

Judge Francis Ricigliano berated Diane McCloud in the Long Island court - but gave her until June 10 to ditch the bad habit.

McCloud, from Hempstead, admitted that she is still puffing away on four cigarettes a day.

In January, McCloud's lawyer Leonard Isaacs had argued that his client was facing 'a death sentence' if she was sent to prison for stealing merchandise from a Target store.

At the original trial, McCloud was brought to court by ambulance and wheeled in on a hospital bed with an IV attached.

Mr Isaacs said a cardiologist at Nassau University Medical Centre had confirmed that McCloud would be dead within six months if she was denied the transplant.

The lawyer said: 'She knew she had a heart problem however it was just in the last week that it seemed to exacerbate.'

He asked if McCloud could be released for a transplant screening to which the judge agreed, calling it a case of 'compassion'.

Judge Ricigliano cut short McCloud's 15-month sentence at the Nassau County Correctional Centre.

At the time of her release, McCloud's sister said: 'She got a loving family. She got the support that she need.'

The 48-year-old had been entering the seventh month of a 15-month sentence for stealing $2,347 of goods from the Westbury store in December 2009, and $1,558 worth of items the following month.

She was charged with two counts of fourth-degree grand larceny, both felonies, but pleaded guilty to two lesser counts of petty larceny and was sentenced to consecutive terms of 12 months and three months.

McCloud's doctor had recently got in touch with the judge's office to say that McCloud had refused to stop smoking and missed several appointments and drug tests.

At the hearing, Judge Ricigliano told the woman: 'I will re-sentence you to the maximum amount of jail, without any problem.'

Mr Isaacs said the judge and prosecutors had been fair on McCloud.

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Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Every smoke brings cancer closer: Australian campaign

Congratulations to Australia for this new campaign as part of an ambitious initiative to reduce the rate of adult smoking in Australia to 10 percent by 2018. This photo is not part of the campaign but I've used it as an attention-getter to show the difference between normal and smoker's lungs.

By Melissa Jenkins http://news.smh.com.au

The message is simple: every cigarette is a step closer to cancer.

Emphysema sufferer Mic Roberts, 49, wasn't lucky enough to have such public health messages around when he decided to start smoking.

He is waiting for a lung transplant having lost 90 per cent of his lung function, and is on oxygen 24 hours a day.

"It doesn't just affect me, it affects my family, my friends, so it's pretty devastating," the father of four told reporters in Melbourne after the launch of the largest ever national tobacco campaign.

"When I was 14, 15, and smoking down the footy oval at school or whatever, we were told 'Anyhow have a Winfield' (and) 'Come to Marlboro country'.

"We were sucked in.

"If I had my way I'd make every packet of cigarette black with the word death on it - then you know what you're buying."

The $61 million advertising campaign launched on Sunday highlights coughing up blood can be one of the first signs of lung cancer.

The advertisements tell smokers `every cigarette brings you closer to cancer'.

Mr Roberts, who smoked for 32 years, urged smokers not to dismiss a cough as nothing and quit before it is too late.

"When I coughed I was still lighting a cigarette and saying `of course I cough, I'm a smoker,' he said.

"I know it's difficult but if you want to live, give up."

Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the government was ready for a showdown with tobacco companies as it prepares to introduce plain packaging legislation into parliament in the middle of this year.

If the legislation passes parliament, enforcement would begin on July 1, 2012.

"We know the legislation will be subject to challenge," Ms Roxon told reporters.

"The big tobacco companies have made absolutely clear that they will fight tooth and nail every step we take to try to restrict their ability to market their products.

"We are not going to back away from that fight."

From Tuesday, smokers will be able to access nicotine replacement therapy more cheaply if they have a prescription, as it will be listed on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, so taxpayers cover most of the cost.

Australian Lung Foundation chief executive William Darbishire said while smoking rates were declining, anecdotal evidence suggested young girls aged between 17 to 19 were smoking at alarming rates.

"More women are dying now from lung cancer than from breast cancer," he told reporters.

"In movies more and more people are smoking now ... that's probably why younger people think it's cool."

The government's target is to reduce the rate of smoking amongst adults in Australia to 10 per cent by 2018.

Some 15,000 Australians die each year from tobacco-related diseases and smoking costs the economy $31.5 billion annually.

The campaign will run throughout 2011 on television and radio and in print and online.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario at Trillium Gift of Life Network NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today!
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants (see allotransplantation). One tissue donor can help by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant. Organs can save lives, corneas renew vision, and tissue may help to restore someone's ability to walk, run or move freely without pain. Life Begins with You

Contraband cigarettes are big in teen market

HealthCanal.com

Up to 30% of teen smokers are buying First Nations or Native brands – at 1/3 price of brand-name cigarettes

(Toronto) – Teens who smoke are buying cheaper contraband cigarettes in large numbers across Canada, according to a study co-authored by Dr. Russell Callaghan of the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). The study was published Dec. 26 by the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

The untaxed contraband cigarettes are available in a thriving underground market from some First Nations and Native organizations in Ontario and Quebec and, at $3-$4, sell for about a third of the price of legitimate or name brands. Previous studies have found that adult smokers of the contraband cigarettes are less likely to try to quit smoking. This has troubling implications for teens who use these cigarettes while developing their smoking habit, however, “the use of contraband cigarettes by teens is not considered in most of our health promotion activities directed at teens,” says Dr. Callaghan.

This study helps to round out the picture of teen smoking in Canada, he adds. “Increasing the price of cigarettes in stores, or taking them off the open shelves in convenience stores, is not going to be an effective way to reach those teens who access contraband cigarettes,” he says.

Numbers highest in Ontario, Quebec

The study asked teens in secondary schools across Canada about their smoking choices. Of the 2,849 who smoke, about 17.5 % use First Nations or Native brand cigarettes. The numbers are even higher in central Canada, with 26.3 % in Ontario and 30% of teen smokers in Quebec buying the contraband smokes. In contrast, less than 4% of teens in Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador use the contraband cigarettes.

More than 40,000 high school students in grades nine to 12 filled out the 2006/2007 Youth Smoking Survey across 10 provinces. The students who identified themselves as smoking at least one cigarette a day were asked which brand they usually smoked.

Issues of the contraband-cigarette trade and First Nations jurisdictions and are complex, adds Dr. Callaghan. “Now we know that policy directed at teen smokers needs to take their access to contraband cigarettes into consideration,” he says.

Funding for this study came from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, in a grant to CAMH.

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Register to be an organ and tissue donor & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant.

Plan Now to Quit Smoking for New Year’s

Cigarette smoking causes an estimated 438,000 deaths, or about 1 of every 5 deaths, each year, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adults who smoke cigarettes die 14 years earlier than nonsmokers. The leading cause of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, including emphysema, is tobacco smoking. COPD is projected to be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2020 due to an increase in smoking rates and demographic changes in many countries. As of 2005, the most common reason for lung transplantation in the United States was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or COPD, including emphysema.


Success Comes After Making a Plan, Receiving Support from Loved Ones

By Leslie White HealthCanal.com

If you’re a smoker who’s considering quitting as part of your new year’s resolutions, you may want to start creating your plan for success.

“Research shows that if a person makes a plan, builds a support system of family, friends and professionals, that they have a greater chance of successfully quitting smoking and beating nicotine addiction,” said Scott McIntosh, Ph.D., director of the Greater Rochester Area Tobacco Cessation Center and associate director of the Smoking Research Program at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center. “Quitting smoking is the best decision anyone can make to improve their overall health.”

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization reported that smoking contributes to the deaths of 5 million people each year.

Twelve simple tips for quitting:

1. Make a plan for quitting. Talk to your doctor about strategies such as cold turkey versus nicotine replacement therapies.


2. If you can give up cigarettes for 24 hours, you double your chance for success.


3. Tell your friends, family and co-workers that you plan to quit and rally them to help you stick with it.


4. Consider using nicotine replacements – gum, patch or Zyban – to help you quit.


5. Use resources available from the *New York State Smokers’ Quitline: 1-866-NY-QUITS (1-866-697-8487) and www.nysmokefree.com the New York Smokers’ Quitsite.


6. Avoid risky situations or behaviors that were comfortable when smoking.


7. Remove all ashtrays, lighters, matches and cigarettes from the house. Just seeing them can make you want to smoke.


8. Start eating sugarless hard candy or chewing crunchy vegetables – like carrot sticks – to keep your mouth busy. Consider using cinnamon candy, because its “burning” sensation mimics the feeling of smoking and kills the craving.


9. Drink a lot of water. It helps keep you feeling “full,” and prevents you from overeating and gaining weight. It also helps “cleanse” your body of the toxins from years of smoking.


10. Practice breathing deeply or take a walk when you’re craving a cigarette. Smoking involves taking long deep breaths, but now it’ll be fresh air rather than chemicals entering your lungs.


11. Remind yourself why you are quitting - and reward yourself every day you make it without smoking cigarettes.


12. Age doesn’t matter - older smokers are less likely to try to quit, but when they do try, they are more likely to succeed.

Help with quitting

*For the UK and North America click on the link for a list of major English-speaking charities, helplines and organizations for people who want to give up smoking and need further help or advice. helpwithsmoking.com

Smoking bans in public places

Breathing in second-hand smoke can be a big detriment to those trying to quit smoking. To help you avoid exposure here is list of smoke-free US States and Canadian Provinces as well as efforts around the world to ban smoking.

Canada: Canadian anti-smoking bans

United States: US anti-smoking bans

Global anti-smoking efforts

Transplant soldier given smoker's cancerous lungs

By John Downing Cambridgeshire Journal

A SOLDIER who died of surgery complications had received cancerous lungs at Papworth Hospital from a donor who smoked up to 50 roll-up cigarettes a day, an inquest heard.

After the death of Matthew Millington, 31, an investigation at Papworth highlighted several problems, including issues with communication and recordkeeping.

It found a radiographer failed to highlight the growth of a cancerous tumor.

Dr Steven Tsui, clinical director of transplant services, was not involved in the procedure but told North Staffordshire Coroner's Court there had been problems.

He said there were "a number of failures" and the team did not perform to the standard he would expect.

Cpl Millington, of Brown Lees, near Stoke-on-Trent, enlisted at 16 and served as a tank crewman, left in 2001 but was recalled in October 2005.

While in Iraq with the Queen's Royal Lancers that Christmas he was diagnosed with a lung illness.

In April 2007 he received a double lung transplant but died 10 months later as a result of damage caused by disseminated lung cancer.

A lack of communication between hospital staff meant it was not until October 2007 that a tumor, which had grown from 8mm to 13mm between June and August, was detected.

Cpl Millington's widow Siobhan told the inquest he had surgery three times in nine days due to post-operative problems.

North Staffordshire coroner Ian Smith said Cpl Millington died from "complications of transplant surgery and immuno-suppressive drug treatment".

After the inquest, Cpl Millington's father Lester said he opted for treatment at Papworth on expert advice and the family were happy with his treatment.

He said: "We have absolutely nothing against them. It is a brilliant place and they are so friendly."

A hospital spokeswoman said all donor organs are screened rigorously prior to transplantation.

She added: "Using lungs from donors who have smoked in the past is not unusual. During 2008/09, 146 lung transplants were carried out in the UK. During the same period 84 people died on the waiting list.

"If we had a policy that said we did not use the lungs of those who had smoked, the number of lung transplants would have been significantly lower."

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network. NEW for Ontario: recycleMe.org - Learn The Ins & Outs Of Organ And Tissue Donation. Register Today! For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

Has your life been saved by an organ transplant? "Pay it forward" and help spread the word about the need for organ donation - In the U.S. another person is added to the national transplant waiting list every 11 minutes and 18 people die each day waiting for an organ or tissue transplant.

A lung's lease on life

Lacey, New Jersey man recovers from double lung transplant

Have an opinion on this article? Click comments at the end of this post.

BY MICHAEL AMSEL APP.com

Andrew Penna Jr. was so weakened by his emphysema-plagued lungs that he couldn't even shower without assistance.

"There was so many everyday living things that I couldn't do," said Penna, of the Forked River section of Lacey. "It was so difficult for me. Everything was a struggle. When you can't breathe, it's a really miserable existence."

Penna's prayers for a better life were answered on Jan. 25 when he had a successful double lung transplant at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, performed by the team of Dr. Lawrence McBride, Dr. Sean Studer and Dr. Christine Migliore.

Newark Beth Israel is the only hospital in the state that performs the procedure, and Penna was the fifth person in the state to have it done.

"I feel like I have been reborn, like a new person has come out of my body and taken over," Penna said. "I get all choked up when I think of what those doctors did for me."

Penna now must undergo a three-month pulmonary rehabilitation program at Community Medical Center in Toms River. He walks on a treadmill to build up stamina, uses a device called an Ergometer to strengthen his arms and pedals away on a recumbent stepper to keep his leg muscles firm.

Debbie Jeffers, pulmonary rehab coordinator at Community Medical Center, said patients go through the exercises to improve aerobic capacity, strength and endurance.

"We want to keep them working out, because if they just sit around after surgery, they become deconditioned," Jeffers said.

Penna was on the lung donor list for just three months before a suitable match was found. Eileen Garrity of Forked River hasn't been so lucky.

When her lungs collapsed in December 2007, she was rushed to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for surgery. She is waiting patiently for either a single lung replacement, or a double.

My left lung is worse than my right one because of radiation for breast cancer," said Garrity, 64. "I have a lot of faith. God didn't bring me this far between breast cancer and this (emphysema) to just drop me on my head now."

Garrity said she smoked cigarettes for 45 years, and a lot of what she is going through now is "self-inflicted."

"Let's be honest: nonsmokers are higher up on the donor list," Garrity said. "I am moving up the list slowly and hoping and praying. I am also going to sign up for the donor list at Newark Beth Israel, which will give me two chances to go along with my donor list at the University of Pennsylvania."

Penna, who smoked cigarettes for 15 years, said his goal at the end of rehabilitation is to walk the entire length of the Point Pleasant Beach boardwalk.

"This rehab is really stimulating my lungs," Penna said. "When I am not here, I try to do a lot of walking. They tell me walking is great to build up your stamina. One day, I am going to finish that walk on the boardwalk. You just wait and see."

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

In Great Britain, register at NHS Organ Donor Register

In Australia, register at Australian Organ Donor Register

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves

COPD patient waits for lung transplant

He's running to catch his breath

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is becoming a scourge across the country

By Chris Zdeb canada.com

EDMONTON - David Smith started smoking when he was 15. He stopped the day he collapsed.

Smith, 63, had been experiencing some shortness of breath before the collapse two years ago, but he figured it was because he was getting older.

During the two-week stay in hospital that followed, his lungs were found to be operating at 25% capacity and he was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.

An estimated 1.5 million Canadians suffer from the lung-damaging disease, which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Another 1.6 million are believed to have it, but haven't been diagnosed.

More people are hospitalized and readmitted because of COPD than with heart failure, angina and other serious chronic diseases. It is the fourth leading cause of death of adult Canadians.

In 85% to 90% of cases, COPD is the result of smoking tobacco, says Dr. Ron Damant, an associate professor of respirology at the University of Alberta. But any kind of chronic inhalation -- second-hand smoke, occupational pollutants, outdoor air pollution -- can cause it as well.

Early symptoms are coughing and bringing up a little sputum (saliva and mucus). Smokers often think that's normal, so they don't worry about it, but it's the first sign of irreversible damage to the lungs and other parts of the body, Damant says.

A chronic cough is always a sign of trouble because it's not a normal thing to have."

Most of the full-blown cases of COPD that doctors see today are in patients who were smoking 20 to 50 years ago.

Smith is on a waiting list for a lung transplant, along with 51 other people, and it could be a year or two before his turn comes, he figures.

Even though he has very little lung capacity, he's not a transplant priority because with the rehabilitation exercises he does three times a week, he is able to function better than most people on the list.

Smith directs the choir at his church, but is no longer physically able to direct the seniors choir with which he is involved.

He says what's past is past and he can't undo the damage he's done to his body by smoking. "What I don't understand is the kids that start smoking nowadays when there is so much information out there about the dangers," he says. "If that information had been available when I was their age, I never would have started."

A diagnosis of COPD is not a death sentence, Damant says.

"The majority of people I know who have the condition, with treatment -- rehabilitation exercises, lifestyle changes -- can go on to live a good quality of life," he says.

But if you don't smoke, don't start. And if you do smoke, stop as soon as possible because it's never too late, Damant says. - The Lung Association runs a Breathworks program, which provides COPD patients with information and support. For more information, go to lung.ca and follow the links to Breathworks, or call the help-line at 1-866-717-COPD (2673).

“You Have the Power to Save Lives – Sign Your Donor Card & Tell Your Loved Ones of Your Decision”

Register to be a donor in Ontario or Download Donor Cards from Trillium Gift of Life Network
For other Canadian provinces click here

In the United States, be sure to find out how to register in your state at ShareYourLife.org or Download Donor Cards from OrganDonor.Gov

Your generosity can save up to eight lives with heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas and small intestine transplants. One tissue donor can help up to 100 other people by donating skin, corneas, bone, tendon, ligaments and heart valves