Tobacco smoking - Articles - Zimbio

World No-Tobacco Day 2008 in LAC: PAHO Honors Those Making a Difference

Fri, 7 Jun 2008 21:20:47 GMT

posted by ioman01
TemasEtUnam

From the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO):

World No Tobacco Day 2008 Observed with Awards in the Americas

World No Tobacco Day is being observed May 31 with a focus on tobacco marketing, and awards in recognition of outstanding contributions to tobacco control.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is urging governments to protect the world’s 1.8 billion young people by imposing a ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and honoring the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) with special recognition to The Honourable. Dr Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis, The Right Honourable Arthur Owen, Former Prime Minister of Barbados, and The Honourable Patrick Manning, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago.

At the recent Summit of Heads of Government on the issue of the Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), they led the conference to declaring a commitment to pursue immediately an agenda on tobacco control including raising and earmarking tobacco taxes, promoting smoke-free environments, banning advertising and promotion and introducing effective health warnings, among other actions.

In addition, awards were given to representatives of youth advocacy groups in Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay, in appreciation for their activities against tobacco. Javier Rivera of Rosario, Argentina, and Sebastián Parada of Mendoza, Argentina undertook an air monitoring initiative, taking a measuring instrument to restaurants, bars, and discos to measure the degree of smoke particles in the air as part of the Bloomberg Smoke-Free Argentina project. Florencia Maldonado Torres of Montevideo, Uruguay prepared an exhibit about tobacco for young people, which has been very successful, with thousands of visitors attending. Luis Enrique Cuesta Martínez of Bogotá, Colombia organized capacity building events as well as protests to demand the deposit of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control adherence document in the United Nations. These groups also attended the Iberoamerican Tobacco Control Conference in Brazil in September, where they signed a Youth Declaration call to action aimed at young people from all over the Americas. They are now planning national workshops in Argentina and Uruguay.

In Brazil, the Aliança de Controle do Tabagismo, established in 2006, won an award for its mobilization in tobacco control, which now counts with more than 350 registered member organizations and activists from all over Brazil. It includes consumer organizations, women’s groups, grassroots organizations, environmental organizations, corporate watch organizations, social justice organizations, medical societies, professional associations, lawyers’ organizations, human rights organizations, small farmer organizations, agro-ecology groups, journalists, and others. ACT has a head office in São Paulo and staff in other parts of Brazil, and recently won a Bloomberg Foundation award of more than one million dollars for advocacy against tobacco.

In Bolivia, the COJLAT anti-tobacco commission won a Certificate of Appreciation for its development and publication of audiovisual educational materials and active supported of the ratification of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control agreement in Bolivia. They have also been very active in the promotion of Smoke-free Environments in public and private sectors.

Speaking about the World Health Day theme, WHO Director-General, Margaret Chan said, “In order to survive, the tobacco industry needs to replace those who quit or die with new young consumers. It does this by creating a complex ‘tobacco marketing net’ that ensnares millions of young people worldwide, with potentially devastating health consequences. A ban on all tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship is a powerful tool we can use to protect the world’s youth,” the Director-General added.

Recent studies prove that the more young people are exposed to tobacco advertising, the more likely they are to start smoking. Despite this, only 5 percent of the world’s population is covered by comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship. Tobacco companies, meanwhile, continue targeting young people by falsely associating use of tobacco products with qualities such as glamour, energy and sex appeal.

Since most people start smoking before the age of 18, and almost a quarter of those before the age of 10, tobacco companies market their products wherever youth can be easily accessed – in the movies, on the Internet, in fashion magazines and at music and sports venues. In a WHO worldwide school-based study of 13-15 year-olds, more than 55 percent of students reported seeing advertisements for cigarettes on billboards in the previous month, while 20 percent owned an item with a cigarette brand logo on it.

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Secondhand smoke risks spouse's life

Tue, 30 Jul 2008 10:14:00 GMT

posted by abs786

Nonsmokers married to smokers have a greatly increased chance of having strokes, according to a U.S. study published on Tuesday showing yet another hazard from secondhand smoke.

Being married to a smoker raised the stroke risk by 42 percent in people who have never smoked compared to those married to someone who never smoked, the researchers said.

This jumped to 72 percent for former smokers married to a current smoker, according to the study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Former smokers who were married to smokers had a stroke risk similar to people who themselves were smokers.

"Quitting smoking helps your own health and also the health of the people living with you," Maria Glymour of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and Columbia University in New York, who led the study, said in a telephone interview.

The study involved 16,225 people aged 50 and up who had never had a stroke. They were followed for an average of nine years.

Glymour said there is accumulating evidence about the number of health problems linked to secondhand smoke.

Previous research had suggested that secondhand smoke increases the risk of stroke, but Glymour said stroke risk has been studied more extensively in smokers than in people exposed to secondhand smoke.

People who breathe in secondhand smoke also have a higher risk of lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer, respiratory tract infections and heart disease, among other conditions.

A 2006 U.S. surgeon general's report said secondhand smoke contains hundreds of chemicals known to be toxic or cancer-causing. These include formaldehyde, benzene, vinyl chloride, arsenic, ammonia and hydrogen cyanide.

For this study, smoking involved cigarettes and not pipes or cigars. It looked at health consequences for the spouses of smokers, but not at the long-term stroke risk in children of smokers due to secondhand smoke.

"We know that there are a lot of undesirable health consequences for kids, especially asthma and breathing problems that are exacerbated by secondhand smoke," Glymour said.

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Snus: Letters from Sweden on Swedish Snus #1

Fri, 29 Mar 2008 15:19:00 GMT

posted by MrUnloadingzone

I recently received some emails from a Snus user in Sweden. Normally, I would read and file them, or ask the recipient if I could post as an anonymous comment.

These letters were so interesting, though, that I replied, asking if could post them (removing his last name and email address). Thankfully, he agreed.

They have snus information I didn't know and a perspective you won't find, especially in the United States. So here is Swedish Snus letter #1. I have not corrected the spelling or grammar as I want to keep it authentic: and his English is much better than my Swedish!
-------------------------------------------
Hello, and thank you for a great blog.i'm a occational reader of your blog, suppruising you might think, but by chance i found it a couple of months ago, while in quite an anger googeling on snus. (why, i will explain later) My sence of lame national pride, was the thing that keept me reading.I felt obligated to teach you, and tip you, some of the basic products of snus.

The snus is a long tradition amongst us swedes, it was first used the way it is used today by the poor workingclass of sweden in the 1800. Swedens monarchy which had been one of the strongest powers in europe had since Karl the XII faild campain to moscow been loosing grounds. Finland was lost to russia, estonia and the baltic regions aswell and denmark reclaimed what was thiers. Sweden simply laid down weaponds and the kings started to spend money on trying to be as french as possible.

Bad leadership, bad winters and bad crops lead to extream poverty amongst the swedish population, this lead to massive flight from swedish farms in the south to the promised lands in the west(ergo america). Almost half of the population left the country, and the poverty spread as well as the anger with the govurnment. alot of people who had used tobbaco as the highclass did- through the nostrols, "snuff" in swedish, started to say that using it the way as the highclass was simply wrong, they started using it under thier lips. By grinding the tobacco in a coffeblender, and mixing it with used coffe powder. The snus was born. It was cheap, you could make it yourself, and the taste lasted longer.

This spread throgh the lowerclass of sweden and became a hit. One old legend says that the inventors of this coffe-waste-tobbaco kind of mix was the "rallare" the workers who laid railroadtracks from the south to the north of sweden, since they got a barrel of tobbaco and coffe every month and didnt wan't to wast anything, they started to mix the two. The "rallare" are often romantasiced as alot of them died of starvartion, cold, and exoution, so it could be made up to in someway make them historical or something...i dont know.however... The snus later became more and more popular and as the workersmovment grew, the snus became swedish, before it was for the poor now it became something all swedes could use and feel pride about.

The snus in it's original form, is what we in slang call "bak" it's the loose snus and "bak" directly translates in baking. This as you form the loose snus in to a round ball and place it under your mouth. ofcourse there are alot of diffrent ways to bake this snus, and alot of the old users just fill the whole upperlip with it and lets it stay there for a couple of hours. The portion (the teabag) came in the 50's(this you have to fact check) in the form of general and is the most poular brand in this cathegory.

The whiteportion is a quite new innovation and came in the form of the brand "tre ankare" in the early 80's, but noone really liked the white portion untill the göteborgsrap'e came. The portion is now the biggest kind of snus in the cities, but on the country side and amongst older users the loosesnus still is nr 1( if you wonder what "ettan" stands for, you know now)

Try the loose portion, it's hard to use in the beginning you swallow some and it will fall apart, but once you got a hang of it it's better then portion, more flavour for a longer period, and you decide the size you want.

I use göteborgs, or Grov when i use portion, they are the best, but when it comes to loose, try Röda lacket, Ettan or Grov, they are suppirior. a tip is also göteborgs loose snus, if you really like the flavour it's awsome.

now to the first reference of anger in this email- i was googeling becouse my employer(female) decided that snus wasn't alowed. She explained it idioticaly "well you cant smoke while you work, why should you be able to use snus" This however hit her stragiht in the but, since half of the male employes use snus and she had no knowlege about it and the union gave her a warning for acting without any legal support at all or adressing it to them before.

Today some hospitals have been given the right to ban use of snus, threatening to fire all users of snus if they didn't quit. This made the union pissed and the employes pissed since around 50% or more of swedish males use snus, they openly said, we won't quit, we won't hide our snus, fire one employe and we all quit... a strong argument.. as the old swedish saying says " a politican can get a way with a lot of shit, but if they thouch the snus, there will be an upprising"

and last im going to tell you about the downsides of snus... one regular sized snus contains around 8 mg of nicotine, you absorb 2mg. This is the same amount you absorb when smoking 3or 4 light ciggarets.

It's highly addictive, im stuck with it for the rest of my life, i use around 1 can a day, thats 24x2mg 48 mg a day. you get the same amount of nicotine from around 70 light ciggarets. this makes your heart beat faster and may raise your bloodpresiur.

My father who has been using snus for 40-50 years changes his snus portions in his sleep 4-5 times a night, he doesn't even remeber waking up and changing it, and he can't sleep at all if he doesn't have nicotine.

The bump you get while using the snus will gradualy disapear since the snus will eat away at your gums. i usally put in 2 portions at once on my right side and you cant tell that i have snus under my lip. some people get the roots of the theeth exposed on the side they put the snus, and some get more uppwards. and p.s i bet you alreafy know this, but don't put the snus in the middle of the upperlip, this will burn away the little strap thing in the middle. Put the portion either on the left or the right side of the mouth and change beetween the sides alot, this minimize dameges done to the gums. But if you dont wan't the bump under the lip, focus on one side and noone can tell that you have snus under that lip.

/David, Stockholm Sweden
--------------------------------------------------
Thank you, David, for the information! At first, I was concerned, but I only use 1 to 2 cans a WEEK at best, not the can a day that David does. I do confess to sometimes popping in a portion before I take a nap or go to bed. I will bet rid of it in the middle of the night and not replace it though. Peter's father's night use amazed me.

Nicotine is very, if not one of the most addictive substances on the planet: more addictive than heroin. But with all the other cancer-causing micro-organisms killed during the snus manufacturering process, it's probably about as dangerous as nicotine gum or patches.

Since I used to smoke 1-2 packs of cigarettes a day, I'm definitely getting less nicotine now then when I smoked: Plus none of the other carcinogins. I will take David's advise and never put my snus portion in the center of my lip. That was a little scary.

I responded with some questions, and will post his reply soon: It will give you something to look forward to!

Technorati Tags:bak, buysnus.com, ettan, grov, göteborgsrap'e, loose snus, portion snus, rallare, snus, snus faq, swedish snus, tre ankare
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Swedish Snus Review; Part 1

Tue, 19 Dec 2007 07:58:00 GMT

posted by MrUnloadingzone

In my article, "Marlboro and Camel: When it comes to Snus, you LOSE", I described my discovery and love of Swedish Snus. I had tried the General-brand by Swedish Match and loved both the portion pack and the white portion. I figured I was all set: it was just a question of finding the best price and service.

While Googling around in my quest, I came across a small Swedish snus forum that for some reason was closed to new posts but available for reading of the old posts "now that some posts had been removed". Very mysterious. While poking around the forum and reading the various posts, I learned something new. According to a number of the posters, after a while of using your favorite snus, you get bored with it and need to change for awhile. Then when you come back to your favorite, it will seem fresh and exciting again.

Looks like I not only needed to shop price, but do a taste-test as well for alternatives. Until someone can prove me wrong, BuySnus.com is the Best Place to buy Swedish snus. They have a huge selection, lots of interesting content on their site, and their shipping costs are unbelievably reasonable. The also give lots of freebies, volume discounts, and all kinds of good stuff. Most importantly, I RECEIVED my order. It didn't get stuck in customs, it didn't get "lost".

And if you're a first time customer, click on the link above or the banner below and you'll get a 10% discount on your first order!

I needed that discount, because when I do research, I do research. Between what I bought and what they gave me for free, I received over 20 different cans of snus! Like I said, when I do research, I do research.

I picked the Swiss postal service as my shipping method, not without a little trepidation.

Apparently, the Swedish use the Swiss postal service. Choosing UPS would have cost me almost triple the shipping and I had read some bad stories (don't know if they're true today) on that strange forum how a few years ago UPS orders always got snagged in Customs.

I hope you're sitting down (it would be strange if you weren't, actually): from when I placed the order until when it arrived at my house took only four days!!! I can't get a letter from Texas to New Jersey in four days!

I didn't want to overwhelm you with 20+ different snus reviews so I'm breaking this up into two or three articles. This is the first, and I encountered some real surprises. Just remember, taste is subjective. If I speak poorly of a particular brand and you really want to try it, go ahead...it may turn out to be your favorite. Conversely, you might not like one of my favorites. This is just my opinion and my taste.

I started with what I knew: Swedish Match. General portion and white portion remain my favorites among the "tobacco taste" snuses. I compared them to Grov white portion (another Swedish Match brand) and Ettan portion. Don't get me wrong, they all tasted great, but the General snuses had a peppery aftertaste that I really like. The other two were a tad milder and tasted more of straight tobacco.

If you've ever smoked cigarettes, you know what it's like in the morning when you need that extra cigarette or two to get you going. In the snus world, this is called a "stark" or strong portion. It contains 30-40% more nicotine than regular snus. I usually do 2-4 portions of stark and then switch to regular.

I've tried three different stark snuses so far: Nick and Johnny portion (another Swedish Match brand), skruf stark portion, and Offroad Cranberry strong portion.

The Offroad Cranberry was at first horrifying, but strangely, about half way through the can (I don't throw out anything) I came to, if not really like it, at least be able to tolerate it....and almost kind of like it. I found myself starting off with a portion or two of one of the others and then finishing my stark allotment with the Offroad.

Nick and Johnny and skruf were very similar and I expected to like Nick and Johnny the best as I seem to like the Swedish Match taste. Instead, the skruf came out on top for me. It was very flavorful and ended strong, where the Nick and Johnny seemed to end a little flat.

Next I tried the flavored snuses. They come in a variety of different flavors from mocha-vanilla to whisky. It was here that I found my absolute favorite snus and the absolute worst snus I ever tried to date.

Goteborg's Rape white portion is the most amazing tasting snus I'd ever tried. It's described on the BuySnus.com website as having a "mild tobacco taste with certain sweetness and an element of fresh herbs and juniper berry."

This description just doesn't do it justice! It explodes with the wonderful fruit and tobacco flavor and is an absolute delight! In fact, before starting this article, I put in another order with BuySnus.com and purchased a roll (ten cans) of the Goteborg's Rape white (among other tasty treats). I only ordered one can initially, went through it quickly, and miss it. It's great as an after-dinner snus when you want something a little sweet.

Probe Whiskey portion is another great after-dinner snus. The whiskey taste is not overpowering and it's very pleasant and slightly sweet.

My biggest disappointments to date are the Offroad flavored snuses. Now in fairness to Offroad, they are a second-tier brand priced about a third less than the other snuses I've been comparing.

They were formerly know as Bacco, redesigned with new flavors and renamed Offroad. They have a lot of different flavors and I was initially very excited about them....until I tasted them.

With the exception of the Cranberry which I have come to have a slight affection for but would not buy again, the others tasted more of paper than fruit. The peach, which sort of, kind of, tastes like peach-flavored paper is tolerable until you get towards the end and then it's all paper taste.

The Coffee Vanilla portion is the one can even I may not be able to choke down. The coffee vanilla taste is completely overwhelmed by the flavor of paper. I even tried putting two portions in my mouth at the same time and I could ALMOST taste the flavor over the paper. There was virtually no tobacco taste to any of the Offroad flavored snuses I tried. I have a can of Offroad Stark I haven't opened yet and am afraid to. More on that in a future review.

One can I'm really excited about opening is the General Onyx. It's supposed to be the best snus General makes and is touted as being for special occasions. It comes in a fancy can and I can't wait to try it. I'm saving it for my birthday which is on January 7th (gifts welcome).

I have about 10 cans to yet taste out of my original order, two thirds of those being "second-tier" brands. Sometimes you can find some wonderful surprises in the second-tier.......and other times you discover Offroad. You really don't know until you try.

Including the roll of Goteborg's Rape white, I simply reordered some of my favorites from above with two exceptions: two cans of Goteborg's Rape #2 portion (different fruits; have to try it) and skruf has a strong Cranberry which I'll be replacing the Offroad strong Cranberry with.

BuySnus.com is also giving me a "mystery can" as a free gift for my order so I have that to look forward to also.

Swedish Snus: great taste, nicotine, cheaper than cigarettes, in the league of a fine cigar, and none of the inconveniences of smoking or chewing. You got to love it!

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Swedish Snus Reviews and News for June 2008

Fri, 28 Jun 2008 21:50:00 GMT

posted by MrUnloadingzone

This month, I decided to mix things up a little bit. General White Portion has been my snus of choice for quite some time along with Goteborgs Rape'.

Lately, though, I've been finding myself a little bored. Unlike cigarette smokers, where (I at least) pretty much settle on a brand and stay with it for years, snus users have the occasional need to switch off to something new. Then when they ultimately come back to their former favorites, it's a new experience again.

...Read the Complete Article by Clicking on theunloadingzone.blogspot.com LINK above, after "From:"

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