'Heavy metals in Chinese cigarettes' pose high risk

A new international research project has found high levels of heavy metals in Chinese cigarettes, with some containing three times the level of lead, cadmium and arsenic of Canadian brands.

The International Tobacco Control Project, which brings together experts from 20 countries, released a series of 11 research studies that found China was endangering cigarette buyers at home and abroad by failing to implement stronger controls.

"All 13 Chinese cigarette brands tested were found to have significantly elevated levels of heavy metals, with some containing about three times the level of lead, cadmium, and arsenic compared to Canadian cigarette brands," the study, released on Thursday, found.

"The presence of high levels of heavy metals in Chinese cigarettes may constitute a potential global public health problem as exports of Chinese cigarettes continue to increase."

"It is fundamentally wrong that consumers in many countries know about the content of the chocolate bars they eat, but know nothing about what is in the cigarettes they smoke," the project quoted lead researcher Geoffrey Fong from the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, as saying.

About a million smokers die each year in China from tobacco-related diseases and 100,000 people from exposure to second-hand smoke, the project, published as a supplement to the journal Tobacco Control, found.

"If current trends continue, China's death toll from tobacco will reach two million per year by 2020," it said.

The project added that China was failing to educate people on the risks of smoking through measures such as effective warnings on packaging.

Health warnings on Chinese cigarette packets are often written in English rather than Chinese and lack graphic images showing the damage to health caused by smoking, it noted.

"Only 68 percent of current smokers in China believe that smoking leads to lung cancer and only 36 percent believe that smoking causes coronary heart disease."

Fong added: "These results demonstrate how far China needs to go in tobacco control.... Knowledge is low, mis-perceptions are high and unless stronger action is taken, China will soon find itself in the midst of an even more devastating public health disaster than they are experiencing now."

Via : AFP

Cigarette consumption in Turkey drops by 16 percent

Turkey’s indoor smoking ban that took full effect as of July 2009 has resulted in cigarette sales in the country dropping by 16.2 percent this year over the same period last year, according to data from the Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulatory Agency (TAPDK).

According to these figures, 3.64 billion packs were sold in the first eight months of last year, compared to 3.1 billion this year. The effect of the smoking ban on cigarette sales was seen starting in the second half of last year, but smokers in Turkey still spend almost as much for tobacco products as the government allocates to investment. The ban on smoking in public places first went into effect in May 2008 but was implemented gradually.

The provisions of the law that introduce the smoking ban in restaurants, cafeterias and coffeehouses took full effect starting July 19, 2009. There was a significant fall in cigarette sales in 2009, during which a total of 5.4 billion packs were sold. However, the most serious drop was experienced this year. Last year in February, a total of 389 million packs were sold compared to 298 million packs this year. Even the tourism season and a higher number of foreign visitors to Turkey this year could not slow the fall. In July of this year 79 million fewer packs were sold than in July of 2008, while in August 44 million fewer packs were sold in comparison with the previous year.

During the more than four-and-a-half years from the start of 2006 up to August 2010, 25 billion packs were consumed in Turkey. In terms of single cigarettes smoked, this figure amounts to 492 billion. In monetary terms, this amounts to TL 86 billion. On average, smokers spend a total of TL 18 million on cigarettes, which nears the TL 22 billion in this year’s budget allocated by the state for hospital, school, road, utilities and other investments. According to a recent survey by the Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat), 31.3 percent of individuals age 15 and higher use tobacco on a daily or regular basis; 47.9 of the smoking population are men, while 15.2 percent are women; and 8.4 percent of the 13-18 age group are smokers. The percentage of boys in this age group is 9.4 percent, while 5.3 percent are girls. These figures actually show an increase in the smoking rate for this group, which stood at 6.0 percent in 2003. TurkStat figures also show that tobacco addiction has become more common among women in comparison with the past.

Via : todayszaman

Finland stubs out smoking with world’s toughest law

Finland has this week enacted the strictest anti-smoking laws in the world, which aim to phase out the habit altogether by preventing teenagers from ever lighting up. The legislation, which was put into force on Friday 1st October, seeks to make the country smoke-free by limiting the availability and visibility of tobacco products rather than an outright ban.

“We’re no longer giving tobacco tacit approval,” said Ismo Tuominen, a Ministerial Counsellor at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, in a report by YLE.

“The goal of the old law was to decrease smoking, which accepted that tobacco was a part of our life. This doesn’t make much sense as tobacco is the underlying cause of a large portion of premature deaths,” Tuominen said, adding that “Tobacco would be banned if it was introduced in this day and age.”

Tuominen is hoping that other European Union states will soon follow Finland’s lead, as the tough measures are expected to grab headlines worldwide. According to the counsellor, Finland has only been able to introduce such legislation as the country does not have its own tobacco industry.

International tobacco firms are said to be fuming over the news

Via : icenews

Smoking drops in Maryland more than in the nation

Anti-smoking advocates are crediting an indoor smoking ban and a cigarette tax for bringing down the rate of smoking in Maryland.

The advocates said in a press conference earlier today that there was a 32 percent drop in adult smoking from 1998 to 2009 – more than twice the national average.

They also announced $550,000 in U.S. Food and Drug Administration money to help enforce a ban on selling tobacco to minors. Inspections of retail outlets will begin later this month, they said.

The announcement came from a collection of Maryland health officials, including former city health commissioner Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, who is now the FDA’s principal deputy commissioner, and John M. Colmers, the secretary of the state’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

“We've made significant progress in the battle against smoking and tobacco-related disease because our public and private partners are working hard to help adults quit smoking and keep children from starting,” Colmers said in a statement. “While we've done more with less in tough economic times to reduce tobacco use, we remain committed to doing more. The health and future life expectancy of Maryland's children and adults are at stake.”

At the heart of the drop in smoking, Colmers and others said was the 2007 smoking ban, a controversial move that prohibits smoking in all public indoor places including bars, restaurants and workplaces, and the one-dollar a pack increase in the tobacco tax. They also cited the Maryland Tobacco Quitline, 1-800-QUIT-NOW, which has received calls from 50,000 people seeking help quitting.

Here are the stats they cited (from the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention & Health Promotion - Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System):

Maryland tobacco use average dropped to 15.1 percent in 2009 from 22.4 percent in 1998, or 32.6 percent. Nationally, the drop went to 20.6 percent from 24.1 percent in the same time frame, or 14.5 percent.

So, have you quit? Any of the reasons cited by authorities a factor?

Via : weblogs.baltimoresun

In hostile world, RP remains friendly to tobacco companies

As other countries in the Asia Pacific count their gains in the war against the tobacco lobby, the Philippines remains a haven for the cigarette industry and its millions of loyal patrons.

At an international conference on tobacco control here, hundreds of scientists and advocates from around the region heard of plans for Australia to abolish commercial labels on cigarette packs by 2012. Bhutan has banned the sale of tobacco altogether.

Nearly 40 countries around the globe have picture health warnings on cigarette packs, one of the most cost-effective interventions in public health, according to Dr. Geoffrey Fong, a Canadian expert who spoke at the Asia Pacific Conference on Tobacco or Health here.

Some countries like Brazil are experimenting with increasingly scary photos on cigarette packs of grotesque victims of cancer caused by smoking. In 2012, Australia will still retain the picture warnings but on plain white packaging, without brand logos or designs.

RP: 18 million male smokers and counting

In the Philippines, however, a government order this year requiring picture warnings on cigarette packs has been stymied in three Philippine courts that have issued orders stopping the initiative after petitions by the tobacco industry.

Only word warnings currently appear on cigarette packs in the Philippines, not seen as having a great impact on the nearly half of adult Filipino men and one-tenth of women who smoke.

Moreover, cigarettes are taxed lightly in the Philippines compared to other nations, making them more affordable to consumers. The Philippines is one of the cheapest places in the world to buy Marlboro cigarettes, among the globe’s leading brands.

With cheap cigarettes that come in packaging without adequate health warnings, the Philippines is ninth in the world in the number of male smokers, with nearly 18 million, according to The Tobacco Atlas published by the American Cancer Institute.

Tobacco companies dominate RP

Anti-smoking advocates were elated earlier this year when then-Health Secretary Esperanza Cabral issued an Administrative Order requiring tobacco companies to place health warnings with pictures of cancer victims on all cigarette packs.

Five tobacco companies challenged the order in five different Philippine courts. Two judges issued injunction orders temporarily preventing its implementation, while a third, Judge Brigido Luna of the Parañaque Regional Trial Court, issued a final decision last September 8 in favor of the owners of La Suerte Cigar and Cigarette Factory by declaring Cabral’s order "null and void." The Department of Health has elevated the issue to the Supreme Court.

"The tobacco industry is sending a message in the Philippines – this is where they dominate," said Dr. Judith Mackay, a co-author of The Tobacco Atlas and a long-time tobacco control advocate in Southeast Asia. "What the Philippines needs are a president and government that are seriously committed to the health of the people."

Mackay adds that it doesn’t help that the Philippines has a president that smokes. "Being a non-smoker would help your president be more objective about smoking," she said. "It would clear the air, so to speak, so he can make better decisions about it."

However, she credits President Noynoy Aquino for saying that "he wants to quit, recognizing that it is an addiction. He is embarrassed by it and is no longer seen smoking in public."

Mackay said that China, the world’s leading smoking nation, used to be identified with its chain-smoking leader Deng Xiaoping, but is now led by men who do not smoke or at least have not been seen smoking in public.

Tobacco industry officials in the Philippines have not returned calls by GMANews.TV. But on the Philip Morris Philippines' web site, it states:

"While we support comprehensive, effective tobacco regulation, we do not support regulation that prevents adults from buying and using tobacco products or that imposes unnecessary impediments to the operation of the legitimate tobacco market. In that regard, we oppose measures such as plain packaging, point of sale display bans, total bans on communications to adult consumers, and bans on the use of all ingredients in tobacco products."

Ironically, while Philip Morris opposes graphic health warnings on cigarette packs sold in the Philippines, it manufactures in its giant plant in Batangas cigarettes exported to Thailand that have gruesome cancer pictures. Thailand imposes heavier restrictions on tobacco.

Via : gmanews

Why the performance gap in bed is so huge

It will come as no surprise to most women, but men think they perform better than they really do in the bedroom. Some 85 per cent of men said the last person they slept with had an orgasm, according to new a US survey. Yet when the researchers asked women the same question, just 64 per cent agreed.

The 'orgasm' gap is being blamed by experts on men being happy to please themselves without ensuring their partner is satisfied.

To illustrate the point, the study found that men are more likely to orgasm when sex includes vaginal intercourse, whilst women are more likely to get orgasm when they engage in a variety of sex acts.

The findings were from the National Survey of Sexual Health and Behaviour, one of the most comprehensive studies in two decades into the sex lives of Americans.

The research team from the University of Indiana documented the sexual experiences and condom use of 5,865 adolescents and adults ages 14 to 94.

The findings suggest that while a lot of men do stick to a routine, there are also plenty of people experiment when it comes to sex.

Around seven per cent of women and eight per cent of men said they were gay, lesbian or bi-sexual and some 41 different combinations of sexual acts were identified.

This surprised the Indiana team who said they were taken aback by the 'enormous diversity' in the bedroom when the lights went off.

"Our main point is that sex is more than just vaginal intercourse," said study author Michael Reece, director of Indiana University's Centre for Sexual Health Promotion.

"While it does appear to be the most common behaviour, many people are being diverse in their sexual lives," says Reece.

The research found that among young Americans, condom use is becoming the norm and they are in fact now more responsible then adults when it comes to using protection.

Some 80 per cent of adolescents aged 14 to 17 (80 per cent of girls and 69 per cent of boys) said they wore one during intercourse, compared with under half of adults who enjoyed casual liaisons.

Via : wonderwoman.intoday

Want Better Sex? Open Your Mouth!

Ladies: Stop faking orgasms! Now! Just stop! You're giving men the wrong idea ...

A recent New York Post article suggests that most men -- 85 percent, in fact -- believe they satisfied their woman even when they most certainly didn't. Only 64 percent of women say their last roll in the hay ended in an orgasm.

The Center for Sexual Health Promotion at Indiana University conducted the study, which interviewed 5,865 Americans ages 14 to 94 about their sexual habits, and they found that, yes, men really are as clueless as we all thought ... just kidding. Not really.

Ladies, if it is not working for you, speak up! Faking an orgasm means you're partially to blame for the bad sex.

Want better sex? Communicate!

We can debate all day about whether an orgasm is needed to make sex mutually satisfying. I'm firmly in the camp that feels it's necessary. I've had good sex without one, but toe-curling, screaming, come back for more sex only happens when we both get to finish.

There are some women who cannot have vaginal orgasms from intercourse alone and others who can. It's a controversial topic, to be sure. But either way, there are techniques and steps a man can take toward not completely striking out in the bedroom. And we ladies can help him get there if we put our big girl pants on.

Instead of pretending like everything is fantabulous, tell him, "This is not working for me." Say it in front of a mirror to practice.

If you don't like that, try positive reinforcement: "I really like it when you" or just moan and say, "Keep going, just like that ..."

Also, send non-verbal clues. Move your body away if something doesn't work and lean in when it does. If your man is astute, he will get it.

We can't expect a guy to actually be good in bed if we don't speak up. Don't like it when he wears his black dress socks to bed? Then by all means, tell him! Don't just hate it and complain to your girlfriends while he thinks he's a total stud.

That makes you complicit! Let's not stand for it. Be honest. Be brave. And you will get better sex for your effort.

What do you do to get better sex?

Via : thestir.cafemom