Late Breaking News
Addressing tobacco use and binge drinking in young adults appears to decrease smoking more than addressing only tobacco use
Concerns that tobacco advertising may target lower income neighborhoods in Boston
Roll-your-own cigarette machines evade taxes but are coming under scrutiny
Medicare expands coverage to include smoking cessation treatment
Recent declines in teen smoking appear to be slowing
New study indicates that nicotine, not just smoking, may increase breast cancer chances
Activists are attempting to fight depiction of kids smoking on YouTube
The new fight over electronic cigarettes
NSF Seeking Input
As part of its long-term strategic planning effort, the National Science Foundation's Directorate for the Social, Behavioral, and Economic Sciences (SBE) invites researchers to submit brief papers (up to 2000 words) describing grand challenges for the SBE fields over the next 10-20 years. The SBE Directorate funds the bulk of psychological research within NSF. The deadline for submissions is September 30, 2010. For full announcement see: http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10069/nsf10069.jsp
New Membership Criteria for SRNT
Tobacco industry membership in SRNT is an issue that has been debated since the organization’s inception. The issue was formally considered in 2003 and again in 2005. It has never been an easy debate, and at times has been quite divisive. More....
Regulation of Smoking in Public Housing
Studies show that exposure to tobacco smoke causes lung cancer and cardiac disease in nonsmokers, and the Surgeon General’s report on involuntary smoking concluded that there is no safe level of exposure. While Public Housing Authorities (PHAs), the local agencies that operate public housing programs, may opt to ban smoking, to date, only about 4% of PHAs have reported that they voluntarily banned smoking in the public housing units they manage. It is critical that no-smoking policies be accompanied by provision of evidence-based smoking cessation resources. Using federal regulatory or contractual mechanisms to ensure that PHAs implement no-smoking policies in public housing raises ethical concerns and practical challenges, but is justified in light of the harms of exposure to tobacco smoke, the lack of other avenues of legal redress for non-smoking public housing residents, and the languid pace with which PHAs have voluntarily implemented no-smoking policies. More...
Winickoff, J.P., Gottlieb, M., & Mello, M.M. (2010). Regulation of smoking in public housing. New England Journal of Medicine, 362, 2319-2325.
Applying Tobacco Carcinogen and Toxicant Biomarkers in Product Regulation and Cancer Prevention
Tobacco products contain a complex mixture of carcinogens and toxicants that are responsible for their deadly effects. The 21st century method of assessing levels of these substances should integrate tobacco carcinogen and toxicant biomarkers into the assessment of tobacco product carcinogenicity and toxicity. Highly reliable analytical methods, based mainly on the well-established and widely applied technique of mass spectrometry, are now available and have been applied in large studies of many of these biomarkers. In this paper, a panel of tobacco carcinogen and toxicant biomarkers that could be used in product regulation and studies on the prevention of tobacco-induced cancer is presented. The use of tobacco carcinogen and toxicant biomarkers has expanded rapidly in recent years and great potential in tobacco product regulation and in the identification of individuals at high risk for cancer upon exposure to tobacco products. More...
Hecht, S.S., Yuan, J-M., & Hatsukami, D. (2010). Applying tobacco carcinogen and toxicant biomarkers in product regulation and cancer prevention. Chemical Research in Toxicology, 23, 1001-1008.
Depression and Smoking in the U.S. Household Population Aged 20 and Over, 2005-2008
Over the last 4 to 5 decades, cigarette smoking among adults in the United States has been reduced by one-half. However, 21% of the adult population still smokes. Depression has been identified as an important correlate of smoking outcomes. In this study, data was examined from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) for years 2005-2008. Persons with depression were more likely to be current smokers than persons without depression. The proportion of adults who were current smokers tended to increase with an increase in depression severity. Those with depression had a higher rate of smoking initiation (ever smoking) as well as a lower quit rate. They were also heavier smokers than persons without depression. The few studies that have examined ability to quit smoking in persons with depression have shown that with intensive treatment, persons with depression can quit smoking and remain abstinent. More...
Pratt, L.A., & Brody, D.J. (2010). Depression and Smoking in the U.S. Household Population Aged 20 and Over. NCHS Data Brief, 34, 1-8.
Reduction versus abrupt cessation in smokers who want to quit (Review)
Most smoking cessation programs advise abrupt quitting rather than gradual reduction. Alternatively, another approach to quitting smoking would be to gradually reduce the number of cigarettes per day before going on to quit completely. However, before the gradual reduction approach becomes widely recommended, the relative efficacy of this approach, compared to abrupt cessation needs to be determined. A review of the literature was conducted. Ten randomized controlled trials met the inclusion criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. Neither abrupt quitting nor gradual reduction demonstrated superior smoking abstinence when all studies were combined in the main analysis. Therefore, it appears that giving patients a choice as to whether they would prefer to abruptly quit or gradually reduce is an acceptable approach. More...
Lindson, N., Aveyard, P., & Hughes J.R. (2010). Reduction versus abrupt cessation in smokers who want to quit. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Issue 3.
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