Youth E-Cigarette Use Triples in One Year
Current e-cigarette use among middle and high school students tripled from 2013 to 2014, according to data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Tobacco Products (CTP). Findings from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey show that current e-cigarette use (use on at least 1 day in the past 30 days) among high school students increased from 4.5% in 2013 to 13.4 percent in 2014, rising from approximately 660,000 to two million students. Among middle school students, current e-cigarette use more than tripled from 1.1% in 2013 to 3.9% in 2014—an increase from approximately 120,000 to 450,000 students.
This is the first time since the survey started collecting data on e-cigarettes in 2011 that current e-cigarette use has surpassed current use of every other tobacco product overall, including conventional cigarettes. Additionally, hookah use roughly doubled for middle and high school students; no decline was seen in overall tobacco use among middle or high school students. Use of multiple tobacco products was common; nearly half of all middle and high school students who were current tobacco users used two or more types of tobacco products. For video and audio clips featuring FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products Director Mitch Zeller speaking about the findings from the 2014 National Youth Tobacco Survey, visit: http://dmr.homefrontdc.com/697/ctp-nyts-findings.
New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services Promotes Quitting Tobacco with Contest: Dear Me New Hampshire
NH DHHS (http://www.dhhs.nh.gov/dphs/tobacco/) is launching a contest with the hard-hitting media campaign Dear Me New Hampshire. The Contest is being promoted in order to motivate New Hampshire residents to quit tobacco. The campaign’s call to action, “No one can make me quit, but me,” was born out of conversations with NH residents wanting to quit smoking or using other tobacco products. The contest asks residents, “If you wrote a letter to yourself about quitting, what would it say?” Those who see or hear the statewide campaign will be encouraged to write a letter to themselves with their personal reasons to quit tobacco and have a chance to enter the contest by filming their own Dear Me video; submitters can compete to be in a Dear Me New Hampshire ad featuring their own personal story about wanting to quit tobacco (https://www.trytostopnh.org/i-want-to-quit/).
“Encouraging people to think about the reasons they have for quitting tobacco is a positive motivational force to get them to attempt to quit. And that is what the Dear Me New Hampshire campaign is asking people to do,” said Dr. Jose Montero, Director of Public Health at DPHS. “The Department currently offers free tobacco treatment counseling and nicotine replacement patches to residents who call 1-800-QUIT-NOW and qualify.” Learn about Dear Me NH here. Enter the contest here.
50th Anniversary Report
January 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of the first Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health. Although we now know that tobacco use causes a host of cancers and other illnesses and is still the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, killing more than 440,000 people each year, the 1964 landmark report was the first to definitively link smoking with lung cancer and heart disease. Get involved. Get free help quitting today!
Commit to Quit Smoking in 2015
Make 2014 the year you quit smoking! This could be the most important resolution you ever make. Help is available to help you stop smoking for good. Currently, the NH Tobacco Helpline is offering free Nicotine Patches. You can still call today to start making your quit plan for the New Year with free counseling over the phone.
During the holiday season, many people decide to improve their lives and health by making resolutions. These resolutions can take many forms: exercising more, losing weight, or getting more sleep. If you are a smoker or use tobacco, a key resolution you can make this year is to quit smoking. Start by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669) to get free advice and support in helping you to quit now.
Research Findings Show Smoke-Free Workplaces Reduce Heart Attacks
Exposure to secondhand smoke is harmful to a person’s health and should be avoided, especially those with known coronary artery disease or heart disease. Mayo Clinic researchers have found that the incidence of heart attacks and sudden cardiac deaths have decreased since the implementation of comprehensive smoke-free laws in Olmsted County, Minn., in 2002.
In the 18 months following a comprehensive smoke-free ordinance in 2007, in which restaurants and workplaces became smoke-free, that rate dropped to 102.9 per 100,000 residents — a decrease of about 45 percent. Additionally, during these two time periods, the incidence of sudden cardiac death fell from 152.5 to 76.6 per 100,000 residents — a 50 percent reduction. Learn more…
The National Prevention Strategy
Cigarette Taxes and the Federal Budget — Report from the CBO
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates a 50-cent hike in the U.S. cigarette tax could result in a decrease of more than three million smokers by 2085. The current federal cigarette tax is $1.01. The tax increase would either encourage people to quit, or would keep people from starting to smoke, the researchers say.
The CBO report, which appears in the New England Journal of Medicine, estimates 200,000 of those three million people would have died before that year if the tax hike were not in effect. The CBO does independent analyses of budget issues for Congress.
The decrease in the number of smokers would result in $730 million in savings in healthcare costs between 2013 and 2021, the report notes. In the long term, federal spending would increase, because of the additional people living into old age, who would use Social Security and Medicare. Learn more…
Free Yourself from Smoking on November 20
Quit smoking during the Great American Smokeout (GASO) November 20. Join others around the country and make plans to quit smoking for good! Call the New Hampshire Tobacco Helpline to make a quit plan with a quit coach today.
1-800-QUIT-NOW. Visit CDC and BeTobaccoFree.gov for more GASO information.Be Tobacco Free
Visit the American Cancer Society’s page to see how you can add to your GASO day.
May is Asthma Awareness Month!
Press play below to learn about how air quality effects children with Asthma.
Spring is here and summer is fast approaching. One topic people may not associate with this time of year is asthma. New Hampshire’s Public Health Director Dr. José Montero joins WMUR-TV for their “Monthly Checkup” to share some important information about asthma management. Watch the video here: Summer Brings Increase in Asthma from WMUR New Hampshire.
Asthma can start at any age. Although there is no cure for asthma, it can be managed so people with the disease can live a normal, healthy life. If you or someone you know has asthma and would like to learn more about it, the American Lung Association invites you to participate in their new online learning module, Asthma Basics.
If you or someone you know has a child with asthma, Lungtropolis is a website parents and children can visit together where you’ll find advise for parents with children with asthma as well as action-packed games designed to help kids ages five to ten control their asthma.
You can also visit:
New England Chapter of Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
Breathe New Hampshire
Watch this video on Asthma Tips from the CDC
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Tips from Former Smokers
Tips from Former Smokers” campaign features compelling stories of former smokers living with smoking-related diseases and disabilities. The ads focus on smoking-related lung and throat cancer, heart attack, stroke, Buerger’s disease, and asthma. Smokers who quit also pass along tips about what helped them succeed.
Though they may be tough to watch, the ads show real people living with real, painful consequences from smoking,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “There is sound evidence that supports the use of these types of hard-hitting images and messages to encourage smokers to quit, to keep children from ever beginning to smoke, and to drastically reduce the harm caused by tobacco.
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Watch more videos here
Visit the CDC website to read the stories and learn more.
Preventing Tobacco Use Among Youth and Young Adults
Tobacco is the leading cause of preventable and premature death, killing more than 1,200 Americans every day. For every tobacco-related death two new young people under the age of 26 become regular smokers. Nearly 90 percent of these replacement smokers try their first cigarette by age 18. Approximately 3 out of 4 high school smokers continue to smoke well into adulthood.
“Targeted marketing encourages more young people to take up this deadly addiction every day,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. “This administration is committed to doing everything we can to prevent our children from using tobacco.”
The surgeon general’s report provides further scientific evidence on the addictive nature of nicotine. The younger individuals are when they start using tobacco, the more likely they are to become addicted and the more heavily addicted they will become.
For more information visit, www.surgeongeneral.gov
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Tobacco Industry Watch: Deadly Alliance
Key findings of the report Convenience stores and other retail outlets have become by far the dominant channel for marketing tobacco products in the United States Point-of-sale marketing is very effective at reaching kids and influencing them to smoke.
Tobacco companies, inhibited by their own negative reputations, have enlisted convenience stores as front groups to oppose tobacco tax increases and other policies to reduce tobacco use. For more information about the Report, visitCampaign for Tobacco Free Kids
For information about what you can do, visit www.countertobacco.org, a resource for local, state, and federal organizations working to counteract tobacco product sales and marketing at the point of sale.
Smoking and Heart Health
If you smoke, cells that line your body’s blood vessels react to the poisons in tobacco smoke almost immediately. Your heart rate and blood pressure go up. Your blood vessels grow narrower. Chemical changes caused by smoking also make blood more likely to clot. Clots can form and block blood flow to your heart.
Smoking is one cause of dangerous plaque buildup inside your arteries. Plaque clogs and narrows your arteries. This can trigger chest pain, weakness, heart attack, or stroke. Plaque can rupture and cause clots that block arteries. Completely blocked arteries can cause sudden death. Smoking is not the only cause of these problems, but it makes them much worse.
Quitting Tobacco for the New Year
Setting a Quit Date is one of the most important steps leading up to a successful quit. If you are thinking of quitting smoking or chew as one of your New Year’s Resolutions, you are not alone—many Granite Staters will be getting ready to quit right along side you.
Call the NH Tobacco Helpline today to begin making your Personalized Quit Plan. Help is Free and Confidential. See what the Next Steps are to planning your quit here.
Nineteen percent (19%) of NH residents who have used the NH Tobacco Helpline to quit are currently NOT smoking at all! Congratulations to them!
(National successful quit rates are about 6%. The average person makes 7-10, or more quit attempts before being completely quit—it’s all part of the process of quitting smoking and learning new behavior.)
Your Year to QUIT!
As the New Year begins, resolve to make THIS YEAR the year that you quit smoking.
Help is available to help you quit for good this year.
Learn more on the CDC website»
Send a Health e-card to someone you care about.
This animated e-card encourages smokers to make a New Year’s resolution to quit.Click here to visit the CDC website and see and send the card.
November is COPD Awareness month
Every cigarette is doing you damage, which can lead to lung disease, cancer, heart disease and many other conditions.
The single most important way to prevent COPD and other fatal diseases is to stop smoking.
Quitting may not always be easy, but it will benefit your health and your wealth.
Free Stop Smoking Service support can make it easier to stop successfully and is available where you live to help you make this quit attempt the one that works. Call the NH Tobacco Helpline or go to nhquitlogix.org.
Rocker STING has teamed up with health officials to promote a new anti-smoking campaign.
The Roxanne hitmaker is backing the Every Breath initiative by Fresh and the British Lung Foundation, and has offered up his hit track Every Breath You Take as the promo’s soundtrack. The campaign aims to highlight the long-term effects of smoking, and Sting says, “Many people across the U.K. are affected by lung damage and other smoking related illnesses, particularly in the North East where I grew up.” visit Fresh to see the campaign.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act
The DPHS, Tobacco Prevention & Control Program (TPCP) is launching a media campaign to connect NH tobacco users with text message support that provides counseling and encouragement for quitting tobacco use.
Visit the FDA website to learn more »
DIVISION OF PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICES (DPHS) LAUNCHES STATEWIDE MOBILE CAMPAIGN TO GEAR UP FOR KICK BUTTS DAY 2011
The DPHS, Tobacco Prevention & Control Program (TPCP) is launching a media campaign to connect NH tobacco users with text message support that provides counseling and encouragement for quitting tobacco use.
DPHS currently offers free counseling and nicotine replacement patches (NRT) to residents who call 1-800-QUIT-NOW or self-refer via the web to the NH Tobacco Helpline (www.TryToStopNH.org). NH residents will now have additional support right at their fingertips with the first-ever statewide mobile campaign aimed to help NH tobacco users quit for good.
March 23rd is National Kick Butts Day, organized by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids – a day when thousands of youth in every state and around the world will stand out, speak up and seize control against big tobacco. NH DPHS wants to be ready to help those residents who may be motivated to make a quit attempt on this day.
“The NH Tobacco Helpline has proven to be an effective tool in helping NH residents quit tobacco use,” said Dr. José Montero, Director of DPHS. “New technologies allow us to give people a chance to see the kind of sound advice the Helpline offers through a simple process—texting.”
Thousands of services have been provided to NH residents who have called the Helpline at 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-8669) for support in navigating the rough waters of smoking cessation. Now, the helpful tips of a Helpline counselor can remind texters that quitting smoking is possible and offer up advice that is tailored according to the texter’s responses to a few questions. Texting has become a central form of communication, especially for young adults, and people who may be reluctant to call the helpline may be willing to opt in for the text messages.
Bus advertisements, mailers and radio spots to promote NH Tobacco Helpline’s text campaign will begin appearing statewide. For more information about the NH Tobacco Helpline, please visit www.TryToStopNH.org or call 1-800-QUIT-NOW (1-800-784-866). For more information about the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids or Kick Butts Day, visit www.kickbuttsday.org.
Cigarette Smoke Damages Every Organ in the Body
Damage to Body is Immediate When You Smoke
On December 9, 2010, the Surgeon General released How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease: A Report of the Surgeon General.
This report explains in detail how tobacco smoke causes disease. It describes the ways tobacco smoke damages every organ in the body and causes disease and death.
Key Findings from the Report
The scientific evidence reviewed in the 2010 Surgeon General’s report supports the following:
- There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke.
- Inhaling the complex chemical mixture in tobacco smoke causes immediate damage to the body and leads to seriously bad health outcomes: cancer, heart disease, and lung disease.
- The risk and severity of the many bad health outcomes caused by smoking are directly related to the time and amount of exposure to tobacco smoke.
- Tobacco products are powerfully addicting and can lead to long-term smoking.
- Even low levels of exposure to smoke, including exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke, can trigger heart attacks and asthma attacks.
- There is not enough evidence to support the claim that by changing to the design or content of cigarettes one could reduce the risk of these bad health outcomes.
Learn more about the report by visiting the CDC website.
Order your own copy of the report here
NH Tobacco Helpline Success Rates
At the NH Tobacco Helpline, 88% of quitters surveyed between 7/1/2013 and 6/30/2014, were satisfied with the Helpline staff and counseling they received. They also felt the Helpline staff increased their motivation to stop using tobacco (85%) and that the Helpline met their quitting needs (79%). If needed, 91% said they would contact the Helpline again and 96% said they would recommend it to a friend.
- 29% of those surveyed were able to quit for at least 30 days after speaking
with the Helpline. - 19% of those surveyed are currently NOT smoking at all! Congratulations to
them!
(National successful quit rates are about 6%. The average person makes 7 – 10, or more quit attempts before being completely quit—it’s all part of the process of quitting smoking and learning new behavior.)
Butt test shows U.S. cigarettes high in chemicals
Americans inhale more cancer-causing agents with their cigarettes, probably because of the tobacco blend, while smokers in Canada, Britain and Australia get less, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.
Their unique study also demonstrated that the amounts of these carcinogens in a smoker’s cigarette butts directly correlated with tell-tale compounds in the smoker’s urine. Read about the study here.
World No Tobacco Day – May 31, 2010
Women comprise about 20% of the world’s more than 1 billion smokers. However, the epidemic of tobacco use among women is increasing in some countries. Women are a major target of opportunity for the tobacco industry, which needs to recruit new users to replace the nearly half of current users who will die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases.Click here to visit the World Health Organizations website for more information on World No Tobacco Day and this year’s theme of gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women.
National ‘Through With Chew Week’ is the Third Full Week of February. The Great American Spit Out is the Thursday of That Week!
In NH:
- 11% of NH high school males reported trying smokeless tobacco
- 3% of NH high school females reported trying smokeless tobacco
- There is a statistically significant difference in tooth loss between NH residents who use tobacco (8%) and those who do not (2%). Further, the proportion of non-tobacco users having a dentist visit in the past year is statistically significantly greater than those who do use tobacco products.
FACTS
- Each year, mouth or throat cancer will kill approximately 8,000 people in the US
—— that is 1 person per hour, 24 hours a day
- Tobacco use causes tooth loss and gum disease
- Cancer from chewing tobacco doesn’t only occur in the mouth
—— some of the cancer-causing agents in the tobacco can get into the lining of your stomach, your esophagus, and your bladder
- About 70% of spit tobacco users report having mouth sores
- Using chew can also cause
—— cracking and bleeding lips and gums
—— receding gums
—— increased heart rate
—— high blood pressure
For more info on Quitting Chew:
