Tobacco Free Weld County

A Cigarette by Any Other Name…

tobaccofreeweld — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:49:07 +0000

…is still a poison.

A rose and a cigarette by any other name

After the recent FDA legislation prohibiting cigarette and tobacco makers from claiming any of their products are healthier than others (because there is no such thing as a less dangerous tobacco), Marlboro got busy changing its name. Rather than just taking the misleading products off the shelves, they just changed the name from Marlboro Lights to Marlboro Gold. Not only that, but they sent direct mail advertisements to people telling them that

‘YOUR MARLBORO LIGHTS PACK IS CHANGING.

BUT YOUR CIGARETTE STAYS THE SAME.

IN THE FUTURE, ASK FOR ‘MARLBORO IN THE GOLD PACK.’

Because of this, the FDA is looking into this and has issued Philip Morris and Altria a stern warning.

American Cigarettes are Worse for you

tobaccofreeweld — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:50:05 +0000

A new study has found that there are more cancer-causing agents in the blend of tobacco and chemicals of American cigarettes than in other countries.

The study found that:

The popular U.S. cigarette brands studied contained “American blend” tobacco, known to contain higher TSNA levels than the “bright” tobacco used in the most popular Australian, Canadian, and British brands.

Australian and Canadian smokers got more nicotine than U.S. and British smokers, but not of TSNAs.

Obesity Versus Tobacco

tobaccofreeweld — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:37:16 +0000

Which is worse? Tobacco or obesity? Well, both are major killers in the United States, and even if obesity is taking over as the number one killer, it is amazing that tobacco is still a contender considering that 2/3 of Americans are overweight or obese and only about 1/5 or 20% of Americans smoke or use tobacco. They both cause cancer and heart disease which are the primary killers of Americans overall. And of course, for someone with both (obesity AND uses tobacco), the risks are dramatically higher.

The good news is that both of these are preventable and the healthy eating, active living community can learn a lot from the tobacco control movement on how to make major changes in these numbers.

Even Computer Companies Don’t Like Smoke

tobaccofreeweld — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 22:50:59 +0000

This is an interesting article that shows even computer companies don’t like smoke. They will not repair a computer if it has damage from smoke.

http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/156203;_ylt=AroaRzQLgDOE9qB5sZ5Ha6LxMJA5

Nova Explores Tobacco Addiction

tobaccofreeweld — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 20:32:52 +0000

A very interesting and interactive website about nicotine addiction is available at this link:

NOVA “The Dope on Nicotine”

Local Community Event About Tobacco -Save the Date

tobaccofreeweld — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:18:09 +0000

Save the Date! We will be hosting a local community event in Greeley about Tobacco on the Great American Smoke Out. Topics will include youth prevention, threats to the tobacco control movement and a historical perspective that will lead us into the future. Registration will be on this site! Check back for more details!

Tobacco and Candy

tobaccofreeweld — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 20:21:41 +0000

There are a lot of similarities between tobacco and candy advertisements. Still, the tobacco industry denies that they are marketing to youth. See for yourself. What do you think?

Food Industry Uses Similar Tactics as the Tobacco Industry

tobaccofreeweld — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:56:34 +0000

David Kessler’s new book, “The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite” offers an interesting premise: the food industry has purposely manipulated our food to make us eat more than we need and stimulate our brains in a way that creates an addictive behavior. The most blatant ingredients for manipulating? Salt, Sugar and Fat in varying arrangements. David Kessler was the long-time FDA director who highlighted the cigarette manipulation by the tobacco industry and specifically that they manipulated the nicotine yields through various techniques. One such technique involves adding ammonia to the products to make the nicotine absorb into the blood and brain more quickly -basically nicotine free-basing. What he found was that he was being triggered by certain foods (for him, usually sweet and fattening) much in the same way that it seemed tobacco users were triggered to use tobacco. So he set out to find out why.

The results of his studies are stunning. The more highly processed (palatable) a food item becomes, the closer it resembles a drug delivery device rather than a meal. He found that at Chili’s Restaurant, for example, that some appetizers contained more calories than most meals, but that the customers upon eating them were not only not filling up, but were more likely to eat more food (and calories) throughout the rest of the meal. This was due to the stimulation that the combination of fats, salts and sugars (and temperature) had on the brain. In laymen’s terms: it just felt too good to stop.

He also goes into other food industry dirty secrets such as their ingredient list (how many different ways can you list sugar?) and how they use certain bright colors (especially red) that stimulate hunger in the body. But overall, his book is a wake up call to be aware of what is going on and to take back the control of your own body and mind once the truth is known. He suggests we can use similar tactics as has been used in tobacco control to help change the norms of these tactics and perceptions of so-called “foods” that are little more than stimulants with little to sometimes no nutritional value to the body.

For a longer discussion with David Kessler, see below.
http://www.c-spanarchives.org/library/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&products_id=287080-1&showVid=true

No Tobacco Presence at Greeley Stampede

tobaccofreeweld — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:21:44 +0000

U.S. Smokeless Tobacco has had an immense and strong presence at the Greeley Independence Stampede for many years, but it is no longer that way. In December 2007, the Greeley City Council voted 4-3 in favor of passing an ordinance that prohibited the giving away of free tobacco in city limits. This included the Greeley Stampede. However that next summer at the Stampede, US Smokeless still had a booth and were giving away free items like bandanas. This year, there is no trace of them there at all. The reason is unknown, but the outcome is good all the same: children and adults alike will not associate the cancer-causing products with the fun events of the Stampede. Congratulations to the Stampede and Greeley!

BEFORE

AFTER

The Same Location as the First Picture a year later

Negative Attitudes Toward Tobacco Industry Prevents Youth Tobacco Use

tobaccofreeweld — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 17:25:12 +0000

A recent study conducted by the University of California San Francisco has found that young adults (aged 18-25) with an unfavorable view of the tobacco industry were statistically much less likely to smoke or use tobacco or were much more likely to want to quit and make more quit attempts if they were current users.

This information is valuable for health educators and social marketers alike whose goal is to educate about the risks of tobacco and encourage avoiding tobacco. Often times health education campaigns focus on the health risks to the user rather than on the deceitful tactics of the tobacco industry or what the study calls “tobacco indsutry denormalization”.

“Running anti-tobacco ads to expose the fact that the tobacco industry kills five million people worldwide annually turns out to be hugely successful in preventing (tobacco use) and promoting cessation,” said Stanton Glantz, PhD, a study co-author and professor of medicine and director of UCSF’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education.

A social marketing campaign against tobacco and the industry that has been shown to be effective in both the young adult (18-25) and youth (12-18) demographics has been the Truth Campaign that is sponsored by the American Legacy Foundation.

“The results show a huge effect of attitudes linked to advertising campaigns that focus on portraying the tobacco industry in a negative light. The tobacco industry cares a lot about public opinion and hates those ads, because the ads make the industry look bad,” said Pamela Ling, MD, MPH, lead author of the study and assistant professor of general internal medicine at UCSF.

To determine attitudes, the researchers asked respondents how strongly they agreed or disagreed with three statements: Taking a stand against smoking is important to me; I want to be involved with efforts to get rid of cigarette smoking; and I would like to see cigarette companies go out of business. They found that these views could be influenced with the anti-industry ads.

The researchers found that those who agreed with those statements and supported action against the tobacco industry were one-third as likely to be smokers as those who did not support action against the tobacco industry. Among current smokers, those who had a negative attitude towards the tobacco industry were over four times more likely to plan to quit smoking than smokers who did not support action against the tobacco industry.

Here is a recent ad from the Truth campaign:

For more information on the study and on tobacco industry denormalization, visit:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/149242.php