http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. New Zealand announced plans Thursday to force cigarette firms to sell their products in plain packaging, following world-first laws passed in Australia. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-zealand-cigarette-branding.html Health Thu, 19 Apr 2012 03:25:37 EST news254024731 (HealthDay) -- Although eight states boosted their sales taxes on cigarettes over the past two years, that's a decline in the number of such increases by states compared to 2009, a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-states-efforts-boost-cigarette-taxes.html Health Thu, 29 Mar 2012 18:00:02 EST news252261168 A major research trial to test the effectiveness of offering smokers free nicotine patches and proactive telephone counselling through the English national quitline has shown this extra support makes no difference to success rates for quitting the habit. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-free-nicotine-patches-national-helpline.html Addiction Thu, 22 Mar 2012 19:30:02 EST news251654167 Alleged "interference" by cigarette firms in public health policies is slowing down a UN-backed global campaign against tobacco use and its related health risks, a report said Tuesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-cigarette-firms-anti-tobacco.html Health Tue, 20 Mar 2012 06:00:27 EST news251442019 (HealthDay) -- In the latest salvo in the battle over U.S. government plans to put graphic anti-smoking images on cigarette packs, a federal appeals court has upheld the proposed changes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-appeals-court-fda-graphic-images.html Health Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:50:01 EST news251385086 (HealthDay) -- Nicotine patches don't seem to be of much use in helping pregnant women quit smoking, a new study finds. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-nicotine-patches-pregnancy.html Health Thu, 01 Mar 2012 05:16:08 EST news249801360 Extending the smoking ban outside bars could help curb "social smoking" because this goes hand in hand with drinking, suggests a small qualitative study published online in Tobacco Control. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-bars-curb-social.html Health Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:30:01 EST news248957350 Smoking bans in public/workplaces don't drive smokers to light up more at home, suggests a study of four European countries with smoke free legislation, published online in Tobacco Control. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-home.html Health Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:30:05 EST news248371034 Researchers from the University of Bath Tobacco Control Research Group have found that the tobacco product snus can still be purchased on the internet in the EU despite sales being illegal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-smokeless-tobacco-sold-illegally-online.html Health Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:49:10 EST news246714534 (Medical Xpress) -- Cold turkey is the preferred method for giving up smoking according to public health researchers at the University of Sydney. With more than two-thirds of smokers giving up permanently this way, the research team wants to know why. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-smokers-cold-turkey.html Health Tue, 03 Jan 2012 08:13:32 EST news244800798 A new Institute of Medicine report specifies the types of research that the Food and Drug Administration should require before allowing tobacco companies to sell or advertise 'modified risk' tobacco products as being capable of reducing the health risks of tobacco use. While modified risk tobacco products could be one part of a comprehensive strategy to lower tobacco-related death and disease in the U.S., especially among tobacco users who are unable or unwilling to quit entirely, little is currently known about the products' health effects and whether they pose less risk than traditional tobacco products. Examples of modified risk tobacco products may include e-cigarettes and tobacco lozenges. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-tobacco-products.html Health Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:34:01 EST news243084832 It's getting surprisingly easy to light up in the Netherlands these days - cigarettes, that is. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-dutch-backtracks-anti-smoking.html Health Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:20:00 EST news243083991 States that have shifted funds away from tobacco control programs may be missing out on significant savings, according to a new study co-authored by San Francisco State University economist Sudip Chattopadhyay. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-states-substantial-tobacco.html Health Mon, 28 Nov 2011 05:20:43 EST news241680000 Mayo Clinic researchers have amassed additional evidence that secondhand smoke kills and smoke-free workplace laws save lives. The study will be presented to the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions on Monday in Orlando. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-smoke-free-workplaces-heart.html Health Mon, 14 Nov 2011 15:57:08 EST news240508620 Between 2010 and 2050, smoking could be responsible for 40 million excess deaths from tuberculosis (TB), according to research published in the British Medical Journal today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-million-excess-tuberculosis-deaths.html Addiction Wed, 05 Oct 2011 03:44:02 EST news237004988 A new study shows that 145,000 deaths could be averted in the next 30 years in the Netherlands by implementing stronger tobacco control policies. This set of policies, as recommended by the MPOWER report of the World Health Organisation, consists of increasing tobacco taxes to 70% of the retail price, bans on smoking in workplaces and public places, a complete marketing ban, well-funded tobacco control campaigns, graphic health warnings, youth access laws, and comprehensive cessation treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-stronger-tobacco-policy-netherlands-thousands.html Health Mon, 26 Sep 2011 14:38:22 EST news236266376 Smoking in films remains a "major and persistent driver" of smoking uptake among kids and young people, which all the responsible parties -- film makers, regulators, and politicians -- are "abjectly failing to control," write leading tobacco control experts in a Thorax editorial. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-reclassify-depicting-incompetent-insouciant-politicians.html Health Tue, 20 Sep 2011 04:08:28 EST news235710496 (Medical Xpress) -- A research team from Yale and the University of Connecticut has found that the cooling effect of menthol may actually cause people to smoke more and become addicted to cigarettes because it reduces the protective respiratory response to irritants in cigarette smoke. The biggest danger, they argue, is to young smokers, because they disproportionately prefer menthol cigarettes and are therefore likely to become addicted more quickly. The study appears online in the Journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-menthol-effects-addiction-illness-young.html Health Tue, 13 Sep 2011 05:30:47 EST news235110616 Removing branding and wrapping cigarettes in plain packaging helps remove the appeal of smoking according to new a Cancer Research UK-funded study published in Tobacco Control. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-plain-packaging-cigarettes-appeal.html Health Fri, 09 Sep 2011 07:07:28 EST news234770834 European women live longer than men, because of both biological and behavioural advantages, but women's longer lives are not necessarily healthy lives. Studies commented on by Dr Vannuzzo at the ESC Congress 2011, show that due to increase in tobacco and alcohol consumption in women, the gender gap is decreasing. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-european-women-longer-men.html Health Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:49:19 EST news233837309 The global obesity epidemic has been escalating for decades, yet long-term prevention efforts have barely begun and are inadequate, according to a new paper from international public health experts published in the August 25, 2011 edition of the journal The Lancet. Noting that many countries lack basic population-wide data on children's weight and height, the authors call on governments around the world to launch a coordinated effort to monitor, prevent, and control obesity, and the long-term health, social and economic costs associated with it. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-government-led-efforts-habits-children-curb.html Health Fri, 26 Aug 2011 04:39:27 EST news233552351 Devices marketed as "electronic cigarettes" are in reality crude drug delivery systems for refined nicotine, posing unknown risks with little new benefits to smokers, according to tobacco control experts. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-e-cigarette-drug-delivery-device.html Health Wed, 20 Jul 2011 17:46:13 EST news230402724 When governments use comprehensive, well-funded tobacco control programs to reduce adult smoking, they also reduce smoking among adolescents. This bonus effect is an important factor to consider as policymakers face pressure to reduce spending on anti-smoking programs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-anti-smoking-policies-adults-kids.html Health Mon, 20 Jun 2011 19:20:01 EST news227793801 The study, commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and undertaken by the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies (UKCTCS), reviewed published studies from between 1990 and 2007 to establish success rates for the NHS smoking cessation services. It found that older smokers are more likely than young smokers to successfully quit, some men appear to be more successful at quitting than women despite the fact that more women attend the smoking cessation services, and more disadvantaged groups face greater challenges when giving up smoking. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-age-gender-social-advantage-affect.html Health Fri, 27 May 2011 10:39:12 EST news225711537