Fetal Tobacco Exposure Promotes Asthma
NEW ORLEANS — Maternal smoking during pregnancy may exert a more powerful influence on asthma development in children than postnatal secondhand smoke or breastfeeding by smoking moms, researchers said here.
Children of different ethnicities with exposure in utero to tobacco smoking were at nearly six times as likely to develop persistent asthma than children whose moms didn’t smoke during pregnancy, according to Sarena Apte, MD, of Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.
On the other hand, there no significant relationship between children’s asthma and mothers’ postnatal smoking status, Apte reported at the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology annual meeting.
Apte said these results add more force to recommendations that women stop smoking during pregnancy.
The study was one of several here suggesting that asthma risk is more closely linked to fetal exposures to chemical insults than exposures after birth.
Epidemiologic studies indicated that maternal folate levels during pregnancy, but not levels in infants themselves after birth, were related to subsequent asthma development.
Also, the plastics component bisphenyl A (BPA) has been reported to make mice more susceptible to experimental asthma when it was present in utero, but not in their mothers’ milk after birth.
Session moderator Neil Alexis, PhD, an immunologist at the University of North Carolina who was not involved with Apte’s study, said it was not surprising that exposures in utero should be more important than postnatal exposures.
“There’s some evidence [from other research] that smoking in utero does alter the immune system at that critical stage of development,” he said. “If you modify it at that point, things can go down a more allergic pathway.”
Apte and colleagues analyzed data from 295 children, ages 8 to 16, who were participating in previous studies. Their parents provided information on their smoking habits during pregnancy and the first years of life in recent structured interviews.
All the children were African American, Mexican-American, Mexican, or Puerto Rican, and lived either in the U.S. or in Puerto Rico.
Persistent asthma was diagnosed in 194 of the children, with the remainder having intermittent illness.
In addition to the presence of persistent asthma, the researchers counted other significant symptoms such as wheezing, nocturnal symptoms, and daily symptoms.
Apte and colleagues calculated the following odds ratios related to fetal exposure to smoking, relative to participants without such exposure:
Persistent asthma: OR 5.76 (P=0.017)
Nocturnal symptoms: OR 4.72 (P=0.010)
Daily symptoms: OR 3.2 (P=0.047)
Wheezing: OR 4.88 (P=0.176)
In contrast, odds ratios for these outcomes in the presence of postnatal smoking, as well as current smoking at the time of the parental interview, were all nonsignificant.
Apte said the research team planned to look next at genetic polymorphisms involved in tobacco processing, as well as whether the magnitude of the effects was related to the duration of smoking exposure.
She said it was impossible in this study to determine whether fetal or postnatal tobacco exposure had different effects in the ethnic groups represented in the study.
Asthma prevalence and severity is generally much greater among people of Puerto Rican background relative to Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, for example.
However, there were too few participants in each group to allow for meaningful comparisons, Apte said.
Third-hand smoke from cigarettes is newest danger
Smokers who air out their homes after lighting up or drivers who roll their windows down to take a puff while on the road might think they are being smart about their smoking habit, but a team of Berkeley researchers found that third-hand smoke — smoke that clings to surfaces long after cigarettes have been crushed — has long-lasting and dangerous consequences.
“A person walks down stairs in their house and the tobacco odor is still there from the party the night before and they say…what they’re smelling is third-hand smoke,” scientist Lara Gundel said.
It is the smoke that clings to clothes, furniture and walls long after a cigarette has been put out.
The study released Monday by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that third-hand smoke is especially dangerous when nicotine comes into contact with a common indoor pollutant typically found in household gas appliances. Vehicle engines also emit the same toxin.
The combination clings to walls, floors, carpets, drapes and other furniture and can last for days, weeks or months, the study concluded. Third-hand smoke also absorbs onto solid surfaces, including stainless steel interior parts of a car.
Opening a window or turning on a fan to ventilate a room will not help much either, the study found.
“If you can smell it, it’s still there,” Gundel said.
And while smokers are putting themselves at risk, the study determined that third-hand smoke poses the greatest hazard to toddlers and infants because their skin and clothes regularly come into contact with smoke-absorbed carpets.
If you have to smoke, researchers say do it outside.
Even if until today many did not know the scientific definition of third-hand smoke, many smokers had a feeling it could not be any good.
“My mom tells me about that all the time, but she doesn’t call it third-hand smoke, she calls it nasty,” Berkeley resident and smoker Jimmy Toney said.
Ogdensburg Pair charged with Untaxed Cigarettes
Massena-based State Police arrested Michael F. Johnson, 34, and Paul A. Schwartfigure Jr., 39, both of Ogdensburg on Monday.
Police say that they stopped the two for a traffic violation on State Route 37 in the Town of Louisville and found the two to be in possession of 4 cases of untaxed cigarettes.
Both were charged with Felony Possession of Untaxed Cigarettes and released on appearance tickets returnable to the Town of Louisville Court on February 10th, 2010.
Burglar Steals Cigarettes, Cash from Warner Robins Store
The Houston County Sheriff’s Office is looking for information about who may have broken into a Warner Robins store and stolen cigarettes and cash.
A news release from the sheriff’s office says the burglary happened Thursday at the Holiday Food Store on Houston Lake Road. The release says the burglar used a rock to bust out a window.
Newborns of smokers have blood pressure problems
Babies of women who smoked during pregnancy have blood pressure problems at birth that may persist through the first year of life.
To determine whether smoking during pregnancy makes the newborn prone to blood pressure problems, Swedish researchers compared 19 infants of nonsmoking couples with 17 infants born to women who smoked an average of 15 cigarettes a day during pregnancy. They compared the heart rate of the infants in control group and the infants exposed to tobacco since birth to 1 year. The data regarding their blood pressure and heart rate was recorded non-invasively during passive re-positioning (60 degree head-up tilt).
It was found that at one week of age, the infants of nonsmoking mothers experienced a 2 percent increase in blood pressure when tilted upright, with a 10 percent increase at one year. The pattern for the children of smoking mothers was reversed: a 10 percent blood pressure increase at one week and a 4 percent increase at one year. And the heart rate response to tilting of the children of mothers who smoked was abnormally exaggerated.
The reason why exposure to tobacco in the womb affects blood pressure is not clear. A leading possibility could be that smoking might damage the structure and function of blood vessels, mainly by damaging the endothelium, the delicate layer of cells that line the interior of blood vessels.
The researchers concluded that smoking during pregnancy leads to long-lasting reprogramming of infant blood pressure control mechanism.
They recommend that women should avoid smoking and exposure to tobacco smoke during pregnancy as passive smoking can be as bad as being an active smoker.
Burrows adds cigarettes to his rat poison, debt and booze portfolio
FORMER Bank of Ireland governor Richard Burrows has spent almost €225,000 buying shares in his new employer, the FTSE-listed cigarette giant British American Tobacco.
His personal fortune now comprises earnings from drinks firm Pernod Ricard, rat killer Rentokil, zombie bank Bank of Ireland and British American Tobacco.
Mr Burrows bought 10,000 shares for stg£19.49 each at Christmas. Unlike his BoI shares, which collapsed in value, Mr Burrows’ cigarette shares have risen 10 per cent in recent weeks.
Mr Burrows resigned as Bank of Ireland governor last July, after apologising for billions of euros of losses and a 95 per cent drop in BoI’s share price.
He became chairman of British American Tobacco last October. The job pays just over €600,000 per year for two days per week. Mr Burrows is also a director of Rentokil.
The turnaround in Mr Burrows’ fortunes, months after leaving Bank of Ireland gasping for life with massive debt and a shattered shareholder base, is mirrored by his former opposite number at the equally bespattered AIB.Dermot Gleeson, the ex-chairman of AIB, has become the chairman of travel reservations firm Travelport. The company is limbering up for a €2.1bn flotation on the London stock market. It is not yet clear how much Mr Gleeson will earn from this number.
Officialdom is also motoring along. Kevin Cardiff, who headed up the Department of Finance’s Banking, Finance and Pensions Division during the lunatic lending boom years is about to take over as €255,000-a-year Secretary-General of the department.
Budget plan adds tax on soda, cigarettes
Smokers would have to pay $1 more in taxes on a pack of cigarettes, soda drinkers would have to pay a penny more per ounce on a can of soda, and gamblers would get more time to play Quick Draw and video-lottery terminals under Gov. David Paterson’s budget plan that was unveiled Tuesday.
And watch out on state highways: The governor’s proposal would install cameras to nab speeders at 40 work zones and 10 other locations.
With the state facing a $7.4 billion deficit in fiscal 2010-11, Paterson is proposing $1 billion in new taxes and fees. The proposal is much lower than the $8 billion in new taxes and fees in the current year’s budget.
But if approved, the new taxes would still hit many New Yorkers. Some lawmakers and groups were quick to assail the proposed charges.
“New York should be reducing its tax burden and growing its economy, not making our worst-in-the-nation tax burden even more onerous,” said Mike Elmendorf, state director of National Federation of Independent Business.The cigarette tax would increase the current $2.75 per-pack tax by $1, giving New York the highest tax on cigarettes in the country. The state estimates it would bring in $218 million a year.
Advocates said the tax — and the one on sugary drinks — would make the state healthier.
“Today’s budget announcement shows that New York can once again become the national public health leader in tobacco control,” said Scott Santarella, president of the American Lung Association in New York.
James Calvin, president of the state Association of Convenience Stores, said the Democratic governor should not increase cigarette taxes until the state begins collecting the tax on Native American reservations — something Paterson and previous governors have been unable to do.
Budget plan adds tax on soda, cigarettes
Smokers would have to pay $1 more in taxes on a pack of cigarettes, soda drinkers would have to pay a penny more per ounce on a can of soda, and gamblers would get more time to play Quick Draw and video-lottery terminals under Gov. David Paterson’s budget plan that was unveiled Tuesday.
And watch out on state highways: The governor’s proposal would install cameras to nab speeders at 40 work zones and 10 other locations.With the state facing a $7.4 billion deficit in fiscal 2010-11, Paterson is proposing $1 billion in new taxes and fees. The proposal is much lower than the $8 billion in new taxes and fees in the current year’s budget.
But if approved, the new taxes would still hit many New Yorkers. Some lawmakers and groups were quick to assail the proposed charges.”New York should be reducing its tax burden and growing its economy, not making our worst-in-the-nation tax burden even more onerous,” said Mike Elmendorf, state director of National Federation of Independent Business.
The cigarette tax would increase the current $2.75 per-pack tax by $1, giving New York the highest tax on cigarettes in the country. The state estimates it would bring in $218 million a year.
Advocates said the tax — and the one on sugary drinks — would make the state healthier.
“Today’s budget announcement shows that New York can once again become the national public health leader in tobacco control,” said Scott Santarella, president of the American Lung Association in New York.
James Calvin, president of the state Association of Convenience Stores, said the Democratic governor should not increase cigarette taxes until the state begins collecting the tax on Native American reservations — something Paterson and previous governors have been unable to do.Paterson wants to seek regulations to stop wholesalers from selling unstamped cigarettes on Native American reservations and try to collect the tax.But the plan will take months to formulate.
The excise tax on sugary drinks would mean about a one penny per ounce tax on sodas and other sugary drinks. So the $1 cost of a 16-oz. bottle of soda would increase by about 16 cents, budget officials said. Dietary aids, infant formula and milk would be exempt.
The proposal, which fizzled last year, would bring in about $465 million a year for the state. PepsiCo Inc., based in Purchase, and other bottlers have fought it.
In a statement, Kevin Flood, an executive with Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. in New York, said the company estimates the tax would increase the price of soft drinks by 50 percent or more.
“A tax of this magnitude will result in major job losses in the beverage industry. It will not reduce obesity. It is not intelligent public policy,” Flood said.Paterson proposed a severance tax on some natural-gas producers. A 3 percent tax would be imposed for producers in the Marcellus and Utica Shale formation in the Southern Tier and in central New York that use horizontal wells.
The Independent Oil & Gas Association opposes the tax. Brad Gill, the group’s executive director, said despite the state’s fiscal woes, “let’s not drive out an industry that can help upstate New York get through this time of hardship.”
Environmentalists were critical of the budget because Paterson would cut $79 million from an environmental fund and impose a moratorium on open-space land acquisition.
The Adirondack Council called it a “declaration of war on New York’s environment.”
The governor wants to eliminate many restrictions on the hours and locations for the Quick Draw lottery game. Racetracks with video-lottery terminals would be able to expand hours. Assembly Racing and Wagering Committee Chairman Gary Pretlow, D-Mount Vernon, said he didn’t think the proposals would pass the Legislature.
Paterson again wants to let grocery stores sell wine, a plan beaten back by liquor stores. Paterson would let liquor stores sell additional products and let them own more stores as a compromise.
But Jeff Saunders, founder of the Last Store on Main Street coalition, said the proposal could lead to store closures and job losses.
The budget proposal included a fee ranging from $45 to $540 per child per quarter for early intervention services provided by the state, based on income.Filing fees at courts would also increase.
Paterson would legalize mixed-martial arts competitions in New York, which could bring in about $2 million a year in revenue.
D.C. moves to curb sidewalk smoking, youths’ access to tobacco
The D.C. Council voted unanimously Tuesday to enact far-reaching proposals to curtail smoking by giving store owners a tool to prevent smoking on public sidewalks and by assessing new penalties on anyone younger than 18 who possesses tobacco products.
The bill, part of a coordinated campaign to reduce tobacco use in the District, also requires store owners to ask for identification from anyone buying cigarettes who looks 27 or younger, places new restrictions on cigarette-vending machines and outlaws the sale of “blunt wraps.”
Currently, it is illegal for retailers to sell tobacco to anyone who is younger than 18. The proposal, which must be voted on a second time, also makes it illegal for a minor to “purchase” or “possess any cigarette or other tobacco products.”
Violators will be subject to a civil penalty of $50 or less if they are caught with tobacco. But anyone younger than 18 caught using a false identification card to purchase cigarettes could be charged with a misdemeanor and fined up to $300 for a first offense.
“We are trying to reduce underage smoking, so we are putting in a penalty,” said council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary.
But Peter Fisher, vice president for the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, said his organization opposes making it a crime for minors to possess tobacco. Instead, Fisher said, the council should focus on retailers who sell tobacco to minors. “There really isn’t any evidence that these kind of youth possession laws do anything to reduce tobacco use,” Fisher said.
Although much of the bill targets teen smoking, one provision could affect anyone who smokes on a public sidewalk in the District.
Responding to complaints from business owners that some pockets of sidewalk smokers were becoming a nuisance, the bill allows shop owners to post no-smoking signs in front of their establishments. Under the measure, store owners can specify they don’t want smoking within 25 feet of their front door or from the sidewalk, whichever distance is less. But the bill does not include enforcement provisions, meaning smokers could ignore the signs without fear of being penalized.
Angela Bradbery, a co-founder of SmokeFree DC, which pushed for the measure, said the 25-foot rule is designed to close a loophole in the 2006 law that banned smoking in bars, restaurants and other public places.
Since that law took effect, Bradbery said her organization has received complaints from some business owners, including a doctor’s office, that smoke from sidewalks wafts into their work spaces. “This is just trying to find a reasonable and sensible way to deal with a problem that has cropped up,” Bradbery said. “Hopefully, smokers will say, ‘Oh, okay. I will move down here’.”
Despite the lack of penalties, the sidewalk provision has sparked debate in recent weeks over whether the council was moving too aggressively to reduce smoking.
As it struggled with a budget deficit, the council voted in July to increase the cigarette tax by 50 cents to $2.50 a pack, one of the highest rates in the nation.Both Mendelson and council member David A. Catania (I-At Large), the chairman of the Health Committee, said the council has no plans to outlaw tobacco use. But Catania said the council is seeing success in “discouraging people from starting to smoke through education and taxes” and the investment in smoking-cessation programs.
Catania cited recent studies that show an almost 20 percent decline in smoking in the city between 2005 and 2008. In 2005, about 20 percent of adults in the city smoked, according to the study. By 2008, that percentage had dropped to 16.2 percent, the 10th lowest ranking among the 50 states and the District, according to the American Lung Association.
Catania said the decline will save District taxpayers about $175 million in future medical costs. “We are raising consciousness about what the health risks are, and we are making it more expensive and more difficult,” he said. “These things work in tandem.”
According to Catania, about 10.5 percent of high school students in the District smoked in 2008.
The proposal approved Tuesday also prohibits cigarettes from being intermingled with other products in bars and restaurants, which is designed to make it easier for store owners to keep track of who is buying tobacco from vending machines. The bill also prohibits cigarettes from being sold from mobile food stands, such as traveling hot dog or ice cream stands.
The provision banning the sale of cigar wrappers is targeted at marijuana smokers. Council member Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7), concerned that too many youths are smoking marijuana rolled in blunts, initially had a proposal to ban the single sale of all cheap cigars.
But Mendelson scrapped the measure and instead proposed the ban on the wrappers.
A safer state
Clearly, the cradle of mass cigarette manufacturing has turned over a new leaf. North Carolina’s legislated ban on smoking in bars and restaurants takes effect today (having allowed one last smoke-filled holiday), and as of yesterday, all cigarettes made or sold here must be of the “fire-safe” variety.
Both measures dovetail with broader trends: a growing number of states and countries (even Ireland, with its pub culture) now restrict indoor smoking, particularly in eateries. And the move toward cigarettes that go out if they’re not actively puffed has become so widespread that such products will soon be standard.
Still, for North Carolina to embrace smoking restrictions and to set fire-safety rules for cigarettes is heartening and even courageous. Tobacco may be on a downward trend in this country, but in North Carolina growing and turning the nicotine-rich leaves into smoking material have long been profitable and important, and remain so.
Profitable and important, but not healthy or safe. That’s the bottom line that persuaded a majority of legislators to enact the smoking ban and the fire-safe requirement. Even allowing for a smoker’s right to choose his or her own poison, the case for restrictions in public settings is strong. Research has convincingly shown that secondhand smoke, which restaurant and bar patrons and employees breathe in when smoking is allowed, is a health hazard. And, to state the obvious, fires caused by discarded or unattended cigarettes do harm to smokers and nonsmokers alike.
So the issue is public health and safety, and those concerns outweigh owners’ rights to run their businesses solely as they see fit.
Yes, the 20 percent or so of adults who smoke are indeed in for a change. But everyone will be better off for it.
