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- Category: November 2018
South Korea has become the first east Asian country to legalise medical cannabis in a surprising move to expand the treatment options for patients with epilepsy and other rare diseases in the conservative country.
The country’s national assembly approved amending the Act on the Management of Narcotic Drugs on Friday to allow non-hallucinogenic doses of medical marijuana. Still, using weed even for medical purpose will be strictly controlled with patients required to apply to the Korea Orphan Drug Centre, [...]
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- Category: November 2018
While studies have repeatedly linked maternal smoking during pregnancy with reduced sperm count in male children, a new research showed that men whose fathers smoked at the time of pregnancy also had 50 per cent lower count of sperms than those with non-smoking fathers.
The findings showed that, independently of nicotine exposure from the mother, socioeconomic factors, and their own smoking, men with fathers who smoked had a 41 per cent lower sperm concentration and 51 per cent fewer sperm count than those with non-smoking fathers.
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- Category: November 2018
The anti-tobacco use group New Vois Association of the Philippines (NVAP) has decried the meager tobacco tax increase imposed by the House of Representatives on tobacco products. Saying “it simply won’t do’’, NVAP president Emer Rojas said, in reaction to the decision of the House Committee on Ways and Means to adjust by an initial amount of P2.50 the tobacco tax rate.
He said it was not sufficient to attain the measure’s goal of minimizing to the fullest cigarette smoking and other tobacco use.
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- Category: November 2018
Smoking has several appeals. First, tobacco naturally contains nicotine, an insecticide, which raises alertness, speeds reaction times, and stimulates the release of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, which are associated with pleasure. Second, smoking may provide opportunities to flout authority and fit in with peer groups. Third, once someone has started smoking, attempts to stop may precipitate withdrawal symptoms such as headaches, nausea, anxiety and weight gain.
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- Category: November 2018
Juul Labs has soared to the top of the United States e-cigarette market in just three years with its high-nicotine products that give off just a wisp of vapor.
Now, facing public backlash and overseas restrictions, the company is working on a way to lower the nicotine in its pods — but still maintain a potent punch from the addictive chemical. Joshua Raffel, a Juul spokesman [...] would only say: “We are always looking to create products that help adult smokers switch from combustible cigarettes and limit appeal to youth.”
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- Category: November 2018
With their sleek design and clever marketing, they have been described as the iPhone of e-cigarettes.
But despite being blamed for an epidemic of teenage tobacco addiction in the US, Juul e-cigarettes are being openly promoted to families in British supermarkets, a Mail on Sunday investigation can reveal. Dr Jonathan Winickoff, a professor at Harvard Medical School, has said: ‘If you were to design your ideal nicotine delivery service to addict large numbers of American kids, you’d invent Juul. It’s absolutely unconscionable. [...]
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- Category: November 2018
The more often adolescents say they have seen adverts for e-cigarettes, the more often they use both e-cigarettes and smoke tobacco cigarettes, according to a study published in ERJ Open Research.
The study took place in Germany, where regulations around tobacco and e-cigarettes advertising are more permissive than in other parts of Europe. Elsewhere there are firm bans on advertising tobacco but certain types of adverts and promotions for e-cigarettes are permitted.
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- Category: November 2018
#UK talkRadio interviews professor Gerry Stimson on Swedish #snus. Gerry is also founder of the New Nicotine Alliance (#NNA) in UK and a wold-wide known advocate and scientist for tobacco harm reduction.
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- Category: November 2018
If you are a parent, pay close attention, there are vaping devices small enough for school kids are taking them to school [...] "They're easy to hide, they look like a flash drive but they're a vaping device, the most popular called a Juul pen, which is normally filled with liquid nicotine," DEA Agent Wendell Campbell said. "But kids are misusing it, filling it with marijuana extract to get a secret high many times while in school."
THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main chemical responsible for most of marijuana's psychological effects.
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- Category: November 2018
A NETWORK OF e-cigarette users and importers have suggested that lifting the ban on smoke-free products and issuing appropriate regulations would be a more-effective measure to discourage people from smoking rather than selling cigarettes in plain packages. The Public Health Ministry is in the process of announcing a new regulation requiring cigarettes to be sold only in plain packages, with 10 new pictures and warning messages designed by the ministry. [...]
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- Category: November 2018
A chart published in May 2017 by the EU as part of a survey regarding attitude towards tobacco in Europe, lists the percentage of smokers in 28 nations. Bulgaria topped this chart where 36% of its population smokes daily. [...] Finally, represented by a short red line at the bottom of the chart, was Sweden, with 5% of daily smokers. [...] The country adopted a unique strategy that largely and naturally replaced cigarettes with a seemingly unique product that offers its users nicotine and tobacco.
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- Category: November 2018
As we are seeing with the opioid crisis, and as we experienced with numerous other historic injustices, it can take a long time for governments to act forcefully to protect a shamed and marginalized group. An ongoing tragic example is the treatment by the federal government of people who smoke cigarettes.
We know that smoking is deadly and addictive. It is directly responsible for over 100 deaths a day in our country; our largest cause of preventable death. [...]
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- Category: November 2018
Earlier this month, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced sweeping new rules governing e-cigarettes and tobacco in the United States. [...] More worryingly, these moves may pave the way for even more radical regulations that would, in essence, make it illegal to sell the combustible tobacco products favored by cigarette and cigar smokers throughout the United States. The new vaping rules fall short of the stricter interventions favored by many anti-smoking activists.[...]
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- Category: November 2018
A new tobacco retail outlet is set to open Friday in Edmonton amid concern from anti-smoking advocates.
The store is owned by Rothmans, Benson and Hedges Inc. and instead of selling traditional cigarettes, the focus is on a new smoke-free product.
“The fundamental principle is we’re heating tobacco instead of burning it,” explains Peter Luongo, the managing director with Rothmans, Benson and Hedges.
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- Category: November 2018
Philip Morris International, one of the biggest tobacco companies in the world, sees SA’s mooted tobacco regulations as an impediment to its plan to phase out its cigarette brands, such as Marlboro, in favour of healthier alternatives.
The New York-listed cigarette and tobacco giant wants to ultimately replace all its cigarettes with new products that do not produce harmful smoke, such as e-cigarettes and its new iQOS range of devices that heat instead of burn tobacco.
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- Category: November 2018
The European Union’s top court on Wednesday stood by an EU ban on the sale of snus, a moist snuff tobacco product made by Swedish Match, in line with advice earlier this year. Snus is banned in all EU countries except Sweden, which gained an exemption when joining the bloc in 1995.
Swedish Match had challenged the validity of the ban in British courts, arguing that new scientific data had shown it to be less harmful than cigarettes.
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- Category: November 2018
A group of politicians are campaigning for the use of vapes and e-cigarettes to be legal in the workplace.
The group called The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Vaping (APPGV) is calling for companies and businesses to provide proper indoor vaping areas and policies.
They believe 'reasonable vaping etiquette' should be created and all outside areas should be open to vapers unless there is a legitimate safety or professional reason to stop it, [...]
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- Category: November 2018
Earlier this week, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Vaping, recommended a fundamental liberalization of workplace vaping policies to encourage more smokers to switch to vaping. The NNA issued a statement saying that it “warmly welcomes this report” and would like to see these recommendations implemented in full. The organization added that being practical and evidence-based, these policies would contribute to clearing the current confusion and misinformation that currently exists towards vaping.
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- Category: November 2018
The increased popularity of e-cigarettes has reversed years of progress by educators, parents and doctors to turn young people away from nicotine, local health experts said Monday.
Fewer of middle school and high school age are smoking but use of e-cigarettes – which look like USB drives, are marketed as alternatives to smoking and contain nicotine, the addictive ingredient in tobacco – is rising, health officials said, and the harmful chemicals in the devices can affect heart and brain function.
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- Category: November 2018
Although the FDA has not issued a complete ban, its threat of sanctions has brought other manufacturers and marketers of e-cigarettes to the table. The tobacco giant Altria says it will discontinue most of its flavored electronic cigarettes and stop selling others altogether. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company says it will suspend its social media marketing campaign and require age verification for use of its website where it sells e-cigarettes.