Framing tobacco control efforts within an ethical context -- Fox 14 (suppl 2): ii38 -- Tobacco Control

Framing tobacco control efforts within an ethical context -- Fox 14 (suppl 2): ii38 -- Tobacco Control

The premise of this paper is that people and movements are defined not solely by substance, but by how much the speaker’s values resonate with the public. A truth spoken by a messenger who is not trusted will be disbelieved. If the tobacco control community is disbelieved, it may not be the result of being wrong, but rather from a failure to frame ourselves in such a way that our goals and our approaches resonate with the public. In this article, I argue that the tobacco control community should more proactively frame its actions and base that frame upon ethical principles.

There are many reasons to better integrate ethics into tobacco control, not least of which is that it is morally appropriate to act ethically as professionals. This is true even if acting ethically may have short term costs. In this paper, however, I do not address the issue of acting ethically for its own reward. Instead I demonstrate how better integrating ethics into our work has a pragmatic dimension that can move our work forward. I argue that by consistently framing ourselves and actions in accord with sound ethical principles, we can seize the high ground from the tobacco industry and provide a common language to communicate with the public and among ourselves. If we accomplish this goal, it will not be due to a large single effort, but to a series of consistent messages that portray the community in a shared vision. 

Oh that's a laugh ethics in the tobacco control industry.

I know it's old but this explains some of their insane worldview.

Horrible read,but to know your enemy you must first understand him. 

More Tid Bits

Alma Fausto: University's smoking ban challenged - Alma Fausto - MercedSun-Star.com



Which brings us to the truth of the matter: we're all adults and there are already consequences of smoking that are widely known. No one "gets away" with the damage caused by smoking. It's a decision we're capable of making on our own.

Forcing people to either quit smoking or not come onto campus infringes on our rights as students and as citizens to have freedom of choice. While it may not be the healthiest choice, it's legal and ours to make.

Yudof said the ban was announced because of concerns about the environment, the health of each smoker and the health of those around the smoker exposed to secondhand smoke.

These aren't persuasive reasons because smoking is just one of many human practices around campuses that put themselves and the environment at risk.

Commissioner vows complete ban on tobacco, Gutka soon

The city commissioner has said all injurious substances, including tobacco, Gutka, betel nut, Paan and other items will be banned in the city as these items cause cancer.

Roshan Ali Shaikh stated this while speaking as chief guest at an awareness programme in Sir Syed Town, North Karachi, on Saturday. 

He said that it was the need of the hour to ban such items so that innocent lives could be saved from numerous diseases.

“People are falling prey to different diseases, including mouth cancer mainly due to lack of awareness,” he said. The commissioner demanded of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) and non-governmental organisations to help in eradicating this menace from society.

Freedom to offend

Amongst all kinds of freedoms one which a section of thinkers so vociferously advocates is `freedom to offend'. Here the limits are logical. For that to happen, we have to define and locate the nature and extent of offense. An individual's freedom to offend then has necessarily to be justified with the society's right to offend that particular individual. Laws and regulations then will have no bearing on the way a society runs. Letting people offend each other can be endless. Everyone can offend everyone else. Then this freedom cannot be granted to artists and writers only. If this luxury is to be legislated, then any ordinary individual can claim a right to offend. Presume that is granted to all and imagine a chaos we all will be thrown into. If one will be free to offend, the other will consequently have to throw the offense back at him. Offenses then will have to be borne on two counts. Moral and physical. 

Straight from the gut: Microbes can cause obesity news

Obesity and chronic liver disease can be triggered by a family of proteins that alter populations of microbes in the stomach, a discovery that suggests the condition may be infectious, Yale scientists report. The study, in the advance online publication of Nature, expands on earlier Yale research that showed how similar microbial imbalances caused by the same family of proteins increases the risk of intestinal diseases such as colitis.

Obese? Smoker? No Retirement Savings? Perhaps It's Because of the Language You Speak

Weak-FTR language-speakers have piled up an average of 170,000 more euros per person for their retirement than  strong-FTR speakers, and are 24 percent less likely to have smoked heavily, 29 percent more likely to exercise regularly, and 13 percent less likely to be obese. The weak-FTR speakers even had stronger grips and great lung capacity than did those whose grammar forced them to mark the difference between today and tomorrow. National records reflect individual habits too, Chen writes: "Countries with weak-FTR languages save on average six percent more of their GDP per year than their strong-FTR counterparts."

Sugar May Be Bad, But Is the Alternative Worse?

Swithers thinks she knows. In 2008, she and fellow Purdue researcher Terry Davidson fed rats a yogurt supplement sweetened either with glucose, a simple sugar, or zero-calorie saccharin. Apart from the supplement, both groups ate standard rat fare. Those that ate saccharin packed on more fat, gained more weight and consumed extra calories. A follow-up 2009 study reinforced the findings, and found that unusual weight gain persisted even when rats stopped eating sweeteners.

According to Swithers, two mechanisms may be responsible. When the rats’ bodies learned that sweetness didn’t predict an imminent caloric rush, as would naturally be produced by sugar-rich foods, their bodies may have automatically shifted into calorie-saving mode. At the same time, metabolic acceleration that normally occurs when eating high-calorie foods, and helps to process them, may have been slowed.

New rules, tests proposed for aid to poor

JACKSON -- People who receive public assistance would be subject to random testing for drugs or nicotine and would have to perform community service under new requirements being considered by Mississippi lawmakers.

Officials say some ideas are already being carried out, but others could be blocked by federal regulations.

Transparency above all

The rub is that whereas for human-rights advocates this means no underhand shenanigans impinging on citizens' civil liberties, security experts think of the ability literally to see through people and detect whether they are carrying any potentially threatening implements. The latest spat erupted in January when Raymond Kelly, New York's police commissioner, declared that his force is working with America's defence department to have so-called T-ray scanners mounted on squad cars. Mr Kelly said that the technology offers "a great deal of promise" in detecting concealed weapons without a physical search.

These are just stories I found interesting in the last day or so.

It's much easier for me to blog this way since I usually let the stories do the talking for me.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2012/02/04/3731996/new-rules-tests-proposed-for-aid.html#storylink=cpy

More Tid Bits

Health News - Smoking ban fuels rise in 'secret smokers'

A poll of 2,000 people, conducted by One Poll on behalf of the Co-operative Pharmacy, found that one in 12 respondents now have a home smoking ban in place.

More than half (57 per cent) of smokers said they now keep their habit a secret, with 21 per cent hiding their smoking from their partner and 19.6 per cent from their children.

Evidence and Tobacco

Edwards worries about FOREST's framing of tobacco control as an issue of freedom versus authoritarianism; he later suggests emphasizing "how tobacco control measures are pro-freedom by freeing smokers from an unwanted addiction, and by protecting our children from the risk of addiction and premature death." I can buy arguments about the conflicting freedoms of smokers and non-smokers in public spaces, but framing pure paternalism as being freedom-promoting is Orwellian. 

Sugar can harm like alcohol and tobacco, regulate it: article says

 At a minimum, the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationcould remove fructose from its list of itemsGenerally Recognized as Safe. That would force food makers to seek an FDA review of products with added sugars.

  “The food industry knows that it has a problem,” the authors write. “With enough clamour for change, tectonic shifts in policy become powerful.”

FDA: Your Stem Cells are a ‘Drug’ & We Can Regulate Their Use

This time the FDA just nakedly says in court documents that the agency wants to protect the market for FDA-approved drugs. No more beating around the bush—their agenda is right out in the open! This appears to be a novel interpretation of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C), as evidenced by the government’s failure to cite any judicial precedent for their argument.

Tid Bits

USA Today Says Baylor Health Care Has Gone ‘Down a Dangerous Road’ With Tobacco Ban | FrontBurner

“Is that legal?” I ask him, only half-serious.

“We would not do anything that would be considered illegal,” he says, completely serious. “We’re in the healthcare business, so we want people to practice good health.”

OPINION: Lighting up

When considering the cost smokers impose on the campus it could be more costly to enforce a ban.

Campus police have better things to do than wag their fingers at smokers, and hiring more officers to hand out tickets would likely exceed any savings.

As a practical matter, it won't stop people from smoking either. They might smoke at different places where butts get disposed, pile up and then blow away to litter the campus.

While it is always tempting to pretend that banning something will create a utopian effect, the unintended consequences can often be worse than the original problem.

We all have things we don't like, but sometimes we need to live and let live. When you start trying to ban anything you don't like, you give up liberty inch by inch. The next ban may be something you enjoy, something like polka dotted pink rain boots.

Non-smoking, non-drinking transplant patients more likely to develop head and neck cancer

Transplant patients who develop head and neck cancer are more likely to be non-smokers and non-drinkers, and less likely than their non-transplant counterparts to survive past one year of diagnosis, according to a new study from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

As part of a 20-year review, Henry Ford researchers found cancers of the throat, tonsils and mouth may be more aggressive in transplant recipients as the result of long-term immunosuppressive therapy required to prevent solid organ rejection.

Transplant patients in the study who developed skin cancer in the head and neck region were more likely to have multiple lesions, compared to the general public. In all, 2.6% of transplant patients in the study developed some form of head and neck cancer.

Va. lawmaker proposes selling marijuana in liquor stores

Englin (D-Alexandria) has introduced a billthis legislative session that would create a group to figure out how much money the state could reap if it legalized marijuana and sold it in more than 300 Virginia liquor stores.

“All of the respectable people in our community who are secretly toking on the side are giving their money to criminals,’’ Englin said. “Over the years, a surprising number of constituents have said, ‘Hey, David, instead of raising taxes if we need more revenue, why don’t we legalize marijuana and sell it in the ABC?’ I figure. . . I would at least start the conversation.’’

Police Charge Canadian Blogger With Criminal Libel...for Criticizing the Police

Leblanc has been an activist that calls out government on what he thinks is wrong. His comments are colorful and in some cases kooky, but they never incite harm....Leblanc has frustrated a lot of people, but I believe in his sincere goal: he wants tomorrow's government to be better than today's, which according to his plan, should be better than yesterday's. Prior to this whole fiasco, he referred to the police as being fascist and operating like the KGB. It sounds crazy coming from him on his bright picket signs, but now it's less funny....Whether it was intended or not, the City of Fredericton is sending a message that nuisances will be silenced, and that people should think twice about taking on the state....I find this type of behavior to be morally reprehensible and a giant step back for political discourse in Fredericton. We're all fools if we don’t think the next journalist to call out the police isn’t going to be looking over their shoulder.

Non-smoker opposes campus-wide smoking ban

Non-smoker opposes campus-wide smoking ban | Daily Sundial

However, this zeal to clear our air favors one bad habit over another. Why is it that alcohol, a substance that can physically and mentally alter a person’s actions, something that can be much more dangerously abused, is allowed on campus? The Pub doesn’t serve hard liquor, but a beer can lead to another one and can lead to much worse than a cigarette.

No one on campus is telling the drinkers whether or not they can get inebriated, so why should someone tell the smokers how much they can smoke?

Truthfully not the nicest post I have ever read.

It says something I believe when even a die hard non smoker thinks banning smoking everywhere has gone too far.

NHS lottery if you're fat or smoke

NHS lottery if you're fat or smoke - Telegraph:

But under these guidelines, they don’t even get to clap eyes on the patient, let alone assess them. What is really worrying is that this is contrary to National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) guidelines on treating, for example, arthritis. It clearly states that obesity should not be a barrier to referral for joint replacement surgery, and yet the CCG is doing precisely that.

You know Pat Nurse posted something not too long ago that fits right in with what I'm thinking right now .

And although I'm not in love with the addiction angle he paints a very different picture than the one the NHS is painting.

I love it when a doctor shows compassion and care for the people he treats.

Bhutan New tobacco Act will benefit 19

kuenselonline » Blog Archive » New tobacco Act will benefit 19:

Judges throw more light into retrospective active application of the law
While the amended Tobacco Control Act might have come in a bit too late for 63 people already sentenced under the previous one, it stands to benefit 19 others.

Judges have further clarified that the amended law will apply ex post facto or retrospectively for those whose cases remain undecided.

Of the 84 people who fell prey to the previous Act between 2010 and 2011, five have appealed to higher courts following judgments from the lower ones and 14 cases are still under trial .

“Cases still under trial and pending will benefit from the amended tobacco Act,” a judge said.

For the rest, judges said since their cases have already been decided, there was no appeal and no retrospective application of the new law.

Their only appeal, judges said, was to the King who had the authority to grant amnesty, pardon and reduction of sentences.

New law can’t be applied retroactively 

 Some lawyers said retroactive application of law could not be entertained in the country just as it was considered unacceptable internationally.

As many as 25 nations across the globe including Australia,  Japan, New Zealand, Sweden, United Kingdom and the US have prohibited to apply laws retrospectively, most of them by the Constitution.

“It’s illegal,” a lawyer said. “Just as you can’t have the penalty increased or made more severe as the law changes, you can’t reduce it or have it made milder.”

National Council’s Kuenlay Tshering said there was no question of the new Act being applicable retroactively when it, like any other statutes, was adopted after the Parliament’s passing of it.

“Anyone, or criminals serving prison term can’t have their prison term shortened following amendments in a law,” he said.

A former judge who today runs Sayang Law Chambers, a private legal firm, Shera Lhundup said while the judiciary had no authority to decide whether to apply the new law retroactively, it should have been the Parliament that should have made it clear if the new Act should be applied  so.

Another legal expert agreed the courts generally did not give a statute retroactive application unless it was intended by the legislature and its intent expressed clearly in the law.

:(

I feel sickened by the idea that this was a long hard fight for the people of Bhutan and that it makes no difference to all the people who have already been sentenced under the tobacco control act.

And so many people only get information thirdhand,me included.

I wonder if the King will be inclined to show these poor people mercy.