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ABC News: New Devices Aim to Catch Breast Cancer Sooner

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Smokers often die prematurely: study
Mon Mar 20, 2006 11:14 PM GMT

By Megan Rauscher

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Cigarette smoking strongly increases the risk of dying in middle age for both men and women, but kicking the habit, even at older ages, strongly decreases the risk of dying prematurely. These are the findings of the largest and longest study to date on smoking habits and consequences. The study is published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Among nearly 50,000 residents of rural Norway who were followed for 25 years, researchers found that 41 percent of men who continued to smoke heavily (at least one pack a day) died between 40 and 70 years of age compared with just 14 percent of men who never smoked. Twenty-six percent of women who were heavy smokers died between 40 and 70 years of age compared with only 9 percent of women who did not smoke.

“Our study shows that smoking strongly reduces the chances of surviving from 40 to 70 years of age,” write Dr. Stein Emil Volsett of the University of Bergen and colleagues. There is a clear dose-response relationship between smoking and mortality—survival decreases with increasing number of cigarettes smoked per day, they note.

The study also shows that the longer people delay smoking, the less likely they are to die from smoking at an early age, a finding that supports efforts to target smoking prevention efforts at adolescents and pre-adolescents.

Moreover, the sooner a smoker quits the better—and it’s never too late to quit. While the benefits of quitting are greatest for those who quit before their 40th or 50th birthday, people who quit at older ages (between 50 and 59 years of age) also enjoy better health.

The survival curves in this study “provide a powerful graphic representation of the huge effect of smoking on mortality risk in middle age among women and men,” Dr. Ronald M. Davis writes in a related commentary.

“This study,” he added in comments to Reuters Health, “confirms once again that cigarette smokers are much more likely than nonsmokers to die prematurely.”

“The good news is that quitting smoking substantially reduces the excess risk of dying prematurely.” Dr. Davis is with the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention, part of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.
SOURCE: Annals of Internal Medicine, March 21, 2006

February 24, 2006
Section: B
Page: 5B

Cancer initiative targets Camden
SHAWN RHEA
Courier-Post

Effort seeks to cut death rate in city

Courier-Post Staff CAMDEN

Area health-care providers, community leaders and representatives from the American Cancer Society have formed a volunteer partnership designed to reduce cancer death rates among city residents and employees.

The Camden City Cancer Initiative is one of at least eight similar partnerships being launched across New Jersey, said Sheila Williamson-Carson, a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society.

“What we know is catastrophic illness like cancer disproportionately affects minorities and lower-income residents, so we’re launching this initiative in areas with high minority populations,” she said.

According to state statistics, men in Camden City have a 20 percent higher rate of cancer than men countywide, and women in the city have a 58 percent higher rate of invasive cervical cancer than women countywide.

The Camden effort will bring together health-care providers such as Lourdes Health System, Cooper University Hospital and Virtua Health, along with health outreach workers, city government officials and cancer awareness advocates.

They intend to increase early screening and treatment rates among minorities, Williamson-Carson said. They will work to address treatment disparities among the uninsured.

They also will focus more attention on employer screenings by organizing workplace cancer education and screening referral efforts, she said.

“A lot of insured people aren’t getting the screenings they need,” Williamson-Carson said. “Some people aren’t getting the proper recommendations from their doctors, some have problems getting time off from work to get screened and some just aren’t aware that they need to be screened.”

Activist and breast cancer survivor Carmen Martinez of Camden said she hopes the initiative will reach women who are not going for screenings, especially those who are afraid to seek care because they fear deportation.

The effort won’t create new screening and treatment services but should improve access to existing ones and increase outreach to Camden residents and employees, said Scot McCray, director of Urban Health Initiatives at Cooper.

“There’s always room for a more comprehensive effort,” McCray said. “What happens many times is that the efforts by an (individual) organization are very effective, but we don’t maximize our outcomes by working together.”

The initiative also will work to increase funding of state-sponsored cancer treatment and smoking cessation programs, he said.

While the initiative’s goals are in place, it’s too soon to say how the partnership will reach them, acknowledged Ellen Feinstein, vice president of oncology at Virtua and an initiative participant.

“(What we’ll do) remains to be seen, but obviously there’s a significant burden of cancer on the state,” Feinstein said. “There are only two states ahead of us in terms of incidents, and Camden City is among the top 10 cancer incident sites in the state. Certainly getting more people screened is an important step, because the earlier it detected, the better the outcome.”

Reach Shawn Rhea at (856) 486-2475 or srhea@courierpostonline.com

MORE INFOR- MATION

For more information about cancer prevention efforts and resources, call the American Cancer Society at (856) 616-1650 or go to www. cancer.org.

MORE INFORMATION

Call Plyshette Wiggins at (800) 227-2345 or e-mail her at plyshette.wiggins@cancer.org for information on the Camden City Cancer Initiative. 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:  Cynthia Hallett
January 26, 2005 510-841-3045

Statement of Cynthia Hallett, MPH
Executive Director, Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights

(SACRAMENTO, CA) - Today, the California Air Resources Board unanimously adopted a regulatory amendment identifying environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), also known as secondhand smoke, as a toxic air contaminant (TAC).  A TAC is defined as an air pollutant which may cause or contribute to an increase in deaths or in serious illness, or which may pose a present or potential hazard to human health.  The Cal-EPA will now prepare a risk reduction report on potential actions to further reduce exposure to secondhand smoke such as public education programs to increase awareness and understanding of exposure and health effects, as well as additional opportunities to reduce exposure.

The Cal-EPA has always been ahead of the curve on reporting the effects of secondhand smoke exposure. In the 1990s, it was the first major scientific agency to confirm a causal relationship between exposure to secondhand smoke and cardiovascular disease. The agency’s 1997 report on secondhand smoke was adopted by the federal government in the National Cancer Institute Monograph 10.

In addition, the regulatory amendment specifies that there is not sufficient available scientific evidence to support the designation of a threshold exposure level to secondhand smoke below which no significant adverse health effects are anticipated.

This important decision will have a powerful impact on the health and well being of people around the world.  The body of science on the negative health effects of secondhand exposure continues to grow, and these findings lend additional evidence that exposure to secondhand smoke causes death and disability in nonsmokers. 

New findings in the Cal-EPA report, Part B, include: a causal link between secondhand smoke exposure and pre-term delivery; asthma induction in adults; breast cancer in younger, primarily premenopausal women; and altered vascular properties. Part A of the report contains the first ever outdoor monitoring of secondhand smoke exposure near designated smoking areas in California. The report has gone through an extensive, four-year scientific review process, including public comment and independent peer review.

The data should be a wake-up call to employers, legislators, and individuals who work or live in smoke-filled environments to support and pass smokefree policies and laws.  These laws protect everyone from unnecessary and deadly exposure to secondhand smoke and encourage many people to quit smoking. Tobacco companies should be held accountable for decades of fraud for marketing and pushing a highly addictive substance that, when used as directed, harms both the person who smokes as well as the nonsmoker.

We look forward to the recognition and adoption of the Cal-EPA findings by the federal government, the Surgeon General, and other voluntary health groups.