(Press-News.org) Health Canada's cancellation of plans to renew tobacco warning labels on cigarette packages may lead to increased smoking rates and smoking-related illnesses and deaths, states an editorial in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) (pre-embargo link only) http://www.cmaj.ca/embargo/cmaj101583.pdf.
Ten years ago, Canada was a leader in warning labels and other effective tobacco policies. Abandoning this labeling policy may be a set back for efforts in Canada, particularly as labels are now the government's only remaining mass communication initiative warning of the dangers of smoking.
"Warning labels are an effective, inexpensive communication strategy," writes Dr. Matthew Stanbrook, a respirologist and CMAJ deputy editor with Editor-in-Chief Dr. Paul Hébert. "The "dose" of information increases automatically in proportion to the amount of tobacco consumed: the more often smokers reach for a cigarette, the more often they see and are influenced by the warnings."
Warning labels also deter non-smokers from taking up smoking and can be viewed by children and youth as well as adults.
The international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control recommends large pictorial warning labels and Canada was the first country to adopt labeling regulations in compliance with these guidelines with positive results. "Knowledge of specific health consequences of smoking is twice as high among Canadian smokers compared to their counterparts in the US and UK, where warning labels do not meet the guidelines," write the authors.
However, warning labels need to be refreshed to be effective as they lose impact over time and with repeated exposure. Countries such as Thailand and Uruguay have updated their labels several times in the last five years based on this evidence whereas Health Canada has not changed a single label over the same period in this country.
"The federal Minister of Health has previously shown leadership in getting tobacco control legislation passed through Parliament. Her leadership is needed again," they conclude.
### END
Do not abandon new cigarette warning labels
Editorial
2010-11-09
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Differences in human and Neanderthal brains set in just after birth
2010-11-09
The findings are based on comparisons of virtual imprints of the developing brain and surrounding structures (known as endocasts) derived from the skulls of modern and fossilized humans, including that of a newborn Neanderthal.
Philipp Gunz of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology explained that the differences researchers observe in early brain development likely reflect changes in the underlying brain circuitry. It is that internal organization of the brain that matters most for cognitive ability.
"In modern humans, the connections between diverse ...
Fusion makes major step forward at MIT through studies of the plasma edge
2010-11-09
###
These new findings will be presented in three invited talks at the American Physical Society, Division of Plasma Physics 52nd annual meeting on November 8-12 in Chicago. END ...
Getting to know the sun advances fusion research
2010-11-09
Researchers at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory have successfully used Coaxial Helicity Injection (CHI) to generate plasma current and couple it to a conventional current generation method at the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) fusion experiment. After coupling, the combined process generated 1 million amperes of current using 40 percent less energy than needed to generate this current using the conventional means by itself, thus demonstrating that a high-quality initial magnetic configuration was produced by CHI.
Plasma confinement devices based on ...
Imaging of Alfvén waves and fast ions in a fusion plasma
2010-11-09
Fusion plasmas in the laboratory typically reach 100 million degrees. These high temperatures are required to ignite the hydrogen plasma and maintain the fusion burn by the production of high-energy alpha particles. One challenge for a fusion reactor is how to contain the alpha particles in the vessel long enough for the particles to efficiently heat the hydrogen plasma. One way that these alpha particles can escape the fusion chamber prematurely is by exciting high frequency Alfvén waves and riding these waves to the vessel walls, like a surfer rides a wave to the beach.
While ...
The many faces of the shear Alfvén wave
2010-11-09
When physicists probe the mysteries of plasma, the fourth state of matter, they often discover phenomena of striking beauty. Much as when the Hubble Space Telescope sent back vivid images from space of ionized gas clouds (an interstellar plasma!), new 3D images of shear Alfvén waves are delighting both scientists and a new generation of science enthusiasts.
Plasmas support a large variety of waves. Some of these are familiar, such as light and sound waves, but a great many exist nowhere else. One of the fundamental waves in magnetized plasma is the shear Alfvén wave, ...
Plasma as a fast optical switch
2010-11-09
Just like an electrical switch allows the flow of electricity into electrical circuits, relativistic transparency in plasma can act like a fast optical switch allowing the flow of light through otherwise opaque plasma. Modern day lasers, such as the Trident laser in Los Alamos National Laboratory delivers a 200 terawatt power pulse (roughly 400 times the average electrical consumption of the United States) in half a trillionth of a second (picosecond) time. As shown in Fig. 1, when the laser power reaches a threshold limit, relativistic transparency in plasma turns the ...
Scientists unlock the secrets of exploding plasma clouds on the sun
2010-11-09
The Sun sporadically expels trillions of tons of million-degree hydrogen gas in explosions called coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Such clouds—an example is shown in Figure 1a—are enormous in size (spanning millions of miles) and are made up of magnetized plasma gases, so hot that hydrogen atoms are ionized. CMEs are rapidly accelerated by magnetic forces to speeds of hundreds of kilometers per second to upwards of 2,000 kilometers per second in several tens of minutes. CMEs are closely related to solar flares and, when they impinge on the Earth, can trigger spectacular auroral ...
Taming thermonuclear plasma with a snowflake
2010-11-09
Physicists working on the National Spherical Torus Experiment (NSTX) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory are now one step closer to solving one of the grand challenges of magnetic fusion research—how to reduce the effect that the hot plasma has on fusion machine walls (or how to tame the plasma-material interface). Some heat from the hot plasma core of a fusion energy device escapes the plasma and can interact with reactor vessel walls. This not only erodes the walls and other components, but also contaminates the plasma—all challenges for practical fusion. One method ...
Vacuum arcs spark new interest
2010-11-09
Whenever two pieces of metal at different voltages are brought near each other, as when an appliance is plugged into a live socket, there is a chance there will be an arc between them. Most of the arcs people see are a breakdown of the gas between the metal surfaces, but this type of breakdown can also occur in a vacuum. This vacuum breakdown, which until recently has not been well understood, has implications for applications from particle accelerators to fusion reactors.
As part of an effort to understand the maximum accelerating field in particle accelerators, scientists ...
PIT(-1)ting good and bad outcomes against each other in breast cancer
2010-11-09
The outlook for patients with breast cancer is determined in part by whether or not their tumor has spread to other sites in the body. A team of researchers, led by Roman Perez-Fernandez and colleagues, at the University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, has now identified in a subset of patients with breast cancer, a marker associated with the occurrence of tumors at distant sites; a finding that they hope might help predict a patient's outlook more accurately. Specifically, the team found that in patients with breast cancer that was accompanied by the presence of tumor ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
FIU cybersecurity researchers develop midflight defense against drone hijacking
Kennesaw State researcher aims to discover how ideas spread in the digital age
Next-generation perovskite solar cells are closer to commercial use
Sleep patterns linked to variation in health, cognition, lifestyle, and brain organization
University of Oklahoma researcher awarded funding to bridge gap between molecular data and tissue architecture
Nationally-recognized pathologist Paul N. Staats, MD, named Chair of Pathology at University of Maryland School of Medicine
The world’s snow leopards are very similar genetically. That doesn’t bode well for their future
Researchers find key to stopping deadly infection
Leafcutter ants have blind spots, just like truck drivers
Tayac receives funding for community engagement project
Parker receives funding for Elementary Education Program Professional Development School (PDS)
Physicists uncork a message in a bottle from another star
Sanders receives funding for project aimed at enabling prostheses for children with lower extremity amputation
Engineers develop solid lubricant to replace toxic materials in farming
Repurposing gemstone polishing waste to create smart cement
Patient-physician messaging by race, ethnicity, insurance type, and preferred language
Unrecognized motor difficulties and developmental coordination disorder in preschool children
Background genetic variants influence clinical features in complex disorders
Smarter battery tech knows whether your EV will make it home
Overactive microRNAs block fat cell development in progeria
Crosswalk confusion: MA drivers flummoxed by pedestrian hybrid beacons, find UMass Amherst researchers
Study shows heart disease mortality disproportionately burdens low-income communities in California
Intracardiac echocardiography recognized as ‘transformative’ imaging modality in new SCAI position statement
Study finds ‘man’s best friend’ slows cellular aging in female veterans
To get representative health data, researchers hand out fitbits
Hiring in high-growth firms: new study explores the timing of organizational changes
Boosting work engagement through a simple smartphone diary
Climate change may create ‘ecological trap’ for species who can’t adapt
Scientists create ChatGPT-like AI model for neuroscience to build one of the most detailed mouse brain maps to date
AI and omics unlock personalized drugs and RNA therapies for heart disease
[Press-News.org] Do not abandon new cigarette warning labelsEditorial