(Press-News.org) New Rochelle, NY, February 9, 2011—Nicotine addiction usually begins during the critical teenage years, and pediatric healthcare professionals can play a prominent role in promoting a tobacco-free lifestyle among children and adolescents, as described in an article published online ahead of print in Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, & Pulmonology, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online.
Denormalization is a strategy for changing social norms and reinforcing a public perception of tobacco use as a health-compromising, socially unacceptable behavior. Karen Calabro, DrPH, Ramara Costello, and Alexander Prokhorov, MD, PhD, from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center (Houston, Texas), describe several ways pediatricians and other medical professionals can help their patients and their communities to see tobacco use as undesirable: through direct communication with patients and their families; by providing information and referrals for tobacco prevention and cessation programs; by setting personal examples of a tobacco-free lifestyle; and by advocating for stronger public policies aimed at reducing tobacco use and exposure. In the article entitled, "Denormalization of Tobacco Use and the Role of the Pediatric Health-Care Provider," the authors assert that healthcare professionals can have a significant, positive impact on children's health by working to denormalize tobacco use.
"For years big tobacco has promoted its toxic product as what popular, successful, glamorous, attractive, confident, athletic, and independent people do. It is time to start re-claiming the truth. Use of a product that hurts you and everyone around you is not something that should be glamorized. Implementation of strategies to change public perceptions about tobacco have had substantial impact on reducing youth smoking–and have been vigorously fought by the tobacco industry. Pediatricians, as advocates for children's health, need to send strong messages to their patients and their communities to counter the tobacco industry deceptions," says Harold Farber, MD, MSPH, Editor of Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, & Pulmonology, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Section of Pulmonology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX.
###
Pediatric Allergy, Immunology, & Pulmonology is a quarterly journal published in print and online. The Journal has expanded its coverage to synthesize the pulmonary, allergy, and immunology communities in the advancement of the respiratory health of children. The Journal provides comprehensive coverage to further the understanding, and optimize the treatment, of some of the most common and costly chronic illnesses in children. It includes original translational, clinical and epidemiologic research, public health, quality improvement, and case control studies, patient education research, and the latest research and standards of care for functional and genetic immune deficiencies and interstitial lung diseases. Table of contents and a free sample issue may be viewed online.
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative peer-reviewed journals in many promising areas of science and biomedical research, including Journal of Aerosol Medicine and Pulmonary Drug Delivery and Population Health Management. Its biotechnology trade magazine, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News (GEN), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's 60 journals, books, and newsmagazines is available at our website.
Key role proposed for pediatricians in curbing tobacco use
2011-02-10
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Nanonets give rust a boost as agent in water splitting's hydrogen harvest
2011-02-10
CHESTNUT HILL, MA (2/9/2011) – Coating a lattice of tiny wires called Nanonets with iron oxide – known more commonly as rust – creates an economical and efficient platform for the process of water splitting, an emerging clean fuel science that harvests hydrogen from water, Boston College researchers report in the online edition of the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Assistant Professor of Chemistry Dunwei Wang and his clean energy lab pioneered the development of Nanonets in 2008 and have since shown them to be a viable new platform for a number of energy applications ...
Key to better health care may be a walk in the park
2011-02-10
The payoff for investing in public parks and recreation sites may be healthier, more physically fit residents and a less strained healthcare system, according to Penn State researchers.
Investments in parks and recreational services have a dramatic effect on health and fitness, say Geof Godbey, professor emeritus of leisure studies, and Andrew Mowen, associate professor of recreation and parks management.
"There is a strong relationship between how much money is spent to provide such services and the amount of physical activity that people take part in," said Godbey. ...
Rice University technology in human trials to spot cardiac disease, cancer, drug abuse
2011-02-10
Heart disease is a silent killer, but new microchip technology from Rice University is expected to advance the art of diagnosis.
During National Heart Health Month, Rice Professor John McDevitt will discuss the potential of this technology to detect cardiac disease early at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Washington, D.C., Feb. 17-21. Cardiac disease is the focus of one of six ongoing major clinical trials of Rice's programmable bio-nano-chips (PBNCs).
PBNCs combine microfluidics, nanotechnology, advanced optics ...
Revisited human-worm relationships shed light on brain evolution
2011-02-10
"Man is but a worm" was the title of a famous caricature of Darwin's ideas in Victorian England. Now, 120 years later, a molecular analysis of mysterious marine creatures unexpectedly reveals our cousins as worms, indeed.
An international team of researchers, including a neuroscientist from the University of Florida, has produced more evidence that people have a close evolutionary connection with tiny, flatworm-like organisms scientifically known as "Acoelomorphs."
The research in the Thursday (Feb. 10) issue of Nature offers insights into brain development and human ...
A race against time to find Apollo 14's lost voyagers
2011-02-10
In communities all across the US, travelers that went to the moon and back with the Apollo 14 mission are living out their quiet lives. The voyagers in question are not astronauts. They're "moon trees."
The seeds that later became moon trees orbited the moon 34 times in the Apollo 14 command module. In this classic Apollo 14 image, taken just before the lunar module landed at Fra Mauro, Earth peeks over the edge of the moon.
In communities all across the U.S., travelers that went to the moon and back with the Apollo 14 mission are living out their quiet lives. ...
Putting trees on farms fundamental to future agricultural development
2011-02-10
Nairobi, Kenya (9 February 2011) Trees growing on farms will be essential to future development. As the number of trees in forests is declining every year, the number of trees on farms is increasing. Marking the launch of the International Year of Forest by the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF9) in New York on 29 January, Dennis Garrity, the Director General of the World Agroforestry Centre, highlighted the importance of mixing trees with agriculture, the practice known as agroforestry.
"Over a billion hectares of agricultural land, almost half of the world's farmland, ...
New research helps explain how progesterone prevents preterm birth
2011-02-10
SAN FRANCISCO, FEB. 10, 2011 -- Research presented today at the 31st Annual meeting of the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM) ― The Pregnancy Meeting™ has found that three proteins known as XIAP, BID, and Bcl-2 are responsible in part for the success of progesterone treatments in the prevention of preterm labor. They may also play an important role in triggering normal labor.
The proteins prevent preterm birth by hindering apoptosis – the normal, orderly death of cells -- in the fetal membranes. Stronger, thicker fetal membranes are less likely to rupture ...
Use of 17-hydroxyprogesterone doesn't reduce rate of preterm delivery or complications in twins
2011-02-10
SAN FRANCISCO (February 10, 2011) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's (SMFM) annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will present findings that show that the use of the hormone 17-Hydroxyprogesterone does not reduce the rate of preterm delivery or neonatal complications in twins.
The hormone 17-Hydroxyprogesterone is sometimes used to reduce the risk of preterm labor. In 2008, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine issued an opinion ...
Study finds that folate does not offer protection against preterm delivery
2011-02-10
SAN FRANCISCO (February 10, 2011) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's (SMFM) annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will present findings that show that folate intake before and during pregnancy does not protect Norwegian women against spontaneous preterm delivery.
"Sufficient folate intake has been studied as a possible protecting factor against spontaneous preterm delivery with conflicting results," said Verena Senpiel, M.D., one of the study's authors. "Preterm delivery is the major cause ...
Study finds magnesium sulfate may offer protection from cerebral palsy
2011-02-10
SAN FRANCISCO (February 10, 2011) — In a study to be presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine's (SMFM) annual meeting, The Pregnancy Meeting ™, in San Francisco, researchers will present findings that showed that in rats, the use of magnesium sulfate (Mg) significantly reduced the neonatal brain injury associated with maternal inflammation or maternal infection.
Magnesium sulfate is sometimes used during preterm labor to reduce the risk of neonatal brain injury. In 2010 the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and the Society for Maternal-Fetal ...