In 2009, the Food and Drug Administration gained authority to regulate tobacco products, and now they will soon be exercising that ability. Already releasing preliminary guidelines for the tobacco industry that can educate consumers on exactly what is in cigarettes, the FDA is making it so tobacco companies will have to report on the amount of harmful and unsafe ingredients used in their products.

Tobacco Industry Forced to List Ingredients Used in Their Products

Within one year, the FDA plans to share information on chemical amounts, while tobacco makers will be required to report on the amount of 93 substances used in their products. This means that harmful ingredients used such as ammonia and formaldehyde will need to be made known to the public. This decision will certainly ignite a slew of ingredient-based information regarding tobacco products.

 “We are forging new territory to ensure that tobacco companies provide accurate information and do not mislead American consumers. We are committed to stopping such practices that may cause people to start or continue using tobacco products that could lead to preventable disease and death,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a statement.

There are over 4,000 individual compounds identified in tobacco and tobacco smoke, with at least 60 of them being known carcinogens. How would you feel after finding out that with every cigarette comes a dose of insecticide, car exhaust, gas chamber poison, ant poison, floor cleaner, mothballs, and nuclear weapon material? The fact is, there are hundreds of chemicals in tobacco products (and cigarettes especially) that people don’t even know about.

• Insecticide – nicotine
• Car exhaust – carbon monoxide
• Gas chamber poison – hydrogen cyanide
• Ant poison – ammonia
• Mothballs – naphthalene
• Nuclear power – radioactive compounds

While this kind of information won’t be responsible for ending the bad habit of smoking for the majority of individuals, it may serve to kick the habit for many. Even while smoking and tobacco use is already known to cause various cancers such as lung cancer, throat cancer, and stomach cancer, the health damaging aspects of smoking aren’t enough for people to quit. But now, seeing “formaldehyde”, “lead”, and “arsenic” on the label may just be enough to cause many people to finally quit smoking and tobacco use.

Although a high amount of smoking bans are taking place nationwide to reduce smoke exposure indoors, the bans are having little impact on the number of cigarette butts thrown on the streets. With around 19.3% of adults 18 and older smoking cigarettes, it is no wonder that cigarette butts make up one third of America’s litter. Not only that, but they also account for about 28 percent of trash which washes up on beaches worldwide.

4.5 Trillion Cigarette Butts Littered Each Year

Of course there is no upside to this information. With about 4.5 trillion cigarette butts littered around the world each year, it is no surprise that cities started raising taxes on cigarettes to cover the costs for the mess. San Francisco is just one city which has raised cigarette taxes 33 cents per pack in 2009 to cover the $11 million spent on cleaning up cigarette litter annually. Not only are we paying out of pocket for this pollution, but every living creature as well as the environment is also suffering.

Smoking alone causes 5 million deaths per year, and the sad part is that everyone is being affected – not just the smoker. The 7,000+ individual compounds in cigarettes, 70 of which being known cancer-causing substances, are being puffed into the air at alarming rates, causing massive health problems that affect the entire populations. The chemicals are also causing complications by being present in the water, with one study finding that a single cigarette butt in a quarter-gallon of water can kill a fish in just four days. In addition, the invisible gases and particles left behind from tobacco smoke, which is known as third-hand smoke, are also fueling sickness while receiving very little recognition.

And yet all of this is only a portion of the true cost of smoking. What many smokers may not realize is that they could be spending nearly $2190/year if smoking one pack a day. This cost does not include the 55 days given up each year, or the extra money paid out to various insurances.

By quitting smoking, you will be saving more lives and more of our planet than you know.

Smoking is not a cheap venture in any way, shape or form. But it seems that the price tag on a pack of cigarettes hardly deters many from partaking in the activity despite harsh economic times. Although the price tag of a single pack of cigarettes may not be intimidating enough for those experiencing the relaxing effects of smoking, maybe a look at the overall cost of the habit would make somewhat of an impact.

Today a pack of cigarettes costs about $6/pack. The price varies based on location and taxes, yes, but let’s use $6/pack for calculations. At $6/pack, if someone smokes 1 pack a day, every day the annual expenditure on cigarettes is $2190/year. But unfortunately the costs don’t stop there.

The True Cost of Smoking | Smoking Shortens Your Life and Empties Your Pocket

In addition to the cost of cigarettes, you’re also giving up hours or days of your life. According to this calculator,  smoking 1 pack a day for a year results in about a loss of 55 days from one’s life. Of course it is hard to say exactly how many hours or days will be shed off from smoking while there are so many other variables to consider. No matter the exact amount of “time lost” from smoking, we do know that it does in fact shorten life.

Some of the health costs are:

• Genetic damage
• Throat and stomach cancer
• Increased stillbirth risk
• Lung cancer
• Heart disease
• Stroke

Here you can calculate how much it costs you to smoke. Keep in mind that the price per pack you enter has not been that price forever. So if you’ve been smoking for 20 years, the total calculation will be a bit elevated since cigarettes did not cost as much 20 years ago. But then again, all prices are relative.

In 2004, it was estimated that the actual cost of smoking was nearly $40 per pack. Factors in this total include:

• $33/pack for the cost of early deaths, smoking related disabilities, and other factors (which includes $20.28 a pack due to reduced life expectancy)
• $5.44/pack for the cost of the effect of second-hand smoke on significant others
• $1.44/pack for the cost of the effect of second-hand smoke on the society as a whole

With a pack of cigarettes costing approximately $40, it is estimated that someone who smokes would spend $171,000 over a lifetime! More recently, a pack of cigarettes is said to cost up to a whopping $150/pack.

“Hidden” Cost of Smoking

The cost of smoking goes far beyond a pack of cigarettes. There are numerous “hidden” costs of smoking which are associated with smoking that many people don’t even think about or consider. It’s easy to ignore these costs because they aren’t as clearly noticed as simply buying a pack of cigarettes. Some of these hidden costs include:

• Increased Life Insurance rates – Due to being at a greater risk of dying at an early age, smokers have to pay higher life insurance premium payments.

• Increased Health Insurance rates – Similar to life insurance, smokers must pay higher medical insurance premium payments since they are at a higher risk for contracting medical problems.

• Increased Health Care costs – People who smoke generally have more medical problems than those who don’t smoke, so they must pay more to take care of these problems.

• Increased medication use – More medical problems lead to more medications, increasing personal costs even further.

• Increased Home Owner’s Insurance rates – People who smoke have a higher chance of burning down there house. This higher chance is reflected in higher home owner’s insurance premium payments.

• Decreased value of your house – Hardly anyone likes a smoke-filled house. It creates a bad smell and causes discoloration. This decreases the value to potential buyers.

• Increased Car Insurance rates – Smokers have an increased chance of getting into a car accident, and thus this is reflected in higher car insurance premium payments.

• Less value for your car – Due to the foul odor smoke leaves, the value of your car suffers and it’s resale or trade-in value decreases.

Although the above costs may be enough to cause a permanent smoking hiatus, sometimes chasing the opposite sex or playing a sport are the only benefits of quitting that matter to some individuals. Let’s face it, no one likes the smell of cigarette smoke, and a coach or sports team doesn’t want someone with athletic ability that is impeded due to smoking. When it comes to the cost of smoking, there are truly many hidden costs that may be enough to convince you or your friends to drop the habit.

Is the true cost of smoking really worth it?

According to the results of a new Gallup poll, 25% of people respect a person less when he or she smokes. In the 1990s, the percentage was as low as 14%. Even among current smokers, 5% have less respect for their fellow tobacco users.

USA Today reports:

Despite this social marginalization — layered atop a barrage of anti-smoking ads, restrictive legislation, soaring per-pack prices, heightened pressure from employers, doctors and insurers, and the ban of smoking on 500 college campuses — 19.3% of the U.S. population still smokes.

The good news: A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week says that, among daily smokers, the percentage who smoke 30 or more cigarettes a day dropped to 8% in 2010 (down from 13% in 2005). And today there are more tools, free advice and greater understanding of how tough it is to quit.

“Just because someone has already failed once, twice or more doesn’t mean they can’t be successful the next time. We know that now,” says Patrick Reynolds, who in 1989 started the non-profit Foundation for a Smokefree America (tobaccofree.org). “Failed attempts are part of the normal journey toward becoming a non-smoker.” Reynolds is the grandson of cigarette company founder R.J Reynolds and a former smoker who’s spent more than two decades taking the tobacco companies to task, amassing information about the ill effects of smoking, connecting with the best scientific experts, speaking to audiences worldwide — especially school kids — and sharing much of his accumulated knowledge.

Good news – smoking is on the decline. Between 2005 and 2010, the number of adult smokers fell from 20.9 percent to 19.3 percent. Even though the number of smokers is going down, which is good news, a study shows that 1 in 5 people still light up.

If this decline continues at the same rate, it is expected that by 2020, about 17 percent of the US adult population will still smoke. This is bad news for the Center for Disease Control (CDC), who wants to reduce smoking prevalence to 12 percent by 2020. According to the CDC, 440,000 people die from smoking-related diseases every year, while the nation pays an estimated $96 billion in direct medical costs.

The study found that in 2010 43.5 million adults smoked. The most smokers were found in Virginia (26.8 percent) and Kentucky (24.8 percent). The least amount of smokers resided in Utah (9.1 percent) and California (12.1 percent).

Smoking prevalence will likely decrease as years go by. The tobacco age is dying, as it is now well known how harmful cigarettes can be. Decades ago, everyone not only didn’t care about smokers, but smoking was considered good for you. If you look back at very old advertisements, you’ll see “doctors” touting the benefits of smoking.

Although the idea that smoking is cool will be passed down from those living in the tobacco age, the extreme decline in the health of Americans is leading to mass awareness of health and is changing the lifestyles for millions of people.

Sources:

LiveScience

New graphic labels warning individuals of the dangers of smoking have recently led to a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration. The lawsuit, initiated by Reynold American Inc’s R.J. Reynolds unit, Lorillard Inc, Liggett Group LLC, and Commonwealth Brands Inc, was put into due to the graphics being unconstitutional.

The companies said that the warnings, which would be required by September 22, 2012, would force cigarette makers to “engage in anti-smoking advocacy”. The big four cigarette makers wish to void this new law as unconstitutional. The lawsuit is in action to protect there right to free speech under the first amendment.

Reuters reports the following:

“The notion that the government can require those who manufacture a lawful product to emblazon half of its package with pictures and words admittedly drafted to persuade the public not to purchase that product cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny,” said Floyd Abrams, a prominent First Amendment specialist representing the cigarette makers, in a statement.

An FDA spokeswoman declined to comment, citing an agency policy not to discuss pending litigation.

The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act requires color warnings covering the top half of the front and back panels of cigarette packages, and the top 20 percent of printed advertising.

Dead bodies, diseased lungs and rotting teeth are among the images expected to appear, in the first change to U.S. cigarette warnings in 25 years.

Reynolds’ brands include Camel, Winston and Kool; Lorillard brands include Newport and True; Commonwealth brands include Davidoff, and Liggett brands include Eve.

KNOWING THE RISKS

The cigarette companies are the largest in the United States other than Altria Group Inc, whose brands include Marlboro and which is not part of the case. Altria had previously supported the 2009 law.

“Certain provisions of the final rule raise constitutional concerns,” Altria spokesman Bill Phelps said. “We continue to work constructively with the FDA, and reserve our rights and options to protect the company.”

A smaller cigarette maker, Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co, is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, which also seeks to delay enforcement of other parts of the tobacco law.

Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services, in June said the new warnings would ensure that “every person who picks up a pack of cigarettes is going to know exactly what risks they are taking.”

She said the goal was to stop children from starting to smoke, and to give adult smokers a new incentive to quit.

“MINI-BILLBOARD”

But in their complaint, the cigarette companies said the labels illegally force them to make consumers “depressed, discouraged and afraid” to buy cigarettes, and turn each package into a “mini-billboard” for the government.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 46 million U.S. adults, or 20.6 percent, smoke cigarettes, but there has been little change in the percentage since 2004.

More than 221,000 Americans are expected to be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2011, according to the American Cancer Society. Tobacco is expected to kill nearly 6 million people worldwide in 2011, including 600,000 nonsmokers, the World Health Organization said in May.

The case is R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co et al v. FDA, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, No. 11-01482.

Many people who smoke admit they don’t want to quit. They say that smoking brings a sense of relaxation, or maybe it’s an escape, or maybe it’s a catalyst for weight loss due to curbed appetite. Much of the time, people simply don’t feel strong enough. There are many feel-good reasons why someone may not quit, and maybe that is why 44 to 46 million people are smoking right now.

But some people do want to quit, and many people will, at one point or another, break away from those feel-good reasons that kept them on the addiction.

There are many different methods to quitting. The Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). EFT is an acupressure technique where you tap on meridian points on the body, releasing negative emotions or thoughts, pain, and cravings such as a smoking craving.

But there are other ways to help you cut down or quit. The Huffington Post notes 15 of them:

Switch Up Your Diet

Certain foods make cigarettes taste tasty — and others not so much. Researchers at Duke University asked smokers to list the foods that made them savor the flavor of cigs. Seventy percent reported that red meat, coffee and alcohol enhanced lighting up. On the flip side, about half the group said good-for-you foods, like fruits, vegetables, juice and milk, made cigarettes taste lousy.

“Loading up on fruits and vegetables even before quitting might help cigarettes seem less appealing,” says F. Joseph McClernon, Ph.D., director of Duke’s Health Behavior Neuroscience Research Program. Can’t hurt to have your taste buds on your side.

Sweet Relief

Some of the gnawing hunger that quitters have for cigarettes may be a hankering for something else. “Perhaps as much as 30 percent of a smoker’s cravings are actually for carbohydrates rather than nicotine,” says Jonathan Foulds, Ph.D., professor of public health sciences and psychiatry at Penn State College of Medicine.

Studies show that sucking a few glucose tablets — the type drugstores sell for diabetics — helps to satiate the longing. Anecdotally, Foulds says, patients list Jujubes as the candy of choice — they’re long lasting and low cal (120 calories per 1.5-ounce box). As he puts it, “It’s not that sugar is good for you, just that smoking is worse.”

Get a Move On

Working out works for cravings, too. Research at Brown University showed that women who exercised vigorously — at around 80 percent of their maximum heart rate — improved their quit rates (19 percent versus 10 percent at the end of the 12-week program) and had a longer string of no-relapse days than non-exercisers. The researchers suggest that exercise may help prevent depression, relieve tension and reduce weight gain in women trying to kick the habit.

In addition, research at the University of Exeter in the UK suggests that exercise triggers changes in brain activity. In that study, smokers who cycled at a moderate pace had fewer cravings after abstaining from nicotine for 15 hours, as measured by MRI reactions to cigarette images, than non-cyclers.

Kick Butts

Paging Bruce Lee! Researchers at the University of Miami tested the effectiveness of the ancient martial art tai chi in helping smokers quit. Participants took tai chi classes for one hour, three times per week. After 12 weeks, and with no other formal cessation component, nearly 60 percent had stopped smoking, says Jef Morris, the tai chi master trainer who runs the program.

What’s the connection? “Smoking gives people a feeling of relaxation in the way they breathe. With tai chi, they breathe well and feel stronger, and they find that the conscious breathing and flow of movement also reduce stress,” Morris says.

Time it Right

Turns out going whole hog on a diet and exercise program just as you quit smoking may be biting off more than you can chew.

“We found those who succeed at quitting smoking while not gaining weight are those who approach it sequentially — quit now, diet later,” says Bonnie Spring, Ph.D., professor of preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. How much later? From a few weeks to two months. “It’s so easy to get overwhelmed with quitting that it’s wiser not to wholly change your diet or exercise regime simultaneously,” says Spring.

Skip the John

There’s a lot of web chatter about St. John’s wort as a stop-smoking aid, and it makes sense: The herbal antidepressant is thought to work in a similar way to a prescription medication, bupropion, used for tobacco cessation (by inhibiting the reuptake of the neurotransmitters dopamine and norepinephrine).

But after a multi-year double-blind study, researchers at the Mayo Clinic were not impressed. “We found no evidence that St. John’s wort was effective,” says Dr. Sood. “The truth is traditional pharmaceutical and behavioral approaches and alternative mind-body approaches both have more promise than the supplement.”

Buddy Up

There’s strength in numbers when it comes to quitting. After analyzing the quit rates of 1,000 people in treatment programs — some who met one on one and others who met with a group — researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Public Health found the group quit rate at six months was 41 percent (12 points higher than the one-on-oners).

Other UMDNJ research concurs. Forty to 50 percent of people who attended six group meetings at their workplace — sharing stories, laughs, compassion — were successful quitters six months out. Join the group!

Talk the Talk

It sounds too simple to be true: Talking to your doctor about smoking increases the chances you’ll quit. A review of 31,000 smokers in the UK found that even brief doctor-patient chats up the odds of quitting by 3 percent — for up to a year. How you talk to yourself counts, too.

“Stop, quit, give up — so much of the language of quitting is negative,” says Janet Konefal, Ph.D., assistant dean of complementary and integrative medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “We tell people to talk positively to themselves when they’re ruminating about a cigarette. Something simple like ‘I can do this’ can be remarkably powerful.”

Gross Yourself Out

Ever tape a pic of a bikini model to the fridge for thinspiration? This is that idea in reverse. Images of a mouth with cancerous lesions on the lips and rotten teeth, diseased lungs or a tracheotomy are potent motivators, according to research from the Tobacco Dependence Clinic at the UMDNJ School of Public Health.

Smokers saw three types of warnings — neutral, graphic and text. A whopping 84 percent rated the graphic images as the greatest deterrents. Coincidentally, new FDA guidelines require cigarette manufacturers to cover half their labels with such images by September 2012. “It’s a start,” says Foulds, “but if the pictures were larger and more repulsive, as they are in Europe, they’d be even more effective.”

Harness the Web

Does Twitter equal quitter? That’s the question posed by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, who followed 179 quit-smoking groups on Twitter for three years and found that in the groups eliciting peer-to-peer support, 34 percent of the tweets were related to quit dates, benefits of quitting and alternative treatments.

But does online support make a difference? A new study launched by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center at the University of Washington wants to figure out which of two websites work for whom, based on gender, age and smoking profile, says Jonathan Bricker, Ph.D., the study director. The online study is recruiting participants nationwide through the end of the summer. Check WebQuit.org for info on being a digital guinea pig.

Mobilize Your Mojo

Where there’s a will, there’s an app — for quitting, that is. Quitter, Livestrong MyQuit Coach, Smoke Out, Smoke Break and more than 40 others are a download away.

“The applications work because they structure the quit attempt, helping you track progress, record your achievements and link to Facebook and Twitter to keep friends and family in the loop,” says Foulds.

The rave user reviews on iTunes are enough to take your breath away, but a commentary in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine notes that many apps don’t tout evidence-based treatments. Bottom line: You’ll have to give an app a try to see if it works for you.

Get Hip to Hypnosis

Can you hypnotize away a habit? Maybe, according to research at Scott and White Memorial Hospital in Texas, where patients underwent eight hypnotherapy visits over a two-month period. By the last visit, 40 percent of them had quit.

A different study suggests that men are more likely to succeed with stop-smoking hypnosis than women. “Hypnosis can be very helpful — even one session can have an impact — but its success depends on both the willingness of the patient and the skillfulness of the practitioner,” says Konefal.

Stick it to Cravings

Acupuncture, the ancient practice of Chinese medicine, needles away cravings, at least anecdotally. The clinical evidence is more limited. A meta-analysis of 33 studies of acupuncture and related techniques found that acupuncture was less effective than traditional nicotine-replacement therapy — but it also found that many of the acupuncture studies were themselves flawed.

Konefal notes that research shows acupuncture enhances the production of serotonin in the brain, which smoking cessation decreases. “For this reason, we believe acupuncture works best if you get treatment the day you quit or within the first 72 hours,” she says. “We use ear, or auricular acupuncture, and have found a total of six treatments increases quit rates by 30 percent.”

Give Yourself a Hand

While most massages are whole-body, whole-hour affairs, two minutes of self-massage can have a powerful anti-smoking effect. In a small study at the University of Miami, researchers found that when smokers gave themselves a two-minute ear or hand massage every day for a month, they lit up less. “It makes sense since we know from acupuncture that the ear is a microsystem of the body,” says Konefal. There’s also the added benefit that your hands are doing something other than striking a match.

Put Your Mind to It

Listening to a CD to practice “mindful meditation” may turn up the volume on quitting.

A pilot study of longtime smokers at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health found more than half — 56 percent — stopped smoking after eight group sessions teaching meditation and daily practice with a CD. Those who spent an average of 45 minutes a day meditating did better than those who spent 20-something minutes per day. iTunes is full of meditative picks. All together now: Ommmmm.

Tobacco company rep David Howard waxes enthusiastic when he talks about a new product his employer, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., has developed: a pellet of finely cured tobacco, binders and flavoring that dissolves in the mouth in 10 minutes.

Under test market in two U.S. cities — Denver and Charlotte, N.C. — Camel Orbs will join two dissolvable tobacco lozenges already on the market if it graduates to broader distribution. And Howard is optimistic it will.

“These products provide smokers with an option to enjoy the pleasure of nicotine without bothering others,” Howard said. “No secondhand smoke. No spitting. No cigarette butt.”

Dissolvable tobacco consists of small pieces of compressed, finely ground tobacco powder, binders and flavorings that are shaped into pellets, sticks or strips. When placed in the mouth, they dissolve within minutes, providing a nicotine hit.

The tobacco industry says that the products contain far fewer cancer-causing chemicals such as tobacco-specific nitrosamines and are a “harm reduction” strategy that, like electronic cigarettes, might help people turn to less risky tobacco habits or eventually quit smoking.

But public health officials and anti-smoking advocates fear that the products will help initiate a new generation of smokers. The flavoring and packaging appeal to children, they argue, and teenagers will gravitate toward a product they can easily hide.

On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration will take up the issue with an advisory committee hearing on the effect of dissolvable tobacco products on public health.

“Tobacco companies are always one step ahead of the sheriff,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), one of several senators who asked the FDA to review the products. “They have found ways to evade the rules and regulations and public health warnings.”

The first dissolvable tobacco product, a lozenge called Ariva, debuted in 2001. But in the last year the number of products on sale or in test marketing has jumped and major tobacco companies have entered the arena. Reynolds is market-testing two other products, Camel Strips and Camel Sticks, in addition to Camel Orbs. Philip Morris is test marketing a dissolvable tobacco stick.

At the same time, use of smokeless tobacco — snuff, chew, electronic cigarettes and, increasingly, dissolvable tobacco — is growing at a rate of about 7% per year, according to a 2010 report by Research and Markets, an international market research and data company.

In some states, use of smokeless tobacco products among men is almost as high as the national prevalence of cigarette smoking among adults, which stands at 20.8%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Across the U.S., 7% of U.S. adult males use smokeless tobacco, the CDC said.

Use among children is growing too. According to a 2010 survey by Monitoring the Future, an annual nationwide study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 8.5% of 12th-graders said they had used a smokeless tobacco product in the last 30 days compared with 6.7% in 2003.

“Because it has a mild taste, we’re concerned dissolvable tobacco will be a starter product for kids,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Washington-based anti-smoking group Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “Traditionally, girls have not used smokeless tobacco products. But this product does not have a substantial smell or require spitting. There is a real concern that this product will appeal to adolescent girls, particularly those concerned about weight.”

Public health officials also have expressed concern about the effect on teeth and gums of holding the product in the mouth for 10 to 20 minutes and the effect on the stomach from swallowing the tobacco chemicals.

Few studies have been done specifically on the potential health risks of dissolvable tobacco.

One study, published in March in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, tested fourdissolvable tobacco products, three of which were being test-marketed, and found they contained mostly nicotine and a variety of flavorings, sweeteners and binders.

Some products contained coumarin, which has been banned as a flavoring agent in foods because of its link to liver damage, said study author John V. Goodpaster, an assistant professor in the forensic and investigative sciences program at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Studies on other smokeless tobacco products show they are considerably less risky than smoking cigarettes and cigars, which raises the risk of lung and a variety of other cancers, respiratory illness and heart disease. However, smokeless products still increase the risk of oral, pancreatic and esophageal cancer as well as heart disease. They can cause gum disease and can be unsafe for a fetus, health experts say.

The lowered risks of dissolvable products should be seen as a positive development, said Brad Rodu, a professor of medicine and chairman of tobacco harm reduction research at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

“One cannot call any tobacco product absolutely safe,” said Rodu, who said he received funds from tobacco companies to do his research but had no personal ties to any company. “But the health risks of using smokeless tobacco products over the long term are so low that they are barely measurable by modern epidemiological evidence.”

Rodu added that smoking-cessation aids such as nicotine gum and the medication Chantix have limited success and that people who can’t quit should be urged to try safer products.

“We have 45 million smokers in the United States,” he said. “If we had almost any other activity in society that was this dangerous, we would welcome products that were safer.”

Sara Troy Machir, vice president of communications and investor relations at Star Scientific Inc., maker of Ariva and another dissolvable tobacco product called Stonewall, said the Glen Allen, Va.-based company is developing two new products, Ariva BDL and Stonewall BDL, with lower levels of tobacco-specific nitrosamines (BDL stands for “below detection limits”).

Machir said the company was founded with the mission of reducing harms associated with tobacco use and that “we have absolutely no interest in recruiting another generation of tobacco users.”

Star Scientific applied to the FDA last year for approval to market its two new products as “modified risk tobacco products.” To the chagrin of anti-smoking advocates, the FDA announced in March that the products were not subject to regulation under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gives the agency the authority to regulate tobacco products.

Twelve senators, including Brown, Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) and Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), have asked the FDA to reverse its decision.

In April, the FDA announced it was developing a strategy to regulate additional categories of tobacco products and that it would review information on dissolvable tobacco from published studies, manufacturers’ research and the advisory committee meeting this week. The agency is expected to eventually close any loopholes that might prevent dissolvable tobacco products from escaping its jurisdiction.

“It’s very clear dissolvable products are here to stay, and I believe the FDA will have to deal with them,” Rodu said.

Smoke gets in your ears — if you’re a teen exposed to secondhand smoke — and is associated with hearing loss, a large study suggested.

Exposed adolescents were 1.83 times more likely to experience low-frequency hearing loss than those who had no exposure, according to Dr. Anil K. Lalwani and colleagues from New York University in New York City.

And the greatest risk for hearing loss — a 2.72-fold increase — was in those with the highest levels of exposure as determined by serum cotinine levels, Lalwani’s group reported in the July Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery.

The list of potentially harmful outcomes associated with exposure to secondhand smoke continues to grow, from low birth weight to behavioral and cognitive problems and respiratory tract infections — and more than half of U.S. children are exposed.

In the first study to examine secondhand smoke exposure and sensorineural hearing loss in young people, the investigators analyzed cross-sectional data from the 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).

They identified 1,533 nonsmokers ages 12 to 19 who had undergone audiometric testing and whose serum cotinine levels had been measured.

Low-frequency sensorineural hearing loss was defined as a pure-tone level above 15 dB for 0.5, 1, and 2 kHz, while high-frequency loss was a level above 15 dB for 3, 4, 6, and 8 kHz.

Overall rates of hearing loss ranged from 3.68 percent for bilateral high-frequency hearing loss to 9.55 percent for unilateral low-frequency hearing loss.

Yet only 18.43 percent of the teens with these forms of hearing loss were aware of the problem.

Other factors associated with hearing loss included a history of eczema, black race, and having been cared for in a neonatal intensive care unit.

When participants were divided into quartiles by level of serum cotinine, the prevalence increased from 7.53 percent in nonexposed adolescents to 17.05 percent of those with the highest level of this marker of tobacco exposure.

The researchers noted that the link of secondhand smoke exposure with elevated thresholds ranging from 0.5 kHz to 8 kHz suggests “that the injury to the inner ear is global.”

In addition, the unilateral hearing loss is probably an early phase of ocular damage that is likely to progress in severity, they cautioned.

The elevated thresholds at 2, 3, and 4 kHz were particularly important, according to Lalwani and colleagues.

“These mid-to-high frequencies are critical for hearing in humans and are responsible for the clarity of hearing that allows us to discriminate between similar sounding words,” they observed.

Possible mechanisms by which secondhand smoke could result in auditory damage include effects on the vasculature of the inner ear and injury from nicotine or other components of the smoke.

Hearing loss in young children has been shown to interfere with not only speech and language development, but also cognitive function, academic progress, and social interaction.

But newborns and young children are routinely screened for hearing difficulties, while adolescents are not.

The findings of this study suggest that teens who are exposed to secondhand smoke should have their hearing tested, and parents and caretakers should be made aware of the auditory hazards of their smoking.

Limitations of the study include its use of cross-sectional data which doesn’t allow assignment of causation, lack of information on duration and sources of secondhand smoke exposure — including prenatal exposure — and absence of data on other factors such as exposure to loud noises.

The researchers also were unable to rule out the possibility that some of the participants had conductive, rather than sensorineural, hearing loss.

They concluded, “Future studies need to investigate the adverse consequences of this early hearing loss on social development, academic performance, behavioral and cognitive function, and public health costs.”

In a dramatic bid to get more Americans to quit smoking, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday released nine graphic warning labels that will appear on all packs of cigarettes by no later than September 2012.

One image shows a man’s face and a lighted cigarette in his hand, with smoke escaping from a hole in his neck — the result of a tracheotomy. The caption reads “Cigarettes are addictive.” Another image shows a mother holding a baby as smoke swirls about them, with the warning: “Tobacco smoke can harm your children.”

A third images depicts a distraught woman with the caption: “Warning: Smoking causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers.”

A fourth picture shows a mouth with smoked-stained teeth and an open sore on the lower lip. “Cigarettes cause cancer,” the caption reads.

In addition to the images, the label on packs of cigarettes will include a phone number — 1-800-QUIT-NOW — so smokers will know where to go for help quitting.

By law, the labels must appear on every pack of cigarettes sold in the United States and on all cartons and in all cigarette advertising. The campaign marks the first major change to cigarette packaging in the last 25 years, the FDA said.

“President Obama is committed to protecting our nation’s children and the American people from the dangers of tobacco use. These labels are frank, honest and powerful depictions of the health risks of smoking and they will help,” U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a news release. “These labels will encourage smokers to quit, and prevent children from smoking. President Obama wants to make tobacco-related death and disease part of the nation’s past, and not our future.”

Matthew L. Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, called the new warnings the “most dramatic change in cigarette warnings in the history of the United States. For the first time the warnings are large enough to be seen and graphic enough to catch the attention of consumers.”

The labels will fill the top half of all cigarette packs.

Myers said the images on the labels are exactly the kind of measure that has been shown to be effective in encouraging children not to smoke and getting adults to quit. But, to keep the message vibrant, the images need to be changed regularly because as people get used to them, the impact of the warning weakens, he added.

“For the first time we have labels that not only tell people that smoking is dangerous, but provide them the kind of information they need to now how dangerous it is,” he said. “The warning labels have the potential to dramatically reduce the number of our kids who start, but they will be most effective if they are complemented by comprehensive tobacco-control programs in every state.”

Many such programs have been curtailed in recent years as cash-strapped states have diverted funding from tobacco-control efforts to pay for constituent services or to hold down tax increases. In states that have maintained funding, the number of smokers continues to drop, Myers said.

The new labels are a part of the requirements of the new Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, signed into law in 2009 by President Barack Obama, who has struggled for many years to quit smoking. For the first time, the law gave the FDA significant control over tobacco products.

The FDA hopes these new warnings will have a “significant public health impact by decreasing the number of smokers, resulting in lives saved, increased life expectancy, and improved health status.”

The agency said it chose the nine images from 36 originally proposed. The agency also said it reviewed the relevant scientific literature, analyzed the results from an 18,000-person study and reviewed more than 1,700 comments from a variety of groups, including the tobacco industry, retailers, health professionals, public health and other advocacy groups, state and local public health agencies, medical organizations and consumers.

Dr. Jonathan Whiteson, director of the Cardiac and Pulmonary Wellness and Rehabilitation Program at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City, is concerned that the images may be too graphic.

“The ‘fear factor’ of the negative message can lose its potency — we become immune to the negative warnings over time, and if too graphic, we often hide behind the denial wall stating, ‘This just can’t possibly happen to me.’ The more graphic the image, the more likely the message will become marginalized and thrown out as too wild and extreme a possibility for the smoker,” he said in a statement.”

Whiteson thinks that to get kids not to take up smoking, messages have to convey the idea that smoking isn’t cool.

Smoking is the leading cause of early and preventable death in the United States, resulting in some 443,000 fatalities each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and costs almost $200 billion every year in medical costs and lost productivity.