smoking cessation

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New Zealand's Ambitious Smoking Ban Is No More

Nation's new government has nixed progressively rising smoking age, other anti-smoking measures

(Newser) - New Zealand's ambitious plan to eventually turn the nation smoke-free has itself gone up in smoke. The legislation passed in late 2022 mandated a progressively increasing smoking age that would effectively mean that anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, would never be able to legally light up....

Big Tobacco Not Thrilled With UK PM's Latest Push

Rishi Sunak's plan for progressively rising smoking age would effectively bar younger generation

(Newser) - If you're a British middle schooler looking forward to the day when you can wander into a Tesco and legally pick up a pack of cigarettes, you have a long wait ahead—as in forever, if Rishi Sunak's plans come to fruition. Per the AP , the UK prime...

Vaping Helps Smokers Quit Better Than Gum, Patches
Want to Quit
Smoking? E-Cigs 
May Be Your
Best Bet
NEW STUDY

Want to Quit Smoking? E-Cigs May Be Your Best Bet

E-cigs helped cessation better than gum, patches, scientists say—but it's not a universal endorsement

(Newser) - A major new study provides the strongest evidence yet that vaping can help smokers quit cigarettes, with e-cigarettes proving nearly twice as effective as nicotine gums and patches. The British research, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, could influence what doctors tell their patients and shape the...

Smoke Just a Little Bit? It'll Still Kill You
Smoke Just a Little Bit?
It'll Still Kill You
study says

Smoke Just a Little Bit? It'll Still Kill You

Silver lining: The sooner you quit, the lower the risks

(Newser) - More bad news for smokers, this time for those who think that cutting back will help their health. It turns out that while people who smoke between one and 10 cigarettes a day have an 87% higher risk of earlier death compared to those who've never smoked, people who...

Ex-Smokers Jittery About 'Magic' Lozenge Shortage

Some who've relied on Nicorette suckers for years are hoarding them

(Newser) - Nicotine-replacement therapies are often a lifesaver for former smokers who want to make sure they kick the habit forever. But while gum and patches may do the trick for certain ex-inhalers, there's a product that, its loyal followers say, is the only smoking-cessation remedy that's worked for them:...

Enough: End the Smoker Stigma


 Enough: End the 
 Smoker Stigma 
OPINION

Enough: End the Smoker Stigma

'The war on smoking has gone too far,' writes Alice Robb

(Newser) - CVS' decision to stop selling tobacco products "is only the latest in a string of anti-smoking measures that have gone into effect with almost no pushback," writes Alice Robb in the New Republic . Consider New York, where Michael Bloomberg's campaign to change the smoking age to 21...

Keep E-Cigs Out of Public Buildings
 Keep E-Cigs Out 
 of Public Buildings 
OPINION

Keep E-Cigs Out of Public Buildings

At least until more research is done: 'LA Times'

(Newser) - The FDA is expected to propose some regulations on electronic cigarettes this month, and lawmakers in California and elsewhere are considering their own rules as well. The problem, say the editors at the Los Angeles Times , is that while e-cigs seem less dangerous than regular cigarettes in a number of...

Star of CDC Anti-Smoking Ad Campaign Dead at 53

Terrie Hall's cancer spread to her brain

(Newser) - A North Carolina woman featured prominently in a graphic government ad campaign to get people to stop smoking died yesterday of cancer. Terrie Hall died at a hospital in Winston-Salem, NC, federal officials said. She was 53. "She was a public health hero," said Dr. Tom Frieden, director...

Strangest Way Ever to Quit Smoking: Slap a Cop
Strangest Way Ever to Quit Smoking: Slap a Cop
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Strangest Way Ever to Quit Smoking: Slap a Cop

California woman does so to get sent to a smoke-free jail

(Newser) - Etta Mae Lopez wanted to quit smoking, so she did the usual: waited patiently outside a sheriff's office until a deputy came out and then slapped him across the face. And, ta-da, now she's in a smoke-free jail for 63 days, reports the AP . The 31-year-old Californian explained...

Smokers Lose 10 Years
 Smokers Lose 10 Years 
landmark study

Smokers Lose 10 Years

But those who quit before 35 erase the lost life expectancy

(Newser) - Lifetime smokers can expect to lose about 10 years off their lives, according to one of the most comprehensive studies ever done on the subject. Other highlights from the research in tomorrow's New England Journal of Medicine:
  • Those who quit before age 35 get back those years of life
...

Quitting Smoking Actually Reduces Anxiety
Quitting Smoking Actually Reduces Anxiety
study says

Quitting Smoking Actually Reduces Anxiety

Despite the fact that many believe smoking helps them deal with stress

(Newser) - If your New Year's resolution involves finally kicking the habit, don't stress: A new study finds that quitting smoking actually reduces anxiety, even though many smokers fear that giving up cigarettes will increase it. The British Journal of Psychiatry study looked at about 500 smokers in England who...

Women Live 10 Years Longer by Quitting at Age 30

Smoking into middle age is the real killer, study says

(Newser) - Women who stop smoking by age 30 will enjoy huge health benefits and add about 10 years to their life, according to a new study. Those who quit by age 30 still lose roughly a month, and 40-year-olds lose about a year, but smoking into middle age is particularly deadly—...

Those Who Quit Smoking Usually Gain 10 Pounds

Analysis finds higher-than-expected figure

(Newser) - Congrats on quitting smoking… but beware of cupcakes. A new study shows ex-smokers typically gain 9 to 11 pounds within 12 months of quitting, reports Medical News Today . That's higher than previous estimates, but the researchers also make it very clear: The big benefits of quitting cigarettes far outweigh...

Nicotine Gum, Patches Don't Help Long-Term
Nicotine Gum, Patches
Don't Help Long-Term
STUDY SAYS

Nicotine Gum, Patches Don't Help Long-Term

NRT users just as likely to relapse as other quitters

(Newser) - Nicotine gum and patches are a lot more effective in clinical trials than they are in the real world, according to researchers at Harvard's Center for Global Tobacco Control. In the most thorough study yet of nicotine replacement therapy, researchers found that people who use the products are just...

Help Smokers Quit: Cut Packs to 10 Cigarettes
Help Smokers Quit: Cut
Packs to 10 Cigarettes
OPINION

Help Smokers Quit: Cut Packs to 10 Cigarettes

Advocate says government can take simple step

(Newser) - The vast majority of smokers say they want to quit, and a Yale public health professor has a relatively simple suggestion: "It's time for the 10-cigarette pack," writes Jody Sindelar at CNN . Studies have shown that bigger portions of food result in people eating more, and the...

VIDEO: President Obama Takes on Big Tobacco, Congratulates Those Trying to Quit in Great American Smokeout Message
 Obama 
 Calls Out 
 Big Tobacco 


Great American Smokeout

Obama Calls Out Big Tobacco

President congratulates those trying to quit

(Newser) - President Obama congratulated those who are making plans to quit smoking today as part of the Great American Smokeout, wryly acknowledging that “quitting smoking is hard—believe me, I know.” He also slammed Big Tobacco for attempting to block new cigarette warning labels “because they don’...

Obama Fit, Smoke-Free, Physical Says

That occasional cheeseburger apparently isn't hurting him, doc says

(Newser) - He may be sporting more than a few new gray hairs , but Barack Obama is physically no worse for the wear, according to his second physical as president. At the big 5-0, Obama is fit and "tobacco free," eats a healthy diet, is physically active, and is poised...

Obama: Still on the Nicorette?

White House Flickr photo seems to indicate that he is

(Newser) - Did the debt ceiling debate drive President Obama back to the arms of ... Nicorette? Politico's sharp-eyed Josh Gerstein spotted what appears to be a piece of the nicotine gum in a photo recently posted on the official White House Flickr stream. In the picture, Obama is having a phone...

Most Americans Support Public Smoking Ban
 Most Americans 
 Support Public 
 Smoking Ban 
survey says

Most Americans Support Public Smoking Ban

But fewer than 2 in 10 want to ban smoking entirely

(Newser) - Odds are, if you smoke in public these days, you'll get some dirty looks. For the first time ever, the majority of Americans support a ban on smoking in all public places, according to a new Gallup poll. But while 59% support such a ban, only 19% think smoking...

Philip Morris CEO: Smoking Not Hard to Quit

CEO himself characterized as 'longtime smoker'

(Newser) - Sure, cigarettes are bad for you and addictive, but they're really not that hard to quit—in the rose-colored world that belongs to Philip Morris CEO Louis Camilleri, who was responding to anti-tobacco comments at the cigarette maker's annual shareholder meeting. Camilleri was in 2009 characterized as a...

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