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TAS2R38 gene variants, which confer sensitivity to specific bitter tastants (e.g. 6- n -propylthiouracil), have been repeatedly associated with lower alcohol use via greater bitterness perception, but research exploring TAS2R38 variation in relation to smoking shows mixed results. In both, the working hypothesis is that 1 or more copies of the functional allele increases bitterness and may provide a barrier to early use. Such a barrier to initiation may, conceivably, manifest as differential rates of current use across diplotypes. Here, an age-diverse convenience sample (n = 886) of Denver Museum of Nature and Science guests was used to explore cross-sectional relationships between TAS2R38 diplotype, self-reported tobacco use (current, former, never smokers), and a rapid measure of 6- n -propylthiouracil phenotype (bitterness of filter paper discs). TAS2R38 diplotypes were determined by Sanger sequencing. After excluding rare diplotypes, data from 814 participants were analyzed. A mix of current (~10%), former (25%), and never smokers (65%) were included. As expected, there was a relationship between TAS2R38 diplotype and 6- n -propylthiouracil bitterness. However, contrary to our hypothesis, there was no evidence of a relationship between diplotype and smoker status among participants with common TAS2R38 diplotypes. Notably, we observed a relationship between of 6- n -propylthiouracil bitterness and smoking status, but the effect was opposite of what was expected: current smokers perceived higher (not lower) bitterness than never smokers. When all the various factors (diplotype, age, sex, and smoking status) were included in ANOVA, all remained predictive of 6- n -propylthiouracil bitterness. Reasons for greater phenotypic bitterness among current smokers are unknown and merit further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To present nationally representative data on the prevalence of "social" smoking and its relationship to cardiovascular health.Design: A population-based, cross-sectional survey on cardiovascular health and its risk factors across the United States.Setting: Million Hearts® cardiovascular screenings that took place in community settings.Participants: De-identified data were collected on a convenient sample of 39, 555 participants.Measures: Reported smoking status, blood pressure, and total cholesterol.Analysis: The prevalence of current smoking, social smoking, and non-smoking were cross-tabulated and stratified by sample characteristics. The adjusted estimates were derived from multiple logistic regression models, adjusting for demographics and other biometric measures.Results: Ten percent identified as social smokers. Social smokers were more likely to be aged between 21 and 40, male, and Hispanic. Social smokers had significantly higher risks of having hypertension (odds ratio [OR]: 2.08, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.80-2.41) and elevated cholesterol (OR: 1.53, 95% CI: 1.33-1.75) than non-smokers. There was no significant difference between social smokers and current smokers (OR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.80-1.14 for hypertension and OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.81-1.11 for elevated cholesterol).Conclusion: This is the first population health study to compare the blood pressure and cholesterol levels of people who self-identify as current verses social smokers. Although previous smoking behavior was not controlled for in the analysis, this study demonstrates there is no significant difference in the prevalence of elevated blood pressure or cholesterol among the 2 smoking groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary public health approaches increasingly draw attention to the unequal social distribution of cigarette smoking. In contrast, critical accounts emphasize the importance of smokers' situated agency, the relevance of embodiment and how public health measures against smoking potentially play upon and exacerbate social divisions and inequality. Nevertheless, if the social context of cigarettes is worthy of such attention, and sociology lays a distinct claim to understanding the social, we need to articulate a distinct, positive and systematic claim for smoking as an object of sociological enquiry. This article attempts to address this by situating smoking across three main dimensions of sociological thinking: history and social change; individual agency and experience; and social structures and power. It locates the emergence and development of cigarettes in everyday life within the project of modernity of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It goes on to assess the habituated, temporal and experiential aspects of individual smoking practices in everyday lifeworlds. Finally, it argues that smoking, while distributed in important ways by social class, also works relationally to render and inscribe it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since 1950, most developed countries have exhibited structural changes in mortality decline. This complicates extrapolative forecasts, such as the commonly used Lee-Carter model, that require the presence of a steady long-term trend. This study tests whether the impact of the tobacco epidemic explains the structural changes in mortality decline, as it is presumed in earlier studies. For this purpose, the time index of the Lee-Carter model in males was investigated in 20 developed countries between 1950 and 2011 for possible structural changes. It was found that removing the impact of smoking from mortality trends took away more than half of the 12 detected trend breaks. For the remaining trend breaks, adjusting for smoking attenuated the degree of change in mortality decline. Taking the tobacco epidemic into account should become standard procedure in mortality forecasts to avoid a misleading extrapolation of trends. Nevertheless, more research is needed to identify additional factors, such as health-care policies and innovations in medical treatment, to explain the remaining structural changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite well-documented health risks, indoor tanning is a common, socially acceptable practice. In 2010, five adult Caucasian women were recruited from beauty salons to participate in this exploratory study. Each woman completed a qualitative in-depth interview; the collected data were transcribed, coded, and analyzed using social comparison theory as a framework. Emergent themes were identified from the data: increased social confidence through appearance satisfaction, lifestyle, and occupation; desire to curb the aging process; and disregard for health risks. These themes foster opportunities for further investigation that may inform future research, education, and policy reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We explore the feasibility of developing measures of area deprivation from routinely collected administrative data for the Auckland Region, based on the Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation. Using data from national health, social development, education, and police databases, geospatial data providers and the 2006 Census, we developed seven domains of deprivation: Employment; Income; Crime; Housing; Health; Education; and Geographical Access, which were combined to create an overall Index of Multiple Area-Level Deprivation.Small areas developed for this research ('Lower Zones') highlight variations in deprivation for domains separately and combined, and validate the indices using smoking prevalence data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smoking remains a major player in morbidity and mortality worldwide. It is a matter of immense public health importance as single leading cause of preventable deaths. The aim of this study was to assess smoking practices that prevail across Pakistan & Attitude of people towards this issue. We conducted an extensive search on major databases as well as search of bibliography of published literature for studies assessing Attitudes and Practices of tobacco smoking that prevail across Pakistan. Data from available studies was abstracted and utilized in preparation of this manuscript. After screening of 613 articles, we were able to identify 22 studies matching our criteria for inclusion. Majority of studies reported adolescence as time of initiation. Average national prevalence was 21.6%. A significant portion of smokers comprised of females. The prevalence of smoking in healthcare professionals ranged from 32 - 37%. Passive smoking was a major contributor of tobacco exposure. Prevalence of 'Shisha' use was 33%. Smoking continues to be a major Public Health issue in Pakistan. The prevalence in healthcare professionals and adolescents is alarming. Adequate measures need to be taken to ensure its control. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues. To describe initiatives aiming to reduce the social gradient of smoking in the UK. Approach. A description of government initiatives to support smokers from low socioeconomic and other key groups, including National Health Service Stop Smoking Services and how they are seeking to support smokers to quit. Key Findings. The UK is employing a number of strategies to reduce smoking prevalence and is currently top of the Tobacco Control Scale in Europe but the health gap does not yet appear to be decreasing (in relation to smoking prevalence in deprived and higher income groups). More recently, efforts have been made to target smokers in more deprived groups to draw more of these smokers into the quitting process. Implications. While Stop Smoking Services are a key part of the UK's comprehensive tobacco control strategy and are reaching smokers from low socioeconomic groups, wider population strategies, such as ensuring all contacts with health-care professionals include advice to stop and the prohibition of remaining channels of tobacco marketing, are required to maximise the impact on deprived smokers. Conclusion. While smoking prevalence decreases among the general population are important, reducing smoking among disadvantaged groups is imperative to reduce health inequalities. It is too soon to say whether the new measures recently adopted in the UK will help to achieve this.[Murray RL, McNeill A. Reducing the social gradient in smoking: Initiatives in the United Kingdom. Drug Alcohol Rev 2012;31:693-697] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decline in cigarette smoking in high-income countries is attributed to the increasing social unacceptability of smoking, a cultural shift in which tobacco control policies are identified as playing a major part. While seen as essential to protect public health, there is a growing appreciation that these polices may have contributed to a social climate in which smoking is stigmatised. The paper reviews this debate on smoking and stigma. It notes that individuals are represented by their smoking status; other social differences are typically treated as secondary. Thus, while the links between disadvantage and smoking are acknowledged, social class remains on the margins of the debate. The paper argues instead that class provides an essential analytic lens through which to understand the stigma of smoking and the stigmatising impacts of tobacco control policies. In support of its argument, it discusses how the stigmatisation of smoking has occurred against a backdrop of widening socioeconomic differentials in smoking and the increasing importance of the body and behaviour in public discourses about social class and moral worth. The paper concludes by underlining the importance of embedding tobacco control research and policy in an appreciation of social class, and social inequalities more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents the results of a study, which aimed to compile information on tobacco consumption in a national sample of 4645 subjects within 12 thru 70 years of age. Specific questions were designed to explore the level of exposition to nicotine, as much in active smokers as in passive ones. This survey used the technique of household interview and was part of a broader effort leading to know the prevalence and the incidence of consumption of other drugs. The determination of levels of consumption in the informants and their relatives was based on frequency criteria, amount and patterns of use. Outcomes suggested that situation at the local level is complex for its consequences on public health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social smoking is increasingly prevalent and poses a challenge to traditional cessation practices. Tobacco companies conducted extensive research on social smokers long before health authorities did and marketed products to promote this smoking behavior. Purpose: Research is described and mechanisms identified that are used to promote social smoking to help improve cessation strategies in this growing group. Evidence acquisition: Searches from 2006 to 2008 of previously secret tobacco industry documents using keywords social smoker, light smoker, casual smoker, youth smoker, and occasional smoker, followed by snowball searching. Data analysis was conducted in 2008. Evidence synthesis: Tobacco industry research identified characteristics of social smokers that include: (1) denial of personal nicotine addiction; (2) self-categorization as a nonsmoker; (3) propensity for decreased tobacco use in response to smoke-free laws; (4) variations in age, education, ethnicity, and socioeconomic backgrounds; and (5) a perceived immunity to personal health effects of tobacco but fear of consequences to others. Tobacco companies developed marketing strategies aimed at social smokers, including “non–habit forming” cigarettes. Conclusions: Previously considered a transient behavior, social smoking is also a stable consumption pattern. Focused clinical questions to detect social smoking are needed and may include, “Have you smoked any cigarettes or used any tobacco products in the past month?” as opposed to “Are you a smoker?” Clinicians should recognize that social smokers might be motivated to quit after education on the dangers of secondhand smoke rather than on personal health risks or with pharmacotherapy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The reconstruction of smoking as an unhealthy practice has given rise to a discursive field in which some people shy away from smoking identities that are tainted with the attendant notions of dirt and disgust and also from overt external control over individual behaviour. In many cases individuals demonstrate social competence by quitting smoking. Social and secret smokers challenge both binary understandings of smoking identities (smoker/non-smoker) as well as the addiction model that is prevalent in explaining smoking. Social and secret smoking are conceptualised as nomadic identities that are situationally constructed and deconstructed, but always with the potential to slip into one or other identity more permanently. While these identities remain ambivalent and appear to manage their own risks, they provide us with a window into the body as a potentiality rather than a problem and thus move us beyond a compliance/resistance schema. The paper concludes that ex-, secret and social smoking involve different types of socio-spatial competence and, in order to make sense of this, we utilise both Foucauldian and Deleuzo-Guattarian frameworks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite a high prevalence of smoking for decades, recent research has documented an increase in the rates of both male and female smoking in post-Soviet Russia. As yet, however, little research has taken place on smoking at the subnational level. The current study addresses this deficit by examining smoking in Moscow - the city that has been at the forefront of the entry into the Russian market of transnational tobacco corporations (TTCs) in the transition period. Methods: Data were obtained from the Moscow Health Survey 2004 - a stratified random sample of 1190 people representative of Moscow's larger population. Information was obtained about subjects' smoking habits and age of smoking initiation. Results: The prevalence of smoking was high among both men (55.5%) and women (26.9%), with significantly higher rates in the younger age groups. There was also a high prevalence of smoking initiation before age 15 years, especially in the youngest women (18-30 years). Logistic regression analysis showed that respondents' age, binge drinking, locus of control and economic situation were important determinants of smoking. Conclusions: Although lifestyle factors seem to underpin the generally high levels of smoking, other things, such as its high prevalence in the younger generations and the factors associated with smoking (locus of control), nevertheless suggest that the TTCs may have played an important role in the spread of smoking in transitional Russia's changing social environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to describe the relationship between past changes in daily cigarette consumption and happiness using a national longitudinal panel survey. Data from 724 smokers who participated in the first 11 waves of the British Household Panel Survey were analysed using a fixed effects regression model. An increase in daily smoking frequency corresponded with a decrease in happiness (β = -0.004, 95% confidence interval -0.006 to -0.001). Independent of this relationship, happiness decreased as health deteriorated with a transition to the poorest health group associated with greatest unhappiness (β = -0.190, 95% confidence interval -0.258 to -0.123) followed by those in the next poorest health group (β = 0.114, 95% confidence interval -0.176 to -0.051) and as health improved further, the effect on happiness diminished (β = -0.077, 95% confidence interval -0.127 to -0.027) indicating a dose-repose relationship between health and happiness. Smokers who reduce cigarette consumption can expect greater happiness in a relationship that is not mediated by changes in health. This relationship is interpreted as cigarettes showing reference dependence [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Televised anti-tobacco advertising has been shown to be effective for discouraging smoking initiation; however, purchasing broadcasting time is very costly. This study investigated the relative impact of the broadcast volume (media weight) and the emotional content of an ad as predictors of advertising recall. Methods: The data come from a random-digit-dialed survey conducted in 2001 and 2002 of 3863 youth aged 12–17. Media weight was based on commercial TV ratings data. The emotional intensity of advertisements was derived from the ratings made by independent youth judges. Results: Data analyses were conducted between 2005 and 2007. Results indicated that media weight was a significant predictor of recall, but the emotional content of the ad was an even stronger predictor. Also, ads low in emotional intensity required more media weight than those high in emotional intensity to achieve the same amount of increase in recall. Conclusions: This study extends prior research that highlights the importance of emotional intensity for effective anti-tobacco advertising. It also indicates that, relative to unemotional advertisements, emotionally arousing advertisements require fewer broadcasts to achieve the same level of recall, and hence are likely to be less costly to a public health campaign. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The author reflects on the increasing marginalization of cigarette smokers in society. He suggests that one of the greatest advances in health in thirty years has been the continuing decline in the prevalence of smoking. He argues that a way to integrate the twin goals of reducing smoking and integrating people with mental illness into society must be found.

The article commemorates the 25th anniversary of publication of "Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States." The first report of the Surgeon General on smoking and health issues started numerous private and governmental researches on various set of health topics in regard to smoking. After 25 years, the data and literatures on various smoking-related issues has evidenced the consequences of smoking. Various diseases has been directly associated with smoking including cerebrovascular disease, oral cancer and lung cancer.

Commentary to: The case for investigating social context in laboratory studies of smoking [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This section offers health-related news briefs as of September 10, 2014. The U.S. Congress passed the bipartisan Autism Collaboration, Accountability, Research, Education and Support (Autism CARES) Act and the Improving Trauma Care Act of 2014. Democratic legislators called on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to limit children's exposure to electronic cigarette marketing. A bill to reform the Department of Veterans Affairs (MA) medical system was signed by President Barack Obama.