Texas Falls Behind Again on Reducing Burden Caused by Tobacco Use

The American Lung Association just released its annual State of Tobacco Control report which looks at how well states do at preventing tobacco use and helping smokers quit.

According to a report dated Jan. 20th, in December, the U.S. Surgeon General released a report finding that there is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke, including secondhand smoke.

"That's why in in 2006 the American Lung Association issued its Smokefree Air Challenge, urging all states to pass comprehensive laws prohibiting smoking in all public places and workplaces."

You may go to http://www.lungusa.org/associations/states/texas/advocacy/action-alerts.html and send a letter to your state representative in support of legislation to protect all workers from secondhand smoke in Texas.

Over in the Bay area in California, they received mixed grades on smoking policies with San Francisco and Oakland earning the highest grades among the state's ten largest cities when it comes to protecting the public from tobacco use and secondhand smoke, according to the Association's reports. (Source: Victoria Colliver, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer).

"Grades were mixed for the Bay Area overall," she writes. "California's grades, which were released in conjunction with a national report and includes all 58 counties and the 480 cities and towns statewide for the first time, also varied when stacked up against the rest of the country." (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/21/BA341HC591.DTL).

Colliver wrote that the state earned an "A" for its smoking restrictions in public places, inlcuding work sites and schools, but got an "F" for its spending on tobacco control and prevention.

"The state, once considered a national leader on tobacco control polices, has fallen behind in recent years, tobacco control advocates said," the article stated. "Overall, the Bay area fared better than many other parts of the state."

San Franciso and Oakland came in with "B's" for overall tobacco control.

Still, many of the Bay Area's cities were among 359 cities and counties or 67 percent of the jurisdictions in the state to receive overall "F" scores, research shows.

To see how other cities were graded and to view the entire report, see lungusa.org/california online.
In other related news, a recent report released by Health Day News dated Jan. 15, research shows that smoking damages DNA within minutes of inhaling, suggesting that the habit causes immediate genetic damage. (http://www.cancercompass.com/cancer-news/article/35471.htm?c=NL20110119).

The velocity of the cancer-causing process surprised the research team, according to the article.