EXOTIC TOBACCO PRODUCTS POPULAR WITH MINORITY YOUTH

According to a study of New Jersey middle- and high-schoolers, flavored Asian cigarettes, even worse than regular ones, are gaining popularity among minority youth. The exotic cigarettes from India and Southeast Asia, called “bidis,” are manufactured of tobacco wrapped in a leaf and tied with a string. For the U.S. market, cherry, root beer, vanilla, or other aromas are added.

After sampling the New Jersey young people, Mary Hrywna, M.P.H., and colleagues found that about 34 percent of high school kids and 12 percent of middle school students used any kind of tobacco. But, 9 percent of high school and 5 percent of the middle-schoolers said they used “bidis”.

Black high school students were more likely to smoke “bidis” than white students. In middle school, black and Hispanic students were more than twice as likely as whites to use them.

Bidis’ candy-like taste and a street reputation as “natural” products lead youth, especially minorities, to consider them safer than ordinary cigarettes.
The study showed young people who believed that “bidis” were safer were more likely to use them, as were users of other tobacco products.

But “bidis” deliver more nicotine than usual cigarettes, increasing the likelihood of addiction and raising the risk of cancers of the mouth, lungs, throat, stomach, esophagus and liver, say the researchers.

Because enforcement of laws governing tobacco sales to minors concentrates on cigarettes, products like snuff or “bidis” are easier to buy. Other researchers have discovered that “bidis” are often sold without tax stamps, suggesting they are imported illegally and thus can be sold more cheaply than usual tobacco products.

A complete approach to youth tobacco prevention and cessation campaigns should address other tobacco products as well as cigarettes. Those approaches should also pay attention to groups like black youth, who use “bidis”, cigarettes and cigars about equally.

Future study should try to understand just why young people are so attracted to “bidis”. Tobacco control efforts must also combat the illusion that they are not as bad as regular cigarettes. Public health messages aimed at youth must dispel the dangerous myth that other tobacco products like “bidis” and cigars are safer than usual cigarettes.

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Can Smoking Affects Athletic Performance?

In a study researchers showed that some runners still smoke and this is a bad habit for their health. They said that these runners have less to do with stretching and more to do with smoking.

Smoking is one of the biggest secrets of the fitness world and also is a serious problem, because is not talking about mall walkers who light up once a week. These are men and women who compete in marathons and triathlons and go hiking and train at the gym. And who also have a pretty steady cigarette habit.

Miguel Otero, 29, of Nashville, a regular smoker who light up as soon as he finished running, said: "I tell myself that I'm a healthy smoker because I run."
Otero has a healthy living through exercise and sticking to a vegetarian diet, but smoking away nonetheless.

According to a study 2 percent of the 2,500 people who responded said they smoked, unbeknownst to their running friends. About 4 percent said they smoked but that their running buddies know that.

"Those are two things that just don't go together," said Amy Barrow, 50, of Nashville, who gave up smoking when she was 32 and started running competitively.

She was 16 when she picked up her first cigarette, snuck out of her mother's purse or something like that, Barrow reported. Throughout her young adult life, she smoked a pack and a half of unfiltered Camel cigarettes a day.

About 1990, she took a jog with some friends from the gym and found out she was pretty good at it, bad lungs and all.
"I wondered what would happen if I quit smoking," she added.

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