Ann Arbor, MI – Despite years of anti-smoking education and legislation, tobacco use still remains an important public health issue in the United States. In 2010, 25.2% of all adults and 35.6% of young adults reported current tobacco use. While anti-tobacco efforts continue across the county, the introduction of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has been marketed as a less harmful alternative to cigarettes and also as a smoking cessation aid.

E-cigarettes supply nicotine through inhaled water vapor. While the addictiveness and long-term effects of using e-cigarettes as a nicotine delivery system are unknown, many people anecdotally believe that they are safer than traditional tobacco products. According to a new study published in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, the belief that e-cigarettes pose less of a health risk may lead to increased experimentation with e-cigarettes among young adults.

Investigators from the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota looked at whether or not there was a relationship between perceived notions about the harmfulness of e-cigarettes relative to cigarettes and subsequent e-cigarette use among young adults. Investigators surveyed 1379 participants from the Minnesota Adolescent Community Cohort who had never used e-cigarettes. The initial baseline survey explored their opinions about e-cigarettes and their effect on health relative to cigarettes or their usefulness as an aid to stop smoking. Then, a follow-up survey conducted one year later asked participants if they had experimented with e-cigarettes.

"Participants who agreed e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking and those who agreed that e-cigarettes are less harmful than cigarettes were more likely than those who did not agree to subsequently report experimenting with e-cigarettes. These associations did not vary by gender or smoking status," says study lead author Kelvin Choi, PhD.

Specifically, the follow-up study found that 7.4% of participants who had never used an e-cigarette at baseline reported subsequently using an e-cigarette, with 21.6% among baseline current smokers, 11.9% among baseline former smokers, and 2.9% among baseline nonsmokers reporting use.

"The study showed that 2.9% of baseline nonsmokers in this U.S. regional sample of young adults reported ever using e-cigarettes at follow-up, suggesting an interest in e-cigarettes among nonsmoking young adults," explains Dr. Choi. "This is problematic because young adults are still developing their tobacco use behaviors, and e-cigarettes may introduce young adults to tobacco use, or promote dual use of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products."

While the risks associated with long-term e-cigarette use are largely unknown, recent studies suggest that they can significantly increase plasma nicotine levels, which means they are potentially as addictive as cigarettes. "This study also suggested that about 12% of former young adults smokers at baseline were re-introduced to nicotine through e-cigarettes. Future prospective studies including adults of all ages are needed to confirm these finding related to e-cigarette use among nonsmokers and former smokers, and to determine the role of e-cigarettes on relapse of smoking," adds Dr. Choi.

This link between beliefs about e-cigarettes and subsequent experimentation can be used to guide future anti-nicotine and anti-smoking campaigns that encompass the new technology of e-cigarettes. "Understanding the specific beliefs that predict subsequent e-cigarette experimentation allows us to focus on these beliefs when designing public health messages," concludes Dr. Choi. "Results from this study suggest that messages about the lack of evidence on e-cigarettes being cessation aids, and the uncertainty of the risks associated with e-cigarette use may discourage young adults, particularly young adult nonsmokers and former smokers, from experimenting with e-cigarettes."

Washington, DC – To help long-term care facilities create and implement comprehensive infection prevention programs, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) has published the Infection Preventionist’s Guide to Long-Term Care.

Infection preventionists in long-term care facilities (LTCF) face unique challenges due to the nature of the care setting and its aging resident population. An estimated 1.5 million infections occur annually in LTCF, resulting in 350,000 to 400,000 deaths.

“APIC is committed to increasing educational resources for long-term care to advance knowledge and competencies of healthcare personnel working in this setting, and for the benefit of the residents under their care,” said Katrina Crist, MBA, APIC CEO. “With more than 15,000 long-term care facilities in the United States, and a national priority to prevent healthcare-associated infections, APIC’s new book guides LTCFs through the essential components of an evidence-based infection prevention program.”

The Infection Preventionists Guide to Long-Term Care is accompanied by a CD-ROM with customizable forms, tools, and resources. Developed by a team of infection prevention experts, the book presents topic-specific information in a user-friendly format that includes numerous examples, visuals, checklists, and references to help increase the understanding of:

- Regulatory requirements

-Comprehensive infection prevention risk assessment and program development

-Surveillance and reporting

-Nursing assessment and interventions to prevent the most commonly occurring infections in long-term care

-Environmental cleaning and disinfection

-Unique long-term care issues such as care transitions and life enrichment activities

-Occupational health, immunization programs, and staff education

-Disaster and pandemic preparedness

An article in the Journal of the American Dental Association has outlined new screening guidelines and reiterated best practices for preventing the spread of dangerous viruses such as hepatitis C in dental settings.  

Read the Dr. Biscupid article by clicking here.

Biocides used in the food industry at sublethal doses may be endangering, rather than protecting, public health by increasing antibiotic resistance in bacteria and enhancing their ability to form harmful biofilms, according to a study published ahead of print in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. This is among the first studies to examine the latter phenomenon.

The study was designed to test whether exposing Escherichia coli bacteria to sub-lethal concentrations of each of three food-grade biocides could result in greater antibiotic resistance, a greater ability to form damaging and potentially virulent biofilms and to survive normally lethal doses of biocides, says corresponding author Rosa Capita of the University of Leon, Spain.

"Recent scientific evidence suggests that the selective pressure exerted by the use of biocides at sub-lethal concentrations could contribute to the expression and dissemination of antibiotic resistance mechanisms," according to the report.

Exposures to the biocide sodium nitrite increased resistance to 14 out of 29 antibiotics tested. E. coli cells also acquired tolerance to the biocides, especially sodium nitrite and sodium hypochlorite, and these two biocides improved the microbes' ability to form biofilms.

Conversely, exposure to the biocide trisodium phosphate actually reduced E. coli's ability to form biofilms, and boosted resistance only to a single antibiotic.

"These findings are in agreement with reports of other authors, where adaptation of E. coli to both chemical and physical sub-lethal stresses has been demonstrated," write the researchers. "The increased tolerance observed suggests that the use in food environments of compounds which when used inappropriately may provide sub-lethal exposure represents a real risk for the development of adaptation to biocides."

Biofilms boost the risk of food contamination by providing a reservoir of microorganisms, and biofilm formation is a major virulence factor in human infections. Biofilm formation also boosts operation and maintenance costs in food production by interfering with heat exchangers, plugging filters and blocking tubes in water distribution systems.

The study's results are important in demonstrating the need to guide policies to prevent improper use of biocides, says Capita.

The ADAA Foundation is seeking ADAA member nominees for appointment to its Board of Directors. Nominees should have held a leadership role at the local, state or national level and have volunteer or community service experience, preferably in fundraising.

For more information, click here: https://dentalassistant.org/Content/Details/Donate

CHICAGO--The Friends of the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (FNIDCR) recently recognized Oral Health America (OHA) President and CEO Beth Truett with its Outstanding Public Advocacy Award, which is presented to an individual who has helped foster improved healthcare for patients and other health consumers through advocacy efforts for specific patient groups.

“Beth has made impressive contributions to the oral healthcare arena in her five short years at OHA," said Dr. J. Leslie Winston, Director of Global Oral Care Professional and Scientific Relations for Procter & Gamble, who nominated Ms. Truett for the award." The award called out specifically her efforts to impact the oral health of older Americans through toothwisdom.org and the Wisdom Tooth Project. Beth’s holistic approach,from advocacy on Capitol Hill to accessible education and resources in our communities, is inspiring! These kinds of programs do not happen without the ability to bring diverse stakeholder groups together and Beth has demonstrated strong leadership in this area.”

The FNIDCR is a nonprofit organization that was established on the 50th anniversary of the NIDCR in 1998 and consists of a broad-based coalition of individuals, institutions, and corporations who understand the critical importance of dental, oral, and craniofacial research to the better health and well-being of society. The award was presented during the FNIDCR Annual Conference and Awards Dinner in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 21.

ORONTO—Tripling taxes on cigarettes around the world would reduce the number of smokers by one-third and prevent 200 million premature deaths from lung cancer and other diseases this century, according to a review published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Such a large tax increase would double the street price of cigarettes in some countries and narrow the price gap between the cheapest and most expensive cigarettes, which would encourage people to stop smoking rather than switch to a cheaper brand and help young people not to start.

This would be especially effective in low- and middle-income countries, where the cheapest cigarettes are relatively affordable and where smoking rates continue to rise, said Dr. Prabhat Jha, director of the Centre for Global Health Research of St. Michael's Hospital and a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. But it would also be effective in rich countries, he said, noting that France halved cigarette consumption between 1990 and 2005 by raising taxes well above inflation.

"Death and taxes are inevitable, but they don't need to be in that order," Dr. Jha said. "A higher tax on tobacco is the single most effective intervention to lower smoking rates and to deter future smokers."

Countries around the world agreed at the United Nations General Assembly and the World Health Organization's 2013 Assembly to decrease the prevalence of smoking by about one-third by 2025 to reduce premature deaths from cancer and other chronic diseases by 25 per cent.

Tobacco causes about 200,000 deaths a year of people under 70 in Canada and the United States (120,000 men and 80,000 women). Doubling cigarette prices would prevent about 70,000 of those deaths and provide new revenue that governments could spend on health care. Dr. Jha said that even while higher tobacco taxes would reduce consumption, they would still generate an additional $100 billion U.S. a year for a total of $400 billion.

"Worldwide, around a half-billion children and adults under the age of 35 are already – or soon will be – smokers and on current patterns few will quit," said Professor Sir Richard Peto of the University of Oxford, the co-author.

"So there's an urgent need for governments to find ways to stop people starting and to help smokers give up. This study demonstrates that tobacco taxes are a hugely powerful lever and potentially a triple win – reducing the numbers of people who smoke and who die from their addiction, reducing premature deaths from smoking and yet, at the same time, increasing government income. All governments can take action by regularly raising tobacco taxes above inflation, and using occasional steep tax hikes starting with their next budget. Young adult smokers will lose about a decade of life if they continue to smoke – they've so much to gain by stopping."

Controlling tobacco marketing is also key to helping people quit smoking. An independent review in the United Kingdom concluded that plain packaging would reduce the appeal of cigarettes, a switch that is expected before the next election. Australia changed to plain packaging in 2011, a measure New Zealand plans to follow.

Dr. Jha and Sir Richard noted that the 21st-century hazards of smoking have been reliably documented only in the past year, when several researchers published papers showing that men and women who started smoking when they were young and continued throughout adulthood had two or three times the mortality rate of non-smokers. An average of 10 years of life is lost from smoking. Many of those killed are still in middle age, meaning on average they lose about 20 years of life expectancy.

Both Dr. Jha and Sir Richard published papers last year showing that people who quit smoking when they are young can regain almost all of the decade of life they might otherwise have lost.

As if cancer, heart disease and other diseases were not enough motivation to make quitting smoking your New Year's resolution, here's another wake-up call: New research published in the January 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal suggests that smoking disrupts the circadian clock function in both the lungs and the brain. Translation: Smoking ruins productive sleep, leading to cognitive dysfunction, mood disorders, depression and anxiety.

"This study has found a common pathway whereby cigarette smoke impacts both pulmonary and neurophysiological function. Further, the results suggest the possible therapeutic value of targeting this pathway with compounds that could improve both lung and brain functions in smokers," said Irfan Rahman, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Department of Environmental Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center in Rochester, N.Y. "We envisage that our findings will be the basis for future developments in the treatment of those patients who are suffering with tobacco smoke-mediated injuries and diseases.

Rahman and colleagues found that tobacco smoke affects clock gene expression rhythms in the lung by producing parallel inflammation and depressed levels of brain locomotor activity. Short- and long- term smoking decreased a molecule known as SIRTUIN1 (SIRT1, an anti-aging molecule) and this reduction altered the level of the clock protein (BMAL1) in both lung and brain tissues in mice. A similar reduction was seen in lung tissue from human smokers and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). They made this discovery using two groups of mice which were placed in smoking chambers for short-term and long-term tobacco inhalation. One of the groups was exposed to clean air only and the other was exposed to different numbers of cigarettes during the day. Researchers monitored their daily activity patterns and found that these mice were considerably less active following smoke exposure.

Scientists then used mice deficient in SIRT1 and found that tobacco smoke caused a dramatic decline in activity but this effect was attenuated in mice that over expressed this protein or were treated with a small pharmacological activator of the anti-aging protein. Further results suggest that the clock protein, BMAL1, was regulated by SIRT1, and the decrease in SIRT1 damaged BMAL1, resulting in a disturbance in the sleep cycle/molecular clock in mice and human smokers. However, this defect was restored by a small molecule activator of SIRT1.

"If you only stick to one New Year's resolution this year, make it quitting smoking," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "Only Santa Claus has a list longer than that of the ailments caused or worsened by smoking. If you like having a good night's sleep, then that's just another reason to never smoke."

This year's flu season may be off to a slow start nationwide, but infection rates are spiking in the south-central United States, where five deaths have already been reported in Texas.

Read the HealthDay News story here.