The lung function of people with asthma is harmed by the effects of diesel traffic air pollution, say researchers in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), December 6th issue.

Dr. Paul Cullinan, honorary consultant in respiratory medicine, Royal Brompton Hospital, and reader in respiratory epidemiology, Imperial College’s National Heart and Lung Institute, both in England, and team’s study is the first ever to asses the effects of diesel traffic pollution in a real-life setting.

There are 9 million diesel-driven vehicles in the United Kingdom, according to the Department of Transport – and the numbers are rising.

A diesel engine is known to generate over 100 times more particles than petrol (gasoline) engines – it is widely accepted that these particles pose a health hazard. The authors explain that nearly 90% of traffic-generated particulate in an urban environment is from diesel exhaust fumes.

In this study, the researchers looked at what effect a two-hour walk in two different London settings might have on 60 volunteers – they all suffered from mild to moderate asthma. One walk took place at the western end of Oxford Street, one of the busiest shopping streets in the country – only buses and taxis are allowed on this street, all of them diesel-powered. The second walk occurred in a traffic-free section of Hyde Park, central London.

The researchers observed a much greater reduction in lung function when the participants were walking down Oxford Street, compared to Hyde Park.

“The results of our study show for the first time that roadside exposure to diesel traffic can be harmful for asthmatics. With over five million people in the UK suffering from asthma, it is important that we that we urgently consider practical ways to reduce harmful emissions from diesel vehicles. Our findings may also help city planners to consider how they lay out future road structures to make sure that, where possible, pedestrians’ exposure to exhaust fumes is minimized,” said Cullinan

“Respiratory Effects of Exposure to Diesel Traffic in Persons with Asthma”
James McCreanor, M.R.C.P., Paul Cullinan, M.D., Mark J. Nieuwenhuijsen, Ph.D., James Stewart-Evans, M.Sc., Eleni Malliarou, M.Sc., Lars Jarup, Ph.D., Robert Harrington, M.S., Magnus Svartengren, M.D., In-Kyu Han, M.P.H., Pamela Ohman-Strickland, Ph.D., Kian Fan Chung, M.D., and Junfeng Zhang, Ph.D.
NEJM – Volume 357:2348-2358 December 6, 2007 Number 23
Click here to view Abstract online

While most animals, including humans, preferentially sense and move toward
objects that are in front of them, an electric fish from the Amazon called
the black ghost knifefish can swim backward or forward to catch its prey.
In a new study published online this week in the open-access journal PLoS
Biology, James Snyder and colleagues at Northwestern University
investigate the relationship between the energetic costs of the knifefish’s
active
sensing system-which requires far more energy than passive sensing-and the
area over which the animal senses its prey. They propose that the
energetic constraints of the knifefish’s active sensing system leads to a
restricted sensory space compared to passive-sensing animals.

By combining video analysis of prey capture behavior with computational
modeling of the fish’s electrosensory capabilities, the scientists were
able
to quantify and compare the 3D volumes for sensation and movement for the
first time in any animal. They found that the sensory volume (the size and
shape of the space within which objects can be detected by an animal)
overlaps the motor volume (the location in space that an animal can reach
within
a set time period). They suggest that this coupling may arise from
constraints that the animal faces when using self-generated energy to
probe its
environment. They also suggest that the degree of overlap between sensory
and movement volumes can provide insight into the types of control
strategies that are best suited for guiding behavior.

Citation: Snyder JB, Nelson ME, Burdick JW, MacIver MA (2007)
Omnidirectional sensory and motor volumes in electric fish. PLoS Biol
5(11): e301.
doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0050301
Please click here

plosbiology

About the Public Library of Science

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of
scientists and physicians committed to making the world’s scientific and
medical
literature a freely available public resource.

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Stemedica Cell Technologies, Inc., a leader in adult allogeneic stem cell manufacturing, research and development announced that it has received Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) to initiate a Stemedica clinical study entitled, “A Phase I/II, Multi-Center, Open-Label Study to Assess the Safety, Tolerability and Preliminary Efficacy of a Single Intravenous Dose of Allogeneic Mesenchymal Bone Marrow Cells to Subjects With Ischemic Stroke.” This study will enroll approximately 35 subjects with a clinical diagnosis of ischemic stroke. These patients have significant functional or neurologic impairment that confines them to a wheelchair or requires home nursing care or assistance with the general activities of daily living and have received the ischemic stroke diagnosis at least six months prior to enrollment in this study.

Michael Levy, MD, PhD, FACS Chief of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Children’s Hospital San Diego (CHSD) and Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Diego is the principal investigator of the study. Dr. Levy looks forward to enrolling patients, and reinforces the importance of clinical stem cell research. “This is an important step forward in translational medicine. This study may help pave the way for a new therapeutic category of treatment for ischemic stroke.”

Lev Verkh, PhD, Stemedica’s Chief Regulatory and Clinical Development Officer, commented, “We are pleased and delighted to be working with UCSD and Dr. Levy. We believe that progressing rapidly down the regulatory pathway may eventually provide treatment options for the 800,000 Americans who suffer a stroke each year.” According to the American Heart Association, stroke is the fourth leading cause of death, costing an estimated $73.7 billion in 2010 for stroke-related medical cost and disability.

The safety of stem cell treatment is of paramount concern to all stake holders in this emerging industry. Nikolai Tankovich, MD, PhD, President of Stemedica, highlights the Company’s relentless attention to this area. “As a cGMP government-licensed manufacturer of adult stem cells, we have also received an investigational new drug (IND) approval from the FDA for this clinical trial. Very few companies have this unique dual capacity. Our cells have gone through rigorous testing to make certain they are free from infectious agents and are not tumorigenic.”

Maynard Howe, PhD, Vice Chairman and CEO of Stemedica notes, “The medical and scientific community has much work to do in the prevention and treatment of stroke. Too many patients and family members have to cope with the aftermath of this disease. It is our hope that stem cell treatment may eventually ease the burden faced by patients and caregivers as well as curtail the extensive healthcare and rehabilitation costs.”

Source: Stemedica Cell Technologies, Inc

Research into the social and environmental effects on communities that are economically dependent on oil and gas industries has revealed “social dysfunction and biological impoverishment.” The research, published in Conservation Biology, revealed that over a nine year period the number of registered sex offenders in energy ‘boomtowns’ was two to three times higher than towns dependent on other industries.

The research, carried out by Dr Joel Berger and Dr Jon P. Beckmann, analysed communities in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) in Wyoming USA, an area often referred to as the largest intact ecosystem in Earth’s temperate zone. Many towns across the area are dependent on energy extraction, while others are dependent on agriculture and tourism. The authors assessed whether social and environmental issues are related to the industries that dominate these boomtowns.

“In the past few years it has become clear that the development of wide-scale energy projects takes both social and environmental tolls,” said Berger from the University of Montana and Wildlife Conservation Society. “Our research identified societal markers to reveal the negative elements associated with changing human economies and to gauge changes in both community composition and services. One of these markers was the increase in sexual predators.”

Through nine local county attorney’s offices the authors were able to study the number of registered sexual offenders, defined as convicted felons that are required by law to register with legal authorities, across the Greater Yellowstone area.

The research revealed that over a nine year period the number of sexual offenders grew by two to three times more in areas dependent on oil extraction than in similar areas dependent on agriculture or tourism.

In 2008 there were 300% more sexual offenders in the GYE than in 1997 when the US Sex Offenders Registry became law. The number of sex offenders increased most rapidly in counties dominated by oil and gas extraction.

“The absolute and relative frequency of registered sexual offenders grew faster in areas reliant on energy extraction,” Berger confirmed. “This is a severe symptom of the social problems faced by these communities. These problems, coupled with a parallel rise in ecological destruction, fit a pattern which has been reflected consistently around energy boomtowns from Ecuador to northern Canada.”

“This is not to say that the arrival of the energy industry into a community directly leads to sexual predation. Rather it is symptomatic of wider social and economic issues which communities face when they become dependent on the rise and fall of these industries,” said Beckmann from the Wildlife Conservation Society. “Our findings underscore an increase in sexual predators as a result of the dramatic social upheaval caused when a large influx of people are attracted to energy boomtowns due to high rates of employment and high salaries.”

Other symptoms of social change seen in energy boomtowns across the western United States include the use of illicit drugs, domestic violence, wildlife poaching and a general rise in crime. The research suggests that these changes occur because of the differences between the traditional rural residents and the incoming workforce.

The link between these social issues and environmental change has led to the rise of unlikely alliances as social advocates and state agencies have banded together across the area to conserve the potential for traditional rural lifestyles.

“Our findings suggest that the public and industry need stronger regulatory action to instil greater vigilance in areas which face ecological, economic and social problems, due to dependence on the energy industry,” concluded Berger.

Source: Wiley – Blackwell

Everyday, 1,000 people in Canada turn 65, entering a stage of life that has increasing risk of stroke and Alzheimer’s disease.

“Recent national and international imaging studies on the brains of people aged 65 and older show that 95 per cent have brain small vessel disease seen as white spots and patches on magnetic resonance images,” says Dr. Sandra Black, director of the Brain Sciences Research Program at Sunnybrook Research Institute at the University of Toronto.

These studies also show that a quarter of healthy senior volunteers, average age 70, living in the community, have evidence of small silent strokes. Even in younger people (average age 60), this number may be as high as 14 per cent, according to preliminary results of the Canadian PURE MIND study, presented at the Canadian Stroke Congress in Ottawa, where Dr. Black addressed more than 900 researchers and clinicians.

“Microbleeds, another type of small vessel disease, are associated with high blood pressure and with Alzheimer’s disease,” she says. Unlike major stroke events, these types of small vessel disease gradually build up and increase the risk of clinical stroke events, depression, falls and Alzheimer’s dementia.

“Alzheimer’s and small vessel disease often live together in the brains of the elderly in a way that is very disabling,” says Dr. Black. “People become depressed, off balance when walking, have trouble thinking and often cannot live on their own. Unfortunately, so far there is no cure for either disease but there are actions we can all take to delay onset or progression.”

The time is now for the brain to be the top priority for Canada’s health research community, says Dr. Black. In the next 20 years the number of people with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease is expected to reach more than one million in Canada alone, increasing ten-fold the current health care costs of$15 billion/year, she says.

“Stroke is adding to the increasing incidence of dementia: 65 per cent of stroke patients experience difficulty with thinking, memory, goal setting and motivation after a stroke and 20 to 30 per cent become clinically demented within three months post-stroke,” says Dr. Black.

Research for a cure is being actively pursued but, in the meantime, there are important counter measures people can take to delay and prevent these devastating diseases. This is because stroke and Alzheimer’s share the same vascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol, smoking and a lifestyle of physical inactivity.

“It turns out protecting the blood vessels in your heart and body also helps to protect your brain and its blood vessels. This can delay the onset of dementia,” says Dr. Black.”For example, regular aerobic exercise throughout the lifespan can help delay the onset of late life dementia, even more so in people who may be genetically prone to dementia.”

“Researchers from all fields are going to need to work together,” says Dr. Antoine Hakim, CEO and Scientific Director of the Canadian Stroke Network

“Lifestyle choices will have the biggest impact in protecting the hearts and brains of our aging population,” says Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson Dr. Michael Hill.

You don’t always need to build up a big sweat to reap the healing benefits of physical activity.

Research has found that even a low-intense exercise program can reduce depression symptoms and boost physical therapy results in recovering stroke patients.

“The power of physical activity to raise the spirits of recovering stroke patients is stronger than anyone suspected,” Heart and Stroke Foundation researcher Dr. Jocelyn Harris told Canadian Stroke Congress, co-hosted by the Canadian Stroke Network, the Heart and Stroke Foundation, and the Canadian Stroke Consortium.

She says that many stroke survivors experience feelings of depression in the weeks and months following stroke, which can interfere with the recovery process. This may be due in part to the fact that depression can cause a lack of motivation, increased fatigue, and trouble concentrating.

Intense physical activity has a positive effect on reducing depression for most stroke patients. But some stroke patients undergoing medical treatments have special challenges and can’t reach high activity levels, she says.

“Many stroke patients could never reach aerobic levels high enough to alleviate depressive symptoms,” says Dr. Harris, who works at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.

Without that fitness boost, depression can become a perpetual, unwelcome guest for stroke patients and their caregivers.

This new study shows there is no reason for these patients to miss out on the benefits of physical activity.

The study followed 103 recovering stroke patients who were all receiving regular, standard treatment in hospital.

Fifty-three -just over half – of the patients were enrolled in an additional, experimental program for upper limb recovery called Graded Repetitive Arm Supplementary Program (GRASP). The remaining 50 patients carried on with regular treatments.

Patients in the GRASP group spent an extra 35 minutes four times a week doing non-intense arm exercises as part of rehabilitation activities, such as pouring water in a glass, buttoning up a shirt, or playing speed and accuracy games.

Depressive symptoms were measured by the Center for Epidemiology Depression Rating Scale (CES-D), which measures symptoms of depression.

The GRASP treatment program improved stroke-affected arm and hand function by 33 per cent as well as improving the amount that the patient used their arm and hands. “At four weeks, the GRASP patients also reported less depressive symptoms and greater change scores than those in the control group did,” says Dr. Harris. “The GRASP patients all did better – much better.” The effects lasted up to five months.

“Depression and depressive symptoms in the weeks following a stroke are very common. Depression may be a direct result of the damage to a region of brain and in addition, the sudden change in ability and life circumstances,” says Heart and Stroke Foundation spokesperson Dr. Michael Hill. “It’s important to know that depression is treatable. Patients and caregivers should mention depressive symptoms and seek treatment during follow-up visits with their neurologist, internist, or family physician.”

Nobody knows for sure how many patients show depressive symptoms after stroke, says Dr. Harris. “In the literature, the rate ranges between 23 and 72 per cent. That is a huge difference.”

These numbers point to the importance of planning for the needs of the baby boom generation who are currently poised to enter the high stroke risk stage, says Dr. Hill.

Dr. Harris wants to take the GRASP program out of the hospital and into the community.

“We need to create more meaning and purpose in the lives of stroke survivors,” says Canadian Stroke Network spokesperson Dr. Antoine Hakim. “Whether it is gardening, enjoying the grandchildren, or going for a walk in a beautiful park, there are many focuses that can raise mood, alleviate depression, and improve recovery in stroke survivors.”

Source: Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada

With MPs due to debate the Health Bill in the House of Commons, the BMA is urging them to support measures that will help prevent young people from taking up smoking.

These include:

- Banning the display of tobacco at point-of-sale
- Banning all tobacco vending machines
- Supporting the introduction of plain packaging for all tobacco products

Smoking remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the UK. Nearly one in four adults still smoke and many others continue to take up the habit. The vast majority of individuals start smoking before the age of 25.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, Head of BMA Science and Ethics, said today:

“With most smokers becoming addicted before their mid-20s, it is essential that we try and prevent young people from taking up smoking in the first place. A teenager might think that cigarettes are cool but the reality is that smoking is one of the most dangerous things they’re likely to do – it has a 50% chance of killing them.

“Displaying packets of cigarettes in shops, cigarette vending machines and tobacco packaging all contribute to normalising the habit and encourage the onset of smoking. MPs in Westminster have a real opportunity on Monday to help protect children from a life time of addiction and the associated diseases that go hand in hand with smoking. We strongly urge them to support these measures.”

Source
The British Medical Association

It’s a story that unfolds every day around the world but is rarely heard. A woman, man or child living with HIV gets exposed to tuberculosis (TB) in a setting where there are no measures to stop the spread of infection. It could be a workplace, a prison, a clinic or even at home. Soon the person is sick – coughing, feverish and weak.

This story is being told and retold this week among the 20 000 participants gathered for the 2010 International AIDS Conference. It’s a story that can end well if the person is lucky enough to have access to both antiretroviral and TB treatment. But too often there is a fatal finish. Without proper treatment about nine out of 10 people living with HIV who become ill with active TB will die within two to three months.

The dual epidemic has fanned across Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe and affects women, men and children from every walk of life. One in four deaths among people with HIV is linked to TB – that’s about half a million people who die unnecessarily each year.

“Every three minutes a person living with HIV has his or her life cut off prematurely by TB. This is completely unacceptable, because TB is a preventable and curable disease,” said Dr Jorge Sampaio, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy to Stop TB.

Global public health leaders gathered at this conference have committed to an ambitious new agenda to stop these preventable deaths. Dr Sampaio presided today over the signing of a landmark document: a memorandum of understanding between the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Stop TB Partnership. The agreement binds the two organizations together in a common goal: to strive towards halving the number of people living with HIV who die from TB by 2015, compared to 2004 levels. Provision of life-saving antiretroviral treatment for all TB patients living with HIV is another key objective.

“We already have the tools to keep people living with HIV from dying of TB “, said Mr Michel SidibГ©, Executive Director of UNAIDS, “We must join our TB partners to promote an evidence and human rights based approach to tackling TB and HIV. Together we can virtually eliminate TB related AIDS deaths.”

Stop TB and UNAIDS will press government health programmes to reach all people in need of care for TB/HIV by integrating the services that provide diagnosis and treatment for both conditions; and also seek to increase the resources needed to accomplish this goal. Another overarching objective is to galvanize civil society organizations, communities affected by TB and HIV and the private sector to form strong partnerships aimed at jointly addressing TB/HIV.

In keeping with the focus of this year’s AIDS conference, the signers stressed the needs of marginalized groups. “We call on the world’s leaders to promote full access to HIV and TB services for women and girls, orphans, displaced persons, migrants, prisoners, men who have sex with men, people who use drugs other vulnerable groups,” said Dr Marcos Espinal, Executive Secretary of the Stop TB Partnership.

During 2010 and 2011 the leadership of Stop TB and UNAIDS will make at least two joint visits to countries heavily affected by TB/HIV per year and promote their new initiative at least one international event per year.

Source:

UNAIDS

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to keep the White House a “smoke-free zone” when he takes office on January 20, despite his admitted struggles with tobacco relapse.

For former smokers like Obama, kicking the habit can prove incredibly difficult, and here is a new blow for abstainers: a large review of studies concludes that programs designed to help former smokers often fail to improve long-term quit rates.

Although interventions designed to help former smokers avoid relapse frequently focus on teaching skills for dealing with temptation, there is no evidence that this strategy works, said Peter Hajek, Ph.D., a co-author of the review.

Hajek, a professor of clinical psychology and director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at the University of London, and colleagues reviewed 54 studies of more than 44,000 patients that evaluated the effectiveness of behavioral and pharmacological interventions in preventing relapse in ex-smokers.

The majority of the studies took place in the United States.

Researchers evaluated two main types of relapse interventions, both of which followed patients for at least six months after their quit date. One intervention taught smokers to identify risky situations and to develop and use alternative coping strategies.

The results of these interventions were disappointing, the authors said, since the interventions were not effective at reducing relapse rates.

“Despite the obvious intuitive validity of this approach, such skills may not be relevant, or they are difficult to teach, or perhaps people are not that good in applying them in real life,” Hajek said of the findings.

The second type of relapse intervention involved extended treatment contact through telephone or in-person counseling up to 11 months after the smokers’ initial quit date.

“This also yielded negative results, but most ex-smokers did not continue to visit clinics or phone help lines. It is possible that ongoing support that is more convenient, such as texting or messaging, or support that accompanies ongoing medication, would be more effective,” Hajek said.

Investigators also examined how pharmacological treatments designed to reduce tobacco dependence influenced a smoker’s ability to avoid cigarettes. They found that extended use of varenicline, a drug used to treat smoking addiction that manufacturers market as Chantix in the United States, showed some effectiveness in preventing relapse.

However, extended use of nicotine replacement treatments such as patches or chewing gum have not undergone proper testing, although they show promise, the authors report.

“The real problem in stopping smoking is not relapse. The real problem is getting through the first week. Forty percent of smokers who try do not even abstain for two days and 60 percent do not make it for a week,” said John Hughes, M.D., who researches tobacco dependence.

Hughes, a professor of psychology, psychiatry and family practice at the University of Vermont, researches tobacco dependence, had no affiliation with the review. He agreed with the review authors that no proven treatments exist to help smokers who abstain for a short time to remain abstinent.

“Most clinicians, myself included, believe continuing medication reduces relapse . . . so we encourage smokers to keep extra medicine in their cabinet, and if a stressor’s causing a craving, to immediately start back on medication. We also encourage them to hang out with smokers as little as possible because this makes getting a cigarette too easy,” Hughes said.

“Smokers may benefit from knowing that the longer they stay off cigarettes, the more likely they are to remain that way,” Hajek said. “The temptations weaken and once people start to see themselves as non-smokers and view smoking as something they just do not do any more, things get easy. One of the main dangers lies in thinking that a ‘one-off’ occasional cigarette cannot hurt. Ninety percent of lapses end up in full-blown relapse.”

Dealing with weight gain is also a common issue that plagues ex-smokers. Smokers gain an average of 15 pounds (about 7 kilograms) once they kick the habit.

A second Cochrane review, also co-authored by Hajek, examined 60 behavioral and pharmacological interventions, which included more than 28,000 patients, used to prevent weight gain in smokers.

Both reviews appear in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.

“Only some fairly involved interventions showed signs of possible efficacy, such as a free supply of very low-calorie meals and cognitive behavioral treatments,” Hajek said. These strategies helped ex-smokers limit weight gain to between 2.8 pounds and 11.4 pounds after a year, researchers reported.

Interventions that involved the use of medications, such as bupropion (Wellbutrin, an antidepressant), fluoxetine (Prozac, also an antidepressant), nicotine replacement therapy and varenicline also limited weight gain in ex-smokers, but these effects were only small and mostly short-lived. They disappeared once the person stopped taking the medications, Hajek said.

The Cochrane Collaboration is an international nonprofit, independent organization that produces and disseminates systematic reviews of health care interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions. Visit cochrane for more information.

Hajek P, et al. Relapse prevention interventions for smoking cessation (Review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, Issue 1.

Parsons AC, et al. Interventions for preventing weight gain after smoking cessation (Review). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2009, Issue 1.

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View drug information on Chantix; Prozac Weekly.

On Tuesday, the American Medical Association voted to refer to its board the decision of whether to endorse legislation (HR 1108, S 625) that would give FDA the authority to regulate tobacco and outlaw most flavor additives, the AP/Houston Chronicle reports. The decision “effectively silenc[es] the doctors who wanted the organization to speak out against the exemption” of menthol-flavored cigarettes, the AP/Chronicle reports.

The legislation would outlaw flavor additives such as mint, clove and vanilla. In addition, FDA would be permitted to ban any other additives found to make cigarettes more addictive or harmful. The bill also would allow FDA to require new health warnings and prohibit labels such as “light” and “mild.” Menthol flavoring was left out of the bill as a concession to the tobacco industry, without which the bill would not have a chance of passing, according to AMA President Ron Davis (Johnson, AP/Houston Chronicle, 6/17).

Three out of four black smokers use menthol-flavored cigarettes; menthol is the most widely used flavoring in cigarettes. According to the letter, 80% of black teens who smoke use menthol brands. Like other additives, menthol, which is derived from mint and also is available in synthetic form, can help mask the harsh taste of tobacco. Five former HHS secretaries and two others recently sent a letter to Congress urging lawmakers to ban menthol flavoring in tobacco products (Kaiser Health Disparities Report, 6/5).

Comments
“If we’re banning things such as clove and peppermint, then we should ban menthol,” former HHS Secretary Louis Sullivan said. He added, “If it doesn’t happen, this bill will be discriminatory against African-Americans.” National African American Tobacco Prevention Network Executive Director William Robinson said, “We understand from an industry perspective why menthol is off the table,” but “part of it is because menthol represents almost 30% of the $70 billion U.S. cigarette market.”

Bill Phelps — spokesperson for Philip Morris, which makes several menthol brands and supports the bill — said FDA could ban menthol if it were found to be detrimental to health, but “[b]ased on our scientific judgment, menthol does not increase the inherent hazards of smoking” (AP/Houston Chronicle, 6/17).

Reprinted with kind permission from kaisernetwork. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at kaisernetwork/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2008 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.