Smoking cessation.

BACKGROUND: Although Australia is a world leader in tobacco control, smoking remains the behavioural risk factor making the largest contribution to death and disease. Smoking rates remain high in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and in people with mental health problems. Priority groups for cessation include women who are pregnant and people with cardiovascular disease. OBJECTIVE: This article, based on the recently published second edition of Supporting smoking cessation: A guide for health professionals, provides an update on current evidence-based practice to support quitting. A brief, time-efficient intervention approach (Ask, Advise, Help) is proposed. New approaches to the use of pharmacotherapy are covered, as is the controversial role of nicotine-containing e-cigarettes and advice for groups with high smoking prevalence and those with special needs. DISCUSSION: A combination of behavioural support along with pharmacotherapy to treat nicotine dependence maximises the chances of successful long-term cessation. Combination nicotine replacement therapy (patch and short-acting oral form) or varenicline are the most effective forms of pharmacotherapy.

[The national anti-opium-smoking campaigns across the country in the Republican Period].

Anti-opium-smoking had been the key policy of successive central and local governments from the late Qing Dynasty to the Republican Period. Since the establishment of the Nanjing Provisional Government in January 1912, the Anti-opium-smoking campaign had culminated across the country. Under the support of the government, the "National Anti-Opium Association of China" and "Association of Chinese People Rejecting Opium" were established which made an important contribution to China's anti-opium-smoking campaign.Yunnan, Shaanxi, Heilongjiang, Zhejiang, Shanghai and other local governments also combined with local specific circumstances to make anti-opium-smaking policy for punishing severely the opium cultivation, trade and opium smoking, thus, the overrun of opium began to be brought under an overall control.

Holy smoke: tobacco use among native american tribes in North America.

The use of tobacco by Native Americans in North America seems to have ancient origins and significant spiritual meaning. This article reviews archeological and anthropological data about the use of tobacco and its sacred significance.

Between state power and popular desire: tobacco in pre-conquest Manchuria, 1600-1644.

Tobacco entered Manchuria on the same wave of early modern globalization that brought it from the Americas to other parts of Eurasia in the early seventeenth century. Introduced into northeast Asia sometime after 1600, it began to circulate widely in Manchuria precisely at a time when Hong Taiji (1592-1643) was building the early Qing state. This essay examines Hong Taiji's efforts to criminalize tobacco in the 1630s and 1640s, arguing that these prohibitions were largely directed at gaining state control over a valuable economic resource. However, within the commercialized milieu of seventeenth-century Liaodong, a region with ties to broader transregional circuits of trade, tobacco's lucrative profits and its pleasurable allure simply overpowered state efforts to monopolize it. As in most other early seventeenth-century Eurasian societies, the Qing tobacco bans quickly gave way to legalization and taxation.

[Tobacco and tobacco use disorder in the history of Mexico and Europe]. / Tabaco y tabaquismo en la historia de México y de Europa.

The tobacco used for a long time by American and Caribbean natives was introduced into Europe at the end of XV century, and essentially during the XVI century, by travelers returning to their Fatherlands. After the tobacco industry was organized, several concerns arose regarding medical and social care for the workers in the tobacco factories. Medical and hygienic aspects were reflected in a whole chapter (the XVII) of the Ramazzini's Treatise on Medicine of Work, published in 1700. Concerning social care for the workers' families, the creation, April 1796, of nursery schools for the children of working women in tobacco factories of the New Spain must be recalled. In opposition to the predictions of some natives and visitors during the last centuries, with the passage of time, the tobacco habit instead of decreasing, became progressively more accentuated in all social classes. To aggravate conditions, at present, the noxious effects of the tobacco smoke are combined with those of environmental contamination. Recent epidemiological reports on the number and health conditions of smokers, as well as the National Antitobacco Program in Mexico, are mentioned.

Charles G. Pease, DDS, MD: anti-tobacco crusader and clean life advocate.

Dr. Charles Giffin Pease, a colorful, feisty, New York City reformer practiced both dentistry and medicine and lectured in various dental and medical schools. At several New York dental institutions, he taught oral surgery, materia medica, therapeutics and pathology. From the age of 12 until his death (a 75 year span) Pease waged an unrelenting war against "everything that harms the human race." He wrote and lectured unceasingly railing against what he believed to be life damaging behaviors. These included: tobacco use; alcohol, coffee, tea and ginger ale consumption; corset wearing; vinegar, meat, cocoa, chocolate and condiment intake, and even the licking of artificially flavored lollipops. While he was adamantly opposed to all of these practices, he invested his strongest efforts campaigning against the manufacture, sale and use of tobacco products; and he emphatically supported clean living causes. His anti-tobacco stance was based chiefly on moral, ethical and religious precepts. Additionally, he expected community role models (public health officials, clergymen, physicians and dentists) to become involved in this vital health issue. When publicly presenting his cause, he used a moralistic, judgmental approach. Almost single handedly, Pease spear-headed legislation that prohibited smoking in subways, elevated trains, hotels and restaurants.

[Chinese recognition on relationship between smoking and health in Ming - Qing dynasties].

Tobacco was introduced into China at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. At first, people thought that smoking could cure a lot of diseases, and could do good to people's health. However, Chinese doctors discovered that smoking would do great harm to people's health through animal experiments and clinical observation. They found that the poisonous materials in smoking include virulent fire - evil, tar, and some other invisible materials harmful to spirit of the body. Doctors also discovered that smoking had a great effect on people's lungs, causing damage to multiple organs and eventually death. Hence, trading on tobacco was banned officially in the Ming dynasty. Propaganda movements against smoking during the Qing Dynasty were gradually developed among the people.

Algunas manifestaciones socioculturales y económicas del tabaquismo en México / Some sociocultural and economic manifestations of tobaccoism in Mexico

Introducción: La planta de tabaco probablemente ha sido una de las plantas que ha transformado el mundo y es, en la actualidad, considerada como causante etiológica de múltiples patologías, sin embargo, al realizar un viaje histórico, sus antecedentes son eminentemente míticos, religiosos y terapéuticos. Objetivo: El presente trabajo tiene la finalidad de analizar los antecedentes existentes del tabaco en México desde su descubrimiento hasta el siglo XIX. Desarrollo temático: A partir del descubrimiento de América, y el análisis de sus características por Sahagún, se evidenció la nobleza de la planta desde el punto de vista mítico-religioso y parte fundamental en la economía de México posterior a la conquista. Tiempo más tarde, la planta del tabaco se utilizó con fines medicinales en especial en el tratamiento de diferentes entidades como el asma, la cefalea e inclusive en las pacientes embarazadas. Conclusión: De los antecedentes históricos se desprende que la magia del tabaco se trasformó con el devenir del tiempo en una planta desmitificada y dañina para el ser humano, e irónicamente de importancia económica