Waterpipe tobacco smoking: it is so dangerous as smoking or no?

Many medical students and young people are asking me about effects of waterpipe tobacco smoking or narghila. it is so dangerous as smoking or no?

Waterpipe tobacco smoking is a centuries-old tobacco use method with an ambiguous origin and links to the countries of southwest Asia and north Africa. Although known by many different names (eg, hookah, narghile, shisha), the term waterpipe has been used for the last 2 decades in the English language scientific literature to refer to any of a variety of instruments that involve passing tobacco smoke through water before inhalation. Contrary to popular belief that waterpipe tobacco smoking is less lethal than cigarette smoking, emerging research indicates that both involve comparable health risks including nicotine/tobacco dependence.

One more argument was published last days in Chest journal: Laboratory and Clinical Acute Effects of Active and Passive Indoor group Water-Pipe (Narghile) Smoking.
One session of indoor group active waterpipe smoking resulted in significant increases in COHb and serum nicotine levels (8- and 18-fold, respectively), and was associated with adverse cardio-respiratory health effects. The minor effects found in passive smokers suggest that they too may be affected adversely by exposure to waterpipe smoking.

We are for Global ban of Waterpipe tobacco smoking!!!

New study on COPD Surveillance in United States, 1999-2011

New study on COPD Surveillance in United States, 1999-2011 was published in Chest!!

COPD is a serious public health problem in the United States. In 2008, chronic lower respiratory diseases, of which COPD represents the principal component, became the third leading cause of mortality. Because smoking is the dominant risk factor for COPD and contributed to about 80% of COPD deaths in 2000 to 2004, much of this disease is potentially preventable. People with COPD experience worse health-related quality of life, more disabilities, and higher rates of comorbidities than people without COPD.

This report updates surveillance results for COPD in the United States. For 1999 to 2011, data from national data systems for adults aged ≥ 25 years were analyzed. In 2011, 6.5% of adults (approximately 13.7 million) reported having been diagnosed with COPD.

New Guidelines of Treatment of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis

Dear Respiratory we are happy to present New Guidelines of Treatment of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis!

It can be a Revolution in treatment of Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis!

Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR TB) is caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis that is resistant to at least isoniazid and rifampin, the two most effective of the four first-line TB drugs (the other two drugs being ethambutol and pyrazinamide). MDR TB includes the subcategory of extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR TB), which is MDR TB with additional resistance to any fluoroquinolone and to at least one of three injectable anti-TB drugs (i.e., kanamycin, capreomycin, or amikacin). MDR TB is difficult to cure, requiring 18–24 months of treatment after sputum culture conversion with a regimen that consists of four to six medications with toxic side effects, and carries a mortality risk greater than that of drug-susceptible TB.

Bedaquiline fumarate (Sirturo or bedaquiline) is an oral diarylquinoline. On December 28, 2012, on the basis of data from two Phase IIb trials (i.e., well-controlled trials to evaluate the efficacy and safety of drugs in patients with a disease or condition to be treated, diagnosed, or prevented), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved use of bedaquiline under the provisions of the accelerated approval regulations for "serious or life-threatening illnesses" (21CFR314.500) (Cox EM. FDA accelerated approval letter to Janssen Research and Development.

European Parliament Written Declaration on recognising the burden of allergic disease

Dear Respiratory Friends now you can sign European Parliament Written Declaration on Recognizing the Burden of Allergic Disease!

 

Allergic diseases affect over 150 million Europeans, of whom some are affected by severe, debilitating diseases, but these are neglected as a public health concern.
Members of the European Parliament now have an opportunity to call on the European Commission and EU Member States to take action by signing a Written Declaration on Recognising the Burden of Allergic Disease, which opened for signatures in October 21st and will remain open until January 21, 2014.

1. More than 150 million EU citizens suffer from chronic allergic diseases, half of whom are undiagnosed due to a lack of awareness and shortage of medical specialists;

2. More than 100 million Europeans suffer from allergic rhinitis and 70 million from asthma,the most common non-communicable diseases in children and the main cause of children’s emergency room visits and hospital admissions;

3. More than 17 million Europeans suffer from food allergies or severe allergies implying a risk of acute attacks or anaphylaxis with life-threatening potential;

4. Allergies are an underestimated cause of unhealthy ageing and have a severe impact on social, professional and educational performance, especially in children, causing socioeconomic inequalities;

5. The Commission is therefore called upon to encourage cooperation and coordinationbetween Member States to promote: national allergyprogrammes to reduce the disease burden and health inequalities; training in allergies and multidisciplinary care plans to

improve disease management; use of preventive and tolerance-inducing approaches toallergy treatment; and scientific research into direct and indirect allergy risk factors,including pollution;

6. This declaration, together with the names of the signatories, is forwarded to the Commission.

New 2013 Guidelines on Pulmonary Rehabilitation

A fresh guideline on pulmonary rehabilitation has been published this week, helping professionals, patients and the public understand what to expect from a pulmonary rehabilitation programme.

The new guideline, produced by the European Respiratory Society and the American Thoracic Society, supports the use of pulmonary rehabilitation as an essential part of the care offered to people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other long-term lung conditions.

Link to 2013 Guidelines on Pulmonary Rehabilitation

For the first time, the European Lung Foundation has produced a patient version of this official ERS guideline. 

Link to this important Respiratory document

This document can be freely downloaded to help increase public understanding and awareness of pulmonary rehabilitation and what to expect from the programme.

Anti-Smoking Letter to President of European Parliament about Philip Morris

Dear friends we are reproducing and supporting Letter to President of European Parliament about Philip Morris lobbying activities on the Tobacco Products Directive 

Dear President Schulz,

We are writing to express our very deep concerns regarding the attempts by the tobacco industry lobby to derail vital public health legislation currently going through the Parliament.

As you will know, the EU is currently finalising the review of Tobacco Products Directive (TPD), a crucial piece of legislation for protecting the public from tobacco (the largest preventable cause of death and disease in the world). However, in recent weeks, European news media such as The Guardian, Der Spiegel and Le Parisien have reported extensively about leaked documents which outline the lobbying strategies and activities of tobacco giant Philip Morris International to influence the European Parliament’s decision-making on the TPD. There is widespread concern that the decision to delay the plenary vote on the TPD was a result of tobacco companies like Philip Morris International and others using their economic and political power to influence MEPs. The postponement of the vote is widely believed to be part of a tobacco industry strategy to delay, weaken or even derail the TPD. The leaked documents show that no less than 233 MEPs (almost one third of the Parliament) have been met by Philip Morris International lobbyists at least once. Several MEPs were listed as having had four or five such meetings.

This large number of meetings (which have taken place behind closed doors, without any transparency such as the publication of minutes from these meetings), constitutes a serious violation of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) Article 5.3 which is geared towards safeguarding public health policy-making from tobacco industry interference. FCTC Article 5.3 recognizes the fundamental and irreconcilable conflict of interest between the tobacco industry and public health policy-making. It also recognises that the tobacco industry has, for decades, been working tirelessly to delay, block, and weaken life-saving health measures, like those enshrined in the FCTC.

FCTC Article 5.3 requires all Parties, when deciding on their public health policies with respect to tobacco control to “. . . act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law”.

The WHO’s accompanying guidelines stipulate that decision-makers “should interact with the tobacco industry only when and to the extent strictly necessary to enable them to effectively regulate the tobacco industry and tobacco products.”

The guidelines state that “where interactions with the tobacco industry are necessary, Parties should ensure that such interactions are conducted transparently”.

We are deeply concerned about the astounding level of access to MEPs by tobacco lobbyists which has been exposed in the leaked Philip Morris International documents. As President of the European Parliament, we consider that it is your urgent responsibility to take determined action to ensure proper implementation of Article 5.3 of the FCTC, in order to assure that the Parliament protects its decision-making from tobacco lobby influence. This is crucial in order to protect public health and the interests of EU citizens in strong tobacco regulation and for the Parliament to fulfill its UN obligations.

Nobel Awards for Medicine 2013

Three researchers who studied how cells shuttle around essential molecules in tiny intracellular sacs have won this year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine. James Rothman of Yale University; Randy Schekman of the University of California, Berkeley; and Thomas Südhof of Stanford University earned the award "for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells," according to the announcement from the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

The three researchers independently unraveled basic cellular mechanisms several decades ago—in Schekman's case, almost 40 years ago. Although mistakes in cellular transport systems can cause a variety of diseases—including diabetes and neurological and immunological disorders—their work has not yet led to any new drugs or therapies, but it has helped others develop diagnostic tests.