National

CDC Grand Rounds: Current Opportunities in Tobacco Control
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have released an article in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report(MMWR) discussing the importance of reducing tobacco use, and outlining several of the top opportunities in tobacco control: increasing the price of tobacco products, implementing strong smokefree policies, and employing sustained media campaigns. The report details the ways that the U.S. is currently working to reduce tobacco use through evidence-based practices and regulatory changes, and ways that these approaches can be enhanced going forward. Special attention is paid to the Food and Drug Administration’s new role in regulating tobacco through the Tobacco Control Act. Read the full report.

U.S. panel criticized as overstating environmental cancer risks
A new report from the President’s Cancer Panel says that the number of cancer cases stemming from environmental exposures has been underestimated, and encourages people to limit exposures to potentially threats like pesticides, chemicals, plastic food containers, and medical x-rays. However, the American Cancer Society (ACS) has expressed concern over the report, saying that it focuses too much on environmental hazards instead of behavioral changes that would be more effective in decreasing cancer risks. The ACS acknowledges that there should be concern over these exposures, but says the report’s implication of pollution as a major cause of cancer is not fact-based. They also point out that while an estimated 6% of cancers are related to environmental causes, about 30% can be attributed to tobacco, and that poor nutrition, obesity, and sedentary lifestyles make much larger contributions to cancer risk than environmental exposures. Click here to read more. Click here to read the American Cancer Society’s statement, or click here to read the President’s Cancer Panel report.

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