Community guide recommendations and state level tobacco control programmes: 1999-2004

Objective

To identify the level of effort state tobacco control programmes and partners have expended on interventions recommended by the community guide and how those efforts have changed over time between 1999 and 2004.

Design

Longitudinal study.

Setting

United States.

Participants

State tobacco control partners, including the state health department, voluntary agencies and tobacco control coalitions.

Main outcome measure

We used the Strength of Tobacco Control survey responses in 1999, 2002 and 2004 to calculate the mean proportion of state tobacco control partners working on recommended interventions and subsequently analysed changes in effort over time.

Results

The proportion of state tobacco control partners working to promote clean indoor air legislation remained at more than 70% in all three years. The proportion working to increase taxes on tobacco rose significantly between 1999 and 2002 (from 54% to 70%), and those working to reduce patient costs for tobacco cessation treatments never exceeded 31% in any year. Use of mass media targeting youths decreased significantly in all years (from 40% to 32% to 26%), and the proportion of state tobacco control partners participating in a quitline has increased steadily and significantly in all years (from 24% to 36% to 41%). The level of effort in each area varied widely between states and over time.

Conclusions

State tobacco control partners are implementing evidence based interventions, but more focus is needed on the tobacco cessation and mass media campaign components of comprehensive tobacco control programmes.     

Effectiveness of comprehensive tobacco control programmes in reducing teenage smoking in the USA

OBJECTIVE: To describe the extent to which comprehensive statewide tobacco control programmes in the USA have made progress toward reducing teenage smoking. DATA SOURCES: Literature search of Medline for reviews of effectiveness of programme and policy elements, plus journal articles and personal request for copies of publicly released reports and working papers from evaluation staff in each of the state programmes of California, Massachusetts, Arizona, Oregon, and Florida. STUDY SELECTION: All studies, reports, and commentaries that provided information on aspects of programme implementation and evaluation. DATA SYNTHESIS: Statewide comprehensive programmes show high levels of advertising recall and generally positive improvement in smoking related beliefs and attitudes among teenagers. More fully funded programmes lead to increased mass media campaign advertising and community initiatives; a greater capacity to implement school based smoking prevention programmes; and an increase in the passage of local ordinances that create smoke free indoor environments and reduce cigarette sales to youth. The combination of programme activity and increased tobacco tax reduce cigarette consumption more than expected as a result of price increases alone, and these effects seem to apply to adolescents as well as adults. Programmes are associated with a decline in adult smoking prevalence, with these effects observed to date in California, Massachusetts, and Oregon. Arizona and Florida have yet to examine change in adult prevalence associated with programme exposure. California and Massachusetts have demonstrated relative beneficial effects in teenage smoking prevalence, and Florida has reported promising indications of reduced prevalence. Arizona has yet to report follow up data, and Oregon has found no change in teenage smoking, but has only two years of follow up available. One of the most critical factors in programme success is the extent of programme funding, and consequent level of programme implementation, and the degree to which this is undermined by the tobacco industry and other competitors for funding. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the different strengths and combinations of programme messages and strategies used in these comprehensive programmes, there is evidence that they lead to change in factors that influence teenage smoking, and to reductions in teenage smoking.     

Measuring support for tobacco control policy in selected areas of six countries

OBJECTIVE—To explore the validity, reliability, and applicability of using a short, psychometrically sound survey instrument to measure population attitudes toward tobacco control policies.
DESIGN—Surveys.
SUBJECTS AND SETTING—Student respondents attending university in Australia (n = 403), Hong Kong (n = 336), the Netherlands (n = 351), South Africa (n = 291), the United Kingdom (n = 164) and the United States (n = 241); total n = 1786.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE—The Smoking Policy Inventory (SPI), a 35-item scale. SPI scores were adjusted for age, income, gender, and smoking status. Estimates of internal consistency and tests of factorial invariance were conducted in each sample.
RESULTS—Across all six countries, the SPI was found to be highly reliable and to have a consistent factor structure, indicating that the SPI scale represents a higher order construct that assesses general attitudes about tobacco control policy with five dimensions. In general, the degree of endorsement of anti-tobacco policies as measured by the SPI reflected the extent and strength of tobacco control legislation in those countries. Dutch students were the least likely, and Australian and Hong Kong students the most likely, to support tobacco control policies.
CONCLUSIONS—It is possible to develop appropriate and meaningful measurement tools for assessing support of tobacco control policies. Strong evidence was found for internal reliability and structural invariance of the SPI. The SPI may be a useful mechanism for monitoring ongoing policy initiatives, making cross-cultural comparisons, and evaluating population receptiveness to proposed policy approaches.


Keywords: policies; tobacco control; Smoking Policy Inventory     

Smokers and non-smokers talk about regulatory options in tobacco control

Objective

Community members are occasionally polled about tobacco control policies, but are rarely given opportunities to elaborate on their views. We examined laypeople''s conversations to understand how 11 regulatory options were supported or opposed in interactions.

Design

Qualitative design; purposive quota sampling; data collection via focus groups.

Setting

Three locations in Sydney, Australia.

Participants

63 smokers and 75 non‐smokers, men and women, from three age groups (18–24, 35–44, 55–64 years), recruited primarily via telephone.

Measurements

Semi‐structured question route; data managed in NVivo; responses compared between groups.

Results

Laypeople rejected some regulatory proposals and certain arguments about taxation and the cost of cessation treatments. Protecting children and hypothecating tobacco excise for health education and care were highly acceptable. Plain packaging, banning retail displays and youth smoking prevention received qualified support. Bans on political donations from tobacco corporations were popular in principle but considered logistically fraught. Smokers asked for better cessation assistance and were curious about cigarette ingredients. Justice was an important evaluative principle. Support was often conditional and unresolved arguments frequent. We present both sides of these conflicts and the ways in which policies were legitimised or de‐legitimised in conversation.

Conclusions

Simple measures of agreement used in polls may obscure the complexity of community responses to tobacco policy. Support was frequently present but contested; some arguments that seem self‐evident to advocates were not so to participants. The detailed understanding of laypeople''s responses provided through qualitative methods may help frame proposals and arguments to meet concerns about justice, effectiveness and feasibility.     

病虫害生物防治技术最新研究进展

综述了天敌昆虫、昆虫性信息素、植物源农药、微生物制剂、转基因技术在烟草病虫害生物防治方面的最新进展。分析认为生物防治具有无污染、无公害、长效等优点,将成为烟草病虫害综合防治体系的重要组成部分。     

烟用香精、香料质量控制体系研究

将色谱图吻合与色谱峰总量比较相结合作为香精、香料质量控制指标,通过梯度稀释后嗅香、加料评吸等手段确定质量控制限,以此建立香精、香料质控体系,整个控制过程操作简便,计算简单,判断依据直观,便于烟草企业使用.     

烟草丛顶病在中国的发现及研究进展

烟草丛顶病是发生在云南西部烟草种植区的一种严重病害.1993年首次在保山地区暴发流行.截止1998年发病面积达5万多公顷,直接经济损失2.1亿元.课题组采用生物学和分子生物学研究方法,明确证实在滇西三江流域烟草种植区普遍爆发流行的此类烟草病害与津巴布韦发生的烟草丛顶病为同一病害.病害由烟草丛顶病毒(TBTV)和烟草脉扭病毒(TVDV)复合侵染引起,是烟草丛顶病在中国的首次报道;获得了TBTV的全长核苷酸序列,是国际上完成的第一个烟草丛顶病毒全序列;开展了TVDV的分子生物学研究并获得了基因组部分序列;报道了TBTV的似卫星RNA,并获得了其部分序列;建立了包括TBTV、TVDV以及TBTV似卫星RNA的烟草丛顶病分子检测体系;通过对病害传播途径、流行规律研究,提出了"预防为主,避蚜防病"的综合防治措施,在全省累计示范推广8万多bm2,平均防治效果在90%以上,挽回烟叶损失1.7亿元,经济效益极为显著,挽救了滇西烟区烟草种植业.     

Evolution of a comprehensive tobacco control programme: building system capacity and strategic partnerships--lessons from Massachusetts

BACKGROUND: Since the passage of a voter approved state referendum in 1992 to establish a 25 cent increase on the excise tax on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, Massachusetts has received an average of $40 million annually for its tobacco control programme. This funding allowed Massachusetts to expand and develop its tobacco control programme to become one of the most comprehensive in the world. OBJECTIVES: The development of the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program is outlined, focusing on three stages of development: formation, strategic partnership building, and shared leadership. METHODS: The development of management structures, programmatic infrastructure, communication and partnership networks, and advisory structures are tracked throughout the three phases. RESULTS: The use of pre-existing public health resources, implementation of a strong training component, a geographical management structure, the creation of public and private partnerships, and the development of a shared leadership model contributed to building consensus and provided the foundation for coordinated approaches to tobacco control. CONCLUSION: Other states and countries can use lessons learned from Massachusetts about the organisational development of a comprehensive tobacco control programme as they embark upon similar efforts.     

Sex and race differences in young people's responsiveness to price and tobacco control policies

OBJECTIVE: To determine if there are differences in young people's responsiveness to price and tobacco control policies for population subgroups and to examine whether or not these differences, if they exist, can explain sex and racial differences in trends in the prevalence of smoking in young people in the United States. DESIGN: Use cross-sectional and intertemporal variation in local and state tobacco control policies and prices to calculate demand responses to these policies using regression analysis techniques. SUBJECTS: A nationally representative sample of American eighth grade (ages 13-14 years), 10th grade (15-16 years) and 12th grade (17-18 years) students obtained from the 1992-1994 Monitoring the Future surveys. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: Thirty-day smoking prevalence. RESULTS: Young men are much more responsive to changes in the price of cigarettes than young women. The prevalence elasticity for young men is almost twice as large as that for young women. Smoking rates of young black men are significantly more responsive to changes in price than young white men. Significant differences in responsiveness to particular tobacco control policies also exist. These differences, however, explain relatively little of the differences in smoking prevalence among young population subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: Policymakers need to keep in mind that there is not a "one-size fits all" strategy for discouraging smoking among young people.     

Every document and picture tells a story: using internal corporate document reviews, semiotics, and content analysis to assess tobacco advertising

In this article we present communication theory as a conceptual framework for conducting documents research on tobacco advertising strategies, and we discuss two methods for analysing advertisements: semiotics and content analysis. We provide concrete examples of how we have used tobacco industry documents archives and tobacco advertisement collections iteratively in our research to yield a synergistic analysis of these two complementary data sources. Tobacco promotion researchers should consider adopting these theoretical and methodological approaches.     

Phytosanitary irradiation in ports of entry: a practical solution for developing countries

The advantages of using ionising irradiation as a phytosanitary treatment have been demonstrated commercially in the past two decades and several countries currently use the technology for commercial treatments to meet plant quarantine requirements. Although many countries have expressed interest in using phytosanitary irradiation (PI) and it provides a viable alternative for overcoming a wide range of phytosanitary restrictions for numerous fresh products, the use of PI for fresh fruits and vegetables faces economic obstacles due to the sizeable initial investment required to build an irradiation facility. Projecting the market demand for irradiated products to justify the investment in treatment facilities is a business challenge limited by the potential for all countries to invest in this technology, especially developing countries. A recent change in import regulations by the United States allows for treatment upon entry, thus removing the immediate need for treatment facilities in the exporting country. This change makes it possible for exporting countries to explore and develop new markets prior to investing in treatment facilities at the origin. This paper discusses the economic potential of products that could be shipped to the United States for irradiation from selected countries in the Americas, Asia and Africa.     

A new approach to the control of autolevelling for drafting process: part 2: experimental verification

The unevenness plays a dominant role in discussing the autolevelling results of drafting process. Part 2 of the paper presents the experimental verification of the discrete autolevelling model, which was elaborated on the basis of a discrete-event simulation that was set up in Part 1 of the paper. A new device was designed and constructed with progressive drive and control mechanisms to realize the autolevelling approach during drafting process. The experimental results have showed that the discrete autolevelling model contributes to lower the unevenness of drafting process and improve the quality of output strands. The principle of autolevelling of this model is also analyzed in a further step.     

A new approach to the control of autolevelling for drafting process: part 1: theoretical model based on the discrete-event simulation

This paper presents a new approach to control the autollevelling process to decrease the output unevenness. A discrete autolevelling model is set up based on the balance of the fiber distributions in the drafting zone. The relationship between the velocity of rollers and fiber distributions is pointed out in the light of the discrete autolevelling formula. This model can keep the number of fast-floating fiber constant to eliminate the input unevenness and improve the output quality of strands. By autolevelling the input forms of rectangular wave, sinusoidal wave and random wave, the advantages of this model are illustrated. It is shown that this discrete autolevelling model can decline the abrupt, dramatical or sequential input unevenness and lower the value of output CV more effectively.     

Risk-based approach to developing a national residue sampling plan for testing under European Union regulation for veterinary medicinal products and coccidiostat feed additives in domestic animal production

A ranking system for veterinary medicinal products and coccidiostat feed additives has been developed as a tool to be applied in a risk-based approach to the residue testing programme for foods of animal origin in the Irish National Residue Control Plan (NRCP). Three characteristics of substances that may occur as residues in food are included in the developed risk ranking system: Potency, as measured by the acceptable daily intake assigned by the European Medicines Agency Committee for Medicinal Products for Veterinary Use, to each substance; Usage, as measured by the three factors of Number of Doses, use on Individual animals or for Group treatment, and Withdrawal Period; and Residue Occurrence, as measured by the number of Non-Compliant Samples in the NRCP. For both Number of Doses and Non-Compliant Samples, data for the 5-year period 2008–12 have been used. The risk ranking system for substances was developed for beef cattle, sheep and goats, pigs, chickens and dairy cattle using a scoring system applied to the various parameters described above to give an overall score based on the following equation: Potency × Usage (Number of Doses + Individual/Group Use + Withdrawal Period) × Residue Occurrence. Applying this risk ranking system, the following substances are ranked very highly: antimicrobials such as amoxicillin (for all species except pigs), marbofloxacillin (for beef cattle), oxytetracycline (for all species except chickens), sulfadiazine with trimethoprim (for pigs and chickens) and tilmicosin (for chickens); antiparasitic drugs, such as the benzimidazoles triclabendazole (for beef and dairy cattle), fenbendazole/oxfendazole (for sheep/goats and dairy cattle) and albendazole (for dairy cattle), the avermectin ivermectin (for beef cattle), and anti-fluke drugs closantel and rafoxanide (for sheep/goats); the anticoccidials monensin, narasin, nicarbazin and toltrazuril (for chickens). The risk ranking system described is a relatively simple system designed to provide a reliable basis for selecting the veterinary medicinal products and coccidiostat feed additives that might be prioritised for residue testing.     

Designing a risk-based surveillance program for Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis in Norwegian dairy herds using multivariate statistical process control analysis

Surveillance programs for animal diseases are critical to early disease detection and risk estimation and to documenting a population’s disease status at a given time. The aim of this study was to describe a risk-based surveillance program for detecting Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP) infection in Norwegian dairy cattle. The included risk factors for detecting MAP were purchase of cattle, combined cattle and goat farming, and location of the cattle farm in counties containing goats with MAP. The risk indicators included production data [culling of animals >3 yr of age, carcass conformation of animals >3 yr of age, milk production decrease in older lactating cows (lactations 3, 4, and 5)], and clinical data (diarrhea, enteritis, or both, in animals >3 yr of age). Except for combined cattle and goat farming and cattle farm location, all data were collected at the cow level and summarized at the herd level. Predefined risk factors and risk indicators were extracted from different national databases and combined in a multivariate statistical process control to obtain a risk assessment for each herd. The ordinary Hotelling’s T² statistic was applied as a multivariate, standardized measure of difference between the current observed state and the average state of the risk factors for a given herd. To make the analysis more robust and adapt it to the slowly developing nature of MAP, monthly risk calculations were based on data accumulated during a 24-mo period. Monitoring of these variables was performed to identify outliers that may indicate deviance in one or more of the underlying processes. The highest-ranked herds were scattered all over Norway and clustered in high-density dairy cattle farm areas. The resulting rankings of herds are being used in the national surveillance program for MAP in 2014 to increase the sensitivity of the ongoing surveillance program in which 5 fecal samples for bacteriological examination are collected from 25 dairy herds. The use of multivariate statistical process control for selection of herds will be beneficial when a diagnostic test suitable for mass screening is available and validated on the Norwegian cattle population, thus making it possible to increase the number of sampled herds.     

Analysis of quinolone antibiotics in eggs: Preparation and characterization of a raw material for method validation and quality control

A quality control material for the analysis of quinolone residues in egg samples has been prepared. Homogenized fresh whole egg spiked with nine quinolones (marbofloxacin, norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, danofloxacin, enrofloxacin, sarafloxacin, difloxacin, oxolinic acid and flumequine), at the concentration level of 500 μg kg⁻¹ was lyophilized and homogenized to obtain the reference material. The homogeneity of both the bulk and the packed material was verified. Two different strategies, classical and isochronous, were used for the stability study. Conclusions obtained with the classical and isochronous approaches were similar, but the variability of the isochronous results was lower and this led to lower material uncertainty. The reference material was found to be stable for at least 1 year when stored at either room temperature, 4 °C or −20 °C; −80 °C was taken as reference temperature in all cases.     

Modelling of the carding process for spunlace nonwovens with particular regard to selected mechanical parameters in a double-drum card. Part 2: Modelling of delay times in the longitudinal mixing process

Abstract

The production of Spunlace nonwoven fabric is a complex process and includes, among other things, several important stages, such as carding, needling and drying. One of the most important stages is the carding process, which has a significant impact on the shaping of the physico-mechanical and qualitative characteristics of the nonwoven fabric. The article presents the modelling of the carding process in a two-drum system. A mathematical model, determining the expected number of drum and carding card cycles was proposed. Based on this model, delays were determined, due to longitudinal shifts of fibre in the carding process. Numerical simulations have been made and discussed in relation to fibre collection factors, at different production speeds and the number of carding rollers in the worker-stripper system.     

Analysis of industry-generated data. Part 1: A baseline for the development of a tool to assist the milk industry in designing sampling plans for controlling aflatoxin M1 in milk

The presence of aflatoxin M₁ (AFM1) in milk was assessed in Italy in the framework of designing a monitoring plan actuated by the milk industry in the period 2005–10. Overall, 21 969 samples were taken from tankers collecting milk from 690 dairy farms. The milk samples were representative of the consignments of co-mingled milk received from multiple (two to six) farms. Systematic, biweekly sampling of consignments involved each of the 121 districts (70 in the North, 17 in the Central and 34 in the South regions of Italy). AFM1 concentration was measured using an enzyme-linked immunoassay method (validated within the range of 5–100 ng kg^?1) whereas an HPLC method was used for the quantification of levels in the samples that had concentrations higher than 100 ng kg^?1. Process control charts using data collected in three processing plants illustrate, as an example, the seasonal variation of the contamination. The mean concentration of AFM1 was in the range between 11 and 19 ng kg^?1. The 90th and 99th percentile values were 19–34 and 41–91 ng kg^?1, respectively, and values as high as 280 ng kg^?1 were reached in 2008. The number of non-compliant consignments (those with an AFM1 concentration above the statutory limit of 50 ng kg^?1) varied between 0.3% and 3.1% per year, with peaks in September, after the maize harvest season. The variability between different regions was not significant. The results show that controlling the aflatoxins in feed at farm level was inadequate, consequently screening of raw milk prior to processing was needed. The evaluation of the AFM1 contamination level observed during a long-term period can provide useful data for defining the frequency of sampling.