Cigarette smoking is down; cigar, other tobacco use up

Excerpts from the Globe's blog on the Boston-area medical community.

Cigarette sales have been declining at a steady clip in recent years, but cheaper forms of tobacco have become more popular at the same time.In a research letter published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Gregory N. Connolly and Hillel R. Alpert of the Harvard School of Public Health write that the 3.7 billion pack, or 18 percent, drop in cigarette sales from 2000 to 2007 may have been offset by an uptick in sales of small cigars, roll-your-own tobacco, and moist snuff equivalent to about 30 percent of the decrease in cigarette sales. Sales of large cigars also grew 37 percent.

Eileen M. Sullivan, director of policy and planning at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health's Tobacco Control Program, said state health experts have been concerned about sales of little cigars for less money than cigarettes.

"These products are just as dangerous as cigarettes," she said.

Before McDonalds decided to hold the tomatoes, Americans felt pretty sure food produced in the USA was safe, but they had some doubts about eating food imported from Mexico and China, a new study found.

In a Harvard School of Public Health survey conducted before salmonella cases traced to some fresh tomatoes put a crimp in fast-food sales, people were asked a variety of questions about food safety, from how worried they were about eating sushi (very) to what they thought of the government's inspection system (not much).

All told, more than a third think US-produced food is very safe, and more than half say it's somewhat safe. Almost half believe food from Mexico isn't safe, and a little more than half give the same thumbs down to food from China. Half of respondents said they check where foods come from before they buy them.

Could it be that living in a cool, northern place makes a man more likely to have a heart attack? A new Harvard study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, reports that men with low levels of vitamin D - the "sunshine vitamin," known for its favorable effects on muscle cells, inflammation, vessel calcification, and blood pressure - are at greater risk of heart attacks than men with high levels of the vitamin.

ELIZABETH COONEY