The Health News USA March 3 2018

• According to a new survey, a whopping 42% of non-smokers feel they should get 3-5 extra vacation days than non-smokers and 28% of smokers agree with that amount.  To understand how workers feel about the time their co-workers spent smoking, e-cigarette maker Halo surveyed 1,005 American adults. According to the survey, 25% of non-smokers said 1-2 days is a fair amount. However, 14% said 6 or more days was fair. The CDC report that smoking related illnesses costs more than $156 billion in lost productivity each year in the U.S.
• Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly has once again been diagnosed with oral cancer. Kelly released a statement Thursday through his publicist saying he is “shocked and deeply saddened” by the news, and vows to once again to fight to overcome the disease. He did not go into specifics on the diagnoses except to say the cancer was discovered following a test. The effects of the cancer and treatments led to Kelly having trouble speaking. He could also no longer produce saliva and had lost the sense of taste.
• A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming that Coca-Cola Corporation’s advertising for Diet Coke misleads people into thinking that consuming the soft drink assists in weight loss, and that it actually causes weight gain. The plaintiff, Shana Becerra, claimed that she and others would not have bought Diet Coke, which was launched in 1982, but for the word “diet” and ads such as one showing the soft drink being poured by a bare-chested man with a well-muscled torso. Coca-Cola re-launched the Diet Coke brand in January to stem falling sales, and added blood orange, cherry, ginger-lime and mango flavors in taller, thinner cans.
  

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 3rd of March 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/28/42-percent-non-smokers-say-they-should-get-extra-vacation-days-than-smokers.html

According to a new survey, a whopping forty two percent of non-smokers feel they should get three to five extra vacation days than non-smokers and twenty eight percent of smokers agree with that amount.  To understand how workers feel about the time their co-workers spent smoking, e-cigarette maker Halo surveyed one thousand five American adults. According to the survey, twenty five percent of non-smokers said one to two days is a fair amount. However, fourteen percent said six or more days was fair.

More than thirty eight percent of smokers, on the other hand, didn’t think that non smokers deserve any extra vacation days. Twenty-percent of nonsmokers agreed they did not deserve extra vacation time. The survey found that more than eighty one percent of smokers said smoke breaks were fair. Only about twenty five percent of non-smokers agreed.
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The average smoker wastes around six days a year on work smoke breaks, according to Joe Mercurio, Halo’s project manager for the study.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that smoking related illnesses costs more than one hundred fifty six billion dollars in lost productivity each year in the U.S. That includes five point six billion dollars due to secondhand smoke exposure. Looking at CDC data from two thousand sixteen, about fifteen percent of U.S. adults eighteen or older smoke cigarettes, or an estimated thirty seven point eight million people.

In nineteen sixty five, forty five percent of Americans were smokers. In nineteen ninety seven, twenty five percent of Americans smoked. Cigarette smoking accounts for more than four hundred eighty thousand deaths a year and is the leading cause of preventable death in the U.S.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jim-kelly-quarterback-oral-cancer-buffalo-bills/

Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly has once again been diagnosed with oral cancer. Kelly released a statement Thursday through his publicist saying he is “shocked and deeply saddened” by the news, and vows to once again to fight to overcome the disease. He did not go into specifics on the diagnoses except to say the cancer was discovered following a test.
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Kelly closed his statement by saying: “Staying ‘Kelly Tough’ and trusting God will carry us through this difficult time.” The diagnosis comes a few weeks after Kelly celebrated his 58th birthday. Kelly was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in two thousand thirteen, and a year later contracted MRSA in his bones, shortly after having been declared cancer-free.

He had a portion of his jaw removed after the initial diagnosis, but the cancer returned in two thousand fourteen. He underwent chemotherapy and radiation at that time, and was again diagnosed as cancer-free in September two thousand fourteen. He then had a brief scare in two thousand sixteen.

The effects of the cancer and treatments led to Kelly having trouble speaking. He could also no longer produce saliva and had lost the sense of taste.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cocacola-lawsuit/coca-cola-defeats-u-s-lawsuit-over-diet-coke-ads-idUSKCN1GC2LY

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit claiming that Coca-Cola Corporation’s advertising for Diet Coke misleads people into thinking that consuming the soft drink assists in weight loss, and that it actually causes weight gain. The plaintiff, Shana Becerra, claimed that she and others would not have bought Diet Coke, which was launched in nineteen eighty two, but for the word “diet” and ads such as one showing the soft drink being poured by a bare-chested man with a well-muscled torso.

In a decision on Tuesday, however, U.S. District Judge William Alsup in San Francisco said thirteen studies cited by Becerra were “equivocal” as to whether diet soda causes weight gain, and that she must prove it does to prevail.

He also noted that supermarkets do not display Diet Coke in the health food section, and said reasonable consumers would understand that any caloric savings would lead to weight loss only as part of a “sensible diet and exercise regimen” dependent on individual metabolism.
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The judge separately rejected Coca-Cola’s argument that federal law preempted the lawsuit, which sought class-action status.

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Becerra, who lives in Santa Rosa, California, claimed that sweeteners such as Diet Coke’s aspartame interfere with the ability to metabolize calories, and raise the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. She sued on behalf of California residents for unspecified damages and an injunction against marketing Diet Coke as “diet.” Coca-Cola re-launched the Diet Coke brand in January to stem falling sales, and added blood orange, cherry, ginger-lime and mango flavors in taller, thinner cans.