The Health News USA November 22 2017

• Decades after they were banned from the airwaves, Big Tobacco companies return to prime-time television this weekend — but not by choice. Under court order, the tobacco industry for the first time will be forced to advertise the deadly, addictive effects of smoking, more than eleven years after a judge ruled that the companies had misled the public about the dangers of cigarettes.  Anti-tobacco advocates estimate the upcoming TV advertisements will cost companies a tiny fraction of that, about $30 million dollars.
• According to a new US study, high school athletes have high rates of hand and wrist injuries, especially in certain sports. The authors say that football players have the highest risk by far, but lacrosse, field and ice hockey, wrestling, softball and basketball also carry higher odds of these injuries, which can require costly surgery and keep kids out of the game for weeks.
• The nine-year-old Jacob Thompson whose wish for Christmas cards went viral died on Sunday, one week after he was able to enjoy a special celebration of his favorite holiday. Jacob who had been battling stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma since age 5, had received thousands of cards and gifts from strangers all over the world.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 22nd of November 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/big-tobaccos-anti-smoking-ads-begin-decade-delay-51292806

Decades after they were banned from the airwaves, Big Tobacco companies return to prime-time television this weekend — but not by choice. Under court order, the tobacco industry for the first time will be forced to advertise the deadly, addictive effects of smoking, more than eleven years after a judge ruled that the companies had misled the public about the dangers of cigarettes. But years of legal pushback by the industry over every detail means the ads will be less hard-hitting than what was proposed. Tobacco control experts say the campaign — built around network TV and newspapers — will not reach people when they are young and most likely to start smoking. “Their legal strategy is always obstruct, delay, create confusion and buy more time,” said Ruth Malone, of the University of California, San Francisco, who has studied the industry for twenty years.

The new spots, which begin Sunday, lay out the toll of smoking in blunt text and voiceover statements: “More people die every year from smoking than from murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol, combined.” Smoking remains the nation’s leading preventable cause of death and illness, causing more than four hundred eighty thousand deaths each year, even though smoking rates have been declining for decades. Last year, the adult smoking rate hit a new low of fifteen percent, according to government figures. That’s down from the forty two percent of adults who smoked in the mid-nineteen sixties. Experts attribute the decline to smoking bans, cigarette taxes and anti-smoking campaigns by both nonprofit groups like the American Cancer Society and the federal government.

The new ads are the result of a nineteen ninety nine lawsuit filed by the Justice Department under President Bill Clinton which sought to recover some of the billions the federal government spent caring for people with smoking-related illnesses. A federal judge ultimately sided with the government in two thousand six, ruling that Big Tobacco had “lied, misrepresented and deceived the American public” about the effects of smoking for more than fifty years. The decision came nearly a decade after U.S. states reached legal settlements with the industry worth two hundred forty six billion dollars.

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Anti-tobacco advocates estimate the upcoming TV advertisements will cost companies a tiny fraction of that, about thirty million dollars. The broadcast ads will air five times per week for one year and the newspaper ads will run five times over several months in about fifty national daily papers.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-teens-sports-injury/hand-wrist-injuries-in-high-school-sports-often-severe-idUSKBN1DL2Q2

According to a new US study, high school athletes have high rates of hand and wrist injuries, especially in certain sports. The authors say that football players have the highest risk by far, but lacrosse, field and ice hockey, wrestling, softball and basketball also carry higher odds of these injuries, which can require costly surgery and keep kids out of the game for weeks.
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While playing sports has clear health benefits for children and teens, young athletes do run the risk of injury, the study team notes. Hand and wrist injuries represent seventeen percent of pediatric and adolescent sports injuries, they add, and can affect students’ ability to complete their school work in addition to keeping them off the field.

The researchers looked at eleven academic years’ worth of data from a large sample of high schools in the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study, starting in two thousand five to two thousand six through two thousand fifteen to two thousand sixteen. Over the course of  forty million one hundred ninety-five thousand eight hundred six athlete exposures (AEs) during games or practices, there were six thousand seven hundred twenty three hand/wrist injuries, for an overall rate of one point seven injuries per ten thousand AEs. About half of the injuries occurred during competition and half during practice, but because players spend more time practicing than competing, injury rates were actually three times higher during games.

http://www.foxnews.com/health/2017/11/21/boy-whose-wish-for-christmas-cards-went-viral-dies.html

The nine-year-old boy whose wish for Christmas cards went viral died on Sunday, one week after he was able to enjoy a special celebration of his favorite holiday. Jacob Thompson, who had been battling stage four high risk neuroblastoma since age five, had received thousands of cards and gifts from strangers all over the world.

“Each and every person who sent Jacob a Christmas card, a gift, a Facebook message or video, or a prayer made a difference in the final days of his life,” his family wrote, in part, on the “Jacob Thompson’s Journey” Facebook page.

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Shortly after Thompson’s wish made headlines, he received upwards of ten thousand cards in a single day delivered to his room at Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital. His parents were told he had about a month to live, and in that time hospital staff helped them celebrate an early Thanksgiving and threw Thompson an early Christmas complete with decorated trees and a visit from Santa. They kept his supporters updated on both his Facebook page, and with a GoFundMe page.  In honor of Thompson’s life motto to “live like a penguin,” his family is asking for donations to be made to Operation Gratitude, a penguin rescue group or to simply pay it forward within their own communities.