STOP launch of PM's Virginia Slim "Super Slim" cigarettes:

From: Snus News & Other Tobacco Products

November 5, 2008 - Antismoking organizations (American Cancer Society Action Network, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the American Medical Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids) register their protests over Philip Morris USA’s plans to introduce a new Virginia Slims cigarette product with heightened appeal for young women.

Philip Morris USA has said it will launch new Virginia Slim “Super Slim” cigarette in the first quarter of 2009. The cigarette, in both light and ultra light flavors, is smaller in diameter than a standard cigarette and will come in a narrow pink rectangular box with squared ends. While the box will hold the standard 20 cigarettes, it will be slimmer than a standard pack and will apparently be marketed as a “Purse Pack”.

A joint statement of these health-advocacy non-profit agencies stated that “Philip Morris shows contempt for women and their health by putting a pink gloss on a product that causes lung cancer and heart disease, two of the leading killers of women.”

Gene Variants Linked to Risk for Nicotine Dependence and Lung Cancer

A cluster of gene variants on chromosome 15 associated with lung cancer risk also appear to affect risk for nicotine dependence, epidemiologists at the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report.
Three independent genome-wide association studies previously identified single nucleotide polymorphisms strongly associated with risk of lung cancer, Dr. Margaret R. Spitz and colleagues explain in the November 5 Journal of the National Cancer Institute.
"The region of interest," they write, "encompasses the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor subunit genes CHRNA3 and CHRNA5 (as well as CHRNB4), which have a defined role in nicotine dependence and have been hypothesized to have a direct role in downstream signaling pathways that promote carcinogenesis."

For full story: Reuters, 2008-10-28