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STOCKHOLM (AFP) - The Swedish organization A Non Smoking Generation covered Stockholm in posters claiming that smoking stunts penis growth and that cigarette filters are filled with mouse excrements, along with other lies aimed at getting kids to stop smoking.

"We wanted to raise awareness about how the tobacco industry always promotes its products -- through lies," head of the organization Anne-Therese Enarsson told AFP.

"Our lies are so exaggerated that we hope they will make people stop and think, and then come to our website to find the truth," she added.

Other lies plastered across the Swedish capital included that second-hand smoke is killing birds and that girls usually start smoking because they're stupid.

"This is an important campaign because it's summer vacation now and most kids start smoking in the summer. Seventy kids start smoking every day in Sweden. We hope this will make them think twice," Enarsson said, adding that the posters will stay up for the next two weeks.

A Non Smoking Generation is not worried that tobacco companies will sue over the lies, she insisted.

RENEE C. LEE Associated Press Writer

www.tulsaworld.com

3/13/2004

An experimental vaccine wiped out lung cancer in some patients and slowed its spread in others in a small but promising study, researchers say.



Three patients injected with the vaccine, GVAX, had no recurrence of lung cancer for more than three years afterward, according to the study of 43 people with the most common form of the disease, non-small cell lung cancer.



The findings were published in Wednesday's Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The research was funded in part by CellGenesis, a pharmaceutical company that hopes to produce the vaccine.



The vaccine, developed by researchers at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, is years away from reaching the market, if ever. The researchers hope to apply for Food and Drug Administration approval in three years.



"The results are very promising for patients with non-small (cell) lung cancer, which is frequently resistant to chemotherapy," said Dr. John Nemunaitis, a Baylor oncologist who led the study.



Non-small cell lung cancer is the nation's leading cause of cancer death, killing more than 150,000 people each year. The disease is related to smoking and is often difficult to treat. Treatment usually involves removal of the tumor, chemotherapy or both.



The study is the first to show complete and long-lasting regression of lung cancer by stimulating the immune system to attack cancer cells, Nemunaitis said. A similar approach has shown promise against skin and renal cell cancer.



In the study, each patient was injected in the arm and leg with a vaccine that included cells from his or her tumors. A gene called CM-CSF was placed into the cancer cells to change the surface of the cells to help the body identify them as cancerous. The body's immune cells soon began to recognize, attack and destroy the cancer cells in the lungs.



Forty-three lung cancer patients -- 10 in the early stage and 33 in the advanced stage -- were injected with the vaccine every two weeks for three months. Researchers followed them for three years.



The cancer disappeared in three of the advanced-stage patients. Two of those patients previously had chemotherapy, which failed. In the rest of the advanced-stage patients, the disease remained stable and did not spread for almost five months to more than two years.



For patients in the early stage, the vaccine did not make much difference against the cancer.



"The most exciting thing is in those who responded to the vaccine, it was complete," Nemunaitis said. "It's given us a lot of encouragement."



For patients with advanced-stage lung cancer, chemotherapy works no more than 3 percent of the time, and survival is usually eight to nine months. Those whose cancer went into remission with the vaccine were alive at least three years later. And the vaccine has no side effects, Nemunaitis said.



Dr. Anwar Khurshid, an oncologist at the Arlington Cancer Center, said the findings will "open a lot of avenues."



"I think you'll cure some patients but not everyone. That's what has been proven in other cases," he said. "You need to vaccine earlier or combine with something else to cure more people."

Submitted by Rick



By JEREMY WALLACE

THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: November 28, 2003)



The Rockland Legislature is likely to put a proposed cigarette-tax increase into its 2004 budget, despite warnings from state lawmakers not to do it.



Lawmakers will likely include the 25-cents-per-pack tax increase in the spending plan when it goes to a vote of the full Legislature on Tuesday, said Legislator Kenneth Zebrowski, D-New City.



"I think this is something we should fight for," said Zebrowski, the chairman of the Legislature's Budget and Finance Committee.



The cigarette tax would generate about $2.3 million to help fund the government, County Executive C. Scott Vanderhoef predicted in October, when he first included the idea in his proposed budget.



But earlier this month, three state lawmakers sent a letter to county leaders warning them not to bank on getting permission from the state government to implement the tax. County governments don't have the authority to levy cigarette taxes beyond the $1.50 that the state already imposes on each pack. Rockland leaders would need to get special permission from the state Legislature and governor.



Assemblyman Alexander Gromack, D-Congers, and state Sen. Thomas Morahan, R-New City, said they checked with leaders in their respective chambers and came away the impression that getting approval for the tax would be a long shot.



Westchester County sought similar cigarette-tax legislation in Albany in 2002, but the measure failed.



Zebrowski, however, said the idea is too important to give up on so easily. He said the county wants to dedicate money earned from the tax increase to pay for health programs.



"I think this would aid our county's medical and fiscal health," Zebrowski said.



Besides the cigarette tax increase, Vanderhoef has recommended a $567.5 million budget for 2004 that also includes a 9.5 percent property tax increase.



Zebrowski said there was still a chance the proposed property tax increase would be reduced by the Legislature when its proposed budget is released late this week.



The proposed budget also includes a 2.5 percent pay increase for most elected officials, except the county Legislature. Lawmakers initially asked for a 19 percent pay raise, but they have since said they will scale back the proposed raise. They have not said how much they will ask for.



The budget plan also includes a plan to borrow against the remainder of the county's tobacco-settlement funds to pay off past debts. The county already borrowed against 80 percent of the settlement money, and it is now seeking to borrow against the remaining 20 percent.