December 12, 2024

Smoking Statistics: Focus on the Northeast

Smoking Statistics: Northeast USA

Cigarette smoking is still the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), claiming more than 480,000 lives each year. Despite decades of anti-smoking campaigns, which have been largely successful at reducing the number of cigarette smoking and death rates associated with the habit, smokingstatistics-frankmagliochettireportabout 36.5 million Americans still smoke. About 1 in 5 deaths in the U.S. are associated with smoking. Smoking remains high in certain segments of the population and in certain areas of the country. Many states are trying to reduce their number of smokers by raising tax on cigarettes, and investing in tobacco cessation programs and tobacco prevention programs.
Young adults, males, people with low education levels and those living below poverty level, lesbians, gays and bisexuals, the disabled and individuals of certain races or ethnicities are more likely to smoke. About 13 percent of people aged 18 to 24 smokes and 17.7 percent of people aged 25 to 44 smoke.
Smoking Rates by Geography
The percentage of smokers has declined in the U.S. from 20.9 percent in 2005 to 15.1 percent in 2015. Current cigarette smoking was highest in the Midwest at 18.7 percent and lowest in the West at 12.4 percent. About 13.5 percent of people living in the Northeast smoke cigarettes.
A fact sheet released November 2017 by Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids presents state-specific tobacco-related data in very different ways. It ranks states according to adult smoking rates, adult smoking ranks, pregnant smoking ranks and annual smoking deaths. The report also looks at youth smoking rates, the number of kidsfrankmagliochettireport_smokingstatistics alive who will become smokers, and the number of children alive who will eventually die from smoking in each state. Finally, the chart lists the health costs associated with smoking, per pack tax rates and ranks, state financing for tobacco cessation programs, and tobacco prevention spending.
Kentucky has the highest adult smoking rate in the country at 25.9 percent, and the state has a relatively high percentage of pregnant smokers and youth smokers. This high smoking rate may be the result of the state’s relatively low per-pack price of $4.86. Utah has the lowest adult smoking rate at 9.1; retail price for a pack of cigarettes here is $6.43.
There is relatively low tobacco use in the Northeast; much of the low tobacco use there has to do with the relatively high per-pack price and hefty tax rates on cigarettes. At 13.5 percent, Connecticut and New Jersey are tied as the third lowest adult smoking rates in the country. Connecticut has the second highest cigarette tax rate in the nation – $3.90 per pack. New Jersey also has a high cigarette tax at $2.70 per pack.
The average price for cigarettes in Massachusetts is $9.08 per pack and the state charges $3.90 per pack in tax, the fourth highest tax in the nation. The high price of cigarettes pays off, though, as the state has the sixth lowest rate of adults smoking and one of the lowest youth smoking rates in the country.
Northeastern states and other states in the nation may continue to reduce smoking rates – and death rates associated with smoking – by increasing taxes on cigarette products and investing in tobacco cessation and prevention programs.

Source:
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/
https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/fact_sheets/adult_data/cig_smoking/

Frank Magliochetti is Managing Partner for Parcae Capital.

  • North Andover, Massachusetts

This column of posts is directed at the Healthcare Industry.  Frank plans to release a new site dedicated to the industry.  He currently assists companies who are building, restructuring, transforming and resurrecting there business’s. An example of his client base are, Xenetic Biosciences , IPC Medical Corp, Just Fellowship Corp, Environmental Services Inc., Parsons Post House LLC, ClickStream Corporation as well as having a business talk radio show; The Business Architect on the URBN network.

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Fentanyl-Related Overdoses Sweeping the Northeast

Fentanyl-related Overdoses Sweeping the Northeast

Fentanyl, which killed music legend Prince, killed more people in Virginia in 2015 than any other prescription painkiller. Legally purchased fentanyl rose only 10 percent from 2007 to 2014, yet annual death rates nearly tripled in that time, rising from 48 to 134 opiodcrisis_frankmagliochettireportdeaths each year. Fentanyl was responsible for 221 deaths in Virginia, more than any other opioid except for heroin.

The problem extends well beyond the borders of Virginia. On August 15, 2016, 26 people overdosed in less than four hours in Huntington, W. VA., a small city of just 50,000 that usually sees only two or three overdoses in a day. Pending toxicology results, officials there suspect heroin laced with fentanyl.

More than 80 percent of fentanyl seizures in 2014 occurred in 10 states, according to the National Drug Early Warning System(NDEWS), with most being in the eastern United States. These states are:

  • Ohio
  • Massachusetts
  • Pennsylvania
  • Maryland
  • New Jersey
  • Kentucky
  • Virginia
  • Florida
  • New Hampshire
  • Indiana

About Fentanyl

Fentanyl is an opioid, so it has the same physiological and psychological effects as morphine, codeine and heroin. It works by causing neurological changes that relieve pain and cause a pleasant euphoria.

It is a synthetic opioid, which means fentanyl has the same chemical structure as opium and other opiates made from the poppy plant but chemists create fentanyl in a laboratory instead of extracting it from the plant. Synthesizing opioids allows the chemists to drugs that are much stronger than are their natural counterparts.fentanyl_frankmagliochetti

Doctors prescribe fentanyl to treat chronic pain. Pharmaceutical fentanyl is available a variety of forms, such as patches, lozenges, tablets and film. Illicitly produced, non-pharmaceutical fentanyl is available in powder form, which the user can snort or inject, or in pill form.

A growing number of individuals are using fentanyl for its intense, albeit short-term high and temporary feelings of euphoria. It has become a black-market drug rivaling heroin; this is especially true now that Mexican and South American cartels started making the drug in underground labs.

People who use heroin may now unwittingly buy fentanyl or heroin mixed with fentanyl, which means they are consuming considerably stronger drugs than they realize. Even small amounts of fentanyl can be lethal, so using it as heroin or mixing it with heroin can cause a quick overdose.

Carfentanil – A New, More Potent Type of Fentanyl

Designer drugs, also known as analogs, mimic the pharmacological effects of the drug. Fentanyl has many analogs, including carfentanil (also spelled carfentanyl), one of the most potent opioids ever created. At about 100 times stronger than fentanyl and 10,000 times stronger than morphine, carfentanil is a potent elephant tranquilizer – it takes only 2 milligrams to knock out a 2,000-pound elephant – and it is now showing up in heroin.

Officials in Hamilton County, OH., issued a public health statement in July 2016 after 25 people in Akron overdosed in a 3-day period carfentanil-frankmagliochettireportand nine people in Columbus overdosed in a 9-hour window; four people died from those overdoses in Akron and two more died in Columbus. Officials have recently discovered carfentanil in local supplies of heroin there. “This discovery is ominous for those with the disease of addiction, as well as for first responders, hospital teams, law enforcement and those striving to reverse overdoses,” said Hamilton County Health Commissioner, Tim Ingram. “We issued a public health alert this morning to emergency departments and nurses, first responders and clinical staff working with substance abusers and it is crucial that we get this message out to everyone who is in contact with heroin users in our area.”

 

Source:

http://www.dailyprogress.com/townnews/pharmacology/fentanyl-is-now-state-s-deadliest-painkiller/article_5e102133-dc87-5b42-994c-59b055d0d4fe.html

https://ndews.umd.edu/sites/ndews.umd.edu/files/NDEWSSpecialReportFentanyl12072015.pdf

https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/carfentanil

http://www.elephantcare.org/Drugs/carfenta.htm

http://www.hamiltoncountyhealth.org/files/files/Press%20Releases/Carfentanil_7_15_2016.pdf

Frank Magliochetti is Managing Partner for Parcae Capital.

  • North Andover, Massachusetts

This column of posts is directed at the Healthcare Industry.  Frank plans to release a new site dedicated to the industry.  He currently assists companies who are building, restructuring, transforming and resurrecting there business’s. An example of his client base are, Xenetic Biosciences , IPC Medical Corp, Just Fellowship Corp, Environmental Services Inc., Parsons Post House LLC, ClickStream Corporation as well as having a business talk radio show; The Business Architect on the URBN network.

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C -Diff Rates Highest in the Northeast  

Highest C-Diff Rates in US are in the Northeast

Frank Magliochetti Report

Clostridium difficile (C. difficile or C. diff) is a deadly superbug that causes severe illness, diarrhea and sometimes death in thousands of people in the United States each year. Now a study shows that infection rates of these antibiotic-resistant bacteria are highest in the Northeastern section of the nation.

northeast_frankmagliochettidifficileinfection causes inflammation of the colon and diarrhea severe enough to be life threatening. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) saysC. difficile is now the most common microbial cause of hospital-acquired infections in U.S. hospitals, and that these infections cost up to $4.8 billion annually in excess healthcare costs – and that number reflects the costs for just for acute care facilities, not for nursing homes or other healthcare institutions.

diffcaused nearly half a million infections in 2011, and 29,000 patients died within 30 days of receiving their initial diagnosis ofC. difficileinfection that year. C. difficile infections are usually a regional problem, as patients transfer from hospitals to nursing homes and back into the community, which allows the disease to spread.

 

C. Diff Rates Have Been Highest in the Northeast – for a Decade

Rates of this deadly superbug were highest in the Northeast over the last decade, according to a study published in the American Journal of Infection Control.

Researchers from the University of Texas analyzed 2.3 million cases of C. difficile infection that occurred between 2001 and 2010. They found the highest incidence of the infection in the Northeast, where about eight patients developed a C. difficileinfection for every 1,000 patients discharged from a hospital. The Midwest had the second highest C. diff infections at 6.4 infections per 1,000 discharges, followed by the South at five per 1,000 and the West at 4.8 infections per 1,000 discharges.

Deaths from C. difficile infections were highest in the Midwest at 7.3 percent and among older adults at 9 percent.

The scientists also discovered that C. difficile is a seasonal disease. Most cases occurred in the spring, infecting 6.2 people for every 1,000 discharges. Infection rates were second highest in the winter at 5.9 per 1,000, followed by summer and fall.

The rates of C. diff infections for adults and older adults followed the overall trends, with most adults developing a C. diffinfection (CDI) during spring. CDIs among children were highest in the winter.

“The peak incidence in the spring could be attributed to increased utilization of antibiotics in winter months,” explain the authors of the study. “Prior studies have found a 1 to 2 month lag time between antibiotic exposure and the development of CDI.”

Controlling the Risk of C. Difficile Infections in all 50 States

Over-prescribing and inappropriate prescribing of antibiotics raises the patient risk of CDI. About half of all patients receive an antibiotic at some time during hospitalization, according to CDC statistics, but 30 to 50 percent of antibiotics prescribed in hospitals are incorrect or unnecessary. Using proper infection control procedures and careful prescribing of antibiotics can prevent CDIs.c-difficile-frankmagliochetti

CDIs are usually associated with medical care; patients who take antibiotics and receive medical care are at the highest risk for aC. difficile infection.

Doctors often prescribe broad-spectrum antibiotics that kill a wide variety of dangerous bacteria. Unfortunately, these antibiotics can also kill off beneficial bacteria living in the human gut. These beneficial bacteria help digest food and boost the immune system to help protect the body against infection. Taking antibiotics can suppress these beneficial bacteria for several weeks or even months, which leaves the body vulnerable to pathogens – such as C. difficile – when the individual comes into contact with a contaminated surface or with another person with the disease. Unnecessary use of antibiotics and poor infection control increases the speed at which C. difficile spreads within a facility or between facilities when a patient transfers.

C. difficile infections cause immense suffering and death for thousands of Americans each year,” said Tom Frieden, M.D., M.P.H, and Director of the CDC. “These infections can be prevented by improving antibiotic prescribing and by improving infection control in the health care system. CDC hopes to ramp up prevention of this deadly infection by supporting State Antibiotic Resistance Prevention Programs in all 50 states.”

Source

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25952045

http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/p0225-clostridium-difficile.html

https://www.cdc.gov/hai/organisms/cdiff/Cdiff_clinicians.html

Frank Magliochetti is Managing Partner for Parcae Capital.

  • North Andover, Massachusetts

This column of posts is directed at the Healthcare Industry.  Frank plans to release a new site dedicated to the industry.  He currently assists companies who are building, restructuring, transforming and resurrecting there business’s. An example of his client base are, Xenetic Biosciences , IPC Medical Corp, Just Fellowship Corp, Environmental Services Inc., Parsons Post House LLC, ClickStream Corporation as well as having a business talk radio show; The Business Architect on the URBN network.

frankmagliochetti_ParcaeCapital