Health and Fitness

May 29, 2009

Kaiser Permanente Psychiatrist, Author Releases E-Book: ‘Toward a Tobacco Free World’

A Kaiser Permanente psychiatrist has released a free electronic version of his book about the hazards of tobacco to coincide with the World Health Organization’s “World No Tobacco Day” on Sunday, May 31.

“Toward a Tobacco Free World,” by Kaiser Permanente osteopath and psychiatrist Dr. Michael Rabinoff, highlights the societal costs worldwide that stem from tobacco use. Rabinoff details the global cost of smoking and outlines actions that can be taken immediately to help save lives worldwide. Consider:

• 1 billion people will die from smoking in the 21st century, estimates the World Health Organization
• 17 percent of all children ages 13 to 15 worldwide currently use some form of tobacco.
• More than 1,200 Americans die prematurely each day because of smoking, or from secondhand smoke.
• For every 1,000 smokers who try to quit each year on their own, more than 900 fail to remain smoke-free for one year.

“Toward a Tobacco Free World” is an electronic version of Rabinoff’s award-winning book, “Ending the Tobacco Holocaust: How Big Tobacco Affects Our Health, Pocketbook and Political Freedom — And What We Can Do About It.” The e-book version is part of a campaign to bring attention to the WHO’s World No Tobacco Day, which Rabinoff says is not as well-known inside the United States as it is elsewhere.

Robert Pearl, MD, executive director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group, endorsed the book and offered this in the preface: “The book is outstanding and tells a compelling story about the tremendous dangers of cigarette smoking and second-hand smoke. I hope that one day smoking, like polio, will be a distant memory.” The Permanente Medical Group provides medical care for Kaiser Permanente’s 3.3 million members in Northern California.

A Web site, www.tobaccobook.com, has been launched with Rabinoff’s e-book. The site has tools through which users can easily email President Barack Obama and urge him to send the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to the U.S. Congress for ratification. So far, 168 nations have signed the convention; the United States has yet to ratify.