New Years Eve err Eve Or Something

Two sides of the same coin, or Why they banned smoking in bars

 What was wrong with the law proving 50 by 50%? I don't understand. The fact that the law was not observed is a different story. And where is the guarantee that this law will be observed?" Paliychuk wondered. He also points out the first to suffer from this law will be business, not smokers. "Already now restaurant owners complain about outflow of clients. In Poland, for example, two thousand enterprises went bankrupt after the first half a year of operation of such ban. Pretending to fight for waiter's rights, these activists will deprive these very waiters of their jobs," Paliychuk believes. In his opinion, restaurant industry will suffer losses in 2013, while tobacco companies will not even notice the changes. 

Curbs on Smokers Continue to Grow

North Dakota this month banned smoking in most public places. Meanwhile, further curbs are under discussion from Bangor, Maine, to San Francisco, as authorities vow to protect the public from secondhand smoke.
"It's no longer a question of who's going to be next" to ban smoking in public areas, said Cynthia Hallett, executive director of Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights, a nonprofit group. "It's who's going to be last."

Shareholders File Anti-Smoking Resolutions With Movie Companies

An anti-smoking crusade is being taken to movie companies by shareholders who are filing resolutions asking that movies designed for young people eliminate smoking or have R ratings.

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), one of the leaders of the effort, notes a recent U.S. Surgeon General report that says smoking depicted in movies causes more young people to take up smoking.

Shareholders of several major movie companies have filed resolutions asking that the companies give movies depicting smoking an R rating or eliminate smoking from movies anticipated to get a G, PG, or PG-13 rating.

Can Utah car-smoking ban pass this time around?

For example, it would make smoking in a car where a child is present a secondary offense, meaning police could not pull over drivers just for that. A driver could be ticketed only after being cited for a primary offense. Also, for the first year after enactment, police would be allowed only to issue warnings, not tickets, to violators. And the $45 penalty would be waived if the violator attended a smoking-cessation class.

Even with all its compromises, the bill is important, Arent says, "because having it illegal makes all the difference in the world to people’s action."

Arent says she has lined up medical experts who can testify that smoking in cars with children "is the most dangerous place to smoke with the most dangerous person to have the smoke around."

No place for tobacco smoke in multi-unit housing

Separating smokers from non-smokers, cleaning the air and ventilating buildings cannot eliminate exposure of nonsmokers to second-hand smoke. Each year, second-hand smoke is responsible for an estimated 50,000 deaths in the United States.

"The best way to protect the millions of U.S. multi-unit housing residents from exposure to second-hand smoke is by prohibiting smoking in all units and shared areas of their buildings," said Tim McAfee, MD, MPH, director of the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health. "Not only are smoke-free policies permitted for both public and privately owned multi-unit housing, but they are also favored by most residents and can result in cost savings for multi-unit housing operators."

When the Nanny State Kills

When the governmental nannies tell us that a Big Gulp is just too much Pepsi, that cigarettes must be banned or that fast food is not heart friendly, they tell us they are doing it for our own good. We will be happier if we just give in to their hectoring. Taken to its logical extreme, however, the Nanny State will not tolerate your disobedience. During Prohibition, the Nanny State was a killer.

Boy, Not Making Bombs, Arrested for Having Things Cops Think Could Blow Up (And For Drawings That Spooked a Teacher)

Lest you think it is inherently suspicious a young man would have chemicals or electronic parts, note that his school is, according to a Press of Atlantic City account, "a magnet school with programs focusing on engineering and environmental sciences and specializing in hands-on learning." And his momtold MyFoxPhilly.com that her son had a "passion for collecting old stuff, taking it apart and rebuilding things."

Hmm,still thinking that next year isn't going to be any better.

I have no idea why I think that is.

Merry Christmas *sigh*

Health And Safety Gone Mad

Bans on yo-yos in playgrounds, knives in kitchens and kettles in offices have all been wrongly blamed on workplace safety laws this year, a new report has revealed.

A health and safety "myth-buster" panel set up to expose mis-uses of the law - or just silly decisions - has received scores of complaints from members of the public in 2012.

The panel has now responded to its 100th case, with 38 put down to jobsworths making an excuse for an unpopular decision or simply poor customer service.

Truckers 'should keep a tax toilet log book'

Tax expert Rauhöft suggested that for the system to work, drivers should file what part of a private-company charge was not used on food. But this would mean drivers keeping a "schnitzel book" alongside their toilet log. 

Canada Creates Black Market For E Cigs

Users seek each other out online and arrange discreet meetings to discuss distribution channels. Vendors won’t speak to reporters on the record because they are afraid the government will shut them down. Until recently, it was not unusual for transactions to take place in back alleys; a plastic bag handed over in exchange for a fistful of cash.

The product is not cocaine or marijuana. It is nicotine delivered via electronic cigarettes, which cannot be legally imported or sold in this country, but are widely available south of the border. 

Happy Christmas: Santa censored and exploited as a smoking cessation aid

According to the author, Pamela McColl:

“I edited this poem as studies out of the United States in the 1990s showed that the depiction of cartoon characters smoking influences young children ages 3-7 towards tobacco products,” she said.

Really? I would love to know how many children have started to smoke as a consequence of reading (or being read) a poem about Santa written in 1823.

CANADIAN HORROR FILMMAKER ON TRIAL FOR CORRUPTING MORALS

Filmmaker Frederick Maheux claims Canada's indie horror industry is already feeling the impact of the court case. Maheux made a documentary on Couture in 2009 called ART/CRIME. Since the trial began, the doc has been pulled from distribution on the basis it features clips from Couture's allegedly obscene videos. Maheux called the act "catastrophic" for his own filmmaking livelihood. He also claims, if Couture is found guilty, it could have a similar effect on the country's horror industry at large.

Label alcohol like cigarettes

Given the Government's inability to create sensible laws regarding alcohol advertising and labelling, is it not time to shame individuals in the alcohol industry to make real moves to ensure all alcohol and all advertisements contain clear warnings about drinking during pregnancy and the risks of cancer?

Cartoon face of fatty foods draws call for federal ban

Cartoon characters like the Paddle Pop Lion and Freddo Frog are being used increasingly across media platforms to lure children to unhealthy foods and should be banned, a health organisation has said.

While falling short of calling for ''plain packaging'' on sugary and fatty foods, the Obesity Policy Coalition said the federal government should ban marketers from using cartoon characters and giveaway toys to promote junk and unhealthy foods.

Good grief.

I hope this upcoming year is better than last year but it sure doesn't look like it will be.

Truth And Lies Tid Bits

City moves to restore local rights on tobacco

TAHLEQUAH — Tahlequah city councilors voted unanimously Monday to adopt a resolution restoring local rights when governing tobacco-related laws.

City Attorney Park Medearis said the resolution is non-binding. He and Mayor Jason Nichols said the document has no enforcement powers, but will let the Oklahoma Legislature know the city council supports local rights on tobacco issues.

Val Dobbins, a local advocate, said local rights were lost by cities on this issue in the 1980s. The resolution is standardized, and cities across Oklahoma are being asked to adopt the document.


Cigarette danger ‘exaggerated'

The report, based on surveys conducted annually from 2003 to 2011, shows one in eight of all Victorians in 2011 believed the ill-health effects related to smoking had been overstated.

However, one in four current smokers said they believed the effects were exaggerated.

Teen Hidden Tobacco Study Has Not-So-Hidden Flaw

"The computer simulation the study used does not relate to any real-life scenario because in real life, youth who are interested in smoking will go into a store with the intent to purchase cigarettes," Boston University Department of Community Health Science professor Dr. Michael Siegel told Tobacco E-News. "I don't think there are too many situations where a teen is hanging out in a store sees a display, and suddenly decides to try cigarettes."

Tid Bits

County needs to butt out when it comes to smokers

“I think it’s time for us to get serious about this,” he declared recently.

Well, I think it’s time we got serious about power-drunk politicians who believe they can tell the little people how to live.

Someone ought to remind Supervisor Hyland that there are still a few Americans left who cling to quaint notions about personal freedom. That includes the freedom to engage in stupid, self-destructive acts as long as they are legal.

Last time I checked, we could roller skate down a flight of stairs if we wanted a thrill. We could ingest nothing but Girl Scout cookies until we slipped into a diabetic coma. And we can curl up on the couch every night to watch the latest installment of “Here Comes Honey Boo Boo” instead of heading to the gym.

None of these dopey activities are any of the government’s business.

If a private employer wants to hire only nonsmokers, vegetarians or teetotalers, fine. The U.S. Constitution was designed to restrain government – not private entities – from stomping all over our rights.

And Here It Comes

Determining the best strategy to reduce the health risks associated with secondhand smoke at home raises complex issues. What should be the government’s role in reducing smoking in private homes or cars, especially when children’s health is at stake? Increasingly, evidence shows a health threat from smoking in an adjacent housing unit, like an apartment, where toxins from secondhand smoke seep through walls, ductwork, windows, and ventilation systems. Should smoke-free laws be extended to include multiunit private housing? Should smoking in a car be banned when children are present?

 

Alternatively, what kind of encouragement would help people voluntarily ban smoking on their own? Given the challenges of adopting a smoke-free home, is there value in supporting families who take a gradual, more incremental approach – starting small, say, by not smoking in front of children or establishing a single smoke-free room – as worthwhile steps on the path to going entirely smoke-free? Or does this confuse the message because only a total ban on secondhand smoke will protect children’s health?

Fewer Smokers Means Higher Taxpayer Costs, Study Finds

A study detailed in the most recent New England Journal of Medicine confirms what opponents of tobacco litigation said all along — the government makes money off of smokers, and could spend more if enough of them quit.

The argument was dismissed as ghoulish at the time, and it still is. But a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the financial impact of a 50-cent-per-pack increase in cigarette taxes shows that while cutting the number of smokers trims government outlays over the short run, the increased longevity and higher end-of-life expenses of non-smokers eventually would cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars more from Medicare and Social Security.

Germany's most populous state toughens smoking ban

 It shuts loopholes that allowed customers to light up in establishments that designated themselves smoking bars, in special rooms set aside for smokers or in beer tents, among other things. The center-left state government said the original ban had so many loopholes it didn’t effectively protect nonsmokers.

In future, exceptions will be allowed only for private parties.

Tobacco Tid Bits

Time left to submit views on smoking legislation

A consultation aiming to safeguard children against the exposure to second hand smoke has two weeks left to run.

Hammond and Thornberry on NHS charging smokers and drinkers

A former TV Apprentice contestant found little support for her plan for those said to drink, smoke and eat too much to pay some of their own health care costs.

Conservative Philip Hammond said the NHS being free a the point of need was a "cornerstone" and there was no review planned. He asked: "Where would it stop?"

No Smokers, Please: Should Firms Ban Staff From Smoking?

While the firm’s policy has been in place since 2002, it has recently sparked an intense debate on social media sites about the pros and cons of restrictions on smokers in Japan. Does such an absolute ban infringe excessively on the rights of smokers or is this a progressive approach indicating a future workplace model for corporate Japan?

Do smoking signs make us want to smoke?

NO smoking signs may unconsciously trigger a desire to smoke, new research has found.

Tobacco News Potpurri

Smoking bans pick up momentum on college campuses, despite protests

George Washington University officials decided to announce the coming of an on-campus smoking ban during the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout on Nov. 15. Before they could do so, dozens of students and staff members were lighting up in protest.

The protestors chain-smoked for hours in a campus plaza on Nov. 13. They say the ban, set to start next school year, will push smokers into unsafe areas or public streets. Organizers wrote in an open letter that kicking “smokers out of outside — the absurdity here should be noted — destroys the basic freedom of everyone; from the student, to the worker, to the faculty, to the woman walking by, to the man working in a food truck.”

Cigarette firms must run ads saying they lied

The three cigarette giants -- Philip Morris, Reynolds and Lorillard -- must also state that smoking is responsible for 1,200 deaths every day and that secondhand smoke kills more than 3,000 Americans a year, the Associated Press says.

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler's ruling finalizes wording for the ads, which she ordered in 2006 after finding that the cigarette giants violated racketeering laws. She ordered "corrective statements" on five topics

Smokers may face new bans

THE Victorian government is facing renewed pressure to introduce statewide bans on smoking in outdoor dining areas with the Greens set to introduce a private members bill in Parliament this week.

Greens MP Colleen Hartland said the government was taking too long to introduce bans that were now in place or under way in every other Australian state and territory.

Fairfax official targets smoking in the county workforce

The first time Gerald W. Hyland of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors tried to cut smokers from the county’s payroll, more than a decade ago, it didn’t exactly go over well. His suggestion that the county stop hiring smokers brought him nothing but angry criticism.

His latest idea — forcing county employees who smoke to take classes to help them quit — isn’t gaining much support, either. This is, after all, Virginia, a state built on tobacco and the Jeffersonian ideals of limited government. Few have accused the commonwealth of being a nanny state.

Do anti-smokers feel shame when a child is killed?

Hideous human being

A mother who killed her nine-year-old son by setting him on fire as punishment for smoking has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Noluthando Nomavayi , 37, from Delft in Cape Town drenched her two sons with paraffin and set them alight when she discovered them smoking cigarettes in May 2011.

The older son survived the vicious attack but the younger one suffered 90 per cent burns and died at the Red Cross Hospital in Cape Town six weeks later, Sowetan Live reported.

I don't care what happened to her as a child.

As an adult you have to move on to do what's best for your child no matter what you yourself may have experienced.

I'm sure I can lie this at the feet of the antismokers,it's not hard to do.

Their prejudice and scare tactics have lead to many innocent people either killing themselves or being murdered for smoking.

I wish they could see the monument of names and dates that are built,human lives all ended because of their disgusting campaign.

They want to stop smoking to save lives.

Their words not mine

Do anti-smokers feel shame when a child is killed?

How about when an old woman loses her fingers or toes?

Maybe they feel shame when people leap out of windows..........or maybe not.

FUCK

WHY?

Twenty year-old student jumps to death over a cigarette

This message has got 80 reactions from grieving friends since then. The reason for such a drastic step was a cigarette, which his teacher found with Mangtani and notified the issue to his father.



I don't have anything as nice as this here but I keep stumbling onto your stories,the young people who die,the women who try to kill themselves with fire,the old people who freeze to death.

I have no nice place to inter your memories or your names,but all of your stories break my heart,they make me cry and they make me furious.

The make me determined to keep on doing what I can to fight the prejudice caused by men of "science".

One day I hope we can get back to a society where people  are once again people and not treated as criminals  and lowlives for a choice they made.

I'm sorry Mangtani and I'll remember your story.

Outstanding

They Hate Poor People

 Progressive elites like to run things. They’d run the government, the media, and the entire U.S. economy if they could. Failing that, public housing authorities will do. The Detroit, San Antonio, and Portland, Oregon, housing authorities already ban smoking. Boston’s housing authority will do so in September. Los Angeles is expected to follow. And it’s no mystery what that highest-minded, most right-thinking, way-progressive elitist Mayor Bloomberg has in mind for New Yorkers.

Smoking is wrong. Progressive elites may be confused about the existence of right and wrong when it comes to wars against genocidal fanatics, market freedom, and the death penalty for mass murderers. But not when it comes to smoking.

I love PJ O'Rourke

I thought it just .belonged here so that's where I put it.

Tid Bits Tobacco,studies,trials and prohibitions

PROJECTING THE EFFECT OF CHANGES IN SMOKING AND OBESITY ON FUTURE LIFE EXPECTANCY IN THE UNITED STATES

We find that both changes in smoking and in obesity are expected to
have large effects on mortality. For males, the reductions in smoking have larger effects than the rise in obesity throughout the projection period. 
By 2040, male life expectancy at age 40 is expected to have gained 0.92 years from the combined effects. 
Among women, however, the two sets of effects largely offset one another throughout the projection period , with a small gain of 0.26 years expected by 2040



Was tobacco jury right to award West Palm widow nothing?

Mrs. Baker’s attorneys argued that even though Mr. Baker was aware of the risks, the tobacco company is responsible because cigarettes are addictive and tobacco companies for years lied about the dangers and continued enticing people to smoke.

“This is a case about greed, about money, about how the defendant R.J. Reynolds put sales over safety and profit over people attorney, Harry Shevin, told the jury.

Although the jury in this case awarded nothing, Florida juries have sided with the plaintiffs in many other cases.

Fukushima tobacco farmers prepare to ship

Farmers in Fukushima Prefecture have harvested leaf tobacco for the first time since cultivation was temporarily stopped due to the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, and are making preparations to ship the product around December.

This year, leaf tobacco farmers enthusiastic about reviving the product took measures to reduce the effects of radioactive substances. Currently, the farmers are awaiting the results of radiation tests on harvested tobacco leaves, and are pinning their hopes on making shipments this year.

Smoking and cycling to be banned at Limerick playgrounds

But in the long list of things “not to do”, it was the smoking ban which caught the attention of Rathkeale area councillors last week.

“I can see people in my mind’s eye, walking the riverbank in Askeaton and smoking their pipe. What harm are they doing?” asked Askeaton’s Cllr Kevin Sheahan. “I am totally in favour of no-smoking in enclosed areas” he added, but argued there was a “limit to the type of regulations we bring in”.

“The law says you can smoke in the open air,” declared Cllr David Naughton, who was opposed to a generalised ban on smoking within parks.

“Is it enforceable? If there is somebody caught is there anything can be done about it?” he demanded before adding: “I think it is getting to a stage where we are not living in a democracy.”

Director of services for community, Josephine Cotter-Coughlan said, however, that the smoking ban would apply only to the county’s seven playgrounds and five multi-purpose pitches.

The last story was by far the most shocking.

I don't believe I have ever seen such a list of prohibited activities in my life.

Democracy my ass,ASH asks for something and everyone runs to comply.

What a world........

This Has Got To Stop

                           Nagpur: Caught smoking, student commits suicide

Unable to come to terms with the scolding he got from parents and teachers for smoking, a 17-year-old school boy committed suicide in Nagpur on Thursday.

According to information available, Akshay Lokhande (17), a student of Std XII at Dinanath High School and Junior College, was caught smoking along with his friends by his college lecturer Anjali Vadatkar, on the school premises on Tuesday.

She immediately informed the principal about it.

Principal Bhavani Sen, Vadatkar and another lecturer Roshan Nasre scolded him and summoned Akshay’s parents.

His mother, Julie rushed to the school and reprimanded Akshay when the teachers narrated her the entire story.

The same day, Vadatkar was intercepted by a group of masked boys, reportedly Akshay friends when she was heading home.

I'm sorry Akshay.

This is to some people just a news story another smoker dead,but to me the fanatics of tobacco control have more than their share of blood on their hands.

Australia What Happened You Used To Be So Cool?

Tobacco company loses FoI appeal bid

The High Court has rejected a tobacco company's bid to appeal for the release of privileged parliamentary documents containing legal advice on plain cigarette packaging.
British American Tobacco argued it should be allowed to see a memo outlining legal and constitutional issues involved with the world-first plain packaging legislation, which is due to take effect in December after the company lost a long-running legal fight this week.

Tobacco manufacturer getting up residents' noses

Imperial Tobacco has been handed an infringement notice after local residents complained about the smell coming from its factory.

The tobacco giant's plant in Lower Hutt has recently been upgraded, but locals say the work hasn't stopped the "sickly odour" from spreading across the town.

The Petone factory has increased its tobacco production and says the smell is a result of steam from blending tobacco leaf and water.

Plain packaging: nanny state meets the anti-brands brigade

The report tells us that "colours and fonts tend to produce particular responses in customers" and that "imagery and symbols exert very powerful effects" - on us ordinary mortals, you understand, not on state employees or health experts, who are of course immune  to the brain-invading charms of Big Tobacco branding. Apparently, state-designed plain packets will help save loads of lives, since they will "reduce the temptation of tobacco".

And thus it falls to the state to save us from the "temptation" by shielding our eyes from "seductive" logos, in a similar way that priests used to claim to be able to "deliver us from temptation" by limiting what we could know and inculcating us with The Truth.

An FOI request is turned down just because?

The odor of tobacco blended with water offends delicate noses now?

The idea of olive green making a behavior change is pointless and silly.

*sigh*

Where there’s smoke, there’s zealotry

Where there’s smoke, there’s zealotry

The issue is freedom of choice, and the right of adults to determine and take responsibility for their own decisions and their own actions.

“But smoking is unhealthy.” Irrelevant. You get an F.

“But cigarettes are dirty and stinky.” Moot point. You get an F.

“But second-hand smoke will kill me.” Zealotry. You get an F and academic probation.

Let’s update the old 20th-century cliché about putting men on the moon; in the 21st century, they can put a robot on Mars, but they apparently can’t construct a smoking room that won’t poison innocent passersby.

It's always such an enjoyable surprise when a non-smoker writes something like this.

This was written about a university in Germany.

A huge part of me is still shocked when I read about smoking bans there.

Knowing that country's history ............. well I don't need to say anything more now do I?

I'm Happy I Don't Live In New York

NYC Mayor shuts down ‘Pleasure Carts’ that distributed free vibrators

Mayor Bloomberg’s office later cited permit issues for shutting down the event and said crowds “impeded pedestrian and street traffic.”

“Bloomberg doesn’t want anyone to have fun. You can’t have a giant soda. You can’t have a vibrator,” Park Slope bar owner Melody Henry told the Post.

Mayor Bloomberg Loves Breastfeeding More Than You Do

There is only one good thing about Bloomberg’s announcement: it seems to have pissed women off, by turning the breastfeeding debate into a question of self determination. For a few years I have been relatively alone in complaining about the  enormous pressure to breastfeed but now there are more angry voices joining the chorus.

New Yorkers turn out to argue against, and for, sugary soda limit

 City Councilman Robert Jackson didn’t and continued speaking, begging for a bit more time, as he railed against the proposal as a violation of basic human rights.

“We do not live in a dictatorship!” said Jackson, who concluded by helping himself to a plum and a nectarine from the fruit plate that a previous speaker had left beside the microphone.

I'm sure I could find a million other reasons but so far these are the ones I am hearing the most about recently.

Funny how the name Bloomberg makes me want to salute and march in step now,I didn't always feel this way but I do now.

I almost feel bad for the people of New York,the smokers tried to warn them things like this would happen.

It seems like these public health missives are just barreling down one on top of the other and now that outdoor smoking has been banned and they want to ban soda and formula what's next?

Oh right of course  this is the next logical step.

Tobacco Control Facebook "Shares"

Does the introduction of comprehensive smoke-free legislation lead to a decrease in population smoking prevalence?


Conclusions  The introduction of comprehensive smoke-free legislation has increased the rate at which smoking prevalence was declining in some locations, but in the majority of jurisdictions had no measureable impact on existing trends in smoking prevalence


Pramount promoting cigs in "bonus" with new Katy Perry movie

CAN YOU SECOND THIS SIGHTING?

If you see this Grease promo over the weekend, please send us:

• Date and time
• Name of theater (and chain)
• When the promo was shown (ie., with other ads before previews, or between the previews and the main feature)
• Any "sponsor" details on the promo (Paramount logo or other).

Getting smoking out of the main movie — but keeping it on screen — does not reduce kids' exposure. If Paramount, which brought us PG-rated Rango, thinks such a stunt is cute and provocative, it should be held accountable.

Vitamin D May Protect Lung Function in Smokers

"We examined the relationship between vitamin D deficiency, smoking, lung function, and the rate of lung function decline over a 20 year period in a cohort of 626 adult white men from the Normative Aging Study," said lead author Nancy E. Lange, MD, MPH, of the Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital. "We found that vitamin D sufficiency (defined as serum vitamin D levels of >20 ng/ml) had a protective effect on lung function and the rate of lung function decline in smokers."

Lack of exercise kills roughly as many as smoking, study says

People across the world are falling so far short on exercise that the problem has become a global pandemic, causing nearly a tenth of deaths worldwide and killing roughly as many people as smoking, researchers warned this week as an alarming series of studies was published in the Lancet.

Eight out of 10 youngsters age 13 to 15 don't get enough exercise, according to one of the Lancet studies released Tuesday, and nearly a third of adults fall short. The problem is even worse for girls and women, who are less active than boys and men, researchers found.

The results are fatal. Lack of exercise is tied to worldwide killers such as heart disease, diabetes and breast and colon cancer. If just a quarter of inactive adults got enough exercise, more than 1.3 million deaths could be prevented worldwide annually, researchers said. Half an hour of brisk walking five times a week would do the trick.

A perfect addicting engine: the case for ending cigarette sales

But a Professor from Stanford University in the USA argues that these are in fact non-arguments because cigarettes are lethally designed to be toxic - they are not toxic by accident, and are therefore more like a poison than a food.

In his book "Golden Holocaust" Professor Robert Proctor unveils a compelling case for the abolition of cigarettes - addressing many of those points you have made during our discussions over the last few days.

Stuff I found on Twitter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2xPI5Ut4g4&feature=player_embedded

"Invest in tobacco control as a best buy in health"

Bans: strategy, arguments, psychology

Ensuring your target groups are too divided to band together. The way bans are currently shaping up reveals that prohibitionists are targeting three groups: smokers, drinkers and the obese. Non-smoking drinkers are unlikely to align with smokers. Nor are the obese, some of whom are ex-smokers. End result: smokers have only themselves on whom to rely. The obese — some of whom are practising pietist Christians — are unlikely to band together with drinkers. So, each group is on its own.
 (Thank you Chris Snowdon for that one)


IN SWITZERLAND, NEW HIGH-TECH LOUNGES PUT THE COOL BACK IN SMOKING

With improved ventilation systems and careful décor decisions, the new smoking lounges could even bring smokers and non-smokers together – to enjoy a good cognac for example. At least this is what Vahé Gérard is aiming at. The director of Gérard Père et Fils, a smoking lounge inside the Grand Hotel Kempinski, had enough of hearing his clientele complain about drafts of cold air and clothes getting smelly. On his own initiative, Gérard developed a new, alternative system of permanent air circulation using laminar flow technology.

“This is like an air mattress, pulsated through the floor and breathed in through the ceiling every two minutes. The atmosphere of the room is therefore completely renewed. It can also be air-conditioned according to the season”, explains the cigar expert, who set up a business, G-P-F Concept Management, to market the product.

Patented worldwide under the name Airkel and complying with energy and health federal standards in Switzerland, Gérard’s system – which costs $27,000 for every 10 m2 – has been installed as well in the smoking areas at the Bon Génie and at the Starling C Bar & Lounge. You can identify it by the thousands of tiny holes on the floor and on the ceiling. The air is good to breathe there, and the furniture does not bear any smell either.

(Thanks so much to my personal best buddy Simon Chapman for that one)

It's so cool of him to let us know this new technology exists!

SMOKING IS HEALTHIER THAN FASCISM

The animating force behind modern liberalism is the desire to micromanage the lives of others. The state decides where you go to school, what doctor you visit, and the pension fund you will contribute to. Liberal is another name for control freak.

Drinking Big Gulps, eating Happy Meals, and smoking Marlboro Reds isn’t good for you. But neither is fascism. The greatest threat to an individual’s health is an overbearing government.

The antidote to this public health crisis is choice. Freedom presumes the right to be “wrong,” to make choices another wouldn’t, to decide. Life is so much more interesting with millions of people making billions of choices rather than a few people making all of the choices.