Monday, February 27, 2012

Robert Dow: There’s no proof so lighten up and let smokers enjoy their habit

Robert Dow: There’s no proof so lighten up and let smokers enjoy their habit - News - Scotsman.com

IF I suggested that a single cigarette smoked in a car a) causes more “secondary” smoking than a whole evening in a pub; b) is more dangerous than funnelling exhaust fumes into the car and that c) opening a window has no effect, you’d laugh in my face.
The British Lung Foundation would have you believe that.
The mounting hysteria of groups trying to prevent smoking goes beyond invasion of personal choice to near persecution.
ASH Scotland promotes the eccentric view that alluring packaging attracts children to smoking.
Really? With stark “SMOKING KILLS” logos emblazoned on them?
I’d bet most begin by sharing cigarettes among friends.
In any case, they can’t ask for them until the age of 18.

Nothing to add.
:)

Sunday, February 26, 2012

LETTER: Smoking ban hits business rights » Evansville Courier & Press

LETTER: Smoking ban hits business rights » Evansville Courier & Press

An independent businessman should have the right to admit or refuse service to anyone. If he wants to allow smokers, then he should be able to post it accordingly in plain sight in his establishment. If you do not tolerate smoking, then do not patronize the establishment.
P.S. I am a nonsmoker!

Common sense.
So refreshing to read.

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Bhutan~ Blog Archive » Tobacco, state funding stole the show

kuenselonline » Blog Archive » Tobacco, state funding stole the show

Within a year of its implementation, close to 80 individuals were penalised, almost half the number having to serve a prison term.  Series of online discussions ensued, some mainstream media, especially print, took a radical stand on the issue and had some groups submitting petitions to the government.
Government returned with a proposal to amend about nine sections of the Act.  The end result was a liberalised bill, with increased permissible import amount of tobacco and its products, and much more relaxed penalties.
It was understood the new Act would not be applicable to those, who were already charged under the old one, but would stand to benefit those, whose cases were still under trial or pending.
Coming to the rescue, however, was His Majesty granting royal pardon to 16 people, who were convicted under the previous Act.
It was a big lesson learnt.  For the lawmakers to consider a world of views before endorsing such laws, for implementing agencies to create enough awareness, and the public to learn and stay abreast of the laws affecting them.

Sonam, 15 other tobacco criminals released

Tshering was arrested and detained on January 24 last year after he was caught with 48 packets of chewing tobacco that he purchased from India.
Later in May, a kangaroo court convicted him and passed a verdict slapping him a jail term of 3 years, and became the first tobacco criminal.

It's about fucking time.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Essay arguing that campus smoking bans are unsafe | Inside Higher Ed

Essay arguing that campus smoking bans are unsafe | Inside Higher Ed


Honesty. The implication that tobacco smoke poses a significant health risk to others outdoors is disingenuous. A university’s first mission centers around truthful discourse, and we should be teaching our students to differentiate between significant risks (such as smoking) and totally insignificant risks (such as secon hand smoke outdoors).  We should be teaching our students to deconstruct misleading government and advocacy group statements, such as the claim that “these is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke.” By such criteria, there is no safe level of exposure to sunlight either.

Wow,something I liked almost every single word in.
A total rarity for me.
Read and enjoy the common sense. 



Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Want to quit smoking? Try the VERY successful Indian cigarette lighter that sings a death chant every time users light up

Want to quit smoking? Try the VERY successful Indian cigarette lighter that sings a death chant every time users light up | Mail Online

What a ghastly and vile concept.
People are fully informed about what smoking can and does do to the human body,period.
How could they not be?

There is video included in this story in case anyone wants to see it.

Although such tricks could not be pulled off outside India – because cigarettes have to be sold in sealed packs in in Britain, the U.S. and other Western counties and vendors do not carry lighters– it does suggest that a verbal message could work better than written warnings or pictures. 


That story reminded me of this.

How Long before we're o.k. with mentally torturing smokers as well as physically torturing them?
It feels like dark times are ahead.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Barron H. Lerner: Was Science Sidelined in Cigarette Debate?

Barron H. Lerner: Was Science Sidelined in Cigarette Debate?


The title sounds so amazing.
But it is anything but amazing.I'm reading another smear,another review of a book condemning something that people choose to do.
And honestly half of smokers don't I believe ever want to quit,they just want the Godawful nagging to stop.
People who want to quit,will quit.No magic pill or potion or patch will give a person willpower enough to stop doing something they enjoy.
I wonder if it will be the same with food,I wonder what sort of world I will wake up to ten or twenty years from now.
Sometimes it feels like I am screaming at the walls and no one is listening.

Proctor makes no attempt to interview Feinstein (now deceased) or others who he criticizes, some of whom have tried to justify their actions elsewhere. But this is not surprising. Although Proctor, a superb historian, readily admits that science is inherently messy, it is the use of scientific data to obfuscate that he identifies as the most venal and successful strategy of the tobacco industry. There are times, he believes, that science is black and white. 

So what of Proctor's challenge to his readers that they think outside the box? If an industry creates a product that is both dangerous and addictive and, ultimately, so unpleasurable that 85% of its customers want to quit, shouldn't society ban it? Maybe the tobacco industry's longtime claim that choosing to smoke is an "exercise in freedom" is a farce. 

I very much doubt I will read this book,even though I have read some doozies.

But right now I am reading an essay in book form called Smoke-Filled Rooms: A Postmortem on the Tobacco Deal .
It's honestly pretty good and it puts things in a perspective that I'm not used to,I don't think that's always a bad thing.


Friday, February 10, 2012

PepsiCo Unions Seek NLRB Help to Combat Company’s $50 Tax on Fat, Smoking

PepsiCo Unions Seek NLRB Help to Combat Company’s $50 Tax on Fat, Smoking - Bloomberg

Three International Brotherhood of Teamsters locals, representing about 300 drivers, sales agents and warehouse workers in Binghamton, Latham and Syracuse, complained to the labor board in October. PepsiCo is hindering the union’s effort to shop for a health plan without a “sin tax,” said Ozzie Martucci, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 669.
“We’re against that type of tax, frankly,” Martucci said yesterday in a phone interview. “It feels wrong to tax workers if they are overweight or happen to have diabetes or smoke, and we wanted to look elsewhere for different insurance.”
Pepsico workers can avoid the fee if they join programs to stop smoking or lose weight, said Dave DeCecco, a company spokesman. “These programs enable our associates and their families to live a healthier lifestyle,” he said.
The fee is applied to smokers, as well as to workers who have diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure or asthma, conditions that often lead to being overweight, he said.

It wasn't long ago I read about boycotting Pepsi.
Seems more appropriate now than ever before.
Although I have to wonder if the push to persecute the "unhealthy" came from society or from the very top of the company.

Thursday, February 9, 2012

Tobacco ban wouldn't be most effective step

Tobacco ban wouldn't be most effective step

But outlawing a legal activity isn't as much of a deterrent as some might like to believe.

It just turns ordinary citizens into pariahs, "socially unacceptable" and condemned for their habit while others practice their own distasteful ― and potentially dangerous ― habits without the scorn of friends, family and even strangers.

Ever overhear a stranger ask an overweight person why his or her lunch choice is a supersized burger and fries? Probably not ― especially with so many people carrying concealed weapons these days. But criticizing a smoker, and doing so with marked disdain and self-righteousness? It's not the thing to do.

I'm confused by this opinion piece.
I like it but I know someone who is very anti-smoking wrote it.
I am noticing this more and more though,even people for tobacco control are starting to "say" that things have gone too far.

I wonder if they truly believe it .

I know I do.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

The List Of What Won't Make You Sick Is Shorter

Soft Drinks May Raise Odds for Respiratory Ills: Study


 Drinking a lot of soft drinks may increase the risk for asthma and/or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a new study suggests.
Nearly 17,000 people aged 16 and older in South Australia were asked about their consumption of soft drinks such as Coke, flavored mineral water, lemonade, Powerade and Gatorade.
More than 10 percent of the participants said they drank more than half a liter of soft drinks a day, according to the study, published in the February issue of the journal Respirology. That's a little more than two 8-ounce glasses of soft drinks.
The researchers found that 13.3 percent of the participants with asthma and 15.6 percent of those with COPD consumed more than half a liter of soft drinks a day.

They never stop,they never get tired.
It never bothers them.
So far in the last 8 days sugar should be regulated, but the alternative is no better.Obesity and the news that it's contagoius because of microbes in the digestive tract.
Then comes the news that salt gives you cancer.
I wonder if I'll pick up the paper tomorrow and read that shaving is killing us all .
Oops too late.

Monday, February 6, 2012

Sugar Nannies : The Observation Post

Sugar Nannies : The Observation Post : Naples Blogs : Naples Daily News: Local Naples, Florida News Delivered Throughout the Day.

It wasn't enough to demonize tobacco usage and users, second-hand smoke and third-hand smoke have also become culprits. Although tobacco is still considered a legal substance, it has become regulated by the government and taxed beyond belief. One point that has been made in regards to the war on tobacco is that if we permit invasive intrusions and controls on one substance like tobacco, what will be next? So far “next” has been salt and trans-fats, and with this current administration there have been actions on school lunch menus in some areas with obesity being the big demon to conquer.

I liked this.
As far as I am concerned this person gets it.
Hard to explain what it is but if you have lived long enough you have seen "it" happen.
I hope one day I wake up and find all this has been nothing but a bad dream.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Framing tobacco control efforts within an ethical context -- Fox 14 (suppl 2): ii38 -- Tobacco Control

Framing tobacco control efforts within an ethical context -- Fox 14 (suppl 2): ii38 -- Tobacco Control

The premise of this paper is that people and movements are defined not solely by substance, but by how much the speaker’s values resonate with the public. A truth spoken by a messenger who is not trusted will be disbelieved. If the tobacco control community is disbelieved, it may not be the result of being wrong, but rather from a failure to frame ourselves in such a way that our goals and our approaches resonate with the public. In this article, I argue that the tobacco control community should more proactively frame its actions and base that frame upon ethical principles.
There are many reasons to better integrate ethics into tobacco control, not least of which is that it is morally appropriate to act ethically as professionals. This is true even if acting ethically may have short term costs. In this paper, however, I do not address the issue of acting ethically for its own reward. Instead I demonstrate how better integrating ethics into our work has a pragmatic dimension that can move our work forward. I argue that by consistently framing ourselves and actions in accord with sound ethical principles, we can seize the high ground from the tobacco industry and provide a common language to communicate with the public and among ourselves. If we accomplish this goal, it will not be due to a large single effort, but to a series of consistent messages that portray the community in a shared vision. 

Oh that's a laugh ethics in the tobacco control industry.

I know it's old but this explains some of their insane worldview.

Horrible read,but to know your enemy you must first understand him. 

More Tid Bits

Alma Fausto: University's smoking ban challenged - Alma Fausto - MercedSun-Star.com



Which brings us to the truth of the matter: we're all adults and there are already consequences of smoking that are widely known. No one "gets away" with the damage caused by smoking. It's a decision we're capable of making on our own.

Forcing people to either quit smoking or not come onto campus infringes on our rights as students and as citizens to have freedom of choice. While it may not be the healthiest choice, it's legal and ours to make.
Yudof said the ban was announced because of concerns about the environment, the health of each smoker and the health of those around the smoker exposed to secondhand smoke.
These aren't persuasive reasons because smoking is just one of many human practices around campuses that put themselves and the environment at risk.


Commissioner vows complete ban on tobacco, Gutka soon

The city commissioner has said all injurious substances, including tobacco, Gutka, betel nut, Paan and other items will be banned in the city as these items cause cancer.

Roshan Ali Shaikh stated this while speaking as chief guest at an awareness programme in Sir Syed Town, North Karachi, on Saturday. 

He said that it was the need of the hour to ban such items so that innocent lives could be saved from numerous diseases.

“People are falling prey to different diseases, including mouth cancer mainly due to lack of awareness,” he said. The commissioner demanded of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) and non-governmental organisations to help in eradicating this menace from society.



Amongst all kinds of freedoms one which a section of thinkers so vociferously advocates is `freedom to offend'. Here the limits are logical. For that to happen, we have to define and locate the nature and extent of offense. An individual's freedom to offend then has necessarily to be justified with the society's right to offend that particular individual. Laws and regulations then will have no bearing on the way a society runs. Letting people offend each other can be endless. Everyone can offend everyone else. Then this freedom cannot be granted to artists and writers only. If this luxury is to be legislated, then any ordinary individual can claim a right to offend. Presume that is granted to all and imagine a chaos we all will be thrown into. If one will be free to offend, the other will consequently have to throw the offense back at him. Offenses then will have to be borne on two counts. Moral and physical. 


Obesity and chronic liver disease can be triggered by a family of proteins that alter populations of microbes in the stomach, a discovery that suggests the condition may be infectious, Yale scientists report. The study, in the advance online publication of Nature, expands on earlier Yale research that showed how similar microbial imbalances caused by the same family of proteins increases the risk of intestinal diseases such as colitis.


Weak-FTR language-speakers have piled up an average of 170,000 more euros per person for their retirement than  strong-FTR speakers, and are 24 percent less likely to have smoked heavily, 29 percent more likely to exercise regularly, and 13 percent less likely to be obese. The weak-FTR speakers even had stronger grips and great lung capacity than did those whose grammar forced them to mark the difference between today and tomorrow. National records reflect individual habits too, Chen writes: "Countries with weak-FTR languages save on average six percent more of their GDP per year than their strong-FTR counterparts."

Sugar May Be Bad, But Is the Alternative Worse?


Swithers thinks she knows. In 2008, she and fellow Purdue researcher Terry Davidson fed rats a yogurt supplement sweetened either with glucose, a simple sugar, or zero-calorie saccharin. Apart from the supplement, both groups ate standard rat fare. Those that ate saccharin packed on more fat, gained more weight and consumed extra calories. A follow-up 2009 study reinforced the findings, and found that unusual weight gain persisted even when rats stopped eating sweeteners.
According to Swithers, two mechanisms may be responsible. When the rats’ bodies learned that sweetness didn’t predict an imminent caloric rush, as would naturally be produced by sugar-rich foods, their bodies may have automatically shifted into calorie-saving mode. At the same time, metabolic acceleration that normally occurs when eating high-calorie foods, and helps to process them, may have been slowed.

New rules, tests proposed for aid to poor


JACKSON -- People who receive public assistance would be subject to random testing for drugs or nicotine and would have to perform community service under new requirements being considered by Mississippi lawmakers.
Officials say some ideas are already being carried out, but others could be blocked by federal regulations.


The rub is that whereas for human-rights advocates this means no underhand shenanigans impinging on citizens' civil liberties, security experts think of the ability literally to see through people and detect whether they are carrying any potentially threatening implements. The latest spat erupted in January when Raymond Kelly, New York's police commissioner, declared that his force is working with America's defence department to have so-called T-ray scanners mounted on squad cars. Mr Kelly said that the technology offers "a great deal of promise" in detecting concealed weapons without a physical search.

These are just stories I found interesting in the last day or so.
It's much easier for me to blog this way since I usually let the stories do the talking for me.

Read more here: http://www.sunherald.com/2012/02/04/3731996/new-rules-tests-proposed-for-aid.html#storylink=cpy

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

More Tid Bits

Health News - Smoking ban fuels rise in 'secret smokers'

A poll of 2,000 people, conducted by One Poll on behalf of the Co-operative Pharmacy, found that one in 12 respondents now have a home smoking ban in place.

More than half (57 per cent) of smokers said they now keep their habit a secret, with 21 per cent hiding their smoking from their partner and 19.6 per cent from their children.

Evidence and Tobacco

Edwards worries about FOREST's framing of tobacco control as an issue of freedom versus authoritarianism; he later suggests emphasizing "how tobacco control measures are pro-freedom by freeing smokers from an unwanted addiction, and by protecting our children from the risk of addiction and premature death." I can buy arguments about the conflicting freedoms of smokers and non-smokers in public spaces, but framing pure paternalism as being freedom-promoting is Orwellian. 

Sugar can harm like alcohol and tobacco, regulate it: article says

 At a minimum, the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationcould remove fructose from its list of itemsGenerally Recognized as Safe. That would force food makers to seek an FDA review of products with added sugars.
  “The food industry knows that it has a problem,” the authors write. “With enough clamour for change, tectonic shifts in policy become powerful.”

This time the FDA just nakedly says in court documents that the agency wants to protect the market for FDA-approved drugs. No more beating around the bush—their agenda is right out in the open! This appears to be a novel interpretation of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C), as evidenced by the government’s failure to cite any judicial precedent for their argument.