How Hospitals Can Help Patients Quit Smoking Before Surgery

Doctors want people to quit smoking before surgery because it reduces the risk of complications, but often don't do much to make that happen.
But, it turns out, just a wee bit of help makes it much more likely that people will quit before going under the knife, a study finds.
Patients who got less than five minutes of counseling from a nurse and free nicotine patches at least three weeks before surgery were much more likely to quit, according to researchers at the University of Western Ontario. Those patients also got a brochure and a referral to a quit-smoking hotline.
Before surgery, 14 percent of the 84 patients at St. Joseph's Hospital in London, Ontario, who were given help managed to quit, compared with about 4 percent of the 84 patients who got none.
A month after surgery, 29 percent of the patients given help said they had stopped smoking, compared with 11 percent in the other group. But those numbers were self-reported, unlike to the day-of-surgery report, which was confirmed by testing people's breath. The group that got help also did better at cutting back, even if they didn't quit. Lucky Strike cigarettes.
"We really tried to simplify the amount of extra work the hospital would have to do," says Dr. Susan Lee, a clinical instructor in anesthesiology at the University of California, San Francisco, and lead author of the study. The hospital nurses were already doing interviews before admission, and the quit line was an exisitng national service.
The results were published in the journal Anesthesia and Analgesia.
Doctors have long known that smokers fare less well during surgery, with complications including heart attacks and excessive bleeding. Afterwards, smokers are more likely to have heart attacks and strokes, get pneumonia, and have problems with wound healing.
This study looked at complications, but there weren't enough participants to detect differences between the groups.
Nonetheless, here's a motivating stat: A big international study published earlier this year in the journal JAMA Surgery found that people who quit smoking a year before surgery had no higher risk than those who had never smoked at all.
So, why aren't hospitals already doing this? Earlier efforts to get hospitals to counsel have been more complicated, Lee says. And most hospitals don't do screenings weeks before surgery, allowing patients enough time to quit. Even the hospital in the study struggled with that. "It was hard to get the patients in three weeks preoperatively," Lee says.
But surgery can make for a great excuse to quit, she says. "Patients are nervous, they're thinking about their health more, they want surgery to be successful. This is a great moment when we can get in there and make a difference."

Susan Sarandon admits to smoking marijuana before almost every red carpet event 'except the Oscars'

Susan Sarandon appeared on Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live on Wednesday night, where she admitted she has smoked marijuana before just about every major award show. During a game of “Plead the Fifth,” the Oscar-winning actress was asked by host Andy Cohen to name a major Hollywood event that she showed up high. She laughed and asked “only one?” "I would say almost all except the Oscars,” she admitted, Entertainmentwise reports. Cohen went on to ask the Thelma & Louise star if she regretted any of her film roles. Lucky Strike cigarettes.

"None. Well, even ones that didn't turn out, you learn something, right?" she said, OnTheRedCarpet notes. She saved her “plead the fifth” for the question of which celebrities she has had sexual encounters with. She did note, however, that she will reveal who has hit on her in the past in her new book. "My book is gonna be all the people I could’ve and didn’t," she said.

Why Big Tobacco Will Enjoy Admitting It Lied in "Corrective" Ads

Lawyers for Big Tobacco will be jumping for joy at the government's proposal that tobacco companies be forced to run comically harsh "corrective statements" in ads and on cigarette packages. The Department of Justice's proposed messages include: "We manipulated cigarettes to make them more addictive" and "We knew that many smokers switch to low tar and light cigarettes rather than quitting because they believe low tar and lights are less harmful. They are NOT."

There's a "screw you!" quality to some of the messages, as if the DOJ believes the main point of the messages is to humiliate tobacco executives rather than to change public opinion. Another warning would say:Smoking is a classic case study of how to manage a business in decline, and you have to hand it to RJ Reynolds (RAI), Philip Morris (PM), British American Tobacco (BTI) et al., they've done a hell of a job. One in five Americans still smokes, despite every reason not to. The business continues to innovate with new products, such as electronic "e-cigarettes," small cigars, and the Camel Crush, a cigarette that contains a breakable menthol capsule so smokers can turn a regular smoke into a menthol before they light up or even half-way through the smoke. Parliament cigarettes.

Further, each corrective carries the caveat, "Paid for by [Cigarette Manufacturer Name] under order of a Federal District court." In case the DOJ hasn't noticed, America isn't a huge fan of the federal government right now. The notice will just look like more Big Gummint red tape, coming about 15 years too late.

The single biggest threat to tobacco is the threat of prohibition. Many people want that. Doubtless New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, who just outlawed smoking outdoors in large stretches of the city, would favor that. But the most important thing about the DOJ's proposals is that they allow the tobacco business to comfort itself with the fact that as long as the government requires warnings and corrective ads it remains, by definition, legal. That's all they want.

Did they trick us into smoking?

Most smokers would reply that no one tricked them into smoking. It was and has always been their sole decision to smoke. However, when one looks back it is not uncommon to see the different reasons why people, both young and old smoke. The common ones we all know: “we need it to be part of the group; it makes us look cool; it helps keep my weight down; it relieves my tension; …. the list is endless.

“I’ve asked him to stop smoking many times, but he says I will not understand how much tension he has. Do I not have tensions too? Should I also start smoking”? asks Moushami Mondal (name changed), who resides in a village in West Bengal. Anyone looking at this from the outside can see clearly how this vicious cycle continues leading to ill health, both physical and mental, and a series of effects which degenerate one’s quality of life. The globalization of the tobacco epidemic has been greatly contributed by global marketing, rising trade within and across borders and foreign investments.

One often hears that, ‘Tobacco thrills but kills’. The World Health Organization (WHO) claims that tobacco kills almost 6 million people globally each year, 600,000 of whom are non-smokers exposed to second-hand smoke. About 80% of the one billion smokers in the world live in low- and middle- income countries. According to the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2013, out of 1.2 billion Indians, 14.6% of youth (13 -15 years of age) use tobacco with 4.4% of them being cigarette smokers while 9% of the youth indulge in smokeless tobacco. 14% of adults currently smoke tobacco while 25.9% use smokeless forms of tobacco. While the percentage of women using tobacco is lesser than that of men, this number has been on the increase in the last few decades, with 8.3% of girls in the age group 13-15 using tobacco currently. A much larger percentage – about 26.6% youth are exposed to second hand smoke in their homes.

The current direct costs of smoking is 1,195 million US dollars (about Rs. 750 crores), according to the 4th Edition of the Tobacco Atlas from the World Lung Foundation. This amount does not include the indirect costs due to loss of days of work, loss of days at school, out of pocket expenditure for medical management of lung and oral cancers, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension, heart attacks, infertility and many other diseases known to be aggravated by smoking.

Penalties hit smokers hardest

Next year many more companies plan to penalize workers who use nicotine because of their much higher healthcare costs. Proctor & Gamble Co, the Cincinnati-based household-product giant, will begin charging such employees an additional $25 per month in 2014 until they have completed a company-paid cessation program.
Under similar provisions, state employees in Wisconsin and Washington State will pay as much as $600 more per year, while nonunion smokers at United Parcel Service Inc will pay as much as $1,800.
“We found that while less than 10 percent of workers at large employers smoke, their impact to healthcare costs is disproportionately huge,” said LuAnn Heinen, vice president for the National Business Group on Health. “Helping them quit — however you do that — has the most obvious near-term payoff in terms of savings and productivity gains.”
A recent Ohio State University study found that businesses pay nearly $6,000 more annually per employee who smokes compared with a nonsmoker. Other research suggests that less than 16 percent of employees participate in voluntary smoking cessation programs, Heinen added.
A.H. Belo, owner of the Dallas Morning News, Providence Journal and other publications, told staff in September that for 2014 it would require employees and their spouses to complete a biometric health screening or face a $100 annual surcharge. In 2015, employees will be asked not only to undergo the screening but to meet three out of five as yet unspecified health goals to avoid the additional fee.

Costly punishments

Under Obama’s Affordable Care Act, which takes effect in January, companies can offer a reward of up to 30 percent of healthcare costs paid by the employee to those who complete voluntary programs like smoking cessation, a risk assessment or biometric tests like waist measurement.
The financial incentives could add up to about $1,620 annually per worker. But if wellness programs don’t end up saving costs, companies can raise premiums across the board or slap them on workers who don’t get with the programs. In some states, tobacco users who sign up for insurance through the new state health exchanges could be charged 50 percent higher premiums than nonsmokers.
Research suggests savings may be harder to achieve when programs are voluntary than has often been thought. A report released in May by the RAND Corp found workers who participated in a wellness program had healthcare costs averaging $2.38 less per month than nonparticipants in the first year of the program and $3.46 less in the fifth year.
Some health and labor experts are concerned that penalties may be unduly harsh, especially for low-wage workers and those who have health conditions beyond their control. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 29 percent of adults with incomes below the federal poverty level smoke, compared with 18 percent of those above the poverty level.
Mark Rothstein, a lawyer and bioethics professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, chooses to pay a higher annual premium rather than complete a health questionnaire for his employer, calling it a “privacy tax.” Lower-paid colleagues, he said, “don’t have the same luxury to opt out.”
Fierce resistance forced Pennsylvania State University in September to abandon a plan to charge employees $100 per month if they did not participate in various health screenings and fill out a detailed health questionnaire administered by WebMD, which asked among other things whether a worker had recently driven after drinking too much, whether female employees planned to become pregnant in the next year and how frequently male workers performed testicular self-exams. This led to an outcry over privacy concerns and the potential for hacking of computer databases.
“These were just things no employer has the right to ask,” says Brian Curran, a professor of art history at Penn State who started an online petition to protest the questionnaire.
University officials had argued the penalty was needed to tamp down healthcare costs and avoid tuition hikes. In January it still plans to implement a $100-a-month surcharge for spouses and a $75-a-month penalty on tobacco users.
Courts so far have shown little resistance to such programs. The 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act prohibits workers who are in a group health insurance plan from being discriminated against on the basis of health, and Obamacare extends that right to individuals. But neither bans penalties outright.
The law does specify that wellness programs must be voluntary, but Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, a legal advocacy organization, says that can be a slippery slope. Most employees don’t feel like they have a choice, Maltby says. “In today’s job market, any reasonable request by one’s employer is essentially read as a demand.”

Smoking pot while driving leads to meth bust

A Mendocino County sheriff's deputy pulled over a pickup truck on Meadowbrook Drive after smelling pot smoke coming from its cab at 3:20 p.m. on Oct. 5. The pickup had no plate on the front and an uncovered load in the back, say deputies.
The driver, Desmond Ray Spiker, 30, of Willits, admitted to smoking pot while driving and told the deputy he had a methamphetamine pipe under his seat, say police reports.
Deputies say they found the meth pipe plus a baggy containing about .5 grams of methamphetamine.
Spiker was arrested on suspicion of possession of methamphetamine.

Letter: Fracking like cigarette smoking

I am a retired mining engineer with experience in underground and surface mining, geological engineering, rock mechanics, landfill operation, quality assurance and building construction. I am not a fracking expert, but I am familiar with many issues that can affect fracking.
No conclusive studies prove that all elements of a fracking operation are safe and that ground water and surface water are not contaminated from the fracking process. Fracking is like cigarette smoking. Many people who smoke never develop cancer, COPD or other adverse side effects. But the statistical evidence clearly proves that smokers have a much higher incidence of these maladies than non-smokers and live shorter lives.
Likewise, people living in the vicinity of fracking have experienced higher rates of water, air, and soil contamination than those distant from fracking operations. There are literally thousands of anecdotal accounts of wells, springs and surface water that mysteriously went bad, of people becoming sick and of farm animals dying immediately or soon after a nearby fracking operation.
Mining, large-scale timbering, road-building, etc., adversely affect natural attractions. Should we stop doing all of these things? No, but what we must do is a thorough analysis to ensure all of the benefits outweigh all of the costs. Typically, many of the costs are subsidized and paid for by taxpayers long after the company that reaped the benefits is gone.
Energy is very important. But water is even more important. During its presentation of the proposed plans for the George Washingotn National Forest, the forest service stated that water is the most important product of the GWNF. Should we risk the water supply to millions of people for the sake of a quick energy fix?
I believe fracking, like mountaintop removal and some other mining methods, should be banned because of the inherent risks and environmental damage these cause. There are safer and more environmentally sound ways of mining and energy production that can help bridge the gap to the implementation of renewable energy sources such as wind and solar.

Stroke Risk Similar Among Men and Women Smokers Worldwide

Smoking cigarettes may cause similar stroke risks for men and women, but women smokers may be at greater risk for a more deadly and uncommon type of stroke, according to new research in the American Heart Association journal Stroke.

When compared to non-smokers of the same gender, smoking increases the risk of having any type of stroke by 60 to 80 percent in women and men.

Researchers said the finding is intriguing because other studies have found strong evidence that smoking conveys a much higher risk of heart disease -- which shares a common disease process with stroke -- for women than for men.

Toronto mayor says he has smoked 'a lot of' marijuana

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who denied allegations earlier this year that he was caught smoking crack cocaine on camera, casually admitted on Wednesday that he has smoked "a lot of" marijuana.
The offhand comment by the leader of Canada's largest city came as Ford was leaving a business luncheon and was asked by reporters if he had ever smoked the drug.
"Oh yeah, I won't deny that. I've smoked a lot of it," he said with a laugh.
Ford made global headlines in May when U.S. blog Gawker and the Toronto Star both reported that their reporters had seen a cellphone video that appears to show Ford using crack cocaine.

Non-smoking programmes useful in psychiatric treatment

Psychiatric patients who took part in a smoking-cessation programme while they were in the hospital for treatment of mental illness were more likely to quit smoking and less likely to be hospitalised again for mental illness, a new study shows.
The findings challenge a common belief among mental-health experts that smoking is a useful tool in treating some psychiatric patients. For example, cigarettes may be used as part of a reward system or doctors may sometimes smoke with patients as a way of creating a connection, said Judith Prochaska, an associate professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine.
The study
Prochaska

Czech president told to cut smoking, drinking due to health

Czech President Milos Zeman, known for his love of alcohol and smoking, was told on Friday to drastically cut down on both after being diagnosed with diabetes, the health minister said.
Martin Holcat, speaking on Czech Radio, said that on the advice of doctors, the president, 68, would have to cut down from his usual 40-to-50 cigarettes a day to about 20.

Secondhand Smoke in Restaurants Raises Risk of Cancers, Asthma

Secondhand smoke in bars and restaurants can increase risk of asthma and cancers in visitors, a new study has found.
Smoking causes many types of cancers of lung, bladder, kidneys, mouth and ovaries. Previous research has established that second-hand smoke could just be as dangerous.
Secondhand smoke contains more than 50 substances that can cause cancer, according to Medline Plus.  Passive smoke can cause lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer, respiratory tract infections and heart disease. Second-hand smoking causes about 600,000 deaths each year.

Study likens second-hand patio smoke to a ‘forest fire’

“I think what’s important is for us to remember that tobacco smoke is a Class A carcinogen, and any level of exposure bears a risk,” Kennedy, based at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md., said in an interview Saturday.
Anti-tobacco advocates are hoping the findings help make the case for a patio smoking ban in Quebec, and across the country.
Several provinces have already banned smoking on patios, including Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Alberta. Yukon has also introduced a ban, along with Ottawa and a number of municipalities on Vancouver Island and in the lower mainland of British Columbia.

Candy cigarettes could earn big fines for General Pants store

The Health Department has threatened the General Pants store in Pitt Street with a $102,000 fine after last week receiving a complaint about it displaying a box of candy cigarettes for sale at its counter.
The cigarettes were displayed for sale in a box featuring an image of a man smiling with what appears to be a cigarette in his mouth and with the captions 'Makes you looks cool', 'Hey Dad, can I bum a smoke?', and 'Just like Dad!'.
Sydney mum Heidi Sumich said she was shopping in the store with her 13-year-old daughter when she saw the box last week.
"I thought it was really inappropriate to have that sort of thing where young people go," she told News Limited.
"I pointed it out to the shop assistant and she said they'd had a lot of complaints about it."
Angered that the store had failed to act on the complaints, Ms Sumich wrote to Health Minister Tanya Plibersek hoping she would have more clout. Cigarettes online at cheapest prices.

The Truth About Most Popular E Cigarette 2013

The electronic cigarettes have become very popular worldwide. The popularity of e cigarettes has given rise to many different electronic cigarette brands. All the brands claim to manufacture best quality e cigarettes. However, not all the electronic cigarette brands are made equal.

There are only few electronic cigarette brands that have been able to constantly meet the expectations of the smokers over time. The brands that are most popular e cigarette brands are:

1. South Beach Smoke
2. V2 Cigs
3. Ever Smoke
4. Blu Cigs
5. Green Smoke

Kids' exposure to secondhand smoke drops — except among those with asthma

At a time when many Americans have managed to kick the habit, a surprising new government report finds that asthmatic kids are just as likely to be exposed to secondhand smoke as they were a decade ago, especially if they come from poor families.
There is some good news, though. During the same time period, secondhand smoke exposure dropped significantly among kids who don’t have asthma, according to the report by the National Center for Health Statistics.
“What surprised us was that among kids with asthma, secondhand exposure to smoke did not decrease at all,” said the report’s lead author, Dr. Kenneth B. Quinto, an epidemic intelligence service officer with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “I think we could be doing a better job educating parents with children with asthma about the health effects of secondhand exposure.” Dunhill cigarettes online at low prices.

Philip Morris International Earnings Preview: Get Ahead of the Analysts

Philip Morris International (NYSE:PM) will report earnings before markets open on Thursday, July 18th. Philip Morris International Inc., through its subsidiaries, affiliates and their licensees, produces, sells, distributes, and markets a wide range of branded cigarettes and tobacco products in markets outside of the United States of America. The Company’s portfolio comprises both international and local brands.
Here is your Cheat Sheet to Philip Morris International Earnings:
Earnings Expectations: Analysts expect earnings of $1.41 per share on revenues of $8.20 billion. Currently, the company’s P/E ratio stands at 17.37.Philip Morris International is the producer of Chesterfield Cigarettes and Bond cigarettes.

Analyst Trends:

Analysts have a more negative outlook for the company’s next-quarter performance. Over the past three months, the average estimate for next quarter’s earnings has fallen from a profit of $1.54 to a profit $1.49. For the current year, the average estimate is a profit of $5.57, which is worse than the estimate ninety days ago.

Earnings Trends:

Here’s how Philip Morris International has been performing on an annual basis:

Fiscal Year	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012
Revenue ($) in millions	63,640	62,080	67,713	76,346	77,393
Diluted EPS ($)	3.32	3.24	3.92	4.85	5.17

Next, our CHEAT SHEET investing framework asks us to drill down to the recent quarterly data:

Quarter	Jun. 30, 2012	Sep. 30, 2012	Dec. 31, 2012	Mar. 31, 2013
Revenue ($) in millions	20,037.00	19,592.00	19,742.00	18,527.00
Diluted EPS ($)	1.36	1.32	1.25	1.28

Past Performance:
Philip Morris International has beat analyst estimates 2 times in the past four quarters. This is not consistent enough to get bullish yet.

Should Marijuana Be Tax and Legitimated?

Should Marijuana Be Tax and Legitimated?

48 hours after ending Tobacco use, health benefits begin

“Within 48 hours of quitting smoking, health benefits begin,” said Dr. Steven Leers, a member of the Society for Vascular Surgery. “Blood pressure decreases. Pulse rate drops. The body temperature of hands and feet increases. Carbon monoxide levels in the blood return to normal. The chance of a heart attack decreases. Nerve endings regrow. There’s an increase in the ability to taste and smell.”
Dr. Leers is an advocate for not smoking. Research has linked smoking to cancer, vascular disease, stroke and lung disease.
“As a vascular surgeon, I’ve seen the damage done to veins and arteries from tobacco use,” said Dr. Leers. “Nicotine speeds up the heart and causes the body to release fat and cholesterol into the blood. All of these are related to vascular disease.”
In addition, smoking accelerates the hardening and narrowing of arteries. Smokers are two to four times more likely to develop blood clots.
Nearly 6 million people die every year from tobacco use according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Of these, more than 600,000 persons die from secondhand smoke.
In the U.S., the 2011 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report “Tobacco Use: Targeting the Nation’s Leading Killer” indicates that smoking leads to 443,000 premature deaths annually from tobacco use or exposure to secondhand smoke. On average, smokers die 13 to 14 years earlier than non-smokers.
“Nicotine in cigarettes raises blood pressure and constricts arteries,” said Dr. Leers.
Narrowed arteries can result in:
* blood clots
* heart attacks (narrowed coronary artery)
* stroke (narrowed brain or neck artery)
* peripheral arterial disease (PAD) leading to gangrene and amputation (narrowed leg artery)
* erectile dysfunction for men in their 30s and 40s (narrowed artery to the penis).

Electronic Cigarettes and Smoking Ban

Electronic Cigarettes and Smoking Ban

Alabama flunks smoking report

Alabama didn’t pass a single course on its report card from the American Lung Association.
The report card was released last week as part of the American Lung Association’s State of Tobacco Control 2013 analysis, which graded each state on its tobacco regulations in four main areas: tobacco prevention and control funding, smoke-free air ordinances, cigarette taxes and cessation coverage.

Electronic Cigarettes to Be Banned in France in Public Spaces

Electronic Cigarettes to Be Banned in France in Public Spaces

Activists Slam Basuki for Tobacco Sponsorship Comments

Tobacco control activists slammed Jakarta’s deputy governor after he said tobacco industry sponsorships should be permitted since they benefit students and the general public alike.
“It was very unwise of him to make such a statement on World No Tobacco Day. The statement is contradictory to Jakarta’s recent adoption of tobacco control measures, which were initiated before [Jakarta Governor] Joko Widodo’s tenure,”Arist Merdeka Sirait, the chairman of the chairman of the National Commission on Children Protection (Komnas Anak), told the Jakarta Globe on Friday.

Shisha to bear health warnings in the UAE

Shisha tobacco, known in colloquial Arabic as "ma'assel", will soon have to bear health warnings and meet new hygiene and safety standards.

Related

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World No Tobacco Day: Activist raise pitch against meddling in tobacco-control policies

Strategies used by the tobacco industry to dilute, delay and prevent tobacco-control policies must be tackled aggressively, say anti-tobacco activists.
"Ever since 1998, when tobacco companies were forced to make documents public, we have had an idea of strategies used by tobacco companies to hoodwink governments and underplay the harms of tobacco use while informing the public," Ehsan Latif, director of the department of tobacco control for the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, said. This year's theme for World No-Tobacco Day is 'Stop Tobacco Industry Interference'.

"We know what we are up against, but governments do not always know how best to protect public health policies against tobacco industry interference," Latif, in a press statement on Wednesday, said.

Smoking in pregnancy linked to serious birth defects

If all the research about the links between smoking and health problems like lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke, as well as the associations between smoking and its impact on infertility, pre-term delivery, stillbirth, low birth weight and SIDS haven’t been enough to convince you to kick the habit, maybe this will.
A new review of dozens of past scientific studies has definitively linked smoking with certain serious birth defects including heart defects, missing or deformed limbs, gastrointestinal disorders and facial disorders.

Some countries have hidden cigarette brand names from consumers with plain packaging. Some countries demand retailers hide the cigarettes away. Some countries have put nasty images on the packaging so consumers can see what could happen to them someday if they continue to smoke, and some are just starting over. But one country is just planning to get rid of the darn things altogether.
It’ll take a few years, of course, for Scotland to get all tobacco products out of its country, but the plan is to have them gone by 2034, according to the UK's thecourier.co, so smokers might want to get their trips to Scotland over with sooner rather than later. The country has already banned smoking from public places and raised the age of purchase from 16 to 18; it now plans to ban smoking from the grounds of all hospitals and force retailers to sell smokes in plain packaging.

BBC admits Casualty smoking storyline did not have to be dropped

Clare Hudson, head of productions for BBC Wales, originally said plot was dropped due to Wales's tough anti-smoking lawshe BBC has been forced into an embarrassing U-turn over claims that it had to axe a storyline in Casualty about the dangers of smoking because of Wales's stringent anti-smoking laws.
BBC Wales head of productions Clare Hudson made the comment in evidence to members of the Welsh national assembly earlier this week, highlighting the difficulties that tough smoking regulations posed for programme-makers which she said could cost the Welsh economy up to £20m a year.

How do you stop smoking cigarettes without drugs?

Did you know that one half of all the smokers in the world want to quit right now but don't know how? What's worse is that 95 percent of smokers who quit smoking without some form of help will return to the cancer-causing habit within six months. These are dismal statistics, and there is more than one good reason for the massive failure of programs to help smokers quit and stay smoke-free for life. Let's delve into the pros and cons of all stop smoking choices, including acupuncture, hypnosis, "cold turkey," e-cigs or electronic cigarettes, Chantix and Zyban medications, scare tactics like commercials, problems with the patch and nicotine gum, lack of nutrition advice, and finally organic tobacco as a means of weaning off nicotine. Online Cigaronne cigarettes.

For a select few, medications may work, but for most, it's just another horror story.

The top six fruits for energy and quit smoking

 This may be controversial. Since high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) has been pointed out as a leading cause of fatty liver, obesity, and other bad health issues, many assume the same is true for consuming fruits.

Yes, fruits contain fructose. But that fructose is in much smaller quantities than HFCS. Dr. Mark Hyman refers to the massive amounts of HFCS in processed foods and beverages as pharmacological, or intensely condensed and isolated or extracted from it's food source. (Source below)

All the doctors sourced below agree that fructose in excess gets converted mostly to triglyceride fats instead of glucose for energy. Even table sugar (sucrose) gets converted to glucose more efficiently and without clogging up the liver.

The sudden surge in obesity and type-2 diabetes began with the introduction of HFCS into processed foods and beverages.

Smoking addiction similar to gambling; both are fixed to rob you of everything

http://www.mycigaretteshop.net/discount/dunhill

The best metaphor for the smoking addiction and how it has gotten so many millions of people hooked is gambling. Gambling is a major addiction in the United States for many people.

What's in secondhand smoke?

Secondhand smoke — also known as environmental tobacco smoke — includes the smoke that a smoker exhales (mainstream smoke) and the smoke that comes directly from the burning tobacco product (sidestream smoke).

U.S. survey shows that low-nicotine cigarettes may help smokers quit

According to recent survey results show that, without more than the usual amount of smoking, smokers of nicotine addiction can be reduced by the absorption of low nicotine content of cigarettes. One pair of 135 between 18-70 years old, small, controlled study, the transition to the suction contain less nicotine cigarettes, smokers can not smoke more cigarettes and inhale deeply into the tar and toxins to compensate for reduced nicotine content.


Many persons love to smoke Camel cigarettes, Winston cigarettes, Kent cigarettes .

Why are Britons more susceptible to disease?

The number of years Britons can expect to live before disease and disability take their toll is below average, but not all of that is down to hospital care. Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

For the last 60 years, the UK has gloried in a healthcare system that is free to all its citizens and regularly described by politicians as the envy of the world. It has brought in a smoking ban in public places, it has good immunisation systems, cancer screening and has reduced salt in food. And yet, say the authors of a major piece of work on the global burden of disease, the UK lags behind many other comparable countries in terms of the health of its population.
The report published in the Lancet medical journal by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in Seattle, using data supplied by UK experts and organisations, compares health in the UK with health in 18 other countries – 14 other members of the EU, plus Australia, Canada, Norway and the US.
The exercise is the first time data from the Global Burden of Disease project – which has pulled together an extraordinary amount of information from 187 countries – has been used to compare similar nations and figure out why some do better than others.
The UK is below average in terms

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Smokeless cigarettes a safer choice for addicts

Smoking is an addiction and addiction, in whatever form, is notoriously difficult to stop. People say 'well why not just stop and show some willpower?' which is not helpful at all. If it this was that easy there would be no one addicted to anything. Therefore people use e-cigarettes as a safer substitute for the horrid practice of smoking real ones, not necessarily to give up.

There is a risk, which is shown in your article, that if e-cigarettes were classed as a stop-smoking method they will then have to be classed as a 'medicine' and be severely prohibited and then become inaccessible to many people.

Health experts uncover pro-smoking smartphone apps

Health experts are warning that pro-smoking smartphone apps could tempt young people to start using cigarettes after new research found that dozens of them have been downloaded millions of times. Researchers who uncovered the existence of such apps, some of which use cartoons, fear it is a new way for tobacco companies to exploit loopholes in restrictions on their marketing activities in order to promote their products. Australian researchers, writing in the medical journal Tobacco Control, say they came across 107 apps that promoted smoking in some way when they checked the Apple and Android Market app stores in February. Sixty-five were in the Apple App Store and the other 42 in Android Market's equivalent. By that month a total of about 11 million people used the 42 apps held by Android Market. Their paper "identifies a new trend of promoting tobacco products in a new medium with global reach, a huge consumer base of various age groups and less strict regulation policies", they write. The apps included images of particular brands, told users where they could buy tobacco products, provided cigarette brands' packaging to use as wallpaper on their smartphone and let users simulate smoking behaviour.

Anti-smoking campaigners accuse tobacco lobby after office break-in

Brussels police have swept the offices of two major public health organisations for bugs following a break-in at a building in the rue de Tréves in which laptops and documents relating to their battles against the tobacco industry were stolen. It is a convenient address for those involved in lobbying and monitoring the European political process, just five minutes walk from the Parliament building, and there are eight floors of well-equipped offices for burglars to investigate. But it appears they were interested only in those of the European Smoke Free Partnership and the European Public Health Alliance on the 5th and 1st floors. A third office – a company that has clients on the other side of the argument – was also entered, but nothing was taken. The burglars struck within 48 hours of the resignation of the European health commissioner, John Dalli. On Wednesday, he revealed that he had been forced out by commission president José Manuel Barroso over a report by EU anti-fraud investigators accusing a fellow Maltese of attempting to sell influence over the commissioner to a Swedish tobacco company.

Cigarettes Full Impact, Women Smokers

The largest-ever study of a million women has found that those who smoke lose a decade of their lives, while kicking the smoking habit before the age of 40 avoids more than 90 percent of the increased risk of dying caused by continuing to smoke, while stopping before the age of 30 avoids over 97% of it. The research has just been published in the online edition of the British journal The Lancet, to mark the100th anniversary of the birth of Sir Richard Doll, one of the first people to identify the link between lung cancer and smoking. A total of 1.3 million women were recruited to the study between 1996 and 2001, at ages 50 to 65 years. Participants completed a questionnaire about lifestyle, medical and social factors and were resurveyed by mail three years later.

The National Health Service’s central register notified the researchers when any participant died, giving the cause of that death. Women were traced for an average of 12 years from the time they first joined; thus far, 66,000 study participants died. Initially, a fifth of the study participants were smokers, 28% were ex-smokers and 52% had never smoked. Those who were still smokers at the three-year follow-up survey were nearly three times as likely as nonsmokers to die over the next nine years, even though some reduced their risk by stopping smoking during this period. This threefold death rate ratio means that two-thirds of all deaths of smokers in their 50s, 60s, and 70s are caused by smoking, as most of the difference between smokers and nonsmokers came from smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer, chronic lung disease, heart disease, or stroke.

Best 5 Cigarette Brands For Smoking Pleasure

Best 5 Cigarette Brands For Smoking Pleasure

Illegal tobacco sniffed out

Illicit and unregulated tobacco destined for Lancashire’s streets has been seized from several shops in a major operation in Preston city centre. Illicit and unregulated tobacco destined for Lancashire’s streets has been seized from several shops in a major operation in Preston city centre. A team of officers from Lancashire Trading Standards, Customs and Lancashire Police, which are backing the Evening Post’s Don’t Let Them Make a Packet Campaign, searched nine retail outlets in Preston city centre accompanied by three specially trained dogs. It is the first time sniffer dogs have ever been used in Lancashire to hunt down illegal tobacco.

Please don't take away my menthol cigarettes, Brussels Borg

Like many smokers, I am actually supportive of some of the restrictions put upon our noxious activity. I'm all in favour of the smoking ban in pubs because it means I can easily extricate myself from tedious people and hang out with the cool kids outside. Even generic packaging should lead to an upsurge in cigarette cases, which is the kind of accessorising I approve of. But the faceless Brussels anti-cancer bureaucrats have gone too far now. The health commissioner, Tonio Borg, has threatened to ban cigarettes with a "characterising flavour" such as menthol, strawberry or vanilla, on the grounds that they encourage young people to start smoking. The Borg went on to say: "If it's tobacco, it should look like tobacco and taste like tobacco." This can only come from a man who has never smoked menthol cigarettes. There are many reasons why menthols became my fag of choice. Primarily it's because I like to freshen my breath as I smoke. Menthol flavouring rarely takes away the taste of tobacco, rather it augments the taste with a chemical, metallic overtone akin to inhaling a lit screwdriver. It would be a "learner's" cigarette only if you intended to go on to smoke tool bags.

As cigarette prices go up, Pinoy smokers try e-cigarettes

f you really want it, you'll find a way. This is what some Filipino smokers have been practicing after cigarette prices increased due to the new sin tax law. Since cigarettes have become more expensive by P.50 to P1 per stick, smokers have turned to an alternative: the e-cigarette. "Mahal na din po 'yung sigarilyo eh. Kaya naisip kong gumamit nun," Rodel Areta, who switched to e-cigarettes, said in a report on GMA News' News to Go on Wednesday. The Bureau of Internal Revenue imposed higher excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol products, after President Benigno Aquino III signed into law Republic Act No. 1035 or the Sin Tax Reform Law last Dec. 20, a previous report said. Designed as an alternative to cigarettes, the e-cigarette, an electronic inhaler, vaporizes a liquid solution that turns into aerosol mist, the News to Go report said.

Smoking cessation treatment may help beat early dementia

The finding is not a conclusive one, the researchers note clearly, warning people against the dangers of misinterpreting it as a license to continue smoking. Citing expert opinions, the British news channel too reminds smokers that the dangers of nicotine outweigh any of its conjectured merits by a long margin.

The Dripping Method

When vaping on your electronic cigarette, there is an abundance of methods you can use. You can however split these into categories: Systems that use a filling material which soaks up e-liquid / uses its material to wick the e-liquid closer to the heat source Systems that use no filling material The drip method is a rather odd system, seeing as no one ever invented this – it came about by mistake, and it started as a system that used a filling material, but ended up being one without.

Australian Health Ministry to Pass High Increases on Cigarette Taxes

Australian Health Ministry to Pass High Increases on Cigarette Taxes

Bulgarian Government Launches Actions against Cigarette Smuggling

Bulgarian Government Launches Actions against Cigarette Smuggling

Indonesia to Demand Graphic Images on Cigarette Packages

Indonesia to Demand Graphic Images on Cigarette Packages

America’s Best Selling Brand – Marlboro

Highly recognizable brands can be priceless, but they require a permanent attention. Their importance can rise or even fall because of state management decisions, changes in the competitive environment, and the beliefs that a brand has aged beyond its useful lifetime. Very often the precise causes of decrease in Marlboro smoking brand value are mistake and arrogance. A recent study investigated nine popular brands and it found that even the most powerful tobacco products cannot survive horrible government decisions. A brand obtains its value from several main factors. And the most evident being how much it can earn. This is not the least evident with Marlboro — the best-selling smoking brand for its two owners, tobacco companies Philip Morris and Altria.

E-Cigarettes Are Popular For A Different Reason For Each Smoker

E-cigarettes, short for electronic cigarettes, are gaining popularity every day. E-cigarettes have become a popular choice as either an alternative to traditional tobacco cigarettes, or have become the choice for many smokers to use as a smoking cessation device, even though e-cigarettes aren’t officially approved as a smoking cessation device. However, many claim that e-cigarettes are a more effective way to stop smoking than any other cessation device. Most of this is attributed to the way e-cig juice is available.

Marlboro Red cigarette, Marlboro Gold cigarette best types in demand by most of the smokers worldwide.