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Despite the well-known dangers of tobacco, more than a billion people worldwide still smoke cigarettes. On Thursday, in its first report on global tobacco use and control efforts, the World Health Organization helped shed light on why the number of smokers remains so high. Though tobacco is the world’s leading preventable cause of death—killing an estimated 5.4 million people a year (more than tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and malaria combined)—the WHO report found that, while 152 countries have pledged to implement recommended tobacco-control policies, only a handful have taken strong action already. Governments around the world still take in, on average, more than 500 times as much from tobacco taxes as they spend on tobacco control.
Here’s another stop smoking video to motivate you to quit smoking. The makers of Smoke Away don’t care how you do it, just do it!
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
HARRISBURG — In his 27 years working in Atlantic City casinos, Vinnie Rennich developed lung cancer and a passion for protecting casino workers from the dangers of second-hand smoke, which was everywhere.
His cancer now seems to be arrested, but he had to have part of one lung removed, he told a House-Senate conference committee yesterday that is working on legislation to ban smoking in most public places in Pennsylvania.
He also got fired by his casino after he filed a lawsuit last year alleging negligence toward workers and testified at the New Jersey capital of Trenton that 100 percent of a casino floor should be smoke-free.
Currently, 25 percent of a New Jersey casino floor may allow cigarette smoking, he said yesterday, but the smoke often drifts across onto the nonsmoking section, so the limit of 25 percent isn’t effective.
“Every worker,” in clubs, bars, restaurants, taverns and casinos, “has the right to be protected from second-hand smoke,” he said.
While casinos often say they will lose business if smoking is banned completely — because gamblers will find a casino in another state to gamble in — Mr. Rennich contended that smoke-free legislation “is not an economic issue. It’s a health issue.”
He testified at the first of two hearings being held this week by Sen. Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, one of the six House-Senate conferees trying to write a smoke-free bill that can win approval from both the House and the Senate.
After a second hearing is held on Thursday, the committee will meet privately for two weeks and then, Mr. Greenleaf hopes, adopt its version of a smoking ban bill on March 31.
He’s hoping for approval of Senate Bill 246 by the full Senate and House by the end of April, but other legislators, looking at the complexity and controversial nature of the issue, think it will take longer.
“As scientific evidence continues to demonstrate the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, and the public grows increasingly supportive, each year we see additional cities, states and nations move to limit smoking in public places,” he said.
State Health Secretary Calvin B. Johnson said 22 states have enacted smoke-free laws, including many bordering Pennsylvania, such as New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland. He said there are numerous studies linking secondhand smoke with illnesses such as cancer and heart disease.
Three major issues remain before a compromise bill can be reached, however:
• Should all public places be declared smoke-free, or should some smaller taverns, private clubs and casinos at least be allowed to have smoking sections?
• Will the Legislature allow towns and counties to enact their own tougher smoking bans, even after Senate Bill 246 becomes law, or will the state pre-empt localities from having their own bans? Currently, only the state can enact legislation, which is why Allegheny County’s ban got knocked out last year. Philadelphia is the only city by law now allowed to have its own smoking ban, and it does.
• Who will enforce the ban — counties, towns or the state? Only a few larger counties have health departments, said Lebanon County Commissioner Larry Stohler, and there will be an added cost for counties to crack down on bars that continue to allow smoking, if all smoking is banned.
If city or county health departments enforce the ban, they should be allowed to keep all the fines they impose, he argued.
If county health departments don’t enforce a ban, then some state agency, perhaps the Department of Health, should do it.
Even if a ban is enacted, it may not take effect for 180 days to give authorities time to decide who will enforce it.
How to Quit Smoking With the Help of Smoke Away
from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit
When trying to quit smoking its important to realize you will need more than just a commercially available product such as Smoke Away. Here is a list of steps and tips to help you with your quit. Remember that quitting smoking is the goal here, so make sure that you have buy in from your family and friends.
Steps
- Make an honest list of all the things you like about smoking.
- Make another list of why quitting won’t be easy.
- Set a quit date.
- Write all your reasons for quitting on an index card
- Stop buying cartons of cigarettes as you’re getting ready to quit.
- Keep a list of when you smoke, what you’re doing at the time, and how bad the craving is
- Prepare a list of things to do when a craving hits.
- Throw out anything that reminds you of smoking when your quit date arrives.
- Play a game of solitaire on your computer instead of a cigarette break at work.
Tips
- Switch to a cup of herbal tea whenever you usually have a cigarette
- Switch your cigarette habit for a nut habit
- Carry some cinnamon-flavored toothpicks with you
- Make an appointment with an acupuncturist
- Swing by the health food store for some Avena sativa (oat) extract
- Think of difficult things you have done in the past
- To minimize cravings, change your routine
- Tell your friends, coworkers, boss, partner, kids, etc
- If you relapse, just start again
- Put all the money you’re saving on cigarettes in a large glass jar
- Switch to decaf until you’ve been cigarette-free for two months
- Create a smoke-free zone.
- Find a healthy snack food you
- Quit when you’re in a good mood
- Post this list in a visible location in your house
Warnings
Whenever you’re tempted to light up, take a look at all the ways smoking can damage your health:
- Increases risk of lung, bladder, pancreatic, mouth, esophageal, and other cancers, including leukemia
- Reduces fertility
- Contributes to thin bones
- Affects mental capacity and memory
- Reduces levels of folate, low levels of which can increase the risk of heart disease, depression, and Alzheimer’s disease
- Increases likelihood of impotence
- Affects ability to smell and taste
- Results in low-birth-weight, premature babies
- Increases risk of depression in adolescents
- Increases risk of heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure
- Increases risk of diabetes
- Increases your child’s risk of obesity and diabetes later in life if you smoked while pregnant
Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world’s largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Quit Smoking With the Help of Smoke Away. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.
The makers of Smoke Away would like to drive the point home visually for those of you out there who just don’t get it. So we start by saying, “What the hell is your problem?” Are you the type of person that reads something like this and says,”Hmmm, that’s not a bad idea!”
Or maybe this looks really sexy to you and makes your mouth water at the prospect of puttting another cancer stick in your mouth?
mmmm.. yummy isn’t it? or perhaps you are the type of person where one of these phrases makes sense to you? What is it going to take to get through to you?
Ohhhh ok we get it, you don’t think there’s really anything bad in a cigarette other than the nicotine…OK then don’t worry about the butane, the cadmium, the stearic acid, the industrial solvent, the insecticide and the toilet cleaner, the vinegar, the sewer gas, the arsenic, the carbon monoxide, and the rocket fuel that is in each and every cigarette.
But what are a couple of cigarettes going to do to me? Well lets look at the anatomy of your typical female. Now keep in mind, cigarettes are not choosy, they’ll poison and pounce on anyone who chooses to light up. But lets look shall we?
Starting from the head on down we have wrinkles, the inability to smell properly, bad breath, yellow teeth, the inability to taste correctly, gum disease, a persistent hacking cough, a nice persistent back ache, more fat, the inability to go to the bathroom properly, lower chance of having a child, and slower wound healing. Mmm.. makes you want to run right out and smoke doesn’t it?
Lastly lets look at some quick statistics of just what cigarettes and second hand smoke and its ilk do to people. Choose to pick your poison?
Listen, we don’t care HOW you quit smoking. In fact, the makers of Smoke Away would love for you to use our product, but more importantly, we want you to quit smoking using ANY product. Just quit. Not for us, for you, your family and your friends. If you want to talk to some people that have stopped smoking using our product, or people that are still in the throws of quitting, or people who have just plain quit, Try the Smoke Away Support site. Good Luck.
