Smoking Issues

[SpiritMan]

Probably not a bad idea to write to the Gazette to show support!

Local group pushing for C-U smoking ban laws

   By DEBRA PRESSEY
© 2005 THE NEWS-GAZETTE
Published Online February 8, 2005

   CHAMPAIGN – A local group that wants the cities of Champaign and Urbana to prohibit smoking in all public places and workplaces says two new studies show there's local support for smoking ban laws.
   Scott Hays, president of the C-U Smoke-free Alliance, said one of the studies – a scientific, random-sample public opinion survey of 400 registered voters in Champaign-Urbana – showed 92 percent believe secondhand smoke is a serious health risk.

http://www.news-gazette.com/localnews/story.cfm?Number=17646

[Bingo]

A friend's husband was diagnosed today with renal cell carcinoma. Smoking is one of the leading causes of that cancer. I hate to see young people smoking.

[SpiritMan]

A friend's husband was diagnosed today with renal cell carcinoma. Smoking is one of the leading causes of that cancer. I hate to see young people smoking.

Most people connect smoking with lung cancer and have no idea that other diseases are actually more prevalent among smokers than lung cancer. Smoking can contribute to diseases of all parts of the body!

[SpiritMan]

We should keep in mind that this is the industry that created Karl Rove and the tactics of the present White House administration. Is it no wonder that Bush's first legislative victory of his second term is a law to protect the tobacco industry from class action lawsuits?

Witness in tobacco suit cries foul
By William Birnbauer
February 12, 2005

An Australian whistleblower says cigarette makers are trying to intimidate him into silence.

Australian tobacco whistleblower Fred Gulson has sought security for his family and has accused United States lawyers of trying to intimidate him on the eve of his appearance in a landmark court case.

Mr Gulson said lawyers for British American Tobacco Investments (BATCo) had written to his legal representatives in November saying they had instructed private investigators to collect "personal and other background information" on him.

The letter and other "actions", plus "having been on the other side and seeing how tobacco companies handled business", had made him and his wife, in particular, wary of his testifying, he said, and prompted his call for security to be organised for his family while he was in Washington giving evidence.

Mr Gulson was the legal counsel and company secretary for Sydney-based W.D. & H.O. Wills between 1989 and 1990. The company is now known as British American Tobacco Australia Services and is Australia's biggest tobacco processor.

"It was (of) grave concern to them that a failure to destroy incriminating documents in Australia would lead to their discovery, which would seriously erode the efficacy of their global litigation strategy, since a key component was keeping the damaging documents out of the hands of plaintiffs' attorneys," he says.

As a result, a "document destruction policy" was introduced. A comprehensive tobacco industry database, co-ordinated through the Tobacco Institute of Australia, was held by law firm Clayton Utz. It included scientific documents, profiles of likely witnesses and information on judges.

Story

[SpiritMan]

I received this message through my smokefree website today:

"We met on our way back  from Thailand from Koh Samui in 2003.  I will be one month smoke-a-free and extremely determined, could not get you and your message out of my out mind. thank-you."

I assume it's someone I talked to on the plane about quitting. I believe if you plant the seed it will eventually grow. It's moments and messages like these that make me know it's worth the effort!

[SpiritMan]

February 14, 2005
Men's Health Grades 101 Cities on Smoking
   

Southern cities are some of the smokiest in the nation, according to Men's Health magazine's new ranking of the 101 cities on smoking, with Louisville (#101) dead last (no pun intended), followed by Lexington (#100), St. Louis (#99), Shreveport 98 and Nashville (#97), among 16 cities receiving an "F."

http://www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=2944776

[SpiritMan]

The thing that makes me sad is his age!

Jonathan Fish learned an expensive lesson today about the dangers of littering.

The 20-year-old San Francisco resident was rolling across the upper deck of the Bay Bridge at 10:40 a.m., smoking a cigarette. When he got to Harrison Street, he rolled down the window of his white 2004 Ford Expedition SUV and tossed out the butt.

Instead of bounding along the pavement, however, the still-lit cigarette blew back in and set the interior of his $30,000 SUV ablaze.


http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/02/17/suvfire17.TMP

[SpiritMan]

• Deadly risk of smoke in bars
Source: The Huddersfield Daily Examiner (uk), 2005-02-18
Author: The Huddersfield Daily Examiner
Intro:

TODAY the Examiner can exclusively reveal the true dangers of passive smoking.

Tests to measure the level of deadly cigarette smoke inhaled on an average night out in Huddersfield town centre have uncovered some shocking facts.

We tested three non-smokers after they spent a night in bars and a club.

They reported that none of the places they visited seemed smoky.

But tests for the chemical cotinine, only present when nicotine is inhaled, revealed in one case that a volunteer showed more than three times the normal level.

Carbon monoxide tests also revealed a night in a club breathing in smoke meant you were at as much risk as a medium to heavy smoker.

Anti-smoking pressure group Ash says exposure to carbon monoxide in cigarette smoke damages arteries and leads to less oxygen getting to vital organs. It can lead to heart attacks, strokes and amputation.

http://ichuddersfield.icnetwork.co.uk/

[SpiritMan]

Smoking Kills: Experimental Proof From the Lung Health Study

In this issue, Anthonisen and colleagues (6) describe their findings from more than 14 years of follow-up of participants in the Lung Health Study, which was of sufficient size and duration to test whether smoking cessation reduces mortality. This randomized trial tested the hypothesis that smoking cessation and inhaled bronchodilator therapy improved the early natural history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease . . .

Given the extensive evidence available and the long-accepted conclusion that smoking causes increased mortality rates, why are the new findings from the Lung Health Study noteworthy? From a historical perspective, they provide further "proof," based on experiment rather than observation, that smoking is causally responsible for the increased risk for death in smokers. No one can make a serious claim to the contrary in light of this randomized trial evidence. The Lung Health Study findings also offer a reminder that smoking kills middle-aged people; persons who die in middle age lose over 23 years of life on average (14). In fact, if we are to begin to control the rising numbers of smoking-related deaths soon, we must increase rates of smoking cessation now, since we won't see the benefits for decades. The new results from the Lung Health Study confirm again that smoking cessation prolongs life.

http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=129257

[SpiritMan]

• Academics outed over smoke link
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (au), 2005-02-25
Author: Ruth Pollard, Health Reporter
Intro:

With the fight over whether smoking causes harm all but won by the overwhelming evidence of its links to cancer, heart disease and other illnesses, the new battleground for tobacco companies was passive smoking, Professor Chapman said.

That's where the International Society of the Built Environment, and its journal, Indoor and Built Environment, come in, according to a study by Professor Chapman and his colleagues published in The Lancet today.

"The society's executive has been dominated by paid consultants to the tobacco industry: all six members in 1992 and seven out of eight members in 2002 had financial associations through industry lawyers," the paper notes.

But realising that a direct financial relationship between scientists and the tobacco industry would be unacceptable, the society recruited willing researchers another way.

Using a US legal firm, Covington and Burling, operatives travelled the world and offered scientists research grants, tickets to conferences and other inducements to conduct research for the tobacco industry. . . .

"Ninety per cent of articles which were published in this journal that were positive to the tobacco industry were written by people with a history of association with them."

Story

[Pat Testa]

I have posted a picture in other forums and will continue to do so if it will help even one person realize that she is not a statistic...she was real...she is my daughter...and she is DEAD...simply because she was a smoker and she thought she couldn't stop...but, she did...










....but so did her heart

(well, I guess there is no option to post pictures...but those of you who were in the other forums know of my Cyndi)

[Butterfly]

Smokefree Rhode Island Sees Growth in Restaurant/Bar Business
Business Up 21%, Air Pollution Down 96%
 
Parts excerpted from the Boston Globe, 10/4/05
 
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --Seven months after a statewide smokefree workplace law took effect, bar and restaurant patrons are breathing easier and may even be spending easier, state health officials said Tuesday.
"This has really been an absolute win-win for Rhode Island," said David R. Gifford, director of the state Department of Health. "We have not seen the drastic horror stories we heard when the legislation was going into effect."  While some bar and restaurant owners were worried about losing business, Gifford said tax revenue generated by restaurants and bars increased by 21 percent during the first four months of the smokefree law, compared with the same period last year.

Air pollution in an average Rhode Island bar before the clean air law was 10 times dirtier than a busy street corner in Chicago, said Carrie Carpenter, a research analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health.  Since the law began March 1, the average number of tiny particles suspended in the air fell 96 percent, according to a state-sponsored study.  Carpenter said researchers focused on particles smaller than 2.5 microns, a size that includes fumes from secondhand cigarette smoke, a carcinogen.  "Those are the ones we can inhale deeply into the lungs," she said.

Some business owners remain unconvinced. Raymond A. Brooks, president of the Neighborhood Pub Association, formed to oppose the clean air law, saw little significance in the tax revenue figures.  "The economy's better this year than last year, so that's a natural increase in restaurant revenue," Brooks said.

"Rhode Island's results are similar to those in other smokefree jurisdictions," said Joe Cherner, founder of BREATHE (Bar and Restaurant Employees Advocating Together for a Healthy Environment).  "Nine states and hundreds of cities have gone smokefree.  The data is strong that clean air is good for business."

[Pat Testa]

I said before that I wanted to post a picture of my daughter......

One more try...it has been 5 years since she died, but it hurts just like it happened yesterday. It just seemed like such an unnecessary death.

[elefan]

PAT,   i am very sorry about your daughter.  I don't smoke and I certainly do despise it but it still hits home rather hard when you can put a face to the destruction caused by smoking.  Thank you.

[SpiritMan]

I've smoked since I was 4

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005460409,00.html