Snuffing Out Smoking!

Why the world wants smoking bans
On any given day, 45 million adult smokers light up despite the known dangers of smoking cigarettes. Americans typically view smoking as an individual choice that needs to be respected just like the myriad of other harmful behaviors society tolerates. Nevertheless, there is strong societal pressure to curb the sale and use of cancer-causing tobacco products. This raises the question, should the government be able to regulate our unhealthy lifestyle choices? While other decisions of personal health may be left to the individual, in the case of smoking the government has made a popular case that “lighting up” affects others in a unique way. This fundamental argument has been playing out on the national stage in the politics of smoking bans.

The Science of Smoking
In the last twenty-five years, tobacco companies and anti-smoking non-profits alike have educated the general public on the dangers of smoking. Most people are aware that smoking on a regular basis is unhealthy, but popular beliefs about the effects of second-hand smoke are more varied, and for good reason: the public receives mixed information. According to Dr. Cheryl Healton, the CEO and president of the American Legacy Foundation, the parent company of The Truth campaign, about 50,000 Americans die each year due to excess cancer, heart attacks, asthma, low birth weight, and other problems caused by second-hand smoke. Most organizations against smoking regulation disagree. They claim the science behind statements like Healton’s is inconclusive. Many scientific organizations however, are confident in the results. In 2002, the International Agency for Research on Cancer, an arm of the World Health Organization, analyzed most published research concerning tobacco smoking and cancer. One correlation observed in the study was “a statistically significant and consistent association between lung cancer risk in spouses of smokers and exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke from the spouse who smokes.” Proponents of regulation have cited such evidence in calling for a ban against smoking in public places. In addition to sparing passersby from second-hand smoke, public smoking bans may aid smokers in their quest to quit. Dr. Eric Westman, a nicotine and smoking cessation researcher at Duke University, has helped people overcome nicotine addiction for fifteen years. He explains that smoking bans help people quit not only because they make smoking illegal in certain situations, but also because they increase the social stigma of smoking. An internal Phillip Morris document corroborates this observation, finding that individuals who face workplace smoking bans “consume 11 percent to 15 percent less than average and quit at a rate that is 84 percent higher than average.” Many countries have already instituted wide-ranging prohibitions on public smoking. Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Malta, Italy, and New Zealand have already established countrywide smoke-free laws. France and the United Kingdom are soon to enact their bans. In 2004, the small country of Bhutan went as far as to ban all tobacco sales. The United States, however, has typically been more skeptical of such legislation and currently only eleven U.S. states have bans on indoor public smoking, though many cities have enacted their own bans.

Saving Smokers from Themselves
While there are strong arguments for regulation of public smoking, consequences for the health of the individual are not necessarily enough to justify legislation. For instance, if bans or heavy regulation were applied to other health-related behaviors, such as overeating, many more people would claim that the government had overstepped its authority. Why is smoking any different? When asked this question, Dr. Healton replied, “obesity does not harm the health of others.” She alludes to a key aspect of bans: they typically only outlaw smoking in public arenas, where one’s decision to smoke inhibits another’s freedom to eschew second hand smoke. Take, for example, the newly-proposed city-wide bans on the use of trans-fats in restaurants, a type of lipid that has been linked to cancer. Trans-fat bans parallel smoking bans in that the government is intervening to curb the effect of the actions of others, whether an individual or a business, on citizens health. However, it is important to note that in these cases the government is only legislating in the public realm: individuals are free to eat what and how much they want, while similarly, smokers can smoke in private areas. The Future of Smoking Bans While it can and has been argued that bans on public smoking overextend the government’s power over the private lives of its citizens, strong scientific evidence support the conclusion that allowing individuals to smoke can violate the health of innocent bystanders. In an interview, Dr. Healton predicted, “the global trend will be greater restrictions on where one can smoke.” Across the world, this seems to be coming true, and with increasing regulation, the Marlboro man may soon be off the open plain, and resigned to smoke in the privacy of his own home.

Yeah i smoke

I've been smoking cigarettes for about two years now. Every day i say i'm gonna quit but i never do... everyday i go out and buy me a new pack of newports. That stuff is killing me but i love it... well mostly when i drink which is not often. when i have a pack i find myself smoking just because their there, and when i dont have them i'm on the move looking for them. I hate the smell of them, like when someone is smoking around me it stinks. I like this site... This is the 1st of many

Stop smoking in days! The little pills that could

"I think I can, I think I can. I know I can, I know I can."
I failed again.
But no more.

No longer will you have to recant the mantra from the little train that could. You can stop smoking, eliminate your cravings and lose the rebound effects commonly associated with smoking cessation, like weight gain and substitute vices.
How? The smoking cessation pill, Chantix.
I was speaking with one of the correctional officers who took the challenge as part of his new year’s resolution. What he had to report was amazing.
First, he stated that he had no cravings or desires to smoke by day 3. Secondly, he did not notice any new behaviors to replace his prior smoking habit. He had to think about what he would do to replace it, not that he’s doing anything now.
He states that the smell of cigarette smoke is revolting to him and he doesn’t think about smoking anymore.
Impressive!
With the price of brand name cigarettes in Michigan pushing 6 bucks a pack, Chantix could not have come on the scene at a better time. If you only smoked 1 pack per day, you would pay less than that for a month’s supply of Chantix. And what I am hearing from the field is that most stop smoking during that first 30 day supply.
Not so with Zyban. Most REDUCE their use of cigarettes and continue to smoke. I rarely have had a case of someone on Zyban that quit within 90 days, let alone 30 days.

Smoking kills almost a million in India per year

“Smoking is harmful to Health” - This is a statutory warning printed on all cigarette packets. Yet the question arises as to how many people pay heed to this warning. Statistics will reveal a very small number. Majority knowingly jump in the fire or continue to smoke, risking even the lives of those around them, due to passive smoking.

A recent research has revealed that smoking kills almost a million people in India per year. More so the high smoking risk among Indians was a surprise when actually Indians start smoking at a later age and even smoke less than their European and American counterparts.

Also smoking results in most Indians dying from Tuberculosis rather than cancer as Indians prefer Beedis, that are traditionally leaf wrapped and hand rolled rather than manufactured brand filters. And since most of them never quit till death, the risk just doubles.

The study also revealed that almost 120 million people smoke in India, majority being men. Due to smoking most men in India get infected with asymptomatic tuberculosis - that is, smoking damages the lungs to such an extent that the latent infection cannot be sustained, eventually leading to death.

Illiteracy is one of the evil causes of smoking, for half of the Indian smokers are illiterate and barely 2% quit smoking in their lives. For the other half literate people who continue to smoke in spite of being aware of the dangers involved, the Indian health authorities are rooting for tobacco companies to print images of diseases that are tobacco related. But politicians want to save their vote banks in the name of protecting jobs of tobacco workers.

The research which was recently published was based on a study of the smoking history of 74,000 Indian who had recently died and 78,000 Indians living.
Well research or no research, smoking is injurious to health - is a known fact. And yet people continue to...smoke!

Smoking accessories

paper : Very thin sheet of paper that is wrapped around the tobacco.

tobacco: Product made from the dried leaves of a nicotine-rich plant; the leaves are treated and made into cigars or cigarettes for smoking.

seam : Line along which the cigarette paper is sealed.

filter tip: Tip at the mouth end for capturing some of the smoke’s toxic substances.

ashtray: Receptacle into which smokers empty their pipe or leave the remains of their cigar or cigarette.

ash: Residue left from burned tobacco.

butt: Unburned portion of a cigar or cigarette.

Stop Smoking Hypnotherapy

Stop Smoking with hypnotherapy- no nicotine patches, no gum and absolutely no withdrawal symptoms required!So what if it really is that easy? What if all your beliefs about how hard it's going to be to stop smoking are completely false? What if, after just one stop smoking hypnotherapy session, you can easily become and remain a happy, confident and relaxed non-smoker?Through Hypnotherapy I help your unconscious mind to disregard those old false beliefs about smoking and swap them for beliefs and habits that are altogether more relaxing and far more fulfilling. So as a result, the all too familiar withdrawal pangs of irritability, mood swings and cravings, the primary reasons why people fail to permanently quit smoking, are replaced with a feeling of well being and confidence, with you always in control.

It's easy to stop smoking!

It has been around 18 months since I gave up smoking and every time I meeta smoker they always ask how I did it. I have to say it took me threetimes before I eventually gave up for good.
There were lots of different factors that led me to even start thinking aboutgiving up; however the main one was my own health. Other reasons includedmy children, they kept telling me I was going to die and got quite distressedabout it; the smell in the house; the smell on my clothes; feeling like a leperwhen going outside to smoke. There are a million reasons to give up andonly one reason to continue and that is addiction.

I used to tell myself I could give up if I really wanted to but I didn’twant to. The truth is I did want to but felt it would be too hardand I didn’t want to fail, so it was easier to say I enjoyed it too much. Ienjoyed the supposed feeling it gave me after dinner, with a cup of tea, whilsthaving a drink etc. However when I realised it was me who was creatingthis feeling and not the cigarettes things started to change in my way of thinking.
I began telling myself it was easy to give up smoking and after about 2 monthsI gave up for good and haven’t looked back since. I worked on mybelief system about giving up smoking and convinced myself it was going tobe easy and when the time came it was easy.

My tips for giving up smoking would be:

• Give yourself compelling reasons to give up, don’t do it for otherpeople, and do it for yourself.
  
• Set a date about 2 months in advance of when you will give up and tellyourself every day you are going to give up on that day.
  
• Don’t try patches or gum with nicotine in it. Once youtold yourself for two months when you will give up just give up
  
• Tell yourself every day it is easy to give up smoking; your brain willreally start to believe it after a month or so.
  
• Tell your friends and family you will be giving up on ‘that date’,this gives you a little pressure and shows your friends and family you arecommitted.
  
• Break the old patterns of behaviour surrounding your smoking e.g. if yousmoked after your dinner at night, go for a walk instead or go clean thebathroom. Pretty soon your mind will get out of the old habit and startforming new habits.

It is easy to give up smoking, however we have been conditioned to believethe opposite is the case. Our mind will believe whatever we tell it tobelieve and adjust our physiology and cravings accordingly. When youtell yourself it is easy to give up smoking for two months, it will be veryeasy on the day to give up, you have to believe it.

Smoking and mouth cancer

New research in the UK has revealed that smokers are unconcerned with the effect of their habit on the oral cavity. In particular they seemed to be aware of the damage // that smoking caused to the tongue or jaw or the lip and even the teeth, but were strangely reluctant to change their habits. This is of particular concern to the oral and maxillofacial surgeons, who are launching a massive awareness campaign as a part of the Mouth Cancer Awareness Week. Surgeons will visit schools and educate adolescents about the effects of smoking on the mouth and in particular its relation to oral cancer. “Smoking among adolescents is rising. Kids want graphic images and powerful images, they like to know that if they do this we will get that,” said Iain Hutchison, a maxillo facial surgeon based at Barts and the Royal London, Hospital and a member of Saving Faces, the Facial Surgery Research Foundation. “We know it is much more difficult to quit smoking than to never start, so this is the place to start making sure these children don’t ever smoke.” He says that children are very impressed with the graphic images and go home and tell their parents about it. “By educating the kids we are also educating their parents about smoking and mouth cancer,” Hutchinson points out. It is estimated that about 4,300 new cases of oral cancer occur in the UK every year and a majority of them are linked to smoking. Research conducted by dental plan provider Denplan shows that smoking and drinking increases the risk of oral cancer by 30 times “Symptoms of mouth cancer vary widely in look and feel, making early self-detection difficult. That’s why regular visits to the dentist remain crucial for detecting the disease because dentists are trained to spot the signs,” said Dental advisor Dr Henr Clover.

qUit & StoP....

Below, some tips to help you quit smoking are listed. First and foremost, set a quit date and quit COMPLETELY on that day. To prepare for that day:

• Identify the times you are most likely to smoke. For example, do you tend to smoke when feeling stressed? When you are out at night with friends? While you are drinking coffee? When you are bored? While you are driving?


• Keep a diary to help you determine such risky times. Record each time you have a cigarette, including time of day and what you are doing.


• Make a plan about what you will do instead of smoking at those times that you are most likely to smoke. For example, drink tea instead of coffee -- tea may not trigger the desire for a cigarette. Or, take a walk when feeling stressed. Remove ashtrays and cigarettes from the car. Place pretzels or hard candies there instead. Pretend-smoke with a straw.


• Let all of your friends, family, and co-workers know of your plan to stop smoking and your quit date. Just being aware that they know can be a helpful reminder and motivator.


• Prior to your quit date, start reducing your cigarette use, including decreasing the number and strength of the cigarettes. However, DON'T do this simply to make your diary "look good!" Get rid of all of your cigarettes just prior to the quit date and clean out anything that smells like smoke, such as clothes and furniture.

Other tips that can help you quit and stay quit include:

• Enroll in a smoking cessation program (hospitals, health departments, community centers, and work sites frequently offer programs).


• Ask your health care provider for advice, including whether prescription medications (such as bupropion -- Zyban or Wellbutrin) are safe and appropriate for you.


• Find out about nicotine patches, gum, and sprays.


• Try hypnosis -- it works for some people.


• Avoid smoke-filled settings and situations in which you are more likely to smoke.


• Exercise to relieve urges to smoke.
  

The American Cancer Society is an excellent resource for smokers who are trying to quit, and the Great American Smokeout can serve as a useful catalyst for some smokers.

post by Nazirah

The bus driver announces that smoking is prohibited and punishable by a fine of several hundred dollars.

Suddenly, a baby starts crying."Come on kid," the bus driver said "you're only 6 months old, you can make it without a cigarette."

post by Nazirah

Graphic "Smoking Teens" Show

The images typically elicit a gasp or "ugh" from youngsters. Yet they can't help looking more closely at the "Iowa Smoking Teens," altered images of two teens that show the effects of smoking--from blackened lungs to a 20 percent increase in the risk of cataracts to "dead toes."

The innovative images of two teenagers, one male and one female, appear on life-sized cutouts and a poster (18" by 24") to illustrate how cigarette smoking and other nicotine use affects the human body, often causing disease. The visual materials are effective educational tools for the Thoracic Oncology Program within Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa. Online images allow viewers to click on each of the body parts or organs to learn more about the serious health risks associated with smoking cigarettes.

The posters target teens because 90 percent of people who smoke start by the time they are 18, said Renee Gould, A.P.N. with the UI Thoracic Oncology Program. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one in three adult smokers began the habit at the young age of 14.

"Smoking is a pediatric disease," Gould said. "Unfortunately, our program doesn't see smokers until they're about 40 years old and have been smoking the majority of their lives."

Gould and colleagues take the life-sized cutouts and the posters to schools, state fairs, and health fairs. "If we can keep one person from smoking by showing these striking images, it's worth our visit," Gould said.

The images on the posters include photos (used with permission) of diseased organs and body parts from actual patients. For example, the "dead foot" that appears on the young man was taken from a patient who even volunteered to show the image to his granddaughter's class to help promote the non-smoking message. Nicotine use can result in poor circulation, causing tissue death in extremities like the toes.

Lou Halsch, former coordinator for the UI Thoracic Oncology Program, came up with the visual idea when she saw a life-sized cutout of Hayden Fry, former UI football coach, at a local grocery store. Previously, she had noticed that most anti-smoking visuals of tissue samples were too small for audiences to see and appreciate.

With the help of a UI pathologist and his library of specimens and the skills of a graphic designer, the group added the vivid images of diseased organs and body parts to the previously healthy appearance of life-sized models, two seniors at Iowa City West High School.

"I thought it would really be awesome to make a life-sized teen. Then, they were so popular, and people were asking how to get them, so we reduced the image size and put it onto a poster," said Halsch, who now works in graduate medical education for UI Hospitals and Clinics.

Halsch said that it is not necessarily the cancer aspects of the realistic images that make kids "sit up and take notice."

"Guys really pay attention to the photo showing impotence from nicotine use," Halsch said. "For other kids, it's the premature wrinkling, change in voice quality or staining on fingers that makes an impression on them."

The posters are used by teachers in their classrooms and, at fairs, grabbed up by a range of people--from grandmothers to college students who take them home to show their loved ones or roommates who smoke. The posters also have the positive effect of getting some teens interested in the health care profession, Halsch added.

Stopping's Hard but it won't kill you

An information and support pack for young people who want to give up smoking. "Stopping's Hard" is a unique 24 page illustrated booklet written especially for 11 to 16 year olds to help them plan and prepare to stop smoking.

Smoking cigarettes is a nasty habit

This is how lung cancer looks:

Cigarettes are a weapon, they kill, they destroy lives, consume the smoker lungs and make them non-functional, cigarettes make the teeth and nails yellow, the skin wrinkles, it's hard to walk fast, it's difficult to run, to do any kind of sport or physical activity because it feels like the lungs just can't expand anymore and the gasping for air starts. The risks for a heart attack increase immensely for a smoker, and the mortality rate as well.It's hard to quit smoking, but it's not impossible.

Let us start promoting our disgust against this nasty habit. Do you all agree?

Quitting smoking can kill you

Both parents died of smoking-related Cancer.

In 182 of the 312 cases they had treated, an habitual smoker of at least a pack a day, for at least a quarter-century, had developed lung cancer shortly after he gave up smoking.
They reasonably surmised, that a biological mechanism protects smokers against cancer, which is strengthened by years of determined smoking. But when the smoker quits, “a surge and spurt in re-activation of bodily healing and repair mechanisms of chronic smoke-damaged respiratory epithelia is induced and spurred by an abrupt discontinuation of habit,” and “goes awry, triggering uncontrolled cell division and tumour genesis.”

Your actual mileage may vary.

The same general principle would apply: that a body long accustomed to a (frankly addictive) substance, goes haywire when the substance is removed. Verily, in the good old days, people instinctively understood things like that, without the need for medical research. And it was inconceivable that, for instance, hospitals would prevent patients from smoking, who were already medically challenged on other fronts.
More widely disseminated medical literature has documented other risks of non-smoking, that include neurotic depression, violent irritability, and obscene weight gain. But these tend to be discounted because they lead to death only indirectly.

But ladies, don’t forget that smoking add about 10 years to your apparent age.

In the past I have flagged U.N. statistics showing that life expectancy was nicely proportional to tobacco consumption, internationally — so that e.g. Japan and South Korea were respectively first and second in BOTH life expectancy AND tobacco consumption. Whereas, the lowest tobacco consumption was in “basketcase” Third World countries, where we also found some of the shortest life expectancies.
I think we could also find historical statistics showing that there is a reliable, worldwide relationship between rising tobacco consumption, and rising life expectancy, nation by nation, throughout the 19th and 20th centuries.

If they keep smoking...

Bromenn Regional Medical Center in Bloomington, Indiana, is FREAKING TEENS OUT about smoking cigarettes by showing them what they'll look like eventually if they keep smoking. A teens picture is fed to the software, which generates two pictures: The teen in 40 years without smoking, and the teen after 40 years of smoking. If I were a teenager, I wouldn't want to grow up to look like either of these freaky-looking dudes.

My opinion:

I am never going to smoke after seeing this picture. I'll show this picture to my friend because she's on the brink of straiting to smoke. Definitely show it to your friend, please quit it.

Smoking Kills !!

Have you ever wondered why with so much anti smoking campaign and rising of taxes by the goverment but still the numbers of smoker increase with each passing day ? The answer is the weak anti-smoking campaign they are using. Now we will analyze why Malaysia Anti smoking campaign is not good enough.

1) Tak Nak Campaign
Why is it not effective ?

2)The rise of cigarettes price.

The damaging effect of smoking harms ...

This undated photo released by Egypt's Ministry of Health shows one of a series of four new tobacco warning labels which will appear on packets of cigarettes sold in the country.

Offering a cigarette is as common a social gesture as a handshake in Egypt, but starting Aug. 1, cigarette labels in Egypt will be required to carry images of the effects of smoking: a dying man in an oxygen mask, a coughing child, a fetus with a warning of the harm to pregnancy, or a limp cigarette, symbolizing impotence.

Message in Arabic reads "Warning, smoking damages the health and causes death. The damaging effect of smoking harms the smoker and the non smoker. Smoking causes diseases of the heart and circulatory system".

Effects of Smoking on Memory

Despite popular believes, tobacco does not seen to improve memory performance. Although some researchers argue that Short Term Memory can be increased with the use of nicotine, they did not experiment on non-smokers so a difference can be establish. Therefore, it is difficult to assess if nicotine really enhance memory-scanning.

Another study on memory and nicotine was made using a PET scan. This experiment showed that nonsmokers who were given nicotine before a specific test were actually doing better on that test than ex-smokers. However, the weak results of this study confirmed that the correlation between tobacco and memory was too unclear to be declared reliable. The lack of nicotine effect in ex-smokers could be explained by tolerance. Overall, we might be tempted to say that tobacco was the cause of memory improvement in all these experiments, but the results are so unclear that nobody is willing to claim this statement as true.

In contrast, we cannot prove that smoking decrease memory activity. So far, no studies were able to demonstrate that smokers have more difficulties in doing a memory task compared to non-smokers. Indeed, researchers are now trying to prove that a chronic use of tobacco can have a negative effect on memory performance.

Stop smoking: Is it really worth it to stop smoking?

You have been thinking that it’s time to quit smoking. But maybe you’ve been thinking that its time to quit smoking ever since you started and you are still smoking. You know that the health benefits of quitting are incredible. Still, you are smoking a cigarette or thinking of smoking one right now. Have you examined your reasons for not quitting? Maybe you think you can’t handle the withdrawal symptoms.

Try looking at it this way: Smoking cigarettes is like pointing a gun at your head. The gun won’t go off until ten or twenty years have passed. The thing is that the gun will go off eventually. How many years have you been smoking? Five, ten, fifteen, twenty, forty? However long it’s been, the time to quit smoking is now. Really, it was yesterday, but now will have to do. Put that gun down. Stop embarrassing yourself in public. When nonsmokers see someone smoking, they make judgments about it. Stop giving them a reason to judge you.

Not only is there an increasing social stigma attached to smokers, but the health benefits of quitting are endless. Do it now. Don’t keep putting it off. You know that your body can’t handle smoking without taxing years off of your life. If the financial cost hasn’t caused you to stop smoking, then quit for the sake of the health benefits from quitting. No one thinks that it is easy to stop smoking, but it is worth it to quit smoking and quit committing slow and painful suicide.

• If you stop smoking, you will also eliminate over four thousand different poisonous chemicals from your body.

• If you quit smoking, you will be able to eat comfortably in any restaurant whether they allow smoking or not. You will also not have to wait for a seat in the smoking section if the state or country you are in allows for smoking in public eateries.

• If you stop smoking, you will be able to save a percentage of your income. You can put the money that you have been spending on smoking into a jar or a savings account. At the end of a year, you will probably have enough money to make a very nice purchase or go on vacation.

• If you quit smoking, you will not repel nonsmokers who see you smoking or smell the smoke on your clothes and skin. Smoking is such a stigmatized habit now that you will surely see a difference in the way that the world interacts with you if you stop smoking.

• If you’ve been smoking for many years, imagine what you have been missing out on in fragrances and foods. Maybe you don’t really know what different spices taste like because your taste buds and sense of smell are overloaded with the many different poisons that are in tobacco products. If you stop smoking, you will find out what fragrances you have been missing out on.

The health benefits of quitting are important. The social and financial benefits are also important. Quitting is important, but it is not easy. You will not only face the psychological struggle when you quit smoking. You will also face some physical challenges. Some of these common physical and psychological challenges are listed below.

• When you stop smoking, you might find yourself feeling depressed.

• When you quit smoking, you might find that you are struggling with insomnia or changes in your sleep patterns.

• You might find that you are cranky, frustrated or irritable when you stop smoking.

• You might find that your appetite is greatly increased, and this could lead to some weight gain when you quit smoking.

If you really think that you cannot handle the physical and psychological challenges, there are various methods that people have found to be very helpful when it was time to quit smoking. Research a bit on the new and powerful methods to stop smoking.

The high cost of smoking

The costs add up: Cigarettes, dry cleaning, insurance -- you can even lose your job. A 40-year-old who quits and puts the savings into a 401(k) could save almost $250,000 by age 70.

If the threat of cancer can't persuade you to quit smoking, maybe the prospect of poverty will.

The financial consequences of lighting up stretch far beyond the cost of a pack of cigarettes. Smokers pay more for insurance. They lose money on the resale value of their cars and homes. They spend extra on dry cleaning and teeth cleaning. Long term, they earn less and receive less in pension and Social Security benefits.

Indeed, being a smoker can not only mean you don't get hired -- you can get fired, too. After announcing it would no longer employ smokers, Weyco, a medical-benefits administrator in Michigan, fired four employees who refused to submit to a breath test. It began testing the spouses of its employees, too, levying an $80-per-month surcharge on those who don't test clean.

Overall, 5% of employers prefer to hire nonsmokers, according to the most recent survey by the Society for Human Resource Management, and 1% do not hire smokers. A few examples:

1. Kalamazoo Valley Community College in Michigan stopped hiring smokers for full-time positions at both its Michigan campuses.

2. Alaska Airlines, based in Washington state, requires a nicotine test before hiring people.

3. The Tacoma-Pierce County (Wash.) Health Department has applicants sign an "affidavit of

nontobacco use."

4. Union Pacific won't hire smokers.

That same poll found that 5% of companies charge smokers more for health-care premiums. The costs don't stop with your paycheck. Figures from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids assert that smokers cost the economy $97.6 billion a year in lost productivity.

That's based on the number of working years lost because of premature death. (The Bureau of National Affairs says 95% of companies banning smoking report no financial savings, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce finds no connection between smoking and absenteeism.)

An additional $96.7 billion is spent on public and private health care combined, according to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, and each American household spends $630 a year in federal and state taxes due to smoking.

Health Effects of Smoking Among Young People

• Among young people, the short-term health consequences of smoking include respiratory and nonrespiratory effects, addiction to nicotine, and the associated risk of other drug use. Long-term health consequences of youth smoking are reinforced by the fact that most young people who smoke regularly continue to smoke throughout adulthood.
• Cigarette smokers have a lower level of lung function than those persons who have never smoked.
• Smoking reduces the rate of lung growth.
• In adults, cigarette smoking causes heart disease and stroke. Studies have shown that early signs of these diseases can be found in adolescents who smoke.
• Smoking hurts young people's physical fitness in terms of both performance and endurance---even among young people trained in competitive running.
• On average, someone who smokes a pack or more of cigarettes each day lives 7 years less than someone who never smoked.
• The resting heart rates of young adult smokers are two to three beats per minute faster than nonsmokers.
• Smoking at an early age increases the risk of lung cancer. For most smoking-related cancers, the risk rises as the individual continues to smoke.
• Teenage smokers suffer from shortness of breath almost three times as often as teens who don't smoke, and produce phlegm more than twice as often as teens who don't smoke.
• Teenage smokers are more likely to have seen a doctor or other health professionals for an emotional or psychological complaint.
• Teens who smoke are three times more likely than nonsmokers to use alcohol, eight times more likely to use marijuana, and 22 times more likely to use cocaine. Smoking is associated with a host of other risky behaviors, such as fighting and engaging in unprotected sex.

post by, Lai

I'll quit in a year or two when I'm ready.

A lot of people put off quitting smoking, thinking that they'll do it when the time is right. Only 5% of teens think they will still be smoking in 5 years. Actually, about 75% of them are still smoking more than five years later. If you smoke, it will never seem like the right time to quit and quitting will never be easy. The longer you smoke, the harder it will be to stop and the more damage you will do to your body. Here are some reasons to quit sooner rather than later:

• Most teens would rather date a non-smoker.


• You'll save money if you quit smoking. A pack of cigarettes costs about $5.00. Even if you only smoke a couple packs a week, you're spending about $40 per month and $480 per year on smoking. Think of all the other things you could use that money for.


• You only have one pair of lungs. Any damage you do to them now will be with you for the rest of your life.


• The longer you smoke, the better your chances are of dying from it. One out of 3 smokers die from smoking and many more become very sick. Think about your friends who smoke. 1/3 of them will die from smoking if none of you quit

Smoking can have serious effects on your life. The longer you smoke, the more damage you do to your body and your health. Most people who begin smoking as teens say that they wish they had never started. The decision to start or continue smoking is all up to you and no one can make you stop, but you should think really hard about whether it is the best thing for your body and your life.

post by,Lai

I know smoking is bad for me, but I really like it.

Many teens like the feeling that smoking gives them. This good feeling is from the nicotine in the cigarettes. Some teens think smoking will help them lose weight or stay thin. Many teens also feel like smoking gives them a sense of freedom and independence, and some smoke to feel more comfortable in social situations. If this sounds like you, you should stop and think about whether the things you like about smoking are really worth the risks.

• Nicotine can make you feel good, but is feeling good (a feeling you can also get from healthy activities like playing sports) really worth all the bad things cigarettes do to you? If you smoke, you'll get sick more often. You also have the chance of getting lung cancer or emphysema, which will make you really sick for a long time before you die. If you are very sick, that good feeling from nicotine won't seem so important anymore.
  
• Smoking doesn't really help people lose weight. If that were true, every smoker would be thin.
  
• Smoking lowers your hormone levels.
  

post by, Lai

Cigarette Smoking Among Teens

THE chances are high that Filipino children aged 11 to 16 have already have tried smoking cigarettes. The probability that a child has already lighted his first stick--or worse, is a full-blown smoker--is even greater when members of his family are smoking, too. And then, of course, there is peer pressure.
A Youth Tobacco Survey by the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) Philippine Chapter among grade school and high school students in Metro Manila has reinforced what many people have been thinking all along about youth and smoking.
The survey of 2,932 respondents with an average age of 13, from twelve elementary and secondary private and public schools in Metro Manila was conducted by the ACCP after a series of "tobacco or health workshops" in these schools from 1998 to 2001.
The ACCP survey results approximate the findings of an earlier study made by the health department last June on the same issue in selected secondary schools nationwide, said Dr. Antonio Lopez, an undersecretary at the Department of Health (DOH), one of the panel reactors.
The ACCP survey was presented last August 4 at a forum in Mandaluyong City. Although the audience, composed mostly of parents and medical doctors, appeared troubled by the information, they did not seem surprised by the results. They had heard it all before.
The Youth Tobacco Survey showed that cigarette smoking is "high, and use of other tobacco products is moderately high."
According to the study, majority of the students surveyed started smoking in their early teens. A third of the respondents (29.6%) aged 10 to 20 admitted that they have tried smoking. Of these respondents, 18.8% are current smokers, with 4.7% smoking at least one stick of cigarette per day.
Of the current smokers, 62.7 per cent are in private schools.

post by, Lai

What do all these chemicals do to my body?

As you might imagine, even small amounts of the poisonous chemicals in cigarettes can do bad things to your body. Here are some facts about what smoking cigarettes does to you:

• Smoking makes you smell bad, gives you wrinkles, stains your teeth, and gives you bad breath.
• Smokers get 3 times more cavities than non-smokers.
• Smoking lowers your hormone levels.
• When smokers catch a cold, they are more likely than non-smokers to have a cough that lasts a long time. They are also more likely than non-smokers to get bronchitis and pneumonia.
• Teen smokers have smaller lungs and a weaker heart than teen non-smokers. They also get sick more often than teens who don't smoke.

post by, Lai

Why is cigarette smoking bad for me?

Everyone knows that smoking can cause cancer when you get older, but did you know that it also has bad effects on your body right now? A cigarette contains about 4000 chemicals, many of which are poisonous. Some of the worst ones are:

Nicotine: a deadly poison
Arsenic: used in rat poison
Methane: a component of rocket fuel
Ammonia: found in floor cleaner
Cadmium: used in batteries
Carbon Monoxide: part of car exhaust
Formaldehyde: used to preserve body tissue
Butane: lighter fluid
Hydrogen Cyanide: the poison used in gas chambers

Every time you inhale smoke from a cigarette, small amounts of these chemicals get into your blood through your lungs. They travel to all the parts of your body and cause harm.

post by,Lai

Girls May Smoke to Stay Thin

Teen smoking is still a big problem, but why? A new study finds that, for girls, the main motivation may be weight.
Over the past few decades, public health officials have tried to understand the teen psyche -- what makes teens smoke, even when they know the health risks?
Today's study examines what others have hinted at -- this issue of weight concern. Is being thin the prime reason why teen girls begin smoking?
Researchers surveyed a group of 273 randomly selected teen girls living in Massachusetts -- all between 12 and 15 years old -- asking them a variety of questions about their weight, their thoughts, and their habits:
"How important is it to you to be slim or thin? Have you been depressed? Have you had trouble sleeping? Do you smoke? Do you think you will try a cigarette soon? If one of your best friends were to offer you a cigarette, would you smoke it?"

Four years later, researchers surveyed the teens again to determine who had become a regular smoker.
Teen girls who attached great importance to being thin were four times as likely to become established smokers, reports researcher Kaori Honjo, PhD, with Okayama University in Japan.
Girls less concerned about their weight were less likely to become teen smokers, Honjo reports.
The study, published early online, will appear in the September 2003 issue of Tobacco Control.
In the first survey, one in eight girls was overweight, and at least 75% had tried to diet. Yet most of them -- 80% -- did not believe that smoking was a way of keeping weight off.
Four years later, one in four girls -- 23% -- had become an established smoker, meaning they had smoked 100 or more cigarettes by that time.
The high value placed on thinness seemed to predict who would become a teen smoker. Of those who eventually progressed to smoking, just 7% considered thinness to be unimportant; 93% of the teens who did not become smokers did not consider thinness important, the report states.
One in four of girls who eventually became teen smokers rated thinness as moderately important; 30% of those teens who eventually took up smoking rated thinness as extremely important.
Girls with weight concerns are likely to diet, and if they think smoking will also help them get thin, they will try that too. Negative body image and poor self-esteem are probably part of the scenario, Honjo states.

post by,Lai

Why do teens start smoking?

Teens give many reasons for why they start smoking:

"My friends smoke."
"I just wanted to try it."
"I thought it was cool."
"My parents smoke."

One of the biggest reasons teens start to smoke is peer influence. Teenagers are more prone to peer pressure. Over 70 per cent of teens say that having friends who smoke and/or peer pressure is the number one reason for starting to smoke.

Another main reason that youth smoke is that adults do.

posy by,Lai

Cigarrete Smoking among Teens..

Cigarette smoking is a habit that kills approximately million of people per year. It is surprisingly being picked up by myriad amount of children every day. Smoking becomes a growing trend in the youth community. The number of young smokers have been increased in most American middle schools and high schools. Both girls and boys are smoking because they think it is cool. The four reasons that cause many teenagers to start smoking are peer-pressure, image projection, rebellion, and adult aspirations.

Approximately 3,000 teenagers pick up the smoking habit each day in America. That is roughly one million new teenage smokers per year. About 60% of all high school students try smoking by the time they are seniors because they think it is a cool thing to do (Johnston.) In 1996, smoking rates are 21 percent among eighth-graders (13-14 years old), 30 percent among 10th-graders (15-16 years old), and 34 percent among 12th-graders (17-18 years old). These rates are impressively high, especially when compared to the fact that about 25 percent of all adults are classified as current smokers according to the National Health Interview Survey.

post by, Lai

The Link Between Smoking & Pain...

While previous studies have suggested links between smoking and pain, especially chronic back pain, most of these studies did not factor out lifestyle factors, such as on-the-job manual labor, as a possible contributing cause.

The present study consisted of questions about pain in the low back, neck, and upper and lower limbs during the past 12 months; smoking habits; physical activities at work; headaches; and tiredness or stress. 12,907 subjects, including 6,513 who had smoked at some time, among whom 3,184 were current smokers, completed questionnaires. Smoking habits were related to age, social class, report of headaches, tiredness or stress, and manual activities at work.

The survey found that smokers complain more often of discomforting or disabling musculoskeletal pain than never-smokers. They found that, compared with those who had never smoked, current smokers had about a 50% higher incidence of reporting pain in the past year preventing activity, meaning pain so severe it precluded the individual from going to work or performing housework or hobby activities.

Pain at all sites--lower back, shoulders, elbows, hands, neck and knees--was higher in smokers, even ex-smokers, than people who never smoked. What's more, this association held in both those who had physically demanding jobs as well as those who had white-collar or other jobs that did not require heavy lifting or moving. Since the association was found even in ex-smokers, this suggests that smoking may, according to the researchers, cause long-term damage to muscle tissues or changes in the neurological pain response.

Smoking Will Kill 1 Billion People

One billion people will die from tobacco-related causes by the end of the century if current consumption trends continue, according to a global report released Thursday by the World Health Organization (WHO).

At a press conference held in midtown Manhattan, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose charitable organization, Bloomberg Philanthropies, contributed $2 million to conduct the study, joined top WHO officials to present the findings. Among the litany of sobering statistics: 5.4 million people die each year — one every six seconds — from lung cancer, heart disease or other illness directly linked to tobacco use. Smoking killed 100 million people in the 20th century, and the yearly death toll could pass 8 million as soon as 2030 — 80% of those deaths will be in the developing world, where tobacco use is growing most rapidly. "We're on a collision course," said Dr. Douglas Bettcher, director of WHO's Tobacco Free Initiative.

In my Opinion:

If you don't smoke you are not out of harms way yet. Passive smoking is breathing in another persons cigarette smoke off the end of the cigarette. It is just as dangerous as inhaling from the cigarette. It can cause bodybuilders to have irritation to the eyes, nose, throat, increase acute respiratory illness, headaches, dizziness, sickness, coughing, wheezing, asthma, allergies, increased risk of CHD, and reduced levels of capacity of lung functions.

Bodybuilding As A Quit-Smoking Method?

A mandatory gym program, as absurd as it may sound to some, might just provide part of the answer for one who is oblivious to, or lacks the motivation, to quit smoking. Through a sustained weight-training regime, one would begin to take greater pride in their physical appearance and performance levels.

This might force them to confront the realization that smoking is detrimental to their health. They will feel tobaccos negative effects in a more pronounced way, as their performance suffers and their results are not as forthcoming as they otherwise should be. Indeed, the average non-exercising smoker does not have such a bench mark to which they can compare the before and after effects of smoking.

Left: Healthy lung vs smokers lung. You decide.
For example, when demand for oxygen is elevated, such as during exercise, this increased resistance is more noticeable. Reduced lung capacity can cause a smaller volume of oxygen to reach the alveoli, resulting in impaired gas exchange and less oxygen in the blood. A heavy set of squat, for example, will completely frustrate the bodybuilding aspirant who chooses to smoke. Ultimately a decision will need to be made and, if this person chooses to continue with training, smoking cessation will necessarily need to take place.

One has the feeling that smokers are not entirely conscious of exactly what their habit is doing to them. Becoming knowledgeable in the areas of human physiology and health, through extensive study, or simply joining a gym and taking a vested interest in what many take for granted (their health), could be a realistic first step.

Bodybuilders, by virtue of their commitment to physical excellence, typically do not smoke (at least as far as my observations are, and much anecdotal evidence is, concerned). Smoking not only reduces ones capacity to perform the work required to obtain a great physique, it also directly prevents cellular growth and restricts oxygen and nutrient uptake (to mention but two limiting factors).

The painless way to quit and stop smoking for good

You're thinking about giving up smoking. Well, not giving it up entirely, perhaps, but at least cutting down on the number of cigarettes you smoke each day. You've opened this book, at any rate, because you're somewhat uneasy about the reports linking smoking with several serious and unpleasant diseases. Or because you've heard that smokers tend to die at an earlier age than non-smokers.

Or maybe it's because you awaken in the morning sounding as if you had swallowed a fistful of gravel. Or because that persistent cough your dog recognizes when you're a block away is not exactly your idea of an endearing trademark. Or perhaps your mate complains that you snore—yes, you—and that it's all because of too much you-know-what. And maybe it's because you're just plain tired of being told that all your ills come from excessive smoking. Besides, suppose they do!

Do we really live in a world of cigarettes?

Within an hour of my earnest decision never to smoke again, I began to itch for a smoke, and that powerful desire would never subside or fade. When the phone rang, when a visitor came to my office or home, when I ran into a momentary work problem, when I was at a party, even when I first opened my eyes in the morning—I thought of a cigarette.

Contrary to the wonders promised to follow my emancipation from nicotine, I did not sleep better, my food did not taste better, my thoughts were not clearer, I did not feel more vigorous—I was, in essence, 165 pounds of body and mind almost exclusively devoted to thinking about the cigarette I wanted but could not have.

In the fine tradition of people who have given up smoking, I gained weight whenever I stopped. In order to substitute something for the cigarettes I craved, I chewed gum at the rate of about three packages a day (which, after all, added only 60 calories) and kept some gumdrops at my desk (but they're only 30 calories each).

And as a substitute activity during moments at the dinner table that might otherwise have been occupied by tapping a cigarette from the pack, lighting it, puffing it, flicking ashes from it, putting it in and taking it from the ashtray, and finally stubbing it out, I ate a little more bread than usual at lunch and dinner. (But those extra rolls and slices of toast and even the larger-than-usual desserts didn't add more than 300 extra calories daily.)

Calories adding up
However, since it takes only 3,600 extra calories (whether in a day, a week or a year) to add one extra pound of fat, I gained. I gained, to be precise, at the rate of about two pounds a week. Soon the tailor had to open seams and shift buttons . . . and then when even my "expanded" wardrobe became uncomfortably tight, I simply started smoking again. "Anyone knows," I explained to myself in justification, "that it's worse for a man in his fifties to be heavy than it is for him to smoke'

While all this was going on—the unfulfilled desire, the gaining of weight—I was neither a particularly endearing companion nor a productive co-worker. How could I be? If you tie the most rollicksome pup in the world just far enough from a bowl of food for him to see the dish but not taste its contents, he’ll rapidly become a barking, yapping, whining, snarling, jumping, lip-curling cur. Cigarettes were eternally on view for me—but, so to speak, "out of reach." So I barked and snarled and growled.

Not until the day you quit smoking do you realize that we live in a world of cigarettes.

Some tips for parents to help teenager smoking.....

1. Educate your child about the dangers of smoking early on.
2. Be a good example. Only 2 percent of smokers have parents who don't smoke. (Mayo Clinic).
3. Don't leave cigarettes where children or teens may have access to them.
4. Teach the teen or child refusal skills

quit sMOking: Self CONtrol Therapy

I have learnt about Social Learning Theory by Albert Bandura. In that theory, Bandura introduce two significant concept, observational learning and self-regulation.The ideas behind self-regulation have been incorporated into a therapy technique called self-control therapy. It has been quite successful with relatively simple problems of habit, such as smoking.

1. Behavioral charts. Self-observation requires that you keep close tabs on your behavior, both before you begin changes and after. This can involve something as simple as counting how many cigarettes you smoke in a day to complex behavioral diaries. With the diary approach, you keep track of the details, the when and where of your habit. This lets you get a grip on what kinds of cues are associated with the habit: Do you smoke more after meals, with coffee, with certain friends, in certain locations...?

2. Environmental planning. Taking your lead from your behavioral charts and diaries, you can begin to alter your environment. For example, you can remove or avoid some of those cues that lead to your bad behaviors: Put away the ashtrays, drink tea instead of coffee, divorce that smoking partner.... You can find the time and place best suited for the good alternative behaviors: When and where do you find you study best? And so on.

3. Self-contracts. Finally, you arrange to reward yourself when you adhere to your plan, and possibly punish yourself when you do not. These contracts should be written down and witnessed (by your therapist, for example), and the details should be spelled out very explicitly: “I will go out to dinner on Saturday night if I smoke fewer cigarettes this week than last week. I will do paperwork instead if I do not.”

You may involve other people and have them control your rewards and punishments, if you aren’t strict enough with yourself. Beware, however: This can be murder on your relationships, as you bite their heads off for trying to do what you told them to do!

post by nazirah

Those with the habit made you curious to know, just how much money goes up in smoke, if you smoked for years just think about the cash. Do you want a pile of money or a big pile of ash? So please choose to live healthy and never smoke.

Is smoking around children child abuse?

Second Hand Smoke

Do you think people who smoke in a room with their children are guilty of child abuse???
Second hand smoke has been proven to be more harmful than regular smoking. This is something that has been on the radio, tv and in the newspapers, yet people continue to smoke around their children.

Is this any worse than the lead that we find in toy products or on our walls or in our schools?
How about the harmful chemicals kept under the kitchen sinks?
Every time a person breathes in second-hand smoke, over 100 harmful chemical agents - carcinogens and toxins are consumed. Some of these carcinogens include benzene, 1,3-butadiene, benzoapyrene, 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone and many others.

Negative Effects Of Second Hand Smoke

There is no doubt within the international scientific community that second-hand smoke causes heart disease, lung cancer, nasal sinus cancer, sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), asthma and middle ear infections in children and various other respiratory illnesses. It has also been linked to stroke, low birth weight, spontaneous abortion, negative effects on the development of cognition and behavior, exacerbation of cystic fibrosis and cervical cancer.
During the past two decades, numerous scientific bodies have concluded that second-hand smoke is dangerous to health.

Teen Girls Smoke Themselves Thin

Smoking and eating: a classic combination. Weird how more of one makes you do less of the other. Teen girls seem to have caught on to this link too (not teen boys though, more on that in a second).

Florida researchers, who wanted to see whether the desire to lose weight played a role in tobacco use among teens, have found an association between dieting and regular smoking. Teen girls in the study who started dieting during the study wound up being regular smokers at almost two times the rate as the girls in the study who didn’t diet at all.
Boys, on the other hand, who began dieting and then stopped, were 1.7 times more likely to start smoking regularly compared to boys who didn’t diet at all.

Cigarettes in the home also increased the likelihood that both girls and boys would stick with smoking too.

What does all this mean? If your daughter mentions dieting, get her to stop, but if your boy mentions dieting, encourage him to skip dessert? Parenting by science sure gets confusing. Oh, and kudos to the researchers for finding teen girls who weren’t already dieting when the study began.

SMOKING, BLOOD VESSELS, AND DEATH

Most people know that smoking is bad for your lungs and can cause cancer. However, fewer may be aware of the effects of smoking on the heart and the circulatory system—the arteries and veins that carry the blood throughout the body.

Cigarette smoking is the main preventable cause of premature death in the developed world. It accounts for nearly 440 000 deaths every year in the United States.When you smoke, toxic chemicals from tobacco enter your bloodstream. Some of these chemicals send signals to your heart to beat harder and faster. Smoking also causes blood vessels to constrict (become more narrow), forcing blood to travel through a smaller space. Both of these effects cause high blood pressure. Smoking also lowers high-density lipoprotein (good cholesterol) in your body and increases the likelihood of plaques (fatty buildups) collecting on the inside of blood vessels, a condition called atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Smoking also increases the risk of thrombosis (blood clots blocking a blood vessel). Over time, these effects increase the risk of having a myocardial infarction (heart attack).

Smoking can also increase the risk of having a stroke (sudden blockage of blood circulation in the brain). A stroke is usually caused by a blood clot getting lodged in the blood vessels supplying the brain with blood and oxygen. When this happens, brain cells begin to die. This can cause permanent brain damage or even death. Women who smoke and use oral contraceptives (birth control pills) are at a much higher risk of developing heart disease or having a stroke than women taking oral contraceptives who do not smoke.

Stop smoking cigarettes

Cigarette smoking contributes to osteoporosis, as well as a host of other medical conditions. Perhaps concern about osteoporosis will be the final thing that will convince patients to stop smoking.

There are now many studies that show negative effects of cigarette smoking on the bone. One longitudinal study of 116,229 female nurses found the age-adjusted relative risk for hip fracture was 1.3 in current smokers. Ten years after smoking cessation, the risk was reduced. Part of the risk was explained by changes in body weight.

The graph is based on relative risks from a meta-analysis of 50,232 men and women around the world, showing rates of hip fractures in smokers vs non-smokers. The risk of any osteoporotic fracture, and especially hip fracture, is increased in smokers. The relative increase was attenuated after adjustment for bone density, but still in older men and women the fracture risk was about 60% higher in smokers than in non-smokers.