Smoking


Smoking

Australian tobacco executive beaten, stabbed in attempted kidnapping

Nick McKenzie
The Sydney Morning Herald
Fri, 12 Aug 2016 20:30 UTC
Smokes!
© Sydney Morning Herald
The attempted kidnapping, bashing and stabbing of an international tobacco company manager outside his family home in Sydney suggests crime syndicates are hitting back at efforts to combat the booming illicit tobacco trade.

A criminal syndicate is suspected of ordering the botched kidnapping in June of a former decorated NSW policeman turned manager of British American Tobacco. Despite high-profile raids by police, illegal tobacco continues to pour into the Australian market and is easy to find in city shops.

The BAT manager was stabbed and bashed by at least three men, after he refused their order that he get into a car. The kidnappers arrived at the man's Sydney home at around 10pm on Saturday June 4. A source said the manager was forced to "fight for his life" to ward off the kidnappers, who have not been identified. He was rushed to hospital after the attack.

The attack appears to be an unprecedented escalation in the struggle between policing agencies and the syndicates driving the illicit tobacco trade. Evidence suggests the attack was linked to BAT's support of police inquiries.
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Propaganda

Propaganda: 'Terror' financing and the black market tobacco trade

Eliot Baker
Front Page
Wed, 03 Aug 2016 15:15 UTC
Ciggies-in-a-tire
© Belga H. Kiaser
The nanny state regulations that help fill the coffers of our enemies

In Pennsylvania last month, state representatives Russ Diamond and Rick Saccone challenged a $1-per-pack cigarette tax increase (which was later passed into law), arguing that the price hike would regressively target poorer smokers and encourage black market sales. More critically, the two lawmakers pointed out that increased sales of smuggled tobacco would put more money in the pockets of violent extremists who wish to do Americans harm.

That argument raised eyebrows in the press, but the point made by Diamond and Saccone is a critically important one. A major 2015 report from the State Department identified tobacco smuggling as a major threat to national security, noting that selling illegal cigarettes is a relatively "low-risk, high reward" activity for criminal networks and terror groups, who often join forces to exploit the illicit trade. The Pennsylvania representatives had especially good reason to be concerned about their state's exposure to smuggling, since it sits on one of the most lucrative smuggling routes in the country.

Cheap cigarettes from Virginia regularly pass through Pennsylvania and Delaware on their way to being illegally sold in New York and New Jersey, where high taxes applied by liberal state governments have pushed smokers into the arms of smugglers. Last year, a court in Brooklyn sentenced Basel Ramadan to 12 years in prison for his role as the ringleader of a major trafficking ring that supplied Arab markets in New York and New Jersey. More recently, Pennsylvania state troopers caught a man with 66,600 smuggled Virginia cigarettes in his trunk at around the same time Reps. Diamond and Saccone were addressing the legislature.

Comment: Following the Nazi model: Adolph Hitler: Vegetarian, teetotaler, anti-smoking campaigner

See also: Let's All Light Up!

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Blackbox

Does an Italian village filled with cigarette smoking centenarians hide the secret to long life?

Andrea Vogt
The National Post
Fri, 01 Apr 2016 07:42 UTC
Italian village of Acciaroli
© FotoliaA view of Acciaroli, a southern Italy village
An international research team studying 300 centenarians in a remote Mediterranean fishing village say that eating rosemary could be the key to the pensioners' remarkable longevity.

A team of medical experts and scholars at the Sapienza University of Rome and University of California San Diego have been granted the first ever permission to closely study the elderly residents of the coastal hamlet of Acciaroli, south of Salerno.

Nestled between unspoilt mountain scenery and the pristine sea, Acciaroli has earned a reputation among tourists as one of the pearls of the Mediterranean — and, for foodies, of the famed Mediterranean diet. Now, the local mayor has agreed to allow the Italian and U.S. researchers to collaborate with local doctors and their patients to more systematically investigate the village's secret to a long life.

Comment: Smoking would greatly benefit Alzheimer's patients as the condition involves a loss of the levels of the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, by up to 90%, and smoking helps to boost the availability of acetylcholine.

For more information, check out the episodes of our Health and Wellness Show on the topic of the health benefits of smoking:

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Control Panel

Fascist! Millions of Americans could be banned from smoking in public housing

Hardeep Marthu
The Independent, UK
Thu, 12 Nov 2015 16:28 UTC
The federal government has proposed the ban to protect the health of residents and reduce building maintenance costs
Image
The legislation would require homes, communal areas and administrative offices on public housing land to be smoke-free, the New York Times reports. It is thought the changes would affect around a million homes.

It has argued the ban is necessary to protect residents from second-hand smoke, to lower building maintenance costs, and to reduce the risk of fires. But the proposal has already met with resistance from some residents who believe it would be an infringement of their right to make personal choices about their lives. One told the newspaper: "What I do in my apartment should be my problem long as I pay my rent."

Many of the country's public housing agencies, which provide subsidised housing for people on low-incomes, have already voluntarily enforced the ban since calls for the move surfaced in 2009. Those living in New York City Housing Authority homes - more than 400,000 people - are expected to be among those most severely affected by a ban.

Sunia Zaterman, executive director of the Council of Large Public Housing Authorities, told the New York Times: "It's a fraught process because to do it properly you need community buy-in. To do this successfully it can't be a top-down edict because you want people to comply with the policy."

The council said smoking bans have become more popular over time and that, as the number of smoking tenants has dropped, more people have come to expect smoke-free spaces."This is a health equity issue," Patrick Kwan, director of NYC Smoke-Free, added. "For people living in public housing and are subjected to second-hand smoke, the only option is to be at the mercy of their neighbours who smoke in their homes. "People who can afford it choose a smoke-free unit. Smoke-free housing shouldn't only be for the wealthy and privileged."

Comment: What a load of bull! Listen to the SOTT editors interview Richard White, author of the book Smoke Screens, where they discuss the studies on smoking, what researchers have to say, the scientists involved, the anti-smoking movement and more! Smoking tobacco is not bad for everyone and is even good for you. See:

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Smoking

Legislators propose measure to bring new markets in Cuba to Connecticut tobacco farmers


The Washington Times
Sat, 03 Oct 2015 18:36 UTC
Image
© Wally McName/CorbisFidel Castro smoking a Cohiba cigar
As public health initiatives cut into sales of cigars and cigarettes, Connecticut tobacco farmers are looking for new markets in Cuba.

Several months after President Barack Obama renewed diplomatic relations between the United States and the island nation's communist government, ending a 54-year freeze, proposed legislation in Congress would lift trade restrictions. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., appeared Friday with South Windsor farmers and agriculture officials urging passage of the trade measure.

Ed Kasheta Jr., whose Kasheta Farms was founded by his great-great-grandfather in 1906, welcomes the prospect of selling tobacco to Cuba, which is known for its own cigar-making industry. "I think it's one more place to reach out to," he said.

Tobacco is Connecticut's fifth largest agriculture product by market value, at $35.7 million, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The crop is grown on 49 farms and accounts for 6.5 percent of total agricultural product sales in the state.

Murphy is a co-sponsor of the Freedom to Export to Cuba Act, which would remove the president's authority to continue the embargo and eliminate enforcement of the embargo and prohibition on Cuban imports. Following the re-opening of the U.S. embassy in Cuba this summer, a "tectonic shift" in policy toward the Caribbean country has occurred, drawing bipartisanship support for the export legislation, Murphy said. "A year ago, this bill wouldn't have had a chance," he said.

Comment: What about the Cuban tobacco farmers, related jobs and their market?

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Smoking

Irish farmer faces £1,000 fine for smoking on his tractor - Deemed 'smoking in the workplace'

Anna Dubuis
mirror.co.uk
Wed, 22 Jul 2015 16:37 UTC
The farmer, who has not been named, was having a smoke break while parked up on a road when a tobacco control officer spotted him
Image

A farmer who sparked up a cigarette inside his tractor could be fined £1,000 after he was found to be smoking in the workplace.

The farmer, who has not been named, was having a smoke break while parked up on a road when a tobacco control officer spotted him.

As the tractor was deemed capable of carrying more than one person, the farmer was told he was in breach of smoking regulations.

He has been issued with a notice that states he could have to pay a four-figure fine.

In Northern Ireland, where the incident took place, breaking smoke-free law is a criminal offence and people caught smoking in a work vehicle face a fixed penalty notice of £50 or a maximum £1,000 fine if convicted.

The Smoking (Northern Ireland) Order came into law in 2007, making it illegal to smoke in workplaces, enclosed public spaces and on public transport.

Comment: Tobacco control officer?
Hitler was a fervent anti smoker and a crusader for the anti-smoking cause. He personally funded research into the dangers of smoking and little wonder those results given the nature of his regime tended to support his assertions that smoking was an evil the Aryan race must be rid of. Many of the studies carried out during the Third Reich are the basis for the arguments put forward today by those seeking the imposition of repressive smoking bans.

Hitler once stated that tobacco was "the wrath of the Red Man against the White Man" Under the Nazi's the Bureau Against the Dangers of Alcohol and Tobacco was established in 1939 followed in 1942 by the Institute for the Struggle against the dangers of Tobacco. Nazi's were the first to coin the term "passive smoking"

Under the Nazi regime the German people had imposed on them the most comprehensive set of tobacco regulations and restrictions seen in any modern nation to that date. Hitler himself took particular interest in this area often personally overseeing the drafting and implementation of anti smoking policy.

Let's All Light Up!
These restrictions are not for health and longevity, read:

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Smoking

Fascism: Annapolis hospital to discriminate against smokers for job openings

Tim Prudente
Capital Gazette
Mon, 13 Jul 2015 17:28 UTC
Smoking is healthier than fascism
Smoking: it's healthier than Fascism!

Comment: "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever." George Orwell, 1984


A cigarette can linger several days in the body and beginning this month it's enough to disqualify job applicants at Anne Arundel Medical Center.


Comment: So along with being unable to smoke virtually anywhere, you'll now be unable to get a job if you smoke. The war and discrimination against smokers continues.


The Annapolis hospital has announced it will test the urine of applicants for signs of tobacco. Fail the test? Lose the job, though applicants may apply again for testing after six months.

"We are role models for the community," hospital spokeswoman Kelly Swan said. "We care about our employees and want them to live healthy lives."


Comment: How about testing them for trans fats? Or eating fast food? Or excessive sugar consumption? How about gluten? Or binge drinking? Or a wide variety of other things that are detrimental to people's health? Even if smoking were harmful, which it's not, this clearly has nothing to do with wanting their employees to live healthy lives:

Comment: This is an insane policy that's being carried out by brainwashed idiots. That may be hard for many to accept, but when you take the evidence of the benefits of smoking natural tobacco into account, and the completely irrational nature of their arguments when also factoring in the large quantity of things that people are allowed (and usually encouraged) to do to themselves, consciously or not, that are harmful, which aren't regulated "for their benefit", then it's pretty hard to draw any other conclusion. Then again, it's hard to expect much from people who share an ideology with Hitler:

Adolph Hitler: Vegetarian, teetotaler, anti-smoking campaigner
Adolph Hitler the Anti-Smoking Crusader

Hitler wasn't just a non-smoker; he was vehemently opposed to smoking and couldn't abide the smell of cigarette smoke. Edward Deuss is recorded on Nizkor.org as saying that no one was allowed to smoke in any room Hitler was likely to enter, and that when Hitler noticed his men leaving a meeting room at hourly intervals, someone had to lie to him and say they were going to the toilet, when in fact they needed a cigarette. Cross records that Hitler spotted a member of his press corps taking a quick puff outside the aeroplane at a refuelling stop, flew into a rage and sacked him on the spot.
The last sentence may make Hitler look like some kind of deranged lunatic, but in reality, he was just so concerned for the guy's well-being that he couldn't control himself and fired him for his own good! (pardon the sarcasm)

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Smoking

The world's top 10 tobacco smoking nations

Donald Armbrecht
World Economic Forums
Thu, 25 Jun 2015 14:17 UTC
Image
© Reuters/Phil Noble
Only 10 years ago, it was common to find smokers in major European cities having a cigarette in bars, restaurants and even on public transport. The subsequent crackdown on smoking in Western Europe has changed habits drastically.

While tobacco consumption in the West seems to be on the decline, new research suggests that it is on the rise in the developing world. According to the WHO, of the 1 billion global smokers, almost 80% are in a low or middle-income countries.

Of those, Chinese smokers consume more than all other low- and middle-income countries combined. To combat this, the Chinese government has clamped down on existing smoking bans, reinforcing them with hefty fines, and levying a full ban on public smoking in Beijing.

So of the 5.8 trillion cigarettes smoked in 2014, which countries consumed the most?
Image
© Tobaccoatlas.org

Comment: See also: Let's All Light Up!

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Smoking

Absurd ordinance would ban smoking in downtown Providence, Rhode Island

R. J. Helm
turnto10.com
Sun, 14 Jun 2015 17:39 UTC
Image
© Jeff Nickerson/Wikimedia CommonsBurnside Park
You can already get a ticket if you smoke in Burnside Park or any other city park in Providence. That ordinance was passed six months ago. Next up -- if it passes -- all downtown public spaces.

Businessman and former Mayor Joe Paolino walks the street that rings the south end of Kennedy Plaza, pointing out the discarded cigarette butts that litter the area. In fairness, the ashtrays were removed he says to discourage smoking. But more importantly, it's the secondhand smoke.

"I don't think that the secondhand smoke is healthy for anybody that has to breathe that smoke. And I think we can clean up our city at the same time," Paolino said.

Some agree. Even some smokers. Mark Brier was smoking in Kennedy Plaza when I asked where he would go to smoke if he couldn't smoke outside downtown.

"I'd go to another city. They're getting too expensive anyway," he said.

Frank LaTorre of Riverside would like to see the ordinance passed by saying, "Does someone have a right to put that kind of carcinogen into the air?" I asked him, "What about car exhaust?" He said, "It's a problem too. We're trying to deal with that as well. But you can't do everything. But I think in terms of secondhand smoke, that it's an incredible health hazard."

Some do not agree, like Kelly Masterson of North Providence.

"Just because it's Kennedy Plaza that's where people (smoke)," said said.

Comment: More anti-smoking measures reminiscent of Hitler's vision of the perfect race:

Adolph Hitler: Vegetarian, teetotaler, anti-smoking campaigner

Worth reading: Anti-tobacco movement in Nazi Germany

And if you really think that the government implements these anti-smoking measures for your health, read:

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Smoking

Smoking ban targeting bars, restaurants, workplaces, other public spaces considered in Waco, Texas

J. B. Smith
Waco Tribune
Sat, 13 Jun 2015 17:50 UTC
Image
© Waco Tribune/Jerry Larson
A comprehensive ban on smoking inside bars, restaurants and other public spaces and workplaces goes before the Waco City Council for a vote Tuesday.

The "smoke-free" ordinance proposed by the Waco-McLennan County Public Health District board would erase exemptions that the current smoking ordinance has for bars and for businesses that have separately ventilated smoking sections. It would also prohibit smoking in public parks or within 25 feet of the door of a nonsmoking establishment.

It would preserve exemptions for smoke shops and cigar bars, as well as outdoor workplaces and some designated hotel rooms.

The council Tuesday will take the first of two votes required to pass the ordinance. The business meeting starts at 6 p.m. at the Waco Convention Center's Bosque Theatre, following a 3 p.m. work session.

Mayor Malcolm Duncan Jr., who sits on the health district board, said the proposed smoke-free ordinance would protect employees from secondhand smoke and mark a step forward for public health. He said he has been hearing more support than opposition to the ordinance from constituents.

"I think everybody believes not smoking leads to a healthier community," he said.

"If you look around the country, there has been a pretty consistent increase in the trend of cities to go no-smoking."

Comment: Here's the rub: Smoking is not bad for everyone. When have governments truly done anything that was in the best interest of the people? All of this legislation and effort to stamp out something that stimulates the immune system, helps you think better, protects against lung cancer and sparks creativity creates a nation of zombies.

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