Smoking


Smoking

Study of miners exposed to diesel finds smokers were far LESS likely to develop lung cancer


iWatch News
Fri, 02 Mar 2012 16:53 UTC
School bus diesel fumes
© Mark J. Terrill/AP file
A much-anticipated government study of more than 12,000 miners - whose publication was delayed by litigation from a group of mining companies - has found that exposure to diesel engine exhaust significantly increases the risk of lung cancer.

For the most heavily exposed miners, the risk of dying from lung cancer was three times higher than it was for those exposed to low doses. For non-smokers, the risk was seven times higher.
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Smoking

50 years after the flawed U.S. Surgeon General's report, ALL health problems are still being blamed on smoking

Brady Dennis
The Washington Post
Thu, 16 Jan 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Associated Press Surgeon General Luther Terry testifies (lies) on Capitol Hill before the House Commerce Committee hearing on proposed labeling of cigarette packages on April 9, 1965.
Fifty years after the U.S. surgeon general first linked cigarette smoking to deadly diseases such as lung cancer and heart disease, his successors continue to add to the list of health problems associated with tobacco use.

Smoking is a cause of liver cancer and colorectal cancer, the fourth-most-diagnosed form of the disease in the United States, Acting Surgeon General Boris D. Lushniak found in a report released Friday. In addition, he said, smoking is a cause of Type 2 diabetes mellitus, age-related macular degeneration, erectile dysfunction and rheumatoid arthritis. It can impair the immune system, worsen asthma and cause cleft lips and palates in fetuses. And exposure to secondhand smoke can cause strokes.

Smokers today have a much higher risk of developing lung cancers than did smokers in the 1960s, probably because of changes in the design and composition of cigarettes over time, according to the findings.


Comment: So this has nothing to do with our poisoned environment? 'The tobacco industry' seems to be an easy scapegoat, but isn't it more likely that the increase in rates of cancers of ALL kinds isn't due to this one factor, smoking? Colorectal cancer? Diabetes mellitus? Erectile dysfunction? Seriously? Pick an ailment and apparently the U.S. Surgeon General can pin it on smoking...

Air pollution causes lung cancer in non-smokers (erm, can't it cause it in smokers too then?)


Friday's report, the latest of more than 30 such documents issued by surgeons general since the landmark 1964 examination of smoking's health consequences, offered another round of evidence of tobacco's potential to harm nearly every human organ.

Comment: 'Fighting tobacco and smoking' has nothing to do with 'saving lives' and everything to do with imposing tyranny...

The main goal of tobacco smoking bans is "to change societal behavior" by stigmatizing smoking, making it less convenient and less socially acceptable. By raising the stakes, it helped transform a complaint into a right, so that people annoyed by tobacco smoke now felt justified in demanding that it be eliminated everywhere they might want to go, including other people's property.

In short, they have conditioned the majority of the people on the planet to behave like Nazis and think it is normal.

See also:

The devious plan of anti-smoking campaigns to control people and stop them from using their brain

Let's All Light Up!

5 Health Benefits of Smoking

Nicotine Lessens Symptoms Of Depression In Nonsmokers

Nicotine helps Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Patients

Brain Researchers: Smoking increases intelligence

Read More...
Smoking

'Good people disobey bad laws': Smoker bids good riddance to ex-NYC Mayor Bloomberg by lighting up cigarette inside City Hall


YouTube
Tue, 30 Dec 2014 05:10 UTC
Image
Audrey Silk, founder of smokers' rights group NYC Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (C.L.A.S.H.), protests by lighting cigarette inside City Hall.

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Smoking

Study publishes smoker demographics: Smoking population has increased despite global anti-smoking campaign - Higher prevalence of smokers in Eurasia

Scott Hensley
NPR.com
Wed, 08 Jan 2014 08:25 UTC
Image
© JAMA
Since the surgeon general's report laid bare the health hazards from smoking 50 years ago, the proportion of Americans who smoke has fallen dramatically.

About 19 percent of adults smoke these days, compared with about 42% in 1965.

Smoking has become less prevalent in other countries, too, including Canada, Mexico and Iceland.

Overall, the prevalence of smoking has gone down worldwide over the past few decades. For men, smoking dropped 10 percentage points to 31 percent in 2012, from 41 percent in 1980. For women, it has been almost halved, falling from about 11 percent to 6 percent over the same period.

But that's not the case everywhere. So where is smoking still common?

Comment: These smoker demographics, without intending it of course, may have uncovered something very interesting about Eurasian resistance to fascism...

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Dollars

Recreational pot sales in Colorado surpass $5 million in first week


RT
Wed, 08 Jan 2014 16:24 UTC
sample packs of marijuana in Northglenn, Colorado
© Reuters / Rick Wilking
Cheri Hackett, co-owner of BotanaCare, carries bags of the company's sample packs of marijuana in Northglenn, Colorado
The state of Colorado has survived its first week with legal weed, and the verdict is in: people really like marijuana.

Owners of the 37 just-launched dispensaries across Colorado tell the Huffington Post that they've already generated a combined total of roughly $5 million in sales since it became legal there on January 1 for adults to purchase and use marijuana for recreational reasons.

Some of the larger dispensaries unloaded as much as 60 pounds of pot each from their shelves during that first week, HuffPo's Matt Ferner reported on Wednesday, and combined sales on the first of the year alone totaled over $1 million.

"Every day that we've been in business since Jan. 1 has been better than my best day of business ever," Andy Williams, owner of Denver's Medicine Man dispensary, told the website.

Voters in Colorado approved a measure legalizing medicinal marijuana back in 2000, and dispensaries across the state had until just recently been barred from selling to those without a doctor's prescription. Denver's 3D Cannabis Center told the Colorado Springs Gazette that they averaged 25 clients a day in medical marijuana sales before the state's new law went into effect, but on Jan. 1 they served around 450 customers and before long were forced to close down in order to restock.
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Smoking

Anti-smoking fascism: New York City Corp. sues FedEx for shipping cigarettes to homes

Jonathan Stempel
The Huffington Post
Mon, 30 Dec 2013 17:21 UTC
Image
© TheRightCurmudgeon.com
New York City has sued FedEx Corp, accusing the package delivery company of illegally delivering millions of contraband cigarettes to people's homes, violating a 2006 settlement.

Monday's lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan and seeks $52 million of civil fines and unpaid taxes from FedEx, which is based in Memphis, Tennessee.

It marks one of the last acts by the administration of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose more than decade-old campaign to ban smoking in various public and private places has been credited with saving thousands of lives and become a blueprint for other cities.

According to the city, FedEx created a "public nuisance" through its partnership with Shinnecock Smoke Shop, located on the Shinnecock Indian Nation reservation in Southampton, New York, to ship untaxed cigarettes to residential homes.

FedEx allegedly did so despite, and even while negotiating, a February 2006 agreement with then-New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to stop such deliveries in New York, an agreement later expanded to cover deliveries throughout the country.
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Green Light

Colorado opens first legal U.S. pot shops


RT
Thu, 02 Jan 2014 01:01 UTC
marijuana strains to purchase at the 3-D Denver Discrete Dispensary
© AFP Photo / Theo Stroomer
Tyler Williams of Blanchester, Ohio selects marijuana strains to purchase at the 3-D Denver Discrete Dispensary on January 1, 2014 in Denver, Colorado
The US State of Colorado has entered the New Year on a high note by becoming the first state to legally sell marihuana and open the retail spots for pot. Washington is set to follow suit and open its own recreational shops later in 2014.

At the start of New Year day, at 8 am local time, pot lovers from across the state lined up to be one of the first residents to legally participate in a $578 million market. Some people had been waiting since 1 am.

"I wanted to be one of the first to buy pot and no longer be prosecuted for it. This end of prohibition is long overdue," said Jesse Phillips, cannabis enthusiast from Colorado.

State residents can now legally indulge themselves with up to an ounce of marijuana from more than 30 shops that have opened their doors statewide. Residents from other states can buy up to one-quarter of an ounce.
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Smoking

More anti-smoking propaganda: China's state council tells Communist Party leaders not to smoke


Reuters
Mon, 30 Dec 2013 00:06 UTC
smoking in china
© Yahoo news
Communist Party officials must not smoke in public places or buy cigarettes using public funds, and should encourage their colleagues to quit smoking, a top Chinese government body said in a circular on Sunday evening.

China is the world's largest tobacco consumer. Smoking is deeply entrenched in Chinese social life, particularly for men, and luxury cigarettes are frequently given as gifts.

Beijing pledged in 2008 to ban smoking in most public venues, including government offices, but enforcement has remained lax and no-smoking signs are frequently ignored.

"The phenomenon of smoking in public places remains prevalent, especially for a small number of leading cadres, who not only endanger the public health and environment, but also harm the image of the Communist Party and the government," says the circular issued by the State Council, China's cabinet.

Party cadres must not buy tobacco using public funds, and those who break rules on cigarettes should be "criticized and educated about their evil influence," the circular says. Leaders at all levels should deal with rule-breakers severely, it added, without detailing specific punishments.

Comment: For more history on smoking bans see:

'World No Tobacco Day'? Let's All Light Up!

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Stormtrooper

Global fascism: Smokers on Chinese trains to face big fines


ecns.cn
Thu, 26 Dec 2013 07:33 UTC
Image
Anyone caught smoking on high-speed trains will be fined up to 2,000 yuan ($330) as of Jan 1, according to a railway safety regulation issued by the State Council.

The penalty aims to ensure normal operation of the railway system and passenger safety as China's railway system readies for the annual challenge of coping with an expected 258 million passenger journeys during the 40-day Spring Festival travel season.

Passengers intercepting trains, walking on railway lines, jumping off running trains or throwing garbage from trains will also face a fine of up to 2,000 yuan, the safety regulation said.

According to an official from the Beijing Railway Bureau who spoke on condition of anonymity, the fine is expected to considerably reduce the number of smoking passengers and ensure travel safety.

Comment: The main goal of smoking bans is "to change societal behavior" by stigmatizing smoking, making it less convenient and less socially acceptable. By raising the stakes, it helped transform a complaint into a right, so that people annoyed by tobacco smoke now felt justified in demanding that it be eliminated everywhere they might want to go, including other people's property.

In short, they have conditioned the majority of the people on the planet to behave like Nazis and think it is normal.

See also:

The devious plan of anti-smoking campaigns to control people and stop them from using their brain

Let's All Light Up!

5 Health Benefits of Smoking

Nicotine Lessens Symptoms Of Depression In Nonsmokers

Nicotine helps Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Patients

Brain Researchers: Smoking increases intelligence

Read More...
Smoking

Anti-education: Maryland colleges join growing national socialist movement to snuff out student smoking

Emilie Eastman
The Daily Record
Wed, 25 Dec 2013 07:22 UTC
Image
We don't need no 'education'... we don't need no thought control...
About one-third of Maryland colleges and universities have decided to follow a recent national trend to ban smoking on college campuses.

The majority of institutions clearing the air are community colleges and the 10 campuses within the University System of Maryland, which adopted a system-wide smoke-free policy last year. Only two private schools in the state, both with religious affiliations, have enacted smoking bans.

Across the country, colleges and universities are rapidly adopting smoke-free policies. Since 2010, the number of smoke-free campuses has more than doubled, and 1,127 institutions now prohibit puffing on their premises, according to the American Nonsmokers Rights Foundation, which collects national data on smoke-free initiatives.

"We're seeing activity in all corners of the country and by all kinds of campuses," said Liz Williams, a project manager for the American Nonsmokers Rights Foundation. "In the last four years, we've seen a massive uptake [of smoke-free policies]."

Comment: As these enforcers acknowledge, the main goal of smoking bans is "to change societal behavior" by stigmatizing smoking, making it less convenient and less socially acceptable. By raising the stakes, it helped transform a complaint into a right, so that people annoyed by tobacco smoke now felt justified in demanding that it be eliminated everywhere they might want to go, including other people's property.

In short, they have conditioned the majority of the people on the planet to behave like Nazis and think it is normal.

See also:

The devious plan of anti-smoking campaigns to control people and stop them from using their brain

Let's All Light Up!

5 Health Benefits of Smoking

Nicotine Lessens Symptoms Of Depression In Nonsmokers

Nicotine helps Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Patients

Brain Researchers: Smoking increases intelligence

Read More...