Smoking


Smoking

Now they want to ban smoking at home in the UK

Josie Appleton
Spiked
Wed, 30 Sep 2020 17:40 UTC
Cigarette smoke
© spiked
Some UK councils restrict smoking in your place of residence. How much further will this go?

As people are once again told to work from home, our freedoms in this realm become more crucial than ever.

One freedom that is being progressively eroded is the choice of whether or not to smoke in your home. The home - or place of residence - was until relatively recently considered immune from any public smoking regulations. The UK's 2006 ban on smoking in enclosed public places restrictions explicitly excluded places of residence.

Yet now, with bans on smoking indoors and outdoors in mental-health institutions, prisons, and other state institutions, the mood is shifting.

When I asked UK councils about their current policy on employees' smoking, Hammersmith and Fulham replied to my Freedom-of-Information request with a document (produced in alliance with Kensington and Chelsea council in 2015) that said council home workers were banned from smoking in their private offices. The document stated that: 'any part of a private dwelling used solely for work purposes will be required to be smoke-free... home workers are expected to have the same set-up at home as they do in the office. Smoking is not allowed in any of the council's offices and home workers should not smoke at their workstation during office hours.' It even said that 'family members should not be allowed to smoke in the home worker's office'.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Smoking

English Councils banned staff from smoking at their desks at HOME

Christopher Hope
The Telegraph, UK
Sun, 20 Sep 2020 17:37 UTC
No smoking sign
© Zest Magazine
A leading Labour-run council banned staff from smoking at their desks if they were working from home in what campaigners say is an emerging "moral crusade" by local authorities against tobacco lovers.

Hammersmith and Fulham council, which represents one of the country's richest areas in London, told its staff in guidance that "any part of a private dwelling used solely for work purposes will be required to be smoke-free".

The guidance was issued in 2015 in a joint "bi-borough corporate health and safety "document setting out the council's no smoking policy with Royal Kensington and Chelsea.

A spokesman for Kensington and Chelsea, which had told its staff that "home workers should not smoke at their workstation during office hours", dropped the smoking ban on home workers when it issued new guidance in February this year.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Smoking

The war on tobacco is just making criminals rich

Paul Wallis
Digital Journal
Mon, 14 Sep 2020 15:50 UTC
Tobacco farm
© Kotoviski (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Prohibition of any kind simply does not work. The original Prohibition on liquor didn't work. The War on Drugs was lost. The prohibition by pricing of tobacco has handed billions of dollars to organized crime.

The tobacco black market is booming thanks to incredible retail prices. In Australia, you can pay $265 for an 8x25 pack of smokes. The rest of the world is pretty much the same.

It doesn't take a genius, or a fence post, to see that the billions of dollars of sales in black market tobacco are the result. At nearly $50 per pack, anyone will be happy to pay $10. I've seen boxes of 100 cigarettes for $10.

Guess who's making the money. Yep, organized crime. The instant solution whenever you want something cheaper. Apparently not content with making billions for criminal organizations with drugs, governments seem obsessed with finding new sources of income for them.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Eye 2

Prohibition by another name: Australia hikes cigarette taxes for second time this year, most expensive place on the planet for smokers


RT
Tue, 01 Sep 2020 17:23 UTC
smoking
© Alamy
It costs AU$1.75 (US$1.29) per cigarette in Australia after the country slapped a second tax increase on tobacco in a bid to discourage the unhealthy (if lucrative) act, making them the most expensive anywhere in the world.

Australian cigarette smokers were hit with a 12.5 percent tax increase on Tuesday, the second tobacco excise tax hike Canberra has leveled against consumers this year. A package of 20 cigarettes now costs AU$35 (US$25) and brand-name smokes are even more dear, at upwards of AU$40 per pack.

Cigarette taxes are a bonanza for the Australian government, which makes about AU$17 billion annually from the levy. However, as taxes rise, so does the black market trade in tobacco. According to the Australian border force, the illegal business is worth more than AU$546 million.


Comment: It's not like greedy governments to give up a cash cow like smoking taxes so easily, and yet they are intending to do so, which should give one pause for thought.


Comment: These extortionate taxes aren't about 'discouraging' smoking, this insidious agenda is ultimately intended to prohibit smoking for all but the wealthy. For decades governments have propagandized the public with warped science, banned smoking throughout the land - from outdoor areas to public housing - and used tobacco as a scape goat for their other deadly policies - from the damage caused by Big Pharma, inverted dietary guidelines, and pollution - and those who have yet to be coerced into submission and still choose to smoke are now being targeted in an arena where their knowledge and will are less likely to prevail.

As we have repeatedly seen numerous times over, and this is becoming more blatant with the baseless and relentless tyrannical lockdown measures, governments given such powers over citizenry won't stop until they control every inch; smokers are just the beginning, 'non-essential' food is next; there are even hints that the disabled are in the line up.

Considering the numerous benefits of tobacco, including against plagues, and that many great thinkers were smokers, it's no wonder ponerized governments want it banned: For more, check out SOTT radio's:

Read More...
Smoking

WHO partners with Johnson & Johnson, Amazon & Google to launch new AI-based anti-tobacco program

Gloria Methri
Republic World
Sat, 11 Jul 2020 16:57 UTC
No smoking
© republicworld.com
The World Health Organisation has partnered with Johnson & Johnson, Amazon and Google in its new anti-tobacco program aimed at introducing new tools to quit smoking. The WHO has been warning that the globe's 1.3 billion tobacco users are at higher risk during the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The initiative includes developing nicotine patches and artificial-intelligence-fuelled support to tackle both the physical and mental challenges to quitting tobacco at once.

The Access Initiative for Quitting Tobacco program will begin with Jordan, which has the highest rates of tobacco users in the world and will eventually be rolled out to other countries. Dr Ruediger Krech of WHO said that the partnership with tech and pharmaceutical industries will improve people's health and save lives during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Smoking

Several casinos ban indoor smoking citing COVID-19 concerns

Ed Silverstein
casino.org
Sat, 04 Jul 2020 17:36 UTC
Parx Casino
© Visit Philly
Multiple Pennsylvania gaming properties are now smoke-free after recent directives from state regulators to improve worker and player health.

Among them is The Meadows Racetrack & Casino, located in Washington, which announced on social media that smoking was "phased out in the casino" and it reopened Saturday (July 4) morning "as a 100% smoke free facility."

The decision was made after an order from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and the Pennsylvania Department of Health, according to WPXI, a local TV station.

Another Pennsylvania TV station, WGAL, reported that Hollywood Casino, located in Grantville, also banned smoking. It also follows a decision by the Department of Health and Gaming Control Board.

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Smoking

Jordanian government bans smoking, vaping in indoor public spaces

Michael Safi
The Guardian, UK
Fri, 03 Jul 2020 00:28 UTC
No smoking sign in Jordan
© Alamy
The Jordanian government has banned smoking and vaping in all indoor public spaces a week after a Guardian investigation revealed tobacco use in the country had become the highest in the world.

The country's health ministry said on Wednesday all enclosed public areas would now be "100% smoke-free environments", building on an existing but widely flouted ban on smoking inside government buildings, and ending an exemption for hotels, cafes and restaurants provided they separated smokers from non-smokers.

Public health campaigners cautiously welcomed the announcement as a major step forward in a country where more than 82% of men smoke or consume nicotine in some form, according to government and World Health Organization data published by the Guardian last week.

"[It's] a first step to applying the public-health law to combat the scourge of smoking in our beloved Jordan," said Princess Dina Mired, the president of the Union for International Cancer Control and a member of the country's royal family, in a tweet. "We hope the smoke-prevention law will be implemented in all public places in its entirety."

Comment: See also:

Read More...
Smoking

Best of the Web: Smoke, Lies And The Nanny State

Joe Jackson
joejackson.com
Tue, 17 Apr 2007 13:58 UTC
joe jackson smoking
For thousands of years in the Americas, and about 500 years pretty much everywhere else, tobacco has been a friend to mankind. It has been used to relax, to stimulate, and to treat various ailments. It has been a vital part of rituals both social and spiritual. It has been used as currency. Whole communities have been founded on it - including, arguably, the United States of America.

Wait a minute. Scratch that! Smoking is a vile, filthy habit that will almost inevitably kill you. No one smokes willingly; they are simply pathetic addicts, duped by evil tobacco companies. Tobacco is a plague which must be wiped out.

Like most people these days, I was more inclined, up until a few years ago, to believe the second paragraph than the first. I was a very moderate smoker and almost gave up. But something about the sheer hysteria of the anti smoking movement, and the various holes and contradictions in their arguments, made me suspicious. Some time in the late 1990s I arrived in Los Angeles and, as my taxi pulled out of the airport, I was confronted by a huge red billboard: SECONDHAND SMOKE KILLS. I thought: even heavy smokers take several decades to develop lung cancer. Surely a nonsmoker, even regularly exposed to smoke in the air, would have to live to be about 300 to catch up? And how exactly would you know it was smoke that killed them, as opposed to, say, the appalling LA smog?

Since then I've researched the smoking issue in depth. I've unraveled reams of statistics, met with doctors and academics, and networked with scores of other researchers and activists who are trying to get at the truth. I'm now convinced that the dangers of smoking - and particularly 'passive' smoking - are greatly exaggerated, for reasons which have more to do with politics, power and profit than objective science. I believe the anti-smoking movement - especially lobby groups like ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) - has far too much money and influence, and that their dishonesty and bullying tactics should be worrying even to those who hate tobacco.
Read More...
Smoking

Best of the Web: French researchers to give nicotine patches to coronavirus patients, frontline workers after low infection rates found among smokers

Mary Kekatos
Daily Mail, UK
Thu, 23 Apr 2020 15:12 UTC

Comment: They would save themselves trouble if they just gave them tobacco to smoke...


Man with nicotine patch
French researchers are planning to trial whether nicotine patches will help prevent - or lessen the effects of - the deadly coronavirus.

Evidence is beginning to show the proportion of smokers infected with coronavirus is much lower than the rates in the general population.

Scientists are now questioning whether nicotine could stop the virus from infecting cells, or if it may prevent the immune system overreacting to the infection.

Doctors at a major hospital in Paris - who also found low rates of smoking among the infected - are now planning to give nicotine patches to COVID-19 patients.

They will also give them to frontline workers to see if the stimulant has any effect on preventing the spread of the virus, according to reports.

Comment: BUT they're only giving them to select COVID-19 patients for 'trials'. Meanwhile, they're moving to BAN the sale of nicotine patches. They know tobacco products work, so they're in a race to control the supply before people realize the scam:

France bans online sales of nicotine products, limits sale in pharmacies

See also:

Read More...
Smoking

Best of the Web: Bombshell COVID-19 discovery: Smokers are far less likely to contract illness - Scientists 'astonished'

Sam Blanchard
The Daily Mail
Wed, 15 Apr 2020 17:35 UTC

Comment: Holy Geebus, we really are near The End! A British daily has published evidence that smoking tobacco protects people from COVID-19!


smokers outside buildings
Forced into a form of social isolation for the last 20 years, smokers are in fact best positioned to cope with viral pandemics
When world-famous artist wrote a letter to the Daily Mail saying he believes smoking could protect people against the coronavirus many scoffed. Mr Hockney wrote: 'Could it not be that smokers have developed an immune system to this virus? With all these figures coming out, it's beginning to look like that to me.'

Understandably the claim was brushed off as laughable and 'rubbish' by many.

But is it?

A leading infectious disease expert at University College London, Professor Francois Balloux, said there is 'bizarrely strong' evidence it could be true.

Comment: Wow.

It finally happened.

A mainstream article that has no choice but to acknowledge a strong scientific signal that smoking tobacco protects people against certain viruses.

It only took them 20-freaking-years of crappy science and precisely the wrong medical advice - and a farcical 'pandemic' - to figure it out!

Well, we told y'all so.

Read More...