Stop Smoking Way

As if protecting our children from the dangers of second hand smoke wasn’t hard enough, now a new study shows that third hand smoke (defined as tobacco residue that clings to surfaces), is also harmful to their health.

This new study, which was recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), found that a burning cigarette releases nicotine in the form of a vapor, and then collects and condenses on indoor surfaces, such as carpets, drapes, furniture, and walls. It can linger on these surfaces for months.

Re “Smoking Ban Hits Home. Truly” (Belmont Journal, front page, Jan. 27):

In a not surprising but troubling move, some cities, like Belmont, Calif., have prohibited individuals from smoking in their own apartments. The justification, as always, is that sidestream smoke is a threat to the health of innocent nonsmokers.

There are good scientific and public health reasons for restricting smoking in closed public spaces. But when such restrictions are extended to beaches, parks, sidewalks and now to the homes of smokers, the argument that third-party harms must be prevented becomes increasingly untenable.

INDIANAPOLIS – Supporters of a bill that would ban smoking in all of Indiana’s public places are trumpeting a new study of the financial and human costs of secondhand smoke as clear, persuasive evidence that state lawmakers should pass statewide smoking restrictions.

The study released Monday found that an estimated 1,194 Hoosiers died in 2007 from lung cancer, heart disease and other ailments caused by breathing secondhand cigarette smoke.

Researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine’s Bowen Research Center also concluded that secondhand smoke in homes and businesses burdened Indiana with at least $390 million in medical-related costs in 2007.

It’s hard to deny the iconographic allure of a cigarette, no matter what the health repercussions may be. Whether it’s a vintage photograph of Bob Dylan, smoke curling around his frizzy hair, or Lauren Bacall on set, seductively pulling on a cigarette between takes, cigarettes have their presence entrenched in the American mindset.

But even in an expanding world of portable technology, where people feel comfortable clipping phone receivers to their earlobes as if they wandered off the set of Star Trek, it’s still difficult to imagine smokers taking well to a battery-operated, pen-sized cigarette.

Cuba hardly shines as liberty’s emblem.

But in Dallas, the cubano-themed Havana Social Club is poised to become one of the few places in Dallas, perhaps the only one, where tobacco-loving barflies can smoke a cigarette or stogie with their rum, beer or mojito.

Dallas’ newly expanded smoking ordinance, which city officials will begin enforcing April 10, will allow smoking in bars only if they generate at least 15 percent of their gross revenue from the “sale or rental of tobacco, tobacco products, smoking implements, or smoking accessories for on-premises consumption.” That percentage had to exist as of last Wednesday.

Puffing a cigarette at a park is already illegal in Belmont and unincorporated San Mateo County but the habit could soon earn you a ticket in Redwood City, too.

The city’s parks and recreation commission will consider on Wednesday recommending that the city make all of its 32 parks smoke-free.

City officials say smoking is already banned in parts of some parks because of laws that prohibit smoking within 20 feet of parks facilities or rest rooms and within 25 feet of any play area or sports field.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – Stress caused by a slowing economy, shrinking retirement accounts and rising unemployment rates is driving some American smokers to increase the habit or delay quitting, according to a new survey.

A quarter of smokers who are worried about the economy said fretting over it has driven them to smoke more each day, while another 13 percent said they have delayed quitting.

“The turbulent global stock markets have caused virtually every American a certain level of stress. Those who also struggle with an addiction to tobacco products are at an increased disadvantage as they contemplate quitting, or feel the urge to smoke more cigarettes,” Cheryl Healton, the president and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation, said in a statement.

A study by South Korean scientists suggests that smokers could be putting themselves at higher risk of getting metabolic diseases like diabetes.

A team of researchers led by Jee Sun-ha, a professor at Yonsei University’s graduate school of public health, said that the blood level of adiponectin was found to be lower among men who smoke.

Adiponectin is a protein hormone that is secreted by fat cells and modulates how the body processes sugar and fatty substances in blood. It also plays a role in the suppression of metabolic derangements that may result in type-2 diabetes, obesity, insulin resistance and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Smokers in East Java will no longer be able to smoke freely in public spaces as the provincial administration has obtained Rp 135.8 billion (US$14 million) for its 2009 budget from cigarette excise taxes to set up smoking areas in public buildings.

The Malang regency which received Rp 5.2 billion said it would provide smoking areas in the regency administration building, the Kanjuruhan General Hospital in Kepanjen and the regency legislative council building.

“All people including government officials and servicemen in the three buildings will only be allowed to smoke in the smoking areas,” spokesman for the regency administration Kukuh Banendra said Thursday.

A 64-year-old woman was killed in a fire early on Saturday at a residential building on Roosevelt Island, according to the police and the Fire Department.

The fire broke out about 5:30 a.m. on the 11th floor of the building, at 546 Main Street, where many older and disabled people live, the authorities said.

The woman, identified by the police as Mary Madriguera, 64, was found during a search of the floor. Fire marshals were investigating, but the Fire Department said it appeared that she had been smoking in bed in her apartment, No. 1106.