San Francisco officials have moved one step closer to expanding the city’s smoking ban to include numerous outdoor areas.
The board of supervisors Tuesday unanimously passed a resolution making it illegal to light up at sidewalk cafes, restaurant patios, movie and ATM lines and the common areas of housing complexes. The resolution also bans smoking near doorways and windows of offices, shops and restaurants and at bingo halls.
Nicotine builds up gradually in smokers’ brains rather than spiking after each puff, according to a study that might help point to new ways to help people quit smoking.
Dr. Jed E. Rose of Duke University reports in the online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that nicotine buildup in the brain is gradual over several minutes. Scientists have theorized there is a spike of nicotine about seven seconds after each puff, but almost no measurements had been taken until now, Rose said.
Rick Bender’s message to area students was clear: learn from his mistakes.
Bender began chewing tobacco at 12. By 26, he was diagnosed with cancer, which claimed a third of his tongue, half his jaw and left Bender with limited use of his right arm.
Bender, 47, told his story to freshmen at Piedra Vista High School Wednesday in an effort to help students learn from his mistakes. He also spoke at Hermosa Middle School and Navajo Preparatory School.
Despite otherwise first-rate health it appears that President Barack Obama is still having difficulties in giving up smoking. He has been attempting to kick the habit for a while now and according to reports is still struggling with it.
After his first medical examination since becoming president, at the Navy Hospital outside Washington yesterday, his doctors confirmed that he needed to carry on with “smoking cessation methods” as he had not yet managed to get the habit under control.
The research presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2010.
Researchers reported on two new studies from the Familial Intracranial Aneurysm (FIA) project, a multinational collaboration funded by the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study genetic and other risk factors in families with at least two members affected by intracranial aneurysm.
State Rep. Charlie Brown’s bid to ban smoking in all public places across Indiana has been revived.
The House of Representatives added the statewide smoking ban language Wednesday to a Senate bill dealing with public health laws.
The ban would apply to public places, enclosed areas of employment and all state-owned vehicles.
House lawmakers endorsed the bill on second reading, and a final vote could be taken today.
“Everyone in here has to know about the dreaded disease of second-hand smoke,” Brown, D-Gary, told his colleagues.
Obesity is now a bigger overall threat to people’s health than smoking, according to results of the longest continuing health study of adults in the United States.
Obesity causes as much or more disease than tobacco, says the study, conducted by researchers from Columbia University and the City College of New York. It adds while smoking rates are starting to decline, obesity now shortens as many or even more healthy lifespans than tobacco use.
“Health impacts of obesity are, in many ways, much larger, than the health impacts of smoking,” said Arya Sharma, chairman for obesity research and management at the University of Alberta. “(Smoking) in the end, is limited to heart disease and cancer.”
A Life Cut Short by Tobacco
According to the American Cancer Society, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in American men and women today. It’s also the most preventable form of cancer, with 87 percent of all lung cancer cases attributable to tobacco use.
While tobacco is usually a slow killer, with the toxins and carcinogens in tobacco smoke taking years to poison us, that’s not always the way of it. Sometimes tobacco strikes a person down young.
In the heart-wrenching account I’m sharing with you today, About.com Smoking Cessation support forum member Karen (9Sept) shares this real life story about Cat, a young man who used tobacco much less than the average person and for decades less than most smokers. His story will sadden and scare you … and it should.
The state Department of Health is offering free kits to help Pennsylvanians stop smoking.
The catch: Smokers must set a date for quitting.
A limited number of free nicotine replacement therapy kits will be offered through Pennsylvania’s toll-free Quitline. Interested smokes can start calling 1-800-QUIT NOW (1-800-784-8669) on Feb. 2.
“The average smoker makes between five and eight quit attempts before being successful, and those who have support are more likely to succeed,” Acting Secretary of Health Everette James said.
Pack-a-day smokers generally spend more than $1,500 a year on cigarettes.
Julian A. Leicester a.k.a. The Cigarette Slayer tells ERROL DE CRUZ what it takes to get rid of the habit.
TALK to Julian A. Leicester and you will immediately sense his passion to help smokers quit the habit.
He is always full of energy and he has numerous ways to curb smoking. No wonder he has been often dubbed “The Cigarette Slayer” in the media.
For many years, Leicester has been teaching smokers and schoolchildren how to quit the habit with his clinical interventions, national seminars, talks and newspaper articles.