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.
TV Ads for Smoking Drug Chantix Resume Despite Suicide Side Effects.
After pulling all advertisements for Chantix earlier this year amid concerns about increased suicide risks, Pfizer has re-launched a national TV campaign for their stop smoking drug.
Chantix (varenicline tartrate) was once considered the most promising drug in Pfizer’s pipeline of new medications, which has been proven effective at helping people quit smoking. After the drug was approved by the FDA in 2006, it quickly became a top selling drug, with annual sales of $883 million in the first full year it was on the market
Daniel Williams hoped Chantix would help him quit smoking and become healthier. Instead, he believes, it nearly killed him.
WASHINGTON — Daniel Williams decided he’d listen to his girlfriend and his 8-year-old son and finally quit smoking, with the help of a new prescription drug called Chantix.
He started taking the medication, and a couple of nights later, as he was driving his pickup truck on a country road in Louisiana, Williams suddenly swerved left.
His girlfriend, Melinda Lofton, who was with him, later told him that his eyes had rolled back in his head and that it had seemed as if he was frozen at the wheel, accelerating.