Monthly ArchiveJune 2007
CiglessBot 28 Jun 2007 02:25 am
Ready for the smoking ban? (UK)
Soon there’ll be no hiding place for smokers with a smoking ban in public places in England in force from 1 July. However, despite the majority of smokers saying they would like to quit, many of them are still unsure what the ban will entail. We look at the impact the ban will have and find out the best ways of quitting a habit that’s getting harder and harder to enjoy.
Smokers, now so often forced to huddle outside offices and homes, will find even less places where their habit’s welcome from July 1. That’s when the English public smoking ban comes into effect, banning smokers from having a drag in pubs, cafes, clubs and restaurants and a host of other places that will become smoke-free zones.
The ban already exists in Scotland and Wales and making it UK wide is predicted, by the Department of Health, to provoke up to 600,000 people to attempt quitting for good. Millions more would like to join them - at least 70% of the UK’s 12 million smokers would like to kick the habit - but are daunted by the difficulty of kicking the weed.
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CiglessBot 21 Jun 2007 09:20 pm
Effects of Smoking on the Skin
Yes it can harm it in several ways. Here are more reasons to quit smoking now.
Skin is fed from within. The foods we eat are broken down into nutrients and waste. The nutrients are absorbed by the bloodstream, which transports them around the body to the various organs, the largest of which is the skin. Oxygen is also transported and delivered in the same way. The cells absorb the oxygen and this is vital for the health of the organs and the life process itself. This whole process takes place automatically when we breathe. . .
Except when we are breathing in smoke!
When we inhale the smoke from a cigarette the carbon monoxide from the smoke is absorbed by the hemoglobin in the blood. Carbon monoxide is a colorless odorless highly toxic gas also found in the smoke from car exhausts. The blood can absorb carbon monoxide 200 times as fast as oxygen so a lot of the oxygen is displaced by carbon monoxide. The organs including the skin are starved of life giving oxygen and slowly poisoned by the carbon monoxide.
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robbster 20 Jun 2007 11:03 pm
Asbestos News (Mesothelioma)
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My name is Chris Loman and I have been volunteering for the Mesothelioma & Asbestos Awareness Center for about a year now. We are a website focused on a rare and extremely deadly form of cancer known as mesothelioma. A person who has been diagnosed has anywhere from a few hours to about 6 months to live. We know that mesothelioma is caused by asbestos exposure, and we have now been made aware that there is a relation between mesothelioma and cigarette smoking Last March I received an email from a woman in S.C. who seemed upset in her email. She let us know that her husband had recently been diagnosed and died, but it wasn’t from the occupational hazards of a jobsite. Incorrectly, our site listed asbestos exposure or second hand asbestos exposure as solely coming from work-related conditions. The woman who emailed us pointed out that the cause of her husband’s mesothelioma was from smoking. To better explain her story, she sent us information demonstrating that in the mid-1950s, cigarette companies utilized a filter that contained asbestos. Her husband’s habit of smoking Kent cigarettes nearly doubled his chances of developing a lung related illness. Thousands of others have died because of their lack of knowledge with this exposure. Additionally, she pointed out (which our research supports) that there is an increased likelihood of complications with mesothelioma if you were a smoker. This means that if people were exposed to asbestos earlier on in life, they are increasing their chances of further lung complications by continuing to smoke. My goal in emailing you is twofold. Much like we at MAA were educated on this subject, we’d like to make this information available to the readers of your site. Additionally, a link from your site will bring attention to our site and allow people to learn about this rare cancer. We feel a link to us would be a great enhancement to your already useful and trusted resource. I would like to thank you in advance, and at the very least, hope that I’ve brought this rare cancer to your attention. Sincerely, Volunteer |
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| This was first published on Ciggyfree ODAT ( Jun 20, 2007 at 10:49 PM ) |
robbster 15 Jun 2007 08:25 am
52 Proven Stress Reducers
1. Get up fifteen minutes earlier in the morning. The inevitable morning mishaps will be less stressful.2. Prepare for the morning the evening before. Set the breakfast table, make lunches, put out the clothes you plan to wear, etc.
3. Don’t rely on your memory. Write down appointment times, when to pick up the laundry, when library books are due, etc.
4. Do nothing which, after being done, leads you to tell a lie.
5. Make duplicates of all keys. Bury a house key in a secret spot in the garden and carry a duplicate car key in your wallet, apart from your key ring.
6. Practice preventive maintenance. Your car, appliances, home, and relationships will be less likely to break down/fall apart “at the worst possible moment.”
7. Be prepared to wait. A paperback can make a wait in a post office line almost pleasant.
8. Procrastination is stressful. Whatever you want to do tomorrow, do today; whatever you want to do today, do it now.
9. Plan ahead. Don’t let the gas tank get below one-quarter full; keep a well-stocked “emergency shelf” of home staples; don’t wait until you’re down to your last bus token or postage stamp to buy more; etc.
10. Don’t put up with something that doesn’t work right. If your alarm clock, wallet, shoe laces, windshield wipers - whatever- are a constant aggravation, get them fixed or get new ones.
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robbster 07 Jun 2007 08:01 am
Quitting Smokeless Tobacco at KillTheCan.org
KillTheCan.org, created in November 2006, is an online community of people with a common goal of quitting smokeless tobacco. This site hosts QS Xtreme! forums that feature:
1. Quit groups.
2. One day at a time (ODAT) roll call.
3. Hall of Fame (100 days quit)
4. The Playground (a place of distraction)
5. The veterans (those who stick around to help)
They also feature LIVE CHAT 
QSXtreme - KillTheCan Online Community
KillTheCan.org states that their site “isn’t about being the “best” site on the web… it’s about getting the most information about quitting chewing tobacco out to anyone who wants it.” Their members have made a total of 72,747 posts and as of June 7, 2007 they have 282 registered members.
Other Links:
Smokeless Tobacco Fact Sheet
Quitting Spit and Other Forms of Oral Tobacco
Cheers,
~robbster
CiglessBot 05 Jun 2007 02:55 pm
Smoking and Skin Aging
Smoking cigarettes ages skin faster than anything else apart from sun damage. There’s no gentle way of saying this. If you smoke cigarettes you need to stop. Aside from the many health issues associated with smoking, if you care at all about wrinkles and you want to look younger for longer, then smoking is out.
Whilst the number of cigarette smokers is dropping world-wide, there are still one million new smokers lighting up each year in the US alone – many of them young women who may later come to regret the irreversible effects on their looks.
“For smokers, middle-age starts in the their early 30’s as the tell-tale wrinkles around the mouth and eyes begin to appear. Young female smokers are likely to be wasting their money on anti-aging face creams if they continue to smoke.”
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CiglessBot 03 Jun 2007 07:52 am
Cigarettes are like a dirty syringe
If cigarettes were made without nicotine in its natural form or added to make them more addictive, few people would smoke them, says Prof. Peter Hajek, a clinical psychologist in London who specializes in treating and researching tobacco dependence.
Hajek, here on his third visit to participate in a Kfar Hamaccabiah conference on smoking prevention and cessation organized by the Israel Cancer Association and other groups, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview on Thursday that nicotine itself is “relatively harmless. It is the tar, numerous carcinogens and other rubbish in smoke that cause such great damage to health. Except for pregnant women, whose fetuses can be harmed by nicotine, cigarettes are like injecting a relatively safe drug into yourself with a dirty syringe.”
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