Petaluma council toughens smoking restrictions

The Petaluma City Council unanimously voted Monday to broaden citywide restrictions on smoking to include private living spaces, medical marijuana and electronic cigarettes.

Most restrictions will take effect in a month in public places, such as bus stops, outdoor dining areas, city parking lots and commercial sidewalks.

The restrictions covering private living quarters will be phased in. In existing apartments, duplexes and condos -- any housing with at least one shared wall -- smoking will be prohibited beginning Dec. 16 to allow for leases to expire and to be changed. New multi-family housing units must be smoke-free by July 16.

Monday's action was a second-reading of the ordinance, usually capped by a pro forma vote with little dialogue.

But questions had been raised since last month's initial discussion, mostly about the inclusion of electronic cigarettes. No objections to regulating medical marijuana use were raised at either meeting.

Petaluma's ordinance was the result of efforts by the American Lung Association and other health groups to protect nonsmokers from exposure to carcinogenic second-hand smoke.

Police Chief Pat Williams and Pam Granger of the Lung Association urged the council to treat e-cigarettes the same as regular cigarette smoke.

An e-cigarette consists of a battery, a heating element and a cartridge that contains a liquid suspension with nicotine. When a user inhales from the cartridge, the liquid is heated and a vapor is emitted. The devices often look like a cigarette or pen.

Why quitting smoking can seem so hard

Smoking tobacco is both a physical addiction and a psychological habit. The nicotine from cigarettes provides a temporary, and addictive, high. Eliminating that regular fix of nicotine will cause your body to experience physical withdrawal symptoms and cravings. Because of nicotine’s “feel good” effect on the brain, you may also have become accustomed to smoking as a way of coping with stress, depression, anxiety, or even boredom.
At the same time, the act of smoking is ingrained as a daily ritual. It may be an automatic response for you to smoke a cigarette with your morning coffee, while taking a break from work or school, or during your commute home at the end of a long day. Perhaps friends, family members, and colleagues smoke, and it has become part of the way you relate with them.
To successfully quit smoking, you’ll need to address both the addiction and the habits and routines that go along with it.

Your Personal Stop Smoking Plan

While some smokers successfully quit by going cold turkey, most people do better with a plan to keep themselves on track. A good plan addresses both the short–term challenge of quitting smoking and the long–term challenge of preventing relapse. It should also be tailored to your specific needs and smoking habits.

Act Now or Risk Being a Nation of Smokers

Without government initiatives to curb tobacco use, Indonesia’s legion of smokers could double from 74 million last year to 140 million by 2020, new research by the University of Indonesia estimates.

While 27 percent of the adult male population in Indonesia were smokers in 1995, the figure jumped to 67 percent in 2011, data compiled from the National Socio-Economic Survey, the Basic Health Care Survey and the Global Adult Tobacco Survey indicate.
From 1995 to 2011, the number of female smokers rose to 4.5 percent from 1.7 percent.
The university’s Demography Institute attributed the rapidly swelling ranks of smokers to increased spending power among the country’s growing middle class, which made cigarettes more affordable.
The researchers noted that cigarette producers are still not required to place graphic warnings on their cigarette packs, as required in many countries.

What Other Adverse Effects Does Tobacco Have on Health?

Cigarette smoking accounts for about one-third of all cancers, including 90 percent of lung cancer cases. Smokeless tobacco (such as chewing tobacco and snuff) also increases the risk of cancer, especially oral cancers. In addition to cancer, smoking causes lung diseases such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema, and increases the risk of heart disease, including stroke, heart attack, vascular disease, and aneurysm. Smoking has also been linked to leukemia, cataracts, an On average, adults who smoke die 14 years earlier than nonsmokers.

Although nicotine is addictive and can be toxic if ingested in high doses, it does not cause cancer—other chemicals are responsible for most of the severe health consequences of tobacco use. Tobacco smoke is a complex mixture of chemicals such as carbon monoxide, tar, formaldehyde, cyanide,

Researchers have found a new technique that blocks an inflammatory protein

Researchers have found a new technique that blocks an inflammatory protein and reverses lung damage from tobacco smoke in a mouse study. The findings could lead to novel treatments for patients with COPD and smoking related lung diseases.

Granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is released from the effect of tobacco smoke and leads to lung inflammation, destroying the lung tissue and resulting in emphysema. Blocking GM-CSF reduced the inflammation and lung damage from tobacco smoke, reversing the harmful effect of tobacco smoke in mice given a GM-CSF blocking agent.

Ross Vlahos, Ph.D., a senior research fellow with the lung disease research group at the University of Melbourne says, "Cigarette smoke-exposed mice that were treated with an anti-GM-CSF had significantly less lung inflammation in comparison to untreated mice. This indicates that GM-CSF is a key mediator in smoke-induced lung inflammation and its neutralization may have therapeutic implications in diseases such as COPD."

The researchers exposed mice to tobacco smoke - half were given the GM-CSF blocking agent and the other half were used as controls. After subjecting the mice to tobacco smoke that was equivalent to nine cigarettes daily for four days, researchers killed the mice then examined their lung tissue, finding that the GM-CSF blocking agent "strongly reduced the number of potentially harmful white blood cells that infiltrate the lung after smoke exposure, as well as inhibiting the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor (TNF)" that could lead to lung cancer.

Quitting smoking is still the best way to prevent and reverse lung damage from tobacco smoke warns Dr. Vlahos. "Our treatment deals with cigarette smoke-induced lung inflammation involved in COPD, not cancer and other smoking-related ailments. Quitting remains the best and only cure for smoking-related lung disease." The findings that damage from tobacco smoke was reversed in mice by blocking GM-CSF could also have clinical applications for other inflammatory related disease.

Marlboro Country Store

At its 'Country Store'a recent issue of the U.S. edition of "Advertising Age", announces the launch of a new promotion for Marlboro - the promotion of the country's Store. Double album spreads in magazines such as Life and Sports Illustrated illustrate the range of fourteen elements of Western-style ...Stetson hats, belts and buckles, lariats, saddles, outdoor cooking items and so on. Order form asks for two Marlboro bag or box end label to send it. "Owls: in life should be strong in the high country of Marlboro", says an editorial in Ad Age ", according to the price points of Philip Morris Inc., was driven into its new cheap Marlboro Country Store promotion.
" We are talking about prices range from $ 225 for the lining of the sheep Cowboy sheepskin wool coat, to $ 2.50 per set of four "chuck wagon coffee cup."

American cigarette manufacturers increased advertising budgets by 85% since 1998 November throwing away the legal settlement with the states to curtail their marketing expenditure. The saga doesn't end just there; investigation reports reveal how inter-company feuds rage into wars decrying smokers of competitor brands as cowards and slobs so that they can push their brands harder.

Many cheap cigarettes manufacturers and exporters have their allegiance to the same manufacturers that can't watch their sales dwindling due to tax hikes and opened shops elsewhere in eastern European countries to take advantage of prevailing economic SOPs.

Buying cheap Marlboro cigarettes online or any discount cigarettes ordered over the internet may be legal and ethical as long as social responsibilities aren't breached. The only objectionable point here is silence of the importing governments and the practice of duality of taxation vis-a-vis locally manufactured cigarettes.