As if this heritage educational institution for the female folk had been a smoking hub that the Principal Government College for Women, MA Road, Prof Mushtaq Ahmed Wani has declared it as “smoke free zone” adding that anyone caught smoking would be booked under law. An official handout said the Principal announced this during an anti-tobacco awareness programme held in the College, which was attended by Food Safety Officer Shabir Ahmed Lone and AK Wani, Senior Programme Manager, J&K Voluntary Health Association and students and staff members of the College.

The Principal alongwith the delegates put up anti-tobacco signatures in and outside the Institution.
He announced that “smoking in the college premises and within 100 yards of the college has been prohibited by government and anyone found smoking will be booked under law.”
He also authorised the College Sports Officer as his designated officer, to whom complaints against smokers can be lodged.
Interestingly, smoking among females has hardly been ever heard of in this conservative society.

Discarded cigarettes are to blame for a fire that damaged a southwest Houston apartment Tuesday, according to the Houston Fire Department. HFD was dispatched to the apartment fire in the 6100 block of Fairdale about 5:30 p.m. Firefighters arrived within four minutes and saw smoke coming from the second floor. The occupants were attempting to extinguish the fire when help arrived, according to HFD. Firefighters discovered the fire concealed in the wall from a second-story balcony extending to the roof. It took approximately 40 firefighters to battle the blaze, which was tapped out about 8 p.m. The fire caused about $20,000 in damage.

No injuries were reported.
According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), smoking materials (i.e., cigarettes, cigars, pipes, etc.) are the leading cause of fire deaths in the United States.
Cigarettes can smolder for hours, starting a fire hours later. To help prevent such a tragedy, the HFD and NFPA recommend the following safety tips:
Always have a working smoke detector
To prevent a deadly cigarette fire, you have to be alert. You won’t be if you are sleepy, have been drinking, or have taken medicine or other drugs.
If you smoke, smoke outside; however use deep, wide ashtrays on a sturdy surface.
Before you throw out the butts and ashes from ashtrays, make sure they are out, and dousing in water or sand is the best way to do that.
Check under furniture cushions and in other places people smoke for cigarette butts that may have fallen out of sight.
Always, keep matches and lighters up high, out of children’s sight and reach.

Douglas County employees taking a smoke break outside their offices will soon have to find a new place to puff – or just plain quit. Beginning on January 1, 2012, all of Douglas County’s grounds and properties will be entirely tobacco-free. The initiative includes the elimination of designated outdoor areas where employees and visitors are currently permitted to use tobacco products. Smokers won’t even be allowed to light up in their own cars if they’re on county property.

The decision follows considerable discussion by the county’s department heads and commissioners, and continues the county’s tradition of promoting a healthy and safe environment.

According to the World Health Organization, there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, even outdoors, said Bev Bales, Douglas County commissioner.

Douglas County recognizes that having entirely tobacco-free grounds is the only effective way to protect its employees and visitors from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke exposure, according to Douglas County Public Health leaders. As a government entity and large employer, Douglas County is at the forefront of promoting healthy behaviors, they added.

In September, the Douglas County Board of Commissioners approved a policy prohibiting all tobacco use on all property owned and leased by Douglas County government.

The policy, which addresses smoking and the use of any other form of tobacco including chewing tobacco, goes into effect on January 1, 2012.

The policy applies to:

• Buildings and grounds of property owned and leased by Douglas County government.

• Parking lots owned and leased by Douglas County government.

• County-owned and leased vehicles and equipment.

• Personal vehicles on county property.

• Douglas County parks.

• Use of tobacco within 20 feet of street-level entrances to county buildings.

The policy change supports the mission of Douglas County to enhance the health, safety and quality of life of its residents and communities and assures that employees, clients, and the general public are not exposed to secondhand smoke from individuals smoking on county-owned property, according to local health officials.

Douglas County Public Health Director Sandy Tubbs applauded the county board’s leadership in protecting the health of its employees and citizens.

According to Tubbs, the health risks associated with tobacco use and exposure to secondhand smoke are well documented. The U.S. Surgeon General has confirmed that exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke is a serious health hazard and that there is no risk-free level of exposure.

“The best defense that we have is prevention,” said Tubbs, adding that the policy is one of the most effective preventive measures available to employers.

Douglas County’s decision to go tobacco-free is not an attempt to force anyone to quit using tobacco products, health leaders emphasized. Rather, the tobacco-free initiative is a concrete way to demonstrate the county’s ongoing commitment to healthy living.

“We ask for community support and compliance in implementing this tobacco-free initiative beginning in January 2012,” Tubbs said.

Finding young people at a public meeting isn’t the first thing you’d expect on a Wednesday afternoon. Many, however, had personal reasons to weigh in about Lambton County’s proposed smoke-free public outdoor spaces bylaw. Lambton County’s Community Health Services Department is holding public consultations to gauge public opinion about a smoking ban for municipally owned and operated spaces, such as playgrounds, beaches and outside arenas.

Danica Sommer, 18, spoke about her father who smoked and tried to quit at a public consultation held at the Sarnia Arena Wednesday.

“Every time he came to visit us, his beard was yellow and his car was filled with smoke…” she recalled.

Seeing someone smoking — whether a parent, classmate or teacher — can be influential for teens, she said. She has heard of a six-month pregnant teacher who is still chain-smoking outside of a local school.

“Do we really want to expose our kids to that?” she asked the crowd.

Amber Mundy, 18, also spoke about the potential for modelling smokers. She is grateful her parents, who are smokers, never lit up in front of her and her siblings. However, has to contend with smokers when she visits the playground with her niece.

“In this day and age, there should be some common respect to not smoke near playgrounds,” she said.

The majority of attendees echoed the teens’ sentiments, supporting smoke-free public outdoor spaces according to an electronic survey conducted at the session. That mirrors previous public opinion studies conducted by the Community Health Services Department and York University’s Institute for Social Research.

More than half of 817 polled Lambton residents support a ban for all public outdoor areas, according to the Rapid Risk Factor Surveillance System. More than 87% supported a non-smoking bylaw for both doorways to public places and workplaces.

Helen Cole, Lambton County manager of the Canadian Cancer Society, spoke passionately about the proposed bylaw Wednesday.

“Today I’m here to emphasize the need for smoke-free outdoor spaces in Sarnia-Lambton,” she told the crowd.

Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada, she noted. In 2010, 28,200 Ontarians died from cancer and another 65,100 were diagnosed. More than two million Ontarians still smoke.

The Community Health Services Department held another public consultation at the Sarnia Arena Wednesday night. It will hold its final session at the Grand Bend Community Health Centre at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.

Debate has been rife over whether smokers can receive state-paid healthcare benefits, which I argue they should. In light of Jakarta Governor Fauzi Bowo’s proposal to exclude smokers from free healthcare in Jakarta, it is timely to review the reasons why this plan can’t be justified. One of the most cited justifications for the governor’s proposal is an economic argument. Smokers, proponents of the plan say, are not poor or can’t be considered poor and therefore do not deserve benefits intended for the poor.

But how do we define and measure poverty? Can smoking be included in the measurement?

One way to look at poverty is by measuring consumption levels. The World Bank defines poverty as the inability to fulfill a certain level of consumption for basic needs, such as food or healthcare. Thus, proponents say, smokers deprive themselves of basic needs by spending money on cigarettes. Spending money on cigarettes is a waste indeed, but this argument only holds true if the counterfactual holds: that they would otherwise spend this money on basic needs. But would they?

Proponents also argue that the proposal serves as a disincentive to smokers so they would give up smoking in pursuing a free healthcare. It is a sort of punishment for smokers, albeit a weak and dishonest one.

The addictive property of nicotine has made efforts to encourage people to quit smoking far from easy. Most smokers fail in their attempts to stop. Many have struggled, sometimes for years, and succeeded, but they often relapse. In addition, successful cessation is often linked to increased access to assistance to quit smoking rather than preventing smokers from seeing doctors.

Not only is this punishment not evidence-based, it is also deceitful. It is like changing the rules of the game when the ball is already rolling. Where were we when these smokers took a puff on their first cigarettes? Did we tell them then they were going to lose their access to free healthcare?

Lastly, there is my favorite fairness argument — that it would be fair to place the burden of smoking-related illnesses on those individuals who smoke and relieve the rest of the society, the non-smokers, from paying for their illnesses. Smokers, indeed, are more susceptible to some diseases and are likely to use more healthcare services compared to non-smokers. This argument is correct, but only superficially.

In saying that an individual is held responsible for his/her actions, we are claiming that the action is completely voluntary and based on complete information of what such action would cause. In the case of smoking, is it fair for us to say this behavior is completely voluntary and deliberate?

Most smokers started smoking when they were young; some when they were just toddlers. I would argue that the initiation of smoking, for many, is not a voluntary decision made following a careful deliberation on complete information covering what health hazards smoking causes. In fact, most smokers hardly have complete information. The small warning box neither tells them how likely they are to suffer from those conditions nor warns them how cigarette smoking will affect their household finances.

The lack of information is aggravated by the aggressive cigarette sales promotions. Smoking role models have long been established — from the infamous Marlboro man to a successful architect. At schools, peer pressure plays an important part in smoking initiation. Worse still, our soccer league is named after a famous cigarette brand. So don’t we, society and the state, allow all this to happen and shouldn’t we be held responsible for these individuals’ smoking?

Fairness demands that we treat smokers and non-smokers equally. But we can’t be completely fair on smokers unless we can be certain that “the punishment fits the crime.” Smokers smoke differently and non-smokers suffer from diseases causally linked to smoking, too. How can we correctly quantify the contribution of smoking on the development of those diseases? Is banning smokers, let alone their families, from free healthcare a proportionate and fair punishment?

In sum, excluding smokers from free healthcare has no strong justification. It certainly has no prior evidence, or perhaps even hypothesis, that it would succeed to change smokers’ behavior.

I am a strong believer that smoking is evil, but I also believe that imprudent public health policy, such as this, will only see the most disenfranchised suffer further.

Moreover, by adopting such a policy we risk going too far. If smokers are banned from getting free healthcare services, shouldn’t we move on and ban patients from receiving treatment in severe head injury cases resulting from speeding collisions without a helmet or seat belt? What about diseases related to a lack of exercise or salt consumption?

As a nation, we ought to care about the poor, including those who smoke. Rather than further depriving these people of services they need the most, the state should proactively help them to quit smoking, for example by giving them access to smoking cessation programs.

After all, the state should be held responsible, at least partly, from failing to protect its citizens from being smokers in the first place.

Naples commissioners have passed a resolution urging tobacco retailers to stop the sale and marketing of flavored tobacco products to underage youth in Collier County. The resolution was passed with a 6-1 vote. Beatriz Angeles, a member of Students Working Against Tobacco, shared with the city council images of what these products look like and how the marketing entices underage sales.

“I was extremely happy that this resolution passed. It shows great support for our SWAT youth and their local policy initiatives,” said Mayor Bill Barnett.

In 2009, the FDA banned the sale of flavored cigarettes, however; smokeless tobacco, cigars, cigarillos and other products are not regulated.

Currently in Collier County 11.8% of High School youth use flavored tobacco products as well as 3.7% of middle school youth according to the 2010 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey.

Many brave smokers will put their cigarettes down for the Great American Smokeout this Thursday and maybe even longer. “Yuma has the lowest smoker rates in Arizona, and we could conclude that those who do smoke are among the most addicted, the remaining are hardest to reach, which means that the people who do smoke need a lot of help,” said Christina Borrego, spokeswoman for Arizona Bureau of Tobacco Education & Prevention.

“They need to know how to do it right,” Borrego noted.

In support of employees and community members who will quit for at least that day, Yuma Regional Medical Center will hold a special celebration in the cafeteria from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Hospital officials hope to inspire and encourage smokers to quit for one day and set a long-term plan to quit permanently.

“People have probably tried to quit but weren’t successful so what we’re doing at YRMC is encouraging them to try again,” said Apryl Brand, project coordinator for the hospital’s Smoking Cessation Project.

Although the Great American Smokeout celebration at the hospital is primarily focused on employees and their families, the public is welcomed.

Starting on that day, the hospital will start a smoking cessation support group from 5-6 p.m. at YRMC Cafeteria Dining Room A. It’s open to anyone interested in receiving help to quit tobacco use. Counselors trained by the American Cancer Society will be on hand.

“Research shows that support groups can influence someone’s health care a great deal,” Brand said. “They might meet someone at the support group, someone they can call when they need to and give each other encouragement.”

The Smoking Cessation Project has been meeting for a year to decide how to roll out a program. Members decided to do it in three phases: educating patients, helping employees and starting a support group.

The patient program will roll out soon, but the group has decided to kick off the employee program and support group on the day of the Great American Smokeout.

“We’re not there to condemn or coerce, just support people in their desire to quit,” Brand said.

As a chemotherapy nurse, Brand has seen the effect smoking has had on patients and their families.

“I have seen the sadness to families whose member have been diagnosed with lung cancer and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease),” she said.

“And then there’s second-hand. It smoke shows up as asthma and pneumonia in people who use tobacco and their children. People need to do this primarily for themselves and then their families.”

Brand noted 700 Yumans are diagnosed with cancer each year and that 30 percent of all cancer deaths come from tobacco use.

Statistics also note that smoking costs about $195 billion in annual health care costs and lost productivity in the workplace.

In addition, the American Cancer Society indicates that 87 percent of lung cancers are attributed to smoking. Tobacco-related diseases affect 443 Americans and are responsible for 1 in 5 deaths in the U.S.

“Now that’s a lot of people,” Brand said. “We hope to cut down those numbers so people can live a healthy life.”

She noted the challenges in quitting. “Cigarettes have a lot of chemicals, hazardous, toxic chemicals, that are added to addict people physiologically and psychologically. People have told me it’s worse than cocaine and alcohol.”

She’s also perturbed with the rising popularity of smokeless tobacco, which allows smokers to get their nicotine fix while working in smokeless facilities.

On a recent trip to Circle K, an employee told her he regularly uses smokeless tobacco at work.

“As a nurse, I just had to tell him (about the risks). I don’t meant to preach, but I have to educate people. It’s part of my oath to do no harm and educate people.”

She also worries that “kids are probably using this and their parents don’t even know it.”

The Smoking Cessation Project hopes to educate people about the risks associated with all types of tobacco use, including cancer of the mouth, throat, bad teeth and bad gums.

The group is working closely with the Arizona Smokers’ Helpline — www.ASHline.org — which offers personal coaching, prescription medication and free over-the-counter items such as nicotine gum, lozenges and patches to help smokers quit.

In addition, most insurance plans, including the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS) covers medication.

With the hope that many smokers will quit for the Great American Smokeout and beyond, Brand offered a piece of advice to nonsmokers.

“We need to go easy on people trying to quit. Their nerves are on the line. We need to support them by understanding that they are going through a lot.”

Central Division Police yesterday began what they called a “crackdown” on illegal cigarette vending in the Chaguanas borough. During an exercise, led by Senior Supt Edward Castillo, of the Central Division, two vendors were arrested by officers along the Chaguanas Main Road for contravening the Tobacco Control Act 2009.

Police said a 44-year-old man, of Cashew Gardens, and a 33-year-old woman, of California, were arrested and charged under Section 15.1 of the act which prohibits the display of cigarettes for sale in T&T. They are expected to appear before a Chaguanas magistrate later today. Meanwhile, a 32-year-old Chaguanas resident was fined $2,500 on Wednesday after pleading guilty to the offence before Magistrate Gillian David-Scotland in the Chaguanas First Magistrate’s Court.

The vendor was arrested in a similar exercise on Tuesday afternoon. Under the legislation, which police sources said was rarely enforced, a person found guilty of the offence faces a maximum fine of $10,000 or up to six months in prison. Police said similar exercises would be conducted in the future to help curtail the illegal sale of cigarettes by street vendors in the borough.

Also included in the exercise was Acting Sgt Ramjitsingh and Cpl Ronnie Lee Gopaul of the Chaguanas CID.

Man named Gabriel Burulea demanding custody of their toddler daughter who held his ex-wife removed and transferred to him. He accused his wife taught Elena Burulea, his child of their marriage, smoking. This toddler’s mother, Elena Ursu, 28, upload a video on the Internet that featured she teach a toddler of two years and seven months of coffee drinking and smoke cigarette in their home in Bughea de Sus, Arges, Romania.

The couple divorced last year and the court gave custody to Elena Ursu. However, following treatment of the mother of his son, the father hopes to win its lawsuit.

Gabriel Burulea said, “She wants to make fun of me by showing me how she treats our son. But I hope it will backfire and become evidence for me to get custody of our child healthy drinks.”
Worse yet, the mother teaches her baby sucking on nicotine. “She does not like milk, she chose coffee. Her passion is not candy, she just wanted a cigarette. It’s horrible,” she said as quoted from Orange.

She continued, “When I visit our daughter, she looks very wanted cigarette and smoked a cigarette in her mouth. It was very painful.”