Anyone who is both a smoker and a pet owner can do one very important thing to protect the animal’s life and his own: Quit smoking. A growing body of research, including the surgeon general’s report, shows there are no safe levels of exposure to secondhand smoke for humans or animals.

Toxins in secondhand smoke can cause lung and nasal cancer in dogs and lymphoma in cats, plus allergy and respiratory problems for other pets. Yet nearly 30 percent of pet owners live with at least one smoker.

That’s why some groups are asking smokers with pets to “take it outside” or, even better, kick the habit altogether.

“While most Americans have been educated about the dangers of smoking to their own bodies and their children’s, it is also important that pet owners take action to protect their beloved domestic animals from the dangers of secondhand smoke,” said Dr. Cheryl G. Healton, president and CEO of the American Legacy Foundation, the national independent public health foundation dedicated to keeping young people from smoking and providing resources to smokers who want to quit.

“Nicotine from secondhand smoke can affect the nervous systems of cats and dogs,” said Dr. Sharon Gwaltney-Brant, medical director of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals’ Animal Poison Control Center. “Environmental tobacco smoke has been shown to contain numerous cancer-causing compounds, making it hazardous for animals as well as humans. Studies have shown increases in certain types of respiratory cancers in dogs that live in homes with smokers.”

The groups hope pet owners who smoke will be motivated to quit once they learn about the dangers to their pets. The foundation provides resources and information to smokers who want to quit for good through a national campaign called EX, as in ex-smoker. It encourages smokers to approach quitting smoking as “relearning life without cigarettes,” which may include putting that cigarette out the next time they take the dog for a walk.


This story provided by North American Precis Syndicate Inc.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) named Veterans Affairs (VA) official Dr. Lawrence Deyton to the post of director of the agency’s new tobacco division, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said she personally interviewed six potential candidates.

In his career, Deyton started public health initiatives such as a program at the VA that lowered smoking rates among veterans, and was also a founder of the Whitman Walker Clinic, a community-based AIDS service organization in Washington, D.C., the report stated.

The position was created after President Barack Obama signed into law legislation giving the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco, and the FDA began looking for a czar to oversee the new division, according to the report.

With the new law, the FDA will charge tobacco companies an annual fee to pay for the regulation. The legislation also bans candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes, and restricts companies to solely black and white advertisements, the report stated.

Hamburg said the FDA’s tobacco division will likely house hundreds of FDA employees who will help the agency implement the new authority, and noted the FDA is also reorganizing the commissioner’s office to help the agency communicate issues to the public and better oversee the tobacco industry, Dow Jones reported.


© Csnews

Health experts said that just as low-tar cigarettes still cause cancer, but a chocolate bar containing less fat is still fattening.
Australian’s junk food industry has adopted big tobacco’s tactics of ”deception, refusal and delay” for to move censure for the obesity epidemic and drive off regulation.

The Cancer Council and the World Health Organization said that the food lobby’s tempts to understate health risks linked to products high in fat, sugar and salt is like cigarette companies renouncing that smoking causes cancer.
The require come before a Federal Government report that could threaten the $70 billion food industry’s profits. The preventive health taskforce is set to dismiss a range of recommendations to tackle obesity that could include a ban on junk food advertising and tax increases on harmful products.
The Obesity Policy Coalition, which also includes Diabetes Australia, has compared pre-emptive moves by snack food companies to reduce fat and sugar in popular brands to low-tar cigarettes being marketed as ”healthier” alternatives.
In May, Mars Snack food Australia said it would reduce popular chocolate bars from 60 grams to 53 grams. And in June Australia’s fast-food chains pledged to stop advertising unhealthy products during children’s television programs.
The industry demands the move shows engagement to proposing healthy choices. But Jane Martin from the Obesity Policy Coalition said it was tricking consumers into thinking candy store was healthy.
She said that while some snacks had been restated to appear more nourishing, they often contained as many calories as originally.
Even the Dietitians Association of Australia, Australia’s largest professional nutrition organization, receives funding from major players including Nestle, Kellogg’s and Meat and Livestock Australia.
Ms. Martin said recent ads by Coca-Cola claiming the soft drink did not make people fat or rot their teeth proved the industry needed to be brought to heel.
”Where’s the sincerity? That’s exactly what the tobacco industry did. They disputed whether smoking was addictive and caused a whole lot of confusion around whether it caused disease or not … We used to have cigarettes sold with diaries, with CDs and key rings, now we’ve got fast food sold with toys and movie tie-ins. They argue it’s not there to encourage consumption – so why do they do it?” she added.
Kate Carnell, head of the Australian Food and Grocery Council, said it was absurd to compare food, which is essential to survival and not addictive, to cigarettes.
She reported: ”Nobody is suggesting that food consumed in excess of the amount of energy you expend doesn’t cause obesity. The issue is about a balanced diet which includes fat and sugar, and people need to exercise”.
But unlike tobacco companies, which produced only harmful products, the same food manufacturer that makes fatty meat pies might also sell nutritious cereal bars.
One leading health source said the tactics used by the food industry were similar to those used by big tobacco. For example, deny the evidence, delay, infiltrate yourself into governments, have big lobbying outfits, work through voluntary codes. It’s the same techniques.
■ Average volume of soft drink per person per year1970s: 43 liters
NOW: 113 liters
■ Fast food burger fat content
1980s: 12-24 grams
NOW: 24-42 grams
■ Standard size of a packet of chips1970s: 30 grams
NOW: 50 grams

Some coal miners’ rights to chew tobacco while working deep underground are on the line Wednesday.
That’s when an arbitrator is scheduled to hear a United Mine Workers of America challenge of a new policy that forbids employees of the Deer Creek mine and the Castle Dale preparation plant from having a pinch between their cheek and gum on the job.

The policy became effective July 1 at the Emery County operations by Energy West Mining Co., the unionized coal mining subsidiary of Rocky Mountain Power, at the behest of its parent companies, PacifiCorp and MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co.

“It is a policy consistent across MidAmerican Energy,” said Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen. “The company is concerned about the health and safety of its employees. A tobacco-free workplace is healthier and safer for everyone.”

Dave Maggio, the union’s international representative from Price-based District 22, which includes Utah, spit on that argument, while acknowledging that some miners are addicted to the product.

“We have guys dying of black lung [disease]. We have guys inhaling diesel fumes on a daily basis. We have guys who suffer back, knee and ankle injuries up the kazoo,” he said. “But we’ve seen no ill effects from chewing tobacco. None. And I’ve been in this industry 30 years.

“Nobody can point to a guy and say, ‘He missed a shift because of chewing tobacco.’ [Company] time and money could be better spent trying to
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alleviate things causing a lot more problems.”

Neither of Utah’s other large coal-mine employers, Arch Coal Inc. nor Murray Energy Corp., have similar prohibitions on smokeless tobacco, which is required to carry labels on its containers that include the warning the product might cause cancer.

The dispute began last December when the company’s director of labor relations informed Deer Creek’s local union president of the tobacco-free policy at all workplaces, effective July 1.

Union officials quickly filed a grievance, contending the policy would violate the collective bargaining agreement covering 276 Deer Creek miners and 17 prep plant workers.

The policy was not a reasonable revision of the agreement, the union said, contending that more than 100 miners — many of whom work eight to 12-hour shifts up to 14 miles underground — are addicted to smokeless tobacco.

Although the policy did make provisions for the remote locations where miners work, designating areas underground where they could chew during breaks and before and after shifts, Maggio dismissed the allowances as impractical.

“Chewing is not like smoking a cigarette,” he said. “You put it in your mouth and keep it all day. It’s not like, ‘Did you take a two-minute chew break?’ That’s not how it works. And there’s just three [designated areas] in the mine, which has 100 miles of tunnel. The odds of making it to one of these is stupid.”

According to court documents, Energy West and the union agreed April 20 to retain arbitrator Fred Butler to hear the matter. The union contends the company pledged not to implement the policy until after Wednesday’s arbitration session in Price, but that on June 18, Energy West officials informed Maggio that corporate higher-ups insisted the policy go into effect July 1.

The union went to federal court, but its efforts to delay policy implementation through a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction were denied.

However, in rejecting the preliminary injunction request, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball noted that “while Energy West argues that it will succeed at arbitration, the court concludes that the union has sufficiently demonstrated grounds for success on its arguments.”

Kimball ruled against the UMWA motion, in part, because the union could not show that any employees would lose their jobs or face severe discipline before the arbitrator determined whether the policy violated the collective-bargaining agreement.

But he also observed “it is not clear to the court which party will prevail in arbitration … It would be improper for the court to encroach upon the role of the arbitrator,” adding later that if a disciplinary case arises before the arbitrator rules, “the court is willing to revisit the motion.”

© Sltrib

Divan Restaurant and Hookah Lounge touts itself as Atlanta’s sexiest restaurant and this could very well be the case. It certainly had great ambiance and seemed to attract a number of couples. There are four areas of the house-turned-restaurant off of Piedmont Avenue. A patio area at the front entrance is shrouded in trees and vines. A lounge downstairs offers overstuffed cushions and intimate little nooks. A bar flanks the lounge area and then upstairs is standard seating. The lighting is dark and sultry and there is just something so sensual about sofas, pillows, hummus and many clouds of fruit tobacco.

Hookah smoke is not necessarily safer than cigarette or cigar smoke but is definitely more legal than other smoking options such as pot, crack, meth, etc. In the company of friends, good food and soothing music, it can be quite a relaxing and pleasantly aromatic undertaking. At Divan, one can receive the much needed serenity for which one may be desperately seeking. The practice is both sweet, calming and pleasantly aromatic. Feel free to accompany your shisha with a cocktail called Sunsplash which includes Belvedere and Grand Marnier. Take in some crab risotto croquettes, seared tuna and eggplant on pita. It is delicious.

Divan stays open pretty late for a dining establishment. Tuesday through Thursday until 1:00am. On weekends, as late as 2:00am. Monday’s smoke ends at 12:00am. Put a little money aside before you go to this joint because it is a bit pricey.

© Examiner

Tobacco growers and the state’s congressional delegation are seeing smoke over a plan by the Canadian government to ban fruit and chewing gum flavors and other similar additives which are added in cigarettes and cigarillos.

The legislators and the approximately 8,100 Kentucky farmers who cultivate tobacco said that the plan, designed to curb youth smoking, would result in a ban on American air-cured burley tobacco, which is used to make most of the states’ cigarettes.
Joe Cain, director of national affairs for the Kentucky Farm Bureau, said: “One of the biggest things it does is it effectively bans almost all flavoring used in products other than menthol. Where it becomes important to Kentuckians is that American blend cigarettes are about 25 percent burley. Burley gives it structure and body, but it’s bitter and kind of rude. It needs that flavoring to take the border aside of it.”
Many growers and their supporters feel that their industry is under political attack. The new legislation gave the Food and Drug Administration regulatory powers over tobacco.
The Canadian measure, which that country’s health minister, Leona Aglukkaq, declared also that she requires a 20-pieces-per-package minimum on cigarillos and an advertising ban in proclaiming generally read by children and young adults.
Even the Canadian Convenience Stores Association encourages the proposal.
A group of Kentucky lawmakers, reported: “While there are reasonable steps that the Canadian Parliament could take to ensure tobacco products such as those with cherry, milk chocolate and banana split flavorings are prohibited, that goal can be achieved without risking the jobs of tobacco growers in the U.S.”.
If other nations were to follow Canada’s lead in banning legal products made with burley tobacco, the market for American tobacco could become non-existent outside the United States, said anti-tobacco researchers. And, since 85 percent of burley tobacco is exported, the tobacco growers will be put out of business and their communities will be ravaged.
Statistics show that in Alberta, chewing tobacco, snus, cigars, cigarillos, and cigarettes are found in numerous candy-like flavors, with descriptors such as lemon, chocolate, mint, berry, and vanilla, many of which have been shown to be especially alluring to youth. In addition to overtly flavoring tobacco products, many additives are also skillfully used in indiscernible amounts to intentionally mask harshness and to increase the palatability of tobacco, encouraging the addiction to these products.

Flavoring additives have also been used by the tobacco industry to mask the smell of secondhand smoke to make it less objectionable to others.

If the thought of prancing about beachside in last year’s bikini makes you long for the forgiving sweaters and pants of winter, it might be time to consider salad.

• And not the salads of old: a sad piece of iceberg, lifelessly lying beneath an even sorrier tomato and glopped with ranch. With the wide variety of spicy lettuces available bagged or loose in most grocery stores, the endless possibilities of toppers and myriad dressing options, summer salad is sexy once more.

“Salad can be used as a vehicle for anything you like to eat,” said Jennifer Chandler, author of “Simply Salads.” “Anything you would eat without salad, you can put on a salad.”

And that includes fruit.

“Do something with fruit, and it’s always good,” said Richard Girard, chef at The Black Orchid Grille in Nashua. And he said as a good rule of thumb when using fruit, “Combine something sweet with something tart to get a good contrast of flavors.”

As an example, Girard said at The Black Orchid, they prepare a summer salad of pears mixed with strawberries, candied pecans and field greens, topped with a white balsamic vinaigrette.

“The white balsamic is a little lighter,” Girard said. “While the pears aren’t that sweet, the pecans and strawberries are, so the balsamic adds a nice tartness to balance everything out.”

And any kind of fruit will work, from fresh berries, to more exotic fruits like kiwi, mango and pineapple.

However, for those who freak at fruit on a salad, there is a way to man up the leafy dish.

“Just add some meat,” Girard said. “The protein will make for a manlier salad.”

Not only does adding a protein like chicken, salmon, beef or shrimp make the dish heartier, it hides the fruit, he joked.

For the “anything goes” crowd, Chandler even suggests using favorite barbecue recipes to spice up a salad.

“I don’t know that it’s the healthiest way to go,” she said. “But pulled pork barbecue actually works as a salad.”

Using a crisp romaine lettuce and a traditional ranch dressing, mixed with a little barbecue sauce, helps to pull off this slightly naughty salad.

“It’s a simple salad, and if you love pulled pork barbecue, you will love this,” she said. “Or you can use pulled chicken for a lighter version.”

And to really shake things up, Girard said, introduce a couscous or bulgur wheat to a protein-packed salad. He said he makes a Mediterranean salad using bulgur wheat, tossed field greens, cucumbers, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, zucchini and Sicilian olives, mixed in a lemon vinaigrette.

“And this salad begs to have a piece of protein on it,” he said. “You can even use beans, any kind of bean, really, on this salad and make it an entree salad.”

Chandler also recommends using a homemade dressing. Not only do you know the ingredients going into the mix, you aren’t getting the preservatives and added sugar of store-bought brands – and it costs less.

“And you can really use anything,” she said. “You can use just what you have on hand – some orange juice and a little oil makes a great dressing.”

Girard even suggests using a fruit puree as a nice, light substitute for a traditional oil and vinegar dressing.

But more traditional types can still find satisfaction in oil and vinegar, even as a background to something more daring such as fruit puree, with a few good rules of thumb.

Since most people use vegetable, canola or olive oil to make dressing, Chandler said, it’s wise to keep in mind what flavors you want to end up with in the salad.

“Olive oil is great, but it’s strong,” she said. “If you want a lighter flavor profile, use a canola or vegetable oil. That way, you will get the flavor of the salad ingredients coming through.”

As for the tart part of the dressing, Chandler recommends red wine vinegar as a safe choice.

“As far as how you put it together, some people do one part vinegar to three parts oil or two parts vinegar to one part oil, it’s all a matter of taste,” she said. “That’s the beauty of composing a great salad.”

And then there’s the backbone of any good salad, the lettuce.

“The greener the lettuce, the more nutritious it is,” Chandler said.

“So your iceburg lettuce is at the bottom in terms of nutrition, since it’s mostly water. The next step up would be Romaine, and people seem to really like that.”

For a meatier salad, Chandler recommends Romaine. But for a more delicate plate, she suspects baby greens or a butter lettuce blend may fit the bill better.

“The butter lettuce blends are not as crunchy, they have a little bit softer texture and are sweeter,” she said. “The baby greens have a little bit more flavor since they usually have the baby spinach, arugula and red leaf. These blends are better for a more tender salad.”

Chandler also advises not to be afraid of bag salad mixes.

“They’re great because you don’t have to buy eight different heads of lettuce. You have it all right there, and it’s already chopped up,” she said.

And for the penny conscious, she said stopping by a supermarket salad bar is a good way to cut costs.

“If you don’t want to buy a whole bag of carrots, you just want a few, you can stop at the salad bar and get all the things you like, and not have any left over to go to waste,” she said.

An exciting and tasty salad mixed with a variety of fruits, veggies and protein is a great one-shot way to get in the daily doses of nutrients we need, Girard said.

“I think you need like nine (fruits and vegetables) or something like that,” he said with a chuckle. “I know I don’t get as many as I should, unless you count coffee as a fruit and cigarettes as a vegetable. If so, then I’m doing alright.”

Source: Nashuatelegraph

Gov. Jim Doyle signed into law a statewide ban on smoking in workplaces, including bars and restaurants, at the state Capitol May 18.

Existing cigar bars and tobacco shops will not be affected by the ban, but any that open after the bill’s effective date must be smoke-free. The ban will begin July 5, 2010.

Thirty-seven Wisconsin communities already have local smoking bans in effect, according to a statement from Doyle’s office. Doyle said more than 70 percent of people in Wisconsin support a ban on smoking in all public buildings.

Doyle said the bill would have passed years ago, but until very recently the leadership in the state Assembly would not let it come to a vote.

“Today is a day that we can all take a deep breath and enjoy the accomplishment that will occur here today,” he said at the signing.

Many of the people involved in writing the bill have experienced the loss of a loved one because of a smoking-related illness, Doyle said. He emphasized the health risks for both smokers and nonsmokers associated with firsthand and secondhand smoke.

Doyle said it is estimated that more than 8,000 people in Wisconsin die from tobacco-related illnesses each year.

“A smoke-free Wisconsin will save money in health-care costs, improve public health and save lives,” Doyle said in the statement.

According to Pete Madland, executive director of the Tavern League of Wisconsin, passage of the smoking ban required compromise between bar owners and lawmakers.

“They will have to adjust to it. We hope all of those nonsmokers will start coming in and live up to their word,” Madland said.

The Tavern League negotiated the 2010 effective date into the bill and said its members are satisfied with the bill “for the most part.”

Earlier this year, Doyle increased the cigarette tax by $1, and he previously introduced the Wisconsin Tobacco Quit Line.

“I wish the ban would be implemented sooner, but I am proud the state is embracing the healthy direction the world is going,” he said.

W.C. Fields is said to have boasted that “He always cooked with wine and sometimes he even put some in the food.” Humour aside, cooking with wine makes a lot of sense to me given the natural affinity wines have with food. Today we twist the theme of cooking with wine and explore our regular allotment of wines with some extended thoughts about matching the wines to the recipes in our extended Entrée section.

You don’t have to cook with Gunderloch Fritz’s Riesling 2007, but one sip will have you swooning all spring and summer and should you be daring to enough to match it up with Pino’s lobster and linguine, you may never drink another wine.

It’s not that often that first release wines hit home runs but Fritz Hasselbach the owner of Gunderloch has done just that with Fritz’s Riesling. The grapes are purchased from five growers all with vineyards on the famous red slate soils of the Rheinhessen. The grapes are handpicked; the style is all about balance. Many blends were contemplated and assessed before this mix of 28 grams of residual sugar were combined with the bright acidity of the sensational 2007 harvest to produced this delicious wine.

Eminently sippable, this screwcap white with bright minerality and fresh fruit is tailor-made for the bustling Pan-Asian cuisine of Vancouver or even better with barbecued or pull pork dishes. This should definitely be one of your go-to value wines for the summer of 2009. Stock up by the case.

Equally suitable for the lobster is the Lungarotti Torre di Giano 2007, a trebbiano/grechetto blend from Umbria in Central Italy. Again it is the crisp, dry, round, elegant palate with grassy, smoky, mineral, lemon, green melon, almond, butter flavours that make the match. The acidity and somewhat austere styling of this wine makes it the perfect foil to the rich, sweet meat of the lobster, and frankly a much better match in my opinion than the classic pairing: usually a rich buttery chardonnay. Lungarotti continues to impress me with its ability to respect tradition, yet make very modern wines. All this needs is a screwcap to really take off in Canada. Available in select private wine stores.

A final suggestion for the lobster dish turns out to be one of the best new rosés in the market. Chat-en-Oeuf Dry Rosé 2008 is a blend of cinsault, grenache and syrah. From its appealing, super pale, eye-of-the-partridge colouring to its fabulously floral, fruity nose, this is as impressive as rosé gets for $14. Bracing citrus strawberry, red currant fruit flavours meld with a just a twist of lemon in the finish. Cool clean and food-friendly, this should work well with the lobster but would really excel with local, fresh Dungeness crab. Drink all summer.

Wednesday was cold enough to have me thinking about a stew; in fact it got me wondering whether this Victoria Day weekend would be another year in which we would light a fire in the old fireplace. Cold or not, and stew or just grilled beef, we offer three labels that can lift a stew or hamburger far above its class.

It’s been three years now and the Castillo de Monséran Garnacha 2007 continues to over-deliver for its price point each vintage. The nose is mix of floral and fruity notes with plummy, raspberry fruit flavours and a dusting of spice in the finish. You make the call hamburgers, chicken and ribs, spareribs or stew. At this price you should pick up a half dozen bottles and store them for unexpected guests.

The latest Tormaresca Paiara 2006, a blend of negroamaro and cabernet sauvignon is the perfect rustic red for stews, hamburgers and grilled meats. Tormaresca is a project of Tuscan legend Piero Antinori. It’s based in Puglia on the southeast coast of Italy where the long term goal is to restore the best of Italy’s ancient grape varieties. Look for lovely warm, fat, ripe, rustic fruit aromas with a dose of smoke and tobacco. There are supple round textures on entry that leads to more jammy, floral flavours with wisps of dried southern Mediterranean herbs. A go-to barbecue wine for the summer months, but that will easily transition into pairing with fall stews and mushroom dishes. Great value from Puglia.

Our final wine makes a very strong case for the oft overlooked and sometimes over-extracted petite sirah. The Concannon Petite Sirah Limited Release 2005 boasts a California Central Coast appellation and a big spicy, floral, licorice, black-cherry nose flecked with orange peel and savoury chocolate notes. The entry is round, dry, supple and elegant. More orange peel, black cherry, coffee, spicy, mineral, tobacco, licorice, prune/plum flavours mark the palate. A bit tart on the finish, but with good fruit intensity and finesse. Good value here and no doubt would be a perfect match for the stew – cool weather and rain prevailing.

Source: Vancouversun