The short answer is that tobacco plants make nicotine to discourage insects from eating them (it is poisonous to them), so what one really has to do is make a connection between insects and people. Given the huge variety of life, it is often hard to remember that it is all put together in very similar ways. The fundamental mechanism of heredity based on DNA is common across all life, as is most of the core biochemistry that goes on. Among other things, that means that the basic mechanisms by which nerves work are similar across animal species.

Nerves have receptors to which various chemicals can bind, changing how the nerves operate. Nicotine binds to receptors called nicotinic acetylcholine receptors, which means that in addition to being activated by the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which nerves use to tell other nerves to fire, they are also activated by nicotine. Simplifying things a bit, nicotine often acts as a stimulant by making nerves fire more.

Now imagine what would happen if you ate an amount of tobacco the size of your head and scale that down to an insect eating an amount of tobacco about the size of its head. Even if you smoked that amount of tobacco, you would be a mess, but with smoking, only a small fraction of the nicotine survives the burning process. If you ate that much, you would certainly die. For an insect it’s even worse because they are more sensitive to nicotine.

When people use nicotine in smaller quantities they are basically taking small doses of what evolved to get an insect’s nervous system firing so much that it dies. Knowing this, you can make a pretty good, cheap, biodegradable insecticide by putting some tobacco into a sprayer filled with water and letting it sit for a while.

Nicotine in pure form is an oily liquid, which gets its name from the scientific name for the common tobacco plant, Nicotiana tabacum. That name came from Jean Nicot de Villemain, a French diplomat who sent tobacco from Brazil to Paris in 1560.

From boston.com, June 21, 2010

Tobacco, a crop under siege as the number of smoking bans in the United States continues to increase, may be turning a new leaf as a possible source of home insulation and biofuel.

At Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, researchers at its Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories have figured out how to tweak the genes in tobacco plants to increase their oil production, which could help spur their use as biofuel.

“Tobacco is very attractive as a biofuel because the idea is to use plants that aren’t used in food production,” said study co-author Vyacheslav Andrianov, assistant professor of cancer biology at Jefferson Medical College. He added:

We have found ways to genetically engineer the plants so that their leaves express more oil. In some instances, the modified plants produced 20-fold more oil in the leaves…

Based on these data, tobacco represents an attractive and promising ‘energy plant’ platform, and could also serve as a model for the utilization of other high-biomass plants for biofuel production.

The preliminary research has been published online in Plant Biotechnology Journal.

A giant cigarette butt in London’s Trafalgar Square in April 2008 is meant to highlight the scale of England’s largest litter problem and to launch a campaign to stop smokers from dropping their used cigarettes on the streets.

Tobacco, in the form of cigarette butts, is also being studied as a way to better insulate homes.

The London Evening Standard recently reported that the London borough of Harrow is studying innovative technology to recycle the butts into rolls of home insulation. Currently, the butts, about 4,000 of which are dropped in the town center every day, end up in landfills.

Harrow plans to collect them, sterilize them and break them down into insulation “pillows.” It got the idea from recycling company Igloo Environmental, set up by environmental researcher Shaun Grimes, who said he was inspired by seeing birds line nests with cigarette butts.

“When the cigarette ban came in suddenly we were knee deep in the things,” Grimes told the paper. “Our ultimate task is to rid our streets of ugly, toxic cigarette butts and recycle them into useful loft insulation after the removal of all the toxins.”

There is one place in Bhutan where the Indian-made Wills cigarette has not captured the tobacco market, not even the black one. The remote gewog of Laya smokes Chinese-made cigarettes like Hongtashan, Kingsize, Huangguoshu, Lian Xia, Hong Mel, Fupongyan, Five Bulls and Mellow Turong.

Layaps just call it “tangkhu,” which means tobacco – probably because of the difficulty in pronouncing the brands. The cigarettes are cheap and abundant and sneaked in from across the northern borders. Locals prefer Hongtashan, but King Size, costing Nu 80 for 20 sticks, is cheaper and more popular.

Laya smokers cannot remember since when they have been smoking, but say that Chinese cigarettes had been around in Laya for a long time – since Layaps and Tibetans across the border started trading. China is the largest single manufacturer of tobacco products in the world. It boasts a virtual monopoly in the people’s republic of China, which accounts for roughly 30 percent of the world’s total consumption of cigarettes.

“Indian cigarettes are expensive and tasteless. The Chinese King Size is the best,” said a smoker, Ugyen Dorji, 29. “For smokers with low income like us, Chinese-made cigarettes best suit our need.” A strong rumour that Chinese-made cigarettes would make the smoker impotent not long ago made Layaps think twice before they lit up, but today the rumour has died and smokers are convinced it was just a hoax. “I’d been smoking for six years and didn’t have any problem with impotency,” said Ugyen.

Other Layap smokers said that smoking is a common habit among Layaps. “It may be because of the cold and easy access to cigarettes,” said one smoker. “Many pick up the habit at a young age, especially those not going to school. Most Layaps aren’t aware of the tobacco legislation, which the National Assembly recently passed. “We heard that we can’t smoke cigarettes in dzongs, but that we never do even without a legislation,” said another.

Others, who heard of the ban on the sale of tobacco, said that they bring in the cigarettes for their own consumption. “Everybody brings in cigarettes, so there’s no point selling it,” said Wangdi, who calls himself a chain smoker.

Meanwhile, it is not tobacco that is bothering heath and local government authorities in Laya, but the number of medicines that Layaps bring in from across the northern borders. For many years, Layaps have been relying on unprescribed medicines, especially pain-killers, from Chinese Tibet. “Chinese-made medicines are more effective than the ones we get in our hispitals,” said Ugyen Dorji. “I’ve brought Crocin (Paracetamol) from China for my own consumption because it’s more effective than the Paracetamol we get from hospitals,” he said.

“I feel the Paracetamol tablet we get from tour hospital aren’t effective on me,” said 31-year-old Pego. “I’ve got used to the Chinese-made Crocin for 11 years and use it whenever I get a headache,’ she said.

Health officials have been frequently informing people not to consume unprescribed Chinese medicines, said Laya mangmi, Lhaba Tshering. “People were told not to use the medicines without consulting health officials. We even told them the hospitals wouldn’t be responsible for any complications,” said Lhaba Tshering.

Laya health assistant, Kinga Rinchen said that, although there weren’t any cases of complication, they have been warning villagers to avail medicines from them. “These medicines are strong in drugs and people will become dependent on them. It isn’t at all healthy,” said Kinga Rinchen.

By Gyem Thinley, Laya

MONTGOMERY — Delegates at the Alabama Education Asso­ciation’s annual delegate as­sembly endorsed raising taxes on gambling, soft drinks, ciga­rettes and corporations to raise revenue for public schools and colleges, AEA officials said Sat­urday.

But the 800-plus delegates, who set policy for AEA, also dis­cussed layoffs and salary reduc­tions as ways state legislators might balance spending with revenues in the 2011 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1.

Delegates voted against en­dorsing layoffs and salary cuts. But they did discuss, at length, those and other ”worst-case” options, said Anita Gibson, president of AEA, which has 104,000 members who are ac­tive or retired teachers or other public school employees.

The resolution that spelled out some of those options said in part that AEA recognizes that the 2011 fiscal year ”may be one of the toughest financial years that public education has faced in Alabama’s history.”

Gibson and AEA executive secretary Paul Hubbert, a pow­erful lobbyist at the State House, said the possibility of cost-of­living raises next year wasn’t se­riously discussed at the dele­gates meeting. ”The assumption is: There won’t be any,” Hubbert said.

Gibson said, ”We realize how bad times are.”

Delegates at the annual meet­ing, which ended Friday evening at a hotel here, also discussed raising co-payments for visits to the doctor, raising premi­ums and other options for increasing by as much as $130 million a year the out­of- pocket costs paid by teachers and others covered by the Public Education Employees’ Health Insur­ance Plan, or PEEHIP.

Hubbert chairs the PEE­HIP governing board. He said limited or maybe even no growth in state Educa­tion Trust Fund spending next year may force the board to raise out-of-pocket expenses by more than $100 million to help offset the steadily rising cost of health insurance.

Hubbert noted that tax revenues and spending for education will depend on whether and when the economy recovers, and how quickly. ”It looks like we’ve bottomed, but it doesn’t look like we’ll have a whole lot of new revenue to deal with,” he said.

Spending from the trust fund, the main source of state money for public schools and colleges, peaked at $6.69 billion in the 2008 fiscal year. It fell by $1.01 billion, or 15.1 per­cent, to $5.68 billion in fiscal 2009, which ended Sept. 30.

This year, after a 7.5 per­cent cut ordered by Gov. Bob Riley, trust fund spend­ing is budgeted at $5.28 bil­lion. But with $513 million in federal stimulus money, combined spending this year is budgeted at $5.79 bil­lion, about $109 million, or 1.9 percent, more than last year’s trust fund spending.

About $511 million in fed­eral stimulus money will be left for fiscal 2011, but state budget officials haven’t yet revealed their trust fund revenue forecasts for next year.

Among the tax increases supported by AEA delegates were:

> A tax on video bingo and other gambling of at least 20 percent of profits, excluding some nonprofit groups, estimated by AEA to raise at least $100 million a year.

> A 10-cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes and 10 per­cent tax increase on other tobacco products, estimated to raise $42.5 million a year.

> A 5 percent tax on many kinds of soft drinks, estimated by AEA to raise $150 million a year.

> Ending unspecified corporate income-tax loopholes. AEA made no revenue estimate.

”New taxes are going to be difficult in times of eco­nomic distress like we’re ex­periencing,” said Rep. Rich­ard Lindsey, D-Centre, who chairs the Education Appro­priations Committee of the state House of Representa­tives.

But Lindsey called a tax on existing gambling ”a re­mote possibility,” and said he had no problem with closing loopholes ”if they’re genuine loopholes that need to be limited for tax fair­ness.”

In my opinion, I think the key to the Mullins Auctioneer 28-7 victory this past Friday night at Fox Field for the annual Tobacco Bowl trophy game took place the night before the game.

Thursday the Aucs junior varsity team defeated the Swamp Foxes 26-0 at home. Fullback Tracy Dewitt ran for three touchdowns in route to the squad’s fifth win of the season. Ryan Fladger added another touchdown run in the game.

“We played pretty good and I think we had a real good season,” coach Tony Nelson said, adding playing a complete game made the difference.

Dewitt has been a bruising ball carrier with 10 touchdowns on the season, while running back George Rogers added speed to the backfield along with the heads up play of quarterback Justin Elliott, who is only in the eighth grade. Cornerback shaquan brown
has been making plays all season with multiple interceptions and big returns.

“I’m pleased with the way they played all year long and finished the season,” Aucs coach Brian Hennecy said.
Foxes coaches Jedd Hess and Tyrone Crawford said they’re team played a lot of close games and youth movement suffered some growing pains winning four games.

“On a positive note, we did have some unexpected players step up and lead, and I feel that a lot of these kids grew up this year and were able to learn how the game of football works,” Hess said.

The Foxes do have a few bright spots on the squad with the athletic play of Darryl Kelly, Tillman Sanders, Ira Lee and Kenyan Aiken.

This past Friday night the Pee Dee Academy Golden Eagles clinched a playoff berth with a 46-26 victory at home. PDA will hit the road to take on Northwood Academy in Charleston.

The Creek Bridge Warriors close out the season with a tough 47-20 loss at Latta but a standing ovation still goes out to the Warriors for never backing down and playing so many close exciting games on the season with a much improved offense.

Mullins cracks into the playoffs and will be upset minded when they travel to face Manning in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs.

Marion travels to take on undefeated Timberland.

By Naeem Mcfadden
November 2, 2009

NEW DELHI: The hype surrounding ban on smoking at public places seems to have vanished into thin air. A recent survey shows that the ban has not
been effectively implemented since it came into effect in October last year. The nationwide survey conducted by Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) with 11 partner organisations found that over 60% of the bars and restaurants flouted anti-smoking rules.

At least 211 public places were surveyed of which 127 flouted the law. “Our teams spent close to an hour at these bars and restaurants and measured the air quality using a small device. It highlights the fact that there are places where smoking in closed space is allowed. It is the non-smokers who are at a risk. There is an urgent need to take stringent action against clubs, bars, restaurants etc which flout the law,” said Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, executive director, VHAI.

What’s worrisome is the fact that the level of fine particles at these places was 32 times higher than the permissible limit. “Fine particle PM 2.5 enters the lungs directly and can cause serious damage. Studies have shown that non-smokers are at equal risk of developing complications if they are exposed to passive smoking. Our teams were there only for an hour, but the PM 2.5 levels collected by our device was way too high than the permissible limit. According to WHO, a person should not inhale more than 25 microns of PM 2.5 in a span of 24 hours,” said Dr PC Bhatnagar, member of VHAI.

In Delhi, the PM 2.5 levels were alarmingly high and the survey found the levels 64 times higher than the normal. “In Delhi, of the 12 places visited, violation of the ban was found in only five places,” said Dr Bhatnagar.

Experts say that a large number of public places were found to be violating the smoke-free rules. “Though the rule allows some eateries to have a separate smoking area, there are many violations. The rules have a set of guidelines like the smoking zone should be a separate area and should have an automatic door to separate the smoking and non-smoking area but this is not seen in many places. The waiters still go inside the smoking area to serve food or alcohol,” said Priyanka Dahiya, legal officer, HRIDAY-Shan, an NGO.

30 October 2009, Timesofindia

A satisfyingly succinct one act piece, The Tobacco Merchant’s Lawyer requires the audience to tune in its multi-lingual ears as it’s performed in the notoriously challenging Glaswegian accent in this English premiere of a new play by award-winning Iain Heggie.

Callum Cuthbertson’s technical skill and ability to deliver a good punch line as the local, Enoch Dalmellington, however, cannot be faulted. Despite a few stumbled lines, he is engaging and entertaining, playing the bumbling yet philosophical Dalmellington effortlessly and drawing the audience into the story. Set in a very different Merchant City to the one that stands there now, the script paints a lush picture of the streets of 1775 Glasgow, and the rich characters that walked populated them.

The detailed but simplistic set is ideal and Dalmellington’s luxuriant costume exemplifies the 18th century affluence of the successful port town. Unfortunately, the plot of this piece is decidedly thin, a disappointing outcome from one of Scotland’s most revered playwrights of recent times. A tale of Dalmellington’s issues with marrying off a dour daughter and trying to keep hold of all floors of his house in troubling times, much of the comedy relies on fortune teller Mistress Zapata’s ‘remarkably’ accurate prophecies for a 21st century Glasgow. You might need a Glaswegian in tow lest these tidbits be lost on you. Some audience members admit to being decidedly confused for the first few giggles that arise from the predominantly Scottish audience.

Though an enjoyable and gently amusing production, we’re inclined to think that perhaps this play will never quite be received as well as it is in its glorious home town.

By Caroline Hall

HAVANA – They’re called “cigar-factory readers” and for almost 150 years they have entertained the workers who hand-roll cigars in factories all over Cuba.

The Cuban government has suggested that these unique readers be designated as part of the world’s Intangible Cultural Heritage that the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization will vote on, together with another 110 candidates, at a the meeting to be held in Abu Dhabi beginning next Monday.

In medieval monasteries, a monk read from the Bible or other sacred texts to the brothers while they were having their meals. In the same way, cigar-factory readers stand on a platform and read to their co-workers, often for their education, though time is also allowed for horoscopes, sexology, novels and kitchen recipes.

Documents show that the custom began in December 1865 when a learned magnate called Nicolas de Azcarate decided to provide entertainment for the workers during their tedious job of hand-rolling cigars hour after hour, and at the same time teach them about progress and reformist ideas.

In just six months the example spread across the island and more than 1,000 reader jobs were created. The workers chose whoever among them had the best enunciation and raised the money to pay the selected reader themselves, Zoe Nocedo, director of the Old Havana Tobacco Museum, told Efe.

The choice of books at the time was a matter of negotiation: there were employers who imposed dull tomes of Spanish history on the cigar-rollers, but factories with more active unions brought in works by Victor Hugo and Emile Zola and so helped incite the growing anarchy.

In 1886 Spain’s colonial Captain General of the Island, Francisco Lersundi, pressured by the conservative bourgeoisie, banned the custom with the argument that is “makes workers undisciplined and they stop paying attention to their work,” but in 1890 it was reestablished, this time forever, Nocedo said.

The birth of radio could have put an end to the reader, but the custom was so deeply rooted that the factories alternated, as they do today, periods of reading with radio programs.

The readers nowadays are state employees with an enviable status: they read 90 minutes a day and spend the rest of the time preparing new readings or debating with the workers the meaning of what they have heard.

Amid the sweet cigar aromas and standing on a platform with a microphone heard throughout the factory, Jesus Pereira, 44, entertains his fellow-workers by reading to them in three sessions: the first two obligatorily dedicated to the press and the third to novels or self-help books.

It is Thursday and today it is time to read “40 Tips about Sex,” a text suggested by a group of female workers who complained about certain bedroom habits, and that had to go through the filter of a “reading committee” before being voted on by the workers.

The advice being read sometimes gets a laugh or a smile, sometimes protests, and the cigar-rollers can show their agreement or disagreement by banging the table with the curved knives they use to cut tobacco. One bang with the knife’s edge means “I don’t like it,” while a bang with the flat of the blade is a sign of approval.

Pereira is proud of having read to his 630 fellow workers at the prestigious Partagas factory from novels like “The Da Vinci Code” and “The Count of Montecristo,” and says that detective and suspense novels are the ones they like best.

Once when he was finishing a novel, he realized that the last two pages were missing, so he invented an ending and nobody was the wiser – the tobacco knives banged loudly that day, he recalled proudly.

Jesus is very popular because in his 23 years on the job he has added “special effects” – he imitates gunshots and doors slamming, cries out in a woman’s voice and in many other ways adds drama to his reading.

Like all cigar-factory readers – there are 213 on the island – he had a 30-day trial to win the favor of his demanding audience and get those tobacco knives banging loud and strong. EFE

By Javier Otazu
© Aht

The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) stated that the broadcast of cigarette advertisements violates human rights due to the fact that Cigarette ads have been manipulative.

“Cigarette ads have empirically offended human rights because they don’t contain clear and transparent information,” YLKI official Tulus Abadi said at a discussion in Jakarta on Monday, September 14.

He also said cigarette ads in various media feature manipulative sides. The information, he continued, did not include the danger of smoking. “I’m not surprised if the Constitutional Court decided to reject the suit. It’s because the information wasn’t clear,” Abadi said.

According to him, YLKI has set out various attempts to block the destructive effects of cigarettes over the smokers. The foundation has also filed a lawsuit against the House of Representatives (DPR) and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to Central Jakarta District Court for not ratifying the world’s agreement on the dangers of smoking.

However, the Judges declared the President and the House had fulfilled their legal obligation in protecting the citizens. “The President’s claim saying that he’s performed his legal obligation was an empty claim. There wasn’t any proof,” Abadi said.

He went on by saying, “If they really gave legal protection, the President and DPR should have created a regulation to overcome the danger of smoking. But in reality, that never happened”.

Another attempt that has been carried out to handle the danger of smoking was by proposing the inclusion of picture-based warnings illustrating the hazards of tobacco on every cigarette pack to the Health Minister.

Earlier, the Constitutional Court rejected the request of National Commission for Children Protection (Komnas Anak) to test the materials of Article 46 Clause 3 Law 32/ 2002 on broadcasting which becomes the legal principle of cigarette ads in Indonesia.

One of the reasons of why the Court rejected the test is because banning cigarette ads is a form of human rights violation. The Court also deemed cigarettes as legal products. Therefore, the airing of cigarette ads must also be seen legal.