BRAVEHEART star Mel Gibson has given up smoking so he will be around to watch his new baby daughter grow up.
The 54-year old actor and director was already a dad of seven kids he had with first wife Robyn, ranging in age from oldest daughter Hannah, who is 29 and married, to 10-year-old Thomas.

His Russian musician girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, 39, gave birth to baby Lucia in October last year.

She already had a son with former boyfriend ex-Bond star Timothy Dalton.

Now Gibson, who has had some high-profile, well-documented problems with drink in the last few years, is determined to be around when Lucia grows up.

He said: “I want to play tennis with this kid, that’s it. I just want to run around and breathe, you know?

“I don’t want to be in an iron lung somewhere.

“It’s a blessing. My God, a new little life is always like, it’s just astounding to me. There’s nothing more gob-smacking or mysterious, it’s just like you look and you go oh my God, and she’s an angel, she’s innocent, she looks right through you.”

Fatherhood in his 50s is bound to be very different experience for the actor than it was the first time around but Gibson is hoping his experience will make him a better daddy to Lucia.

Mel said: “It is different because I’m different but the thing that isn’t different is that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get over the fact that there is a little life there in front of me staring at you with complete innocence and a total angelic blamelessness.

“It’s phenomenal. It kills me. So we’ll work with that and see if I can do it better this time. You should get better with practice.”

By the time Lucia is 20, Mel will be 73. It was this realisation that helped him make the decision to quit the cigarettes he had enjoyed so much for 45 years.

As he did interviews to publicise his latest film – an update of classic 80s BBC drama Edge Of Darkness – he revealed he has been smoke-free for nine days.

He said: “It was torture. The first three days, I was like an axe murderer. Day four, I’d come at you with a bat. Day five, I was dangerous with a lawn mower. It is a hellish habit to break.”

Smoking has not been Mel’s only vice. He was famously arrested for drink driving in 2006.

The storm was made worse when he made anti-Semitic remarks to the arresting police officers.

He ranted at the Jewish policeman: “Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world. Are you a Jew?”

Gibson has apologised three times for his outburst but it seems he will suffer the consequences of his actions for a while yet.

He has now been teetotal for three and a half years and when asked about that night, Gibson, fumes: ” I was loaded. I was drunk. Alright?

“Israel walked into Lebanon that day. And it was like, it came out and the guy reported it to the police officer and he ran to the newspaper – and it just turned into this whole big thing.

“Ok, I get sober and I’m like, ‘Oh f***, what did I say? I’m sorry’.

“I apologised profusely – not once but three times.

“So, what’s the problem? It’s four years ago. Do I need to apologise again? Do I? For you? Do I need to apologise again?

“Because I will if you require it. And I always take the opportunity to say: That was a bunch of s**t; that was bulls**t. “And if I scared anyone, or if I offended anyone, I’m sorry.

“It’s the truth. I don’t want to be the monster.”

He may not be a monster but he is certainly still the butt of jokes. Most recently, he was the target of Golden Globes host Ricky Gervais during Sunday night’s ceremony.

The comic, holding a glass of beer, told the audience of Hollywood A-listers: “I like a drink as much as the next man… unless the next man is Mel Gibson.”

He then introduced Gibson, who jokingly slurred his words before handing out the best director gong to James Cameron.

Perhaps acting again, in his first film role since The Singing Detective in 2003, will win back fans who flocked to see his films in the 80s and 90s in films such as the Lethal Weapon and Mad Max franchises.

And, of course, 1995’s Braveheart, for which he won best picture and best director Oscars.

Since 2000, Gibson has remained behind the camera, directing raw and controversial films like The Passion Of The Christ and Apocalypto.

But now he’s back in front of the camera in the Hollywood remake of the 1985 BBC nuclear thriller Edge Of Darkness.

He stars as Craven, the role played by the late Bob Peck in the original, a widower cop who witnesses the murder of his daughter and embarks on a mission to discover her killer.

Gibson admits that the good looks that made him a pin-up in the 80s are now gone. He laughs: “I look like, ‘Eww!’ – all drawn-out and leathered out and I have aged.

“It’s just a natural part of the holy human condition. What am I going to do? Surgery or something? That just looks weird. Besides, that must hurt.”

Mel, who was born in New York but raised in Australia after his family emigrated in 1968, claimed he hasn’t missed acting, describing directing as “a big one. It’s a ball.”

But he added: “Acting is more lucrative. It’s easier and it’s my first love. I took some time away. I felt that I was stale and I came back and I feel like some kind of maturation happened where the choices I make now are quite different from the choices I would have made eight years ago.

“It’s good to get back on the bike and go for it again and it wasn’t necessarily the material that brought me back, it was just time to come back. And it was just the best thing that was there. It was a good vehicle, a good story.”

After Edge of Darkness, which also stars Ray Winstone, we’ll se Gibson in comedy The Beaver and Mexican prison thriller How I Spent My Summer Vacation.

Being back on the big screen may bring Mel renewed fan interest but he refuses to have bodyguards – though he does admits to keeping a gun near his bed.

“In this day and age, you’ve got to be tooled up. If they walk in on you, I’m not going to let them whip me. If your number’s up, its up, you know?

“I’ve had the weird stuff and its like, ‘OK, so what, I’m not dead yet’.

“If I’m lying in bed and somebody comes into my room, I’ll either wake up or I won’t. And I’ll either hit them with my big stick that I’ve got or my gun that I’ve got.”

So now the star of Lethal Weapon has his own lethal weapon? He admits: “It is a bad way to live. But that’s what you’ve gotta do.”

Edge Of Darkness is released on Friday, January 29

A ban on federal Health Department employees taking cigarette breaks has been criticised as a heavy-handed measure that may be difficult to legally enforce.

From February 1, employees will be banned from smoking during work hours or ”when representing the department in any capacity”, according to a memo sent to staff at Christmas.

Staff will be permitted to smoke only during meal breaks, but not within 15 metres of the workplace, in a move aimed at improving their health and the ”professional reputation of the department”, the memo said.

Anti-smoking campaigners are hopeful the policy will be the first step towards a nationwide ban on public servants taking cigarette breaks.

The policy directive, issued by the secretary of the Australian Department of Health and Ageing, Jane Halton, said the ban was on ”all employees while they are on duty (apart from official meal breaks) or when representing the department in any capacity”.

”While no departmental employee will be permitted to smoke during the working day, smoking before or after these hours, or during the lunch period, is permitted. However, to ensure that as a department we project an appropriate professional image I also propose that no employee be permitted to smoke within 15 metres of any premises occupied by the department at any time.”

The president of the Australian Council of Civil Liberties, Terry O’Gorman, said the directive was ”excessive and heavy handed”.

”People who are addicted to smoking would be, in effect, forced to have an uncomfortable, and some would say worse than uncomfortable, working day simply because they’re employees of the Health Department,” Mr O’Gorman said.

Nick Duggal, a solicitor specialising in employment laws with TressCox Lawyers, said the policy had legal ”question marks”.

”I don’t think they can justify it on the health and safety of the individual who is smoking but they can on other employees in the workplace,” Mr Duggal said. ”Smoking is a private individual choice which is irrelevant to their employment where it does not affect the health and safety of the workplace.”

Ms Halton’s memo said the ban was a ”lawful and reasonable” direction under the Public Service Act and breaches would be dealt with ”in the same manner as any other potential breach of the APS code of conduct”.

The memo offered support to those wanting to quit smoking.

NSW public servants were allowed to take ”reasonable” cigarette breaks under the award, said the assistant general secretary of the Public Service Association NSW, Steve Turner.

”Smoking is an addiction. If you’re going to get draconian about it you better start paying for the courses to help remove the addiction,” Mr Turner said.

The chief executive officer of Action on Smoking and Health, Anne Jones, said that while unwritten policies banning cigarette breaks were common, this was much more explicit.

”It’s unusual and it will be interesting to see how many others might follow it,” she said.

The deputy national secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union, Nadine Flood, said the policy was ”well intentioned” but ”ill considered”.

Similar bans were instituted last year at the federal Department of Innovation and the ACT Department of Territory and Municipal Services, Ms Flood said.

”Rather than focus on the positive support they are offering employees to quit, they have also started by threatening disciplinary action,” she said.
Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

SMOKELESS CIGARETTES are (allegedly) the solution for the smoker who hates the rain, can’t make it through a two-hour movie, can’t make the trek outdoors during the workday or finds the idea of a four-hour flight unbearable.

There are various types, the most widely available being the electronic cigarette, which contains a liquid containing nicotine that is vaporised and inhaled. Ryanair now sells the other most popular type, in the form of Similar smokeless cigarettes.

Ryanair’s head of communications, Stephen McNamara, says the product was introduced due to customer demand. “Some passengers can find it stressful to spend long journeys without a cigarette so we introduced the product based on customer feedback and to cater to passenger demand. It seemed a logical step to introduce a product that could provide smokers with relief from nicotine withdrawal.

“Smokers enjoy the ‘taste’ of the product while many have reported that is has helped them take the stress out of flying as they no longer worry or feel anxious about missing when they can get their next nicotine hit during a flight.” But how similar are Similar cigarettes? While it seems feasible that these cigarette-alikes will substitute for the real thing on a short-haul flight, how do faux fags fare in the real world? Dan Kinsella is an IT consultant who tried electronic cigarettes as a somewhat healthier alternative to smoking. “They only provide nicotine, as opposed to all the chemicals in a normal cigarette.” Was he satisfied? “You don’t get quite the same feeling,” he says. “After a while I went back on normal cigarettes.” He did, however, find them useful for avoiding the smoking ban. “I used to smoke at my desk, when I didn’t have time to go out for an ordinary cigarette.” Richard and Celine O’Connor both use electronic smoking devices – he a pipe, she cigarettes. Richard says that, aside from a minor issue – “they come in many flavours (anything from vanilla to Red Bull) but I’m finding it difficult to find a flavour I like” – they are very convenient for the couple. “My wife had to spend a night in hospital recently, and we both brought our electronics in. We were happily puffing away when we were caught by a nurse.” A quick demonstration allayed her fears.

I spent a day with Ryanair’s Similar branded smokeless cigarettes: a packet of 10, purchased for €6 on board a Ryanair flight, to see how it feels to smoke on the right side of the law.

The first thing I notice is that they smell, to all intents and purposes, like what one’s mother might call “sucky sweets” – irrefutably better than mainstream cigarettes, albeit slightly strange. They feel like real cigarettes and, crucially, they look like them.

I initially thought my Luas journey might cause difficulty. People, in my experience, are usually – and rightly – quick to complain when they see someone lighting up and, unlike clubs or pubs, bright lights mean I’m in plain sight. No waiting for plumes of smoke or that tell-tale smell.

People look – probably wondering whether I’m insane, given that I am sucking on what looks like an unlit cigarette – but complaints are few. The embarrassment, for the self-

conscious, is one big drawback of the smokeless cigarette. Whether they’re saying it or not, people are wondering what in the world you’re doing.

I see a flicker of interest from the woman across from me. “You’re not going to light that, are you?” No, you don’t light smokeless cigarettes. You suck on them as you would an ordinary cigarette, without the irritating lighter fumblings. I take a drag.

“They’re smokeless cigarettes,” I say, and exhale. No smoke; any idea I might have had about smoking being “cool” – has gone out the window. I am slightly embarrassed. I take another pull and glance at my interrogator.

“I’m spending a day with smokeless cigarettes.” She looks sceptical.

“But when do you know when it’s finished?” A-ha. The problem with not lighting a cigarette is immediately apparent; for as long as you suck on it, it emits that slightly sweet, fabricated taste. You will never get to the end of your smokeless cigarette. Of course I didn’t spend a day smoking the same one, but you get my drift; furthermore, there is something infinitely wasteful about putting a whole, seemingly unsmoked, cigarette in the bin. If you can’t find a bin, you risk putting it back in the packet and re-smoking it later on. A handy money saver, if a little disgusting.

At work there is more confusion. Explaining what a smokeless cigarette is gets tiring quickly.

Smoking in the lunchtime queue in the deli seems precarious; the place is packed and it’s all I can do to balance my sandwich and bottle of water while counting out change. I give up. Later that evening, five smokeless cigarettes down, I go to the cinema with another friend who, in the dim light and without the odour or glowing embers, is the only one to notice what I’ve got in my mouth. “What is that?” I almost wish I’d painted a sign. “It’s a smokeless cigarette,” I whisper. “Oh, are you giving up?” Well, no, not quite.

Similar cigarettes contain 0.8mg of nicotine – compared to 0.5mg in my usual cigarette of choice. They do, therefore, sate my nicotine cravings – but so do patches, and they don’t come with endless questions. What they don’t, in fact, do, is act like a cigarette. There is no smoke and the taste is entirely different – the problem is nicotine on its own isn’t enough, which is why we smoke at all. In order to work, nicotine replacements need to be coupled with large amounts of willpower.

Smoking a cigarette that looks like a cigarette, acts like a cigarette but neither tastes nor feels like a cigarette (while giving you more nicotine than a cigarette) seems an odd choice.

Smokeless cigarettes allow you to smoke and obey the law – in the comfort of your desk chair, on public transport, in the back of a taxi – but you don’t get what smokers (perhaps mistakenly) see as the “satisfaction” of smoking. It’s like being on a diet where you’re advised to sniff a piece of chocolate without eating it.

If you can’t face going without smoking for four hours or so (Ryanair’s longest flight from Dublin is currently to the Canary Islands), you may want to indulge in some smokeless cigarettes. Alternatively, you could consider that four hours is about as long as Titanic – and the prospect of watching that is infinitely more painful than a few hours of nicotine cravings.

November 18, 2009 Irishtimes

In July of this year, the Food and Drug Administration released a study that condemned electronic cigarettes as an unsafe alternative for smokers, but not all physicians are convinced that the study was accurate or even completely transparent to the tax payers that fund them.

“We urge FDA to make public the laboratory data behind the July 22 condemnation of electronic cigarettes, along with comparable data on pharmaceutical nicotine products and conventional cigarettes. Then, on the basis of these data, either fully justify or retract the July 22 condemnation of electronic cigarettes,” says Joel L. Nitzkin, Chair of the American Association of Public Health Physicians Tobacco Control Task Force in a letter to the FDA.

The letter specifically targets the new tobacco legislation that passed through Congress this summer which gives the FDA power to regulate tobacco products in the United States and notes that the success rate of current smokers who attempt to quit by using pharmaceutical aids is as low as 5%. Making smokers more aware of less harmful alternatives, snus and e-cigarettes included, could significantly reduce the amount of smokers who die due to tobacco-related illnesses.

“Contrary to prevailing conventional wisdom, virtually all the heart and lung disease from conventional cigarettes, and an estimated 98% of the cancer mortality, are due to direct inhalation of fresh products of combustion deep into the lung. Our best estimate (based on the work of Pankow et al and others) is that only about 2% of the cancer mortality from cigarettes is from the named carcinogens commonly found in tobacco products,” says the letter. The FDA’s study in July found miniscule amounts of carcinogens in a few e-cigarette cartridges, but failed to provide any data on the amount of those same carcinogens in pharmaceutical nicotine products.

The message the AAPHP is sending to the FDA is a clear one and that is that electronic cigarettes are not the wildly dangerous alternatives that they have been portrayed as in news publications and on television, but perhaps one of the best products available for current smokers to switch to. Only time will tell if the FDA will retract their July study in favor of a more complete one or if smokers will continue to be limited to only products offered by big tobacco or big pharma with no explanation.

BILLINGS, MONTANA — Montana’s state smoking ban went into effect on October 1st, and the most immediate beneficiary are tribal casinos in the state. As smokers scramble to find locations that are permitted by the government to cater to them, tribal casinos are seeing a big jump in customers, many of whom are deserting the licensed casinos they used to patronize.

“Reservations are sovereign governments,” said Linda Lee, a supervisor with the state Tobacco Use Prevention Program. “Unless they pass their own similar smoke-free laws, native-owned casinos on reservations have the choice whether to be smoke-free.”

Tribal casino officials are reporting a surge in customers seeking first-time directions, even if it means driving further than the local gambling venue. Even the lack of alcohol, as the reservations in the area are dry, cannot stem the flow of smokers taking their dollars out of the reach of state collectors.

Other states, including Colorado, Illinois, and New Jersey, have seen abrupt drops in gambling and casino sales upon the implementation of smoking bans. Other states have purposely exempted casinos from smoking bans, content to sabotage small restaurateurs and bar owners without killing their own golden goose.

“Gambling without smoking is like trying to eat meat without salt,” said the manager of tribal casino Little Bighorn Casino, Wales Bull Tail.

Onlinecasinosphere

Electronic cigarettes have been on the market for a long time, said Matt Chandler, a senior in the College of Technology, but are becoming increasingly popular in recent years due to more people wanting to quit and a higher number of city-wide smoking bans. He said that since purchasing Blu Cigs, a brand of e-cigarette, he has only bought one pack of Camels in almost a month.

“They are great because you get the normal dose of nicotine just like a real cigarette; they taste, look, feel and smoke like a regular cigarette, but you don’t get any of the bad health effects from normal smoke,” he said. Chandler explained that his e-cig vaporizes a small cartridge of nicotine, which is then processed into water vapor that you exhale into realistic-looking smoke.

Another aspect that interested Chandler was that there are no bans, regulations or city ordinances against them.

“Technically, I can puff on it anywhere,” Chandler said. “I really don’t do it very often in class, but I do in the bars and people always give you weird looks.” He said that the stares are understandable due to the bright blue light in the place the flame normally occupies.

“Most of the people see the smoke and the light and are curious to what this is about, and those that do smoke almost always ask where they can get one,” Chandler said.

Furthermore, e-cigs are substantially cheaper. Chandler’s Blu Cigs in particular are 75 percent less expensive than the everyday cigarette.

Chandler Wall, a senior in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, believes that his purchase of Blu Cigarettes was well worth the initial cost.

“In the long run, they are definitely cheaper,” Wall said. “The ultimate goal, at least for me, was to quit smoking and buying packs, and if you can spend $60 on the kit and cartridges and finally quit, then it is money well spent.”

Chandler said that when he finally broke down and bought his single, relief pack of cigarettes, he could feel the difference in his chest when he was walking though campus.

“I was shorter of breath when I was walking to class, and it definitely showed me the significance of quitting for even one month,” he said. “I like seeing other people with them on campus. We usually acknowledge each other and keep walking, but it is cool to see that it is growing because I think it is a really good product.”

Wall agrees that the discovery of e-cigs help people only in positive ways. “Once you get your mind out of the fog, you can finally see clearly,” he said. “Along with producing no ash or odor, you will never have to step away from what you’re doing for a cigarette break ever again and you can see your day become much more productive.”

By Ryan Free, 10/15/2009

Because there are still days before you vote on the 2009-10 spending plan, time still exists for Pennsylvania to end its distinction as the only state in the country that does not tax smokeless tobacco.

As you wind up the longest budget negotiating session in state history, it seems apparent the state coffers could use the $50 million estimated to come in from the tax. Some projections put that figure even higher depending on how the tax is structured.

This is a reasonable tax, something akin to the tax under consideration to be added to a pack of cigarettes. It’s good to see leaders proposing a tax on cigarillos, the small cigarlike smokes that come in many flavors.

Just as with cigarettes, a health benefit also comes into play with the smokeless tobacco tax.

Diseases such as oral, pancreatic and esophageal cancers are linked to smokeless tobacco, and it is considered an addictive substance. If we care so much about helping cigarette smokers kick the habit, then why not the same thinking on smokeless tobacco users?

Many of those users are young. Because of the new kinds of smokeless tobacco — including varieties that don’t even involve spitting — organizations such as the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids say more teens are being enticed by these products.

Today’s smokeless tobacco includes varieties that come in little chewing gum-size packets, sold in tins similar to those for breath mints. Other containers are in the shape of cell phones, making them easily carried in a pocket with little detection.

They believe as cigarette sales decline — because of cost, more education and clean indoor air laws — there is an entire new generation who will choose smokeless tobacco. Pennsylvania has one of the highest percentages of smokeless tobacco users in the country, especially among young men.

The tobacco lobby is powerful and, by all accounts, has been busy and successful in its quest to snuff out the tax. As an aside, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics, the tobacco industry donated $415,950 to Pennsylvania candidates and campaign committees in 2008. That was up from $161,455 in 2006. The data show that 81 percent of the funds went to the GOP.

The argument is made that Pennsylvania is building a niche cigar sales business in the state, and it is difficult to argue with economic development. One cigar business, this year during a hearing, told lawmakers that a tax on cigars would force it to suspend construction on a new headquarters and warehouse in Bethlehem and move.

Considering all other states have the cigar tax, it’s difficult to see how imposing it would put Pennsylvania at any further disadvantage.

The governor should be commended for trying to push this tax during the last few years. This year there was at least serious conversations about it. We hope you lawmakers will take the next few days to consider the levy and decide to push for the increase.

It makes sense for Pennsylvanians fiscally, and for many, for their health.

© September 25, 2009 Pennlive

Q: Plants can nourish and heal, but what are a few of Mother Nature’s truly “Wicked Plants,” such as the weed that killed Abraham Lincoln’s mother?
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A: Cows that eat white snakeroot produce the poison milk that likely undid Nancy Hanks Lincoln, leaving behind 9-year-old Abraham, says Amy Stewart in her book of the above title. Milk sickness was so common that Milk Sick Ridge and Milk Sick Cove are still attached to Southern locales where the disease was rampant. Stewart points also to a tree that sheds poison daggers, a glistening red seed that stops the heart, a shrub that causes paralysis and a vine that can strangle — “you don’t want to meet these in a dark alley.”

Other historical wickednesses include the poison hemlock that killed the Greek philosopher Socrates; ergot, a fungus that grows on rye and causes wild hallucinations, perhaps underlying the deranged behavior leading to the Salem witch trials; monkshood, with a toxin so powerful Nazi scientists used it in poison bullets. Even simple corn, when grossly overeaten, can cause the ghastly symptoms of pellagra, a syndrome that may have inspired European myths of vampirism in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”: pale skin that erupted in blisters when exposed to the sun, sleepless nights brought on by dementia, and a morbid appearance just before death.

“Yet without question,” Stewart concludes, “the world’s most wicked plant is tobacco (nicotiana tabacum), responsible for the deaths of 90 million people worldwide.”

Q: When is laughter NOT the “best medicine,” far from it, in fact? Gelotophobes know this one all too well.

A: “Gelotophobia,” from the Greek “gelos” for laughter, means the fear of being laughed at and describes people hypersensitive to others’ negative moods, Constance Holden says in Science magazine. They mistrust smiling faces and are unable to discriminate between friendly and hostile laughter, i.e., between teasing and ridicule. This was no laughing matter in recent school shootings in Germany, in which the perpetrators reportedly had a horror of being mocked. About 10 percent of the population has some degree of gelotophobia, researchers Ilona Papousek and Willibald Ruch said in the journal “Personality and Individual Differences.”

Q: Love might be “blind,” but wouldn’t even blind lovers prefer pairing up with attractive partners?

A: Some do, as discussed by University of Birmingham professor John Hull, who himself went blind, David G. Myers says in “Psychology.” A colleague’s remarks on a woman’s beauty would strongly affect how Hull felt. He found this “deplorable. … What can it matter to me what sighted men think of women … yet I do care, and I do not seem able to throw off this prejudice.”

Overemphasis on looks seems unfair and unenlightened. An analysis of 100 top-grossing films found attractive characters were portrayed as morally superior to unattractive ones. But Hollywood’s modeling doesn’t explain why even babies — judging from their measured “gazing times” — prefer looking at attractive over unattractive faces!

Send questions to strangetrue@cs.com.

Miami, FL – While smoking increases a person’s risk of developing multiple sclerosis, nicotine may not be the culprit, according to Swedish researchers.

The scientists, from the University of Karolinska, said in a statement that male smokers were almost two times more likely than non-smokers to develop MS, and women smokers were almost one and a half more likely to develop the disease.

But the same does not hold true for users of a Swedish smokeless tobacco product, known as snus. This led the researchers to conclude that other factors in cigarette smoke may be behind the MS risk.

Snus is made differently than tobacco used in cigarettes and other types of smokeless tobacco, and research shows that snus users do not develop many ailments associated with tobacco use.

The researchers said in the study that smoking may increase MS risk because it increases the frequency of respiratory infections, or by causing autoimmune reactions in people genetically susceptible to the disease.

The study was published in the journal Neurology.


© Sep 1, 2009 Allheadlinenews

A poison used in antifreeze, compounds that cause cancer in humans and higher-than-advertised nicotine levels.
The Food and Drug Administration claims these are inside electronic cigarettes after testing more than a dozen brands.

On Tuesday, the attorney general of Oregon filed a lawsuit against an e-cigarette importer. Attorney General John Kroger says e-cigarettes are falsely marketed as safer than regular tobacco cigarettes.

That is what Aleena Schlotzhauer understands about e-cigarettes.

“It’s not as bad as a cigarette because you’re not getting all that tar and extra carcinogen,” she said, “but it’s still a toxin.”

Schlotzhauer sells e-cigarettes at a downtown Eugene tobacco shop. You have to be at least 18 to go inside, so she says only adults are buying them.

“I don’t think it’s really targeting teens,” she said. “I feel like it’s targeting people who have smoked for a long time who are looking to quit.”

But there are no legal restrictions on where e-cigarettes can be sold, and that’s another issue.

Because of flavors like chocolate, mint and apple, Oregon’s attorney general says they may lure kids into buying them — all the more reason he wants their sales stopped altogether.

Smokers like Jeremy Karl say a ban is a bad move for adults who should be able to choose their lesser of two evils.

“Maybe make them for a tobacco shop, where you have to be of a certain age to see them,” Karl said.

KVAL News attempted to contact the company being sued by the state of Oregon on Wednesday to get their side of the story.

© Aug 19, 2009 Kval

You don’t need to read all of this column to get its message. For North Carolinians it is simply this:
Food is the new tobacco.
Here’s why.

We have known all along that using tobacco products was bad for health. But North Carolina people, as a group, resisted government regulations, restrictions on places it could be consumed, taxes, and even educational programs designed to discourage their use.

We argued that people should be free to make their own choices about what kinds of products they enjoy for relaxation and pleasure. For a long while we argued, too, that there was not real proof that tobacco was causing the cancers, heart attacks, and strokes that were destroying the quality of life (and killing) smokers at higher rates than non-smokes.

We would not admit it, but deep down inside we knew that our beliefs and our arguments in defense of tobacco use had something to do with the great economic benefits tobacco growing and manufacturing were to our state.

Now our smoky rhetoric has been blown away. We say out loud what we should have known all along. Smoking causes bad health. It kills. And it costs the public lots of money in covering the health care expenses of those made sick by their tobacco habits.

Over the last few years in North Carolina, most campuses, workplaces, and other public places have come to prohibit or severely restrict smoking. Recently, the last hospital joined the trend and prohibited smoking.

We no longer argue that the government should not be involved or that it should not limit individual choice when the health impact of a product like tobacco is so great.

What does this have to do with food?

Read UNC-Chapel Hill professor Barry Popkin’s new book, “The World is Fat,” and I think you will come to the conclusion that our eating habits are destroying our good health and quality of life in much the same way the habitual use of tobacco does.

Increasingly the high caloric liquids and food we consume are driving up our weight dramatically. Our agricultural subsidy policies have made high calorie food relatively cheap compared to the higher costs of the healthier fruits and green vegetables. Commercial food products, fast food outlets, restaurants, and school and college cafeterias increase our problem with their added sugars and syrups, their supper-sized large portions, and their pandering to our individual inability to resist.

Keeping a healthy weight is an individual challenge. The consequences of not meeting that challenge are clear: higher incidences of diabetes, strokes, heart attacks, and early death.

But most of us eat on.

We eat and eat and create in ourselves a life of bad health that will require extensive and expensive health treatments that others (taxpayers) will have to cover.

So does government have a role? Should it restrict or tax high calorie foods? Should it discourage, rather than subsidize, the growing of high calorie food products? Should it penalize those of us who won’t eat healthy or reward those of us who do?

Popkin says the government has to act.

He suggests it start with a tax on high calorie drinks, which he calls “super negatives.”

He says that “Juice, soft drinks, fruit drinks, energy drinks, all caloric beverages except skim milk” have little nutricional value other than calories.

But their empty calories may add 500 calories to an individual’s daily intake and make the difference, over time, between healthy weight and obesity.

For legislators looking for new revenue, the health argument provides the same kind of rationale that first led to a tax on cigarettes.

But an additional soft drink tax will be just a start.

Watch out.

Food is the new tobacco.


© Garnernews

You have to hand it to entrepreneurs in the electronic cigarette business. In a time of economic recession, they are creating wealth, jobs and scores of tobacco converts.

Electronic cigarettes look like the real thing, but they are battery powered to deliver nicotine in a vapor rather than tobacco smoke.

Calls in Washington that e-cigarettes be banned from the market because of unknown health risks haven’t stopped people from buying. The smokeless smokes have been on the U.S. market for about two years, and already they are being sold in about 4,000 retail outlets, according to an industry group.

The device is simple: The battery, which resembles white tobacco-filled paper, joins with a replaceable cartridge filled with liquid nicotine solution. Draw on it like a cigarette and the battery heats the solution, producing a cloud of nicotine-enriched vapor that looks like smoke, but isn’t.

It’s clean, which has an eco-conscious appeal; no ashes, no stink, no butts littering the landscape. You can indulge anywhere without breaking no-smoking rules.

“It’s providing your body with nicotine without the secondhand smoke, without the tar and without the carcinogens,” said Mike Patrick, who sells e-cigarettes at the Smoke 51 kiosk at Beachwood Place. “This is a healthy alternative to smoking cigarettes, and it’s a lot cheaper.”
“We figured this is a no-brainer, it’s healthier, but apparently not everyone looks at it that way.” — Sebastian Cangemi, President of Liberty Stix in Willoughby
But health groups have raised alarms about the lack of safety data. The American Lung Association, American Heart Association and others came out in support of a call from Sen. Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, that the Food and Drug Administration take them off the market.

The FDA says the devices are subject to enforcement action because it considers them unapproved drug-delivery devices. The agency has stopped some shipments from China, but it has not taken steps to remove the products from the market.

“We don’t know what the health effects are. It’s not been studied,” said Shelly Kiser of the American Lung Association of Ohio. “Who knows what happens when you breathe vaporized nicotine into your lungs?”

Industry frontman Matt Salmon, a former U.S. representative from Arizona, has been busy trying to fend off regulators and critics. Salmon heads the Electronic Cigarette Association, which formed in the spring. He said in a prepared statement that electronic cigarettes are safer than tobacco, and he argues the FDA has no jurisdiction to regulate them.

On a video posted on the industry Web site, Salmon says: “Whatever is said, remember this: Withholding electronic cigarettes from the market is like telling someone who chooses to smoke that his or her only legal option is to smoke cigarettes, which is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.”

Dr. Scott Frank, director of the public health program at the Case Western Reserve University medical school, said even if e-cigarettes help people quit tobacco, nicotine-replacement products require FDA approval.

“I would never advocate for electronic cigarettes to be available in unregulated fashion,” Frank said.

None of that seems to matter to customers. U.S. sales this past year are around $100 million, and they are on pace to double, the association says.

A Willoughby company called Liberty Stix opened for business 11 months ago, and is now selling e-cigarettes to retail outlets and individual customers across the country. The company occupies 17,000 square feet of industrial park space, where four employees take phone orders and several others fill orders for shipping.

Liberty Stix, which sells starter kits for about $40, is working on deals to place the product in casinos, retail chains and military installations, said President Sebastian Cangemi.

“Where smoking bans are in effect, we do advertising,” said Cangemi.

He said he’s concerned about calls for e-cigarettes to be pulled off the market, “but hopefully they’ll look at it without fogged glasses.” The company is working with research labs in Ohio, New Jersey and Texas in hopes of showing that the devices are safer and healthier than tobacco, he said.

“We figured this is a no-brainer, it’s healthier, but apparently not everyone looks at it that way,” Cangemi said.

Cangemi had approached Iyaad Hasan, director of the Cleveland Clinic Tobacco Treatment Center, about recommending Liberty Stix as an alternative to cigarettes. Hasan said in an interview he considered it but declined. He said part of addiction treatment is breaking hand-to-mouth behavior. “We push breaking the linkage to a cigarette,” he said. Critics also say that nicotine itself can affect blood pressure, insulin and cholesterol levels.

Daniel Vaughn, 63, heard about Liberty Stix from a radio ad. The Cleveland resident said he smoked a pack and a half of regular cigarettes a day. Like most customers, Vaughn decided to try electronic cigarettes to help him quit tobacco, even though e-cigarettes are not approved for that purpose. Vaughn said they worked, though it took several months of electronic smoking to wean himself off tobacco.

“When I first wake up in the morning, I hook in a new cartridge and puff away,” Vaughn said.

Cartridges can be bought with varying amounts of nicotine, or no nicotine at all. The nicotine is contained in liquid propylene glycol, a chemical that produces the vapor. A cartridge lasts about as long as a pack of cigarettes, and they come in flavors such as chocolate, apple, mint and coffee.

The flavorings have prompted criticism that the industry is targeting young people. Cangemi said most of his customers are older, “because they realize their mortality.”

Patrick, whose family opened the Beachwood kiosk in May, launched into his pitch to two young women who stopped by one recent afternoon.

“Will this help her stop smoking?” Martika White asked, pointing to her friend, Bianca Johnson, 22. “I want to help her stop. I’ve been talking to her about it.”

Patrick explained how it works, and then demonstrated by drawing on an e-cigarette and blowing out a vapor stream. Johnson said she’d consider it and walked away with a business card.

“Now they’re thinking about it,” Patrick said. “That’s about as good as a sale.”


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