Tennessee Goes for Safe Cigarettes

A bill has passed through both chambers of the state legislature requiring that only fire-safe cigarettes be sold in Tennessee.
After passing the House by an overwhelming margin on April 10 and receiving final approval from the Senate on Thursday, the "Fire Safety Standard and Firefighter Protection Act" is now headed to the desk of Gov. Phil Bredesen to be signed into law.
"Unattended cigarettes are the leading cause of home fire fatalities each year in this country. That's a preventable cause that we simply cannot continue to ignore," said Senate Speaker Pro Tempore Rosalind Kurita. "Fire-safe cigarettes cut off the burning time before most cigarettes are able to ignite furniture, bedding material, and other similar items."
Fire-safe cigarettes are produced to have a reduced propensity to burn when left unattended. They are made from a special paper that contains "speed bumps." These areas of increased thickness extinguish the cigarettes when air is not pulled through them. Unattended cigarettes burn out when the flame hits the speed bumps.
The new law only allows the sale of cigarettes in Tennessee that have been manufactured by companies that use fire-safe cigarette paper.
Manufacturers will be required to maintain records of testing, and the Tennessee Fire Marshall will review the program to determine its effectiveness.
Statistics from the state Fire Marshall's office show that from 2000-04, 36 Tennesseans died and 53 were injured in fires caused by smoking materials. During this period, 800 smoking-related residential fires caused over $13 million in property damage.
"Fire-safe cigarettes have the potential to save lives and save money," Speaker Kurita said. "This is a common-sense step in fire prevention."
Thursday's action completes over a year's worth of work on the "Fire Safety Standard and Firefighter Protection Act."
Speaker Kurita introduced the bill in February 2007 and it initially passed the Senate in May of that year.
The bill is supported by the Tennessee Fire Chiefs Association, the Tennessee Fire Safety Inspectors Association, the Tennessee Fire and Codes Academy, and the Coalition for Fire-Safe Cigarettes. The House companion bill was carried by Rep. Gary Moore, D-Joelton.
New York, Vermont, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire have all mandated the sale of fire-safe cigarettes. Over 20 other states are currently considering such legislation.

Facts About Smoking Cigarettes

Breathing trouble and lung cancer are usually associated with smoking of cigarettes. Moreover, several other chronic disorders can also develop in smokers. Smoking is one of the major independent risk factors for coronary heart disease and kidney failure along with high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. Since smoking decreases oxygen flow to the heart, it causes huge damage. Both blood pressure and heart rate gets increased and that is fatal for the heart. Among the poisonous substances present in a cigarette are carbon monoxide, hydrogen cyanide, tar and above all, nicotine. In fact, many other poisonous ingredients of different levels of toxicity are also present.

Nicotine is addictive and affects the arteries in a negative manner. Heartbeat increases, hypertension occurs and arteries get constricted due to nicotine. Oxygen supply to the heart is stopped due to carbon monoxide. Blood clotting and clogging gets increased. In the case of coronary artery, the supply of oxygen-rich blood to the heart gets decreased due to narrowing of the arteries. This strain leads to a chest pain or angina pectoris.

Apart from the long-term bad effects, cigarette smoking affects the body right at the moment of smoking due to the presence of so many poisonous substances. Arsenic is a rat poison, methane is a rocket fuel, ammonia is used in floor cleaning, cadmium is used in batteries, carbon monoxide is part of car exhaust and hydrogen cyanide is a poison used in gas chambers. Every time one inhales smoke from a cigarette, all these poisonous chemicals enter into the blood through the lungs in small amounts. Even small amounts of such deadly poisons can harm the body.

Smoking makes one smell bad, stains the teeth, causes the skin to wrinkle and gives bad breath. Cavities are found three times more in smokers than non-smokers. Hormone levels get lower due to smoking. Smokers cough for a long time. They are more prone to bronchitis and pneumonia. Smokers fall sick more often. Every time one inhales smoke from a cigarette, some of the air sacks in the lungs get killed. This way, parts of the lungs gradually get destroyed. This hampers activities like sports or singing where proper breathing is necessary.

Smoking paralyzes the hair-like structures called cilia lining the lungs. They become incapable of sweeping out dust particles, smoke and pollens from the lungs. As a result these particles stay permanently in the lungs and form tar. Cigarettes are as bad as cocaine or heroin. The poisonous addictive in nicotine makes people feel good while smoking. This increases the chances of lung cancer or emphysema. One ends up being sick for a long, long time.

Smoke from a cigarette increases fatty deposits in the blood and strains the heart. The risk of a heart disease and atherosclerosis gets aggravated due to this. Atherosclerosis is a disease in which fatty substances like cholesterol, cellular waste, calcium etc are deposited along the lining of arteries in a human body. LDL cholesterol increases and HDL cholesterol decreases due to smoking. Triglycerides increases and affects the cholesterol levels negatively.

Smoking Cigarettes – Pros and Cons.

Cigarettes are smallish white cylinders, filled with the dried leaves of the tobacco plant. Predominantly sold in batches of 20, the boxes they come in demonstrate a wide variety of colours and designs, from the ubiquitous red chevron of Marlboro to the arched dancer holding her tambourine, featured on the classic blue design of the French brand, Gitanes. Tobacco can also be bought loose in pouches and rolled into cigarette papers to approximate the aforementioned cylindrical shape.
Cigarettes are smallish white cylinders, filled with the dried leaves of the tobacco plant. Predominantly sold in batches of 20, the boxes they come in demonstrate a wide variety of colours and designs, from the ubiquitous red chevron of Marlboro to the arched dancer holding her tambourine, featured on the classic blue design of the French brand, Gitanes. Tobacco can also be bought loose in pouches and rolled into cigarette papers to approximate the aforementioned cylindrical shape.

For some, smoking is a pleasure. For others, it's abhorrent. Indeed, smoking cigarettes has become a contentious activity, with health issues of paramount concern. For instance, the issue of smokers passing on their toxic smoke to the non-smokers in their community is, as they say, a hot potato.

Smoking is undoubtedly bad for the health and passive smoking isn't much good either. But on the other hand, in a world full of pollution and man-made health hazards, created by smokers and non-smokers alike, should non-smokers dictate to smokers just how to live their lives?

And what exactly is the right way to live a life, anyway?

Why Smoke?

It is difficult to know the reasons why people smoke. Non-smokers could rightly point to the deleterious physiological effects that prolonged and consistent smoking undoubtedly have and wonder...'Why?' Why on earth would we choose to physically do harm to our own bodies? Non-smokers don't smoke because they might not like the smell, or have tried it and just didn't like it. But generally they won't smoke because fundamentally, smoking cigarettes is bad for the health. Is smoking a cigarette, then, a wilful act of self-mutilation, that at best merits derision?

It is often the case that we are not responsible for the environments we inherit, both socially and emotionally. Smoking cigarettes may be just one of the many 'imperfect' responses humans have to living in an increasingly 'imperfect', difficult world.

The question 'Why Smoke' is not an easy one to answer, indeed, it borders on the downright philosophical. If non-smokers wonder 'why?' (as in 'Why the hell would you want to smoke?'), so too smokers may wonder, 'why not?'. Or perhaps smokers may be tempted to examine their habit objectively and then ask themselves the question, 'Just why am I smoking?

An Act of Volition?

But the fact remains that many people do smoke. Certain groups from most cultures in most parts of the world today have found occasion to light up. As we've seen, there could be many possible reasons for this:

- smoking as a kind of 'rite of passage' displacement for the modern-day youth;
- smoking as part of social bonding;
- smoking as an aid to contemplation; ceremonial and ritualised smoking;
- smoking as a self-destructive reaction to depression or unhappiness;
- or smoking just for personal pleasure.

Smokers may smoke because they choose to. It's an act of volition, an expression of an individual freedom to make choices. Or is it? One could argue the opposite, that smokers smoke because they are duped in to doing so.

E-Cigarette Consumers May Take an FDA Ban Personally

GAINESVILLE, FL -- 05/16/09 -- The FDA and other special interest health organizations may want to ban e-cigarettes as quickly as possible, but according to E-Cigarettes National they may not realize what they are getting themselves into.
A quick glance at the comments and reviews on news articles concerning e-cigarettes reveals an overwhelming support base for the e-cigarette. Forums, comments, and product reviews have resulted in a massive following of the products, with most people claiming that they have either stopped using tobacco cigarettes in favor of their "e-cig" or that they have drastically reduced their smoking habits.
Many comment that they feel better after using their e-cigarette, while others say that the product is a great concept, just not for them. Success stories are prominent, all the while the FDA and American Legacy Foundation state that there is no evidence that the products actually help smokers quit the habit.
Commenter "ready to fight" on an article on Associated Content says, "I have had enough of the government dictating my life. If the FDA bans e-cigs I will not accept it and I will fight the ban by any means possible (peacefully). Believe me when I say we have not even begun to fight and the fat lady is not singing."
On the same article, Joe Piscapo is of a similar mindset: "If they ban electronic cigarettes, I feel that people will start to freak out, myself included. There are so many smokers who made the switch and are completely happy, breathe better, feel better, and no longer smoke tobacco cigarettes."
On NBCbayarea.com, xtobacco smoker is a little more critical of the FDA, saying, "have it, love it, highly suggest it to anyone who wants to stop smoking tobacco and still 'smoke'… can even work your way down to 0 nicotine. Smoked for 15 years, I can't even stand the smell of regular tobacco. FDA will find something wrong with it… if you enjoy it the FDA will say it is not good for you."
With comments like these, it is unclear at this point what will happen to e-cigarettes. If the FDA bans them, smokers have lost the battle, but what about the war?

UK cigarettes 'not spiked': Industry denies use of genetically-altered tobacco leaves

The Tobacco Manufacturers' Association said leaves from the altered plant were not used in Britain, where cigarettes are not blended as they are in the US.
The statement followed claims on Tuesday by the head of the American Food and Drug Administration that Brown and Williamson (a company owned by British American Tobacco) had genetically altered tobacco plants, called Y-1, to double the nicotine content. The chairman of Brown and Williamson is due to give evidence to the congressional hearing today, when he is expected to deny many of the points made by the FDA chief, David Kessler.
Mr Kessler told a congressional hearing on the tobacco industry that Brown and Williamson had grown the plants secretly in Brazil. He also claimed that some cigarette brands were 'spiked' with ammonia to double the amount of nicotine that entered a smoker's bloodstream. The association rejected this claim yesterday.
If the FDA can show that companies deliberately set out to manipulate nicotine content, this could strengthen its hand in calling for tobacco to be regulated as a drug - a move that could lead to a ban on cigarettes.
But a BAT Industries spokesman said: 'This is an agency with an agenda - and that is to acquire jurisdiction over tobacco so it can regulate it out of existence.'
BAT said the Y-1 tobacco plant was developed by the US Department of Agriculture in the search for a tobacco for low-tar cigarettes. Brown and Williamson continued development when the US Government stopped.
A spokesman for BAT said yesterday that Y-1 was a blending tool that delivered the same nicotine as products it replaced.

Its possible to subdue the desire to smoke a cigarette doing exercises

According to research work, it was established, that a smoker is able to restrain himself from smoking a  cigarettewith the help of some exercises. Studies showed that for example unhurried walking reduced the intensity of smokers' nicotine symptoms.

Doctor Adrian Taylor, the professor of exercise and health psychology at the University of Exeter, who is also the lead author of this study, declared that if it's possible to find the same effect in a drug, it would be sold as an aid for people to quit smoking   cigarettes. Dr. Tailor together with his colleagues examined 12 papers, trying to establish the connection between exercise and nicotine deprivation. They concentrated their attention on exercises, which could be done as a day-to-day activity, such as walking, flexing muscles. As a result, they found out that as little as five minutes of exercise was enough for smokers to subdue their desire to smoke their daily cigarette. 

During the studies, people were asked by the researchers to rate their need for a cigarette after different moderate physical exercises. Those ones who had done some exercise during 5 minutes said that their desire to smoke a cigarette was reduced. 

Dr. Robert West, professor of health psychology at University College London said that it was also established that the effectiveness of exercises was as strong as the nicotine patch. He also added that the duration of the effect was unknown. Smokers could do exercise to manage with short-time desire for a cigarette, but it was still a question, if such effect could last for a long period of time. Dr.Talyor also advanced a theory that some exercises could produce the mood-enhancing hormone dopamine, which can reduce nicotine dependence. 

Nevertheless, experts were not convinced about the study's practical application. Dr. Hajek, professor of clinical psychology at Queen University Hospital in London, who was not involved in the study, said if people did simple exercises even during their work at the desk, they could subdue the desire to smoke a   cigarette.