Tobacco.org

LETTER: Local VFW post should obey no-smoking laws  

Here's an onion to the Warren VFW Post 1090 members who think they are above the law.

An organization such as this one should be setting an example of obeying state laws such as the no-smoking ban. To rack up $1,600 in fines has to amount to a lot of violations.

And to seek exemption from the fine by using the excuse that it will hurt their charitable efforts is appalling. If you can't pay the fine, don't do the crime. They should obey the law.

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Schwarzenegger wows US troops on return to Iraq 

Arnold Schwarzenegger flew in to Iraq on a morale-boosting visit for US troops on Monday, drawing cheers from servicemen and women, some of whom were lucky enough to be gifted a cigar.

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• Researchers Study PTSD, Smoking Link For Soldiers 

A new University of Wisconsin study set to begin in January is aiming to help troops coping with post-traumatic stress disorder to overcome smoking when they return home.

The study by the UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention has a goal of helping soldiers kick their smoking habit.

"A lot of time that you were exhausted and you needed to have some time out," said veteran Deeann Hansen. "We were on a road march and when we were told to stop we were allowed to take a break, and the comment was made to us that, 'Smoke 'em if you got 'em,' and if you don't they told us to pick up cigarette butts and trash."

Studies show Hansen isn't the only one to leave the military addicted to tobacco. It's something she blamed on the high stress load of life in the services.

Around 7 million U.S. vets suffer from PTSD and more than half smoke -- and that statistic is sparking some research.

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Fuming Over Fines 

In the three years Ohio has been smoke-free, not a single building has qualified for the ''private club'' exemption, according to state officials, leaving some clubs like the VFW Post 1090 in Warren expressing outrage and frustration.

That club on High Street has racked up four smoking violations totaling $1,600 since enforcement began.

Despite a pitch during the 2006 election campaign to make the state smoke-free that smoking would remain permissible at private clubs, Ohio Department of Health spokesman Kristopher Weiss said this week that none of the 280,000 public places covered by Ohio's ban has been able to meet the stringent rules outlining a private club exemption.

''They just want to be left alone,'' said U.S. Marine Corps veteran and Post 1090 member Richard Harvey.

According to Harvey, the post just recently and grudgingly began directing its members to obey the law and smoke outside, but they're filing a brief with the city board of health arguing that they should be exempted as a private club as promised during the election.

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LETTER: Charity funds to go toward smoking fines  

From the greatest generation to our current conflicts, the men and women who've served our country gather in private at our local VFW where those who gave continue giving. Last year alone, we donated more than $40,000 of our own money back into the charities of Warren.

Though our doors are closed to the privacy of war veterans and supporters, we have been singled out and adjudicated by the city as a public entity under the state smoking ban. Mayor O'Brien and the Warren Health Department have fined us anonymously and spuriously in the thousands of dollars.

These same monies, which I used to give to local charities such as the Salvation Army, Warren Family Mission, Hospice, Meals on Wheels and many others, now goes as fines through the health department.

As Veterans Day approaches, on behalf of the men and women of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1090 of Warren, I feel personally obligated as charities chairman to apologize to my fellow citizens. Our loss of revenue has caused me to protect our own interests, redirecting an open policy of charity to lesser amounts in a time when the funds are needed most.

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• Tobacco czar maps new agency's path 

Today Dr. Lawrence Deyton, who at 57 still goes by his childhood nickname of "Bopper," is the nation's first anti-smoking czar. He directs a new agency in the federal Food and Drug Administration -- the Center for Tobacco Products -- that is writing rules to govern the previously unregulated tobacco industry.

In last week's interview, Deyton twice stressed that he is not an anti-tobacco zealot.

"I am not an expert in tobacco," he said. "But I am an expert in public health, and I am an expert in government health programs."

And what Deyton promises is "methodical, science-based tobacco regulation."

But Deyton already has been greeted with worry from growers in tobacco-producing states like Kentucky, and three lawsuits from the industry challenging the agency's authority to restrict advertising and marketing.

The center was created under a sweeping anti-smoking law passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on June 22.

Its three key goals are to reduce youth smoking rates, which in recent years have leveled off at about 20 percent; to reduce the overall toll of tobacco-related disease, which annually kills more than 400,000 Americans; and to provide the public with information about the ingredients of tobacco products and their health effects.

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Repeal Smoking Bans Home  

This site has been brought up in an effort to help organize individuals and groups to begin the process of seeing smoking bans repealed in the United States and worldwide.

Advocates of smoking bans are being met with determined and increased opposition. Smokers and non-smokers alike have begun to realize this is an issue of individual rights and individual ownership. Business owners are increasingly not obeying no-smoke ordinances.

We are all in need of camaraderie in these trying times. Citizens of countries are becoming more polarized in their beliefs. They're drawing metaphorical lines and refusing to budge. Smoking bans do nothing but further divide peoples.

And, believe it or not, that's OK with the no-smoke zealots. They've lost perspective. They're out of control. They're the new American nazi's.

Like the nazi's in 1930's Germany, the no-smoke slobs demand you give up self-governance. Whether you want to or not. They demand it.

And if you don't want to? They demand you be fined and/or jailed and/or put out of business - or even your home - until you submit.

For ooooooooo-smooooooking. That's how far and obscene the no-smoke fascists have taken the issue.

Smoking bans and clean air acts have nothing to do with protecting individuals and the collective health of a populace.

Like drug addicts who inject drugs into their veins to feel a false sense of drama and enlightenment, the no-smoke zealots are addicted to the false sense of drama injected into their lives via fighting for their "Cause," be the cause right or wrong. And they want you to feel the drama they feel. . . .

Miller and others - American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, TheTruth.com - have metaphorically spit on the graves of every Amercian who fought and gave all to preserve freedom.

Smoking ban advocates couldn't care less that people went to war so that theirs might live free

REPEAL SMOKING BANS. THEY'RE UN-AMERICAN sticker above: 2.75" x 15.00," no-fade vinyl. $4.00, postage included.

They go great in tandem with the PRACTICE RANDOM PATRIOTISM stickers.

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Remembrance tribute moved — for a shelter  

A ROYAL British Legion club has been forced to move a war memorial — to make way for a smoking shelter.

The four feet-high monument has been at the club in Astley Bridge for more than eight years.

It has now been dismantled and is awaiting a new home.

The memorial features around 40 names, but with no clue to their regiments. The history of the monument is unknown.

A club committee member, who did not want to be named, said: “If there had not been a smoking ban, the memorial would be where it has been for at least eight years. “Bolton Council put pressure on us to have the shelter because they said people were smoking in the doorways.

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• New York Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) Join As Co-Sponsors of The Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act 

Today, Lung Cancer Alliance (LCA) hailed the support of Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) who have signed on as co-sponsors of a bill to establish the first ever multi-agency, comprehensive program targeted at lung cancer.

Entitled Lung Cancer Mortality Reduction Act of 2009, S.332 authorizes a five year program to reduce the mortality rate of lung cancer which continues to be the number one cause of cancer deaths both nationally and in New York State. Lung cancer causes more deaths each year than breast, prostate, colon, kidney, melanoma and liver cancers combined.

"Lung cancer affects millions of men and women everyday and we must do everything we can to fund ways to combat this deadly disease," said Senator Schumer. "I am proud to sign onto this legislation to help promote earlier detection and better disease management to improve cancer survival rates in New York State and across the country." . . .

To insure accountability, the bill requires an annual report to Congress and creates an oversight board composed of the three Cabinet Secretaries and representatives from the fields of lung cancer treatment, research and advocacy.

In addition, the bill directs the Secretaries of Department of Defense (DOD) and Veterans' Affairs (VA) to implement an early detection and disease management program for military personnel who are at high risk for lung cancer because of smoking or exposure to carcinogens during active duty.

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Clubs OK'd to decide on smoking  

EAST LONGMEADOW - Private clubs will be able to choose whether to allow smoking indoors after the Board of Health decided not to include them in the town-wide smoking ban.

The Board of Selectmen, which also serves as the Board of Health, held a public hearing Tuesday to hear town opinion on whether private clubs should allow smoking indoors.

Health Inspector Fred C. Kowal met with the board to request that they ban smoking in private clubs due to the health risks associated with smoking and the well-being of non-smoking employees.

There are currently four private clubs in town, including the Elmcrest Country Club, 105 Somersville Rd; the American Legion, 3 Legion Court, the Knights of Columbus, 26 Baldwin St., and the Italian American World War Veterans, 213 Vineland Ave. Representatives of some clubs attended the hearing and spoke against the ban.

Currently the town has a ban that applies to all public restaurants shops and buildings. The ban prohibits smoking inside any public establishment.

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A look at smoking in the military 

Highlights of a study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department to combat tobacco use in the military.

Findings:

— Tobacco is used by fewer than 20 percent of Americans compared with more than 30 percent of active-duty military personnel and about 22 percent of veterans.

— Tobacco use in the military has risen since 1998, threatening to reverse steady declines for several decades.

— The rate of smoking among military personnel returning from Iraq and Afghanistan may be 50 percent higher than the rate of those who didn't go there.

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Smoking OK'd for private clubs  

EAST LONGMEADOW - Private clubs will be able to choose whether to allow smoking indoors after the Board of Health decided not to include them in the town-wide smoking ban.

The Board of Selectmen, which also serves as the Board of Health, held a public hearing Tuesday to hear town opinion on whether private clubs should allow smoking indoors.

Health Inspector Fred C. Kowal met with the board to request that they ban smoking in private clubs due to the health risks associated with smoking and the well-being of non-smoking employees.

There are currently four private clubs in town, including the Elmcrest Country Club, 105 Somersville Rd; the American Legion, 3 Legion Court, the Knights of Columbus, 26 Baldwin St., and the Italian American World War Veterans, 213 Vineland Ave. Representatives of some clubs attended the hearing and spoke against the ban.

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• Smoking in the military: An old habit dies hard  

Defense Secretary Robert Gates seems to agree.

"He knows that the situation they are confronting is stressful enough as it is," said his press secretary, Geoff Morrell. "I don't think he is interested in adding to the stress levels by taking away one of the few outlets they may have to relieve stress."

He said Gates is not planning any ban, but is reviewing the study by the Institute of Medicine, which provides independent advice to policymakers, health professionals and the public, to see if steps can be taken toward having a smoke-free force some day.

U.S. military personnel and veterans interviewed by The Associated Press had strong opinions about life in the military without cigarettes, cigars and chewing tobacco.

Some said it would cut medical costs and make the force healthier, while eliminating smoking breaks would increase productivity. Others said it would dampen morale and reduce recruitment to the all-volunteer military.

Nearly all, however, said it was impractical and probably would never happen.

"It's an outrage," said Staff Sgt. Joe Dunn, 32. "I've been smoking for about 15 years and being forced to stop -- not on my own terms -- is something I'd have a hard time dealing with." . . .

"They've been talking about this for over 10 years now. Nothing has ever happened," said Fink, a Navy veteran and employee at the VA hospital in Nashville. A ban would drive people out of the military, he said, and "the military can't afford to lose anyone."

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Evaluation of young smokers and non-smokers with electrogustometry and contact endoscopy. 

Background

Nicotine has been recognized as capable of inducing changes in taste functionality in conditions of chronic exposure.The objective of this study was the evaluation of taste acuity in smokers and non-smokers and the differences concerning the shape, density and vascularisation of the fungiform papillae (fPap) of their tongue.

Methods

Sixty-two male subjects who served in the Greek Military Forces participated in the study and were randomized chosen. Thirty-four of them were non-smokers and 28 were smokers. All of the smokers used to hold the cigarette on the centre of their lips. Taste thresholds of the participants were measured with Electrogustometry (EGM). The morphology and the density of their fungiform papillae (fPap) on the tongue's tip were examined with Contact Endoscopy (CE). . . .

Conclusion

The majority of smokers showed elevated taste thresholds in comparison to non-smokers. Smoking is an important factor which can lead to decreased taste acuity. The combination of methods, such as EGM and CE, can provide useful information about the vascularisation of taste buds and their functional ability.

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Smokers' Tongues Fail Taste Test 

Smokers have fewer and flatter taste buds. A study of the tongues of 62 Greek soldiers, published in the open access journal BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders, has demonstrated how cigarettes deaden the ability to taste.

Pavlidis Pavlos led a team of researchers from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki who used electrical stimulation to test the taste threshold of the soldiers and endoscopes to measure the number and shape of a kind of taste bud called fungiform papillae. He said: "Statistically important differences between the taste thresholds of smokers and non-smokers were detected. Differences concerning the shape and the vascularisation of fungiform papillae were also observed." . . .

Pavlos concludes: "Nicotine may cause functional and morphological alterations of papillae, at least in young adults."

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