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Smoking and I never became an item.
And then I joined the Army.
Smoking — tobacco use in general, actually — is prevalent in the military. At times it seemed that there were more smokers, or tobacco users, than non-smokers.
In formations sometimes, smokers were offered privileges the rest of us did not get. . . .
As a company commander, I remember getting only one flier from the medical facility encouraging soldiers to sign up for a smoking cessation class that was offered. It was the military’s one attempt to offer a program to help smokers to quit. It was voluntary, of course, and soldiers were offered group counseling sessions to talk about the dangers of smoking, nicotine gum or patches and all of it was free of charge.
No one in my unit jumped on the bandwagon.
In Iraq, smoking and tobacco products were so popular that those were the first things to fly off the shelf at the AAFES stores. . . .
And with all of the smoking and tobacco cessation efforts across the nation — anti-smoking commercials on television, high-priced tobacco products — it seems as if the military is “out of step” and barely making the same effort to save its soldiers.
After all, what happens when a soldier who’s been smoking or using tobacco products for 20 years comes down with a smoking-related condition such as cancer, cardiovascular disease or noncancerous respiratory disease?
That soldier will seek medical assistance from his or her local VA . . .
I’m sure there are a lot of people out there, just like me, who may perceive smoking to be cool. But, besides the harmful effects on a person, the effect on taxpayers’ wallets negates any coolness.
So, in honor of the annual Great American Smokeout, slated for Nov. 20, I urge all soldiers, non-soldiers and former soldiers, to put out that cigarette for the last time.
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[Cousin Sal squirts Kimmel Show employees taking smoking breaks]
Jimmy Kimmel Live covers the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout on November 16, 2006.
[Cousin Sal sprays smokers on the street with a fire extinguisher, saying, "Thanks for not smoking."]
Tomorrow, November 20, is the Great American Smokeout. A day the American Cancer Society encourages smokers to either reduce the amount they smoke that day or to quit smoking on that day. Read more about the origins of the Smokeout day.
The health benefits from this are well reported. However, did you know your cat will benefit as well?
Pets are affected by secondhand smoke. Your cat could get cancer from breathing through the haze of cigarette smoke.
According to a report released by an Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension Service veterinarian, Dr. Carolynn MacAllister, "cats living with smokers are twice as likely to develop malignant lymphoma, a cancer that occurs in the lymph nodes and that is fatal to three out of four cats within 12 months of developing it."
A study at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University "found the incidence of mouth cancer was higher for cats living with smokers. Cats constantly lick themselves
The Great American Smokeout was Nov. 20. If you want to quit smoking, there are plenty of resources available to help you succeed.
A simple call to Quitline Iowa at 1-(800) QUIT-NOW will get you the information you need at no cost and will guide you on your path to wellness. People need to take their own approach, but coming up with a plan, working with a coach and taking advantage of medication available can increase success rates significantly.
Students from UMass Amherst's Student Health Advisory Board had a clear message for the campus: Smoking is bad for you.
So what inspired their declaration?
The 33rd annual great american smoke out.
"A day in which we want as many people to quit smoking as we can," said board member Colli McKiernan.
So one of the ways they're trying to encourage people to stop smoking is by creating a visual display of cigarette butts. They collected all the pieces in one day and in just three hours. They were able to collect 12 lbs. of cigarette butts.
"It's pretty amazing," said McKiernan. "If you think about it in three hours we collected 12 lbs. One cigarette weighs like nothing."
The Great American Smokeout was November 20, but it's not too late to kick the habit. Not only is smoking harmful to humans, it also hurts animals. The next time you're dying for a cigarette, remember that your friends, your relatives, your animal companions and animals in laboratories all suffer when you smoke. That will help deaden your desire for nicotine.
By now, we all know the health risks associated with smoking. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, men who smoke are 22 times more likely to die of lung cancer than those who don't. Female smokers are 12 times more likely to die of lung cancer than female nonsmokers. Smokers also have a higher risk of getting at least eight other cancers, two to four times the risk of developing coronary heart disease and twice the likelihood of having a stroke. About 90 percent of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung diseases are attributed to smoking.
The Daily News asked New Yorkers during the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout on Thursday to give the President-elect some advice to help him stay nicotine-free.
"It's a little mind over matter," said Laura Murphy, a 29-year-old teacher from Queens. "I quit three years ago."
Murphy said once she made the commitment to quit, she started by cutting back gradually, then replacing cigarettes with nicotine lozenges until she finally broke the habit.
Miss America Kirsten Haglund did her part Thursday in Times Square, giving out free smoking-cessation products to people who want to quit.
Next year all bars and casinos in Montana have to be smoke-free, but the owners of some Missoula establishments are glad for the change.
The Montana Legislature passed the measure in their 2005 session and have set a date of October 1, 2009 for all bars and casinos to make the change.
Officials with the Missoula City County Health Department told us that Missoula is among the first cities, with the most bars, to make the change early, and many they have spoke to about the new order are very happy with it.
"Actually all of the bars and casinos that I've talked to say their business has increased they're grateful and glad they went smoke-free so its neat that its on such a large scale environment and also with personal choice" said the health department's Erica Rollins.
undred sixty nations, many of them in the developing world, have vowed to stand up to the tobacco industry and its efforts to water down antitobacco laws. . . .
This weekend, at a meeting in Durban, South Africa, countries took that treaty a step further by agreeing that tobacco lobbyists must be prevented from interfering with healthcare policy.
"This was a big step," says Kathy Mulvey, international policy director for Corporate Accountability International, based in Boston. "The anchor principle of this meeting was that there is a fundamental conflict between tobacco industry interests and public health interests. These guidelines will help advocates and public officials begin to slam the door on tobacco industry tactics, and focus on implementing the treaty's lifesaving measures."
Times have been hard for the tobacco industry in the developed world, as smoking diminishes in Europe and North America – evidence that education on tobacco's harms are starting to pay off. But as the tobacco industry shifts its attentions farther south to Africa, Latin America, and Asia – betting that weaker governments or corrupt officials will smooth the path for their product to be sold – it has met surprising resistance from individual nations and citizens groups who refuse to allow their countries to be dumping grounds for what has been called the world's largest preventable epidemic.
Thursday is Great American Smoke Out Day. It is a chance to help smokers quit tobacco for good. And Mary Lanning Hospital in Hastings is helping people put an end to the habit. Its entire campus is now smoke free.
The hospital has been smoke free inside for years, now smoking outside is off limits as well.
While the rest of the country was observing the American Cancer Society's "Great American Smoke Out" on Thursday, inmates at the Lakes Region Facility prison in Laconia were making state history as part of the Department of Corrections first-ever "Smoke In."
The 350 medium-security inmates culminated a yearlong tobacco smoking-cessation effort at LRF with a series of events that highlighted both the health risks of smoking to themselves and to family members as well as the legal ones. . . .
The idea behind the "Smoke In" -- which the DOC sponsored with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services' Tobacco Prevention and Control Program, Belknap County CoRe Coalition and Breathe NH -- was to educate inmates and their families about all the consequences of tobacco use, said Warden Jane Coplan, who noted that tobacco is the biggest contraband problem at LRF.
"There's big money to be made," . . .
With any luck, the "Smoke In" will have helped some inmates give up tobacco, said Brauns, with Breathe NH's Marie Mulroy adding that "it takes a community effort" -- like the one on display Thursday in the LRF's Toll Building gymnasium -- to help wean somebody off the noxious weed.
The LRF smoking cessation program has an extra benefit, Mulroy said, in that participants -- the program is voluntary for those inmates who want to stop smoking but mandatory for those caught with tobacco -- also get to apply what they learn toward getting their general equivalency diploma (GED).
After 27 years, Robinson is ready to call it quits. He joined other aspiring quitters and those celebrating their freedom from cigarettes Thursday at the Crawfordsville District Public Library for the American Cancer Society's Great American Smoke Out- an annual day-long event that encourages smokers to kick the habit.
"We're inviting anybody in the community who is an ex-smoker or just quitting for the day or anybody who is celebrating being smoke-free to come down and have some food and learn more about the programs we're offering for people who are trying to quit," said Fr. Alexis Miller, tobacco programs coordinator for the A.H.E.A.D. Coalition.
The occasion was also an opportunity for a progress update on A.H.E.A.D.'s petition drive to ban smoking in all workplaces in Crawfordsville. So, far 1,000 residents have signed.
An international meeting has set new guidelines aimed at preventing tobacco companies from trying to influence national and global health policy.
The 160 nations, which are party to the U.N.-sponsored Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, adopted the recommendations after a weeklong meeting in South Africa.
The guidelines include that governments should reject partnerships with the tobacco industry, and limit interaction with the companies.
The United States Department of Defense and military healthcare provider TRICARE are asking military members and their families to take part in the national annual Great American Smokeout today that is sponsored by the American Cancer Association.
The military's current education campaign is called "Quit Tobacco -- Make Everyone Proud"