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One second, a man is lighting up his cigarette while driving in Hialeah, Florida. The next, his van explodes.
And it's all caught on video.
The flash-fire and flying debris wreaked havoc through the day.
A home video taken by a neighbor shows the van on fire right after the explosion. . . .
Hialeah fire officials said the van's driver was a welder who had gasoline and oxygen tanks in the vehicle.
The mixture exploded when he decided to light a smoke.
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Martin Memorial Medical Center and HCA Inc.'s St. Lucie Medical Center are among the fiercest rivals in the local hospital industry.
That's what made a joint announcement last week by the two hospitals so surprising.
Starting in October, both facilities have agreed to join the trend of hospitals eliminating tobacco use on their campuses. Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center in 2007 became the first Palm Beach County hospital to go smoke free.
A van exploded while driving down a South Florida street Thursday, and it was all caught on tape.
It started as a typical commute to work for the man driving the van, which police said was filled with gas tanks and welding equipment.
According to police, the man lit a cigarette, which ignited fumes from the gas tanks, causing the van to blow apart on the street.
Melvin Gonzalez, a welder, was motoring through Hialeah early Thursday morning in a van filled with with gasoline, acetylene, compressed oxygen and other tools of his trade.
He lit a cigarette. The van exploded.
Anti-smoking organization Tobacco Free Florida recently released a local TV spot featuring a fake FPS title, which for all intents and purposes, may as well be titled Haylo, created by little-known developer Spungie. The ad shows the unwisely unhelmeted hero laying waste to a squadron of robo-baddies, then lighting up a moke-moke, which quickly drains his health, leaving him very dead in the enemy stronghold.
Gaming news site GameCouch recently interviewed the ad's creators, who explained that the fake game theme was chosen to grasp the attention of the coveted 11-17-year-old demographic.
As a little girl, Rachel Sbrissa approached strangers to urge them to stop smoking. At 16, her dedication to the cause hasn't wavered.
Then, just recently, Rachel's grandmother died from cancer.
Rachel was inspired to produce a video which has now won the Tobacco Free Florida YouCare Video Contest. Her winning entry will be shown on the first ever statewide On-Demand channel just the anti-smoking campaign.
The tendency to become addicted to nicotine and other drugs involves an interplay of genetics and environmental factors. In a unique study looking at the chemistry underlying the propensity to develop nicotine craving, scientists are gaining insight into predicting individual addiction to nicotine, forecasting nicotine tumorigenesis, and developing individualized treatments for this disorder.
Newswise -- Researchers at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) have received an $820,000 “Team Science Program Grant” from the Florida Department of Health and the James and Esther King Biomedical Research Program to study nicotine addiction. Looking at genetic and environmental factors, FAU researchers are working to understand the chemistry that underlies nicotine addiction, help to predict an individuals’ vulnerability to nicotine addiction and ultimately develop individualized treatments for this disorder.
A man watching TV and listening to music inside an Orange County apartment was struck by lightning while holding a cigarette out of a window.
Adam Rice was struck on the hand Wednesday afternoon at the Whisper Lake apartments, located on state Road 436 south of University Boulevard.
Experts are sounding alarm bells after two new studies revealed that school children as young as 11 are falling prey to drug abuse. . . .
According to two studies -- Drug Use Screening Inventory-Revised (DUSI-R) and School Toolkit -- conducted among school going children in 17 public secondary schools in Nairobi, a significant number of the students admitted taking beer, wine, spirits and cigarettes, among other drugs.
In the first study that has been accepted for publication by the International Society for Addiction Medicine in the 2008 Substance Abuse Journal, 18.1 per cent of the 1,328 students interviewed said they were taking alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.
The School Toolkit study, to be published in the same Journal, surveyed 1,296 students. It found that 3.6 per cent admitted to smoking between one and 20 cigarettes a day.
Close to 30 per cent of those aged between 13 and 14 years abused alcohol, drugs (10.1 per cent), and tobacco (21.7 per cent). The abuse was higher among those aged 19 to 20 years, with 49.5 per cent admitting to be using alcohol, 25 per cent drugs, and 39.8 per cent tobacco, according to findings released by African Mental Health Foundation. . . .
"Access to alcohol or cigarettes was particularly easier because the students can afford single sticks or small amounts. This requires a policy that prohibits the selling of these commodities in such amounts," said Prof David Ndetei.
together the top-ranked Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays are leading a campaign to educate Floridians about the dangers of tobacco. Tobacco Free Florida, an initiative of the Florida Department of Health, has teamed up with FSN Florida/Sun Sports to reach Floridians with its messages of smoking and smokeless tobacco prevention and cessation. Both Major League teams are seeing phenomenal success on the field and will be matched against each other in an Interleague series from June 24-26 at Dolphin Stadium.
With the start of the 2008 Major League Baseball season, eight players from both teams delivered the "I care. I don't chew. I don't dip. I don't smoke." message on video, and the finished product is showcased both in- stadium and on statewide television. By having hometown sports heroes voluntarily speak out publicly against smoking, chewing and dipping, and by showcasing those testimonials during live game action, fans hear loud and clear that the players care about this issue. The players featured on the "I Care" player IDs from the Marlins include Luis Gonzalez, Kevin Gregg, Matt Lindstrom, and Ricky Nolasco, Rays Manager Joe Maddon and players Jonny Gomes, Jason Hammel, and Carlos Pena. The videos can be viewed at http://www.tobaccofreeflorida.com/english/campaign/athletes/.
Monday, June 16th, is the deadline for smokers who were diagnosed with or who have been treated for smoking related illness before November 21st, 996 to file for their share of the trust fund. Families of smokers who have died are also eligible; they must submit proof that their loved one's illness; cancer, emphysema and heart disease was linked to cigarette smoking.
Today is the deadline for sick smokers and their families to apply for a share of a $600 million fund in a landmark Miami-Dade County case against the country's five biggest tobacco companies.
In Engle vs. Liggett, a jury in 2000 awarded sick smokers and their families a record $145 billion. . . .
To learn more call 888-420-1666 or go to www.engletrustfund.com.
An undercover operation, conducted by the Cape Coral Police Department's Youth Services Unit, resulted in the arrest of two people on Thursday.
The unit checked 18 locations in the city and found an 89 percent compliance rate as employees at 16 locations refused to sell tobacco products to the underage buyer.
The wrong cigarettes lit a man into a rage at a Jacksonville convenience store.
Police say Terrell Allen Scruggs, 19, went berserk at the Evergreen Food Store when the clerk handed him the wrong pack of smokes.
The message is simple: "I care. I don't chew. I don't dip. I don't smoke."
But Tobacco Free Florida's $17 million anti-smoking campaign has some powerful messengers: Florida Marlins outfielder Luis Gonzalez and pitchers Kevin Gregg, Matt Lindstrom and Ricky Nolasco. Since April, they have been delivering the short public service message at Dolphin Stadium and on television and radio.
The marketing campaign is just one part of the more than $50 million annually in tobacco settlement dollars freed up for anti-smoking programs when Floridians approved a constitutional amendment in November 2006.