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ARE YOU A FORMER TOBACCO USER??? 7th Grade Science Fair SURVEY 1. How old are you currently? 2. How many years have you smoked or chewed tobacco? 3. How old were you when you started smoking or chewing? 4. How long (mo./yrs.) have you been free from tobacco use? 5. Who/What influenced you to start smoking or chewing tobacco? 6. Are you currently using tobacco product(s) regularly? How often? 7. Have you tried to QUIT using tobacco products? How many attempts? 8. How many cigarettes or cans of chewing tobacco do/did you use per day? 9. Does anyone in your...

Smokers banned from becoming foster parentsKatharine Barney, Evening Standard 29.10.08   Stubbed out: Redbridge Council has banned smokers from fostering children   SMOKERS will be banned from fostering children under radical measures to be introduced in London.Redbridge council is thought to be the first in the country to implement the rules, despite a shortage of 2,000 foster carers across the capital.The move is aimed at limiting children's exposure to the effects of passive and second-hand smoke from cigarettes, cigars and pipe tobacco.The new smoking policy, to be voted on next week, will apply to all foster carers except family...

Aug. 4, 2008 -- Jets of searingly hot water spewing up from the ocean floor have been discovered in a far-northern zone of the Arctic Ocean, Swiss-based scientists announced Monday. The so-called "black smokers" were found 73 degrees north, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Greenland and Norway, in the coldest waters yet for a phenomenon first observed around the Galagapos islands in 1977.The earth's plumbing system of hydrothermal vents contain their own, unique ecosystems given the absence of sunlight at depths, in this case, of 7,874 feet, with vinegar-like water attaining temperatures of up to 752 degrees Fahrenheit.A team from...

Smoking ban leads to new religion Wednesday 16 July 2008Café owners in the Netherlands are joining religious movement known as the One and Universal Smokers Church of God, the Telegraaf reports on Wednesday.‘We stand firmly behind the church’s teachings and that is smoking,’ Cor Busch, owner of the former Lindeboom café in Alkmaar told the paper. ‘Smokers are being discriminated against… but a beer and a cigarette belong together.’ Smoking has been banned in Dutch bars since July 1. Several dozen bars have joined the movement which claims the Dutch constitution and European rules give it legitimacy under the...

Smokers in deprived communities of the Scottish city of Dundee will be offered cash to quit the habit as part of a new program coming in the fall. Organizers working with the Scottish government say the $986,000 pilot program aims to help 900 of the city's 36,000 smokers to stop over the next two years. Participants in the new initiative will be offered $25 per week credited onto an electronic card for a maximum of 12 weeks. They can redeem the money in their local supermarket for fresh food and groceries — but not alcohol and cigarettes.

Remember the campaign against smokers? It started quietly and grew to hysteria. From bans to added taxes, smokers were left to wonder what hit them. Tobacco was (and continues to be) a legal substance. Now, following the same pattern, a push has started against red meat.

Initiative Would Exempt Cigar Bars From Indoor Smoking Ban By Austin JenkinsOlympia, WA  March 19, 2008 3:28 p.m. Washington State’s two-year-old indoor smoking ban is facing a challenge. Cigar shop owners have filed a citizen initiative to roll-back part of the law.Dale Taylor is with the newly formed Cigar Association of Washington. He says the initiative would allow smoking in cigar shops, cigar bars, private clubs and service organizations like the Elks.Dale Taylor: “What we’re asking for here is a fair and reasonable exemption to the law that allows a cigar store, for instance like the one I work in,...

Whatever your feeling on smoking bans, you kind of have to admire the way some bars in Minnesota are getting around their state's tough new restrictions on the practice. Like Toronto, Minnesota has banned smoking in its pubs and nightclubs, but the legislators did leave one loophole - actors on stage are allowed to light up a cigarette if it's something their characters would do in the context of a play.

China has an estimated 350 million smokers Health officials in the Chinese city of Chongqing are urging people to report their family members to the authorities if they violate a smoking ban.The initiative is part of a campaign in two districts of the city to tackle the effects of passive smoking. Those who are accused of smoking will have their names posted on a warning list on community notice boards. As well as the campaign within families, a workplace smoking ban is also being tried in public buildings. A hospital boss whose organisation is taking part in the trial...

PEOPLE with mental illness are three times more likely to smoke, and experts say not enough is being done to help this vulnerable group quit. A new Access Economics report shows almost 1.3 million Australians with a mental illness are smokers, costing $33 billion a year. SANE Australia, which commissioned the report, is calling for urgent action to introduce quit smoking programs and supports for people with a mental illness. Executive director Barbara Hocking said smokers with a mental illness paid about $2.8 billion every year in tobacco taxes, but there was little evidence of equitable funding and few programs...

Riot police storm pub after a smoker lights up in protest to the banLast updated at 08:37am on 15th October 2007  The ban on smoking in public places came into force in July this year  It wasn't exactly the dramatic finale one cricket fan was expecting. Having installed himself in his local pub to watch England play India, John Vaughan was enraged when the channel was switched over to football just as the cricket was reaching its thrilling conclusion. So Mr Vaughan lit up a cigarette in protest. When he refused to extinguish it, staff pressed a panic button...

Do people on the dole have a reasonable expectation of privacy vis-à-vis their financial affairs? No. That question, though not always my answer, is coming up frequently as defenders of the Democratic Party's $35 billion SCHIP expansion proposal condemn bloggers and talk show hosts, including Rush Limbaugh, who have examined the statement penned by aides to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and delivered as the official Democratic Party rebuttal to President Bush's weekly radio address by 12-year-old Graeme Frost, that the State Childrens Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) is for "families like mine." The questioners' question: If Graeme Frost's family isn't...

Companies seeking to cut rising health care costs are starting to dock the pay of overweight and unhealthy workers. Clarian Health, an Indiana hospital chain, will require workers who smoke to pay $5 out of each paycheck starting in 2009. For workers deemed obese, as much as $30 will be taken out each paycheck until they meet certain weight, cholesterol and blood pressure standards. Clarian employees will also be required to take part in a health risk appraisal that will inform the company which employees smoke. Such appraisals are becoming a popular tool for businesses to determine the health of...

News Next, a ban on smoking in our parks and open spacesBy STEVE DOUGHTY - More by this author » Last updated at 23:23pm on 1st July 2007  Smokers were getting used to huddling outside pubs - as plans were being made to further clamp down on their habit.  The smoking ban which came into force yesterday could be extended to include playgrounds and parks, it has emerged. Government medical advisers are also demanding higher taxes on tobacco and bolder health warnings to pile the pressure on smokers to give up. England yesterday followed Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland...

Children urged to pressure parents on smoking By Adam Lusher, Sunday Telegraph  Last Updated: 11:48pm BST 30/06/2007 Visit the Telegraph's Smoking Ban Homepage Young children are to be mobilised to heap pressure on their parents to give up smoking, in a continuing drive against the habit.As England awakes to a ban on lighting up in pubs and restaurants today, plans have been drawn up for "smoking cessation support workers" to visit schools to "educate" children about the dangers of passive smoking.   The children will then be urged to return home and "stand up for their rights" by telling their...

Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) had tarnished its name here by publicly attacking and murdering children, videotaping beheadings, all while imposing harsh punishments on Iraqi civilians found guilty of violating morality laws prohibiting activities like smoking. The AQI installed Sharia court had sanctioned the amputation of the two “smoking fingers” for those who violated anti-smoking laws. In part because local sentiment was shifting against it, AQI synthesized with other groups and undertook an image makeover, christening itself “The Islamic State of Iraq.” But the new name was just lipstick on a pig here. On the evening of the 24th I...

David W. Kuneman, Director of Research of the Smoker's Club, Inc. originally became interested in the economic effects of smoking bans 4 years ago while reading an review article titled Review of the quality of studies on the economic effects of smoke-free policies on the hospitality industry. (1) That review article claimed that the "better quality" studies of post-smoking-ban effects always found no loss in the hospitality sector, and also claimed that of the studies finding any losses, "none were funded by a source clearly independent of the tobacco industry.""Yet, when bans pass, we always hear complaints from the hospitality...

Pub patio heaters for smokers will produce 'as much pollution as a small city'By DAVID DERBYSHIRE - More by this author » Last updated at 22:00pm on 10th June 2007  Pubs are installing patio heaters in outdoor smoking areas Patio heaters installed by pubs to keep smokers warm on chilly nights could soon produce as much carbon dioxide as a small city, it has been claimed. Next month's smoking ban has triggered huge demand for the gas-fired heaters from pubs, restaurants and clubs creating legal outdoor smoking areas. But according to experts, a single heater releases more carbon dioxide...

Don't Get Me Started Really Angry By Andrew C. ''Andy'' Hefty Ok, now I am really angry. In fact, I am so upset that my teeth are clenched in a fit of rage. My fury stems from a collection of news articles over the last few weeks that show how completely out of touch some Americans really are. Now, this may sound like one of my typical "spouting" columns, but it's not. Hillary Clinton's Chutzpah This exceptionally dangerous politician has shown incredible audacity. Remember how over the last couple of years when Iraq became less popular that the junior senator...

Images that show how fingerprints can be used to reveal whether you are a smoker, an avid coffee drinker or even a drug addict have been revealed by UK scientists. They were produced using a novel forensic technique that could in future be used on fingerprints collected at a crime scene. If the prints in question are not on file, this would still give police a powerful way to shrink their pool of suspects, by identifying their lifestyle habits. The technique was developed by a team of forensics experts at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, and King's...