Free Republic

A Florida man got the shock of his life on Wednesday when an electronic cigarette he was using exploded in his mouth. Honestly, you try to do the right thing and it all blows up in your face. A Florida man who finally came around to the idea of giving up smoking decided to use an electronic cigarette to help him try to kick the habit. So far so good, you might think. The problem for 57-year-old Tom Holloway, however, was that while it was in his mouth the thing exploded. The explosion was so severe that it destroyed some...

Lower-income smokers in Utah may soon have to pay more for a doctor's visit if they continue the unhealthy habit. That is, if a bill currently making its way through the state legislature passes. State Representative Paul Ray, R., is the author of the proposal to charge a Medicaid recipient a higher co-pay for doctor visits if he or she smokes cigarettes.

Fumes from the University’s tobacco policy have ignited conversation over the future of the substance on UT grounds. Because of a new provision from one of the University’s top research funders, UT will need to enact a tobacco-free policy or risk losing millions of research dollars. The Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas, a voter-mandated organization that awards millions of research dollars each year to entities pursuing cancer research, released a statement on Feb. 2 stating it will now require all current and future grantees to create tobacco-free workplaces as a condition for accepting the Institute’s funds. UT currently receives...

On January 1, 2012, Maine became the first state to ban smoking in all low-income public housing. Twelve thousand poor people faced their New Year’s Day hangover without the solace of a Marlboro to accompany their aspirin and coffee. This, of course, was good. Just ask the high-minded, right-thinking progressive elites who, it’s safe to say, run Maine’s public housing authority. Progressive elites like to run things. They’d run the government, the media, and the entire U.S. economy if they could. Failing that, public housing authorities will do. The Detroit, San Antonio, and Portland, Oregon, housing authorities already ban smoking....

Quitting smoking is never easy. However, when you're poor and uneducated, kicking the habit for good is doubly hard, according to a new study by a tobacco dependence researcher at The City College of New York (CCNY). Christine Sheffer, associate medical professor at CCNY's Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, tracked smokers from different socioeconomic backgrounds after they had completed a statewide smoking cessation program in Arkansas.

A new study suggests cigarette smokers who quit after using over-the-counter medication such as nicotine patches are just as likely to relapse as smokers who go "cold turkey," casting fresh doubt on the effectiveness of such products. The finding, from a survey of several hundred smokers, could heighten U.S. smoking-policy debates at a time when the federal health-care overhaul is widening eligibility for cessation medication but states are slashing funding for public-service announcements and telephone quit lines. The study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and University of Massachusetts Boston also coincides with slowing progress to get...

Health care provider announces that tobacco users will not get jobs. Smokers need not apply. That’s the message Geisinger Health System is sending to future job applicants. Starting Feb. 1, Geisinger will no longer hire applicants who use tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars and chewing or smokeless tobacco, the health system announced on Wednesday. “Geisinger is joining dozens of hospitals and medical organizations across the country that are encouraging healthier living, decreasing absenteeism and reducing health care costs by adopting strict policies that make smoking a reason to turn away job applicants,” Richard Merkle, chief human resources officer, said in...

Netherlands backpedaling on anti-smoking campaignThe Associated Press December 15 AMSTERDAM - It's getting surprisingly easy to light up in the Netherlands these days - cigarettes, that is. **SNIP** "There's no other country that's taking these backward steps," said Lies Van Gennip, director of the national tobacco control center, slated to be closed in 2013. "I'm ashamed of what's happening here." At a press briefing on Wednesday, several Dutch politicians and experts blasted the government for backtracking on tobacco control policies. Opposition lawmaker Renske Leijten of the Socialist Party said Health Minister Edith Schippers was making the wrong decision to cut...

A new Institute of Medicine report unintentionally highlights the fatal folly of censoring truthful information about cigarette alternatives until their manufacturers can generate the sort of costly, time-consuming studies that federal regulators demand before approving new drugs. Under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, a "modified risk tobacco product," which is any tobacco product identified as safer than cigarettes, can be legally sold only after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) certifies that it will "benefit the health of the population as a whole, taking into account both users of tobacco products and persons who do not currently...

Smoking can make your nipples fall off - this is the astonishing claim by Dr Anthony Youn, one of American's top plastic surgeons. The practitioner from Detroit, Michigan, was quick to point out this applied to patients who underwent breast lifts to perk up their chests. He said the nicotine and carbon monoxide taken in during smoking can disrupt blood flow to different parts of the body and so disrupts the healing process following surgery. The toxins can act as a 'virtual tourniquet' and effectively kill a body part by stopping blood from reaching it. Speaking to CNN Health, Dr...

A couple of months ago I posted a thread that I was trying to quit smoking and asked for advice. I tried going cold turkey, but only managed a few days. I finally went to the doctor and got a prescription for Chantix. I'm right at three weeks smoke-free now. I quit taking the Chantix about a week and a half ago (horrible nightmares and seriously screwed up sleep) and I'm past the 'cravings' stage. I really only think about smoking a couple of times a day, but I'm not fighting the urge to smoke any more. This is the...

Reason’s Jacob Sullum discovers another example of nannies amok: "Yesterday the Boston Public Health Commission voted to ban the use of electronic cigarettes in workplaces, including outdoor areas such as restaurant patios. It says it is simply “clos[ing] a loophole” by “treat[ing] e-cigarettes like tobacco products.” But since e-cigarettes do not contain any tobacco and do not generate smoke (merely a propylene glycol vapor containing nicotine), that is a puzzling way to characterize the decision. The official justification for banning smoking in workplaces is protecting employees and other bystanders from the toxins and carcinogens generated when tobacco is burned. Let’s...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A tiny all-white Appalachian church in rural Kentucky has voted to ban interracial couples from joining its flock, pitting members against each other in an argument over race. Members at the Gulnare Free Will Baptist Church voted Sunday on the resolution, which says the church “does not condone interracial marriage.” The church member who crafted the resolution, Melvin Thompson, said he is not racist and called the matter an “internal affair.” “I am not racist. I will tell you that. I am not prejudiced against any race of people, have never in my lifetime spoke evil about...

How would you feel if the government told you that you couldn’t smoke in your own car? Perhaps you’d endorse the idea that public health officials were trying to make it harder for people to maintain a habit that increases their risk of developing lung cancer, emphysema, heart disease and a host of other problems. Maybe you’d rejoice that you’d never again be forced to carpool to a meeting with a chain-smoking colleague. You might even breathe a sigh of relief for all the children of smokers who would be able to ride to school, soccer practice and piano lessons...

Dem lawmakers seek to end smoking in all federal buildings By Pete Kasperowicz - 11/07/11 03:55 PM ET Rep. Susan Davis (D-Calif.) and four other House Democrats on Friday proposed legislation that would completely ban smoking in and around all federal buildings. The Smoke-Free Buildings Act, H.R. 3382, would build upon a 1997 executive order that banned smoking in most areas of federal buildings, but still allowed for smoking sections. Davis said that decision doesn't fully eliminate the risk of secondhand smoke. "President Clinton's order was a great first step," Davis said. "But it's time to take the next step...

Users of medical marijuana have been exempted from a smoking ban that Sebastopol has imposed on apartment dwellers. The City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved an amendment to its July anti-smoking ordinance that removes medical marijuana from the definition of smoking. The anti-smoking ordinance, aimed at second-hand smoke, requires apartment owners to write no-smoking restrictions into all new leases and imposes a smoking ban on other renters within 14 months. A similar ban for apartment dwellers has been enacted by Sonoma County supervisors and proposed for Santa Rosa. Sebastopol already prohibits smoking in work places, bars and restaurants, retail stores...

Herman Cain huddled with Henry Kissinger in New York on Thursday, discussing foreign policy with the elder statesman. According to Mark Block, Cain’s chief of staff, the former secretary of state also commented on Cain’s notorious campaign video, which shows Block smoking. “Halfway through Mr. Cain’s conversation, Doctor Kissinger turns and points to me and says, ‘That smoking thing you did was brilliant.’ I sat there thinking, Dr. Henry Kissinger just said something I did was brilliant,” Block says. “We all got a good chuckle.” Block adds that Kissinger was impressed by Cain’s questions. “He told him that he meets...

Mark Block, GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain's chief of staff, revealed to The Daily Caller a secret agreement that he has with Cain. Assuming Cain wins the presidential election, Block will kick a certain habit that he famously engaged in for a campaign ad.

The Daily Caller spoke with Herman Cain’s chief of staff, Mark Block, about the campaign’s fundraising and the now infamous advertisement that made him an Internet celebrity.

He is the man with the mustache who takes a rebellious drag on a cigarette in the Herman Cain Internet ad gone viral. "We've run a campaign like nobody's ever seen," he says before taking a puff. "But then America's never seen a candidate like Herman Cain." Meet Mark Block, Cain's unorthodox campaign manager. Perhaps no one is more responsible for the Georgia businessman's meteoric rise in the presidential polls than Block, a Republican strategist and tea party leader who's left a trail of questionable campaign work behind him. Block has been accused of voter suppression and was banned from...

Much ado about smoking!  The press is all titillated by Herman Cain's campaign ad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhm-22Q0PuMCNN did a lengthy story about it last night.  (It was mildly amusing, but it profited from the work of some funny late-night TV comics.  Also David Letterman.)   This is ironic, since newscasters back in the olden days (back when newscasters had balls) smoked on the set.  Here's Edward R. Murrow sporting his favorite smoldering accessory: And it's hardly unusual for political types to smoke, right?  I mean, you've got Boehner copping drags left and right: And when Obama smokes a cigarette, it's like awesome:...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: I want you to hear these sound bites. The media is going nuts over the Herman Cain ad. First, here is a montage from yesterday and last night, and the reaction, the State-Run Media hyperventilating over Herman Cain's smoking ad. It tells you so much about how insane our society has become about smoking and political correctness. There is a humorless doom-and-gloomism out there, and if you drag on cigarette, if you show a picture of somebody dragging on -- I mean Hollywood is famous, everybody in every movie it seems smokes. Have you noticed? You can't...

On Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom” on Tuesday, network senior political analyst Brit Hume attempted to make sense of recent “odd” decisions by GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, including accusing GOP campaign strategist Karl Rove of picking on him and releasing a web ad of his chief of staff touting Cain’s accomplishments while smoking a cigarette. The unconventional web ad is “sort of a metaphor for the Cain campaign,” Hume said. “You can never quite figure out what the guy is quite up to. You know, if he were a conventional candidate he would be campaigning in Iowa and New...

For the past few weeks, I've had a recurring suspicion that the several gaffes of Herman Cain are in fact "gaffes." As in intentional. Deliberate. Planned. Allow me to explain. 21 years ago, I watched closely as a complete political neophyte announced his intention to run as governor of Massachusetts. He was John Silber, president of Boston University. Silber was a staunch Reaganite, a native TEXAN, a blunt-spoken anti-activist authoritarian university president, a big-business booster, and a Democrat. And he was running to be nominated by the Massachusetts Democratic Party. What chance, huh? Well, to make matters "worse," Silber started...

Lots of buzz about this among political junkies on Twitter tonight, mostly of the so-bad-it’s-good variety. Is the image of this guy taking a soothing drag on camera after 40 seconds of ad-tastic exertion really that strange and transgressive? Cain’s campaign is all about unapologetic populist authenticity, and there’s nothing more unapologetically, authentically populist than defiantly lighting one up when the mood strikes, politesse be damned. As the man says, “We’ve run a campaign like nobody’s ever seen.” If you’ve got a problem with casual smoking during presidential spots, well, that only proves what an uptight establishment RINO you really...

In January, I'm planning on having a major surgery and I cannot have this operation until I quit smoking. I've been trying to quit for the last 17 years and I haven't been able to make it for more than a month. I can get past the immediate horror of it all. I'm using Chantix to help me with that. (Chantix was the easiest way to quit that I've found so far.) But what always gets me are the 'crazies that don't go away. Even after the habit is broken - after the cravings are gone - I find myself...

“(It) doesn't matter how big the warnings are. You could have cigarettes that were called the warnings. You could have cigarettes that come in a black pack with a skull and a cross bone on the front, called ‘Tumors’ and smokers would be lined up around the block going, "I can't wait to get my hands on these fucking things!” – Denis Leary ‘No Cure for Cancer’ There are certain areas of government hypocrisy that we as a society have come to accept as normal. These subjects are always met with a shake of the head and shrugged shoulders when...

Albany -- New York state collected $10 billion in tobacco taxes over the last six years -- but spent just 4 percent of that on efforts to stop smoking, the American Cancer Society charged in a report released yesterday.

BULLITT COUNTY, Ky. -- A proposed smoking ban in Bullitt County has been snuffed out. The Bullitt Circuit judge issued his ruling Thursday, saying the ban proposed by the health department is void and unlawful. The board of health had voted to enact a regulation to ban smoking in public places, but Wednesday's ruling stops the health department from implementing or enforcing the ban. In that ruling, Judge Rodney Burress said to allow the health department to regulate any matter relating to public health would "allow regulations prohibiting the consumption of candy because it is bad for a person's teeth,...

PLEASANT HILL -- To get a good deal, Paul Brodman used to buy cigarettes online. Little did he know, those smokes weren't the bargain they appeared to be. There's no getting out of paying state taxes simply by buying cigarettes online. Earlier this month, Brodman received a bill for $1,398 from the State Board of Equalization for back taxes and penalties he owes for 100 cartons of cigarettes he bought online from an out-of-state retailer in 2007 and 2008. Initially, Brodman thought it was a mistake. "We smoked them; we didn't resell them," he said. "I wasn't selling them on...

The intent is to shock smokers into quittingThe intent of the anti-smoking ads is to shock smokers into quitting. One ad shows fatty deposits oozing out of a 32-year-old dead smoker's aorta. "Every cigarette is doing you damage” proclaims the announcer at the end of the ad. They are definitely memorable, but are these ads simply turning smokers off? Vanessa Vargas of Pembroke Pines has never smoked, but her husband does. “They’re disgusting and hideous. He won’t change because of them. He just changes the channel. He thinks they’re gross,” she said of the ads. Researchers at the University of...

Legislature Approves Renter Smoking Ban Updated: Monday, 15 Aug 2011, 7:12 PM PDT Published : Monday, 15 Aug 2011, 7:12 PM PDT Sacramento - Landlords will be able to ban smoking on their properties, including inside rental units, if Gov. Jerry Brown signs a bill sent to him by the state Senate. Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of Los Angeles says his bill is designed to give families more smoke-free options. He says 86 percent of Californians don't smoke, yet smoke-free multifamily housing remains comparatively rare.

Actor Michael Douglas was photographed smoking on a yacht last week - less than a year after "beating" stage IV throat cancer. The Oscar winner appears on the new cover of Star Magazine and in photos inside puffing on what appears to be a hand-rolled cigarette July 21. He looks tanned and relaxed in the exclusive Star photos, leaning on the yacht's railing while traveling with his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones along the Italian Riviera. "Are you calling about the photos, because we have no comment," a rep for Douglas' spokesman Allen Burry told the Daily News. The Hollywood icon, 66,...

Who says smoking cigarettes is so bad ... well, aside from the World Health Organization, Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and every medical board and association on the face of the Earth? But should smokers be fortunate enough to dodge all that cancer, heart disease, emphysema and the like, they will be uniquely protected — for reasons unexplained by science — against a handful of diseases and afflictions. Call it a silver lining in their otherwise blackened lungs. Although long-term smoking is largely a ticket to early death, here are (gulp) five possible benefits...

Firing up the barbecue can be as dangerous as lighting a cigarette, according to a new billboard which reads, “Warning: Hot dogs can wreck your health.” This statement, along with a photograph of hot dogs in a cigarette pack, currently stands near the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where 1.1 million of the meat products were served last year. It was created by the Cancer Project of the group Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit that encourages, among other things, an “all plant diet” to prevent and treat disease.

To the list of places where smokers no longer will be able to light up — government buildings, parks, restaurants and bars — public housing residents in San Antonio soon will add one more: their own homes. The San Antonio Housing Authority plans to impose a new policy in January that will prohibit residents from smoking indoors or away from designated outdoor spots at all 70 of its public sites. The ban, which will affect about 15,800 residents, aims to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke and follows a growing nationwide trend to eliminate smoking at public housing authorities. Since 2009,...

The perception by teenagers and young adults that heavy cigarette smoking is a high-risk activity has declined in many states, according to a U.S. study on substance abuse and mental health released on Thursday. The perceived risks of smoking one or more packs of cigarettes a day dropped between 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 in 14 states among youths aged 12 to 17, and in 31 states among those aged 18 to 25. Perceived smoking risks also dropped in nine states among those 26 and older, a statement from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said regarding the report. "No...

Nabi Biopharmaceuticals said Monday that its experimental anti-smoking vaccine NicVAX did not meet its main goal in a late-stage test, sending the company's shares plunging. The company said about 11 percent of patients who were received a dummy shot were able to quit smoking, and patients who were treated with NicVAX quit at a similar rate. Nabi said it is evaluating the data and waiting for results from a second late-stage study. "We are clearly surprised and deeply disappointed with the results of this first NicVAX Phase III trial," said President and CEO Raafat Fahim.

A majority of Americans (59%) support a ban on smoking in all public places for the first time since Gallup initially asked the question in 2001. At the same time, fewer than 2 in 10 support the idea of making smoking totally illegal in this country. According to the American Lung Association, 27 states plus the District of Columbia have passed comprehensive smoke-free laws. A New York City law bans smoking in virtually all public places, including outdoor plazas and beaches. When Gallup first asked about a ban on public smoking in 2001, 39% were in favor, an attitude that...

Delivering his first address to a joint session of Congress in February 2009, Barack Obama told the assembled legislators that his plans for a federal spending binge of nearly a trillion dollars was “not because I believe in bigger government – I don’t.” Rather, he said, the stimulus plan was intended to “put people back to work and put money in their pockets.” More than two years after that speech, two things are clear: Obama’s empirical projections were inaccurate and his ideological protestations were disingenuous. Indeed, the stimulus plan was not, as Obama tried to frame it, a triumph of...

The federal government has a growing interest in the eating habits of Americans for the same reason it has an interest in tobacco consumption, said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The reason is money, because three-quarters of medical-spending is driven by chronic diseases, such as obesity and tobacco-related diseases, she said. Sebelius’ comments came at the tail-end of Tuesday’s White House press conference where officials showcased nine new photos that must be carried on cigarette packs. Officials used a survey of 18,000 people to find the images that would have the most distressing...

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Rotting teeth and gums. Diseased lungs. A sewn-up corpse of a smoker. Cigarette smoke coming out of the tracheotomy hole in a man's neck. Cigarette packs in the U.S. will have to carry these macabre images in nine new warning labels that are part of a campaign by the Food and Drug Administration to use fear and disgust to discourage Americans from lighting up.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Coming to a store near you: nine more reasons not to smoke. The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday is set to release nine new graphic health warning labels for U.S. cigarette packs, representing the most significant change to cigarette packs in more than 25 years. The new labels will take up half of a pack of cigarettes and also will appear on advertisements. Cigarette makers have until the fall of 2012 to comply. Mandates for new warning labels were part of a 2009 law giving the FDA authority to regulate tobacco. The announcement follows reviews...

Craving an afternoon snack? Take a drag on a cigarette, and your hunger will likely disappear. Smoking is the number one cause of preventable deaths in the Unites States and other developed countries, causing lung cancer, heart disease, and chronic bronchitis. But smokers are, on average, skinnier than nonsmokers. New research reveals how nicotine, the active ingredient in cigarettes, works in the brain to suppress smokers' appetites. The finding also pinpoints a new drug target for nicotine withdrawal—and weight loss. The nicotine receptor in the brain has 15 subunits; they can combine in a multitude of ways to form different...

RICHMOND, Va.—That's not smoke coming out of Cliff Phillips' mouth. But that hasn't stopped others from cringing, making remarks, waving their hands in their faces and coughing at the sight of the vapor from his electronic cigarette. "They're just conditioned if they see you inhale and exhale something, it's got to be smoke and it's going to stink. ... They're not even smelling anything," said Phillips, a 61-year-old retiree and former cigarette smoker from Cuba, Ill. Electronic cigarettes don't burn and don't give off smoke.

Hundreds of reports of suicides, psychotic reactions and other serious problems tied to the popular stop-smoking drug Chantix were left out of a crucial government safety review because Pfizer Inc., the drug’s manufacturer, submitted years of data through “improper channels.” Some 150 suicides — more than doubling those previously known — were among 589 delayed reports of severe issues turned up in a new analysis by the non-profit Institute for Safe Medication Practices. “We’ve had a major breakdown in safety surveillance,” said Thomas J. Moore, the ISMP senior scientist who analyzed the data. The serious problems — including reports of...

If you plan on smoking in a New York City park today, bring an umbrella and $50. Showers are expected in the area, and today Mayor Michael Bloomberg's ban on smoking in public parks, beaches and elsewhere goes into effect. This new law casts a wide, anti-smoking blanket over much of outdoors New York City. It bans smoking in all New York City parks (except median strips), on all the city's beaches and boardwalks, its public golf courses, the grounds of its sports stadium complexes and pedestrian plazas such as those at Times Square and Herald Square. While the ban...

The tobacco industry on Tuesday threatened to slash the price of cigarettes if Australia goes ahead with plans to introduce plain packaging, saying more people will end up smoking. Last month, Australia unveiled the world's toughest laws on tobacco promotion that would see cigarettes sold in drab olive-green packets plastered with graphic health warnings. Under proposed legislation, due to take effect next year, all logos will be removed from cigarette packaging, and tobacco companies must print their brand name in a specific font. British American Tobacco launched a national media campaign against the "unproven plans" Tuesday, with its Australian chief...

No smoking signs may be driving more people to light up, a psychological study suggests. Scientists say the messages have an 'ironic effect' on smokers that increases their craving for tobacco. Without being aware of it, they react to the signs by thinking of and wanting cigarettes. 'You get ironic effects when you couple information that people perceive with negation,' said researcher Brian Earp, from Oxford University. 'When I say "don't think of a pink elephant", I've just put the thought of a pink elephant in your head. 'A lot of public health messages are framed in a negative way...

The state Supreme Court breathed new life Thursday into lawsuits by seriously ill ex-smokers, ruling that a former cigarette addict can seek damages from tobacco companies for her cancer despite having failed to sue for earlier smoking-related illnesses... The California Supreme Court removed one obstacle to tobacco suits by ruling in 2007 that the two-year deadline started running when former smokers learned that they were ill, and not merely that they were addicted...