Ryan Prystash has gotten his nicotine fix a couple of times in the residence halls.
But not with regular cigarettes, chewing tobacco or cigars.
Instead, he smokes electronic cigarettes.
“I started about a month ago,” said Prystash, a New Baltimore freshman.
With the e-cig, there is no fire, tar, ash or carbon monoxide.
It’s about the same size as a regular cigarette, only with a few modifications.
The end where the cigarette is normally lit is where the battery is located. The part which is held by the smoker is the cartridge containing water laced with nicotine.
“The cartridges can be plugged into an outlet,” he said. “I even charged one of them from my laptop.”
Prystash said using the cigarettes inside a residence hall has caused some confusion.
“I was smoking in my room when an RA passed by,” Prystash said. “She started freaking out until I pulled it apart and showed her what it was.”
He said the RA then allowed him to continue smoking.
However, the popularity of the product does present an issue of how it conforms to the rules in no-smoking areas of campus.
“We have had no complaints yet,” said Shaun Holtgreive, associate director of Residence Life. “The FDA is still figuring out how to regulate them.”
Currently students can smoke e-cigs on campus without being held to the standards of regular cigarettes, he said.
“We don’t have enough info now,” Holtgreive said. “We’ll probably make a decision about them by next fall.”
The starter pack costs around $60, and comes with two batteries and six cartridges, which contain different flavors, Prystash said.
“It’s a good alternative for those trying to quit,” said Jonathan Grinter, a Farmington Hills freshman.
Grinter said he hasn’t received any complaints about his electronic smoking yet.
“I’ve smoked mine in class, the dorm and outside,” Grinter said. “They don’t smell and last longer than the real thing.”
понедельник, 26 апреля 2010 г.
понедельник, 19 апреля 2010 г.
Stub it out
Japan’s smoking rate has fallen to a record low amid rising health awareness and tighter regulations.
WOW! The huge billboard in front of Yokohama Park across the intersections must have cost a bomb. It depicts a picture of a little girl beside a smouldering cigarette held in a man’s hand. The caption reads: “For the health of others, do stop smoking while walking.”
When my son was a toddler, his hair was nearly singed and my hand almost burnt by the cigarettes of smokers jostling in crowded places. Inhaling the secondary smoke made us cough, too.
My husband had smoked for nearly three decades. When he started working after graduating from university, his mother had encouraged him to smoke for the sake of socialising, only to regret later because the house reeked of tobacco smoke and the wallpapers got stained.
My father was a chain-smoker until he quit at the age of 50. Much as I loathe smoking, I overlooked this flaw in Koji when I married him.After Ken was born, Koji was confined to his study room (which I nicknamed “nicotine room”) whenever he needed a smoke. When we went on outings, he sneaked off with his portable ashtray, for a puff.
When we shifted into our present apartment, he lost his “nicotine room”. So he puffed away on the balcony.
Even during winter, he would brave the cold outside to have his cigarette before breakfast. Frustrated, I told him that he should emulate my father’s determination to kick the habit.
“I’ll quit when I reach 50,” Koji replied casually.
A week before his 50th birthday, when we reminded him of his “promise,” he retorted: “I think you said your father quit at 55.”
During that week, Ken and I checked his pockets. Good. He didn’t bring back any cigarette or filter. For the first two weeks, he kept his craving at bay with chewing gums. As an incentive for him to persevere, I rewarded him with a dinner treat and an expensive pair of shoes.
Now Koji detests the smell of tobacco smoke. His brother, brother-in-law and niece had also quit smoking.
Japan has been dubbed a major smoking nation, but its smoking rate has been decreasing since a decade ago.
Last year, a 31-year-old man and his three-year-old daughter filed a lawsuit against Tokyo’s Kita Ward government for failing to take preventive measures against passive smoking in the park, and demanded ¥100,000 (RM3,463) as compensation for the sore eyes and sore throat that they suffered. Following that, the authorities removed all public ashtrays in 20 children’s parks.
Since its nationwide launch on July 1, 2008, smokers need to show their “Taspo” (tobacco passport) card to purchase cigarettes from convenience stores or vending machines. This smart card is issued to those 20 and above, to prevent minors from smoking.
Yet, underaged smokers have been illegally using the card. Two years ago in Fukuoka, a woman (a non-smoker) became the first person to be prosecuted for obtaining a Taspo card for her underaged son to buy cigarettes from a vending machine. Her action was tantamount to giving cigarettes to a minor.
It was not an April Fool’s joke when Japan’s first anti-smoking ordinance took effect in Kanagawa Prefecture, banning smoking in schools, hospitals, government offices and other public places. A ¥2,000 (RM69) fine is imposed for smoking in prohibited public buildings, while managers of such facilities face a ¥20,000 (RM690) fine.
The penalty would also apply to restaurants and hotels from April next year.
Many people welcome this move, though smokers, business operators and the tobacco industry will be affected.
Restaurants, mahjong and pachinko parlours with a floor space of over 100sqm and hotels of over 700sqm must either become non-smoking or create designated smoking areas. Operators of smaller business facilities are required to ensure a smoke-free environment and are not subjected to the penalty yet.
Notwithstanding the smoking and non-smoking sections in major restaurant chains, non-smokers are still exposed to the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. Nevertheless, major restaurant chains like McDonald’s Co (Japan) Ltd and Yoshinoya Co had prohibited smoking at their Kanagawa outlets, even before the enforcement.
The ban on smoking at swimming beaches (except for designated areas) is expected to be implemented next month. No penalty has been set for offenders but hopefully, the ban would reduce littering and prevent health hazards caused by secondary smoking.
From October, the price of cigarettes is likely to increase by ¥100 (RM3.45) a pack, to offset the market’s falling sales.
With the smoke-free environment campaigns, Tobacco Inc will launch non-flammable, odourless cigarettes next month, initially in Tokyo. Costing ¥300 (RM10.40) and classified as sniffing tobacco, Zero Style Mint comes with a tobacco pipe, mouthpiece and two cartridges. A pack of four refill cartridges costs ¥400 (RM13.80). The 8cm cigarette-like device can last half a day or the whole day, and its nicotine content is one-twentieth that of a regular cigarette.
With such stringent actions, Japan’s smoking rate is expected to drop further.
WOW! The huge billboard in front of Yokohama Park across the intersections must have cost a bomb. It depicts a picture of a little girl beside a smouldering cigarette held in a man’s hand. The caption reads: “For the health of others, do stop smoking while walking.”
When my son was a toddler, his hair was nearly singed and my hand almost burnt by the cigarettes of smokers jostling in crowded places. Inhaling the secondary smoke made us cough, too.
My husband had smoked for nearly three decades. When he started working after graduating from university, his mother had encouraged him to smoke for the sake of socialising, only to regret later because the house reeked of tobacco smoke and the wallpapers got stained.
My father was a chain-smoker until he quit at the age of 50. Much as I loathe smoking, I overlooked this flaw in Koji when I married him.After Ken was born, Koji was confined to his study room (which I nicknamed “nicotine room”) whenever he needed a smoke. When we went on outings, he sneaked off with his portable ashtray, for a puff.
When we shifted into our present apartment, he lost his “nicotine room”. So he puffed away on the balcony.
Even during winter, he would brave the cold outside to have his cigarette before breakfast. Frustrated, I told him that he should emulate my father’s determination to kick the habit.
“I’ll quit when I reach 50,” Koji replied casually.
A week before his 50th birthday, when we reminded him of his “promise,” he retorted: “I think you said your father quit at 55.”
During that week, Ken and I checked his pockets. Good. He didn’t bring back any cigarette or filter. For the first two weeks, he kept his craving at bay with chewing gums. As an incentive for him to persevere, I rewarded him with a dinner treat and an expensive pair of shoes.
Now Koji detests the smell of tobacco smoke. His brother, brother-in-law and niece had also quit smoking.
Japan has been dubbed a major smoking nation, but its smoking rate has been decreasing since a decade ago.
Last year, a 31-year-old man and his three-year-old daughter filed a lawsuit against Tokyo’s Kita Ward government for failing to take preventive measures against passive smoking in the park, and demanded ¥100,000 (RM3,463) as compensation for the sore eyes and sore throat that they suffered. Following that, the authorities removed all public ashtrays in 20 children’s parks.
Since its nationwide launch on July 1, 2008, smokers need to show their “Taspo” (tobacco passport) card to purchase cigarettes from convenience stores or vending machines. This smart card is issued to those 20 and above, to prevent minors from smoking.
Yet, underaged smokers have been illegally using the card. Two years ago in Fukuoka, a woman (a non-smoker) became the first person to be prosecuted for obtaining a Taspo card for her underaged son to buy cigarettes from a vending machine. Her action was tantamount to giving cigarettes to a minor.
It was not an April Fool’s joke when Japan’s first anti-smoking ordinance took effect in Kanagawa Prefecture, banning smoking in schools, hospitals, government offices and other public places. A ¥2,000 (RM69) fine is imposed for smoking in prohibited public buildings, while managers of such facilities face a ¥20,000 (RM690) fine.
The penalty would also apply to restaurants and hotels from April next year.
Many people welcome this move, though smokers, business operators and the tobacco industry will be affected.
Restaurants, mahjong and pachinko parlours with a floor space of over 100sqm and hotels of over 700sqm must either become non-smoking or create designated smoking areas. Operators of smaller business facilities are required to ensure a smoke-free environment and are not subjected to the penalty yet.
Notwithstanding the smoking and non-smoking sections in major restaurant chains, non-smokers are still exposed to the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. Nevertheless, major restaurant chains like McDonald’s Co (Japan) Ltd and Yoshinoya Co had prohibited smoking at their Kanagawa outlets, even before the enforcement.
The ban on smoking at swimming beaches (except for designated areas) is expected to be implemented next month. No penalty has been set for offenders but hopefully, the ban would reduce littering and prevent health hazards caused by secondary smoking.
From October, the price of cigarettes is likely to increase by ¥100 (RM3.45) a pack, to offset the market’s falling sales.
With the smoke-free environment campaigns, Tobacco Inc will launch non-flammable, odourless cigarettes next month, initially in Tokyo. Costing ¥300 (RM10.40) and classified as sniffing tobacco, Zero Style Mint comes with a tobacco pipe, mouthpiece and two cartridges. A pack of four refill cartridges costs ¥400 (RM13.80). The 8cm cigarette-like device can last half a day or the whole day, and its nicotine content is one-twentieth that of a regular cigarette.
With such stringent actions, Japan’s smoking rate is expected to drop further.
четверг, 15 апреля 2010 г.
Tobacco-related products under fire
Anti-tobacco activists spread out around the Minnesota Capitol Wednesday in an effort to convince lawmakers to ban products they say are designed to hook children on nicotine.
A bill due up for a legislative committee hearing Thursday would forbid sale of “e-cigarettes,” designed to give users nicotine vapor without tobacco. The bill also would classify “little cigars” as cigarettes.
“The new products, they are sneaky,” said Dr. Mary Boylan of St. Luke’s Cardiothoracic Surgery Associates in Duluth, who spoke at the rally with about 150 people.
Those at the rally, including many young people, talked to legislators about making the changes to a law that already bans tobacco use in public buildings.
“We will save more lives today than I can being in the operating room all day,” Boylan said about changing the law.
One of the new products, legal to sell now, resembled a breath strip, but the doctor said it provides a dose of addictive nicotine.
“They are under the radar screen,” she said.
DFL lawmakers seek
change in health plan
Some Democratic lawmakers want to change a health care program for the poor that was signed into law just three weeks ago Wednesday.
Rep. Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth, and others announced Wednesday they have a plan to provide permanent health care to poor adults with no children other than the new General Assistance Medical Care program. The plan would take $1 billion of state money to be matched with $1 billion of federal money.
Patients would move off of GAMC onto a newly expanded Medical Assistance Program, and some MinnesotaCare insurance recipients also would move to the new program.
Huntley said the new program would allow rural hospitals to receive better funding when they provide care for the poor. Most rural hospitals would not participate in the new GAMC program, citing its high cost.
But Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s spokesman said Huntley’s plan is based on incomplete tentative information and would cost too much. Brian McClung said the new GAMC program, negotiated between legislative health leaders and the governor, should be given a chance to work before it is scrapped.
Also, McClung said: “There is a significant math problem with this proposal.”
McClung claimed that the Huntley plan was built on use of money from a fund that would be in deficit.
ERA again
An equal rights amendment to the Minnesota constitution is being considered, as it has every year since the federal ERA took effect in 1982.
A Senate committee discussed the matter Wednesday, but took no action. It was unclear if the proposed amendment would be brought up for a vote in the month the Legislature has remaining in its 2010 session.
The amendment proposal would require people be treated the same, regardless of gender.
Refund party
If Dairy Queen’s Blizzard can celebrate its 25th birthday, the Minnesota property tax refund program can do the same, Rep. Paul Marquart, DFL-Dilworth, said.
So, as chairman of the House property taxes committee, he hosted that party Wednesday in an attempt to draw attention to the program, which a third of eligible taxpayers do not collect.
“It helps people stay in their homes,” Marquart said.
Sitting behind a “happy birthday” sign, Former Gov. Wendell Anderson said that his signing of the bill, combined with raising taxes a few years earlier, “made Minnesota in the minds of others, the state that works.”
Alec Olson of Willmar, Senate president when the refund passed, said the concept was “rather radical,” but the program “has brought people together.”
The average property tax refund in 2008 was $683.
Also celebrated was a related program, which provides money to renters.
A bill due up for a legislative committee hearing Thursday would forbid sale of “e-cigarettes,” designed to give users nicotine vapor without tobacco. The bill also would classify “little cigars” as cigarettes.
“The new products, they are sneaky,” said Dr. Mary Boylan of St. Luke’s Cardiothoracic Surgery Associates in Duluth, who spoke at the rally with about 150 people.
Those at the rally, including many young people, talked to legislators about making the changes to a law that already bans tobacco use in public buildings.
“We will save more lives today than I can being in the operating room all day,” Boylan said about changing the law.
One of the new products, legal to sell now, resembled a breath strip, but the doctor said it provides a dose of addictive nicotine.
“They are under the radar screen,” she said.
DFL lawmakers seek
change in health plan
Some Democratic lawmakers want to change a health care program for the poor that was signed into law just three weeks ago Wednesday.
Rep. Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth, and others announced Wednesday they have a plan to provide permanent health care to poor adults with no children other than the new General Assistance Medical Care program. The plan would take $1 billion of state money to be matched with $1 billion of federal money.
Patients would move off of GAMC onto a newly expanded Medical Assistance Program, and some MinnesotaCare insurance recipients also would move to the new program.
Huntley said the new program would allow rural hospitals to receive better funding when they provide care for the poor. Most rural hospitals would not participate in the new GAMC program, citing its high cost.
But Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s spokesman said Huntley’s plan is based on incomplete tentative information and would cost too much. Brian McClung said the new GAMC program, negotiated between legislative health leaders and the governor, should be given a chance to work before it is scrapped.
Also, McClung said: “There is a significant math problem with this proposal.”
McClung claimed that the Huntley plan was built on use of money from a fund that would be in deficit.
ERA again
An equal rights amendment to the Minnesota constitution is being considered, as it has every year since the federal ERA took effect in 1982.
A Senate committee discussed the matter Wednesday, but took no action. It was unclear if the proposed amendment would be brought up for a vote in the month the Legislature has remaining in its 2010 session.
The amendment proposal would require people be treated the same, regardless of gender.
Refund party
If Dairy Queen’s Blizzard can celebrate its 25th birthday, the Minnesota property tax refund program can do the same, Rep. Paul Marquart, DFL-Dilworth, said.
So, as chairman of the House property taxes committee, he hosted that party Wednesday in an attempt to draw attention to the program, which a third of eligible taxpayers do not collect.
“It helps people stay in their homes,” Marquart said.
Sitting behind a “happy birthday” sign, Former Gov. Wendell Anderson said that his signing of the bill, combined with raising taxes a few years earlier, “made Minnesota in the minds of others, the state that works.”
Alec Olson of Willmar, Senate president when the refund passed, said the concept was “rather radical,” but the program “has brought people together.”
The average property tax refund in 2008 was $683.
Also celebrated was a related program, which provides money to renters.
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