E-Cigarettes May Be The Answer To The Mental Addiction To Smoking

Despite the health warnings plastered all over tobacco products these days, about 1 in 3 of the population of the world smokes. The dangers of smoking have been made known for years and while many Americans have tried to quit with patches, gums, and prescription medications, some argue that the number one thing you need to do is to break the mental addiction to smoking.
The mental addiction to the act of holding something in your hand, puffing on it, and seeing the smoke is something that most people have a very difficult time getting over. The nicotine in cigarettes is cleared from the body only a few days after a person smokes their last cigarette, but the want of a smoke afterward (even 6 months afterward) can be unbearable. This is why most smoking cessation products like gums, patches, and pills do not work on a long term basis. Counseling is often needed to completely make the switch from being a smoker to being a non-smoker, but a new product may help break the mental habit by convenience alone.
The e-cigarette is comprised of an atomizer, a battery, a cartridge (sometimes with nicotine), and an LED light at the end to simulate burning. Cartridges are available in varying levels of nicotine strength, from high to zero, so an e-smoker can reduce the amount of nicotine they intake gradually. What makes the e-cigarette wonderful is the fact that it's not on fire, so it's very convenient to put down whenever you want to. An e-smoker is not obligated to smoking an entire cigarette even though they do not want to, so they actually end up smoking less than they normally would because having the e-cigarette out of their hand helps them forget about smoking.
In addition, e-cigarettes do not require an ashtray, since they are not on fire and do not produce ash. It is also less of a fire hazard, since e-smokers do not have to worry about waking up to themselves or their bed on fire just because they want to smoke in bed (often while watching TV).
Another reason to switch is due to the fact that e-cigarette cartridges are cheaper than a pack of tobacco cigarettes. One cartridge is the equivalent of a whole pack of tobacco cigarettes, depending on the smoking habit of the user. New users may not get as much use out of cartridges until they get used to them, because they treat them like a tobacco cigarette for a while until they realize they can actually set them down. Getting out of the mindset that it has to be held in the hand all the time is the most important thing to get away from, because the less you have it in your hand, the more likely you are to get occupied with other things (like life) and forget it's there at all.

Counterfeit cigarettes seized

Johannesburg - Mpumalanga police have seized a truck transporting counterfeit cigarettes worth about R4.1m after it entered South Africa from Mozambique.
Captain Leonard Hlathi said on Wednesday that police were told about the truck on Tuesday night. It was on its way to Limpopo.
They waited until the truck got onto the N4 freeway near Malelane before stopping it. They found about 590 boxes of counterfeit cigarettes.
The driver, a Mozambican national, had a South African passport in his possession. He is expected to appear in the Komatipoort Magistrate's Court on Friday on a charge of possession of illegal property.
Police are still investigating how he got hold of a South African passport.

Camel Cigarettes without a camel.

The company Japan Tobacco International displays to market a limited series of its brand Front with radically modified design. This "limited edition" is already practising one of the JTI competitors - the company Philip Morris. Experts note that such actions are designed to attract additional attention to the brand is already available to consumers, have become increasingly widespread. These techniques are particularly relevant to products whose advertising activity is limited by law.

In September, the 25 largest cities in selling limited Camel Cigarettes party with a new design. Instead of the classic camel on the package shows an entire track: camel goes on trees along the winding road, and the usual stack of yellow background patterns decorated with cigarettes. In doing so, taste, shape and price of cigarettes remained unchanged. This is the largest sale in issuing limited series.

Such a limited series of its brands already produced several times in Russia company Philip Morris. Thus, in March this year to sell Marlboro cigarettes came in the pockets of silver, opened the side. And one of the parties in Parliament was painted metallic blue color.

Debunking the Glamour of Smoking

The anti-smoking lobby often make a crucial mistake in their campaigning. They lose sight of their target audience - children - and go after established smokers. Let me tell you right now that attempting to turn the screw on a smoker is the most counter-productive attitude you can adopt. As a former smoker, I can fully empathise with the average smoker's feeling towards their habit, and I can assure you that an aggressive, scare mongering, lecturing tone is entirely redundant. The smoker needs to be understood, to be accepted and to be humanised. 

I've always found it very curious that individuals, who have never smoked in their life, see themselves fit to take smokers to task on the habit. It's exactly the same problem we face when it comes to tackling obesity in the population, namely that we are better off empathising and understanding where the obesity problem stems from, rather than just telling an individual to get off their butt and exercise. The smoker has spent years developing a habit that extends far beyond a physical addiction - it is a powerful emotional and psychological addiction too. Yet despite this fact, the anti-smoking lobby only seem to focus from the non-smoker's viewpoint. 

Understand this - smokers started the habit for a reason. Some smokers wanted to look cool, to look edgy, to develop an attitude. Other smokers simply wanted to experiment. Others may just have had a fearless and carefree attitude towards life. Over time, the smoker glamorises the habit, and these strong neurological bonds will remain in place for years to come. When I smoked, I associated many wonderful times in my life with smoking: carousing on foreign holiday trips, sharing cigarettes with ex-girlfriends, smoking before and after important examinations etc. Smoking goes some way to claiming itself a role as part of the individual's identity. 

To this extent, the non-smoker has to understand that the tobacco habit is a strong emotional attachment. If you tell a smoker to give up the cigarettes for their health, then the smoker will ignore you. The smoker knows the scientific facts...the community is not a blind one. But to the smoker, it is like you are asking them to give up their right arm; it can be perceived as a massive sacrifice. The only way a smoker can comfortably stop the habit is if they re-wire their mindset to look at cigarettes in a different manner. Every smoker has deeply-rooted reasons as to why they continue smoking, and it is these reasons which must come to the surface and be addressed. 

I truly believe that we are on the cusp of seeing a massive downturn in the global smoking habit. The public smoking bans being established throughout the west have gone some way to removing the last real reason to smoke - the social factor. Even smokers are now conceding that cigarettes are no longer a sociable habit, and many feel sheepish and guilty even lighting up among a crowd. The persecution of smokers is as unjust as it is counter-productive, and we're doing smokers no favours at all by presenting them as second-rate human beings. 

In order to successfully help the smoker quit, we must make them feel relaxed. We must make them feel like we are listening and sympathetic to the emotional connection they hold with the habit. We should not, under any circumstances, be telling them what they should do or how they should feel. We must be open and seek to understand. Buy the smoker a couple of packets of cigarettes and invite them to light up without judgement. Then see if you can get the smoker to elucidate exactly why they must smoke. Once the smoker has been utterly candid and the true reasons are out there on the table, then they can be debunked one by one as you help wipe away the glamour of smoking. Remember, we had no need for smoking before we started, so we should have no need for it now.

Japan Tobacco will pay $400 to European Union

Japan Tobacco Company signed an agreement with European Union for 15 years on struggle against tobacco smuggling. In the context of this agreement, Japan Tobacco has to pay $400 million to EU for break in tobacco trade. In return EU countries refuse any pretensions to Japan Company. The agreement was not signed by Great Britain, which is intended to continue investigations of breaks committed by Japan Tobacco.

Besides, according to the document, Japan Company has to take measures on struggle against smuggling of tobacco production also on production of infringing cigarettes production. Clear profit of the third tobacco company in the world Japan Tobacco Inc. in the first half year 2007‐2008 reduced at 25,3%. Operational profit of the cigarettes company in the first half year 2007‐2008 reduced at 10,4% and amounted at $928 million in comparison with $1,03 billion got at first half year 2006‐2007.

Japan Tobacco is the third cigarettescompany in the world. It was founded in 1898. Japan Tobacco produces such popular cigarettes brands as Mild Seven, also possesses the right on sale of cigarettes Camel, Winston and Salem outside USA. 50% of JT shares belong to the Japan government.

Electronic Cigarette on CBS and AP Newswire

Today has been a whirlwind as far as press is concerned. First, we started off the morning, waiting for the feed from the E-Cigarette featured on the Early Show on CBS. Then it came. Our jaws dropped to the floor as we watched a doctor and two news anchors literally spew lies from the set. Needless to say, we do hope that the watching public takes some time to further educate themselves on the electronic cigarette as obviously, the CBS Early Show has no desire to do any research.

The acting by the hosts Julie Chen and Harry Smith were most definitely “Big Brother” worthy and it was very apparent that they are non-smokers who wish the habit did not exist. But even more amazing than this were the comments made by Dr. Jonathan Whiteson, Assistant Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine and Medicine, with NYU.

When asked if electronic cigarettes are safe, he responds with “we don’t know, but we don’t think so?” Ok. Why do you not think so? Data? Have you run your own tests? There have been three separate liquids tested and all of them were found to contain ingredients that are approved and safe world wide. 

Yes, we agree that more testing can and should and will be done on both the vapor and the liquid itself. However, all results have indicated that these are safer than tobacco  cigarette. Isn’t it time that you as a doctor maybe use some of that e-cigs “magic” and do some testing of your own? We would definitely love to hear your professional diagnosis on this. Certainly not your personal opinion.

Furthering on his safe argument, he then goes on that the electronic cigarette are “unregulated, certainly not FDA approved and Made in China”. Here is all we need to say about this: The Committee on Energy and Commerce just completed a hearing on the salmonella outbreak plaguing our food supply. What we also find interesting is that in 2007 and 2008, the FDA notes that 12 times Peanut Corp tested positive for salmonella, yet they shipped anyways. 

And recently, Keith Ledger died from using Ambien. Granted, there is more to this story, so please follow the link, but it proves that not everything approved by the FDA is safe. Finally, the FDA has some issues internally where the scientists allege mismanagement at the Agency. According to a letter obtained by CNN from the FDA scientists, “The agency is “fundamentally broken” and “failing to fulfill its mission”. Is it possible the FDA has too much power and not enough control?

The salmonella outbreak also proves that American manufacturing and processes can be just as bad as Chinese processes. The persons responsible for the melamine in the milk fiasco plead guilty and brought to very harsh, yet swift justice. We will see what happens to the American business responsible for the contamination and those who obviously covered up the 12 instances of positive testing.

As far as his comments that some companies are marketing to adolescents: We are on the Internet 24 hours a day. We research the daylights out of our products, our competitors products, and see just about every article there is to see. We have come across websites that do offer these as a smoking cessation device (even though we take a different opinion), but we have never, ever run across anyone who has ever suggested even with color scheme, that the electronic cigaretteis for adolescents. That is simply, a shameful, boldfaced lie.

So… enough about bad journalism. Here is some great journalism! It deserves its own post so we will provide you with a link so you can see what a good article is supposed to look like. This article was written by Audra Ang with the Associated Press, and is a very well researched bit of writing. Chinese e-cigs gain ground amid safety concerns.

Indian Chief Heads Fight to Keep Selling Cigarettes

Harry Wallace, chief of the Unkechaug Nation, and several other owners of shops that sell cigarettes on the tiny Poospatuck Indian reservation on the South Shore of Long Island have been sued by the City of New York. The city claims that this Indian enclave — the closest Indian reservation to New York City — has become a “tax evasion haven” and a drain on the city’s coffers.

The Bloomberg administration says the city and the state lose more than $1 billion a year in tax revenue because of what it calls bootleg cigarettes distributed on Indian Indian reservations in New York. Of that amount, the administration contends, $195 million represents the city’s share, and officials blame the Unkechaug Nation Indian reservation for most of that.

New York City officials say millions of cartons of tax free cigarettes are sold every year by Poospatuck retailers to bootleggers who smuggle them into the city to resell for about $5 a pack, not the $8 or $9 charged by New York retailers who pay the state and city taxes of $4.25 a pack.

As part of their legal challenge, city attorneys have asked a federal judge to block the smoke shops from selling untaxed cigarettes to non-Indians without collecting state and city taxes from them.

Answering these claims is the Unkechaug chief, Mr. Wallace, 55, who was born in Queens, went to Dartmouth and was a lawyer in private practice in Manhattan before moving to the Indian reservation and opening the Poospatuck smoke shop.

But he has been outspoken in defending his tribe, arguing that cigarette sales are the only viable economic engine on the 55 acres of sovereign territory. He calls the city’s lawsuit an attack on legitimate Indian livelihood, and the result of elected officials feeling the economic pinch and blaming budget woes on the smallest Indian reservation in the state.

“They’re picking on us because they think we’re this little tribe with no means to defend ourselves,” he stated. “Bloomberg needs a scapegoat, so he places the fault with us for the city’s deficit, instead of criticizing the financial markets.”

Attorneys for the smoke shop owners have requested a dismissal of the lawsuit, arguing that the court does not have jurisdiction in sovereign territory, Mr. Wallace stated. He is not a defendant in the lawsuit, though he was named in a similar lawsuit that was filed in 2006 by the owner of the Gristedes supermarket chain.

Though Mr. Wallace was brought up in the Bayside and Little Neck sections of Queens, his family nurtured his Indian identity, taking him often to visit his uncles on the Indian reservation. He chose Dartmouth, he stated, because it had as its founding mission the education of Indians, and he helped establish a group on campus called Native Americans at Dartmouth.

Later, at New York Law School in Manhattan, he helped found the Indian Law Committee and wrote a thesis on Indian land claims. In the 1980s, he worked as a lawyer concentrating on cases involving landlord-tenant disputes, real estate, personal injury and American Indian discrimination matters.

Mr. Wallace stated he grew more interested in Indian matters after marrying Margo Thunderbird, a daughter of Chief Thunderbird of the Southampton-based Shinnecock Nation. The couple have two daughters. In 1991, he moved to a plot of land belonging to his mother on the Poospatuck Indian reservation, nestled on the banks of the Mastic River. “It changed my life because I knew I was going to get into matters affecting the Indian reservation,” he stated.

Mr. Wallace opened the Indian reservation’s first full-service smoke shop, to “show the community that we could develop an economy separate and distinct from the state and that it could be done the right way.”

Law mandates new cigarettes

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Firefighters said a new measure could save the lives of smokers and people around them.

A new law signed by Gov. Sarah Palin today means that only fire-safe cigarettes can be sold in Alaska starting next year.

The Anchorage Fire Department is very happy about the development. Officials said it means house fires may decrease by up to 35 percent.

According to AFD, an unattended cigarette starts a fire once a week.

AFD Chief Craig Goodrich said he supports the law.

"There is no such thing as a safe cigarette, but if you're going to smoke this is as safe as you can get. So, we're thrilled to death the law has been enacted," Goodrich said.

Palin's approval of Senate Bill 84 means this time next year stores can only sell fire-safe cigarettes. The cigarettes are designed so if you're not actively smoking them, they go out. The paper burns like a cigar.

"Usually what happens is people forget them. They think they put them out, they don't snub them out they just throw them into an old potted plant," Goodrich said.

AFD said cigarettes are the leading cause of home fires in the United States, with up to 900 people dying a year.

Mark Masley with the Tobacco Cache of Alaska said the new law comes with draw backs for smokers.

"Really, the objections people are raising to it is, is there sufficient product? Are they going to make enough of those cigarettes to deliver to the marketplace and if so at what cost? At what price? Obviously if you deliver a higher cost cigarette they're going to squawk about that," Masley said.

Masley did say there are perks to the cigarettes.

Fire-safe cigarettes are safer and since they don't keep burning, smokers might end up saving money instead of watching their cash go up in smoke.

"It's nice for the cigarette companies to sell more cigarettes. If you have one that burns to the filter, then they're going to sell more product," Masley said.

Alaska isn't the first state to have fire safe cigarettes; we're now one of 13 other states.

Officials said cigarettes are blamed in almost one out of every four fire deaths in Alaska during the past decade.