Sunday, September 30, 2007

Smoking age limit rise to 18 from 1st October 07

It will be illegal for young people under 18 to buy cigarettes from 1st October 2007 in England and Wales.

The government have confirmed that the age limit for the purchase of cigarettes will rise from 16 to 18 from 1st October this year. This follows a full consultation which considered whether the legal age for buying tobacco should be increased in line with alcohol. The full consultation document is available to view.

The stats:

- 1 in 10 under 15's smoke
- Young people who start smoking at the age of 15 is three times more likely to die of cancer than someone who starts in their late 20s.
- 55% of adults surveyed in a MORI poll said the minimum age should go up to 21.

Source: Smoke Free Cardiff

Quit Smoking - Video

Video about Smoking and what it does to you.

Cigarros só para maiores de 18 anos - Reino Unido

A lei que eleva de 16 para 18 anos a idade mínima para comprar tabaco no Reino Unido entra segunda-feira em vigor, visando reduzir a taxa de fumadores e evitar que os menores comprem cigarros.

A implementação da nova lei foi precedida por uma campanha publicitária para explicar as alterações normativas tanto aos estabelecimentos que vendem o produto como aos adolescentes.

A estas medidas se juntarão, a partir de Setembro de 2009, a obrigação de todos os pacotes de tabaco vendidos no Reino Unido incluírem imagens gráficas do cancro do pulmão e de outras doenças provocadas pelo tabaco.

Nesse sentido, os fabricantes de tabaco terão dois anos para ilustrar todos os pacotes de cigarros com as 15 imagens que, assim que forem escolhidas a partir de uma consulta pública, acompanharão os textos de advertência sobre os perigos de fumar.

Fonte: Diário Digital / Lusa
Mais: AQUI

Saturday, September 29, 2007

A Chronology of Tobacco in the Civilized World

1492. After landing in the Caribbean, Columbus and his men notice the natives' fondness for chewing and smoking the dried leaves of an aromatic plant. The Indians inhale smoke through a Y-shaped pipe called a tobaga, thought by etymologists to be the origin of the name of the plant. While Columbus scolds his men for sinking to the level of the savages by mimicking their habit, he was reported to have said that, "it was not within their power to refrain."

1919. Alton Ochsner, a medical student at Washington University in St. Louis, attends a postmortem of a patient with a disease so rare the he was told he would never see another case...lung cancer.

1932. A paper in the American Journal of Cancer associates lung cancer with cigarettes.

1940. Hitler calls tobacco the "wrath of the red man against the white man for having been given hard liquor" and begins the world's first national anti-tobacco movement. He raises taxes on tobacco to 90% of the retail price, limits cigarette rations to the Wehrmacht, and bans smoking during pregnancy, in air raid shelters, on streets and on city trains and buses. German cigarette consumption drops by half between 1940 and 1950. During this time American consumption doubles.

1950. Lung cancer deaths quintuple in the United States from 5/100,00 in 1930 to 20/100,00 in 1950 (17,500/yr). JAMA publishes a landmark article by Graham and Wynder showing that almost all patients with lung cancer have been long-time cigarette smokers.

1954. Marlboro Man is introduced by Phillip Morris and its virile image takes the market by storm. Twenty-two years later the documentary "Death in the West," which juxtaposed years of Marlboro Man commercials with interviews of real cowboys dying of lung disease, is suppressed by a British court. This same year the AMA Board of Trustees votes to discontinue accepting advertisements for tobacco and alcohol-related products.

1962. President Kennedy, when pressured to give his opinion about smoking and health, indicates that he would not give an opinion because, "the matter is sensitive enough and the stock market is in sufficient difficulty without my giving you an answer which is not based on complete information, which I don't have..." Shortly thereafter he assigns Luther Terry, MD, the United States Surgeon General, to study the issue of smoking and health.

Two hundred thousand Americans will develop lung cancer this year; 180,000 of them will die. This is more American deaths than in World War One, Korea and Viet Nam combined. By the year 2000 more women than men will die of lung cancer. The cure rate is similar to that which was true in 1964 at the time of the first Surgeon General's report. Eighty-five percent of these cases could have been prevented, as many began habitual tobacco use after the Surgeon General's report in 1964. Although many individual physicians stand out in this public health struggle, the organized profession as a whole has been less than exemplary in the past. There are signs, though, that things may be improving.

Thomas E. Addison, MD / San Francisco Medicine Jul98

More: HERE

Friday, September 21, 2007

Pedro Rolo Duarte: Fumo - Deixar de fumar é lixado e mais 80 lições que eu vivi

Pedro Rolo Duarte: FumoO jornalista e escritor Pedro Rolo Duarte deixou de fumar.
Fumo, é o título do seu último livro.

Sinopse:

Lição nº 5: A rotina é o bode expiatório de quem não sabe continuar a amar
Lição nº 40: Quem não fecha as tampas das sanitas são as mulheres
Lição nº 62: Sempre que há uma geração rasca, há também uma política rasca
Lição nº 77: A normalidade é o desequilíbrio permanente
... Estas são algumas das 80 lições que acompanham o diário de um viciado que decide deixar de fumar, 30 anos depois do primeiro cigarro ? três maços por dia quando as noites não acordavam coladas aos dias seguintes. O viciado não pretende ser o desgraçadinho, o coitadinho. Nem pretende estimular fumadores a seguirem o seu ?exemplo?. Pretende apenas, como diz, deixar a sua impressão digital. O seu olhar. ?Desta vez, com estes muros altos que orientaram os dias ? os muros do desejo e do vício contrariados por uma decisão a que não quis mesmo escapar?.
E não tendo escapado, abriu espaço a ideias simples para um quotidiano mais rico.

Fonte: Oficina do Livro

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

Tabaco de enrolar é mais cancerígeno do que o normal

Fumadores de cigarros enrolados à mão tendem a consumir menos tabaco, mas enfrentam um risco maior de desenvolver cancro do pulmão do que aqueles que fumam cigarros industrializados.

É a conclusão de um estudo feito na Noruega com pacientes com cancro do pulmão.

Mais: AQUI (Reuters/SOL)