Electronic Cigarettes Could Help You Quit Smoking

Mini E-Cigarette (ecis) 

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If you or someone you know is a smoker, you may have heard by now about electronic cigarettes — small cigarette-shaped devices that create nicotine-filled vapor for you to inhale instead of smoke, simulating the smoking experience.

 

There are a number of benefits that come with using an electronic cigarette:

  • No smoke: Nicotine is carried to your lungs on water vapor.
  • No secondhand smoke: The vapor smells very little and doesn’t leave residue on anything.
  • No ash: Electronic cigarettes don’t burn, so they don’t drop ask anywhere.
  • No fire hazards: Electronic cigarettes only heat when you are inhaling on them.
  • No bad breath: Electronic cigarettes don’t stink like regular tobacco cigarettes.
  • No coughing: The phlegm buildup that leads to coughing and hacking in serious smokers is caused by the smoke, not the nicotine.
  • No extravagent prices: One electronic cigarette cartridge is equal to a pack of cigarettes.

While they are not officially marketed as smoking cessation devices, electronic cigarettes have several beneficial traits that can help someone quit smoking if they so please:

  • Selectable nicotine levels: Gradually use cartridges with less and less nicotine to wean yourself off of the addiction to it.
  • Safer than smoke: Smoke dries out your lungs — the water vapor in electronic cigarettes might actually moisturize them.
  • Easy to switch to: Because electronic cigarettes simulate the look, feel and taste of smoking tobacco cigarettes, you get the same hand to mouth habits that you’ve become accustomed to, and even the feel of inhaling hot vapor.

Try switching from tobacco cigerattes to electronic cigarettes, and you’ll be a big step closer to switching to no cigarettes at all.

Filed Under: Addiction, Anti-Smoking Tagged With: , ,

Patterns of Tobacco use Among Racial Ethnic Groups

The CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health has completed reports on the different patterns of tobacco use among different population groups. Although the reports and research indicates some significant patterns, additional research is needed to determine what contributes to the patterns.

According to recent Surgeon General’s reports African Americans currently suffer the most from illnesses and health effects as a result of smoking. Additionally, Native Americans have the highest use of tobacco. Other patterns include results that indicate that Asian American and Hispanic women are the populations with the lowest percentage of tobacco use.

Despite knowledge of the patterns, researchers have discovered certain factors that contribute to the patterns of tobacco use and ultimately to the numbers of the individuals who suffer from or die from diseases. What the reports have found is that no single factor causes the patterns but rather a complex combination occurs.

The factors identified as affecting patterns of tobacco use in racial and ethnic groups include cultural characteristics, stress, biological elements, acculturations, socioeconomic status, price of tobacco, identifying targets, and the communities ability to implement educational and preventative programs. Research has indicated that these factors interconnect and intertwine to create circumstances that increase the use of tobacco in some populations.

Research has also indicated that as tobacco use increases, risk factors, percentages of contracting illnesses related to smoking, and possibilities of death as a result of smoking related disease also increase. Therefore, the Surgeon General’s report suggests that further research is needed to understand how factors connect and interact to increase tobacco use and beginning tobacco use.

Moreover, by understanding this, researchers, and federal state and local prevention programs can begin to develop even more successful resources and strategies to help individuals quit smoking or prevent the start of tobacco use. The more that is known about what causes people to begin using tobacco or increase their tobacco use, the more that can be done to prevent this pattern.

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California the Leader When it Comes to Anti-Smoking Legislation

ContentWhile individual states in the United States continue to introduce and enact stricter anti-smoking legislation, California is the clear leader in determining where residents and visitors should be able to be smoke-free. California had one of the first statewide ban of smoking in a workplace, including restaurants (enacted in 1995) and expanded that law to ban smoking in bars earlier than most other states (enacted in 1998).

In 2004, the state again led the rest of the nation in banning smoking within several feet of the entrance or window of a public building or in a state-owned vehicle. In 2008, California enacted a law that makes smoking in a car with a minor present an offense that can be cited if the driver has been charged with another traffic violation.

Individual cities and counties have followed their state’s lead and enacted even stricter individual smoking bans. Most Californian cities give landlords the legal ability to determine if residents can smoke within their buildings.

Calabasas, Calif. has what is widely considered to be the strictest anti-smoking legislation in the United States, which was enacted in 2006. The local law makes it illegal to smoke anywhere people may gather, including public sidewalks. Violators can face a misdemeanor charge and a fine.

The Californian city of Belmont made it illegal to smoke in apartments or condominiums (both in 2007). In the same year, building entrances or exits became a no-smoking zone in Burbank. In Berkeley, people cannot smoke on a commercial sidewalk or near a bus stop (2008). Pasadena enacted a law in the same year that bans smoking in any place where people are waiting in line, including at ATMs.

The strictness of California’s laws may have empowered other local governments to join the banning act, as several other states have continued to introduce anti-smoking legislation even as public awareness and furor over smoking has declined.

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Anti-Smoking Sentiment Spreading to Other Countries

ContentWhile the United States has been increasing the number of its anti-smoking laws since the 1990s (and seen a decrease in the number of people who smoke), other countries have only lately started adopting legislation banning smoking. Most of Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa have no national or even local legislation banning the use of the tobacco products. However, countries in Western Europe, the American continents and Australia largely have some level of nationwide or province-wide smoking bans that have been largely enacted in the last five years.

Australia has been especially vigilant in enforcing anti-smoking laws. However, the majority of laws banning smoking in indoor enclosed places were all established in 2006. South Australia and New South Wales followed in 2007 but it took the Northern Territory until 2010 to establish a ban on smoking inside restaurants and pubs.

India worked to establish itself as a smoke-free country in a continent that has continued to increase the percentage of the population that smokes. A ban on smoking in workplaces and in restaurants, hotels, transportation hubs and other indoor public places in 2008. Advertising for all tobacco products was banned earlier by the Indian government.

Beunos Aeries banned smoking in public places including most bars and restaurants in 2006 and most Argentinian cities adopted similar laws. Brazil has banned smoking in all enclosed public places except in some specific smoking areas whose purpose is marked.

Some countries, including China, do occasionally have laws in place but they are largely unenforced. Greece, which has the highest per-capita consumption of tobacco in Europe, also had most of its laws go unenforced until 2010 when stricter legislation was established.

The evidence is mixed on whether anti-smoking legislation leads to less tobacco consumption. Cuba and Chile have banned smoking in most workplaces but both are among the highest rate of smokers per capita in the world. Russia also have one of the highest rates of consumption but there are no smoking bans in effect.

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Anti-Smoking Legislation Continues to Burn

ContentThe movement to ban smoking in public places has reached an all-time high in the United States, and despite the relative decline in public awareness of them, lawmakers continue to instill anti-smoking laws throughout the 1990s and into the 21st century.

Smoking laws vary widely from state to state and can even be different for different cities within the same county or state. About two-thirds of the most populated cities in the country have banned smoking in bars and restaurants and more than half the states have bans on smoking in enclosed public places. All in all, more than 70 percent of the U.S. population lives in a place where smoking is banned either in the workplace or in bars or restaurants. However, many of the states that have these types of statewide bans on smoking do allow some exceptions. These exceptions can include private clubs, cigar bars, casinos and workplaces with very few employees. Additionally, Michigan and Vermont are the only two states that ban smoking in all hotel and motel rooms – every other state allows these businesses to designate which rooms are smoking and non-smoking.

Eleven states have no types of statewide ban on smoking: Alabama, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming. However, in most of these states, certain businesses (such as bars, restaurants and workplaces) must post signs designating areas or the entire businesses as smoke-free or identify areas where visitors can smoke.

Since the 1960s, tobacco use in the United States declined from 40 percent of the population smoking to about 25 percent of the population. However, anti-smoking advocates have recently noted a stagnation in the rate of decline. Whether that is a result of too many bans or not enough is yet to be researched, but that has no slowed down the rate of which cities, counties and states are introducing and adopting anti-smoking legislation.

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Consider Your Environment When You Quit

ContentWhen you commit to quitting smoking, there are a number of obstacles that you will face. Preparing yourself for these obstacles can help you to overcome them as they arise. One of the hardest things to face may be spending time with other smokers while not smoking yourself. Consider your environment and the people you spend time with to help you to stay on the right track.
Different states have different laws about smoking in public areas and specific venues will have their own regulations. As a person trying to quit, you can use these regulations to your advantage. If you plan to go out for dinner and drinks this weekend, consider planning your outing only at places that do not allow smoking. Many places will even ban smoking outside on the patio or near the front door. These are even better for someone trying to quit because they remove all temptation. Think of this as a safe space where you can be free from seeing or smelling any reminder of your former addiction.
Likewise, if you decide to spend time in a place that allows smoking, be prepared to be faced head-on by your addiction. When you were a smoker, you may have spent every Sunday watching football at your favorite bar where everyone had a few cigarettes while during the game. By choosing to go back to that bar, you will be surrounded by the sights and smells of others smokers. You may be offered or even encouraged to smoke by your peers there. If you were accustomed to smoking while drinking, engaging in one behavior without the other may be particularly challenging.
When you have first committed to quitting or may be at risk of losing your resolve, plan ahead and avoid environments that will encourage you to pick up your old habit.

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The Effectiveness of Anti-smoking Ads

ContentA variety of techniques have been used over the past 10 years in an effort to de-glamorize the act of smoking. These ads – most notably, those of the “Truth” campaign – are aimed toward teenagers. Since the likelihood of becoming a smoker is greatly reduced if a person hasn’t started smoking by the age of 21, this demographic is particularly important to anti-smoking activists when it comes to reducing the numbers of smokers in the United States and worldwide.

The techniques often employed during these “Truth” ads include short-term and long-term health benefits of smoking as well as emphasizing the detrimental effect that cigarettes can have on social relationships – for instance, the smell of cigarettes on one’s clothes or breath can be seen as unattractive. While many ads tend to go for more shocking depictions of cigarettes, some use humorous appeals to get their point across.

Are the ads effective? A study published in the American Journal of Public Health indicates that it probably is. The percentage of youth smokers has gone down in every grade level that the researchers tracked from 1997 to 2002. The average decline was 36 percent. But how much of that decline is the natural progression of United States that smokes less and the effect of the anti-smoking advertising? The declines clearly accelerated after 2000 (after the first “Truth” ad aired on television) and continued to accelerate over the next two years. Before the first “Truth” ads ran on television, the rate of decline was an average of 3.2 percent per year, but double to 6.8 percent per year after launch.

Overall declines, both before and after the “Truth” ads started airing, were more noticeable in younger students than in older students, but that result seems to reinforce the idea that stopping teenagers from picking up the habit early on is the largest deterrent to the growth of the smoking population.

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My Biggest Reason to Avoid Tobacco

f6 are famous for their short filters
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As a former smoker, I often have to remind myself that there are better ways of getting through tough days than reaching for a cigarette. I originally quit because I was sick of spending a lot of money on a product that was just going to have such a negative impact on my health. The thought of dying didn’t bother me much. It was the thought of dying a painful death caused by cancer or emphysema.

These days, I still avoid cigarettes because by reading Tax News, I know that cigarettes are one of the highest taxed products. Cigarettes not only eat up our hard earned money but  they tax the human body in a dangerous ways as well. Moreover, I have new reasons to quit smoking i.e. my kids. Children with parents who smoke are much more likely to pick up the habit than children who grow up in non-smoking households. Parents really do serve as role models, and everything that we do has an impact on how our little ones see the world.

Research has shown time and time again that children imitate their parents’ behaviors. That includes bad habits like smoking. You can’t simply tell them to do what you say instead of what you do. That doesn’t make any sense to an impressionable young mind. Even children that watch their own parents die of tobacco-related cancer have a higher risk of developing the habit. They have seen firsthand how destructive smoking is, and yet that modeling influence is strong enough that they start smoking.

I never want my kids to become smokers. I know that they’ll probably have a few here and there. That’s normal experimentation for curious teenagers. I wish that wouldn’t happen, but I can accept it. What I can’t accept is that something I do could contribute to one of my children living an unhealthy life. With that kind of responsibility on my shoulders, it’s much easier to pass up the opportunity to smoke, even on the most trying days.

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Choosing Smoke-Free Assisted Living Facilities

Ban on Smoking
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Although smoke-free laws and ordinances are becoming more prevalent, there are still some places that allow smoking in designated areas. This can even include assisted living facilities.  If you are considering moving into an assisted living facility, and the issue of smoking is important to you, you may want to look for those that do not allow smoking at all or, again, only in designated areas. If you can find a place that is completely smoke-free then that would be great. If you can’t, however, there are some things you can do to protect your health, especially if you have chronic breathing problems.

Locate the designated smoking area or areas before you select your residence. By doing this, you can make sure that you select a place to live that is as far away from the smoking area as possible.

When you have found the smoking area, look to see which entrance and exit doors it is closest to, then look for doors that are further away, but still provide you access to your residence as well as other parts of the facility. Also check to see if there is a sign stating how far away smokers have to be from these doors. When you do this, you will not have to worry about being exposed to second-hand smoke.

If smoking is allowed in residences, ask if there is a particular building or complex that is completely smoke-free. Even though smoking may not occur in common areas or hallways, the smell may still be apparent in those places. If completely smoke-free buildings or complexes are available, you could choose one of those.

Ask if you can post a sign or have one posted stating that your residence is smoke-free. This will help people know your preferences concerning smoking before they ever enter your home.

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Addiction Redefined: MichaelsHouse.com

It is a familiar habit, an infallible part of your routine: you’re driving home after a tedious day of cubicle gossip and middle-manager demands. The hours were long and without reward, and you were certain they would never end. They finally did, however, and you were able to escape. Now you navigate the roads you know so well, able to control a car with one lazy hand. The other is devoted to the weight of a cigarette. The scent of smoke is thought to be a perfection. The taste is reveled in. And you are certain no moment could be better than the one you’ve just created.

Your dependence on that moment, however, is not to be celebrated.

Cigarettes are among the most common causes of addiction within the world. None could be unaware of this, but many choose still to ignore it. Obsession is to often offered to other substances (such as heroin, cocaine or opiates). This is instead considered to be merely a choice. The masses indulge in nicotine, without concern for the future consequences or their own lack of control.

And it is this that brands cigarettes as more than a pastime. They are instead a disease.

When an individual must rely on carbon flavors and shallow breaths to sustain himself, he is suffering from an addiction. The notion of stopping is forgotten (and will not be attempted without outside intervention). The idea of losing the sensation is abhorred. Cigarettes are vital, it’s argued. They must not be denied.

Such a philosophy has led to staggering statistics and useless deaths.

It is essential therefore that all who are dependent on cigarettes seek help. Organizations like MichaelsHouse.com are available and will provide programs and physicians. Support can be gained as the truth of an addiction is learned.

Understand that cigarettes are not merely conveniences. They are instead dangers and all too easy compulsions.

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