New rules for shisha cafes explained

1) The rules come into effect from February 1.
2) All shisha cafes, except those who have applied for a special licence, will be banned from operating within 150 metres of residential areas, schools and mosques.
3) Shisha cafes must open from 10am to 12am.
4) The area occupied by each individual smoker must be at least two square metres5) Shisha cafes should be no smaller than 200 square metres. Cheap smoking.
6) Restaurants offering shisha must ensure these rooms are separate from non-smoking areas, with a minimum ceiling height of 3 metres.
7) Cafes must have a sign at the front stating that customers younger than 18 are banned.
8) Those who break the law will face fines of up to Dh1 million, two years in jail and their businesses will be closed.
9) The regulations fall under Federal Law No (15) of 2009 on tobacco control.
10) When the ban was announced about 90 per cent of the emirate’s shisha cafes were located in densely populated areas, according to the Department of Economic Development.

Recent Increases in Efficiency in Cigarette Nicotine Delivery: Implications for Tobacco Control

Introduction: Recent increases in nicotine yield of cigarettes sold in United States have been attributed by tobacco manufacturers to natural variation in agricultural products. We tested this assertion using the data reported by the manufacturers. Dunhill Fine Cut Blue

Methods: Data were collected from the annual report filed with Massachusetts Department of Public Health by 4 major manufacturers of cigarettes from 1997 to 2012. Reportable measures included nicotine yield (mg/cig) in smoke generated by a smoking machine based on the Massachusetts smoking regimen and nicotine content in the unburned tobacco per cigarette (mg/cig). We used multilevel linear mixed-effect models to examine temporal trends in and predictors of these measures, overall and by brand style and brand family.

Results: While nicotine content remained relatively stable in the range of 12–14mg/cig between 1998 and 2012, average nicotine yield increased significantly (p < .01) over time and ranged from the lowest level of 1.65mg/cigarette in 1999 and the highest level of 1.89mg/cigarette in 2011. Nicotine yield and yield-to-content ratio varied significantly among manufacturers and brand families. When controlling for market category and all available design features, the yield-to-content ratio of all manufacturers except Lorillard increased significantly over time.

Conclusions: The data provided by tobacco manufacturers suggest that the increasing trend in yield is not related to variations in nicotine content but to the yield-to-content ratio, contradicting their assertions of agricultural variations. Nicotine yield and yield-to-content ratio are controllable features of cigarettes, and should be monitored and regulated by government agencies.

Second hand smoke is deadly and yet children are often exposed to it. Florida lawmakers are trying to limit their exposure in at least one place. A new law would ban smoking in the car with a child present. Eight states have smoking bans in private vehicles when a child is present. Florida lawmakers are pushing to make the Sunshine state the next on the list. "Smoking, its been demonstrated as certainly harmful for people's health." Six out of every ten children are exposed to secondhand smoke. Now state lawmakers say a change is needed to protect those under "We have a responsibility, I think as a society to protect our children who cannot make these decisions about whether to smoke or not." Registered Nurse Sandy Grischy says secondhand smoke is dangerous, especially for those still in the developmental stage. "Carcinogens are those pieces that affect our DNA and that's where the potential for cancer arises." It's second hand smoke is responsible for nearly 300-thousand cases of bronchitis and pneumonia annually." Grischy is working to educate Floridians on the dangers of secondhand smoke. "Someone who's in a car for about an hour, if someone's smoking a cigarette and they're not, it's equivalent to smoking about three cigarettes." One loophole in the proposal: police would have to stop you for something else before you could be ticketed for smoking in a car with a child present. Another anti smoking bill would give local authorities the ability to ban smoking at playgrounds when a child is present.

Read More at: http://www.weartv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/health-news-secondhand-smoke-children-40337.shtml

Second hand smoke is deadly and yet children are often exposed to it. Florida lawmakers are trying to limit their exposure in at least one place. A new law would ban smoking in the car with a child present. Eight states have smoking bans in private vehicles when a child is present. Florida lawmakers are pushing to make the Sunshine state the next on the list. "Smoking, its been demonstrated as certainly harmful for people's health." Six out of every ten children are exposed to secondhand smoke. Now state lawmakers say a change is needed to protect those under "We have a responsibility, I think as a society to protect our children who cannot make these decisions about whether to smoke or not." Registered Nurse Sandy Grischy says secondhand smoke is dangerous, especially for those still in the developmental stage. "Carcinogens are those pieces that affect our DNA and that's where the potential for cancer arises." It's second hand smoke is responsible for nearly 300-thousand cases of bronchitis and pneumonia annually." Grischy is working to educate Floridians on the dangers of secondhand smoke. "Someone who's in a car for about an hour, if someone's smoking a cigarette and they're not, it's equivalent to smoking about three cigarettes." One loophole in the proposal: police would have to stop you for something else before you could be ticketed for smoking in a car with a child present. Another anti smoking bill would give local authorities the ability to ban smoking at playgrounds when a child is present.

Read More at: http://www.weartv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/health-news-secondhand-smoke-children-40337.shtml

Researchers suggest new way to kick the smoking habit

It's the time of year for New Years resolutions and, if you are still a smoker, chances are kicking the habit is high on your list. And chances are it was last year as well.
A study by researchers at a number of institutions, including the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, finds that smokers start off resolute in early January but often are back where they started by Groundhog Day. That may be a fitting reference since the researchers say smokers often go through the same thing actor Bill Murray did in the classic film “Groundhog Day,” reliving the same experience over and over.
To try to learn why that happens the researchers say they monitored the search query logs from Google from 2008 to 2012, looking for searches related to quitting, such as "help quit smoking." Specifically, they were looking for weekly patterns in smoking cessation. They found them.

Mondays are quitting day

Classic Silver cigarettes

The study found that people look for information about quitting smoking more often early in the week, with the highest query volumes on Mondays. The pattern was consistent across six languages -- English, French, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Why is that important? The researchers suggest a global predisposition to thinking about quitting smoking early in the week, particularly on Mondays. That, they say, suggests smokers are more receptive to anti-smoking messages on Mondays.
“On New Year’s Day, interest in smoking cessation doubles,” said the study’s lead author, John Ayers of San Diego State University. “But New Years happens one day a year. Here we’re seeing a spike that happens once a week.”
That means a New Years resolution to quit smoking is not that important. What happens, for example, if you make it for several days but then lapse back into the habit? Usually it means another uninterrupted year of smoking.A better approach to discouraging smoking, the study suggests, is a weekly campaign. That way if someone is successful for a short while but falls back into the habit, they get another opportunity right away for a “reset,” in effect starting their New Years resolution all over again.
Previous research has found that it takes seven to 10 attempts to quit before someone finally gives up cigarettes. Reaching them once a week can compress the timeline of the quitting process.
“People around the world are starting the week with intentions to quit smoking – if we can connect those people at school, work and communities we can make a regular ‘Monday Quit’ the cultural norm,” said Morgan Johnson, director of programs and research at the Monday Campaigns and another co-author of the Google paper.
If you are a smoker who is trying to quit, there are several ways you can incorporate this philosophy into your efforts to stop smoking. For starters, seek some positive reinforcement.

What to do

Find people you know who have been able to stop smoking and, at the beginning of each week, seek encouragement from them. If you make it through a week without a cigarette, celebrate.
Take a few minutes every Monday to reflect on the progress you made over the previous week and make a plan for the upcoming week. Write down any cravings you had and how you overcame them, and record any upcoming triggers you may face in the current week.
Use Mondays as a time to recalibrate and recharge your commitment. Start each week reminding yourself of the reasons you decided to quit in the first place.
Reward yourself. If you make it through a week without lighting up, use the money you may have saved on buying cigarettes to treat yourself to a movie, go out to dinner, or whatever reward you think will keep you motivated to stay quit for good.
Finally, don't beat yourself up if you cave. Most smokers do before they finally stop. Remember that you can start the process all over each Monday.