Professor Sir Chris Whitty, the UK government’s Chief Medical Adviser, lays it on thick. At a recent symposium on medical ethics, after reminding us that ‘Smoking is an appalling way to die, it kills people in multiple ways,’ he is reported as saying that ‘getting smoking down to zero and destroying the cigarette industry should be an aim [...]
What is the best way to quit smoking? This very question highlights a regrettable lack of understanding in official circles about why smokers smoke in the first place, and how they can quit this abnormal behaviour. It needs to understood that you don’t need a way, method, or technique to quit smoking. You just need to quit smoking. [...]
It is a truth that appears not to be universally acknowledged that in order to stop doing something you have to start doing it first. People are not born smokers. Public health organisations are much exercised to appeal for funding to run stop smoking clinics. They have a modest success with smokers who seek their help in supporting [...]
Thanks to the BBC, we learn of one of the greatest breakthroughs since lunchtime, if you’ll pardon the cliché, in smoking research. The headline is: ‘Sons worst affected by smoking in pregnancy.’ So there. If you’re going to smoke in pregnancy, better make sure you’re going to have a girl. Incidentally, I do wish dear old Auntie BBC [...]
The other night I was eating with a friend in a local restaurant – non-smoking of course –and had occasion to observe my fellow diners. There was a party of what are known in Japan as ‘salarymen’ (company employees), consisting of about ten middle-aged people who were evidently enjoying themselves with good food and drink and animated conversation. [...]
When I first glanced at an editorial headline in the venerable The British Medical Journal (BMJ) of 4 May 2024, I thought common sense was at last beginning to appear in dealing with the smoking problem. It said, ‘Stop tobacco…’ Perhaps they were following in the footsteps of those environmental campaigners who make such a nuisance of [...]
Amazing discovery! Now you can enjoy poisoning yourself with nicotine by e-cigarettes without doing yourself any harm at all! Guaranteed 95 per cent safe! You can get the same satisfaction as smoking cigarettes but without the tar! Really? I can’t get-no satisfaction…a man comes on to tell me…but he can’t be a man ’cause he doesn’t smoke the [...]
Part 1. How to fail to quit smoking Quitting smoking is very hard. In fact, many former smokers say it’s the hardest thing they’ve ever done. However, if you follow the steps described below in the NHS Stopvember yearly anti-smoking campaign and refrain from smoking for 28 days, you’ll be five times more likely not to fail in [...]
Why is this allowed? As an example of the continuing official confusion in about smoking/vaping, here is a statement (9 Dec 2016) by Cancer Research UK: Harm reduction is a type of public health policy that aims to reduce the harmful consequences of substances, or actions, without necessarily reducing or eliminating the use itself. For example, condoms don’t [...]
Here’s a remarkable piece of news that came my way today about the war on tobacco. It’s a report of recent activities of an organisation called the Framework Convention Alliance (FCA). In case you’ve never heard of this, I’m sure you’ll be interested to know that it ‘works on the development, ratification, and implementation’ of an international treaty [...]