Can the electronic cigarette help to tackle the problem of urban litter?

What’s the one over-riding thing that non-smokers hate about cigarettes? Now obviously most could probably name a long list of things they truly dislike like the acrid smell, the pollution and having to sit next to someone who smells like an ash tray. However, it seems that what really rankles non-smokers more than anything else is abandoned cigarette stubs: in other words it’s the mess that smokers leave behind once they’ve had their daily fix. Well, the authorities it now appears are determined to do something about it, as discarded cigarette butts are beginning to become a real problem.

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Will you put on weight if you stop smoking?

There are as many excuses to carry on smoking as there are good reasons to stop. One of the major fears of many smokers is that should they choose to quit, then they will inevitably pile on the pounds and gain weight. This seems to be an issue that particularly affects women: they desperately want to quit for all the right reasons, but are fearful of gaining too much weight. So they carry on smoking. It may sound like a lame excuse, but it is none the less a legitimate concern for many smokers. The question is, is this really true? Will smokers put on weight if they quit, or is this just another urban myth? Well, research would suggest that some of the concerns of smokers are legitimate. People who quit smoking are more than likely to gain weight.

Are electronic cigarettes safe to use?

Anyone who has made a serious and concerted effort to give up smoking will tell you that it’s anything but easy. Cigarettes are effectively a legal drug, and once you’re hooked you’re in trouble. Cigarette smokers are addicted not only to nicotine, but also to the routine of lighting up and inhaling smoke into their lungs. It becomes a necessary part of their everyday lives. So the majority of smokers will need some form of help if they are to overcome their addiction. Some prescribed therapies like nicotine replacement therapy can be of help. Nicotine patches and gums release small quantities of nicotine into the blood stream and therefore help to reduce the cravings. Sadly these products don’t work for everyone, particularly those who are equally addicted to the routine of smoking.

A cigarette break lands Charlie Sheen in hot water yet again

It seems that no matter how hard he might try, Charlie Sheen, the outspoken Hollywood actor, can’t manage to keep out of the headlines. The sad thing is he tends to make the news these days for all the wrong reasons. It was felt he’d learned his lessons after the internet outburst about Tiger blood, but once again the angst-ridden star has hit the headlines after another angry outburst at officials at an ice hockey game in the U.S. The outburst was triggered after he left the stadium for a cigarette and was refused re-entry. It does make you wonder why he didn’t take his electronic cigarette to the game, and thus avoid the confrontation.

Tobacco smoke will be responsible for a record number of deaths by the end of the century

How many people do you think will be killed by smoking-related illnesses by the end of the Twenty First Century? Well, you may be surprised to learn that according to the World Health Organisation the number could be as high as 1 billion. That is an astonishing figure by anyone’s accounts, but its severity is probably better underlined if you consider that the total number of military and civilian casualties in the two World Wars of the Twentieth Century was estimated at just under 38 million. So smoking will kill nearly 26 times as many people as those major conflicts.

Counting the costs of tobacco smoking

Whenever anyone suggests that a smoker should try to quit and break free from the tobacco habit, they often cite the potential health benefits as the principal motivation. It’s understandable enough as any person who smokes will ingest at least 4000 harmful chemicals into their lungs each time they inhale cigarette smoke. That continued ingestion of tar, benzene, carbon monoxide and nitrosamines will ultimately take its toll, and could potentially cause numerous cancers, like stomach cancer, and cancer of the bladder, lungs, throat and mouth. So anyone who can quit for good will find that their health will improve.

Even ‘career’ smokers will notice the benefit of quitting tobacco-based cigarettes within a matter of days

If you speak to anyone who’s given up tobacco-based cigarettes, they’ll focus their attention on how hard it was to break the habit and go ‘clean’ as it were. It doesn’t really matter whether they’ve been smoking for 10, 20 or 30 years: what they’ll concentrate on is what they see as the loss of one of their treasured’ pleasures’. Now, even if you leave aside the fact that this pleasure was in fact probably slowly killing them, what they often fail to mention is that their health seems to start to improve almost immediately and that they feel better having kicked the habit. So, what benefits can seasoned smokers expect to see when they quit tobacco, and how soon will they start to notice the difference?