smoking – RichWatch!

Research shows that hookah’s are smokey murder machines

I’ve always been wildly skeptical of hookahs only because my dopey Los Angeles friends who don’t appear to be making the most health conscious of choices frequent these hookah lounges so much so the patterns and associations to me connect it to being a poor risk/reward indulgence despite my not knowing anything about the actual science of how it even works.

Turns out hookahs are filthy nasty body killing death pipes or something.

Sounds over-stated, especially after my fair disclosure of my existing confirmation-bias, but how else am I supposed to read the findings that 1 hookah session has 25 times more tar than a cigarette?

There’s a common misconception that hookahs aren’t very dangerous. A recent Rutgers University study revealed that 24 percent of both smokers and nonsmokers under age 25 believe hookahs— shared pipes that allow users to inhale tobacco smoke that’s been passed through a water basin—are safer than cigarettes. But according to a new study from the journal Public Health Reports, this is an even bigger myth than thought.

Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine found that one hookah session produces 2.5 times more nicotine, 10 times more carbon monoxide, 25 times more tar, and 125 times more smoke than a single cigarette.

I didn’t even know how hookahs work but it sounds horrifying:

He says studies indicate that more oxygen being pulled through the Hookah bowl could be causing the release of more toxins.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that in recent years, smoking Hookah is becoming more popular among young people, with more U.S. high school students saying they smoked Hookah than cigarettes within a 30 day window.

“It’s much more palatable, it’s easier,” says Dr. Primack, referring to Hookah’s appeal.

The process of smoking from a Hookah pipe starts with a hot coal, which is placed over tin foil that heats up dense and often flavored tobacco. The smoke then travels down a stem into a bowl, where it is pulled upwards through water and then through a hose to the consumer. Hookah pipes are also known as “Water Pipes.”

Repent, you hookah hooligans. Cut the habit and find a new way to socially enjoy something.

Legal vs Illegal

My recommended uses for the items above range from “sparingly” to “none at all”.

Not that I wanna rain on the parade of the joke being made. but still: Guns, prescriptions, beer, fast food, marriage (lol) and yes – even marijuana are all okay in small doses. Cigarettes – never. And while it’s not logical that the plant that makes you feel good is illegal vs the more mixed bag of the others – that in itself isnt an argument for completely legalizing it.

To avoid confusion:

Charlie Sheen: Morning Winning Phone Convo

And you thought the Tiger Blood shit was fun… oh my…

Facial or buttal? Faccial or buttal?
You speak. I’ll listen. Jesus Craaaap.
People need to hear his gold as its rolling out, not as its disappearing, disappearing like so many fuckin magicians rabbits (cuz they disappear. get it?).

Is this dude rockin a face-following camera?? cuz when he pops back up from the counter after taking a swig, he doesnt readjust – the frame just moves upward with him. hmmm. I’m assuming he’s recording the video on a cell phone which is why it keeps interrupting when he receives a call so idk whats goin on with the facefollow thing.

Can’t wait to buy my copy of “Apocalypse Me: the Jaws of Life” but I’m not sure if Charlie realizes that Amazon.com is a book seller…not publisher.

Crowning moment of Awesome might be CharChar hiding in his sweatshirt and being asked if he’s “loving life”. Response: “whats not to love? its, MY LIFE. *pops face out of sweatshirt* WIN-INNNG”.

More good news: Charlie Sheen Swings Machete From Rooftop, Yells ‘Free at Last!’

The 45-year-old actor returned to his home and livestreamed a new episode of his UStream web show, “Sheen’s Korner,” in which he swigged from a bottle he refused to name “unless I get paid.”

The actor uttered seeming nonsequitors on the phone to a friend named Bob, including “Phones were built by trolls” and “If you own the home in which you own the trash cans, you should never have to empty it again.”

Sheen, chain smoking cigarettes (and even smoking through his right nostril at one point), his head bobbing in and out, explained the reason behind his livestream, saying “People need to hear my gold as it rolls out, not as its disappearing like so many magicians’ rabbits.”

He launched the live web series on Saturday with a rambling monologue in which he discussed winning, showed several photos of cats and dogs fighting, said he was going to take a phone call from the president, declared he had the “boogers of a seven-year-old” and referred to either himself or the show as a “movement.”

In the second installment of “Sheen’s Korner,” broadcast Sunday night, Sheen appeared to threaten to slit the throats of children as part of a rant.

“I’m gonna write my sermons, I’m gonna deliver them like truth torpedoes, and people are gonna f*cking take it or leave it,” he said. “We know they’re gonna take it cause they can’t process it, so they must condemn it, and if they can’t condemn it, they’ll like f*cking turn me into a god and worship it, and realize I’m behind them, cutting their throats, and their children’s.”

New rules to require cigarette packs have anti-smoking propaganda printed on them

This could be what your pack of cancer sticks looks like if the FDA gets its way and is allowed to require “graphic images” on cigarette packages to deter smoking…

The NY Daily News report gives me mixed feelings since the Liberal in me thinks it’s awesome and well over due, but the Conservative in me knows it’s a ridiculous stipulation. I still side on the left on this one though, stupid rule or not. It’s just too awesome to speak out against.

It’s going to be harder to feel “alive with pleasure” with a photo of an emaciated man, dying of cancer, staring back at you from your cigarette package.

The Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that it will require such graphic images to be placed on the front and back of cigarette packages as part of a radical new campaign to keep teens from lighting up and to push longtime smokers to quit.

The FDA set a June 22, 2011 deadline for tobacco companies to redesign their packaging to include the images. They will also be required to place the jarring images on cigarette cartons.

Uncomfortable exit question: If cigarettes require graphic warnings, why doesn’t abortion?

Study proves: Smokers are stupid

Actually it just showed that Smokers Have Lower IQs Than Non-Smokers, but I’m going with the words “proof” and “stupid”, cuz duh.

Cigarettes are the only drug type substance people get hooked on that starts with a horrible experience. You do heroine or wine coolers and anything in between and you’re like “dude, this is AWESOME” or at least “ya, this is giving me what I want enough to keep doing this”, but with smoking it’s horrible for everyone. You cough, it hurts – everyone reports bad first try’s, yet they are stupid enough to force themselves to get hooked and dependent on this expensive life shortening and quality-of-life decreasing product. Good one…idiots.

According to the investigators, 28 percent of the study participants smoked at least one cigarette a day, around 3 percent said they were ex-smokers, and 68 percent had never smoked.

The smokers had significantly lower intelligence test scores than non-smokers, and this remained true even after the researchers accounted for socioeconomic status as measured by how many years of formal education a recruit’s father had completed.

The average IQ for non-smokers was about 101, while it was 94 for men who had started smoking before entering the military. IQ steadily dropped as the number of cigarettes smoked increased, from 98 for people who smoked one to five cigarettes daily to 90 for those who smoked more than a pack a day. IQ scores from 84 to 116 are considered to indicate average intelligence.

Recruits aren’t allowed to smoke while intelligence tests are administered, the researchers note, so it’s possible that withdrawal symptoms might affect smokers’ scores. To address this issue, they also looked at IQ scores for men who were non-smokers when they were 18 but started smoking during their military service. These men also scored lower than never-smokers (97 points, on average), “indicating that nicotine withdrawal was probably not the cause of the difference,” the researchers say.

The researchers also compared IQs for 70 pairs of brothers in the group in which one brother smoked and the other did not. Again, average IQs for the non-smoking sibling were higher than for the smokers.

This French anti-smoking ad campaign (whats next? German anti-bratwurst commercials?) says the message nicely.. Continue reading Study proves: Smokers are stupid

“The brain of an addicted smoker treats nicotine as if it is essential for survival.”

The summary: The brain of an addicted smoker treats nicotine as if it is essential for survival. Genetic traits may predispose some smokers to stronger addiction. Most smokers try to quit unaided, resulting in a high failure rate.

If you smoke, no one needs to tell you how bad it is. So why haven’t you quit? Why hasn’t everyone?

Because smoking feels good. It stimulates and focuses the mind at the same time that it soothes and satisfies. The concentrated dose of nicotine in a drag off a cigarette triggers an immediate flood of dopamine and other neurochemicals that wash over the brain’s pleasure centers. Inhaling tobacco smoke is the quickest, most efficient way to get nicotine to the brain.

“I completely understand why you wouldn’t want to give it up,” said Dr. David Abrams, an addiction researcher at the National Institutes of Health. “It’s more difficult to get off nicotine than heroin or cocaine.”

Smoking “hijacks” the reward systems in the brain that drive you to seek food, water and sex, Dr. Abrams explained, driving you to seek nicotine with the same urgency. “Your brain thinks that this has to do with survival of the species,” he said.

Did Study Confirm 2nd Hand Smoke Harmless?

“My friends, there’s now a second medical study which confirms that secondhand smoke doesn’t kill. Not only does it not kill, it doesn’t do much damage.” -Rush Limbaugh

And then you woke up Rushie. Staunch conservatives like Limbaugh are pleased as peanut pie at a new study that (as seen above) they say proves that secondhand smoke is pretty much harmless.

Any logical thinker knows this is impossible.

Philip Morris Tobacco company itself says the following about second hand smoke on it’s website (philipmorrisusa.com): “Public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke from cigarettes causes disease, including lung cancer and heart disease, in non-smoking adults, as well as causes conditions in children such as asthma, respiratory infections, cough, wheeze, otitis media (middle ear infection) and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. In addition, public health officials have concluded that secondhand smoke can exacerbate adult asthma and cause eye, throat and nasal irritation.”

So the tobacco makers admit the harmful effects of smoking…but the tobacco smokers say they’re lying? I don’t get it.

Of course, not all Tobacco distributors feel the same way, and the industry in general defends smoking and second hand smoke whenever possible, so this thing from Philip Morris might be an advisory requirement or court ordered thing or who knows.

Still Philip Morris doesn’t back out of it’s statement or spin their position at all. They consistantly conclude that “Philip Morris USA believes that the conclusions of public health officials concerning environmental tobacco smoke are sufficient to warrant measures that regulate smoking in public places. We also believe that where smoking is permitted, the government should require the posting of warning notices that communicate public health officials’ conclusions that secondhand smoke causes disease in non-smokers.”

It’s like saying that licking someone else’s bacon grease is harmless to your health. Technically, it is. And if that is the conclusion you want to come to, it is not difficult to spin some research into making such a deduction.

For instance, it is quite possible to eat greasy oily foods and not suffer any immediate health problem. You could have a targeted diet that allows the intake of such foods, or you could just be lucky and have a working system that doesn’t noticeably debilitate until a certain point. – But not everyone is so lucky. So is it thus fair to force everyone around you either lick your bacon grease or leave your area???

Of course not. Yet this is exactly the argument being made by indignant conservatives who think smoking wherever they want is their ‘right.’

These are the same conservatives that wag their fingers at the equally stupid liberal cries over so called civil liberties that can include anything from the ‘right’ to transvestites getting a special bathroom to the ‘right’ to halt traffic for the rest of the world while you protest in the streets, depending on how nutty you are.

These judgments need an injection of common sense and critical thinking instead of the current “what I feel like doing is my right” emotion driven logic.

Sucking smoke filled chemical sticks is your right. Bringing it to other people by polluting the shared air supply is not. Second hand smoke is bothersome to most non-smokers, but more importantly affects their health. The chemicals within can sting the eyes, personally give me a headache and are an asthmatics nightmare.

Whether it can be without a doubt scientifically proven or not that second hand smoke will cause cancer and lung disease, just bringing the discomfort to everyone around you is not anyone’s right.

The fact that this new study was funded by the Tobacco industry may or may not have anything to do with the conclusion, but is a noteworthy point to mention.