Smokers are accused of many things these days because of their pastime of relaxing with a cigarette, pipe or cigar and practically every disease known to man is laid at their door.
We at Freedom To Choose have discussed at length [on our forum] the merits of moderate smoking to ones health; from the delay of the onset and effects of both Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases to improving the symptoms of attention deficit disorder and also Tourettes syndrome.
You can imagine our surprise then when we discovered this, never mentioned by the mass media, piece of news:
Nicotine has an anti-inflammatory effect via the vagus nerve, which is useful against many diseases, and perhaps may block the cytokine storm of the H1N1 swine flu.
I can imagine Big Pharma rushing to their Nicorette publicity department ordering them to announce to the world how their Nicotine patches are a cure for Swine Flu but before they and ASH et al start wetting their lederhosen they should read on:
The anti-inflammatory benefits of nicotine reveal the inflammatory basis of many unexpected diseases. Partly because it leads to rebound release of inflammatory cytokines, inflammation and inflammatory disease symptoms that include depression and obesity. Smoking cessation may contribute to more severe symptoms of H1N1 infections.
After the first reported person to die from the H1N1 virus who had no underlying health problems, that paragon of health and wellbeing, the never elected numpty Liam Donaldson (I refuse to call him sir) is at it again by putting the frighteners on the masses in a bid to keep himself in the limelight and of course curry favour with his paymasters:
Further deaths from swine flu without there being underlying health problems cannot be ruled out but will be rare, England's chief medical officer says.
Of course this idiot tries to talk like the statesman he definitely is NOT by adding:
It was a tragic case but people should not panic.
God save us all from this piece of worthlessness.
No doubt this gobshite will be pushing for new legislation forcing tobacco companies to alter their product with RIP. I kid you not as ASH, on their website, have a link to this:
RIP Coalition UK
Here’s how they work:
Josh Hubbard examined a cigarette from the pack he had just bought. They were different.
“It’s got little rings around it in a couple of spots,” he said, standing in the parking lot of Butch’s Corner Food Market in Williamsburg, Ky.
Those rings are thick bands of low-permeability paper, and they are rapidly appearing on cigarettes across the country. The idea is that if you set down your smoke — or fall asleep in bed with it still lighted — the cigarette will extinguish itself when the flame reaches one of the rings.
In effect, the rings act as speed bumps. To keep a cigarette lighted, you have to keep puffing. When you stop, it goes out by itself in about 5 minutes.
Here is a sample revue of these nasty RIP rings:
Side by side with a traditional cigarette, you can’t tell much difference. But on the box, the letters FSC above the bar code denote Fire Safe Cigarettes; in some states, it’s RFP for Reduced Fire Propensity.
“I do understand why they did it, as a safety precaution,” said Katie West, another customer at Butch’s, who said the new cigarettes were a good idea. But there’s one big problem, she said: “The cigarettes don’t taste near as good as they used to.”
And that’s the rub. Asked to rate the new cigarettes, many smokers said they left an unpleasant coppery taste in the mouth.
“It’s nasty,” said Jewell Robertson of Paducah, Ky. Or as Hubbard put it, they “taste like crap.”
And for many smokers, the feature that fire officials like is a pain in the neck.
“They constantly go out, and I have to relight them all the time,” said Kathy McDaniel of Midland, Texas.
“If you’re not smoking on it regularly, like 30 to 35 seconds, it goes out pretty quick,” said Ron Calkins of Erie, Pa. “You have to light them every once in a while.”
Victor Freeman, the owner of Butch’s, said his customers were annoyed with having to continually relight their cigarettes, but he’s found a way to capitalize.
“We’ll sell more lighters,” he said.
Your cigarettes are coming to to you via an under the counter, plain white wrapped, warning laden store near you!
Update:
The honours for this blog item must go to the irrepressible Brenda Jorsler, a lady after my own heart and member of F2C!
