A waste of money or good use of tax $?

Yesterday I came across the Lung cancer Alliance's new PSA for lung screening - www.DrLunglove.com. It uses a hip-hop music video called "Waitin' Room Service" to promote the idea that screening for at-risk populations is a good idea.

I am not opposed to promoting awareness of screening for lung problems, the issue is that at-risk groups - the over 65s mainly - rarely watch hip-hop music videos. So it seems to me that this activity targets the right people, but in totally the wrong way.
Another case of having the heart in the right place, but failing to understand human behviour and psychology.

Grow up!

Some deep thinker has started a website called RepealSmokingBans.com

My favourite section is the Hall of Shame where senators, public health professionals, Cancer Society volunteers, nurses, professors of radiology are roundly denounced as fascists. Here are some of my favourite quotes:

Commenting on South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds' statement "We all recognize the health hazards of smoke and secondhand smoke. After serious deliberation, the Legislature decided to create a smoke-free environment in restaurants and lounges." the website says: "Wrong, nazi-breath. We do not acknowledge your lies and propaganda. There was no 'serious deliberation'....You're un-American. You're a coward. We know it, and now the whole world knows it. South Dakota. The home of Mount Rushmore. Absolutely disgusting."

Or this beauty: Gay Cornell is an American Cancer Society volunteer from Kansas who lost close relatives, including a parent, to smoking related cancer in their thirties. For her work in advocating for a smoking ban in Kansas she is described as a 'slob', 'lunatic', 'fascist', 'zealot', 'thug', 'arrogant', 'tyrannical', 'Nazi', 'out of control' and, my personal favourite, as 'spitting on the grave of every soul that gave all'. When soldiers are fighting in Iraq or Afghanistan, I'm pretty sure they aren't fighting against smoking bans.

I once made the observation that sometimes you know which side of an argument is right just by seeing who's on the other side of it. Surely this is such a case. If I was still a smoker, I would be embarrassed and ashamed of these morons.

It's getting cold...

Well, it had to come sooner or later: we woke up to our first frost of the season today. Oh Joy! Another six months of winter!

When I was a smoker, this was the most depressing time of the year. Realizing that ahead of you is six months of going "to get some fresh air" outside in sub-Arctic conditions, pretending that it's all a bit of fun all the while asking yourself what on earth you're doing...

Not fun.

Stay as warm as toast this winter by quitting smoking with Allen Carr's Easyway. For more information visit us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com

Great smoking quotes

"Smoking is one of the leading causes of statistics" Fletcher Knebel

"Sooner or later, everyone stops smoking" Anon

"I'll never feel comfortable taking a strong drink, and I'll never feel easy smoking a cigarette. I just don't think those things are right for me." Elvis Presley

"I'm more proud of quitting smoking than of anything else I've done in my life, including winning an Oscar." Christine Lahti

"In Hollywood you can't even smoke in a bar anymore and yet in the movies they're always showing people smoking. I don't get it." Gerald McRaney

"Tobacco exports should be expanded aggressively because Americans are smoking less." Dan Quayle

A request for honesty from researchers...

Today a number of news outlets report on a recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Wisconsin which concludes that the most effective way to quit smoking is a combination of the nicotine patch and the nicotine lozenge, but there are many questions raised by the research.

Firstly, the research only covered methods involving drugs (most of them including the drug smokers are actually trying to stop). So methods like Allen Carr's Easyway - which has a success rate 8-10 times higher than NRT - were not included.

Secondly, the study does not provide smokers with the actual success rates for the products tested, instead they compare them in relation to each other. So, for example, we know that using a combination of the nicotine patch and lozenge increases a smoker's chance of being smoke-free after six months by over 200% over placebo.

Sounds impressive, right? But is it really?

The first question is a simple one: a 200% increase from what to what? From 1% to 3%? From 10% to 30%? This is what smokers really want to know, but this information is nowhere to be found.

According to Clive Bates, Director of ASH the UK's leading tobacco control charity and an enthusiastic supporter of NRT the six month success rates are "3-6%". Hardly success to shout from the rooftops is it?

And how many of those who are smoke-free at six months end up addicted to the patch or the lozenge, and how many of these nicotine addicts ultimately go back to smoking?

For simple, clear success rate data for Allen Carr's Easyway and just about every other method out there, please visit us at http://www.theeasywaytostopsmoking.com/AboutUs/Success/tabid/68/Default.aspx

A simple question...

If e-cigarettes are as safe as their makers claim, why are they resisting FDA oversight? If they have nothing to hide then the FDA will declare them safe and allow them to be sold.

I would have thought they would welcome the FDA's interest and co-operate in every way with them, not sue to challenge their authority.

Personally, I remain deeply suspicious of anyone selling a product containing an addictive drug while claiming it doesn't warrant federal oversight. It seems to me that e-cigarette companies are guilty of behaving like the tobacco companies they are so clearly trying to replace.

To get nicotine - in all its forms - out of your life, learn more about Allen Carr's easyway by visiting us at www.TheEasywayToStopSmoking.com