Pages

Search This Blog

Thursday 15 August 2013

#134: Bollywood Smokers : Sanjay Dutt



He is controversies’ favorite child. From drug abuse at a young age to being involved for illegal possession of weapons, Sanjay Dutt has experienced all. His addiction to nicotine was so high that even during his earlier jailterm, he was allowed to puff cigarettes. This time the Munnabhai star was refused an electronic cigarette at the Arthur Road jail, where he is currently lodged.

#133: City Council votes to regulate e-cigarette sales in L.A

Calling it a potential health risk and a gateway to tobacco use, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to regulate the sales of e-cigarettes and other "vaping" devices.
The new law puts electronic smoking devices in the same category as tobacco products, subjecting their sales to the same restrictions. It bans sales from street kiosks, ice cream trucks and self-service displays, and requires retailers to obtain a license before selling the products.
Parallel legislation under city consideration would ban the use of e-cigarettes in the same places that tobacco is prohibited, including restaurants and parks. Sales of e-cigarettes to minors are already banned under state law, and 59 California counties and cities, including Glendale and Burbank, require a license to sell e-cigarettes.


"It's important to protect young people from this deadly habit and to protect people from second-hand smoke," said Councilman Paul Koretz, who pushed the ordinance.
The battery-operated devices look like cigarettes and use heat to vaporize a liquid, some containing nicotine and fruit and candy flavorings. Users inhale the vapors and expel them, much the same as smoking tobacco.
Retail sales of the devices are expected to double this year to $1.7 billion, and e-cigarettes could outsell their tobacco counterparts within a decade, Dr. Jonathan Fielding, Los Angeles County's health director, said in a morning press conference. Use of vaping devices among high school students doubled in 2012 to 10%, according to a recent study by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Though studies on the health impacts of vaping have been inconclusive, some of the devices contain harmful substances such as formaldehyde, chromium and lead, Fielding said.
Council members said it was better to err on the side of caution and take action. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration does not regulate the devices.
"It's a very sinister approach to a very sinister product," said Councilman Mitch O'Farrell, who wrote the action to regulate use of e-smoking devices. "We don't want to wait for the feds to do something."
School principals told the council that some of their students are loading e-cigarettes with marijuana cartridges and using the devices to smoke pot at school. Several speakers applauded the council's action, including Marlene Gomez of the American Lung Assn.
Gomez said manufacturers, some with ties to tobacco companies, are marketing the devices to children. "Many products are being produced that are candy-flavored or fruit-flavored, including Cap'n Crunch and Fruit Loops,'' she said.
No one spoke publicly in opposition to the ordinance. But the National Assn. of Tobacco Outlets submitted a letter to the council suggesting that city action was premature because the FDA is poised to issue its own regulations.
Thomas A. Briant, the association's chief legal counsel, also called into question the accuracy of the CDC survey on high school students who use e-cigarettes because he said it counted as a user anyone who had used the product even once.
Supporters of vaping say e-cigarettes can help tobacco smokers quit and are a safer alternative to traditional cigarettes. Adam Phramany opened Vape Star in Koreatown three months ago and says he's helped several customers kick the habit.
"I hate smoking in general and hate second-hand smoke,'' he said. "But I've witnessed first hand that most of my friends who started vaping quit smoking completely."
He thinks the vaping industry takes an underserved knock when government officials equate e-cigarettes with tobacco.
"I wouldn't say it's a healthier alternative but it's a smarter alternative because there is no tobacco involved,'' he said.


#132: Breaking News: New study shows no risk from e-cigarette contaminants

Here is the post of the press release at CASAA's main blog (same content as above link, but with a link to here for discussion -- so a better choice if you want to share the press release).]
CASAA is delighted to announce that the first research study funded by the CASAA Research Fund (thanks to all of you who donated to that!) has been released.  The study, by Prof. Igor Burstyn, Drexel University School of Public Health, is available at the Drexel website, here (pdf).  Burstyn reviewed all of the available chemistry on e-cigarette vapor and liquid and found that the levels reported — even in those studies that were hyped as showing there is a danger — are well below the level that is of concern.
And that assessment applies to the vaper himself.  The exposure to bystanders is orders of magnitude less and of no concern at all.
The paper is technical, of course, but I believe it does a great job of communicating for readers at many levels.  It puts the results in very clear and useful terms — exactly what policy makers need for making decisions.
For the first time, we have a definitive study that can be used to respond to claims that contaminants in e-cigarettes are dangerous and that there is a hazard to bystanders that calls for usage restrictions.  Existing individual chemistry studies have been difficult for anyone other than an expert to understand (which is why we gave a grant to an expert to understand them!), and a naive interpretation of individual studies (just reading what the authors editorialized about their results) gave the impression of “dueling studies”, with some showing a problem and some not.  While many THR advocates made an effort to make sense of and use the existing literature, it was almost impossible to do so effectively.  Burstyn’s analysis solves that problem and shows there is no duel:  All of the studies, including the “bad” ones, show that there is no worry.
I cannot overstate it:  This is a game-changer for anyone trying to respond to misinformation about the hazards of e-cigarettes.  Before we had an apparently contradictory mess on this topic.  Now we have clarity.
I have to say that I am genuinely surprised that the results are quite so definitive, and I assume that will be true of anyone else of was seriously trying to assess the risks, rather than just cheerleading.  We were all confident that the risks were minimal, but we could not previously reach a (good news) conclusion as strong as the one in the paper.
The list of key conclusions in the paper:
  • Even when compared to workplace standards for involuntary exposures, and using several conservative (erring on the side of caution) assumptions, the exposures from using e-cigarettes fall well below the threshold for concern for compounds with known toxicity. That is, even ignoring the benefits of e-cigarette use and the fact that the exposure is actively chosen, and even comparing to the levels that are considered unacceptable to people who are not benefiting from the exposure and do not want it, the exposures would not generate concern or call for remedial action.
  • Expressed concerns about nicotine only apply to vapers who do not wish to consume it; a voluntary (indeed, intentional) exposure is very different from a contaminant.
  • There is no serious concern about the contaminants such as volatile organic compounds (formaldehyde, acrolein, etc.) in the liquid or produced by heating.  While these contaminants are present, they have been detected at problematic levels only in a few studies that apparently were based on unrealistic levels of heating.
  • The frequently stated concern about contamination of the liquid by a nontrivial quantity of ethylene glycol or diethylene glycol remains based on a single sample of an early technology product (and even this did not rise to the level of health concern) and has not been replicated.
  • Tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNA) are present in trace quantities and pose no more (likely much less) threat to health than TSNAs from modern smokeless tobacco products, which cause no measurable risk for cancer.
  • Contamination by metals is shown to be at similarly trivial levels that pose no health risk, and the alarmist claims about such contamination are based on unrealistic assumptions about the molecular form of these elements.
  • The existing literature tends to overestimate the exposures and exaggerate their implications.  This is partially due to rhetoric, but also results from technical features.  The most important is confusion of the concentration in aerosol, which on its own tells us little about risk to heath, with the relevant and much smaller total exposure to compounds in the aerosol averaged across all air inhaled in the course of a day.  There is also clear bias in previous reports in favor of isolated instances of highest level of chemical detected across multiple studies, such that average exposure that can be calculated are higher than true value because they are “missing” all true zeros.
  • Routine monitoring of liquid chemistry is easier and cheaper than assessment of aerosols.  Combined with an understanding of how the chemistry of the liquid affects the chemistry of the aerosol and insights into behavior of vapers, this can serve as a useful tool to ensure the safety of e-cigarettes.
  • The only unintentional exposures (i.e., not the nicotine) that seem to rise to the level that they are worth further research are the carrier chemicals themselves, propylene glycol and glycerin.  This exposure is not known to cause health problems, but the magnitude of the exposure is novel and thus is at the levels for concern based on the lack of reassuring data.
It is worth expanding on the observation about propylene glycol and glycerin a bit:  While there is no affirmative reason to believe that the level of exposure experienced by vapers is hazardous, we have never before had a situation where millions of people had such a high level of exposure.  Thus it is worth gathering data on what happens, just to make sure there is no small subtle effect.  This contrasts with the levels of the much-hyped contaminants, which pose no concern at all.  It is also important to remember that this refers to the vaper herself; there is no such caution for bystanders, who have far far lower levels of exposure.
This paper should immediately become a central point in all political advocacy to stop anti-e-cigarette regulations, as well as trying to encourage smokers to adopt THR.  The key talking point that should be used is this (my words, not Burstyn’s):
The only expert review of all of the studies found that there was no risk from the chemicals to vapers, let alone bystanders.  This took into consideration the studies that you are referring to [note: assuming this is being used as a rebuttal to some claim of chemical hazards].  Indeed, even the results of the studies that have been used to generate alarm represented levels of chemicals that were too low to be of concern.
For those of you who have any comments for the author, particularly peer review (or even non-peer review) comments for improving on the working paper before it is submitted to a journal[*], please use the comments section of this post.  The author has agreed to monitor one page (this one), but will probably not see it if you post a comment at another blog, on ECF, etc.
[*Footnote: To head off a concern I have heard a few times, no, there is not a problem with the author releasing a working paper before submitting to a journal.  A handful of medical and general-science journals -- those that are trying to sell copies as if they were a glossy magazine -- like to have "exclusives" of previously secret studies (which, by the way, is why they publish far more papers that are shown to be wrong than do more serious journals).  Serious science journals generally prefer that the paper is circulated and commented on before they are asked to deal with it.  Indeed, in several of the more serious sciences (public health will catch up in a few decades -- perhaps), working paper versions are considered the key source of scientific communication, and the eventual appearance in a journal is more of an afterthought and happens long after everyone has already read the paper.  Real peer review is what starts now (here) when every interested expert can read and comment, rather than at a journal where a couple of people with their limited knowledge are the only ones reviewing it.
[Of course, that knowledge does not help you if you are dealing with people who do not understand how science works and are not likely to listen long enough to learn.  There will be retorts of "that is not a peer-reviewed publication" (which is actually not true -- it was reviewed before the author released it).  Your best talking point in response to that is something like, "So are you saying that in a few months, when the paper appears in a journal, you will agree that it is all correct and change your position?"  If you are responding to someone who claims to be an expert, you can add "So, why don't you just review it like other expert readers have done, or are you admitting that you are not expert enough to do so?"

Friday 9 August 2013

#131: Obesity a greater risk than tobacco

Obesity, rather than tobacco-related disease, will affect more people's health in the future according to a new report released today by the Ministry of Health.
The Burden of Disease study was a culmination of many years of study into disability, disease and premature death.
The study measured "health loss" or how much healthy life was lost due to premature death, illness or impairment.
The Ministry said the data would help predict fatal and non-fatal health losses until 2016.
The report allowed the Ministry to see the "magnitude and distribution of causes of health loss for each demographic group" and helped to compare the relative impacts of different diseases, injuries and risk factors on health, the Ministry said.
Key findings included:
* Cancers and cardiovascular disease (heart attacks and stroke) each contributed 17.5 per cent of the health loss, followed by mental disorders (11 per cent), musculoskeletal disorders (9 per cent) and injury (8 per cent);
* Males have a 13 per cent higher rate of health loss than females; and
* Maori had about a 75 per cent higher rate of health loss than non-Maori.
It also revealed that data from 2006 showed people with a diet high in salt and saturated fat accounted for 11.4 per cent of health loss - more than tobacco at 9.1 per cent.
From that data, the Ministry predicted by 2016 obesity and a high body mass index would continue to cause more health loss, and tobacco would bring about less health loss because the number of smokers was dropping.
University of Otago, Wellington's Associate Professor Nick Wilson said improving the nutritional environment for New Zealanders should therefore be a high priority for the Government.
"Fortunately, this can be done in ways that might also save health costs such as by taxing sugar in soft drinks, and regulations that limit maximum salt levels in high-salt processed foods," Professor Wilson said.
As part of the report, the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) said health loss from injury - the fifth highest cause of health loss - robbed New Zealanders of more than 76,000 years of healthy life in the 2006 calendar year alone.
The report added a new dimension to their understanding of the impact that injuries had on the lives of New Zealanders, ACC's general manager of Insurance and Prevention Services John Beaglehole said.
ACC key findings:
* males account for nearly three-quarters of injury-related health loss;
* the leading causes of injury-related health loss are self-inflicted and transport-related injuries;
* Maori experience twice the rate of injury-related health loss of non-Maori, with particularly higher loss from transport-related, self-inflicted and interpersonal-violence-related injuries;
* alcohol is likely to be involved in a quarter of all injury-related health loss;
* for children, injuries are the third highest cause of health loss; and
* one third of injury-related health loss results from traumatic brain injury and spinal cord injury, most of which is due to transport-related injuries.

#130: Knife-wielding robber asked victim for a cigarette


A MAN was threatened with a knife by a robber after he refused to give him a cigarette.
The incident happened at School Lane, in Harlow Town Park.
According to police, the 24-year-old victim was in the park at about 4.50pm when he was approached by the mam who asked him for a cigarette.
When the victim refused to hand one over, the suspect produced a knife and threatened him.
The victim, who lives in the Harlow area, then handed over a cigarette.
The suspect is described as white, aged in his late 20s and of slim build. He is about 6ft tall with light blonde hair, blue eyes and was had a tanned appearance. At the time he was wearing a dark green shirt and purple trousers.

Wednesday 26 June 2013

#129: Now FDA preach something else :P harmful effect of e-cigarette to health

MANILA, Philippines -- The Philippine Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned Wednesday that secondary exposure to electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) emission could be harmful to one's health.
FDA Director General Kenneth Hartigan-Go said that e-cigarettes are not emission-free based on a few studies, including that of a a publication this year on Electronic Cigarettes -- An Overview by the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) Unit Cancer Prevention, Heidelberg, and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Tobacco Control.
"E-cigarettes contain volatile organic substances, including propylene glycol, flavors and nicotine, and are emitted as mist or aerosol into indoor air," he said.
According to a study, Go said that these ultrafine liquid particles of less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter may penetrate deeply into the lungs and while they are substantially fewer than conventional cigarettes, the substances emitted by e-cigarettes may be inhaled by non-users when used indoor. 
"If several people are using e-cigarettes in a room at the same time, considerable indoor air pollution will accumulate and may result in harmful second-hand exposure," the official said.
With these findings, Go urged the public, especially the youth, not to start smoking at all and to stop using cigarettes, cigars, or e-cigarettes.

#128: FDA approves two new cigarette brands


The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday began using one of the key powers Congress gave it under the landmark 2009 tobacco-control law: Final say over which new tobacco products can be marketed and sold to consumers.
The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act gave the FDA broad authority to regulate everything from cigarettes to smokeless tobacco. Before its passage, companies could introduce new products without the blessing of any federal regulator.
Since the law’s enactment, the FDA has received roughly 4,000 applications for products that companies claimed were “substantially equivalent” to ones already on the market, but the agency had not acted on any of them.
Until Tuesday.
The FDA said it had approved applications for two types of non-menthol cigarettes made by Lorillard after determining that the cigarettes, while slightly different than previous products, wouldn’t pose new public health worries.
The FDA rejected four other applications, citing potential new health concerns raised by some ingredients and a lack of detail about product designs. It said companies had withdrawn another 136 applications.
The agency declined to name the specific companies or products.
Tuesday’s move put hardly a dent in thebacklog of tobacco-product applications before the FDA. Some have been awaiting a ruling for more than two years.
But it does mark a turning point in the long-running fight over tobacco regulation.
“This is an historic step forward,” said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. “Today is the first day that a regulatory agency anywhere in the world has made a science-based determination, on a pre-market basis, that a product either can or cannot be marketed.”
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg told reporters that the announcement represents an “important step toward the FDA’s goal of reducing preventable disease and death caused by tobacco.”
She added, “For the first time, the federal government is bringing science-based regulation to the manufacturing, marketing and distribution of tobacco products.”
The law allowed thousands of products introduced between February 2007 and March 2011 to remain on the market, pending review by the FDA. About 500 products submitted for review after March 2011 cannot be sold until the FDA approves them.
Zeller emphasized that Tuesday’s approvals do not mean that the FDA considers the products “safe” or “FDA-approved” — only that they don’t raise new health concerns. He also said he expects the agency to pick up the pace of its decisions.
“We are proud to be the first company in the industry to receive authorization to begin marketing these new products in the U.S. through the FDA’s substantial equivalence pathway,” Lorillard’s chief executive, Murray Kessler, said in a statement. He added, “[We] believe that the FDA has carried out its evaluation process in a deliberate manner reflecting sound science.”
Tobacco-control advocates reacted with cautious optimism, praising the FDA for its apparent rigor in examining the potential dangers of new tobacco products. But they also urged the agency to provide more details about the criteria it is using to decide whether to approve products and what information tobacco companies have provided.
“It is an important milestone,” said Matthew Myers, president of the nonprofit Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “But the information disclosed leaves many unanswered questions.. . . Without that information, it is impossible to assess the impact of these decisions.”

Saturday 1 June 2013

#127: How to treat Smoker's Cough

Practices and treatments that may help your cough include:

  • Staying well-hydrated. Drinking 8 8-oz glasses of water per day can help thin secretions in the respiratory tract.
  • Gargling with salt water.
  • Using cough drops or lozenges that soothe your throat.
  • Honey. In one study, a teaspoon of honey was found to be more effective than many over-the-counter cough preparations in reducing cough symptoms. You can enjoy a little honey alone, or add it to a warm tea.
  • Boiling water with mint or eucalyptus leaves, then inhaling the vapors. To do this, some people place a towel over the pot of water to help inhale the vapors. Be careful to avoid burns by maintaining a safe distance from the steam, and always keep the pot on a level surface away from children.
  • Elevating your head when sleeping. When you lie flat, mucous can pool in your throat, making your cough worse when you awaken.
  • Exercise. Exercise can help to remove phlegm, in addition to its other benefits.
  • Eating a healthy diet. While it hasn’t been proven, some people believe that a diet high in fruits and cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli and cauliflower, can aid the body in detoxifying some of the chemicals breathed in through tobacco smoke.

#126: Cigarette Smuggling Booming


Cigs_hidden_610
The illicit trafficking of tobacco is a multibillion-dollar business today, fueling organized crime and corruption, robbing governments of needed tax money, and spurring addiction to a deadly product. So profitable is the trade that tobacco is the world’s most widely smuggled legal substance. This booming business now stretches from counterfeiters in China and renegade factories in Russia to Indian reservations in New York and warlords in Pakistan and North Africa.


The illicit trafficking of tobacco is a multibillion-dollar business today, fueling organized crime and corruption, robbing governments of needed tax money, and spurring addiction to a deadly product. So profitable is the trade that tobacco is the world’s most widely smuggled legal substance. This booming business now stretches from counterfeiters in China and renegade factories in Russia to Indian reservations in New York and warlords in Pakistan and North Africa.
It began with a basic mathematical equation: In 1995 two scholars in Europe found that almost one-third of the world’s cigarette exports had simply vanished. Somehow, billions of cigarettes, once exported, had mysteriously gotten lost in transit.

Only it wasn’t that mysterious. Starting in 1999, a team of reporters from theInternational Consortium of Investigative Journalists pored over thousands of internal industry documents and uncovered how leading tobacco companies were colluding with criminal networks to divert cigarettes to the world’s black markets. Big Tobacco was doing it for profit — to boost sales and gain market share — as it avoided billions of dollars in taxes while recruiting growing numbers of smokers around the globe. The tobacco industry, as it turned out, did not merely turn a blind eye to the smuggling — it managed the trade at the highest corporate levels.
over_argent
Argentine security forces arrest smugglers trying to ship cigarettes across the Pilcomayo River from Paraguay, a top producer of contraband cigarettes. Credit: Prefectura Naval Argentina.
Those revelations, and others that followed, helped lead to government inquiries, lawsuits, and promises of a global treaty to crack down on the illicit cigarette trade. Since 2004, two major tobacco companies, Philip Morris International and Japan Tobacco International, have agreed to pay a combined $1.65 billion to the European Community and 10 member states to settle litigation that would have further exposed their involvement in cigarette smuggling. They have also committed publicly to help fight trafficking in tobacco. Similarly, this July, Canada’s two largest cigarette companies, Imperial Tobacco Canada and Rothmans Inc., pleaded guilty to aiding fsmuggling during the early 1990s; they are to pay a combined $1.12 billion, the largest such penalties ever levied in Canada.
Yet, despite the exposés, the lawsuits, and the settlements, the massive trade in contraband tobacco continues unabated. Indeed, with profits rivaling those of narcotics, and relatively light penalties, the business is fast reinventing itself. Once dominated by Western multinational companies, cigarette smuggling has expanded with new players, new routes, and new techniques. Today, this underground industry ranges from Chinese counterfeiters that mimic Marlboro holograms to perfection, to Russian-owned factories that mass produce brands made exclusively to be smuggled into Western Europe. In Canada, the involvement of an array of criminal gangs and Indian tribes pushed seizures of contraband tobacco up 16-fold between 2001 and 2006. “The big companies know that to some extent the golden period of smuggling is gone,” observes Belgium-based sociologist Luk Joossens, a World Health Organization expert on tobacco smuggling and co-author of the 1995 study that first alerted the world that billions of exported cigarettes had gotten lost in transit. “You have still the normal small-scale smuggling, but you also have counterfeit production, illicit manufacturing. . . and a lot of small companies that are involved. So the whole area of illicit trade has become much more complex.” Joossens also said that while Big Tobacco’s participation in cigarette smuggling in Western Europe and North America has largely been curtailed, the situation remains murky in Africa and other developing areas of the world.
This week smuggling experts, customs officials, and diplomats from nearly 160 countries are gathering in Geneva, Switzerland, to push for what has eluded governments for decades: a global crackdown on the black market in tobacco. Under the auspices of the WHO’s three-year-old Framework Convention on Tobacco Control — a global treaty to curb tobacco use — delegates will work on implementing a protocol to stop cigarette smuggling. But the proposed measures face plenty of challenges. Some countries, such as Japan, have slowed negotiations on smuggling. Meanwhile, several other countries, including the United States, have so far refused to ratify the FCTC altogether.
The stakes are formidable. Experts estimate that contraband accounts for 11 percent of all cigarette sales, or about 600 billion sticks annually. The cost to governments worldwide is massive: a whopping $40 billion to $50 billion in lost tax revenue during 2006. Ironically, it is those very taxes — slapped on packs to discourage smoking — that may help fuel the smuggling, along with lax enforcement and heavy supply. (A pack of a leading Western brand that costs little more than $1 in a low-duty country like Ukraine can sell for up to $10 in the U.K.) That potential profit offers a strong incentive to smugglers.
But it is more than lost revenue that is at risk. Illicit tobacco feeds an underground economy that supports many of the most violent actors on the world stage. Organized crime syndicates and terrorist groups such as the Taliban and Hezbollah facilitate global distribution and use the profits to finance their activities. In Canada alone, police believe that 105 organized crime groups are engaged in the illicit tobacco trade, including motorcycle gangs and the Italian Mafia. Criminal organizations “are doing more than just smuggling cigarettes,” notes John W. Colledge, who oversaw international tobacco smuggling programs at the U.S. Customs Service between 1999 and 2002. “They are engaged in human, drugs, and weapons trafficking.”
Perhaps even more troubling is the impact that smuggling has on the public health crisis caused by tobacco. Worldwide, one out of 10 adults dies prematurely from tobacco-related diseases such as lung cancer, emphysema, cardiovascular disease, and stroke. If current trends hold, tobacco will kill about 500 million people currently alive. By 2030, that figure will reach 8 million deaths a year, and with cigarettes being heavily marketed in poorer countries, 80 percent of those deaths will be in the developing world. Over the 21st century, say health experts, an estimated one billion people could die from tobacco use.
At a time when nations are increasingly trying to crack down on smoking, smugglers put cheap
over_Marlbor_yogurt
Resourceful smugglers hide contraband cigarettes in an industrial-size yogurt mixer. Credit: Guardia di Finanza.
cigarettes into the hands of those most vulnerable — young people and the poor. In addition, the trade is pushing the supply steadily into the black market, selling cut-rate cigarettes of often dubious quality. Of special concern is the advent of a massive counterfeiting industry. Once a minor problem, today underground factories in China, Paraguay, and Eastern Europe manufacture literally billions of fake cigarettes — Marlboros, Camels, 555's, Mild Sevens — an uncontrolled industry that law enforcement is only beginning to grapple with. Many of the smokes are made from the lowest quality tobacco, full of stem and sawdust, and spiked with unusually high levels of nicotine. Other packs contain far worse. Tests reveal that counterfeit cigarettes carry a bevy of products that could further shorten even a heavy smoker’s life: metals such as cadmium, pesticides, arsenic, rat poison, and human feces.
Despite the stakes, cigarette smuggling remains a tough crime to investigate and prosecute. Factories are set up in regions of the world with weak controls and high levels of corruption, such as the crime-ridden Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, Guangdong province in China, and South America’s notorious Tri-border area between Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay. The distribution systems are complex, the smuggling routes circuitous and hard to track.
Smugglers take advantage of an “in transit” system used in free trade zones and other shipping centers, which allows for temporary tax suspension while the tobacco is en route to a third country. As a result of lax controls, cigarettes get “lost” along the way, with huge numbers failing to arrive at their intended destination. Cigarettes, for example, may sit for weeks in free trade zones in Panama or Dubai until they are sold. Then they pass quickly through multiple buyers in a short period of time, complicating efforts to identify where “leakages” occur. On occasion, cigarettes are even illegally sold at sea, where vessels offload them to smaller boats that take them to shore. In the Balkans, they are sold by the trunk-load to smugglers who line their cars up at the borders of the European Union. And in the United States, tobacco suppliers ship millions of the tax-free smokes to Indian reservations, where they are unloaded to smugglers, bootleggers, and online merchants.
Despite its broad impact on health, crime, and taxes, tobacco smuggling receives strikingly little attention from authorities. Lenient sentences are the norm; in some countries, cigarette smuggling is not even considered a crime. Nor is it a priority for law enforcement agencies, even in the West, which spend the majority of their resources tackling drug, arms, and terrorism cases. In the United States, for example, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives devotes a paltry 2 percent of its personnel and budget to tobacco programs.
Eight years after its original series on tobacco smuggling, ICIJ has assembled a new team of reporters to illuminate this shadowy transnational business. Based on reporting from 15 countries, our new project looks at the influence of organized crime and terrorist groups, as well as the continued complicity of distributors, wholesalers, and tobacco companies themselves. Here, then, is our first series of articles and an interactive website that serve as the entry point to the team’s investigative work. Among our initial findings:
• Jin Ling: Made To Be Smuggled. A network of renegade cigarette factories now stretches across Eastern Europe and Russia, and its products are flooding the European Union. The trade, worth at least $1 billion annually, involves just one brand: Jin Ling. With packaging resembling that of Camel, Jin Ling has no legal market and does no advertising. Indeed, the cigarette appears to be produced exclusively for the black market. ICIJ reporters located the company’s headquarters in the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, and revealed how the firm’s billions of cigarettes are smuggled across the continent.
• China: A Counterfeiting Giant. When the Chinese obtained the technology in the late 1990s to
over_italy
A recent Italian seizure of contraband LM and Marlboro cigarettes, found hidden in a truck bed. Credit: Guardia di Finanza.
reproduce the protective holograms on packs of top Western cigarette brands, a tobacco counterfeiting giant was born. Today, China has become by far the world’s largest supplier of counterfeit cigarettes — producing roughly 200 billion sticks annually. Vessels loaded with Chinese fakes of Marlboro, Newport, and other brands — in shipments disguised as chinaware, toys, and furniture — now stream into ports worldwide. ICIJ traces the path of several groundbreaking cases, including the story of Charles and May Liu, a charming couple whose massive smuggling network helped move a billion counterfeit cigarettes from China into the United States.
• The Gallaher Record. While some big tobacco companies curtailed their role in smuggling, the U.K.’s top cigarette maker, Gallaher, instead turned to distributors in developing countries who funneled tens of millions of cigarettes to places with no real market — and then smuggled them back into the European Union. Internal documents reveal that Gallaher even hired an executive to oversee the trade. ICIJ reporters working in Cyprus and London pieced together the most comprehensive analysis to date of Gallaher’s worldwide smuggling and dumping strategy.
In the coming months, ICIJ will continue to unfold its investigation into tobacco trafficking. Look for new stories from the front lines of this ever-shifting trade, from the underground factories of China and America’s Indian reservations to the lawless border lands of northwest Pakistan and southeast Paraguay. In all of this, we will be looking for accountability — who is responsible for the growing trade in illicit tobacco, whether criminal godfathers, terrorist chiefs, shady distributors, or corporate executives.

Friday 17 May 2013

#125: How to Hide from Your Parents That You Smoke

1) Don't feel bad about yourself. Your parents will still love you even if you smoke, but they won't like it.



2) Keep your cigarettes and lighters hidden. Clean up after smoking a cigarette. Try not to use matches; instead try to get your hands on a lighter. Matches have a distinct scent to them.



3) Try not to smoke inside or immediately outside the house



4) Don't throw away those empty toilet paper rolls! Stuff them with crumpled dryer sheets on one end, and blow the the smoke through there. The sheets will act as a filter for the smoke. Or you can also take a rubber band and put the sheet over one end then put the rubber band over it, and it will have the same effect.



5) SOME OTHER STEPS

  • Take a walk around the block or smoke at the corner where your parents won't see.
  • Smoke only when you are out with your friends, or when your parents are 'out of the house.'
  • Some neighborhoods have houses for sale or lease, don't be stupid and smoke in there, it is illegal and you can go to jail if you get caught.
  • If you're smoking in a car, crack your windows a few inches and make sure the cigarette is out the window, but behind the mirror. Crank up the heat or AC, depending on the weather, and aim the vents toward the nearest window to keep the smoke outside. Wear a sweatshirt, hood up, while smoking. Be sure to exhale the smoke with a strong whoosh out the open window. After you're done, roll the windows down more, leave the air on, and air out the sweatshirt after removing it, then turn it inside out. Drink Gatorade or Powerade during and after, as it soothes your throat and helps with your breath. Afterward, chew gum and use a small amount of perfume, cologne, or air freshener on your hands. Always wash with hot water and soap as soon as possible. Cruise around for awhile to air out the vehicle, yourself, and other passengers. Don't leave your windows cracked when parked at your house since it's a dead giveaway, unless it is the summer time


    6) Eliminate the cigarette odor from yourself before entering the house. Cigarette smoke takes 45 minutes to get off your clothes if you smoke one, every time you smoke another, add 15 minutes.



    • Keep a can of cologne or some odor eliminator in your car for convenience.
    • Similarly, take a breath mint or chew some gum to get rid of your smoke breath, chocolate also works wonders for smokey breath. If you spray too much though, your parents might get suspicious, if you need to drink to get rid of the smell, don't drink soda or water, drink a dairy product like milk.
    • Oranges and orange oil also masks the scent of cigarettes very well. If you can do so convincingly, carry an orange with you as a snack. After smoking, peel and eat the orange, simultaneously covering your fingers and your breath with the scent of oranges. Or wear some rubber gloves, and dispose once you have used them.
    • Clean the smell off of your fingers, because parents who have smoked tend to ask to smell your fingers before anything else. Getting rid of the smell can be done with scented soap or rubbing your hands in a clump of grass before entering your home. If they ask why your hands have grass stains, tell them you tripped and fell. De greaser for your hands also works wonders at removing the cigarette smell from your fingers.
    • If you don't want your fingers to smell like smoke you should not hold on to the filter when you inhale.
    • If your parents say you smell of smoke, tell them either that you were in a smoky place (for example, a bar), at a friend's house whose parents smoke in the house, or that some of your friends smoke. However, your parents might not be happy about those things either, so be careful.
    • Smoke clings to hair a lot. Before you need to be in your parents company, try to find a sink, and splash water through your hair. If at all possible, take a shower.
  • Sunday 12 May 2013

    #124: World most expensive Shisha / Hookah sells for $60,000

    For the delight of discerning individuals who thinks smoking shisha, is just the perfect way to unwind in an evening, the brand Desvall is offering Desvall Shishas, which are individually crafted into a unique piece of art through a blend of state-of-the-art engineering and traditional craftsmanship. We have also earlier seen some of the exclusive hookah’s like the bespoke Étienne LeRoy, the Porsche Design hookah pipe, especially-made shisha which was part of the late Saddam Hussein’s valuables, but the Desvall Shisha's are meant for connoisseurs

    World's most expensive Shisha


    The Desvall shisha truly embodies Sweden’s critically acclaimed artisanal heritage with the use of hand-shaped ceramics, pioneering use of metal and leather working techniques, as well as the exquisite and rare reindeer antler carvings of the indigenous Sami people.
    Interestingly, in the pursuit of the artistically perfect shisha, Desvall have developed several limited edition designs including the most expensive shisha that sells for staggering $60,000.

    Crystal Gold Edition Desvall Shisha
    Crystal Gold Edition Desvall Shisha
    Price: $60,000
    With gold plated body material, exquisite 24ct gold details along with hand-crafted white leather, the Crystal Gold edition is the most expensive shisha from the house of Desvall, which represents the ultimate blend of technological precision and handmade tradition. Further, its hand-cut glass vase material has been hand-blown by Orrefors in Sweden.

    Gold Edition ShishaGold Edition Desvall Shisha
    Gold Edition Desvall Shisha
    Described as the choice of modern emperors, this kingly gold-on gold shisha boasts 24-carat gold plated body and ring, with the central ring completely embellished with Swarovski crystals. While the white handcrafted leather completes its kingly look.
    Black Edition ShishaBlack Edition Desvall Shisha Black Edition Desvall Shisha
    Complimented by a 24ct, gold plated ring adorned with Swarovski crystals, this edition features a stunning metallic black tower. The pipe has been crafted from the finest hand-sewn black leather.
    Chrome Edition Shisha
    Chrome Edition Desvall Shisha

    With chrome plating over the whole body as well on the central ring, this seamless masterpiece also boasts a ring wreathed with Swarovski crystals. And, its regal look is completed by supple, handcrafted white leather.
    Notably, the Devall Shisha can also be customized to a buyer’s taste and specification, following a one-to-one meeting at their convenience. And, it’ll cost a total of $100,000 to craft that one limited edition piece.




    Wednesday 8 May 2013

    #123: Hangover Relievers


    What Does Relieve Hangovers

    The only real cure for a hangover is time. If no more alcohol is consumed, hangover symptoms should subside between eight and 24 hours. There are some things that can be done to relieve some of the most severe symptoms.
    • Water or Sports Drinks - The dehydration effects of alcohol causes some of the most discomfort associated with hangovers -- headache, dizziness, and light headedness. The quickest way to relieve those symptoms is to drink lots of water. Sports drinks, such as Gatorade, will not only relieve dehydration, but also replace needed electrolytes.

    • Painkillers - Aspirin and ibuprofen (Advil or Motrin) may reduce hangover headache and muscle pain, but should not be used if you are experiencing abdominal pain or nausea. The medications themselves are gastric irritants and can compound gastrointestinal hangover symptoms. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) should not be taken during a hangover because alcohol metabolism enhances acetaminophen's toxicity. Also, ibuprofen taken when dehydrated can sometimes cause kidney dysfunction especially in persons with poor kidney function.

    • Eggs - Because eggs contain cysteine, which breaks down acetaldehyde in the body, eating eggs the morning after a drinking binge could help remove the hangover-causing alcohol metobolite toxin from the body.
    • Bananas - Alcohol, like any diuretic, depletes the body of potassium. Eating bananas, or other fruit high in potassium, while having hangover symptoms can replenish the potassium and lost electrolytes. Sports drinks typically are good sources of potassium.
    • Bouillon Soup - If you can't handle the idea of eating anything solid while experiencing severe hangover symptoms, try some bouillon soup. It also can help replace salt and potassium lost during a drinking binge.
    • Fruit or Fruit Juice - Consuming fruit or fruit juice while hungover can increase energy, replaces vitamins and nutrients and has been shown to speed up the body's process of getting rid of toxins. Fruits and fruit juices therefore can help decrease the intensity of hangover symptoms.

    The Bottom Line on Hangovers

    Drinking as much water as possible over the course of the evening and before you go to bed will relieve a great deal of the hangover symptoms caused by dehydration. But only time will cure the hangover symptoms caused by the alcohol poisoning effects of excessive drinking.