Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Smokin Joes - Gapin jaws!

The phrase "Smoking is injurious to health" flashes every now and then in the movies and commericals, whenever the object of concern(cigarette) resides in the mouth of the Hero/Villain , who lights it , and releases wisps of smokey rings , sometimes made to change shapes using graphics (in the case of Superheroes). That's technology for you! Even more incomprehensible is the fact that the advertisement for cigarettes also carry the red warning signal, speeding away in the subtitles. So what are they trying to do?? Are they doing some good by warning people of what a price they had to pay if they smoke? If so, then why advertise it..?? It was almost like asking a person to die, telling him the date beforehand..! The issue of passive smoking is another question in concern..People suffering from ailments like cancer, just because they were a part of an active smoker's life. So, despite the warnings , the flash news in television, the regular public health oriented advertisements like "Live and let live" in many channels , the people ,especially the youth, are not ready to quit smoking... So what lies within the paper folded , dust like material, that makes so many to crave for more of it, is still a mystery to me.I henceforth, decided to find out......
A cigarette is a product consumed via smoking and manufactured out of cured and finely cut tobacco leaves, which are combined with other additives, then rolled or stuffed into a paper-wrapped cylinder (generally less than 120 mm in length and 10 mm in diameter). As you would have guessed by now, thats the kind of definition you would wind up with, if you type "Cigarette" in a search engine, like I did. But, as mentioned already, there's more to it, than just tobacco stuffed in paper. True to the phrase, "Blacksheep of the family!", the tobacco bush actually originates from an American continent and relates to the same family as potato and pepper. Cigarettes are colloquially known as "cigs", "ciggies", "smokes", "cancer sticks", "death sticks", "coffin nails", "squares", and "fags". Tobacco was first used by the peoples of the pre-Columbian Americas. Native Americans apparently cultivated the plant and smoked it in pipes for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. At first, tobacco was produced mainly for pipe-smoking, chewing, and snuff. Cigars didn't become popular until the early 1800s. But now, approximately 5.5 trillion cigarettes are produced globally each year by the tobacco industry, smoked by over 1.1 billion people, which is more than 1/6 of the world's total population.

(1.)With every puff of a cigarette, you breathe more than 4,000 different chemicals, including ammonia (a poisonous gas and a powerful toilet cleaner), arsenic (a potent rat poison), cyanide (a deadly ingredient in rat poison), acetone (a poisonous solvent and paint stripper), formaldehyde (used to preserve dead frogs), toluene (a poisonous industrial solvent), polonium-210 (a highly radioactive element) and carbon monoxide (a poisonous gas). Gross???You bet!

(2.)Smoking doesn't cause just lung cancer. It contributes to back pain, osteoporosis (thinning of the bones), and male impotence. It affects the circulation, "hardening the arteries", and also creates low-level carbon monoxide poisoning. Together, these decrease the delivery of oxygen to every part of the body including discs in the spine.

(3.) Smoking turns your teeth and fingernails yellow, makes your hair, clothes and breath smell gross and causes premature wrinkling of your skin. Smokers have more back pain than non-smokers, and heal slower.
A lot of the ill-effects attribute to one major drawback - The effect on Non-Smokers, otherwise known as Passive smokers. Second-hand smoke causes many diseases in children, including ear infections, asthma, bronchitis, pneumonia, and SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Smoke in an infant's household quadruples the chances of a SIDS death (sudden infant death syndrome).A non-smoking spouse of a regular smoker has a 20% increase in their chances of developing lung cancer, and a 30% increase in their chance of developing heart disease.
The world is changing and the change is only helping people fall deeper into the pit. If you think modernization is helping folks to step out of the smoking habit, you better check out this!
Example 1:The Smokers Phone: XYW 3838 Mobile Phones











XYW 3838,This “cigarettes Wang cell phone XYW 3838″ mobile phone, takes the shape of a cigarette in all phases of design. The description says that " if the aircraft battery cover is removed, users will discover the secret compartment containing the original.This is to enable users to display several cigarettes like a real cigarette"


Example 2 : The Flinstone commercial :Winston Brand:




That was quite some time ago. But still, shockingly true! As I was recovering from the shock, I happened to discover another link to help people quit smoking. Here's what I found.

Quit Smoking Smokeless Cigarettes :

Description: Made of more than twenty kinds of natural herbal

ingredients for you to quit smoking, but smokeless, it looks like a cigarette, which lets you satisfy those tactile taste sensations without risks and dependence on nicotine. Simply by inhaling, thus causing to dispel smoking odor, the aroma scent travels through the trachea and lungs, improve your breathing air and remove the nicotine accumulation in the smoker's body. It is easier to stop smoking. Upon completion of the full course of this therapy for one to two weeks, the user will lose the urge for smoking and become smoke free. It does not contain either tobacco or nicotine.
Herbal Ingredients:
Menthol hematite, cloves, medicated leaven, menthe essence, basil, lavender, magnetite, achyranthes root, catechu, pinellas, neroli, peppermint, clary sage
Finally the smoker can be helped by QUISM Quit Smoking Cigarette, a new generation of cigarette that you do not need to lit and that does not produce smoke, but it gives the same feeling of a true cigarette without suffering smoke damages.

Use Direction:
You just inhale, do not light it. Use as often as needed. Use it until no more scent can be felt.


I can see a lot of people smoking in public places. But nothing can be done to stop them. My classmates,some of my friends and even a few girls smoke. Not anyone I know, but I have seen and heard of girls smoking. I don't blame them.If they can fight for equality in everything, that includes this "trend-setting" habit of smoking too! However, there are a few people I know who don't smoke just because the whole wide world is into it.Its their way of making a big difference. Some don't smoke 'cause they can't stand the stink! And a few more, find it absolutely "uncool", maybe due to pressure from special people of the opposite sex! But most of them, don't smoke because they don't want to risk it. It is true that people are aware of smoking and its effects, decades after the expedition to ban tobacco! So, what am I blogging for? Its for the tiny percent of the folks who are unaware of what they are about to lose in life, unaware about the lives they put in danger. As usual, out of the fear that I put my readers into a deep slumber, I thought of trying to break the spell with some facts which I found very interesting! ...


#The Lighter - Cigar chemistry - Cigarette lighters were invented way before the matches.The cigarette lighter was invented in 1816 by a German chemist named J.W. Dobereiner . Whilst matches were originally invented in 1826, by John Walker, but patented by a sneaky Samuel Jones who went on to produce matches called "Lucifers".


#Benefits of quitting:

A 42-year old male smoking 20 or more cigarettes a day has about a 1 in 5 chance of dying within 17 years. If they quit, that risk is reduced to 1 in 10.


# Every eight seconds, someone in the world dies due to tobacco.


# A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana (Hahaha... funny!)
And now..for the grand finale. Lyrics from the song "Cigarettes - Fort Minor".
" Let me tell you something that I realized tonight
My hip hop radio is like marlboro lights
They're both selling stories and they sound about the same
Cigarettes say their safe, wrappers claim they really bang
We dont care if it's true when we lay the money down
We don't believe the words, we just love the way they sound
They're acting like we're idiots, They're lying to our face
Maybe we are idiots, we buy it anyway."
SO...IT ALL ENDS IN FOUR WORDS :
"LIVE AND LET LIVE ....!"

Updated : Nov 8th - 2007 : An interesting fwd:




*THE END* *AMEN*


2 comments:

Ice-Thorn said...

Cool!
tht was illuminating!
gr8 job,, say, y not paste this blog all over town?

astute87 said...

Good one... ma dad is a chain smoker.. hope he quits sometime soon!

Stumped!

This happens whenever I take a train from Chennai to Bangalore (Ahem..read as whenever I travel alone!). After taking consecutive modes of ...