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The Carousel in New York’s Bryant Park will now be a smoke free zone.
New York City is about to become the biggest no smoking zone in the country. A bill was approved yesterday to ban smoking in New York’s 1,700 city parks and along 14 miles of city beaches as well as boardwalks, marinas, and pedestrian plazas.
According to The New York Times, with the 36-to-12 vote, the Council “passed the most significant expansion of anti-smoking laws since Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg pushed to prohibit smoking in restaurants and bars in 2002.” It has parents divided on whether the bill is impeding individual liberties or attempting to create a safer environment for our children.
A new survey found that nearly a quarter of pregnant women lie about smoking
I’m the first to admit that the truth has not been the only thing that has ever slipped from my lips. I was a fairly good liar as a kid, no matter the reason or topic. But the one thing I’ve always felt strongly about is being honest with doctors. And not necessarily because I put them on a pedestal (although for the things they see, do and touch every day, they are clearly better people than I am). But what’s the point of seeing a doctor at all if they aren’t given a clear picture of the factors affecting your health?
In my adult life, I feel fortunate to have doctors that don’t blink an eye or judge me (to my face, anyway) when I admit things that I might be embarrassed about or that might indicate I am less than a perfect person. But if it relates to my health, I take a deep breath and own up to it.
I would hope that all doctors are similarly cool about not passing judgment and simply trying instead to correct what’s wrong. And yet I’m scratching my head about a new National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that says nearly a quarter of pregnant women lie about being active smokers, which I assume means they’re not being honest with their doctors, too. Is it because they don’t trust their doctors not to scold them, or is it because they’re too ashamed to admit the atrocities they’re inflicting on their fetuses?
President kicked the habit?
The surgeon general put out a report yesterday outlining just how dangerous smoking is for us. The 700-word report outlines the hazards and unsettling facts about the habit — for example, tobacco smoke contains more than 7,000 chemicals, including hundreds that are knowing to be toxic and at least 70 that are cancerous.
There is no safe level of tobacco ingestion, even one cigarette is bad, said the nation’s top health official – a puff is hazardous, reaching your lungs quickly and causing immediate damage, even at the level of DNA.
So yesterday when the report was released, the question came up about whether President Obama — who works out six days a week and has tried to get his staffers to eat salad and work with personal trainers — has truly kicked the habit. Continue reading »
The Great American Smokeout 2010: did you quit today?
Are you reading this on a smoke break? Consider making this cigarette your last. Today is the Great American Smokeout of 2010, a national day to band together and stub out your last cigarette.
If you’re a smoker, you’re probably well versed in the reasons to quit. For me, giving up cigarettes forever required one special reason: kids.
I smoked my last cigarette two weeks before I met my stepson. I’d quit half a dozen times before, and always picked it up again with a few months. This time, when the charm of not smoking had worn off and the stress of winter made me want to buy a fresh pack of cigarettes, I had a kid in my life. A kid I was really, really sure I never wanted to see smoking. Which meant, to me, that I needed to never smoke in front of him.
It wasn’t the easiest thing I’ve ever done, but every time I wanted to pick up a cigarette, even if he was far away, I’d think about him and pull back from that urge.
Remember Ardi Rizal, the so-called smoking toddler? The two-year-old Indonesian boy who smoked about 40 cigarettes a day?
Good news! After receiving special therapy, he has managed to kick the nasty habit, a child welfare official told AFP today.
In May, when a video of Rizal smoking went viral on the Internet, it drew international attention to the weak regulation of the tobacco industry in Indonesia.
Six months after his father gave him his first cigarette, the overweight boy was smoking two packs a day. Apparently, if his parents tried to take away his cigarettes, the boy threw violent tantrums. So where is he now? Continue reading »
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