Secret smokers are all around!

Have you ever lied about your smoking habit? According to the latest survey commissioned by Boots “one in 10 people is a secret smoker’. Smoking is an unwanted habit in Britain and therefore some smokers are trying to hide it in front of their relatives, friends, even a doctor and an employer, to make them believe that they have given up or have never smoked at all.

The poll has also found that: “smokers in London are more likely to keep their habit secret”. We are more conscious of what other people are saying about us in London than in the rest of the UK. Amanda Sandford who represents the charity Action on Smoking and Health told BBC that: “Denying the habit won’t help, and smokers who hide the habit may find it harder to give up”.

The survey has reported that: “Seven out of 10 secret smokers admitted that they would like to give up for good this year.” The smoking ban that will come in force in July will hopefully make them quit. Surprisingly, secret smokers are not aware of the health risk of their secret habit. Angela Chalmers, a pharmacist at Boots, told Sky News that: “Not many people realise that those one or two crafty cigarettes a day can still cause long term damage to your health” and that’s probably way the habit seems harmless in their eyes.

In fact, I know many people who believe that smoking a cigarette goes well with drinking and that’s why every time they go out they tend to light up a cigarette, even though they state to be non smokers. Smoking ages skin particularly of the face, so that it is not difficult to tell whether someone is a secret smoker or not. Does that sound like anyone you know?

(Don’t worry, the comments are anonymous)

First smoke-free Fullers' pub to be revealed today.

Even though the smoking ban takes effect on July 1 ‘The Bishop on the Bridge’ located in Winchester, is the first Fullers' pub to become smoke-free today! (March 26)

I can’t wait for ‘The Rose and Crown’ in Ealing, to join ‘The Bishop on the Bridge’ and compete with other local pubs under the new industry regulations.

Counterfeit cigarettes are finally coming to an end.

British and American tobacco companies are introducing a new cigarette packet pack made in the UK which will contain a small electronic chip.

Research within the tobacco industry has shown that only last year “two million fake cigarettes were smuggled to the UK from illegal factories in China and Eastern Europe.”, Daily Mail reports. Illegal cigarettes are distributed by many small retailers such as corner shops as well as some individuals. The availability of the cigarettes is such that anybody can purchase them, smokers and non-smokers.

The new packet will enable smokers to distinguish the counterfeit cigarettes from the legal ones, pack made in the UK and should eventually make the shopkeepers stop selling them.

Daily Mail also reports that: “Counterfeit cigarettes tend to be far more dangerous to health than the legitimate brands with tests proving that on average they contain 60 per cent more tar, 80 per cent more nicotine and 130 per cent more carbon monoxide.” It is not worth paying less for even more toxic cigarettes, is it?

Tobacco Manufacturer’s Association is prepared to pay for the initative in order to protect its smokers especially because the illegal trade cost the industry “£500 million of duty”.
The new range of the packs should appear in the next 6 months.

The Great Olympic Dream

The cost of staging the London Olympic Games in 2012 has increased dramatically since London's victory in Singapore in July 2005, with the original £2.4bn budget. Thousands people supporting Olympics were watching both on big screens in Trafalgar Square as well as at homes the celebrations of the unexpectedly won bid back then. Unfortunately, the mood among those fans is different now.

The final estimated budget for the 2012 London Olympics has gone up to £9.325bn. London may be overtaking Athens whose event cost of £6.9bn, was the most expensive in the history of the Olympic Games. Are the London’s Olympics worth any money? The truth is that to win the bid of hosting Olympics a figure cost had to be acceptable to British public. Olympics would not get as much support as they did if the public knew that it is going to be most costly sports event ever of which big part will be paid by London council tax payers.

Security, new homes in the Olympics zone, construction work etc. What does actually cost so much money? Delays in setting the budget raised concerns about the final bill among the public. Is the project still under control? Shadow Olympics minister Hugh Robertson said that: “While the figures remain ambiguous, we can only expect further increases." He also admitted that the secretary of state, Tessa Jowell: “has failed to disclose the true cost of VAT, contingency, building cost inflation and security, much of which was entirely predictable at the time of the bid.”

Ms Jowell said that despite the increases the Olympics would still be "great for Britain."
"There is no part of our national life that will not be enriched by hosting the games," she said.

Ken Livingstone argued that “The games will bring 40,000 new homes and 50,000 new jobs to one of the poorest parts of London.” While the cost of housing is rising in East London because of the games, houses in the area are more likely to become unaffordable, which is a sign of success and failure.

Smirting

The obvious reason for people going to pubs apart from having a drink and lighting up a cigarette, which could be easily done elsewhere, is mainly to chat with other people.

Since the introduction of the smoking ban in Ireland in January 2004, the social habits of the smoking community have changed. Instead of spending time in smoky, crowded bars people find themselves having a conversation over a quick fag.

The new phenomenon has been called smirting which is the combination of smoking and flirting. Practitioners of smirting gather in all sort of outdoor venues. The only difference is that they tend to have a more relaxed attitude towards meeting other people. Short breaks outside became ways of speed dating. So why is it different to a ‘conventional chat’ in a pub?
First of all timing is crucial because a quick cigarette outside gives you courage and makes you speed up the conversation. You don’t have to waste half an hour trying to make eye contact, while drinking pints in an old man’s pub. Secondly, every cigarette break brings a fresh opportunity, which last as long as a fag. It is also fairly easy to initiate the conversations simply by asking for a light.

The Observer reports that: “Many young Dubliners admit that they have increased their consumption of cigarettes because of the social benefits. Now you just pop out for a quick cigarette, meet some quality people and have a laugh.”

We will see in the next few months whether the nation smokers are going to benefit of a better social life once the ban will be implemented here in July.

The follow up aspects of the smoking ban restrictions.

A year ago Scotland won a smoke free battle. On Sunday, March 26, 2006 Scotland became the first part of the UK to ban smoking in enclosed public places. England has been watching carefully the impact of a smoking ban in Scotland as well as other countries where the ban has been introduced.

Pub owners’ main concern is that as a result of smoking ban they will lose regulars who will be put off by the ban and will not be happy to smoke in a specially designed shelter. On the other hand, non-smoker visits should go up because more people will be attracted to eat in pubs. In fact, pubs make more money from serving food than selling drinks.

A medical study, made by Dundee University has found that the health of Scotland’s bar staff has improved significantly since the introduction of the smoking ban. From my perspective as a person who works in a pub it is high time to protect all non-smoking staff’s health in their workplaces.

The experiences of New York where the smoking ban was implemented in 2002 have shown that businesses are generally not hurt, and that many actually show increased revenues. It is worth mentioning that anti-smoking actions in California are much more powerful than the ones which operate in the UK because they also apply to certain outdoor public places. Smoking has been also banned on the streets of Tokyo in October 2002.

The Times reports that: “A poll, made by Cancer Research UK, found one in five GPs has already seen an increased number of patients asking about quitting smoking since the ban was approved.”

Simon Clark, a director of the Freedom Organisation for the Right to Enjoy Smoking Tobacco (FOREST) said: "After the ban was introduced in Scotland and Ireland, initial reports suggested many people were giving up, but now the figures for smokers are almost exactly what they were before the bans. People do not like being told what to do.” Smoking ban will certainly affect tobacco industry most but it is all for our own good.

Smoke-free England July 1, 2007

Smoking in all indoor public places like pubs, restaurants, nightclubs and also certain outdoor locations that are ‘substantially enclosed’ such as football grounds and railway platforms will be banned. A total smoking ban will come into force in England on July 1, 2007.

Nearly six out of ten people do not know when the restrictions come into force, according to trade magazine The Publican. Daniel Pearce, editor of The Publican said: “There is an urgent need for more information otherwise pubs will have to face up to unhappy customers when they discover they can no longer smoke in their local.”

Most pubs now have a non-smoking area but often you still have to pass through the smoker's area to reach the bar. The bar, itself, is sometimes within the smoking area so by the time you have ordered your drinks, you have breathed in secondhand smoke (just as dangerous as if you had smoked it yourself) and now have a smell of smoke that will be with you for the rest of the evening and needs to be washed to remove from clothes. Bar staff in pubs, that allow smoking around the bar are at a greater risk from passive smoking increasing the chances of them having a stroke, heart attack or getting cancer.

Secondhand smoke can cause very serious health problems – it does more than cause unpleasant side effects like sore eyes, headaches, throat irritation and coughing. Being exposed to secondhand smoke can increase a non-smoker’s risk of getting lung cancer by 24% and the risk of getting heart disease by 25%. There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke. After just thirty minutes, breathing in secondhand smoke can make blood platelets become stickier, which means the person has a higher risk of having a heart attack or developing other heart problems. Secondhand smoke is particularly bad for the health of children and pregnant women who breathe in secondhand smoke can pass on harmful chemicals to their babies.

Patricia Hewitt, the Health Secretary said: “An additional 600,000 people will give up smoking as a result of this law and millions more will be protected from second-hand smoke.”

Smokers are discouraged to eat in pubs because they now have to go out to smoke.If you're caught smoking in a banned area you could be fined £50.Those in charge of the premises could face a £2,500 fine if they fail to stop you. They could also be charged on-the-spot fines of £200 if they fail to display no-smoking signs, with the penalty increasing to £1,000 if the issue goes to court.

Pubs which want to keep their smoking regulars will have to make sure that there is a place to smoke that complies with the regulations. Premises will be considered to be ‘substantially enclosed’ if they have a ceiling or roof, but there are permanent openings in the walls which are less than half of the total areas of walls. When determining the area of an opening, no account can be taken of openings in which doors, windows or other fittings that can be open or shut. This is known as the 50% rule.