Tobacconists took to the streets of French cities on Tuesday to protest against the introduction of plain packaging on cigarettes packets. The controversial measure, which is part of the government’s new health bill, will be discussed in the Senate on 14 September.
The planned introduction of plain cigarette packaging was initially dropped by the Senate on 22 July, when it adopted an EU directive aimed at increasing the size of health warnings.
Under the new law health warnings along with graphic pictures should cover up to 65 per cent of cigarette packets, instead of 40 per cent under the current legislation.
But when Health Minister Marisol Touraine announced the reintroduction of plain packaging, with no logo or brand name, the decision sparked outrage in some quarters.
In over 80 cities throughout France, hundreds of tobacconists gathered to oppose the new law on Tuesday, a week ahead of its examination by the Senate.
In Paris over four tonnes of carrots were dumped near the finance ministry, in reference to the orange symbols above at the entrance of French tobacco shops.
Banners read “Getting read of tobacconists won’t reduce smoking.”
Is it just me who thinks that Cancer Research UK is really just a Pharmaceutical company hiding under the pretext of being a cancer charity; a wolf in sheep’s clothing? When we interviewed the Chief Executive a few years back and asked him his aims he answered immediately, “To get more people into clinical trials on drugs than in any other country”. One would have hoped that the aim would have been rather more concerned with all potential cancer cures with a little more patient-focus….
I like people who smoke.
I like people who smoke and drink.
I like people who smoke, drink and ignore the schoolteachers, therapists, politicians and other pious scolds who think they are in charge of how others live their lives. Screw ‘em all.
Smokers and drinkers are independent sorts who enjoy life; politicians are rank demagogues who trade their cheap rhetoric for moron votes. Schoolteachers and therapists are timid phonies who think that if they avoid red meat and white sugar, go gluten free and MSG free they’ll live an extra two years, even if it’s a joyless, dreary 24-month slog of misery.
Whee. I lived to be almost 71. Break out the kale juice. Make mine a double.
There is no more pathetic a species than the progressive PC herd that roams the Ukiah area, shuffling from meeting room to seminar, sipping bottled water and boring each other with assurances that they feel much better and much cleaner since they eliminated coffee from their diets and began the green tea regimen.
Question: How do you know if someone is gluten free?
Answer: Don’t worry, they’ll tell you.
Our therapists and teachers are tired weakies who abstain from nicotine and bourbon only because they’re afraid of what their neighbors, colleagues and fellow-Democrats might think.
If caught smoking, they might not be invited to the next central committee planning meeting.
If caught chewing tobacco, they might be shunned, ostracized, fired and divorced. Such things just aren’t approved of in our circles, you see.
A generation or so back Americans smoked two packs a day, had three martini lunches and built the Golden Gate Bridge, the interstate highway system, Yankee Stadium, wrote the best novels, poetry and journalism the 20th century ever read, sent rockets to the moon, and all the while taught America’s kids to fish, hunt, play ball and learn the accordion. But those parents smoked and drank. Very bad role models.
Our generation is a lot smarter and we know better; no one smokes or drinks or builds anything other than their resume and their ego. They paw their smart phones, check their agendas, plan their meetings, accomplish nothing and go home early to eat organic low-fat, high-fiber sugar-free drudge with a side of tofu. No dessert for me, I’m lactose-intolerant.
Now we live in cities where nothing of importance has been accomplished since an old hotel in the middle of town was demolished for a new dog park with green belts, urban trails and bike lanes. Along with No Smoking signs every 12 feet…
Frank Davis 
Is it just me who thinks that Cancer Research UK is really just a Pharmaceutical company hiding under the pretext of being a cancer charity; a wolf in sheep’s clothing? When we interviewed the Chief Executive a few years back and asked him his aims he answered immediately, “To get more people into clinical trials on drugs than in any other country”. One would have hoped that the aim would have been rather more concerned with all potential cancer cures with a little more patient-focus….
Erm…. WHO pay this chief executive’s salary?
I actually do have a question or more; CRUK’s recent BBC bleating stated that CRUK has “a test” to spot a cancer recurring.
A Yeah.
1. WHICH type of cancer?
2. WHAT exactly is it that in theirs (and BBC’s mind) indicates the recurrence a (see question1) cancer? (Name the exact process of what and how it has been determined.)
3. What else does this test involve?
4. How expensive is this nonsense of all of the above?
5. WHO pays for coming with the nonsense in 1., 2., and 3.?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34186128
I have a thumb rule: any “charity” that can afford:
1. employ an agency to wring money out of people.
2. fobs people off into getting “sponsored” for sponsoring the people rubbing their hands getting paid.
3. will only take your bank details, not pennies put in a jar.
4. offer “presents/wins etc.”
ARE CONS.
The ACS just recently in America stated running a monthly help donation campaign a first ever effort. No more relay for life run commercials Ive seen unless on the evening news.
Only one thing would ring thru when the ACS the richest of all the fake charities starts running ads like that running over 1 minute long is they must have had funding cuts to themselves via grants and othe rmeans cut to no end and now must spend real money to try and shake a few pennies out of the general public. Trust me the general public could truly care less as they don’t have an extra 18 dollars every month to just give away to an outfit doing nothing except lining their own pockets. I gather the states shut down and cut the cessation services phone lines and cost the ACS several millions a year in profits from running that worthless NRT front sales program…….
Harley my man thank you for that great California smoking article link, you da’ man.
Bravo! bravo! and more bravo! to Tom Hine (aka Tommy Wayne Kramer). He let ’em have it with both barrels. Goes to show you that not all Californians are paid-in-full members of the Korpekultur Klan Kulture, although Ukiah happens to be at the northern fringe of KKK country, where tobacco smokers (but not cannabis) are the new Negroes who’d best be out of hippie town by sunset.
He represents the loyal opposition that you’ll find even in the KKK Bay Area. His county only voted Yes on that tobacco tax initiative (Prop 29) by a 52%-48% margin, so they’re what you’d call mildly hateful.
I was a very vocal constituent of the loyal opposition when I lived at the southern fringe of the KKK Bay Area for 13 long years in Santa Cruz. I used to pen Letters to the Editor (in longhand) to the local progressive Free Newspapers that read a lot like this guys prose. It was great fun sticking it to these stinking hypocrites and Nouveau Puritans.
I’ve been to Ukiah once a long time ago to trade a Jeep Wagoneer (a boxy station wagon) straight across for an MGB sports car. What a deal thought I. Way back when, the guy told me that they grew pot all over the place on the Q.T. (as opposed to now where it’s openly cultivated). They grow wine grapes too. Go figure, wine and weed OK, but mental acuity enhancing tobacco a no-no worthy of fines, evictions and a hideous modern day caste system?
Here’s one more little factoid about Ukiah: It served as the Mother Church to the notorious, socialist-utopian preacher nutjob Jim Jones of Peoples Temple mass suicide fame.
The smartest thing I ever did was to move back to my hometown roots in Southern California in 1983 after an amicable divorce. I’ll never forget flipping the one-fingered salute to Santa Cruz in the rear view mirror as I passed the county limit sign on the way out of Hippie Hell.
1983 is the year I started smoking; the year I started work. This was No.1 ;)
It looks like there is a lot of it about.
Our call centres carried on ‘bullying’ donors – because not enough of them complained, say charity bosses
8 Sep 2015
“The heads of some of Britain’s biggest charities have apologised for intrusive and overly aggressive telephone fundraising tactics – but suggested that the public are partly to blame for failing to complain enough.”
“Last year there were almost 52,400 official complaints about charity fundraising tactics in the UK, according to the Fundraising Standards Board (FRSB) – one of several overlapping voluntary regulators. Almost a third – or 16,500 – related to junk mail with just over 8,000 concerning telephone marketing tactics.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11851821/Our-call-centres-carried-on-bullying-donors-because-not-enough-of-them-complained-say-charity-bosses.html
Outrage as charity bosses pocket six-figure salaries from generous public donations
Jun 8, 2015
“Nine executives at Cancer Research UK earn more than the Prime Minister, including chief executive Harpal Kumar, who pockets up to £240,000 a year.
Kumar, 50, lives in a luxury £1.6m home in north-west London and does not have a mortgage.
Peter Wanless, CEO of the NSPCC, earns a staggering £162,000 per year – £40,000 more than his predecessor Andrew Flanagan.
Last year he pictured sipping champagne, and boasted on Facebook: “This was taken while I was ‘working’ on a visit to Jersey.”
“Other high earners include Amnesty International’s Salil Shetty, who pockets a salary of up to £210,000, and Tom Wright of Age UK, who earns up to £190,000 a year.
Sexual health charity Marie Stopes did not disclose boss Simon Cooke’s wage, but his predecessor earned £263,000.”
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/582911/charity-salaries-donations-Cancer-Research-NSPCC-Amnesty-Olive-Cooke
How the RSPCA snoops on the WILLS of donors so it can treat them as ‘walking wallets’
2 September 2015
“The RSPCA pays investigators to assess how much money donors might leave in their wills, the Mail can reveal today.
The charity does not tell supporters their personal data is being used to give them a wealth rating – or that cash they have donated is funding the process.
The tactics were branded disgraceful by MPs and campaigners last night. They accused the RSPCA of treating its benefactors as commodities.”
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3218987/How-RSPCA-snoops-wills-donors-claimed-seen-walking-wallets-charities.html
It’s high time there was a thorough shake-up of the ‘Charity’ sector, and the first move should be to stop all government (read taxpayer) funding. The majority of ‘Charities’ are just big business masquerading as charities so they can enjoy the benefits of tax breaks and non-disclosure. The money they spend on themselves by way of salaries, luxurious offices and jollies to exotic locations for ‘conferences’ is just obscene.
Shake up? CULL THEM!!!
Parasites.
The French tobacconists should be an example to all smokers!
How gullible of you, SL!
I listened in to some of the French tobacconists’ representatives poorly defending their cause in a radio “debate” yesterday morning against this corrupt individual by the name of Bertrand Dautzenberg:
http://unairneuf.typepad.fr/.a/6a0120a693284e970c0167618e21f6970b-pi
Not to hastily judge a book by its cover, but ain’t that particular turd positively dripping with disingenuity?
As per usual, of course, they let this pile of sh*t get away with all the basic, putrid TC lies.
A poor defense of their cause does not make their cause wrong. Someone has to stand up against the tyranny sooner or later.
Sorta makes ya wonder if somebody else isn’t pushing these so called protests against the tobacco restrictions doesn’t it. Like maybe the government slowly trying to bleed away from the prohibition movement.
@Harley.
On the other hand, someone once said: “Never attribute to malice what can be explained by simple human stupidity“. But maybe everybody’s right after all, since experience often shows that both traits can bolster each other something marvellous!
Looks and smells like malice aforthought:
Malice aforethought was the “premeditation” or “predetermination” (with malice) that was required as an element of some crimes in some jurisdictions, and a unique element for first-degree or aggravated murder in a few.
French Health Minister Touraine was a member of an international group sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline. No conflict there.
The book contains anti-smoking messages and an ‘outspoken’ gay friend
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3227197/James-Bond-set-politically-correct-makeover-author-latest-novel-suggests-chain-smoking-sexist-007-way-out.html
Ye Gods, Ian Fleming will be spinning in his grave. Why do these ‘progressive’ (read PC) types always feel the need to re-write history? Cultural vandalism, pure and simple.
The problem I’m coming up against with people that the Nazis were right in their smoking science because Nazi science helped put man on the moon. Oh, and because they built motorways; those things are considered technological advancement and of benefit to mankind/society.
It’s a comforting thought, is it not, because it’s true, a stopped clock is right twice a day. This is a FACT…
And Germans are renowned for their timekeeping ;)
Analyzing wastewater to determine cocaine and tobacco use all over Europe. Lots of assuming here:
Click to access ProfAlvaroLopes_Artigo_2.pdf
Other studies:
One link claims that tobacco could be the gateway to cocaine because people who smoke also take cocaine. Another found out that many employees in the UK go to work stoned.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/248387.php
There are traces of nicotine in tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers and the like. I wonder if the researchers in Italy are able to tell the difference between tobacco nicotine waste and tomato paste waste. Not to forget gnocchi, pizza, etc.
‘There are traces of nicotine in tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, peppers and the like.’
Pah! I exceed the official recommendation, I should get a fucking medal ;)
First page from Google on wastewater analysis:
https://www.google.ca/?gws_rd=ssl#q=milan+analyzing+wastewater+for+nicotine
How do they determine who smokes and who puts too much tomato sauce on their pasta?
Here’s a howler:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/237167.php?sr
Researchers based their gateway drug model on epidemiological evidence on reports of most illicit drug users who state they used tobacco products or alcohol before using illicit drugs.
Blimey! Amazing! These researchers are ever so clever!
I wonder if they asked people if they drank milk before they started using illicit drugs?
I did read in one of the rags today in work that ‘Nicotine is a gateway to cocaine use because people who use cocaine, smoke’.
When I recovered from my laughing fit I did assure everyone around me that I NEVER have used cocaine, nor do I have any intentions to do so now or in future.
In the article above it says:
If the outcome in mice would display similar effects in humans, the researchers suggest, that effective smoking prevention efforts would not just prevent negative health consequences linked to smoking but could also lower the risk of progression and addiction to cocaine and possibly other illicit drug use. Researchers continue to use the mouse model to provide a new mechanism to investigate the gateway theory from a biological perspective.
Sooooooo, it’s just an idea funded by ????? and cobbled together as a “finding” by someone not-clever-enough-to-conduct-REAL-research-but-is-terribly-terribly-addicted-to-cash?
The field of science is rapidly becoming a laughing stock.
cobbled together as a “finding” by someone not-clever-enough-to-conduct-REAL-research-but-is-terribly-terribly-addicted-to-cash?
“… it is better not to be able to think at all, but rather to be well trained in the conveniences of spectacular language. And it is in such a career that the prostituted science of our despicable times has found its latest specialization, with goodwill and alacrity.”
This Guy Debord quote rings as true now as it did when first published 27 years ago, and your comment indicates that this is becoming clearer by the day. The worrying questions, though, would be: at what rate, and to how many?
http://www.dailyillini.com/article/2015/09/smoking-ban-enforcement-editorial
Priceless!!! The anti-smoker brigade is dictating universities what to do!!!
We understand the obvious struggle enforcing a smoking ban when the campus lines can be so convoluted, but it’s still crucial for the University to understand that being a nonconsecutive campus is not an excuse for the smoke-free program to fail. Hopefully, these new regulations will be strictly enforced and prove the smoking ban effective once and for all.
Sooooooooo, without FORCE smoke-free programmes are what they are: a FAILURE.
It is far more crucial for universities to understand that bums-on-seats is money.
The customer is king. (?)
And university education is next to worthless these days, anyway. The clever kids learn a trade and go self employed. My offspring is still paying off student loan debts and work part-time in any job in order to survive the (unpaid/lousily paid) intern stage.
Some of their former class mates learned a trade and started a business instead of going to university. They have bought themselves nice houses by now and when I phone the e.g. plumbers of them, they are either in Japan or the Bahamas on holiday, or I have to wait a few weeks before they can come and do the job I ask them to.
Can universities much longer be dictated to make demands? Rapidly dropping numbers of students might actually rescue whatever can still be rescued. Especially in the field of science.
You might be interested in this webpage on Consumer Freedom:
https://www.consumerfreedom.com/op-ed/barbecue-over-baloney/
http://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2014/new-lerner-center-for-public-health-promotion-launched-by-johns-hopkins-bloomberg-school-of-public-health.html
The Lerner family is filthy rich. They have been doling out large sums of money to Public Health for at least 12 years:
https://www.consumerfreedom.com/2002/11/1652-how-about-truthless-tuesday/
Live and Lern.
Cartoons from ConsumerFreedom.com:
https://www.consumerfreedom.com/cartoon/
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199308053290619
1993 Study of nicotine in veggies and fruits. Interesting conclusion in the last sentence.
Not quite sure what happened to the eggplant/aubergine experiment but it shows that the problem of using cotinine as a marker for tobacco smoke was already being considered.
Dietary nicotine: a source of urinary cotinine – 1991
“Foods, principally from plants in the family Solanaceae, and a number of teas were examined for the presence of nicotine.
Dietary nicotine would give rise to cotinine in urine and compromise estimates of exposure to tobacco smoke that depend on urinary cotinine.
All foods were homogenized, extracted and analysed for nicotine and cotinine by gas chromatography with nitrogen-sensitive detection (GC) and/or GC/MS (mass spectrometry). Weak acid and aqueous extracts of the teas were analysed in a similar manner. Nicotine was not detected (less than 1 ng/ml of extract) in egg plant or green pepper.
The average values for nicotine in tomato and potato were 7.3 ng/g wet weight and 15 ng/g wet weight, respectively.
Black teas, including regular and decaffeinated brands, had nicotine contents ranging from non-detectable to greater than 100 ng/g wet weight. Instant teas yielded the highest nicotine contents observed (up to 285 ng/g wet weight).
The possible sources of nicotine in these foods are discussed.
A range of potential values for urinary cotinine concentrations (0.6 to 6.2 ng/ml) was calculated based upon estimated average and maximal consumptions of these foods and beverages. Because of the potential for exposure to nicotine by way of these routes, the use of urinary cotinine as a biomarker of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke may be compromised.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1765327
Society for Risk Analysis 1995
Dietary Contributions to Nicotine Body Burden
“Recent USDA food intake surveys are used to perform a probabilistic analysis of dietary intake of nicotine. Using limited data on nicotine content of foodstuffs (tea, tomato, potato, green pepper, and eggplant) and the 198991 Continuing Survey of Food Intakes by Individuals (CSDII), the absorbed dose of nicotine is shown to be significant compared to present day environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) nicotine exposures.
CSDII contains 3day dietary intake data for 11,912 individuals and weighting factors for extrapolation to the entire US population. Using tea as an example, the tea consumption cumulative distribution function for adults (>18 years) shows an average tea consumption of 142 g/d, noting that 62.7% of the US population has no tea intake.
The average for those who drink tea is about 1.6 cup/day (using 250 g/cup).
Using the available data for nicotine in 10 brands of brewed tea (2 instant and 8 leaves) tea nicotine concentration is modeled as a lognormal distribution (with a mean of 68.9 ng of nicotine per gram of brewed tea and a standard deviation of 75 ng/g). Oral nicotine bioavailability is modeled as a triangular distribution. Using a study of the oral nicotine bioavailability for a group of 10 male subjects, the most likely absorption factor was 44% with a range of 24% to 59%.
The dietary tea dose was calculated using the daily tea intake, the concentration of nicotine in tea, and the absorption factor. Using @RISK simulation for 25,000 trials the average absorbed nicotine dose for those who drink tea is 12.5 mg/d. The median is about 5 mg/d. The 95th percentile for the entire US population aged 18 years and older is 22 mg/d.
The dietary contributions of absorbed nicotine dose are significant when compared to present ETS exposures. A recent study of workplace ETS exposure results in mean and median absorbed nicotine doses of 11 and 3 mg/d, respectively. Thus, ETS exposure analysis based on total nicotine absorption needs to consider dietary intake. This includes the use of cotinine (a major metabolite of nicotine) which has been a widely used biomarker ”
https://web.archive.org/web/20120630060305/http://www.riskworld.com/abstract/1995/SRAam95/ab5aa174.htm
Previously they tried Solanesol believing it was unique to tobacco.
Solanesol: A Tracer for Environmental Tobacco Smoke – 1988
Chemistry Department
Brigham Young University
Utah
CONCLUSION Solanesol, a compound expected to be unique to environmental tobacco smoke is easily detected in air even at low concentrations…”
Click to access gmwm0092.pdf
Wrong again
Solanesol: a review of its resources, derivatives, bioactivities, medicinal applications, and biosynthesis
June 2015
Abstract
“Solanesol, which mainly accumulates in solanaceous crops, including tobacco, tomato, potato, eggplant, and pepper plants, is a long-chain polyisoprenoid alcohol compound with nine isoprene units. Chemical synthesis of solanesol is difficult; therefore, solanesol is primarily extracted from solanaceous crops, particularly tobacco leaves. In plants, solanesol exists in both free and esterified forms, and its accumulation is influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Solanesol is widely used in the pharmaceutical industry as an intermediate for the synthesis of ubiquinone drugs, such as coenzyme Q10 and vitamin K2. Solanesol possesses antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and anti-ulcer activities, and solanesol derivatives also have anti-oxidant and antitumour activities, in addition to other bioactivities. Solanesol derivatives can also be used for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, and wound healing”
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11101-015-9393-5
New Test Allows Individualized Profiles of Cigarette Smoking
2010
“Watson and colleagues based the method on previous research involving a substance naturally present in tobacco called solanesol.”
“A test for one of the thousands of chemicals in cigarette smoke has the potential for more accurately estimating smokers’ mouth level exposure and may have applications for developing custom-tailored quitting approaches for the more than 43 million people in the United States who still smoke, and hundreds of millions elsewhere, scientists say.”
“It provides a much more accurate estimate of exposure than using automated cigarette smoking machines to estimate mainstream smoke deliveries, which traditionally have been used.”
Their findings indicate that measuring solanesol does provide a quick, inexpensive way to estimate a smoker’s total exposure”
http: //www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/08/100825093245.htm
Oh really?
Rose, You are The Best. Thanks for all the information.
Personally, I LIKE dog parks and green belts. But I’m with you on the other stuff.