Smoking while pregnant isn’t defensible.
But you know what else isn’t defensible? Pointing a gun at a pregnant woman. Keep reading »
Tag Archives: smoking
Madonna: Massive Hypocrite On Cigarette Stance?
Madonna is taking a major stand against cigarette smoking — just one month after glamorizing smoking in her latest music video. The Queen of Pop was on ”Today” this morning, where she was grilled over 15-year-old daughter Lourdes being caught puffing away on a cigarette.
Madge says she “wasn’t very happy” about the photos, adding “I don’t approve of anyone smoking cigarettes, most of all my daughter.” Read more…
7 New Year’s Resolutions Not To Make
Every year, the majority of us — stemming from the most noble of intentions, or the most nauseating of eggnog overindulgence — declare our desire to start anew and totally revise our lives. For most of us, though, Groundhog Day brings not just an excuse to settle in with a Bill Murray movie, but the milestone of having let ourselves down once more. And yet by the time the ball drops anew in Times Square ten months later, we’re happily preparing to drop our own ball all over again.
What would it take to make our resolutions stick? Psychological research on goal-setting and achievement has a lot to teach us: they need be the right balance of realistic and challenging, and we need to have clear, specific pathways to reach them. We also are better off focusing on only one or two resolutions rather than attempting the equivalent of a floor-to-ceiling structural renovation of our inner selves. Sound too complicated? Here’s how to give the most common resolutions a psychological makeover, after the jump… Keep reading »
Smoking Is Bad For Your Nipples
If fear of lung cancer or emphysema isn’t enough to make you quit smoking, do it for your nipples. Apparently, nicotine and carbon monoxide restrict blood flow to various parts of the body … like your nipples. According to plastic surgeon, Anthony Youn, M. D., smokers who undergo breast surgery are at great risk for having their nipples “turn black and fall off.” They just die. Guh! Youn once tried to bring a patient’s purple (about to turn black) nipples back to life by placing leeches on them. “The leech drains the old blood, causing it to turn from unhealthy purple back to healthy pink. We place leeches intermittently until the body part grows new blood vessels to do the leeches’ work,” Youn recalled. The image of this entire scenario is terrifying. [CNN]
Vintage Ad: Blow In Her Face And She’ll Follow You Anywhere
Really guys, this is all it used to take — blow some smoke in a girl’s face and she’d drop her panties for you like that. Really, the ’60s were such a great time to be a dude. [Bored Panda]
Smoking Kids Are Startling Art
Holy disturbing, Batman! These little nuggets are much too small to be sucking on the cancer sticks! Thankfully photographer Frieke Janssen didn’t give the children real cigarettes or cigars — they are “smoking” cheese. The artist was inspired, apparently, by that two-year-old boy in Indonesia who smoked 40 cigarettes a day. The depressing thing is, though, that lots of people won’t realize smoking is gross at any age. [Neatorama] Keep reading »
Smoking Damages Ladies Hearts And Lungs Way More Than Men’s
Cigarettes are sexist! According to a new study by scientists at the University of Minnesota and Johns Hopkins University, female smokers face a 25 percent greater risk of developing heart disease than males who do a comparable amount of puff-puffing. Similarly, lady smokers have double the risk of lung cancer. These alarming stats come from crunching the data on 2.4 million people between the years of 1966 and 2010, so it’s no joke. And the scientists have a theory on why this is happening. “Women might extract a greater quantity of carcinogens and other toxic agents from the same number of cigarettes than men,” they say. So put that in your “inspiration to quit” hat and … smoke it. [Newser, MedPage] Keep reading »
Today’s Lady News: Quit Smoking Now, Ladies!
- Women who are smokers or former smokers, as well as those exposed to decades of secondhand smoke, are more at risk for breast cancer after menopause, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal. Wait, you mean inhaling chemicals is bad for you?! [CBC.ca]
- Wrap it up, people! Almost half of all men have genital HPV, which can lead to cervical cancer when it’s transmitted to women, according to a study by the National Cancer Institute. [WebMD]
- Actress Meryl Streep and To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee were recipients of the National Medal of Arts, along with James Taylor, Quincy Jones and others, at the White House today. [Oh No They Didn't!]
The Possibility Of Wrinkles, Not Cancer, Gets Women To Quit Smoking
The irony is that vanity is what gets a lot of us ladies to start smoking. We take it up most likely ’cause we think we look sultry while puffing away, or we like that lighting up keeps us from snacking so our jeans look sexier on our rumps. Well, according to a study just published in the British Journal Of Health Psychology, said vanity is perhaps the most effective tactic for getting women to quit smoking, too. Staffordshire University researchers used state-of-the-art age progression technology to show 47 women, between the ages of 18 and 34, what their faces would look like in the future if they continue to smoke. The horrifying sight of smoking-induced wrinkles on their future faces prompted two-thirds of the subjects to vow to quit. Keep reading »
Dater X: Dating As A Non-Smoker, For The First Time
I’m in a dry spell as it is, I worried. Will being a non-smoker further kill my game?
Will being a non-smoker further kill my game?This status update was from a friend from high school, someone who’s 31 years old—just like me. I couldn’t believe that anyone our age would be dealing with anything as scary as tumors and precautionary lung removal. I feel terrible for him and for his family. After writing him a note, I resolved: it was time for me to finally quit smoking.
Sadly, cigarettes have been a big part of my life. I started smoking as a teenager—my first was a Benson and Hedges Ultra Light that my middle school best friend and I procured from a vending machine at the arcade in the mall. From the very first puff, I loved the way smoking momentarily loosened the grip on my always-spinning brain. By college, I was smoking a pack a day with my roommate in the dorm room our friends had nicknamed “The Smoky Chamber.” At my first job, I remember the joy of meeting my co-workers downstairs for a smoke break and gossip session. Cigarettes have seen me through many a breakup and given me a mental release from stress of all kinds.
But I also know just how horrible cigarettes are. I remember the blackened lung pictures projected on a screen to look four times their actual size in health class. I’ve seen all the articles about the insane numbers of chemicals in a single cigarette. I’ve read all the surgeon general’s warnings as I unwrapped packs. I always vowed to myself that I would quit by age 30—the age I’ve heard that if you can quit by, you can virtually eliminate your risk of lung cancer. But my 30th birthday came and went with my lighting up outside my party, while flirting with a cute guy. My 31st birthday passed, too.
But last week, after reading that Facebook message, I knew I was really ready. I threw away the pack of cigarettes in my purse. (At this point, I smoke about a pack a week—a notable improvement from my younger years, but still pretty terrible.) I ditched the backup pack in my desk drawer. As I walked to the drug store to pick up Nicorette, just in case, a bizarre thought ran through my head: How will being a non-smoker affect my dating life?
Of all the things that could have popped into my mind at that moment, I was shocked that dating and guys were the foremost on my mind. It was a connection I’d never noticed before—that smoking for me has always been social. (Notice that none of the scenarios above where I fondly remember cigarettes involve me smoking on my own.) As I thought about it more and more throughout the day, I realized that smoking is, insanely, something I associate with bonding with men.
Remember Dan, who I told you about last week? Our second conversation was over a cigarette in my high school’s parking lot. Brown Eyes? When we first met at that party two years ago, we were both holding cigarettes in our hand, and taking smoke breaks together has been a part of our friendship ever since. Crazy Dude? We cheesily shared a cigarette after having sex for the first time. The Juggler? We used to banter about what it meant that he was a Marlboro Man while I preferred Parliament Lights. Honestly, it would be hard to count all the hot hookups in my life that began with the lines “Got a light?” or “Can I bum a cigarette?”
I’m in a dry spell as it is, I worried. Will being a non-smoker further kill my game?
Will being a non-smoker further kill my game?
I got a chance to test it out a few days later on Halloween Eve. I met up with a group of friends at a bar in the city. We gathered around a table on an outdoor patio and as the smell of cigarette smoke wafted past my nose, I was more disgusted than titillated by it. I went to the bar to order another vodka and soda, and a hot guy in a pirate costume, complete with a faux parrot on his shoulder, started talking to me. “Excellent costume,” he said, admiring my Little Red Riding Hood get-up. (I wouldn’t see that Kim Kardashian had dressed as the same thing until a few days later.)
“Did you have to steal the parrot from a small child?” I asked. “Or did you purchase him specially for the occasion?”
He laughed. “I cheated,” he said. “I’ve worn the same costume for three years in a row.”
We talked for a few minutes. While I missed some of what he said over the loud music, I picked up that he is a web designer who loves to play darts. Just my style.
“Want to go smoke a cigarette?” he asked.
The wheels in my head began to spin. On the one hand, I was aching for that quiet, intimate, five-minute conversation a cigarette provides. But on the other hand, I really didn’t want to smoke. “No thank you,” I said. “When you get back, I’ll be waiting with another round of drinks.”
I ordered two drinks. As I waited by the bar, I had a moment of neurotic panic. What if he starts talking to someone else outside? I thought. What if her costume is better than mine? What if he thinks I’m an uptight priss for not smoking with him? What if …
Faux Parrot reappeared and smiled at me from the door. He tossed his coat on a nearby chair, and walked toward me. We chatted for another half hour. As I left, he gave me a kiss on the cheek and punched my number into his iPhone.
It’s been a week now, and I still haven’t had a cigarette. But my game has far from been extinguished. Bring on the non-smokers.
