Total smoking ban considered

Currently there is a smoke free zone 10 metres around Craigavon and Daisy Hill Hospitals and within its buildings.
However patients, visitors and staff are permitted to smoke outside that zone.
The Western Trust plans to completely ban smoking anywhere on its grounds including buildings, entrances, pavements and car parks. It will include everyone including patients, service users, staff, member of the public and contracted workers.
This is a step further than the previous Western Trust policy as there will be no shelter where patients can smoke and staff will not be allowed to smoke in their cars on site.
When asked by the Mail if the trust planned a similar move, a spokesperson said: “The trust will be reviewing Its Smoke free policy in the coming year and considering future plans to extend smoke free areas on health and social care grounds.
“The trust’s current policy is smoke free buildings and a smoke free zone of 10 metres around Craigavon and Daisy Hill hospital buildings,” said the spokesperson.
Western Trust chief executive Elaine Way said: “The health of our patients and staff is a top priority for the trust.”

Twins study shows smoking ages your face faster

Here's something to think about the next time you put a cigarette to your lips: The skin around those lips is going to look older, faster.
You're also more likely to get bags under your eyes sooner. And jowls. And more wrinkles around those lips.Pall Mall cigarettes.
Researchers in Ohio studied the physical differences between the faces of nonsmokers and their twins who smoked and found confirmation of a long-held belief: Smoking does indeed age you.
The study, by researchers at the Department of Plastic Surgery at Case Western Reserve University, looked at 79 sets of twins between the ages of 18 and 78 at the annual August gathering of twins in Twinsburg, Ohio. Each person had his or her picture taken by a professional photographer.
The photos were divided into two categories. The first group was 45 sets of twins in which one smoked and the other didn't. The other group was made up of smokers, but in each set, one twin had smoked at least five years longer than the other.
Two doctors and a medical student studied photographs of the twins and assigned scores to their facial features.
In the case of the first group, the judges said the smoking twin appeared older 57% of the time.
For the second set, the longer-smoking twin looked older more than 63% of the time, meaning the aging differences could set in after just five years.
"This study confirms some of what was believed in the most scientific way possible," said Dr. Bahman Guyuron, who led the research. "With longer follow-up, we believe that every smoking twin might have exhibited a difference in aging."
The study looked at other aging factors -- alcohol consumption, stress and sunscreen use, for instance -- and found they were similar in these sets of twins.
"Smoking reduces the collagen formation, results in collagen degradation and reduces the skin circulation," Guyuron said. "Additionally, nicotine reduces the skin thickness. All of these reduce skin elasticity and (cause) premature aging."
The study was published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.