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.

Smoking is more deadly than thought: study

Smoking is much more deadly than previously thought.
A study of 200,000 Australians shows the habit cuts 10 years off the average smoker's life and is directly linked to two thirds of deaths in current smokers.
This is much higher than previous international estimates of 50 per cent.
The four-year analysis of health records in the Sax Institute's 45 and Up Study shows even moderate smoking is a major killer.
"We all know that smoking is bad for your health. But until now we haven't had direct large-scale evidence from Australia about just how bad it is," says study leader Professor Emily Banks, the scientific director of the 45 and Up study.
"We've been relying on evidence from other countries."
The study, supported by the National Heart Foundation in collaboration with Cancer Council NSW, shows risk increases with the number of cigarettes smoked a day.
The risk of death is doubled even among those smoking an average of 10 cigarettes a day, says study co-author Associate Professor Freddy Sitas from Cancer Council NSW.
The good news, says Prof Banks, is that stopping smoking at any age reduces the risk.
Smoking is the largest single preventable cause of death in Australia and kills 15,000 people a year, says the Heart Foundation's Dr Rob Grenfell, who worked on the study.
"People need to realise that smoking is a dangerous activity," he said.
"There's no safe level of smoking and there's no such thing as social smoking."

Chief: Smoking or candles started fatal Ohio fire

Smoking cigarettes or burning candles started a mobile home fire that killed five young children and their mother's boyfriend, investigators said Friday.
The cause of the fatal fire was officially listed as undetermined, but evidence found where it started pointed to the source, Tiffin fire Chief William Ennis Jr. said.
"We can't tell you exactly whether it was a candle or a cigarette, but it was one of those two, we're certain," he said.
The investigation also determined there were working smoke detectors inside the mobile home and firefighters could hear the alarms going off when they forced their way into it.
The children, ages 1 to 6, and the man died early Sunday morning in Tiffin, a city in northwestern Ohio. The children's mother, Anna Angel, was working at her fast-food job when the fire broke out.
Angel's four daughters, ages 3, 4, 5 and 6, were laid to rest in a casket following their funeral on Thursday. Her son, 1, was buried with his father, the man who died in the fire.
The fire swept through the mobile home quickly, breaking out windows and peeling some of the home's aluminum siding, while neighbors watched helplessly as firefighters found the bodies of the children.
There was heavy fire in the center of the mobile home and heavy smoke throughout it when firefighters arrived.
The four girls were found in a bedroom and hallway near the back of the trailer while the boy was under a pile of clothes near where his father was discovered, an investigation report released Friday said.
Investigators believe the man, Timothy Fresch, picked up his son and was trying to get out of the mobile home, Ennis said.
"Our feeling was that by the time he got him, the fire grew so fast he had no way to get out," Ennis said. "That was the same with the girls."
There was nothing to indicate that anything criminal took place, the report said.
The deaths of Fresch, 25, and the children, Tiara Angel, 6; Stormie Huey, 5; Trinitie Huey, 4; Sunshine Huey, 3; and Domonic Fresch, 1, shocked the rural community, about 50 miles southeast of Toledo.
Organizers of a fund to help Angel pay for the funerals and other expenses raised about $16,000 within two days of the fire. Rappers The Game and Drake pledged to donate another $22,500 after hearing about what happened.

Smokers encouraged to stub it out in October

England's eight million smokers are being encouraged to quit next month as October gets renamed Stoptober.
The campaign arrived in Sunderland today, September 20, in the form of a giant red wheel. It was being pushed by former 40-a-day smoker, Rory Coleman.
Since quitting 20 years ago, he has run nearly 800 marathons. Now he is running a marathon a day for 28 days to encourage others to give up.