YES! YOU CAN! Stop Smoking

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, over one million people quit smoking each year. They reach the decision that the risks to their health — as well as to the health of their loved ones and people around them — are no longer acceptable. It is a monumental decision, as any smoker will tell you, one that is not reached without difficulty or determination.

Thanks to the availability of a number of over-the-counter aids, smokers who want to kick the habit now have access to some very real assistance in overcoming their physical dependence on cigarettes.
Smoking Is An Insult To Your Whole Body

Cigarette smoking is the most widespread example of drug dependency in this country today. Many experts believe that it may be even more resistant to treatment than addiction to heroin. The reason for the addiction is nicotine, which is the only known psycho-active ingredient in tobacco smoke.

Once nicotine finds its way to the brain, it triggers the release of some powerful chemicals, sending signals throughout the body. For those who are dependent upon the substance, nicotine produces a state of enhanced pleasure, decreased anxiety and a sense of being alert but relaxed.

There are over 3000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, including carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, benzine, formaldehyde, acetone, hydrogen cyanide, ammonia — to name just a few. Within seconds of taking a puff, the cardiovascular system becomes highly stressed; the pulse increases 15-25 beats per minute, and the blood pressure rises about 10 to 20 points on both scales. Basically, these effects from smoking impact on your body about the same way as being on a treadmill all day long.

After your body has become dependent on cigarettes, taking them away can cause a whole range of physical reactions or symptoms…irritability, restlessness, headaches, difficulty sleeping, anxiety and even difficulty concentrating. While it is the nicotine in cigarettes which causes the addiction, it is the other harmful chemicals, tars and carbon monoxide that cause lung cancer and heart disease.

Recently, using nicotine to help people quit smoking has been approved for use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and is now avilable in a chewing gum and through a “patch.” The nicotine is time-released into the bloodstream, satisfies the “craving” and relieves some of the other withdrawal symptoms, allowing the person to concentrate on their commitment to quit. The nicotine therapy is not a panacea; however, the person must sincerely want to break their smoking habit and follow instructions for using the “medication.”

The nicotine replacement therapy works best when supplemented by smoking cessation instruction. In addition to controlling the physical desire to light up a cigarette, the emotional desire must be conquered, as well.

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Smoking ban could expand

Smokers could no longer light up legally in any part of the municipal park system under a proposal city officials are considering.

If enacted in full, the ban would cover all outdoor areas across a system that encompasses about 175 parks and other recreational facilities, including greenways and trails.

Cone Health Foundation recently asked the city parks and recreation commission to make the system “100 percent tobacco free” in line with findings by the Office of the Surgeon General and Centers for Disease Control on the dangers of secondhand smoke.

“We have more than 4,000 acres of beautiful public parks in Greensboro,” said Susan F. Shumaker, foundation president. “Our policies should protect the right to breathe safely and promote using these healthy parks.”

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What Do Lucille Ball and Kim Catrall Have in Common?

Flashback: 1950's, I Love Lucy. An American icon. I loved watching re-runs as a kid. Still do. Two things that bring no laughter: shows in which she covets fur (in one episode, she actually sleeps in her mink stole she loves it so much), and scenes where the Ricardos light up.

We now know how harmful the cigarettes are that they were smoking. Desi Arnaz in fact passed away to lung cancer. But we should also know how egregiously cruel fur is. Yet so many people, even in 2010, still associate fur with the good life and glamour and many are still smoking (The Wall Street Journal put the percentage of American adults who smoke at about 20%).

Flashforward, 1998-2004, Sex and the City. Fur and smoking are both featured on this marketing powerhouse. Carrie, after having successfully quit smoking seasons earlier, resumes the ugly habit when she lives in Paris in the last few episodes. What about the fur coats she was wearing during the series? Real or fake? Do some of the impressionable women watching know enough to demand faux?

Starlet Kim Cattrall once wore fur and now shuns it, but that hasn't stopped this New York City fur shop from displaying her image.


Doubt the influence of media images like Sex and the City? You can even take bus tours where they point out how you can shop just like Charlotte, Carrie, Miranda and Samantha. The show is a textbook case on the effectiveness of product placement.

Hopefully our society will become more enlightened. Much like a bad horror film, I will never get this video of an animal being skinned alive at a Chinese fur farm out of my mind from PETA. Horror movies are pretend. This act of brutality is not.

So, what do Lucille Ball and Kim Catrall have in common? Their images above are being used to market products associated death. For Lucy and Desi's Philip Morris ads, it has the possibility of causing a slow death by lung cancer. For Kim's image, it's a a certain painful death endured by helpless animals, who come to earth to suffer for our disposable values and wants.

What's the first word that comes into your mind when you see this? I hope not glamorous if you've watched the video.

Learn more about Fur Free NYC. Visit PETA's Fur is Dead site.

Sick. Spotted outside a fur shop on 29th street in New York City.