Posts from — March 2008

What better day could you choose to give up smoking than the first day of spring!

In true British weather irony we have a cold snap approaching for the start of Spring. Hopefully lots of Snow.

Hope you all enjoy your Easter break and the First Day of Spring!

This is response to my previous post about children being more perceptible to health problems after living in a passive smoking environment.

I’m about to move out with my girlfriend next week which will be great, no more passive smoking for her. Her parents are a couple of chimneys which smoke in the house. It’ll be interesting to see whether her health improves as i’m sure the smoke causes some minor breathing problems. She’s been exposed to this for 24 years which isn’t great and the statistic that children have three times more chance of getting lung cancer later on in life scares me (and also makes me angry).

Advice for anyone living with smokers

Avoidance. Quite simply avoid the rooms they’re smoking in. This isn’t always very easy especially as in my case it was my mother/father in law to be’s house.

Put windows on the latch. A bit of respectful compromise goes a long way. Since we started dating i’d always be walking into the lounge and putting a window ajar. I would normally get berated for doing it but it helps.

Open doors. If all else fails make sure you at least stop the room you’re in from being closed completely off. The gas chamber effect i call it. Try to keep at least one door open. It makes a big difference. Down side being that it will fill the rest of house with smoke, but if you have to stay in the same room as the smokers it’s unbearable unless you do. Ventilate, ventilate, ventilate! Of course when you leave the room it’s more than acceptable to close the door of that room hehe.

Ionisers. These mysterious gadgets some how clear the smoke from the room. My girlfriend’s had a ioniser slaving away in her room since we started dating. Hard to say whether it actually does the job but it’s nice to think that it is. Although after a month or so the grime that builds up on them must mean they do something! Keep it clean as the metal pin that emits the ions soon builds up with dust.

Wear old clothes. It’s not just the health related aspect that’s the problem but the social one too. Smelling like an ashtray isn’t pleasant so wearing older clothes means you change into your cleaner garms at later point. Don’t go the extra length of wearing a smoking jacket.. that will take the biscuit!

Direct concern. Don’t nag the smokers in the room to give up it’ll get you nowhere and just leads to arguments. But a friendly “any more thoughts on giving up?” every now and again is worth a punt.

Leaflets. Any leaflets you might find down the NHS are worth placing around the house. Don’t be too blatant.

Hide their ciggies. A bit extreme but hell it’d work!

If anyone has an other suggestions please pop them in a comment. I’d love to hear them.

Alder Hey Hospital, in Liverpool, says that a 1/3 of the children it treats have conditions made worse by their parents smoking in front of them. We all know the risks of passive smoking so this comes as no real surprise to me. Conditions made worse are mainly respiratory as you’d expect such as bronchitis and asthma but also includes ear infections. I never knew second-hand smoke affected the ears before which is new to me. Perhaps that’s why girlfriend is infuriatingly deaf all the while! Or maybe i should just put it down to mumbling and selective hearing .

17 thousand under 5 year olds are treated for second hand smoke in the UK for exposure states the British Lung Foundation.

An ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) surgeon in the article also goes on state that passive smoking increases sticky runny noses, sore throats and ear disease.

Read full passive smoking article

This has spurred to me write a separate post about tips for those unfortunate to live in a passive smoking environment.

Finally i’ve found some time to write about this news item. As of the 1st July 2008 all mental hospitals will be fully smoke-free. This is in stark contrast to prisons which for some reason are exempt of this. I think this an outrage.

Normally i’m strictly no smoking, it’s bad for you and the people around you, yadda yadda. But this is another story in the news where i compelled to go against my stance and complain the other way round (the other one being about needing a smoking license).

I happen to have experienced life in a mental hospital first hand as a patient, i’m not ashamed to admit it, it wasn’t fun but it got me better. I’ve rebuilt my life after those dark times and now it’s quite frankly rosy at the moment. I myself turned to smoking roll ups in there. Why? I don’t know i was rather ill. But smoking is like a form of security, of normality as it were. You go in smoky room with others and it’s almost therapeutic and you feel you belong to the other group of smokers, a simple stress relieving right. Without a shadow of a doubt the smoking room was the busiest room in the hospital. Your symptoms multiplied by the side effects of medication means that smoking is a sanctuary away from your situation. Put it this way i certainly wouldn’t want patients to be bereft of this freedom.

70% of mental health patients are smokers. That’s a lot of people’s liberties taken away! Also lets point out that it isn’t just the patients that use the smoking rooms. The staff are as much frequent smokers as they are.

I really feel for the patients after 1st July. Mental episodes are stressful enough without this being enforced.

BBC – Smoking ban in mental hospitals

Sorry to add another tenuous link to the theme of this blog but i couldn’t help but write about it. Virgin have teamed up with Big Snap Search (which is powered by Live Search) to bring you lots of lovely prizes. One of them being a trip to Necker Island! How does it work i hear you cry? Well just do a search such as this and the two prize cards at the top will spin around. If they match then you’ve won a prize.

The official blurb from Big Snap Search:

Just use BigSnapSearch.com powered by Live Search, for your web searches and you could win a terrific prize every hour, 24 hours a day

There’s an amazing trip for two to Necker Island* in the Caribbean up for grabs, over a thousand Virgin Experience Days and daily £500 Virgin Vouchers.

To improve your chances of winning keep Live Search close, by adding Big Snap as your search engine and home page.

Now i’m sure a lot of the prizes on offer would be great therapy for people trying to quit smoking. A holiday worth over £12K to Necker Island would certainly be a good time to kick the habit!

Here’s the full list of Big Snap search prizes on offer:

Vinopolis Masterclass for One
Rafting
National Trust Day Out for two
Paintballing Discovery for two
Deluxe Makeover
Karting
Toffee Choc Choice Hamper
Harness Sphereing for two
His n Hers Massage
Quad Biking
Helicopter Thrill for two
Family Portrait
Golf Lesson
Marriott Pamper Day
Aston Martin Thrill @ Everyman
Lunch Cruise and London Eye
Recording Studio
Lamborghini Thrill
Flying Lesson Explorer
Sun seeker Yacht Experience
Helicopter Lesson Explorer
Balloon Flight for two
Spa Break for two
£500 Virgin Voucher – (1 per day)
Necker Island Holiday – (worth £12370!!) Check out some amazing Necker Island photos

Get big snap searching now!

PS the Necker Island Holiday isn’t available to win until 3rd March.

PPS Looks like the prizes are dished out roughly on the hour. Just a guess a the moment but it’s probably on a timer?