No Smoking Day

No Smoking Day is taking place on March 12th this year and Infertility Network UK has pledged its support for the campaign.

According to the charity, male smokers tend to have lower sperm counts and a greater proportion of abnormal sperm.

Meanwhile, female smokers tend to give birth to lower birth weight babies and are more likely to have a miscarriage or premature labour.

Infertility Network UK is urging couples who hope to conceive to stop smoking in order to improve their chances of a healthy pregnancy.

Spokeswoman Susan Seenan commented: 'Stopping smoking is probably the most important single thing that you and your partner can do for you and your baby's health and will help improve your chances of conceiving.'

The expert noted: 'Many PCTs (primary care trusts) will now only provide fertility treatment to couples who are non-smokers due to the impact smoking can have on the success rates and the adverse effects on the health of any babies.

Shah Rukh like cigarettes

Health minister asks Shah Rukh to quit smoking on-screen
28 Jan
Posted by Tanushree Chatterjee as News & Gossip
When Union Health Minister Ramdoss was on CNN-IBN’s Devil’a advocate show, little did anyone imagine him making an appeal to reknowned stars of the stature of SRK and Big B to quit smoking on-screen the way Rajnikanth took his appeal seriously.
Health minister asks Shah Rukh to quit smoking on-screen
28 Jan
Posted by Tanushree Chatterjee as News & Gossip
When Union Health Minister Ramdoss was on CNN-IBN’s Devil’a advocate show, little did anyone imagine him making an appeal to reknowned stars of the stature of SRK and Big B to quit smoking on-screen the way Rajnikanth took his appeal seriously.
shah rukh khan
SRK’s who is in ardent smoker has been constantly told by the minister to stop smoking in his films as he is a role model for millions and this can adversely affect the mental framework of many growing ups and grown ups.
Health minsiter went on to say that “I have already made appeals to Shah Rukh Khan… I would like to make an appeal to him and Amitabh Bachchan and all other personalities. I again say: please don’t smoke in your movies, Mr Shah Rukh Khan.”

cigarettes advertising in USA

The Virginia Slims cigarette brand marketed to women with the slogan "You've come a long way, baby!" from the early 1970s until the late 1990s. The ad seen here is from 1978.
The Virginia Slims cigarette brand marketed to women with the slogan "You've come a long way, baby!" from the early 1970s until the late 1990s. The ad seen here is from 1978.

In the United States, in the 1950s and 1960s, cigarette brands were frequently sponsors of television shows—most notably shows such as To Tell the Truth and I've Got a Secret. One of the most famous television jingles of the era came from an advertisement for Winston cigarettes. The slogan "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should!" proved to be catchy, and is still quoted today. Another popular slogan from the 1960s was "Us Tareyton smokers would rather fight than switch!," which was used to advertise Tareyton cigarettes.

In June 1967, the Federal Communications Commission ruled that programs broadcast on a television station that discussed smoking and health were insufficient to offset the effects of paid advertisements that were broadcast for a five to ten minutes each day. "We hold that the fairness doctrine is applicable to such advertisements" the Commission said. The FCC decision, upheld by the courts, essentially required television stations to air anti-smoking advertisements at no cost to the organisations providing such advertisements.

In April 1970, Congress passed the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act banning the advertising of cigarettes on television and radio starting on January 2, 1971. The Virginia Slims brand was in the last commercial shown, with "a 60-second revue from flapper to Female Lib", shown at 11:59 p.m. on January 1 during a break on The Tonight Show .

Smokeless tobacco ads, on the other hand, remained on the air until a ban took effect on August 28, 1986

After 1971, most tobacco advertising was done in magazines, newspapers and on billboards. Since the introduction of the Federal Cigarette Labelling and Advertising Act all packaging and advertisements must display a health warning from the Surgeon General. In November 2003, tobacco companies and magazine publishers agreed to cease the placement of advertisements in school library editions of four magazines with a large group of young readers (Time, People, Sports Illustrated and Newsweek).

The first known advertisement was for the snuff and tobacco products of P. Lorillard and Company and was placed in the New York daily paper in 1789. Advertising was an emerging concept, and tobacco-related adverts were not seen as any different to those for other products—their negative impact on health was unknown at the time. Local and regional newspapers were used because of the small-scale production and transportation of these goods. The first real brand name to become known on a bigger scale was "Bull Durham" which emerged in 1868, with the advertising placing the emphasis on how easy it was "to roll your own".

The development of colour lithography in the late 1870s allowed the companies to create attractive images to better present their products. This led to the printing of pictures onto the cigarette cards, previously only used to stiffen the packaging but now turned into an early marketing concept.

Billboards are a major venue of cigarette advertising (10% of Michigan billboards advertise alcohol and tobacco, according to the Detroit Free Press). They made the news when, in the tobacco settlement of 1999, all cigarette billboards were replaced with anti-smoking messages. In a parody of the Marlboro Man, some billboards depicted cowboys riding on ranches with slogans like "Bob, I miss my lung".

America's first regular television news programme, Camel News Caravan, was sponsored by Camel Cigarettes and featured an ashtray on the desk in front of the newscaster and the Camel logo behind him. The show ran from 1949 to 1956.

Kate Hudson and Leonardo DiCaprio have recently been caught in public smoking

HOLLYWOOD VICE: Kate Hudson and Leonardo DiCaprio have recently been caught in public smoking. She appeared in Us Weekly, he in People. Antismoking activists worry about the message sent to young people.
ANYONE following the goings-on of Mary-Kate Olsen in the weekly glossies knows that she is 19, that she attends New York University, that she has battled anorexia and that she dates a Greek shipping heir.They also know that she smokes, thanks to the fact that this month alone she has appeared in at least three celebrity magazines fishing for a cigarette or holding a Marlboro pack in one hand and a cigarette in another while shopping in Los Angeles.

Such images of stars smoking off-screen were relatively rare five years ago, but with the proliferation of celebrity magazines and the competition for candid pictures, more shots of celebrities smoking are being published, magazine editors, photographers and stars' publicists say. And with smoking bans pushing smokers outdoors, "if you're going to smoke, you're going to get caught," said Gary Morgan, a founder of the photo agency Splash News.

It is too early to document whether this kind of exposure can influence young readers to light up, but some antismoking groups have voiced concern. While overall smoking rates have been down since the mid-90's, existing research has shown a direct correlation between on-screen smoking and the onset of smoking in teenagers. Antismoking experts say that seeing celebrities smoking off-screen would have the same effect. One study, by researchers at Dartmouth College, found that adolescents who viewed the most smoking in movies were almost three times more likely to take up smoking than those who viewed the least.

CIGARS.

"It is perfectly safe to say that there is more money spent every day in New York for cigars than for bread,"
(doubted.) "From the fine gentlemen, who buy their cigars at Delmonico's, or get them direct from the
importers, down to the little barefoot boys in the streets, who buy theirs from the Chinamen at the corners or
pick up the stumps that are thrown away, all smoke. In some countries pipes and cigarettes are made to do
duty by the poorer classes, but in New York cigars seem to be almost invariably preferred. Now, while there is
nothing better, in the way of something to smoke, than a first-class Havana cigar, there is nothing nastier than
some of the cheap abominations made in that shape in New York. To the truth of this last proposition, anyone
will readily testify who has ever been so unfortunate as to have had to ride from Harlem to New York in a late
smoking-car, with half a dozen roughs smoking cheap cigars on board.
"The cigars sold in this market may be divided into three classes--the imported, those made of imported
tobacco, and those made of domestic tobacco. These may be again classified under many different heads, as
there are many kinds and grades of each. The cheapest cigars in New York are dispensed by dilapidated
Chinamen, who have little stands about the streets and markets. These are certainly the vilest cigars made
anywhere in the world, and are sold from one to five cents each. Next in order come the common domestic
cigars. They are sold at five cents each, or six for twenty-five cents, and are of the kind kept at the cheap
refreshment stalls, lager beer saloons, and low groggeries. After these are the more pretentious home-made
cigars, manufactured of selected domestic tobacco, which are sold all over the city, and in the making of which Havana 'fillers' are supposed to be used. A filler, be it known, in technical parlance means that portion
of the tobacco of which the inside of the cigar is made. Price, ten to fifteen cents. Then comes the best class of
cigars in which domestic tobacco is used, those which are made with clear Havana fillers and Connecticut
wrappers. Fifteen cents is the price, and many are palmed off on the unwise for the real imported article.
Cigars made wholly of imported Cuban tobacco come next on the list. Some of them are excellent, and
compare favorably with many of the imported. They bring from fifteen to fifty cents each at the cigar stores.
Last in line, but best of all, is the genuine, imported Havana cigar. Few and rare are they, and great is the price
of the higher grades thereof.
"There are some places in New York where an imported cigar of a reasonable size may be bought for fifteen
cents, but they are few and far between. Twenty or twenty-five cents is the price usually charged, and from
that to a dollar. All the cigars made in the United States are invariably put up in imitation Havana boxes, with
imitation Havana labels and brands. It is doubtful, however, whether this transparent device deceives
anybody, for in accordance with the United States Internal Revenue laws, all boxes of cigars manufactured in
the United States must not only bear the manufacturer's label, giving his full name and place of business, and
the number of his manufactory, but they must also bear the United States inspector's brand. Before the present
law was in force, and the duties on tobacco were low, this scheme may have been profitable. But why the
practice is still adhered to by the manufacturers is hard to imagine, for the boxes now used, being made of
imported cedar, must be very costly, and must materially increase the price of cigars. Only those of the very
poorest quality are packed in white wooden boxes.

TOBACCO EATERS

Is the most,cheap cigarettes, appropriate name for,cheap cigarettes, the users of Tobacco; as much so as the vile
disgusting loathsome,cheap cigarettes, green worm that swallows the poison leaf into its stomach. For the poison of the quid
and the smoke is taken up by the blood vessels,cheap cigarettes, and absorbents of the mouth, and carried into the circulation,
even in a more virulent form,cheap cigarettes, than if introduced by the stomach.
Every doctor will tell you that he is more afraid to give tobacco, even as an enema, than any other poison in,cheap cigarettes,
the Materia Medica: he never gives it by the stomach. Sometimes, in violent spasmodic colic, or strangulation ,cheap cigarettes,
of the bowels, or spasmodic croup, tobacco is used externally as a poultice, and if you are not very careful, it ,cheap cigarettes,
will kill your patient even in this form. Many a colt and calf has been killed by rubbing them with tobacco
juice to kill the lice. Tobacco is death to all kinds of parasitical vermin; it will kill the most venomous reptiles ,cheap cigarettes,
very quick. Many children have been killed by the application of tobacco for lice titter sores &c. Dr. Mussey ,cheap cigarettes,
tells of a woman that rubbed a little tobacco juice on a ring worm, not larger than a 25 cts. on her little girl's ,cheap cigarettes,
face; and if a physician had not been quickly summoned the child would have died. He tells of a father who ,cheap cigarettes,
killed his son by putting tobacco spit on a sore on his head. You would do well to read what various medical
men have written on the subject. Every other poison vegetable is content with one poison; but tobacco has two ,cheap cigarettes,
of the most deadly poisons in the vegetable kingdom. This is no scare-crow put up to frighten you Tobacco ,cheap cigarettes,
Eaters; if you don't believe me just examine a vegetable chemistry, and to convince your self more ,cheap cigarettes,
thoroughly, just drop one drop of nicotina or nicotianin on the tongue of a Cat or a Dog, that you don't wish to
kill by the tedious method or shooting or drowning, and see what the effect will be. See if Strychnine will do ,cheap cigarettes,
its work so quick.
Doctors: men whose profession is to play with poisons as with so many deadly vipers, stand back and behold ,cheap cigarettes,
its poisoned fangs with horrow, not daring to lay hold on it and use it as a medicine for his sick wife or child.,cheap cigarettes,
No he shuns it with a deathly horrow! Though himself may be a SLAVE to the slower action of its ,cheap cigarettes,
devitalizing powers on mind and body.
An over dose of tobacco is incureable because of its peculiar effect upon the system. The effect is known by a ,cheap cigarettes,
deathly paleness and sickness, then the air suddenly becomes too warm and oppressive, the patient desires a ,cheap cigarettes,
cool situation, a drink of cold water and a fresh breeze, the strangest of all is at the same time the patient is so ,cheap cigarettes,
stimulated the action of the heart decreases, and to give a stimulant to increase it, it increases its virulence in ,cheap cigarettes,
proportion to the increase of the suffocating and sickening sensation: and to give the medicine to allay that,cheap cigarettes,
still decreases the motion of the heart's action. Thus an antidote is instantly transformed into fuel to feed the ,cheap cigarettes,
unquenchable flame,cheap cigarettes, that is already devouring the human vitals.

TOBACCO IN EUROPE.

The discovery of the tobacco plant in America by European voyagers aroused their cupidity no less than their
curiosity. They saw in its use by the Indians a custom which, if engrafted upon the civilization of the Old
World, would prove a source of revenue commensurate with their wildest visions of power and wealth. This
was particularly the case with the Spanish and Portuguese conquerors, whose thirst for gold was gratified by
its discovery. The finding by the Spaniards of gold, silver, and the balmy plant, and by the Portuguese of
valuable and glittering gems, opened up to Spain and Portugal three great sources of wealth and power. But
while the Spaniards were the first discoverers of the plant there seems to be conflicting opinions as to which
nation first began its culture, and whether the plant was cultivated first in the Old World or in the New.
Humboldt says:--
"It was neither from Virginia nor from South America, but from the Mexican province of Yucatan that Europe
received the first tobacco seeds about the year 1559.[20] The Spaniards became acquainted with tobacco in
the West India Islands at the end of the 15th Century, and the cultivation of Tobacco preceded the cultivation
of the potato in Europe more than one hundred and twenty years. When Sir Walter Raleigh brought tobacco
from Virginia to England in 1586, whole fields of it were already cultivated in Portugal.[21] It was also
previously known in France."
[Footnote 20: Mussey in his Essay on Tobacco records "That Cortez sent a specimen of the plant to the king
of Spain in 1519." Yucatan was discovered by Hernandez Cordova in 1517, and in 1519 was first settled.]
[Footnote 21: Spain began its culture in Mexico on the coast of Caracas at the islands of St. Domingo and
Trinidad, and particularly in Louisiana.]
Another author says of its introduction into Europe:--
"The seeds of the tobacco plant were first brought to Europe by Gonzalo Hernandez de Oviedo, who
introduced it into Spain, where it was first cultivated as an ornamental plant, till Monardes[22] extolled it as
possessed of medicinal virtues."[23]
[Footnote 22: Pourchat declares that the Portuguese brought it into Europe from Tobago, an island in the West
Indies; but this is hardly probable, as the island was never under the Portuguese dominion.]
[Footnote 23: Monardes wrote upon it only from the small account he had of it from the Brazilians.]
Murray says of the first cultivation of tobacco and potatoes in the Old World:--
"Amidst the numerous remarkable productions ushered into the Old Continent from the New World, there are
two which stand pre-eminently conspicuous from their general adoption. Unlike in their nature, both have
been received as extensive blessings--the one by its nutritive powers tends to support, the other by its narcotic
virtues to soothe and comfort the human frame--the potato and tobacco; but very different was the favor with
which these plants were viewed. The one long rejected, by the slow operation of time, and, perhaps, of
necessity, was at length cherished, and has become the support of millions, but nearly one hundred and twenty
years passed away before even a trial of its merits was attempted; whereas, the tobacco from Yucatan, in less
than seventy years after the discovery, appears to have been extensively cultivated in Portugal, and is,
perhaps, the most generally adopted superfluous vegetable product known; for sugar and opium are not in
such common use. The potato by the starch satisfies the hunger; the tobacco by its morphia calms its
turbulence of the mind. The former becomes a necessity required, the latter a gratification sought for."