Cartoon of the Week

Picture of the Year 2009

Want to Look Older? Start Smoking!

Lisa picked up smoking in her sophomore year to fit in with her smoking friends. Like most youngsters it started as an ‘occasional’ drag but soon became a habit. And before she realized it, she was smoking a pack a day. And she always thought, “I can quit whenever I want.”

It wasn’t too long before Lisa started looking 10 years older than her age. She was only 28 but her face was marked with wrinkles, especially around her eyes and mouth... It was very evident from her face and hair that she was a smoker: smokers not only develop premature wrinkles and sagging facial skin, they also experience premature thinning and graying of hair. Not only was Lisa’s skin wrinkled, it was also discolored - her complexion sallow instead of a healthy pink...

A paradox of desire, the cigarette that Lisa picked up to look cool became the single most important factor responsible for her far-from-youthful appearance.

Accelerated Aging
Ok, let’s hit you with more of the bad stuff: cigarettes have a direct impact on the skin’s aging. Experts say smoking accelerates the normal aging process of the skin, contributing to wrinkles. Smoking causes narrowing of blood vessels in the outermost layers of the skin. This impairs blood flow to the skin, depleting it of oxygen and important nutrients, such as vitamin A. Also, carbon monoxide in cigarettes bonds with oxygen and keeps it from getting to the skin cells, causing both wrinkles and discoloration of skin. Just 10 minutes of cigarette smoking decreases the body and the skin’s oxygen supply for almost an hour. Smoking also damages collagen and elastin - fibers that give your skin its strength and elasticity. As a result, skin begins to sag and wrinkle prematurely. These effects become evident only after few years of smoking; and guess what, they’re irreversible.

A study has also revealed that smoking inflicts damage even on skin areas which are not normally exposed to sunlight, like the inside of the upper arm. It also affects the healing process of your skin. Wounds and scars tend to take longer time to heal. Your risk of getting skin cancer also increases manifold if you are smoker.

Smoking = Staying Thin
It’s an unforgettable image: Lauren Bacall in To Have and Have Not, lighting up and hitting good old Bogart with that husky voice and the ‘look’. Tough-as-nails Bogart was suddenly putty, wasn’t he?  Sexy as it might be, smoking does a lot more harm than good for your figure. Often, young women smoke in a misguided effort to stay thin - thanks to the myth that smoking helps you maintain a healthy weight. The truth, however, is that cigarettes kill your appetite and rob the lungs of oxygen, making it harder to exercise normally. If you do happen to keep your weight down because of the appetite-suppressing effects of cigarettes, you will have poor muscle tone. You may be thin, but you won't be in good shape. Healthy weight and smoking just don’t go together.

What Happened to Anti-Aging?
If there’s one thing humankind has been searching for with a persistent, insatiable hunger, it’s for the fountain of youth. Anti-aging elixirs and treatments abound, and every year, millions go under the knife, get Botox™, and more. While there may be nothing wrong with wanting to improve our appearance, correcting defects and boosting self-esteem, it seems strange to think that with a few lifestyle changes, we can actually delay the appearance of those dreaded seams and wrinkles. And the ‘stop smoking’ mantra is a powerful one – it’s sure to help.

Addicted Before You Know It
The warning labels are always printed in large unfriendly letters, but most of us just keep going. We become addicts before we even realize it. And it doesn’t help that people we look up to and admire often do or say things that just make smoking so… so cool somehow (it is said that someone asked Frank Zappa “Why do you smoke?”, to which snapped Zappa “You think you’re going to live for ever?”).

Well, the only thing left to say is that we all know it hurts us eventually. So what we’ve got to do is work out what’s more important: lighting up to feel good, to get through stress, to be cool or whatever; or looking and feeling younger for longer. Once we’ve got that sorted, really sorted, it’s clear what we’ve got to do: stop smoking! It’s hard, but that’s just it.

Print Ad of the Day

Why Ban Smoking in Restaurants & Other Workplaces?

- There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke.

- Even brief secondhand smoke exposure has immediate adverse health effects.

- Nonsmokers exposed to second to secondhand smoke at home or work increased their risk of developing heart disease by 25-30 percent and lung cancer by 20-30 percent.

- Even the most sophisticated ventilation systems cannot completely eliminate secondhand smoke exposure and that only smoke-free environments afford full protection.

- About 3,000 non-smokers die annually from lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke.

- 35,000 non-smokers die annually from heart disease caused by secondhand smoke.

- Secondhand smoke is a Group A carcinogen because it is a known cause of lung cancer in humans and contains 4,000 chemicals including known poisons such as formaldehyde, benzene, and hydrogen cyanide.

- Workers have been awarded unemployment, disability and worker’s compensation benefits for illness due to exposure to secondhand smoke.

- A smoking employee costs the employer at least $1,000 per year in total excess and indirect health care costs.

- Bars and restaurants workers are 11/2 times more likely to die of lung cancer than they would be if bars and restaurants were 100 percent smoke-free.

- Bars and restaurants workers have the highest prevalence of smoking-related lung cancer.

- Eight hours of working in a smoky bar is equivalent to smoking a pack of cigarettes a day.

- Smoke-filled casinos have up to 50 times more cancer-causing particles in the air than highways and city streets clogged with diesel trucks in rush hour traffic.

- Workers in gambling venues are often exposed to higher levels of secondhand smoke.

- In 2008, 85% of casino patrons surveyed said they preferred a non-smoking environment.

- Nonsmokers regularly exposed to 30 minutes of secondhand smoke suffer death rates 30 percent higher than that of unexposed nonsmokers.

- A half hour of exposure to secondhand smoke dramatically increases a person’s short-term risk of heart attack.

- No properly conducted study shows a negative economic impact. Some even show that a smoke-free measure improves business.

- As evidence mounts about the dangers of secondhand smoke, so does the legal liability of employers—including restaurants.

- In addition, here’s what restaurant owners pay out of pocket by allowing smoking in their establishments:
- Higher maintenance expenses (carpets, drapes, cloths, paintwork)
- Higher insurance premiums (fire, medical, workers comp, liability)
- Higher labor costs (absenteeism, productivity).

- Ventilation systems that cost tens of thousands of dollars may reduce odor, but fail to guard against secondhand smoke's real health dangers.

- The tobacco industry and the HVAC industry have been advised by their attorneys that making any health claims about ventilation exposes them to litigation.

- There is no safe level of secondhand smoke; no feasible ventilation system can control the health risk from secondhand smoke.

- The toxic particles that remain after visible smoke is gone, otherwise known as third-hand smoke, embed themselves in furniture, carpeting, and objects around them and pose an especially great risk to children and infants for cancer and may
affect brain development.

- A smoke-free air law in michigan could lower hospital admissions for heart attacks by up to 3,340 admissions annually.

- There was a 41% drop in those hospitalized in Pueblo, Colorado three years after smoke-free laws were enacted.

Print Ad of the Week

Cartoon of the Week

To Regift or Not To Regift...

The Fine Lines of Regifting

A study determined that giving an unwanted gift you received to someone else (regifting) is not considered as unacceptable as in the past.

The market research company, Harris Interactive, surveyed 1,505 American adults and found over half the participants admitted to regifting and 78 percent felt regifting was okay most of the time.

Nancy Wong, a spokeswoman for Harris Interactive, told Reuters, she was surprised that so many surveyed would admit to regifting.

"It's not something I've thought about and when I saw that nearly half had done it -- 52 percent have regifted and or would regift -- it's quite a significant number," Wong said.

Why Do People Regift?

According to the study, 77 percent of those surveyed admitted to re-gifting because the item was better suited for the person who received it. Nine percent admitted to doing it out of laziness and four percent said they regifted because they did not like the person who was getting the gift.

Regifting is not without its guidelines. Much has been written on the proper way to regift and what should and should not be wrapped back up and given away a second time. Here are the Do's and Do Not's for regifting that are most often listed.

What To Avoid When Regifting

a- Don't Regift the Gift Card 

A gift card hidden in tissue in a gift box can easily get passed along in error. Take the item out of the old wrappings and start new.

b- Don't Regift the Gift Wrappings 

Everyone can tell when something has hung around in a gift box for a year. Cardboard gets soft and seems to absorb the odors of wherever it was stored and old gift wrap can be spotted just by the feel of it. When regifting, do not use recycled gift bags, paper or tissue. Throw it all out and buy new and take a little extra time to make the wrapping look fresh and attractive.

c- Don't Tell 

People like to believe gifts they receive were chosen with thought and consideration. If you tell someone you are giving then the silk scarf your Aunt Jane gave you last year, what you are really saying is that you are giving them something you think it ugly or unuseful. The only time you would want to mention giving your gift to someone else is if it isn't presented as a 'gift' but rather as a give-away.

d- Don't Regift the Used or Slightly Used 

There is a big difference between regifting an unused night light or one that you plugged in for two months and decided you no longer want. Remember - a regift is a new item you give to someone else. A hand-me-down is an item you've used and offer to someone else when you decide you no longer have use for it.

e- Don't Forget Where the Gift Came From 

Avoid giving a re-gift to family or friends of the person who originally gave the gift to you. If the regift is displayed, you risk getting caught for giving it away by the person who gave it to you. Keeping a list going of regifts with the name of who gave you the gift can help avoid people pointing fingers at your later.

f- Do Regift Nice Things

Often the items getting regifted are undesirable, such as the bird statue you saw at the drugstore for 75 percent off. Why pass it along? However, if you received a nice gift, such as a wonderful cookbook you already own, do regift it to someone who you know will enjoy it. The nicer the item, the more it makes sense to regift it rather than to let it crumble up in a cabinet along side the Men in Briefs calendar someone thought you'd get a chuckle over.

g- Do Regift Heirlooms 

Perhaps 10 years ago Aunt Jane sent you 12 of her prized crystal water glasses but you already have plenty and the design conflicts with what you are already using. In fact, you have never used the glasses. Regifting the crystal to someone in the family who is just starting off makes sense. Yes, they are used and yes they could be considered hand-me-downs, but none the less the gift has both monetary and sentimental value.

The Number One Rule to Regifting

Regifting is a wonderful way to save money and when done tactfully and with thought, we can accomplish the goal of why we are giving a gift to someone in the first place - because we want them to have something they will enjoy.