Recent content by dagnagan

Accidental quitter after 52 years of smoking, including the final five years of not really enjoying it much. August 15, 2010 was my lucky day, for sure.

CNBC is promo-ing a segment on RJR's launch of the Vuse e-cig later today, but they don't say exactly when. Some fairly ignorant remarks made by anchors in the teaser, but would expect RJR exec they are interviewing to present the positive points. Edit: OK, right now - 11:22 EDT

The commitee voted to adjourn debate on the bill, so we've got time to further educate legislators. Judging from some body language and reading between the lines, they have already gotten more reaction than they expected.

South Carolina Legislature Mobile Go here and you can click on a link for a live broacast of the commitee meeting. Right now a tedious discussion of other stuff, but hopefully they'll get to the Reynolds bill soon.

I called a Ways & Means committee member who is a member of my county delegation this afternoon, because I couldn't make the subcommittee hearing. To my surprise, an actual person answered the phone, so I gave her a three-minute lecture about how this bill is anti-public health and pro-big...

I've had CT scans for lung cancer screening seven times since about 2002. I started that by entering the national clinical trial that enrolled 50,000 older smokers to determine if screening could reduce lung cancer mortality (it does). After the three annual scans as part of the trial I...

Okay, I guess that's enough links. Sorry I'm so sloooowww.

Here's a link: Lighting Up ...With a Battery - CNBC I've been wondering when CNBC, which I watch all the time, would catch up with this trend, because it has such huge implications for the tobacco industry and all the government entities that collect taxes and Master Settlement payments on...

And the state religion will be the New Puritanism. Zero tolerance for meat-eating, tobacco use, hunting, contact sports and many, many other icky behaviors disapproved of by the enlightened. Bad Behavior, Bad Thoughts and Talking Back strictly forbidden and severely punished.

It would be a shame to waste all that overwrought ranting. With a little editing, it could actually make some sense. Like this, maybe:

Well, you're right -- even if they did cover retirees, in the long run smokers would on average cost less because they on average die younger. Antis just won't listen to those facts, though; they want to talk in terms of money right up to the point where the numbers go against them, then they...

Yes, if employers still provided health insurance to retirees, they would be able to justify higher premiums for smokers. But since nowadays almost no one except government employees have coverage after they retire, and almost all serious health effects of smoking show up after age 60, most of...

When did "Smoke-free" become "Tobacco-free" and why? There's just no rational justification for it. On websites encouraging colleges to go tobacco-free, they move seamlessly from listing all the evils of secondhand smoke to talking about how to make the campus tobacco-free, without...

Smoked 52 years, pack a day. Bought ecig mini in Jan. 2009, just for convenience, not intending to quit. Used occasionally, then "accidentally" quit one afternoon almost two years ago. Aftereffects: No shortness of breath after walking up stairs, which was really bothering me before. Don't...

Here's another effect of smoking bans, in a story about crime in a popular entertainment district in Columbia, SC: