Only In Australia

[stephenrowley]

Thought you might get a kick out of this, 1st they ban the electronic cigarette then you find an article like this:


Australia to Speed Introduction of Safe Cigarettes After Fires


By Michael Heath

Feb. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Australian government is seeking to accelerate the introduction of self-extinguishing cigarettes in the wake of the nation’s deadliest bushfires.

Consumer Affairs Minister Chris Bowen has asked for advice from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission “looking at the possibility of bringing forward the start date” from March 2010, his spokesman said by telephone today.

Police aren’t ruling out that a discarded cigarette may have ignited one of the blazes that swept through the southeastern state of Victoria this month, killing at least 208 people.

The commission is in talks with cigarette companies and importers about an earlier introduction, Peter Kell, deputy chair of the ACCC, said.

“The aim is for a date before the next bushfire season,” he said by telephone today.

Victorian statistics suggest about 7 percent of bushfires on public land are started by cigarettes and 8 percent of fire- related deaths in Australia between 2000 and 2006 were linked to cigarettes, according to ACCC research published last year.

The fire safe cigarettes, made with special paper and lower burning additives so they go out if left unattended, are compulsory in some U.S. states.

To contact the reporter on this story: Michael Heath in Sydney at mheath1@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: February 20, 2009 00:59 EST

We should contact them and tell them about e cigs not causing fires

 

[TribbleTrouble]

Maybe the fires that they suffered from is the kick in the ... the Australian government needed to re-open the book on E-Cigs. Which means more to them, keeping Nicotine liquid out of their citizens hands, or supporting a non-combustable cigarette? Only time will tell.

 

[TropicalBob]

Amazing logic, isn't it? I read an article this morning (not sure it was interpreted correctly) that said New Zealand will soon follow Australia with a ban on e-cigs, despite the fact that the world's preeminent researcher lives and works there.

 

[Cage]

Bureaucratic logic.
90% of all ...... users started out smoking marijuana, BUT...
100% of all ...... users started out drinking milk.
Conclusion - Shoot all the cows.

 

[TropicalBob]

That might also solve global warming and climate change, since cow flatulence contributes more greenhouse gases than all transportation combined (18% vs. 15%). *TRUE.

Shoot the cows! Or get rid of your car and ride a cow to work. Bonus: You can eat your transportation when it finally breaks down.

 

[Cuando]

That might also solve global warming and climate change, since cow flatulence contributes more greenhouse gases than all transportation combined (18% vs. 15%). *TRUE.

Shoot the cows! Or get rid of your car and ride a cow to work. Bonus: You can eat your transportation when it finally breaks down.

Does your wisdom know any bounds?

 

[OutWest]

FWIW, from my experience these "fire safe" cigarettes are a joke and a huge misnomer. I've been smoking so-called "fire safe" cigarettes for a couple of months now (1-2 packs a day) and I've had a total of 5 or 6 of them actually go out on their own. Most of the ones I've set in the ashtray have continued to burn down to the filter.

IMHO, theyre not "safe", they dont always go out, and people will end up burning down their house because they threw it in the rubbish bin because it's "fire safe"

edit to add - i've seen a person throw lit "fire safe" cigarettes on dry grass and when I said something he replied "it'll go out, it's fire safe"

edit again to add - I agree with Stephen, should contact the reporter and Consumer Affairs Minister Chris Bowen about e-cigs and how in their infinite wisdom theyve banned the safest cigarette there is.

 

[skex]

That might also solve global warming and climate change, since cow flatulence contributes more greenhouse gases than all transportation combined (18% vs. 15%). *TRUE.

Shoot the cows! Or get rid of your car and ride a cow to work. Bonus: You can eat your transportation when it finally breaks down.

The difference is that the carbon that driving your car produces has been sequestered deep under the earth for a few million years while any gasses coming out the back end of a cow has been a part of the ecology throught that entire time.

The problem with polution from burning fossile fuels it that it's putting chemicals that were not previously in the cycle there for while 18% of green house gasses might come cows it does not equate to an 18% increase in those chemicals the 15% coming from burning fossile fuels does constitute an actual increase in the amount of those chemicals in circulation.

That's why smoking a cigarette or driving a biofuel power vehicle is carbon neutral and doesn't cause climate change but burning gasoline or coal does.

 

[TropicalBob]

Good Lord. Get a sense of humor, man. Make the funny connections ....

 

[LaceyUnderall]

Well... it will be interesting to see if the FSC's start fires like they do here in the states. Just recently, a janitor caught fire to a basement in a school by smoking. Of course, they did not report that the state of Illinois has been FSC since 2007.

That might also solve global warming and climate change, since cow flatulence contributes more greenhouse gases than all transportation combined (18% vs. 15%). *TRUE.

Shoot the cows! Or get rid of your car and ride a cow to work. Bonus: You can eat your transportation when it finally breaks down.

**imagine picture of Homer*** "mmm... steak!"

 

[skex]

Good Lord. Get a sense of humor, man. Make the funny connections ....

I have a perfectly functional sense of humor. I just get rubbed the wrong way when information like this is passed about as if it was fact. It's pretty typical right wing anti-science clap trap that sounds reasonable at first brush but seriously misleads people because most hear it and just nod their heads.

A lot of people read this stuff and believe that because of this one isolated fact that the people talking about the dangers of climate change are full of crap. Even though there is no serious debate amoung reputable scientists.

You seem to be a reasonable person interested in accurate information and you are exactly the sort of person this type of propaganda is aimed at. I didn't reply to attack you I did so to inform.

I've read quite a bit of what you post here and I've seen you to be a considered and honest individual and I understand you were meaning the statement in jest.

However I suspect that you did buy into the line else you wouldn't have made that particular funny. Because it would only be trully ammusing if it were rooted in truth. Since it is not it's simply perpetuating a lie which was exactly the reason this little tidbit was put out in the first place.

This is anoying as all the people who talk about saving trees and spotted owls when talking about the environment. Environmentalism has absolutely nothing to do with saving trees or owls and everything to do with saving humas.

It's like the other day when I picked up my 5 year from pre-school where they've been studying polution and he told me that polution hurt the earth.

No, polution hurts people, the earth could give a ****. It was here several billion years before we were and it will most likely be around a few billion after we're gone.

For what it's worth forest fires are carbon neutral ;-P

 

[TropicalBob]

I'm not offended, you are correct, and it was a joke.

"Animal Armageddon" on Animal Planet last night dealt with the second great extinction episode on Earth, a time when life mostly disappeared, only to return in a vastly different fashion. Yes, we humans are a blip -- inconsequential in the planet's Big Picture. Earth likely will be here, evolving, long after our intelligent species has disappeared.

See, I do understand my place in the Grand Scheme of Things. I'm almost as low as a smoker.

 

[ApOsTle51]

so whats all this about cows then ??

 

[Cage]

 

[Cage]

To be fair...
It's not just the cows:

 

[TribbleTrouble]

Yeah, I saw a History Channel show about the millions of years that the Earth took to sequester all of that carbon. We have put almost all of it back into the atmosphere withing the last 100 years, or so. That methane from the cows butts, though, isn't helping things either!

 

[MonkeyMonk]

Perhaps Australia will, now, reconsider re-legalizing e-cigs. Yes? Is there any chance? Were there any supporters of keeping it legal before it was banned?

 

[TropicalBob]

Sherid, that news item is a separate thread. It deserves a separate thread. It doesn't have anything to do with Australia and is far too important to be a simple post in another thread.

 

[Terraphon]

*snip*

 

[Sun Vaporer]

Terraphon--This is a classic and should be added to the "Emotions" that we can add to or Posts--Great One!! Sun

PS--is there any way to cut and paste this!! LOL