sportiani* (Pbserurr
December 15. 2010
fERS
Surgeon General Warns: 1 cigarette is 1 too many
Even second hand smoke can kill
(A P) — T hink the occasional ciga
rette w on't hurt? Even a bit o f social
sm oking — o r inhaling som eone
else's secondhand sm oke — could
be enough to block y o u r arteries
and trig g er a heart attack, says the
new est surgeon general's report on
the killer the nation ju s t can't kick.
Lung can cer is w hat people usu
ally fear from sm oking, and yes, that
c a n ta k e y e a r s to s trik e . B u t
T h ursday's report says there's no
doubt that tobacco sm oke begins
p oisoning im m ediately — as m ore
than 7,000 chem icals in each p u ff
rapidly spread through the body to
cause cellu lar dam age in nearly e v
ery organ.
"That one p u ff on that cigarette
could be the one that causes your
heart attack," said S urgeon G eneral
R egina B enjam in.
O r the one that triggers som eone
else's: "I advise people to try to
avoid being around sm oking any
w ay that you can," she said.
A bout 4 4 3 ,0 0 0 A m ericans die
from tob acco -cau sed illnesses e v
ery year. W hile the sm oking rate has
d ro p p ed d ram atically since 1964,
w hen the first surgeon general's
re p o rt d e c la re d to b a cc o d e ad ly ,
p rogress has stalled in the past d e
cade. A bout 46 m illion ad u lts— one
in five — still sm oke, and tens o f
m illions m ore are regularly exposed
to secondhand sm oke. T he g o v ern
m ent had hoped to drop the sm o k
ing rate to 12 percent by this year, a
goal not only m issed but that's now
been put o ff to 2020.
T h u rsd ay 's report is the 30th is
sued by the nation's surgeons g e n
e ra l to w a rn th e p u b lic a b o u t
tobacco's risks.
"H ow m any reports m ore does
C ongress need to have to say that
cigarettes as a class o f products
Regina Benjamin
ought to be banned?" asked w ell-
known nicotine expert Dr. K. M ichael
C um m ings o f the R osw ell Park C an
cer Institute, w ho helped to review
the report. "O ne-third o f the p a
tients w ho are in our hospital are
here today because o f cigarettes."
Still, this new est report is u n
usual because it devotes m ore than
700 pages to detail the biology o f
how cigarette sm oke accom plishes
its dirty deeds — including the la t
est genetic findings to help explain
w hy som e people becom e m ore a d
dicted than others, and w hy som e
sm o k ers d ev elo p to b acco -caused
disease faster than others.
T h ere is no safe level o f exposure
to cig arette sm oke, w hether you
deliberately inhale it o r are a non-
s m o k e r w h o b re a th e s in o th e r
p e o p le's fu m es, the rep o rt c o n
clu d es.
K icking the habit lets y o u r body
start healing, B enjam in stressed:
"It’s never too late to quit but the
so o n er you quit the better. E ven if
y o u ’re 70, 80 years old and you're a
sm oker, there's still benefit from
q u ittin g ."
"Now is the time to switch
to compact fluorescent
light bulbs."
H ealth W atch
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A/,/ . .
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Welcome to another
episode of
“ This Old Light Bulb.”
T e n d e r f o o t C a r e -- T reat y our feet w ith a soak, nail trim , buffing and
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PACIFIC PO W ER
Let’s turn the answers on.