Quakes Trigger Smoking habits

Cantabrians are turning to Camel cigarettes to cope with earthquake stress. Canterbury Smokefree co-ordinator Vivien Daley said Canterbury calls to Quitline had dropped from 14 per cent of the total to 9 per cent since the February quake.

She said feedback from General Practitioners (GPs) and quit-smoking organisations showed more people had started smoking again.

"This is very worrying but an understandable trend given what we've all been through in the last nine months," she said.

"For smokers, the memory of the way they used to handle crises by smoking was triggered by the enormity of the earthquakes and the effect they have had on our lives."

Daley said smoking was expensive and people would probably regret starting again.

For Young People, Hookah is Cool

Sitting in a cloud of cinnamon-scented smoke on the patio of House of Hummus in Murfreesboro last week, Nick Mackie chatted with a group of friends while absent-mindedly surfing the Web on his laptop.

Mackie, House of Hummus’ manager, and his friends were smoking flavored Al Fakher tobacco through a traditional Middle Eastern hookah — a glass chamber filled with water that is usually a couple of feet long. Tobacco on top of the hookah is heated by burning coals. Smokers inhale the tobacco smoke through a hose that is attached to the hookah.

Cigarettes Tax Renewal to Governor

The Legislature is challenging Gov. Bobby Jindal’s pledge to veto the renewal of a 4-cents-a-pack Lucky Strike cigarette tax that would expire in 2012.

Senators voted 29-8 Thursday to approve HB591 by Rep. Harold Ritchie, D-Bogalusa, which House members earlier approved 70-30. A two-thirds vote (26 in the Senate, 70 in the House) is the minimum vote required for a tax bill to pass.