Age limitaion

All around the globe, there are age limitation in every coutries to limit underage drinking. There are countries with high age and countries with low age. The age varies in different parts of the world. In Japan the age is 20 and while in United states, it is 21. There are countries without any age limits at all. The reason why there is none is because of religious purposes as well as the traditions. However, smoking at early days would definitely hurt the child’s bodies therefore, it is not really recommended

http://smoking.ygoy.com/2008/04/17/what-is-the-legal-smoking-age/
Mitsu

Quitting cigarettes

When a person smoke a cigarette, how fast does he or she gets addicted? The answer is immediately. The nicotine and the chemicals inside of cigarette will stimulate the persons’ brains and it makes less stressful for the smoker. However when that stimulation ends, the smoker wants to feel relaxed again so he or she lights up another cigarette and starts smoking. This addiction cannot be stopped so easily and a stron will to stop is required to stop smoking.

Quitting smoking is never too late. As fast as the smoker realizes the dangers of smoking, the risks of endangering their lives will decrease. So it is never too late to quit smoking. As fast as the smokers stop smoking, the longer they can live.

In order to quit smoking, there are therapies and medicines needed for the smoker to stop smoking. The most well-known quitting method is nicotine replacement therapies. Skin patch is one of the examples of nicotine replacement therapy. There are other methods such as inhalers and nasal sprays. Inside of these methods, there is a medicine called Bupropion, this is the medicine that helps the smokers to quit smoking.  
So far in United States of America, there are over 50 million people succeeded in quitting smokingAs long as the person wishes to quit, the result will follow forsure.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007438.htm
Mitsu

shortterm and longterm effects of smoking

There are short term effects caused by cigarette. Cigarette can give the smokers hard time breathing, therefore doing an exercise after smoking will give the smoker hard time, because he or she does not get enough oxygen in their lungs. The resperation system will decrease due to smoking cigarette, therefore those who have asthma may end up killing theirselves.

Theere are also long term effects of cigarettes. The cigarette will damage the entire respiration system, this is why the smokers have hard time breathing. But not only that,  the smokers will hurt their arteries and veins. This could lead to death because there would be clots in the arteries and veins. And of course, smoking cigarette would give high risks of cancer. So, if you want to live, don’t smoke.

http://stopsmokingonlinetoday.com/quit/effects-of-smoking/

Mitsu

Harmful chemicals in cigarette

Inside of cigarette, there are numerous amount of chemicals. Out of them, there are harmful chemicals, they are Cyanide, Benzene, Formaldehyde Methanol (wood alcohol) acetone,  Ammonia. These chemicals are considered harmful and are the reasons why people die from smoking. Many of them are gas or liquid, therefore you do not know when you are infected by them. And if you think hard about it, these chemicals are disgusting. For example acetone, acetone is a nail polish remover, made and usually used for nails, however this chemical is included in cigarettes. Benzene is liquid that can cause cancer and leukemia.

http://www.stop-smoking-programs.org/chemicals-in-cigarettes.html
Mitsu

Smoking survey

 Today, I would like to introduce the smoking survey which I made by SurveyMonkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VPTCMNN). In order to prevent teenagers from smoking, I believe it is necessary for me to know your ideas. This survey helps you realize the danger of smoking and there will be a fun quiz with answers given at the end. The quiz is based on careful research compiled by WHO.
The purpose of the survey is finding better solutions as well as informing you how harmful
smoking is. In the question no.1, I ask your nationality, gender and age in order to know a little
about you. In the questions no.2 and 3, I ask why you started/didn't start smoking, because I
want to understand what makes people become friendly/unfriendly with cigarettes. In the
question no.4, I observe the relationship between the type of smokers around you and how likely
you are to smoke. For example, I thought if someone has a friend who is a heavy smoker, he or
she has more chances to start smoking cigarettes. In the questions no.5 and 6, I ask if your
country has any regulations on cigarettes and what you'll do to stop underage smoking so that I
can apply some of them to the Japanese smoker's cases. In the question no.7, I ask a fun quiz
about cigarettes so as to emphasize disadvantages inherent in smoking. Finally, in the question
no.8, I ask you to make a comment on this survey to make it better.
Anyone who is interested in this survey, please cooperate with me. The survey won't take
much time (10 minutes at most) and there are many interesting topics in it. Besides, the survey is
completely anonymous. That is to say, I won't know any personal information except what you
answered in the questions no.1~8.
Many thanks for your cooperation. The results will be published in this blog by the end of this
month.

Yuki Taniguchi

Two yahoo groups

Today, let me introduce a couple of anti-smoking groups. The first one is NicotineBusters

(http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/NicotineBusters/), which is an on-line group of challengers trying to stop smoking and break free from the addiction. According to the description, NicotineBusters offers many helpful files and links so that participants share information and encouragement to achieve their goal of staying non-smokers. Although this group focuses on proper ways to stop smoking, I'm sure I will get sufficient information. For example, I can learn how addictive smoking is by reading stories written by former smokers. Besides, NicotineBusters has 1437 members, which are not too few or too many compared with other groups, and it was established 12 years ago, so I feel this group is reliable and trustworthy. Even though NicotineBusters requires membership to check messages, I expect no spams in this group because it is moderated to keep a high quality of help. For these reasons, I believe NicotineBusters develops a good relationship with users.

The second one is quitsmoking(http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/quitsmoking/), whose purpose is literally to help smokers quit smoking. In this group, participants discuss issues concerning cigarettes, mainly nicotine addiction, and methods of giving them up. Quitsmoking also provides us with a large-scale Website containing over 150 pages. Therefore, I think this group will be a good source of information. In fact, quitsmoking is composed of 3474 members, so the email volume is fairly high with hundreds of messages a day. However, as far as I've checked, there were no spams in this group although it is not moderated. Since it was created 13 years ago, quitsmoking has been the place where those who try to give up smoking encourage one another. Now, I'll explain some recent conversation in this group, which is about a lucky guy who gave up smoking.

The master of the thread gave up smoking two years ago and asked his physician for

prescription for a lung CT scan due to his smoking history. It came back “abnormal”, that is, if

he had continued smoking he would probably be dead now. By posting his experience, he made

us realize how dangerous smoking is considering latent damage. In fact, there were several

comments answering, “you are a lucky guy” or “I became afraid of smoking” and so on.

Yuki Taniguchi

Word cloud 2

Here’s another word cloud I just created. When I created I was surprised to see that the fonts are hard to read and the background color was pitch black. I can tell that it is about something bad and maybe inappropriate. It has words like young, age, smoking, and tobacco as large texts. I can also tell that this is about age of smoking and the underage smoking.

              Mitsu Nakata

Word cloud

Here’s a little word cloud. As you can see, it has Smoking, cancer and consumption as big words. I can tell that this site is about the consumption rate of smoking has risks of cancer. It also has words like quit and prevention, therefore it also talks about how quitting smoking help people in the end.

Mitsu Nakata

Who invented cigarettes

There are couple of possibilities, but it is said that beggars in Spain was the one who invented cigarettes. It was 1614 in Seville Spain who collected scraps of cigars and rolled tobacco up in papers. There were people who used pipes to smoke but the cigarettes that we see today were actually created by the beggars in Spain. The reason why the pipe cigarettes were turned into paper based was that the consumption rate was starting to go high and the cost of tobacco leaves and the cigarette was starting to go high.  It was 1880 that the machine to roll the cigarettes was patented. In England, smoking used with pipes was popular, but as the time goes on and the world became global, the paper based cigarettes became popular.

posted by Mitsu

Answers to the fifteen questions

Today, I would like to give you answers to the fifteen questions which I asked in the previous

post and talk about the danger of smoking in detail. I hope every one of you understands smoking

does us more harm than good especially when it comes to smoking by teenagers. First of all, did

you know there are about 200 toxic substances contained in tobacco smoke, which includes

nicotine, tar and carbon monoxide? (see the questions no.1 and 2) As you might know, these chemicals are very harmful to the human body. For example, a number of smokers are suffering
from lung cancer. (see the questions no.5, 7, 8) However, smokers are not the only ones who pay
the price for smoking ― as mentioned before passive smoking has a strong effect. (see the
questions no.3 and 14) Therefore, smokers must keep in mind smoking harms their health as well
as the health of people around them.

According to Japanese history, tobacco was originally introduced from Portugal in the Edo
era. (see the questions no.4 and 6) Since then, Japan has been overlooking the danger of smoking,
although there are millions of people dying from smoking because they are much addicted to it.
(see the questions no.9, 10 and 11) In fact, in Japan, there are no shocking images printed on a
case of cigarettes and warning sentences are very small, which is a violation of the law in other advanced nations. Besides, Japanese teenagers have almost no trouble in getting cigarettes because there are a couple of vending machines in streets. The reason why Japanese government is too easy with smoking is probably that it can earn a lot of money by imposing tobacco tax. (see the question no.13) I think this is a serious problem because in Japan there are some smokers who smoke in public as if they were regarding it as something cool or fashionable. Stop for a moment and consider disadvantages inherent in smoking ― what if tobacco being lit hurts an eye of children or how much money cigarettes cost. (see the questions no.12 and 15) I believe this is a good way to start give up smoking.

Written by Yuki Taniguchi

my questions

1.What substances are harmful in cigarette Cyanide

Benzene
Formaldehyde
Methanol (wood alcohol)
Acetylene (the fuel used in welding torches)
Ammonia

2.What is short term effects of smoking
Creates poor lung function

3.What is long term effect of smoking
Damages arteries

4.Can quitting the cigarettes help a lifelong smoker
Yes, it is never too late to stop smoking

5.How fast do people get addicted to cigarettes
Immediately

6.How do people try to quit smoking
Nicotine replacement therapies

7.What medicines help stop smoking
Bupropion

8.About how many people in United states succeeded in quitting smoking
Over 50 million

9.What is the danger of second hand smoke
Cancer

10.Why do people smoke
To relieve stress

11.Who invented cigarettes
Beggars in Spain around 1614

12.Who gets addicted to smoking
Anybody

13.Are menthol cigarettes safer than others
It is worse

14.When do people in Japan are allowed to smoke
20

15.When do people in America are allowed to smoke
21

Interesting Web sites about smoking

Today, I would like to introduce two Web sites about smoking. The first one(http://kidshealth.org/teen/drug_alcohol/tobacco/smoking.html) explains how much harm smoking does to the human body. Although this Web site contains some shocking pictures, I recommend you to take a look at it. I suppose you will be surprised at how dangerous smoking is. The second one (http://www.npr.org/2012/01/02/144451043/japanese-smoking-culture-proves-hard-to-snuff-out) explains smoking in Japan, but I think this Web site tends to use exaggeration. For example, I don't feel
smoking is all but synonymous with manhood for Japanese people. However, this Web site contains some interesting articles as well ― I believe that Japanese government is taking advantage of tobacco tax as mentioned in this Web site.

fifteen questions about smoking

1. How many toxic substances are contained in tobacco smoke? Ans. about 200
2. What is the main toxic substance of cigarettes? Ans. nicotine, tar or carbon monoxide
3. What is passive smoking? Ans. the inhalation of smoke by people other than the intended
   “active” smoker, second-hand smoke or environmental tobacco smoke
4. What language the word “tobacco” is originally from? Ans. Portuguese
5. What kind of disease will smokers have? Ans. cancer
6. When was tobacco introduced to Japan? Ans. during the Edo era
7. What is tobacco made from? Ans. the leaves of tobacco (tobacco is also used to make pesticide.)
8. What influence does carbon monoxide have to human bodies? Ans. to hinder blood
   from carrying oxygen
9. How many people die because of tobacco every year? Ans. about 5.4 million
10. What percentage of smokers will die because of tobacco? Ans. about 50 percent
11. What percentage of smokers can stop smoking completely? Ans. about 30 percent at the
    most and about 10 percent at the least
12. What is the temperature of tobacco when it is lit. Ans. about 700~800 degrees Celsius
13. In Japan, how high the tobacco tax is? Ans. About 60 percent
14. Which is more harmful, active smoking or passive smoking? Ans. passive smoking
15. Imagine that you smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, which cost you 400 yen. Then, how much money you will pay for tobacco in a year. Ans. 144000 yen

I LOVE SMOKING AND I CANNOT STOP!!

Hello I am 60year old man smoking ever since I was 20. I think there is no point in limiting the age for smoking cigarettes. I have smoked for a long time and I went to hospital because i had trouble breathing. i had cancer and was told that I cannot live for a long time. But WHO CARES!!! I love smoking and i cannot stop it just becasue I might die soon. It is our choice to smoke or not, and I chose to smoke. It is my life and I am of smoking! I'm smoking and I'm proud! I have no regret in my life. Doctors have no right to tell me how long I can live, I make that choice! Without cigarettes there is no reason to live for me.

we need to limit smoking somehow

Hello I am an eleven year old girl. My parents smoke and so does my brother. They are always smoking so, my house smells like cigarette all the time. I heard that there are chances of me getting cancer eventhough I do not smoke. Second hand smoke was it? I do not want to die eventhough I do not smoke. I wish that my family quits smoking becasue I want them to care about me about the dangers of second hand smoke.

An example of smoking by teeagers

I took up smoking when I was a high school student in Japan. The reason why I started smoking is that my senior students recommended me to smoke, although it was the violation of the law. At first, I thought smoking was cool and fashionable. Besides in Japan tobacco is easy to get because there are lots of vending machines in streets. However, now, I'm suffering from smoking. I cannot concentrate on my study without smoking a cigarette. I know I'm addicted to it, but I cannot possibly give up smoking. My high school days were completely a mess, because I was always having a quarrel over smoking. I hardly talked with my family because they hated tobacco smoke. I hardly had chances to make friends with my classmates, because they regarded me as a juvenile delinquent. I sometimes "borrowed" money from my parents so that I could buy cigarettes. It was terrible, because I know I was being taken advantage of the government considering it gets too much tobacco tax, yet nevertheless, I continued betraying my friends, neighbors, and family. If I could go back in time, I wouldn't depend on cigarettes.

I am a heavy smoker(15 year old)

I am smoking 15 year old. I am heavy smoker and smoke over 3 packs a day. I cannot live without the cigarettes and without it, I cannot live. I am a Japanese student, and I want to keep on smoking eventhough it is illegal. I love smoking and cannot live without it. Making age limit is useless for me because I was smoking ever since I was 12. My first time was when my father told me to buy the cigarettes from a vending machine. I am being told to stop smoking by my teachers, otherwise the teachers are going to expell me from my middle school. I believe that it is easy for people in Japan to buy the cigarettes, and to stop making teenagers like me, I would like to support for keeping the underage from smoking in Japan.