Safe Speed Forums

But Saira Khan, from the Wiltshire Safety Camera Partnership, said
According to ASH 112,000 people die each year in the UK alone through smoking related illness. Half of them are middle aged.

That equates to 306 people per day!
I hear no outcry!!!

Er, they seem to be doing their best to ban it, AFAICS. There is a huge (and IMV largely hysterical) outcry.

(I'm a non-smoker, btw)

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"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Hi Peter,

Yep, I'm aware there are moves afoot to stop smoking in public places! Hoewever, the Exchequer rakes in £10 billion per annum from tobacco excise duty.

If 1 in 10 quits smoking as a result of the ban the Exchequer loses £1 billion in revenue...

Coincidently, speeding fines amounted to £0.7 billion last year...

I think you can see where I'm going on this one!

Dave

Dave.. stats

This clan have great difficulty with one set of stats seen justifying mobile set up. We know there were no such accidents. Concede - perhaps one with a fast clear up operation as well aware what IG's type do... they try to get things moving quickly if they can - I really respect IG and people like him - not just family loyalty either. (He's my wife's cousin - how we met and became firm buddies ) But these numbers were an unbelievably exaggerated fibble.

But am a medic - and will say the deaths due to lung cancer and related respiratory diseases are down to lifestyle - and some victims are passive smokers and others have other respiratory disease which has worsened due to modern factors - such as aerosol pollution, smokey atmosphere, general pollution - as well as the obvious - indulgence in a bad habit...

But I also lose helluva lot even now to AIDS - shared needles, unprotected sex...it's still there and not really abating. (HIV deaths account for most of the virology deaths...and reflect badly on this field in NHS Brownie points. )

I lose a lot of patients due to organ donation shortages - some viruses attack the heart muscle - and this means only chance of survival is a heart/lung transplant for some poor folks.

I lose a lot more because I am restricted to some extent as to what I can prescribe under NHS. BUT dearest dru is not alwys best - and some do respond very well indeed to drugs I can prescribe. Others - however... would benefit from a more refined version - and I try to fight for it if think it is best option. But I do not always get my way.

I lose a lot due to simply waiting to see me....

Welcome to Bliar's NHS by the way - I spell it as it is! Not as the spinners spin!

Would I be better off under the Tories? Er.... itf I am honest... see little change...just as it was then - except method of collating figures has changed and I have more artificial targets to meet.

Under the Lib Dems - they promise - but they will not deliver.... they have not cost their manifesto properly as we know how much the drugs cost and what is affordable and what is not.

I could lay into my wife over this - but she designs the drugs. She does not price them!

But accept your point - all stats are pure spin - designed to make someone (usually a vivil servant or otherwise unemployable "twazak" look good.

I do the same with my own We are all "at it" to some extent!

Sad old world..... but reason why I do not take those scam figures at face value.... Know what happens in my own field. Pure spins.... and we cannot believe any set of government figure - whichever flavour - and I am still weighing up which bunch is likely to deliver the best for me and mine and the best for country. But the Bliar is discounted.

Think I might go for tactics in this instance... still deciding....

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

But who many will be saved by the cameras.....I think we need to keep a close eye on the stats.

BTW when did "more then 200 killed OR seriously injured" become 240 wiped out.......When ever we challenge the fatality figures they always refer to serious injuries.

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Speed camera policy Kills

Quote from DFT handbook for camera partnerships

"The programme board would not expect exceptional sites on roads with 70
mph speed limits unless there were a clear and defensible road-safety
reason, based on a casualty or collision history for example as detailed
above. Partnerships are required to notify the programme office where such
sites are operated."

So, pretty much, we are saying that the wiltshire and swindon spin machine is lying through the back of its head to defend its position for 70 mph enforcement.

I think I may drop this Khan woman an email, and demand the PIC figures for the last 5 years for this stretch of the M4. Good old Freedom of Information Act

_________________
"Are you sh**ing me?"
"John Spartan, you are fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute."

OK, email sent. I wait with bated breath for an excuse collection, or a demand for a ridulous fee

_________________
"Are you sh**ing me?"
"John Spartan, you are fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute."

more people die of stress related problems than smoking. smoking relieves stress. there may be no medical evidence of this but there is a psychological effect of a fag calming someone down. anyone who does not see that is unbelievably ignorant. its the same effect of a security blanket for a child. it doesnt actually do anything but the child feels safer with it. same thing

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Richie

SSAFA supporter
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=126025031585

I cannot quote the source. However, I remember seeing a programme - Panorama I think - a long time ago, where this very argument was put forward. however, groups of smokers and non-smokers were assessed for stress. I forget how once again, too far in the past. The results were that a smoke did indeed relieve the stress in the individual - down to the level that existed on average in the control group of non-smokers.

I always felt that the stress relief was partly due to the added oxygen intake more than the cigarette chemicals.

When you smoke, you inhale much more deeply than normal. I think this hyperventilation aids stress relief.

I used this effect when I stopped smoking. Whenever I was gasping for a ciarette, I inhaled deeply.

This put off the craving ................for a short while

_________________
Fixed ideas are like cramp, for instance in the foot, yet the best remedy is to step on them.

Ian

I've stopped smoking twice in the past, and - like an idiot - started again.
the second time was much harder than the first, and I suspect that that is a huge psychological barrier to stopping again. And knowing that it's all too easy to start again, so why put myself through all that agony for nothing.
I salute anyone who has succeeded in beating the habit for good - I wish I could.

Cheers
Peter

I smoked for 20 years and have now gone for nearly 4 years without a fag. Not sure if that means I can say I've "given up" now, all I can say is that I no longer ever crave one and hope that this situation continues.

As regards the "stress" thing, at a physiological level smoking actually increases stress - the "relaxation" effect it entirely a mental association formed between having a fag and taking a break.

And for once I feel compelled to have to dive in and correct Ian. I used to suffer from "panic attacks" to a stage where the problem all but ruled my life. One of the ways in which I learned to control the problem was to understand some of the physical effects, which mainly stem from too much oxygen leading to feelings of panic, which leads to an unwarranted adrenaline rush, which speeds your breathing up, which leads to too much oxygen and so on.

The way to relax is actually to reduce the oxygen level in your bloodstream - in the extreme case a panic attack can be controlled by getting the patient to "re-breathe" in and out of a paper bag to get rid of the excess oxygen.

However, the deep breathing thing is correct, albeit for the opposite reason! Taking frequent short "panting" breaths oversaturates the lungs with oxygen causing panic, whereas slow deep breaths cause you to relax by lowering the oxygen level.

The realisation that anxiety and panic (along with all the associated symptoms which have to be experienced to be believed, in terms of how scary they are) can be cured mainly by breathing exercises was one of the most amazing revelations of my life!

_________________
CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

I'm sure you're right John.

It's now nearly 30 year since my last input on physiology

My own method of putting off the craving was to inhale deeply, much as if I was inhaling a cigarette. If that causes a reduction in the blood O2 level then that's what worked for me!
I'd recommend it to others as an extra technique to employ.

I don't think that the drugs in a cigarette would be able to claim to relax.

IIRC the nicotine stimulates nor-adrenaline into increased activity at the nerve synapses which increase the transmission of nervous impulses increasing nervous activity rather than relaxing it.

I always read this to imply that the bodies metabolic rate would be higher in smokers than non smokers, and was one of the reasons why stopping smoking was usually accompanied by weight gain. (I put on 3 stone )

Someone did say (on another thread) that it was the hardest drug to kick.

I'd agree with that.

I also believe that the introduction to tobacco is an essential precursor to misuse of controlled drugs. I'd imagine the number of drug abusers who didn't smoke would be almost negligible.

Don't really know where I'm going with this, but I'm sure that a reduction in the percentage of 16 year olds introduced to tobacco would lead to a reduction in drug fuelled crime.

_________________
Fixed ideas are like cramp, for instance in the foot, yet the best remedy is to step on them.

Ian

That does work. I mentioned patches in the other thread - they help curb the inhale - but alas - they still maintain the addiction to the nicotine within. We then have to wean off the patches.



Caffeine .. additives in foods... they all do this. And some inter-act with nicotine too and exacerbate the effects.



Why lot of girls start smoking... Partially right. But also body will crave sugar and high starch foods to help it address its withdrawal symptoms. You will eat these and put on weight as result of this. You may not even recall how many extra packets of crisps you ate - and remember these foods also contain an additive which wil make you eat more of it too.



All drugs are hard to kick. Habits die hard. Smoking is a strange one. Some manage it with sheer willpower and others cannot.

Traditionally hard drugs such as heroin... cold turkey is harrowing. Wildy did not get beyond tolerance - but I had problems.

But then - you read what she posts at times.... and the sheer determination to recover ....might give some clues as to what my life was like at the time. Not someone who yields easily.


But then - that very quality saved her.



I am sure you are right.

My eldest son - more or less a model son to be proud of. Has his moments - but he's always been steady.

The twins? My daughter is wilful and very like her mother. Her twin brother? We have had the talk on cigarettes - I copped him last year and think I have contained it for the time being. I have not smelled or detected any evidence. He is a little nore challenging than his older brother - but still generally compliant. But I keep a tight rein on these two. Hormones kicking in - and they both challenge our authority a liitle more than William. They are starting to steady out a little - and hopefully we've ridden out the potential storm here.

Got it all to come with the younger ones....too...

Kids - who'd have them? Expensive, and we both sound like our own parents!

_________________
If you want to get to heaven - you have to raise a little hell!

Smilies are contagious
They are just like the flu
We use our smilies on YOU today
Now Good Causes are smiling too!

KEEP SMILING
It makes folk wonder just what you REALLY got up to last night!

Smily to penny.. penny to pound
safespeed prospers-smiles all round! !
But the real message? SMILE.. GO ON ! DO IT! and the world will smile with you!
Enjoy life! You only have the one bite at it.

My "story" with giving up...

I smoked for 20 years and had several utterly futile attempts at packing it in. Looking back, the truth was that I wasn't really all that committed to the cause.

Then, for no reason whatsoever, I suffered a spontaneous collapsed lung, and spent a night in hospital having it sorted out. Medical advice at the time was that it was nothing whatsoever to do with smoking, and indeed when I was down to "running on one" my blood oxygen level was still at around 95% of what it should have been with two.

But somehow I got it into my head that this was a "warning shot across the bows", and I decided that this was the time to give up. So I just stopped. Finito! From 20 a day I gave up completely in under a week and haven't had a cigarette since, simply because I had finally decided I wanted to be a "non smoker".

The first week wasn't easy, but from then on in my resolve strengthened, and I've never looked back since.

But when I rationalise it now, I think the real issue was that subconsciously I wanted to give up for my children's sake, and my "health scare" was just the prod I needed to get me moving. Even at the worst of the addiction I always wished I'd never started, and I really don't want my two girls to fall into the same trap. If I were to continue to smoke how could I possibly preach about it to them when they are older?

Ok they might still take it up, but at least I won't have to feel any guilt, now I've stopped!

_________________
CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!