Smoking

Vaping: We’re being fooled again….

Terry Maguire on November 26, 2022, 8:07 am

| Readers 3865

Normally coal-mine owners don’t advise on climate change and Mcdonald’s or Mars don’t advise on healthy eating so why all of a sudden is Big Tobacco advising on health? Big Tobacco, which produces a product that has killed countless millions over the last 100 years and will kill countless millions in the coming years, is now positioning itself as a business committed to our health and well-being. You really need to applaud the nerve. There are now more than three …

One thing to which every generation is doomed is the scathing judgement of the next and the amused perplexion of the one after that…

John Moriarty on January 14, 2021, 8:09 am

| Readers 667

In recent years, screenwriters have discovered a simple means of time-travel. From Don Draper in Mad Men to Frank Sheeran’s flashbacks in The Irishman, there is one prop, one visual cue sure to transport viewers to the bygone era of the middle third of the 20th century: the cigarette, lit and pluming in a bar, an office or a living room. In the west, smoking indoors has been so thoroughly stigmatised in the meantime, those trails of passive smoke render …

Sex, drugs and the moral soul…

Terry Maguire on July 15, 2020, 8:37 am

| Readers 1255

The human desire to alter mood will always be with us and no amount of effort will eradicate it. National experiments with drug liberalisation are mostly unsuccessful in the long-term in spite of the initial headline-grabbing claims of reduced harm. Tobacco is a legal drug and where it does not greatly impact mental function it is highly addictive and causes over 2,000 deaths in N. Ireland each year mostly from cancers, heart disease and lung disease. History gives us some …

Does Smoking Prevent Covid-19 or is it a myth?

Terry Maguire on April 27, 2020, 7:00 am

| Readers 2640

The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie–deliberate, contrived and dishonest–but the myth–persistent, persuasive and unrealistic…… We enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. JF Kennedy 1962 There are many myths emerging as we struggle with the SARS-CoV2 virus pandemic. President Trump again covers himself in glory with his latest; suggesting intravenous disinfectant as a treatment option. Vitamin C, Zinc and Vitamin D are all appearing as disease preventors but there is little evidence …

First do no harm – smoking and the ethics of vaping…

Soapbox on June 25, 2015, 12:20 pm

| Readers 1358

Michael McBride is crystal clear; our Chief Medical Officer believes too many people are vaping and this is a bad thing. In a recent TV interview he was unambiguous in his discouragement of e-cigarettes. The views of CMO are important, people listen and people take note. He’s not alone; the British Medical Association, WHO, European Commission and the Welsh Assembly are all censorious. So are they right? One thing on which Michael McBride and I agree is the need …

POTD – Here mate. Take my photae

Moochin Photoman on February 26, 2011, 7:42 am

| Readers 14

How could i refuse? Moochin PhotomanPhotographer and visual artist based in Belfast. I have facilitated community based workshops with groups as diverse as visually impaired individuals in Dungannn, Travellers across Northern Ireland, Young Offenders and many community groups across Belfast. My work has exhibited extensively here in Northern Ireland in group and individual shows and has been shown in North America and i had my first solo international exhibition in New Zealand. I have been the recipient of a number …