Smoking

Just downstream from an industrial recycling operation and a stone's throw from a sewage treatment plant, a fisherman casts his line toward the passing barge traffic and watches it drop into the Delaware River. A couple eating lunch watch curiously. "No way would I ever eat anything from there," the woman says. The fishers who frequent the pier in Camden's Waterfront South neighborhood have heard it all before. That they're crazy, that they're going to grow an extra head or get sick from eating what they catch.

WHY DOES Novella K. Lyons feel the need to segment the fight for clean air in the workplace? This is an issue that has absolutely nothing to do with race, yet she finds the need to mention lung-cancer rates for African-American males only, not once pointing out that maybe the reason for such high numbers is that one in every five adult African-Americans are smokers. Let's keep the focus on making it safer for food-service workers of all colors. Deric L. Adger, Philadelphia

IT'S unbelievable that the state leggies and governor would pick a day that will live forever in our hearts and minds to be the start of a socialist smoking law? The arrogance of the anti-smoking cartel and anti-small business pols to not only enact this socialist law but to implement it on 9/11. Geesh! Don Minichino, Stormville, N.Y.

The Food and Drug Administration's plan for gruesome warnings on cigarette packaging will help public health officials level the playing field in a way that could save lives. With authority granted by Congress in 2009, the FDA has ordered that half of every cigarette pack - both front and back - must contain a photo depicting the health ills of smoking, as well as the blunt warning that "Smoking can kill you. " Not for the faint of heart, these shocking images: About two years from now, cigarette packs will display diseased lungs, toe-tagged bodies, terminally ill cancer patients, and the like.

Recently the National Academy of Sciences stated that cigarette smoking on board aircraft should be banned altogether because cigarette smoke may be harmful to nonsmokers and the crew. Being a reformed cigarette smoker, I can state unequivocally that cigarette smoke to me is obnoxious on an aircraft whether it is near me or a passing breeze. Inasmuch as cigarette smoking has never been demonstrated to improve anyone's health, inasmuch as it has been demonstrated to be harmful to the health of those who smoke, inasmuch as cigarette smoking is usually bothersome to the nonsmoker, I heartily agree that cigarette smoking should be banned.

The signs used to say, "Thank You for Not Smoking. " Now, they insist, "If You Smoke, Don't Exhale. " Restaurant patrons storm up to smokers and demand that they stub out their cigarettes. Throughout the country, hundreds of laws that restrict smoking force smokers to puff in bathrooms and closets. In at least one case in Southern California, a woman was refused a job because she smoked. And last month, smoking was banned on commercial airline flights of less than two hours. Those are some visible signs of what more and more people believe: Smoking is no longer a nasty habit, but a harmful practice, and people who continue to smoke deserve to have their judgment questioned.

Last month, Cherry Hill Moving & Storage Co. banned smoking in its office. On Thursday, the moving company, in association with the American Cancer Society, took its anti-smoking campaign on the road. One of its 45-foot moving vans traveled around Camden and Gloucester Counties asking residents to give up smoking during the Cancer Society's annual "Great American Smokeout. " During a new segment of the nationwide event, the moving company's van hosted the "Great American Sign-up.

The chairman of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee wants the state to help medical-assistance recipients quit smoking. Sen. John E. Peterson (R., Venango) has introduced legislation that would provide $133,000 to the Department of Public Welfare next year for people who use prescriptions or enter programs designed to help them stop smoking. "The studies have shown that the cost of providing some of the deterrents is a lot less than taking care of some of the consequential health problems that arise," said Barbara Gleim, executive director of the committee.

Three security guards hired by the district to catch underage smokers at Friday's football playoff game against Plymouth-Whitemarsh handed out four $50 citations to violators, school officials said yesterday. The district spent $200 on the extra security to crack down on what students and administrators said was a problem at home games. Until now, the district has not aggressively enforced its no-smoking policy at the stadium, school officials said. "I think it [the enforcement effort]

Fewer American teenagers and young adults are lighting up as cigarette taxes that have broken the $3-a-pack threshold in some states make smoking too costly, according to the latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Daily smoking, the leading cause of preventable illness and death in the United States, fell to 15.8 percent in 2010 among young adults 18 to 25, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said in a report. That share was down from 20.4 percent in 2004.

Standing before the charred, burned-out house where four members of a West Philadelphia family lost their lives this week, Mayor Nutter implored city residents on Tuesday to make fire safety a top priority. Get smoke detectors, Nutter said. Check the batteries. Devise an escape plan for family members in the event of fire, and practice it. "In 2012, in the 21st century, in Philadelphia, no one should unnecessarily lose their life in a fire," Nutter said. "These are preventable tragedies.

NEITHER of the two Philadelphia homes destroyed by fire Sunday and Monday, leaving three adults and three children dead, had functioning smoke alarms. In fact, 27 of last year's 32 fire fatalities occurred in buildings without smoke detectors, or with detectors with dead or missing batteries, according to the Fire Department. Anyone who can't afford a detector can call the smoke-alarm hot line at 215-686-1176 to get a free one from the city. "We ensure that our Fire Department personnel get out there and install the alarm immediately," said Executive Chief Richard Davison.

For bubble and squeak: 1 pound Idaho potatoes, peeled 3 ounces butter, plus more for cooking 1 leek, cleaned and thinly sliced 1/2 head green cabbage, thinly sliced 3 ounces heavy cream Vegetable oil Salt and pepper 8 ounces sliced smoked salmon 4 eggs (optional) For dill hollandaise: 6 egg yolks 1 lemon 14 ounces clarified butter 1 sprig fresh dill, chopped   1. Place potatoes in a stockpot and cover with cold water.

PHILADELPHIA is literally in "poor health. " In a study released Tuesday, the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation ranked Philly as the least-healthy county in Pennsylvania for the third consecutive year. But it's not entirely city residents' fault. "Much of what this is about is poverty and socioeconomic factors that go beyond individual action," said Donald Schwarz, the city's health commissioner and deputy mayor for health and opportunity.

With Pennsylvania and New Jersey both receiving failing grades again this year on their efforts to fight smoking and help smokers kick the habit, the latest report from the U.S. surgeon general should be a wake-up call. The report from Surgeon General Regina Benjamin details how states' failure to invest in antismoking efforts has meant that three million new teen and young-adult smokers have gotten hooked. If Joe Camel were real, no doubt he'd be high-fiving the tobacco-industry executives who seem to be winning the battle for the hearts (and lungs)

How much longer are Pennsylvania leaders going to treat thousands of casino, tavern, and other workers like second-class citizens when it comes to protecting them from deadly secondhand smoke? Some 3 ½ years after the state enacted its indoor smoke-free law, those employees continue to be exposed to cigarette smoke on the job at 2,800 workplaces that weren't covered by the 2008 ban. It's time to close the loopholes, which the smoke-free law author - State Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R., Montgomery)

LET THE changing of your clock this weekend be a reminder that it's time to check your smoke detector. It could save your life. The Philadelphia Fire Department and the southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the Red Cross are sponsoring a program called "Change Your Clock - Change Your Battery" that's timed to this weekend's "spring forward. " Last year, 32 people died in fires in the city. Of that number, 84 percent occurred in homes that had improperly installed smoke alarms, alarms with dead or missing batteries, or no smoke alarm.

LET THE changing of your clock this weekend be a reminder that it's time to check your smoke detector. It could save your life. The Philadelphia Fire Department and the southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the Red Cross are sponsoring a program called "Change Your Clock - Change Your Battery" that's timed to this weekend's "spring forward. " Last year, 32 people died in fires in Philadelphia. Of that number, 84 percent occurred in homes that had improperly installed smoke alarms, alarms with dead or missing batteries, or no smoke alarm at all. If you can't afford a smoke alarm, call the Smoke Alarm Hot line: 3-1-1.

HACKENSACK, N.J. - New Jersey fire officials said that an 82-year-old homeless man with emphysema accidentally caused a car explosion when his cigarette ignited gas from a leaking oxygen tank inside his vehicle. The Record reports that four people - the man, two police officers and Fire Department Lt. Stephen Lindner - were hurt in yesterday's explosion. Lindner was approaching the smoke-filled car with a hose when it exploded. An employee of a nearby store had pulled the man from the car. Fire Chief Matt Wagner said that the man, who wasn't identified, uses about a tank of oxygen a day and was storing them in his car. - Associated Press