The wacky world of college scholarships
Need some help affording college? A special skill or interest — or even a particular last name — can put a big dent in a student’s tuition.
The electronic cigarette online survey.
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), which rush in popularity in 2008, may be the most promising product for tobacco harm reduction yet. E-cigarettes deliver a nicotine vapor without the combustion products that are responsible for nearly all of smoking’s health effects. Other than anecdotal accounts, there is little information about who uses e-cigarettes, and whether people who switch from cigarettes to e-cigarettes experience changes in symptoms caused by smoking. This pilot online survey, conducted by tobaccoharmreduction.org, investigated e-cigarette use for smoking cessation and changes in health status and smoking caused symptoms.
A convenience sample (n=303) was enrolled by e-mail and links on various blogs and forums in May-June 2009. Independent university researchers at the www.tobaccoharmreduction.org project analyzed the data.
All respondents previously smoked and 91% had attempted to stop smoking before trying ecigarettes.
Most respondents resided in the USA (72%) and 21% were in Europe. About half
(55%) were 31-50, while 32% were >50 years old. Most (79%) of the respondents had been using e-cigarettes for <6 months and reported using them as a complete (79%) or partial (17%) replacement for, rather than in addition to (4%), cigarettes. The majority of respondents reported that their general health (91%), smoker’s cough (97%), ability to exercise (84%), and sense of smell (80%) and taste (73%) were better since using e-cigarettes and none reported that these were worse. Although people whose e-cigarette use completely replaced smoking were more likely to experience improvements in health and smoking caused symptoms, most people who substituted e-cigarettes for even some of their cigarettes experienced improvements.
These are highly motivated and passionate e-cigarette users who may have different experiences than average e-cigarette users or smokers, and thus the estimates cannot be extrapolated to all smokers or e-cigarette users. However, the results still suggest that very few e-cigarette users are not using them to replace cigarettes and there are many switchers and current smokers who could have the reported experience. Unfortunately e-cigarettes have been banned in some jurisdictions (e.g., Canada, Victoria (Australia)) where switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes was documented. The lack of available and legal e-cigarettes may cause some users to resume smoking.
Introduction
Awareness and use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) has dramatically increased in the past two years. These devices, which are manufactured and sold by several different companies, deliver nicotine by vaporizing a gel composed of water, propylene glycol, flavorings, and nicotine. E-cigarettes deliver nicotine without the products of combustion that are inhaled by smoking cigarettes. Therefore, the health risks are likely similar to those from smokeless tobacco, which has approximately 1% of the mortality risk of smoking. There is likely some remaining risk due to the stimulant effects of nicotine. E-cigarettes are one category of no combustion nicotine product (others being smokeless tobacco and pharmaceutical nicotine products) that are promising for tobacco harm reduction, the substitution of less harmful nicotine products for cigarettes [3,4].
E-cigarettes are widely available in the United States and Europe and are also available online through many different distributors. E-cigarettes have been banned in some jurisdictions including Canada [5,6] and Victoria (Australia) [6] and are subject to the indoor “smoking” bans in others (e.g., [7]). Although there are legitimate concerns about quality control and product tampering, the importation/sale bans have been criticized by public health advocates because they do not merely address the products’ flaws, but eliminate a promising smoking cessation intervention, offering few realistic options for bringing the product back to market. There is a high likelihood that some people who switched from cigarettes to e-cigarettes but lose access to e-cigarettes will resume smoking.
There are many testimonials and anecdotes on the internet about people switching from cigarettes to e-cigarettes but, to our knowledge, there have been no quantified data published.
One online e-cigarette distributor based in the United Kingdom conducted an online marketing survey of their e-cigarette users and made their data available to researchers at the University of Alberta School of Public Health for re-analysis.
The objectives of this study were to describe e-cigarette users’ patterns of cigarette and e-cigarette usage and smoking cessation attempts and to compare health status and smoking-attributable symptoms between people who completely switched from smoking to e-cigarettes, those who partially switched, and those who supplemented cigarette smoking with e-cigarette usage.
The survey assessed respondents’ use of cigarettes, e-cigarettes, smoking cessation (including use of pharmaceutical products and switching to e-cigarettes) and changes in smoking-caused symptoms since using e-cigarettes. The dataset included 304 observations, one of which excluded from all analyses because only country of residence and comments were entered.
There were two sets of two observations each, which had the same IP address. There were no entries with the same e-mail address. In addition, there were 31 observations with no IP or email address.
Results
Approximately half of the sample was between the ages of 31 and 50, one-third were more than 50 years old and none were under the age of 18. Nearly three-quarters resided in the US, followed by 17% from the UK. Most of the respondents had been using e-cigarettes for less than six months and all had smoked prior to using e-cigarettes. Most of the respondents had previously tried to stop smoking multiple times.
The majority (86%) of respondents had tried pharmaceutical products to quit smoking, nearly two-thirds of whom indicated that these products did not help them to stop smoking. However, most of the sample was able to use e-cigarettes as a complete replacement for cigarettes.
The majority of the respondents indicated that their general health, smoker’s cough, ability to exercise, sense of smell and sense of taste were better since starting to use e-cigarettes and none indicated that these were worse when responding to these five questions.
On average, respondents who lived in Europe had used e-cigarettes for longer than respondents in the US, but were less likely to use e-cigarettes as a complete replacement for cigarettes. There was a positive relationship between the number of times participants had tried to stop smoking and using e-cigarettes as a complete replacement for cigarettes. Most (81%) of the respondents who indicated that pharmaceutical products did not help them stop smoking used ecigarettes as a complete replacement for cigarettes.
Although the majority of respondents reported that their health and smoking-caused symptoms improved since using e-cigarettes, there were some notable trends in which groups were more
likely to report improvements. Respondents who had been using e-cigarettes for a longer period of time, who had completely replaced their cigarettes with e-cigarettes, or were younger, were more likely to report improvements.
Visit us on www.TheSmartSmokers.com
About the Author
St. Margaret’s School Victoria British Columbia
Many have expressed alarm at a growing trend called “sexting”, where young people send explicit and indecent photos to each other using their cell phones. Not to mention what they are doing on their home computers. Are your sure you chSexting, cyberbullying, online predators, pedophiles, cybercrimes, stop sexting, texting and driving, stop online predators, stop cyberbulling, web safety, cell phone safety. safety cellphone, danger cell phone, safe cell phone, safe cell phone softwareldren are just harmlessly textSexting, cyberbullying, online predators, pedophiles, cybercrimes, stop sexting, texting and driving, stop online predators, stop cyberbulling, web safety, cell phone safety. safety cellphone, danger cell phone, safe cell phone, safe cell phone softwareng?
Many people think that sexting is simply a modern day version of love letters or the way “kids act these days”. True, our children are exposed to a lot more at a lot earlier these days through the media, movies, and the internet. But, does that make it right? Kids who have been asked and interviewed about this new behavior frequently brush it off as just fun. Parents do too or contend that THEIR children would never. But, what started out as risqué fun among adolescents has spread quickly and with serious consequences. Parents and adolescents alike should pay attention.
A couple serious considerations to think about:
Real Stories – Don’t let them happen to your child
Cyberbullying
Last year, a woman aged 18 from Cincinnati, Ohio, killed herself after being bullied by fellow pupils who had seen photos of her naked. Jessica Logan had originally sent the pictures to her boyfriend, but they had ended up in the hands of hundreds of her schoolmates. She endured months of insults online and in person, describing her as a “whore” and a “porn queen”.
Cases of bullying as a result of sexting are now beginning to emerge in Britain. Saskia, 15, had a female friend took a photo of her while she was changing.
She tried to take the phone off her but it turned into an argument and she left. Saskia later found the picture on MySpace Her phone number was also posted, with a note telling men to call “for a good time”. She was distressed after receiving a number of messages from boys.
Prosecution
6 high-school students in Pennsylvania were arrested on child pornography charges. Three were girls who allegedly took pictures of themselves, and were charged with manufacturing, disseminating or possessing child pornography. Three were boys from the same school who were found with explicit photos on their mobile phones by police, and were charged with possession of child pornography.
In Goshen, Ohio a 19-year-old cheerleading coach was convicted of indecency charges after taking a topless photo of herself and a 15-year-old girl.
While in Texas, a 13-year-old boy was arrested on child pornography charges in October, after receiving a nude photo of a fellow student on his mobile phone.
Happens Easier than you think
1. Jen, 14, takes sexual photo of herself on her camera-phone and sends it to her boyfriend, Colin, 15. Jen is now potentially guilty of distributing child pornography. Colin is potentially guilty of possession of child pornography.
2. Jen dumps Colin. Out for revenge, Colin sends photo to his friends at school. Colin is now also guilty of distributing — and his friends of possession — of child pornography. Jen is embarrassed as sexual photo of herself circulates school.
3. Colin’s friend uploads photo to his social networking profile, where his photos are visible to the public. Colin is in breach of website terms and guilty of distributing child pornography.
4. Pedophiles browse profiles with loose privacy settings and find image of Sarah. Sarah unwittingly becomes subject of child pornography for distribution among strangers and pedophiles who may contact her and try to meet her.
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Please consider that any child could be victim to cyberbullying, sexting, online predators, or prosecuted and labeled as a sex offender. As much as we try to educate and protect them, it’s often beyond our control. Luckily, there is new technology that can help parents be better informed and stop these stories from becoming their own. New technology stops inappropriate cell and computer contact AND sends you an instant alert right to your cell or email. A small investment in new technology can save your child humiliation, prosecution, and labeling for life. Sometimes when technology harms us we are able to innovate and protect ourselves again. Wonder what the next thing will be?
About the Author
Todd Smith is a financial planner, coach, and entrepreneur. His lates project is dedicated to child safety advocacy and empowering parents to better safeguard the lives of their chindren. You can email him at 2keepthemsafe@gmail.com or join his CAUSE at www.mywebsafety.com/keepyourkidssafe
The Day Our Shit-Hot Pilot Bush Froze Solid
