Special Offers and No Smoking Day 2010 Suggestions

To celebrate GASP’s 30th anniversary we are introducing monthly tobacco prevention special offers . Check out the website to see the latest smokefree specials. Also to promote No Smoking Day, 10 March 2010 we are featuring our recommendations for your No Smoking Day events.

This months specials are:

• 3 for 2 Blocked Blood Vessel

• 25% of Ten-a-day Tar Jar

• Tips to help you quit pack

Tar Jar

The 'Tar Jar' graphically demonstrates the amount of tar in tobacco smoke and helps to explain to smokers what causes cancer, bronchitis and emphysema. The average 15 to 20 a day smoker takes about a mug full of brown, sticky tar into the lungs every year. The sight of the Smoker's Tar Jar has been enough to motivate smokers to stop! It stimulates much discussion and interest on stalls, in stop smoking groups and smoking education lessons. A best seller and an excellent talking point.

Also available
'Ten-a-dayTar-Jar' - A smaller tar jar representing the amount of tar a 10-a-day smoker takes in over a year

For information on these products and many more, head over to the GASP website

No Smoking Day Song ideas and Lyrics

Song ideas for No Smoking Day Events

I want to Break Free (Queen)

(I want to break free) 
(And live life smoke free) 
I want to break free from your lies 
My health is denied, but I’ve tried and I’ve tried

I don't need you 
I've want to break free 
God knows, God knows I want to break free 

It's strange but it's true 
I can't get over the way you harm me like you do
But I have to be sure 
When I walk out that door 
Oh how I want to be smoke-free,
Oh how I want to break free, 
Oh how I want to break free 

But life must go on 
I will get used to, living without, living without, 
Living without cigs by my side 
I don't want to die young, hey 
God knows, got to make it on my own 
So ciggie can't you see 
God knows, gods know, gods know
I want to break free


Chains (Beatles)
Chains, my smoking’s got me locked up in chains.
And they ain't the kind that you can see.
Whoa, oh, these chains of nicotine got a hold on me, yeah.

Chains, well I can't break away from these chains.
Can't run around, 'cause I'm wheezy
Whoa, oh, these chains of nicotine won't let me be, yeah.


Take these chains (Ray Charles)
Take these chains from my heart and left smokefree 
My lungs feel old and no longer breathe carefree 

All my breath and energy’s gone and the wheezing lingers on
Take these chains from my heart and left smokefree.

Other Songs:
Unchained melody
Chain gang
Unchain my heart

No Smoking Day 2010

GASP ideas for developing the 2010 No Smoking Day theme of ‘Breakfree’. Plus additional ideas for chains, chain gangs, hands, ‘We can Help’, and number ten appearing in day and year: 10/3/10.
Break Free Chains and enslavement, human chains, paper chains, chains made out of bendy curlers, garden fence chains, and plastic joke chains and ball and chains etc. Houdini, slavery, Big Cig in chains, chain gang in costume, prison bars made of ‘cigarettes’, songs about chains with No Smoking words. Chain reactions of tobacco chemicals on the body, chains of support (one advisor helps 40 smokers whose children will benefit and the families will have up to £80,000 a year to spend on food etc), paper chains with messages of support. Breath CO monitor ideas. Make a chain related Break-Free-o-meter chart. Or promote the CO monitor with ‘Change Not Chains’
Hands Hands on help, palmistry, hand massage, henna hand tattoos, handprints with stop smoking messages and tips on. Also research shown as ‘Hands up those who found it hard to break free….?’ Breath CO chart shown as a Hands-o-meter chart with hand prints in green orange and red
WE can Help ‘We can help’ with maps showing where smokers can get help to stop locally or with photos of local people and places who offer help to break free from smoking holding up posters saying ‘We can help’.
Number 10 Use the number TEN as NSD is on the 10 March 2010. Ten reasons to quit, ten tips to quit, ten day countdown, ten quitters and articles showing what has been achieved in the ten years since 2000. Ten commandments of helping smokers to quit, ten pound vouchers to reward smokers who quit
These ideas are available as a downloadable PowerPoint presentation on the No Smoking Day website. www.nosmokingday.org.uk

Tobacco Prevention articles 2: Smoking’s History

Extract from GASP leaflet 'Tobacco is deadly in all its forms'

Pre-history	Mayans of Central America smoked, chewed and snuffed tobacco for 2000 years. Tobacco use spread over central and north America.
1492	Columbus observed native people smoking tobacco and noted it in his journal.
1519	Tobacco leaves brought to Europe.
1556	Tobacco seeds arrived in Europe.
1570	Tobacco plant named Nicotiniana after Jean Nicot, French Ambassador to Portugal who enthused about tobacco’s medicinal uses.
1585 - 6	English colonists in Virginia took tobacco back to England. Sir Walter Raleigh a pipe smoker popularised smoking for pleasure.
1604	King James (1 England /VI Scotland) wrote ‘Counterblaste to Tobacco’
1660	Snuff introduced to England from France.
1820s	Flue-curing of tobacco began.
1828	‘Nicotine’ isolated as active ingredient.
1840 - 70	New plants strains and curing methods produced milder, mellower tobacco.
1854 - 56	European soldiers take up Turkish rolled cigarettes during the Crimean War.
1881	US patented cigarette machine, produced 200 cigarettes per hour.
1914 -18	Great War spread smoking.
Post 1918	Women began smoking cigarettes.
1929	Filter cigarette introduced.
1937	Cigarette tar produced cancer in laboratory animals.
1938	US researchers noted non-smokers lived longer than smokers.
1950 - 56	UK researchers linked cigarette smoking with lung cancer.
1962	Smoking and Health report published by Royal College of Physicians.
1964	US Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health.
1965	Cigarette advertising banned on UK TV. Health warnings printed on US cigarette packs.
1970	Cigarette advertising banned on US radio and TV.
1971	Health warnings appear in UK. ASH set up.
1973	Tar and nicotine yields published. ‘Milder’ brands introduced.
1984	First No Smoking Day launched.
1986	Tobacco advertising banned in cinemas.
1988	Report on passive smoking published. World Health Organisation introduced World No Tobacco Day.
1993	Doctors’ study showed one in two smokers die from tobacco causes diseases and smokers 3 times more likely to die in middle age.
1997	Smokers reached 1 billion worldwide with China in the lead.
1998	US tobacco executives admitted nicotine is addictive.
2000 - 2004	EU directive on health warnings and tobacco regulation. EU ban on tobacco advertising phased in. Framework Convention on Tobacco Control adopted by 171 member states.
2003	New York City introduced smokefree law.
2004 - 2005	Ireland introduced smokefree law. Other countries followed including New Zealand, Norway and Italy.
2006 – 2007	Scotland introduced smokefree law followed by other UK countries the following year.
2008	Picture warnings and more regulation.
2010 - future	Annual tobacco related deaths predicted to rise from 5 to 10 million by 2020. The Framework Convention Alliance will act to reduce tobacco use worldwide.

Tobacco prevention articles 1: Whats In Tobacco Smoke?

Whats In Tobacco Smoke?

(Extract from the leaflet Whats In Tobacco Smoke? )

There are over 4000 chemicals in tobacco smoke. The number of chemicals is not so important. What matters is how toxic they are and how much of the toxins are present. Tobacco smoke is a complex mixture of compounds produced by burning tobacco. Chemicals are present as:

•	Gases (carbon monoxide, acrolein, hydrogen cyanide, nitrogen oxide)
•	Liquid vapours (formaldehyde, methane, benzene, ammonia, acetone)
•	Tiny particles or tar (phenols, nicotine, naphthalene)
•	Metals (arsenic, cadmium, nickel, chromium, lead)
•	Radioactive compounds (polonium 210, potassium 40, lead 210)

‘Sidestream’ smoke comes from the burning end of a cigarette and ‘mainstream’ smoke from the mouth end. Chemicals are inhaled into the lungs. Many pass through the lungs, into the blood stream and are pumped around the body.

Nicotine delivery
Cigarettes are highly engineered products, designed to deliver regular doses of nicotine.
Cigarette tobacco is blended from two main leaf varieties:
1. Yellowish ‘bright’, or Virginia tobacco contains 2.5-3% nicotine
2. ‘Burley’ tobacco contains 3.5-4% nicotine


Where do the chemicals in tobacco smoke come from?

•	Tobacco plants contain nicotine, a toxin that plants use to prevent animals from eating it.
•	Tobacco leaves absorb radioactive substances such as polonium 210 from the air.
•	Agricultural chemicals (fertiliser, pesticide, insecticide, fungicide) and compounds in the soil are absorbed through the roots. These include arsenic and cadmium.
•	Processing and curing (drying) tobacco produces nitrosamines.
•	Hundreds of flavourings and additives are used to make smoking easier and better tasting.
•	Cellulose filters and cigarette paper contain chemicals. Filters stop some particles but not gases.

Cigarette paper and filter
Nicotine and tar delivery can be modified by the cigarette paper. Porous paper lets more air into the cigarette, dilutes the smoke and reduces the amount of tar and nicotine reaching the lungs. Filters are made of cellulose acetate and trap some tar from inhaled smoke. Filters cool the smoke, making it easier to inhale more deeply.


What else is in tobacco smoke?
Fillers
These consist of stems of tobacco plants, mixed with water. It varies among cigarette brands.

Agricultural chemicals
Herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, fertilisers are agricultural chemicals routinely used in tobacco growing. Tobacco is imported so it not known which agricultural chemicals are in the cigarettes.

Additives and flavourings
Over 600 additives are allowed in UK cigarettes. They are added during the manufacturing process to make tobacco products more acceptable to the user. Reasons for additives include:

•	To add flavour. Sweeteners; sugar, honey, liquorice and cocoa reduce harshness of the smoke.
•	To lessen irritation. Menthol numbs the throat.
•	To change the chemistry of nicotine. Ammonia increases the addictiveness of nicotine.
•	To change smoker’s bodies. Chemicals in liquorice and cocoa open the airways to allow more nicotine and tar into the lungs. Other additives make the brain more receptive to nicotine.
•	To keep tobacco moist to prolong shelf life.
•	To control the burn temperature.
•	To treat the cigarette paper.

Inhaled vs. ingested
Chemicals that are inhaled cause more damage than ingesting them because lungs are better than intestines at absorbing them. For example, our guts absorb about 6% of cadmium in our food, but our lungs absorb 60% of inhaled cadmium.

GASP ©
gasp@gasp.org.uk
www.gasp.org.uk