Scientists have long been aware that nicotine has a stimulating effect on the brain by improving memory and the quality of data processing. However, information about its curative properties in countless incurable cases surfaced only several years ago, says the newspaper Novye Izvestia.
Dr. Harvey Checkoway, who teaches Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at the University of Washington, was amazed to discover that smokers have a 70 percent lower risk of developing Parkinson’s disease than nonsmokers. Similar statistics relate to Alzheimer’s disease, which appears to be slowed down by nornicotine, an alkaloid extracted from nicotine. Researchers at New York University’s School of Medicine have discovered that nicotine compensates for defects in brain activity, which are caused by schizophrenia. In fact, 88 percent of Americans afflicted with this disease are chain smokers.
Nicotine has also proved to be quite helpful in a variety of allergies. As a mild depressant, it protects smokers from extrinsic allergic alveolitis (“farmer’s lung,” and “bird keeper’s lung”), as well as hay fever and nettle rash; it helps people who suffer from ulcerative stomatitis and ulcerative colitis. Smokers are also safe from skin diseases.
The US researchers claim that the incidence of herpes is lower in smokers. Acting somewhat like the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, nicotine suppresses the production of a specific protein and blocks the development of sepsis. All this, however, does not mean that you can keep smoking and stay happy. Dr. Baron writes that the above advantages cannot justify smoking, because its potential damage by far exceeds its beneficial effects. It is also true, however, that an antismoking campaign, if carelessly planned and designed to scare people with the risks associated with smoking, may have precisely the opposite effect.
A gram of nicotine can kill a horse. Much has been written on the subject. How can a person kick the habit? The Xinhua news agency reported that specialists at a zoo in China’s Shanxi province succeeded in making Ai Ai, a 27-year-old female chimpanzee, quit smoking after 16 years. She has been cigarette-free for four weeks. Zoo staff gradually cut her cigarette supply but started feeding her delicious foods and providing her with other amusements, including walking after breakfast, music after lunch, and gymnastics in the evening, to take her mind off her dependency. “In the first few days, she begged for cigarettes every now and then, but as her life became more activity-packed and interesting, she gradually forgot about them altogether,” one zookeeper said. Ai took up smoking in 1989, after her first mate died. She began demanding more cigarettes from zookeepers after her second mate died in 1997 and her daughter left to live at another zoo. Smoking probably helped her withstand her loneliness and grief.
The chimp kicked the habit. If you are a chain smoker, you won’t be surprised to learn that the news that the Verkhovna Rada recently passed a law banning smoking in public places has saddened millions of Ukrainians. From now on Ukrainians will have to smoke light cigarettes that contain no more than 1.2 mg of nicotine and 12 mg of tar, as specified by the new antismoking law.
From now on, all public places, bars, restaurants, and nightclubs must be divided into smoking and nonsmoking sections. A fine for lighting up in a nonsmoking section will be ten times higher than the price of a cup of coffee. Smoking is forbidden at work and in public places, except in specially allocated rooms. The law bans tobacco advertising on radio and television, in publications designed for children, cinemas and theaters, as well as on street billboards. The new law bans the production, importation, and sales in Ukraine of tobacco products without a warning about the hazards of smoking on every pack.
Violators will be fined anywhere from 50 to 5,000 hryvnias, depending on the severity of the violation. Smokers caught puffing in public places will be fined between 51 and 170 hryvnias. Ukraine has the highest number of smokers in Europe: 19,000,000, including one in every four women and every second eighth-grader. Every year Ukrainians smoke over 100 billion cigarettes. According to a poll carried out by a state statistical agency, one- third of all smokers took up the bad habit 20 years ago; 20 percent are close behind, and approximately as many have been smoking for the past 10 years. Two out of every three smokers smoke an average of between 10 cigarettes and one pack. Physicians say that 110-120 deaths every year are linked to smoking.
A number of European countries (e.g., Italy, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, and Montenegro) have laws banning smoking in public places. Last year Bhutan was the first country to completely outlaw smoking.
Ukrainian manufacturers insist that the new law will destroy companies that produce cheap cigarettes, and that the new bill has a declarative character, as it will not reduce the number of smokers.
