Women Smoking Cigarettes

Smoking in downtown Chico, near businesses in the city limits and in Bidwell Park could soon be illegal. “There’s the rights of people to smoke cheap Camel cigarettes in public versus the rights of people to breathe clean air,” Internal Affairs Committee chairman Jim Walker said.

Walker said the city has to protect both, even if smokers represent the minority.

The committee voted unanimously today to refer the issue of a year-round ban in city parks to the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission.

The committee also voted to re-address a regulation against smoking within 20 feet of building entryways after it hears a report from the Downtown Chico Business Association and the Chico Chamber of Commerce. That limitation would effectively ban smoking downtown because the entryways are within 40 feet of each other, said Heather Keag of the DCBA.

Butte County has an adult smoking rate of about 19 percent.

The Chico City Council referred the issue to the Internal Affairs Committee Sept. 20 after receiving a letter requesting the smoking ban from the American Lung Association.

Smoking is already prohibited within 20 feet of public buildings, in City Plaza, in Caper Acres, and in upper Bidwell Park from May to November because of the fire hazard.

A number of high school students asked the committee members Tuesday to support the ban to limit second-hand smoke and to cut down on cigarette butts littering Bidwell Park.

“It’s more than just gross — it’s
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disgusting, it’s repulsive,” said Chico High School freshman Jacob Sturgis. “It’s really hard for me to enjoy Bidwell Park with (cigarette) butt litter on the ground.”

Committee member Bob Evans said he’s unsure if a littering ordinance would be necessary or enforceable since state law already prohibits littering.

“You don’t want to make ordinances just for the sake of making them,” Evans said.

Keag said a number of downtown businesses endorsed the smoking ban but the business association has yet to take a stance.

Shelly Brantley of the American Lung Association signed the letter to Mayor Ann Schwab. She told the committee she understands smokers have rights, but asked that they not be allowed to do so near building entryways and in parks.

Evans said he is concerned about downtown employees who are smokers.

“I don’t know if they can go out, jump in their own cars and drive out of downtown, or quit their jobs or be cited,” Evans said.

Though he said the best option would be for them to stop smoking, Evans thinks it puts the employees in a precarious situation.

The committee might address the ban at its next meeting, on Dec. 13.

Walker said as a medical professional, he understands the health concerns of smoking but he also sees the smoke as an annoyance.

“Part of me sees our society becoming less and less tolerant of others’ annoying habits,” he said.

Emotions (derives from Latin word “emoveo”, signifying “exciting, amazing”) is a special class of psychological phenomena, exhibited in a form of spontaneous, biased experience of a person connected with life sense of these phenomena.

The given class is presented by some types such as emotions of wanting: anticipation, greed, hope, envy, desire, love; emotions of not wanting: fear, shame, repulsion, contentment; emotions of having: happiness, pride, guilt, jealousy; emotions of not having: anger, sadness, distress and others. Emotions are what we feel inside of our bodies. It is good when positive emotions prevail in your life, but what should you do if it isn’t so? How do people cope with negative emotions which sometimes fill them?

It may seem strange at first sight; still women are more exposed to negative emotion’s expression. Being the representatives of the fair sex, women are more sensitive to everything; they take it too close to hearts than male sex. And the first their tranquilizer in such situations is simple cigarette. That is why it is very difficult for them to quit it even if they hunger after it.

Under the words of a leading doctor of known rehabilitation center, women have more trouble quitting cigarettes, in comparison with men, as smoking helps them to endure strong emotional shocks, problems. Most women prefer smoking tobacco to pills, being convinced that it is capable to plane state of mind and to calm them down.

Since 2006, the University of Hong Kong’s school of public health has offered gender- specific counseling under a “Smoking Cessation Service for Female Smokers.” There was carried a survey in which participated 332 women smokers. The results of this survey have revealed that the percentage of women smokers, within an average age of 35, who quit after going through the program, made up 26.5%. The number is to a little degree higher than of previous studies, in which 21.9 percent of females stated that they had dropped smoking after non-gender-specific counseling.

The professor of the department of nursing studies at the university’s Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, Sophia Chan Siu-chee, emphasized that, regardless the fact that the increase in the success rate is not substantial enough, still the effect rendered by this program is obvious. Although the majority did not quit smoking entirely, 56% of women succeeded to lower tobacco consumption, while 12% returned to their original consumption levels.

“The main reason of inability to give up this habit is smoking craving. When they are not happy, they tend to smoke. When they have discords in family, misunderstanding with beloved persons, job problems, they take cigarette”, added the professor.

The study also showed that the increase in tobacco taxes resulted to a surge in the number of women involved in the program.

The director of the school of public health, Lam Tai-hing, wailed over the fact that warnings on cigarette packs are too mild and should be reformed in order to operate and the financial secretary should think about increasing the tax again this coming budget by another 10 percent at least.