Smokers

Rosalie Sugalski understands all about smokers' rights."I remember how important it was to me to have those couple of drags," said Ms. Sugalski, 55, once a three-pack-a-day smoker.But 12 years ago, a diagnosis of lung cancer scared her into quitting -- cold turkey. In a long operation, a piece of her lung was removed."After that, I couldn't even think about a cigarette," she said, sitting in the cozy living room of her rowhouse tucked neatly behind a white picket fence in Conshohocken, Pa.Lately, though, Ms. Sugalski said she has thought a lot about cigarettes -- specifically, the steady stream of secondhand smoke she inhales daily at her place of work, Markel Inc., a Norristown, Pa.-area manufacturer of insulation products with about 160 employees.

Here's a question for you: Don't smokers (cough, cough) have rights, too?In case you haven't noticed, smokers have increasingly come under, uh, fire. Now, we learn, smokers are not simply committing suicide, one little death stick at a time. The EPA boys say Joe Camel and the gang are killing the rest of us, too: Estimates on the death toll from second-hand smoke range from 3,000 to 40,000 a year.You could see how this would get some people steamed.On the heels of this report, the Orioles made their own pointed statement to smokers.

The men with the Royal Jamaicas hadn't quite made it to the last row before one could hear the distinctive crackle of plastic, then the scratch of matches.Then it hit. Hot and heavy, sweet and sharp; the stench of 85 burning cigars. Thick blue smoke curled to the ceiling like a gaggle of freed genies, clouding the chandelier and seeping into the seams of suits and dresses -- even the wallpaper.For the men and women attending the recent "Cigar and Brandy Experience" at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Dana Point, Calif.

Attention, non-smoking women married to smokers:A new study, the largest of its type, found that living with a smoker significantly raised the risk of lung cancer in women who had never smoked.Never-smokers married to smokers were 50 percent more likely to develop adenocarcinoma of the lung, the most common lung cancer in women. These women were also 30 percent more likely to develop other forms of lung cancer, according to the study.The longer women lived with smokers, the greater their risk of developing lung cancer, the study found.

Maryland's tough new smoking ban has only been in effect a few days, but that's more than enough time for a columnist to form snap judgment and jump to hasty conclusions about how it's working.So let's see what we have here, shall we: Sullen office workers huddling in doorways for a few frantic puffs before rushing back to their stress-filled jobs. Resentful factory employees grabbing a smoke in the rain on their lousy 10-minute break. Sociopathic inmates and jittery guards sweating out nicotine withdrawal in the hellholes of violent penitentiaries.

GENERALLY, I like to live and let live, but certain types of drivers just get my radiator in an uproar. Sara Richards agrees. "I hate smokers who seem to feel no remorse for throwing their cigarette butts out the window," she said. "All you have to do is look out your window at any traffic light next time you are waiting for the light to turn green to see the curb covered with used cigarettes butts. It's disgusting! "What I don't understand is that most of these offenders would never dream of throwing out a used fast food bag, but they'll toss their butts out almost [without thinking]

Who should be screened for lung cancer with the new, low-dose CT scans? It's a tough call because doctors disagree and insurance doesn't pay for it, so if you do opt for this noninvasive test, you'll be paying out of pocket -- about $300. In October, the New England Journal of Medicine published a study of more than 30,000 current and former smokers and found that screening, which can catch lung cancers very early, at Stage I, was linked to a projected 88 percent, 10-year survival rate if patients were treated promptly with surgery.

Smokers who have long been harangued about the medical consequences of their habit have a new one to ponder: It might be harming their sleep. A new study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine found that smokers are four times as likely as nonsmokers to report trouble sleeping and feeling rested the next day. Measurements of brain activity showed that they aren't experiencing as much deep sleep during the night, a possible side effect of...

WASHINGTON - Tobacco companies have manipulated menthol levels to attract young cigarette smokers and keep older ones, researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health reported yesterday. Their finding, with which industry spokesmen disagree, is based on a review of more than 500 internal tobacco industry documents dated from 1985 through last year. Researchers say the documents showed that tobacco companies studied how controlling levels of menthol could increase brand sales. They concluded that new and young smokers liked mild menthol that masked the harshness of tobacco smoke.

For years, smokers have been exhorted to take the initiative and quit - use a nicotine patch, chew nicotine gum, take a prescription medication that can help, call a help line, just say no. But a new study finds that stopping is seldom an individual decision. Smokers tend to quit in groups, the study finds, which means smoking cessation programs should work best if they focus on groups rather than individuals. It also means that people may help many more than just themselves by quitting - quitting can have a ripple effect prompting an entire social network to break the habit.