Have you ever wondered at the state of your lungs after your years of smoking? We all see the pictures of terrible diseased looking lungs and yet we continue to smoke until some spark sets your mind to quitting and even still we think about all the other aspects of quitting but not the health of our lungs it seems. Cleaning out your lungs may seem like the last thing on your mind (or not even there if you think it was not possible) but what if your attempt to quit smoking cigarettes and better lung health are entwined and rely on each other?

This is the case because cleaning out your lungs is not only good for your health but will actually make you not WANT to smoke again!

A quick fact: It takes the average long term smoker about 15 to 20 for their lungs to detoxify themselves and become relatively healthy which is a heck of a long time for you to be breathing through an organ choked with tar and noxious substances.

If you take active steps to detox and clean out your lungs then you can reduce that dramatically down to less than one year with the right culmination of lung exercises, diet changes, cardio exercise and knowing certain vitamins that actively work against the tar and toxins in your lungs.

How does this help me quit smoking though?

The advantage to having cleaner healthier lungs beyond the obvious benefits of being able to breathe easier and have les chance of lung cancer is that with a cleaner set of lungs your body is once again repelled by the toxins and irritants in cigarette smoke that it had become accustomed to. People who have cleaned out their lungs have described feeling sickened at the smell of cigarette smoke after a few months and never felt the urge to smoking again because to their body it was not enjoyable anymore.

For information on the exact methods to use in cleaning out your lungs and more on how it can help you quit smoking click below now!

Washington’s taxes on a pack of cigarettes, currently the fifth-highest in the U.S. at more than $2 a pack, would jump by another $1 per pack if proposed legislation is approved.

Under legislation proposed by state Sen. Rodney Tom (D-Medina), proponents say, at least 24,000 smokers would quit if the tax is raised to more than $3 a pack.

The average retail price of a pack of cigarettes would soar from $5.38 to more than $6.30 if the tax is approved.

Tom’s legislation is being pushed by a coalition of health-care and anti-smoking advocates, including American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

The groups say that if the tax is approved, 41 million fewer packs of cigarettes would be sold in the state each year; nearly 13 percent fewer youths would smoke; and there would be 6,300 fewer adult deaths attributed to smoking in the next five years.

“This legislation is a great step forward toward reducing the number of new smokers in Washington state,” said Aaron Doeppers, regional director for Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, in a statement.

    They might be considered safe, but harm-reduction cigarettes can be even more toxic than traditional cigarettes, according to a new study.
Researchers from University of California - Riverside have found that smoke from the “light” or “low-yield” harm-reduction cigarettes retains toxicity, and that this can have an adverse impact on prenatal development.
“Many chemicals found in harm-reduction cigarette smoke have not been tested, and some are listed by manufacturers as safe,” said lead researcher Prue Talbot and a professor of cell biology.
“But our tests on mice clearly show that these chemicals adversely affect reproduction and associated development processes.
“The effects are likely to be the same in humans, in which case pregnant women would be particularly vulnerable to the effect of smoke from these cigarettes,” she added.
During the study, the researchers used mouse embryonic stem cells (mESCs) as a model for pre-implantation embryos-embryos that have not yet implanted in the wall of the uterus-and compared the toxicity on these cells of cigarette smoke emanating from traditional and harm-reduction brands.
They analysed the effects of two kinds of cigarette smoke: mainstream smoke, which is smoke actively inhaled by smokers; and sidestream smoke, which is smoke that burns off the end of a cigarette.
The results showed that both kinds of smoke from traditional and harm-reduction cigarettes were toxic to pre-implantation embryos and could retard growth or kill embryonic cells at the stage of development.
Moreover, mainstream smoke and sidestream smoke from harm-reduction cigarettes were found to be more potent than the corresponding smoke from traditional brands of cigarettes.
“This result was unexpected since harm reduction brands purportedly have lower concentrations of toxicants,” Talbot said.
“Clearly, the tobacco companies have not eliminated all toxins from harm-reduction brands of cigarettes,” said Talbot, who also is the director of the UCR Stem Cell Center.
“We found that both mainstream and sidestream smoke from traditional and harm-reduction cigarettes hindered the attachment of mESCs to extracellular materials.
“Such attachment is crucial to normal embryonic development. Moreover, cell survival and proliferation-also necessary for embryonic growth-were hindered as well.
“This may be because sidestream smoke is produced at a lower temperature and therefore contains higher concentrations of toxicants,” Talbot added.
The study appears in the journal Human Reproduction. (ANI)

First came bans in municipal and office buildings, then restaurants and most workplaces.

And soon, puffing a cigarette in Dallas bars and billiard halls could likewise go the way of ashtrays in airplanes as the Dallas City Council agreed Wednesday to vote next week on a long- debated expansion of the smoking ordinance.

But that’s about all the council agreed upon: Members remain deeply divided over whether to support the expanded restrictions.

Mayor Tom Leppert, Mayor Pro Tem Elba Garcia and council members Angela Hunt and Ron Natinsky have supported an expansion of the ordinance, primarily touting the health benefits of all workplaces operating free of secondhand smoke.

"It’s time for the city of Dallas to move forward," Dr. Garcia said. "Everybody deserves clean air."

Other council members, including Tennell Atkins, Sheffie Kadane, Jerry Allen and Vonciel Jones Hill, have criticized the proposed expansion as an infringement on personal or business rights. Mr. Kadane last month called it "communistic."

"Banning smoking in bars is a minor issue to y’all. That’s my perception, right, wrong or indifferent," Mr. Allen told anti-smoking advocates Wednesday during a sometimes-emotional, three-hour debate. He predicted that Dallas will ultimately move toward even more restrictive smoking ordinances.

Others, such as Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Dwaine Caraway and council member Dave Neumann, said they’ve yet to make a final decision on which side to support.

What’s certain is that Dallas’ proposed smoking ordinance expansion is hardly as sweeping as initially considered.

Next Wednesday, the council is scheduled to vote on a yet-to-be-finalized ordinance that officials say will include banning smoking in bars, billiard halls and within 15 feet of the entrances to most workplaces. The 15-foot buffer zone would not apply to doorways leading to bar, restaurant or billiard hall patios.

Cigarettes online shops and businesses deemed cigar bars by the city would be allowed to continue operating, status quo.

But broader ideas – such as banning smoking in passenger vehicles where children are present or in city parks or outdoor plazas – never received serious consideration during recent meetings held by a special committee of council members tasked by Mr. Leppert to investigate a smoking ban expansion. They’re all but off the table for next week’s debate.

LONDON — The U.K. government said it plans to ban cigarette displays in stores, but stopped short of ending the sale of cigarettes from vending machines and abandoned the controversial proposal of stripping tobacco products of their logos.

The law it will introduce would also prevent underage access to vending machines, the Department of Health said.

When countries such as Canada introduced similar legislation, smoking among 15- to 19-year-olds dropped by around 10%, the government said.

A spokesman for Imperial Tobacco PLC — the U.K.’s No. 1 tobacco seller with 46% of the market — called the ban on retail displays "unnecessary and disproportionate," adding, "We’ve not seen any credible evidence that showed young people start smoking because of displays in shops."

The regulations will be introduced gradually in 2011 to 2013, with larger retailers implementing the changes first.

The measure would require consumers to demonstrate proof of age before being allowed to use the cigarette vending machines. The British Medical Association welcomed the move. "However, the BMA is disappointed that the government is not planning to ban cigarette vending machines. We hope the proposals to make vending machines ‘childproof’ will be rigidly enforced and that if they don’t work, then this issue will be revisited by ministers," the group said.

While all major global tobacco companies operate in the U.K., Imperial Tobacco and Japan Tobacco Inc. have the biggest market share.

In May, the government published a document proposing a number of measures it said could reduce the number of smokers, particularly young smokers. They included a possible ban on the sale of packets of 10 cheap cigarettes and stripping cigarette packets of all branding and logos — a measure never tried before in any market. Both measures were rejected.

Under the packaging proposal, packets would have been decorated only with the brand name in standard type and a pictorial health warning — an image of a diseased lung, for example.

Analysts had warned such a measure would destroy the ability of tobacco companies to expand profits.

Like millions of Americans, President-elect Obama knows how hard it is to quit an addiction - in his case, cigarettes - and break the habit for good.

The temptation to backslide is strong, particularly in stressful times such as these.

On Meet the Press on Sunday, Obama acknowledged that he had "fallen off the wagon" in his effort to beat a reported two-decade smoking habit. But he vowed that in the White House, he would not violate its no-smoking rules. Still, that is no guarantee he might not find himself sneaking into the Rose Garden from time-to-time for a puff or two.

Cigarette Smoking is blamed for one in five deaths in this country and costs billions in health care. While millions quit annually, Big Tobacco, in particular, targets minorities and teens to replace them.

Look no further than the late ABC News anchor Peter Jennings to see the deadly pull of cigarettes.

Jennings had quit smoking for 20 years when, under the stress of covering the 9/11 attacks, he lit up again. Just months after announcing he had lung cancer, Jennings died in August 2005.

With New Year’s almost upon us, and quitting bound to top many a resolution list, the nation’s smokers - and possibly future ones - might be expected to turn their eyes to Obama.

And here, we hope, the president-elect will - with the loving encouragement of his wife and daughters, no doubt - set an example that will lead him and other Americans to healthier living.