Smoking

Disco legend Donna Summer, 63, died Wednesday night, reportedly of lung cancer. As of press time, her family hadn't released details about her illness, so it was unknown what type of lung cancer she had, and how long she may have been ailing. According to the American Cancer Society , lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both women and men, killing more than 150,000 people per year -- more than colon, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers combined. In 2012, the group estimates, there will be about 226,000 new cases of lung cancer in the U.S. Survival rates of people with lung cancer are low. Only about half of people diagnosed with early-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (the more common type)

Re: "Cigarette tax is a lifesaver," Column, May 14 I am not a smoker nor do I have any interest in the tobacco companies. Though I may agree in principle with George Skelton that cigarette companies are deceiving voters about Proposition 29, which would raise cigarette taxes $1 a pack to finance cancer research, I have a problem with the overall premise of the initiative. People have the idea that just throwing more cash at a problem is the best way to solve it. Here, the idea is that we improve cancer research by imposing $800 million in new taxes on smokers.

A new study showing an estimated 7% of American teens and adults carry the human papillomavirus in their mouths may help health experts finally understand why rates of mouth and throat cancer have been climbing for nearly 25 years. The evidence makes it clear that oral sex practices play a key role in transmission. The new data, published online Thursday by the Journal of the American Medical Assn., are the first to assess the prevalence of oral HPV infection in the U.S. population.

Smoking marijuana to relieve the symptoms of multiple sclerosis is a practice with a fair number of adherents, though it has not been subject to rigorous testing. A new study finds that puffing weed does have a rapid and measurable effect on MS patients' muscle spasticity and on their perception of pain. But subjects who smoked pot were not able to walk any faster and -- surprise! -- they felt higher than members of the control group who smoked marijuana stripped of THC. The study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, recruited 30 MS patients who suffered from spasticity -- stiffness and involuntary muscle spasms that are a common symptom of MS -- as well as from pain, usually in the back.

The Navajo Nation Council has voted to ban smoking and chewing tobacco in public places on the vast reservation, including such outdoor venues as rodeos and fairs. The council approved the ban on a vote of 42-27 at the end of its weeklong summer session in the Navajo capital of Window Rock, Ariz. Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. has 10 days to decide whether to sign or veto the law once it reaches his desk.

Sure, smoking is bad for you -- but what happens when you combine it with something really good -- like running eight miles a day? Do you get a healthier smoker? Or an unhealthy athlete? It's one of those is-the-cigarette-half-smoked-or-half-unsmoked conundrums. And there's no definitive answer. "If people can quit, that's the best thing," says Dr. Robert Sallis, director of sports medicine at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana.

The other day, I just couldn't shake the thought of slow-smoking some ribs. I was in the mood for Memphis-style baby backs, the meat fall-off-the-bone tender, a simple dry rub tantalizingly complicated with deep hickory notes, the flavors drawn out with a tart vinegar-Dijon mop. There's a primal wonder to smoked food — that such depth of flavor can come from so simple a technique. And then, of course, there's the lure of the sunny afternoon spent in a lawn chair with a cold beer while you're waiting, patiently, for the Weber to work its magic.

What's to like about taxes? Most people view them at best as a necessary evil to help pay for robust government services - a public benefit. But cigarette taxes are an anomaly. In their case, the tax itself is a public benefit. Proposition 29, which would place a $1 levy on each pack of cigarettes sold in California, would serve the common good by making cigarettes more expensive. Economists have demonstrated conclusively that taxes on cigarettes are an effective tool for reducing smoking rates, which not only benefits the health of current and potential smokers but clears the air for people who would otherwise be exposed to secondhand smoke.

Women in large swaths of the U.S. are dying younger than they were a generation ago, reversing nearly a century of progress in public health and underscoring the rising toll of smoking and record obesity. Nationwide, life expectancy for American men and women has risen over the last two decades, and some U.S. communities still boast life expectancies as long as any in the world, according to newly released data. But over the last decade, the nation has experienced a widening gap between the most and least healthy places to live.

Workers taking cigarette breaks here will have to go outside beginning Monday when the city's new smoking law goes into effect. The hotly debated tobacco control ordinance, approved by the Santa Clarita City Council in June, bans smoking at most indoor job sites. It also prohibits cigarette vending machines in the workplace. But restaurants, bars and small businesses were given some leeway under the new law.

SACRAMENTO - Cigarette makers have a certified history of deception, distortion and lying. And let's not forget fraud and racketeering. Those aren't my words. Credit U.S. District Judge Gladys E. Kessler of Washington, D.C. She wrote in a landmark 2006 ruling that for more than 50 years the tobacco industry had "lied, misrepresented, and deceived the American public, including smokers and the young people they avidly sought as 'replacement smokers,' about the devastating health effects of smoking.

Dear SOS: I just made the kale gratin from last week's edition, and it was luscious. Thanks. My 6-year-old daughter eats like a bird but absolutely loves the brisket from La Sandia at Santa Monica Place. It is one of the only meals she asks for. We actually splurge on the non-kid menu entree for her whenever we go there. I would like to replicate it as best I can at home. Can you please get the recipe? Thanks very much. Jill Donaty Encino Dear Jill: It's a perfect dish if you're entertaining.

Re "Call tobacco tax a user fee," Column, May 7 I'm a nonsmoker who is generally in favor of anything that will reduce smoking and stick it to Big Tobacco, but I wonder if we are getting close to the point at which people who smoke - 12% of adults and 14% of high schoolers - can't or won't give it up no matter the price. Will we just be making life more miserable for the addicted while having little effect on the tobacco companies? After all, if their profits dip, they can just raise the price.

As a woman on Day 31 of a diet, I am finally part of the greater calorie/carb-counting dialogue. No more standing fat and jolly in the checkout line selecting my candy. Now I face the magazine rack with its promise that I can lose 30 pounds in 20 minutes by embracing three simple diet tips! Yes, I know there are few things more boring than other people's "weight loss journeys," but, conversely, there is nothing quite as fascinating as one's own. Mine began this way: I was standing in line for the airplane bathroom behind a fat young woman in a tank top when I happened to notice that her perfectly plump, rounded shoulder was as ripe and juicy as a summer peach.

When Sam Lamar Lucas and his wife, Linda, saw smoke below their Colorado home, he called 911. “We live up in the foothills and we just got home and looks like there's a fire right at the foot of Cathedral Spires," Lucas said in a 911 tape from March 26 that was released by the Jefferson County Sheriff's office Tuesday. The dispatcher interrupted him. “That is a controlled burn. The [Colorado State] Forest Service is out there on scene with that. " Lucas was bewildered.

Dear SOS: We were hosted by our good friends for our 50 t h anniversary for dinner at Morton's Steakhouse . We were served smoked salmon pizza as an appetizer. Could you manage to get the recipe? Sylvia Nureddine Ontario Dear Sylvia: Morton's was happy to share its recipe for smoked salmon pizza, which we've adapted below. Morton's smoked salmon pizza Total time: 15 minutes Servings: 6 to 8 Note: Adapted from Morton's Steakhouse 1 (12-inch)

Marc Christian MacGinnis, who won a multimillion-dollar settlement in 1991 from the estate of his ex-lover, actor Rock Hudson, after convincing a jury Hudson had knowingly exposed him to AIDS, has died. He was 56. Known as Marc Christian, he died of pulmonary problems June 2 at Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. The details were confirmed Friday by his sister, Susan Dahl, who said she did not publicly announce his death earlier because of her brother's wish for privacy.

Shakespeare on cigarette smoking: "And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death" (MacBeth, Act V, Scene V). JERRY HAMBLETON Laguna Beach

Maybe I was beginning to suffer from smoke inhalation. All I know is that I started feeling faint at Tuesday's meeting of the Los Angeles Fire Commission right around the time LAFD Fire Chief Brian Cummings attempted, yet again, to explain mysterious discrepancies regarding emergency response times. You'd have been dizzy too, hearing about metrics, deployment models, projections and changing formulas. I knew 20 minutes into the meeting that if I fainted and fell over backward, and someone called 911, no one in the room could say for sure how long the projected or actual response might take or what formula would be used to compute it. I did learn at the meeting that when you call 911 for a fire or medical emergency, the call goes to the LAPD first.

When federal judge Richard Leon ruled it unconstitutional for the government to require graphic warning labels on cigarette packs recently, he suggested that if the government wanted to mount an emotional anti-smoking campaign, it should do so on it own nickel. On Monday, the federal government did so, launching a $54-million series of ads called "Tips From Former Smokers. " AdWeek 's David Gianatasio ranks the multimedia campaign "among the year's most memorable advertising, and perhaps among the best-ever work in its category.