The Ellpus Give up smoking and buy a tooth thread.

Hopefully, I'll re-quit again soon, ...

The study by the Harvard School of Public Health, published in the current issue of the medical journal Lancet, shows that manufacturers increased nicotine levels in their products by close to 11 percent between 1997 and 2005.

"The cigarette is a reservoir, so the cigarette companies are increasing the potential of the smoker to extract nicotine," says Gregory Connolly, the lead author of the study.

The study's researchers say the findings are troubling with regard to both current smokers, for whom the nicotine increases could affect their addiction to cigarettes, and young smokers, who could get addicted to the more potent cigarettes more easily.

"The research has been done, showing that even just one exposure to nicotine triggers changes in the brain that put a child at risk of becoming a smoker," says Hillel Alpert, research analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health and an author of the study.

"Increased nicotine in a cigarette means an increased potential for it to change the brain."

"If you want kids not to become addicted to smoking, the levels should be going down, not increasing," Connolly says.

The study confirms the findings of previous research conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health in August 2006 that suggested nicotine content in cigarettes was on the rise. The earlier study indicated a roughly 10 percent increase in nicotine levels in cigarettes from 1998 to 2004."Our research, based on industry-provided data, showed that this increasing trend is not random," Alpert says.

"This trend is real. It is increasing, and it is not attributable to chance."

Experts not affiliated with the study agree.

"The levels of nicotine in cigarette smoke are not an accident," says Stanton Glantz, professor of medicine at University of California at San Francisco. "Cigarettes are a heavily engineered product with a number of product controls. So, if there's an increase, it was not an accident."

"The tobacco companies do knowingly and purposely control nicotine levels in their cigarettes," says Michael Cummings of the division of cancer prevention and population sciences at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y.

"While one might expect slight year-to-year variations in nicotine levels, the consistent upward levels found seem to suggest this is purposeful. " Cummings says that whatever the motivation, the finding of the Harvard study suggests cigarette companies are moving in the wrong direction with regard to consumer health.

"The question that every consumer should be asking is why is the company saying that smoking causes disease and death and nicotine is addictive, but then putting more nicotine in cigarettes?" Cummings asks. "And what the hell is the government doing about it?"

Lord E., Did I ever mention I absolutely refuse to have sex with a man who smokes, but I'd do anything for a man who could knit me a tea cozy?

Or is there another form of enjoyment that can be had afterwards?

Lord Ellpus wrote:

Or is there another form of enjoyment that can be had afterwards?

Women like to cuddle afterwards, but all the men in my life just seemed to prefer passing out. Maybe try eating a little chocolate bar as a replacement for post sex smokes.

It's worth a go, but I'm wondering if I can I eat a chocolate bar whilst unconcious?

Sorry to hear of your tooth problem...(only just got here)

£2000 for a new tooth!! Surely you can get one cheaper than that. Have you tried e Bay?