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Fire that killed woman blamed on cigarette 

The fire that killed an 87-year-old Bellmawr woman on Sunday was caused by a carelessly discarded cigarette and rapidly spread through the packed cartons and stacked newspapers in her house, fire officials said yesterday.

Dorothy Gordon, who was alone in the house in the 300 block of Flanders Avenue, was pronounced dead at the scene about 5 p.m. She suffered from smoke inhalation and burns, said Fire Chief Jim Burleigh.

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• Smoke ban in your home? 

The Lake County Housing Authority is considering banning smoking in public housing units, an unprecedented move in Illinois.

"We try to be ahead of the curve," said David Northern, Lake County Housing Authority executive director. "We have a high population of persons with disabilities, senior citizens and lower income individuals who have health problems without the health care to treat those problems. It's not right for them to have to deal with secondhand smoke."

Roughly 80 public housing authorities in 15 states from California to Maine have adopted smoke-free policies, said Jim Bergman, director of the Smoke-free Environments Law Project based in Ann Arbor, Mich. The group works with local health departments on smoke-free issues largely focusing on apartments and condominiums. . . .

Any policy change has to be approved by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the housing authority's board of commissioners.

Officials started discussing the idea two years ago, spurred by a few residents' complaints about secondhand smoke, concerns about health and fire safety, and the costs of rehabbing apartments with smoking damage. . . .

Smokers' rights activist Garnet Dawn Scheuer of Lake Bluff, Midwest regional director for The Smoker's Club Inc., said banning smoking in peoples' homes is an invasion of privacy and goes against constitutionally protected rights.

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We have a high population of persons with disabilities, senior citizens and lower income individuals who have health problems without the health care to treat those problems. It's not right for them to have to deal with secondhand smoke.
David Northern, Lake County (IL) Housing Authority executive director.

Lake County considering public housing smoking ban  

the Lake County Housing Authority is considering pushing the smoking ban even further.

It is discussing banning smoking in all of its public housing units, which would be an unprecedented move in Illinois.

David Northern, the Lake County Housing Authority executive director, notes that the agency has a high population of persons with disabilities, senior citizens and lower income individuals who have health problems and no available care. He says it is not right for such people to have to have to deal with secondhand smoke.

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Cigarette on Sofa Might Have Caused Fatal Fire  

A 78-year-old Potomac woman described as effervescent and affectionate died yesterday after she became trapped in a house fire that also critically injured her son, Montgomery County fire officials said.

Fire officials identified the woman as Marilyn Ehrlich and said she was found in an upstairs bathroom area of the two-story house. Her son Ethan Ehrlich, 48, who also lived there, was found downstairs. He was listed in critical condition yesterday at a hospital, officials said.

Investigators think the fire was probably caused by smoking material, possibly a cigarette, left on a small sofa in a first-floor living room

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Careless Smoking Leads to Deadly Fire in Humansville 

The manager of a senior housing complex in Humansville says it was a smouldering cigarette that started a late night fire that killed a man who lived in a duplex.

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Living Longer, in Good Health to the End  

But there is increasing evidence that the societal burden of increased longevity need not be so drastic. Long-term studies have shown that how people live accounts for more than half the difference in how hale and hearty they will remain until very near the end. . . .

All of these examples speak to a concept proposed in The New England Journal of Medicine in 1980 by Dr. James F. Fries of Stanford University: that adult vigor can be extended well into the ninth decade of life, with illness and disability compressed into a period that shortly precedes death. . . .

Dr. Hall’s comments were based on a 25-year study by Dr. Laurel B. Yates of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and her Boston colleagues of 2,357 men who were healthy at an average age of 72 when the study began. Of the 970 men who survived to at least age 90, the primary modifiable predictors of longevity were not smoking; preventing diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure; and exercising regularly.

“Compared with nonsurvivors, men with exceptional longevity had a healthier lifestyle, had a lower incidence of chronic diseases and were three to five years older at disease onset,” the Boston team reported in February in The Archives of Internal Medicine. “They had better late-life physical function and mental well-being. More than 68 percent rated their late-life health as excellent or very good, and less than 8 percent reported fair or poor health.”

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Derbyshire pensioner caught in cigarette fire 

AN elderly woman caught in a fire was given protection against the smoke by an oxygen mask.

The woman is believed to have accidentally started the blaze after she dropped a cigarette in the bedroom of her bungalow in Jura Avenue, Ripley.

A spokesman for Derbyshire Fire and Rescue Service said she had been inhaling oxygen from a portable machine when the fire started, due to a pre-existing medical condition.

He said: "We believe she dropped the cigarette and luckily had moved into the lounge when the fire started.

"She was suffering the effects of smoke inhalation but fortunately was wearing an oxygen mask, so wasn't too bad."

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Jack A. Weil, the Cowboy’s Dresser, Dies at 107 

Until Wednesday, when he died at 107 in Denver, Mr. Weil was still chief executive of the company he founded and, until just before his death, came to work daily. He was regularly called the oldest chief executive still working.

Known as Papa Jack, Mr. Weil said he owed his longevity to quitting smoking at 60 (after starting at 40), drinking at 90 and eating red meat at 100. He did have a medicinal shot of Jack Daniels twice a week .

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100-year-old who helped found the NHS still hardly needs it  

On his 100th birthday, former Bedford schoolboy Sir George Godber could be described as a living testimonial to the NHS, which he helped Nye Bevan to found 60 years ago.

But, though the distinguished and remarkably youthful-looking former doctor still believes passionately in the 'free service for all' NHS principle, he rarely takes advantage of it personally �?" simply because he is so healthy. . . .

Another victory came over cigarette smoking, for which Sir George pioneered the health risks in the 1950s, despite the Government's revenue-induced refusal to accept medical evidence of the day.

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AARP the Magazine Names the Top 10 Healthiest Places to Live in America 

AARP The Magazine, the definitive voice for 50+ Americans and the world's largest-circulation magazine with more than 34 million readers, today announced the top ten healthiest cities to live and retire in with Ann Arbor, MI, Honolulu, HI, Madison, WI, Santa Fe, NM, and Fargo, ND taking the top five rankings. Featured in the September/October issue, the magazine also named five additional cities that received high marks for vitality and great living conditions including Boulder, CO, Charlottesville, VA, San Francisco Bay Area, Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, and Naples-Marco Island, FL. . . .

6. Boulder, Colorado: This home to more than 130 miles and 45,000 acres of open space and pristine wilderness at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains attracts environment and health-conscious residents; it is one of the nation's healthiest cities with extremely low rates of smoking and obesity . . .

9. San Francisco Bay Area, California: Residents are among the least likely to be overweight and smoke . . .

10. Naples-Marco Island, Florida: Residents received very high scores for regular exercise, healthy eating and not smoking; the area has one of the lowest cancer mortality rates in the country . . .

AARP The Magazine's special report examines which cities excelled in key areas of longevity, vitality, and wellness. Ames, IA was the city with the longest life expectancy, 81.02 years, followed by Naples-Marco Island, FL with 80.97 years. Ames, IA, also topped the list of cities with the highest percentage of people able to afford healthcare, at 97.9% and Johnston, PA, was second on that list at 96.2%. In a key measure of health, average body mass index (BMI), Boulder, CO topped the list as the skinniest city, with a 24.94 BMI, followed by Santa Fe, NM, which had an average BMI of 25.50. Of cities with the greenest commuters, Ithaca, NY, was highest on the list with 16.88% of commuters biking or walking to work.

Full criteria included: Cardiac mortality rates (age-adjusted), prescriptions for control of hypertension, cholesterol (per capita), physician diagnoses of diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, obesity (BMI), smoking cigarettes

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Seniors' home blaze blamed on smoking 

Residents of a seniors' complex fled their suites Monday morning after a fire on the main floor sent smoke billowing into the rest of the building.

Fire alarms began to blare and warning lights flashed just before 5 a.m. after the blaze broke out in one of the suites in Wilkinson House -- a complex for independent seniors in the 2900 block of 26th Avenue S.E. . . .

The cause of the fire appears to be careless smoking.

"Investigators believe it started in a bed," Budai said.

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Woman is St. Paul's first fire victim of '08 

an 85-year-old woman died Monday from burn injuries after smoking in bed Sunday night.

The victim was Roselyn Rylicki, 1749 Montana Av. E., city Fire Marshal Steve Zaccard said. . . .

Smoking is the leading cause of fire deaths in St. Paul and in Minnesota. In the past 10 years, 27 percent of Saint Paul's fire deaths were the result of fires caused by careless smoking.

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Nursing home cited, fined for patients' smoking 

The state has placed a nursing home in Larimer on a provisional license and slapped it with a $22,000 fine, accusing it of permitting unsafe smoking by patients around oxygen equipment.

The 134-bed Forbes Road Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is appealing the penalties, disputing an account by state inspectors that smoking they saw outside the building on May 20-21 posed an unusual risk.

The Department of Health imposed an "immediate jeopardy" citation on the facility May 21. The designation prevented any new admissions until two days later, when officials were satisfied that procedures were in place to ensure no smoking would take place in the presence of flammable oxygen equipment.

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Ask The Mayo Clinic: When might it be too late to quite smoking? 

Dear Mayo Clinic: I'm a 66-year-old man who has smoked most of his adult life. . . . Is it too late for a guy like me, or will I begin to see some noticeable changes in my health?

A: Congratulations on a job well done. Abstaining from smoking for six months is an accomplishment. You'll be pleased to know that in those six months, you've already reduced your risk of health problems substantially. And as time goes on, you'll definitely continue to see further health improvements.

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Smoking bad for you inside and out 

Experts, noting that some studies have even proven that cigarettes yield a stronger effect than sunrays, say: "If you don't want to experience early aging, quit smoking!"

Dull, wrinkled, dirty-gray skin, recognized by many as being "smokers' skin," is a phenomenon experienced by 79 percent of smokers, says Dr. Bayram Börekçi, a skin and venereal diseases expert. He explains; "Some of the symptoms we see on smokers' faces include permanent lines and wrinkles, as well as a collapsed facial expression resulting from the protruding bones underneath the skin. We also see thinning skin, a light-gray appearance, as well as a light orange/purple/red coloring. The ‘cigarette addict's face' is the same face seen on women over the age of 70. It is worth noting that people addicted to cigarettes start getting wrinkles very early.

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