DAY 13 Perry – Kings Cross

Listening to: Jarvis – Don’t Let Him Waste Your Time

Emotion: Relaxed

>>Make a Fresh Start -- Stop Smoking<<

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyZr7yf4058

Watch this video and tell me why would you still want to smoke!

I’m waiting outside Kings Cross Station for Katie. A bus passes reminding me that England goes smoke free on 1^st July. Bring it on!

We walk the short distance from the station to BUPA Wellness were I have an appointment with Dr. Peter Mace. We meet the crew in the reception area and eventually we are escorted to the good doctors’ surgery.

I’m here to have a Carbon Monoxide breath test. I wanted to arrange to do this test before commencing the experiment but having spent the best part of three weeks contacting a great deal of doctors, professors and hospitals to no avail, I had to press on and change tact. BUPA got back to me towards the end of the first week. They didn’t view this experiment as unethical. They treated it as an interesting experiment and research project.

Prior to my visit to see Dr. Mace I stopped smoking for twenty four hours and enjoyed a good thirty minute run around my neighbourhood the night before. The only reason I went for a run was because I had been so busy for the last few weeks I hadn’t had time to exercise. It wasn’t a requirement for the test.

The carbon monoxide test in question involves me taking a deep breath and holding it for ten seconds. I then slowly and under great control, I breathe out into a device that resembles a breathalyser used by the police to test for alcohol levels by the side of the road.

I blow into the apparatus and no change registers on the light meters. The doctor shows me a colour chart that indicates that my breath has normal levels of carbon monoxide in it for someone who lives in London were diesel engine vehicles are plenty.

I immediately head outside the building and spark up an Embassy #1 cigarette. The pack indicates that these cigarettes have 10mg of carbon monoxide when smoked. (at least the factory machine that tests these claims reads 10mg, but machines can not really emulate how a person smokes).

I smoke this cigarette a little faster than usual but this is because of the stress of having three cameras in my face. I feel light-headed and head back in to the building to have a second test. At least here, if I faint or vomit I’ll be in good hands.

I repeat the procedure, take a deep breathe, hold it for ten seconds and then slowly breathe out into the apparatus. The light immediately changes from green to orange. This change of colour on the chart indicates a considerable increase in the levels of carbon monoxide in my blood.

So why is this bad? Well we need oxygen to live. We take oxygen from the air we breathe and this is moved around the body in our blood to all our vital organs. Carbon monoxide masks itself as oxygen by attaching itself to the haemoglobins or oxygen carrying cells in the blood. A habitual smoker is essentially starving themselves of oxygen. This is one of the reasons why smokers find themselves short of breath, the other being the damage they do to their lungs.

I was fortunate enough to visit Professor Gunther von Hagens Bodyworlds exhibition some years ago in the East End of London at the Truman Brewery.

As a part of this amazing exhibition was the display of the heart and lungs of a smoker and a non-smoker. The differences in size and colour had a big impact on me. The smokers’ lung was about a third of the size and black in colour compared to the healthy comparison. Both owners of the lungs were dead, their was no denying that but what got me thinking was the quality of life the two owners must have had would be dramatically different.

Stop Smoking Today with Hypnotherapy -- it works.

Click Here!

Book Your Health Assessment with BUPA -- UK and save £100 before 19 March 2010

Technorati Tags: BUPA, carbon, carbon monoxide, Dr Peter Mace, lungs, poisoning, Professor Gunther Von Hagens, smokers, stop smoking, tar

• Smokers Taking Liberties So here I am, Saturday night and I’m still working...
• Smoke Swap - 2 Weeks Later Perry - Almost Two weeks later… All most two weeks...

• Choose the Best Carbon Monoxide Alarms Carbon monoxide alarms beep or whine to alert you to the presence of potentially deadly...
• Awareness of Breathing: 6 Steps to Calm Becoming aware of the breath is a simple, meditative exercise to establish calm breathing and...

DAY 11 Perry -- Barcelona

Listening to: U2 – Crumbs from your Table

Emotion: Exhaulted

I’m now into day 11 of smoke Swap or as I now like to think of it as 3 days to go until I stop smoking. Just three days from now, (not that I’m counting down the days… but I am) and I’ll be a non-smoker or an ex-smoker.

I’m in with the in crowd. The whole team have now excepted me as a smoker and models and crew alike offer me cigarettes as they would anyone else they know who smokes.

I refuse to offer anyone a cigarette, not because I’m tight but because of my own moral justification and code. I simply don’t want to encourage anyone to smoke. If anyone asks for a smoke however, I do oblige.

One of the models today informs me she has just finished six years studying to be a doctor and is now about to start her first year as a general practitioner in Barcelona Hospital. She says she should be setting a good example as we share a cigarette but… The thing is, when we are young we think we are invincible. We blank out or refuse to acknowledge the consequences of our actions. Even doctors, with all their knowledge and first hand experience of the pain and suffering cigarettes cause to smokers and their families aren’t amune. The cigarette marketing propaganda that has been going on for decades warps our logical though processes.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBhWAvsLH6A

The Editors -- Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors

>>> Get back your life -- Stop Smoking <<<

For more stop smoking information related to this post click on the links below.

Is Drug Rehab an Option for Teenage Smokers?

Hospital Administrators Practise What they Preach

Hospitals Smoke Free Policy

Technorati Tags: cigarettes, doctors, ex-smoker, hospitals, non-smoker, smokers, smoking, stop

• What Is A Cigarette? Before exploring health issues synonymous with tobacco smoking, it is...
• Stop Smoking and be Forever Young DAY 7 – Perry - Bermondsey Listening to: Hanoi Rocks...

• What the Heck is a Sin Tax? Last year, Pennsylvania had a rather nasty budget impasse.  It made national news, and generally...
• Review: Jasmine et Cigarette (Tobacco) If you are like me, you have accumulated a number of sample vials, sprays and...

29/5/07 Katie Piper- 1 Day to Give Up Smoking

Well I never thought I’d see this day. The day when me and you are finally thru!

We’ve been through a lot, you’ve been there to calm me down when I’m stressed, put me at ease when I’m nervous and you defiantly are the perfect company when having a glass of wine.

But sadly my friend our time is up, now ever the optimist, I am looking forward to:

* Fresher breath (and hopefully an improved love life)

* Nails that aren’t always sporting that yellow ‘Nan’ manicure effect.

* Climbing the stairs without feeling suffocated!

Hey I’m nearly convincing myself this is a good thing! So Mr. Marlboro Light it is with haste I say goodbye to you. Now I’ve got to admit this whole experiment is giving me the jitters, for years I’ve been boasting, telling friends I’m not addicted, I’m a social smoker, can quit whenever I want, then the bombshell dropped, my dear friend Perry Stevens asks me to quit! I get that feeling of dread from top to toe, smile sweetly and say ‘sure no probs’, but racing thru my mind is ‘oh my god, I can’t do this’, does this mean I really am an addict? My worst fears confirmed!

Katie Piper

The word addicted makes my mind work over time conjuring up all sorts of imagery, will I be sniffing people out in the street offering 50 pence for a drag on their cigarette, will I suffer withdrawal, good god even the shakes! How un-desirable!

I’m hoping I will come out of this unscathed and be able to join that elite set of folk that is the ‘non smokers’, fellow smokers we all know who those elites are, the ones who look down their nose at you in a restaurant as they sip on their anti- chemical/anti-death green tea, the sparkly pleasant scented sort who shun you in bars as you spark up with the complimentary matches (you know the ones that always snap!)

So look out for me in a bar near you soon, ill be the one sat in the corner chewing my nails and gum whilst peeling the label off my beer bottle! Wish me luck my friends!

Do you need help to stop smoking? Click here for more information about quit smoking today!

Technorati Tags: katie piper, light, Marlboro, quit smoking, smokers, stop smoking

• Stop Smoking and be Forever Young DAY 7 – Perry - Bermondsey Listening to: Hanoi Rocks...
• Cigarettes And The Healthy Death Rate Amongst Brazilian tobacco farmers, suicide rates are seven times higher...

• “The Enlightened You,” Prayer: Faith or Control? Dear Vedam, I was the speaker at several meetings over the weekend and I said...
• Mean girls One of my girls got in the car crying yesterday. Mean girls. Mean girls. Don't...

So here I am, Saturday night and I’m still working at my PC. I met Katie last night and discussed Smoke Swap in Cargo. Ok, my friends Scrimshire were headliners but I can’t think of a more apt place than a smoky venue to discuss a tobacco related film. Cargo isn’t unlike any other bar in the amount of passive smoke circulating around the venue. I left about 3am stinking of the pungent odour and my cloths on my bedroom floor aren’t going to clean themselves today.

I went to a preview screening of Taking Liberties at Amnesty International this week. An amazing film on so many levels made me laugh and genuinely scared me. The horror of this is it is real life and the laws the government have been eroding or passing in the last decade are truly shocking. If there is one thing that the government has got right and that is smoking ban in public places. No-one in their right mind can’t say this is a bad thing. Bring on the ban.

Words of support… 

Looking forward to meeting up Monday. Be careful with the fags though…. I’ve been trying to quit for fifteen years. It’s not fun.
Neil Boorman -- Author of Bonfire of the Brands 11/05/07

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt289JNcvsY

I can’t believe you’ll start smoking!!!!!!! Now don’t you freaking start bumming fags of me, a’right!?!?!?

Davide Scaleghe -- Producer Current TV 11/05/07

Cheers bredwin. I hope you die of lung cancer. X

Sam Cox 12/05/07

Right, I’m of to watch The Insider starring Al Pacino and Russell Crowe based on the true story about Jeffery Wigand who blew the whistle on big tobacco in the USA. Just remember, it only takes one individual to change the world. I think there is a message in there for our Prime Minister! 

Jeffery Wigand

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wwJp8VDGzE

Technorati Tags: Al Pacino, ban, big, cancer, circulating, fags, government, Insider, Jeffery, laws, liberties, lung, odour, passive, places, public, quit, Russel Crowe, smoke, smokers, swap, taking, tobacco, USA, Wigand

• Cigarettes And The Healthy Death Rate Amongst Brazilian tobacco farmers, suicide rates are seven times higher...
• No Seduction - Stop Smoking Day 13 – Katie Woo-hoo! Day thirteen of Smoke Swap...

• US Ski Team Member Profile of David Babic David Babic in a current member of the US Ski Team that is quickly rising...
• Save Heaps at Home Saving money on energy bills is something that appeals to everybody, young or old, single...

Saturday 26 March 2005 Perry

NS back on board with camera and tri-pod and off to the South Bank to get the long moody shots we require to finish the edit. I spend the afternoon hanging out of the window in a Soho production company’s office secretly filming smokers on the street. I feel like a peeping tom or purvey spy (People watching, don’t you just love it!)

Technorati Tags: filming, secret, smokers, soho

• The Smoking Man Voice Over Saturday 19 March 2005 Perry Headed up to Northampton early...
• Easyway Stop Smoking With Allen Carr Allen Carr was a life long smoker and now famous...

• Win Microsoft Office 2010 and Windows 7 Genuine License Keys Good News for Windows lovers... To celebrate Monsoon in India, Windows LifeStyle has organized a...
• Give Whole Life Insurance a Fair Comparison – Get Illustrations and Compare! I hope this post doesn’t end up on one of my favorite blogs, Bad Money...