TOBACCO 'CANDY' COULD POISON KIDS

SMOKELESS TOBACCO IN CANDY-LIKE FORM
A NEW POISONOUS LURE FOR KIDS: STUDY

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Thousands of young children are accidentally poisoned by tobacco products each year in the U.S., and new dissolvable tobacco products that resemble candy might pose an additional risk, according to researchers. In a study of reports to U.S. poison control centers between 2006 and 2008, investigators found that 13,705 children younger than 6 were accidentally poisoned by tobacco products. The findings are published in the journal Pediatrics. In a small child, even a small amount of nicotine, as little as 1 milligram, can cause nausea and vomiting. Larger doses could lead to weakness, convulsions or potentially fatal respiratory arrest. But there is now a new concern, according to Connolly's team - namely, the melt-in-the-mouth tobacco products recently put on the market. Tobacco companies say the products - which come in the form of flavored, candy-like pellets, sticks and strips - are meant to give adults a smoke-free way to get their nicotine fix. But they could poison children by accident, Connolly and his colleagues say. "Now we've got something in the marketplace that could be more attractive to kids," Connolly said.

The products are too new, but Connolly and his colleagues did do a chemical analysis of one - Camel Orbs, tobacco pellets with a Tic-Tac-like appearance introduced last year by R.J. Reynolds. The researchers found that the pellets contained a greater proportion of "free" nicotine than the norm for cigarettes or dipping tobacco. Free nicotine is more quickly absorbed into the bloodstream, raising the possibility that it could more toxic to a child than other tobacco products are. One pellet contains about 1 mg of nicotine, so might cause nausea, Connolly said. "But if a child gets a few of them," he added, "that could be very serious."

The big tobacco companies take advantage of the innocence of the general public to conduct their advertising campaigns. Children and young people are always attracted to new things and the tricks of the commercials fool them again and again. Tobacco companies cheat them just to sell more and get greater profits.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

The conditioned soul is defective in four ways - he is illusioned, he commits mistakes, his knowledge is imperfect, and he has a propensity to cheat. Unless one is liberated from material conditioning, these four defects must be there. Consequently every man has a cheating propensity, which is employed in business or money transactions. ... Unless one can find a person transcendental to the four basic defects, one should not accept advice and become a victim of the material condition. The best process is to take the advice and instructions of Śrī Krishna or His bona fide representative. In this way one can be happy in this life and the next.

Śrīla A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda :
“The Śrīmad Bhāgavatam”
Purport in Canto 5 - Chapter 14 - Verse 26.