Trial to see if e-cigs aid quitters
When he runs into a burning building with an oxygen mask on, Ryan Moss feels like a hypocrite because he’s filled his lungs with tobacco smoke for 17 years.
The Opunake man volunteers for St John ambulance and the town’s fire brigade and has seen firsthand what long-term smoking can do.
‘‘I’ve seen the cancers. I’ve dealt with people who can’t breathe, and some of the people weren’t as old as you’d think,’’ he said.
‘‘You know that they’ve been a smoker - you can just sort of tell. That really hit home for me.’’
The 38-year-old is taking part in a new clinical trial researching whether electronic cigarettes can help smokers ditch the tobacco product and thinks it may be the answer he has been looking for.
Moss tried to quit four times before the trial.
He attempted to wean himself off, he tried ‘‘cold turkey’’, he took pills that would make him sick to his stomach, and he tried patches and gum. But none of it worked. Moss’ kids would warn him that he would die, or said he stunk when they hugged him. He said he would watch as friends and colleagues who smoked were diagnosed with cancer.
But he just couldn’t stop smoking, Moss said.
Now half-way through his three month trial, Moss said he feels he won’t pick up another cigarette.
‘‘I feel different mentally about it now. I don’t want to smoke. I don’t miss it,’’ he said.
‘‘It’s a good feeling knowing I don’t want a smoke now.’’
The trial is being run by researchers at the National Institute for Health Innovation through The University of Auckland, who are looking to see if e-cigarettes and nicotine patches helped people who smoke tobacco to quit.
E-cigarettes are electronic devices that let the user inhale nicotine with less harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke, lead researcher and associate professor Natalie Walker said.
She said the devices contained water and a non-toxic food additive, also used in asthma inhalers, or vegetable oil while nicotine can be added.
When heated the liquid forms a mist and can be breathed in, which is commonly referred to as ’vaping’.
The Health Research Council has funded about $1.2 million for the three year trial, which has tasked researchers to randomly allocate 1800 people in one of three groups: nicotine and patches, nicotine patches and nicotine-free e-cigarettes, or nicotine patches and e-cigarettes with nicotine.
Marewa Glover, associate professor at Massey University, said there were several aspects that built a dependency to nicotine and a ‘‘whole cascade of reactions in the brain’’ while smoking nicotine.
It can stimulate the brain, calm nerves or help with sleep, she said.
But Glover insisted smokers shouldn’t feel pressured to give up nicotine, rather find another way to obtain it.
‘‘The problem is the way people have been getting their nicotine,’’ she said.
‘‘Nicotine isn’t the problem, it’s the smoking.’’
Glover said nicotine was currently being studied for its potential use for anxiety disorders and its potential relief of symptoms associated with Parkinson’s and dementia.
And the stimulant has been wrongfully demonised.
‘‘We’ve been encouraged to be very judgmental toward those who have a hard time quitting but we need to support them and understand what’s happening in their life,’’ she said.
‘‘People are being killed by tobacco smoking and this (e-cigarettes) is a new technology that would be far safer.’’ Edith Bramald and Amber Nicole Bevins are 100 years and five generations apart.
Edith turned 100-years-old on September 6, a few weeks after the birth of her third great-greatgranddaughter, Amber, who came into the world on August 18.
Edith’s daughter and Amber’s great-grandmother Loraine Collingwood said her mother loved seeing the new arrival.
‘‘She held her when she was The key to a digitised future lies in embracing technology rather than fearing it, says one data scientist.
Future Crunch came to Taranaki on Monday to talk about the future of economy and the technological trends shaping the way people live, work and play in the 21st century.
Speaker Tane´ Hunter from Future Crunch, a cancer researcher, bioinformatician, and science communicator, told a large crowd of businesspeople at New Plymouth’s Devon Hotel that technology will enhance jobs rather than replace people. ‘‘It shifts the type of job but it doesn’t actually replace jobs,’’ he said.
‘‘Technology used to be a subject on its own; now it’s a layer over everything.
‘‘It’s not actually a replacement of everything; it’s an improvement.’’
Hunter also said children should have more technology taught at school earlier and work on creativity rather than just only a few days old. It was lovely,’’ she said.
‘‘It was kind of amazing to think that they were 100 years apart.’’
Amber is the fifth generation of the family.
After getting married in 1943 Edith and her husband Max had three children. There are nine grandchildren and 13 greatgrandchildren, including Amber’s mother Samantha Fairhurst.
Collingwood said her parents met in Hamilton where Edith was a dressmaker and seamstress.
‘‘She would bike to their places, focusing on science, technology, engineering and maths, or STEM.
‘‘I think it’s important to foster creativity, not memorisation like ‘memorise this for the test’.
‘‘Put a camera on a drone or build a robot...It’s that kind of creativity that’s missing in the education system because of the focus on STEM.’’ make the garments and then bike home again at night. It was a different world then.’’
Max was enlisted in the New Zealand Army but was in Auckland Hospital for a long time with pneumonia.
They moved several times before settling in Okoki in northwest Taranaki, where they had a dairy farm.
They both made deliveries for the mailman and Dunbar’s Store in Urenui, as far as Hutawai, near Tongaporutu, until Max retired, Collingwood said. Max passed
He advocates changing STEM to ‘STEAM’ - adding arts to allow a chance at creativity.
‘‘Foster the creativity, not just with paint brushes and sculptures but with a much broader understanding of what creativity is.’’
Businesses need to engage in the technological process, and focus on what can be done instead away in 1991.
Edith is mostly in bed these days but got all dressed up for her 100th birthday party at the Urenui Boat Club last Saturday, Collingwood said.
‘‘We had her in the wheelchair and she’s not missing out on anything. ‘‘She just loved it.’’ She got cards from far and wide, including the Queen, the Governor General, Winston Peters, and Peter Dunne.
‘‘She was a bit blown away by it all.’’ of what will change, he said.
‘‘Start telling stories about what we can do with it...Try and really cultivate an attitude of optimism. Cut the ‘robots are coming to take our jobs’ stick.’’
Questions ranged from how to embrace technology in the community to what the world will look like in 30 years.
‘‘It’s pretty hard to predict what’s happening in two years, let alone 30 years,’’ Hunter said
He did suggest an increase in life expectancy, artificial intelligence devices in the brain to aid your own intelligence, driverless cars, an end to world poverty, more bio printing of organs with a person’s own DNA, and everyone having internet access and an education.
‘‘There will be teething problems but there is great prosperity ahead.’’
He said those who do not embrace technology are the ones in danger of being left behind.
‘‘It doesn’t have to be a big investment but it’s about learning how to use that technology in your life.’’