Michael Rosenthal

(1/2020) When I was growing up, it was considered very cool to smoke. Movie stars were frequently pictured with cigarettes (I always think of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall), and people could be observed smoking most everywhere. I started smoking by "acquiring" my mother’s cigarettes (Raleighs) by taking one at a time occasionally (I was never caught) and smoking here and there. By high school, a large proportion of kids were smokers. It was considered very cool to do so. As I remember, cigarettes were 25 cents a pack and 35 cents a pack for filter tips. I think you were supposed to be 18 years of age to purchase cigarettes, but one always found a way as younger teenagers to acquire them if you wanted to do so. It was well understood even then that cigarettes were dangerous to health, but they were an integral part of the culture at that time.

In recent years smoking has been recognized as the highly dangerous habit to health that it is, and there are many more restrictions to cigarette purchase and use. Still, many people smoke, and as I mentioned in a previous article, cigarette butts are everywhere.

A recent development in the game is the electronic cigarette, also called an e-cigarette. It is a hand-held battery powered vaporizer that simulates smoking, but doesn’t burn tobacco. Using such a device is called vaping. There are often other chemicals present: propylene glycol, glycerin, nicotine, and flavorings and additives. One of their intentions is to help people quit smoking tobacco, which we all understand is very dangerous to the smoker’s health. One concern is that non-smokers and young people may become addicted to nicotine through e-cigarettes, and move up to real cigarettes. The long-term effect of e-cigarette use is unknown, but a lot of adverse physical symptoms are often connected to e-cigarettes: abdominal pain, headache, blurry vision, throat and mouth irritation, vomiting, nausea, and coughing. Smoking is terrible for your health, but vaping is not a fully safe replacement.

Electronic cigarettes entered the market in 2003, and global use has risen dramatically since then. In 2013 there were several million users globally! In 2018 95% of e-cigarettes were made in China, and China has the greatest number of users, followed by the United States and the United Kingdom. As of 2018, more than 10 million people vaped daily. The use of e-cigarettes is higher among high school students than adults.

Tobacco smoke contains 100 known carcinogens and 900 potentially cancer causing chemicals. E-cigarettes have lower levels of these dangerous chemicals, but no level of carcinogen is safe.

Nicotine is a key ingredient in most e-liquids, and it is well recognized as one of the most addictive substances, as addictive as heroin and cocaine! My wife and I both quit smoking in our early 20’s, just before having our children. We were very fortunate to do so as easily as we did, but I admit to tapering off through smoking little cigars for a while. We never went back to smoking cigarettes, and we have not tried using electronic cigarettes (nor do we plan to so so!).

Tobacco production was once a big business, especially in Maryland. When I and my family first came to Maryland, we lived in southern Maryland, and tobacco fields seemed to be everywhere. There aren’t many left there now.

I recently read a story about an interesting vaping variety – marijuana vaping. It seems that it has become a popular activity of teens this year, a big one-year jump in its use. The controversy over marijuana use goes on, some believing that it is an innocuous activity and others seeing it as being more hazardous than tobacco or nicotine. A report released recently by the National Institute on Drug Abuse stated that 21% of 12th graders said they had vaped marijuana in the previous year. Similar increases were noted among younger students.

Vaping marijuana is easier to access and less noticeable by those around them than is smoking it, so especially in communities in which marijuana is legal now, vaping it has increased in popularity. Contaminated marijuana, as purchased on the black market, however often presents serious health threats. So vaping continues to evolve, and we will see where it goes.

Here is the latest energy source report for our region. Nuclear energy remains the largest energy source at 34.53% (that’s good), followed by gas at 31.13 %, and coal at 28.63% (that’s not good). Total renewable energy is only 5.42%, which includes, in order of more used: wind, hydroelectric, solid waste, captured methane gas, solar, wood and other biomass.

Here are some updates on topics we have previously discussed. The plastic waste problem continues, but some progress is being made. A growing number of hotel chains are eliminating the use of single-use bottles for shampoo and lotion, replacing them with large refillable bottles. The Marriott Corporation sends about 500 million plastic bottles to landfills every year.

Perhaps you’ve become aware that recycling of plastic bags has ended in Frederick County. There is nothing to do with them now but to throw them away. I’m waiting to see whether local stores go back to paper bags, which are recyclable if clean. The best solution is to take a cloth bag into the grocery store with you. California, always on the leading edge in energy-usage innovation, has legally banned single-use toiletry bottle in hotels.

California is also moving more and more to the use of solar power. Wildfires in California led to power outages to millions of Californians, but as reported in the Washington Post, Stone Edge Farm in Sonoma County kept its power. The winery is connected to a solar power system that runs on its own when disconnected from the main grid. Thus the winery kept its wine cellar, restaurant, and other operations running full speed during the outages! I have always felt that builders of new homes should offer the purchaser solar panels at a reduced price, which would be less expensive than a later panel installation. Should it be a legal requirement or have a tax incentive?

Finally, we are going to have a Space Force! President Trump has expressed willingness to sign with enthusiasm a bill passed by the Senate to create a new sixth branch of our military establishment. This is the first new branch of our military establishment since the Air Force was spun off from the Army and established in 1947. It will initially be administered by the Secretary of the Air Force who will be entitled Chief of Space Operations. It should be particularly important when we encounter space aliens! (That’s a joke).

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