Are Peoples' Lungs Different Today?

Written by Smoke Signals | 31 December 2012
Posted in Articles

Are Peoples' Lungs Different Today?
SMOKE SIGNALS MAGAZINE - January - February 2013

A question popped into our minds recently, as we were watching a few old movies from the 1940s on TV.

As is often the case, smoking was ubiquitous in the movies, with everyone lighting up regularly, no matter where they were, no matter what the circumstances.

The female smoking was, of course, oustanding; style was paramount, particularly in social settings. French inhales, snaps, nose exhales, residual exhales were commonplace. But that's the subject for another lament.

What really hit us, though, was the way that everyone, men and women, young and old, were taking cheek-hollowing drags on their powerful, unfiltered cigarettes - almost non-stop. And that's what got us thinking.

What is it about smokers in the 2000s, that sees most of them taking shallow inhales on light or ultra-light cigarettes, yet often only able to handle a few cigarettes a day?

We understand that the amount people smoke, particularly these days, is often constrained by the price of cigarettes and the difficulty of smoking in public. Even so, it seems that the modern day smoker's ability to "handle smoke" is far from what it used to be.

We see it regularly in filming models, who often complain about being asked to smoke full-flavored cigarettes, who more often than not can't even smoke two cigarettes without a break, and who complain about being "smoked out" when a session isn't even halfway over.

We also see the flip side of it, when members of the community lionize women who chain smoke on camera. It used to be, not so long ago, that chain smoking was almost "required behavior" in social situations. Today, fetishists rhapsodize about women who are able to chain into a second cigarette, and pledge undying love if someone smokes three in a row.

There's no question that regulations and cigarette prices have changed smokers' behavior, and there are therefore sociological reasons why people smoke less than they used to. That has no doubt made it harder for people to chain smoke.

But in watching women devour the smoke form their unfiltered cigarettes in old movies, we also have to wonder if there's been some sort of physiological change as well - making today's lungs less able to tolerate large volumes of smoke. Air pollution, perhaps? A greater prevalence of allergies, weakening lung capacity? More additives in the smoke lowering the lungs' ability to handle even light or ultra-light cigarette smoke? Fear?

There may be some elements of this discussion better suited for Vesperae's analysis - she's better at providing answers. We're better at asking questions. And this one is stuck in our minds, at least this month.

Whatever the explanation - it's certainly a shame from our perspective.

Happy New Year - and enjoy the January-February issue!

Sometimes, We Hate Being Right

Written by Smoke Signals | 31 October 2012
Posted in Articles

Sometimes, We Hate Being Right
SMOKE SIGNALS MAGAZINE - November - December 2012

We were recently making our rounds of various smoking fetish messageboards, sites and other gathering spots. We do it for several reasons. Of course, because in addition to publishing Smoke Signals, we're into the fetish as much as anyone else. We also want to know what people are talking about. And lastly, we have the annoying and difficult task of issuing requests to have our copyrighted material removed from file-sharing sites and the like.

This time, though, we were struck by something.

For many years, we've been preaching (some might say we've been railing) against the increasing amount of "sharing" - some, including us, would call it "stealing" - of videos that have been produced at great expense by smoking fetish companies. We've warned (some might say we've lectured) about what we thought would eventually happen, if people continued to simply *take* material from others, instead of purchasing it themselves.

Our prediction was simple: if people stopped buying, there would be less and less incentive for producers to continue making new material. Many producers would go out of business, and others would make a lot fewer videos - meaning there would be a drastic drop in the amount of new smoking fetish material available. And of the new material produced, much would be from people with smaller budgets or no experience, meaning it would be lower in quality. As you all know, the prediction about producers going out of business or producing much less material has certainly come true. But what about the rest?

Back to our recent observations on the boards. We found, to a huge extent:
1. People were largely trading old material back and forth, or posting free material readily available on sites like YouTube.
2. People were requesting old material that they'd heard about or seen at some point in the past.
3. People were complaining about the lack of new material being shot, or about the quality of new material.
4. People were still making excuses about why they wouldn't buy from established producers. There were a few exceptions, of course, but that's a pretty good summary of the bulk of the posts we read.

So, it seems to us, we weren't selling doom and gloom all those years ago when we made our predictions. We were, sadly, pretty much on the money. And we take no joy in that.

Enjoy the November-December issue!