<h2>Trendy Intervention</h2>
<p>When e-cigarettes first hit the market, two camps emerged. Some argued that the handheld vapes would help heavy smokers ease off of cigarettes, but others worried that fun-flavored e-cigs could <a href="https://futurism.com/juul-stop-selling-flavored-vape-juice">get more people hooked on nicotine</a>.</p>
<p>Now there&#8217;s scientific evidence that says e-cigarettes not only make it easier to quit smoking than going cold-turkey, but also that a higher percentage of people who dial back their smoking through e-cigarettes successfully quit cigs than those who use other interventions like nicotine patches, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/health/ecigarettes-nicotine-smoking-quit.html">according to <em>The New York Times</em></a>.</p>
<h2>Educated Guesses</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa1808779?query=featured_home">The new research</a>, published Wednesday in <em>The New England Journal of Medicine</em>, is the first rigorous analysis of the impacts of vaping on smoking habits. The scientists followed nearly 900 participants as they either used a nicotine product of their choice or an e-cigarette in hopes of dropping their smoking habits. All participants also attended regular counseling sessions, according to the research.</p>
<p>When all was said and done, 18 percent of the vapers managed to go a full year without smoking while only 9.9 percent of participants who used other tools abstained for a full year.</p>
<p>&#8220;Health professionals have been reluctant to recommend their use because of the lack of clear evidence from randomized controlled trials,&#8221; Peter Hajek, a clinical psychologist at London&#8217;s Queen Mary University who led the experiment told <em>The New York Times</em>. &#8220;This is now likely to change&#8221;</p>
<h2>Complicated Story</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, the results aren’t as cut and dry as some might hope. For example, 80 percent of the vapers who went a year without smoking were still using their e-cigarettes at that point, which weakens the scientists&#8217; conclusions that they had kicked their nicotine habit.</p>
<p>Also, regardless of whether they help adults who are committed to quitting smoking, the variety of e-cigarettes appeal to teens and other people who might not have otherwise started smoking, <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe1900484?query=featured_home">according to an editorial</a> also published in <em>The New England Journal of Medicine</em> on Wednesday.</p>
<p>So while new data suggest that e-cigarettes could be a valuable tool for people trying to stop smoking, people will likely need other tools as well, whether that&#8217;s ongoing counseling or something else that helps them kick nicotine altogether.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/30/health/ecigarettes-nicotine-smoking-quit.html">E-Cigarettes Are Effective at Helping Smokers Quit, a Study Says</a> [<em>The New York Times</em>]</p>
<p><strong><em>More on vaping: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/fda-raid-juul">The FDA Just Raided the Headquarters of E-Cigarette Maker JUUL</a></em></strong></p>


The coolest vape trick of all is quitting smoking.

New evidence: e-cigarettes help smokers quit

"Wow"

For the first time, a rigorous scientific study shows that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking better than the patch, but the data gets complicated.

New Evidence: E-Cigarettes Help Smokers Quit

Success rates are still low, but they're higher than with other interventions.

<h2>DUH</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://darwinawards.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Darwin Awards</a> exist for a reason: some people aren&#8217;t great at making sure they, you know, stay alive. Case in point: People still smoke cigarettes, even at the gas pump (it&#8217;s dangerous because gasoline is highly combustible and cigarettes require a light. Just don&#8217;t do it).</p>
<p>Oil company Royal Dutch Shell and software giant Microsoft say they&#8217;ve cooked up an artificial intelligence that&#8217;ll help save a few lives.</p>
<h2>EDGE CASE</h2>
<p>On Monday, Microsoft published a <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/ai/shell-iot-ai-safety-intelligent-tools/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blog post</a> detailing a pilot project at two Shell gas stations, one in Thailand and one in Singapore. The AI looks for signs of unsafe behavior, such as smoking at the gas pump, and alerts staff — giving them a chance, hopefully, to snuff out the smokes before the whole place goes boom.</p>
<p>The key to the quick turnaround is <a href="https://futurism.com/edge-computing-augmented-reality/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">edge computing</a>, which processes data near its site of origin rather than in the cloud. In this example, which uses Microsoft&#8217;s <a href="https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/iot-edge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Azure IoT Edge</a> platform, the footage analysis happens onsite at the gas stations. Only frames that raise any red flags move on to the cloud for advanced processing.</p>
<p>&#8220;Each of our retail locations has maybe six cameras and captures something in the region of 200 megabytes per second of data,&#8221; Daniel Jeavons, Shell’s general manager for data science, told Microsoft. &#8220;If you try to load all that into the cloud, that quickly becomes vastly unmanageable at scale. The intelligent edge allows us to be selective about the data we pass up to the cloud.&#8221;</p>
<p>We could use similar tech for applications far beyond the pump, according to the post, like predicting equipment failures in industrial settings.</p>
<h2>SMART</h2>
<p>The word &#8220;intelligent&#8221; might seem a bit out of place in the context of people who think it&#8217;s totally fine to spark a lighter while inches away from a highly flammable substance, but hey, if this AI can ensure we don&#8217;t end up following in the footsteps of <a href="https://thumbs.gfycat.com/BackFailingGalapagosmockingbird-size_restricted.gif" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Derek Zoolander&#8217;s besties</a>, we&#8217;re all for it.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/ai/shell-iot-ai-safety-intelligent-tools/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">How AI Is Building Better Gas Stations and Transforming Shell’s Global Energy Business</a> [Microsoft]</p>
<p><em><strong>More on edge computing: <a href="https://futurism.com/edge-computing-augmented-reality/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Never Heard of Edge Computing? It’s About to Make Augmented Reality Way Better.</a></strong></em></p>


Artificial Intelligence

DUH The Darwin Awards exist for a reason: some people aren’t great at making sure they, you know, stay alive. Case in point: People still smoke cigarettes, even at the gas pump (it’s dangerous because gasoline is highly combustible and cigarettes require a light. Just don’t do it). Oil company Royal Dutch Shell and software […]

This AI Stops People From Lighting up Cigarettes at the Gas Pump

It alerts gas station staff to any signs of unsafe behavior.

“Are we really willing to pay the cost when living on credit runs out?”

Health & Medicine

Vapes, e-cigarettes and all kinds of paraphernalia have become America’s norm. But what's really in vape juice and is it actually healthier?

Here’s How Vaping Really Compares to Smoking Cigarettes

<h2>The Canadian Cancer Epidemic</h2>
<p>A <a href="http://www.cancer.ca/~/media/cancer.ca/CW/cancer%20information/cancer%20101/Canadian%20cancer%20statistics/Canadian-Cancer-Statistics-2017-EN.pdf?la=en">new report</a> from the<a href="http://www.cancer.ca/en/?region=bc"> Canadian Cancer Society</a> (CCS) predicts that almost 50 percent of Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer, and half of these (25 percent of Canadians overall) will die from the disease. This makes cancer the leading cause of death in the country. The diagnosis rate for men is 49 percent, while for women it is 45 percent.</p>
<p><img class="wp-image-87836 alignright" style="width: 400px;height: 461px" src="https://wp-assets.futurism.com/2017/06/canadian-rate_v2-1.png" width="603" height="380" /></p>
<p><a href="http://www.cancer.ca/en/about-us/for-media/media-releases/national/2017/canadian-cancer-statistics-media-fact-sheet/?region=bc">More than half of these cases</a> are accounted for by prostate, breast, colorectal, and lung cancers. Lung cancer specifically was noted to kill more than the other three combined, and 85 percent of its cases were caused by smoking. However, pancreatic cancer is the most deadly form in terms of percentage of people killed post-prognosis, with 5,500 Canadians to be diagnosed and 4,800 of these dying.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.cancer.ca/en/about-us/for-media/media-releases/national/2017/canadian-cancer-statistics/?region=bc">CCS stated that</a> &#8220;the rise in cancer cases is primarily being driven by an aging and growing population. According to today’s report, an estimated 206,200 Canadians will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and almost 90 percent of these cases will be among Canadians 50 years of age and older.&#8221; While this news is shocking, it has not bucked the upward trajectory of cancer treatment in Canada: the five-year cancer death rate has decreased from 75 percent in the 1940s to 40 percent today.</p>
<p>Changing lifestyle choices is the key to decreasing your likelihood of cancer, said Leah Smith, CCS epidemiologist and one of the report’s authors. She said in an interview for <a href="http://www.cancer.ca/en/about-us/for-media/media-releases/national/2017/canadian-cancer-statistics/?region=bc">a CCS press release</a>, &#8220;Actions like quitting smoking, eating well, being physically active and practicing sun safety, along with appropriate cancer screening tests, can go a long way to reducing your risk of getting cancer.”</p>
<h2>What We Can Learn</h2>
<p>The research was a collaborative effort between the CCS, the Public Health Agency of Canada, Statistics Canada, and provincial and territorial cancer registries. This collaboration is crucial because it gives an objective viewpoint and provides new statistics that, <a href="http://www.cancer.ca/en/about-us/for-media/media-releases/national/2017/canadian-cancer-statistics-media-fact-sheet/?region=bc">according to the CCS</a>, &#8220;are a better reflection of the risk of being diagnosed with cancer at some point in life.&#8221; Without cooperation between different branches of the civil sector, such objectivity would be impossible.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Az0G89HMDhE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>The news, while tragic, serves to highlight the benefits of open information because Canadians — along with the rest of the world — can make changes to their lifestyles to lower their risk of adding to these cancer cases. It may also encourage more individuals to make appointments with doctors for possible cancer symptoms, which is vital, as early detection is one of the most powerful weapons against cancer.</p>
<p>There are promising pieces of research worldwide that focus on cancer detection and treatment — although there could be more of these as the CCS claim that 60 percent of high-priority research goes unfunded. Pivotal work includes <a href="https://futurism.com/aa-new-test-could-detect-cancer-years-before-symptoms-show/">a new blood test</a>, backed by Bill Gates, that can detect cancer; a possible new cancer treating <a href="https://futurism.com/the-fda-has-fast-tracked-a-first-of-its-kind-cancer-treatment/">drug called Pembrolizumab</a> that has been fast-tracked by the FDA for its potential; and the development of <a href="https://futurism.com/clinical-trials-of-a-new-cancer-vaccine-show-that-it-may-actually-work/">a cancer vaccine</a> that could inhibit cancer development in the first place.</p>


The Canadian Cancer Society has projected that almost half of Canadians will at some point be diagnosed with cancer, and one in every four will die from it.

A New Study Reveals That Half of Canadians Will Be Diagnosed With Cancer in Their Lifetimes

If there was ever a time to increase funding to cancer research, this is it.

Scientists can now study the effects of smoking without hurting anyone.

/Smoking

"Wow"

New Evidence: E-Cigarettes Help Smokers Quit

Artificial Intelligence

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Health & Medicine

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Health & Medicine

A New Study Reveals That Half of Canadians Will Be Diagnosed With Cancer in Their Lifetimes

Hard Science

Airways on Chips Are Teaching Us About the Damage Smoking Causes

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