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More than 350 migrants have been rescued off the Libyan coast by the Ocean Viking humanitarian vessel in just two days, a European NGO running the boat said today.
SOS Mediterranee said that “106 people were rescued… in international waters 28 nautical miles (50 kilometres) from the Libyan coast” yesterday evening.
“The majority of the people aboard an inflatable rubber dinghy were found intoxicated by oil fumes,” it said. They came from Guinea, Sudan and Sierra Leone.
SOS Mediterranee said its calls for aid on Saturday afternoon to Libyan officials went unheeded and “we then asked Maltese and Italian maritime authorities for help.”
“The weather is worsening. We have to dock in a safe place as soon as possible.”
Yesterday morning, the Ocean Viking picked up 149 people from two boats following an SOS signal, including 58 minors and four babies — one just a month old, it said.
Since Thursday, a total of 374 people have been rescued by the Ocean Viking, of whom 165 are children, SOS Mediterranee said.
A total of 131 minors are unaccompanied.
Libya has become a key route for irregular migration to Europe in the chaotic years since the 2011 overthrow and killing of dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising.
While many have drowned at sea, thousands have been intercepted by the Libyan coastguard, which has been backed by Italy and the European Union, and returned to Libya.
They mostly end up in detention, often in horrific conditions.
The Ocean Viking took to the seas on January 11 after being blocked in Italy for five months before being released in December. Authorities had cited alleged safety issues for the holdup.
Ocean Viking is currently the sole rescue ship run by an NGO in the area, according to SOS Mediterranee’s head, Sophie Beau, who said “the others have been blocked by Italian authorities like the Ocean Viking earlier”.
Most migrants leave from Libya and Tunisia attempting a hazardous Mediterranean crossing to try and enter Europe through Italy.
More than 1,200 died last year while trying to cross the Mediterranean.
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Off the smokes nearly 3 years thanks to vaping
@cp: well done
@cp: Same here, tried every other quit method. Cutting down gradually now on the nicotine quantity.
@eastsmer: same. i get the one with no nicotine now, i could have never gave up otherwise. Makes me sick now even to smell cigarettes
@cp: does anybody really know what’s in those vapes? They could be doing more harm than good to people.
@Ciaran O Reilly: but never as much harm as cigarettes.
@Ciaran O Reilly: Look, I’m off cigs six months because of vaping. I more than likely wouldn’t have given up cigarettes without it so at the end of the day even if I’m slightly better off on an ecig, I’m still better off. Nothing inhaled into the lungs that shouldn’t be is going to be healthy but it’s a step in the right direction. I intend to reduce the nicotine amount gradually and hopefully eventually go off vaping altogether. Little victories
Three years and counting with he help of vaping although I would love to see some kind of regulation in the Vape industry.
@Ciaran O Reilly: They dont do much harm when working properly. But at the end of an atomisers life it burns a little of the alcohols as it heats unevenly, or people built the atomiser themselves and did a poor job. When the alcohol burns the smoke is toxic and can cause popcorn lung.
So as long as you take care of the e-cigarette it is not too harmful, but if you dont take the proper care it might cause harm.
It got me off the cigarettes too though, but now I am not vaping either. It is the best and probably safest option to give up other than cold turkey, considering nicorette may prove fatal among countless other side effects.
@Ciaran: Did you see the risks of popcorn lung with smoking cigarettes? It makes vaping look harmless. As for cold Turkey, my friend who is a doctor in the UK and who is bowel cancer specialist warned me about going cold Turkey. His logic is that withdrawing a chemical that the body has had for over forty years could mean failure of a vital organ. That was after I went cold Turkey one new year and was in hospital a few days afterwards. I’ve never heard it from any other medical source though. I won’t elaborate on his theories in his specialist field as I’m not qualified to relay the science. As for vaping it’s been five years now since I smoked anything and my body has been transformed.
@Ciaran O Reilly: I agree with your question and we don’t know if the capes are dangerous or not, obviously it would be much safer if we were only inhaling fresh air but what I can tell you is that I was a really heavy smoker and I tried vaping and haven’t looked back sense. I can breathe easier, I actually sleep better, I’m less anxious, I eat better, I don’t stink of cigarettes anymore, my windscreen in my car doesn’t have a film if grime on it from smoke, and I’m not coughing anymore, so it has completely changed my life, and while I’d love to stop vaping too, it is far less dangerous than smoking in my opinion.
@cp: two and a half year…. was smoking 40+ a day on your average week day
I read the Alan Carr book. Off them 6 months now and I will never smoke again. Nicotine is a highly addictive drug. Vaping wasn’t for me as I got a sore throat and I had concerns that vapors seemed to be constantly puffing away and possibly taking in more nicotine than they did with smoking and getting more hooked. I didnt actually know there were nicotine free ones.
I felt they were perhaps another way for the tabacco companies to keep delivering their product in a health concience world and keep people hooked. So many people smoke and vape at the same time I felt you’re not really kicking the addiction. While I agree it has helped many I think abstinence is the only true way of being rid of this filthy drug. At 39 I have severe gum disease worse on the side I hold my cigarette and I may loose teeth due to receeding bone. Wow what a wake up call for someone that smoked less then 10 a day. I dread to think what my heart and lungs are like. But everyday I’m healing. 3 days 3 weeks and 3 months were the hardest mild stones and then you’re done. It was actually so easy in the end and I’m so glad I’m not a slave to the nicotine and having to stand out in the cold to get my fix.
Well done to everyone that quits whatever your method but do try to rid yourself of the nicotine addiction to be truly free
@Bee Johnson: Incredibly uncanny similarity with my own experience in stopping smoking about 15 years ago and especially the 3 days/weeks/month milestones after reading Allan Carr’s book. Not unsurprisingly there is little recognition from the formal medical community as this method doesn’t need expenditure on nicotine replacement and Allan Carr wasn’t from that community .
@John Tierney: Everything is effin ‘models’ these days so Allan Carr was literally a breath of fresh air when he pointed out how the mind tricks the body into keeping the addiction going. Anyone who stopped smoking by reading the book will tell you that it is as much freedom from the rut thinking of the mind as much as nicotine that makes it work and a lesson for other things where rut thinking is involved.
@Gerald Kelleher: is this an ad?
“Nicotine harm reduction expert”. Really? I wonder if that’s what he wanted to become when he grew up….
The whole article sounds like an ad for an e-cigarette company to me…
@ウィリアム はげ: have to agree with you there.
Having broken my heavy smoking habit I found myself having major surgery a few years ago to mend the damage caused by my former habit. In our 6 bed ward there was an elderly batchelor who needed his nicotine fix & got it using an e-cig. None of us had any problem with this nor had any of the staff or visitors as e-cigs do appear to be harmless. This poor man’s long stay in hospital would have been unbearable without this crutch to lean on & I was disappointed when their use was banned in hospitals even though I don’t use them myself. I don’t believe that they are dangerous & would like to think that some compassion would be shown to the likes of that gentle soul who relied so heavily on them.
I quit smoking in 2012 using nicotine tablets. I’d recommend them but after a while they gave me terrible palpitations. Had to go to the hospital for an ECG it became such an issue. Vapes do the same to me. Just thought I’d out that out there in case anyone’s having similar trouble and doesn’t know what the issue is.
@Paddy Reid: Same happened to me when I bought an 18mg eliquid because there wasn’t any 12mg in stock of the flavour I wanted which was a bit stupid and I was vaping like I would the 12mg which was too much.
Tried the patches on and off for years, then 2 years ago I just went Cold Turkey. That time it worked for me and I’m still off them. Different things work for different people at different stages in their life. I do agree though that alternatives to cigarettes need to be promoted more as a means to quit smoking tobacco.
I smoked twenty a day for 26 years. I went to work in a hospital and saw people dying of smoking related diseases. The odds were this was going to be me at some point in the future. That was 8 years ago. …haven’t had a smoke since. I’ll probably be killed crossing the road but I’ve reduced the chances of it being a smoking related illness.
@Paul Murphy: Worked in theatre in St James hospital removing cancerous lungs from patients. Getting through the rib cage without doing massive damage and disfigurement was the challenge so entering from the back was the preferred choice especially for female patients.
I see young people using e-cigarettes and I wonder if this is just another way of marketing a useless but addictive drug. We need to keep an eye on it.
@VladosHat: it absolutely is. In our town a vape shop round the corner from my sons secondary school they sell massive slushies for €1. The kids aren’t allowed buy the vapes in uniform but they are still exposed to it daily. The smoothies are a lure to get them in then they buy the vapes at the weekend. Why would they have candyfloss and bubblegum flavours if they are not marketing to children. I have a real problem with this. Kids are starting off with vapes now and working up to tobacco. That’s them hooked.
@Bee Johnson: candy flavours aren’t necessarily for kids: adults enjoy them too, and adults are the main users of vapes.
There’s a lot of fear about young people being led into smoking by vapes. I suppose with enough people experimenting, this will happen sometimes… but how often? If it were really a pervasive problem, wouldn’t there be legions of people available to testify that vapes had gotten them hooked on smoking? Where are those people? Instead all the anecdotal evidence seems to be going the other way: from ex-smokers who quit because of vapes.
@Bee Johnson: The actual research though says that 99.9% (actually higher) are not kids or non smokers but adult ex smokers… Well sh says all the British research using really huge samples… Including one by NICE.
I haven’t seen any kids using ecigs… given the whole ‘thing’ around ecigs I doubt any vendor would install a slushy machine in a store bear a school.
But look let’s take your work for it… Retailers can be just as stupid as anyone elese I suppose. Now.. To correct this issue …Ahem… What’s the name if the Vape Store and where is it? I’d be pretty sure Gillian from the Vape Vendors association would have something to say about it.
By the way the number of kids or non smokers vaping is known now. This is not 2007.
@VladosHat: The drug is already being marketed in cigarettes. The important point is this way is far safer than the current method.
Can’t help noticing that the consumer approach to reducing smoking or obesity always has a “product”. There is no profit or tax take to be made from “eat less” or “only fools smoke” campaigns
@Tom Newnewman: No profit and, unfortunately, no results. Abstinence as a policy has repeatedly failed.
Just the tip is OK surely
Off the smokes 7 years ..3 months of patches ..never looked back . vaping wasn’t as available then and I’m glad because my wife’s nicotine dependency has gone up since she started vaping ..better than cigs i suppose !!!
Willpower worked for me six years off them now.
People need to find what works for themselves.
Off the smokes 7 years,
I used nicotine lozenges for two years,
Best decision I ever made,
Off the smokes 2 years thanks to the 5R approach. It’s not for everyone but if you really want to kick the cancer sticks and don’t like vaping then try this. Here is a 52 page booklet to have a read of https://www.google.ie/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://hse.ie/eng/about/Who/TobaccoControl/news/Briefreport.pdf&ved=0ahUKEwjmkuKrnIHXAhVqBsAKHSs9A-EQFghIMAA&usg=AOvVaw2wBURmi2oSHAzfogj1E7_6
I have been promoting smoking cessation as a doctor for 40 years in the NHS.
I have no financial connection, nor any other connection, with tobacco or e-cig manufacturers.
The e-cig is the best thing to happen in the health area for the last 15 years. The only other big impact has been the ban on smoking in public places – thanks Ireland for leading the way on that.
This article speaks a lot of sense. Key is to get the regulation and taxation right to make e-cigs financially better than smoking, and continue efforts to evaluate and reduce any harm (little yet detected) that may arise from e-cigs.
Many of the comments here are sound – e-cigs are not for everyone, and nobody really needs nicotine. Public Health professionals need to welcome e-cigs and divert some of their efforts elsewhere.
My mate was admitted to A&E with chronic nasal pain. He had moisture in his nasal cavity caused from vaping the surgeon said he’s seeing it daily now all from vaping.
@Jonathan Power: Realy? You didn’t just make that up?
Any product that is marketed to children in order to get them hooked on a lifetime addiction is bad in my opinion.
@Bee Johnson: Vaping, NRT’s Snuss and other tobacco replacements are not marketed to children… That would be the single dumbest marketing strategy in history… That market represents less than 0.01% of the more accessible ‘smokers’ market, which is chwaper to access and has a higher return on investment, and its also illegal to market these products to under 18′s… So your fears are misplaced and your information simply wrong.
That’s a little like saying whiskey is marketed to children. Its not, but that does not mean no child ever seen an advert for whiskey.
Marketing of ecigs is also banned by the way, no TV, radio, no posters… Nothing. So the basic premise of your point is countered by current legislation.
Also there are candy flavoured capes… But again the main purchaser and consumer of actual candy and chocolate is the adult population…. Kids also read books… That does not make them the primary consumer. Selling books to kids is legal… Selling them eliquid or vaporisers or nicotine replacement is not legal.
…and again this level of misinformation was working 10 years ago before any research was done… It doesn’t work any more. The research is done now, and we know these fears are and always were illusory at best.
Can I suggest a change in tactics? Maybe pointing out modern vaporisers look like mobile phones and kids like technology? Hey… Its worth a shot ehh?
As far as the dangers go from vaporisers even if you superglued one to a kids fae? Well compare that input of nicotine and mostly steam to ten minutes sucking carbon monoxide from car exchausts walking home from school every day. That research is available too…. Hence the huge use in childhood asthma and respiratory disease in the last 100 years.
I’m off the ciggies 2 yrs tomorrow couldn’t hve done it without vaping the smell of fags makes my tummy turn
It’s odd that articles claiming dangers or harm get so much coverage in the press while actual science like this get ignored.
http://www.ecigarette-research.org/research/index.php/whats-new/2017/258-cancer
Quit smoking 8 years ago.
Took champix and ended up off them after 4 days.
The only problem was the weight gain.
While I haven’t lost all of what I put on I’ve managed to at least control it.
I’d never go back on them now.
The wife still smokes and the smell turns my stomach.
have your say