The Case against a Smoker's License

Tobacco continues to kill millions of people around the world each year and its use is increasing in some countries, which makes the need for new, creative, and radical efforts to achieve the tobacco control endgame vitally important. One such effort is discussed in this PLOS Medicine Debate, where Simon Chapman presents his proposal for a "smoker's license" and Jeff Collin argues against. Chapman sets out a case for introducing a smart card license for smokers designed to limit access to tobacco products and encourage cessation. Key elements of the smoker's license include smokers setting daily limits, financial incentives for permanent license surrender, and a test of health risk knowledge for commencing smokers. Collin argues against the proposal, saying that it would shift focus away from the real vector of the epidemic--the tobacco industry--and that by focusing on individuals it would censure victims, increase stigmatization of smokers, and marginalize the poor

Global Health Governance and the Commercial Sector: A Documentary Analysis of Tobacco Company Strategies to Influence the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Heide Weishaar and colleagues did an analysis of internal tobacco industry documents together with other data and describe the industry's strategic response to the proposed World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

A cross-sectional analysis of the relationship between tobacco and alcohol outlet density and neighbourhood deprivation

Background There is a strong socio-economic gradient in both tobacco-and alcohol-related harm. One possible factor contributing to this social gradient may be greater availability of tobacco and alcohol in more socially-deprived areas. A higher density of tobacco and alcohol outlets is not only likely to increase supply but also to raise awareness of tobacco/alcohol brands, create a competitive local market that reduces product costs, and influence local social norms relating to tobacco and alcohol consumption. This paper examines the association between the density of alcohol and tobacco outlets and neighbourhood-level income deprivation. Methods Using a national tobacco retailer register and alcohol licensing data this paper calculates the density of alcohol and tobacco retail outlets per 10,000 population for small neighbourhoods across the whole of Scotland. Average outlet density was calculated for neighbourhoods grouped by their level of income deprivation. Associations between outlet density and deprivation were analysed using one way analysis of variance. Results There was a positive linear relationship between neighbourhood deprivation and outlets for both tobacco (p <0.001) and off-sales alcohol (p <0.001); the most deprived quintile of neighbourhoods had the highest densities of both. In contrast, the least deprived quintile had the lowest density of tobacco and both off-sales and on-sales alcohol outlets. Conclusions The social gradient evident in alcohol and tobacco supply may be a contributing factor to the social gradient in alcohol- and tobacco-related disease. Policymakers should consider such gradients when creating tobacco and alcohol control policies. The potential contribution to public health, and health inequalities, of reducing the physical availability of both alcohol and tobacco products should be examined in developing broader supply-side interventions

Hydraulic Fracture Stimulation Design Considerations and Production Analysis

Abstract When the word "shale" is included in the name of a formation, a high-rate water frac is often instantly assumed to be the correct choice for hydraulic fracture treatment. This is because high-rate water fracs are the common treatment in the Barnett shale in northeast Texas, and that is the shale reservoir with which industry professionals are most familiar. When a new shale development, such as the Eagle Ford shale in south Texas, is discovered, engineering tends to take a back seat, and a high-rate water frac is often the initial treatment design chosen simply because that is what has been done in the Barnett. Reservoir understanding acquired from core analysis, geomechanical tests, formation evaluation, proppant-embedment testing, stress analysis, and other data are sometimes ignored in the design process. This paper discusses the thought process that engineers are encouraged to follow when deciding what type of completion should be used to fracture stimulate a shale reservoir (water frac, hybrid, or conventional). Considerations, such as the type of hydrocarbon that is expected to be produced, fracture complexity of the reservoir, lithology and mineralogy of the rock, and other reservoir parameters, should be included as part of the completion design. To close the loop, the production also should be evaluated to make good engineering-design changes as the asset is developed. Quantifiable analysis of a stimulation treatment in a horizontal well can be a daunting task because of the complexity and lack of data. Production analyses for several stimulated wells are presented. This application can be directed toward any horizontal completion in low/ultra-low permeability reservoirs and can be performed in a timely manner. The immediate goal of this process is to determine a qualitative measurement of stimulation effectiveness; the eventual goal is a quantitative tool.</jats:p

The role of meltwater in high-latitude trough-mouth fan development: The Disko Trough-Mouth Fan, West Greenland

The Disko Trough-Mouth Fan (TMF) is a major submarine sediment fan located along the central west Greenland continental margin offshore of Disko Trough. The location of the TMF at the mouth of a prominent cross-shelf trough indicates that it is a product of repeated glacigenic sediment delivery from former fast-flowing outlets of the Greenland Ice Sheet, including an ancestral Jakobshavn Isbrae, which expanded to the shelf edge during successive glacial cycles. This study focuses on the uppermost part of the fan stratigraphy and analyses multibeam swath bathymetry and sub-bottom profiler records, supplemented by a series of vibrocores up to 6 m in length. The swath bathymetry data show that the surface of the fan is prominently gullied and channelled with channels extending downslope from a series of shelf-edge incising gullies. Sub-bottom profiles from across- and down-fan show that the fan sediments are often acoustically stratified. Glacigenic-debris flows (GDFs) were recovered in sediment cores from the uppermost slope but they are absent in cores from elsewhere on the fan. Instead, glacimarine lithofacies in the Disko TMF are dominated by turbidites, hemipelagic sediments and IRD. The gullied and channelled surface of the fan implies erosion at the base of dense, sediment-laden, turbidity currents related to the delivery of meltwater and sediment from an ice sheet grounded at the shelf edge. Such meltwater-related fans have been documented previously on mid-latitude, glacier-influenced margins, but they have rarely been described from high-latitude settings. Although GDFs are often regarded as the building blocks of TMFs, the morphology and sedimentary architecture of the uppermost, Late Quaternary part of the Disko TMF indicates that it represents a clear example of a fan in which sediment delivery is strongly influenced by meltwater. This implies that there is a spectrum of TMFs on glaciated continental margins that reflects the relative dominance of meltwater processes vs. GDFs. It highlights the variability in fan morphology and mechanisms of sediment delivery on high-latitude TMFs and shows that the classic Polar North Atlantic model of GDF dominated fans is but one of a number of styles for such large-scale, high-latitude glacimarine sedimentary depocentres

Application of Integrated Reservoir Management and Reservoir Characterization to Optimize Infill Drillings. Annual technical progress report, June 13, 1996 to June 12, 1998

Infill drilling of wells on a uniform spacing, without regard to reservoir performance and characterization, does not optimize reservoir development because it fails to account for the complex nature of reservoir heterogeneities present in many low permeability reservoirs, and carbonate reservoirs in particular. New and emerging technologies, such as geostatistical modeling, rigorous decline curve analysis, reservoir rock typing, and special core analysis can be used to develop a 3-D simulation model for prediction of infill locations. Other technologies, such as inter-well injection tracers and magnetic flow conditioners, can also aid in the efficient evaluation and operation of both injection and producing wells. The purpose of this project was to demonstrate useful and cost effective methods of exploitation of the shallow shelf carbonate reservoirs of the Permian Basin located in West Texas

Application of integrated reservoir management and reservoir characterization to optimize infill drilling, Class II

The major purpose of this project was to demonstrate the use of cost effective reservoir characterization and management tools that will be helpful to both independent and major operators for the optimal development of heterogeneous, low permeability carbonate reservoirs such as the North Robertson (Clearfork) Unit

Application of Integrated Reservoir Management and Reservoir Characterization

Reservoir performance and characterization are vital parameters during the development phase of a project. Infill drilling of wells on a uniform spacing, without regard to characterization does not optimize development because it fails to account for the complex nature of reservoir heterogeneities present in many low permeability reservoirs, especially carbonate reservoirs. These reservoirs are typically characterized by: (1) large, discontinuous pay intervals; (2) vertical and lateral changes in reservoir properties; (3) low reservoir energy; (4) high residual oil saturation; and (5) low recovery efficiency. The operational problems they encounter in these types of reservoirs include: (1) poor or inadequate completions and stimulations; (2) early water breakthrough; (3) poor reservoir sweep efficiency in contacting oil throughout the reservoir as well as in the nearby well regions; (4) channeling of injected fluids due to preferential fracturing caused by excessive injection rates; and (5) limited data availability and poor data quality. Infill drilling operations only need target areas of the reservoir which will be economically successful. If the most productive areas of a reservoir can be accurately identified by combining the results of geological, petrophysical, reservoir performance, and pressure transient analyses, then this ''integrated'' approach can be used to optimize reservoir performance during secondary and tertiary recovery operations without resorting to ''blanket'' infill drilling methods. New and emerging technologies such as geostatistical modeling, rock typing, and rigorous decline type curve analysis can be used to quantify reservoir quality and the degree of interwell communication. These results can then be used to develop a 3-D simulation model for prediction of infill locations. The application of reservoir surveillance techniques to identify additional reservoir ''pay'' zones, and to monitor pressure and preferential fluid movement in the reservoir is demonstrated. These techniques are: long-term production and injection data analysis, pressure transient analysis, and advanced open and cased hole well log analysis. The major contribution of this project is to demonstrate the use of cost effective reservoir characterization and management tools that will be helpful to both independent and major operators for the optimal development of heterogeneous, low permeability carbonate reservoirs such as the North Robertson (Clearfork) Unit