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Burning oil spill kills woman, 86
By EMMA PAGE – Sunday, 30 November 2008
A frail South Auckland grandmother died yesterday after receiving extensive burns when she accidently knocked a pot of burning melted margarine on to herself.
The 86-year-old, believed to be Indian, was alone in her Pahurehure home when fire safety staff believe she went into the kitchen to find that the melted margarine, which was going to be used to make ceremonial candles, was smoking. .
Neighbours, who saw smoke, rushed to help and called emergency services. She then fell over, spilling the burning margarine on herself and resulting in significant burns.
Cocker says the woman's family had gone out.
The woman was treated at the scene by fire and ambulance staff and was taken to Middlemore Hospital, but she later died. He urged people not to leave things unattended on the stove and to be mindful of the dangers of heating oils and fats.
"Our message to the public is to make sure your elderly dependents are OK. He also wanted to remind families to look after their elderly relatives."
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"Make sure what they are doing is safe
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Pregnant mum drove after four bottles of wine
By – Sunday, 23 November 2008
A heavily pregnant mother-of-three says she may have drunk up to four bottles of wine before driving through a red light with her children unrestrained in the back of the car.
Makarita Ruka, 26, who is due to give birth to a girl next month and has three other children, aged one, five and eight, has been sentenced to community service.
She had been driving the children and a friend to their South Auckland home about 3am two months ago after drinking at a house close toby.
"I'm embarrassed, just really shamed and gutted," she told the Sunday Star-Times.
Ruka, who is remorseful for her actions and pleaded guilty to the charges, says she may have drunk up to four bottles of wine.
She says she has learnt a hard lesson.
She says it was the first time she had been arrested for a drink-driving, running a red light or having her children unrestrained. Asked why she did it, she said she had had a three-hour break from drinking, "had a feed and a coffee", and thought she was all right to drive. The friend she was driving home put the children in their car seats but forgot to buckle them in, "but I can't blame anyone, I was the driver", she says.
The intersection was clear as she approached the red light and she "just went through". She says they were "nice" and emphasised the danger she had put her children in.
She was stopped and arrested by Manukau police. The legal limit is 400mg per litre.
Ruka pleaded guilty to failing to comply with a traffic signal, providing a police officer with false information, failing to restrain three children and driving with 730mg of alcohol per litre of breath.
She was sentenced in the Manukau District Court to 50 hours' community service.
She was sentenced in the Manukau District Court to 50 hours' community service.
"I only drink probably once every couple of months.
She says she is aware of the dangers of drinking while pregnant but is "not a heavy drinker".
"Everybody who knows has called to browbeat me. … She can offer no real defence for her actions. There have been a few swear words, even a couple of slaps on the hand," she says."
Her message to people who are considering driving after drinking is "just don't do it". "I know now.
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Waiouru weather tries soldier from Siberia
By Wednesday, 19 November 2008
NZ Defence Force
OFFICIALLY A KIWI: Igor Netessov, left, with his platoon commander, Second Lieutenant Gwyn Macpherson
Army gunning for tougher kit
Waiouru's weather is proving a bit rough for Siberian-born New Zealand army recruit Igor Netessov.
The 18-year-old, who came to New Zealand with his parents nine years ago, has nearly completed 14-week basic army training in Waiouru.
In Taumarunui yesterday, he cleared one of the final recruitment hurdles when he gained his New Zealand citizenship at a ceremony conducted by Ruapehu District Council Mayor Sue Morris.
He was born in the city of Krasnoyarsk, where winter temperatures average about minus 20 degrees celsius.
Private Netessov said that swearing the oath of allegiance to the Queen "was cool", but Waiouru's weather had been a challenge. It's way colder in Siberia, but here it's not predictable and you don't know how to dress.
"Here you gets lots of weather in one day."
Private Netessov, who went to school on Auckland's North Shore, joined the army to get a chance to travel overseas and looks forward to serving with Kiwi troops in Afghanistan.
Army spokesman Bas Bolyn said growing numbers of the 700 new recruits taken on each year were born overseas.
He has considered joining the elite SAS – "but I'm not good enough at the moment". .
They included Pacific Islanders, Thais, Koreans, Chinese, Indians and Japanese.
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Roll your own cigarettes not a healthy option
– Monday, 22 September 2008
People who smoke hand-rolled cigarettes believing they do less harm than tailor-mades may be deluding themselves, the Ministry of Health warns.
It released research yesterday that compared the smoke generated by several brands of loose-leaf tobacco with that from New Zealand's top-selling tailor-made cigarette, Holiday Red.
Self-made cigarettes lack the chemicals in tailor-mades that keep the tobacco burning, hence the perception they are less harmful. Tests found roll-your-owns generated a third more tar than the Holiday cigarette, and several also had higher nicotine levels.
Combined with the high tar readings and their low cost, roll-your-own cigarettes were not a safer alternative for smokers, the report said.
However, they also needed a higher "puff count" to smoke them, and delivered an "appreciable" amount of nicotine, considering the small quantity of tobacco used to make them, the report from Environmental Science and Research said."
The scientists did note their findings could not be exact, as there was no way of knowing exactly how much tobacco each person put into their hand-rolled cigarettes.
"Considering the fact that tobacco excise rate per gram is currently the same for both cigarette types and that roll-your-own cigarettes contain much less tobacco, their lower price could encourage increasing numbers of smokers towards roll-your-own smoking and, consequently, higher tar yields. Commercially available wrapping paper and filters were used.
For the tests, tobacco from 10 brands both normal and mild was put into a cigarette-rolling machine.
It also found there was no appreciable difference between some normal and "mild" brands of tobacco in terms of the dangerous chemicals they emitted.
"The filters tested in this study provide no protection from volatile organic carcinogens in tobacco smoke," the report said.
"Anyone who thinks rollies are safer is wrong.
"We found that five top-selling brands of loose tobacco used in rollies are no safer than the most commonly sold tailor-mades, and some brands actually produce more cancer-resulting in substances," said Ashley Bloomfield, the Health Ministry's national director of tobacco control. It's not just wrong, but some rollies are potentially more harmful. There are a lot of myths around tobacco harm like loose tobacco is more natural, with fewer additives, so it's less harmful.
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Bloomfield said most New Zealand smokers wanted to quit their habit, and this latest research should prove a powerful incentive to do so