Cigarettes have turned out to be among the most popular gifts for the upcoming Spring Festival, a public health survey has found.

More than half of the poll’s 1,200 respondents, some of whom are smokers, said they will give away cartons of cigarettes as gifts during the festivities. Recipients of such gifts ranged from family members to business partners.

The survey was conducted by the Jiangsu provincial center for disease control and prevention (CDC).

More than 68 percent of those polled also said they were fully aware of the scientifically proven health hazards of tobacco.

“Brand name and expensive cigarettes are always the safest choice for gift giving in China to show respect. Few people, including non-smokers, will openly deny the practice because of health concerns,” said Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the Thinktank Research Center for Health Development, a Beijing-based nongovernmental organization.

Fu Rong, a college teacher in Beijing, said two cartons of brand name cigarettes helped make up the Spring Festival gift list for her father back home in Shaanxi province.

“I don’t want him to smoke because of health concerns, but I still give him the cigarettes and always ask him to smoke less,” she said. “For chain smokers like him, cigarettes are an easy choice. They are also light and easy to carry.”

That also seems to be true for non-smokers.

In a country with 350 million smokers, cigarettes as presents can be a welcome option for recipients, Wu said.

In varied social settings like family and business meetings, people tend to pass around and light cigarettes to be polite, she said. “It’s something quite unique to China,” she said.

Cigarettes are also usually the first things on plates before food at formal dinners, she said.

Official statistics show that one million Chinese people die from smoking-related diseases each year in the country.

Source:China Daily
February 05, 2010

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — The restaurant smoking ban that took effect Tuesday across Virginia is a healthy development — literally — in a state that has revered tobacco since Jamestown’s settlers began raising it 400 years ago, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine said.

In a statewide victory lap touting the most conspicuous policy triumph of his final year in office, Kaine planned to show up at four eateries to celebrate the compromise that the 2009 General Assembly passed over the objection of Virginia’s muscular tobacco lobby.

“This is a historic day,” Kaine told a small gathering at Hamilton’s at First and Main, a high-end restaurant in downtown Charlottesville that has banned smoking since Bill and Kate Hamilton opened it 14 years ago.

“Virginia was the home for the start of the tobacco industry in the New World. Those settlers who came to Jamestown couldn’t find the gold they were looking for and they couldn’t figure out how to raise crops that would economically support the growing commonwealth until they hit on tobacco. Tobacco was the cash crop,” said Kaine, who is barred from seeking re-election by Virginia’s Constitution. He leaves the office on Jan. 16 to Republican Bob McDonnell.

Virginia joins a growing number of states that have enacted laws to limit smoking. Twenty-eight states and the District of Columbia have laws banning restaurant smoking, according to the American Lung Association.

The Democratic governor and Democratic National Committee chairman had sought an outright restaurant smoking ban for two years. It never survived a Republican House of Delegates, with cigarette giant Philip Morris and the rest of the tobacco industry battling it. Philip Morris operates the cigarette factory that supplies the world with Marlboros a few miles from the Virginia Capitol. Frescoes of golden-brown tobacco leaves adorn the ceiling of the Capitol rotunda.

The breakthrough came in January when Republican House Speaker William J. Hamilton approached Kaine with a compromise. The bill, sponsored by Del. John Cosgrove, R-Virginia Beach, and Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, eventually passed with bipartisan support.

The new law allows smoking only in separately ventilated rooms, away from nonsmoking patrons. It also permits smoking on outdoor patio areas, and private membership clubs such as Elks Clubs or American Legion posts are exempt. Violators are subject to a $25 civil fine.

The state’s restaurateurs opposed the bill, preferring an outright ban on grounds that wealthy chain restaurants would have the capital to make the necessary adjustments that small, family owned eateries could not.

Restaurant industry lobbyist Thomas Lisk estimated that only about one-tenth of restaurants that still allowed smoking would make the modifications required to accommodate smokers.

About 70 percent of Virginia’s restaurants had already banned smoking voluntarily, Lisk said.

The Medical Society of Virginia had lobbied for several years for a smoking ban. The organization’s immediate past president, Dr. Tom Eppes, said secondhand smoke kills about 1,700 Virginians every year.

Kaine said he pushed hard for a ban because of the damage done to employees in bars and restaurants where concentrations of cigarette smoke are several times higher than they are in offices or residences where occupants smoke.

Eppes, a family practitioner in Forest, Va., said not only was the smoking ban good public policy, it had strong and widespread support, even if supporters weren’t vocal about it.

“I knew we had done the right thing when my wife and I went out to dinner on March 3 at a restaurant in Lynchburg and the waitress asked us, ‘Smoking or nonsmoking?’ I said, ‘You know, after Dec. 1, you never have to ask that question again,’ and she turned with this big smile and said, ‘Yeah!’”

Yesterday was the 34th Great American Smokeout, the annual event that encourages smokers to kick cigarettes for 24 hours or set a date for being tobacco-free.

Congratulations and good luck to those who have chosen to take part. You deserve all the praise and support you can get.

One resource is the Kansas Tobacco Quitline at (800) QUIT-NOW (784-8669) or (866) KAN STOP (526-7867) which offers free tobacco cessation and coaching services from experienced counselors.

The program offers one-on-one calling sessions for smokers to map out a quitting strategy and then deal with cravings as they wean themselves off of nicotine. Smokers can enroll 24 hours a day, and all calls are tailored to participants’ schedules.

Studies strongly suggest such programs can work wonders, doubling the chance of making a successful break from tobacco.

State officials said a survey showed that, of participants who received four or more counseling sessions between June 2006 and May 2007, 46 percent were able to quit using tobacco within three months.

And that’s not the only help available. Smokers can find tips and methods for quitting at the Great American Smokeout Web site, greatamericansmokeout.org, where there’s also a toll-free telephone counseling program.

There’s plenty to gain from quitting. The American Cancer Society says smokers who quit at age 35 gain an average of eight years of life expectancy, while those who kick the habit at 55 buy an average of five more years. Even longtime smokers who quit at 65 get an average of three more years of life.

“We know that quitting smoking is tough and that most smokers have to try several times before quitting for good,” said Alan G. Thorson, MD, FACS, national volunteer president for the American Cancer Society, in a news release. “The American Cancer Society offers a variety of effective resources ranging from online tips and tools to personalized telephone coaching by trained specialists. We hope that smokers will use the Great American Smokeout to map out a course of action that will help them to quit, and in turn to stay well and celebrate more birthdays.”

The smokeout comes a week after the Centers for Disease Control released statistics showing the movement toward reducing smoking was hitting a wall. The report said slightly under 21 percent of Americans were smoking in 2008, up slightly from 2007. It was the first increase in adult smoking since 1994.

The smoking rate has plummeted since the mid-1960s, when about 40 percent of American adults were smokers, but it’s been stubbornly hovering around 21 percent in recent years.

Kansas is below the national average, at 17.9 percent, which is good news. The bad news is the rate was exactly the same in 2007 and has been bouncing around the 17 to 20 percent range for years.

So here’s hoping the Great American Smokeout draws good participation this year.

If more Kansans can quit smoking, any irritability they display today will be quickly forgotten.

One-third of the stores that sold tobacco products in 2008 have stopped doing so, and the remaining tobacco merchants would have to pick up the tab to monitor them under a proposal going before the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday.

The number of outlets went from 78 to 58 in the unincorporated county — those areas not within a city limit.

The county pays staff members to regulate tobacco sales, and to make that program break even, stores that still sell the product should absorb a fee increase of $54, or 14 percent, according to Nikki Schmidt of the County Administrator’s Office. That would bring the cost to $394 per retail license.

County departments reviewed 3,191 fees. Department heads are recommending that 2,043 remain unchanged, 236 increase and 280 decrease. They want to introduce 51 new fees and drop 581.

Among the other changes suggested are:

• Golf: While 77 fees will remain unchanged, six others, all related to golf cart rental, could increase by 50 cents to $1.

• Parks: Eighty-five of 108 fees would not change. Nine could be eliminated as the county streamlines its camping fee structure to two rates — base and high-use. Ten fees could increase because of extra staff time needed to guard against quagga mussels. Yearly passes for boats would jump from $80 to $100.

• Agricultural Commissioner: The fee for processing a minor use permit would drop by $91, “due to a reduction in staff time required to provide this service.”

• Airport: At the San Luis Obispo Regional Airport, vehicles that have access to the airfield could have to pay $10 more, from $35 to $45.

• Animal shelter: The impound discount for owners whose animals have a current license would disappear, shifting the cost back to the owner. Twenty seven of 79 fees would increase, with the average boost being $23. A pet shop permit fee would rise from $275 to $360 a year.

• Killing livestock: For the first time, Animal Services will ask the Board of Supervisors to suggest a fee for euthanizing livestock. It has a fee schedule for “owner-requested euthanasia” of pet animals, rabbits and rodents.

• Planning: Appeals fees on Planning and Building Department decisions would jump in some case by as much as hundreds of dollars, and the cost of removing property from an agricultural preserve also would increase.

• Sheriff-Coroner: The department would add two fees: a low-level urine test for drug-endangered children; and a rave and rape drug screen urine test, at $179.

There are thousands of other recommendations, ranging from hundreds of dollars down to the library late fee for children’s books, which would now be 15 cents a day up to $8.

The full proposed fee schedule can be viewed in a 314-page staff report on the county Web site.

In her message to supervisors, Schmidt wrote that fees help “offset the cost of providing county services to those who benefit from services that exceed basic tax-supported services.”

Money from fees and permits makes up approximately 11 percent of the county’s revenue, she wrote.

By Bob Cuddy, Nov. 01, 2009, Sanluisobispo

What if we had a less dangerous cigarette for people who can’t kick the habit, letting them keep on smoking but stay alive longer while they’re doing it? It’s available in Canada, France, Russia and a few places in Asia. The 350 million smokers in China may also get their hands on it. The U.S.? Forget it.

It’s another perverse result of the 1998 settlement that had tobacco companies–and, ultimately, their customers–chipping in to balance state budgets and pay for lawyers’ yachts. The deal turned the big tobacco companies into a cartel and locked in their market shares. The state attorneys general who put together the $206 billion agreement ward off potential competitors so the money keeps flowing to their states. One way to fend off rivals: pounce on any company making health claims. How convenient for Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds.

In this case the target is an eight-year-old Hong Kong biotech company, Filligent. Its MicroBlue filter blocks many of the toxins that make a cigarette dangerous but doesn’t disturb the ingredients that give it flavor and produce that seductive though addictive nicotine buzz. “For years the public health community has just assumed that the smoke from cigarettes is all bad,” says Scott Ballin, director for the Alliance for Health, Economic & Agriculture Development in Washington, D.C., which is funded by economic development groups in tobacco-growing states and has been critical of the settlement. “Now advances in basic science have given us a much more nuanced understanding of what’s in that stuff–what’s harmful and what’s mainly benign.”

Fewer than 5% of the people who try to stop smoking succeed for as long as five years, says Filligent Chief Executive Melissa Mowbray-d’Arbela. So given the futility of getting smokers to end their addiction, tobacco experts such as Dr. Judith Mackay of the World Lung Foundation in New York say Filligent’s product could be the next best thing to quitting.

Traditional filters work like sieves, mechanically blocking everything that’s in cigarette smoke, not only the carcinogens but also the nicotine. But the highly addictive nicotine is what smokers want. If they don’t get enough from one cigarette, they reach for the next one. They wind up with almost as much deadly tar and nitrosamines as they would have smoking conventional cigarettes.

The MicroBlue filter is different. It includes a biochemical substance that attracts and immobilizes the carcinogens while letting nicotine slip through. Says one Filligent customer, Canadian distributor Edward Roundpoint: “People normally hate reduced-harm cigarettes. But this is different: It does not affect the flavor or the nicotine experience at all.”

By Donald Frazier, November 16, 2009 Forbes

GALVESTON — Citing a state law designed to shield businesses from government regulation, a group of bar and restaurant owners is challenging a sweeping city ban on tobacco smoking set to become law Jan. 1.

In a letter to the city’s attorney, the Galveston Bar and Tavern Owners Association asked the city to conduct an assessment of how the ordinance would affect its member businesses.

Such an accounting, called a “Takings Impact Assessment,” is required under the state’s Private Real Property Rights Protection Act, the association argues.

The association wants to negotiate with the city to amend the ordinance, which will prohibit lighting up in bars, restaurants, private clubs and even tobacco shops.

Failing that, the association plans to take its complaint to the Texas attorney general, according to the letter.

The ban constitutes a regulatory taking because it would drive away customers, the association argues.

But the group has a tough fight ahead trying to prove the ban denies its members economic use of their property, constitutional law experts and observers of legal battles sparked by smoking bans said.

Along with the letter, the group this week gave City Attorney Susie Green a list of signatures from owners of 28 properties.

The group continues to gather signatures, Steve Everts, an owner of the 815 21st St. building that houses Marie’s Albatross, said.

Everts also supplies jukeboxes, pool tables and countertop games to island venues.

Under the state law, a taking is a governmental action that causes a reduction of “at least 25 percent in the market value of the affected private real property.”

Such takings are difficult to prove because government has the authority to regulate use of private property, especially to protect public health, according to guidelines about the protection act published by the Texas attorney general.

City council members who voted for the smoking ban did so with public health in mind.

“Governmental actions taken specifically for the purpose of protecting public health and safety may be given broader latitude by courts before they are found to be ‘takings,’’’ according to the attorney general’s office.

If the group filed a lawsuit using the takings argument, it likely would lose, said Richard A. Epstein, a law professor at the University of Chicago and author of “Takings: Private Property and the Power of Eminent Domain.”

“There is no strong line of authority that backs it,” Epstein said.

Business groups in other states have used the takings laws to no avail.

Owners of Toledo, Ohio, bars challenged the constitutionality of a smoking ordinance with a regulatory takings argument, according to the Tobacco Control Legal Consortium.

The court acknowledged evidence some of the businesses lost revenue but said that alone was insufficient to rule the government’s action a taking.

The consortium concluded the vast majority of laws banning smoking in public have been upheld.

The takings argument is becoming less common, Maggie Mahoney, deputy director of the consortium, said.

“It has been used, but groups haven’t gotten far with it,” Mahoney said.

Groups for smoking bans argue few businesses can attribute a drop in business to the bans, while others have even seen an increase in business after a ban.

The island’s smoking ban is one of the strictest around, observers said.

Adopted in July, it forbids smoking even on decks and patios at restaurants and bars. Smokers must stand 15 feet away from doors.

City officials could avoid a legal fight if they either rescinded the ban or amend it to allow smoking on restaurant patios and decks and inside bars and taverns, Everts said.

Council members Danny Weber, who voted against the ban, and Tarris Woods agreed Thursday to put the ordinance on the agenda for the next meeting on Oct. 22.

“There’s too much interference in private business,” Weber said.

By Laura Elder
The Daily News
October 10, 2009

The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health is proposing legislation with the aim of turning Finland into a completely tobacco-free country. If the legislation is approved, Finland will be the world’s first country to pass laws with the sole aim of eradicating tobacco use.

The Ministry made the announcement Thursday, when it presented Parliament with an outline of the plan. Parliament is expected to debate the proposals next week.

One of the proposal’s authors, Ismo Tuominen, stresses that tobacco use won’t be criminalised. Instead, existing anti-tobacco legislation will be broadened with a number of measures to remove it from sight and restrict its use in public.

“In Ireland in July, it became a requirement to hide tobacco products under counters,” notes Tuominen. “We’re following that example.”

In addition to banning the open display of tobacco products in shops, the reforms would also raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco to 18. It would also make it illegal for minors to sell, possess, or bring tobacco into the country. Behavioural restrictions would also be implemented; for example, it would be illegal to smoke in a car with children on board.

Tuominen feels that a government-backed agenda to end tobacco use sends a strong message. He says that simply aiming to reduce smoking is a tacit approval of tobacco.

The Ministry is now waiting for the expected furore from the tobacco industry.

Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon has decided the butt stops here.

She said Wednesday she will no longer hire anyone who has regularly used tobacco products, saying smokers in her office stick taxpayers with paying for rising health-care costs.

Existing smokers among her 240 employees get to keep their jobs, but are being “encouraged” to quit, Gannon said. But they will pay more for health insurance: She plans to increase what those employees pay toward their coverage by as much as 20 percent.

Gannon said her goal is to cut down on rising health insurance costs and to encourage a healthier, more productive working environment.

Taxpayers pay $2.5 million a year toward health insurance for tax collector employees, a cost that rose 45 percent in three years, Gannon said. Job seekers will be required to submit an affidavit indicating they are non-smokers to go along with their job application to be considered for employment, according to the new policy.

“We believe that smoking is the driver of our health care costs. A person who smokes has chosen to do that,” said Gannon, a non-smoker who said both her parents died of smoking-related illnesses. “The public is really paying.”

Critics say Gannon’s new policy infringes on personal liberties. The move is “outright discrimination,” said Sid Dinerstein, chairman of the Republican Party of Palm Beach County.

“If you can pick on people because they smoke, you can pick on people because they eat fatty foods. … You can go down a very long list of telling people how they should live their lives.”

It is well-established that smoking and other uses of tobacco cause cancer, heart disease and lung disease. Cigarette smoking leads to $96 billion a year in health care costs and more than 400,000 deaths annually in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Gannon said she did her legal research before enacting the policy. The Florida Supreme Court in 1995 upheld North Miami’s ban at the time on hiring smokers.

Gannon’s new policy is patterned after other local government and business actions to phase out employee smoking.

Boca Raton doesn’t hire smokers for its police or fire departments or other union positions, and Sarasota County stopped hiring smokers in 2008. Broward County government workers who smoke this year face new surcharges that could add $520 a year to premiums deducted from employees’ pay.

Not hiring smokers is a “positive step” that encourages people to give up smoking, said Brenda Olsen, CEO of The American Lung Association of Florida.

“It is not a constitutional right for people to smoke,” Olsen said.

The Tax Collector’s Office already has an employee-led, voluntary “Biggest Loser” weight-loss program, where teams compete to see which group can lose the most, Gannon said.

Outside of the Tax Collector’s Office, County Commission-controlled departments focus on encouraging voluntary exercise and other health programs, but stop short of smoking surcharges and hiring bans, Human Resources Director Wayne Condry said.

“Where does that stop?” Condry said about the smoker-hiring ban. “What else are you going to decide people shouldn’t be doing?”

Andy Reid can be reached at abreid@SunSentinel.com or 561-228-5504.

Clearing the air
Boca Raton doesn’t hire smokers for its police or fire departments or other union positions. Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon, right, has decided her office also will be smoke-free.

Copyright © 2009, Sun-Sentinel

One of the most valuable crops that could be grown as a replacement for tobacco is hemp.

Although similar in appearance to its intoxicating cousin, it is not itself an intoxicant.

It can produce 4.1 times the fiber of trees per similar acreage, and is a source of edible oil and seed.

So many times we see articles about the legalization of medical marijuana, but hemp gets scant attention.

Yet, the real value of cannabis is in paper, clothing and food production.

This is a plant that could be saving forests and helping to eliminate hunger.

It is a plant that produces paper that doesn’t decay, durable fabrics and synthetic fuel oil.

I suspect that it could be smoked. It would probably take a pound and the effect would be mostly carbon monoxide.

Careful licensing would differentiate between legitimate growers and those clandestine farms producing “medical” marijuana.

Our farmers would have a real cash crop replacement for king tobacco.

Sometimes laws just aren’t well conceived and those prohibiting hemp production need to be revised.

This is too useful a crop to ban simply because it looks like marijuana.

September 30, 2009 Wpcva
Emory Davis
Chatham

PREMIERSHIP side Dynamos are set to lose close to US$1 million from their official sponsors — Savanna Tobacco — if they play in an Oya Challenge, which is bankrolled by a rival tobacco company Blend Value on October 4. DeMbare, who are are sponsored by Savanna Tobacco through their Pacific Storm brand have been hand picked to play against CAPS United in the Oya Challenge.

The new kid on the block is using the derby to promote their brand — Oya.

Savanna Tobacco have threatened to pull the rug on Dynamos if they go aheadand play as the contract forbids them from associating with rival tobacco companies.

DeMbare are set to lose US$370 000 which is expected to go towards the purchase of a luxurious team bus. In addition to this, the Glamour Boys will lose their branded kit and the payment of salaries for the players.

Savanna Tobacco dropped the bombshell on DeMbare, in a letter to Zifa chief executive officer Henrietta Rushwaya on Friday.

Part of the letter reads: “Savanna Tobacco has been sponsoring local football for the past three years and we are at various stages of investing over USD 750 000 into local football. We are sure you are aware of our sponsorship of the following premier league teams this season — Dynamos FC, Highlanders FC, Black Rhinos FC, Eagles FC. This shows our total commitment to football sponsorship for the benefit of our country’s citizens.

“Savanna Tobacco expects a certain minimum level of professionalism from the custodians of football in Zimbabwe. Our sponsorship agreement with Dynamos Football Club precludes their participation in the proposed Oya! Challenge Match.

“As a result, by way of this letter, we would like to inform you that should the report in the press be correct, Savanna Tobacco will have no option but to immediately withdraw all football sponsorship in Zimbabwe.”

Savanna said they were not entirely against the idea after having initially expressing its willingness to play a role after being approached by Zifa.

“We have nothing against the grudge match as communicated by Savanna to the Zifa CEO on the 19th of September and we are fully behind the government efforts to support the Warriors’ cause. However what we do find deplorable is the unprofessional expectation for a sponsored team to participate in an event that would jeopardise its agreement.”

Onias Gweru, the Savanna marketing manager said the participation of Dynamos in the Oya Challenge contravenes their agreement.

Dynamos secretary Stan Kasukuwere last night said the executive would meet in an emergency meeting this morning to digest the letter from the sponsors.

“There has been correspondence between our sponsors Savanna, Zifa and Dynamos. We have called for an emergency meeting tomorrow (today). We are also going to look into the contract with Savanna.

Remember Murerekwa (Tawanda) was part of the executive, who entered into the contract,” Kasukuwere said.

Murerekwa is a former DeMbare secretary.
BY FANUEL VIRIRI & ENOCK MUCHINJO

MANHATTAN – Convenience stores and gas stations across the state say a recently enacted increase in tobacco permit fees, to pay for health care, is unconstitutional. The retailers say their flat annual fee of $100 has been jacked up in some cases to $5,000, and is not based on how much tobacco they sell, but on gross sales.
The retailers say the state unfairly increased the cost of their tobacco permits by 900 percent to 4,900 percent.
Retailers previously paid a $100 flat fee for the permits, but the amended tax code approved in April changed the fee to a sliding scale based on gross sales of all products.
Stores grossing less than $1 million have to pay $1,000 for their tobacco permit; those grossing between $1 million and $10 million pay $2,500; and those grossing more than $10 million must pay $5,000.
The retailers say that because the fee “is not calculated based on the amount of tobacco products sold,” it is not a permit at all, but a tax by another name.
“New York has no plausible rational basis for calculating a registration fee for the sale of tobacco products based upon the gross sales of completely unrelated products, such as gasoline and diesel fuel,” the plaintiffs say.
They also object that instead of using the money for “monitoring the registrant tobacco retailers,” the state will use some of it for the Health Care Improvement Act.
They claim the new fees are arbitrary and discriminatory, and violate their rights to equal protection.
Plaintiffs include the United 7-Eleven Franchise Owners of Long Island and New York, Long Island Gasoline Retailers Association, New York State Association of Service Stations and Repair Shops, New York Association of Convenience Stores, and Service Station Dealers of Greater New York Inc.
Represented in New York County Court by Andrew Curto with Forchelli, Curto & Deegan, they seek declaratory judgment and relief

Copyright © 2009 Courthousenews

Except for the 3,100 clubs exempt from the 2008 Clean Indoor Air Act. And the nine casinos that still cater to smokers. And the 2,700 restaurants, bars and lounges granted exemptions in the past year.

That’s almost 6,000 establishments — including 96 restaurants and lounges and more than 150 private social clubs in the Lehigh Valley — where people can still smoke ‘em if they got ‘em. An additional 350 applications for exemptions are in process, and new ones are arriving each week.

So thousands of workers and nonsmoking customers continue to breathe second-hand smoke each day. Still, even the most dedicated anti-smoking advocates say the law is doing what it was intended to do — protecting most Pennsylvanians.

”The act, overall, has been very successful,” said Jeanne Fignar of the Partnership for a TobaccoFree Northeast Pennsylvania. ”We lost some of the battles on exemptions, but we figure more than 90 percent of workers are protected. That’s a success.”

People on both sides still are trying to get a handle on the law’s impact. It’s clear some patrons have switched watering holes, based on whether they smoke or not. But it’s less clear how much it has affected business, largely because of the recession.

Several things seem clear: The people who lobbied against the law still hate it, those who worked to get it passed say it is working, and exemptions are generating buzz.

Statewide, 2,463 places have been able to get an exemption by showing that food sales are less than 20 percent of their business and by barring anyone under 18 years old. An additional 170 have received another kind of exemption by showing they have a special smoking room with its own entrance and ventilation.

”We know some people who wanted no exceptions to the rule are frustrated, but we advocated for the most stringent Clean Indoor Air Act possible,” said state Department of Health spokeswoman Stacy Kriedeman. ”If they’re not happy with it, we suggest they contact their state legislator.”

Private clubs that hoped the ban would expand their niche say they’ve experienced no drastic increase in membership.

”It’s been sort of a double-edged sword,” said Harold Kirkhuff, president of Heights Athletic Association, Bethlehem. ”For every new member we attracted, we probably lost a member who doesn’t like all the smoke.”

The Pennsylvania Tavern Association, which lobbied heavily against the law, says most restaurants without smoking have experienced a decline in sales. But Patrick Conway, president of the 7,000-member Pennsylvania Restaurant Association, said the recession is mostly the reason.

Anecdotally, there’s been at least some shifting of business.

Edge Restaurant on Broad Street in Bethlehem experienced weekly losses of $300 to $500 when the ban hit, managing partner Fran Mantz said. He traced it to a handful of regular customers who smoked.

”They all went outside for a while, but then winter came and we lost them for good,” Mantz said. ”They come in to say ‘hi’ to the bartenders once in a while, but they want to smoke while they drink and you can’t do that here anymore.”

The customers went across the street to Ripper’s Pub, one of 40 restaurants, bars and lounges to get an exemption in Northampton County.

Mantz said he doesn’t regret the change or blame an uneven field.

”Yes, we’ve lost some business, but honestly, we’d been wanting to go nonsmoking for a few years,” Mantz said. ”This gave us a chance to blame it on the state.”

Judy Oches, director of the state’s tobacco and prevention control program, said the ban has been a success. Rather than looking at the fraction of lounges that still have smoking, she points to the more than 20,000 restaurants that no longer do, and the thousands of workplaces statewide that are universally smoke-free.

Perhaps just as important, she said, is that more people support the ban than ever. According to state surveys, 92 percent of Pennsylvanians believe secondhand smoke is harmful and 78 percent believe smoking should not be allowed in any indoor workplace — a 7 percent increase over 2006.

‘We’re proud because we know we are changing attitudes,” Oches said. ”The number of adults who smoke in Pennsylvania is down to 21 percent. Everything this past year has surpassed our expectations.”

And the granting of exemptions may soon slow. By next month, the state Department of Revenue will begin analyzing tax returns to make sure establishments comply with the 20 percent food cutoff. Scofflaws probably would be forced to go smoke-free.

”We are very pleased with the law we have,” Fignar said, ”but we’re not done.”

matthew.assad@mcall.com

610-820-6691

A NUMBER OF EXEMPTIONS

More than 20,000 state eateries now ban smoking, but there are public places where smoking remains:

3,100 — private clubs statewide

2,700 — restaurants, bars and lounges granted exemptions because they serve little food and deny entry to children or have separate nonsmoking areas

9 — casinos, including Sands Casino Resort Bethlehem (on half the gambling floor)


– Source: Rendell administration

Hong Kong cultural activist Leung Man Tao is a smoker. For many times, he just disappeared when we were giving a speech, dining or chatting and was later found smoking outside.

Leung has been devoting himself to Buddhism in recent years and he has even quit alcohol. However, he is still quite persistent in smoking.

When I asked him why, he said that it has nothing to do with “looking for inspiration”, as many thought. In fact, smoking just helps him to concentrate and provides a “sense of being”. (Such effects do not applicable to everyone. Children should not imitate.) Even smoking has become very inconvenient and many of his friends have quit smoking because of this, Leung still insists that “a person has the right to not smoke and at the same time, he or she has the right to smoke, too”. He has an unwavering faith in smoking.
“Non-smoking measures are in fact still controversial.”

However, he sighed that smokers have become more and more discriminated as smokers are portrayed as murderers and immoral in all kinds of anti-smoking campaigns and anti-tobacco advertisements.

Smokers have been pitifully expelled to outdoors, and even they have been forced to smoke on the street, passers-by still cast them a look of contempt and dodge away from them.

Eventually, smokers may have to smoke in dark alleys like drug addicts.

Therefore, Leung threatened to launch an “anti-anti-smoking” campaign together with other smoking cultural activists in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan next year.

As a repentant former smoker, I can only have sympathy for Leung and other smokers.

Although the anti-smoking movement in Malaysia is less harsh compared to Hong Kong, those disgusting pictures printed on our cigarette packages may be the worse in the world.

In order to avoid further hurting Leung’s feelings, I tried my best not to let him see Malaysia’s cigarette packages. Luckily, he smoked only his own rolled cigarette and his speech performance was not affected by cigarettes.

Non-smoking measures are in fact still controversial. From the liberal point of view, the measures are limiting a person’s choice and freedom.

In particular, many smokers are working class. Smoking is their main flavour of life but the living space that they can enjoy becomes lesser and lesser in the future.

However, anti-smoking movement is certainly a mainstream of the world community. The world will keep the anti-smoking movement based on personal health and the government’s health-care costs.

Not long ago, an American old woman, who had smoked for 47 years, died of lung cancer. Her daughter sued the tobacco company and requested for compensation. The jury voted nine to three in favour of the daughter and ordered the tobacco company to pay US$13.8million (about RM50 million) to the daughter.

Perhaps, not only the public will no longer dare to smoke in the future, but tobacco companies will dare not to sell cigarettes, too. (By TAY TIAN YAN/Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/Sin Chew Daily)

Beneath a shady grove of trees in the heart of Tacoma’s Wright Park, Eugene Clark sucked the butt of a hand-rolled cigarette and exhaled his opinions about a pending City Council proposal.

“It’s way overstepping people’s rights,” said Clark, punctuating his words with a wispy blue-gray stream.

“I don’t think they’ll be able to stop us,” he added. “The park is an open, public area, and smokers are as much a part of the public as the people who hate smoking.”

Moments later and several hundred yards away in a sun-drenched park playground, Athena Nation threw her hands behind her tottering 3-year-old, Tanner, and her support behind a park smoking ban.

“Absolutely, I think it’s a good idea,” said Nation, as her son wriggled atop a jungle gym.

“I don’t care if you smoke, but you shouldn’t smoke around children,” she added. “And I’m sorry, but parks are places where children convene.”

The City Council’s public safety committee voted 3-1 late last month to back a proposal to ban smoking anywhere in any city park. The committee sent the measure to the full council, which is set to decide on it next month.

Supporters say the ordinance isn’t about punishment, but awareness of public health and safety.

“The whole idea behind this has always been … an opportunity to again help educate folks about the dangers of tobacco and second-hand smoke,” said City Councilman Rick Talbert, who also chairs the Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health. “It has never been to be punitive.”

Committee members had considered a ban on smoking only near playgrounds or other areas where children frequent, but most instead backed the all-inclusive prohibition. Banning smoking in only designated areas would be too difficult to enforce, supporters reasoned, possibly requiring more regulatory signs and increased costs.

“The whole concept of trying to manage the smoking ban in piecemeal, it almost starts not to make sense,” Councilwoman Marilyn Strickland said.

TACOMA WOULDN’T BE ALONE

Nationwide, at least 429 municipalities impose bans on smoking at public parks and beaches, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation in Berkeley, Calif.

In Pierce County, Puyallup and Gig Harbor already have such bans. Other Washington cities, including Seattle, Spokane and Wenatchee, are considering similar measures.

Many cities with park smoking bans have imposed much harsher penalties than what Tacoma is proposing.

Puyallup sets punishment at a $1,000 fine or up to 90 days in jail. In San Francisco, violators face a $100 fine for the first offense, $200 for the second, and $500 for each ensuing offense.

“This is happening all over the country (but) there’s been very minimal controversy,” said Dan Pritchard of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department.

Pritchard, who noted that about 1,000 local deaths are attributed each year to tobacco, said he sees the ban as another way to reduce the number of smokers over time.

“We support as many smoke-free environments as possible,” he said. “We think that this is the beginning.”

When controversy has flared over smoking bans, it primarily has centered on individual rights versus the public benefit.

“This is just utter nonsense,” said Gary Nolan, when told about Tacoma’s proposal.

Nolan, a national spokesman for The Smoking Club, a New Hampshire-based property rights group that opposes government-imposed smoking prohibitions, said such ordinances primarily are based on fear-mongering with little scientific evidence to support them.

There’s no evidence, he contends, that second-hand smoke, particularly in an outdoor environment, causes health problems.

“When it’s outside, it’s really diluted,” Nolan said. “So there is no plausible argument to be made for banning smoking in a park.”

If any Tacoma council member is willing to debate the issue, Nolan added, he would travel to Tacoma on his own dime “in a New York minute.”

The City Council already has its own detractor to the proposal – at least in its present form.

Councilman Mike Lonergan, the lone committee member to oppose the measure, prefers a more “flexible” ban that would restrict smoking in only certain areas, such as near playgrounds.

“The idea that you could still walk around and smoke a cigar at Meadow Park Golf Course, I think is OK,” he said.

Most Pierce County residents – about 80 percent – do not smoke, Talbert said. While smokers might frame a ban as a trampling of their rights, “I would flip that around and say, the act of smoking next to someone who does not smoke inconveniences that person,” he said.

“It’s not about taking away people’s rights,” added Ryan Mello, a member of the MetroParks Tacoma Board of Commissioners. “All we’re asking is that when people come to a public place, come to a public park, that everybody has the opportunity to breathe fresh, clean, healthy air.”

Both the parks district and the Health Department support an ordinance for smoke-free parks.

WHAT, EXACTLY, IS A ‘PARK’?

Defining a “park” under the ban could spark further discussion. City staff noted one definition could include “all parks, squares, drives, parkways, docks, piers, moorage buoys and floats, boulevards, golf courses, zoos, beaches, playgrounds and recreation areas and facilities” that are owned or managed by the parks district or the city.

Other cities have excluded golf courses and parking lots at parks. Another possible exception to a Tacoma ban might be Cheney Stadium, according to city staff reports.

Enforcement could prove difficult as well. If the proposal passes, Tacoma police will not specifically respond to calls notifying police about potential violations, Capt. Mark Langford said. Officers patrolling the park who come across smokers likely will use “discretionary enforcement” and may give only warnings, he added.

“It’s not going to rise to the place of high-priority enforcement,” he said.

Rather, police officers more likely will work with park officials to educate the public.

“I really see this evolving somewhat along the lines of the smoking ban in restaurants and bars,” he said. “It would be phased in with a lot of education and social acceptance.”

Enforcement is a challenge, agreed Talbert. “But that alone is not a reason not to do this,” he said.

Not all smokers object to the measure, Strickland added.

“I’ve talked to people I know who are smokers, and they think this is a good idea,” she said.

Eugene Clark isn’t one of them.

During his recent visit to Wright Park, Clark, a 50-year-old Puyallup tribal member who has smoked since he was 12, said smokers are becoming an endangered species – and not for legitimate reason.

“Some people think it’s their jobs to tell everyone else how they should live,” he said. “It has almost gotten to the point where you can’t smoke anywhere outside anymore.”

Lewis Kamb: 253-597-8542

lewis.kamb@thenewstribune.com

What the proposed Smoke-free parks law says

The Tacoma City Council’s Public Safety, Human Services and Education Committee recently supported a measure that would ban smoking from public parks. The full council is expected to consider the issue Oct. 13. Here’s the proposal:

Smoking in parks prohibited

It is unlawful for any person to smoke or light cigars, cigarettes, tobacco or other smoking material within a park. The Director or City Manager shall post signs in appropriate locations prohibiting smoking in parks.

For the purposes of this section, “smoke” or “smoking” means the carrying, holding, or smoking of any kind of lighted pipe, cigar, cigarette, or any other lighted smoking equipment.

A violation of this section is a class 4 civil infraction of $25, not including statutory assessments. Such penalty is in addition to any other remedies or penalties provided by law.

Copyright © 09/15/09 Thenewstribune

In a better attempt to comply with a law forbidding smoking within 20 feet of any public building, PCC has implemented four designated smoking areas to be used by students and faculty.

According to the PCC website, the areas are located at the north east corner or parking lot 1, the northeast corner of parking lot 3, The northwest corner of parking lot 5a, and outside the new media center.

“To comply with CA GOV 7597, the law forbidding smoking within 20 feet of a public building, the school has announced these designated areas as the college’s way of extending the courtesy of giving smoking a place,” said Lt. Brad Young.

As far as enforcement is concerned, Young made it clear that it is not a top priority of the campus police to make sure smoking is only allowed in these areas.

“We [campus police] are just hoping that everyone will voluntarily comply. If it is not a violation of the law then we really have no authority to intervene,” said Young.

According to Young, as the only law relevant to public smoking is the one concerning smoking within 20 feet of a building, the only cause for citation would be one from a student or faculty member whom blatantly disregards this law to the point that a formal complaint is issued.

“I don’t believe the new policy implies that smoking be restricted only to those designated areas,” said Young. “It is more of a courtesy then anything.”

According to the PCC press release, student violators will be referred to the Office of the Vice President for Student and Learning Services for violation of the student code of conduct and education code section 76033(3).

The new policy is receiving mixed responses from the campus. Some students see it as an encroachment on personal freedom.

Pricilla Lara, 20, Psychology major and a smoker, says it’s going to be humiliating for the smokers to stand by the parking lots.

“It’s a shame how they are going to put smokers in a corner of a parking lot. Like a bunch of beggars looking for handouts while everyone stares at them,” said Lara.

Instructor Loknath Persaud didn’t have a problem with the designated areas but did have some concerns with their locations.

“I don’t like the dehumanization of smokers being confined to parking lots versus other areas that could be designated,” said Persaud.

Some students see it as a positive change. Allen Tsay, President of AS, seems to fully advocate the new policy.

“Myself, as well as the collective AS are in full support of the newly implemented policy,” said Tsay.

Regardless of the way it is received, the policy is meant to give smokers a place to smoke, not to restrict smokers to only four areas.

As long as they stay 20 feet from a building, and remain responsible, smokers are not breaking any law.

WAURIKA — Jefferson County Turning Point Coalition (JCTPC) is attempting to partner with the Waurika and Ryan school districts in the 24/7 Tobacco Policy program.

The 24/7 Tobacco Policy is sponsored by the Oklahoma Department of Health (ODH), with the goal of school districts forbidding tobacco use on school grounds at any time. Turning Point Coalition has identified teen tobacco use as one of the primary public health problems in Jefferson County.

During the group’s August meeting, Jefferson County Health Department RN Autumn James said she and Brandie O’Connor, from the Oklahoma Turning Point Coalition, were to meet with Waurika Superintendent Roxie Terry to discuss bringing the district into compliance with the state-wide 24/7 Tobacco Policy program.

“Brandie has talked with Mr. Terry, and he advised they already have a similar policy in effect (at Waurika Public Schools),” James said. “However, some of the wording needed to be changed slightly to be in compliance with a 24/7 policy.”

She said the state health department has agreed to contribute to covering the cost of signs that would be installed on school property, should any county schools choose to participate in the program.

JCTPC Chair Fran Bergeron said she had spoke with administrators in the Ryan school district, but they were not interested in joining the state-wide program at this time.

“(Ryan administrators) said they didn’t have anyone to enforce the policy and didn’t think community members were ready,” Bergeron noted, adding that Ryan officials felt there was a need for more public awareness of the 24/7 program.

Coalition members discussed having the media play a role once one of the county’s school districts adopts the 24/7 Tobacco Policy

Coalition member Anna Duran, from the Oklahoma Department of Health, said the state Turning Point Coalition was initiating a Certified Health Business program, which would recognize businesses, both profit and non-profit, which are working to improve the state’s health status by providing health and wellness opportunities for their employees.

Businesses that participate will be recognized at a luncheon hosted by the ODH. Business owners wishing information on the program and an application to participate can go to the Web site www.okturningpoint.org.

Duran also said plans are being made for JCTPC to partner with the Jefferson County OSU Cooperative Extension Office to offer a baby-sitting seminar and training in mid-October. It would be open to students from 12 to 16 years of age, who could become certified baby-sitters by participating in the training.

During the meeting, it was also noted that JCTPC wants to schedule a child car seat check and distribution in December, and Penny Gardner, from Women’s Haven of Stephens and Jefferson counties, noted that October is Domestic Violence Month. She said a recognition program is being planned for Jefferson and Stephens counties.

Copyright © September 09, 2009 Waurikademocrat

WASHINGTON, – The following is a statement by Matthew L. Myers, President, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids:

Avis Rent-A-Car’s famous advertising slogan “We Try Harder” was never more apt than it is right now. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids applauds Avis Budget Group, Inc. for its announcement today that beginning October 1st, 2009, all Avis and Budget rental vehicles in the United States and Canada will be smoke-free.

By prohibiting smoking in its entire North American rental fleet, Avis will not only be saving on cleaning costs, it will be making renting a car a healthier and far more pleasurable experience for its customers.

In ridding Avis and Budget rental cars of the 4000 chemicals, including over 60 carcinogens, in secondhand smoke, Avis is protecting the rights of all of its customers to breathe clean air. A recent study by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health concluded that concentrations of secondhand smoke are significantly higher in cars than concentrations generally measured in bars, restaurants and other public places that allow smoking. In addition, residues from secondhand smoke can remain on cushions and fabrics long after secondhand smoke has cleared.

Avis Budget Group Inc. obviously cares about its customers .They do Try Harder. We hope Avis’s announcement will spur other rental car companies to follow Avis’s lead and make their rental fleets smoke-free as well. It will make renting a car a far healthier and far more pleasurable experience for all consumers.

Copyright © 2009 Prnewswire

AN INVESTIGATION has found that children in Malawi who are forced to work as tobacco pickers are exposed to nicotine poisoning equivalent to smoking 50 cigarettes a day.

Child workers, some as young as five, are suffering severe health problems from a daily skin absorption of up to 54 milligrams of dissolved nicotine, according to international children’s organisation Plan.

Plan claims that an estimated 78,000 children work on tobacco estates for as little as 1p an hour for up to 12 hours a day.

Forty-four children from tobacco farms in three different districts were asked by the organisation to take part in a series of workshops.

They found that the children suffered from common symptoms of green tobacco sickness (GTS), or nicotine poisoning, including severe headaches, abdominal pain, muscle weakness, coughing and breathlessness.

GTS is a common side affect of workers who come into contact with tobacco leaves and absorb nicotine through their skin, particularly when harvesting.

The long-term effects are not known but some experts believe that it could seriously impair children’s development.

Neal Benowitz, professor of medicine, psychiatry and biopharmaceutical sciences at California University in San Francisco told the Guardian:

“The brain of a child or adolescent is particularly vulnerable to adverse neurobehavioral effects of nicotine exposure.”

Plan has called on the Malawian government to enforce tougher child labour and protection laws to provide safer, working conditions for those children who have to work.

“This research shows that tobacco estates are exploiting and abusing children who have a right to a safe working environment. Plan is calling for better enforcement of child labour laws and harsher punishments for employers who break them,” said Plan Malawi’s child rights adviser, Macdonald Mumba.

“These children are risking their health for 11p a day.”

Source: Voice-online

Muslims are being encouraged to quit smoking during Ramadan.

NHS Manchester’s Stop Smoking Service is offering support for people who want to quit smoking or using tobacco products and enjoy a smokefree Ramadan, which starts on Saturday (22 August).

During the 30 days of Ramadan, Aurangzaib Amirat, a specialist stop smoking advisor, will be visiting the following Mosques to provide one-to-one support for anyone ready to quit:

* Dar-us-Salam Mosque, 47 Slade Lane, Longsight M13 0QJ
* Victoria Park Mosque, 20 Upper Park Road, Victoria Park, M14 5RU
* Al Quba & Shah Poran Mosque, 109-115 Beresford Road, Longsight, M13 0TA
* Makki Mosque, 125 Beresford Rd, Longsight, M13 0TA
* Madina Mosque, 2 Barlow Road, Levenshulme, M19 3DJ
* Al Furqan Mosque, 42 Great Southern Street, Rusholme, M14 4EZ

Quitting smoking or using tobacco products isn’t always easy, but support from an NHS specialist advisor can help make the fresh start to a smokefree life.

Bashir Ahmed is one of many people who received support from an advisor who visited a mosque in Manchester during Ramadan 2008.

After smoking for over 25 years, Bashir has gone smokefree.

He had tried to quit during Ramadan when he received information from Aurangzaib, but was not quite ready. Instead he kicked the habit when he was admitted into hospital last December.

Bashir said: “I was not allowed to smoke for three days while I was in hospital. On the fourth day I thought; if I managed not to smoke for three days then maybe I’ll try four, then I tried 5 days and I’ve not smoked since.

“I used to smoke a lot of cigarettes when I broke my fast each day, so I would not have any cravings while I was fasting. But now my whole life has changed since I’ve quit – my chest is clearer, I can concentrate and I don’t get terrible headaches. I am really looking forward to a smokefree Ramandan this year.

“I want to help people realise that smoking is bad for their health. Ramadan is a really good time to take advantage of the support offered to stop smoking.”

Smoking tobacco is a cause of many diseases, including cancers, heart disease, respiratory diseases . Smokeless tobacco is a cause of cancer of the mouth, lips, tongue and betel nut is also associated with serious pre-cancerous condition. When tobacco is chewed by pregnant women it can reduce the growth of their unborn babies.

People from Parkistani, Bangladeshi and Indian Backgrounds have around a 50 per cent higher risk of heart disease than the UK population as a whole.

Abbie Paton, Manchester Stop Smoking Service Tobacco Lead said: “Ramadan provides an opportunity to receive support to stop smoking and enjoy a healthy smokefree Ramadan.”

For dates and times of the mosque visit, or for help and advice to stop smoking or chewing tobacco call Manchester Stop Smoking Service on 0161 205 5998.

Copyright © August 19, 2009 Theasiannews

Columbus — Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland says the state will appeal a county judge’s decision barring the use of tobacco foundation funds to help balance the budget.

“This judge has in my judgment no right to say how the Legislature and the governor should be expending public tax resources,” Strickland said Aug. 11 shortly after the decision was released. “He had a legal decision to reach, and I think he interjected himself quite inappropriately in an area that was rightfully the responsibility of the Legislature and the executive.”

Nearly a decade ago, lawmakers appropriated about $235 million in tobacco settlement payments into an endowment fund for use by a statewide foundation to support programs aimed at curbing tobacco use.

But last year, lawmakers and Strickland moved to use the endowment funds as part of a job stimulus package. They subsequently liquidated the endowment and abolished the foundation, prompting legal action by the latter to stop the move.

In his decision on the lawsuit, Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David W. Fais ruled that lawmakers and the governor had other funding options and did not need to liquidate the tobacco endowment.

He also noted that action would cause irreparable harm to individuals who rely on foundation programs “to become and remain tobacco free,” according to documents. “… Depletion of the endowment fund and discontinuance or reduction of the tobacco prevention and cessation programs funded by the endowment fund would result in a substantial increase in tobacco-related premature death and disease in Ohio and result in a substantial increase in medical expense for both Ohioans and the state of Ohio for treatment of tobacco-related disease.”

Strickland said he doesn’t think the ongoing legal battle will have an immediate effect on state spending. A total of $258.6 million in tobacco foundation funds were earmarked in the recently enacted two-year budget to pay for Medicaid services, child and adult protective programs and cancer screenings.

“His ruling is not a surprise, but I am terribly disappointed quite frankly that this judge took 18 months to reach a decision that he should have been able to reach rather quickly,” Strickland said, adding, “I’m glad that we finally have a decision so we can get it to another court. I continue to feel very confident that when this is finally resolved that it will be in a way that will enable us to use these precious resources to continue to provide the auxiliary services ….”

Senate President Bill Harris, R-Ashland, agreed with Strickland’s decision to appeal.

“I’m very surprised that that’s his ruling,” he said. “I think the objective was that those dollars could be used very effectively to support a shortfall in the budget. I think we’re taking lots of action to continue to encourage people not to smoke.”

Copyright © 2009 Stowsentry

The American cancer society has filed paperwork to join the legal fight over a smoking ban approved by the legislature.

The American Cancer Society told KSFY this afternoon that they are not asking to do anything different than just be a part of the process.

Jennifer Stalley, the American Cancer Societies Director of Government Relations said this afternoon that now that they’ve filed the necessary paperwork, they’ll just be waiting for Judge Barnett’s decision. Stalley said, “We’ll await the judge’s ruling and if we’re allowed to intervene. Certainly, our intention would be to make sure the supporters of the smoke free law are fully represented to the judicial part of this process.”

Now in their request, it says that the smoking ban is necessary to preserve public health, can’t be referred, and should be allowed to take effect.

As far as the smoking ban petition organizers, Larry Mann this afternoon said that he is not surprised by the American Cancer Societies decision to request to intervene, “these are some pretty delicate legal determinations that need to be made. I think there’s reason to argue that they don’t rise to the level of being able to intervene and we’ll just have to see what the judge’s determination is.”

The judge will begin hearing the lawsuit on August 24th.


Copyright © 2009 Ksfy

RUSSELLVILLE, Ky.- A wet growing season isn’t a good thing for every farmer. Last summer, the drought threatened to put farmers out of business. This time, a wet summer brings a new risk to a whole new batch of growers in Kentucky.

“Blue mold” is back with a vengeance in Russellville, Ky. Money may not grow on tree but on a rural Kentucky farm tobacco is the crash crop. Four weeks from harvest time, farmer Ricky Appling sees signs of an enemy that’s gotten to his plants before he could.

“Blue mold” is a fungus-like organism that can devour acres of tobacco, especially Burley tobacco used to make cigarettes. Appling points to a rain-soaked summer as the cause. The cure is plenty of sunshine, or a good soaking of the chemical “quadric.”

Appling estimates roughly half of his Burley crop has been touched by blue mold and trained tobacco buyers won’t touch an infected plant come fall. It’s not just the Appling family affected. Many growers in Kentucky have been hit, the state that leads the nation in Burley tobacco production.

One expert also cited a “small scale” blue mold outbreak in East Tennessee. This blue mold outbreak is cause for worry among all tobacco farmers, even outstanding in their field.

Blue mold is nothing new it just happens very sporadically. Ricky Appling says the last big bout on his farm was the year Hurricane Katrina hit which would’ve been 2005. An outbreak back in 1996 cost Kentucky tobacco farmers $200-million.

Saturday, an agriculture extension agent in Kentucky is warning tobacco farmers everywhere to keep an eye out for signs of blue mold.

Tobacco farmers who take a hit in the wallet, because of blue mold can apply for federal aid.


Copyright © 2009 Newschannel5

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Patients, visitors and employees at the University of Florida Health Science Center campus and Shands HealthCare facilities throughout north central Florida are going Tobacco-Free Together, officials announced today (Aug. 4).

As of Nov. 1, the use of cigarettes or other tobacco products in any of the Health Science Center, Shands or UF Physicians buildings and parking lots, or in vehicles in these areas, will not be permitted. UF plans to implement the policy on its main campus in July 2010.

“Going tobacco-free on our health-care campuses is the right thing to do for our patients and visitors — and for each other,” said Dr. David S. Guzick, UF’s senior vice president for health affairs and president of the UF&Shands Health System. “Coinciding with Tobacco-Free Together will be the opening of the Shands Cancer Hospital at UF, which reflects our commitment to the prevention and treatment of cancer.”

The new rule mainly affects a few designated outdoor smoking and tobacco-use areas and the properties surrounding Health Science Center and Shands HealthCare facilities. Smoking and tobacco use are already prohibited indoors.

“The decision to have tobacco-free campuses systemwide supports our commitment to providing a healthy environment for our patients and to improving health in our communities,” said Tim Goldfarb, chief executive officer of Shands HealthCare. “We not only provide outstanding medical treatment and patient care, but also work hard to promote wellness and disease prevention.”

Tobacco dependence is the nation’s most preventable cause of death and disease, including cancer, heart disease and stroke. Nationally, tobacco use is responsible for nearly one in five deaths or an estimated 440,000 deaths per year, according to the Florida Hospital Association. That’s approximately 1,200 people each day — more than deaths caused by alcohol, cocaine, crack, heroin, homicide, suicide, car crashes, fires and AIDS combined. Currently, one out of every seven adults hospitalized at Shands at UF is treated for cancer or cancer-related illnesses.

Throughout Florida, more than 70 hospitals support the Florida Department of Health’s “Tobacco Free Florida” campaign and have tobacco-free campuses. Shands Jacksonville and the UF Health Science Center-Jacksonville went completely tobacco-free last November.

The Health Science Center and Shands HealthCare are providing information and resources to assist employees, patients and visitors who would like to break the habit. A wide selection of counseling services, self-help materials and medicines are available to help smokers and tobacco-users quit successfully.


Copyright © 2009 Ufl

Women appear to have a tougher time quitting smoking than men, according to researchers at Women’s Health Research at Yale.
While the percentage of men who have given up cigarettes in US between 1965 and 2006 was 54.5 percent, the rate of decline among women was less steep, at 47.5 percent.
Consequently, the gap in the percentages of male and female smokers has narrowed. In 1965, slightly more than half of all men smoked, while about a third of women did. Today, 23.3 percent of men smoke, compared with 18.6 percent of women.
We talked to Carolyn Mazure, a professor of psychiatry and director of the research program, about why women are not kicking the habit at the same rate as men.
So what does the research show?
Well, the first thing I want to say is that smoking remains a serious public health issue. Smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and illness in the US. Those deaths and morbid occurrences are from cancers, respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease.

And why is it harder for women to quit smoking?
It appears as though when men quit smoking, the most prominent symptoms of withdrawal are biological symptoms of craving.
However, we find women are more likely to use cigarettes to manage moods, to deal with stress and to control weight. In other words, women are smoking for different reasons, and if you’re not helping with those particular reasons for smoking in your cessation treatment, you wouldn’t necessarily expect your treatment to work.
A good example is the nicotine patch, which often is considered the first line of treatment for smoking. The research data on the nicotine patch suggest that women do less well quitting smoking when using the patch than men do, probably because it targets symptoms of craving rather than the symptoms that are more prominent for women.
So this begins to make an argument for gender-specific approaches to smoking cessation. … With the medication Zyban (the generic is bupropion), it appears that women do as well in quitting when using this treatment as men do. … Zyban can help with mood symptoms. It was originally developed as an antidepressant drug, Wellbutrin. That’s an important part of the story in that we do think there is a relationship between depressed mood and smoking.

Are women moodier than men or less good at managing stress?
I wouldn’t say that at all, but we clearly know that the rates of depression are higher in women than in men, not only in this country but in the world.
We find stress a pathway to depression in both men and women, although stress appears to be a more potent predictor of depression in women than men. Knowing that, we can understand how women would be attempting to use a variety of strategies to handle stress, including smoking. Nicotine can help someone reduce anxiety and modulate mood. It does have transient positive effects. But those positive effects are not worth the long-term health risk by any measure.

Cigarette smoking does affect weight, right?
Yes, it can. When people quit smoking, it’s not uncommon to gain a few pounds. Often this is a deterrent, particularly among women. You have to deal with the fact that you may gain some weight and prepare for that and really factor that into whatever cessation program you undertake. … The main concept is to include some form of exercise and support. And the exercise should be something that is manageable and really fits into your day.

Does the menstrual cycle have any effect on attempts to quit smoking?
We tell women to think about the time within their menstrual cycle that is most difficult personally and advise them not to quit during that time because you are likely to have a harder time resisting cigarettes during that time. In addition, before you quit, prepare for that time in your cycle. What are you going to do when you feel badly? Call a (quit smoking hot line), take a walk, you have to have a plan.

Do you think there should be special cessation programmes for women?
I think in general we need to integrate the care for women into the mainstream of health care, but importantly, we have to be gender-sensitive in terms of what works for women and what works for men.
Copyright © 2009 Thepeninsulaqatar

State health leaders are celebrating historic lows in Indiana teen smoking rates.

A strong push for change started nine years ago and, with a 50 percent drop since then, it seems young people are responding.

Trenton Kyle, 11, is entering sixth grade this fall, an age where many young people first try smoking.

“I think smoking is nasty,” Kyle said.

His mother is one relative who smokes.

“My uncle, he died from smoking. His name was Ralph and I did not like going to the funeral, just because he smoked,” Kyle said.

So Kyle wants to stay healthy so he can skateboard at his best.

“My health teacher [brought] in some pig lungs and she put smoke in one lung and the other was just fine,” Kyle said. “I look in the mirror and I picture my lungs and they could be black instead of pink.”

They are message Jarron Carter heard, too. But still, at age 16, he watched his grandfather smoke and picked up a pack-a-day habit.

“Sometimes you get that feeling after you smoke a few, like, ‘Why am I even doing this?’,” Carter said.

Increasingly in Indiana, young people are saying no. In 2008, 18 percent of high school students reported smoking, a 21 percent decline since 2006. In the same time period, four percent of middle school students reported smoking – a 47 percent decline. Over nine years, rates are down nearly 50 percent.

“Teenagers especially are very sensitive to price and in 2007, Indiana raised the cigarette tax, which increased the price. So that was important,” said Karla Sneegas, Indiana Tobacco Prevention & Cessation.

Carter pays $4.06 for a pack of cigarettes. He’s cut back to half a pack a day, but doesn’t know how to kick the habit for good.

“I was really down on myself that I picked it up, because it is a bad habit and once you start, it is kinda hard to stop,” he said.

Tobacco experts say the best prevention is for parents to quit smoking. Sneegas says if young parents quit, before their child is in third grade, it may as much as quadruple the chances that their young child will never smoke.

Copyright © 2009 Wthr

Smokers who suffer a heart attack may have better chance of quitting smoking if they get intensive consultation starting in the hospital, new research suggested.
In a trial of smokers who were hospitalized for a heart attack, those who were by accident assigned to an intensive smoking-cessation program which were more likely to be abstinent one year later.
Compared with patients who received a special nurse’s advice and some standard brochures while in the hospital, those in the intensive group were twice as likely to be tobacco-free after 1 year.
This smoking-cessation program began while patients were still in the hospital, with bedside counseling and advice. Patients then received take-home materials and phone-based counseling for 2 months after release from hospital.
“By significantly increasing abstinence among cardiac patients, inpatient programs for smoking cessation have the potential to produce considerable reductions in cardiac events and hospital costs,” write the investigators, led by Dr. Patricia M. Smith of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.
Researchers have long called for hospitals to plainly offer heart patients smoking-cessation counseling. Nevertheless, such programs have not yet been widely adopted.
Randomly investigators assigned 276 heart patients at one hospital for to receive either intensive smoking-cessation counseling or “minimal” advice.
At the end of the investigation, after 12 months, 54 percent of patients in the intensive group were tobacco-free, based on reports from the patient and a family member or friend. That compared with 35 percent in the group that did not receive the intervention.
Patients in the intensive group were also twice as likely to be permanently abstinent during the 1-year follow-up.
“The rates of confirmed long-term abstinence observed in this trial are among the highest rates reported in cardiac populations and are among the highest reported absolute differences between minimal and intensive interventions,” write investigators.
They added that hospital counseling is more likely to help heart patients than the typical approach of offering intensive counseling only when patients have quit and then relapsed.
According to European studies, the five-year survival rate for post-transplant smokers is 37%, compared to 80% for nonsmoking recipients. Smokers can develop inoperable lung cancers within five years after a transplant, thus resulting in a shorter survival rate. There is an alarming incidence of head and neck cancers in transplant recipients who resume smoking.
Overall, there is a 90% relapse rate in the general population but, the more times a smoker tries to quit, the greater the chance of success with each new try.

The Indian government will provide assistance to farmers diverting area under tobbaco towards medicinal plants to cut area under the leaf, a government release said on Tuesday.

The government will support tobacco growers to switch to other crops and will use a 6-billion-rupee fund for promotion of medicinal plants, Anbumani Ramadoss, federal health minister, was quoted as saying in the release.

However, higher tobacco prices are prompting Indian farmers to increase area under the leaf.

The average price of the premier grade used for cigarette-making, flue cured virginia (FCV), has risen to 84.67 rupees per kg from 47.47 rupees a year ago.

Global tobacco companies like British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco Inc., Philip Morris International and Imperial Tobacco Plc are main buyers of Indian leaf, and they have kept prices firm in the Indian market.

India is the second biggest producer of tobacco after China and the fourth-biggest exporter of unmanufactured tobacco.

Copyright © 2009 Chiroeco

Since 1910, the goal of Community Hospital of San Bernardino has been to heal the sick.

These days, the hospital on Medical Center Drive is also focused on keeping its employees healthy.

In keeping with that wellness campaign, as of Tuesday the entire facility is now tobacco-free.

“We have wanted to do this for a long time, to send a positive message to employees and the public that this is something everyone can do to improve their health,” said hospital spokeswoman Tobey Robertson.

A tobacco-free campus involves eliminating the designated smoking areas and banning the use of cigarettes, cigars, pipes and smokeless tobacco.

Employees cannot even smoke in their cars anymore, said Robertson.

For years, the hospital has offered health and education programs on such topics as healthy eating and managing diabetes to the public.

Recently, it stepped up wellness initiatives for its employees including yoga classes, an employee gym, bike club, walking path and now the tobacco-free campus.

All have been well-received.

Employees who ride their bikes, anywhere from three to nine miles every day at lunchtime, describe it as a great escape from the workday.

“It’s a time to re-evaluate and a great way to get energized,” said plant operations manager Mike Bettencourt, as he and other cyclists gathered in front of the hospital.

While fellow cyclist and nurse educator Elsa Mena said the cycling helps to keep her weight down.

On Tuesday, the first day marking a tobacco-free campus, employees gathered in the cafeteria to get free chair massages.

Carmen Cabrera, manager of employee health services, spent a portion of the day passing out information on how to quit smoking.

“First of all we are bringing the information to them and showing them the options available to stop,” she said. “Then we are providing support.”

Raymond Putric, maintenance engineer at the hospital, said July 15 is his personal day to stop smoking.

“At first, I was resistant to this new hospital-wide initiative,” he said. “Then I realized the benefits; it enabled me to do something I’d been wanting to do for a longtime – quit smoking.”
Copyright © 2009 Sbsun

The City of Eagle was well on it’s way to becoming the first smoke-free city in Idaho, until last week, at least. Councilman Michael Huffaker put a stop to the city’s Clean Indoor Air Ordinance when he changed his vote on June 23.

The ordinance would have prohibited smoking at all businesses with more than five employees, including standalone bars, and would limit where smokers could light up outside, within city limits.

At the June 9 City Council meeting the ordinance was read for the first time and passed with a vote of 3 to 2. It seemed as if residents could soon breathe fresh air in Eagle. There were few objections to the ordinance except for a sprinkling of residents who were concerned about over-regulation.

Huffaker joined the skeptics last week when he changed his vote in opposition to the ordinance saying that possible detriments to the City of Eagle outweighed the benefits to the city. Huffaker cited a study that claims that if bar rats can’t smoke in their favorite bar in Eagle they will drive to neighboring cities to get their fix and then drive home drunk.

In a statement to the citizens of Eagle, Huffaker says, “I came to the Council meeting on June 23rd fully prepared to vote the same as I did on June 9th, but after listening to all the arguments again both for and against the ordinance, I felt myself being persuaded that although the intent and purpose of Ordinance 622 was good, that passing this particular ordinance was not the best way to accomplish that purpose … It was a very difficult decision to make but I felt I had to vote my conscience and for what I thought would be in the best interest of the city as a whole.”

Eagle City Council hasn’t quite stopped fighting for clean air just yet, though the ordinance has been tabled. They plan to send a resolution letter to the Idaho Legislature to encourage a statewide ban.


Copyright © 2009 Boiseweekly

The cost of purchasing a pack of cigarettes is expected to increase by 33 cents on Oct. 1.

The Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee unanimously supported on Monday Mayor Gavin Newsom’s proposed per pack cigarette fee.

The fee, if ultimately approved by the full board next Tuesday, would go into effect Oct. 1 and generate $4.5 million for The City’s coffers.

Newsom proposed to fee to help out the city’s finances during one of its worst deficit years and to offset the cost incurred to clean up butts from sidewalks and streets.

The City spends more than $44 million each year picking up litter throughout San Francisco, and $10.7 million of that is for discarded cigarettes, according to the Mayor’s Office.


Copyright © 2009 Sfexaminer