Tobacco.org

• Ryanair to introduce smokeless 'cigarettes'  

“SMOKELESS” CIGARETTES which look like the real thing but do not have to be lit to provide nicotine to the user, are to be introduced by Ryanair. . . .

The new Similar Smokeless Cigarettes are available to passengers over 18 years of age and are sold in packs of 10 on board all of the company’s flights for €6.

A company statement said they contained no toxins or chemicals and were harmless to the user and to those around them.

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As these cigarettes are smokeless they cause no discomfort to other passengers and can ensure a more enjoyable and stress-free flight for all passengers, as non-smokers will no longer have to cope with moody smokers in need of nicotine.
Stephen McNamara, spokesman for Ryanair, which will begin selling the new "Similar Smokeless Cigarettes" on its flights.

Airport approves smoking ban  

Smoke 'em if you got 'em through the end of next month inside the terminal at Piedmont Triad International Airport.

Starting Sept. 1, passengers, visitors and workers at the airport only will be able to smoke outside.

The Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, reflecting new restrictions passed earlier this year by the N.C. General Assembly, will prohibit all cigarette and other tobacco smoking, eliminating a pair of designated indoor smoking areas.

The authority, the airport's governing board, unanimously passed the new rule during its monthly meeting in the board room at PTIA.

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Health Board, PTIA Still At Odds On Smoking Ban  

GUILFORD COUNTY -- Piedmont Triad Airport leaders and county health officials have so far agreed to disagree about which agency has the authority to enforce an airport smoking ban on Sept. 1.

The Guilford County Board of Health approved smoking rules for local government buildings in June, after seeking legal opinions about the airport. Since then, the two agencies have exchanged legal opinions in letters and the airport authority has adopted its own smoking ban. As of Sept. 1, no smoking will be allowed inside airport buildings.

"The county wants to make sure that the airport authority accepts that the health department rules are the authority," Health Director Merle Green told the health board on Monday.

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Airline passengers to be fined more for smoking  

Airline passengers will be fined up to VND5 million (US$292) for smoking onboard, according to the latest draft decree announced by the Civil Aviation Administration of Vietnam.

If passed, the new legislation would reflect a fine increase of five times the current figure. At present, passengers are fined VND200,000-1 million ($12-58) if caught smoking onboard an aircraft.

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• Ryanair allowing passengers to puff on 'smokeless' cigarettes during flights  

Ryanair is allowing passengers to puff on "smokeless" cigarettes during flights.

Cabin staff on short-haul services sell the devices - which can be legally smoked in public places - at £6 for a pack of 10. . . .

A passenger said: "The stewards were brandishing the packs as they walked down the aisle. No one bought any."

Martin Dockrell, from Action on Smoking and Health, said: "Our concern with these products is that there isn't much evidence as to their safety."

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• Ryanair's Pro-"Smoking" Policy  

Ryanair is letting passengers smoke "cigarettes" on their planes.

These "cigarettes" are considered "smokeless" and Ryanair is allowing passengers to suck away on these bad boys. The airplane cigs do not contain tobacco--but they do contain nicotine, and they've got a Hollywood-style "water vapor" effect to mime the smoke that would normally trail the cigarette. Where do you get these not-quite-bubblegum, not-quite real smokes? From the Ryanair flight attendants of course. Not surprisingly, they're not that popular among passengers, perhaps because they sell for about $17 per pack of 10. Ryanair, I don't like your style, but I do like your hustle.

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PTIA approves smoking ban 

GREENSBORO - Smoke 'em if you got 'em through the end of next month inside the terminal at Piedmont Triad International Airport.

Starting Sept. 1, passengers, visitors and workers at the airport only will be able to smoke outside.

The Piedmont Triad Airport Authority, reflecting new restrictions passed earlier this year by the N.C. General Assembly, will prohibit all cigarette and other tobacco smoking, eliminating a pair of designated indoor smoking areas.

The authority, the airport's governing board, unanimously passed the new rule during its monthly meeting in the board room at PTIA.

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ELLIOTT: Should the Travel Industry End Its War on Smokers?  

Haven't smokers suffered enough already? You can't help but wonder when you talk with someone like Efrin Knight, a French professor from Miami who enjoys an occasional cigar. "It's more and more difficult to get out of my home because of the tyranny of nonsmokers," he says. . . .

Is the travel industry turning its back on a quarter of its customers? Some of it is, some isn't.

Cruise lines may be the sole bright spot for smokers . . .

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Should the travel industry try to turn back the clock, pushing for laws that permit smoking in hotels, planes and restaurants?

No. The dangers of secondhand smoke are indisputable. But shouldn't smokers be allowed to enjoy a cigarette, cigar or pipe when they aren't exposing anyone else to the dangerous carcinogens to which they're addicted? As long as smoking is legal in America, the answer to that question ought to be: "yes."

Even ardent nonsmokers like Bill Armstrong, a consultant based in Calgary, concede that smokers should have a place in this world. "In my opinion, a smoking area in a hotel should be away from where guests normally go," he says. "The smoke from the smoking area should not blow into the hotel, pool or rooms."

I agree. I think just as we used to allow smokers to indiscriminately consume tobacco products anywhere; we've now gone too far in the other direction. Maybe it's time for a little balance.

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Fire at airport causes evacuation in baggage claim area 

A fire at the Minneapolis airport closed an area in the baggage claim area Wednesday afternoon.

According to a Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport spokesman, a janitor went outside to clean the cigarette butts near an airport entrance on the lower level. He sprayed them down to make sure they were all out, but one remained lit. So when he dumped the garbage in the janitor's closet a fire started.

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Fire at MSP Airport Baggage Claim 

Cigarette butts are the suspected cause of a fire Wednesday at the baggage claim level of the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Shortly after noon Wednesday, a fire started in a janitor’s closet near baggage claim No. 6 at MSP. The baggage claim was evacuated as well as part of a ticketing area directly above the baggage claim area.

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• E-cigs look, act and feel like real ones - but no tobacco smoke 

Although the battery-powered cigs don't produce tobacco smoke, should users be banned from "vaping" in restaurants and airplanes? Just where can you vape, as the lingo calls vapor inhaling?

That's a sticky point, and the etiquette is far from settled.

For anyone buying e-cigs, consider yourself a bit illicit. E-cigarettes inhabit a legal gray area. The Food and Drug Administration recently blocked some e-cig imports, and officials want to halt sales. At least three makers sell them online, and one maker sells in Tampa malls. . . .

Jason Healy, president of the e-cigarette company Blu, said he regularly uses his product on airlines, including Quantas, American Airlines and Southwest.

"I just show it to the flight attendants, explain it, and they're usually fine," Healy said.

Since launching online sales in April, Blu, based in Charlotte, N.C., has sold more than 22,000 starter kits.

That kind of success bothers anti-smoking advocates.

"They're just another way the tobacco industry has found to target addicts for a profit," said Gary Stein, tobacco programs coordinator for the Hillsborough County Health Department. . . .

Southwest Airlines officials toyed with allowing e-cigarettes on planes and listened to presentations two years ago by at least one e-cigarette maker hoping the airline would allow them.

Southwest decided on a policy against them, said spokeswoman Marlee McInnis.

"We have made it clear we do not accept them," she said. "We definitely don't want people concerned about them."

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Guilford County leaders enact smoking restrictions 

Guilford County's health department unanimously passed a new smoking ban in county buildings Monday evening.

Many of the municipalities around the area have already enacted some restrictions. The plan will ban indoor smoking in all county buildings, including PTI Airport. The facility is designated no smoking, but does have a smoking lounge, among the few left these days.

Texan Lou Tornabell was having a cigarette out on the sidewalk Monday and was unaware of the smoking area.

"The last airport I was ever at where there was a lounge was Hong Kong, and if you never smoked before, all you had to do is walk and breathe," said Tornabell.

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PTI: No smoking zone?  

GREENSBORO -- Our airport was once known informally as having one of the more smoker-friendly terminals in the country.

It's a title that would seem to make sense; Piedmont Triad International Airport is arguably in the epicenter of tobacco country. If you have business at two of the nation's largest tobacco companies -- Lorillard in Greensboro, Reynolds American in Winston-Salem -- PTI is your destination airport.

But beginning today, a nod to the wealth that helped build this area -- the airport smokers lounge -- could be at risk of closing when Guilford County's board of health takes up a policy that would eliminate smoking areas in public buildings.

The health board will discuss banning smoking from municipal buildings in Guilford County, which most municipalities have done anyway. But PTI still allows smoking in its sports bar and an adjoining lounge.

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Queens Woman Who Punched Plane Staffer Gets Probation 

A federal judge on Friday called a woman who punched a flight attendant earlier this year a ``mean drunk,'' but he spared her from prison in a separate assault case.

U.S. District Judge John Kane in Denver gave 36-year-old Christina Elizabeth Szele credit for four months of time served and placed her on three years of supervised probation for a charge in March in which she allegedly punched her sister-in-law and pulled her hair in her hometown of Queens, N.Y.

Szele had pleaded guilty in February to interfering with a JetBlue crew member who tried to stop her from smoking on a flight from New York to San Francisco last year. She was on probation at the time of the March incident in Queens.

Szele pleaded guilty to violating her probation by drinking.

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Woman Who Punched Flight Attendant Back In Jail  

A woman who received probation for punching an airline attendant is being held without bail until a Denver federal judge decides whether new assault allegations means she violated probation and should be sent to prison.

Christina Elizabeth Szele, 36, of Queens, N.Y., faces up to 20 months in prison when she goes before U.S. District Judge John Kane at a hearing that will be scheduled later.

Szele, handcuffed, wearing eyeglasses and an orange jail uniform, did not speak at a hearing Tuesday before a magistrate judge.

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