Tobacco.org

Prattville smoking proposal fails  

In a 4-3 vote the proposed smoking ordinance in Prattville failed to pass at Tuesday's city council meeting.

Councilman Tom Miller and Council President Dean Argo wanted to ban employees and customers younger than 19 years old from smoking in restaurants. Some business owners feared they would lose employees if the ordinance passed.

Jump to full article »

Smoking Ban: How will it affect local restaurants?  

December first, a new statewide smoking ban takes effect. Restaurants and bars must go smoke-free or provide a separate room for smokers. Will this help or hurt local restaurants?

Restaurants are allowed to let customers smoke only in a separate room that has its own ventilation, so that smoke does not drift into the main dining room. They can also allow smoking on outdoor patios.

At Calabash Seafood in Mechanicsville, a club and restaurant where patrons can currently smoke, they're building a new smoking section: an enclosed patio.

"We're going to put in some heating and some ceiling fans and try to make it as comfortable as we can for them," said owner Dennis Smith.

Owners Dennis and Janet Smith say they're spending about $20,000 to build the smoking patio and remodel their indoor restaurant and lounge, which will be smoke-free. They believe it will pay off.

Jump to full article »

Group hopes to overturn ban on smoking  

Ohio's smoking ban is under fire from groups that contend the petition effort that put it on the 2006 ballot was done improperly.

Opponents of Ohio Bans said numerous irregularities, including the collection of signatures by 46 convicted felons, spoiled the petition. The Ohio News Network reports members of Buckeye Liquor Permit Holders Association want the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate. The group contends the petitions should not have been certified.

Voters approved the ban on smoking in most public places including bars and restaurants with a nearly 59 percent majority.

Bill Beechum, owner of Wild Bill's, 148 S. Main St., supports an investigation.

Jump to full article »

Karriem to ask council to wait on smoking rules 

With the Columbus City Council poised to vote tonight on a proposed smoking ordinance, Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem said he plans to ask the council to hold off, and instead call a public hearing on the matter.

The council meets at 5 p.m. in City Hall.

The ordinance, proposed by Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box, bans smoking in "all enclosed public places," including restaurants.

Jump to full article »

• Lights out! Smoking ban nears  

Starting in January, if you want to smoke a cigarette during a night on the town at any of Macon's eating and drinking establishments, you will have to drag your butts outside.

The state's smoking ban in bars and restaurants will go into effect on Jan. 2, 2010.

Becky Barr, health education program supervisor and environmental health supervisor Barry Patterson with the Macon County Public Health Center explained the new rules and how they will be enforced at the health board's Nov. 10 meeting.

Barr said one of the goals as they get closer to the enactment date of "North Carolina's Smoke-Free Restaurants and Bars Law" (House Bill 2) is to educate restaurant owners and the public about the legislation.

The gist of the law, which passed in May, is that all North Carolina restaurants and bars permitted to serve food and beverages must be smoke free come Jan. 2.

Jump to full article »

• Smoke at home  

SMOKERS will only able to enjoy their cigarettes in the comfort of their own home.

This according to Minister of Health Jerry Narace during a press briefing to update the public about the amendment to the 2009 Tobacco Bill at the Ministry's Park Street head office in Port of Spain yesterday.

'People can smoke in their private residences if they wish to, except when the house is used for the purposes of manufacturing, distribution, or trade,' he said.

It will, however, still be an offence for any person to smoke or hold a lighted tobacco product in any enclosed public place such as public transportation terminals, workplaces, bars, restaurants, shopping malls, clubs, cinemas, and sports facilities or any enclosed workplace.

Jump to full article »

Smoking ban opponents: Vote flawed  

Groups opposing the state smoking ban have taken the fight up a notch, citing evidence of ballot fraud -- more than three years after voters approved the ban.

Opponents of Ohio Bans said the petition that placed the smoking ban on the 2006 statewide ballot was tainted by numerous irregularities, such as 46 convicted felons gathering signatures. The group claims the petitions never should have been certified.

Nearly 59 percent of voters approved the ban in 2006. The ban prohibits smoking in most public places in Ohio, including bars and restaurants.

According to an Ohio News Network report, members of Buckeye Liquor Permit Holders Association want the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the fraud claims. They want family-owned businesses and private clubs exempted from the ban.

Jump to full article »

Columbus Smoking Ban Discussion  

Columbus could become the next city in the state to ban smoking if the city council approves a proposal on their Tuesday night agenda.

A Tennessee law is the basis for the proposed ordinance which would ban smoking in public places.

Bars and restaurants could allow smoking if they ban customers younger than the age of 21

Jump to full article »

Smoking Ban May Impact Voter Turnout 

South Dakota's voter turnout for next November's election could be a lot different than past years.

A local political science professor says a smoking ban on that ballot would likely lure more people to the polls. He says that could have an impact on other initiatives and political races.

Both supporters and people against a statewide smoking ban have worked hard to let their opinions be heard. And many of the arguments boil down to an issue of public health versus personal rights. Political science professor Jay Newberger says strong beliefs on both sides could spark a surge of voters who might not otherwise make it to the polls.

"I think it's gonna bring out a whole lot of voters, people I think generally in South Dakota, all the polls indicated South Dakotans very much, accept the smoking ban," Newberger said.

Jump to full article »

Great Falls Residents Complain Smoking Ban Isn’t Enforced  

Smoking in Montana's bars, casinos and restaurants was forbidden Oct. 1, but some Great Falls residents are complaining the prohibition isn't being enforced.

That's prompted the Great Falls City Commission at a meeting Tuesday to again take up an issue many had thought resolved last month.

Jump to full article »

Crestview Hills will ask for smoking ban 

Crestview Hills City Council will be asking Kenton, Campbell and Boone fiscal courts to pass a smoking ban in indoor public places.

The council passed a resolution urging the fiscal courts to enact the ban at the regular meeting Thursday Nov. 12. The resolution passed 4-3 with a tie break vote cast by Mayor Paul Meier.

The city plans to send the resolution to all three fiscal courts.

"It's the right thing to do for the public," Meier said. "Drinking is legal; drinking and driving is not legal. Yes, you have a right to smoke, but you don't have a right to smoke if it's going to harm someone else."

Council member Thomas Moser cast one of the three dissenting votes on council.

Jump to full article »

Electronic Cigarettes Proven To Be Widely Accepted Across UK Pubs And Clubs 

The smoking ban has forced UK smokers into a supermarket culture. Preferring to buy ingredients in and have social gatherings at houses where they can smoke freely. It is strongly believed though that mass acceptance of electronic cigarettes into the hospitality industry has seen 65% of lost trade returning instantly and the rest will return within 2 years.

Harvard doctors recently backed electronic cigarettes from cheapelectroniccigarettes.co.uk and ASH UK (Anti Smoking and Health Organisation – Ash.org.uk) have also released that they approve of the benefits that electronic cigarettes can potentially bring.

Electronic Cigarettes are revolutionary devices which do not breach smoking bans as it involves no ignition or burning of tobacco.

Jump to full article »

BOGUS BAN? Opponents take unprecedented approach to restore smoking 

Groups opposing the state smoking ban have taken the fight up a notch, citing evidence of ballot fraud -- more than three years after voters approved the ban.

Opponents of Ohio Bans said the petition that placed the smoking ban on the 2006 statewide ballot was tainted by numerous irregularities, such as 46 convicted felons gathering signatures. The group claims the petitions should have never been certified.

Nearly 59 percent of voters approved the ban in 2006. The ban prohibits smoking in most public places in Ohio, including bars and restaurants.

According to an Ohio News Network report, members of Buckeye Liquor Permit Holders Association want the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the fraud claims. They want family-owned businesses and private clubs exempted from the ban.

Under ban rules, "private residences; family-owned businesses without non-family employees; certain areas of nursing homes; outdoor patios; and some retail tobacco stores are exempt."

Association officials also are threatening a class action lawsuit for the hundreds of bars they claim went out of business because of the ban.

Jump to full article »

• Antismoking Fight Proves a Pyramid-Size Task  

Anyone who has ever spent any time in a Cairo taxicab, restaurant, office, lobby, coffeehouse, cafeteria or university, or even at the zoo, knows just how ubiquitous smoking is. "There is a movement to be tobacco free in the whole world," said Ehab Assad, a tobacco control officer in the Egyptian Ministry of Health. "We cannot be away from this."

Mr. Assad said that as a first step the government late last month banned the shisha, or water pipe, in cafes of the crowded Khan el-Khalili marketplace. But just a few minutes after the government boasted of the ban, hawkers were swarming tourists at the Khan, waving restaurant menus, offering what else but shisha. They were selling apple-, orange-, lemon- and cherry-flavored, tobacco-filled pipes for 10 Egyptian pounds, or about $1.80.

Such is the early fate of the antismoking effort. Shisha is back in the Khan after a brief ban, and all around Cairo there is confusion as to what exactly the government is planning. "The End of Shisha?" read a headline last month on the news Web site Al Masry al Youm. So far, smoking continues unabated. . . .

"The main issue here is that we don't have democracy. Accordingly, our responsible ministers are not elected; accordingly, they don't really care about what they do to their own people," said Alaa al-Aswany, a best-selling author and social critic.

"I am telling you that the shisha will continue," he said.

Jump to full article »

• Pub ban stubs out smoking at home  

A ban on smoking in bars and pubs has prompted many New Zealanders to stop smoking at home, Ministry of Health research shows.

Next month will mark six years since the passing of smoke-free legislation that bans smoking in indoor work environments such as clubs, casinos, bars and restaurants. It came into force one year later, in December 2004.

A ministry expert on tobacco, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, says one of the positive spin-offs of the law has been that the number of smoke-free homes has dramatically increased. He attributes the trend to a change in attitude - "People started thinking, `I can't smoke in the pub so I won't smoke in my home'."

A report evaluating the law's effectiveness and impact across various sectors shows exposure to second-hand smoke in the home decreased from 20% in 2003 to 9% in 2006. And the cultural shift, which has seen smoking become less socially acceptable, has seen smoking rates fall year on year.

The research, he says, also shows "the overall economic impact [of the legislation] was not a negative one".

But Josh White of the Hospitality Association of New Zealand says there is no doubt the law has had a negative impact on licensed premises. "Everyone that's tried to survive has had to put a smoking area in at their own cost."

Jump to full article »