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EDITORIAL: The rights and the wrongs of smoking in public 

While living in the San Fernando Valley in early 2006, I remember thinking how ludicrous it was that the Calabasas City Council had adopted an ordinance that basically eliminated the ability for anyone to smoke in public. The secondhand smoke control ordinance specified that smoking was prohibited in all public places where other persons could be exposed to secondhand smoke, including indoor and outdoor businesses, hotels, parks, apartment common areas, restaurants and bars where people could reasonably be expected to congregate or meet.

At the time, as a half-a-pack-a-day smoker, I felt persecuted and loathed. . . .

After I left the Valley, I moved up north and found myself in a pro-smoking environment. It was widely accepted, if not condoned, as a bridge to meeting new people. But as the butts piled up, I found the habit to be more destructive and bothersome. The initial buzz that everyone gets with the first cigarette wears off as the day progresses. Instead of relaxing and enjoying cigarettes, I was tense and frustrated because my nicotine level wasn't high enough. And as a friend pointed out, it wasn't the nicotine that was making me feel relaxed; it was taking deep breaths throughout the day to deliver more oxygen into my body -- something that was defeated as my lungs sucked up nasty carcinogens.

By December 2007, I decided I'd had enough. . . .

although I am not in favor of the government legislating certain behaviors, the problem is that when you are a smoker, you simply aren't taking into account how you are affecting other people, be it their health, their level of comfort or their children by modeling for them that smoking should be a norm in our society. . . .

because fighting between the smokers and nonsmokers will never cease, cities like Thousand Oaks and Moorpark have decided to follow Calabasas' lead and make it more difficult to expose nonsmokers to the carcinogenic plumes of cigarettes through their own anti-smoking ordinances. . . .

While not every provision of the new laws seems fair, including forbidding smoking in rental homes, it isn't about the person who is committing the act; it is about everyone else who has to be subjected to it. For this reason alone, Moorpark and Thousand Oaks are headed in the right direction toward putting an end to exposing others to a debilitating habit.

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• Debate swirls over smoking in Air Force homes  

Some Air Force base housing residents in the Pacific say they wish their commands would offer them the option of smoke-free housing.

Others — smokers and nonsmokers alike — believe the military shouldn’t have any say in whether people can smoke in the privacy of their personal, albeit government-provided, home.

The issue came up at a Yokota Air Base town hall meeting earlier this year after residents there learned that Misawa Air Base would ban smoking in its family housing apartment towers starting May 1. During the meeting, several residents said they have neighbors’ cigarette smoke flowing into their homes and asked if the base could ban smoking in the towers.

Misawa officials said they instituted the ban because they weren’t in compliance with an Air Force instruction that states "the rights of the nonsmokers will prevail." They’ve since added other types of housing units to the ban and set the goal of making the majority of housing smoke-free as units undergo renovations.

The instruction, titled "Tobacco Use in the Air Force," gives commanders the authority to "designate areas or buildings in dormitories or family housing smoke-free when there is a common air-handling unit for multiple individuals or families ... to ensure a healthy and safe environment for all residents."

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• An old familiar lifestyle is gone in a puff  

The new decision by Clark County's subsidized housing agency to ban smoking in some of its properties reflects Washington's successful crusade to drive down cigarette use.

But the heated disputes between smokers and nonsmokers in Richard's building, inflamed by the VHA's action, also reflect an awkward fact about Washington's anti-smoking campaign: it's been relatively unsuccessful among the poor.

Heavy smokers who live in Richard's building, Esther Short Commons on the west side of downtown Vancouver's Esther Short Park, said they'll do as smokers whose buildings go smoke-free have done for decades: move to another place as soon as they can.

But the continuing spread of no-smoking apartments is leaving smokers with a new worry.

Where can you smoke, if not in the projects?

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WINICKOFF: My Turn: Ban Smoking in Public Housing  

Ten years ago, I was the doctor for an 18-year-old with cystic fibrosis whose mother was a heavy smoker. The patient told me how she coughed, wheezed, and choked when she was at home. I became close with her; it seemed she was always in the hospital, and I couldn't help but think it was because she wanted to escape a toxic environment. Three years later, at 21, she died—more than 14 years before a person with cystic fibrosis could be expected to live at that time.

She is not the only young patient of mine to feel the effects of secondhand smoke. More must be done to address this suffering. . . .

change can't come fast enough for children from lower income levels, where rates of exposure to secondhand smoke are especially high—not surprising, given that poor adults smoke at higher rates. Children in densely populated public housing suffer the worst.

That's ironic, since these smoke-filled environments are subsidized by the same government that spends billions of dollars on secondhand-smoke-related disease. . . .

Some people argue that smoke-free regulation weighs against our longstanding cultural values surrounding privacy and protecting the sanctity of our homes. These values are important. But when considering them against the health of a child who has never smoked but is suffering from tobacco exposure in his own building, the choice is clear to me.

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• West Des Moines apartment complex makes buildings smoke-free  

Iowa's largest apartment complex is making nearly 25 percent of its 1,076 apartments smoke-free, owner Keith Denner said Tuesday.

The move is designed to improve the health and safety of residents, said Denner, who owns and manages the Sun Prairie and Vista Court Apartments in West Des Moines, which are adjacent to each other and include 40 buildings.

"This is supply-side economics at its best," said Bonnie Mapes, director of the Iowa Division of Tobacco Use Prevention and Control.

"This is not government-driven. It's a business decision"

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Council butts out, this time 

City councillors are butting out of the contentious issue of banning smoking in public housing.

They voted against taking a position yesterday, instead referring the issue to CityHousing's independent board for consideration.

"The devil is in the details," said Councillor Chad Collins, adding it's difficult for the city to take a position when it doesn't know how the restrictions would be implemented.

"There's still a lot of work to be done. I see this as the start of the process."

Public health staff had recommended the Board of Health, which includes all councillors, endorse a smoking ban for all new housing properties and some existing units as they turn over. The position would then be forwarded to the CityHousing's board to be considered for a formal policy.

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The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act  

The NYTimes' story makes it sound like the legislation is some draconian new regualtion of the tobacco companies: . . .

Others see enough wiggle room in there for Phillip Morris to drive a truck full of Marlboros through:

"It is a dream come true for Philip Morris," Michael Siegel . . .

It's hard to fathom where Congress is finding the political cover necessary to pass an industry-sponsored love letter like this one. But it's coming from Philip Morris' partner in crafting the legislation: a nonprofit anti-smoking organization called Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

That from Paul Smalera's MUST READ at The Big Money. I found Smalera's article far more informative than the Times'.

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Ingestion of Cigarettes Among Children Has Toxic Effects 

In recognition of National Poison Prevention Week, March 15-21, the (name of organization) is alerting the public about ways to prevent childhood poisoning. Cigarettes and cigarette butts may poison children who ingest them.

In 2006, the American Association of Poison Control Centers (AAPCC) received more than 6,100 reports of potentially toxic exposures to tobacco products among children younger than 6 years of age in the United States. Most cases of nicotine poisoning among children result from their ingestion of cigarettes or chewing tobacco.

According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Rhode Island Department of Health, children in households where cigarettes are smoked in their presence were four times more likely to ingest cigarettes or cigarette butts than in households where smoking does not occur around children. Most ingestions happen in homes where children are exposed to secondhand smoke and where cigarettes and ashtrays are kept within the reach of children.

Adults who smoke in the home may not be aware of the danger of cigarettes and cigarette butts to children,"

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How Children Are Affected When Parents Smoke At Home, Quit Smoking Support 

Second-hand smoke is unsafe at any dose. This is the message of a new campaign the Health Department launched today to highlight the hazards of environmental tobacco smoke and the importance of having a smoke-free home, especially for children. The developing lungs of young children are severely affected by second-hand smoke, and kids are easily exposed because they have higher breathing rates and little control over their environments.

An estimated 400,000 New York City smokers are adults who live with children. A growing proportion of them have barred smoking within their own homes (the proportion has risen by 55% since 2002), but the City’s most recent Community Health Survey suggests that more than half of adult smokers still lack smoke-free homes.

The Health Department’s new campaign features an ad in which a young girl watches television in her family’s living room while her father smokes a cigarette next to an open kitchen window. As the father inhales, the viewer follows the smoke as it permeates the child’s lungs as well as his own. The tagline: “It’s not only smokers who get sick.”

The ad, which can be viewed online at www.nyc.gov , was produced by Quit Victoria, in Australia. The Health Department adapted it for use in New York City.

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Neonatal Hair Nicotine Levels and Fetal Exposure to Paternal Smoking at Home  

The authors investigated fetal exposure to paternal smoking at home during pregnancy. Korean families were included as trios of fathers, mothers, and neonates identified in 2005-2007. Sixty-three trios were finally enrolled in this study after exclusion of those in which the mother was a smoker or was regularly exposed to ETS at places other than the home. Nicotine and cotinine concentrations in hair were measured by using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry to determine long-term exposure to ETS. The difference between neonatal nicotine concentrations in the smoker and nonsmoker groups was not statistically significant. However, in the indoor-smoker group, neonatal nicotine concentrations were significantly higher than in the outdoor and nonsmoker groups (P < 0.05). Furthermore, neonatal nicotine concentrations in the outdoor-smoker group were not different from those in the nonsmoker group. These findings indicate that paternal smoking inside the home leads to significant fetal and maternal exposure to ETS and may subsequently affect fetal health. Conversely, findings show that paternal smoking outside the home prevents the mother and her fetus from being exposed to ETS.

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Children whose mothers smoked during pregnancy and early childhood more likely to smoke as adults 

ATS 2009, SAN DIEGO-- Children of mothers who smoked during pregnancy and their early childhood years may be predisposed to take up smoking as teens and young adults, compounding the physical damage they sustained from the smoke exposure.

"It is well-known that maternal smoking influences a developing fetus in myriad ways, contributing to low birth weight, premature birth and a host of other health problems after birth," said Roni Grad, M.D., associate professor of clinical pediatrics at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. "Previous studies have suggested that maternal smoking during pregnancy may increase the risk of the offspring becoming regular smokers as adults, but the impact of postnatal cigarette smoke exposure was hard to differentiate from prenatal exposure."

The study results will be presented on Tuesday, May 19, at the American Thoracic Society's 105th International Conference in San Diego.

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• San Mateo condo complex to vote on smoking ban  

One San Mateo condominium complex may soon be turning into a microcosm of Belmont, the neighboring city that made national headlines in 2007 by banning smoking in condos and apartments.

The Plaza West Complex's board of directors will vote later this month whether to adopt a rule banning smoking anywhere on the premises except for two outdoor stairwell areas and a portion of the parking lot. . . .

Jagruti Patel is one of five residents that sit on the board. She said the proposed rule has the support of all five members and will likely pass when it comes up for a vote later this month.

Patel, 30, who lives in the 20th Avenue complex with her husband, said she joined the board primarily to advocate for a smoking ban after suffering through a neighbor's smoke, which drifted into her unit on hot days.

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County Can't Ban Smoking At Home, Yet 

This week, NC House Bill 2 was signed into law, and it's a bill that - with limited exceptions - bans smoking in bars and restaurants across the state and allows local boards of health to ban smoking in a few additional places if the local boards of commissioners agree.

Also, beginning Jan. 2, 2010, the bill gives the Guilford County Board of Health - and other health boards across the state - the ability to go even further and ban smoking in other buildings and establishments as well, such as workplaces - but in reality all the power lies in the hands of the county commissioners because any move to ban smoking in additional places by the Board of Health would, starting July 1, 2009, have to be approved by the Board of Commissioners.

In the past, local boards of health in North Carolina weren't allowed to pass anti-smoking laws that were more restrictive than state laws, but House Bill 2 changes that.

On Monday, May 18, the Guilford County Board of Health met at the county's Human Services Building on Maple Street and spent much of the meeting discussing the future of anti-smoking laws in Guilford County.

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Health Department to discuss apartment smoking bans 

LONG BEACH - Apartment dwellers often complain to the city Health Department about smoke wafting into their units from common areas.

A public meeting planned from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday will examine what landlords and tenants can do besides close their windows.

The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services will host a "Smoke Free Apartments Community Forum" at the John Parr Health Enhancement Center at St. Mary Medical Center, 1055 Linden Ave.

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• Tobacco smoke free homes project launched 

National Tobacco Control Cell in partnership with Association for Social Development Pakistan, National Health Services (NHS) Leeds, and Institute of Public Health on Wednesday launched a project for promoting `tobacco smoke free homes’ in the country.

The project was started with an aim to protect the households more specifically young children and pregnant women from harmful effects of secondhand smoke.

Under the project a comprehensive approach led by district health services and involving all key stakeholders will be developed.

The potential of involving health facility staff, community based health workers, school teachers, community leaders and Mosque Imams will be explored.

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