Tobacco.org

WAUGH: Commentary- Bring back smoking rooms 

The trouble with zealots is they almost never think about the consequences of their zeal.

And there was no bigger caped crusader than Edmonton Tory MLA Dave Hancock during his brief stint as Ed Stelmach's health minister.

Last November, Hancock hailed his Tobacco Reduction Act as an "important part of our government's wellness agenda."

The legislation banned smoking from all "public places and workplaces" in the province on January 1.

The jury is out on whether Dave's Directive has actually done what it's supposed to - cut the number smokers.

Iris Evans's finance department beancounters certainly don't think so. . . .

Up to 35% of the small trash collected is now made up of butts, he said.

This problem hardly existed when smokers puffed in sealed, ventilated smoking rooms.

Now that Liepert is in charge, is it time to lighten up? Let the nicotine addicts back into smoking rooms where they only have themselves to harm.

Jump to full article »

'Cigarette flicking' is illegal 

ANSWER: While flicking a cigarette might make for quick disposal, it is in fact illegal.

Two separate laws address the issue of the disposal of debris on the highway and within city limits.

According to Section 321.369 of the Code of Iowa, "A person shall not throw or deposit upon a highway any glass bottle, glass, nails, tacks, wires, cans, trash, garbage, rubbish, litter, offal or any other debris."

Jump to full article »

Keep Vancouver Spectacular kicks off; may be more to clean thanks to recent smoking ban 

Vancouver is kicking off its annual spring cleaning campaign today, and there are concerns volunteers will have more work to do this year thanks to the recent smoking ban.

According to new numbers from Nicorette, cigarette butts already account for one in five items tossed on the street.

Jump to full article »

3,000 cigarette butts picked up in just a day 

Smokers are being urged to clean up their act following the operation to show the impact the smoking ban has had on the streets and cleansing services in East Northamptonshire. The district council has an annual budget of £855,000 for litter picking and street sweeping which has to cover the whole district, and the environmental costs of dropping butts are as significant as the financial implications.

Jump to full article »

Tossed cigarette leads to standoff 

How could a lighted cigarette, tossed out of a car in Orchards on Thursday afternoon, spark a police chase and a standoff with heavily armed SWAT officers?

One thing led to another, Washington State Patrol Trooper Stephen Robley said of the 90-minute standoff, with more than a dozen police cars on scene and streets blocked near Heritage High School. . . .

Gruendell saw the driver run into the house with a woman and small child who'd been in the front yard.

By that time, officers knew the man was Adam L. Staten, 25, who once lived there, and that felony and misdemeanor warrants had previously been issued for his arrest, Robley said. . . .

And he got the $1,025 ticket for the alleged littering.

"He made it a lot worse for himself," Robley said. "He added on numerous other charges."

Jump to full article »

Dallas County proposes a smoke-free Founders Plaza  

Dallas County commissioners will discuss banning smoking in the county's new landscaped outdoor plaza Tuesday morning to make it more friendly to visitors and eliminate the eyesore of discarded cigarette butts.

County officials have proposed adding Founders Plaza to its current list of designated non-smoking areas. Commissioners will vote on it next week.

Outdoor smoking bans have created controversy in other American cities because there is no scientific evidence that walking by someone who's smoking outside creates a health hazard. The motive in some other cities was to discourage loitering. In Dallas County, it's for different aesthetic reasons -- employees are littering the plaza with cigarette butts.

Jump to full article »

POLL: Collier deputies to target cigarette-throwing drivers  

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office will crack down Tuesday on motorists who toss cigarettes onto roadways during “Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire” special enforcement day.

The traffic enforcement operation will be conducted countywide and will target motorists who discard any lit substance from a moving vehicle.Discarded cigarettes are the biggest problem, deputies say.

“It’s pretty prevalent,” said CCSO Safety and Traffic Enforcement Bureau Sgt. Chris Gonzalez. “People do it all day long.’’

Jump to full article »

Charles City considers park smoking ban 

The Charles City Park and Recreation Board is considering making a recommendation to the City Council on banning smoking during organized activities in city parks.

Steve Lindaman, park and recreation director, said the the ban would help with "maintain-ing a healthy, clean park atmosphere."

Secondhand smoke is one concern, but another is the unsightliness of having numerous cigarette butts on the ground during events such as Party in the Park and the July 4 celebration, he said.

Jump to full article »

WSU grounds worker puts a month’s worth of cigarette trash on display  

Bryce Fogelson doesn't mind smokers, but he hates what they leave behind.

Fogelson finds cigarette butts littered everywhere on the Winona State University campus -- in the cracks of sidewalks, in the mulch of rock gardens and flicked haphazardly near the hundred or so ashtray receptacles outside the entrance of nearly every campus building. . . .

The full-time WSU senior and part-time campus maintenance worker -- a job funded by taxpayers -- sucks up the littered butts with a vacuum reverse blower.

But after three years on cigarette patrol, he's seen enough.

Fogelson collected thousands of stray cigarette butts littering the campus over the past month and put the heaping pile on display for his fellow students Thursday in WSU's Kryzsko Commons. All brands -- the camel and cowboy included -- were well-represented.

Jump to full article »

Anti-Littering Art 

A student from Winona State University is making a statement by taking cigarette butts indoors.

More than 2,000 cigarette butts are now on display at Winona State University.

This after a part-time maintenance worker and a student at Winona State became frustrated at having to cleaning up all the cigarette butts around campus.

"I just want to show people that it isn't alright to litter regardless of how big or small the thing that you're throwing on the ground," says Bryce Fogelson.

Jump to full article »

Crackdown on Dublin's litter bugs 

Smokers who flick away their buts on pavements outside pubs are the focus of a new crackdown in the city.

Other people who will be hit by new by-laws from Dublin City Council are those who throw away packaging from take-away food.

Cigarette butts piling up on pavements have become a real eyesore since Ireland's smoking ban came in, in 2004, now making up 56% of a all street rubbish.

Assistant City Manager Matt Twomey said: "Our experience from both our street-cleaning operations and from litter surveys is that takeaway premises are very high generators of litter.

Jump to full article »

SMOKE BAN A SUCCESS 

The great stub out in the town centre has been hailed a success after the smoking ban came into effect on July 1 with only nine complaints about smoking on smoke-free premise.

Jump to full article »

LETTER: Let cigarette seller clean up after and host his addicts 

I read the interesting letter, "Raise cigarette tax and see revenue go up in smoke" (April 7). The executive director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets suggested that if Florida raises the cigarette tax, people would quit purchasing cigarettes and Florida would lose revenue.

May I remind him that smoking is an addiction that leads to addictive behavior and negative consequences. I am happy for the smart people of New Jersey who either stopped or cut back on their smoking habit. I wonder how much New Jersey saves on health services that are caused by or exacerbated by cigarette smoking, such as treating congestive heart failure, throat cancer, lung cancer and diabetes, just to name a few. I think that the cigarette tax should be increased to $5 per pack so that smokers would have to "pay to play." In the meantime, it would be nice of the director to come to Florida with his broom to sweep up the cigarette butts and empty cigarette packages that adult non-smokers such as myself and children have to endure looking at on our beaches and streets.

Also, since the letter-writer is a smokers' advocate, it would be kind of him to open up his home to smoking addicts who have a debilitating disease and cannot support themselves as a result of smoking cigarettes.

Jump to full article »

Thank you for not smoking -- Boca's parks set to ban it 

The maintenance costs and the health issues smoking is generating, though, are a different story.

That's why the Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District is invoking a total smoking ban for its three facilities: Sugar Sand Park, Patch Reef Park and the Swim and Racquet Center.

The ban goes into effect May 1.

"It's a different time. Smoking is not chic, it's not cool. It's a filthy, smelly habit and it's very difficult to quit," said Bob Jaffe, chairman of the of the American Cancer Society's south county unit, based in Boca Raton.

The district had a partial ban since 1999 allowing smoking in certain areas such as parking lots. But the privileges under that ban were abused, Jaffe said. He recommended that the district issue a total ban, which was approved in January.

"It's a fire hazard, a maintenance issue and most importantly a health issue," he said.

Jump to full article »

Cigarette butts foul up the streets 

Fermanagh District Council were one of six Councils across Northern Ireland who contributed to a recent survey looking at the cleanliness of streets across the province.

The results show a rising tide of sweet wrappers and cigarette butts being discarded on the streets.

The findings show that 92% of streets in the six Councils surveyed met government cleanliness guidelines during 2007. While this is an improvement on the 13% failure rate of the previous year, both cigarette litter and confectionery related litter has been on the increase during the same period.

Jump to full article »