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• Bobbie DeRamus recalls helping to pass first indoor smoking ban 

Bobbie DeRamus doesn't remember things as well as she did. She's been diagnosed as being in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease, a neurological disorder devastating to short-term memory. So she thinks about the distant past. One memory that keeps coming back is when she spoke up for a ban on indoor smoking.

DeRamus, 86, of Roseburg suffered severely from the secondhand cigarette smoke she inhaled at work in the 1970s and '80s. She testified several times in front of a state Senate committee when legislators were considering what became the Oregon Indoor Clean Air Act.

The ban on indoor smoking in public buildings except in designated areas went into effect in 1983, the same year DeRamus left her job as a bookkeeper for Children's Services Division in Roseburg due to the damage secondhand smoke had done to her body.

The ban provoked strong feelings. In a Gallup poll in 1983, 55 percent of smokers agreed they should refrain from smoking around nonsmokers. But 39 percent disagreed, and about 30 percent did not believe that secondhand smoke was hazardous to nonsmokers.

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Levin (63) puffs his way to top 

Spencer Levin took one last drag on his cigarette, stamped it out in the rough and climbed into the bunker behind the 17th green. He set up quickly, took a quick glance at the hole and splashed out.

The ball landed about 10 feet from the hole, bounced twice and rolled into the cup for an eagle-2 that pushed him to 14-under par yesterday in the second round of the Phoenix Open at Scottsdale, Ariz. A few minutes - and another cigarette - later, he parred the 18th for an 8-under 63 and a three-stroke lead.

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VIDEO: Smokefree Speech Tonight (Interview with Patrick Reynolds) 

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• Letters: CHAPMAN: David Hockney should stick to painting 

The 85% of Australian suburban non-smoking philistines whose taxes helped assist in the 1999 $4.9m purchase of his A Bigger Grand Canyon for the National Gallery in Canberra will be devastated to know that David Hockney thinks they don't cut the mustard as Bohemians (Letters, 27 January). Hockney's unctuous spray about efforts to reduce tobacco-caused disease was painfully deep in personal rationalisation. Like some Russian roulette survivor convinced the game is safe and that it makes him all interesting and insightful, he apparently cannot see past his own longevity as evidence that the case against smoking is exaggerated.

Yes, we all die. But Richard Doll's 50-year British doctors cohort study showed half of long-term smokers die from a tobacco-caused disease, with those dying losing an average 12 years off normal life expectancy. Patrick Swayze (57), Nat King Cole (45), George Harrison (58), George VI (56), Betty Grable (56), Mary Wells (49), and Beach Boy Carl Wilson (51) were all lifetime smokers.

Many who die from smoking, like those with emphysema, live wretched lives for years with their lungs shredded.

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'Nothing's more alluring than Katrina lighting your beedi'  

If you watch Katrina Kaif's [ Images ] item song Chikni Chameli [ Images ] in Agneepath, you will see a statutory warning scrolling at the bottom of the screen every time she sings, 'Beedi chillum jalaane ayee,' claiming cigarette smoking is injurious to health.

But there is no reason for the film industry to go into panic mode.

As Pankaja Thakur, CEO of the Censor Board Of Film Certification (CBFC), says it doesn't mean every sequence showing a character smoking would be required to run a warning scroll.

"Not at all!" exclaims Thakur emphatically. "The intention of the scroll is being misinterepreted by a section of the film imdustry. An actor smoking on screen is a different matter from an actress saying, Beedi chillum jalaane aayee. We did ask for the scroll in Agneepath. As per the cinematograph act, glamorisation of smoking is not to be allowed on screen. We in the Censor Board thought nothing can make smoking more alluring than Katrina Kaif offering to light the crowd's beedis and chillums."

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Interview: Lord Hanson's cigarette king is still smoking out the takeovers 

When the going gets tough, nip outside for a ciggie. It's the only way Gareth Davis knows to deal with the stresses and strains of corporate life.

He might have retired from his day job two years ago, but now the former chief executive of Imperial Tobacco has three chairmanships on the go. How will he cope if they all hit a crisis at the same time? "I'll pull hard on a fag, I suppose," he says, after a moment's thought. "Have a couple of pints and reflect on it."

It's a no-nonsense style that has endeared Davis to the City over a 40-year career. Even the trio of jobs - at a bookie, a builders' merchant and a cardboard-box maker - are suitably blokeish for someone who has just jetted back from an "all-inclusive piss-up in Morocco" for a pal's 60th birthday.

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Frances Bean Cobain: Courtney Love is an Anorexic, Chain-Smoking, Pill-Popping Pet Killer!  

Courtney Love is described as mentally unstable in newly released deposition papers filed by her daughter Frances Bean Cobain, who sought a restraining order in 2009.

Frances Bean, now 19, says Love's behavior even caused her pets' death. . . .

Among those Love was ordered to avoid contact with include Cobain, Uncle Fester, Cobains' grandmother and her aunt. The primary reason? Love's drug use.

"(She) has taken drugs for as long as I can remember," Cobain said.

"She basically exists now on ... Xanax, Adderall, Sonata and Abilify, sugar and cigarettes. She rarely eats ... She often falls asleep in bed while smoking."

"I am constantly worried that she will start a fire (which she has done at least three times to date) that will threaten all of our lives."

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Viggo: I had to chain-smoke cigars  

Viggo Mortensen has admitted he had to get used to chain-smoking cigars on the set of A Dangerous Method.

The Lord Of The Rings star appears opposite Michael Fassbender and Keira Knightley in David Cronenberg's new film about the friendship between Sigmund Freud and fellow psychologist Carl Jung, in which he plays cigar lover Freud.

Viggo revealed: "I enjoyed it after a while. I had good memories from childhood of grandfather smoking a lot of cigars, so I didn't mind the way they smelled and everything.

"But it took a while to get used to smoking that many a day. He smoked 20, 22 big cigars a day. In photographs of Freud, you almost never see him without a cigar, in hand, in his mouth, even when he's with kids, social situations and family situations. Certainly always when he was reading or writing or lecturing, so I had to do it.

"It took a little getting used to, I was a little dizzy the first couple of days, but then it became fun."

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Daniel Radcliffe gets tobacco delivery 

Daniel Radcliffe gets tobacco sent to him from England.

The 22-year-old actor is currently living in New York and though he knows smoking is bad for him, he can't resist his favourite hand-rolled cigarettes, but has Golden Virginia tobacco sent out to him because he hates the US products.

He said: 'I have to ship this in from home because you can't get good rolling tobacco here. It's all dry and c--py like you've emptied out a cigarette.

'I shouldn't really smoke.

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KLE students sing ‘Smoke Free Me’ with Ott  

KOSCIUSKO -- Students from Kosciusko Lower Elementary will soon be hitting the radio airwaves with SmokeFree Mississippi spokesperson and radio/TV personality Paul Ott.

They recorded, along with several students from the Jackson-area, at the SmokeFree Mississippi press conference at the State Capitol on Jan. 25 in Jackson. The song, "Smoke Free Me," talks of the pitfalls of second-hand smoke and its effects. . . .

According to a press release, SmokeFree Mississippi is an initiative dedicated to getting a comprehensive, statewide law passed in the 2012 legislative session. The purpose is to eliminate smoking in indoor public places.

Ott, who has had several family and friends fall ill due to cigarette smoke, said he hopes that in his role as spokesperson he can get the message across.

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Let’s have tobacco-free youth, urges Shaan 

We must create awareness about the disastrous effects of tobacco consumption among the youths, says Bollywood singer Shaan, who Thursday launched the song ‘Life Se Panga Mat Le Yaar’ to spread the message.

"We must create awareness about the disastrous effects of tobacco consumption, especially among the young generation of the nation," said the singer who has associated himself with the Salaam Bombay Foundation to create awareness about ill effects of tobacco consumption.

"A word of awareness should be spread around in the best possible way to stop the consumption of tobacco by children and music is the only language that can reach all age groups... it has no barriers," he added.

Last year, the ministry of health and family welfare appointed Shaan as the tobacco control ambassador of India.

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• 'Agneepath' first film to run anti-smoking scroll  

Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) CEO Pankaja Thakur said, "Films that encourage smoking or alcohol consumption will have to run a scroll or accept cuts to get a certificate."

Hrithik Rishan-Sanjay Dutt starrer 'Agneepath', released on January 26, has included a statutory warning scroll in the popular item number chikni chameli to evade cuts. The film also runs warnings before and during the film, and has been given a U/A certificate.

The move comes at the back of a clash between the ministries of health and I&B. While the health ministry had issued a notification asking for slew of changes in films, the I&B ministry had held the ban in abeyance citing concerns from filmmakers. However, CBFC is implementing the ban partially.

Elaborating on the decision Thakur said, "For the first time, CBFC has asked for a statutory warning scroll in a popular item song. The producers (of Agneepath) offered no resistance." The particular number has actor Katrina Kaif lighting up bidis, which the Board felt would send a wrong message.

However, instead of forcing the ban, the Board feels that discussion on balancing artistic expression with health concerns has had a better effect. With the Censor turning an eagle eye on films, sources said that filmmakers will be cautious in filming smoking scenes.

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As Budgam goes smoke free Ruhullah pledges to quit puffing  

Barely two days after Budgam was declared “Smoke Free” on the Republic Day, the local MLA Aga Ruhullah Mehdi Saturday had some candid confession as the young Cabinet Minister pledged that he would quit smoking so that the central Kashmir district, he represents, gets more of voluntary support in the endeavour.

While addressing a function in connection with the recent announcement of “Smoke Free Budgam”, Ruhullah, Minister for IT and Animal Husbandry, said: “I may not say no more of it(puffing) from today or tomorrow. But I’ll definitely leave this place with a promise that this is the time to start saying no to it, cutting down it.”

Starting his speech with keenly chosen words, the Minister said: “This is a topic which in practical life I don’t practice and unfortunately happen to be a slave of it. But there’s not a single word which can endorse smoking. There’s not a single reason that a person will start smoking.”

“Talking in practicality, it only starts as a style statement… This is the case with most people (smokers),” he added.

“The slavery which I have accepted drives one towards worst. It hurts your pocket not only in short term but even in long term, hurts your health,” he said.

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Letters: Smoke and mirrors  

• Thank you for yet another of David Hockney's comedy rants (Letters, 28 January). If he needs material for his next sketch, he can start with the statistic that one person dies from lung cancer every 15 minutes in the UK. That'll have them rolling in the aisles.

Dr David Harper

Cambridge

• You must be relieved your senior smoking correspondent has not been distracted by all the recent attention given to the artwork he has managed to produce in his spare time.

Lawrence Jarrett

Luton

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Stop Smoking, Miley Cyrus 

Just like us with our new fitness routines, it looks like Miley Cyrus is having a hard time sticking to her New Year’s resolution to quit smoking. What a bummer!

As we reported in late December, a pal of Miley’s claimed that the 19-year-old wanted to quit smoking as a new year’s resolution. Fast forward to a ridiculous long month later, and BAM! (Or should we say PUFF?!) OceanUp caught the singer/actress with a stick in her hand as she zoomed off in a car with friend Cheyene Thomas.

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