Tobacco.org

Smoking in Iraq: Butt out, please 

As soon as parliament ratifies the cabinet-imposed ban, Iraqi smokers will be forced to loiter on street corners exposed to car bombs and 45-degree heat in the summer. But according to a recent study, smoking kills an average of 55 Iraqis a day, compared to a current average of ten deaths daily from terrorist shootings or bombings. So the government argues that it is perfectly reasonable to outlaw smoking on public-health grounds.

Nonetheless, the ban has done nothing to improve the already low opinion many Iraqis have of their democratically elected government. "Bring back Saddam," says a cigarette vendor. "We were free to smoke anywhere then." Others link the ban to reports of torture in official detention. "Prisons are public buildings, right? So will they now prevent guards from stubbing out cigarettes on the arms, legs and backs of inmates?" asks one university student. . . .

In parliament though, the ban is popular. Islamists want to get rid of tobacco outright. Of course, many ministers and MPs smoke too, often in their offices. But, given their elevated positions, few rules apply to them.

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Sacred Breath fights commercial tobacco use 

Saturday's Sacred Breath Pow Wow at the Journey Museum honored those working to make South Dakota a smoke-free state.

About 300 partcipants gathered to enjoy a noon meal and a the powwow. And despite the rain threatening to turn everything to a soggy mess, the honoring ceremony went on as planned.

The purpose of the event carried an important cultural message, organizers said.

"We need to teach the ceremonial use of tobacco, which follows and maintains our cultural protocol," said Big Crow, Study Coordinator/Research Assistant at Black Hills Center for American Indian Health. "In our culture, the use of tobacco is very sacred. But we also support tobacco-free legislation and don't promote the social use of tobacco."

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Bart Cannon: Please Bogart that cigarette butt, my friend 

Thanks to icons like Bogey and the Marlboro man, kids growing up in the '60s learned to admire smokers at an early age.

I'll never forget the preacher who bragged on all the outstanding men in his church -- out standing behind the sanctuary smoking a cigarette.

He must have been so proud of them.

Meanwhile, singer Jim Gilbert extolled "holy smokers who want to see the Lord so much, they're shortening their days."

Army basic training reinforced the notion that smokers deserve special privileges. . . .

A Litterbutt.com bumper sticker says, "The World is not your ashtray." Neither is my driveway.

That's why I'm asking the smokers in my neighborhood to please Bogart that butt, my friend; don't pass it over to me.

Properly dispose of your cigarette butts, and God's green Earth and all living things will love you, too.

Besides, it's a really cool thing to do.

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• Skolnick to allow tobacco during Indian ritual  

Director of Corrections Howard Skolnik told the Nevada Indian Commission Wednesday he will make an exception to the prison system's new tobacco ban for American Indian religious ceremonies.

Those ceremonies, which conclude with participants smoking a ceremonial pipe, will be allowed to have the limited amount of tobacco needed to share the pipe.

Skolnik said he is aware that will cause some inmates to suddenly develop an interest in sweat lodge ceremonies just to get access to tobacco.

He banned tobacco products from the prison system, for inmates and staff, effective July 1.

“You'll have 100 inmates turn out for the sweat lodge because they can use tobacco there,” he said.

And he said he anticipates that other religious groups in the prison system will want to add a sweat lodge ceremony to their practices.

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Turkey extends smoke ban to bars, restaurants 

It's just after midnight at Ankara's EskiYeni (OldNew) Bar and customers are feting «The Last Night of Smoking.» A majority have lit up and are swaying to the rhythm of cigarette-themed 60s and 70s Turkish songs.

Technically, they are breaking the law. At midnight Saturday Turkey extended a ban on indoor public smoking to include bars, restaurants, village coffeehouses and hookah bars. Some smokers have left the bar for its courtyard to light up, but most are carrying on smoking inside.

The ban came into effect despite protests from bar and coffeehouse owners who fear it will ruin businesses that have already been hit hard by the effects of an economic crisis.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-oriented government barred smoking in offices and public transport and other public places in May 2008 in an effort to reduce the country's high smoking rates and the effects of secondhand smoke on people's health. Bars, restaurants and cafes were given a grace period that ended at midnight Saturday.

"To smoke like a Turk" is an expression used in many European countries to describe heavy smokers and the government says more than 100,000 people die annually in Turkey from smoking-related illnesses.

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Baptists promote tobacco legislation 

Landmark legislation approved June 11 by the Senate gives the Food and Drug Administration authority to effectively regulate the manufacture, marketing and sale of tobacco products.

Curtis RamseyLucas, National Ministries' national coordinator of Public and Social Advocacy of the American Baptist Church, was involved in introducing the legislation to Congress earlier this year through his involvement with "Faith United Against Tobacco," a diverse interfaith coalition of religious leaders.

"We believe our nation's leaders have a moral obligation to do all they can to protect Americans, particularly children, from tobacco addiction and the health consequences of smoking," said Ramsey-Lucas. "Passage of this legislation and its implementation by the FDA will, in no small measure, move our nation forward in achieving this goal. Yesterday's action by the Senate is a victory for children today and for those of future generations." . . .

Earlier this year, in conjunction with introduction of the legislation, numerous media events around the country featured local faith leaders urging congressional support for the legislation. The Rev. Timothy Bonney, pastor of First Baptist Church of Greater Des Moines, called upon American Baptists to support the legislation at one of these events.

American Baptist Churches USA General Secretary A. Roy Medley said, "God calls us to healthy stewardship of all that has been entrusted to us. This legislation will save countless lives, prevent debilitating disease and protect children who are easily made victims of tobacco products."

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Faith groups cheer Congressional approval of FDA regulation of tobacco industry 

Faith leaders have applauded Congress for its action approving landmark legislation authorizing the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products.

“Better late than never, the Congress has responded decisively to pleas from medical and scientific experts and hundreds of religious leaders across the country to give the American consumer regulatory protection from the relentless marketing of this deadly health threat,” said Wesley “Pat” Pattillo, the National Council of Churches' Senior Program Director for Justice, Advocacy and Communication.

The vote followed years of advocacy by a diverse 25-member coalition of religious groups – Faith United Against Tobacco – that included the National Council of Churches, United Methodist Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), American Baptist Churches, Church of the Brethren, Episcopal Health Ministries, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Progressive National Baptist Convention, United Church of Christ, Seventh-day Adventists, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and Islamic Society of North America. . . .

As backers of “The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids,” the Faith United coalition was especially interested in the bill’s efforts to eliminate tobacco sales to minors.

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Congress grants FDA oversight of tobacco  

The Southern Baptist Convention has passed tobacco-related resolutions dating to 1932. A 1984 resolution urged churches and other SBC entities to encourage Southern Baptists not to use tobacco. It also called on Southern Baptist farmers not to raise tobacco but to grow another crop when feasible. In 2005, the SBC adopted a resolution urging an increased effort to reduce smoking by teenagers.

The ERLC's Land was one of the leaders of a religious coalition that supported the legislation the last several years. Other organizations in the 25-member Faith United Against Tobacco included the United Methodist Church, American Baptist Churches USA, National Council of Churches, Seventh-day Adventists, Presbyterian Church (USA), Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and Islamic Society of North America.

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Smoking tobacco out of people's lives 

Rachel Kitonyo may not be a favourite with tobacco manufacturers and smokers in Kenya due to her recent work in tobacco control. In fact, if she was to have her way, Kitonyo would be perfectly happy in a Kenya where no one smoked and no lawful tobacco growing, manufacturing, advertising and usage was taking place.

"If no one smoked, we would be happy," says the executive director of the Institute of Legal Affairs. However, her brave and dedicated work through the institute in helping draft regulations under the Tobacco Control Act 2007, drafting and lobbying for the passing of the Act and in drafting subsidiary legislation to ban smoking in public places under the Public Health Act have received international acclaim from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the Wilkenfeld family, leading to her being awarded of the second Judy Wilkenfeld Award for International Tobacco Control Excellence. . . .

Kitonyo's initial idea of a career in law was the life of glamour with a prestigious law firm. A road accident that left her with a broken arm and dislocated knee, was to however change her focus and become a lawyer of a different kind. . . .

The first Bill they picked was the Tobacco Control Bill, which had stuck in Parliament since 1998 due to strong lobbying against it by the tobacco industry.

The draft in Parliament was a weak one that did not even meet the minimum requirements as set by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to which Kenya was a signatory. The convention gave minimum requirements for tobacco control in legislation and a country was supposed to enact domestic legislation based on that.

It was also a Bill that affected the largest number of Kenyans, smokers, non-smokers and the economy.

As Christians they believed that any addictive stuff should not be allowed. Smokers, who are at a national average of 12 per cent, also needed to be protected from slowly but surely killing themselves.

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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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Indonesian president's party wins election 

The secular party of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has scored a victory in Indonesia's parliamentary elections, but will likely be forced to govern with several Islamic parties after a political feud with his main coalition partner.

The final tallies, released late Saturday, give the reform-minded leader a boost before he runs for re-election in July. . . .

Islamists saw their support plummet last month partly because they've been seen as intolerant after pushing though unpopular laws banning everything from smoking to yoga and imposing unpopular sharia-based laws in some regions.

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Anti-tobacco NGO inspires US student  

Tobacco control initiative by a city-based non-governmental organisation (NGO) has caught the attention of an American research student. Alejandra Ellison Barnes, a Wellesley College graduate, is presently on a tour of India to understand how tobacco control activities are carried out and its level of success.

Gujarat is the fourth state in the country that Barnes is travelling. She has interacted with NGOs in Maharashtra, Goa, Tamil Nadu and plans to visit Delhi, Lucknow, Assam and Punjab in the coming months. "I heard at a world conference in Thailand about the work Faith Foundation' is doing in the area of tobacco control and de-addiction. So, I decided to visit this NGO," Barnes said. . . .

"I select hotspots of tobacco control centres to understand tobacco control and advocacy activities. I have included in my research the works of Faith Foundation and Gandhinagar-based Gujarat State Tobacco Control Cell," she added.

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• Death of monks prompts ban on smoking in temples 

The Public Health Ministry will issue a total ban on smoking in temples nationwide, following the discovery that over 18,000 monk smokers were suffering or had died from chronic diseases such as cancer, tuberculosis, and pulmonary emphysema.

Dr Prakit Vathesatogkit, the Action On Smoking And Health Foundation's secretarygeneral, said the new ministerial issuance to ban smoking in temples as well as in schools and hospitals, will be announced by the Department of Disease Control.

The proposed ban was not only to reduce the number of monks who smoke, "but also because we want the monk to be a role model for Buddhists to give up smoking," said Prakit.

A 2003 2004 study, conducted by the Priest hospital, found that cancer, tuberculosis, and pulmonary emphysema were the most common chronic diseases to affect 18,000 monk smokers during the past few years.

Another study conducted in 2004 by Mahidol University's Faculty of Public Health showed 91 per cent of monks across country supported a prohibition on monks smoking, while 80 percent agreed to ban devotees from giving cigarettes to monks.

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Russian Orthodox Church a growing political force 

To tens of millions of Russian believers, the Orthodox Church is first of all a sacred institution, a pillar of the country's 1,000-year-old identity and culture. . . .

According to Nikolai Mitrokhin, director of a research institute that studies religions in the former Soviet Union, the church built its fortune starting in the 1990s through trade in tobacco and alcohol, through exports of oil and sturgeon, by the construction of shopping malls and hotels and by operating jewelry stores - allegedly with counterfeit bling. The church also runs book publishing concerns and organic farms.

A church spokesman, Father Vsevolod Chaplin, confirmed that the Patriarchate controlled many businesses. But Chaplin said neither the tobacco nor the oil business proved profitable, and claimed the church is no longer involved in them. He also dismissed the notion that the church's commercial deals had undermined its spiritual mission.

"I don't see anything detrimental if the church can invest in this kind of work," he told AP.

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BROWN: FDA Bill Will Save Young Virginians From Deadly Addiction  

On April 2, the U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation granting the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authority over tobacco products.

In Virginia, nearly 9,300 children a year become regular smokers. In our state alone, we spend more than $2 billion on health care costs directly caused by smoking, and 9,700 people die from tobacco each year -- the leading cause of preventable death.

The faith community simply cannot ignore this tragedy because we spend too much time burying mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers who die because they became addicted to tobacco products when they were young.

Now the U.S. Senate has a historic opportunity to protect children and save lives as it considers The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.

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