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• Govt strives to make Haj tobacco free 

The Ministry of Health has launched a campaign among pilgrims to make Makkah and Madinah completely tobacco free during this year’s Haj season.

“Under the ministry’s Tobacco Control Program (TCP), we have printed around 1.5 million leaflets in different languages for distribution among pilgrims — both smokers and nonsmokers,” said Majed Al-Munif, TCP’s supervisor-general.

He added that the brochures are available in languages such as Arabic, English, French, Persian, Urdu, Turkish, Indonesian and Swahili.

“We require the cooperation of pilgrims to make the two holy cities among those with the lowest tobacco consumption in the world,” he said, adding that the area within five-kilometers of the Holy Haram in Makkah and Madinah is tobacco-free with the sale of tobacco strictly banned.

Billboards and posters with anti-smoking messages, information regarding anti-smoking clinics and fatwas on the subject are on display in the two cities.

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• Hail envisages tobacco ban; airport complaints renewed 

The Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs in Hail is considering banning the sale of tobacco products at food stores in residential areas of the city as part of plans to discourage young people from smoking.

The Chairman of the Municipal Council in Hail, Turki Al-Dhab’an, said the considerations come in the light of recommendations from a study proposing the designation of specific outlets and licenses for the sale of tobacco.

The move, which could be finalized at the council’s meeting before being referred to Prince Mit’eb Bin Abdul Aziz, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs, and his Deputy Prince Mansour Bin Mit’eb Bin Abdul Aziz, would see strict regulations put in place on shopkeepers.

“Shops in breach of the regulations could be shut down by the Environmental Health Department and given large fines,” Al-Dhab’an said. . . .

Calls have been renewed, meanwhile, to enforce the smoking ban at the Kingdom’s airports, with pilgrims and doctors lamenting the failure to see laws that go back as far as 1973 in place on the ground.

Pilgrim Muhammed Al-Jahdli described the sight of tobacco advertising in public places as “annoying”.

“It’s particularly irritating for pilgrims who come from all over the world and the first thing they see when they come out of the airport is these adverts everywhere,” Al-Jahdali said.

“They have banned cigarettes in Makkah and the vicinity so they should also ban them in airports which receive millions of pilgrims,” he said.

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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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• 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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• 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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• Priest urges smokers to sue cigarette firms 

Saying his brother Vincent has finally given a face to smoking’s ill effects, Fr. Robert Reyes and anti-smoking advocates Monday urged other victims to file cases against tobacco companies.

Reyes said the fact that his brother’s P500,000 damage suit against Philip Morris has reached the pre-trial stage was already a huge accomplishment.

“Because Judge Winlove (Dumayas of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 59) did not dismiss the case and is opening the case for pretrial, we have made a very big [step]. With media covering this case and helping [us] reach the sector that’s being affected and the sector not yet addicted to this product, it’s already a very big step forward,” the activist priest said.

In Monday’s proceedings, Dumayas moved the pre-trial to April 23 to resolve the two motions filed by Philip Morris.

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• PRETRIAL HEARING Landmark case filed vs tobacco firm 

Anti-smoking advocates will gather on Monday at the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 59 to show their support for a landmark case filed against a tobacco firm.

Running priest Fr. Robert Reyes, the brother of the complainant, Vincent, said about 30 advocates will be there to express their solidarity for the P500,000 damage suit filed by Vincent against Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc.

Reyes has flown in from Hong Kong to attend the 8:30 a.m. pretrial hearing at the sala of Judge Winlove Dumayas.

Vincent died of lung cancer at the age of 47, months after he filed the case in 2004.

In his complaint, he said the "barrage of television advertisements" enticed him to smoke when he was only 14 years old.

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• Muslim smokers worse than cows: Malaysia cleric  

Muslims who smoke and try to portray themselves as pious are worse than cows which defecate in the street, a top Malaysian Muslim cleric and politician said.

"...a cow which defecates in the middle of the road, (we) cannot take legal action against it because it has no brain and cannot think," said Nik Aziz who is the spiritual leader of the country's Pan-Islamic Party (PAS).

"But human beings, who have brains, for them to do something which is wrong in religion ... when they are in an attire which symbolizes Islam, they can be regarded as being more despicable than cows," he said on Friday, according to Malaysia's state news agency Bernama.

PAS is one of the three parties in Malaysia's opposition alliance led by former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Nik Aziz said that smoking was forbidden by Islam.

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• Ill. may offer exemption to smoking ban 

Since Illinois' smoking ban went into effect 15 months ago, the law already has been amended once to clarify enforcement.

Now, Sen. John Sullivan, D-Rushville, is seeking to make it even clearer.

Unlike Iowa, Illinois failed to provide an exception for religious ceremonies in its statewide smoking ban.

"If we can make our case to our members here why we're doing what it is what we're doing, there seems to be good support for it," Sullivan said.

Sullivan said opponents contend that federal law already addresses the religious exemption. . . .

A constituent and member of the Standing Bear Council, Larry Cooper came forward and told him otherwise. In fact, Cooper said he's been fighting for a religious exemption for more than six months prior to the ban's enactment. . . .

Cooper, a member of the Chickamaka Cherokee tribe, took a copy of the act to the places where he intended to perform a ceremony, and tried to explain, but invariably the owners cited Illinois' state law.

"We've always had to bend," Cooper said. "The bending is over. I'm not bending for nobody. If they won't accept us there, we won't be there."

He said the Native American tradition always has been that tobacco is a sacred herb, whether it is burned or not.

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• 'Islam can be used to curb tobacco use'  

An Iraqi cancer specialist's view that the teachings of Islam can be used to curb tobacco consumption has found favour with experts from several nations, especially those with Muslim majorities, who attended the 14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health here.

"Islam can be used as an effective tool for tobacco control among Muslims, who constitute 22 percent of the world's population," Lath Yahya Ibrahim Mula Hussain, an oncologist from Iraq, told IANS.

"It is a hard fact that most Muslims have fallen prey to tobacco. Islam is a powerful tool that can be used to guide the lives of Muslims across the globe but it ought to be used effectively," said Hussain.

He added that a large number of Muslim scholars and clerics are not convinced about tobacco being dangerous and hence haven't taken steps to prohibit it.

"I believe that we can make a beginning by using those scholars who think tobacco should be banned," Hussain said.

The oncologist pointed out that there are 1.2 billion Muslims globally, second only to Christians. Also, the number of those following Islam is growing at 2.9 percent - faster than the 2.3 percent annual growth in world population.

Hence, he feels it is important to target Muslims to ensure reduction in tobacco consumption.

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• Buddhist temples target smoking 

An increasing number of famous temples that attract large numbers of visitors have banned smoking throughout their premises, echoing antismoking measures adopted by public facilities in recent years.

While some people welcome the bans, saying they are a sign of the times, others insist they are not in keeping with Buddha's teachings. . . .

When asked about the temple's policy during its Shinzanshiki ceremony to introduce a new chief priest held in November, Meiki Kuruma, who became the temple's chief priest in 2005, immediately replied "no-smoking." The ceremony is held for people who worship at the temple.

"Zen's benefits are ruined if you smoke," added Kuruma, 45. . . .

"This temple's main Buddhist deity is Jizo Bosatsu, to whom we pray for long life. Actions that shorten a person's life span aren't acceptable here," he said.

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• Faith leaders lobby at Statehouse for smoking ban  

Joining hands around a no-smoking symbol on the floor of the Statehouse Rotunda, about 40 faith leaders and others gathered Tuesday to support a comprehensive statewide ban on smoking in the workplace.

Six hundred white paper bags filled with battery-operated votive "candles" formed a cigarette with a strike through it. Each was meant to represent two of the 1,200 lives lost to secondhand-smoke in Indiana each year, organizers of the rally said.

The Indiana House last month passed a watered-down version of a workplace smoking bill that would exempt bars and casinos. Now the state Senate will decide whether to strengthen the bill, keep it as is or crush it altogether.

Faith leaders have an important voice to add to the smoke-free crusade, members of the Hoosier Faith and Health Coalition who participated said.

"For too long, the faith community has left the health of people to the medical industry and focused on the spiritual," said Matthew Ellis, executive director of the National Episcopal Health Ministries

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• Will it go up in smoke? 

"My mother was a beedi worker and my three sisters were beedi workers. From childhood I've been watching their sorry plight; call it TB, cancer, asthma, I've seen it all. When my mother coughed up blood, it used to fill a vessel; she would always say these women require better and cleaner housing," recalls Narsayya Adam, a third-time CPI(M) MLA from Solapur city in Maharashtra.

That was 40 years ago. But when he was first elected MLA in 1978, he took on the mission of organising and improving the lives of Solapur's beedi workers. "They lived in small, cramped huts with no ventilation and open gutters. I dreamt of giving them good homes with better ventilation."

With a background of participation in the mazdoor andolan, he first raised the voice of Solapur's 65,000-odd beedi workers in the State Assembly in 1978, and with support in Delhi cutting across party lines, in 1985, about 3,000 houses were built by the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority, each costing Rs 22,000. The State and Central governments contributed Rs 5,000 each and the remaining came from the workers. "But they couldn't repay the money they had borrowed and the interest piled up," says Adam, known as 'Adam Master' as he once worked as a teacher. . . .

Archana is 11, just back from school and, still in her school uniform, helps her mother in tying up the rolled beedis. When you ask the little girl what she wants to become when she grows up, her grandma intervenes: "What is the use of educating her? People like us don't get jobs in fancy offices; for us beedis is our livelihood." But Archana wants to become a teacher.

"Now I'm waging a battle to get them below poverty line (BPL) cards; once they get those cards they will get 20 kg wheat and 15 kg rice every month. That will be a big help for beedi workers."

He says 60 per cent of Solapur's 65,000 beedi workers are Telugu-speaking, and there are many Muslim women too in this vocation. . . .

But he has read the writing on the wall. "The biggest question before us is the Anti-tobacco Bill of 2003 which aims to slowly kill this business. This is a 5,000-year old sanskriti; but if you put skulls and skeletons on the packet, how will people buy it? Our research shows that cigarette is much more harmful; smoking 20 beedis is like smoking one cigarette."

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• Front Group King Rick Berman Gets Blasted by his Son, David Berman 

Washington, D.C. lobbying scourge Richard B. "Rick" Berman is facing steadily increasing pushback these days, and some of it is coming from a surprising source -- his own son, musician David Berman.

Berman has long been the front man through which corporations have aggressively attacked their opponents without leaving fingerprints. Known to his own friends and enemies alike as "Dr. Evil," Berman has perfected the art of setting up non-profit "charitable" groups to advance corporate interests. The groups have deceptively helpful-sounding names, like "Guest Choice Network," . . .

recently the Congressional watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) unveiled a hard-hitting new Web site, www.BermanExposed.org, which unmasks Berman's front groups, tactics, employees and projects. (Berman succeeded in knocking this website offline on January 29 but it was back up by February 1.) CREW's Web site outs Berman's "charitable" groups as the lobbying tools they are, and describes how he uses them to run attack ads and implement other tactics to fight Mothers Against Drunk Driving, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and other public interest groups' efforts to raise awareness of obesity, secondhand smoke, drunk driving, mad cow disease, and other causes. CREW even posted a photo of the $3.3 million house Berman purchased with money he has earned from his dirty lobbying tactics. . . .

Rick Berman's son, David Berman, is a 42-year-old singer-songwriter who, since 1989, has been the front singer for a popular New York City indie rock band called the "Silver Jews." Over the years, the Jews have developed a loyal following, but on January 22, 2009 David Berman stunned his fans by posting a note to an online message board announcing that after all these years he was leaving the Silver Jews. The reason? His father, Rick Berman.

In scathing language, David disclosed to his fans who his father is, and how leaving the band related to his father's work. David wrote,

Now that the Joos are over I can tell you my gravest secret. Worse than suicide, worse than crack addiction:

My father. . . .

... A couple of years ago I demanded he stop his work. Close down his company or I would sever our relationship.

He refused. He has just gotten worse. More evil. More powerful. We've been "estranged" for over three years.

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• Indonesians ignore fatwas against smoking, yoga 

Days after the anti-smoking fatwa made national headlines, Jakarta's air is still pungent with the sweet scent of Indonesians' favourite smoke: clove cigarettes called kreteks because of the soft crackling sound the 19th-century originals made as flecks of spice burned. Near high schools across the city, whether Muslim madrasas or secular public schools, hawkers were happily selling single cigarettes to crowds of kids.

Battered by waves of bad economic news, the government appeared relieved that the fatwa seemed to have little effect on the craving for cigarettes in a country that has the world's fifth-largest population of smokers. Tobacco taxes bring more than US$4 billion (RM14.4 billion) into the treasury each year, and the head of Customs and Excise estimated that revenue could drop 10 per cent if people followed the fatwa.

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