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Got Plans?: July 4th, Outdoor Movies, Bars for First Dates, Anniversary Plans  

Columbia, Md.: Hello Gurus - I was at the Chi Cha lounge a little over a year and a half ago and people were allowed to smoke cigarettes inside, I guess cause it is a hooka bar. Is that still the case?

Fritz: I was at Chi-Cha last night for the always-amusing Notoriety DJ night run by the guys from U.S. Royalty and there were plenty of people puffing away on hookahs. Didn't see anyone smoking cigarettes, but I'm pretty sure you're allowed to smoke 'em if you got 'em.

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Chi Cha Smoking: you're not allowed to smoke cigarettes there at Chi Cha actually. I talked with one of the servers about it and it has something to do with the permit they have only allowing hookah smoke. I don't get it either -- but that's what they told me.

Fritz: Makes sense. (The reason they can allow hookah smoking is because they sell a certain amount of hookah tobacco.)

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Smokers React To Signature Dispute  

Smokers are holding their collective breath to find out what happens next in the saga over the statewide smoking ban. The petition drive calling for a statewide vote has given them extra time to light up past the July 1 deadline. But with thousands of suspect signatures soon to be reviewed by the Secretary of State, smokers are wondering just how much longer they'll be able to legally puff away inside businesses.

The fate of the statewide smoking ban vote is as much in the air as the smoke that lingers inside Marlin's Roadhouse Grill.

"I guess if they ban it, I'll quit smoking," Chris Bergh said.

A smoking ban would likely affect business at places like Marlin's.

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Statewide vote no longer certain on smoking ban  

Opponents of South Dakota's new state law banning smoking in bars, casinos and restaurants that serve alcohol might not get the chance to put the issue to a statewide vote after all.

That's because the leader of South Dakota's anti-tobacco movement filed a last-hour challenge to their referendum petitions Thursday.

The referendum petitions had prevented the ban from taking effect July 1 at the same time as most other new South Dakota laws passed by the Legislature last session.

If the petitions survive the challenge, a statewide vote would be held as part of the November 2010 general election. But if Jennifer Stalley of the American Cancer Society is right, there won't be a vote at all, and the ban would kick in when the legal dust settles.

Stalley delivered a thick binder to the office of Secretary of State Chris Nelson, whose staff oversees election compliance, challenging the petitions at about 4 p.m. Thursday. The challenge deadline was 5 p.m.

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Vote Proponents Not Surprised, Discouraged 

Proponents of a public vote on South Dakota's smoking ban say the push to remove the issue from next year's ballot isn't surprising; the petition's organizer is still confident the final decision will lie in the hands of South Dakota citizens.

Petition organizers say Thursday's challenge to keep the South Dakota smoking ban from reaching a public vote was to be expected.

"I knew that they would come up with some number that would invalidate or attempt to invalidate the petition," petition organizer Larry Mann said.

Mann says the argument can only challenge the legality of how the Secretary of State's office validated the petition once it received it, steps he believes the election office took properly. . . .

Mann says ban supporters could be doing themselves more harm than good by trying to take the option to vote off the table.

"I think there is a chance for a certain backlash. I think people protect that right to vote," Mann said.

Backlash that serves as a foundation for those who are trying to get the ban on the ballot.

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• Tobacco Cafe an oasis for smokers 

Salaried workers feeling cornered by the ever-expanding ban on smoking in Tokyo can rest easy at a recently opened cafe in the Shinbashi district that caters exclusively to smokers.

At Cafe Tobacco, smoking is allowed on all three floors, according to its operator, Towa Food Service Co.

The cafe, with 44 places, opened near JR Shinbashi Station in April. Towa Food Service has also opened a second Tobacco Cafe in the nearby Yurakucho business district.

A sign posted at the entrance advises people with children and those under 20 to refrain from using the cafe.

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• Dutch bar owners win new victory in fight against smoking ban 

Dutch bar owners won a new victory in their fight against a smoking ban on their premises when an appeal court cleared two of them of breaking the law and quashed a 1,200 euro fine.

"The law contains no formal obligation for landlords of cafes, restaurants and hotels without staff to implement a smoking ban," the appeal court at Leeuwarden in the northern Netherlands said in a statement.

It overturned the verdict handed down in a lower court against the pair from Groningen who became the first to be prosecuted following the introduction of the nationwide ban a year ago.

In May the appeals court of Den Bosch, in the southern Netherlands, upheld the acquittal of the two owners of the Victoria cafe in Breda, near the Belgian border.

"The court finds that the (ban) is partly non-binding, as it lacks legal grounding" regarding establishments with no staff, said a court statement.

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College of Coastal Georgia bans tobacco on campus 

BRUNSWICK - Good health is as important as a quality education.

Following that philosophy, the College of Coastal Georgia is nudging its students toward good habits and away from bad ones.

As part of a healthy campus initiative, the college banned the use of tobacco effective Wednesday and has overhauled a couple of exercise facilities in hopes of attracting students and faculty.

"As a college, we are focusing on health and wellness without the hazard of tobacco use on campus," said college President Valerie Hepburn.

Throughout the roll-out of the tobacco-free campus, the college has focused on raising awareness through signage, information on its Web site and a partnership with local health agencies to offer smoking cessation classes to faculty and staff, she said.

The signs are up at campus entrances announcing the tobacco ban.

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Backer: Smoking ban has created big cultural shift 

Iowa's anti-tobacco efforts have ushered in a major cultural change that has reduced the number of adult smokers and made workplaces healthier places, backers of Iowa's indoor smoking ban said Wednesday.

"This is probably one of the biggest cultural shifts in a short amount of time that our state will ever see," said Rep. Janet Petersen, D-Des Moines, who helped enact the smokefree air act which took effect July 1, 2008.

Advocates said the restriction covering virtually all public places -- except casino gambling areas, the Iowa State Fairgrounds and the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown -- and state and federal cigarette tax increases have helped reduce smoking among Iowa adults to 14 percent compared to 19 percent two years earlier.

State Attorney General Tom Miller said Iowa has jumped into the top five states nationally in terms of smoking compliance. He noted that in the 1960s about four out of every 10 Iowa adults smoked tobacco products.

"We've really turned a corner," he told a Statehouse news conference.

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New law bans all smoking in workplaces 

All Vermont workplaces become smoke free today as a new state law goes into effect, banning the designated smoking areas that were allowed under the previous law.

Public places have been virtually smoke free since the 1987 Smoking in the Workplace law was passed, and then updated under the Clean Indoor Air act of 1993.

Those laws permitted businesses to have segregated areas indoors where smokers could light up.

The new law, which lawmakers approved this past session, makes it illegal to smoke anywhere inside a public building.

"We have known about the dangers of second-hand smoking for many years," said Sheri Lynn, tobacco control program chief at the Vermont Department of Health. "People used to think some ventilation would help but there are no levels of safe exposure. This is about protecting public health."

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• Croatia's Smoking Ban Takes Off and Takes Ashtrays Away 

Stop Smoking- the staunch slogan of the Croatian Government slammed against "Stop Smoking Ban" clamor of coffee shop owners after the Croatian government implemented its strict law against smoking on indoor public places on May 6, 2009.

The government is bent to execute strict "No Smoking" law to safeguard the physical health and well being of Croatian nationals from the hazards of smoking. Prior to the new law, the government's media propaganda against smoking apparently, did not create much of an impact- thus, had fallen into deaf ears.

Restaurants, coffee shops, ice-cream parlors and malls from run-of-the- mill to high end food service joints were filled with employees taking a break from work, friends engaging in a tête-à-tête, football aficionados, coffee drinkers including mothers with tag- along -babies in strollers. These coffee shops habitués either active or passive smokers, oblivious to the dangers of smoking frequent to the coffee shops at any time of the day as part of their daily routine schedule.

However, on the 6th of May 2009, the Croatian government blew its whistle and put a big stop sign to smoking. As the law stipulates -those who are caught smoking in an indoor public place shall be slapped with 1000 Kuna fine for smoker and 15,000 Kuna for business owner to ensure that Croatian public knows that the government means business this time (no pun intended.) Since the Croatian government guards public places keenly watching for smokers who consist of more than half of the coffee shops' costumers started to wane their regular visits to coffee shops for their daily fresh espresso and cigarette ritual.

Thereby, sudden drops of profit sales have recently been the cause of ire of food service entrepreneurs that consequently precipitated a protest among coffee shops owners and restaurateurs requesting the government to relax the smoking ban law.

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Ban smoking in cars: expert  

"Why is it not also reasonable to ban smoking in cars with young children?" ... Dr David Thomas. (ABC News : File photo )

The Northern Territory Government should ban smoking in cars with children, a chronic diseases expert from the Menzies School of Health says.

Smoking has been banned in cars with children in several other states, including NSW, where a $250 on-the-spot fine exists.

Former federal health minister Tony Abbott says such bans are over the top.

"I personally would not get hung up on something, in my view, as trivial as smoking while the kids are in the car," he said.

But Dr David Thomas, from Menzies, says the Territory's record against other states in anti-smoking reform is "depressing and appalling".

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Ordinance would mean butts out for smokers  

Hettinger is considering an ordinance that would not allow smoking in public places.

Since last year, City Council members have discussed snuffing out smoking in bars, truck stops and motels.

Mayor Gary Friez said residents called concerning smoking in such places, prompting the council to look into the idea.

“There was a state deal that was going to be in effect that would say you could not smoke in bars,” Friez said. “That didn’t pass so now we’re looking into doing it ourselves.”

The state bill would ban smoking in public places statewide but was killed in late February.

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Niles rejects smokeless tobacco ban 

The Niles Town Board has nixed a proposed law prohibiting the use of smokeless tobacco products in town buildings and town vehicles.

While state law regulates smoking in public places, it does not address the issue of other forms of tobacco use.

The ordinance would have imposed a maximum fine of $250 and 15 days in Cayuga County Jail for using smokeless tobacco products in town buildings, on municipal grounds or in town vehicles.

The board voted 3-2 against the proposal at its meeting Thursday night, mainly because of enforcement issues and possible infringement on individual rights. Bernard Juli and Alberta Winters voted for the law, while town Supervisor Rick Slagle, Glenn Porter and Clarence Edmonds voted against it.

Board members decided to hold a work session before the next regular town board meeting to discuss options other than creating an ordinance prohibiting such use.

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Supporters of smoking ban seek to stop public vote 

But Jennifer Stalley of the American Cancer Society said she spent the past week checking petition signatures and claims nearly 39 percent are invalid because they do not come from registered voters or contain other flaws.

State election supervisor Kea Warne said the secretary of state's office will consider Stalley's challenge. No one has previously used the state law that allows such a challenge to be filed with the secretary of state because prior challenges of petition signatures for ballot measures have been handled in court, Warne said.

Larry Mann, a lobbyist for video lottery businesses who also heads the coalition that gathered the signatures, said laws dealing with certifying signatures and challenging them seem to conflict. Mann said he would not be surprised if the issue winds up in court.

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• ALLAN: Hardline smoking ban just isn't fit for purpose  

Psychiatric units in England are experiencing considerable difficulties implementing the smoking ban that came into force last July. A report published last month by the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) says 85% of respondents to a survey it conducted said the ban had not been implemented "wholly effectively". Widespread practical problems reported included a rise in "secret smoking" - with associated safety concerns - and occasions where staff feel obliged to "turn a blind eye", especially when a patient is very unwell, thus placing them both in a position of breaking the law.

Two years ago, I wrote a piece expressing my concerns about the forthcoming ban. It seemed to me that the issue was a great deal more complex, both practically and morally, than a simple equation of "smoking is bad, therefore we must ban smoking". . . .

Policy-makers responded with a mixture of "guidance" and bullheadedness. "The 'smoking den' culture that has afflicted mental health wards for decades is over," said national director for mental health Louis Appleby, in a letter to this paper more than a year before the ban was even due to be brought in.

Some trusts have introduced the ban effectively, and their experience is informative. One trust quoted in the MHF report had introduced the ban in conjunction with "healthy lifestyle initiatives". It said that "every ward has stretch and movement to start the day, a gym, and staff trained to diploma level in physical healthcare".

If stopping smoking is to be seen as a positive choice, rather than the loss of yet another freedom, such initiatives would seem to be crucial, as would a healthy, nutrition-rich diet. I have never been on a ward that offered either.

My local mental health unit, which was purpose-built only a few years ago, does not have a gym at all. Nor, crucially, do wards have direct access to a safe outside space. . . .

If every ward could be provided with such facilities, most people would embrace the ban as a huge step forward. But that is not the reality most staff and patients face. . . .

The fact is that psychiatric wards contain people who are ill - some too ill to leave the ward and certainly too ill to appreciate the benefits of not smoking. In the interests of common humanity, staff are turning a blind eye and breaking the law. They shouldn't have to.

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