Tobacco.org

• When is it safe to bin that file? 

In summary, the court decided that the conduct of BAT and its lawyers was not so bad and Mrs McCabe had not suffered such prejudice as to justify the extreme remedy of striking out the defence. The court also held that, even were the criticisms justified, a strike-out would have been disproportionate. Given our own Court of Appeal's well-known desire to give case- managing judges unimpeachable discretion in procedural matters, it is interesting to speculate just when this decision might be applied or how little circumstances would need to change for a draconian remedy to be upheld.

It would certainly be wrong for companies to treat this judgment as a green light to disregard sources of documentary evidence under the guise of good document management practice. Litigation lawyers have always sought to ensure that evidence emerges in the best possible form and this will not change. Equally, courts will be assiduous to ensure a level playing field. A corporate defendant survived this particular challenge but shortcomings in the game of document management will always risk sanctions in some form.

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• BRUEMMER: Breaking off is hard to do 

And yet, even after a year apart, I can't help but wish sometimes we could be together again.

Ultimately, it was the death of CBC broadcaster Peter Gzowski that convinced me to stop smoking, and I've been cigarette-free ever since. In body if not necessarily in mind.

For me, the affair started at the age of 12 . . .

The grieving, which began as soon as a serious promise to stop had been made, was part of the attitude that made me successful at quitting. In my mind, my friend was going to die, a way of life would be over, and once our final two weeks were up, there was nothing to do to bring him back. I accepted it with sadness, moved on and got over it. As with any loss, time heals.

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• 'Light Cigarettes More Harmful to Smokers Than Regular Cigarettes,' Landmark Suit Against Philip Morris Claims 

Smokers who smoked Marlboro Lights believing that they were lower in tar and nicotine, as was stated on cigarette packages and in millions of dollars of cigarette advertising, were victims of "the light lie" perpetrated deliberately by tobacco companies to encourage people to believe that light cigarettes were less harmful than their regular counterparts.

Attorneys for Philip Morris claim that the term "light" refers to lighter taste rather than less harmful health effects, contrary to the widespread use of the term in the marketplace to mean less harmful ingredients such as fat, calories, carbohydrates or sodium. The plaintiffs pointed to a number of consumer products such as yogurt, jams, cheese, salad dressing, cheese and similar products. Philip Morris knew that food and alcohol products labeled as light meant less bad or less harmful to most consumers making purchasing decisions and played on that implicit health representation, the plaintiffs allege.

The lawsuit is the first consumer fraud lawsuit against tobacco companies in the nation. . .

"Marlboro Lights have higher levels of almost all toxins than Marlboro Reds," Tillery commented. "We now know they had a 50 year strategy of denials, disinformation and outright lies. They reassured people about their health, saying if you can't quit smoking, smoke these light cigarettes because they're better for you and yet they were more harmful. This case is about people receiving an addictive product far more dangerous than orange juice or auto parts."

The trial is scheduled to continue for six or seven weeks. The plaintiffs made a motion early in the proceedings to waive their right to a jury trial, so Judge Nicholas Byron will preside over the trial and determine the outcome.

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Bylaw burns bingo exemption 

Bingo halls lost a two-year exemption from North Bay's draft smoking bylaw Monday.

But restaurants, bars and billiard halls won a seven-month grace with the tobacco ban now proposed for Dec. 31, pushed back from the May 31 recommended in previous drafts.

Also struck from the bylaw, which received first reading last week, was a nine-metre smokefree zone for entranceways and exits.

The general government committee is bringing the bylaw to council for approval next week.

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Kicking butt 

Smokers at the KLO campus of Okanagan University College are asked to smoke in special gazebos to keep them away from public entrances. DARREN HANDSCHUH/The Daily Courier

An anti-smoking activist says governments should do more to help smokers kick the habit, but success still boils down to an individual's willpower.

"Current smokers shouldn't be reduced to nothing but a series of statistics," said Dr. Paul MacDonald, one of Canada's leading experts in smoking cessation.

"They deserve our support through public policy, through programming, to make sure we do everything we can to make sure they succeed to quit, or at least reduce, their smoking."

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Employee Smoking 

Today is Weedless Wednesday—when anti-tobacco groups try to get people to give up smoking starting for just one day—and employers should help employees kick the habit, experts say.

The Weedless Wednesday campaign is part of National Non-Smoking Week, an annual campaign designed to get Canadians to stop smoking.

Often workplace smoking bans take effect on Jan. 1—either because of the employer’s choosing or to comply with municipal, provincial, or federal legislation. At the same time, many people make a New Year’s resolution to quit smoking.

Partly because of this, January is often a busy time for counsellors with employee assistance programs (EAPs), says Ceridian LifeWorks Services, a national EAP provider based in Toronto.

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• Court: Delaware inmate may sue over secondhand smoke 

A former Delaware prison inmate who complained that being forced to bunk with heavy smokers was cruel and unusual punishment can sue the state, a federal appeals court ruled.

Roger Atkinson, who served seven months at Delaware's Multi-Purpose Criminal Justice Facility, had offered sufficient evidence that prison officials disregarded his health concerns and subjected him to "unreasonably high" levels of smoke, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.

"Unlike individuals who voluntarily expose themselves to (secondhand smoke), a prisoner cannot simply walk out of his cell whenever he wishes," the court wrote. "When a susceptible prisoner is confined to a cell, a small and confined space, with a 'constant' smoker for an extended period of time, such symptoms may transform what would otherwise be a passing annoyance into a serious ongoing medical need."

The court's opinion, filed Tuesday, didn't directly address the legitimacy of Atkinson's claims, but upheld a lower court's decision that prison officials weren't entitled to immunity from the suit.

Prison officials, who had blamed Atkinson's discomfort on seasonal allergies, haven't decided whether to appeal, said Delaware Deputy Attorney General Gregory E. Smith. . .

Delaware's state prisons went smoke-free Nov. 1.

Since then, the state has been hit with a new round of suits from prisoners who say forcing them to quit is also unconstitutionally cruel, Smith said.

"We are damned if we do, damned if we don't," Smith said.

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Unlike individuals who voluntarily expose themselves to (secondhand smoke), a prisoner cannot simply walk out of his cell whenever he wishes. When a susceptible prisoner is confined to a cell, a small and confined space, with a 'constant' smoker for an extended period of time, such symptoms may transform what would otherwise be a passing annoyance into a serious ongoing medical need.
3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in the Atkinson case.

Clinic can help you quit 

If you've made up your mind that you're going to butt out, a stop smoking clinic might help you do it.

The Halton Region Health Department's Stop Smoking Clinic provides counselling services at no cost.

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Smoking charges laid 

Enforcement of the Northwestern Health Unit’s smoke-free declaration has begun.

Health inspectors began laying charges yesterday in Kenora against businesses violating a smoke-free declaration in indoor workplaces.

Health unit spokesman Bill Limerick confirmed that four Kenora-area owners of bars and restaurants were charged.

Limerick said up to a dozen other businesses across the health unit’s territory would be charged this week for disobeying a health hazard notice issued last year.

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N.B. law professor says smoking parents could be held criminally responsible 

Richard Bouchard, a criminal law professor at the University of Moncton, said it's possible to argue the case considering that under the Criminal Code of Canada parents are responsible for providing the "necessities of life."

Bouchard said that because the necessities of life include food, shelter and medical care, "it's not a big jump" to say children should be provided with a healthy environment to live in and they should not be exposed to harmful substances and situations that threaten their health.

"You could perhaps make a case that a child living under those circumstances of smoking parents and when the house is constantly filled with smoke and the child is exposed to second-hand smoke, that the parents are failing to live up to the duty which is imposed upon them," Bouchard said.

The comments follow a statement Tuesday by a Canadian Lung Association spokesman that smoking around children is tantamount to child abuse.

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Quitting time for smokers 

"We are always trying to promote a healthy lifestyle," he said. "Smoking is definitely not a part of one."

Surprisingly, it is the age group after high school that has the highest smoking rate.

Dr. Kelli-An Lawrance is the co-director of Leave The Pack Behind, an organization that is targeting young adults on Ontario's university campuses.

"About 40% of students smoke once in awhile during university," she said. "We are trying to stop them from starting and help those who do smoke to quit."

The organization offers smokers medical advice as well as peer support for those who want to quit.

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Kicking the smoking habit 

The students are lending their support to Kitchener-based Smokers Anonymous, and its Weedless Wednesday campaign to help long-time tobacco addicts kick the habit. Not starting, the students say, is easier than trying to quit.

Smokers Anonymous will be holding a non-smoking open house tonight beginning at 7 p.m. at the Bethany Missionary Church at 160 Lancaster St. E. in Kitchener -- with a goal of convincing even the most addicted smokers that they can give it up.

"I'm out there helping those people who've been smoking for 40 or 50 years, who are so addicted they think they'll never be able to quit," says Caroline Parks, who founded Smokers Anonymous in 1985. "I want to show them they can quit for life."

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DIOTTE: The time to oppose smoking bylaw is now! 

In less than six months you won't be able to smoke indoors just about anywhere in Edmonton, if city council gets its way. . . .

The only way this meddlesome foray into free enterprise will be halted is if the majority of smokers and freedom-of-choice proponents protest the proposed ban.

They will have to deluge councillors and the mayor with letters, calls and e-mails, write letters to the editor, start petitions, hold meetings with council members, demand to address politicians at upcoming meetings and so on.

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Anti-smoking drive: No glamour, just kids 

The kids filed into the school cafeteria one or two at a time and stood at marks on the floor, beneath a boom mike. They could say anything they wanted about the ills of tobacco. The only rule: No adults in the room.

Even producer Denise Reynolds scurried out the door after snapping the slate for another take, just like in the movies.

She wanted the students to be relaxed. Most were nervous anyway; fidgeting, giggling, their eyes wide and darting.

But they got their points across. "It's like committing suicide," Dawn Keener, an eighth-grader at Emerson Middle School, told the camera. "You might as well get a knife and cut your wrists."

The unrehearsed remarks, videotaped yesterday in Lakewood, Cleveland and Parma, will have a chance of reaching a statewide audience in TV commercials next month.

The best pitches will be chosen for TV spots that are part of the $50 million, four-year countermarketing campaign called "stand." The money comes from Ohio's $10.1 billion settlement with the tobacco industry.

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Casino profits going up in smoke 

An Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation official acknowledges that the city's clean-air bylaw is at least partly responsible for reduced revenues at the Brantford Charity Casino.

"Yes, certainly, there has been an impact from smoking (restrictions)," Jim Cronin said.

The city's five-per-cent share of slot machine revenues in the fourth quarter of 2002 was $895,804, down $248,040 from the $1.14 million it was given by the province in the last three months of 2001. The city's clean-air bylaw banned smoking from the casino on Sept. 1, 2002.

Cronin suggested that there was also a seasonal downturn at work - city revenues dropped by $158,000 from the July-to-September period. He said it was premature to comment on the casino's overall revenues during the fourth quarter, saying a report will be coming next week.

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