Tobacco.org

Two Handicapped Men Escaped Serious Injury In Cigarette Started Fire   

Two handicapped men were among many residents of a West Side apartment building who escaped serious injury early Sunday when a fire started from a cigarette in the basement.

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Son of Ex-Chinese Governor Sentenced 

The son of a former Chinese governor and five others have been sentenced to up to 15 years in prison for corruption, state media reported Sunday.

Li Bo, the son of former Yunnan province Gov. Li Jiating, was given the heaviest sentence by the Kunming Municipal Intermediate Court on Friday, newspapers reported. Beginning in 1996, Li Bo allegedly collected more than $1.8 million in bribes and kickbacks involving contracts for tobacco and gasoline, the Beijing Morning Post said. . . .

Also sentenced were a Hong Kong tobacco trader who received four years and the former head of the provincial branch of the state-owned Industrial Bank of China, who received a one-year suspended sentence for paying Li Jiating gratuities in return for his appointment.

Yunnan, in China's southwest, is one of China's least developed regions, although its tobacco crop and tourist industry are major sources of government revenue.

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• Supreme Court to Take a Hard Look at Ban on 'Soft Money' 

on Monday, in a special summer session, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear a major challenge to the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act — better known as the McCain-Feingold law, after key sponsors Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.).

Most notably, the law prohibits the large contributions — known as "soft money" — to political party organizations. But some legal experts believe the court battle will focus on whether the government can regulate campaign ads like the one that helped keep Yellowtail out of Congress. . .

But this system of limits had sprung leaks by the late 1980s. Politicians and party leaders realized they could evade the limits of the law if they funneled money into issue ads.

The tobacco industry, pharmaceuticals, gambling interests, the telecommunication industry and organized labor were the leading sources of the free-flowing funds dubbed soft money during the 1990s, according to briefs filed with the court.

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THE RECALL CAMPAIGN" His Is a Tale of Timing and Gradual Change 

Bustamante has also morphed with regard to the tobacco industry. Initially, he accepted money from tobacco giant Philip Morris and from the Tobacco Institute. Opponents suggested that the donations were linked to Bustamante's vote against a landmark ban on smoking in indoor workplaces.

But as speaker, he carried legislation that, in his words, "forced" then-Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren to join other states in suing the tobacco industry over the medical costs associated with smoking. And once he was elected lieutenant governor, Bustamante said, he made a "conscious decision ... to never take tobacco money again." [This graph only]

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Fire causes $100,000 damage to house 

A woman escaped serious injury after bystanders helped her flee a fire at her house Saturday, a Casper Fire Department press release said. . . .

Investigators said the fire was caused by smoking materials used near a home oxygen supply, the most recent of several such incidents involving home oxygen. The blaze was deemed accidental.

The Fire Department recommends smoking materials never be used in the area of oxygen supply equipment.

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• A Kick In The Butts / Why Condos, Rentals May Not Let You Light 'Em Up - Even In Your Unit 

Some apartment and condominium complexes in Connecticut and across the country have introduced smoking bans .

Real estate experts say rental management companies are increasingly concerned that smoke infringes the health rights of non-smokers in nearby units or common areas. They are also concerned that smoke will reduce property values because of damage to rugs and curtains.

And, they reason, cigarettes are a fire hazard.

"It's an issue for sure," said Frank Rathbun, spokesman for the Community Association Institute in Alexandria, Va., a national advocacy group that represents the interests of condominium, housing and rental associations.

Some real estate experts say bans could become a selling point for complexes.

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Quebec Search For Canadian Solution 

Canada's hopes of saving the grand prix in Montreal now rests on a split Liberal cabinet of the Quebec provincial government.

Premier Jean Charest said late last week a working group had been set-up to 'look at all the scenarios.

'There are people who are invoking the possibility that we could change the law,' he said, 'but we're not working on that scenario right now.'

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Smoke ring / Pipes may be past their prime, but a small 'brotherhood of the briar' still gets together to slow down and enjoy a good puff. 

Don't write the obituary just yet for the Last American Pipe Smoker, not while the crew assembled here in a private room at Johnny Dee's Lounge in Parkville is still around, puffing contentedly, literally tending the embers.

If not the last of a diminished species, they surely rank among the more avid members. . . .

The club of some 35 members goes back only to 1998, a date of no significance otherwise in the pipe world, this speck in the tobacco firmament. Overwhelmingly male and somewhat skewed toward early middle age and beyond, the so-called "brotherhood of the briar" in its quiet way resists the relentless tug of the world. With all due respect to microchips and fiber optics, a bowl of pipe tobacco will burn in its own good time, thank you very much. . . .

Fact is the day has come and gone when the harder thing would be finding a man who did not devote time to the stem and bowl. Flip through popular magazines from the 1950s, even the early 1960s, and note frequent appearances of men with pipes in advertisements and news stories. . .

Norman Sharp, president of both the Pipe Tobacco Council and the Cigar Association of America, says the pipe might seem a step or three behind "in the fast-paced society we live in today."

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LETTER: Restaurant smoking 

I was disappointed to see Jim Dyke's editorial cartoon of Aug. 31 referring to local business owners as doormats, walked on by non-smokers and government.

I'm particularly concerned that the cartoon suggests that protecting business owners, employees and diners from secondhand smoke is seen as a frivolous request just another way to oppress the hardworking business owner. . . .

Although there are some restaurant owners and diners who don't yet have the scientific facts about secondhand smoke, ignorance is no protection.

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LETTER: City blew chance for smoking policy 

However, as is often the case, old Montgomery politics took over and crumbled under the pressure of special interest groups and the all powerful motivator -- money.

The Alabama Restaurant Association apparently had the means to sway votes and force the council into passing a policy that was advantageous to their cause -- basically no policy at all.

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Study finds 'huge' cluster of lung cancer in Jefferson 

A University of Louisville researcher has identified what he calls a "huge" cluster of excessive lung cancers in western and southern Jefferson County.

Looking at reported cases of cancer ZIP code by ZIP code, epidemiologist and associate professor Timothy Aldrich, of the university's School of Public Health and Information Sciences, attributed the large majority to tobacco smoke but said there remained a question about the role of the environment or occupational contaminants.

"The Jefferson County piece is our local version of a much larger picture," he said. "The state has enormously high lung cancer rates."

In his draft study, done at the request of The Courier-Journal, Aldrich reported what he said were excessive rates and "evidence of clustering" for bladder and cervical cancers and leukemia in various locations around Jefferson County. . . .

But not all of the ZIP codes with excessive lung cancers were those with the most smokers, including 40216, 40211 and 40210 in and near the vicinity of Rubbertown — something that one environmental advocate and medical doctor said could suggest industrial sources as a factor in the lung cancer cluster.

"Generally, lung cancer is directly proportional to the smoking rate," said Dr. Mark Mitchell, an environmental consultant and former director of public health in Hartford, Conn., who has been providing technical assistance to the Justice Resource Center.

Mitchell said the lung cancer rates were so high that he wonders whether air quality may be contributing to them. "We know that when you combine smoking with other chemicals, it has a multiplier effect," Mitchell said.

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Bustamante's many friendships are a blessing and a curse 

Bustamante took nearly $80,000 from tobacco companies during his five years in the state Assembly. During that time he voted against a smoking ban in restaurants and bars that voters later approved. He then unsuccessfully pushed for a delay in implementing the ban in bars. . . .

And Bustamante has plenty of supporters who say he doesn't always follow the money. They note he has stood up to big tobacco, supporting a new cigarette tax in 1998 and this year proposing another price hike. [This graph only]

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Enactment of anti-smoking law demanded 

Speakers at a rally here on Saturday demanded of the government to enact necessary law immediately to ban smoking in public and open places.

"It is now a public demand in the wake of attractive advertisements of the tobacco companies to allure people particularly the young generation to the deadly habit" they said.

Mayor of Dhaka Sadek Hossain Khoka addressed the rally organised by anti-tobacco organisation "Prattasha" at Nagar Bhaban in city, on Saturday a press release said.

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• The great unknown 

Despite months of debate about the economic effects that a smoking ban could have on the city, a local economist and two Fayetteville aldermen on opposing sides of the issue say only time will tell what a ban will mean for the city in the long term.

The City Council approved the ban with a 5-3 vote at its Sept. 2 meeting. The ban is scheduled to go into effect Feb. 1 unless members of the opposing group collect nearly 3,000 signatures to put the issue on the ballot, where the council's decision could be overturned.

Jeff Collins, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and an assistant professor of economics at the University of Arkansas, said none of the studies he researched uncovered a negative effect when all other economic factors were considered.

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Out-of-towners ' reactions to new smoking ban mixed 

The reactions of visiting Razorback fans were as mixed as those of Fayetteville residents during the months of debates.

Vernon McClain of North Little Rock has made the drive up Interstates 40 and 540 for the past five years to watch Razorback home games. . . .

McClain, a smoker, said he would seriously rethink his pregame plans once the smoking ban goes into effect.

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