Tobacco.org

GRTU to discuss smoking ban issue with government 

Following the introduction of the smoking ban in Malta, which came into force last October, Italy was expected to follow suit as the New Year dawned. However, Italy's cafe and restaurant owners said they would defy a smoking ban, requiring them to call the police if their customers continue to smoke. In turn, Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises (GRTU) will be bringing up the Maltese smoking ban issue with the government this month said the GRTU's leisure industry section president Mr. Phillip Fenech.

The Malta Independent reported that Mr. Fenech stated GRTU is being put under pressure by its members to take stock of the effects the ban has had on the business since its introduction and especially over this Christmas season. "After analysing the situation we will be bringing up the matter with the government," he said.

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SCHNEIDER: Howard's unhealthy choice 

HOWARD COUNTY bans smoking everywhere indoors but in bars and restaurants, and the ordinance should be extended to include them.

A friend of mine whose husband is a bartender is mystified over why some county officials seem to place more value on a restaurant owner's 8-year-old investment than her spouse's life. . . .

Recently, our Smoke Free coalition released data showing there are more restaurants and bars allowing smoking today than did so in 1995. Less than 10 percent of county residents smoke, but up to 77 percent of restaurants and bars in some county areas allow smoking, either in the entire establishment or in a walled-off smoke room. Slowly but surely, we are losing our right to breathe clean, safe, smoke-free air, while worker health protections are going up in smoke. We expect our elected officials to eliminate public health threats.

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Tobacco demand rises sharply on higher consumption & exports 

The Pakistan Tobacco Board (PTB), encouraged by higher exports and consumption by more than a dozen cigarette manufacturers, plans to raise production in 2005.

"The projected requirements for tobacco crop 2005 of Flue-Cured Virginia, Dark Air-Cured, White Patta (Rustica) and Burley are higher by 18.98 per cent, 107.12 per cent, 120.48 per cent and 10.31 per cent compared to production/purchases by the tobacco companies during 2004 crop, respectively," said a statement of the Board on Saturday.

The PTB has chalked out a roadmap for stakeholders including growers, buyers, dealers, users, cigarette manufacturers and exporters and advised them to keep a balance between demand and crop size.

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State touts stop-smoking programs 

Stopping smoking or chewing tobacco has been a popular New Year's goal for decades, along with resolutions to exercise more often and lose weight.

This year, local tobacco education organization Well-Being of Wyoming wants smokers and smokeless tobacco users to know three free cessation services exist to help them quit.

"This is the time of year when many people make a commitment to adopt a healthier lifestyle and resolve to quit tobacco," said Deborah Walton, director of Well-Being of Wyoming.

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EDITORIAL: Tobacco goes to college 

As part of a 1998 legal settlement, the tobacco industry agreed to stop marketing to teenagers. Well, most teenagers -- as a new study by Harvard's School of Public Health illustrates.

Cigarette-makers haven't given up on teens entirely. Some companies are sponsoring parties featuring live music and free cigarettes, T-shirts and other items for the 18-and-over crowd. . . .

Given the industry's rocky relationship with the truth, however, law-enforcement officers should make a habit of checking out those claims by visiting the parties.

Beyond that, however, college administrators should reconsider allowing tobacco parties on their campuses. Yes, cigarettes are a legal product. But there's no compelling reason for colleges and universities to turn their campuses into one big -- and lethal -- vending machine.

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• Smoking curb at bar counters 

New restrictions that prohibit smoking within a metre from bar counters are being taken up by WA pubs and clubs after an industry agreement took effect at the weekend.

The Queens Tavern in Highgate was one of the first to declare almost its entire indoor area smoke-free and will eventually restrict smoking in all areas except a part of the beer garden.

Under the code, agreed to by the Australian Hotels Association of WA, the State Government and individual hotels, smoking bans will be introduced gradually and voluntarily by pubs.

By November, smoking will be allowed in only one room of hotels and by July 2006 there will be no smoking in enclosed indoor areas in hotels.

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Where there's smoke ... 

Today, this smoke-free health professional is helping give adult smokers the inside track on kicking the habit without going "cold turkey."

Through a newly designed smoking cessation course, Casey and other health professionals at Onslow Memorial Hospital are offering a gradual yet effective way to quit smoking just in time for New Year's resolutions.

"This will be our third class," said Casey, who received training from the American Lung Association to conduct the course.

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• Smoking's last gasp in Lincoln 

"What happened to our constitutional rights?" he complained, standing with a couple of friends around a concrete urn topped with blue-tinted gravel that serves as the restaurant's outdoor ashtray.

Enforcement of a citywide smoking ban - the first in the state - went into effect Saturday. In fact, it began just as partygoers were celebrating the new year. After the clock struck midnight, many smokers snuffed out their cigarettes or headed outside.

Lincoln police received some complaints, though, and ticketed four people for allegedly violating the ban. No restaurant or bar owners were cited.

"I'm judging from the number of citations that most people were complying with the law because the officers who were on duty would have issued more tickets," Lincoln Police Chief Tom Casady said Saturday.

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• Scientists attack 'flawed' test for smoker's gene 

The discovery of a so-called 'smoker's gene' by a team of Oxford scientists paved the way for the launch of a DNA test kit last month - it costs £95 over the internet - that can identify who carries it. . . . .

But the kit, called NicoTest, is now under fire from other scientists who claim it is a waste of money and is potentially misleading and 'harmful to health'.

Genewatch, the campaign group, has complained to trading standards officers and is calling on the government to step in to regulate the sale of such tests and prevent them from being sold directly to the public. While the test is currently available only over the internet, G-Nostics plans to sell it through high-street pharmacies.

NicoTest is based on a discovery made by scientists led by Dr Robert Walton, of Oxford's clinical pharmacology department. It is claimed that variations of a gene known as the dopamine D2 receptor gene, or DRD2, reveals whether individuals are genetically programmed to be addicted to nicotine and shows how easily they can stop smoking. One in three people is born with the gene.

G-Nostics claims smokers with the gene are much more likely to benefit from nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) such as patches or gum than other treatments, such as the drug Zyban.

G-Nostics' website claims that up to four in 10 smokers with the smoker's gene can kick the habit with the correct NRT, far higher than the average success rate of one in 20.

Dr Helen Wallace, of Genewatch, with a number of other scientists, including a fellow academic of Walton at Oxford, have attacked the test as dangerous. An eight-page analysis of what they claim is the test's flawed science has been sent to the Trading Standards Service.

The group states that, although some studies have shown some interesting findings linking the dopamine gene and tobacco addiction, research is a long way from being proved.

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Loan from tobacco trust fund in works 

The Health Care Trust Fund was established on July 1, 1999, as the repository of the state's $4.1 billion tobacco settlement. Lawmakers projected a trust fund of $4-5 billion by 2018. . . .

The kicker? The Capitol scuttlebutt is that this supposed "loan" from the Health Care Trust Fund would be "repaid" from higher taxes on cigarettes and that future new cigarette tax revenues be dedicated to funding health care.

Can lawmakers "borrow" from a pool of money from which appropriations were already authorized last year? Stay tuned.

It didn't work out that way.

Will they spend it all?

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Price of smoking is too high for some 

Smokers like Durham vowing to quit their nasty habit this new year have an added incentive in addition to health reasons. It’s getting expensive. Today marks the second day a pack of cigarettes has increased a minimum of 55 cents because of a new tax Oklahoma voters approved during the November general election.

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MOFFITT: Don't roll your cigarettes in our flag 

Pioneer Press columnist Craig Westover usually tries to defend the indefensible position that smoking in public workplaces like restaurants and bars is OK. However, in a recent opinion piece, Westover crossed the line into bad taste and questionable judgment. ("Smoking ban will crimp charitable gambling," Dec. 15).

He ended his editorial with a cheap rhetorical trick, asking: "What is the value of an American flag on the coffin of a war veteran compared to a benefit (of smoke-free workplaces) like that?"

As a veteran, I am deeply offended when he evoked the image of a flag-draped coffin -- one of the most somber and moving ceremonies to those of us who served our country -- to try to further his pro-smoke agenda. I am even more upset that he made these insensitive comments at a time when flag-draped coffins are arriving from Iraq and Afghanistan every day. Perhaps Samuel Johnson voiced my reaction best with his famous quote from 1775: "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."

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Here's a pack of tips for putting out smokes 

Resolved to quit smoking in 2005? Instead of preaching or wagging our fingers about why smokers should quit, we'll offer gentle suggestions for how to do it. The following 20 tips -- one for each of the cigarettes in a pack -- come from the surgeon general, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society and former smokers.

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It's a fag break with a difference 

I booked myself in to the Roundelwood Health Centre in Scotland on a five-day stop-smoking retreat.

In a remote location on the outskirts of Crieff, in Perthshire, the centre feels suitably isolated for going cold turkey and is not the kind of place where you'll find candles and scattered rose petals as you enjoy health therapies.

The stop-smoking programme involves a detox to speed up the elimination of nicotine from your body, condensing the pain and craving you would usually feel over three months into five days. . . .

By the end of the week I'd lost weight, the bags under my eyes had gone and I felt I would never smoke again.

I can't promise it will work for everyone and at times I've wanted nothing more than a fag, but four months on I've not started again and I'm convinced I never will. Now I just have to kick my spa-treatment addiction.

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Distributor doubts tobacco tax revenue estimates 

A Sapulpa tobacco wholesaler says revenue projections from Oklahoma's new tobacco tax are inflated because of several exception in tribal tobacco compacts.

Standard Distributing sales manager Rick Bahlinger says when states raise cigarette taxes, smokers tend to switch to Internet sales or tribal smoke shops.

But Governor Brad Henry's chief compact negotiator says officials considered those exceptions when figuring the impact of State Question 713.

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