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Car smoke ban sought 

A proposed ban on smoking in cars when kids under 12 are present highlighted the return to the house for Manitoba's legislators.

On the first day back following Wednesday's budget, Liberal MLA Kevin Lamoureux introduced an amendment to the Non-Smokers Health Protection Act yesterday proposing it be against Manitoba law to smoke with kids under the age of 12 in the vehicle.

"I'm just hoping we can put the party politics to the side. This is about supporting the health of our children," Lamoureux said. "If the political will was there in the chamber, this could be law in Manitoba by the end of the month."

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• Campaign launched to stop smoking in cars with kids 

The fact that smoking in cars with children is hazardous to their health might seem like a common sense message, but that's the theme that will be hitting airwaves and newspapers across Ontario Monday.

The Ontario Medical Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario are launching an awareness campaign aimed at curbing smoking in cars with young children.

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Cigarette taxes gain popularity  

BOSTON -- The potential windfall from raising the cigarette tax and the relatively low political cost proved too tempting to resist last week for House lawmakers who approved a $1-per-pack hike.

State legislatures across the country are turning to cigarette taxes to help balance budgets at a time when money is tight and hiking gas, sales and income taxes is unthinkable.

The proven revenue generator and smoking deterrent, however, is questioned by some in the tobacco industry. Thomas Briant, director of the National Association of Tobacco Outlets, points to places like New Jersey as evidence that states might have hit their ceiling when it comes to taxing smoking.

According to Philip Morris, only 12 of the 48 states that implemented cigarette-tax hikes from 2003 to 2006 met their revenue projections.

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LETTER: Lawmakers did right thing raising cigarette tax 

A cigarette tax increase is a fiscal win that raises revenue and reduces health care costs, as well as a political win that is popular with the public. The American Cancer Society applauds our legislators for doing the right thing for New York's physical and fiscal health.

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• Smoking Related to Subset of Colorectal Cancers with Absent DNA Repair Proteins 

Smoking puts older women at significant risk for loss of DNA repair proteins that are critical for defending against development of some colorectal cancers, according to research from a team led by Mayo Clinic scientists.

In a study being presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR), the researchers found that women who smoked were at increased risk for developing colorectal tumors that lacked some or all of four proteins, known as DNA mismatch repair (MMR) proteins. These proteins keep cells lining the colon and rectum healthy because they recognize and repair genetic damage as well as mistakes that occur during cell division.

Researchers believe that, in this study population, few if any of the four proteins were absent because of an inherited genetic alteration. “We think that smoking induces a condition within intestinal cells that does not allow MMR genes to express their associated proteins, and this loss leads to formation of tumors in some women,” says the study’s lead author, Mayo gastroenterologist Paul Limburg, M.D.

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Watch for Dr. Willet's big ad in tomorrow's Sault Star 

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Ontario's Doctors and Heart and Stroke Foundation Partner to Protect Children 

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario are launching an awareness campaign to get the public to realize how smoking in cars with children damages their health. A series of radio and print ads encouraging parents to butt out while driving with kids begins tomorrow.

"Doctors are pleased to see the great government leadership and public support on this issue," said Dr. Willett, President of the Ontario Medical Association. "But this campaign is aimed at those who still don't understand that if you smoke in the car with your children, it's just like they're smoking too."

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LETTER: One smoker's advice to teens: Add up the costs 

I was pleased to see the recent letter sent in by a young writer on the subject of teen smoking ("Teen smokers should quit," The Reporter, April 7). As a four-decade nicotine addict who picked up the incredibly stupid habit at the age of 16, I would add the following advice for any teens who are currently addicted to nicotine, or who recklessly sneak an occasional smoke in the misguided belief that this nasty, completely worthless drug can't possibly snare them into a lifelong addiction. . . .

Quit while it's still easy, and take all the pennies you used to spend on smokes and throw 'em in a big jar. It would only take a few years before you could buy the first of your four Corvettes.

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LETTER: Cigarette tax boost sends a bad message  

Now, lawmakers and the governor will likely present this increase as a way to discourage smoking, explaining that a price hike will make people smoke less. In reality, though, lawmakers don't want smoking rates to decline, because then their revenues will disappear. Research shows that smoking rates are highest among the poor and uneducated. Is this really the demographic that New York wants to target for a tax hike?

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AARON: N.Y. boosts budget on backs of smokers and store owners 

When a tobacco wholesaler like Elmira Distributing Co. in Elmira Heights buys its cigarettes from Big Tobacco, the packs come without tax stamps.

The wholesaler then buys the stamps and puts them on the packs before selling them to retailers.

When the taxes increase, the wholesalers count the packs in their inventory and pay the difference between the old tax and the new. Then they pay the new tax rate from that point on.

Retailers buy the smokes at a price that includes the new tax rate and the additional cost is passed on to consumers -- or more specifically, consumers who smoke, says Rich Rinde, the distributing company's vice president. . . .

When New York raised its cigarette tax in 2000, Internet cigarette sales to New Yorkers from vendors on American Indian reservations, where smokes are sold tax-free, jumped as much as 20 percent.

James Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores, estimated western New York convenience stores lost anywhere from 25 percent to 50 percent of their cigarette sales after the 2000 increase of 55 cents.

Here's an idea worth considering: Roll back the state cigarette tax to its previous $1.50 level and re-instate the 4 percent state tax on clothing sales less than $110.

It likely would raise more money than the cigarette tax hike and, by spreading the hurt over a larger group of consumers, would make smokers feel they aren't being picked on.

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Smuggler busted in $6M cigarette-tax dodging scheme 

A Jordanian smuggler has been nabbed with millions of fake cigarette tax stamps from five states, Brooklyn prosecutors said Wednesday.

Rafea al-Nablisi, 40, of Queens, was caught trying to sell stamps that could have let bootleggers evade cigarette taxes, authorities said. A subsequent search warrant on two storage lockers turned up a record $6.1 million in phony stamps, prosecutors said.

"This type of crime costs New York State and New York City hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue annually," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said.

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Cigarette-tax strategy could backfire on states 

But in the wake of New York's decision this week to raise the state cigarette tax by $1.25, to $2.75 a pack - the highest in the country - the strategy is coming under more scrutiny from analysts and economists.

"On the surface, a tax increase may seem like a logical, straightforward way to bring more money into state coffers," said Alicia Hansen, an analyst for the Tax Foundation of Washington.

For example, the estimates of new revenue from the higher New York cigarette tax range from $265 million to $436 million a year. The primary use for the extra revenue is to pay for health-care investments, according to the budget agreement by the governor and legislature. . . .

Bill Godshall, the executive director of SmokeFree Pennsylvania, said that New York has been a leader in the three proven strategies for reducing smoking - a higher cigarette tax, smoke-free workplace laws and programs to prevent kids from smoking and to help smokers quit.

But New York also has the highest rate of cigarette smuggling in the country as well, Godshall said.

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EDITORIAL: No smoking 

Pontotoc's Board of Aldermen approved a citywide smoking ban in almost all public places earlier this month, joining a lengthening list of communities in Mississippi and nationwide acting in the interest of better health.

The ban excludes private offices and tobacco stores, but it includes restaurants, retail stories and other commercial establishments. . . .

Pontotoc's action takes the risks seriously, and the ban over time will help some, especially non-smokers, dramatically improve chances of avoiding a smoking-induced disease.

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Smoke Free Mon County News 

This editorial appeared in the Dominion Post on Sunday, April 13, 2008. Used by permission.

EDITORIAL

The Facts Don’t Blow Smoke -- BOH Should Fulfill Duty to Public, Not Public Opinion

The Monongalia County Board of Health doesn’t need public opinion on its side — it has the facts. . . .

There’s no reason to have a BOH if it’s sole purpose is to rubber-stamp public opinion. Clearly, we are never going to be able to regulate or legislate common sense, but we can regulate and legislate public health and safety in public places.

The reason BOH exists is to make such decisions, without kow-towing to politics or public opinion.

How could the BOH not support a smoking ban that protects everyone? Only by ignoring the facts and its responsibility.

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• WEISSERT: The celebrity of the Cuban cigar 

I know how this sounds, but I live in Havana and I don't smoke cigars. I'm clueless about them, actually. Even the cutting thingy that trims off the tip is a mystery. . . .

That's why I decided to embark on a cigar crash course, learning what makes Cubans some of the finest cigars in the world.

"If you're interested in cigars, we're already friends," says James Suckling, Cigar Aficionado Magazine's "Man in Havana." . . .

I smoke the Cohiba under a shade tree in Old Havana's stately Plaza de Armas. It has the strongest smell of any cigar I've sampled. It's easily my favorite, with a hint of coffee and an electric-metallic taste that leaves my tongue feeling numb, perhaps from the nicotine. . . .

My crash course is over and I'm still not sure what cigar fans mean when they say things like that. Guess it's time to buy some more cigars and find out.

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