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Maine Bans Smoking While Driving with Youths  

The state of Maine last week passed one of the most restrictive smoking bans in the country. Dr. Jonathan Shenkin, who drove the push to regulate smoking in cars, says that while Maine's is not the first law of its kind, it goes further than any other effort to curb children's exposure to secondhand smoke.

"In a car, they're strapped in and there's no escape," Shenkin says. That is no longer the case for children in Maine, where police can now stop drivers who are smoking in a vehicle where passengers younger than 16 are present. For the first year, the penalty is a warning, but thereafter, smokers ferrying children face a $50 fine.

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LEININGER: Pro-freedom, not pro-smoking club 

A few weeks ago I tried to illustrate the silliness of Fort Wayne's no-smoking law by enjoying a cigar at a south-side bar.

It worked. Several readers basically suggested I be taken out and shot for daring to use a legal product in an adults-only establishment - with the owners' blessing!

Members of the Tri-State Pipe & Tobacco Club, on the other hand, aren't really interested in civil disobedience. Since its inception seven years ago, the club has gathered each month to talk and share their passion for a culturally rich but politically incorrect hobby that has rendered them vagabonds in their own community.

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Smoking ban bill riles some Mitchell County business owners 

One area that is causing heated reaction among some Iowans is the fact that the legislature has exempted casino gaming floors from the ban. Other exempted areas are: designated motel rooms, private homes, private businesses, personal vehicles, tobacco stores, designated rooms in long-term care facilities, enclosed areas used for smoking cessation programs, private hired limousines, scientific research areas related to smoking, fairgrounds, prison grounds, farm vehicles, private clubs that have no employees and business vehicles used only by one employee.

People in favor of the smoking ban point to the concern for the health of employees and patrons of the banned businesses.

Critics of the bill point mainly to the hypocrisy of exempting casinos from the bill.

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• Update: Culver signs smoking ban into law 

No one can light up a cigarette or cigar inside an Iowa bar or restaurant starting July 1.

"This has been a long time coming!" said Dan Ramsey of the American Lung Association just before Gov. Chet Culver signed the bill into law this morning.

The legislation bans smoking in most places of employment and spots frequented by the public. Smoking will still be permitted in outdoor areas of bars, outdoor areas of county fairs and the Iowa State Fair, retail tobacco stores, private clubs that have no employees and the gambling floors of casinos.

Democratic lawmakers and leaders congratulated each other and key activists for their steadfastness in fighting for this ban and for turning the tide of public support.

"It was a tough, tough issue. Very difficult," Culver said.

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Elderly Man Dies In Fire 

DETROIT -- Careless smoking may have started a fire that took the life of a 90-year-old man Tuesday morning, said fire investigators.

When firefighters responded to a fire on Dorris Street around 4 a.m. on Detroit's northwest side, they found an elderly the man dead in a reclining chair on the second floor.

Investigators said the man fell asleep while smoking a cigar.

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Smoking bans hurt country venues  

The introduction of tougher smoking bans for South Australia hotels nearly six months ago has deeply affected many country venues, with figures suggesting that revenue has declined about 40 per cent for some.

SA president of the Australian Hotels Association, Ian Horne, says gaming revenue across the state is down about 10 per cent.

"Many country hotels are suffering much more than their city counterparts," Mr Horne said.

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• Study: Teen Smoking Hits Historic Low in State  

The majority of teens in North Carolina have never tried smoking, according to a statewide survey.

The 2007 North Carolina Youth Tobacco Survey, released Tuesday, showed historic lows in teen smoking in the state.

The study showed nearly 79 percent of middle school students and 51.1 percent of high school students have never tried smoking.

The Youth Tobacco Survey, administered by the NC Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch, is the definitive study of tobacco use among high school and middle school students in the state.

The study showed that since 2003, high school smoking rates have dropped from 27.3 percent to 19 percent in 2007.

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• Study suggests smoking affects skin  

Women who smoke are more likely to have noninflammatory acne, especially blackheads and blocked pores, than nonsmokers are, according to the British Journal of Dermatology.

How much a woman smoked didn't seem to have an effect on the severity of breakouts. But those who had had acne as teens were four times more likely to have "smoker's acne" as an adult.

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• Smoking encourages infection  

Although nicotine is known to affect neutrophils, there has been no study until now of the mechanisms at work when nicotine is present during neutrophil differentiation.

David Scott from the Oral Health and Systemic Disease Research Group at the University of Louisville School of Dentistry, Kentucky, USA, along with a team of international colleagues decided to investigate how nicotine influenced the differentiation process.

The authors suggest the processes they observed as contributing to impaired neutrophil function partially explain chronic tobacco users' increased susceptibility to bacterial infection and inflammatory diseases. . . .

The study is published in the open access journal BMC Cell Biology.

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Bar, restaurant smoking ban wouldn't hurt Michigan economy, report says 

-Former Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema said today that banning smoking in bars and restaurants would have no adverse economic impact -- and he wishes the Legislature had passed such a law when he was there.

"There were other things that were getting in the way, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't have passed it," Sikkema said. "I wish we had."

He said lawmakers were caught up in other issues--especially the state budget and increasing the minimum wage--before he was term-limited out of the Senate in 2006. That year, a surgeon general's report provided strong, new evidence of the perils of second-hand smoke, prompting a flurry of state and local anti-smoking laws elsewhere around the United States.

Sikkema, a Republican from Wyoming, made his comments while introducing a report on smoke-free research he co-authored in his current position with Public Sector Consultants, a Lansing-based public policy firm.

The report was prepared on behalf of The Campaign for Smokefree Air, which is backing legislation passed by the House last year and pending in the Senate.

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Duma Ratifies Anti-Smoking Treaty 

State Duma deputies floated radical plans on Friday to cut tobacco use after ratifying a United Nations anti-smoking convention.

Potential measures include dramatically increasing the cost of cigarettes and banning their sale in roadside kiosks, Nikolai Gerasimenko, deputy head of the Duma’s Public Health Committee said Friday, Interfax reported.

The comments come as the Duma finally passed a law on accepting the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

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First Warning Handed Out For Greenville Smoking Ordinance  

Greenville Police have issued their first warning about the city's smoking ordinance. Officers gave a warning to Dixie's Tavern Saturday night.

Officers received complaints about the business. Greenville Police say they didn't find any smokers inside Dixie's Tavern, but some were seen on the porch.

Officers say they told the owner that is not allowed under the ordinance. A police report shows the owner complied.

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• Iowa smoking ban might help S.D. casinos 

Casino owners, managers and workers in North Sioux City said they expect Iowa's public smoking ban will bump up their business when it goes into effect July 1.

At the same time, they worry South Dakota will be the next to pass a similar law; the legislature has come close to it several times. A 2001 state law banned smoking from public buildings and restaurants, except for those with beer licenses, which casinos have.

Food, drink and smoking, too

Sherry Beavers, a longtime employee at Ike's Casino and Lounge, predicted Iowa's new ban will be a windfall for North Sioux City casinos, which all serve food and alcohol. She said Ike's already gets a lot of business from Sioux City. Now she's hoping that the people who come so they can have a cigarette with their cocktail and supper will try the games of chance while they're there.

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• Report: Smoking ban would not hurt state's economy  

LANSING - A total ban on smoking would not economically harm Michigan restaurants and bars and would protect both customers and employees from diseases caused by second-hand smoke, a new report concludes.

"The evidence is overwhelming, there is no net effect on the industry," said Ken Sikkema, who led the study by Public Sector Consultants of Lansing. He called the study the most complete review of smoking bans in other states and research of the effects of second-hand smoke.

He said the report covers 43 studies that show smoking bans have not hurt business at bars and restaurants in other states. Twenty-four states ban smoking in bars and restaurants; four ban smoking in restaurants only.

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• Culver signs smoking ban into law 

Gov. Chet Culver has signed near-total ban on public smoking, a measure he said would protect workplaces from the dangers of second-hand smoke.

"The bottom line is that this bill will save lives, plain and simple," Culver said at the Tuesday morning signing ceremony.

The bill has two notable exceptions, allowing smoking on the gambling floors of state-licensed casinos and at the Iowa Veterans Home in Marshalltown.

The new rules take effect on July 1.

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