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Revise leases to deal with smokers, landlords urge 

A court ruling that orders a Montreal woman not to smoke in the flat she rents could change the way leases are written in Quebec, if a provincial landlords' association has its way.

The Quebec Court verdict, issued Thursday, overturned a Quebec rental board decision and has sparked a request from the province's largest landlords' lobby for changes in the standard Quebec rental board lease.

The landlords' group, the Corporation des propriétaires immobiliers du Québec, urged yesterday that the standard lease should include boxes to be marked to allow or ban smoking in any dwelling that is being rented. The standard lease form has been largely unchanged since 1994.

"We are studying the implications," Jean-Pierre Le Blanc, a spokesperson for the provincial Régie du logement

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Smoking bans should be part of lease: landlords 

The standard apartment lease provided by the Quebec Rental Board should be amended to include a specific clause that allows or prohibits smoking on the premises, Quebec's largest landlord association said Friday.

"It is up to the owner to decide if a smoking ban is justified when a lease is signed, at the risk of losing possible tenants," said Hans Brouillette, spokesperson for the Corporation des propriétaires immobiliers du Québec.

Commonly known as CORPIQ, the lobby group says 277,000 Quebec landlords own 1.3 million dwellings across the province.

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Careless smoking blamed for apartment fire  

Fire officials believe careless smoking caused a Port Credit high-rise blaze that killed two cats on Monday morning.

The fire broke out at about 11:30 a.m., at an apartment complex at 55 Park St. E. . . .

Fire inspectors believe a cigarette left burning in a plastic tray, while the tenants of the apartment went out, caused the blaze.

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Final bell sounds in smoking battle 

Judge Normand Amyot of Quebec Court ruled Thursday that Fowler, a sales representative in her early 30s, had been out of line all along.

He ordered her to butt out, effective immediately, any time she's home.

A key element of Fowler's testimony before the Quebec Rental Board a year ago simply could not be believed, the judge ruled - Fowler's repeated contention that she never saw the words "no smokers" on a form to list references that Fowler had filled out for Koretski before their lease-signing.

With that 28-page ruling from Amyot, a soft-spoken nurse with no big money behind her handed a stinging defeat to an industry that reported to Health Canada it sold 40.5 billion cigarettes across the country in 2005.

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New smoking ordinance is up for adoption  

The Novato City Council will consider adoption of a tough anti-smoking ordinance at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The council meets at the Novato Unified School District headquarters at 1015 Seventh St.

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• Smoking or non? Cost of clean air debatable  

Pennsylvania has not yet followed the examples other states have set in banning smoking from places like restaurants and bars, and it has become known as the "ashtray of the Northeast coast" since states surrounding it have enacted bans, said Jennifer Hobbs, tobacco-cessation education counselor at Gettysburg Hospital.

Rosie's, on Lincoln Way East in New Oxford, self-imposed an indoor smoking ban about three or four years ago, said Senft, who noticed the physical effects smoking had on the restaurant.

"There was a coating of yellow on our ceiling tiles, our walls, our curtains," Senft said. "We noticed a big difference in the air quality once it stopped, because there was this blue haze in there most of the time."

Pennsylvania is considering two versions of smoking ban legislation

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Smoking still not allowed in state's casinos 

The Illinois Senate late Wednesday rejected a proposal that would have allowed patrons at the Par-A-Dice Casino in East Peoria or any of the state's other casinos to smoke and gamble at the same time.

But the Senate subsequently approved other changes that attempt to clear up some of the questions about exactly how to implement and enforce the statewide ban on smoking in most indoor spaces.

The most recent version of Senate Bill 2707, which passed on a 35-16 vote, creates an exemption to permit universities to conduct tobacco research that involves people who smoke indoors.

It also details how individuals may appeal violations of the smoking ban.

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Bethany Beach Votes to Regulate Smoking 

Bethany Beach town council members Friday night voted 6 to 1 to regulate smoking.

The new rules outlaw smoking year-round in town parks and on the beach and boardwalk in the summer.

Those caught breaking the new law face fines up to $500.

On Friday afternoon, several visitors filled the popular town attractions where buzz of the proposed ban was the hot topic of discussion.

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• Byrne still fuming about 'censorship' of smoking ban in theatres  

SCOTS playwright John Byrne has continued his campaign for an exemption to the smoking ban for theatres.

Byrne claims that the ban on lighting up on the stage is "censorship" and makes performances of plays unrealistic.

Although the smoking ban was brought in by the Labour-Lib Dem coalition more than a year before the SNP came to power, the legislation had cross-party support.

Byrne, whose partner is Oscar-winning actress Tilda Swinton, said: "One of the things which they have not acted on is reversing the ban on smoking on stage during plays. I wrote to Alex Salmond after the election asking him to change the law and I received a reply from a civil servant saying they were not going to change. It's a form of censorship and it's wrong."

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City may extend smoking ban to bars 

A deal might be in the works that would ban smoking in all Columbia workplaces, including bars.

Councilman E.W. Cromartie, one of the four council members who voted to exempt bars from the city's smoking ban, is having second thoughts about the issue.

"I think we may have to look at that again," Cromartie said. "It has been some time since the last time we voted."

Only one council member would have to change his or her vote for the issue to be reconsidered.

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Dalit beaten by upper caste villagers for smoking 

Halki Bai, a Dalit woman from Madhya Pradesh’s Biharipura village, does not have any idea where her husband and son have gone. The only thing she remembers is an attack on their house allegedly by the village Thakurs.

She said her husband was mercilessly beaten up and asked to leave the village with a warning not to show his face again.

“The Thakurs do not behave properly with us. It is not just this incident, they do not allow us to fetch water and we are forced to carry our shoes on our heads while passing in front of their houses,” Halki Bai said.

The immediate provocation for the Thakurs' action was apparently a Dalit smoking without taking permission during a funeral procession.

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Death In Nursing Home Fire Blamed On Careless Smoking  

GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. -- A man in his 60s died Saturday afternoon and at least eight others were injured after the victim's bed in a Green Cove Springs nursing home caught fire. Fire investigators believe the man was smoking in bed.

The fire broke out about 4:40 p.m. in the east wing of the Governor's Creek Health and Rehabilitation Center on Oak Street.

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Board prohibits smoking at pool 

Q:At a recent meeting, the board decided to ban smoking at the outdoor pools and near the clubhouse. They said Florida law does not allow smoking at a public place. Is a condominium pool considered a public place? Can the board do this?

D.B., Sanford

A: There is a Florida statute concerning indoor smoking, FS 386, but it does not cover outdoor areas. In past columns, I have recommended that the board set aside a smoking area and a nonsmoking area.

While I do not believe that the board members can totally ban smoking, they can limit it to specified areas.

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Cigar clubs grow despite Minn. smoking ban 

Private cigar clubs like the Lilydale Social Club have provided indoor havens for cigar lovers, despite smoking bans in Minnesota and across the country.

The clubs have been popping up from New York to California. A few are in the open like Lilydale's. Others operate in secret, like one in downtown St. Paul.

Minnesota's smoking ban doesn't have a provision allowing smoking at social functions, including clubs, said the state Department of Health's indoor air supervisor, Dale Dorschner. He hadn't heard of the local clubs, and the state hasn't challenged the legality of any of these locations.

But the attorney for the Lilydale Social Club says the smoking ban was created to protect employees from secondhand smoke. Their club has no employees, and is not open to the public.

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Pa. smoking ban debate moves along at slow burn 

A dispute between the House and Senate over how strict to make the measure left the debate hanging when state budget negotiations concluded in July. The Senate favored a longer list of establishments where smoking would still be allowed.

A conference committee to resolve those differences wasn't appointed until December, but leaders hoped it could deliver a final proposal early this year.

Four months later, no compromise has emerged and it isn't clear if a scheduled April 29 meeting will yield one.

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