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WSU grounds worker puts a month’s worth of cigarette trash on display  

Bryce Fogelson doesn't mind smokers, but he hates what they leave behind.

Fogelson finds cigarette butts littered everywhere on the Winona State University campus -- in the cracks of sidewalks, in the mulch of rock gardens and flicked haphazardly near the hundred or so ashtray receptacles outside the entrance of nearly every campus building. . . .

The full-time WSU senior and part-time campus maintenance worker -- a job funded by taxpayers -- sucks up the littered butts with a vacuum reverse blower.

But after three years on cigarette patrol, he's seen enough.

Fogelson collected thousands of stray cigarette butts littering the campus over the past month and put the heaping pile on display for his fellow students Thursday in WSU's Kryzsko Commons. All brands -- the camel and cowboy included -- were well-represented.

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Lit cigarette destroys house, burns woman  

A cigarette left burning unattended destroyed a $300,000 HomesWest unit in Palmyra this morning.

A spokesman for the Fire and Emergency Services Authority said the fire was believed to have started after a woman, who had been smoking in bed, fell asleep leaving her cigarette burning.

Four children, their mother and grandmother were in the house when the fire started.

One of the women was taken to hospital with burns to her upper arms. The other woman and the four children escaped unharmed.

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Anti-Littering Art 

A student from Winona State University is making a statement by taking cigarette butts indoors.

More than 2,000 cigarette butts are now on display at Winona State University.

This after a part-time maintenance worker and a student at Winona State became frustrated at having to cleaning up all the cigarette butts around campus.

"I just want to show people that it isn't alright to litter regardless of how big or small the thing that you're throwing on the ground," says Bryce Fogelson.

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Bulgarians Involved in Europe's Biggest Cigarette Smuggling Ring 

A total of two Bulgarians have been arrested after Belgian police busted a cigarette smuggling net believed to be the biggest one in Europe, Darik News reported Friday.

Some Belgium's media claim the Bulgarian citizen detained is only one.

Among the other arrestees are three Greeks, two Cypriotes and Belgian nationals.

The arrests came after police officers found more than 230 tons of contraband cigarette packages in three warehouses near Belgium's city of Liege.

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Cigarette Price-Fix Probe Hits Big Stores 

BRITAIN'S top supermarkets and two tobacco giants were yesterday accused of a cigarette price fixing scam.

Competition watchdogs named Imperial Tobacco and Gallaher along with chains including Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's and Morrisons among those facing a probe.

The tobacco companies make brands including Lambert and Butler, Silk Cut and Benson and Hedges.

Eleven retailers in total were implicated, including Shell, the Co-op, Somerfield and First Quench Retailing, who own Thresher.

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Cuyahoga County groups face first battle for cigarette-tax money 

Eight out-of-state experts in arts and culture met in Cleveland this week to review applications from Cuyahoga County groups that want to use cigarette tax money for special projects in the next year. . . .

Seventy-five nonprofit organizations applied to receive part of the $1 million in project-support grants that will be distributed this year through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, the Issue 18 tax administrator. The panel recommended 58 projects for funding. . . .

Support for specific arts projects is the second of three types of grants CAC plans to make with the millions of dollars that will be generated each of the 10 years of the cigarette tax.

The majority of the money -- about $15 million annually the first few years -- is going toward operating expenses for well-established nonprofit arts and culture groups, large and small.

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Marae campaigns to cut smoking 

Four marae in Canterbury are now smokefree as health campaigners battle to cut the number of Maori who smoke.

Several other marae in the region have also introduced designated smoking areas.

Hauora Matauraka health promoter Ted Te Hae said that in June 2006, he was given three years to persuade four marae to become smokefree.

After achieving his goal in less than half that time, he set his sights on other marae and Maori institutions such as Te Wananga Aotearoa in Manchester Street. It became smokefree last August.

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LETTER: Time to ban smoking on terraces 

Quebec, in its infinite stupidity, chose not to ban smoking for outdoor eating venues, the "scientific" reason being that smoke would flow upwards, or somehow away from non-smokers, with no ill effect on them or on wait staff.

Anyone who has eaten outdoors at home, using the BBQ, knows that the slightest breeze will shift the smoke in all directions. The recent court case restricting a tenant from smoking indoors might spur the government to annul that part of the law permitting smoking on restaurant terraces.

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Worcester smokers may get an extra boost from the state to help them kick the habit 

State public health surveys show many Bay Staters have quit smoking since the 1980s. From 1986 to 2000, smoking rates fell from 28 percent to 20 percent.

But over the last eight years, rates of decline have slowed significantly, lowering the rate only to about 18 percent, despite major hikes in cigarette taxes, new laws to ban smoking in public places and workplaces, and continual warnings about the health dangers of tobacco.

Cigarette sales mirror the trend. . . .

Beth M. Ewi, program director for the University of Massachusetts Medical School Tobacco Treatment and Research Center in Worcester, has been working on quit-assistance programs for 10 years and oversees the program that has trained hundreds of health workers to counsel smokers in their efforts.

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EDITORIAL: Atlantic City's ban on casino smoking should help Harrisburg to finally act 

A complete smoking ban in nearly all public places would be ideal, but a partial ban is certainly better than nothing. Legislators who favor a stringent ban and those who believe certain places should be exempt must compromise. Instead of continuing to debate about whether all or no part of casinos should be smoke free, for example, legislators should require casino owners to allow smoking on 25 percent of the floor.

Pennsylvania needs to ban smoking in at least a portion of most public places. Paying customers have the right to patronize the businesses of their choice and are entitled to clean air while eating or gambling. Lawmakers worried about losing gamblers -- and revenue -- to Atlantic City if they banned smoking in casinos no longer have that worry ... or excuse not to legislate. To break the deadlock, allowing these casinos to create areas for smoking is an option. Regardless, this issue can't wait anymore. State legislators must take action to protect the health of non-smokers, as other states have.

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TROGLEN: Smoke Signals: Cities should butt out of people's health choices 

I'm not a smoker.

But many of my closest friends are.

I like to go outside twice a day with some co-worker friends while they enjoy smoke breaks.

And while I have a touch of asthma, their smoke has never bothered me. . . .

Ohio cannot keep guns out of the hands of children, drunken drivers from plowing into pedestrians or drugs and gangs from infiltrating our schools and families.

But we can ban smoking.

Maybe I'm just blowing smoke, but it seems to me there are just some things a bit more important than quenching the flames of smokers.

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• A People's War against smoking 

In the past 5 years since the regulation was implemented, great achievements have been made by the Beijing people: the city has finally realized its goal of "one percent down every year." Beijing has left its title of "International Tobacco Metropolis" in the 20th century, and is set up to embrace the "New Beijing, New Olympic" with new and healthy lifestyle.

Zhang Baozhen: "A smoking ban will affect social stability"

And apparently the progress doesn't stop there: The Beijing News article cites other figures showing that the rate dropped to 23% in 2007.

It looks as if we can expect smokers to disappear from Beijing in the foreseeable future, if the momentum is kept. But that's not necessarily a good thing for everyone.

At this year's NPC sessions, in response to a representative's proposal to strengthen tobacco control, National Tobacco Monopoly Bureau vice director Sun Baozhen said the absence of tobacco will affect social stability.

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City council member wants Michigan City to consider smoking ban 

Smoking bans have become common throughout Michiana, and a city council member wants to bring the idea to Michigan City.

At this point, he's just trying to get the public's input on the idea.

Councilman Marc Espar says if there is a smoking ban, he wants it to be right for Michigan City.

“I want to strike a good balance, try to help the health of the community first and foremost, and not hurt the community in the financial aspect either,” Espar said.

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EDITORIAL: Atlantic City's good bet 

Casino workers who were at the meeting -- many wearing T-shirts that said, "Nobody deserves to work in an ashtray"-- enthusiastically applauded the vote.

This brings our focus back to this side of the river to Pennsylvania's bill for an indoor smoking ban, which is currently in a conference committee of the state Senate, with lawmakers on both sides of the issue trying to hammer their differences. . . .

Smokers in New Jersey will still be able to smoke in specified smoking lounges away from the slots and gaming tables. Compare that to Philadelphia Park Casino, which in contrast has one small non-smoking lounge.

It certainly seems that with more non-smokers than smokers in the world, state lawmakers should pass a bill that would serve the interests of the majority and also the greater good.

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Call to increase tobacco tax 

THE Rudd Government's chief adviser on preventive health has called for an increase to the excise on tobacco of 2.5 cents a cigarette, which could raise $400 million a year on top of the $500 million to be raised from the increased excise on "alcopops".

Rob Moodie, who chairs the National Preventative Health Taskforce, said the increased excise on ready-mixed spirits - imposed at the weekend to fight teenage binge drinking - was "terrific" and should be extended to cigarettes.

"Using taxation or pricing as a lever for reducing harmful consumption is a really good idea," Dr Moodie told the Herald.

He said Australians were very sensitive to price rises, and increasing the excise by 2.5 cents a cigarette would reduce consumption by about 3 per cent.

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