Tobacco.org

Green Bay program demonstrates dangers of smoking for Hispanics 

Chico was one of two people who shared their experiences with tobacco use at an event directed at the Latino community about the dangers of smoking on Sunday at St. Willebrord Parish in downtown Green Bay. About 75 people attended.

After almost 30 years of smoking -- Chico was 14 when he started -- he finally made the decision to quit because of his children, the youngest of whom is 7 months. Chico also suspects secondhand smoke was responsible for two cancer deaths in his family.

Lung cancer -- "cancer pulmonar" in Spanish -- is a leading cause of cancer death for Hispanic men and the second leading cause for Hispanic women.

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Smoking ban for state heats up 

Atlantic City's casino floor smoking ban is expected to loom large Tuesday when state lawmakers grapple again with the smoking ban issue.

After a month hiatus, a House-Senate conference committee will try again to craft a compromise bill on limiting smoking indoors in Pennsylvania. If the six members, who include Sen. Robert Mellow, D-Peckville, and Rep. Robert Belfanti, D-Northumberland, succeed, they will present their compromise to both chambers for a yes/no vote.

Two conferees have different takes on what the vote this week by the City Council in Atlantic City to ban smoking on the floor of casinos will mean to the debate here.

Mr. Belfanti suggests that Atlantic City's smoking ban will be good for business at the seven operating casinos in Pennsylvania.

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Fatal Fire Investigation Continues In Sullivan County  

The investigation continues into a deadly weekend fire that claimed the life of one woman in Sullivan County. . . .

Authorities tell Your Tri-Cities News Source, the woman was a smoker and they believe oxygen lines near the couch fueled the fire.

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POLL: Collier deputies to target cigarette-throwing drivers  

The Collier County Sheriff’s Office will crack down Tuesday on motorists who toss cigarettes onto roadways during “Where There’s Smoke There’s Fire” special enforcement day.

The traffic enforcement operation will be conducted countywide and will target motorists who discard any lit substance from a moving vehicle.Discarded cigarettes are the biggest problem, deputies say.

“It’s pretty prevalent,” said CCSO Safety and Traffic Enforcement Bureau Sgt. Chris Gonzalez. “People do it all day long.’’

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• Majority Chinese applaud Beijing's smoking ban 

As high as 90 percent of the Chinese public applauded Beijing's smoking ban in public places, to take effect on May 1, however some are concerned if the ban can be implemented effectively, a survey has shown.

The survey by the China Youth Daily and sina.com.cn, covering 5,482 netizens, also revealed that 52 percent of the smoking population agreed with the ban while 37 percent opposed it.

A student smoker at Peking University said he was "certainly unhappy about the ban" but as the ban was to benefit others he would not strongly oppose it. . ..

The on-line survey showed half of the surveyed local residents know of the Beijing smoking ban, and less than 22 percent think it will be enforced effectively.

The survey showed that 90 percent of the respondents believed ubiquitous passive smoking would bring harm to non-smokers' health. More than 72 percent said smokers could well quit smoking after the ban was imposed next month.

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• Smoking bans stoke global warming? 

something else is going up in smoke from a sidewalk in central Oslo – about $100,000 a year in extra outdoor heating bills.

The heated pavement, installed at a cost of about $400,000, may be the most extreme example of an environmental side-effect of smoking bans: rocketing power use.

“It’s warm out here even when it’s snowing and minus 10 (14 Fahrenheit) on the worst winter day,” said N. Virani, managing director of the Mona Lisa restaurant, which includes an outdoor section named after former health Minister Dagfinn Hoybraten who introduced the smoking ban in 2004.

Virani said he believed it was the only heated sidewalk in Scandinavia. And it’s true — today at a chilly 10 Celsius (50F) outdoors it felt like sitting at a warm outdoor cafe by the Mediterranean.

The strip of heated paving outdoors, and heaters in the roof, represent about 180,000 watts of electricity. Total electricity bills for the large business have almost doubled to 1.2 million crowns ($240,000) a year, Virani said. . . .

I’m a big fan of the smoking bans overall as a way of protecting workers’ health and helping some people to kick the habit. But what can people like Mr. Virani do about the side-effect of soaring power use that in many countries is strengthening what U.S. President George W. Bush once called an ”addiction to oil”?

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• Lawmakers poised for smoking-ban fight  

A six-member panel of lawmakers is working to resolve competing bills that passed the state House of Representatives and Senate last year and could release its plan Tuesday. The House-Senate panel is dominated by lawmakers who believe the state should not dictate smoking decisions for business owners or residents.

It likely will push for a plan to continue to allow smoking in casinos, hotels, private clubs and bars where food sales represent only a small portion of total revenue.

Pennsylvania's casinos have pushed to retain some smoking areas. Last week, Atlantic City, N.J., officials voted to ban smoking in gambling areas of casinos. Smoking lounges would be allowed in nongambling areas.

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• EDITORIAL: Blowing smoke: Pennsylvania dithers while the world clears the air 

Pennsylvania's legislative leaders appointed a conference committee in December that was supposed to expedite work on a statewide indoor smoking ban. The committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow, and there's little evidence to suggest the six members are going to agree on a comprehensive ban without exceptions.

While our lawmakers have dithered and failed to get this done, here's what's been accomplished in other states: . . .

All of these changes have taken place since December, when Pennsylvania merely decided to give the issue more study.

The District of Columbia and 21 other states had bans in place before then: Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Utah, Vermont and Washington. Not all of the laws are as far-reaching as they could be; some of them have exemptions for casinos, bars or other workplaces.

The U.S. surgeon general's 2006 report on secondhand smoke said there is no safe level of exposure and concluded that it causes lung cancer, heart disease, serious respiratory illnesses, low birth weight and sudden infant death syndrome. That's why 84 percent of Pennsylvanians agree we need a state law that will protect all workers from the serious health hazards of secondhand smoke.

If our legislators don't get this done, Pennsylvania's new slogan will have to be "America's Ashtray."

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Qualified industry support for tougher NSW tobacco laws 

Bede Fennell from British American Tobacco says the company supports measures to reduce the number of young people smoking, or being affected by smoke.

But he says prohibiting retail displays and banning vending machines in adult areas could have unintended consequences.

"Such unintended consequences could include increased sales of unregulated illegal tobacco, unfair impacts on smaller retailers and the unknown consequences on youth of hiding or forbidding a product," he said.

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Nearly Half Of Smokers Tried To Quit After Public Smoking Ban 

More than 40% of smokers in England tried to stub out the habit after smoking was banned in public places.

More smokers are trying to quit

Last year's summer ban appeared to be a big motivator for many smokers to quit.

Eight per cent of smokers and ex-smokers surveyed said they attempted to quit due to the ban on smoking in public places being introduced in England and Wales last July.

Another 10% tried to stop smoking on New Year's Eve.

The matter is being discussed at a conference in Cardiff organised by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Wales.

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• Whirlpool case highlights how smoker fees for health insurance a hazy issue 

Whirlpool's smokers pay $500 a year more for their employer-provided health insurance—a penalty big enough to increase the likelihood of cheating—but how would the company find out? Internet message boards buzzed last week with speculation about spy cameras and company snitches.

But truth sometimes is stranger than fiction. It wasn't management surveillance or finger-pointing co-workers that outed the smokers. It was the employees themselves. . . .

Last month, Whirlpool's suit to overturn the ruling was dismissed in a sealed settlement, setting the stage for rebates.

The suspended workers drew attention to their smoking when they asked for the rebates, prompting the company to check to see whether they had paid the fees. Apparently they hadn't.

Whirlpool declined to comment about what happened. Last week's statement confirming the suspensions said "falsifying company documents is a serious offense" punishable by suspension or termination.

Workers are represented by Local 808 of the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers-Communication Workers of America, but the union also declined to comment. . . .

Now managers and union officials are forced to confront and investigate behavior that nobody wanted to know about. This is an unwelcome job in a factory culture where smoking is tolerated despite corporate prohibitions and society's increasing disapproval.

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Smoking Labour voters threaten MPs with backlash  

Traditional Labour supporters are threatening to oust Luton's MPs at the next election in protest at the smoking ban.

That was the warning from campaigners at the town centre's CIU working men's club as the site faces tough times.

Sean Spillane, a Labour voter who works at the Arndale-based social club, has lead protests against the ban since private clubs were first included.

He said Margaret Moran MP and Kelvin Hopkins MP stood to lose their seats as core voters punished them for supporting an all-out ban and damaging a way of life.

"The local Labour Party should be worried because traditional voters have already left," he said.

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• William H. Stewart; Surgeon General Condemned Smoking 

William H. Stewart, 86, who as U.S. surgeon general from 1965 to 1969 led the federal anti-smoking crusade and called for warning labels on cigarette advertising and who used the introduction of Medicare to desegregate hospitals throughout the country, died April 23 of kidney failure at Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans.

Dr. Stewart was a career Public Health Service officer who became surgeon general one year after his predecessor, Luther L. Terry, released a landmark report that drew an explicit link between smoking and lung cancer and other diseases.

Expanding on the 1964 report, Dr. Stewart commissioned studies that hammered the tobacco industry by spelling out the toll that cigarettes exacted in lost productivity, disease and early death. Many of his recommendations, including stricter warning labels on cigarette packages and advertising, were adopted despite fierce opposition. . . .

He fought to toughen the Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act of 1965, which affixed a warning on cigarette packages saying that smoking could be "hazardous to your health."

He maintained that it was "indefensible" for the tobacco industry to advertise cigarettes "in a context of happiness, vigor, success and well-being without even a hint appearing anywhere that the product may also lead to disease and death."

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Store staff get help to quit smoking 

STAFF at a Cramlington store who turned to Northumberland Stop Smoking Service to help them quit their habit have had fantastic results.

A number of employees from Focus DIY decided to contact the service to gain support in their attempts to quit smoking.

Elaine Gibbons a specialist stop smoking advisor supported the employees.

"We are keen to make the service as accessible as possible and this includes supporting smokers to quit in their workplace," she said.

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Zerosmoke puts magnets in ears of smokers who want to quit  

Zerosmoke, a Jupiter-based startup company, has secured the exclusive North and South American license for an unusual smoking cessation kit invented and developed in Italy by Zero Piu'srl.

Its product - a pair of small magnets placed in the ear for up to four hours a day - is supposed to stop the desire to smoke.

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