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• Cigarette prices set to soar  

o cut the number of people lighting up. (Getty Images)

Smokers in the UAE could see the cost of cigarettes soar under a government initiative to reduce the number of people lighting up, an official has warned.

Wedad Al Maidoor, head of the Ministry of Health Tobacco Control Team, said the price hike has been included in a new smoking law that is expected to come into force across the Emirates at the end of May, UAE daily the National reported on Sunday.

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Pipe smokers huff and puff about smoking ban  

"How would you like it if you went to a wine tasting and you couldn't taste the wine?" asked the 53-year-old Denver resident. "It's a freedom issue."

On Thursday, pipe aficionados learned that their attempts to allow smoking inside the Pheasant Run convention center, where some 4,000 were expected to linger over tables laid out with aromatic tobacco and intricately carved briar pipes Saturday and Sunday, had gone up in smoke.

The group had sought, with the help of its attorney members, to get around the state smoking ban that went into effect in January by arguing that the event was essentially a private club meeting. . . .

The hall is strictly staffed with volunteers, convention-goers were to pay $15 to join the club, and attendees were to sign a waiver stating they "freely and willingly accept all the risks of smoking, second-hand smoke, third-hand smoke, and all other risks, both real and imagined, regarding smoking tobacco."

But St. Charles police, DuPage County health officials and anti-smoking advocates didn't buy it. . . .

"I've been thrown out of nine restaurants and three bars in Saginaw because of a pipe," Michigan resident Brad Benard, 58, said after lighting his corncob pipe. "But this is a new low."

Anti-smoking forces "just keep grinding us down," said Reg Stevens, 65, who flew in from Birmingham, England, for the convention and planned to compete in Sunday's pipe-smoking contest.

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SLAT: Silver Star owner's sign clears air about bar's smoking policy 

Mario DeFelice wants it known that smokers are welcome at his Silver Star Bar in beautiful downtown Scofield.

He also wants it known that non-smokers are welcome.

A sign outside his place says "This is a smoking establishment. People should make their own choice. Not politicians."

Mr. DeFelice says his place draws a crowd from miles around to eat steak, fish and other meals served on foam plates. . . .

Mr. DeFelice went to Lansing last year to testify before a committee considering smoking. He had a suggestion for lawmakers.

There ought to be a law, he said, that requires all establishments - bars, restaurants, pool halls, bowling alleys, stores and other businesses to post prominently whether smoking is banned or permitted on the premises.

He says some lawmakers looked at him as if he was crazy. To him, the idea seems a reasonable free-market solution.

His point argues for consistency. If the government says smoking will kill you or make you sick, then it should outlaw it. If it doesn't have the guts to outlaw smoking, let employers and business owners decide if it should be allowed.

Anything else seems hypocritical.

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EDITORIAL: State’s indoor smoking ban on hold for too long  

ARE STATE LAWMAKERS blowing smoke at us again?

For the better part of a year the state House of Representatives and Senate have been debating which businesses should be exempt from a statewide indoor smoking ban. . . .

Pennsylvania might - or might not - be on the verge of striking a compromise bill that still must be passed by both legislative bodies.

Don't hold your breath on this one, folks. We've all seen lawmakers huff and puff, only to blow our dreams down.

If local leaders want to legally protect citizens from second-hand smoke beyond the minimum state standards, why should they be prohibited?

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Opinion: An ordinance banning smoking in most public places 

An Ordinance of the City Commission of the City of Amarillo, Texas, repealing and replacing Title 8, Chapter 8-5, Article V of the Amarillo Municipal Code pertaining to smoking regulations by protecting the public health and welfare by prohibiting smoking in public places and places of employment, protecting the right of the public to breathe smoke-free air, providing for fines as penalties, providing a severability clause and provding an effective date.

Share your thoughts, and see what others are thinking!

WHEREAS, the City of Amarillo, Texas is a Home Rule municipality, duly organized under the laws of the State of Texas;

WHEREAS, the City of Amarillo, Texas possesses all of the rights, powers, and authorities possessed by a home rule municipality, including the authority to protect the health and welfare of the public;

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FCTA to enforce ban on smoking  

The FCT Minister, Dr Aliyu Modibbo, has set up a committee to enforce the ban on smoking in public places in the FCT from June 1.

This was announced in Abuja in a statement signed by Mr Muhammad Hazat, the chief press secretary to the minister.

Modibbo said the committee would be coordinated by the FCT Social Development Secretariat, headed by its Secretary, Mrs Felicita Banehita-Olajide, with eight other members.

He said the committee was expected to embark on an aggressive public awareness campaign from May 1 to effectively sensitise the public.

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EDITORIAL:Medicaid calculus 

We support increasing Mississippi's cigarette tax as a matter of principle for better public and personal health. The current 18 cents per pack tax is among the nation's lowest, yet our state spends $260 million treating smoking-induced sickness among Medicaid patients.

There's a disconnect in those figures and in the governor's and Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant's unflinching opposition to increasing the tax by $1 per pack.

There's nothing good about smoking. . . .

The cigarette tax alone won't pay the full tab for the rest of the budget year and expected increases in 2009, but morally and as public policy should be part of the calculus.

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Sabotage suspected in farm's tobacco crop loss 

State agriculture officials are investigating an intentional poisoning of tobacco crops at a farm in Sanford.

Lee County farmer John Gross told WRAL-TV in Raleigh that the plants inside his greenhouse have been destroyed. Officials believe someone put a toxic chemical on the plants, and tests are being done to determine what chemical was used.

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Plastic industry's influence questioned after FDA ruling 

Despite more than 100 published studies by government scientists and university laboratories that have raised health concerns about a chemical compound that is central to the multibillion-dollar plastics industry, the Food and Drug Administration has deemed it safe largely because of two studies, both paid for by an industry trade group.

The agency says it has relied on research backed by the American Plastics Council because it had input on its design, monitored its progress and reviewed the raw data. . . .

Congressional Democrats have begun investigating any industry influence in regulating BPA.

"Tobacco figured this out, and essentially it's the same model," said David Michaels, who was a federal regulator in the Clinton administration. "If you fight the science, you're able to postpone regulation and victim compensation, as well. As in this case, eventually the science becomes overwhelming. But if you can get five or 10 years of avoiding pollution control or production of chemicals, you've greatly increased your product."

Mitchell Cheeseman, the deputy director of the FDA's office of food-additive safety, said that the agency is not biased toward industry.

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Man dies after fire 

GERMANTON

A Forsyth County man who was burned on over 95 percent of his body in a house fire Friday died early yesterday, authorities said.

Rickey Lee Banner, 54, of 2520 N.C. 65 was at home Friday when the fire was reported shortly after 9 p.m. . . .

Whicker said that the fire was an accident and appears to be related to smoking. . . .

Ricky Banner was retired on disability from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.

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Experienced: Company hires tobacco veterans 

So when General Tobacco said last June that it was moving from Miami and opening its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Mayodan to be closer to the heart of domestic farms and production, Shelton knew he wanted in.

"It's a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor of a tobacco company establishing a foundation in Rockingham County and North Carolina," said Shelton, who works on a filter machine. "It's a great fit for me. I always enjoyed working in tobacco, I'm getting to work the hours I want, and I moved into an industry that has more certainty than the one I left."

General was founded in 1997 and is the sixth largest U.S. tobacco manufacturer, with $300 million in sales in 2007. It specializes in discount cigarettes, with Bronco, GT One and Silver as its best-known brands.

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LETTER: Just ban tobacco 

It doesn't matter how cigarettes are hidden in a store. If people want to try them, they will. The only way to stop teens from starting to smoke is a complete ban.

It's time we started to blame the government, instead of picking on those of us who are highly addicted to this awful habit.

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Today's Vote / Should smoking be allowed in prison? 

Today's Vote

Should smoking be allowed in prison?

69% Yes, in all areas

17% No, it poses a threat to the health of staff

14% Only in designated areas

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Hunger strike at prison over ban on tobacco 

Prisoners have launched a protest at the first jail in the British Isles to go smoke-free. A workplace smoking ban came into effect last month on the Isle of Man, and covers cells in the island's tiny 90-man prison.

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Five inmates continue Isle of Man hunger strike  

FIVE prisoners refused to eat their evening meal yesterday (Thursday) in protest against the smoking ban.

Friends and relatives of inmates claimed up to 16 of 32 prisoners on A wing of the Victoria Road jail were on hunger strike.

Prison officials initially said 'a very small number' of inmates were refusing to eat.

In a statement issued this morning, the Department of Home Affairs confirmed that nine prisoners refused their lunchtime meals yesterday and five refused their evening meal.

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