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Hector council postpones smoking ban for city park 

The Hector City Council decided against adopting a smoke-free ordinance for an area of its park at Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting.

Mayor Martha Owens said several citizens expressed opposition following the council’s May meeting, where representatives from Community Service Inc. made a presentation detailing the benefits of the ordinance.

“We are going to wait a little bit further in time before we adopt it – probably the end of summer,” Owens said. “We’ll wait and give it some more discussion.”

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Group revives anti-smoking initiative in Kirkwood  

For a second time, city voters could decide whether to ban smoking in indoor public places.

Promoters of an initiative announced Monday they are close to obtaining enough signatures to put the ban on the ballot. If their petitions are valid, they hope for an election in November, but a combination of city charter and state election deadlines could put off the election until February.

With very few exceptions, the measure would allow smoking only in private homes, private vehicles and outdoors. Hotels could still designate up to 20 percent of their rooms for smoking, and some private clubs and retail tobacco stores would be exempt under the measure.

The initiative is a revised version of a ballot question voters defeated in November 2006, with 54.6 percent of about 14,300 voters opposing it.

Supporters need 1,036 signatures to start the initiative process. A group called Healthy Air for Kirkwood has collected about 950 signatures, said Debra Cotten, group spokeswoman.

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Council butts out, this time 

City councillors are butting out of the contentious issue of banning smoking in public housing.

They voted against taking a position yesterday, instead referring the issue to CityHousing's independent board for consideration.

"The devil is in the details," said Councillor Chad Collins, adding it's difficult for the city to take a position when it doesn't know how the restrictions would be implemented.

"There's still a lot of work to be done. I see this as the start of the process."

Public health staff had recommended the Board of Health, which includes all councillors, endorse a smoking ban for all new housing properties and some existing units as they turn over. The position would then be forwarded to the CityHousing's board to be considered for a formal policy.

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GRAY: A ban on lighting up in the car will smoke out bad parents 

This is what makes the reaction to the recent proposal, to ban smoking in cars when children are present, somewhat peculiar. Why would anyone complain about a proposed law to protect their own children?

The person suggesting the legislation is not some fundamentalist, nut job, anti-libertarian, but Professor Terence Stephenson, the extremely eminent head of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. Part of his job is to improve and maintain the health of children in the UK, and as such his concerns should be addressed with the utmost seriousness.

The response, from smokers of course, has been depressing, as if no-one has learned anything at all in the past 50 years. Simon Clark was one of the first to respond. He's director of the proudly unpleasant Forest, the smokers' lobby group funded by the tobacco industry. Smokers opposing this ban are advertising the fact that they don’t value their children’s health above their addiction . . .

Those who cry "nanny state!" at every piece of new health legislation should reflect on the fact that state intervention is a direct consequence of failing to regulate ourselves. Liberty sometimes means more than just the freedom of personal gratification. It means protecting the rights of the vulnerable.

If Professor Stephenson's advice is taken and law is passed, selfish gits will still smoke in cars with children. Some will get caught. Most will not. But hopefully, just as it's become socially unacceptable to drink and drive, text and drive, or travel without a seatbelt, a new law would make it clear to the transgressors that they are doing something which society at large disapproves of. . . .

The state only needs to nanny when its citizens behave like children.

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Petitions Filed For Public Vote 

Casino owners and others opposed to expanding the state's smoking ban filed petitions Monday that could have enough signatures to require a public vote on the issue.

The law passed earlier this year by the South Dakota Legislature would ban smoking in bars, casinos in historic Deadwood and video lottery establishments. It extends a ban that has outlawed smoking in workplaces and most public areas since 2002.

The expansion is scheduled to take effect July 1. But the start date would be delayed until after next year's election if opponents have enough signatures to call for a vote.

Petitions with an estimated 25,000 signatures were submitted to Secretary of State Chris Nelson by a coalition representing bars and gambling establishments. If the documents contain at least 16,776 valid signatures, the smoking ban will go on the November 2010 ballot for a statewide vote.

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ESCONDIDO: Activist says Abed shouldn't vote on smoking ban 

With the City Council slated Wednesday to consider a ban on smoking in Escondido parks, a community activist has called on Councilman Sam Abed to remove himself from the debate because Abed owns a gas station that sells cigarettes.

"It's a pretty big conflict of interest for him to sell cigarettes all day and then vote against banning them from parks," said Danny Perez, a longtime community activist in Escondido.

But Abed, a longtime opponent of smoking bans, said Monday that there is no conflict of interest because cigarette sales make up less than 2 percent of the $10,000 in gross revenue his Mobil service station generates on a typical day.

City Attorney Jeff Epp agreed.

"As I understand it, they are a very minor part of his business," Epp said Monday.

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Some smokers doubt law will work  

Some local cigarette smokers doubt a new anti-smoking bill signed Monday by President Barack Obama will have its intended effect of keeping teenagers away from tobacco.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act calls for limiting tobacco advertising that could attract young people, banning candy and fruit flavors in tobacco products and requiring large graphic warnings on tobacco products.

However, some cigarette smokers interviewed Monday said these changes would not have affected their decision to light up their first cigarettes as teenagers.

“If people want to smoke, they’re going to smoke, regardless of advertising,” said Curtis Player of Martinsville, a smoker since age 18.

“When I was growing up, we didn’t have flavored cigarettes, and everybody still smoked,” Player said. “I never paid attention to advertising... Being around smoking, that’s what did it.”

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• Tobacco regulation could lead to more competition 

One of the real tests of how federal regulation will affect tobacco use could be something you'll spot at a convenience store counter.

A new law signed by President Barack Obama yesterday will, among many changes, move all tobacco products -- snuff and cigars as well as cigarettes -- behind the counter.

How they share space back there could clear the way for more competition in a market now dominated by Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc.

It's competition that Chesterfield County-based Swedish Match North America is hoping for, and a rule it believes could lead to something it's long wanted: more space on retailer's shelves for its snuff and chewing tobacco.

"It's back to old fashioned blocking and tackling, how to be more competitive -- including against cigarettes," said Gerry Roerty, Swedish Match's president and general counsel.

Both Richmond-area tobacco companies broke with most of the rest of the tobacco industry in supporting the regulation of tobacco by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. . . . .

"This puts Philip Morris absolutely in control of the American market," said Alan Blum, director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society at the University of Alabama. "This means Marlboro is king."

It is also likely to make oral tobacco -- snuff and similar products -- a major public-health issue, he said.

Swedish Match thinks regulation could open up the market, especially for its oral tobacco, Roerty said.

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Prisons to ban smoking 

Prisons and other state correctional facilities across Virginia plan to ban tobacco use by February 2010.

Virginia Department of Corrections spokesman Larry Traylor said smoking is banned or there are designated smoking areas for staff at eight prisons so far, according to The Associated Press.

Patrick Henry Correctional Unit No. 28 in Horsepasture is not one of them, Traylor said last week. Tobacco use is permitted there, he said, but only until Feb. 1.

Then, the tobacco ban “affects everyone, with no exceptions,” Traylor said.

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Tobacco Regulation Will Save Lives, Money  

We strongly support the measures in the federal legislation because the FDA will be able to regulate the contents of tobacco products, make their ingredients public, prohibit flavoring, require larger warning labels and strictly control or prohibit marketing campaigns, especially those geared toward children. . . .

That is a gain for all of us, who have to bear the growing health care costs for sick smokers. These illnesses and costs are an unnecessary and preventable drain on society.

The bill notes that cutting the number of young smokers in half would result in $75 billion in health care savings. We are encouraged by the overwhelming legislative support and look forward to Obama signing this bill into law.

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Commissioners approve smoking ban 

Although it still heard opposition from members of the community, the Upper Moreland Township Parks and Recreation Committee decided to move forward with a partial smoking ban at its meeting Monday.

Certain designated areas in Masons Mill, Pileggi, Woodlawn, Fern Village, Terwood, North Willow Grove, Veterans Memorial and Fair Oaks parks will have designated smoking areas, the proposed ordinance said.

The smoking areas would be decided by the director of parks and recreation and is limited to the aforementioned parks because they offer scheduled recreational activities.

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Hamish Champ: Wanna go tie-free? Check out the Emerald Isle 

last week I meets an investment type who knows the Irish pub market quite well. After talking about the state of the UK licensed trade we gets to chatting about pubs in the Emerald Isle.

Many, he said, were suffering. No doubt because of the smoking ban, I opined knowingly, ready to roll out facts and figures about the effects of the ban on the licensed sector versus the cost to the Irish economy of treating people whose lungs have the consistency of a loofah and who gozz up bucketloads of pale green phlegm every day.

Nope, he replied. It was largely because many licensees had signed commercial leases with their landlords at the height of the Celtic Tiger Boom Thang(TM). While these were all fine and dandy at a time of the economic surge the country was then experiencing, in the current market conditions they were proving to be unsustainable. Not smoking then, but onerous leases. Sounds familiar doesn't it?

It's my understanding that there is no pubco model in Ireland similar to the one you'd fine here. It's all free trade.

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• TV chef Antony Worrall Thompson joins campaign for limited pub smoking 

Celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson today joined a campaign to amend the current smoking ban to bolster the pub and club industry.

The TV chef joined MPs from the three main political parties in calling for the comprehensive ban to be relaxed to help establishments losing revenue, laying off staff or facing closure.

One of the changes the group hopes will be considered is the adoption of the Spanish model - where venues with limited floor space can choose to be smoking or non-smoking, but venues larger than 100 square metres can have a designated, fully-partitioned, smoking room.

They are also proposing that smoking of tobacco be allowed in venues that can secure a licence by ensuring an agreed level of ventilation and air quality in all areas.

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H. R. 1256 FAMILY SMOKING PREVENTION AND TOBACCO CONTROL ACT (PDF) 

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Prestonsburg Considering Smoking Ban  

Officials in Prestonsburg are working on an ordinance that would ban smoking in all public buildings, but some are worried that would hurt the city.

Members of the "Breathe Easy, Floyd County" coalition flooded Monday night's city council meeting to voice their concerns about smoking in public buildings.

They say clean air is all they are hoping to achieve. Jean Rosenberg with "Breathe Easy, Floyd County" says, "This is a public health issue for the work place. We expect clean water, and we expect clean air."

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