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An East Cleveland mother and her fiance have been indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter after the death of her 2-year-old from eating cocaine and nicotine.
Deanna Henderson, 24, and Antoine Fentress, 24, were also indicted Monday on charges of endangering children and domestic violence. . . .
Henderson pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter, and Fentress pleaded guilty to endangering children.
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Ton Wurtz, treasurer of the foundation 'Red de kleine horecaondernemer' (Save the small hospitality entrepreneur), has admitted to receiving "about 50,000 euros per year" from the tobacco companies. Wurtz also holds biweekly strategy talks with Willem Jan Roelofs, the chairman of the cigarette industry foundation SSI, he said.
Smoking was banned in cafes, bars, hotels and restaurants in The Netherlands a year ago. Just before the ban went into effect on July 1, 2008, Wurtz, who has been the spokesperson for a foundation that stands up for smokers since 1993, and other seasoned tobacco lobbyists established the foundation to represent the interests of small cafe owners.
The smoking ban was primarily adopted to guarantee the right of employees to work in a smoke-free environment. But critics say small bars, with no employees except the owners, should be exempt from the ban. Several court cases are underway against cafes that defied the ban.
The law firm representing the small cafe owners has been negotiating with the tobacco industry about the possibility of it bankrolling future lawsuits challenging the smoking ban. . . .
"We are talking to several parties about financing a procedure, SSI amongst them," Marco Gerritsen of the Van Diepen Van der Kroef law firm confirmed. "They haven't promised anything yet."
SSI's is a collaboration between British American Tobacco (Pall Mall), Imperial Tobacco (Gauloises) and Japan Tobacco International (Camel); Philip Morris (Marlboro) left the group in 2005. Tobacco companies fear a decline of 5 percent of sales because of the smoking ban in bars. Roelofs: "That is a substantial loss in an already contracting market." He denied the SSI has any intention to finance future court cases.
Smugglers take the same routes today — driving SUVs along paved roads or with guidance from the Tuareg and satellite phones — to move weapons, drugs, and, increasingly, humans — through the Sahara for transport across the Mediterranean Sea. The paths are no longer known as the Salt Roads of the Tuareg, but as the “Marlboro Connection,” named after the most lucrative contraband along this 2,000-mile corridor.
Among those who control this underground trade is al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an Algeria-based terrorist organization widely believed to have been backed by Osama Bin Laden. Descended from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (known by its French acronym, GSPC) the group has hundreds of members and is blamed for a bloody campaign of bombings, murders, and kidnappings across North Africa and Europe. The lead smuggler, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, 37, is blamed for the 2003 kidnappings of 32 European tourists and the 2006 murder of 13 Algerian customs officials. “They are a significant threat,” says Lorenzo Vidino, author of Al Qaeda in Europe. “Of all Islamic terrorist groups, they have the most extensive and sophisticated network in Europe… And among their activities, smuggling is particularly important.”
Military officials and scholars say cigarette smuggling, in fact, has provided the bulk of financing for AQIM. The money comes not directly from smuggling, but from charging protection fees to others moving the untaxed cigarettes through the Sahara. The most smuggled brand is Marlboro, followed by Gauloises and American Legend, as well as counterfeited Rym, a popular Algerian brand. . . .
Hezbollah, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda are involved in smuggling cigarettes; so are the Real Irish Republican Army (Real IRA) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Terrorist financing through cigarette smuggling is “huge,” says Louise Shelley, a transnational crime expert at George Mason University and an adviser to the World Economic Forum on illicit trade. “Worldwide — it’s no exaggeration… No one thinks cigarette smuggling is too serious, so law enforcement doesn’t spend resources to go after it.”
A spokesman for the Department of Health (DH) said today (June 29) that smoking ban at six types of listed establishments (LE) will take effect on July 1 in accordance with the Smoking (Public Health) Ordinance (Cap 371).
These establishments are bars, clubs, night-clubs, bathhouses, massage establishments and mahjong-tin kau premises.
Studies have shown that second hand smoke affects the health of staff and customers at indoor public areas.
“The arrangement can further protect the public from exposure to second hand smoke,” the spokesman said.
The spokesman also called for the co-operation of venue management in providing a smoke-free environment for their staff and customers.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia -- The catchy slogan, "Kicking the habit is on you, and marriage is on us," is meant to entice young grooms to give up smoking by offering an attractive incentive.
And, indeed, hundreds have expressed interest in the first anti-smoking drive of its kind in the kingdom, with one man saying he is ready to take up smoking just to be eligible for the grand prize - an all-expenses-paid wedding. . . .
Since June 20, banners have gone up on overpasses and bridges over the Saudi capital's major highways, depicting the campaign slogan in pink and reddish brown. Next to it are the faceless outlines of a bride, dressed in white and carrying a bouquet of flowers, and of a man wearing a black, ceremonial cloak over his white thobe, the traditional robe Saudi men wear.
The quit-smoking-drive is also being advertised in malls, at universities and in magazines.
The organizer, a local charity called Purity, stipulates that the marriage is the man's first and that he has a recent marriage contract. In Islam, the contract is usually signed before a couple moves in together.
A draw on Aug. 6 will include the names of the men who successfully quit smoking in a weeklong course. The winner will have all wedding expenses paid while 20 runners-up will get free furniture.
Sulaiman al-Soby, secretary general of Purity, said the aim is to create a smoke-free family. One-third of Saudi school children live in homes with smokers, according to a 2007 health survey.
Although global smoking figures become more frightening every day, the number of smokers and smoking-related deaths seems to be particularly alarming in Turkey. July 19 of this year will be listed as one of the turning points in Turkey's history since it will mark the beginning of “100 percent smoke-free air” in the country.
Despite some question marks raised by the public about the implementation of the ban as of July 19, the smoking ban, which went partially into effect on May 19, 2008 is due to be expanded to include restaurants, coffeehouses, cafeterias and bars, and as the day draws nearer, experts say the public will successfully adjust to the ban in a short time if everyone plays their part.
“Turkey will be the best example for the world with its two-year journey to enact and implement the law,” said Sylviane Ratte, a tobacco control expert at the International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. She explained France's 17-year journey to implement the law during a press conference held on Thursday by the National Cigarette and Health Committee (SSUK) in İstanbul. Stating that the first legislation was passed in 1991 in France to ban smoking in closed areas, she said Turkey has moved more quickly.
Contentions that cigarette prices have no effect on tobacco consumption are wrong, says Louis Gauvin, co-director of the Coalition québécoise pour le contrôle du tabac.
Léger Marketing conducted a study last month for the Canadian Convenience Stores Association. In its report, which was made public this month, association vice-president Michel Gadbois says cheaper cigarettes won't influence the number of people who get hooked on tobacco.
For months, dépanneur owners have complained that cigarette prices, and the taxes on tobacco products, are too high and are hurting their bottom line.
Calling the study, conducted in 25 Quebec cities, biased, Gauvin this week questioned who Gadbois's employer really is.
"We believe that Gadbois is doing more work for the tobacco industry by suggesting lower taxes," Gauvin said. "If a convenience store is having financial difficulties, it's not solely because taxes on tobacco are too high." Gadbois says he stands by the study's findings.
"(The coalition) is just complaining that we're using arguments that they may or may not like," he said.
Gadbois also said younger smokers are more likely to buy contraband cigarettes, because they are cheaper.
Whether your child becomes a smoker may be determined in part by the neighbourhood he or she grows up in, according to a new report by a Montreal-based research centre.
"We wanted to develop a better understanding of how neighbourhoods affect health," said Christiane Montpetit, who wrote the report for the Centre Léa-Roback, a research institute that focuses on the impact of social inequality on health.
Researchers at the centre analyzed about 20 different smoking related studies produced over the last decade and tried to draw conclusions about environmental factors that encourage or discourage tobacco use among youth.
Overall, adult Quebecers are smoking less, partly because of smoking bans in restaurants, bars and other public places. But 31 per cent of young people (age 20 to 24) in Quebec still smoke, and most start in their teens.
As with adult smoking, socio-economic status plays a role, in that a greater percentage of poor kids smoke. But an even stronger link seems to be the level of education of parents, the report notes. . . .
Montpetit acknowledged the report raises more questions than it answers, but it shows that strategies that target only the individual might not be an effective way to reduce smoking among teens.
"We all know that in certain neighbourhoods, often wealthier ones, it is considered shameful to be seen smoking. People actually hide when they smoke. ...Whereas if you live in a place where everyone smokes, it becomes a social activity," she said.
People who eat lots of soy products have better lung function and are less likely to develop the smoking-associated lung disease COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). A new study has shown that consumption of a wide variety of soy products can be associated with a reduction in the risk of COPD and other respiratory symptoms.
Dr. Fumi Hirayama and Professor Andy Lee from Curtin University of Technology, Australia, worked with a team of respiratory physicians to poll 300 patients with COPD from six Japanese hospitals and 340 age-matched control subjects from the same areas as the patients about their soy intake. Dr. Hirayama said, "Soy consumption was found to be positively correlated with lung function and inversely associated with the risk of COPD. It has been suggested that flavonoids from soy foods act as an anti-inflammatory agent in the lung, and can protect against tobacco carcinogens for smokers. However, further research is needed to understand the underlying biological mechanism".
Roll-your-own smokes could be even more harmful than factory-made cigarettes because people suck them harder and more efficiently, Christchurch research indicates.
The researchers are calling for the Government to act on their findings by applying a higher tax and specific warnings on roll-your-own tobacco.
In the first comparison between the two types of smoking using people rather than smoking machines, the study suggests rollies are "apparently no less and possibly more dangerous" than factory-made cigarettes.
Public health specialist Dr Murray Laugesen and his co-researchers found roll-your-own smokers inhaled 28 per cent more smoke per filtered cigarette, even though the rollies contained less tobacco than the factory-mades.
And both types boosted the level of carbon monoxide, measured in exhaled breath, by the same amount.
"Whereas a smoker of factory-mades lets a lot of the smoke go up in the air, these roll-your-own smokers suck like crazy and don't let so much be wasted," Dr Laugesen said yesterday. "They're getting more value out of the tobacco - and more harm."
Authorities will have to watch out for nicotine gel, an alternative cigarette that looks set to attract smokers but may be harmful to health.
By just rubbing the gel in one's hands, one will be able to experience having a cigarette within 30 seconds.
The nicotine gel is touted as a solution to people who feel the urge to smoke in smoking-free places.
"The problem is that there is no research to confirm that this product is really safe," Thailand Health Promotion Institute president Dr Hatai Chitanondh said yesterday, "This is not a certified quit-smoking product."
According to him, the nicotine gel is already available at more than 400 retail shops in Malaysia. Despite its ban in Thailand, the product has the potential to find its way to Thai smokers via Internet advertisements.