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Local bodegas will have smaller but visible 'Smoking Kills' signs, Board of Health approves 

The Health�Department's grim new anti-smoking signs should start showing up at bodega cash registers in December - putting blackened lungs in your face in time for Christmas.

The signs will bear messages such as "SMOKING KILLS" with stark images of diseased and cancerous lips and lungs, posted at all 12,000 city stores that sell cigarettes.

The Board of Health on�Tuesday approved the signs, which will be 1 foot square on cash registers and 2 feet square on cigarette displays - a concession to opponents who said the originally proposed 3-foot-square signs would hurt retailers.

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Anti-tobacco signature campaign in Salem 

To save lives: Members of voluntary organisations distributing handbills in Salem on Thursday to create awareness among people on cancer and negative effects of tobacco consumption. --

SALEM: A cancer awareness road show and anti-tobacco signature campaign was conducted here on Thursday. The campaign was organised by the Worldwide Cancer Foundation, a non-governmental organisation, and the Indian Red Cross Society as a part of their State-wide initiative to spread awareness among people about cancer and the negative effects of tobacco consumption.

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No tax cut for tobacco, alcohol under Afta 2010 

Kota Baru: There will be no tariff reduction on the export of rice, tobacco and alcohol from Malaysia when the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta) is fully implemented on Jan 1, 2010.

International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Mustapa Mohamed said these items were included in Afta's sensitive list and were exempted from the tariff reduction obligation as agreed to earlier by Asean member countries. . . .

"There will also be no tax cut on other sensitive items such as alcohol and tobacco as this has been discussed with member countries of the grouping," he told reporters after hosting a Hari Raya gathering here, Wednesday.

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Lights out for dorm smokers  

All NYU residence halls will become smoke-free beginning next fall, housing officials said.

NYU will join the 612 colleges of the 950-member Association of College and University Housing Officers International that have banned smoking in residence halls. Many universities, like Harvard, Syracuse and all public universities in Florida, have already banned smoking in all university buildings.

Currently, the New York legislature is considering a bill to ban smoking at private and public colleges statewide, but schools like NYU, Syracuse and Ithaca have already decided to stop lighting up on campus.

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EDITORIAL: Bloomberg's new smoking ban is impractical  

The WSN Editorial Board thinks Bloomberg's proposed ban, while noble, is an impractical solution without any guarantee of results. The ban's scope is far too large for it to be enforceable, and it brings up the very pertinent issue of personal rights against public health.

However, we do agree with NYU's decision to prohibit smoking in residence hall courtyards. This is a demonstrable health risk and student irritant, and we applaud the university for using its judgment to favor students' health over all else.

The difference between these two bans — other than, obviously, their outright potential for effectiveness and benefit — lies in range. NYU had a specific, focused goal it hoped to achieve with its ban: to alleviate student anguish. And to a large extent, the university has been successful. But placing a ban on park and beach smoking, no matter how well-intentioned, is simply too ambitious.

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Smoking ban returns mixed results  

There have been nearly 50 violations of the newly implemented smoking ban in residence halls as of Monday - a surprisingly high number, university officials said.

"It was higher than I thought it would be," said Tom Ellett, assistant vice president for residential education.

Beginning this fall semester, a smoking policy prohibits students from smoking in NYU residence halls, mainly out of concern for students' health, university spokesman John Beckman said. Previously, students who identified themselves as smokers could be put into smoking rooms and live only with other students who opted to live in smoking rooms.

But the 48 violations were surprising to Ellett, who took part in implementing the policy at Syracuse University.

"I'm going to turn to the CDEs and RAs to be creative," Ellett said, referring to the ResEd staff. "The biggest influencer on peers, is peers. If they think it's cool to smoke, they'll smoke. If they don't think it's cool, they won't. You can apply this to just about anything."

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Ban on 14-stick packet of cigarettes mid next year 

The 14-stick packet of cigarettes will be taken off the shelves by the middle of next year.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said the implementation date for the ban had not been decided but he hoped it would coincide with the World Tobacco Day on May 31.

He said the ban is to further deter Malaysians, especially the young, from picking up the smoking habit.

The National Health and Morbidity Survey 2006 revealed that three million Malaysians are smokers and about 450,000 are aged between 13 and 18.

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2009 Smoke Free Perth Royal Show 

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Doctors have welcomed a move to ban smoking at the Perth Royal Show 

The Australian Medical Association has welcomed a move to ban smoking at the Perth Royal Show and says other events should follow suit.

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Some blame indoor smoking ban for taverns' troubles 

The air is cleaner, but Sal Diana says his wallet is a little lighter, too.

In the year that’s passed since the state’s indoor smoking ban went into effect, Diana shut down Humphrey’s restaurant in the Beaver Valley Mall — a staple there for 15 years — in part because smoking customers had moved on.

“It wasn’t the killer for me, but it contributed, there’s no question,” said Diana, who closed Humphrey’s in July. “You noticed that after a certain hour, that crowd you would always get wasn’t showing up any longer. They all went somewhere where they could smoke.” . . .

“The people who are coming in to eat love it, and that’s the biggest part of the business there, by far,” he said. “But the younger ones who came in the evening to have a beer or have a cocktail, they’ve moved to one of the places that has an exemption.”

The ban hurt Diana, and it had an impact on fellow bar owners across the state. The Pennsylvania Tavern Association has said that the number of taverns in the state dropped from 16,000 six years ago to 12,500 this year; it also estimates that hundreds of those closings came since the ban.

“These are guys just trying to make a business work, and the state drove a big chunk of their customers elsewhere,” he said. “The law isn’t fair to everyone, that’s the shame of it.”

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2 San Bernardino hospitals going smoke-free  

Two San Bernardino hospitals are among thousands nationwide expected to ban smoking on their grounds this year.

On June 30, Community Hospital of San Bernardino, a 321-bed facility, owned and operated by Catholic Healthcare West, implemented its smoke-free policy after almost a year of preparation, said Kimiko Ford, Community Hospital's mission and support services vice president. Administrators wanted a property-wide smoking ban to be enacted by the end of the 2008-09 budget year, she said.

Two months earlier, Community Hospital's sister hospital, St. Bernardine Medical Center, started its smoke-free policy. Dee Webb, vice president of human resources, said the policy naturally fits with the medical center's role as the provider of Southern California's second-largest heart program.

"All of that just ties together," she said.

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Santa Cruz Pot Smokers Light Up 

The annual WAMMfest celebration lights up for medical marijuana users n Santa Cruz.

Earlier this week, organizers hit a big snag when they forgot to ask city leaders to lift a smoking ban at San Lorenzo Park. Nevertheless, the event got off without any problems.

There was no controversy in the park on Saturday, just a group of folks adamant that marijuana is essential to help the sick cope with pain.

"The benefits absolutely outweigh any of the legalities," said Matthew Roth.

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More tax money going up in smoke  

Specialty tobacco retailers in Hawai'i are bracing for the ignition of a new state law on Wednesday that dramatically increases taxes on cigars, pipe tobacco and smokeless tobacco.

The tax hike, passed by the Legislature in May, will result in state taxes accounting for half or more than half the wholesale price of such tobacco products, with consumers paying for the hike in retail purchases.

The move comes on the heals of a federal tobacco tax increase that took effect in April, and was intended to increase revenue to the state in an effort to help balance its budget.

But the higher taxes are also expected to hurt sales for retailers already suffering in the bad economy by curbing smoking for some consumers or leading them to buy tobacco elsewhere.

"It's going to kill us," said Diane Chow, manager of Kipuka Smoke Shop in Hilo.

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EDITORIAL: A ban on flavored cigs isn't simple  

Let's remember that we're talking about flavored tobacco, because artificial additives like cherry, grape, chocolate, and spices such as cloves, appeal to youngsters. Let's also remember that in anticipation of the ban, cigarette makers had mostly stopped producing flavored cigarettes.

Unfortunately, the law itself is vague in that it doesn't clearly define what a cigarette is. It comes down to wrapping. Cigarettes are wrapped in thin paper, cigars in tobacco leaves. While the cigars also are made with a different kind of tobacco, the taste is similar. The cigars come 12 to a pack, rather than 20 for cigarettes, but cost nearly half as much. . . .

It makes no sense to ban flavors in cigarettes and then allow the industry to addict young people to flavored cigars.

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Bay City businesses upset with federal ban on flavored cigarettes  

Timothy Socier owns Timothy's Fine Tobaccos in downtown Bay City. He was forced to remove clove cigarettes from this store after the government ban went into effect on Tuesday.

"They were a very small part of the business," Socier said. "My big frustration is that the federal government is involved in my business."

Other small businesses expressed similar views, saying the ban won't necessarily hurt the bottom line, but is another example of government interfering with business. Socier said he received notice of the ban two weeks ago, forcing him to sell the soon-to-be banned inventory at a significant discount.

"Eventually (the government) is going to put me out of business," said Socier.

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