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Alcohol sales drop after smoking ban  

Corpus Christi's bars aren't selling as much booze as last year, but it's unclear whether a recent smoking ban, the recession or other factors are the primary cause.

Alcohol sales at Corpus Christi's bars and restaurants were, on average, down by about $3,000 per establishment this August compared with last August. The drop equates to about an 8 percent drop in alcohol sales overall.

When only considering alcohol sales at bars and pool halls, the average drop in sales is about $4,800 per bar for August.

Those numbers come from the alcohol tax receipts reported to the state comptroller's office. Statewide, tax receipts indicated a 1 percent dip in alcohol sales when comparing this August with last.

Although some bar owners say the smoking ban is to blame, spending in the city is down overall.

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Travel smart: Some rentals go smoke-free  

As of Oct. 1, all Avis and Budget cars rented in North America are smoke-free. . . .

Expect other rental companies to watch this move closely. If Avis and Budget get business from the ban, the other companies probably will follow up with bans of their own.

Most airlines have banned smoking on flights, and some major hotel chains ban smoking in rooms.

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Newsagents warn Labour over ban 

Newsagents are threatening to boycott the Labour Party at the next general election if legislation bans them from openly displaying cigarettes.

They say the move - due to be debated by MPs on Monday - would drive hundreds of small retailers out of business.

The National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) say it will be "very bad news for Gordon Brown" if the vote goes against newsagents.

Retailers say it will cost more than £250 million to implement the ban.

This, they claim, will be because shops will have to be refitted after removing the displays.

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Smoking bans stirring backlash across America 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- From West Virginia to the West Coast, smokers are trying to fend off further restrictions on their habit, and local officials are starting to listen.

In some cases, smoking bans have even been rescinded or postponed, a much less common occurrence than officials declining to impose restrictions.

Opponents of smoking restrictions say these rollbacks are largely driven by economic woe, with local governments wary of imposing new costs or business burdens on restaurants and bars that may already be struggling.

"The economy is in a slump, and these bans almost always hurt the shot-and-beer-type bars and some restaurants," said Gary Nolan, U.S. regional director of the Citizens Freedom Alliance, which opposes laws that restrict smoking.

"If times are trying now in the hospitality industry, you're compounding that by telling bar owners they can't cater to their own crowd," he said.

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Roweena Bassett quits smoking and becomes shoe addict  

HEALTH worker Roweena Bassett has become a billboard star after admitting swapping her cigarette addiction for another vice . . . shoes.

The health worker packed in a 30-a day habit two years ago, alongside her husband Graeme, just as the smoking ban was coming into effect.

Roweena, of North Shields, North Tyneside, was delighted to put the boot in on her nicotine habit . . . but she soon developed a completely new craving for shoes. . . .

“All in all, quitting smoking changed my life. I’m not dependent on my addiction anymore and am not thinking about my next cigarette. It’s not just my health that’s improved but my confidence and self esteem.”

NHS Stop Smoking Services in the North East are 10 years old this month and have helped 175,000 people to quit in the last decade, some of whom star in the new campaign.

Ailsa Rutter, of Fresh - Smoke Free North East, added: “It’s incredible that so many people who quit now want to share their stories in the hope it will inspire others.

“The overriding message from all of them is that they are loving life smokefree, have more money and energy. Their families are also delighted they’ve quit.”

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City Council considers tobacco bills 

On October 5, the Baltimore City Council moved two tobacco-related bills a step closer toward passage into law.

One bill would ban the sale of flavored wrapping paper for tobacco products, while the other would ban the sale of individual cigars.

The Institute for Global Tobacco Control (IGTC) at the Bloomberg School of Public Health helped collect some of the data that led to the creation of the bills, according to Doctor Frances Stillman, co-director of the IGTC.

"What we see in inner city African American populations is high rates of smoking. They don't smoke many cigarettes or cigars a day, so these individual cigarettes and cigars is a good way for them to get their nicotine dose," Stillman said.

"The flavored paper is especially attractive to youths and young adults, making it more appealing for kids to starts and young adults to keep smoking."

"Both [bills] are trying to wean youths from being enticed into smoking and flavored tobacco is trying to entice kids to smoke and kids can afford to buy individual cigarettes and cigars better than a pack," said city councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke, who represents Hopkins's district and who co-sponsored both bills.

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• Smoking ban sparks shooting threat 

YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Police have turned a case over to prosecutors on an Ehime Prefecture man who allegedly threatened to shoot Kanagawa Gov. Shigefumi Matsuzawa for setting Japan's first local ordinance that bans smoking inside public facilities.

The 49-year-old smoker has admitted to the charges, saying he did it because he thought he would not be able to smoke if a similar ordinance was introduced in Ehime Prefecture, according to Kanagawa police.

"The rising antismoking mood has made me feel small," the shipbuilding worker was quoted by the police as saying. . . .

He is suspected of sending an e-mail to the prime minister's office from his mobile phone that said, "I will shoot the Kanagawa governor for banning smoking."

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The Real Meaning of the FDA's Anti E-Cigarette Report 

On February this year, the FDA got sued by two of the most popular E-cigarette companies in the US- Njoy & Smoking everywhere. They sued for seizing and sending back product stocks shipped from China. FDA didn't want the products enter the. WHY?! FDA, like other federal offices is not driven only by the public's benefits, there are many other factors than that. Their excuse was the fact the Electronic cigarette is still under inquiry, by this fact alone- IT'S ILLEGAL for the FDA to stop and seize shipments in the US border but yet- It's in their power to do so as ridiculous as it is. That was the sue case.

The FDA have completed these days a preliminary test on 19 kinds of E-cigarette cartridges of Njoy & Smoking everywhere (rings a bell...) They have found ONLY 1 CARTRIDGE that contains Diethylene glycol "in very low levels". Same Diethylene glycol is found in tobacco cigarette in high levels, It's A humectants mixed in the tobacco to keep it moist. Watch Dr. Sanjai Gupta, Chief medical correspondent on CNN interview:here!

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Pennsylvania’s Rendell Signs $27.8 Billion Budget, Ends Impasse 

Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell signed a $27.8 billion budget more than three months into the state’s fiscal year, ending the longest-running financing delay of any U.S. state.

The plan, which the Senate approved yesterday and the House passed Oct. 7, raises cigarette taxes

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Clove Flavored Cigarettes More Dangerous 

"Cloves are totally a gateway cigarette, that's what I used to smoke in high school," said Bell, who now smokes regular cigarettes. "My friends and I would buy a pack of cloves and sit around and all smoke a pack."

The sweet-smelling flavored cigarettes that leave a cooling sensation in your mouth have long been popular among teens and young adults, so the FDA's ban has left many teenagers troubled.

"My girlfriend absolutely loves cloves and she was so upset," said Bell, of Scottsdale Ariz., who attends Boston College. "I know one kid who even bought six packs [before the ban] just to have because he loves them so much."

Health care officials have long complained that flavored cigarettes lure young people into a lifetime of nicotine addiction. Two weeks ago, the FDA banned clove and all fruit-flavored cigarettes as part of a national effort to reduce teen smoking in the U.S.

"These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers," Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, commissioner of food and drugs, said when announcing the ban.

It was the first major FDA action against tobacco manufacturers since being granted the right to regulate cigarettes under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act signed by President Obama in June.

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Health fear over trendy cigarettes substitute 

THEY have been hailed as the future of smoking and a non-cancerous alternative to cigarettes that don't fall foul of the ban.

But serious safety concerns have been raised about electronic cigarettes as their popularity continues to grow.

And there are fears children could get hooked on nicotine by using the so-called e-cigs, electronic cigarettes are not liable to age restriction because they do not contain tobacco.

Some are being marketed as appetite suppressants while others are promoted as the choice of fashion-conscious young celebrities

Tanya Buchanan, chief executive of ASH Wales, said: "It is possible that many of these products do not comply with UK product safety regulations and some may contain toxic levels of nicotine.

"Electronic cigarettes fall into a regulatory gap and have yet to undergo the rigorous testing to which other nicotine products are subjected."

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• Government ban on cigarette displays in shops may fail legal test, QC tells trade  

A flagship government anti-smoking scheme that would ban Britain's shops from displaying cigarettes would be "unenforceable", according to one of the country's leading QCs.

The plan to prevent shops from selling tobacco products unless they are kept entirely out of sight of customers is due to be debated and voted on by MPs today.

With critics saying that the proposal threatens to drive thousands of small corner shops out of business, a backbench rebellion is expected, with as many as one in ten Labour MPs set to vote against the scheme, which is backed by the Government.

However, in advice drawn up for the Tobacco Manufacturers' Association (TMA), Lord Pannick, QC, has raised the prospect of a legal challenge. In his advice, he claims that even if the legislation was passed, it would not carry any legal weight because the Government has failed to give proper notification of its intentions to the European Commission before placing the Bill before Parliament.

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Deputies: Husband gets violent with wife, kills pet rat  

A DeLand man, enraged because his wife took his last cigarette, strangled a pet rat to death then refused to stop for deputies who used stop sticks to flatten his car's tires, sheriff's officials said Friday.

Darren Daniels, 22, also grabbed his 20-year-old wife, Kaela Daniels, in the upper chest during the confrontation. The wife escaped Daniels' clutches, deputies said, and ran. She crawled under a fence into some bushes near her apartment complex where she hid for an hour.

Kaela Daniels told deputies that her husband "went nuts" at 1:30 a.m. Thursday after he accused her of taking his last cigarette. He grabbed a white rat from the aquarium, smashed its head against the tank and then strangled it to death.

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Oh, rats. When his wife took the last cigarette, the guy freaked. You don't want to know what he did to the pet. 

Darren Daniels, 22, of DeLand who got seriously pissed when his wife smoked the last cigarette.

So he strangled a pet white rat and grabbed his 20-year-old wife during a confrontation, reports the Orlando Sentinel.

Guess that'll show everybody.

His wife got away and hid outside. The poor rat wasn't so lucky. It died.

Daniels is out on bail but faces several charges and animal cruelty may be added. He's out on bail.

But here's some justice. He couldn't smoke in jail.

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Implement anti-smoking laws, experts ask government  

PESHAWAR: Expressing concern over violation of 'Prohibition of Smoking Ordinance 2002', health experts have pressed on the need for devising an efficient plan of action to ensure implementation of the said law to avoid tobacco hazards and have a tobacco-free society. This suggestion was unanimously underscored by experts in a one-day workshop on Development of Work Plan for Tobacco Control, arranged jointly by Federal Tobacco Control Cell, Provincial Health Department and WHO here Sunday. Experts and authorities from various sectors took part in the workshop. Shaheen Masood, Federal Cell for Tobacco Control DG, said the workshop was aimed at ensuring support of major stakeholders to accelerate efforts for controlling tobacco use and hammer out a plan of action for tobacco control. She said Pakistan was one of the most tobacco consuming countries in South Asia

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