Tobacco.org

Yuba City smoking ban debate turns on rights, health  

Smokers likely have only a few more weeks to light up in parks and near buildings in Yuba City.

The Yuba City Council is moving closer to adopting an ordinance that bans all forms of tobacco use in city parks and within 50 feet of any city-owned or leased building.

The discussion has shifted to one about individual rights and freedoms rather than smoking itself.

“One man's freedom is another man's tyranny.' Abraham Lincoln said that,” said resident Elaine Miles at Tuesday's council meeting. “This is tyranny against smokers. And what will it be — perfume, fat people — next?”

Council members voted 4-1 Tuesday to introduce the ordinance and waive the first reading, after 13 people addressed members with their support and concerns. Councilman John Dukes voted no.

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• Tobacco sponsorship of tennis tournament goes ahead because of weak Swiss legislation, says campaigning group  

A Swiss antismoking campaign group is concerned that weak legislation in the country is being exploited by Imperial Tobacco to sponsor a tennis tournament and promote its brand of cigarettes and other products. The company is the fourth largest tobacco company in the world.

Switzerland is a sanctuary for the tobacco industry, said Pascal Diethelm, director of the antismoking group OxyRomandie, ahead of the Davidoff Swiss indoor tournament, which starts on 31 October as part of the Association of Tennis Professionals World Tour 500. The tournament, which is one of the last tobacco sponsored tennis events in the world, is being used by the company to intensively advertise its Davidoff brand, on court hoardings and the uniforms of line judges and ball girls and boys, said Mr Diethelm.

The last time the tournament was held in Basel in 2008, the "players drowned in an advertising soup for Davidoff," he said.

He added, "At the end of the match the young ball boys and ball girls received a medal from Roger Federer in recognition of having served the cause of Davidoff so well. Each medal bore the Davidoff logo in order to make sure that these potential future smokers will know which cigarette brand to choose when they start smoking."

OxyRomandie is appealing to the federal tribunal, Switzerland’s supreme court, against a ruling from the Independent Complaints Authority for Radio and Television that Swiss television is allowed to show the tournament even though Swiss law bans tobacco advertising on television.

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The Good Life—that is the art of living. A culture of its own that revolves around taking time, perceiving the world with all the senses in order to experience the fine nuances of pleasure.
Davidoff's "The Good Life" campaign. The Davidoff Swiss indoor tennis tournament is under fire.

Smoke-free versus free to smoke 

"This no-smoking ban would really be a nail in our coffin," Haupt said. She's among the owners of restaurants, bars and other businesses who contend the proposition would hurt their business.

County Councilwoman Barbara Fraser, D-5th District, disputes the contention that the measure, called Proposition N, would hurt business. "All indications are that 'smoke-free' actually helps business." she said.

She spearheaded the effort in the County Council to put Proposition N on the ballot. "It is good for the health of our community," Fraser said.

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Stubbing it out with cigarette slayer  

Julian Leicester: The 'Cigarette Slayer' shows you how to break the smoking habit sucessfully without too much emphasis on your

PRETENDING to smoke a pencil instead of a cigarette, using a toothpick to keep the hands occupied or replacing your fag fix for fun in the bedroom — smokers have tried almost everything to quit smoking, but in vain. Why doesn’t it work? Despite the mountain of research and money spent the world over to find ways to help smokers quit, a local computer software engineer, who is also a London trained hypnotherapist, has the gumption to claim he has the answer to stop the bad habit.

“My quit-smoking programme has helped many people with nearly 90 per cent success rate,” says Julian Leicester, producing third party endorsements for his methodology.

His revolutionary anti-smoking methods and high achiever training programmes have made him a sought after person by corporate companies and leading institutions.

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HPB's anti-smoking campaign targets young women  

The Health Promotion Board (HPB) has launched a new initiative which it hopes will arrest the rising trend of young women picking up smoking in Singapore.

A 2007 national survey found that nearly 10 per cent of female respondents aged between 18 and 29 smoked daily, up from 4 per cent in 2001. The most common reasons cited by these women include stress relief and relaxation.

HPB's latest anti-smoking initiative aims to show that with prolonged smoking, a person's appearance will suffer from sunken cheeks and premature ageing.

The authority claims that the use of graphic images in its campaign to deter women from smoking is not meant to be a "scare tactic".

JoAnn Taylor, deputy director of Substance Abuse Department, HPB, said: "It's really appealing to women's essential needs. It's about looking good for their partner, for their friends or even for themselves. So it really appeals to women's idea of beauty." . . .

Fresh Air for Women Programme's ambassador, Vanessa Fernandez, spoke on Wednesday about the benefits she experienced when she quit the habit four months ago, after smoking for 14 years.

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State battles wishful thinking on smoking ban  

Some bar owners and managers across the state think they have found an escape clause in the state's new smoking ban.

State officials are about to snuff out those plans.

Ann Houston Staples, the Charlotte-based communications director for the state's anti-smoking efforts, said health officials are encountering bar operators who think that, as a private club or by becoming a private club, they can still let customers smoke.

"I'm getting spooked, because everybody I talk to said the place they go to is going to become a private club," said Staples, director of public education and communication for the Tobacco Prevention and Control Branch of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Staples is part of a team assembling an information packet that will go out in the coming weeks to businesses affected by the ban, including bars. The mailing will include a letter explaining the law and other material, such as free "No Smoking" signs.

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• Addressing smoking beliefs may help schizophrenia patients to quit 

Challenging positive expectations and providing information on the negative consequences of smoking increase the motivation of schizophrenia and schizoaffective patients to quit smoking, conclude US investigators.

It has been shown in a number of different populations that smoking expectations, in terms of both positive expectations of smoking and the negative health consequences, are associated with intention to quit and predict smoking cessation success. However, while smoking has been widely studied in schizophrenia, the links between smoking expectancies and understanding and intention to quit have not been investigated.

Jennifer Tidey, from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, and colleagues studied 46 smokers with schizophrenia, 35 smokers with schizoaffective disorder, and 71 smokers without psychiatric illness, all of whom were heavy smokers. . . .

The team concludes in the journal Schizophrenia Research: "The results of this study support the importance of focusing on the expected pros and cons of smoking in motivation interviewing and other cognitive behavioral interventions for tobacco dependence in people with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder."

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• Maternal Smoking May Increase Newborns' Discomfort 

A new research study being published in the October 15th issue of Biological Psychiatry suggests that maternal smoking may increase the level of distress of newborns.

Studies have consistently found that prenatal cigarette smoke exposure is associated with increased rates of behavior problems, irritability, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, the risk of violent offenses, conduct disorder, adolescent onset of drug dependence, and the risk for criminal arrest in offspring. This study adds another potential negative outcome to the list of reasons for mothers to stop smoking while pregnant.

Most of the effects of tobacco either during pregnancy or on postnatal outcomes are attributed to nicotine. However, smoking is associated with reduced monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) activity, enzymes that degrade brain neurotransmitters in smokers. Prenatal smoke exposure-induced low MAO-A activity in fetal life may dysregulate brain neurotransmission, creating a potential vulnerability to develop behavioral disorders later in life. This dysregulation can occur with or without interaction with nicotine's effect on the developing brain.

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Extra tobacco output for export to be fined 

The government will impose a hefty penalty of 15% of sale proceeds if farmers produce more export quality tobacco than the quota allotted to them by the Tobacco Board for the current year.

The penalty was 5% in 2008-09 season. But farmers exceeded the quota by about 18%, tempted by almost 100% increase in prices of the flue-cured variety (FCV) of tobacco, grown largely in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

"The penalty has been increased to discourage farmers from cultivating surplus FCV tobacco," Tobacco Board chairman J Suresh Babu said.

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Talk with Imperial Tobacco 

Primed with films like “The Initiative” and “Thank You for Smoking”, I was expecting my first interview with a representative of “Big Tobacco” in 2004 to be a mixture between the Godfather and Gordon Gekko. . . .

During the interview, Davis was surprisingly forthright about smoking and didn’t try to dodge the contentious issues.

The urbane chief executive began by asking us politely whether we should mind if he smoked. It usually makes me feel ill when people do, but, of course, as a journalist you always have to agree to this type of request because it is of paramount importance that your interview partner feels at ease. So the non-smoker resigns himself to a possible headache and a hefty bill at the dry cleaner’s.

Imperial Tobacco’s top man lit his first cigarette, just as he was saying that the dangers of peer pressure to smoke have been exaggerated. As he did so, all his press team reached for their cigarettes and lit up in unison. When he stubbed his cigarette out, they did so too.

As Mr Davis is quite a strong smoker this procedure occurred fairly frequently during the one-and-a-half hour interview. In fairness to him as CEO, however, I didn’t gain the impression that he was the instigator of this reflex-type behaviour or even expected it. . . .

The lesson is simple. If governments want to increase tax revenues, then raise taxes modestly over a long continuum, rather than do nothing for three years and then raise them substantially. It’s that huge volatility and surge in prices that triggers all the instability in the tobacco trade in any country.

Do you think the same will happen in Germany?

I can see history repeating itself there. The country has undergone a double shock, where a very significant tax increase was accompanied by a liberalisation of its borders. This was too much in one go and caused a huge spike in prices.

So the poor old smoker has no option, if he wants to go on smoking, as most smokers do, he has to down trade and find something else to smoke whether that be OTP (other tobacco products), private label, or buying cigarettes in the Czech Republic or Poland.

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Council bans smoking on gov’t property 

The air will be cleaner on county government property and in county vehicles following a Tuesday night ruling from Greenwood County Council.

Council officially passed an ordinance that bans smoking on all county government property and in county government vehicles. The smoking ban takes effect immediately.

While the ordinance pertains only to county property and vehicles, it also encourages local residents to give up smoking in other locations. A portion of the ordinance reads as follows:

"Although this ordinance only applies to certain properties and vehicles owned by or leased to Greenwood County, due to the risks posed by second-hand smoke, the Greenwood County Council strongly encourages persons to refrain from smoking in their places of work and worship, and in buildings open to the general public, as a matter of courtesy to fellow occupants and as a matter of health for all concerned."

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Kelantan may reward shops that quit selling cigarettes 

The Kelantan Government is willing to consider giving incentives to any trader or retail outlet that does not sell cigarettes.

State Women, Family and Health Development Comittee chairman Wan Ubaidah Wan Omar said the incentives were in line with the state government’s aspiration to ensure the people did not develop the smoking habit.

She was replying to Dr Nik Mazian Nik Mohamad (PAS-Gaal) at the State Assembly sitting here today.

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Marion County commissioner drops smoking ban lawsuit 

FAIRMONT, W.Va. -- A Marion County commissioner has withdrawn a lawsuit he filed against his two colleagues over the handling of the county's smoking ban.

Commissioner Wayne Stutler says he dropped the lawsuit because he doesn't have the money to pursue it himself, and didn't want tax dollars to be spent over the litigation.

Stutler, a Republican, had claimed the commission acted outside its authority in removing a Republican from the county health board and by postponing a smoking ban.

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Puffing kills good looks 

LADIES, think twice before you take a puff of that cigarette - smoking can add up to 20 years to your appearance in the form of freckles, crow's feet and deepened lines and wrinkles.

That is a warning the Health Promotion Board (HPB) hopes will resonate with beauty-conscious women, to deter them from picking up the habit and to encourage those who are already smoking to quit.

Yesterday, it launched its latest anti-smoking initiative - a faux cosmetic brand called ASH, that promises to give you "looks to die for" - at a roadshow in VivoCity.

Designed to look like an actual line of cosmetic products, ASH consists of a lipstick, foundation, loose powder, eyeshadow and nail polish - all made of real cigarette ash to further drive home the point.

At its beauty counter, promoters talk to "customers" about the effects of smoking on beauty.

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Kelantan govt may not promote staff who smoke 

KOTA BARU: The PAS government is studying the possibility of penalising state government servants by not promoting them if they are smokers.

State Women's Development, Family and Health committee chairman Wan Ubaidah Omar said the government was serious in getting the masses to quit smoking.

"The federal and state governments have done a lot to discourage people from smoking and it may be time to take punitive measures," said Wan Ubaidah during the State Legislative Assembly meeting in Kota Darul Naim yesterday.

Wan Ubaidah (PAS-Kijang) said this in response to a supplementary question from Abdul Fattah Harun (PAS-Bukit Tuku) who suggested penalising civil servants in line with the proposal by Kelantan Mentri Besar Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat that PAS leaders who smoked not be given a chance to contest in any general election.

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