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Smoking drivers hit hard by law | Bundaberg News | Local News in Bundaberg | Bundaberg News Mail 

QUEENSLAND has brought in a ban on smoking in cars carrying children under the age of 16.

Although Member for Burnett Rob Messenger was pleased the bill went through, he thought more could have been done to make motorists stub out the habit.

“I think they should ban smoking in cars, full-stop,” Mr Messenger said.

He also hit out at Deputy Premier and Health Minister Paul Lucas, saying he “giggled” at his suggestion.

“I don’t think he is fit to be health minister,” he said.

The ban has been welcomed by the Cancer Council Queensland.

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Smoking drivers hit hard by law | Bundaberg News | Local News in Bundaberg | Bundaberg News Mail 

QUEENSLAND has brought in a ban on smoking in cars carrying children under the age of 16.

Although Member for Burnett Rob Messenger was pleased the bill went through, he thought more could have been done to make motorists stub out the habit.

“I think they should ban smoking in cars, full-stop,” Mr Messenger said.

He also hit out at Deputy Premier and Health Minister Paul Lucas, saying he “giggled” at his suggestion.

“I don’t think he is fit to be health minister,” he said.

The ban has been welcomed by the Cancer Council Queensland.

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Blawnox High-Rise Fire Caused By Cigarette  

Investigators say a fire in Blawnox that forced dozens of elderly residents of a high-rise to evacuate was caused by smoking.

Officials say a resident fell asleep while smoking a cigarette in a fifth-floor apartment.

Two years ago, a fire started in the same building because a tenant threw a cigarette in a wastebasket.

The Allegheny County Housing Authority is considering changing its policy.

"What we're going to do is send a survey out . . .

Aggazio says he spoke with evacuated residents at Hoboken Presbyterian Church.

"And I talked to smokers and non-smokers alike and it was very unanimous that they wish that we could ban smoking in the units," he said.

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QUINN: A Soldier in the War on Smoking  

Hopkins Kicks Butts has been doing a lot of kicking lately. . . .

Do I think HKB is a terrorist organization? No. On the contrary, I support the majority of their actions. In fact, I believe much of what the do is laudable. Their focus on helping people quit and doing community outreach programs that try to keep kids from smoking is commendable. And I agree that students shouldn't smoke directly outside of campus buildings and they should be compassionate towards their non-smoking peers. But this is going too far. Students shouldn't be allowed to smoke indoors. But outside? Come on. Why not just send all the smokers to Gulags? . . .

If this ban goes through I will take up smoking. I will sit on The Beach and smoke. I will stand outside of the lecture halls and smoke. I will stand outside Levering and smoke. And I will not pay a single fine. I don't want to do this, but I will not sit idly by and allow you to harass these students. HKB, my life is in your hands. Do what you think is right.

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Student group calls for campus smoking ban  

Homewood is moving closer to becoming a smoke-free campus, thanks to the efforts of one student group.

Hopkins Kicks Butt (HKB) is currently attempting to convince administrators to institute a campus-wide smoking ban. Their proposal calls for a $15 fine for people caught smoking on campus.

HKB hopes to make the University completely smoke free by 2012.

The group, which is part of the Center for Health Education and Wellness (CHEW), has been gathering signatures for roughly two years, although according to group President Sarah Durica, they have "only spent about 20 hours actually tabling and getting people to sign up."

"Our primary motivation for establishing a smoke-free campus is to reduce the community's exposure to harmful secondhand smoke," HKB said in the proposal it submitted to the administration about a year ago. . . .

HKB feels that tobacco is a serious problem at Hopkins.

"The smoking problems here at Hopkins is pretty potent . . . We have letters [of complaint] from students in different housing complexes, particularly in the AMRs . . . it's a major problem definitely," Preston Kramer, HKB's Policy Chair, said.

Hopkins Kicks Butt is involved in several other campaigns beside its effort to get a campus-wide smoking ban instituted.

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Smokers a declining species  

"YOU don't need a four-pound hammer to kill a mouse."

This is how a legal expert expressed his displeasure at government's proposed tobacco legislation more than a decade ago.

In evidence given at the the time, interest groups questioned whether the Bill was constitutional. Individuals' "constitutional right" to smoke and tobacco companies' right to freedom of speech were cited, but the government remained adamant. . . .

Dr Yussuf Saloojee, the head of the NCAS, writes in Chronic Diseases of Lifestyle in South Africa since 1995-2005 that the ban on tobacco advertising since 2001 may have contributed to less smoking among children.

A spokesman for the Free Market Foundation said the legislation could be compared to the "extreme and obsessive laws enforced by the Nazis".

He said it wasn't the state's duty to prescribe how people should live. . . .

Today most work and public areas are smoke-free.

But is this really due to the government's policing of anti-smoking legislation?

Even Peter Ucko, veteran anti-smoking activist, believes it is due, rather, to self-policing.

Non-smokers -- the majority of people -- welcomed the legislation and do not hesitate to complain when they catch a whiff of tobacco where it isn't supposed to be.

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'Ban sale of value brand cigarettes' 

GEORGE TOWN: The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) has proposed that premium brand cigarettes should be priced at RM30 for a pack of 20. The price now is less than RM10.

CAP president S.M. Mohamed Idris also called yesterday for a ban on the sale of "cheap/value brand" cigarettes, which are priced between RM2.20 and RM2.50 per pack of 20.

He lauded the move mooted by Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai that from January, a minimum price of RM6.20 be fixed for a pack of 20 cigarettes.

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Ban on smoking up in smoke in Meghalaya: VHAM  

Despite the ban on smoking in public places enforced a year ago it is yet to be implemented properly in the state, a Voluntary Health Association of Meghalaya (VHAM) has claimed.

According to a survey conducted by VHAM, except for public places like restaurants and hotels no punitive measures have been taken to deal with the violators as per provisions of the Act, VHAM said at a Convergence of legislators and Civil Societies on Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Product Act (COTPA) here yesterday.

The findings also revealed that little was done by the education department to strictly enforce the Act banning the sale of tobacco products in and around schools and other educational institutions, sources said.

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• 'Ban sale of value brand cigarettes'  

GEORGE TOWN, MALAYSIA - The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) has proposed that premium brand cigarettes should be priced at RM30 (S$12.285) for a pack of 20. The price now is less than RM10 (S$4.095).

CAP president S.M. Mohamed Idris also called yesterday for a ban on the sale of "cheap/value brand" cigarettes, which are priced between RM2.20 and RM2.50 per pack of 20.

He lauded the move mooted by Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai that from January, a minimum price of RM6.20 be fixed for a pack of 20 cigarettes.

"However, we feel the price is too low and will not bring about a major impact. We feel the price should be fixed at RM30 for a pack of 20-stick cigarettes," Idris said..

"Ideally, tobacco should be banned completely. The country should be moving in this direction." yesterday.

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Agencies ban smoking 

The North Bend City and Coos-Curry Housing Authorities have adopted a no-smoking policy for the apartments and buildings they own.

Also, the Woodland Apartments Preservation and Powers Housing Development adopted a no-smoking policy earlier this month.

The no-smoking policy will go into effect March 1.

Residents will be allowed to smoke outside their units 10 feet from their neighbors' doors. They will not be allowed to smoke inside the units or other buildings owned by the agencies.

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Hazy: Montana’s Smoking Ban Doesn’t Apply to Tribal Venues  

RONAN - Enforcement of Montana's Clean Air Act appears to be a little hazy on Indian reservations.

Tribally owned casinos are exempt from the indoor-smoking ban, while some enrolled tribal members who own reservation bars and casinos aren't enforcing the ban.

In the meantime, Rick and Vicki Wheeler, who are not members of the Confederate Salish and Kootenai Tribes, recently received their first letter of complaint from the Lake County Health Department for not enforcing the smoking ban at their Ronan business, The Club, which is within the Flathead Indian Reservation.

"Ninety percent of my customers smoke," said Rick Weaver, who has owned The Club for 20 years. "This bar is my retirement -- do they want to take that away from me, too? It's racial discrimination."

Diana Schwab, the tobacco prevention coordinator in Lake County, agrees the law raises different issues on the state's reservations.

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David Hockney: portrait of the old master 

Talking to Hockney, you are struck by a kind of heroic optimism in that endeavour, one that goes defiantly against the grain of his innate scepticism. As friends and interviewers over the years will attest, he can get bogged down in particular irritations – the long-standing one is the smoking ban, against which he is a stubborn and passionate objector – but even while he is in the curmudgeonly depths of these obsessions, a smile dances around his mouth and eyes. It's that, as much as anything, that always makes his career feel like the best kind of lark. . . .

That thought, of course, sets him off in one of his intermittent rants against anti-smokers, punctuated by drags on his cigarette. "The cause of death is birth, and on your way there you might want to enjoy things…"

Can he recall his first drag?

"I was probably eight or nine. But I've smoked pretty regularly for 55 years. I don't see a reason to stop now. It's all gone dull, I think, Britain. We are being taken over by medico-fascists who want us all to live in germ-free clinics…"

Some of this anger seems to have a psychological root. He was, he says, watching a documentary the other evening in which four anti-smokers "were lined up to tell us they were saving lives, and I said to my sister: 'Don't they remind you of someone?' She said: 'Kenneth' straightaway – my father."

Hockney's dad was, among other things, a great anti-smoker, though all his five children smoked like chimneys.

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Restaurants prepare for smoking ban  

VIRGINIA BEACH--The state-wide smoking ban is just around the corner. On Dec. 1 most bars and restaurants will be required to have a non-smoking section, but some restaurant owners are finding creative ways around the restrictions.

At Poppa's Pub in Virginia Beach, owner Randy Estenson has spent months trying to construct a non-smoking section. He's worked with the Virginia Beach Department of Health to design the new room. This week a contractor started closing it off.

"It's been a very big hassle," said Estenson. "I spent a lot of time and effort trying to get everything approved before I actually did construction."

As required by the law, the non-smoking section will be walled off, have a separate ventilation system and a door to the outside. But the room is only 13 x 15, which is about 6% of the entire bar and restaurant. It has about 4 tables in it and a television.

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BENANTI: Smoking: Ban it everywhere indoors 

Posted 4:44 p.m. Tues. June 23 - Clayton is close to having a ban that would take effect in July 2010. Ballwin is already smoke free. What about the rest of the area? Health considerations should count there, too. . . .

Of the 30 largest cities in the United States, St. Louis and Detroit are the only two left without smoke-free protections. I think Mayor Slay said it best in his state of the city address: "Nothing quite says 'regressive place to live' to young people like resisting a change already made in 29 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico."

We look forward to the day when our entire region is smoke-free. Now is the time to start making positive changes in our communities. Wildwood, Kirkwood, Creve Coeur and others are in the process of making the switch. Eliminating smoking indoors is an effective, cost-free way to improve our community's health in a tangible and measurable way. What are we waiting for?

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• Why Indy's behind the pack  

In fact, in the past four years, more than 250 municipalities across the country -- including 11 in Indiana -- have limited smoking in those public places. Which begs a question: What makes Indianapolis different?

Experts say it is a combination of factors: Hoosiers' reluctance to change; the absence of a strong health culture; and a cautious political climate.

Others point to a lack of support from leaders, including Mayor Greg Ballard, who, after weeks of silence on the issue, last week said the city's current ban on smoking in restaurants and other public spaces works just fine and no further restrictions are needed.

On Monday, the City-County Council voted 14-13 to table the issue. It would take support from a majority of the 29-member council to revive debate on the ban.

Running through the current of opposition, experts say, is an individualistic spirit rooted deep in Indiana's pioneer culture.

"There's a real sort of libertarian streak in this city: Don't let government tell me what to do, and don't let government tell businesses what to do," said Dave Strong, an Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis sociology professor who studies social movements. "There's no question we're months and, in some cases, years behind the curve." . . .

But there's another powerful business lobby speaking in favor of the ban: the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce.

Roland Dorson, the chamber's president, said having a comprehensive smoking ban bolsters the city's progressive image, and that helps attract talent.

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