Tobacco.org

Smokers may have to butt out at Welland sports venues  

City councillors want people to leave their cigarettes at home when they accompany children to baseball and soccer games at municipal parks.

Welland is developing a draft bylaw to prohibit people from smoking during sports events at city parks.

"I think it would be a great thing for parents, grandparents of children ... to butt out during the games," said Ward 5 Coun. Rocky Letourneau, who first raised the issue at a city council meeting in the summer.

If people need to have a cigarette, Letourneau suggested they leave the area.

Jump to full article »

Puff ban hole in cancer fight 

The ban on public smoking is likely to have only a limited impact in the country on tobacco-related cancers which are primarily driven by tobacco chewing, a senior oncologist has said.

Although smoking can cause cancers of the lung, larynx and oesophagus, cancer registry figures suggest oral cancer, which is associated with tobacco chewing, accounts for the majority of tobacco-related cancers in the country, said Pankaj Chaturvedi, a surgeon at Mumbai's Tata Memorial Hospital.

"About 60 to 70 per cent of India's estimated 250-million tobacco users chew tobacco," Chaturvedi said at a conference organised by the health ministry to devise strategies to address the problem of smokeless tobacco. "The ban on smoking deals with only about one-third of tobacco users."

Jump to full article »

New smoking lounge rules raise questions for council committee 

Figuring out a way to allow existing smoking lounges to continue in Long Beach yet prevent more from opening is easier said than done, a City Council panel learned Wednesday afternoon.

The three-member Economic Development and Finance Committee got a first look at new regulations for smoking lounges, which the council voted to legalize in February, 15 years after Long Beach's groundbreaking ban on smoking in public places and workplaces went into effect. The full council will consider the lounge regulations next Tuesday.

The committee voted 2-1, with Councilwoman Rae Gabelich opposed, to recommend that the council approve the proposed regulations with a few changes, but was forced to stop short of implementing controls to prevent new smoking lounges from opening.

"You are old enough to make your own decisions," Gabelich said to several cigar lounge owners who attended Wednesday's meeting, "but I do not want any more of these anywhere in the city."

Jump to full article »

ABOUHALKAH: How area cities handled the smoking-ban issue 

Fast-forward six years.

Today -- after plenty of contentious debates, too many delays but also many positive moves by elected officials and voters -- good laws now protect the great majority of area residents from second-hand smoke in restaurants, bars, office buildings and other public places.

Cities without laws, such as Raytown and Grandview, have had plenty of opportunities to stop being the region's ashtrays. All have badly fumbled their chances.

Here's a grade card on how area cities handled the issue of smoking bans. To be clear, most cities now have decent laws. But recall that by early this decade, dozens of cities and a number of states already had smoking bans in place. . . .

Double FF: Raytown, Grandview and several other smaller cities.

Elected leaders in these cities have failed to protect residents with reasonable smoke-free ordinances. Worse, they have studied the issue and come back with lame excuses for their inaction.

Still, this list is mercifully shorter than a few years ago. Thanks to Archer and many others, hundreds of thousands of people today breathe cleaner air in public places throughout the region.

Jump to full article »

Students support smoke ban 

According to a recent survey conducted by UW-Oshkosh, a slight majority of people would support a University-wide smoking ban.

Representatives in the Oshkosh Student Association Assembly raised concerns that smokers were not obeying the current smoking policy, which is no smoking within 25 feet of any building entrance.

OSA Speaker of the Assembly Ann Duginske gave a presentation of the survey results at the OSA Assembly meeting Monday evening and went over many of the other UW-System school smoking policies.

Jump to full article »

Hospitals in Lee, Collier counties gear up for tobacco ban | news-press.com | The News-Press 

Designated smoking areas in Lee and Collier counties will shrink considerably next week when all of the area's hospitals permanently ban tobacco use on their properties.

The Nov. 19 start of the bans will coincide with the Great American Smokeout, an annual event that encourages smokers to quit for at least 24 hours.

All tobacco products, including chewing tobacco, will be prohibited. That includes tobacco use inside of cars parked in hospital lots.

Lee Memorial Health System, Lehigh Regional Medical Center, Physicians Regional Healthcare System, NCH Healthcare System and Family Health Centers of Southwest Florida Inc. are participating.

Jump to full article »

• Thai Protests at Global Tobacco Industry Conference 

Thailand may have a reputation for indulging visitors in their various vices, but smoking is no longer one of them. On Tuesday, more than 600 fired-up protesters invaded a convention center in Bangkok in an attempt to smoke out representatives of the global tobacco industry, who were holding a conference in a country with some of the strictest tobacco controls in Asia.

"They've come here because they want to target women and children in Asia with products that kill," says Bangorn Ritthiphakdee, director of the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, a civil-society group, referring to attendees of Tabinfo 2009, a three-day conference organized by Tobacco Reporter, a U.S.-based magazine. "Their presence is a nightmare. We came to tell them they are not welcome here." (Watch a video about France's smoking ban.)

The tobacco industry sees Asia as its most promising market, says Bangorn. Though Thailand has strict controls on smoking in public places and bans advertising of tobacco products, more than 14 million of its 65 million people are smokers. In Southeast Asia, 125 million -- or 31% of adults -- smoke, and China alone has some 350 million smokers. The alliance claims that 2.4 million people in Asia die each year from tobacco-related causes, the equivalent of 6,575 people a day.

Billed as "the biggest tobacco exhibition in Asia," Tabinfo 2009 has been years in the making. Nonetheless, the meeting apparently caught Thailand's government by surprise.

Jump to full article »

Judge to determine smoking ban's fate 

The state ban on smoking in public places that has been delayed by a legal fight is going to get its day in court this week.

A trial is set for today and Friday in Pierre over Secretary of State Chris Nelson's decision to invalidate 8,845 petition signatures, which denied opponents of the state smoking ban the chance to put a referendum on the 2010 ballot and let voters decide whether the prohibition should stand.

The smoking ban was approved by the Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mike Rounds in March. However, Deadwood gaming interests, the Music and Vending Association, video lottery establishments and the Licensed Beverage Dealers of South Dakota quickly launched a petition drive to get a referendum on the ballot. The American Cancer Society challenged the results of the drive, and after examining more than 10,000 signatures called into question, Nelson invalidated more than two-thirds. That left petitioners about 200 short of the referendum threshold.

As this issue has unfolded, the ban that was to take effect in July has not yet been enforced.

Jump to full article »

VOTE: £20,000 scheme to hand out portable ashtrays in Bolton  

Bolton Council has launched a “behavioural change” crackdown on litter louts who drop their cigarette butts in the street.

Town hall bosses hope to combat the problem with a poster campaign aimed at educating smokers and by handing out portable ashtray pouches that people can use to cleanly dispose of their stubs.

The poster contains a simple “Love Bolton, hate litter” message on a black background, with the letter “L” in litter replaced by a cigarette end.

Jump to full article »

Council to take up smoking ban again  

GALVESTON -- Smoking advocates will find out today whether their lobbying against the smoking ban adopted by the city council earlier this year worked.

The council will consider drafting revisions to the smoking ordinance this week. The changes would be approved at a later meeting.

In July, the council adopted one of the strictest ordinances in the state, forbidding people from lighting up in bars, restaurants, outdoor seating areas, tobacco shops and private clubs.

The Galveston Restaurant Association supported the ban as proposed, which did not include tobacco shops and would have allowed smoking in outdoor seating areas.

But restaurant and bar owners balked at the more stringent restrictions.

Jump to full article »

State tells county to watch its butts 

WATERLOO - Black Hawk County has been warned by state health officials to enforce a smoking ban on courthouse grounds.

The Iowa Department of Public Health has received complaints about violations of the Iowa Smokefree Air Act near the courthouse entrance. In a letter to county officials, the agency warned the county could be subject to fines for future violations.

Building Maintenance Supervisor Louis Cutwright said it was unclear whether those apparently violating the law were employees, who could be subject to disciplinary action, or members of the public doing business at the courthouse.

Jump to full article »

Group wants smoking ban changes 

The Indiana Public Health Association wants the smoking ban in Kokomo strengthened and extended to all of Howard County.

Michelle Lindley with the Indiana Public Health Association and Shirley DuBois with Smoke Free Kokomo asked members of the Howard County Board of Health Monday to support the effort.

Kokomo banned smoking in public buildings in 2006, but the ordinance -- approved by the Kokomo Common Council -- included exemptions for taverns and restaurants that cater to those over the age of 21.

Lindley said three studies published since 2006 by the Surgeon General, Institute of Medicine and the World Health Organization outlined the dangers of second-hand smoke.

Jump to full article »

Grand Rapids Community College smoking ban leads to complaints of students, staff lighting up off campus 

Smoking on the Grand Rapids Community College campus has dropped significantly since a ban gained teeth this fall -- but apparently trespassing from students and staff is on the rise.

President Steven Ender said he has heard complaints that students and staff looking for a nicotine nook are walking across the street to businesses, homes and other places to light up, often leaving a trail of butts that need to be cleaned up.

Ender is urging people who feel the need to light up to head to four off-campus spots, including Cancer Survivors Park up the street. GRCC President Steven Ender "It's a problem," he said Wednesday. "As we've grown more aggressive on the enforcement side, people looking to smoke are crossing the street onto other people's properties and even backyards."

Grand Rapids Public Library leaders are among those grumbling. Spokeswoman Kristen Corrado said students have been found sitting in window ledges, in the parking lot and on sidewalks, dropping butts and even rubbing out cigarettes on the side of the building.

"We want people to feel welcome in our building, and we think it's nice that community college students use the library," she said. "But we're also a smoke-free facility."

Jump to full article »

Galveston to take up smoking ban again 

Smoking advocates will find out today whether their lobbying against the smoking ban adopted by the city council earlier this year worked.

The council will consider drafting revisions to the smoking ordinance this week. The changes would be approved at a later meeting.

In July, the council adopted one of the strictest ordinances in the state, forbidding people from lighting up in bars, restaurants, outdoor seating areas, tobacco shops and private clubs.

The Galveston Restaurant Association supported the ban as proposed, which did not include tobacco shops and would have allowed smoking in outdoor seating areas.

But restaurant and bar owners balked at the more stringent restrictions.

Jump to full article »

Indianapolis mayor would veto expanded smoking ban  

The Indianapolis mayor is now taking a stand against a new smoking ban.

Mayor Greg Ballard appeared on Eyewitness News Sunrise saying he'll veto a ban if it's passed by the City-County Council.

When asked if he would veto the ban, Ballard responded, "Depending on what the version is, but any version that I think they're currently contemplating right now, yes."

Jump to full article »