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• Bar owners seek to overturn smoking ban  

A group of bar owners is fired up over Ohio's 3-year-old smoking ban.

Bar owners and employees met in Grove City on Friday claiming there weren't enough signatures for the ban to appear on the ballot in 2006.

They also say 46 convicted felons were allowed to collect signatures for the petitions -- something not allowed under state law.

The ban prohibits smoking in most public places in Ohio, including bars and restaurants.

Members of the Buckeye Liquor Permit Holders Association want the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the claims. They want family-owned businesses and private clubs to be exempt from the ban.

The group also is threatening a class action lawsuit for the hundreds of bars they claim went out of business because of the ban.

"We're losing money in our businesses because this never should have gone to a vote and it went to a vote anyway," said Pam Parker of Parker's Tavern in Grove City.

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CDC: U.S. Smoking Rates Steady, But Smoke-free Laws Effective 

"These findings show the tremendous effect that state and local smoke-free laws, higher tobacco excise taxes and fully funded tobacco prevention and cessation programs have had on our communities," said John R. Seffrin, PhD, chief executive officer of the American Cancer Society (ACS) and its advocacy affiliate, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network (ACS CAN). "By passing these important laws, we have helped more Americans quit smoking, prevented children from ever starting, and diminished the harmful effects of secondhand smoke in workplaces."

ACS and ACS CAN have been working tirelessly in support of smoke-free laws and efforts to raise state and federal excise taxes on tobacco.

"Despite major progress in recent years to enact strong tobacco control measures at the state and local levels, only 40 percent of the population is covered by comprehensive smoke-free laws," said Daniel E. Smith, president of ACS CAN. "Clearly, there is still much more work that needs to be done."

There are high hopes for "The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act," signed into law by President Obama

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EDITORIAL: The winners and the losers 

Winner: It probably didn't shock anyone, but the survey released this week from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control showing Utah as the state with the least number of smokers was great news. Only 9 percent of the people in the state light up tobacco. A state survey two months ago showed that smoking here has fallen by 33 percent since 1999, which is the year an anti-smoking campaign went into effect, funded by a settlement between several states and large tobacco manufacturers. Beyond the great health benefits, a low smoking population ought to be good for economic development. Employers ought to love a place where workers are health-conscious.

Loser: On the other hand, the same CDC survey cited above also showed that smoking nationwide rose slightly during the past year. About 21 percent of Americans say they smoke, compared to 19.8 percent the year before. This may signal that anti-smoking efforts have hit a plateau. But it's probably nothing a hefty new tax on cigarettes couldn't fix.

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• EDITORIAL: Hoosiers burned in smoke study 

It is safe to say Hoosiers do not look forward to the release of national health rankings with quite the same eagerness folks in Florida and Texas harbor for the weekly round of football polls.

The latest survey, covering one of our several "strong" categories, is out. We ought to be more than disappointed to be number two.

Consistently in the top 10 year after year, Indiana trailed only West Virginia in the percentage of adults using cigarettes in 2008, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . . .

The Indiana General Assembly couldn't muster the willpower this past session to join the 26 states with comprehensive smoking bans, but Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, vows to renew his push next year.

The City-County Council is close to mustering enough votes to join more than 300 cities with total smoking prohibitions; but sadly, Mayor Greg Ballard says he would veto such a measure for the sake of local business. His stance ignores ample evidence that going smoke-free is not hazardous to the health of bars and eateries.

We do know that smoking -- and, critically important, secondhand smoke -- are killers. And that we arm them, as individuals, as communities and as governments.

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Cigarette-Smoking Rate Rises In U.S.  

Uh-oh. For the first time in 15 years, more Americans are smoking.

Some 20.6 percent of U.S. adults were smokers in 2008, up from 19.8 percent the year before, according to estimates by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

A higher proportion of American adults is smoking. (Owen Humphreys/AP)

Even that small uptick worries anti-smoking advocates. "Clearly, we've hit a wall in reducing adult smoking," Vince Willmore, spokesman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told the Associated Press.

That move in the wrong direction won't help the feds meet an already ambitious goal--reducing the proportion of adult smokers to less than 12 percent by 2010. The uptick marks the first increase in smoking in 15 years.

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RYAN: Smokers face more scrutiny from insurers 

When I started in the business nearly 40 years ago, an agent never asked if the person applying for insurance smoked. Smokers and non-smokers all paid the same for their life insurance.

Then, in the 1980s insurers began to charge less for those who said they had not smoked in at least a year. And that is pretty much the standard still used today. But, as explained below, that might be changing.

By the way, insurers still do not screen for "passive" or "sideways" smoke. If you live in a house full of smokers and are around smoke all day long at work, common sense and empirical evidence indicate that you can be affected by such exposure. But this is never questioned in a life-insurance application.

It is common practice for an insurer to change a person's rating from a smoker to a non-smoker if the insured quits. It used to be that the insured simply had to sign a form attesting to the fact that tobacco had not been used for at least a year. Now the insurers that I represent want that signature plus a urine sample (at company expense) to verify that there has at least been no smoking in the recent past.

But beware: Insurers may say that they will reduce the rating if a person gives up smoking, but it does not always happen. . . .

The bottom line: Don't smoke. Even if you do and eventually give it up, the earlier exposure to carcinogens may affect your cost of life insurance down the road.

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W.Va. has one of nation's highest smoking rates 

West Virginia is again among the states with the highest smoking rates, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC released a study and a telephone survey Thursday indicating the state's high rate. West Virginia and Indiana had the highest rates, at about 26 percent, and Kentucky, Missouri, Oklahoma and Tennessee had rates about as high.

West Virginia has had a high smoking rate for years, according to Bruce W. Adkins, director of the West Virginia Division of Tobacco Prevention.

"We've got really hardcore smokers in the state. Some of them really don't want to quit," Adkins said. "It's a cultural thing and a social thing."

But, Adkins said more people have called the West Virginia Tobacco Quitline in the last year.

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Adult smoke rate in U.S. up 

The slight increase in the smoking rate comes at a time when the tobacco industry experienced a 12.6 percent decline in cigarette shipment volume during the third quarter. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. reported an 11 percent decline to 20.6 billion cigarettes.

A separate CDC report found that 20.9 percent of North Carolinians smoked in 2008, which ranked the state 14th in smoking use among residents.

Brad Rodu, the endowed chairman of the Tobacco Harm Reduction Research University at the University of Louisville, said he is not surprised that the smoking rate is at a plateau.

"Smoking has not declined because the CDC and the American Cancer Society continue to promote only nicotine and tobacco abstinence, which has failed miserably," Rodu said.

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U.S. Smoking Rates Remain Steady, but Vary Widely by State  

Action Points

* Explain to interested patients that for smokers, quitting the habit is the most effective way known to improve health.

* Explain that a large body of research has shown that secondhand smoke is unhealthy and is associated with increased rates of chronic bronchitis symptoms.

National rates of cigarette smoking showed little change in 2008 from a year earlier, the CDC reported, though states vary widely both in rates of current smoking and exposures of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke.

Some 20.6% of Americans were current smokers in 2008 (95% CI 19.9% to 21.4%), not significantly different from the 19.8% found in 2007 (95% CI 19.0% to 20.6%) according to the the government's ongoing National Health Interview Survey, detailed by Shanta R. Dube, PhD, and other CDC researchers in the Nov. 13 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

But analysis of a another data set in MMWR -- the 2008 results from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) -- revealed a twofold variation in rates among states. . . .

Utah had by far the lowest rate of current cigarette smoking, at 9.2%, followed by California (14.0%), New Jersey (14.8%) and Maryland (14.9%), according to Ann M. Malarcher, PhD, and CDC colleagues.

West Virginia led the other end of the list at 26.6%. Other states with current smoking rates of 25% or more included Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri.

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UW Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention receives $9 million grant 

University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention has received a grant for more than $9 million for research to help people quit smoking.

UW-CTRI will receive the money over a five-year period from the National Cancer Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health, said UW-CTRI Director Michael Fiore. UW-CTRI had to apply for the grant and was selected to receive the research money.

Fiore added the grant money will be used to help people who are already smokers and actively are trying to quit or are considering trying to quit.

"We're really trying to expand the treatments that will help smokers who want to quit to do that successfully, and specifically were trying to come up with treatments for people who are ready to quit today as well as those who are open to quitting but are not ready yet, and how do we motivate them so they are willing to make a quit attempt," Fiore said.

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Tobacco research center gets $9 million grant  

The Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on Friday announced a $9 million federal grant to explore the best ways to quit smoking.

"We know that most smokers want to quit, but so many struggle with this addiction," the director of the center, Michael Fiore, said in a statement.

In southeastern Wisconsin, clinics that belong to Aurora Health Care will participate in the full-year study, which will start in spring of 2010.

The center's researchers will recruit a total of 2,300 smokers

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‘Baby and Me’ program provides incentives for mothers to quit smoking 

This fall, six women graduated from “Baby and Me —�Tobacco Free,” a program to keep women from smoking during and after pregnancy.

Funded by a grant and led locally by Hope Cook, the prenatal coordinator for the North�west Colorado Visiting Nurse Association, the program gives expecting and new moms incentive and motivation to quit smoking and stay smoke-free.

Missy Chotvacs was one of Cook’s fall graduates. She learned about the program through other VNA services. Chotvacs, 21, quit her 1 1/2-year smoking habit when she learned she was pregnant and has been smoke-free since. Her daughter, Mya Chotvacs Chase, is 13 months old.

Potential hazards to child development, keeping second-hand smoke away from her daughter and cutting the expense of cigarettes from a single parent’s budget were among Chotvacs’ reasons for entering and completing the program, she said.

During the program, participants get a monthly carbon dioxide screening,

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Thais battle ties to tobacco industry  

A “smoking gun” used to mean some kind of lurking, underlying proof behind an evil deed. Oddly, now it has come to show how much influence the tobacco industry has over government, mainstream media, the entertainment industry and individual economies, when a simple novel about the evils of smoking is turned into one about gun control.

If the tobacco industry is powerful enough to impose its will on Hollywood, it certainly won’t have much trouble in Thailand. It is trying to do just that through a gathering of industry players, including its “thought leaders,” at a three-day forum in Bangkok called Tabinfo Asia 2009, which runs from Nov. 11-13. It boasts the biggest tobacco exhibition in Asia and business and networking opportunities for regional players.

Despite the industry’s influence, however, a coalition of protesters gathered to confront it at the Impact Exhibition and Conference Center where the forum is being held. One of the protest leaders, Prakit Vathesatogkit, executive secretary of Action on Smoking and Health Foundation (ASH Thailand), said at Wednesday’s protest, "Tabinfo Asia 2009 is a signal for the international community to understand that the tobacco industry will not stop brainstorming new strategies to lure new smokers, particularly youths and women."

Almost as if to underscore Prakit’s words, Tabinfo posted four main issues to be discussed by the tobacco industry’s “thought-leaders” in a global environment of changing regulations and negative public perceptions. The last of the four – which should have appeared first, if only for diplomatic purposes – was “harm and risk reduction.” . . .

The fact that the state’s Thailand Tobacco Monopoly is heading up the three-day conference/exhibition/game plan meeting is not a good sign. Local influence and vested commercial interests with Thai tobacco are rife. As far back as 1950, the Thai government’s Excise Department bought 256 acres of land from the Crown Property bureau to increase tobacco production for domestic and export use. Four years later responsibility for the industry was transferred to the Ministry of Finance.

Given such grassroots beginnings and ties, it’s an uphill battle for anti-smoking advocates

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TABINFO ASIA 2009 

THE BIG ISSUES. THE BIG PLAYERS THE BIG EXHIBITION. THE BIG CONGRESS. It's all here at the Asia Pacific area's premier tobacco event

Bangkok - the commercial centre and capitol of Thailand - a city famous for gold-spired temples, long-tail boats, three-wheel tuk-tuks, and fiery curries. From November 11th to the 13th, Bangkok will also be the host for the hottest event on the Asia Pacific tobacco market's calendar.

WORLD'S MOST IMPORTANT MARKETS

As rules, regulations, and perceptions of tobacco change around the globe, Asia Pacific has become one of the world's most important tobacco markets. That's why TABINFO ASIA holds a spot as one of the most noteworthy and important tobacco events of the year. TABINFO ASIA attracts not only a large number of participants, but also a very diverse representation of industry players - up and down the supply chain. The expanded list of participants makes this a must-attend event for networking, showcasing, discovering, buying, and selling.

THE BIG ISSUES

The Congress at TABINFO ASIA is focused on The New Landscape of Tobacco as key industry leaders tackle the big issues head on. Everyone attending will have a unique opportunity to participate in the discussion in order to make this a truly impactful event.

In this industry - and especially in this region - you cannot afford to miss a thing.

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City tobacco expo organiser fined 

A Nonthaburi court yesterday fined the organiser of the controversial Tabinfo Asia expo 20,000 baht for displaying tobacco products at the event.

The Thai Health Promotion Institute took action against the organiser, Tobacco Reporter magazine, on Thursday for illegally displaying tobacco products at Tabinfo Asia 2009.

The three-day event, which was held at Impact Muang Thong Thani, ended yesterday.

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