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Students vote on cigarette ban at Edinburgh university  

STUDENTS were today voting on whether to ban the sale of cigarettes at Edinburgh University.

A medical student tabled a motion for the annual general meeting of Edinburgh University Students Association which would stop EUSA shops from selling cigarettes and remove all cigarette machines on campus.

The motion would also require the students' association to promote services which provide support, information and advice to students who wish to give up smoking. S

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Group hopes to overturn ban on smoking  

Ohio's smoking ban is under fire from groups that contend the petition effort that put it on the 2006 ballot was done improperly.

Opponents of Ohio Bans said numerous irregularities, including the collection of signatures by 46 convicted felons, spoiled the petition. The Ohio News Network reports members of Buckeye Liquor Permit Holders Association want the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate. The group contends the petitions should not have been certified.

Voters approved the ban on smoking in most public places including bars and restaurants with a nearly 59 percent majority.

Bill Beechum, owner of Wild Bill's, 148 S. Main St., supports an investigation.

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Fernandez: NMC campus is now a smoke-free zone  

More than a month since the passage of a law that bans smoking in public places, the Northern Marianas College assured the public yesterday that the campus is now a smoke-free zone and is drafting policy that would address student violators.

College president Dr. Carmen Fernandez said the institution is compliant with Public Law 16-46, and that smoking is no longer allowed anywhere on NMC property.

Fernandez said that, soon after the enactment of the anti-smoking law, she issued a memorandum to all employees to inform them of the law's application on campus. She said she expects all students, faculty, and staff to comply with the measure.

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Karriem to ask council to wait on smoking rules 

With the Columbus City Council poised to vote tonight on a proposed smoking ordinance, Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem said he plans to ask the council to hold off, and instead call a public hearing on the matter.

The council meets at 5 p.m. in City Hall.

The ordinance, proposed by Ward 3 Councilman Charlie Box, bans smoking in "all enclosed public places," including restaurants.

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Unusual strategies fell short for American Cancer Society in fight on smoking ban vote ($$) 

Two unusual arguments made in court on behalf of the American Cancer Society last week didn't get far.

Cancer society lawyer Richard Casey of Sioux Falls claimed that South Dakota's expanded smoking ban couldn't be referred to a public vote because the ban was necessary to preserve public health. Read more...

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Smoking ban at Timmins parks gets approval 

TIMMINS — A smoking-bylaw amendment prohibiting puffing near public beaches, certain playgrounds and recreational fields has been passed by Timmins city council.

It has been a topic that has ignited much discussion around the council table since a group of young people from Whisper Out Loud did a presentation.

The original suggestion was to prohibit people from smoking within roughly 30 metres of beaches, playgrounds and recreational fields.

The amendment passed yesterday establishes that restriction at 10 metres.

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Judge declines to play shell game with funds from Provost Umphrey Tobacco Partnership 

The battle between the Provost Umphrey law firm and former associate Brent Coon over attorney's fees from a multi-billion dollar tobacco settlement has outgrown its current arena and spilled over into another Jefferson County courtroom.

On Monday, Nov. 16, a hearing on whether the Provost Umphrey Tobacco Partnership (PUT) should be allowed to intervene and deposit tobacco funds into a case over attorney's fees in an asbestos lawsuit was held in Judge Milton Shuffield's 136th District Court.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Judge Shuffield denied PUT's plea in intervention and said he would wait to rule on whether or not PUT can deposit funds in the court's registry.

Over the past two years, the Record has reported on the struggle between Coon and Walter Umphrey, two of Texas' most influential plaintiff's lawyers, and their legal war over millions in attorney's fees stemming from the state's mega-billion dollar tobacco settlement.

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FDA Exercises New Authority to Regulate Tobacco Products, But Some Limits Remain ($$) 

With great fanfare, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on September 22 announced a ban on certain flavored cigarettes that, the agency says, are aimed at enticing children to smoke.

"Almost 90% of adult smokers start smoking as teenagers, and these flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers," said FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, MD, at a press conference announcing the ban.

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A Case-Control Study of Smoking and Bladder Cancer Risk: Emergent Patterns Over Time  

Conclusions: Smoking-related risks of bladder cancer appear to have increased in New Hampshire since the mid-1990s. Based on our modeling of pack-years and intensity, smoking fewer cigarettes over a long time appears more harmful than smoking more cigarettes over a shorter time, for equal total pack-years of cigarettes smoked. . . .

Contribution

Overall, current smokers, compared with never-smokers, had more than a five fold higher risk of bladder cancer. Among New Hampshire residents, there was a statistically significant progressive increase over each time period in bladder cancer risk among both former and current smokers compared with never-smokers.

Implications

The smoking-related risks of bladder cancer appear to have increased over time, at least among New Hampshire residents.

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Newton aldermen snuff out tobacco in pharmacies  

The Board of Aldermen approved a ban forbidding pharmacies from selling tobacco products in the city by a wide margin Monday night. The measure passed without discussion.

In an 18-3 vote, members approved the ban, which supporters said was intended to prevent those in the public health business from selling cigarettes and other tobacco items.

Aldermen Bill Brandel, Amy Sangiolo and Jay Harney cast the only nay votes against the ban.

Supporters of the proposal said at a previous meeting that pharmacies should not sell cigarettes because they also sell medicine -- including medication for people trying to quit smoking.

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• Lights out! Smoking ban nears  

Starting in January, if you want to smoke a cigarette during a night on the town at any of Macon's eating and drinking establishments, you will have to drag your butts outside.

The state's smoking ban in bars and restaurants will go into effect on Jan. 2, 2010.

Becky Barr, health education program supervisor and environmental health supervisor Barry Patterson with the Macon County Public Health Center explained the new rules and how they will be enforced at the health board's Nov. 10 meeting.

Barr said one of the goals as they get closer to the enactment date of "North Carolina's Smoke-Free Restaurants and Bars Law" (House Bill 2) is to educate restaurant owners and the public about the legislation.

The gist of the law, which passed in May, is that all North Carolina restaurants and bars permitted to serve food and beverages must be smoke free come Jan. 2.

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• Bladder Cancer Risks Increase Over Time For Smokers  

Risk of bladder cancer for smokers has increased since the mid-1990s, with a risk progressively increasing to a level five times higher among current smokers in New Hampshire than that among nonsmokers in 2001-2004, according to a new study published online November 16 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Furthermore, researchers found that among individuals who smoked the same total number of cigarettes over their lifetime, smoking fewer cigarettes per day for more years may be more harmful than smoking more cigarettes per day for fewer years.

It is well known that cigarette smoking causes bladder cancer, but the influence of various parameters of smoking history, including trends in risk over time, is unclear.

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• EDITORIAL: Cigarette Smoking and Bladder Cancer: A New Twist in an Old Saga?  

So far, the changing carcinogenic properties of cigarettes have been studied most extensively for lung cancer, and it is known that this risk has increased over time (13). Furthermore, the relative risks of mortality from "other smoking-related cancers" increased for both men (RR = 2.7 to 3.5) and women (RR = 1.8 to 2.6) when a cohort established in 1959, with follow-up through 1965, and another cohort established in 1982, with follow-up through 1988, were compared (14). In cohort studies carried out in the United States, that reported the RR for current smokers relative to nonsmokers in relation to bladder cancer incidence. No increase in the association was observed in successive and overlapping cohorts in Washington County, Maryland (RR = 2.7 for bladder cancer incidence in current smokers relative to nonsmokers in the first cohort, followed from 1963 to 1988; RR = 2.6 in the second cohort, followed from 1975 to 1994) (15). A similar relative risk (RR = 2.9) was reported in a Hawaiian cohort followed from 1966 to 1988 (16). In a few recent cohort studies, reported RRs of bladder cancer incidence among current smokers relative to nonsmokers were notably higher: 5.7 in Seventh Day Adventists followed from 1976 to 1982 (17) and 5.5 in the Iowa Women's Health Study cohort followed from 1986 to 1998 (18). This evidence is equivocal but certainly does not rule out that the association has grown stronger over time.

The findings of Baris et al. (7) are provocative and are accompanied by a tenable hypothesis. Recalling the steady accumulation of evidence and the cautious inferences that eventually led to the determination that smoking causes bladder cancer, these intriguing findings offer a testable hypothesis that warrants thorough investigation. An important element of this research will be to more precisely, pinpoint the specific role of cigarette additives will be an important element of this research. This study highlights the need for continued vigilance in monitoring the impact of changing cigarette content and design on disease risk, and demonstrates that the public health implications of the changing cigarette content and design are potentially severe.

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Are Smokers Now at Higher Risk of Bladder Cancer? Are Changes in Cigarettes To Blame? ($$) 

Researchers were caught off guard in 1989, when the Surgeon General's report showed that the risk of lung cancer among smokers had increased substantially between the 1960s and the 1980s. Tobacco companies had been changing the design of cigarettes since the 1950s, first by adding a filter and then by reducing tar and nicotine, and the assumption had been that the changes would make cigarettes safer. The Surgeon General's report, which was based on a comparison of two very large cohorts, suggested just the opposite: Far from making the cigarettes safer, the design changes might have made them even more dangerous.

A debate over the consequences of the cigarette changes has continued . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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Rate of Tobacco Sales to Minors Rises in Nebraska  

Each year the rate of tobacco sales to under-aged youth is tested through a collaboration between the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), the Nebraska State Patrol and the City of Omaha Police Department.

"We encourage merchants to review their procedures to stop tobacco sales to minors, and to have their employees always ask for identification from those wanting to buy tobacco products," said Scot Adams, Ph.D., director of the DHHS Division of Behavioral Health. "IDs should be carefully reviewed, because it's illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under 18."

Nebraska's buy rate has been edging up since 2005, when the rate was 10.7 percent. In 2009, cooperating teens attempted buys in 767 locations and made purchases in 104, for a statewide rate of 13.6 percent.

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