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Next Up for the Burlington City Council: an Outdoor Smoking Ban 

Sisco is reacting to news that the Burlington City Council is considering banning smoking in public parks, beaches and on the Church Street Marketplace. City Councilor Karen Paul (I-Ward 6) is backing the ordinance and hopes it will pass by spring.

If approved, Burlington would join a growing list of U.S. cities that have expanded smoking prohibitions beyond the confines of bars and restaurants -- where it was banned to protect workers indoors from harmful secondhand smoke -- and into outdoor gathering places.

Burlington already has a reputation as one of America's healthiest cities, and Paul sees a partial outdoor smoking ban as a way to build on that image.

"What you do in your own home is for you to decide," says Paul, an ex-smoker who went cold turkey when she became pregnant 16 years ago.

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Citizens to weigh in on smoking ban  

The Columbus City Council Tuesday scheduled a public hearing -- to be held Nov. 24 at 5 p.m. in the Columbus Municipal Complex -- on a proposed city smoking ordinance.

The ordinance, which largely is modeled after a Tennessee state law, bans smoking in "all enclosed public places," including restaurants, but allows smoking in "age-restricted venues" -- or bars, restaurants and other establishments which only allow people age 21 or older to enter -- and "private clubs," which restrict access to the general public.

Additionally, the ordinance allows businesses with three or fewer employees to designate enclosed smoking rooms, inaccessible to the general public, and provides exemptions for "non-enclosed areas of public places, including, open-air patios, porches or decks."

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Cigarette adverts ban in shops will help save lives, says Cumbrian health boss 

Cumbria's public health chief believes a new law could prove a life-saver in the county.

Dr John Ashton has welcomed legislation aimed at protecting children and young people from the harmful effects of tobacco.

Tough new rules will stop cigarettes being advertised openly in shops - a move supporters hope will reduce the number of children taking up the habit.

Three people a week, on average, die every day from a smoking-related illness in Cumbria. And Dr Ashton, NHS Cumbria's director of public health, believes new rules will break the "depressing cycle" tobacco brings.

Peers in the House of Lords last week backed laws to remove cigarettes and tobacco from display at points of sale and to get rid of cigarette vending machines.

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WARNER: Anti-smokers just can’t quit  

The Wenatchee City Council could have banned smoking in parks. Many cities have, and many are considering it. The city can do it, just because. It doesn’t even have to pick from the usual anti-smoking justifications, real or imagined, like protecting public health or protecting children or fighting litter. It’s enough that most people who use city parks find smoking objectionable and don’t want to watch people do it, or smell it, or get a small whiff of their personal residue. The implications of banning a normally legal personal habit simply because it produces an odor doesn’t matter. A city can ban a public nuisance, and a public nuisance is usually whatever the city says it is. The limits are broad, and smoking has so few defenders the political risk is slight. . . .

So where does it stop? Not at your threshold. The next great frontier of anti-smoking law is the private residence. . . .

We should be able to sleep without fretting that someone somewhere might be sitting on their couch smoking a cigarette, but we just can’t give it up. Onward, prohibitionists.

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Persistence pays off for anti-puffing group  

Cadence Hayes is one of the crusaders who was involved in the push to convince city council to move forward with the idea of the outdoor smoking ban on certain city properties.

She says it was a lot of hard work.

"We knew it would take some work when we started. We actually thought that the first time we presented to city council, way back in February of this year, we thought it would be passed. It wasn't," the petite blonde student recalled.

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City council approves outdoor smoking ban  

Acting on the advice of a group of teenagers, Timmins city council has agreed to ban smoking in outdoor spaces in Timmins that are within ten metres of beaches, playgrounds, parks and recreational fields, such as ball diamonds and soccer fields. Council approved third and final reading of a bylaw amendment Monday evening.

The vote was solidly in favour of the anti-smoking sentiment with most councilors saying they're confident that the majority of citizens favour the ban and that even those who disagree with it, will obey the ban.

The amendment to the bylaw was first suggested last winter by Whisper Out Loud, part of the Youth Action Alliance with the Porcupine Health Unit.

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• Study raises concerns about outdoor second-hand smoke 

Indoor smoking bans have forced smokers at bars and restaurants onto outdoor patios, but a new University of Georgia study in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that these outdoor smoking areas might be creating a new health hazard.

The study, thought to be the first to assess levels of a nicotine byproduct known as cotinine in nonsmokers exposed to second-hand smoke outdoors, found levels up to 162 percent greater than in the control group. The results appear in the November issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene.

"Indoor smoking bans have helped to create more of these outdoor environments where people are exposed to secondhand smoke," said study co-author Luke Naeher, associate professor in the UGA College of Public Health. "We know from our previous study that there are measurable airborne levels of secondhand smoke in these environments, and we know from this study that we can measure internal exposure.

"Secondhand smoke contains several known carcinogens and the current thinking is that there is no safe level of exposure," he added. "So the levels that we are seeing are a potential public health issue."

Athens-Clarke County, Ga., enacted an indoor smoking ban in 2005, providing Naeher and his colleagues and ideal environment for their study.

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OfficialWire: Government Approved Lab Finds E Cigarettes Are Much Safer Than Tobacco Cigarettes 

LPD Services, a U.K. based lab that is fully accredited has submitted the results of its findings on the Gamucci line of e-cigarettes. As most have suspected, the lab indicated that the electronic cigarette is much safer than traditional tobacco cigarettes.

There have been several reports from highly credible labs around the world on the e cigarette. One from South Africa, New Zealand, the U.K. and several others that are high profile in nature and performed by stout anti-smoking advocates that believe in harm reduction. All of these labs came back with the same result: the e cigarette is many times safer than traditional tobacco cigarettes.

There seems to be an air of change on the horizon concerning the e cigarette with strong lab results supporting claims of a smarter and safer choice over the tobacco cigarette. Top anti-smoking advocates like Dr Murray Laugesen, who has been the recipient of top awards from the World Health Organization in his fight against the harm of tobacco, supports the e cigarette.

Professor Michael Siegel is a doctor also and another strong advocate for harm reduction

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EDITORIAL: Smoking: Unexpected cough | Jacksonville.com 

It's a small increase as increases go. Less than 1 percent.

But the news that cigarette smoking among adults went up at all for the first time since 1994 is cause for some alarm. . . .

Of course, there's no price tag that can be put on a decreased quality of life or the related miseries from smoking that smokers and their loved ones may have to endure.

The adult smoking rate has been declining, off and on, since the 1960s, The Associated Press reports. At one time, two of five adult Americans smoked.

But the latest number - even if just a blip on the big picture - shows that prevention programs shouldn't take any vacations.

It's a matter of life and death.

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U-M opens two new research studies for people with emphysema and other COPD  

Why do some smokers develop lung disease and others don't? And just how effective is supplemental oxygen therapy in treating patients with emphysema?

The University of Michigan Health System will try to find out, through two new multi-center research studies that seek to improve diagnosis and treatment for millions of people affected by emphysema, chronic bronchitis and other lung diseases. Together, those conditions are known as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Both studies are now accepting new participants.

While smoking is the leading cause of COPD, only 25 percent of smokers develop the disease. For the COPDGeneTM study, U-M will enroll hundreds of current or former smokers - with and without COPD - between 45 and 80 years of age to discover the inherited factors that make some people more likely to develop COPD. U-M is one of 21 leading medical centers participating in the study, which will enroll more than 12,000 people across the United States.

COPDGeneTM is one of the first COPD studies to include a large percentage of African American participants.

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Smoking may be considered an established risk factor for sporadic ALS 

Conclusions: Smoking may be considered an established risk factor for sporadic amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) (level A rating; 3 class II studies, 1 class III study). Evidence-based analysis of epidemiologic data shows concordance among results of better-designed studies linking smoking to ALS, and lets those results drive the conclusions.

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Wales | Lung condition awareness concern 

Consultant respiratory physician Dr Emrys Evans says it is important to diagnose people with chronic lung conditions as early as possible

Awareness of certain chronic lung conditions in Wales is "dangerously low", says a charity.

British Lung Foundation Wales is especially worried because of the high rates of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in parts of Wales.

COPD is a term for lung conditions including emphysema and chronic bronchitis, which are caused mostly by smoking but also by exposure to dust.

The charity is raising awareness of the disease on Tuesday, World COPD Day.

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E Cigarettes Are A Better Alternative To Tobacco Per Ash 

With ASH (US version) holding a hard contempt for the e cigarette on the market, it's original founders in the UK have gone in a total opposite direction from the U.S. based ASH that mimicked ASH U.K. in working to save over 400,000 smokers a year from sure and miserable death.

The United Kingdom version of ASH organization has now released a document that states that one of the few downsides of the electronic cigarette is that the levels of nicotine as "low", and may not give users the amount of nicotine needed to keep them using the e cigarette over the real thing. They further state their support for other alternatives to tobacco.

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EDITORIAL: Fresh air for nonsmokers in Palm Desert  

For nonsmokers, few things are more offensive than to walk out of the office door and be greeted by a cloud of cigarette smoke. This became commonplace a few years ago when smoking was banished from most buildings.

On Thursday, the Palm Desert City Council did something about this. It voted to amend its smoking ordinance to rule that smokers must be at least 20 feet away from building entrances.

The Desert Sun applauds the decision. . . .

Thursday is the 34th annual Great American Smokeout. Smokers should quit for a day and visit the Web site www.cancer.org/GreatAmericans for tips on how to quit for good and add years to their lives.

Then they can join us in applauding Palm Desert's new limits on smoking.

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ITC hikes prices of premium cigarettes 

Tobacco and FMCG major ITC on Wednesday hiked prices of its premium cigarettes -- India Kings and Benson & Hedges -- in the range of 5-10%. While India Kings, priced at Rs 100, will now cost Rs 110, a pack of Benson & Hedges will come for Rs 105 against Rs 100 earlier.

An ITC spokesperson confirmed the hike but declined to give details.

Anand Shah, an analyst with Angel Broking, said the hike was partly to compensate for various regulatory issues and also because the company has seen earlier price hikes being absorbed without a dip in sales.

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