Tobacco.org

SL board may ban tobacco in village parks  

SARANAC LAKE - The village of Board of Trustees has scheduled a public hearing on a local law that would ban smoking and chewing tobacco in village parks.

The proposal bans the use of any tobacco product - including cigarettes, cigars, pipes, chew, snuff and any form of smokeless tobacco - in village parks, beaches and playgrounds. The law also prohibits the use of tobacco products within 25 feet of the entrance to a public playground or beach, and at any events held in public parks or areas in the village.

The public hearing is scheduled to take place at 7 p.m. Feb. 8 in the village offices.

The idea of banning smoking in village parks surfaced in August, when Trustee Jeff Branch said he had received complaints about people smoking in the William Morris Play Park and other public areas.

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VIDEO: Maryland Burned by Tobacco Smugglers 

Law enforcement agents in Maryland have uncovered an underground tobacco smuggling operation.

Fifty-four businesses are under investigation for selling the contraband. State agents said the smuggling scheme is cheating Maryland out of much-needed tax revenue.

Kyun Hong is at the center of this tobacco smuggling operation. After receiving two tips that he was delivering untaxed cigarettes and other tobacco products to retail stores for sale, agents followed his car and documented deliveries he made to retail stores, authorities said. They got a warrant to search his Severna Park home and seized more than $150,000 worth of tobacco products.

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Local Man Arrested for Smuggling Cigarettes  

An investigation by the Maryland Comptroller’s Office that spanned several weeks turned up 130,000 sticks of untaxed tobacco products, along with more than 2,600 illegal cigarettes.

Comptroller Peter Franchot says Kyun Hong from Severna Park is at the center of it all. Agents watched him transport a large quantity of tobacco products, but where he got it from is still unknown.

The Avenue Bar on Greenmount Ave. received a $500 citation in connection with the case, but the manager says he buys cartons of cigarettes from wholesalers and he doesn't know Hong.

"We expect all the cigarettes are good to sell for retail, but unfortunately those few cigarettes we had wasn't stamped," said Sung Kim, manager, The Avenue Bar.

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Mel Gibson: 'Life's Experiences Season You'  

His biggest challenge.

"I've quit smoking again. It was torture. The first three days I was like an axe murderer. Day four, I'd be ready to come at you with a baseball bat. Day five, I was dangerous with a lawnmower. It is a hellish habit to break. My mother smoked, I think, when I was in her womb. I first had a cigarette when I was nine years old. Looking back on the year since, every decision I've ever made was done with a cigarette in my mouth. So I did crawl the walls for a while."

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South African Smoking Rates Stubbornly High 

John Nzimande sits with his co-workers at lunch break on a construction site in Johannesburg, South Africa's largest city. Before opening their lunch tins, they light up a cigarette after hours of digging on a site related to the World Cup of soccer in June.

John says taking a few puffs before and during lunch helps him relax as workers are under high pressure to meet deadlines.

His colleagues agree it is hard in their line of work to quit smoking, though they know the habit has clear health risks. . . .

Johannesburg is in Gauteng province, the richest in South Africa with the largest economy of any metropolitan region in Africa below the Sahara. Gauteng draws workers from the entire country and African continent. Even as the South African government increases regulation on the tobacco industry, smoking remains a favorite pastime for about one in four men.

Though South Africa one of the few African nations to impose restrictions on cigarette advertisements and smoking in public places, the country's tobacco industry continues to see top-line growth due to higher unit prices.

Pharmacist and former smoker John Levine says that despite the decline in tobacco sales by volume, there is significant growth in revenues to tobacco companies - and to the state, which heavily taxes cigarettes.

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Electronic Cigarettes Comfort At Its Finest 

Are you a smoker who is desperate to quit your addiction? Have you tried in the past but failed after a few short days or months, or when you even clean for years but fell back onto your comfortable habit? Are you aware of the many dangers associated with smoking and want to take back your life, reclaim your health, and make changes now? Then, there is a solution that comes in a handy little battery powered device. www.ElectronicCigarette123.com is the answer.

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Breathing easier?: Some claim nicotine fix without the risks; others say it's too soon to tell  

Smoking indoors without the secondhand smoke? A nicotine rush without the cancer-causing chemicals?

For about 3 million people in the United States, electronic cigarettes sound like a dream come true.

Charlie Casados, manager of Smoke Source 51, started offering them at a booth in Coronado Shopping Center in July and sells 25 to 30 kits a day.

The devices may be popular with consumers who see them as a safe alternative to cigarettes but public health officials say too little is known to label them safe. . . .

The New Mexico Department of Health hasn't taken a stance on them, said David Tompkins, media strategist for the Tobacco Use, Prevention and Control Program administered by the state agency. Tompkins expects states to look at clean air laws to determine how -- or whether -- e-cigarettes should be included.

In New Jersey, the sale of e-cigarettes is prohibited to people under 19, and adults are barred from smoking them at work and in public places. This month, California Attorney General Jerry Brown filed suit against Smoking Everywhere Inc., claiming the company has no evidence to back up safety claims.

E-cigarettes remain an unregulated industry. That means no health warnings are required, unlike nicotine patches and gum. But that doesn't mean they are harmless, he said.

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Engineered Tobacco Plants Grow Synthetic Solar Cells  

When it comes to energy efficiency, there’s still no substitute for millions upon millions of years of evolution. Scientists at UC Berkeley have found a way to hack common tobacco plants to grow synthetic photovoltaic and photochemical cells that can be extracted, dissolved in solution and sprayed onto a glass or plastic substrate to create solar panels. That’s the idea, anyhow.

Eons of living on earth have made plants very efficient gatherers of sunlight, so the researchers genetically programmed a virus that can infect a tobacco crop. But rather than replicating genetic copies of itself like a normal virus, this one causes the plant to manufacture artificial chromosphores, tiny structures that turn sunlight into high-powered electrons.

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KT&G Joins With Imperial Tobacco Group 

KT&G, South Korea's foremost tobacco company, sealed a partnership with Imperial Tobacco Group under which the former will manufacture products for the latter this year.

The Seoul-headquartered firm said Tuesday that it had reached a license agreement with Imperial Tobacco Group, which brags of geographic diversity as its products are available in more than 160 countries across the world.

``We have forged a brand license agreement with Imperial Tobacco to start producing one of its best-selling products, Davidoff, here in Korea over the first half of this year,'' KT&G spokesman Kim Tae-hoon said. . . .

``On top of debuting Davidoff here, we are set to join hands with Imperial in a variety of areas where we can collaborate with the British firm down the road, for example, cooperation in the advance into the global market,'' Kim said.

``The global market has been ruled by the `big three' companies up until now. But we will make a splash in the international scene under the business alliance with Imperial,'' he said.

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Imperial Tobacco revamps West Cigarettes pack design  

The new West Cigarettes pack design aims to be functional and aesthetically pleasing for today's selective smokers

UK. Imperial Tobacco has announced the launch of West Cigarettes in a contemporary new pack design which will be rolled out successively in global travel retail from March.

Through the fresh design, the company said it was making "a conscious effort for innovation and to create something that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing for our adult smokers". . . .

West's new metallic look aims to add "next-generation modernity" to the brand, connecting it with adult smokers who are becoming more and more progressive and selective.

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Nebraskans quite civilized about ban 

Implementation of Nebraska’s statewide smoking ban has gone amazingly well.

Residents and state officials should pat themselves on the back for the smoothness of this major transition in social policy and personal habit.

The calm is in marked contrast to the lengthy and fiery debate that accompanied the passage of the ban by the Legislature. Nebraska was just the 16th state to approve a statewide ban.

Since the ban on smoking in public buildings and private businesses went into effect on June 1, 2009, state officials received only 134 complaints of violations, according to The Associated Press. One third of those complaints came in the first month. The rate quickly slowed.

Most of the complaints were dealt with expeditiously. The only case in which state officials were forced to seek a court order occurred in Broken Bow. The case against Henry “Fred” Schumacher, owner of Sylvester’s Bar and Lounge, is still pending. He was fined a total of $500 on three counts.

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Council bans smoking near Duluth bus shelters 

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6 cats die in fire, eldery woman hospitalized 

Six cats died and an elderly Orchard Mesa woman was seriously injured in a house fire Saturday evening in a residential neighborhood near the Mesa County Fairgrounds.

The Grand Junction Fire Department responded to the fire at 198 Rincon Drive about 7:30 p.m. with seven units and 22 responders, according to a Fire Department news release.

An elderly woman was found during a primary search of the home, and she was rescued and taken by ambulance to a local hospital. The woman was in serious condition with burns and smoke inhalation, Fire Department spokesman Mike Page said.

Betty Osborne, who lives two houses down from 198 Rincon Drive, said 85-year-old Phyllis Williams lived alone in the single-story, gray home with her pet cats.

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Cigarette on couch sparked fatal fire 

A fire that killed an elderly woman inside her home over the weekend was accidentally sparked by a cigarette left on a couch, fire investigators said Monday.

The Mesa County Coroner's Office confirmed that 85-year-old Phyllis Williams died from carbon monoxide poisoning due to smoke inhalation and ruled her death an accident. . . .

Mike Page, spokesman for the Grand Junction Fire Department, said Williams was a smoker and likely fell asleep on the couch while smoking.

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- 27eastCigar Bar has liquor license suspended because of violence  

The New York State Liquor Authority suspended the liquor license of the Cigar Bar in Sag Harbor last weekend after numerous fights in recent months, including three in a two-week period over the holidays.

In a press release issued Friday, the State Liquor Authority, or SLA, said a special meeting was called to issue the suspension because of "the recent history of escalating violence at the premises, including the gang-related assaults involving weapons, the persistent pattern of sale[s] to minors, the numerous fights and ensuing arrests."

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