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Kansas bans smoking 

Kansas on Thursday moved toward banning smoking in restaurants, bars, offices and other public places, after a bill imposing restrictions on lighting up cleared the state Legislature, according to the Associated Press.

The House approved the bill 68-54. It earlier had been passed in the Senate and next will go to Gov. Mark Parkinson, who already endorsed the bill and signaled he would sign it, the AP said.

Parkinson said the new restrictions, which will take effect July 1, would reduce cases of smoking-related diseases, including cancer, in Kansas.

Health officials estimated that 4,000 Kansans die from smoking-related diseases every year, about 300 through exposure to secondhand smoke.

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Not just a Cigar Room 

Sometimes, a cigar is just a cigar – at least in the famous words of Sigmund Freud. But a cigar shop is a friendly gathering place of civil, political discourse.

That’s what Mike’s Cigar Room, which opened two weeks ago at 8000 Texas 242, Suite 119, in Conroe, represents – not only to its owners but to the store’s first customer, Mike Bialka, who lives in downtown Houston. Bialka, a pilot, had shopped at Mike and Nancy McCoy’s original cigar store, which opened 25 years ago, and followed them to their new location.

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• “Tobacco mafia behind Pukanić murder” 

ZAGREB -- The Montenegrin tobacco mafia is behind the murder of Croat journalist and publisher Ivo Pukanić, Montenegrin businessman Ratko Knežević said.

He was testifying at the murder trial in Zagreb on Thursday, saying that Stanko Subotić, aka Cane, and Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović were behind the crime.

"The tobacco mafia started threatening Pukanić right after he published the first articles on Montenegro's state-sanctioned cigarette smuggling in the discontinued daily Rebulika," Knežević said in his testimony before the Zagreb District Court. . . .

Pukanić died, along with another victim, when a car bomb exploded in Zagreb in the fall of 2008.

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Illegal tobacco sales to IN teens at new low 

A new report says the number of Indiana teenagers who were able to illegally buy tobacco products from Hoosier retailers hit an all-time low last year.

The state's Tobacco Retailer Inspection Program enlists teens to test whether stores will sell them cigarettes, smokeless tobacco or cigars in violation of state law.

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City smoking ban takes effect Monday  

The city of Conroe’s smoking ban goes into effect Monday.

Adopted Aug. 27, 2009, the ordinance prohibits smoking in enclosed public places and places of employment. These include banks, bars, bowling alleys, childcare and adult day care facilities, convention facilities, educational facilities (public and private), health care facilities, hotels and motels, lobbies, hallways, and other common areas in apartment buildings, condominiums, trailer parks, retirement facilities, nursing homes and other multiunit residential facilities, restaurants, restrooms, lobbies, reception areas, stairways, hallways, elevators and other common-use areas, retail stores, theaters and other facilities primarily used for exhibiting motion pictures, stage dramas, lectures, musical recitals, or similar performances.

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1 held for smoking on flight from Urumqi 

Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region authorities yesterday denied media reports that two people were detained after one of them set fire to toilet paper in the lavatory on a flight taking off from regional capital Urumqi during the weekend.

"Only one person was detained for smoking in the toilet, not for setting fire to toilet paper as some media reported. The second person was taken away by police because the two were traveling together," regional spokesperson Hou Hanmin told China Daily yesterday.

The Xinhua News Agency reported on Saturday that the crew of China Southern flight CZ6939 discovered that a passenger had allegedly set fire to toilet paper in the lavatory, which triggered the fire alarm.

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Ban on tobacco sponsorships coming to legislature by 2011 

Anti-smoking advocates including 17 senior legislators and political consultants are urging that laws be passed to ban donations or sponsorships from tobacco companies for Chinese events, such as expos, festivals and athletic events. The measure is expected to be enacted by the top legislature within a year.

"The message will be conveyed to the coming two sessions to fuel the anti-smoking efforts," said Wu Yiqun, deputy director of the Thinktank Research Center for Health Development, a Beijing-based nongovernmental organization, yesterday.

The two sessions are the annual plenary meeting of the National People's Congress (NPC) and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), which usually fall in early March. They are considered China's most important annual political events.

Wu made the remarks at an anti-smoking seminar attended by 17 NPC deputies and CPPCC members yesterday in Beijing.

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A bar? A bistro? Jakarta eatery intrigues by pushing boundaries 

A worker at Tabac prepares cigars for customers in Jakarta this week. Owner Tom Sisk opened Tabac, French for "tobacco", in the city's southern Kemang party district two years ago, claiming Jakartans were starving for a relaxing bar offering quality service. . . .

The front section of Tabac offers a wall of cigars, cigarillos and cigarettes for sale, and smoking advertisements fill the inside.

In an age when smoking is morally condemned by many, Sisk, who admits to enjoying a cigarette, says he is offering a place free of judgement.

"I'm not really interested in being politically correct. I believe in free will and free choice," he said.

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Living in hell 

Fang Bo, 58, who survived SARS seven years ago but is now crippled by the hormone treatment that saved his life, looks across from his bed in a Beijing hospital to cuttings of newspaper articles from 2003 that hail him as a symbol of hope against the deadly virus. . . .

Fang has started to smoke again, despite quitting for five years. Although he knows it will worsen the fibrosis in his lungs, he said he cannot live without cigarettes.

As he sat in his hospital bed chatting, he continued to smoke as he inserted an oxygen pipe into his nose to help his breathing. A nurse entered the room, checked his temperature and left. "The staff at the hospital have given up trying to get me to stop," he said. "Smoking is the only thing that helps with my depression. If I didn't have it, I would go mad waiting for my next bone or joint to break."

The 58-year-old was diagnosed with depression in 2008.

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DENNY: Tobacco Industry: ‘Give me your homeless, your poor…’.  

When I first saw Berkeley’s new proposal for smoking restrictions in multi-unit housing, I couldn’t believe the loopholes. It exempts condos and tenant-in-common properties. It offers opt-out options for those who wish to continue smoking in their units. It refuses to identify secondhand smoke . . .

It’s true that homeless people have a high rate of smoking, but it is no accident. The tobacco industry targets homeless and mentally disabled people the same way it targets other marginalized groups by donating free cigarettes to shelters and psychiatric clinics and encouraging the clinics and transitional housing groups to oppose smoking restrictions. It targets the service providers as well, many of whom are formerly homeless, in the hope that they will help the tobacco industry position itself in the public eye as compassionate, generous, and kind.

The difference is that when the tobacco industry targets the gay community or the African-American community, people jump up and down and object. Targeting homeless and mentally disabled people in this way gets little such reaction—on the contrary, tobacco industry rhetoric and mythology is prevalent in the discussions of this embarrassing proposal, which sidesteps the opportunity to protect countless lungs and lives. . . .

Berkeley deserves to lose its leadership role in public health policy if it thinks one can put a smoking section in a room, a theater, or multi-unit housing, and still call it “smokefree.” Ninety percent smokefree is a contradiction in terms.

It’s tragic to lay a foundation for young children to continue to be exposed daily to deadly second- and third-hand smoke because of Berkeley’s misguided, tobacco industry-hatched mythology about “social justice.”

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• Smoking schoolgirls spark online fire 

Photographs posted online of a group of teenage girls in their school uniforms smoking on a street in Foshan, Guangdong province, have aroused public concern.

The photos were published on a popular, local online forum by an Internet user, who goes by the pseudo name "toxicwaltz", on Tuesday afternoon.

The post on www.ttx.com.cn said the five girls, four of whom were seen smoking in the photographs, are students of the Foshan No 10 Middle School. . . .

Wang Qian, a teacher at the Xingtai No 2 Middle School in Hebei, thinks that smoking among teenagers is a common problem and an increasing number of children are taking their first puff younger than ever.

"Maybe the media and movies are influencing them. Or maybe they smoke to release the pressure of studies," Wang told China Daily. "When we find out that our children are smoking, we should care for them and educate them, not criticize." . . .

According to Article 15 of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency, "The parents or other guardians of minors and the schools shall educate minors not to smoke or drink excessively. No business place may sell cigarettes or wine to minors."

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Missouri City voter propositions to include ban on smoking in public facilities  

It will be left to Missouri City voters to decide if the city bans smoking in public facilities, offers a homestead exemption and consolidates residents under a city-wide garbage collection contract.

The three issues will be carried as propositions on the ballot in the upcoming May city election.

Missouri City Councilman Jerry Wyatt suggested the items be placed on the election ballot as propositions.

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TEAK: China's smoke-filled rooms choke children's future 

China might lead the world in many areas, but, as anybody who's had to put up with a Beijing restaurant knows, it is still lagging behind on battling smoking.

The government recently introduced regulations to prevent smoking in indoor public areas in seven big cities.

In October 2005, in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics of 2008, China signed the World Health Organization's framework on tobacco control.

It pledged to introduce price and tax measures to reduce the demand for tobacco.

Further measures were supposed to include protection from exposure to tobacco smoke, control of tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship and packaging and labeling of tobacco products as well as education about the dangers of the vice.

Despite this, little has been done. . .

Smoking is so deeply rooted in China that the eventual elimination of the vice is not a simple matter, as overseas countries have found.

Nevertheless, the latter are persevering with strict measures aimed 20 years down the line. In China it will take time and effort and money but it must be done.

The government must not kowtow to the vested interest of the tobacco industry, nor its undoubted financial.

Too many measures have failed to be enforced; the government needs to take the necessary action and reinforce it with the full weight of its legal apparatus.

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City receives petition to overturn smoking ban  

A group of business owners trying to overturn a smoking ban recently approved by the Conroe City Council submitted more than enough signatures Monday to send the matter back to the council, a local restaurant owner said.

Connie Malone, owner of Malones, a Conroe bar, and notary public Dave Luttrell turned in 680 signatures, said Jim Hallers, owner of Tailgators Pub and Grille at Texas 242 and Interstate 45.

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FM's Budget makes tobacco cos cough  

Union Budget 2010-11 may have come as a negative surprise for tobacco companies.

"Since I quit smoking many years ago, I would urge others to also follow suit, as smoking is injurious to health," Mukherjee, in a light-hearted tone, told Parliament while presenting the Budget.

"To this end, I am making some structural changes in the excise duty on cigarettes, cigars and cigarillos coupled with some increase in rates," he said. "I propose to enhance excise duty on all non-smoking tobacco such as scented tobacco, snuff, chewing tobacco etc. In addition, I propose to introduce a compounded levy scheme for chewing tobacco and branded unmanufactured tobacco based on the capacity of pouch packing machines."

Tobacco companies may choose to may pass on the hike burden to consumers with minor prices increases.

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