Tobacco.org

CALLAHAN: Chattanooga Green Lodging’s Response to Smoking/Certification Feature & Column 

On behalf of Chattanooga Green Lodging and the Greater Chattanooga Hospitality Association, thank you for your very thoughtful articles regarding smoking and hotel certification programs. (Click here for feature article. Click here for publisher’s column.) We are now actively discussing an issue that was only in the background until you brought attention to it.

At this moment, Chattanooga Green Lodging does not address the issue of smoking, although most of the hotels involved do have a policy, ranging from being totally smoke free to having some restrictions on where smoking is allowed. All provide the option of nonsmoking rooms. . . .

To require that a hotel be totally nonsmoking changes this dynamic so that guest participation is no longer voluntary. In most cases, being green is not only the right thing to do from an environmental perspective; it is either neutral or actually an enhancement to the guest’s experience. Nonsmoking lies in between these realms in that it is a negative as far as smoking guests are concerned but can be a positive for nonsmokers (although nonsmokers’ desires to not be exposed to smoke can be addressed with proper restrictions).

So, in this perhaps unique dilemma there is an unfortunate balance between some guests’ satisfaction and being “green.” The situation is further complicated by the fact that some hotel brands require that a certain percentage of rooms remain available for smokers.

Having said that, we want to emphasize that your article has appropriately caused us to evaluate our position. There certainly is a growing movement to have more facilities to be smoke free. We don’t want to be on the “catching up” end of any change of this nature. Several of our hotels are totally nonsmoking, and that number is increasing.

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• Smoking Gun Found in Tobacco Bill: Activists  

An anti-tobacco group on Thursday reported a current lawmaker and two former legislators to the National Police, accusing them of eliminating a clause designating tobacco as “addictive” in a health bill passed last year, and claiming to have a signed document implicating the three in the crime.

The Coalition Against Corruption of the Anti-Tobacco Clause said that the three House of Representatives lawmakers, before ending their tenure last year, had ordered that the clause designating tobacco as an addictive substance be excised.

“What we have are hard evidences and not just mere indications. We have a document signed by those people ordering the State Secretariat to ‘mutilate’ the clause,” said Kartono Muhammad, a member of the coalition, also known as Kakar.

“We demand justice and that the police investigate this case. What is the motive to ‘delete’ a clause from the health bill. This is a systematic crime and should not happen again in the future,” he said.

The three accused were named as Ribka Tjiptaning from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Mariani Baramuli Akib and Asiah Salekan, both from Golkar Party.

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Mayor Mike Potter says he’ll sign Lake Saint Louis smoking ban  

Lake Saint Louis' mayor, Mike Potter, confirmed Thursday that he plans to sign a recently-passed ban on smoking in bars and restaurants despite his own opposition to the bill.

"Even though I'm opposed to it, two-thirds of the people" on the Board of Aldermen were in favor when the bill was passed Monday night, he pointed out. The vote was 4-2.

Another factor: if none of the supporters switch their positions, there likely would be enough votes - four is the minimum needed - to override any veto. If one of the four told him he was changing sides, Potter said, he might reconsider. That isn't expected.

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• Grilling due over cheap cigarettes 

A Christchurch company selling cheap high-nicotine cigarettes faces a grilling before a Government select committee on smoking.

Maori MP Hone Harawira said he would be asking the NZ Tobacco Group to appear before a Maori Affairs select committee hearing on the tobacco industry in Christchurch in about six weeks.

The business, based in Papanui offices, distributes two cigarette brands, Ashford and Easy, said to be big sellers in low socio-economic areas. The Press found 20-cigarette Easy packs being sold in Christchurch stores for as little as $7.70, and about $9 for the Ashford brand.

All convenience stores contacted by The Press stocked at least one of the brands.

The average cost of a Dunhill or Benson & Hedges pack is about $12.

Figures show the nicotine content of Ashford Full Flavour is 1.25 milligrams compared with 0.9mg for Benson & Hedges Classic and 0.8mg for Dunhill Premier. . . .

The Easy packaging says the cigarettes are made in Luxembourg, under the authority of Easy Singapore for Richland Express, a discount cigarette company in Sydney.

Harawira said the company had not been "on his radar" before he was contacted by The Press.

"I'm bloody horrified, but not surprised at their tactics,"

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Taking A Stand: Your words on the smoking ban 

Earlier this week, we took a stand supporting an Evansville smoking ban.

We have received a lot of feedback.

Joe Wallace agreed with our stand and says:

"As the smokers rationalize myths to feed their addictions, four members of the city council used these myths to justify irrational and irresponsible votes on Monday night."

The majority of those who contacted me disagreed. . . .

Here is a list of unedited emails that were sent in response:

I am one of the owner's of Fast Eddy's and was very glad to see that the amendment failed in City Council because it was a very bad law since it had exemptions for some.

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LETTER: Blame smoking ban for bar closings and lost jobs 

The reduction in smoking complaints against bars has nothing to do with better compliance. Fewer bars means fewer complaints.

The overwhelming majority of bar patrons are smokers, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that they'll quit going to bars before they'll quit smoking.

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EDITORIAL: Tobacco display: all cost and no effect 

Five nail-biting months after legislation outlawing tobacco displays was passed by MPs, the government has finally set out its vision of how a ban will look in England and Wales.

While most still believe the ban is a disproportionate and untested reaction to a complex problem, and that it will impose both installation and operational costs, the picture for small stores is not quite as grim as it could have been.

There is some concession on the 'permitted display area' the amount of gantry space that can be seen while a retailer is restocking or retrieving a product.

Under the amended rules, a typical convenience store gantry of 2m x 1.5m will now only need to be fitted with four doors, rather than the 20 required in the original proposal. This should mean lower installation costs, and should be easier for retailers to work with. . . .

Fortunately, there is still a chance to overturn the ban. The Conservatives have promised to review the issue should they come to power. They agree that there is no convincing evidence of a ban's effectiveness and we'll be reminding them, and all the other parties, of this in the coming weeks.

What you can do With the general election looming, the major political parties will soon be out canvassing for your vote.

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Medicaid Programs Confuse Smokers Willing to Quit 

Recently scientists found that not enough help and actions are received from Medicaid programs in West Virginia, which has the country’s highest smoking rate.

They declared that the state’s Medicaid plan is both too confusing and too restricting when it comes to proposing smokers a chance to quit.

Some smokers may have three varieties at trying to quit smoking, including nicotine gum and a patch. Some of them may have more, depending on which Medicaid plan they’re part of.

No one on Medicaid in West Virginia has access to all of the options at once, according to Deborah Brown, acting CEO of the lung association’s Mid-Atlantic chapter.

The groups, which involve the American Heart Association and the West Virginia Medical Association, want Medicaid to offer recipients who smoke a plan that includes all seven CDC-recommended treatments: gum, patch, nasal spray, inhaler, lozenge and two prescription medications.

“West Virginia Medicaid will pay for a lung transplant, however, they won’t pay for lower-cost, complete cessation therapies,” Brown added.

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• Kanagawa Prefecture to ban smoking on beaches 

Kanagawa Prefecture on Friday became the first of Japan's 47 prefectures to adopt a local ordinance banning smoking on swimming beaches outside of designated areas.

At the municipal level, the hot-spa resort cities of Atami in Shizuoka Prefecture and Shirahama in Wakayama Prefecture have already adopted similar ordinances banning smoking on swimming beaches.

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Will Asian-language smokers use a tobacco quitline? 

Telephone counseling programs for smoking cessation, popularly known as "quitlines," are an increasingly common way for smokers to quit. Every state in the U.S. now has one. However, most of them provide counseling services in English and Spanish only. The only quitline so far to offer counseling in multiple Asian languages is the California Smokers' Helpline. Since 1993, the Helpline has counseled smokers in Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese dialects), Korean and Vietnamese, in addition to English and Spanish.

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, led by Shu-Hong Zhu, professor of family and preventative medicine, examined more than 15 years of data from the California Smokers' Helpline and compared the use of Asian-language services by Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese callers with the use of English-language services by callers identified as Caucasian. Their findings will appear in the March 18 online issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

"Many people mistakenly believe that Asians won't call such a service," said Zhu. "Yet California's experience shows just the opposite. Asian-language speakers are actively using the service."

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Bills filed to end smoking in bars, riverboats and casinos for March 29 session 

A Baton Rouge area lawmaker late Thursday filed two bills aimed at banning smoking in bars as well as gambling outlets like riverboats and the New Orleans land-based casino.

Sen. Rob Marionneaux, D-Livonia, who got a ban on smoking in most public places through the Legislature in in 2006, filed Senate Bill 348 that would ban smoking in any bar and in casinos, video poker and slot machine parlors, race tracks and off-track-betting parlors.

Those areas are the ones that were exempted from the smoking ban Marrioneaux's original bill covered. The earlier bill banned smoking in restautrants, public buildings, schools, hospitals, doctors' offices and other locations.

Attempts to expand the ban to bars and gambling outlets in subsequent years have failed.

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EDITORIAL: Our view: Salem councilors right in rejecting smoking ban 

A Salem City Council committee took the wiser course Tuesday in rejecting a proposal to ban smoking in the city's public housing units.

For one thing, as Assistant City Solicitor Jerry Parisella advised, the council lacks jurisdiction to impose rules on the tenants of these units, which were built and are operated with state funds. . . .

There's nothing wrong with the SHA stepping up the effort to discourage people from smoking. But an outright ban crosses the line.

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ROBINSON: Should South Carolina raise its cigarette tax 

By the new proposal, when cigarette use declines, less money would be available for the schools.

We can imagine the bumper stickers we’ll see if education in the state is primarily funded by the lottery and cigarette tax money: “I smoke and gamble to that your kid can be smarter.”

A third option would be to use the extra money from a cigarette tax increase as part of the state’s general fund, giving our legislators a free hand to direct the dollars to where they are needed most.

So what do you think? Go to www.theeasleyprogress.com and vote. You will be given four options. One would be not to raise the cigarette tax in South Carolina. The other three would be to raise the tax and direct it to healthcare, schools or the state’s general fund.

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Clarkson to develop device to help smoking cessation 

Clarkson University was awarded $198,525 to develop a device to help people quit smoking.

The university and SUNY Buffalo will work together to create a noninvasive monitoring system to track cigarette smoking. The device will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of other smoking-cessation programs with the goal of improving outcomes, project director and Clarkson professor Eduard S. Sazonov said in a statement.

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LOUAILLIER: Let’s sign the tobacco treaty 

It's hard to believe, but only 16 years ago the CEOs of North America's largest tobacco corporations were before Congress, swearing under oath that nicotine wasn't addictive.

And 12 years ago, these same corporations were disclosing a half-century of lies and willful deception of the public about the harms of tobacco products. A 46-state master settlement compelled them to do so.

By 2005, the world's first public health and corporate accountability treaty was taking effect to tackle the world's leading preventable cause of death and disease: tobacco use.

That treaty may be the least well-known tobacco milestone here in the United States, but it's the most significant. . . .

More generally, President Obama has already embraced a number of treaty precedents by closing the revolving door between lobbyists and the executive branch, as well as by disclosing all executive meetings with private corporations. In echoing the sentiments of most Americans by opposing the Supreme Court ruling allowing unlimited corporate dollars to flow to political campaigns, he has aligned his administration with the spirit of this little-known treaty.

In these difficult times, when the conversation too often centers on how government isn't working, the treaty provides a light at the end of the tunnel for those intent on seeing government work in the public interest, untainted by corporate self-interest.

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