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Tobacco law goes up in smoke  

It seems the government's writ doesn't run in its own offices. Walk into any state office and you would find cigarette and pan shops, often on the premises, in blatant violation of a ban enacted by Parliament against sale of tobacco products and pan in any government facility.

In fact, pan and bidi shops do brisk business in government offices in West Bengal, with state employees providing a ready market for them. With the government failing to enforce this simple legal provision, it is hardly surprising that the more important law of banning smoking in public places has gone up in smoke.

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• Analysis: Tobacco tax could doom plan for health overhaul 

Searching for ways to fund their plan for universal health care, Democrats this week turned to an easy-to-vilify target: tobacco. They proposed a $2-a-pack cigarette tax that would generate nearly $2 billion a year and, supporters say, carry the added benefit of curbing smoking, a worthy goal in the context of health care reform.

Problem is, it might be the very thing that dooms health care reform.

A new cigarette tax would be tantamount to a declaration of war on Big Tobacco, which last year spent more than $65 million to defeat a $2.60-a-pack tax on the California ballot and just this week easily turned back an attempt in Oregon to raise tobacco taxes.

"You can bet they would aggressively fight it, and I don't think they'd be alone," said Sacramento political consultant Frank Schubert, who advised tobacco companies during last year's ballot campaign. . . .

"If you have all of the health care community backing reform, I think it can trump the money spent by tobacco," said Kris Deutschman, a political consultant who advised last year's failed campaign to raise the tobacco tax. "Because all they have is money and self-interest."

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• Minneapolis Hosts National Conference on Tobacco or Health October 24-26 on Heels of Minnesota's Statewide, Smoke-Free Law 

Less than one month after the state's new smoke-free law took effect, more than 3,000 scientists and health advocates are converging on Minneapolis to attend the biennial National Conference on Tobacco or Health (NCTOH) conference October 24-26 at the Minneapolis Convention Center. NCTOH is the nation's largest and longest-lasting gathering of the U.S. tobacco control movement. Through the expertise of approximately 1,200 presenters, more than 100 of them local, the conference aims to improve and sustain the effectiveness and reach of tobacco control programs and activities in the United States. Experts will be presenting on topics ranging from the latest evidence on health impacts to new treatments in cessation, from secondhand smoke policy approaches to youth and priority populations advocacy, and much more. Conference organizers selected this location because of its smoke-free status.

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Health Organizations Join Forces Around Quit-Smoking Help 

Call it Quits -- a newly named collaboration among Minnesota's major health plans and ClearWay Minnesota(SM) -- is launching a new program that makes it easier for physicians and other healthcare providers to help their patients who want to stop smoking. The Minnesota Clinic Fax Referral Program begins October 1, just in time for the start of the statewide smoke-free law which also takes effect that day. This new program will allow clinics across the state to more easily refer a patient to stop-smoking phone coaching support, regardless of the patient's health care coverage.

Call it Quits includes Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross), ClearWay Minnesota(SM), HealthPartners, Medica, Metropolitan Health Plan, MMSI, Preferred One, and UCare. The group represents all the tobacco quitlines in the state that offer phone coaching to smokers who are trying to quit.

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Help is Available for Smokers Who Want to Quit as Minnesota's Smoke-Free Law Takes Effect Oct. 1 

"As the state implements the new smoke-free law on October 1, Minnesotans should know FREE support is available for anyone who wants to quit smoking and that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota stands ready to help its members with the BluePrint for Health(R) stop-smoking program," said Mark W. Banks, M.D., CEO of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross).

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Religion Today Summaries - Apr. 26, 2007: Smoking Curtails Bible Production 

There are at least two good reasons to stop smoking. Number one: It may damage your health. Number tw It raises the production costs for bibles, ASSIST News Service reports. The Chinese craving for cigarettes is responsible for rising paper costs in bible printing, according to the business manager of the German Bible Society, Felix Breidenstein. Because of the rising demand for cigarette paper in China the special thin paper used in bible printing is getting more expensive, as Breidenstein told the German news magazine Der Spiegel. The German Bible Society sells approximately 400,000 bibles per year.

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Tobacco taxes up, sales down 

A campaign to reduce smoking in South Dakota by sharply increasing the state tax on cigarettes appears to be working.

The state tax on a pack of cigarettes went up by $1 a pack Jan. 1, making the tax $1.53, or the 10th highest tobacco tax among all states. The tax increase was the result of a successful petition campaign by anti-smoking forces and a subsequent ballot measure that passed in November.

Michael Kenyon, who manages the collection of special taxes for the state Revenue Department, said first-quarter figures indicate 7.2 million packs of cigarettes were sold in South Dakota in that period, raising $14.1 million in revenue.

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Minn. Blues unveil worker wellness program 

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota said Monday it will begin funding employee wellness programs.

The insurer will select up to 20 mid-size Minnesota employers for three-year contracts of up to $100,000 to implement programs targeting employee tobacco use, physical inactivity and unhealthy eating, according to the company.

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• New Report Says Secondhand Smoke Costs Minnesota $215.7 Million Annually 

According to a new study, Health Care Costs and Secondhand Smoke, $215.7 million is spent each year in Minnesota to treat health conditions caused by exposure to secondhand smoke. Dr. Marc Manley of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) will present the report findings to the Minnesota House Commerce and Labor Committee during its 4 p.m. hearing today on the Freedom to Breathe legislation. "This study is based on the 2006 U.S. Surgeon General's report on secondhand smoke and also on Minnesota-specific data, so it provides the first-ever look at the health care costs related to secondhand smoke in Minnesota," said Hugh Waters, Ph.D., lead researcher for this study and health economist at Johns Hopkins University.

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Cigarette tax likely to increase, leaders say 

Higher state taxes on cigarettes seem certain, Iowa legislative leaders said Thursday.

"We know there's going to be a cigarette tax increase," Senate President Mike Gronstal said. "It will be somewhere between 62 cents and a buck. ... We will be making that decision by the end of next week."

A $1-per-pack tax hike moved a step closer to reality in the Iowa House late Wednesday - but just barely.

With a 13-12 vote, the House Ways & Means Committee approved House File 346. The bill would raise Iowa's 36-cent per pack tax on cigarettes to $1.36.

House Democratic leaders had been skittish about raising the tax a full dollar, saying they thought a lesser increase was more appropriate.

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Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and Blue Care Network Set Healthy Example 

Smoking and the use of tobacco products will be prohibited on all company property, whether owned or leased. This will include entrances, walkways and sidewalks within 20 feet of the property line or leased building entrances, as well as parking lots and parking structures and in company-owned vehicles. The policy will apply to everyone working at or visiting Blues campuses and worksites. . . .

The Blues are announcing the policy several months ahead of the effective date to give smokers time to adapt to new workplace requirements and avail themselves of programs that can help them quit smoking, including participation in the Blues' "Quit the Nic" program.

"Quit the Nic," an award-winning program, is available at no cost to all Blues employees.

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Hospitals to nix smoking 

By next summer, employees, visitors and patients will be banned from smoking inside or outside 15 hospitals and health-care facilities in the Jackson and Vicksburg areas.

The prohibition takes effect by next July 1 in places such as the G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Jackson, Rankin Medical Center in Brandon and River Region Medical Center in Vicksburg.

The idea comes through a partnership between the Mississippi Hospital Association and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi.

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15 Jackson, Vickburg area hospitals set to snuff out smoking 

y next summer, employees visitors and patients will be banned from smoking inside or outside 15 hospitals and health care facilities in the Jackson and Vicksburg areas.

The prohibition takes effect by next July 1 in places such as the G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Jackson, Rankin Medical Center in Brandon and River Region Medical Center in Vicksburg.

The idea comes through a partnership between the Mississippi Hospital Association and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi.

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Blue Cross Announces Finalists for Active Community Funding 

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) has announced the selection of 11 proposals for two programs that will help Minnesota city and county governments plan their communities to better support physically active lifestyles. The two programs - Active Community Planning and Active Community Assessment & Engagement - are part of Prevention Minnesota, Blue Cross' long-term initiative to improve the health of all Minnesotans. Prevention Minnesota tackles preventable heart disease and cancers by addressing their root causes - tobacco use, physical inactivity, and unhealthy eating. . . .

Active Community Planning and Active Community Assessment & Engagement funding is part of a larger community funding initiative by Blue Cross' Prevention Minnesota. Communities on the Move projects encourage regular physical activity among insufficiently active adults, and Communities for Healthy Air projects support community-led efforts to reduce exposure to secondhand smoke in the state. Communities on the Move is still accepting proposals through September and plans to fund an additional 20-50 projects.

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Blue Cross to Refund Nonsmoking Policyholders Who Inadvertently Paid Tobacco-User Rates 

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota (Blue Cross) has announced a new policy to issue refunds to nonsmoking individual policyholders who, although eligible, have not been paying tobacco-free premium rates.

"Blue Cross has done more to promote smoking cessation and prevent tobacco use than any other health plan nationally," said Richard Neuner, senior vice president and chief marketing officer. "This new policy is directly related to our commitment to promote and reward healthy behaviors.

We want to make sure that our members who don't use tobacco are rewarded in any way that we can."

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