Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
Kudos to The Star for such a fine New Year's gift. The Jan. 1 lead article, "Study: Smoking ban saved lives, hearts," was terrific. The paper's decision to run this on Jan. 1 was brilliant, an eye-opener on a day when many of us are seeking to enforce new resolutions and are contemplating how to begin the New Year.
The purpose of this My View is to urge Gov. Mitch Daniels and the General Assembly to make Indiana a smoke-free state. Let's start the year off right, save hearts and lives, model healthy behavior, protect all Hoosiers in all public places and provide a wholesome environment for our children. . . .
For a cleaner environment, a healthier future for our children and a truly safe workplace for all employees, we must make the logical and correct choice of a comprehensive smoking ordinance for Indiana.
Jump to full article »
Lee Mauer read the recent news report about a possible link between a community's smoking ban and a drop in heart attacks there.
But Mauer says the new research won't change his view on local smoking bans.
"In this day and age, everyone knows smoking can kill you," the 24-year-old smoker said while flicking his cigarette in an ash tray at a Greater Lafayette bar. Still, Mauer said, he believes the choice of banning smoking should be decided by business owners and not by politicians.
Although proponents of the local smoking bans said the new research helps strengthen their case, the research had little impact on some opponents' views. . . .
Patti O'Callaghan is a former West Lafayette City Council member and author of the city's smoking regulations. O'Callaghan said the new research strengthens the argument for smoking bans.
Overriding the Vanderburgh County Commissioners to pass a comprehensive countywide smoking ban by referendum is unlikely, two local veteran lawmakers say.
But local smoking ban supporters remain hopeful that a powerful legislator from Gary, Ind., will succeed this time in passing a bill that would extinguish smoking in almost all enclosed public places in Indiana, including restaurants, bars, bowling alleys and casinos.
Smoking ban supporters are looking for alternatives because County Commissioner Troy Tornatta, with the support of Commissioner-elect Steve Melcher, appears intent on moving to reinstate exemptions for bars, taverns and clubs that are written into the county's ordinance banning smoking in most public places in January.
The exemptions expire Jan. 2, while similar exemptions for restaurants, bars and taverns in the city will continue. Tornatta and Melcher will outnumber Commissioner-elect Lloyd Winnecke, who supports letting the exemptions expire.
Antismoking activists will hear Monday from the likely next leader of Vanderburgh County's executive governing body -- but they might not like what he has to say.
County Commissioner Troy Tornatta, senior member of the Democratic majority that will assume control of the board in January, pointedly disputed suggestions that he has shifted his position under pressure from Evansville-based grant program Smokefree Communities.
Tornatta reiterated Friday that he wants to move in January -- after public hearings -- to reinstate exemptions for bars, taverns and clubs that are written into Vanderburgh County's ordinance banning smoking in most public places.
Those exemptions will expire Jan. 2, while similar exemptions for restaurants, bars and taverns in the city's smoking ban will continue.
A 20-year-old Wabash woman is getting more than just better health by quitting her smoking habit - she's also $2,500 richer.
Nycole Johnson's name was chosen at random from more than 7,000 entrants to Indiana Tobacco Prevention & Cessation's "Quit 2 Win" contest.
If we have this correctly, then Democratic County Commissioner Troy Tornatta believes the way for the county and the city to achieve a comprehensive smoking ban is for the county to continue allowing smoking in bars and restaurants beyond Jan. 2.
We don't see it that way, nor do supporters of the smoking ban; but at the least, let's carry the thought through. . . .
So how could the county ordinance not apply to all residents, taxpayers and businesses in the county?
Of course, that won't be an issue if, as expected, Tornatta and Commissioner-elect Steve Melcher, as the new Democratic majority, quash the county exemption.
The smoking ban was intended to improve the health of employees and customers of bars and restaurants by protecting them from secondhand smoke. At the same time, we believe, it is important that this community make a strong statement in support of health and fitness. Passage of the ordinances did that two years ago, but now, with the unfinished business of smoking in bars and restaurants, we may be taking a giant step into the past.
Our expectation is that Tornatta and Melcher will allow smoking to continue in bars and restaurants, right after they double check with the City Council.
GREENFIELD, Ind. (AP) - Hancock County Commissioners have approved a ban on smoking in most public places.
The smoking ban in the county just east of Indianapolis will take effect by the end of March.
The ordinance was approved on a 2-1 vote. It bans smoking in all enclosed workplaces, including bars, restaurants and clubs. There are exemptions for private homes, vehicles and hotel rooms.
The Miami County commissioners have decided to wait until spring before acting on the countywide proposed smoking ban.
At its Monday meeting, the group tabled the ordinance until after the Indiana Legislature closes in the spring, the Peru Tribune reported Tuesday.
Commissioner Craig Boyer said it was best to wait until after state officials have had an opportunity to act.
The city's smoking ban ordinance isn't broke so there's no reason to fix it, Bruce Berner told the council Monday.
Berner, who was chairman of the task force that drew up the ordinance to ban smoking in most public areas two years ago, said the task force met in October and agreed not to present recommendations either to expand or contract the ordinance.
"We believe it is working well and has been well-received by the people and the merchants," Berner said. "There are indications a broader solution, a state law, might be coming soon, and it was also felt that any efforts to tweak the ordinance could open a Pandora's box."
Berner said Valparaiso's experience with the ordinance, which went into effect April 1, 2007, has mirrored that of other communities nationally in that "the great majority comply with the statute because they want to comply with the law." The few cases of noncompliance, mostly bars that continued to serve people under 18, have been dealt with, he said.
Restaurants that serve alcohol were given the choice of being either a restaurant, which meant smoking was banned but they could serve families, or a bar, where smoking is allowed but they can't admit minors.
A committee of the Indianapolis City-County Council heard the arguments for expanding a smoking ban Wednesday night. But one local business doesn't like the sound of the proposal.
A lot of people have a very traditional idea about places like the Chatterbox jazz club.
"Jazz, smoking and drinking...they all go together," said Chatterbox owner David Andrichik.
But there are some who want to break with tradition and eliminate smoking at the Chatterbox and any other indoor workplace.
"We want to protect all workers because we think that nobody should have to choose between their health and a paycheck," said Tim Filler of SmokeFree Indy.
So, Filler and other members of SmokeFree Indy encouraged members of the council committee to expand the smoking restrictions approved in 2005.
"The law in its current form leaves some people behind," said Filler.
About 10,000 Hoosiers will die from tobacco-related illnesses this year. Secondhand smoke causes cancer, cardiovascular disease and other illnesses that result in the premature deaths of non-smokers. As an oncologist, I witness the misery tobacco needlessly causes in people's lives.
A statewide ban on smoking in the workplace would significantly reduce the suffering and death caused by tobacco. The time has come for the Indiana General Assembly to pass this critical piece of legislation and for Gov. Mitch Daniels to sign it into law.
Sadly, Indiana ranks near the bottom of all states in protecting its workers from secondhand smoke. . . .
C. Everett Koop, former U.S. surgeon general, once said, "The right of smokers to smoke ends where their behavior affects the health and well-being of others; furthermore, it is the smokers' responsibility to ensure that they do not expose non-smokers to the potential harmful effects of tobacco smoke." Let's protect Hoosiers and pass a statewide ban on smoking.
Sitting in Central High School's athletic department office, Jauwan Scaife is unassuming and humble; amazingly so.
Scaife's quietness belies the power he has. Power the Central senior wants to use for good, or "positive peer pressure" as Judy Mays, program coordinator for the Minority Tobacco-Free Coalition of Delaware County, calls it.
Chosen as an Indiana High School Athletic Association Role Model for the winter sports season, Scaife is using his influence among his peers to keep them from smoking cigarettes and using tobacco products. The Tobacco Free Coalition of Delaware County and the Minority Tobacco Free Coalition has partnered with the IHSAA campaign to promote tobacco-free living.
Life-size posters of Scaife will be unveiled at 3:15 p.m. Wednesday in room 220 at Central. Southside High School football player Jamill Smith was chosen as the fall role model.
When I started as the Director of the AHEAD Coalition in the summer of 2007, I will admit that I was somewhat about ambivalent about tobacco as one of the agency's targeted substances. I had smoked in high school - and thought I was pretty cool until someone taught me how to inhale. That pretty much ended my cigarette experience. While I was not a fan of cigarette use, I really did not see it in the same light as some of the other drugs Montgomery County was facing.
That has changed over the past 15 months, however, as I have come to understand the deadly nature of tobacco. . . .
One of the things that I have learned about second-hand smoke that has been most disturbing is what effect it has on children who are forced to breathe it. The obvious results are things like increased respiratory infections and pneumonia. What I did not expect to learn is that children exposed to second-hand smoke are more likely to have ear infections, cavities, and die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. . . .
The AHEAD Coalition is able to help individuals and businesses with free smoking cessation. We can provide counseling sessions to people as well as nicotine patches because of support from the Montgomery County Health Department. For people more interested in telephone cessation counseling and nicotine patches or gum, call 1-800-QUIT-NOW for free services.
Indiana State Police investigators arrested a 37-year-old Indianapolis woman Monday after she tried smuggling marijuana and tobacco to her inmate son, law enforcement officials said.
Kimberly Thompson was arrested at about 3:30 p.m. after Pendleton Correctional Facility guard Ashley Stephens discovered Thompson in possession of tobacco and about an 1/4 ounce of marijuana during the visitor search process, David W. Barr, assistant public information officer, said in a news release.
Thompson has not been formally charged. She could face charges of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, a Class C felony, and trafficking with an inmate, a Class D felony. She could also face a second, misdemeanor charge of trafficking, according to Barr.
A new study found that adolescents were at the greatest risk of smoking when their parents began smoking at an early age and the parents' smoking quickly reached high levels and persisted over time.
The study, published in the November issue of Health Psychology, draws from the long-running Indiana University Smoking Survey and builds on previous research that suggests smoking behavior is influenced by both genetics and the environment.
"This particular study focuses more on the genetic influence in the specific case of a parent's smoking behavior impacting a teenage son or daughter's smoking," said Jon Macy, project director of the IU Smoking Survey in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. "The study findings suggest that the characteristics of early onset and high levels of long-term smoking are great candidates for behavioral and molecular genetic studies of the causes of smoking and how smoking behavior is passed from one generation to the next.