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• Dose-dependent Effects of Second-hand Smoke on Vascular Function  

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to determine the vascular effects of brief second-hand smoke exposure on normal healthy individuals. . . .

Despite evidence to suggest that secondhand smoke contributes to adverse cardiovascular outcomes, little is known about the dose-dependent vascular effects of brief secondhand smoke exposure at low doses commonly encountered in the community. This study will investigate the acute vascular effects and dose-dependent biological mechanisms of secondhand smoke on endothelial function and oxidative stress.

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• Calif. group pushes for $1 tobacco tax increase for cancer research 

Smokers in California will have to dig much deeper into their pockets to buy a pack of cigarettes next year if a proposed ballot measure passes.

The Californians for a Cure plan is aimed at raising millions of dollars for cancer research, smoking prevention programs and to help bankroll anti-tobacco smuggling efforts. The measure is backed by, among others, cancer research and health advocates.

Their plan calls for a buck increase in the state's excise tax on tobacco, to $1.87 per pack. The money raised would flow into a trust fund. Sixty-cents of the dollar raised from a pack of smokes would to go to fund research on cancer and other smoking-related illnesses.

Under the plan, 20 cents would go to fund smoking cessation and tobacco use prevention programs, 15 cents would go to help fund research facilities, while three pennies would go to fund tobacco smuggling enforcement.

The plan calls for about two percent of the revenue to go for administrative costs.

How the money would be spent would be overseen by a nine-member oversight committee.

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• S.F. moves to curtail tobacco outlets  

Smokers are huffing and businesses fuming over a controversial new proposal to drastically reduce the number of stores in The City that can sell cigarettes.

Since 2003, retailers hawking tobacco products in San Francisco have had to apply for a special permit. The permitting process helps The City keep track of sellers and crack down on those vending to minors, officials said.

But now there are too many permits citywide -- particularly in low-income neighborhoods -- according to city officials and anti-tobacco advocates, who have created legislation that would greatly reduce the number of stores that sell tobacco.

An initial proposal imposes a cap of 35 permits for each of the 11 supervisor districts -- 385 total in The City. That is a more than a two-thirds reduction from the 1,097 stores currently selling tobacco products citywide.

The proposal would not take away permits from businesses, but it would reduce them through attrition until there are no more than 35 per district. Also, owners would not be able to transfer the permits when they sell their stores, said Janet Clyde, a commissioner in the Office of Small Business.

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• 'Rolling Stone' Fights Claim It Misappropriated Indie Bands' Names to Promote Cigarettes 

Fending off accusations it misappropriated the names of more than 185 indie rockers to promote cigarettes, Rolling Stone magazine on Thursday appeared to have one appellate justice solidly in its corner.

However, two votes are needed to win and one justice was absent during oral arguments in San Francisco's 1st District Court of Appeal. The third didn't tip his hand.

Rolling Stone was sued last year by a class of indie bands -- led by the San Francisco Bay Area's Xiu Xiu and Toronto's Fucked Up -- who claimed the magazine had traded on their names by using them in a November 2007 graphic/article juxtaposed with a four-page, fold-out advertisement by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. that touted Camel cigarettes and the manufacturer's collaborations with indie groups. . . .

Nonetheless, the bands claim Rolling Stone intentionally used their names to help R.J. Reynolds sell Camels and that the ad implied the bands endorsed the product.

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• Tenants demand tougher anti-smoking laws 

"We shut the doors, we shut the windows, which is pretty inconvenient and not guaranteed to stop all the smoke anyway," he said.

Horelick is part of a group of residents who are calling on the City Council to expand an ordinance that bans smoking in all common areas of apartments and condominiums to also apply to balconies and patios, arguing the current regulations, while a step in the right direction, don't go far enough.

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• Jury awards punitive damages to smoker's daughter 

A jury on Monday recommended that cigarette maker Philip Morris USA should pay $13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer.

The panel voted 9-3 in favor of Bullock's daughter Jodie Bullock, who is now the plaintiff in the case. Betty Bullock died of lung cancer in February 2003. She had sued Philip Morris in April 2001, accusing the company of fraud and product liability. A jury in 2002 recommended Philip Morris pay a record $28 billion in punitive damages to Bullock, but a judge later reduced the award to $28 million.

In 2008, the 2nd District Court of Appeal reversed the jury's decision and remanded the case for a new trial over the punitive damages. Philip Morris said the $28 million remained excessive.

However, the original jury recommended the tobacco company pay Bullock $750,000 in damages and $100,000 for pain and suffering, a verdict that still stands.

In a statement, Richmond, Virginia-based Altria Group Inc., which owns Philip Morris, said any amount given to Bullock's daughter is unwarranted. . . .

Plaintiff's attorney Michael Piuze said the jury's verdict amounted to a "slap on the wrist for Philip Morris."

"I liked it better when it was $28 billion," said Piuze, who represented Betty Bullock after she filed the lawsuit. "She wanted me to beat the crap out of Philip Morris, and we did it once."

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• Scientists take aim at cigarettes 

Cigarettes don’t just kill people, they also kill fish.

So said San Diego State University researchers who are trying to build a case for labeling cigarette butts as toxic hazardous waste. That tag would prompt more rules to reduce their presence in the environment, though the bigger effect may be in public perception.

The San Diego scientists will present their conclusions today at the 137th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association in Philadelphia. They have submitted their results for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

“It’s another way of looking at cigarettes as a societal hazard,” said Tom Novotny, a professor of public health at SDSU. “If we reframe the butts as toxic hazardous waste, that adds another opportunity to change the social acceptability of smoking.”

Robert Best, regional director of the smokers’ rights group Citizens Freedom Alliance in Ventura County, is skeptical.

“This is just another attack on smokers and an attack on the entire tobacco industry, including farmers and distributors, in the midst of an economic crisis,” Best said. “We already have littering laws in the state of California that say you cannot throw any trash out on the ground or in the waterways.” . . .

Novotny and his collaborators in the Cigarette Butt Pollution Project want more controls on what they call the most littered object on Earth. Trillions of cigarettes are smoked worldwide each year, and more than 1 million butts are collected annually during coastal cleanups in the United States, according to the project.

Novotny wondered about the butts’ effects on waterways. He turned to Rick Gersberg, a professor of public health at SDSU who specializes in water pollution.

Gersberg, a former smoker, was intrigued enough to review the scientific literature and determine that there were no published studies addressing cigarette butts and fish. . . .

Gersberg helped design an experiment in which he let smoked filters soak in containers of water for 24 hours. Then he put fish in the polluted water and monitored them for five days, part of what he called a standard hazard assessment.

Half the fish died in both salt and fresh water, Gersberg said.

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• Push to restrict tobacco sales to drugstores 

Now San Francisco entrepreneur Stuart Skorman, founder of the now defunct holistic-oriented drugstore chain Elephant Pharmacy, wants to make pharmacies the only places that sell tobacco products.

Skorman, who on Thursday launched a nonprofit organization called HealthyPharmacies.org to promote his idea, believes that restricting cigarette sales to pharmacies would not only control the distribution and visibility of the product, but also give pharmacists the opportunity to counsel customers about quitting.

The idea would also prevent kids from going down to the corner store to buy cigarettes from a clerk who may not check identification, he said.

"Keeping tobacco away from 12-year-olds saves lives and billions of dollars from the health care system," he said.

Skorman advocates testing the concept in some cities and then comparing the impact on smoking with those that have banned the sale of tobacco products in drugstores. He said he's in discussions with city officials interested in the idea, but declined to name the cities.

"If limiting distribution and limiting the visibility of this dangerous product reduces smoking in communities, we believe pharmacists would be more than happy to be part of the program," he said.

The problem? Most pharmacists and health experts interviewed for this story found the idea downright unhealthy.

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If limiting distribution and limiting the visibility of this dangerous product reduces smoking in communities, we believe pharmacists would be more than happy to be part of the program
San Francisco entrepreneur Stuart Skorman, who wants to make pharmacies the only places that sell tobacco products.

• Cigarette smoke wafting onto neighbor's patio brings lawsuit 

This is the story of two neighbors and a dispute over secondhand smoke in the Sacramento suburb of El Dorado Hills.

It seems like a minor story, especially with everything that's wrong in California: . . .

In short, the state is a disaster. You'd think with all those problems that a dispute between neighbors over cigarette smoke wouldn't generate much interest but it has garnered more response in the local newspaper than anything the paper has reported in recent memory --and frankly, the Sacramento Bee has been doing a bang-up job uncovering all sorts of graft, waste and corruption in state government. Does this story resonate at the national level? Here's the deal:

A California couple has filed a lawsuit seeking relief from their next-door neighbor's second-hand cigarette smoke.

Richard and Donna Ganguet were the first to move into a gated community for people age 55 and older. That was 2006. Today, they claim the cigar and cigarette smoke wafts into their yard from the property of neighbor has caused an intolerable situation. . . .

The responses --over 600 on the newspaper's website-- are all over the board. . . .

I had a problem a few years ago with heavy smoking neighbors. No amount of pleading would get them to take their smoke somewhere other than directly into my windows.

I fixed the problem by putting an old piece of fish in a bowl, hooking up a small, quiet fan right behind it, and placing the rig right next to the fence. Worked like a charm - inside two days, the neighbors moved their smoking area away from my side and didn't come back to it.

Don't get mad, get even.

What do you think? How do you resolve this problem between two neighbors?

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• Hold On To Your Butt Awareness Day is Saturday, November 14th  

In an effort to raise awareness of the cigarette butt litter problem and reduce the amount of cigarette butt litter in the region, the Surfrider Foundation San Diego County Chapter will be conducting Hold Onto Your Butt Awareness Day on Saturday, November 14 from 10 a.m. to noon at three locations in San Diego County.

Cigarette butts are the most littered item in The United States and the world. This type of litter is not just found on streets and in urban settings; the number of cigarette butts found on beaches and nearby areas is overwhelming--typically accounting for nearly one in every three items collected during a beach cleanup.

Cigarette waste discarded miles inland compounds the problem as it can end up in drains that flow to streams, rivers, bays, lagoons and ultimately the ocean. To make matters worse, lighted cigarette butts flicked into California's dry arid environment can spark deadly and costly wildfires.

Hold Onto Your Butt Awareness Day will involve activists, volunteers and friends of the environment gathering on San Diego's busiest traffic intersections as people arrive at the beach.

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• El Dorado Hills couple sues neighbor over cigarette smoke  

"In a senior community, you think we'll all be compatible and have the same values," said Richard Ganguet, a retired El Dorado County sheriff's deputy.

But three years after settling into their single-family home in El Dorado Hills' Four Seasons development, the Ganguets are suing their next-door neighbor over cigar and cigarette smoke they say wafts into their backyard and house.

Because of the smoke, the couple say, they no longer sit on their patio. They also try to sandwich in swims in the side-yard lap pool between their neighbors' smoking sessions.

Doug Smith, attorney for the neighboring homeowner, Florence Solone, said the issue is a trivial one that should be resolved by neighbors talking with each other, not with a lawsuit in El Dorado Superior Court.

But disputes between neighbors over secondhand smoke are increasingly making their way into courtrooms and city council chambers.

With smoking banned in workplaces, restaurants and bars, Californians are less willing to tolerate the smell of smoke in their houses or backyards, said Robin Salsburg, a staff attorney with the Oakland-based Public Health Institute's Public Health Law and Policy program.

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• Doctor presses the case against tobacco scholarships 

A San Luis Obispo doctor is continuing to speak out against Cal Poly for allowing students to accept scholarships from the smokeless tobacco industry as prize awards in collegiate rodeo events.

University officials say Cal Poly has no basis to deny students scholarship funds from a legal source, and university officials note that no tobacco-related advertising is allowed at school events under a campus policy. Five years ago, Cal Poly officials supported creating a fund that could be an alternative to tobacco-industry scholarships, but that idea was rejected by tobacco opponents.

Stephen L. Hansen, a physician and representative of the county Tobacco Control Coalition, said he's outraged that the chewing tobacco industry lures students to a cancer-causing product through scholarships

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• Up in smoke; tobacco to be banned from Naval hospital 

Sailors and civilian personnel employed at the Robert E. Bush Naval Hospital will soon have to change their tobacco habits while at work.

Beginning Jan. 1, military and civilian personnel will no longer be authorized to use tobacco products of any form while on naval hospital and all other naval medical care center grounds.

The policy will also go into effect aboard Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center Bridgeport, Calif., and Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif.

Martha Hunt, the Health Promotions and Awareness coordinator at the hospital, said the move to ban tobacco from hospital grounds has been a long time coming.

“This process began in July 2008,” said the Pontiac, Mich., native. “In July, the Surgeon General of the Navy [Vice Adm. Adam M. Robinson Jr.] signed a policy encouraging the ban of all tobacco use on naval hospital campuses.”

In the document, Robinson challenged naval commanders and senior enlisted advisors to make the move to tobacco-free naval medical facilities quick and thorough.

“The unnecessary, harmful effects of tobacco on our service members and the burden on our healthcare system must be addressed,” said the Louisville, Ky., native in Navy Policy 09-009. “Our strong commitment to the health and well-being of our service members is most clearly evident by our own examples of a tobacco-free lifestyle.”

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• Unanimous support on Capitola City Council for smoking ban  

The tide is turning against smokers in this oceanfront tourist town.

Citing health hazards and cigarette butt litter, the City Council unanimously expressed support Thursday night for a smoking ban on the Esplanade, Stockton Avenue Bridge and the wharf, all locations frequented by visitors, and other public property in the city.

Council members told staff to draft an ordinance covering those locations and schedule a public hearing. In addition, Councilman Dennis Norton favored banning smoking throughout the city, which attracts thousands of tourists every year. So did Councilmen Ron Graves and Mayor Bob Begun. Councilmen Kirby Nicol and Sam Storey said they would consider a broader ban.

Though the council decided not to go that far at this point, environmental and health advocates hailed the city.

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• ‘Land of the Lost’ Haunts Universal in Unexpected Way  

"Land of the Lost" is the gift that just keeps on taking for Universal Pictures.

The American Medical Association Alliance, a volunteer arm of the powerful health organization that focuses on family issues, on Friday released its scorecard for the depiction of smoking in mass-appeal summer movies. Universal was the biggest offender because of "Land of the Lost," the big-budget failure that helped cost the co-chairmen of the studio their jobs this month.

The alliance said it counted 18 shots of Will Ferrell smoking a pipe in the movie, resulting in about 124 million tobacco impressions. (The industry generally calculates an "impression" by multiplying the number of incidences by the film's total gross, then dividing by the average ticket price.)

" 'Land of the Lost' wasn't just a flop at the box office, it was also a real loser for public health," said Nancy Kyler, president of the American Medical Association Alliance.

The group did not name the second- and third-place offenders. A Universal spokeswoman declined to comment.

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