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Hospitals across Colorado will soon be tobacco-free zones.
That means anyone who works there, is admitted there or visits there, will have to leave the hospital's campus to get a nicotine fix.
It will no longer be a simple matter of going outside of the building to light up.
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Twelve Denver area hospitals will make their campuses completely tobacco free later this summer. The move, announced Monday, means for the first time, all the acute care hospitals in the metro area will ban smoking and other tobacco products.
Two recent fires, both caused by cigarettes left burning in planters, are ringing a note of alarm throughout the community and prompting local fire officials to want to get the word out about fire safety essentials.
The late night Castle Ridge fire, which destroyed an entire apartment building and left 17 local employees homeless, could have been less devastating had the project been built under more modern building codes, but it also could have been worse in terms of life safety . . .
Cigarette smoking is actually the primary cause of death in fires (but not the primary cause of fires), said Aspen Fire Marshall Ed VanWalraven, because fires started by cigarettes have a tendency to flare up hours after they’re actually started. This often occurs at night when people are sleeping, if, for example, an ashtray falls on to a sofa.
Cigarette smoking is now banned at Castle Ridge, and the Centennial condominium owners association is reportedly considering the same ban.
On Thursday night, the City Council postponed acting on a measure that would ban smoking on streets and sidewalks, on outdoor restaurant patios and also push smokers back 50 feet from most doorways.
It would be one of the toughest second-hand smoke measures in the Inland area -- patterned after one in Calabasas widely considered the most comprehensive and restrictive smoking law in California.
Several business owners lambasted the proposed ordinance, saying it would drive away customers.
Bert Bruning, co-owner of Palm Desert Tobacco, asked why the city would "turn away thousands of customers by telling them they are not welcome in our town because of a lifestyle choice that involves a legal product that some people just don't like."
The council agreed to form a study committee and invited public participation before the measure comes up again on Oct. 9.
One pro-marijuana group is calling on the government to allow marijuana in smoking lounges at airports across the country.
Cigarette smoking at Denver International Airport and other airports across the country is restricted to smoking lounges.
Members of the Denver-based organization Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER) will ask the government Tuesday to allow pot in airport smoking lounges.
U.S. Attorney Troy Eid on Monday vowed to get tough with a record number of often-drunk passengers behaving badly on commercial airliners.
"The message is: We're not going to put up with this," Colorado's top federal prosecutor said.
Eid spoke outside U.S. District Court in Denver after a court hearing for Christina E. Szele, 35, a New York woman accused of disrupting a JetBlue flight by punching a flight attendant and screaming curses and racial slurs after a cigarette was snatched out of her mouth.
An allegedly intoxicated New York woman accused of physically and verbally attacking a JetBlue Airways crew member last week had previous run-ins while flying or trying to fly, an FBI agent testified Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver.
Christina Elizabeth Szele, 35, of Woodside, N.Y., was on JetBlue Flight 643 from New York to San Francisco when, according to the crew and other passengers, she became uncontrollable after a flight attendant took matches and a lit cigarette from her. . . .
FBI agent Joel Nishida testified the June 17 incident involving Szele came in the wake of two other run-ins.
In August 2007, Szele was caught smoking in an airplane lavatory during a San Francisco-to-New York flight. She apologized and there were no further episodes on that flight.
A woman accused of smoking and attacking a flight attendant while drunk on a cross-country flight, causing it to be diverted to Denver, was granted bond on Monday.
One of Christina Szele’s friends says Szele is “a good person when she’s sober.”
U.S. District Court officials in Denver say 35-year-old Christina Szele of Woodside, N.Y., can be released on a $10,000 bond on Monday after appearing in federal court and waiving her preliminary hearing.
A New York woman accused of smoking a cigarette and punching a flight attendant on a flight traveling from New York to San Francisco will no longer be able to travel on planes or drink alcohol if she is released.
Christina Szele of Woodside, New York, was arrested June 17 on charges of assault and interfering with flight attendants on a Jet Blue flight that was diverted to Denver.
FBI agents say Szele shouted obscenities and racial slurs at a fight attendant who tried to stop her from smoking.
A federal magistrate in Denver says a woman accused of punching a flight attendant in the face can be released on $10,000 bond but says she can't travel on planes or drink alcohol.
Christina Elizabeth Szele of Woodside, N.Y., was arrested June 17 on charges of assault and interfering with flight attendants on a JetBlue flight from New York to San Francisco.
The FBI says she shouted obscenities and racial epithets at a flight attendant who tried to stop her from smoking.
On or about June 17, 2008, CHRISTINA ELIZABETH SZELE, the defendant herein, in the State and District of Colorado and while on JetBlue Airways Flight 643, an aircraft in the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States, by assaulting and intimidating Paul Whyte and Dorotea Negoescu, both flight attendants on JetBlue Airways Flight 643, interfered with the performance of the duties of said flight attendants and lessened the flight attendants ability to perform their duties . . .
Specifically, on June 17, 2008, Szele, while a passenger onboard JetBlue Airways flight 643, smoked at her seat; yelled obscenities and racial epithets; while being restrained for the second time with flex cuffs punched flight attendant Paul Whyte in the left jaw; and interfered with and lessened Whyte's and the cabin crew's ability to perform their flight attendant duties causing the flight to be divert to the DIA.
Three casinos that allowed patrons to smoke despite the state ban on indoor smoking were issued citations Wednesday; two days after city officials said they didn't have enough time or manpower to patrol casinos or to make sure they complied with the smoking ban.
However, Police Chief Gary Hamilton was compelled to act on Wednesday after receiving complaints from other casinos that don't allow indoor smoking.
Mayor Dan Baader expected that all three of the casinos charged would challenge the citations on the grounds that they qualified themselves as cigar bars, which are exempt from the ban.
Three casinos in Cripple Creek were ticketed today for violating the state's smoking ban, the city's mayor said.
Bronco Billy's, Double Eagle and Midnight Rose each received a $200 fine for allowing people to smoke in their buildings.
The fines come just days after the city said it would not enforce the ban because its police force lacked the manpower. The city was criticized after the decision by state officials and others and decided to punish the casinos.
Mayor Dan Baader said the city's police chief handed out the tickets earlier today.
The Cripple Creek City Council's official position on smoking in casinos?
The Legislature left the door open and it's not the city's responsibility to close it.
That's the gist of a letter the city sent Monday to the 17 casinos in Cripple Creek, three of which are allowing smoking under the cigar bar exemption to the state's smoking ban. The letter, discussed Friday in a closed meeting, was intended to clarify the city's policy allowing casinos to self-certify that they meet the requirements for the exemption.
"The City believes that the spirit and intent of the 2007 amendment to the (Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act) ... was to prohibit smoking in casinos," the letter states. "However, through ambiguous draftsmanship, the General Assembly has left the door open for interpretation of the Cigar-Tobacco Bar exception to at least arguably apply to those casinos that meet the requirements."
Cripple Creek officials say they won't enforce the statewide smoking ban at casinos that claim they are exempt.
The City Council said Monday the Legislature intended to ban smoking in casinos, but said the law was poorly written and left the door open for casinos to claim they are cigar bars, which aren't covered.
Three of the town's 17 casinos have claimed the exemption.
Democratic state Sen. Ken Gordon of Denver, who co-sponsored the smoking ban, says the law is clear and says Cripple Creek should have the courage to enforce it.