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A river brought Anne Landman to Grand Junction. . . .
Landman began working in 1996 for the American Lung Association.
That job heightened Landman's awareness of tobacco-caused diseases and she began noticing cigarette displays in stores — how they always seemed to be out of the line of sight of clerks, placed around the corner near the door and below counter level.
“I started asking clerks: ‘Do you lose merchandise off these displays?'” Landman said.
She said store clerks used words like “tons” and “gobs” to describe the amount of merchandise that was lost. However, they weren't allowed to move the tobacco products display, or they'd lose huge placement fees paid by the tobacco companies.
Clerks in stores all over Grand Junction — many near schools — told Landman that tobacco representatives came and monitored the placements.
A manager of one Stop N Save convenience store near a school in Clifton told Landman she was losing 300 packs a month. Store clerks told Landman it was mostly kids stealing the cigarettes. . . .
Companies were also required to reveal all their secret documents. Millions of pages of internal documents were scanned and placed on the Internet for public access.
In her spare time at home in Glade Park where she had a dial-up connection to the Internet, Landman began downloading tobacco industry documents.
“I was looking for something in the documents to substantiate what I found on the ground,” Landman said.
“I couldn't believe what I saw. I couldn't believe what I was reading. It was like a murder mystery novel with no ending. Confidential memos talked about strategies for undermining public health authorities.”
Landman gathered the information and began putting it on an Internet list serve (similar to an e-mail newsletter). She summarized documents and included excerpts. She began writing and publishing articles in medical and academic journals. . . .
One of her Grand Junction colleagues contacted CBS news in New York, who sent a four-person crew to Grand Junction to report on the tobacco displays and the placement fees for its “Eye on America” segment that was broadcast nationally April 12, 1999. Television stations around the country checked tobacco products displays in their own towns, and localized the issue to create their own segments.
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"I don't even want to smoke now," Robinson said, "and I haven't smoked a cigarette in five months."
Not a traditional cigarette anyway.
Robinson has joined an exploding group of ex-smokers turning to electronic cigarettes.
After Boulder-based Smoker Friendly stores started selling the so called "e-cigs" last month, they have been flying off the shelves.
"All of our stores that have received the product have sold out of it at least two or three times," said Cathi Trail, a store manager, who credits cigarette prices hitting new highs and another federal tobacco tax hike happening April 1. "I would say about 80 percent of my customers want to try it."
Smokers could be burned, though.
The American Cancer Society is concerned some of the ingredients in the devices, including nicotine and propylene glycol, aren't safe to inhale.
"It's not worth the risk because, in our opinion, the only cigarette that's safe is the one that you don't smoke," said Dianna Hemphill, with the American Cancer Society.
Summit Middle School in Frisco, Colo., is a tobacco-free campus. Students who smoke cigarettes are suspended.
But when a lunchtime crew of sixth-graders last fall started "smoking" Smarties, the tart, chalky candy discs wrapped in cellophane, lunchroom monitors and the school nurse were flummoxed.
The children didn't light the candy. They crushed it into a fine powder in its wrapper, tore off one end, poured the powder into their mouths and blew out fine Smarties dust, mimicking a smoker's exhale.
"It was freaky," says Corinne McGrew, a nurse for Summit School District. "My biggest concern was that they would aspirate the wrapper or a whole Smarties and it would be a choking hazard."
The fad at Summit Middle School died down after a few days and some harsh words from the lunchroom staff. But at other schools and across the Internet, "smoking Smarties," as the activity has been labeled, is gaining popularity. Some children have even taken to snorting it, all to the horror of parents, teachers and the 60-year-old company that manufactures the candy. . . .
"To freak your mom out, sit behind a chair and just blow smoke up in the air with your mom in the room" says YouTube user "SOAD9787" in a smoking-Smarties video he posted Saturday.
Officials at Ce De Candy Inc., the Union, N.J., makers of Smarties, are decidedly opposed to the craze. "It's just dumb," said Eric Ostrow, Ce De's vice president of sales and marketing.
He remembers as a child puffing on candy cigarettes that blew out fake smoke -- a practice that he thinks may have led to years of smoking the real thing. Mr. Ostrow quit smoking in 1994, and Ce De Candy banned smoking at its factory in the early 1980s, long before ostracizing smokers became mainstream, he points out.
Cactus's work for Colorado's State Tobacco Education & Prevention Partnership (STEPP) filters (ha!) your standard scary warnings about second-hand smoke through a Hitchcock/X-Files/CGI fantasy lens, producing PSAs with considerable visual élan. Yes, I just wanted to use the word élan. Still, it fits: The are cool, moody and compelling . . .
The images may be too glamorous (despite their dark design) to really demonize such a supposedly dirty habit. Also, will smokers respond well to being told to step outside their own homes when lighting up? And will drivers remember to pull over before stepping out of their cars to smoke? Let's hope so. With their brains clouded by nicotine and the tobacco monkey riding their backs, you never know.
Portions of Colorado's 21/2-year-old indoor-smoking ban could be in jeopardy under a bill expected to be introduced soon.
The bipartisan measure would classify bars, restaurants, racetracks and parts of casinos as cigar-tobacco bars if they have a humidor and make 5 percent of annual gross income or $50,000 in annual sales from tobacco products. Patrons would be required to buy the cigarettes or cigars they smoke at these bars.
The Colorado Clean Indoor Air Act, passed in 2006, bans smoking in most indoor locations in the state, and a 2007 law nixed puffing at casinos, which had been exempt from the original legislation.
Sponsors of the measures said they were meant to protect workers' health.
But the original legislation exempted cigar bars, and establishments ranging from dive bars to casinos tried to use the loophole to allow patrons to light up.
The new bill would clarify the definition of such bars -- and expand it.
Although no concrete figures are available for changes in heart attack admissions in Burbank, where police have been enforcing an anti-smoking law since August 2007, the findings could predict added health benefits for local residents, said David Sato, a cardiologist at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center.
"It doesn't surprise me that there's improvement, but the magnitude of the improvement is, I think, quite remarkable," said Sato, adding that the results reinforce the connection between secondhand smoke and heart disease, which could be reduced locally because of recent laws.
Burbank's law forbids smoking in its downtown and within 20 feet of public buildings, parks and the city's Chandler Bikeway.
The Glendale City Council passed its own anti-smoking ordinance in November, banning smoking on public property, including parks, and at publicly accessible private property like shopping malls, service lines and parking lots. . . .
California law, like the law enacted in Pueblo, already bans smoking in most workplaces, restaurants and bars.
Since local laws are more comprehensive than those in Pueblo, the local health benefits could be even greater than those found in the Pueblo study, but it would not be easy to track results here, experts said.
"All the heart attacks would go to one of two hospitals [in Pueblo]," Nevin-Woods said of the city, which is geographically isolated from other nearby towns. "It couldn't be done in the Los Angeles area
Officials can now begin the months-long process of preparing to verify that all cigarettes sold in Colorado will meet new fire safety standards, under a state law taking effect today.
Come July 31, cigarette manufacturers must have certified that any cigarette sold in this state are less likely to continue burning when they're left unattended.
The goal of the law is to reduce the risk of fire deaths, injuries and property losses that can occur when smoldering cigarettes fall onto clothing, carpets, furniture or bedding, according to Kevin Klein, director of the Colorado Division of Fire Safety.
"I think it'll really help," Klein said.
Klein's agency will be helping enforce the testing and certification requirements for the more than 1,000 varieties of cigarettes sold in Colorado.
The Pueblo Heart Study examined the impact of a municipal smoke-free ordinance in the city of Pueblo, Colorado, that took effect on July 1, 2003 (3). The rate of AMI hospitalizations for city residents decreased 27%, from 257 per 100,000 person-years during the 18 months before the ordinance's implementation to 187 during the 18 months after it (the Phase I post-implementation period).* This report extends that analysis for an additional 18 months through June 30, 2006 (the Phase II post-implementation period). The rate of AMI hospitalizations among city residents continued to decrease to 152 per 100,000 person-years, a decline of 19% and 41% from the Phase I post-implementation and pre-implementation period, respectively. No significant changes were observed in two comparison areas. These findings suggest that smoke-free policies can result in reductions in AMI hospitalizations that are sustained over a 3-year period and that these policies are important in preventing morbidity and mortality associated with heart disease. This effect likely is mediated through reduced SHS exposure among nonsmokers and reduced smoking, with the former making the larger contribution (4,6,7). . . .
Editorial Note:
Evidence from animal and human studies indicates that SHS exposure can produce rapid adverse effects on the functioning of the heart, blood, and vascular systems that increase the risk for a cardiac event (1). Relevant mechanisms include effects on platelet function, endothelial function, and inflammation. Epidemiologic and laboratory data indicate that the risk for heart disease and AMI increase rapidly with relatively small doses of tobacco smoke, such as those received from SHS, and then continue to increase more slowly with larger doses (1,8,9). Evidence also suggests that the acute effects of SHS exposure might be rapidly reversible (8,9).
Eliminating smoking in indoor spaces is the only way to fully protect nonsmokers from SHS
Heart attacks fell sharply in Pueblo in the years after a city smoking ban took effect, according to a report released Wednesday, and researchers say it's the strongest link yet between such laws and improved health.
The southern Colorado city saw a 41 percent drop in heart attack hospitalization rates among city residents in the three years after a smoking ban took effect July 1, 2003, according to the report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The size of the drop surprised researchers, said the study's lead researcher, Terry Pechacek, associate director for science at the CDC's Office on Smoking and Health.
"The significant continued decline was not predicted," he said. Several studies have shown that heart attacks decrease significantly when smoke-free laws are in place, but this was the first to show that such declines seem to continue over time.
Pechacek said it suggests that the risk of secondhand smoke might be underestimated, and that Colorado's smoking ban, which took effect July 1, 2006, can only go so far in protecting people.
"Even with the statewide law, people need to recognize that they need to pay attention to secondhand smoke in homes, vehicles and everywhere else," he said. . . .
"This study is very dramatic," said Dr. Michael Thun, a researcher with the American Cancer Society who was not involved in the CDC study. "This is now the ninth study, so it is clear that smoke-free laws are one of the most effective and cost-effective to reduce heart attacks." . . .
"I have never seen any proof at all that secondhand smoke is hazardous to anybody's health," said Bruce Hicks, owner of Murray Street Darts, who has been fighting the ban in court after being cited for openly defying it. "And besides that, I still think it's a business rights issue rather than a health issue."
A propertywide smoking ban at Centennial condominiums in Aspen went up in flames Tuesday after an overwhelming number of homeowners voted against the idea.
The “no” vote was so overwhelming, in fact, that the homeowners’ association board of directors didn’t even take an official count of the 22 people who attended the meeting and voted by a show of hands. Proxies also were sent in by homeowners who weren’t present, although it’s unknown how many were submitted.
But it was evident at the beginning of the annual homeowners meeting that the proxies wouldn’t garner the 66 and two-thirds vote needed by the 92 owners at Centennial, said Ed Cross, president of the homeowner’s association.
And of those who were present, including the nine-member board, about a half dozen voted in favor of a smoking ban.
The idea for a smoking ban at Centennial was prompted after two fires, blames on cigarettes, broke out there and at Castle Ridge Apartments, another Aspen affordable-housing complex. Residents began e-mailing Cross expressing concern for their safety, he said.
The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to review the constitutionality of the statewide smoking ban as it is applied to live theater performances. This is the first victory in a 2-year legal battle between three local theater companies and the Colorado Department of Health.
Curious Theatre, Paragon Theatre and Boulder's Theatre 13 argue that smoking onstage is expressive behavior protected by the First Amendment. A Denver District judge rejected that argument in October 2006, and a three-member appellate court followed suit last March.
Two men who exchanged a lit cigarette in a National Forest are on the hook for $300,000 in costs for a wildfire that scorched 120 acres south of Telluride, according to a settlement reached Tuesday with federal officials.
However, the two men - John D. Wesson and Matthew D. Allen - will have the those costs covered by their homeowners insurance through State Farm.
The fire, known as the 2003 Alta Fire in the Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forest, started in July when the two men allegedly exchanged a lit cigarette in violation of a fire ban put in place by San Miguel County.
"It's dead. Socially dead. Politically dead. Environmentally dead. Physically dead."
That's the mantra being pushed by a radical new Colorado social movement declaring that the "cigarette is dead." Geared toward a younger audience, the "Cigarette is Dead" guerilla advertising campaign takes to the streets with its in-your-face message. . . .
But for some, the cigarette is dead also means business is dead.
At least 61 bars have closed statewide since July 2006 as a result of the statewide ban on smoking in public spaces, according to the Colorado Coalition for Equal Rights, a group of bar and tavern owners working to repeal the smoking ban. Jay Mason, a spokesperson for the coalition, said over two years later, bars and taverns are still experiencing a decline in business as former patrons stay home and drink where they can smoke.
"We've lost probably about five bars in just the last six months. In general, everyone's revenue is down," he said.
Tragic losses
The Colorado Coalition for Equal Rights received a huge blow to its momentum after its two principal members -- President Wayne Jakino and Vice President Allen Campbell -- both died within the year from cancer. Mason said the two men were both smokers, but said their illnesses were not related to smoking.
He added that once the coalition regroups following the deaths of their two leaders, another push will be made in the legislature to try and repeal the smoking ban.
An attorney for the homeowners association at the Centennial affordable-housing complex says a ban on cigarette smoking in its privately owned units is viable and will hold up in court.
When the homeowners association board proposed banning smoking in the 92 privately owned condominiums, some residents — smokers and non — balked, arguing that the ban would set a dangerous precedent for infringing on civil liberties and possibly violating the constitutional right to privacy.
“Preliminary findings indicate that we will be able to make Centennial a ‘smoke-free environment’ if we so choose,” homeowners association board president Ed Cross wrote to residents in a letter this week. “Legal precedent has stated that smoking is not a constitutionally protected right.” . . .
attorney, Fred Peirce, has since prepared a legal argument for the ban that he will present at a Centennial homeowners meeting on Aug. 19.
That meeting will also include remarks from Aspen Fire Marshal Ed Van Walraven, who recommended that Centennial ban smoking after a June fire caused by a smoldering cigarette destroyed 10 apartments in the Castle Ridge affordable-housing complex. (
In terms of lobbyists, few are more connected — both west of the Mississippi and in the corridors of power in Washington — than Steve Farber, a Denver lawyer whose political contacts have thrust him into a central fund-raising role for the Democratic National Convention. . . .
Yet, as Mr. Farber hops on planes, hosts breakfasts and pulls out the stops, he at least can draw on the resources of his law firm, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, one of the fastest-growing lobbying shops in Washington and one of the most powerful firms in the West . . .
. . .
“He is a businessman and a community activist, and yet he is connected to a law firm that is one of the biggest in Washington. When any of Steve Farber’s clients have a problem, federal elected officials will feel obligated to listen to him if he approaches them later on federal policy interests.”
Although he is a Democrat, Mr. Farber’s firm draws political talent from both sides of the aisle. . . .
Others who have passed through the doors at his firm include two former cabinet secretaries: Gale Norton, interior secretary in the Bush administration, and Federico F. Peña, transportation secretary in the Clinton administration. Mr. Farber’s firm also represents the former Liggett tobacco company