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I grew up among smokers. . . ..
Uh-oh. No way was I going to set my baby up for failure before she was even born.
So on Sept. 14, 1984, at 10:15 a.m., I smoked my last cigarette. I know that because I still have the page from my calendar. . . .
Let me reiterate: One way or another, we all pay to play. I spent 20 years as a nonsmoker, thinking I'd dodged the COPD bullet and then it happened. I was suddenly hit with asthma. . . .
. . .
Last week, a woman brought some items to trade in my resale clothing store. As soon as I smelled the smoke, I closed the bag and told her as politely as I could that I couldn't buy her things because they were a "little smoky." She went ballistic, insisting that her clothes didn't smell and how dare I, yada, yada, yada. I wasn't listening. I was too busy digging in my pocket for an inhaler.
It saddens me to see young people puffing away. It infuriates me to see adults driving down the road, cigarettes hanging out of their mouths as two or three kids hop around in the back seat. And, most of all, it breaks my heart to see a pregnant woman open up her purse to reveal a pack of cigarettes next to her wallet.
Some things in life just can't be justified. Smoking during pregnancy is at the top of the list. It's a nasty game to play and it's unconscionable to make an unborn baby pay.
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The American Lung Association in Georgia plays an active role in working to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy and research.
As the organization's director of advocacy, I must again announce the unacceptable grades Georgia received on our national association's signature report, the State of Tobacco Control. Georgia failed in almost all categories for tobacco policies proven to reduce smoking.
The dismal grades, F's, are attributed to a failure to increase Georgia's cigarette tax, adequately fund tobacco use prevention programs, and provide coverage for quit smoking treatments and services for state workers and Medicaid recipients. . . .
Georgia gets about $150 million annually from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.
Yet, Georgia funds our state tobacco use prevention program at only 2.8 percent of the CDC's recommendation.
Georgia is among only four states that do nothing to help their Medicaid population quit smoking and is among the six states that fail to offer smoking cessation benefits for state employees. Helping smokers quit will save lives and money. . . .
The state and federal tax burden from smoking-caused government expenditures in Georgia is about $550 per household -- whether or not a member of your family is a smoker. The potential $360 million generated by increasing the cigarette tax by $1 would go a long way toward alleviating some of those costs. Georgia should not be left out of this potential revenue generator.
It is time we find the best way to save lives and generate much-needed revenue for our state. Contact your legislators today and ask for their support in increasing the cigarette tax for Georgia.
One experiment Albany Firefighters conducted tested new fire safe cigarettes now mandated in Georgia. Those cigarettes are designed to go out if you stop smoking them.
Cigarettes cause fires that kill 700 people and injure 3,000 every year in the United States. 74 year old Audrey Baty died in an Albany house fire January 7th, and Investigators determined the fire was caused by a cigarette. That tragedy influenced firefighters to check out how safe these new cigarettes really are.
The second reason that teachers are wearing targets is medical.
Lawmakers lack backbones.
Georgia could plug about a fifth of its budget gap by raising the tax on cigarettes from 37 cents per pack to $1.37. The additional $400 million that supporters say the tax would generate in its first year would blunt the cost-cutting pain.
As a side benefit, it would indirectly reduce Medicaid costs, too.
People who puff away and hack their lungs out rack up an estimated $2 billion in medical costs annually. Paying an extra buck a pack would be more incentive to quit.
Sadly, most lawmakers can't see through the smoke or one inch past the next election.
They oppose any tax hike - even one that polls show enjoys popular support. Besides, key leaders in Atlanta who were bought by tobacco lobbyists apparently stay bought. . . .
Of course, collecting $400 million from smokers who suck it in would eliminate the need for more teacher furloughs. Sadly, Georgia's lawmakers would rather tax teachers, not tobacco.
As the new year unfolds, Georgia citizens are wondering how the new leadership in the Georgia Legislature will do this session.
The timing of former House Speaker Glenn Richardson's scandal is unfortunate, as lawmakers prepare to handle a myriad of issues. One of the most important is Georgia's $1.3 billion budget shortfall that gets worse every day. . . .
With new leaders poised to take over in the House, there is an opportunity to move Stephens' bill, House Bill 39. The legislature should pass the additional cigarette tax that is supported by 75 percent of Georgia voters.
Does it really make more sense to continue to cut money for education, health care and transportation than to increase Georgia's tobacco tax towards the national average? Kids need teachers, not cheap cigarettes.
Hopefully, the new Republican leadership will answer these tough questions by listening to the voters, not by catering to lobbyists for big tobacco. According to a popular axiom, those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Unfortunately, such a failure by the new GOP leadership would come at a steep cost.
Half a dozen LA County municipalities have banned smoking near their outdoor dining facilities, with a few banning it from publicly-owned property - sidewalks, medians etc. - across their city entire.
All did so citing public health concerns, but none did so based on scientific evidence that second hand smoke (SHS) near an outdoor area poses a health risk, because no such peer reviewed study existed.
The first scientific study on detecting outdoor second hand smoke levels, published by University of Georgia Athens (UGA) researchers in November, 2009, found increased levels of SHS in their subjects, but not levels considered to be risky.
The Athens-Clarke, Georgia, County Commission sought to extend their 2004/5 indoor smoking bans to outdoor areas in late 2009.
By chance, UGA happens to contain a world class environmental health sciences department that works alongside the United Nation's World Health Organization (WHO) to study indoor smoke and other contaminants around the world.
Environmental health science professor Luke Naeher told WeHo News that he conducted the study (in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene November 2009) because of the indoor ban - he wondered if allowing it in outdoor areas simply moved the risks associated with SHS in employees outdoors. . . .
After hearing the science, Athens-Clarke officials said they have no plans to revive talk of an outdoor smoking ban.
According to the Athens Banner Herald, "the county commission and the state legislature both considered extending the ban to 25 feet outside doorways but abandoned the idea.
"County commissioners," they wrote, "said they would either not support an outdoor ban or are waiting for more evidence before tackling the issue.
Athens-Clarke officials have no plans to revive talk of an outdoor smoking ban in spite of a recent University of Georgia study that found secondhand smoke is dangerous outside as well as inside.
The Athens-Clarke Commission passed a partial indoor smoking ban in 2004 and a total ban in 2005. But current commissioners said they would not support an outdoor ban or are waiting for more evidence before tackling the issue.
"Somewhere down the road, if the results keep replicating themselves, we may be looking at that," said Commissioner Alice Kinman, who voted in favor of the indoor ban.
Georgia currently spends $3.2 million a year on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which is 2.7 percent of the $116.5 million recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Last year, Georgia also ranked 50th, spending $3.2 million on tobacco prevention.
Other key findings for Georgia include:
* Georgia this year will collect $377 million from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes, but will spend just 0.8 percent of it on tobacco prevention programs.
* The tobacco companies spend $426.4 million a year to market their products in Georgia. This is 134 times what the state spends on tobacco prevention.
The Powder Springs City Council voted Monday to ban smoking in the town square during city-sponsored events.
The new rules means nobody can light up there during events such as the town Christmas tree lighting.
Dalton State College has joined the ranks of other tobacco free campuses in the University System of Georgia.
"Our original plan wasn't to do that," said student body president Daniel Sanchez. "What we really wanted to do was what the students wanted."
Last fall, 67 percent of respondents with DSC e-mail addresses -- including both students and faculty -- voted in a survey to eliminate all forms of tobacco everywhere on campus. According to an American Lung Association report, there are 14 other University System of Georgia colleges with tobacco-free campuses.
Two years after the General Assembly passed a bill to ban smoking from most workplaces, including restaurants, supporters say the law is working and should be extended to include places such as over-21 venues that are now exempt.
"There literally are hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans who are healthier, and tens of thousands who do not have lung cancer or heart disease because they now get to breathe clean air," said state Sen. Roy Herron, who dropped his Democratic bid for governor this week to run for John Tanner's 8th District congressional seat. "Yet other Tennesseans are still at great risk and that's simply not right."
The advocacy group Campaign for a Healthy and Responsible Tennessee, or CHART, wants to eliminate exemptions in the law that include allowing smoking at places like 21-and-up establishments, hotel and motel rooms, workplaces with "garage-door" access, and sites with three or fewer workers.
In addition, said CHART Executive Director Shelley Courington, there is no requirement about how far from a door people must be to smoke. The group is working with lawmakers to file a bill in January to extend the ban.
Smoking bans have made the air healthier in bars and restaurants, but may have made the air just outside the establishments more hazardous, University of Georgia researchers have found.
Nonsmoking diners and imbibers sitting in outdoor patios or sidewalk seating areas connected to the bars or restaurants are picking up doses of secondhand smoke, the scientists found.
In fact, nonsmokers who volunteered to sit in the outdoor seating areas had levels of a tobacco byproduct in their bodies up to 162 percent higher than when they first sat down, said Luke Naeher, a professor in the university's environmental health science department.
In fact, nonsmokers who volunteered to sit in the outdoor seating areas had levels of a tobacco byproduct in their bodies up to 162 percent higher than when they first sat down, said Luke Naeher, a professor in UGA's environmental health science department.
Collaborating with researchers in the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Northeast Health District, Naeher and other UGA researchers measured levels of a substance called cotinine.
Many growers remain undecided as to how they'll approach tobacco production in 2010, especially considering that some have seen bad crops in recent years.
The future of tobacco production in Florida and Georgia -- hammered already in recent years by decreasing demand and poor crops -- took another blow recently when Philip Morris USA announced it no longer would be purchasing tobacco from the two states.
Philip Morris USA officials held a meeting on Oct. 14, in Alma, Ga., with more than 75 growers from Georgia and Florida attending. Growers were informed of the decision by Philip Morris USA to "no longer offer contracts for the purchase of tobacco in Georgia after the 2009 season." . . .
Nothing is for certain at this point, says Moore, and it's too early to tell what Philip Morris USA's competition might do. The three other buyers of Georgia and Florida tobacco include R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, Alliance One International and U.S. Tobacco Cooperative.
"North Carolina had a tremendous crop this year with an abundance of tobacco left over. Some companies are saying they won't buy above what they contracted for, but some are buying at a cut-rate price," says Moore. "Storage facilities could be filled to capacity going into next season which will affect demand. We hope other companies will step in and buy Georgia tobacco."
Cigarette sales decreases are hurting small stores in Florida and sending smokers to nearby Georgia to avoid the state's new $1-a-pack cigarette tax, according to James E. Smith, spokesman and lobbyist for the Florida Petroleum Marketers & Convenience Store Association.
Smith told the Web site, TampaBay.com, tobacco products -- mainly cigarettes -- trigger convenience store visits that account for 34 percent of in-store sales of items such as snacks, drinks and bread.
"Any time you reduce sales by big percentages, you eliminate a significant portion of profit that retailers use for things like payroll and rent," Smith said. "If you're a customer and you're not going in for cigarettes, you're not going to go in at all. And a lot of sales at convenience stores are impulse buys. That cuts into the bottom line."
Some North Florida cigarette buyers may simply drive across the state line. Smith said his counterpart in Georgia is boasting of a nearly fivefold increase in overall sales in some stores along the border with Florida.
According to the Web site, cigarettes sales are down 27 percent in Florida during the past four months. However