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Powder Springs
The city conducted the first public hearing for a proposed ordinance to ban smoking at city-sponsored events on the town square, specifically the Fourth of July and Christmas celebrations. Mayor Pat Vaughn said Hillgrove High School senior William Wizner proposed the ordinance as part of a school project.
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Smokers got a reprieve to continue smoking in Roswell's city parks.
The Roswell City Council voted unanimously a couple of weeks ago to ban smoking in the city parks, but now they can't agree whether to let folks smoke in their cars, in the parking lot or just a total ban.
One difficulty arose over what is the definition of a vehicle - could that include a motorcycle or a bicycle? Councilwoman Becky Wynn wanted "to nail that down."
Mayor Jere Wood repeated his concern that without a designated place for smokers - either in their cars or in the parking lots - the city would be driving folks away.
The outlook for Georgia tobacco farmers was clouded this week with the announcement that the largest cigarette manufacturer will not offer contracts and will close its Alma buying station.
Philip Morris USA told tobacco growers at a Wednesday meeting in Alma that it will no longer issue one-year contracts to growers. The company said it will honor three- and five-year contracts that are in effect as long as growers are in good standing.
"The folks that left that meeting Wednesday were pretty much in a state of confusion," said J. Michael Moore, a University of Georgia extension agronomist. "There's a lot of uncertainty."
The closing of the Alma buying station reflects the tobacco giant's decision to shift production to North Carolina and Virginia, Moore said. It is too early to determine how big the blow will be to Georgia tobacco growers.
An Augusta man said he had chewing tobacco thrown in his face after he blew his horn at a driver on Wrightsboro Road Thursday night.
The 51-year-old victim said he honked at a woman who was blocking the intersection of Wrightsboro Road and Marks Church Road so that she would move and turn, a Richmond County Sheriff's report said.
Following the lead of other metro communities, Roswell passed an ordinance banning smoking on city park property except in specially designated areas.
The city Recreation Commission, with aim of promoting healthier lifestyles, brought the ordinance forward for council approval.
Asked where those "designated smoking areas" might be, Recreation and Parks Director Joe Glover said "in the patrons' cars."
Not only that, the ordinance submitted by the Recreation Commission also stated that smokers must light up with the windows up. Councilwoman Becky Wynn asked if that wasn't going just a little too far. . . .
The motion passed unanimously with the window section thrown out the, um, window.
Those who want to smoke in Roswell city parks may be limited to enjoying their tobacco in "designated areas," their personal cars.
But under the most recent version of a proposed city ordinance, smokers can have their windows open, a big change for the original proposal that required smokers to close the windows of their cars while puffing.
The city council removed that part from the suggested ordinance, saying it went too far, according to Morgan Rodgers, assistant director of the Roswell Recreation and Parks Department, who was on the committee that drafted the new rule.
Chatham County employee James Putney is on his way to becoming smoke-free after 40 years of lighting up.
After attending three of four smoking cessation classes, he is down from 20 to two cigarettes a day, Putney said.
The county's plan to start charging employees who smoke an extra $20 per paycheck for health insurance also helped his fight.
"It's a great incentive to get people to quit," Putney said, "especially with the way the economy is."
Putney's success so far is something county officials are hoping to emulate with their push to get employees to kick the habit.
Of the county's 139 admitted smokers, 115 signed up for the four free sessions. The remaining 24 will pay the fee.
A growing trend is blowing across college campuses nationwide. According to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation, nearly 60 college campuses around the United States have established smoke-free policies that affect the entire campus.
The Student Government Association has recently propsed a tightening of smoking regulations on campus. GCSU currently has limited restrictions banning smoking indoors, in residential housing and student facilities. The new proposal, written by Billy Grace, SGA senator, would prevent the smoking of cigarettes within a 30-foot-radius of any doorway, window or air duct.
After two open forums over the past two weeks, with a total of 50 faculty, students and staff in attendance, the propsal began to get hazy.
Two of the founding partners of Six Nations cigarette maker Grand River Enterprises are facing 16 charges related to trafficking of contraband cigarettes in the United States.
A U.S. grand jury in the state of Washington has indicted Ken Hill of Ohsweken and Peter Montour of Hamilton, alleging they were part of a conspiracy to supply tens of millions of contraband cigarettes over a five-year period to a smoke shop on native land just north of Seattle.
Hill and Montour are facing 15 counts of trafficking in contraband cigarettes and one count of conspiracy to traffic in contraband cigarettes.
Each count carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison, as well as the possibility of a fine.
The U.S. district attorney is also seeking a forfeiture order of nearly $5 million US, which represents allegedly unpaid cigarette taxes.
Also charged in the conspiracy is a U.S. company called Native Wholesale Supply and its owner, Art Montour Jr. (no relation), a former band councillor on the Seneca tribe's reservation south of Buffalo.
Smokers take a lot of heat for their habit, as Mr. Marc McAfee demonstrated [in his Aug. 26 column, "Smokers need to escape grasp of addiction"]. . . .
Smokers have become ostracized to the point that they can't even walk outside - where they're supposed to be - and take one good drag without offending someone. They are followed from class to class by scoffs and coughs from the non-smokers walking behind them.
When this happened to me, as it often did, I always thought to myself, "Wait, I'm the one with bad lungs here, shouldn't you be able to walk faster?"
Cigarette smoke may be annoying and inconsiderate, but so are people who talk unnecessarily loud in the MLC, distracting everyone nearby who is studying and adding to their stress, which has been linked as a risk factor to heart disease - the No. 1 killer in America . . .
After smoking a pack-and-a-half a day for almost four years, I finally quit cold turkey about a month ago.
But a month isn't that long. How do I know it's for good? Because this time I was ready and I want to take care of my body. I don't miss the cigarette, but the amount of time I spent outside and the interesting people I met there.
Call me a realist, Mr. McAfee, but don't expect someone to quit smoking for you or anyone else, especially if the tactic utilized is remotely self-righteous or a guilt trip in disguise.
They'll quit when they're good and ready, and they'll quit for themselves, and it will mean so much more to them that way.
I've never met a smoker who sees cigarettes as a permanent part of their lives.
So ease up; smokers will save themselves.
Tanita Gaither, a senior journalism major, takes a smoke break Wednesday afternoon outside the Miller Learning Center on the University of Georgia campus.
The University of Georgia is the only school or college campus in Athens where smoking is permitted, but that might change in the not too distant future.
Three Southeastern Conference schools recently have moved to ban tobacco on their campuses, and UGA President Michael Adams said he would not rule it out automatically for UGA.
"I'm open to looking at that," he said last week. "I'd want to listen to ideas."
The UGA Athletic Association banned smoking inside the university's huge Sanford Stadium a couple of years ago. Adams is chairman of the athletic association's board.
And smoking has for years been outlawed inside campus buildings, not just in Georgia but in most other states as legislatures have one by one enacted laws against smoking in campus buildings.
A growing number of college campuses have gone even farther, outlawing tobacco use entirely, anywhere on campus.
Researchers are helping women who live in public housing in Georgia and South Carolina stop smoking through a proven former smoker-led intervention program.
With $3.1 million in funding from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, Drs. Martha Tingen, a nurse researcher at the Medical College of Georgia's Georgia Prevention Institute, and Jeanette Andrews, associate dean for research and evaluation and director of the Center for Community Health Partnerships at the Medical University of South Carolina, will expand the Sister to Sister program to women in public housing units in Augusta and Charleston, S.C. Dr. Andrews, the grant's principal investigator, developed and tested the program while she was a faculty member in the MCG School of Nursing.
Sister to Sister utilizes help from former smokers from the community, a nicotine patch and group support to help the women kick the habit.
"The Dormitory living quarters meets current health and safety standards as set forth by the Occupational Safety and Health Manual. Ventilation in these areas has been found to be adequate for smokers and non-smokers." What are these standards? How can a room appr. 15' x 9' with three smokers be guaranteed not to affect a non-smoker in the same room?
This is in response to your inquiry concerning the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations that apply to smoking in dormitories.
OSHA is charged with protecting the safety and health of workers and does not regulate the ventilation of residences. Currently, OSHA has no regulations that apply to smoking, however, OSHA does have a standard which limits employee exposure to carbon monoxide one of the products from the combustion of tobacco. The current OSHA permissible exposure limit (PEL) for carbon monoxide is 50 parts of carbon monoxide per million parts of air averaged over an 8-hour work day. I have enclosed the "NIOSH/OSHA Occupational Health Guideline for Carbon Monoxide" for your use. This guideline provided information on the health effects associated with carbon monoxide exposure.
Also, you may want to write to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concerning this matter. EPA is responsible for protecting the health of the general public and may have guidelines that apply to smoking. . . .
I have also enclosed an article entitled "The Problem of Passive Smoking" by James L. Replace of EPA for your use and a bibliography of references on tobacco smoke compiled by the National Capital Area Lung Associations.
Marietta City Council banned smoking in the Square's Glover Park earlier this month.
The council's Judicial Legislative Committee will consider expanding that ban to all 21 city parks when it meets Wednesday.
Councilman Philip Goldstein, who chairs the committee, said he is open to a smoking ban in all city parks, but wants to hear what other council members say.
"You have areas that have children's playgrounds and other folks at parks, and smoke is problematic for some folks," Goldstein said.
While the average retailer profit on a pack of cigarettes is less than a dollar, those who sell cigarettes and other tobacco products to people under the age of 18 risk fines starting at $300 per incident and the possibility of criminal prosecution. Those possible costs to retailers are on top of the very real costs paid by Georgians every year. Cigarette smoking is the number one cause of preventable illness and death in Georgia, with over 10,000 adult Georgians dying annually from smoking-related illnesses, and the healthcare costs and loss of productivity attributable to smoking cost Georgians over $5.2 billon a year. Many of those adults who suffer death and illness will have been addicted to cigarettes since they were teens.
That's why this summer the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD), in conjunction with the Georgia Department of Revenue, Alcohol & Tobacco Division (DOR), is conducting a campaign to remind retailers, young people, and the public at large that selling cigarettes and tobacco products to those under 18 is against the law in Georgia and that retailers are required to check a buyer's ID every time anyone who looks less than 26 years old tries to buy tobacco products. DBHDD's education campaign includes ads on TV, radio, web sites, and in movie theatres, as well as making use of social media such as Facebook. In addition, DOR's Alcohol & Tobacco Division will be conducting compliance checks at retail locations such as gas stations and convenience stores where an estimated one-third of high school smokers buy their cigarettes. . . .
The Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, which began operations on July 1, 2009, is the state's new department responsible for services, programs, and policies for mental health, developmental disabilities, and addictive diseases.