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Reflecting on the existing scientific research on second hand smoke exposure outdoors, William Saletan of Slate.com sifts through the most relevant points from two major studies on the subject (the 2006 California Air Resources Board study, and a 2007 study from Stanford). Among the findings: outdoors, second hand smoke levels vary widely and quickly, depend on the individual's distance from a smoker (farther than 6.5 feet or 2 meters, generally reduces exposure to "background" levels), are influenced by how confined the outdoor space is (if there are walls or fences), and the concentration of smokers in a given area. The data, Saletan concludes, point to the need for a measured approach for crafting policy to reduce second hand smoke exposure outdoors. He writes:
"If you want to argue for parkwide smoking bans based on asthma or on an analogy to noise pollution, go ahead and make that case. But let's not cloud that debate by invoking the general harm of secondhand smoke. Studies of secondhand smoke have indeed moved outdoors. Their findings support restrictions on lighting up within a few feet of other people. But they don't warrant more than that."
A new study published in the November issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene may contribute to the debate. Researchers from the University of Georgia measured second hand smoke exposure among people sitting in the outdoor areas of bars and restaurants where indoor smoking was banned in the city of Athens, Georgia. . . .
generally speaking, hanging out in an outdoor smoking area exposes you to less second hand smoke than being in an indoor, confined space with smokers, and the more space you have between yourself and smokers, the lower levels of exposure you will have. So, this particular study doesn't ring the death knell for outdoor smoking. But, the researchers point out, wielding the official trump card of the public health argument:
Although the increment in cotinine concentrations and, thus, the [second hand smoke] exposure levels were relatively low at the sites of interest, the current view is that there is no level of personal exposure to [second hand smoke] that can be regarded as safe. This study demonstrates the ongoing exposure of nonsmokers to [second hand smoke] outside restaurants and bars, and the limitations of indoor smoking bans alone in protecting the public from exposure to [second hand smoke] outside these establishments.
In other words, the movement to ban smoking in outdoor spaces is here to stay.
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Indoor smoking bans have forced smokers at bars and restaurants onto outdoor patios, but a new University of Georgia study in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that these outdoor smoking areas might be creating a new health hazard.
The study, thought to be the first to assess levels of a nicotine byproduct known as cotinine in nonsmokers exposed to second-hand smoke outdoors, found levels up to 162 percent greater than in the control group. The results appear in the November issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene.
"Indoor smoking bans have helped to create more of these outdoor environments where people are exposed to secondhand smoke," said study co-author Luke Naeher, associate professor in the UGA College of Public Health. "We know from our previous study that there are measurable airborne levels of secondhand smoke in these environments, and we know from this study that we can measure internal exposure.
"Secondhand smoke contains several known carcinogens and the current thinking is that there is no safe level of exposure," he added. "So the levels that we are seeing are a potential public health issue."
Athens-Clarke County, Ga., enacted an indoor smoking ban in 2005, providing Naeher and his colleagues and ideal environment for their study.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has learned that the state plans to ban smoking in the seven state mental hospitals on Jan. 5, a steep challenge considering the high percentage of smokers among those with mental illness.
But Tom Wilson, spokesman for the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, said the measure will make the patients and facilities healthier. He also said the ban could advance patients' treatment, helping them to give up an often addictive habit.
Wilson acknowledged the challenges, pointing to national statistics that show 75 percent of people with mental illness or addictions smoke, and that nearly half of the cigarettes consumed in the country are smoked by people with mental illness.
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.
Native Americans from all over the U.S. are in Middle Georgia this week, and they are declaring a war--a war on the negative use of tobacco. The group camped in Mile Branch River Park in Pulaski County for the three-day national summit.
Native Americans came from Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma and Colorado to teach their younger generation how to value tobacco, and not abuse it.
Inter-Tribal Council Member Dr. Dewey Painter says he knows first hand that commercial use of the drug is destroying the lives of Native Americans everywhere.
In 1776, three things were considered "extremely proper subjects" for taxation: Rum, sugar and tobacco. They were taxed, not because they were evil, sinful products, but because they weren't considered "necessities of life."
Last Wednesday, a state legislative subcommittee listened to three hours of testimony concerning the timeless topic of tobacco taxation. House Bill 39 by State Rep. Ron Stephens, R-Savannah, increases Georgia's 37 cent cigarette tax by $1 per pack and raises the 10 percent tax on smokeless tobacco to 25 percent.
In the recent Savannah Morning News column "Sin taxes: A big lie," former talk radio shock jock Ben Crystal called the tobacco tax increase "an easy way to shovel money into the state coffers in the guise of nanny-state style wrist slapping."
What was he smokin'? Crystal's use of extremist rhetoric and his distortion of the facts obfuscated the truth about this important issue. . . .
HB 39 is not about sin. Nobody is trying to place a scarlet "S" for "Smoker" on anyone's chest. It's about common sense, personal responsibility, equity, economics, child protection and public health.
Should the state subsidize health care for persons who choose to smoke . . . .
Nobody likes taxes, however as a society this is the way we fund our government and some taxes are considered more palatable than others.
When someone asked to smoke at his home, he'd hand them a wooden ashtray shaped like a coffin with a sticker: "Please don't smoke. You might croak." He also had a cigarette lighter that, when flicked, unleashed a horrific, hacking cough.
Friends and family say such antics were vintage Althafer, a health educator who oversaw anti-smoking campaigns in a decades-long career with the Centers for Disease Control.
Charles "Charlie" Althafer, 77, of Tucker, died Feb. 9 of heart failure at his home in Tucker. A memorial service will be 1 p.m. Saturday at Living Grace Lutheran Church in Tucker. Wages & Sons Funeral Home in Stone Mountain is in charge of arrangements.
In the 1960s, Mr. Althafer was acting director for a project of the National Clearinghouse for Smoking and Health that researched smoking and its consequences in San Diego. He joined the CDC in the mid-1970s as deputy director of a federal anti-smoking program . . .
Charlie was one of the pioneers who just kept working at it, saying it was something we had to change. He was involved not only in the usual anti-smoking programs, but in developing surgeon general reports that came out on smoking. You can see the results now of his work in this country."
And then there were the jokes. Mr. Althafer, who had been a radar specialist with the Marines during the Korean War, had one for any occasion.
Two of the nation's top tobacco-producing states are weighing whether to raise cigarette taxes to plug budget deficits that have sent politicians scavenging for sources of revenue.
The governors of Virginia and Kentucky have each proposed raising their cigarette taxes -- each currently 30 cents per pack -- to help offset revenue shortfalls of $2.9 billion and $456 million, respectively.
Such a move was once unthinkable in Virginia, where Philip Morris runs the world's largest cigarette plant miles from the state Capitol, and ceiling murals in the rotunda include impressions of the golden-brown tobacco leaf.
"I wouldn't be surprised if all the tobacco-producing states aren't at least considering it before long," said Amy Barkley, who directs advocacy efforts in the major tobacco states for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. . . .
Lawmakers in the six major tobacco states -- North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia -- have historically been more reluctant than other states to turn to their cash crop for extra revenue.
But since 2002, 44 states and the District of Columbia have increased their cigarette taxes. Still, while the average tax nationwide is $1.11 per pack, it is 33.5 cents per pack in tobacco states.
"A while ago some people would have said there's no way there's going to be any tobacco tax increase in any of these states, but there has been and it's been because of these dire budget needs," Barkley said.
That doesn't mean the taxes have had an easy time passing.
The Atlanta-based American Cancer Society has its own Olympics quest.
Dr. Otis Webb Brawley, the chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, was in China this past weekend to launch an effort with more than 70 multi-national and Chinese companies to develop smoke-free worksites.
The launch coincided with the Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The society and consortium of Chinese partners are unveiling a new "toolkit" to help companies implement 100-percent smoke-free workplaces. More than 70 companies already have committed to become smoke-free at their Beijing facilities, and many also plan to implement those policies nationwide.
Mr. DeLoach is moving toward peanuts and other crops -- a trend the former president of the Tobacco Growers Association of Georgia said is prevalent.
"That, here again, is more due to economics than it is smoking bans or prices or whatever," Mr. DeLoach said.
Georgia farmers' move away from tobacco has little to do with the 3-year-old law prohibiting smoking in public places, say experts and cigarette opponents.
The lack of collateral damage is all the more reason to wage war against smoking, supporters of tougher measures argue.
The state's spending on programs aimed at stopping smoking is a sliver of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends, even as 10,000 Georgians die from smoking every year and the state spends an estimated $1.8 billion annually on tobacco-related health-care costs.
It has been three years since anti-smoking groups celebrated their landmark victory: Gov. Sonny Perdue's reluctant signing of a measure banning indoor smoking in most public places except bars and restaurants that don't serve minors and small businesses with fewer than 10 employees. . . .
That's happening, Mr. DeLoach said, but not because of changes in the law. Rather, it's because energy and fertilizer prices are beginning to make tobacco less profitable when compared to food products, whose value is soaring.
300 NASCAR fans that are part of Nicorette's race fan QUIT Crew will proclaim the most famous words in motorsports. They'll serve as Grand Marshals for Saturday's Nicorette 300 Nationwide Series race.
The 300 Grand Marshals -- the largest group ever to have this role at a NASCAR race -- will get VIP treatment, take a bow at pre-race introductions and command the Nationwide Series drivers to fire their engines to start the Nicorette 300.
"By treating 300 NASCAR fans as VIPs and letting them say the most famous words in motorsports live on ESPN2, Nicorette is raising the bar for sponsors making fans part of the sport," said Steve Phelps, NASCAR chief marketing officer.
By treating 300 NASCAR fans as VIPs and letting them say the most famous words in motorsports live on ESPN2, Nicorette is raising the bar for sponsors making fans part of the sport.Steve Phelps, NASCAR chief marketing officer, on the 300 Grand Marshals -- the largest group ever to have this role at a NASCAR race --who will get VIP treatment, take a bow at pre-race introductions and command the Nationwide Series drivers to fire their engines to start the Nicorette 300.
Sen. David Shafer (R-Duluth) introduced legislation today that will require the Georgia Department of Revenue to implement "digital" cigarette tax technology to combat cigarette smuggling and tax stamp counterfeiting.
“Georgia is losing over $20 million annually from cigarette smuggling and tax evasion,” Sen. Shafer said. "But this is not just an issue of lost revenue. Cigarette smuggling has national security implications."
A study committee chaired by Sen. Shafer last year found that cigarette smuggling, long the province of organized crime, now is being used to finance Islamic terrorism.
Federal law enforcement officials briefed the members of the study committee on two recent cigarette smuggling cases involving Islamic terrorist groups and presented evidence that the Chinese Army, which operates over a dozen cigarette manufacturing plants, is exporting counterfeit Marlboros and other high end cigarettes, complete with phony American tax stamps.
Yesterday, Davenport & Company released a research report analyzing the recent test launch of Altria's (NYSE: MO) Marlboro Moist Smokeless Tobacco. The new product was originally viewed as a possible competitor to UST's (NYSE: UST) smokeless tobacco brands, sparking fear in UST investors, but, as Davenport's research found, such a claim may no longer be legitimate.
Altria's tobacco branch, Philip Morris, released its new smokeless tobacco product in Atlanta in October '07 for test. . . .
As a result of the point-of-sale research, Davenport now feels that "UST will survive", as the lack of performance by the Altria brand product will likely not require UST to lower prices on its smokeless tobacco products.
A University study explained why these ads deter smoking - or promote cigarette usage.
"Anti-smoking campaigns may not have a direct impact on adolescents' smoking. They may even have some unexpected impact," said Hye-Jin Paek, an assistant professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication and co-author of a study published in the journal "Communication Research."
Unintended consequences of ads can heighten the rebellious and naturally curious nature of youth, increasing the inclination to smoke, according to the study.
Paek and co-author Albert Gunther from the University of Wisconsin-Madison suggested that peer perception of the ads have the greatest impact on adolescent smoking.
"They can [be effective], though, when they reinforce the perception that their close friends listen and respond to the campaigns," Paek said.
As cited in the study, Florida's 1998 "truth" campaign proved the most effective at decreasing smoking prevalence and developing antismoking attitudes.