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A man who was smoking set himself on fire and suffered burns to more than 50% of his body early Wednesday at a house on the Far South Side.
Firefighters responded to a working fire at 4:50 a.m. on the 10100 block of South Bensley Avenue, according to Fire Media Affairs Director Larry Langford.
Crews arrived at 4:54 a.m. and found the 36-year-old man had burns to more than 50% of his body.
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On Nov. 19, many people will throw away their cigarettes in honor of the American Cancer Society's Great American Smokeout. Jason Halford, 29, of Joliet probably will not be one of them.
In the nine years since he started smoking, Halford has quit twice, but he blames job and money-related stresses for lighting back up. Even the rising cost of cigarettes isn't enough to discourage him.
"I buy cheap brands and look for dollar-off specials," Halford said.
While some people might think the high cost of keeping the habit would discourage its use, recent research suggests the opposite may be true.
Dr. Bruce Christiansen of the University of Wisconsin's Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention (CTRI) discovered that half the adults in Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods smoke, despite paying $9 for a pack of cigarettes on a household income below $15,000.
A proposal to ban smoking in nearly all Indianapolis workplaces faces an uncertain future after a narrowly divided City-County Council tabled it Monday night.
The 14-13 vote, with two members absent, means the ordinance can return to the council with majority support. But some on the council said achieving that could be difficult.
Opponents of the ordinance, which would strengthen a current ban on smoking in most restaurants and public spaces such as hotel lobbies, were declaring victory after Monday's vote.
"I don't think this council is going to bring it back," said Brad Klopfenstein, former executive director of the Indiana Licensed Beverage Association who is leading an opposition group called Save Indianapolis Bars. "I'm glad to see they're representing the rights of adults to make adult decisions." Others interpreted the vote differently. Bruce Hetrick is a volunteer for Smoke Free Indy whose wife died of cancer after years of working in a smoke-filled environment.
"We have tonight stared in the face of overwhelming health and economic evidence and just scoffed at it," he said. "This delay tonight is another death sentence. It's deeply disappointing."
A small Evanston park offers a place to relax for men and women who live at a nearby mental health center, but it is off-limits for some parents worried about cigarette smoke and uncomfortable encounters.
Grey Park's playground -- with its teeter-totters and tot lot -- sits virtually unused these days. . . .
Some have suggested eliminating the playground to focus more on drawing adults into the park. They also have discussed designating a smoking area and upgrading the dilapidated community garden. . . .
Tossi said Albany Care, a 417-bed facility, has smoking rooms. If the city ever bans smoking in the park, he said he would try to ensure that residents complied. But smoking, he said, is important to some who live at the center, and he can't stop them.
WOOD RIVER - Health officials Wednesday identified the first bar in Madison County to pay a $250 fine for violating the Illinois Smoke Free Act.
The Madison County Health Department released the name of the establishment on Wednesday, a week after The Telegraph filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the information.
Mary Cooper, environmental health services manager, identified Digger's Dugout, 7708 State Route 4, in Worden, as the violator.
The bar was cited in August for violating the state ban.
's been nearly two years since Illinois banned smoking inside restaurants and bars, but with the economy on the rocks, all bar owners are looking to get an edge over the competition and some choose to break the law.
Lately Mollie's Bar manager Sammy Mankin says some of his customers have told him they're leaving his place for bars that let them smoke.
"They say we love Mollies, but we can't smoke here," Mankin said.
To allow smoking indoors is against Illinois law. The fact that some bars in town are allowing it has left Mankin to feel that his competition has found an unfair advantage.
"They want to go where they can smoke and have a drink and socialize with their fiends," said Mankin. "We cannot offer that here because we follow the law and adhere to it. So we suffer for it."
A recent prison parolee -- convicted last year of beating up a couple who refused to give him a cigarette -- was charged again Wednesday after allegedly threatening a woman in the South Loop who refused to give him a smoke.
Derrick King, 47, is charged with a misdemeanor count of assault and was being held on a warrant for violation of probation, according to police News Affairs. . . .
King approached a 49-year-old woman about 3:20 a.m. near a store in the 500 block of West Roosevelt Road and asked her for a cigarette, police said. When she declined, King said, "Remember the couple who got beat up real bad for not giving a cigarette, that was me!" He then allegedly charged towards the woman, police said.
Local tavern owners have asked Mayor Robert Butler and his police department to enforce state smoking bans.
Butler told the Marion City Council Monday that he had been approached about certain taverns which are allowing smoking.
"They are concerned about our enforcement of the no smoking ban," Butler said. He said one tavern in particular is apparently posting smoking hours at the business.
Public safety commissioner Jay Rix said the police department has been monitoring bars for such violations, but will step up efforts in light of the complaints.
WOOD RIVER - Health officials are cracking down on Madison County bar owners who continue to allow smokers to light up indoors despite a nearly 2-year-old statewide ban.
A Worden establishment was the first in the county to pay a fine for violating the Smoke Free Illinois Act. The law prohibits smoking at indoor public places, such as bars and restaurants.
The Madison County Health Department would not release the name of the bar that paid the fine. The Telegraph filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act last week and is awaiting a response as to which establishment paid the citation.
During a Health Department Committee meeting in September, Mary Cooper, the county's emergency health manager, confirmed a $250 fine was paid.
One of the first rulings under the state's new administrative review process for smoking ban violations upheld a Vermilion County Health Department fine against the Hoopeston bar, Deano's on Main.
Health department officials cited the business earlier this year when inspectors entered Deano's for a routine food inspection and a customer was smoking inside the business. The health department had received multiple complaints about smoking ban violations at Deano's prior to the inspector's visit, according to health department officials.
Rather than paying the fine, the business requested an administrative hearing handled by the Illinois Department of Public Health. The administrative law judge upheld the $100 fine.
Lori Dean, owner of Deano's, said the law is ridiculous, and 90 percent of her patrons are smokers. The day of the food inspection, she said, there was only one elderly customer smoking a pipe.
In January, the Friends Cafe and Lounge in Worth will be history. Likewise for three other smoker-friendly lounges after the Village Board voted last week to expand the state's indoor smoking ban to include establishments in business only to welcome smokers.
Citing federal anti-smoking initiatives, Worth officials concluded that smoking is bad for smokers and secondhand smoke endangers nonsmokers.
But Friends Cafe owner Ala Alsherbini insists the new law is a power play by Worth politicians to extinguish his business for good.
No more smoking for Scott Riddle.
Now he vapes.
"Vaping" means he inhales the vapor from an electronic cigarette, a battery-powered device that typically looks like a cigarette, but delivers nicotine without the tobacco and smoke.
Electronic cigarettes, Riddle say, lets him enjoy the pleasures of smoking without its downsides.
But the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations says not so fast. The FDA warns that e-cigs are not safe, has seized some shipments, and is fighting in court to keep the e-cigarettes away from the public.
Following a nationwide crackdown on smoking in public, the dispute over e-cigarettes raises new questions about personal freedom, public health, addictive drugs and government regulation. It also begs the question: could this be the future of smoking? . . .
Dr. Kevin Sherrin, president of the American Association of Public Health Physicians - who is not compensated by e-cigarette makers - says conventional cigarettes are "much more hazardous" than e-cigarettes.
To get more smokers to use them instead of cigarettes, he proposes that e-cigarettes be immediately regulated as tobacco products.
The Vermilion County Health Department says a Hoopeston bar owner is the first in Illinois to be fined for a violation of the state smoking ban.
An administrative law judge upheld the $100 fine in late September against Deano's on Main in Hoopeston for violating the law against indoor smoking in Illinois, according to a release from the county's health department.
The release said a health department worker on a routine inspection last March saw a customer smoking, and that the department had received "multiple complaints from the public" about smoking at the bar. The department issued a violation and fined the bar. The administrative judge upheld that fine.
The Vermilion County department said this is the first successful ruling in the state under the law banning smoking.
U.S. and state governments have been working both sides of the tobacco debate for too long.
Stop smoking, we're told, because it adds millions in Medicare and Medicaid treatment. Tax cigarettes to discourage use. Sue tobacco makers for selling an addictive product that leads to the untimely death of its best customers.
But in the same gasping breaths: Count on cigarette taxes to shore up Medicare shortfalls, but divert most of the tax and lawsuit money to general fund uses. Allow smoking as an incentive for casino gambling, another addictive behavior government is relying on for revenue. And now, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is pitching a $1-per-pack cigarette tax hike to save college scholarships.
The Monetary Award Program scholarships are a big, big part of higher education . . .
So a $1 per-pack-tax hike may be a fix this semester. But if every other anti-smoking government program works - and we hope they do - these funds won't sustain the scholarships for long.
Of the two proposals on the table for funding grants for Illinois college students, the Republicans plan for another round of tax amnesty makes more sense than nearly doubling the state's tax on cigarettes. . . .
Democrats are touting a dollar-a-pack tax on cigarettes as the savior for MAP. However, such an increase would give Illinois a higher state tobacco tax than any of its surrounding states except Wisconsin, where the tax is $2.52 a pack compared to the proposed $1.98 tax for Illinois.
When county and city taxes are included, the extra dollar would push Chicago ahead of New York City as the city with the highest combined taxes on a pack of cigarettes.
It's plain to see how that would send people near the borders to stores in other states, not only to buy cigarettes but to fill their fuel tanks and buy snacks and other items while they are there. That would potentially decrease revenue, not only from the tobacco tax but also from sales taxes and motor fuel taxes.
In addition, the extra dollar a pack would likely inspire more people to quit smoking - good for individuals' health and overall health care costs, bad for revenue generation - and could cause more people to buy cigarettes over the Internet, smuggle them across the border or even steal them.
Add to this the question of whether a small group of taxpayers - those who still smoke - should be burdened with financing a significant portion of a program that is a general state benefit.