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The second public hearing on the county-wide smoking ordinance has been set. It will be held May 27 at 7 p.m. in the Peru High School auditorium.
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Good news for women who smoke: If you quit now, in five years you will have significantly reduced your chance of dying from a heart attack. And in 20 years, you'll have almost the same health risks as a woman who has never smoked.
A Harvard study, which appeared in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, confirms what doctors have long said but provides a clearer window into what those health benefits are and how quickly they accrue.
In Indiana, which has the sixth-highest smoking rate for women in the nation, anti-smoking advocates hailed the results as an incentive for more women to quit the habit.
"This study is very encouraging," said Karla Sneegas, executive director of the Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Agency. "It's encouraging to say if you quit, there are wonderful health implications that are positive. It really can make a difference in your life."
The most comprehensive study ever on secondhand smoke titled "Environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality" states, "the results do not support a casual relation between secondhand smoke and tobacco related mortality." The study was conducted from 1960 to 1998 with support from the School of Public Health, University of California and the Department of Preventive Medicine, State University of New York.
The facts on this ban are simple and well supported. It will "bring bar and restaurant business down 6.5 to 11 percent" (Dr. Michael Pakko, economist). . . .
OSHA and the Indiana Building and Mechanical Code already give tight guidelines to air quality. By simply enforcing these standards, business owners will have the choice on how to regulate or condition their air to meet those existing codes.
The April 25 letter was correct in pointing out that smoking is not a "civil right." However, it is a liberty that if taken away, will be met with civil disobedience.
Lafayette City Council members passed a citywide smoking ban Monday, which included a last-minute amendment exempting businesses that employ and serve only people 21 and older during all business hours.
Lafayette City Council members voted 7-1 in favor of the ban after it was amended to include the exemption proposed by council member Steve Meyer, D-at large. Council member Perry Brown, D-District 3, voted against it.
The issue of passing the smoking ban in Lafayette had taken a turbulent path toward passage Monday, which included tempers flaring at meetings, name-calling and threats made against council members.
Meyer's amendment could leave bar and restaurant owners with a tough decision: go smoke-free or family-free?
The Lafayette City Council has passed a smoking ban 7 to 1.
The ordinance would restrict smoking in most indoor public places including restaurants, with one big exception.
Councilman Steve Meyer proposed an amendment to the ordinance that would allow smoking in bars where both employees and customers are 21 and over, and smoking signs are posted outside the building.
Meyer said he proposed this amendment to try and reach a compromise between those who want smoking completely banned and those who don't.
Careless smoking near an overstuffed chair was the likely cause of a house fire that killed a mother and her two young daughters, fire officials said Wednesday.
Also, a smoke detector in the Fort Wayne was not working at the time of the Sunday morning fire that killed Debra Sallis, 23, and her daughters, 4-year-old Johniya Bennett and 5-year-old Johnae Bennett, firefighters said.
"The evidence is consistent with burning materials being dropped on the overstuffed chair," the Fort Wayne Fire Department statement said.
Improperly handled smoking materials were the likely cause of the fire at a Bowser Avenue home Sunday morning that killed a mother and her two daughters, Fort Wayne Fire Department investigators said.
Fire investigators also found that a smoke detector inside the home did not sound because it did not have any batteries. According to a report released Wednesday, the fire department ruled the fire at 4747 Bowser Ave. accidental, probably the result of smoking materials dropped on a recliner in the living room.
- The Fort Wayne Fire Department says careless smoking was the likely cause of a house fire that killed a mother and her two young daughters.
Twenty-4-year-old Debra Sallis, 4-year-old Johniya Bennett and 5-year-old Johnae Bennett were killed in the fire Sunday morning. A 25-year-old woman who was staying at with the family overnight remains in critical condition.
The fire, at 4747 Bowser Ave., killed 23-year-old Debra Sallis and her daughters, Johnae Bennett, 5, and Johniya Bennett, 4. Twenty-five-year-old Chaketa McClendon, who the Sallis family said was staying overnight, remained in critical condition at St. Joseph Hospital on Tuesday night. Her condition wasn't available this morning, but she remained in the burn unit.
The fire's point of origin was a recliner just inside the front door, according to the fire department's final report. The fire's cause has been ruled accidental, and the "most probable" ignition source is improperly handled smoking materials, according to the report.
As the academic year nears its end, ISU's smoking policy review committee is preparing to submit a report to the Board of Trustees. This report will contain statistics derived from campus polls regarding the current smoking policy but not a specific recommendation of reform.
The future of the smoking policy is now in the hands of the smoking policy review committee, the Board of Trustees and most importantly, the president of the university.
Information regarding the results of the campus polls is not to be disclosed until next semester, but the project is making headway.
But this is a legal issue, not a moral one: Who should decide whether smoking should be allowed in adults-only businesses where no one is ever victimized by being subjected to secondhand smoke involuntarily?
The Shafers, on the other hand, are victims - even if they are able to sell off some Tailgators' equipment and decorations at a fraction of their original cost.
So is Brenden Newland, a single mother who worked at Tailgators from its first day to the last but is now worried about the future because "I just lost my job." . . .
In other words, the smoking ban is increasing the distance bar customers must drive to get home. Good plan.
The Shafers don't want sympathy, nor do they expect the kind of massive government help big businesses locating downtown are getting. All they wanted was a chance - a chance they say died when the smoking ban was born.
So Wednesday night the Shafers and their regulars said goodbye, doing their best to use up the inventory. Many were smoking, but there's nobody left for the smoking police to punish.
The fact that some people will find smug satisfaction in that says far more about their morality than it does about the Shafers'.
From the perspective of City Hall, the first year of the city's smoking ban went relatively smoothly.
Violations are few, eateries have mostly embraced the change and just eight eateries have decided they are foremost bars and won't serve food to anyone under 18.
Dave Hollenbeck, city attorney, said most restaurants caused no enforcement problems since the no-smoking ordinance went into effect.
"The vast majority of establishments almost immediately came into full compliance," he said. "We had very, very few exceptions." . . .
Several businesses opted to stop serving people under 18 and pay a $50 fee to continue to allow smoking. That's where the problems have occurred, Hollenbeck said.
He said a few restaurants decided to take on the status of the bar so their patrons could continue to smoke. However, they continued to seat patrons under age 18.
They have since stopped serving people under 18.
Hagerstown Town Council will conduct a public hearing at 5:55 p.m. today on its intention to appropriate money from the Cumulative Capital Improvement Fund, or cigarette tax fund, for demolition work on town property across the street.
A Whirlpool Corp. factory in Evansville, Ind., has suspended 39 workers who signed insurance paperwork claiming they don't use tobacco and then were seen smoking or chewing tobacco on company property. Now, some could be fired for lying, company spokeswoman Debby Castrale said.
As annual health care premiums rise more than 10 percent a year, many companies are trying to rein in costs by encouraging healthy living. ,, ,'' Management suspended the 39 employees Friday after they were spotted using either chewing tobacco on company property or taking a drag in one of the factory's dozen shelters for outdoor smoking, Castrale said.
"It's definitely not something we wanted to do," she said. "It's unpleasant."
"I can't think of a client of ours who has not shifted their focus to controlling the cost of their health care plan," said Indianapolis benefits lawyer Mike Paton.
Thirty-nine production workers at Evansville's Whirlpool Corp. have been suspended for possibly continuing to smoke after they declared they were nonsmokers on health insurance forms in order to get a lower premium.
Smokers at Whirlpool pay an extra $500 in insurance premiums.
Company spokeswoman Debby Castrale confirmed the suspensions Monday. She said final disciplinary action was pending fact-finding meetings with each worker over the next few days.
"Falsification of company documents is one of the most serious offenses our employees can commit," she said.
"We treat it very seriously."
The suspensions were based on eyewitness confirmations that the 39 workers had continued to smoke at designated stations outside the plant since signing insurance enrollment forms in October.