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Starting Thursday, Kentucky’s two largest universities are declaring themselves smoke-free, drastically restricting cigarette smoking to create healthier campuses.
The University of Kentucky is banning all tobacco products anywhere on campus, while the University of Louisville is restricting smoking to designated outside areas, with plans for a complete campus ban by next November.
To kick off the ban, information and support booths will be set up in front of the Student Activity Center on the Belknap Campus and the Kornhauser Library on the Health Science Campus from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. And U of L is providing free nicotine patches or gum to students and employees who take part in smoking cessation classes.
Even so, some U of L students are complaining that those preparations have been too hurried, especially when compared with the 11 months of groundwork at UK.
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This Thursday night, in a very close vote, one Northern Kentucky city council says it supports an indoor smoking ban inside public buildings.
If this ban passes at the county level, many restaurants in the Crestview Hills Town Center will be affected.
The vote was close. Tied at 3 to 3 actually, with the tie breaking “yes” coming from the mayor of Crestview Hills.
Crestview Hills City Council decided to support an ordinance, urging Kenton, Boone and Campbell counties to prohibit smoking inside public buildings.
Today Dr. Lawrence Deyton, who at 57 still goes by his childhood nickname of "Bopper," is the nation's first anti-smoking czar. He directs a new agency in the federal Food and Drug Administration -- the Center for Tobacco Products -- that is writing rules to govern the previously unregulated tobacco industry.
In last week's interview, Deyton twice stressed that he is not an anti-tobacco zealot.
"I am not an expert in tobacco," he said. "But I am an expert in public health, and I am an expert in government health programs."
And what Deyton promises is "methodical, science-based tobacco regulation."
But Deyton already has been greeted with worry from growers in tobacco-producing states like Kentucky, and three lawsuits from the industry challenging the agency's authority to restrict advertising and marketing.
The center was created under a sweeping anti-smoking law passed by Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on June 22.
Its three key goals are to reduce youth smoking rates, which in recent years have leveled off at about 20 percent; to reduce the overall toll of tobacco-related disease, which annually kills more than 400,000 Americans; and to provide the public with information about the ingredients of tobacco products and their health effects.
Smoking by women is one of the gravest preventive health concerns in Kentucky. While numerous smoking cessation and public health programs have been initiated to address the problem, Kentucky women continue to smoke in numbers that lead the nation and they are not quitting or even trying to quit, according to health experts at the University of Kentucky.
The median state prevalence of current smoking was 22.4 percent, but Kentucky prevalence is 34.7 percent (the next highest was West Virginia at 34 percent), while the median percent of daily smokers who quit is 39.8 percent - in Kentucky, it's only 28.9 percent, according to data from the Center for the Advancement of Women's Health at the University of Kentucky in Lexington.
Further, the median percent of daily smokers who made a quit attempt was 58 percent, but in Kentucky it was only 43.4 percent.
"So we are not quitting in Kentucky," said Dr. Leslie Crofford, the center's director. "We're not even trying to quit."
In less than a month, though, one college campus will no longer allow any tobacco on its grounds-the University of Kentucky.
On Nov. 19, UK will join the American Cancer Society's Great American Smoke-Out initiative and will enact a completely tobacco-free policy. The policy will apply to all UK property within Fayette County, and to everyone on campus: students, faculty, visitors, etc.
The policy will eliminate all tobacco-related practices from the campus. People will not even be able to smoke a cigarette in their own cars.
"The goal is to promote a healthy environment so people can live, work and learn," said Ellen Hahn, the director of the Kentucky Center for Smoke-Free Policy.
Hahn said the Board of Trustees at UK has been discussing the move for several years. Currently, smoking is prohibited in or within 20 feet of all buildings. Last year, the UK Medical Center became completely tobacco-free.
"There has been very little push-back," Hahn said. "There has been a lot of positive support."
Canada has given final approval to an anti-smoking law that Kentucky burley growers and lawmakers worry may spell an end to the market for the tobacco leaf north of the border.
The Canadian Senate passed the legislation Tuesday, and it received “royal assent” — final approval — on Thursday.
“This bill is a very important advance for public health in Canada,” said Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society.
The bill, known as “The Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act,” bans flavored tobacco products in Canada.
Burley is one of three kinds of tobacco mixed together with additives for blended tobacco. Some Kentucky lawmakers, led by Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-1st District, have written to American and Canadian officials that the bill’s ban on many of the additives used in blended tobacco effectively outlaws burley.
With 85 percent of U.S. burley exported, the implications of the Canadian action and possible similar actions by other nations are enormous, the Kentuckians warned.
An hour and a half after hearing testimony, a Canadian Senate panel in Ottawa last week approved an anti-smoking bill that Kentucky burley tobacco growers fear may be bad for their business.
The bill, known as "The Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act," passed the Senate Social Affairs, Science and Technology Committee on a voice vote and without amendments. It now awaits final action in the Canadian Senate.
The measure is intended to ban flavored tobacco products in Canada, but burley growers are worried that the bill will end the export of American burley to Canada.
Burley is one of three kinds of tobacco mixed together with additives for blended tobacco. Some Kentucky lawmakers, led by Rep. Ed Whitfield, R-1st District, have written to American and Canadian officials that because the pending bill in the Canadian Parliament prohibits many of the additives used in blended tobacco, the measure effectively bans burley.
About 360,000 Kentucky children are exposed to secondhand smoke every day in their homes, putting them at risk for everything from asthma to ear infections to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
That's the word from researchers at the University of Kentucky, who found that many parents are unaware of such dangers when they light up.
A UK HealthCare survey highlighted Thursday found that nearly 1.6 million Kentuckians underestimate the dangers of secondhand smoke, and 45 percent of homes with children had at least one adult who didn't believe it was a serious health hazard. To change such perceptions, UK HealthCare helped launch a state-wide, five-year campaign Thursday featuring educational materials, a school-based program, an interactive Web site, and radio and television public service announcements with John Calipari, UK's head basketball coach.
"We know secondhand smoke is a silent killer, and a lot of people, based on our data, still don't believe it," said Ellen Hahn, director of UK's Tobacco Policy Research Program and Kentucky Center for Smoke-free Policy. "The whole purpose of this campaign is to ratchet up awareness."
When April 1 hit this year, smokers probably wished what they were seeing in stores was just an April Fools Day prank. But the higher prices for cigarettes were no joke.
April 1 was the day when the state sales tax increased to 30 cents on a pack and to $3 on a carton. On that same day, the federal sales tax went up to 62 cents on a pack and $6.20 on a carton. Combined, the taxes increased to 92 cents per pack and $9.20 per carton.
Managers and owners of local convenience stores and groceries say the response of smokers was predictable -- both before and after April 1. . . .
"Sales have returned to the levels we had before the sales tax increases went into effect, at least in terms of volume, or the numbers of packs and cartons we have been selling."
While she wouldn't compare the actual monetary figures for before and after the tax increases, Baker indicated that those figures might be a little lower now because a lot of customers at the shed are buying cheaper brands.
The city council approved a relatively strong ban on smoking in public places Monday night.
After rejecting an exemption for businesses with patrons 18 and older, such as bars, council members voted 5-2 in favor of the ordinance, which will allow smoking in outdoor areas of restaurants and in private clubs.
Recipients of charitable gambling revenues at the local bingo hall weren't pleased. Mary Stephens, on the board of the Jenny Wiley Summer Theatre, said her organization and others will look for a hall outside the city limits when the smoking ban takes effect Nov. 1.
MURRAY, Ky. -- The Housing Authority of Murray is having its own version of a smoke-out.
The agency has instituted a new smoke-free policy at all of its housing units, starting Sept. 1. The policy means residents will not be allowed to smoke inside their homes. Instead, they'll have to light up in the yard.
WPSD-TV in Paducah reported that Housing Authority Executive Director Faye Dodd said the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has pushed smoke-free public housing across the country.
Walter Wyatt, a smoker for 62 years, said the government agency shouldn't tell him where he can smoke, particularly not in his own home.
The Housing Authority of Murray recently adopted a policy that will ban residents from smoking inside their apartments.
Faye Dodd, the agency's executive director, said they had considered making the units non-smoking for a few months partly because the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development has been encouraging housing authorities to adopt non-smoking policies. She said 112 housing authorities across the country are currently smoke-free.
However, she said the issue became more urgent in May after a resident fell asleep while smoking and the apartment burned down. Dodd said the Housing Authority is still working out the details with its insurance company, but that the building will most likely have to be torn down and rebuilt.
Advocates of indoor-smoking bans are beginning to make inroads in south-central Kentucky, where efforts to pass such ordinances had gone begging until this year.
The city council in London voted 4-2 Monday night for a comprehensive rule barring smoking in all workplaces, including restaurants.
The vote makes London the second city in the region to adopt an indoor smoking ordinance.
Campbellsville approved an indoor smoking ban in June that will take effect in September, Mayor Brenda Allen said.
Since Lexington approved the first indoor smoking ban in Kentucky in 2003, 20 more cities, counties and health departments have passed rules to limit indoor smoking in public places, but that didn't include any in the southern part of the state until the votes in Campbellsville and London.
A move by the Canadian parliament to keep flavored cigarettes away from children is coming under fire from members of the U.S. Congress amid charges it essentially bans certain tobacco exports to Canada and violates trade laws.
A bill pending in Canada's House of Commons seeks to ban companies from selling tobacco products with cherry, milk and chocolate flavorings amid concerns the ingredients are added to lure children and teens to smoke.
U.S. Senators and Representatives as well as business lobbies say the bill would essentially ban the export of burley tobacco, grown in states such as Kentucky and Tennessee. Burley tobacco contains flavoring ingredients that mask tobacco's harsh taste. The tobacco industry says the flavoring in burley tobacco isn't detectable by smokers and is different from the candy-flavored cigarettes that carry names such as "Twista Lime" and "Chocolate Mocha."
A delegation of Senators and Representatives from Kentucky wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to help stop the bill, which they see as an "unfair assault" on U.S. tobacco growers, according to a letter the group sent Monday to Clinton.
"This is a delicate situation that merits your attention," the letter says. "The stakes involved for American tobacco growers could not be higher." . . .
Melisa Leclerc, a spokeswoman for Stockwell Day, Canada's Minister of International Trade, said Day is aware of the concerns expressed by U.S. congress members. She said the bill responds to an "important public health objective" of the Canadian government over concerns with tobacco products.
Four cigarette distribution and manufacturing companies have been raided, including one in north Mississippi, in the last two months as authorities continue a two-year investigation into an alleged tobacco black market.
Besides the Magnolia State, the black market network is believed to have ties to South Carolina and Kentucky, according to an FBI statement released Friday.
On May 26, a task force of federal, state and local law enforcement agents searched Global Distributing in Tupelo. The most recent raid was conducted Thursday at Holley Sales Group, a distribution company in Anderson, S.C. The FBI did not disclose what, if anything, was seized in those searches.
While the investigation has not yielded any arrests, "a number of subjects have been interviewed," the FBI statement said.