Tobacco.org

Musicians, tobacco-free advocates band together for Great American Smokeout 

Tobacco-Free Living of Louisiana is teaming up with local musicians and businesses in downtown Alexandria to throw a block party as part of the Great American Smoke Out 2009 to help clear the air about secondhand smoke.

Region VI Tobacco Prevention and Cancer Control Coalition, Rapides Parish Healthy Initiatives Coalition and Louisiana Youth Prevention Services will partner to host "Live on Air" 6-10 p.m. Thursday on Desoto Street between Third and Fourth streets in downtown Alexandria to raise awareness -- and to have some fun while they're at it.

Tipitina's Music Co-op has partnered with the event to provide music by local artists -- including DC Sills, Dick Larry & Mick, Bombs Away, Gutta Boy Muzik and Dynamic Jake -- that will cover a wide range of musical tastes.

Jump to full article »

Shop Rite-Tobacco Plus Stores Donate to Saint Jude  

Shop Rite-Tobacco Plus stores made a major donation Wednesday to the St. Jude's Research Hospital.

The group handed over proceeds from its fundraising efforts to support the work in pediatric care being done at St. Jude's Research Hospital in Memphis, TN.

John Dan Gielen and his company presented a check for a little more than $124,000.

Jump to full article »

Quitting smoking cuts health costs 

Offering resources to help employees quit smoking can improve wellness, increase corporate moral and reduce health-care costs to employers.

Employees who smoke will cost businesses in direct health-care costs including more visits to health-care facilities, more hospital admissions and higher average insurance premiums. The indirect health-care costs amount to a loss in productivity in increased absenteeism.

Some things to think about during Lung Cancer Awareness and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Awareness month.

Fact: Smoking is the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death.

Fact: Tobacco-related diseases kill 438,000 Americans annually. . . .

n Louisiana Tobacco Quitline at (800) QUIT NOW.

n Quit With Us, La at www.QuitWithUsLA.org.

The LSU Tobacco Control Initiative also offers programs at Leonard J. Chabert Medical Center in Houma, 873-2499; Assumption Community Hospital, 369-3600; and Terrebonne General Medical Center, 876-7577.

Jump to full article »

Insurance companies weighing discounts for those who quit smoking, lose weight  

Almost everyone agrees health care costs would plummet if Americans lost weight and stopped smoking. But like almost every other issue associated with health care reform, consensus hasn't been easy. . . .

The Senate Finance Committee, which is scheduled to vote on comprehensive health reform package on Tuesday, agreed earlier to allow insurance companies to provide greater savings for people who either are now healthy, or go through a stop smoking program or lose weight. It hasn't taken up proposals to tax soft drinks.

"I am a big proponent of building in healthly living incentives to health reform, " said Sen. David Vitter, R-La who has embraced a health insurance program adopted by Safeway, the supermarket chain, which the company says kept health insurance costs flat over the past five years. . . .

"I am a big proponent of building in healthly living incentives to health reform, " said Sen. David Vitter, R-La who has embraced a health insurance program adopted by Safeway, the supermarket chain, which the company says kept health insurance costs flat over the past five years.

But Vitter has some concerns.

"We don't want to penalize people for their genes, " Vitter said.

Jump to full article »

SICHEL: Hey administrators, leave us kids alone  

As noted in the Hullabaloo’s Sept. 4, “Smoking Policy Changed,” the University Senate strengthened Tulane’s anti-smoking policy by establishing 14 areas where Tulane will allow its students to smoke tobacco without receiving warnings and citations. . . .

The Environmental Protection Agency classified environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) as a cancerous toxin in 1993. Two years later, a North Carolina judge ruled that the EPA’s report was scientifically invalid and that the EPA cherry picked and even modified statistics.

ETS is still listed as a “Group A Carcinogen” even though there have been zero studies linking cancer with short-term exposure to second-hand smoke. I repeat: There is no consensus as to whether or not short-term exposure to second-hand smoke is harmful. . . .

Jump to full article »

Fire Safe Cigarettes: Are They Better?  

It has been nearly one year since 53-year old Patty Easom of Shreveport was killed in a ferocious fire, born from a cigarette she had left on her sofa. While the Easoms continue to mourn her loss, according to a new report, cigarette-ignited fires like the one that killed Patty are all too common.

The Coalition for Safe Cigarettes (CFS), recently characterized cigarette-ignited fires as a leading cause of home fire deaths in the United States and they conclude that between 700 to 900 people per year - smokers and non-smokers alike, are the victims of a preventable death.

Starting January 1st, 2010 all tobacco dealers will be required by law to sell a new fire-safe cigarette . . .

We investigated these new fire-safe cigarettes to see if they would perform as promised and help reduce the number of cigarette-ignited fires. Along with the help of the Shreveport Fire Department, we recreated a similar scenario to the tragic fire that claimed the life of Patty Easom. On the grounds of the Shreveport Fire Department, a sofa was placed inside a specially designed room called a "Burn Building." . . .

The results of the investigation revealed that the fire-safe cigarettes did not work every time. Shreveport's Assistant Chief of Fire Prevention, Randy Stephens, clarified the outcome of the test. "All cigarettes have the potential to start a fire but this is a fire (safer) cigarette."

Jump to full article »

Smoke-Filled Room  

THIS IS A SMOKE-FREE FACILITY" is emblazoned on every door leading into Hall A of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, but step inside and you're transported back to a world where no one blinked at ashtrays on every table and a corona of blue haze in the air. It's the annual convention of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR), and for five days in August the 5,000-strong group transformed the convention center and meeting rooms in the Hilton Riverside into the testosterone-filled world of Mad Men, where no smoking was replaced by no apologies.

  And it was all made possible — and legal — by the Louisiana Smoke-Free Air Act of 2007.

  The statewide legislation, which banned smoking in most public places except bars and casinos, contains a unique clause — specifically exempting "convention facilities during the time such facilities are being used for professional meetings and trade shows which are not open to the public that are produced or organized by tobacco businesses or convenience store associations." (The law also exempted Mardi Gras krewes.) Despite the convention center's own rules, which state, "Smoking is prohibited at all times in all areas of the MCC," the Smoke-Free Air Act held the loophole that allowed the conventioneers to puff away at will.

Jump to full article »

LETTER: Anti-smoking laws  

The New Orleans City Council recently passed an ordinance that will restrict new businesses from selling tobacco products if the business is located within 1,000 feet of a school, church, public park or recreation facility.

The Joseph Project, a faith-based organization, spearheaded the ordinance, which was originally designed to cover only one neighborhood in New Orleans (Central City). With the help of city Councilwoman Stacy Head, a champion for the cause, The Joseph Project leaders were able to expand the ordinance to all of Orleans Parish.

Congratulations to the Tangipahoa Parish Council for passing the Parish Clean Air Law, which prohibits smoking in parish buildings, parks and official vehicles. This marks an important step in the right direction for Tangipahoa and for all of Louisiana.

Jump to full article »

Tangipahoa OKs smoking ordinance  

AMITE -- The Tangipahoa Parish Council voted to approve ordinances regulating tobacco smoking at parish-owned facilities and establishing a deadline for cleaning up after yard sales.

The ordinances, passed Monday, go into effect next month.

The smoking ordinance approved on a 7-1 vote prohibits smoking within parish-owned vehicles, at parish parks and outside all parish-owned facilities, including grounds surrounding those properties.

Jump to full article »

• Cigar shops fret over higher taxes, smoking laws 

NEW ORLEANS -- With the world becoming ever less welcoming for tobacco smoke of all kinds, the owners of specialty shops that sell premium cigars have converged on New Orleans with the same concerns as mass-market cigarette manufacturers - higher taxes and anti-smoking laws.

The cigars at the annual trade show of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association are not the packaged stogies found in an isolated corner of a convenience store. These are hand-rolled smokes - sometimes with Cuban seed tobacco grown in a non-embargoed country - that can go from a couple of bucks to $30 each.

"It's tough," said Chris McCalla, legislative director for Columbus, Ga.-based IPCRA, which represents about 1,500 tobacco stores. "People view us in the same category of cigarettes. With a cigar, it's different. It's a pleasurable experience. It's socialization of sorts." . . .

As for the convention itself, which is hosting about 4,000 people through Wednesday, smoking will be allowed in the exhibit hall between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. But members of the public aren't invited to the meeting - and no one under 18 will be let in, McCalla said.

Jump to full article »

Correctional Facilities Ready For Full Ban On Indoor Smoking  

Voluntary smoking cessation programs at two state correctional facilities have proven successful in the first months of implementation as the Department readies for a full ban on indoor smoking by August 15, 2009.

State correctional facilities are on target to comply with the Louisiana Smokefree Air Act, passed by the Louisiana Legislature in 2006. However, a provision in the law gave state correctional facilities more time to implement the indoor smoking ban.

Department of Public Safety and Corrections Secretary James M. Le Blanc says the Department has revised its smoking policy for both offenders and staff and educational programs and training have been implemented department-wide. Smoking inside areas of public buildings and places of employment operated by the Department, including work release programs, is prohibited for all employees, visitors and offenders beginning August 15, 2009.

Jump to full article »

Prison inmates, visitors, staff banned from smoking in lockups starting Aug. 15  

BATON ROUGE -- State and local prison inmates, the staff who oversee them and visitors to the jails will be restricted in their smoking habits starting Aug. 15, the state Department of Public Safety and Corrections said today.

Department spokeswoman Pam Laborde said that the 2006 law that banned smoking in most public places took affect Jan. 1, 2007, but its implementation for prisons was delayed.

Two prisons --- Avoyelles Correctional Center in Cottonport and Dixon Correctional Institute in Jackson -- served as the pilot program for the system's smoking restrictions and put them in place May 15, Laborde said.

Dixon Warden Steve Rader said that there have been no incidents as a result of the smoking ban. He said that the the prison has designated areas where inmates, employees and visitors can smoke during the day.

Jump to full article »

Smoke-free bars can be found in New Orleans  

Bars that share air space with restaurants, such as the one in Felipe's on South Miro Street in New Orleans, are smoke-free.

Earlier this month, the legislature decided not to clear the haze from Louisiana's bars. By a vote of 29 to 71, the representatives defeated House Bill 844, which would have banned smoking in bars and casinos.

There are local bars that already banish butts. At spots ranging from Rock 'n' Bowl (3000 S. Carrollton Ave.) to the cocktail bar Cure (4905 Freret St.), smokers must step outside to light up.

Robert LeBlanc, the CEO of Lifestyle Revolution Group, doesn't allow smoking at any of the bars he runs. Loa (221 Camp St.) at the International House and Le Phare (523 Gravier St.) at Loft 523 are both located inside smoke-free hotels. At the Republic (828 S. Peters St.), a club and music venue, LeBlanc opted for a non-smoking policy because of health concerns.

"Some of the employees are asthmatics and they were having pretty severe reactions," he said. "The second consideration was for the bands. A lot of bands appreciate it."

Jump to full article »

Showdown on cigarette taxes, unemployment benefits today at Capitol  

By the time the House adjourns this evening, one of the following will almost certainly be true:

a) The (not so) great tax debate of 2009 will be pretty much done with after House Bill 889, which would raise cigarette taxes by 50 cents a pack, fails to get the 70 votes needed to send it to the Senate.

- Or -

b) The debate will be very much alive after the bill by Speaker Pro Tem Karen Carter Peterson, D-New Orleans, goes to the Senate with enough votes to override an expected veto from Gov. Bobby Jindal.

While most of the smart money is on option (a), the smart money hasn't always been right this session . . .

Public-health groups have been working the cigarette-tax issue hard for weeks, and took out a half-page ad in Sunday's Baton Rouge Advocate urging passage. But a series of test votes last week, when some legislators tried to shuttle the bill back to committee, fell short of the magic 70 votes, and House Speaker Jim Tucker, R-Algiers, has been unequivocal in his insistence that no revenue-raising measures will pass the House this year.

Jump to full article »

Smoking ban snuffed out in committee  

Efforts to further restrict smoking in public venues appear dead for the 2009 regular legislative session.

The death knell came as the Louisiana House Health and Welfare Committee voted overwhelmingly against state Senate-passed legislation even after being “watered-down.”

Senate Bill 186 would have banned smoking in all Louisiana bars, casinos and other gambling establishments. That was the version the Senate passed May 28 on a 22-10 vote.

During House committee testimony Tuesday, SB186 sponsor state Rep. Rob Marionneaux proposed a compromise that would have banned smoking only at bars that sell food.

Marionneaux said he had seen the handwriting on the wall as gambling interests helped shoot down a similar House bill when it came up on the floor last week.

Jump to full article »