Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
A measure to ban outdoor smoking at bars and restaurants until 10 p.m. will be in front of the Portland City Council Wednesday night.
Across the state, people are not allowed to smoke inside bars or restaurants.
Currently, smoking is allowed on outdoor decks and patios.
Jump to full article »
The issue of second hand smoke brought a big crowd to the Portland City Council meeting wednesday night.
The council is considering a banning smoking on outside patios and decks at bars and restaurants.
If the council passes a new proposal, smokers in Portland will have to go somewhere else or wait until 10-pm to light up. . . .
The council decided to postpone the vote until November.
City councilors decided on Wednesday to further limit smoking at Portland's restaurants and bars, voting to ban smoking in outdoor dining areas before 10 p.m.
The change came despite protests from some bar owners, who argued that the restrictions would be ineffective and leave streets and sidewalks littered with cigarette butts.
The new rule is the latest of several restrictions of its type and will be the biggest change for smokers at Portland's bars since a state law against smoking inside pubs and lounges took effect in 2004.
Troy lawyer Gerard V. Mantese is taking on the tobacco industry. . . .
Now, with a lawsuit against Philip Morris pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, Mantese has his chance to do just that.
"In 2004, I put together a consortium of law firms in several states ... with the goal of representing consumers who were defrauded by Philip Morris [when it] falsely represented that its Marlboro Lights had 'lowered tar and nicotine,'" he explained.
Since then, Mantese has filed lawsuits in Maine, Arkansas and New Mexico accusing Phillip Morris of violating each state's prohibition against deceptive advertising.
"All of the cases are based on the same theory: Philip Morris misrepresented the true nature of its so-called 'light' cigarettes [because] it represented that they contained lower [amounts of] tar and nicotine ... when a multitude of data, internal documents and evidences proves otherwise," he said.
One case, Altria Group, et al., v. Good, et al., has landed Mantese before the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Monday, Maine joins other U.S. states and Canadian provinces that have made it illegal to smoke in a car while children are present.
But for the first year the law's in effect, violators will only get warnings.
A law passed by the state legislature earlier this year outlaws smoking in cars while youths under 16 are present.
Now, drivers and passengers statewide will be prohibited from smoking in vehicles when children younger than 16 are present, even if the windows are open. This law builds on other great successes the state has experienced in fighting for healthy air for its citizens; Maine is one of 23 states where smoking in workplaces and indoor public places is banned.
Why the legislative effort to control secondhand smoke?
The smoke from a lit cigarette can go anywhere and affects everyone in its path -- not just smokers, who comprise only 25 percent of the population statewide. No air filter or ventilation system can totally remove it. . . .
You can make a change in the health of Maine citizens. Wherever you live and breathe, go smoke-free.
Starting Monday, it'll be illegal in Maine to smoke in a car while children are present.
A law passed by the Legislature earlier this year is modeled after a Bangor ordinance. It's effective date is Monday.
Maine's statewide law outlaws smoking in cars while youths under 16 are present. The law authorizes $50 fines for violations -- but for the first year police may issue only warnings.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, chairman of a national study commission on substance abuse, met with Gov. John Baldacci on Tuesday and praised Maine’s prevention efforts. . . .
Maine has used tobacco settlement funds for a variety of health-related programs, with more than $17 million allocated this year for smoking cessation and prevention efforts. About $6.7 million is allocated to substance abuse programs. The total expected in the Fund for a Healthy Maine this budget year is nearly $64 million.
“We have had a 50 percent reduction in smoking because of the programs we have funded,” Baldacci said. “We know prevention efforts work.”
He said there has to be a “sharing” of the resources in the fund for broader substance abuse efforts. He said the infrastructure the state has developed to address tobacco addiction can be used to address alcohol and other drug abuse.
“We have community-based programs throughout the state already,” Baldacci noted. “We need to take advantage of that.”
Jul 8 2008 Letter from the Acting Solicitor General received and distributed.
Aug 11 2008 Reply of petitioners Altria Group, Inc., et al. filed. (Distributed)
Aug 18 2008 Motion of the Acting Solicitor General for leave to participate in oral argument as amicus curiae and for divided argument GRANTED.
It will be illegal as of Sept. 1 to smoke in a car if a child under 16 is riding along, under a law passed earlier this year by the Legislature.
The law was crafted to protect kids from the effects of second-hand smoke.
Violators will receive a written warning for the first year the law is in effect. After that, it will be a $50 fine.
The law was crafted to protect kids from the effects of second-hand smoke. Violators will receive a written warning for the first year the law is in effect. After that, it will be a $50 fine.
Dr. Dora Ann Mills, head of the Maine Center for Disease Control, said research shows that second-hand smoke is most harmful to children.
The cost of noncompliance with the town of Cape Elizabeth’s miscellaneous offenses ordinance – which includes restrictions on nude and topless bathing, penalties for defacing public property, animal control stipulations and Fort Williams Park regulations – could more than double should the town council accept a set of proposed amendments to the ordinance. “It hasn’t been changed in 30 years,” Town Manager Michael McGovern said. On Monday, the town council voted to send the proposed changes to the ordinance committee for review.
In the pending Altria Group appeal in the Supreme Court, the “Cambridge Filter Method” — or “FTC Test” — is directly at issue. The company argues that FTC policy actually requires tobacco companies to disclose tar and nicotine yields based on the test, and that the FTC has authorized the companies to advertise cigarettes by using words such as “light” as short-hand ways of referring to the test results.
Because of these FTC “mandates,” as the company calls them, federal policy on cigarette marketing of “light” cigarettes bars states from allowing lawsuits in their courts challenging the use of such words or phrases, the appeal contends. . . .
In the federal brief filed last month, the U.S. Solicitor General’s office in the Justice Department, joined by the FTC, directly disputed the tobacco company’s claim that its ads on “light” cigarettes were the result of FTC “mandates.”
The Commission’s policy, in 1966 and since, has never required the companies to use ads that refer to the yields from the FTC Test, and has not authorized them to use “light” or other descriptive phrases as short-hand indications of the Test’s results.
The company’s claim that state court lawsuits are preempted by FTC policy, the brief said, “should be rejected because it is based on a mischaracterization of the scope and effect of FTC’s actions concerning cigarette advertising.” . . .
The FTC, the brief added, does not view state court lawsits like the one in Maine “as undermining the FTC’s policies in any way. . . .
The Solicitor General’s office on Tuesday notified the Court, by letter, of the FTC’s new proposal to drop its 1966 policy. Attached to the letter was the Commission’s Federal Register notice of its plan.
The tobacco company has gained added time, until Aug. 11, to file its reply brief; that will provide a chance to challenge not only the government brief, but also the impact, if any, of the FTC’s new approach.
There is a reason John Fischer bikes. Tobacco killed both his parents and his two half sisters. His son has developed asthma after smoking for years but won't quit. His brother smokes.
"I have been angry with tobacco for many years," he said.
Thirteen years ago, Fischer decided to bike the Trek Across Maine, a 200-mile ride, as a fundraiser for the American Lung Association. That year, he raised $1,100. Almost every year since, that number has increased. He returned June 16 from his most recent ride, a 1,710-mile loop through northern New England, which raised more than $26,000. All told, Fischer has garnered over $190,000 in donations for the American Lung Assocation.
Court convenes at 10 a.m.; . . .
Monday, October 6
(1)
07-562 ALTRIA GROUP, INC. V. GOOD