Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
Michigan smokers may feel themselves working at it a little harder next year when only "slow burn" cigarettes can be sold in the state. But the bill signed into law last week by Gov. Jennifer Granholm should cut down on fires due to smokers falling asleep, which is the cause of up to 800 deaths in the United States each year. Slow-burn cigarettes are designed to go out if no one is puffing on them.
The states have taken the lead on requiring them since federal legislation bogged down again in 2000. A national requirement for safer cigarettes has actually been kicking around in Congress since the 1930s; the late U.S. Sen. Phil Hart of Michigan almost got it enacted in 1974 before the tobacco lobby beat it back again. The major cigarette makers have had slow-burn products widely available for a few years, ever since New York in 2004 became the first state to require them.
Michigan is actually one of the last states to move on this. ...
Jump to full article »
In an effort to clear the air, "no smoking" signs might be going up in Deluca Field.
Councilwoman Stacey Striz suggested the signage earlier this month in response to people smoking during games at Deluca.
State and county law says that smoking isn't allowed on school property or in public buildings. Deluca is a public park.
Striz said she believes that because children play there, it should also be non-smoking.
"There's always that one person when you say, 'Hey, this is a no-smoking area,' they want to challenge you to the moon," she said.
Fitch Ratings affirms two and downgrades one class from Michigan Tobacco Settlement Financing Authority, tobacco settlement asset-backed bonds, series 2008, as follows:
--$114,860,000 series 2008A turbo current interest bonds due June 1, 2042 affirmed at 'BBB+'; Outlook Stable;
--$29,874,650 series 2008B taxable capital appreciation turbo term bonds due June 1, 2046 affirmed at 'BBB'; Outlook Negative;
--$57,673,814 series 2008C capital appreciation turbo term bonds due June 1, 2058 downgraded to 'BB' from 'BBB-'; Outlook Negative.
Not everyone agrees with more and more federal regulation, however.
One of our staff writers, Rene Cizio, ran an Internet blog Saturday about the impending legislation and the response was mixed.
Some people, while recognizing the harm of tobacco use, consider legislation against it infringing on their rights. One responder asked openly what the government was going to attack next: alcohol, sugar, etc.? He also noted the hypocrisy of banning smoking in some public places (restaurants, for instance) while letting it remain in others (casinos, for example), all because money does a lot of talking. Actions like these give the critics more and more ammunition against the "big government" policies of Obama's new administration.
But is it really government intrusion? Or is it just righting a longtime wrong? Is it right to let hundreds of thousands of people die each year because they have been lured into a horrible habit by a woefully under-regulated industry?
I guess Tobacco Road is going to know what Motown feels like when the government gets involved.
Last week the state House passed House Bill 4377 to create smokefree workplaces, with exemptions for casinos and existing cigar bars. The bill is now before the Senate. But smokefree advocates are less than pleased.
Past efforts to move forward to make Michigan workplaces smokefree had stalled over this particular sticking point, leaving Michigan one of only 13 states without a smoking ban in bars and restaurants. The new version sponsored by Rep. Lee Gonzales (D-Flint Township) allowing the exemptions passed through the House despite efforts to amend it to remove the exemptions.
The Campaign for Smokefree Air says it's "encouraged" by the movement on the issue, but is still disappointed the bill doesn't protect all workers from secondhand smoke exposure. The CSA is hopeful the Senate will pass a more comprehensive version of the bill.
The question is: Should Michigan stand firm on pushing for a no-exceptions smokefree bill-- risking a continuing impasse? Or is Gonzales' compromise the best way to move forward?
The School Committee met on the 27th of May at the Wynn School to discuss a variety of issues, with one of those being violations of the smoking ban in the bathrooms at Tewksbury Memorial High School.
According to the Massachusetts Educational Reform Act of 1993, tobacco products in school, on school grounds, on school buses and school facilities is prohibited.
The TMHS current handbook says, "Suspected or actual use of any tobacco product, INCLUDING SMOKELESS TOBACCO, on school property or at school sponsored activities, as determined by the principal or designee will result in: First offense: a two-day suspension plus a meeting with parent and student and Second offense and subsequent offenses: a four-day suspension plus a meeting with parent and student."
The proposed plan, outlined by TMHS Principal Dr. Patricia Lally and Tewksbury Director of Public Health, Lou-Ann Clement, would impose a $50 fine for violators as well as introduce a smoking cessation program.
Michigan's House of Representatives took another step toward making the state smoke-free by approving legislation to ban smoking in most public spaces.
Rep. Paul Scott, a leading proponent to make Michigan smoke-free, voted in favor of House Bill 4377. The measure bans smoking in public places, but exempts casino gaming floors, cigar bars and specialty tobacco stores.
Thirty-seven states currently have some form of smoking ban. "Although a smoking ban without exemptions is ideal, this measure is a vast improvement on current law and will make great strides to keep Michigan residents healthy," said Scott, a Republican from Grand Blanc.
"I believe the idea of smoking in restaurants and workplaces will be seen as archaic in the future, much in the same way that using mercury thermometers or lead paint are seen now."
Scott said the casino exemption includes the three casinos in Wayne County.
Sitting on opposite ends of the bar Thursday evening inside Canton's Rusty Nail Lounge on Ford Road, patrons Ryan Roberts and Randi Tinglan couldn't be further divided over a workplace smoking ban that could include bars and restaurants.
The state House has approved a ban that still faces a decision by Michigan senators.
"I'm against it. I don't feel they should take that liberty away from us," Roberts, a 22-year-old Ypsilanti resident and smoker, said just a few hours before Thursday's Red Wings hockey game.
"A bar has always been a place to smoke," he said. "If people want to smoke a cigarette while watching a game, they should be allowed to do it. If they don't, let them go to Meijer or some other store and watch it."
Tinglan, a 43-year-old Canton resident who quit smoking in 1992, said she still enjoys stopping by the Rusty Nail even though she hates being around cigarettes. She supports a ban.
The smoke-filled barroom could soon be a thing of the past in Michigan.
The state House of Representatives, with a 73-31 vote late last month, approved a ban on smoking indoors in most public places, including bars and restaurants, and the legislation has moved on for a vote in the state Senate.
The bill would only allow smoking in public in smoke shops, cigar bars and in Detroit's casinos. The move comes amid concerns about the health risks workers and the public at large are exposed to by inhaling secondhand smoke.
"We must act now to put the health of our workers and our families first," Rep. Marc Corriveau, D-Northville, said in a press release after the House vote. Corriveau represents the Plymouth area and voted for the ban.
"Residents, and parents with children, especially, should be able to visit a restaurant without worrying about the deadly dangers of secondhand smoke," he said.
Some in Plymouth who would be affected by a ban aren't exactly rising up to oppose it.
Traverse City leaders hope a new push will help them extinguish smoking in bars and restaurants.
State Rep. Gary McDowell, D-Rudyard, agreed to sponsor a bill in the Michigan Legislature to allow local control of smoking in bars and restaurants. It would give local officials the authority to ban smoking in such places and could spur legislators in Lansing to enact a statewide ban, McDowell said.
"This would allow local units of government to go ahead and make this decision themselves, rather than waiting on Lansing. It's a long process and I'm not sure we can get it done on a state level," he said.
The effort to create a law banning smoking in workplaces in Michigan is continuing in Lansing, but differences of opinion over how restrictive such a law should be are keeping it from happening.
On Tuesday, the House by a vote of 73 to 31 approved legislation that bans smoking in most workplaces with the exception of the three Detroit casinos and some specialty tobacco shops. Tribal casinos in the state would be exempt from any smoking ban legislation finally enacted because they are federally regulated.
Guy St. Germain, Western Upper Peninsula District Health Department health officer and administrator in Hancock, said the fact the House approved the legislation is good news.
Michigan lawmakers again are searching for the elusive common ground that could lead to some sort of workplace smoking ban in the state.
The Democrat-led Michigan House approved a bill by a 73-31 vote Tuesday that would ban smoking at most workplaces including restaurants and bars. Detroit's three casinos and some smoke shops or tobacco specialty shops would be exempt from the ban.
But it does not appear a compromise has been reached with the Republican-led Senate on a final version of a smoking ban that might become law. The Senate hasn't taken up a smoking ban bill this year. But last year, the chamber backed a ban that did not include any exemptions.
A proposal to ban smoking in public workplaces was unanimously supported last week by the Benzie-Leelanau Board of Health.
The board voted 6-0 to recommend approval of the proposed ordinance, which was the subject of a public hearing May 14. Six people attended the public hearing at the Binsfeld Center in Lake Leelanau and expressed support for the measure, department director Bill Crawford said.
Based on similar legislation in place in Marquette County and the City of Traverse City, the proposed ordinance prohibits smoking in all enclosed private and public worksties and public places. It would also include restrooms, lobbies, reception areas, hallways and any other common use area.
A House-authored indoor smoking ban like the one approved last year now heads to the Senate, still absent an agreement between the two chambers that doomed the effort in 2008.
The proposed ban that would apply to nearly all indoor workplaces in Michigan, including bars and restaurants, easily passed Tuesday, 73-31, after attempts to weaken or strengthen it were defeated.
Cigar bars, tobacco specialty shops and the gaming floors of Detroit's three commercial casinos would be the lone exceptions in a bill that would make Michigan the 37th state to enact broad prohibitions on workplace smoking.
"It was the best we could get, which is a lot better than what we have now," said Rep. Richard Ball, R-Laingsburg.
Last year, however, the Senate stripped out those exemptions. The bill died months later when House Speaker Andy Dillon, D-Redford, declined to schedule a post-election vote that smoking opponents were confident they would have won.
The Michigan House voted today to ban smoking in workplaces including bars and restaurants, but allow it on gambling floors at Detroit's three casinos, cigar bars and specialty smoke shops.
The 73-31 vote set up another faceoff with the Senate, which last year voted for a total smoking ban, no exceptions.
The smoking ban remains a hot issue, led by anti-smoking advocates encouraged by smoking bans approved in recent weeks in Wisconsin and North Carolina, a tobacco industry state where a smoking ban was once unimaginable.
But like last year, a stalemate looms again between Michigan's House and Senate over whether to allow smoking in Detroit's casinos. A state imposed smoking ban would not affect Indian-run casinos.