Tobacco.org

Jolly Good Smoke 

Stogies on Grand (961 Grand Ave., St. Paul) and Lewis Pipes and Tobacco (527 Marquette Ave., Minneapolis) evoke completely different feelings upon entrance.

Stogies’ quaint Grand Avenue storefront leads into a labyrinthine store filled with laughter and smoke, while Lewis’ massive skyscraper hat sits over a clean one-room shop. The men who own these stores, on the other hand, look quite similar — tall, broad and worried around the eyes.

The wrinkles that crease their faces are in no small part due to the stress of working in an industry constantly teetering on the brink — “… really the only industry that could vanish, poof, at the whim of a Congress session,” as Lewis Tobaco owner Rich Lewis puts it. . . .

Many tobacco enthusiasts also malign the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gives the president full regulatory power over the tobacco industry.

“Too many kids have been grabbing cheap cigars, Swishers and Dutch Masters, scraping out the middle and filling them with marijuana. You might have heard of it — it’s called ‘blunting,’” Wolk said.

In an effort to stop the illegal activity, the newer bill would also effectively put stores like Stogies out business.

This year will mark the 40th anniversary of Lewis’ tenure at his family’s tobacco shop, and he has seen business grind to a near halt as higher taxes are passed and stricter smoking restrictions are enacted. . . .

Make sure to keep tamping the ash down as you smoke, and the bowl should puff all the way down without a problem.

Remember to keep it an occasional celebration, and enjoy!

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LETTER: Bigger cigarette tax would benefit everyone  

I am writing in support of an increase in the Minnesota cigarette tax, a view supported in a Jan. 18 Post-Bulletin editorial.

Minnesota has fallen behind with a tobacco tax that is middle of the road -- only 22nd in the country. Research has proven that increasing the price of tobacco is one of the most effective ways to keep kids from starting to smoke, and to encourage current users to quit.

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Harder Than Ever For Teens To Illegally Buy Cigarettes  

Minnesota had it best year yet when it comes to stopping sales of cigarettes to underage smokers.

Each year the Minnesota Department of Human Services does random inspections of licensed tobacco retailers in the state as part of a national program to make sure they aren't selling to youth and are following tobacco age of sale laws.

According to the 2012 Synar annual report, state retailers had a 97.6 percent compliance rate -- Minnesota's highest on record.

Enforcement of the law is why the state was able to get such a high rate. Often, officers escort teens who volunteer to attempt to buy cigarettes from stores. If a store sells to the youth without a valid ID or no ID, they get a citation and fine.

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$5,000 QuitCash Challenge™ Prize Motivates Long-Time Smoker to Kick Butt 

A Fridley woman quit smoking after nearly 13 years to win the $5,000 grand prize in QUITPLAN Services' fourth annual QuitCash Challenge. Christine Albertson, 26, was one of more than 3,000 Minnesotans who entered The QuitCash Challenge, kicking their tobacco habit and remaining smoke-free for at least one month.

QUITPLAN Services will celebrate Christine's accomplishment and present her with a check for $5,000 on Friday, January 27, just one week before American Heart Month begins. American Heart Month draws attention to the leading cause of death in the United States, coronary heart disease, which, according to the Centers for Disease Control, can be caused by smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke.

Christine was able to overcome her addiction to tobacco by using nicotine patches, which she has now weaned off of completely.

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LETTER: Tax increase on cigarettes deserves applause  

Thanks to Rochester lawmakers for stepping up. This week, Sen. Carla Nelson and Rep. Mike Benson plan to introduce legislation to increase the tax on cigarettes and use it to replace the funds borrowed from schools last year.

This will benefit kids in two ways -- education and health. According to research, some done right here in Minnesota, increasing the price of tobacco products is an effective way to help smokers quit and keep kids from starting.

As a community dedicated to improving the health of all Minnesotans, we should applaud this effort.

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Mayo Clinic gets tobacco cessation grant  

ClearWay Minnesota has announced a $726,727, three-year grant to Mayo Clinic researchers to study whether "phone quit lines can be an effective tool for helping hospitalized cigarette smokers quit."

The principal investigator is Dr. David Warner.

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ClearWay Minnesota(SM) Board Approves $1.8 Million for Research Grants  

At its meeting on January 18, ClearWay Minnesota's Board of Directors approved three grants for new research. The organization will award more than $1.8 million to Minnesota researchers through these grants.

"Science is the backbone of our work at ClearWay Minnesota," said Chief Executive Officer David Willoughby. "The research funded by these grants has the potential to improve the efforts of our organization, and those of others, to reduce the devastating harm tobacco causes the people of Minnesota."

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Minnesota Must Work Harder to Prevent Tobacco-Caused Disease and Death 

- Minnesota is a leader in some areas, but falls short in others to protect children and curb tobacco-related disease in 2011 according to the American Lung Association's State of Tobacco Control 2012 report.

The Lung Association's annual report card on tobacco control monitors progress on key tobacco control policies at the federal and state levels and assigns grades to assess whether laws are protecting citizens from the terrible health burden caused by tobacco use. Now in its 10th year of publication, the Lung Association graded all 50 states and the District of Columbia on four proven policies to save lives and cut healthcare costs. These are tobacco prevention and control program funding; smoke-free air laws; cigarette tax rates; and coverage of cessation treatments and services, to help smokers quit.

Minnesota's grades were:

* Tobacco Prevention and Control Funding - F

* Smokefree Air - A

* Cigarette Tax Rate - C

* Coverage of Cessation Treatments and Services -- D

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• Secondhand smokers 

“I probably wouldn’t have moved here if smoking had been allowed then,” Gulbrandson said. “I used to be able to watch people go out back to smoke.”

That’s right. He and Anderson live in a building where smoking was not allowed, but now it is. Their cases illustrate the issues of smoking and multi-unit housing.

No smoking, then yes smoking

Fountain Lake Estates is a 63-apartment complex owned by St. Louis Park-based Minnesota Brokerage Group Property Management. Albert Lea resident Robert Hoffman has managed the property since July 2010, keeping the place up and making sure it is filled with tenants. He follows MBG’s rules, which don’t permit smoking in the common areas but allow it in apartments.

However, a former property manager deviated from those terms. Tenants say she told smokers in that building they had to go outside to smoke — even though some smokers in other Fountain Lake Estates buildings could smoke in their apartments. That is why when Anderson and Gulbrandson moved in, they thought they would be enjoying smoke-free living.

When Hoffman took over, there happened to be no smokers in that building.

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6 A.L. businesses go tobacco-free 

The list of tobacco-free worksites in Albert Lea has spiked this year.

On July 1, six places decided to officially kick the habit off their property. That brings the tally of tobacco-free worksites to nine.

And it means Freeborn County employees working in smoke-free environments is now 23 percent, according to Ellen Kehr, the Statewide Health Improvment Program coordinator in Freeborn County.

“Tobacco-free grounds make sure not smoking is an easier choice, and it protects the health of all employees,” said Kehr, a former smoker.

The story goes back to a meeting in July 2010 in Austin. The SHIP coordinator in Steele County had proposed trying to get the Riverland Community College campuses in Austin, Albert Lea and Owatonna to be tobacco-free, prompting the Austin meeting. Officials from Riverland Community College were there along with officials from the Minnesota Lung Association, Statewide Health Improvment Program, Freeborn County Partners in Prevention and other health agencies. They set a date of July 1, 2011, for Riverland to go tobacco-free.

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EDITORIAL: Our View: Tax cigarettes out of kids' budgets  

During a recent trip to New York City, a member of the Post-Bulletin's editorial board noticed that there were relatively few cigarette butts on the sidewalks and streets. The air in Manhattan was rich with the smell of roasting nuts and fresh-made gyros and bagels, but cigarette smoke seldom intruded into the mix.

There's a simple explanation for this phenomenon: Cost. If you try to buy a pack of cigarettes in New York City, a $10 bill won't do the job. State and local taxes of $5.85 per pack have pushed the price up to $14 in some areas -- the highest in the nation. A string of tax increases since 2002 has pushed 450,000 New York City smokers to kick the habit, and the smoking rate among high school students has plummeted to 7 percent.

In Minnesota, by comparison, The American Lung Association says the teen smoking rate is 19 percent.

That's reason enough for us to support Sen. Carla Nelson's proposal to add another dollar to Minnesota's state cigarette tax, which currently is $1.59 per pack. Multiple studies have found that young smokers are the most price-sensitive

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Nelson: Increase cigarette tax to repay schools 

A Rochester Republicans is backing a plan to boost taxes on cigarettes to pay back money borrowed from K-12 schools and cut taxes for businesses. Sen. Carla Nelson said she is planning to sponsor a bill that would raise taxes on a pack of cigarettes by roughly $1 so they are taxed at the same rate as in Wisconsin. Money generated from the tax would be used to repay $700 million in delayed payments to K-12 schools that was part of a deal last year to solve the state's $6 billion budget deficit.

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• New TV Program Spotlights Secondhand Smoke in Minnesota's Diverse Communities 

ClearWay Minnesota(SM), in partnership with ECHO Minnesota, has produced a unique television program warning that secondhand smoke should remain a public health priority for Minnesotans - particularly among Minnesota's ethnic communities.

Secondhand Smoke in Our Communities will air on public television stations across Minnesota, as well as online, beginning January 15, 2012. Each program will feature guests from Minnesota's ethnic communities with a goal of helping all Minnesotans understand the dangers of exposure to secondhand smoke. The program will be broadcast in eight languages, including English, Spanish, Hmong, Somali, Karen, Vietnamese, Lao and Khmer.

"Secondhand smoke is harmful to all Minnesotans' health, but diverse communities experience some of the greatest harm," said David Willoughby, Chief Executive Officer of ClearWay Minnesota. "Tobacco companies use clever marketing practices to make their dangerous products attractive to these communities. This program offers a distinct way to tell the story of tobacco's impact in all Minnesota and to educate the specific populations that are most at-risk."

Tobacco companies spent nearly $200 million in Minnesota in 2008, targeting people based on factors including income, education level, ethnic background or lifestyle. The report Unfiltered: A Revealing Look at Today's Tobacco Industry gave examples of minority-directed tobacco advertising, and showed that rates of tobacco use among some ethnic communities are greatly outpacing those of the general and Caucasian populations. Additionally, rates of quitting tobacco use can be substantially lower in these communities.

"The impact of tobacco is regressive," said Willoughby, "with our ethnic and low-income populations facing disproportionate risk."

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Editorial: Smoke-free apartments have more pros than cons 

We ask that landlords and property manager look at the idea of smoke-free apartments and weight the pros and cons. In the end, they might discover happier, healthier tenants.

Here are points to consider: . . .

Of all the reasons, probably the reduced risk of apartment fires is the major motivator to most landlords and property managers. And in apartments, sometimes the victims of fires are not the people whose cigarettes started the fires. It only takes one incident, such as the cigarette-caused fire in Bloomington in July 2006, to prompt many apartments in a city to go smoke-free.

If a landlord or property manager needs more information on smoke-free apartments, visit the website for Live Smoke Free at www.mnsmokefreehousing.org.

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UMD Medical School Launches Smoking Study 

But Liz took a different route. She turned to the researchers at UMD.

Dr. Mustafa al'Absi and his research team are studying how stress influences whether a person can quit. Their data is coming from 300 smokers here in the Twin Ports. "They fill out some forms and attend some sessions. We get to measure some vital signs, and some physiological and bodily symptoms."

As a part of the study, participants undergo counseling and their smoking habits are closely watched. "I'd come in and I'd give blood work and saliva samples," says Barra. "They would also my weight and my body fat." . . .

UMD is still looking for study participants. If you're interested, give them a call at 726-8896.

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