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Hospital douses smoking privilege 

HAMILTON -- The smoking hut vanished this week from the back door of Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.

And as of today, so have the smokers.

The hospital chose July Fourth -- a day known for freedom -- as the day to extend its smoking ban to its entire 67-acre campus, including parking lots and the small plot out back where the hut used to be.

Employees enjoying some of their last on-campus drags there at lunchtime yesterday said they weren't perturbed by the decision, which was announced in January.

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EDITORIAL: Smokers lose a refuge in Pa. 

Sometimes, there's just no escape. Gamblers who have been puffing away in the entire floor space of Harrah's-Chester or Philadelphia Park casinos are in for a shock: Pennsylvania has just joined the club with a ban on public smoking.

The Neanderthals across the Delaware River are behind the curve on this one. It took 13 years for the Pennsylvania Legislature to enact the smoking ban that was signed Friday, and it's still weaker than New Jersey's two-year-old-plus law. . . .

If the industry thinks it must let gamblers smoke at machines and tables, then it must find a universal solution that won't risk others' health and stop pouting about how the state next door still allows uncontrolled smoking.

Pennsylvania no longer does, and it means cleaner lungs for its citizens. For many New Jersey entertainment businesses casinos, too, it means a clean shot at winning customers who can no longer smoke anywhere they want in Pennsylvania.

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AFL-CIO celebrates union victories in N.J. 

State and local unions celebrated two major victories this year: A full smoking ban on all casino gaming floors

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Bill banning underage smoking on hold 

Citing logistical and law enforcement concerns, the Senate health committee Thursday delayed action on a measure prohibiting teenagers under 19 from smoking in public, a bill that breezed through the Assembly earlier this year.

"There are a lot of unanswered questions," said committee vice chairwoman Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Bergen.

Specifically, lawmakers had concerns about how law enforcement would uphold the measure, how courts would process offenders and whether penalties concerning community service were too harsh for the noncriminal offense. After a brief committee recess, the bill was ultimately held.

The legal age to buy tobacco products in New Jersey is 19, but no such law exists outlawing smoking in public.

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EDITORIAL: Cigarettes problem indoors and out 

In Pennsylvania, the problem is still smoke.

In New Jersey, it's cigarette butts -- here, there, everywhere. On streets and sidewalks, in storm sewers and rivers, and -- according to those who monitor the health of oceans -- washing up on the state's beaches in record numbers. . . .

As studies are beginning to show, there's a correlation between indoor smoking bans and a rise in cigarette litter. Filters, which are not biodegradable, are getting into the aquatic food chain -- and showing up in the surf, where they raise the riddle of how you filter out the filters. It all starts at the point of consumption.

New Jersey is getting ahead of the curve with a proposed ban on flavored cigarettes -- the most objectionable marketing pitch to kids since Joe Camel. The state Senate has passed a bill which would outlaw the sale of cigarettes with a flavor of fruit, chocolate, vanilla, honey, booze, herbs or spices (but not menthol or cloves). Cigars, pipe tobacco and snuff would be exempt. The Assembly should add its blessing and send this bill to the governor.

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Editorial - Frank Lautenberg, Democrat  

Mr. Lautenberg will indeed be past his 90th birthday by the end of another six-year term, but there's little evidence that he has slowed down from the days when he was responsible for enacting a ban on smoking on domestic airline flights and raising the legal drinking age in all states to 21. . . .

what really matters is that he has not lost his enthusiasm for sensible, progressive causes

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• The cigarette cycle 

With the summer beach season about to begin, visitors to the Jersey Shore may be more likely than ever to find something other than sand between their toes.

Spent cigarette butts are washing ashore in sharply greater numbers than ever . . .

"I don't think people make the connection that what they're doing on the streets of Newark or New York City can wind up in the ocean or on the beaches next to them," said Anna Will, prevention coordinator with Clean Ocean Action, a Highlands environmental group. "People go outside and they don't think twice about tossing their cigarettes on the ground."

Already the most common form of litter on earth, cigarette butts have long been a part of the landscape on New Jersey's beaches.

"Anywhere you sit, you see them," Sam Wood, 65, a Budd Lake retiree, said while strolling along the beach at Sandy Hook this week. "Every time you put your foot in the sand, you might come up with a filter or a cigarette." . . .

statistics show that despite a dwindling population of smokers, the number of cigarette butts on the beaches is on the rise. Additionally, studies conducted in Australia and Virginia have shown a correlation between indoor smoking bans and a rise in cigarette litter. . . .

One study found chemicals leached by the remnant tobacco and ashes are toxic to tiny organisms, including the water flea, a tiny crustacean that serves as an important food source for small fish. . . .

Clean Ocean Action and other anti-litter organizations recommend businesses place sand urns or other receptacles outside building entrances where smokers congregate to prevent littering.

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Adjusting Vision of Waterfront Arts District to Include High Rises 

A 52-story tower will rise in place of this pile of bricks and rubble.

Across the street from the hulking remains of the Hudson & Manhattan Powerhouse, which once provided electricity for what is now the PATH rail system, is a mountain of bricks and rubble in the middle of a sprawling vacant lot.

Once it was the site of the Lorillard Tobacco and Snuff Manufactory, the largest tobacco factory in the country. Later it was a thoroughly magical warren for hundreds of artists, and the inspiration for an arts district envisioned as a way to revive a decrepit, forgotten warehouse district near the Jersey City waterfront. Current plans call for it to become a 52-story residential tower designed to look like a precarious stack of blocks.

Whether or not you care to see Jersey City as New York's sixth borough, you could write a pretty interesting urban history centered on the 12 or so blocks now designated as its Powerhouse Arts District. . . .

it was a bitterly contested decision by the City Council last month to approve a proposal by the giant home builder Toll Brothers to construct three residential towers of 30 stories or more. . . .

In retrospect, that plan probably died with the pile of rubble at the old tobacco factory when the city -- facing lawsuits from the developer who owned the building, which had since been converted into artists' studios -- allowed him to knock down the building and build a high rise instead. "That was the first domino," said Mr. Kessler. "So now we have Toll Brothers."

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• HEMPHILL v. ROGERS, et. al. (PDF) 

I. BACKGROUND

Pro se plaintiff James Hemphill (“Plaintiff”) was a prisoner at the Adult Diagnostic and Treatment Center (“ADTC”) in Avenel, New Jersey. Plaintiff alleges that, as a result of the chemicals added to Moving Defendants’ tobacco products that “make smokers addicted to the cigarettes,” he was “forced to suffer from the secondhand smoke that is produce[d] from there [sic] product.” (Id. at 8-11.) Plaintiff contends that “the only persons who benefit[] from the tobacco is [sic] the smoker[,] who is able to satisfy his addiction[,] and the tobacco manufacturer[,] who makes a profit from the sale, at the cost of my health and possibly future damage to my health.” (Id.) To describe his injuries, Plaintiff states that he has experienced “continued stomach problems through [a]cid [r]eflux [d]isease which is worsened from constant inhaling of second hand [sic] smoke, while incarcerated within this [i]nstitution

Plaintiff identifies “M. Bernstein & Sons Newark Tobacco & Candy Co.” as the “[s]ole tobacco vender to the state prisons.” (Id.) According to Plaintiff, M. Bernstein & Sons “[s]ells the tobacco products to the state institutional facilities for a profit and has no concern about the deadly health risk associated from secondhand smoke to non[-]smokers.” . . .

A. Plaintiff’s § 1983 Claim Fails Because Tobacco Companies are Not State Actors

In order to state a cause of action under Section 1983, a plaintiff must allege the violation of a right secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, which was committed or caused by a person acting under color of state law. Even if Plaintiff had intended to allege that Moving Devendants provide their tobacco products for sale at ADTC, a “private firm does not become a state actor by selling its products to the government.” Several courts have held that tobacco manufacturers are private entities, and that the mere sale of their products in state penal institutions does not transform them into state actors acting under the color of state law. Plaintiff’s Section 1983 claim against Moving Defendants must be dismissed.

B. The New Jersey Smoke Free Act Does Not Create a Private Right of Action

The NJSFA prohibits smoking in indoor public places and workplaces, with limited exceptions. See N.J. STAT. ANN. § 26:3D-58. However, the NJSFA provides no private right of action to plaintiffs aggrieved by a violation of its terms. N.J. STAT. ANN. § 26:3D-62(e) (“[T]here shall be no private right of action against a party for failure to comply with the provisions of this act.”). As a matter of law, Plaintiff cannot articulate a viable claim against Moving Defendants under the NJSFA.

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HEMPHILL v. ROGERS et al Docket ($$) 

05/07/2008 74 OPINION. Signed by Judge Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. on 5/6/08. (dc, ) (Entered: 05/07/2008)

05/07/2008 75 ORDER granting 56 Motion to Dismiss; granting 58 Motion to Dismiss; granting 61 Motion to Dismiss; granting 62 Motion to Dismiss; granting 63 Motion to Dismiss. Signed by Judge Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. on 5/6/08. (dc, ) (Entered: 05/07/2008)

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HEMPHILL v. ROGERS et al 

Filed: May 7, 2007 . . .

May 10, 2007 3 Court Opinion or Order OPINION filed Signed by Judge Joseph A. Greenaway, Jr. on 5/7/07. (cs, )

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HEMPHILL v. ROGERS et al - 2:2007cv00424 

January 24, 2007 3 Court Opinion or Order

ORDER denying pltfs' motion to proceed as a class action; that pltfs' appl. for appointment of counsel is denied w/out prejudice, as premature; that pltfs. James Hemphill; Efraim Esquilin; Christopher Mark; William Weiss; Christos Papachris tos; Louis George Johnston, Jr.; Tymil Mason; Claude Franklikn; Peter Braun; Oliver Mason; Toboris Wright; Ronald Young; and Allan Lovenson are dismissed from civ. 06-5033; that the Clerk of the Court shall open a new case for each of the dismissed p ltfs. w/the complaint from each of the newly-opened cases to the same judge who is assigned to civ. 06-5033; that the Clerk shall enter the Opinion and Order in civ. 06-5033 on the docket in each of the newly-opened cases; and each of the dismissed pltfs. may indicate his intent to proceed with his claims by filing an amended complaint asserting his individual claims under his newly-assigned docket number, etc.. Signed by Judge Stanley R. Chesler on 1/24/2007. (mn,

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2:07-cv-00424-SRC-CCC HEMPHILL v. ROGERS et al ($$) 

Date filed: 01/24/2007 Date terminated: 05/04/2007 Date of last filing: 06/29/2007

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HARROP: States and casinos become codependent addicts 

Loath to tax the citizenry based on income, many states have increasingly turned to cigarette smokers and gamblers for revenues. Gamblers are often smokers, and both groups tend to be of modest or low income. . . .

And when states ban smoking in all entertainment venues but the casino, they end up securing an especially dependable revenue stream. As public policy goes, this means of taxation is highly unattractive. After all, they are funneling their smoker population into another highly taxed and unhealthy activity. As an added anti-social bonus, they discriminate against other businesses in search of the same entertainment dollar.

But the casino industry knows that its profits have become oh-so-important to the gambling-addicted states and localities. We're partners now.

That mentality explains how Donald Trump could stand up a few days ago and with a straight face call on 11 casinos to unite in a lawsuit against Atlantic City. . . .

A similar conversation is going on in Connecticut. . . .

Perhaps someone would like to tote up how many jobs would be created -- at the pubs, fish restaurants and pool halls in New London and elsewhere in the region -- if the smokers who had left them for the casinos suddenly started returning. Or a general accounting of how many jobs elsewhere in the economy have vanished because of casino competition.

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• Smokefree pioneer Regina Carlson retires 

Today is Regina Carlson's last day as Executive Director of New Jersey GASP, as her original goals have been accomplished. Regina has been the grand mother of the nation's (and the world's) smokefree indoor air movement. I've known and collaborated with Regina since 1986, and thank her for her wonderful inspiration, compassion, leadership and friendship.