Tobacco.org

Smoking area signs are work of vandal  

More than 60 smoking areas have already been removed from UNM’s campus — or, at least, 60 stenciled signs for a “UNM Designated Smoking Area.”

Pug Burge, head of UNM’s Smoke-Free Environment Committee, said the red spray-painted signs appeared around campus after the Aug. 1 implementation of the tobacco-free policy.

Burge said the signs are not committee-approved, and UNM Physical Plant employees are removing them.

Burge said she doesn’t know who’s behind the stenciled signs.

“It’s really disappointing, though, that people don’t have a little bit more pride in their campus,” she said.

Win Hansen, co-chair of the UNM chapter of Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, said the social satire of the stencils serves a purpose.

“As far as the person spray-painting ‘UNM Designated Areas,’ I approve of that,” he said. “That’s what art should be. Art should be cultural commentary and societal commentary. Yes, I understand it’s graffiti, but a lot of art is considered bad when it’s made. It still has a reason for being made.”

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LETTER: New campus policy does not consider smokers' rights, needs  

I really think that smokers deserve to have a little more respect than the areas designated for them display. I feel bad when I see most of the areas do not have any shade and some of them have no seating. Now smokers have to be crowded into designated areas on the UNM campus. It has kind of a negative feel, right? You can smell the smoke way more and the areas usually have overflowing trash cans and butts on the ground. I mean, really? I do not think this is going to set up a positive result. What we should have done is talk a little more about the process of the non-smoking policy before hand, and we should have included people who smoke in the process.

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LETTER: Rollout of new tobacco-free policy unfair to UNM smokers  

If the administration wants us to comply with their policies, then they should be willing to comply with them as well. It’s difficult to believe that this policy isn’t discriminatory toward smokers when marking the designated areas and educating students about the policy hasn’t been a priority, especially when “disciplinary action” can be taken on those who don’t comply due to a lack of information.

The transition to a tobacco-free campus would go much more smoothly if the administration worked with tobacco users instead of intentionally making smoking inconvenient.

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Smokers, Retailers Brace For New Tobacco Rules  

"A lot of the issues with the new packaging are affecting us," said Denise Balko, with Tobacco Road.

New packaging, new rules and new federal government authority are hitting cigarettes. Packs will no longer have terms such as mild, light and low and those are just some of the changes.

"I don't think you can legislate behavior and it's not something the government should be involved in," said tobacco customer Bob Martinez.

The tobacco industry must also stop giving free samples and giving free clothing with cigarette company logos on it. Customers and workers alike said they are weary about what it will do to an industry where they say an uphill battle is already being fought.

And these new regulations come just a few months after the prices of cigarettes went up 150 percent all over the country.

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BERTHOLD: Smoking ban? Just ignore it  

Ignore the whole thing, just as the teenagers ignore the skateboarding rules and administration ignores the University's ethical guidelines. Launch a smoke-in. I will appear on campus in my Homeland Security uniform to hassle anyone hassling smokers.

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University sets tobacco-free date 

UNM will go tobacco-free on Aug. 1.

That means no cigarettes and no chewing tobacco, except within designated smoking areas around campus, said Pug Burge, co-chairwoman of the Smoke Free Environment Committee.

The committee has presented its revised campus smoking policy to campus groups, including GPSA and ASUNM, Burge said.

After the campus groups review the policy changes, the paperwork will go out to the rest of the University for a 30-day review period, which will begin sometime in the middle of this month, she said.

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LETTER: Smoking ban 

I want to respond to the article by Walt Rubel about proposed bill SB-44 that prohibits smoking in cars where minors are present. This bill is intended to protect the 35 to 45 percent of children who are exposed to secondhand smoke in homes and vehicles regularly (Harvard School of Public Health). . . .

Mr. Rubel argues that this bill is unfair to smokers who smoke with the windows down. In a study done by Dr. Neil Klepeis of Stanford University, within 20 seconds of a smoker lighting a cigarette in a car the levels of fine particulate matter can exceed the hazardous level set by the Environmental Protection Agency whether the windows are up or down.

Arkansas, Louisiana, and California have already passed similar laws. In California this particular law has been shown to make exposing children to secondhand smoke less socially accepted and has led to more smokers not allowing smoking in their homes and areas where their children will be exposed.

Hopefully this bill will get passed in New Mexico and people will really see the dangers that second hand smoking is causing innocent children.

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Cost of lighting up is going up: Cigarette tax hike takes effect soon 

LAS CRUCES -- Smokers and chewers could discover on April 1 that the health of their pocketbooks may be at risk with the increase of federal taxes on their favorite tobacco products. The recent expansion of a federal children's health program could insure as many as 11 million youngsters, but the almost $33 billion piece of legislation will have tobacco consumers footing the bill.

On April 1, a 61-cents-per-pack increase will be added to cigarettes, bringing the total federal tax to about $1, from 39 cents. Consumers also will see tax increases on other tobacco products, including a jump of more than 30 percent for large cigars, an increase of about 7 cents for moist snuff and a spike of nearly $1.50 on roll-your-own tobacco.

Although New Mexico now imposes a tax of about 91 cents per pack of cigarettes, recently-introduced legislation aimed to further increase the state tax. The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Roberto Gonzales, D-Taos, was tabled in the House Taxation and Revenue Committee and never voted on.

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ATENCIO: State Senate bill to prevent lighting-up near children is a smoking idea  

I want to talk about proposed Bill SB-44 , , ,

Smokers argue that this bill is unfair to smokers who smoke with the windows down. In a study done by Dr. Neil Klepeis of Stanford University, within 20 seconds of a smoker lighting a cigarette in a car, the levels of fine particulate matter can exceed the hazardous level set by the Environmental Protection Agency whether the windows are up or down. Arkansas, Louisiana and California have already passed similar laws.

In California this particular law has been shown to make exposing children to secondhand smoke less socially accepted and has led to more smokers not allowing smoking in their homes and areas where their children will be exposed.

Hopefully, this bill will get passed in New Mexico and people will really see the dangers that secondhand smoking is causing innocent children.

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RUBEL: Where there's smoke, there's an angry do-gooder  

The New Mexico Senate last week passed an expansion to the state's smoking ban that prohibits people from smoking in their own vehicles if they have children as passengers.

"Small children are not in a position to object when someone is smoking in a vehicle in which they are passengers," said Sen. Bernadette Sanchez, D-Albuquerque, chairwoman of the Senate Conservation Committee and sponsor of the bill. . . .

this is a really bad bill. It adds to the Dee Johnson Indoor Air Act, passed in 2007, which already prohibits smoking in just about any public building except those with craps tables and slot machines.

After all, where's the fun in gambling away the family paycheck if you can't chain-smoke at the same time? . . .

Can't the same arguments used to pass this bill also be made to prohibit smoking in the home if children are present? Will it be long before the government has cigarette smoke sensors in every home and a smoking police to haul off those miscreants who dare light up in their own living room?

No group in America these days, save for perhaps Wall Street CEOs, is more ostracized than smokers. I've never been one, but have many friends who are. I even work with a few here at the Sun-News. And they're not so horrible. Really.

Here's the rub. When you outlaw common, everyday activities, you make outlaws of common, everyday people.

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Local lawmakers oppose second-hand smoke bill  

A bill that would ban adults from smoking in cars with minors has drawn opposition from local Republican lawmakers.

The state Senate on Wednesday voted in favor of the proposed law, introduced by Bernadette Sanchez, D-Albuquerque. The bill heads to the House.

Sens. Bill Sharer, R-Farmington, and Steve Neville, R-Aztec, voted against the measure. The Senate supported the bill in a 26-12 vote.

Neville said the law would violate personal freedoms. Neville would rather see parents take responsibility by not exposing secondhand smoke to children.

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NM bill outlaws smoking in vehicles with kids  

The state Senate has voted to outlaw smoking in vehicles when children 12 or under are present.

The legislation went to the House on Wednesday on a vote of 26-12, over the objections of lawmakers who complained it was overreaching.

"At what point do free people say ... thou shalt not tell me any more what to do?" said Sen. William Sharer, a Farmington Republican.

The proposal would expand the New Mexico law that already bans smoking in most offices, restaurants, bars, buses, taxis and other indoor public places.

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Smoking ban may expand to vehicles 

Smoking a cigarette in a car when children are along for the ride may soon be illegal in New Mexico.

A bill that would expand New Mexico's indoor smoking ban is now half-way to becoming law.

The fines would be the same as they are for businesses that let people smoke inside, starting at $100 and topping off at $300 for repeat offenders.

The well-known dangers of second-hand smoke propelled the bill through the Senate after a lively debate.

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Cigarette tax hike gets nod from public  

Anti-tobacco advocates say they have one way to help the state solve its budget crisis and help prevent smoking: raise the tobacco tax in the state by $1 a pack.

The idea could bring in $29.7 million in the first year.

Although a bill has yet to be introduced this session to raise the tax, there already is public support.

A survey released Thursday by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids found that 76 percent of the registered voters polled support a proposal to raise the tax by $1. Seventy-nine percent supported an increase of 60 cents per pack.

Fifty-seven percent of smokers surveyed said they would support the $1 increase. The current tax per pack is 91 cents.

The survey by Research and Polling Inc. also showed that 64 percent of those support raising the cigarette tax

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Poll: Majority in NM favor higher cigarette tax 

SANTA FE, N.M. - Three out of four New Mexicans favor a $1-a-pack increase in the state's cigarette tax to pay for anti-smoking programs and help eliminate a $450 million budget deficit, according to a poll released Thursday.

About 76 percent of likely voters support an increase in the cigarette tax from its current level, 91 cents, to $1.91 a pack, according to the poll commissioned by the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the Washington, D.C.-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

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