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The fiery debate of smoking on the University of Cincinnati's campus has been stoked by a recent poll on the UC Blackboard Web site. The poll was sponsored by Student Government in conjunction with the student group Colleges Against Cancer.
The results were overwhelming, indicating 64.34 percent of the 6,102 students responding favor a non-smoking UC campus.
While the thought of a smoke-free UC campus is appealing, a tremendous amount of work needs to be done by the student body before attempting to institute a no-smoking policy, including enforcing the current rules UC has in place. . . .
Laziness on the part of the UC community to stand by its current policy is not a reason to create a new one. If the policy is truly put in action and is still found to be troublesome, then discussions concerning a new policy can begin.
There is an old saying: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Unfortunately, the current UC policy hasn't been used enough to even be broken, let alone fixed.
Student Government should poll students again, asking students in favor of a non-smoking policy if they have actually addressed violators of the current UC rules.
It is easy to answer a poll feigning indignity at smoking on campus and demand a new policy. It's a lot harder to stand up and support what you already have, which is what the UC student body should do before calling for a new policy.
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WASHINGTON, March 11 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Ohio Supreme Court has made the decision to hear the appeal in Legacy's case seeking to preserve tobacco funds and the life-saving tobacco control programs they support in Ohio. Legacy - a national public health foundation devoted to tobacco cessation and prevention - applauds this ruling, made yesterday, which recognizes the great importance of this case to the people of Ohio.
The Court will review the December decision of the Ohio Court of Appeals of Franklin County, Tenth Appellate District reversing a lower court's order permanently enjoining the State from dissolving the Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Endowment Fund. The December 2009 Court of Appeals' decision represented a major step backward in the effort spearheaded by Legacy and others to safeguard the state's tobacco prevention money for its intended purpose: to save Ohioans' lives.
Today's decision assures that Ohio's highest court will determine whether the state had the authority to divert the funds it had previously committed to the Ohio Tobacco Control and Prevention trust fund. It offers Legacy a final opportunity in its fight to re-establish Ohio's effective tobacco prevention and cessation programs which were largely shut down in the wake of the state's effort to divert the funds. Two Ohioans were also plaintiffs in the case: Robert Miller and David Weinmann, both longtime smokers who relied on services and programs supported by the Ohio Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Endowment Fund to quit smoking, brought claims as Ohio smokers, the intended beneficiaries of OTPF.
Cheryl G. Healton, DrPH, president and CEO of Legacy, comments, "Today's decision is an extremely important step forward. I want to reiterate that from the outset of this litigation, we have stated unequivocally that if we prevail, these funds will be spent solely on effective programs in Ohio to save Ohioan's lives from tobacco's deadly toll. Suggestions to the contrary are simply false."
Up now is a story about the first penalty imposed on an area bar or restaurant under North Carolina’s new smoking ban.
The Juggling Gypsy said it will fight the penalties, taking to the courts if necessary.
Another interesting court decision about a smoking ban came out of Ohio recently where a judge said a bar cited for violating the state’s workplace smoking ban did not have to pay more than $33,000 in fines.
In his ruling, the judge said the state’s health department exceeded its authority by making the bar responsible for its patrons’ behavior, according to an Associated Press article.
What’s interesting for us here in North Carolina, is Ohio’s three-year-old law is similar to the one North Carolina implemented at the beginning of the year.
Warnings and fines for violations of the state smoking ban have steadily declined in Findlay and Hancock County, showing that businesses are complying or smokers are simply getting more savvy about not getting caught.
According to Craig Niese, a Findlay Health Department sanitarian, Findlay has received 161 complaints about smoking violations since the state ban started three years ago. The department has investigated 123 of those. So far, 18 warnings have been issued and 11 businesses have been fined.
Findlay warnings and fines in 2007, the year the law went into effect, totaled 19; eight in 2008 and three last year, Niese said. All fines were issued to bars.
Dave's Hideaway, at 1730 Lima Ave., has been fined four times
Dave's Hideaway, at 1730 Lima Ave., has been fined four times; the Veterans of Foreign Wars club at 315 Walnut St. was fined three times; the Walnut Saloon at 335 Walnut St. and Old Stoney Ledge at 752 Howard St. were each fined twice; and the VFW at 122 Clinton Court was fined once.
Complaints filed against businesses violating Ohio's smoking ban have fallen each year since the ban was enacted, except in Hamilton County where they rose, the Dayton Daily News reported Sunday.
Ohio voters approved the ban in 2006, and since enforcement began in 2007 complaints have fallen from 21,604 to 9,228 in 2009. Nearly 49,000 complaints have been filed since the ban took effect.
A year after Ohio prisons instituted a cold-turkey smoking ban, taxpayers can expect to shell out a little less for medical care for inmates suffering from emphysema and other respiratory diseases.
But the ban - which includes chewing tobacco and snuff - also gave birth to a lucrative contraband market in state prisons. Sources said tobacco has become as valuable as marijuana, with a single cigarette selling for $10, a pack of cigarettes going for $200 and a can of loose tobacco for $300.
An indication of how hot a commodity tobacco has become came last month when officials uncovered a plan for a woman to secretly drop tobacco at the Governor's Residence in Bexley. Inmates working there planned to smuggle the tobacco back into the Pickaway Correctional Institution. The drop was scuttled by top State Highway Patrol officials.
Prison medical personnel said one out of three inmates with serious respiratory ailments, such as emphysema, bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, have shown marked improvement in the year since the ban took effect.
That led to lower use of inhalant drugs over a three-month period - a savings of $90,000.
Dan Stiver's Zippers Sports Bar has been the subject of 95 complaints, seven investigations and $4,100 in fines for violations of Ohio's indoor smoking ban.
"That's probably true," Stiver said. "I don't have a clue."
The 60-year-old nonsmoker said he posted no-smoking signs and removed the ashtrays from his nightclub, as required under the law, but he said he doesn't do anything else to enforce the ban.
"The first week I tried to enforce it, I lost $1,200," Stiver said. "I'm not a policeman. I'm not with the board of health. I am in business to make money."
Complaints against businesses alleging violations of Ohio's smoking ban dropped sharply after the first few months of the ban and have declined with each successive year.
A Dayton Daily News analysis of the nearly 49,000 complaints filed with the Ohio Department of Health since the ban took effect in May 2007 also shows that fewer than five fines have been levied for every 100 complaints filed.
State officials credit the decline in complaints to better compliance from bars and restaurants, as evidenced by the declining number of first-time violators.
"We're getting to the point where we have more (repeat violators) than initial violations," said Mandy Burkett, chief of the health department's indoor environments section.
Overall, the state logged 9,228 complaints in 2009 -- down from 21,604 taken during an eight-month period in 2007.
"The overwhelming response we get is very positive," Burkett said. "The overall numbers indicate compliance is increasing."
A central Ohio judge has stopped the state from collecting more than $30,000 in fines against a Columbus-area bar accused of allowing customers to smoke.
Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David E. Cain ruled business owners have no control over whether "someone rips out a cigarette and lights up" and cannot be held responsible if they have met other requirements outlined under the voter-approved Ohio SmokeFree Workplace Act.
"This all comes down to the fact that property owners can only do so much...," Cain wrote. "They can put up 'no smoking' signs. They can take away ashtrays. They can ask patrons that are smoking to leave. Outside of these things, there is little property owners can do."
Backers of the ruling said Thursday the decision could have wide-reaching implications, including stopping health officials from enforcing the smoking ban anywhere in the state and potentially leading to the forced refunds of fines already paid by businesses cited with violations.
They can put up 'no smoking' signs. They can take away ashtrays. They can ask patrons that are smoking to leave. Outside of these things, there is little property owners can do. . . . Placing the (onus) of enforcing the SmokeFree Act against individuals completely on property owners is ludicrous and defies basic notions of fairness.Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David E. Cain, whose ruling that business owners have no responsibility to enforce Ohio's smoking ban would invalidate virtually every smoking ban in the world.
Would the Department of Health require property owners to pat down visitors for cigarettes before they are allowed to enter? Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David E. Cain, who ruled business owners have no responsibility to enforce Ohio's smoking ban.
Taverns cited by the health department could have their violations thrown out after a judge ruled in favor of bar Zeno's, said the Columbus-based 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, who defended the bar.
Judge David Cain said the department fined Zeno's despite "no smoking" signs, the removal of ashtrays and requests by employees that smokers extinguish cigarettes, according to the Associated Press.
He said the health department exceeded its authority by holding Zeno's responsible for the actions of its patrons.
The state is appealing the Franklin County ruling.
But Sandusky area bar owner Paul Hauke Jr. said Thursday the ruling could free him and other owners from constantly policing their patrons. "As long as we have the signs up, we're not responsible,"
A Franklin County judge has burned a big hole through Ohio's smoking ban, ruling that enforcers are unfairly punishing bar owners while failing to go after patrons who light up.
Since the statewide smoking ban took effect in 2007, health departments have levied $1.2 million in fines against businesses and collected about a third of that. No smoker has been fined.
The ruling by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David E. Cain jeopardizes that money and could result in authorities pursuing smokers rather than owners of the bars in which they smoke.
In a decision rendered last Friday and publicized yesterday, Cain wrote that bar owners who try to keep people from smoking - by posting "no smoking" signs, removing ashtrays and asking smokers to leave - shouldn't be penalized when patrons disobey.
"Would the (Ohio) Department of Health require property owners to pat down visitors for cigarettes before they are allowed to enter?" Cain wrote. "Would it have property owners remove people via force from the premises at risk of personal injury?"
The state yesterday said it will appeal a court decision that ruled enforcement of Ohio's smoking ban went too far in punishing a Columbus tavern for numerous violations by its patrons.
It remains to be seen how broad an impact the decision would have, but the lawyer for Zeno's Victorian Village said he believes businesses statewide now facing fines won't have to pay and those who've already paid them might be due refunds.
Attorney General Richard Cordray has asked the 10th District Court of Appeals to place Judge David Cain's decision on hold pending appeal. In the meantime, the Department of Health plans to continue enforcing the ban as it has since the inception.
Judge Cain of Franklin County Common Pleas Court on Monday vacated 10 citations and some $30,000 in fines pending against Zeno's.
A Franklin County judge has ruled that the state went too far in punishing a Columbus tavern for violations of Ohio's smoking ban, saying it went after the bar without citing the individual smoker who broke the law.
Common Pleas Court Judge David Cain vacated 10 citations issued against Zeno's, but he stressed that he was not ruling on the constitutionality of the voter-passed law that generally prohibits smoking in indoor places frequented by the public.
Attorney General Richard Cordray has filed a notice of appeal with the 10th District Court of Appeals in Columbus. He has asked the appeals court to issue a stay preventing enforcement of Judge Cain's decision, which was issued Friday, until the appeal can be heard.
Lawyers for the tavern contend the order renders the state's smoking ban against businesses unenforceable and could overturn fines already issued. However, it remains unclear how Judge Cain's decision would apply to cases not in the same situation as Zeno's.
A growing number of Ohio employers are telling smokers: Do not apply.
Last week, Summa Health Systems, the Akron area's largest employer, became the latest company in the state to announce a nicotine-free hiring policy, joining among others the Cleveland Clinic, Medical Mutual of Ohio, Scotts Miracle-Gro in Marysville and USI financial services in Cincinnati.
Job applicants are required to take a urine test. Those who test positive for nicotine aren't hired or, in some cases, must agree to take a smoking cessation class.
So far, major employers in the Dayton area say they aren't considering such a policy, although they can see how such a ban could reduce their costs. A 2006 study by the Health Policy Institute of Ohio found that businesses lose $3,400 a year for every employee who smokes.
"All businesses are looking at how they can reduce costs, and smoking is obviously a big thing," said Bryan Bucklew, chief executive of the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association.