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TAHLEQUAH -- In an effort to keep area residents healthy, Thursday, has been designated as Great American Smoke-out Day in the Cherokee Nation. In honor of the event, the tribe is offering classes and incentives to help smokers and tobacco users stop for at least one day.
Cherokee Nation Healthy Nation will be celebrating the day by offering free cessation kits and prizes to all who commit to stop smoking and using tobacco for at least one day. Resources
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Whether or not smokers like it, beginning Jan. 1, 2010 Oklahoma retailers will only be allowed to sell fire safe cigarettes.
"Some folks don't like the fire safe cigarettes, primarily because they go out and they (smokers) get tired of sitting there and relighting them," said Oklahoma State Fire Marshal Tommie Rhoades.
But this inconvenience must be weighed against the National Fire Protection Association statistics that show that "30,000 fires every year across the United States are attributed to cigarettes and smoking related material," Rhoades said, adding that "from those 30,000 fires, we have 700 to 900 fatalities."
"We also have firefighters lose their lives fighting those fires," the fire marshal said.
It is in consideration of these lives that the state legislature passed the Fire Safety Standard and Firefighter Protection Act, which went into effect earlier this year, Rhoades said.
The University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) will host an event for the 34th Annual Great American Smokeout on November 17, 2009. The event will be in the Pegasus Theatre in the Liberal Arts building from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM. The Great American Smokeout is a day to encourage smokers to quit as well as inform them of tools offered to help them quit.
The event on UCO's campus will include watching a section of the movie "Scene Smoking" with discussion and questions to follow. There will be booths available outside the theatre with resources and tools to help people quit smoking, as well as information on other tobacco related topics.
One of the booths at the event will focus on the tobacco industry marketing towards college-age adults. This is an ideal group for the tobacco industry to target because they are of legal age to smoke, yet they are vulnerable to being influenced because they are exploring new freedom living away from home. These young adults also have a desire to fit in to their new environment and the tobacco industry works to make it appear that the norm on campus is to be a smoker.
Tobacco companies help make smoking "cool" by sponsoring fraternity and sorority events, bar nights, concerts, as well as other events that appeal to this age group. They give out free gifts and free cigarettes, and also host popular concerts. Tobacco companies hire attractive individuals to attend these events to ask these students to let them scan their driver's license to enter them in a drawing or in exchange for a free gift. They use the information that was scanned to begin sending direct marketing to the student in the form of coupons and cigarette offers. These and other techniques for marketing will be shared at the Great American Smokeout event.
Regarding "Activists target smoking loopholes" (news story, Oct. 30): Oklahoma bar and restaurant owners act as if our state would be the first and only one to go smoke-free in public venues. Far from it. If Jim Hopper, president of the Oklahoma Restaurant Association, wants to eliminate his members' concerns about losing business if a smoking ban is enacted, he should contact any other restaurant association president in a state with a similar ban. He'd learn that profits at a majority of restaurants have actually increased.
The New York Times archives include articles printed before New York City's ban was enacted. Get the names of all the interviewed restaurant owners who were worried about their restaurant's potential profit losses. Call those same owners today and ask them how their profits are doing since the ban. Do your homework. And when your post-ban profits increase, remember to thank the groups that pushed for the ban.
Based on a major new report issued by the Institute of Medicine that concludes avoiding exposure to tobacco smoke reduces heart attack deaths, the Oklahoma State Department of Health is warning Oklahomans with heart disease or with elevated risk for heart disease to avoid places where smoking is allowed indoors.
"The Institute of Medicine points out that even relatively brief exposures to tobacco smoke have adverse effects on the heart and cardiovascular system and that these effects can contribute to heart attacks and deaths," said State Health Commissioner Dr. Terry Cline. "About 700 deaths each year in Oklahoma are attributable to secondhand smoke exposure, and the majority of these deaths are from heart attacks and cardiovascular disease."
Anti-smoking proponents say they will push once again for legislation to close loopholes in state law that permit smoking in some bars and restaurants.
The intent is to protect workers from the health effects of secondhand smoke, representatives of the American Heart Association and the state Health Department said.
On Thursday proponents said they would seek legislation similar to a bill that died in the Oklahoma House this year.
The bill would remove exemptions to anti-smoking legislation approved in 2003. The exemptions allow smoking in stand-alone bars and in separately-ventilated smoking rooms in restaurants. . . .
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of death and disease, said Dr. Alan Blum, a family medicine professor at the University of Alabama and director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco and Society.
Blum said restaurant groups that oppose bans are influenced by tobacco companies that want to protect their profits.
"Basically, it's about health over money," Blum said.
Anti-smoking proponents say they will try again to pass legislation that closes loopholes in state law that allow smoking in some bars and restaurants.
The intent is to protect workers from the health effects of secondhand smoke, representatives of the American Heart Association and the state Health Department said. On Thursday, they said they would seek legislation similar to a bill that died in the Oklahoma House this year.
The bill would remove exemptions to anti-smoking legislation approved in 2003. The exemptions allow smoking in stand-alone bars and in separately-ventilated smoking rooms in restaurants.
Anti-smoking advocates called on lawmakers Thursday to make bars and restaurants in Oklahoma smoke-free by closing loopholes in the state law restricting smoking in public places.
Officials from the American Heart Association and the state Department of Health said they will support legislation next year to ban smoking in bars and restaurants, similar to a bill that died in the Oklahoma House last spring.
Oklahoma was among the first states in the nation to regulate smoking in public places in 2003. But the legislation allows smoking in separate smoking rooms in restaurants and stand-alone bars. When the bill died in the House last spring, Rep. John Trebilcock, R-Broken Arrow, chairman of the House Public Health Committee, said he was not inclined to give it a hearing because of the investment restaurants had made to comply with state smoking restrictions.
Since Oklahoma's law went into effect, 27 other states have adopted comprehensive smoke-free laws that ban smoking in public places, said Marilyn Davidson, government relations director for the American Heart Association in Oklahoma City.
It is easy to get caught up in the anti-smoking movement and assume that smokers in the workplace have no protection. However, that assumption would be a mistake, especially in Oklahoma.
Interestingly, in Oklahoma those who choose to use tobacco products do have certain rights conferred upon them by the Oklahoma Legislature. Specifically, 40 O.S. §500 states that “It shall be unlawful for an employer to: (1) discharge any individual, or otherwise disadvantage any individual, with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because the individual is a nonsmoker or smokes or uses tobacco products during non-working hours; or (2) require as a condition of employment that any employee or applicant for employment abstain from smoking or using tobacco products during nonworking hours.”
This statutory language means that while Oklahoma employers can establish anti-smoking rules, they cannot hold it against employees who choose to use tobacco during nonwork hours or on noncompany property. So, refusing to hire an applicant because he or she smokes is prohibited. Likewise, taking an adverse action against an existing employee because it is learned he or she smokes is prohibited.
Where it really gets tricky is with anti-smoking campaigns by employers that encourage and incentivize employees to quit smoking. . . .
Bottom line, the anti-smoking movement is here to stay and efforts by Oklahoma employers to void their workplaces of tobacco use are largely supported. However, you would do well to remember that smoking employees in Oklahoma are not without any rights
Edmond's Parks and Recreation Department is drafting an ordinance to ban smoking at sports fields and around children's play areas at parks.
The city of Norman made a decision to ban smoking at parks earlier this year.
Some argue that allowing smoking near children playing in our parks exposes them to secondhand smoke. A smoker might say fatty, sweet treats available at children's sporting events are doing just as much damage.
If approved, the ban would not restrict smoking in nonplay areas of Edmond parks.
Several area Indian smoke shops are selling cigarettes without a new kind of fire-safety paper required by legislation enacted last year, a Tulsa World investigation shows.
The World bought several packs of discount-brand cigarettes at smoke shops in Tulsa, Broken Arrow, Sapulpa and Beggs. A new state law requires cigarettes to be wrapped in fire-safe paper, beginning Jan. 1, 2009, said Paula Ross, spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Tax Commission.
To delay the law's effect, several area smoke shops appear to be selling old inventory bought before the law took effect about 10 months ago. The law allows retailers to sell old inventory until Jan. 1, 2010.
"Our plan for after January 1, 2010, is to contact the fire marshal's office if nonfire-safe cigarettes are found during a routine compliance check," Ross said.
Earlier this year, the City of Norman made a decision to ban smoking at area parks. Now another city is considering the same thing. Edmond's Parks and Recreation Department is working to draft an ordinance which would ban smoking at local sports fields and near the children's play areas at local parks.
Jim Bowlin, Director of Parks and Recreation in Edmond, says, "We'd like to create a more healthy environment for our citizens and set a better example for our youth."
The Oklahoma Tax Commission is missing out on more than $1 million a month in tax collections by refusing to strongly enforce state tobacco tax laws, an Oklahoma City wholesaler has alleged.
"Legitimate distributors are being forced out of business," said tobacco wholesaler Alan Beck, who operates a wholesale business at 2305 S Agnew Ave.
Beck said he has complained to Tax Commission officials for more than four years about the "blatantly illegal" sale of untaxed tobacco products by a few dishonest Oklahoma wholesale operators.
Beck said he has repeatedly provided the Tax Commission with the names of businesses committing tax fraud, explained how their schemes work and told authorities how tax auditors can document the illegal conduct. . . .
A northeastern Oklahoma wholesaler said he sometimes wonders if certain illegal wholesalers are being protected.
Beck said he is aware of one large wholesaler who had his license revoked but said a relative just took over the operation. , , ,
Dishonest wholesalers, however, are buying cigarettes from importers and other sources, then selling the unstamped cigarettes to retailers for cash at discount prices, he said. The retailers then sell the unstamped packs to regular customers or to customers who come in at night or on weekends when store owners don't think enforcement officers are working, he said.
Welch said enforcement officers sometimes work on nights and weekends to try to thwart such schemes and have an array of other investigative techniques they also use.
Beck said fraud is even more rampant on other tobacco products such as cigars, snuff and chewing tobacco because there is no tax stamp system for those products to help monitor compliance.
The state Supreme Court has issued a ruling that would allow the state to collect higher taxes on cigarettes sold by Osage Nation tobacco stores.
However, the Oklahoma Tax Commission said Monday that it already has a new deal with the Osage Nation requiring it to pay a tax of 66 cents per pack.
The state tax on cigarettes is $1.03, but tribal stores pay lower rates, ranging from 6 cents per pack for those along Oklahoma’s borders to 86 cents per pack for some tribes. The state had wanted to charge the Osage Nation 86 cents per pack, but the tribe argued that it should be paying much less.
A new law could mean the end of smoking within public housing in Stillwater.
Congress passed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act earlier this year, and President Barack Obama signed the bill this summer.
Stillwater Public Housing Authority Executive Director L. Glen Redding said he will draft a revised policy for review and vote by the authority no later than February. The updated policy could go into affect as early as March, he said.
The authority has banned smoking in public housing common areas since 1985, he said, and this proposal would extend the ban to individual homes.