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Pennsylvania Department of Health Prepares for Implementation of Clean Indoor Air Act 

As the law's effective date approaches, the Department of Health is educating the public about its requirements and it is providing technical assistance to businesses in the implementation of no smoking policies.

Guidance and a toolkit for public places and workplaces, as well as frequently asked questions and materials useful in planning for the Clean Indoor Air Act, are available at http://www.health.state.pa.us.

The smoking ban is an initiative from the Governor's Prescription for Pennsylvania, a comprehensive health care reform plan which strives to make health care more affordable and accessible while improving quality.

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• Bars, eateries prep for smoking ban 

Pennsylvania’s smoking ban becomes effective Sept. 11.

Maybe you’ll breathe a sigh of relief.

Or maybe you’ll breathe a sigh of despair.

Either way, maybe you’ll breathe easy, which is what the state legislature intended when it passed the ban, officially the Clean Indoor Air Act, that was signed into law in June.

The law makes it illegal to smoke inside public places. So having a cigarette inside shopping malls, stores, schools, gymnasiums, ice skating rinks, airports, bus terminals, train stations, hospitals, restaurants — especially ones that don’t serve alcohol — will not be permitted.

The law also makes it illegal to smoke anywhere inside at work, no matter whether the work is in a high-rise office building, a store, a machine shop or an enclosed construction site.

It sounds pervasive, but given 12 exceptions to the rule and given that many places decided to prohibit smoking well before the state did, smokers and nonsmokers alike may not notice much of a difference, if Indiana and White Township establishments are any example.

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Driver swerves to miss deer, cigarette ash ignites fire  

HANOVER TWP. -- Proving that no good deed goes unpunished, a Clinton area man's car was destroyed in a fire shortly after he swerved to miss a deer Sunday morning. . . .

Just before 2 a.m. Sunday, Moore was on Route 30 in Hanover Township when he swerved to avoid a deer. While doing so, an ash from a cigarette fell onto a newspaper lying on the passenger-side floor.

As Moore turned onto Wilson Road in Hanover, the paper caught fire.

While trying to beat out the flames devouring the newspaper, Moore hit a guardrail. After Moore got out of the car, the 2005 Honda Civic was consumed by the fire.

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Cigarette led to last week's house fire in North Middleton 

A fire marshal's report said a cigarette tossed into mulch caused a fire Wednesday in North Middleton Township.

Michael Rugh, Pennsylvania State Police fire marshal, said no charges will be filed in connection with the fire that destroyed a home on the 100 block of Regal View Drive and resulted in no injuries.

The cause of the blaze appeared to be a “cigarette discarded in the mulch by a member of the family,” Rugh indicated.

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Editorial : No smoking, no helmets either 

what individuals can and can’t do is often determined by the state — too often, many citizens contend.

The fact that the rationale the state uses to regulate behavior is inconsistent doesn’t help to reconcile the infringed-upon to their fates.

Every smoker knows by now that Gov. Ed Rendell last week signed into law a bill to ban smoking in many public places and in all public buildings. It goes into effect 90 days from the signing.

The bill is so riddled with exceptions that the American Lung Association refused to endorse it. Nonetheless, the state has taken another leap down the road of regulating personal freedoms.

This is the same state Legislature, give or take a few dozen members, that in 2003 decided Pennsylvania motorcycle riders no longer had to wear helmets. . . .

In fighting for the smoking ban, advocates cited the deleterious effects of second-hand smoke on non-smokers and the higher likelihood of disease and death experienced by smokers. It will be years before any study can show these benefits being realized, but we will be awaiting the first results eagerly. We fully expect to see improvements in statistics relating to cancer and cardiopulmonary diseases.

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Nursing home cited, fined for patients' smoking 

The state has placed a nursing home in Larimer on a provisional license and slapped it with a $22,000 fine, accusing it of permitting unsafe smoking by patients around oxygen equipment.

The 134-bed Forbes Road Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is appealing the penalties, disputing an account by state inspectors that smoking they saw outside the building on May 20-21 posed an unusual risk.

The Department of Health imposed an "immediate jeopardy" citation on the facility May 21. The designation prevented any new admissions until two days later, when officials were satisfied that procedures were in place to ensure no smoking would take place in the presence of flammable oxygen equipment.

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Partial smoking ban burns some 

John Rullo, owner of the Rialto in Greensburg, said a smoking ban in public places would be fairer than the partial ban lawmakers recently enacted.

"It's completely unjust to tell a guy like me or someone else you are not going to be allowed to have smoking and there are other bars" that can, Rullo said.

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Tobacco farmers here warned of blue mold 

The first case of blue mold reported this year was confirmed July 11 near New Holland, where 85 percent of a five-acre field was infected.

Since then, several blue mold cases throughout the county have been reported.

On lancasterfarming.com, Jeff Graybill, Lancaster County Extension agronomy educator, suggested "effective spray programs" to farmers to prevent and arrest blue mold, pointing out that the value of tobacco crops in Lancaster County was more than $10 million in 2007.

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Police: Cigarette caused fatal fire in Homewood 

ette was the cause of a fire last Friday which caused the deaths of Cora Raiford, 83, and her son, Kenneth Raiford, 56, in their Homewood home, police said.

Before he died in West Penn Hospital, Kenneth Raiford told police that he had been smoking on the porch before the fire. A hot ash from his cigarette ignited some furniture and led to the house being engulfed in flames, police investigator Tom Huerbin said last night.

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Fatal Homewood fire blamed on cigarette 

One of the victims in a fatal house fire in Homewood accidentally started the fire with a smoldering cigarette, a city arson investigator said today.

Cora Mae Raiford, 83, and her son, Kenneth Raiford, 56, died in the fire Friday on Kedron Street.

Firefighters found Cora Mae Raiford on the second floor of the house and pronounced her dead at the scene. Kenneth Raiford died later that night in West Penn Hospital after suffering severe burns over 60 to 80 percent of his body.

Investigators spoke to Kenneth Raiford before he died. Based on those interviews, and further investigation at the scene, they ruled the fire started on the porch "due to careless smoking ... by the son."

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• No justice for nonsmokers at Justice Center  

The other day, in the shabby stairwell of the Criminal Justice Center, gray smoke billowed in front of the red-painted signs that read: "No Smoking." Two cigarette butts were lodged in the cracks of the symbol's red slash.

In the CJC, on Filbert Street near 13th, where more than 1,000 cases are heard in the 35 courtrooms each day, the law is being ignored.

More specifically, the city's Clean Indoor Air Worker Protection Law, in place since January 2007, prohibits smoking in all workplaces and indoor areas accessible to the public, which includes the CJC.

Cigarette butts litter the building's stairwell, and people who take the stairs to avoid overcrowded elevators often have to walk through secondhand smoke. . . .

"It's a bad health issue because there's no ventilation here," said the janitor, who has worked at the CJC since 1995 but didn't want his name printed. "I hope I don't develop lung cancer."

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Maryland And Pennsylvania Requiring Self-Extinguishing Cigarettes 

A new law in Maryland and another in Pennsylvania say smokers can only smoke "fire safe cigarettes" within their state lines. The cigarettes are supposed to prevent fires.

It's an all too common story" someone falls asleep while smoking a cigarette. Suddenly, there's a fire.

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Political Play: Wife pokes McCain in the back  

Cindy McCain's jab to her husband's back came a second too late Tuesday to keep him from making a wisecrack about the health impact of Iran's main import from the United States: cigarettes.

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• State Fire Commissioner Praises Passage of Fire-Safe Cigarettes Legislation 

Once signed into law, House Bill 1612 will adopt a fire safety standard for cigarettes and require that all cigarettes sold in Pennsylvania be low-ignition strength, making them less likely to cause fires if left unattended.

"Fire-safe cigarettes are rolled with bands of less porous, slow-burning paper, so if the cigarette is left unattended, it will go out when it burns down to one of those bands," said State Fire Commissioner Edward A. Mann. "There have been too many tragedies caused by the careless use of cigarettes, and this standard is designed to reduce that risk."

According to the National Fire Protection Association, smoking materials, such as cigarettes, cigars or pipes, are the leading cause of fire deaths in the United States.

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Kingston council OKs extending smoking ban  

Council passed the second reading of an ordinance that bans smoking at all parks, recreational facilities and the grounds surrounding borough buildings, including the Hoyt Library.

The ordinance, introduced by Councilwoman Nancy Cooper, will take effect immediately as part of the Steps to a Healthy Pennsylvania initiative, extending the smoke-free area that bans smoking at the Municipal Building to public areas where children play.

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