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MURRAY, Utah (ABC 4 News)- The signs are proudly displayed all over Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. Starting Thursday the hospital will be tobacco free.
Larry Hancock, Region VP for Intermountain’s Hospitals in the Salt Lake Valley said,” Our hospitals are places of healing, and promoting health is central to intermountain’s mission.”
However, that smoking ban at Salt Lake area Intermountain Healthcare hospitals includes the area outside of the healthcare centers. Penny Pixston says the smoking ban is going too far. Pixston says she's 53-years old and has been smoking since she was a teen. She says even lung surgery can't stop her from kicking the habit.
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A northern Utah lawmaker wants the state to do away with nicotine candy that he says poses a danger to children.
Rep. Paul Ray, R-Clearfield, plans to introduce a bill in the upcoming legislative session that would "outright ban" the nicotine candy.
"It's on the shelf now," Ray said. "We're going to take it off the shelf. We're basically making the comment that it's just not welcome in Utah. Go somewhere else and kill their residents but we're going to draw the line here."
Ray said the candies -- which differ from approved smoking-cessation products -- are designed to look like candy or gum and are attractive to children. Ray's own 7-year-old daughter saw some advertised and asked for some, which frightened him because just a few of the candy tablets can kill a young child.
Winner: It probably didn't shock anyone, but the survey released this week from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control showing Utah as the state with the least number of smokers was great news. Only 9 percent of the people in the state light up tobacco. A state survey two months ago showed that smoking here has fallen by 33 percent since 1999, which is the year an anti-smoking campaign went into effect, funded by a settlement between several states and large tobacco manufacturers. Beyond the great health benefits, a low smoking population ought to be good for economic development. Employers ought to love a place where workers are health-conscious.
Loser: On the other hand, the same CDC survey cited above also showed that smoking nationwide rose slightly during the past year. About 21 percent of Americans say they smoke, compared to 19.8 percent the year before. This may signal that anti-smoking efforts have hit a plateau. But it's probably nothing a hefty new tax on cigarettes couldn't fix.
Utah has the lowest number of cigarette smokers in the country, according to a survey showing that smoking rates nationwide have moved up slightly for the first time in 15 years.
Only 9 percent of Utahns smoke, compared to about 21 percent of their fellow Americans. The national figure is up slightly from the 19.8 percent who reported themselves as smokers the previous year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The results foiled CDC officials' hopes for another decline to below 20 percent -- perhaps permanently -- below 20 percent.
The increase was so small, it could be just a blip, so health officials and experts say smoking prevalence is flat, not rising.
"Clearly, we've hit a wall in reducing adult smoking,"
In a Louisville, Ky., Holiday Inn, Brown and Williamson researchers brainstormed novel ways to sell tobacco.
It was 1992, and the goal was to find "socially acceptable" ways to use it, according to one of the company's internal research and development documents. It needed to be smokeless, spitless, and not produce an odor. It needed to be fire safe, readily available and not subject to federal regulations.
Their ideas ran the gamut: tobacco pills and lotion, beverages and toothpicks. They even considered a tobacco-derived salted snack and perfume or aftershave.
Nearly two decades later, the tobacco industry's answers are showing up in test markets around the country. Utah health officials say they expect to see them rolled out across the country, and in the state, before long.
That's why they are warning consumers now: The new products look like candy and come packaged in slick, colorful containers. And they may be especially appealing to children.
"You don't look at that (the packaging) and think 'evil,'" said David Neville, a spokesman for the Utah Department of Health's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program. "You look at it and think, 'That's cute.' "
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, the manufacturer of Camel and 10 other brands, says it is only gathering input from consumers in its lead markets: Columbus, Ohio; Portland, Ore. and Indianapolis, Ind. It's unsure when -- or even if -- these new kinds of smokeless tobacco will take root as products, said spokesman David Howard. . . .
Camel's Orb -- small, brown-colored pellets -- could be easily mistaken for a Tic Tac. A 1-year-old who weighs about 23 pounds could suffer from severe toxicity or death if he or she ate as few as 10.
"It doesn't look quite as shiny or appealing," said Ellie Brownstein, a University Hospital pediatrician, "but how many kids go rifling through their mom's purse for a mint?"
Although called the indoor clean air act, some local bar owners are catching flak due to people smoking outside their establishments. Apparently, the law's definition of indoors extends 25 feet from any entrance.
Robert Eddington, owner of Murphy's Bar and Grill at 160 S. Main, received a complaint from the Salt Lake Valley Health Department for "letting customers smoke within 25 feet of the door entrance." It was a pretty vexing charge for Eddington, who says the person smoking too close to the bar wasn't actually a patron, but a passer-by.
Despite attempts to modernize Salt Lake City's downtown nightlife, the staff of Murphy's feel they've been stuck with an unfair complaint. For manager Steve Evans, it doesn't help that the bar is so close to Temple Square.
"I think they give us a harder time just because we're so close to Mormon Disneyland ," he says.
Ironically, what attracted the complaint from the Health Department was not the smokers, but an attempt by the bar's staff to prevent cigarette butts from littering the sidewalk. "It seems the complaint was the ashtray, so I threw the ashtray in the dumpster," says Eddington. "Now that they have done their due diligence and saved the city from an ashtray, people can throw their cigarette butts on the sidewalk, in the planter boxes or in the gutter."
After their bid for a tobacco tax hike went up in smoke last session, crusaders for the cause are coming back again, confident that Utahns will soon be paying more for their cigarette fix.
"It's 100 percent," said Sen. Allen Christensen, R-North Ogden, who has unsuccessfully sponsored the bill for the past several years.
Christensen said he plans to push to raise the 69.5-cent per-pack tax up to $2. It would make Utah's tax on par with Arizona's and give the state the 11th-highest cigarette tax in the country. Earlier this year, Congress raised the federal cigarette tax 62 cents per pack to $1.01.
Advocates for the tobacco tax hike, like the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association, hope the higher tax would motivate 3,000 teens and 10,000 adult smokers to kick the habit and thousands more to never pick up the habit.
Since it opened in 2003, the main branch of the Salt Lake City Public Library has been an iconic gathering place.
But police became concerned about one group there this spring as citizens called tip lines and the Mayor's Office to report drug dealing and disruptive people. . . .
Illicit drugs weren't the only trouble. Some patrons reported trouble getting into the building, Elder said.
Smokers were congregating outside the entrance at 200 East and 400 South. People would play hacky sack at the entrance, Elder said, and some patrons reported having to wait for the sack to hit the ground before they could pass.
To counter the drug sales, undercover narcotics officers began posing as buyers. From March through July, police arrested about 20 people selling marijuana. Meanwhile, narcotics officers taught the library's private security contractors what signs might indicate drug dealing or use. Ross said his officers also encouraged staff to crack down on smaller offenses.
For example, smoking is illegal on Library Square and city parks, and Ross said he encouraged the library to stamp it out. Elder said the library staff politely began asking the hacky sack players and other groups to not block the doors.
In the past 10 years, the smoking rate in the Bear River Health District has dropped considerably.
The Bear River Health Department reports that, since 1999, the smoking rate has decreased by 39 percent in the district. Also, smoking among pregnant women has fallen by 14 percent in that period.
"The smoking rate for Bear River Health Department is now at 5.8 percent," said Holly Budge, tobacco program manager at the Bear River Health Department. "We are working to drive the rate lower still through programs like End Nicotine Dependence (END), the TRUTH From Youth Anti-tobacco Advertising Contest, the Utah Tobacco Quit Line and www.UtahQuitNet.com."
A record low number of adult Utahns -- 9.1 percent -- use tobacco, according to a new annual report released today by the state Department of Health.
Tobacco use has declined by 33 percent since 1999, the year that an anti-smoking campaign funded by the Master Settlement agreement with cigarette manufacturers that were sued nationwide went into effect.
Public health administrators credit the reduction in use to the public awareness campaign underwritten by the settlement, the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program and the TRUTH marketing campaign. The report also credits local public health departments and partner public service agencies in communities statewide for the decrease.
The addition of a new $1 per-pack federal cigarette tax, plus the nearly constant anti-tobacco drumbeat surrounding a push to increase the state's tobacco tax during this past legislative session has probably had a ripple effect on the decline of smoking, health officials said.
Smoking in Utah dipped to a new low in 2008, with only 9.1 percent of adults reporting they used cigarettes.
The adult smoking rate fluctuated in recent years, hitting 11.2 percent in both 2005 and 2007. But overall, the percentage of Utahns who smoke has dropped from 13.5 percent in 1999. . . .
Call Utah's Quit Line at 1-888-567-TRUTH to discover the resources available.
A new report is casting doubt on whether a higher cigarette tax would be a good idea in Utah.
The report from the Utah Tax Review Commission was released Thursday. It acknowledges raising the cigarette tax from 69.5 cents per pack to $2 could add an additional $50 million to the state budget. But the commission's report says the tax targets a narrow base of taxpayers, it's regressive in nature and squeezes money from people with an addiction.
"It caused a lot of stress for a lot of people for [the company] to say you can't chew anymore," said Shelly, who testified last month before an United Mine Workers of America arbitrator. Miners had challenged a ban on smokeless tobacco use at the Emery County mine.
Arbitrator Fred Butler ruled in the union's favor Friday, determining that Energy West Mining Corp.'s new policy, officially implemented (but not enforced) July 1, violated the company's collective bargaining agreement covering 276 Deer Creek miners and 17 prep plant workers.
Energy West is the mining subsidiary of Rocky Mountain Power and its parent companies, PacifiCorp and MidAmerican Holdings Co., which enacted the policy at all of their properties.
Butler ruled that chewing tobacco is a prior practice that should be allowed to continue because it is not in conflict with the existing collective bargaining agreement.
In addition, Shelly and other union witnesses at the arbitration session argued that many miners are addicted to chewing tobacco.
Intermountain Healthcare is issuing an ultimatum to its lobbying corps: Kick tobacco or else.
The region's largest health-care provider sent letters this month to its contract lobbyists -- including former House Speaker Greg Curtis -- demanding that they sign a conflict-of-interest statement vowing not to lobby on behalf of tobacco companies or Intermountain would terminate their pacts.
"The purpose of the statement is to preclude Intermountain lobbyists from working for tobacco interests, and to force current lobbyists who represent tobacco to choose one side or the other," said the letter from Alan Dayton, Intermountain's director of government relations.
Five lobbyists worked for both Intermountain and tobacco companies in the past legislative session: Curtis, Miles and Sue Ferry, their grandson David Stewart and Rob Jolley.
"We're tightening our policy," Intermountain spokesman Daron Cowley said. "We felt it was incongruous for firms to represent health care and tobacco at the same time." . . .
During the 2009 legislative session, a team of tobacco lobbyists helped derail various efforts to increase the cigarette tax by anywhere from 61.5 cents to $1.31 per pack, but the proposal promises to be back again next year. Utah's current cigarette tax is 69.5 cents per pack.
"Their role was significant," said Michael Siler . . .
Sue Ferry said her husband, Miles "Cap" Ferry, a former Senate president, and their grandson will stick with the tobacco company.
"We will be staying with Altria. We've represented them a much longer period of time," she said. "[Intermountain] has known from the very beginning that we represented [Altria] and up until this last session that hasn't been a conflict or a problem." . . .
"This company," she said, "has never asked me to do one thing that would be contrary to the health, safety or welfare of the people of Utah or my religion."
This company has never asked me to do one thing that would be contrary to the health, safety or welfare of the people of Utah or my religion.Utah Altria lobbyist Sue Ferry.
nd are on the line Wednesday.
That's when an arbitrator is scheduled to hear a United Mine Workers of America challenge of a new policy that forbids employees of the Deer Creek mine and the Castle Dale preparation plant from having a pinch between their cheek and gum on the job.
The policy became effective July 1 at the Emery County operations by Energy West Mining Co., the unionized coal mining subsidiary of Rocky Mountain Power, at the behest of its parent companies, PacifiCorp and MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co.
"It is a policy consistent across MidAmerican Energy," said Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen. "The company is concerned about the health and safety of its employees. A tobacco-free workplace is healthier and safer for everyone."
Dave Maggio, the union's international representative from Price-based District 22, which includes Utah, spit on that argument, while acknowledging that some miners are addicted to the product.
"We have guys dying of black lung [disease]. We have guys inhaling diesel fumes on a daily basis. We have guys who suffer back, knee and ankle injuries up the kazoo," he said. "But we've seen no ill effects from chewing tobacco. None. And I've been in this industry 30 years.