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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."
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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.
Police have arrested a West Valley City man suspected of stealing more than $40,000 in cigarettes during supermarket burglaries.
The 53-year-old man was arrested Tuesday morning in his home, said Orem police Lt. Gary Downey. Police released information about the case to the media in June, and received an anonymous tip that broke the case, he said. The man has a history of drug and weapons possession charges.
The Box Elder County Commission passed a smoking ban Tuesday that prohibits smoking at the county fairgrounds and on county courthouse property. The ban starts immediately.
"That might be real tough," said Commissioner Jay Hardy. "I don't know how many cowboys still smoke."
There are already county and federal rules banning smoking in county vehicles and inside public buildings.
The new regulation does not affect chewing tobacco, Hardy said.
The air at the county fair will be a little cleaner this year, thanks to a new “no smoking” ordinance passed by the Box Elder County Commission on Tuesday.
County Commissioner Jay Hardy said this new ordinance will ban smoking on property owned by the county.
Currently, there is an ordinance in place banning smoking in county owned vehicles, and thanks to the Clean Air Act, there is no smoking in public buildings. This new ordinance will include the grounds around the courthouse, the fair grounds, and the parking lots at the courthouse and fair grounds, Hardy said.
“I don’t know how many cowboys smoke anymore,” Hardy said, “but they’ll be affected.”
Logan Jones still doesn't have the nerve to tell his mother he's a founding member of an anti-tobacco group.
It's not like they talk much anyway.
Sometimes, like this year, she'll call on his birthday. Then he won't hear from her for months.
In fact, Logan can't even remember what she looks like anymore.
Ten years ago she left 6-year-old Logan and his younger twin sisters for the drug and alcohol life. And she probably still smokes, he says matter-of-factly.
Then, four years after his mom left, Logan's dad died of pneumonia — lung complications caused by secondhand smoke. The 42-year-old father hadn't smoked a day in his life but worked with people who did, Logan said.
Smoking may have taken two people from Logan, but it left him with a magnetic resolve to create something positive from his losses. . . .
After all, he's only one member of OUTRAGE, the group of Utah County teens working to clear the air and spread the word.
"Everyone in the group has a pretty powerful story," Logan said. "They're in it for a reason. They're not just there to have fun. We really go out and do stuff."
That "stuff" began when the group of dedicated teens and energetic coordinator Jen Tischler went city-to-city educating councils about why a countywide smoking ban was needed in parks and recreation areas.
Provo students received the President's Environmental Youth Award on Wednesday for their efforts to make Utah County parks smoke-free.
The Environmental Protection Agency honored middle school and high school students who are part of the OUTRAGE Anti-Tobacco Youth Group for their efforts in collecting cigarette butts in parks and organizing community sessions to inform the public about the dangers of secondhand smoke.