http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/state/AK.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.adn.com/life/health/story/445904.html http://tobacco.org/news/267663.html The good news: Alaskans are smoking a lot less than they were five years ago. The bad news: We're older, fatter and more arthritic. So says a new federal survey that shows Alaskans are slightly less healthy than national norms. Anchorage Daily News gbryson@adn.com (GEORGE BRYSON) Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://newsminer.com/news/2008/jun/25/alaskans-smoking-less-getting-older-fatter/ http://tobacco.org/news/267619.html Alaskans are smoking a lot less than they were five years ago, but a federal survey shows residents of the 49th state are slightly less healthy overall than the rest of the country. The number of adult Alaskans who smoke has fallen from 29 percent in 2002 to 22 percent in 2007. On the other hand, only 12 states — all in the southeastern U.S. — showed higher rates of obesity than Alaska. In general, Alaskans have gotten older, fatter and more arthritic. The numbers came from a survey by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. AP Wed, 25 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/061308/loc_290344126.shtml http://tobacco.org/news/267427.html Now 18, Michael is in his fourth year of busting clerks who sell tobacco to teens. Charged with enforcing age restrictions on tobacco sales, state Department of Health and Human Services investigators send kids such as Michael - called "confidential informants" or "youth inspectors" - into gas stations and grocery stores around Alaska. The state fines and suspends the tobacco endorsements of those who are caught. Last year, from 407 random inspections, the state issued 40 citations and assessed 49 fines for underage tobacco sales, according to a report. Nine endorsements were suspended. None were revoked. In Juneau this year, the Mendenhall Valley Tesoro, Fred Meyer and a Breeze In have been temporarily forbidden to sell tobacco products. Juneau Empire kate.golden@juneauempire.com ( Kate Golden * JUNEAU EMPIRE) Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/22/magazine/22Plastics-t.html http://tobacco.org/news/267397.html Flint is a wildlife biologist with the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. One seabird she studies is the Laysan albatross, which, thanks to a recent Greenpeace ad campaign, has become plastic pollution’s most famous victim — its poster bird, if you will. The ad shows a photograph in which a slimy casserole of bottle caps, cigarette lighters and unidentifiable plastic shards spills from the downy belly of a necropsied Laysan albatross chick. “How to starve to death on a full stomach,” the caption reads. . . . Fleischli would have us tax the most pervasive and noxious plastic pollutants — shopping bags, plastic-foam containers, cigarette butts, plastic utensils — and put the proceeds toward cleanup and prevention measures. “We already use a portion of the gasoline tax to pay for oil spills,” Fleischli says. Such levies shouldn’t be seen as criminalizing the makers and sellers of plastic disposables, he argues; they merely force those businesses to “internalize” previously hidden costs, what economists call “externalities.” This market-based approach to environmental regulation, known as extended producer responsibility, is increasingly popular with environmental groups. By sticking others with the ecological cleaning bill, the thinking goes, businesses have been able to keep the price of disposable plastics artificially low. And as Pallister learned at Gore Point, the cleaning bill may be greater than we can afford. New York Times Sun, 22 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://newsminer.com/news/2008/jun/18/smoking-down-20-percent-alaska/ http://tobacco.org/news/267139.html Alaska’s air is less smoky than it was last decade with cigarette smoking down 20 percent from 1996 state levels. Roughly 21 percent of Alaskans reported smoking in a new behavioral survey by the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services based on 2007 data. This number is about 27,000 people lower than 12 years ago. Fairbanks weighs in a hair above the state average with a 22 percent smoking rate, down from 26 percent a decade ago. Smoking statewide declined most steeply among women and adults, and smoking by Alaska Native youths was chopped almost in half. Yet rates are still spiking in rural areas, among Alaska Native adults and among low-income non-Native adults. Progress varied depending on factors such as region, age, race and ethnicity and income level. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner newsroom@newsminer.com (Molly Rettig, For the News-Miner) Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/435235.html http://tobacco.org/news/266898.html After fiery debate, the Wasilla City Council agreed Monday to hold off on imposing a smoking ban in city-owned vehicles. The ban was postponed until the City Council gets advice from an attorney representing the city through union negotiations. Four unions have applied to represent city employees in various departments. Anchorage Daily News rwhite@adn.com (RINDI WHITE) Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.juneauempire.com/stories/051608/nei_279760041.shtml http://tobacco.org/news/265413.html The Juneau Clean Air Coalition donned brooms and dustpans to clean downtown streets for Litter Free Clean Up Day on May 10. "We'd heard complaints about the cigarette butts downtown so we chose to clean up that area as our community service project," said Wendy Hamilton, Tobacco Program Coordinator for the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. "The amount of cigarette butts was surprising, especially considering the City Street Maintenance crews clean the sidewalks and streets seven mornings a week in the summertime," she said. Most people don't think of cigarette butts as litter, but in fact, cigarettes are the most littered item in America and the world. Research shows that individuals who would never consider littering an aluminum can or a piece of paper may be littering cigarette butts. "Cigarette butt litter is a worldwide environmental threat," Hamilton stated. Juneau Empire Fri, 16 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://newsminer.com/news/2008/may/03/new-alcohol-drug-tobacco-rules-oversee-student-act/ http://tobacco.org/news/264527.html JUNEAU — Students will have to abide by new rules regarding drug, alcohol and tobacco use if they want to participate in sports and other extracurricular activities next fall. Schools had been developing their own guidelines until now, but the Alaska School Activities Association board of directors this week adopted a statewide policy that includes penalties that are cumulative and grow progressively harsher with each violation. More than 70 percent of the 40,000 students in Alaska participate in some kind of extracurricular activity, said Gary Matthews, ASAA executive director. “We have something that kids want to do and that’s to be able to play. In order to be able to play we hold them to higher standards now,” . . . The penalties range from a 10-day suspension from activities for a first offense . . . If a student is caught using tobacco during the suspension, the clock starts over. The student must complete the 10 days no matter how many times the suspension is restarted. AP Sat, 03 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.adn.com/play/bars/story/343538.html http://tobacco.org/news/261301.html We now party in a world of smokeless venues, congregations of smoke clouds lingering above sidewalks, designated smoking sheds (of varying comfort levels) and divisions between smokers and nonsmokers. Nearly a year ago, local voters endorsed a law to ban smoking in public places by a more than 2-to-1 margin, and on July 1, 2007, it went into effect and the nightlife scene changed forever. But the issue is still smoking. When reached for this column, some venue owners refused to comment, bristling at the mention of the ban. Most party people either love the ban or hate it, but many bartenders are torn -- they admit hesitation to push patrons outdoors but relish that they now get off work with smoke-free uniforms. Anchorage Daily News Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/27alaska.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=tobacco&st=nyt&oref=slogin&oref=slogin http://tobacco.org/news/260392.html Lawyers for the Alaska Native coastal village of Kivalina, which is being forced to relocate because of flooding caused by the changing Arctic climate, filed suit in federal court here Tuesday arguing that 5 oil companies, 14 electric utilities and the country’s largest coal company were responsible for the village’s woes. The suit is the latest effort to hold companies like BP America, Chevron, Peabody Energy, Duke Energy and the Southern Company responsible for the impact of global warming because they emit millions of tons of greenhouse gases, or, in the case of Peabody, mine and market carbon-laden coal that is burned by others. It accused the companies of creating a public nuisance. In an unusual move, those five companies and three other defendants — the Exxon Mobil Corporation, American Electric Power and the Conoco Phillips Company — are also accused of conspiracy. “There has been a long campaign by power, coal and oil companies to mislead the public about the science of global warming,” the suit says. The campaign, it says, contributed “to the public nuisance of global warming by convincing the public at large and the victims of global warming that the process is not man-made when in fact it is.” . . . Some lawyers in the case participated in the long-running litigation against American tobacco companies in the 1990s, and some of the same legal theories echo through the complaint. But the hurdles may be greater than those in the tobacco wars. Global warming is a diffuse worldwide phenomenon; a successful public nuisance case requires that defendants’ behavior be directly linked to the harm. New York Times Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/327030.html http://tobacco.org/news/260361.html Bar owners in Juneau say the city's new smoking ban is ruining their businesses. They spoke Monday night at the Juneau Assembly meeting. The Assembly is considering a rewrite of the smoking ordinance. AP Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://juneauempire.com/stories/022608/loc_251281251.shtml http://tobacco.org/news/260327.html A barrage of bar owners told Assembly members Monday night that the smoking ban is ruining the bar business in Juneau. The comments came during the public testimony for a rewritten smoking ordinance, the "Second Hand Smoke Control Code." The Assembly held over the proposed ordinance in favor of more discussion at the next Assembly work session. The ordinance was rewritten by city attorney John Hartle at the request of the Assembly as a way to close loopholes allowing some private clubs to escape enforcement. Juneau Empire Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://juneauempire.com/stories/021208/loc_246226290.shtml http://tobacco.org/news/259647.html The Juneau Assembly introduced an ordinance Monday closing gaps in the smoking ban that officials claim keep the city from fully enforcing the law. If adopted at the next Assembly meeting, the new code would define a "bar" as any business, other than a restaurant, licensed by the state to sell alcoholic drinks. It is currently defined by type of liquor license. The proposed ordinance continues to ban smoking in previously regulated locations, adds clarifying details and expands banned areas to include outdoor seating at restaurants and coffee shops. It would also rename the Smoking in Public Places Ordinance. The citywide smoking ban pertaining to bars went into effect on Jan. 2. Juneau Empire Tue, 12 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://juneauempire.com/stories/020808/loc_245092987.shtml http://tobacco.org/news/259425.html A plumber working at the Thunder Mountain High School construction site recently reported to the city that workers were smoking inside and he wanted it to stop. The city bans smoking at workplaces. The last phase of the city's smoking prohibition, which bans smoking in bars, went into effect Jan. 2. Jeremy Roselle said Thunder Mountain is being built with "tobacco-stained" walls from workers' smoke as they rush to finish the school by the August deadline. He said some workers top off the indoor air pollution by throwing cigarette butts into spaces between the walls of the $60 million school. "The walls are full of cigarette butts," he said. "It's unsanitary." Juneau Empire greg.skinner@juneauempire.com (Greg Skinner * JUNEAU EMPIRE) Fri, 08 Feb 2008 05:00:00 GMT http://aprn.org/2008/01/02/put-it-out-juneau-bars-now-smoke-free/ http://tobacco.org/news/257540.html Smoking in a Juneau bar is now illegal. Beginning today, both smokers and bar owners could be fined for violating the ordinance that extends Juneau’s smoking ban to bars. Alaska Public Radio Network Wed, 02 Jan 2008 05:00:00 GMT