http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/state/TN.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://timesfreepress.com/news/2008/jul/08/chattanooga-airport-inn-fire-loss-estimated-750000/ http://tobacco.org/news/268421.html Chattanooga fire officials have estimated the dollar loss at about $750,000 from Monday’s fire at the Airport Inn on Lee Highway. ... The exact cause may never be confirmed, Mr. Garner said. However, Lt. Moore said many cigarette butts were found in the area where the fire started. Chattanooga Times & Free Press feedback@timesfreepress.com Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.newschannel9.com/news/fire_969979___article.html/started_moore.html http://tobacco.org/news/268420.html Fire investigators say a discarded cigarette may have started the fire at a Chattanooga motel yesterday, although they may never know for sure. Spokesperson Bruce Garners says they estimate $750,000 in damage. Lieutenant Anthony Moore with the Fire Investigation Division said 8 to 10 rooms were damaged by fire or water. Some adjacent rooms sustained smoke damage. WTVC NewsChannel 9 rsimms@newschannel9.com (Richard Simms) Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.ktre.com/Global/story.asp?S=8581463 http://tobacco.org/news/268027.html Come July 1st, smoking is not allowed in any public building in the City of Nacogdoches, that includes offices, restaurants and even bars. Officers will be enforcing the new city ordinance. Violators can be fined up to two thousand dollars. Nacogdoches County Judge Joe English says the transition should be a relatively smooth one for the county courthouse. "We've been complying. The county's been complying with the smoking policy for a long time. We don't allow smoking within the courthouse. Part of our policy is we have signs posted at the entrance and exit and this is a no smoking facility." KTRE_TV Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/jul/02/walls-bans-smoking-in-public-places/ http://tobacco.org/news/267998.html The town of Walls has banned smoking in public places except bars. The Board of Aldermen voted unanimously Tuesday night to accept the ban, which will require restaurants to have enclosed smoking areas and businesses to have designated areas outside. Memphis Commercial Appeal Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080629/NEWS02/806290403 http://tobacco.org/news/267850.html Officials are still assessing the impact of the tripling of Tennessee's cigarette tax as some smokers have begun buying in other states to save money. . . . Tennessee's cigarette tax increased July 1, 2007, in a move intended to help fund a half-billion dollar plan to improve public schools. Now the tax is higher than that of eight neighboring states. Three months later, the state also launched a ban on smoking in offices, restaurants and other public places and limited smoking to adult-only businesses, such as bars or smoking lounges. Tennessee's higher general sales-tax rate and extra 25-cents-per-pack tax over neighboring Georgia has some Chattanooga smokers heading south of the border to buy cigarettes. . . . Tennessee ranks No. 5 nationally in tobacco use at 24.3 percent, behind Kentucky 28.2 percent, West Virginia 26.9 percent, Oklahoma 25.8 percent and Missouri 24.5 percent, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention records show. "We call it the 'Tennessee trifecta,"' said Pete Fisher, vice president for state issues at the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids The Tennessean Sun, 29 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-06-23-airport-check-in-memphis-smoke-ban_N.htm?csp=34 http://tobacco.org/news/267443.html Tennessee's new anti-smoking law prohibits lighting up in enclosed public places. Memphis International Airport officials believe an exemption should be made for its restaurant patrons. Two restaurants at the airport -- the Blue Note Cafe and Maggie O'Shea's -- have been issued notices of potential violations, and state officials are reviewing whether to pursue enforcement action, according to a report by the Memphis Commercial Appeal, which first reported on the flap. Smoking is still allowed in over-21 bars, hotels and motels. But airport facilities aren't granted the same exemption because "They are enclosed facilities within an enclosed facility," Carter Garner of the Tennessee Department of Health told the newspaper. The airport contends that the law would force connecting passengers to go outside to smoke and undergo the hassle of re-entering security checkpoints. Sara Hall, the airport's general counsel, says the bars have "sophisticated ventilation systems" that provide safer air-quality levels than the law requires. USA Today accuracy@usatoday.com (Roger Yu, USA TODAY) Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080620/NEWS01/80620028 http://tobacco.org/news/267351.html This is in response to Peter Watson's column last Sunday on the tobacco ban. Watson is dead wrong. First, although there may be a ban on smoking near the hospital entrances, no one adheres to it. . . . Watson might as well say that all able-bodied visitors must use the stairs instead of elevators. He worries about protecting the “rights” of smokers, but that is not the real issue. The real issue is the health of the non-smokers who enter the building. This country was founded on majority rule. We all know that sometimes that is a bad way to run a society. However, a majority has every right to look after its own well-being if doing so does not adversely affect the rights of a minority. And forcing people to move off property does not adversely affect their rights. It merely inconveniences them. Jackson Sun Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://nashville.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/06/16/daily55.html http://tobacco.org/news/267306.html State officials have received 551complaints since Tennessee's restaurant smoking ban went into effect in October 2007. Complaints range from failure to post no smoking signs to complaints of customers smoking in a non-designated areas. According to Milissa Reierson, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, when a complaint is filed restaurants receive an advisory letter. Nashville Business Journal Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/jun/15/memphis-airport-officials-challenge-anti-smoking/?partner=yahoo_headlines http://tobacco.org/news/266972.html Putting the state's new anti-smoking law to a high-profile test, Memphis International Airport officials contend that passengers enduring layovers between long flights shouldn't have to go outside for a smoke break. But Tennessee's year-old Non-Smokers Protection Act says they do, according to state health officials. The airport has contested violation notices given to the Blue Note Cafe and Maggie O'Shea's -- two establishments in the terminal that have smoking areas -- claiming a number of exemptions to the law. The dispute is now being examined by lawyers for the Tennessee Department of Health and the state Department of Labor & Workforce Development Memphis Commercial Appeal Sun, 15 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_129622.asp http://tobacco.org/news/266881.html Several weeks ago I wrote an article that deplored the filthy conditions of Chattanooga's Erlanger Hospital and, this time last week, I took several hospital officials on a brief tour of what I'd seen in the four weeks prior to my article when I was taking intravenous antibiotics every day at the hospital. So today I want to propose a no-smoking ban on the entire Erlanger campus. As a smoker, that is understandably a hard thing for me to do, but, as a patient, it is glaringly obvious that smokers are one of the worst reasons I consider the hospital's Blackford Street entrance so nasty it makes me want to wash my hands. . . . No, to me this is a no-brainer, a huge step in eliminating the cigarette butts and the overflowing trash cans and the empty wrappers that my fellow smokers think nobody will notice. The hospital and the people who work there deserve better. We need to do everything we can to assure that. Chattanoogan.com royexum@aol.com (Roy Exum) Thu, 12 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://jacksonsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080527/NEWS01/80527022 http://tobacco.org/news/266007.html I read The Jackson Sun's recent editorial, "New Tobacco-free policy is just common sense" and commend The Jackson-Madison County Regional Health Department, the Regional Hospital of Jackson and West Tennessee Healthcare for the responsible decision they have made to go tobacco-free on their campuses. . . . As a family physician, I have patients who have tried to quit at least three to four times before being successful. In recent years, we have learned the key to successfully quitting is a combination of smoking cessation medication and a behavior modification program. Few smokers can quit cold turkey, so programs like the state's Tennessee Tobacco Quitline (1-800-QUIT-NOW) are important Jackson Sun Tue, 27 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://nashville.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/05/19/focus3.html?b=1211169600%5E1635917 http://tobacco.org/news/265785.html Employers in the state are doing more to help workers quit smoking, especially since Tennessee passed strict workplace and restaurant anti-smoking laws in 2007. State officials estimate nicotine addiction costs $2.16 billion in annual health care costs in Tennessee. Nashville engineering firm Smith Seckman Reid Inc. increased its outreach to smokers this year with an extensive wellness program that focuses on lifestyle choices, education and support. Nashville Business Journal Mon, 19 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/OPINION01/805190337/1007/OPINION http://tobacco.org/news/265553.html One of Tennessee's priorities should be to combat tobacco use by adequately funding programs to prevent kids from smoking and to help smokers quit. It should be a priority, but it isn't. If it were, our leaders would allocate more money for tobacco prevention. The Tennessean Mon, 19 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080519/OPINION01/805190340/1007/OPINION http://tobacco.org/news/265552.html Tennessee is doing a slightly better job than before at directing funds to fighting tobacco use in the state, but the state's overall record still has to be considered dismal. Almost from the beginning, Tennessee lawmakers decided to put hard-won money from the settlement with tobacco companies into the state's general fund. . . . Neighboring state Kentucky has devoted about $35 million in tobacco settlement funds toward its Kentucky Lung Cancer Research Program. Tennessee may have started the wrong way on handling settlement money, but it's not too late to change course. The settlement funds come from a direct, deadly deception by tobacco companies that were intent on addicting as many people as possible to their products and targeting children along the way. The state should take offense at such activity, to the point it should be just as determined to rid the state of the diseases caused by the tobacco firms' tactics. Tennessee should get this issue right. The Tennessean Mon, 19 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2008/05/19/focus3.html?b=1211169600%5E1635917 http://tobacco.org/news/265511.html Employers in the state are doing more to help workers quit smoking, especially since Tennessee passed strict workplace and restaurant anti-smoking laws in 2007. State officials estimate nicotine addiction costs $2.16 billion in annual health care costs in Tennessee. Nashville engineering firm Smith Seckman Reid Inc. increased its outreach to smokers this year with an extensive wellness program that focuses on lifestyle choices, education and support. "We're recognizing that the average person may take up to 18 times to quit," says Betsy Crow, director of human resources at Smith Seckman Reid. "We want to be proactive and help people think about their lifestyle choices. "Smoking does increase health care costs for every employer," Nashville Business Journal Mon, 19 May 2008 04:00:00 GMT