These two are so anti-smoking it makes one sick! Thank God Pataki is gone!!!! He is responsible for making the whole state of New York smoke free. And I don't care if he is a Republican. BOTH are Republican in name only!!!
Posted on 09/23/2007 9:28:23 PM PDT by jmyrlefuller
Smokers, already pushed outside in New York, may be getting more grief than usual for lighting up in public places thanks to a new ad campaign designed to discourage smoking around children.
The state's $5 million campaign, one more push for champions of the anti-smoking movement, came at the same time a report by the U.S. Surgeon General indicates infants and young children are especially vulnerable to secondhand smoke. One print ad warns "when you smoke around your kids, they smoke too. By the age of 5 they'll have inhaled over 100 packs."
For years, state health officials and the Democrat-led Assembly have tried to limit smoking indoors and out, and some have focused their efforts on smoking around children in particular. The New York State Clean Indoor Air Act prohibits smoking in virtually all workplaces, including restaurants, bars and most other public indoor spaces.
"I think smoking in a car with a child has a more lasting effect than giving a child a slap in the face," said Assemblyman Ivan Lafayette, D-Queens. "They're both horrible things, but one is going to kill the child ... I know that's a hard comparison, but that's the reality of it."
Lafayette has introduced — and reintroduced — a bill that would ban smoking in cars with minors younger than 16. The measure has been kicking around unsuccessfully for nearly 10 years.
Meanwhile, other states have been more successful passing similar legislation.
Arkansas now bans smoking in cars with children age 6 and younger, while Louisiana has limited it when children 13 and younger are in the vehicle. Twenty states have considered similar legislation, including California, where a bill has passed the Legislature and was sent to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Wednesday, according to National Conference of State Legislatures.
Various cities and municipalities have also considered limiting smoking in cars with minors, including Bangor, Maine, and Keyport, N.J.
Secondhand smoke is estimated to cause between 22,700 and 67,600 premature deaths from heart disease and about 3,000 lung cancer deaths each year among nonsmokers in the United States.
"There is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke," said state Health Commissioner Dr. Richard Daines. "Children are particularly vulnerable because they are still developing and their smaller size means the dose of toxins is greater."
One measure that failed to pass the Assembly would ban smoking on playgrounds, while another would make it illegal to smoke on beaches or in public parks.
Assemblywoman Sandra Galef, D-Ossining, sponsored the bill to ban smoking on playgrounds. The measure stalled because legislators couldn't agree on the definition of a playground.
"The scientific reports say that secondhand smoke has as much of a negative effect on your health as smoking directly," Galef said. "And we certainly want to be sure we keep smoke away from children who don't have the opportunity to walk away from it, and I think adults have to learn more responsible behavior around children."
"It's an intolerance campaign," said Audrey Silk, of New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment. "They don't want anyone to enjoy a cigarette. They're exploiting the children, it's the usual red flag."
Silk added that any outdoor smoking bans would be largely unenforceable.
Nonetheless, state lawmakers and health advocates continue to push for stricter regulations that would further limit smokers.
While New York has considered bans against smoking around children and in some public areas, other states and cities have managed to pass similar measures.
Texas, Oklahoma, Washington, Vermont and Alaska have prohibited smoking around foster children in homes, cars, or both, said Kathleen Dachille, director of the Legal Resource Center for Tobacco Regulation, Litigation & Advocacy at the University of Maryland School of Law. Maine and Montana foster care systems have regulations that prohibit smoking around children in the system.
At least three states — besides New York — have proposed legislation to prohibit smoking on beaches: California, Hawaii and Rhode Island.
Some municipalities in California already prohibit smoking on beaches, both for health reasons and to eliminate litter.
The secondhand smoke ads will run in the state through the end of October, and cessation ads will begin in November and play through the holiday season.
This year, the state's Tobacco Control Program has spent $85 million, said Claire Pospisil, a Health Department spokeswoman.
New York State/smoking ban pings of interest.
If being around smoking is so bad for the children, why do states fund health care for children on the backs of smokers by added taxes? It doesn’t make sense to limit smoking areas if increased taxes are wanted.
These two are so anti-smoking it makes one sick! Thank God Pataki is gone!!!! He is responsible for making the whole state of New York smoke free. And I don't care if he is a Republican. BOTH are Republican in name only!!!
The states should commend smokers because of the taxes they pay....not ban them!
Maine is the same.
Thanks for the ping!
What about pets, idiot? I have had pets all my life and they live long and healthy. And their lungs are very small, and they lived in a smoking household!
I smoked before, during and after I gave birth to a very healthy baby girl. She has grown up to be a very healthy adult woman!
Hey idiot! Let's do this:
We will sit in our cars in our garage with the door down. You have your motor running. I will have 6 smoking friends in the car with me and we will smoke for one hour with the windows closed!
I wonder who will come out of that garage alive? You simple idiot!
Always! 
May 27, 2007 -- While Mayor Bloomberg tries to make the world safe from greenhouse gases, his cigarette ban is going up in smoke.
Scores of trendy clubs and neighborhood pubs across the five boroughs have become smoking speakeasies, where bartenders and bouncers regularly ignore the prohibition launched in 2003.
The Post spotted scofflaw smokers openly puffing away in a dozen bars and clubs in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island during the past few weeks - including celebrity hangouts Bungalow 8, Tenjune, Butter, Marquee, Plumm and Guest House.
The violations The Post witnessed include:
* A bartender and 15 patrons smoking all night inside Doyle's Corner bar in Astoria on the rainy night of May 16. The same scenario was witnessed several weeks earlier.
* A half-dozen hipster patrons at Brooklyn Ale House in Williamsburg smoking openly at the bar and at back tables early Saturday morning.
* A bartender at Boat in Brooklyn saying, "It's 12:30. You can smoke now," as they passed out makeshift ashtrays last Wednesday night.
Earlier, she told a patron to stop smoking, but after her announcement, a number of patrons started up again and the bar was filled with smokers for another hour.
* Dozens of smokers puffing on the dance floor and in the VIP area at the Marquee club on back-to-back nights as security guards looked the other way last week.
* At least 10 people smoking in Chelsea's small, exclusive club Bungalow 8 Thursday night. A security guard walked past the smokers to tell The Post, "You can't take pictures in here."
* Half the patrons of the Annadale Inn in Staten Island lighting up in the wee hours after the bartender closed the window gate to keep out prying eyes several weeks ago.
* Several smokers blowing smoke in the small basement of Lit Lounge on Second Avenue last week.
"They used to" enforce the smoking ban, Brett, a Marquee regular, told The Post last week. "But they barely pay attention now."
Smoking has been prohibited in bars, nightclubs and restaurants since March 2003, after the Bloomberg initiative became law in the fall of 2002.
Establishments are responsible for prohibiting smoking indoors, putting up "no smoking" signs and eliminating all ashtrays. Smokers are not punished.
Fines of up to $2,000 can be issued for every violation, and after three in one year businesses could lose their licenses. From April 2006 to March 2007, nine businesses were permanently shut due to smoking.
The city Department of Health said most businesses have been compliant, although there are violators. "We can't be everywhere all the time," a spokeswoman said.
Agency statistics show 199 establishments hit with 542 violations from April 2006 to March 2007, compared to 162 establishments getting 258 violations in the prior 12-month period. The number of complaints dropped from about 3,000 to 2,000 from last year to this year.
"It's a lose-lose," said an employee of a popular club on West 27th Street. "If we send people outside to smoke, people in the neighborhood got annoyed about the noise. If we let them smoke inside, we get hit with fines."
Allowing smoking indoors is "the lesser of two evils," he said.
Katie Browne, 26, a New Jersey paralegal and frequent clubgoer, said she has noticed a rise in smoking at nightspots over the past year.
"I hate it. My clothes are back to smelling like smoke, and it's gross," she said. "But there's no doubt about it - smoking's back."
Additional reporting by James Fanelli and Elizabeth Wolff
Let's go back to Dec. 30, 2002, when Bloomberg said of the bar-smoking ban, "We will save literally tens of thousands of lives."
He was talking about secondhand smoke in bars and restaurants and said we would all be healthier, if not wealthier, after the city curtailed it.
So smoking became the first legal product sold in New York that was partly banned in the city, based on Bloomberg's medical expertise, or access to pristine statistics about the effects of secondhand smoke in bars.
Some bars have lost from 10 to 30 percent of their business from Bloomberg's genius as a medical doctor - not to mention places that have gone out of business and lost the city tax money.
In fact, there has been absolutely no scientific, completely scientific study that links secondhand smoke to cancer. The city has never come up with one credible statistic.
But there has been a complete scientific study - from Mount Sinai research that shows that at least 70 percent of the thousands who labored at Ground Zero as first responders reported, and proved, that they had awful trouble breathing or worse.
Some are dead.
Bloomberg thinks these highly respected doctors are so crazy that they're barbecuing with the leprechauns.
"I don't believe that you can say specifically a particular problem came from this particular effect. There is no way to tell for sure and you've got to be very careful . . . If I say, 'I've got something because of this,' that's not just the way it works," said Dr. Bloomberg.
So now I have it perfectly clear: You ban smoking in bars with no statistics on secondhand smoke, but you are telling Mount Sinai, one of the best facilities in the world, they don't know their ear from their elbow when it comes to poison attacking the lungs like a spear.
Mayor Bloomberg, stick to politics and being a genius businessman, but you are as much of a medical expert as Dr. Kildare.
I call B.S.
LOL! Long after these absurb figures were discredited, they're still pushed in the media. I guess that's the only way they can keep the hysteria going, until smokers are all strung up by lynch mobs claiming "self defense."
I don’t think smoking should be banned. The government should just deny medicaid to smokers and eliminate tobacco subsidies.
Oh sure. Take away MORE money from the government! Seniors DO pay for Medicare you know!
What a idiot you are!
Not nearly as much as they get.
It’s one thing to allow smoking. It’s another altogether to have the government subsidize it. That goes for just about anything.
The government has eliminated tobacco subsidies and guess what? Tobacco is now, once again, a cash crop being grown and sold for money that's worth more, per acre, than corn or wheat.
As for denying medicaid, go for it, just give me back all the money I've paid into it.
It’s one thing to allow smoking. It’s another altogether to have the government subsidize it. That goes for just about anything.
How do you figure? It's the smoker's tax dollars that is keeping this going. And the government just keeps increasing the taxes "to balance their damn budgets." Well, we are TIRED of it!
Being a legal product, why shouldn't tobacco be grown in the U.S.??? Since the government started condemning tobacco, the tobacco farmers are really suffering. A lot of them started planting something else.
I said medicaid, not medicare.
How did you pay for medicaid? Only poor people get it.
So, everyone that collects medicade was poor all their lives?
Only nonpoor people pay for it.
You want me to not even have the CHANCE to collect medicaid should I suddenly become poor?
Give me all the money I paid for the medicaid program back.
I accept. Please mail me the immediate refund of all medicare and SS taxes I have paid, over my life, right now. I will retire and leave for a free country.
No, but once you are poor and collecting medicaid, you don’t have the right to ruin your health and use food stamps to buy junk food. You have the right to ruin your health but once you get everyone else to pay for it you have a responsibility to take care of yourself.
you don’t have a contract that gives you a right to SS and medicare just because you paid taxes your whole life. It will probably be cut for everyone.
LOL. you are exactly correct - but since you suggested cutting benefits for smokers, I accept. Cut me now.
Give me my damn money back, because in any rational analysis, smokers are carrying the weight for non-smokers.
And anyone who tells you different has all the credibility of Josclyn Elders.
Give me my damn money back, because in any rational analysis, smokers are carrying the weight for non-smokers.
-
Most smokers are poor. It is the rich that are paying most of the taxes and they deserve a break.
Poor people who never paid for the cost of medicaid should not expect to get free care with no conditions.
And many poor people are overweight, smoke and yet they still expect to be treated the same as those who take care of themselves.
The funny thing about this is,, how have people lived so long while smoking so much??
I leave it to you, ladies.
Anything I say will get me in trouble.
they get diseases such as cancer. That’s what costs so much.
With all the crap you smokers have to take I wonder why you still smoke. I support property owners’ rights to decide whether smoking should be allowed on their property. I oppose smoking in closed cars with kids, only because I had to live through it (although it is NOT worse than being slapped—I got that too). I don’t support laws against smoking in cars, only consideration for kids and others. I think smokers lose the ability to tell how uncomfortable it can make others because they become used to the smoke.
If I'm expected to pay for my own health care, then I want all the money I put into it back.
That's only fair and right.
For one thing, if I'm poor I'm not going to be buying cigarettes or tobacco.
My entire income will be spent trying to keep myself OFF the government dole.
I smoke because I love the actual act of smoking. The nicotine I can live without. But I LOVE to smoke!!!
What an obnoxious and ridiculous statement. I guess when you move to your "free country" you will have "free health care" under its system of socialized medicine, so you won't need to worry about medicare or anything like it. When you leave for a free country, will you please take Alec Baldwin and Cher and Michael Moore with you?
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