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Just Say No Smoking Malcolm A. Kline, December 16, 2009 On Monday the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) gave us some good and bad news. “The report says cigarette smoking was at the lowest point in the survey’s history on all measures for eighth, 10th and 12th graders,” NIDA reported on December 14, 2009. ‘For example, only 2.7 percent of eighth graders describe themselves as daily smokers, down from a peak rate of 10.4 percent in 1996.” “Similarly, 11.2 percent of high school seniors say they smoke daily, less than half of the 24.6 percent rate in 1997.” The...

Michigan's state Senate and House passed a smoking ban that will make indoor smoking illegal, save for gambling areas, cigar bars and cigar shops. The measure, HB 4377, passed by a vote of 24 to 13 in the Senate and was overwhelmingly approved by the House in a vote of 75 to 30. The legislation will become law when Gov. Jennifer Granholm signs it; she has come out in favor of such legislation, according to press reports from Michigan. The law will go into effect May 1. Exemptions to the legislation include cigar bars, tobacco stores and casinos. A smoking...

A new Legislative Analyst's Office report predicts California's early-childhood education program will lose $45 million per year under a cigarette-tax-for-cancer-research ballot measure proposed by former state Senate president and 2010 Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata. The education program, First 5, would lose about $8.66 million in the Bay Area, including about $2.2 million from Santa Clara County, $1.7 million from Alameda $1.1 million from Contra Costa and $785,000 from San Mateo, according to a breakdown provided by Alameda County First 5 CEO Mark Friedman — and that's why early-childhood education advocates could end up joining tobacco companies and anti-tax groups...

Gov. Tim Kaine did a victory lap around Virginia on Tuesday to mark the beginning of a historic ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, speaking confidently of the law's longevity despite his successor's opposition to it. Flanked by legislative allies at Chadwicks restaurant in Alexandria, the outgoing governor said the ban would cut heart and lung disease associated with exposure to secondhand smoke among restaurant patrons and workers, while not hurting the businesses' bottom lines. The stop was sandwiched by visits to Charlottesville and Richmond. The new law represents one to Kaine's few major policy wins in a term...

Restaurants all across Virginia are preparing for new smoking regulations. Beginning tomorrow, restaurants will be allowed to have a smoking area only if they segregate smokers into rooms with separate ventilation systems. The law also allows smoking on outdoor patios and in private membership clubs.

REDWOOD CITY — A South San Francisco man faces attempted murder charges for stabbing his roommate in the face and neck after a disagreement about smoking on a balcony turned violent, officials said. Bernie Castro, 58, started arguing with his 48-year-old roommate after the man left the balcony door open in the first block of Gardiner Avenue while he had a cigarette on Nov. 11, said South San Francisco Sgt. Joni Lee. The roommate, who has shared a house with Castro for three years, came back in after the cigarette and opened some windows. The arguing escalated to violence when...

Mr2001 writes "Consumerist reports that Apple is refusing to work on computers that have been used in smoking households. 'The Apple store called and informed me that due to the computer having been used in a house where there was smoking, [the warranty has been voided] and they refuse to work on the machine "due to health risks of second hand smoke,"' wrote one customer. Another said, 'When I asked for an explanation, she said [the owner of the iMac is] a smoker and it's contaminated with cigarette smoke, which they consider a bio-hazard! I checked my Applecare warranty and...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish police have arrested two North Korean diplomats on suspicion of smuggling 230,000 cigarettes into the Nordic country, the Swedish Customs Office said Friday. The pair, a man and a woman who have diplomatic status in Russia, were stopped by Swedish customs officers Wednesday morning as they drove off a ferry from Helsinki, the Finnish capital. Customs officials discovered Russian cigarettes in the car driven by the couple, Swedish Customs spokeswoman Monica Magnusson told Reuters. The two North Koreans claimed diplomatic immunity. "They were accredited as diplomats in Russia, but had no accreditation in Sweden," she said....

OAKLAND — Former state Senate President Pro Tem and 2010 Oakland mayoral candidate Don Perata joined cancer research and health advocates Monday to launch a ballot measure that would hike cigarette taxes by a dollar a pack. "This is the right measure for the right time," Corey Goodman, a UC San Francisco professor and former biotech entrepreneur, said at a news conference in the Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute, adding the half-billion dollars per year this measure could raise would help move scientific breakthroughs "from the bench to the bedside" to save lives. Perata said he conceived of the measure...

More than £1 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes filled with rabbit droppings instead of tobacco have been confiscated by customs officials in Spain. The fake cigarettes - due to be sold on the black market as famous brands - were discovered after British holidaymakers in the Canary Islands smelled a rat whenever they lit up. "They stunk. They smell just as you'd imagine burning poo to smell," said one customs official in Tenerife. Police and customs staff arrested 12 smugglers in an undercover operation to intercept the cigarettes as they landed on a boat from China. "They not only smell...

ATLANTA – Cigarette smoking rose slightly for the first time in almost 15 years, dashing health officials' hopes that the U.S. smoking rate had moved permanently below 20 percent. A little under 21 percent of U.S. adults said they smoked, according to a 2008 national survey by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's up slightly from the year before, when just 19.8 percent said they were smokers. It also is the first increase in adult smoking since 1994, experts noted. ~snip Between 1997 and 2004, the average retail price of a pack of cigarettes — adjusted for...

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — Fourteen people have been charged with illegally purchasing 77 million contraband cigarettes from undercover agents in Virginia and smuggling the cigarettes to New York. Two are also accused of paying an agent posing as a hit man to kill a husband and wife whom they believed had stolen from them. The indictments handed up Thursday in federal court in Alexandria are the culmination of a yearlong investigation. Authorities say the smuggling ring paid $8 million plus guns and drugs to the undercover agents for the cigarettes. Cigarette smuggling has increased in recent years as high taxes...

....They say residents and visitors at Solone's home smoke in the backyard at all hours of the day and night. Several people puffing away at once has resulted in smoke settling in their backyard like a low fog, Richard Ganguet said....

Once upon a time in a land not that far away there existed happiness and freedom. Then a regime of persecution, taxation and control came along. And the country was cast into eternal darkness and despair. The end? I bloody hope not. This YouTuber is great! A Patriot from across the sea. (a few rough words in the video)

Smoking bans in places like restaurants, offices and public buildings reduce cases of heart attacks and heart disease, according to a report released Thursday by a federally commissioned panel of scientists. The report, issued by the Institute of Medicine, concluded that exposure to secondhand smoke significantly increased the risk of having a heart attack among both smokers and nonsmokers. The panel also said it found that a reduction in heart problems began to take effect fairly quickly after a smoking ban was instituted and that exposure to low or fleeting levels of secondhand smoke could cause cardiovascular problems. “Even a...

ORONTO (Reuters) – A Canadian truck driver has been fined for smoking in his vehicle because it is considered his workplace, a police spokeswoman said on Friday. A police officer saw the 48-year-old trucker driving on a highway in southwestern Ontario with a cigarette in his mouth on Wednesday, and gave him a C$305 ($290) ticket. The Smoke-Free Ontario Act, adopted in 2006, prohibits smoking in an enclosed workplace or enclosed public area, and that extends to work vehicles, said Constable Shawna Coulter of the Ontario Provincial Police in Essex County.

San Francisco is asking basketball superstar Michael Jordan to snuff out the cigars, after he was caught on the front page of The Chronicle's Sporting Green breaking the city's ban on smoking on public golf courses. City officials sprang into action after seeing the full-color photo Tuesday of the NBA Hall of Famer enjoying a good cigar while teeing off at Harding Park's 14th hole during a Presidents Cup practice round.In an interview with PGATour.com, Jordan was asked how many cigars he planned to smoke during this week's tournament. "Well," Jordan replied, "that depends, because I heard this is a...

As Montana bars dealt with their first smoke-free weekend since the state’s indoor smoking ban went into effect, ingenuity ruled. In Missoula, according to a great piece by Michael Moore in the Missoulian, the Rhino Bar gave smokers their very own place to light up: a Butt Hutt, created by Dave Golden of Well Done Welding and Jim Bell, a general contractor. Moore describes the hut as a 4-by-8-foot “metal smoking dugout” in the alley behind the Rhino in Missoula. The no-smoking laws spark the type of debate that never seems to get extinguished. Pro-smokers argue that the bans hurt...

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday began collecting millions in fees from the nation's tobacco companies to help fund the agency's newly granted authority to regulate the industry. The user fees, which will be collected quarterly, are based on each company's share of the U.S. tobacco market. The FDA will collect about $23 million for fiscal 2009. That will rise to $235 million in 2010 and grow to $712 million by 2019. The FDA would not disclose the assessments for specific companies. Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. analyst Christopher Growe said in a note to investors that Richmond, Va.-based Altria...

Velvet Glove, Iron Fist author Christopher Snowdon interviews cigarette advertising model David Goerlitz. We here present the collected interview segments which are available in eleven parts at YouTube. David Goerlitz, called the “Winston man,” came to feel guilty about promoting cigarettes. He felt he was influencing children wrongly. He came to despise crass Big Tobacco executives. He began lecturing kids in schools about avoiding tobacco. He became a darling of the antitobacco movers and shakers. Then he came to see these prohibitionists for the essentially greedy, fanatical, and immoral snakes that they are. He says he was naïve. He still...

The bill in California, SB400, Has Passed - The right to Vape (inhale from a non-combustible e-cig) is slipping away. California has passed a bill (although not yet signed into law) that will ban the sale of Electronic Cigarette in California. What began as a bill to "prohibit the sale of electronic cigarettes to minors", morphed into a bill that prohibits the sale of electronic cigarettes to anyone until or unless the FDA approves them. And the legislature passed SB400 while we were focused on the 9/11 commemorations. The vote was AYES **** Aanestad Alquist Cedillo Corbett Correa DeSaulnier Ducheny...

Federal health officials banned sale of flavored cigarettes on Tuesday in the first major crackdown since the Food and Drug Administration was given the authority to regulate tobacco. The ban is intended to end sale of tobacco products with chocolate, vanilla, clove and other flavorings that lure children and teenagers into smoking. The agency will study regulating menthol products and hinted that it might soon take action against the far larger market of flavored small cigars and cigarillos. “These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers,” Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, commissioner of...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Candy or fruit flavored cigarettes are no more. The Food and Drug Administration banned the products Tuesday as part of a campaign to reduce smoking.The flavored tobacco products could entice children into the smoking habit, said FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg. "Almost 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking as teenagers," she said. "These flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular smokers."In a statement, the FDA said that studies have found that 17-year-old smokers are three times as likely to use flavored cigarettes as smokers over 25. About...

Last Monday dawned clear and bright in the nanny state of New York City. The newspaper brought word that the city's new health commissioner was working on ways to get residents to exercise more. That same morning, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced his latest assault on unhealthy behavior. By 2012, the mayor hopes "to lower the proportion of adults who drink one or more sugar-sweetened beverages each day by 20 percent." Tuesday's news was about plans to forbid smoking at public parks and beaches. If the past pattern holds, initial gasps of outrage at such bureaucratic interference will sputter into acceptance....

New York City to smokers: Butt out of our parks. Health Commissioner Thomas Farley announced yesterday he wants to ban smoking in public parks and city beaches as part of a plan to make New Yorkers healthier. "We don't think children, parents, when they're standing at soccer games, should have to be breathing in smoke from the person next to them," Farley said after unveiling the city's 10-point plan alongside Mayor Bloomberg. "We don't think our children should have to be watching someone smoke." The city could outlaw puffing in parks through legislation passed by the City Council or an...

Indian smoke shops are feeling the heat NEW YORK - After doing time for possession and an accidental killing, crack dealer Rodney Morrison decided he was finished with drugs. He threw himself a "retirement" party in 1993 and got into a new line of work: tax-free cigarettes. It was a business operating in a gray area of the law, and the riches were enormous. Within a decade, the smoke shop Morrison opened on Long Island's little Poospatuck Indian Reservation had become one of the state's biggest dealers in untaxed cigarettes. Other drug dealers soon took note and followed him into...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. customers who smoke in an Avis or Budget rental car after Oct. 1 will be fined up to $250, the Avis Budget Group said. The ban makes Avis and Budget the first major car rental companies to ban smoking in a North American fleet, USA Today reported Monday. "The No. 1 request we get is for a smoke-free car," Avis Budget Group spokesman John Barrows said. Avis and Budget cars will be inspected on return for the smell of smoke, Barrows said, adding it costs more to clean a smoky car because the car...

(Graphic images of diseased body parts could become the norm on packaging) Would a gruesome picture of a cancer-ravaged mouth with rotting teeth make you think twice about buying a pack of cigarettes? That's the goal of new federal regulations expected to go into effect within three years. The rules will require tobacco companies to cover at least half of the front and back of packages with graphic -- and possibly gruesome -- images illustrating the dangers of smoking.If U.S. regulations are modeled after those already in place in Canada and other countries, the warnings will be shocking: blackened lungs,...

Niceville, FL (AHN) - A woman was arrested Aug. 21 for attacking another woman, a smoker, with a can of air freshener. Police were called to an apartment complex in Niceville, Fla. where they found a woman spraying a 9 ounce can of "Glade Potpourri Air Freshener" around another woman's head, the Northwest Florida Daily News of Fort Walton Beach reported. Apparently seeking a fresher environment, the woman allegedly pointed the can at the other woman's head, spraying the contents of the can continuously for nearly a minute. The police report quoted the sprayer saying she'll continue to spray the...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE FALCON, Iraq – Gen. Douglas MacArthur had his signature corncob pipe. Soldiers got cigarettes in their C-rations during World War II. Even today, America's war on tobacco seems to have largely bypassed the military. Now a proposal to make the forces smoke-free is drawing strong reactions from troops who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, even though the Pentagon itself says any ban is a long way off. The troops' fears — and, in some cases, hopes — were triggered by a study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Veterans Affairs Department that recommends moving toward a...

Bill Clinton was famous for the creative way he kept score. Both George Bushes would speed-golf through 18 holes as if they had to beat the clock, not the course. And President Obama? Long, slow rounds. A lot of time hunting for balls in the woods. All dished up with a dollop of trash-talking. The First Golfer brought his duffer’s game to Martha’s Vineyard this week. By Thursday, Mr. Obama had logged three golf games in four days, appearing at one island course after another. He spent five hours on Monday afternoon playing 18 holes at the Farm Neck Golf...

IT’S the health and safety measure Iraqis have not been waiting for. The government in Baghdad last week banned smoking in public buildings. Anyone found lighting up will have to pay a fine equivalent to $4,300, enough to buy 17,200 packs of cigarettes at the local price of about 25 cents. “Do the politicians have nothing better to do?” asks Abu Yasser, as he takes a drag while filling up his car at a petrol station. “My cousin was recently murdered by terrorists, my neighbour was tortured by the police, my electricity is cut for most of the day, the...

RICHMOND, Va. -- Something unusual is cropping up alongside the tomatoes, eggplant and okra in Scott Byars' vegetable garden - the elephantine leaves of 30 tobacco plants. Driven largely by ever-rising tobacco prices, he's among a growing number of smokers who have turned to their green thumbs to cultivate tobacco plants to blend their own cigarettes, cigars and chew. Byars normally pays $5 for a five-pack of cigars and $3 for a tin of snuff; the seed cost him $9. "I want to get to where I don't have to go to the store and buy tobacco, but I'll just...

"RICHMOND, Va. — Something unusual is cropping up alongside the tomatoes, eggplant and okra in Scott Byars' vegetable garden — the elephantine leaves of 30 tobacco plants. Driven largely by ever-rising tobacco prices, he's among a growing number of smokers who have turned to their green thumbs to cultivate tobacco plants to blend their own cigarettes, cigars and chew. Byars normally pays $5 for a five-pack of cigars and $3 for a tin of snuff; the seed cost him $9."

Kanawha-Charleston Health Department Sanatarians made several visits to the bar throughout the night. CHARLESTON W.Va.-- One year later -- and still going strong -- allowing smokers to light up inside the Blackhawk Saloon. Wednesday, the Blackhawk Saloon held it's second annual smoker's night inside the bar. The establishment has been allowing smoking inside since the county wide clean indoor air regualtion went into effect last year. Owner Kerry Ellison says taking away smoking means taking away his business. "I'm in the beer selling business," he said. "If you come in and you want to smoke a cigarette while you drink...

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration tapped a Veterans Affairs official with a long history of public-health experience to head the agency's new tobacco division. Lawrence Deyton was the chief public-health officer at the VA and initiated smoking-cessation programs that lowered smoking rates among veterans. He has served in the National Institutes of Health, started a community-based AIDS service organization in Washington, D.C., and was a legislative aide with the House Subcommittee on Health and the Environment in the 1970s. His experience at building public-health initiatives should come in handy as the FDA grapples with how to regulate the...

Taverns in Columbus and Cincinnati are the targets of the first lawsuits alleging violations of Ohio's 2-year-old smoking ban. Zeno's, 384 W 3rd Ave., and O'Neal's Tavern in the Queen City are being sued "because of their repeated and extensive violations over the last two years," a release from Attorney General Richard Cordray's office. According to court documents, Zeno's has been cited for nine violations and fines of more than $28,000, while O'Neal's has been cited for 12 violations and fined more than $21,000, the attorney general's office said. "The issue at hand is clear disregard for Ohio law," said...

As California's fiscal crisis deepens, despite desperate efforts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature, the state's politicians are casting about for ways to relieve the financial – and political – pressure. That's why, almost by default, raising the state's cigarette tax, now 87 cents a pack, has again moved to the Capitol's front burner. The American Cancer Society and other anti-smoking groups are pushing a higher tax on smoking and other tobacco use, citing increases in other states, 10 just this year, that have made California's levy relatively low. The Legislature's majority Democrats already have endorsed a $1.50-per-pack increase...

A feud in Åkarp in southern Sweden between a cigarette-puffing woman and her smoke-sensitive neighbour has finally been put to rest by Swedish courts. On Friday, the Environmental High Court made a final ruling that the woman may light up as much as she wants to in her own garden. In its decision, the court said that the neighbour had been been unable to prove that the woman's smoke “poses such a significant threat to human health” that the environmental code would prescribe prohibiting the woman to smoke in the garden. The conflict between the neighbours has been an ongoing...

WASHINGTON — Smoking takes years off your life and adds dollars to the cost of health care. Yet nonsmokers cost society money, too _ by living longer. It's an element of the debate over tobacco that some economists and officials find distasteful.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Back in 2000, it was a program that put West Virginia Public Employees Insurance Agency ahead of the pack. The idea of making smokers pay more for their benefits hasn't always been liked, but it has worked. The fee started as $5 to $10 extra for workers who smoked. That cost has grown over the years. In July, the premium went up to $30 for single coverage and $50 for a family insurance plan. "I do pay because I'm honest and I don't mind paying the extra money to smoke," said Maurice Washington. Washington works for...

*[EXCERPTED]* "...The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act allows the FDA to...control an industry ... Opponents from...N. Carolina argued that the FDA had proved through a series of food safety failures that it was not up to the job of regulation..."

The FDA recently went public with misleading information about the safety of electronic cigarettes and the marketing of the devices, not only using its clout but recruiting other prominent organizations to demonize a product that has great public health benefit potential. A group of prominent doctors and tobacco researchers, including Dr. Michael Siegel at the Boston University School of Public Health, Dr. Joel Nitzkin of the AAPHP Tobacco Control Task Force, and Dr. Brad Rodu, Endowed Chair, Tobacco Harm Reduction Research University of Louisville, challenge the FDA to provide the full quantitative data of the study upon which the FDA...

Not satisfied with its efforts to ban tobacco and demonize its users, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now taking aim at a potentially healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes) are battery powered devices that emulate the look and feel of traditional cigarettes and deliver a vaporized nicotine solution directly to the lungs when smoked. The devices contain no tobacco and there is no combustion involved in their operation. They also contain far fewer carcinogens than other tobacco products, which may make them an excellent alternative to products like cigarettes, cigars and pipes. Despite...

On June 30, 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it is seeking public input on the implementation of its historic new authority overseeing tobacco products in the United States. In a Federal Register notice, http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2009/pdf/E9-15549.pdf , the agency invites the public to provide information and share views on a wide range of topics, from product content to advertising and marketing. All public comments will be posted online. As FDA begins to implement its important new authority intended to reduce the enormous toll of suffering and death caused by tobacco products in the United States, FDA looks forward...

In the grand scheme of things, Donny Deutsch's radical prescription for health care might not count for much. Just a former-ad-man-turned-pundit spouting off. But let's consider. Deutsch is well-off and presumably harbors no electoral ambitions. He is free to say whatever's on his mind. And he is immersed in the liberal media-political culture. Is Deutsch giving voice to the radicalism that Obama/Pelosi/Waxman harbor but dare not fully express? Appearing on Morning Joe today, Deutsch offered a two-part plan for health care: 1. Make the rich pay for it: "I'm an extremist. I'm for redistribution of wealth." 2. "Outlaw tobacco." View...

States across the U.S. have been taking a harder line against an old problem -- cigarette smuggling -- as part of the widening search for solutions to their budget problems. States including Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New York, Rhode Island and Virginia this year have stepped up law-enforcement efforts with the aim of recouping taxes lost to bootleg cigarette sales. Studies indicate states are losing about $5 billion annually in tax revenue because of illegal tobacco sales, said Phil Awe, who heads the tobacco-diversion division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "We do not want to have our...

It's not just indoor public places in Eau Claire where lighting up is prohibited. Now residents of a south side, owner-occupied housing complex will have to snuff out smoking in their homes, the most recent sign of public anti-smoking sentiment. Members of the Fairfax Parkside Homeowners Association on Wednesday voted to outlaw smoking inside residences that are part of the 34-unit development. The ban also prohibits smoking in shared spaces, such as porches and garages, but does allow it in yards and on patios. Of the 19 association members who voted on the issue, 15 favored the anti-smoking regulation proposed...

Combat troops put their lives on the line every day, but there is one risk the government considers too dangerous for them -- smoking. "Combating Tobacco Use in Military and Veteran Populations," a new report by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine, advocates restricting smoking in the military and limiting recruitment of those who smoke. As with so many government regulations, this proposed ban may actually do the opposite of what is hoped and put soldiers' lives in danger. Troops returning from deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan "may be" 50 percent more likely to use tobacco than military...

You might say smoke was coming out of my ears . . . There was NBC's Dr. Nancy Snyderman this morning, arguing that the Pentagon should prohibit soldiers in combat zones from smoking. Snyderman was a guest on Morning Joe for purposes of reporting on her interview of Pres. Obama yesterday on his health care plans. But along the way, she weighed in on the proposal that had been floated, then quickly snuffed, by the Defense Department to deny combat soldiers the right to light up. Mika Brzezinski was grateful for an ally in the fight against letting warriors make...