Free Republic

Officials in the Carolinas, traditionally two of the nation's most smoker-friendly states, hope a new U.S. surgeon general's report on the dangers of secondhand smoke can boost their efforts to stub out smoking. N.C. legislators are considering a bill that would allow community colleges to ban smoking on their campuses. And activists plan to reintroduce a bill next year that would allow local governments in Mecklenburg County to ban smoking in all workplaces, even bars and restaurants. S.C. officials are also planning to expand their survey of smoking practices around the state as part of a smoking education effort. And...

Quietly, the tattooed bartender scans the room, poker-faced. It's about 11 p.m. on a weeknight. A man with a shaved head is talking about being in a heavy-metal band. Two young women are flipping through an adult entertainment industry magazine. About a dozen others are drinking in the bar. Grant M. Haller / P-I Alicia Kenan, 37, smokes in a Seattle bar after most of the other patrons have left. Smokers can still find spots to light up, inside. Nobody looks like the type who'd rat the bartender out to the health department. So she pulls out a stack of...

People who smoke marijuana do not appear to be at increased risk for developing lung cancerlung cancer, new research suggests. While a clear increase in cancercancer risk was seen among cigarette smokers in the study, no such association was seen for regular cannabis users. Even very heavy, long-term marijuana users who had smoked more than 22,000 joints over a lifetime seemed to have no greater risk than infrequent marijuana users or nonusers. The findings surprised the study’s researchers, who expected to see an increase in cancer among people who smoked marijuana regularly in their youth. “We know that there are...

The smoke from burning marijuana leaves contains several known carcinogens and the tar it creates contains 50 percent more of some of the chemicals linked to lung cancer than tobacco smoke. A marijuana cigarette also deposits four times as much of that tar as an equivalent tobacco one. Scientists were therefore surprised to learn that a study of more than 2,000 people found no increase in the risk of developing lung cancer for marijuana smokers. "We expected that we would find that a history of heavy marijuana use--more than 500 to 1,000 uses--would increase the risk of cancer from several...

As a physician who has devoted 21 years to advocacy in tobacco control, conducting research and publishing a number of studies on the hazards of secondhand smoke, it is not surprising that I favor a wide range of anti-smoking measures. But anti-smoking tactics adopted by some municipalities, companies and organizations do not serve smokers or the public. The methods are mean-spirited, unsupported by science and attempt to stamp out smoking by punishing and marginalizing smokers. They go too far. The City Council in Calabasas, Calif., recently enacted an ordinance - supported by several anti-smoking groups - that bans smoking in...

"KINDA cosmopolitan, eh?" says a rosy-cheeked punter as his female companion attempts to light her cigarette on a gas cylinder lamp used to heat an outdoor smoking area at a suburban pub. Around them, ashtrays overflow, piled high, one on top of the other. Relative strangers shyly shimmy closer to one another, nestling up to the gas heaters hanging over their heads. Paris in the springtime this is not, but on the first weekend following Scotland's ban on smoking in public places, there is ample joie de vivre in residence. It was a scene repeated across Scotland on Friday night,...

SCOTLAND looked to have made a smooth transition to a smoke-free future yesterday as ministers hailed the introduction of the law banning lighting up in public places as the "largest single step" to improve the nation's health for generations. Despite warnings that the new regulations would be resisted by smokers, it appeared last night that most, if not all, Scots decided to abide by the new rules, which came into force at 6am yesterday. Around Scotland, local authorities - which are responsible for enforcing the ban - seemed to be following the exhortation of the First Minister, Jack McConnell, to...

RICHMOND, Va. - The Virginia Senate voted Monday to ban smoking in restaurants and virtually all other public places, an extraordinary sign of cultural change in a state that is home to the worldwide headquarters of Philip Morris and whose agricultural economy has been rooted in tobacco farming for almost 400 years. The bill is unlikely to survive review in the House of Delegates. Yet its passage on the floor of the Senate -- where smoking has never been formally banned and lawmakers lit up openly even until the late 1990s -- signaled mounting popular support for smoking restrictions....

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The attorneys general of 32 states are asking Hollywood's major movie studios to place an anti-smoking announcement on DVDs, videos and other home entertainment products to combat teen tobacco use....

Rome Italy (AHN) - An Italian theater was forced to change the script of an Arthur Miller play after a spectator complained about an actor's smoking. "This had never happened to me in more than 300 performances," the actor, Sebastiano Lo Monaco, was quoted as saying by the Web site of Italian daily Corriere della Sera. Italy has banned lighting up in all enclosed public places since January this year. Lo Monaco was smoking, in line with the script, while playing the main character Sunday in Miller's "A View from the Bridge" at a theater in the northeastern city of...

Despite the claims of anti-smoking groups that research studies have conclusively proved that secondhand tobacco smoke causes lung cancer, the city councils of Arlington Heights, Evanston and Wheeling rejected smoking bans. The three Illinois municipalities have created significant restaurant industries that play an important role in their economies, and the council members concluded that the risks of loss of businesses were not worth the health benefits that some claimed would result from a ban on smoking. Now the Chicago City Council is considering banning smoking in virtually all restaurants, bars and commercial buildings. Anti-smoking groups with a collectivist political agenda,...

SACRAMENTO – Perhaps nothing symbolizes the up and down political fortunes of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger better than his "smoking tent" – his deal-making lair set up in a courtyard outside his Capitol office. Last year, Democrats competed for a chance to sit in the tent with the popular governor. They'd talk policy, smoke one of Schwarzenegger's coveted custom label cigars and maybe, just maybe, bring a few home as souvenirs. Now, with Schwarzenegger experiencing declining poll numbers and fierce partisan battles, some Democrats are trying to shut down the tent. Critics view it as a monument to an unhealthy habit....

The National Conference on Tobacco and Health, held in downtown Chicago last week (May 4th through the 6th), produced a historic and very unusual experience for many Chicagoans.  The Sheraton Chicago and Hyatt Regency Chicago hotels, which hosted this convention, became entirely non-smoking for three days with no warning.  The only exceptions were their smoking guest rooms.   The purpose of this National Conference was "...To help improve and sustain the effectiveness and reach of tobacco control programs and activities in the United States."  For a registration fee of $575 per attendee, approximately 3200 people from all parts of our...

The mere mention of the Libertarian Party was apparently enough to kill a proposed smoking ban ordinance in LaPorte, Ind., earlier this month, continuing the Indiana LP's dedication to standing up for the rights of business owners to set their own policies. The mayor of LaPorte had proposed forming a "study committee" to target small business owners -- such as restaurants and bars -- by banning smoking in such businesses. And it looked like a done deal, says Indiana Libertarian Party chairman Mark Rutherford, noting that 11 of the 14 city council members were expected to approve the formation of...

Fidel Castro's plan to ban smoking in public places, due to come into force on Monday, appears to be a revolution too far for most Cubans. Mr Castro, 78, is clamping down on the island's Habano cigars and black tobacco cigarettes as part of a campaign to increase life expectancy to 80 years by 2010, up from the 75-76 average. But many doubt the “maximum leader” can make the law stick. Yuleisis Fonseca, a 27-year-old nurse, said Mr Castro would need an army of “extraterrestrials” to enforce the ban. “Where I work the doctors are the first to smoke and...

Employers have recently tried every carrot they can think of — including cash incentives and iPods — to persuade employees to quit smoking. Now some are trying the stick. Pointing to rising health costs and the oversized proportion of insurance claims attributed to smokers, some employers in California and around the country are refusing to hire applicants who smoke and, sometimes, firing employees who refuse to quit. "Employers are realizing the majority of health costs are spent on a small minority of workers," says Bill Whitmer, chief executive of the Health Enhancement Research Organization, an employer and healthcare coalition in...

The New York Times was impressed by Bloomington’s overreaching ban on smoking in public places. Libertarians are not so dazzled. The last thing Indiana cities should do is to copy Bloomington’s lead. Karla Sneegas, the executive director of Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation, told a New York Times reporter that “one way to start changing cultural norms on smoking is to institute new policies.” Only one problem. It’s not the government’s job to set cultural norms. Imagine if it were not something as maligned as smoking. Maybe these cities ought to ban coffee. It stains teeth a nasty shade, the...

NOT content with trampling smokers' rights, the New York State Dept. of Health has launched an insidious campaign to erase all traces of tobacco from the movies. The department's tobacco control program was behind the formation of Reality Check, a well-funded group supposedly started by and for teens against smoking. One of R.C.'s missions is to eradicate smoking from the movies, and their methods have put some noses out of joint. [snip] Insiders say Reality Check plans an even more outrageous campaign, however. In addition to pressuring studios to keep smoking and cigarettes out of new movies — beginning...

Like a lot of New York's straight-off-the-boat Irish barmen, Brian ("no surname, thanks") has a problem with authority, one that means keeping a weather eye on the door of the unfashionable watering hole where he slings suds from 6pm until closing time. As an undocumented alien with a tourist visa that expired more than three years ago, Brian's chief concern has always been the immigration authorities. These days, though, there is another threat to his livelihood: the Big Apple's smoking police. "It's a fookin' crime," he said, "the way those bastards behave." The regulars at Brian's bar agreed. The talk...

WASHINGTON — Chief movie lobbyist Jack Valenti defended smoking in Hollywood films, but senators insisted the industry must do more to stop the practice. "I don't believe that whatever the director does ought to incite the intervention of the government in any form," Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, told a Senate Commerce Committee hearing yesterday. "I've got to tell you I believe it is his right to tell the story as he chooses to tell it." Some lawmakers were dissatisfied by his answers. A study last year found that teens who watch movies with smoking in...