Free Republic

To the list of places where smokers no longer will be able to light up — government buildings, parks, restaurants and bars — public housing residents in San Antonio soon will add one more: their own homes. The San Antonio Housing Authority plans to impose a new policy in January that will prohibit residents from smoking indoors or away from designated outdoor spots at all 70 of its public sites. The ban, which will affect about 15,800 residents, aims to protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke and follows a growing nationwide trend to eliminate smoking at public housing authorities. Since 2009,...

Do you believe that the government is already intruding too much into your life? Well, 17% of Americans believe it is not enough. According to a new poll, 17 out of every 100 Americans believe that the government should outlaw smoking all together. While the 17% is down from a poll taken in late 2008, which showed that 22% were in favor of a ban, the amount of people who want smoking banned is still astounding. If 17% of Americans truly want smoking to be banned, based on the U.S. population, that would mean that over 50 Million people are...

ELON, N.C. - Almost 65 percent of North Carolina residents would support a statewide ban on smoking in public places, and more than half prefer restaurants that don't allow smoking, according to a survey released Tuesday by Elon University. The survey also found that 65 percent of residents support allowing city and town governments to pass local smoking bans, which is barred under state law. "It appears that the historical ties to tobacco in this state are now essentially severed as anti-smoking sentiments prevail among North Carolinians," said Hunter Bacot, who directed the poll. The survey of 649 people was...

ASSOCIATED PRESS CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) - A gambling industry lawyer says backers of a petition to outlaw smoking in most public places misled voters by falsely claiming the ban wouldn't extend to all Nevada hotel and motel rooms. Nevada Resort Association lawyer Todd Bice has filed briefs asking the Supreme Court to remove the anti-smoking petition from the November ballot because signers were told that the smoking ban wouldn't include hotel and motel rooms when the opposite is true. Bice quoted Michael Hackett, campaign manager for Nevadans for Tobacco-Free Kids, who said in June that it wasn't his organization's...

Teenage anti-smoking activists want the province to slap an "R" rating on all movies showing tobacco -- meaning no one under 18 would be allowed to see films featuring smoking. The recommendation was part of the Lung Association's Youth Tobacco Team's report on how to curb youth smoking, presented to the province's health ministry last week. Michelle Tham, 18, of Mississauga, said the group wanted to focus on what made teens want to light up in the first place. "Everyone talks about peer pressure being the problem, but sometimes it's an individual person," Tham said. "Maybe it's one girl who...