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The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a checklist for countries outlining actions required to implement the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). In the document, the WHO says countries must take measures to “restrict or prohibit duty-free sales of tobacco products.” According to the International Travel Retail Confederation (ITRC), this violates the final text of the FCTC, which states that countries may choose to implement restrictions on duty-free sales of tobacco, but are not required to do so. Keith Spinks, the director-general of the ITRC, says, “The WHO is re-interpreting the Convention in an effort to convince signatories to the...

Bid to collect taxes from Senecas halted By TOM PRECIOUS News Albany Bureau 2/11/2004 (picture caption) Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver is willing to allow the governor time to work out deals with Native American tribes. ALBANY - The state Tax Department is suspending indefinitely the government's efforts to collect taxes on sales of cigarettes and gasoline on Indian reservations to non-Indian consumers. Gov. George E. Pataki last month said he would ask the Legislature for permission to delay the tax collection for a year while he negotiates side deals with Indian tribes. But State Tax Commissioner Andrew Eristoff said Tuesday...

It looked like the perfect plan. Late last winter, armed with spurious statistics, irrelevant comparisons and a strategy for sneaking the nation's strictest smoking ban through the state legislature and onto the desk of Gov. George Pataki, anti-smoking forces descended on Albany. While the mainstream media snoozed, legislation prohibiting smoking almost anywhere except your own home or vehicle -- and don't think they didn't try to tell you what to do in those places, as well -- zipped from fond wish to state law in less than 48 hours. The law took effect after state Assembly members and senators returned...

<p>Several Toledo tavern owners have created a private club that they say will allow their premises to be exempt from the city’s smoking ban.</p> <p>City officials, however, are not conceding that the organization meets the city law’s definition of a private club.</p>

<p>At Louie’s Cafe at Sylvania Avenue and Lagrange Street, you can play pool, darts, or machine bowling, and enjoy a cold beverage at a table - all free of second-hand cigarette smoke.</p> <p>But if you don’t like smoking, you might not want to sit at the bar. It is now Louie’s smoking lounge.</p>

<p>CASTLE HAYNE, North Carolina (AP) -- Dan Norris makes no bones about smoking's dangers. The logo for his Grim Reapers cigarettes -- a black-hooded death's head -- is like one big surgeon general's warning.</p> <p>Even his company's name makes a statement: Poison Inc.</p>

When Sam Morreale and Dave Melloni got a letter from the Niagara County Health Department saying that they were being fined for allowing smoking in Culbert's, the Buffalo Avenue tavern they purchased last March, they decided to appeal. They came away from Wednesday's hearing, the first in the county since the statewide smoking prohibition went into effect in July, wondering why they bothered. "I didn't do two tours of duty in Vietnam so I could have my civil rights taken away," Morreale said. Yet that's exactly what happened, or more accurately, continued on Wednesday. Ignoring assertions by Morreale and Melloni...

A Winnipeg hotel that set up a make-shift smoking room for its bar patrons has been charged under the city's no-smoking bylaw. The St. Boniface Hotel took an old yellow school bus and outfitted it with tables, chairs and Christmas lights. Inspectors say they saw people smoking on the bus and no signs prohibiting smoking. The hotel has been given three tickets that carry a total of $1,500 in fines. The hotel's owner Franco Magnifico is set to appear in court next month. It's the second hotel to be charged under the new bylaw. The first, the Thriftlodge/Canadiana Motor Inn...

So much for due process. With New York State's smoking ban already trampling any number of privacy and property rights, the Niagara County Health Department has decided to throw in the foundation of the American legal system for good measure. In case you missed it, the Health Department announced last week that it has fined 17 bars, restaurants and social clubs for violating the nation's strictest smoking prohibition, which went into effect in July. Fair enough -- in an effort to look like it was doing something without spending a penny, the state legislature foisted enforcement responsibilities on the counties....

State probes Brigadiers bingo License is on the line at hearing next month before Racing and Wagering Board. The state Racing and Wagering Board has accused the Syracuse Brigadiers of breaking rules in its bingo operations and improperly using bingo earnings. The Brigadiers dispute the accusation. Proof of the accusation could put Brigadiers bingo out of business. At the heart of the matter is the contention that the Brigadiers operate commercial bingo under the guise of supporting a drum and bugle corps rather than a nonprofit musical group using bingo to raise money. In a 28-item show-cause order, the Racing...

Nov. 19. 10 a.m. - 11 a.m. ALBANY-SMOKING BAN OFFICIALS_The American Cancer Society will honor elected officials that voted for the state's smoking ban and community organizations that support the law. Gov. Pataki and Senator Bruno are among the honorees. Location: Mangia Restaurant, Stuyvesant Plaza, 1475 Western Ave. Contacts: Mary Dawes, 518-438-7842 ext 314

<p>A Brooklyn video-store owner is facing up to $6,000 in fines after a health inspector caught him with the city's newest controlled substance: an ashtray.</p> <p>"One (1) ashtray with cigarette butt, and ashes, was seen on the counter of the establishment," inspectors M. Dundas and S. Holloway noted on the ticket that they handed to Marty Arno, owner of Brooklyn Heights Video, last month.</p>

'Extended' criteria increase organ donations without compromising patient health In a related study from the University of Texas Health Science Center, researchers evaluated the clinical outcomes of lung transplants in patients receiving either extended or standard donor lungs. Donors were considered "extended" if they met any of the following criteria: donor age of 55 or older, smoking history of more than 20 pack-years, having a history of pulmonary disease, chest radiographic changes, purulent sputum on bronchoscopy, or a decrease in oxygenation on 100 percent oxygen. Donors were matched with recipients, resulting in 20 patients receiving extended donor lungs and 11...

The Surgeon General’s office today released a controversial 1,346-page report outlining the dangers of third-hand smoke. “We have decades of well-documented evidence on the dangers of smoking,” announced Health Department spokesman Moe Gadeeshu at a Washington press conference. “The costs in health care, missed work and shorter life spans is horrendously high. Just recently, we discovered the dangers of just being in the same room with a smoker and labeled that as second-hand smoke. Now, it is a historic day in American health care. We have pinpointed yet another smoke-related disease: THS.”

<p>The North Carolina tobacco farmer who drove a tractor into a pond on the Mall maintained his standoff with law enforcement officials overnight and through this morning, creating traffic problems and prompting the federal government to close several buildings due to concerns about public safety.</p> <p>Mike Orenstein with the Office of Personnel Management says the federal government's decision to close the buildings was made by the U.S. Park Police earlier this morning. Authorities have expressed concerns that the man in the tractor may have explosives.</p>