Free Republic

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- According to a report conducted for bar owners in the state, the workplace smoking ban enacted last year led to the loss of 2,000 industry jobs and millions of dollars in wages. Ridgewood Economic Associates of New Jersey conducted the study for New York Nightlife Association based in New York City, and the Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association based in Albany. The report stated that since the state's Clean Indoor Act took effect on July 24 banning smoking in all workplaces, $28.5 million in wages and salary payments and $37 million in gross state product were...

May 31, 2004: Yes, you read the title correctly. We're celebrating, because we're helping to take them on. While the day is usually greeted by an annual flood of orchestrated media events and press conference strategies that demonize, not only smoking, but smokers, World No Tobacco Day 2004 offers something new: a competitor with teeth. FORCES is pleased to be part of the proud announcement by AEthna Press of the publication of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains" by Michael J. McFadden on World No Tobacco Day. Memorial Day is the "unnoffical" start of summer in the USA, let us make it the...

<p>MONTVILLE -- For 45 years, John and Alice Longo laughed and joked with their regular customers while they wiped down the bar and took lunch orders during the afternoon at A and J's Cafe on Route 32.</p> <p>But when they were forced to remove the ashtrays from the tables and bar, suddenly the laughter quieted.</p>

Smoked outSome companies now forbid workers to smoke anywhere on their property -- not on the sidewalk, not even in their cars in the parking lot.01:00 AM EST on Sunday, April 4, 2004BY JENNIFER LEVITZ Journal Staff Writer Everyone knows you can't smoke in the office anymore.But increasingly, you can't smoke outside work either.At Rhode Island Hospital, employees have a nickname for their designated outdoor smoking kiosks: butt huts.The workers, however, could consider themselves indulged that they're allowed to puff on the hospital's sprawling property at all.Because a few miles away at Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse, in Cranston, employees who...

BANGOR - Protecting the lungs of little ones in foster care from the effects of secondhand smoke is the primary reason behind a new law in Maine." Secondhand smoke is really dangerous for kids," said Janet Spencer, director of Bangor Region Partners for Health. "Their lungs are in a developing stage and anything that is pulled into their lungs can potentially be harmful in the long run. In a lot of ways secondhand smoke is more harmful." The law, which was enacted last fall, calls for the Maine Department of Human Services to "adopt rules on smoking by foster parents...

<p>Albany -- New York lost more than $500,000 in lottery sales after hundreds of bars and restaurants unplugged their lottery machines to protest the statewide smoking ban in businesses, officials said Thursday.</p> <p>The protest was meant to deprive the state of revenue from the Quick Draw game and publicize bar and restaurant owners' concerns that the smoking ban will hurt business, said Scott Wexler of the Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association.</p>