Free Republic

Over the past decade, there's no doubt that public policy has helped reduce the number of people who smoke. Laws prohibiting smoking in certain areas, tighter regulation of commercials and higher taxes on smokes have all stopped people from lighting up. While cigarette makers have often found ways around the different laws, at the end of the day, Big Tobacco can't escape the facts. Lowering smoking rates reduces cancer deaths as well as deaths from other diseases and increases the life expectancy of typical Americans. It's no surprise, then, that a new nationwide poll found that two thirds (67%) of...

On Monday, President Barack Obama signed into law the nation’s strongest ever anti-smoking law. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act will ban flavored forms of tobacco — with the exception of menthol-flavored cigarettes. Now, some observers are asking whether the Congressional Black Caucus’s close ties to the cigarette industry may have played a role in the menthol exemption. Menthol-flavored cigarettes are by far the most popular form of flavored tobacco in the United States. Menthol cigarettes account for some 30 percent of the U.S. cigarette market and are preferred by almost 75 percent of black smokers.

McDonough County judge: Law an administrative issue MACOMB — Criminal charges filed last September against nine people for smoking in a public establishment were dropped this week in McDonough County court. In a news release, defense attorneys C.F. Pierce of Bushnell and Dan O'Day of Peoria said the nine defendants included the owners of the Silver Fox tavern and Bowser's, two Bushnell establishements where the arrests took place as part of a sting operation by McDonough County. The defense motion to dismiss the charges was granted Wednesday. "It has been established in a court of law that people who are...

Critics have leveled complaints against an anti-smoking commercial and its treatment of the young boy featured in it. A crying 3-year-old - the centerpiece of a heart-wrenching new anti-smoking commercial - has ignited a controversy stretching from Australia to New York City. TV talk shows and the Internet are burning up with debates about whether the tears were real - the producers say yes - and whether they went too far to get the little boy to cry on camera. "I think it's crossing the line a little bit to use a little kid like a prop," said Jersey City...

States May Warn Doctors to Follow Smoker Treatment Guidelines or be Sued for Medical Malpractice State health commissioners may soon begin warning about medical malpractice law suits which could be brought by smokers against physicians who fail to follow federal and other guidelines in treating them, putting pressure on the medical profession similar to that put on the tobacco industry by earlier smoker law suits. Public interest law professor John Banzhaf, whom the media has dubbed a "driving force behind the lawsuits that have cost tobacco companies billions of dollars," and the "law professor who masterminded litigation against the tobacco...

A lawyer for the owner of the Player's Club Bar and Grill in Independence has challenged in court the enforceability of the city's Clean Indoor Air Act ordinance and won. John Carnes, an Independence attorney for Player's Club owner Jennifer Brashear, got Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Jeffrey Bushur to overturn two clean air citations given to Brashear. Municipal judges in Independence had found Brashear guilty of violating the city's health code by allowing patrons of the lounge to smoke on two separate occasions. "There are some holes in that ordinance that basically makes it unenforceable," Carnes said. "It's an...

New Self-Snuffing Cigarettes To Prevent Fires Six States Requiring Safer SmokesUPDATED: 2:42 pm EST January 4, 2007 STOCKTON, Calif. -- Many smokers are willing to walk a mile for a Camel, but will they be willing to puff a little harder? A new California state law that took effect this week requires stores to sell cigarettes that are designed to go out if the smoker stops puffing or drops the cigarette. Six states have adopted legislation requiring the self-snuffing smokes in an effort to prevent fires. The new cigarettes have tiny paper bands through which flame is not supposed to...

Ohio Department of Health Director J. Nick Baird, M.D., today issued the following statement to clear the air over confusion surrounding implementation of Ohio’s indoor smoking ban. “Despite rumors and some news reports to the contrary, the Ohio smoking ban is alive and well. The law took effect Dec. 7 and remains in effect today. Under the language of the law passed on Nov. 7, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) is not able to levy any fines until the enforcement mechanisms are in place. During this implementation period, ODH will follow up on all notices of potential violations with...

GRAND RAPIDS -- Spectrum Health and Saint Mary's Health Care will require all their employees to not use tobacco at any time during their work shift beginning January 1. The staffs of both hospitals will need to arrive without smelling of smoke, and they can't use any tobacco products until they leave hospital property after their shift. Metro Health is also joining in the Smoke-Free Work Day Every Day campaign. In 2003, the Grand Rapids hospitals became the first in the country to jointly declare their hospital campuses smoke-free. Today, more than 30 Michigan hospitals have smoke-free campuses. This...

SEATTLE -- Non-tribal casinos have already lost tens of millions of dollars because of Washington’s new indoor smoking ban. A new financial study, conducted by our own KIRO Team 7 Investigators, discovers taxpayers could loose millions as well. Card-rooms, charity bingo halls, and some bars and restaurants are required to report financial information to the state every year. The state hasn't had a chance to look at the figures since the smoking ban took effect. I have. It looks like "no smoking" means economic devastation for the non-tribal gaming industry. If there was ever any doubt that gamblers are also...

Following are actual statistics reflecting examples of the negative impact upon individual businesses following the recently instituted smoking ban ordinances, effective in Springfield, Illinois and surrounding unincorporated Sangamon County this September 15, 2006 (less than two weeks ago). When small businesses account for about two-thirds of our country's economic growth and new jobs, it is difficult to comprehend elected officials' reasoning in voting to implement an intrusive ordinance which will hurt those same business owners. A restaurant owner who does not permit smoking will see it as a violation of his property rights if a coalition uses the political...

Delaware County's ban on smoking in most work places has become a problem for some nursing homes, which are both work places for employees and homes for the residents. The smoking ordinance does not prevent people from smoking in their homes, but it does ban smoking in most public buildings and work spaces. If a nursing home bans smoking, they could lose federal funding for failing to comply with regulations, but if they allow smoking they could face fines or a lawsuit from the county health department, officials said. Federal regulations state that if a nursing home changes its...

Churchill Downs could be hurt financially if it is forced to go completely smoke free, a company official said Wednesday. Kevin Flanery, Churchill Downs Inc.’s vice president for national public affairs, told a Louisville Metro Council committee considering a new, tougher smoking ban, that the race track is already facing heavy competition from Indiana and from computer and telephone betting services.And he said the company’s experience at a Florida track shows some people will stop betting when a smoking ban takes effect. But the former head of the Greater Louisville Medical Society testified that his group favors a complete...

A private smokers club in Smiths Falls challenged Ontario's indoor smoking ban with its grand opening Friday — and Ontario officials did not brave the fumes to attend. Instead, the club's founder was charged under the province's Smoke-Free Ontario act the day before it opened. Since Ontario's indoor workplace and public smoking ban went into effect, ashtrays and cigars have been illegal in bars. The grand opening of Do' Little's pub as a club for members of a private smokers association took place at noon at the Comfort Inn on Centre Street in Smiths Falls, about 65 kilometres south of...

Park Ridge aldermen will resume discussion of the city's public smoking ban, following complaints from three restaurant owners that their businesses have been adversely affected by it.The restaurant owners spoke briefly to the City Council Monday night, prompting Mayor Howard Frimark to ask the aldermen if the smoking ban should be brought back before the Procedures and Regulations Committee. Alderman Jeannie Markech agreed that it should, and made a motion for the discussion. Eight aldermen voted in favor of the issue going back to committee and five voted against. One alderman was absent.The next meeting of the Procedures and Regulations...

There have been a bunch of books about the mistakes made after the American invasion of Baghdad, George Packer's Assassin's Gate and Thomas Ricks' Fiasco being the two best in my opinion.Yesterday, the Washington Post published an excerpt from Rajiv Chandrasekaran's effort. He was their bureau chief there for a few years and his book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, will be released tomorrow.I haven't read the book, but the excerpt is as damning as anything could be. It outlines how people were recruited to serve in the Coalition Provisional Authority, the group that ran...

Jobs are being eliminated by special interest activist organizations Now that air quality test results by the likes of the American Cancer Society are proving that the secondhand smoke kills argument is completely fabricated. http://cleanairquality.blogspot.com/2004/04/american-cancer-society-test-results.html It's time for lawmakers to investigate why this fallacy has permeated the local government debate.....and specifically who is funding and spreading that false information. http://www.rwjf.org/about/founder.jhtml The "who" is in large part the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. And since RWJF is an affiliate of the Johnson & Johnson Company (the manufacturer of competing nicotine product interests Nicoderm & Nicoderm CQ), it stands to reason that the...

Robin Brayman, a 44-year-old Greenfield resident, thought she had saved quite a bit of money buying cigarettes online, until she received a bill from the state demanding more than $2,000 in unpaid sales and cigarette taxes. "I had no idea. When I first started buying, the Web site said the cigarettes were tax-free, duty-free. You assumed you didn't have to pay anything," Brayman said. Brayman, like many other smokers, purchases cigarettes online because they are offered at a deep discount. A carton of Marlboro Full Flavor 100s costs $29.45 plus shipping from BuyCheapCigarettes.com, the site Brayman patronized. The same...

ROCKTON -- Rockton leaders snuff out an idea to ban smoking at public places. Tuesday night at their meeting, a motion to draft an ordinance banning smoking in public places failed to get anywhere. Rockton Village Trustee Dennis Meade put the issue before board members, but no one seconded the motion. The proposal would've kept people from lighting up on streets, sidewalks, parks and in businesses. Several community members including business owners spoke out at the meeting against a ban saying it would hurt their business. Others claimed it a ban would go against their rights. One person at...

The mother of deceased Ground Zero worker James Zadroga described Mayor Bloomberg as a "cold, heartless person" for opposing a series of new laws that address the health battles of 9/11 rescuers."I don't think he realizes how the common people live - maybe for one month he should try and live on $500 a week," Linda Zadroga wrote in a letter to the Daily News. "But when [you're] a billionaire, you have no concept of the so-called middle class. Well, one day he may have some tragedy in his family he will need to deal with, and then maybe...