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BERLIN - A German telecommunications company said on Tuesday it is developing the first mobile phone that will alert users when their breath is bad or if they are giving off offensive smells. The phone will use a tiny chip measuring less than one millimeter to detect unpleasant odors, a spokeswoman for Siemens Mobile said. A research team in the southern city of Munich is developing the device using new sensor technology. "It examines the air in the immediate vicinity for anything from bad breath and alcohol to atmospheric gas levels," the spokeswoman said. "Some people take smelling good rather...

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...

No-smoking forces taking new territory: the beach LOS ANGELES – Ten years after California set a national precedent by banning smoking in restaurants and bars - and months after prohibiting it within feet of government buildings and playgrounds - many of the state's coastal cities are now banning smoking at the beach. Health and environmental officials say the moves are a logical extension of smoking bans in other public places and are necessary to meet state and federal antipollution requirements. Some legislators, however, fear the government is prying too far into private lives, with unnecessary and overly puritanical dictums. Solana...

AUGUSTA - A petition drive to snuff out the state's ban on smoking in bars has stalled and will fail to meet a Feb. 2 deadline for putting the issue on the November ballot, an organizer said.Instead, the Maine Freedom Committee will submit the signatures to the Legislature in 2005 in hopes lawmakers will amend the law or send it to voters, said Stavros Mendros of the Maine Freedom Committee. Mendros, a former Republican lawmaker from Lewiston, said the campaign didn't have funding to meet this year's deadline for petitions. "The money wasn't there," Mendros said. "It's hard to do...

Monday, December 29, 2003 It's nearly the last gasp for smoking bar patrons     University of Southern Maine student Ben Theriault, of Buxton, takes time out from class to enjoy a cigarette in 2002. Starting next month, smoking will be banned in bars in Maine. Smoking is already banned in restaurants and in most public buildings.  To some bar patrons, the haze padding the ceiling and hanging over pool tables is as much a part of a bar as a bank of beer taps. Those who have become accustomed to the sight, as well as those who are used to...

Employees going outside into the open air to smoke soon won't be good enough for Children's Hospital management. Starting May 1, Children's Hospital staff members won't be allowed to smoke on the premises. If employees still want to smoke, they'll have to walk a couple of blocks until they're off the sprawling hospital grounds. Three outdoor smoking huts will remain but only visitors will be allowed to use them. Patients should not have to contend with the lingering scent of cigarette smoke on staff members returning from breaks, said Keith Goodwin, the hospital's president and chief executive officer. "It's counterintuitive...

<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>

It's been in place for five years now, but many Yuba-Sutter bar owners and patrons said they have yet to become accustomed to California's ban on smoking in bars. At establishments such as Stassi's Fourth Ward Tavern in Marysville this weekend, business owners were still fuming over the ban, which took effect in January 1998. The ban - a first for the nation - was intended to protect bartenders from health risks posed by second-hand smoke. Yet Roy Newlove, the owner of Stassi's for roughly 10 years, said it does nothing more than slow business and cause headaches for his...