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• Smoke-free Hong Kong may allow hi-tech smoking rooms in bars 

Hi-tech smoking rooms may be allowed in Hong Kong bars when a total ban on cigarettes in places where food and drink are being served comes into effect in 2009, a news report said Monday.

Officials are examining a 40,000-US-dollar smoking room partly funded by British American Tobacco at a Hong Kong bar to see if exemptions should be granted to bars with hi-tech facilities.

The tobacco company claims the room removes and recycles smoke fumes safely and argues that it could save bars with high percentages of smoking customers from going bust.

However, the city's leading anti-smoking campaigner Anthony Hedley told Monday's South China Morning Post that allowing smoking rooms would be 'nothing short of a scandal.'

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Dickering threatens smoking ban  

FORT THOMAS -- A proposed smoking ban in three Northern Kentucky counties could go up in smoke as officials haggle over what type of establishments would be exempt from the measure.

Officials in Kenton, Boone and Campbell counties have been working together since June on the proposal. If the differences can't be ironed out soon, some leaders are suggesting the plan be tabled until a comprehensive measure can be put in place.

"I believe it's either time to pass something or put it on the shelf for a while because it just seems to be an item that is taking staff time and concentration away from other projects," said Kenton County Commissioner Dan Humpert.

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Greenleaf seeks to expand smoking ban  

It took state Sen. Stewart J. Greenleaf 15 years to ban indoor smoking in 95 percent of public areas and workplaces across Pennsylvania.

Now, just three months after the ban began, he plans to go after the other 5 percent.

Greenleaf, a veteran Republican whose 12th District encompasses much of Eastern Montgomery County and parts of Bucks, said Wednesday he'll introduce legislation next month to expand the state's smoking ban to many places that are now exempt, including gaming floors, private clubs and bars that sell only small amounts of food. It would also extend the smoking prohibition to decks and patios, installed by many bar owners to provide smoking areas when the indoor ban went into effect.

Big Heads bar on Easton Avenue in Plumstead is an example of a tavern that would lose its smoking exception under Greenleaf's new bill.

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New Smoking Law to be Proposed in Pennsylvania 

A state senator from our area says Pennsylvania's smoking ban doesn't go far enough. Republican Stewart Greenleaf is proposing an expansion to the smoking ban that would include some places that are now exempt from the ban, which has been in place for the past few months. WFMZ's Stephanie Esposito has more.

"Even though we have 95% coverage now I'd like to see as much clean air in our work places as we possibly can."

REPORTER: Only months after the passage of the Pennsylvania Clean Indoor Air Act, Republican state senator Stewart Greenleaf wants to expand Pennsylvania's smoking ban again.

" We just went through a large process to be a smoking bar."

REPORTER: Peppercorn Pub in Quakertown is one of the few smoking bars left in the region.

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Push to beef up smoking ban 

Just months after a public smoking ban took effect in Pennsylvania, a ranking senator has launched an effort to make it even tougher.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, an author of the law that took effect Sept. 11, has announced plans to push a bill early next year to eliminate several exemptions in the current law.

The current law forces most indoor businesses to be smoke-free, but allows exceptions for bars with little food sales, private clubs, outdoor restaurant decks, and parts of casino floors, residential-care homes and full-service truck stops.

Greenleaf's new bill would end those exceptions, and allow any local government to enact smoke-free ordinances that are tougher than state law.

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• Europe's Smoking Culture Lingers, Despite Bans  

Although countries including France, Britain and Italy have introduced bans on smoking in public, Europeans are having a hard time stamping out their nicotine habit. In some cases, that has forced governments to soften antismoking legislation. . . .

Lighting up doesn't carry the social stigma in Europe that it carries in the U.S. Many famous Europeans -- including the Pope, French soccer star Zinedine Zidane and Britain's Prince Harry -- have been known to puff in private without burning their public image. U.S. President-elect Barack Obama, on the other hand, has spoken publicly about the pressure he feels to quit smoking. . . .

But smoking has become a heavy burden for Europe's state-run social-welfare systems, with smoking-related diseases costing well over $100 billion a year.

One out of two teens and adults smokes in Austria, one of the highest smoking rates in Europe. In 2007, 14,000 people died from smoking-related diseases out of an overall population of 8.2 million.

Smoking is common among women and teenagers as well as men. Austrian girls light up, on average, before their 12th birthdays, the youngest age in Europe, according to the World Health Organization.

The Austrian love for cigarettes dates from the 19th century . . .

Many attribute the laxity of the new antismoking law to Ms. Kdolsky, a proponent of free choice when it comes to cigarettes. The 46-year-old former anesthesiologist and hospital director had been a smoker since the age of 16 until she recently ditched the habit.

"Smokers are old enough to decide on their own," she said in an interview last year.

Opinion polls showed that most Austrians were against a full-blown smoking ban, says Ms. Kdolsky. She dismisses claims about the dangers of secondhand smoke. "No international study tells you that sitting in a restaurant for two hours as a passive smoker brings you harm," she says.

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Video: Fewer places to light up in Hoover  

There are some exceptions to the rule, but for the most part… starting today, smokers can't light up at Hoover restaurants, bars and pubs.

Baumhower's Wings and Sports Grille is one of those places - customers won't be able to light up. A mostly sports restaurant, the owner has decided to just go smoke-free. The manager said there are no worries about losing business.

General Manager Tom Wells said, "We have a lot of specials going on during the, the recessions times trying to get people in and the last few days since it's taken effect, no one's really complained about it."

But restaurants can serve smokers if they have separate enclosed areas with proper ventilation. Bars and pubs with a certain percentage of sales from alcohol have the option to allow smoking. But in both cases employees have to be legal adults.

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Greenleaf plans bill to toughen smoke ban 

Three months after the state smoking ban went into effect, its leading champion is seeking to snuff out exemptions that have allowed smokers to continue lighting up at hundreds of establishments.

Sen. Stewart Greenleaf (R., Bucks) author of the Clean Indoor Air Act, said he planned to introduce a bill next week to close the loopholes allowing smoking at casinos, bars and private clubs.

"The scientific evidence is irrefutable," Greenleaf said. "It's not just primary smoke, it's secondary smoke that is injuring and killing people."

The new law, the subject of 15 years of debate in the legislature, makes it illegal to smoke in 95 percent of all workplace and public areas. Exceptions include drinking establishments with less than 20 percent food sales and portions of casinos.

Greenleaf's bill would eliminate those exceptions, ban smoking at outdoor cafes, and allow all municipalities to pass even tougher bans, as Philadelphia has done.

Health-advocacy groups hailed the proposal as a way to dramatically reduce exposure to second-hand smoke.

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• Partial smoking ban in Austria: same difference, say critics 

Austria will introduce a partial smoking ban in bars and restaurants on January 1, 2009, but with half measures and special allowances, critics are doubtful it will make much difference to existing habits.

Under the new law, which was rushed through parliament just before it was dissolved in July ahead of snap elections, establishments under 50 square metres (540 square feet) will be able to choose whether to accept smokers or not.

And two thirds of pubs, clubs and cafes have said they will continue to allow smoking, according to the latest survey by the Austrian chamber of commerce (WKOe).

Bigger establishments that do not wish to become entirely smoke-free will have to turn at least 50 percent of their surface into protected no-smoking areas. . . .

"The Austrian smoking ban won't work because it's almost not a smoking ban, except that businesses have to spend a lot of money on making these partitions," noted Sylvia Hartl, a pulmonary disease specialist at Vienna's Otto Wagner hospital.

"Examples from abroad show that a general ban is the way to go,"

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Public say on ban unlikely  

Overriding the Vanderburgh County Commissioners to pass a comprehensive countywide smoking ban by referendum is unlikely, two local veteran lawmakers say.

But local smoking ban supporters remain hopeful that a powerful legislator from Gary, Ind., will succeed this time in passing a bill that would extinguish smoking in almost all enclosed public places in Indiana, including restaurants, bars, bowling alleys and casinos.

Smoking ban supporters are looking for alternatives because County Commissioner Troy Tornatta, with the support of Commissioner-elect Steve Melcher, appears intent on moving to reinstate exemptions for bars, taverns and clubs that are written into the county's ordinance banning smoking in most public places in January.

The exemptions expire Jan. 2, while similar exemptions for restaurants, bars and taverns in the city will continue. Tornatta and Melcher will outnumber Commissioner-elect Lloyd Winnecke, who supports letting the exemptions expire.

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County ban could go up in smoke  

Antismoking activists will hear Monday from the likely next leader of Vanderburgh County's executive governing body -- but they might not like what he has to say.

County Commissioner Troy Tornatta, senior member of the Democratic majority that will assume control of the board in January, pointedly disputed suggestions that he has shifted his position under pressure from Evansville-based grant program Smokefree Communities.

Tornatta reiterated Friday that he wants to move in January -- after public hearings -- to reinstate exemptions for bars, taverns and clubs that are written into Vanderburgh County's ordinance banning smoking in most public places.

Those exemptions will expire Jan. 2, while similar exemptions for restaurants, bars and taverns in the city's smoking ban will continue.

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Tougher smoking law sought  

Just months after a public smoking ban took effect in Pennsylvania, a ranking senator has launched an effort to make it even tougher.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Stewart Greenleaf, R-Montgomery, an author of the law that took effect Sept. 11, has announced plans to push a bill early next year to eliminate several exemptions in the current law.

The current law forces most indoor businesses to be smoke-free, but allows exceptions for bars with little food sales, private clubs, outdoor restaurant decks, and parts of casino floors, residential-care homes and full-service truck stops.

Greenleaf's new bill would end those exceptions, and allow any local government to enact smoke-free ordinances that are tougher than state law.

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Casinos get burned by smoking ban this year 

While casino workers can now breathe smoke-free air at work, the year-old indoor smoking ban in Illinois has been measurably tough on the state’s riverboats.

That means attempts to allow gamblers smoke at the slots and gambling tables probably won’t die with 2008.

All year, monthly reports from the Illinois Gaming Board showed a sharp decline in the amount the state’s gamblers were putting on the line at casinos. So far this year, the state’s boats have seen about a 20 percent drop.

Surely, some of that decline can be seen because of the country’s economic recession.

But gambling hasn’t fallen as sharply in casinos in states that border Illinois.

“The only other thing is smoking,” said Tom Swoik, executive director of the Illinois Casino Gaming Association.

Early this year, the casino industry and some lawmakers pushed to have Illinois riverboats exempted from the indoor smoking ban. Those efforts failed, but they are not unprecedented.

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Slots and cigs: Is there a connection?  

Do gamblers smoke more than other people?

As with so many questions, the answer is that experts disagree. But there is evidence that the people who gamble the most also smoke the most.

First the facts. Because of the state's Clean Indoor Air Act, the PhiladelphiaPark began allotting 75 percent of its slots machines to nonsmokers in September. Given that only about 20 percent of the nation's adults smoke, that would seem a reasonable ratio.

The state then looked at 90 days' worth of revenue at the Bensalem casino, where 25 percent of machines were in smoking areas. It found the average revenue from slot machines per day was 21/2 times more in smoking vs. nonsmoking areas.

As a result, the state is now letting Philadelphia Park reserve half its machines for smokers, which is expected to mean more tax revenue for state coffers, as well as the casino itself. . . .

Researchers are less sure of a correlation. Chris Pritsos, a biochemist who teaches at the University of Nevada, Reno, studied smoking rates at casinos throughout Nevada two years ago and found that the percentage of smokers at casinos in Las Vegas and Reno was not significantly higher than the national average. The smoking rate at Lake Tahoe resorts was actually lower. The proportion of slots players who smoked was 21.3 percent.

"I think that the notion that gamblers are more likely to smoke is absolutely unfounded," said Pritsos, who also studies the effect of smoking on casino employees.

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Smoke could be snuffed out of Waco bars 

Smoking is prohibited in restaurants until after 10 p.m. in Waco, but there are some exceptions.

Gathering with friends and having a drink at a bar goes hand-in-hand with smoking - if you're a smoker at least. But if you live in Waco, you may be required to stub out that cigarette.

Waco City Council Member Alice Rodriguez said McLennan County is considering a proposal that would tighten the belt on the current smoking ordinance.

"The health district brought it forward to our council yesterday, which they are doing for every city in McLennan County and they are just bringing the proposal forward for the city council to discuss," Rodriguez said.

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