Tobacco.org

Schools’ total tobacco ban begins Friday  

Beginning this Friday, high school sports fans expecting to be able to walk outside the gym or behind the football stadium stands for a quick smoke between periods will have to be content with lighting up before or after setting foot on school property.

In keeping with legislation passed by the General Assembly last year, Johnston County Schools will adopt a complete “tobacco-free” policy that will prohibit the use of any tobacco products in school buildings, on grounds and at school-sponsored events. Included in the ban are all forms of cigarettes and cigars, pipe-smoking and chewing tobacco.

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LETTER: Smoking ban real reason for pubs closing 

Pubs are closing because smokers don't use them, and because the friends of smokers use them less because their friends aren't there.

And in exactly which part of Morningside did Ian Brocklebank, technical director of Camra, grow up? "Traditional" pubs were smoke-filled holes full of unwashed men swilling vast quantities of beer and whisky.

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Denver gives initial OK to ban on smoking near hospitals 

Smokers could be burned with a $300 fine for lighting up on sidewalks and other public areas around Denver hospitals.

An ordinance passed on first reading Monday by the City Council prohibits smoking on the public right of way around hospitals.

The ordinance, which establishes a no-smoking perimeter - basically from the sidewalk to the curb and gutter - is up for final consideration Aug. 11.

"Sick people - people with respiratory illnesses, people with cardiac illnesses, people with asthma conditions - are vulnerable, very vulnerable, to short-term acute exposure to secondhand smoke," said Councilwoman Carol Boigon, who sponsored the proposal.

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"No Smoking" For Hire  

Akron Children's Hospital is saying NO to smokers--in a very big way!

Starting in November, the hospital is taking a ground-breaking stand on their "no smoking" policy.

At this point, no one will be hired who tests positive for nicotine!

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Smoking violators receive warnings 

No video lottery parlors or bars have been fined in the first month of Kanawha County's new, tougher smoking ban.

July marked the beginning of a smoking ban in all enclosed public spaces, including bars and gambling establishments.

It replaced a 2004 clean indoor air ordinance that exempted gambling facilities and bars that receive 80 percent of sales from liquor.

Anita Ray, director of environmental health for the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department, said the department has issued warnings to establishments found to be in violation.

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Study: Smoking bans improve air quality 

Smoking bans do indeed improve air quality, according to an MUSC study.

Researcher Matthew Carpenter of the Hollings Cancer Center sampled air quality two years ago in 23 bars and restaurants in Charleston and 11 more in Mount Pleasant.

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Berlin pubs force U-turn on smoking ban  

Anti-smoking laws have been dramatically watered down in Berlin in an attempt to protect smaller bars and pubs from being driven out of business, opening the prospect of the law being challenged throughout Germany.

In a ruling which smoking campaigners hope will set a precedent, the German Constitutional Court has ordered the government to re-draft a law which expelled smokers from bars and restaurants, or herded them into separate rooms.

After hearing complaints by small bar owners that the ban was wrecking their trade, the judges ruled that any single-room bar or pub smaller than 75 square metres should be allowed to waive the anti-smoking legislation on condition that under-18s are not admitted and no food is prepared.

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German court curbs smoking ban in bars 

Germany must ease its ban on smoking in bars, only months after it was introduced, following a ruling by the constitutional court, the country’s top legal body.

The Karlsruhe-based court ruled that a ban on smoking in small one-room bars in two German states – Berlin and Baden-Württemberg – was discriminatory because similar pubs that had extra rooms were legally allowed to provide one for smokers. Smokers should be permitted in one-room premises too, the court said, in a ruling that is likely to be adopted by other regional states.

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Easley considering a smoking ban at city festivals  

Easley city officials are set to discuss non-smoking feedback today in relation to the possibility of a smoking ban at city festivals and events or a citywide smoking ban in public places.

The meeting is planned for 8 a.m. in the conference room at City Hall, according to an e-mail from the city.

A committee was appointed with three City Council members -- Kim Valentin, Dave Watson and Brian Garrison -- to study smoking in the city limits.

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German High Court Strikes Down Smoking Ban in Pubs (Update1) 

Germany must lift smoking bans in small pubs, the top constitutional court ruled, dealing a blow to Chancellor Angela Merkel's attempts to bring German anti- smoking laws into line with other European countries.

Laws in the states of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Berlin that ban smoking in small pubs that don't have an extra room that can be designated for smokers are discriminatory, the Karlsruhe- based Federal Constitutional Court ruled today.

``Lawmakers could totally ban smoking in all bars and restaurants,'' the court said in an e-mailed statement. ``But if they decide to allow exceptions for some barkeepers, then these exceptions must also apply to small pubs which are most hit by the ban.''

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German court rejects smoking bans 

Germany's top court has ruled against smoking bans in small bars and clubs.

The Federal Constitutional Court upheld complaints against the bans in the city-state of Berlin and Baden-Wuerttemberg, in south-west Germany.

The two states are among 12 that introduced such bans at the start of the year. The court says they must now review their anti-smoking laws.

Smoking will now be allowed in one-room bars and clubs smaller than 75 sq m (807 sq ft), where no food is served.

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Nursing home cited, fined for patients' smoking 

The state has placed a nursing home in Larimer on a provisional license and slapped it with a $22,000 fine, accusing it of permitting unsafe smoking by patients around oxygen equipment.

The 134-bed Forbes Road Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is appealing the penalties, disputing an account by state inspectors that smoking they saw outside the building on May 20-21 posed an unusual risk.

The Department of Health imposed an "immediate jeopardy" citation on the facility May 21. The designation prevented any new admissions until two days later, when officials were satisfied that procedures were in place to ensure no smoking would take place in the presence of flammable oxygen equipment.

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Germany's top court rejects two states' anti-smoking laws 

Germany's top court upheld complaints Wednesday against anti-tobacco laws in two states, in a ruling with broad implications for a country once seen as a smokers' paradise.

The Federal Constitutional Court said clauses of laws in the city-state of Berlin and the southwestern region in Baden-Wuerttemberg were unconstitutional because they threatened the livelihood of owners of small bars and clubs.

The six-to-two ruling means that customers in one-room bars and discotheques in the two states can keep lighting up until at least the end of 2009. . . .

Chief justice Hans-Juergen Papier made clear, however, that the court saw public health as more important than the right to smoke or run a bar and would rule accordingly in any further challenges to the laws.

"A general smoking ban in restaurants and taverns would have more protection under the constitution than the right to practise one's profession as a barkeeper or the freedom to smoke," he said.

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A general smoking ban in restaurants and taverns would have more protection under the constitution than the right to practise one's profession as a barkeeper or the freedom to smoke.
Federal Constitutional Court chief justice Hans-Juergen Papier.

• Reynolds Net Tops Analyst Estimates on Prices, Snuff (Update1)  

Reynolds American Inc., the second- largest U.S. tobacco company, reported profit that rose more than analysts estimated after higher Camel and Kool prices and snuff sales blunted falling cigarette demand.

Second-quarter net income climbed 12 percent to $364 million, or $1.24 a share, Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Reynolds said today in a statement. The maker of Grizzly snuff reiterated its full-year profit forecast, citing ``continued momentum'' from its Conwood's smokeless tobacco brands, which sent the shares up the most in more than four years.

Smokers paid more for the company's top-selling cigarettes after Reynolds raised prices on Camel by 15 cents a pack and Kool by 5 cents in September. New packaging helped Camel boost its share of U.S. smokers, while an increase in snuff sales muted a 7.9 percent decline in cigarette shipments to distributors.

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Harvard Hires Former Mexican Health Minister as Dean (Update2)  

Harvard University has hired Julio Frenk, the former Mexican health minister, to become the next dean of its School of Public Health.

Frenk is expected to start the job in January, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based university said in a statement. He will succeed Barry Bloom, dean for the past decade, who will become a distinguished service professor and continue research into global health.

Frenk, 54, is a senior fellow in the global health program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in Seattle. In 2006, he was identified as a leading candidate to be director-general of the Geneva-based World Health Organization by the editor of the British medical journal Lancet. Margaret Chan, a Chinese infectious disease specialist, got the job. . . .

In 2004, Frenk struck a deal with British American Tobacco Plc and Philip Morris of Mexico, a joint venture of Carlos Slim and Altria Group Inc., which agreed not to raise cigarette taxes in return for $400 million for social programs. Anti-tobacco groups criticized the arrangement.

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