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Court reviews smoking ban, upsetting businesses 

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• Take Away Their Menthols? Is That Cool?  

Those who support the ban of menthol include seven former federal secretaries of health and human services, African-American antismoking advocates and some Congressional Black Caucus members. Those opposing the ban of menthol include Philip Morris USA, the nation's largest cigarette company; other Black Caucus members; and major public health groups, which said a compromise was needed so as not to derail the legislation.

In this maelstrom of debate are the smokers. There are those like Mr. Heath, who is African-American, who reject such wholesale interference with personal choices, and there are others who believe that having their menthol cigarettes snatched away may be just what they need to end their habit.

AN entertainment executive with a major Hollywood studio who smokes Marlboro Smooth, a newly introduced menthol, said he did not want the government "telling me anything." . . .

"For me, I think I'm addicted twice, once to the menthol and then second to the tobacco," said one smoker in a small group discussion with black adult smokers in the Atlanta area, which was held by the C.D.C. and summarized in a study published this year in Ethnicity & Health, an academic journal.

Marketing campaigns have greatly influenced consumers. . . .

Of course, some smokers had their eyes wide open when they succumbed to the habit.

Katherine Dozier, 24, a wedding planner in Los Angeles who is white, said she started smoking regularly about a year ago, when a Hollywood club passed out Camel No. 9 menthols as a promotion. She was struck by the "cute" black-and-turquoise box with a pink camel, and said the cigarettes were obviously aimed at young women. "You just don't see men smoking them because they wouldn't be caught dead with these pink and green boxes," she said.

Ms. Dozier liked the cigarettes, finding them "really smooth and minty and very light," she said. "They didn't make me cough."

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• No drop in tobacco consumption: ITC 

The quantum of Tobacco consumption has not come down despite the Government increasing the tax on cigarettes, Indian Tobacco Company Chairman Y C Deveshwar said on Saturday.

"It is going up in other forms like scented tobacco and Gutkha," he told reporters.

He told newsmen here Tobacco was being sold in so many forms like Gutkha and Paan, which, he claimed, caused oral cancer, and were more dangerous. "Unfortunately all the attention was only towards cigarettes,which were less harmful with filters and all," he claimed

He said government was only losing revenue by increasing the tax on cigarettes, and ITC's share in tobacco business had come down.

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Exercise cuts some of smoking's risks -- but it's a fact that performance is affected  

Sure, smoking is bad for you -- but what happens when you combine it with something really good -- like running eight miles a day? Do you get a healthier smoker? Or an unhealthy athlete?

It's one of those is-the-cigarette-half-smoked-or-half-unsmoked conundrums. And there's no definitive answer.

"If people can quit, that's the best thing," says Dr. Robert Sallis, director of sports medicine at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana. That seems obvious, but Sallis explains that many of the risks associated with smoking are immediately and dramatically reduced upon quitting. Then he adds: "If you can't stop smoking, exercise will mitigate some of the effects."

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• BASHAM: Up in smoke  

Two recent events underscore big problems with the way society tries to fight tobacco use.

First, a new Harvard study came out alleging that the tobacco industry manipulated menthol levels in cigarettes to hook young smokers in violation of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement, which bans tobacco companies from targeting youths. And second, billionaires Michael R. Bloomberg and Bill Gates last week threw their support behind a new $500 million worldwide effort to stop smoking.

Whatever the tobacco companies may have done with menthol levels, the bigger scandal is how states have misspent the billions paid to them by the tobacco industry. And however well-intentioned, the Gates-Bloomberg effort, which involves the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, is likely to fail because the tobacco control programs that it will fund - featuring such things as higher taxes, smoking bans and advertising restrictions - have failed before. These multiple shortcomings point to the need for a new, more effective approach to handling, and funding, tobacco prevention. . . .

Ten years and $53 billion after the tobacco settlement windfall, there is precious little to show in terms of credible smoking prevention. It's time for Congress - and perhaps the president - to step in and demand that the states live up to their promise to use the settlement money for effective tobacco prevention. To ensure the settlement money has an impact, it needs to be diverted from projects unrelated to smoking and then placed into interventions that are based on what the best evidence shows are the real reasons kids start using cigarettes.

Until that happens, anti-tobacco efforts - whether funded by the states or by well-intentioned billionaires - will continue to amount to little more than blowing smoke.

--Patrick Basham teaches tobacco regulation at the Johns Hopkins University, directs the Democracy Institute and is a Cato Institute adjunct scholar.

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• LETTERS: Taking a bite out of tobacco use  

Tobacco Valley lifestyle smokes out Albertans 

The following are some facts and information about Eureka, Mont.:

- Population: 1,028 in 2005.

- Location: Part of Lincoln County in northern Montana, Eureka is also in what is known as Tobacco Valley. The mild climate was a draw for the First Nation people, the Blackfeet, Salish and Kootenai, to grow tobacco.

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Smoking Ban Hits Close To Home For Senator 

State Senator Jack Hatch helped push the smoking ban through the statehouse, and now he's dealing with an unexpected and unpleasant result.

Smokers at Carl's Place in Des Moines' Sherman Hill neighborhood have to take their butts outside. It just so happens that "outside" is right across the street from Hatch's home.

"I look over there every once in a while expecting somebody to shout something at me, but they don't. They're polite," said Hatch, one of the biggest proponents of the ban.

The irony is as thick as the smoke. A gaggle of noisy smokers abiding by Hatch's law, but making an eyesore for him in the process.

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Marin aims to limit sale of tobacco products 

Marin County health officials are refining a plan to ban the sale of tobacco products at pharmacies, and it could be brought before the Board of Supervisors this fall.

Larry Meredith, director of the Department of Health and Human Services, said the ordinance would be similar to the ban approved in San Francisco this week. A draft is being examined by the county counsel's office and the supervisors.

"It's all part of our continuing look at tobacco and access to the population," Meredith said. "We don't believe stores promoting health care products, such as pharmacies, should be selling something that is harmful."

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• Legacy of Big Tobacco's scheme lives on in reserves 

even as Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. and Rothmans Benson Hedges Inc. forked out more than $1-billion in penalties this week, the legacy of Big Tobacco's scheme lives on in Akwesasne and other native communities.

The big companies ended their black market operations after Ottawa and some provinces slashed taxes in 1994. But the contraband has surged back, now supplied by a mainly Mohawk vertically integrated industry with its native-run cigarette plants. . . .

He said many Akwesasne cigarette workers are non-natives. Neighbouring communities are poor and many people are willing to take jobs with no health benefits or union protection.

"They won't raise a fuss ... whereas with Mohawks, they have family. You can only push them so far until they push back and you have to deal not just with that specific worker but with cousins, uncles, brothers and sisters and invariably relatives who are related to the actual warehouse owner." . . .

RCMP investigations show that smugglers, having earned Canadian cash from their tax-free smokes, turn it into U.S. currency by purchasing Canadian marijuana that is smuggled into the U.S., Sgt. LaPorte said.

The cash influx mixed with the availability of firearms have in turn fuelled robberies and home invasions, Mr. George-Kanentiio said. "It's too dangerous to report it. You can't tell the police that you've just lost $100,000 in smuggling money. You're always nervous. Who do you trust? ... There's a lot of loose money floating around the reserve."

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By the time Canada woke up and said, 'Let's drop the tax and make it harder for them to make a profit,' another idea had sprung to mind. Why do we have to transport Canadian cigarette products? Let's take a stab and see if we can manufacture it.
Former Akwesasne grand chief Mike Mitchell.

What's the Matter With Chicago? and Seattle and New York and Boston...? 

Two decades of healthy economies and dropping crime rates have given many city councils the luxury of worrying about less urgent issues, from the last wisps of secondhand smoke to the discomfort of fatted geese. So even while self-styled progressives in Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston take a more relaxed approach to sex and pot, they’ve adopted increasingly restrictive laws regarding alcohol, tobacco, and junk food. It may be easier to smoke a joint today than it was 20 years ago (except in New York City—see below), but it’s getting much more difficult to enjoy a legal cigarette. . . .

In 2005 a state ballot initiative banned smoking in all public places. Unlike similar prohibitions in other cities, there are no exemptions for tobacco stores, cigar bars, or private clubs. As if that weren't enough, the Washington State Clean Indoor Air Act bans smoking within 25 feet of the doors, windows (closed or open), and ventilation systems of any public building. In parts of Seattle, smokers literally have to stand in the middle of the street to comply with the law . . .

33) NEW YORK

New York competes with Chicago as a trailblazer for bad new ideas, whether it's the 2003 ban on smoking in bars and restaurants,

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Survey: Most Ore. businesses aware of smokefree workplace laws 

As the state of Oregon approaches the expansion of its Smokefree Workplace Law on January 1st, 2009, a new survey finds that two-thirds of bars and bar sections of restaurants are already smokefree.

The survey, by Oregon's Tobacco Prevention and Education Program, found that 91 percent of all places that allow smoking are aware of the upcoming law, and nine percent plan to voluntarily go smoke-free before the law even takes effect. 44 percent say they are already voluntarily smokefree. Another 40 percent of establishments with liquor licenses are already smokefree by law because they allow minors at all times.

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Letter: Because it's the law 

as of Jan. 1, 2009, there will be NO SMOKING "within 10 feet of parts of public places or places of employment.This means "within 10 feet of any entrances, exits, windows that open and ventilation intakes that serve an enclosed area."

This language is from Senate Bill 571, passed during the 74th Oregon Legislative Assembly-2007 Regular Session. Public hearings were held, and after the final version of the Oregon Administrative Rules are completed, these changes will become law on Jan. 1, 2009. With this new law there may be fines associated with non-compliance issues.

The Wallowa County Health Department has been awarded a grant, from the Oregon TPEP (Tobacco Prevention and Education Program) at the Oregon Department of Human Services.

The objective of the grant is to provide assistance with compliance issues, direction and answer any questions from employers, public facilities, schools and hospitals to help establish policies, upgrades polices and/or redefine policies.

I am the Tobacco Prevention and Education coordinator for Wallowa County, and I may be reached at the Wallowa County Health Department

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Government of Canada Delivers Real Action for Tobacco Farmers and Their Communities 

The Government of Canada is providing more than $300 million to Ontario's flue-cured tobacco producers, including $286 million for a Tobacco Transition Program to help them exit the tobacco industry, and $15 million for community development initiatives.

The announcement was made today by the Honourable Gerry Ritz, Federal Agriculture Minister, at the Delhi Tobacco Exchange Auction, joined by the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and MP for Haldimand-Norfolk, and Joe Preston, MP for Elgin-Middlesex-London.

"Minister Finley has been a tireless proponent of an exit package for tobacco farmers," said Minister Ritz. "As such, the Conservative government has been committed to finding a responsible solution. I've said it before and I will say it again: the Conservative government is committed to putting farmers first."

The Tobacco Transition Program will provide transition and exit assistance to producers interested in exiting the sector.

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• Report on rehab of tobacco growers 

The Tobacco Board will submit a road map on shifting the commodity farmers to other crops after a meeting on August 8 - five years after committing to the World Health Organisation to reduce tobacco's output by a half.

The Board, under the guidance of the Commerce Ministry, is to frame an action plan for reducing tobacco farming by 50 per cent in 10-15 years after signing the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) of the apex global health body in 2003.

"We will meet growers, representatives of agriculture departments of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, agriculture universities and the Central Tobacco Research Institute on August 8 in Guntur to prepare a road map on alternative crops. We will submit our r eport after that," Tobacco Board Chairman, Mr J Suresh Babu told PTI.

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