Tobacco.org

READERS WEIGH IN  

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Nicole Fitzpatrick  

Age: 31

Occupation: Mortgage broker, lives in Marina del Rey.

Sport: Has run two L.A. Marathons, the San Francisco Marathon, the Philadelphia Marathon, the Long Beach Marathon, and is training for the Pasadena Marathon and the Nautica Malibu Triathlon; also does yoga.

Smoking history: Started in high school, smokes five to 10 cigarettes a week, has quit intermittently.

Does smoking affect your athletic performance? "I've never felt it running. If I'm pushing for speed, that's when I think it would be beneficial to stop or cut down. I can run a 10:30 pace for days. When I do track workouts or speed intervals or hills, when I'm really pushing myself, I don't know if it's the cigarettes, but I'm dying."

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Jeff Myers  

Age: 35

Occupation: Video and film director, lives in Los Angeles.

Sport: Ran the L.A. Marathon in 2007 and 2008, plans to run it next year. Also plays pickup basketball games and does gym workouts.

Smoking history: Has been smoking since he was 22; currently smokes about half a pack a day.

Does smoking affect your athletic performance? "I'm not going to live as long, but it's not going to change my running. My cardiovascular is through the roof; my lung capacity is through the roof. I had a V02 max test at my gym [a test that measures maximal oxygen uptake]. I told my trainer, 'By the way, I smoke,' and she freaked out.

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Simi Singer  

Age: 46

Occupation: Senior media specialist with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center; lives in Los Alamitos.

Sport: Ran three L.A. Marathons, plans to run it and the Boston Marathon next year.

Smoking history: Started in college; has quit intermittently, often before races. Is currently involved in a hypnotherapy program to stop smoking. Smokes about five to 10 cigarettes a day.

Does smoking affect your athletic performance? "When I have quit, I have much more lung capacity and more energy.

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Jon Delaney 

Age: 29

Occupation: Receptionist at Body Builders Gym in Los Angeles; lives in Los Angeles.

Sport: Gym-based strength and cardiovascular training.

Smoking history: Started smoking at 16, currently smokes about a pack a day.

Does smoking affect your athletic performance? "I'm sure that smoking affects my [muscle] development.

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Cigarette litter is in town's sights 

Meg McGurk knew cigarette butts were a problem. She just didn't know how big a problem.

About 6,664 butts later, she had her answer.

McGurk, assistant director of the Chapel Hill Downtown Partnership, is now working to get smokers to drop their butts in new receptacles instead of on the street.

"This is just one of the issues [downtown], but it's a big one," said McGurk, a former smoker. "A lot of people don't really notice. But if you look down, you'll see it."

More than unsightly, cigarette butts are bad for the environment.

Cigarettes are the most littered item in the U.S., according to Keep America Beautiful

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Cigarette likley cause 

Amelia Osmond and her two children have lost most of their personal items resulting from a house fire last Monday.

The single mother was returning to her rental home in Port aux Basques at around 3 p.m. last Monday when, upon approaching the house, she noticed her curtains were missing from her windows. . . .

Ms. Osmond was told by a fire inspector that a cigarette likely caused the fire.

She said she was smoking a cigarette before using the washroom and leaving the house in a hurry. She doesn't remember leaving a lit cigarette in the ashtray, but she said it is possible; or that maybe she hadn't put it out entirely. She even questioned the possibility of her cat knocking it over.

"I'm normally the type of person who makes sure my cigarettes are doubted. Maybe I was too careless this time, I really don't know," she said.

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Rob McCool  

Occupation: Associate producer at a commercial editing facility; lives in Hermosa Beach.

Sport: Has run several marathons and half-marathons, including the Palos Verdes Marathon and the L.A. Marathon; triathlons include the Ironman 70.3 (in Oceanside). Training for the long course Santa Barbara Triathlon this month. Also plays beach volleyball.

Smoking history: Started smoking in college, has quit intermittently; smokes half a pack a day.

Does smoking affect your athletic performance? "With any endurance sport, I've never felt any detriment. Not at all. . . . The only time I feel it now is when I'm swimming. Maybe I don't have the lung capacity. If I didn't hit my breath every third stroke, I could tell immediately. Do I think it's from smoking? It's got to be. For any other sport, I've never had an issue with breathing."

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Roll Call 

Federal tobacco regulation: Voting 326-102, the House on Thursday sent the Senate a bill to begin Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco products. . . .

A yes vote was to pass the bill.

Voting yes: G.K. Butterfield, D-1; Bob Etheridge, D-2; David Price, D-4; Mike McIntyre, D-7; Melvin Watt, D-12; Brad Miller, D-13.

Voting no: Walter Jones, R-3; Virginia Foxx, R-5; Howard Coble, R-6; Robin Hayes, R-8; Sue Myrick, R-9; Patrick McHenry, R-10; Heath Shuler, D-11.

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EDITORIAL: No to Regulation 

A bill allowing FDA regulation of the tobacco industry faces little chance of passing in the Senate, and opponents of that regulation should ensure that by keeping up a hard fight against this wrongheaded government intervention. . . .

It's unacceptable to market cigarettes to potential smokers who are underage. Restricting cigarette sales to adults, however, has no place in a free society.

As the House minority leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, rightly said, "There is not a smoker in America who doesn't know smoking isn't good for them. Do we need the government to tell us?"

Heck no. Boehner's a smoker himself, but many nonsmokers are just as resentful of government efforts to play Big Brother.

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Rothmans deal presents challenges for Philip Morris  

Philip Morris International Inc.’s friendly $2-billion takeover of Canadian cigarette maker Rothmans Inc. may not be material in financial terms given the U.S. tobacco giant’s more than US$100-billion market capitalization, but it does increase its litigation exposure.

This factor, along with the extreme difficulty Philip Morris will have in bringing its brands to bear in Canada – it cannot use the Marlboro name, for example, since British American Tobacco plc owns the brand – has Citigroup’s Adam Spielman telling clients that he doesn’t like the deal.

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BARKIN: Butts were big, but oh, Jonas! 

The other day, Mark Schultz, our Orange County editor, was driving on Franklin Street when the driver in front of him rolled down her window and tossed out a cigarette.

Schultz was bothered by this. So Tuesday, he wrote about it in the blog that his staff keeps up, called OrangeChat. Here is what he wrote:

"Guess the driver of the Lexus RX300 in front of me the other morning didn't have an ashtray. Why else would she roll down her window and drop her cigarette butt on East Franklin Street in front of the Chapel Hill Museum?" . . .

The response was swift. His three-paragraph post got around 1,200 reads and 13 comments by Friday morning. Most comments were from like-minded people offended by the littering. Others told Mark to get a life.

Mark was a little surprised by the number of people who read his little blog post, and he suggested to us that maybe there's a story here about litter, but he couldn't figure out what it was. . . .

I'm still wondering whether the owner of the Lexus knows about the hoo-hah she unleashed.

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Winds 35-40 mph fanned 30-acre grass fire in Fort Worth 

Firefighters battled for more than three hours late Sunday and early Monday to control a grass fire that charred about 30 acres in northwest Fort Worth, according to reports. . . .

Fire officials at the scene speculated that a smoldering cigarette may have caused the blaze

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New tobacco bans welcomed  

ALL state governments should follow the lead of New South Wales and introduce tough new smoking laws, health groups say.

Quit Victoria's executive director Fiona Sharkie said the NSW changes, which include a ban on smoking in cars carrying children under 16 and a ban on displaying cigarettes in shops, would limit young people's exposure to smoking.

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County's cigarette litter prevention campaign starts 

Springfield, Ohio -- Clark County officials want to give people more places to put their butts.

Cigarette butts, that is.

Cigarette butts account for the most common litter in the county, said Waste Management District Director Debra Shaw.

County business and government leaders attended the Keep Clark County Beautiful's Prevent Cigarette Litter Campaign on Friday, Aug. 1, highlighting the start of the month-long initiative.

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