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Virginia Republican House Speaker William Powell on Tuesday criticized a purported plan by the Democratic governor's to double the tax on cigarettes and said there were better ways for the state to close a widening budget deficit.
"Let's address the root problem rather than going out and addressing taxes, and especially not addressing taxes in a period of economic uncertainty," Howell told reporters during a telephone news conference held with Congressman Eric Cantor.
Cantor, also a Republican, said raising cigarette taxes was an "all-out attack ... and an assault on jobs here in Virginia and the greater Richmond area."
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The concept of non-smoking areas is foreign to most businesses here. You can ask for a non-smoking section in a restaurant, and you get the table next to the puffer with the stinkiest cigarettes in the world (worse even than the legendary Russian tar-babies.) The other day I watched a cook in a Schlotsky's Deli light up a cigarette as he was preparing a ham on rye. Stand in a crowd of people, and the smokers will exhale in your face as they talk. . . .
I had been in my room - which stank of stale smoke - less than a minute when there was a knock on the door. I opened it to young porter who rushed in and grabbed the two ashtrays in the bathroom and on the desk. He then left.
Voila! I now had a non-smoking room.
A Beijing man who has vowed to give up smoking was given a free ticket to watch the men's volleyball tonight at the Capital Stadium, a reporter with the Beijing News told China Daily Friday.
The reward came courtesy of anti-smoking campaigner Xiong Wei who on Sunday placed an advertisement in the Beijing News offering free Olympic tickets to 10 smokers who promised to quit.
The identity of "volleyball man" is known only to Xiong, who told China Daily on Thursday that he received 132 applications within 40 hours of his ad being placed.
Landon Hooberry took a break outside the madness. Having come to these Olympics from Arizona, he found himself outside of the BMX site in the morning, long hair flowing from underneath an F.B.I. hat, looking for scalped tickets.
Once inside, he proclaimed victory despite the oppressive heat.
"I'm stoked," Hooberry said, clutching a United States flag in one hand, a cigarette in the other.
"Love China," says a message on the screen. "Increase patriotism even more. Love a smoke-free Olympics."
That public-service advertisement was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, targeting TV viewers in China during the Olympics. It's part of a new initiative to cut tobacco use in the country that's home to 350 million smokers and more than a third of the world's cigarette production. . . .
In Beijing, a new government directive went into effect May 1 that bans smoking in most indoor areas, such as schools, hospitals, movie theaters and gyms, as well as on public transportation. The directive was intended to ensure a "smoke-free Olympics" but will remain in effect after the Games are over. . . .
China doesn't have a national law banning smoking in public places, but more than 150 local governments have instituted smoking bans. Many local bans passed in the 1990s are now being revised and strengthened.
How well the new policy is working in Beijing depends on where you go.
Corinne Leuenberger, a Swiss translator, stopped for a smoking break in a designated area near the Olympic Green. She said she hasn't seen much of a smoke-free Olympics at all, and no change in the amount of smoking in Beijing's popular bars and restaurants. . . .
National law bans cigarette sales to minors, but enforcement is weak and there's no stated penalty for violations. Cigarettes are sold almost everywhere. Smoking is so much a part of dining culture in China that cigarettes are frequently on restaurant menus. . . .
More than 32 percent of young people between the ages of 13 and 18 in China have tried smoking, and 11 percent are currently smokers, according to the 2008 China Tobacco Control Report.
The report blames exposure to tobacco advertising and images of smoking in movies and TV programs, as well as easy access to tobacco products, for drawing in young people.
2008: our heroic year. You can also become our hero. To protect our loved ones, please smoke outside.TV ad in China, from the Gates Foundation.
TV audiences will be confronted with a new graphic anti-tobacco advertisement during the Beijing Olympics coverage on Sunday night to drive home a message "everybody knows" but some still ignore.
The $1 million campaign is a montage of past Quit campaigns, set to the Leonard Cohen song Everybody Knows.
NSW Assistant Health Minister (Cancer) Verity Firth said it was a deliberate choice to air the ad during the Olympics.
"We know that TV viewership goes up 40 per cent during the Olympic period.
The Atlanta-based American Cancer Society has its own Olympics quest.
Dr. Otis Webb Brawley, the chief medical officer for the American Cancer Society, was in China this past weekend to launch an effort with more than 70 multi-national and Chinese companies to develop smoke-free worksites.
The launch coincided with the Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The society and consortium of Chinese partners are unveiling a new "toolkit" to help companies implement 100-percent smoke-free workplaces. More than 70 companies already have committed to become smoke-free at their Beijing facilities, and many also plan to implement those policies nationwide.
It's been declared a "smoke free Olympics" -- but tell that to the furtive puffers dragging on their cigarettes around Olympic venues.
In China there are over 350 million smokers, with one of every three cigarettes smoked in the world lit up in China, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
So it was a major task to get the world's heaviest smokers to stub out for the August 8-24 Games -- as well as the 500,000 overseas tourists in Beijing -- despite Chinese officials banning smoking in Olympic arenas.
"You do have to be a bit discreet," said a tourist from New Zealand, hiding his lit cigarette under a bench about a stone's throw from the Bird's Nest stadium.
"At the opening ceremony they cordoned off an area at the back of the stadium for smokers. It did last nearly five hours!"
Athletes too can be spotted smoking around venues.
"I'd say 70 out of 100 athletes in the Olympic village smoke," said Italian weightlifter Giorgio de Luca, perhaps exaggerating a little, as he wound down with a cigarette.
Air pollution is a serious health issue, especially in Beijing. For even the healthiest people, air pollution can irritate the respiratory tract and cause serious health problems such as asthma attacks, coughing and wheezing, shortness of breath and chest pain when inhaling deeply. It can also increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes, lung cancer and even early death.
Before spectators leave for Beijing, the American Lung Association advises all Olympic travelers to plan in advance for any health emergencies that may arise. Those individuals with conditions such as asthma, COPD (emphysema and chronic bronchitis), heart disease and diabetes are encouraged to make a doctor's appointment before making the trip. . . .
"Smokers are also encouraged to take steps to quit," advised Edelman. "Not only does smoking add to the pollution, but will also make for an even greater strain on your lungs. The American Lung Association's Freedom From Smoking online program is a valuable resource for those who want to break free from nicotine."
AN anti-smoking advocate will donate his 10 Olympic tickets to any smoker who promises to butt out, a Beijing newspaper reported today.
Xiong Wei hopes his gesture will raise awareness about the harmful effects of smoking.
The tickets he plans to give away include soccer and basketball events on August Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Anyone who wants the tickets can e-mail Xiong with detailed personal information
The retired co-founder of computer giant Microsoft, Bill Gates, has earmarked $130,000 from his foundation to support a "smoke-free Olympics".
"Awareness of the disease burden that smoking causes is not very widespread. I'd say most people in the US know it, but in China, that's not the case," Gates, who co-chairs the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said at a press conference in New York City on Wednesday.
The funds from the foundation's latest commitment are expected to go toward advertisements in an anti-smoking campaign in line with the Olympic smoking ban.
Beijing has pledged a smoke-free Games
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While many Olympians meditate or listen to music to calm their pre-competition nerves, several weightlifters training in Beijing Tuesday tried to lighten up by lighting up.
"I'd say 70 out of a 100 athletes in the Olympic village smoke," said Italian weightlifter Giorgio de Luca, perhaps exaggerating a little.
The lifter, looking happy and relaxed in shorts and green flip-flops, was winding down after a gym session with a coffee and a cigarette. He cheerfully ignored the mildly disapproving glances from his coach.
Smoking is banned in most parts of the Olympic Village, but there are designated smoking areas and some athletes even sneak out on to the balcony for a quick puff, de Luca said.
CIGARETTE brands in China used to be endorsed by athletes, including by the heroic Olympic and world champion hurdler Liu Xiang, who carries the same weight of expectation at the Beijing Olympics as Cathy Freeman did in Sydney in 2000.
So not surprisingly, China is a world champion at smoking, with cigarettes as cheap as 30c for a pack of 20.
About 57 per cent of Chinese men smoke regularly. Last year China smoked about 2.1trillion cigarettes.
But that world supremacy is going to be challenged at the Beijing Olympics, which start on August 8. These Games will not be as green or as human-rights promoting as they set out to be. But they are going to deal China's powerful tobacco industry a serious setback and provide another nail in the coffin of big tobacco . . .
When health professionals urge higher taxes, Yang says the tobacco industry responded by presenting findings from so-called experts that an increased price would lead to increased sales, on the grounds that smoking would be reinforced as a more valuable pastime.
Xu Guihua, another formidable anti-smoking campaigner, is secretary general of the China Tobacco Control Association, a non-government organisation that receives much of its income from conducting campaigns on behalf of the Health Ministry. She operates from an office with an energetic team of volunteers. . . .
"The fight against tobacco is just getting going in China," Xu says. And she's counting on the Olympic spirit to play its part.
Liu Xiang is being a good sport. He said recently he regrets being part of the cigarette industry. But whether his many millions of fans follow his lead remains to be seen.
BEIJING is imposing an unprecedented smoking ban during the Olympics in a bid to help rid the city of its legendary pollution.
All 37 Olympic sites, schools, hospitals, government buildings and Beijing's 66,000 taxis will all be no-smoking zones.
The smoking ban follows previously announced moves to close heavy industry in and around Beijing and to keep half the city's cars off the grid-locked roads during the Games.
Beijing police detained seven people for producing and selling counterfeit cigarettes bearing the Beijing Olympic Games logo on the packaging, Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.
Police confiscated 258 cartons of cigarettes and a large amount of packaging materials in a May 28 raid on a house in Chongwen district, in the southeast of the city.
More than 80 cartons had the brand names "Olympic Zhonghua" -- meaning "Olympic China" -- or "Olympic Beijing" and carried the Beijing Olympic logo