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The number of adult cigarette smokers in the United States has declined for the first time in four years, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The CDC said tobacco use nationally has dipped below 20 percent for the first time since the 1960s, and Bill Pfeifer with the Arizona Lung Association said Arizona is following the trend.
About 18 percent of adult Arizonans smoke, but the numbers are getting better each year, Pfeifer said.
"We passed a significant tobacco tax increase in 1994 here in Arizona and really that resulted in kind of the first step to see a significant decline in tobacco use in the state of Arizona," he said.
He believes Arizona's smoking rate could fall to around 10 percent within the next decade.
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Tempe fire officials believe smoking in bed caused a fire that led to the death of a 58-year-old woman Nov. 23.
At about 2:30 a.m., firefighters found Brenda Kessler unconscious near the door of her apartment on West Third Street
The state spent $900,000 on the development of an anti-smoking campaign aimed at teens and children. But an 11th-hour decision by state officials resulted in the centerpiece, a series of television commercials, being yanked before they ever made the air.
Now, some health officials are criticizing the decision and say it may compromise the effectiveness of a public-awareness campaign two years in the making.
"You've already made this huge investment," said Susan Gerard, the former director of the state health department that oversaw the campaign. "This is a waste of so many resources, so many man-hours of work ... It's really a shame."
The series of three 30-second TV spots was intended to debut Nov. 20 to coincide with the Great American Smokeout, a national kick-the-habit effort.
But the ads were never broadcast following a decision by the Arizona Department of Health Services, which worked with Gov. Janet Napolitano's office to produce the campaign. State officials say they began to question the cost-effectiveness of running the ads on TV . . .
The ads instead will be available online . . .
"They were really ready to go, but for whatever reason the Governor's Office said, 'No we don't want to run those ads,' " he said. "This is about saving lives - in particular, young people's lives - and (to) hopefully keep them from smoking."
With a unanimous 5-0 vote at its Tuesday night meeting, the council approved a new rule that would require half the units of new and existing buildings with more than 16 rentals to be made smoke-free within 24 months. The rule would also prohibit smoking in common outdoor areas such as basketball and tennis courts, courtyards, paths and parking areas.
Landlords will be allowed to designate a portion of the outdoor areas for smoking. They will also be required to disclose to prospective tenants the number and location of smoking and nonsmoking units, location of the smoking area and procedures for addressing smoking-related complaints.
The City Council will review the ordinance after 24 months and decide whether to increase the ratio of smoke-free units to 70 percent.
Arizona has been ranked 20th among all states for its spending on tobacco prevention programs and spends $1 on prevention for every $8 tobacco companies spend marketing, a national report has found.
"A Decade of Broken Promises" was released this week . . .
Laura Oxley, chief public information officer for the Arizona Department of Health Services, said the amount of money Arizona will receive as a result of the settlement is correct in the report, but "we can't spend all that on prevention."
In 2000, a ballot initiative designated that all tobacco settlement funds be given to the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System. The initiative did not designate an amount for tobacco prevention programs from the settlement funds.
The CDC recently changed its recommendations for spending on tobacco prevention. Until this year, Arizona traditionally spent 80 percent to 130 percent of what the CDC recommended, the report shows.
Oxley did not know if Arizona would meet the CDC's new recommendations.
A man who was killed in a fight over cigarettes has been identified as 56-year-old Richard Lane.
Lane got into a fight Monday with Sean Scheinkman, 49, at a group home in the 2600 block of East Coconino Vista where they were both staying, police said.
An apparent fight over cigarettes at a group home Monday evening left one man dead, police said.
Sean Scheinkman, 49, was booked into the Pima County jail in connection with the slaying, which occurred in the 2600 block of East Coconino Vista, according to Sgt. Mark Robinson, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.
The incident occurred when the 56-year-old victim — whose name hasn't been released — and Scheinkman got into an argument over cigarettes, Robinson said.
Like smoke lingering in the air, the owner of a Tempe hookah lounge is still hanging around in the hope he can keep his business running.
Anis Ben Harzallah goes before the City Council tonight, requesting a change of heart on allowing customers to takes pulls on water pipes at HB Tobacco, 53 E. Broadway Road.
The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m.
It's been two months since the council voted unanimously against allowing Harzallah to modify the business' use permit, which currently allows the sale of tobacco - but not the smoking of tobacco.
He had admitted allowing smoking there after opening in early 2007.
According to a legal document filed with the city by Harzallah's attorneys, patrons should be allowed to smoke hookah because the city had never before distinguished between tobacco retailers and lounges like HB Tobacco.
The Arizona Court of Appeals on Sept. 30 delivered a blow against the regulatory powers of the Arizona Department of Health Services by declaring that a luxury Phoenix tobacco shop and bar is exempt from the statewide smoking ban in public places.
The ruling overturns a Maricopa County Superior Court judge's decision in March that validated the department's argument that constructing a bar within Magnum's Cigar, Wine and Liquor Emporium nullified its exclusion from 2006 voter-approved Smoke-Free Act.
The act included several exceptions to the smoking ban, including retail tobacco shops that generate a majority of their sales from tobacco and related accessories. Under the law, retail tobacco shops also must have physical separations to prevent smoke from drifting into areas where smoking is prohibited.
The appeals court found no basis for the department's interpretation of the 2006 act that would forbid smoking in a tobacco shop that sells alcohol or also operates as a bar. . . .
"Although the act specifies that the majority of a retail tobacco store's sales must be from tobacco products and accessories, it places no restrictions on the source of the other 49.9 percent sales," wrote Judge John Gemmill.
My order with a MO of some $61.81 was never processed long after the Feds had raided and shut down the company. So it would seem the Federal Cigarette Tax Police just took my money for grins. (Others seem to have been screwed big time for more than $300!)
Here in Arizona tax happy Progressives have essentially multiplied the price of Cigarettes x3+...
I spent some time trying to find a way to send Arizona's Comrade Governor the demanded $1.00 per pack to subsidize her Socialist programs on her Socialist generated crap tax forms and finally gave up.
Like a lot of folks, Cigarettes are an important part of my life. The money the Cigarette Tax Police steal from me for their Socialist schemes means I have less money to buy stuff and pay their Sales taxes! . . .
Don't laugh, New York has bankrupted several people by demanding payments for Cigarette taxes.
The saying "Put that in your pipe and smoke it" might hold new meaning for HB Tobacco owner Anis Ben Harzallah after Thursday's Tempe City Council meeting.
The council revoked Harzallah's permit to allow hookah-pipe smoking at his business despite his having previously won two appeals launched by residents in Tempe's Date Palm Manor neighborhood. . . .
Steve Stewart, Date Palm Neighborhood Association chairman, called the initial decision to allow a Hookah lounge at Broadway Road and Mill Avenue near Tempe High School immoral.
"Is revenue more important than moral intent?" Stewart asked the council. "(We say) we're against the sale of tobacco . . . for our kids. But guess what-here's another hookah lounge."
FLAGSTAFF - Navajo lawmakers failed to override a veto of a bill that would have banned smoking and chewing tobacco on tribal property.
The veto override needed 59 yes votes, but only 41 were cast in Thursday's session.
as a whole Arizona's bars and restaurants haven't seen their profits vanish since voters banned smoking in most public places, according to a study released by the Arizona Department of Health Services.
The study, conducted by Arizona State University's W.P. Carey School of Business, surveyed bars and restaurants across Arizona and analyzed their profits before and after the ban went into effect in May 2007.
It found no large-scale economic effect on the restaurant and bar industry. While some businesses have suffered, others, such as bars with patios open to smokers, have benefited from the ban, according to the study.
Brigitte Dufour, program manager for the Department of Health Services' Smoke Free Arizona, said businesses have created a better atmosphere for patrons by complying with the ban.
"We are all winners with the Smoke-Free Arizona Act," Dufour said.
A 73-year-old Chandler woman was smoking in bed when a fire broke out Thursday evening.
Firefighters said the woman was using an oxygen tank when the fire started near Dobson Road and the Loop 202.
Forget those gloomy predictions about bars and restaurants being driven out of business if their customers were not allowed to smoke.
An Arizona State University study found that the statewide ban on smoking inside businesses has had no impact on 96 percent of bars and restaurants surveyed. . . .
The voter-approved ban took effect in May 2007 with opponents saying it would bankrupt businesses.
Instead, bars and restaurants have added outdoor patios and adapted. Some businesses closed, but none blamed the smoking ban.
It now is healthier and more pleasant to eat and work in Arizona restaurants. So everyone has won.