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IONIA - In an effort to improve the health and welfare of those in Ionia County, some local workplaces are making efforts to curb the use of tobacco products.
At Thursday's community liaison meeting, Dave Johnson, Bellamy Creek Correctional Facility Assistant Deputy Warden of Custody and Programs, said efforts are underway to eliminate tobacco use in the state's prisons.
Some of the methods being employed by prisons include the use of special programs, utilizing guest speakers, offering quitting aids such as lozenges and offering other items and support for inmates and corrections workers.
"We've reduced the amount of tobacco prisoners can order every couple of months," he said. . . .
Hospitals, including Ionia County Memorial Hospital, are also making efforts to curb smoking.
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Troy lawyer Gerard V. Mantese is taking on the tobacco industry. . . .
Now, with a lawsuit against Philip Morris pending before the U.S. Supreme Court, Mantese has his chance to do just that.
"In 2004, I put together a consortium of law firms in several states ... with the goal of representing consumers who were defrauded by Philip Morris [when it] falsely represented that its Marlboro Lights had 'lowered tar and nicotine,'" he explained.
Since then, Mantese has filed lawsuits in Maine, Arkansas and New Mexico accusing Phillip Morris of violating each state's prohibition against deceptive advertising.
"All of the cases are based on the same theory: Philip Morris misrepresented the true nature of its so-called 'light' cigarettes [because] it represented that they contained lower [amounts of] tar and nicotine ... when a multitude of data, internal documents and evidences proves otherwise," he said.
One case, Altria Group, et al., v. Good, et al., has landed Mantese before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Ann Arbor fire officials say they've determined the cause of a blaze that damaged an apartment building Tuesday was a cigarette left unattended on a deck.
The fire department said this morning that damages were estimated at $250,000. The blaze displaced four families in the building at 573 Waymarket Drive in Briar Cove Apartments on the city's south side, officials said.
A lit cigarette left by a container of paint thinner sparked a fire that destroyed part of a home at 6708 Sunfish Lake Ave. NE on Friday night.
No one was injured in the fire, which was reported just before 8 p.m. Township Fire Chief Jim Morris said the homeowner had been painting and had left paint brushes in some paint thinner, near the cigarette.
Eighty years after a man named Lloyd "Spud" Hughes, as legend has it, accidentally mixed his tobacco with menthol crystals, Congress is fighting over whether to ban these popular flavored cigarettes.
Mentholated cigarettes started out in the 1920s with such names as Spud, Listerine, the Original Eucalyptus Smoke and Snowball. Today they're sold as Newport, Kool and Marlboro Menthol, the smokes of choice among the black community.
Critics charge they are products designed specifically to lure young blacks into a lifetime of tobacco use. . . .
the issue of what, if anything, should be done about menthols has proved complicated for political Washington --and for smokers. . . .
"We see this as a huge issue," said Jan Roberts, a registered nurse who runs the Genesee County Asthma Network, in Flint. "It certainly seems like the tobacco industry has a pretty strong hold on our community."
The Congressional Black Caucus, whose members represent many of the densely populated and largely black urban centers where menthol cigarettes are most popular, is split on the menthol question as well. . . .
A 2002 report, "The African Americanization of menthol cigarette use in the United States," found that tobacco companies nearly doubled their market share in the African-American community from the early 1960s through the late 1970s. Part of the campaign, the report said, was built on a perception that menthols are safer to smoke than non-menthol brands.
"I don't think anybody has the right to tell me what to do in my own apartment unless it is against the law," said Cornell, 66, a smoker for 50 years.
Vicksburg Halls in April last year adopted rules prohibiting smoking in its apartments, a decision approved by the Marysville Housing Commission.
Wayne Pyden, the executive director of the complex, said as of Oct. 1, any resident caught smoking in his or her apartment will be evicted. . . .
Vicksburg Halls is home to about 20 smokers, of which 17 still are allowed to smoke in their apartments, since they were residents before the new rules.
Most of those smokers are outraged by the rule.
Outside the complex Tuesday, a group of residents -- almost all smokers -- complained about the situation.
There is little point in crunching the numbers of St. Clair County restaurants that are smoke-free today. Those that banned smoking did so voluntarily. A year-old county ordinance against smoking in workplaces exempts bars and restaurants.
The county's limited law really is an indictment of Lansing. Only the state Legislature can ban smoking at bars and restaurants. So far, Michigan's lawmakers cannot summon the courage to adopt such a statute. . . .
Most of the county's bars and a significant number of its restaurant haven't embraced the smoking ban -- and they aren't likely to do so unless state lawmakers take the lead.
Secondhand smoke takes the lives of tens of thousands of nonsmokers each year, according to U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona. St. Clair County has done its best to win nonsmokers some relief. Now it's up to Lansing.
A new study released Friday links those different reactions to genetics, said research project leader Ovide Pomerleau, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan Medical School.
Those who experience a pleasurable buzz during their first cigarette are more likely to have a variant of the CHRNA5 nicotine receptor gene.
They're also more likely to become addicted smokers - and more likely to develop lung cancer, previous research has found.
"That's a really surprising element, that the same gene that would make you like it and make you addicted would cause a disease process ... it's a terrible trap,'' Pomerleau said.
For the CHRNA5 study, conducted by a multi-university team, researchers surveyed a total of 435 smokers and non-smokers and took DNA samples.
With the ongoing debate about smoker's rights, the smoking restrictions on our beaches and the proposed legislation in the state, I would just like to add another testimonial about how smokers add to the litter problem in our community and could help reduce the problem.
As a member of Muskegon Lions Club, we are one of the many community groups that help the Zonat Club put out the flags along our main thoroughfares during certain holidays and summertime events. While putting out the flags, you have the opportunity to see up close the number of cigarette butts that accumulate along the grassy area that borders the pavement.
It is unbelievable how many "butts" there are
Now, a new study links those first experiences with smoking, and the likelihood that a person is currently a smoker, to a particular genetic variation. The finding may help explain the path that leads from that first cigarette to lifelong smoking.
The new finding also adds to growing suspicion surrounding the role of a particular nicotine-receptor gene in smoking-related behaviors and in lung cancer. Other researchers have already linked variations in the same genetic region to smokers’ level of dependence on nicotine, to the number of cigarettes smoked per day and to a far higher risk of lung cancer — the ultimate outcome of a lifetime of smoking.
In a paper published online today in the journal Addiction, a multi-university collaborative team of researchers specializing in statistical genetics, gene analysis, and trait analysis reports an association between a variant in the CHRNA5 nicotine receptor gene, initial smoking experiences, and current smoking patterns.
The genetic and smoking data come from 435 volunteers.
The federal government regulates many things that are inherently less dangerous than tobacco, which may be the only product one uses by sticking it in one's mouth and setting it on fire. The Food and Drug Administration should be able to slap some controls on the marketing and labeling of something that costs the nation hundreds of millions of health care dollars each year, not to mention lost work time because of smoking-related illnesses and even smoking breaks. . . .
The vote was 326-102, with only two of Michigan's representatives, Republicans Thad McCotter of Livonia and Tim Walberg of Tipton, among the opposition.
Michigan U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow are among cosponsors of similar legislation in the Senate. . . .
The FDA's effectiveness will largely be a matter of resources, and the tobacco program would be financed through user fees on the industry.
This is an issue of health and welfare for Americans now, but especially for generations to come. This action is long overdue.
In spite of Robert Soave's disclaimer at the outset of his column (Smoking them out, 07/14/2008), I suspect that he has indeed inhaling something - and something more potent than tobacco smoke.
Without directly saying so, Soave tries to frame the public smoking ban as a civil rights issue, even going so far as to claim that smokers are "persecuted" under such legislation. This is total nonsense. It is a public health issue; scientific study has firmly established the serious health hazards of secondhand smoke. Thus, these measures are meant to benefit and protect the welfare of the majority at a minor inconvenience to those who still choose to smoke. . . .
In what would appear to be the ultimate test case for this trend, New York City effected a smoking ban for its bars and restaurants without noticeable unrest or turmoil. If it can happen there, it stands to reason that it can happen anywhere.
But you don't have to be a smoker to be troubled by the language of a study released last week by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention about the current state of second-hand smoke in our country. The study announced some seemingly optimistic statistics: The percentage of non-smokers with traces of second-hand smoke in their blood has fallen dramatically. Studies conducted in the late 80's and early 90's showed that 86 percent of non-smokers were inhaling second-hand smoke, whereas more recent studies from 1999 through 2004 revealed that that figure was then only 46 percent.
While these are positive results, the methods by which they were achieved are regrettable. The study says that the reason for the drop is the large number of restrictive laws that prohibit smoking in restaurants, bars and the workplace. It is this message calling for more and more burdensome restrictions that has made American society a hostile place for smokers. Our own state of Michigan has recently succumbed to this message by taking up legislation to ban smoking in bars and restaurants. . . .
Protecting people from the dangers of second-hand smoke is certainly a noble goal. But forcing business owners to discriminate against some of their most vital customers is demeaning to the owner and the smoker, and it's even bad for the kids at home.
Smokers on the campus of West Shore Community College might have to go even farther away from buildings now to be in compliance with the college's smoking policy. About 50 feet farther to be exact.
Under a proposed revision to the college's smoking policy, smoking would be prohibited in outside areas of the campus that are not more than 50 feet from an entrance into any facility.
Throughout the special session, we've heard house democrats push a cigarette tax to cover Medicaid's shortfall. It turns out, the Senate has its own tobacco tax plan. But, its proceeds have nothing to do with Mississippi's Medicaid crisis. Instead of concentrating on the welfare of low income Mississippians, the Senate's tobacco tax would create income tax credits, and bolster a wellness campaign. . .
Hewes says the Senate republicans' tobacco tax makes more sense. The plan they came up with charges 50 cents more for a pack of cigarettes. It