Tobacco.org

Triad smokers make list 

HIGH POINT - It would take even stronger and more restrictive smoke-free policies and a hike in the price of tobacco products to get the Greensboro/High Point area off the "Smoky Cities" list, according to a leading anti-smoking advocate.

The Triad metropolitan area was recently listed by U.S. News and World Report as fourth on a list of metropolitan areas with high adult smoking rates.

The area's adult smoking rate was 28.3 percent.

Overall, three North Carolina metropolitan areas ranked in the Top 10. . . .

In a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill report, researchers concluded North Carolina has seen substantial declines in teen smoking since 2003. The N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund Commission gave the county a $300,000 grant for youth tobacco prevention to extend efforts through 2012 and a $275,000 college student tobacco prevention grant for efforts in Guilford and surrounding counties through 2010.

Adult smokers seeking to quit have free resources to help them. Gillett also recommended checking with health care providers and insurance coverage to see which medications might be appropriate and covered under health insurance.

"Evidence shows that having support is very effective in making your quit attempt a successful one," Gillett said.

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Smoking Ban In State Cars Among New N.C. Laws  

Starting Thursday, North Carolina state employees can no longer light up inside state-owned or leased vehicles, as the new year brings more than a dozen new state laws into effect. . . .

The smoking ban inside state-operated vehicles is the latest tobacco restriction within North Carolina's government. A year ago, thousands of state government buildings became smoke-free. Smoking also has been banned in recent years inside prisons and adult care and nursing homes.

Despite North Carolina's tobacco heritage, state workers appear to be taking the latest prohibition in stride, said Jill Lucas, a spokeswoman for the Department of Administration, which maintains a fleet of more than 8,600 state vehicles.

"I don't know if the culture of smoking has changed so much in recent years that people (already) don't smoke in their private car or in their private home," Lucas said. "People who smoke are accustomed to these kind of expectations, and now it's going to be law."

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EDITORIAL: No smoking: Teen smoking rates drop. Time for legislation to help more quit.  

According to researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the number of high school students who smoke fell from 20.3 percent to 19 percent in 2007.

That’s a significant drop. But not nearly good enough.

Imagine if one out of every five high school students in the state was diagnosed with cancer. Parents and legislators alike would be vigilant to find a cure as quickly as possible. . . .

Yet when it comes to smoking, we won’t even enact laws to protect the innocent from the deadly consequences of second-hand smoke. . . .

Government has, in a way, become a co-conspirator with the tobacco companies. Since 1998, when a settlement was reached, the states have received $203.5 billion in tobacco-generated revenues — $79.2 billion from the settlement and an additional $124.3 billion in taxes from tobacco sales. The more cigarettes that companies like Philip Morris sell, the more money the states take in.

A substantial portion of that money was intended to be used to curb smoking and to care for those already ailing from smoking-related diseases. But so far only a measly $6.5 billion, or 3.2 percent, of the funds have been used to prevent smoking. There is a fear, in some levels of government, that if smokers stop altogether, it might mean the loss of a steady source of state revenue. We’ve agreed to turn a blind eye to smokers, for a nominal fee.

Thankfully, teenagers still have that knack for spotting hypocrisy in adults. They’re on to us.

They get that nicotine is an addiction that they can live better and longer without.

Now if only our legislators would act as wisely.

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• Teenage smoking at record lows  

Where Big Tobacco once called the political shots, state programs are cutting into the cigarette companies' future customer base.

North Carolina's anti-smoking programs have cut teenage smoking to record low levels, according to a new study by researchers at UNC Chapel Hill's medical school.

The percentage of middle school students who smoke dropped from 5.8 percent in 2005 to 4.5 percent in 2007; the share of high school students who smoke fell from 20.3 percent to 19 percent, according to what's billed as the first comprehensive independent evaluation of the state Health and Wellness Trust Fund's anti-smoking efforts.

Smoking among kids in ninth through 12th grades has declined nationally from a peak of 36.4 percent in 1997. That drop flattened in 2003, a trend bucked by the recent declines here.

The trust fund gets a quarter of the state's payments from the 1998 national settlement . . .

Among several recommendations, they said the state needed to do more to reach young adults who aren't in college. The trust fund plans to do more about adult smoking, with test programs set to launch in January that will target smoking among two groups that are particularly vulnerable: pregnant women and people with mental illness.

For now, the trust fund has three anti-smoking initiatives: a set of programs aimed mainly at teens; another set aimed at college students; and a free telephone counseling service called QuitlineNC to help those who want to quit or help someone else quit.

At Broughton High School in Raleigh, students walk across the street to a spot known as "Smokers Corner" to light up.

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Editorial: Health sign for teens 

A decline in teenage smoking is a positive sign for North Carolina and the health of young people who are forgoing tobacco use now and, more than likely, will continue to do so in the future.

The gains cited recently by researchers at UNC Chapel Hill's medical school showed up among two critical age groups — middle school and high school students. . . .

The group and others like it around the state are funded through the state Health and Wellness Trust Fund, which gets payments from the 1998 national settlement with tobacco companies. The decline in teen smoking shows that the trust fund money directed toward these efforts ($17.1 million this year) is well spent, especially as it helps spread the anti-smoking message among more young people. Most tobacco users pick up the habit in their youth. A decline in teen tobacco use now should translate into a healthier population in the future — and medical savings for society as whole.

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Study: Teenage smoking down in North Carolina  

Programs designed to reduce teenage smoking in North Carolina are having an effect, according to a new study by researchers at the medical school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that the study showed the percentage of middle-school students who smoke dropped from 5.8 percent in 2005 to 4.5 percent in 2007. The number of high school students who smoke fell from 20.3 percent to 19 percent.

The results come from what is being called the first comprehensive independent evaluation of the state Health and Wellness Trust Fund's anti-smoking efforts.

Gov.-elect Beverly Perdue, chairwoman of the trust fund since its creation in 2001, called the results gratifying and a "tremendous sign of progress" for an initiative that has sometimes had to buck North Carolina's pro-tobacco forces.

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• RAILEY: Ex-smoker likes second-hand smoke, first-hand memories 

Like so many other North Carolinians, I'm ambivalent about tobacco. It's helped build churches, hospitals and colleges in this state, and it's put many a student through those colleges. It helped build Winston-Salem and many other North Carolina towns.

David Payne, who grew up in Henderson, eloquently summed that up in his 1993 novel Ruin Creek. A young doctor tells the elderly owner of a tobacco warehouse in fictional Killdeer, N.C., to quit smoking. The old man tells a friend, "if tobacco's wrong, then this whole town's wrong … 'cause every store and house and church in Killdeer came from it … Every dollar was a leaf of bright tobacco first and grew right from the ground. ..."

True that. And adults can still choose whether they want to smoke. I'll never condemn it. Heck, I still love the smell of second-hand smoke once in a while. I can sympathize with President-elect Obama's battle to quit smoking.

I started at 16. . . .

I loved smoking a cigar while walking my dog. I loved the taste of cigarettes with beer.

I miss smoking. I envy the people who still enjoy it. It's still a way of life here. But it's a way of life that's rapidly changing as farmers go out of business and Big Tobacco keeps getting pummeled.

In a few generations, smoking will be a distant memory. But for now, I still like a whiff of second-hand smoke now and then.

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Fatal fire blamed on cigarette  

A lit cigarette started a house fire early Friday that killed a woman, investigators said.

Asheville-Buncombe Arson Task Force director Buddy Thompson late Friday declined to release the woman's name because he said some of her family had not been notified. Neighbors of the woman in the 200 block of Starnes Cove Road said the woman who lived in the house was a retired teacher from Florida.

Thompson said it appears the woman who lived in the house was the one found dead.

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Teen Tobacco Use In NC Dropped Among Most Age Groups  

According to a study from UNC at Chapel Hill, researchers conclude NC is making huge strides in tobacco use prevention.

The report says that many of the gains made in the last year are models for other states across the U.S.

"According to a recent report from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids marking the 10th anniversary of the Master Settlement Agreement, most states are not spending enough of their money on tobacco prevention," said Dr. Adam Goldstein, UNC program director. "But relative to other major tobacco-producing states, our evaluation shows North Carolina's investment in youth tobacco prevention is substantial, and the positive outcomes that have resulted are truly encouraging."

The UNC report's findings and highlights include:

- In 2007, teen tobacco use among North Carolina youths dropped to the lowest levels ever recorded. Cigarette use among middle school students declined to 4.5 percent from 5.8 percent in 2005, and cigarette use by high school students also dropped to 19 percent from 20.3 percent in 2005.

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Public smoking bans pass vote  

After two years of lobbying by doctors and public health advocates, Rock Hill and York County leaders voted Monday night to ban smoking in public places - a move that would bring both in line with a growing number of South Carolina communities.

Under both smoking bans approved Monday, people who light up in public places could face fines - up to $25 in Rock Hill, as high as $50 in the county.

Businesses that allow people to smoke in violation of the bans also could be fined in the city and county, and repeat offenders could lose their licenses.

For the smoking bans to become law, the City Council must vote to approve it one more time; the County Council must vote twice more.

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• Tobacco states weigh higher cigarette taxes to plug budget gaps, but some old habits remain  

Two of the nation's top tobacco-producing states are weighing whether to raise cigarette taxes to plug budget deficits that have sent politicians scavenging for sources of revenue.

The governors of Virginia and Kentucky have each proposed raising their cigarette taxes -- each currently 30 cents per pack -- to help offset revenue shortfalls of $2.9 billion and $456 million, respectively.

Such a move was once unthinkable in Virginia, where Philip Morris runs the world's largest cigarette plant miles from the state Capitol, and ceiling murals in the rotunda include impressions of the golden-brown tobacco leaf.

"I wouldn't be surprised if all the tobacco-producing states aren't at least considering it before long," said Amy Barkley, who directs advocacy efforts in the major tobacco states for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. . . .

Lawmakers in the six major tobacco states -- North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia -- have historically been more reluctant than other states to turn to their cash crop for extra revenue.

But since 2002, 44 states and the District of Columbia have increased their cigarette taxes. Still, while the average tax nationwide is $1.11 per pack, it is 33.5 cents per pack in tobacco states.

"A while ago some people would have said there's no way there's going to be any tobacco tax increase in any of these states, but there has been and it's been because of these dire budget needs," Barkley said.

That doesn't mean the taxes have had an easy time passing.

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Man lights cigarette, sets face on fire  

A 44-year-old man who uses oxygen was flown to Jaycee Burn Center in Chapel Hill Monday morning after he lit a cigarette and set his face on fire.

The condition of the man, whose name hasn't been released, wasn't immediately known, but he received burns in his nostrils, throat and face, said E.M. Holt Fire Chief Mark Fuqua.

The fire department was called at 9 a.m. to Auburn Springs Apartments on Crouse Lane, where the man was a resident.

"He was on oxygen and smoking," Fuqua said. "When he went to light the cigarette, it blew up in his face."

Smoking is not allowed inside the two-story facility. The man, who had the oxygen hooked into his nostrils at the time, lit the cigarette inside his room.

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• 9 sentenced in multistate tobacco ring 

Prosecutors say nine people have been sentenced in a black-market tobacco ring in Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and North Carolina involving more than $4.5 million.

The U.S. attorney's office in Nashville said in a statement Wednesday that the last defendant, Ronald D. Bowen of Ayden, N.C., was sentenced to 51 months in prison by a federal judge. He and co-defendant Christopher L. Sutton were found guilty of conspiring to transfer more than $4.5 million in cash to avoid federal reporting requirements. Sutton, who owned two tobacco companies in North Carolina, was sentenced on Nov. 12 to 60 months in prison.

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TOBACCO-BRED 

The sun has just set over the tall pines lining Beaver Creek Road, and Erma Sikes cautiously makes her way outside leaning on an old chopping hoe.

She says she has two walkers and a cane, but nothing supports her quite like a hoe. Sikes has just celebrated her 100th birthday, and by all accounts is spry as 90. . . .

"I don't even have a memory of anything before tobacco," said Sikes who was born to a tobacco and cotton farmer in Franklin County.

She was in the fields by the time she could walk since there was always something to be done no matter how small you might be. "My daddy would give me a penny for every tobacco worm I pulled off the leaves," she said. "You could get a writing pencil for two cents." Pencils and candy were her favorite purchases.

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EDITORIAL: Up in smoke: Tobacco settlement money is flowing, but not enough for prevention.  

Ten years after the states and the tobacco industry reached a historic settlement of the massive lawsuits against Big Tobacco, the revenue is still flowing.

The money is going in the right direction — from the tobacco companies to the states, who are putting it to good use. But the states aren’t putting enough cash where it’s most needed, and where it was originally intended to go. . . .

Here in North Carolina, we’ll spend $18.5 million on prevention and cessation in this fiscal year, which is only 17 percent of the CDC’s suggested funding. That ranks us 32nd in the country.

We’ve got to do better than that. And this is not a moral argument — it’s about common sense, public health and a horrendous waste of taxpayer money.

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