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A rise in the number of statewide ballot issues has a small-business advocate questioning if that is how public policy decisions should be made in Ohio.
Voter-initiated ballot issues can undermine the authority Ohioans give legislators to make laws and set public policy, said National Federation of Independent Business/Ohio Executive Director Roger Geiger. He thinks ballot issues are being used by special interest groups from both sides of the political spectrum to boost voter turnouts for their favored candidates.
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I read Blade staff writer Julie McKinnon’s July 24 story, “Smoke-ban foes support effort to gain exemptions,” with great interest. I was captivated by the comments of Pam Parker and Bill Delaney in opposition to Ohio’s smoking ban.
I am a lung cancer survivor. You will receive little feedback from people like me, for most are either critically ill or dead . . .
Despite the fact that the organizers of the meeting at Sommerset Hall want “to let people know exactly what is going on,” 85 percent of lung cancers are related to smoking.
Nonsmokers exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work increase their risk of developing lung cancer by 20 percent to 30 percent.
To posit that “Ohio’s draconian smoking ban has financially hurt bars, private clubs, and other businesses” is preposterous in contrast to the interests of the common good and the general public.
An ultralight plane crashed into the Ohio River Friday night.
It happened as people lined the streets for the annual Tobacco Festival parade in Ripley, Ohio.
Festival-goers were right in the middle of watching the parade when the plane went down.
It is almost time for the Ohio Tobacco Festival, one of the biggest events to hit the Ripley area each year. The festival will be returning for its 27th year with the theme “Lost But Not Forgotten, Ohio’s Tobacco Market” and will feature many prominent figures in Brown County’s history in tobacco, as well as many tobacco warehouses that are no longer in business. . . .
Many of the popular events from last year will still be present at the festival, including the queen pageant, the parade, food, shopping, and entertainment.
Riverain Medical, an industry leader and innovator in computer-aided detection (CAD) and diagnostic technologies, today announced it has received a Veterans Affairs contract for its OnGuard(TM) Chest X-ray CAD technology. Used in conjunction with the reading of standard digital chest X-rays, OnGuard quickly identifies solitary pulmonary nodules that may be early-stage lung cancer. The contract streamlines the process for the VA and other authorized federal agencies to purchase the CAD software.
"The number of veterans diagnosed with lung cancer in this country is alarming," said Diane Hirakawa, Chairman and CEO of Riverain Medical.
Despite 46 states and the District of Columbia receiving an estimated $1 billion in additional funds this April from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, a new report from the American Lung Association finds fewer states are implementing policy initiatives to reduce tobacco use than in recent years. The 2008 mid-term update to the American Lung Association's State Legislated Actions on Tobacco Issues or SLATI report, uncovered a pattern of decreased and flat funding for state tobacco control programs.
Smoking cessation counseling, support groups, hotlines and advertising campaigns are among the many elements of state sponsored tobacco control programs that work to prevent teens and young adults from using tobacco products and provide smokers with the tools and support needed to quit. Other state measures that help to prevent and reduce tobacco use include higher tobacco taxes and strong smokefree air laws.
Earlier this year, the state of Ohio virtually eliminated its successful tobacco control programs when funding earmarked by the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement was diverted to other state programs.
The first two entrants in the Ohio Tobacco Festival Queen Contest are Aleaxandra Waters and Brittani Whitson.
Aleaxandra Waters is from Williamsburg. She is the daughter of Michael Howard Waters and Regina Marie Waters. The 18-year-old attended Western Brown High School and is now enrolled at the University of Cincinnati.
Brittani Michelle Whitson of Ripley, is the 17-year-old daughter of Joseph Whitson and Rebecca Vasil. She is a student at Eastern High School. . . .
Young ladies 16 to 21, who are interested in becoming the 2008 Ohio Tobacco Festival Queen or who would like more information on participating, should contact OTF Pageant Coordinator Billie Applegate
Delphi Packard Electric has been hit with a 100-dollar fine for breaking the state's smoking ban. After 68 complaints came in to the toll-free hot line to report violators.
"The investigation supported the allegations made on the initial complaint, so a fine was levied.", says Dr. James Enyeart, Trumbull County Health Commissioner.
Health Department inspectors say they found cigarette butts in plastic cups, and on the floor of Delphi's plant on North River Road, when they were here back in April, although they never actually saw anyone smoking inside the facility. . . .
Delphi attorneys appealed the fine yesterday, saying the company has done everything it can to discourage smoking by employees.
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.
"The Congressional Black Caucus has worked for years with smoking cessation programs targeted at cutting the rate of smoking in African-American communities," said Rep. Tubbs Jones. "This is not the 'perfect bill' we all would have hoped for, however, this bill provides meaningful oversight and regulation of a product that is responsible for one in every three cancer deaths in the United States. I am alarmed that 21.6% of Ohio's youth are smokers and applaud the provisions of this bill that will require a study to be conducted looking at the prevalence of youth tobacco use. I am also pleased that the bill will require the federal government to work with state and local governments to develop strategies to prevent underage tobacco use in communities with a disproportionate use of menthol cigarettes by minority youth."
Miami University will expand its smoking restrictions to include nearly all parts of its campuses – indoor and outdoor – effective Friday.
Currently, smoking is banned inside campus buildings, and outdoors within 25 feet of buildings. That ban will be expanded to virtually all campus property, except in cars and designated hotel areas.
The ban includes the entire Oxford campus, plus branch campuses including Hamilton and Middletown.
“Smoking has been shown in so many ways to be injurious to people’s health, so it will be good for us,” said Miami University spokeswoman Claire Wagner.
Akron Children's Hospital is saying NO to smokers--in a very big way!
Starting in November, the hospital is taking a ground-breaking stand on their "no smoking" policy.
At this point, no one will be hired who tests positive for nicotine!
Several area organizations are facing smoking violations, and they made their case to health officials on Tuesday morning.
The organizations appeared at administrative smoke-free hearings at Columbus Public Health, NBC 4's Tom Brockman reported.
Inspectors said when they visited American Legion Post 144 on South High Street in January they found numerous people smoking at the bar. Having been warned for a previous violation, city inspectors fined the organization $200.
The group is now fighting the fine. In a preliminary administrative hearing before an independent decision-maker, the post's manager defended the allegations, saying he can't control what people do when he isn't around.
"Smoking bans in the U.S. have been funded by those who directly profit from the sales of Nicotine Replacement Therapies (NRT)," said Debi Kistner with Opponents of Ohio Bans. Robert Wood Johnson, the late CEO of Johnson & Johnson, established the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) tax exempt non-profit 501(c)(3) in the early 1970s. According to their November 2005 publication, "Taking on tobacco: The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Assault on Smoking", from 1991 to 2005 the foundation paid $446,398,054 in tobacco-control grants. Grantees that did not move from tobacco education to tobacco control became ineligible for further grants. . . .
The foundation created the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids and has provided more than $84,000,000 in grants to fund that advocacy group. As a non-profit the foundation can't legally lobby but the center can. The center aggressively promotes increased taxation on tobacco products.
The foundation sponsors conferences on "how to identify ways to increase the use of evidence-based tobacco cessation treatments" and awarded the American Cancer Society a nearly $1,000,000 grant to "expand the use of tobacco cessation treatments". It's about the money, profits for stockholders and control. Tobacco control is the best marketing strategy that pharmaceutical dollars can buy.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons has been warning the government for over a decade of the RWJF's desire to control the health care policies of this country. . . .
Follow the money behind any ban, study, survey or poll. Questions are written and asked to solicit the responses desired by those who pay for the results. Do independent research. Don't believe everything you read. . . .
Among those who lose under the foundation's advocacy are Ohio families who have invested their life savings, hard work and futures in owning their piece of the American Dream. . . .
"Why is it legal for a non-profit foundation to directly profit from stock that is driven by the sales of products coerced by a law that their grants create? Where are those, such as state attorneys general, who are supposed to protect consumers' interests? Why should a pharmaceutical company and their private foundation be profiting while Ohio's businesses fold? We believe these questions raise important issues that must be addressed by Ohio legislators," said Pam Parker with Opponents of Ohio Bans.
With no funds to enforce the smoking ban in public places, the Columbiana County Health Board opted Wednesday to turn the program over to the state.
"In no way does this mean the health department condones smoking," board vice chairman Shawn Apple said, explaining the department just can't implement the rules without funding.
The county health district became one of 19 county departments to give the program back to the state. When asked when the turnover takes effect, Health Commissioner Robert Morehead said he would need to notify the Ohio Department of Health about the board's action and ask their representative for more details.