How to differenting about cigarettes and smoke

Smoking causes over 80% of all drug related deaths in Australia, far more than alcohol or illicit drugs! Did you know that 80% of young people who smoke regularly continue to smoke as adults? Nearly half of smokers under 30 started smoking by the age of 15.

Cigarette advertising in Australia has been banned, but if you watch closely, more actors in movies and television programs are shown smoking (it's called 'product placement').

Everyone knows the risks of smoking, but people are still starting to smoke, and continuing to smoke. So, why do they do it??

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About The Proposed Smoking Ban

new smoking cigarettes ban proposal being introduced Jan. 9 in the City-County Council is largely similar to a measure that failed to get out of committee this month. It would expand Marion County's smoking cigarettes ban to bars; restaurants that allow only patrons who are 18 or older; hotel rooms; and bowling alleys. Exemptions covering 60 or fewer establishments fall into three categories:

» Retail discount cigarette online shops, based on at least 85 percent of sales from tobacco-related products.

» Existing nonprofit private or fraternal organizations, including veterans halls, if a majority of members vote before July 1 to retain smoking cigarettes. Private clubs could not allow children if they allow adults to smoke, even in separate nonsmoking cigarettes areas.

» Existing hookah and cigar bars, defined as deriving at least 20 percent of annual sales from specialty cigarettes store products. They could not allow cigarette smoking cigarettes.

Who's covered?

The expanded ban would affect Indianapolis but not Beech Grove and Southport, which lack bans, or Speedway and Lawrence, which have bans similar to Marion County's current one. However, the Southport City Council is considering a similar new measure, and a Lawrence councilman said he'd propose matching Indianapolis' new standards.

Smoking bans elsewhere

According to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation, 479 U.S. municipalities have 100 percent smoke-free workplaces, restaurants and bars. Hundreds more have less-restrictive smoking cigarettes bans.

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R.I. Anti-smoking Funding Falls Short

A recent report from a coalition of anti-smoking cigarettes organizations ranked Rhode Island's funding for anti-smoking cigarettes programs 38th in the country. The state spends $373,000 yearly on anti-smoking cigarettes efforts, only 2.5 percent of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommended level of $15.2 million, according to the report. Alaska ranks first, spending $10.8 million on prevention programs, 101.3 percent of the recommended level.

The coalition's annual report evaluates states' expenses in comparison to the federally recommended levels. The report aims to "raise awareness," said Dan Cronin, state communications director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, one of the organizations in the coalition. "We want to do the report to see if states are actually doing what they're supposed to be doing" with the money they have received from settlements with cigarettes companies and the revenue they collect from cheap cigarettes taxes, he said.

"Unfortunately, Rhode Island is not doing as well as it should be," he added.

This year, Rhode Island will bring in $183 million in revenue from buy cigarette online taxes and settlements, Cronin said. "That's a big difference," he said of the gap between state revenues and expenditures on anti-smoking cigarettes programs. "A lot of times, people forget that this is an issue," Cronin said, though "the tobacco companies are not stopping."

But Cronin also pointed to the state's achievements. Rhode Island has the second-highest cigarette excise tax in the country, at $3.46 per pack. Last year, the Rhode Island Department of Health Tobacco Control Program successfully combated efforts to reduce the excise tax by a dollar, wrote spokeswoman Annemarie Beardsworth in an email to The Herald.

The Department of Health is currently working with the Rhode Island Tobacco Control Network, the American Cancer Society and community groups to support efforts to further reduce smoking cigarettes trends. Such efforts include reclassifying small cigars to apply the same excise tax requirements as cigarettes, raising the cigarette excise tax to produce more funding to help offset the cost of second-hand, smoke-related disease and establishing smoke-free housing initiatives that would expand the existing Public Health and Workplace Safety Law.

Students generally perceive Brown as a smoke-friendly campus. "I was surprised by the number of student-smokers on campus, especially cigarette smoking cigarettes," said Mary Sketch '15. "I didn't realize it was as much a part of college life."

"It's accepted, and if you want to be a part of that community, then you can be," said Lucy Fernandez '14. "But if you don't want to, that's fine too."

In 2009, a survey conducted by the Public Health and Health Education programs at Brown found that 85.6 percent of the student body reported smoking cigarettes or using chewing tobacco five times or fewer over the previous academic year, wrote Frances Mantak, director of Health Education, in an email to The Herald. The Health Education website offers a variety of resources on smoking cigarettes, including lists of reasons and methods for quitting.

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Moving Forward To Smoke-free LA

Congratulations to the city of Alexandria and the Southern University System on promoting better health and longer life with their recent decision to ban cigarettes online use.

Alexandria passed its ordinance banning smoking cigarettes in all enclosed places of employment, as well as within 25 feet of entrances and windows of those buildings, city property and playgrounds. The ordinance also bans smoking cigarettes in all outdoor entertainment venues and places of employment. The Southern Board of Supervisors banned all cheap cigarettes products in all buildings, facilities, dormitories, athletic fields and parking lots on all of its campuses across the state. This is an encouraging trend.

Last April, the Ochsner Health System banned the use of buy cigarettes products on all properties, including eight hospitals and 38 health centers. Our 850 physicians, 12,500 employees, patients and visitors can no longer smoke cigarettes on campus as all designated smoking cigarettes areas have been removed. We are living up to the tradition of our founder, Dr. Alton Ochsner, who discovered the link between tobacco use and lung cancer, by adopting the ban. Many other health care facilities and other businesses across the nation are adopting similar smoke cigarettes free work environments. They are doing so for a very simple reason. Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States.

In Louisiana, 6,500 residents will die from smoking cigarettes this year. An additional 1,000 more people will die from exposure to secondhand smoke. Thousands more will die from smoking cigarettes-related diseases. In fact, more deaths are caused by tobacco use than by all deaths from alcohol use, illegal drug use, HIV, motor vehicle injuries, suicides and murders combined. It is crucial that people no longer compromise on health.

At Ochsner, we understand that individuals may need help to quit smoking cigarettes. Our staff provides support, information and encouragement for employees and patients seeking to lead a healthier lifestyle.

Again, we here at Ochsner commend the leaders of Alexandria and the Southern University System for putting the health of the communities they serve first. Employees can work, students can learn and children can play in healthier environments. We encourage other businesses, cities and universities to join this growing trend and adopt smoke-free workplaces.

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New Castle County To Ban Smoking Outdoors

New Castle County government has announced that starting Jan. 3, 2012, smoking cigarettes will be prohibited throughout the campuses of the three office complexes where most of the county’s 1,400 employees work.

The policy will apply to employees and visitors at the Government Center/James H. Gilliam Building complex on Reads Way in Corporate Commons, the William J. Conner Building on Old Churchmans Road, and the Paul J. Sweeney Public Safety Building on U.S. 13, all in New Castle.

Smoking inside county facilities has been prohibited since 1994. Since then the county has permitted employees to smoke cigarettes in designated outdoor areas. The new policy will extend the ban on smoking cigarettes to all outdoor areas on the grounds of the three affected office complexes. The County announced the new policy to employees Thursday, the 34th anniversary of the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, which spotlights the dangers of cigarettes use and the challenges of quitting.

The county will offer stop-smoking cigarettes programs for employees in conjunction with the new smoke-free policy, said County Executive Paul Clark. “While I understand that this policy may be difficult for some to adjust to, we are putting it into effect for the overall health and well-being of our employees and our visitors. We will be ready to help those who seek assistance in adapting to the policy.”

Since November 2002, Delaware has banned smoking cigarettes statewide in all enclosed workplaces, both public and private, with a handful of exemptions including private homes, rented social halls, designated smoking cigarettes rooms in hotels/motels and at fundraising activities held by certain organizations on their property. Additionally, local governments and private industry have the authority to further regulate smoking cigarettes, including banning smoking cigarettes in outdoor areas under their control. Local examples include the hospital campuses operated by Christiana Care and Delaware Health and Social Services and the Bethany Beach boardwalk and beach, all of which are smoke-free.

A July 2011 Gallup poll showed that about 22 percent of Americans 18 and older are regular smokers. This is down from 23 percent in 1999 and 28 percent in 1988. The same poll identified 24 percent of Americans as former smokers. About 23 percent of American men and 19 percent of women smoke. Despite steady reductions, more than 45 million Americans still smoke. In the July survey, 30 percent of smokers said they smoke cigarettes a pack or more each day. As recently as 1997, over half smoked a pack or more a day.

Tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. Life expectancy for regular smokers is estimated to be from 10 to 18 years shorter than for non-smokers. Smoking and exposure to cigarettes store smoke cigarettes is blamed for 443,000 premature deaths annually in the United States. That’s more than 1,200 deaths a day.

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Unanswered Questions In Smoke-free SA

When the city rolled out its sweeping smoking cigarettes ban this summer, eager to make the Americans for Nonsmokers’ Rights list of smoke-free cities, the winners and losers were obvious. The winners: bars that already had sizable patios, cigar bars, and, many would argue, anyone with a set of lungs looking to imbibe clear of a carcinogenic cloud. Unaffected Alamo Heights’ bar and restaurant district sits ready to catch cigarette-puffing refugees aching for a drag while they sip their cocktails. And despite inclusion in early drafts of the ordinance, VFW posts, the River Walk, and the Shrine of Texas Liberty itself all escaped the ban. But if you’re an everyday pub, sports bar, or dive without a patio or enough space to build one: tough luck.

Judy Simpson, general manager at Finnegan’s on US 281 near Thousand Oaks, wagered her neighborhood pub has taken a 25-30 percent hit in sales. The future’s “looking a little better but not much,” Simpson said, as she and the landlord hash out plans for a patio.

Initially, Simpson considered building a properly cordoned smoking cigarettes area with fencing, chairs, tables, and ashtrays on her front sidewalk. But complications arose from the presence of an ADA accessible ramp and the need for full visibility. Currently, the bar is separated from the front sidewalk by a vestibule with two sets of double doors. The lack of visibility invites patrons to walk off with drinks or, worse, pass them to minors. “What we’re trying to do is build a place you can smoke cigarettes where you can take your drink and don’t feel like you’ve been ostracized from the rest of the bar,” she said. Simpson expects building to begin in December and complete sometime in January. She’s not worried about closing or laying anyone off. For now.

In puff-friendly Alamo Heights, the Broadway 5050 is catching the overflow, says General Manager and managing partner Danny Barborak. “People who have a cocktail often want a cigarette. … I’d say we’ve got some people stopping in here for a drink or two because it’s now a treat to smoke cigarettes inside,” he said, estimating sales have risen a few percentage points since the San Antonio ban began.

Meanwhile, for Alibis on Commerce east of US 281 and two of the Blue Star bars, business has marched forward with nary a hiccup since each had patios before the smoke-ban rollout.

Scott Saulle, who slings spirits at both Joe Blue’s on South Alamo and Joey’s on North St. Mary’s, said the ban hasn’t so much reduced the crowds, just shuffled them around a bit. Patrons now tend to crowd Joeys’ cozy, two-floor patio (which features an outside bar on weekends) instead of the smokeless indoors. “On a Wednesday night, I might have three people sitting at the bar and 25 people sitting outside,” he said. “It’s really weird.”

Joe Blue’s and Alibis both sport wraparound patios. Business at the former is unchanged, Saulle said. And according to Joey’s head waitress Lisa Gonzales, diehard indoor smokers have simply been swapped by customers who would likely jet after one drink on account of smoke. Save for the crowd redistribution and the occasional intense debate on the ban, patron traffic is virtually unchanged.

Alibis General Manager Tracey Thurman said the same, though her clientele, who like a smoke cigarettes while dancing or punching her touch-screen games, are mildly inconvenienced to step out. “We have a strong regular crowd,” she said. “Everything from bankers to bikers.”

Ron Herrera, co-owner of SoHo Martini & Wine Bar, says he’s lost a few dedicated cigar smokers, but on the whole the clientele has adjusted. They simply step outside to his tiny patio and light up. “Are we okay? Yeah,” he said. “I just don’t like being told how to run my own business.”

But the question remains: as a cigar bar, should Herrera’s patrons even have to step outside for a drag?

Herrera assumed SoHo was ban-exempt, falling under the umbrella term “retail cigarettes store store” in the city’s ordinance. On the Friday after the ban went into effect, Herrera said he got a call from the Mayor’s office, telling him he couldn’t keep his cigar-bar status if he continued to sell food, which apparently includes typical drink garnish like lemons, limes, and olives in cocktails (SoHo doesn’t carry the snacks found at some more traditional bars, like wings, fries, and pizza). Though Herrera found the logic a little baffling, he complied, saying the mayor’s rep threatened to sic a public health official on the bar if he didn’t. A city health employee still visited the following Monday to double down, he said.

Metro Health records show nobody’s filed a complaint against SoHo since the smoking cigarettes ban went into effect, but here’s where the new ordinance gets slippery. The new piece of city code uses the term “bar” to describe a place a lot like SoHo, which is an “establishment that is devoted to the serving of alcoholic beverages for consumption by guests.” But SoHo also sells cigars to patrons (though it’s unclear how many of late), and the new ordinance doesn’t say whether discount cigarette online products must make up a certain percent of sales in order to become an exempt “tobacco retail establishment” or “cigar bar” — only that the place is “utilized primarily for the sale of online cigarettes products.” And Herrera’s brush with city officials seems especially peculiar considering patrons at neighboring Swig Martini Bar above the River Walk continue to smoke cigarettes away — indoors.

Over the phone, Swig General Manager Michael Teran was uneasy discussing the matter, saying, “I don’t want to put a target on our backs.”

A list Metro Health provided to the Current show citizens have called in some 30 times since the ban complaining that a number of stores, private clubs, and bars are out of line with the new policy, Swig being one of them. Just three days after the ban went into effect, a customer called Metro Health complaining patrons were puffing away inside the bar. A Metro Health worker who followed up “observed employees smoking cigarettes upon entry to establishment. Owner was using the old muni-code (which has not been updated) as a basis to smoke,” the complaint states. Metro Health gave Swig a warning not to smoke cigarettes inside the bar, advising they put up some non-smoking cigarettes signage.

According to Metro Health spokeswoman Carol Schliesinger, the city has yet to fine any establishment for breaking the ban. Under the ordinance, a first-time violation carries a fine of up to $200. Repeat offenders could get smacked with fines of $500 to $2,000.

Schliesinger says the only guide Metro Health has for the tobacco shop and cigar bar-exemptions is the short, one-sentence blurb in the city code, which appears to leave much up to interpretation. “What’s written in the ordinance, that’s basically the only definition that we have [for cigar bars], at least at this point,” she said.

“The code doesn’t say anything about how much [tobacco] we have to sell,” Teran said. He then recited a piece of the new policy: “Under those exempt, it says, ‘Shall include but not be limited to cigar bars and humidors.’ We fit that.” We’ll see what the Mayor’s office thinks.

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New Cigarette Warnings Get State Approval

In Connecticut, 4,700 people take up smoking cigarettes every year. If the new warnings that will be required on all cigarette packs lessen that number even a little, said Bryte Johnson of the state chapter of the American Cancer Society, it's a step in the right direction.

"If we're able to cut back [the number of new smokers] by 1, 2, or 3 percent, those are huge numbers," he said. "We don't need to change the world; we just need to change it a little bit at a time."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration made public Tuesday the nine new warnings that it will require on all cigarette packs by September 2012. The warnings pair text messages such as "Cigarettes cause cancer" and "Smoking can kill you" with images, most depicting the consequences of smoking cigarettes.

One shows a pair of lungs ravaged by tobacco. Another depicts a man with a cigarette in his hand and smoke cigarettes billowing out of a hole in his throat.

"I think they're pretty gross, and I think they can be effective," Johnson said.

He expects that the images could cause a number of current smokers to kick the habit, and will be most effective in keeping young people from taking up smoking cigarettes at all.

"If you're smoking cigarettes because you think cheap cigarettes are cool, I think they'd have a chilling effect," he said. The warnings also will include contact information for local smoke cigarettes cessation programs, which Johnson called a "proactive" way to address the issue.

Ross Buck, a professor of communication sciences at UConn, said the images will have a greater impact than the words. Buck, who has co-authored a chapter on the psychology of warning messages for a forthcoming book, said pictures have a more immediate impact on emotions than words.

Of the nine images, the only one he has any doubts about is one of a baby facing a hovering cloud of smoke. Buck thinks it might be too "artsy."

"I think the most effective warning is the one that tells it like it is, the one that illustrates the consequences," he said.

Buck said he was glad that FDA officials took on the job of creating and selecting the images themselves rather than handing it over to the cigarettes online industry. When the cigarettes store industry was ordered to create anti-smoking cigarettes ads as part of a $206 billion settlement, Buck said, the results often sent a mixed message.

"Some of the warnings created by the discount cigarette online companies that were supposed to give young people an anti-tobacco message had the opposite effect," he said, adding that these ads implied that "only brave kids smoke cigarettes and only independent kids smoke." "The anti-tobacco people didn't see this when they approved the ads."

As jarring as the images are, Buck said, they "pale in comparison" with the warning images he has seen on cigarette packages in other countries. In Canada, he said, the images are even more graphic.

Dr. Lawrence Deyton, director of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products, said one thing they learned during the selection process of the nine images was that the most effective images weren't always the most graphic.

"There's some literature that something that is so gross and disturbing, people will sometimes tune out and they don't pay attention," he said. "Some of [the more graphic images] didn't score as well, perhaps as a result of this. Some that were less graphic, but tugged on the heartstrings were every effective, like the one with the woman in tears, or the baby with smoke cigarettes encroaching. We tried to find a balance of images."

In any case, Buck said, they're much better than the text-only warnings currently on cigarette packs in the U.S.

"Those are designed to be ineffective," he said. "They are small, and they're not noticeable. You easily overlook them with the attractive packaging of the product itself."

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Cities Aim To Ban Smoking

Cigarette smoking cigarettes in public parks could be banned if the Winter Park City Commission gets the right to do so, but that means overturning a Florida law. At its Nov. 28 meeting the Commission passed a resolution asking the state to do just that.

The resolution specifically asked the state to allow cities to regulate discount cigarettes use however they see fit. That could include banning it outright, banning it in certain places, or not regulating it at all, Mayor Ken Bradley said.

Winter Park Health Foundation program director Lisa Portelli said that a change to curb smoking cigarettes would help make the city safer for children.

“Why are we doing this? Kids,” she said. “No amount of secondhand smoke cigarettes has been deemed safe and we need to promote healthier environments.”

Winter Park Chamber of Commerce president Patrick Chapin, who is also a member of the WPHF, said he wished the issue of public smoking cigarettes would command more residents’ attention.

“It’s a little too bad that we have a roomful of people office building, and when we’re talking about something that’s life and death — secondhand smoke cigarettes — no one’s here,” Chapin said. “We’re dealing with something that’s very serious.”

The resolution also sought to promote awareness of the dangers of secondhand smoke. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 56,4000 nonsmoking cigarettes Americans die annually of heart disease and lung cancer caused by secondhand smoke. The resolution urged residents not to smoke cigarettes where children commonly play.

Winter Park wouldn’t be the first to get in on the act if the city succeeds in persuading the state and then passes its own regulations. Local institutions such as Rollins College and the University of Central Florida are already jumping the gun on cheap cigarettes regulation, instituting their own smoking cigarettes bans that will take effect in the fall of 2012.
The city has been pushing for such legislation since Jan. 10, when the Commission first requested the resolution. On Feb. 14 the Commission passed its first resolution calling for the change. Since then Orlando and Orange County have done the same. On Dec. 12, the Maitland City Council will discuss a similar resolution.

Commissioners were all in support of the city having the power to determine its own laws, but some stopped short of endorsing legislation that would restrict online cigarettes use in the city.

“Individual rights I fully support, and I understand that people want to smoke cigarettes and use tobacco in a number of different ways,” Commissioner Steven Leary said. “But I think that individual rights also transfer and that individuals have the right to not have their freedom impinged upon by people smoking cigarettes next to them.

“It’s difficult for me, because I do believe that people have the right to make their own choices, but when it starts impacting others I believe there’s a difference there. When people’s actions impact somebody else I think it supercedes an individual’s right to have a cigarette.”

Mayor Ken Bradley said that the control of tobacco use in the city, when juxtaposed against existing alcohol ordinances, is an interesting issue, but said the city should have that power regardless.

“I think it speaks for us to ask the state to say ‘hey, let us decide,’” Bradley said. “If people want to smoke cigarettes in their parks, that’s their decision. If we decide we don’t want that, let us do that.”

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New Castle County To Ban Smoking Outdoors

New Castle County government has announced that starting Jan. 3, 2012, smoking cigarettes will be prohibited throughout the campuses of the three office complexes where most of the county’s 1,400 employees work.

The policy will apply to employees and visitors at the Government Center/James H. Gilliam Building complex on Reads Way in Corporate Commons, the William J. Conner Building on Old Churchmans Road, and the Paul J. Sweeney Public Safety Building on U.S. 13, all in New Castle.


Smoking inside county facilities has been prohibited since 1994. Since then the county has permitted employees to smoke cigarettes in designated outdoor areas. The new policy will extend the ban on smoking cigarettes to all outdoor areas on the grounds of the three affected office complexes. The County announced the new policy to employees Thursday, the 34th anniversary of the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout, which spotlights the dangers of cigarettes use and the challenges of quitting.

The county will offer stop-smoking cigarettes programs for employees in conjunction with the new smoke-free policy, said County Executive Paul Clark. “While I understand that this policy may be difficult for some to adjust to, we are putting it into effect for the overall health and well-being of our employees and our visitors. We will be ready to help those who seek assistance in adapting to the policy.”


Since November 2002, Delaware has banned smoking cigarettes statewide in all enclosed workplaces, both public and private, with a handful of exemptions including private homes, rented social halls, designated smoking cigarettes rooms in hotels/motels and at fundraising activities held by certain organizations on their property. Additionally, local governments and private industry have the authority to further regulate smoking cigarettes, including banning smoking cigarettes in outdoor areas under their control. Local examples include the hospital campuses operated by Christiana Care and Delaware Health and Social Services and the Bethany Beach boardwalk and beach, all of which are smoke-free.


A July 2011 Gallup poll showed that about 22 percent of Americans 18 and older are regular smokers. This is down from 23 percent in 1999 and 28 percent in 1988. The same poll identified 24 percent of Americans as former smokers. About 23 percent of American men and 19 percent of women smoke. Despite steady reductions, more than 45 million Americans still smoke. In the July survey, 30 percent of smokers said they smoke cigarettes a pack or more each day. As recently as 1997, over half smoked a pack or more a day.


Tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society. Life expectancy for regular smokers is estimated to be from 10 to 18 years shorter than for non-smokers. Smoking and exposure to buy cigarettes smoke cigarettes is blamed for 443,000 premature deaths annually in the United States. That’s more than 1,200 deaths a day.

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Bars Want Smoking Ban Amended

Jasper bar owners are asking members of the Jasper City Council to amend its smoking cigarettes ordinance to allow nightclub-goers to smoke cigarettes in their establishments.

Supporters of such an amendment let their thoughts be heard during a council work session Tuesday afternoon.

William Legg, owner of Legg’s Hideaway on 17th Street West, said his business is down 75 percent since the smoking cigarettes ordinance took place in early October. He said if the business continues to struggle that he would be forced to close the doors by January.

“I’ve had this business for 16 years, but we won’t last until the end of the year the way things are going,” Legg said. “I’ve already laid off my day shift bartender and cut others back. Y’all are going to put us out of business because of this smoking cigarettes thing.”

Rich Garrison, owner of Midnight Special, said his business was the first in Jasper to get a citation from breaking the smoking cigarettes ordinance. Garrison said his business wouldn’t last much past the new year if something isn’t changed.

“I’m a nonsmoker, and I don’t like smoking cigarettes at all, but it is hard to run a nightclub without smoking cigarettes,” he said. “This is a different situation from a restaurant. People come to a nightclub to drink and smoke. If they can’t do one of those, they just aren’t going to come.”

Garrison said his business had previously been considered a private club by the city.

“You changed the definition of a private club,” he said. “I don’t see how I am not a private club now after I’ve been one for eight years.”

Jasper resident Kathy Russell said she enjoyed going to area nightclubs, but like many others, she doesn’t enjoy it now.

“You go to one of these places to drink, smoke cigarettes and sing some karaoke,” she said. “Now they want you to go 50 feet outside to smoke. If people are going that far into the parking lot to smoke, something bad will happen sooner or later. I feel the business owners should have the choice if they are going to allow smoking cigarettes or not.”

The group who came to Tuesday’s work session gave Jasper City Council members a petition signed by almost 500 Jasper residents asking the city to overturn the smoking cigarettes law or amend it to allow smoking cigarettes in bars. Russell said one-third of the people who signed the petition said they were nonsmokers. She also said there are many more signatures, but the group didn’t have time to collect them before the work session.

Bill Cleghorn, a Jasper resident and local political activist, said he also had a petition that had been signed by more than 200 Jasper residents that would call for the city to become completely cheap cigarettes free and ban the sale of cigarettes in Jasper.

“Once I get enough signatures and hand this in, you guys will have 30 to 45 days to put this on a special ballot,” Cleghorn told council members. “If you make the changes these other people want, then I would be plumb satisfied with that and not hand in this petition.”

City attorney Russ Robertson questioned the fact the city would have to hold a vote due to the petition. He said he would look into the matter.

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Community Colleges Prepare For Tobacco Ban

A picture of untreated "hairy tongue," a jar of tar, another jar filled with green phlegm, a replica of stained teeth with ulcer-covered gums and tongue, a blackened lung, nail polish remover and rat poison all lined the IGNITE (Influence, Guide, Network for Inter-Collegiate Tobacco Education) table at Mesa Community College's student center.

Each item on the table demonstrated either what cigarettes online products can do to those who use them or illustrated the kind of chemicals and toxins found in cigarettes.

Most people who stopped at the table were nonsmokers or former smokers. Some hoped to pick up information about quitting for a family member or a friend. Others were drawn by the comparison of a healthy lung and a black lung. A few asked questions about the jars of gunk on display or the toxins found in cigarettes.

Deandre Dupis-Harrison, a sophomore, asked questions as he poked at the packaged pig lung that demonstrated what a human lung looks like after 15 to 20 years of smoking cigarettes.

"I bet people are still going to look at this and walk straight out that door and smoke cigarettes a cigarette," Dupis-Harrison said.

While he may be correct for now, that won't be the case for long. Starting July 1, 2012, smoking cigarettes and cheap cigarettes products will be banned from Maricopa County Community College District property.

"As an educational institution, we have an obligation to lead the way in matters of health awareness and education," said Chancellor Rufus Glasper in a press release last month. "When this policy goes into effect, our district and its 10 colleges will join hundreds of other colleges and universities across the country in what is a growing trend."

About 500 American universities and colleges prohibit on-campus smoking cigarettes, cigarettes store or both.

And while the ban was announced last month, Wednesday marked the formal introduction of the Maricopa BreatheEasy initiative, a program designed to help those who work and learn at a Maricopa Community College school transition to a smoke- and tobacco-free campus. The formal announcement was in conjunction with the Great American Smokeout, a national campaign by the American Cancer Society to help people quit smoking cigarettes.

"We're announcing this change early because we recognize that it will require a change in behavior in a significant number of our students, faculty members and employees," Glasper said in a video announcement on the district's website.

The district is still trying to ensure people who work and learn on all its properties are aware of the upcoming change in the tobacco policy, said Angela Askey, MCC media relations coordinator.

"Right now, we're just trying to get the word out," Askey said.

Specific ways on how the district will enforce the ban haven't been finalized yet, and the district plans to explain how the ban will be enforced closer to the July start-date.

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No Noticeable Decrease In American Indian Smoking

Smokers across the country are kicking the habit.

But in Indian country in New Mexico, health officials are not finding any evidence of a decrease in adult smoking cigarettes rates. And with one in four adults estimated to be current smokers, American Indians have one of the highest smoking cigarettes rates in the state for the first time in the state's history.

"There is some reason for concern," said Wayne Honey, an epidemiologist for the New Mexico Health Department. "Nationally there is a decline in smoking cigarettes rates among American Indians as there is in all the other groups. But we are clearly not seeing that decline here."

Honey authored a report on adult behavioral risk soon to be published on the health department's website. The report will state that American Indian smoking cigarettes rates should be monitored.

Statewide, about 15.8 percent of Anglo adults smoke cigarettes and 24.1 percent American Indians smoke, according to the report.

What is alarming about the difference in smoking cigarettes rates between American Indians and Anglos is that current statistics were not always the case.

Anglo people in New Mexico have higher rates of lung cancer than American Indians, according to health department reports. Lung cancer rates are good ways to determine who was a current smoker 25 to 30 years ago because the cancer takes years to develop, said Dr. Susan Baum, the medical director for the state's Chronic Disease Prevention and Control Bureau.

"Up until very recently the American Indian adult smoking cigarettes rate was essentially the same, and historically it was even considerably lower, than some of the other races and ethnicities," Baum said. "Just for the past couple years the American Indian smoking cigarettes rates have been significantly higher than the (Anglo adult smoking cigarettes rates.) I'm assuming that may be because the (Anglo) rates are decreasing."

Among all New Mexico adults, the smoking cigarettes rate went from 24 percent in 2001 to 18.5 percent in 2010, according to health department statistics.

The discrepancy in smoking cigarettes rates among the two races could be partially explained by age differences. But there are also differences in cigarettes control policies between state and tribal governments.

"Smoking is associated with age, we know that younger populations are more likely to smoke cigarettes than older populations," Honey said. "The American Indian population, on average, is younger than the Anglo population is."

There are three significant differences between cheap cigarettes polices on the Navajo Nation, the largest American Indian tribe, and in the state: Government cigarettes store taxes, tobacco education programs funded with settlements with big tobacco companies and workplace smoking cigarettes laws.



Cigarette Tax

At $1.66 per pack, New Mexico taxes discount cigarette online about 30 cents more per pack than the nationwide average, according to Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a national anti-tobacco organization.

Some of the revenue from that tax funds cancer treatment centers and other health facilities around the state, according to the New Mexico Department of Taxation and Revenue's website.

The state has a program where tribal and pueblo governments can impose a $1.66 tax and receive state cigarette stamps. Enacting a qualifying tribal cigarette tax allows tribes and licensed tribal retailers to purchase cigarettes online from New Mexico distributors without paying the state cigarette excise tax, S.U. Mahesh, a spokesman for the department, said in an email.

There are 21 pueblos and tribes that have enacted a qualifying cigarette tax and are part of the program and the Navajo Nation is not one of them, he said.

The Navajo Nation imposes a cigarette tax of five cents per pack, said Deswood Tome, a spokesperson for the nation.

The revenue from that tax — which in 2011 fiscal year was $158,045, according to Navajo tax records — goes to the tribes general fund and is not specifically earmarked for tobacco education or treatment, he said.

In additional to funding cancer treatment, increasing the cost of buy cigarettes has been proven to deter smokers, Baum said.



Big tobacco bills

Most states in the country, including New Mexico, receive big payouts annually from big tobacco companies because of lawsuits filed by state attorneys.

Since 2000 New Mexico received tens of million of dollars each year because of the state's settlement with big tobacco companies. New Mexico received $38.6 million in 2011, according to Tobacco Settlement Revenue Oversight Committee documents.

The money helps cover the health care costs for smoke-related diseases and funds tobacco education prevention programs.

New Mexico Tobacco Use Prevention and Control is an entire state agency funded with money from the big tobacco settlement. The organization provides tobacco education and cessation services, according to its website.

"None of the tribes or pueblos receive this money," Mahesh said of the settlement funds. "They were not party to the lawsuit settlement."

The Navajo Nation has not made any settlement with any big tobacco company to cover the cost of smoke-related illnesses and there is no pending litigation, Tome said.



Workplace smoking cigarettes laws

The New Mexico Legislature passed a clean air act, which bans indoor smoking cigarettes in most buildings in the state, in 2007.

The result of the law is that 92 percent of New Mexico residents are protected from second hand smoke cigarettes in the workplace, according to health department statistics.

Exempt from the clean air law are tribal buildings. And most Indian casinos in the state have held on to at least designated smoking cigarettes sections.

The first attempt at passing a clean air act on the Navajo Nation ended when Nation President Ben Shelly vetoed the bill because tribal casinos were exempt from the law.

"The president has taken a very aggressive position on smoking cigarettes," Tome said. "We're battling with diseases like diabetes and obesity and ... smoking cigarettes is a habit that the president wants to catch at the youth level and stop it there. The president wants to see a healthy Navajo Nation in every respect."

The new Navajo Casino near Farmington, expected to be completed in January, will allow smoking cigarettes when it is first opens. But it might not be smoky for long.

In August 2012, Tome said Shelly will introduce an initiative to ban indoor smoking cigarettes in all buildings on the Navajo Nation.

"It's an initiative to say we're going to go smoke cigarettes free in all public places and that includes casinos in resorts," Tome said. "Voters will decide their future in that respect."

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North Haven Inheriting Smoke Free Policy

Quinnipiac's North Haven Campus will be completely tobacco-free starting August 13, 2012. The policy will extend to all employees, students, temporary workers and visitors.

"We would do this policy across all the campuses if we could," said Vice President of Human Resources Ronald Mason. " However, we can't at the Mount Carmel and York Hill campuses because they are residential and people live here 24/7."

Only 252 colleges and universities prohibit smoking cigarettes and all forms of cigarettes use everywhere on campus, according to the American Lung Association. The only college that is 100% tobacco-free in Connecticut is the Hartford Community College.

Smoke-free campuses have become increasingly popular with schools such as the University of Memphis and University of Illinois.

There will be multiple levels of infractions for students and employees caught smoking cigarettes on the campus. Violations will be judged on a case-by-case basis for the time being.

"I think that making the North Haven Campus cheap cigarettes free is a very positive initiative," Emily Zwart, Junior said.

Zwart is a MAT student who travels to North Haven weekly for educational classes.

"Considering how it is widely accepted that cigarettes online is an extremely harmful substance to a person's overall health, it makes sense that a campus committed to health and medical education should be tobacco free," Zwart said.

She also said smoking cigarettes barriers provide an incentive to quit smoking cigarettes.

"It is, and should be, a person's right to decide to smoke cigarettes or not, but the more barriers that stand in the way and the more inconvenient the usage of tobacco becomes, the more people may be encourage to quit, and that means that more lives can be saved."

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Officials Wary Of Electronic Cigarettes

Smoking for the modern age never looked so easy. It just requires a push of a button, vaporized mist and optional flavors of chocolate, coffee or peppermint.

This isn't a futuristic prop from the set of "The Jetsons." It's an electronic cigarette and it's been on the market for several years. But the e-smokes are just now catching the eyes of community and health leaders. Across the country, health warnings and bans are being raised regarding the devices, even though little is known about how often they're used or who is using them.

"It's a buy cigarette online product but it's being marketed like a candy cigarette," said Rene LeBlanc, director for the South Central Public Health District. "It's mimicking the same smoking cigarettes behavior but you're being told it's not the same."

E-cigarettes look like a normal cigarette, cigar or pipe. However, the product is divided into three sections. A cartridge contains a liquid nicotine solution and acts as the mouthpiece for inhaling. An atomizer attaches to the cartridge and creates vapor. The rest of the product is the slim tubular piece containing the battery and LED light that comes on during inhalation.

Instead of smoke cigarettes from burning tobacco, e-cigarette users breathe in water vapor imbued with nicotine, which enters their blood stream through the lungs.

The cost varies depending on the brand of e-cigarettes. Start-up packs that contain the device and a few cartridges can range from $30 to $120. Cartridge replacements can be purchased online or at stores and usually last up to 100-150 puffs.

Idaho lawmakers and health officials are currently looking to ban minors from being able to purchase e-cigarettes, and a proposal could be introduced in the coming state legislative session. Unlike cigarettes products, individuals under 18 years old can legally purchase e-cigarettes in all but six states across the nation.

Coeur d'Alene is pushing for its own municipal ban on the devices for minors and e-cigarette use in public spaces within its boundaries.

Current lax regulation has raised concern that the devices will attract younger people to smoke. The electronic devices only face two federal restrictions. In September, the Department of Transportation announced it was no longer allowing passengers to use them on airplanes. Last summer, the Air Force prohibited the use of e-cigarettes in its workplaces and non-smoking cigarettes public spaces.

The American Lung Association reports that close to 14.5 percent of Idaho high school students smoke cigarettes some form of tobacco, slightly below the national average. While the ALA has had a heavy hand pushing for a ban in north Idaho, they have not tracked how many minors are using the e-cigarettes in any state or in the nation, said Carrie Nyssen, spokeswoman for the health advocacy group.

However, the Tobacco Vapor Electronic Cigarette Association estimates that there are close 1.5 million Americans using e-cigarettes, said Tom Kiklas, co-founder of the advocacy group.

While Kiklas says e-smoke cigarettes users are rising, the amount is still much lower than the total of those who smoke cigarettes traditional cigarettes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that there are 46 million Americans who smoke cigarettes cigarettes.

According to school administrators and store owners, the focus on banning minors' use of the devices may be misplaced.

School districts across the Magic Valley haven't seen any reports of students smoking cigarettes e-cigarettes on their campuses, nor have local schools updated their discipline manuals to include banning e-cigarettes. At this point, e-cigarettes are treated the same as any other type of cheap cigarettes product, said Scott Rogers, superintendent for the Minidoka County School District.

While schools are hardly the only place minors go to smoke, the SCPHD youth smoking cigarettes cessation program hasn't seen that many participants dabble in electronic smoking cigarettes.

"In my classes, I've heard some of my kids talk about using them before," said Elvia Caldera, health education specialist for the SCPHD. "But none of them talked about liking it. Real cigarettes online are still cool to kids and so they just go for those."

In many convenience stores in southern Idaho, e-cigarettes are sold behind the counter with the rest of the tobacco products and require ID for purchase.

Twin Falls resident Terry West picked up e-cigarettes four months ago. He and his wife, Natalie, were looking for a cheaper alternative to normal cigarettes.

"I did and didn't like e-cigarettes," West said. "I liked that they were cleaner; no ash and smoke. I liked that I could smoke cigarettes anywhere, even at work."

But he missed the feel of real smoke cigarettes and the "throat hit" of the first drag of a real cigarette. He eventually went back to real buy cigarettes because he was tired of ordering cartridges online. He says if his brand of e-cigarettes becomes more available in this area, he might go back.

Allen Nagel, e-cigarette user and owner of the Smoke-N-Head smoke cigarettes shop in Twin Falls, also sells his products to an older crowd.

"They don't work for everybody but they will work for a lot of people looking for a healthier option," he said.

Nagel argues that e-cigarettes are healthier than the traditional alternative. He's been using them to wean himself off smoking cigarettes because he's concerned about his health. E-cigarettes don't contain tar, tobacco or other poisons that regular discount cigarettes do, he said.

However, a Food and Drug Administration report analyzing e-cigarettes detected traces of the same chemical found in anti-freeze. The report also showed that the devices emit varying amounts of nicotine in each puff, sometimes double the amount of a traditional cigarette.

Nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco products, is the most common cause of chemical dependency in the U.S., according to the CDC.

For now, health officials are gathering support for a statewide ban on e-cigarettes for minors. A resolution is being sponsored by legislators from north Idaho. State Rep. Fred Wood, R-Burley — a retired physician and member of the House Health and Welfare Committee — hadn't heard about the resolution when contacted by the Times-News but said he would look forward to reading it over. Republicans from Coeur d'Alene, Rep. Bob Nonini and Sen. James Hammond, have both signed on to sponsor the resolution.

"Idaho wants to follow in the footsteps of other states that are stepping up to regulate these products," LeBlanc said. "An all-out ban is a whole other mess, but we can get people on board to stop minors from purchasing these things."

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Anti-tobacco Groups Praise Bill To Ban Smoking In Federal Buildings

A bill to widen current smoking cigarettes restrictions to cover all federal buildings was introduced this month by Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., after President Obama declined her request in 2009 to enact the policy through executive order, Davis press secretary Aaron Hunter told Government Executive.

The legislation is being hailed by anti-tobacco groups as "long overdue."

Davis' Smoke-Free Federal Buildings Act (H.R. 3382) would prohibit smoking cigarettes in and 25 feet around all facilities owned or leased by the federal government nationwide while also barring designated smoking cigarettes sections.

"Exposure to secondhand smoke cigarettes is a serious health issue that drives up health care costs for all of us," Davis said in a statement. "Federal workers should be able to work in a healthy, smoke-free environment." Enforcement would be up to each agency.

Current policy, under a bulletin the General Services Administration issued in December 2008, contains similar requirements but is not enforced at buildings not administered by GSA.

GSA's directive ended the designated smoking cigarettes areas option that has been in place since President Clinton issued an executive order curbing smoking cigarettes on federal sites in 1997. GSA gave agencies six months to negotiate enforcement with employee unions, which have expressed skepticism about the enforceability of a policy, given the nature of cigarettes addiction.

One purpose of the Davis bill, said Hunter, is to codify the GSA policy while also expanding its reach.

Erika Sward, director of national advocacy at the American Lung Association, said Davis' bill is "needed and long overdue," citing a Congressional Research Service report that GSA's policy applies to only 30 percent of buildings housing federal employees. The state of Maryland has enacted a smoke-free workplace policy, she said, "but if you're a federal worker in Maryland, you may actually be subjected to secondhand smoke cigarettes and forced to breathe it. And if a federal worker develops a disease because of breathing secondhand smoke, the taxpayer pays through their health care bills."

The American Lung Association rejects the argument that smoking cigarettes bans aren't enforceable. Data from the state experience show that "the policies are often self-policing and self-enforcing," Sward said. "Smokers actually like them because it gives them an approach to quit. It's a win-win."

Those sentiments were echoed by Marie Cocco, spokeswoman for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, who said there are no significant enforcement problems in the 29 states that have enacted comprehensive smoke-free indoor workplace laws. "Even in taverns and restaurants, once the policy's in place, people love it," she said. "To do anything else would mean forcing someone to choose between their health and their paycheck."

The Davis bill is co-sponsored by Reps. Diana DeGette, D-Colo.; Rush Holt, D-N.J.; and Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.; and Del. Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, D-Samoa. For the required constitutional authority statement, Davis cites Article I, Section 8, Clause 1, which is to provide for the general welfare.

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Providence Alaska Discriminates Against Smokers

Discrimination is good. Just ask the managers of the Providence Alaska Medical Center in Alaska's largest city. They're trumpeting a decision to ban the hiring of people who smoke.

"We believe that by doing this move, to where we are no longer going to hire cigarettes online users, that we are sending a very clear message into the community that we are not only the leaders in health care, but we're really the leaders in health," Tammy Green, director of health management services for Providence Health & Services Alaska, told the Anchorage Daily News.

Good for Providence. Maybe not so good for you, but more on this later.

Let's talk about smoking cigarettes first. Everyone knows smoking cigarettes is bad. Everyone has heard about how it "causes'' cancer, although really it doesn't. If it did, everyone who smoked would get cancer. They don't.

There is no direct cause-and-effect relationship between smoking cigarettes and cancer, and the scientists who make claims as to how smoking cigarettes "causes'' cancer should be ashamed of themselves. The sad truth is we really don't know what "causes'' cancer.

We do know that certain substances predispose one to cancer, and smoking cigarettes is at the top of the list, given that most Americans aren't heavily exposed to aflotoxin, a nasty carcinogen naturally produced by the fungus Aspergillus which contaminates nuts and grains in much of the third world. Many scientists consider aflotoxin the deadliest carcinogen.

Exposure to large doses of aflotoxin (some cancers appear to be dose related) will seriously up your odds of getting liver cancer. Smoking, on the other hand, will significantly up your odds of not only getting lung cancer, but coronary heart disease, emphysema and more. The Centers for Disease Control has a whole list of diseases associated with smoking cigarettes and the use of cigarettes products.

Excuse the federal agency for claiming smoking cigarettes, chewing or nicotine use in general "causes'' any of those diseases. There is a whole lot of spin around the smoking cigarettes issue in this country today and even scientists get caught up in it. America, the great land of individual freedoms, can't quite bring itself to ban discount cigarette online as unsafe. So government officials and some business leaders have resorted to different tactics. The prevailing strategies are to boost cigarette taxes so high people can't afford them, scare smokers away from their fags, or ostracize them.

The latter does not seem to have worked so well. It might have had the opposite affect. Ostracizing smokers seems in some cases to have forced them to bond. The first small fraternities of smokers developed in inter-office smoking cigarettes rooms, which were eventually banned in the big fear over second-hand smoke. Personally, there are a lot of carcinogens out there I worry about more than second-hand smoke, but that didn't stop government from pushing smokers out of the office smoking cigarettes room into the cold.

Whether making smokers uncomfortable did any more to stop people from smoking cigarettes is debatable. I've known people who tried to quit and gave up because they missed the friends they'd developed in meetings at the designated smoking cigarettes spot. And while the price tag may have limited how much people smoke, doesn't seem to have stopped them either.

So government is amping up new efforts to scare people away from smoking cigarettes or chewing. New, more threatening warnings went on cheap cigarettes products in September.

It seems only a matter of time before the front of a cigarette pack simply says: "Smoke this; you die!" But scaring people never seems to work. The country tried for years to scare people into wearing their seat belts. Government finally gave up and settled on "Click it or ticket,'' the threat of a ticket apparently being more intimidating to Americans than the threat of death in a car accident.

When the going gets tough, the tough write new laws restricting individual freedoms, or resort to playing dirty in the market place.

Providence has decided on the latter tactic. It has given up on trying to reform smokers. It says it's going to free its facilities of them the easy way. The company is going to test new employees for nicotine and ban the hiring of anyone who tests positive, be it from smoking cigarettes, chewing or even being on the nicotine patch in an effort to quit smoking cigarettes or chewing.

Providence says its executive team came to this decision after length consideration. Providence says it’s all about improving employee health and saving money on health care costs. You can dismiss the former claim as nothing but a bunch of PR hogwash. Banning the hiring of smokers might ensure Providence has, in general, a healthier workforce, but it's going to do nothing to improve employee health. If Providence really wanted to improve employee health, it might do something like institute a mandatory employee fitness program or, at the very least, ban employees for sitting for more than a few hours at a time.

Yes, strangely enough, even sitting has now been linked to cancer. Sitting for lengthy periods of time has been shown to be another of those things -- like smoking cigarettes -- that predisposes people to cancer.

"Women and men who both sat more and were less physically active were 94 percent and 48 percent more likely, respectively, to die compared with those who reported sitting the least and being most active,'' concluded a recent study done for the American Cancer Society. Ninety-four percent more likely to die is a not a good thing.

Ping me when the first business designates an anti-cancer monitor to roam the offices making sure everyone gets out of their chairs and moves around for 10 minutes or so every few hours to reduce their risks of getting cancer. I don't expect to be getting a lot of messages. Plenty of businesses talk about "employee health,'' but not all that many do much about employee health. When my old employer -- the Anchorage Daily News -- started downsizing and cost cutting to try to survive in a changing market place, one of the first things to go was the employee exercise room.

Business in this country isn't all that concerned about the economics of the long term. Business in this country lives in the moment. Whether Suzie is alive a month from now isn't nearly as important as whether Suzie is in the office today busy typing away and not at the doctor's office again boosting the cost of what the company has to pay for health insurance. Non-smokers miss work less than smokers, who cost, again according to the CDC, employers an extra $3,400 a year on average.

Getting rid of employees who smoke cigarettes is a good business decision. In this case, it is clearly good for Providence but, as noted above, maybe not so good for you as a taxpaying American citizen.

The issue of smoking cigarettes and health care is, it turns out, a complex one. A number of studies have concluded that while smokers cost their employers more (at least if the smoker can find a job) they end up costing the taxpayer less. As one study noted, "If all smokers quit, health care costs would be lower at first, but after 15 years they would become higher than at present. In the long term, complete smoking cigarettes cessation would produce a net increase in health care costs."

The reason for this is simple. Smokers die sooner. The average 30-year-old smoker is reported to have a life expectancy of 65 in this country. The average 30-year-old non-smoker, on the other hand, is expected to live to 83. If you've been paying attention to this country's fiscal crisis, you probably know that age 65 is sort of a magic number. It is the retirement age in America, and the age at which government retirement and health-care benefits paid to the country's aging population explode.

Because Americans are living longer, and because the nation now supports its seniors with greater benefits than in the past, there are those worrying the whole damn country could drown in a sea of elder-care red ink.

Against that backdrop, one could almost argue smoking cigarettes is, in a societal sense, good. The people who do it obviously enjoy it, and they die younger, saving us all a lot of money. Look, I know those words sound harsh. And I certainly don't want anyone -- smoker or not -- to die. But there is a little reality we all need to face:

We are all going to die. Most of us, myself included, would prefer to do it later rather than sooner, which brings me to a little personal problem with what Providence has done. And, no, it has nothing to do with religion, though one would think that a medical institution founded by the Catholic good Sisters of Providence would be more into trying to save smokers than banish them.

I know folks who smoke. Most of them are good people. A few of them are extremely talented. Providence makes me feel sorry for smokers, but like most Americans, I really don't care about them. Like most Americans, I care mainly about me. And at that very basic level is where Providence's action troubles me. Why?

Because here is what I want to find at Providence or any other hospital in Alaska: The very best doctor available.

If I'm badly hurt in an accident, and end up in the emergency room at Providence -- a situation in which I have no control over what physician is going to treat me -- I want to be seen by the best trauma doctor that can be recruited to come living in cold, dark, far-off Alaska. I'm not interested in the best trauma doctor who doesn't smoke, or the best trauma doctor who is white, or the best trauma doctor who is Jewish, or the best trauma doctor who can run a sub-40 minute 10K road race.

I want the best trauma doctor available, period. I really don't care what he does in his private life, short of murdering or torturing people. I really don't care whether he is healthy as an ox or sickly, as long as he has no contagious diseases. I really don't care if he's a giant or a dwarf, ugly or TV beautiful. All I care is that he is good at what he does. And given that concern, I don't like Providence arbitrarily limiting the pool of job applicants -- or in the worst-case scenario refusing to hire the best person -- based on some arbitrary and discriminatory rule dictating how the company has decided people should live their lives.

And yes, the smoking cigarettes ban is discriminatory. A stenographer for the local newspaper might dutifully write down that "Providence executives considered whether the change would be in any way discriminatory and found that it wouldn't be,'' but the reality is that what Providence executives discovered is that their action isn't "legally discriminatory.'' In other words, they're not going to get hauled into court for discriminating against smokers the way they might if they suddenly decided to ban the hiring of the obese, who cost businesses even more than smokers.

Medical spending for obesity-related disease was estimated at $147 billion in 2008, about 6 percent of all health care spending costs, according to David S. Martin, the senior medical producer for CNN.

Smoking costs were pegged at $96 billion. An estimated 21 percent of Americans are addicted to cigarettes. An estimated 32 percent are obese. If you do the math there, you'll see that on a per capita basis the fat people are costing the health care system just a tad more than the filthy smokers.

The CDC is so concerned about the health-care costs of obesity that it provides an on-line obesity-cost calculator for businesses. "The calculator," the website says, "reports obesity-attributable costs among employees, both medical (for those employees with health benefits) and the value of absenteeism. All costs are assumed to be borne by employers. In reality these costs can be passed on to employees through sharing of health insurance premiums and possibly adjustments to wages."

CDC calls its program "LEAN Works!'' and says that while it "helps employers estimate the cost of obesity to their businesses. CDC’s LEAN Works! should not be used to promote discriminatory practices such as considering weight in hiring or other personnel decisions. Weight discrimination is a serious issue and evidence indicates that it occurs in the work place."

There is, you see, discrimination and then there is DISCRIMINATION!

Discrimination against smokers? OK!

Discrimination against the obese? Not OK!

Or at least not OK for now. Who knows about tomorrow?

A reasonable person might wonder if maybe there isn't a better way. How about just calculating the extra cost in health care premiums for smokers and the obese, and then sending each of them a monthly bill to remind them it might be a good idea to change their habits. It might actually be possible to help people live healthier lives -- if, of course, the goal is really to help them live healthier lives. If, on the other hand, the goal is to save money, Providence might find some subtle, legal way to get rid of the obese folk, too.

Their absence would make the medical facility look healthier because, I've got to confess, when I'm at Providence wandering around, I can't tell the smokers from the non-smokers.

There's no one sending me any conflicting messages that maybe smoking cigarettes is OK. But there are plenty of big bodies sending the message that being overweight is fine. It's a message I would prefer hospitals not send because the reality is that being overweight is not fine. It is an epidemic in this country.

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Smoking Law Still Lacks Enforcement

Nearly five years after a workplace smoking cigarettes ban took effect in Hawaii, there is still no specific plan in place to enforce it. The ban had a long, slow road to reality, since it took almost four years to put together the administrative rules for the smoking cigarettes law.

The workplace smoking cigarettes ban took effect in mid-November 2006, prohibiting smoking cigarettes in offices, restaurants and bars across the state. Smoking is also banned within 20 feet of building doorways and open windows.

"It was really meant to be a self-enforcing, self-policing kind of law," said Julian Lipsher, program manager of online cigarettes prevention and education for the state Department of Health.

After the ban took effect five years ago, the Health Department had to develop rules and regulations for the new law, working with lawyers at the state attorney general's office to do so. State health officials said rule making usually takes two years, but this process took nearly four years.

The health department held public hearings across the state and appeared three times before the state's Small Business Regulatory Review Board, which Lipsher said didn't like the new regulations.

Lipsher said health officials had to repeatedly meet with the board, "To provide clarification of what the law was about, and to provide explanation and development of rules and how they would affect small business."

Former Gov. Linda Lingle, a Republican, signed the rules last August and they finally took effect Sept. 6, 2010, nearly four years after the smoking cigarettes restrictions became law. Lingle was lobbied heavily by business leaders not to sign the law, according to opponents of the restrictions.

State health officials said most businesses follow the law, but according to complaints they’ve received, there are roughly 20 bars violating the smoking cigarettes restrictions.

One of them is O'Toole's Irish Pub downtown, which allows patrons to smoke. It follows the letter of the law, posting no smoking cigarettes signs and telling customers about the law, but allowing them to continue smoking cigarettes.

Its owner, Bill Comerford, has fought the rules, saying they're unfair because bar owners could be cited even if their customers are outside their bars, but smoking cigarettes too close to the doorways.

"That's the equivalent of somebody out on the street parking incorrectly, and coming to my bar. I'm in violation," Comerford, who owns four bars on Oahu and heads the Hawaii Bar Owners’ Association.

"The department is aware of those few businesses that are not in compliance. We are working with local law enforcement on the compliance issue," said Lipsher.

But there's still no specific agreement with the Honolulu Police Department to enforce the law, more than a year after the governor approved the smoking cigarettes law rules. Lipsher said he hopes to reach an enforcement agreement with HPD “soon,” but wouldn’t specify when.

Lipsher said the health department has been sending violators certified letters, but has not issued fines allowed under the law. Individuals can face $50 fines, and businesses that allow smokers face an escalating scale of fines, going from $100 to $200 to $500, depending on how many previous violations they’ve had.

"It's been really frustrating,” said Deborah Zysman, executive director of a Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii, referring to the four-year rule-making process for the smoking cigarettes law. “This is just an example of some of the bureaucracy that we see sometimes."

The new rules allow law enforcement officers, including county police or state sheriff's deputies, to enforce the smoking cigarettes prohibitions. In the five years since the smoking cigarettes law took effect, Honolulu police officers have cited only a few violators.

The new rules also allow the health department to appoint one or more inspectors to enforce the smoking cigarettes law, with the authority to serve and execute warrants, notices, citations or summons. But the health department has not hired any inspectors.

"I do think in our state that it should be the health department that can go out if there's complaints that are noted, that they should have inspectors and they should go out and issue citations," said Zysman, noting the health department already has inspectors who inspect, educate and cite restaurants and their employees for health violations. Other health inspectors check on swimming pools, tattoo parlors and other establishments.

Asked why the state health department hasn't appointed smoking cigarettes law inspectors, Lipsher said, "Because we feel that we can get the strongest possible enforcement through working with the local police and law enforcement agencies."

The new rules allow the health department to revoke a health permit for anyone who owns, manages or operates an establishment that violates the smoking cigarettes ban at least three times within a two-year period. That would effectively shut down a restaurant or bar.

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Cigarette Warnings

This week, a U.S. District Court blocked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) from requiring cigarettes for sale companies to include graphic warning labels on all cigarette packages and advertisements beginning next September. These requirements were to be the first change to U.S. cigarette warning labels in 25 years, following the 2009 decision by Congress to make the FDA responsible for regulating cheap cigarettes products. Although cigarette packs already carry text warnings from the U.S. Surgeon General, the new warnings would have been larger and contained color graphics depicting the health consequences of smoking cigarettes, including diseased lungs, dead bodies and rotting teeth.

The Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) believes this ruling is a threat to the health of Illinois residents and will impair efforts to reduce youth smoking cigarettes. A comprehensive evaluation by the FDA has shown that the pictorial depiction of the dangers of smoking cigarettes is more effective than printed warning labels. The World Health Organization has repeatedly recommended that health warnings on cigarettes packages increase smokers' awareness of their risk and serve as an effective deterrent to youth tobacco use.

According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control, 10 percent of Illinois youths aged 12?17 are cigarette smokers, and 21 percent of the adult population 18 and over -- more than 2 million residents -- are smokers. An estimated 16,000 people die of smoking cigarettes-related diseases annually in Illinois, and cigarette smoking cigarettes costs Illinois approximately $3.2 billion in direct medical expenditures each year.

The federal District Court based its decision on the First Amendment rights of tobacco companies. However, the courts have long recognized the right and responsibility of government to require accurate warning labels on dangerous products, and it is irrefutable that buy cigarette online are dangerous products, causing disease and death.

IDPH strongly recommends that the Justice Department immediately appeal the court's decision in order to protect the health of all Americans by ensuring the FDA has the authority to regulate tobacco products, as required in the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009.

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A Smoking Ban That Doesnt Break Rules

Q: We operate a fourplex and have decided to prohibit smoking cigarettes entirely - in common areas, such as the halls and lobby, as well as individual units. Current tenants who smoke cigarettes say that's discriminatory. Would we be breaking the law if we implement this policy?

- Ronald and Mai

A: You're within your rights if you decide that you'd like your entire building to be smoke-free (but you need to follow notice laws, explained below). Local governing bodies are increasingly recognizing the danger of secondhand smoke, and have passed ordinances that prohibit smoking cigarettes in multi-unit buildings.

In 2009, the Department of Housing and Urban Development formally suggested that public housing agencies adopt smoke-free policies for the residential rentals they do business with.

It's not uncommon for people who smoke cigarettes to cry foul, pointing out that smoking cigarettes is a lawful activity, and jumping to the illogical conclusion that it's therefore illegal for landlords to prohibit that activity. If this argument were valid, it would also be illegal for landlords to prohibit tenants from keeping pets, another activity that by itself, on one's own property, is perfectly legal.

Your tenants' objections and reasoning is not uncommon, however. The widespread belief that it's illegal for landlords to adopt property-wide smoking cigarettes bans was the motivating force behind a new law in California (California Civil Code Section 1947.5), set to take effect Jan. 1, 2012.

That law specifically states that landlords may adopt such policies, and its preamble candidly explains that the law simply restates existing law, and is intended to give landlords a statute to point to if they're challenged after adopting a policy. Importantly, it also states that it is not intended to interfere with existing local ordinances, many of which already ban smoking cigarettes in multifamily properties.

The new law requires landlords to place any property-wide policies regarding cigarette or other discount cigarettes use in the lease or rental agreement itself. This is a sensible step; it means that the policy can- not simply be part of a set of house rules, which are properly used to regulate less important aspects of multifamily living, such as pool rules and common-area use.

The new law makes buy cigarette online policies subject to the normal rules of notice and change. Because a new cheap cigarette online policy constitutes a change in the terms of the tenancy, tenants who have rental agreements are entitled to 30 days' notice. Tenants with existing leases, however, will not be subject to the new policy until their leases expire and they sign new ones with the landlord.

This means that there's a possibility that a property will only gradually become totally smoke-free: If even one smoking cigarettes resident has a lease that doesn't expire for many months past Jan. 1, 2012, the other tenants (whose leases and rental agreements may include the new policy) will have to put up with this tenant's smoking cigarettes.

By singling out a landlord's right to ban tobacco use on rental property, the new law may have inadvertently suggested to smokers of other substances that landlords do not have a similar right to ban smoking cigarettes of these non-tobacco substances.

One wonders whether users of medical marijuana will point to the law and argue that because it doesn't include the landlord's right to ban marijuana smoking cigarettes, a landlord therefore cannot do so.

Such an argument might not make much headway, but it could be enough to confuse a landlord and muddy the waters. For the record, although in some states it's legal to use medical marijuana, such use is still a violation of federal law. Landlords who will not tolerate medical marijuana use on their property are within their rights.

Q: My lease says that I get a rent concession of $500 for the first month's rent, and $150 for every month thereafter. When I subtracted $500 from the first month's rent, the landlord returned the check, saying I was entitled to deduct only $150. When I pointed to the lease, he said that was "an error on his part," and that the correct figure for all months was only $150. Is he bound to honor the $500 figure, even though he claims it was a mistake?

- Roger S.

A: I doubt very much whether a judge would allow your landlord to reform or rewrite the lease to take into account his "mistake." Even if we give your landlord the benefit of the doubt - by believing him when he says that the $500 concession was made in error - that won't lead to a rewrite.

First, what does your landlord mean by "made in error?" If he's claiming that he made an error in judgment - by misjudging the amount of the first month's concession needed to get you to sign a lease - no amount of arguing will make his case successful. Mistakes in business judgment can't be reformed later.

Next, let's suppose this "error" was a typo or other mechanical error. If you were aware of the error, or should have been aware, the law says that no contract was created at all, and your entire lease may be unenforceable. On the other hand, if you didn't know, and had no reason to know of the mistake, in most states, the lease will be enforced, mistake and all.

So the question boils down to whether you (or a reasonable person in your shoes) should have known that a $500 first-month's concession was too good to be true. The answer may depend on the total rent and the state of the rental market.

If the rent is high compared with the concession (for example, the concession is only one-quarter of the rent), the market is glutted with rentals like this, and if other landlords are offering deep concessions, you may have been justified in thinking that a $500 concession was an intentional marketing decision.

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Famous Actress Part I

Celebrity Actress Smoking Part I

Here we have the first part of selected pictures with Hollywood Famous Actress smoking cigarettes. Enjoy the collection of photos with Celebrities Smoking Cigarettes.


1. Aarti Chhabria Smoking Cigarette

Celebrity Aarti Chhabria Smoking Marlboro Flavor Note Cigarette

About Aarti Chhabria : Chabaria was modeling since the age of 3 years. She was the Farex Baby, and appeared in several commercials like, Maggi Noodles, Pepsodent Tooth Paste, Clean and Clear Facewash, Amul Frostick Ice-cream, Lml Trendy Scooter, Krach Cream. After completing her education, Aarti shot into fame when she was crowned Miss India WorldWide in 1999. She then appeared in the music videos - Sukhwinder Singh's Nashi Hi Nasha, Adnan Sami's Roothe Hue Hai Kyo (from album Tera Chehra) and another one titled Madhubala.

She made her debut in Bollywood with Tumse Achcha Kaun Hai in 2002, but before that she had also acted in a cameo role in Akansha and Lajja in 1989 and 2001 respectively. She portrayed the roles of an NRI tapori in Awara Paagal Deewana, of a woman with a split personality in Raja Bhaiya, a belle who is a bar dancer, in love with an underworld don in Shootout At Lokhandwala, and a housewife in Daddy Cool. She was the winner of the fourth season of Fear Factor - Khatron Ke Khiladi in 2011.


2. Abbie Cornish Smoking Cigarette

Celebrity Abbie Cornish Smoking Marlboro Red Cigarette

About Abbie Cornish : Abbie Cornish (born 7 August 1982) is an Australian actress. She is well known in Australia for a number of film and television roles, particularly her award-winning lead performance in 2004's Somersault, and internationally for her role as Fanny Brawne in Bright Star and her appearance as Sweet Pea in Sucker Punch. Her career began at the age of thirteen, when she began taking jobs as a model after reaching the finals of a Dolly Magazine competition. By the time she was sixteen, Cornish was juggling television acting roles with studying for her Higher School Certificate, with the intention of pursuing a career as a veterinarian. In 1999, Cornish was awarded the Australian Film Institute Young Actor's Award for her role in the ABC's television show Wildside and was soon offered her first role in a feature film, The Monkey's Mask.

In 2004, Cornish appeared in the award-winning short film Everything Goes with Hugo Weaving. She received the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress at the FCCA and IF Awards and Best Breakthrough Performance at the 2005 Miami International Film Festival for her role in 2004's Somersault, the film which raised her to international prominence. Cornish received widespread critical acclaim for her role in 2006's Candy, which she starred in opposite Heath Ledger. She has also starred in A Good Year, Elizabeth: The Golden Age and Kimberly Peirce's latest movie, Stop-Loss. In April 2010, Cornish was cast in Limitless, the film adaptation of the novel The Dark Fields, directed by Neil Burger and also starring Bradley Cooper and Robert De Niro.

The film was released in March 2011. Cornish narrated Zack Snyder's film Sucker Punch, that stars her together with Emily Browning and others, at the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International. Cornish will play the role of Wally in Madonna's film W.E. about Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. The shooting began 5 July 2010 in Britain, and the film is going to premiere in Venice in 2011.


3. Abi Titmuss Smoking Cigarette

Celebrity Abi Titmuss Smoking Marlboro Gold Cigarette

About Abi Titmuss : Abi Titmuss, (born 8 February 1976 in Ruskington, Lincolnshire), is a former English nurse turned glamour model, television personality and actress. Abi Titmuss grew up in Heckington, Lincolnshire where her parents were teachers, and she took her A levels at Kesteven and Sleaford High School where she played the clarinet. She briefly dated cartoonist BP Perry before moving to Ruskington. Her parents divorced when she was 17, and her father moved to Argyll, Scotland, where he remarried. Her mother is secretary of Sleaford Museum trust.


4. Adrianne Curry Smoking Cigarette

Celebrity Adrianne Curry Smoking Marlboro Gold Edge Cigarette

About Adrianne Curry : Adrianne Marie Curry (born August 6, 1982) is an American model, best known as the first winner of the reality television series America's Next Top Model. She is separated from husband Christopher Knight, who portrayed Peter Brady on The Brady Bunch. She runs a weekly show on the NowLive radio network, in which she is an investor. Curry won the first cycle of America's Next Top Model. Curry was signed to Wilhelmina Models in New York City. She has modeled for several magazines, including Life & Style Weekly, Us Weekly, Star, OK!, Stuff, People, Maxim and made the Maxim Hot 100 list in 2005., Spanish Marie Claire, Von Dutch, Von Dutch Watches, Salon City, Macy's, Famous Stars and Straps, Lucky, Ed Hardy, Kinis Bikinis, Beverly Hills Choppers, and Merit Diamonds.

Curry's runway shows include Anne Bowen Spring 2005, Jamie Pressly, Pamela Anderson's line, Ed Hardy, Von Dutch, and Christopher Deane. She has appeared in a commercial for the Merit Diamonds Sirena Collection that ran from November 2004 to January 2006. Curry appeared on the cover and in a nude pictorial for Playboy in February 2006 (U.S. Version). She returned for a second cover and nude pictorial in the January 2008 issue. Curry made Playboy's 2008 top 25 sexiest women, along with the top 100 Playboy spreads 2008 edition. In late 2004, Curry modeled for a technological demo created by Nvidia to showcase their video cards


5. Aishwarya Rai Smoking Cigarette

Celebrity Aishwarya Rai Smoking Marlboro Gold Touch Cigarette

About Aishwarya Rai : Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (born 1 November 1973) is an Indian film actress. She worked as a model before starting her acting career, and ultimately won the Miss World pageant in 1994. Rai has acted in over 40 films in Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, and Bengali. Often cited by the media as the "most beautiful woman in the world", Rai made her acting debut in Mani Ratnam's Tamil film Iruvar (1997), and had her first commercial success in the Tamil movie Jeans (1998). She gained the attention of Bollywood through the film Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999), directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Her performance won her the Filmfare Best Actress Award. In 2002 she appeared in Bhansali's Devdas, for which she won her second Filmfare Best Actress Award. After a setback in her career during 2003–2005, she appeared in Dhoom 2 (2006), which was her biggest commercial success in India. She later appeared in films like Guru (2007), Jodhaa Akbar (2008), and Enthiran (2010), which were commercially and critically successful. Rai has established herself as one of the leading actresses in Bollywood.

Rai's off-screen roles include duties as brand ambassador for various charity organisations and campaigns. She is married to fellow actor Abhishek Bachchan. In 2009 she was honoured with Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award given by the Government of India.


6. Aj Cook Smoking Cigarette

Celebrity Aj Cook Smoking Marlboro Gold Fine Touch Cigarette

About Aj Cook : Andrea Joy "A.J." Cook-Andersen (born July 22, 1978) is a Canadian actress best known for her role as Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer "JJ" Jareau in the CBS crime drama Criminal Minds. She has also appeared in several Hollywood films including The Virgin Suicides, Out Cold, and Final Destination 2. Cook was born in Oshawa, Ontario and spent most of her life growing up in Whitby where she attended Anderson Collegiate Vocational Institute. Her father, Mike, is a teacher, and her mother, Sandra, works as a psychiatrist. She has three siblings, Nathan, Paul, and Angela. Cook is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A dancer from age four, Cook began taking jazz, tap and ballet lessons. She danced competitively for many years, before deciding at the age of 16 that she wanted to try acting.


7. Alana Curry Smoking Cigarette

Celebrity Alana Curry Smoking Marlboro Filter Plus Cigarette

8. Alexa Chung Smoking Cigarette

Celebrity Alexa Chung Smoking Marlboro Filter Plus Extra Flavor Cigarette

About Alexa Chung : Alexa Chung (born 5 November 1983) is an English television presenter, model and contributing editor at British Vogue. She currently hosts Gonzo with Alexa Chung for MTV UK, and is scheduled to host Thrift America for PBS in 2011. Previously, Chung was the host of MTV's It's On with Alexa Chung. At present, she is the face of Lacoste's "Joy of Pink" fragrance and Superga's Italian sneakers Alexa Chung was born in Privett, Hampshire, England to a half Chinese half English father, Philip, a graphic designer, and her English mother, Gillian (nee Burgess), a housewife.

She has two older brothers, Jamie and Dominic, and one older sister, Natalie. She attended the local comprehensive school, Perins College, and later the sixth form Peter Symonds College, Winchester (2000–2002). She had been accepted by King’s College London to read English, but was scouted by a modelling agency before attending.


9. Alexandra Maria Lara Smoking Cigarette

Celebrity Alexandra Maria Lara Smoking Marlboro Filter Plus One Cigarette

About Alexandra Maria Lara : Alexandra Maria Lara (born Alexandra Platareanu; November 12, 1978) is a Romanian-born German actress. She performs predominantly in leading roles in a variety of historical and crime films. Lara is best known for her roles in Control (2007), Youth Without Youth (2007), Nackt (2002), Downfall (2004), About the Looking for and the Finding of Love (2005), and The Reader (2008). Born in Bucharest, Lara is the only child of Valentin Platareanu, a Bucharest actor, and his wife, Doina, a homemaker. When she was four (in 1983) her family decided to flee to West Germany to escape Nicolae Ceausescu's regime in Communist Romania. Although the family had originally planned to emigrate to Canada, they settled down in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Wurttemberg, before eventually moving to Berlin. After graduating at the Franzosisches Gymnasium Berlin in 1997, Lara went on studying acting under the management of her father, co-founder of the Theaterwerkstatt Charlottenburg, until 2000.


10. Ali Larter Smoking Cigarette

Celebrity Ali Larter Smoking Marlboro MX4 Flavor Cigarette

About Ali Larter : Alison Elizabeth "Ali" Larter (born February 28, 1976) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for playing the dual roles of Niki Sanders and Jessica Sanders on the NBC science fiction drama Heroes as well as her guest roles on several television shows in the 1990s. Larter's screen debut came in the 1999 film Varsity Blues, followed by the horror films House on Haunted Hill and Final Destination as Clear Rivers. Major supporting roles in the comedy Legally Blonde and the romantic comedy A Lot Like Love led her to lead roles as the titular character in Marigold and in the 2009 thriller Obsessed. Larter achieved wider fame after her portrayal of video game heroine Claire Redfield in the successful films, Resident Evil: Extinction and Resident Evil: Afterlife. Larter's presence in the media is reinforced by her appearances in lists compiled by Maxim, FHM and Stuff as well as People magazine's "Best Dressed List" in 2007. After a three year long relationship with actor Hayes MacArthur, the two married in August 2009 and have a son, Theodore Hayes MacArthur, born December 2010.

Thank You For Reading Our Blog, Have A Nice Day And See You On The Next Famous Actress Part !

To be continued..

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