By Ian McCallum Times-Journal Staff Tuesday February 08, 2005
Insisting he was not guilty of a “flip flop,” Mayor Jeff Kohler cast the decisive vote Monday as St. Thomas council approved a motion granting charitable bingo halls an exemption from the city’s bylaw to regulate smoking in public places and work places.
The about-face on the bylaw, due to take effect March 1, followed a 15-minute deputation by Jordan Gnat, president of Boardwalk Gaming and Entertainment Inc., on behalf of St. Thomas Bingo Country.
Kohler was joined by Ald. Bill Aarts, Ald. Cliff Barwick and Ald. Heather Jackson-Chapman in approving the exemption to the bylaw while Ald. Marie Turvey and Ald. David Warden were opposed.
Ald. Terry Shackelton and Ald. Tom Johnston were absent from Monday’s meeting.
Seconds after the recorded vote, staff and volunteers of Bingo Country who packed the public gallery, loudly applauded the outcome.
Gnat petitioned council to grant an exemption to the bingo hall until provincial legislation comes into effect May 31, 2006, or the Municipality of Central Elgin passes a smoking bylaw prior to the provincial enactment.
With the reopening of a bingo facility
in Central Elgin last fall, Gnat argued Bingo Country could potentially lose $2.5 million in revenue over the next 16 months if it was not granted an exemption from the smoking bylaw.
He noted Bingo Country accounts for 44 jobs with an annual payroll approaching $500,000 and each year the facility pays the city more than $240,000 in license fees.
“This is all about 16 months of maintaining parity with Central Elgin,” explained Gnat.
Six months ago a move to grant charitable bingo halls an exemption from the bylaw was defeated on a 4-4 vote with Kohler, Warden, Turvey and Johnston voicing opposition.
But Kohler stressed “I don’t view this as a flip flop” moments before he voted in favour of Barwick’s motion to exempt charitable bingo halls from the bylaw.
“I’m not willing to play a crap game with employment,” stressed Kohler. “I’m not willing to risk rolling the dice and 44 jobs are lost.”
While not willing to grant an exemption last August, Kohler explained the introduction of new information from Gnat had to be taken into consideration.
“This is new information and pointing fingers is not going to solve things tonight.”
“Jobs may be in jeopardy because of unfair competition,” added Barwick.
The exemption prompted Warden to issue a warning to members that other charitable groups “will be knocking at our door” in the weeks to come.
“If you do it for one group then you have to do it for them all. You can’t have one set of rules for one set of people.”

http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/story.php?id=141995

Health implications not considered

By Ian McCallum Times-Journal Staff Wednesday February 09, 2005
A decision by St. Thomas council Monday to grant charitable bingo halls an exemption from the city’s smoking bylaw will result in “a lack of health coverage for some individuals” over the next 16 months, warns the chairman of Smoke-Free St. Thomas-Elgin.
The about-face by council that grants an exemption to St. Thomas Bingo Country until provincial legislation comes into effect May 31, 2006, or the Municipality of Central Elgin passes a smoking bylaw, fails to take into consideration any health implications, argues Laura Wall.
Six months ago a move to grant charitable bingo halls an exemption from the bylaw was defeated on a 4-4 vote with Mayor Jeff Kohler, Ald. David Warden, Ald. Marie Turvey and Ald. Tom Johnston voicing opposition.
Wall told the Times-Journal Tuesday
she was aware council would entertain a deputation from Jordan Gnat, president of Boardwalk Gaming and Entertainment Inc., but the introduction of a resolution granting the exemption was not anticipated.
“We’re so close, we’re three weeks away from the bylaw. Certainly we can read the minutes and know a deputation is coming forward. But we didn’t know there was going to be a resolution right then and there. It’s a non-reflective decision of what the implications will be.”
Warden, who along with Turvey, opposed the motion tabled by Ald. Cliff Barwick warned members other charitable groups “will be knocking at our door” in the weeks to come.
“I certainly hope we’re not opening up the floodgates,” suggested Wall.
“But now that an exemption has been granted there may be some other types of businesses within St. Thomas that say ‘we’re unique, we’re special so let’s put our case through.’ That’s why all along we really urged council to hold the line and not grant exemptions.”
Wall says granting exemptions to area bingo halls is “not common.”
“In Middlesex the one county bingo was exempted from the bylaw for a period of one year. No exemptions were made in London and Woodstock.”
ECONOMICS
In voting for the exemption, Barwick along with Kohler, Ald. Bill Aarts and Ald. Heather Jackson-Chapman stressed the negative economic impact on the city should Bingo Country close due to competition from a recently opened hall in Central Elgin, a municipality which is waiting until provincial legislation is introduced in 16 months.
“But this is a health issue,” counters Wall, “and now we’re going to have these workers who were going to be protected as well as the volunteers that participate to raise funds for their charity that will not have this protection for that period of time. And time makes a difference.”
Wall commends council for drafting the smoking bylaw one year ago but adds, “now they’ve opened up the door.”
“Certainly there were people who were thinking next month they could go to the bingo and help raise funds for local charities without having to come home and put all of their clothes into the wash and perhaps undermine their health.”
Ald. Terry Shackelton and Johnston were absent for the exemption vote. They are expected back Monday when council will vote to amend the smoking bylaw for its March 1 implementation.

http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/story.php?id=142428

Province also will lead the country in education, jobs, government predicts

By ROBERT MATAS Wednesday, February 9, 2005 - Page A7

VICTORIA -- Gordon Campbell's Liberal government unveiled ambitious plans yesterday to have British Columbians eat their spinach.

The government announced in its Speech from the Throne that it wants to turn the province into the healthiest jurisdiction ever to host the Olympics by getting everyone to eat more fruit and vegetables.

British Columbians have the longest life expectancy in Canada and lead the country in cancer treatment and survival rates.

But the government believes it can do better with an initiative called Act Now that promises to be the most comprehensive health-promotion program in North America.

"Without a doubt, we can achieve the great goal of leading North America in healthy living and physical fitness," the government stated in the Throne Speech, read by Lieutenant-Governor Iona Campagnolo.

The government set specific targets: a 20-per-cent increase in the number of British Columbians who are physically active; a 20-per-cent reduction in the proportion of those who are obese or overweight; a 10-per-cent drop in tobacco use and a 20-per-cent increase in those who eat the recommended daily level of fruit and vegetables.

"Through that initiative, all citizens will work with their family doctors, nurse practitioners, community nutritionists and other members of the health-care team to develop personally tailored health plans," the government said. "Those plans will aim at setting achievable personal healthy goals that help individuals measure their progress throughout their lives," Ms. Campagnolo read. "Through these measures, by 2010, B.C. will become the healthiest jurisdiction to ever host the Olympics."

New Democratic Party Leader Carole James questioned how a political party committed to reducing government interference in people's lives would regulate how much produce everyone is eating.

Mr. Campbell told reporters later the initiative was based on a British program. He said he hopes to set an example. "In spite of the smiles and chuckles, this is a critical part of creating a healthy lifestyle for British Columbians," he said.

The fitness initiative was part of one of the most politically infused throne speeches ever delivered in the B.C. Legislature.

With the next provincial election less than 100 days away, the speech sounded more like campaign rhetoric than a map of government policy. Many of the measures will depend on the Liberals' re-election on May 17.

"Everything about this session will be about the election," NDP member Joy MacPhail, who is retiring after three terms, said outside the legislative chambers. "Everything is about getting votes."

Mike Morton, press secretary to the Premier, said the politicians are in pre-election mode. But, he added, the speech is not just promises: Government initiatives have helped turn around the economy, leading to a surplus that lets the government support a variety of programs.

The Liberals, who won 77 of 79 seats four years ago, could face serious challenges in as many as 30 ridings, political scientist Norman Ruff says.

Although more than 15 incumbents -- including prominent cabinet ministers Christy Clark and Gary Collins -- do not intend to run again, the Liberals anticipate a boost from new, high-profile candidates. Party officials are rumoured to be in intense discussions with a Canadian Olympic hero, wrestler Daniel Igali.

In the Throne Speech, the government also promised to launch an "Asia-Pacific gateway strategy" to better market B.C. products.

And it plans a new Asia-Pacific trade council and a network of centres in key international markets to promote products. The program also calls for opening up the Port of Prince Rupert and expanding the Port of Vancouver.

The speech said the future that British Columbians have worked so hard to create is within their grasp: the province leads the country in job-creation; unemployment is the lowest since 1981; and the number of strikes and lockouts is the smallest in more than 30 years. As well, the record surplus means operating debt can be paid down.

The stronger economy is generating new revenues to support social services, the government said.

In addition to the personal-health initiatives, the government promised to make British Columbia the most literate jurisdiction on the continent and to build the best system of support in Canada for persons with disabilities, special needs and children at risk. The government also made a commitment to the best air and water quality and best fisheries management, "bar none." It also promised to create more jobs per capita than anywhere else in Canada.

"Government is again living within its means with balanced budgets and . . . a record surplus," Ms. Campagnolo read. Tax relief is expected in the provincial budget next week.

"Today, we are entering a golden decade for British Columbia," the speech said.

The government promised to hold university fees at the rate of inflation. It also pledged $1.5-billion for upgrades of schools over 15 years, and $150-million for libraries, textbooks, and art and music programs. If the Liberals are re-elected, they promise to give the Michael Smith Foundation $100-million in 2007 for its work in genome-mapping and cancer research. The B.C. Centre for Disease Control would be expanded to become a Pacific Centre.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050209/BCTHRONE09/TPNational/?query=tobacco

By SHAWNA RICHER

Thursday, February 10, 2005

From Thursday's Globe and Mail

Halifax — Under the pitch-black skies of a new moon, Robert Leblanc stepped into a breezeway aboard HMCS Montreal to smoke a cigarette as the frigate steamed across the wintry Baltic Sea.

It was about 11:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday. The 24-year-old leading seaman from Halifax had just got out of bed and was soon to start his shift in the kitchen, but first ducked into the enclosed room off the deck.

"He should have come back into the ship, but that was the last time he was seen," Captain Dave Gardham, Maritime Forces Atlantic acting fleet commander, said yesterday.

For reasons that may never be known, the sailor went outside and ended up overboard in fatally frigid waters. He is presumed drowned. His body has not been recovered.

Yesterday afternoon, the navy, working with its Polish counterpart, called off the search-and-rescue operation after about 20 hours.

Eight ships and five helicopters searched about 50 kilometres off the coast of Gdynia, Poland, yesterday, where HMCS Montreal was on a six-month NATO training exercise.

Capt. Gardham said LS Leblanc has not yet been declared officially dead; ships in the area have been notified to be on the lookout for him in the 1-degree waters.

"Picture yourself in Halifax harbour," Capt. Gardham said of the conditions and chances for survival.

"He was an experienced sailor. . . . It's a dangerous business. Our sailors are trained the best in the world. But accidents do happen. On this specific incident, I can't comment. Do we have people who fall over? Not often."

Military investigators will meet the frigate in Gdynia to interview crew and collect LS Leblanc's belongings. Suicide has not been ruled out, Capt. Gardham said.

The young sailor was unmarried and lived in Halifax. His family is believed to live in Western Canada, but has asked the navy to keep their names and where they live private.

On the night the sailor went overboard, the weather was clear. The temperature was 3. The sea was calm, but the upper decks were icy and the crew was ordered not to venture onto them.

Capt. Gardham said it was unlikely that a sailor with LS Leblanc's experience would have ignored those orders, but that if the sea is calm sailors sometimes "forget."

"He may have just stepped out for a look at the stars," Capt. Gardham said.

LS Leblanc joined the crew of HMCS Montreal in December and set sail on the NATO training exercise from Halifax on Jan. 13. He joined the navy in 2000 and previously served aboard HMCS Iroquois, from which he was transferred.

Sue Stefko, a spokeswoman for the navy, described him as "an experienced sailor."

Someone noticed he was missing shortly after 1 a.m. local time and a head count of the ship's 230 crew was ordered.

"When they still couldn't find him they then conducted the same procedure they go through if we had a bomb threat," Capt. Gardham said.

Crew members were assigned to search quickly and thoroughly every nook and cranny of the ship and mark it off with a taped X once it was checked.

"It's very specific and thorough so there's no possibility that someone could come back and think the place had not been searched," said Lieutenant-Commander Denise LaViolette, a navy spokeswoman. "It's all done very efficiently. We don't dilly-dally. Then they went directly into search-and-rescue mode."

In the 90 minutes since he had last been seen, the ship had travelled about 30 nautical miles. It reversed course and launched its Sea King helicopter. A half-dozen NATO and Polish ships, five additional helicopters and local fishing vessels also searched in vain for the sailor.

In Ottawa, during the usually raucous Question Period yesterday the House of Commons fell silent as Keith Martin, the parliamentary secretary to the Minister of National Defence, informed MPs about the tragedy.

"We extend our profound condolences to the Leblanc family and thank our allies for their efforts in trying to recover him," Dr. Martin said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050210.wxsail0210/BNStory/National/

 London Free Press - Feb 10/05
  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
       As I walked downtown on Monday, enjoying a most welcome reprieve from the frigid temperatures experienced in January, I was absolutely repulsed by the extraordinarily large number of cigarette butts littering our downtown streets and sidewalks.
      I understand it will be my tax dollars that will pay someone to clean up this wide-spread, disgusting mess after the thaw.
      How come there are no outdoor ashtrays available for people to use, since they can no longer stink up the interiors of our public buildings?
      The bus stops are like a nicotine-stained minefield of rotten butts and ashes, assuming you can see where you are walking through the clouds of smoke generated by those waiting for their ride.
      Our downtown is one big smelly ashtray full of wet, sickening butts thrown from thousands of careless smokers' mouths. Eeew!
      I will do my shopping in a clean mall any day.
      Sandra Mason London

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/Letters/

Windsor Star - Feb 10/05
 letter to the editor Thursday, February 10, 2005
I was just reading a letter on banning tobacco and it makes me sick to think that it takes Johnny Carson's passing to get people to start talking.
Smokers should not have to listen to this banter every day of their life. We all know that you have to be 19 to purchase cigarettes and that 19 is considered an adult in Ontario. Smokers do not go around asking non-smokers why they do not smoke, so why do the non-smokers have to say anything to us?
If you do not like the smoke, that is fine because most public places do not allow smoking. Why do you insist on trying to make our decisions for us? We do not ask you to quit anything that you enjoy.
We all know smoking causes cancer and we still choose to smoke, so leave us alone.
C. White Windsor

http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/news/letters/index.html

Letter to the editor - Winnipeg Sun - Feb 11/05
It's estimated that "trans fat" is costing Americans $1.8 billion in medical costs.
Do you think we will have "Health Canada" requiring ugly pictures on packages containing trans fat?
Americans are still laughing on our "government" requiring ugly pictures on our cigarette packages. Maybe our government could exploit this avenue and add taxes on foods containing trans fat in order to "help pay for the burden on our medical costs."
John Heinrichs, Winkler
(Sounds like a natural.)

http://www.winnipegsun.com/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/Letters/

    MONTREAL, Feb. 8 /CNW Telbec/ - Imperial Tobacco Canada will appeal the British Columbia Superior Court of Justice's decision to allow certification of a class action against it in BC.
    During the course of the certification hearing, which began on October 25, 2004 and ended October 29, 2004, Imperial Tobacco Canada arguedthat the allegations in the procedures are not appropriate for certification. The judgement only allows certification - a procedural mechanism that allows the case to proceed. It is in no way a judgement of liability.
    The company also named the federal government as a third party in the suit, arguing that the federal government instigated and authorized the development of lower-tar tobacco products. The federal government actively encouraged Canadian tobacco manufacturers to develop, manufacture, sell and promote low-tar cigarettes in Canada.
    Imperial Tobacco Canada provided the Honourable Justice Satanove with details of the federal governments' involvement in the development of "light" and "mild" tobacco products, including: threatened legislation in 1967 requiring that tar and nicotine levels be printed on cigarette packaging and advertisements; pressuring the manufacturers to promote these products throughout the 1970s; and subsequently encouraging smokers to switch to lower delivery products. Up until mid-2003, Health Canada's Web site (lung cancer section) continued to state: "Switching from non-filter to filter or from   high- to low-tar cigarettes may slightly reduce lung cancer risk".
    "This is a copy-cat suit - an opportunistic attempt to cash-in onAmerican-style litigation that in no way reflects the Canadian reality," said spokesperson for the company, Christina Dona. "Imperial Tobacco Canada will put up a vigorous defense to any action of this kind. In the short term, we plan to have a close look at the judgement before formally filing our appeal."

For further information: Christina Dona, Manager, Media Relations, Imperial Tobacco Canada, (514) 932-6161, ext. 2474, Cellular: (514) 704-8717

http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/February2005/08/c2080.html

ABC13 Eyewitness News By Miya Shay
(02/10/05 - HOUSTON)— The City of Houston is moving closer towards a smoking ban. The mayor has a proposal that specifically lays out where people can and can't smoke.

The proposed ban would not affect bar areas. However, it will affect all Houston restaurants with a dining room. If this proposed ban passes city council – which could take quite a while – there will no longer be smoking in any of the dining areas of Houston restaurants. And that's not all.

Lighting up a cigarette may be something Sal LaGreca enjoys, but he knows it's not popular.

"I think you have to respect other people's views on smoking," he said.

The view from City Hall is that smoking should be banned inside all Houston restaurants.

Restaurant manager Zoi Platsas explained, "We as business owners, we try to accommodate our clients."

Platsas may be worried, but her customers seemed receptive to the idea.

"I like to smoke," admitted Mike Weaver. "But I guess, you know, you have to look out for other people who don't smoke."

If the ordinance passes, dining establishments will have to move all of their ashtrays to bars, because those are the only places that won't be affected. The proposed ban doesn't exempt the light rail stations or city bus stops.

"That's a good thing," concluded one passenger.

These outdoor locations would be smoke-free – an idea some found laughable.

"Especially not outside at a bus stop! Am I the only one that thinks that's weird?" wondered Myrissa Childress.

The final major aspect of the plan would include a ban of smoking in Houston's taxi cabs. It's a noble idea says one cabbie, just not very realistic.

"I think it would be really hard to enforce," said Bill Thomas. "I think it would be a really good social policy, but I don't think the cops should waste their time policing it."

A Houston city council committee will study the proposal during the next week and in the coming weeks you can expect the full city council to take up the issue.

As of January of last year, five states -- California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine and New York -- had smoking bans. Another 72 municipalities including Austin, Dallas, San Antonio, and El Paso also have bans in place.

The Washington State Supreme Court struck down a smoking ban that covered several public places including bars, restaurants and private clubs. The court said the health board which imposed the ban, lacked the authority to do so.

poll: should Houston implement a snoking ban?  57.8% yes 42.1% no  752 votes * this is notr a scientific survey

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/021005_local_smoking.html

(02-07) 10:26 PST Hartford, CT (AP) Monday, February 7, 2005

College researchers are studying whether electric light changes hormone levels in women and makes breast cancer more prevalent in developed countries.

Richard Stevens, a cancer epidemiologist at the University of Connecticut, said there is no scientific consensus on why there is a higher rate of breast cancer in the developed world. He said literature on breast cancer includes many discredited theories on how the environment and lifestyles may contribute to the onset of the disease.

"We knew more about the cause of breast cancer 20 years ago than we do today," Stevens said. "What we do know is that it must have something to do with industrialized society."

Researchers are looking for new explanations, and Stevens and other researchers are focusing on electric light.

Their theory is that prolonged periods of exposure to artificial light disrupt the body's circadian rhythms _ the inner biological clocks honed over thousands of years of evolution to regulate behaviors such as sleep and wakefulness. They are looking into whether that disruption affects levels of hormones such as melatonin and the workings of cellular machinery, and whether it triggers breast cancer.

"Mankind has only been exposed to these light sources for 150 years or so," Stevens said.

So far, the theory is based largely on suggestive, but inconclusive, observational studies. For instance, night-shift workers such as nurses tend to be more prone to develop breast cancer than day-shift workers, and blind women are less likely to have breast cancer than women with sight.

In a recent study, Stevens and scientists at Yale University School of Medicine identified a possible genetic mechanism that could help explain how artificial light could trigger breast cancer. Pre-menopausal women with a variation of a "clock gene," which helps govern the regulation of the body's response to night and day, tend to have a higher risk of cancer.

"I'm not saying this is a cause, but that the evidence shows it is worth investigating," Stevens said.

Scientists believe that environmental and lifestyle factors, not inherited risks, are the cause of nine out of 10 breast cancer cases.

While smoking is linked to lung cancer and the human papillomavirus to cervical cancer, breast cancer researchers are not sure what lifestyle or environmental factors women should worry about.

Antiperspirants and wire bras are included in some widely circulated but largely rejected theories. And in 2003, the National Cancer Institute convened 100 breast cancer experts who concluded there is no evidence that miscarriages or abortions increase the risk of breast cancer.

Yet epidemiologists such as Stevens say other risk factors must exist and they urge that more studies be conducted.

"We absolutely need studies," said Deborah Winn, chief of the clinical and genetic epidemiology research branch of the National Cancer Institute. "If we have those answers, we might have the potential to improve prevention."

Information from: The Hartford Courant,www.ctnow.com/

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article/article?f=/n/a/2005/02/07/national/a102631S10.DTL&type=health

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty Seeks Ban on Cigarettes Infused With Candy Flavors

By BRIAN BAKST Associated Press Writer The Associated Press

ST. PAUL Feb 10, 2005 — Cigarettes infused with lime, vanilla, berry and other candy flavors would be pulled off Minnesota store shelves under a proposed ban by Gov. Tim Pawlenty, who accused the tobacco industry Thursday of marketing the specialty products to teens.

"They are clearly undertaking a marketing campaign to promote and market sweetened and candy-flavored cigarettes as a way to attract new smokers and expand market share among youth in Minnesota," Pawlenty, a Republican, said. "This is a terrible practice by these tobacco companies and it needs to be stopped."

Public health officials in two other states Massachusetts and Michigan have sent letters to cigarette makers asking them to halt sales of the flavored cigarettes. The officials questioned whether such sales violate a 1998 agreement by the tobacco industry not to target their products to young people.

Pawlenty appears to be the first governor to promote an outright ban. The products carry names like "Kuaui Kolada," "Twista Lime" and "Winter Warm Toffee."

"The premise that we market to youth, there's no truth to that," said Fred McConnell, a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, which makes the flavored Camel brand cigarettes singled out by Pawlenty. "We market to adult smokers only."

Although it is illegal to sell cigarettes to minors, Pawlenty said the flavored cigarettes are drawing in teen smokers anyway. Advertisements in Rolling Stone, Cosmopolitan and Glamour magazines have raised the products' profile among young people, he said.

McConnell said R.J. Reynolds only buys ads in magazines with a predominantly adult readership.

Pawlenty cited preliminary data from national youth smoking survey last year as evidence the flavored cigarettes were growing in popularity among teens. The survey of 1,600 smokers between ages 16 and 25 found that 16- and 17-year-olds were two to three times more likely to try the flavored cigarettes than those 20 and older.

A 2004 Minnesota survey found that nearly 27 percent of high school seniors admitted to smoking at least once in a month, as did about 15 percent of freshmen.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=489760

Bar owners and smokers in the city of Columbus are claiming victory Thursday.

Just weeks after the city-wide smoking ban went into effect a petition challenging the law has been certified. If voters approve the new measure, businesses with more than 65% of sales from alcohol, essentially bars, would be exempt from smoking regulations.

Petitioners collected more than 12,000 signatures in favor of reversing parts of the ban, which means the issue again will be decided by voters in early May.

 http://www.onnnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=2932280&nav=LQlCWFG2

By Steve Milloy Friday, February 11, 2005

The United Nations is coming for your booze and it’s starting to fabricate the kind of factoids that the international health nannies will no doubt try to spin into "conventional wisdom."

"The amount of death and disability caused by alcohol globally is similar to that caused by tobacco and high blood pressure," trumpets the media release for a study in last week’s medical journal "The Lancet."

"Overall, four percent of the global burden of disease is attributable to alcohol, 4.1 percent to tobacco and 4.4 percent to high blood pressure. Alcohol is causally related to more than 60 different medical conditions, including breast cancer and coronary heart disease. In most cases, alcohol has a detrimental effect on health," claims the release.

The study authors, from Sweden, Canada and the U.S., claim there’s a "growing contrast between the treatment of alcohol in trade agreements and disputes as an ordinary commodity and the more restrictive treatments of such other commodities as tobacco and pharmaceuticals, which also entail public health risks."

They end their study with a call for a "new international treaty on alcohol control, along the lines of the [United Nations’] Framework Convention on Tobacco Control."

The study’s claims seem largely based on a report from the U.N.’s World Health Organization entitled "World Health Report 2002: Reducing Risks, Promoting Healthy Life" — a document that refers to alcohol consumption and other politically incorrect lifestyle choices as "enemies of health."

But before we fall for the tobacco-ization of alcohol, let’s look a little closer at some of the "analysis" that’s going into the effort to bring about global prohibition.

The claim equating alcohol with tobacco in terms of the "global burden of disease" largely depends on a statistical shenanigan called "attributable risk" that I’ve written about in an earlier FOXNews.com column.

But I will let the U.N. debunk its own calculations in language taken directly from its 2002 report: "Causes [of disease] can add to more than 100 percent. If the scenarios were equally common, 66.6 percent of throat cancer would be attributable to smoking, 33.3 percent to alcohol, 100 percent to genetic causes, and 100 percent to unknown environmental causes, making a total of 300 percent. Causes can, and ideally should, total more than 100 percent; this is an inevitable result of different causes working together to produce the disease, and reflects the extent of our knowledge of disease causation."

So according to the U.N.’s math, we will all get throat cancer. Fortunately for us, however, the U.N. acknowledges that this claim reflects its "knowledge of disease causation" — which, as you can see, is quite impaired. The Lancet study authors claim that the link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer is "clear."

Although linking alcohol intake with breast cancer seems to be a popular scare these days, the data are far from convincing. Study results are conflicting and among those studies that do report a statistical association between alcohol consumption and breast cancer, they typically involve the sorts of weak correlations that aren’t terribly reliable.

Let’s not forget that, other than genetics, no one is quite sure what causes breast cancer. How any of this makes a link between alcohol consumption and breast cancer "clear" is not at all clear to me.

With respect to heart disease, many studies seem to indicate that moderate drinking actually reduces risk. Although the Lancet study authors acknowledge this, they claim that binge drinking increases the risk of stroke or sudden cardiac death. But the data supporting this notion are limited and unimpressive.

No one disputes that over-consumption of alcohol poses health risks, but so is too much of virtually any behavior. If the U.N.’s efforts were limited to combating alcohol abuse, I would not have written this column.

But many in the international anti-alcohol lobby are prohibitionists who apparently feel they need catchy-but-bogus factoids that the anti-tobacco crusaders used to promote anti-tobacco hysteria among the public — for example, "400,000 people die from smoking every year in the U.S." and "3,000 kids start smoking every day," etc.

Finally, I had to laugh at the end of the Lancet study where its authors state, "We declare that we have no conflict of interest."

I suppose that’s true in a world where you can only have a "conflict of interest" if you work for a profit-making entity.

The Lancet authors, however, appear to be heavily imbibing U.N. money — the World Health Organization (part of the U.N.) funded a 2003 study of theirs on alcohol consumption and disease burden published in the journal Addiction. Given the U.N.’s anti-alcohol campaign, isn’t that some sort of conflict of interest?

Steven Milloy publishes JunkScience.com and CSRwatch.com, is adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute, and is the author of Junk Science Judo: Self-defense Against Health Scares and Scams (Cato Institute, 2001).

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,147073,00.html

By Kate Jones 11feb05

MELBOURNE'S leading cancer hospital has built a smoking patio where patients and visitors can light up just metres from the leukemia ward.
The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre spent up to $20,000 in taxpayer funds on the 24-hour designated smoking area, which opens today.

The smokers-only site has ignited controversy in the medical industry and among Peter Mac staff, who treat thousands of patients suffering lung cancer each year.

Hospital workers say that the money could have been better spent on helping Peter Mac's patients.

"They're frustrated they can't get funds for training and essential health services, but the hospital can find money to refurbish for a smoking area," a source said.

The sheltered smoking area is on the second level of the East Melbourne hospital.

A hospital spokeswoman, Anne Rahilly, said the smoking area would stop patients and visitors puffing away near the main entrance.

"Smoking out the front is problematic for us because it can be quite busy out there and some people who come into the hospital don't like cigarette smoke," she said.

But Opposition health spokesman David Davis said the new smoking area only encouraged the potentially fatal habit.

"The direction of policy for the last 40 years has been to restrict smoking, not to make it easier to inhale a deadly product," he said.

Mr Davis said the sight of people smoking at a cancer hospital would upset people.

"Some patients and families may find it offensive to have smoking thrust before them within metres of the leukemia ward," he said.

Health Minister Bronwyn Pike said she expected health services to do everything they could to discourage smoking.

"People only have to step inside a hospital to see the effect that smoking has on them," she said.

Smoking-related illnesses kill 4700 Victorians each year, most from lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the third most common cancer treated at the Peter Mac, which treats more than 191,000 cancer patients each year.

Most of Melbourne's public hospitals have smoking areas, including the Monash Medical Centre, which has 10.

The Alfred has seven smoking sites, Dandenong Hospital five and the Royal Children's, St Vincent's, Frankston and Rosebud have three each.

Most are outdoor areas, well away from wards.

QUIT director Todd Harper said the Peter Mac smokers' patio would protect people from passive smoking.

"Having a smoking area does not mean Peter Mac is encouraging people to smoke - it means they are protecting people from passive smoking," Mr Harper said.

"It's ideal that people don't smoke at all, but the Peter Mac has put in place programs to encourage and support people to quit."

http://www.sundaytimes.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,7034,12215945%255E421,00.html

By Anne Harding Thu Feb 10, 2005 01:58 PM ET

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who aren't infected with Helicobacter pylori have a "markedly increased" risk of developing esophageal cancer, a new study shows. However, the findings don't address the issue of whether or not the bacterium should be eradicated, lead author Dr. Catherine de Martel of Stanford University School of Medicine and her colleagues note.

"It's a bad bug, but what we show in this study is that it's not a bad bug in everybody, and perhaps we have to be careful and think a little bit more before we try to treat everybody," de Martel told Reuters Health.

Some research has found a negative association between H. pylori and gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and while H. pylori infection is declining in the developed world, esophageal cancer is on the rise, de Martel and her team note in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.

Researchers have suggested that H. pylori may decrease gastric acidity in some people with the infection, thereby reducing the risk of reflux disease and esophageal cancer, de Martel's group notes.

To investigate the association further, they conducted a study of 128,992 health system members who had undergone a health checkup during the 1960s.

During follow-up, which lasted from 5 to 35 years, 52 patients developed esophageal cancer. These 52 patients were matched to three control patients without cancer, and serum samples that had been collected at the checkup were evaluated for antibodies to H. pylori.

The risk of developing esophageal cancer during the follow-up period was 80 percent lower in H. pylori-positive subjects compared with those who were not carriers, the researches found. The effect was only statistically significant among individuals who were younger than 50 at the time of the check-up, and was not influenced by cigarette smoking or body mass index, other esophageal cancer risk factors.

While this study is not the first to link esophageal cancer to the absence of H. pylori infection, de Martel told Reuters Health, "what is new is the fact that this study has a very strong methodology; it's a big cohort, and they have been followed prospectively."

"H. pylori is one of myriad organisms that chronically inhabit the human body, but this single organism may simultaneously increase the risk of development of ulcers, gastric cancer and gastric lymphoma and decrease the risk of development of esophageal (cancer) and GERD," the authors conclude.

They believe future studies and cost-benefit analyzes "will ultimately identify the healthiest balance between humans and H. pylori."

SOURCE: The Journal of Infectious Diseases, March 1, 2005.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=7597563

The governor's office of Medicaid filed suit in Jackson County on Thursday asking a judge to give it $20 million now going annually to a Mississippi anti-smoking program.

Former Attorney General Mike Moore, chairman of the Partnership for a Healthy Mississippi and whose 1994 lawsuit against the tobacco industry led to the program, said the legal challenge will fail.

The suit was filed in the chancery court where the diversion of funds from the historic tobacco settlement was approved in 2000.

Medicaid executive director Dr. Warren Jones called the diversion of funds "unconstitutional.''

"The original intention of the tobacco settlement was to recoup Medicaid dollars for the state,'' Jones said in a statement. "We believe this motion will ultimately allow the Legislature to fulfill that intention.''

Moore, in a telephone interview, told The Associated Press that he was assured by legislative leaders earlier this week that they supported the Partnership programs.

In a letter to those leaders - including Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck and House Speaker Billy McCoy - Moore said if lawmakers had a better idea what to do with the $20 million he would listen.

"If the legislative leadership came to me and said `we want to do this a different way,' we'd do it a different way,'' Moore told the AP.

The Partnership is a private, nonprofit group that aims its anti-tobacco message at teenagers and preteens. Moore has repeatedly described the programs as an integral part of the multibillion dollars settlement with the cigarette industry.

Gov. Haley Barbour wants the $20 million to go to the state's struggling Medicaid program, which is $268 million in the hole for the year ending June 30.

At the Capitol Thursday, Barbour cited a 2003 report by the Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review. PEER said courts don't have the authority to order how public money is spent.

"This suit filed today is fulfilling what the PEER Committee said should be done long before I was governor but that was not done,'' Barbour told The Associated Press.

"Because the order, as the PEER Committee report makes plain, is in violation of state law and of the constitution.''

Moore said the Partnership money woudl not impact the large deficit in Medicaid.

"This fight is not about Medicaid,'' Moore said. "If it was, he would have a plan to solve the $268 million deficit.

"It's a shame Gov. Barbour wants to destroy the number one tobacco prevention program in America,'' Moore said. "This is one of those penny wise and pound foolish mistakes the governor is making. He will lose in court.''

Jones said the money can be better used to help Medicaid participants and continue the anti-smoking efforts.

Moore has said the Partnership is helping reduce smoking among young people which, in turn, will save Medicaid hundreds of millions of dollars in the future.

Moore was the first state attorney general in the nation to sue tobacco companies to recover public costs of treating sick smokers.

Mississippi settled its case in 1997 and was projected to receive about $4 billion over the first 25 years, with payments continuing as long as tobacco companies exist.

Part of the settlement included payment of $61.8 million from tobacco companies for anti-smoking programs aimed at Mississippians under 18.

That money was to last for two years and was used to establish the Partnership. All other settlement payments went to the state, and legislators in 1999 established a health care trust fund for the tobacco settlement money.

In December 2000, as the initial $61.8 million for the Partnership was running out, Moore went to Jackson County Chancery Court and received an order taking the $20 million a year from the state's settlement payments and directing it to the Partnership.

Moore said Thursday that he went to court in 2000 after legislative leaders supported continuation of the Partnership's work.

In its court documents, Medicaid officials contend the 2000 court order violated the terms of the tobacco settlement, violates a state law that requires all tobacco installment payments to go to the health care trust fund and was judicial encroachment on the Legislature's authority to appropriate money.

http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=2931730

By Rebecca Cook The Associated Press

OLYMPIA — The Washington State Supreme Court struck down Pierce County's smoking ban today.

The ban was the strictest in the state, covering bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, casinos, hotels, private clubs and most other nontribal businesses.

The Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health imposed the ban in January of last year, but three weeks later it was overturned by Pierce County Superior Court Judge Ronald E. Culpepper, who said the agency lacked the authority to enact it.

The state Supreme Court agreed, saying the health board's smoking ban conflicted with the state law. The state's less restrictive Clean Indoor Air Act prohibits smoking in most public places, but exempts restaurants, bars, bowling alleys and casinos.

"The (health board's) resolution, by imposing a complete smoking ban, prohibits what is permitted by state law: the ability of certain business owners and lessees to designate smoking and nonsmoking locations in their establishments," Justice Charles Johnson wrote in the unanimous opinion.

"I'm so happy!" said Janis Johnson, owner of the Pegasus Restaurant in Tacoma, where smoking is permitted. She said she ran through the restaurant telling everyone "we won!" when she heard the news.

"This has been a long, hard-fought battle," said Johnson. "They did the right thing."

The smoking ban was challenged in court by the Entertainment Industry Coalition, representing businesses where smoking is allowed. The high court denied the coalition's request for attorneys' fees from the Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health, because it said the health board's defense was rational and not frivolous.

Two bills in the Legislature this year would expand the state's clean air act. One would ban smoking anywhere minors are allowed, including restaurants but excluding bars; the other would mimic the Pierce County ban and prohibit smoking in all indoor public places statewide. Gov. Christine Gregoire said this week she will sign either one, though the less-restrictive ban stands a better chance of passing.

The Supreme Court case is Entertainment Industry Coalition v. Tacoma-Pierce Co. Bd. of Health, No. 75675-9.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002176216_websmokingban10.html

 City Councilman Michael Nutter is again standing up for your health.

By: Edward J. Vassallo 02/10/2005

      If it finds nine like-minded champions for clean lungs, Nutter's bill to ban smoking in every workplace, public or private, with at least two employees will become law and the danger of dying from second-hand smoke will be cut in Philadelphia.
      The proposed law, which Mayor Street supports, will be felt mostly at restaurants and corner bars where patrons hole up to swig a cold Bud and drift into nicotine-induced serenity.
      Nutter and Street are worried that what you're inhaling voluntarily is sickening the nonsmoking bartender and his servers.
      Though the employers of these establishments choose to work in an environment they know is smoky- many barkeeps pay tuition to learn the business of dispensing spirits- our lawmakers are frightened by a statistic that 40,000 people per year die from inhaling smoke from those who choose a more perilous lifestyle.
      While that statistic has been disputed for its dubious methodology, Nutter believes it's better to err on the side of health no matter the costs.
      We all know smoking is a deadly, disgusting habit. Your clothes smell and hands yellow as the poisonous drugs fill your lungs. Few nonsmokers select a restaurant's smoking section if given a choice. And in tight spaces necessary for transit (elevators, airplanes) smoking is so intrusive that nonsmokers' air space should be protected by law.
      What concerns us is what we call the "tobacco-shop exclusion." So not to shut down the city's cigar lounges, businesses that earn more than 15 percent of gross revenue from tobacco are excluded from the ban.
      If the danger is so great, how can Nutter allow such an exception? Shouldn't delivery people or mail carriers who enter these shops be protected, too? Are they second-class citizens? What about the nonsmoking son or daughter who works for the family tobacco business?
      We recommend that exception be eliminated.
      We have another concern. The smoking ban will no doubt lead some to kick the habit. According to an American Medical Association report, those who quit smoking can expect to add 10 pounds as Milky Ways replace Camels. Here's the scary part: US Health Department stats show 400,000 people die each year from poor diets and excessive weight. That's 17 percent of all deaths in the country, while tobacco claims 18.1 percent.
      Unless the bill is amended to block smokers from replacing cigarettes with chocolate, candy and potato chips, the Nutter bill could inadvertently cause some poor soul to devour one caramel chunk too many, clog that one working artery, and join the expired 400,000.
      Council must address this. One unnecessary caramel-related death is one too many.
      Has Nutter considered the tragic side effects of deprived smokers driving in an agitated state of tobacco-withdrawal? Motor vehicle accidents alone claim 43,000 lives a year. One unnecessary highway death caused by nicotine-withdraw is one too many. The city should block ex-smokers from getting behind the wheel until they can prove the tobacco monkey is off their backs.
      That brings us to air conditions and heaters. Since tobacco is banned from most work places now, smokers who want to engage in their legal activity must stand outside in both 100-degree and subfreezing temperatures. This will only increase under Nutter's bill.
      How can the city issue fans during heat waves and chase the homeless inside during cold snaps, then allow smokers to face hypothermia and heat-stroke?
      The must issue tax credits to employers who provide temperature-controlled outdoor smoking facilities for workers. One unnecessary case of tobacco-related frostbite is one too many.
      Did we mention the revenue lost to suburban bars and restaurants that allow puffing? How about the cost of new health inspectors? We'll need dozens to check all the local taverns for ashtrays and cigarette-burned table tops and carpeting, all evidence of an uncooperative restaurant owner.
      We applaud City Council for looking out for our health and urge they continue rescuing us from all questionable health threats, no matter how flimsy the evidence or costly the solution.
      It's always better to err on the side of hysteria.

http://www.newsgleaner.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13933755&BRD=2340&PAG=461&dept_id=488595&rfi=6

LAST September, the American government's huge lawsuit against big tobacco firms finally went to trial. The government accused the firms of a conspiracy to hide the risks of smoking, and wanted them to hand over a staggering $280 billion in “ill-gotten” gains. Barely five months later, the government's chances of imposing this draconian punishment look slim.

On February 4th, a federal appeals-court panel ruled that the government will not be allowed to get its paws on the firms' profits. The ruling, if it sticks, takes the sting out of the lawsuit, which is proceeding in a lower court. It leaves only the possibility of milder sanctions—perhaps forcing the firms to cover smokers' quitting costs or to submit to yet more restrictions on marketing. Tobacco shares soared on the news. But the government, which declared war on tobacco under President Bill Clinton and has spent $135m so far waging it, may appeal the decision by the three-judge panel to the full appeals court, where it has a decent chance of winning a reversal.

Meanwhile, the broader legal war against tobacco continues. The industry is anxiously awaiting the Florida Supreme Court's ruling on whether it will reinstate a $145 billion verdict won by more than 700,000 sick Florida smokers in the Engle case. History is on big tobacco's side: courts have taken a dim view of these basic personal-injury cases cloaked as class actions. The appeals court that threw out the Engle verdict in 2003 also said that the plaintiffs had no business suing as a class.

Philip Morris is fretting over the Illinois State Supreme Court's pending ruling on its appeal in another case. The plaintiffs used a novel tack that won them a $10.1 billion verdict in 2003. These smokers, instead of suing for harm done to their health, claim that Philip Morris duped them into believing that its more expensive “light” brands were healthier than its regular ones. If they had known better, say the smokers, they would have saved their pennies. The firm needs the support of four out of five judges to reverse the ruling.

Light-cigarette cases of various sorts are proliferating—the current fashionable threat to the tobacco industry. Tobacco firms are being blamed for failing to give warning to smokers that they might unwittingly be taking deeper drags or blocking the ventilation holes with their fingers while smoking these low-tar cigarettes. And, in contrast to basic personal-injury tobacco lawsuits, the courts seem more open to allowing these cases to proceed as class actions.

Two more new waves of litigation are coming, says Bill Farone, a former Philip Morris executive who now testifies often against the industry. Now that the technology for fire-safe cigarettes exists, people are suing when cigarettes start fires. Second-hand-smoke lawsuits, too, are likely to mean big trouble for tobacco firms as other litigants follow the lead of some Florida air-stewardesses, who finally wrangled payment from the industry last year. It may prove hard for tobacco firms to argue convincingly that plaintiffs should have known about the risks of smoking when they never took one puff on a cigarette.

http://www.economist.com/business/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3651721

Bar, tavern layoffs: Is it the NHL effect? -ON

By JOHN PARTRIDGE AND KEITH MCARTHUR Saturday, February 5, 2005 - Page A2

The National Hockey League players lockout has forced Montreal sports bar owner Ziggy Eichenbaum to turn some of his employees into statistics.

Mr. Eichenbaum had to lay off two of 10 workers because business is down about 25 per cent. The rest of the staff at Ziggy's Pub on Crescent Street near the Bell Centre are working shorter days.

Game nights used to bring 20,000 people downtown. "Now you can take a bowling ball and throw it down Crescent Street on a Monday night and not hit anybody," he said yesterday as supposedly last-ditch talks in New York between National Hockey League owners and their locked-out players ended, apparently without progress.

The latest stalemate came as Statistics Canada unveiled a little more evidence that what might be called an "NHL effect" is taking at least a small toll on the economy, beyond lost salaries for the players and lost advertising revenues.

In reporting the unexpected net loss of 5,700 jobs across the country during January, Statscan suggested yesterday that the silence in NHL rinks may be behind a drop in employment in tavern and bars. When Labatt Brewing Co. Ltd. announced plans in December to cut 20 per cent of its white-collar work force -- 240 jobs -- it partly blamed slumping sales at bars and restaurants, which are also suffering the impact of smoking bans.

Worse is likely to come. Hostelries that cater to a hockey clientele say the biggest hit will be if and when the playoffs are cancelled.

Just before Christmas, Statscan estimated that the hockey freeze was costing the economy about $17-million a month, from ticket and souvenir sales and broadcast revenue. If the entire season is lost, the gross domestic product could be reduced by about $170-million.

"There definitely is an 'NHL effect' " said economist Avery Shenfield of CIBC World Markets, but "what you never know is to what extent it's offset by additional spending on other items," he said.

"What you don't see is whether the guy who would have spent Saturday night at a bar watching the hockey game is instead spending more money on a Valentine's Day present for the wife."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050205/NHLEFFECT05/TPNational/

Bars are finding creative ways to dodge the smoking ban, and the city is not amused
By LUMA MUHTADIE  Saturday, February 5, 2005 - Page M1

A subtle, street-level sign declared the party at Bird to be private. But passersby who strolled into the College Street lounge bar on Wednesday night were definitely welcome to pull up a seat, order a drink and do something that's now forbidden in most Toronto bars: light up a smoke.

Patrons of the small space above Xacutti restaurant were exempt from the city's non-smoking bylaw because the space had been rented out for what was described as a private function -- one of the strategies bar owners are adopting to enable drinkers with a penchant for nicotine to indulge their habit without having to step out into the cold.

"I didn't realize places like this existed," said Gail MacKenzie, exhaling a plume of smoke.

"But I'm happy that they do."

They may not for much longer, however. Public officials say they're concerned about bars blurring the line between commercial establishments and private clubs, and their growing frustration with loose interpretations of the city bylaw is driving them to crack down.

Evasion tactics range from the artful to the downright audacious: Some are offering membership cards, others are willing to risk their patrons' safety by locking their doors to the general public.

But Rob Colvin, manager of healthy environments and the man responsible for overseeing the enforcement of the smoking bylaw, says most of these attempts to dodge the ban won't pass enforcement officers' scrutiny.

"A private club is run by a non-profit corporation and has to demonstrate that it has a purpose," says Mr. Colvin.

"They need to show that they have regular meetings. And they can't advertise or communicate to the public."

Bird owner Brad Moore doesn't classify his venue as a private club, "because we're not. And that would get me into trouble as far as harassment with inspectors."

But he says the hosts who rent his space out for the night (at a minimum cost of $500 an hour) are free to set the parameters of privacy for their events.

"It's used for private functions on a regular basis," he says. "Sometimes they have a guest list with security at the door. Sometimes they're not so concerned about who comes in and who comes out -- there are so many different rules or considerations for each party."

As for bylaw-enforcement officers' opinion of what goes on in his bar, Mr. Moore is resolute. "These guys come in here like whipper-snappers with attitudes. I'm simply a business operator trying to make a dollar.

"If you're suffocating people, that's not good, but if I'm spending $40,000 on a ventilation system, I don't see why I can't offer a service to someone."

Mr. Colvin says the courts are taking a serious view of non-compliance and have been issuing probation orders and summonses with hefty fines. They can even go as far as ordering a venue's closure or jail time for the offender.

Still, a handful of creative club owners remain undeterred.

The Cloak and Dagger on College sells $10 annual membership cards to its so-called Society of Free Thinkers. These laminated photo IDs bear a digital headshot of the cardholder (taken on the spot) alongside a graphic of Einstein -- and they're all you need to get in on Mellow Mondays and smoke your face off.

Then there's Chalker's Pub Billiards & Bistro, on Marlee Avenue in North York, which bills itself as the headquarters for the non-profit Cosmopolitan Multicultural Society.

Members of the society pay a $5 annual fee to earn the privilege of sparking up inside.

Only the society's board of directors is obliged to sit through meetings, owner Steve Greco explains. He's the manager of the board, which has 24 other members.

"There are a lot of clubs out there that aren't legitimate private clubs, but we're following all the laws -- we have a charter and everything," Mr. Greco says.

And he's prepared to defend this stance in court: Mr. Greco's lawyer is poised to challenge two tickets his client received for smoking violations that could cost up to $5,000 for each infraction.

But counterfeit private clubs are still a rare exception, Mr. Colvin says, noting that compliance with the bylaw has hovered steadily around 97 per cent -- even during the bone-chilling month of January.

It's a sign that bars and patrons are slowly adjusting to the city's new ways, he says.

So much so, in fact, that "private clubs" have become unappealing to some smokers.

"I won't go to them," says Chris Rolfe, while savouring the last drags of his cigarette outside a downtown bar.

"I don't like sitting inside smoky bars any more."

He says he's already cut his habit down from half a pack to three cigarettes a day.

"If I was allowed to smoke indoors, I'd have one going all the time."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050205/SMOKERS05/TPEntertainment/?query=smoking

Wednesday, February 02, 2005 -
Investigators trying to crack a rash of convenience store thefts are seeing a family resemblance among the crimes.

Crime Stoppers along with 55 and 13 Division Major Crime units need the public's help in tracking down a band of thieves that span several generations.

The group were caught on tape.

At each store, five to 10 people, some of them young children, enter the shop all at once, fanning out through the aisles and bringing items one at a time to the counter.

Several suspects distract the owner at the front counter while others make their way into the storage area at the back of the store.

While the storeowner is busy serving the suspects at the front counter, the suspects at the rear removed a quantity of cigarettes, money and jewellery, concealing it on them or in large bags.

In one of the incidents, a woman carrying an infant stood watch at the rear of the store. In another incident, two small children began playing in front of the counter, creating a commotion.

The suspects then all leave the store at once.

This group has stolen approximately $58,000 in cigarettes, cash, computer equipment and jewellery. At one location they removed the victims safe from the living quarters above the store.

If you have information about the identity of these people, call 55 Division Major Crime at 416-808-5506 or at 416-808-1306. If you want to remain anonymous and earn a cash reward, call Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477)

All in the Family bandits

http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1505&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

CBC News WebPosted Feb 5 2005 09:50 AM NST

ST. JOHN'S  —  The group representing most of the bars and taverns in the province has lost its fight to postpone public hearings on the government's proposed smoking ban.

The Beverage Industry Association applied to the Supreme Court asking for a delay so that a thorough economic analysis of the impact of the ban can be completed.

The provincial government intends to pass legislation this spring that will extend its ban on smoking in public places to include bars, clubs and bingo halls.

Public hearings started this week in Gander, and will conclude Feb. 16 in St. John's.

Marcel Etheridge, president of the Beverage Industry Association, says the government appears to have its mind made up, without assessing the full impact of a ban will bring.

"We are very disappointed, but we're not giving up," says president Marcel Etheridge.

The association may appeal judge David Russell's decision, which was handed down Friday afternoon.

"The timeframe is very, very narrow," Etheridge says.

"You cannot do a social impact study of this industry which is very, very large, which is worth millions of dollars, in a couple of months. It's unrealistic."

Describing many of his members as "ma and pa" operations in rural areas, Etheridge believes numerous clubs will close if they lose regular customers who smoke.

"They're doing it to [our industry], because I guess we're easy to pick on."

Don Burrage, the Crown attorney who fought the application on behalf of government, argued the association has many ways to voice its opposition beyond the public hearings.

Meanwhile, the Beverage Industry Association has another application before the courts, which argues the entire public hearing process is flawed.

http://stjohns.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=nf-clubs-smoking-20050205

    WHITE ROCK, BC, Jan. 21 /CNW/ - Public Health Inspectors in Saskatchewan are an integral part of the Public Health Professional team in your 
communities. Possessing a unique skill-set, Public Health Inspectors are on the front-lines of Public Health ensuring safe drinking water, safe food and protection from exposure to communicable diseases to name a few of the program responsibilities.
    One of the threats to Public Health in Canada today is the use of tobacco products and the exposure to tobacco smoke. 45,000 Canadians die each year as a result of tobacco related illness. As part of an overall Tobacco Reduction Strategy, many communities are introducing legislation to protect the public from exposure to tobacco smoke in public places. It has also been shown that smokers are more likely to attempt to quit in communities where smoking in public places is restricted.
    Public Health Inspectors are responsible for the enforcement of such legislation. Every effort is made to educate business operators on the associated health risks of tobacco smoke exposure and the need to protect the public.
    The vast majority of the business community will understand their responsibility and operate their businesses accordingly however, there are a small percentage of business operators who refuse to acknowledge this responsibility and will challenge legislation.
    These business operators and the sensationalized headlines they provoke do capture the media and the public's attention. The sober reality of the devastation caused by tobacco use in this country seems to be lost, as does the important role of Public Health Inspectors in protecting your community's health.
    The Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors proudly supports Public Health Inspectors in Saskatchewan and urges the citizens of Saskatchewan to stand behind these Environmental Public Health Professionals and look beyond the "smoke screen" of sensationalized headlines.

For further information: Claudia Kurzac, President, Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors, Phone: (604) 714-5683

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/January2005/21/c5901.html

Encouraging every other smoker to give up the habit and make healthy choices is one role the provincial government does and should take on, Fonseca insists.

Fonseca, parliamentary assistant to Health Minister George Smitherman, says Ontario intends to enact the toughest non-smoking laws this side of California because it's in everyone's best interests.

"I'd love to see the day where nobody smokes in Ontario," Fonseca said during a stop in London yesterday.

He said that doesn't extend to banning cigarettes outright. But it does mean that as of May 2006, Ontarians should have enough carrots and sticks to encourage them to stop smoking and penalize them if they do.

The tough non-smoking bill is in the legislature and is expected to pass third reading this spring.

It will replace a patchwork of local bylaws with a provincewide ban on smoking in workplaces, including bars and entertainment areas.

Some critics have said the bill is intrusive and harmful to many businesses.

But Fonseca said smoking costs the province's health system $1.7 billion a year and eats up $2.6 billion in productivity.

"The umbrella to this is a healthy Ontario and healthy Ontarians," said Fonseca, who was an Olympic marathoner in 1996.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2005/02/04/919840-sun.html

Love him or hate him, our premier was absolutely bang on with his decision to allow Albertans to decide if a provincewide smoking ban in all public places was right for them.
I ventured out Monday to try to determine if prohibiting smoking would indeed be a death sentence for local watering holes. In a word, according to managers across the city: Nope.
It seems bar managers have resigned themselves to the fact a smoking ban is likely to be put into place, but they aren’t worried about how it will affect their bottom line in the long term.
Some even welcomed the idea.
Customers who smoke, of course, voiced their displeasure with the concept, but said as long as the public is left to decide the issue, they would comply.
ALREADY A HAPPY COMPROMISE
Don Cherry’s manager Brian Simms believes a happy compromise has already been achieved by not allowing smoking in establishments where minors under the age of 18 can be served.
“For a lot of businesses I think, if they were to go to full non-smoking, they would lose a nice few patrons,” Simms said. “Basically (people) want to be able to go out to their favourite place and have a few drinks – they don’t really want to be getting up and going outside every time they want to have a cigarette.”
What is in place now works well for Don Cherry’s because patrons who visit the establishment can do so with their families and not have to worry about second-hand smoke; but if they feel the urge to have a quick puff during their meal, they can simply step into the lounge.
“The setup they have now is a great setup,” said Simms, who agreed customers would eventually learn to accept to an all-encompassing smoking ban.
Red Deer resident Denis Lacroix, 42, said he simply would not frequent any drinking establishment where he was not allowed to smoke.
“They are pushing it too far, where they are trying to make (everywhere) smoke-free, but yet it is a legal substance – because there is good tax money in it,” said Lacroix. “Do you have to make laws about everything?”
While he agrees with not being allowed to smoke in places where children are allowed, prohibiting smoking in establishments that only allow adults is going overboard, he said.
His advice to non-smokers bothered by second-hand smoke was that they can always choose not to put themselves in that environment.
The same goes for those who choose to work where people can smoke, but complain about the effects it has on them physically, he said.
“Government should stay out of it. I’m sure (this place) would be out of business if you couldn’t smoke in here,” he said.
Maddhatters Liquid Lounge manager Mike Lilge would wholeheartedly welcome a full smoking ban in bars.
“I think it would be a great idea,” he said. “I wake up in the morning and it’s just gross. I don’t smoke, but I would rather be smoking than having (to deal with) the second-hand smoke.”
He estimated that about 70 per cent of the people that visit Maddhatters smoke.
“It would be bad for business initially. I think it would (make a lot of business owners angry), but it’s just a matter of adapting.”
Marcel Blais, general manager of Hammerhead Bar and Grill said he thinks it’s only a matter of time before a smoking ban for all public places is implemented.
But what he has seen – Hammerhead is part of a chain in other provinces that have all-encompassing bans – is that business drops off for about the first month.
“People will keep going out. They will modify their lifestyle. They will boycott at first but they usually will come back,” said Blais.n“The ban will come into place for all public places,” he said. “I don’t know when, but it will happen.”
Although customer Gavin Granoien said he would not have come to Hammerhead Monday if he weren’t allowed to smoke he would accept a smoking ban, as long as it wasn’t unilaterally imposed by the province.
He just wouldn’t stay in the bar as long, he said.
“It should be up to the establishment owners and the adults. Let them decide. If most of Grande Prairie wants to say no, then I will abide by that, but if it is one person is saying no to the rest, then I don’t agree with that,” said Granoien.
“It would slow me down,” he said. “Because then I could be going home (to smoke), or I would step out for one and then be going home.”
There you have it. About as clear as a smoke-filled bar, wouldn’t you say?
http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/1bottomline.lasso

Debora Van Brenk, Free Press Reporter 2005-02-05 03:27:43

The road to the nearest cigarette counter is paved with your best intentions. You wanted to quit by the start of the year but didn't.

Then came Stop Smoking Week and you really meant to butt out. But the furnace conked out and your boss handed you new duties. Who could quit at a time like that?

Now, with each puff, a nagging cramp in your gut says you don't want to smoke anymore. But that twitch in your fingers betrays your resolve.

You're not alone.

About 20 per cent of Southwestern Ontarians still smoke, and half of those will seriously consider quitting this year.

The incentives to butt out are growing: the price of some smokes is about $8.75 a pack; places where smokers can puff are becoming increasingly scarce; and now Ontario is eyeing one of North America's toughest anti-smoking laws.

Most ex-smokers try, and fail five times before they quit.

Starting today, a Free Press series -- consider it more a how-to than a why-to -- looks at kicking the habit.

IT DARN NEAR KILLED HER.

In 1997, after 58 years of puffing, great-grandmother Clara Brown stopped smoking.

Cold turkey.

"For three days I lived on hot water, soda biscuits and aspirin," she says.

Then, when she finally heeded husband Bill's pleas to get medical help, she spent nine days in the hospital intensive care unit in nearby Seaforth.

She was fed intravenously and needed regular gulps from an oxygen mask. She lost 15 pounds from her petite frame.

Hers is the kind of story that churns the stomachs of veteran smokers.

Given a choice, Brown says she wouldn't quit that way again. "It's godawful on your system."

Experts say the success rate for people who try to quit cold turkey -- without extra help such as the patch or medication or counselling -- is an abysmal five per cent the first time around.

But Brown beat the odds; she is still smoke-free.

And her story lends credence to those who say it's possible to quit on your own, and at any age.

She was 16 when her boyfriend Bill, now her husband, gave her her first puff on a cigarette. Bill had started a few years earlier, with dried-up chestnut leaves rolled in newspapers.

"I tried it. I liked it and I never stopped," Brown says.

Cigarettes at the time were 36 cents a pack.

The habit continued for both of them.

Their three kids grew up and had kids and grandkids of their own.

Then, about 15 years ago, Bill quit. It wasn't as tough as he thought it would be.

"I did hit the peppermints for a while. My tongue felt like a gravel road and somebody had run a truck over it,"he says.

Clara kept puffing, although rarely in front of the kids. But her young great-granddaughter's ill health made her think.

"I didn't want to take a chance on losing any of them."

So she quit -- part-way through the carton of cigarettes Bill had given her, as he did every December, as a Christmas gift.

She recalls her grandson visiting her in hospital in tears because of her concern for his daughter's health.

And, even though Clara still keeps ashtrays in the house for visitors, she's determined to stay smoke-free. For good.

"I never had that desire to go back," she says.

LEGAL FIREPOWER

New laws, higher taxes.

That's how the Ontario government wants to pull you into the non-smoking majority, with some of North America's toughest no-smoking rules.

Tobacco taxes were recently jacked up $1.25 a carton, raising the per-package price by 16 cents to about $8.75.

But the province isn't just putting the cash squeeze on smokers: It's also cutting down their dwindling elbow room

Queen's Park is promising a sweeping new law to curb smoking, severely restricting where people can smoke and how tobacco can be advertised, and hiking fines for any violations.

The provincial law, expected to take effect May 31, 2006, will override the patchwork of municipal no-smoking bylaws across the province that have crowded smokers out of most workplaces and into increasingly smaller public places.

The province says its coming crackdown will:

- Ban smoking in all workplaces and many public places, including private clubs, restaurants, bars and enclosed, outdoor patios. Many eateries, including some in London, went to great expense building outdoor smoking areas to get around the city's own no-smoking rules.

- Ban smoking at sports and entertainment venues, casinos, bingos and halls.

- Do away with designated smoking rooms, though some residential care facilities could have controlled smoking areas.

- Allow hotels to set aside some rooms for smoking customers.

- Ban smoking in home-based day cares when children are present.

- Allow home health-care workers to ask that no one smoke in their presence and to leave if smokers don't comply.

- Enforce a nine-metre smoking ban around hospital doorways, though that won't extend to other buildings.

- Ban tobacco promotion at entertainment venues.

- Ban store cigarette displays, a move the industry is fighting in the Supreme Court of Canada over a similar law in Saskatchewan.

- Hold store owners liable if an employee sells tobacco to customers under 19.

- Hike minimum fines for violating the law, with new rates of up to $1,000 -- five times the existing minimum.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/News/2005/02/05/921244-sun.html

Letter to Editor February 7/05

TO THE sanctimonious hypocrites currently attacking smokers: Most of the pollution in the air we breathe comes from carpets, furniture, plastics, industry and auto exhaust. Cruelly forcing smokers into the cold and rain and snow is the latest form of vicious social apartheid and is not fit behaviour for anyone of conscience or professing of Christian beliefs. You should be very ashamed.
R. Jarvis
(Smokers are being squeezed out.)
-----------------------------------------------
WHY IS everyone getting all worked up about the smoking ban? Don't you realize that soon you'll be able to light up anywhere? If the police try to arrest you, you can tell them it's marijuana, not tobacco. That  way, what you're doing will be legal.
G. McLean
(Zing!)

http://canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/Letters/

February 7/05

Regarding the column, Farmers should have seen it coming (Jan. 29):
Perhaps Ian Gillespie would develop some empathy if the government added $6 of tax to each issue of The London Free Press while turning a blind eye to smuggled newspapers.
What if Canadian newspapers were held to the highest standards in the world while foreign newspapers were imported into this country without inspection? Could you could compete on a playing field that has been tilted by our own government?
Health Canada and the domestic tobacco companies told farmers to "invest for the future" in 2001 by retrofitting their kilns to eliminate nitrosamines. The average tobacco farmer is $400,000 in debt, largely due to the kiln conversion project. As soon as the project was complete, cigarette taxes were raised and Imperial Tobacco Ltd. started importing large quantities of foreign tobacco of such poor quality it could not legally be offered for sale by a Canadian producer.
The tobacco statements made by Rob Cunningham are an assortment of old statistics, incompetent opinions and twisted facts. It's strange how the anti-smoking groups' estimates of the damage of smoking always rise to stay ahead of the revenues generated by cigarette taxes.

Ontario tobacco growers have three problems:
1. Imperial's imported garbage tobacco.
2. smuggled/bootleg tobacco.
3. broken government promises.
There is no grand ball, Mr. Gillespie. You are welcome to attend the foreclosure auctions.
John Stewart
Eden

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/Letters/

EDMONTON - The majority of Albertans favour a workplace smoking ban, according to a survey commissioned by

an anti-smoking group.

The Ipsos-Reid poll of 800 Albertans found that overall, 68 per cent would like to see smoking banned anywhere people work, including restaurants, bars, casinos and bingo halls.

The survey, paid for by the Campaign for a Smoke-Free Alberta, should help Premier Ralph Klein make up his mind on the issue, the group's spokesman said.

"He stated he would like to see a full public consultation on this issue, and even suggested we may see provincial legislation this spring," Les Hagen said. "This gives him more ammunition to do that."

Health Minister Iris Evans is working on provincial smoking legislation, which should be in front of the standing policy committee by the end of February and could be ready for a vote in the legislature by April.

" From Jan. 26, 2004: Legislature COULD VOTE ON SMOKING BILL BY April

Evans had initially proposed a province-wide ban, but eased off after Klein made it clear he doesn't support the move. While the premier believes steps should be taken to discourage people from starting to smoke, he opposes forcing bars and casinos to ban the habit

He says individual municipalities should make the decision about whether to permit smoking in their communities. However, the Alberta Association of Urban Municipalities has asked the province to make a rule that everyone would have to abide by.

The poll was conducted between Jan. 20 and Jan. 25, and is considered accurate to within +/- 3.5 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

http://edmonton.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=ed-smoking-poll20050207

POSTED AT 5:23 PM Monday, February 7

A new poll shows the majority of Albertans want a province wide ban on smoking in public places.

And support may be strongest in Calgary.

The Ipsos Reid survey says 70% of Calgarians want smokers to butt out in public places.

That compares with 67% per cent of Edmontonians polled.

Support in the rest of the province is at 65%.

Calgary isn't scheduled to start a smoking ban until January 2008.

Alderman Diane Colley-Urquhart may use the new survey to try to convince her colleagues to move that date forward.

She says other members of city council should sit up and take notice that Calgarians don't want to wait 3 years.

Colley-Urquhart admits this issue will likely have to wait until after the Ward 10 byelection on February 28th.

http://www.cfcn.ca/servlet/RTGAMArticleHTMLTemplate/B/20050207/smoking?brand=generic&hub=&tf=CFCNPlus/generic/hubs/frontpage.html&cf=CFCNPlus

/generic/hubs/frontpage.cfg&slug=smoking&date=20050207&archive=CFCNPlus&ad_page_name=&nav=home&subnav=fullstory

High Canadian dollar harms export opportunities

By Patrick Brennan Times-Journal Staff Wednesday February 02, 2005

AYLMER -- Tobacco growers got some mixed messages from the president of the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Grower’s Association on the coming season, at their winter meeting Tuesday.
Fred Neukamm told about 50 growers that while the prospects for the 2005 crop are the same as last year, the challenges facing the industry in Ontario are getting worse, not better.
“We have delivered a top-quality crop and yet conditions on our market continue to fall far short or our expectations,” Neukamm said to growers at the Saxonia Hall.
A Canadian dollar with a higher value and the failure of Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government to honour a promise for $50 million in funding are just some of the issues Ontario growers are facing, he said.
The latest projections for the 2005 crop are that growers will be expected to deliver approximately 50 million pounds, plus or minus, Neukamm said. Of that, 18 to 25 million pounds will go to Imperial Tobacco.
On the export scene, Neukamm said that while China is seen as a strong potential market, the strength of the Canadian dollar is a factor.
Add to that black market activity and two increases in tobacco taxes, totalling $6.25 a carton by the Ontario government since it took power.
TAKES AIM
Neukamm took aim at Ontario Agriculture Minister Steve Peters, MPP for Elgin-Middlesex-London, for delaying the $50 million promised to growers.
“Although we have been assured by both the premier’s office and that of Minister Peters that ‘they are working on a program,’ there is definitely cause for concern regarding both the delivery and structure of a program,” Neukamm said. “You’ve all heard from Minister Peters in the media -- he says the money is coming. These are the same messages we’re hearing in our discussions and we have spent countless hours at Queen’s Park and at constituency offices pushing our case to anyone who would listen.”
Neukamm summed up the frustration farmers are experiencing.
“We are tired of empty promises and lectures about tobacco use -- it’s long past time for governments to be responsible and accountable and contribute enough dollars to help relieve some of the chaos it creates,” he said.
Neukamm said Ontario growers had invested time in studying the U.S. buyout offered to certain tobacco farmers as to how it affects world markets and what a grower would receive.
“Circumstances for tobacco growers in Ontario are extremely fragile,” Neukamm said. “We are involved with discussions with customers and with governments that will set our future course as an industry.”
Neukamm said the long-term goal for the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Grower’s Marketing Board is to come up with an industry solution that stabilizes farming, and a long-term exit plan.
As long as Canadians continue to consume tobacco, it should be made from leaf grown in Southwestern Ontario, he said. Neukamm reminded growers the board needs their solidarity to avoid others exploiting any divisions.

http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/story.php?id=140966

Veronica Rhodes The Leader-Post Thursday, February 03, 2005 
 Despite firm legislative action to stop smoking in all public places, a government-run casino has an indoor smoking room for its employees.

Bill Davies, spokesperson for Casino Regina, said there is currently a smoking room for employees at the gaming institution, but it is in the process of being phased out.

The casino has a policy that floor employees can't leave the building in their uniforms, even to have a cigarette. Davies said changes will be made in an "orderly fashion" -- the policy will soon be revised and then the smoking room will be shut down.

Since December, employees have known the room would be closed, which Davies said would happen "in the near future."

Establishments are not in violation of the Tobacco Control Amendment Act by having a smoking room for employees, as long as the room is in an area restricted from the public.

But government policy states that smoking is not allowed in any government building.

Health Minister John Nilson said he had no idea the casino had a smoking room until recently.

"I didn't know about this one until it was told to us in the last couple weeks. As far as I know, there aren't other ones," said Nilson.

Rumours have been flying that a smoking room exists in the Saskatchewan Legislative Building, with news of the room even being published in a weekly newspaper recently.

But Nadine Sisk, spokesperson for Saskatchewan Property Management Corp. (SPMC) said there is no smoking room in the home of the provincial government.

Nilson said the casino did not exist when the government policy was instituted in 1994. Recently, operators of the casino raised some questions about whether it was indeed a government building, despite being owned by the province.

"I guess they didn't realize the policy applied to them. So practically, they are correcting that issue that has been identified," said Nilson.

The minister did not believe the casino smoking room should cast any doubt on the province's commitment to the smoking ban.

"Our legislation around smoke-free public places is very clear and it speaks to public places and will continue to do that," he said.

Nilson said an Occupational Health and Safety committee is currently reviewing the issue of smoking in the workplace, among other policies.

http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/news/story.html?id=cbc77460-5aaf-4750-b147-4b9c76226a1e

Tiffany Mayer - SIMCOE REFORMER Friday February 04, 2005

Simcoe Reformer — Tobacco farmers have been given every indication so far that they can expect a repeat of last year’s crop size for 2005.
That message was delivered by Fred Neukamm, chair of the Ontario Flue-Cured Tobacco Growers Marketing Board, at the growers annual winter meeting in Delhi yesterday.
After two days of crop size negotiations, Neukamm told hundreds of growers that industry and manufacturing stakeholders have indicated their need for domestic leaf will stay at about 50 million pounds for 2005. Exporters have also expressed interest in maintaining their levels in the 35 to 40 million pound range.
Producers grew 87.9 million pounds of leaf in 2004 for domestic and foreign markets.
“Although just meeting last year’s crop size is not our objective, these indications are a far cry from some of the rumoured doomsday scenarios being thrown around on the warehouse floor this winter,” Neukamm said.
Rumours circulating within the tobacco community suggested the crop size could be as low as 60 million pounds. Crop sizes have been dramatically reduced as more Canadian smokers quit the habit and cigarette companies increasingly turn to cheaper imports to meet remaining demand. The Canadian tobacco crop has been virtually cut in half in the past seven years, dropping from 151 million pounds in 1998 to just under 88 million last year.
Neukamm said the board pushed stakeholders to provide information early about this year’s crop after negotiations in 2004 dragged on into late May when many growers had planted a crop without knowing what to expect. That was because Imperial Tobacco refused to accept a concession package from growers that would make domestic leaf more appealing for the cigarette company to purchase.
Despite the early indications, Neukamm isn’t expecting negotiations to be easy.
“These negotiations will be an uphill climb. None of what I’m reporting to you today has been finalized. However, we felt it was important to get a preliminary indication out to the farmers as soon as possible,” he said.
Negotiating price will be the next step in the process as the “nitty gritty of negotiations” begin.
Neukamm also reassured the crowd that the board is doing what it can to secure government funding for growers wishing to leave the industry while maintaining production for those who wish to continue growing leaf.
“Farmers, we are tired of empty promises and lectures about tobacco use. It’s long past time for governments to be responsible and accountable and contribute enough dollars to help relieve some of the chaos that it continues to create,” he said.
But governments aren’t the only ones stirring up potential troubles for tobacco growers. Wednesday, a group of producers refused to leave a closed-door portion of a tobacco board meeting about crop negotiations. The growers’ lack of co-operation forced the cancellation of the meeting
Tobacco board meetings were opened to producers last month, but the board stipulated at the time that there would still be issues that required closed sessions. Meetings involving appeals, human resources and negotiations are not open to the public.
Incidents, such as those Wednesday, make it difficult for the board to function, Neukamm said. They also represent a lack of respect for the electoral process and the bodies governing that process.
Joe Barzo, a tobacco grower from Tillsonburg, said farmers should be supporting the board, not working against it.
“I’m quite satisfied that they’re approaching every possible avenue. They’re fighting an uphill battle with government,” Barzo explained.
He also expressed relief at having some idea about crop sizes so early in negotiations. However, Barzo is still not happy with the prospects for this year’s growing season.
“I’d like to see (crop size) get bigger but I don’t think it will. I don’t know how long we can continue growing with the amount of tobacco we grow now,” he said. “It’s hard to stay in business.”

http://simcoereformer.ca/story.php?id=141483

Letters to the Editor re: bus driver charged in smoking Violation Jan31/04
A Thunder Bay bus driver was fined 60$ and lost a day's  wages for the crime of smoking a cigarette ("First smoking ticket issued." Feb 1)  He was apprehended due to an anonymous phone call made to public authorities. 
Think about it!
Frank Zaniol
Niagra Falls, Ont.

http://www.chroniclejournal.com/

IAN SWANSON SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR
SCOTLAND’S smoking ban is set to cost an initial 2300 jobs, force nearly 150 pubs to close and rob the Chancellor of £59 million a year in tax revenue, a new report claims.
A study commissioned by the licensed trade says the ban would also see turnover drop by £105m and annual profits slump by £86m.
The figures will fuel controversy over the impact of the Scottish Executive’s ban on smoking in enclosed public places, including pubs and restaurants, which is due to be introduced in just over a year.
The Scottish Licensed Trade Association will present its analysis of the costs involved to MSPs next week.
And the Scottish Parliament’s finance committee will also hear evidence from local authorities estimating the cost of implementing the ban at £6m a year. The assessment by the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities includes £403,000 for implementing the ban in Edinburgh and £75,000 for West Lothian.
In a written submission to the committee, the SLTA argues that pubs not serving food should be exempt from the ban, in line with proposals south of the Border. It urges a phased approach and claims the economic effects of an outright ban have not yet been fully considered.
Official research released by the Executive at the time the Bill was published claimed the effect of the smoking ban on the hospitality trade could be anything from a loss of £104m a year to a gain of £137m a year.
But the SLTA says the study was "incomplete, irrelevant and rushed". And it claims: "Independent research suggests the financial impact will be far greater than stated."
A study commissioned from the Centre for Economics and Business Research concludes that once a ban is introduced the annual turnover in the licensed trade would decline by £105m, annual profits in licensed premises may decline by £86m and employment could be expected to decline by 2300 jobs initially. About 142 average-sized licensed premises may close as a result of decreased trade and the Exchequer could lose out on a total of £59m in annual tax revenues from Scotland.
Alistair Don, president of the Scottish Licensed Trade Association, said the hospitality industry in Scotland employed around 200,000 people. "The Executive doesn’t appear to want to look at the financial implications. There are jobs at risk, not just in the licensed trade but all the ancillary trades."
He added that the eventual job loss total could be ten times the 2300 expected to go when the ban is first introduced. "Ireland has already lost 7500 jobs since their ban was introduced in March 2004 - and that’s government figures."
The Cosla submission to the committee highlights the costs councils will incur in recruiting new wardens, training staff and councillors, publicising the ban and even extra street cleaning because they expect there to be more discarded cigarette ends.
Cosla calculates the start-up costs for introducing the ban in April 2006 and the first year of implementing it will be £6m.
The Executive has said it will make some cash available to local authorities to help ease the financial burden of implementing the ban. But Cosla said: "There are concerns the Executive will fund enforcement for an initial period and funding will then decrease, with revenue consequences for councils."
An Executive spokesman said no decision had yet been made on what funding would be available. He added: "We will be discussing the financial implications with Cosla shortly."

http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=138622005

A report by the British Medical Association's Tobacco Control Resource Centre describes the success of such anti-smoking laws in other countries.

Ireland has seen drops in cigarette sales and the US state California has reported fewer lung cancers.

But pro-smoking groups called evidence for passive smoking deaths a "myth".

Partial measures don't work Dr Vivienne Nathanson from the BMA

In the recent White Paper on Public Health for England, Health Secretary John Reid announced plans for a partial ban smoking in enclosed public places.

For example, while pubs that serve food would have to enforce a ban, other pubs would not.

The BMA says this is insufficient and doomed to fail.

Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA's head of science and ethics, said: "I hope John Reid listens to these doctors' testimonies.

"These doctors are telling us that partial measures don't work.

"It's time for the UK Government to play fair, and protect everyone from exposure to second-hand smoke at work."

But a Department of Health spokeswoman said: "As John Reid has made clear, we need to strike a balance between the rights of those who want to be protected against the harmful effects of other people's smoke and the rights of those who choose to smoke.

"That is why we are taking action to deliver a big increase in the number of smoke-free pubs and restaurants in places where food is served while ensuring that people who still want to smoke in the pub can still do so."

Smoke-free law

According to the Californian Medical Association, lung cancer rates have fallen six times faster in California than in US states without smoke-free laws since 1998.

In Ireland, cigarette sales fell by almost 16% in the first six months of the ban, according to the Irish Medical Organisation.

Others oppose an outright ban.

Simon Clark, director of the smokers' lobby group FOREST, said: "The idea that people are dying in their hundreds or even thousands from passive smoking is a myth based on estimates, calculations and statistics which are in turn based on extremely dubious research.

"The evidence falls far short of justifying a total ban on smoking in every public place.

"Most people want no-smoking offices to be the norm, but in pubs, clubs and bars there is clear support for a choice of smoking and no-smoking areas and better ventilation."

BMA chairman, Mr James Johnson, said: "Powerful vested interests peddle myths that smoke-free legislation is unnecessary.

"They say that it is unworkable, unpopular, and will lead to economic ruin.

"Such predictions are little more than scaremongering. The evidence shows that smoke-free laws save lives."

He said if all UK workplaces were smoke-free, the tobacco multinationals would lose an estimated £310 million in sales every year.

Ian Willmore, from ASH, said: "A comprehensive end to smoking in work places and enclosed public places is essential to protect the health of non-smokers and encourage smokers to quit."

The evidence falls far short of justifying a total ban on smoking in every public place Simon Clark, director of the smokers' lobby group FOREST

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4244233.stm

Lori Dougovito

New legislation is being drafted by State Senator Virg Bernero, legislation that would make it illegal for an employer to fire employees for engaging in legal activities, like smoking, outside of the workplace.

It stems from Okemos based Weyco Inc. banning smoking. In January Weyco began giving mandatory smoking tests, if an employee tests positive then they're fired. Four female employees say they were fired, Weyco says they signed a waiver admitting they were smokers in turn dismissing themselves from the company. Three employees admit signing the waiver, one says she did not.

Bernero hopes to have the legislation introduced in a few weeks.

http://www.wilx.com/news/headlines/1238657.html

Okemos, Michigan. Feb. 7, 2005 — Four women who were fired from their jobs because they wouldn't quit smoking - are fighting back tonight.

The women worked at Weyco Incorporated in Okemos, Michigan. In November of 2003, their employer told everyone they had to quit smoking -and submit to nicotine tests, or else risk losing their jobs. The policy went into effect last month and four women were fired.

They say it's not a matter of health care, or insurance costs like Weyco says.They say it's infringing on their rights. So - they've enlisted the help of a state senator, (State Senator Virg Bernero/(D) MICHIGAN) who wants to make a law to prevent this from happening again. Weyco says, on its web site, the company would not fire anyone because of their weight. Either way, Bernero says he plans to introduce his legislation in the next few weeks.

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/2705-smokingfired.html

Ordinance Covers 'Public Places,' Enclosed Workplaces

February 4, 2005

INDIANAPOLIS -- City-county council members will again consider a ban on smoking in public places -- including restaurants and bars -- and enclosed workplaces in Marion County.

Council President Steve Talley said the proposal will be introduced on Monday. A similar proposal was killed in a council committee in November 2003.

The new proposal, which was shown to the news media Friday, defines a pub