Smoking ban issue not so simple

Canada's worst: Mrs. McGuinty's Nanny State whacks Ontario -ON

Terence Corcoran Financial PostSaturday, March 12, 2005

The government's most draconian initiative so far is the greenbelt around Toronto, a 700,000-hectare noose around the city that blocks all development over an area roughly the size of Prince Edward Island. Pandering to environmental activists, the province produced legislation that gives it absolute development control over every car dealership and farm property within the area. Pol Pot marched Cambodians out into the country. The McGuinty government hopes to lock them up in the city.

As for the property rights of people and companies that own land within the greenbelt, forget it. Paragraph 19(2) of the Greenbelt Act says that "No costs, compensation or damages are owing or payable to any person and no remedy, including but not limited to a remedy in contract, restitution, tort or trust, is available to any person in connection with anything" in the act. One developer alone says the greenbelt act has stripped up of land values of approximately $240-million.

Property rights not being a right in Canada, Ontario just might get away with such a massive confiscation of land without compensation. Compounding matters is a provision that no development decisions by the government are open to appeal to any court or agency. Mrs. McGuinty rules, absolutely.

Also looming over the province is the massive and incoherent restructuring of the electric power industry. The provincial energy board yesterday unveiled its plan to control prices for power throughout the province. Rates will go up for all consumers, depending on how much electricity they use. The objective is "to make sure the prices consumers pay for electricity better reflect the price paid to generators."

Instead of letting prices actually reflect generators' costs, the government has imposed a bizarre set of controlled prices that will be adjusted from time to time. And, in typical nanny mode, it will set prices at different levels depending on the time of day and time of year. Nothing wrong with matching prices with supply and demand, but Mrs. McGuinty has decided to manipulate price to allow people to use more electricity during winter than summer. Another plan is to put a "smart meter" into every home so that consumers can adjust consumption.

The trouble with the smart meters is that they will be hooked up to a dumb generating and distribution system. Especially dumb is the province's plan to shut down coal plants by 2007. Nobody expects that to happen, but the province has yet to notify voters that another election promise is dead.

There is much more. We didn't get to the looming budget deficits; the ethanol subsidies; the vindictive harassment of the private owners of Highway 407; the breached promises to the restaurant industry on tobacco regulation; labour legislation; a new environment law. When you're dealing with Canada's Worst government, the end is unlikely to be near.

Here is how airspace is using your tax money and donations.  Has a lovely taste of money with only 3 people viewing it.  Where a guy dress like a grim reaper gets paid to walk around a a campus etc. for an hour with his own photographer, They don't have to worry about an entourage, no one thinks their using money wisely right Robert ?  ( or is that grim) lol 
Lets use the money where the real fight is in the courts!  Shouldn't the lawyers get some of your wages?? 
Oh yes, I  forgot it's for the children.    Such a good, make work project.  I want your job so I can feel like I'm propagating hate crimes.  After all the first thing you doing propaganda, is take the human element out, by using cartoons and death figures.  After all taking  the people out is the first step, to make any hate crime useable. 

 http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/columnists/story.html?id=bc6650b2-9d0a-4127-866e-312231ca0d31&page=1

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Where there's smoke

By JOE WARMINGTON -- For the Toronto Sun Sat, March 12, 2005

This town was smoking last night. The way things are for smokers these days that's a news flash.

Now, we all know Premier Dalton McGuinty, Health Minister George Smitherman and the rest of those clean-livers in government were probably not out enjoying a pint and a smoke last night but there are people who still do that.

Yes, a lot of us who derive our livelihoods from the night were wondering when the heck smokers would finally mount a fight against the Goliath that is the non-smoking movement.

Even the pit bull people have put up a heck of a battle for A-G Michael Bryant. But with the smoking ban -- and upcoming legislation to take it even further -- Smitherman has been sleeping easy with virtually no vocal opposition.

Until now.

Yes, let the Scrawler report there is an underground revolution underway and it held its first meeting last night.

Dubbed the Rock'n'Rally, 200 people for a more common sense approach to handling smoking in public places gathered at the terrific Hollywood On The Queensway club.

"It is a grassroots campaign," said Nancy Daigneault, president of mychoice.ca, an "online smokers' rights group" which has 15,000 signatures.

The idea is merely to allow the continuation of smoking rooms and some dignity for those who enjoy, or are addicted to, a perfectly legal product.

"Smokers feel like second-class citizens," said Daigneault, a non-smoker by the way, who admitted the website is funded by the tobacco lobby.

Enjoying a butt in the glassed-in smoking lounge at the Hollywood, Owen Bailey and Maggie Balson say it's not fair. And don't forget bartenders like Karen Sorc and Mel Cramb who live off tips.

Also, don't forget places like the Hollywood played by the rules and invested in these smoking rooms, as did the owners at Doolys' 2,500 square-foot pool room in Woodbridge, which general manager Jordan Robbins tells me is the largest in the GTA.

Now, as I have said before, I don't smoke cigarettes but do enjoy a fine cigar -- something very difficult to do anymore.

My friend Sonia Nolan at Habanos on The Beach, where I buy my cigars, was saying that with the new rules -- and the hockey lockout -- it has been an extremely tough winter for business.

Of course, nobody is turning away their tax contributions.

The problem I have with such strict rules is it's killing Toronto's nightlife. Many of the pubs and bars are struggling. No one knows that more than veteran Toronto rocker Rick Jennings of the band Southbound, who performed at the rally. "We are losing gigs," he said. "It's insanity."

Like so many in the pubs, he's wondering where the non-smokers are.

"They were supposed to come out in droves and beat down the doors," he laughs. "The doors are still intact."

If it keeps up like this, he wonders if he might die of starvation or "die of pneumonia before I ever die of cancer."

Well, whether you smoke or not, have a smokin' weekend yourself. Scrawler out.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Toronto/Joe_Warmington/2005/03/12/958010.html

 

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ATTENTION DALTON McGuinty and the Fiberal government:  -ON

My name is Allan Boynton and I'm a 22-year-old rural kid whose family has farmed for generations, previously in the Gormerly (Oak Ridges) area and now west of Orangeville in a place called Marsville.

How do you expect me to seriously look at farming as a future when your party offers nothing in return?

It's time you started listening to rural people that have fed you and your cabinet your whole lives instead of taking something away we take pride in.

Listen to the farmers and show some respect to the people that put you in office. I will make it my life-long goal to make sure lying, deceiving and incompetent people like you are never back in office -- and I look forward to electing John Tory in the by-election because he took the time to listen to me and my family.

Allan Boynton

Marsville

(Disappointing Dalton and his gang seem to be making a lot of enemies)

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

 

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Border city in smoking dispute

LEO PARE, SUN MEDIA

LLOYDMINSTER -- On the Saskatchewan side of this border city, you can't smoke in bars or restaurants. Across town in Alberta, it's still permissible. Amid vocal demands for a level playing field, city councillors in Lloydminster are considering a city-wide bylaw forcing patrons to butt out.

"It's a bit of a standoff," said Milton Wakefield, MLA for the Saskatchewan side.

Wakefield supports the smoking ban in his province but lobbied unsuccessfully for an exception to protect local businesses in Lloydminster.

"Overall, I think it's only a matter of time before smoking bans are implemented every-where," he said.

At a recent council meeting, Mayor Ken Baker said the city believes provincial governments should be responsible for smoking legislation, but if Alberta rejects the idea of a provincial ban, Lloydminster will be forced to do something.

A committee consulting with businesses could discuss the issue as early as March 14, but it's unclear exactly what will be achieved in the short term, said Coun. Duff Stewart.

City officials had asked to be exempted from Saskatchewan's smoking legislation when it took effect Jan. 1, but the province turned them down.

A recent letter from the Prairie North Health Region urged council to reconsider a city-wide bylaw on smoking, a recommendation the city has rejected twice.

"Council hasn't said anything new since the last time we talked about this," Baker said. "From time to time, people can change their mind, and I'm not suggesting (council) will or won't. I'm just saying we haven't dealt with smoking for probably a month."

Seann Brenan, who owns and operates Cheers Restaurant and Lounge on the Saskatchewan side of town with his wife, Bev, said his place has seen a significant decline in business since the smoking legislation came into effect.

"We talked to the city about this before, but basically the city didn't want anything to do with it because then they have to start policing it and that sort of stuff," Brenan said.

"We tried to tell (the Saskatchewan government): 'You have to have an exception to the rule here because this is ludicrous.' "

Brenan is anxious to see results from the city's committee. "The mayor has really been trying to get us a level playing field."

Since the Saskatchewan smoking legislation took effect, Brenan said Cheers has had three visits from health officials.

He was issued one warning after they found ashes in a beer bottle on their second visit.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/News/2005/03/11/957265-sun.html

 

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Bill would ban the butt in bars -AB

By PAULA OGONOSKI Today staff and The Canadian Press Tuesday March 08, 2005

Fort McMurray Today — A local anti-smoking advocate said she is content with a new smoking bill which proposes to bar cigarettes in all workplaces throughout the province.
“It’s certainly different than we had anticipated. From the initial information there was going to be provisions with smoking rooms. This looks very different. It completely bans smoking in the workplace which is very positive,” said Kathy McKenna, chairwoman of the Wood Buffalo Tobacco Reduction Coalition. “I think we should strive to protect people who do not chose to smoke, whether it’s a minor or an adult in the workplace.”
McKenna said she isn’t sure if the bill will pass but the province has come a long way.
“We can only hope. When you look at where we’ve come over the years, we’ve progressed to protect people from tobacco. But we need to continue to strive to make bigger steps. Just think of how much we’ve come along in even recognizing how harmful second hand smoke is.”
Montana’s general manager Lee Laverdiere said he isn’t concerned a provincewide law would hurt business but it would certainly restrict people’s options.
“I don’t think it would affect us too much if everyone had to be anti-smoking, but it’s nice to have the choice of which atmosphere you wish to be in. We’ll deal with it if it comes,” he said.
A rookie member of the legislature introduced anti-smoking legislation Monday that would ban smoking on the job or in public places across Alberta.
But the proposed law from Dave Rodney, a Calgary member of the legislature, is a private member’s bill, which means its passage is uncertain unless the government decides to throw its weight behind the tough new anti-smoking measures.
‘‘We’re doing it for all the right reasons,’’ Rodney told a throng of reporters outside the assembly after he introduced his bill. ‘‘We want to do great things and we just have to set up the strategy to do exactly that.’’
Bill 201 would ban smoking in the workplace as well as bars, restaurants, public buildings and public vehicles including buses and taxis. The only exceptions would be designated smoking rooms in hotels and group homes with smoking rooms.
Traditional aboriginal ceremonies involving tobacco would also be exempt. But there is no provision for designated smoking rooms, which some media had reported was included in earlier drafts of the bill.
Rodney has faced some difficult challenges, including climbing Mount Everest twice, but concedes this anti-smoking bill is one of his toughest.
‘‘Climbing Everest was an amazing struggle. I have seen it’s exactly the same in politics. We have incredibly lofty goals,’’ he said.
On Monday, Premier Ralph Klein said that butting out where minors are present is a must but taking the ban any further must be left to Alberta’s communities.
‘‘I would like to see a law that enforces a ban wherever children are ... but to also have a notwithstanding clause that would allow municipalities to go further if they want to,’’ Klein said in Calgary.
The premier added the law should be enforceable, and he wondered how it’s possible to force an 80-year-old man who has enjoyed a smoke and a beer for decades to now change his ways?
But Health Minister Iris Evans said ‘‘I think it’s clear that it’s going to be a debate, and that’s what the premier promised.’’

http://www.fortmcmurraytoday.com/story.php?id=147593

 

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TOBACCO FREE COUNTERS CLAIM BY MANUFACTURER ABOUT DISPLAYS -ON

 A letter March 7/05 from Christina Dona, manager of media relations with Imperial Tobacco Co. questioned Tobacco Free's Out of Sight, Out of Mind campaign which seeks to put a spotlight on the role of in-stores point of sale tobacco advertising in recruiting teens to become smokers.
 Ms. Dona asserts that tobacco in-store advertising, complete with stand alone cigarettes displays at children's eye level next to the candy are aimed at solely at adults.
 A California study looked at Grade 6 to 8 students who visited convenience stores once a week or more. After controlling for social factors, these primary students were 58 per cent more likely to become future smokers, an influence that ranks on the same level as having a parent as a smoker.
 The Point of Purchase Advertising Institutes has found that more than 60 per cent of tobacco purchases are impulse buys, despite the addictiveness of tobacco. This is not surprising given that 20 per cent of smokers are occasional smokers , including almost 40 per cent of adolescent  smokers.
 In addition Health Canada has found a large majority of daily smokers-- 70 per cent--are trying to quit. Furthermore, Health Canada confirms that the average number of cigarettes smoked daily(by daily smokers) is highly volatile.
 There are numerous references in internal tobacco company documents about the importance of impulse purchases to total tobacco sales: BAT, the International parent company of Imperial Tobacco says, "Many impulse sales are lost when stock is not available or cannot easily be seen or  reached."
 The industry knows the importance of power walls in sparking impulse purchases, that's why in 2003 they paid 88 million to retailers to put cigarettes under are noses.
 The experiences of pharmacies shows that remove tobacco advertising will not hurt retailers. The available space will be taken by other companies that will pay to stock their products in the prime spaces.
 It is a weak argument that tobacco companies need wall to wall advertising to persuade adult smokers to change brands. Apart those smokers who solely based on price, adult smokers are remarkably faithful to the brand that they first started with. Brand switching tends  to occur only in the last two years of a person's smoking carrer as they mentally gear up to quit.
 Putting cigarettes under the counter or covering up the power wall of packages will not stop adults smokers from asking for their brand. It will protect our youth when corner store tobacco advertising is out of "sight and out of mind."

   Dr. Jim Morris Chairperson, Tobacco Free Thunder Bay

www.tbsource.com

 

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Texas-style pokes takes hold in N.B. -NB

Bar owners risk losing licences and VLTs in high-stakes gamble

BY SARAH MCGINNIS SPECIAL REPORT As published on page A1/A6 on March 12, 2005
A 20-something woman, with long blonde hair and a silvery-grey blouse, shuffles playing cards then fans the deck out on a casino-style table. She flicks a blue and white card to each of the seven baseball cap-wearing men seated near her, then makes the rounds again.
Dealing stops abruptly and players, including the young woman, glance at their two cards. Most barely lift them from the red felt tabletop before placing them back down. The game begins.
This is Texas Hold'em poker, a seven-card game that's popping up in New Brunswick pool halls and bars. Players try to make the best hand from five communal cards and two they hold. Bets are high and bluffing is a must, a heady combination that is enticing hundreds of players across the province. But, the game could be turning local businesses into miniature casinos, as bar and pool hall owners install poker tables next to video lottery machines.
Poker is hot. Any night of the week Saint John card players can be dealt into a public game, and on Wednesdays and Sundays there are at least three separate tournaments in the city to choose from. The same is true for many other New Brunswick communities.
Participants aren't just after a night's entertainment or bragging rights, they're playing for cash. Most tournaments include a $35 fee to play for the night. Usually $5 goes to the business hosting the game and $7 is set aside for an end of season tournament, where upwards of $10,000 in trips to Las Vegas and cash are at stake. The remainder, $500 or more, is reserved for the top few players who, at night's end, have captured the most poker chips.
This week Fredericton Police announced they're ready to take action on such games. Texas Hold'em poker tournaments are illegal. Businesses hosting them could lose their liquor licences, VLT machines and face possible jail time if caught. Those that don't face empty bars or pool halls and plummeting profits as customers head next door for poker.
Last summer, Saint John pool hall owner Jeff Kennedy noticed that some of his regulars weren't showing up anymore. Those who warmed the well-worn barstools of J. K. Corner Pocket seemed to talk about one thing, poker. Texas Hold'em tournaments are being held at pool halls across the city and all over Fredericton, they told him.
Mr. Kennedy recognized that poker could be a great way to bring in folks on slow evenings. His competitors attracted 30, 40 or 50 players any night of the week. With the smoking ban looming and profits expected to drop because of it, last September Mr. Kennedy started holding poker games of his own.
"I built the tables myself," he explains, holding up one of four octagonal table tops, complete with green felt covers, wooden rims and drink and poker chip holders. He invested more than $1,000 to build them. He also removed a stage and re-tiled the floor in the far corner of his pool hall for poker games.
Initially, things went marvelously. He wasn't getting the same numbers as established tournaments, but every Wednesday night and Sunday afternoon Mr. Kennedy had 20 or 30 people show up eager to play cards.
Trouble started when a liquor inspector noticed a poker and pool poster on the wall. He removed the poster and left. Mr. Kennedy's staff alerted him. So, he called another liquor inspector. He was told Texas Hold'em tournaments are illegal, and if he held them in his licensed establishment, Mr. Kennedy could have difficulty getting his liquor licence renewed. That wasn't all. Mr. Kennedy was informed someone had filed a complaint against his games, and the liquor inspector told the Atlantic Lottery Corporation. A letter followed six weeks later, with the lottery corporation threatening to pull his five VLTs if the tournaments didn't stop.
"They're not bothering anyone else, why are they bothering me?" he said, sitting on the green leather couch located where his poker tables once sat. "I'm taking a hit because of Texas Hold'em now. Customers who were always in my establishment aren't anymore because of the poker frenzy, and they're going to go where the action is."
The Atlantic Lottery Corporation has no problem with Texas Hold'em poker tournaments, so long as they're legal, said spokesman Robert Bourgeois. With ESPN and TSN airing professional poker tournaments and home games being sold at department stores, Texas Hold'em has grabbed the public's attention. The ALC wants to cash in. The lottery corporation has designed a poker scratch and win ticket, but it's not interested in holding tournaments, he said. Instead, staff are informing business owners that Texas Hold'em is against the law, and threatening to take away VLT machines if they host games.
"We do have, under our contracts with retailers, clauses that allow us to remove VLTs," Mr. Bourgeois said.
The clause states that if businesses violate the law, or harm the reputation of the ALC, they could have their machines withdrawn.
"If we felt we needed to we can, and we would, remove VLTs," he said.
Many business owners looking to cash in on poker aren't willing to call ALC's bluff. Greg Stewart owns several bars and pool halls in Saint John, including Jakes Steakhouse and Pub, The Outback and Dooly's in the Westmorland Mall. He said he wants to launch poker tournaments on a large scale, but said liquor inspectors informed him he could lose his VLT machines if he did. With 25 machines he said he can't afford to take the chance. Still, Mr. Stewart sees poker as a key way to bring patrons into his businesses and said it's unfair he's prohibited from holding tournaments when others, who haven't checked the rules, are doing it anyway.
"With the non-smoking we need something to compensate," Mr. Stewart said. "While it's hot, we should be in n it. We should be capitalizing."
When it comes to Texas Hold'em, VLT revenue isn't the only profit at stake. Aquarius Pub and Restaurant owner Steve Vair approached liquor inspectors in January for the rules concerning tournaments. He wanted to boost sales after the smoking ban. Inspectors said he could lose his liquor licence if he starts hosting poker nights.
"The bottom line was: I don't want to be in violation of my liquor licence, to risk losing my liquor licence because that is my livelihood here...Without that we're not in business," Mr. Vair said.
Are Texas Hold'em poker tournaments legal? It depends, said Vicky Deschênes, spokeswoman for the provincial Finance Department. According to the Criminal Code of Canada, all gambling that is not licensed by the province is illegal. The government licenses charitable organizations to host events such as bingos, raffles or Monte Carlos if the money raised goes to a non-profit community cause. The province doesn't, however, license Texas Hold'em tournaments and isn't looking at changing that, she said.
The province isn't regulating poker tournaments, but it says it's not responsible for ensuring the games stop either. Liquor inspectors are telling bar owners and pool hall managers that Texas Hold'em tournaments are illegal. They are also forwarding information on such games to the police, but it's up to the cops to enforce gaming laws, said provincial Public Safety Department spokeswoman Patricia Hyland.
Police know Texas Hold'em games are being held in major cities almost every night. Many forces, including the RCMP and Fredericton Police, have received calls from businesses asking for clarification on Texas Hold'em. This week the Fredericton police issued a warning about the game on their website. In most cases, police are advising people to consult lawyers, because they could be breaking the law, said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Gary Cameron.
"The criminal code is very specific. You can't make a profit (off gambling)," Sgt. Cameron said. "You have to be licensed from the province. If you are not licensed that's when it may be a criminal act."
This is not to say that police will be charging into private homes, breaking up neighbourhood poker games. People playing Texas Hold'em in their basement is legal, so long as no one is profiting by holding the game.
The moment an unlicensed third party collects fees, or holds money to distribute as prizes later, there could be trouble, Sgt. Cameron said. This could be seen as holding a common gaming house, an offence that brings with it a maximum sentence of two years in prison.
It isn't just tournament organizers who should be concerned about gaming laws, said Corp. Martin Gaudet of the Fredericton Police Force. Anyone caught attending an illegal card game could be charged, and face up to a $2,000 fine or six months in jail.
Fredericton and Saint John police, as well as the RCMP, say they'll investigate any complaints received about poker tournaments. That bothers Mr. Kennedy. Either Texas Hold'em should be permitted everywhere, or it shouldn't, he said. If police only investigate complaints, some tournaments will be shut down while others will continue reaping the benefits.
"Obviously there are no rules because other people are allowed to play," Mr. Kennedy said. "There are no rules because other establishments have been allowed to continue to operate without obstruction and only a couple of establishments have been told to stop."
Twice a week, retired elementary school gym teacher Gary Ewart is counting his chips at a Saint John poker tournament. He's been playing poker for more than a decade but discovered Texas Hold'em last year. He loves it and doesn't think his hobby should be a crime.
Poker may be played in Las Vegas, but local tournaments aren't casinos, Mr. Ewart said. In the past he's watched people lose $300, $400 and $500 at a single game. Texas Hold'em tournaments, however, have a set fee and when you're out of chips you're done.
"I've been to Legions and bars holding cribbage tournaments where they charge an entry fee and the top few people win the money. Texas Hold'em is the same thing," Mr. Ewart said.
People can spend hours plunking coins into brightly coloured VLT machines, or litter tables with crumpled papers and silver flecks from scratch and win tickets, so why isn't Texas Hold'em legal, asked Liberal Justice Critic T.J. Burke.
"I'm greatly disappointed in the province's prevention of these type of games," Mr. Burke said. "They have allowed VLTs, which are known to be addictive and can lead to dire consequences for people in terms of health and also financial problems . . . . Texas Hold'em is legal in casinos in other parts of Canada but they have chosen to take the routes of illegality (here)."
Mr. Burke is a poker lover himself. He plays Texas Hold'em at home at least once a week, or "as much as my wife allows," and owns his own felt table cover and clay poker chips made in Nackawic. Mr. Burke isn't alone. He shares his poker table with doctors, lawyers and police officers and said the regular games are hardly criminal.
Just as businesses are using poker to boost profits, the province should be making money off the phenomenon too, Mr. Burke said. By licensing tournaments, the government could ensure a slice of the cash go toward public programs such as health care or education, he said.
Others agree it's only a matter of time before the province will deal themselves into the game. "I'm certain at some point when Atlantic Lotto and the province wake up they'll find it's an excellent source of revenue," said Mr. Stewart. "(If they do) I want to get into it. I want to do it and I want to do it on a big scale."
For now, Mr. Kennedy has moved his barely used poker tables into an unlicensed backroom of his pool hall, which was until recently his apartment. The rectangular room, with its chipped red paint and faded newspaper articles about pool players, still hosts the occasional game.
The venue change means there's no more drinks being served, no fees going to support his business and hardly any players anymore. In fact, he's not sure how long he will bother with Texas Hold'em, even though some of his competitors are thriving off it.
"It was originally a move to get more people in my place, now it's just a little bit of stubbornness on my part," he said. "I've been told I can't do it, but others are and that doesn't wash with me."

http://canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050312/TPEBRIEF/303120121

 

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Man charged in B.C. blaze to plead not guilty -BC

CTV.ca News Staff

The man who allegedly started a blaze that destroyed 75 homes and burned thousands of hectares of land will plead not guilty to the charge against him, his lawyer says.

Michael Barre has been charged with one count of dropping a burning substance within one kilometre of a forest.

It is an offence under British Columbia's Forest Practices Code, and carries a maximum penalty of two years in jail and a $500,000 fine. Barre could also have to cover some of the costs of fighting the fire.

Barre has told people that he thought his cigarette started the blaze in the McClure-Barriere region, on Aug. 1, 2003. However, his lawyer, John Hogg, says he will be pleading not guilty to the charge.

"There will still be an issue as to whether his cigarette did cause it," Hogg told CTV's Canada AM on Monday.

"There is a little discrepancy on where exactly the fire started, in terms of yards here or there, one way or another."

A trial date is expected to be set today or in a few days.

The fire destroyed dozens of homes, burned down 26,000 hectares of land and displaced 8,500 residents. The total property damages are estimated at $8.2 million.

Despite the devastation, there are some in the community who are supporting Barre with a petition.

Rick Appel and his wife, Pat, have collected 600 signatures, according to The Globe and Mail.

Rick Appel told The Globe that most people who have signed the petition feel that Barre has suffered enough by having to watch friends and neighbours rebuild.

He also questioned whether the forestry service could have done more to prevent the spread of the blaze.

Hogg said he isn't sure the petition will have much of an impact on the case.

"Although I suppose it if gained momentum and had enough signatures, someone might have to pay attention," Hogg said.

Hogg said Barre has learned to live with the devastation of the fire, but initially, he and his wife were "borderline nervous breakdown" and had to leave the province for a while.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1110809544044_100/?hub=TopStories

 

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My email regarding the Sunday news show

SMOKERS OF THE WORLD, UNITE! March 13/05

How are smokers fighting back against anti-smoking legislation? They're mad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore - at a smokers' rights rally in Toronto, we meet the smokers of the world who are uniting against what they see as an unjust law.

"Your program made it seem like there wasn't 200 people opposing the smoking smoking legislation, by editing. There are people who know this is about rights, what we can do in properties we pay taxes for, including our home and businesses. I see that the "prohibition advocates" are trying to get ALL homes smoke free, next. When will it end? A study mentioned during the Harm Reductions Forum, in April/04, said that even the most draconian ban will only reduce smoking to 17%. In other words the Ontario government wants to spend spend BILLIONS to reduce smoking by 3%. This commitment will take decades. The harm of tobacco is based on stat's (epidemiology studies), and we all know how easy stats, and questionnaires can be wrong.
Thank You"

http://www.cbc.ca/sunday/

 

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The Medical Minute: Asthma - more than just wheezing

Penn State Family & Community Medicine Thursday, March 10, 2005
Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center
Penn State College of Medicine By John Messmer
What do John F. Kennedy, Leonard Bernstein, Ernesto (Che) Guevara, Calvin Coolidge, Charles Dickens, Theodore Roosevelt, Marcel Proust, Woodrow Wilson and Antonio Vivaldi have in common? All were asthmatics, just like 15 million Americans, one-third of whom are children. The mental picture many people have of asthma is a wheezing person with an inhaler, but asthma is more than just wheezing. While many asthmatics from the past suffered with frequent wheezing and shortness of breath, current medical therapy can control asthma very well.
What is asthma?
Simply put, asthma is a condition of inflammation of the air passages of the lungs. Inflammation is what happens when the immune system attacks something. The immune response in asthmatics can be triggered by allergies, such as to cats, dust, mold or pollen; by irritants, such as smoke, dust or cold air; or by infections, such as cold and flu viruses. Once the immune response is started, chemicals from the inflammatory process are released in the air passages, causing them to swell and constrict, reducing the amount of air the person can get into and out of the lungs. Asthmatics may cough or wheeze, or simply feel short of breath. In serious cases, airflow is reduced significantly, causing collapse or even death. About 500,000 Americans are hospitalized and around 4,000 die from it each year.
Who gets asthma?
There is a strong tendency for asthma to run in families. Boys tend to get it more than girls, but in adults, it is more common for women to have asthma. It can develop at any age. There is some evidence to suggest exposure to cigarette smoke increases the possibility of asthma, particularly for young children. Since the prevalence of asthma is increasing, researchers have looked at everything from diet and obesity to environmental influences to explain it, but there is no concrete explanation for the increase.
What are the symptoms?
Wheezing is the hallmark symptom, but cough and shortness of breath, particularly if induced by exercise, cold air or a virus could be asthma. If severe, a person experiences tightness in the chest. In mild cases, it can be difficult to be sure, since the cough and difficulty breathing may be fairly mild. Not all wheezing is asthma, so self-diagnosis is not a good idea. Gastroesophageal reflux and heart disease also can cause wheezing.
How is it diagnosed?
A physician will evaluate the symptoms a person is experiencing and examine the heart and lungs. If wheezing is heard in association with a history consistent with asthma, a presumptive diagnosis can be made. Many times, a pulmonary function test (PFT) which measures lung function, can be used to help secure the diagnosis. If the PFT is consistent with asthma, it might be repeated after treatment with asthma medication to see if the abnormalities clear up. Since the PFT could be normal while the person is not having symptoms, sometimes it will be done after exposure to a medication known to induce asthma, methacholine. If methacholine causes asthmatic changes on the PFT, it supports the diagnosis.
How is asthma treated?
The most important part of asthma treatment is to control inflammation, which will stop the disease process. An inhaled steroid, a form of cortisone, very often is the foundation of treatment. These medications treat the inflammation very well and tend to have minimal side effects. They should be continued even if there are no symptoms. A leukotriene inhibitor may be beneficial in some people. This is another type of anti-inflammatory that is not a steroid, but it does not work for all asthmatics. A long-acting bronchodilator helps keep the airways open to improve airflow. Short-acting bronchodilators should be used minimally; if they are used more than a couple times a week, the asthma is not sufficiently controlled. Sometimes asthmatics stop using their anti-inflammatory and long-acting bronchodilators in favor of the rapid-acting medications because they feel the latter is working. It is possible to become insensitive to the effect of short-acting inhalers if used alone, making emergency treatment less successful. Death could result. Theophylline has been used for decades, but can have some serious side effects. More typically, it is added to other therapies in adult asthmatics if needed. Cromolyn and related compounds can control the release of histamine and can be a useful adjunct in appropriate people.
What's the prognosis?
Excellent, in most cases. There's no reason for asthmatic people to stay on the sidelines or limit their activities. Asthmatics can excel in all walks of life. Even some Olympic gold-medal winners have been asthmatic. Working with one's doctor on a treatment and monitoring plan can allow most asthmatics to manage their disease with minimal problems.
Asthmatics should get regular check-ups and be certain they understand what medications to take and how to use them. They should have a plan for self-monitoring and treatment if the asthma worsens. Asthmatics should never smoke and should make every effort to avoid exposure to smoking. Many times, children's asthma resolves by adulthood. With proper treatment, there can be fewer lost work and school days, and more importantly, fewer deaths from asthma

http://live.psu.edu/story/10831

 

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American Cancer Society to Ohio Lawmakers: Ban Indoor Smoking by May

- 03/11/2005

The American Cancer Society is boldly trying to hold a flame to Ohio lawmakers in hopes of making Ohio the eighth state to ban smoking in businesses and public places.

The organization on March 10 gave Ohio lawmakers an ultimatum: Ban smoking before May 3 -- the date of primary elections in the Buckeye State -- or the group will begin a grassroots campaign to collect 100,000 signatures, which it would to submit to state legislators next January to put a smoke-free ordinance before the General Assembly.

"Right now, the American Cancer Society is working to change Ohio's future," said Don McClure, chief executive officer of the Ohio Division of the American Cancer Society. "We are asking for your help to make Ohio smoke-free. Help stop Ohioans from dying from second-hand smoke. Help protect every Ohio worker and customer."

If Ohio lawmakers fail to snuff out smoking or try to dilute the law, the American Cancer Society says it will collect another 100,000 signatures to put the smoke-free ordinance on the ballot in November 2006.

"We support a state law that states one simple fact: You have a right to breathe clean air," McClure said.

The American Cancer Society cites a growing body of evidence that second-hand smoke poses serious health risks to non-smokers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in a recent report placed second-hand cigarette smoke in the same category as radon, asbestos, arsenic and other cancer-causing toxins and concluded there are no safe exposure levels for second-hand smoke. Second-hand smoke increasingly is being linked to lung cancer, heart disease and other illnesses and diseases.

The American Cancer Society also cites research conducted by the advocacy group Tobacco-Free Ohio that suggests bars, restaurants and other businesses in Toledo -- one of 14 Ohio cities with a smoking ban already in place -- have suffered little or no economic impact as a result of the indoor smoking ban.

The American Cancer Society says it will be joined in its SmokeFreeOhio.org campaign by the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and other health advocacy groups.

 

- Josh Cable

http://www.occupationalhazards.com/articles/13093

 

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Other Findings of the Elon Poll -NC

By ABC 11 Eyewitness News

(03/11/05 -- UNDATED) — The March Elon Poll found mixed news for President Bush, Governor Easley and strong support for public displays of the Ten Commandments.

President Bush's overall job approval rating stands at 52 percent, which is three points higher than the Elon Poll indicated in February. Pollsters say the increase is within the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4.1 percentage point.

The poll had some good news for Governor Mike Easley, with 59 percent of respondents saying they approved of his proposal to raise cigarette taxes from 5 cents to 50 cents per pack over the next two years. Fifty-three percent said they approved of Easley's plan to continue a half-cent sales tax to help balance the state's budget.

Not all of the news was rosy for the governor. Sixty-five percent disapproved of Easley's proposal to reduce the state income tax on people in the highest income bracket.

Poll respondents widely supported displaying the Ten Commandments on government property. Seventy-nine percent supported displays inside city council chambers, 74 percent backed displays in public classrooms and 78 percent supported them in courtrooms.

The poll surveyed 571 adults around North Carolina between March 7 and 10.

Online Producer: Brian Shrader

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/news/031105_NW_otherpollfindings.html

 

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Researcher Focuses On Obesity-Cancer Link

Study Conducted By Investigator At The Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute
Mar 12, 2005 8:15 am US/Mountain
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) The path to good health is through the stomach, according to Reza Hakkak, a research investigator at Arkansas Children's Hospital Research Institute.
Hakkak's preliminary studies show that a carcinogen known as DMBA, found in some cooked foods as well as cigarette smoke and car exhaust, causes mammory tumors to develop in obese rats more than two times more often than in lean rats.
Hakkak, also a professor of dietetics and nutrition at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, has been awarded a $250,000 grant from the Susan. G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.
His research is on the role of the diet in preventing specific kinds of diseases, especially breast and colon cancer. The grant money will help him further his research into the relationships among obesity, carcinogens and breast cancer that he began two years ago.
His work under the new grant will again involve rats. The rats will be surgically altered so they mimic post-menopausal women, who are at the greatest risk of developing breast cancer, Hakkak said. They will then be fed special diets that include carcinogens in an effort to determine the links between obesity and tumor development, he said.
People are exposed to carcinogens every day in two major ways, Hakkak said. Everybody has some exposure to a limited amount of airborne carcinogens — such as from cigarette smoke or vehicle exhaust — while others are in the food they eat.
"The diet is the (best) route into the human body for carcinogens," Hakkak said, "so we need to pay attention to what we eat."
All foods have the potential to either aid or discourage diseases from appearing, Hakkak said. "The diet either promotes or prevents diseases," he said.
The level of fat in foods is a factor in promoting disease, as is calorie intake. Hakkak said that, since 1980 the average calorie intake per person in this country has risen significantly.
One type of chemical found in foods that can help prevent disease are phytochemicals in fruits and vegetables.
"These are really beneficial," Hakkak said.
Recognition of that has prompted dietary experts to raise the recommended daily intake of fruits and vegetables from 5 servings a day to nine.
"Food is the cheapest way to prevent diseases," he said. "I think nutrition research will have to make every single effort to prevent obesity, to solve this problem," Hakkak said.

http://news4colorado.com/health/health_story_071101735.html

 

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Mercury Rises Over EPA Pollution Rules

By Steven Milloy Monday, March 14, 2005

As the Environmental Protection Agency prepares to announce next week final rules intended to reduce mercury emissions  from power plants, EPA officials and the Bush administration are coming under heavy fire from the Government Accounting Office, Congressional Democrats, and environmentalists.

 

But in reality, it’s another pointless Washington, D.C. political tug-of-war that we should all hope no one wins.

In January 2004, the EPA proposed several options for reducing mercury emissions from power plants. A technology-based option capping pollution at each U.S. power plant and supposedly reducing mercury emissions by 29 percent by 2008 is favored by environmentalists.

The EPA estimated that this option would cost power plants -- that is, users of electricity -- $2 billion per year and provide $15 billion or more in annual benefits.

A so-called “cap-and-trade” option, favored by the Bush administration, would not set emissions limits at every plant, but would instead establish a national emissions cap. The EPA would then distribute emissions allowances to power plants that could be traded between plants. Under cap-and-trade, emissions allowances would be reduced by 29 percent by 2010 and by 70 percent by 2018. The agency estimated the cap-and-trade option would cost $3 billion to $5 billion annually and provide anywhere from $58 billion to $73 billion or more per year in benefits.

Though it appears that the cap-and-trade option offers a much better cost-benefit ratio, the Government Accounting Office  poured cold water on the EPA’s plan this week in a report claiming that the agency distorted its cost-benefit analysis to make it appear that the Bush administration’s cap-and-trade option was superior to the technology-based option preferred by environmental groups.

“The administration is showing a blatant disregard for the health of children, the health of women of childbearing age,” Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told the Washington Post. “The agency’s mercury rule first failed the public health test. It then failed the science test. Now it’s clear that EPA cooked the books,” added an environmental activist.

The criticisms are partly valid and partly junk science. Incredible as it may seem, none of the benefits estimated by the EPA for either option are tied to human health improvements resulting from lower mercury emissions, according to the GAO.

The GAO recommended that the EPA go back to the drawing board and include in the cost-benefit analysis the human health benefits of reductions in mercury emission from power plants or at least to provide qualitative information on how these benefits are likely to compare under the technology-based and cap-and-trade options.

But this would be an exercise in futility. Although mercury emissions from power plants have never been regulated before, no scientific study documents a single adverse health effect attributable to mercury from power plants.

In September 2001, researchers from Brookhaven National Laboratory estimated the incremental health risk to fetuses -- supposedly a highly vulnerable population -- from power plant emissions of mercury to be between 1 in 1 million and 1 in 100,000. In EPA-land, such minuscule and hypothetical risks typically do not warrant regulatory action.

A November 2004 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “confirmed that the blood mercury levels in young children and women of childbearing age usually are below levels of concern.”

One reason for the absence of data linking power plant mercury emissions with health effects is that U.S. power plants simply aren't a major source of mercury emissions. Including natural sources of mercury, U.S. electric utilities are responsible for only about 0.6 percent of global mercury emissions.

The glaring fact is that there likely will be no health benefits resulting from reduced mercury emissions, regardless of whether they’re brought about by the Green-supported technology-based option or Bush administration-supported cap-and-trade option.

So how did the EPA estimate that its proposed mercury control options would bring about billions of dollars in annual health benefits even though reductions in mercury emissions have not been demonstrated to bring such benefits?

The vast majority of the estimated human health benefits for the two options were based on supposed reductions in premature deaths, heart attacks and respiratory ailments allegedly attributable to reduced levels of emissions of fine particulates (soot) from the plants -- a hypothesized by-product of proposed mercury control options.

While these estimated health benefits sound great, they are most likely illusory. Though the EPA has claimed since 1996 that soot causes premature deaths and other health problems, this assertion has never been credibly substantiated.

I’m all for reducing air pollution to the extent further reductions will provide real and measurable benefits at a reasonable cost. That is quite different than the current mercury circus featuring fabricated risks and fake benefits.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,150086,00.html

 

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Montco: No jobs for smokers
County considers only hiring nonsmokers to cut health costs.
By Pamela Lehman
Of The Morning Call
In what might be one of the first regulations of its kind for a government agency, Montgomery County officials said Thursday they are considering a policy that would ban the hiring of smokers.
The county could save millions in health insurance premiums by hiring only nonsmokers, Commissioners Chairman Jim Matthews said, adding, ''I think it's common sense to know you'll save money if you don't hire people who smoke.''

SMOKING BY THE NUMBERS

• An estimated 46 million adults in the United States smoke cigarettes. • Last year, smokers cost the country $157.7 billion ($3,391 per smoker) in health-related economic losses, which include $81.9 billion lost in productivity and $75.5 billion spent on extra medical care. • Cigarette smokers are absent from work 6.5 days per year more than nonsmokers. Sources: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. surgeon general's office, American Cancer Society

But the idea appalled county employees like Mary Lou Eutera, a smoker for nearly five decades who asked, ''Are we living in freaking Russia?
''I don't think anyone has the right to dictate whether someone is allowed to smoke or not,'' said Eutera, who works in the prothonotary's office. ''Why not hire someone for their talents and education?''
Matthews, an ex-smoker and the ranking Republican on the GOP-dominated, three-member board of commissioners, said the county is only beginning to look at a policy, but it could be instituted by early 2006.
The policy would not pressure current employees to stop smoking, he said, and they would not be in danger of losing their jobs.
''A new employee that smokes might not have any ill effects of that smoking for 20 or 30 years,'' Matthews said, ''but by then it could cost us millions.''
This year, the county is paying $24 million for health insurance for its 3,200 full-time employees. That's an increase of about $1.3 million from 2004.
Matthews said he has directed the county's health care consultant, CBIZ Benefits and Insurance Services Inc., based in Plymouth Meeting, to provide a cost analysis of possible savings.
The county's solicitor is investigating the legality of the proposal, and that's where the county truly is in uncharted waters, said Bruce Walter, senior vice president of CBIZ Benefits.
''It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that the long-term savings could be in the millions,'' Walter said. ''We really commend them for their forward thinking, but we're going to have to wait and see what the courts say about the legality of this issue. It's very unclear right now.''
From a legal standpoint, there is no criminal statute forbidding the hiring of only nonsmokers, said District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. But he suspects the policy could be challenged in federal civil court and doesn't think it could be applied to row office employees.
'Bottom line is, I'm going to hire the best people available, whether they smoke or not,'' Castor said.
County solicitor Barry Miller said there are no legal cases to support the policy. ''We just don't know whether or not the county can do something like this,'' he said. ''They are looking at a tremendous unknown here.''
If the policy saves the county money, it's worth considering, said Tom Ellis, the other Republican commissioner. ''If the numbers come back and say this could make a difference, maybe we'll be a leader in this.''
Debbie Rudegeair, who works in the county's clerk of courts department, said she is vehemently opposed to the proposal.
''It is complete and total discrimination,'' she sputtered as she lit a cigarette in front of the courthouse in Norristown. ''It's my lungs and my health, and if I want to smoke, I should be able to smoke myself into the grave.
''What are they going to do next? Not hire people who have a few drinks or eat too much food?''
Others said the plan could save on future health care costs and might even encourage some people to quit smoking.
Patrick Brennan, a painter in the county's public property department, started smoking at age 7 when he would go to the store to buy groceries for women in his neighborhood. Their quarter tips would buy him a pack of cigarettes.
''I don't agree that smokers shouldn't get medical support because they choose to smoke,'' said Brennan. ''At one time, it was considered a status symbol to smoke, and now it's a punishment if you do.''
Matthews, the commissioners chairman, conceded the county might be approaching a slippery slope.
''What if someone doesn't smoke when you hire them and they then pick up the habit, or what if someone smokes but says they'll waive health coverage?'' Matthews said. ''These are all things we need to look into.''
He said the idea came from an anti-smoking policy instituted in January by a Michigan company, Weyco Inc.
Weyco, a medical benefits administrator, ordered its 200 employees to stop smoking and fired four workers who couldn't or wouldn't kick the habit.
The path the company decided to take was unfortunate, Matthews said.
''Any of our employees who smoke now are never going to be pressured to quit,'' he said. ''If you want to go outside and freeze your toes off to catch a smoke, that's fine. I would be along with them now if I were still smoking.''
Matthews said he hasn't smoked in about two years and continues to use nicotine gum to curb his cravings.
''It should be a reward, not a punishment system,'' he said. ''I was an avid smoker for many, many years, and I know what the struggle is like.''
Matthews said he'd like to offer incentives to encourage current employees not to smoke, including payment for anti-smoking programs and medicines.
Although Brennan said he enjoys a smoke, he won't smoke in restaurants where people are eating.
''That's one thing that really bothers me when I'm trying to eat, and I show the same consideration to others,'' he said. ''I don't think smokers should be lighting up around people trying to have a meal.''
Philadelphia City Council is scheduled to vote Thursday on a bill to ban smoking in bars, restaurants and other workplaces.
Weyco and other companies have been instituting ''no smoking'' policies in an effort to drive down health care costs.
pamela.lehman@mcall.com215-529-2614 or 610-278-1862

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_2nosmokemar11,0,5136043.story?coll=all-newslocalpolice-hed

 

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Airbrushing history

At France's National Library in Paris, caretakers have airbrushed a cigarette out of a poster of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in preparation for an exhibition to commemorate his life, reports the London Telegraph. Rarely seen in public without a cigarette, Sartre once said, "Smoking is the symbolic equivalent of destructively appropriating the entire world." So, it's clear that smoking was a big part of Sartre's life and work.
    To be fair, the National Library is supposedly following a French law that bans cigarette advertisements. There are similar bans here, though one doubts the Smithsonian would airbrush a cigarette out of FDR's mouth. The Telegraph story, however, reminded us of something George Orwell wrote: "Who controls the past controls the future: Who controls the present controls the past."
    Attempts to control the past by no means are unique to France. Indeed, examples of similar manipulation abound in the United States, where most universities are dedicated to it. At Vanderbilt University in Nashville, for example, certain groups successfully lobbied to have the word "Confederate" removed from Confederate Memorial Hall, which was originally built with money from the United Daughters of the Confederacy. One of the more famous images from September 11 was the three firefighters who raised a flag above the rubble of the World Trade Center. The picture was further immortalized in a bronze sculpture, except that the three white firefighters had been replaced with a black, Hispanic and white firefighter. Same image, imaginary people. A spokesman for the group that commissioned the sculpture defended it: "I think the artistic expression of diversity would supersede any concern over factual correctness." And, in a slightly different vein, Harvard President Lawrence Summers was recently chastised for suggesting that genetic factors might influence a person's chosen profession.
    Attempts to alter the past by distorting the truth also work in reverse: By emphasizing the bad at the expense of the good. A particularly egregious example of this is how liberal educators have been able to diminish the stature of our Founding Fathers because they were white slave owners. Some have even equate

Airbrushing history

At France's National Library in Paris, caretakers have airbrushed a cigarette out of a poster of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in preparation for an exhibition to commemorate his life, reports the London Telegraph. Rarely seen in public without a cigarette, Sartre once said, "Smoking is the symbolic equivalent of destructively appropriating the entire world." So, it's clear that smoking was a big part of Sartre's life and work.
    To be fair, the National Library is supposedly following a French law that bans cigarette advertisements. There are similar bans here, though one doubts the Smithsonian would airbrush a cigarette out of FDR's mouth. The Telegraph story, however, reminded us of something George Orwell wrote: "Who controls the past controls the future: Who controls the present controls the past."
    Attempts to control the past by no means are unique to France. Indeed, examples of similar manipulation abound in the United States, where most universities are dedicated to it. At Vanderbilt University in Nashville, for example, certain groups successfully lobbied to have the word "Confederate" removed from Confederate Memorial Hall, which was originally built with money from the United Daughters of the Confederacy. One of the more famous images from September 11 was the three firefighters who raised a flag above the rubble of the World Trade Center. The picture was further immortalized in a bronze sculpture, except that the three white firefighters had been replaced with a black, Hispanic and white firefighter. Same image, imaginary people. A spokesman for the group that commissioned the sculpture defended it: "I think the artistic expression of diversity would supersede any concern over factual correctness." And, in a slightly different vein, Harvard President Lawrence Summers was recently chastised for suggesting that genetic factors might influence a person's chosen profession.
    Attempts to alter the past by distorting the truth also work in reverse: By emphasizing the bad at the expense of the good. A particularly egregious example of this is how liberal educators have been able to diminish the stature of our Founding Fathers because they were white slave owners. Some have even equated the United States during World War II with Japan and Germany, because the government interned Japanese civilians or President Truman chose to drop the atomic bomb.
    The ancestry of this obnoxious revisionism traces to the Roman Empire, when the politically powerful would erase the names of their defeated rivals from public documents. It was known as damnatio memoriae, and for historians piecing together bits of Roman history, it worked: Lives and truths were erased forever. Or, in the Sartre case, airbrushed.

http://washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050311-091129-6632r.htm

 

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Scandalized rookie pitcher to butt out for life

SAPPORO -- Nippon-Ham Fighters rookie pitcher Yu Darvish has pledged to give up smoking for life after his team forced him to stay home as a penalty for smoking cigarettes while playing pachinko.

Nippon-Ham executives held a press conference in Sapporo on Thursday to announce Darvish would be allowed to resume practice from Friday.

"He has recognized the seriousness of his actions," Fighters President Junji Imamura said. "We decided to allow him to take part in practice because he expressed regret over the affair."

After a photo magazine carried a photo of Darvish puffing on a cigarette in February, the club ordered him to stay in his dormitory as punishment.

"My careless actions have troubled fans and (team) officials," Darvish, 18, said during the press conference. "I will not smoke another cigarettes for the rest of my life."

The media has given Darvish extensive coverage since Nippon Ham signed him as a rookie for the 2005 season because he was a star pitcher for Tohoku High School.(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, March 11, 2005)

http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20050311p2a00m0dm003000c.html

 

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Editorial | Smoke-free Philly and Jersey End of tobacco road

Posted on Sun, Mar. 13, 2005

Philadelphia, a city of 1.4 million people, could go smoke-free this week. That's big news. Even bigger would be a ban on indoor smoking in public settings and workplaces across New Jersey, a state of more than 8.5 million. With that city and state being neighbors - as well as close to smoke-free New York - the move toward smoke-free indoor spaces offers far-reaching benefits for their citizens' health and improved quality of life.

Good for Philadelphia's City Council, then, as it is poised to vote Thursday to limit smoking in bars, restaurants and other workplaces. The city proposal has been years in the making, and it's back before Council, thanks to the determination of Councilman Michael A. Nutter. This time around, Mayor Street also made the difference by providing his support.

Council has a rare opportunity to put Philadelphia on a par with cutting-edge cities.

The best reason to do so is to safeguard workers now subjected to deadly secondhand smoke on the job. But the measure should boost the city's hospitality industry, too, as Philadelphia eateries - like those in New York and other smoke-free locales - become meccas for diners who value smoke-free meals.

A smoke-free proposal in New Jersey that would cover the entire state is even more ambitious. A Senate committee could take up the proposal from Sen. John Adler (D., Camden) this week.

The Jersey ban also has the support of acting Gov. Richard J. Codey, who has been influenced by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

There's a loophole that first must be closed in the Adler bill - his proposal to exempt Atlantic City casinos. All employees should be guaranteed healthier workplaces, and that must include the 50,000 New Jerseyans employed in the East Coast gambling capital.

Sure, it's understandable that officials get jitters over any policies that might impact the industry, since casinos are a cash-and-jobs generator for the state. But out of respect for casino workers' health, and a sense of fairness to other nightspots that would go smoke-free, Gov. Codey is right to press for a truly statewide measure. (And this issue should transcend any deals on whether to permit slots at the Meadowlands Racetrack.)

On another smoking front, employers - among them, Montgomery County officials - would be heading off on the wrong track by barring smokers from jobs. That's troubling on many counts. It would infringe on privacy, and smacks of unnecessary discrimination, whereas limiting smoking in public settings is a reasonable step to safeguard public health. By clearing the air indoors, Philadelphia and New Jersey will help to save thousands of lives.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/11120261.htm

 

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Inqlings | Starr, Perrier thoughts on ban

Inquirer Columnist By Michael Klein Posted on Sun, Mar. 13, 2005

Tavern owners predict all sorts of doom from the public-smoking ban that City Council seems likely to approve Thursday.

However, two prominent restaurateurs aren't smoldering. Stephen Starr, whose 13 joints haul in about $60 million a year, is fine with the concept.

With one but.

"I think people can live two hours without a cigarette," says Starr, who has lived without them for 30 of his 50 years now. "But having said that, I realize that places that are strictly bars should have smoking."

Georges Perrier railed against the idea of a ban when it was raised five years ago. He even said he would take his flagship Le Bec-Fin and Brasserie Perrier out of town. Now? "It doesn't matter to me," he says. On the other hand: "If the city could put the same passion to put through [the expansion of] the Convention Center, it would be built already."

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/11120307.htm

 

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These laws aren't such a drag-PA

Posted on Sun, Mar. 13, 2005

Around the world, people adapt - without any economic disasters.

Good for health, bad for business?

That's the mantra uttered over and over again as the push to ban smoking in workplaces, including bars, taverns and restaurants, gains momentum across the nation, in Europe, and in the Middle East.

It has been no different here in Philadelphia, where City Council is scheduled to vote Thursday - St. Patrick's Day - on a sweeping bill that would make the city the first in Pennsylvania to go smoke-free. Or in New Jersey, where the health committee of the New Jersey Senate will vote tomorrow on a bill to ban smoking in most public places, including casinos.

And the predictions have been grim: empty bar stools, shuttered restaurants. Smokers fleeing city limits to light up in neighboring counties - or simply staying home.

But cities, states and countries with smoking bans say they are adapting, and largely without catastrophic economic results.

Even so, not everyone embraces change - and in some places, it has rarely been enforced.

Rules successful in California

In California, the first to enact statewide bans on smoking in restaurants (in 1995) and bars (in 1998), state monitors say the bans have been a financial and popular success.

"If you were to light up in a restaurant now, the entire restaurant would probably... look at you like, 'What are you doing?' " said Colleen Stevens, of the Tobacco Control Section of the California Department of Health Services.

Jordan Rasmussen, a spokeswoman for the California Restaurant Association, which backed the statewide ban as more acceptable than having many local ordinances, said that "everybody is used to it and enjoys it."

Rasmussen said the number of patrons who shun bars and restaurants because of the ban appears to be offset by the number who go more often because of the smoke-free atmosphere. Rasmussen said restaurant and bar employees "definitely said it was better."

An economic impact study by Philip Bond, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, concluded that in California the ban "produced positive short-, intermediate- and long-term effects on bar revenues."

Food and drink sales in the California food-service industry rose from $26.7 billion in 1997 to $44.1 billion in 2003, the California Restaurant Association said.

According to a 2002 poll by Field Research, 75 percent of bar owners and employees in California said they preferred to work in smoke-free establishments, up from 47 percent in 1998. The poll was conducted for the California Department of Health Services, which administers the ban.

A similar Field poll of California bar patrons showed 75 percent approved of the law in 2002, up from 59 percent in 1998. Among patrons who smoke, support of the law increased from 24 percent in 1998 to 45 percent in 2002.

Try telling that to Hebrew University of Jerusalem student Einat Ovadia, 23, a pack-a-day smoker since she was 16.

"The law says no smoking in the mall," said Ovadia, "but I've never seen it enforced. Nonsmoking laws are trendy now. But a large portion of the population here is smoking."

By law, Israeli restaurants and cafes must provide a separate, well-ventilated space for smokers; the activity is banned in public places.

But in practice, Israelis smoke everywhere with impunity. Fewer than 1,000 of the $75 fines for public smoking were handed out last year in a country of 6.8 million people.

Smoking in the Middle East, where 10 countries have state monopolies on tobacco, is encouraged by the relatively low cost, compared with Europe, and the habit's historic place as a social custom. The offer of a cigarette is a mark of hospitality throughout the region.

Trend is spreading in Europe

It was remarkable enough when Ireland, home of the hazy corner pub, banned smoking in public places last year. But then Italy, with its estimated 14 million smokers, followed suit Jan. 10.

Italy watchers smirked: For every rule, Italians find 35 ways to flout it. But wonder of wonders, people are complying. And national retailers report that a feared reduction in business has not happened.

It's likely that most European countries will follow suit. Norway already has. The European Union's health commissioner has urged Italy- and Ireland-style rules, and the Starbucks Coffee chain, which bans smoking in all of its cafes, has had great success in Vienna, Austria, and in Paris, where smoking is still allowed in public.

Still, some countries will need time. Only this month, Germany announced it would phase in no-smoking sections in restaurants, and France and Spain resist full bans.

A voluntary plan to ban smoking in Paris restaurants flopped last month.

"It's a daft idea, and it was doomed to failure from the start," a catering union official told the newspaper Le Parisien. "How can you ask customers to stop smoking when 43 percent of establishments in Paris also sell cigarettes?"

In Delaware, which banned smoking in November 2002, bar owners say they lost revenue but have found new ways to replace it.

"It will be like a dull pain for most people for a year or two," predicted Xavier Teixido, immediate past chairman of the National Restaurant Association and owner of Harry's Savoy Grill and Harry's Seafood Grill in Wilmington.

He said though he initially lost customers, his business has continued to do well. But in Philadelphia, he cautions, only the city, not the entire state, will ban smoking, making it easy for patrons to go elsewhere.

Still fighting in the Big Apple

In New York, once-loud griping about the smoking ban imposed March 30, 2003, has settled into low-level grousing. Restaurant and bar owners concede that their business did not suffer as much as they had feared. City data showed that bar and restaurant receipts actually rose 8.7 percent from the previous year.

Patches of resistance still remain. Audrey Silk of Brooklyn stumps for smoker's rights on the Web site of her organization, New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, or NYC CLASH.

"I don't go out at all now," she said. Philadelphia "business owners better wise up." The city's data, she said, include food sales and don't say how bars that sold mostly drinks have fared.

"This is a busybody's law," she said.

Smoker Christina Lee said she enjoys not smelling like an ashtray after she goes out, but she thinks it has hurt the city's nightlife.

"I feel like New York is now Los Angeles, without the good weather," she said. "The ban really takes away from the city."

Even Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter, ticketed three times for smoking in his own office and once a vociferous critic of the ban, has quit smoking.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/11120288.htm

 

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The Global Battle to Butt out -ON

Globe and Mail Update By LINDA WAVERLEY Monday, March 7, 2005 Updated at 11:11 PM EST

Tobacco is the second major cause of death in the world. Tobacco consumption is the cause of premature death for nearly five million people every year, one in 10 of all adult deaths worldwide. If current smoking patterns continue, tobacco use will cause some 10 million deaths each year by 2020. But now, a precedent-setting international treaty exists to fight this global tobacco epidemic.

The World Health Organization recently enacted its first global treaty to address a health issue. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), designed to reduce the devastating health and economic impacts of tobacco use throughout the world, became part of international law on Feb. 27, a historic day for global public health. Its provisions are now legally binding for more than 40 countries, including Canada.

This treaty reflects the need for an integrated approach to tobacco control, with the ultimate aim of creating a global social environment that supports non-smoking as the norm. No one measure can create this shift; tobacco-control strategies must tackle the problem on many fronts.

Among other measures, the treaty sets international standards on tobacco price and tax increases, tobacco advertising and sponsorship, product labelling, illicit trade, and second-hand smoke. It also calls for mass communication of the health consequences of tobacco use and international co-operation to give governments greater access to research into socially and culturally appropriate tobacco-control programs.

In Canada, as in other developed countries, significant progress has been made in curbing tobacco use. But smoking continues to be more prevalent among the poor and the less-educated. Our youth continue to experiment with tobacco at rates that defy our best public-health efforts, and women's use of tobacco is still high in certain age groups. Smoking rates among indigenous people are similar to those in developing countries.

But the battle against tobacco is just beginning in other parts of the world, with multinational tobacco companies aggressively seeking new markets. In China, the smoking rate among adult men is already about 65 per cent. Smoking is almost a social necessity - offering a cigarette is a common part of any greeting between men.

While traditional prohibitions on smoking have kept women's rates low, in part a legacy of the Cultural Revolution when puffing tobacco was seen as the morally degenerate habit of Western women, smoking rates among Chinese women have risen from 1 per cent a decade ago to 5 per cent today.

Multinational tobacco companies, meanwhile, have returned to China in full force with the promise of new factories and aggressive marketing tactics that equate female emancipation with tobacco use. It's only a matter of time before smoking among women in China takes hold.

We have learned much about what works in tobacco control, and the treaty reflects this. We've seen that, when civil society, policy-makers and researchers work together, it's possible to move mountains.

Thailand, for example, has had uncommon success in resisting the plans of the multinational tobacco conglomerates, having won the right to impose some of the world's strictest tobacco controls at a 1990 hearing of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. In Canada, tobacco-control advocates have raised advocacy to an art form, effectively demanding and supporting precedent-setting tobacco-control legislation.

To be most effective, however, tobacco control must be global in its scope. Advertising bans in one country won't work if images are being broadcast by satellite across borders. Attempts to control tobacco smuggling will be limited without a regional approach. The treaty addresses issues that have cross-border implications in a co-ordinated and standardized way.

We must remember that, in Canada, we have seen dramatic shifts in the way tobacco is used and viewed. We have smoke-free workplaces; strong warnings on tobacco products; prohibitions on the sale of tobacco to minors. We still need to do more, but the extent to which tobacco is seen as a cultural norm in our society has fundamentally changed over the past 45 years.

Countries in the South are struggling to control communicable diseases such as AIDS and malaria. They are now facing an increasing burden of disease from non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer - diseases for which tobacco is a major risk factor.

The countries of the South should not be the next victims of the multinational tobacco companies. The WHO tobacco treaty represents an important way to move forward with a global approach to tobacco control.

Linda Waverley is executive director of Research for International Tobacco Control with Canada's International Development Research Centre.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050307.wweb-comment07/BNStory/National/

 

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RE: Klein's latest comment response -AB
I just about died laughing at Ralph Klein's latest smoking ban comment about how an 80-year-old man shouldn't have to change his habit of enjoying a smoke and a beer. Considering that this "poor old guy" would have been poisoning the air of anyone around him for all these decades, I find it hard to sympathize. The feeble excuses and justifications of glassy-eyed smokers are a great way to get my morning going. Instead of a coffee and a smoke, I have a coffee and a great chuckle. Keep 'em coming.
Perry Gangur
(The smokers will fight to their very last gasp.)

http://www.canoe.ca/CalgarySun/editorial.html#letters

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Press Release

The Puck & Beaver, a Canadian Pub, Gets "Smoked" by Durham Region Non-Smoking By-Law -ON

Ajax, Ontario - For Immediate Release

After almost four and a half years in business, the Puck & Beaver, a Canadian Pub,in Ajax is closing.

The Puck & Beaver joins over 20 bars, taverns and restaurants that have closed since the Durham Non-Smoking By-Law started on June 1st, 2004.

http://www.spectrum-entertainment.net/puckandbeaver/puckandbeaverpressrelease.pdf

The main site for business (many things in there) http://www.puckandbeaver.com/

 

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Puck and Beaver closing  -ON

Owner claims smoking bylaw reason for shutting doors
By Keith GilliganStaff Writer Feb 22, 2005

AJAX - The owner of the Puck and Beaver pub in Ajax is closing the establishment and blaming it on the Region's non-smoking bylaw.

"It wasn't RIDE programs. It wasn't hockey. It wasn't the economy. It was the smoking bylaw," Rob MacArthur says in a press release.

Mr. MacArthur, who's been a vocal critic of the bylaw since it came into effect June 1, 2004, says that between September 2004 and February 2005, the bar lost $300 to $1,000 most days.

He's closing Friday, Feb. 25.

The bylaw is the reason for the drop in business, he says in an interview.

"Oh yeah, positively. We never had to close early during the week. Since October, we've been closing at 9 or 10 during the week," he states.

Prior to the bylaw, Mr. MacArthur says he was making between $1,500 and $3,000 on Fridays and Saturdays. Since September, "we're rarely over $800.

"I don't see any relief in this. The days aren't bad. But nights, some nights we've had $50 in the till. We can't survive on that at all."

Mr. MacArthur has operated the bar for four years and says the business was "starting to break even or make money after three years of losses, which is normal for new businesses."

In his release, Mr. MacArthur says he's not against the bylaw, but was opposed to smoking being allowed at the Ajax branch of the Royal Canadian Legion, which is across the street from the Puck and Beaver. That leaves his business at a disadvantage, he says.

More than 20 bars, taverns and restaurants have closed since the bylaw started, he says. However, John Ingrao, manager of environmental health and legal activities with the Durham Region health department, said he would need more information to substantiate that claim.

"We have no idea how many bars have opened or closed," says Mr. Ingrao. "I don't have that sense."

He adds there's been a "98- or 99-per cent plus compliance ratio.

"What we've seen is a very high degree of compliance."

http://www.durhamregion.com/dr/regions/ajax/story/2588737p-3002151c.html

 

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First smoke-free fines levied -NB

CBC News Mar 7 2005 03:28 PM AST
MONCTON  —  A Moncton woman has the distinction of being the first person fined under New Brunswick's Smoke-Free Places Act.

Mandy Babineau, who manages Blondie's Bar, was charged with permitting smoking in a public place, not having signs indicating smoking was not permitted, and having ashtrays in a public place.

She pleaded guilty to the charges during an appearance on Monday.

The Crown attorney dropped two other charges against Babineau.

She was fined a total of $900 on the charges.

The province's no smoking legislation went into effect last October.

http://nb.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=nb-smoke20050307

 

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Move to ban youth smoking goes up in smoke -ON

Regional council votes down fining those 12 to 19
By Carly Foster Mar 8, 2005

DURHAM - Heath officials were swift to react to a now defeated regional council move to make it illegal for youth under 19 to smoke.

Shocked that 21 per cent of Durham youth aged 12 to 19 were smokers, Oshawa Councillor Robert Lutczyk brought forward a motion at a recent health and social services committee meeting that would make it illegal for young people to smoke.

"Why is it you're not allowed to sell to under 19-year-old youth... but they're allowed to have it?" he asked. "It's legal to do it, but it's only illegal for someone else to get it to you."

Coun. Lutczyk wanted the Province to make it illegal, under the Provincial Offences Act, for young people to smoke. This would have allowed municipal bylaw enforcement officers to ticket or fine youths caught smoking - the equivalent to getting caught speeding or illegally parking, he said.

"They (youth) are beyond the law, and they know it," Coun. Lutczyk said. "And that entices others to do it."

Several Durham health organizations said criminalizing smoking was the wrong way to go.

"We fundamentally disagree that youth should be considered criminals for this behaviour," said Vicky Olmstead, chairwoman of the Oshawa Community Health Centre, in a letter to regional council. "There is no evidence that youth possession legislation is effective in reducing use in this target population."

The Youth Centre in Ajax said in a letter that young people are the victims when it comes to smoking, and that focus should instead be on anti-tobacco education in schools and promoting smoke-free environments.

"To further victimize youth who are already at risk of becoming addicted to nicotine would add insult to injury," the letter said. "Please do not let this motion pass and, instead, choose to be an ally of our community's youth."

The move even reached Toronto, where a nursing student at the University of Toronto said lawmakers should look at alternatives to making youth smoking illegal, including banning retail cigarette displays.

While the motion was debated at a recent regional council meeting, Brock Coun. Larry O'Connor said making smoking illegal would just heighten the "bad boy image" of cigarettes and make them more appealing.

"Making them (young smokers) heroes in the eyes of their peers is not helping anyone in this situation," he said.

Tobacco companies should instead be the target, Coun. O'Connor said in an e-mail to fellow councillors.

The move was lost on the council floor in a 21 to 6 vote. Voting for the possible ban were Coun. Lutczyk, Oshawa councillors Joe Kolodzie and John Neal, Clarington Mayor John Mutton and Whitby councillors Pat Perkins and Joe Drumm.

http://www.durhamregion.com/dr/regions/durham/story/2622725p-3041455c.html

 

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Do you think it's time for a smoking ban in parks and other public places? -BC

The Province March 9, 2005

There's little doubt that smoking remains a big health problem in British Columbia. Though we boast the lowest smoking rate in Canada, each day an average of 15 British Columbians die from tobacco-related illnesses. These illnesses include strokes, heart disease and emphysema, as well as cancers of the throat, lungs and mouth.

That's why, in last month's Throne Speech, the B.C. government announced it wants to cut tobacco use by 10 per cent over the next five years.

Of course, it's not just smokers whose health is harmed by tobacco fumes. So-called second-hand smoke endangers others who breathe it in.

And it's easy to see why smoking in public is increasingly frowned upon. There's little more annoying to a non-smoking visitor to a park or sports fields than to be overwhelmed by cigarette smoke -- or marijuana smoke -- from passersby.

Some would argue, in fact, that it makes much more sense to allow smoking in private restaurants, bars and clubs than to allow it in public spaces.

After all, patrons at private establishments are there by choice. And, if they don't like the fact that people smoke in a particular bar, they can always take their business elsewhere -- where they don't.

But in parks and other government-controlled outdoor spaces, they have every right to feel entitled to fresh air and a smoke-free environment. At least that's what some government officials in California think. As of July 1, outdoor smoking will be banned at most of San Francisco's parks, tennis courts or softball fields. Fines for offenders will range up to $500 US.

And, on Vancouver Island, the health authority says it wants to end smoking entirely on all hospital grounds by this fall.

In Vancouver, chief medical health officer Dr. John Blatherwick says he is sympathetic to a smoking ban in public areas -- though, for the moment, he doesn't see it as a priority.

However, Blatherwick adds that he is hoping to convince the organizers of the 2010 Olympics to ban smoking at all public venues -- both indoors and outdoors.

Given that the Olympics are all about fitness, such a ban is a commendable idea.

In fact, it's such a commendable one, we think it should be tried sooner rather than later.

http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/news/editorial/story.html?id=9c18cfdd-85cf-4478-be4a-a58d52b44ee8

 

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Constitutional challenge threatened on smoke ban -SK

Saskatchewan News Network; with The StarPhoenix files Wednesday, March 09, 2005

REGINA -- Saskatchewan's hoteliers are threatening to launch a constitutional challenge of the provincial smoking ban, saying they aren't treated the same as First Nations bands and casinos.

"We have a charter of rights application we can take forward which is the unequal application of the law," Tom Mullin, Hotels Association of Saskatchewan executive vice-president, said Monday. "Once the First Nations announced they were not going to comply with the legislation, that just put a signal to us that the law doesn't apply to everyone."

However, Health Minister John Nilson said he is confident the law will withstand a charter challenge, as the existing law applies "to everybody."

"The concerns that arise (about unequal treatment) come from the way the Constitution is structured and the federal government delegating power under the Indian Act," Nilson told reporters in Saskatoon. "There may be some claim against the federal government, but possibly not against the provincial government."

Mullin said hoteliers feel they have been pushed to launch a charter challenge and can count on support from other members of the hospitality industry, such as brew pubs and licensed lounges. They will join the fight if a court challenge is launched, he said.

The association's lawyer, Alan McIntyre, said the challenge would relate to First Nations casinos and bingo halls, where smoking and alcohol consumption is still permitted.

"This is something not available in enclosed spaces for the members of the hotel association. So it is a huge concern. I'd say it has detrimentally affected their business," McIntyre said.

The Regina lawyer said those hotels near First Nations-owned casinos feel the biggest pinch. He said losses have ranged from five per cent to 30 per cent in bars.

Hotel and motel owners have complained about the government's unwavering stand against ventilated smoking rooms.

"They can keep bugs out of a service station garage using winds of 40 miles per hour with air currents," Mullin said. "To suggest there isn't equipment that will work in the hospitality industry is ludicrous."

Nilson said ventilated smoking rooms were considered, but dismissed, when the law was drafted. The government is not considering a policy change.

Hoteliers plan to rally at the legislature when the house resumes sitting on Monday.

http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/news/local/story.html?id=0f6f1614-59d8-4f31-936d-ce5b73411f9e

 

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Student debt, tobacco among main issues as CMA invades Parliament Hill  

By Patrick Sullivan

Who says doctors don't make house calls?

On Feb. 24, more than 30 CMA members, including physicians, residents and medical students, fanned out through the House of Commons to discuss the profession's political concerns with members of Parliament.

There was no shortage of issues to discuss:

- increasing debt loads facing medical students and residents;

- investment in tobacco stocks by the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) Investment Board;

- concern about human resources issues within health care and the impact on access to treatment;

- the international threat posed by avian flu and other public health threats.

Those issues and many more were raised during the CMA's Fifth Doctors in the House lobby day on Parliament Hill, when the visiting MDs met in groups of two or three with 27 MPs from all four parties.

Dr. Carolyn Bennett, a family physician and Liberal MP from Toronto who serves as federal minister of state for public health, told the visitors that lobbying efforts play a crucial role in today's politics. "It's hugely important that we hear your voices," she said, and pointed out that because of their lobbying, physicians "have had a key voice in the rebirth of public health" in Canada.

The CMA representatives who delivered messages Feb. 24 ranged from President Albert Schumacher to Ashley Waddington, president of the Canadian Federation of Medical Students.

Waddington was teamed with Dr. Louise Cloutier, a Nova Scotia FP who chairs the CMA Board of Directors, and they made an efficient tag team during their meetings with Liberal MP Michael Savage and NDP MP David Christopherson as they deftly switched from issue to issue.

When Waddington complained that the budget tabled Feb. 23 contained no help for medical students and residents facing rising debt loads, she found a willing listener in Savage, who chairs the Liberals postsecondary education caucus. He promised to write a letter to Finance Minister Ralph Goodale about the possibility of deferring residents' interest payments until their training is finished.

Cloutier then pointed out that even though the 2005 budget contained funding to support the licensure of foreign graduates in areas such as medicine, Canada cannot continue poaching physicians from countries fighting to retain them: it must seek a made-in-Canada solution. In terms of issues, agreed Savage, "education is the next health."

Savage and Waddington then met NDP MP David Christopherson of Hamilton. "You have a mortgage before you start to practise," he said of the debt load facing Waddington and other medical students, and he said his party supported CMA efforts to end CPP investments in tobacco companies.

Cloutier also raised the access-to-care issue, and noted that it could get worse because of the approaching "perfect storm": an aging population combined with an aging physician population.

The impact of the meetings became apparent later in the day, when Savage told the Commons of the CMA's presence on Parliament Hill that day. He also noted that the association had issued its first public warning on the hazards of tobacco use more than 50 years ago and urged the government to "take the necessary decisions" to end investments in tobacco stocks by the CPP. Earlier that week, NDP health critic Judy Wayslycia-Leis had introduced a motion in the Commons calling for an end to such investments.

The CMA representatives were welcomed to the Hill during an early-morning breakfast by a cadre of Senators and MPs that included Senator Noel Kinsella, opposition leader in the Senate, Bennett, Wayslycia-Leis, Conservative foreign affairs critic Stockwell Day, Speaker Peter Milliken, and Liberal MP Bernard Patry, a family physician.

Dr. Marilyn Trenholme-Counsell, a senator from New Brunswick who helped Kinsella welcome the CMA members to the Senate, had the best line of the day. "This is the perfect time to ask if there's a doctor in the House," she said.

http://www.cma.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/10018232/la_id/1.htm

 

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Cheap smokes hurt, Imperial says

Profit level threatened; Revenues, shipments and market share drop but cigarette maker's profits hit $424 million

The Gazette NICOLAS VAN PRAET March 4, 2005

Forget smoking bans or potential class-action lawsuit payouts, Canada's biggest tobacco company says the most measurable threat to its bottom line right now is simply cheaper cigs.

Not only are Canadians continuing to buy less expensive tax-free tobacco through illegal channels as its availability increases, they're also switching from their regular brands to lower-priced legal alternatives in greater numbers, says Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd.

"The corporation expects to remain profitable in the future," Montreal-based Imperial disclosed in its yearend management discussion and analysis filing, made public yesterday.

"However, the level of profitability will depend on the extent to which adult consumers continue to buy tobacco products through legal channels and on the evolution of (so-called

value-for-money products)."

Over the past four years, weighted-average cigarette taxes across Canada have more than doubled, Imperial states in its regulatory filing.

It says that's had many consequences, including more thefts of its products last year, more cigarette smuggling and counterfeiting, and fewer sales for retailers.

"The situation has worsened."

Imperial, owned by British American Tobacco PLC, cut its workforce and closed certain facilities as part of a major corporate restructuring it began in 2003. It closed its Montreal production plant, transferring the manufacturing to existing Ontario factories.

Fewer charges related to the reorganization boosted the company's net profit in 2004, to $424 million from $242 million in 2003.

Overall however, net revenues fell 21 per cent to $1.5 billion and shipments fell 13 per cent during 2004. Imperial's share of the Canadian cigarette market also fell to 57.3 per cent, a 5.7-per-cent decline.

The historical decline in smoking is one reason for the drop, Imperial said. But increased sales of value-for-money cigarettes by Imperial's competitors is another reason.

More smokers are buying lower-priced legal alternatives to their regular brands.

In fact, growth in the value-for-money tobacco category has more than doubled. Last year, it represented an estimated 29.8 per cent of the overall Canadian industry, up from 12.7 per cent in 2003.

Imperial's share of the value-for-money market is lower than in the premium category, where its du Maurier and Player's brands boast higher volumes and profit margins.

But it has been forced to respond to demand. It repositioned its Peter Jackson, Matinee and Medallion brands as cheaper products recently, more than doubling its share of the value-for-money category as a result.

Canada's tobacco industry as a whole shipped an estimated 6.1-per-cent fewer cigarettes, roll-your-own products and tobacco sticks in 2004.

Two recent events in Quebec could have longer-term implications for Imperial.

In January, the Quebec government indicated it is heading toward a total ban on smoking in public places like restaurants and bars.

In February, a Quebec Superior Court judge cleared the way for two potentially crippling class-action lawsuits against Imperial and rivals JTI-Macdonald Corp. and Rothmans Benson & Hedges Inc. The judge stunned observers with his categorical comment that there is "no useful purpose" for cigarettes, thereby questioning the validity of the tobacco industry. Imperial has since vowed to mount "a vigorous and determined defense" in court.

http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?id=d554bb68-13d8-4242-bee2-79503bf0bae9

 

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Smoking ban taking toll on Legion, president says
CBC News Last Updated Feb 28 2005 10:17 AM CST

SASKATOON – Attendance at a Saskatoon branch of the Royal Canadian Legion has taken a nose-dive since the city banned smoking in public places.

The Nutana Legion is running a $17,000 deficit and officials with the branch say the red ink started last July when the city bylaw took effect.

Since then, the province's bylaw banning smoking in most enclosed public places has also taken effect.

According to Gerry Tait, president of the branch, there are some nights when the Legion doesn't get a single customer.

Tait, a Korean War veteran, said the branch has had to scale back hours. It has also had to stop donating to several charities, including an air cadet squadron which had been promised $4,000.

"We are abiding by the law, but surely to heavens they can give some people that have smoked all their lives a bit of freedom," he said.

Tait says allowing smoking on patios or in ventilated rooms is the only thing that will help.

City councilor Glen Penner said there's not much the city can do.

"The provincial legislation would supersede council's bylaw and very clearly the provincial law is that there's no smoking indoors, period," Penner said.

"I can't imagine a circumstance where that would be changed."

Penner said studies show business eventually comes back as more non-smokers pick up the slack at bars and restaurants.

But Tait doubts that will happen at the Legion. He says even the non-smokers have stopped coming because they can't hang out with their smoking buddies.

http://sask.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=legion-smoking050228

 

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Council votes against inclusion of smoking rooms  -AB

by Kevin Gill  Wednesday March 09, 2005

Jasper Booster — After twice deferring the second reading of the smoking control bylaw for Jasper, last week municipal council approved that reading and it did not include an addition to allow for designated smoking rooms in bars.
At the last council meeting, on March 1, discussions on the issue began with Coun. Mike Day putting forward a motion to include smoking rooms in the bylaw.
He said he believed smoking rooms could do what the bylaw is intended to do - namely to mitigate second hand smoke exposure, as the bylaw’s preamble states.
“Smoking rooms can in fact achieve that by taking second hand smoke away from people who are not interested in inhaling it,” he said.
He added that he did not know exactly where other councillors stood on the issue and thought it was a good idea to vote on whether or not to include smoking rooms before council got into lengthy discussions on the standards for local smoking rooms.
But when his motion was put to vote he was the only one in favour of it, with councillors Joe Couture, Brian Nesbitt, Andy Walker and Gloria Kongsrud all voting against it.
“I’m not ready to support designated smoking rooms at this time,” said Nesbitt. “I have concerns that they may be needed if we experience problems with cluster smoking outside on the sidewalks. But I’m not sure that I want to allow them for reasons that have been brought up...we talked about a level playing field and we talked about fairness. I feel we should leave it out of our smoking bylaw and re-visit it at a time further down the road.”
Other councillors showed support for that point of view and it was reflected in the next vote council took. Kongsrud put forward a motion to read the bylaw, as written, for a second time and the motion was approved unanimously.
With second reading in the books, the bylaw now goes to Parks Canada for certification and will likely be back on council’s agenda for third and final reading at its next regular meeting on March 15.

http://www.jasperbooster.com/story.php?id=147350

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Smoke-free bar gets mainly positive feedback -AB

by Kevin Gill Wednesday March 09, 2005

Jasper Booster — One local bar has been happy with its decision to go smoke-free a month and half before the town’s smoking bylaw is expected to come into effect.
Rico Damota, manager of the De’d Dog Bar and Grill, was at the most recent municipal council meeting and spoke to council about the establishment’s observations since officially going to a non-smoking environment on Feb. 25.
“The response has been positive, not only from our regular clientele, but from many other locals and especially our staff,” he said.
He said that about half of the bar’s regular smokers have gone to other establishments for the time being while the remainder do not seem to mind the change, with many commenting that as a result they are smoking less overall.
While some smokers have complained about the change, Damota said some of these people have also stated that “this is the way of the future and we’ll have to deal with it.”
One of the arguments in favour of smoking rooms in recent weeks was the potential for crowds of smokers to gather outside bars, congesting pedestrian traffic on the sidewalk or access to establishments by non-smokers. Damota said that has been less of a problem than the staff anticipated.
“On average, for 120 people in the bar, there were about three to six people outside at any given time,” he said. “At no time did the bar clientele obstruct pedestrians passing by.”
He added that while the bar supports the bylaw without a provision for smoking rooms, council should discuss making an addition to the bylaw to make proprietors responsible for cleanliness outside their establishments.
“The minor drawback to having people smoking outside the building is that not everyone uses ashtrays to butt out,” he said.

http://www.jasperbooster.com/story.php?id=147353

 

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Movie Theatre Teams Up With Anti-Smoking Group  -ON

Bob Perreault Wednesday, March 9, 2005

A local anti-smoking group is teaming up with a family movie house, The Rainbow Cinemas at the St. Laurent Centre, to stem the presence of smoking on the silver screen.

Anti-smoking activist Kiersten Fu is making a damning indictment of tobacco companies and Hollywood accusing them of collaborating in using movies to recruit smokers.

Fu and the student team against tobacco want all movies with smoking rated R saying the presence of smoking on film is too influential with youth.

When asked about restricting violence or sex, the group says that's different.

http://www.cfra.com/headlines/index.asp?cat=1&nid=25689

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Fuzzy math (economic studies) -American Lung Association

*Notice they never mention that all their studies have fast food included in the stats

http://www.lungusa.org/site/apps/s/link.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=203674

 

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NIH sees fight on ethics rules

Scientists seek to challenge regulations restricting stock ownership, academic consulting | By Ted Agres

Senior scientists and others at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are preparing legal challenges to recently announced ethics regulations barring them from owning stock in drug and biotech companies and from consulting with universities and academic institutions.

The tough ethics regulations, announced February 1 by director Elias A. Zerhouni, "substantially overreach and will severely and irreparably compromise the NIH's mission," wrote the Assembly of Scientists, an organization representing senior NIH intramural researchers.

"These new regulations will discourage talented, innovative scientists from staying at or being recruited to the NIH, and preclude scientists already at the NIH from participating as full members of the scientific community," 18 members of the Assembly of Scientists argued in the February 22 issue of The NIH Catalyst, a newsletter circulated on the Bethesda, Md., campus.

The new rules require most intramural scientists, all senior officials, and those having contracting and grant-making authority to divest of all stock in drug and biotech companies. Other NIH employees are limited to no more than $15,000 in stock in any one biotech or drug company. The rules bar all NIH employees from consulting with or accepting payments from pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies as well as from universities, hospitals, and research institutes that receive NIH funds.

The regulations, which go into effect in early April, are intended to address concerns raised after media reports and congressional investigations last year revealed that some NIH scientists and officials had received lucrative consulting contracts, fees, and stock options from pharmaceutical and biotech companies, many of which had dealings with the agency.

Some groups of NIH scientists have been meeting with lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union to see if that organization would be willing to challenge the regulations on First Amendment Freedom of Speech issues. The Assembly of Scientists plans to engage a lawyer next week to represent their issues with Health and Human Services officials and possibly to seek a court injunction to delay implementing the rules. The group also is also developing alternative proposals.

Most of the NIH scientists concerned about the issue "are totally in favor of rules to prevent conflicts of interest, but we don't want the rules to be so restrictive as to avoid academic interactions," said Abner L. Notkins, chief of experimental medicine at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. "We don't want to see the NIH deteriorate as a result of overly restrictive regulations," he told The Scientist yesterday. Notkins is not a member of the Assembly of Scientists executive committee.

The NIH Fellows Committee, a group representing more than 3000 fellows at the agency, recommended that trainees, fellows, and temporary researchers be exempted from the new regulations. This would allow them to receive money to attend conferences, workshops, and other professional development activities.

The Assembly of Scientists' executive committee discussed their concerns with Zerhouni and other officials yesterday (February 24). Zerhouni encouraged the scientists to report how the new regulations would personally affect them and to relay specific information about problems in recruitment and retention.

"There was almost no discussion about consulting," said Michael Gottesman, deputy director for intramural research who also attended the meeting. "Most people are aware that it's impossible to do that at NIH now," he told The Scientist.

The backlash from intramural scientists comes as the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post reported this week that 50 to 80% of some 100 suspected cases of improper consulting activities have been cleared by NIH investigators.

In a guest editorial in The NIH Catalyst, Zerhouni characterized the agency's year-long conflict-of-interest controversy as a "divisive issue," a "painful episode," and an "unfortunate chapter in our history."

"I want to encourage a wide, direct, and open dialogue with all of NIH's staff to carefully evaluate" the new rules "for any unintended consequences or undue hardships—which I will do my best to address," Zerhouni wrote.

Links for this article
T. Agres. "NIH bans all consulting," The Scientist, February 2, 2005.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20050202/02/ 

"Supplemental Standards of Ethical Conduct and Financial Disclosure Requirements for Employees of the Department of Health and Human Services"
http://ethics.od.nih.gov/LawReg/FR-New-5501-5502.pdf 

Assembly of Scientists: Conflict of Interest Statement
http://homepage.mac.com/assemblyofscientists/ 

T. Agres, "US lawmakers grill Zerhouni," The Scientist, May 13, 2004.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20040513/04 

National Institutes of Health Fellows Committee
http://felcom.nih.gov

http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20050225/01/

 

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Posted on Wed, Mar. 09, 2005

Haze of opinion hangs over the plan to ban

By Rory Sweene Inquirer Staff Writer

Jim McCarty says a citywide smoking ban will help him quit. Quit going to Philadelphia's bars and restaurants, that is.

"Instead of coming here, I'll go straight home after work," said McCarty, a 48-year-old construction foreman from Palmyra.

News of the impending City Council vote to ban smoking in almost all public places, including bars and restaurants, didn't sit well yesterday with McCarty and other smokers at Kelliann's, a neighborhood bar on the corner of Spring Garden and 16th Streets.

The vote on the ban, which is sponsored by nine of the city's 17 Council members, is scheduled for March 17.

The smell of cigarettes and ashtrays full of evidence warned of carcinogenic fumes at Kelliann's, but a palpable crosswind through the tunnel-like taproom and swirling ceiling fans belied a ban already in effect.

At the well-worn bar, McCarty and his fellow construction workers good-naturedly fired arguments at one another. The smokers' objections ranged from "taxation without representation" to a lack of "comfort time," while nonsmokers offered health-related defenses.

In the end, democracy ruled, as the patrons, smokers and nonsmokers alike, decided there should be choice.

"Why can't there be some bars that are deemed as smoking and some that are nonsmoking?" asked McCarty, who said he liked to kick back and smoke at a bar after being "beat to death at work all day."

Len Fernandez, a 27-year-old smoker from Northeast Philadelphia, agreed, saying the ban would eliminate that down-time.

"You won't be able to be comfortable," Fernandez said. "Every time you want to light up, you'll have to go outside. You might as well drink a beer at home."

Even the bartender, whom the ban is meant to protect from hours of second-hand smoke inhalation, took issue with it.

"If [the smoke] is that big of a problem, don't get into the business," said bartender Brenna McGinnis, 23, who lives in the Fairmount area and smokes.

Besides, she added, it's hypocritical to ban smoking at places where drinking is still legal.

"The two go hand in hand. They're both bad for you," she said.

Pat Ahern, 38, a nonsmoker from Gibbsboro, N.J., agreed that secondhand smoke came with that kind of workplace. Though he was drinking drafts with his coworkers rather than pouring them yesterday, he had been a bartender for more than three years and switched to full-time work in construction "not even a year ago."

"I like bartending. The only part I don't like is the smoke, but that's the business you're in," Ahern said. "It's kind of like if you're a celebrity. You don't like paparazzi following you around, but that's part of the job."

According to smokefreeworld.com, various bans on smoking in public places or workplaces exist in part or all of 30 states and most of Washington, except in Congress.

The potential ban is a sobering thought for Dennis and John O'Connor, owners of two Kelliann's bars. They are thinking about opening a third bar in Northern Liberties. If the ban passes, they will open it in Chester County, instead.

"I know my business and I know my customers. A lot of [them] come from the suburbs. I expect initially I'll lose 30 percent of my business" at the Kelliann's on Spring Garden Street, Dennis O'Connor said, adding that he would have to lay off some of the nine employees there.

One exception to the ban is for businesses that have sales of 15 percent or more related to tobacco products.

To avoid the ban, Dennis O'Connor said he might try to increase his sales of tobacco products, which now are about 8 percent of his business.

"I'd sell cartons at cost if I had to," he said.

As the wind blew and freezing rain and snow fell outside, McCarty puffed on his cigarette, gripped his glass and wondered what he would do if the ban went into effect. "I just hope they provide us a tent," he said.

Contact staff writer Rory Sweeney at 215-854-2972 or rsweeney@hphillynews.com. To read the Council ordinance and check states that ban smoking, along with other information, go to http://go.philly.com/smoking.

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/dining/11085348.htm

 

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Controversial Study Links Second-Hand Smoke, Breast Cancer

An NBC4 Health ReportMarch 9, 2005

LOS ANGELES -- A new report about second-hand smoke is causing a lot of controversy, but scientists are paying attention because the group behind the study has been right before.

The report, which is not final, is from the same group that first linked second-hand smoke to heart disease.

The 1,200-page report drafted by scientists at the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment draws on more than 1,000 other studies of the effects of second-hand smoke and details a range of health problems caused by exposure to it. These included respiratory complications, heart disease and several cancers, many of which have been extensively documented.

Scientists also found that women exposed to second-hand smoke have up to a 90-percent higher risk of breast cancer than women who are not exposed to second-hand smoke. The World Health Organization and other groups that looked at the same evidence found no link to breast cancer.

"As new studies come in, it's quite possible all these agencies will be persuaded this is rock solid," said Dr. Michael Thun of the American Cancer Society. "This is the first to come to that conclusion."

The Air Resources Board gave more weight to animal studies. Recent human studies better screened women for long-term exposure to tobacco smoke.

It's a tought case to sell. Scientists have yet to prove that active smoking causes breast cancer.

"Some in the scientific community are uncomfortable with the balance of evidence here, and not perhaps quite so convinced as the state of California that it's leaning strongly toward the positive," said Dr. Jonathan Samet, senior scientific editor for Surgeon General's Report.

Cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds claimed in a statement that the science is flawed. The company claimed researchers made errors, misinterpreted data and sometimes failed to explain how they analyzed information.

Tobacco company Philip Morris said officials are still deciding whether to comment on the study.

The study might have a broad impact on cancer research and antismoking regulations. The Surgeon General's report on second-hand smoke is scheduled for release later this year.

The report has been examined for several months and a scientific review panel could approve the findings as early as next Monday. The report would then be submitted to the Air Resources Board, which sets controls for air pollution in the state. If the board determines that second-hand smoke is a so-called toxic air contaminant, it can seek to regulate it.

Terry Pechacek, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control office on smoking and health, said in USA Today on Wednesday that the report will fuel a national debate on the link between smoking and breast cancer.

"I have to say without reservation it will stimulate continued and accelerated scientific evaluation of the smoking and breast cancer issue," Pechacek said.

In public comments to the board, Sanford Barsky, a UCLA researcher writing on behalf of the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company, said the report "either ignores mentioning or does not give the appropriate weight to studies which refute this association" between second-hand smoke and breast cancer.

http://www.nbc4.tv/health/4270434/detail.html

 

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Some pushing for smoking ban at Atlantic City casinos

TRENTON, N.J.March 9, 2005, 05:14 PM

If New Jersey lawmakers plan to make restaurants and bars go smoke-free, they should also include Atlantic City casinos.

That's the opinion of restaurant industry officials and others whose businesses would be affected by the proposal.

The Senate Health Committee is poised to take up the legislation, the New Jersey Smoke-Free Air Act, on Monday.

It would ban smoking in all indoor public areas, including workplaces, restaurants and bars. But casinos, fraternal organizations, private clubs and tobacco shops would be exempt.

An Assembly version of the legislation would extend the ban to the casinos.

So the restaurant officials plan to attend the health committee's hearing to press for the Senate bill to do likewise.

http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3054521&nav=8faOXI7M

 

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BAT fined over Italian smoker's death

Wed Mar 9, 2005 9:50 PM GMT

ROME (Reuters) - A Rome court has ruled that the Italian arm of British American Tobacco must pay 200,000 euros (139, 120 pounds) in damages to the family of a lung cancer victim, the first such ruling in Italy.

The appeals court ruled against BAT on Wednesday in a case arising from the death of Mario Stalteri in 1991.

The court overturned an earlier ruling which had acquitted Ente Italiano Tabacchi (ETI), accused by Stalteri's family of failing to provide adequate warnings about the risks of smoking.

BAT bought ETI in 2003 for 2.3 billion euros.

The sentence is likely to be seen as part of a growing anti-smoking drive in Italy, which in January introduced a law to ban smoking in indoor public places.

In Western Europe only Ireland and Norway have similarly strict bans, introduced last year.

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2005-03-09T215014Z_01_DEN978395_RTRUKOC_0_ITALY-SMOKING.xml 

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Pennsylvania Attorney General Corbett's budget remarks to the General Assembly

March 8, 2005 -- The following is the text of Attorney General Tom Corbett's budget remarks to members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly:
Introduction
Thank you for the opportunity to present our budget for the Office of Attorney General.

As you may know, the Attorney General is the chief law enforcement and the chief legal officer in Pennsylvania. The Attorney General's Office is responsible for the investigation and prosecution of organized crime, illegal drugs, public corruption, and a variety of other criminal investigations such as insurance fraud, environmental crimes and Medicaid fraud.
The Attorney General's Office is also responsible for consumer protection and civil actions on behalf of the Commonwealth. Our Bureau of Consumer Protection handles more than 45,000 consumer complaints a year.
The Commonwealth, and its agencies and officials are sued about 75 times per week. At least half of these lawsuit present challenges to state law or policy, major disputes over tax liability or substantial claims for monetary damages. These cases are handled by attorneys in the Attorney General's Civil Law Division.
The budget I am requesting is a bare bones maintenance budget with a request for a small increase for fighting crimes against children and also for enforcement of the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement.
Child Predator Unit
Let me take a moment to discuss with you a growing problem in our state - child sexual predators - who affect constituents in every one of your districts. When I served as Attorney General nine years ago, I created the Attorney General's Child Sexual Exploitation Task Force, a unit specifically designed to arrest child pornographers as well as investigate and capture child predators before they strike by using proactive, undercover operations. During the past eight years, the task force has been very successful under the leadership of Mike Fisher and Jerry Pappert. With only two agents assigned to the unit, in just the last three years they arrested nearly 60 predators and have a 100 percent conviction rate. However, because of the inadequate manpower, the unit has been limited to conducting undercover operations in the Harrisburg area. The growth of the Internet over the past nine years has been astronomical, regrettably these predators use the Internet as their primary means of contacting and communicating with their young victims. And, with the growth of the Internet over the past eight years, the problem of sexual predators has increased tremendously. Cases of sexual predators entering teen and preteen chat rooms on the Internet are common place and there is an explosion of child pornography on the Internet.
 

Let me share with you for a moment some startling statistics that will drive this point home:
# The Internet Filter Review, an online publication that is dedicated to protecting children from pornography on the Internet, has estimated that there are 100,000 web sites offering illegal child pornography. They also report that the average age of exposure to Internet pornography is 11-years-old.
# The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that one in five girls and one in ten boys are sexually exploited before they reach adulthood.
# One in five children, ages 10 to 17, received unwanted sexual solicitations online, according to the Youth Internet Safety Survey conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice.
In order for law enforcement to stay one step ahead of the Internet and sexual predators, we want to widen the scope of the Attorney General's task force into a larger, broader statewide "Child Predator Unit." With a larger Child Predator Unit, we can increase the pursuit of those in our state, or those who would come into Pennsylvania, who seek to sexually exploit or otherwise prey upon and steal the innocence of our children, effectively preventing children from becoming victims of crime.
The reconfigured unit would be staffed with a complement of 10 personnel. In addition to investigating and prosecuting the cases, the agents and attorneys will also create a training program and teach young people and their parents, how to avoid being a victim of a sexual predator. Educating parents and young people about the dangers of sexual predators is extremely important. When I previously served as Chairman of the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, we worked with the Governor's Partnership for Safe Children to develop a training program for cyber safety using interactive CD's. Our training will be similar, but we will also have the agents who catch the predators in classrooms and churches teaching and warning parents and young people about these predators and the tactics they use.
Tobacco Enforcement

The next item I would like to address is the Tobacco Settlement Agreement Act. As you know, in 1999 Pennsylvania was scheduled to receive up to $11.3 billion over 25 years as part of the settlement of our lawsuit against Big Tobacco. This act gives tobacco companies the opportunity to join the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, which would direct them to make annual payments to the Commonwealth and to abide by restrictions on advertising and promotional activities.
If a tobacco company decides not to join, the Act requires them to make escrow payments based on their sales in Pennsylvania. If either the participating or non-participating companies do not comply, the Tobacco Enforcement Section of the Attorney General's Office is responsible for taking legal action against them.
The Office of Attorney General, through our Tobacco Enforcement Section, is responsible for "diligent enforcement" of the Tobacco Settlement Agreement Act.
In addition, the Tobacco Product Manufacturer Directory Act, which became fully effective in April 2004, requires our office to maintain a directory of manufacturers and their brands of tobacco which are approved for sale.
The Tobacco Enforcement Section regularly monitors cigarette wholesalers and retailers for compliance with the law, and takes enforcement action when violations are found.
In order for our office to continue the diligent enforcement of these statutes, and to ensure that companies comply with the public health provisions of the Master Settlement Agreement, we need to increase the staffing in the Tobacco Law Enforcement Section to include an additional attorney and clerk at an annual cost of $150,000.
By the way, the Office of Attorney General Tobacco Enforcement Section does not receive any money from the Master Settlement Agreement.
Why is it critical that we continue to actively pursue those not complying with the law? Simply put, if Pennsylvania fails to diligently enforce the Tobacco Settlement Agreement Act, our tobacco payment will be reduced.
This is a case where we need additional manpower to do our job so that Pennsylvania continues to get its fair share of the money under the Master Settlement Agreement. You need to spend a little to ensure you continue to get billions.
Witness Relocation Program
Another request in our budget is for our Witness Relocation Program, which began in 2002 and received federal funding since its inception. This program was initiated by Mike Fisher in response to some brutal murders where we needed to relocate the witnesses or the charges would have been dropped.
Senator Arlen Specter helped secure a federal grant to initiate the program, but that grant has nearly run its course.
Our Witness Relocation Program is not just an Attorney General program, it is used by District Attorneys and municipal police to quickly move or permanently relocate a witness and their family. Their removal from harms way ensures that they can then testify in felony cases, the majority of which are homicides.
In the three years since the start of the Witness Relocation Program, two hundred and six witnesses have been relocated. Of the two hundred and six cases, nearly 60 percent have been homicides or attempted homicides. Without the program, in all likelihood, the perpetrators would have gone free and many of them would have literally gotten away with murder.
My budget request includes four hundred and thirty-seven thousand dollars to replace the lost funding for this program which is so valuable in convicting dangerous, violent felons.
General Government Operations
Let me take a few minutes to let you know that my number one priority as Attorney General will be fighting drugs in your neighborhood. As you know, when you created the Attorney General's Office with the Commonwealth Attorneys Act, you gave the greatest amount of jurisdiction to our Bureau of Narcotics Investigation and you provided more resources and manpower to investigate and prosecute drug dealers than any other function in the office.
Of particular concern to me, and I know to many of you, is the growing use of methamphetamine or meth cases. I know that you are considering legislation that would put restrictions on the precursors of meth, such as ephedrine.