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Friday, November 12, 2004
Do You Want To Kick Butt On a Smokin' New Reality Show? - Casting call
We want 5 nicotine addicted 20-35 year olds with the urge to kick the habit to be part of a new reallity serieson the Knowledge network.
Shooting dates Jan 19 - may15, 2005
Burnaby, BC - Knowledge Network's new reality TV series called Kick Butt is smokin'. This documentary series will follow five quitters (current smokers who want to give up the nasty habit of smoking) that are ready to fight the urge to light up in front of the camera. This could be your chance to Kick Butt, once and for all.
Throughout the series, viewers will meet the participant's friends and families and find out just what they think about smoking. The show provides the cast with a resident psychologist who is a smoking cessation specialist as well as other medical experts who will weigh in on each participant's progress. Watch as each of the five go through various stages of withdrawal, and celebrate with them as they reach each smokeless milestone. As key targets are reached, contests and incentives will be provided to keep the participants motivated to reach their ultimate goal of quitting smoking for good.
Kick Butt is funded in part by Health Canada, the British Columbia Lung Association and the Kaiser Foundation.
Knowledge Network's mission is to deliver high quality, relevant, credible, and compelling educational programming accessible to all British Columbians via TV and the Web. As BC's educational broadcaster, they also offer access to targeted audiences for educators who provide the information British Columbians need to adapt to their changing world.
http://kickbutt-tv.com/
Discount cigarettes a reasonable concession, says N.S. doc
Though discount cigarettes are becoming a growing option for smokers not willing and able to pay for their old brands, a Nova Scotia doctor says it's not neccesarily a problem.
There's a lot of different ways to feed a tobacco addiction these days. You can buy a pack of twenty cigarettes, or twenty-five. You can choose from King-size, light, menthol, un-filtered. You can roll your own, or chew it.
And since tobacco taxes have increased over the past few years, you can pick from a variety of discount brands, made with lower-grade tobacco.
Two weeks ago, the chief executive of Rothmans Inc., one of the Canada's largest tobacco companies, predicted that as taxes on cigarettes increased smokers would turn to discount brands. One physician in Nova Scotia says the trend toward discount cigarettes isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Dr. Gerry Brosky, a family physician and chair of Working Group on Tobacco Issues, a Nova Scotia-based anti-smoking iniative, says taxing cigarettes is an ethical dilemma because many people addicted to tobacco are low-income earners. He says discount cigarettes are a reasonable concession to make when you keep that in mind. &qng." Brosky says that taxation will work only if linked with legislation to make smoking "not normal, not acceptable."
Brad Kenny, a Dartmouth native, says he's never had to sacrifice anything else for cigarettes, but admits to being careful with his money so he can still afford to smoke. He smoked DeMaurier Light for seven years, and says he switched when his brand started costing over ten bucks a pack. " I switched to Peter Jackson's in June. None of my friends smoke their old brands anymore. We all had to switch."
Kenny says he didn't consider quitting when taxes went up, but he wants to quit now. "The cigarettes I smoke are disgusting. I used to smoke because I loved it," he says. "Now I just smoke because I'm addicted."
"More is better"
Catherine Cole, Public Awareness Coordinator for the Coalition for a Smoke-Free Nova Scotia, says not to feel sorry for tobacco companies like Rothman's, who reported lower profits after last spring's tax increase. "The tobacco industry will always make money. They sell discount cigarettes but they'll sell more, because they're cheaper."
The tobacco companies weren't the only one worrying about a dip in income due to high cigarette taxes. Diana Elcheikh owns a corner store in Halifax. She says she's noticed most of her regular customers have switched from premium brands, like DeMaurier and Players, to discount cigarettes, such as Number 7, Peter Jackson's, or Canadian Classics.
Elcheikh says she makes less money on the cheaper packs, but it all evens out: "Even though it's nine cents less profit per pack, people buy more of the cheaper cigarettes. So we make more profit, eventually. More is better." She says that cigarettes, along with lotto, are what keep her in business. "Without cigarettes, there'd be no corner stores."
Taxes still have desired effect
Brosky says that even though it seems the tobacco companies found a loophole in the tax legislation, the problem really lays with where the tax money is going. "Nova Scotia makes around $130 million a year from cigarette tax. They spend about 1 per cent of that on tobacco programming." Brosky says that taxation will work only if linked with legislation to make smoking "not normal, not acceptable."
While discount cigarettes do give smokers another option rather than paying up, but it seems the high taxes are still having the desired effect. Kenny says he wouldn't be quitting if his favorite brand was still affordable.
"Put it this way," he says. "If DeMaurier was still eight dollars a pack, I wouldn't be thinking about quitting."
http://novanewsnet.ukings.ns.ca/nova_news_3588_3269.html
New treatment targets smokers with panic disorder
Posted on Friday, November 12, 2004 @ 10:30 AM PST by bjs
Not everyone who tries to quit the habit on the Great American Smokeout Nov. 18 will have the same odds of success. The 2.4 million Americans who have panic disorders not only smoke at a disproportionately high rate--about 40 percent vs. 24 percent of the general population--they also have a harder time quitting and relapse more often. Another 5 percent of American smokers--2.4 million more people--may develop panic-related symptoms or even panic disorder when they try to quit. Interventions such as nicotine replacement therapy and counseling don't address their symptoms, but new programs pioneered by University of Vermont psychologists are offering hope.
From University of Vermont:
Burning anxiety: New treatment targets smokers with panic disorder
Not everyone who tries to quit the habit on the Great American Smokeout Nov. 18 will have the same odds of success. The 2.4 million Americans who have panic disorders not only smoke at a disproportionately high rate--about 40 percent vs. 24 percent of the general population--they also have a harder time quitting and relapse more often. Another 5 percent of American smokers--2.4 million more people--may develop panic-related symptoms or even panic disorder when they try to quit. Interventions such as nicotine replacement therapy and counseling don't address their symptoms, but new programs pioneered by University of Vermont psychologists are offering hope.
Research suggesting that smoking often precedes panic disorder and may increase risks of developing the malady led Michael Zvolensky, assistant professor of psychology and director of UVM's Anxiety Health and Research Laboratory, to pioneer new prevention and treatment programs now being duplicated at other institutions. Participants learn to deal with their panic-related symptoms through gradual exposure, coping strategies and mentally correcting illogical fears.
''Once conditioning has happened, you can't undo it,'' says Zvolensky, who initiated the programs. ''We don't try to remove panic-related symptoms, but we offer an alternative model to teach people to tolerate and/or alleviate symptoms.''
Smokers with panic disorder ''appear to be super-motivated to quit,'' says Zvolensky, ''but they also seem to have a harder time quitting, and are more likely to relapse.'' That's not hopeful news, considering that more than 90 percent of smokers in the general population who quit on their own and up to 85 percent who attend traditional treatment programs relapse within a year.
Zvolensky believes that mental health professionals have largely ignored cigarette smoking. Little is understood of how smoking relates to anxiety disorders other than panic disorder, but studies indicate that a history of heavy smoking may increase the chance of developing a variety of emotional disorders.
As a result of his research in the United States and Russia, Zvolensky and his team are currently evaluating a brief prevention program and a 16-week treatment protocol that targets smokers who are vulnerable to panic psychology. By inducing panic symptoms through such methods as having patients hyperventilate or breathe CO2-enriched air, smokers learn to tolerate panic symptoms and react differently to those sensations. For instance, they learn to recognize that a racing heartbeat isn't the onset of a heart attack.
Citizens of Nova Scotia are trying out Zvolensky's treatment model through a collaboration with the Psychiatry Department at Dalhousie University, and laboratories elsewhere are duplicating his studies, which have been documented in more than 30 articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Addictive Behaviors and Clinical Psychology Review. Although long-term data are not yet available, Zvolensky hopes his research will lead to targeted, more effective methods to help people with panic sensitivities quit the habit -- and in some cases, help them to avoid developing the disorder in the first place.
http://www.scienceblog.com/community/article4622.html
Canada Taking Too Long to Resolve Tobacco Ad Case, Globe Says
Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- Canadian officials are taking longer than usual to tackle complaints that the tobacco industry is misleading consumers by using the words ``light'' and ``mild'' on cigarette packaging, the Globe and Mail reported.
Eleven doctors and health experts who filed complaints 17 months ago to the Competition Bureau, which regulates advertising, are asking why the case is taking so long to resolve, the newspaper said.
The federal body is supposed to respond within 10 weeks and most complaints are ``turned around'' within six weeks, the Globe said.
The Competition Bureau hasn't responded to the complainants, who said the issue may be too ``sensitive'' for the agency to handle, the newspaper said. A spokeswoman for the agency told the Globe, ``we are still reviewing the matter.''
(Globe and Mail, 11-12, A4)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000082&sid=axj827IkImkg&refer=canada
Smoking on Decline in US
11/12/04- Fewer Americans are smoking, although the overall decline is a small one. The Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention says the overall smoking rate among adults was 22.1% last year. That's a decline of just 1 percentage point from the previous year.
The US smoking rate has dropped every year since 1998, and the CDC attributes that sustained drop in part to smoking bans, media campaigns against smoking and something Michigan smokers can relate to- higher cigarette taxes.
http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=2556426&nav=0RbQT3KN
Virginia gets $50 million in sales, real estate transaction tax increases
RICHMOND, Va. Virginia got 50 (m) million dollars in new funds in October, thanks to an increase in the sales tax and the real-estate transactions.
The increases were part of Governor Warner's legislative package to boost state revenues. After a contentious session, the General Assembly approved the measures in the spring.
A report by state Finance Secretary John Bennett showed the half-percent sales tax increase generated 31 (m) million dollars. Half will go to public schools and reimbursing local governments for lost car-tax revenues. Real estate transactions brought in nearly 19 (m) million dollars.
The tax increase, plus economic recovery, prompted revenues to grow more than 10 percent over last October. And over the next two years, they're expected to raise one-point-five (b) billion dollars to fund the state budget.
The cigarette tax was increased from two-point-five cents to 30 cents a pack -- state officials haven't yet disclosed the amount collected.
http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=2557168
Small cigarette makers sue Louisiana
By Allen G. Breed, Associated Press Writer 11-12-04
Posted 3:45 p.m.
Three small cigarette makers filed a lawsuit Monday accusing Louisiana of enacting legislation aimed at preserving Big Tobacco's market share and artificially propping up the major producers' settlement payments to the states.
Plaintiffs said the lawsuit was the first targeting 19 states that have similar legislation.
The National Association of Attorneys General says such laws closed a loophole that gave upstart cigarette companies a price advantage over firms that signed 1998's $200 billion Master Settlement Agreement.
Annual payments to the states are based on the market share of the four major signatories — Philip Morris USA, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co. In the past four years, hundreds of small manufacturers have seen their market share grow more than tenfold to about 6.5 percent.
Under the agreement, cigarette companies were required to escrow money for up to 25 years with each state to cover awards in future state legal actions. But there was a provision in the settlement allowing companies that only did business in a few states to get most of that money back almost immediately.
The legislation, supported by Philip Morris and the other big cigarette makers, would require those non-signatory companies to escrow the money as if they were doing business in all 46 states and United States territories that entered the settlement.
The suit — filed in federal court in New Orleans on behalf of Xcaliber International Limited of Pryor, Okla.; CigTec Tobacco of Charles City, Va.; and Carolina Tobacco Co. of Portland, Ore. — argues that these small manufacturers are being penalized for Big Tobacco's historical misrepresentation of scientific data on the hazards of smoking, suppression of production of safer cigarettes and marketing of cigarettes to children.
"The MSA was designed to reimburse the settling states for the harm caused by these major tobacco manufacturers' wrongful conduct dating back to the 1950s," the suit argues. "No such claims have been asserted against Plaintiffs."
Lawyers for the three companies argue that the new legislation was designed to increase the costs on nonparticipating manufacturers and "thereby to squeeze them out of business or, at least, inhibit their business development."
In addition to Louisiana, states that have passed such legislation include Alabama, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Montana, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.
Louisiana's new attorney general, Charles Foti, was sworn in only Monday and could not immediately be reached for comment. But Vermont Attorney General Bill Sorrell, chairman of NAAG's tobacco committee, said the issue is not just about money, but about protecting public health.
Companies that signed the MSA are prohibited from giving out free samples, using cartoons in their advertisements or using merchandise to promote brands. Sorrell said the states have an interest in ensuring that all cigarette makers are playing by the same rules.
"Certainly it is a concern to the states ... because the payments to the states are reduced when there's this kind of market share shift taking place," he said. "But it's also a concern that the nonparticipating manufacturers, by virtue of their status, do not need to abide by the advertising and marketing restrictions that the companies that are part of the agreement need to adhere to."
http://www.news-record.com/news/now/tobacco011204.htm
Gene Found To Defend Against Environmental Pollutants And Pulmonary Emphysema
SourceJohns Hopkins Bloomberg School Of Public Health2004-11-11
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and other institutions have identified a “master gene” in mice that controls the action of 50 other genes whose products protect the lungs against environmental pollutants. The researchers believe their findings will provide a better understanding of the human body’s defense mechanisms and could lead to the identification of what factors make some people more susceptible to lung diseases. The article is published in the current issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The so-called “master gene”—nuclear factor erythroid-derived 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2)—is activated in response to environmental pollutants such as cigarette smoke, and then turns on numerous antioxidant and pollutant-detoxifying genes to protect the lungs from developing emphysema.
Shyam Biswal, PhD, senior author of the study and an assistant professor in the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences, said, “The important thing to remember is that the degree of lung damage depends on the ability to defend against environmental factors. We now know that Nrf2 is the key player in protection even in the case of chronic exposure to pollutants.”
In 2002, Dr. Biswal and colleagues were the first to show that activation of Nrf2 in response to an anticancer agent—Sulforaphane—can turn on antioxidant genes, but little was known about Nrf2-regulated genes and their role in lung inflammatory diseases caused by chronic exposure to environmental agents. By exposing mice to cigarette smoke, the researchers were able to learn which gene controlled this natural defense mechanism.
The researchers found that disruption of the Nrf2 gene caused earlier onset and more severe emphysema in a strain of mice that is resistant to cigarette smoke-related emphysema.
Through gene chip analysis, the researchers were able to identify 50 Nrf2-dependent antioxidant and cytoprotective pulmonary genes that work together to protect the lungs from cigarette-smoke-induced emphysema. A gene chip allows researchers to monitor the complex interactions of thousands of genes on a whole genome rather than one at time.
Pulmonary emphysema is a major manifestation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which affects more than 16 million Americans and is the fourth highest cause of death in United States. COPD, the only disease among the top 10 causes of death with a rising incidence rate in the United States, is predicted to reach worldwide epidemic proportions.
Tirumalai Rangasamy, PhD, first coauthor of the study and a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Biswal’s lab, explained that whereas cigarette smokers make up 85 percent of COPD patients, other environmental risk factors can include air pollution and chronic occupational exposure to various dusts.
Dr. Biswal said, “With this new gene and environmental interaction discovery, in the future we may be able to identify people who are genetically predisposed to developing lung diseases—not just COPD—that are caused by environmental factors. The responsiveness of the Nrf2 pathway may act as a major determinant of susceptibility to tobacco-smoke-induced emphysema by upregulating antioxidant defenses and decreasing lung inflammation.”
“Genetic ablation of Nrf2 enhances susceptibility to cigarette smoke-induced emphysema in mice” is published in the November 1, 2004, issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
The study was supported by grants from the Maryland Cigarette Restitution Fund, the Young Scientist Clinical Award from the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute, National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute and National Institute of Environmental Health Science to the Johns Hopkins Center in Urban Environmental Health.
Along with Dr. Biswal and postdoctoral fellows from his lab, Dr. Rangasamy and Rajesh K. Thimmulappa, professor Thomas Kensler, with the Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences, coauthored the study. Additional co-authors include Sorachai S. Srisuma, Chung Y. Cho, Lijie Zhen, Masayuki Yamamoto, Irina Petrache and Rubin M. Tuder.
Editor's Note: The original news release can be found at: http://www.jhsph.edu/PublicHealthNews/Press_Releases/PR_2004/Biswal_Nrf2.html
Getting the Message Across to Consumers
By Kate Devlin, PA
Drinkers buying Newcastle Brown Ale and John Smith’s bitter will soon be able to read about the dangers of downing too many of them as the warning will be written on their labels.
Britain’s largest brewer, Scottish & Newcastle, has announced it is to put health warnings on its products from today to promote awareness of sensible drinking.
“Responsible drinkers don’t exceed 4 daily units (men) and 3 units (women)” will soon appear alongside the number of alcohol units contained in the pack.
The brewers want to discourage binge-drinking, and others are expected to follow their example.
The announcement comes on the same day as the launch of a website promoting responsible drinking, which will be marketed on alcohol bottle labels.
The drinks industry-funded www.drinkaware.co.uk features an alcohol unit calculator using real brands and serving sizes, so users can pinpoint the true number of units they drink per week.
But for either of these labels to work they will have to be “big, clear and simple” said the director of a campaign which has long supported product warnings.
Deborah Arnott, from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: “The experience of cigarette warnings show that while they can be very effective, they have to be big and easy to understand.
“Warnings also have to rotate and change, as there is a danger that people will get blasé and ignore them. But they do make people think, and, although their effects are perhaps not immediate, over time they do make smokers more likely to quit.
“Research in Canada shows that when they introduced a new set of warnings (in 2001) 44% of people said it increased their motivation to quit smoking.”
But she thinks the message written on beer bottles will be harder to promote than that on cigarettes.
“It is simpler to get our message across, because it is that cigarettes are so bad for you you shouldn’t smoke, full stop. With alcohol the message is not don’t drink at all, but don’t drink so much, which could be harder to have an impact. All the more reason for it to be clear and simple.”
Food labelling shows how important it is that printed information can be easily understood by shoppers.
Although manufacturers have to include nutritional information on food packaging an MP recently told the Government that most people read such labels using “guesswork and good luck”.
Labour’s Helen Southworth, a Warrington MP, said pre-packaged foods should be labelled in a way that gives people easy to understand information about what they are eating.
In 1996 new regulations required much more information to be stated on packaged food.
Labels now have to include the name of the product – which mustn’t give a false impression – a list of ingredients in descending order of weight, a date mark, storage instructions, the name and address of the manufacturer, the place of origin, its weight or quantity, any special claims, and preparation instructions – especially on high risk foods.
The labelling of genetically modified foods is controlled by separate regulations, and controls on the term “organic” have been established by EU regulations.
Despite this, Kath Dalmeny, policy officer at the Food Commission, says the Government should regulate how food is labelled, so the public “doesn’t have to learn 27 different systems just to do their shopping”.
She says consumers struggle with the technical way nutritional information is presented on food, and advocates “interpretative labelling”, where consumers are given information in a way that means something to them.
“A Commons Health Select Committee recently suggested a traffic light system for food where green would show products low in ingredients like salt and fat, and red would highlight food containing more of these unhealthy items. We think this could work,” she said.
She also pointed out how labels can be used by manufacturers to give a misleading impression of their food.
“Producers sometimes emphasise the positive aspect of a product on the front and hide some of the more negative content in the back. For example, a parent might buy a type of children’s food because it says it is high in calcium, and not realise that it is also high in fat. Regulation would stop this practise.”
And she thinks labelling can occasionally be a distraction from other aspects of food health.
“Labelling is an important part of the jigsaw, but it is not the most important. The most important is that we have good quality food.
“For example, 75% of the salt we eat in our diet comes from processed foods. The industry has started to address this, but it still shows the problem of unhealthy pre-packaged food that needs to be tackled. That said, consumers having access to information is still only a good thing.”
A spokesperson for the National Consumer Council (NCC) said effective labelling can sometimes transform an industry.
“When they started to label fridges according to their energy efficiency it was found that shoppers stopped buying less efficient machines. These then stopped being made, and now all fridges are more energy efficient.
“Although this may not work for everything, it does shows the potential power that labels have,” she added.
http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3751222
Hackers target drink awareness website
By
12 November 2004
An alcohol industry website aimed at tackling binge drinking was the worse for wear when it launched today - after it was closed down by hackers.
The internet service, which allows people to check their own alcohol intake against Government guidance, should been available this morning as part of a drive to promote sensible consumption.
Britain's largest brewer Scottish & Newcastle started rolling out cigarette packet-style warnings on bottles and cans promoting the site, but customers have been unable to access the advice.
Responsible drinking organisation the Portman Group, which funds the www.drinkaware.co.uk site, said the failure left them with a major headache.
"There were problems last night and also this morning, at first we thought it was simply technical difficulties, but it seems to have been more than that," said
"Some of those who have been able to log on have reported that they have suffered computer viruses.
"We will be very disappointed if we confirm that it has been targeted by hackers."
He said that the site should be available again from this evening.
It features an alcohol unit calculator using real brands and serving sizes which allows users to pinpoint the real number of units they drink per week.
The web pages also feature a self-assessment test for those worried about their drinking habits.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/14680308?source=PA
Russia backs plan for smoking ban
The lower house of the Russian parliament has approved legislation to ban smoking in public places.
If the bill is given backing by the upper house, new laws will come into force for one of the biggest cigarette-smoking populations in the world.
The legislation will prohibit smoking in workplaces, enclosed sports facilities and government offices.
It will also outlaw all sales of tobacco in health care facilities and sports venues.
But correspondents say it may have little effect - the current smoking ban on public transport is widely ignored.
Smoking and heavy alcohol consumption are two of Russia's most widespread public health problems, contributing to the country's declining average life span.
Beer ban
Latest figures from the World Health Organisation put Russia in fourth place among the highest-smoking countries.
Earlier this week, the upper house of the Russian parliament rejected a bill backed by the lower house that would have banned the consumption of beer in public.
But a diluted version of the bill may still emerge, when a commission reworks the legislation to try to secure approval by both houses of parliament.
Beer consumption in Russia has doubled in the past five years.
Around 30% of the beer bought in Russia is consumed immediately, as many people find it too expensive to buy alcohol at restaurants and bars.
Russia introduced tough beer advertising laws in September, banning commercials between the hours of 0700 and 2200.
The use of people and animals in beer ads will be prohibited as of next year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4007369.stm
Sin-tax lobby fund claim irks solons -Philippines
By JODEAL CADACIO
TODAY Senior Reporter
Leaders of the House of Representatives, upset by the allegation that a huge lobby fund oiled the passage of the sin-tax bill, on Friday asked Lakas Rep. Herminio Teves of Negros Oriental to prove his claim that lobby money may have prompted the House to “water down” its version of the bill, now undergoing deliberation in the Senate.
In other developments, administration senators said they will push for the toughest sin-tax version possible, even as American tobacco giant Philip Morris supported the latest “compromise formula” unveiled at the Senate by the Department of Finance.
An incensed Speaker Jose de Venecia Jr. called Teves’s accusation an “irresponsible and cruel joke.”
De Venecia said the accusation is unfair to the House and its members who had worked overtime to prevent a credit downgrade that would have meant an estimated P20 billion in additional interest penalties for the country.
Teves, however, denied having made a categorical claim that bribe money put up by industry players flowed into the House.
“I did not say that [lobby money flowed into the House]. I was misunderstood by the media,” Teves said.
Teves made the claim about the lobby money during a breakfast forum in Quezon City. He gave the same statement when interviewed by reporters, who sought clarification from his claim about the alleged lobby money.
Reporters asked Teves if lobby money was involved in the approval of the sin tax bill. To this, Teves replied that “there is lobby money all over the world.”
Teves told a radio interview that he did not intend to malign the House, and that it was the media’s fault that his statements were blown out of proportion.
In a joint statement, House Majority Leader Prospero Nograles, Lakas Reps. Robert Ace Barbers of Surigao del Norte, Exequiel Javier of Antique and Monico Puentevella of Bacolod City took Teves to task for “having besmirched the chamber’s reputation,” and asked him to clarify his statements.
Nograles said that Teves ought to explain what he thought he said or what he meant by what he said.
He said that being the oldest member of the House—at 84—Teves must be allowed to air his side.
Barbers said that Teves must substantiate his claim and name the congressmen who may have benefited from the lobby money. Otherwise, Teves owes the House and its members an apology.
Javier, vice chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means, asked: “What lobby fund is he talking about? The passage of the sin tax bill simply disproves the lobby money, otherwise it would not have been passed.”
Nationalist People’s Coalition Rep. Jesli Lapus of Tarlac, ways and means committee chairman, agreed with Javier saying that any claim that bribe money fueled the approval of the sin tax bill is “ridiculous.”
“A lobby would have killed the bill that increases taxes on alcohol and cigarette products,” Lapus said.
He also stressed that it would be preposterous to lobby the House and the Senate because the final version of the measure would be hammered out by the bicameral conference committee.
Meanwhile, proadministration senators chided the Department of Finance (DOF) for its “half-baked” proposal to generate only P7 billion in additional revenues each year from new taxes on tobacco and alcohol products.
In a joint statement, Sens. Pia Cayetano, Richard Gordon, Lito Lapid, Ramon Revilla Jr. and Mar Roxas II said they would be receptive should the DOF push for more tax revenues from tobacco and alcohol products.
“The DOF’s P7-billion incremental revenue target is inadequate. We envision a larger tax bite on sin products because we consider it [the sin tax] to be the least injurious to the general public and to the broader economy,” the senators said.
“If we can generate more revenues from sin products, then we can reduce, or better yet, forgo other proposed tax increases that are deemed more onerous and burdersome, such as the proposed P2 per liter across-the-board levy on petroleum products,” they pointed out.
Philip Morris Philippines Manufacturing Inc. (PMPMI), the local arm of Virginia-based Philip Morris International Inc., is, however, strongly supporting the DOF proposal, saying it marries the goals of maximizing potential revenue while ensuring the viability of the tobacco industry.
PMPMI spokesman Dave Gomez said in a statement that the passage of the new tax scheme for tobacco products—unveiled by DOF officials in Thursday’s hearing of the Senate ways and means committee—would send clear and positive signals to the foreign investors as well as international credit-rating agencies “that the Arroyo administration is serious in raising more taxes while protecting the viability of the industries concerned.”
Finance undersecretary Grace Pulido Tan had told senators the government would lower the initial adjustment on cigarette tax brackets to 12 percent from the 20-percent tax increase approved by the Houses of Representatives last month—the version described as ‘watered down.” On top of the 12 percent, the DOF’s compromise would apply a P0.40 unitary tax on all cigarette classes on the first year; after which the taxes will be raised by 3.6 percent plus a P0.16 unitary tax every two years until 2011.
The 12 percent was almost a third of the original proposal of the DOF for a 30-percent tax adjustment in the first year of the effectivity of the new excise tax scheme for cigarettes.
Under the new proposal, the DOF said the government could raise as much as P40.88 billion in tax revenues from cigarettes, beer and distilled spirits over a seven-year period. This is P9.42 billion more than the P31.46 billion that would be generated under the House-approved tax scheme.
Gomez said the DOF formula incorporates some of the features of the original PMPMI position calling for uniform specific increases across all the four cigarette tax brackets.
“We originally proposed a unit specific increase as an alternative to percentage increases to preserve the current gaps between tiers. With specific increases built into the final formula, the new tax law will be more equitable and manageable on the part of all stakeholders,” he added.
Philip Morris is the world’s largest producer and marketer of consumer packaged goods. It has five principal operating companies including Kraft Foods Inc., Miller Brewing Co., Philip Morris International Inc., Philip Morris Inc. and Philip Morris Capital Corp.
In pushing for the toughest sin-tax bill possible, senators, meanwhile, warned of the consequences of slackening. “The prospect of a credit downgrade will lead to billions of pesos in additional spending for debt payments. We have to quickly regain the confidence of the financial markets by maximizing our efforts to raise new money out of this first tax bill,” said Roxas, chairman of the Senate Committees on Trade and Commerce and on Economic Affairs.
“We support the President’s efforts of quickly building up tax collections and will not be obstructionist. Instead, we will work to convince our colleagues on the merits of optimizing revenue collections from sin products,” Roxas said.
Cayetano, chairman of the Senate health committee, expressed concern that while the administration aims to raise funds to address the budget deficit, “the government should not turn a blind eye to the perennial health crisis.” With L. Agcaoili
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/NewsStory.aspx?section=NATIONAL&oid=63333
Smoking blamed for 106,000 deaths a year
Fri 12 November, 2004 11:32
LONDON (Reuters) - Deaths from tobacco-related diseases have fallen during the past decade but smoking still kills about 106,000 people each year, according to a report.
Despite efforts to get people to kick the habit, about 28 percent of men in England and 26 percent of women smoke.
"We are in the grip of a smoking epidemic: an estimated 106,000 people in the UK are dying needlessly each year from smoking," said Professor Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer.
The report, "The Smoking Epidemic in England", compiled by the Health Development Agency (HDA) revealed that more than a third of men under 54 years old and a third of women under 44 in England smoke. The highest prevalence, up to 40 percent, is among 25-34 year-old men.
People living in parts of London, the northeast, Greater Manchester and South Yorkshire had the highest smoking rate at just over 30 percent.
Sussex, Dorset, Somerset, Coventry and Herefordshire were some of the areas which had the lowest prevalence.
"Smoking is an important cause of health inequalities -- the poorer you are, the more likely you are to smoke, you're less likely to quit and you're more likely to die from smoking-related causes," said Dame Yve Buckland, chair of the HDA, in a statement on Friday.
Medical studies have shown that cigarette smokers die, on average, 10 years earlier than non-smokers. But stopping the habit can halve the risk.
Lung cancer is the disease most commonly associated with smoking but it is also a risk factor for heart disease, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis, and other types of cancer.
"Over 70 percent of smokers say they want to give up and evidence shows that smoke-free workplaces can encourage this, and can reduce the absolute prevalence of smoking by about 4 percent," Buckland added.
Health experts and anti-smoking groups have urged the government to follow Ireland's example and ban smoking in enclosed public workplaces such as pubs, restaurants and bars.
http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=620096§ion=news
Posted at 8:24 pm by looped_ca
Thursday, November 11, 2004
Workplace Safety officers can police smoking ban
An unpublicized regulation, filed by the province the day before the smoking ban began, allows Workplace Safety and Health inspectors to apply penalties for contraventions of the smoking ban act.
The Workplace Safety Regulation, Regulation 183/2004, downloadable here, states that a contravention of the Non Smokers Health Protection Act is deemed to be a contravention of the Workplace Safety and Health Act, for the purpose of issuing an improvement order or a stop work warning.
Theoretically, a Workplace Safety and Health officer could go as far as to issue a Stop Work order if he or she believes the contravention does "involve a serious risk to the safety or health of any person in or about the workplace".
The Non-Smokers Health Protection Act specifies penalties for both individuals who smoke and premises where the offence occurs, but the Workplace Safety Regulation is silent on any enforcement or penalties for patrons who smoke.
http://www.manitobahotelassociation.ca/cgi-bin/story.cgi?id=244
Lotteries loses $30M in wake of butt ban-MB
Hopes new VLTs will draw customers back
By Dan Lett Thursday, November 4th, 2004
MANITOBA Lotteries Corp. lost more than $30 million last year as smoking bans in Winnipeg and Brandon drove gamblers away from casinos and video lottery terminals.
However, lotteries officials are hopeful future losses may not be as bad as first predicted. MLC previously forecast losses for the current fiscal year could reach $50 million once the province went completely smoke free.
The final results for the fiscal year ending March 2004 show net income from all forms of gambling dipped to $235.4 million, down 11.3 per cent from the $265 million earned in the previous year.
The biggest losses were posted in casino operations, which produced $14.2 million less than the previous year. Income from video lottery terminals declined $11.1 million, while lottery income declined $4.8 million.
Lotteries spokeswoman Susan Olynik said the losses were consistent with earlier forecasts of the impacts of smoking bans in Winnipeg and Brandon. Last year, MLC predicted a loss in excess of $26 million.
There is some reason for optimism in the current fiscal year, Olynik said.
First quarter financial results, also released yesterday, show a total decline in net income of $5.5 million, evidence the pace of revenue loss has slowed, she said.
Anecdotally, casino managers are reporting that some of their best smoking patrons who fled to avoid the ban are returning, Olynik said.
MLC is also banking on a new $75-million fleet of VLTs, which were put into service this summer, to renew interest among gamblers, Olynik said. Bar and restaurant owners in Winnipeg and Brandon, which saw significant declines in VLT activity when smoking bans were enacted, have reported renewed interest in the newer machines, she added.
With so many variables in play in the current year it may be impossible to predict what will happen with gaming revenues, she added. Hard data on VLT revenues and casino visits will not be available until the new year.
A province-wide smoking ban was enacted on Oct. 1 and is expected to drive away some gamblers from rural and northern sites that have VLTs, Olynik said. However, MLC is hoping that 5,300 new VLTs that were put into service this summer will draw new interest from gamblers turned off by the smoking bans, she said.
dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
National smoking ban push urged
Mon, November 8, 2004 MARIA MCCLINTOCK, SUN OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA -- Canada's new public health agency should lead the charge in creating a national ban on smoking in the workplace and all indoor public spaces, states a new report commissioned by the Canadian Medical Association. The report, called Health Promotion in Canada 1974-2004: Lessons Learned, details how in the last 30 years Canada has gone from being a leader in health promotion to one primarily pre-occupied with the delivery of health care.
Authored by a trio of experts led by former federal deputy minister of health and welfare Dr. Maureen Law, the report calls on the federal public health agency to get back to basics in four areas, including anti-smoking.
'PATCHWORK'
"The current patchwork of anti-smoking legislation in Canada, which varies almost town by town, should be replaced by a unified national standard, which would include banning smoking in all workplaces and all indoor public places in the country," states the report, released over the weekend at the Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance's convention in Ottawa.
The new agency should also get in the business of promoting mental health and mental illness care, and champion a healthy weight campaign.
"Canada is in the grips of an obesity epidemic,'' the report says.
"As many as one-third of children are estimated to be overweight, while estimates say close to half of adults are overweight."
Previous successful health-promotion campaigns targeting drunk driving and wearing seat belts and bicycle helmets are proof they can work, the report says.
OBESITY, TOO
CMA president Dr. Albert Schumacher said the report is a prescription for the fledgling public health agency created almost a year ago.
"We've picked priority areas for acute treatment (under the recent health accord), but then we also have to weigh this with the prevention side of it," Schumacher said.
"A lot of these things are prevention for not only the next crisis, but also the long-term health affects of things going on, including tobacco, obesity .... and our immunization strategy."
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/News/2004/11/08/705373.html
Defiant council lets vets light up -ON
By Ann LukitsLocal News - Wednesday, November 10, 2004 @ 07:00
Veterans Erl Kish and Don Prue stood outside City Hall’s council chambers last night discussing how many air fresheners and ashtrays the city’s three Royal Canadian Legion halls will need if they decide to add smoking rooms.
Moments earlier, Kingston city council had voted 7-3 to exempt Legion halls and veterans’ organizations from the city’s controversial smoking bylaw.
The veterans quickly moved from politics to more practical considerations.
“I think it’s a pretty progressive move,” said Kish, president of Ontario Command, the governing body for 426 Legion branches in Ontario. “Now we’re heading in the right direction in the city of Kingston.”
Prue, past president of Royal Canadian Legion on Railway Street, had only a few minutes to celebrate the historic decision before he rushed off to a “big meeting” at Branch 9. He was eager to break the news to fellow Legionnaires.
“We’ve passed the biggest hurdle today,” he said.
At least two dozen members of Kingston’s three Legion branches and three local veterans organizations watched quietly as city councillors wrestled with the controversial exemption during an intense 30-minute debate.
Councillor Floyd Patterson wanted to postpone the vote until the city’s legal department had an opportunity to review a decision by Mr. Justice Richard Byers of the Superior Court of Justice of Ontario. Veterans’ organizations and local businesses attempted to strike down the bylaw, claiming that it discriminated against them by giving a special exemption to bingo halls. But Byers ruled on June 24, 2003, that the city had a right to discriminate provided the discrimination occurred between different “classes” of businesses and not within the same class. It’s the definition of class that Patterson wanted clarified.
Although he supported the exemption for Legions, Patterson urged councillors “to make sure we are doing the right thing.”
But Councillor Rick Downes, who opposed the Legion exemption, argued that the city’s lawyers have no authority to question a judicial decision. Patterson’s motion to refer the matter to the legal department was lost in a 7-3 vote.
Mayor Harvey Rosen also tried, without success, to defer the vote. Although he initially supported an exemption for veterans’ organizations and Legions, the mayor told council he had misgivings about the legality of the proposed amendment.
“There is a chance that this amendment may destroy the enforceability of the rest of the bylaw,” he said. “If the bylaw is bad, it may be that it’s all bad and we’ll end up with no restrictions [on smoking]. For that reason, I can’t support the motion.”
Downes proposed deferring a vote on the Legion amendment until Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman introduces provincial anti-smoking legislation later this month – but councillors voted 7-3 against waiting.
Smitherman announced last week that the province intends to ban smoking in all public and work places in the province. The minister specifically singled out Legion halls and private clubs, saying they wouldn’t receive special treatment under the legislation.
But councillors felt they owed it to veterans to give them a break, even if the exemption amounted to nothing more than a gesture.
“We are just giving them a tool to work with,” said Councillor Kevin George.
The amendment approved last night gives Legions and veterans’ organizations the right to open “designated smoking rooms” that comprise 50 per cent of the total seating area. Smoking rooms must be fully enclosed and equipped with separate ventilation systems that ventilate directly to the outside of the buildings. The rooms cannot be used as a public thoroughfare nor serviced by employees.
Voting for the amendment were councillors George Beavis, Steve Garrison, Bittu George, Kevin George, Patterson, George Stoparczyk and George Sutherland.
Voting against were Councillors Leonore Foster, Downes and Mayor Rosen.
Although he told The Whig-Standard last week that he’d vote in favour of the exemption, Councillor Ed Smith declared a conflict of interest last night and abstained from voting. Smith owns a Princess Street restaurant.
Councillor Beth Pater also declared a conflict because one of her sons owns two restaurants on Brock Street in the downtown core.
Councillor Sara Meers declared a conflict of interest because her family owns a Princess Street business that sells tobacco products. Meers noted that the motion before council didn’t involve the sale of tobacco but said she felt “more comfortable” declaring a conflict.
http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentID=86100&catname=Local+News
Smoking bylaw: Backlash begins- ON
By Ann Lukits Local News - Thursday, November 11, 2004 @ 07:00
Kingston bar and restaurant owners vow to seek the same smoking bylaw exemption for outdoor patios that was granted this week to local legions.
The business owners reacted swiftly and angrily to Tuesday’s decision by city politicians who approved an exemption to the city’s smoking bylaw.
“In a nutshell, this is just another stupid decision by City Hall,” said Mike Menikefs, owner of Dailey’s Cafe in Progress Square in the city’s west end. “I’m not denying a veteran should get extra treatment but they were veterans 18 months ago when the smoking bylaw came in.
“Now, all of a sudden, why are they getting extra special treatment?”
The exemption allows Royal Canadian Legion halls and private veterans’ clubs to establish separate ventilated smoking rooms.
Councillors were warned, before the decision this week, that granting an exemption could open the floodgates to other exemption requests.
Said Brian Coghlan, owner of Whiskey Willy’s Restaurant on Gardiners Road:
“The city of Kingston never ceases to amaze me. They were so forceful on this whole issue before and now all of a sudden they’re wavering.“I wonder if they’ll waver for our group?”
Bruce Clark, owner of The Toucan and Tango downtown drinking establishments, said that “now they’ve opened this can of worms, we know it [the bylaw] can be changed. We’re going to be fighting for that.”
Peter Betas, owner of Olympia Billiards & Take-Out Restaurant on Charles Street, said: “I got nothing against these guys, but what’s wrong with us?
We pay taxes.”
Kingston councillors voted 7-3 Tuesday to amend the smoking bylaw to allow Legion halls and veterans’ groups to convert half their seating areas to smoking rooms. Three Legion branches and four veterans’ associations are affected by the amendment, which gives them the same status as bingo halls.
Bingo halls got the exemption when the bylaw was enacted in May 2003.
Councillors Leonore Foster and Rick Downes warned councillors this week that making an exception for veterans would prompt other groups to seek exemptions.
Glenn Rea, general manager of the Lone Star Texas Grill on Ontario Street, said he is definitely interested in pursuing an exemption for outdoor patios. The smoking restrictions on patios remain a sore point with restaurant owners and the general public, he said.
“We have had very little pushback from our customers [on indoor restrictions] but the biggest pushback we’ve had and continue to get is when patio season is upon us,” Rea said.
“People just don’t understand why you can walk through 10 people smoking outside a government building but you can’t smoke four tables away outdoors.”
Toucan owner Clark worries that provincial smoking legislation won’t be as tough on patios as the city’s smoking bylaw and Kingston “will look like some kind of a backwater because we have this law that’s so restrictive and all the rest of Ontario won’t.”
“I’m hoping we can get a group of bar owners together to try and fight this patio thing and just comply with the Ontario law,” Clark said.
Kingston lawyer Philip Osanic said bar and restaurant owners shouldn’t waste their time on trying to amend the city’s smoking bylaw. He said the bylaw can’t be enforced on patios adjacent to major roadways anyway because Highway Traffic Act restrictions override the municipal legislation.
To ensure smoking restrictions apply to all outdoor patios, the city included a “no smoking” clause in patio lease agreements instead.
Osanic said bar and restaurant owners don’t have to “touch the bylaw” and recommended they try a little political lobbying instead. He suggested the owners ask council to amend the summer lease agreements for outdoor patios to allow smoking after sunset when most children are in bed.
“There doesn’t need to be an exemption in this bylaw for outdoor patios,” he said. “The bylaw can’t be enforced on those roadways and the city knows it.”
Osanic represented local Legions, veterans’ clubs, bars, restaurants and billiards establishments last spring when they launched a legal challenge to the smoking bylaw, claiming the city had discriminated against them by giving an exemption to bingo halls.
Mr. Justice Richard Byers of the Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruled against the group, saying the Municipal Act gives municipalities the right to discriminate between different classes of persons and businesses.
Byers noted in his three-page judgment that council’s decision to give special treatment to bingo halls was a political one that had nothing to do with public health, adding that “it must have known that this would upset everybody else.”
Mayor Harvey Rosen and Councillor Floyd Patterson wanted City Hall lawyers to review the Byers ruling before council voted to amend the smoking bylaw.
They warned that exempting Legions and veterans’ groups might make the rest of the bylaw unenforceable.
But Osanic said that council doesn’t need to review the Byers decision because the Municipal Act gives municipalities the power to differentiate “in any way and on any basis” it considers appropriate.
“City council just amended their bylaw to determine that service clubs and Legions are specifically defined as a separate class,” he said.
Osanic said the Legion amendment proves that Kingston’s medical officer of health and Councillor Downes “were overly zealous and that city council has taken a step back and said ‘wait a minute, it’s not illegal to smoke.’ ”
Downes chaired a City Hall committee that consulted widely before drafting the controversial bylaw.
Dr. Ian Gemmill, Kingston’s medical officer of health, said yesterday he doesn’t support any exemptions to the bylaw, noting the decision to make an exception for veterans was a political one that had nothing to do with health.
“I care about the health of veterans as much as I care about the health of anybody else, maybe more – my dad was a veteran,” Gemmill said. “Why should we have less for the veterans, especially the non-smoking veterans, than we have for the rest of the population?
“Having said that, I think that this is an issue that is emotionally charged. The veterans served the country and I think everybody
sympathizes about that part of it.”
Gemmill said his biggest concern is that council has opened the door “to others asking for exemptions who don’t have this same kind of emotional pull but may have some economic pull.
“That would be a travesty if the bylaw started to unravel for that reason.”
Three members of council serve on the board of health but only one, Downes, voted against the Legion amendment. Councillor Beth Pater declared a conflict of interest and abstained from voting.
Councillor George Beavis, who voted for the Legion exemption, declared a conflict when the bylaw was first approved in October 2002 because his daughter worked at a bingo hall. He told The Whig this week that he no
longer has a conflict because she has a different job.Beavis said he also consulted a lawyer about another possible conflict:
his brother, Chuck Beavis, is president of Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 9, on Railway Street.
The lawyer told him he did not have a conflict because of his brother, Councillor Beavis said.
http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=86207&catname=Local+News
Brandon OKs smoking in outdoor facilities -MB,
By FRANK LANDRY, LEGISLATURE REPORTER
Patio puffing returnsThu, November 11, 2004
Smokers are being allowed back on Brandon's restaurant patios. The Wheat City has repealed its two-year-old anti-puffing bylaw, which prohibited patrons from lighting up on patios as well as all indoor public places.
"Brandon was a leader in bringing forward a bylaw to prohibit smoking in public places," said Dave Baxter, president of the Brandon Chamber of Commerce.
"It just shows the city backing off slightly in order for there to be consistency among restaurants and bars across the province."
Brandon repealed its smoking bylaw Nov. 1. It was the first city in Manitoba to introduce a puffing ban.
The Manitoba-wide smoking ban still outlaws smoking in most enclosed public and work places across the province, including those in Brandon.
The provincial legislation does not prohibit puffing on patios.
Baxter said the change is good for Brandon businesses which, in the spring, would have lost customers to restaurants just outside the city who were free to allow smoking on their patios.
"At the end of the day, the Brandon chamber supports this," Baxter said.
Brandon Mayor Dave Burgess did not respond yesterday to an interview request.
Ray Louie, chairman of the Manitoba Restaurant Association, said Brandon is doing the reasonable thing. He said it's easier to have one smoking policy for the entire province.
"To have separate jurisdiction put out different legislation doesn't make much sense," Louie said.
REVERT TO PROVINCIAL LAW
"The only fair thing to do is revert back to the provincial law."
Winnipeg has not repealed it's smoking bylaw.
Jim Baker, president of the Manitoba Hotel Association, said it wouldn't make much of a difference because Winnipeg's bylaw is similar to the province's crackdown, which kicked in Oct. 1.
The only difference is that the provincial legislation more clearly defines what is a patio, Baker said.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2004/11/11/709286.html
CPA: Staff support smoking rooms in psychiatric units
Staff say they feel safer and save time when patients can smoke on-site
By David Hodges
MONTREAL – More research is needed to determine if in-hospital smoking rooms are of any benefit to psychiatric patients, say Calgary researchers.
Although their retrospective chart review found no significant differences in the number of behavioural disturbances among psychiatric inpatients when the room was introduced after a hospital-wide smoking ban was imposed, a survey of psychiatric staff showed they felt safer after the room was available.
The staff also reported that in-patients were more likely to spend less time discussing cigarette smoking and more time presenting psychiatric complaints, and were more likely to use off-unit privileges based on appropriate psychiatric status rather than their need to smoke.
"The survey points to the fact that the staff find the smoking room to be very helpful. And that data that we have from the chart review shows decreasing trends in terms of behavioural interventions, but it doesn't give us any statistically significant results—and that may partially be numbers. So it's difficult to say conclusively whether it makes an objective difference or not," said Dr. Karen Kerfoot, a resident in the department of psychiatry at the University of Calgary who presented the findings at the Canadian Psychiatric Association meeting here. "At this point, I would say that we need to do more research to determine that."
It was a few months after the Calgary Health Region instituted a property-wide ban on cigarette smoking that a smoking room was opened in a psychiatric inpatient unit at the Foothills Medical Centre.
Dr. Kerfoot and colleagues did a randomly-selected retrospective chart review of 90 inpatient admissions at that unit for three months prior to the opening of the smoking room and in another 90 patient for the same three-month period one year later. The two groups were compared for the incidence of physical and/or verbal aggression and other types of disruptive patient behaviour (security involvement, aggression toward property, locked room use, higher observation and restraint). Also gathered were psychiatrist and nursing staff perceptions of the smoking room and its perceived impact on patient care.
The results of the chart review showed the total number of patients certified did not differ significantly between the two time periods observed. As well, there were no significant differences in disruptive patient behaviour.
Only non-significant decreasing trends, calculated as the average number of incidents per admission, were found for verbal aggression (1.21 pre vs. 0.57 post), aggression towards property (0.25 pre vs. 0.18 post), aggression toward people (0.2 pre vs. 0.09 post) and locked room use (0.25 pre vs. 0.14 post). There was a non-significant increase in the need to keep patients under observation.
The results of the survey showed that 86.5% of the staff supported the smoking room, and more than 80% reported feeling safer on the unit. In addition, staff reported spending more time on patients' psychiatric issues, less time discussing cigarette smoking and more time building rapport.
Significant differences reported by the staff included a decrease in the minutes spent discussing cigarette smoking (21.8 pre vs. 5.7 post), giving patients off-unit privileges purely for the purpose of smoking (25.2 pre vs. 3.3 post) and giving patients off-unit privileges in order to smoke (20.6 pre vs. 5.9 post).
Less time was spent discussing the use of nicotine replacement and other smoking cessation aids when the in-hospital smoking room was available.
Dr. Kerfoot suggested that if a smoking room is to be used in psychiatric in-hospital units, this should be balanced by greater use of appropriately timed smoking cessation interventions.
http://www.medicalpost.com/mpcontent/article.jsp;jsessionid=ELCMLIHPPJPK?content=20041108_200145_1760
Council hears of rising costs- Kingston, ON
By Derek Baldwin Local News - Thursday, November 11, 2004 @ 07:00
On Day Five of budget talks, city council heard from the last of agencies and boards it funds wholly, or in part.
And in two of the three cases last night, council was informed the groups’ 2005 budget costs are spiralling upward.
City police and the Cataraqui Region Conservation Authority confirmed each of their budgets were beyond a 2.5-per-cent spending cap asked for by Mayor Harvey Rosen and senior staff.
The Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Health Unit told council it’s simply too early to say whether it will be able to stay within the cap because it won’t begin budget talks until late January.
City police officials took great pains to walk council through a 5.68-per-cent budget increase which calls for $1.08 million more next year than in 2004.
That increase is $605,932 over the 2.5-per-cent spending cap.
Police board chairwoman Carol Allison-Burra confirmed that the board could not bring itself to cut back expenses to remain within the 2.5-per-cent cap.
And she told council that by submitting a budget asking for more money, the police board was not “crying poor ... nor are we here to fearmonger.”
Allison-Burra said the police service needed to “hire eight sworn officers” to handle a litany of policing demands.
More officers, she said, are needed to ensure the safety of citizens.
Police Chief Bill Closs admitted that “really not much has changed [in the police budget] since we met here Oct. 6.”
He thanked city staff and council for understanding the police board and administration’s funding dilemma: “It’s never an easy thing to divvy up taxpayers’ money when there are many agencies in the city.”
Closs said the biggest challenge facing the police is the $18.8-million cost for the salaries of roughly 175 officers in 2005.
The officers are critical to meeting demands by citizen demands for police response, he said.
“By the end of 2004, we will have made half-a-million contacts with citizens of Kingston and tourists, Closs said. “We’re not in the business of saying ‘no.’ When people can’t get help, they come to us 24 hours a day.”
Closs said council must also take into consideration the fact that investigations are expensive. A recent accident in the city cost his department $3,290 and 94 hours to clear.
Providing a police presence for the Queen’s Homecoming celebrations cost the department $33,985 and 971 hours in staffing, Closs said.
He also referred to a police investigation which required 5,925 hours of police staff time at a cost of $207,375.
“That’s why we have so much invested in salaries,” Closs told council.
He noted the police board could, if forced, cut a further $128,200 from the budget overrun by reducing rural patrols and deferring the hiring of two officers until 2006.
Deputy police chief Bob Napier outlined the capital needs of Kingston police for 2005.
One of the biggest challenges, he said, is funding the proposed police headquarters on Division Street, the estimated cost of which has jumped from $23 million to $33.4 million.
Councillor Floyd Patterson asked “how did we go up $10 million?”
Napier said among the many reasons is the need for an additional $700,000 to make the building more efficient.
But, he said, “the biggest cost factor has been the passage of time.”
Construction costs have skyrocketed since the original estimates were made three years ago, Napier said.
On another front, council heard it may have to pay out more next year as part of its obligation to fund the Cataraqui conservation authority.
Stephen Knechtel, general manager, said the authority met yesterday for its first budget meeting and said it may ask for 11 per cent more than in 2004 to cover everything from inflation and aging infrastructure to increased operations costs and measures necessary to meet new provincial regulations.
Knechtel said that would push the $16,000 or 2.5-per-cent increase asked for by the city to $56,000, upping the city contribution to the authority to roughly $700,000 next year.
Medical officer of health Dr. Ian Gemmill said the Kingston Frontenac and Lennox & Addington Health Unit couldn’t say whether his agency will meet a $72,000 spending cap asked for by the city.
If the cap was met, it would limit Kingston’s obligation to give the health unit $2.9 million. The health unit’s budget is roughly $8.7 million this year.
Gemmill said the health unit is waiting for provincial changes to health unit funding.
Queen’s Park, he said, is boosting health unit funding from 50 per cent to 55 per cent with the remainder to be funded by member municipalities.
“How that is to be implemented and how much of that is enrichment of public health and for municipalities, we don’t know yet. We have to wait for that information before we can say we’re going to meet the 2.5 per cent guideline of the municipality,” Gemmill said.
Armed with the latest information from agencies last night, council moved into final deliberations to seek approval for Kingston’s proposed $330-million 2005 budget, including operations and capital expenditures.
Results of late talks weren’t available at press time.
If council didn’t reach final approval of the budget, talks were expected to resume at 6 p.m. today in chambers.
http://www.thewhig.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=86227&catname=Local+News
Smoking rooms not up to snuff
Roy Green, Staff Writer Nov 11, 2004
More than 75 per cent of the costly designated smoking areas in restaurants, bars, taverns and bingo halls in York Region failed to meet minimum standards, according to a report from the region's health services department.
The report comes as Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman announced he will introduce legislation this month that will effectively ban smoking anywhere other than in private homes.
There are 102 premises with the completely enclosed and separately ventilated smoking rooms, some of which cost as much as $350,000 to build, but the report says most of them fail to meet bylaw requirements due to poor maintenance, insufficient air supply and exhaust, overcrowding or failing to keep the door closed, according to tobacco control officer Dave Harrison.
"They work when they're first built, but we go back a year later and we find doors are left open, the filters haven't been cleaned or they're not getting the amount of air they're supposed to get," Mr. Harrison said. "The bottom line is they're not meeting the criteria."
Owners are issued a $255 ticket for the first violation, but that could accelerate to a court summons and fine as high as $5,000 for repeated offences.
The number of failures in the smoking areas is not surprising to Markham Regional Councillor Jack Heath, a member of the health committee.
"It's a surprise that even 25 per cent of these DSR's worked," Mr. Heath said this week. "All the way through the processing of this bylaw, there's been no proof you could actually set up (a DSR) that worked all the time."
The region and other GTA municipalities have been asking the province to introduce legislation to shut down designated smoking rooms by 2007.
Mr. Heath believes a total ban is necessary.
"A level playing field is important," he said. "I don't think it's fair some owners can have DSRs, while others don't have the space or financial resources to do it."
Bill Lunney, who recently shut down his Newmarket tavern, Fairlane's, partly because of the bylaw, agrees with Mr. Heath.
"If there was no smoking anywhere, I wouldn't have a problem with that," Mr. Lunney said. "As it is, I lost customers to places that have the smoking rooms even though the ventilation in those places never works properly."
The report provides the first update since the the third phase of the region's anti-smoking bylaw was introduced in June. That phase added all licenced areas to earlier anti-smoking bans in workplaces, restaurants and other public areas.
http://www.yorkregion.com/yr/newscentre/georginaadvocate/story/2336924p-2706453c.html
City and Legion meet - Toronto, ON
Thursday November 11th 2004
7:46 Meeting of Legion Halls convened last night to discuss smoking ban. David Adamson, Chair of Provincial Command Royal Cdn Legion. He attended a meeting at Legion Branch 527 organized by City Councillor Frances Nunziata and 50 other Toronto Legion Branch executives. It was decided that she will ask Howard Moscoe to withdraw his motion
http://www.mojoradio.com/station/john_oakley.cfm
Anti smoking ban Fallout- video
Thunder bay, Ontario council is realizing, after two bar closed and talk of three more about to close, that there should be compromise.
http://tbtv.dayport.com/launcher/4071/?tf=tbtviewer_2004.tpl
Cigarette smoking causes approximately 440,000 deaths annually in the United States (1). To assess the prevalence of current cigarette smoking among adults, CDC analyzed data from the 2003 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey. This report summarizes the results of that analysis, which indicated substantial variation in cigarette smoking prevalence in the 50 states, the District of Columbia (DC), Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) (range: 10.0%--34.0%). To further reduce the prevalence of smoking, states/areas should implement comprehensive tobacco-control programs.
BRFSS is a state-based, random-digit--dialed, telephone survey of the U.S. civilian, noninstitutionalized population aged >18 years. In 2003, the median state/area response rate was 53.2% (range: 34.4%--80.5%). Estimates were weighted by age and sex distributions for each state's population, and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. BRFSS respondents were asked, "Have you smoked at least 100 cigarettes in your entire life?" and "Do you now smoke cigarettes every day, some days, or not at all?" Current smokers were defined as those who reported having smoked >100 cigarettes during their lifetimes and who currently smoke every day or some days.
In 2003, the median prevalence of current cigarette smoking among adults was 22.1% in the 50 states and DC (range: 12.0% [Utah]--30.8% [Kentucky]) (Table). Smoking prevalence was higher among men (median: 24.8%; range: 14.0%--33.8%) than women (median: 20.3%; range: 9.9%--28.1%) in the 50 states and DC. Smoking prevalence for both men and women was highest in Kentucky (men: 33.8%; women: 28.1%) and lowest in Utah (men: 14.0%; women: 9.9%). In areas other than the 50 states and DC, the median prevalence of current cigarette smoking among adults was 13.6% (range: 10.0% [USVI]--34.0% [Guam]).
Reported by: J Bombard, MSPH, A Malarcher, PhD, M Schooley, MPH, A MacNeil, MPH, Office on Smoking and Health, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, CDC.
Editorial Note:
Although the prevalence of current cigarette smoking among U.S. adults has declined, the rate of decline has not been rapid enough for the nation to achieve the 2010 national health objective of <12% of adults smoking cigarettes (objective 27-1) (2,3). The median prevalence of adult smoking decreased 1 percentage point from 2002 to 2003, and the national objective for 2010 was achieved in Utah and the USVI. The high prevalence of current cigarette smoking in most of the remaining states/areas underscores the need for increased efforts to reduce tobacco use.
The findings in this report are subject to at least three limitations. First, the BRFSS survey does not sample persons in households without telephones, a population that might be more likely to smoke (4). Second, data for cigarette smoking are based on self-reports and are not validated with biochemical tests. However, self-reported data on current smoking status have high validity (4). Third, the median response rate was 53.2% (range: 34.4%--80.5%); lower response rates indicate a potential for response bias. However, BRFSS estimates for cigarette smoking are comparable with current smoking estimates from other surveys with higher response rates (5).
Comprehensive tobacco control is effective in preventing and reducing tobacco use (6). CDC recommends the following evidence-based interventions as strategies within comprehensive tobacco-control programs: clean indoor air laws, telephone support quitlines, media campaigns, increased excise taxes on tobacco products, insurance coverage for cessation counseling and pharmaceuticals, and health-care system changes that support cessation (7). Substantial variation exists across states in their use of these strategies. For example, in 2002, two states offered Medicaid coverage for all recommended medication and counseling treatments for tobacco dependence, whereas 11 states covered no tobacco-dependence treatments (8). In addition, the average cost of a single pack of cigarettes (which includes state-based excise taxes) ranged from $3.10 in Kentucky to $5.54 in New York in 2003 (9). The majority of states offer telephone support quitlines, and residents of all states soon will have access to a nationwide network of quitlines. Finally, only six states (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York) have comprehensive statewide bans in effect on smoking in indoor workplaces and public places.
The more funds that states spend on comprehensive tobacco-control programs, the greater the reduction in smoking (6). However, the amount of money that states spend for tobacco control decreased 28% during the preceding 2 years to $541.1 million, which is less than 3% of the estimated $19 billion states expected to receive from tobacco excise taxes and tobacco settlement money in 2003 (10). For fiscal year 2004 (i.e., July 1, 2003--June 31, 2004), only four states (Arkansas, Delaware, Maine, and Mississippi) were investing at least the minimum per capita amount that CDC recommends for tobacco-control programs (10). Efforts and resources must be expanded if more states are to reduce smoking prevalence to <12% by 2010….. CONTINUES……..www.cdc.gov
Host Of Radio Show Suspended For Smoking Hoax - KY, USA
(LEXINGTON, Ky., November 11th, 2004, 4:30 p.m.) -- A Lexington radio station has indefinitely suspended the hosts of its morning show for a hoax "report" that told people they couldn't smoke in cars.
The hoax report was broadcast on F-M radio station WXZZ yesterday. It caused hundreds of people to tie up phone lines to police and health departments, City Hall and the county attorney's office.
WXZZ's general manager, Chris Clendenen says the station's management decided to suspend the morning-show hosts because of the disruption they caused.
Lexington's chief administrative officer says the city said will file a formal complaint with the Federal Communications Commission.
http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=2554387&nav=0RZFT27n
Mayor vetoes smoking ban
By Fredie Carmichael / staff writer
November 11, 2004
The president of the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association said today he is pleased with the mayor’s decision to veto a citywide smoking ban.
Rick Beal, who also owns Lagniappe Bakery and Coffee Shoppe in Meridian, said Mayor John Robert Smith “did the right thing” late Wednesday when he vetoed a smoking ban passed last week by the Meridian City Council.
The ban would have prohibited smoking in restaurants and attached bars and also would have banned smoking in such places as sports arenas and museums. The ordinance also would have prohibited smoking within 25 feet of an open window of a restaurant, museum or sports arena.
Beal and other local restaurant owners had argued that the ban would hurt their business.
“I hope the councilmen stay with his decision,” Beal said. He hopes the city council does not override the veto during its Tuesday meeting.
Councilmen Mary B. Perry of Ward 2, Barbara Henson of Ward 3 and Bobby Smith of Ward 5 voted for the Smokefree Air Act of 2004. Councilmen George Thomas of Ward 1 and Jesse E. Palmer Sr. of Ward 4 voted against it.
It would take a fourth council vote to override the mayor’s veto. In a letter to the city council written on Wednesday, Mayor Smith said that after Tuesday’s public meeting on the issue, “There is no doubt that the ordinance approved by the council is overly broad and subject to different interpretations.
“In addition to the specific, problematic language, I am also concerned about striking the proper balance between public policy that has community-wide value and public policy that is overly intrusive.”
The mayor urged the council not to override his veto and instead move to form a committee to come up with a compromise. Councilman Palmer agreed that a compromise should be sought.
But Council President Bobby Smith of Ward 5 said the mayor’s decision is “a step backwards for Meridian.”
Meridian would have become the first city in the state to ban smoking in restaurants and bars. Jackson passed a similar ordinance last year — but it did not include restaurants.
Dennis Warren of the local chapter of the American Cancer Society said he is disappointed. But, he said, his next step will be to try and convince the council to override the veto.
“Our hearts are broken, but this is far from over,” Warren said. “Our efforts to save lives will continue as they do every day. We’ll just continue doing our best to soften the political hearts and get this approved.”
GET INVOLVED
What: Meridian City Council meeting
On the agenda: Possible override of the mayor’s veto
When: Tuesday, 5:30 p.m.
Where: Municipal Courtroom at the police station
*yes they archive, posted to forum as well
http://meridianstar.com/MERIDIANSTAR/myarticles.asp?P=670498&S=584&PubID=10453
December now target for Gainesville smoking ban vote -GA, USA
by Jerry GunnPosted Thursday, November 11 at 4:17 PM
GAINESVILLE - Gainesville City Council members indicated Thursday they want to wait until December to put a smoking ban ordinance up for a first vote.
The council heard from district Tobacco Use Prevention Coordinator Donald Slakie who said Rockdale County's ordinance could be an alternative to Gwinnett County's which the council has been reviewing.
Slakee said the Rockdale ordinance covers free-standing bars as well as restaurants and workplaces.
"And so basically what this does is that it covers that in the event that happens in the future," ; Slakie said.
The council wants more time to study the other ordinances and compare them and give city attorney Bubba Palmour suggestions for an ordinance for Gainesville.
FEE, TAX REVENUES UP
A report from the Gainesville City Marshal clearly shows the city's business sector is growing and city coffers are a bit richer because of it.
Council members learned from Chuck Smith that there are now 2,209 active businesses in Gainesville, 108 more than last year.
"We've collected $2,976,267 (in business taxes and fees)", Smith said.
That is $53,000 more than last year.
Smith told council in almost all areas the city is growing and producing more tax and fee revenue.
http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=86319
Smoking ban could hit rail firm
Committed smokers who believed they had one last refuge on public transport may find their hopes dashed by plans for a ban in Scotland.
Train operator GNER, which runs services along the east coast between London and Scotland, could be pushed into a tobacco ban.
The firm is currently refurbishing its coaches - including smoking carriages.
A spokesman said a Scottish ban on public smoking starting in spring 2006 "had implications" for the company.
The Scottish Executive is bringing forward legislation which would ban smoking in public places, which could include the train services crossing the border between the two countries.
Train refurbishment
John Gelson, of GNER, said: "The issue of smoking provision on board GNER trains is currently under consideration.
"There are a number of factors to be taken into account, including the latest decision from the Scottish Executive and its implications for us."
The move has come a third of the way through the rail company's programme of refurbishment of its 30 electric trains.
A number of these have already been introduced with improved smoking compartments, internet access, power sockets and extra leg room.
But concerns over the impact any smoking ban on the east coast mainline could have on passengers have been expressed by the north east Rail Passengers' Committee.
Spokeswoman Fran Critchley said having smoking compartments seemed "reasonable and fair".
She said: "I suppose the worry is if hardened smokers on four or six-hour journeys abandon the railways and get in their cars and drive, adding to already congested roads.
"It's a pity in some ways that the Scottish (parliament) made the decision on their own and not in conjunction with the rest of the country."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/4002417.stm
Posted at 11:45 pm by looped_ca
Canadians are tired of being not heard. Here is a way that you can make your voice Known. Gather up all the empty cigarette packs you can and mail them to the following address, it's free, you don't need a stamp. You Could also mail some to your local M.P.P. , they have to hear our voice!! If you want you could also inform them why you are doing this drastic measure. In order for the government to listen to the smokers, they must use "OPERATION GET THE LEAD OUT".
Minister's Office-Health Canada,
Brooke Claxton Bldg, Tunneys Pasture,
P.L. 0906C
Ottawa, ON K1A 0K9
Attn Ujjal Dosanjh-Health Minister
Canadian Health Spending by province and per capita figures
http://taxpayer.com/pdf/Health_Spending_by_Province_(Total_and_Per_Capita).pdf
Impact of Smoking Bans on Eating and Drinking EstablishmentsCanadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association's (CRFA) look at the " Lies, Dammed Lies, and Statistics"- Winston Churchill's reaction to Conflicting data
http://www.crfa.ca/issues/bytopic/smokingregulations_impactofsmokingbans.pdf
City of St. John's challenges provincial smoking ban - NB, CA
(October 8, 2004) Councillor Art Puddister is leading a group of St. John's city councilors in a push for a 100% smoking ban, despite the fact that not a single complaint about smoking in hospitality establishments has been registered at City Hall in the past year. They want a ban that would eliminate smoking in all public places, including taverns and bars where smoking is now permitted under strict regulation.
Under the province's Smoke Free Environment Act , smoking is only permitted in hospitality establishments when no minors are present. Smoking is banned in all restaurants, but it is permitted in bars and in other adults-only establishments. Within these establishments, smoking is allowed only in a separate and distinct area that takes up no more than 50% of the total occupiable space of the establishment.
CRFA - like 72% of Canadians - believes that smoking regulations should be a provincial, not municipal, concern. The current provincial regulations allow for bar and nightclub operators to install separately ventilated designated smoking rooms, a sensible solution that allows operators to serve smoking patrons while protecting non-smoking customers and employees from tobacco smoke.
A public hearing has been scheduled for Oct. 14, to seek public input into the proposed bylaw that would introduce a 100% smoking ban in St. John's. CRFA encourages hospitality operators in the city to contact their councillors to urge them to support of the existing provincial smoking regulations, which are working just fine.
http://www.crfa.ca/issues/2004/st_johns_challenges_provincial_smoking_ban.asp
Profitability drops across Canada
(November 8, 2004) The average profit margin for the commercial foodservice industry dipped to 4.6% of operating revenue in 2002, down from 5.8% the previous year. Rising food and beverage costs were the primary reason for the decline in profit margins, eating into 37.5% of operating revenue in 2002 compared to 33.5% in 2001.
Profitability fell in every province in 2002 with the exception of Nova Scotia, where profits remained relatively unchanged at 5.2% of operating revenue.
Operators in PEI were the hardest hit. A jump in rental and leasing expenses and higher cost of sales knocked profit margins from 7.1% in 2001 to just 3.4% in 2002 – the lowest profit margin of all Canadian provinces.
At 5.9%, Newfoundland and Labrador was the most profitable province in which to operate a foodservice establishment in 2002, with low rental and leasing costs offsetting the highest cost of sales (41.1%) in Canada.
Quebec ranked second in Canada with a profit margin of 5.5%, despite the high cost of sales and labour. In Ontario, profit margins shrank to 4.3%, with declines in all sectors except for catering. High rental and leasing costs, combined with the highest labour costs in the country (31.9%) made British Columbia one of the least profitable provinces in 2002.
whole Provincial Graph available at website:
http://www.crfa.ca/research/2004/profitability_drops_across_canada.asp
Many Links to the Passive Smoke seminar held in London, England
http://www.forestonline.org/output/page279.asp
Study Hints at Possible Allergy-Cancer Link
Some Types of Allergies May Increase the Risk of Blood Cancers
By Jennifer Warner WebMD Medical News
Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD on Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Nov. 3, 2004 -- People who suffer from some allergies, such as hives and eczema, may have a higher risk of developing cancers of the blood later in life, a new study suggests.
Although previous studies have suggested that allergies may have the opposite effect and help protect against cancer, Swedish researchers say their findings indicate that certain types of allergies may increase the risk of some blood cancers, such as leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
"In our study, people with hives showed an increased risk of leukemia," says researcher Karin Söderberg, of the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, in a news release. "We also found an increased risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma among individuals who had eczema during childhood."
Further studies are needed to confirm these results. But experts say the study raises interesting questions about the relationship between diseases that affect the immune system, such as allergies, and the long-term risk of certain blood cancers.
"It should not make people alarmed that just because they have allergies that they could go on to develop malignancies, but it does add thought for future studies," says Marianne Frieri, MD, PhD, director of allergy immunology at Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, N.Y.
Allergies Linked to Cancer?
In the study, which appears in the Nov. 4 issue of the journal BMC Public Health, researchers followed a group of more than 16,000 twins for 31 years. The twins filled out a questionnaire with information on allergies in 1967, and researchers recorded whether they were diagnosed with a blood cancer during the following years.
The study showed that people who reported hives and asthma were about twice as likely to develop leukemia.
Researchers also found an increased risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma among those who had eczema, an allergic disease that affects the skin. Childhood eczema appeared to double the risk of this type of cancer, but researchers say it's important to point out that the likelihood of developing this rare condition is still very small. The disease affects only about 0.03% of people in the U.S.
Other allergic conditions, such as hay fever, were not associated with any increased risk of blood cancer.
Competing Theories, More Study Needed
Researchers say that a link between allergic diseases and cancer risk has been the subject of several studies, and two possible relationships have been proposed.
The first, known as the immune surveillance hypothesis, holds that allergic conditions may reduce cancer risk by enhancing the ability of the immune system to detect and remove malignant cells.
The second theory argues that conditions that stimulate the immune system, such as allergies, increase the risk of cancer. According to this theory, constant stimulation of the immune system increases the number of disease-fighting white blood cells, which raises the risk of cancer-causing mutations of these cells.
"There is a lot of controversy whether it's one theory or another," says Frieri, who is also professor of medicine and pathology at State University of New York at Stony Brook and a fellow of the American College of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology.
Although some studies, including the present Swedish one, have supported both arguments, other studies have also shown no relationship between allergic diseases and cancer risk, or the results were inconsistent.
Researchers say one strength of this study was that the information about allergic diseases and other possible confounding factors was collected after the individuals were diagnosed with cancer, therefore eliminating any potential recall bias. The study also involved a large number of participants who were followed for more than 30 years.
But Frieri points out that there was only a small number of blood cancers reported, which means that random variation in cancer rates cannot be excluded as a possible explanation of the findings. In addition, environmental factors such as exposure to infections may have also played a role.
Frieri says cancer risk is dependent upon many factors and cannot be explained by just allergies. Genes and other environmental, lifestyle, and nutritional factors all contribute to a person's overall risk of developing cancer.
Söderberg agrees and acknowledges that more research is needed before any conclusive links are drawn between blood cancers and allergies.
"It is plausible that the association between allergic conditions and cancer risk is complex and that the risk of developing cancer could depend on the specific malignancy and could also be influenced by the type of allergic condition," write Söderberg and colleagues. "Clearly, these conflicting results indicate that this area needs to be investigated further."
SOURCES: Söderberg, K. BMC Public Health, Nov. 4, 2004; vol 4. News release, BioMed Central. Marianne Frieri, MD, PhD, director of the Allergy and Immunology, Nassau University Medical Center in East Meadow, N.Y.; professor of Medicine and Pathology at State University of New York at Stony Brook. American College of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology. American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology.
http://my.webmd.com/content/article/96/103759.htm
Enforcers ready for smoking role- UK
Environmental health officers are ready to play their part in enforcing the ban on smoking in public places to be introduced in Scotland.
The Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS) said it fully expected to be called upon when legislation comes into force.
It added that extra resources would be needed to match the measures currently employed by health officers in Ireland.
Offenders will be fined and ultimately licences could be revoked.
John Sleith, spokesman for REHIS, said the organisation had already been involved in talks with the executive over how the ban would be enforced.
'Heavy fines'
Measures touted include the setting up of a confidential helpline for members of the public to report places where the new laws are being flouted.
Undercover officers would also be employed to visit bars and restaurants around the country to monitor customers' behaviour.
Mr Sleith said: "We fully expect to be called upon by the executive and our officers are ready to play their part.
"We have already been involved in the consultation process and would be looking to set up a system similar to that already in place in Ireland, which we know has proven to be very successful."
But he stressed that any action taken by environmental health staff must be backed up by heavy fines for those found to be violating the ban.
Mr Sleith said: "In Ireland, people can be fined up to 3,000 euros for smoking where they shouldn't. In the case of a pub, the smoker can be fined along with the bar manager and the licensee of the premises.
"The fine also applies per violation, so if a smoker has five cigarettes, they would pay five times 3,000 euros.
"Ideally, that is the sort of hefty back-up we would like to see here."
'Experience and competence'
Scotland's environmental health staff are the best placed to monitor any new smoking policy, according to the institute's president Dr David Cameron.
He said: "Firstly, our members have the experience and competencies required to protect public health through regulatory controls.
"Secondly, our members are visiting pubs, restaurants and other public places on a daily basis as part of routine inspections for food safety and health & safety inspection programmes, as well as licensing visits, and noise control work.
"This means these officers are well placed to detect businesses that are turning a blind eye to the regulations."
REHIS represents more than 1,000 environmental, community and public health professionals within local government, health services, commerce and industry throughout Scotland.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3999317.stm
Smoking Ban Prank By Radio Station Prompts Complaints- KY, USA
A smoking ban prank by a Lexington radio station Wednesday morning has prompted the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government to take action to stop future shenanigans.
DJ Tony Twitch on Z-Rock 103 claimed that the Lexington City Council had passed a law banning smoking in cars. The bogus report was backed up by fake callers to back up the story.
After the bogus story aired, about 225 calls inundated police and LexCall lines.
An official at Mayor Theresa Issac's office said that they didn't find the prank funny at all.
"What they did was irresponsible, tying up police and Lexcall lines for people who need police service," said Bruce Edwards. "They did a disservice to their own listeners."
A press release from Edwards late Wednesday morning revealed that the LFUCG "will file an official letter of complaint to Cumulus Broadcasting, owners of Z-Rock, and to the FCC seeking action from either that will prevent such disruptions that affect public safety in the future."
The release also said this was the second time in six months that Z-Rock had disrupted police and LexCall operations with "erroneous and irresponsible" information.
The city says the first time first incident occurred when Z-Rock claimed there was a fight at a certain location, and then waited to see how long it would take police to arrive.
http://www.lex18.com/Global/story.asp?S=2547581&nav=EQlpSyRG
*bill not yet decided upon
Ministers set to agree smoking ban
Ministers are set to agree moves to legislate for a ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces in Scotland.
The radical step is expected to be taken at a meeting in Edinburgh of the cabinet of the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition at Holyrood.
First Minister Jack McConnell will announce the outcome of the cabinet's deliberations in a statement to the Scottish Parliament, and a total ban with fines of up to A£3,600 for offenders is widely expected.
Minister Debate ban
Posted at 2:19 am by looped_ca
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
JTI seeks to annul Quebec tax debt
Canadian Press
Monday, November 8, 2004 - Page B3
MONTREAL-- Tobacco giant JTI-MacDonald Corp. has filed a motion in Quebec Superior Court seeking the annulment of a demand by the Quebec government to pay almost $1.4-billion in unpaid taxes.
The Quebec government has charged that Toronto-based JTI profited from contraband trade in cigarettes and did not pay taxes on profit from 1990 through 1998.
The federal government made the same allegation against about a dozen companies in a lawsuit filed in Ontario a year ago. All defendants fell under the R.J. Reynolds Holdings Inc. and Japan Tobacco Inc. groups, including JTI.
JTI alleged Friday that the Quebec government had presumed it guilty and violated its right to a fair trial. JTO also requested damages and interest on seized revenue.
JTI takes Quebec gov'tsaying violation right to fair trial
St. Albert Legion ranks grow thanks to smoking bylaw
DOUG BEAZLEY, EDMONTON SUNFri, November 5, 2004
St. Albert's Legion branch says its membership is booming, thanks in part to Edmonton's strict smoking bylaw. "Yeah, a lot of guys from Edmonton have been transferring membership up here because we still let them smoke," said Doug Adsit, 79, a Navy veteran.
"They just don't like being told what to do. It's still a free country, isn't it?"
The membership chair of St. Albert's Royal Canadian Legion said their numbers nearly doubled in the past year.
"In 2003, we had 432 members. This year we're looking at 728 and rising," said Laura Sweeney.
"The smoking bylaw played a part, but our membership started rising before it took effect. We've always had a pretty large number of younger service members."
The Sherwood Park Legion branch, meanwhile, reports a current membership of 339, falling fast in recent years.
"In 1987 we had 850 members," said branch president Penny Beaudoin. She doesn't attribute their membership drop to Sherwood Park's smoking bylaw - which will extend the smoking ban to bingos and lounges in 2005.
"Our problem is we don't have a building. We had one, but we couldn't afford it," she said.
The Kingsway branch in Edmonton says it's holding its own, despite the butt ban.
Their membership has stayed steady at around 2,100 for the last several years, despite attrition among their older members.
"We're always seeking new members," said membership chair Bill Fecteau. "We didn't really lose members to St. Albert or Spruce Grove because of the bylaw, although some of our members don't come around as often now."
Fecteau said the branch has worked hard to bring in younger members of the military by broadening the Legion's range of entertainment beyond beer, pool and darts.
"The younger members are into sports, so we've got golf and curling tournaments," he said. "And we've got the karaoke, of course.
"The older members seem to like the karaoke as much as the younger ones. It can be pretty hard on the ears sometimes."
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/EdmontonSun/News/2004/11/05/701342.html
Smoking bylaw to be touched up
By Dustin Walker Monday November 08, 2004
Hinton Parklander — Town council may do some tweaking to the proposed amendment to the smoking bylaw before they put the legislation into affect.
Although council voted to endorse the amended bylaw in principal, the more technical details on implementing it will first be looked at by administration.
If passed, the amendment would see a complete smoking ban in restaurants during the hours that minors are served. A recent non-binding plebiscite during the municipal election saw just over 61 per cent of voters supporting the change.
But Dino Brown and Clare Kovacs, owner/operators of Masters Lounge, say that the amendment, as written, is flawed.
“It’s my feeling and opinion that no business owner should have to make the change council is forcing us to do,” said Kovacs as she addressed council at the Nov. 2 meeting.
She went on to re-cap concerns voiced previously that the description of restaurants in the amendment was too broad, and that the legislation didn’t adequately address patios and open decks.
“This is something again that is vague and council should discuss it before they vote on it,” she said. “I think there are a few flaws in how things are presented.”
Council has now referred the bylaw to administration to look at implementation concerns and to see if they are fully addressed in the draft of the bylaw. If administration feels the concerns are not addressed, the bylaw will be changed and brought back to council for consideration.
“I think we’re on the right track with that,” said Coun. Judy Blakely.
“If we’re going to do it, let’s make sure it’s done right,” added Coun. Rick Armstrong.
Also, an additional motion was passed stating that the amended bylaw would be in effect for the first quarter of next year.
“I think it’s responsible for us to put a time frame around this,” said Mayor Glenn Taylor.
http://www.hintonparklander.com/story.php?id=126018
MONTREAL - Claiming it is the victim of "abusive conduct," tobacco maker JTI-Macdonald Corp. has sued the government of Quebec for driving it into bankruptcy protection with a $1.36-billion tax bill three months ago.
"The [Revenue] Minister acted arbitrarily and for improper considerations for the politically expedient purpose of crushing JTI-Macdonald financially and make it virtually impossible for [the firm] to defend the [tax bill]," JTI said in a motion filed with Quebec Superior Court.
Quebec obtained a court judgment on Aug. 10 in favour of its tax assessment. It had alleged the firm -- the Canadian subsidiary of Japan Tobacco Inc. and Canada's oldest tobacco maker -- owed the province for cigarettes exported duty-free to the United States and then smuggled back to Canada through the Cornwall, Ont., area in the 1990s. Two weeks later the firm filed for creditor protection in Ontario after Quebec began seizing cash from its customers.
"The chilling reality," the suit contends, "is that the Minister unilaterally decided [JTI] was guilty of smuggling ... on no evidence whatsoever, not even on a preliminary investigation, but rather ... mere suspicions."
JTI seeks $2-million it alleges Quebec seized before it filed under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, as well as tax credits. It claims Quebec and its revenue ministers flouted due process, basing their case on "mere unproven and contested allegations of others" that are the basis of court actions against it elsewhere. A civil action by the Canadian government in the United States was dismissed by its Supreme Court in 2002. Criminal and civil actions against JTI are before the courts in Ontario.
The firm has denied all smuggling allegations, none of which has been proven in court.
A former salesman with its predecessor, RJR-Macdonald, has sued the firm, claiming he was an "unwitting dupe" in a conspiracy with smugglers. He pleaded guilty in 2000 to conspiring to defraud Ottawa and has provided information in cases against JTI.
"Rather than doing any serious work the minister embarked on a path to pre-determine JTI-Macdonald's guilt," JTI's suit alleges.
JTI claims Quebec's case is based on faulty assumptions and amendments to its tobacco law in 2000 that apply retroactively, extend the statute of limitations and put the burden of proof on it to show it wasn't involved in smuggling. It claims Quebec obtained its assessment without JTI having a chance to makes its case.
That is a violation of its constitutional rights, the company says, by denying it the benefit of due process and the assumption of innocence until proven guilty.
A spokeswoman for Quebec Revenue Minister Lawrence Bergman said he wouldn't comment because the matter is before the courts. In August, he said the province's "dossier is well-documented" and said "this is money which ... belongs to the state."
JTI sies Quebec gov't
Smoking ban ignites debate at Legions
Janis Leering: The Mirror
Ken Cooper doesn't think it's fair for the government to enforce a smoking ban at the local Legion.Cooper, a memmber of Penetanguishene Royal Canadian Legion, doesn't think smokers should be shut out of enjoying a puff inside the club.
"There is a separate room for smokers at the Legion in Stayner, and that would be OK, but I don't think there should be a ban entirely," said Cooper. "They would lose a lot of members here if the government did that."
He used the example of the Elmvale Legion, which is totally smoke-free, and said they lost some members because of the ban.
Cooper, who has been a smoker for 40 years, said during the First and Second World Wars, cigarettes were rationed out to soldiers, as a pleasure in life, and that shouldn't be taken away, especially for people who have smoked all their life."
Earlier this week, Health Minister George Smitherman suggested creating the ban at private clubs, along with looking closer at bar patios, where patrons can smoke.
"We're going to introduce a 100-per-cent ban on smoking in public and workplaces," Smitherman said outside a Liberal caucus meeting. "The dangers of second-hand smoke do not know boundaries."
But if the province decides to target the Royal Canadian Legions, the one in Penetanguishene would be the only local bar where smoking is banned, because residents can still smoke at other bars in town.
Art Lizotte may not be a smoker now, but he said there's no point in complaining about the province's idea to ban smoking at Royal Canadian Legions.
Lizotte, a member of the Legion in Penetanguishene, said he doesn't care if smoking is banned at the club. "The government is going to do what it wants to do, whether we say no, or not," said Lizotte.
He said it is fair for the government to make the ban, even though there is no municipal bylaw to restrict smoking at other bars in town.
Lizotte, a former police officer, said he was a heavy smoker until he was criticized by coworkers, and that was back when it only cost 45 cents for a large package of cigarettes.
Fellow Legion member, Joe Piercey, has been a non-smoker for the past 13 months, after smoking for more than 60 years, and said he doesn't think there should be a ban.
"My friends come in here, and half of them smoke, but that's their privilege," he said.
"I don't want the government to ban smoking here."
Coun. John O'Hara doesn't agree the province should enforce a ban at the Legions, and he believed vets would have had more consideration. "I can see the dance hall part of our Legion maybe, but the vets are members, and I thought there would be some consideration for them," said O'Hara. "It would be the bingo halls, and Legions, but maybe if we had a closed-door policy, where you need a key to get in, you could smoke there."
Penetanguishene councillors didn't pass a municipal ban last year because they felt the responsibility lied in the government's hands. Other North Simcoe municipalities did pass a ban, however, which has been in effect for more than a year.
The ban includes the Legion in Midland, and Bert Reynolds,public relations officer at the Royal Canadian Legion in Penetanguishene, said some people have switched their membership so they can still smoke indoors.
"We have all kinds of members who are transferring from the Midland Legion, but I hope the government goes non-smoking."
He said only 30 per cent of the population smoke in the area, and the Legions should cater to the majority, not the minority, and was looking forward to the government's decision on the matter.
The Legions in Waubaushene, Victoria Harbour, and Port McNicoll all still allow smoking in their clubs.
Rod Irvine, president of the Elmvale Legion, said it has been smoke-free for more than a year, and is working out well now.
"We lost some members in the beginning, but they are coming back, because they accept that's the way it is," he said.
The Legion became smoke-free when the municipality passed a bylaw, and Irvine said sometimes visitors have difficulty, but they also have to respect the law, and are willing to go outside to smoke.
http://www.simcoe.com/sc/midland/story/2326433p-2694084c.html
Citing customer complaints, Beaver House bucks trend, rescinds non-smoking policy -PA, USA
By AARON APPLEGATEPocono Record Writer
Evelyn Seiple finished a plate of shrimp scampi, flipped open a pack of Marlboros and lit up.
Seiple, 71, was happy to be back at one of her favorite restaurants, the Beaver House in Stroudsburg.
The seafood and steak house near Stroud Mall went completely smoke-free five months ago, but recently reversed course after smokers vehemently complained.
"When I heard about the change, I said, 'Fantastic,'" said Seiple, a retired nurse. "That was the big incentive to come back."
Beaver House owner Rick Michel is hoping more smokers will make the same decision. He said his five-month smoke-free experiment was a disaster.
"It's economics when you come right down to it," Michel said. "We had more smoking customers than we realized."
At a time when more and more restaurants are going smoke-free, the Beaver House's return to smoking is an odd reversal.
The move shocked anti-smoking advocates who months earlier had worked with Michel to rid the restaurant of smoking.
"I was like, oh my gosh, you're kidding," said Lisa Wing, a Chronic Disease Tobacco Prevention educator with the Monroe County Cooperative Extension.
The change was even more galling because Wing had helped the Beaver House in April get a $1,400 state grant through the Carbon Monroe Pike Drug and Alcohol Commission. The grant money was used for advertising the restaurant's new smoke-free status.
"We're very disappointed when we heard," said Patty Fascio, the tobacco program director for the drug and alcohol commission. "We never expected there would be a problem with it."
Fascio said there are no provisions in the grant to get the money back.
Today, advertisements for the Beaver House carry the exact opposite message from the state-subsidized messages five months ago.
"After a trial period of 100% No Smoking, we didn't realize we were offending so many of our loyal customers who are smokers," the restaurant's latest ads say. "To all of our smokers, 'we are sorry.' We now have a special dining area for you that is separated from non-smokers, so no one will be offended."
Anti-smoking advocates blame the Beaver House experience on Pennsylvania's "Clean Indoor Air Law," which they say doesn't go far enough because it doesn't ban smoking in restaurants and bars. Doing that, they say, would keep restaurant owners from losing smoking customers because every place would be smoke-free.
"That would make it a level playing ground for everyone," Fascio said.
An outright smoking ban has gained political supporters. State Sen. Stuart Greenleaf, R-12, who represents Montgomery County, in August introduced a bill — as he's done every year for the last 10 years — to ban smoking in all restaurants and bars.
Greenleaf wants Pennsylvania to join California, Delaware, New York, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and Rhode Island as a state that bans smoking in all restaurants and bars.
While the bill sits in the Senate's Health and Public Welfare committee, opponents are making sure their voices are heard.
"The fact is the government shouldn't be mandating what a business offers their customers," said Patrick Conway, CEO of the Pennsylvania Restaurant Association, which strongly opposed a smoking ban. "The marketplace is responsible for that. A ban on smoking would just be a government mandate to regulate social behavior."
Much of the smoking debate centers on whether going smoke-free hurts or helps businesses, a question to which there is no clear answer.
Patrick Mullally, owner of Dansbury Depot in East Stroudsburg, which went smoke-free earlier this year, said business is booming.
"I've gained customers, and every day somebody congratulates me on it," he said.
Success stories like Dansbury Depot are often cited by non-smoking
advocates who say employers will reap other benefits by going smoke-free, such as a healthier work force that is sick less often.
But Conway at the restaurant association said it's crucial that business owners, and by extension their customers, have a choice.
"We're in the hospitality business, and restaurants stay in business by offering customers the choices they want. It's as simple as that," he said.
The Evelyn Seiples of the world will likely agree.
As Evelyn's son, Steve, said during their meal at the Beaver House, "Where we go is dictated by where she can smoke."
http://www.poconorecord.com/local/lc103104.htm
State Healthcare Proposal -KS, USA
Released Stephanie Wurtz
Over 300,000 Kansans are uninsured, the majority of them in households where someone is employed full-time.
One Topeka pediatrician says he's frequently dealing with patients that can't afford necessary care. Doctor Dennis Cooley deals with the healthcare crisis on a daily basis.
"We'll have prescriptions we write they can't afford; we'll suggest they do some type of treatment and they just can't afford it!" Cooley says.
Cooley and many doctors statewide hope the governor's healthcare plan will create solutions for these problems. The plan cuts administrative costs by transferring all healthcare programs to one place, a newly-created Health Care Authority.
The state will also work with pharmacies to develop an improved prescription drug plan.
"Kansans should also be able to afford the life-saving drugs they need," says Governor Sebelius.
Democrat Sebelius teamed with Republican State Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger to develop the plan. Praeger says it provides more affordable options for small businesses.
"A plan that would make the difference for working Kansans between having a plan and going without," Praeger says.
Sebelius says if healthcare is more affordable, people will be able to get to the doctor more often.
Doctor Cooley thinks that's a step in the right direction.
"If we can decrease obesity and smoking, healthcare costs will go down," Cooley says.
One of the more controversial parts of the plan is how it would be funded. The governor proposes a fifty-cent increase in the cigarette tax.
Of course all of this would have to first be approved by the legislature.
http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/1173911.html
Legislators chase after elusive school funding amount-OR, USA
By JULIA SILVERMAN
PORTLAND, Ore. - The legislative session is still two months away, but Salem's favorite parlor guessing game - how much the state will spend on public schools for the next biennium - is already in full swing.
Will it even budge from its current $4.9 billion, the level it has been at since 1999? Will it rise to the more optimistic figure of $5.4 billion that some school advocates say is required to account for inflation, rising health care costs, and growing PERS costs? Or will the chips fall somewhere in between?
A final answer could be months away, but some clues have emerged during the early jockeying over K-12 school funding, which at 45 percent is the largest piece of the state budget pie.
One thing does seem clear: there's very little momentum behind asking voters to weigh in on a temporary income tax hike for schools, after two failed efforts in 2003 and 2004.
"At this point, we are not hearing either the Democrats in the Senate or the Republicans in the House or the governor talking about new tax revenue," said Chuck Bennett, a lobbyist for the Confederation of Oregon School Administrators.
A few revenue-raising options, from upping the cigarette tax to raising the corporate minimum tax to boosting the funding that can be raised under local option levies, are being floated by school advocates and may find a foothold.
But there's far more bipartisan support for finding ways to make cuts within the existing budget, something that could be tough for schools that have been through several years of cutbacks.
"How can we identify ways to redirect dollars so that we have more to spend on classroom instruction?" asked State Sen. Frank Morse, R-Albany, who is participating in a working group studying ways to do just that.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski is backing ways to centralize business and administrative services, like payrolls and health insurance coverage, to reduce redundancies, said James Sager, his education adviser.
And there's also some interest in modifying the Education Service District (ESD) system, cooperatives that provide specialized services to groups of schools, like special education teachers, technology support and distance learning programs.
"There may be a modified system where some of the larger districts can provide some of the services for the smaller districts," said State Sen. Bill Morrissette, D-Springfield. "That is an area that we are going to be looking at."
Once again, education funding will find itself vying with public safety and health, the other two big-ticket items that gobble up large chunks of state funding.
And just like the previous session, there promises to be a big gap in the amount of money needed to maintain services and what's actually coming into the general fund from income taxes and lottery revenue.
Estimates of the gap range from $600 million to $1.2 billion, with money coming in during the 2005-2007 biennium projected to be around $11.8 billion. And most of the one-time sources of money used to plug holes in previous budgets are now tapped out.
The first definitive shot in the debate over school funding will be fired when the governor releases his proposed budget, due on Dec. 1.
Sager said his office has considered everything from holding school funding to the $4.9 billion level to bringing it to the $5.3 billion amount; others familiar with the budget process say the governor's proposal for school funding so far has hovered around an even $5 billion.
Sager said the governor's budget will be based on current revenue projections, and a series of priorities, instead of simply building on existing programs.
"We have to target the dollars based on his principles, of where he feels it will do the most good for Oregonians," Sager said.
In a monthly newsletter, State School Superintendent Susan Castillo signaled that the governor would not be proposing a significant hike for schools.
She wrote of a recent meeting with Kulongoski, "He said that we are facing an $800 million shortfall in the coming biennium, and that additional funding for schools will be hard to find.
In fact, he said that it may be difficult to maintain the current level of funding, given the competing priorities of public safety and vital human services."
Morissette acknowledged that even with the state Senate under Democratic control - traditional allies of the Oregon Education Association and other schools groups - school funding is in for another battle.
"We will have to look very hard to continue to provide the same level of funding for education," he said. "We have a huge backload of programs to fill. To say we are going to put significantly more money into education is not particularly realistic."
http://www.katu.com/education/story.asp?ID=72507
Problems with smoking ban -UK
TOMORROW, Jack McConnell, the First Minister, is set to add a smoking ban to the Public Health Bill which the Executive will place before the Scottish Parliament next week. The case for action is powerful. Smoking is Scotland’s dirtiest - and deadliest - habit. As the BMA points out, smoking-related illness kills 13,000 Scots and accounts for 35,000 hospital admissions every year. The case for legislation could not be stronger.
But the Executive has two issues to weigh carefully. The first, if the ban is to include all pubs and public covered spaces, is enforceability. While there is widespread support for a smoking ban in restaurants, enforcing a ban in every pub in Scotland (and every club, as this would create a huge loophole) would require public co-operation to succeed. But how would a reasonable person react to the physical enforcement of a law that would criminalise and punish with a £3,600 fine a pipe-smoking pensioner in a pub? The problem of such a wide ban carrying such a heavy fine is that it may provoke defiance, making even a partial ban difficult to uphold.
Then there is the precedent such legislation would set for its intrusiveness and its denial of choice to all commercial premises across the land. Better, surely, to go for a ban in restaurants which the public would support, and consider wider legislation at a later date once the principle has been established.
http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1291952004
Renewed bid to ban smoking -UK
CAMPAIGNERS launched last-ditch efforts today to persuade the Government to ban smoking in public places in its forthcoming public health White Paper.
The British Medical Association (BMA) has published a report chronicling individual doctors' experiences of treating non-smoking patients who have developed cancer and other health problems due to tobacco.
It came as the Scottish Executive prepared to make its own judgment this week on the future of smoking in public places, such as restaurants, pubs and offices.
Health Secretary John Reid has so far appeared reluctant to follow the route of introducing a nationwide public smoking ban like that in Ireland, saying England had to find its own way of tackling the problem.
Last week reports suggested that smoking could be banned in pubs, restaurants and offices unless they met strict licensing conditions such as protecting children and providing proper ventilation.
BMA
Today the BMA called on Dr Reid to set a date to ban smoking in all workplaces in efforts to save the lives of staff.
It is estimated that at least 1,000 a year die from the effects of passive smoking.
The BMA has long said that the biggest single step governments could take to improve public health was to take nationwide action and ban smoking in enclosed workplaces.
Their report - The Human Cost of Tobacco - includes 70 cases across the UK where doctors have dealt with patients made ill by second-hand smoke.
One doctor described three life-long non-smoking patients treated for inoperable lung cancer in the last two years.
"The biopsies showed the type of lung cancer only seen in smokers, and all three worked in public places where they were heavily exposed to secondary cigarette smoke.
"All three died within weeks of diagnosis," the doctor said.
Another doctor described a 34-year-old pub landlady who suffered a series of breathing difficulties due to working in a smoky environment.
"She now needs regular inhaled drugs including steroids to control her symptoms.
"She herself has never smoked," the doctor said.
Children are also shown to suffer in the report, with cases of severe asthma, low birth-weight babies and pregnancy problems all blamed on passive smoking.
Difficult
BMA chairman James Johnson set Dr Reid a challenge to put an end to smoking in the workplace.
"There is no doubt that giving up smoking can be extremely difficult - like any addiction kicking the habit is no easy task.
"When smokers decide to quit they are often advised to set a date, bin the fags and then just do it.
"Support from a doctor or health professional during this time can be invaluable," Mr Johnson said.
"I am going to give the same advice to John Reid.
"In the forthcoming White Paper for England, he should set a date for banning smoking in all enclosed public places, this will give the bars and restaurants time to bin their ash-trays and then these workplaces will just have to abide by the law.
"John Reid already has the support of the medical profession."
The long-awaited Public Health White Paper for England is due to be published later this month.
Simon Clark, director of the smokers' lobby group Forest, said the BMA report examples were "anecdotes masquerading as scientific evidence".
"There is no conclusive proof that passive smoking kills or seriously harms people."
He added: "There is no justification for a ban on smoking in all public places."
Conservative Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said: "Like much of Labour's public health policy, the smoking ban is riddled with inconsistencies."
http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/news/s/136/136238_renewed_bid_to_ban_smoking.html
New Drug Could Help You Quit Smoking and Lose Weight
Dr. Kim Mulvihill Reporting Nov. 9, 2004
Big news today from the annual American Heart Association meeting held this week in New Orleans. A new drug just might help you quit smoking AND fight the battle of the bulge.
The drug is called Accomplia. It's manufactured by the newly merged French company Sanofi-Aventis, and company officials say this could be their biggest product yet.
Like many smokers, Bob Berckman has tried to quit many times. This time he found it easy.
Bob Berckman, Study Participants: "There was no side effects, no jitters or anything like that. It was, it was really very smooth."
Bob was part of a clinical study testing the new drug Accomplia. It aims to block the brain's 'pleasure center' and interfere with cravings. That's why it's been tested not only for smoking cessation, but also weight loss.
Dr. Robert Anthenelli, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine: "I think it's really important to remember that cigarette smoking and obesity are the leading causes of death in the United States."
The study tracked more than 3,000 volunteers and found people not only lost weight, but kept it off for two years. Participants don't know yet whether they were taking the drug or a placebo, but Bob thinks he got the real deal -- he quit smoking and lost eight pounds.
Bob Berckman "Typically in the past when I tried to quit I, I definitely became a lot, a lot more hungry."
The study found participants taking the higher of two doses lost five-percent of their initial body weight. A third lost more than 10-percent.
http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=44&sid=131715
Posted at 11:55 pm by looped_ca
Monday, November 08, 2004
Smoke-free bars get leg up on bylaw
Clean air sells, says lounge owner. 'It just made business sense.'
Vernon Clement Jones
The Edmonton Journal
Monday, November 08, 2004
EDMONTON -- The second phase of Edmonton's smoking bylaw doesn't kick in until next July, but a growing number of bars and lounges have decided to ban smoking today rather than put it off for tomorrow.
"Seeing as the bylaw is going to change, we thought we'd get a head start," says Reg Ching, owner of Mimi's Premium Lounge. "It just made business sense."
Indeed.
Last week, the small downtown lounge on Rice Howard Way played host to a party of more than 40 customers -- all of them paying, none of them smoking.
That night, a much larger bar across the street, which allows smoking, had about half that number.
"We've had a lot of clients tell us that they like it -- there's no smoke to smell up their clothes," Ching says.
The first half of Edmonton's controversial smoking ban, banning smoking in city restaurants, came into effect in July 2003. As of next July 1, that ban will extend to the city's bingo halls, bars and casinos, all currently exempt.
Ching is wise to implement the change sooner rather than later, says Randy Kirillo, a supervisor with the city's complaints and investigations section.
"It's a good idea," Kirillo says.
"Come July 1st, bars will have to start marketing to non-smoking clientele. Those who start early will have an advantage.
"The smoking bylaw is going ahead and there's nothing in the works towards changing it."
Ching agrees. He says he's hoping to establish a loyal customer base ahead of the city's other bars and lounges, which may struggle to hold on to patrons after the ban takes effect.
The Edmonton man bought his upscale lounge as a going concern and retained a smoking ban introduced by the previous owner.
"Ultimately, the trend has changed," says optometrist Brent Saik, a Mimi's customer, surrounded by a group of twenty- and thirtysomethings.
"People are more health-conscious. Nobody wants to go home smelling of smoke," Saik says.
"I've lived in Vancouver for a while and I'm excited about places like this."
Other nightspots are also asking their customers to butt out before entering.
"I could have done whatever I wanted until the bylaw change, but I chose to go smoke-free from the day we opened," says Jeff Coltek, the owner of Suede Lounge at 109th Street and Jasper, a trendy but low-key bar and eatery that draws up to 300 people a night.
"It was mostly because we didn't want to have to replace carpets and repaint when we'd have to go smoke-free in July 2005."
Surprisingly, most smokers are willing to adjust to the changing reality, says the owner of another non-smoking bar.
"We've had only one guy put up a stink about it," says Dennis Cambly of Dinovi's Martini Lounge, which opened last month on 124th Street.
"We had a couple of very busy nights in the first couple of days and nobody said a word about smoking," says Cambly, a smoker himself.
"I think we've made far too big a deal about this smoking ban in Edmonton, considering that Manitoba just went boom, no more smoking."
Back at Mimi's, a woman standing outside, cigarette dangling from her lips, says she's "fine with all of it.
"I'm on the way to quitting," Laurie Haynes says before heading back inside.
"It's nice here because it's not smoky. Even us smokers appreciate that."
vjones@thejournal.canwest.com
http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=2706c8a3-5f56-4a99-bbc8-f77991cd265f
Babies should sleep in their own cribs, advise Canadian paediatricians
06 Nov 2004
For the first year of life, the safest place for a baby to sleep is in his or her own crib, according to new recommendations published by the Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) this week in Paediatrics & Child Health.
In Recommendations for Safe Sleeping Environments for Infants and Children, the CPS says that infants who sleep in their own cribs are significantly safer than those who share a bed with an adult.
“Babies who sleep in adult beds are more vulnerable to the risks of unexpected death,” says Dr. Denis Leduc, President-Elect of the CPS and one of the authors of the statement, which was produced by the Community Paediatrics Committee. “There is no way to create an absolutely safe sleeping environment that can completely protect infants from the possibility of entrapment or suffocation in an adult bed.”
While there are no case-control studies describing Canadian data, preliminary results from a recent study of all cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome in Quebec between 1991 and 2000 revealed that 81 of the 443 cases were in sleep environments recognized as unsafe.
“Research shows us that there was a significant increase in bed sharing in North America between 1993 and 2000. With that, there has been an increase in sudden unexpected death in infants who were in adult beds and where it can be identified that there was an unsafe sleep environment,” says Dr. Leduc.
While no sleep environment is completely risk-free, much can be done to educate parents on sleep safety for infants. Parents should consider the risks of bedsharing when making choices for sleeping environments.
The CPS is making the following recommendations:
-- Infants should sleep on their back, in cribs meeting the Canadian Government Safety Standards. This is the recommended sleeping arrangement for the first year of life, under all circumstances.
-- The infant sleep environment must be free of quilts, comforters, bumper pads, pillows and pillow-like items.
-- Sharing a room with the parents is protective against SIDS and this type of sleep arrangement is a safer alternative to bedsharing.
- Infants of mothers who smoked during their pregnancy are at increased risk of SIDS and, when there is exposure to cigarette smoke either pre-or post-natal, the risk is further increased with bedsharing.
-- Infants should not be placed on waterbeds or air mattresses, even for temporary sleeping arrangements.
-- Sleeping with an infant, or letting an infant sleep alone on any type of couch, recliner or cushioned chair is dangerous.
The Canadian Paediatric Society is a national professional association, representing more than 2,200 paediatricians, that advocates for the health needs of children and youth. Its peer-review journal, Paediatrics & Child Health, is published 10 times a year and circulated to 15,500 child health care professionals. For more information about safe sleeping environments, visit http://www.cps.ca.
Media inquiries: Christine LaRocque(613) 526-9397, ext. 234 media@cps.ca
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=15974
AIR POLLUTION 'GIVES YOU HEART DISEASE'
By Daniel Boffey Nov 8 2004
AIR pollution may cause heart disease, a study has revealed.
Traffic fumes and factories belching out smoke could be just as bad for you as lighting up a cigarette, experts warn.
High levels of pollution could trigger and speed up the narrowing of arteries leading to a heart attack or stroke.
Heart disease is the third- biggest killer in the UK, claiming 70,000 lives a year.
Professor Nino Kuenzli said: 'Our study found that air pollution may contribute to cardiovascular problems at a very early stage of the disease, similar to smoking.'
Researchers from the University of California carried out tests on 800 people over the age of 40 in Los Angeles.
Using ultrasound, they measured the thickness of the inner lining of their neck arteries and the build-up of fatty materials in the arteries which reduces blood flow.
They also looked at nearby levels of pollution produced by burning fossil fuels.
For every 10 micrograms per metre cubed increase in pollution levels, the thickness of the artery lining increased by 5.9 per cent. For women over 60 it was 15.7.
Alison Shaw, cardiac nurse at the British Heart Foundation, said: 'Certain pollutants have an inflammatory effect on the inner linings of arteries. However, further large- scale trials are needed to assess the health impacts of long-term exposure.'
Industrial pollution biggest factor
Area hospital systems seek complete ban on cigarette smoking
By Erik Brooks Nov. 7, 2004
The Business Journal of Milwaukee
Columbia St. Mary's Inc. and Aurora Health Care will be the first Milwaukee-based hospital systems to go entirely smoke-free at hospitals, clinics and offices
Columbia St. Mary's is banning smoking on property at all of its three Milwaukee and Ozaukee County hospitals and 26 area clinics effective July 4, 2005.
Aurora Medical Center-Washington County in Hartford and seven Aurora clinics in Washington, Dodge and Ozaukee counties are going smoke-free Nov. 18, according to the health care system.
Even those employees and patients wanting to light up in their cars in hospital or clinic parking lots will not be able to under the new anti-smoking policies, which are the first to be implemented in hospitals in southeastern Wisconsin.
Banning smoking entirely from hospital campuses is a growing trend nationally, as hospital leaders assert that smoking does not fit into their missions of promoting good health, said Tyler Roberts, education and outreach specialist for the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention, Madison.
"It's not a question of 'if' hospitals are going to be smoke-free, but rather when it's going to happen," Roberts said.
Only a handful of Wisconsin hospital systems have such broad anti-smoking policies in place, said Dana Richardson, vice president of quality for the Wisconsin Hospital Association, Madison. ThedaCare, a health system in the Appleton and Neenah areas, is among the few that do.
Synergy Health of West Bend, owner of St. Joseph's Community Hospital, will go smoke-free at its hospital, clinics and outpatient centers on Aug. 1, 2005.
Growing trend
Individual businesses and municipalities have banned smoking in public places, particularly restaurants, for years. In 2003, the city of Madison enacted a controversial ban on smoking in many restaurants and bars. Locally, Wauwatosa passed an ordinance last November pledging to ban smoking at restaurants by 2006, the first Milwaukee County community to enact such a law.
Wisconsin law bans smoking in many enclosed public places such as restaurants and offices, including private businesses, unless a designated smoking area is established. More than 2,500 restaurants in Wisconsin are entirely smoke-free, according to the Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Prevention Resources, a Madison-based interest group.
Smoking inside hospitals and medical offices is completely banned. The move to entirely smoke-free hospital campuses -- indoors and outdoors -- strengthens those rules, the health systems' representatives said.
The move by hospitals to quell smoking entirely on their properties is "pretty radical," Richardson said.
"They really want to send a message within their community that smoking is bad for your health," she said of the hospital systems' smoking bans.
Columbia St. Mary's is waiting nine months to institute its ban to give employees and patients time to digest the rules and get workers to stop smoking through various programs, said Dr. Michael Lischak, medical director of the hospital system's employee health plan.
"It's Independence Day," he said. "It's freedom from the hazards of smoking."
Under Columbia St. Mary's current policy, each hospital and clinic allows smoking in designated areas outside or in a "smoking hut" attached to the building.
Milwaukee County's two other major hospital systems -- Covenant Healthcare System Inc. and Froedtert & Community Health -- all have similar smoking policies that allow smoking in designated outdoor areas, said spokespeople for those hospital systems.
Columbia St. Mary's leaders hope to work with the Medical Society of Milwaukee County to expand the smoke-free concept to the other area hospitals, said Therese Pandl, executive vice president of Columbia St. Mary's Inc.
40th anniversary
Columbia St. Mary's decision coincides with the 40th anniversary of the first government warnings linking smoking to cancer and other health problems, Pandl said.
"It's about time our organization took a responsible position as a health care leader to set an example of a healthy environment," Pandl said.
Lischak estimated that about 20 percent of the hospital system's employees and patients -- the percentage of American adults who smoke -- will be affected by the shift.
Committees and focus groups of Columbia St. Mary's administrators and employees helped craft the anti-smoking plan.
Lischak said discussions were constructive and led to changes in what was originally proposed, which included outlawing even the smell of cigarette smoke on employees' clothing.
"We don't want to be the smell police," he said.
Smokers were concerned that the policy amounted to "taking away a benefit," but hospital officials determined that smoking doesn't qualify as a company benefit, Lischak said.
Smokers also were concerned that they were being "singled out" by the new policy. They encouraged the hospital system to use the anti-smoking rules as a way to broaden the company's wellness programs for everyone, which the system is planning to do, Lischak said.
Columbia St. Mary's also is considering offering through the employee health plan incentives such as smoking cessation classes to encourage employees to kick the habit.
Potential patient concerns about the policy also were addressed in drafting the policy, Lischak said. Hospital officials settled on providing patients with "appropriate alternatives" including nicotine patches to reduce cravings. Patients still wanting to smoke will have to check out of the hospital "against medical advice," Lischak said.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6433626/
Naples' air pollution rated fourth worst in Italy
By Jason Chudy, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Monday, November 8, 2004 NAPLES, Italy – How many cigarettes do you smoke in a day?
Don’t answer just yet.
If you live in Naples, you’re breathing in the equivalent of nine to 11 cigarettes’ worth of pollution per day, according to a recent medical study released by the Sesto San Giovanni Hospital’s occupational health department and reported by The Associated Press.
That’s a half-pack-per-day habit you’ll have to kick when you leave, even if you never light up.
The study, presented in northern Parma at a conference on a rise in respiratory diseases, ranked Naples as the fourth- worst city in Italy for its air pollution.
Ranking worse were: Milan; Palermo, Sicily; and Trieste in the country’s northeast corner. There, residents breath in the equivalent of about 15 cigarettes per day.
“Since I’ve lived here all my life I didn’t realize it,” said 18-year-old college student and nonsmoker Gloria Bradshaw, whose mother is Neapolitan and father is American.
“But what can you do about it?” she said. “You can tell the air is different here (than in the United States). It just feels different.”
Petty Officer 3rd Class Tim Martinez, who has been in Naples since March, said he doesn’t know if he believes the study, but can sure tell when the pollution’s bad.
“I live in the barracks and sometimes can’t see (Mount) Vesuvius,” he said after finishing a cigarette at an outdoor smoking area. “It’s right there — only about five miles away.”
Martinez, a corpsman at the base clinic, said he believes that pollution here is worse than it is in the States because of the large numbers of people who burn their trash.
“Even in Chicago it wasn’t this bad,” he said.
The pollution, he believes, has affected his allergies.
“I’ve always had them a bit, but here they’ve gotten worse,” he said.
Those at other U.S. military bases in Italy can breathe a little easier, but not much.
Nonsmokers in Livorno are getting the equivalent of only five or six cigarettes per day, as do residents of Naval Air Station Sigonella, Sicily, who live in Catania, about 15 miles east of the base.
Don’t hold your breath, Vicenza. Any base personnel who live in Padova take in four to five cigarettes per day.
Aviano residents can breathe a sigh of relief, as none of the nearby cities made the list.
http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=25384
Democrats take stock of state's fiscal woes –CO, USA
Associated Press WriterBy Steven K. Paulson November 8, 2004
DENVER - Be careful what you wish for because you just might get it.
It's a saying Democrats are coming to grips with after winning control of both houses of the Colorado Legislature for the first time since 1960. They now face a fiscal mess that could mean $263 million in statewide cuts in a matter of months and two conflicting spending laws blamed for causing all the trouble.
Democrats say they would like to cut funding for transportation, which Republicans want to increase in the next two years, and eliminate some of the mandatory school tests the GOP has touted as part of its public schools reform program.
Outgoing House Majority Leader Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, also said any plan to dismantle tax credits approved over the past four years by Republicans will be rejected.
The situation forced a sober assessment last week from the new Democratic leaders, who said the only difference this year is that more options will be on the table when the ax begins to fall. Some of the same stopgap solutions used to balance the budget the past two years will be back.
"Even short-term relief at this point is better than cutting back on services," said Senate President-elect Joan Fitz-Gerald, who fears it could take two years to get a permanent fix.
Whatever party is in charge, the Legislature still must work under the constraints of the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights, a constitutional amendment that requires the state to give back taxes in excess of increases for growth and inflation, and Amendment 23, which requires the Legislature to increase funding for public schools.
The Legislature for two years has failed to come up with a way to satisfy both amendments without cuts, and the new Democratic majority must still work with GOP Gov. Bill Owens.
One potential solution gaining support is a plan to ask taxpayers to give back part of their state tax refund provided by TABOR. The plan is called "de-Brucing" for Douglas Bruce, author of the tax- and spending-limitation amendment, who said voters should be allowed to decide for themselves whether to let state and local governments keep their money.
State Treasurer Mike Coffman, a Republican, said both parties agree they can put a "de-Brucing" measure on the ballot next November.
State Sen. Dave Owen, a Republican member of the Joint Budget Committee, said the GOP might agree to a plan to ask voters to give back some of their tax surplus - but only if they can offer a permanent cut and tell the public how the money will be spent.
"The voters would like a tax cut, but their question still is going to be, 'What will you do with the money?'" Owen said. He said the only other option is for Democrats to agree to cut spending, and he does not see much stomach for that.
"I don't think any of my colleagues have the gumption to cut the budget more than we have in the past," Owen said.
Lawmakers have already raided state cash funds. A lawsuit in Denver District Court accuses the state of raiding several funds of $442 million to balance the budget, denying services to taxpayers and saddling businesses with extra fees. The lawsuit asks that the state be ordered to repay the money, which lawmakers said would create a financial disaster.
Democrats could get a one-time fix from selling off the state's share of the national tobacco settlement, which would provide up to $800 million. Once that money is gone, the state has no financial cushion other than the potential sale of state buildings, which the state could lease back. State lawmakers have rejected that option in the past.
The state can also get a fix from a cigarette tax increase approved by voters intended to provide about $170 million for health care and education. The new law requires lawmakers to declare a fiscal emergency before they can take the money.
Democrats say they also have other options that have been rejected by Republicans, including reductions in mandatory sentences to cut the spiraling cost of running prisons.
The governor has rejected such a plan in the past. His proposed budget for next year, which calls for increasing general fund spending by 3.5 percent to $5.7 billion, includes a 3.9 percent increase, or $20 million, for corrections.
budget woes
Dioxin scare highlights value of EU tracking system -EU
08/11/2004 - EU commissioner expresses confidence in the food chain as contamination scare highlights the value of traceability and progress made in reducing risks to the complex food production industry. Since the European Commission discovered dioxin-contaminated potato by-products in the Netherlands, the Brussels-based legislative body has co-ordinated the tracing of the chain of deliveries through the European Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed.
Dioxins are long-lasting environmental pollutants formed as unwanted by-products of combustion processes, such as waste incineration, bonfires and cigarette smoke. Concerns about the impact of dioxins on human health are rooted in the potential risk to health evolving from long-term consumption of foods containing high levels of the contaminants.
Potato by-products, such as potato peels, were found to contaminated by high levels of dioxins at a Dutch potato processing company, caused by the dioxin-affected clay used separate high-quality potatoes from lower quality versions. The by-products are used for animal feeding.
As a result, the authorities have blocked all movement of animals from 162 farms in the Netherlands, eight in Belgium and three in Germany, which received the animal feed, and national authorities in the EU member states are currently tracing through the food chain.
“So far, our system of traceability and alert notifications is working well. It is vital that the confidence of the consumer in our food chain is maintained,” said Byrne.
Member state authorities and the Commission are co-operating closely to ensure that safety of consumer is not jeopardised, he added.
In the wake of food safety scares in the 1990s that severely compromised consumer confidence in the food chain, David Byrne, the commissioner for health and consumer protection, took up the mantle under President Prodi’s administration to tackle food safety issues.
His White Paper on Food Safety, passed in January 2000, established a framework of new laws designed to minimise risk to the food chain and create a vigilant backdrop to Europe’s €600 billion food production industry.
“Quite frankly, the progress we have made in the field of food safety has been nothing short of remarkable,” said Byrne in September at an agriculture council meeting in Noordwijk.
He acknowledged that the food industry has borne the brunt of continual regulatory reform, and said he hoped that the state of change would stabilise. “We do not wish to see the food industry in a state of constant flux, either as a result of crises, or due to continual regulatory reform. Indeed, we recognise that the industry needs the stability of a reliable and secure food safety system in order for it to prosper and thrive.”
Speaking to the member states’ agriculture ministers, the Commissioner raised the issue of risk assessment and the role this has to play in an increasingly global food trade.
“Risk posted by food products are perceived differently throughout the world. Therefore, I see it as challenge to move towards global risk assessment, accepted by all. With this goal in mind, one exciting development with significant potential is the new initiative I launched aimed at greater co-operation between our own EFSA and the FDA in the United States.”
For the Irish eurocrat, common ground and guidelines at an international level can be principally achieved through the UN-backed body Codex.
"This, I hope, will mark an important step on a long and ambitious strategy with the prize of global risk assessment as its ultimate goal,"said Bryne.
And the natural step from risk assessment is to risk management.
“Let me leave you with a final thought. If we ever reach the state of global risk assessment, and the required level of mutual trust, why should we stop there? Could we perhaps then envisage global risk management as a tangible possibility?”
Byrne is due to leave his post in November with the arrival of a new Commission under the incumbent José Manuel Barroso. Cypriot Markos Kyprianou will take over the reins as health commissioner.
http://www.foodnavigator.com/news/news-NG.asp?n=55927-dioxin-scare-highlights
Tobacco Appeal on tap –IL, USA
Friday, November 05, 2004
By Jeff Gelber - Springfield Bureau
Madison County justice goes on trial this week.
The Illinois Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in Phillp Morris' appeal of the now infamous $10.1 billion Price verdict, issued by Judge Nicholas Byron in April 2003.
The class action case, brought by St. Louis plaintiff's attorney Stephen Tillery on behalf of one million Illinois' light cigarette smokers, asserted that Philip Morris was "deceptive" in its advertising.
Citing the Illinois Deceptive Practices Act, Price was the first consumer fraud case trial in U.S. history focused upon light cigarettes.
Philip Morris appealed, maintaining that its labeling and marketing efforts are regulated and approved by the federal government. Federal law supersedes Illinois state law.
"The class says that they were either mislead or deceived, yet that label also had a health warning on it," said William S. Ohlemeyer, a Philip Morris vice president.
Judge Byron's verdict in the Price case included some $7 billion in compensatory damages and $3 billion in punitive. All damages were economic; none of the plaintiffs claimed that smoking injured them personally.
Chicago-based attorneys Stephen Swedlow of Swedlow & King and Joseph Power of Power Rogers & Smith are expected to team up to make Tillery's case before the Supreme Court.
Former Illinois Governor Jim Thompson of Chicago-based Winston & Strawn will represent Philip Morris, arguing, among other things, that this case should never have been certified in the first place.
"At the end of the day, these are cases that focus on individual issues, " said Ohlemeyer.
Perhaps the most controversial aspect of price was attorney fees. Byron's verdict included $1.77 billion in legal fees for Tillery and his associates, attracting criticism by legal scholars across the U.S.
"In Madison County, the judges have never found a proposed class action they would not certify, " said Lester Brickman, a professor at the Benjamin Cardozo School of Law in New York. "Indeed, the 'team' of Tillery and Judge Byron have perfected the technique of extracting big money through use of consumer fraud statutes. Theirs is the greatest money-making scheme ever devised since King Midas turned dross into gold."
http://www.madisonrecord.com/news/newsview.asp?c=130587
Toss the Philip Morris verdict -IL, USA
Monday, November 08, 2004
Just when you thought things might calm down around here, Madison County gets to revisit one of the cases that made it famous-Judge Nicholas Byron’s $10.1 billion class action whopper against Philip Morris.
Oral arguments in the cigarette maker’s appeal of what has come to be known as the ‘Price’ verdict headline this week’s festivities at the Illinois Supreme Court.
Refreshing memories, the case alleged that consumers had been wronged by Philip Morris’ marketing of “light” cigarettes. Mega St. Louis plaintiff’s attorney Stephen Tillery accused the company of suggesting that its products were healthy, thus duping and manipulating the smokers who just couldn’t stop buying them.
Tillery’s dupes, including faithful smokers and named plaintiffs Mike Fruth of Edwardsville and Sharon Price of East Alton, did not claim actual injury. Rather, they claimed deception.
As any Record reader would know, in Madison County being deceived these days can make for a lucrative career.
To that end, Judge Byron awarded Price and Fruth $17,811 and $11,384 respectively for their troubles. He gave their lawyer, Stephen Tillery, $1.77 billion for his.
That Byron is today a poster boy for American judicial arrogance is no surprise. He has proudly earned the honor.
In his Price verdict, Byron conveniently relieved the plaintiffs of their personal responsibility. Worse, he allowed his personal opinion of smoking (he called Philip Morris “evil”) to drive an obscene verdict in a class action case that should never have been allowed in the first place.
If Judge Byron wants to advise consumers on how to live their lives, he should get a job with Consumer Reports.
If Byron wants to make a law banning cigarettes, he should make a run for the Illinois legislature.
But so long as he wears the robes and takes the oath, Byron is way out of line when he tries to do either. His job is to interpret the law, not use the bench to make grandiose personal value judgments that impact all of society.
It is a great disservice to Madison County taxpayers that its halls of justice have been hijacked for this kind of aggressive judicial activism.
Here and now, cigarettes are legal products. They are legal and the Federal Trade Commission closely regulates their advertising. Whether they are addictive or unhealthy-a great many legal products are both-is irrelevant.
It is rulings like Byron’s that lead some to sadly suggest that common sense, in our justice system, is dead.
It is our sincere hope that the Springfield Supremes quickly and resoundingly chuck this case into the frivolous lawsuit trash heap.
It they don’t, it will speak volumes about how trial lawyer cash has redefined justice in Illinois.
http://www.madisonrecord.com/arguments/argumentsview.asp?c=130563
Imperial Tobacco Second-Half Net Rises on Drum, Rizla (Update1)-UK
Nov. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Imperial Tobacco Group Plc, Europe's second-largest tobacco company, said profit rose 7.1 percent in the second half of fiscal 2004 as tax increases prompted smokers to buy its products to roll their own cigarettes.
Net income increased to 256 million pounds ($475 million) in the six months through September from 239 million pounds a year earlier, said Alison Cooper, the company's financial controller. Five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg had expected the Bristol, England-based company to report profit of 300 million pounds, their median estimate shows.
Imperial Tobacco has ``got a lot of strength in roll-your- own tobacco and has benefited from the trend towards cheaper cigarettes in Europe,'' said Andrew Darke, an analyst at Williams de Broe in London with a ``hold'' rating on the stock.
Gareth Davis, Imperial Tobacco's 54-year-old chief executive officer, has expanded the company's roll-your-own business and introduced lower-priced cigarettes following tax increases in countries such as Germany. The number of cigarettes sold in Germany by all tobacco businesses fell 12 percent in the year through August, the U.K. company has said.
No. 1 in U.K.
Sales excluding tax fell 8.2 percent to 1.56 billion pounds in the second half and earnings before interest, tax and goodwill amortization rose 3.1 percent to 658 million, the company said.
Shares of Imperial Tobacco fell 6 pence, or 0.5 percent, to 1,265 pence at 11:16 a.m. in London, cutting the company's market value to 9.23 billion pounds. The stock has gained 29 percent in the past year, compared with a 21 percent gain from the five- member Bloomberg Europe Tobacco Index.
Imperial Tobacco is the biggest seller of cigarettes in Britain, where it controlled 44.6 percent of the market in August. The company has boosted its U.K. business by selling cheaper brands such as Richmond and Superkings.
The company began offering its discount JPS Red brand nationally in Germany in May. A pack of 19 JPS Red cigarettes costs about 3.20 euros, compared with 3.60 euros for Imperial Tobacco's premium Davidoff brand.
Tax Increases
Germany raised taxes by about 1.2 cents per cigarette in March and plans a similar increase next month. Germany is a ``challenging market but a profitable one,'' Davis said on a conference call. Imperial Tobacco may introduce new products in Europe's largest economy next year, he said.
The roll-your-own tobacco market in Europe excluding Germany and the U.K. rose 6 percent by volume last year benefiting Imperial Tobacco brands like Drum and Golden Virginia loose tobacco, the company said. Sales of Rizla cigarette papers also rose 6 percent by volume.
Imperial Tobacco plans to raise its annual dividend to 50 pence a share from 42 pence last year.
Davis, the CEO, said in an interview that acquisitions are ``possible, but if there is no deal round the corner we won't sit on our hands and will return money to shareholders.'' Western Europe and Asia-Pacific are the two regions Imperial Tobacco is focusing on for possible purchases, Davis said.
Analysts at UBS and Morgan Stanley said before the results that the company may announce a plan to repurchase as much as 5 percent of its stock.
Of the 10 analyst ratings collected by Bloomberg News since June, seven analysts give the stock a ``buy,'' two have it at ``neutral'' and one at ``sell.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000102&sid=aJxNG2eTvyqI&refer=uk
What the weekend papers said
Published 8th November 2004
Health Secretary John Reid is facing an embarrassing clash this week as the Scottish Executive unveils plans to outlaw cigarette smoking in public places. Mr Reid is still working on proposals to curb smoking while allowing customers to light up in establishments where it could be proved that staff and vulnerable customers were protected from smoke – The Observer
Bacardi-Martini has appointed a British woman, Stella David, as head of its US division which accounts for about 40 per cent of its group sales. Davis succeeds Eduardo Sardina – The Saturday Times
Units of alcohol could be displayed on bottles and cans in an attempt to curb Britain’s binge drinking culture under proposals in a long-awaited white paper on public health which will also seek to reduce consumption of junk food. The move would aim to address the growing concern about the growth of alcohol-related violence and the rise in alcohol consumption by young women - The Sunday Times
Plans to curb binge drinking by imposing minimum alcohol prices suffered another blow when a Scottish court ruled such schemes illegal. Aberdeen city council had issued a minimum price tariff to combat “irresponsible alcohol promotions” but the Edinburgh Court of Sessions ruled that the licensing board acted beyond its powers by telling bars to sell single spirits for no less than £1.20 and pints for no less than £1.75 - Financial Times
Stanley Leisure has threatened to pull out of the British Casino Association over what it sees as a protectionist U-turn by the industry trade body. The company, which is one of Britain’s biggest casino operators, proposes that category A slot machines – paying up to and over £1m jackpots – should not be allowed for up to six years - The Saturday Telegraph
After last week’s decision by the UK parliament to approve the biggest change in gambling laws in 30 years, American casino operators are planning a £5bn punt on Britain becoming the gambling mecca of Europe - The Business
Molson, the Canadian Brewer, has sweetened the terms of its proposed merger with US brewer Adolph Coors by offering its shareholders a special dividend of C$381m (US$318m/£172m) – Financial Times
Africa is the third largest profits contributor to Diageo’s coffers and, with profits growing at 11 per cent this year, the fastest expanding market for Guinness’s parent company - The Saturday Times
news in Scotland
New tests convince expert of need for total smoking ban
By Marie Woolf, Chief Political Correspondent08 November 2004
Fresh evidence of the dangers of passive smoking has prompted one of Britain's most distinguished doctors to urge John Reid to introduce a ban on smoking in all public places.
Professor Sir Charles George, the medical director of the British Heart Foundation, had not, until now, favoured a ban on smoking in public places but has changed his view because of research showing minute particles of cigarette smoke could trigger heart attacks.
Sir Charles, who is also president of the British Medical Association, has written to the Health Secretary, warning him that allowing smoking to continue in public places would lead to more deaths because the risks from passive smoking were being underestimated.
"I have changed my mind because I think the evidence of harm from cigarette smoking direct or passive is stronger than it was," he said. "The decline in deaths from coronary heart disease has been attributed in quite significant parts to the reduction in smoking rates."
The intervention of Sir Charles comes as the Scottish Executive is expected this week to propose an outright ban on smoking in public places.
It also follows reports that John Reid is considering stopping short of proposing a complete ban on smoking in public places in the forthcoming White Paper on public health.
Mr Reid is said to oppose an outright ban and has suggested that banning smoking was an "obsession with the learned middle class".
In an interview with The Independent, Sir Charles, who is a member of the Government's task force on coronary heart disease, said anything short of a complete ban would lead to more deaths, particularly among working-class people. "Deaths from heart disease are more frequent in lower socio-economic groups, and they smoke more. We can't sit back and say nothing about this any longer, which is why I have pointed out some of these things for John Reid," he said.
The doctor, who was knighted in 1998 for services to medicine, was a consultant physician for 25 years and has treated thousands of coronary heart disease sufferers. He said the as yet unpublished research funded by the British Heart Foundation showed that ventilating smoky rooms was "cosmetic" and would not remove hundreds of damaging chemicals in the smoke.
"I wasn't aware as I now am that ventilation wasn't the complete answer," he told The Independent. "Ventilation removes the obvious smokiness of the atmosphere but there are many hundreds of deleterious things in that smoke. And it won't remove all of those harmful things by making the air seem cleaner."
The research shows that particles in cigarette smoke "produce changes in the health of the lining of blood vessels". The cells in the lining produce a vital "clot-busting treatment" that helps prevent people having heart attacks.
"Not wishing to be alarmist, there are lots of small particles in smoke called nano -particles; tiny, tiny particles. This is a new science but it is becoming clearer that some of those particles may be really quite harmful in people who are at risk of having a coronary event," he said.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=580558
Regulation is new cloud says Imps - uk
Jim Armitage, Evening Standard November 8 2004
GARETH Davis, chief executive of Lambert & Butler maker Imperial Tobacco, today said regulation had replaced litigation as the major bugbear for cigarette makers.
With US tobacco lawsuits now waning, the manufacturers are faced with a flood of new laws worldwide, requiring them to plaster their packets with photos of diseased organs, and demanding smoking bans in pubs and restrictions on advertising.
'Litigation in the US has been the hot topic for the last 10 years but now it seems to be more and more regulation issues. I guess that is the future,' he said.
Davis, who has been a keen proponent of voluntary smoking bans in British pubs, remains optimistic that an Irish-style outright ban will not happen.
He also said he was preparing to return cash to shareholders imminently but added that such a move would not prevent Imps making future acquisitions.
Pre-tax profits in the year to 30 September were £688m against £656m a year earlier on turnover of £11bn, down from £11.4bn the year before.
The total dividend is 50p against 42p last time. Underlying profits of £1.01bn, up 13% on a year ago, were toward the lower end of City forecasts.
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/business/articles/timid84418?source=
Despite smoking's documented health risks, teens may be more worried about its damage to their wallets, a new study suggests.
High school students surveyed in the study were most likely to say they wanted to quit smoking to save money, according to Lindsey Turner, Ph.D., and Robin Mermelstein, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Their study appears in the American Journal of Health Behavior.
Health concerns and their parents' wishes that the teens would quit smoking were the next most common reasons given for wanting to quit.
"Adolescents report a variety of reasons for wanting to quit, but health, image and financial considerations are the most common," Turner says.
Girls seem to be more concerned with smoking's effects on their image and looks, such as nicotine stains on fingers and teeth. Boys, on the other hand, say they would like to quit smoking to improve their athletic performance.
The researchers discovered, however, that the most common reasons given for wanting to quit weren't always the reasons that seemed to help teens kick the habit.
Students who gave up their cigarettes were more likely to have said earlier that they didn't enjoy smoking as much as they thought they would, or that their friends wanted them to quit. Teens who were highly motivated to quit smoking at the beginning of the program were also among the successful quitters.
"Adolescents who have friends who want them to quit are likely to associate with adolescents who do not themselves smoke and do not approve of smoking, and this peer environment may in itself help to promote cessation," Turner explains.
The researchers surveyed 351 Illinois students from 29 Chicago metropolitan and Springfield area schools enrolled in a school-based smoking cessation program. More than 60 percent of the students had smoked at least one cigarette per day in the week before they were surveyed.
Turner and Mermelstein found that nonwhite students were more motivated than white students to quit smoking at the beginning of the program. White students were more likely than nonwhite students to say money concerns and parents' and friends' promptings were motivating factors to give up the habit.
The Turner and Mermelstein study was supported by the American Lung Association of Illinois and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.http://www.hbns.org
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=6149 Posted at 3:39 pm by looped_ca
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