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Thursday, August 04, 2005
Neighbours want loitering stopped in walkway -AB
by Dave S. Clark Wednesday July 20, 2005
Sherwood Park News — A few Glen Allan residents say they have had enough of the loitering, vandalism and drug use near their property in a walkway that leads to Bev Facey high school.
Joann McMillan and Karen Klein say that ever since Strathcona County has enacted a bylaw that prohibits students from smoking on school property the nearby residents have to deal with the students.
According to Klein and McMillan students now congregate in the walkway that connects Colwill Boulevard with Garland Crescent. McMillan says the students have also ventured onto her property.
“The problem is escalating every year,” said Klein. “We have a reprieve right now in the summer, but God help us in September.”
Klein says she has seen teens smoking drugs, breaking glass, harassing pets and vandalizing the surrounding property but is often hesitant to confront the teens.
“We don’t say anything to them because we don’t want the retaliation,” said Klein. “They don’t care what the neighbours say anyway.”
Klein ended up with a broken fence because of a fight on the walkway at the end of April. The Bev Facey student was tracked down and made to pay $300 for repairs.
“He gave me the money face to face,” said Klein. “He was very apologetic. These aren’t bad kids when they are alone, but they change when in a group.”
Most of the activity happens during the school’s lunch hour, but the neighbours also had problems with people who aren’t students at the school.
Coun. Ken Lesniak says he is concerned about the area and hopes to resolve the problem in the fall when school is back in session.
“It has to be a community effort,” said Lesniak. “The county, the community and the school all have to do what they can.”
He said he hoped he could get the school to make a policy to keep kids out of the area, however, that would be difficult since it is public property.
Lesniak said he would also be in contact with RCMP and the parks and recreation department who maintain the walkway. He also hoped the Facey students’ union would get involved as well.
Const. Darren Anderson of the Strathcona RCMP said bike patrol would do its best to cover the walkway, however, they only ride for a few weeks when school is in session.
Tanya Orr of Elk Island Public Schools said nothing had been reported to the division and that nobody from Bev Facey would be available for comment.
http://www.sherwoodparknews.com/story.php?id=173769
Where else can students smoke? -AB
Wednesday July 27, 2005
Sherwood Park News — I want to respond to an article I read in the latest Sherwood Park News, because I have read about it repeatedly, but only ever from one point of view.
I remember how hard it was when I was underage not to long ago, just to find a “safe” place to smoke. When I say safe, I mean somewhere underaged smokers will not be caught by teachers or police officers. It was an almost impossible task then and still is.
The path between Colwill Boulevard and Garland Crescent is one of the few places that young smokers can go. Even those who legally are allowed to smoke are forced to go there.
I realize that there are bunches of “children” who spoil it for the rest of us. However, there are a lot of us who just want a shaded, out-of-sight place to have a smoke or talk to friends.
We are sorry on behalf of the student body for all the cigarette butts, broken bottles and any drug paraphernalia or usage that goes on. I don’t care for it either.
Please don’t try to cut everyone off from going to the path, although really I don’t think that’s possible seeing as it is public property. Let’s try to find some sort of compromise.
I realize this will not be easy; there are some stupid kids out there nowadays. I realize I ask for compromise but yet offer no solutions myself. I do see things from your point of view, and I hope you see mine as well.
Brandice Hewitt
http://www.sherwoodparknews.com/story.php?id=175211
Saskatchewan hotels challenge smoking legislation -SK
Erin Pritchard Wednesday July 27, 2005
Lloydminster Meridian Booster — The smoking bylaw – an issue of business inequality in the Border City since its inception in January – has now become a matter in dispute for the province.
The Hotel Association of Saskatchewan has taken the province to court to have the bylaw abolished, citing unfair business opportunities for establishments in Saskatchewan.
Currently, casinos on First Nations’ reserves are not required to follow the smoking bylaw because each of the four reserves operating casinos has passed a band bylaw that overrides provincial jurisdiction.
“It’s our position that once those bylaws are in place, then by virtue of what they call the doctrine of federal paramouncy – a rule of constitutional law – the provincial law no longer applies on those reserves,” said Mitch McAdam, crown solicitor with the Constitutional Law Branch of the Saskatchewan Department of Justice.
He said because of the federal Indian Act, native reserves have the ability to pass band bylaws, including matters of its members’ health, that will supersede provincial laws. In effect, band bylaws hold the same power as federally passed laws. Currently, the four reserves in question have passed such laws – a 60-40 split of smoking and non-smoking in the casinos.
The Hotel Association of Saskatchewan is challenging the province under Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms (equity guarantee) and wants to see the law thrown out because it creates an unfair playing field for casinos operating off reserves.
“What we’re looking for is some kind of relief. Our revenues are down and what we’re looking for is some kind of compromise with the government,” said Tom Mullin, president of the Hotel Association. “We have had discussions with them, however, they haven’t been particularly interested in a couple of ideas we’ve put across the table.
“Basically, the Charter challenge is saying that if they cannot enforce this legislation on Indian reserves, on businesses that are in direct competition with us, then they would have to throw out the law.”
The province has made an application to have the claim made by the Hotel Association stricken and said Section 15 of the Charter is for individual use, not for the security of commercial business.
A hearing was held this past Thursday in Regina to decide the fate of smoking in the province, but no decision was made. Justice Peter Foley said a decision will be made as soon as possible, but he gave no indication of when the parties concerned would know.
“We’re not in disagreement as far as the jurisdictional issue with the First Nations, they have their federal bylaws and that’s fine,” Mullin said. “When the government provincially tried to legislate a complete 100 per cent ban, they didn’t have agreement from the First Nations and I think that’s the crutch of the matter. It has to apply equally to all businesses.”
As the province and the Hotel Association await a response from the courts, local businesses are hopeful the law will be changed to help bridge the provincial gap created by the bylaw.
“If it’s overturned it will help business for sure,” said Seann Brenan, owner of Cheers in Lloydminster, adding that he doesn’t think kids should be in smoking environments, but business has to be fair.
http://www.meridianbooster.com/story.php?id=175109
Huge native cigarette sales growth queried -SK
REGINA (CP) - The Saskatchewan government wants to keep a closer eye on cigarette sales on aboriginal reserves after seeing a boom in the amount of rebates it pays.
Tax rebates for tobacco sales have increased from $3 million to more than $37 million in five years, according to the department of finance.
http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2005/07/27/fCanada.html
Business battles smoking fines -AB
Larry Fisher Wednesday July 27, 2005
Lloydminster Meridian Booster — Brent Underwood is determined to extinguish a pair of $550 smoking fines that have been burning a hole in his pocket ever since a Prairie North health inspector raided Shawny’s Bar in Marshall on March 11.
Underwood was working the bar that night and was charged with failing to request patrons to immediately stop smoking and with failing to ensure that no things designed to facilitate smoking are provided in the enclosed public place.
However, he says the fines were taken out of context and the small town business owner finally had his say yesterday morning as he represented himself in court at the Maidstone Legion Hall.
“I’ve been waiting for (Tuesday) for a long time,” said Underwood, adding the government has delayed his hearing as long as possible. “I have a pretty good feeling about taking this to court because the wording of the tickets is ridiculous and I think the judge may see the humour in it.
“Especially that second fine with the empty beer bottles being designed to facilitate smoking, I mean in my own words I’ll tell the judge that pretty much covers anything and everything including the floor.”
Underwood said the Saskatchewan government’s smoking legislation and enforcement tactics bother him to this day and that he is going to continue standing his ground until the government butts out.
“I’ve fought these fines tooth and nail since Day 1 and there’s not a chance in hell they will ever see a nickel from me,” he said.
http://www.meridianbooster.com/story.php?id=175108
Can't smokers butt out on patios? -BC
Complaints have coastal health unit looking at smoking in public places -- again
Mia Stainsby Vancouver Sun July 27, 2005
B.C. restaurants are smoke-free, but ever wonder where the smoke has gone?
Restaurant patios -- the primo spot on a warm, sunny day -- have become, by default, smoke pits. Restaurants with patios attract smokers because, well, where else can they eat and smoke in public?
It seems that whenever I opt for a patio seat on a sunny day, sooner or later, smoke comes creeping into my personal space and I expend far too much energy being the polite Canadian, reining in the inner rampage. It is, after all, perfectly legit.
Recently, I was eating inside, watching a woman on a small patio chain-smoking through her meal shrouded in a haze of smoke, some of it drifting into the small restaurant.
There were eight people at her table, including two young children. By meal's end, I am sure the group was gently smoked, like lox.
That I would be appalled and transfixed by someone smoking through dinner shows, I suppose, how far we have come.
And it's not just a summer thing. When I go to buy my organic, fair-trade, decaf coffee in the morning, rain or shine, I walk through a narrow phalanx of smokers in the doorway. The coffee's nice and healthy but I'm steeped in smoke. I've ditched the place a couple of times, but returned to replay the irony of getting my healthy cup of coffee.
It seems I'm not the only one kvetching. Domenic Losito, director of health protection for Vancouver Coastal Health, has received enough complaints from Vancouverites that his office is revisiting the issue of smoking in public places.
"It's something we may well put before council but more as a comfort and aesthetic issue than health," he says about smoking in patio areas. "A dining experience could certainly be spoiled by someone smoking a couple of tables over.
"One thing we are going to look at in the report is the establishment of a bit of buffer zone around doorways. That's an area we get a lot of complaints about. In Halifax, for example, there's a three-metre buffer zone from the door. We've heard from non-smokers, which is about 75 to 80 per cent of Vancouverites. They see prime space being taken up by smokers. But for the time being, it's not strictly a health issue and we'll let the market dictate."
B.C. and California, Losito says, led the way in the non-smoking regulations. "But it's been in place 10 years now and we're quickly falling behind as to where one can smoke. Many jurisdictions have pretty well said no to smoking rooms.
"An ideal situation," he says, looking out his office window, "would be to have two separate patios, like the Cactus Club across the way." It will be the next generation of smoking regulations, he says.
Currently, WorkSafeBC (formerly the Workers' Compensation Board) and the city allow smoking on patios as long as they aren't enclosed in any way and smoke isn't leaking back into the restaurant. Restaurants are allowed to have smoking rooms, however, and staff are permitted to be exposed for "20 per cent of their shift," whatever that means.
WorkSafeBC regulations say a safe outdoor location "may be a ground surface, floor, or deck area; a roof or awning may cover it. Any structure, including a temporary structure such as a tent that significantly obstructs the movement of air may bring the area within the meaning of an indoor workplace.
"For example, an area that has natural airflow obstructed on more than two sides by the presence of windbreaks, such as walls, fences, or other adjacent structures or objects may be deemed to be indoors for the purpose of this section. Walls less than 107 centimetres (42 inches) high or chain-link fencing or similar open structures that minimally obstruct airflow will normally not be considered as a windbreak."
Smoke on the patio, it is reasoned, dissipates and therefore doesn't cause a health risk. "The essential point is that smoke won't collect in an outdoor space. It's not a safety issue. It's a comfort issue," says Scott McCloy, director of communications for WorkSafeBC. "However, long-term exposure to second-hand smoke indoors has been shown in study after study to elevate the risk of negative health effects."
Errol Povah, president of Air Space Action on Smoking and Health, is very vocal on the matter. "Any place with a patio will attract smoking customers as opposed to ones that don't have a patio. There'll be a concentration. If they provide a patio for smokers, there should be an equally large one for non-smokers and if they're not prepared to provide both, then there should be no smoking.
"Why is it that non-smokers cannot be assured of a reasonably smoke-free meal and enjoy the patio? The bottom line is, whether or not I have a smoke-free meal shouldn't depend on which way the wind is blowing. It makes you wonder whether this is 2005 or we're still back in the '60s."
Povah says former labour minister Graham Bruce "gutted the WCB no-smoking regulations, allowing 20 per cent of a worker's shift to be in a smoking room. My position is that smoking should be eliminated entirely in restaurants, if for no other reason than to create what high-ranking people in the restaurant and bar industry have called for -- to maintain a level playing field."
Still, Losito says, B.C. and California are the "two shining examples" that lead the smoke-free way. "We have the lowest per capita of smokers. We're around 16 and 20 per cent of the adult population."
He says it has been universally shown that there is no negative impact and even a slightly positive impact to business upon calling for a no-smoke zone. "There's usually a six-month transitional impact, but, time after time, it's been shown in places like New York and Ottawa there's been a zero or positive impact, even for smokers. More people tend to quit and smoking rates go down, so that's a nice side effect."
He cautions: "You hate to make the smoker the victim because they're already victims of the industry. I'd like to see some [anti-smoking] funds diverted to help them quit."
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/news/arts/story.html?id=7e7a4e1b-31cd-4b05-b95f-75f1e9df79a4
Bus solves problem -MB
Letter to Editor July 28, 2005
This is in response to the July 27 letter suggesting we ban smoking in cars. Do we really want the government diving deeper into our personal lives? At what point do we stop letting government legislate our actions?
As far as banning smoking in cars, if smoking is so dangerous in a car, what about coffee cups? We should force the car manufacturers to remove those cup holders to reduce the risk of accidents.
What about those mirrors on the visors? How often have we seen women checking their make-up and applying it while driving? Men with their cordless shavers making sure they got all the stubble?
Music can be distracting in a car so we shouldn't allow radios in cars. How about that person beside the driver that carries on some conversation that distracts the driver? If you want to ban one distraction, you should ban them all.
Oddly enough there is an excellent vehicle designed to alleviate all those distractions and reduce the risk of accidents. It's called a transit bus! If you are worried about drivers having accidents because of smoking, let the skilled drivers of our transit system get you to where you want to go!
RICHARD KREIS Winnipeg
www.winnipegfreepress.com
QP still shows butts -ON
By Antonella Artuso, Toronto Sun July 28, 2005
DESPITE PASSING one of the toughest anti-smoking laws on the continent, the Ontario government continues to allow cigarettes to be displayed for sale in its own corridors.
Customers get a behind-the-counter eyeful of the wicked weed in the tuck shop of the Queen's Park Whitney Block. But David Spencer, a spokesman for Health Minister George Smitherman, said the law outlaws "powerwall" displays of tobacco as of May 31, 2006.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/TorontoAndGTA/2005/07/28/1150602-sun.html
****Smoke draws ire -AB
Still lighting up in the Legislature
By DARCY HENTON, LEGISLATURE BUREAU
You can't smoke in bars, restaurants or offices in Edmonton, but you can still light up at the Legislature.
The sandstone dome and its adjacent blue annex building is the last refuge of the workplace smoker.
The Legislature is exempt from the city's no-smoking bylaw.
Government officials and visitors can enjoy a cigarette in the ventilated smoking room in the Legislature's basement cafeteria or in a similar smoking room on the annex's fourth floor.
'HYPOCRISY'
Liberal health critic Laurie Blakeman, a former smoker, calls it "the hypocrisy of the lawmakers."
"It's a huge hypocrisy and it always has been," she said. "We have our very own lawmakers giving themselves exemptions."
She said some senior government officials had their offices registered as designated smoking areas so they can smoke on the job.
The situation appalls civil service union boss Dan MacLennan, who had been pressing the Ralph Klein government to impose a provincewide smoking ban in all public places.
"If you can't smoke in a jail or an office, you shouldn't be able to smoke in that building while school tours are going through," he said. "If it is carcinogenic across the street from the Legislature, it is carcinogenic at the Legislature."
Marisa Etmanski, Klein's spokesman, said the Legislature is a "unique building" that doesn't fall under municipal authority.
However, she said the province will ban smoking in the Legislature when its own no-smoking bill, which received royal assent May 10, takes effect on Jan. 1, 2006.
"It will be smoke-free by January," she said. "We're trying to take care of that."
Les Hagen, Action on Smoking and Health executive director, said the provincial lawmakers should be setting an example for the rest of the province rather than lagging behind.
"Why wait until Jan. 1? They could do it right now," he said. "That doesn't require legislation. That just requires resolve."
He said 1,000 Canadians die annually from second-hand smoke.
NOT LAW YET
Lloyd Carr, a senior manager with the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, said once Bill 201 is proclaimed, smoking will not be allowed in premises where there are children under age 18.
Currently 86 Alberta municipalities, including Edmonton, have no-smoking bylaws.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2005/07/28/1150685-sun.html
http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=Encyclopedia&op=content&tid=163
Smoking ban cuts Q1 profits by third, gaming corp. says -SK
CBC News Last Updated Jul 28 2005 09:25 AM CDT
Profits at government-owned casinos in Regina and Saskatchewan dropped by almost a third in the first quarter of the 2005-06 fiscal year that began Apri 1 – and the smoking ban is the cause, the Saskatchewan Gaming Corp. says.
Under the smoking ban that became provincial law Jan. 1, smoking is banned in bars, restaurants, casinos and other enclosed public places. The gaming corp. says as a result, net income was down 33 per cent and revenues declined 6 per cent between April 1 and June 30.
To counter the impact of the ban, the gaming corp. increased advertising and hired more staff, resulting in a 14 per cent increase in expenses.
Ironically, although profits were down, attendance was up – average attendance for the first three months of 2005-06 increased 25 per cent at Casino Regina and 21 per cent at Casino Moose Jaw. Although the smoking ban that became law Jan. 1 was also in effect for part of the 2004-05 year, both casinos continued to be big money-makers, according to the gaming corp.'s annual report.
SGC's net income last topped $39 million in 2004-05, an increase of almost $3 million or 8 per cent over the previous year. The two casinos employ about 800 people.
The gaming corp. runs Casino Regina and Casino Moose Jaw but not four Indian-controlled casinos – all which do allow smoking.
http://sask.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=casino-profits050728
Smoking ban blamed for tumbling casino profits -SK
BN July 28, 2005
REGINA -- A new smoking ban has put a serious dent in casino profits in Regina.
Profits at government-owned casinos in Regina and Saskatchewan dropped by almost a third in the first quarter.
Under the smoking ban that became law earlier this year, smoking is banned in bars, restaurants, casinos and other enclosed public places.
The Saskatchewan Gaming Corporation says net income was down 33 per cent for the three-month period.
To counter the impact of the ban, the gaming corporation increased advertising and hired more staff, resulting in a 14 per cent increase in expenses.
Although profits were down, attendance was up by 25 per cent at Casino Regina and 21 per cent at Casino Moose Jaw.
http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/news/story.html?id=69ea9fbf-21de-452c-a3b9-4acbc92c9e1a
Tobacco harvest approaching fast -ON
Jeff Helsdon - Staff Writer The Tillsonburg News Friday July 29, 2005
Area tobacco crops are growing well in the heat that’s been blanketing Southwestern Ontario this summer.
“Tobacco likes the heat as long as there’s enough moisture,” said Denise Beaton, integrated pest management specialist for specialty crops with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. “There's a lot of nice crops out there.”
Most farmers are done topping, but Beaton hasn’t heard of any who have started harvest yet. For farmers who completed topping last weekend, Beaton said they could start harvest as soon as next week. The first week of August is the traditional starting time for the earliest farmers.
As of yesterday (Tuesday) she said most farmers weren’t irrigating as there had been enough rainfall in recent days. That is drastically different from a couple of weeks ago when there was little or no rainfall and everybody was irrigating.
Too much rain has been a problem in some areas. There are some low-lying sections of fields that aren’t well drained that resulted in drowned tobacco after the rain of two weeks ago. Most of this was in the Burford and Brantford area where the soil is heavier.
In the Aylmer area, high winds and rain resulted in plants being partially knocked over. Beaton understands most farmers in this situation were able to stand the plants back up.
The heat has resulted in a few injuries to the crop, although none of it has been severe. Permanent wilt is a condition that usually affects one to two leaves under the heart where the leaves are the most tender. It occurs in the rapid growth stage because the plant isn’t able to take up enough moisture to keep up with the growth. Beaton said damage was typically one to three leaves per plant.
On the disease front, Ontario is still clear of blue mould. There have, however, been some cases of tobacco mosaic virus.
http://www.tillsonburgnews.com/story.php?id=175528
We're losing appetite for dining out -MB
By Kevin Rollason Friday, July 29th, 2005
YOU can blame it on the provincewide smoking ban, the mad cow crisis or flooding in southern Manitoba but any way you slice it, Manitobans are dining out less.
Manitobans spent $82.1 million in restaurants and taverns and on catering last May compared to $84.5 million in May 2004.
A similar drop was seen in April when Manitobans spent $79.8 million compared to $83.5 million in April 2004.
The drop bucks national figures in May, which saw total sales for restaurants, taverns and caterers hit $3.3 billion, a 3.7 per cent increase over May 2004.
Alain Mbassegue, who works in the Service Industries Division of Statistics Canada, said while they don't have the actual numbers available just for Manitoba drinking places, they know that's where a good portion of the drop was experienced.
"Drinking places did go down a lot in Manitoba," Mbassegue said yesterday.
"But we can't say what it's due to. People have to come to their own conclusions."
Jim Baker, president of the Manitoba Hotel Association, said he has come to his own conclusion, and it's that the province's smoking rules have hurt his membership's bottom lines.
Manitoba's smoking ban, which prevents smoking in all enclosed public places under provincial jurisdiction, took effect last October.
"The numbers don't surprise me," Baker said.
"If you could zero in on bars alone, we know it's a significant drop for them."
Baker said experience across North America has shown that while restaurants see a resurgence in business in the months after smoking bans take effect, bars don't.
"Smokers can go without smoking for a bit during a meal, but not with bars. There smoking bans have a major effect."
Saskatchewan, which put its smoking ban in place in January, also saw its food services sales figures drop, from $80.4 million in May 2004 to $75.4 million last May.
But in New Brunswick, which enacted a similar law the same day as Manitoba, food services sales went up from $55.9 million in May 2004 to $61.3 million.
Theresa Oswald, the province's healthy living minister, said "we did expect some short-term negative impact" for restaurants and taverns in the province when the government implemented the smoking ban.
"We knew this would happen," Oswald said.
"But we also know it bounced back reasonably well in Winnipeg after its ban... I would actually be inclined to think there's any number of factors for this (the sales decrease). There's also BSE and horrendous weather conditions.
"With the ban, we expected an initial downturn, but we hope there will be an upturn."
Jeff Glover, chairman of the Manitoba Restaurant and Food Services Association, agreed there are numerous factors for the drop in sales, many of which would be unique to individual businesses across the province.
"The numbers are significant because as an association you look at the dollars spent eating out and eating at home and if sales in the province are down, then we as a province are losing. People haven't gone through a recession so it's more people choosing to eat at home."
Keith Robertson, executive director of the Manitoba Cattle Producers, said sales figures for rural restaurants and taverns would also have been affected by the mad cow crisis.
Robertson said when the province's cattle producers aren't receiving any income, they wouldn't be eating out at the nearest restaurant.
"This is a direct effect of cash flow on farms which in many cases has been extremely diminished," Robertson said.
kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca
www.winnipegfreepress.com
Get off 'ban wagon'
July 30, 2005
In response to the July 27 letter Ban smoking in cars:
I would like to express my agreement with the letter's statements that smoking in cars can be a distracting activity for the driver. I also agree that children and other passengers shouldn't be exposed to second-hand smoke; it has been established as hazardous for others.
What I cannot agree with, however, is the made-in-Manitoba solution to the problem: Ban It!
Adding one bylaw after another to the already unmanageable regulatory array in this province is not only unrealistic in a financial context, but also has more profound consequences for the limits of law-makers. A society that forces its government to enact policy against every potentially hazardous behaviour must also be prepared to wholly surrender its autonomy and personal freedom. The outcome is absolute.
Intelligence and common-sense cannot be legislated, any more than they can be enforced.
Other activities can also be distracting to the driver of an automobile. Fighting with a spouse, wiping ice cream from a tot's face or applying makeup are just a few. Should we ban all of these, too? Laws and bylaws should be enacted not because they are fashionable, but because they are reasonable.
Isn't it time we got off the "ban wagon"?
JOHN HUDSON Winnipeg
www.winnipegfreepress.com
Phones the problem -MB
Regarding the July 27 letter Ban smoking in cars:
July 30, 2005
It is hand-held cellphones that are the problem. That's why New Jersey banned their use in vehicles a year ago. Smoking is only being blamed for one per cent of distractions, far behind other things. (Also probably the smallest figure that could be used.)
The proposed legislation has almost no chance of passing. Even if it is passed, it likely wouldn't be enforced.
VINCE HARDEN Winnipeg
www.winnipegfreepress.com
Native bingo must play fair — Greenbelt -ON
Charities file complaint with OPP gambling unit, threaten suit
By Elaine Della-Mattia, THE SAULT STAR Local News - Saturday, July 30, 2005 @ 09:00
The Greenbelt Charities Association threatens a lawsuit if the new bingo hall to open in Garden River next week doesn’t operate under the same regulations as other bingo halls in Ontario.
The 33 charities that make up the Greenbelt Charities Association filed a complaint with the Ontario Provincial Police illegal gambling unit alleging that some bingo halls are not operating with proper provincial licences.
The investigation has been forwarded to police services units that have jurisdiction over the Batchewana First Nation and Garden River First Nation lands, said OPP Det. Const. Paul Chafe of the illegal gambling unit in Orillia. “I cannot comment any further because I’m not sure if that investigation is still ongoing or not. You should check with that police service,” he said.
Acting Anishinabek Police Chief William Sayers was in meetings and did not return phone calls earlier this week.
Scott Reid, president of the Greenbelt Charities Association said local not-for-profit agencies are hurting financially due to a number of recent industry challenges, including the city’s non-smoking bylaw.
Reid said his group doesn’t oppose competition, but wants to ensure that each bingo hall in Ontario is required to play by the same rules.
Reid suggests if laws are not enforced equally across Ontario, a legal suit could be filed by the Greenbelt Charities Association against the federal and provincial governments for discrimination.
“We have a plan in place at this time,” he said.
Reid believes his organization won’t be able to compete with a new 11,000-square-foot bingo hall set to open next week on the Garden River First Nation, if it is not licensed by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario.
Garden River First Nation runs 14 bingos weekly out of its community centre and has done so for several years.
Chief Lyle Sayers said he hasn’t spoken to anyone from the Greenbelt Charities Association directly about their allegations but has heard “rumblings” about the complaints.
“What we’re doing is trying to create jobs for our people to help our community,” Sayers said.
The new hall, which is expected to grow to a seven-day-a-week operation, has stated it has begun to ask charities from the Sault to participate in bingos there.
Sayers said the new hall plans to gear up slowly to ensure “any of the bugs are worked out” before having area charities hold their bingos there.
“We’ll make an offer to them and it will be up to them to decide if they want to come here or not,” Sayers said.
AGCO is an arm’s length agency that reports to the Ministry of Consumer and Business Services and is charged with administering the framework governing the issuance of charitable gaming licenses.
Ab Campion, spokesperson for AGCO, said the regulatory body has entered into legal agreements with First Nation communities in recent years, granting them gaming licences.
Under the agreement, the First Nation communities must enforce provincial laws dealing with charitable organizations.
The deal is similar to those established with municipalities whereby First Nations can charge charitable organizations up to three per cent of prizes offered as a fee for administering licences.
The Garden River First Nation or Batchewana First Nation are not among the 30 to 35 licences granted to First Nations to date, Campion said.
There are 134 First Nation communities in Ontario.
“If they operate without a licence, then under the Criminal Code, it’s an illegal gaming activity and that falls to the OPP anti-gaming unit,” he said.
Sayers said bingos run on Garden River First Nation are approved by chief and council and the community plans to continue with that.
“There are other First Nation communities that do not have licences. Why is Garden River being targeted?” he said.
“We didn’t complain when Sault Ste. Marie received the charity casino and we don’t get a dime from it for our community.”
Sayers said non-natives complain that First Nation communities rely too heavily on government assistance. “We’re trying to create jobs for our people and help raise money to become less dependent on government and to help offset costs that there is no government money for in our community.”
First Nations had been in negotiations with the province to establish their own licensing system to operate bingos but the talks stalled during the last provincial election and have not resumed, Sayers said.
“I hope they get talking again. We’re not trying to break any laws. We’re trying to help the citizens of Garden River.”
In Sault Ste. Marie, city council reduced the three per cent licensing fee to one per cent to help charities cope with the strain of business loss after it enacted the city’s non-smoking bylaw.
That temporary one per cent licensing fee, which was to expire at month’s end, received a six-week reprieve by council Monday.
Reid said the Greenbelt Charities Association will continue to seek a permanent reduction on that levy.
Sault Ste. Marie MPP David Orazietti said his office has received a number of complaints from various charities, alleging inequities in the system.
He forwarded those complaints to the Ministry of Consumer and Business Affairs and to the Ministry of Correctional Services.
“No elected official should be directing enforcement officers to take action and I won’t suggest what the OPP should do here. That’s not my role,” Orazietti said. “But as a citizen of Ontario I expect the OPP to enforce laws equally across the province if they believe they have the evidence that laws are being broken.”
http://www.saultstar.com/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=119750&catname=Local+News&classif=News+%2D+Local
Smoke ban enforcer a no-show in court -SK
Larry Fisher Sunday July 31, 2005
Lloydminster Meridian Booster — The judge didn’t have to inhale too much information before dismissing a pair of $550 smoking fines stemming from an incident at Shawny’s Bar in Marshall on March 11.
The charges were thrown out this past Tuesday because the Crown’s key witness – Prairie North health inspector Richard Koroluk, the man who originally issued the tickets – failed to appear in court.
“It wasn’t the way I wanted to do it, I really wanted to say my piece there, but as it turned out we didn’t have to do it and my charges were all dismissed,” said Shawny’s Bar owner Brent Underwood, who had been saving his breath for months as his hearing was initially delayed by the prosecution. “They weren’t exactly rarin’ to go on it anyway and then when the tobacco cop didn’t show up, we waited and waited and finally the judge had enough and just threw it all out.”
Glennys Uzelman, vice-president of primary health services with Prairie North, said miscommunication between the regional health authority and the prosecution was responsible for Koroluk’s absence.
“We are aware those charges have been dismissed … but Richard was not made aware of that (trial) date and that would be the reason he did not attend,” said Uzelman, adding Koroluk’s full intention was to make an appearance and speak to the matter. “He would have been there had he known and we certainly plan on following through on all the other charges that have been laid to date.”
Prairie North health inspectors have handed out 14 fines since the Saskatchewan smoking legislation came into effect on Jan. 1, 2005 – three of them have been paid voluntarily, while the other 11 are being fought. Out of those 11 fines, Underwood’s were the first to make their way before a judge and the other nine are scheduled to be heard in Saskatchewan Provincial Court in October and November.
Uzelman admitted it has been frustrating for the health region to exhaust a lot of time, energy and resources into enforcing the smoking ban only to have a small percentage of people actually pay the fines. But she said she is not entirely surprised the fines are being fought.
“That is certainly within the prerogative of those individuals and those businesses … this is a new law and I would expect it to be challenged to some extent,” said Uzelman.
Underwood is hoping that even though his fines weren’t thrown out based on his arguments, the fact they were dismissed will set a precedent for other business owners and cause a ripple effect across the province.
“I don’t think anyone should be paying these fines … take it right to the bitter end like I did and I think they will eventually give up,” he said. “There’s something in the air and everyone’s fighting the government right now, so that whole (smoking legislation) could come crumbling down one of these days.”
http://www.meridianbooster.com/story.php?id=175781
Yellowhead Casino Visit -AB
Sun July 31, 2005
I VISITED the Yellowhead Casino during the Grand Prix when there were many tourists in town and, thanks to the no-smoking bylaw, was able to play any machine I wanted as there were plenty available. The casino (or bars) weren't prepared for the bylaw when they had all kinds of time to prepare. I wanted to save my machine while outside for a smoke break as it was due to hit. There were no markers available to let other gamblers know that the machine was taken. If I'm smoking outside, I'm not gambling; thus, no revenue. Have they considered an enclosed, heated smoking shelter for the winter or rain? I know smoking is no good for me but I am addicted and can't quit even though I want to.
Bill Demers Fort McMurray
(Keep trying ...)
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/Letters/2005/07/31/1154076.html
Smoking At The Auto Motion Car Show -ON
The account of a smoker knowing his rights
http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1870
Old bylaw up in smoke
By Kathy Taylor Tuesday August 02, 2005
Pincher Creek Echo — After being burned by its current smoking bylaw, the town has given first reading to one it is sure is flame-retardent.
The town’s smoking bylaw was successfully challenged by Swiss Alpine Restaurant owner Heinz Inabnit.
The judge found the bylaw was too “ambiguous.”
As a result, the town has decided to use the City of Medicine Hat’s smoking bylaw which has held up to two court challenges.
“They’ve been challenged twice and they won both times,” Special Constable Kevin Sonnenberg told council.
While it was given first reading, it wasn’t unanimous.
Councillor Bill Bradshaw voted against the proposed bylaw, which contains a clause exempting the Royal Canadian Legion, private residences, or rooms available for rent in a hotel, motel or bed and breakfast establishment.
Bradshaw asked why council would consider exempting an establishment from complying with the bylaw when they allow children into the facility.
“It (the bylaw) gives the parents the choice,” said Councillor Sharon Smith.
Choosing not to take your children into a place where there is second hand smoke is just common sense, said Smith.
“You can’t legislate common sense,” Smith said.
Council gave the bylaw first reading, with Bradshaw opposed, agreed to advertise it for two weeks, gather some public input, and to discuss the matter further amongst themselves.
The matter will be on the agenda at the next regular meeting of council Aug. 22
http://www.pinchercreekecho.com/story.php?id=175737
Anti-smoking logic -MB
August 2, 2005
Regarding the letter Ban smoking in cars:
The man is talking on a cellphone and smoking a cigarette so of course using typical anti-smoker logic the cigarette is the reason he is not paying attention and goes through a stop sign.
Give us a break!
GORDON FINLAY Swan River
www.winnipegfreepress.com
'Devastating' butt ban -AB
By SORCHA MCGINNIS, EDMONTON SUN Tue, August 2, 2005
A city restaurateur claims butting out has meant jobs have gone up in smoke, while others say it's hard to know what impact the smoking ban will have because of a recent surge in tourism.
Tom Goodchild said that since the city's new smoking bylaw took effect on July 1, he's had to eliminate up to 10 jobs at The Moose Factory, 4810 Calgary Tr.
"It's devastating. Our sales are down 35 per cent," said Goodchild. "We've had to terminate people because there simply isn't the work."
The restaurant has laid off between eight and 10 part-time servers, while those remaining have complained they are making less money in tips.
And Goodchild added he's been forced to say no to the approximately 10 requests he gets from city charities every week because he doesn't have the cash.
He says he'll continue to make donations as long as he can to the charities to which he's made a commitment, including a program that feeds underprivileged kids at inner-city schools.
Assurances by proponents of the ban that business will eventually bounce back as non-smokers reclaim bars haven't been convincing.
"Smoking is a social event," said Goodchild. "People don't suddenly decide they want to change their social habits because there's no smoking."
Other restaurateurs say that with so many visitors to the city in July, it will be a month or more before they know whether to expect a sharp drop in business.
Pat Tarbox, who manages the Sherlock Holmes Pub at West Edmonton Mall and the Rose & Crown Pub at 10235 101 St., noticed an initial 40 per cent drop in business.
However, in recent weeks, business has picked up.
Tarbox says this may be due to an increase in tourism from events such as the Grand Prix of Edmonton and the World Masters Games.
"It's hard to determine," he said. "The owners are kind of waiting for a month with not a lot of events happening, to see if it will tell the tale of what's going on."
Tarbox, a former smoker who backed the high-profile anti-smoking crusade of his late wife Barb, said he hasn't yet been forced to lay off any employees.
Their schedule has been adjusted to reflect a decline in business, with some staff working fewer hours, he said.
Mark Ung, general manager at the Boston Pizza at 4804 Calgary Tr., says the restaurant has been doing well in recent weeks.
Ung said he expects business will soon be a little slower.
"There's been so much going on," he said. "August will be the better test."
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2005/08/02/1156206-sun.html
The New smoking Bylaw - AB
August 2,2005
THE NEW smoking bylaw has driven down the price of a beer in the bar, because they are scrambling for business, and I'm only two steps from being outside to have a cigarette! I can drink more and cut back on my smoking, not disrupting my fellow man in the process. God bless the anti-smoking people. Just be thankful I don't drive.
Geoff Dean
(Most bylaws are a mixed blessing.)
Gov't should buy them out
Mark Kennedy CanWest News Service Tuesday, August 02, 2005
OTTAWA -- Canada's governments should buy out the country's tobacco companies and hand them over to a new "public-interest" agency that manufactures and sells cigarettes so they are less addictive and appealing, says a new book.
Under the proposal, the new agency's fundamental purpose would be to gradually sell fewer cigarettes -- thereby providing the country untold savings in reduced costs to the health-care system, according to Cynthia Callard, Neil Collishaw and Dave Thompson, authors of Curing the Addiction to Profits.
A variety of models -- from Crown corporations, to non-profit companies, to public utilities -- could be considered as the best way to take over the tobacco industry, says the book.
The tobacco companies would be given the chance to voluntarily sell their firms as part of a negotiation, or they could be forced to comply and be paid fair-market value as part of the expropriation.
The book says it is difficult to predict how much it would cost to buy the companies. It says the price tag could be virtually nil if the companies -- already faced with lawsuits from governments seeking money from alleged tax-evasion and the health costs of treating smokers -- decide they're better off to get out of the business now.
Otherwise, it says the total value of the Canadian tobacco market could potentially be $15 billion.
"If buying tobacco companies seems expensive, the cost of allowing them to continue to serve private interests is no less costly," say the authors. "Since society pays the health costs associated with smoking, the cost to Canadians of buying tobacco companies is much lower than the cost of leaving them in place to keep smoking rates high."
In an interview, Callard -- who works with Collishaw at Physicians For a Smoke-Free Canada, a leading anti-tobacco group based in Ottawa -- said the authors want to kickstart a debate about innovative "long-term strategies" designed to reduce smoking rates.
She said that while federal and provincial governments could collectively purchase the tobacco companies, the simpler approach would likely be having the federal government make the move on its own.
The book notes that for nearly 50 years, governments have battled the consequences of high rates of smoking by encouraging individual smokers to recognize the dangers.
"The policies deployed to reduce smoking -- high tobacco taxes, bans on cigarette promotions, health warning labels, public education, etc -- try to modify the mindset and actions of smokers or potential smokers, which is why they are considered to be 'demand-side' interventions."
But from the start, says the book, tobacco companies have stood in the way. The authors say people should not expect companies to behave contrary to their "fiduciary responsibilities."
"The corporation has no moral responsibilities, and is incapable of feeling guilty about this selfish tendency. It does, however, have a legal responsibility to act in the best interests of its shareholders.
"Tobacco corporations, like all business corporations, are not evil, and they are not good; they are incapable of any moral judgment or culpability. Like other rule-driven systems, their behaviour is programmed and predictable. In striving to sell more cigarettes and recruit new smokers, they are doing exactly what they were created to do and what they are required to do (that is, make money). The visible hand of corporate law and the invisible hand of the marketplace both compel tobacco corporations to try to increase tobacco use."
Thus, says the book, as long as the profit-driven companies themselves control the market, they will continue to weaken, bypass and violate tobacco control measures put in place by governments.
"Health regulators may develop more sophisticated and stringent tobacco control measures, but the companies will reply every time with more sophisticated and imaginative strategies to blunt their effect," say the authors.
The book argues that governments should recognize this fact and overcome the problem by influencing the "supply side" of the tobacco industry.
"There are many forms and hundreds of examples of public-interest enterprises, such as co-operatives, public utilities, Crown corporations and non-profit agencies, that can serve as models for creating a new public-interest tobacco manufacturer that has a legally binding mandate to help reduce smoking."
After the purchase, workers and retailers would not stop manufacturing and selling cigarettes but they would be directed to "focus their energies" on new ways to get people to stop smoking.
Under the new system, the companies would: work with public health agencies to devise and implement smoking cessation initiatives; cease all advertising and promotion aimed at increasing demand; adjust the design of cigarettes to make them less addictive and less attractive; and change the retail system so that store owners are not paid for promotional counter-top displays.
Christina Dona, manager of media relations for Imperial Tobacco Canada, said in an interview that buying out the industry is not necessary. "We think that a lot of the health-care objectives the government wants to accomplish can be done through a regulatory regime."
Moreover, she expressed doubt that even if there was an expropriation, federal and provincial governments would want to eradicate an industry that last year provided them with $8.7 billion in taxes.
http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/news/story.html?id=a9e98c44-1da4-4983-9546-5bc77f26908d
Rothmans faces triple threat
By KATIE ROOK
Tuesday, August 2, 2005 Updated at 3:23 AM EDT
Tobacco company Rothmans Inc. is sleeping with one eye open.
Canada's second-largest tobacco company is facing a triple threat from contraband cigarettes, indoor smoking bans and pending litigation.
However, it still managed a first-quarter profit and impressive market share gain. But the momentum may cease.
"This [stock] is expensive," said David Hartley, an analyst with First Associates Investments. "Going forward, it's all about valuation of the stock and I think we've hit the end of the rope in terms of this stock going up. I think the valuations have finally become unreasonably stretched."
An increase in payout ratio (dividends as a percentage of share profit) to 86 per cent from 55 to 60 per cent two or three years ago has caused Rothmans to trade at 20 times earnings, 10.5 times EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) and 20 times free cash flow, Mr. Hartley said. Historically, Rothmans' peers have traded at 12 times earnings, 14 times EBITDA and 12 to 14 times free cash flow.
A week ago, Toronto-based Rothmans reported an increase in first-quarter profit to $29.7-million or 44 cents a share from $23.8-million or 35 cents a year earlier.
Despite an industry-wide decline in volume, the 60-per-cent-owned Rothmans Benson & Hedges Inc. was able to harness growth by being the first of Canada's three tobacco companies to offer discount cigarettes.
Revenue after excise duty and taxes increased to $176-million from $161.8-million.
Rothmans' share of the domestic market increased to 31.3 per cent from 27.9 per cent a year earlier.
"You have to remember market share was only 21 per cent two years ago and now they're at 31.3 per cent. That's a phenomenal management job right there," Mr. Hartley said.
The cigarette price category, or discount cigarettes, barely existed three years ago and now represents more than half of Rothman's business, chairman John Lute said in a conference call.Rothman's price category cigarettes, which include Number 7, Canadian Classics and Mark 10, represented about 38 per cent of total reported industry domestic cigarette sales volume in fiscal 2005, an increase from 7.2 per cent in fiscal 2003 and 18.3 per cent in fiscal 2004.
"As this change took place, we were quick to accept the days of predictability were over and that for the foreseeable future, this industry would be at best variable and at times volatile," Mr. Lute said.
The 4.72-per-cent dividend yield of the sin stock was in line with its peers, Mr. Hartley said. But it was almost identical to the dividend yield of low-risk BCE Inc., Canada's largest communications company, and power producer TransAlta Corp. Mr. Hartley's recommendation and 12-month price target are "under review." The stock closed Friday at $25.40 on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
A Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. analysis voiced concerns that Rothmans may be vulnerable regarding market share as competitor JTI-Macdonald Corp. has launched another brand into the lower-tier category at a price lower than both Rothmans' and Imperial Tobacco Canada's.
"[Rothmans Benson & Hedges] has over the past 12 months taken two separate price increases in the discount category; this may make the ability to take further increases more difficult," the report said.Rothmans blamed higher taxes for the proliferation of contraband cigarettes.
"Governments are simultaneously raising taxes to unprecedented levels and placing increasingly rigid restrictions on the industry. This set the stage for the growth of counterfeit and contraband product, which is a growing problem for everyone," Mr. Lute said.In 2004, the RCMP seized 120,582 cartons of contraband cigarettes across Canada, valued at between $40 and $70 each, spokeswoman Nathalie Deschênes said. In 2003, three shipments from China were intercepted and 357,298 cartons were seized.
Indoor smoking bans have led to lower cigarette consumption in the winter, and Rothmans is continuing to research what impact this trend will have on the stock price.
"It seems to make sense that that would be the case, but we're continuing to do analysis," Mr. Lute said.
There have been no developments in litigation brought against tobacco companies, but a positive result for the plaintiffs in British Columbia and Quebec could burden the tobacco industry.
In British Columbia, the Supreme Court is reviewing the province's right to sue tobacco companies for health care recovery costs while class-action litigation is proceeding in Quebec.
"The risk comes in waves the way the market looks at it. When court cases are upon us, the stock tends to contain a greater risk premium than at times when the news is low," Mr. Hartley said.
"I think [litigation] is going to be a factor in the near term if the result is positive for the province."
Smokin'
Rothmans has racked up first-quarter profit and impressive market share gain, but industry challenges could ease its momentum.
Company snapshot
| Headquarters |
Toronto |
| Chairman |
Joseph Heffernan |
| President / CEO |
John Barnett |
| Friday's close |
$25.40 |
| Change from previous |
down 25¢ |
| 52-week intraday high |
$26.99 |
| 52-week intraday low |
$16.76 |
| P/E ratio, trailing |
17.58 |
| Dividend yield |
4.72% |
| Market cap |
$1.72-billion |
| Price / book ratio |
16.87 |
| 1-year total return |
64.37% |
| YTD percentage return |
27.32% |
| Revenue, Q1 2006 |
$176-million |
| Profit, Q1 2006 |
$29.7-million |
SOURCE: BLOOMBERG FINANCIAL SERVICES
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050802.wxredge02/EmailBNStory/Business/
Government told to buy up big tobacco to cut smoking
Mark Kennedy Citizen Special August 2, 2005
Making cigarettes less addictive would help Canada kick habit: book
Canada's governments should buy out the country's tobacco companies and hand them over to a new "public interest" agency that manufactures and sells cigarettes so they are less addictive and appealing, says a new book.
Under the proposal, the new agency's fundamental purpose would be to gradually sell fewer cigarettes -- thereby providing the country untold savings in reduced costs to the health care system, according to Cynthia Callard, Neil Collishaw and Dave Thompson, authors of Curing the Addiction to Profits.
A variety of models -- from Crown corporations, to non-profit companies, to public utilities -- could be considered as the best way to take over the tobacco industry, says the book.
The tobacco companies would be given the chance to voluntarily sell their firms as part of a negotiation, or they could be forced to comply and be paid fair market value as part of the expropriation.
The book says implementing its plan could cost practically nothing to as much as $15 billion.
The price tag could be virtually nil, the book claims, if the companies -- already faced with lawsuits from governments seeking money from alleged tax evasion and the health costs of treating smokers -- decide they're better off to get out of the business now. Otherwise, the value of the Canadian tobacco market could be $15 billion.
The varying predictions reflect just how difficult it is to estimate the cost to buy the companies, and what factors should be used in any estimation.
"If buying tobacco companies seems expensive, the cost of allowing them to continue to serve private interests is no less costly," say the authors. "Since society pays the health costs associated with smoking, the cost to Canadians of buying tobacco companies is much lower than the cost of leaving them in place to keep smoking rates high."
In an interview, Ms. Callard -- who works with Mr. Collishaw at Physicians For a Smoke-Free Canada, a leading anti-tobacco group based in Ottawa -- said the authors want to kickstart a debate about innovative "long-term strategies" designed to reduce smoking rates.
She said that while federal and provincial governments could collectively purchase the tobacco companies, the simpler approach would likely be to have the federal government make the move on its own.
The book notes that for nearly 50 year Posted at 1:31 pm by looped_ca
Tuesday, July 26, 2005
Environmental pollutants increase cancer risk
Science Matters by David Suzuki
Science Matters is published weekly in newspapers across Canada.
July 15, 2005
Ever since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent battling this dread disease. We routinely hear about "breakthroughs" in cancer treatment as biotech companies tout their newest products. Yet this year, for the first time, cancer has surpassed heart disease as our number one killer.
On a recent CBC radio program, cancer experts pointed out the disease is related to old age, so as the proportion of older people increases in the population, cancer rates will climb. But while progress has been made in detecting, treating and prolonging the life of cancer patients, overall the experts concluded that we are still losing the war.
So what else is going on? I used to take my daughters fishing off the jetty near our house until one day we noticed lumps at the base of the fins of one of the flounders. We took it home to cut open the lumps, expecting to find parasites. Instead, we found they were tumours. Recently at a talk I gave in Toronto, a veterinarian told me that when she started her practice 20 years ago, she'd see pets with cancer once or twice a month. Now, she says, she sees one or two a day!
Humans are incredibly inventive creatures and over the past hundred years, technological innovation has transformed the planet. In 1962 when Rachel Carson published Silent Spring about the unexpected effects of pesticides, she pushed the environment into public consciousness and was attacked outrageously by the chemical industry. Today, more pesticides are applied worldwide than when Carson issued her warning.
In fact, we have altered the chemical makeup of the biosphere to such an extent that we cannot escape the toxic debris of industrial activity. Scientific monitoring stations in Antarctica detect pollutants spread on the winds and in water vapour from all parts of the planet. Volatile compounds sprayed on fields in the southern U.S. or Russia evaporate into the atmosphere, circle the globe, precipitate over glaciers or ice sheets and end up concentrated in lake trout caught in Banff and Jasper.
More than 70,000 human-created compounds, most never tested for toxicity or carcinogenicity, are now in use. But these chemicals don't just disappear. From the moment of our birth to the last breath we take before death, we suck air deep into our bodies and filter whatever is in it. More than 60 per cent of our body weight is water which must be constantly replenished. Most of our food is grown in soil, the same soil in which we dump our wastes. We even spray the plants and animals we eat with poisons. Is it any wonder why all our bodies now contain trace amounts of these chemicals?
It takes an enormous effort to pinpoint a deleterious compound. It took years before thalidomide was tracked down as the cause of limb malformations and DES as the cause of reproductive cancers in daughters of women treated with it during pregnancy. Tests must be carried out on a scale large enough to yield numbers that are statistically significant and each compound must be studied under different conditions and concentrations.
Such studies are also normally done in isolation. But this is not how these chemicals are used in the real world, where they can combine with dozens of other compounds. A report published earlier this year in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, for example, found that the common pesticide Roundup was more than twice as toxic as glyphosate alone, its only supposed "active" ingredient. The pesticide mixture was also linked to potential reproductive problems -- something else not attributed to glyphosate alone.
Scientists are reluctant to suggest that a polluted world may be an important factor in the epidemic of cancer afflicting us today. But common sense should tell us that many of these compounds have powerful biological effects. If we stop using the biosphere as a toxic dump, we might actually make better progress in the war against cancer.
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/about_us/Dr_David_Suzuki/Article_Archives/weekly07150501.asp
The BMA has come out with a “report” on Smoking and reproductive life, designed to hit the headlines, which it did most successfully. It is a long document, available on the web, and is nothing less than a celebratory festival of junk science.
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/big_liars.htm
Committees on Toxicity, Carcinogenicity, Mutagenicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment
(COT, COC, COM)
Joint Statement on Re-assessment of the Toxicological Testing of Tobacco Products
(COT/04/9; COC/04/S4 & COM/04/S2 - November 2004)
Introduction
1. Article 11 of the Directive 2001/37/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council1 sets out a requirement for the European Commission to submit, no later than 31 December 2004 and every two years thereafter, a report on the Directive's application. Such a report will aim to review, and advise on the development of, particular features of the Directive. Two areas of specific concern are:
"methodologies for more realistically assessing and regulating toxic exposure and harm"
and
"toxicological data to be required from manufacturers on ingredients and the manner in which they should be tested in order to allow public health authorities to assess their use"
2. The Committees (COT/COC/COM) were asked to provide advice on these areas of toxicological assessment with reference to the assessment of Potentially Reduced Exposure Products (PREPS) and in particular tobacco-based PREPS which are smoked. A brief overview of the information reviewed and approach taken by the Committees is given below. Copies of the discussion papers used by the committees can be obtained from the Committee internet sites.
http://www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/cot/index.htm
http://www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/com/
http://www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/coc/
3. The Committees agreed that it was important to state that the ideal way forward to reduce risks and hazards of tobacco smoke was to encourage smokers to stop or people not to start in the first place and any attempt to reduce toxicity should not be allowed to detract from that. Members acknowledged that the primary remit of the Committees' discussions was to provide advice based on the information provided.
Approach taken and evidence reviewed
4. The Committees considered a covering paper drafted by the secretariat (available on the Committee internet sites) and appended references. These included information from the Symposium proceedings of the 56th meeting of the Tobacco Science Research Conference2 and a number of peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals.3-9 In discussing these data members
were reminded of the recent considerations (at COT/COC/COM meetings during 2004) on toxicogenomics where a number of studies investigating tobacco smoke had been considered (See above internet sites for minutes and papers). The Committees were aware that additional studies both in the public domain and possibly held by industry could have been reviewed but noted that they had been asked to provide the best advice possible in the available time based on the information provided to members. The discussion paper and appended references were considered at the COM meeting on 7 October, the COT meeting on 26 October and the COC meeting on 18 November 2004.
Generic consideration of toxicological approaches to evaluation of PREPS.
5. The Committees commented that tobacco smoke was a highly complex chemical mixture and that the causative agents for smoke induced diseases (such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, effects on reproduction and on offspring) were unknown. The mechanisms by which tobacco induced adverse effects were not established. The best information related to tobacco smokeinduced lung cancer, but even in this instance a detailed mechanism was not available. The Committees therefore agreed that on the basis of current knowledge, it would be very difficult to identify a toxicological testing strategy or a biomonitoring approach for use in volunteer studies with smokers where the end-points determined or biomarkers measured were predictive of the overall burden of tobacco induced disease.
6. The Committees commented that, since it was not possible to define reliable end-points or biomarkers for use in in-vitro investigations (with exception of mutagenicity testing see paragraph 10 below), in-vivo studies in experimental animals or in volunteer studies using smokers, it would not be possible to compare PREPS using such approaches.
7. The Committees also noted that some weight could be placed on investigations of markers for the tobacco-specific nitrosamine NNK (4-(methylnitrosoamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone) and its metabolite NNAL (4-(methylnitrosoamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanol) as markers for exposure to a potentially relevant tobacco smoke-derived carcinogen. However, a valid investigation of carcinogenic potency of PREPS would have to examine a wide range of the 50 or so known human carcinogens present in tobacco-smoke. In addition, strategies designed to compare PREPS with regard to one chronic disease associated with tobacco smoke, such as lung cancer, may have no predictive value for other diseases such as tobacco-smoke-induced cardiovascular disease.
8. Overall, the Committees agreed that there were considerable difficulties in designing a toxicological testing strategy for the reassessment of tobacco products and that it was not possible to design a valid strategy given current understanding of the diseases associated with smoking tobacco.
Consideration of approaches currently used
9. The Committees commented on the approaches used in the information provided. When tobacco manufacturers wish to assess the influence of any design changes on the overall toxicity of a product, a tiered testing regime has been advocated which currently consists of one or more of the following:
1) A bacterial test for gene mutation (eg the Ames test)
2) A test for clastogenicity and for indications of aneugenicity
i) In vitro metaphase analysis
ii) In-vitro micronucleus test
3) Mammalian cell mutation assay (preferred choice is the mouse lymphoma assay)
4) Cytotoxicity as assessed using the Neutral Red uptake assay
5) In-vivo studies in experimental animals to investigate biomarkers of disease
6) Studies in smokers (volunteers) to examine effects on smoking and biomarkers following switching from one tobacco product to a PREP.
Advice from COM on mutagenicity
10. The COM considered the available information and agreed that, using suitable protocols, it was possible to compare mutagenicity in-vitro of different PREPS which could be useful to assess hazard. However, the results of such in-vitro tests had no predictive value for risk of in-vivo mutagenicity or cancer. No conclusions could be drawn on the approaches using toxicogenomic methods. The available biomonitoring approaches were too limited to draw any conclusions regarding a comparison of PREPS.
Advice from COT on Toxicology testing
11. The COT concluded that in-vitro cytotoxicity testing could be used as part of an overall approach for comparing PREPS but the data could not be extrapolated to the in-vivo situation and the outcome measured in such tests had no predictive value with regard to tobacco-smoke associated diseases. The COT considered that studies in smokers (volunteers) to investigate tobacco-based PREPS should take account of changes in smoking behaviour in addition to investigation of biomarkers of disease. The COT concluded that there were currently no adequate biomarkers for tobacco-smoke induced diseases and no conclusions could be reached on the available data. The COT concluded that smoke chemistry could not be used to compare PREPS.
Advice from COC on carcinogenicity
12. The COC commented on the complexity of tobacco induced cancer and noted that the mechanism(s) and information on the chemical agents responsible for tobacco induced cancer in humans had not been fully elucidated. In addition members noted the importance of the interaction between chemical carcinogens and susceptibility factors regarding the pathogenesis of tobacco-induced cancer. The COC concluded there is no strategy which could be used to compare PREPS for carcinogenic potency and that the approaches used are not informative on the risk of tobacco induced carcinogenicity. The COC agreed that it was not possible to draw conclusions on the carcinogenic risk of tobacco-based PREPS on the available biomarker studies reviewed.6-9 The COC commented on the need to examine a wide range of biomarkers for carcinogenicity and their interaction with susceptibility factors.
Overall conclusions of the Committees
13. The Committees agreed that analysis of tobacco smoke constituents was not useful in comparing tobacco-based PREPS or predicting risks associated with tobacco smoking.
14. The Committees agreed that the current in-vitro tests and in-vivo approaches used in experimental animals to evaluate the toxicity of tobacco products and tobacco-based PREPS are not informative on risk of diseases induced by tobacco-smoke.
15. It was noted that comparative assessments between PREPS can be undertaken for data generated in some in-vitro mutagenicity tests, but the data cannot be extrapolated to in-vivo mutagenicity.
16. The Committees agreed that the available biomonitoring studies in volunteer smokers are too limited to draw any conclusions regarding comparisons of tobacco-based PREPs.
17. The Committees cautioned that biomonitoring studies which focused on the risk of one disease (such as cancer) in volunteer smokers have no predictive relevance to other tobacco smoke-induced diseases such as cardiovascular diseases.
18. The Committees advised that future progress on the proposed approach to reduce tobacco-smoke induced disease by modification of tobacco products could only be made when detailed mechanistic information on tobacco-induced diseases is available.
November 2004 COT/04/9; COC/04/S4 & COM/04/S2
References
1. Directive 2001/37/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the approximation of the laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the Member States concerning the manufacture, presentation and sale of tobacco products, (2001).
2. Recent Advances in Tobacco Science, Toxicological Evaluation of Tobacco Products, Symposium Proceedings, 56th Meeting of the Tobacco Science Research Conference, (2002). September 29-October 2, 2002, Lexington, Kentucky, USA.
3. Andreoli C et al Toxicology In-vitro, 17, 587-594, (2003).
4. Gebel S, Gerstmeyer B, Bosio A, Haussmann H-J, Van Miert E and Müller T, Gene expression profiling in respiratory tissues from rats exposed to mainstream cigarette smoke, Carcinogenesis, 25(2), 169-178, (2004).
5. Obot CJ et al Characterisation of mainstream cigarette smoke-induced biomarker responses in ICR and C57Bl/6 mice. Inhalation Toxicology, 16, 701-719, (2004).
6. Breland et al Acute effects of Advance™: a potential reduced exposure product for smokers. Tobacco Control vol 11, 376-378, (2002).
7. Breland AB et al Tobacco specific nitrosamines and potential reduced exposure products for smokers: a preliminary evaluation of Advance™. Tobacco Control, 12, 317-321, (2003).
8. Hughes JR et al Smoking behaviour and toxin exposure during six weeks use of a potential reduced exposure product: Omni. Tobacco Control vol 13, 175-179, (2004).
9. Hatsukami DK et al Evaluation of carcinogen exposure in people who used "reduced exposure" tobacco products. JNCI, 96, 844-852, (2004).
http://www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/cotnonfood/tobacco.htm
Indoor measurements of environmental tobacco smoke
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Investigator(s): Richard Sextro , Ph.D. -
Award Cycle: 1997 (Cycle VI)
Grant #: 6RT-0307 Award: $634,217
Subject Area: General Biomedical Science > Award Type: Research Project Awards >
Initial Award Abstract
Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) - the smoke coming from the end of the burning cigarette - is one of the most common sources of carcinogens encountered by the public. Nation-wide, ETS exposures are estimated to cause up to several thousand cases of lung cancer each year. Not much is known about how large these potential exposures to ETS are or which indoor locations might be the most important contri-butors over time. Most of the known carcinogens in ETS are part of the “smoke” or particles produced in the combustion of the cigarette. When inhaled, these particles deposit in the lungs; where they deposit depends upon the size of the particles inhaled.
The research we propose here consists of both laboratory-based experiments and measure-ments made in actual buildings. The laboratory work would focus on three topics. The first is to better understand how the movement of ETS from one room to another would affect the concentrations and sizes of the smoke particles. Although some research has been done on this topic, further work will help improve our understanding of how ETS exposures are affected by being in the same or a different room than the smoker. Because ETS particles are often the same size as other particles found in indoor air, measurements to determine ETS exposures are often difficult or uncertain. We have therefore proposed to examine how well some of the ‘tracer’ chemicals or particles that have been used can predict ETS exposures.
Finally, some research has suggested that some chemicals and possibly particles may be re-emitted from surfaces in rooms where heavy smoking has occurred. Such emissions may constitute an important source of secondary exposures to ETS. We have proposed a set of experiments to investigate this topic further.
After the laboratory-based experiments are completed, we will make measurements in two or three actual buildings to see how the results from the lab experiments compare with measurements made in the real world. In combination, this work is directed toward a better understanding of how exposures to ETS may vary under different conditions of exposure.
Final Report
Environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) - - the smoke released from the burning end of the cigarette is one of the most common sources of carcinogens to which the general public is exposed. However, little is known about the size and extent of potential exposures to ETS. The objective of this research project is to improve the basis for estimating ETS exposures in a variety of indoor environments. The research utilized experiments conducted in both laboratory and 'real-world' buildings to 1) study the transport of ETS species from room to room, 2) examine the viability of using various chemical markers as tracers for ETS and 3) evaluate to what extent re emission of ETS components from indoor surfaces might add to the ETS exposure estimates.
A three-room environmental chamber was used to examine multi-zone transport and behavior of ETS and its tracers. One room (simulating a smoker's living room) was extensively conditioned with ETS, while a corridor and a second room (simulating a child's bedroom) remained smoke-free. As reported last year, a series of 5 sets of replicate experiments were conducted to simulate the movement of ETS between rooms under different door opening and flow configurations: sealed, leaky, slightly ajar, wide open, and under forced air-flow conditions. When the doors between the rooms were slightly ajar the particles dispersed from the smoking room into the other rooms, eventually reaching the same concentration. Four chemical tracers were examined: ultraviolet-absorbing particulate matter. (UVPM), fluorescent particulate matter (FPM), nicotine and solanesol. Both (UVPM) and (FPM) traced the transport of ETS particles into the non-smoking areas. Nicotine, on the other hand, quickly adsorbed on unconditioned chamber, surfaces so that nicotine concentrations in these rooms remained very low, even during smoking episodes. These findings suggest that using nicotine as a tracer of ETS particle concentrations may yield misleading concentration and/or exposure estimates. The results of the solanesol analyses were compromised, apparently by exposure to light during collection (lights in the chambers were always on during the experiments). This may mean that the use of solanesol as a tracer is impractical in 'real-world' conditions.
As part of the final year of this project we conducted measurements of ETS particles and tracers in three residences occupied by smokers who have joined a smoking cessation program. This part of the study was designed as a pilot study, preparatory for a larger study to be conducted in multiple homes. Our objective was to improve our understanding of how ETS aerosols are transported (and thus, whether limiting smoking to certain areas of buildings has an effect on ETS exposures in other parts of the building). As with the chamber studies, we wanted to examine whether measurements of various chemical tracers, such as nicotine, solanesol, FPM and UVPM, can be used to accurately predict ETS concentrations and potential exposures in 'real-world' settings, as has been suggested by several authors. The ultimate goal of these efforts, and a larger multiple house study, is to improve the basis for estimating ETS exposures to the general public.
Because - we only studied three houses conclusions - an effort designed to test our field measurement methods and protocols no firm can be developed from our data. However, the results for the ETS tracers are essentially the same as those we observed in the chamber experiments, that is, the use of nicotine is problematic with respect to its accuracy as a marker for ETS exposure. In the smoking areas of the homes, nicotine appeared to be a suitable indicator; however in the non-smoking regions, nicotine behavior was very inconsistent. The other tracers, UVPM and FPM, provided a better basis for estimating ETS exposures in the 'real world'. The use of solanesol was compromised - - as it had been in the chamber experiments by exposure to light during collection.
Indoor transport of ETS particles and tracers
Periodical:Proceedings of the Internation Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate
Index Medicus: Authors: Apte MG, Grundel LA, Singer BC, Sullivan DP, Sextro RG
Yr: 1999 Vol: 2 Nbr: Abs:Pg:965-970
Characterizing ETS emissions from cigars: chamber measurements of nicotine, particle mass, and particle size
Periodical:Proceedings of the Internation Conference on Indoor Air Quality and Climate
Index Medicus: Authors: Klepeis NE, Apte MG, Grundel LA, Nazaroff WW, Sextro RG
Yr: 1999Vol: 2 Nbr: Abs: Pg:903-908
http://www.trdrp.org/research/PageGrant.asp?grant_id=438
UBC study looks at lung disease in women
Canadian Press
VANCOUVER — Lung disease deaths for Canadian woman have jumped by more than 60 per cent over two decades, yet the men's rate dropped by 15 per cent in the same period, an expert says.
The dramatic increase is now the subject of a five-year, $1.5 million University of British Columbia study.
A team of 20 researchers including clinical scientists, lab workers, epidemiologists, those with expertise on exposure assessment, and social scientists will look into the problem.
Team leader UBC professor Susan Kennedy said they'll first look back over 10 years of lung research comparing women and men.
"Asking questions that we didn't ask in the past," Kennedy said.
"We have this remarkable opportunity now to bring a whole bunch of people together, in one team, with a lot of different perspectives."
The main focus of the research will be the rapid increase in women's deaths between 1984 and 2000.
"In men, death rates over the last two decades have decreased slightly, about 15 per cent," Kennedy said.
"But in women, death has increased by slightly over 60 per cent death rate, and hospitalization has increased dramatically as well."
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the fourth leading cause of death in North America, and about 10,000 Canadians die from the disease every year.
Kennedy said they aren't sure why the increase is so rapid in women, but theorizes it could be a combination of factors, including the differences in when men and women stopped smoking, and physical and environmental differences between men and women.
Up until now physicians have considered diseases like bronchitis or emphysema to be men's diseases, said Kennedy.
"Part of the role of the funding that our team has received is to try to raise the awareness of this as, not just a man's disease, but an important women's health problem."
And if the rising trend continues, Kennedy said, it won't be long before the pulmonary-disease death rate for women surpasses that of men
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1121775540223_119
Game Over for Modders?
By Kevin Poulsen | Also by this reporter
02:00 AM Jul. 22, 2005 PT
When the smoke clears around the Grand Theft Auto sex scandal, the innocent bystanders of the collision between politics, puritans and corporate dissembling may prove to be the community of "modders" who tinker with game content for their own amusement.
Game hackers have probed, tweaked and enhanced everything from Halo to The Sims 2 over the years without incurring the wrath of game makers -- despite widespread click-wrap contracts prohibiting unauthorized modifications, and ambiguities in copyright law that make distributing the hacks legally uncertain.
All that changed last week when game industry opponents and some Democratic lawmakers raised a furor over a sexually themed mini game baked into Rockstar Games' best-selling PC and console title GTA: San Andreas. The raunchy bonus material was hidden from normal play, but could be unlocked by a downloadable mod titled "Hot Coffee" developed by hacker Patrick Wildenborg of Deventer, Netherlands, last month.
Rockstar's parent company, Take Two Interactive, was quick to blame the modder and disavow responsibility for the racy content. In a July 13 press release, the company claimed that "a determined group of hackers" had gone to "significant trouble to alter scenes in the official version of the game," a process that the company said involved disassembling, recompiling and "altering the game's source code."
But on Wednesday, an investigation by the Entertainment Software Ratings Board concluded that Take Two was, in fact, responsible for the sex content, which was found in all three versions of San Andreas: the PC, Xbox and PlayStation2 discs. Wildenborg's Hot Coffee download merely made the scenes accessible.
The industry group revoked the game's M rating, which labeled it appropriate for players 17 or older, and re-filed it under AO for "adults only" -- raising the minimum age to 18, the year at which a delicate teen becomes less susceptible to the harmful influence of computer-generated cartoon sex.
The new rating has major retailers pulling the game from their shelves, while Take Two preps a replacement version that will satisfy the ESRB requirements for an M rating. The company now acknowledges that the sex scenes were shipped on the game discs, but describes them as vestigial code that was cut from gameplay before release, and was not intended to be accessible to players.
Sen. Hillary Clinton has called for an FTC investigation of the whole affair, but Take Two is trying to keep attention on the modders. Spokesman Jim Ankner won't say whether the company is removing the sexual content from the new discs (it is if it wants an M rating, the ESRB says) but instead emphasizes that the next release will have "enhanced security" against hackers like Wildenborg.
The company also said, in a Wednesday press release, that it's "exploring its legal options as it relates to companies that profited from creating and distributing tools for altering the content" of the game. Ankner declined to elaborate on what that might mean, but the PlayStation2 version of the Hot Coffee hack required the use of a consumer cheat device called "Action Replay" that allows players to tweak console games, typically to get extra lives or unlimited ammo.
The U.S. subsidiary of the company that makes Action Replay, Datel Design & Development, didn't return phone calls Thursday. A spokesman for U.S. distributor Intec says it's watching the controversy closely. "We're definitely staying on top of the issue to see how this plays out," said VP of marketing Mark Stanley.
In 1992, Nintendo lost a lawsuit against the maker of a similar customization tool called Game Genie, when a federal appeals court found that the device didn't infringe Nintendo's copyrights.
Take Two isn't the only one blaming the modders. In its Wednesday press release, the ESRB said it "calls on the computer and video-game industry to proactively protect their games from illegal modifications by third parties, particularly when they serve to undermine the accuracy of the rating."
"That parent doesn't necessarily know that mods are available for their 13-year-old to go out and find that could radically change the product," said ESRB vice president Patricia Vance. "If the rating itself is being undermined by third-party modification, I think we as an industry need to figure out what to do about that."
Asked what qualifies as an illegal modification, Vance noted that most games include a shrink-wrap or click-wrap end-use license agreement that prohibits user modification. "You need to ask some companies why they don't enforce it," said Vance.
In the only significant U.S. legal action against modders so far, last January California game maker Tecmo filed a copyright suit against the proprietors and users of modding site NinjaHacker.net, an internet forum where fans created and shared custom content for Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. The company quietly dismissed the lawsuit last May.
Adding even a small measure of technical protection to games could make modding a violation of the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act, says Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Fred von Lohmann. But suing modders misses the point, he argues. "It's not the modders who have done something wrong here.... After all, the content was in the game. If the game publisher was really, sincerely interested in preventing this kind of use of the game, then there's nobody in a better position to scrub the code than the guys who wrote it."
Game consultant Greg Costikyan agrees. "I think the main thing is that people are going to be more careful about what they do, and what they leave on the disc," said Costikyan. "In terms of trying to ensure that games cannot be modified by people, that's insanity. For some games, the mod community is a big part of what keeps the game alive."
http://www.wired.com/news/games/0,2101,68284,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_1
Spain
Spain bans smoking in countryside to curb fire risk
Fri Jul 22, 2005 5:30 PM BST
MADRID (Reuters) - Spaniards are no longer allowed to smoke as they take a Sunday stroll in the woods, under new government rules aimed at curbing the risk of fires such as last weekend's in which 11 firefighters died.
Lighting fires in open spaces is banned nationwide until November, by when the country's severe drought may have eased.
Friday's law, which comes into force immediately, emphasises the danger of barbecues at picnic places, thought to be the cause of the fatal blaze in Guadalajara, and prohibits farmers from burning stubble, for example.
Just under 30 percent of Spaniards over 16 smoke daily and no-smoking rules in stations and other public places are widely flouted. The Environment Ministry did not explain how its ban on smoking in the countryside would be enforced.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyID=2005-07-22T163015Z_01_KWA259403_RTRIDST_0_OUKOE-SPAIN-SMOKING.XML
Study: Americans Have Fewer Environmental Chemicals In Blood
Organization Says CDC Only Tested For Fraction Of Chemicals
POSTED: 3:42 pm CDT July 21, 2005
ATLANTA -- A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that Americans have lower levels of potentially dangerous substances in their blood than they did 10 years ago. That includes lead and byproducts of secondhand smoke.
Federal health officials called the findings "an astonishing public health achievement."
In the early 1990s, 4.4 percent of the nation's children between the ages of 1 and 5 had raised lead levels. But the latest survey showed that dropped to 1.6 percent between 1999 and 2002.
CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said the findings "help relieve worry and concern."
"Exposure to secondhand smoke continues to plummet, and blood lead levels in children are way down," Gerberding said in a news release. "However, many challenges remain."
The report suggests that more research is needed on the health effects of low levels of exposure to the metal cadmium.
But the Pesticide Action Network North America said the CDC only tested for a "really small slice" of chemicals in the environment. A leader of the group said the CDC tested for just 43 pesticides in the report -- but more than 1,200 are registered with the Environmental Protection Agency.
"This study highlights the tip of a toxic iceberg," said Margaret Reeves, of the Pesticide Action Network. "(The) CDC evaluated only a fraction of the total number of pesticides used every day in agricultural fields, homes and gardens and found many of these toxic chemicals present in our bodies."
Additional Resources:
http://www.nbc13.com/health/4754338/detail.html
Smoke-free Homes
In the News
| picture |
| Columbus Elementary School Principal Mrs. Barry-Sutherland accepts award given by Tom Kelly, Indoor Environments Division |
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Columbus Elementary School (Medford, MA) Receives Leadership Awards
On June 3rd, the Columbus Elementary School staff in Medford, MA received EPA’s Environmental Leadership in Indoor Air Awards for their efforts to help students understand and minimize the health risks of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke. The nurses worked with the fourth and fifth grade teachers to incorporate ETS education in their classroom activities. The art teacher guided the children in creating posters that illustrated the dangers of ETS. The posters were used for student-to-student teaching between the fifth and third graders and were displayed at the local mall along with an educational booth display. Read More...
RFA# OAR-ORIA-05-17 - Closing Date: July 18, 2005 "Replacement Grant to Increase Awareness of Adverse Effects of Environmental Tobacco Smoke (ETS)/Secondhand Smoke on Children"
This notice announces the availability of funds and solicits applicants from eligible entities to undertake national education, training, and outreach projects that: promote awareness and understanding of the environmental health benefits of smoke-free environments from children, strengthen the capacity of families and communities to create and sustain a smoke-free environment for children, reduce children's exposure to ETS, and assess the effectiveness and sustainability of education and outreach strategies that reduce and/or prevent children's exposure to ETS. Request for Applications (RFA) - Initial Announcement (PDF, 17 pgs., 63KB About PDF)
Secondhand Smoke Can Make Children Suffer Serious Health Risks
Breathing secondhand smoke can be harmful to children's health including asthma, Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), bronchitis and pneumonia and ear infections. Children's exposure to secondhand smoke is responsible for: (1) increases in the number of asthma attacks and severity of symptoms in 200,000 to 1 million children with asthma; (2) between 150,000 and 300,000 lower respiratory tract infections (for children under 18 months of age); and, (3) respiratory tract infections resulting in 7,500 to 15,000 hospitalizations each year.
The developing lungs of young children are severely affected by exposure to secondhand smoke for several reasons including that children are still developing physically, have higher breathing rates than adults, and have little control over their indoor environments. Children receiving high doses of secondhand smoke, such as those with smoking mothers, run the greatest risk of damaging health effects.
A few basic actions can protect children from secondhand smoke:
- Choose not to smoke in your home and car and do not allow family and visitors to do so. Infants and toddlers are especially vulnerable to the health risks from secondhand smoke.
- Do not allow childcare providers or others who work in your home to smoke.
- Until you can quit, choose to smoke outside. Moving to another room or opening a window is not enough to protect your children.
For more information on secondhand smoke, see EPA publications and Take the Smoke-free Home Pledge 1-866-SMOKE-FREE (1-866-766-5337)
peldge here
You can become a child's hero by keeping a smoke-free home and car. Secondhand smoke can cause children to suffer bronchitis, pneumonia, ear infections and more severe asthma attacks. Read More About Health Risks...
Join the millions of people who are protecting their children from secondhand smoke.
Take the Smoke-free Home Pledge Today!
Pledge to Keep Your Home and Car Smoke-free in 3 easy steps:
- Go to the Pledge Page and read helpful information on making your home and car smoke-free.
- Simply enter your five digit zip code and push the submit button. (Your pledge is completely anonymous).
- You're done! You can even get your own Smoke-free Home Pledge Certificate by double-clicking on the certificate. Proudly display this to let your children, family and visitors know you have taken an important step to keep your home and car smoke-free.
http://www.epa.gov/smokefree/index.html
Contraband Item Clogs Routine At CVG -OH
Lighters Restricted From Planes
POSTED: 6:06 pm EDT July 20, 2005 UPDATED: 6:22 pm EDT July 20, 2005
video available
CINCINNATI -- Airport security has been at a heightened state for years, but security officials are still collecting contraband items, News 5's Brian Hamrick reported.
Considering it's something they don't want, the Transportation Security Administration has a massive collection of lighters.
"We see thousands of lighters a month," said William Hunter, TSA screener.
Every lighter slows the check-in process for passengers, officials said.
"It takes that much more time to get that person through. If you multiply that by thousands a month, it's a good reason why we have some delays," Hunter said.
At the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, many passengers don't know they can't take their lighters aboard.
TSA officials learned the danger from a shoe bomber, so the lighters are collected in bins, Hamrick reported.
"If he would have had a hotter flame, he may have done much more damage," Hunter said.
The TSA contracts with a company to get rid of the lighters. The company doesn't charge to take them, but is able to sell what they want.
Officials said they would rather not deal with lighters and are trying to inform passengers of the restriction.
http://www.channelcincinnati.com/news/4749431/detail.html
Smoke Club Sets Up Shop Next Door To Restaurant -TN
Angela Lee July 19,2005
Some people in Fort Oglethorpe are finding a creative way around Georgia's new law banning smoking from restaurants.
A Georgia law that prevents smokers from lighting up in restaurants has some Fort Oglethorpe folks craving a new venue to smoke in.
One man's found his very own solution.
It seems to be working well enough to allow him and his friends to light up.
Customers call it the "Smokers' Coffee Break Club", and it got its start back on July first when the new law took effect.
The club set-up is conveniently located between a place where you can buy your cigarettes and Waffle House, a place several local smokers frequent for coffee and a quick bite to eat.
Meet Raymond Nelson. He's fed up with the new law and took matters into his own hands peacefully.
He says, “This is more or less a place for people to go smoke that can't smoke in any of the restaurants in Georgia anymore.”
There's NO petition or major public outcry just a few lighters, ashtrays and packs of cigarettes.
Nelson has an intimate circle of lawn chairs and a picnic table under a tent..and there ther is the "coffee break wagon" a large shiny steel transport van that sits wide open for club members to sit, eat, drink coffee and smoke.
You could say this is a bit of a smoky protest.
Nelson says, “It is really. We might not get anything changed.
But a small gathering of friends and a few cups of coffee this club of smokers and NON-smokers solves the worlds' problems as best they can.
Sometimes the debates and jokes get rolling so quickly... it DOES distract from the task at hand leaving whole cigarettes burning to the butt.
Nelson says everyone's invited. He even calls out to fellow smokers from time to time to let them know. He says, “Smoker's corner! Come on over here! Everybody can smoke. We don't care.”
Cigar smoker and friend, James Fischer adds, “Light 'em up if you got 'em!”
Scattered, smothered, covered and chunk. Many folks choose to get their food “To Go” just to claim a seat outside with the smokers coffee break club.”
Take Robert Gilliam, after a quick smoke, he goes in and orders
AND soon returns with sandwich in hand.
He dislikes the law so much, he refuses to sit down for a meal in Georgia restaurants.
Gilliam says, “This is my way of protesting. If I can't eat and smoke, I'll eat where I can smoke.”
And so he smokes and visits with all the regulars at this Waffle House he's met over the years.
Fisher says, the club is a pretty good idea.
He adds, I think it will catch on. You gotta smoke somewhere.”
The busiest time for the Smoker's Coffee Break Club is during the cooler hours of the day.
Those at today's club say, they don't expect the law to be changed anytime soon, but they're glad Nelson thought of a way to protest the law all the while allowing them a chance to light up.
http://www.newschannel9.com/engine.pl?station=wtvc&id=1637&template=breakout_story1.shtml&dateformat=%25M+%25e,%25Y
Smokers herded out to one stop -GA
By MARY FRANCES DONALSON July 19, 2005
Bans against smoking in public places has caught up with smokers who prior to July 1st were able to eat and smoke at a handful of restaurants in the county.
Not any more.
The Georgia Smokefree Act of 2005 prohibits smoking in most enclosed work sites and public places, and allows smoking only in bars and restaurants that have separate ventilated rooms so that customers are not subject to second-hand smoke.
Now about the only place in Decatur County one may puff on a cigarette and eat a meal is the Old Bainbridge Truck Stop, where owner and operator Gay Spooner prepared for it by setting aside a special room where her customers may legally smoke while others are in a non-smoking area.
“Many of our customers are truck drivers who often spend several hours here at the truck stop,” explained Spooner. “They want a place where they can relax and talk, smoke and drink coffee or watch television, so we fixed a place for them as well as our other smoking customers. The convenience store and dining area where the food is located is designated as non-smoking, but the adjoining room where smoking is permitted has its own separate air-conditioning and vent system to comply with the law.”
The veteran truck stop owner said she anticipated the anti-smoking legislation and began remodeling her building in June to comply with state regulations. She said many truckers have expressed appreciation for her designated smoking area, and a number of former customers who enjoyed the meals served at the truck stop but were unhappy with eating in a smoke-filled dining room have returned.
A group of local men who get together each afternoon to chat over a cup of coffee or a glass of iced tea and a cigarette regularly meet in the designated smoke room at the truck stop.
“As a result of having the two sections (smoking and non-smoking) I don’t think the smoking ban will really affect my business to a great extent,” said Spooner. “In fact, many former customers are coming back now that we have the non-smoking dining area. I am a smoker myself, although my husband is a non-smoker, and I personally don’t think the state has a right to tell us what we can and can’t do. However, I understand people have different opinions about the smoking question, and we are complying with the law.”
Most other business places such as convenience stores like Big Boy’s Bait & Tackle Store have posted “No Smoking” signs on their doors and do not permit smoking indoors. Some places of business have placed special containers outside their doors for the disposition of cigarette butts.
“People come here for food and not just for cigarettes,” said Jeff Crews, owner of Big Boy’s. ‘Most of our customers come in to eat or make a purchase, then leave. They do not hang around and smoke. If they do, they can smoke outside the building.”
Local tie to the statewide ban
Georgia followed Florida in becoming the second tobacco-growing state to enact a strict law limiting the use of tobacco in public places.
The only places smokers will be permitted to light up will be bars and restaurants that do not admit minors, motel rooms that are set aside for smokers, and workplace smoking areas that have a separate air handling system.
After some deliberation, Gov. Sonny Perdue approved the smoking ban bill one day short of the deadline for him to either sign or veto it. The governor said he had reservations about the government’s involvement in citizens’ personal freedom in certain activities, but realized the health hazards involved in tobacco use. He also cited respect for the sponsor of the bill, Dr. Donald Ray Thomas, 71, a Republican senator from Dalton who is the only physician in the Senate and heads that body’s Health and Human Services Committee.
Dr. Thomas, who is married to the former Emma Jean Brock of Decatur County, has campaigned for the past four years to persuade politicians and the public that secondhand smoke is dangerous to people. The 71-year-old family doctor is an avid believer in preventive health practices, has participated in many Peachtree Road Races, and still jogs approximately five miles a day in the area around his home.
Thomas considers the anti-smoking legislation the high point in his political career. He is now midway in his fifth term in the legislature and plans to run again.
Bainbridge’s smoking ban
An ordinance banning smoking in all public places in the city was adopted by the Bainbridge City Council on Nov. 18, 2003, and became effective Jan. 1, 2004.
Minutes after the ordinance became effective, a local resident, Bert Steen, challenged the ordinance and was arrested in a local restaurant by Bainbridge Public Safety Officer Jack Bunting and charged with violation of the new law.
When Steen appeared in Municipal Court before Judge James M. Pace Jr., he told the judge he felt the ordinance was a violation of a citizen’s rights as well as a violation of business rights, and said that a number of local citizens had supported him in this viewpoint. Although Judge Pace found Steen guilty and fined him $100 plus $50 in surcharges and court costs, the case was appealed by the defendant.
Steen said this week that his case is presently pending before an appellate court, but his attorneys feel that it will be handled soon since there will be a 90-day grace period before the new statewide anti-smoking law is enforced.
Steen’s lead attorney is Janice W. Prince of Thomasville, with Attorney Galen Mirate of Valdosta assisting.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14887002&BRD=2068&PAG=461&dept_id=387472&rfi=6
Two men stop attempted rape -NM
Source: KRQE Nwws 13
SANTA FE -- Two Santa Fe men are being hailed as heroes after police say they stopped a man from raping a girl.
Police say on Wednesday night 25-year-old Jared Meador and 24-year-old Clifford Morgan went outside to smoke a cigarette at their apartment on South Meadows Road. That's when the two men heard crying.
When they rushed to find out what it was, they say they saw a man running away and pulling up his pants.
Morgan says he jumped on the man and held him until police arrived.
Ramiro Hernandez, 32, is now accused of kidnapping and attempted rape of the 17-year-old girl.
He was arraigned in Santa Fe magistrate court Friday morning.
The victim says Hernandez was a family friend and that she had been drinking with him earlier in the evening.
http://www.krqe.com/expanded.asp?ID=11172
Critical condition -KY
Friday, July 22, 2005
State Rep. Scott Brinkman, R-Louisville, is right: "You can't make somebody exercise. You can't make somebody stop smoking. Ultimately, it's up to the individuals."
But he's also right that the appalling unhealthiness of this state, as described in a special Courier-Journal report called "Kentucky's Health: Critical Condition," is "a wake-up call."
Kentucky simply can't afford, socially or financially, the burdens that go along with being the worst state in the nation for smoking, the worst for not meeting exercise guidelines and the seventh-worst for obesity.
Here is how we are spending our money in Kentucky: In the fiscal year ending June 2003, Medicaid costs included $611 million for diabetes, $422 million for cancer, $372 million for coronary artery disease and $728 million for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Unhealthy lifestyles were at the root of many of those expenditures.
That's money that was not available, then, for educating the next generation, or for building roads and other infrastructure to make Kentucky a more attractive place for doing business.
Yet lawmakers on the state and local levels are still reluctant to take even obvious steps to improve public health.
Look, for example, at the turmoil among Louisville Metro Council members right now over enacting a workplace smoking ban.
Many still insist that the proposal is an attack on individual liberty. Actually, it's a modest attempt to turn the community's abominable health statistics in a healthier direction.
Or look at the fight that took place in the Kentucky General Assembly earlier this year over no-brainers such as raising the state tax on cigarettes and limiting the junk foods sold in public schools.
Minor steps were taken: For example, the commonwealth now has the sixth-lowest cigarette tax in the nation instead of the very lowest.
But unhealthy habits are hard to overcome; guidelines and incentives can be as useful in improving public health as in improving economies. So far, however, the incentives in this state have been all wrong.
The availability of cheap cigarettes, the celebration of tobacco addiction as a red-blooded, all-American "choice" and plenty of places to smoke encourage folks to keep smoking and their children to start (Kentucky also has the nation's highest rate of youth smoking). And vending machines in schools get students in the habit of snacking.
Kentucky's politicians can talk all they want about individual liberty.
But how free are people, really, when they're stuck in bed all day crippled from diabetes, or in a recliner in front of the TV because their hearts are giving out as a result of smoking and eating unhealthy foods their whole lives?
It's time to get real about what helps our neighbors and what does not -- and about how we as a state are going to pay for the unhealthy public policies we have chosen.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050722/OPINION01/507220376
Saints Offer Food-Free Zone For Allergic Fans -MI
Jul 22, 2005 10:21 am US/Central
(AP) St. Paul Wendy Wessel worried that if she took her son, Brett, to a baseball game, his food allergies would act up and he'd become violently ill, or worse.
But Wessell and other parents of kids with food allergies can breathe a little easier on Monday. The St. Paul Saints have set up a special no-food zone on that night -- so peanuts and Cracker Jack and other food will be kept at bay. About 40 Twin Cities youth and their parents are expected to attend the game with the Gary SouthShore RailCats.
Saints general manager Derek Sharrer said members of the Food Allergy Support Group of Minnesota came up with the idea.
"They contacted us about four or five months ago to talk about bringing their kids out to ball games," said Sharrer. "They have peanut allergies and other allergies. We had to figure out a way to make it work for them to sit comfortably and close to the action."
On Monday, the group will sit in Section K, a nonsmoking section on the first base side.
"We will restrict that section from food vendors going too high," said Sharrer. "That section is smoke free. It's the top row, so there's nobody behind, and it's an end section."
About 8 percent of children suffer from food allergies. In some people, even trace, airborne amounts of certain foods can overwhelm the body's immune system and send the person into anaphylactic shock. Other symptoms include hives, difficulty breathing, swelling of the tongue and throat, vomiting and diarrhea.
The most common food allergens in children are milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy and tree nuts, according to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology. Food allergies account for between 150 to 200 deaths and about 30,000 emergency room visits each year.
Wessel's son is allergic to milk, eggs and peanuts.
"It limits what you can do, who we can be around," Wessel said. "Baseball games ... are notorious for peanuts and Cracker Jacks, and peanuts are such a common allergy."
Even trace amounts of dust scattered when someone eats shelled peanuts a few rows away can cause an allergic reaction.
"And popcorn, that's butter and milk right there," Wessel said. "And with nachos, there's the cheese."
Sharrer said he had a personal interest in providing the food-free zone -- because he is allergic to eggs himself.
If it winds up to be popular with fans, the Saints may offer the food-free seating again, Sharrer said.
"Maybe for Monday night, we'll change the words to 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game,"' Sharrer said. "Peanuts and a beer at a ball game are certainly a staple for most, but for these kids' lives, I don't think the experience is going to be lessened at all."
http://wcco.com/health/local_story_203112408.html
Smoking Shoes -WI
Wendy Neuberger
One area youth group is putting their foot down Friday (July 22, 2005) with a massive shoe display. They're setting up 125 pairs of shoes on the 400 Block in Wausau.
Each pair represents one of the 125 lives lost each year in Marathon County to smoking-related illnesses.
Fighting Against Corporate Tobacco, or FACT, says they're glad Wausau restaurants are now smoke-free because it means fewer people are dying from using tobacco.
FACT says 14 percent of all deaths in Marathon County, 77 percent of all lung cancer deaths, and 11 percent of all heart disease deaths here are from smoking cigarettes.
http://www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/1724937.html
Smoking Ban Proposed in Fitchburg -WI
Updated: 6:54 PM Jul 21, 2005
NBC15 video available
Bar owners in Fitchburg are trying to snuff out a potential smoking ban in their community.
Thursday morning's rain didn't stop these people from showing up to criticize the idea of expanding Madison's ban to Fitchburg. Most opponents cited the stunning loss of business that Madison bars are experiencing due to the ban and they oppose the idea of sending their customers elsewhere to drink and smoke.
The Alderman Richard Bloomquist is proposing the smoking ban, he says he has received a lot of comments from citizens and they support the ban by an overwhelming margin. "We represent the citizens. If the overwhelming public support is one way or another I think we owe it, we should listen to the citizens."
The alderman says he wants to hold more listening sessions with the public before he considers drafting a smoking ban.
http://nbc15.madison.com/news/headlines/1722777.html
Riot quashed at county jail -AL
By Kim Henderson Thursday, July 21, 2005 7:30 PM CDT
Problems at the county jail continue to be rampant, as a situation this week can att Posted at 2:19 pm by looped_ca
news that was published II
Riot quashed at county jail -AL
By Kim Henderson Thursday, July 21, 2005 7:30 PM CDT
Problems at the county jail continue to be rampant, as a situation this week can attest. While no one broke out or escaped from the local correctional facility, a number of inmates created what could have easily turned into a dire and dangerous incident for everyone involved.
Covington County Sheriff Anthony Clark received a call about 10:30 Wednesday night that a riot had broken out among jail inmates.
"We've got investigators over there checking out every man in A-Block," Sheriff Clark said yesterday afternoon from his office, just a parking lot away from where the melee took place.
"They were destroying property. They weren't so much fighting among themselves," the sheriff said.
Clark, members of the Andalusia Police Department, DTF officials and other law enforcement personnel were dispatched to the jail in an attempt to calm the inmates, whose exact motive for the altercation has not yet been fully determined.
"When deputies got here they had to use chemicals," Clark explained. Sheriff Clark and other law enforcement individuals were also doused with chemical spray while in the process of trying to control the inmates.
Since they did have to use measures to stop the riot, emergency rescue personnel were on scene at Hillcrest Drive -- and also just in case inmates became violent or attempted to use force with one another or law enforcement.
According to the sheriff, the inmates destroyed a television set, a sprinkler system inside A-Block, glass on doors inside the pod area, and a few other items.
"They broke the water sprinklers and got everything wet," the sheriff said. Inmates reportedly flooded A-Block with around six inches of water after busting the sprinkler system.
"There was a lot of racket, screaming and hollering," Sheriff Clark said. "But what are you going to do? You can't tie them down and put a sock in their mouth. You just have to bear with it and go."
Clark said that deputies did not use physical force against the inmates, but rather used their training to settle the situation.
"Within an hour (of arriving at the jail), we had them pretty well separated," Clark said. "They were standing in six inches of water. (Jail Administrator) Jerry (Edgar) went home about 2 in the morning and I went home about 1. He came back in about 5 o'clock."
Clark explained that a full team of deputies and investigators will continue to work on getting to the bottom of what went wrong late Wednesday evening.
That could take some time.
"There's no telling (how long it will take) with that many people," the sheriff said. "If you talk to them individually, which we plan to do, they won't know who squeals on the other one."
According to Sheriff Clark, CCSO investigators have a total of about 71 or more inmates to interview.
"Hopefully we'll get to the bottom of it and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law," Clark commented.
"We will charge those who are guilty with criminal mischief," the sheriff added.
Some of the criminal mischief charges could equate to Class A misdemeanors, landing offenders in jail for up to another year.
"They might not take this seriously," the sheriff said of the inmates involved in the riot, "but I do."
The sheriff said that, in his opinion, inmates were very disrespectful at best, of public property entrusted to the jail, and of law enforcement officials who run the facility.
Some of their actions, he noted, could be compared to students in a kindergarten classroom.
"You've always got two or three leaders," Clark said about the jail environment. "You've got some folks who want to do their time, and some are just determined in their mind that they're going to live in jail for the rest of their life."
After conducting interviews of the inmates throughout the day Thursday, Capt. Edgar said that the main problem with those in the jail is the overcrowding.
"Basically, the ones I helped interview -- I've been interviewing all day -- it's the overcrowding," he said. "They just get frustrated. Basically, they just don't understand why we can't get them out of jail or to a state facility."
A-Block, Edgar explained, is designed to hold 38 inmates. Now, there are 65 people in the block, almost double the ideal number.
Sheriff Clark admitted that there are mattresses on the floor where inmates have to sleep because there's no room for the sheer number of inmates housed at the jail.
"As long as we have these numbers, we're going to have these problems," Capt. Edgar said. "The main thing is nobody was hurt."
The sheriff said that the capacity of 132 inmates continues to be surpassed. Wednesday, 238 men and women were in jail in Covington County, far more than the design will allow.
"Most sheriffs have a problem with their jail," Clark said. "When you've got overpopulation like me, you're going to have double or triple or more problems. It's very easy for somebody who's never experienced being a jail administrator to say what to do. You do whatever you can do. I don't care who the sheriff is, if you're overpopulated, you've got problems. I cannot tell my people to just stop picking these folks up who have warrants on them. We have a duty to the citizens.
"We're going to have to add on to county jails and hope the state gets a few of them."
Clark and his secretary, Debby Cook, call the state penal system every other day to ask whether or not state facilities are ready to take inmates from the jail -- those inmates who have already received their sentences from judges.
Neither Clark nor Cook said yesterday that they expect the state to pick up any additional inmates any time soon.
One local man who used to work with the CCSO suggested recently that nothing will change unless the sheriff personally takes state inmates and drops them off at state penal institutes, handcuffing them and leaving them for the state to deal with.
Clark has not suggested going that far, but agrees that he has a serious problem at the jail.
"You're not going to stop it," Clark said about possible riots in the future. That's human nature. If you've got double your population, there's no way to prevent it. We're going to continue doing our very best with the inmates."
Capt. Edgar admitted that a handful of "leaders" have been identified in connection to the riot and are currently being isolated from the rest of the population -- in holding cells.
"We singled out the leaders from the rest of them," Edgar said. "We had four or five that was really the ring leaders. We've got them in holding for as long as possible. At some point, they're going to have to go back into the population."
Edgar says it's been a while since there's been a riot at the jail.
"It's probably been a year or more since we've had a problem like this," he said, noting the current investigation continues.
"When we get through interviewing the ones that we can prove cracked the windows and broke the TV, there will be charges brought against them," he said. "We can't punish the whole block for what a few did."
As for the overpopulation at the facility, the jail administrator sees no hope in sight.
"It gets worse and worse and worse and worse," Capt. Edgar said. "It's just frustrating. I don't know what the answer is."
A jailer at the facility had a different take on why the riot broke out.
"I asked the guy who was the ring leader ..." the CC Jail employee explained, adding that she questioned the man about what would cause him to start something of this magnitude.
According to the jailer's conversation with the inmate, he said that he had been told by Capt. Edgar that he would be allowed to go outside and smoke after dark Wednesday evening. When that wasn't permitted, the jailer relayed, the "ring leader" of the riot became agitated and began busting up items inside the block.
"That's against our rules," the jailer said of smoke breaks after dark.
"Then he asked me if he would get to go out and smoke (at night) and I said no."
The sheriff said he wanted to thank other agencies for their assistance during and after the jail riot, including the APD, DTF and others.
http://www.andalusiastarnews.com/articles/2005/07/21/news/525news.txt
'Smoking ban cost me $80,000'
25.07.2005
By ALISON BROWN in Rotorua
Teresa Scally has dropped two dress sizes and lost $80,000 in the fight to keep her dream alive.
Financial stress has resulted in the co-owner of Rotorua's Lake House Hotel shedding several kilos as she battles to keep a piece of the town's history open.
She blames most of her troubles on a Government "hellbent" on telling others how to live their lives.
Like most bar owners, she is hit hard by the Government's move last December to ban smoking from all bars and clubs.
In the first six months, she reckons it has cost her $80,000 in lost revenue as patrons turned their back on the hotel they have visited for most of their working lives.
It was where they could casually light up a cigarette and enjoy a quiet pint with a mate after a hard day's work. But that changed for many punters when it was no longer legal for them to smoke inside.
Within weeks of the ban coming into effect, many of her regular punters decided it was more enjoyable to drink - and smoke - at home. As a result, the hotel's profits have dropped and renovations on the 133-year-old property have stalled.
She bought the property for $1.1 million with her husband, Ian Frith, five years ago after moving to Rotorua from Auckland.
They spent $500,000 on urgent repairs but now they are counting every cent they spend.
Accommodation rates have been heavily discounted to maintain a cash flow and the pair are no longer able to afford to pay staff.
Ms Scally has taken on most of the hotel's day-to-day workload and Mr Frith has had to find demolition work to subsidise their business.
The pair have also had other problems.
The hotel was forced to close for a week in both January and August last year.
The first closure was ordered by the Liquor Licensing Authority as punishment for incidents including fights, harassment and disorderly conduct caused by the hotel's patrons soon after drinking there.
The second closure came after the company that ran the hotel, Tu Enterprises, was struck off the companies register for not filing an annual return for 2004. Under the terms of the Sale of Liquor Act, the company is not allowed to trade in liquor if, technically, it does not exist. The incident was described at the time by Mr Frith as a "hiccup" because he had forgotten to send the return.
Ms Scally said the financial losses suffered as a result of the closures were nothing compared with the negative impact the smoking ban had had on their business.
"We allowed for a possible downturn in economic growth ... But in hindsight, what we needed was a magical crystal ball so we could have foreseen the smoking ban and the effect it would have."
Non-smokers had not filled the seats left vacant by those smokers who left in droves and some eight-ball club members had also stopped coming.
It's a harsh reality for Ms Scally who had bought the hotel as a retirement investment.
"I've planned for my future like the Government has conditioned us to do but I'm still fighting for my livelihood,. We're only one business and maybe this Government calculated that a sacrifice of 'x' number of businesses was the price they were prepared to pay when forcing the ban into law, but they never asked us if we wanted to be part of their sacrificial offering."
http://www.dailypost.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=3645302&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=
Skin sterol linked to history of coronary events
TORONTO, July 25 /CNW/ - Skin tissue cholesterol is strongly associated with history of myocardial infarction (MI), or heart attack, and may indicate increased risk of coronary-related events, according to data published in the August 2005 edition of Atherosclerosis.
The study, which included 649 patients, was conducted at The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Trillium Health Center and St. Michael's Hospital. Skin tissue cholesterol, or skin sterol, was measured non-invasively by PREVU(*) Point of Care (POC) Skin Sterol Test (previously known as Cholesterol 1,2,3(TM)).
"PREVU(*) POC could ultimately help to save countless lives by enabling earlier intervention and prevention of heart attacks before they happen," said Dr. Brent Norton, President and Chief Executive Officer, IMI International Medical Innovations Inc. (TSX: IMI; Amex: IME), developer of the test. "We are continuing to examine the relationship between skin sterol and MI in other studies underway. Collectively, this new data could help us to expand PREVU(*) POC's indications for use and significantly increase the growth opportunities for this technology."
PREVU(*) POC, marketed and distributed worldwide by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Canada, tests the amount of sterol in the skin tissues. The test does not require the drawing of blood or a special pre-test diet and takes less than five minutes to perform. PREVU(*) POC is available for sale to medical professionals in the United States and Canada and in select European markets.
"Earlier studies have demonstrated that skin sterol provides a snapshot of the presence and extent of angiographic disease," said Dr. Dennis Sprecher, principal investigator of the study. "PREVU(*) POC is a user-friendly, cost-effective tool that can help to further refine risk assessment, so that health care professionals are better equipped to target and adjust prevention therapies."
About the Study
The study included 649 patients, not on lipid-lowering medications, who underwent non-emergency coronary angiography and concurrent skin sterol measurement. The population included 225 patients with a history of myocardial infarction, 50 with a history of coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) and 240 who had no history of MI or CABG. Patients with a history of MI had significantly higher skin sterol than those without (p = 0.002), even after adjustment for traditional risk factors and extent of angiographic disease. Similarly, there was an even stronger correlation between skin sterol and a history of CABG (p less than 0.001).
The paper, titled Elevated Skin Tissue Cholesterol Levels and Myocardial Infarction, is by Dennis L. Sprecher, MD and Gregory L. Pearce, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
About Cardiovascular Disease
According to the World Health Organization, cardiovascular diseases (CVD), which include coronary artery disease, stroke and other diseases, account for about 17 million deaths per year worldwide. By 2025, CVD is expected to cause 25 million deaths annually. More people worldwide --- approximately 7 million --- die from coronary artery disease than any other cause.
According to the American Heart Association, in the U.S., about every 26 seconds one American will suffer a coronary event, and about every minute, someone will die from one.
About IMI
IMI (www.imimedical.com) is a world leader in predictive medicine, dedicated to developing rapid, non-invasive tests for the early detection of life-threatening diseases. IMI's cardiovascular products, which are branded as PREVU(*) Skin Sterol Test, are marketed and distributed worldwide by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, Canada. The company's cancer tests include ColorectAlert(TM), LungAlert(TM) and a breast cancer test. IMI's head office is located in Toronto, and its research and product development facility is at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. For information regarding PREVU(*), please go visit www.PREVU.com.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2005/25/c4156.html
Posted at 2:17 pm by looped_ca
Plebiscite sought to overturn smoke ban-AB
By Andrea Miller Advocate staff Jul 15 2005
Red Deer business owners fighting a smoking ban plan to force the city to hold a plebiscite.
Sheree Davies, spokeswoman for Central Alberta Businesses for Choice, said the group plans to collect 8,000 signatures, enough to legally force to city council to hold a vote.
Armed with posters and petitions, 15 people gathered at the Capri Centre to discuss strategy. We have sought legal counsel and we know what we need to do," said Davies.
Petitions will be placed in bars, restaurants, bingo halls and casinos where smoking is now allowed.
Signatures of 8,000 adults who live in Red Deer - 10 per cent of the population - will be needed to compel council to rescind the smoking ban or hold a plebiscite.
The signatures must be collected by Aug. 19 and then city has 30 days to review them.
Business owners argued that city councillors ignored their views when they voted last month to ban smoking in all public places beginning next June.
City council didn't listen to the voice of reason. We will make them listen," said Davies.
Some business people believe the current smoking bylaw, which bans smoking in public areas accessible to minors, is working well. A total ban would hurt business and limit freedom of choice, they said.
Melisa Guignard, assistant manager of Bo's Bar and Grill, said about 40 per cent of customers smoke.
We're concerned that people will get used to stopping by the liquor store on the way home, staying at home and not coming to the bars anymore," said Guignard.
Customers are worried that smokers will stand outside the door of the bar, creating an awkward and possibly unsafe situation, she said. About 30 businesses are part of the petition drive, said Davies.
City Councillor Jeffrey Dawson said the group's campaign is a better solution than launching a lawsuit because it allows citizens to have a say and possibly influence the city's actions.
But he wonders if there is enough opposition to the smoking ban to reach the goal of 8,000 names.
I personally believe about one-fourth of the population would be interested in signing. To find all those people would be a small feat."
Even if the group succeeds in forcing a plebiscite, it's unlikely that Red Deer's population would vote against the ban, he said.
I would think a clear majority of the public is in favour of the ban. In our discussions with the public, many were in favour."
Dawson said councillors did listen to business people, but still believed a smoking ban was the best option.
Central Alberta Businesses For Choice is a group of organizations, businesses and individuals committed to the promotion of sound ventilation systems and support of the hospitality industry. The group was formed in response to proposed smoking bans.
http://www.reddeeradvocate.com/portals-code/searchd.cgi
Environmental pollutants increase cancer risk
David Suzuki Jul 18 2005
Ever since U.S. President Richard Nixon declared war on cancer, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent battling this dread disease.
We routinely hear about breakthroughs" in cancer treatment as biotech companies tout their newest products. Yet this year, for the first time, cancer has surpassed heart disease as our No. 1 killer.
On a recent CBC radio program, cancer experts pointed out the disease is related to old age, so as the proportion of older people increases in the population, cancer rates will climb.
But while progress has been made in detecting, treating and prolonging the life of cancer patients, overall the experts conclude that we are still losing the war.
So what else is going on? I used to take my daughters fishing off the jetty near our house until one day we noticed lumps at the base of the fins of one of the flounders.
We took it home to cut open the lumps, expecting to find parasites. Instead, we found they were tumours.
Recently, at a talk I gave in Toronto, a veterinarian told me that when she started her practice 20 years ago, she'd see pets with cancer once or twice a month. Now she sees one or two a day!
Humans are incredibly inventive creatures and over the past hundred years, technological innovation has transformed the planet.
In 1962 when Rachel Carson published Silent Spring about the unexpected effects of pesticides, she pushed the environment into public consciousness and was attacked outrageously by the chemical industry.
Today, more pesticides are applied worldwide than when Carson issued her warning.
In fact, we have altered the chemical makeup of the biosphere to such an extent that we cannot escape the toxic debris of industrial activity.
Scientific monitoring stations in Antarctica detect pollutants spread on the winds and in water vapour from all parts of the planet.
Volatile compounds sprayed on fields in the U.S. or Russia evaporate into the atmosphere, circle the globe, precipitate over glaciers or ice sheets and end up concentrated in lake trout caught in Banff and Jasper.
More than 70,000 human-created compounds, most never tested for toxicity or carcinogenicity, are now in use. But these chemicals don't just disappear.
From the moment of our birth to the last breath we take before death, we suck air deep into our bodies and filter whatever is in it. More than 60 per cent of our body weight is water which must be constantly replenished.
Most of our food is grown in soil, the same soil in which we dump our wastes.
We even spray the plants and animals we eat with poisons. Is it any wonder why all our bodies now contain trace amounts of these chemicals?
It takes an enormous effort to pinpoint a deleterious compound. It took years before thalidomide was tracked down as the cause of limb malformations and DES as the cause of reproductive cancers in daughters of women treated with it during pregnancy.
Tests must be carried out on a scale large enough to yield numbers that are statistically significant and each compound must be studied under different conditions and concentrations.
Such studies are also normally done in isolation. But this is not how these chemicals are used in the real world, where they can combine with dozens of other compounds.
Scientists are reluctant to suggest that a polluted world may be an important factor in the epidemic of cancer afflicting us today. But common sense should tell us that many of these compounds have powerful biological effects. If we stop using the biosphere as a toxic dump, we might actually make better progress in the war against cancer.
David Suzuki is an environmentalist and broadcaster.
http://www.reddeeradvocate.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=107&cat=48&id=&more=
Public smoking ban just matter of time
Vesna Higham Jul 19 2005
Just weeks after city council passed the new bylaw banning smoking in all public places, including bars, restaurants, casinos and bingos, a group of business owners are planning to force the issue to a public vote by collecting 8,000 signatures (10 per cent of the population). It will be a concerted effort to snuff out the ban before it takes effect on June 1, 2006.
Well, first off, who can blame them for trying? We all have a natural resistance to change and some fear of the unknown, particularly when one perceives one's livelihood to be in potential peril.
Yet, look what happened the last time local businesses feared a negative economic impact were Red Deer to pass the current silver standard" partial ban (prohibiting smoking where minors attend) back in 2001.
Vociferous protestations abounded. Dire predictions of patrons flooding Gasoline Alley and surrounding communities were voiced.
And what has been our experience over the past three years with the partial ban?
Pretty much business as usual. There has been no appreciable, negative financial impact to the local hospitality industry, as then foretold.
The Central Alberta Businesses for Choice group now fears that the new gold standard" total ban will drastically, and in some cases irreparably, reduce sales and profits. They say that city councillors ignored their views last month by passing the bylaw.
City council didn't listen to the voice of reason," said Sheree Davies, spokeswoman for the anti-ban group. We will make them listen."
While I can't fault them for trying to advance their cause, this kind of rhetoric serves only to diminish the potency of their efforts.
Council did listen to the many voices of reason in this community - that's why they supported the ban. The vast majority of people in this city are non-smokers, most of whom support a total ban.
To suggest that councillors ignored the views of business owners, simply because they didn't agree with them, is manifestly unreasonable and honestly preposterous.
Virtually every councillor I spoke to seriously wrestled with their vote last month, precisely because each listened so thoroughly to the onslaught of information, data, comments and pleas from citizens on both sides of the divisive issue.
Sure, there may well be some negative impact to a select few pockets of commerce in an otherwise thriving local hospitality industry. But there is often a price to pay for our most cherished privileges - like liberty, happiness and, yes, even health.
This is fundamentally a health issue, bottom line.
That's frankly why I find it so starkly incongruous that Davies has repeatedly attempted to frame the debate as big health industry" versus small business."
Recently, in an Advocate letter, she stated that reason and sense have nothing to do with the arguments made by the anti-smoking industry. It all comes down to money and the many tax dollars that are spent to support the ranting of Webb and her CATRAC (Central Alberta Tobacco Reduction Action Coalition) colleagues. We at the CABC present the facts, not propaganda."
Well, she's right about one thing: it does all come down to money. Big money that big tobacco has been losing in a big way, in no small part due to anti-smoking campaigns and bylaws such as ours that have incrementally reduced the incidence of smoking worldwide.
And I'm no expert on much of anything, but I'm pretty darn sure of this: the multibillion-dollar tobacco industry is certainly not going to roll over and play dead as their lucrative cigarette cash cow continues its steady decline.
They're going to fight. They have been fighting. They will continue to fight to the very last breath, as it were. But for obvious reasons, the battle must rage incognito, and under guise of nomenclature cover. Picture the scene in our local council chambers, for example, if a Philip Morris representative had spoken out against the smoking ban last month.
Yes, the voice of reason indeed prevailed last month, and has been riding a wave of momentum that will likely eradicate the vice of second-hand smoke in communities around the globe. It's really just a matter of time.
Columnist Vesna Higham is a former local city councillor.
http://www.reddeeradvocate.com/portals-code/searchd.cgi
'Let bar owners choose'
By FRANK LANDRY, LEGISLATURE REPORTER Thu, July 21, 2005
Judge to rule on smoke-trial Constitution issues
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE -- Bar owners across Manitoba will have the option of allowing customers to smoke indoors again as early as this summer if a Winnipeg lawyer and his client get their way.
"I don't think it would mean immediately you'd see people lighting up all over the province," lawyer Art Stacey said. "What it will mean is people who run hotels would have the ability to choose whether to make their place smoking or non-smoking."
The three-day trial of Stacey's client, Robert Jenkinson, wrapped up here yesterday.
Jenkinson -- the owner of a hotel and bar in Treherne -- is the first person charged with violating the province's nine-month-old butt ban.
Under provincial legislation, smoking is banned in most enclosed public places. First Nations are exempted.
CONSTITUTIONAL BATTLE
Jenkinson's trial has turned into a constitutional battle, with Stacey arguing the unequal application of the law hurts non-native business owners. He also argued the province doesn't have the jurisdiction to criminalize indoor smoking.
"If we're unsuccessful, it means the present circumstance will remain and there will be that unlevel playing field," Stacey said.
Crown attorney Cynthia Devine said smokers can still light up, they just can't do it indoors. She said the province has the authority to outlaw puffing in enclosed public places.
Provincial court Judge Murray Howell said he will take at least three weeks to come back with a decision.
Jenkinson said business owners, not government, should be able to decide if they want to allow smoking in their establishments.
"If you want to go smoking or non-smoking, that should be up to the proprietor or the people that go to those places," Jenkinson said. "The bigger issue is that everyone should be treated equally, whether native or non-native."
Jim Baker, president of the Manitoba Hotel Association, said hotel owners should at the very least be allowed to build ventilated smoking rooms. "We're here to say there's an inequity that this has created," Baker said of the smoking ban.
The hotel association has joined the battle against the butt ban, and is helping pay some of Jenkinson's legal bills.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2005/07/21/1140963-sun.html
Sask. government tries to get charter challenge of smoking ban quashed-SK
Tim Cook Canadian Press July 22, 2005
REGINA (CP) - Not enforcing a provincewide smoking ban in aboriginal-run casinos is a jurisdictional issue and the Charter of Rights is not meant to be used just so bar owners can sell more beer, the Saskatchewan government says.
A lawyer for the government was in front of a judge Thursday trying to have a charter challenge of the province's newly minted anti-smoking law quashed. The Hotels Association of Saskatchewan has filed a lawsuit claiming the ban violates section 15 of the charter, because it is not enforced on reserve land where the province's four native-run casinos operate.
But the government argued that the section of the charter in question - the one that provides for equality under the law - was meant to prevent racial discrimination, not to regulate economic competitiveness.
"It's a question of whose dignity is at stake here," argued government lawyer Mitch McAdam.
"It's a case about selling more beer . . . and that's simply not the type of case that is intended for protection under section 15 of the charter."
"Section 15 isn't intended to level the playing field for competing businesses."
McAdam admitted the smoking ban is not being enforced on everyone in the province because there is still smoking in the native casinos.
But he said the province is only trying to respect the jurisdiction of bands who are ultimately governed by the powers laid out in the federal Indian Act.
"The reality of what we are faced with is Canada is a federal state," McAdam said.
The hotels association responded by saying that it would be entirely premature to throw out its challenge prior to the government even filing a statement of defence.
Lawyer Alan McIntyre conceded that the association may have an uphill battle when it comes to winning, but said "we don't always get the easy cases."
Justice Peter Foley reserved his decision and did not give a date when he will release it.
Saskatchewan's smoking ban came into effect in January amid much protest from bar owners, especially in rural parts of the province, who feared their businesses would wither.
The law prevents people from lighting up in any indoor public spaces provincewide.
The province had originally hoped that First Nations would abide by the smoking law, but it became clear shortly after it was passed that this wouldn't be the case.
Reserves are federal jurisdiction and the Indian Act says that in areas such as smoking bans, if the band was to pass a bylaw that conflicts with the provincial law, then the band bylaw takes precedence.
At one point, the province had hoped the federal government would step in and quash any band smoking bylaws that were weaker than the provincial legislation.
But Ottawa didn't do that.
Manitoba has an anti-smoking law similar to Saskatchewan's that is also being challenged through the courts on similar grounds.
There, a bar owner is using the charter to fight charges laid against him. That case was heard in provincial court earlier this week and the decision was also reserved.
New Brunswick also has an anti-smoking law similar to the ones in Manitoba and Saskatchewan and Ontario is planning a provincewide smoking ban for next year.
According to the Hotels Association of Saskatchewan figures, eight hotels have been forced to close in the province since the smoking ban came into place.
Association president Tom Mullin said all were in rural areas, away from the cities where First Nations casinos operate.
But he said that is irrelevant.
"Everyone who gets in this business has a fair and reasonable expectation to carry on under the same competitive rules and legislation," Mullin said. "We don't have that now, so it's a problem with us."
http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=c3ed733e-ae27-4fbe-98e8-163827474a00
Municipalities after shares of tabacco transition money -ON
by Jeff Kempenaar Thursday July 21, 2005
West Elgin wants its portion of $15 million given to municipalities affected by the decline of the tobacco industry.
Through the Tobacco Community Transition Fund, communities with farmers leaving the industry were given the money to diversify economies.
With each tobacco farmer that leaves the industry, less money is being spent at other businesses in the community.
Four counties, Norfolk, Oxford, Elgin and Brant have been earmarked for the money being administered by Elgin Community Futures Development Corporation, in St. Thomas.
“We’re not disputing that the bulk of where tobacco is grown (East Elgin and Norfolk),” said West Elgin Mayor Graham Warwick. “We’re a community absorbing and adapting to the withdrawal of our farmers from the industry.”
About 15 growers remain in West Elgin growing tobacco on 900 acres of land.
“Its economic and social significance to this area can’t be overstated: $5 million in sales in 2002, down from $7.5 million in 1998,” said Warwick in a statement. “Like all tobacco areas, we have seen a sharp decline in growers and suffered as a consequence.”
http://www.thechronicle-online.com/story.php?id=173918
Canadian Cancer Society applauds speedy approval for breast cancer drug in Ontario
TORONTO, July 22 /CNW/ - The Canadian Cancer Society congratulates the Ontario government for moving quickly and responsibly to approve Herceptin, a cancer drug that will save lives.
"We know that governments face growing pressure to fund expensive new cancer drugs," adds Goodhand. "This situation is not going to change. Stakeholders and the government need to work together to improve the system so it is able to better deal with these pressures, while assuring that patients continue to receive the best and most timely treatment available."
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2005/22/c3863.html
Canada wins for dumbest government
Friday, July 22, 2005 Updated at 8:20PM EDT
Canadian Press
Montreal— The Canadian government secured a surprise win Friday, beating out such luminaries as Iran, North Korea and the United States, for the dumbest government of the year at the World Stupidity Awards.
It also bested the United Nations in a hotly contested category that organizers said proved Canadians can compete with the rest of the world.
“Canadians often feel we're in the shadow of the U.S., especially when it comes to stupidity, but now we're proving we're world class,” said Robert Spence, spokesman of the awards handed out during he Just for Laughs comedy festival.
“And as host country, who could ask for more?”
The Gomery inquiry into the sponsorship scandal secured the award for Canada, said Spence.
Dubbed the “Oscars of Idiocy,” host Lewis Black of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart led a team of comics and celebrities who handed out awards recognizing achievement in ignorance and stupidity.
“I was dumbfounded,” Spence said in a statement. “To see so much stupidity in one room, I almost lost my mind. In fact, I did...”
U.S. President George W. Bush may not have led the dumbest government, but he was honoured with the award for the Stupidest Statement of the Year after telling a news conference: “They never stop thinking of ways of harming America, and neither do we.”
Accepting the award for Bush was Darth Vader.
Hotel heiress Paris Hilton won in two categories. She was named Stupidest Woman of the Year and was star of The Simple Life, which was named Stupidest Show of the Year.
Conservative columnist Ann Coulter won the award as Stupidest Man of the Year. She beat out Bush, U.S. Senator John Kerry, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and Players Association director Bob Goodenow, and former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma.
Other winners included: — Ashlee Simpson's lip-synching performance on Saturday Night Live for Dumbest Moment of the Year; — Alien vs. Predator for Stupidest Movie of the Year; — crystal meth for Stupidest Trend of the Year; — North Korean dictator Kim Jong for Stupidity Award for Reckless Endangerment of the Planet; — Fox News for Media Outlet Which Has Best Furthered Ignorance; — The World Stupidity Awards for Stupidest Award Show of the Year.
The World Stupidity Awards were decided by worldwide Internet voters.
The third annual awards were overseen by the Academy Recognizing Stupidity Everywhere (ARSE), which are “basically a bunch of morons,” said Spence.
*Note from Warren Klass: I DO NOT demand a recount!
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050722.wstupidity0722/EmailBNStory/Entertainment/
***B.C. girl wins fight to sell lemonade Ana told me, ‘I cannot believe one person can make such a difference.'
By ROBERT MATAS
July 23, 2005
Ana Cross's lemonade stand is back in business.
A municipal bylaw officer went to her family's home on Protection Island in Nanaimo harbour this week to advise her that she would not be required to move the structure off public property. The complaint against her makeshift shop on city land had been dropped.
“The people who complained really didn't care any more,” Ana said yesterday in a telephone interview. “They didn't know it was going to be this big,” she said, referring to national media coverage.
The 10-year-old, who will enter Grade 5 in the fall, said it was hard to explain exactly what happened. “They just told me I got to keep my store,” she said. She immediately took out her lemonade and started selling at her regular price of 25 cents a cup. But the stand won't be operating this weekend, and she wasn't sure when she would open again for customers. “I just sell when I feel like it.”
Her lemonade stand attracted media attention after a Nanaimo bylaw officer left a note advising Ana that her structure could not be located on municipal property and should be moved back onto the family's lot. However, tall shrubs line the property and would have hidden the stand from public view.
The move would have, in effect, put Ana out of business.
Her fight to keep her lemonade stand drew widespread support on the island. One neighbour offered to pay any fine Ana might face. Another offered to rebuild her stand to meet the city's building code.
Ana's mother, Gretchen Brown, said she does not blame the municipality for enforcing its laws.
“He [the bylaw officer] said they were not out to try and close her down. They just had to do something about it because someone complained. It's the law. You are not allowed to have a structure on public property,” she said in an interview.
As for the neighbour who filed the complaint, Ms. Brown said she does not know who it was and does not want to know. “It's a small island,” she noted. The island's permanent population in the summer is about 500 people.
Ms. Brown is pleased with how things turned out. “It's been really good for Ana, because she realizes she has a bit of power in the world; she can make a change,” she said. “Ana told me, ‘I cannot believe one person can make such a difference.'”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050723.bc-girl23/EmailBNStory/National/
http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1820
Shakeup for Trustee -MB
By TOM BRODBECK -- Winnipeg Sun Fri, July 22, 2005
Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh and Health Minister Tim Sale have struck a working group to review all laws and practices that govern the Office of the Public Trustee, which could result in sweeping changes to how people have their lives taken over by the government.
The move comes after a series of stories in The Winnipeg Sun that exposed a serious lack of due process, appeals and basic rights for individuals who have their affairs taken over by the Public Trustee.
"I have some real concerns about a need for more checks and balances, natural justice or protections for the public," Mackintosh told The Sun yesterday. "There will be change."
The story of Thomas Hanaway, 80, who had his life taken over by the Public Trustee last month, caused a firestorm of controversy and triggered a series that blew the lid off a system in desperate need of reform.
The Sun series also unearthed a precedent-setting court ruling last year by Queen's Bench Justice Murray Sinclair, who criticized the laws that govern the public trustee process.
The July 2004 written ruling got no publicity at the time but will now form an important part of the government probe.
"We have some serious concerns about the need to strengthen protections for those involved in this process," said Mackintosh. "It appears that there are some areas where due process should be improved and I want to see it improved."
Mackintosh says one of the most important aspects of the process that requires change is how the province's director of psychiatric services appoints the Public Trustee as committee in the first place.
The Sun series showed how little investigation is done on a person before the Public Trustee is appointed, including no home visits or personal contact with the individual or family.
"I think it's important to reconsider what information goes to the director of psychiatric services," said Mackintosh. "I'm interested to see how the information that goes to the director can be enhanced because the decision can be so significant when the committee is appointed by this individual."
Mackintosh says he also wants a proper appeal system that people can access.
Right now, the only appeal mechanism for someone taken over by the Public Trustee is to go to court, which many people can't afford.
"In any system where significant decisions are made by an authority it's important that there be an accessible appeal mechanism available for people to express their concerns and have them heard by someone who didn't make the decision," said Mackintosh.
The minister says he wants to make "timely changes" to the system, which could include legislative amendments or new regulations for bureaucrats to follow.
"We have to guard against a cumbersome process but at the same time we have to protect individuals and families," said Mackintosh.
Amen.
Sounds like we're getting somewhere, folks.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Winnipeg/Tom_Brodbeck/2005/07/22/1141944.html
Smoking banned in Detroit workplaces -ON
Monica Wolfson Windsor Star July 23, 2005
Windsor should feel little impact from a smoking ban on workplaces enacted by Detroit City Council this week because it exempts restaurants, bars and casinos -- the cross-border battlegrounds for entertainment dollars -- gambling analysts say.
The Detroit smoking ban doesn't change the competitive entertainment marketplace, said Patrick Basham, a former gambling analyst with the Fraser Institute.
But others said the move by Detroit may spur Michigan lawmakers to ban smoking in eateries, entertainment spots and gaming halls statewide.
"I think it sends a good message to legislators," said Andrea Cascarilla, chief of staff for Michigan Senator Ray Basham. "It's just unfortunate that some workplaces are excluded."
The Democrat senator, who is not related to the Canadian analyst, has filed a bill outlawing smoking in all workplaces, including eateries and entertainment facilities. The bill, which has support from both Republican and Democrat lawmakers, is expected to get a committee hearing in September.
Ontario's smoking ban goes into effect May 1, 2006. While Detroit's smoking prohibition is immediate, it impacts workplaces other than restaurants, bars and casinos, which fall under state jurisdiction.
PRESSURE ON STATE
Before Detroit passed its bylaw restricting smoking, Wayne County, which includes Detroit, barred the cancer-causing habit three months ago. Two other counties -- Oakland and Macomb -- are considering jumping on the non-smoking bandwagon.
As more communities voluntarily become non-smoking, it may pressure state government to follow suit, said James Penning, political science professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids.
If Michigan doesn't act this year, it may next year as public opinion swells to oppose smoking in public places, said David Rohde, political science professor at Michigan State University.
"Public opinion around the country is changing," he said. "Smoking is being restricted in Paris. Ten years ago that would have been inconceivable. I play poker in a casino in Michigan and I think smoking has already declined a great deal."
About a quarter of the population in Windsor and Michigan smokes.
Ontario lawmakers have less to lose politically by implementing a smoking ban because the government owns the casino and can absorb lost revenue, said Patrick Basham, who now works as a senior fellow at the CATO Institute, a libertarian think-tank in Washington, D.C.
"It's easier for Ontario to do this than Michigan," said Basham. "While every taxpayer in Ontario is getting hit a bit, in Michigan you have a specific (private) industry that will be hurt. The reaction is going to be more aggressive."
Some gambling analysts doubt Michigan lawmakers will prohibit smoking because the gambling and hospitality industries are politically powerful.
"I would be surprised if Michigan or any casinos in the U.S. go non-smoking," said Jake Miklojcik, a Lansing-based gambling consultant. "I do not see it."
Non-smokers already have a choice of smoke-free eateries, said Andy Deloney, spokesman for the Michigan Restaurant Association, which opposes the smoking restrictions.
"What we see is there are already more than 300,000 establishments that have gone non-smoking without big brother standing behind them," Deloney said. "And that number goes up every year. The issue gets taken care of."
http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=1921ed83-8361-4e60-a844-83fa50538a0b
http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=125
Salsafest used to turn up heat on smoking ban
By STAFF Sun, July 24, 2005
Calgarians wanting city council to crank up the heat on a butt-out bylaw will have the chance to add some spice to the political pot today during the Kensington Sun and Salsa Festival.
The day will be used by anti-smoking advocates -- including Ward 13 Ald. Diane Colley-Urquhart -- to launch an online petition website aimed at pushing the date for a total public puffing ban up from its scheduled start, 2 1/2 years from now.
The group will also be circulating paper petitions and hosting a booth in front of Fresh Sports, at the corner of 10 St. and Kensington Rd. N.W., from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Currently, Calgary establishments must choose between smoking or non-smoking -- and not allow minors in if they choose smoking -- with the complete ban not starting until Jan. 1, 2008.
But most city residents are all for going smoke-free sooner than later, said Colley-Urquhart.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/CalgarySun/News/2005/07/24/1145355-sun.html
I THINK Jon Quartly needs to re-evaluate his logic (Mailbag, July 18). He asks the question "why do smokers use the ground as an ashtray" because he lacks understanding of the other side of the story. Someone has been removing more and more outdoor ashtrays from our city and to throw a butt into the trash can can start a fire, simply not worth the risk.
Darryl Learie
(Fair comment.)
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/Letters/2005/07/24/1145203.html
Butt ban causing waitress to feel blue -AB
I’m sitting here on this beautiful sunny day thinking I should go and pick up some supplies and work on my yard in this beautiful new home we have just purchased.
Or I could head down to the street performers festival, or even just invite a friend out to sit on one of our city’s patios and enjoy an ice-cold margarita and the sun! Then, I open my wallet. I have five dollars, clearly not enough to go to buy anything for the yard, and what if there is some form of cover charge to the festival? And five dollars will not be enough for a margarita and a tip. You see, I am a local waitress at a pub here in St. Albert.
We are now just past the two-week mark of our smoke-free St. Albert and I wonder: Where are all you non-smokers who fought so hard to get this bylaw passed?
I’ve just bought my first house and I have money in the bank! I’d have to say, I am doing significantly better financially than a lot of the 25-year olds I serve.
But now, after only two weeks of this non-smoking bylaw, I fear I am forced to find another job, one that cannot possibly pay me the kind of money I am used to. I have a degree, so finding a job is not the hard part. It’s the fact that I am not ready to quit this industry. Now, instead of having an eight-hour shift to meet and talk to new people and hear life stories good and bad, I am faced with a bar that is three-quarters empty and I no longer have enough money. I guess I will have to go out and get a job that will pay me $25,000 a year and sit behind a desk.
I just hope that someone does not respond to this letter by saying it’s better for everyone’s health. We are all consenting adults, who are capable of making our own decisions. If the non-smokers can make up the 70 per cent of business I have lost, then great. But until then, I will continue to be a very sad waitress, thinking of the impending doom of the bar-service industry.
Name withheld by request, St. Albert
http://www.stalbertgazette.com/news/2005/0723/letters.htm
More harm than good
Mon, July 25, 2005
Having just spent three days attending Robert Jenkinson's trial, challenging the current smoking legislation, I have realized that the Non-Smokers Health Protection Act is doing exactly the opposite of what was intended. The Crown attorney insisted that the Act is designed to eliminate environmental tobacco smoke and reduce exposure to tobacco advertising and displays where minors may be present. Even though gaming and on-premise alcohol sales revenue is down, there has been no similar reduction in tobacco tax revenue. Essentially smokers are simply smoking more at home, in their cars and on the sidewalks and in doorways. Children, particularly those with family members who smoke, are increasingly being exposed to environmental tobacco smoke and the behaviour of smoking.
All the Act does is punish, segregate and denormalize smokers. It does nothing to help curb the addiction. The Non-Smokers Health Protection Act is just another example of our leaders asserting their authority with complete disregard for our health and environment and absolutely no consideration of the many negative consequences.
Deanne Olston
Hotel Manager, Mother, Non-Smoker
West St. Paul
As long as tobacco is legal, designated smoking rooms ought to be legal, too.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/Letters/
Outright ban on backyard firepits is going too far
Scott McKeen The Edmonton Journal July 25, 2005
But homeowners need to apply basic courtesy and common sense before lighting up
Put yourself in the shiny shoes of a space-alien anthropologist observing the people of Earth.
With your seventh eye you notice an odd thing: in technologically advanced North American cities like Edmonton -- technologically advanced, that is, for humans -- people continue to sit around communal wood fires in residential backyards.
You check your notes: in ancient times, campfires were used by the species for warmth, security, cooking and ritual. But why now? Does it have something to do with the mood-altering liquids humans consume around the fire? Do they require these burnt offerings, marshmallows, for nourishment?
The most observant extraterrestrial will notice these backyard fires causing stress in the urban environment. Fire
creates smoke and where there's smoke there's potential for, uh, fire.
The city and its various agencies get about two complaints a day about backyard fire pits. Some complaints centre on the affiliated noise and partying around the fire. But many are about the nuisance of wood smoke, or the health impact.
Many complainants suffer from asthma or some other lung condition. They have neighbours who burn wood at all hours of the day, who believe it's their God-given right, who couldn't care less about anyone else's needs because, well, it's their backyard and they'll do anything they want on their property, so blank off.
If your complaint is about noise, the city can dispatch officers to shut down the party. Ironically, if your health is being harmed, things aren't so easily resolved.
The fire department can't prohibit or put out a fire unless it's deemed to be a hazard -- if the firepit is improperly constructed or situated, or if a spark screen isn't being used. A fire might also be put out if garbage or treated wood is being burned, creating noxious fumes. But good luck catching such violations.
Capital Health will also respond and try to mediate a solution if a citizen is truly suffering from the impact of wood smoke. Wood smoke contains toxins and particulate matter that reduces lung function, even in the healthy.
But at the end of the day, if the fire worshipper has a proper firepit and burns untreated wood and if they view their property rights as more important than your health, they can have a fire going 24-7.
A report is now being written for city council on the nuisance and health issues surrounding backyard fires. It will go to a council committee in September. Council's options include limiting the hours of urban fires, creating a
permitting system, or banning them altogether.
The latter would be a shame, but not unprecedented. Council has been forced to create tough rules for other nuisances like yapping dogs, illegally parked motorhomes and garbage-strewn yards.
Such rules are put in place because some citizens refuse to acknowledge the impact of their actions on others. They don't understand that when you pack thousands of people into small geographic areas, some compromise is required.
For example, I may thrill to the primitive rhythms of Judas Priest at volume 10 on my backyard boom box at three in the morning. This will impact my neighbours. So I might instead compromise with headphones, lower volume, or -- yeesh -- Yanni.
Fortunately, the majority of people are kind and clear-headed, and will give their neighbours a break. Others, though, will crank the volume and sing along, damn the neighbours.
They will argue it is their backyard and they have the right to use it as they see fit. If you talk about bylaws or regulations they will raise the spectre of Moscow and communism.
Some of the more sophisticated of these folk will claim to be libertarians, who oppose any restrictions by the state on individual freedoms. But most simply hate authority in all its forms. They didn't get the nurturing required in their formative years and are still taking out their childhood rage against us, their stand-in parents.
Even so, I don't want firepits banned. It would penalize some really nice people who use them in the urban environment to imitate the campground experience. Kids, you know, really like roasting marshmallows.
But if you're going to have a fire, please use only clean, dry wood to reduce the smoke. Keep your fire to a couple hours, maximum. And tell your neighbours ahead of time, so they can close their windows.
http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/news/cityplus/story.html?id=f423dbe7-30ef-4476-bd28-d2dcbf130e3a
The magic formula for selling cigarettes
make it easier to control the nicotine dose.
Ottawa, July 26 /PR Direct/ - (Ottawa) - Research conducted by Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada (PSC) has found that the most popular cigarette brands are those which are manufactured in ways which make it easier for a smoker to control the dose of nicotine.
PSC researchers explored whether tobacco companies were able to increase the 'reward to effort' or 'elasticity' for cigarettes by calculating the the increase in nicotine delivered by larger puffs from the major brands of cigarettes sold in Canada. Of the 115 brands tested, only 23 were found to be 'elastic,' but those brands accounted for 60% of cigarette sales. Research results were published today in Chronic Diseases in Canada.
"From our research it is very clear that elastic cigarettes sell better than inelastic ones," said lead researcher Michael Chaiton. "Because our research showed this was independent of the brand name, length or designation of the cigarette as 'light', we know that this difference is due to the design of the cigarette and not the way it was marketed."
"Elastic cigarettes are highly engineered and designed nicotine delivery devices," commented Neil Collishaw, PSC's research director and one of the authors of the research report. "They allow consumers to self-administer exactly the dose of nicotine that they crave, without the consumer even being aware that they are probably getting more nicotine and other poisons than they think they are," he concluded.
"To date there has been very little research outside of the tobacco industry on how the design of cigarettes affects smoking behaviour," said Michael Chaiton, now a Ph.D. student at the University of Toronto. "This study shows that cigarette design features make a difference, and suggests that a better understanding of these differences could help regulators reduce the harm caused by smoking."
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada hopes this research helps governments to develop regulatory control over cigarette design. "The government has recently passed important regulations which will reduce the number of cigarette-caused fires," said PSC executive director, Cynthia Callard. "This research suggests that the potential to use similar regulatory controls on cigarette design to reduce the addictiveness or harmfulness of cigarettes should be explored."
http://www.prdirect.ca/en/view_release.aspx?TrafficID=3539
Rothmans Inc. Reports Increased Sales and Earnings for the First Quarter
1st Quarter Report Three Months Ended June 30, 2005
Trading: TSX: ROC
TORONTO, July 26 /CNW/ - Rothmans Inc. today announced increased earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2006, ended June 30, 2005.
Rothmans' earnings for the first quarter of fiscal 2006 were $29.7 million or $0.44 basic earnings per share compared with $23.8 million or $0.35 basic earnings per share in the first quarter of fiscal 2005.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2005/26/c4394.html
Care home smoke rooms on way out -BC
Cindy E. Harnett Times Colonist Tuesday, July 26, 2005
The Vancouver Island Health Authority is smoking out a handful of its senior homes -- proposing an Island-wide policy to force facilities with indoor smoking rooms to shut down and move outdoors.
About five long-term care homes on the Island -- one being Dufferin Place residential care facility in Nanaimo -- have smoking rooms that could be affected, said Dianne Stevenson, the health authority's regional manager for tobacco control.
The proposal will be brought to VIHA's board of directors this week. If approved, facilities with smoking rooms will be shut down and residences will have the option to build outdoor smoking areas.
The Capital Regional District's Clean Air Bylaw -- that bans the use of tobacco in the capital region in all indoor public areas -- has already taken care of the issue in care homes south of the Malahat. That bylaw's definition of public places also include restaurants, pubs, bars, bingo halls, malls, offices and care facilities.
To the north, there are no local bylaws snuffing out indoor smoking rooms in health-care facilities.
"It's under five, we're not talking about many," said Stevenson of the facilities that could be affected. "Now we are developing a policy that if smoking is occurring inside these places they will have to take it outside."
In 2001, then CRD chairman Christopher Causton had wanted the clean air bylaw reviewed in light of new Workers' Compensation Board regulations that allowed owners in other areas of the province to build separately vented, self-serve smoking rooms in their establishments.
Causton argued such rooms were already permitted in the CRD in some hospices and seniors' homes but CRD chief medical health officer Dr. Richard Stanwick, backed by a strong anti-smoking lobby, successfully argued against tinkering with the bylaw.
Now the medical health officer is cleaning up some of the Island's smoking standards.
Last week Stanwick won a recommendation from a CRD committee to clarify the 1999 Clean Air Bylaw to define what constitutes a patio. It seems about 20 businesses - in the absence of a definition of an outdoor smoking area -- have grown walls and ceilings around their patios, creating enclosed areas, explained Stevenson.
In addition, VIHA's tobacco control department is trying to ensure a separate uniform policy that dictates health facilities throughout the Island prohibit smoking indoors.
http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/news/story.html?id=037d18ad-ecd0-4875-af4e-97873562a398
Indoor butt ban yields crop of fair-weather smokers-MB
By Gabrielle Giroday Wednesday, July 27th, 2005
WHEN the sun starts baking and patio season is in full swing, people start smoking more, say local vendors and a tobacco manufacturer.
Tobacco sales, once notoriously stable from season to season, have been hit during colder months by indoor smoking bans in Manitoba, Ontario, Saskatchewan and beyond.
But now that the warm weather is here, profits for companies like Rothmans Inc., are climbing. Yesterday, the company posted a 25 per cent increase in profits over last year for the quarter ending June 30.
"The hypothesis is that with so many indoor smoking bans right across the country, smokers have more chance to smoke in the warm-weather months," said John Barnett, the Rothmans CEO. "It's not that people are taking up smoking in the summer, but consumption goes up," he said.
Local tobacco sellers said their own sales in summer months showed an increase, but they could not isolate the exact factors that lead to higher sales.
"We sell way more cigarettes and tobacco products in the summer months... there's a lot more walking traffic because of the weather, people are out and about," said Murray Abas, owner of Bargains Galore, a retailer in North Kildonan.
Other vendors agreed, saying balmy weather meant more gabbing, partying and drinking -- all of which encouraged a more liberal attitude to tobacco.
"I had a customer yesterday who said she smoked more in the summer than in the winter, and ordered a lot more than her usual amount," said Bob Eilmes, owner of First Choice Tobacco and Seed. Eilmes sells leaf tobacco, not packaged cigarettes, which he delivers to clients' homes and chops for them at their premises.
Yet, regardless of small seasonal variations in sales, Eilmes noted that his year-round results were going down on the whole from previous years.
According to a survey released by the Canadian Cancer Society earlier this year, Manitoba's smoking rate dropped two percentage points in 2004, to 19 per cent.
"I'm not making a fortune off it, that's for sure," Eilmes said, "My major competitor is Health Canada."
Local puffers said warm weather increased their socialization time with friends, resulting in an increased consumption of cigarettes, but not necessarily a hardcore year-round habit.
"Sometimes we buy rolling tobacco in the summer, in the winter it's just too cold to go outside and do that," said 24-year-old Chris Johns, who said smoking a pipe or rolling tobacco on his St. Boniface porch was an activity in which he indulged in warm weather.
The concept of seasonality in smoking sales has been noted by the academic community, published in a study conducted by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Illinois in 2003.
The study pored over American cigarette sales data from 1983 to 2000, and concluded there was a significant drop in January and February, while June, July and August were the best-selling months.
Researchers stated that indoor smoking restrictions were a large factor in smoking patterns.
http://ca.f608.mail.yahoo.com/ym/ShowLetter?MsgId=892_5341742_39789_1709_15078_0_302608_26864
_301107462&Idx=10&YY=44548&inc=50&order=down&sort=date&pos=0&view=a&head=b&box=Inbox
Ban smoking in cars -MB
Letter to the Editor Wed, July 27, 2005
I just witnessed an accident waiting to happen. A guy driving a van was speaking on his cell phone with his right hand, and in his left hand he was holding a cigarette which he was drawing to his mouth to take a drag.
He cruised through a red light because he was simply to preoccupied to notice it. Luckily, no other cars were coming in the opposite way through the intersection at the time.
Lots of accidents have been caused by people smoking and not paying attention to the road. In Manitoba, the NDP government still allows people to smoke in their cars, despite the fact that smoking in cars by the driver distracts the driver's attention from the road. Not only that, but young children and others in the car are subjected to very heavy concentrations of second-hand smoke in the confined and limited space of a vehicle. The state of New Jersey in the United States has recently introduced a measure in their legislature to ban smoking in cars for exactly the reasons above. Perhaps our government in Manitoba needs to take a serious look at smoking and driving in this province.
If banning smoking in cars can reduce our insurance premiums, save lives due to accidents, and protect the health of those in vehicles, I'm all for it.
ROBERT STOCK Swan River
www.winnipgfreepress.com
Okay, no smoking, but no chain-link fences? -ON
By CONNIE WOODCOCK Wed, July 27, 2005
The list of socially unacceptable activities is growing at a remarkable rate.
Once upon a time, there were only two social prohibitions that I can recall: "No shirt, no shoes, no service," and "Don't walk on the grass," which was a common sign in parks and other public spaces.
These days, you can walk on the grass all you want - if you can find it. It's either been transformed into a weedy flower bed or is lost under the dandelions and other formerly noxious weeds.
No smoking, no fatty foods, no soft drinks, no fat people, no air conditioning, no pesticide, and preferably, no grass. No cars, no commuters and no big suburban lots. No cutting down trees. Better they should fall on your house.
No, no, no. Mommy spank. (Oops, I forgot: No spanking.)
It all started with the Ontario seatbelt law, which no one in their right mind would today argue against. But in the early '70s, it was a big deal. Some people saw it as an infringement of civil liberties. "If I die in a car crash," they said. "It's my business."
Maybe they were right, but I wouldn't back out of the driveway without fastening my seatbelt. Some prohibitions are smart.
Lately, however, the restrictions have been coming thick and fast and the more there are, the more puzzling they become.
"No smoking" we can all understand. It kills you.
New tobacco
But Jim Watson, the new Ontario minister of health promotion has declared that "fat is the new tobacco." Which means, I guess, that Doritos are the new Rothman's and that fat people are about to become utter social pariahs, hidden away from public view and shunned when they must venture out.
Then there's the soft drink thing. Kids drink too much Coke, so let's eliminate pop machines in schools. Let's make them drink juice. Of course, juice is as full of sugar as Coke. Remember when the only drink you could get at school was water?
There's the green energy thing. Don't pollute, we say, and we shut down our coal-fired generating stations, but then, as the Sun has pointed out repeatedly, we import American energy, which comes from coal-fired plants. And meanwhile, we turn up our noses at the cleanest of energy sources, the nuclear reactor.
Don't waste energy is another thing we're grappling with this summer as we make the use of home air conditioning a sickening sign of weakness -- even though all the residential conservation in the world will not fix the situation in Ontario right now.
(A couple of nuclear plants will, but that's another column.)
"No pesticides" irks me because there is so much ignorance associated with it. Once it was a crime to tolerate noxious weeds on one's property. I keep a quantity of Round-up handy, just in case the ban comes to my town as it has to Toronto.
It never seems to occur to anyone that chemical sprays would never have been developed if natural methods worked. But maybe you like six-foot bull thistles in your yard.
Chain gangs
The latest social prohibition: No chain-link fences. They offend the eye of certain fashion-forward city folk for whom ugliness is the new smoking. No, seriously, I'm not kidding. According to the Globe and Mail, it's a "small but growing movement." To hear the self-appointed taste police tell it, chain-link fencing creates barriers in communities and barriers are bad, as well as ugly. The co-ordinator of a lobby group called the Toronto Public Space Committee was quoted as follows: "Every time a chain-link fence comes down, a little Berlin Wall comes down too." So these people talk homeowners into letting them eliminate their eye pollution. Never mind that some people have small children or dogs or are sick of having passersby trample their grass and toss soft drink cans into their bushes.
The next big prohibition? No living outside major urban centres. I can see it coming. Too expensive. Too self-indulgent. Too wasteful of services. (And all those unoccupied Toronto condos aren't?)
The worst part of all this is the intolerance of it. It's no longer good enough to live and let live. Nobody's happy unless they're inflicting their views on the entire population. It makes me want to run out and put eight feet of chain link all the way around my front yard, topped with a few decorative coils of barbed wire.
And don't tell me I can't; it just makes me want to do it more.
http://www.torontosun.com/News/Columnists/Woodcock_Connie/2005/07/26/1148753.html
Probation for smoker -ON
By CP Wed, July 27, 2005
GUELPH, Ont. -- A man pleaded guilty yesterday to taking two puffs of a cigarette in the lavatory of an Air Canada flight, violating the federal Aeronautics Act.
Michael Baker, 48, of Fergus, Ont., was granted a conditional discharge and put on probation for six months. If he stays out of trouble, he will not be left with a record.
Duty counsel Charles Forster said Baker was flying from Toronto to B.C. on March 23, 2003, for his grandmother's funeral.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2005/07/27/1149230-sun.html Posted at 11:27 am by looped_ca
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Sask. residents urged to petition friends in Alta.
Pamela Cowan Leader-Post July 14, 2005
Saskatchewan's Health Minister is passionately asking the province's residents to lobby Albertan friends and relatives to urge policymakers to "operate as Canadians, not as mavericks" when reforming health care.
John Nilson is concerned that Premier Ralph Klein's new health care reforms, dubbed "the third way" because they fall between the existing public health-care system and a privatized one, will endanger universal medicare.
Health care in the mid-90s took a huge hit when the federal government pulled back a lot of funding, Nilson said. "We're just now getting things back into appropriate balance and I encourage Alberta to operate as Canadians and not as mavericks in the health-care system.
" . . . It's important for each and every Saskatchewan citizen to phone their relatives in Alberta and make sure that publicly in Alberta the Canadian perspective around community responsibility for health care remains at the forefront of what the policymakers are doing."
Although adding elements of private care on to an already stressed public care system is enticing, fairness for all and the overall provision of services at a reasonable cost could be put at risk, Nilson said.
Much of Alberta's 12-point plan unveiled Tuesday echoes Saskatchewan's Action Plan that was released in 2001, he said.
Alberta aims to improve access and efficiency in a year or two, but Saskatchewan set out target time frames for surgery in March 2004, he noted. Alberta's "emasculated smoke-free policy" is yet to go into effect while Saskatchewan's smoke-free policy was instituted Jan. 1, Nilson said. He added that Saskatchewan is also ahead with its crystal meth strategy.
"It was a bit strange to see that they were talking about having medical students and pharmacy students going out and talking to kids in schools . . . when you need a comprehensive plan, you need something bigger than that," he said.
He touted Saskatchewan's Community Net as the best system in North America.
"We've got 800 schools and regional colleges, including First Nations reserves, 310 health facilities, 162 public libraries and 256 government offices all connected on high speed Internet and that includes just about every community with more than 100 people in Saskatchewan," he said. "One of their goals in Alberta is to connect 402 smaller communities and health facilities."
Action 12 of Klein's reforms focuses on health needs of rural communities.
"Our Telehealth system now goes to 26 sites across the sites," Nilson said. "It's being used by doctors, physios and pharmacists because many times assessments can be done over the Internet and that saves patients in our rural areas travel costs."
For a long time, Saskatchewan has had limited versions of Klein's new health reforms that incorporate public and private models, such as options for semi or private rooms, he said.
http://www.canada.com/regina/leaderpost/soundoff/story.html?id=4d330de3-29da-429a-93e3-de0b3b65a4e9
Mohawk Police Seize $269,500 In Contraband Cigarettes At Border-QC
7/14/05
Akwesasne Mohawk police arrested a Cornwall Island man on Tuesday for transporting untaxed cigarettes over the Canadian border.
Police say that at approximately 8:30 PM on Tuesday, they received a tip that “illegal activity” was taking place on Cornwall Island. A surveillance unit was set up and they observed boxes being loaded into a vehicle. When they approached the vehicle, they observed several boxes of contraband cigarettes.
The driver, Stacey Boots was arrested and turned over to the RCMP Cornwall. Boots was charged under the Excise Act and jailed by the RCMP. The vehicle and contraband were seized.
Police continued to monitor the area, and observed two other vehicles in the vicinity. They determined that those vehicles also contained several boxes of untaxed cigarettes. Police called in reinforcements due to a group of 30 to 40 people gathering in the area. When they attempted to move on the two vehicles, vehicles were used to obstruct the laneway so that police could not proceed.
The standoff with the group continued until approximately 6:30 AM on Wednesday, when police were able to remove the vehicles blocking the laneway and safely remove the remaining vehicle containing the contraband cigarettes, which was then turned over to the RCMP.
The police investigation is continuing and they say charges are pending against several people for obstructing police, as well as Excise Act violations. The total amount of contraband tobacco seized was worth $269,500.
http://www.newswatch50.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=2572E581-9618-4086-9E84-7F464A391180
For lung cancer patients, longer life in a bottle
By SHERYL UBELACKER Canadian Press Thursday, July 14, 2005 Page A15
A new drug has been found, for the first time, to prolong the lives of patients with advanced lung cancer, a Canadian-led international research team says.
Patients with end-stage lung cancer who were given Tarceva lived longer than patients given a placebo, according to the study led by researchers at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto.
About one-third of the patients with non-small-cell lung cancer -- the most common type -- were alive for a year or more on the drug, compared with about one-fifth of those on the dummy pill, said principal investigator Frances Shepherd.
"This is very significant because this is the first time that any treatment has been shown to prolong survival for patients with lung cancer after they've failed chemotherapy," Dr. Shepherd said.
Tarceva, known generically as erlotinib, is one of a new class of drugs that slows tumour growth by interfering with a cellular pathway that promotes cell division. It is taken in pill form once a day.
The drug has not yet been approved for use in Canada but was authorized for routine use in patients with advanced lung cancer by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last November.
Tarceva did not just increase survival, it actually alleviated patients' symptoms, said Dr. Shepherd, an oncologist at Princess Margaret Hospital. "This agent has very, very few negative side effects and actually resulted in improved quality of life."
Patients given the drug had reduced symptoms, which include pain, shortness of breath and coughing, and were able to function better. Tarceva's primary side effects are a rash and diarrhea, which are easily managed, Dr. Shepherd said.
The study, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, involved 731 patients from around the world. All patients had received at least one regimen of chemotherapy and were randomly assigned to one of two groups: 488 received Tarceva and 243 were given a placebo.
Patients on Tarceva survived an average of 6.7 months, while patients on the dummy pill lived an average of 4.7 months, which was a 42.5-per-cent improvement, the study found. Of the patients receiving the drug, 31 per cent were alive after one year, compared with only 22 per cent of patients on placebo.
"It seems like a small amount, but in fact that's a significant improvement really for patients who had no other option," said Dr. Shepherd, noting that up to 15 per cent of patients lived longer than two years on the drug, whereas no one lived longer than two years on the placebo.
Still, she said, "it's not a cure."
The hope is that Tarceva might be even more effective when used for early-stage lung cancer.
"These numbers don't look all that huge at the most advanced stage of disease," she said of the findings. "But they lay the groundwork for studies to come at earlier stages of disease where cure will be the goal.
"It's very exciting."
This is the second groundbreaking study on treating non-small cell lung cancer out of Canada in the past year or so.
Research led by Dr. Timothy Winton of the University of Alberta found that people with an early form of the disease who had their tumours removed by surgery lived longer when treated afterward with chemotherapy.
In his study of 482 patients, 69 per cent who had surgery and chemotherapy were alive five years later, compared with 54 per cent who had only surgery. Overall, patients given chemotherapy lived 94 months, versus 73 months for those who had surgery alone.
Friday, July 15, 2005, Page A2
CORRECTION
A Canadian Press article yesterday reported that the drug Tarceva had not been approved for advanced lung-cancer treatment in Canada. However, late Wednesday, the drug's distributor, Roche Canada, provided updated information that Health Canada had approved Tarceva.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050714/HLUNG14/Health/Idx
Inmates Fuming Over Possible Smoking Ban
Shannon Pasiuk rdtv Thursday, July 14, 2005
Gavin Mandin
I think it's a very bad idea.
Gavin Mandin is one of the few non-smoking inmates at the Bowden Institution south of Red Deer. As the Chairman of the Inmate Welfare Committee, he's worried about a potential backlash...if Canada's Correctional Facilities go ahead with a new smoking bylaw forcing inmates to take their habit outdoors.
Gavin Mandin
One of the major things people do when they're frustrated or when they're aggravated, one of the main calming influences is now going to be removed and as a result I think you're going to see more quarrels, more frustrations, more short tempers.
A non-smoker himself, Mandin teaches fellow angry or frustrated inmates control by isolating themselves in their rooms to have a smoke. But Institution officials say the overall health of the inmates is the focus of the proposed new bylaw.
Rita Wehrle- Assistant Warden
Wherever we reduce the amount of people who are smoking, reduce the number of people exposed to second hand smoke, we're going to reduce medical costs associated with that.
Inmates are currently allowed to smoke by themselves in their cells as long as the door is closed, or outside in designated smoking areas.
Mandin says with 80 percent of the population smoking, he doesn't think the bylaw's new policy will be enforceable.
Gavin
Unless a guard's standing outside of the inmate's door who wants to smoke 24 hours a day, you're not going to know if he has a cigarette or not.
Assistant Warden Wehrle says not only will programs be re-structured to allow more opportunities for inmates to be outdoors...assistance will also be provided for inmates who need help in kicking the habit.
Rita
Cessation products will be provided for a period of 3 months and that will be funded by the Correctional Services of Canada.
While Mandin understands the attempt to improve the health of institutions like Bowden...he doesn't think the resulting disruptions will be worth it.
Mandin
We'd like to see no changes at all and I think in terms of mental and physical health of the population in the institution that that's the best course of action.
At Bowden Instution, Shannon Pasiuk, Newscrew.
Correctional Services Canada is planning for indoor smoking to no longer be allowed by January 31, 2006.
http://www.canada.com/reddeer/story.html?id=d24fa2f5-8c0c-4682-9d13-67e0af9f28a3
Partial smoking ban worries corrections staff
Charlene Tebbutt Saskatchewan News Network; Prince Albert Daily Herald
Friday, July 15, 2005
PRINCE ALBERT -- Smoking will soon be banned inside the Sask-atchewan Penitentiary in Prince Albert, but the union that represents federal correctional officers says it is bracing for an increased security risk if the practice isn't completely prohibited.
Kevin Grabowsky, the Prairie region president for the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, says smoking should be banned on all penitentiary grounds, not just inside the prison. He said a partial ban means correctional officers will have to monitor inmates to make sure they comply.
And, that will pose an increased security risk, he said.
"We're going to end up being the smoke police for a very long time," Grabowsky said Thursday.
"It'll be a continued confrontation between staff and inmates."
Officials with the Correctional Service of Canada announced earlier this week that smoking would be banned inside the walls of all federal institutions starting Jan. 31. Starting next year, smoking will only be allowed outdoors in designated areas.
The CSC says the move is a way to insure the health of both staff and inmates at federal institutions across the country.
Shawn Bird, the acting assistant warden of management services with the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, said inmates have known about the changes for a while. He said a committee looking into the issue has already done a lot of work to prepare everyone for the move.
"This is something they've been aware of for quite a long time," Bird said. "It certainly doesn't come as a surprise to any of them."
Still, Grabowsky said the union will continue to push for a full smoking ban within prisons.
"We'd rather fight this war once," he said.
Wendy Tippett, a policy and planning officer with CSC, said programs and products will be offered to help inmates quit smoking.
The CSC will provide support for up to three months.
The CSC also has a plan in place to reduce any security issues due to the indoor ban, she said.
And while smoking will be banned inside the facility, Bird said officials recognize the importance of tobacco during cultural and spiritual ceremonies. He said officials will work to accommodate those activities despite the indoor smoking ban.
Grabowsky said the union also recognizes the importance of cultural ceremonies.
(Prince Albert Daily Herald)
http://www.canada.com/saskatoon/starphoenix/news/local/story.html?id=397ea019-c82d-4e0e-8136-df6c9d6d1aab
Gov't slinging mud -MB
By TOM BRODBECK Sat, July 16, 2005
Attempts to discredit trustee stories
Staff in Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh's office have spent the past two weeks trying to discredit a Winnipeg Sun series on how the Office of the Public Trustee can arbitrarily take over people's lives, sometimes for no good reason at all.
Some Sun readers who have called the minister's office to share their views on how this totalitarian regime works have been told by the minister's staff that the newspaper stories are misleading and inaccurate.
I verified that by making an anonymous phone call to Mackintosh's office yesterday, which I taped. Not only did a member of Mackintosh's staff try to discredit the newspaper reports, she also gave out erroneous information on how the process works.
"What you read in the paper is not exactly all the truth," said a staff member in Mackintosh's office. "The public has a misconception regarding the power of the public trustee because of the articles in the paper."
Is that so?
She went on to tell me that the public trustee only takes over when somebody is mentally incompetent and where there is no other option, including family, to take over their affairs.
Wrong. Many people have been forced to fight such orders in court, spending as much as $5,000 in legal costs, because their case was not investigated properly in the first place and because there were alternatives to the government taking over their lives. And in many cases they win their freedom back.
In fact, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Murray Sinclair ruled in a precedent-setting case last year that the legislation governing the process is deficient.
He also found that the director of psychiatric services did not properly investigate the case of Anne Kotello -- 86 at the time -- before ordering the public trustee to take over her life, including seizing her bank account, confiscating her pension cheques and opening her personal mail.
It turns out Kotello was not mentally incompetent after all, as confirmed by two doctors, whom the director of psychiatric services refused to hear from, court heard. Sinclair quashed the order.
So don't tell me, madame, that those very serious problems don't exist or that I'm putting false information out there.
The staffer also went on to tell me that the province's director of psychiatric services interviews the person in question before ordering the public trustee to take over their lives.
COMPLETELY WRONG
"They're interviewed by the director of psychiatric services," she said.
"Who's interviewed?" I ask.
"The mentally incompe... the person, the person itself," she says.
Wrong. Completely wrong. The director does not interview the person and usually doesn't interview family members, either.
In some cases, they refuse to even talk to the person's lawyer, as we saw in the Kotello case.
So, madame, stop giving out bogus information.
If you don't know what you're talking about, pass the caller on to someone who does. You're not working in an ice cream shop. You're speaking on behalf of the attorney general of Manitoba. Smarten up.
I also asked the staffer if the department was reviewing the legislation, which it is. Mackintosh made the announcement several weeks ago.
She said she didn't know.
"So you're giving out information on this very important issue and you don't even know that the department's reviewing the legislation?" I say.
"Obviously not," she said.
Nice.
If you believe in freedom, call Mackintosh's office Monday at 945-3728.
And ask to speak to someone who knows what they're talking about.
This law has to be changed.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2005/07/16/1134023-sun.html
The fat of the land -ON
Jul. 16, 2005. 01:00 AM
There is a growing problem in our society that is affecting more and more of us, regardless of age or sex.
From children to the elderly, we are increasingly becoming overweight and alarmingly sedentary. Inelegantly put, we are just getting too fat and lazy.
It is long past time to begin reversing this burgeoning trend.
So the McGuinty government's decision to appoint Jim Watson as minister of health promotion last month is a welcome one. Watson has jumped right in to this new role, calling fat the "new tobacco," as great a health challenge in the 21st century as smoking was in the 20th.
Whether that's an overstatement or not, a recent study released by Statistics Canada underscores the concern: From 1979 to 2004 obesity rates have increased to worrisome proportions.
In young people from age 2 to 17, the rate has jumped from 3 per cent to 8 per cent in 25 years. In adults 25 to 34, it has ballooned from 9 to 21 per cent. For those over 75, the rate has gone from 11 to 24 per cent.
Unlike smoking rates, obesity is heading upwards, creating the risk of massive strains on health care and a decrease in quality of life.
The StatsCan study also points out the obvious: those who eat fruit and vegetables regularly and find time for physical activity are less likely to be overweight.
It is cold comfort that compared to our American neighbours, our waistlines have a few belt loops to go. Their adult obesity is almost 30 per cent compared to our 23 per cent.
Watson has ruled out draconian measures in seeking to address the crisis, preferring the carrot to the stick — perhaps a carrot stick approach would be better — to getting Ontarians to slim down.
We all have a stake (and that's not spelled steak) in finding a better balance by eating well and exercising moderately. The message to Ontarians and all Canadians has been around for some time. It is time to get off the couch and get the message.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid
=1121464222443&call_pageid=968256290204&col=968350116795
Bar owners in two Prairie provinces want smoking bans deemed unconstitutional-AB, SK
http://www.smokersclubinc.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1806
Prairie bar owners want smoking bans overturned-SK, MB
Canadian Press
WINNIPEG — Courts in Manitoba and Saskatchewan will be asked this week to decide whether provincial smoking laws are a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Bar owners in the two provinces have launched separate battles to overturn the recently enacted laws, which they say have driven away their customers.
"I know guys who have lost half their business," said Gary Desrosiers, a bar owner in Brunkild, Man., who has been the most vocal critic of the smoking ban.
"There are probably 200 to 300 jobs that have been lost because of this law."
Desrosiers and other Manitoba proprietors have helped raise $30,000 for Robert Jenkinson, a Treherne bar owner who will stand trial Monday on charges of allowing smoking in his establishment.
Jenkinson's lawyer, Art Stacey, will argue the provincial smoking ban violates the charter because it does not apply to native reserves.
"Section 15, which is the equality right under the charter, ...says that essentially all people are entitled to be treated equally under the law without discrimination," said Stacey.
The province has said it does not have jurisdiction to enforce the law on reserves, some of which have recently opened smoker-friendly gambling halls to attract more customers.
Stacey disagrees, pointing out that the province already enforces many laws on reserves, including speed limits under the Highway Traffic Act.
A similar argument will be heard in a Regina courtroom Thursday, when the Hotels Association of Saskatchewan is scheduled to ask the Court of Queen's Bench to declare the smoking law unconstitutional.
"Our members are chatting with the public all the time, and they believe that whether a law is good or bad, it should apply to everyone," said association president Tom Mullin.
Manitoba and New Brunswick were the first provinces to ban smoking in virtually all enclosed public places, including bars and restaurants, last October.
Saskatchewan followed suit in January and other provinces including Ontario are preparing similar bans.
Many bar owners, especially those in rural areas near reserves, were quick to complain they were losing customers to aboriginal establishments.
The Manitoba government is confident its law can withstand the court challenge, and said most people support it.
"What we heard ... was that the ban was what Manitobans wanted," said Healthy Living Minister Theresa Oswald.
"We also can say that the majority of Manitobans are complying with the legislation."
A constitutional law expert at the University of Manitoba believes the bar owners will have a hard time getting the smoking bans overturned.
"The fact that the legislation may apply here, there and elsewhere but not everywhere does not of itself create a breach of the equality rights of the charter," said Prof. Roland Penner, who is also a former provincial minister responsible for constitutional affairs.
"Within the right that the province has ... to restrict hunting, it can say, 'There can be hunting here and not there.'"
Only a handful of bar owners in Manitoba have been charged with breaking the smoking ban, and just one has been convicted.
Finley Michaud, a restaurant owner in Selkirk, north of Winnipeg, pleaded guilty in June to letting his customers smoke.
He was ordered to pay $1,560 in fines and surcharges.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1121626536673_14/?hub=Canada
WHY SHOULD smokers get respect when they flick their lit cigarettes onto the streets whether driving, walking, standing or sitting; or they smoke while sleeping, which causes forest, bush, and house fires? Or how about when smokers use the ground as an ashtray, which looks disgusting aroun d doors, entrances or anywhere, especially at malls, and should be considered littering.
Jon Quartly
(Happy Monday!)
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RE: "TARBOX'S hubby butts up against smoke ban," July 14. As a country, we pride ourselves on the fact that we have the freedom to choose. The government is now regulating people's freedom of choice.
Cassie Krentz
(The government has always done that.)
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I HAVE travelled extensively in California, which has had a smoking ban for years. After the initial shock, the bars and restaurants are full. Also there is no smoking within 20 feet of the restaurant or bar doors. As a former smoker, I am so grateful for the clean air that I can now breathe.
Darlene Balzer
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/Letters/2005/07/17/1136066.html
Living off the fat of the land -ON
Editorial for Monday, July 18, 2005
“Fat is the new tobacco.”
With those words, Ontario’s new Health Promotion Minister Jim Watson announced last week the province is ready to fight obesity as aggressively as it fought tobacco.
It’s certainly a worthwhile objective. The health problems associated with obesity have been well established: heart disease and stroke, diabetes, joint problems, some cancers.
We also can’t deny more Canadians are overweight now than ever before — the number of obese children aged 12-17 has more than doubled in the past 30 years, Statistics Canada reported earlier this month. Adult obesity rates rose to 23 per cent from 14 per cent in the same period.
The reasons for the increases are also well-known: we’ve become more sedentary. Adults drive to their workplaces, many spending their workdays sitting in front of computer screens. They go home and spend more time at the computer or watching TV. Kids are doing the same things — sitting for much of the day at school, then watching TV, playing video games or surfing the Internet.
Among the few people who aren’t getting fatter — in North America at least — are the Old Order Mennonites. Recent studies have pointed out something that should be obvious: living life the way our ancestors did, before cars and computers, TV and junk food, keeps you lean.
Junk food, of course, is the other culprit in our increasing waistlines.
As our lives got busier in the last half of the 20th century, we saw the rise of the fast food industry. Suddenly we were gobbling up hamburgers and french fries, greasy fried chicken and pizza as we lived on the run.
Soon vending machines in schools and workplaces offered potato chips, chocolate bars and sugar-laden soft drinks.
We’ve known for quite a while that we can’t keep living this way. But change isn’t going to be easy — just ask the people who’ve tried, and failed, to give up smoking.
The war against smoking involved more than convincing smokers to quit. There were major skirmishes with the tobacco companies as governments first banned tobacco advertising, then insisted on putting graphic warnings on cigarette packages. There’s been an ongoing battle to abolish smoking, first in workplaces and then most public places.
Something along those lines should happen with junk food, especially for children.
Mr. Watson suggested that extending the elementary school ban on junk food vending machines to high schools could be a start. That sounds good, but he should go one step further and ban unhealthy foods from school cafeterias. Instead of fries and gravy, schools could offer fresh fruits and vegetables.
Mr. Watson said he plans to offer a “quite aggressive” plan of action within a few months. But he also said he won’t recommend a tax on junk food that was originally contemplated by his government, then abandoned.
Why not? Governments haven’t hesitated to tax tobacco products heavily in an effort to discourage smoking.
Obviously taxation wouldn’t be popular with the junk food manufacturers. But in the battle to make Ontarians less obese and more healthy, his government might have to take on some of the big businesses.
How about putting restrictions on how foods high in fats and sugars are advertised — especially to children? Maybe warnings should go on bags of potato chips and cans of pop.
At the same time, the minister should look at incentives to encourage people to become more active.
The government could offer tax breaks to people who join fitness clubs and to employers who set up exercise areas for their workers and encourage employees to be more active by cycling or walking to work.
Sales taxes could be dropped from sports gear for adults and children.
There’s a lot government could do if it’s really serious about improving the health of its constituents.
Still, we also have to take responsibility for our own health. We have to make healthier food choices and work more exercise into our lives. Anyone who has battled the bulge knows that being overweight certainly doesn’t make life any easier or more enjoyable, both physically and emotionally.
It’s not just about reducing the burden on our health-care system. It’s about improving the quality of our own lives.
http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/editorials/editorial.html
Tobacco board to examine operations -ON
Jeff Helsdon - Staff Writer Monday July 18, 2005
Reducing size of board among changes to be discussed
The Tillsonburg News — The tobacco board may be a changed entity by the end of 2006.
Board general manager Jason Lietaer is currently interviewing consultants to conduct a review of the board. It will look at the governance structure and information flow in the board. The dual goals of the review are efficiency and optimizing performance.
“We see it as the next step in the board serving the farmers the best way we can,” he said.
Parameters of the review are:
- the organizational structure of the Board must be financially sustainable
- the board and staff’s operation must be optimized, focusing on key priorities and doing so in the most efficient manner possible
- producers must be adequately represented, and consulted during the review.
One thing that will be on the table is downsizing the board in the wake of the recent quota retirement program. That is something a portion of growers were calling for board downsizing over the winter.
Lietaer said he has already consulted with the Farm Products Marketing Board and it’s unlikely there will be any reduction in board size for this fall’s election, if that is what the consultant recommends and the board ultimately decides.
“They said it’s difficult, if not impossible, to implement for this fall’s election,” he said. “They’re eying next year’s election and would be more comfortable with that.”
The commission has overseen changes in a number of marketing boards and Lietaer felt they have ample experience to guide the tobacco board through changes, if necessary.
One thing Lietaer did say was in at least some ways it’s in the board’s vision to move away from a working board to a policy board. He explained the first steps in this area are to identify what the board wants to do and then focus on the priorities.
Lietaer pointed out the per diem paid to directors for each meeting attended has been frozen for seven years. Where he saw savings was through reducing the number of meetings.
The general manager saw reviewing the board structure as the next step in streamlining the board operations. With the buyout plan complete, he said it was the appropriate time to complete such a task. Lietaer pointed out the board has already been trimming costs and it now costs less to sell a pound of tobacco than it did years ago, despite the rising cost of wages. The board has trimmed its public relations costs from $66,000 last year to $38,000 this year and cut operations by $90,000 to $3.85 million.
Langton-area farmer Diane Meulemeester doesn’t think restructuring is necessary. She said the directors are drained and overworked as it is.
“If farmers want the issues dealt with as soon as they come, then this isn’t the time for restructuring,” she said, adding there are just too many issues out there now.
Instead, Meulemeester said the governance of the board should be dealt with on a year-to-year basis.
quote:
“If farmers want the issues dealt with as soon as they come, then this isn’t the time for restructuring”
-- Diane Meulemeester
http://www.tillsonburgnews.com/story.php?id=173010
Smoking ban dampens VLT earnings -NL
CBC News Last updated Jul 18 2005 09:15 AM NDT
The Atlantic Lottery Corporation says it's making less money on video lottery terminals in the province since a ban on smoking in bars and bingo halls went into effect earlier this month.
Corporation spokesperson Robert Bourgeois says the drop was expected, based on experience from other provinces.
"We would expect that VL sales in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador will go down between 10 and 15 per cent," he said. "However, it is also our experience that those numbers would after a while go back up."
Bar owners say the finding confirms what they've been saying all along – kill smoking and you kill half of what has made the smoking/drinking combination such a great money-maker.
They claim their business is down 30 to 60 per cent, and say the situation will get worse before it gets better.
They fear they'll lose even more business when the weather turns colder.
Rick Young, who owns the Bella Vista in St. John's, warns there are tough times ahead for some of the smaller bars.
"There's gonna be lots of closures. Lots of people that just aren't gonna ride the weather. They're not going to be able to weather the storm," he said.
Bar owners are still trying to convince the government to allow designated smoking areas – something the government has so far rejected.
http://stjohns.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=nf_lottery_20050718
MD adopts smoking policy -AB
By Darby Gilbertson Tuesday July 19, 2005
Pincher Creek Echo — Municipal District of Pincher Creek employees who smoke will need to go outside to light up, with MD council adopting a no-smoking policy for all municipal buildings.
Under the policy, smoking will be prohibited in all municipaly-owned buildings and equipment, with the exception of vehicles with only one occupant.
Prior to implementing the smoking ban, council presented a draft policy to employees and users of the municipal buildings.
Although the majority of responses were favourable, employees expressed concern about not being able to smoke in the shop and in vehicles when the smoker is alone or with another person if that other person does not object.
Although council approved allowing smoking in equipment when there is a single occupant, they decided not to allow smoking when passengers were in the vehicle.
“It always puts the onus on the non-smoker to object,” remarked Councillor Brian Hammond, with council noting that a ban would remove the pressure from non-smokers.
Among the municipally owned buildings are the fire halls in Beaver Mines and Lundbreck, Coalfield School, Willow Valley Hall, Fishburn Community Hall, the Beaver Mines gazebo, the airport terminal building and shop, the water treatment plant, sand shed, Public Works and the M.D. Office.
Council has arranged to meet with municipal employees during a safety meeting to inform them of the accepted policy.
http://www.pinchercreekecho.com/story.php?id=173032
Couple fumes over asphalt plant emissions -NS
By RENEE STEVENS
LIVERPOOL - George Norman has been waiting almost 27 years for someone to help him lift the dark cloud that has been hanging over his home, but he say no one seems to hear his cries for help.
The dark cloud that haunts him consists of thick, gritty, brown emissions that come from an asphalt plant that was built behind his backyard the same year as his home went up.
http://www.herald.ns.ca/stories/2005/07/19/fNovaScotia.html
Hotelier defied smoking ban to stay in business, he testifies -MB
By Aldo Santin Tuesday, July 19th, 2005
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE -- Treherne hotel operator Robert Jenkinson admitted in court yesterday that he openly violated the provincial smoking ban but argued he had no alternative if he wanted to stay in business.
Jenkinson said he began losing customers to neighbouring First Nation bingo halls and gaming halls in Swan Lake and Long Plain when the smoking ban came into effect last October.
Jenkinson said it's unfair that the province is only enforcing the new law against non-aboriginal hotel operators while turning a blind eye to continued smoking in native-run bingo halls.
"I don't think it's Canadian," Jenkinson said in provincial court here yesterday. "There should be one set of rules for all people. To have a two-tiered system is not fair."
Jenkinson's belief is the heart of his defence argument. He has pleaded not guilty to several charges under the Non Smokers Health Protection Act, including allowing smoking in his bar, providing ashtrays for customers, not posting a 'smoking prohibited' sign, and removing a 'smoking prohibited' sign.
Lawyer Art Stacey said provincial court Judge Murray Howell should find Jenkinson not guilty because the new law violates Section 15 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees people equal treatment under the law. Stacey said the Doer government is allowing smoking in First Nation establishments but nowhere else.
Crown attorney Cynthia Devine said in her opening statements that Jenkinson's defence isn't valid. She said Section 15 of the Charter is aimed at visible minorities and others who have been historically disadvantaged, not white male business owners such as Jenkinson.
Devine is expected to attack Stacey's arguments later today. The trial is scheduled to end tomorrow.
The Manitoba government has said it does not have clear jurisdiction over smoking on native reserves. Military bases, airports and other areas under federal jurisdiction are also exempt from the smoking ban.
The trial, the first of its kind involving the new provincial law, attracted a couple of rural hotel operators and Jim Baker, president of the Manitoba Hotel Association. A Selkirk restaurant owner pleaded guilty in early June to charges under the new law and received a $1,560 fine. Finley Michaud was the first business owner to be convicted under the new smoking law.
The trial is being watched in other provinces that have followed Manitoba's lead. In Saskatchewan, where a similar smoking ban was introduced in January, the Hotels Association of Saskatchewan is scheduled to appear in court Thursday to ask that the law be overturned under Section 15. Ontario is planning a province-wide smoking ban for next year..
Manitoba bar owners have said the smoking ban has cost them a lot of money, because smokers are now either staying home or going to casinos and bingo halls on native reserves where they can light up whenever they want
Jenkinson is a former pipeline worker who bought the Creekside Hideaway in Treherne about 2 1/2 years ago. The hotel industry has covered much of his legal costs; the Manitoba Hotel Association contributed $10,000; another $20,000 was raised by individual hotel operators.
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
-- With files from Canadian Press
www.winnipegfreepress.com
Police seek three men in robberies at two stores -MB
Tuesday, July 19th, 2005
CITY police are looking for three men believed responsible for two convenience store robberies early yesterday.
The first robbery happened at about 1 a.m. at a Watt Street 7-Eleven when three men, one acting as a look-out, robbed the store of cash and cigarettes.
One of the robbers was armed with brass knuckles and the other a knife. One of the two female clerks was cut slightly on her forearm by the knife as she opened the cash register.
Obscured
The male with the brass knuckles is described as having a shaved head and wearing a white T-shirt with the number "23" on the front. His face was obscured by a dark bandana.
The male armed with the knife was wearing a beige-coloured collared shirt with 3 4 length sleeves, blue jeans rolled at the bottom and white runners. His face was covered with a dark coloured stocking and bandana.
The male who waited outside was wearing a white T-shirt, black pants and white runners. His face was also obscured by a black cloth.
The trio is also suspected of robbing the 7-Eleven on Lorette Avenue at about 3 a.m. in a similar fashion.
In this theft, the thieves also took lottery tickets. No one was injured.
www.winnipegfreepress.com
EDITORIAL: What the !@#?@ is going on? -ON
Tue, July 19, 2005
What did we just miss here?
Last January, Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara struck a four-person panel known collectively as the Beverage Alcohol System Review, to study and make recommendations about the operation of Ontario's booze business.
Paid $1,000-a-day each, the four commissioners were told by Sorbara to take a wide-ranging approach to the issue, but not to recommend that the province sell off the LCBO.
Yesterday, the panel released its report, recommending, sure enough, that the province sell off the LCBO.
Sorbara immediately rejected this idea -- again.
Cost to the taxpayers for the review panel's work? $600,000.
Here, then, is our calm and considered reaction to these events:
FOR !@@$## SAKE, DOESN'T ANYBODY IN THIS !@@$## LIBERAL GOVERNMENT KNOW WHAT THE !@%$$@ THEY'RE DOING WHEN IT COMES TO !@@#$@ AWAY OUR MONEY!!!!???
Either panel members were out to lunch for recommending something they knew the government wouldn't do, or the Liberals were out to lunch for allowing the review to continue, knowing they weren't going to do what it recommended. You decide.
For good measure, Sorbara also rejected the review's other major recommendation which flowed from its doomed idea of selling off the LCBO -- licensing big grocery stores and other retail chains to sell booze in stores designed for that purpose.
In addition, Sorbara said, the government will not, as previously speculated, turn the LCBO into an income trust so that the private sector can invest in it.
Exactly what was the purpose of this entire expensive and time-wasting farce then, is now completely unclear.
Indeed, the Liberals didn't even wait for yesterday's public release of the panel report to deep-six it. The day before, they leaked the contents to The Canadian Press, along with the fact that they weren't going to implement any of its major recommendations.
For what it's worth, the review panel said the province would still make more than $1.5 billion annually in alcohol taxes and other revenues if it sold off the LCBO, plus another $200 million by selling licenses to the private sector to sell booze.
It argued the province could still regulate the sale of alcohol by controlling the number of licenses it gave out and carefully choosing from among potential licencees, as well as by regulating hours of operation and setting minimum prices. Consumers, it argued, would benefit from lower prices and better selection because of competition in the private sector to attract customers.
But then again, who cares, because none of this is going to happen. Ironically,the Liberal government of then Ontario premier David Peterson broke an election promise to allow the sale of beer and wine in corner grocery stores 20 years ago.
Sound familiar?
http://www.torontosun.com/Comment/Commentary/2005/07/19/1137764.html
For those who throw butts -ON
For those who drive, please butt out your cigarettes in your ashtray! Often, I see drivers throw their cigarettes out of the window on country roads where the grass/hay is very dry. This carelessness can cause fires that destroy farms, livestock, wild animals and people's homes. This is a very dry summer -- we should all take precautions to ensure we aren't careless and cause a disaster.
Chris Kenopic Georgetown
(A timely reminder)
http://www.torontosun.com/Comment/Letters/2005/07/19/1137765.html
Give all same rules: accused -MB
By STEVE LAMBERT, CANADIAN PRESS Tue, July 19, 2005
Smoke-law trial begins
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE -- Manitoba's anti-smoking law has been described as discriminatory and un-Canadian by a bar owner whose trial has become a constitutional battleground.
"I just honestly believe that there should be one set of rules for all Canadians," Robert Jenkinson testified yesterday.
Jenkinson was the first person charged after Manitoba's law was introduced last October.
The law bans smoking in bars, restaurants and other public places, but does not apply to native reserves.
Jenkinson's lawyer, Art Stacey, said the unequal application of the law hurts non-native business owners.
He said the charges should be dropped because the law violates Section 15 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees people equal treatment under the law.
"If the application of the law frustrates you or prevents you from enjoying opportunities that other people enjoy ... that's discrimination," Stacey said outside court.
But Crown lawyer Cynthia Devine said Section 15 of the charter is aimed at visible minorities and others who have been historically disadvantaged -- not white male business owners such as Jenkinson.
"This particular applicant does not belong to a group that has historically suffered (discrimination)," Devine told the court during her opening arguments.
BASED ON LOCATION
Devine also said the law is based on the location of a business -- either on or off reserve -- not on the ethnic origins of the proprietor.
The Manitoba government has said it does not have clear jurisdiction over smoking on native reserves.
Military bases, airports and other areas under federal jurisdiction are also exempt from the smoking ban.
The trial is being watched in other provinces that have followed Manitoba's lead.
In Saskatchewan, where a similar smoking ban was introduced in January, the Hotels Association of Saskatchewan is scheduled to appear in court Thursday to ask that the law be overturned under Section 15.
Ontario is planning a province-wide smoking ban for next year.
Manitoba bar owners have said the smoking ban has cost them a lot of money, because smokers are now either staying home or going to casinos and bingo halls on native reserves where they can light up whenever they want.
"I've had very little sleep, I'm getting more stressed out," said Jenkinson, who told the court he used to get more than 100 people in his bar on karaoke nights, but now only gets about 40.
Jenkinson's lawyer is also arguing the flip side of his constitutional argument -- that the law also discriminates against aboriginals because it does not provide them with the health benefits of a smoking ban.
The trial is scheduled to end tomorrow.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2005/07/19/1137782-sun.html
Cigarette being lit for woman -BC
By CP Tue, July 19, 2005
Senior dead after oxygen explodes
VANCOUVER -- A female resident of a Vancouver seniors' home died last week after her oxygen tank blew up when she was having a cigarette lit for her.
The woman, who was in her early 60s, but whose name is not being released, was in an outdoor courtyard when she asked another female resident for a cigarette.
Vancouver fire department Capt. Rob Jones-Cook said the other woman gave the victim a cigarette and attempted to light it for her when the oxygen tank exploded.
Jones-Cook said the dead woman's clothes caught fire.
Witnesses tried to douse the fire with water from a vase but it was ultimately put out with a blanket by staff members.
The woman had burns to almost 70% of her body and died late on Wednesday at Vancouver General Hospital.
The accident occurred at Little Mountain Place, a 117-bed senior residential care facility. The residence is contracted by the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, which provides residential care to people living in the facility.
Authority spokesman Clay Adams confirmed the woman had a long, known history of smoking and had been asked by staff members not to smoke.
"When you've got someone who is cognitive, as in they're fully aware of what's going on around them - they make their own decisions - you can only continue to insist to them they should not place themselves over an open flame, like smoking, for example. If you choose to ignore that, there could be consequences."
Fire department and health authority officials say accidents such as this are extremely rare.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Canada/2005/07/19/1138006-sun.html
Non-smoker questions data supporting ban -ON
Letter Tuesday, July 19, 2005
I'm deeply concerned with the Ontario government passing legislation to ban smoking in all public places.
Our government has been convinced to interfere in our lives because a select group of people are irritated by second-hand smoke. Second-hand smoke has been blamed for lung cancer across North America; our government and the people fighting for smoking bans would have you believe that science has shown this is the case.
The unfortunate truth of the matter is that there is not a single scientific study that has proven second-hand smoke causes lung cancer.
In 1992, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the study Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking: Lung Cancer and Other Disorders, that came to the conclusion 3,000 people die every year in the United States from second-hand smoke.
On July 17, 1998, a United States Federal Court decision stated the EPA ignored data to come to a predetermined conclusion. Judge Osteen's decision said EPA's procedural failure constituted a violation of the law.
Another study in 1998 from the Journal of the National Cancer Institute concludes: "Our results indicate no association between childhood exposure to ETS, Environmental Tobacco Smoke, and lung cancer risk. We did find weak evidence of a dose-response relationship between risk of lung cancer and exposure to spousal and workplace ETS. There was no detectable risk after cessation of exposure."
The Ontario government and our municipalities are telling us that second-hand smoke is killing people and they must pass these laws to protect everyone. Unfortunately, our government is grossly contradicting the experts from the National Cancer Institute.
There are several other groups which will also tell you that second-hand smoke will kill you. They include the Surgeon General, American Cancer Society, American Lung Association, and American Heart Association, but they all use the EPA study that was thrown out in court to back their claim.
Some of them have even exaggerated the figure of 3,000 deaths to upwards of 50,000 deaths by making projections and not taking into consideration other factors that cause the same diseases as smoking.
If you accept the EPA study, that a United States Federal Court found was in violation of the law, 12.5 out of 1,000,000 people who are exposed to second-hand smoke will die of lung cancer. According to the same study, 10 out of every 1,000,000 who are not exposed to second smoke will die of lung cancer. The difference is statistically insignificant.
I don't smoke and a smoke-filled restaurant irritates me. However, there is no scientific data linking second-hand smoke to lung cancer deaths. I find it completely irresponsible that business owners and smokers have to suffer because our government is choosing to interfere in our lives based on something that has no scientific backing whatsoever.
It's time to put an end to this senseless interference.
JAMES H. DUNBAR Windsor
http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/news/letters/story.html?id=f8d8dd78-10d7-4a29-b322-9b9da6e3de60
Ray's Realm -AB
Prisoners Butt Out!
Ray Picco - publisher Tuesday July 19, 2005
It’s bad enough that the draconian measures orchestrated by the anti-tobacco lobby have already taken the fun out of playing poker or bingo in Edmonton and other major cities across Canada. Now, not even prisoners are beyond the reach of "enlightened" anti-smoking crusaders.
As of Jan. 31, 2006, all inmates in Canada’s 54 federal prisons will be prohibited from lighting up indoors. And Canadian Taxpayers -- that means you and me -- will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to keep prisoners stocked up in nicotine patches and other "control" devices. Millions more tax dollars will be shelled out in overtime to prison guards who will have to supervise regular outdoor "smoke breaks" designed to prevent the rapists, killers and other assorted criminal deviants from succumbing to their stress.
Correctional Commissioner Lucie McLung said in a statement last week that prison wardens and guards will have to change their routines in order to allow for more outdoor trips for inmates. "In moving this way, CSC is carrying out its broader responsibility of setting conditions for healthy correctional environments, McClung said.
As the ban date approaches, inmates will be provided with educational material encouraging them to butt out completely and also be offered products to help them quit.
"This gives time for institutional staff to prepare the inmates," McClung said, adding that it will be up to each warden to figure out how guard routines will have to be adjusted in order to allow more outdoor time for smokers.
How long do you suppose it will be before a group of prisoners launches a class-action lawsuit against Ottawa, demanding that limitless access to tobacco be reinstated?
Of course, if it were bingo players or casino patrons, the feds simply wouldn’t give a damn. But prisoners, as we all know have inalienable rights that must be protected, regardless of the cost. And the taxpayers ALWAYS pay the cost.
http://www.coldlakesun.com/story.php?id=173449
Victory wouldn't end battle, hoteliers fear -MB
By Aldo Santin Wednesday, July 20th, 2005
PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE -- Hotel operators in the province face an uphill battle even if Treherne hotel owner Robert Jenkinson is found not guilty of violating the new smoking law, said an industry spokesman.
Jim Baker, president of the Manitoba Hotel Association, said he warned hotel owners not to get too excited about the prospects of Jenkinson winning his case, adding that the government has deep pockets and can battle indefinitely.
"If Jenkinson wins, the government can always appeal and they'll use our money to finance it," Baker said during a recess at Jenkinson's trial.
"Or the province can do what (Jenkinson's lawyer Art Stacey) said it should have done and bring in the range of regulations that would make the law legal and then we'd be no further ahead."
Jenkinson's trial enters its third and final day today, with crown attorney Cynthia Devine making her closing arguments, rebutting Stacey's lengthy charge to provincial court Judge Murray Howell over the past day and a half.
Jenkinson was the first hotel operator charged with violating the Non Smokers Health Protection Act, which prohibits smoking in all workplaces and all public places.
Jenkinson admitted in court Monday that he allowed his customers to smoke, explaining that he was losing business to bingo and gaming halls on nearby reserves at Long Plain and Swan Lake.
Stacey said Jenkinson's defence rested on a two arguments: the new law is invalid because it imposes criminal sanctions and the provincial government doesn't have the authority to do that; and, the law is unconstitutional because it violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Stacey spent yesterday afternoon arguing his second line of defence: the new law violates Section 15 of the Charter, which guarantees people equal treatment under the law.
Stacey said that because on-reserve businesses are exempt from the new law, Jenkinson and other hotel operators aren't being treated fairly. Stacey said Jenkinson has been discriminated against because as a non-aboriginal he'd never be allowed to open a hotel on a reserve and enjoy operating a bar that allows smoking.
Stacey said the new law also discriminates against aboriginal people because it doesn't give aboriginal employees and customers the same protections that is provided to employees off reserve.
aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca
www.winnipegfreepress.com
RE: JULY 18 letter from Darlene Balzar -AB
RE: JULY 18 letter from Darlene Balzar about no smoking in California. What she fails to mention is that smoking is allowed on outdoor patios of restaurants and bars, so you can still enjoy a smoke with your beer or meal. You can no longer do that in Edmonton.
Barry Breton
(That is true.)
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/Letters/2005/07/20/1139216.html
$10-billion 'wake-up' for tobacco companies
By GLORIA GALLOWAY Wednesday, July 20, 2005 Updated at 5:42 AM EDT
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
Lobbyists hope JTI smuggling case will put pressure on larger competitors
Ottawa — Ottawa and the provinces are demanding about $10-billion in compensation from one of Canada's largest tobacco companies for tax revenues lost when cigarettes were being smuggled into Canada in the early 1990s.
The $9.6-billion, plus interest and assorted penalties, being sought from JTI-Macdonald Corp. is part of landmark legal action, and was spelled out in a report of the Ontario Superior Court.
JTI, the third largest tobacco company in the country after Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. and Rothmans Benson and Hedges Inc., has about 12 per cent of Canada's cigarette market. It's the only firm currently being sued by the federal or provincial governments for alleged smuggling -- although the RCMP have raided offices of the other two.
Anti-tobacco lobbyists hope the high dollar figures announced in this case will prompt JTI to settle and then provide information about larger firms they claim were also involved in the alleged scheme to ship duty-free cigarettes to the United States and then smuggle them back to Canada for black-market sales. Given their relative sizes, any action against the other companies would be expected to be exponentially larger.
"At some point, as the legal proceedings move closer to an actual trial, there would be a motivation for the company to settle if it can on favourable terms," said Rob Cunningham, a lawyer and senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society.
"If JTI did have good evidence with respect to the behaviour of others and it provided that evidence, that would certainly be a factor that might be taken into consideration by governmental authorities in discussions."
A JTI spokesman said yesterday the company has done nothing wrong, and the amount being sought is excessive.
"Our feeling is that we don't have any liability and the justice system will confirm that," said John Wildgust, JTI's director of corporate affairs. During the years in question, roughly 1990 to 1994, his company and the other tobacco companies c Posted at 2:55 pm by looped_ca
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