RE: KERRY Diotte's Dec. 1 column.* I guess in the old days, we used to put lepers into colonies. But we were never mean enough to then burn those colonies down. And that is what Crystal Brown and the rest of them seem to want to do. Do I smoke? Yes. But long before there were laws about smoking inside or even politically correct zealots, I respected others and I was careful with my smoking. In terms of smoking outside, leave this leper alone. I have enough problems with my cigarette addiction!

Don Bodlick Fri, December 3, 2004

(Vilifying smokers.)

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

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Smoke group fuming -ON

Smokers want a voice

JOHN STEWART Dec 3, 2004
Nearly 300 Mississauga smokers are among a growing group of 10,000 who say they're fed up being treated as social outcasts.

"We've got ordinary Joes who've signed up and joined by the droves," said Nancy Daigneault, head of the smokers' rights group My Choice in an interview with The News. "Smokers want a voice. They're tired of being second-class citizens."

However, Ontario Lung Association Regional Director Edie Newton said from her Mississauga office yesterday that My Choice is the latest in a series of "fronts" for the tobacco industry.

Newton agreed with the Ontario Council for Action on Tobacco's assessment that, "the addictive nature of nicotine itself makes the idea of 'choice' a joke, if not an insult to those people who smoke."

The tobacco industry has no credibility, "because of their long history of deceiving the public, especially their own clients, regarding the health effects of their products," Newton said.

While My Choice is funded by $2.5 million in grants from cigarette companies, Daigneault said the lobby group operates independently.

"Smokers are really tired of being made to feel stupid," the My Choice president said, noting that a recent anti-youth smoking campaign has a website address of stupid.ca. "The implication is that anyone who smokes is stupid."

What sparked the new website, is proposed legislation in Ontario that all but bans smoking outright. The new law would ban smoking in Canadian Legion halls and other private clubs and on outdoor patios. It would go so far as to force smokers who need home care, to abstain from their habit for 24 hours before a nurse comes into their residence.

"They've just pushed too far," said Daigneault.

Since its online campaign was launched at www.mychoice.ca at the end of September, nearly 10,000 members have joined the Canada-wide group in just two months.

The majority of the membership wants separately-ventilated Designated Smoking Rooms in bars and restaurants so that they can continue to enjoy going out, without bothering non-smokers.

Daigneault, a former reporter at 680 News in Toronto, said the new group is about restoring balance to the debate about smoking in public, and private places.

"We want people to respect the fact that smokers have rights too and ensure that this minority is treated with respect," the former Mississauga resident said.

Surveys of the group's members show that 34 per cent want to quit smoking. The mychoice website has links to smoking cessation programs.

http://www.mississauganews.com/mi/news/story/2400125p-2777634c.html

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Good guys still winning butt battle -MB
Lindor Reynolds Friday, December 3rd, 2004
GARY Desrosiers netted $3,000 in a single day this week as part of his ill-conceived fundraising efforts to battle Manitoba's provincewide smoking ban.
CancerCare Manitoba averages $12,000 a day.
The Manitoba Lung Association? About $700 on a bad day, tens of thousands when there's a major campaign underway.
The good guys are still ahead. Let's hope it stays that way, because if Desrosiers and the rest of the Rural Hotel Owners Association win their butt battle, we'll need some extra money in the kitty to take care of the health
needs of all those victorious smokers.
Desrosiers, who owns the Brunkild Bar and Grill, seems like a well-meaning sort of guy. He says he's fighting for the future of his bar, that he'll have to start laying off staff if the ban isn't rescinded and that hotels across the province are going to fold if something isn't done.
He sees the ban as an invasion of his rights and an attack on the rural way of life.
He's been collecting donations to pay for the legal defence of Treherne hotel owner Robert Jenkinson, who faces 13 charges of violating the bylaw. More than $25,000 has been raised.
Jenkinson will be in court Dec. 13.
"I was expecting a bit more of an uphill battle," Desrosiers said yesterday. "I don't think anyone wants to see small businesses crushed by legislation. People who don't smoke and who don't come out to bars are supporting us."
He also confirmed what the government suspects -- that a lot of the bar owners are either flat out ignoring the ban or interpreting it loosely.
"I'd say between 70 and 75 per cent of rural hotels allow smoking to a certain degree. Some of them allow it in the bathrooms. Other guys have a room set aside. I know some guys who haven't even taken the ashtrays off the tables."
Desrosiers paints an apocalyptic vision of a time when travellers passing through Manitoba won't have anywhere to stay because all rural hotels will be closed.
Let's paint another picture. In this one, the staff at these establishments are sickened from second-hand smoke. Asthmatics can't go out for a meal. Non-smokers have to wash the stink out of their hair when they get home.  This is what people are fighting for?
Desrosiers estimates his business is down 25 per cent since the ban took effect Oct. 1.
Here's another statistic: The number of people diagnosed with cancer in Manitoba increases between three and four per cent each year.
The smoking ban wasn't a high-handed government attempt to destroy small businesses or compromise the rural way of life. Smoking is going to kill you.  That may your choice, but you don't have the right to take out the person
standing next to you.
The Rural Hotel Owners Association should continue collecting money. Then they should put it in an envelope and mail it to CancerCare Manitoba. They take care of the real victims.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Winnipeg Free Press.

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Canada ratifies the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world's first public health treaty

OTTAWA - Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh is pleased to announce today Canada’s ratification of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The FCTC is the first-ever global public health treaty. It is designed to protect present and future generations from the health and economic consequences of tobacco consumption and exposure to second-hand smoke by strengthening tobacco control initiatives around the world.

"Canada is a world leader in tobacco control," said Minister Dosanjh. "I am proud to say that Canada’s strong legislation and regulations inspired many of the Articles in the Convention. The FCTC is, in fact, based on a Canadian idea. In many cases Canada already meets, and exceeds, the requirements of the Convention.

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control has the potential to improve the health and well-being of millions of people around the world. Tobacco use is the world’s leading cause of preventable illness, disability, and premature death. Globally, 4.9 million people die each year from tobacco-related illness, including 45,000 Canadians.

To announce the ratification, Minister Dosanjh was joined by forty Kingston-area students who have been advocates for the Convention. "It is appropriate that Canada, which sees itself as a world leader on the war on tobacco, has taken the historic step of ratifying the FCTC and has joined 39 other countries in setting an example for the world," said Jialin Guo, a student at Kingston Collegiate and Vocational Institute. "This is an important victory for people around the world who have long been exposed to the dangers of the tobacco trade."

The FCTC was adopted by member countries of the World Health Organization at the World Health Assembly on May 21, 2003, following almost three years of negotiations. Through ratifying the FCTC, Canada becomes a member of the Conference of Parties and will play an active role in the implementation and management of the Convention. Forty countries have now ratified the treaty, and it will come into force on February 28, 2005.

The Provincial and Territorial Ministers of Health have all indicated their support for the FCTC and reaffirmed their continued commitment to work collectively to addressing the public health consequences of tobacco consumption. Canada has invested heavily in terms of leadership, funding and hard work in domestic and international tobacco control efforts over many years. The Convention recognizes that effective tobacco control requires not only comprehensive, consistent and sustained domestic efforts around the world, but also strong, coordinated international efforts.

Canada fully supports the FCTC because it is consistent with and advances Canada's domestic efforts, which are guided by the Federal Tobacco Control Strategy. The Strategy includes a combination of tobacco control efforts in protection, prevention and cessation and harm reduction initiatives, including mass media campaign support for the Strategy's objectives.
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/english/media/releases/2004/2004_63.htm

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Candy-Flavored Real Cigarettes Attracting Teens' Attention

Anti-Smoking Activists Concerned Over Marketing Of Colorful Cigarettes

UPDATED: 9:16 AM EST December 3, 2004

PHILADELPHIA -- You've heard of candy cigarettes, but how about real cigarettes with a hint of candy flavor?

The new, flavored cigarettes from Camel have anti-tobacco activists up in arms. Many teens seem to like them, and the manufacturers said the brand is in demand.

The cigarettes come in flavors like lime, berry, pineapple and coconut.

 SURVEY

Do you think R.J. Reynolds is targeting teens with their flavored cigarettes? Choice Votes Percentage of 6452 Votes Yes, and they should be banned 4369 (68% )Yes, but they should not be banned 1045 (16%) No, they're not specifically targeting teens 1038 (16%) Results : AS OF 3:49 PM  DEC. 3/ 04

SURVEY DISCLAIMER Please keep in mind that our polls are for entertainment and are not conducted in a scientific fashion.
We make no guarantees about the accuracy of the results other than that they reflect the choices of the users who participated.
If you have questions or comments about our polls, please e-mail us. "They're kind of tasty. It sounds like a gimmick for kids, you know. I walk in there, I see the bright colors and I'm, like, 'I need that cigarette,'" said Kenny Silver, 18, a high school senior.

More Info: Immediate Benefits Of Quitting
E-Card: Encourage Smokers To Quit
View Ads: New Flavored Cigarettes

"It's all colorful and really cool and groovy and they look nice and, of course, people automatically think, 'Oh, nice, I want to smoke these now,'" said Hedi Lowe, 18, also a high school senior.

The exotic brands are being sold at tobacco shops and gas stations.

"So, they put them out there with a little color on there to attract people's attention. 'Oh, let me get those, let me try those,'" said Chris Jehova, a clerk at a Sunoco station.

Jehova said that the cigarettes are selling fast. That has anti-smoking activists worried. Dr. Sandra Weibel said it is obvious children are the target.

"I can't imagine adults in any way would want flavored cigarettes," Weibel said.

Weibel is the spokeswoman for the American Lung Association. She looked at Camel ads on the computer and said she believes they are marketed for teens.

"The number of new smokers per day are predominantly kids, and this case, this is who they are attracting, and people who get addicted usually start before they are 21," Weibel said.

The flavored cigarettes come with all the same health hazards and addictive potential of any tobacco product.

But R.J. Reynolds, the manufacturer of Camel, said:

"We don't, under any circumstance, market our product to youth. Our adult consumers asked us and told us they like differentiated products. That is why we offer flavored cigarettes."

Tobacco companies in recent months have introduced a slew of new candy and fruit-flavored products with little appeal to established smokers and obvious appeal to new smokers, 90 percent of whom are teenagers or younger, according to TobaccoFreeKids.org. Not only did R.J. Reynolds introduced flavored versions of Camel cigarettes, including coconut and pineapple-flavored Kauai Kolada and citrus- flavored Twista Lime, Brown & Williamson has introduced flavored versions of Kool with names like Caribbean Chill, Midnight Berry, Mocha Taboo and Mintrigue.

"Ninety percent of smokers start before their 18th birthday -- 90 percent. That means if the tobacco industry doesn't get us while we are young, they will never get us at all," said Walter Kerr, 18, an anti-smoking activist.

Anti-tobacco activists are continuing to lobby for Food and Drug Administration regulations of tobacco products and marketing. Legislation came close, but did not pass in Congress this year. A new bill will be introduced in 2005.

http://www.nbc30.com/family/3967974/detail.html

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States Not Using $ for Smoking Prevention

12/3/04- In 1998, states across the country pledged to use tobacco settlement money to fund anti-tobacco programs, but a new report finds many are simply "blowing smoke" when it comes to such programs.

The campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids says only 3 states fund anti-smoking programs at the recommended minimum level. 10 states support funding to at least half of the CDC's minimum amount, but 32 states fund at less than 50%, and 5 states and Washington DC don't allocate any funds for tobacco prevention. The bottom line: the report finds states have allocated only about a third of the money the CDC recommends. 

Since almost 90% of US smokers start at or before age 18, that's who the American Cancer Society says we should target, because cigarettes kill more Americans than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, murders, suicide, drugs and fires combined.

The tobacco industry spends 472 million dollars a year to market cigarettes in Michigan. Gary McMullen of the American Cancer Society saysit's going to take more aggressive initiatives to counter their efforts.

Gary McMullen, American Cancer Society: "The best way is to attack tobacco from may fronts, that would include a clean indoor air initiative, and to limit opportunities for kids to role model with people who smoke."

McMullen says the State already took a step in the right direction this year by increasing the cigarette tax  from 75 cents to $2.

Gary McMullen: "We know raising the price of cigarettes will help keep kids from starting a life-long addiction. It's a very good thing we're going to start to see a smoking rate decline as a result."

Right now, 30,000 kids in Michigan under 18 become regular smokers every year. That's why experts say we  need to do a better job to make smoking less popular.

Gary McMullen: "One of the biggest things we can do is mandate better curriculum in schools. Right now, there is info and programs, but not every child gets it."

Michigan does spend a small amount of state, federal, and non-governmental funds on tobacco prevention. If you or your child wants help to quit smoking, you can call the American Cancer Society at 1-800-acs-2345.

http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=2644245

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Pollutant 'damages bone marrow'

Exposure to even small amounts of the chemical benzene may pose a health risk, say scientists.

They have shown that workers who inhaled less than one part per million had fewer white blood cells than those who were not exposed.

Benzene is found in many sources, including second-hand cigarette smoke, petrol vapours and air pollution.

The research, by US and Chinese scientists, is published in the journal Science.

Scientists have known that workers in industries like oil and shipping who are exposed to high doses of the substance run an increased risk of developing leukaemia.

But the potential dangers from smaller amounts of the chemical have been unclear.

The new study shows that even exposure to levels of the chemical that are considered safe under US guidelines appear to cause changes to the bone marrow.

The researchers compared 250 workers exposed to benzene-laden glues in two shoe factories in China to 140 workers who sewed clothes in other Chinese factories, but who did not come into contact with the chemical.

They measured benzene exposure by taking urine and blood samples and testing air in the factories, as well as at each worker's home.

Surprise results

As expected, workers exposed to benzene at levels of 1ppm and higher had fewer white blood cells, such as granulocytes and B cells, than did unexposed workers.

But this also held true for the 109 workers exposed to less than 1ppm of benzene - even after controlling for smoking and other potential confounding factors.

These workers had on average 15% to 18% fewer granulocytes and B cells than did unexposed workers.

The researchers say that although these workers showed no signs of ill health, the findings suggest that low doses of benzene may have a damaging impact on bone marrow which could lead to health problems.

White blood cells, which are produced in the bone marrow, play a key role in the body's ability to fight off infection and disease.

However, Dr Richard Irons, of the University of Colorado, who is leading an industry-funded study into the effect of benzene, said it was possible that the findings recorded by the study might be due to exposure to other chemicals, or factors such as nutrition.

The researchers also studied the effect of benzene on the progenitor cells found in the bone marrow that give rise to blood cells.

They found that the ability of progenitor cells to grow and multiply declined with higher exposures.

More work needed

Dr Richard McNally, of the Cancer Research UK Paediatric and Familial Cancer Research Group, said it would be wrong to draw firm conclusions from the study.

He said: "It does not show how low-level exposure to benzene affects the risk of leukaemia, if at all.

"What it does show is that low-level exposure to benzene can lead to reduced blood cell counts.

"The observed dose-response relationship suggests this is a real result.

"However, the effects occurred within a particular genetic sub-population.

"Whether exposure to benzene would have similar effects in the UK population would depend on how many people in the UK have the genetic susceptibility described in the report, and would need to be tested through further research."

Among the institutions who took part in the research were the US National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, the Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing, the University of California, Berkeley.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4065349.stm

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Red meat consumption rheumatoid arthritis link
Publish Date : 12/3/2004 7:57:00 PM   Source : Onlypunjab.com Team

Study indicates high levels of red meat consumption as an independent risk factor in the development of inflammatory arthritis,

A chronic inflammatory disease of the immune system, rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been linked to a combination of genetic and environmental factors. Aspects of lifestyle may explain as much as 40 percent of the risk.

Cigarette smoking has consistently been found to play a role in RA's development. The role of nutritional factors is less certain. Studies have suggested the protective benefits of eating fish, the dangers of drinking coffee, and a reduction in disease risk for women who enjoy alcohol in moderation. Such associations, however, are still wide open to debate and further research.

Recently, a team of British researchers found that a diet lacking in fruit, especially varieties high in vitamin C, increases the risk of inflammatory arthritis, a common early sign of RA, as much as three-fold. Building on this compelling finding, they set out to investigate the association of other dietary habits with the onset of RA. Their results, published in the December 2004 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/arthritis), indicate a high level of red meat consumption as an independent risk factor for inflammatory arthritis.

Led by Professors Alan Silman and Deborah Symmons at the University of Manchester, the team drew its subjects from a large, established research sample--over 25,000 men and women between the ages of 45 and 75 enrolled in the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer in Norfolk, England. Within this population, 88 new patients with inflammatory arthritis, affecting at least two major joints, were identified.

Nearly 40 percent of these patients satisfied the American College of Rheumatology criteria for RA at baseline. The patients were then matched, for age, sex, and body mass index, with 176 controls. At the study's onset, each participant completed a detailed 7-day food diary, with advance instruction on measuring food portions to help them be as specific as possible in recording their intake. Each participant also supplied information on his or her past and present status as a smoker.

Patients were more likely to have been former smokers; only 35 percent of the patients had never smoked compared with 85 percent of the controls. In terms of dietary factors, patients and controls were similar in most areas, including intake of total calories, fat grams, and vitamin D, as well as coffee, tea, and alcohol consumption. Patients had a lower intake of vitamin C, although the association of this factor with disease risk was not as strong as it was in the team's previous study. The most striking difference between the two groups was directly related to red meat consumption. After adjusting for smoking and other possible dietary confounders, patients with the highest level of red meat consumption had a two-fold risk for the development of RA. Patients who consumed high levels of red meat combined with other meat products showed similar high risk levels. Interestingly, a higher level of protein intake from all dietary sources was also associated with an increased disease risk, while higher levels of dietary fats, including saturated fat, did not have an impact.

Routinely eating burgers and steak, however, may only influence people with a predisposition for RA. "It may be that the high collagen content of meat leads to collagen sensitization and consequent production of anticollagen antibodies, most likely in a subgroup of susceptible individuals," the authors note. "Meat consumption may be linked to either additives or even infectious agents, but, again, there is no evidence as to what might be important in relation to RA."

"A high level of red meat consumption may represent a novel risk factor for inflammatory arthritis or may act as a marker for a group of persons with an increased risk from other lifestyle causes," Dr. Pattison and colleagues conclude. "It is unclear whether the association is a causative one."

Article: "Dietary Risk Factors for the Development of Inflammatory Polyarthritis: Evidence for a Role of High Level of Red Meat Consumption," Dorothy J. Pattison, Deborah P.M. Symmons, Mark Lunt, Ailsa Welch, Robert Luben, Sheila A. Bingham, Kay-Tee Khaw, Nicholas E. Day, and Alan J. Silman, Arthritis & Rheumatism, December 2004; 50:12; pp. 3804-3812.

John Wiley & Sons, Inc

http://www.onlypunjab.com/real/fullstory1004-newsID-4079.html

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When Smokers Quit

Benefits Are Immediate

20 Minutes After Quitting:

Your blood pressure drops to a level close to that before the last cigarette. The temperature of your hands and feet increases to normal.

8 Hours After Quitting:

The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.

24 hours After Quitting:

Your chance of heart attack decreases.

2 Weeks-3 Months After Quitting:

Your circulation improves and your lung function increases up to 30 percent.

1-9 Months After Quitting:

Coughing, sinus congestion, fatigue, and shortness of breath decreases; cilia (tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lung) regain normal function in the lungs, increasing the ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs and reduce infection.

1 Year After Quitting:

The excess risk of coronary heart disease is half that of a smoker's.

5-15 Years After Quitting:

Your stroke risk is reduced to that of a nonsmoker 5-15 years after quitting.

10 Years After Quitting:

The lung cancer death rate is about half that of a continuing smoker's. The risk of cancer of the mouth, throat, espohagus, bladder, kidney and pancreas decreases.

15 Years After Quitting:

The risk of coronary heart disease is that of a nonsmoker's.

Source: American Cancer Society

http://www.local6.com/health/1079634/detail.html

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Suing nonsmoker denied second trial
Akron Beacon Journal (subscription), OH - 16 hours ago
AKRON - A nonsmoker who sued his neighbor over her cigarette habit has been denied a chance at a second trial. A Summit County jury ...

*google search result

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The limits of competing interest disclosures

L A Bero, S Glantz, M-K Hong

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of conflict of interest disclosure policies by comparing a competing

interests disclosure statement that met the requirements established by the journal in a 2003 article on

health effects of secondhand smoke based on the American Cancer Society CPS-I dataset with internal

tobacco industry documents describing financial ties between the tobacco industry and authors of the

study.

Design: Descriptive analysis of internal tobacco industry documents retrieved from the Legacy Tobacco

Documents Library, University of California, San Francisco.

Results: Meeting the requirements for financial disclosure established by the journal did not provide the

reader with a full picture of the tobacco industry’s involvement with the study authors. The tobacco industry

documents reveal that the authors had long standing financial and other working relationships with the

tobacco industry.

Conclusion: These findings are another example of how simply requiring authors to disclose financial ties

with the tobacco industry may not be adequate to give readers (and reviewers) a full picture of the author’s

relationship with the tobacco industry. The documents also reveal that the industry funds research to

enhance its credibility and endeavours to work with respected scientists to advance its goals. These

findings question the adequacy of current journal policies regarding competing interest disclosures and the

acceptability of tobacco industry funding for academic research.

http://tc.bmjjournals.com/cgi/data/13/4/DC1/1

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Cigarette Smoke A Culprit in Poor Healing and Increased Scarring

Related Links:

Previous press release about Martins-Green’s research on the effects of cigarette smoke on healing

Dr. Manuela Martins-Green’s laboratory Web site

Additional Contacts:

For a PDF copy of the Press Book

Manuela Martins-Green

 The University of California, Riverside is a major research institution and a national center for the humanities. Key areas of research include nanotechnology, genomics, environmental studies, digital arts and sustainable growth and development. With a current undergraduate and graduate enrollment of nearly 17,000, the campus is projected to grow to 21,000 students by 2010. Located in the heart of inland Southern California, the nearly 1,200-acre, park-like campus is at the center of the region's economic development. Visit www.ucr.edu or call 951-UCR-NEWS for more information. Media sources are available at http://www.mediasources.ucr.edu/.

http://www.newsroom.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/display.cgi?id=934

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ASH seeks cigarette tax hike
01/12/2004 - 10:51:34
The anti-smoking group ASH Ireland has said it hopes Finance Minister Brian Cowen will increase taxes on cigarettes and tobacco in today's Budget.
Spokesman Dr Fenton Howell said: "ASH Ireland have campaigned for the Minister to put the price of fags up by €2 for a packet of 20 because what we do know is that price rises do three things.
"They significantly discourage young people from starting, they help current smokers quit and they certainly encourage ex-smokers not to return."
*ireland online website

http://212.2.162.45/news/story.asp?j=125953930&p=yz5954636&n=125954690

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By-law prohibits smoking in enclosed outdoor patios

   TORONTO, Dec. 3 /CNW/ - Toronto restaurant and bar owners have been
warned that it is illegal to allow smoking in enclosed outdoor patios. The
warning was contained in a letter sent by Dr. David McKeown, Toronto's Medical
Officer of Health, to all the City's bars and restaurants this week.
    "Although a very high percentage of Toronto's bars and restaurants are
complying with the No Smoking By-law, we have a small number who try to get
around it," said Councillor John Filion, Chair of the Board of Health. "To
protect the health of the public and to be fair to all the businesses who are
following the rules, we need to take firm action against those who aren't."
    The by-law does not allow smoking in bars or restaurants, except in
approved designated smoking rooms. While inspections show that almost
98 per cent of bars and restaurants are following the rules, there have been
cases since the start of the cold weather where smoking is occurring in
enclosed outdoor patios. This is prohibited under the by-law.
    "We sent out the letter this week to make sure that the rules are clear,"
Filion said. "Anyone who continues to allow smoking in enclosed outdoor patios
will face serious consequences."
    In addition to being charged under the by-law, Filion said those who
allow smoking in enclosed outdoor patios could lose their permission to
operate a patio on city property. Those who refuse to comply with the by-law
may also have their license revoked by the City's Licensing Tribunal.
    Since June 1st, enforcement staff inspected 16,126 restaurants and bars
and found only 353 violations, for a compliance rate of 97.8 per cent during
the first six months of the final phase of the by-law.
    By-law enforcement staff will focus on ensuring enclosed outdoor patios
meet the by-law requirements over the next several weeks. The letter to
owners/operators and a backgrounder of frequently asked questions about the 
by-law are available at www.toronto.ca/health.

http://www.cnw.ca/en/releases/archive/December2004/03/c0956.html

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Proposal makes it illegal for minors to have tobacco in Mount Carmel

MOUNT CARMEL, Ill. Mount Carmel is considering a new ordinance that would make it illegal for minors to possess or use tobacco products within city limits.

The mayor of the southern Illinois community, Tom Meeks, says the ordinance would impose fines of up to 500 dollars for anyone under 18 caught with tobacco.

 Meeks says he expects the City Council to approve the measure Monday.

 Although state law prohibits the sale of tobacco products to minors, Meeks says municipalities must determine what is and isn't allowed when it comes to tobacco use.

 Mount Carmel is following in the footsteps of nearby Olney, which drafted a similar ordinance in 1997.

http://www.kwqc.com/Global/story.asp?S=2647555

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Charges under smoking ban postponed -MB

canada.com Tuesday, November 30, 2004

SELKIRK, Manitoba -- A second establishment, charged under Manitoba smoking ban, has had its case set over until next month.

Finley Michaud and Leslie Dumas, who own Finley's restaurant in Selkirk, will be back in court December 21st.

Their lawyer says he needs more time to go over evidence from the prosecution.

Monday, a business owner from Treherne, in western Manitoba, had his case put over for two weeks.

Robert Jenkinson faces 13 charges under the new Non-Smokers Health Protection Act which went into effect October 1st.

http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=a7005c07-507c-4362-b435-1f79179c188e

 

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Don't let us go to pot -AB

By JANET L. JACKSON-- Calgary Sun Wed, December 1, 2004

Don't you know that smoking pot makes you a better driver? It is surprising how many people buy into pro-pot propaganda.

John Collison's attitude and lack of facts versus fiction, on AM 1060's Western Standard Hour Radio, is pathetic. I debated with Collison on his Monday show. He believes marijuana is just another cottage industry where the state should butt out.

But Collision, like most Canadians, is woefully unaware of the practical reality -- they wink at the problem the Liberal government has created. Collison and other uninformed pro-pot proponents should support decriminalization only if they are in favour of organized crime moving into their own suburb.

At the movie theatre, it is becoming impossible to avoid taxpayer-funded anti-tobacco ads while at the same time escaping second-hand pot smoke on the way out of the show.

Federal studies show 30% of 15- to 17-year- olds and 47% of 18- to 19-year-olds used marijuana in the past year. But, is it any surprise school kids think it is healthier to toke than smoke cigarettes?

You have to dig to find facts on the Internet. Fact 1 - Marijuana's tetrahydrocannabinol THC (active drug ingredient) has increased from less then 1% in the 1960s to street marijuana today that is now approaching levels over 25% THC. Pot is no longer a "soft drug." Fact 2 -- Marijuana smoke contains 50% to 70% more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than tobacco smoke.

For those who think legalization and government taxation is the answer, sorry to purge the cloud of smoke.

Nowhere in the world is marijuana legal. Do you really want the feds taking the place of organized crime?

The newest immigration peelergate scandal and Gagliano affair will then become an accepted way of life.

Just like Mexico, or Holland -- the country with the failed drug experiment even France now criticizes.

Holland, where non-addicts carry their car radios to the bakery, hoping to avoid their cars being broken into by drug addicts, is of course the model the federal Liberals are using for Canada's drug policy.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, "a cannabis grower operating a 50 plant hydroponics operation that harvests three crops of 15% potency can realize an annual profit of $225,000 (Canadian)."

So a home with 200 plants will clear $1 million in three cycles. Post-modern crime lords don't need to rent the house they grow in, they can purchase with cash and abandon the now toxic mould condemned house when finished, leaving the city or municipality and insurance to clean up behind them.

Some $6 billion a year is now generated from grow-ops in B.C. alone -- almost one-quarter of its legal annual provincial budget.

Police, however, are urging realtors to help them bust the burgeoning basement grow-op racket.

Safety issues to also keep in mind are dangerous booby-trapped homes and home-made wiring. Allowing grow-ops to steal power from power companies are a serious cause of home fires today. Up in smoke is no longer a joke. It could mean your own home going up along with your friendly neighbourhood grow-op.

With less than $500 million spent per year to combat illicit drugs in Canada (prevention, border and police budgets included) if Paul Martin wants to get U.S. President George Bush to look at opening the border for cattle and lumber, cracking down on the Canadian grow-ops, where the lucrative goal is smuggling high-grade weed into the U.S., would be an excellent rapport-building strategy.

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/Columnists/Calgary/Janet_L_Jackson/2004/12/01/750042.html

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Bars gird for butt ban battle -MB
Rural hotel owners amassing war chest
By Jason Bell Thursday, December 2nd, 2004
SUPPORT continues to build for the first business owner charged with disobeying Manitoba's province-wide smoking ban.
Yesterday, Rural Hotel Owners spokesman Bob Desrosiers said he pulled cheques worth $3,000 out of his mailbox for the defence fund for Treherne hotelier Robert Jenkinson.
The fund now exceeds $25,000 in cash and promises of payment.
Jenkinson, owner of the Creekside Hideaway, faces 13 charges.
His case will be back in a Portage la Prairie courtroom on Dec. 13.
Desrosiers, the owner of the Brunkild Bar and Grill, said most of the money is coming from hoteliers around the province.
"We're hearing from places in Thompson, Brandon and Winnipeg," he said. "A lot of guys feel like they missed the fight the first time, and are glad to see we aren't backing down."  All three cities had municipal smoking bans in place before the Doer government forced all smokers on Oct. 1 to butt out in all indoor public and workplaces, and on some outdoor patios.  The only exemptions are in federal buildings, such as Winnipeg's downtown post office, and on First Nations.  Under the law, individuals can be fined $500 and businesses a maximum of $3,000.
Rural hotel and bar owners say the ban is going to put them out of business because smokers are staying home.
Late yesterday, Jenkinson said he was grateful business owners adversely affected by the ban are rallying behind him.
"Hopefully, it's very helpful," he said. "I'm grateful for the support."  Several bars in rural Manitoba are planning special fundraising events in the coming weeks.
Last night, Desrosiers' business hosted several local musicians, who performed for free.
"This law is hurting so many people. It's hurting bands because there are no venues available if bars can't afford to pay them," Desrosiers said.
In West St. Paul, the Rivercrest Motor Hotel held a silent auction and T-shirt sale last night in the beverage room, with proceeds destined for the defence fund.
"All the money raised is going towards fighting the legislation," said co-owner Deanne Olston. "We've seen a definite decrease in traffic."
The Winnipeg Free Press

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Government proposes new rules for cigarettes that go out when untended

Thursday, December 02, 2004

OTTAWA (CP) - Canadian cigarettes will be designed to go out when left untended under new regulations proposed by Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh.

The so-called "reduced ignition propensity" cigarette has been promoted as a way of reducing the thousands of fires caused by untended lit cigarettes every year. Tobacco manufacturers oppose the regulations, saying smokers would rather turn to contraband or roll their own than smoke the fire-safe products.

Manufacturers says the reduced-ignition cigarettes frequently go out, and a cigarette that has been relit after going out tastes awful.

The proposed regulations would require all cigarettes manufactured or imported for sale in Canada to meet the new standard by next October.

Dosanjh warned that the cigarettes should not be called fire-safe, because a burning object is never completely fire-safe.

"By reducing the ignition propensity we feel we will lower the amount of fires started by cigarettes and save more lives," he said.

http://www.canada.com/health/story.html?id=6c011170-fb3b-416c-8dbc-736c7e2c9cb5

 

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Rocket fuel chemical found in organic milk

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The government has found traces of a rocket fuel chemical in organic milk in Maryland, green leaf lettuce grown in Arizona and bottled spring water from Texas and California.

What's not clear is the significance of the data, collected by the Food and Drug Administration through Aug. 19.

Sufficient amounts of perchlorate can affect the thyroid, potentially causing delayed development and other problems.

But Environmental Protection Agency official Kevin Mayer called for calm, saying in an interview Tuesday: "Alarm is not warranted. That is clear."

"I think that it is important that EPA and FDA and other agencies come to some resolution about the toxicity of this chemical," Mayer said. "That has been, frankly, a struggle for the last few years."

The FDA found that of the various food items it tested, iceberg lettuce grown in Belle Glade, Fla., had the highest concentrations of perchlorate. The greens had 71.6 parts per billion of the compound, the primary ingredient in solid rocket propellent. Red leaf lettuce grown in El Centro, Calif., had 52 ppb of perchlorate. Most of the purified, distilled and spring bottled water tested around the nation tested had no detectable amount of perchlorate.

Whole organic milk in Maryland, however, had 11.3 ppb of perchlorate.

Asked whether that level of chemical in milk was worrisome, Mayer, the EPA's regional perchlorate coordinator for Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada, said, "The answer is, we don't know yet."

The FDA said in a statement that consumers should not change their eating habits in response to the test results, posted on the agency's Web site Friday.

The testing comes as federal agencies try find how much perchlorate people are exposed to from food so they can determine whether action is needed to protect the public health. Federal agencies have been trying since the early 1990s to determine what level of perchlorate is safe.

The state of California, meanwhile, set a standard of no more than 10 ppb of perchlorate in drinking water. That was lowered to 6 ppb in drinking water to account for the chemical also lacing food, Mayer said.

A more conservative suggestion, in a draft from the EPA, would allow no more than 1 ppb of perchlorate in drinking water.

The FDA tested lettuce samples collected at farms and packing sheds and bottled water from retail stores. Raw milk samples came from a research facility in Maryland and other milk samples were obtained from retail stores.

"These data are exploratory and should not be understood to be a reflection of the distribution of perchlorate in the U.S. food supply," the agency said in a statement. "Until more is known about the health effects of perchlorate and its occurrence in foods, FDA continues to recommend that consumers eat a balanced diet, choosing a variety of foods that are low in trans fat and saturated fat, and rich in high-fiber grains, fruits and vegetables."

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1101908786049_18?hub=SciTech

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Risks Seen in Low Exposure to Benzene

A study finds Chinese workers in contact with levels of the chemical below U.S. standards had damage in their blood.

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

 THURSDAY, Dec. 2 (HealthDayNews) -- Exposure to the commonly used chemical benzene, even at levels below current guidelines deemed to be safe, could still have harmful health effects, a new study says.

Researchers have found that workers in China who were exposed to benzene at concentrations below the current U.S. occupational standard experienced damage to their blood cells.

Whether those biological changes actually translate into health problems down the line remains to be seen. "We do not know the health consequences," said Dr. Nat Rothman, co-author of the study and a senior investigator in the division of cancer epidemiology and genetics at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). "These findings need to be independently confirmed. This is not a done deal, but it does raise a question about whether there are more serious effects occurring in the bone marrow."

The paper, which appears in the Dec. 3 issue of Science, represented a collaboration between the NCI, the University of California at Berkeley, and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Above certain levels, benzene, a hydrocarbon used in the manufacture of many common products -- including household items from plastics to pesticides to detergents -- is known to harm the blood system and to cause leukemia. As a result, the United States has set exposure limits in the workplace at one part per million of air. It hasn't been clear what effect the chemical has below that level.

Exposure to benzene is mostly an issue for workers in the oil, shipping, automobile repair, shoe manufacture and other industries. The general public can be exposed through cigarette smoke, gas and automobile emissions. There has been concern that people in urban areas are exposed to benzene via air pollution.

For this study, researchers looked at factory workers in Tianjin, China. Specifically, they compared 250 workers in a shoe factory who had been exposed to various levels of benzene to 140 controls who worked in clothing manufacturing and thus had not had any exposure.

Although other studies had looked at some of these questions before, Rothman said this paper was especially meticulous in carrying out measurements. Researchers also assessed the volunteers' out-of-work exposure to benzene and other chemicals.

Significant blood defects were found only in the workers who had been exposed to benzene, including some who were exposed to levels under the U.S. standard of one part per million. White blood cell and platelet counts were lower in the exposed workers, even if that exposure was below the standard.

Much of the damage was to the progenitor cells that give rise to different types of blood cells.

"These cells seemed to be a bit more sensitive to benzene's effect than mature cells," Rothman said. "We could only show for more highly exposed people, but even though statistical significance was only reached at higher levels, it showed that these cells are more sensitive -- and that means that perhaps monitoring people with a standard approach [i.e., monitoring mature cells] might underestimate effects."

What all of this means for health is a subject for future studies to address. "We need to understand what the long-term effects are of exposure to benzene in this particular range, what kinds of real disease. That's the bottom line," Rothman said. "We looked at people who were healthy, but we did see these biological changes. We want to confirm and understand what it means for the long term."

More information

Learn about exposure to benzene from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (www.osha.gov ).

Last Updated: December 02, 2004

Related Websites

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tates miss C-D-C-set spending levels for anti-smoking programs

WASHINGTON A report released in Washington today ranks Texas 41st in the nation in funding programs to protect children from tobacco.

A coalition of public health groups says only Maine, Delaware and Mississippi are meeting the minimum levels recommended by federal health officials.

It says all states are spending a combined 538 (M) million dollars on preventing smoking. That's about a-third of what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says should be spent.

 The head of one anti-smoking group says states are receiving (B) billions of dollars from legal settlements with cigarette makers and through raising taxes on tobacco products. He says states are getting "more and more revenue" but spending "far too little" to cut the habit.

On the Net:

Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/

http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2640529

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Safeway Settles Suit on Tobacco Sales

Thu Dec 2, 2004

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Safeway Inc. (SWY.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday agreed to pay $245,000 and boost its efforts to curb under-age cigarette sales to settle a California lawsuit charging the grocer with selling tobacco products to minors.

State Attorney General Bill Lockyer said Safeway agreed to a number of new policies, such as checking the identification of any person buying tobacco products who looks younger than 27 and using cash registers programmed to prompt checks on all such sales.

The settlement, which takes effect immediately, also requires Safeway to pay $145,000 in civil penalties and another $50,000 each to cover the state's and city of Los Angeles' costs in bringing the lawsuit.

A spokesman for Safeway -- the state's second biggest grocery chain --- could not immediately be reached for comment.

Lockyer sued Safeway last June, saying the supermarket had a worse record on under-age sales than the other major grocery chains in the nation's most populous state.

The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, sought civil penalties and asked for an injunction that would require Safeway to take action to curb tobacco sales to those under 18 years old.

Safeway, which also operates the Vons, Pavilions and Pak N' Save stores, had said that it was being singled out by Lockyer and that it was committed to keeping cigarettes out of the hands of children.

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=6981674

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Anti-smoking activist: NY's tobacco control efforts lag

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. The leader of an anti-smoking group says New York should spend a lot more to encourage residents to kick the cigarette habit.

Russell Sciandra (SHON'-druh) -- director of the Center for a Tobacco-free New York -- says a recently-released report indicates smoking has been declining in the state.

 But Sciandra says the independent evaluation shows the change isn't linked to the state's educational efforts -- it's because New York has raised its tax on cigarettes. He says restrictions on smoking in public places also have helped.

 Sciandra told a Binghamton radio station (W-N-B-F) that the tobacco industry has plenty of money and -- his words -- "very smart people" who work to respond to anti-smoking initiatives.

 Sciandra said the state needs to "keep one step ahead of them." But with New York's current program, Sciandra said, "we're about three steps behind."

http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=2641063

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December 2, 2004

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tennessee is one of only five states not to allocate any significant funding for anti-smoking efforts.

That's according to a report released Thursday by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society and American Lung Association.

 The other states are Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire and South Carolina. The District of Columbia also has not set aside money for that purpose.

 Altogether, the states have set aside $538 million for smoking prevention for fiscal 2005, which began in October and runs through September.

 That is just a third of the nearly $2 billion the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say should be spent nationwide.

 The states are expected to receive an estimated $7.1 billion this year from the tobacco industry through legal settlements they reached with cigarette makers in the late 1990s.

http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=2640184

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States Choking Anti-Smoking Cash
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2, 2004

(CBS/AP) Five states do not to allocate any significant funding for anti-smoking efforts, a coalition of public health groups said Thursday.

The states are Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The District of Columbia also has not set aside money for that purpose, the report stated.

Only three states — Maine, Delaware and Mississippi — are spending money on anti-smoking efforts at more than the minimum levels recommended by federal health officials, the report found.

Altogether, the states have set aside $538 million for smoking prevention for fiscal 2005, which began in October and runs through September. That is just a third of the $1.6 billion minimum the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say should be spent nationwide, says the report. The CDC's minimum funding recommendations for each state are based on population and other factors.

The states are expected to receive an estimated $7.1 billion this year from the tobacco industry through legal settlements they reached with cigarette makers in the late 1990s, according to the report released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society and American Lung Association.

The settlements were meant to help the states recoup the cost of treating sick smokers, and the states pledged to fund tobacco prevention programs.

In 17 states where the federal government spent $128 million to discourage tobacco, smoking dropped by about three percentage points over eight years, just over half a point more than in states without the program, a study found last year.

The program was responsible for reducing the number of smokers in the target states by about 104,000, estimated Frances A. Stillman, a researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Stillman said the 17 states included some that already had strong anti-smoking programs and some that didn't, including Michigan, Missouri and South Carolina.

She said the results showed that "states can reduce smoking prevalence and the enormous health and economic burden of smoking if they put in place proven programs and policies."

Meanwhile, states in recent years have been raising cigarette taxes, and they are slated to get nearly $13 billion in tobacco tax revenues this year, the report says.

"The states are receiving more and more revenue related to tobacco but doing far too little to fund programs to reduce tobacco use, particularly among children," said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. "They're using the money to fill short-term budget shortfalls, build roads and every other conceivable political purpose."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/02/health/main658718.shtml

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Beware: full-frontal smoking
(Filed: 02/12/2004)

Charles Spencer reviews Anna in the Tropics at Hampstead Theatre

A play is only a play, but a good cigar is a smoke. Nilo Cruz's drama about Cuban cigar-factory workers in 1920s Florida really comes to sensual life not during the obligatory bout of graphic sex but in a far more daring scene in which the characters relish the joy of tobacco. One fears such unexpurgated scenes of full-frontal smoking will soon land the actors and management in court.

In New York, theatres already post signs in their foyers warning squeamish patrons that those on stage light up, for in Manhattan smokers are now regarded with the extravagant horror once reserved for child molesters.

Even in Britain, still only trembling on the brink of the totalitarian nightmare of a public smoking ban, I have seen fastidious audience members make a big show of noisy coughing when a character takes a drag - even though most actors now wimpishly favour herbal cigarettes. Noël Coward doesn't seem quite the same with the sickly-sweet smell of Honeydew wafting into the stalls.

So to discover a play that celebrates tobacco, with love, pride and manifest affection, and without a programme plastered with government health warnings, is a real relief. The moment when the cigar factory workers light up their latest line, hold it to their ears, breathe in the fragrant smoke, and declare that "it burns like a blue dream" is pure joy.

The rest of the play's not bad either, although I have to say that, intermittently affecting though it is, Cruz's drama, which won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize in the States, sometimes seems more than a touch contrived.

The action in Indhu Rubasingham's production, with a lovely, smokily evocative design by Liz Ascroft, is set in a small family cigar factory in Tampa, Florida, in 1929.

As was the delightful custom in those times, the workers employ a "lector" to help while away the long hours of tobacco rolling by reading to them. The new lector (Enzo Cilenti ) turns out to be an absolute dish, and when he chooses to entertain them with Anna Karenina, passions become dangerously inflamed in the Florida heat.

Frankly, I didn't quite believe that the members of the family firm would fall so fatefully, and in one case fatally, under the spell of Tolstoy that they would start reliving Anna Karenina's romantic adventures on the factory floor.

I was also less than persuaded by some of the English actors' attempts to play passionate Cubans. Hitch up her skirts though she may as Conchita, and indulge in no end of rumpy-pumpy, Rachel Stirling still puts one more in mind of a dashing head girl at Roedean than a sex-crazed Latino.

Lorraine Burroughs is far more persuasive as her delightful, romance-addicted younger sister, who becomes so excited when she first meets the handsome lector that she wets herself, but whose melancholy fate is to become the object of desire of one of the factory's co-owners, Cheche.

Peter Polycarpou plays this villain of the piece in incisively sinister, cold-hearted fashion, consumed with bitterness because his wife ran off with a previous lector, and now determined to abolish the tradition and replace human workers with machines.

There's strong support from Joseph Mydell as the factory's dignified, decent boss, filled with remorse about his cockfighting debts (this is a show to anger every kind of anti) and from Diana Quick as his furious, passionate wife, who regards the lector almost as fondly as her daughters.

In the final analysis, Anna in the Tropics seems just a little too intent on charming the pants off its audience, but it certainly makes one feel better about lighting up that post-show cigarette.

tobacco on stage

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Rude Depp refuses to put out cigarette:

[Hollywood News]: Los Angeles, Dec 2 : Hollywood superstar Johnny Depp shocked an American woman in a London restaurant by refusing to put out his cigarette.

"I'm sorry, but we're not in LA any more," the Oscar nominated Depp bluntly told the woman.

The star of "Pirates of the Caribbean" was dining in the smoking area at Scalini's, when the unidentified woman took offence to his smoking and asked him to extinguish the cigarette, media reports said.

Anti-smoking laws are far more stringent in the US than they are in Britain.

--Indo-Asian News Service

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=45564

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Bar owner says bylaw unfair -ON
C-K scores first smoking conviction against a proprietor
By Ellwood Shreve
Local News - Tuesday, November 30, 2004 @ 09:00
After months of delays, the Municipality of Chatham-Kent has a conviction under its no-smoking bylaw.
Kosta Tsinias, owner of the Metro Lounge Restaurant and Bar, was fined under the section of the bylaw that states a “proprietor or person in charge of a public place did permit smoking.”
Tsinias received a $255 fine.
This charge is not among the several pending against other establishments and individuals, which have been delayed because of a charter challenge in
Toronto.
The municipality has seen several individuals charged under the bylaw simply pay the fine and not contest it in court, said Lee Holling, chief bylaw
enforcement officer.
“Things are moving forward,” said Holling. “We’re continuing to charge . . .we laid charges (under the bylaw) as late as the weekend.”
Tsinias told The Chatham Daily News he defended himself during a hearing at the Provincial Offences Court on Friday to make the point that the bylaw
needs to be amended.
The bar owner said he supports the bylaw, but was upset the charge laid on Oct. 9 resulted from two people smoking in a dark corner around 1 a.m. while
the place was full.
Tsinias said he didn’t find out about the charge until the next day.
“I would have enforced (the bylaw). But, I cannot have eyes in every corner.”
There’s no justice in the bylaw, said Tsinias, adding, “it doesn’t deter (patrons) from smoking.”
He noted the downtown Chatham bar attracts people from outside the community where there is no smoking bylaw.
He said the first question he asks someone who lights up in his bar is where they are from. He noted most often the customers are from out of town,
adding they normally comply when informed about the bylaw.

how many milions $ did it take to get $255 fine?

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COMMENT TO EDMONTON SUN
Thank You Kerry Diotte, for being a reasonable reporter.    I have found that there aren't that many in Ontario.  Did you realize there has been deaths and suicides due to the smoking issue.  Nov. 2 there was a 70 yr. old die because he had a alley to his driveway in Peterborough, ON next to a high school?  The kids were feeling threatened after he had hit them with his mirror.  What I wonder is why isn't the public upset that this whole situation that is "for the good of the public".  I don't agree with kids smoking, but the brain washing and untruths that are being said isn't  good for science or the confidence of the public, in science.
 I, no longer have any trust in science and have had to start to understand what a doctor reads.  Yes, people can learn the "relative risk" statement is at 20%, but did you also know that same risk isn't out of 100%?  Did you also know that the statistic they state so clearly in the paper, and cigarette packs,  isn't based on the amount of cancer cases due to cigarettes?  It's based on their risk factors, and then put into a computer program called SEMMAC.  Ask the local Cancer Society for a name of someone who has died from second hand smoke.  I dare you; you won't get one name.
 I find it funny that, with pollution is becoming a concern; the numbers are close to the same as  cigarettes?   I find it hard to believe the Heather Crowe case is what they report.  First who would benefit from the case being due to second hand smoke?  Second who is the people that are saying the case is due to second hand smoke?  Aren't they the same people that benefit, yet they report this?
 If she had a life debilitating disease, why did they not give Heather Crowe millions or hundreds of thousands; instead of 10's of thousands?  There are far too many questions that arise once you see some facts they don't want you to see. 

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Governor releases proposed budget -OR

Electronic slot games would be added to benefit state troopers

STEVE LAW Statesman Journal December 1, 2004

Gov. Kulongoski today proposed adding electronic slot machines to the Oregon Lottery, a move that would provide stable funding to keep state troopers on the highways.
The governor made his recommendation as part of his proposed two-year state budget for the upcoming 2005-07 biennium.
His proposals will be used by the 2005 Legislature as a starting point to frame the budget when lawmakers arrive in Salem next month.
The governor said adding so-called “line games” to the lottery was his toughest decision in the budget. Despite his long-held opposition to expanding the lottery, he realized his budget would not halt a more than 20-year slide in trooper strength on state highways. Kulongoski said the plan would end a long period of instability for the Oregon State Police and its troopers.
Kulongoski’s nearly $12 billion general fund and lottery budget would provide $5 billion for public schools. That’s about $100 million more than current state funding, which is not enough to keep pace with rising enrollment, salary and benefits demands and other inflationary costs. However, Kulongoski noted that school districts can anticipate much-higher federal funding to serve low-income students, plus significantly higher local property taxes.
He also wants school districts to save money by pooling all their workers into one health insurance plan, and by consolidating their payroll and other administrative functions under the auspices of regional Educational Service Districts.
The governor flatly opposed a proposal to restore a 10-cents-per-pack cigarette tax that was canceled by voters in January, as well as an increase in the minimum corporate tax. Kulongoski also said he wouldn’t sign those tax-raising bills if they are passed by the Legislature.
The governor’s recommendations also would:
•Provide money for pay raises for state workers, ending the current wage freeze.
•Put pressure on state workers to pay more in doctor’s visit co-pays and monthly health insurance premiums.
•Reduce the state work force by about 800 people, primarily affecting four-year universities.
•Anticipates university tuition increases in the 5 percent to 7 percent range for each of the next two years.
•Ends state funding for advocacy commissions for women, African-Americans, Hispanics, and Asian-Americans, but provides money for a single commission that would focus on diversity matters.
Kulongoski also proposed a new rainy day fund that would begin to build up state reserves for future economic downturns. However, new money wouldn’t go into the fund until the next budget cycle in 2007-09.
http://159.54.226.83/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041201/NEWS/41201002/1001

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CPSC Votes to Start Development of Mandatory Standard for Cigarette Lighters -USA

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted unanimously (2-0) yesterday to start development of a mandatory safety standard for cigarette lighters.  The mandatory standard could be based on the current voluntary "Standard Consumer Safety Specification for Lighters" (ASTM F-400) to prevent mechanical malfunction of lighters.
    (Logo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030904/USCSCLOGO )
    "Reducing fire deaths is one of our top priorities," said CPSC Chairman Hal Stratton.  "A mandatory standard for cigarette lighters -- along with standards for the flammability of mattresses and upholstered furniture -- would help reduce fires, deaths, and injuries."
    There are approximately one billion cigarette lighters sold in the U.S. annually.  About 400 million of those are imported from China.  From 1997 through 2002, CPSC estimated that 3,015 people went to hospital emergency rooms for injuries resulting from malfunctioning lighters.  Most of these injuries involved thermal burns to the face, hands, and fingers.  For the same time period, CPSC received 256 incident reports related to cigarette lighter malfunctions and failures; 65 percent of these cigarette lighter failures resulted in fires, leading to 3 deaths and 6 serious injuries.
    The voluntary standard for lighters addresses the risk of fire, death, and injury associated with mechanical malfunction of lighters.  A mandatory standard would apply to imported as well as domestically-manufactured products.
    "Fires are a leading cause of consumer product related deaths," said Chairman Stratton.  "By developing fire safety standards for mattresses, upholstered furniture, and cigarette lighters, CPSC can help save many lives while maintaining reasonable cost to consumers and manufacturers."
    CPSC Commissioner Thomas Moore said he voted to grant the petition because it would allow additional fact-finding about deaths and injuries and about industry compliance, which would help determine whether federal regulation is warranted in this area.
    CPSC already has a mandatory standard for child-resistant cigarette lighters which addresses the hazard of children under 5 years of age starting fires with lighters.  That standard for child-resistance applies to imported as well as domestically-manufactured disposable and novelty lighters.
    Fire deaths associated with children playing with lighters dropped dramatically since the mandatory standard for child-resistance became effective in July 1994 -- from 230 in 1994 to 130 in 1998.  Children under age 5 accounted for 170 of the deaths in 1994 and 40 of the deaths in 1998.  In
1994, there were 10,400 residential fires associated with children playing with lighters.  By 1998, that number declined to 5,500 fires.
    Even lighters with child-resistant mechanisms are not child-proof, so all lighters should always be kept out of the reach of children.
    The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of serious injury or death from more than 15,000 types of consumer products under the agency's jurisdiction.  Deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $700 billion annually.  The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard.  The CPSC's work to ensure the safety of consumer products -- such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals -- contributed significantly to the 30 percent decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

new lighter regulation talks

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Anti-Smoking Treaty Takes Effect Outside U.S.

All Things Considered, December 1, 2004 · The world's first public health treaty is set to become international law, but the United States has yet to ratify it. The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control will change the way cigarettes are marketed and sold around the world. Hear NPR's Debbie Elliott.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4195576

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Emissions double heatwave risk  -UK

By Richard Black  BBC environment correspondent

Emissions of greenhouse gases have more than doubled the risk of European heatwaves similar to last year's, according to a study by UK scientists.

In 2003, temperatures across western Europe soared by several degrees Celsius above normal - and five degrees in the case of Switzerland.

It is thought that the unusually hot summer caused tens of thousands of excess deaths.

Details of the study appear in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

Oxford University and UK Meteorological Office researchers behind the new study say it may soon be possible to hold nations and companies responsible for such events.

 

"This study suggests a way in which one might be able to link greenhouse gas emissions to actual harm," Oxford's Professor Myles Allen told the BBC.

He co-authored two pieces in Nature - the scientific analysis which calculated the risk, and, in an unusual collaboration with barrister Richard Lord from Brick Court Chambers in London, a commentary looking at how the law might view this science.

"I'm not suggesting we have done the whole thing yet, to the satisfaction of a judge and jury, but we are showing how a method could be applied in this direction," he said.

Taking responsibility

With other forms of environmental damage, it is relatively straightforward to assign responsibility and so determine who is liable for reparations.

Climate change is much more complex in that it is a global phenomenon, and has many causes.

This study is one of the first attempts to link rising levels of greenhouse gases to specific weather events.

Last year's European summer appears to have been the warmest for five hundred years; and by running computer models of climate, these researchers calculated that greenhouse gases from human activities have more than doubled the chances of such heatwaves occurring.

Professor Allen believes this approach could one day allow individuals harmed by climate change to seek compensation - and makes an analogy with how the courts deal with cigarette-smoking.

"People have always got lung cancer, before they started smoking," he said, "but obviously smoking significantly increases the risk of lung cancer; and on those grounds courts have, in a number of jurisdictions, decided that smoking was therefore an effective cause.

"Now, a lot depends on how much the court would want the factor in question to have increased the risk before they were prepared to intervene.

"But the interesting result coming out of this paper is that we are seeing human contributions to risk of a half, three-quarters or so, which is the kind of substantial increase in risk which starts to get the courts interested."

Legal obligations

Already, a number of legal cases have been filed citing damage from climate change.

Just last week a delegation of conservationists and lawyers filed a petition with Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) asking it to rule that governments must cut back greenhouse gas emissions in order to conform with their legal obligations under the World Heritage Convention.

These scientists believe that more sophisticated computer models of climate will soon make it possible to assign blame for environmental harm stemming directly from increasing temperatures.

But calculating the contribution of greenhouse gas emissions to other extreme weather events, such as hurricanes, will be more difficult.

It looks like being a hot issue for Europeans - Nature's scientific paper suggests many more summers like 2003 are on the way.

"We estimate that the risk is increasing all the time as a result of the warming of the climate," Dr Peter Stott, another author on the paper, told the BBC.

"In fact, our predictions say that if we carry on without serious attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, then we could be experiencing a summer like the one we had in 2003 in Europe every other year."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/4059497.stm

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Nicole Kidman told to butt out
December 02, 2004

NICOLE Kidman, who infuriated anti-smoking groups by lighting up at a press conference last year, is facing renewed calls to quit - at least in public.
The Hollywood star's nomination by NSW this week as Australian of the Year, coupled with her public puffing, sends the message to young women that it's OK to smoke, lobbyists warned today.

"Her public smoking does reinforce the wrong message, that smoking and glamour and success go together for young women," Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Australia chief executive Ann Jones said.

"I would hope that, with this latest award, she's conscious of how her smoking does affect young people," Ms Jones said.

"She's in a very unique position now to contribute to improving the health of women, not only Australian women but worldwide."

The 35-year-old Oscar winner was named NSW Australian of the Year on Tuesday. That places her in the running for the prestigious national gong, which Centrebet has her odds on to win.

However in May 2003, Kidman, who campaigns against breast cancer, smoked through a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival while promoting her film Dogville.

The film's director, Lars Von Trier, sitting beside her, quipped: "Oh Nicole, don't do that, you promised."

A year later, an Australian government-commissioned report predicted smoking could soon overtake breast cancer as the nation's biggest killer of women.

Already more than 6,000 Australian women die from smoking-related illness each year. Over one-fifth of Australian women are smokers.

"There's a great opportunity for Nicole to improve the health of Australian women by actually not smoking in such a public way," Ms Jones said.

"Why are young women taking up smoking? We have too many pro-smoking messages in films that have glamourised smoking and associated smoking with success and glamour and independence - all of the things Nicole embodies."

The Cancer Council Australia's anti-tobacco chair, Andrew Ellerman, said Kidman had sent the wrong message when she "quite clearly and publicly flaunted her smoking when it was quite unnecessary at those press conferences."

"At the very least, you'd have to say that it'd be much more responsible for her to not smoke in public, if not to make a decision to quit."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11567423%255E1702,00.html

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Appleton Smoking Ban Goes Up in Smoke -WI

Appleton's city council rejected a proposed workplace smoking ban by the narrowest of margins.

After more than three hours of discussion at Wednesday night's meeting, the council voted 8-8 on the smoking ban. It was left to Mayor Tim Hanna to cast the tie-breaking vote, and he voted against the ban.

The proposed ordinance would have banned smoking in all workplaces, including restaurants and bars.

Proposed amendments were rejected. They would have exempted bars, or delayed enforcing the ordinance until more than half of surrounding communities also had smoking bans.

One concept they did agree on was, if a ban were enforced then bars and restaurants should be held to the same standard.

But, alder Jerome Hiller, said, "A lot of the business owners have put all of their money into it. We don't belong telling them what they have to do with their business when it comes to this. We don't belong doing that. We regulate them enough as it is."

"I'm not happy about it because I truly believe that this is a health issue," alder Cathy Spears said during the council's discussion.

"If we all thought honestly about the people who called us about this in the last couple months, our constituents overwhelmingly want us to vote for a 100-percent workplace ordinance," Leslie Spears said.

But fellow council member Carl Brooker countered, "My constituents did not openly support the ban. I've had some, but my vast majority said not to" pass the smoking ban.

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=2638390&nav=51s7Tjzt

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Price of freedom lost in hazy cloud of secondhand smoke -OH

By TONY MESSENGER Wednesday, December 1, 2004

Monday is smoking night.

Actually, it’s bowling night, but judging by the reaction of my family when I return home each week, I might as well have been sucking down a pack of Marlboros rather than rolling a ball down a lane and trying to hang on to my pitiful 136 average.

Each Monday night, I proudly don my "Big Mess" bowling shirt, and several hours later I immediately take it off and try to protect it from a ceremonial burning as I walk into my house to shrieks of "Gross!"

There’s no doubt that I arrive home smelling like a giant smoldering cigarette even though I haven’t smoked one all night. In fact, except for a couple of college nights of foolishness and the occasional celebratory cigar, I’ve never smoked. Such is life in the bowling alley world, however. Many folks in the Monday night league are smokers. They have their section, back away from the bowling area, and those of us who don’t smoke play a weekly game of trying to get a table that keeps us from direct contact with wafting smoke. It’s impossible really, but we try anyway. Even on nights when we’re successfully free of the blowing smoke zone, we still come home reeking.

A group of Columbians is in the process of trying to change that. Along with like-minded folks all over the nation and the world, the group is trying to move Columbia into the realm of a smoke-free society. The movement is picking up steam in the United States, with places from Boulder, Colo., to New York City banning smoking in public places, even restaurants and bars, even bowling alleys. Like a fast-moving locomotive, support is building for a vote that will add Columbia to the list of healthy cities that make it possible to go out and have a night of bowling without coming home and smelling like an ashtray.

It sounds like a fair enough idea. Smoking is unhealthy. With the exception of a few stubborn teenagers who believe they’re invincible, every breathing human being in the United States knows that. Smoking kills. Secondhand smoke kills, too. Besides that, it smells. It’s dirty. You can’t walk into a smoky bowling alley or a bar without coming out smelling like somebody flicked ashes all over you for a couple of hours.

It’s why this issue is so important to Columbians. It’s time to take a stand.

That’s why - with apologies to my wife and children, and particularly to the abuse I heap upon my poor bowling shirt each week - I stand firmly for the only value that should matter when it comes to banning things in Columbia or anywhere else.

I stand for freedom.

It doesn’t matter that I don’t smoke. It doesn’t matter that I don’t like the smell. It doesn’t matter that I think the industry puts profits over health. It doesn’t matter that I hate the fact that my 21-year-old son smokes and that my grandfather’s life was cut short because of years of tobacco abuse.

It matters that our country, in the name of one group’s vision of a healthy society, has found it appropriate to ban legal substances and cause irreparable harm to businesses whose only sin has been following the law. My friend Ron Leone, another nonsmoker who believes in freedom, put it best in an opinion piece he wrote a few years ago: "Freedoms once lost are all but impossible to restore."

How perverted have the attempts by healthy special interests been to change our laws by banning legal activity? The latest health bandwagon has been the anti-obesity efforts, built on what many scientists have called flawed statistics that show America getting wider around the middle. Last week’s announcement by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that its recently released obesity morbidity statistics were off by 80,000 or more is a case in point. Advocates pointed to the numbers as a sign that obesity is overtaking smoking as the leading cause of death, but the fact is it’s not true.

Meanwhile, we have local governments forcing changes in what our children are eating, affecting market economies because of special interest pressure.

It’s un-American, I say.

Smoking is still legal in this country. So is sucking down an extra-large Imo’s pizza. Healthy? No. But until pizza and cigarettes are illegal, then it’s not government’s place to affect their status in the marketplace.

Unless government commits to the same process that occurs when it takes a person’s land so it can build a new highway - reasonable compensation determined by the market - this movement to ban smoking in private businesses that make their living on folks who want to come in and have a beer and a cigarette is an unconstitutional taking.

How silly will Columbia look if it bans smoking months after passing an ordinance to make it easier to possess marijuana, an illegal drug? How inconsistent is it that some of the same folks who rail against the Patriot Act for taking away our freedoms want to do the same thing to merchants who happen to participate in a business that some folks simply don’t approve of?

On Mondays, I smell like smoke because I like to bowl. That’s my choice. Just like it was my grandfather’s choice to smoke cigars until it killed him. I still remember a birthday one year when my grandmother bought a cake for me. My party had to be moved back a day because of a snowstorm, so she stored the cake in her refrigerator. When she and my grandfather came over the next day, all of us bit into our first bites of birthday cake and stared at each other as we tried to determine the flavor.

It was Cohiba, I believe. After one day at my grandfather’s house, nothing escaped the stench of cigar smoke.

I ate the cake and asked for a second piece.

Smoke be damned, I thought. It’s my birthday, and I’m eating my cake.

Let the anti-smoking crusaders eat their cake, too, I say. But keep their unconstitutional laws off our books.

Otherwise, our freedom will go up in smoke.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2004/Dec/20041201Feat001.asp

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Pokies expected to suffer as gamblers take a smoko break -NZ

By HEATHER McCRACKEN03 December 2004

Next week's smoking ban will see pokie players abandoning their machines for a cigarette - and some may not go back.

The Gambling Problem Helpline Service says the ban, which comes into effect next Friday, will lead to an immediate reduction in gambling.

But chief executive Gary Clifford says after an initial drop off, he believes the industry will adapt and eventually recover.

"There will be a short term downturn, but by this time next year we are predicting it will be back up," Mr Clifford says.

Forcing gamblers to go outside for a cigarette could have a big impact on playing habits, he says.

"For many people that will mean a break in concentration, and they may not go back in.

"The major symptom of problem gambling tends to be the amount of time spent playing. Forcing the concentration to break can prevent the problem occurring."

It may lead to a new trend of more people playing the pokies for shorter periods, he says.

"There will be other attractions to bring people back, and one of the attractions will be a smoke free environment."

Gaming machines are operated by licensed corporate societies who funnel the proceeds back to the community through grants.

Gaming venues receive a set operating fee for each machine.

Manager of gambling operator the South Auckland Charitable Trust, Shane Cosgrove, says the smoking ban will affect them, but he's not sure how much.

"It will have an impact on gambling because people will go outside to have a cigarette which reduces playing time.

"But I support the ban, it's clean air and a healthy environment," he says.

He has looked at the effects of similar bans overseas, but says the impact will depend on the proportion of gamblers who smoke.

Barry O'Shaugnessey, owner of the Prospect of Howick, estimates between 80 and 90 per cent of gamblers at the bar are also smokers.

He believes the ban will affect the gaming machines, but this won't greatly affect his business - serving drinks.

"There will be a downturn in money going through the pokies," he says.

"But people who play pokies and the people who drink in the bar - there is some cross over, but they are two different beasts," he says.

Duty manager Peter Lomas at the Crook and Flail in Meadowlands says he will wait and see what happens after next week.

"It's one of those questions everyone's got an opinion on, but until it happens, no one really knows," he says.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/sundaystartimes/auckland/0,2106,3115874a6497,00.html

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Taking a stand on smoking  -NZ

By KAMALA HAYMAN 02 December 2004
A Banks Peninsula publican is prepared to risk having his establishment closed down by flouting the new anti-smoking law.

John van Buren, who runs Teddington's Wheatsheaf Tavern, is urging other publicans to back his stand against the Smokefree Environments Amendment Act, that requires all pubs, bars and clubs to be smokefree from December 10.

His decision to allow smoking in his tavern could lead to him being fined or losing his licence.

"The District Licensing Authority, I believe, will step in and close us down. It's a risk you have got to run," van Buren said. "Our tavern will continue to operate as it has since 1875."

Not only did he smoke, van Buren said, but his four staff all also smoked and 90 per cent of his regular drinkers smoked.

"We feel we are not impinging on anyone's civil rights by exposing them to second-hand cigarette smoke.

"We think people that drink are generally the people that smoke and after a day's work they want a beer and they want to have a cigarette."

Non-smokers came for the social interaction and had no complaints about others smoking, he added.

Van Buren became publican at the Wheatsheaf 10 months ago and said it was a struggling country pub. "It was a tough winter and now I'm getting another kick in the guts from the Government."

There should have been a referendum on the smoking ban, he said.

Van Buren, who has smoked for 30 of his 41 years, said he was not concerned about the health risks of smoking.

"At the end of the day it's a choice thing, and I enjoy smoking."

Wheatsheaf Tavern patron and smoker Ken Boswell wholeheartedly supported the stance taken by van Buren.

"If it's non-smoking it will put a lot of people off coming here.

"It would stop me going to the pub," said Boswell, who visits the tavern three or four times a week.

"I have always got a smoke in my hand when I have a drink.

"One goes with the other."

Tavern duty manager Sharon Burke said she wanted the right to smoke as she worked, just as she had done for 20 years.

She supported the tavern's stance despite the risk it posed to her employment.

"We are not quite sure what is going to happen," Burke said.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/thepress/0,2106,3114888a6009,00.html

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Tobacco laws unconstitutional, Que. court hears

Canadian Press

MONTREAL— A federal law that bans tobacco sponsorship, restricts advertising and requires large warnings on cigarette packs is unconstitutional, lawyers for Canada's three largest tobacco companies argued Monday.

Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. and JTI-Macdonald Corp. began five days of hearings on an appeal of a Quebec Superior Court decision upholding the 1997 federal Tobacco Act.

The companies argued the law which prohibits lifestyle advertising effectively constitutes a total ban on advertising, something the Supreme Court of Canada ruled was unconstitutional in 1995.

The industry isn't asking for "unlimited freedom of advertising of tobacco products,'' lawyer Simon Potter said outside the courtroom.

"But there should be a small window, there should be some possibility for Canadians to receive advertising about products that they have a right to buy,'' said Potter, who's representing Imperial Tobacco.

The companies said a 2002 Quebec Superior Court ruling upholding the federal law failed to address several key constitutional issues and contained numerous factual errors.

The federal government, the Canadian Cancer Society and anti-tobacco advocates said they'll argue the law is constitutionally valid.

"The law permits informative advertising and brand preference, and that's the question that the court will have to answer,'' said government lawyer Claude Joyal.

Rob Cunningham, lawyer for the cancer society, said while the restrictions on advertising and promotion infringe on freedom of expression, they're justified as a reasonable limit under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"We believe that these laws are essential to protect public health in Canada, to reduce smoking among adults and among children,'' said Cunningham.

"And it's working.''

The youth smoking rate at 18 per cent is the lowest ever recorded. Smoking among adults has decreased to 21 per cent, compared with 30 per cent before these laws were enforced, he said.

Global efforts since Canada's law was enacted shows it's not out of step with the rest of the world, added Cunningham.

"There are many countries that have laws stronger than Canada and even more will join that category.''

Since May 2003, 168 countries have signed a World Health Organization agreement that once enacted would set international standards on tobacco price, tax increases, advertising, sponsorship, labelling and second-hand smoke.

The European Union, Thailand, Japan, Mexico and Australia are among 36 countries that have ratified the framework agreement that includes requirements for picture-based package warning.

Canada has not ratified the agreement that takes effect once 40 countries have ratified it. However, Canada requires that warnings such as pictures of diseased lungs occupy half the space on cigarette packages.

Australia requires 60 per cent of the package to contain warnings. Belgium's ratio is 56 per cent.

The Quebec Court of Appeal can only review evidence and pleadings introduced to the lower court prior to its ruling in 2002.

Despite the changes since then, Canada remains the most highly regulated countries in the world on tobacco advertising, said Christina Dona, an Imperial Canada spokeswoman.

"We still don't feel that the World Health Organization is talking about infringing rights, they're just calling for restrictions on advertising that we fully agree with,'' she said.

"We're just looking for a law that will allow us in some way to communicate with adult consumers in a way that is deemed appropriate.'

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1101765563257_11/?hub=Canada

 

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Manitoba bar owners want province's help with economic fallout of smoking ban

Steve Lambert  Monday, November 29, 2004

WINNIPEG (CP) -- Manitoba bar owners want more help to deal with the economic fallout of the province's new smoking ban, but the government said Monday it has already done what it can.

"I think we've done lots," Industry Minister Jim Rondeau said.

"We've put what we can right now on the table. And what we want to do is listen to see how the businesses can adapt."

The anti-smoking law took effect Oct. 1 and bans puffing in all enclosed public places expect for native reserves and areas under federal jurisdiction. Bar owners say they have lost business since the law came in.

The Manitoba Hotel Association, which represents hundreds of bars across the province, has been pushing for changes that could allow its members to take in more money.

One idea is to allow beverage rooms, which are currently not permitted to allow minors, to open for family-friendly community events off-hours.

Another proposal would see cold beer stores located in hotels no longer barred from selling non-beer products.

"For example, the vodka coolers, we aren't able to sell them," said association president Jim Baker. "They're only available at the government stores, so we would like to have them too."

But Rondeau said the government has already taken several steps such as allowing bars to operate video lottery terminals on Sundays. The government has also allowed bars to offer more types of gaming -- all in an attempt to attract customers.

The government is seeing its own revenues shrink because of the smoking ban. Revenues at its two casinos in Winnipeg dropped by about 20 per cent in the months after the city enacted a municipal smoking bylaw last year.

Still, Rondeau is predicting a turnaround for both provincial and business coffers.

"All jurisdictions that have gone non-smoking, have within a very short period of time exceeded previous (sales).

"If you look at the stats in California, if you look at the stats in other places that have gone non-smoking, over the years the retail has increased."

About 45 rural bar owners have banded together to try to overturn the smoking ban. They have raised tens of thousands of dollars for court battles.

"(The government) is grossly interfering with people's businesses," said spokesman Gary Desrosiers.

"We're also looking at the inequality under the law between us and the native reserves. We have properties that are literally two or three miles from big bingo halls and gambling houses . . . where the customers can still go and smoke. And that's where they're going."

A handful of charges have already been laid under the smoking law. One restaurant owner was due in court Tuesday in Selkirk, north of Winnipeg, while the case of a Treherne hotelier has been postponed to Dec. 13.

Robert Jenkinson, owner Creekside Hideaway, was in Portage la Prairie court Monday to face 13 charges of violating the anti-smoking law. He was the first business owner charged under the new law.

Saskatchewan hotel owners are also worried about what will happen when that province's anti-smoking law takes effect Jan. 1

The Hotels Association of Saskatchewan met with three provincial cabinet ministers Monday to talk about the provincewide ban.

But Health Minister John Nilson said the government is not considering the association's idea of designated smoking rooms.

"The law is clear that it doesn't have a provision that would allow for designated smoking rooms," Nilson said.

http://www.canada.com/national/story.html?id=e8078353-2b76-40ec-a248-f759198a1d44

 

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High Doses of Beta Carotene Pose Lingering Threats
By Kathleen Doheny HealthDay Reporter

TUESDAY, Nov. 30 (HealthDayNews) -- Twenty years ago, high doses of beta carotene were thought to have cancer-preventing power, and two large clinical trials were launched to determine if it might reduce lung cancer among cigarette smokers.

But the disease-fighting properties of beta carotene, a carotenoid which the body converts into vitamin A, fell far short, the studies found. One trial was even halted before its scheduled end because of the adverse effects of high doses of beta carotene supplement: it appeared to raise the risk of lung cancer, as well as death from heart disease and other causes.

Now, it appears that some of the adverse effects of high beta carotene doses can persist for women in particular, according to a study in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

For the new study, researchers followed up with the participants in one of the trials -- the Beta-Carotene and Retinol Efficacy Trial (CARET) for six years after it ended in 1996.

They found the increased risk of death from heart disease disappeared quickly after the participants -- all smokers or former smokers or persons with a history of asbestos exposure -- stopped taking the supplements. However, the incidence of lung cancer and deaths from all causes decreased but didn't disappear. And former smokers and women had higher risk of lung cancer than did others in the study.

"CARET stopped a year and a half early," said Mark D. Thornquist, a biostatistician at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and a co-author of the new study. "Those who got the beta carotene [supplementation] had a higher incidence of lung cancer and overall mortality."

During the CARET study, the participants who took the supplement had a 28 percent greater incidence of lung cancer and 17 percent more deaths from all causes compared with those who didn't take the beta carotene. In the study, the beta carotene dose given was 30 milligrams a day, combined with 25,000 international units of retinyl palmitate, also thought to be a cancer fighter.

Thornquist and his colleagues followed the CARET trial participants to find out if the adverse effects of beta carotene went away as soon as people stopped taking the supplement.

The participants were contacted annually to update information on lung cancer and other health data, he said.

During this follow-up phase, women who took beta carotene were 1.3 times likelier to develop lung cancer than women who were on a placebo. They were also 1.4 times likelier to die of heart disease and 1.3 times likelier to die from all other causes.

"For men, the results of the vitamin went away within a year or so," Thornquist said. "In women, the effect appeared to be persistent."

Exactly why isn't known, he said, adding, "Men and women may have different abilities to repair DNA damage."

Hormonal differences may mean men and women metabolize beta carotene differently, he said. "Beta carotene tends to be stored in body fat, and women tend to have more body fat," he noted.

The results of the new study aren't surprising, said Anna Duffield-Lillico, an assistant attending epidemiologist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City, who co-authored an editorial accompanying the study. The fact that the risk of lung cancer and death was still elevated after use of the supplement was stopped "provides confirmation of the adverse effects of beta carotene supplements on lung cancer incidence in smokers."

High levels of beta carotene and exposure to cigarette smoke have proven a dangerous combination in animal studies, she said, leading to the rapid development of precancerous lesions.

The best advice, Duffield-Lillico and Thornquist agreed, is to avoid high doses of beta carotene. The CARET study's 30 milligrams a day is "about 10 times what you would get from a typical daily vitamin supplement," Thornquist said.

"We have no evidence that [the amount of beta carotene in] a typical multivitamin would be harmful," Thornquist added.

Beta carotene is found naturally in carrots, spinach and other dark-green leafy vegetables, broccoli and winter squash.

More information

To learn more about beta carotene, visit the National Library of Medicine

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2004/11/30/hscout522623.html

 

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Farmers await word on tobacco payments -KY
Companies say buyout ends deal  

By Marcus Green The Courier-Journal

Tobacco farmers are awaiting an announcement from the U.S. Agriculture Department that could help decide whether they will get one last payment from the 1998 settlement between states and cigarette makers.

At stake in the decision, which could come today, is $128 million for Kentucky growers. The payments from the Master Settlement Agreement are to end once the tobacco buyout takes effect.

Shelbyville, Ky., farmer Paul Hornback expects his 2004 check to exceed $30,000 — money he plans to plow into his 90-acre tobacco operation. He said other farmers are counting on the money as well.

"I think it's very significant because growers have already budgeted for that money coming in," Hornback said.

But the tobacco companies have challenged the payments in a North Carolina court, claiming that the congressional buyout became effective this year and therefore nullifies their remaining 2004 payments. They also are asking for a refund of millions of dollars already made to the trust fund established for the payments, called Phase II.

QUICK TAKE

Last we knew

A North Carolina judge said he expects to rule Dec. 20 on whether tobacco companies must make another payment to tobacco farmers as part of the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement called Phase II.

The latest

Growers could know today whether U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman has notified cigarette makers that they must make their first payment under the tobacco buyout, a possible indicator as to when Phase II ends and the buyout begins.

Why it's news

Many Kentucky growers stand to gain about $128 million in 2004 Phase II payments and many already have budgeted the money.

For more info

www.ncbusinesscourt.net

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Cigarette makers are responsible for funding the buyout, which President Bush signed into law as part of a sweeping corporate tax bill in October. The buyout will give growers $10.1 billion over the next decade to quit raising leaf, switch to new crops or exit the business.

 Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman must give the tobacco companies at least 30 days' notice before the first buyout assessment is due. If Veneman has notified the companies by today that their first assessment must be paid by Dec. 31, that likely would bolster their case that the buyout becomes effective this year.

Attorney General Greg Stumbo's office believes that if the assessment notice isn't issued by today, the court will rule that the companies need to make their fourth-quarter Phase II payments and are not entitled to a refund for previous payments.

"We're really hopeful, of course, that that assessment is not issued until some later time," said Pierce Whites, Kentucky's deputy attorney general.

If the companies are "successful in arguing that this goes into effect in 2004, they're going to seek a refund of their first three quarters' payments — and that's going to be an additional $320 million."

The growers' trust allows the companies to reduce their payments if a change in the law leads to new taxes or assessments by the government. The companies say the buyout triggered that provision and gives them an immediate right to begin lowering payments.

It's possible that so-called Phase I payments — money from cigarette makers used to fund Kentucky's agricultural diversification efforts — could be shifted to cover the lost Phase II money if the companies' challenge succeeds.

Kentucky law requires Phase I money to be used to supplement Phase II funds should they fall below $114 million a year. But Kara Keeton, spokeswoman for the Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy, said legislators could amend the law in an effort to avoid depleting Phase I funds.

"The legislature has the ability during the (upcoming legislative) session to go back in and change the language if they so choose," Keeton said. "Otherwise, there is a potential that the Phase I money would have to be used to cover the Phase II payments for 2004."

Further straining the situation for Kentucky farmers is a freeze on Phase II payments while the North Carolina court considers the companies' request for a refund. The tobacco companies must inform the court on Thursday whether Veneman issues the first buyout assessment by today.

Judge Ben Tennille has set a hearing for Dec. 20, when he is expected to rule whether the buyout signed into law Oct. 22 became effective this year. Keeton said the governor's office expects the companies to appeal any ruling in favor of the tobacco states, possibly delaying the payments to farmers even more.

The governor's office, which oversees Kentucky's share of the tobacco-settlement money, believes Congress meant for the end of the Phase II payments to coincide with the start of the buyout.

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and nine other senators told Veneman in a letter last week that it was not the intent of Congress for the buyout to disrupt the 2004 Phase II payments. The letter maintained that passage of the buyout does not let the companies off the hook.

The Kentucky Farm Bureau also has petitioned the North Carolina court to keep the payments in place.

"To eliminate or diminish that cash flow at this point would be seriously disruptive in Kentucky's many tobacco-dependent communities," wrote Sam Moore, the farm bureau president, in a letter to the court.

Indiana farmers also would be impacted.

"We're dependent on it quite a bit to make some of our year-end payments," said Kim Imel, a Madison, Ind., grower. "... It's going to be sort of tough. None of us were expecting to lose some of our settlement money because of the buyout."

http://www.courier-journal.com/business/news2004/12/01/D1-tobacco01-7109.html

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Study: Teens smoking fewer cigarettes, more marijuana -OR

PENDLETON, Ore. - Teenagers in Eastern Oregon are smoking fewer cigarettes but using slightly more marijuana than their peers statewide, according to a new study.

The annual Oregon Healthy Teens Survey is a voluntary, anonymous survey given to 11th-graders throughout Oregon to help school districts identify health and safety habits.

Students are asked questions about tobacco, alcohol and drug use, their mental health, sexual activity and how safe they feel in their communities and schools.

The survey results were from students in Pendleton and Hermiston. Milton-Freewater and Morrow County also participated in the survey but have not yet received results.

Across the state, more than 10,000 11th-graders from 203 schools participated in the survey for the 2003-2004 school year. Eighth-graders also participated at some schools.

Overall, Hermiston High School students reported using drugs, alcohol and tobacco at about the same frequency as their peers across the state.

"The good news is we're about at the state average," said Principal Sean Gallagher. "The bad news is we're not farther below."

Although cigarette use was 5.3 percent below the state average of 16.8 percent, Hermiston juniors reported drinking 1.2 percent more than the state average of 45.1 percent.

Likewise, 2 percent more of Hermiston students reported using marijuana during the previous 30 days than the statewide average of 19.6 percent.

At Pendleton High School, almost 30 percent of 11th-graders reported using marijuana or hashish within the last 30 days, compared to 27.5 percent in last year's survey.

"I think for our community and our school, marijuana use is on our radar as a problem," said Roger Stueckle, director of elementary education for the school district.

But Pendleton officials saw improvement in most areas, particularly for harassment.

"We have really had our major focus on harassment and bullying," Stueckle said. "We hope that will continue to go down."

Under 10 percent of the 164 Pendleton High School students surveyed reported being harassed about their weight, clothes, acne or other physical characteristics, down nearly 4 percent from last year.

At Hermiston High School, students were slightly more prone to feel sexually harassed or intimidated based on sexual orientation compared to teens across the state, but less so based on race or physical characteristics, like acne, clothes and weight.

As younger students have been raised to be more comfortable with their sexuality, many gay students are not hiding their preferences as in the past, Gallagher said, which might be a reflection of the higher number of students reporting harassment.

"People are being forced to deal with it," he said. Alcohol use was Gallagher's main concern, noting that about 46 percent of students said they drank in the past month.

There were 83 boys and 65 girls among the 148 Hermiston students surveyed. The school has about 1,300 students.

http://www.katu.com/health/story.asp?ID=73051

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Survey Shows Teens' Attempted-Suicide Rate Is Soaring -CA

San Diego Average is 10.9 Percent

POSTED: 2:20 pm PST November 30, 2004
UPDATED: 2:33 pm PST November 30, 2004

About one in 10 San Diego high school students attempted suicide last year, a rate that is higher than the national average and up from the previous year, according to a survey of 1,800 students.

 Read the Report or

http://www2.sdcounty.ca.gov/hhsa/ServiceDetails.asp?ServiceID=583

 The annual survey reports on youth and families for the San Diego County Board of Supervisors.

It found the number of reported suicide attempts among ninth- through 12th-graders was 10.9 percent, compared with 10.5 percent the previous year. The county ranked above the national average of 8.5 percent.

The question posed to students on the survey was, "Are you reporting an attempted suicide in the last year?" In the last year there has not been a single reported suicide among San Diego Unified School District students, according to school officials.

The report also found that pregnancy among girls 15 to 17 years old has declined.

Hispanic girls accounted for nearly 42 percent of all teens who got pregnant, significantly more than any other ethnic group.

Cigarette smoking and alcohol use among high school students decreased slightly to an average of about 11 percent. The number of youths who reported smoking marijuana stayed about the same at 13 percent, but has dropped nearly 4 percentage points among 11th-graders since 1999.

About 16.5 percent of children in the county live in poverty, compared with 19 percent statewide. The number of children whose families receive temporary cash assistance for housing, food and other needs from the state's welfare-to-work program is also below the state average.

http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/3959591/detail.html

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Report: 1 In 10 San Diego Teens Attempt Suicide  -CA

County Ranks Above National Average

POSTED: 9:33 am PST November 30, 2004
UPDATED: 1:59 pm PST November 30, 2004

SAN DIEGO -- A survey of 1,800 high school students in the San Diego Unified School District shows that about one in 10 of them attempted suicide last year, which is higher than the national average.

The number of reported suicide attempts among the district's 9th- through 12-graders was 10.9 percent, compared with 10.5 percent the previous year, according to The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The county ranked above the national average of 8.5 percent of students who acknowledged that they had attempted suicide, the newspaper reported.

The data are part of an annual report on youth and families in San Diego County. The Board of Supervisors will receive the report Tuesday and authorize it for public release, the Union-Tribune reported.

Developed in 1997 at the suggestion of Supervisors Dianne Jacob and Greg Cox, the report monitors health, economic security, educational achievement, access to services and safety for children in the county.

This year's report gives the county good marks overall. Teen pregnancy among girls 15 to 17 years has declined. But Hispanic girls made up nearly 42 percent of all teen who got pregnant, significantly more than any other ethnic group.

Cigarette smoking and alcohol use among high school students decreased slightly to an average of about 11 percent, the Union-Tribune reported. The number of students who reported smoking marijuana stayed about the same at 13 percent.

The rate of substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect decreased from 15 percent per 1,000 children in 2002 to 13 percent in 2003, the newspaper reported. About 16.5 percent of the county's children live in poverty, compared with 19 percent nationwide.

More Information:

• County Suicide Hotline: (800) 479-3339
• Annual San Diego County Child & Family Health & Well Being Report Card

http://www.10news.com/news/3958467/detail.html

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American Public Health Association Applauds 40 Nations That Have Ratified the International Tobacco Control Treaty, Urges U.S. Administration to Make Ratification a Top Priority

11/30/2004 4:47:00 PM

To: National Desk

Contact: Sabrina Jones of the American Public Health Association

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 /U.S. Newswire/ - The following statement on the international tobacco control treaty was released today by Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, executive director of the American Public Health Association:

"With Peru's ratification today of the international tobacco control treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control will become international law early next year. The American Public Health Association commends the 40 nations that have ratified the treaty, which cements a historic step in containing the global epidemic of tobacco use that kills more than 4 million people a year. In effect, this treaty gives countries the power to restrict tobacco advertising, combat cigarette smuggling and require health warning labels -- crucial measures in reducing the health threats of tobacco.

"Yet, the United States is noticeably absent from this important international action, which has even been ratified by countries that have major tobacco industries. While the United States has signed the treaty, the administration has yet to send the agreement to the U.S. Senate for ratification, rendering the signing meaningless. As it stands, this nation is not committed to the treaty's goals of reducing global tobacco use.

"We cannot afford to move slowly on this issue. In the United States alone, tobacco use is the leading cause of death, killing more than 400,000 people each year and costing our nation a massive $75 billion in health care costs. Tobacco products are virtually unregulated and, every day, hundreds of children become smokers.

"The American Public Health Association urgently calls on the administration and Senate to follow the lead of other countries and work together to ratify the treaty and work for its full implementation to protect the health of all citizens from the scourge of tobacco."

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The American Public Health Association, the oldest and largest organization of public health professionals, represents more than 50,000 members from over 50 public health occupations. More information is available at http://www.apha.org.

http://www.usnewswire.com/

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=40206

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Tobacco Industry Pressure Vs. Non-Smokers' Rights  CHILE
María Cecilia Espinosa
SANTIAGO, Nov 30 (IPS) - Cigarettes kill 14,000 people a year in Chile, which has one of the highest smoking rates in Latin America. But despite these facts, the country's anti-smoking legislation is weak, and attempts to bolster it have been hindered by pressure from large tobacco companies, according to lawmakers and consumer rights groups.
After signing the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the Ricardo Lagos government took over a year to submit a bill to Congress seeking its ratification.
The bill was finally presented on Nov. 15, but only after a group of lawmakers had threatened to charge the Chilean minister of health, Pedro García, with violating the country's constitution.
Consumers International's (CI) Santiago-based regional office for Latin America and the Caribbean is now conducting a petition campaign, collecting signatures to demand that Lagos fast-track the bill in question.
Ironically, its current classification as ”simply urgent” - as opposed to ”extremely urgent” - means that its adoption could actually be delayed indefinitely.
In the meantime, Chiletabacos, the Chilean subsidiary of British American Tobacco (BAT) that controls 98 percent of cigarette sales in Chile, is spearheading a campaign of its own, seeking to improve its image by sponsoring cultural and educational activities while attempting to convince the public that banning smoking in public places is synonymous with intolerance.
”For Chiletabacos, the word 'rights' only exists in reference to the rights of the country's four million smokers. It doesn't recognise the 'right' of non-smokers to have their health protected,” states a report from the CIPRESS Foundation, a Chilean non-governmental organisation.
According to CI, the tobacco industry as a whole has a global strategy aimed at capturing markets in the South to compensate for the markets it is losing in the industrialised countries of the North, due to anti-smoking legislation.
The tobacco transnationals have been highly successful in Latin America, where the number of smokers has increased by 68 percent, while 10 percent of smokers in the United States and Europe have kicked the habit, according to CI statistics.
The Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) reported in May that 45 percent of men and 35 percent of women over the age of 12 in Chile and Argentina are smokers.
As a result, more than 70 percent of children and adolescents in these countries regularly breathe in second-hand cigarette smoke in their own homes, making them ”passive smokers”.
For CI and the Chilean Consumers Organisation (ODECU), this fact constitutes a violation of the country's constitution, which establishes the Chilean people's right ”to live in an environment free from pollution.”
The FCTC, signed by Chile in September 2003, has been ratified by 37 countries so far. This means that only three more ratifications are needed for the treaty to enter into force, at which point it will apply to all signatory countries, whether they have ratified it or not.
All of the countries of Latin America have signed the convention, with the exception of Colombia and the Dominican Republic, while only four have ratified it: Mexico, Panama, Peru and Uruguay.
Once the FCTC enters into effect, the Chilean government will have to comply with the convention's provisions by more strictly enforcing the rules adopted in 1995 regarding non-smoking areas, regulating cigarette advertising and sales to minors under 18 years of age, raising taxes on tobacco products, working harder to control smuggling, and more effectively publicising the harmful effects of tobacco, by printing warnings on cigarette packages, for example.
The convention will affect the way the tobacco industry operates internationally, through restrictions on cigarette advertising and the incorporation of controls on this form of advertising in national and international public health policies.
Adolescents who pick up the cigarette habit become tobacco consumers for 30 years or more, and it is specifically Chileans in this age group who are far more likely to smoke than their counterparts in other Latin American countries. According to health ministry statistics, 34 percent of teenage boys and 43 percent of teenage girls in Chile are smokers.
British American Tobacco ranks second worldwide in cigarette sales, with a 15 percent global market share. It boasts on its website of being ”the world's most international tobacco group,” with brands sold in 180 different countries.
Latin America and the Caribbean accounted for 18.9 percent of BAT's global sales in 2003, while Chiletabacos alone contributed 22 million dollars to the corporation's 1.42 billion dollars in profits that year.
Chiletabacos also pays more taxes to the Chilean state than any other private company, representing five percent of all taxation revenues. Taxes make up 60.4 percent of the sales price of cigarettes in Chile.
In August 1990, the Chilean government put forward draft legislation to prohibit tobacco company sponsorship of cultural, social or sports activities, sales of cigarettes to minors under 18 years of age, and sales of loose cigarettes, in addition to requiring printed warnings on the dangers of smoking covering at least 20 percent of the surface of cigarette packages.
But none of these initiatives was ever implemented, and the so-called Tobacco Law, passed in 1995, was limited to assigning the Ministry of Health the task of establishing ”a clear and precise warning on the specific health risks implied by tobacco consumption.”
In 1997, the Ministry of Education was instructed to develop curriculum content aimed at educating students on the benefits of non-smoking and the harm caused by cigarettes, with an emphasis on prevention and rehabilitation.
Nevertheless, according to lawmaker Fulvio Rossi of the co-governing Socialist Party, ”in practice there is no legislation to control tobacco addiction, as is demonstrated by the exponential rise in cigarette smoking among schoolchildren and women.”
Existing legislation places no restrictions on advertising, does nothing to more effectively combat cigarette smuggling, and does not require significant warnings on the dangers of smoking on cigarette packages, he told IPS. In the meantime, the price of cigarettes remains highly affordable.
Rossi, one of the legislators who threatened to charge the health minister with violating the constitution, also pointed out that rules regarding smoking and non-smoking areas in public establishments are not being enforced, ”although in practice,” he added, ”it has been shown that there are just as many carcinogens in non-smoking sections as in smoking sections.”
In its own defence, Chiletabacos points to the high taxes charged on the products it sells, which translate into a considerable contribution to the state coffers.
The company says it has a legitimate right to manufacture and market a legal product, as well as a constitutional right to be treated equally before the law, and to freely communicate with its clients through advertising.
Moreover, the company stresses, it provides direct employment to roughly 700 workers, in addition to thousands of jobs in the production chain for this product, while sponsoring countless philanthropic, educational and cultural programmes.
The directors and executives of Chiletabacos form part of the highest stratum of the country's industrial and financial elite.
However, according to the CIPRESS Foundation report, ”its main goals are to prevent tax increases, protect its advertising and publicity options, and stop any attempts to adopt regulations or legislation aimed at eliminating second-hand smoke in closed spaces.”
The support Chiletabacos gives to cultural, sports and philanthropic activities, as well as the considerable taxes it contributes to the state treasury, represent ”enormous pressure on the government to stall the ratification of the FCTC, as has been demonstrated up until now,” Yul Francisco Dorado, one of the organisers of the CI petition drive, told IPS.
Dorado pointed to a PAHO-sponsored study carried out by the schools of medicine and economics at the University of Chile, which revealed that the state spends 1.14 billion dollars annually on the treatment of smoking-related medical problems, such as lung cancer, heart disease and chronic respiratory illnesses.
”The amount of money spent on treating tobacco-related illnesses far outweighs the tax contributions made by Chiletabacos,” he said.
The ratification of the FCTC will improve the quality of life, well-being and health of the Chilean people, Omar Pérez Santiago, the coordinator of ODECU, told IPS.
Above all, it will lead to ”a coherent policy towards tobacco addiction as an epidemic that kills a great many people in Chile and around the world.” By recognising the habit as a disease, he added, it will come to be viewed as such by society as a whole, which will lead to the creation of a healthier environment for everyone. (END/2004)

http://www.ipsnews.net/africa/interna.asp?idnews=26486

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Political correctness needs correcting
By John E. Frydenlund
 An initial provision included in recent corporate tax legislation would have prohibited tobacco companies from communicating truthful information about the relative risks of tobacco products. Fortunately, that provision was removed by a House-Senate conference committee. Additionally, the politically-correct crowd that has been promoting this sort of policy suffered a setback in this year’s election, with more voters demonstrating that they are fed up with some of the nonsense being passed off as “science.” 
 This would be a good time for Congress to reexamine some of the politically-correct policies that have been foisted on the American public. Too often, policymakers cater to neo-prohibitionist constituencies with hidden agendas to outlaw products like alcohol and tobacco, or agree with radical health activists that want to control what people eat.   
 When the facts do not fit their agenda, such groups use fear-mongering and political pressure to stifle any scientific research that undermines their goals.  They prefer to utilize “jeopardy-style” research, which provides an answer and then uses faulty science to “prove” the foregone conclusion and bolster their agendas. 
 For example, there is a growing body of evidence to demonstrate that organic foods may present a greater relative health risk from deadly bacteria, such as e-coli and salmonella.  Some advocacy groups whitewash potential health risks from organic foods, while attempting to scare the public about non-existing dangers from genetically-modified foods, which they call “Franken-foods,” and ignore the potential these foods hold for enhancing public health and alleviating hunger and starvation around the world.
 One of the neo-prohibitionists’ favorite tactics is to advocate higher excise taxes on alcohol -- a tactic they also employ with cigarettes and tobacco products.  However, many of them are more willing to openly advocate outright prohibition of cigarettes and tobacco products, at least in public places. 
 As part of the politically-correct crowd’s anti-tobacco crusade, it is crucial that tobacco of any sort be demonized.  Their commitment to the belief that all tobacco is evil, no matter the circumstances, is so strong that they refuse to accept that there is any potential to develop beneficial uses for the product, such as the use of smokeless tobacco as an alternative to cigarettes.
 The result of this bias is that Americans, who are trying to quit smoking, are being denied potential health benefits that could come from utilizing “harm reduction” strategies.  Such techniques might at least provide relative alternatives and present a better chance of success for those people than does the insistence on the “all or nothing” cold turkey approach preferred by the activists.
 Federal government agencies responsible for informing the public of the effects of using smokeless tobacco have sided with the activists and conducted a concerted campaign of disinformation against the product.  This is not only misleading the public about the true relative dangers of smokeless tobacco, but is counterproductive to agencies’ responsibility to promote the public health.
 Scientific evidence exists to demonstrate that smokeless tobacco is a safer alternative to cigarette smoking and holds potential as a cessation technique for the millions of Americans that have been unable to quit smoking.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) does not allow smokeless tobacco companies to make any claims regarding the relative health safety benefits that might result from switching from smoking cigarettes to using smokeless tobacco.  Also, other agencies of the federal government, particularly the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), continue to disseminate information that distorts the truth about smokeless tobacco and misleads the public.
Congress needs to investigate why the FTC, HHS, and the CDC continue to provide misleading and inaccurate information regarding the dangers of smokeless tobacco to the public and why they have failed to conduct the legally-required research to determine the relative dangers between smokeless tobacco and cigarettes.  It is also necessary to determine how much federal money is being used to run smoking “quit-lines” that are supposed to help people quit smoking, while failing to acknowledge that smokeless tobacco is an effective cessation technique.
Frydenlund is the food and agriculture director at Citizens Against Government Waste, and the author of the recently released Through the Looking Glass report, “A New Health Threat: Federally-Funded Health Policy Based on Junk Science.”

http://www.thehill.com/daily_features/113004.aspx

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Cancer-Enabling Enzyme Can Be Blocked Naturally: Danish Research Confirms Cancer Breakthrough Approach by Matthias Rath, M.D.

(PressMethod) - A discovery made by Dr. Matthias Rath on how nutrient synergy can halt the cascading series of events that lead to the metastasis of cancer has been recently confirmed by Research done at Copenhagen University and published in the International Journal of Cancer.
The Danish study found that the lack of the enzyme urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) can stop the spread of cancer, as shown in mice genetically modified to not have the enzyme. The absence of uPA prevents the ability of cancer cells to dissolve collagen and metastasize to other parts of the body, but today there are no pharmaceutical solutions to block uPA.
Dr. Matthias Rath's research shows that blocking this enzyme can be achieved naturally. In 1992, Dr. Rath published research suggesting the use of amino acid lysine as a natural inhibitor of plasmin and other enzymes (matrix metalloproteinases) involved in collagen digestion. Recently, Dr. Rath and his team of researchers at the Matthias Rath Research Institute in Cellular Medicine, Santa Clara, CA have identified a specific combination of nutrients that can inhibit the activity of collagen dissolving enzymes and stop the spread of cancer cells. Dr. Rath's research shows that Vitamin C, the amino acids L-lysine and L-proline, and a green tea extract known as Epigallocatechin Gallate (EGCG) work together to synergistically block the spread of cancer cells through connective tissue. In addition, this specific nutrient synergy can reduce new blood vessel formation, which supplies blood to tumors (angiogenesis), inhibit cancer cell replication, and induce a natural "suicide" cycle in cancer cells (apoptosis).
"The most effective way to control cancer is by attacking cancer simultaneously at all four ways it threatens health: its spread, growth, lifespan and survival," says Dr. Rath.
Dr. Rath's research, published in scientific journals and presented at many scientific conferences, points the way to a new era in the natural control of cancer, which is both more effective and safer than pharmaceutical methods.
For more information on Dr. Rath's research, go to www.drrathresearch.org.
Contact:
Rich Greenwood

CONTACT INFORMATION

Email Us

http:// http://www.pressmethod.com/gosite.aspx?Tak=http%3a%2f%2f

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http://www.pressmethod.com/releasestorage/5004730.htm

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Study Examines Proteins' Relation to DNA Repair and Malignant Melanoma

01 Dec 2004

A reduced capacity to repair UV-induced DNA damage has been associated with an increased risk of cutaneous malignant melanoma, but the molecular mechanism of the association is not known. The INK4a/ARF locus, which contains two known tumor suppressors, is often mutated in melanomas and in the cells of patients with familial malignant melanoma, but it is not known if the locus is involved in DNA repair.

In a new study, Thomas M. Rünger, M.D., of the Boston University School of Medicine, and colleagues measured and compared DNA repair in cells from normal mice and cells from mice with one or both of the tumor suppressors mutated. The mutant cells had a lower capacity for DNA repair compared with the normal cells. The authors conclude that mutation of the INK4a/ARF locus may predispose people to melanoma because of a reduced ability to repair sun-induced DNA damage in addition to the loss of tumor suppressor function.

Contact: Thomas M. Rünger, Boston University School of Medicine, 617-638-5551, truenger@bu.edu

Note: The Journal of the National Cancer Institute is published by Oxford University Press and is not affiliated with the National Cancer Institute. Attribution to the Journal of the National Cancer Institute is requested in all news coverage. Visit the Journal online at http://jncicancerspectrum.oupjournals.org.
Contact: Sarah Zielinski or Kate Travis
jncimedia@oupjournals.org
301-841-1287
Journal of the National Cancer Institute 
 

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Judge's outburst at QC over MSP's letter-Scotland
JOHN ROBERTSON
LAW CORRESPONDENT
A LETTER from a politician about a historic damages case led yesterday to a furious judge reporting a senior lawyer for possible disciplinary action.
Allan Wilson, MSP, wrote to Lord Nimmo Smith about the time he has taken to give a ruling on a widow’s claim for compensation from a tobacco firm for the death of her husband from lung cancer.
In an amazing and angry outburst at the woman’s QC, Colin McEachran, who had suggested that she contact her MSP, the judge said he found the situation "reprehensible".
Lord Nimmo Smith took it as implying that he was not properly performing his duties. He accused Mr McEachran of thinking he knew better than the judge how to do his job, and suggested the QC had brought himself and his professional body, the Faculty of Advocates, into disrepute.
Mr McEachran insisted that he had merely given advice to contact an MSP, not that there should be direct communication with the judge. On being told by Lord Nimmo Smith that the matter was to be referred to the Faculty of Advocates, Mr McEachran commented: "As your Lordship pleases."
Margaret McTear, 59, of Beith, Ayrshire, has continued a case originally raised in the Court of Session by her husband, Alfred, before his death in 1993 at the age of 48. It is against Imperial Tobacco, maker of the cigarettes which Mr McTear smoked.
In October last year, Lord Nimmo Smith began hearing evidence in the case. It is understood that it is the first time on this side of the Atlantic that an attempt to sue a tobacco giant has reached such an advanced stage.
The evidence and legal submissions on behalf of Mrs McTear and Imperial Tobacco ended in February this year, and Lord Nimmo Smith announced that he would issue a judgment in due course.
The parties were called to a hearing before the judge yesterday. He said that on 18 November - the day he began to preside over the Jodi Jones murder trial in the High Court - he received a letter from Mr Wilson, Labour MSP for Cunninghame North. The politician asked why there had been no decision in Mrs McTear’s case. A reply was sent, indicating that discussion with third parties was not possible.
Lord Nimmo Smith said there was a convention, aimed at maintaining judicial independence, that politicians did not intervene in current cases. He said the court could not allow itself to be, or appear to be, influenced by third parties.
He had no doubt that Mr Wilson had written in good faith, but he continued: "What I find reprehensible is that Mr Wilson should have become involved at all. This can only have been designed to put pressure on me to issue my decision sooner than I might otherwise do... I regard this as wholly improper. The clear implication is I have not been applying myself as diligently as I should to my judicial duties."
Lord Nimmo Smith said he had given up a week’s leave to work on the judgment, and already had a draft of more than 860 pages and 250,000 words. He had other judicial commitments, including the Jodi Jones case, and had indicated in July that he might not be able to produce the judgment until late in the year.
He asked Mr McEachran: "What on earth is this all about?"
Mr McEachran said the litigation had started almost 12 years ago and Mrs McTear was entitled to have her case determined "within a reasonable time".
He had learned that his client had become unhappy about the administration of justice, and he suggested that she write to her MSP.
"It was as broad as that. I did not suggest that any communication be made directly to your Lordship," said Mr McEachran.
Lord Nimmo Smith said Mr McEachran seemed to think he knew better than the judge how to do his job. What should he have done, that he had not done?
"I have no comment on that," said Mr McEachran.
The judge added: "I am not a magician. I cannot wave a magic wand and produce an opinion [judgment]."
He believed Mr McEachran was not being candid with him in "this entire shenanigan" and the matter would be reported to the Faculty of Advocates.
LORD NIMMO SMITH
Lord (William) Nimmo Smith, 62, was appointed to the bench in 1996, having served an "apprenticeship" as a temporary judge.
As a leading QC of his generation, he had appeared for The Scotsman and successfully fought attempts by the government to ban the newspaper from carrying extracts from the memoirs of a former intelligence officer, Anthony Cavendish.
He was appointed to investigate the so-called "magic circle" affair in 1992 and found no evidence to support claims that gay lawyers had conspired to pervert the course of justice. He also led an inquiry into allegations of nepotism in recruitment at Monklands district council.
Lord Nimmo Smith was chosen as one of the five judges who heard, and dismissed, an appeal by the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing.
He also rejected an attempt to challenge the Scottish Parliament’s legislation which banned fox-hunting with dogs.
In recent weeks, he has presided over the trial of Luke Mitchell, who is accused of murdering his girlfriend, Jodi Jones, in Midlothian.

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1377442004

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Chronic stress may accelerate cellular aging

CTV.ca News Staff

We all know that too much stress isn't healthy. Now, intriguing scientific evidence shows that chronic stress may accelerate aging in our immune cells.

Prof. Elissa Epel of University of California, San Francisco, may have found new evidence of how stress wears us down by making the immune cells in our bodies age prematurely.

Epel's team followed 58 mothers, 39 of whom were caring for a chronically ill child. Most of them reported higher stress levels than mothers with healthy children.

But when researchers looked at the DNA in their immune cells, they noticed a stunning finding. The telomeres, or biological clocks, in the cells of the chronically stressed women were much shorter, indicating they had aged prematurely.

"We were flabbergasted. It was something you couldn't have expected to find," Epel says.

"We found that in women with the highest stress, they were so short that the cells had aged 10 years more than in the other women. That's not a matter of normal aging but from stress."

The authors say "the exact mechanism that connect the mind and the cell are unknown.'' But they will now begin work to see if other types of cells are affected by stress.

The study is published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Karyl Jones-Whittey knows all about living with daily stress. She says that every day is difficult caring for her autistic son, Ian.

"It is exhausting. It is the feeling of being absolutely weighed down with the weight of the world," she says.

Now, Karyl has her own problems, suffering from high blood pressure and arthritis.

"It makes me wonder about how many of my medical conditions -- many of them have only cropped up since Ian was born -- how many are them are related to living under chronic stress?"

Dr. David Posen writes and lectures about the dangers of stress. He hopes the research will be an eye-opener that stress is more than an annoyance; it can be harmful to our health.

"We all have stress in our lives and learning how to handle it is a life skill. And it's neglected and now it's bubbling to the top, you can't put it off much longer," he says.

This new link between stress and cell aging may trigger a flood of new research on how to reverse stress, says Dr. Doug Saunders of the Ontario Psychological Association.

"To look at stress reduction techniques, like cognitive behaviour therapy, meditation, to see if this can impact biological markers like telomeres."

The research may also lead to new medications that protect these telomeres from stress. But for now, it's an intriguing finding that suggests just how toxic chronic stress may be.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1101775128220_42/?hub=Health

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Dirty insult to citizens -ON
Nov. 29, 2004. 01:00 AM

Stupid.ca

This site is a publicly funded, dirty insult to all citizens even though it is smokers who are the target. The statement that "tobacco is the only commercial product ... that is both lethal and deadly when used as intended" is so erroneous that it screams propaganda. Prescription and non-prescription drugs, automobiles and an endless list of commercial products on the market can also be lethal and deadly when used as intended.

The government's evangelistic crusade against smokers, at the expense of so many critical issues within health care that need to be addressed, is a blatantly obvious attempt to stir up citizens who really don't believe smoking to be a major issue anymore and to justify future plans for further destruction of freedom of choice and individual rights aimed at 20 per cent of the population of Canada. Tactics of this nature are beneath contempt.

Jan Hogg, Bath, Onthttp://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1101682208136&call_pageid=968332189003&col=968350116895&DPL=IvsNDS%2f7ChAX&tacodalogin=yes

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Lawyers wrangle over legality of tobacco ad ban -CANADA

Canadian Press Monday, November 29, 2004

A federal law that bans tobacco sponsorship, restricts advertising and requires large warnings on cigarette packs is unconstitutional, lawyers for Canada's three largest tobacco companies argued Monday.

Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. and JTI-Macdonald Corp. argued before the Quebec Court of Appeal that the 1997 Tobacco Act effectively constitutes a total ban on advertising, which the Supreme Court of Canada ruled was unconstitutional in 1995.

"Our view is that this is deja-vu, that we're looking at a prohibition which is total again and that the Supreme Court has already essentially decided the matter in 1995," lawyer Simon Potter said outside the courtroom.

"There is no justification for a law which tells people that you cannot evoke images or evoke emotions," said Potter, representing Imperial Tobacco.

The companies said a 2002 Quebec Superior Court ruling upholding the federal law failed to address several key constitutional issues and contained numerous factual errors.

The federal government, the Canadian Cancer Society and anti-tobacco advocates said they will argue during five days of hearings the law is constitutionally valid.

While the restrictions on advertising and promotion infringe on freedom of expression, they are justified as a reasonable limit under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the cancer society said.

"We believe that these laws are essential to protect public health in Canada, to reduce smoking among adults and among children,'' said Rob Cunningham, lawyer for the cancer society."

"And it's working."

The youth smoking rate at 18 per cent is the lowest ever recorded. Smoking among adults has decreased to 21 per cent, compared with 30 per cent before these laws were enforced, Cunningham added.

http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=e17ed4b6-e27e-409b-8e65-ff1d8616ccdd

*article in canoe affiliates also

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Smoking bylaw case put off for 2 weeks MB
WINNIPEG - The first Manitoba business owner to face charges under the province's new smoking law appeared in court Monday morning.

 

Robert Jenkinson, who owns the Creekside Hideaway restaurant in Treherne, faces 13 charges under the new Non-Smokers Health Protection Act.

Jenkinson's lawyer, Art Stacey, says the matter has been put off for two weeks to give Jenkinson time to get on opinion on how to proceed with his case.

 

No plea has been entered yet, but Jenkinson has vowed in the past to fight the law, which he says punishes rural bar and hotel owners.

 

About two dozen other restaurant and bar owners are defying the new law by allowing smoking in their establishments.

 

Provincial officials say it's only a matter of time until they are all charged.

 

The Non-Smokers Health Protection Act, which outlaws smoking in all public buildings, was passed unanimously in the legislature and enacted Oct. 1. Fines for allowing smoking can run up to $3,000.

http://winnipeg.cbc.ca/regionalnews/caches/mb_smoking20041129.html

 

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Time to Hike the Legal Smoking Age? -NY

By Eyewitness News' Lauren Defranco

(Central Islip -WABC, November 29, 2004) — The minimum age for buying cigarettes may be going up in several of our communities. Lawmakers in one county are trying to raise the smoking age from 18 years old to 19 years old. Eyewitness News' Lauren Defranco reports.

The measure was unanimously passed Monday by the Suffolk County Health and Human Services Committee and it's now awaiting a full vote. Long Island reporter Lauren Defranco has the story.

Why did you decide not to smoke?

Felisha Mention, Student: "Because I see a lot of people with cancer and everything else. I just choose not to do it."

Video: See the Story

Jonathan Zamor, Student: "There's a lady, she can't talk. She has to have that thing in her throat. I don't want that to happen to me ever."
Lauren Defranco: "So you listen..."
Zamor: "Yeah, I'm a good boy. I do whatever my momma told me."

These high school juniors in Central Islip know the devastating physical effects of smoking. But the reality is a lot of students light up in spite of the warnings.

Now Suffolk County lawmakers are trying to curb teenage smoking by raising the legal age from 18 to 19. If they do, Suffolk would join only three other government bodies taking this aggressive action.

Brian Foley, (D) Suffolk County Legislator: "If we can delay, if not prevent, teenagers from starting to smoke, by the time they're in their twenties they'll never start smoking."

So Monday the health and human services committee voted unanimously of the resolution, which could soon become law. This after a spirited public hearing.

For obvious reasons, the opposition to this is remaining quiet but strong. It's convenience store owners who will have to police the new law and possibly lose business.

Suffolk lawmakers are determined this law will ultimately save lives.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/wabc_112904_suffolksmoking.html

 

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Cigarette Ads in Convenience Stores May Boost Teen Smoking -CA
A new study finds kids who frequent the shops are more likely to pick up the habit.
By Randy Dotinga HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Nov. 29 (HealthDayNews) -- New research suggests that teens who spend a lot of time hanging around convenience stores are more likely to smoke, even if they're not the type of kids considered to be delinquents.

While the findings don't point to anything other than a possible link between the stores and smoking, they're raising a red flag among researchers who fear the glut of tobacco advertising in convenience stores is having a major impact on young customers.

"It's the only unregulated frontier for this kind of marketing," explained study co-author Lisa Henriksen, a senior research scientist at Stanford University's Prevention Research Center.

In the spring of 2003, Henriksen and her colleagues surveyed 2,125 middle-school students in the Northern California city of Tracy. They asked the children about their smoking habits and their visits to small grocery, convenience and liquor stores.

The findings appear in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

About a quarter of the students visited the stores at least once a day; about two-thirds visited at least once a week.

The researchers found that those who were exposed to tobacco marketing in the stores at least once a week were more likely to smoke.

The researchers then tinkered with the numbers to test the theory that "kids who are up to no good hang out at stores," Henriksen said. They tried to remove the influence of factors such as race, gender, age, exposure to other tobacco advertising and "propensity for risk-taking," a rough measurement of a kid's tolerance for getting into hot water. Even so, the study still found that kids who visited the stores regularly were 50 percent more likely to smoke.

"That was a compelling result," Henriksen said, although she cautioned that the study doesn't prove that visits to the stores make kids smoke; it only shows a link between the two activities.

According to the study, the tobacco industry spends more on in-store advertising than all other forms of advertising combined -- $9.5 billion vs. $1.7 billion in 2001. Tobacco companies cannot advertise on television or radio, and a 1998 settlement with the federal government banned billboard advertising.

The study "shows that the tobacco industry is still able to use the loopholes in the settlement to very effectively market to kids," said Stanton A. Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research at the University of California, San Francisco.

Advertising through store displays "may be less efficient for them, but they have enough money and cigarettes are profitable enough that they're able to use a somewhat less-efficient advertising medium," he said. "The cigarette companies wouldn't be spending billions of dollars doing this if it didn't work. They're not fools."

What's next? According to Henriksen, researchers need to get a better handle on the influence of advertisements in convenience stores. "If our purpose is to argue for effective policies that prevent smoking, we need to point people's attention to stores as an area that needs attention," she said.

More information

Learn more about preventing teen smoking from the American Cancer Society (www.cancer.org ).

http://www.healthcentral.com/news/NewsFullText.cfm?id=522595

 

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The elephant in the room -NY
How I learned to stop worrying and love Mayor Bloomberg
by Shaun McElhenny Columnist

In the wake of the Democrats' 2004 electoral defeat, we have never been gladder to be New Yorkers. Sure, we have a president whom 75 percent of us voted against, but in the next four years we can at least revel in a city government dominated by Democrats.

Many see a blight on this idyllic scene in Republican Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Since Nov. 2, talk among New York Democrats is refocusing on dislodging Bloomberg. It is a natural reaction, since a Republican mayoralty is almost an insult to an overwhelmingly Democratic city, especially after a national election in which the Republicans got the best of us.

Yet it is difficult to partake in anti-Bloomberg designs when his mayoralty is altogether refreshing, especially when it comes to New York City politics.

First of all, Bloomberg is a lifelong Democrat. He only switched his registration because wealthy tycoons do not stand much chance in New York City Democratic primaries, where nearly a dozen Democratic officials compete every four years. And even after switching parties, Bloomberg has not been the GOP lackey that some have made him out to be.

Unlike fellow New Yorkers Gov. George Pataki and former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who are nursing presidential ambitions by slavishly supporting President Bush and the national GOP, Bloomberg has been a consistent advocate for the city when it comes to getting our share from a Republican Congress whose constituencies lie elsewhere.

He nearly refused to give his speech at the Republican National Convention after his appeal for more financial assistance from Washington was excised from his speech by Republican staffers. Ultimately, his duties as host mayor compelled him to make his opening remarks.

Also, while critics have cited Bloomberg's budget cuts as evidence that he is out of touch, the blame lies not with Bloomberg but with the city charter. The charter's balanced budget amendment ties the city's hands during a recession. Regardless of the economy, any New York City mayor faced with a deficit is legally forced to raise taxes or cut programs, the two things budget-makers are not supposed to do in hard times. To his credit, Bloomberg struck a balance of both.

In general, though, Bloomberg's mayoralty is valuable because of its style. The worst thing about New York City politics is that politicians play neighborhoods, races and interest groups off one another for their own gain. Bloomberg does none of this, because his ability to self-finance his campaigns buys his independence from narrow interest groups. It seems as though Bloomberg is trying to serve as everyone's mayor.

Bloomberg also exhibits a type of candor not usually practiced by today's ultra-polished politicians. If he faces tough decisions, such as those concerning the budget, he says flat out that it was a tough decision and that he made his choice for such-and-such a reason. No excuses, no spinning and no blame game.

And let us not forget NYU students' favorite issue, the smoking ban. You can say all you want about rights, but rights go only as far as no one else is being harmed. Twenty percent of the population does not have any right to poison the rest. Furthermore, from an economic standpoint, the major slowdown in the nightlife business that was supposed to accompany the ban never materialized. Bloomberg is right to be proud of this measure.

This does not mean that Bloomberg should definitely win re-election next year. But it does mean that Democrats should not immediately vote for whomever the Democratic primary produces simply because he or she is a Democrat. It is unfair to take our image of the national Republican Party and project it onto Bloomberg simply because of his party registration.

My vote, for one, is not etched in stone. Depending on who wins the Democratic nomination, Bloomberg has a good chance at being the first politician for whom I have ever crossed party lines. •

http://www.nyunews.com/opinion/columnists/8434.html

 

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Smoking ban could waft through bars, restaurants-MN

City health commissioner wants ordinance by 2005

By Erik Brooks  Nov. 28, 2004

Milwaukee health commissioner Bevan Baker is floating the concept of banning smoking at all Milwaukee workplaces, including restaurants and bars, and will craft an ordinance in early 2005.

 

Baker called the prohibition of smoking in workplaces "good public health policy," despite concerns from business owners, industry groups and smokers sure to resist the ban. He said a push for a "smoke-free city" will be part of his department's agenda for the Common Council in 2005.

 

Baker said he has yet to approach Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett or aldermen with a specific plan. He said he's waiting until early next year when the "heavy lifting" of balancing the 2005 city budget is complete.

Any ban will meet some resistance, said Ald. Bob Donovan, chairman of the Common Council's Public Safety Committee, which would consider the measure.

"I have seen ridiculous legislation move forward, and in my estimation this would be one of them," Donovan said of Baker's suggestion. "It's the choice of any business to make that determination. I don't think it should be mandated by government."

Business owners contacted by The Business Journal agreed.

"Bars really do seem to be the last bastion for smokers," said Tag Grotelueschen, co-owner of Club Garibaldi, a bar at 2501 S. Superior St., Milwaukee.

He said he would oppose a city mandate, but noted any ban would affect all bar owners equally.

'Absurd' mandate

A spokesman for the Tavern League of Wisconsin in Madison called government-mandated smoking bans "absurd."

"Our people feel, 'This is my business,'" said Pete Madland, chief office manager and former president of the Tavern League. "If I go broke and bankrupt and lose my livelihood on decisions that I make, that's one thing. If I go broke because of decisions that government makes, that's a hard pill to swallow."

Indeed, the effect can be significant, said Jayne Aliota, vice president of Waukesha-based George Webb Corp., which has 40 area locations, eight in the city of Milwaukee. Aliota said George Webb is predicting a 30 percent drop in business at its three Wauwatosa restaurants when that city's smoking ban goes into effect in 2006.

Citywide smoking bans are especially hurtful in areas where patrons can bypass a restaurant in one city and dine at another restaurant minutes away in a city that allows smoking, Aliota said.

Given that perception, a statewide smoking ban would draw more support from business owners because it would "level the playing field," she said.

Heinemann's Restaurants, which has eight area locations including two in the city of Milwaukee, voluntarily went smoke-free more than a decade ago, said Peggy Burns, president of the Milwaukee-based chain.

Because the restaurants were among the first in the area to do it, business dropped 10 percent to 15 percent in the first year, Burns said. It rebounded, although not entirely.

Burns said a growing number of restaurants are choosing to go entirely smoke-free on their own.

Appealing to nonsmokers

Smoking ban supporters, however, say business revenue could actually increase over time, as people who may have avoided establishments with high levels of secondary cigarette smoke may now patronize them.

"Smokers are adjusting to a smoke-free world," said Maureen Busalacchi, executive director of Smoke Free Wisconsin, a Madison-based anti-smoking interest group.

Details of Bevan's proposed ordinance are under consideration, but he called a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars "a great, great starting point." The city two years ago enacted an ordinance banning smoking in all city-owned buildings and vehicles.

The potential prohibition, Baker said, is in line with his goals of reducing "health disparities" among Milwaukee residents, which he promised to do when Barrett chose him to head the Health Department in July.

"I am looking forward to working with all parties to make sure Milwaukee is one of the cities in this country that has a smoke-free work environment," Baker said. "My responsibility as health commissioner is to protect the residents of Milwaukee, and if a smoke-free environment is a means to that end, then I am 100 percent behind it."

Such a ban could lead to improved health and lower health care costs in a city struggling with large insurance premium increases, Baker said.

Baker said he will study the ordinances of other cities and states that have enacted bans.

Eighteen Wisconsin municipalities have some form of smoking ban in place, with most ordinances focused on restaurants. So far, only one Milwaukee County community, Wauwatosa, has banned smoking. Its restaurant ban takes effect July 1, 2006. Franklin city officials are considering a ban on smoking in restaurants.

Madison model

In Madison, a more stringent ordinance outlawing smoking in all places of employment will be phased in starting in 2005, with a restaurant and bar smoking ban taking place starting next July. Officials in Oshkosh, Appleton and Wausau are also considering restaurant smoking bans.

Nationwide, more than 1,800 municipalities have some sort of "clean indoor air law," according to the American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation, a Berkeley, Calif.-based interest group. Of those, 248 have banned smoking in all workplaces. Ten states have laws that ban smoking in either workplaces, restaurants or bars.

Anti-smoking advocates are increasingly pushing for "all encompassing" bans on smoking in workplaces, not just in restaurants or bars, said Dona Wininsky, public policy coordinator for the American Lung Association of Wisconsin, Brookfield. A push for a workplace ban locally is likely in 2005, with Baker's support for the ban a major boost for the effort, she said.

The politics of enacting a ban are among the biggest roadblocks, Wininsky said, although she expressed optimism that "fresh blood" on the Milwaukee Common Council could lead to increased support for a smoking prohibition.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6605909/

 

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Picking up a nicotine habit at college- USA

Alcohol, peer pressure are key factors in students' decision to smoke

By Arianne Baker November 29, 2004

College smokers are likely to be a Caucasian, non-religious member of a fraternity or sorority who drinks, according to Edith Balback, director of the Tufts Community Health program. This survey, based on national data that is not Tufts-specific, also found that smokers also tend to be dissatisfied with their education and non-athletic.

According to the Office on Smoking and Health at the Center for Disease Control, 80 percent of adult smokers started smoking before the age of 18. Since the strong force of peer pressure in middle school and high school tends to be the principal factor influencing adolescents' decisions to smoke, most anti-smoking campaigns are aimed at the adolescent crowd.

Among the college demographic, the overall number of student smokers stays approximately the same, "Around nine percent start in college and nine percent quit," Balback said.

There are several possible reasons why nine percent of college students start smoking upon attending college. Alcohol plays a role, say both Balbach and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Robin Kanarek, a researcher in the psychopharmacology of tobacco and nicotine use.

"One feature of college social life which may contribute to smoking is alcohol use," Kanarek said. "Alcohol may make students feel less inhibited and thus contribute to their decision to smoke."

Those suing tobacco companies focus on the firms' advertising practices. National ad campaigns like thetruth.com aim to raise awareness about companies' practice of marketing cigarettes to adolescents.

But some students do not attribute their first smoke to cigarette companies' ad campaigns. "Advertising didn't impact me at all - it was curiosity," freshman Jake Brotter said. Brotter tried his first cigarette when he was in eighth grade.

National anti-smoking campaigns also face limited success. "The anti-smoking ads definitely kept me from smoking up until freshman or sophomore year [of high school]," freshman Josh Lord said. "The first time I smoked a cigarette was sophomore year and I was considerably drunk."

Although anti-smoking campaigns may not prevent all people from taking up smoking, these national ad campaigns appear to have a degree of effectiveness. Junior Holly Ganbold, an international student from Austria, says that there are more anti-smoking campaigns in the United States than in Austria and "people smoke about 25 times more there."

Peer pressure and whether one's friends smoke are also two important factors in the whether students start smoking. "It's not advertising; it's who you're friends with," said Ganbold of her reasons for starting to smoke when she was 16-years-old.

Brotter started smoking regularly during his senior year of high school, when it became easy to buy cigarettes because he had "plenty of friends who were eighteen."

Nicotine's addictive and relaxing properties make cigarettes an appealing stress reliever to stressed students who already smoke - possibly contributing to the fact that most people who enter college as smokers leave as smokers.

"I think that stress does play a role in maintaining smoking behavior," Kanarek said. "We and others have data that show withdrawal from smoking increases feelings associated with stress in smokers. Also, there are data demonstrating that nicotine has mild pain-relieving properties."

Kanarek ventured to say that "if someone who is a smoker has to sit through a three-hour class without smoking, it could be detrimental" to classroom performance.

As far as the effect of smoking on success in school, studies for college-age students are limited. However, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, "smokers have shown impairment across a wide range of psychomotor and cognitive functions, such as language comprehension" during periods of abstinence and/or craving.

Fortunately, compared to other people of the same age group, college students are less likely to smoke. "While the stress of college may encourage some to start smoking or make it harder to quit, higher education as a rule is protective against smoking," Balbach said.

There are accessible resources on campus for those suffering from alcohol and (non-tobacco) drug problems, but the school's resources for cigarette smokers seeking to quit are more limited.

"I think Tufts' priority is alcohol and other drugs that pose an immediate threat to student health - tobacco is more deadly, but it tends to be a slow-motion killer," said Balbach when asked if Tufts' services for smokers are sufficient.

Tufts students are largely aware of the ill health effects of smoking. However, Brotter admits that, though he read about the Great American Smokeout - an effort by the American Cancer Society to help stop smoking that took place on Nov. 18 - he has no immediate plans to stop. "I'll probably try to quit in the next one to five years," he said.

Both Brotter and Lord said that if their younger siblings started smoking, they would tell them to stop. "I would definitely tell them not to," Lord said. Brotter concurred, saying that he would explain to his siblings that "smoking is bad for your health."

Lord added that he would say the same to friends that may be smoking too much. Though Lord says that he is not addicted to cigarettes, he feels that he has many friends who are. "[If they] are smoking a pack a day, I try to get them to cut down," Lord said.

Tufts Health Services offers a range of options to students who want to quit smoking. The Health Services website lists the Tufts AOD program, peer support groups, and a Counseling Center as some of their services.

http://www.tuftsdaily.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/29/41aac617bebfd

 

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Experts Assess Lung Cancer Risk Among Smokers
By Ed Edelson Health Day Reporter
MONDAY, Nov. 29 (HealthDayNews) -- The largest study of its kind has come up with hard, cold numbers that pinpoint the risk of lung cancer for smokers and former smokers.

The International Early Lung Cancer Action Project used computed tomography (CT) scans to look for early signs of lung cancer in more than 27,700 smokers and ex-smokers. The results were presented Nov. 29 at the Radiological Society of North America's annual meeting in Chicago.

"Based on our data, we can now predict by age, by how much has been smoked or when a smoker has quit, what is the likelihood of developing lung cancer," said project leader Dr. Claudia I. Henschke, chief of chest imaging at New York-Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.

For example, her team found that 15 cases of lung cancer will be detected in every 1,000 smokers aged 50 to 74, compared to six cases per 1,000 in those under 50.

The total number of cigarettes smoked is also important. There will be 28 cases of lung cancer among 1,000 people who smoked three packs a day for 20 years or more, compared to 16 per 1,000 who smoked three packs a day for 10 to 20 years.

People who have managed to kick the habit are at risk long after they stop, Henschke noted, partly because smokers remain more likely to die suddenly of heart disease. The risk of lung cancer does not decline much until 20 years after the last cigarette has been inhaled.

The benefit of early detection of lung cancer is clear, she said. With annual screening, there is a better than 75 percent chance that detection and surgery will save a life. Without screening, the probability of a cure is no better than 10 percent, the researchers said.

But a screening test runs about $300, Henschke said, so cost enters into the decision. For example, it probably makes sense for someone under 75 to have the test, because the expected life span is more than 10 years and early detection will buy extra years. But someone over 80 is more likely to die of other causes, and therefore the benefit is less certain.

It's a decision that has to be made by each individual, preferably after consulting a doctor, Henschke said, but she acknowledges that a purely logical approach might not be easy.

"The mathematics are there, the data are there, and I hope it can be explained to people," she said.

Another speaker at the meeting described work on a computer program that might make a decision on surgery easier once a mass is detected in a lung.

Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center are developing software that analyzes a series of CT scans to determine if a suspicious mass is cancerous or noncancerous.

Right now, a lung biopsy is necessary to obtain a tissue sample for laboratory analysis, explained Lubomir Hadjiyski, a research assistant professor of radiology at the University of Michigan Medical School. "We hope we can give correct recommendations that would decrease the number of unnecessary biopsies," he said.

Hadjiyski and his colleagues have already developed a similar program for the diagnosis of breast cancer. Clinical trials of the lung cancer program could start "in a year or two," he added.

More information

What you need to know about smoking and health is outlined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2004/11/29/hscout522554.html

 

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'Lighter than air' breathing more than doubles COPD patients' exercise endurance

Helium/oxygen mixture reduces airflow limitations, lung dynamic hyperinflation and sensation of 'shortness of breath'

BETHESDA, Md. (Nov. 29, 2004) – It certainly makes sense: COPD sufferers have varying degrees of serious breathing difficulties, which keeps them from almost any kind of exercise, especially in advanced stages. So maybe "lighter than air" air would be easier to breath, reduce shortness of breath and perhaps even allow them to do some exercise with all of its physical and mental benefits.

A group of Italian researchers reports in the November issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology that while breathing a low-density mixture of 79% helium and 21% oxygen (called heliox), the length of time that 12 COPD patients could do real exercise was 9 minutes, versus only 4.2 minutes for 12 patients breathing regular air (79% nitrogen/21% oxygen). And the exercise involved wasn't trivial: The subjects cycled "until exhaustion" at a rate of 50 rpm at 80% of their maximal rate measured several days earlier while on air.

COPD: 4th leading cause of death in world and U.S., and rising

The World Health Organization estimates that chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD, defined as emphysema and chronic bronchitis) as a single cause of death around the world shares fourth place with HIV/AIDS, following coronary heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and acute respiratory infection. WHO estimates that 2,740,000 people died of COPD worldwide in 2000; cigarette smoking is blamed for about 85% of cases.

According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), COPD is the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. and is projected to rise to third place for both men and women by the year 2020. NHLBI says 12.1 million Americans 25 and older were diagnosed with COPD in 2001. Estimated cost of COPD in 2002 was $32.1 billion, of which $18 billion were direct costs.

COPD is characterized by shortness of breath (dyspnea) and exercise intolerance. Among severely affected patients, especially those with emphysema, the inability to exercise or even to move small distances is mostly due to limits on "breathing out" because of limited expiratory flow, and early onset of dyspnea.

Heliox appears to positively change multitude of lung mechanics

In the current study, the more than doubling in the time COPD patients could exercise "was associated with a significant reduction in lung dynamic hyperinflation (DH) at isotime (Iso; when the patients stopped exercising during regular air breathing), as reflected by the increase in inspiratory capacity (IC) to 1.97 from 1.77 liters and a decrease in dyspnea" scoring to 6 from 8.

The researchers said that "heliox induced a state of relative hyperventilation as reflected by the increase in minute ventilation" to 38.3 versus 35.5 liters, and minute ventilation over carbon dioxide output to 36.3 versus 33.9 at peak exercise, and by the reduction in arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide at Iso to 44 from 48 and at peak exercise to 46 from 48.

The study, "Effect of heliox on lung dynamic hyperinflation, dyspnea, and exercise endurance capacity in COPD patients," was conducted by Paolo Palange, Gabriele Valli, Paolo Onorati, Rosa Antonucci, Patrizia Paoletti, Alessia Rosato, Felice Manfredi, and Pietro Serra from Dipartmento di Medicina Clinica, Servizio di Fisiopatologia Respiratoria, Università "La Sapienza," Rome, Italy.

Palange et al. says the "most likely explanation for our finding is that heliox improved maximal expiratory flow and maximal ventilatory capacity, as reflected by the increase in resting forced expiratory volume and by the increase in tidal volume, mean expiratory flow, and minute ventilation at peak exercise. Importantly, the improvement in maximal expiratory flow determined a significant reduction in lung dynamic hyperinflation and dyspnea, as reflected by the significant increase in inspiratory capacity (IC), inspiratory reserve volume and IC/minute ventilation, and decrease in dyspnea at Iso.

"All of these positive changes in lung mechanics allowed the patients to markedly improve exercise endurance time," they note.

And finally, "it is likely that the exercise protocol used, capable of inducing high levels of ventilation relative to subject's maximal ventilation for a prolonged period of time, has amplified the effect of heliox breathing in reducing turbulent airway resistances," the authors say. In a related observation, they believe that "the high-intensity constant work rate test utilized allowed us to clearly detect the beneficial effect of small changes in lung mechanics induced by heliox breathing on exercise capacity."

Next steps

The authors conclude that "heliox breathing, by reducing airflow limitations, lung dynamic hyperinflation and dyspnea sensation, is capable of improving high-intensity exercise endurance capacity in moderate to severe COPD patients." However, they note that "further studies are needed to verify the potential role of heliox supplementation during exercise rehabilitation programs in COPD patients."

 

Source
The study, "Effect of heliox on lung dynamic hyperinflation, dyspnea, and exercise endurance capacity in COPD patients," by Palange et al. appears in the November issue of the Journal of Applied Physiology, published by the American Physiological Society.

Editor's note: A copy of the research paper by Palange et al. is available to the media. Members of the media are encouraged to obtain an electronic version and to interview members of the research team. To do so, please contact Mayer Resnick at the American Physiological Society, 301-634-7209, cell 301-332-4402 or mresnick@the-aps.org.

The American Physiological Society was founded in 1887 to foster basic and applied bioscience. The Bethesda, Maryland-based society has more than 10,000 members and publishes 14 peer-reviewed journals containing almost 4,000 articles annually.

APS provides a wide range of research, educational and career support and programming to further the contributions of physiology to understanding the mechanisms of diseased and healthy states. In May, APS received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM).

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-11/aps-ta112904.php

 

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PRODUCT MARKETING NEWS

20 Years After Nicorette's Introduction GlaxoSmithKline Offers a Dramatic Change for Smokers-

- New Nicotine Gum Combines Intense Flavor and Effective Treatment --

PITTSBURGH, November 29, 2004 /PRNewswire/ -- For 20 years Nicorette(R) nicotine gum has helped millions of Americans trying to quit smoking, and now the famous remedy is taking a cue from today's popular chewing gums to give more smokers another reason to quit -- great taste, an easier chew and an intense minty flavor. For hundreds of years mint has been a widely popular flavoring and even an herbal therapy for headaches, coughs, colds and the lack of concentration or productivity; now a long-lasting minty flavor is being added to Nicorette -- called Nicorette Fresh Mint -- to attract more smokers to the gum that is clinically proven to help people quitting smoking.

Nicorette nicotine gum, NicoDerm(R) CQ(R) nicotine patch and the Commit(R) nicotine lozenge are marketed by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare and have helped more than 2 million people stop smoking by providing low, safe doses of nicotine to ease withdrawal from cigarettes. Smokers familiar with the flavor of the original Nicorette gum will be truly surprised by the taste and texture of new Nicorette Fresh Mint. Like many of today's popular chewing gums, Nicorette Fresh Mint has a hard outer coating that bursts with mint flavor. The new formulation meets the needs of consumers who felt the original gum was not soft enough and expected a flavor more like standard chewing gum.

"When smokers try to quit without help they often experience unbearable cravings and withdrawal symptoms, which are the main reasons they return to cigarettes," states Bill Slivka, Vice President of Smoking Control, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare. "Nicorette Fresh Mint allows smokers to fight their nicotine cravings as they happen, reducing withdrawal symptoms like irritability and difficulty concentrating. It provides safe, controlled doses of medical nicotine without the harmful tars and poisons found in cigarette smoke."

Nicorette(R) Fresh Mint works the same as original Nicorette and is available in two strengths, 2mg for smokers of 24 or fewer cigarettes each day and 4mg for smokers of 25 or more cigarettes each day. This latest addition to GSK's stop-smoking aids is available over-the-counter in most drug stores, mass merchandisers and supermarkets. The Nicorette Fresh Mint starter kit includes a complete user's guide that explains the process of quitting, how Nicorette Fresh Mint works and why it is important to chew it differently than regular gum. In addition, smokers can receive specific tips for success and advice about staying smoke-free that are offered free with enrollment in the Committed Quitters(R) program, at http://www.quit.com/ .

About Committed Quitters(R)

Committed Quitters is an individualized behavioral support program that is available for free to people using GSK's stop-smoking products. Using Nicorette as directed could double a smoker's chances of quitting cigarettes versus a cold turkey quit attempt, but adding this online support program greatly increases the chances of success. Smokers who have used Nicorette with the assigned support materials from our original Committed Quitters program had quit rates 71 percent higher than people who used the gum alone.(1)

Committed Quitters includes customized materials that provide coping strategies, advice and incentives for staying smoke-free. The Committed Quitters program has been used so far by more than 600,000 smokers. For more information about Nicorette Fresh Mint and the Committed Quitters program, visit the Web site http://www.quit.com/ .

About GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare

GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare is one of the world's largest over- the-counter healthcare products companies and ranks second globally in sales of oral care products. Its more than 30 well-known products include such medicine cabinet staples as Abreva(R), Aquafresh(R) toothpastes and toothbrushes, Goody's(R) Headache Powder, Nicorette(R), NicoDerm(R) CQ(R), Commit(R), Sensodyne(R) and Tums(R).

About GlaxoSmithKline

GlaxoSmithKline is one of the world's leading research-based pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare companies. GlaxoSmithKline is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.

(1) Shiffman S, Paty JA, Rohay JM, Di Marino ME, Gitchell J. The efficacy of computer-tailored smoking cessation material as a supplement to nicotine polacrilex gum therapy. Archives of Internal Medicine 2000; 160: 1675-1681.

Web site: http://www.gsk.com/http://www.quit.com/

Ticker Symbol: (NYSE:GSK)

DownloadsFinal.pdf

http://www.pharmalive.com/News/index.cfm?articleid=193820&categoryid=10

 

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Boy, 11, burned in vicious attack - AU
Liam Houlihan November 30, 2004
THREE young men attacked an 11-year-old boy, stubbing a cigarette on his stomach for commenting on the dangers of smoking.
The boy's attackers threw him against a wall and pinned him to the ground by his throat before burning him.

The victim's mother said the attack may have been prompted by her son's comment that the young men smoking thought they looked tough, but were just killing themselves.

The attack happened at the car park of the Mooroolbark McDonald's on September 21.

The boy's mother described her son's attackers as cowardly bullies. "He has a real fear of these boys coming back to get him. I didn't think this could happen to our boy," she said.

The boy's family did not find out about the attack until the boy's doctor noticed the burn two weeks later. The victim was walking with two friends when the older boys heard his comment, and then attacked him.

The men are aged 16 to 20. The main attacker had short blond hair. The victim and his family do not wish to be identified.

"He was basically so scared he didn't mention it to anyone -- not even his family," investigating officer Senior Constable Daniel Sciore said.

The boy from outer eastern suburb The Patch, near Monbulk, had told his family his cut and swollen lip -- received in the attack -- were the result of a fall.

The boy said he and his friends did not report the attack to police because they were scared the attackers might kill them.

Sen-Constable Sciore from Mooroolbark police said he had never seen an attack like it where there was such a huge difference in age between the victim and offender. He described the young victim as polite, well-spoken and well-mannered.

"I saw his injuries two weeks (after the incident) and they were still very serious. The attack can only be described as vicious," he said.

Sen-Constable Sciore said the scene of the attack would have been very busy and someone would have seen something.

Police currently have no leads and are appealing to anyone with information about the man or his two companions to contact Crime Stoppers or the Mooroolbark police.

"It was in broad daylight. Someone would have seen something. This sort of behaviour is not on and it has got to be stopped," Sen-Constable Sciore said.
Herald Sun

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11539404%255E2862,00.html

 

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Tobacco giant penetrated Asian markets via smuggling and political influence

Posted By: News-Medical in Miscellaneous NewsPublished: Monday, 29-Nov-2004

British American Tobacco (BAT)'s strategy for global expansion combined complicity in smuggling with high level political influence across Asia, new research reveals.

A series of papers published in the journal Tobacco Control, based on analysis of previously secret internal BAT documents, reveal extensive evidence, both of the critical role of contraband in corporate strategy and the company's oversight of widespread smuggling activities across Asia, and its attempts to undermine health policy. The papers look at BAT's activities over the past two decades during which transnational tobacco companies have expanded into Asia's emerging markets as traditional western markets have declined.

The papers have been co-written by tobacco control policy experts from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in an international collaboration with other researchers. The documents used are being made available through the Guildford Archiving Project, efforts that are improving public access to millions of pages of documents from BAT.

The articles published today explore the strategies used by BAT to pursue rapid growth in key Asian markets, raising serious questions about corporate conduct:

• The first comprehensive analysis of cigarette smuggling in Asia highlights the critical importance of contraband to BAT's regional strategy. This illicit trade has enabled BAT to enter closed markets, to undermine health regulation, and to earn huge profits. The company's documents demonstrate how BAT aimed to carefully manage the availability of smuggled cigarettes while maintaining sufficient separation to allow deniability.
• In China, where the government maintained a firm grip over foreign investment and imports of international cigarette brands, BAT exploited contraband to circumvent import quotas. Documents also show how the company sought to undermine the World Health Organization's Tobacco Free Initiative in China, and to influence China's participation in negotiations for WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).
• Documents detail how BAT identified Cambodia as an attractive target for investment as the country emerged from civil war in the early 1990s. The company viewed Cambodia as strategically valuable in facilitating contraband activities in the region. BAT has also exploited the country's minimal advertising restrictions and sought to prevent advances in tobacco control legislation.
• In Thailand, tobacco companies collaborated to undermine government efforts to require full disclosure of cigarette ingredients. The documents indicate the successful exercise of political influence within the highest levels of government in Thailand and among key embassies.
• In Indonesia BAT has sought to compete with the locally dominant manufacturers of clove-based cigarettes (kreteks). Attempts were made to adapt the image of BAT brands to appeal to Indonesian women. Efforts to develop a kretek-like product were eventually withdrawn amid fears of exposing the company to charges of double standards.

Jeff Collin of LSHTM, who co-authored all of the new papers, comments: "BAT has sought to reverse the impact of long term declines in smoking rates in Europe and North America by aggressively targeting developing countries. Asia is the key to the company's future prospects, and its own documents highlight the dubious tactics used to accelerate its progress in the region. Importantly, the documents also provide a powerful resource for developing effective policy responses to such tactics."

http://www.lshtm.ac.uk/

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=6521

 

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Tougher action needed to stop cigarette sales to children -AU

Posted By: News-Medical in Child Health News Published: Monday, 29-Nov-2004

Retailers should be licensed to sell cigarettes, and the licence revoked if they are caught selling tobacco to children, the Australian Medical Association (WA) said today.

"The State Government is relying on heavy fines to deter retailers, but the threat of losing their licence would be a far stronger deterrent," said AMA (WA) President Dr Paul Skerritt.

"One has to question how effectively we can police the fines system and how often the courts have imposed the maximum penalty in the past."

Dr Skerritt said banning point-of-sale-advertising, limiting displays of tobacco products and restricting cigarette vending machines to licensed premises were welcome initiatives by the State Government - but they should have been introduced much earlier.

"The measures being announced now by the Health Minister were advocated by the Health Department more than 18 months ago," said Dr Skerritt.

"The Government refused to act because it did not want to upset the tobacco and liquor industries.

"On the eve of an election they have promised a raft of reforms which will do nothing to reduce passive smoking for at least another 18 months."

Dr Skerritt said the AMA (WA) was disappointed that Mr McGinty had attacked the association's zero-tolerance attitude to passive smoking as "playing politics".

"We are not prepared to compromise on this issue and we make no apology for putting the health of the community ahead of everyone else's business interests," he said.

"Sadly, our members deal directly with the victims of lung cancer, throat cancer, heart disease and all the other smoking-related illnesses.

"They don't have a lot of sympathy for those who will only take action when the Australian Hotels Association says it is comfortable with the timetable for new regulations to be introduced.

"Many more lives will be lost while we wait for the new rules to take effect."

http://www.amawa.com.au

http://www.news-medical.net/?id=6510

 

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Liverpool and London push for smoking ban -UK

Published 29th November 2004

Liverpool and London have joined forces in petitioning Parliament to pass smoke-free laws in the two cities.

Liverpool City Council and the Association of London Government (ALG) - representing London’s 33 councils – have made the decision to pressure government because neither feels the white paper on health does enough to protect workers.

The councils are to formally place private bills before Parliament to ban smoking in pubs, clubs, restaurants, shops and offices to protect employees being exposed to cigarette smoke. The legislation is being put forward on health and safety grounds and is similar to laws already in force in Ireland and New York.

Sir Robin Wales, chair of the ALG, said: “People have the choice of smoking or not, or whether they wish to stay in smoke-filled environments. However the people working in our leisure venues do not have that choice.

“Recent polls have shown that Londoners themselves back a ban on smoking in public places. This bill is evidence of boroughs listening to and acting on the concerns of their local communities.”

Mike Storey, leader of Liverpool City Council, added: “In Liverpool over 100 people die each year from cancer caused by passive smoking. We take this issue extremely seriously. As a city council we have a duty to protect employees and customers, and our bill will do exactly that.”

The bills are being introduced in time for the next legislative session and will go through the normal parliamentary procedures. This process will also help shape how any ban would be enforced should it become law.

http://www.thepublican.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=15684&d=32&h=24&f=23&dateformat=%25o%20%25B%20%25Y

 

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Protect Your Home From Carbon Monoxide

Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that is produced as a result of incomplete burning of carbon-containing fuels. Exposure to CO reduces the blood's ability to carry oxygen.

Carbon monoxide exposures especially affect unborn babies, infants and people with anemia or a history of heart or respiratory disease.

Breathing low levels of CO can cause fatigue and increase chest pain in people with chronic heart disease. Breathing higher levels of carbon monoxide causes flu-like symptoms such as headaches, dizziness, and weakness in healthy people. Carbon monoxide also causes sleepiness, nausea, vomiting, confusion, and disorientation. At very high levels, it causes loss of consciousness and death.

Steps To Prevent Carbon Monoxide Poisoning In Your Home:

Make sure appliances are installed and working according to manufacturers' instructions and local building codes.

Have only a qualified technician install or convert fuel-burning equipment from one type to another.

Have the heating system, chimney and flue inspected and cleaned by a qualified technician every year.

Do not use ovens and gas ranges to heat your home.

Do not burn charcoal inside a home, cabin, recreational vehicle or camper.

Do not operate gasoline-powered engines in confined areas such as garages or basements.

Never leave your car or mower running in a closed garage.

Make sure your furnace has adequate intake of outside air.

Choose vented appliances whenever possible.

Use kerosene space heaters and unvented gas heaters only in well ventilated rooms.

Install a carbon monoxide detector with an audible alarm in your home and garage.

 

Any fuel-burning appliance that is not adequately vented and maintained can be a potential source of CO, including:

 

Gas appliances (furnaces, ranges, ovens, water heaters, clothes dryers, etc.).

Fireplaces, wood and coal stoves, space heaters.

Charcoal grills, automobile exhaust fumes, camp stoves, gas-powered lawn mowers, and power tools.

Cigarette smoke can also contain high levels of CO, as well as 200 other known poisons.

 

Carbon Monoxide Detectors Should:

 

Meet Underwriters Laboratories, Inc. standards.

Have a long-term warranty.

Be easily self-tested and reset to ensure proper functioning.

Be placed as close to sleeping areas as possible for maximum effectiveness during sleeping hours.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/money/423055/detail.html

 

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Ban Could Cut Smoking by 10% -UK

  Susannah Birkwood Posted by: Webteam on Nov 28, 2004
THE GOVERNMENT’S proposed smoking ban could lower cigarette consumption by as much as 10% and result in massive loss of profits for tobacco companies, according to City analysts.
However the pub trade has hinted that publicans will side-step the ban, while some of Britain's top restaurants are planning to charge membership or entrance fees, as smoking will still be legal in private clubs where the members agree to it.
The UK tobacco market is already declining between 1 and 2 % a year, although this is partly due to the high price of cigarettes. According to analysts at investment banks Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, cigarette consumption could suffer a one-off fall of up to 10%in 2009.
However, Stephen Birkwood from Deutschebank comments: "Given the fact that tobacco companies have a three-year window to restructure their business, the ban shouldn't have a huge impact on the profits they achieve".
According to Manchester doctors, councillors and charity bosses, an absolute ban is the only way forward.
Phil Braber, Chairman of the Greater Manchester and Cheshire Lung Cancer Network, and chest physician at Wythenshawe Hospital, said: "I think doctors will feel let down if there is not a ban because we would be missing a great opportunity not only to protect people from passive smoking, but also a chance to secure very big reductions in active smoking. A smoke-free environment is a reasonable expectation these days".
Dr Kailash Chand, Ashton-under-Lyne GP and local British Medical Association representative, also is “begging” Manchester City Council to push for a smoking ban: "The white paper on public health provides the Government with the biggest opportunity to change the health of the nation since its election in 1997, " he commented. "Is this not the time for Manchester council to propose such a ban?”
Confident that whatever restrictions are proposed, it will be a significant step towards making the city smoke-free, Pat Karney - head of the Greater Manchester Smoke Free Campaign - has said that "I have no doubt that we will have a smoke-free Greater Manchester which will save around 25,000 people over the next five to ten years".
Health secretary John Reid stated that even in pubs where smoking will be permitted, nobody will be able to light up in the bar area.
Student opinion on the smoking ban is unsurprisingly split: Manchester student Dave Jepson said: "Aside from the passive smoking issue, who wants to stink of stale fags after a trip to the pub?" and was supported by Olivia Long who commented "Smokers are in a minority anyway, why should they be allowed to give other people lung cancer?" But others have attacked the plans as "an attempt to demonise smokers".

* I added my comments to site

http://www.student-direct.co.uk/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1682&thold=0&mode=0&order=0

 

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