Ont. may ban smoking around all public buildings
CTV.ca News Staff
Ontario smokers could find themselves way out in the cold, if the province goes ahead with a plan for sweeping, no-smoking zones around all public buildings.
CTV's Toronto affiliate, CFTO, has learned of draft legislation that could leave people in the province very few options on where to light up. The only choices left could be in their homes, their cars, and far away from any public building.
A senior source in the McGuinty government told CFTO the proposed ban would likely follow the same guidelines already in place outside hospitals -- where smoking isn't allowed within nine metres of any doorway.
The Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty is expected to table the legislation before Christmas, CFTO News reported on Wednesday.
Long-time smoker Don Lalonde admits lighting up "is a dirty, no-good habit," but he said the idea being floated is still too much.
"I think they're carrying it a little bit too far."
Other smokers, however, said they supported the move.
"I'm okay with it, actually," said Glen Hofman. "I'm fine with it."
Ontario's minister of health, George Smitherman, would not confirm the report of the draft legislation, but did repeat his commitment to getting citizens of his province to butt out.
"We ran on a platform of a 100 per cent ban on smoking in public and work places and we're going to fulfill it," Smitherman said.
As well, CFTO says the Health Minister will get support from Ontario Finance Minister Greg Sorbara. He is said to be onside with efforts to raise cigarette taxes in the province to bring them closer to the national average.
"I have to balance between taxes that discourage smoking -- and that works -- and making sure our taxes are not a catalyst to a black market that doesn't serve anybody," Sorbara said.
Citing data from 2004, Statistics Canada estimates there are just over 1.7 million smokers in Ontario. That figure amounts to just under 17 per cent of the population.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1100736075404_64/?hub=Health
Alberta Tories blamed for petrochemical layoffs
Canadian Press
SHERWOOD PARK, Alta. — Workers facing layoffs at a petrochemical plant told Alberta Premier Ralph Klein on Wednesday that his government's policies threaten their industry's future.
"We want (Klein) to support the petrochemical industry and right now we don't see that happening,'' said Mike McKinney of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers union.
About 10 union members tried to confront Klein on the issue at a Tory-friendly event in Sherwood Park, just east of Edmonton, as he campaigned in advance of Monday's election.
Starting next year, between 250 and 300 workers will lose their jobs when Celanese Canada shuts an Edmonton plant that has produced cigarette filters for the Chinese market.
The union says those jobs will be transferred to plants in Mexico and Belgium and will eventually be located in a new plant being built in China.
Although some analysts suggest the jobs are being moved so the plant is closer to its markets, the union says Conservative policies have also played a role.
It says allowing the Alliance pipeline to ship natural gas through Alberta without stripping out liquids used for petrochemicals cost the province its competitive advantage.
"This is Alberta. This is where natural gas comes from,'' McKinney said. "Over half our natural gas gets shipped down the pipe to Chicago.''
Greg Stringham of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers explained that before the Alliance pipeline from British Columbia to Chicago opened on Dec. 1, 2001, those liquids were removed from the gas in Alberta.
"There was no way to get them out (of the province) before the Alliance pipeline,'' said Stringham.
Because the liquids were stranded, there was an abundant supply of petrochemical feedstock in Alberta and that kept prices low.
When the bottleneck was removed, Alberta petrochemical producers were forced to pay North American prices for raw materials.
"That makes us a high-cost producer, therefore taking away our advantage,'' said McKinney.
"The petrochemical industry across the province is in trouble here because of these policies.''
Klein said the energy department is studying the issue.
"I've already asked officials to rethink the so-called ethane policy to ensure that we're able to strip liquids that go to support the petrochemical industry to make sure that we get our fair share.''
He said the policy has been changed because the government decided the pipeline's value and the jobs it would create outweighed the petrochemical industry's need for cheap ethane.
"We need to relook at the policy,'' he said.
After a hastily arranged meeting with Energy Minister Murray Smith, McKinney said officials with the government, union and company will meet to examine ways to keep the plant open.
"We would be looking for alternative products we could make or investments of that nature,'' McKinney said.
Stringham said the Alberta industry retains some advantages.
Most competitors get their feedstock from oil, which is even more expensive than gas, he said.
As well, Alberta plants pay minimal transportation charges to get raw materials.
That doesn't help workers faced with losing jobs, said McKinney.
"We've got 400 families that have been upset because of these policies and we need some action here,'' he said. "We need Ralph to care about that.''
Also on the campaign trail Wednesday, Liberal Leader Kevin Taft told a radio talk show Alberta needs to begin building hospitals immediately to help an over-burdened health system.
Taft said hospitals in Calgary and Edmonton are functioning at over-capacity.
NDP Brian Mason teed off on Klein's Monday promise to stay in office for at least 33/4 years if re-elected. That promise, he said, was worth 10,000 votes for the New Democrats.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1100740270673_106/?hub=Canada
Top Judges Have Doubts on Tobacco Penalty
By Peter Kaplan Wed Nov 17, 2004 05:01 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A divided U.S. federal appeals court panel on Wednesday expressed skepticism about whether the government had the power to force cigarette makers to pay billions of dollars in past profits as part of its racketeering case against the industry.
Hearing a legal argument that could be crucial to the $280 billion racketeering case, two of three appeals judges raised doubts about a lower court ruling that permitted the government to seek $280 billion in penalties from the industry.
"This RICO law was issued with all sorts of testimony about racketeers and Mafiosi. I've seen the government using it in court against everybody except racketeers and Mafiosi," Appeals Court Judge David Sentelle said.
Before the three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia is a motion by the industry challenging the government's bid for "disgorgement" of some of their past profits in the case that went to trial in September.
The motion was denied in May by U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, who concluded that the government may ask for disgorgement under a provision in civil racketeering law that seeks to "prevent and restrain" future violations.
The case is in its ninth week of trial before Kessler, but industry lawyers appealed Kessler's ruling while the case continues.
Targeted in the lawsuit are Altria Group Inc. and its Philip Morris USA unit; Loews Corp.'s Lorillard Tobacco unit, which has a tracking stock, Carolina Group ; Vector Group Ltd.'s Liggett Group; Reynolds American Inc.'s R.J. Reynolds Tobacco unit and British American Tobacco Plc unit British American Tobacco Investments Ltd.
Stocks of tobacco companies were mostly higher. The S&P tobacco index closed Wednesday up 5.14 percent to 280.12.
CONSPIRACY CASE
The government charges cigarette makers lied and tried to confuse the public about the dangers of smoking as part of a 50-year industry conspiracy.
The tobacco companies deny they illegally conspired to promote smoking and say the government has no grounds to pursue them after they drastically overhauled marketing practices as part of the 1998 settlement with state attorneys general.
The industry's lawyers have argued that any potential sanctions must be limited to money that would be used to perpetuate any racketeering violations in the future.
During Wednesday's arguments, industry lawyer Michael Carvin told the judges that if the government wanted to force the industry to give up past profits, it should have filed suit under the criminal section of the racketeering statute.
The government's interpretation of the racketeering laws "would make nonsense of the statute," Carvin said.
Sentelle was receptive to that argument, demanding to know how the government could "wedge" its $280 billion disgorgement claim into the "prevent and restrain" wording in the law.
"It says what it says, and I don't see why you're not stuck with that," Sentelle said.
Sentelle and Stephen Williams both challenged the government's reasoning and questioned whether the government's disgorgement request would bankrupt the industry.
Government lawyer Michael Dreeben countered by citing past cases and said judges in racketeering cases should have "an arsenal of remedies" at their disposal to "change the economic incentives to say crime is not profitable."
That argument got a sympathetic hearing from one of the other judge on the appeals panel, David Tatel.
The judges also asked about another issue raised by the government: whether the appeals court may be barred by judicial procedures from ruling either way on the disgorgement matter at this point in the case.
The government has argued that the appeals court has no grounds to rule on the matter at this point because cigarette makers had a chance to appeal an earlier disgorgement ruling by Kessler but declined to do so.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=businessNews&storyID=6845700
BUFFALO, N.Y. A media campaign aimed at getting people to quit smoking is taking its show on the road -- to Buffalo.
The "Bob Quits" campaign was developed by the Washington-based American Legacy Foundation and was inspired by reality T-V shows. So far, it has only aired in New York City and Washington.
Today it was launched in Buffalo, where television and radio spots follow the efforts of Queens sheet metal worker Bob Teicher (TYE'-sher) as he tried to give up cigarette smoking.
The campaign also features outdoor advertising on buses and elsewhere, with messages like "Quit, Bob, Quit."
The Buffalo campaign kicks off a day before the Great American Smokeout, when smokers are urged to kick the tobacco habit.
On the Net:
New York State Smoker's Quitsite: www.nysmokefree.com
http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=2579544
Airman offers Great American Smokeout advice
by Senior Airman Sarah Kinsman
15th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
11/17/2004 - HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii (AFPN) -- According to the American Cancer Society, more than 46.5 million American citizens are in a private prison. Afflicted with worsening health, financial shackles and being publicly ostracized, these prisoners have their cell in their possession, but they can break out.
All they have to do is quit smoking.
The society started the Great American Smoke Out in 1977 to challenge people to stop using tobacco and raise awareness of the many effective ways to quit for good.
Tech. Sgt. Joanne Reed, assigned to the Pacific Air Forces protocol office here, quit smoking in 2001 during the Great American Smokeout and has not turned back.
“I started [smoking] when I was 17, so I had been smoking for 10 years at a rate of one to two packs per day,” she said. “It was not my first attempt at quitting, and I didn’t know if it would be my last either. It seems to take us smokers five to six times before we get quitting right. I was due to get it right this time.”
There were several reasons why she decided to quit smoking.
“I was tired of the stigma, the lectures, the smell, the cost and my health,” she said. “I was a medic. I was supposed to be leading the pack and setting the example. Instead, I was a complete hypocrite.”
Having attempted quitting several times before 2001, there were some changes Sergeant Reed made to help her remain tobacco-free.
“I adopted several gradual lifestyle changes when I successfully quit,” she said. “First and foremost was to quit smoking. Once I achieved that goal for myself, I slowly incorporated diet and exercise. Running became a successful outlet for me. I viewed it as swapping one addiction for another.”
This year’s Great American Smokeout, the day set aside each year to have smokers stop smoking for a day and hopefully for the rest of their lives, is Nov. 18. Sergeant Reed offers a few tips to smokers wanting to quit.
“Hang in there is the best tip I can offer,” she said. “Quitting is not easy. It takes a lot of work, a lot of time and a lot of effort. Don’t beat yourself up if you fall off the wagon. We don’t succeed by berating ourselves into achieving. Get up, dust yourself off, give yourself a pat on the back and jump on again. In the meantime, you are gaining the skills you need in order to be successful when you do [quit].”
Smoking cessation is not just about stopping the act, but changing the lifestyle.
“For me, quitting smoking affected my social contacts and my daily routines,” Sergeant Reed said. “I had to change my thinking and behaviors regarding my eating and exercise habits.
“Everyone has their reasons for smoking: to cope with stress, to relax, curb appetite, peer pressure, boredom. ... Some people don’t quit because they fear the weight gain, the mood swings associated with nicotine withdrawal, they’re unable to find alternate ways to cope with stress, and some may not quit because consciously or unconsciously, they’re afraid of failing,” Sergeant Reed said.
“The most important step is making the commitment to quit,” she said. “Individuals can start by gathering the tools and resources -- seek information, join a support group, attend a smoking cessation class. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about quitting, I guarantee you will gain at least one new resource to add to your toolbox to be a successful quitter.
“Anyone can quit, anyone. It’s up to the individual,” Sergeant Reed said. “All it requires is commitment.”
http://www.af.mil/news/story.asp?storyID=123009203
Online cigarette purchases are hurting the state -OR
The legislature and state pinned a lot of their budget promises on cigarette smokers.
Health, anti-smoking groups seek to revive cigarette tax
The Associated Press November 17, 2004
SALEM - Health care industry and anti-smoking groups plan to seek reinstatement of a 10-cent-a-pack cigarette tax that was snuffed out when voters rejected an $800 million tax hike earlier this year.
The groups say raising the cigarette tax would discourage smoking among young people by making cigarettes more expensive and provide more money for health clinics for low-income people.
But the move is likely to encounter strong resistance from House Republicans who say Oregonians have made it clear they don't want higher taxes.
The 10-cent cigarette tax was enacted by the 1993 Legislature to help pay for the Oregon Health Plan, and lawmakers had renewed the increase every two years since then with little controversy.
However, the cigarette tax died because lawmakers included it in their $800 million tax hike plan, most of which would have come from an income tax surcharge, trounced by voters in February.
The result of the February vote was that Oregon's cigarette tax dropped from $1.28 a pack to $1.18 per package.
With the 2005 Legislature set to begin on Jan. 10, the groups seeking reinstatement of the 10-cent tax are prepared to make the case that voters didn't mean to kill the tax.
Ken Rutledge, president of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems, said reinstating the tax would generate $28 million in the next two-year budget cycle.
It's a bad time of year for Oregon's Department of Revenue to run out of money. Some say the Internet is to blame.
The legislature and state pinned a lot of their budget promises on cigarette smokers. But smokers in Oregon have decreased and more are going on-line, avoiding the tax.
Department administrator Randy Evers said they need to cut $20 million. "We would have to start curtailing operations after the first of the year. That's income tax season . . .so that's not a good scenario."
The department is asking for an emergency infusion of $15 million.
http://www.kxl.com/arDisplay.aspx?SecID=1&ID=43568
Smoking ban 'puts 2000 jobs at risk' -UK
NEARLY 2000 jobs could be lost in the licensed trade in Scotland through the Executive’s proposed ban on smoking in public places, it was claimed today.
Customer numbers could fall by 6.3 per cent and profits could slump by more than £13 million, it was claimed.
The figures came in research commissioned by accountants BDO Stoy Hayward for a UK-wide "impact study" on the effects of a smoking ban. It estimates the ban could cost the trade 1800 Scots jobs.
The findings run counter to claims by the Scottish Executive that a ban in Scotland could mean more customers, not fewer, for the country’s pubs and restaurants.
The Executive has pointed to a research by Aberdeen University which suggests a ban would lead to a net economic benefit to Scotland ranging from £26 million a year to as much as £376m a year.
In England and Wales, where Westminster is proposing a smoking ban in pubs that serve food, the study claims the licensed trade industry could see 32,000 jobs lost, a 7.6 per cent drop in customer numbers, and a £230m fall in profits.
The biggest job losses would in the south-east of England, where 12,140 jobs could be at threat, said the study.
David Hill, business recovery partner at BDO Stoy Hayward in Scotland said:
"Those in the licensed trade will need to think hard as how to preempt and recoup any potential loss in revenue."
He said the proposed ban did not mean bad news for all affected businesses, but losses would be felt by those businesses who did not prepare sufficiently.
http://business.scotsman.com/media.cfm?id=1326052004
Student Government Creates Controversial Smoking Ban Survey A closer look at the proposal -CA
by Daniel Hug Hornet Asst. News Editor
November 17, 2004
The Associated Students Senate is elected by the student body to serve as their voice in how Fullerton College is operated. On the whole, the students and faculty expect their student government representatives to make honest and rational decisions based on the will of the campus community.
Last week, AS put the issue of a campus-wide smoking ban in the hands of the people they represent in the form of a survey given to students and faculty members. Reasonable enough, but a closer look shows that the survey is composed in such a way that a smoking ban seems inevitable.
Sample questions included "Do you agree that second-hand smoke is dangerous to your health?", and "Do you agree that cigarette butts are a hazard to the environment?"
Survey respondents could choose one of four answers: strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree.
Another question asked students if they would attend FC if the campus went smoke-free.
AS got students and faculty to participate in the survey by offering them a free sandwich. A few hungry souls get to decide the fate of smokers on campus.
The AS President has endorsed a smoking ban, and most of the AS Senate agrees with him. With the consensus of the Student Senate firmly behind this proposal, one fears that a "strongly agree" vote in one manner will cancel out a "no" vote in another.
We all know that second-hand smoke kills, and that cigarette butts are a hazard to the environment, so why bother asking? Most people go to FC for an education, not to avoid inhaling smoke.
A better way of making this choice is to put the issue to a vote open to the entire student body and faculty (no free food, or anything that otherwise might taint the vote). It should come down to a simple question, do you approve of a campus-wide smoking ban, yes or no? A true campus-wide survey would also serve as a boon to AS, regardless of the final tally. This current administration was elected with a unified goal to increase student participation in school activities. They can achieve this by allowing an open discussion of such serious issues that will affect the entire campus.
Granted, not everyone will be interested in offering their opinions, but the Fullerton College community should have easy access in offering input to their elected leaders.
The decisions regarding how this campus is run should not be up to AS alone. If students and faculty members will be affected by a change in any of the rules, it is important to let them have a fair say in such matters. Student government should not be "loading the dice" by asking complex questions of the community they represent.
http://www.fchornet.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/17/419c152dd27c2
State Sees Increase In Cigarette Black Market After Tax Hike -WY
Riverton, Wyo.
Associated Press
A state revenue official says higher state tobacco taxes imposed 16 months ago have contributed to increased black market trading of cigarettes in Wyoming.
Dan Noble of the Wyoming Department of Revenue says his agency recently seized two-thousand cartons of contraband cigarettes that had come into Wyoming and were about to be sold without the required Wyoming tax stamp.
The 2003 Wyoming Legislature raised the excise tax on a pack of cigarettes from 12 cents to 60 cents. The higher tax took effect July first, 2003.
Noble says his agency may revoke two or three wholesale tobacco licensees because of violations of state law.
http://www.kgwn.tv/home/headlines/1197481.html
Study shows how KY cities subsidize rural areas
A new economic study shows how much Louisville and other urban areas subsidize rural parts of the state.
And it argues the process has to stop if Louisville is to attract the new jobs of the 21st century.
The report is aimed at state lawmakers, who have talked about reforming state taxes, but haven't acted on it.
It claims Kentucky ranks in the bottom five of the 50 states in attracting the hottest jobs today - those in the office economy. And those jobs are in the cities.
Louisville, Lexington and the northern Kentucky suburbs of Cincinnati generated
more than four billion dollars for the state government in 2002 and 2003, with not quite three-billion spent in the urban areas for things like public schools and road improvements.
The rest, about 1.4 billion, went to outstate Kentucky. And just how much comes back to Louisville? About 59 cents of every dollar, according to the study.
It gives new ammunition for Greater Louisville, Inc., and other urban interests to convince the state to send more money back to those who make it. And in turn, the cities would spend the money to shift from depending on an economy of building and moving things, to one of creating and owning things.
The study also recommends state lawmakers consider eliminating or lowering the income tax, raise cigarette and liquor taxes and consider expanded gambling.
It also says rural communities should think about raising their own taxes, including starting their own occupational taxes, like Louisville's, to raise money at home.
No one likes to talk about raising taxes. And Governor Fletcher and some legislators will argue the state's urban areas should subsidize the rural reas. But the study argues the changes are needed so Kentucky can bring in new jobs. It's already going out to city and state leaders, if nothing else, as food for thought.
http://www.fox41.com/news/news_detail.asp?id=19522§ion=2
News from the Pennsylvania General Assembly
* ONLY RELEVANT PORTION COPIED
CIGARETTE SALES: Companies who sell cigarettes by mail order or over the Internet would have to verify that their customers are old enough to buy their products legally under a bill passed unanimously by the House and sent to Rendell.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=13387349&BRD=2212&PAG=461&dept_id=465812&rfi=6
