Cigarette Packs Hard to Open

Secretary of State for Health Andrew Lansley is said to have come up with the idea while attempting to open the plastic packaging on some batteries he’d just bought. “I’d tried tearing it with my hands and biting the plastic, but it was just so frustrating,” said Lansley. “I almost gave up, which gave me an idea – what if I was to make the packaging on cigarettes just as annoying?” The new guidelines will force manufacturers to seal cigarette packages in the seemingly unbreakable plastic, and the cigarette boxes themselves will have no lid – instead smokers will have to steam them open with a kettle. “Obviously the next step is to make cigarettes really hard to light,” said Lansley. “I’m also looking into making them taste of rotten fish and invisible.”

Tobacco Company Proposed Free Cigarettes to Kids

A North Carolina-based tobacco company tried to entice African-American children to become smokers by handing out free Winston cigarettes in Boston during the 1950s and 1960s, a jury ruled on Dec. 14, awarding $71 million in compensatory damages to the estate and child of a woman who died of lung cancer in 2002.

According to the Associated Press, the Suffolk Superior Court in Boston announced the guilty verdict against Lorillard Tobacco following weeks of testimony in the case.

More and More Companies Refuse to Employ Smokers

As more and more companies are refusing to hire smokers - both to save over $10,000/yr per employee, and because employing smokers sends the wrong message - the major argument in opposition doesn’t really attack the practice itself, but bemoans that it will inevitably spread to the obese.

But public interest law professor John Banzhaf, who helped start and encourage the movement, and helped defend it in court, suggests that there are many reasons why smoking Virginia is very different from obesity.

First, obesity’s official classification by the government as a “disease” (for tax and Medicare purposes), and as a “health status” (for health insurance purposes), might make it legally difficult, whereas smoking, classified only as a “behavior,” enjoys no such legal protection.

Smoke-Free Legislations Raises Questions

The Virgin Islands Smoke-Free Act went into effect Wednesday, but many people are not sure exactly what the new law spells out for businesses and smokers in the territory.

The law was passed by the V.I. Legislature in April and signed by Gov. John deJongh Jr. on May 10.

8% Girls Under 15 Consume Tobacco

In India, 8.3% of girls in the 13-15 age groups consume some form of tobacco, according to the first Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) report. Experts say that the data is indicative of the trend of an increasing number of women using discount cigarettes like Winston, Marlboro, Kent etc.

In an attempt to accurately ascertain the use of tobacco products in the country, the Union health ministry along with WHO has conducted the first Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS).

"Regarding the use of tobacco in the country we just have National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data. This is the first survey in the country which will accurately tell us about the use of tobacco in different socio-economic strata," Dr Jagdish Kaur, chief medical officer of DGHS in the ministry of health, said.

Under the GATS project, 72,000 people were surveyed in 29 states. "With the help of WHO, we collected data. This time we used a special handheld device which was connected to out masterserver. So, all data collection was directly uploaded to the server. This helped us in expediting the data collection process," Dr Kaur said. The project was sanctioned by the ministry last year with an objective of identifying areas where tobacco use is high. "We had a set of 75 questions. Once the report is compiled, we will have a lot of information based on several parameters," Dr Kaur said.

As for tobacco use among women in India, experts say that there has definitely been a rise in the cases. Women comprise nearly 20% of the world's more than 1 billion smokers. "The global report on tobacco use is indicative of the increase in the use of tobacco among women in India. It is a percentage by which it has gone up," Vineet Gill, national programme officer of Tobacco Free Initiative, WHO India, said.

The vast majority of women who consume tobacco use smokeless tobacco (gutka, paan masala with tobacco, mishri, gul) and it varies considerably across states with prevalence rates ranging from 1% and 60%. The GATS report is likely to be released in June this year.

Record Amount of New Yorkers Try to Quit Smoking

During a 16-day period this year, the New York City health department enrolled more than 40,000 smokers for free nicotine patches and gum, officials said.The smoking cessation program, which began in 2003, exceeded last year's enrollment of 28,000 smokers.

"Although most New York City smokers have already quit, smoking remains the city's biggest health problem," Dr. Thomas Farley, city health commissioner, said in a statement.

"Cigarettes kill more than 7,500 New Yorkers every year, and thousands more suffer smoking-induced strokes, heart attacks, lung diseases and cancers."

On average, smokers die 14 years earlier than non-smokers -- often after years of progressive illness, Farley said. To help smokers quit, Farley advises to:

• Set a date to quit and mark it on a calendar and throw away ashtrays, lighters and cigarettes.

• Visit your doctor for advice.

• Make a list of why you want to quit.

• Make a list of family and friends who will support you.

• Avoid smoking triggers such as alcohol, caffeine and being with other smokers.

• Take a 30-minute walk at least four days a week.

• Consider nicotine replacement patches, gum or lozenges, which can double the odds of quitting.

New Legislation Could Limit Smoking Habit in Oklahoma City Restaurants

It seemed most ranchers, oil barons and other folks smoked when some of Oklahoma City’s historic restaurants opened decades ago.

But now, a new law could snuff out smokes in more eating establishments. And the whole idea is lighting up some restaurant owners even though they don’t happen to smoke Virginia cigarettes.


"We’ve probably had one or two legislators who came in, smoked a cigar and probably went down and voted against me,” Jim Shumsky, owner of the ritzy Junior’s, said with a big laugh. "I guess I’ll never know. Maybe I don’t want to know.”

Restaurants with smoking rooms will get a rebate if they close the rooms and go smoke-free, under a bill recently signed into law by Gov. Brad Henry. About 120 Oklahoma restaurants have smoking rooms with separate ventilation systems and would qualify for a rebate of up to 50 percent of the cost of a smoking room, minus depreciation.

It’s unlikely Junior’s or Cattlemen’s Steakhouse will shut down their smoking rooms, said Shumsky and Cattlemen’s owner Dick Stubbs.

"We get a lot of comments from smokers saying thank you for having a place for them,” Stubbs said. "The motivation remains the same. We want to take care of all our customers.”

He said probably fewer than 10 patrons have objected to the smoking room. Both restaurateurs said patron satisfaction is key and the rebate is small compared to the smoking room investment of about $40,000 for the 100-year-old Cattlemen’s and nearly $200,000 for Junior’s.
Restaurant rebates will come from the tobacco settlement fund, which totals about $1.3 million yearly. That should more than cover one-time reimbursement costs for restaurants to go smokeless by 2013, said Mark Newman, Office of State and Federal Policy director. He said there is no cap but restaurants will have to document costs of ventilation and closing off smoking rooms.

"We think this is an important thing to do to get to smoke-free restaurants across the state,” he said.

How many restaurants will close their smoking rooms is hazy but some probably will, declared Jim Hopper, Oklahoma Restaurant Association president.

Concerns about second-hand smoke and heart disease, cancer, strokes, high blood pressure and other health factors prompted the latest smoke-free measure, said Rep. Kris Steele, author of the new rebate law.

Second-hand smoke is estimated to cause 700 non-smokers’ deaths yearly in Oklahoma, said Breathe Easy OK.

A study revealed unhealthy to hazardous environments because of smoke particulates present in state restaurants and bars. The Oklahoma Tobacco Research Center, OU Cancer Institute study found:

- Non-smoking restaurants in the state had moderate levels of the dangerous substances in the air.
- Non-smoking dining areas of restaurants with smoking rooms had three times more particulates, or levels termed unhealthy by Environmental Protection Agency standards.
- Smoking rooms in restaurants averaged 1.5 times the EPA hazardous level.
- Bars averaged 2.6 times the EPA hazardous level.

Second-hand smoke claims an estimated 50,000 Americans yearly from heart disease-related illnesses, cancer and sudden infant death syndrome, according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s report.