Allegheny County forced to cut no-smoking programs

PITTSBURGH - A lack of state funding is forcing a halt to most of Allegheny County's smoking cessation programs.
Tobacco Free Allegheny says it's facing a 50 percent cut in state funds, so it plans to dismantle nine of its 12 contracted programs after Wednesday.
Executive director Cindy Thomas said that tobacco prevention and cessation programs statewide will again see a reduction in the share of money they get as part of a settlement with the tobacco industry.
She says the programs reduce health care costs, because there are fewer tobacco-related diseases when people quit the habit.

CU-Boulder will lead drug-prevention program

School-violence-prevention experts at the University of Colorado netted a $12.1 million grant to implement a drug-prevention program in middle schools. 
CU's Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence will set up the program and monitor it at participating schools in 10 Southeastern states, expecting it to benefit 200,000 students over a three-year period, Director Delbert Elliott said. 
The Life Skills Training program has a track record of reducing students' use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs by 50 to 70 percent, CU said in a news release. 
The program identifies common misconceptions about substance abuse, and trains students how to deal with peer and media pressure. It also offers lessons on anger management and helps students build better relationships. 
The interactive training is delivered in 45-minute sessions that are held 15 times the first year, 10 times the second year and five the third year. Those subsequent "booster" programs help reinforce the messages, and lead to long-term prevention, Elliott said. 
Funding comes from cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA, through a program aimed at reducing young people's use of tobacco. 
"This is a question that we had to think about," Elliott said. "It's controversial. We had to weigh the fact that we are taking money from a tobacco company with the fact that, at the same time, we can have a major effect on the probability of kids smoking in those nine Southern states." 
Smoking rates among youth in those states -- Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland -- are higher than the national average. 
Nationally, 7 percent of eighth-graders reported smoking one or more cigarettes in the previous month and nearly a quarter of teenagers were smokers by the time they graduated from high school, according to 2007 National Institutes of Health statistics.

Cigarette linked to house fire

TOWN OF MAINE --Firefighters extinguished a fire in a Wausau-area home early Friday that investigators think was caused by a cigarette, according to the Marathon County Sheriff's Department.
Firefighters from the towns of Maine and Rib Mountain and the city of Wausau were called after the fire was reported at 12:57 a.m. at 3318 Elk Drive in the town of Maine. Roy Nowak, 61, who rents an upstairs bedroom at the two-story home, told investigators that he had been smoking in the room prior to discovering the fire, Sheriff's Lt. Dale Wisnewski said.
Nowak said he was watching television in the lower level of the home and when he returned to the upstairs room, he saw smoke and used a water hose to water down a mattress and box spring, Wisnewski said. Over the course of two hours, Nowak told deputies that he used the hose several times on the smoldering mattress before discovering a stairwell was on fire, Wisnewski said.
Nowak and the owner of the home, 54-year-old Beth Schwartz, fled from the home and reported the fire, police said. The blaze caused an estimated $50,000 worth of smoke, fire and water damage, Wisnewski said.
Both Nowak and Schwartz suffered from minor smoke inhalation, Wisnewski said.

Snuffing out a smart tax

As the legislature struggles to find enough revenue for the state's overdue budget, a tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco should be a no-brainer. But this is Harrisburg, where common sense usually faces an uphill battle.
Pennsylvania is the only state in the nation that doesn't impose an excise tax on smokeless tobacco. It is one of only two states - the other is Florida - that doesn't tax cigars.
Gov. Rendell has proposed taxing the products to bring in $38 million per year. A proposal by Rep. Dan Frankel (D., Allegheny), who is on the House Appropriations Committee, would use the same tax rate as cigarettes, raising $70 million annually.
But Senate Republicans yanked the stogies out of their mouths long enough to voice their opposition to this tax. They said essentially it's too small a number with which to concern themselves. Democratic leaders have resisted the tax, too.
Meanwhile, legislators are picking up sofa cushions in search of loose change to fill the state's budget gap. For example, they found $25 million for general operations hiding in the state liquor-store system. That's how small a number legislators are scrounging for. Yet, they forgo the tobacco tax.
The need for that levy is greater because the legislature is intent on making dumb moves such as granting certain large corporations in Pennsylvania a tax break. A proposed change in the "single sales" tax policy would drain $165 million from state coffers over two years. It should be ditched in favor of a more comprehensive overhaul of corporate taxes.

One stumbling block to reaching a final budget deal with Rendell is that the governor claims the legislature's revenue projections don't add up. As the week began, the two sides were about $400 million apart in their revenue estimates. A tobacco tax that adds $38 million, or $70 million, to the pot would certainly help.

Even better, the proposed tax on smokeless tobacco and cigars is what's known to policy geeks as "recurring revenue." That means it raises a predictable amount of revenue from year to year.

The tentative budget deal relies on many one-shot revenue sources, such as emptying the state's Rainy Day fund of its entire $750 million. That's an easy call for legislators this year, but it leaves the cupboard bare for next year, which increases the likelihood of having to raise another tax.

Aside from the math, there is an important policy statement to make with this tax: Snuff and cigars are bad for your health. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids said 16- to 25-year-olds in Pennsylvania use smokeless tobacco at twice the national average. Some smokeless tobacco brands are flavored to appeal more to youths. Raising the tax on cigarettes, but failing to tax cigars and snuff, could encourage more young people to use these products.

Pennsylvania's tobacco industry, based in Lancaster County, is not large. Imposing this sensible tax would hit a relatively small number of consumers, and would raise needed revenue in a budget year filled with unkind cuts.

Rs. 35.9 million worth of foreign cigarettes confiscated by customs

A consignment of illicit foreign cigarettes worth about Rs.35.9 million, illegally brought in disguised as passenger luggage, had been seized by the Sri Lanka Customs Revenue Supervision Dept. yesterday.
The stock of foreign cigarettes, allegedly declared as passenger luggage, had been flown in fraudulently using names and addresses of returnees form the Middle East. The loss of tax revenue to the government by this was approximately Rs.109, 000,000. These cigarettes were destroyed yesterday by the National Narcotics and Tobacco Authority.
According to Customs 4,792,000 cigarettes (23960 cartons) valued at Rs.35, 940,000 had been destroyed. 
The search was carried out on the instructions of Assistant Director Customs Jayantha Ponnamperuma.

Oregon moves to block e-cigarette sales

The Oregon Attorney General's Office is suing an electronic cigarettes importer that sells plastic devices marketed as being safer than regular tobacco cigarettes. 
Attorney General John Kroger filed the lawsuit Tuesday, the same day a county in New York banned sales of what's called e-cigarettes to minors; both moves are the first of their kinds in the nation. 
Typically imported from China, e-cigarettes look like traditional cigarettes, down to their battery-powered glowing red tip. Instead of burning, e-cigarettes vaporize certain mixtures, which can include liquid nicotine. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has not approved the sale of e-cigarettes, recently reported that a test of 19 brands found more than half contained a cancer-causing substance. 
Kroger has filed suit against Florida-based Smoking Everywhere Inc., which had refused state requests to restrict its sales, and its chief executive, Elico Taieb. 
Meanwhile, Smoking Everywhere and a major importer, Sottera Inc., are suing the FDA in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., claiming the agency doesn't have the authority to regulate their product. 
Smoking Everywhere has continued to operate in Oregon as the federal case proceeds, Tuesday's lawsuit contends. Kroger already has reached an agreement with Sottera, maker of the Njoy brand, to halt sales here. 
"It's my duty to protect the public from products that are falsely advertised as safe," said Kroger, who has said that e-cigarettes' flavored options are a further concern as they may appeal to young people.

The Emotional Withdrawal From Tobacco Cigarettes

Have you ever been around someone you like really well only to have these feelings change because this person might be trying to quit smoking? When some people try to quit their whole personality seems to change. The longer they succeed in staying away from those cigarettes the worse their personality seems to get. Sometimes it feels like you are the one that this person hates the most as you might receive all of their anger. It can become so bad that you might want to give them that cigarette or a punch in the face.

When a person tries to quit smoking their bodies will go through an emotional withdrawal as well as a personal withdrawal. Their mind is fighting their body by trying to trick themselves into smoking that cigarette. They might beat themselves this time, but maybe not the next. The really bad thing is that you might find yourself in the middle. This person will lash out at whoever is closest sometimes saying the most nasty things they can think of trying to get this person to either go away or give them a cigarette. If this is you or it happened to you, are you still friends with that person.

A lot of you might realize that you have lost some of your friends even if you lost the battle and went back to smoking. This could be one reason why every time you try to quit you fail. You have probably tried all of the items on the market only to find that they will not work for you. Most of you that have tried those patches and even the gum will find that you still get the nicotine, but get no satisfaction for the other part of this habit. This would be the holding of that cigarette itself. This part of smoking is just as important in the habit as all the rest.

If you go want to try something different that might will give you the satisfaction of nicotine without many of the other side effects, you might want to give the e-cigarette a try. You might find that you like this type of smoking device so well that you will be able to get away from the tobacco cigarettes for good. With one of these you are not really smoking, but you get your nicotine and still have this look-a-like cigarette in your fingers and mouth. You can quit these at your own pace if you wish too as you can lower the amount of nicotine you receive just by changing the filters you use.

Cigar shops fret over higher taxes, smoking laws

NEW ORLEANS — With the world becoming ever less welcoming for tobacco smoke of all kinds, the owners of specialty shops that sell premium cigars have converged on New Orleans with the same concerns as mass-market cigarette manufacturers — higher taxes and anti-smoking laws.
The cigars at the annual trade show of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association are not the packaged stogies found in an isolated corner of a convenience store. These are hand-rolled smokes — sometimes with Cuban seed tobacco grown in a non-embargoed country — that can go from a couple of bucks to $30 each.
"It's tough," said Chris McCalla, legislative director for Columbus, Ga.-based IPCRA, which represents about 1,500 tobacco stores. "People view us in the same category of cigarettes. With a cigar, it's different. It's a pleasurable experience. It's socialization of sorts."
Mark Twain once said he always tried not to smoke two cigars at once. Winston Churchill smoked cigars in peacetime and wartime. A cigar was more than just a prop for Groucho Marx. John F. Kennedy enjoyed puffing — although he barred the import of Cuban cigars during his showdowns with another cigar aficionado, Fidel Castro, who later claimed to have quit smoking. And, in modern times, Rush Limbaugh often associates himself with a premium cigar.
"The cigar continues to have a unique place in the hearts of a lot of men," said Norm Sharp, president of the Cigar Association of America, a Washington, D.C.-based trade group of distributors and manufacturers. "There are a lot of aficionados out there."
And many detractors, including the American Cancer Society, which has said that cigars — as well as pipes — are not a safe substitute for cigarettes and carry much of the same cancer risk.
IPCRA estimates there are 12 to 13 million cigar smokers in the United States, who puff an average of two a week, ranging from several a day to the special-event-only smoker, McCalla said.
When Congress hiked cigarette taxes earlier this year, cigars did not escape the attention of lawmakers, who imposed a tax increase between about 5 cents and 40 cents per cigar. The industry now fears that state legislatures, many of which are trying to close big budget gaps, will follow suit.
"Tobacco is considered low-hanging fruit for taxation," Sharp said.
And cigars are among the active targets for anti-smoking groups.
Although only Delaware, Washington state and Utah ban puffing in tobacco establishments, the city of Galveston, Texas, recently passed a clean air ordinance that forbids smoking in a planned cigar lounge — a store that provides a room for cigar-lovers to visit and enjoy their tobacco.
Owner Charlie Head, who plans to open Sept. 1 after his previous store was wiped out by Hurricane Ike, said it's ridiculous to think people who don't smoke would even come inside his business, which includes lockers for smokers to store their cigars and liquor they bring in.
"We're going ahead with it," Head said. "But a big part of our business is locker rental."
Head said he hoped to win an exemption for his shop before the ban takes effect on Jan. 1.
Even before the spread of cigarette smoking bans, cigars and pipes received a chilly reception in many places. Airliners that used to permit cigarettes wouldn't allow cigars and pipes. And many smoking bars today are actually cigarette-only bars — don't light up that cigar or pipe, a sign often says.
As a result, cigar smoking has become largely a private activity, McCalla said, with the cigar lounge or cigar bar a popular gathering place.
"Most cigar smokers would like to sit down comfortably and smoke with others," he said.
The recession has cut into business, said Doug Winston, manager of the New Orleans Cigar Co., a 700-square-foot store in the downtown district. To start with, go-outside-to-smoke rules are making shorter cigars more popular.
"With the tax and the economy, people also seem to be going to the lesser-expensive cigars," Winston said.
As for the convention itself, which is hosting about 4,000 people through Wednesday, smoking will be allowed in the exhibit hall between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. But members of the public aren't invited to the meeting — and no one under 18 will be let in, McCalla said.

Cigarette tax not a long-term solution

Juneau voters may have to vote in October on a proposed tax increase on cigarettes, from 30 cents to $1 per pack. This Juneau Assembly proposal is bad for small businesses, bad for taxpayers and a poor source of revenue for the city. 

The tax proposal before Juneau citizens would direct revenues from this tax increase to social service programs and a recovery center for people addicted primarily to alcohol. A higher tax on cigarettes is an unrelated source of funds for these programs. Also, it would be inappropriate to tax a segment of the Juneau population to generate more revenue for the entire city. 

There are other, more responsible ways to deal with Juneau's budget problems. City leaders should first attempt to keep expenses in line with income. A tax increase on cigarettes is not a viable long-term solution.

Man arrested in cigarette thefts

DENHAM SPRINGS — Deputies arrested a Denham Springs man accused of stealing $10,000 worth of cigarettes, a spokesman for the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.
“It’s not your normal case of shoplifting,” Chief Deputy Jason Ard said. “It was a little strange.”
Ard said the operators of Murphy’s Express, at the corner of La. 16 and Arnold Road, had noticed for a while that the store was missing cigarettes.
Through a review of videotape “that provided a pretty clear picture,” they determined that a man was picking up cartons of cigarettes, entering the men’s room nearby when nobody was looking and shoving the cartons down his pants legs, Ard said.
Investigators later learned that someone was selling $50 cartons of cigarettes for $25 and put the facts together, Ard said.
Deputies arrested Clifton Simmons, 27, 903 Willow Brook in Denham Springs, on five counts of felony theft, according to a news release from the Sheriff’s Office.
Deputies recovered two suitcases filled with cigarettes in Simmons’ kitchen and more cigarettes in one of his closets, Ard said, adding that investigators recovered about 20 of the 200 cartons they believe Simmons stole. Simmons didn’t appear to have a preference on brands, but just took whatever was available, Ard said.
Simmons had other people working for him who helped to sell the smokes, Ard said.
Simmons, arrested Sunday, remained in the Livingston Parish Detention Center in lieu of $50,000 bond Tuesday afternoon, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

In successful Melrose undercover test, teens not sold cigarettes

Ruth Clay, director of the Melrose Health Department, announced that an undercover tobacco compliance check was recently performed on July 27, under the oversight of Kara Showers, Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition coordinator for the Melrose Health Department.

Two 16-year-old girls, working with the Coalition, attempted to purchase cigarettes from all businesses in Melrose selling tobacco products.

According to Clay, none of the businesses sold cigarettes to the teens.

This is an improvement from a previous compliance check held by the Coalition earlier this year in March, when one business sold cigarettes to a minor.

Mall kiosk challenged for selling 'electronic cigarettes'

Anti-smoking activists are pushing Jordan Creek Town Center managers to evict a kiosk selling "electronic cigarettes."
The battery-operated devices contain no tobacco, and they don't emit smoke, but activists worry they will lure young people into inhaling noxious fumes.
The sleek kiosk, called Smoking Everywhere, opened a few weeks ago in the West Des Moines mall.
It offers small white-and-tan devices that look like cigarettes. Instead of tobacco smoke, they give off a heated vapor containing nicotine, which is the most addictive part of cigarettes.
Kiosk manager Joshua Ross said he doesn't understand why there's a fuss about his wares. "What you inhale is steam. It's about the same as what comes off a bowl of soup," he said, puffing on a demonstrator model. The vapor he exhaled had very little odor.
Ross touts his product as a safer alternative for people who want to quit or cut down on smoking.
"I guarantee you, cigarettes will kill you 20 times faster," he said.
The American Lung Association isn't buying it. The group recently wrote to mall managers, asking them to evict the stand, which is upstairs near the Baby Gap and Bath & Body Works stores.
"Due to the fact that Jordan Creek Town Center is a family-oriented environment and an establishment many young people frequent, we believe it is crucial that you remove this vendor from your mall immediately, not only for the health of mall employees but also mall guests," the association wrote to the mall's leaders. The group is asking its members to write to mall managers with similar requests.
Kerry Wise, the lung association's director of mission services, noted in an interview that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently put out a warning about e-cigarettes.
The warning said the devices could contain cancer-causing chemicals and other toxins, including diethylene glycol, an ingredient used in antifreeze.
Wise said she is unclear whether the devices are safer than real cigarettes.
"The research isn't there on it," she said.
She said she was unsure whether the mall could legally break its lease with the kiosk, which is owned by a Kansas City company.
Wise said she is particularly worried about the fact that the devices come in flavors, including chocolate and vanilla.
"That targets a younger audience," she said.
Ross pointed to a sign on his kiosk, reading: "Must be 18 to try or buy."
He said the rule is strictly enforced.
Ross said he doesn't know of any other retailers selling e-cigarettes in the Des Moines area, though he said such stands are common around the country.
He dismissed the FDA's warning as "propaganda." He said most of his customers already are smokers who want to curtail or quit their habits. The e-cigarettes also allow them to get their nicotine in many nonsmoking areas, including bars, malls and even most airplanes.
"People tell me it's the best thing they've ever done," he said.
Many of the devices are sold online, including by Ross' brand. The company's Web site offers the "Freedom to Smoke Anywhere." It features glamorous people using the product. "Looks like a cigarette. Feels like a cigarette. Tastes like a cigarette. But it isn't a cigarette," the site says.
Ross said the devices are cheaper than cigarettes, which have shot up in price because of recent federal and state tax increases. The metal e-cigarettes cost about $180, but their refill cartridges are only $3. Each cartridge is equal to about two packages of cigarettes, which could cost $14, he said.
Randy Tennison, the mall's general manager, did not respond to requests for comment. Wise said mall managers have not responded to her group, either.