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.

More butts, not fewer, found after public service push to keep Knox beautiful

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — After a summertime public service campaign about cigarette butts in Knox County there are more of them, not fewer.

The group Keep Knoxville Beautiful launched the campaign after a canvass of 0.2 miles of Maynardville Highway on June 1 turned up 1,386 butts.

Volunteers collected the spent cigarettes again on Aug. 31 and found 1,493 of them.

Beautification group executive director Allison Teeters told The Knoxville News Sentinel she hopes the increase was because of the summer tourist season.

But Teeters said some people who would never think of throwing out other trash don't think twice about flipping a cigarette butt from a vehicle.

Teeters said the group plans to do another scan at the end of September.

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.

Do You Have A Guilty Conscience Becasue You Smoke Cigarettes

If you are still a cigarette smoker and you feel guilty every time you light one, rest assured, you are not alone. Smokers can suffer a tremendous amount of anxiety because they use tobacco. They smoke it or chew it everyday, which means they probably feel guilty everyday. Smokers can also feel ashamed because they still smoke or chew because they know for a fact how deadly it is for them to continue to do it. They know they are cutting their life short. They know they will likely spend less time with their family and friends because they will likely die sooner than they should. They know their smoking related illnesses and diseases are likely to be a burden on their loved ones one day.

So, why is it that smokers just keep on smoking if they have to deal with all of these thoughts of guilt and shame when they light up a cigarette? That is something that even smokers themselves can not usually answer. All they know is that when they do not get a cigarette when they want one, it usually drives them crazy. It sounds simple enough, but actually what smoking does to the body is anything but simple. How the body reacts to when they smoke is not simple. It involves a lot of brain activity that is normal, but the components and chemicals in the in the tobacco smoke causes the brain to react differently than normal, more of certain brain chemicals are released than should be, and the structure of cells can be altered. It is indeed a lot more complicated than a simple craving.

All of these changes in the body, the emotional attachment to smoking, and the addiction to the nicotine and other things in the tobacco are all part of the reason that a smoker deals with the guilt and shame they might feel because they smoke. Without serious intervention, a determined willpower, or even medical treatment, many smokers could never overcome their tobacco use. It is so much more than just a matter of wanting a cigarette and giving in to that want.

Anytime you introduce foreign substances into the body, the body will have a reaction of some kind. It can be good and bad at the same time. Smoking tobacco, just like many other drugs, makes the user feel good in some ways while causing damage to their body at the same time. They can either stop the damage by stop using the drug, but they must give up the thing that makes them feel so good that they ae addicted to both physically and psychologically. Human being do things they might feel guilty about all of the rime and smoking cigarettes is no exception.

Smokers to be turfed outside, then walled in

PUBS will be forced to build a wall through the middle of their beer gardens to separate smokers from non-smokers. 
The Territory will be the last jurisdiction to ban smoking in pubs - forcing smokers outside on January 2, 2010. 
But Health Minister Kon Vatskalis yesterday said that ban would go further after 12 months - with mandatory non-smoking areas in beer gardens as well. 
Pubs will then be forced to designate half of the beer garden as "non-smoking" from January 2, 2011. 
Mr Vatskalis said pubs could install a wall dividing these areas or create a three metre buffer area. 
Staff will not be allowed to serve customers in the smoking area. 
"Let common sense prevail. We've got people who smoke - it's still a legal product - and these people want to go out the same way the people who don't smoke want to go out," he said. 
Mr Vatskalis said a Tobacco Action Taskforce would be formed to make the transition "as smooth as possible". 
Smoker Andrew Morrison said he was often treated like a social leper, but would not mind the changes - provided there would always be a smoking area. 
Australian Hotels Association NT chief executive Amy Williamson said she was looking forward to working with the Government on these changes, but said there was still not enough information about the indoor ban - which starts in three months. 
But Mr Vatskalis said there was no more to give.
"No smoking inside the pubs. It's as simple as that. There are no more details on that one," he said. 
Mr Vatskalis said the Territory was the "last bastion" of smoking - with 36 per cent of us lighting up regularly. 
He suggested the laws may restrict smokers further with public support. 
"Smoking is going out of fashion," he said. 
"Things have changed, so we have changed."