Tobacco News

When it comes to New York’s groundbreaking efforts to cut the rates of smoking among adults and teenagers, recent days have brought good news and bad news.
The good news first. Smoking rates among New York City residents have dropped to just 14 percent, more than a third less than when the city passed the Smoke-Free Air Act in 2002. This represents over 450,000 people no longer smoking.
Among teenagers, who are targeted by Big Tobacco as new customers, the rate dropped to just seven percent, still too high but far below the national average of 20 percent. Ream more »

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s new budget plan will cut $5 million from the New York State tobacco control program cutting the budget in half in just three years.

“Currently the CDC recommends we be funded a certain amount and we’re only being funded at %16 of what the CDC recommends for New York State so to cut us even further is putting us behind those CDC recommendations,” said Broome-Tioga Reality Check Program Coordinator, Diana Chandler.
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Public health officials are disappointed with new findings that show there has been no significant change in tobacco usage among teenagers during the past few years. The Minnesota Department of Health survey shows that among high schoolers tobacco use remains stagnant, at around 26 percent.

Pete Rode of the Department’s Center for Health Statistics said current tobacco trends among teens could be partly related to the lack of new policy initiatives. Messaging could be one factor. Rode said there have been no significant tobacco taxes or anti-smoking ordinances passed in the last few years. Higher tobacco taxes in particular are often associated with a drop in tobacco use.
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‘Prohibition of Smoking and Protection of Non-Smoker Health Law’ was passed by the federal cabinet in 2002. Through this law, smoking was prohibited at all public places, including hotels, restaurants and cafes, and restrictions were placed on tobacco advertising as well as on the sale of tobacco to minors. A resolution against smoking shisha in restaurants and public places was also passed by the Sindh Assembly earlier this year.
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Big-tobacco companies have been losing battles for years as smokers have been run out of bars and restaurants across America as well as heavy taxes that help fund anti-smoking programs. The anti-tobacco marketing appear to have helped make smoking uncool, with less than 20% of American adults smoking last year, part of a “decades-long decline” as the Wall Street Journal puts it.
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AFTER a string of setbacks, anti-smoking advocates scored a victory, albeit a small one, when a Las Pinas regional trial court denied a petition of the Philippine Tobacco Institute to stop the Department of Health and the Food and Drug Administration from enforcing any form of regulation or supervision on tobacco products.

“This is indeed victory for the country! It’s high time public welfare is prioritized over the profit of an industry that ultimately kills its consumers,” Metro Manila Development Authority General Manager Cora Jimenez told the Manila Standard Monday.
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Boise city officials want to give the public some more time to voice their concerns or support for two proposed ordinance that could dramatically curtail smoking in the City of Trees.

Public testimony on the proposals will be taken on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at 4 p.m., in addition to the already-scheduled hearing set for later that day at 6 p.m. Both hearings will be in the City Council chambers at Boise City Hall. Ream more »

Norway’s left-center government wants to further crack down on smoking and is proposing a string of measures to tighten existing laws. Smokers and even some non-smokers are fired up over what they see as another regulatory assault.
Current laws have banned or highly restricted smoking indoors for years. Now newspaper Dagsavisen reports that the government also wants to ban smoking outdoors, for example at the entrances to public buildings and in the outdoor areas of bars, Ream more »

The Middlesex County Substance Abuse Action Council is teaming up with a production company to shoot a video intended to discourage teens from smoking.

Filming on the video begins Saturday at Agogliatti Field in Portland at 9 a.m.

Portions of the video will also be shot at the Typhoon Restaurant on Main Street in downtown Middletown and at a private home in Middletown, as well as in Portland. Ream more »

A coalition targeting Alberta’s smoking laws will be hitting Grande Prairie Thursday at the PC Candidates’ forum.

The campaign for a Smoke-Free Alberta is launching a Vote for Health initiative set on targeting the leadership candidates of Alberta’s Conservative and Liberal parties to gain support for steps toward preventing tobacco use amongst the province’s youth.

Les Hagen, executive director for the Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) says that the province’s projected targets on reducing smoking amongst teens between the ages of 12 and 19 to 10% were not met since their first anti-smoking initiative in 2006. Ream more »