The government of Hong Kong has hired a team of ‘tobacco inspectors’, who will patrol public transport centers ensuring that no one is smoking. The step is intended to reinforce Hong Kong’s ban on smoking in public places.
Almost 100 enforces will be on the lookout for smokers. Culprits will face a 1,500 Hong Kong dollar ban (approximately £130).
California lawmakers passed a bill Monday that will ban smoking in the state’s parks and beaches if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs it into law. If signed, the law would punish violators with fines up to $100.
The measure, though, does exempt campsites and some specified parking areas.
Several public health organizations in February asked the U.S. Supreme Court to impose new requirements for anti-smoking efforts on tobacco companies that were found misrepresenting the health risks of cigarettes.
A federal trial court in 2006 ruled that the nation’s largest tobacco manufacturers violated federal racketeering laws when they conspired in various marketing tactics that misled the public, particularly youth, about the addictiveness of nicotine. The Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund, the American Cancer Society and the American Heart Assn. were among six public health advocacy groups that joined the federal government in bringing the suit against Philip Morris USA Inc. and several other cigarette makers and retailers. The tobacco companies admitted no wrongdoing.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his aides are stepping up efforts to force nightclubs to comply with the city’s tobacco smoking ban, according to a report in The New York Times.
The report said city officials have targeted the M2 UltraLounge on West 28th Street in Manhattan via proceedings in a special administrative court. Most city businesses have complied with the 2002 law outlawing smoking in clubs and bars, but a few clubs seem to be promoting a smoke-friendly atmosphere to market themselves.
Kansas – The governor will sign a statewide smoking ban into law on Friday. It’s a law that bans smoking inside and even some places outside.
The ban has some businesses trying to figure out how they’ll accommodate their smoking patrons. It’s especially difficult for some bars as the law prohibits smoking near a business entrance.
“I think it’s a bit confusing,” said Ben George, owner of the Anchor in downtown Wichita.
George joins other business owners across the state in wondering just how the statewide ban will work. Of course, everyone knows there will no longer be smoking allowed inside. But the ban goes beyond that.
Rick Bender’s message to area students was clear: learn from his mistakes.
Bender began chewing tobacco at 12. By 26, he was diagnosed with cancer, which claimed a third of his tongue, half his jaw and left Bender with limited use of his right arm.
Bender, 47, told his story to freshmen at Piedra Vista High School Wednesday in an effort to help students learn from his mistakes. He also spoke at Hermosa Middle School and Navajo Preparatory School.
Despite otherwise first-rate health it appears that President Barack Obama is still having difficulties in giving up smoking. He has been attempting to kick the habit for a while now and according to reports is still struggling with it.
After his first medical examination since becoming president, at the Navy Hospital outside Washington yesterday, his doctors confirmed that he needed to carry on with “smoking cessation methods” as he had not yet managed to get the habit under control.
The research presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2010.
Researchers reported on two new studies from the Familial Intracranial Aneurysm (FIA) project, a multinational collaboration funded by the National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke to study genetic and other risk factors in families with at least two members affected by intracranial aneurysm.
A pub landlord in England who failed to pay fines for deliberately flouting smoking ban laws was jailed yesterday.
He was described as ‘devastated’ by his wife today.
Nick Hogan, 43, from Chorley, Lancashire, was originally fined £3,000 and ordered to pay £7,136 in costs when he was found guilty of breaching the smoking ban.
The hearing, in January 2008, was told that on the day the ban came into force he organised a ‘mass light-up’ in his two pubs, The Swan and Barristers, both in Bolton, Greater Manchester.
Obesity is now a bigger overall threat to people’s health than smoking, according to results of the longest continuing health study of adults in the United States.
Obesity causes as much or more disease than tobacco, says the study, conducted by researchers from Columbia University and the City College of New York. It adds while smoking rates are starting to decline, obesity now shortens as many or even more healthy lifespans than tobacco use.
“Health impacts of obesity are, in many ways, much larger, than the health impacts of smoking,” said Arya Sharma, chairman for obesity research and management at the University of Alberta. “(Smoking) in the end, is limited to heart disease and cancer.”