An Alabama Senate committee has approved a bill to ban smoking in restaurants throughout the state.
Democratic Sen. Vivian Davis Figures of Mobile guided her bill through the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.
Figures has tried for several years to pass bills restricting smoking in public places, but she has not had success. She said she decided to try again this year with a simpler bill that only applies to restaurants.
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.
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.
Westminster College will become a smoke-free campus on July 1, says Westminster President Dr. George B. Forsythe.
Smoking will be banned both indoors and at all outdoor places on campus. The campus is defined as “all owned facilities, athletic venues and college-owned facilities, athletic venues and college-owned residential facilities.” It includes the campus areas from Jefferson Street to Hackberry (east of Hickman) and West 8th Street to West 4th Street and inside all college-owned vehicles.
Fraternity houses will follow national fraternity guidelines and remain smoke-free indoors. Fraternities that opt to allow smoking on their property will be confined to one designated outdoor smoking area that is located away from main entrances, walkways and windows and has an appropriate cigarette disposal container.
The passage of a clean indoor air law for Kansas is a tribute to the majority of Kansans who have long asked for this public health measure to save lives and improve health in our state. Kansas legislators listened to the people of Kansas and voted to adopt a statewide law to protect workers and the public from the hazards of secondhand smoke in most indoor workplaces, eating and drinking establishments and recreational facilities.
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.
State Rep. Charlie Brown’s bid to ban smoking in all public places across Indiana has been revived.
The House of Representatives added the statewide smoking ban language Wednesday to a Senate bill dealing with public health laws.
The ban would apply to public places, enclosed areas of employment and all state-owned vehicles.
House lawmakers endorsed the bill on second reading, and a final vote could be taken today.
“Everyone in here has to know about the dreaded disease of second-hand smoke,” Brown, D-Gary, told his colleagues.
Harvard Medical School’s Healthbeat reports:
• Smoking is the top risk factor for heart disease. But for women on birth control pills, it increases the risk of stroke and heart attack even more.
• Less than one out of three Americans gets enough exercise, but women are even less active than men, especially in the 18 to 30 and over-65 age ranges.
• Women should especially beware of having high triglycerides and a waist over 35 inches, which greatly increase the risk of diabetes or a fatal heart attack.
Chief medical officer Joann Schaefer says Nebraskans recognize the harm of cigarette smoke and support the state’s recent ban on smoking in most public places.
Her comments came earlier this month as the state Department of Health and Human Services released a report detailing reaction to the ban.