Stop Smoking Way

Beach-going smokers may have to curb their habit outdoors, under proposals Trenton lawmakers discussed Thursday.

Members of a Senate committee on health, human services and senior citizens spent Thursday afternoon debating how a ban on smoking at beaches and parks might work.

They took up the issue as three separate bills arrived in committee. Taken together, the three would block smoking at most beaches, as well as parks and forests and even racetracks.

But legislators ultimately held the bills in order to amend and combine them, as they traded conflicting definitions of what areas might be covered.

Perhaps Wichita should take some pride in how much a House-proposed statewide public smoking ban resembles a 2008 city ordinance, which allows smoking, for a fee, if businesses prohibit patrons younger than 18 or build separately ventilated smoking rooms.

But as a statewide smoking ban, the House bill is a “fraud,” as Gov. Mark Parkinson put it when he vowed to veto the measure if it reaches his desk.

UAE health officials have delayed a national smoking ban until they have decided which government bodies will be responsible for its enforcement, according to reports.

Last month the Ministry of Health announced details of the new legislation, but yesterday an official said the public would be fully informed once the details had been finalised.

Auckland’s Regional Public Health Service are calling on the Government to increase tobacco tax and ban smoking in many outdoor public areas such as beaches, playgrounds, bus stops and outside buildings. The recommendations include increase tobacco tax by 5 per cent plus inflation per year, banning tobacco vending machines, licensing tobacco retailers. Dr. Andrew Lindsay, clinical leader of the health service’s alcohol and tobacco team told that 5000 deaths a year can be ascribed to smoking.

Lighting up a cigarette while strolling through Hayward-area parks will soon be a thing of the past.

Board members of the Hayward Area Recreation and Park District unanimously voted earlier this week to amend its anti-smoking ordinance, effectively banning smoking in all of its parks and facilities.

Park Superintendent Larry Lepore said he expects the district to enforce the amended ban beginning May 1.

However, “It’s going to be extremely hard to enforce this,” Lepore said. “If a ranger happens to observe someone smoking, they’re going to ask them to please put the cigarette out. Obviously, if the individual refuses, the ranger will have the ability to write a citation.”

About 60 percent of Michigan’s state lawmakers have voted in favor of banning smoking at restaurants, bars and other public and private workplaces.

Supporters of the ban say they are confident most Michigan residents want to adopt some sort of prohibition, following the lead of at least 30 other states concerned about the health hazards of secondhand smoke.

But with just a few days left in the Michigan Legislature’s 2007-08 session, lawmakers haven’t approved a final version of the ban. Different versions have passed the Republican-led Senate and Democratic-led House. Political posturing and lobbying from casinos and business groups have left lawmakers unable to reach a compromise.

A Wausau restaurant owner can’t get around the city’s smoking ban by creating a “sham” private club with a $1 membership, a Wisconsin appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The 3rd District Court of Appeals upheld the constitutionality of Wausau’s law that bans smoking in restaurants and said restaurant owner Zack Jusufi was properly cited in 2005 for failing to enforce it.

“There is a rational basis for the ordinance’s classification and differential treatment of restaurants and private clubs,” the three-judge panel said.

State health officials urged Michigan lawmakers to vote today in favor of a ban on smoking in public places, even if casinos and cigar bars would be exempt.

Nearly 80% of the public is behind the ban, said Greg Holzman, chief medical executive of the Michigan Department of Community Health. And with the final 2008 legislative session just weeks away from ending, acting now would still save most of Michigan from second-hand smoke.

“To me, it’s disconcerting because it’s still putting people at risk who work in the casinos, but to protect the majority of Michigan’s population — I’m not going to lose that,” Holzman said Tuesday.

Groups that once fought on opposite sides of a proposed statewide smoking ban have united to oppose proposed changes to that ban.

Restaurant owners and anti-smoking groups, including the American Cancer Society, are fighting legislation in the Ohio House and Senate that would permit loopholes in the ban.

A Senate bill would allow smoking at certain family-owned businesses and private clubs while a House bill would exempt stand-alone bars from the ban.

The Ohio Restaurant Association says it wants a level playing field for all businesses.

Cancer society lobbyist John Hoctor says the bills if passed would open up smoking in thousands of businesses.

THREE hundred NSW hotels have applied to defer payment of $18.6 million tax on gambling machine revenue, which has plummeted since an indoor smoking ban was introduced last year.

A hardship scheme that was available only to registered clubs suffering more than a 15 per cent downturn in poker machine revenue was extended to pubs in September.

The Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing has approved 241 of the hotels’ deferral applications and rejected the rest.