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Does the introduction of comprehensive smoke-free legislation lead to a decrease in population smoking prevalence?


Conclusions  The introduction of comprehensive smoke-free legislation has increased the rate at which smoking prevalence was declining in some locations, but in the majority of jurisdictions had no measureable impact on existing trends in smoking prevalence


Pramount promoting cigs in "bonus" with new Katy Perry movie

CAN YOU SECOND THIS SIGHTING?

If you see this Grease promo over the weekend, please send us:

• Date and time
• Name of theater (and chain)
• When the promo was shown (ie., with other ads before previews, or between the previews and the main feature)
• Any "sponsor" details on the promo (Paramount logo or other).

Getting smoking out of the main movie — but keeping it on screen — does not reduce kids' exposure. If Paramount, which brought us PG-rated Rango, thinks such a stunt is cute and provocative, it should be held accountable.

Vitamin D May Protect Lung Function in Smokers

"We examined the relationship between vitamin D deficiency, smoking, lung function, and the rate of lung function decline over a 20 year period in a cohort of 626 adult white men from the Normative Aging Study," said lead author Nancy E. Lange, MD, MPH, of the Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women's Hospital. "We found that vitamin D sufficiency (defined as serum vitamin D levels of >20 ng/ml) had a protective effect on lung function and the rate of lung function decline in smokers."

Lack of exercise kills roughly as many as smoking, study says

People across the world are falling so far short on exercise that the problem has become a global pandemic, causing nearly a tenth of deaths worldwide and killing roughly as many people as smoking, researchers warned this week as an alarming series of studies was published in the Lancet.

Eight out of 10 youngsters age 13 to 15 don't get enough exercise, according to one of the Lancet studies released Tuesday, and nearly a third of adults fall short. The problem is even worse for girls and women, who are less active than boys and men, researchers found.

The results are fatal. Lack of exercise is tied to worldwide killers such as heart disease, diabetes and breast and colon cancer. If just a quarter of inactive adults got enough exercise, more than 1.3 million deaths could be prevented worldwide annually, researchers said. Half an hour of brisk walking five times a week would do the trick.

A perfect addicting engine: the case for ending cigarette sales

But a Professor from Stanford University in the USA argues that these are in fact non-arguments because cigarettes are lethally designed to be toxic - they are not toxic by accident, and are therefore more like a poison than a food.

In his book "Golden Holocaust" Professor Robert Proctor unveils a compelling case for the abolition of cigarettes - addressing many of those points you have made during our discussions over the last few days.

Stuff I found on Twitter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2xPI5Ut4g4&feature=player_embedded

"Invest in tobacco control as a best buy in health"

Bans: strategy, arguments, psychology

Ensuring your target groups are too divided to band together. The way bans are currently shaping up reveals that prohibitionists are targeting three groups: smokers, drinkers and the obese. Non-smoking drinkers are unlikely to align with smokers. Nor are the obese, some of whom are ex-smokers. End result: smokers have only themselves on whom to rely. The obese — some of whom are practising pietist Christians — are unlikely to band together with drinkers. So, each group is on its own.
 (Thank you Chris Snowdon for that one)


IN SWITZERLAND, NEW HIGH-TECH LOUNGES PUT THE COOL BACK IN SMOKING

With improved ventilation systems and careful décor decisions, the new smoking lounges could even bring smokers and non-smokers together – to enjoy a good cognac for example. At least this is what Vahé Gérard is aiming at. The director of Gérard Père et Fils, a smoking lounge inside the Grand Hotel Kempinski, had enough of hearing his clientele complain about drafts of cold air and clothes getting smelly. On his own initiative, Gérard developed a new, alternative system of permanent air circulation using laminar flow technology.

“This is like an air mattress, pulsated through the floor and breathed in through the ceiling every two minutes. The atmosphere of the room is therefore completely renewed. It can also be air-conditioned according to the season”, explains the cigar expert, who set up a business, G-P-F Concept Management, to market the product.

Patented worldwide under the name Airkel and complying with energy and health federal standards in Switzerland, Gérard’s system – which costs $27,000 for every 10 m2 – has been installed as well in the smoking areas at the Bon Génie and at the Starling C Bar & Lounge. You can identify it by the thousands of tiny holes on the floor and on the ceiling. The air is good to breathe there, and the furniture does not bear any smell either.

(Thanks so much to my personal best buddy Simon Chapman for that one)

It's so cool of him to let us know this new technology exists!

SMOKING IS HEALTHIER THAN FASCISM

The animating force behind modern liberalism is the desire to micromanage the lives of others. The state decides where you go to school, what doctor you visit, and the pension fund you will contribute to. Liberal is another name for control freak.

Drinking Big Gulps, eating Happy Meals, and smoking Marlboro Reds isn’t good for you. But neither is fascism. The greatest threat to an individual’s health is an overbearing government.

The antidote to this public health crisis is choice. Freedom presumes the right to be “wrong,” to make choices another wouldn’t, to decide. Life is so much more interesting with millions of people making billions of choices rather than a few people making all of the choices.

Anti-smoking legislation the real menace to SA (Not Just South Africa)

http://www.iol.co.za/dailynews/opinion/anti-smoking-legislation-the-real-menace-to-sa-1.1334361

Over the four years following the 2004 smoking ban in Ireland, 11 percent of the country’s pubs were forced to close their doors. Scotland was similarly affected. Does the department honestly want to jeopardise the survival of thousands of vital small businesses by unnecessarily tightening already-effective anti-smoking regulations?

Apart from the proposed legislation’s impact on the hospitality sector, implications for productivity across the public and private sectors must be considered as well.

Smoking, despite carrying a heavy sin tax, is legal in SA.

Employees are entitled to smoke breaks at work, but how will productivity be affected if smokers are not allowed to smoke a cigarette near any window, door or person? How far will smokers have to walk to find a legal spot at which to get their fix? Not only will the regulations hinder productivity, but will also be, practically speaking, almost impossible to enforce in urban areas where buildings are in close proximity to each other.

The government receives attractive tax revenue from the sin tax associated with tobacco products.

Smoking is a social habit, which often goes hand-in-hand with drinking, dining and gambling.

What kind of impact will limiting the places where people can legally smoke and reducing the places where cigarettes can be sold have on the government’s tax income?

I love this,I love everything about this.

Which quite honestly is really fucking rare.

Leon Louw is a very intelligent man.

Then again looking at things from a free market standpoint instead of a "healthy world" standpoint seems to make things much clearer.

I truly love the fact that someone twice nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize wrote this.

Economics

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20120701/lead/lead4.html

fearful of shutdown

But another tobacco farmer, Carmen Stewart, is fearful that there could be a shutdown of the sector if certain stakeholders have their way.

"My livelihood could be threatened because I hear on the news where they want to put in some strict rules on the tobacco industry," she explained.

"It is not just about the big companies but there are farmers, like myself, who make a living from tobacco."

It's people like these that the anti-smoking industry doesn't take into account.

People loose their jobs and then what?

http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/regions/29243-tobacco-industry-under-siege

“The tax increases being proposed in HB 5727 are so unconscionable to say the least as to be practically punitive for small local manufacturers such as ourselves. We are left to wonder: What have we done to deserve this kind of treatment?” said Blake Dy, vice president of the local cigarette manufacturer Associated Anglo-American Tobacco (AAAT), the largest producer of low-priced cigarette brands in the country.

According to Dy, their company has been in the Philippines for nearly 70 years, employing Filipino workers, using locally grown tobacco and staying on despite the tumultuous political climate, rampant criminality, and rising costs in labor, fuel and power.

“Since my father assumed control, our family has poured four decades of our blood and sweat into our company only to have it casually wiped away by a piece of legislation. We thought the Philippines was for the Filipinos,” Dy said.

He said it is ironic that the proposed law’s touted aim was to generate more revenues for the government and to level the playing field that would allow entry of foreign firms.

“But why is it that we, the small player, the Filipino-owned and -operated company, are going to be the ones hurt the most? Under this bill, the foreign firms would only be levied a miniscule tax increase, if any at all. Small firms like us that cater to the value cigarette market are being threatened with a 500-percent to 1,000-percent tax increase over the next two to three years. How is this in any way fair or just when the tax alone is twice the current selling price of our products?” he said.

Again and again in these stories it always pops up.

The unintended or perhaps intended consequences are driving people out of work.

With the economy such as it is punitive taxation makes little sense.

But the issue is even bigger and it doesn't always involve the WHO and their regulations.

http://www.examiner.com/article/workers-at-florida-tobacco-house-may-face-layoffs-under-new-federal-law

Tobacco House in Spring Hill has 5 employees who will face unemployment if the business is forced to close its doors.

One Tobacco House employee said on Friday, "I don't know what I'm going to do if this place closes and I don't even know for sure if it will."

There is a chance Tobacco House will continue to operate in some way at their Cortez Boulevard store, at least for the year-long balance of their current lease.

However, the loss of jobs from the new Republican-sponsored legislation travels further than Florida.

Rolling machine maker, Phil Accordino and his employees also face problems with the new law. He told the Washington Post, “demand for his machines would dry up and he’d be forced out of business. Gone would be his new factory, which employs 35 workers in a corner of Ohio hit hard by steel mill closures.”

Sometimes big tobacco has their hands firmly embedded in the pocket of the politicians.

The issues are bigger than I am,bigger than any of us.

I do know this tobacco is a cash crop and people who use it pay for everything.

Smoking Bans

People who work in  pubs,bars and entertainment are losing their jobs,the places they own ,their homes  and years of time and hard work that they have invested in it.

In fact I have often wondered why no one will allow this it might not be a perfect solution but it would be something,maybe something to build on.