Smoke-Free Knoxville Coalition seeks new members

Smoke-Free Knoxville Coalition will have a membership recruitment and orientation breakfast at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday in the Miller Building at Ijams Nature Center in South Knoxville. The coalition's mission is to "reduce death, disease, disability and financial impact related to the use of tobacco," and it wants any individual or organization — especially those who work with young people — to attend and learn about joining.

 At this year's meeting, the coalition will introduce the Peter Carter Award, which will be presented to the group or individual having demonstrated leadership in tobacco use prevention in the community. It's named for oncologist Dr. Peter Carter, who in 1993 convened a group of volunteers to urge local restaurants to ban smoking — a group that ultimately grew into the coalition.

Carter testified in 1994 before Congress, addressing the health impact of tobacco in users as well as in secondhand smoke. The coalition credits him with helping Tennessee establish the Nonsmokers' Protection Act of 2007, which bans smoking in some public places and worksites. This year, the coalition will focus on youth, building and improving programs to educate them on the dangers of tobacco use and prevent its use.

Sandy Hill co-op votes to go smoke free

The four-storey apartment complex at 140 Mann Ave. — Conservation Co-operative Homes — will no longer allow smoking inside individual units or on balconies as of January. Three designated smoking sections will be set up outside the building, about 30 metres away. They'll remain there for a year, after which time the co-op board will consider banning smoking outside as well.

 More than 100 people live inside the building's 84 units. The vote was held last week, and 66 residents showed up. Eighteen of them voted against the move, while 48 voted in favour. Trevor Haché, a board member and chair of the building's second-hand smoke committee, started working to make the building smoke free not long after his family moved in three years ago.

 "At first … we were having the most serious problem with second-hand marijuana smoke coming in, and then as years have progressed and different people have moved out of the building, we've had a lot of second-hand tobacco smoke coming in," Haché said. "And both are dangerous, so we formed a committee." The committee surveyed residents of the building in October 2010 and discovered there was a lot of support to change the building's rules about smoking. It took Haché and the committee 2½ years years to work up to last week's vote.

Santa Monica Smoking Ban Fails Second Reading

After Mayor Richard Bloom changed his vote Tuesday, the Santa Monica City Council scuttled an anti-smoking ordinance that would have banned smoking in all new apartments in the beachside city. Bloom, who supported the ordinance during its first reading on July 10, decided to oppose it along with Mayor Pro Tem Gleam Davis, causing the ordinance to fall far short of the necessary four votes it needed to pass. Council members Kevin McKeown and Pam O’Connor also opposed the ordinance.

 “I think the Council and the ultimate decision making will benefit from further discussion,” said Bloom, who will be stepping down from the Council in order to run for a seat in the State Assembly. “I am very resolute that we do pass something that moves this issue forward,” he said, but added that there were unanswered questions about the effect the ordinance would have on medical marijuana users and on condo owners.

 “I think we should bring it back when all seven of us are here,” said Davis, who wasn’t present at the July 10 meeting. “We’re not taking a step back. What we’re doing is giving additional thought to what we would like to do in this regard.” She proposed a substitute motion that would bring the staff report from the original meeting back to the council when all the members are present. The motion failed. “I still think it’s best that we adopt this non-smoking ordinance,” said Council Bob Holbrook. “It’s just time that we made home and living spaces safe for people.” Holbrook, who is a pharmacist, said that his motivation was a public health one.

 The ordinance, which would have also forced tenants to designate their apartments either smoking or non-smoking and would have prevented new tenants moving into an apartment from smoking in it, has been an embattled one. During the July 10 meeting, McKeown turned the debate to the rights of renters, arguing that the ban would turn smokers into “second-class citizens.” He added that the requirement for smokers to designate their apartments as smoking apartments would cause their neighbors to “demonize” and eventually “displace” them.

 “We might as well hammer a big yellow ‘S’ on (smokers’) front door,” he said at the July 10 meeting. McKeown reiterated his position against the “designate and disclose” portion of the ordinance but said that he would be in favor of improving public health in the city. Bloom, Davis, McKeown, and O’Connor voted against the ordinance. O’Day and Holbrook both supported it. Council member Bobby Shriver, who originally voted for the ordinance, was absent Tuesday. A second substitute motion -- put forward by Bloom -- to hear from staff once further research had been conducted, but without the stipulation that all seven members of the council be present, passed 5 to 1.

BAT sees good earnings growth in 2012

British American Tobacco expects 2012 to be a year of good earnings growth despite the strong pound holding back growth at the half-year after the world's No 2 cigarette maker gained from price rises and strong emerging market growth. The London-based group, which makes Kent, Dunhill, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall cigarettes, on Wednesday said its half year volumes were flat at 344 billion cigarettes while price rises pushed up its underlying half year sales by 4 percent.

 The company posted half-year adjusted diluted earnings per share which rose 7 percent to 102.4 pence in line with a consensus forecast of 102.5 pence according to a company-compiled survey of analysts. The half-year dividend, set at one third of 2011's full year level, rose 11 percent to 42.2 pence a share.

Tobacco-free coalition honors Flora school

Students at the school enthusiastically join in the singing and activity filled spirit of the Reject All Tobacco movement on campus, counselor Valerie Seal says. "We incorporate RAT into all our classes. The kids love the music and the creative side." Plus, the anti-smoking message is important for the children in grades K-5, and there are good lessons in character development in the program that comes from the Mississippi Tobacco Free Coalition, Seal said. For its dedication to the anti-tobacco message, East Flora was honored last week as the RAT Team of the Year by the Mississippi Tobacco-Free Coalition of Madison, Yazoo and Holmes Counties.

 The East Flora Elementary team was just one of 163 groups, either RAT or Generation Free teams, in the three-county area. They reach more than 3,000 students with the message that smoking is not cool, but harmful. Director Rochelle Culp said the three-county coalition is looking to be "stronger, better and ready to attack the year ahead." Last week, as a thank you to coalition members, Culp gathered representatives from the three counties for a celebration dinner. "The coalition couldn't operate without its members," she said.

 "The coalition will be working to reach more people. In Madison County, we want to get our tobacco-prevention course, now in 15 schools, in more schools at every grade level," Culp said. "My goal is to be in every school in Madison County and Canton, and we will continue to educate the community on the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. "The Madison County coalition has a strong following, but we're always looking for ways to bring in more members from all sectors of the community," she said. State Treasurer Lynn Fitch, a Madison County resident, encouraged coalition members to continue spreading the word about how harmful smoking can be. Fitch said she lost her mother at age 62 to lung cancer as a result of smoking.

 "When she was young, no one talked about the dangers of smoking. The more we talk about it now, we can get children to understand that their wellness is important," said Fitch, a mother of three. The Madison County Business League and executive director Jan Collins were honored by the coalition for Collaboration of the Year. Collins worked with Culp last year on getting Canton to adopt a smoke-free ordinance. Madison County is the only county in the state where all local municipalities have adopted smoke-free ordinances.

Culp and Collins said they are working with the Board of Supervisors to get unanimous support so Madison County can become the first county to adopt a similar ordinance. Also receiving awards from the coalition were Madison County resident David Buchanan for his service as a "dedicated advocate for tobacco prevention" and Daisy Carter, Madison County's Underage Drinking Prevention Coalition leader, for her work to unite the two coalitions in fighting tobacco use and drinking by teens.

A.V. stores survive tobacco sting

Authorities recently set up a sting operation, trying to catch stores in Apple Valley that would illegally sell tobacco to minors — and all 10 stores passed the test. Officers with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Apple Valley station and town code enforcement on Friday sent two underage decoys into 10 retail stores that sell tobacco products.

None of the Apple Valley stores agreed to sell the products to the minors, according to a sheriff’s press release. Had any of the stores sold tobacco products to the minors, the release said they would have been subject to fines from $400 to $3,500.

Brooklyn, Staten Island tobacco shops defy governments in roll-your-own cigarettes battle

A federal judge has ordered defiant tobacco shops in Brooklyn and Staten Island to stop selling controversial roll-your-own cigarettes — siding with the city and state as they sue the stores for hawking the untaxed smokes. U.S. District Court Judge Katherine Forrest bolstered the positions of the city Law Department and State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman by issuing the injunction. BB’s Corner on 18th Ave. in Bensonhurst and Nitecap on Gulf Ave. in Staten Island’s Bloomfield neighborhood are the targets of a federal lawsuit filed in March intended to tax machine-rolled tobacco “joints” the same way packaged cigarettes are throughout the state.

The shops “have chosen to stand their ground and fight,” Forrest wrote in last week’s decision slamming them for selling the smokes for about $4.50 a pack. A pack of popular commercial brands, such as Newport or Marlboro, sell for around $12-$13.50 in city stores, prices that include $7.47 in federal, state, and city taxes tacked onto the cost. “These stores were challenging the complaint,” said Tobacco Compliance Bureau Chief Dana Biberman who works under Schneiderman. “We are delighted with the court’s ruling.”

The judge’s order is expected to go into effect by mid-July. Meanwhile, Biberman said she is finding other stores in the city to target by subpoenaing records from roll-your-own machine companies. “We know about several more. And we will continue to investigate them,” Biberman said. Roll-your-own shops allow customers to pour loose tobacco into the devices, which can push out a rolled cigarette in just a few seconds. City tax investigators started cracking down last fall, warning offending shop owners to stop the sales or face hefty fines. About a half dozen shops heeded the warning and voluntarily shut down.

When questioned by the News, employees at BB’s Corner and Nitecap declined comment on why they continued working. On Thursday, a News reporter was offered a $47.50 carton of smokes at BB’s that had been produced by pouring a bag of Top Tobacco into a boxy, four-foot-tall boxy contraption owned by RYO, a Ohio-based company lobbying the public to join their battle against tax laws. BB’s walls were covered with flyers asking customers to call local politicians and advocate for legislation that will protect them from the authorities.

“We are doing our best to follow the law,” said a man seen outside BB’s taking down signs advertising “200 counts of smokes in just 8 minutes.” “They can’t tax us,” he said. Earlier last week, a bill designed to change tax requirements for roll-your-own smokes failed to make it to the state Senate floor. “They have to get taxed,” said State Sen. Marty Golden (R-Bensonhurt) whose name was listed on BB’s wall as a politician to call. “We need more regulations. We need to stop people from doing this.” But a BB’s customer, Chris Figurora, 59, disagreed, as he inquired about the shop’s low cigarette prices. “If you can’t get cheap cigarettes here, you will get them somewhere else,” said Figurora, a clerical worker from Borough Park. “Overtaxing won’t solve these issues. People will find another alternative.”

Altria, Reynolds American to increase cigarette prices

Winston-Salem-based Reynolds American Inc. will match a price increase by competing cigarette maker Altria Group Inc. , with both companies raising prices by 6 cents a pack on June 18 in the first hike of the year. The move follows two rounds of increases in 2011, and comes as state excise taxes have leveled off, according to the Wall Street Journal. Altria Group Inc. (NYSE: MO) announced its price move yesterday.

Greensboro-based Lorillard (NYSE: LO), which was among the cigarette makers who boosted prices last year, has yet to announce an increase this year, but analysts speculate such a hike could be coming. According to the Wall Street Journal, analysts have been pushing for price increases to help boost profitability as sales volumes decline. In April, both Lorillard and Reynolds American (NYSE: RAI) announced that profits were down for the first quarter, with Reynolds American reporting a 29 percent drop and Lorillard announcing profits were down 10 percent. Both cited declines in sales and smoking rates as reasons.

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Tewkesbury MP denies conflict of interest over cigarettes

LINKS between receiving hospitality from a major tobacco company and opposing plans to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes have been denied by Tewkesbury's MP. Laurence Robertson has pointed out he had always been 'pro-choice' when it came to smoking. He argued targeting plain packaging was a "cop out", and failed to tackle the more complex causes of people taking up the habit such as peer pressure and parents smoking.

Mr Robertson was one of six MPs calling for the policy to be dropped, who had accepted tickets and hospitality at the Chelsea Flower Show worth more than £1,100 from Japan Tobacco International (JIT), which owns the Silk Cut, Mayfair and Benson & Hedges brands. This was declared in the register of members' interests by Mr Robertson. The six were among a total of 51 MPs to sign an open letter warning that a cigarette branding ban "threatens more than 5,500 jobs directly employed by the UK tobacco sector".

 Mr Robertson denied there was a conflict of interest. He said: "I have always been pro-choice. "Too much has been made of this plain packaging. It's a cop out. "I don't believe children start to smoke because it says Embassy or Rothmans on a packet. It's to do with peer pressure and parents smoking. "I have always taken the view if people want to smoke that's up to them." Mr Robertson said he had visited a JIT-owned factory in Northern Ireland in his capacity as select committee chairman. "It's a legitimate business," he said.

"The product is a legal product." The open letter stated: "There is no reliable evidence that plain packaging will have any public health benefit," adding that a standardised packet design could make tobacco smuggling easier." A public consultation is currently under way on whether branded cigarette packaging should disappear from the shelves. Health campaigners have welcomed the proposal, but opponents claimed it would lead to increased smuggling and job losses.