GREEN BAY – Smoking will be virtually non-existent at Saturday’s Packers scrimmage at Lambeau Field. A statewide smoking ban applies to the stadium because it is a workplace environment. The ban has been in place since last month. The scrimmage will be the largest event at the stadium since the ban took effect. The team says staff will greet fans at the gate with a pamphlet to make sure everyone knows Lambeau is now a smoke-free facility.

“I think probably the first few games it will be a learning curve, but our staff along with law enforcement – it’s going to be a lot of verbally telling people about the new policy and let them know smoking is prohibited here,” said Aaron Popkey, Packers spokesperson.

The Packers say if someone refuses to stop smoking, staff will contact law enforcement and a citation could be issued.

E-cigarettes and other smoking devices are also prohibited. And you cannot “step out” for a cigarette. If you leave the stadium, you will not be able to re-enter. The rule is a team policy.

From fox11online.com

I just finished reading your piece on the potential smoking ban for Savannah bars and nightclub, and am grateful to see that a long overdue local issue is being addressed. There are many arguments from the owners of our local bars and restaurants that banning smoking will adversely affect business. There are speculations on how the ban might drive potential patrons to bars and nightclubs in Pooler and other areas.

There is even at least one argument concerned with the impact the ban would have on public and underage drinking, with smokers forced to go outside with or without their drinks in order to smoke.

First of all, no one is forced to smoke, so no person is obligated to go outside unless she or he wants to. Secondly, with regard to the open container law, if open containers were also banned, as they are in most progressive cities, the potential for underage drinking, public drunkeness, litter, and the problem of an economic “hit” of any given bar would be greatly reduced. Period.

In regard to the issue of litter, I have watched hundreds of smokers take the extra step to throw a butt into the street or flower garden, rather than to use the outdoor ashtrays provided for them. I have heard the appalled comments of my own friends as a local cafe owner reprimanded them for littering outside of his hard-earned and well-kept establishment.

The attitude of the average smoker is rude, disrespectful, and arrogant. I saw a man yesterday smoking in the walking meditation garden of our local birth center, a place designed for the relaxation and exercise of the healthy mother in labor. Remind me again whose freedom is being infringed upon?

I hear people complain that the potential law infringes on their civil liberties. Pardon me, but go complain in a closed room full of other smokers, and when you come out, take a deep breath before talking to me about your freedom. Smoking infringes on the right of the healthy citizen, as well as children and dogs, to walk about in public and breathe clean air. Smoking leaves behind loads of disgusting, unsightly litter on our beautiful streets, desecrating our charming landscape.

Smokers who toss butts into city streets should be fined, just as anyone throwing garbage from cars on the highway. Dispose of your own trash, and take responsibility for your own unhealthy habits.

If you have been alive at anytime since 1990, you can’t NOT know that smoking is a killer, that cigarettes are known to be highly and surely addictive, not to mention expensive, and that your hard-earned dollars are funding a machine that is designed to make you one increasingly addicted consumer. Second hand smoke adversely affects otherwise healthy people, unborn babies, and those of us who appreciate the beauty of clean air.

My brother-in-law recently took my sister and their four children on vacation. For the first time in seven years, he could to afford to do this. He attributes his rise in finances to quitting smoking, attesting that the habit cost him time with his children, and as much as $200 a month.

I also hear the argument that “what works in another city… doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s going to work in Savannah,” as well as others of like thought.

What you are really saying is that Savannah is lazy and not open to change, even if that change is one for the better. The real issue is that of awareness, and a lack of responsibility, both personal and social, on the part of the smoker.

There is NO legitimate argument for the benefits of smoking. Not one. If you want to smoke, smoke inside of your house. Let the rest of us breathe the air that is ours.

Former prisoners warn that the coming ban on smoking in prisons will make jails even more dangerous. In July next year tobacco, lighters and matches will all be banned from prisons after a 12 month campaign to help smokers kick the habit. And prison officers and Corrections staff will have to smoke in outdoor areas away from prisoners. Corrections Minister Judith Collins says it will give prisoners a healthier environment, but people who have actually been behind bars say it could make prisons more dangerous.

In prison, cigarettes are used as currency and the government estimates up to two thirds of all prisoners in New Zealand smoke.

Former inmate Shenelle Ngatai says cigarettes are like gold in prisons and jails will be more corrupt if cigarettes are taken off prisoners.

Ngatai was released from prison last month after doing time for grievous bodily harm.
She says cigarettes are like medicine for inmates and in prison, tobacco is currency.

“I had no money when I was inside. I was swapping my food for cigarettes, not so much starving myself but I survived on them basically.”

She says inmates will be punching and killing one another because cigarettes are all they need and are “their fix”.

And if that fix isn’t freely available, prison reform advocate Kim Workman expects cigarettes will end up on the prison black market.

“The benefits, especially for long-term prisoners of not smoking, will outweigh that,” he says.

Stephen Kidwell, another former inmate, has done 14 stints behind bars.

“When they say to me if I’m going to go to jail I can’t smoke in jail, my God, that’s not going to be good,” he says.

Kidwell is a smoker and an occasional glue sniffer and is all too familiar with prison protocol.

He says inmates are not allowed their own TV or stereo and cigarettes are “like the last stand”.

And former inmates say losing that last stand could lead to more violence and less co-operation with prison guards.

“Inmates are going to get pissed off. They’re not going to be listening to no screws. I just feel sorry for the screws,” says Ngatai.

“There’s going to be more murders inside than out here. I’m telling you now.”

But Ngatai does admit a ban on tobacco is yet another reason to stay away from prison.

From tvnz.co.nz, June 28, 2010

WASHINGTON — The smoking lamp is going out all across the Navy’s submarine fleet, where the mission to “run silent, run deep” now will be carried out by sailors ordered to run undersea operations without cigarettes, cigars or pipes.This is the latest front in the long war against tobacco declared by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Their programs to help military personnel kick the smoking habit are intended to protect the health of the current force — and to save the government hundreds of millions of dollars a year in health care costs for those who have served, and smoked, in uniform.

The Navy is cognizant that military service is stressful, especially in long and lonely deployments under the sea. Everybody is aware that smoking is a legal, if harmful, stress reliever.

So the Navy banned smoking aboard submarines not with the stated purpose of curing the smokers, but of protecting nonsmoking submarine crew members from the threat of heart and lung disease from secondhand smoke.

“Recent testing has proven that, despite our atmosphere purification technology, there are unacceptable levels of secondhand smoke in the atmosphere of a submerged submarine,” said Vice Adm. John J. Donnelly, commander of submarine forces. “The only way to eliminate risk to our nonsmoking sailors is to stop smoking aboard our submarines.”

The Navy did not order its submariners to quit cold turkey. For the 5,000 sailors who admitted to being smokers among the submarine fleet’s 13,000 crew members — that is just shy of 40 percent — the ban goes into effect at the end of the year.

In the meantime, a senior petty officer aboard each hunter-killer submarine and each nuclear ballistic missile boat will serve as a “smoking cessation coordinator,” helping sailors wean themselves off the habit through discipline — and a ready supply of nicotine gum, nicotine patches and other replacement therapies.

There are no plans to impose a “smokeless Navy.” Aboard surface warships, smoking is allowed in specially designated — and open — areas. Across the Navy, those who wish to quit smoking can attend classroom programs. And in many Navy and Marine Corps locations, those wishing to quit can receive help from physicians, dentists and pharmacists during a health care visit.

About one-third of all military personnel say they are smokers. While smoking is banned in basic training, more than a third of the current smokers across the armed services say they started after they went on active duty.

The military and cigarettes have a long history, in both combat practice and combat lore. When America went to war in the past, tobacco went with them and cigarettes were part of military rations. But they are no longer contained in the Meals Ready to Eat field food packages, as the Defense Department does not want to officially encourage smoking.

Now that legacy is seen only in the water-resistant matches placed in combat rations and officially defended as a survival tool. (But has anybody in Iraq had to build a campfire lately?)

While supporting efforts to help the troops cut back on smoking, senior Pentagon officials rebuffed proposals to ban tobacco use in the combat zone, having assessed that personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan had enough pressure to deal with already.

Even as the Pentagon tries to quash cigarette smoking, the lore remains.

The superstition about bringing down bad luck if you are “third on a match” has roots stretching to World War I, when soldiers came to believe that you could light two cigarettes off one match without being spotted, but that lighting up the third cigarette gave enemy snipers ample time to ready, aim and fire.

Even more archaic is the maritime term “smoking lamp.”

According to a Navy history Web site, this phrase dates to the 16th century, when a lamp was stoked near the ship’s galley to draw tobacco users away from where gunpowder was stored.

The term has survived as a nautical figure of speech.

“The smoking lamp is lit” designates those times and places for smoking; but when a skipper says, “The smoking lamp is out,” it means crush out your cigarettes now.

A ban on smoking is not the only change in life and culture charted for the submarine force.

The Pentagon is lifting a decades-old ban on women serving aboard submarines, which will be phased in as the undersea vessels are retrofitted over coming years for coed life and work by 2012. Women went to sea aboard surface warships in 1993.

From nytimes.com, June 21, 2010, By THOM SHANKER

CAIRO — Egypt is taking its first serious stab at clamping down on smoking with a campaign launched Thursday to enforce a ban in the scenic seaside city of Alexandria, no small feat in a nation where four out of 10 men use tobacco. Authorities are determined to enforce a 2007 law that banned smoking in government buildings, hospitals, and schools. It did not take on the more ambitious targets of cafes and restaurants.

The law has largely gone ignored, but now those who defy it face hefty penalties.

“I think it will be serious this time,” said Fatma El-Awa, the World Health Organization spokeswoman in Cairo. “A country in the region is finally following in the footsteps” of European nations, she added.

Alexandria — a city famed for its Roman ruins and ancient library — was selected as the first city for enforcing because polls of residents indicated they were receptive to the idea of a smoke-free city, El-Awa said.

This is the second major step to kick the habit in Egypt. A new law passed in late May raised cigarette taxes by as much as 40 percent.

The challenges are daunting in Egypt.

WHO statistics show that almost 40 percent of men over 15 use some form of tobacco. Additionally, the latest WHO study, conducted in conjunction with the Egyptian Health Ministry, found that almost 82 percent of daily cigarette smokers lit up between 16 and 20 times per day. The WHO says that over the past 30 years, the number of smokers in the country has increased over twice as fast as the population of 79 million.

The same study showed that Egyptian spend an average of almost 110 Egyptian pounds ($20) per month on cigarettes. World Bank figures show that roughly 40 percent of Egyptians live below or near the poverty line of $2 per day.

A glance around any Egyptian city clearly highlights the uphill battle.

On buses, in elevators, in hospital waiting rooms, government offices, smokers can be seen lighting up — often ignoring the frustrated stares of others.

Individuals who violate the smoking ban will face fines starting at $9 while organizations or companies can see their liability climb to as much as $3,640, said Sahar Labib, the Health Ministry’s director of tobacco control.

Smokers will have a three-month grace period before full implementation begins, she said. The pilot program’s success will allow it to be expanded to other areas. Health ministry officials say they expect the ban will be enforced throughout Egypt within five years.

Inspectors will be deployed around Alexandria to monitor implementation and a hot line was established to receive complaints.

Egypt for years has tried to curb smoking.

Cigarette packs have carried picture warnings for at least two years, with images ranging from one of a man lying in a hospital bed wearing an oxygen mask to the most recent — an image of a limp cigarette that not-so-subtly hints at the dangers of impotence for men.

While the images have raised awareness, they haven’t stopped smoking.

The government has also announced it was raising cigarette taxes by as much as 40 percent — a move aimed at generating sorely needed revenue, but which is hoped to have the added benefit of curbing what is arguably one of the cheaper pleasures in life for many Egyptians.

domestically made Marlboros, for example, cost about $1.6 per pack while Cleopatra cigarettes, a staple in the tobacco-stained fingers of many Egyptians, cost 54 cents.

Like other laws passed and which met with mixed success — such as Egypt’s new traffic law — the proof will be in the implementation.

On that point, many are skeptical.

“There is no way that they will be able to enforce this law,” said Hazem Badr as he paid for a pack of Marlboros. “I highly doubt they would be able to control people anywhere except for more private areas like cafes and restaurants.”

Health officials, however, aren’t ready to light up just yet.

“I think Egypt is moving in the right direction,” said El-Awa, the WHO official, adding that among the measures planned was a hot line to which complaints about violations could be lodged. “All these policies are being introduced very fresh in the country. You can’t expect a result to come that quickly.”

By SARAH RASLAN,

Associated Press Writer Reem Abdel-Latif contributed to this report.

Greece, a nation of heavy smokers, will ban tobacco in all indoor public places from September 1 because a partial ban enacted in July last year failed, Health Minister Marilisa Xenogiannakopoulou said on Monday. Last year’s ban was very largely ignored because of exemptions for small bars and restaurants, complex rules and the failure to crack down on offenders, and Greeks routinely light up cigarettes in taxis, larger bars, or even at work. “There were problems in the implementation of the law, there were grey areas and contradictions,” the minister said. “We had to bring in new legislation … From Sept 1, 2010, Greece will fully ban (smoking) in all public places.”

Casinos and bars bigger than 300 square meters will be given 8 months to apply the law, she said.

More than 40 percent of Greeks smoke, making them the heaviest smokers in Europe, and nearly as many are exposed to smoking at work, according to a European Union poll.

Smoking-related diseases kill about 20,000 people a year, costing the country an annual 2.14 billion euros ($2.62 billion), the health ministry said last year.

Bar and restaurant owners had complained last year’s law was too complicated and was hurting business. Some restaurant owners who had originally implemented the law put the ash-trays back on the table after losing customers.

The government will publish a draft bill in the coming days, Xenogiannakopoulou said.

Last year’s ban, agreed under the previous, conservative administration, imposed fines of up to 500 euros on convicted smokers, while bars and restaurants risked losing their license.

Smoking is also becoming more expensive in Greece. The government agreed in talks with the EU and the IMF earlier this month to increase excise tax on cigarettes by 10 percent as part of austerity measures aimed at plugging the huge budget deficit.

Starting with the next January, China will ban smoking in all public places, whether indoors or outdoors, and including public transport facilities and work areas. This is a significant expansion of smoke-free areas in China. Under the prior, local tobacco regulations, smoke-free areas were basically only public spaces, not workspaces. On May 10, officials of the Ministry of Health claimed in a media conference that this new regulation was based on the request of the “Framework Convention on Tobacco Control” of the World Health Organization (WHO). Smoking kills, which is the basic reason for this ban. However, these new regulations are perhaps somewhat unrealistic, and it will be quite difficult for this ban achieve tangible results.

First of all, the implementation cost will be very high. There are 350 million smokers in China. It is difficult to impose a strict prohibition on the daily habits of such a large population. Shanghai has been running its own “smoking ban” since March.

However, the prohibition exists only in name, as smokers are keeping to their usual habits.

The effective implementation of the regulations relies on strict enforcement, which requires the support of personnel, staffing and funding.

It will take a lot of time and manpower to enforce these regulations nationwide. As the funding comes from fiscal income, this will once again increase the burden on taxpayers.

China is a huge cigarette market, and one keyed to cultural habits. Smoking and drinking social customs, and cigarettes are a symbol of identity and status. The more expensive your brand, the more weight you carry, especially in official circle and the business world.

Tobacco is also considered an important source of revenue by some local governments. On January 14, a spokesman of the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration said proudly that its business revenue reached 513.11 billion ($75.15 billion) in 2009, an increase of 55.93 billion ($8.19 billion), up 12.2 percent over the previous year. Taxes (including State-owned enterprises’ income) made up 416.34 billion ($61.07 billion) of this, up 26.2 percent from the previous year.

Tobacco thus makes up a significant proportion of government revenue. Unless the government’s tobacco monopoly is broken, it seems unlikely officials will take serious steps to enforce smoking bans and reduce the consumption of cigarettes.

Cigarettes are small, but they have very deep roots. Without changes in the tobacco financial system, the “smoking ban” will be invalid.

China signed the “Framework Convention on Tobacco Control” at the UN Headquarters in 2003.

Article 11 of the Convention says that health warnings must be printed on the packaging and labels of tobacco products. They should take up 50 percent or more of the principal display area but shall be no less than 30 percent of the principal display areas.

This requirement has not even been implemented yet. To the contrary, the design of cigarette packaging in China has become more and more attractive and splendid.

Ironically, the packaging and design of Zhonghua cigarettes meant for export is totally different from the familiar domestic red boxes. On the upper front of the boxes for export, there is a picture of a smoker, vividly depicting his ulcerous lips and the blackened remnants of his teeth. The Zhonghua logo is printed in the cramped space below.

Therefore, the seemingly strict smoking ban is actually aimed in the wrong direction. Policymakers certainly face little risks: The people this disadvantages are China’s 350 million smokers. And they cannot stand together to react effectively to the policy. But on the supply side, tobacco companies are well organized interest groups with plenty of connections.

So these regulations will do little to actually control smoking in China, especially given the lack of enforcement. Rather than singling out the vulnerable group, the smokers, we instead need to target China’s tobacco monopoly.

We should start mandating large health warnings and other measures designed to reduce sales instead of merely restricting where people can smoke. Otherwise, the national commitment to reducing smoking looks weak, and the government’s authority will be damaged.

The heated debate over Harrison County’s smoking ban comes to an end. Any chance at health board member Bernie Fazzini’s hope to exempt video lottery establishments and stand-alone bars from the ban went up in smoke at Wednesday morning’s meeting. Some are angry at the decision, saying it will hurt business while others are breathing a sigh of relief. Shannon Jackson sat with her two children, nervously waiting for a decision to be made about the ban. She left the meeting relieved that no changes were made.

“I know the issue the past few months has been exempting bars and video lotteries but, you know, there’s workers there too. And so it’s not fair for some people to not have to breathe the secondhand smoke and for others to do that just to keep their job,” explains Jackson.

But there are always two sides to every story.

“I think it’s unconstitutional because who don’t want to go into these establishments, don’t go! But don’t penalize the people that want to go. That’s their freedom, that’s their decision and that’s what they should be able to do,” says Clarksburg resident Mike Audia.

Fazzini says his only concern is that the ban will drive business out of Harrison County and send those smokers to neighboring county’s businesses who don’t mind if they light up.

His motion to exempt video lottery establishments and stand-alone bars wasn’t seconded by any health board member, so the issue wasn’t voted on.

A decision, Fazzini says, is going to hit business in the county very hard.

“It doesn’t constitute I’m for smoking. It’s not the point. The point is, I’m for business and the only thing I’m asking for is to help those businesses out who’s cliental smokes. That’s it,” says Fazzini.

But has Fazzini and many business owner’s hopes go up in smoke, one health board member says they’re simply doing their job to protect the health of Harrison County citizens.

“We’re going to save lives,” declared Joyce Rabanal.

The proposed law to control tobacco smoking in San Angelo is still a work in progress. The San Angelo City Council on Tuesday directed city staff to develop an amended version of the proposed smoke-ban ordinance to address concerns about the ordinance’s potential effect on businesses. The council, according to the City Charter, has 30 days from Tuesday — the ordinance’s first public hearing — to vote on an ordinance. “There will be adjustments made to the language to pursue respecting private property and issues along those lines and then to see if we can do that in a way where everyone can agree,” said Mayor Alvin New.

Council members listened to more than a dozen people share their views on the smoke-ban ordinance, a version of which will be put to a vote in November after city staff negotiates with Smoke-Free San Angelo, the group that submitted the ordinance petition.

If an agreement is reached on an amended version of the ordinance, the council will vote on the amended version of the ordinance and the group is required per city charter to request that version of the ordinance be put to a vote.

If an agreement is not reached or if the group rejects city staff’s proposal, the council is still required to vote on the version of the ordinance the group puts forth within 30 days of the public hearing. If the council rejects it, city charter allows the group to bypass the council decision and request its preferred version of the ordinance be placed on the ballot.

Lisa Burger, the group’s spokeswoman, said the group is open to negotiations but does not want sweeping changes. “I want to be true to the people that signed the petition,” she said.

City Manager Harold Dominguez expressed “cautious optimism” about the potential for reaching an agreement. “I think anytime council gives us direction, I think we’re hopeful that we can accomplish something, so we’ll have to wait to see how we do during those discussions,” he said.

The council’s direction stemmed largely from concerns raised during public comment, including the ordinance’s requirement that tobacco shops and other businesses that receive 80 percent or more of revenue from tobacco sales and that are connected to other businesses or properties must install a ventilation system if they want to continue to allow indoor smoking.

Mimi Staha, owner of Colonel’s Pipe Shop, said she would be willing to install a ventilation system to remain at her current location in Stadium Park shopping center but requested that her business be exempt from the ordinance.

The views expressed during public comment fell into two main camps. About half of the people who spoke — including representatives from the group who submitted the petition for the ordinance as well as various health organizations, high school students and some business owners — said smoking is harmful to health and that it is an infringement of people’s rights to subject them to secondhand smoke in a public place.

The other camp, which included mostly bar and other types of business owners, said disallowing business owners from being able to decide whether to allow smoking is an infringement of the business owner’s rights as a taxpayer and private sector entity. Many in the latter camp acknowledged the dangers of secondhand smoke and said they personally choose not to frequent businesses that allow smoking but an ordinance banning smoking in all public places would be constitute the taking away of a basic freedom.

They also argued that anyone who doesn’t like to be around smoking has the choice not to go to businesses that allow it. One speaker said sometimes there isn’t a choice, pointing out that she can’t take her children bowling because Stadium Lanes, the only bowling alley in town, allows smoking.

Council member Charlotte Farmer said both her parents and her husband died from cigarette use but she didn’t agree with part of the ordinance requiring the city to partake in public education efforts, which she described as a “budgetary item.”

Robert Banskter, general manager of the Days Inn and Rodeway Inn who lost the Single Member District 1 council seat to Paul Alexander in this month’s city election, expressed concern about how the ordinance would conflict with a corporate requirement that 25 percent of his hotel rooms allow smoking. The ordinance proposes a staged process for hotels in which 20 percent of the rooms could be smoking units for a period before the hotel went smoke-free, but the ordinance says smoking rooms cannot be adjacent or conterminous with nonsmoking rooms — a requirement Banskter said would be impossible to work around.

“This is a private sector issue,” Banskter said. “It should be left up to the ownership.”

James Bennett, who identified himself as a smoker and small business owner who sells tobacco, said he often doesn’t consider his friends’ rights to clean air until after he lights up and that he intends to continue to sell tobacco but that he doesn’t “believe you should be able to go out and smoke in public wherever you want.”

“I don’t believe that smoking, whether we allow it in the public or not, is going to affect the long-term success of any business,” he said, adding that the primary reason he supports the ordinance is because many of the people secondhand smoke affects are children who will not be able to vote on the ordinance when it appears on the ballot in November.

By Kiah Collier
San Angelo Standard-Times

“My wife collected the cigarette packages I bought. There were over 150. She told me to multiply the sum by Rp 10,000 [US$1.10] and think about how selfish I was,” said Helda Suhenda.
His wife played an important role in the 48-year-old man’s decision to quit, he told a seminar earlier this month.

“She told me to choose between cigarettes and her.”

His wife’s threat might have boosted Helda’s willpower, he said. He joined an anti-smoking program at Persahabatan Hospital, East Jakarta and said he quit a decades-long smoking habit August last year.

However, psychiatrist Tribowo Tuahta Ginting said that threats were not always effective in trying to convince a person to stop smoking.

“A person trying to quit should be given praise and small things that can aid the process, such as candy or fruit,” Tribowo said during the seminar.

Threats, as well as excessive praise, should be avoided, he said.

Tribowo also counsels smokers at Persahabatan Hospital’s anti-smoking program. Hopeful quitters must have a person who can support their efforts, he said.

“They must have relatives, family members or someone who knows them well to help them through the process.”

First and foremost, said Tribowo, smokers should muster their own willpower.

“I was a heavy smoker. One day I decided I was sick of cigarettes,” said Een Mahaereni, a 61-year-old grandmother who had been smoking for more than 20 years.

She added that complaints from her grandchildren, who said she “smelled like cigarettes,” encouraged her to quit, even though it was her decision.

Helda agreed. He said that despite receiving constant support from his wife, it was his choice to join the program.

“It was for my own health. I do not want to spend my last days in a wheelchair.”

His constant coughing at night had stopped after he quit, Helda said. “I now realize how much I disturbed my surroundings when I smoked,” he said.

Tribowo said that in case of a relapse, smokers must remember why they had decided to quit in the first place.

Those who failed to quit should continue to meet with their supporters and make new plans to quit.

A friend who helps you to stop smoking might be helpful, but peers who smoke constantly could have the opposite effect, he said.

“A person trying to quit might have to avoid the people they usually smoke with,” Tribowo said.

Muhammad Sulaiman Joenoes, who accompanied one of the seminar’s speakers, said that he had plenty of support when he quit smoking but was still tempted to have a cigarette from time to time.

“I often see cigarette commercials when I watch sports or music on television.”

“The commercials make me want to smoke,” he said.

Tribowo said that cigarette advertisements often send the message that smoking was “cool” or “manly”.
The government is currently considering limiting print and broadcast advertising by cigarette companies.

Under the proposal, cigarette companies would also be prohibited from sponsoring events in exchange for logo placement and would be banned from distributing fliers or other promotional material.

Workers and companies in tobacco-related industries formed the Indonesia Tobacco Society Alliance (AMTI) to challenge proposed regulation of the cigarette industry.

Government data shows that state revenue from cigarette taxes exceeded Rp 55 trillion (US$6 billion) and the industry employed more than 6 million people in 2009, said an AMTI official.

Threats are not always effective in trying to convince a person to stop smoking.

By Dina Indrasafitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Wrightsville Beach will hold a hearing and might vote Thursday on whether to ban smoking along the shoreline.First raised at a candidates’ forum in October by a resident who hates the cigarette butts left behind by smokers, the possible ban was also discussed during the aldermen’s retreat in February.

Some smokers visiting the beach this week strongly opposed the idea.

“I think banning smoking on the beach is too far an approach into people’s lives,” said Scott Walker of Raleigh. “What’s next? I want to ban people talking on cell phones on the beach.”

He said he was a “staunch opponent to littering” and carries his butts away, and even picks up others’ trash to leave the beach a better place.

Chris Weyers, another smoker, said he always picks up after himself. He claimed this year is the cleanest he’s seen the beach in 10 years, so he didn’t think the ban was needed. “What, are they going to hire 50 more cops to catch everybody smoking a measly cigarette, that ought to be legal?”

Cape Fear Community College students Tracy McMillan, Rachel Nunalee and Kelly Bloom, nonsmokers, didn’t object to cigarettes on the beach, either.

“I think it would be OK if they’d clean up after themselves,” said McMillan.

But other beachgoers supported a ban.

“I’d be thrilled if there were a ban,” said Lynn Dilen of Cary, who recently got a headache from a nearby smoker.

“I think that’s a good idea. … There’s butts all over the place,” said Gregg Dilen.

Marc Crocco, Spencer Robinson and Spencer Percy, who just graduated from Wingate University, supported the idea.

“I want it to be clean,” said Crocco.“It’s got to be a family atmosphere,” said Robinson.

A state law that banned smoking in bars and restaurants on Jan. 2 also allows municipalities to restrict smoking in public places, including outdoor sites such as parks. Wrightsville Beach would be the first place in North Carolina to ban smoking on the beach, although Surfside City, S.C., did so last year.

Enforcement has been a concern for officials, since even the current ban on drinking or using glass bottles on the beach is difficult to enforce. Alderwoman Susan Collins and Mayor Pro Tem Bill Blair have expressed reluctance to direct lifeguards or police to add cigarette patrols to their duties.

Alderman Bill Sisson said in February that cigarette litter was a real problem on the beach, not just looking bad, but harming wildlife.

Alderwoman Lisa Weeks said the ban could at least be a “deterrent factor.”

The hearing will be held during the aldermen’s meeting at 6 p.m. at the town hall.

By Patricia E. Matson, Star news online

China’s Ministry of Health today banned smoking in hospitals but health advocates and anti-smoking activists say a promised national ban on smoking in public places has yet to take shape.
China’s 300 million smokers consume a third of the world’s cigarettes. A million of them die each year from smoking-related illnesses, burdening families and the public health system.

That figure is expected to increase to two million by 2020, according to a study by the Paris-based International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease.

But activists say they have not yet seen signs of a promised national law to ban smoking in public places. Less smoking could reduce smoking-related health costs, but would also hurt government revenues.

“The tobacco industry still accounts for a big part of the government’s revenue, while many farmers depend heavily on growing tobacco,” said Yang Lixia, a doctor from Zhengzhou University’s No. 2 hospital and a government adviser.

“So I don’t think a smoking ban can come all of a sudden.”

China had pledged a “thorough indoor smoke-free” environment by 2011, five years after it signed on to the World Health Organization (WHO)’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Many Chinese cities already have similar regulations on their books, although enforcement varies even in government offices.

Part of the problem for enforcers is that nearly 60 percent of Chinese men smoke. They puff an average 15 cigarettes per day, mostly homegrown brands like Zhongnanhai – named after the central government compound in Beijing.

“In China, plans turn to reality in a short time only if the government is determined to do it,” Zhang Jing, the spokeswoman of Chinese Association on Tobacco Control or CATC said.

“But now the problem is we are not sure whether the government has decided.”

CATC is also advocating against a proposal to name the chief financial officer of popular Internet portal Baidu (BIDU.O) to the board of Philip Morris International, a move CATC fears would make foreign cigarettes more fashionable among young Chinese.

By Yu Le and Lucy Hornby in Beijing, for Reuters