Global tobacco giant Philip Morris said Tuesday it planned to take the Norwegian state to court in an attempt to overturn a law in the Scandinavian country banning the display of cigarettes in stores.

“Philip Morris Norway (PMN) will today start legal proceedings to overturn the ban on displaying tobacco products in retail stores,” the company said in a statement.

Following in the footsteps of several other Western countries like Ireland and Iceland, Norway on January 1 this year banned the display of cigarettes in stores in an attempt to cut impulse buys of tobacco products.

In Norway, cigarettes have been banished to closed cases, while cigarette dispensers may no longer display brand labels.

“Display bans have had no impact on reducing smoking in the countries that have implemented them, a fact acknowledged by the Norwegian Ministry of Health and Care Services,” PMN spokeswoman Anne Edwards said in the statement.

“These regulations prevent adult consumers from seeing the available product range and overly restrict competition,” she said, adding that “we have raised these issues with the government to no avail, which has regrettably left us with no choice but to litigate.”

Norwegian health officials did not appear troubled by the pending litigation.

“This shows that we are on the right track. If Philip Morris really felt the ban would not reduce the consumption of tobacco they would not worry about this law,” Bjoern-Inge Larsen, who heads up the Norwegian Directorate of Health, told public television NRK.

“On the contrary, I think this legal action is an indication that the ban will contribute to reducing tobacco consumption in the long term,” he said.

In June 2004, Norway became the second country in the world after Ireland to ban smoking in public places, including bars, restaurants and night clubs.

Some 21 percent of Norwegians aged 16 to 74 smoked on a daily basis in 2009, while an additional nine percent smoked occasionally, according to Statistics Norway.

DANA POINT Want to take a drag at a city park? You might want to reconsider.
On the heels of the results of a community opinion survey in which nearly two-thirds of respondents wanted smoking prohibited in all areas of local parks, a divided City Council on Monday gave initial approval to a new law banning the activity there.

The no-smoking ordinance will go into effect 30 days after the panel votes again in two weeks to give a final approval to the prohibition. Violations are a misdemeanor, the city said, punishable by a fine of up to $500 and six month in county jail.

Dana Point is set to join several other cities in Orange County, including Laguna Beach and Irvine, which have already banned smoking in their city parks.

Speaking before the council’s 3-2 vote to outlaw smoking in parks, Gwen Drenick, vice chair of the Orange County Tobacco Education Coalition, said 87 percent of the county’s population does not smoke and that’s a large percentage affected by those who do.

“I am proud of my city for proactively promoting a healthy environment,” said Drenick, who also lives in Dana Point.

Council members Joel Bishop and Lisa Bartlett voted against the majority, saying that the proposed ordinance was overreaching.

“I hate smoking. I am not a proponent of smoking in any way,” said Bishop. But he added that he had not observed smoking to be an issue in the city.

“Are we creating a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist?” he asked. “Are we adding legislation that really doesn’t need to be there?”

Bishop suggested modifying the ordinance to limit it to what he said other cities had done, suggesting that smoking be restricted at public parks during sporting events, concerts and other group activities.

Bartlett chimed in her support saying she thought the pendulum swing from allowing smoking to a ban was too wide.

Without much comment, Mayor Steven Weinberg and council members Scott Schoeffel and Lara Anderson voted in favor of the ban.

“I can’t think of a compelling reason why you would need to smoke at the park,” Anderson had said before Monday’s meeting. “You go to the park for healthful reasons.”

She had wanted the city to look into a prohibition, both from a health and litter standpoint.

“I think we have an overwhelming number of people who are very receptive to banning smoking in the parks,” she said, following the release of the community opinion survey results last month. “Cigarette butts are just insidious and everywhere.”

The last question in the poll of 400 randomly selected registered voters in the city had dealt with whether smoking should be banned in parks.

Sixty-one percent said they want a ban in all areas of public parks; 20 percent preferred that smoking be allowed only in designated smoking areas; and 17 percent favored allowing people to light up in all areas of public parks.

Based on the results and the “health and environmental risks the act of smoking cause,” city staff in a report recommended instituting a “smoke-free” law for public parks.

“Enforcement of the proposed prohibition on smoking in City parks would begin after staff initiates a public education campaign about the newly adopted regulations,” the report said. “Enforcement would include park signage with a posted telephone number that residents could call for information and/or make a complaint.”

Secondhand smoke causes an estimated 46,000 heart disease deaths and about 3,000 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers each year, according to statistics cited by the CDC.

As smokers increasingly become social pariahs, the success of proposals to ban smoking in public places has usually been a foregone conclusion, but anti-smoking efforts have occasionally encountered setbacks in recent years.

California lawmakers have repeatedly balked at legislation to make state beaches smoke-free, and Orange County supervisors shot down a county beach smoking ban in 2006, citing concerns of excessive government regulation.

Smokers’ rights groups have also pushed back against the notion that brief exposure to secondhand smoke is harmful.

Robert Best, western regional director for The Citizens Freedom Alliance, Inc./The Smoker’s Club, said in an interview last week that the group holds the view that people don’t get cancer walking by a person smoking outside and banning it sends the message that smokers are not welcome at parks.

“We create entire parks for dogs and skateboarders, but we’re throwing people out of the parks,” he said. “The city is just basically jumping on a bandwagon to attack a minority. If I am getting my history right, it’s something our country doesn’t want you to do.”

The Smoker’s Club is a non-profit organization that educates people about smoker’s rights and property rights in general, Best said.

Cities already have anti-littering laws and “if the city can’t enforce the one law, how can they enforce the second law?” he asked.

The city staff report says that, “As a result of its 2008 Annual International Coastal Clean-Up, the Ocean Conservancy announced that six million pounds of trash was collected in just one day on beaches worldwide and that one-third of the items came from smokers.”

Since 2003, California has prohibited smoking within 25 feet of a playground or tot lot sandbox and as of Jan. 1, 2009, more than 169 cities and counties have adopted policies restricting or eliminating tobacco use in public places, the city said.

BY VIK JOLLY, Ocregister

State Rep. Charlie Brown, D-Gary, will hold Senate legislation hostage unless he gets a Senate vote on a statewide smoking ban.

Brown said Wednesday he is sending a message to the Senate by refusing to sign Senate Bill 175 until two state senators sign House Bill 1132, which contains the smoking ban. Neither proposal can advance from conference committee to a final floor vote until two members of each chamber agree to the language in each measure.

“That message will be loud and clear to the Senate,” Brown said.

The Republican-controlled Senate has repeatedly refused to hold a vote on the proposed smoking ban. The Democratic-controlled House has approved the ban twice this session.

The most-recently approved version of the smoking ban prohibits indoor smoking everywhere except gaming facilities. Brown said he is willing to add exemptions for private clubs such as Veterans of Foreign Wars halls, tobacco shops and family owned businesses that have minimal public contact.

Brown is also willing to assuage Senate President David Long, R-Fort Wayne, who wants to avoid acting on a smoking ban until next year, by making the effective date of the ban July 1, 2011.

“He says not until next year, so this doesn’t happen until next year,” Brown said.

State Sen. Patricia Miller, R-Indianapolis, said she won’t be bullied into agreeing to a vote on the smoking ban. Miller and Brown both serve on the conference committees for the two proposals.

“I don’t play one bill against the other, and I don’t play games here,” Miller said. “Each issue has to stand on its own merit.”

But state Rep. Earl Harris, D-East Chicago, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, said Brown’s maneuvers are perfectly legitimate.

“This process is a process of negotiation,” Harris said. “If that works for him, then it’s legitimate.”

Several other health-related legislative proposals are caught in the middle of the smoking ban standoff, including medical recordkeeping rules and a lead paint poisoning prevention program in Senate Bill 175 and funding distributions for long-term care services and a substance abuse program for pregnant women in House Bill 1132.

If Brown follows through on his threat and neither side is willing to compromise, none of the proposals will advance for the final floor vote required before they can be sent to the governor.

By Dan Carden, Nwitimes

Rick Bender’s message to area students was clear: learn from his mistakes.
Bender began chewing tobacco at 12. By 26, he was diagnosed with cancer, which claimed a third of his tongue, half his jaw and left Bender with limited use of his right arm.

Bender, 47, told his story to freshmen at Piedra Vista High School Wednesday in an effort to help students learn from his mistakes. He also spoke at Hermosa Middle School and Navajo Preparatory School.

Students in grades 7 to 9 often are faced with decisions on whether to begin using tobacco, New Mexico Department of Health spokeswoman Deborah Busemeyer said.

“I know that we specifically target that age group because we’re trying to get to young people before they make the decision to smoke,” Busemeyer said. “We intervene and give them good reason to not.”

One out of three smokers dies of a smoking-related disease, according to statistics from the New Mexico Department of Health. It also was the second leading cause of death in the state through the 1980s and 1990s.

Bender used chewing tobacco, which sometimes is called smokeless tobacco.

“I actually hate that word,” Bender said. “I can tell you for a fact, right now, that this stuff is not harmless.

Chewing tobacco is commonly associated with baseball players. A budding athlete himself, Bender credits baseball stars featured in tobacco advertisements as one of the factors that led to his addiction.

It was hard for Bender to stop using once he was hooked.

“I think that stress is something that gets you going back to it when you’re trying to quit,” he said.

He eventually stopped after finding a sore on his tongue.

“It turned out to be just the tip of the iceberg,” Bender said.

Bender underwent four surgeries to root out the cancer, which left him unable to chew whole foods and relearning how to speak.

Tobacco of any kind is harmful, Bender said.

It’s a message he hopes will resonate with students.

“People honestly look at this (chewing tobacco) like it’s some sort of safe alternative to cigarettes,” Bender said.

By Brendan Giusti, The Daily Times

LOBATSE Lobatse has been chosen to host the National No Tobacco Day, which is scheduled for the 31st May 2010.
The theme of the commemoration is Gender and Tobacco and more emphasised would be on women because they are vulnerable as they easily fall into traps of believing that smoking could reduce weight.

Mr Clifford Matsoga from thwe Ministry of Health urged Urban Development Committee members to own the event and give it the necessary support to make it a success.

He also informed members that prior to the commemoration, a new project named Second Hand Smoking would be piloted in Lobatse and it would focus on prevention of second hand smoke. The project is also piloted in Mochudi and is supported by World Health Organisation..

Mr Matsoga said they were asked to run the project, which would also find out the quantity or size of smokers and places they use for smoking, after a survey carried out in Burkina Faso to find out strategies that are in place to control smoking.

He said the purpose of the initiative is to increase awareness and information on tobacco control among young people and the public in general.

He said Part II of the Tobacco Act and the Amendment Act of control of smoking address second hand smokers, sales of tobacco to and by minors. (Below age of 18 years) Mr Matsoga said the project needs support groups and volunteers to join and urged UDC members to establish such groups. He said through community support, cooperation and commitment Lobatse could be declared a non-smoking town.

He also briefed members that the Ministry of Health in collaboration with other stakeholders enforces the law as they have realised that smoking has become pandemic.

He said parents smoke in the presence of their children and they end up practicing what they see.

He said there is also a serious pressure from countries that manufacture tobacco adding that developed countries are less smoking and now they want to increase the smoking level.

He noted that some tobacco companies smuggle tobacco products into the country through ungazetted routes while others companies give cigarettes freely.

He said they have made efforts to raise awareness on what the law says and the danger of smoking through workshops, media, World No Tobacco Day commemorations, and education and communication material through hospitals, clinics and NGOs and by putting signs of no smoking.

Counseling and support is also given to smokers who want to quit.Mr Matsoga said according to the law adverts of tobacco are not allowed.

He mentioned that there is a tug of war between the legislation and companies citing a certain company which wanted to advertise itself by donating some mugs with its name to a certain non governmental organisation, while some companies wanted to start up projects and put bill boards to advertise their products but were prohibited For their part members raised concern that law enforcement is inadequate as there are some people who smoke in offices and they wanted to know if the law enforcers also monitor smoking in bars.

But they appreciated the ministrys efforts in increasing the level of awareness. They said the Act could bring positive results if it is well implemented.

Duke University Medical Centre researchers have come up with a novel technology that may give smokers a new way to kick the habit.

When compared to the nicotine vapour delivery system used in the Nicotrol/Nicorette inhaler, the new technology proved more effective at delivering nicotine to the blood stream. As a result, it provides immediate relief of withdrawal symptoms, according to university’s researchers. Users also reported the new nicotine delivery method was more tolerable than the current inhaler because it caused less throat irritation.

“We wanted to replicate the experience of smoking without incurring the dangers associated with cigarettes, and we wanted to do so more effectively than the nicotine replacement therapies currently on the market,” said Jed Rose, Ph.D., director of the Duke Centre for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Research where the technology is being developed. He presented the data today at the Society for Nicotine and Tobacco Research (SRNT) in Baltimore, MD.

The Nicotrol inhaler is a smoking cessation therapy that delivers nicotine vapor to the mouth and upper airways, but little of it reaches the lungs.

Duke’s new technology employs a unique method to deliver nicotine to the lungs. In presentation, the researchers show the new lung delivery technology results in rapid absorption of nicotine that provides immediate relief of withdrawal symptoms and also re-creates some of the familiar sensations that are pleasurable to smokers.

A central Ohio judge has stopped the state from collecting more than $30,000 in fines against a Columbus-area bar accused of allowing customers to smoke.

Franklin County Common Pleas Judge David E. Cain ruled business owners have no control over whether “someone rips out a cigarette and lights up” and cannot be held responsible if they have met other requirements outlined under the voter-approved Ohio SmokeFree Workplace Act.

“This all comes down to the fact that property owners can only do so much…,” Cain wrote. “They can put up ‘no smoking’ signs. They can take away ashtrays. They can ask patrons that are smoking to leave. Outside of these things, there is little property owners can do.”

Backers of the ruling said Thursday the decision could have wide-reaching implications, including stopping health officials from enforcing the smoking ban anywhere in the state and potentially leading to the forced refunds of fines already paid by businesses cited with violations.

“The decision, on its face, invalidates (the Ohio Department of Health) and local health department’s enforcement of the law, their method of enforcement across the state,” said Maurice Thompson, legal counsel for Zeno’s bar.

Phil Craig, executive director of the Ohio Licensed Beverage Association, added, “We expect them to cease and desist (enforcing the law), but we’ll have to see what they do. We are ready to take action if they continue to pursue this illegal persecution of permit holders.”

The Ohio Attorney General’s Office has appealed the decision, and the state health department intends to continue enforcing the smoking ban as it has for several years.

In a released statement, state Health Director Alvin D. Jackson said, “Ohio voters had a choice in 2006 and they overwhelmingly approved the Smoke Free Act. (The Ohio Department of Health) always has and will continue to follow the law and enforce the law regarding smoking in public places.”

He added, “The negative health effects from smoking and secondhand smoke are widely known and detailed in numerous studies. This law protects the health of Ohioans from those dangers while they frequent public places and places of employment.”

In November 2006, voters OK’d a statewide smoking ban in public places and workplaces, including bars and restaurants. Enforcement of the ban began in May 2007, after state health officials completed rules that outlined penalties for violations.

Since then, health officials statewide have issued nearly 3,400 warnings and more than 2,200 fines against businesses that have allowed customers to smoke.

Zeno’s was cited in court documents filed by the state Attorney General’s Tobacco Enforcement Section as the “second-most frequent violator of the Smoke Free Act.”

The bar was investigated “about 30 times in the past five years” and “on most occasions, patrons … are sitting at the bar in front of the bartender, smoking and ashing into small plastic cups filled with water,” according to documents.

Zeno’s received a warning letter about breaking the smoking ban in July 2007. It has been cited with 10 violations and has been fined numerous times since then, in amounts ranging from $100 to $5,000, according to documents.

In response, the bar owner said he installed no smoking signs, removed ashtrays and asks customers to stop smoking whenever they do light up, as required under the smoking ban.

In court documents, they questioned the constitutionality of the smoking ban and the legitimacy of enforcement actions against the business.

While not addressing the constitutionality issue, Judge Cain sided with the business and vacated the violations.

He wrote, “Would the Department of Health require property owners to pat down visitors for cigarettes before they are allowed to enter? Would it have property owners remove people via force from the premises at risk of personal injury? Placing the (onus) of enforcing the SmokeFree Act against individuals completely on property owners is ludicrous and defies basic notions of fairness.”

By MARC KOVAC, The daily record

A proposal to ban smoking in Japanese workplaces would herald a big political shift in the world’s fourth-biggest cigarette market and accelerate the decline of its giant tobacco lobby, industry experts say.

It would also bring Japan into line with much of the developed world, where prohibitions on smoking at work have been widespread for years.

A health ministry panel is expected to finalise a report by April that will recommend smoking be banned in offices and factories or, as an alternative, confined to separate rooms, Japanese media has reported.

The report would pave the way for the ministry to submit a bill to parliament as early as next year.

If passed, it would be a dramatic step for a country where smoking is still permitted in parts of hospitals and schools, and where the atmosphere in restaurants, cafes and bars is often thick with smoke.

In April Kanagawa will become the first of Japan’s 47 prefectures to regulate smoking in public places – but it will exempt small hotels and restaurants.

The proportion of the population that smokes has fallen a long way since 1965, when roughly 82 per cent of men indulged the habit. But it remains high for the industrialised world: last year 25 per cent of adults counted themselves as smokers.

Professor Manabu Sakuta, of the Japan Society for Tobacco Control, said that ”it’s late coming and could take up to four years to go through, but legislation would signal a big change in the political landscape”.

Japan had lagged a long way behind most of the developed world ”because of politics and money”, he said. ”There’s traditionally been a cosy connection between the Liberal Democratic Party [removed from power last September after more than half a century of near-uninterrupted rule], tobacco growers and cigarette sellers.

”Then you have the Smoking Research Foundation, which spends ¥5 billion a year selling its message that smoking is not necessarily harmful for you.”

Cigarettes are cheap at ¥300 ($3.77) a pack of 20 and are widely available in the country’s 570,000 tobacco vending machines.

But the government, which owns 50.01 per cent of Japan Tobacco, will introduce a tax increase of ¥3.5 a cigarette from October.

Japan Tobacco said it expects the government eventually to sell its stake in the company to raise funds to reduce the country’s soaring public debt.

A spokeswoman said ”Japan Tobacco recognises that certain illnesses are caused by tobacco. But to protect smokers’ rights, we would hope that the government allows smoking rooms in workplaces and does not enforce a total ban.”

BY JUSTIN NORRIE, Smh

Debate about the Board of Health’s decision to ban smoking in private clubs ignited last night during a meeting in the Police Department.

Representatives from two of the seven private clubs that allow smoking questioned the board, whose 2-1 vote on Feb. 1 forbids smoking in private establishments effective Monday.

Michael A. Stelmack, manager of TSKK Club on Harris Street, and Carl A. Paglione, commander and bar manager of the American Legion Post 184 on Houghton Street, were concerned about the possibility that a member might simply refuse to comply.

“It’s your jurisdiction to have them removed from the club,” Health Agent Thomas Purcell said. “Do what you have to do.”

There might be accidental violations or belligerence, Mr. Purcell acknowledged, and managers could consult with the health office. An individual violator could be ticketed, he said.

Board Chairman Francis E. Carbonneau Jr. suggested, “The easiest thing to do is not serve him (alcohol) to discourage him” from smoking.

Area towns that have banned smoking in private clubs include Athol, Grafton, Marlboro, Millville, New Braintree and Templeton. Forty-five communities voluntarily reported to the state that they do not allow smoking in private clubs, according to the Department of Public Health.

The Board of Health last night adopted a set of fines for violations. The regulation is similar to Athol’s statute, which prevailed in the state Supreme Judicial Court in a lawsuit brought by that town’s private clubs. Mr. Carbonneau and Vice Chairman Kenneth J. Gikas voted yes; member David Zalewski voted no.

A first offense will result in a $100 fine, a second offense within 24 months of the first will cost $200, and three or more violations within 24 months will cost $300, the regulation says.

Under state general law, five offenses within two years are grounds for enforcement agencies such as the board, building inspector, fire and police or state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission to yank a club’s liquor license, Mr. Purcell said.

“I don’t expect it to be like that,” Mr. Gikas said. “I think once this is put in effect, the clubs will abide by it. Everything will be nice.”

“You have educated, smart businessmen running these clubs,” added Mr. Zalewski, “and they will make sure that nothing happens.”

Mr. Purcell said he wasn’t recommending that officials “camp outside the door waiting for the first violation.”

“We gave them a month’s head start to get their constituents used to it,” he said.

At 5 p.m. Monday in the Town Hall auditorium, club representatives will have the opportunity to persuade the board to reverse its decision.

Mr. Paglione began his case last night. “If I’m working the bar and I have a member that walks into the post and he has a Silver Star and Purple Heart hanging over his heart, and he lights up a cigarette, I’m supposed to tell this man put that out or leave?” he said with emotion. “He’s in his house.”

By Brian Lee, Telegram

About the only places smokers can light up are at home and outside, since the state’s indoor smoking ban took effect in 2003.
But now they can strike the outdoors — at least the parts owned by the Town of Orchard Park — from that list.

The town has become the first in Erie and Niagara counties to ban tobacco in its parks, beach and recreation areas.

“It’s just a very bad habit. I feel for people,” said Town Supervisor Janis Colarusso, who quit smoking five years ago. “It’s a very hard drug to get off.”

She said smokers should not impose their tobacco use on those who don’t smoke.

The town is taking a smoking ban a step further by making the town parks tobacco-free, not just smoke-free.

The designation was made in conjunction with the Erie-Niagara Tobacco-Free Coalition, which is providing signs for the town areas. The sign was designed by local graphics artist Michael Margolis and entreats park and beach visitors not to smoke or litter.

“We’re looking for more opportunities to restrict smoking,” said coalition coordinator Anthony Billoni.

Billoni said the coalition is seeking more areas that will be smoke-free to help make smoking less prevalent in the community. It’s also trying to help the parks stay clean from dropped cigarette butts, while creating a better space for children.

“We’d just like there to be one more place where they don’t see people smoking,” Billoni said, adding that the less often children see others smoke, the smaller chance they have of taking it up.

The issue of secondhand smoke exposure remains, he said, but is less of a problem outside.

Smoking was banned in virtually all indoor public places in New York State in July 2003. And last August, the University at Buffalo became smoke-free inside buildings, outside buildings and in green space on campus.

While the signs will go up in Orchard Park, there are no penalties for smoking in the parks, beach and recreation areas.

“I believe the Town Board is hoping the residents of Orchard Park obey by seeing the signage,” Colarusso said.

“I think it’s a positive step,” Orchard Park Recreation Director Ed Leak said. “It’s more self-policing. The awareness will come.”

Billoni said that starting out with a nonbinding policy helps move a community in the direction of being smoke-free.

“The state loves to see local precedence,” he said, noting it was after Erie and Nassau counties put smoking bans into effect that New York State adopted its law banning smoking in public buildings.

By Barbara O’Brien, Buffalonews

French advertising companies are often criticised for using sexual images to sell everything from designer spectacles to sweetcorn. Now, for the first time, a controversy has erupted in France over the use of sexually suggestive posters as a deterrent.

A campaign to discourage young people from smoking shows male and female teenagers kneeling in front of a man, as if being forced to have oral sex. A cigarette takes the place of the man’s sexual organ. The caption reads: “Smoking is to be a slave to tobacco.”

The campaign, which was devised for a pressure group supporting the rights of non-smokers, has been attacked as “scandalous” and “potentially counter-productive” by feminist and pro-family campaigners.

The advertising agency behind the posters says only a shock campaign can halt the rise in smoking amongst 13 to 15-year-olds in France.

Marco de la Fuente, the leader of the project for the BDDP et Fils ad agency, said: “The old arguments – tobacco is bad for you – don’t work any more. The message here is that tobacco is a form of submission. In the popular imagination, oral sex is the perfect symbol of submission.”

Gerard Audureau, the president of Les Droits des Non-fumeurs (The Rights of Non-smokers), the pressure group which commissioned the ads, said health arguments did not reach teenagers.

“Young people think that they are invincible, immortal,” he said.

“Fear of sexual exploitation worries them more than illness.”

Opposition to the ads – to be shown in bars, clubs and newspapers – has been widespread.

Florence Montreynaud, of the feminist pressure group Chiennes de Garde (Guard Bitches), said that it was “inadmissible” that an image implying underage sex should be exploited, even in a good cause.

Christiane Terry, of the conservative group Familles de France, said she will lodge a complaint with the French advertising standards watchdog.

“Mixing up tobacco dependence and sex is ridiculous and scandalous,” she said.

Surveys suggest smoking is, overall, in decline in France but becoming more common among teenagers. The number of French 13 to 15-year-olds who smoke is estimated to have increased by 66 per cent between 2004 and 2008.

Almost one in five French 16 to 20-year-olds now smokes, compared to one in 10 a decade ago.

However, in the population as a whole 55 billion cigarettes were smoked in 2009, down from 97 billion cigarettes in 1991.

Last year, however, there was a slight increase – 2.6 per cent – in overall smoking as the effect of the 2008 ban on smoking in bars, cafes and restaurants began to wear off.

The non-smokers’ rights group says it does not care if adults are shocked by its posters.

Mr Audureau said: “Very few anti-smoking campaigns catch the attention of the young. You have to use extreme images to make them take notice.”

By John Lichfield, Nzherald

NDIANAPOLIS — It wasn’t a surprise to state legislators when the General Assembly’s committee deadline passed Monday without a proposed smoking ban moving to the Senate.

Senate President Pro Tem David Long, R-Fort Wayne, told The Associated Press earlier this month the Senate isn’t ready to consider a statewide ban this year because it could hurt businesses during this down economy.

“It’s so nonsensical to say this isn’t the year,” said Rep. Charlie Brown, a Gary Democrat who wrote the bill proposing the smoking ban. “It’s just sad we’re always the last state to pass these good public policies.”

Brown said he plans to propose the smoking ban again this year as an amendment to a Senate bill. If that long shot doesn’t work, he will try for a ban again in 2011.

“We’ll be back next year in full force,” he said.

Even before the smoking ban died in a Senate committee, Brown’s bill was watered down with exemptions.

The original bill exempted casinos and pari-mutuel horse racing venues. Other House members added more exemptions for bars, restaurants, fraternal clubs, smoke shops and small businesses not visited by the public.

There are 37 states with smoke-free laws for workplaces, and 27 of those states ban smoking in bars and restaurants. Michigan’s smoking ban for bars, restaurants and workplaces is scheduled to take effect in May.

Local governments in Indiana are able to adopt rules regulating smoking, but Brown said people who travel around the state shouldn’t have to understand the vast patchwork of local rules just to avoid breathing secondhand smoke.

Smoke-free advocates in Indiana did win one victory in this year’s General Assembly.

A Senate bill to abolish the executive board of Indiana Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation, and transfer the program to the Indiana Department of Health, failed in a House committee.

The program’s supporters feared shifting the program would have hurt its effectiveness.

By KEVIN ALLEN, Southbendtribune