“While cigarette smoking has declined dramatically since the first Surgeon General’s report more than 40 years ago, tobacco continues to take a deadly toll,” Sen. Buono said. “A report on tobacco use in America by the Institute of Medicine (IM) of the National Academies found that among the 440,000 annual deaths caused by tobacco are 50,000 non-smokers killed by the smoking of others.” (ENDING THE TOBACCO PROBLEM: A BLUEPRINT FOR THE NATION)
Sen. Buono, chairwoman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, said the IM report points out smoking kills more people each year than AIDS, alcohol use, cocaine use, heroin use, homicides, suicides, motor vehicle accidents and fires, combined.
An avid runner, Senator Buono has drawn from her personal experiences running in public parks, prompting this legislation. "This issue has been on my agenda for a long time,” Sen. Buono said. “Now we have empirical data which support the passage of this public health and environmental protection measure.”
She said other cities and states have banned or are considering banning smoking in public parks and beaches. New York City’s health commissioner recently held a press conference with Mayor Bloomberg to announce a plan to ban smoking in public parks and city beaches.
A Stanford University study published in the Journal of the Air and Waste Management Association, (JAWMA) in 2007, represents the first peer-reviewed publication providing evidence that levels of outdoor tobacco smoke (OTS) can be substantial under certain circumstances. Children who accompany a smoking parent or guardian outdoors can experience significant exposure to tobacco smoke, the study found. It also found that even short-term exposure to outdoor tobacco smoke for people who are at risk of coronary heart disease or have known coronary artery disease “might be life threatening.”
Senator Buono: “This in-depth study substantiates that even brief exposure within a few feet of someone smoking outdoors can be significant. That finding, which measures OTS and estimates its health risks, must guide outdoor tobacco control policy.
She said the IM report found restrictions on smoking in public protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke, help smokers quit or cut down on their smoking and reinforce non-smoking as a social norm.
Buono noted a similar ban limited to state parks and parts of state beaches, has been proposed in California, where the sponsors have cited the damage to the marine environment, in addition to the well-documented health risks to non-smokers. The sponsor of the California bill pointed out that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined cigarette butts are the most frequently found marine debris item in the United States. And wild fires caused by cigarettes have destroyed thousands of homes and property in California and caused literally billions of dollars in damage.
“Cigarettes are legal and adults have the right choose whether they want to smoke,” Sen. Buono said. “But they don’t have a right to impose upon the non-smoking public the health risks and environmental degradation caused by smoking. Our public parks and beaches are paid for by taxpayers and should be available for use by everyone without having to worry about being harmed by the hazards associated with secondhand smoke.”
Sen. Buono’s bill will be introduced when the Senate next convenes, and would apply to state, county and municipal parks and beaches.
A health and wellness advocate, Sen. Buono is the prime sponsor of Senate bill 1115 which would extend a business tax credit to provide employees with benefits that promote physical fitness and well-being. Sen. Buono is the prime sponsor of the bill, signed into law in 2005, which prohibits smoking in any building used as a student dormitory that is owned and operated by an institution of higher education. She is also the prime sponsor of the “Global Warming Response Act” signed into law in 2007.
Senator Buono was also instrumental in seeing that New Jersey banned flavored cigarettes...
Reference: Buono Bill Would Ban Smoking In Public Parks And Beaches by Matthew Reilly (mreilly@njleg.org), PolitickerNJ.com, 9/17/2009.
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New Jersey - Senator Buono bill would ban smoking in public parks and beaches..
Bulgaria - cigarette contraband, government loses BGN 920M yearly..
"Yearly, the government loses at least BGN 920 M (689.91USD) from cigarettes contraband, if the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Simeon Djankov, a former World Bank economist, is right that the illegal [illicit] import is 40% of the total amount", he explained.
In case that the amount of fuels smuggling in Bulgaria is 30% of the total market, as the Financial Ministry and the Customs Agency reported, the state is losing BGN 1,45 B a year, Genov added.
According to him, the duty free shops at all Bulgaria's ground borders were illegally closed by the government in 2008. The move was motivated by private interests, catered for by the previous government, Genov said, giving as examples Greece and Romania, where these shops still exist.
According to European Union rules, duty free shops can exist until 2017, he explained. There are cases in the Supreme Administrative Court against the closing of these shops, and they seem to go well for the owners of the shops, Genov added.
Reference: Fuel, Cigarette Contraband in Bulgaria Amounts to BGN 2,3 B, 9/18/2009.
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Finland may ban smoking in cars carrying children..
Click to enlarge:
The paper added that the ban was part of a range of proposed amendments to the Act on Measures to Restrict Tobacco Smoking.
Etelä-Suomen Sanomat reported that the ban would not be enforced by fines as these would clash with privacy legislation. Ismo Tuominen, a civil servant at the health and social affairs ministry, was quoted as saying by the paper that the impact of the proposed law would be chiefly moral.
Reference: Finland to ban smoking in cars carrying children, but no fines, Helsinki Times, 9/15/2009.
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Indianapolis, Indiana - tobacco control people are furious - city used as test market again..
Normally, it's easy to tell when people are getting their nicotine fix. But smoking laws are changing and people can't light up in as many places as they used to."So, the tobacco companies are coming up with alternative so people can still have their tobacco."
Karla Sneegas, Indiana Tobacco Prevention: "We aren't happy that individuals are being used as human guinea pigs." Indiana Tobacco Prevention is furious about the newest way to keep people from quitting, and that the dissolvable tobacco is on shelves in Indiana. "They don't know what the long term risks are."
Tobacco Prevention says companies have used Indianapolis as a test market for the last nine years because the area has a high smoking rate and lacks strong smoke free laws. For example:Philip Morris USA is introducing a smokeless product under its Marlboro brand name called Marlboro SNUS pouches (12-pouches per slidepak container).., C-stores in Columbus, OH, Indianapolis, IN, Kansas City, MO, Orlando, FL, and Raleigh, NC (and to the east of Greensboro, NC) should expect the arrival Camel SNUS..; Philip Morris USA (PM)To Also Test Marlboro Snus In Indianapolis...
Retailers say it's too early to tell if people are buying in on the new idea.
Reference: Indianapolis A Test Market For New Kind Of Tobacco, WXIN-TV (FOX59) - Indianapolis, 9/18/2009.
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