Smoking Banned Outside, Bay Village Tobacco-Free

Bay Village has joined the long list of communities and businesses that have gone tobacco-free. The city adopted a policy of hiring only tobacco-free employees last week. The mayor has decided to go further, banning the use of tobacco altogether from all city-owned property outside of municipal buildings. "It's a little bit of a gutsy step," said Mayor Deborah Sutherland. "When you see people struggle just to get a breath and it's unnecessary, self-inflicted."

Cigarettes and Alcohol Taxes Increased

The cabinet on Tuesday approved the Finance Ministry's proposal to raise the excise tax on liquor and tobacco, meaning an immediate increase in the retail price of liquor and cigarettes, but not beer or wine. The alcohol excise tax on rice whiskey was increased from 120 baht a litre to 150 baht a litre based on alcohol content, and for blended liquor from 300 baht to 350 baht per litre. The tax on brandy increased to a maximum of 50 per cent from the existing rate of 48 per cent.

Smoking Prohibited in Parks, Secondhand Smoke

One town has declared 13 parks and open spaces ‘smoke-free sites’. Signs have been placed at the entrance to the parks and playing fields, explaining the measure is ‘to protect children’. But the Blackpool NHS initiative, backed by the town’s council, which cannot be legally enforced without a specific by-law, has angered pro-smoking groups. Simon Clark, director of Forest, said the signs had nothing to do with children’s health but were about stopping adults smoking around them. Mr Clark added: ‘If you want adults to be better role models does that mean you stop them drinking and arguing in front of children?’

Checking Tobacco Use in China

In China, 350 million people smoke. Each year, 1 million die from smoking. Many more become disabled. Approximately 20 million Chinese farmers produce the world's largest share of tobacco, nearly 40 percent of the global supply. What is the key to cutting the number of deaths and smoking-related health problems? Convince Chinese farmers to grow some other crop. Virginia Li, a professor of community health sciences at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, set out to do just that. She contacted local Chinese agriculture officials in Yunnan Province, where Asia's largest cigarette manufacturer is located. Li and her local partners designed a tobacco crop–substitution project, the core of which is a farmer-led, for-profit enterprise.

Smoking Ban in Parks, Kaua County News

A bill proposing to ban all tobacco products in county parks almost turned into a resolution weeks ago, which would take away its enforcement component. Rather, the bill was sent back to committee and now has morphed into an anti-smoking bill. “It would have been a lot easier if it was a total ban, but we are looking for a win-win situation here,” Kaua‘i County Councilman Dickie Chang said at the council meeting Wednesday. The council’s Parks and Recreation Committee, on its second round of dealing with the bill, on Wednesday recommended by a 3-2 vote that the full council approve the bill next week. Bill 2437 has been bouncing around the council since Chang first introduced it on May 23, when it passed first reading. The Parks and Recreation Committee deferred the bill June 20, and on July 5 the bill squeezed out of the committee by a 3-2 vote. On July 11, at the full council for final and second reading, both sides of the issue — the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawai‘i and those who opposed the ban — were not satisfied with the bill’s final version. Instead of working on further amendments, the council sent the bill back to committee for additional work.