Byram weighs smoking limits

Customers at Reed Pierce's Sportsman's Grill often enjoy a cigarette with their drink and burger.

But if Byram joins the list of Mississippi cities that make public buildings smoke-free, "we're going to have to adjust to it, and try and make it work," said Ronnie Pierce, who co-owns the popular Siwell Road restaurant.

Byram is exploring a no-smoking ordinance that was introduced to residents during a 7 p.m. public hearing Thursday at Byram City Hall.

The proposed ordinance could mirror a number of metro-area communities, said City Clerk Angela Richburg. Such an ordinance could "say there is no smoking in public areas and at government property, within 25 feet of the doors," she said. "It's pretty standard to Clinton, Flowood and some of the other areas."

Mayor Nick Tremonte said the city wants to hear from all concerned. "We'll try to put together one that's right down the middle," he told about 30 people at the hearing. City leaders will hold a second public hearing after putting together a draft ordinance, he said.

Both smokers and non-smokers let aldermen know their positions.

"I'm a smoker. I smoke in my business," said resident Adrienne Hamby. "There are places in Byram where I'd like to have a cigarette and a drink.

"No offense, but I don't think you guys should take the vote on this. It should be up to the business' discretion."

Others were just as impassioned. "You'd better think long and hard about what you're standing up for," said Roany McClellan, who watched his mother, a smoker, succumb to cancer. "I've had 40-plus years of second-hand smoke. I could be the next one diagnosed."

Alderwoman Theresa Marble said she hasn't made up her mind on the ordinance, but empathizes with those who try but fail to quit the smoking habit.

"Long story short, I watched my daddy die of emphysema," Marble said. "It was very cruel. It broke my heart.

"Whatever decision we make, we need to make it for the benefit of the community, and not for a select few. Personally, I'd like to see cigarettes banned from the face of the earth."

Pierce said his restaurant has a patio area where patrons smoke. If an ordinance prohibited smoking a certain distance from a door or wall, he said, it would cause a problem.

If the city were to adopt an ordinance, Richburg said, it would allow leaders to apply for grant funding from entities that require cities to be smoke-free.

"By no means have we dug down and decided anything. Our aldermen didn't want to do a lot of work on this until they speak to the public and get their feelings on the issue," Richburg said.

Dozens of cities statewide are smoke-free, including Jackson, Flora, Brandon, Flowood, Clinton, Ridgeland, Madison and Pearl in the metro area.

Mike Blaine, owner and manager of the Swinging Bridge Fish House on Holiday Lane behind Capitol Body Shop, said his restaurant prohibits smoking inside.

But patrons often smoke on the restaurant's wrap-around porch, he said. "When it's outside, it ain't got nothing to do with the inside," he said.

Said Pierce: "It's definitely going to be upsetting to my customers, but we have good enough food, service, and a good, all-around establishment that I think we can keep them. They may quit me for a while, but at some point, they'll come back."

Smoking bans on the rise but more needed: WHO

Anti-smoking measures have become so widespread that they now affect some 3.8 billion people -- just over half the world's population, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
But the WHO called for more action, warning that tobacco use could kill a billion people or more over the course of the 21st century "unless urgent action is taken."
"If current trends continue, by 2030 tobacco will kill more than eight million people worldwide each year, with 80 percent of these premature deaths among people living in low- and middle-income countries," it added.
The WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic was launched in Uruguay as the health body sought to highlight the country's legislation against smoking that now faces a lawsuit by tobacco giant Philip Morris.
"The tobacco epidemic continues to expand because of ongoing tobacco industry marketing, population growth in countries where tobacco use is increasing, and the extreme addictiveness of tobacco that makes it difficult for people to stop smoking once they start," said Ala Alwan, WHO assistant director-general for noncommunicable diseases and mental health.
He noted that tobacco remains the biggest cause of preventable death worldwide, killing nearly six million people and costing hundreds of billions of dollars in economic damage each year.
Health warnings on cigarette packs protect more than a billion people in 19 countries, almost double the figures over the past two years, according to the report.
It said graphic ads were more effective than those only containing text, especially in countries with low literacy rates, and recommended that images be changed periodically to ensure they have an impact.
The size of the warning also has an effect, and the WHO noted that Uruguay had the largest images on cigarette packs, covering 80 percent of the surface, followed by Mexico (65 percent) and Mauritius (also 65 percent).
In Canada, the first country to introduce large health warnings on cigarette packs in 2001, three out of 10 former smokers said they were motivated to quit by the labels while a quarter said they helped them quit, according to the report.
Similar trends were also noted in Australia, Brazil, Singapore and Thailand.
Tobacco advertising and sponsorship, a favorite target of critics, saw comprehensive bans passed in Chad, Colombia and Syria between 2008 and 2010. And nearly 28 percent of the world's population -- 1.9 billion people in 23 countries -- are now exposed to national anti-smoking campaigns.
Some 425 million people in 19 countries -- six percent of the world's population -- are now "now fully protected against tobacco industry marketing tactics," 80 million more than in 2008, according to the WHO report.
"The number of people now protected by tobacco control measures is growing at a remarkable pace," said Alwan.
He attributed the progress to the growing impact of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Entered into force in February 2005, the treaty has 168 signatories and 174 parties.
While 101 countries ban tobacco print, television or radio advertising, both direct or indirect, the WHO considers the number to still be insufficient, noting that 74 countries (38 percent) have no or minimal restrictions on advertising.

Smoking reduces need for joint replacement

A study from the University of Adelaide has found men who smoke are less likely to need hip and knee replacements as they get older.

The surprising findings are published in the international journal Arthritis and Rheumatism.

While smoking is linked to many health problems, including lung cancer and heart disease, the study found long-term male smokers were less vulnerable to osteoarthritis.

Researchers from the University of Adelaide studied the health records of 11,000 men aged between 65 and 83.

They found men who had smoked for more than 48 years were 51 per cent less likely to have total joint replacements such as hip or knee than men who had never smoked.

Principal investigator Professor Philip Ryan and PhD student George Mnatzaganian said the findings do not endorse smoking as it is linked to a range of serious diseases which cause premature death.

"This study shows that further research is needed to understand why smoking appears to offer protection against osteoarthritis," Professor Ryan said.

"Other studies have drawn links between smoking and increases in cartilage volume, and more work needs to be done in this area."

The researchers found men who were overweight and very active - especially those in the 70-74 age groups - were also more likely to require hip and knee replacements.

According to the scientists, this is not the only study to demonstrate a link between smoking and decreased risk of osteoarthritis.

But it is the first to report a strong, inverse relationship between how long the patient smoked and risk of total joint replacement.

Knee and hip replacements are among the most common elective surgeries performed in Australia.

"Despite these findings, the fact remains that any possible beneficial effect of smoking on osteoarthritis is far outweighed by other health risks," Professor Ryan said.

Obesity Fills In for Smoking as Major Killer

Obesity is a central factor in mortality among women who have never smoked, especially those in lower social classes, researchers reported.

Class differences in who smokes have been shown to increase social inequalities in all-cause mortality, according to Carole Hart, PhD, of the University of Glasgow in Glasgow, Scotland, and colleagues.

But in a long-running cohort study among women who had never smoked, obesity stepped up to the plate as a cause of inequalities in mortality, Hart and colleagues reported online in BMJ.

The finding comes from a large cohort study started in the 1970s in the neighboring Scottish towns of Paisley and Renfrew, which enrolled more than 15,400 people ages 45 through 64 at the time.

As might be expected, people who had never smoked had much better survival rates than smokers, regardless of their social position, and women who had never smoked had the best survival rates in the cohort, Hart and colleagues reported.

But after 28 years of follow-up, they noted, age-adjusted survival rates for women who had never smoked were 65% in the highest occupational class and 56% for those in the lowest, suggesting some other factors were creating social inequalities in the risk of death.

To clarify the issue, they analyzed outcomes for 3,613 women who had never smoked, stratifying them by occupation and by body mass index.

Occupationally, the women were placed into four groups – professionals and managers, nonmanual skilled occupations such as office workers, manual skilled occupations such as bricklayers, and semi- and unskilled workers.

Those in lower occupational groups, the researchers found, were shorter and had poorer lung function, higher systolic blood pressure, and a higher body mass index than women in higher classes. All the trends were significant at P<0.001, they reported.

Overall, 43% of the women were overweight, 14% were moderately obese, and 5% severely obese, Hart and colleagues reported, and obesity rates were higher in lower occupational classes.

As well, overweight and obesity was much higher – regardless of social class – among the nonsmokers than among the women in the full cohort who smoked.

For instance, among the professionals and managers, 40.3% of never-smokers were overweight, compared with 29% among the smokers in the same occupational group.

The finding suggests a masking effect of smoking, the researchers noted.

Over the 28 years of follow-up, Hart and colleagues reported, 1,796 of the 3,613 never-smokers died, with 51% of deaths due to cardiovascular disease and 27% owing to cancer (table 3).

Overall, 39% of the professionals and managers died, as well as 47% of the nonmanual skilled workers, 56% of manual skilled workers, and 54% of the semi- and unskilled workers.

Walker won't repeal smoking ban

Nearly one year since Wisconsin went smoke free, Governor Scott Walker reversed policy and announced he wants the state to stay that way.

The workplace smoking ban took effect July 5, 2010.

Despite the governor's backing, it's still drawing mixed reaction.

"Being non-smoking is a great thing," Corey Bringman with Sabre Lanes, bowling alley said. "You get kids involved, you obviously don't have to worry about your health as much here at work, to me that's the best thing."

The bowling alley says it didn't see a drop in business with the change, so it welcomes the still contentious ban. Plus, the lack of smoke leaves its facilities cleaner.

"Parents are a lot more apt to bring their kids in," Bringman added.

Walker says it's stories like that, that have him re-thinking the ban.

In a Thursday statement, he said, "although I did not support the original smoking ban, after listening to people across the state it is clear to me that it works, therefore I will not support a repeal."

During his campaign, Walker opposed the ban.

"I don't think the government should be involved in telling small businesses what they should or shouldn't do," he said in July, 2010.

Employees at Kaukauna's Lazy Dog are disappointed Walker changed his mind.

"It's hurting our business, yes, yes, it is and people have their rights so I feel they should be able to smoke if they want to," waitress Peggy Vancamp said.

She says the bar just installed a covered outdoor smoking area to recapture that business, but it's been tough, especially at the lunch hour.

While it's clear opinions on the ban remain mixed, compliance hasn't been an issue.

According to the Department of Health Services, just one percent of businesses have been reported for violations.

Recent polls, suggest support for the ban have gradually increased.

The American Cancer society says 75 percent of Wisconsinites now back the ban.

As a non-smoker, Vancamp sees both sides.

"To myself, I'm glad it's out, but I know a lot of people don't like it," she said.

Though Walker reacted to the ban on Thursday, the law was passed under former Governor Jim Doyle.

At the time, Democrats controlled both the Senate and the Assembly.

P-Noy whipping boy for anti-smoking advocates

President Aquino has become a poster boy for anti-smoking advocates here.
The anti-smoking campaigners, mostly students from Negros Oriental State University and the Foundation University, paraded around the city on Wednesday to mark the end of World No Tobacco Month while holding tarpaulins that bore a photo of the President holding a cigarette.
The caption read, “What Pnoy can’t do, we can do. Stop Smoking.”
Dr. Aparicio Mequi, dean of the Foundation University graduate school, said the message of the day was to tell everyone, without exception, even President Aquino, that smoking is not good for one’s health.
“If US President Obama, who was a smoker, quit smoking when he became President, we should likewise remind President Aquino to stop smoking and in the process protect his health as well as the vote of those people who put him into the highest level of leadership in our country,” Mequi said.
The President, who has been on the receiving end of a lot of unsolicited advice against smoking, had told reporters that he would not yet quit smoking but he promised not to smoke in public.
Last month, the participants in the Tobacco Control Summit 2011 organized by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP) and the Philippine College of Chest Physicians were in calling on Mr. Aquino to stop smoking and lead the Philippines to become a tobacco-free country.

Mizoram Launches 'No Smoking' Campaign

Concerned with the high incidence of cancer and tobacco related diseases, the Mizoram government has launched a programme to become a "smoking-free" state.

"No person henceforth would be allowed to smoke in open places or in front of a non-smoker. Smoking had already banned in the premises of government offices, educational institutions and health centres across Mizoram," Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla said late Saturday after launching the "Smoke Free Mizoram" programme.

According to state government records, Mizoram topped the country eight years ago in the consumption of tobacco.

The chief minister's wife Lal Riliani, president of the Mizoram chapter of the Indian Society of Tobacco Health, said that more than 50 percent of cancer cases among Mizos were caused by tobacco.

"The state government is giving its all out support to the anti-tobacco organisations and activists to strictly enforce the Control of Tobacco Products Act (CTPA) in the state," Lal Riliani said.

"Few activists had started an anti-tobacco campaign in Mizoram around 20 years back. During those days, the anti-tobacco activists were laughed upon and people used to mock them. Now, their tireless efforts have begun producing positive results," she added.

Mizos are traditionally heavy smokers of different types of tobacco. The latest survey, conducted in 2009, revealed that 55 percent of the state's population were smokers.

"The survey revealed that as much as 73.1 percent of the smokers wanted to quit smoking as they felt that smoking is the cause of many diseases, including cancer," said Jane R. Ralte, state nodal officer-cum-project officer of Mizoram State Tobacco Control Society (MSTCS).

At least 84.2 percent people admitted that their expenditure on tobacco use was a financial burden, the survey said.