Monthly Archives: January 2012

Have you ever been looking for a new rental property, but were concerned about whether or not the previous tenants smoked int he home? Or, perhaps you have been the owner of a rental property with tenants who were smokers. Rental owners may often have been told by tenants that they cannot prohibit smoking in rental units because the tenant is the one paying the rent. However, a new law in California shores up a landlord’s right to prohibit smoking in rental units, giving landlords legal standing when in conflict with tenants.

Previously, there had been no laws in California that specifically stated a landlord’s right to prohibit smoking in apartments or rental units they owned and/or manage, but now it has been put into law. The law has come into effect after research conducted in California’s Imperial County showed renters largely preferred smoke free environments. Ninety-five percent Continue Reading

Hawaii state legislature put forth a bill last week with the intention of banning electronic cigarette sales to minors. At The SafeCig, we are happy to support any legislature that prohibits those who are under legal age from acquiring any product containing nicotine. However, the bill in question aims to classify electronic cigarettes and accessories as a tobacco product and impose a 70% tax on those items.

A petition has been created at Change.org to request the Governor of Hawaii to reconsider this bill as it is written.

Rather than conducting the necessary research to create a specific classification of the product and applying a fair tax policy for it, Hawaii's state legislature is merely attempting to classify the product as tobacco and apply the egregious tax rates that are applied to tobacco to electronic cigarettes too. Levying this hefty of a tax on the product would virtually wipe out any local vendors as they would not be able to compete with their out-of-state and international counterparts that are not subject to this unfair tax.

Customers would then be forced to buy their products from vendors out-of-state on the internet, or put down their ecigs and return to smoking again.  Any and all local vendors would either be forced to relocate their operations to another state or face closure due to the competitive disadvantage that would be placed on them.

Continue Reading

Indiana’s lawmakers are catching quite a bit of heat for a smoking ban they recently passed. The bill was essentially a compromise, banning smoking in only most, but not all, public places. Those establishments exempt from the smoking ban include casinos, retail tobacco stores, hookah bars, and private clubs. Bars aren’t immediately effected by the bill, but are required to be smoke-free within 18 months.

The bill has been drawing quite a bit of praise and criticism from both ends of the spectrum, though. Supporters of the bill say that they are enacting measures to protect both the workers and the patrons of establishments from the ill effects of secondhand smoke. Workers who don’t smoke, but who work in smoke-friendly establishments, are exposed to the smoke on a daily basis due to their work environments. And even though patrons may be able to choose to sit in a non-smoking area, they are still exposed to secondhand smoke as it travels through the air. Continue Reading

A bill in Ohio, Senate Bill 27, is positioned to impose a ban on smoking in a vehicle if the vehicle is carrying a child or children age 6 or younger. Senator Charleta Tavares, the Democratic Senator sponsoring the bill, also sponsored the bill that made smoking illegal in public spaces. This latest bill banning smoking in a vehicle is being proposed with the idea of protecting the health of children.

Smoking inside a vehicle, of course, increases exposure to secondhand smoke for the passengers. Often, only one window will be open to allow for smoke to escape, which essentially forces the other passengers into breathing in the secondhand smoke. The risks associated with secondhand smoke are grave, and even more so when children are involved. Continue Reading

Finding information on why one should quit smoking is not hard to do. With so many harmful ingredients in cigarettes and so many detrimental side effects from it, it seems that finding a reason to initiate smoking would be difficult; however, the tobacco industry is finding new customers every single day [...]

HB 405 passed unanimously in Idaho. The bill now bans the sale of e-cigarettes containing nicotine to children, and while it passed unanimously, it had a very concerned critic at first. Representative Dick Harwood was very vocal about his concerns that the bill would create a “nanny state” in Idaho.

The claims he made originated from his sentiment that the ban was structured by groups and sponsors who, in all actuality, do not want anyone to smoke whatsoever. The sponsor, Representative Bob Nonini, did state that many of the groups and supporters do not want anyone to smoke at all, but Nonini himself is a smoker. Continue Reading

We had a guest post submitted and published on our blog a little over two years ago. This post is still relevant today and is being shared again.

For most people, Mom’s house is the place you go for a retreat. It’s the one place that feels different than anywhere else, and where you go to relive memories. When you leave Mom’s house, you leave with a heart full of love, head full of memories, and arms filled with bags of food. For me, I end up leaving my mother’s house with one extra not-so-appreciated gift – clothes reeking of smoke. Continue Reading

Everyone sees you as a risk, expense, or questionably productive.

It's no secret that insurance rates are lower for non-smokers. In 1983 health-care coverage was modestly estimated at $300 less per year less for those who opted for the hale and hearty route not to light up. Some insurance companies even offer up to a 45% discount on term-life coverage premiums too. Many American citizens receive insurance coverage from their employers and these companies have begun to notice this and several other ways that smokers are costing them big bucks each year.

The health-care cost is an obvious elevated expense but who would have thought that smokers could have a negative impact on workplace morale also? On average, smokers miss about 50% more work than nonsmokers, leaving the healthy workers to pick up their slack. The Dow Chemical Company found that, in 1974, smokers were absent 5.5 days more per year. Not only did this mean that temporary replacements were needed on these days but productivity shows a decline as well. Continue Reading

Continuing our series of entries received in our contest, What Prompted You to Try an Electronic Cigarette. This is our final post of entries received.

Entry 15 from Jonathan W.

The event that made me try an electronic cigarette would have to be the death of my Father, who died of lung cancer a year ago. He was a smoker for 26 years and half of the people in my family are also smokers. I did not want to have the same fate of my father or the other millions of people who have died because of cigarette smoking. So therefore I decided to be proactive and change my mindset of traditional cigarettes. Now I am 6 months cigarette free and loving it. Plus the Safe Cig is an amazing help. Continue Reading

Continuing our series of entries received in our contest, What Prompted You to Try an Electronic Cigarette.

Entry 14 from Brandon

When I was 12 years old, my father was diagnosed with cancer, mainly caused by smoking. He was a 25 year smoker, and finally it had caught up with him, the worst of the worst, it could cost him his life. After many doctor appointments and a successful surgery, he could proudly say that he had defeated cancer, and vowed to never smoke a cigarette again. When I was 14 years old, I began hanging out with the wrong crowd, and soon enough, a little peer pressure and the "need to fit in", coerced me to try my first ever cigarette.  Continue Reading