Tag Archives: smoking bans

On Wednesday of this week, a New York state law went into effect that bans smoking on train platforms, waiting, and ticketing areas. The new ban has not yet seen any summonses resulting from violations, but many from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the American Cancer Society say that's because the ban has been enforced by the most unlikely of people; non-smoking passengers. This interesting twist of events has drawn some lines between people, but has been called empowering by others.

Non-smoking passengers, now knowing that there is a law in place to back them up, feel more empowered to say something to smokers who light up in public areas where smoking has now been banned. So when a smoker decides to light up in a place they may have thought was previously okay, they can certainly expect someone to correct them. Though, of course, the correction is not always approached in the most polite of manners. Continue Reading

In the past, we've discussed California's proactive regulations as well as a disagreement stemming from smokers residing in multifamily units including townhouses and apartments. This new law, effective January 1, 2012, should come as no surprise.

California Senate Bill 332 was signed into law on September 6, 2011 by Governor Jerry Brown. The law now requires landlords to state in lease agreements where smoking is permitted on property. Some upscale units have imposed smoking restrictions in-unit for the greater part of a decade with few legal issues arising. This bill will further allow landlords to take affirmative action in deciding if and where tenants can smoke.

With multifamily housing accounting for more than 30 percent of California's residences, Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat - Los Angeles, believes this provides landlords "on solid legal ground if they choose to have those restrictions." Padilla went on further to state, "While more than 86 percent of Californians do not Continue Reading

Parks are lively, filled with color from nature, complete with benches, sidewalks, and playgrounds where children laugh and exert excessive amounts of energy in the open, fresh air. The key of that sentence being, fresh air.

Communities around the world are recognizing the damaging effects secondhand smoke presents to others, especially to children who are growing and developing. The ability to live life without breathing in potent toxins emitting from the combustion of cigarettes and cigars is a right municipalities are beginning to grant; not through indoor smoking bans - but in ones that extend into the environment outside of businesses, restaurants, and even extending into private homes and vehicles. Continue Reading

I came across an article about electronic cigarettes being banned from workplaces in the city of Boston. The city has continued to work ahead of the curve where smoking bans are concerned, but the most recent addition to the ban could undermine the ultimate goals of Public Health. In the article released, blame is placed on the manufacturers of electronic cigarettes for not marketing their electronic cigarettes as therapeutic devices intended to assist smokers in quitting. They feel that because electronic cigarettes are marketed for smokers as an alternative to cigarettes is reason enough to include them in the ban.

The following is from the article published in the Boston Globe.

The research on the health effects of e-cigarettes is not exhaustive. The city’s Public Health Commission wisely required retailers to apply for permits to sell e-cigarettes. The commission also asked retailers to keep the product behind sales counters, and allow purchases only to people age 18 and above. But banning the use of e-cigarettes in the workplace could keep smokers ducking outside for their hourly fix instead of opting for a safer product.

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The Brazilian Congress has heightened a ban currently in place to include enclosed areas in airports and bars, where smoking rooms have previously been exempt from the regulations. Additionally, Brazil will increase taxes on tobacco products and implement a minimum price rate for all tobacco products sold within the country. The cost to consumers will increase by 55 percent over a four-year period.

The restriction increases to the country's smoking ban, as reported by the Associated Press (AP), is directed to eliminate cigarettes entering the country illegally through Paraguay that are sold for a fraction of the price of Brazilian-made cigarettes.

For all persons who smoke tobacco, the health risks are imminent. Continue Reading

Tobacco is tobacco, right? Not so in New York and a few other states. When the tobacco taxes were increased, loose leaf tobacco missed the hike and is taxed at a mere $2.80 per pound versus $25 per pound for manufactured tobacco cigarettes. Some wise people banned together and created a business out of the variation in taxes. Those businesses are now feeling the heat from New York officials.

Island Smokes with two stores, one in Manhattan and another on Staten Island, offer customers the opportunity to purchase loose leaf tobacco and access to cigarette rolling machines to make their own cigarettes. Customers can spend approximately 45 minutes rolling cigarettes out of paper tubes and loose leaf tobacco and walk out of the store with a nominal $4 per pack expense versus paying a minimum of $13 per pack for commercial counterparts. In a lawsuit filed on November 14, 2011 by New York City's legal department claims Island Smokes is participating in "blatant tax evasion."

The shops included in the lawsuit do not pay into the cigarette manufacturer trust fund, nor do they have local tax stamps. In New York City, the local tax stamp includes a $1.40 city tax atop a $4.35 state tax. The complaint states, Continue Reading

Two proposals are under evaluation in Marion County, Indiana that will modify the smoking ban currently in place. The proposals presented by City-County Council President Ryan Vaughn and Council Members Angela Mansfield and Ben Hunter both look to reduce the number of exemptions currently included in the smoking ban, but Vaughn's proposal is much more lax than Mansfield and Hunter's.

Vaughn's proposal provides exemption to retail tobacco shops; nonprofit private or fraternal organizations, including veteran's halls; and cigar and hookah bars, newly defined as 'tobacco specialty bars'. Patrons of the tobacco specialty bars could only smoke tobacco sold in the establishment with absolutely no cigarette smoking allowed. Smoke Free Indy estimates that these restrictions would cover approximately 60 establishments in the county.

Mansfield and Hunter's proposal provides exemption to retail tobacco shops that count tobacco products as at least 85 percent of their sales. Smoke Free Indy estimates there are only 5 tobacco shops in the county. Continue Reading