Smoking bans are spreading from planes, trains and buses to another from of transit: rental cars
Beginning Oct. 1, Avis and Budget became the first major rental-car companies to ban smoking in their entire North American fleets and to impose a cleaning fee of up to $250 on customers who smoke in the cars.
"The No. 1 request we get is for a smoke-free car," says John Barrows, spokesman of the Avis Budget Group, the parent company. He says a common customer complaint is a car that smells of smoke, adding, "We’re addressing both concerns."
Secondhand smoke is significantly more concentrated in cars than it is in bars, restaurants and other public places, according to a study released last month by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
You’ve seen the iconic picture of a soldier with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, but that could soon be a thing of the past. The Pentagon is considering a ban on the sale and use of tobacco in the military.
A new study commissioned by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs recommends a complete ban on tobacco, which would end tobacco sales on military bases and prohibit smoking by anyone in uniform, not even combat troops in the thick of battle.
According to the study, tobacco use impairs military readiness in the short term. Over the long term, it can cause serious health problems, including lung cancer and cardiovascular disease. The study also says smokeless tobacco use can lead to oral and pancreatic cancer.
Yesterday, I gave you the American Lung Association’s annual list of grades for each state’s commitment to smoke free air and smoking bans. Today, let’s look at the specifics for the 10 largest cities in California, by population.
Oakland received an overall grade of B for its policies. Los Angeles and San Francisco earned an overall grade of C.
Los Angeles C San Diego D San Jose D San Francisco C Long Beach C Fresno F Sacramento C Oakland B Santa Ana D Anaheim F
The American Lung Association graded the states’ commitment levels to smoking bans and cigarette taxes in its annual ‘State of Tobacco Control’.
The ALA assigned grades to the states based on a smoking ban in workplaces and public places, levying cigarette taxes, and funding prevention campaigns.
Because tobacco use is a major contributor to death and disease in an era when chronic disease and healthcare costs are growing at an alarming rate, "The thing to do is avoid disease altogether," says Chuck Connor, president and CEO of the ALA.
23 states and D.C. have a comprehensive array of laws to keep the air in those states’ smoke free.
Every tobacco company, in an effort to keep nicotine users hooked, is now promoting smokeless tobacco products that deliver a hit of the drug that makes cigarettes addictive, noted the ALA in this year’s report.
Below, I list all states by grade for smoke free air:
A controversial smoking ban became law Friday in Belmont, in the San Francisco Bay Area. In consideration of second hand smoke, it extends strict anti smoking laws even to apartments and condos.
This anti smoking law is the first of its kind in California, going far beyond the statewide prohibition against cigarette smoking in businesses, restaurants and bars. In Belmont, it is now illegal to smoke inside any multistory, multiunit dwelling.
The City Council says enforcement should be "complaint driven". The fine for each citation is $100. No ifs, ands or butts.
Other cities in the San Francisco Bay Area that have a similar cigarette smoking ordinance are Novato and Dublin.
The Los Angeles arts and parks committee took a first step Wednesday toward a new smoking ban on restaurant patios or within 10 feet of any outdoor establishment that serves food or beverages.
Bars with outdoor areas and other over-18 venues would be exempt.
If approved, the measure could be in place this summer.
"The patrons are really demanding it," said Councilman Tom LaBonge, chairman of the Arts, Parks, Health and Aging Committee. "One day we’ll be an absolutely smoke-free world as we move forward, but people still enjoy it, so we’re still allowing it."
Though Calabasas and some other cities have far more stringent anti-smoking laws, the refuges for smokers in Los Angeles have dwindled in recent years. In addition to the state ban on smoking in restaurants, bars and other workplaces, smoking is prohibited on city beaches, in farmers markets and within 25 feet of playgrounds, bleachers, sport courts, fields and picnic areas.
In passing the ban on smoking in outdoor dining areas, Los Angeles would be following the lead of other cities, including Santa Monica and Beverly Hills.
Another study confirms that areas that have a smoking ban experience significant drops in heart attack rates. These findings also teach us a lot about the danger of secondhand smoke.
These latest stats came in today from Colorado.
A smoking ban in one Colorado city led to a dramatic drop in heart attack hospitalizations, according to a new study that is considered the best and longest-term research to show such a link.
The rate of hospitalized cases dropped 41 percent three years after the ban of workplace smoking in Pueblo, Colo., took effect. There was no such drop in two neighboring areas, and researchers believe it’s a clear sign the ban was responsible.
The study suggests that secondhand smoke may be a terrible and under-recognized cause of heart attack deaths in this country, said one of its authors, Terry Pechacek of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
At least eight earlier studies have linked smoking bans to decreased heart attacks, but none ran as long as three years.
Smoking bans are designed not only to cut smoking rates but also to reduce secondhand tobacco smoke. It is a widely recognized cause of lung cancer, but its effect on heart disease can be more immediate. It not only damages the lining of blood vessels, but also increases the kind of blood clotting that leads to heart attacks. Reducing exposure to smoke can quickly cut the risk of clotting, some experts said.
Secondhand smoke causes an estimated 46,000 heart disease deaths and about 3,000 lung cancer deaths among nonsmokers each year, according to statistics cited by the CDC.
In 1990, San Luis Obispo set a trend that many states followed soon, when it was the first city in the U.S. to enforce a smoking ban in public buildings, that included bars and restaurants. Now it is considering putting a stop to smoking outdoors.
This ordinance may potentially not only ban smoking in parks and on playgrounds, but it may include sidewalks and streets. In other words: any public place.
The city receives many complaints about secondhand smoke and litter from cigarette butts.
Mayor Dave Romero and the city council will bounce around ideas in the spring or early summer of 2009.
Will San Luis Obispo once again be setting the pace for the rest of the country?
The ordinance, which went into effect Oct. 1, is the first ban of its kind in the country.
Attorneys for the Deerfield, Ill.-based pharmacy chain had argued San Francisco’s ordinance violated equal protection laws because the ban exempts supermarkets like Safeway and "big box" retail stores like Costco, which also contain pharmacies and sell cigarettes.
Pharmacies such as Walgreens, which operates more than 50 stores in San Francisco, and Rite Aid, are included in the ban, as well as smaller independently owned pharmacies.
San Francisco Health Department policymakers have defended the exemption, arguing pharmacies, as health-promoting businesses, should not implicitly endorse cigarette smoking, considered the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. The larger stores do not explicitly market themselves in the same way, they said.
But they have also stated that broadening the ban on tobacco sales could be considered in the future in San Francisco.
Philip Morris has appealed the ruling.
On Dec. 1, the Boston Public Health Commission approved a similar law, banning tobacco sales in pharmacies and drug stores, as well as hospitals and colleges. The law is set to take effect in February.
Reasons To Stop Smoking: Massachusetts Smoking Ban Saves 600 Lives So Far
Today, I have great news to report:
The Harvard School of Public Health and the Massachusetts Public Health Department say that almost 600 less heart attack deaths occurred since their statewide smoking ban started in 2004!
Dr. Michael Siegel, a Boston University School of Public Health specialist in tobacco control, used to be very critical of smoking bans, and even of Harvard’s previous research. He now has this to say:
"This is the strongest study yet done of the effect of smoking bans on heart attacks. You can no longer argue that these declines would have occured simpy due to medical treatment."
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