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Many of us work in smoke-free offices, eat in smoke-free restaurants, even drink in smoke-free bars or outdoor cafes. But if we live in an apartment, should the whole building also be smoke free?

In an essay this week in The New England Journal of Medicine, public health and legal experts call for banning smoking in all public housing complexes, even within individual units. They say there is no safe level of exposure to passive smoke, and that even if one person in the building smokes, others are exposed to secondhand smoke and to toxic gases and carcinogens from tobacco.

“Smoke does not know to stop at a door” and moves wherever air moves, wafting down hallways and elevator shafts and seeping through ceiling cracks and air ducts to contaminate the whole building, said Dr. Jonathan P. Winickoff, one of the paper’s authors and an associate professor of pediatrics at MassGeneral Hospital for Children. He recently coined the term “third-hand smoke” to describe the toxic chemical residue of cigarettes that clings to one’s hair and clothing and to carpets and upholstery, even after smoke has cleared the air.

“If we’re going to protect bartenders in restaurants, if we’re going to protect healthy adults who go to work and enjoy a smoke-free workplace, we had better also protect infants, children, pregnant women and elderly people who may have just had a heart attack,” Dr. Winickoff said. He notes that people do not always know they’re being exposed to passive smoke because some of the harmful compounds do not carry the telltale tobacco smell that alerts nonsmokers to their presence.

Smokers’ rights groups immediately attacked the proposal, saying it was based on questionable scientific premises and represented an intrusion on the cherished right of people to do what they wish in the privacy of their own homes. “He wants us to believe we’re having an effect on people’s health through air ducts?” said Audrey Silk, founder of the group NYC-CLASH, Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment. “These people have an agenda — a smoke-free society.”

Late last year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development issued a statement “strongly” encouraging the 3,200 public housing authorities around the country to implement nonsmoking policies in some or all public housing units. As of a year ago, roughly 100 authorities and housing commissions had implemented nonsmoking policies in their buildings, according to the Smoke-Free Environmental Law Project of the Center for Social Gerontology, a state-funded anti-smoking group.

Studies have found measurable levels of nicotine in the apartments of nonsmokers, said John Spengler, a professor of environmental health at the Harvard School of Public Health. He said the issue of neighbors smoking has caused conflicts in high-priced condo complexes.

“It’s a thorny policy question and social question,” Dr. Spengler said, adding he foresees some private housing complexes adopting smoking policy covenants in the future. “Some people will respond that it’s a person’s right to do what they want in their own property. But then I pose there’s the question: where is the response of the state government to protect those who can’t protect themselves?”

In their essay in the medical journal, Dr. Winickoff and his co-authors, Mark Gottlieb of the Public Health Advocacy Institute at Northeastern School of Law and Michelle M. Mello of the Harvard School of Public Health, note that the 2006 Surgeon General’s report on passive smoking concluded there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke. They note that the National Toxicology Program has identified over 250 toxic gases, chemicals and metals in tobacco smoke, including 11 class A carcinogens linked to cancer.

Toxins are distributed through the air and then deposited on indoor surfaces like rugs and furniture, where they can be picked up by young children. Older and ill people may also be at increased exposure because they spend so much time indoors. The particulates are subsequently re-emitted into the air. Studies have found that children who live in households with a smoker have higher levels of certain nicotine byproducts in their urine than nonsmoking adults, possibly because they have closer contact with contaminated surfaces or a different response to toxins, and that this may put them at increased risk of cancer later in life.

Exposure to smoke is a cause of sudden infant death syndrome and can trigger asthma attacks, Dr. Winickoff said. Epidemiologic studies have linked secondhand smoke to lung cancer and heart disease in nonsmoking adults, he said.

Another benefit of smoking bans might be to reduce fires and fire-related injuries and deaths. In multi-family dwellings, smoking is the leading cause of fire deaths, accounting for a quarter of all fire-related deaths in 2005. A smoking ban might also curb smoking initiation among teenagers, who would see less of it and may be less likely to pick up the habit as a result, the writers argue.

But smoking rates are also higher among residents of public housing, which could make enforcement difficult; Americans who live below the poverty level are 1.6 times more likely to smoke than other Americans. The essay calls for continuing to make smoking cessation tools, including nicotine patches and gum, available to low-income residents so they can quit the habit.

“We’re not saying smokers shouldn’t live in public housing or multi-unit housing – it’s the act of smoking itself we need to limit,” Dr. Winickoff said. “We don’t want to penalize anyone for being a smoker. But about 70 percent of smokers want to quit, at any given time.”

The choice is clear for Pennsylvania lawmakers in passing a state budget.
They can make the right choice by closing the loopholes in corporate taxes and taxing big oil and tobacco companies. Or, they can make the wrong choice, another round of budget cuts that will result in fewer police and firefighters for our communities, fewer school teachers for our schools, more dangerous roads and bridges throughout the state, more air and water pollution, fewer jobs and higher crime rates.

It’s important to remember how we got into this economic situation. Big Wall Street banks drove our economy into the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression.
They’ve already recovered, handing out big bonus checks to their top executives at taxpayers’ expense while millions of working families, including many in Pennsylvania, are still struggling to find a job, pay the mortgage and feed their families.

The economic stimulus passed by Congress and the Obama administration has brought our economy back from the brink of depression by pumping more than $16 billion into Pennsylvania, creating more than 146,000 jobs and protecting hundreds of thousands more.
While the economic stimulus money has cushioned the blow and helped steer us in the direction of economic recovery, there are still more people looking for work than there are jobs. In some regions of the state, unemployment rates remain in double digits.
This is not the time for state lawmakers to pull the rug out from under hard-working families by cutting government, jobs and services, especially in light of the fact that corporations making big profits here in Pennsylvania are not paying their fair share of the taxes.
The Coalition for Labor Engagement and Accountable Revenue, a broad-based group of labor organizations, is working with Democratic and Republican legislators to reach a consensus on sustainable, accountable revenue, to pass a responsible state budget on time and to ensure the continuation of critical government services, investments and jobs.
CLEAR also supports Gov. Rendell’s recent proposals for closing corporate tax loopholes and ending special-interest tax breaks that are unfair to hard-working taxpayers and rob critical revenue to state and local government.
Closing Pennsylvania’s tobacco loophole: Pennsylvania is one of only two states to exempt cigars from taxation and is the only state not to tax other forms (smokeless) of tobacco. Closing this loophole will bring in needed revenue to preserve jobs in hospitals, libraries and environmental protection and have the added benefit of saving lives and reducing health care costs.
Natural gas severance tax will ensure that gas companies (and oil companies) contribute to the cost of their activities rather than leaving state and local taxpayers to foot the bill for additional environmental, infrastructure and public safety costs. Every other major energy-producing state — Texas, Arkansas, Alaska, Wyoming and West Virginia — imposes a tax on natural gas extraction. Pennsylvania is the only mineral-rich state without this tax.
Combined reporting would close corporate tax loopholes and make it harder for multistate corporations to avoid paying the corporate net income tax on income earned in Pennsylvania. In 2006, during a booming economy, a family earning $36,000 paid more in state taxes than 84 percent of Pennsylvania corporations.

Eliminating the sales tax vendor discount will save the commonwealth $74 million a year and help prevent layoffs in schools, hospitals and other facilities. The vendor discount is a windfall for big box retailers such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy, but small businesses receive little benefit from the program. Did you get a discount for filing your income tax return by April 15?
Working families statewide are suffering from the severe economic downturn.
We expect our state lawmakers to stand up for us and do the right thing by adopting a common-sense budget that protects public safety, provides services to the most vulnerable among us and promotes Pennsylvania’s economic recovery.
Cutting jobs, essential services and public protections is not the answer to our budget crisis; instead we support common-sense revenue enhancements and a fair tax structure.

Guam – Nearly two months ago, the cost of cigarettes was increased as additional taxes were implemented to deter people from smoking. The increase in taxes has resulted in an increase in local business establishments making big bucks selling illegal smokes.

Department of Revenue & Taxation Director Art Ilagan said, “When they can’t make money because tax laws have changed, of course they’re going try to make money through other ways, which may be illegal.” And that’s exactly what some local businesses are doing.

A month ago Rev & Tax officials confiscated cartons of cigarettes from Valencia’s Wholesale and Retail Store after they were found selling cigarettes from the Philippines. Although they were put on notice, that it is illegal to sell those particular smokes, apparently that didn’t deter the business from making some extra cash by selling the cigarettes again.

KUAM News got footage this morning of smokes from the Philippines being sold for $2.95 a pack, then showing Rev & Tax officials the cigarettes we purchased. Said Ilagan in reaction, “It clearly says its for domestic use (in the PI) and from where it was purchased that’s where it should be sold, not transported and sold in a US territory or in the United States. So this is clearly a violation of the law.”

By the time KUAM returned this afternoon, we saw numerous customers walking out empty handed, as the store had run out of the PI cigarettes.

Even with signs posted clearly reading “Out of PI cigarettes, sorry for the inconvenience”, Valencia’s is selling legitimate cigarettes for $6.25 a pack. The $2.95 cigarettes from the Philippines clearly state they are for domestic sale only, not for export. Rev & Tax officials say they are also concerned that the cigarettes do not include the U.S. Surgeon General warning that is required advising of the dangers of smoking.

While the department is mandated to ensure local establishments are selling the legal ones, Ilagan admits they don’t have the resources for regular enforcement. But Rev & Tax puts out a stern warning for those businesses selling illegal smokes, as Ilagan said, “Beware that if you’re in violation of these laws we may withhold your renewal of your licenses…at least to sell cigarettes.”

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – For children with asthma, reducing exposure to environmental tobacco smoke greatly decreases their chances of an asthma flare-up, hospital admission or emergency room visit, a study shows.

“We found this to be true when the child’s exposure (to second-hand smoke) decreased, even if the decrease did not mean completely eliminating their exposure,” Dr. Lynn B. Gerald, of University of Arizona in Tucson told Reuters Health. “Any reduction in environmental tobacco smoke exposure seems to greatly benefit these children.”

Gerald’s team documented the association between changes in environmental tobacco smoke exposure and childhood asthma-related illness in 290 asthmatic children enrolled in a clinical trial of supervised asthma therapy. The average age of the children was 11 years and 80 percent had moderate persistent asthma.

At the start of the study, 28 percent of caregivers reported that the child was exposed to second-hand smoke in the home and 19 percent reported exposure to smoke outside the home only. At a follow-up interview, 74 percent of caregivers reported no change in the child’s exposure to second-hand smoke, 17 percent reported less exposure, and 9 percent reported increased exposure.

According to a report in the medical journal Chest, children who had any decrease in exposure to second-hand smoke over the course of 1 year had fewer episodes of poor asthma control, made fewer respiratory-related trips to the emergency room and were less apt to be hospitalized than children who had the same or increased exposure to second-hand smoke.

“We were not surprised by the findings but we were surprised by the magnitude of the benefit that decreasing smoke exposure appeared to have,” Gerald told Reuters Health.

She said doctors can use this information as another “teaching point” for caregivers and parents of children with asthma.

Given that the majority of second-hand smoke exposure in the home is due to parents smoking, “the most effective environmental tobacco smoke reduction strategy may be to provide smoking cessation interventions to parents and possibly other household members,” Gerald and her colleagues conclude.

Consumers of some tobacco products and natural gas developers would face new taxes under a bill passed by a House committee in Harrisburg this week. House Bill 2435 would charge companies for extracting natural gas in the state, plus, cigar and smokeless tobacco retailers would have to collect a 30-percent tax from customers purchasing those products. The bill would also close a loophole that lets companies doing business here avoid paying some state taxes.

Kathy Jellison, president of Service Employees International Union (Local 668), supports the proposed new taxes.

“We have a lot of hard working folks in Pennsylvania, and our folks pay their fair share of taxes and this House bill will ensure that the big oil folks and the big tobacco and the big corporations do the same.”

Jellison says Pennsylvania’s business climate has been friendly to a fault, and taxpayers have been footing too much of the bill.

“More than 70 percent of the corporations don’t pay any income tax in Pennsylvania, and if we could close that tax loophole, we’d get millions back and could certainly keep the services that we need for our citizens.”

As Pennsylvania suffers economically with the rest of the country, Jellison says the state needs new revenue. Otherwise, some key services may not be available in the future, she adds.

“You call Area on Aging because your mother needs services and you’re put on a waiting list because we don’t have enough people to do the job.”

It’s estimated the new taxes from the measure could generate about $300 million annually. Opposition to the bill includes the gas industry, which says it will drive away drillers, and tobacco retailers who fear the new levy will chase some of their customers across state lines where taxes are lower.

All 12 West End retailers who were the focus of tobacco law compliance checks last month refused to sell tobacco to minors, said Jill Dole, tobacco prevention and control specialist for the Clallam County.

Two adults representing Clallam County Health & Human Services and two 15-year-old teenagers on spring break from high school left the Clallam County Courthouse in Port Angeles early on April 7 to conduct compliance checks in West Port Angeles, Beaver, Forks, Kalaloch Lodge, LaPush, Neah Bay, Sekiu and Clallam Bay, Dole said.

“It was a long day covering over 270 miles, but it was well worth it,” she said.

“This is the first time in my experience conducting compliance checks that no tobacco retailers in the West End of the county have sold to underage youth.”

There have been 26 compliance checks done county-wide this spring without one sale, Dole added.

The businesses that did not sell tobacco to minors, earning certificates of appreciation, are Fairmount Grocery, Wagner’s Grocery, Lake Pleasant Grocery, Evergreen 76, Ron’s Food Mart, Tesoro Number 408, Forks Thriftway Market, Three Rivers Resort, Kalaloch Lodge, Ray’s Grocery, Washburn’s General Store and Weel Road Deli.

It is illegal to sell or provide tobacco products to youth under the age of 18.

A federal law known as the Synar Amendment requires all 50 states to conduct random compliance checks with tobacco retailers each year.

Each county in the state is responsible for conducting compliance checks. In 2010, the Clallam County Tobacco Prevention and Control Program will conduct more than 50 compliance checks countywide.

Stores that do sell receive a fine issued by the Liquor Control Board according to the number of sales in a two-year period.

The first offense calls for a $100 fine for the store owner and a $50 fine for the clerk who sold the tobacco.

The second offense nets a $300 fine. The third offense results in a $1,000 fine and a six-month tobacco license suspension, and the fourth offense leads to a $1,500 fine and a 12-month license suspension.

A fifth offense results in a permanent license revocation.

According to the latest Healthy Youth Survey, 20 percent of Clallam County high school seniors are using tobacco products.

The adult tobacco use rate in Washington state is 16.2 percent.

Dole is available to conduct retailer education sessions, either one-on-one, or with groups, to help clerks learn about the laws concerning sales of tobacco and how to properly check for identification from every customer.

With women comprising about 20 percent of the world’s more than one billion tobacco users, the health ministry Monday called for creating awareness among women about the risks of using tobacco.

‘The tobacco industry is now focusing on women as it needs to recruit new users to replace the nearly half of current users who will die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases,’ Ministry of Health and Family Welfare joint secretary Jagdish Kaur said.

Kaur said tobacco use is very high in India — 57 percent of men and 10.8 percent of women are tobacco users. Furthermore, 8.4 percent of pregnant women in India use tobacco and the percentage is increasing.

‘Since the tobacco industry across the globe is targeting women consumers, it is important to create awareness among women about the risks like reduction in fertility, irregularity in menstrual cycle, early menopause, and various types of cancer,’ said Sumita Gupta, president of the awareness wing of the Indian Cancer Society.

The Indian Cancer Society organised a skit competition ‘Gender and Tobacco’ Monday addressing the dangers related to smoking in women. A total of 17 schools from the capital participated.

Smoking cigarettes in the parks and beaches of Canada’s third largest city is to be banned as of September 1, the Vancouver Park Board has decided.

The elected board voted Monday night to prohibit smoking in some 200 parks and along 18 kilometers (11 miles) of beaches, such as Vancouver’s famed Stanley Park, citing opinion surveys that suggest enormous support for the measure.

Board members also pointed to efforts to curb smoking by the World Health Organization and the Vancouver Coastal Health agency that claims smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke are the “leading” and “third leading cause of death” in the province, respectively.

But civil libertarians warned Tuesday that the prohibition could create more problems than any public health benefits would be worth.

Cigarette smoking has long been banned inside, and directly beside, public indoor venues in British Columbia — as well as in indoor public facilities in many other Canadian cities.

A contentious recent study linked major recent declines in hospital admissions for heart, stroke and respiratory conditions in Toronto to a 2001 ban on smoking in restaurants in that city.

But smoking outdoors was mostly unregulated in Canada until recently, when several British Columbia towns started imposing bans in parks.

Smoking bans for beaches and parks also exist in some US states, as well as in Australia and Hong Kong.

Libertarians said Vancouver’s outdoor smoking ban goes too far and argued that existing public nuisance bylaws would address smokers who bother others, or who litter.

The ban will be “unenforceable,” predicted a spokesman with the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.

“There is no health effect” from the small amount of second-hand smoke that people are exposed to in outdoor parks, said medical professor Richard Mathias of the University of British Columbia, who described himself as “a relative libertarian.”

“What we’re dealing with here is a prohibitionist moral model that as far as I’m concerned is totally unacceptable,” Mathias told AFP.

He said that he does not smoke “and I don’t think anybody should smoke… but we’re demonizing them.”

“We have gone too far, particularly in British Columbia. We’ve already done everything we need to do from a regulatory perspective in reducing smoking,” said Mathias.

The Canadian government has won a $550 million dollar settlement from three tobacco companies for tobacco they helped smuggled into Canada to avoid taxes dating back to the early 1990s.

The Non-Smokers’ Rights Association—that originally filed a $10 billion suit—is calling the settlement “the largest and most destructive fraud in the history of Canadian business and public health.”

High tobacco taxes sparked the wave of cigarette smuggling in the ’90s through native reserves along the U.S. Canada border.

Three companies have to pay: R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., maker of Camel, Kool, Export A, $325 million; JTI-Macdonald Corp, maker of Benson & Hedges and Camel cigarettes sold outside the U.S., $150 million; and Northern Brands International, a subsidiary of R.J. Reynolds, $75 million.

British American Tobacco (BAT) is forecasting that the world’s consumption of cigarettes would likely remain stable at 6 trillion cigarettes a year, Business Report reports.

In the meantime, BAT said that it would seek to remain “well-placed” to appeal to consumers, whether they were trading down or up as the economy changes.

In 2004, the United Nations conducted a global tobacco consumption study and reported that the number of smokers worldwide would grow from 1.1 billion in 1998 to 1.3 billion in 2010. However, BAT’s latest report, released last week, reveals that the global legal market has declined by roughly 1.5 percent annually.

BAT said that the data reveals that individual smokers consume fewer cigarettes and the population of smokers is diminishing. “However, offsetting these trends, the number of adults in the world over the age of 20 continues to grow,” said Paul Adams, CEO at BAT. “We estimate that the global legal market, excluding China, fell by 3 percent last year compared with its long-term trend of declining 1.5 percent,” he said.

Despite the trends, BAT said that pricing has remained positive and that global profits would grow, though it cautioned about the rise in contraband cigarettes, which represents nearly 12 percent of global consumption.

“In many key markets, legal volumes have been affected as consumers move to illicit products,” Adams said.