Federal Control: Government Bans

Because smoking is harmful to those who smoke and to those who breath the smoke from others, governments are beginning to ban smoking in public places. Other bans are being implemented to "protect" the citizens or the environment.

Ex-Surgeon General Says White House Hushed Him

Carmona, a Bush nominee who served from 2002 to 2006, told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that political appointees in the administration routinely scrubbed his speeches for politically sensitive content and blocked him from speaking out on public health matters such as stem cell research, abstinence-only sex education and the emergency contraceptive Plan
Source: The Washington Post (online), July 11, 2007

Eatery smoking ban becomes law

Gov. John Lynch signed a law yesterday banning smoking in New Hampshire’s bars and restaurants.
Source: Concord Monitor, June 20, 2007

Davis poised to snuff smoking outdoors

The Davis County [Utah] Board of Health is expected to vote today whether to ban smoking at outdoor public places.
When the board takes up the question today at its 7 a.m. meeting, it will consider research into the effects of secondhand smoke, a report by the U.S. Surgeon General and public comment.
Source: Deseret Morning News, June 12, 2007

Homes next target for smoking ban

The Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Hawaii, which spearheaded the controversial Smoke-Free Workplaces law, now wants to extend smoke-free regulations into Hawaii’s condominiums, apartments and townhouse units.
Source: Star Bulletin (online), May 29, 2007

Planet Earth banning common light bulbs

They’re unwanted in Cuba, Hugo Chavez is trying to kick
them out of Venezuela, Australia and Canada are on timetables to get rid of them, the European Union says they soon simply won’t be available and now the U.S. is considering new rules that effectively would ban the incandescent light bulb.
Source: WorldNetDaily, March 22, 2007

Couple driven out of home for smoking

In a ruling that squarely undermines the premise that an Australian’s home is his castle, a tribunal has ordered a Sydney couple to stop smoking inside their city-centre apartment because the smell was upsetting neighbours.
Source: The Telegraph (online), March 11, 2007

Big mother is watching with new laws in mind

Some California lawmakers want to change your ways. They’ve planted a crop of proposals this year, “nanny” bills as they’re called, that would restrict the use of artery-clogging trans fat, common in fried and baked foods and linked to heart disease, in restaurants and school cafeterias. Bar smoking at state parks and beaches, and in cars carrying children. Four additional bans were listed.
Source: Los Angeles Times (online), March 8, 2007

Davis considers banning smoking at outdoor sites

The Utah Indoor Clean Air Act pushed smokers outdoors. So if an outdoor ban happens, where else can smokers go?
In Davis County, they may have to get creative, because the county may ban smoking at outdoor public places.
Source: Deseret Morning News, March 8, 2007

Delray to designate beach smoking zones

Smokers will soon have their own special sections of sand along the Atlantic Ocean. City staff is creating smoking areas on the city’s biggest money maker, almost 2 miles of pristine beach that attract 1.2 million people a year.
Source: Palm Beach Post (online), December 12, 2006

Next for NYC Trans Fat Ban: Enforcement

City officials are promising to be gentle when it comes to enforcing the first-in-the-nation ban on trans fats, which restaurants will have more than a year to rid from their food.
But the food industry fears the ban _ approved last week _ will lead to hefty fines against kitchens that inadvertently fail to remove the artificial fats from every item on the menu.
Source: Breitbart, December 10, 2006

NY bans most trans fats from restaurants

The law is believed to be the first of its kind in the United States and will require restaurants including McDonald’s Corp. to eliminate trans fats by July 2007.
Source: Reuters, December 5, 2006

Smoking ban approved in British Virgin Islands

Smokers will not be allowed to light up in enclosed public places, including bars and restaurants, or within 50 feet of a door or window to such a space, many of the narrow, winding streets of the capital, Road Town, would effectively be off limits to smoking.
Source: CNN, November 30, 2006

Laws prohibit smoking around children

"We are very rapidly moving to protect children from secondhand smoke," says John Banzhaf, executive director of Action on Smoking and Health. "Even from their own parents and grandparents."
Source: USA Today (online), November 28, 2006

School bans pro-life T-shirts, fliers

A Virginia high school barred a Christian student from distributing materials and wearing a T-shirt that declared opposition to abortion, prompting a legal response.

Source: WorldNetDaily, November 18, 2006

Belmont to be first U.S. city to ban all smoking

Belmont is set to make history by becoming the first city in the nation to ban smoking on its streets and almost everywhere else.
Source: The Daily Journal (online), November 16, 2006

Suit Challenges Louisville’s Smoking Ban

The ordinance passed by the Metro Council last month would tighten a measure that went into effect a year ago. It is set to take effect in July.
Source: ABCNews (online), November 14, 2006

Smokeless and clueless in Omaha

Not only did the city council [Omaha, Nebraska] cave into the pressure of the anti-smoking Nazis banning cigarettes in 97 percent of public places but this group of tyrants went further than any in America thus far. City officials in Omaha, with the support of the police department, called on citizens who witness violations of the new prohibition to call 911 to report them.
Source: WorldNetDaily, October 25, 2006

See a smoker in Omaha? Dial 9-1-1

Omaha banned smoking in public Oct. 2. Penalties are $100 for the first offense, $200 for the second and $500 for the third and subsequent infractions.
Source: World Net Daily, October 22, 2006

Beijing to ban smoking ads, vending machines

Provisions of the treaty are spelled out in the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. In general, the treaty requires signatories to enact certain bans on tobacco advertising and outlawing cigarette vending machines.
Source: WorldNetDaily, August 31, 2005

Cigarette smokers’ revenge

Across the country, nearly 5,000 municipalities require 100 percent smoke-free workplaces and/or restaurants and/or bars. Some localities go even farther. In Montgomery County, Md., councilmen approved one of the most restrictive anti-smoking measures in the nation, setting stiff fines for people who smoke in their own homes if it offends their neighbors.
Source: WorldNetDaily, May 5, 2005

China’s 350 million smokers

China has added some 30 million new smokers, according to the most recent survey, bringing to 350 million the total number of mainlanders who light up and consume one-third of all the cigarettes smoked in the world each year.
Source: WorldNetDaily, May 26, 2004

NYC busts shop owner for ashtray

A business owner who left an ashtray sitting out in his shop has been fined $6,000 by New York City’s health inspector, who was enforcing the city’s tough, new anti-smoking law.
Source: WorldNetDaily, November 8, 2003

Global tobacco treaty approved

"Politicians have no right ordering Americans not to smoke — much less people halfway around the world," Neale said. "Smoking is a personal choice, not an international crisis."
Source: WorldNetDaily, May 23, 2003

Taxpayers propping up Big Tobacco

Judd Gregg, R-N.H., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, known as the HELP Committee, is proposing legislation that, in the words of a committee summary, "grants FDA authority to regulate the production, distribution, labeling and marketing of tobacco products to protect the public health."
Source: WorldNetDaily, November 13, 2003