Free Republic

  Ministers have agreed an outright ban VIDEO: Decision Due SCOTLAND BANS SMOKING Smoking in enclosed public places will be banned in Scotland under legislation to be launched before Christmas, the First Minister said today.    Jack McConnell told the Scottish Parliament the legislation would have a target date of spring 2006 for full implementation. Licensees or employers who fail to enforce the law in their premises will face fines of up to £2,500 - and those who persistently flout the law will face the ultimate sanction of having their licence withdrawn.  However, the proposals face a rough ride. Publicans...

Article 14 September 2004 by Brendan O'Neill In the docu-blockbuster-cum-human-experiment Super Size Me, released in British cinemas over the weekend, New York filmmaker Morgan Spurlock eats nothing but McDonald's meals three times a day for a month. He's won widespread praise for pushing his body to the limit - he goes from fit to fat, gets bad skin, has mood swings, and in one scene, having spent 22 minutes eating a Super Size Double Quarterpounder Meal, pukes it up out of his car window - all for the apparently worthy cause of showing Americans 'the real price they are paying...

BLOOMINGTON, Minn. - The Bloomington City Council approved the metro area's first citywide smoking ban early Tuesday. Some say the decision could pave the way for other local ordinances. Public comment on the proposed ordinance continued until about 11:30 p.m. Monday. The council then discussed the proposal before passing it around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. Council Member Steve Elkins said the ban was supported by at least four of seven council members - enough to secure passage. The ordinance would take effect Sept. 1 in public buildings and workplaces. Smoking also would be prohibited within 25 feet of entrances, exits, open...

It's a tie. Score one for parents in Brookline where a proposal to ban spanking or other physical punishments as a means of disciplining children was soundly defeated. But score one for the parenting police who have set a new policy in a Duxbury school to ban cupcakes at classroom birthday parties. We're all for teaching children right from wrong. Contemporary child-rearing experts mostly concur that a timeout is far more effective than a thwacking to achieve this. But leave it to the Brookline Board of Selectmen to assert it's a legitimate role of town government to set a policy...

I discovered this via National Review's "The Corner" and here is Andrew Stuttaford's delightful introduction to the Telegraph Article: GRINCH WATCH [Andrew Stuttaford] “A hospital has banned McDonald's from sending staff to hand out free burgers and fries on a children's ward after parents complained.” The sad thing about this was that it was some parents and one obnoxious-sounding grandmother who complained, smug, self-righteous zealots so wrapped up in their puritan indignation and scientific illiteracy that they would deny a sick child a small treat. They are the sort of ghastly, crabbed individuals who would have told the repentant Scrooge...

<p>As a strong supporter of Mayor Bloomberg's continued efforts to inoculate New York's best and brightest from the idiocy of its worst and dumbest - tobacco abusers - I feel compelled to state the obvious: The no-smoking laws are here to stay ("Bloomy's Bugaboo," Editorial, Nov. 8), whether you like it or not. Indeed, those laws need to be expanded and strengthened.</p>

EDMONTON - A "sober bar" that caters to recovering alcoholics was told Thursday to get a liquor licence and start serving alcohol if it wants to let customers smoke. A city bylaw inspector's warning creates a painful Catch-22 for the owners of north-side Keep it Simple club. If they stay dry and ban smoking, they say they'll lose 90 per cent of their business. If they start selling liquor, they'll be tempting many patrons to return to addiction. "The city is forcing us to promote alcohol as the only way we can keep smoking," co-owner Tom Charbonneau said. "Other restaurants...

Secret restaurants for smokers By Tony Dennis: Saturday 05 July 2003, 14:59 A USUALLY UNRELIABLE source has informed The INQ that New York City is about to turn the clocks back to the Twenties with an outbreak of 'breatheasies'. These are secret bars and restaurants where the customers can light up cigarettes - a practice totally banned at present. Details of how to find these venues are naturally very scarce but our informant suggested we start with a society called Butt, membership of which is only by invitation, which every year meets in a restaurant which is a front for...

About a half dozen people lobbied the City Council on Wednesday to establish "smoke-free" zones in city parks to protect children from the influence of tobacco. The speakers asked the council to create a licensing requirement for businesses that sell tobacco products and to strengthen city regulations on the sale of alcohol. Diana Brown, chairwoman of the Antelope Valley Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs Policy Coalition and leader of the Pueblo Y Salud, asked the council to adopt a tobacco-related ordinance similar to one in effect in San Fernando. That ordinance exempts businesses for two years from paying fees to...

PHILADELPHIA, May 09, 2003 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The Lorillard Tobacco Co. is hoping people are more afraid of mobsters than they are of lung cancer. The nation's fourth-largest tobacco company, maker of Newports and Kents, launched an advertising campaign in three states this week that claims higher cigarette taxes encourage organized crime. One ad featured a picture of a scowling, beefy man wearing a pinstriped suit and a pinky ring, posing next to a black sedan and a suitcase stuffed with cash. "The mob, smugglers, and other street criminals are making a fortune selling illegal cigarettes while...

Office of Extramural Prevention Research, Public Health Practice Program Office (SLM, LWG). Although obesity is increasing to epidemic proportions in many developed countries, some of these same countries are reporting substantial reductions in tobacco use. Unlike tobacco, food and physical activity are essential to life. Yet similar psychological, social, and environmental factors as well as advertising pressures influence the usage patterns of all 3. These similarities suggest that there may be commonalities between factors involved in controlling obesity and tobacco. This review, therefore, seeks to draw lessons from the tobacco experience for the organization of more successful obesity control. Smoking...

Abstract It is estimated that by 2020 two-thirds of the global burden of disease will be attributable to chronic noncommunicable diseases, most of them strongly associated with diet. The nutrition transition towards refined foods, foods of animal origin, and increased fats plays a major role in the current global epidemics of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases, among other noncommunicable conditions. Sedentary lifestyles and the use of tobacco are also significant risk factors. The epidemics cannot be ended simply by encouraging people to reduce their risk factors and adopt healthier lifestyles, although such encouragement is undoubtedly beneficial if the targeted people...

<p>One of Eden Prairie's largest private employers has threatened to relocate many of its 600 jobs if the city passes a novel antismoking ordinance, joining a growing number of businesses rebelling against the proposal.</p> <p>Douglas Corp., a manufacturer of car logo emblems and other product-identification items, joins metallic balloon manufacturer Anagram International and other businesses and business groups lining up against a proposal, the first in the state that would ban smoking in industrial businesses as well as bars and restaurants. Anagram said a few weeks ago it might be forced to relocate 350 people if the smoking ban passes.</p>

<p>When Eden Prairie Mayor Jean Harris died in December of lung cancer she left one task unfinished -- leading her city to adopt a smoking ban in workplaces, including restaurants.</p> <p>Now her death and her unfulfilled last wish have created the emotional impetus behind a smoking-ban campaign that is gathering steam in the growing suburb.</p>