HC directive to snuff out tobacco use among kids

The Kerala High Court on Monday directed the state government to set up School Protection Committees (SPCs) to tackle tobacco use among children. “The use of tobacco products is rampant among children and adolescents who are below the poverty line,” the court observed.

The SPCs, comprising representatives of parents and teachers, should be headed by the head of an institution. The school leader and the local station house officer will also be part of the team.��� The court has also asked the state to form a District Level Monitoring committee (DMC) under the chairmanship of the respective District Collectors.

The monitoring committees, including the District Educational Officer, District Medical Officer and the District Police Chief will periodically supervise the functioning of the school protection committee in the district and initiate necessary action.� The committee shall meet at least once every three months. The DMCs shall educate school children on the evil effects of the tobacco and its allied products, through seminars and other methods.

The court also directed the state to strictly implement the provisions with regard to the prohibition of sale of cigarettes and tobacco products around education institutions.
The committee can also recommend action against schools that violate the court directive. The district-level committees shall have powers to conduct surprise inspections at any school and surroundings to ensure that these directions are complied.
There shall be a state-level committee chaired by the home secretary to monitor the District Committee.

Furthermore, the HC directed the Central and state governments and the Central Board of Film Certification to ensure that films, tele-serials and other visual media do not include scenes which may encourage the use of tobaccos. The court said that no scenes are to be depicted which would violate the provisions laid under the Cigarettes & Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.

Revenue department shuts down 'roll-your-own' cigarette machines

Agents with the Kansas Department of Revenue shut down “roll your own” cigarette machines across the state last week, including those at Pack Rat Smokes in Salina, until the cigarettes produced by the machines are certified as meeting state fire safety standards.

Seth Valerius, assistant Kansas attorney general and general counsel for the Kansas State Fire Marshal’s Office, said the cigarettes produced by the machines must comply with a state statute that went into effect July 1, 2008, requiring cigarette manufacturers to have their products certified as fire standard compliant.

He said vendors who supply tobacco, rolling paper and machines people can use to roll as many as 200 cigarettes in eight minutes would meet the definition of a cigarette manufacturer. He said people who maintain small at-home machines for personal use are less of a concern.

“One guy going in and buying rolling papers and a little machine — that’s less of an issue than these places that can roll thousands of cigarettes a day,” Valerius said.
An employee at Pack Rat Smokes, 695 S. Broadway, contacted Monday afternoon, said the store manager had just left. A message from the Journal seeking comment was not returned.

Supreme court refuses tobacco firm appeal in smoker case

The U.S. Supreme Court said on Monday it will not hear an appeal by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co in a Florida case in which it was ordered to pay $28.3 million to a woman whose husband died of lung cancer after decades of smoking its cigarettes.
The justices refused an appeal by the Reynolds American Inc unit, which argued that its constitutional due process rights had been violated and that the issue could affect thousands of pending cases in Florida against tobacco companies.

In 2009, a state trial court in Pensacola, Florida, ordered Reynolds to pay more than $3.3 million in compensatory damages and $25 million in punitive damages to Mathilde Martin.
Her husband, Benny Martin, died in 1995 of lung cancer that she blamed on his long-time smoking of Reynolds' Lucky Strike cigarettes.
The jury found that Reynolds was 66 percent responsible for his death and that Martin, who started smoking in the 1940s before cigarette packages had health warnings, was 34 percent responsible.

The lawsuit stemmed from the so-called "Engle progeny" cases filed against tobacco companies by sick Florida smokers or their relatives. A class-action lawsuit filed in 1994 by a pediatrician, the late Dr. Howard Engle, produced a $145 billion judgment against cigarette makers six years later.
The Florida Supreme Court overturned the Engle award in 2006 and ruled that the state's smokers could not sue as a class.

Native American inmates challenging tobacco ban

Opening arguments are scheduled Tuesday in a federal lawsuit filed by a group of Native American inmates saying a state prison policy that bans the use of tobacco during religious ceremonies is discriminatory.

The Native American Council of Tribes based at the state penitentiary in Sioux Falls wants the U.S. District Court to prevent the policy from being enforced.

Inmate Blaine Brings Plenty said in the complaint that for Native American prayer to be effective, "it must be embodied in 'tobacco' and offered within a ceremonial framework."

The state prison system went tobacco free in 2000 but made an exception for tobacco used in Native American ceremonies. It later reversed the exception, saying tobacco was becoming increasingly abused and inmates were separating it from their pipe and tie mixtures.

Martinsville Memorial Hospital goes smoke-free

No more smoke breaks at a hospital in Southern Virgina.

Memorial Hospital in Martinsville is banning all tobacco use on its property.

That includes in parked cars and outside medical office buildings.

"If I can't smoke all day here at work, then I just need to stop smoking period," said longtime smoker and employee of the hospital Carol Blades.

Hospital CEO Skip Philips says the idea came from a staff meeting on healthy lifestyles.

"There was three initiatives that came out of that. One was to work on exercise and healthy eating, one was to work on healthy eating habits, and the third was to becoming tobacco free as a campus," Philips said.

According to the Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association Memorial Hospital is one of the last in the state to become smoke free.

Ministry Intensifies Efforts To Ban Smoking In Public Space

The Ministry of Health is working feverishly to make a submission to Cabinet to receive approval for the passing of the Tobacco bill, designed to implement a ban on smoking in public places, including work places.

Health Minister Dr Fenton Ferguson made the announcement on Thursday while delivering the main address at the National launch of the Jamaica Association of Administrative Professionals, JAAP LINAC Project at the Cornwall Regional Hospital, Montego Bay.

He made announcement against the backdrop of the results of research showing increases in the incidence of cancers associated with the smoking of cigarettes.

"When we look at what is taking place in relation to the number of persons in terms of cardiovascular- related diseases and the contribution to that by cigarette smoking and also the number of persons who are getting cancer from passive smoking. We are committed to a bill and an act that will ban smoking in public places, and also one that will ban smoking in work places."

Minister Ferguson said while this was going to be a challenge based on the fact that tobacco lobbyists are very vibrant and vociferous, he was adamant that the bill would be passed and implemented under his watch.

Preventing cancers

"A major legislative framework in the form of the Tobacco Bill is part of governmental intervention that is designed to, among other things, prevent cancers associated with the use of tobacco. We have been talking about this a long time we are now on the final stretch to take the submission to Cabinet."

He argued that cigarette smoking has a serious impact on the health sector, government and good governance must be about protecting people even from themselves.

Minister Ferguson said hospitals are now seeing an increase in persons seeking oncology services at the Kingston Public and Cornwall Regional hospitals.

Social disapproval, not fear, motivates smokers to quit

“In 2008, the United Kingdom became one of the first countries in Europe to make it mandatory for cigarette packets sold within the U.K. to display fear-provoking, graphic anti-smoking images, founded on the assumption that the use of fear is an effective method to encourage smokers to quit,” says Scitechdaily.com. “However, in contrast to the assumed effects of fear on quitting intentions, a series of experiments conducted by [psychologists at Canterbury Christ Church University] consistently revealed that fear provoked by graphic images had no effect on smokers’ intentions to stop smoking. Instead, the researchers found that smokers were more willing to consider quitting if they accepted non-smokers’ negative attitudes toward their habit.”

Relax to fight temptation

“If you are trying to avoid temptation, stop fighting it and just relax,” says Psych Central. “In a new study, researchers from the University of Illinois found that people who are ‘actively’ motivated to change bad habits may actually be setting themselves up for not only failure but to act impulsively. But those who used ‘inaction’ words, such as ‘stop’ or ‘pause,’ are more relaxed and, ultimately, more successful. ‘Our research suggests that the relaxed state is better at inhibiting the pull of temptations,’ said University of Illinois psychology professor Dr. Dolores Albarracin.”

The power of friendship

“The gravitational pull of individual friendships can have an enormous cumulative effect on the quality of our lives,” U.S. News reports. “With growing numbers of people living alone, either by choice or circumstance, friendships can occupy the emotional space that other people fill with spouses or significant others. … At the end of the day, a friend can be the emotional oasis that makes all the difference. ‘Friends are what make us uniquely human,’ says James Fowler, professor of medical genetics and political science at the University of California at San Diego. ‘There is no other species that interacts so widely with other members of their species.’ ”

The appeal of tragedy

“Why do we willingly subject ourselves, again and again, to … sad stories?” asks Miller-McCune.com. “Researchers led by Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick of Ohio State University have tentatively proposed some answers. In the journal Communication Research, they present evidence that watching tragedy inspires self-reflection, which allows us to refocus on the people in our lives we might otherwise take for granted. The melancholy emotions these tales arouse ultimately provoke pleasant feelings of gratitude. ‘Psychological research suggests that close relationships make people happy and fulfilled,’ they write. ‘Tragedies appear to be an excellent means to reinforcing pro-social values that make these relationships steady and meaningful, as they celebrate enduring love, friendship and compassion even in ultimate agony and suffering.’ ”