Alberta to phase in flavoured tobacco ban legislation

Alberta has exempted menthol from its flavoured tobacco ban law that health groups once held up as an example for other governments to follow.

Health Minister Stephen Mandel said Thursday the legislation — to be phased in — will still protect young people from the dangers of other flavoured tobacco.

After a year of study since the law was passed, the government decided that banning the popular minty weed wouldn’t be cool with adults who enjoy menthol, Mandel said.

“You need to deal with the realities of the world and we made an effort to deal with flavoured tobaccos and I think that we are quite restrictive in that area.

“The decision was made that menthol would be one we leave out at this point in time.” It is well known fact that young people prefer menthol cigarettes http://www.verycheapcigarettes.biz/cheap-cigarette/glamour/glamour-superslims-menthol

Health, medical and anti-smoking groups say exempting menthol is a mistake, because the flavour is the most popular with young people.

There are studies that say menthol soothes the throat, opens the airways and increases nicotine absorption into the bloodstream.

Angeline Webb of the Canadian Cancer Society said Alberta’s decision was very disappointing and thousands of young people will pay the price.

“Menthol is the most insidious flavour of tobacco products. It leads to addiction. It leads to initiation and youth who smoke menthol are much more likely to become long-term smokers than their non-menthol smoking peers,” she said.

“From a public health perspective, menthol is the most important flavour to focus on with reference to protecting kids.”

On Sept. 30, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Lung Association urged all health ministers across Canada to join Alberta in banning flavoured tobacco products, including menthol.

The federal, Ontario and Manitoba governments have balked at including menthol in flavoured tobacco ban legislation.

The Ontario Medical Association recently urged Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government to ban menthol cigarettes.

Graphic labels are seen as key to anti-smoking campaign

Those who buy cigarettes in Australia get to see packaging unlike anything that meets the gaze of American smokers. Some packs contain a large photo – front and back – of a bloodshot eye propped open, and the words, “Smoking causes blindness.” Others show a bloodied and ulcerated foot, with the warning, “Smoking causes peripheral vascular disease.” And still others show an abscessed mouth and warn. All include the phone number for a smoking quitline.

Through a legal challenge that hinged on their First Amendment rights, cigarette companies have been able to ward off a Food and Drug Administration effort to require such graphic images on cigarette packs in the U.S.; the FDA is looking to tamp them down but still require more prominent warnings than the ones that have run on one thin side of packs since 1985 – and are far easier to ignore.

The packaging difference matters, according to Maansi Bansal-Travers, a research scientist with the Department of Health Behavior at Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

“A pack-a-day smoker sees their pack 7,000 times a year and they don’t want to constantly be reminded with a graphic image that might be disturbing that smoking causes all these diseases,” she said.

Canada has packaging similar to Australia, said Bansal-Travers, and research shows that more smokers have quit since the labeling changes were made. “In Canada,” she said, “one of my colleagues at the University at Waterloo has found in focus groups that women do not like to carry the warning about harm to a fetus because they find the image disturbing, and men do not like their girlfriends to carry the impotence warning because they find that disturbing.”

Bansal-Travers, who grew up in Williamsville, works in the Carlton Building on the Roswell campus. She focuses her research on tobacco advertising and promotion. Her husband, Mark Travers, works in the office next door. He specializes in tobacco-related air pollution research, particularly on the impact of secondhand smoke.

International cigarette advertising research has shown that “smokers have misperceptions about their products,” Bansal-Travers said, “and colors and labels on packs communicate misperceptions to smokers. Smokers consider that Davidoff has most stylich cigarette packs http://www.cigarettesplace.net/davidoff-cigarettes

How have you determined tobacco companies have been most effective in getting people to buy cigarettes? They’re using packaging to communicate, which is largely exposed at the point of sale. We have determined through our research that both smokers and nonsmokers do look at the cigarette pack display in the retail environment.

Great American Smokeout is Coming

This week in the USA will take place the Great American Smokeout as it is held on third Thursday of November. On this day smokers are encouraged to quit smoking at least for one day and make a plan to quit for good. The latest New York statistics shows that despite smoking rates drop in

Decline in Cigarettes Use among Youth in Minnesota

Latest 2014 Minnesota Youth Tobacco Survey shows that use of cigarettes among school students has declined significantly, but use of e-cigarettes is increased. Data shows that more than a quarter of high school students have tried electronic cigarettes. Health care officials say that e-cigarettes contain nicotine which causes dependence. This may make young people want

Tobacco ban in Westminster would do more harm than good

Calls for limiting tobacco sales have been commonplace in recent news, but a small town in central Massachusetts might take the national tobacco conversation to a whole new level. The 7,700-person town of Westminster could become the first town in the nation to implement a ban on all tobacco product sales within municipality and town limits.

Though the proposal to implement a total ban on the city’s tobacco sales is designed with the aim of improving health in the town, its enactment will only hurt local business and drive tobacco consumers to neighboring suppliers.

Under the proposal, made public Monday by the Westminster Board of Health, the draft regulations of the tobacco ban would ultimately prohibit the sale of any product containing tobacco or nicotine, including cheap OK cigarettes, chewing tobacco and nicotine-laced electronic cigarettes. The plan has unsurprisingly garnered significant criticism from local business owners who argue that such a law would ultimately send their customers to nearby communities and threaten to drive their stores out of business. Several Westminster business owners have begun circulating petitions against the proposal. Store owner Brian Vincent’s has already accrued several hundred signatures.

The primary arguments in favor of the city-wide tobacco ban emphasize the importance of promoting healthy lifestyles, especially for the town’s young population. Though the goal is laudable on its face, it fails to acknowledge the fact that banning tobacco outright will not miraculously cure nicotine users of their dependency, nor effectively discourage buyers from purchasing products.

The fact of the matter is, in addition to a legal age limit prohibiting the selling of tobacco to minors, there are already state regulations in place which prohibit smoking in public areas — including the workplace, restaurants and bars. Some communities have even implemented smoking bans in public parks. Such laws, which restrict youth access to tobacco products and put an emphasis on public health and safety, are exactly what are needed to ensure that Westminster’s health concerns are met.

Proposed city smoking ban to get second look

Changes likely will be made to a proposed citywide ban on smoking in Montgomery, the mayor and city council members said. A proposed ordinance currently would ban smoking in all enclosed public places, including bars and private clubs.

It also would ban smoking in outdoor public places such as recreational areas and parking lots. It also would limit smoking to 20 feet or more from business entrances, playgrounds, outdoor public events and public transportation stations.

Mayor Todd Strange said the ordinance as it exists is the "first pass" of an effort to cut down on secondhand smoke in the city.

"I'd be shocked it is passed the way it is written," Strange said.

The ordinance is on the agenda to be voted on at Tuesday's meeting, but Councilman C.C. Calhoun, the ordinance's sponsor, said the council won't be voting on it.

"Right now, in its present form, the council is not 100 percent behind it," Calhoun said.

He said he will wait for more feedback from other council members, and a City Council committee will hammer out the details.

"We're not going to be restrictive where we limit businesses," Calhoun said.

There also is a question of how it will be enforced, he said.

"We're not going to have the Police Department enforce it," Calhoun said.

The ordinance currently includes exceptions for cigar bars and hookah bars.

Bud Skinner, owner of the Cloverdale nightclub Bud's, said he does not understand why traditional bars are not also exempt.

Skinner also owns Jubilee Seafood, and he said that while an earlier ordinance restricting smoking in restaurants helped that business, he was not sure if it would be the same story at a bar.

"We have customers (at Bud's) who appreciate the fact that they can enjoy an adult beverage and a cigarette," Skinner said, adding that people know to expect there to be smoking at the bar. Tom, the smoker of Viceroy Red cigarettes, is against smoking ban in bars.

Dr. Stephen Davidson, a medical oncologist and president of the American Cancer Society leadership council in Montgomery, said the ordinance will benefit the city both medically and economically.