Nottingham’s Old Market Square May Become Smoke-free

In English city of Nottingham there was proposed to prohibit smoking on Old Market Square, and if the idea gets necessary support it will be adopted in form of an ordinance. The proposal also includes smoking ban in city’s hospitals and playgrounds. In the UK, the first city to prohibit tobacco use on its two

Durbin, health advocates celebrate 25 years of no smoking on U.S. flights

It has been 25 years since American Airlines flight attendant Jena Olsen waded through clouds of cigarette smoke on an airplane.

"You would sit in the jump seat for takeoff, and you would see everybody poised with their cigarettes out and their lighters," she said. "And once that no-smoking sign went off, the cabin would fill up with smoke. It was just oppressive."

Passenger Michael is a smoker who knows where to buy cigarettes wholesale, and says that though he dislike the ban, he already got used to it.

Olsen stood alongside flight attendants, health advocates and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Monday at O'Hare International Airport to celebrate 25 years without smoking on American flights. Beginning Feb. 25, 1990, nearly all domestic flights turned on their no-smoking signs permanently.

Although proud of the accomplishment, Durbin and health leaders said there is still work to be done to prevent people from breathing secondhand smoke. American Lung Association CEO Harold Wimmer said making skies smoke-free was a turning point in protecting Americans from the harmful effects of cigarettes.

"Now it is incomprehensible to millions of children and adults that people actually smoked on airplanes," Wimmer said.

More than 50 years ago, Surgeon General Luther Terry announced that smoking was a health hazard and that the government should take "remedial action." Since 1964, local and state governments have spearheaded efforts to ban smoking in public buildings, on college campuses and in businesses.

In Chicago, the Clean Indoor Air Ordinance banned smoking in public places and businesses in 2008. The ordinance was amended last year to include electronic cigarettes.

All major airlines have a voluntary ban on e-cigarette smoking, and Durbin is trying to federally prohibit it on airplanes.

Fewer Smoking Scenes in Movies Nominated for Oscar 2015

Would you like to know how much smokier are films nominated for Oscar this year in comparison with past years? Movies nominated for Oscar in 2014 are a kind of departure from past years when films nominated for Oscar awards normally had more smoking scenes than films as a whole. Generally, the persentage of Oscar-nominated

Growing Number of Smoke-Free Public Housing

Resident Carol Chatham moved in to her apartment in Vestal, New York, in spring 2009 and says that when she was opening her window she usually felt the smell of tobacco smoke. Carol, aged 71, was a regular smoker in her past. When she moved in her new apartment in a new building, she coulndn’t

Kate Toan: City's new vaping ban a mistake

 Reading the public agenda announcement for the Feb. 3 city council meeting, I saw the announcement of a proposed "expanded smoking ban" and thought to myself "OK, sure. Cigarettes are bad, secondhand smoke is dangerous." I decided to spend my evening otherwise engaged. Imagine my surprise to open up my favorite Boulder blog the next morning (Your Boulder) and find that the city had in fact extended not just the geographic reach of our downtown smoking ban, but also expanded the definition of "smoking" to include vaporizers.

The increasing opacity of the political process around numerous project approvals and policy changes is unacceptable. Agendas are not being honestly or fairly described, and the public is not being sufficiently informed of these proposed decisions ahead of time. Do I have an opinion about vaporizers? So happy you are interested — yes. They save lives.

I am a former smoker, who knew what were best cigarettes to buy, managed to quit with the help of these devices, which simulate the act of smoking itself in addition to delivering an optional dose of nicotine. I was never strongly "addicted" to nicotine, but enjoyed the physical act of smoking; therefore no other method (patch, gum, whatever) could satisfy the urge to smoke the way vaping did. It feels good to be smoke-free, to smell nice and have clean teeth and nails.

To be able to live the active Boulder lifestyle! Cigarettes are also deadly — they harm every organ in the human body and kill nearly 500,000 people a year in the U.S. alone. That's one in five deaths from any cause! Cigarette smoke contains 5,000 chemicals, hundreds of which are toxic. Nicotine, which can be lethal at high concentrations, is actually one of the less harmful substances in cigarette smoke.

In 2010, nearly half of all the smokers in the U.S. attempted to quit, but only 6 percent succeeded according to a CDC study (who knows how many re-started after the study!). Quitting smoking has been said to be more difficult than quitting drinking or using heroin. It might be almost as difficult as applying for a building permit in Boulder!

It is true that we probably do not have all the evidence surrounding potential harms from the use of vaporizing devices. Much alarm has been raised over their use however, and no wonder — they threaten both the finances of the traditional tobacco industry and alarm anti-smoking advocates who see immediate and total abstinence as the goal. Studies consistently show that vaping, while not completely benign, is far less harmful than smoking. Instead of hundreds of toxins, which act in concert to produce disease, there are at most two in vaping — nicotine and the artificial "smoke," which is the same kind used at rock concerts and Halloween parties.

Restrictions on smoking in public places were enacted in order to clean up the problem with secondhand smoke and provide social shame and isolation that would provide incentives to smokers to quit. However, after decades of efforts to reduce smoking, there are still millions of smokers who are currently unable to quit, despite knowing the health risks and despite penalties for smoking inside, outside, in cars, hotel rooms, or basically anywhere except huddled over a trash fire in the back alley.

Portland City Council May Expand Smoking Ban to All Parks

City Council in Portland, Oregon, considers the idea of extending tobacco and smoking ban, which exists at Portland Parks & Recreation, to all city parks. In case the proposal gets the majority of votes, then starting from July 1, 2015, in Portland all natural areas, golf courses, city parks, recreation areas, community centers, trails, and

All universities, colleges in Punjab to be tobacco free

All private and government universities and affiliated colleges in Punjab will be tobacco free zones, a senior health official said Monday.

Vini Mahajan, principal secretary, health and family welfare, asked the vice chancellors of all private and government universities in the state to take steps to declare the institutions tobacco free.

Principals of affiliated colleges, government and private, have also been asked to ensure that the institutions are made tobacco free zones.

In a written communique, Mahajan asked them to implement COTPA (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003) firmly.

She said Punjab was the first state in India to ban the sale of loose cigarettes (as single sticks) to discourage smoking.

Mahajan said no shop or outlet selling tobacco should be allowed within 100 metres of any educational institution.


However, smokers say that cheapest place to buy cigarettes is from Internet.