Will GOP finally air smoking bill?

VIRGINIA Republicans are desperate to win back the suburban voters who lifted the party to prominence in the 1990s only to abandon the GOP for moderate Democrats in recent years.
Suburban voters have just one question for Republican lawmakers: What problem have you solved for us lately? That’s a real chin-scratcher, but Republicans know they had better come up with an answer pretty fast or they could lose next year’s gubernatorial election and forfeit their majority in the House of Delegates, the GOP’s final toehold in state government.
There’s a catch. Building roads and schools for fast-growing suburban communities takes a lot of money, and cash is in short supply now. There aren’t many problems that can be solved gratis, but there is one. To read more of the story in the Virginian Pilot: http://hamptonroads.com/node/489077

Secondhand Smoke May Induce Nicotine Dependence Symptoms

If parents are serious about keeping their children from smoking, says a new study, they shouldn't smoke around them -- and not just because doing so sets a negative example. According to senior author Dr. Jennifer O'Loughlin of the Université de Montréal's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, "Increased exposure to second-hand smoke, both in cars and homes, was associated with an increased likelihood of children reporting nicotine dependence symptoms, even though these children had never smoked." The study appears in the September edition of the journal Addictive Behaviors.
Read the full article at:http://nouvelles.umontreal.ca/content/view/1811/206/

Web Site Offers Information on the Smoking Status of all Restaurants in Virginia

The Office of Environmental Health Service’s restaurant inspection Web site (www.healthspace.ca/vdh) now provides information on the smoking status for all fast food and full service restaurants in the Commonwealth. The information is provided by locality. Non-smoking facilities are identified with a distinctive icon. A non-smoking designation means that smoking is not permitted anywhere inside the restaurant but may be permitted outside. The addition of smoking status helps the public become well-informed food service consumers. The Web site is updated following inspections by environmental health specialists. It enables the public to monitor ongoing compliance with the food safety requirements and the current smoking status in their favorite restaurants. This Web site has been very popular with the public and the media averaging more than 90,000 visits (1.7 million hits) per month since its inception in May 2003.

Tobacco Use

Cigarette Sales Decreasing -- but Other Tobacco Product Popularity Increasing
Cigarette smoking and sales have been on the decline over the last decade in the United States -- but health-care providers and other concerned citizens shouldn't be too quick to celebrate, says a study from the Harvard School of Public Health. According to the research, 30 percent of the drop in cigarette sales may be offset by the sale of other tobacco products, including snuff, cigars, and roll-your-own products. The study -- the first to examine concurrent cigarette and other tobacco product sales -- appears in the June 11, 2008, issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Read the full article at: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2008-releases/decline-in-cigarette-smoking-in-offset-by-use-of-other-tobacco-products.html

Two Questions Can ID Youth At Risk of Smoking

Researchers say youth at risk of becoming smokers can be identified by asking two simple questions: "Would it be easy for you to get a cigarette?" and "Do you have friends who smoke?"
To read more go to:
http://www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2008/two-questions-can-id-youth-at.html

Green City Virginia Beach

Join me in congratulating our coalition members Laura Wood Habr at Croc's 19th Street Bistro and Matt Falvey at Hot Tuna in their success in having Virginia Beach designated the first Green City in Virginia Beach. Check out the restaurants and support our smoke free, green establishments. For more details go to:

http://www.virginia.org/site/features.asp?FeatureID=486

Join Together

Secondhand smoke exposure plummets, CDC finds. To read more go to:

http://www.jointogether.org/news/research/summaries/2008/secondhand-smoke-exposure.html?print=t

Massachusetts Raises Cigarette Tax to Help Fund Health Care Law

Gov. Deval Patrick (D-Mass.) signed a bill that raises the state's cigarette tax by $1, a move that is expected to bring in $174 million in revenues "to help cover the cost of the state's landmark health care law," reports the Associated Press.
http://www.rwjf.org/coverage/digest.jsp?id=8156&c=EMC-ND132

Iowa Smoking Ban Takes Effect

The Iowa Department of Health began enforcing a new law that prohibits smoking in restaurants, bars, workplaces and other public areas statewide, the Britt News-Tribune reports.

http://www.rwjf.org/publichealth/digest.jsp?id=8115&c=EMC-ND141

Regional Meetings for Virginian's for a Healthy Future

Virginians for a Healthy Future Coalition will be hosting a series of regional meetings throughout the Commonwealth in June. Below please find a list of the dates and locations of the meetings.

We encourage anyone interested in making Virginia's public places smoke free to come to the meeting in your area. Please join us to learn more about our campaign plans but also to help us to

Virginia Beach
Thursday, June 19th
10:00 am
Sentara Princess Anne – Community Room Suite 210
1925 Glenn Mitchell Drive
Virginia Beach, VA 23456

At the meetings we will discuss:
Our grassroots and legislative strategies to advocate for smoke free legislation
How we can mobilize Virginians to contact their legislators
What tactics you think will work in your community

If you plan to attend the meeting – please RSVP to Nicole Pugar, Coalition Organizer at (804) 225-5828 or nicole@vfhf.org by Monday, June 16. Please visit our website at http://www.healthyvanow.org/ for more information about the Smoke Free Virginia Now campaign.

Ban on Restaurant smoking update

Study: Restaurant tobacco bans influence teen smoking
By STEVE LeBLANCAssociated Press Writer
A Massachusetts study suggests that restaurant smoking bans may play a big role in persuading teens not to become smokers. Youths who lived in towns with strict bans were 40 percent less likely to become regular smokers than those in communities with no bans or weak ones, the researchers reported...
Click here to read the rest of the article.

Iowa & Kansas City, Missouri, Deliver Big Wins for Smoke-Free Air

Great news in the Midwest – a new smoke-free state AND smoke-free city!! Congrats to everyone who made these wins a reality!
The Iowa Legislature and Kansas City, Missouri, voters on Tuesday delivered victories for health and the public’s right to breathe clean air by enacting measures to make most workplaces, including restaurants and bars, smoke-free. Governor Chet Culver has indicated he will sign the Iowa legislation into law, making Iowa the 24th state to pass a strong smoke-free law that includes restaurants and bars. The law will take effect July 1.

American Lung Association Update

Big Tobacco's Guinea Pigs: How an Unregulated Industry Experiments on America's Kids and Consumers - This report details how tobacco companies manipulate their products to recruit new youth users, create and sustain addiction, and discourages users from quitting

Hope for smoking ban bill

Gov. Kaine holds out hope for smoking ban bill
Reported by: Shannon Sims 05:52 PM EST on Wednesday, February 20, 2008
http://www.wvec.com/news/topstories/stories/wvec_local_022008_smoking_ban_bill.10ae9499.html

Help Revive Smoking Ban Bills

Please read the full page ad in todays Virginian Pilot (below).

Clearing Air on Smoking Politics (Last gasp on smoking ban)
The Virginian-Pilot© February 20, 2008
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/02/last-gasp-smoking-ban

Ad aims to revive bill on smoking ban
The Virginian-Pilot© February 20, 2008
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/02/ad-aims-revive-bill-smoking-ban

If you chose to take individual action, you can do so using the following information:
DelTSuit@house.state.va.us Phone: (804) 698-1081 Fax: (804) 786-6310
DelWHowell@house.state.va.us House Speaker Phone: (804) 698-1028 Fax: (804) 786-6310
DelMGriffith@house.state.va.us House Majority Leader Phone: (804) 698-1008 Fax: (804) 786-6310

Younger Smokers May Have More Success at Quitting

Want to help people quit smoking? A new study from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, suggests getting to smokers when they're younger may produce the best results. "Most previous studies focused on smokers aged 35 and older who have smoked for 20 years or more," said John P. Pierce, Ph.D., director of UC San Diego's Cancer Prevention and Control Program. "That has led to an overemphasis on drug treatments to help cessation, whereas this study emphasized the importance of implementing a smoke free home if a smoker wants to quit successfully." The study appears in the January 2, 2008, edition of the American Journal of Public Health.

Read the full article at:
http://cancer.ucsd.edu/AboutUs/News/
stories/Pierce_YoungSmoke.asp

Bad News for Smoke Free Legislation

ABC/ Gaming Subcommittee Votes to Kill Smoke Free Air Bills Passed in the Senate With an unrecorded voice vote, the members of the House of Delegates ABC/Gaming subcommittee of the General Laws committee voted to kill the smoke free air bills that passed in the Senate.

The full General Laws committee will not have the opportunity to vote on the bills.

Despite this disappointing vote, the Virginians for a Healthy Future Coalition remains committed to advocating for smoke free indoor air.

With over 88% of Virginians agreeing that all workers should be protected from secondhand smoke, there is obviously strong support for the legislation and we will continue to remind our elected officials to listen their constituents and support smoke free indoor air legislation in the future.

CDC Report Calls on States to Boost Medicaid Tobacco Cessation Coverage

From RWJF News Digest:
CDC Report Calls on States to Boost Medicaid Tobacco Cessation Coverage
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called on states to dramatically increase their Medicaid tobacco dependency treatment coverage. The CDC report cited the Healthy People 2010 goal of instituting total health insurance coverage for evidence-based tobacco cessation treatments in all 51 state Medicaid programs, AHA News Now reports.

Opportunity to Testify

Request from VFHF (www.smokefreevanow.org):
We have just learned that the Senate clean indoor air bills (smoking ban bills) are going to be considered and voted on in the ABC/ Gaming subcommittee this Thursday, February 14th one hour after the adjournment of Session. Session should not last more than 30 minutes or so as they will not have a lot of bills on which to vote. I expect the meeting to start around 1:30 pm.

Would any of you ( or individuals from the association with which you work) be available to come to House Room C in the General Assembly Building again this Thursday and be in attendance and/or testify?

Please contact: Nicole Pugar, Coalition Organizer , Virginians for a Healthy Future
(804) 225- 5828 or Nicole@vfhf.org

New Guide to Establishing Smoke-Free Policies Published Partnership for Prevention

New Guide to Establishing Smoke-Free Policies Published Partnership for Prevention has released a new publication, Smoke-Free Policies: Establishing a Smoke-Free Ordinance to Reduce Exposure to Secondhand Smoke in Indoor Worksites and Public Places. This evidence-based tool provides step-by-step guidance on building support for and implementing a smoke-free ordinance in community and worksite settings. Web links to additional tools and resources are given throughout to assist with planning and implementation. Download the PDF.

Take Action & Other Information from Smoke Free VA Now!

Are you ready to take action to let your legislators know that you support smoke free air?Tell your legislators that you want a smoke free Virginia now!

Want to join the movement?
Have your organization sign the Smoke Free Virginia Now! resolution to become a campaign supporter, or join the Virginians for a Healthy Future coalition.

Want to discuss the latest news?Visit our Smoke Free VA Now! blog

Regional Collaborative Meeting of Tobacco-Free Initiatives

Dear CINCH Members and Community Partners,

Please plan to join CINCH’s Allies Against Asthma’s workgroup, the Virginia Beach Tobacco-free Coalition, the Chesapeake Coalition and other community partners on Monday, January 14, 2008** from 9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. in E.V. Williams Hall at Eastern Virginia Medical School to discuss and coordinate efforts on local tobacco-free initiatives. The attached flyer will provide you with more information on this important meeting. If you need driving directions to the meeting location, please let me know.

If you plan to attend it is important that you RSVP to CINCH@evms.edu ensure we have enough refreshments.

**Reminder to AAA Workgroup Members – this meeting takes the place of the January AAA workgroup meeting originally scheduled for 1/21/08.

Governor's Press Conference - VAB, Jan 7th

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 3, 2008

MEDIA CONTACT: Matt Falvey, co-owner Hot Tuna Restaurant, Direct 757-717-1002

______________________________________________________________________

WHO: Governor Timothy Kaine

WHAT: Press Conference on Smoking Ban for Restaurants

WHEN: Monday, January 7, 2008, 10:30am -11:15am

WHERE: HOT TUNA Restaurant, 2817 Shore Drive, VA Beach, VA 23451 Map/Directions www.hottunavb.com

WHY: Governor Kaine is trying once again to encourage the Virginia General Assembly to pass a statewide ban on smoking in restaurants to protect against the adverse health effects of second-hand smoke and to ensure a level playing field in the industry for those business owners opting to provide smoke-free environments. Even though polling suggested two-thirds of Virginians would prefer a statewide smoking ban, Kaine's amendment to HB 2422 was rejected by the Virginia House last year. Kaine, however, is determined to continue his push for healthier restaurant environments for employees and customers. The issues that led to the proposal's defeat last year, including a concern over the definition of restaurant, have been worked out for this year. According to Kaine, "there is a way to do a restaurant ban that is a much targeted ban that won’t have the effect of being too broad."