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