LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Smoker or non-smoker? It can be a divisive issue and now comes the question: just how much should employers be able to regulate when and how employees smoke? Norton Healthcare is tightening up its anti-tobacco policy and it’s burning some smokers up.

Trying to find a smoker to talk to you about smoking isn’t easy.

One smoker, who didn’t want to be identified, summed up this way: “Smoking is bad. You’re not supposed to smoke.”

Many smokers want to stay hidden, and that’s just fine by Norton Healthcare administrators, at least while their employees are at work.

“It’s just what happens here that impacts the patients’ care that we’re most concerned about,” said Jim Parobek, Norton Vice President of Ancillary Services. (more…)

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - The state Supreme Court has dismissed an injunction had barred state collection of cigarette taxes from tobacco stores licensed by the Osage Nation.

Justices last week ruled that a lower court didn’t have jurisdiction to stop the Oklahoma Tax Commission from collecting 86 cents per pack from the tribe’s licensed tobacco retailers.

The justices noted that a tobacco compact between the parties required any disputes be resolved through binding arbitration.

The tribe avoided paying the rate because of an exception in the compact that allowed it to pay the amount paid by the nearby Pawnee Tribe, 58 cents.

When the Pawnees terminated their compact in 2008, the Osages’ tax reverted to 86 cents, sparking a lawsuit by Osage-licensed retailer, Feather Smoke Shops.

Commission spokeswoman Paula Ross says the agency considers the matter closed.

One area distributor says new Food and Drug Administration oversight powers don’t appear to be negatively impacting tobacco sales in the St. Joseph area following recent restrictions on flavored cigarettes.

However, those changes are likely just the beginning as anti-smoking/anti-tobacco groups continue to watch what other changes the FDA has in store.

Brian Dickins, owner of Saint Joe Distributing, said sales of chewing tobacco have increased as flavored cigarettes are done away with. Others who prefer flavored tobacco simply can buy small flavored cigars, which are close to the size of a cigarette and come in smaller packages, but cost almost half as much.
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HARRISONBURG, Va. — Attention smokers with a fondness for flavor: your Djarum Blacks cigarettes, vanilla cigarettes and packs of Splash are on the out. On Sept. 22, the Food and Drug Administration issued a ban on flavored cigarettes, including clove, candy or fruit flavors. The FDA is also considering a ban on menthol cigarettes and other flavored tobacco products.
The FDA said flavored cigarettes are a “gateway” for children and teenagers to become regular smokers, and almost 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking as teenagers. The average age of a new smoker is 13.
Studies cited by the FDA have shown that 17-year-old smokers are three times as likely to use flavored cigarettes as smokers over the age of 25.
Mike Lynn, an employee at Harrisonburg’s B&B Tobacco, said he’s noticed this trend.
“Generally a younger population — females and a majority of college students — smoke flavored cigarettes,” Lynn said. (more…)

Perspectives vary widely on the $1-a-pack tax increase on cigarettes that goes into effect today, making projections about increases in state revenue and improved health of the citizenry hazy at best.

Some smokers say they’re sure of the tax’s effect.

“I’m going to quit because of it,” said Josh Braccidiferro of Middletown, a smoker for about 10 years. “I’m not spending $7 on a pack of cigarettes.”

People who sell cigarettes say a scrounging state government is rifling the pockets of blue-collar Nutmeggers.
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Their websites have names like SmokeAnywhere.com and SmokingEverywhere.com, and manufacturers of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are touting that their products are “cheaper than a cigarette,” have a “cool design,” come in “different flavors” and are a “tar-free option” to traditional cigarettes. The website of E-Cigarettes National boasts that its new electronic cigarettes have “eliminate” (more…)

Not satisfied with its efforts to ban tobacco and demonize its users, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is now taking aim at a potentially healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes, electronic cigarettes.

Electronic cigarettes (or e-cigarettes) are battery powered devices that emulate the look and feel of traditional cigarettes and deliver a vaporized nicotine solution directly to the lungs when smoked. The devices contain no tobacco and there is no combustion involved in their operation.

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PHOENIX — State legislators and the governor acted illegally in taking $7 million from a 2006 tobacco tax initiative to instead balance the state budget, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The justices rejected arguments that lawmakers are free to reallocate investment and interest income from the money raised by the tax as long as they do not touch the tax revenues themselves. (more…)

Electronic cigarettes contain traces of toxic substances and carcinogens, according to a preliminary analysis of the products by the Food and Drug Administration.

The findings, which were announced on Wednesday, contradict claims by electronic cigarette manufacturers that their products are safe alternatives to tobacco and contain little more than water vapor, nicotine and propylene glycol, which is used to create artificial smoke in theatrical productions. When heated, the liquid produces a vapor that users inhale through the battery-powered device. (more…)

President Obama recently signed into law the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which grants the FDA authority to regulate tobacco products, as well as putting restrictions on tobacco marketing and advertising.

The FDA will now be able to reduce the nicotine content and regulate the chemicals in cigarettes. Tobacco companies will no longer be allowed to target children by adding flavors, other than menthol, to cigarettes in order to improve taste and make them seem more appealing. (more…)