$300 million award in Florida smoking case

A couple of quick posts before I go on vacation:

A jury in Florida ruled this week in favour of a woman smoker who got emphysema from her smoking and awarded her $300 million from Philip Morris.

This case is part of the $145 billion Engle class action suit. The Florida Supreme Court ruled that this case, which would have awarded damages to thousands of Florida smokers, could not be class action suit because the tobacco industry's liability differed from smoker to smoker.

So, each case will be tried separate. That could mean hundreds of decisions -- perhaps even thousands -- like this one.

The jury found the smoker 10 percent liable for taking up smoking and the industry 90 percent liable for its misleading advertising.

Of course, expect Philip Morris to appeal.

Montana casinos hurting

Not unexpected. Casinos legitimately do get hurt from smoking bans, apparently. But, then again, is that really a bad thing for society. No offence, but have you ever spent much time in a Montana casino? Most of them are small, dingy and depressing. According to a state gaming group, business at these little casinos is down 15 percent since the smoking ban went into effect in October.

Now, this article out of Billings does point out that this downward trend is also happening in the midst of a recession. That's what kind of skews these numbers smokers' rightsers like to cite. Everyone is hurting all over.

Smoking rate goes ... up?

Well, maybe. Maybe not. I think It might be so much statistical noise.

The Centers for Disease Control released its annual batch of smoking statistics and they are somewhat contradictory.

On the one hand, on a state-by-state breakdown, the smoking rate has gone down in most states -- and dramatically in the case of several states.

But, overall, according to the CDC, the smoking rate has gone up slightly nationwide -- from 19.8 percent in 2007 to 20.6 percent in 2008.

Here's why I don't get *too* upset. There is a margin for error in these statistics. They are based on an annual survey of 40,000 people, which means it isn't exact. This "increase" of 0.8 percent could be just numbers tweaking out different from year to year.

For instance, that 19.8 percent smoking rate in 2007? The statistical margin for error is actually 19.0 to 20.6 percent.

The 20.6 smoking rate in 2008? The statistical margin for error is 19.9 to 21.4 percent. There is a statistical overlap of 0.07 percent between the two surveys. I suspect in reality, very little has changed with the smoking rate over the last two years.

Even so, it's not the best of news. It breaks a several-year trend of the smoking rate consistently dropping each year. I blame lack of funding for tobacco education programs -- and money from the 1998 settlement with Big Tobacco that was *supposed* to be spent for tobacco education being spent on balancing state budgets instead. At best, this is a flattening out of the smoking rate.

An area that did see an increase is people living below the poverty level. In 2007, that smoking rate was 28.4 percent. In 2008, it went up to 31.5 percent. That 3 percent jump is probably more than just statistical "noise."

One bright sign is a drop in the smoking rate for people aged 18-24Again, there is a huge correlation between smoking rates and education. Each year's survey shows a consistent tie.
The smoking rate for college grads dropped from 11.4 percent to 10.6 percent, and for people with graduate degrees, it dropped from 6.2 percent to 5.7 percent.

However, for people with just 9-11 years of high school education (basically, we're talking about dropouts), it increased from 33.3 percent to 35.7 percent. For people with GEDs, the smoking rate remained high at 41.3 percent.

State smoking rates

Here's where the stats don't gibe with the national stats. The smoking rates in most states has dropped, so I'm not sure which stats to believe. There are 32 states total that have smoking rates below 20 percent.

Here in Montana, the overall smoking rate dropped from 19.5 to 18.5 percent. Montana is an odd state in that the smoking rate for men (18.7 percent) and women (18.4 percent) is virtually identical. In most states, men are several percentage points higher.

The lowest state was again Utah at 9.2 percent. West Virginia now has the highest smoking rate in the nation at 26.6 percent, passing Kentucky for that dubious honour.

This is interesting. In several states that have recently passed smoking bans, there has been in places dramatic decreases in smoking rates. In New Jersey, the smoking rate was only 14.8 percent, down from 17.2 percent in 2007. In Maryland, the smoking rate was only 14.9 percent, down from 17.1 percent in 2007. Ohio, for all of its yelling and screaming on the Internet over smoking bans, has seen its smoking rate drop from 23.1 percent to 20.2 percent.

In Virginia, headquarters of Philip Morris, the smoking rate is just 16.5 percent, down from 18.6 percent in 2007. In North Carolina, headquarters of RJ Reynolds, the smoking rate from from 22.9 percent in 2007 to 20.9 percent in 2008.

To reiterate, these are all states with recent smoking bans.

Indiana might have had the biggest increase, from 24.1 percent in 2007 to 26.1 percent in 2008. Indiana has no smoking ban.

South Dakota smoking ban going to a vote

It's official, the judge has ruled. South Dakota is going to a public vote for its smoking ban.

This is bad news in my opinion, but not necessarily devastating. It's bad news for two reasons: The vote won't take place until November 2010, so no smoking ban in South Dakota for at least another year; and 2) I will guarantee that R.J. Reynolds will pour an insane amount of money into South Dakota to try and defeat this measure -- they did it in Arizona, Nevada and Ohio.

This case came to court because bar and casino owners collected signatures to put a Legislature-approved smoking ban to a vote of the people. They collected enough signatures, but then the state invalidated many of them (a lot of them weren't registered voters, people didn't give real addresses, etc.)

Well, ultimately, the whole case came down to a whopping 17 signatures, and the judge ruled that she couldn't really hold up a public vote over 17 signatures out of several thousand, and I guess I can't argue with that logic. It seems petty.

One consolation is that R.J. Reynolds spent $40 million to defeat smoking bans in Arizona, Nevada and Ohio and still lost all three -- despite the fact that Nevada and Arizona are fairly conservative.

Ohio bar owners going crazy

Oh, those wacky Ohio bar owners, still going nuts over that state's smoking ban, even though it was passed by the voters three years ago!

They are filing a new challenge to that 2006 vote, saying that a number of petitions to put the measure on the ballot to begin with were invalid and that (gasp) convicted felons helped gather signatures.

What makes this story funny is a member of the Ohio Secretary of State's office saying there is absolutely no mechanism or law in the state that would allow the 2006 election to be overturned, even if the claims by the crazy bar owners were valid (which I strongly suspect they're not).

For some reason that I do not have an answer for, there seems to be a loud (at least on the Internet) festering animosity toward that state's smoking ban, even after three years. You just don't hear it from other states to the same degree.

November is lung cancer awareness week

And Nov. 19 is the Great American Smokeout. If you're reading this and you smoke, buy up some gum and take a break from cigs for the day. See if you like it.

Several smoking things to update today and tomorrow. For today:

Trial under way over South Dakota smoking ban

This case keeps getting more and more convoluted. The South Dakota State Legislature passed a smoking ban, but bar and casino owners collected signatures to put it to a public vote. However, the state found enough invalid signatures to say the initiative wasn't valid. Then, bar and casino owners sued.

Now, it's the trial. It sounds like the whole thing might boil down to a whopping 18 signatures -- that how short the casino and bar owners came up. Arguments will probably last into next week and hopefully the judge will make a quick decision.

Tobacco ban at the University of Montana

The University of Montana just adopted an extremely strict tobacco ban. You can't use tobacco products *anywhere* on campus, not indoors, not outdoors, and you can't just not smoke either. No chew or snus (because they didn't want to discriminate against smokers).

Friendliest countries for smokers

This is actually kind of cute. It would be funny to read the rants at Topix from smokers saying "Ill never vacation there again" whenever some state passed a smoking ban (really, I haven't read those rants in months, now. Same 10-12 people over and over and it's too toxic). There aren't too many places left in the U.S. where they can still smoke, unless they like vacationing in Alabama or Mississippi. Well, here's a list put out by the L.A. Times of the friendliest countries to smoking tourists. I'm still not quite sure if this article was meant to be tongue-in-cheek or not. These are all countries that have extremely high smoking rates, lax smoking laws or smoking laws that aren't enforced (Greece):
1) Greece
2) Russia
3) Nauru
4) Austria
5) Belarus
6) Samoa
7) Bosnia and Herzegovina
8) Laos
9) Hungary
10) Serbia
Serbia, Russia, Nauru, Belarus, Hungary, Bosnia and Laos? There's some pretty happenin' tourist hot spots.
Oh, well, there's always Greece and Austria, I guess....

Australia bans smoking in cars with kids

More than 400 people have been ticketed in South Australia so far under a new law banning smoking in cars with kids .... and I bet all 400 of those people were driving on the wrong side of the road.

Nicotine vaccine in the works

I just read a big article about this in Discovery magazine, but couldn't find a link on their Web site, so here is another link. Apparently, some progress has been made and $10 million is being sunk into researching a promising lead on a nicotine vaccine -- a vaccine that would break the addictive hold of nicotine by teaching the body's immune system to attack nicotine molecules and keep them from entering the brain. Interesting stuff. Chantix has some success, but it's a high-risk drug and doesn't actually go after nicotine molecules.

St. Louis passes smoking ban -- by a lot

St. Louis passed a smoking ban Tuesday, quite overwhelmingly, with about a two-to-one margin.

St. Louis was one of the biggest cities in the country without any kind of smoking ban whatsoever. Those honours currently belong to San Antonio, Texas, and Indianapolis, Ind.

Now, I'm sure opponents will make a big issue about the fact that only about 20 percent of the electorate voted. Whatever. They didn't get the vote out. They didn't rally a movement against it.

St. Louis is also a stronghold of anti-smoking ban sentiments, with one of the major leaders of the movement based there. (He used to be on Topix a lot, but bailed months ago. I think he figured out it was a big waste of energy.), so I wouldn't have been shocked if this measure failed. The fact that it passed so easily is a good thing.

Now, I fully expect appeals to be filed, restraining orders requested, etc., etc. They did the same in Kansas City. Again, whatever. These lawsuits virtually always fail. I can't believe they keep filing them, frankly.

This is not a comprehensive smoking ban. It has some loopholes. Bars that don't serve food will be exempted, as well as bars that only get a small amount of revenue from food.

Smoking ban follows in Montana

Here are two follow-up articles about Montana's smoking ban, both written by the same reporter, who I know for a fact smokes and likes to smoke in bars.

Apparently, this smoking reporter just figured out, oh my god, there's a smoking ban and I can't smoke in my favourite bar, anymore!

Anyway, the first article is actually pretty interesting about how the law applies to bars on the Flathead Reservation, or bars not necessarily on the Rez, but owned by Tribal members. It's actually pretty fuzzy.

The second article is kind of a "well, duh" variety. It's about how enforcement in Montana is being driven by complaints, which everyone but this particular reporter already knew. He apparently just figured it out. Anyway, it does kind of highlight that in small Montana towns like Ronan, enforcement is going to be a bitch. A bar owner in Ronan is quoted saying he's not going to enforce the smoking ban in his bar and smokers have rights, too, blah, blah, blah. Whatever.

Anyway, all someone has to do is call the Lake County Health Department and make a complaint and they will respond. It's like this in many states.

Another issue with Montana's smoking ban is whether you can use e-cigs in bars. The State Health Department initially said you could not, but I got an angry comment that that was all a lie. Sure enough, I have seen e-cigs being used in Charlie B's, and no one is stopping them, so they do not appear to be against the rules. They don't give off any odour at all, but I'm not sure I'm wild about being exposed to other people's nicotine-soaked steam.

St. Louis votes on smoking ban

St. Louis is one of the biggest cities in the country without any kind of smoking ban. (I believe San Antonio, Texas, is the biggest), but voters there will be going to the polls Nov. 3 to decide on a smoking ban. I have no idea how this is going to turn out. I wouldn't be totally surprised to see it go down because Missouri is pretty weird about smoking controls.

The other thing that will make this interesting is that one of the more vigilant anti-smoking ban activists in the country lives in the St. Louis area and I've seen his name splashed all over these stories. So, it's taking the smoking ban fight right into the belly of the beast.

New Surgeon General lost a parent to lung cancer

The new Surgeon General's, Regina Benjamin, mother died of lung cancer (and her father died of diabetes and her brother died of AIDS), so I'm hopeful that she will take smoking issues seriously in her position.

Lots of smoking updates

Here are a few updates from Montana and around the country regarding smoking issues:
First in Montana, two more updates to the state's new smoking ban. First, after one week of the state's smoking ban, it has received a total of seven complaints of non-compliance. Seven complaints in one week! So much for people ignoring the ban.

The second story is about how the state has banned smoking at the state hospital. For some reason, a really large percentage of mentally ill people smoke. This has been an ongoing struggle at many state hospitals because lack of cigarettes can really agitate some of the patients.

Yet *another* study showing smoking bans reduce heart attacks

This is absolutely a broken record, and it's become a very, very consistent conclusion -- that smoking bans lead to a reduction in heart attack admissions in local hospitals among both smokers and non-smokers alike. Here is another extensive study making that point.

There have literally been more than 100 studies all reaching this same conclusion -- and it's something that drives the smokers' rights movement completely nuts. They continue to claim all these studies are bunk and based on "junk science."

Man receives smoker's lungs in lung transplant, dies of lung cancer

Here is an absolutely bizarre story. A soldier received a lung transplant from a smoker, then died a year later of lung cancer. Why the hell would they use the lungs of a smoker for a lung transplant? It's completely weird and nonsensical. This happened in the U.K., by the way, not the U.S.

Schwarzenegger vetoes e-cig ban in California

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have made e-cigs illegal in California. The FDA is currently reviewing e-cigs to see if they should be approved.

Apparently, e-cigs have been effectively banned in public places Montana by the state health department. I haven't heard if anyone is considering a challenge to that.

Kansas City smoking ban upheld by Supreme Court

Kansas City, Mo.'s, ban on smoking was upheld earlier this month by the Missouri Supreme Court. This case is dead. St. Louis is going to be voting soon on a very weak restaurant ban. That will be interesting because there's an extremely active anti-ban activist in St. Louis who I'm sure will go all-out to defeat this measure. St. Louis is one of the biggest cities in the country with no smoking ban whatsoever.

Syria bans smoking!

Syria of all places, recently adopted a smoking ban. I often wonder when countries such as Greece, Turkey or Syria pass smoking bans, if they are at all enforced.

Smoking ban in Jackson, Wyoming

Apparently, there is only one bar in all of Jackson that continues to allow smoking -- the Virginian (Last time I was in Jackson last summer, it was definitely more than one bar that had smoking.). The Virginian is fighting the county health department ban on smoking. This is actually kind of an interesting case, because I don't know if there have been other county health departments that have tried to do this. Usually it's a city council or county supervisors. This is a very long and detailed, and interesting article by the Jackson paper. They refer to the new ban in Montana in this story.

Anyway, Wyoming is the last state in the West that hasn't even banned smoking in restaurants (Idaho and Nevada have restaurant bans), but Wyoming has bans in Cheyenne and Laramie. The Jackson ban will probably be tied up in court for a few more weeks or months.

Pretty soon, Casper, Wyo. is going to be about the only place west of Texas that you can still smoke in a restaurant!

Musical about smoking bans

So, just for kicks, I've checked out Charlie B's, the Rhino and the Union Club in the last week. These were three places that were just forced to go smokefree.

In the Union Club, there were a couple of ugly drunks loudly and profanely complaining about the smoking ban (this is at 4:30 in the afternoon, so they started pounding them down pretty early.) Man, it was annoying. It wasn't so much what they were saying, it was the volume. One of them actually absent-mindedly lit a cigarette. Putting away your first cocktail at 11 in the morning will have that effect on you, I guess.

I liked Charlie B's (though there was an ugly drunk in there, too, in the middle of the afternoon). I found the Rhino a little unfriendly.

A musical just opened on Broadway about smoking bans ... it's called "The Last Smoker in America." Songs include "Hangin' Out in a Smoky Bar," "The Last Cigarette" and "The Last Smoker in America."

It isn't really just about smoking bans, but one of the plotlines involves a character trying to quit smoking because laws have made it impossible to smoke anywhere. Here is an interview with one of the playwrights.

E-cigs banned in Montana bars?

Here's an odd Montana story, suggesting that e-cigarettes have been banned in Montana bars and taverns.

One of the big marketing angles of e-cigs is that you can beat smoking bans with them, because they don't actually give off steam (Instead they give off nicotine-laced steam).

Well, according to attorneys with the Montana State Department of Health, e-cigs are not legal to smoke in bars under the state's newly expanded smoking ban ... they are considered the same as cigarettes. As far as I know, Montana could be the only state in the country to make such a ruling (I could be wrong about that. I simply haven't heard of another state doing this.).

Part of the reason the state made this decision is that the FDA, which now has control over nicotine and e-cigs are a nicotine delivery system, is currently reviewing whether or not to ban e-cigs altogether. E-cigs don't give off the same kind of toxins as cigarette smoke, but they give off toxins nonetheless. I expect the FDA will end up banning them.

Some bars in Montana actually bought a bunch of e-cigs so people could still get their nicotine fix, but then found out the hard way they couldn't do it.

"Light" cigarette case going to the U.S. Supreme Court

Several tobacco companies are appealing a U.S. Appeals Court decision regarding the marketing of "light" cigarettes to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The decision by the appeals court would effectively ban "low tar" or "light" cigarettes, but the down side of it is that it removed the monetary damages element. At one time, the Justice Department (Bill Clinton era) was asking for $289 billion in damages from tobacco companies because they lied about the lesser danger claims of low tar and light cigarettes.

So, in essence, this case comes down to whether or not there will ever be low tar or light cigarettes again.

Also (in this same article, how convenient, only one link needed), the province of Ontario has also filed a $50 *billion* lawsuit against big tobacco companies seeking compensation for medical costs within the province.

Smoking ban comes to Montana

Here is a local story on Montana's new expanded smoking ban. All bars and restaurants are covered now. Photo courtesy of the Missoulian.

This story has the predictable mix of people who are annoyed at the ban and people who are happy about it.

The most outrageous part of this story was a young couple who went outside to smoke at the Oxford, which is the sleaziest dive in all of Missoula and complained that because of the ban, they had to leave their 18-month old baby in the bar who was eating pancakes ...

.... WHAT???....

Was someone watching the toddler in the Oxford ... the sleaziest bar in all of Missoula?

They'd rather go out and smoke rather than wait for their baby to finish her pancakes...?

Then the mother of the baby said the smoking ban is "disrespecting" her baby....

OMG!!! That has to be the most insane thing I've ever heard about any smoking ban. How much you want to bet those rockheads smoke around that poor kid?

Anyway, this ban was a long time coming. Montana had one of the oddest smoking bans in the country. It took effect immediately in restaurants in 2005, but then was delayed four years in bars and taverns.

Missoula Indy story on smoking ban

The alternative weekly in Missoula, the Missoula Independent did a big, multi-part story this week on the smoking ban that's finally kicking into comprehensive stage beginning Oct. 1.

The story quotes a number of smokers whining about the law and a number of bar owners afraid they're going to get hit. Kind of standard fare for these sorts of stories. One of the bars they did their interview at was the Golden Rose, which is a real dive out on West Broadway. Pretty much anything out on West Broadway is by nature bad news.

However, the article does hit on one major point I have wondered about.

I have no doubt the smoking ban will be generally well enforced in cities like Missoula, Billings and Bozeman, but what about the small towns where there aren't a lot of health inspectors. Are the bars in places like Milltown, Frenchtown, Arlee, Evaro etc., really going to comply. I suspect there will be a lot of defiance.

I can't wait for Oct. 1. It will be the first time I ever step foot in the Rhino and Charlie B's.
I still won't set foot in the Oxford, however. I don't care if it's smokefree. :)

Another heart attack study

Yup, this one got national attention and I'm sure the smokers' rights crowd had their usual head-exploding reaction. A collection of studies worldwide shows that where smoking bans are implementing, heart attacks drop 17 percent for smokers and non-smokers combined.

"Lies, all lies."

Yeah, uh, huh. This is about the 100th study now that reaches the same conclusion. The evidence is overwhelming. Smoking bans save lives of non-smokers.

Candy cigarettes officially banned

The FDA officially banned candy-flavoured cigarettes this week, in its first action since being given regulatory authority over cigarettes. Unfortunately, this ruling does not apply to menthol cigarettes because menthols represent a pretty big chunk of the cigarette market. But, no more peach or raspberry or strawberry flavoured cigarettes to attract teenagers.

Nevada smoking ban upheld as constitutional

The Nevada Supreme Court today ruled that the Nevada smoking ban IS constitutional, probably (who knows?) ending the legal challenges to it. However, the court did not uphold criminal sanctions within the law as being too vague.

I'm sure this isn't the end of the smoking ban fight in Nevada. The casinos are very powerful and they came close to watering down the state smoking ban through the State Legislature last year. I expect they will be back at it this year.

Patrick Swayze dies

After a year-long battle with pancreatic cancer, Patrick Swayze finally succumbed yesterday at the age of 57.

Swayze was a heavy smoker (and I'm NOT saying he deserved his cancer) -- about 3 packs a day -- and he gave an interview about a year ago in which he blamed his smoking for his cancer ... and he urged people to quit.

Like my dad, Swayze smoked right to the end. Some people gave him grief over it, but I don't. He said to Barbara Walters that if he believed it would make a difference in his prognosis, he would quit in a heartbeat, but pancreatic cancer is one of the worst and hardest to cure.

Swayze also seemed to be getting better, but I kind of new better, based on what I've seen from my dad. You can appear to be in remission, but it's a long, long battle and remission is a long way from cure.

It was a sad death. He was still a very young man. He wasn't the greatest actor in the world, and never seemed to be quite as big of a star as it appeared he was going to be. I think my favourite Patrick Swayze movie was "Roadhouse," because it is literally so gawdawful that it's actually quite funny. It has the absolute worst dialogue and script I have ever seen.

Anyway, here's to Patrick, who seemed to be a very brave and honest person who died too young.

Cool photos from Hubble

Look at these amazing photos from the newly refurbished Hubble space telescope. Aren't these amazing? If you want to see more, go to hubblesite.org

Obama gets to hold the Stanley Cup!

The Pittsburgh Penguins visited the White House yesterday.
I'm so jealous!

Comprehensive smoking ban nears for Montana

Why is this cat having cigarettes?
Montana will go completely, totally, utterly smokefree on Oct. 1, a mere 25 days away. Here is a story in a local paper about it.
Actually, it won't make that dramatic of a difference in Missoula, because there's only a handful of places that still have indoor smoking. The current smoking ban doesn't allow smoking in any restaurants or bars that serve food. The three or four free-standing bars in town I've gone into have voluntarily banned smoking indoors. Still, after Oct. 1, I do plan to check out a couple of the still-smoking places to see if they've genuinely gotten rid of the smoking. At least one of the places has vowed to defy the ban, I've heard. I'm not above making a phone call to the county health department if I see places trying to flout the ban.