Sentara Respected for No-Smoking Regulation

For its effort to reduce the exposure of patients, employees and visitors to cigarettes smoke, Sentara Healthcare has earned the American Cancer Society’s “Excellence in Workplace Tobacco Control” award.

“Live the Mission” is Sentara Healthcare’s slogan for its 100 percent tobacco-free environment initiative. The program, Tobacco Free Environment, bans smoking and prohibits smokeless tobacco products anywhere on campus.

“We are excited to be recognized by the American Cancer Society,” Sentara CEO Dave Bernd said in a new release. “We believe a tobacco-free environment sends the right message to our employees, patients, visitors and vendors. We believe Sentara’s mission, to improve health everyday, is best led by example.”

Sentara’s program also offers a four-week education and support program titled “Get Off Your Butt! Stay Smokeless for Life!” The program focuses on the needs of each individual in her desire to quit smoking and is open to all Sentara employees, as well as members of the Hampton Roads community.

“Support buddies” are welcomed and encouraged to attend. The classes offer in-depth explanations of nicotine addiction and the most effective ways to break the habit.

Employees who are not able to attend the classes are given a workbook and a self-help compact disc to help guide them through the quitting stages. They are also given nicotine patches at cost, along with nicotine gum and incentives to quit through Mission: Health, Sentara’s health and prevention program.

Employees can continue to engage in services, even after they have completed the program. Additionally, the program is free of charge and is offered multiple times a year, at various locations, to make it easily accessible for all employees.

Alverine Mack, the program coordinator, credits the program’s staff for its success.

“The entire team has done a tremendous job,” she stated in the release. “It’s estimated that about 49,000 people die each year from second-hand smoke. By implementing the TFE program, Sentara is actively trying to improve the health of its campus for all who come here.”

Reynolds Tobacco Tops List for Board Diversity

The most diverse corporate board in North Carolina is at a company that sells tobacco, which has long been thought of as a male-dominated industry.

But Reynolds American Inc., based in Winston -Salem and run for the past six years by chief executive Susan Ivey, has a board where half the members are women are minorities. That’s a far higher percentage than most other N.C. companies, according to a study released today by the UNC School of Law.

According to the study, which is part of the school’s Director Diversity Initiative, N.C. companies are lagging the Fortune 100 when it comes to putting women and minorities on their boards. The study, which examined the 50 largest companies headquartered in North Carolina, found that 12 percent of the corporate board members were women, and 7 percent were minorities.

Each of those measures are up about 1 percentage point from the last survey, in 2006. But they’re below the average for Fortune 100 companies, which have about 17 percent female board members and about 15 percent minority board members, the UNC study said. UNC gave kudos to the 16 N.C. companies whose boards were at least one-quarter women or minorities, with Reynolds at the top of the list. Charlotte-based Piedmont Natural Gas Company Inc., Family Dollar Stores Inc., SPX Corp., Bank of America Corp., Polymer Group Inc. and Goodrich were also recognized.

Eleven of the N.C. companies had no women or minorities on their board, including five that are based in the Charlotte area: EnPro Industries Inc., Sonic Automotive Inc., Polypore International Inc., Cato Corp. and Speedway Motorsports Inc.

UNC’s Director Diversity Initiative also holds training anti-smoking programs on board diversity and maintains a database of potential board candidates.

IN RESPONSE: Letter an example of illogical reasoning

Larry Lee's letter (April 29) promoting the city's smoking ban is yet another example of illogical reasoning and the consequences of government intrusion into our daily lives. 

He says using an argument about a ban on overweight people is so ridiculous as to be laughable. 

Yet these bans that Lee ridicules are popping up and being promoted across the country by politicians and those tiresome people who are trying to save the human race from itself.

"A smoking ban would create overall fairness," Lee writes. For whom? As the situation exists today in our community, the vast majority of restaurants are non-smoking, while a precious few have smaller designated smoking areas. Some businesses offer a choice. What's wrong with that? 

"The air belongs to everyone," Lee writes, but the "everyone" he refers to excludes smokers, even in smaller designated smoking areas.

Also, Lee discounts people who would drive to smoking-friendly cities or counties. I am one of the many who drives from smoking ban counties into others that provide freedom of choice.

Here's a clue: Stay out of the smaller smoking areas in the few restaurants that still provide them. 

I choose to not dine in non-smoking restaurants. 

By the way, in all fairness, I don't smoke cigarettes. But I do smoke stinking cigars, which I consider one of life's simple pleasures.

This is not about a smoking ban. What Lee and the smoking police want is total control over our daily lives. 

The "what's next?" is as real as apple pie.

Karl Penn is a resident of Evansville.

Australians must stop smoking!

Australia's Federal Government's move to increase cigarette taxes up to 25 percent which will increase prices by up to $3 a pack or $15 a week with simpler packs is considered to be just a "waste of time" for some smokers.

According to Australian Medical Association, four million Australians are smokers and this rate is lower compared in low socio-economic areas, prison and indigenous segments of the population.

People from Centro Wodonga voiced out their opinions regarding the changes made.

"I am more worried about the price of smokes going up," Darren Pollard said.

"The change in packaging will make no difference to young people. They will smoke if they want to smoke."

But Andrew Lavender, state president from AMA believes that the new regulations will force smokers to stop the habit.

"We would like to see the cost of cigarettes increased even further because it's the single biggest way we can make people give up smoking.

"Cigarettes are still about 50 per cent cheaper here than in Europe."

Dr. Lavender reveals that plain cigarette packs particularly targets the youth and those people who are just about to begin smoking.

"Cigarette makers are in the business of selling cancer; ideally it would be illegal but they should not be able to make it attractive as a means of trying to sell it to the youth."

The law is foreseen to start by July 1, 2012 banning the use of attractive texts, branding and logos on cigarette packets.

Number of licences to grow tobacco more than doubles since quota system nixed

It was supposed to be a goner, but after shrivelling to near extinction, Ontario's tobacco crop is ready to rebound big-time this year.

And for at least one industry observer and critic, the rebound doesn't pass the smell test and is being done on the backs of taxpayers.

The number of people licensed to grow tobacco this year has more than doubled, to 264 under a new licence system from 118 under the old quota system. After years of dwindling tobacco production, the federal government scrapped the quota system two years ago. Tobacco growers, mostly centred in the Elgin-Oxford-Norfolk area, were paid a total of $286 million for their quota in return for a vow to get out of the industry permanently.

Fred Neukamm, chairpman of the Ontario Flue-Cure Tobacco Growers Marketing Board, estimates this year's tobacco crop should jump to 22.5 million kilograms, up from 10 million kilograms last year.

That's far below the peak production of 108 milloin kilograms in 1974, but it's roughly equal to Canada's annual consumption of cigarette tobacco, said Neil Collishaw of Ottawa-based Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada.

Collishaw said that because of loopholes in the exit program, many of the same tobacco growers that took the buyout are back in business by striking a deal with a licence holder who could be a friend or relative who did not take the buyout.

With the rebound of tobacco production, he said, the federal tobacco buyout program appears to have done little but enrich tobacco quota holders, while tobacco production has rebounded enough to meet domestic demand.

"Tobacco growers can thank the taxpayers," Collishaw said.

But Neukamm said the number of producers and the crop size has increased because manufacturers are putting more Ontario tobacco back in their cigarettes.

Under the new system, farmers sell their tobacco on contract directly to manufacturers. Under the old marketing board system, manufacturers paid a premium price for Ontario tobacco and gradually substituted it for cheaper imported tobacco.

'Smoking ban violated my human rights 'claims High Down prisoner

An man addicted to cigarettes is seeking compensation after a prison officer denied him tobacco for a week as punishment for bad behaviour. 

Jack Richard Foster, a prisoner at HMP High Down, in the border of Banstead and Sutton, decided to take action after a prison officer he swore at decided to discipline him by not allowing him to smoke. 

His lawyers claimed today (Tuesday, March 23) at High Court that his human rights were violated and he should have been given nicotine patches or gum to satisfy his cravings during the ban. 

The court was told Foster was denied tobacco and earnings for seven days, and had his canteen privileges removed for 14 days in February 2008 when he was 19 years old and a young offender at the jail. 

Philip Rule, representing Foster, said the punishment was in violation of his rights under the 1998 Human Rights Act. 

Foster intends to claim damages under the European Convention on Human Rights if the case succeeds, the court heard. 

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said: “We cannot comment on ongoing investigations.” 

The case has been adjourned and a date for a new hearing is yet to be set.

50-cent cigarette tax passes in Senate

The Senate gave final passage to a 50-cent cigarette tax increase Wednesday, closing debate, at least temporarily, on an issue lawmakers have wrestled with for years.

The vote to hike the cigarette tax, which has been stuck at 7 cents a pack since the 1970s, was 32-12, which is a slight erosion in support from the Senate's initial approval of the measure before Easter.

The increase goes to the House now, which approved a 30- cents a pack cigarette tax increase in its budget several weeks ago. 

Republican Gov. Mark Sanford is expected to veto the Senate measure, however.

If Senate support holds, however, the margin the bill passed with Wednesday is sufficient to override Sanford.

The major change made to the bill the Senate approved 10 days ago is where money will come from to fund an I-95 Authority for infrastructure development, and to promote S.C. agriculture.

That $4 million will now come from interest accrued by the tobacco settlement several years ago, which lawmakers said averages about $10 million a year.

Under the amended cigarette tax bill passed by the Senate, $3 million will go for infrastructure development in counties adjoining the high-poverty I-95 corridor, and $1 million will go for agriculture promotion.

Promoted by Sen. John Land, D-Clarendon, with the aid of Finance Committee chairman Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, and Glenn McConnell, R-Charleston, the amendment earmarks the $4 million only when it is available and not otherwise obligated, lawmakers said.

The amendment, which was passed by the same 32-12 margin as the overall bill, was further altered by Sen. Greg Ryberg, R-Aiken, so that the I-95 provision automatically sunsets after five years, though lawmakers could vote to stop the subsidy at any time.

In order for the cash-strapped I-95 counties to receive the tobacco interest money, they must put up a $2 match for each $1 they receive.

Land said development along I-95 has not blossomed because there is no water and sewage service readily available along the interstate, which is a costly necessity for business development.

The Senate-passed cigarette tax increase also includes money for cancer treatment at MUSC in Charleston, and for smoking cessation programs, both of which also were included in the pre-Easter bill.