Yes, you may smoke in public parks

With summer in full swing, smokers may wonder whether they can light up during certain outdoor events.
According to the recently passed ordinance, smoking is only banned in enclosed places. Debra Bradley, health director, said there is no provision that prohibits smoking in public parks.

“It’s just enclosed places,” she said.

Those who do choose to smoke in parks, however, still need to stay at least five feet away from doors, windows and air intake systems.

St. Joseph voters in April passed a clean air ordinance that banned smoking in all indoor places of employment, except for the St. Jo Frontier Casino gaming floor. It garnered nearly 53 percent of the votes.

Ms. Bradley said some citizens may be confused that the title of Section 17-327 —”Application of article to City-Owned Facilities and Property” —does not specifically clarify indoor or enclosed property.

“The meat of the paragraph is what is the law,” she said.

It reads: “All enclosed areas, including buildings and vehicles owned, leased or operated by the City of St. Joseph shall be subject to the provisions of this article.”

So events like tonight’s Parties on the Parkway at the Southwest Parkway or this weekend’s Coleman Hawkins Jazz Festival at Felix Street Square will still be smoking areas.

However, there is a provision in the ordinance (Sec. 17-334) that allows for any “owner, operator, manager, or other person in control” of an outdoor area to declare it a nonsmoking zone.

“If the people who are running the program want to make it a nonsmoking event, they could,” Ms. Bradley said. “If they chose to be nonsmoking, they don’t have to have a sign.”

Mary Robertson, public information officer for the city, said they will not enforce the smoking ban at Parties on the Parkway.

Tobacco giant defends ultra cheap cigarette brand

The independent Senator Nick Xenophon is pushing for a minimum floor price on tobacco, as British American Tobacco defends its decision to cut the price of its cigarettes.

It says the former federal government's increase to the tobacco excise is simply feeding the demand for cheaper products.

But Senator Xenophon says this is a "deeply cynical and destructive" move by big tobacco, and he wants to prevent companies from flooding the market with more cheap cigarettes.

Thomas Oriti has our report.

THOMAS ORITI: British American Tobacco is claiming to now be offering the cheapest cigarettes on the Australian market at $13 a pack, which is nearly half the cost of premium brands.

They also claim this price discounting is the result of the Government's own attempts to drive the cost up in order to put people off the expensive and unhealthy habit.

BAT spokesman Scott McIntyre has told RN the company had to act to protect its market.

SCOTT MCINTYRE: What's been happening over the last five years in Australia is we've seen a 66 per cent growth in the low-price segment.

Now, the low price segment is cigarettes which are sold for under $15, and that's in direct effect of the excise system and plain packaging certainly murkies the waters a little bit there.

But excise has driven the top line of cigarettes up to around $25, but what smokers have done is they've gone, I'm not going paying that sort of money for it, I'm not going to quit, I'm going to look for cheaper brands.

So they've forced a whole lot of competition at the bottom.

THOMAS ORITI: Last August, the former government announced plans to increase the excise rate on tobacco.

That resulted in a 12.5 per cent hike each year until 2016. The move is expected to raise billions of dollars, but it also pushed up the price of cigarettes.

Scott McIntyre says there's no denying the health impacts of smoking, but he says with millions of smokers in Australia, British American Tobacco still needs to compete in a tough market.

SCOTT MCINTYRE: We're a legal business and we sell a legal product and our competitors are playing very strongly at this part of the market.

Smokers are walking into retail outlets and demanding the cheapest pack. Forty-two per cent of all cigarettes sold in Australia at the moment are under $15.

THOMAS ORITI: The independent Senator Nick Xenophon isn't convinced.

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Smoking, hypertension named leading stroke risk factors

Hypertension, smoking and other changeable factors may account for about 50% of all strokes, according to researchers.
"Data suggests that half of all strokes in patients 55 years and over might theoretically be prevented by optimal treatment or elimination of hypertension, smoking, diabetes mellitus, atrial fibrillation, coronary disease, and overweight/obesity,” said researchers in a study published by PLOS Medicine.
In order to estimate the proportion of strokes that could theoretically be prevented by eliminating some factors from the population, Michiel J. Bos, MD and colleagues from the Eramus Medical Center assessed the population attributable risks for factors individually and in combination. To examine the potentially modifiable etiological factors occurring in stroke, researchers surveyed 6,844 patients.
During a mean follow-up of 12.9 years, researchers identified 1,020 strokes. The combined PAR was .51 for pre-hypertension/hypertension, smoking, diabetes mellitus, atrial fibrillation, coronary diseases, and obesity, after adjusting for age and gender.
Hypertension and smoking were the most important etiological factors. The total PAR was raised by .06 by the combination of C-reactive protein, fruit and vegetable consumption and carotid intima-media thickness.
The PARs for ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke were .55 and .70, respectively.
"About half of all strokes are attributable to established causal and modifiable factors," wrote the authors. "This finding encourages not only intervention on established etiological factors, but also further study of less well established factors.”

Obama Administration Takes Critical Step to Help Smokers Quit and Save Lives

Today, the Obama Administration issued guidance on quit smoking benefits available through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). This important announcement from the Departments implementing the ACA (Health and Human Services, Labor and Treasury) clarifies what treatments insurance plans should cover for quitting smoking as part of their preventive services benefit. This guidance will help to ensure that employers and insurance plans are doing everything they can to get smokers they help they need to quit.
“The American Lung Association commends the Obama Administration for today’s lifesaving announcement,” said Harold Wimmer, National President and CEO of the American Lung Association.  “Quitting is hard and the Lung Association knows that making sure everyone has access to all quit smoking medications and counseling is critical to saving lives.”
The guidance issued today defines what an appropriate comprehensive quit smoking benefit is. According to the Obama Administration, a comprehensive benefit includes coverage of:

1. All medications approved by the FDA as safe and effective for smoking cessation
2. Individual, group and phone cessation counseling
3. These quit smoking benefits should be offered at least twice a year to smokers, recognizing not everyone quits on their first try
4. Plans should not require prior authorization for these benefits

The ACA also requires that these benefits be provided at no cost to the patient – so no copays, coinsurance or deductibles should be charged.
It is crucial that each smoker who wants to quit has access to all treatments that will help. Quitting smoking is not a “one-size-fits-all” process. The American Lung Association and its partners have urged the Obama Administration to provide this guidance on quit smoking benefits since 2010.  Most recently, the Lung Association and 29 public health and medical organizations sent this letter in February 2014 calling for the Administration to clarify the benefit.
Prior to this guidance, most insurance plans have not implemented comprehensive cessation benefits. The Lung Association believes this clarification will help rectify the wide variation in how insurance companies have previously implemented this requirement in the private insurance market. One study by the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, commissioned by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, found that only four of 39 private plans analyzed covered even close to a comprehensive benefit. Also troubling, some of the plans analyzed included cost sharing for tobacco cessation treatments – something prohibited by the ACA.  Another survey in Colorado found that there has been significant variance in the ways health plans in Colorado have implemented the requirement. Interestingly, these variances were seen in the area of tobacco cessation more so than other areas of preventive services.
The recent Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health concluded that more than 42 million Americans still smoke. Today’s guidance will affect health coverage provided to all populations that smoke including those that smoke at higher rates than the general population; like low-income Americans, Medicaid expansion enrollees and Americans who were previously uninsured According to the same survey, 69 percent of current smokers in America want to quit.