Your views: Smoking ban would be unfair

I smoke a pipe and an occasional cigar. To me, it is a relaxing activity and sometimes, I enjoy smoking in a bar while having a drink.
Twenty to 30 percent of the public enjoy this activity. Today, the only places one can exercise this legal right is in his home, car, outdoors or in a bar, casino or bingo hall.
My comments will focus on smoking in a bar, but I believe they are applicable to casinos and bingo halls.
It is stated the (Ouachita Parish) smoking ban is being considered to protect the health of employees. This assumes that employees have no choice but to work in a bar.
This is not true. Employees to have a choice.
The Yellow Pages has 340 pages of companies that employ workers. More importantly, in Monroe and West Monroe, alone, there are 350 restaurants listed. Many of these serve liquor. There are only eight bars listed. As it stands now, a worker has much more choice in terms of employment than a smoker has in terms of where to smoke.
This ban would take away a legal right to smoke in a bar in which the owner has elected to permit smoking. A bar is the only public place a smoker can relax and socialize and have a drink.
One employee serves an average of nine patrons. Thus to help one person, who has the choice to leave, this ban eliminates any choice nine other people have to frequent a bar and socialize.
Is this fair? Please remember, smokers are citizens of this parish too.
The bar owner already has the freedom and legal right to ban smoking in his bar. He does not need a new law to ban smoking. It is his private business earned through investing and hard work. He should have the right to permit smoking if he chooses to do so.
I believe it is wrong to tell a business owner he cannot offer a legal service.
I do not think we need a law banning smoking in bars. Very few cities and parishes have deemed it necessary to adopt a no-smoking ban. No one is adversely affected because everyone has a viable choice if they do not want to be in a bar that permits smoking.
This is an issue of fairness and reasonableness. Twenty to 30 percent of people smoke. There are only a few places that allow us to socialize. Why prohibit a legal activity that many enjoy to protect a few that can choose not to be there?
This situation does not require the government to intervene and further reduce the right of citizens to choose how they live.

Cigarette making still going strong in South Richmond

When Philip Morris USA opened its cigarette manufacturing plant in South Richmond in 1973, the factory could produce about 200 million cigarettes per day.
Now, 40 years later, the plant just off Interstate 95 on Commerce Road can produce about three times that much — around 600 million cigarettes per day.

Half of all the cigarettes consumed in the U.S. are made at the nearly 2 million-square-foot manufacturing center. It is Philip Morris’ only plant.
The company, a subsidiary of Henrico County-based Altria Group Inc., has made more than $200 million in investments to the local plant since closing its only other factory in Cabarrus County, N.C., in 2009 and consolidating production here.

Pembroke smoke shop Brennan's faces tax increase

With the price of taxes on cigarettes and other smoking products rising tremendously, local smoke shop Brennan’s faces unique problems.
“When dip (chewing tobacco) and snuff went up 200 percent, it doesn’t make sense anymore,” said Bill Nickerson, the manager of Brennan’s Smoke Shop in Pembroke. “We’ll probably stop selling it.”
The recent increase in state taxes has brought the tax on an average pack of 20 cigarettes to $3.51, a pack of 25 to $4.38, increased the tax on cigars and smoking tobacco by 40 percent and raised the tax of smokeless products like chewing tobacco by 210 percent.
Brennan’s is a small chain of smoke shops across the South Shore, going as south as Wareham, west as Raynham and north as Brockton. With the increase in taxes, Nickerson said the Pembroke location would most likely see some changes.

Another blow for Ipswich smokers

HOT on the heels of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's plan to bring in tobacco excise increases comes more bad news for Ipswich smokers.
Interim smoking laws that were brought in from February 1 have now been made permanent, with smokers no longer permitted to light up in pedestrian malls and at public transport waiting points in Ipswich.
Planning and development committee chairperson Cr Paul Tully said the council had taken into account community views when making the decision.

Smoking Ban Postponed at AHFC Facilities

The Alaska Housing Finance Corp. is postponing its ban on smoking in state-subsidized public housing apartments.

The ban against smoking was to have gone into effect in August, but officials now say the policy is being reevaluated.

Residents of senior housing in Juneau and Fairbanks sent in petitions against the proposal.

AHFC Public Housing Division Director Catherine Stone says the public comments on the proposed ban were about even. But they were expecting the comments to reflect a 2010 survey showing most residents in senior and disabled facilities preferred a smoke-free policy.

She says there will be more consideration given before they make a second attempt at a no-smoking policy.