United Smokers of America

Rise of the food tyrants. By Walter E. Williams. Smokers have been relatively passive and have allowed the anti-smoking zealots to run roughshod over them. The question is whether those of us who wish to eat as we please will allow the food zealots to do the same. These people are cowards, and here's why: If Mayor Bloomberg and other food zealots think I'm eating too many trans fats, let them personally come and take fatty foods off my plate or remove them from my shopping cart. Since they don't have the guts to do that, they correctly deem it safer to use the brute force of the state to control what I eat.

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Here's a petition to revise the Ohio Smoking Ban Please Sign and send it to every smoker you knowhttp://thiscause.org/p/menu.php?p=manor48228DB&r=34J RTUPPQSmoking ban

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Dennis Leary - No Cure For Cancer

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Thank You For Smoking, Flinstones Winston

Add to My Profile | More VideosJanuary 18, 2007 Smokers beware! Tax hikes, ban in the works By Matt Assad Of The Morning Call Gov. Ed Rendell's statewide health care plan may be winning fans among the nearly 800,000 people without medical insurance, but it has touched a nerve with smokers and the businesses that cater to them.Deep inside Rendell's complicated plan to give almost everyone in the state access to affordable health care is a provision that would increase taxes on tobacco products and make Pennsylvania a smoke-free state. That means no smoking indoors, not even in restaurants, bars or casinos.Rendell should expect a fight from the Pennsylvania Tavern Association, said its treasurer, Louise Stettler, whose family owns the Neff's Hotel and tavern in Schnecksville.''If this passes, mom-and-pop taverns all over the state will go out of business,'' Stettler said. ''Taverns are one of the last places people can go to smoke a cigarette and talk with their friends. Take that away, and business is going to suffer.''Rendell on Wednesday unveiled sweeping changes designed to help subsidize heath care insurance for virtually all state residents, in part by raising new funds and reducing health care costs. Smokers figure to be on both ends of that plan, because it would raise the state's $1.35-per-pack cigarette tax and levy a new tax on cigars and smokeless tobacco.The plan would also add Pennsylvania to the growing list of states banning smoking in all indoor public places. So far, 22 states have banned smoking bans, including New Jersey, New York and Maryland, and Illinois introduced a plan last week.''The health care costs related to tobacco use and adult obesity in Pennsylvania totaled more than $9 billion, an enormous economic burden,'' Rendell said. ''Second-hand smoke is responsible for the deaths of as many as 3,000 Pennsylvania nonsmokers every year. That is why 'Prescription for Pennsylvania' will make all Pennsylvania workplaces, restaurants and bars smoke-free.''Mike Fegley, director of operations for Bethlehem Brew Works, said he doesn't need the state to force him to ban smoking. Once a bar that sold cigars and allowed unfettered smoking, the Brew Works went smoke-free last month, joining nearly 600 other restaurants that have banned smoking Valleywide.Fegley said the ban has not cost him business, and sales are actually up slightly. He theorizes that the return of people who stayed away because they dislike smoke has offset the absence of people who stay away because they can't smoke.''I'm already in the pool, not because the state said we had to, but because it's the right thing to do,'' Fegley said. ''The response has been very positive. If anything, business is up.''A few paces up Broad Street, Ripper's Pub owner Chuck Kovacs isn't buying it. Kovacs said that when the Brew Works banned smoking, his business shot up 20 percent. And if the state ban goes through?''My business will drop, no question,'' Kovacs said. ''I've been here 21 years and I'll survive, but I'm sure others won't.''Of the seven people sitting at Kovacs' bar late Wednesday, five were smoking. Tricia Brown of Catasauqua, who stops in to smoke, drink and converse with friends twice a week, was one of them.''I'll still come,'' she said. ''Just not as much, and I probably won't stay as long.''If the Pennsylvania Tavern Association has anything to say about it, Brown will be able to stay as long as she likes. The association has been fighting to keep restaurant smoking bans from creeping into the pubs of its more than 1,000 members, and it will fight this, too, said Executive Director Amy Christie.''The average loss of business in states that ban smoking in taverns is 18 percent,'' Christie said. ''In the year after New York approved its ban, 2,000 family-run establishments went out of business. Why would we want to do that here?''Kate Philips, Rendell's press secretary, disputed that. ''It's just false,'' she said. ''I can't cite numbers of the effect in New York, but [what Christie is saying] is simply not true.''The Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association, a statewide New York group that lobbies for bars and restaurants, commissioned a study that concluded the smoking ban cost the state 2,000 jobs and $29 million in wages annually.Similar studies have been released in the wake of smoking bans in other states, and in most cases have been offset by state government statistics saying otherwise.So in the coming weeks, as the Rendell administration lays out more of his plan in advance of his Feb. 6 budget address, there will be fighting and lobbying. Statistical claims â€” both valid and invalid â€” will be thrown around.In the meantime, the patrons at Ripper's will be creating a cloud of smoke above the bar, hoping the debate is a long one.Christmas volume from smoking-models.com

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Veterans upset over inclusion of VFW halls in smoking ban Jan. 16, 2007 MATT LEINGANG, Associated Press COLUMBUS, Ohio - Military veterans who voted for Ohio's smoking ban feel betrayed now that the state Health Department says the law applies to private clubs that have employees, including VFW halls, a veterans group said Tuesday. Members-only VFW halls, which veterans believed fell under an exemption clause that appeared on the November ballot, shouldn't have to comply, said William Seagraves, state commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars of Ohio. He urged the state to change its draft rules for enforcing the ban. Seagraves spoke out at a third meeting of bar owners, public health advocates and other business groups who are seeking to clarify how the law will be carried out. The smoking ban, which aims to protect nonsmokers and employees from secondhand smoke, took effect Dec. 7, but the state won't issue penalties until dozens of rules are finalized. "How can the state tell veterans that they have no right to smoke in their private clubs?" asked Seagraves, whose group represents 424 VFW halls in Ohio. Socrates Tuch, legal counsel to the state Health Department, said that while the law has a provision exempting private clubs, it also says that all employers - businesses, associations or private entities - that have employees must comply. That includes private clubs, such as VFW halls, that have bartenders and wait staff, paid or unpaid, he said. "We have no control over how the law is written," Tuch said. "We're not trying to dismiss these concerns, but we're hamstrung as to what we can do." The law, backed by public health groups such as the American Cancer Society and the American Lung Association, covers most public places, including restaurants, bars and offices. It also spells out in clear detail exemptions for retail tobacco stores, designated hotel rooms and enclosed areas of nursing homes. The health department hopes to have penalties and other rules in place by April but has until June 7, said spokesman Jay Carey. Seagraves said his group will push for a new ballot initiative that exempts VFW halls if the state insists on keeping its interpretation of the law. Tracy Sabetta, a spokeswoman for the American Cancer Society and co-chairwoman of the smoking ban ballot campaign, there shouldn't have been any confusion leading up to the vote about VFW halls falling under the law. The proposed statute was on the campaign's Web site for two years, and all of the group's literature noted that the law would protect all workers and all customers from secondhand smoke. "If a private club has employees, then they are a business. And in order to level the playing field for all businesses, they all had to be covered under the law," Sabetta said. State health officials, who have received about 8,000 complaints of businesses not complying with the law, issued a letter to 280,000 business last week reminding them that ban is in effect and that they must prohibit smoking, post no-smoking signs and remove ashtrays. David Covell, deputy director of environmental health for Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, said food sanitarians out on inspections are collecting informal surveys about compliance in the county. About 80 percent of restaurants are following the law, but bars have a compliance rate of around 50 percent, he said. Under the state's draft rules, penalties for proprietors include a warning letter for a first violation, a $100 fine for a second violation and fines that can reach up to a $2,500 for fifth and subsequent violations. Complaints can be investigated by local health departments or other designated local entities. Read-------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------ What happens if a restaurant wants to appeal a smoking-ban violation? By James Nash, The Columbus Dispatch January 16, 2007 Some Ohio businesses feared being slapped with penalties for violating the new statewide smoking ban, so state health officials responded today by proposing 14 steps for dealing with violation reports â€” a process that could take up to three years. While the Ohio Department of Health's drawn-out process for investigations and appeals appeared to satisfy critics concerned about fairness, local health officials were less pleased. They said their employees could be tied up investigating reports of smoking in bars, restaurants and other businesses and dealing with appeals, while local boards of health spend thousands of dollars on lawyers who act as judges on smoking cases. "I'm afraid that if it were to go to an extreme, you would see a tremendous number of appeals going before the board of health," said Dr. Timothy Angel, the Ross County health commissioner and representative of the Ohio Environmental Health Association. "Is this a money-maker? Absolutely not. I'm going to have a tremendous number of man-hours to investigate these first violations." Nearly 60 percent of Ohio voters approved the strict anti-smoking measure last November. While it now is state law, violators will not be fined until the Department of Health devises a comprehensive set of rules for enforcing the ban. The rules are expected to be finalized between April and June. Some businesses reacted with alarm when a December draft of the rules showed that local health authorities could punish violators based on anonymous allegations without personally witnessing people smoking. That provision remains in place. But the Ohio Department of Health today moved to mollify critics by pointing to the 14-step process for investigating and hearing violations, which includes several steps for businesses to contest allegations. "There are so many procedural safeguards built into this process that it could be two or three years before we get to a final decision," said Socrates H. Tuch, assistant general counsel for the Ohio Department of Health. Reports of violations would go to local health departments, which then would investigate the complaint and give the alleged violator 15 days to challenge the claim. Health departments would designate attorneys as hearing officers to hear appeals to decisions issued by boards of health. All appeals to those decisions would end up at the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas, regardless of where in Ohio the complaint originated. Franklin County court officials don't know whether to expect a glut of appeals clogging up the local judicial machinery, said Patrick McSweeny, spokesman for Clerk of Courts John O'Grady. Fines would range from $100 for second violations (the first brings a warning) to $2,500 for multiple violators. Although 90 percent of the fines would go to local health departments, Angel and other health officials said the money may not cover the cost of enforcing the ban. In Franklin County, where several communities already outlaw smoking in most public places, the health department rarely receives reports of violations, spokeswoman Mitzi Kline said. "It's pretty much been self-enforcing," she said. The statewide smoking ban may be most vexing at Ohio's 424 Veterans of Foreign War posts, where veterans congregate to enjoy a beer or coffee with their cigarettes and pipes. Veterans' groups yesterday asked health officials to exempt veterans' halls from the ban. The state health department can't do so because the law approved in November covers all businesses with employees, regardless of whether the employees also are members, said department spokesman Kristopher Weiss. During today's meeting of the panel considering rules for enforcing the ban, two veterans advocates objected to including veterans' halls in the ban. "Those World War II and Korea veterans â€” the government made smokers out of them," said William Seagraves, state commander of the VFW in Ohio. "They put cigarettes in their C-rations. "Now (a veteran) is 87 years old and you're going to tell him he can't sit down in a private club and have a cigarette? That's wrong." [email protected]