Recently business owners in many parts of the country are alarmed as they learn that their state has passed a law banning smoking in public places. Typically, these are restaurants, bars, sporting arenas, bowling alleys and similar pubic places. Disputes consistently arise over the advantages and disadvantages that this legislation causes businesses. Many of their best customers smoke while patronizing their businesses.
Typically when a state passes legislation to ban smoking in public areas, the business owners are given a designated period of time (i.e. 90 days, 1 year, etc.). Most recently, Pennsylvania passed a law prohibiting smoking in public places and gave a 90-day notice before all restaurants, bowling alleys, etc. must make their businesses smoke-free.
Pennsylvania's new law is a compromise bill, allowing some bars, private clubs, and casinos to maintain their right to allow smoking. This exception allows smokers to continue lighting up while gathering with friends at certain public locations.
Politicians responsible for bills preventing smoking in public places claim to be taking measures to protect public health. Not only will smoking bans discourage smoking altogether, but it will protect innocent, non-smoking bystanders from the unwanted health risks of second-hand smoke. A person is responsible for their own health when they choose to light up a cigar or cigarette, but it is not their right to endanger the health of others. Without smoking bans, non-smokers' only choice in avoiding smoke may be to avoid public places altogether. Smoking bans free people to venture into public places without worrying about the health risks from outside sources.
Other reasons politicians may promote such a bill is to reduce health care costs. In an age where health coverage is expensive and sometimes not available for all, it is important to reduce the risks that can be controlled.
While some smokers are angered by bans, others understand the reasons and are willing to comply. One smoker implied that since he must go outside to smoke at home, he might as well go outside to smoke when he's in public.
Often business owners are apprehensive that these laws will hinder business. Others take such bans in stride by helping their consumers adjust to new laws by restricting smoking privileges before laws go into effect. Still other entrepreneurs are bothered by a feeling of being discriminated against due to bans in certain establishments while not others. Jim Mitchell, restaurant owner in Pittsburgh commented, "All I've ever asked for was a level playing field, but what that Legislature [PA Smoking Ban Bill] has done is said that smoking is unhealthy in my establishment but it's not unhealthy in casinos, clubs and small restaurants, and it just shows that public health takes a backseat to money."1
Store owners are understandably disturbed by the presence of smoking bans, but oftentimes, to their surprise, business actually increases due to these prohibitions. Restaurants and bars in Massachusetts saw sales rise in the first six months following their ban in July of 2004. Additionally, a study by the Harvard School of Public Health tested 27 bars and restaurants to find that, "Dangerous, cancer-causing toxins plummeted by 93 percent once cigarettes, cigars, and pipes were banished."2 The Boston Globe reports that, "An increasing body of evidence also suggests that what's good for the health of workers and patrons may also boost the bottom line of businesses."2 Rise in business is attributed to people gathering in bars for food and enjoying sitting at the bar without concern about whether someone will be sitting with them smoking.
While restaurants seem to benefit from smoking bans, other businesses, as predicted, suffer. Bowling alleys are one type of business that seem to take a hit. Hundreds of league bowlers have quit, causing several thousands of dollars of losses for bowling alley owners.
Most likely, there will continue to be some dissension about laws prohibiting smoking in public areas. Overall, the health benefits heavily outweigh any monetary losses suffered by business owners, and many businesses benefit from the bans as well. Over half of the states in the nation now have at least some kind of prohibition against smoking in public establishments.
What is your state's smoking regulation?
Smoking banned in restaurants:
- Georgia
- Idaho
Smoking banned in non-hospitality workplaces:
- South Dakota
Smoking banned in bars and restaurants:
- New Hampshire
Smoking banned in restaurants and non-hospitality workplaces:
- Arkansas
- Florida
- Louisiana
- Nevada
- North Dakota
- Pennsylvania
- Tennessee
Smoking banned in restaurants, bars, and non-hospitality workplaces:
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Minnesota
- Montana
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- Ohio
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- Utah
- Vermont
- Washington
- Wisconsin
No statewide smoking ban:
- Alaska
- Alabama
- Indiana
- Kentucky
- Michigan
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Nebraska
- North Carolina
- Oklahoma
- South Carolina
- Texas
- Virginia
- West Virginia
- Wyoming
Paul Galla
1 http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/health/16475782/detail.html
2 http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/04/04/restaurants_bars_gain_business_under_smoke_ban/
Paul Galla, President
No-Smoking-Signs.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Paul_Galla
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Electronic Cigarettes - A Healthier Alternative To Smoking
There is a brand new invention that everyone who smokes should know about. It's called the electronic cigarette, also known as a smokeless cigarette or e-cigarette, and it is changing the legal landscape for cigarette smokers around the world.
The patented Electronic Cigarette offers to effectively simulate the experience of smoking an actual cigarette, without any of the health or legal issues surrounding traditional cigarettes.
While Electronic cigarettes look, feel and taste much like traditional cigarettes, they function very differently. You see, electronic cigarettes do not actually burn any tobacco, but rather, when you inhale from an e-cigarette, you activate a "flow censor" which releases a water vapor containing nicotine, propylene glycol, and a scent that simulates the flavor of tobacco. All of which simply means that electronic cigarettes allow you to get your nicotine fix while avoiding all of the cancer causing agents found in traditional cigarettes such as tar, glue, hundreds of additives, and hydrocarbons.
In addition to being healthier than traditional cigarettes, and perhaps most importantly of all, is the fact that electronic cigarettes are completely legal. Because Electronic cigarettes do not involve tobacco, you can legally smoke them anywhere that traditional cigarettes are prohibited such as bars, restaurants, the work place, even on airplanes. Furthermore, electronic cigarettes allow you to smoke with no fears of inflicting harm on others due to nasty second hand smoke.
The refillable cartridges come in a multitude of flavors as well as nicotine strengths. You can get regular, menthol, even apple and strawberry flavored cartridges and nicotine strengths come in full, medium, light, and none. While electronic cigarettes are technically a "smoking alternative" rather than a smoking cessation device, the range of nicotine strengths offers some obvious potential as an aid in the ones attempts to quit smoking and seems to be proving popular within that market.
The nice thing about electronic cigarettes as apposed to say, nicotine patches, is that e-cigarettes produce the same tactile sensation and oral fixation that smokers desire, while satisfying ones tobacco cravings as well. When you take a drag from n electronic cigarette you actually feel the your lungs fill with a warm tobacco flavored smoke and when you exhale the smoke billows out of your lungs just like regular smoking, however, as mentioned, that smoke is actually a much healthier water vapor that quickly evaporates and therefore does not offend anyone in the immediate vicinity.
While electronic cigarettes have been around for a while in various incarnations, it has been recent advances in the technology as well as ever increasing restrictions against smoking that have propelled the e-cigarette into a new found popularity. If you are interested in a healthier alternative to smoking, or if you simply want to have the freedom to smoke wherever and whenever you want, an electronic cigarette might be the solution you've been looking for.
Watch a video of an Electronic Cigarette in action at http://NjoyCigarettes.com
Ready for a smoke free life? Learn more about Smokeless Cigarettes.
http://www.njoycigarettes.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Drake
The patented Electronic Cigarette offers to effectively simulate the experience of smoking an actual cigarette, without any of the health or legal issues surrounding traditional cigarettes.
While Electronic cigarettes look, feel and taste much like traditional cigarettes, they function very differently. You see, electronic cigarettes do not actually burn any tobacco, but rather, when you inhale from an e-cigarette, you activate a "flow censor" which releases a water vapor containing nicotine, propylene glycol, and a scent that simulates the flavor of tobacco. All of which simply means that electronic cigarettes allow you to get your nicotine fix while avoiding all of the cancer causing agents found in traditional cigarettes such as tar, glue, hundreds of additives, and hydrocarbons.
In addition to being healthier than traditional cigarettes, and perhaps most importantly of all, is the fact that electronic cigarettes are completely legal. Because Electronic cigarettes do not involve tobacco, you can legally smoke them anywhere that traditional cigarettes are prohibited such as bars, restaurants, the work place, even on airplanes. Furthermore, electronic cigarettes allow you to smoke with no fears of inflicting harm on others due to nasty second hand smoke.
The refillable cartridges come in a multitude of flavors as well as nicotine strengths. You can get regular, menthol, even apple and strawberry flavored cartridges and nicotine strengths come in full, medium, light, and none. While electronic cigarettes are technically a "smoking alternative" rather than a smoking cessation device, the range of nicotine strengths offers some obvious potential as an aid in the ones attempts to quit smoking and seems to be proving popular within that market.
The nice thing about electronic cigarettes as apposed to say, nicotine patches, is that e-cigarettes produce the same tactile sensation and oral fixation that smokers desire, while satisfying ones tobacco cravings as well. When you take a drag from n electronic cigarette you actually feel the your lungs fill with a warm tobacco flavored smoke and when you exhale the smoke billows out of your lungs just like regular smoking, however, as mentioned, that smoke is actually a much healthier water vapor that quickly evaporates and therefore does not offend anyone in the immediate vicinity.
While electronic cigarettes have been around for a while in various incarnations, it has been recent advances in the technology as well as ever increasing restrictions against smoking that have propelled the e-cigarette into a new found popularity. If you are interested in a healthier alternative to smoking, or if you simply want to have the freedom to smoke wherever and whenever you want, an electronic cigarette might be the solution you've been looking for.
Watch a video of an Electronic Cigarette in action at http://NjoyCigarettes.com
Ready for a smoke free life? Learn more about Smokeless Cigarettes.
http://www.njoycigarettes.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jonathan_Drake
Smoking Ban in Wisconsin
As of July 5th 2010 you are no longer allowed to smoke in bars in Wisconsin. Many see this as heartbreaking or that their freedoms are being taken away, while others feel they are finally free to go into bars without having to face the terrible air in there or getting burned by drunk people. We will be putting up many articles and all the feedback we can find on this subject. Feel free to post with your feelings on the issue.
The Positive Effects of the Smoking Ban in England
Researchers from Bath University have concluded that the smoking ban has resulted in 1,200 fewer heart attack hospital admission in the year following the introduction of the legislation. The study analysed data from the period between July 2002 - September 2008. By studying the five year period prior to the ban, researchers were able to determine annual trends in terms of heart attack hospital admissions, and then apply these past trends to a hypothetical scenario in which the smoking ban had not been introduced. These figures were then compared to actual data compiled throughout the 12 months after the commencement of the ban.
The outcome was that the ban has potentially decreased the number of heart attack patients by 2.4%. The predicted figures can be translated as an £8 million saving for the NHS, and the prevention of circa 180 deaths. Every year approximately 141,000 people in the UK suffer a heart attack, about a third of die before arriving at a hospital. Within the hospital though, the survival rate is 85%, in which case, of a group of 1,200, 180 would not recover.
Although demonstrating obvious association between the smoking ban and the lower number of heart attack admissions in England, the study fails to investigate on a more comprehensive level. It remains impossible to say with any degree of certainty to what extent the ban has had on the overall numbers of heart attack patients, with other factors such as an unhealthy diet, excessive alcohol consumption and a lack of exercise all major causes of cardiac problems. Furthermore, the research does not investigate the smoking status of patients or their experience of passive smoking prior to the ban.
Since 2002 there has been a steady decrease in the number of heart attack hospital admissions, a fact cited by anti-non-smoking campaigners who suggest that the latest figures simply conform to the yearly fall in emergency heart attack admissions. However, this is not an accurate interpretation of the study. As aforementioned, the data was arrived at through a comparison of two scenarios; one in which the ban had not been created, and the other the reality in which we live.
This piece of legislation has clearly gone some way to addressing the health issues associated with smoking. There is however, much more that can be done by individuals. The benefits of not smoking can be felt in one's health, lifestyle, and finances. By giving up the habit, one is far less likely to suffer from cancer and heart problems, and will find that they save a small fortune not only on the purchase of cigarettes or cigars, but also on financial products such as life insurance, which can be three or four times more expensive for a smoker.
Harvey McEwan writes to make insurance (especially car insurance!) a happier place.
http://quoteboffin.co.uk/compare/life-insurance-comparison/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Harvey_McEwan
The outcome was that the ban has potentially decreased the number of heart attack patients by 2.4%. The predicted figures can be translated as an £8 million saving for the NHS, and the prevention of circa 180 deaths. Every year approximately 141,000 people in the UK suffer a heart attack, about a third of die before arriving at a hospital. Within the hospital though, the survival rate is 85%, in which case, of a group of 1,200, 180 would not recover.
Although demonstrating obvious association between the smoking ban and the lower number of heart attack admissions in England, the study fails to investigate on a more comprehensive level. It remains impossible to say with any degree of certainty to what extent the ban has had on the overall numbers of heart attack patients, with other factors such as an unhealthy diet, excessive alcohol consumption and a lack of exercise all major causes of cardiac problems. Furthermore, the research does not investigate the smoking status of patients or their experience of passive smoking prior to the ban.
Since 2002 there has been a steady decrease in the number of heart attack hospital admissions, a fact cited by anti-non-smoking campaigners who suggest that the latest figures simply conform to the yearly fall in emergency heart attack admissions. However, this is not an accurate interpretation of the study. As aforementioned, the data was arrived at through a comparison of two scenarios; one in which the ban had not been created, and the other the reality in which we live.
This piece of legislation has clearly gone some way to addressing the health issues associated with smoking. There is however, much more that can be done by individuals. The benefits of not smoking can be felt in one's health, lifestyle, and finances. By giving up the habit, one is far less likely to suffer from cancer and heart problems, and will find that they save a small fortune not only on the purchase of cigarettes or cigars, but also on financial products such as life insurance, which can be three or four times more expensive for a smoker.
Harvey McEwan writes to make insurance (especially car insurance!) a happier place.
http://quoteboffin.co.uk/compare/life-insurance-comparison/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Harvey_McEwan
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