The Michigan Senate and House of Representatives approved a smoking ban on Thursday to take effect in May with the anticipated signature of Gov. Jennifer Granholm. While the measure’s intention to improve the public health is admirable, its result — the restriction of individual liberty — is the basis on which it should be judged. Smokers may no longer be lighting up in restaurants, clubs, bars and other businesses. The ban, recently appro ... Jump to full article >>

Let me get this straight. Smoking is bad for you, right? It’s bad if you smoke. It’s bad if someone smokes around you. It’s so bad that our state government, like others before it, is now passing a law against smoking in any public place — restaurant, office building, shopping mall, museum — any public place at all. Except a casino. Got that? A casino that harbors gambling — which is also not good for you R ... Jump to full article >>

South Korea will ban all indoor and outdoor smoking in public places starting in 2011, to substantially reduce the country’s smoking rate, the government said Wednesday, reports Yonhap news agency. The Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs said the move aims to bring down the smoking rate among men in the country from 47 percent at present to 20 percent in the target year. Seoul has prohibited smoking in large buildings for sever ... Jump to full article >>

Children exposed to secondhand tobacco smoke are at increased risk for lung cancer later in life — even if they never smoke themselves, researchers said. That risk is also modulated by genetic variation in a gene involved in innate immunity, according to Curtis Harris, MD, of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Md., and colleagues. The findings come from a study in the December issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Preventi ... Jump to full article >>

Once the smoking ban went into effect in Tennessee restaurants and bars had the option of going smoke-free or serving patrons 21 and older, but soon they might not have that choice. “We’re here to take care of the people, not to take away their rights in privileges. That’s what they’re trying to do and that’s wrong,” says Paul Osterbrink, owner of Paul’s Oasis in West Knoxville. Osterbrink is concerned a ... Jump to full article >>

New research published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, supports the World Health Initiative’s efforts for a home smoking ban, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Specifically, hair nicotine concentrations were higher in children exposed to secondhand smoke at home, and the younger the children, the higher the concentration under the same level ... Jump to full article >>

The sun rose Tuesday on a different kind of day for restaurants that once permitted customers to light cigarettes over food, alcohol or cups of coffee. Area restaurant owners braced themselves for all kinds of responses from patrons on the first day of a statewide ban on smoking at food establishments. Tuesday’s early morning breakfast crowd was slightly thinner at the Bedford Restaurant, a country-cooking style eatery on U.S. 460 in Bedfo ... Jump to full article >>

Cabell County bars and video lottery parlors could become smoke-free in the near future. The Cabell-Huntington Health Department is drafting a proposal that would ban smoking from bars and gambling parlors, said Dr. Harry Tweel, the health department’s executive director. It likely will conduct a public hearing on it within the next month, he said. “Our board of health has been looking at this issue for some time and monitoring what’s happ ... Jump to full article >>

The editorial, “Start planning now to launch controversial smoking rules” (Nov. 12), properly advises proprietors of restaurants and bars to become familiar with how a new law that eliminates smoking in these venues starting on Jan. 2, 2010, will affect them. It is important to recognize Greensboro, Guilford County and North Carolina have a 20-year, unblemished record of successful implementation of incremental restrictions on smokin ... Jump to full article >>

China executed two people and imprisoned others as a warning not to endanger the public safety by producing harmful exports. On November 24, a dairy farmer and a milk salesman were put to death in the 2008 scheme to water down infant formula that left at least six children dead and sickened more than 300,000. In a move to reassure the world that China will protect its exports from unethical producers, those responsible were severely punished. Ne ... Jump to full article >>