Smoke Free Texas

Texas flunks on anti-smoking measures

Texas got the failing grade it deserved from the American Lung Association for the state’s lackluster efforts to discourage smoking, the No. 1 preventable cause of death in the United States. The association’s annual report card lists Texas among 12 states with a failing grade for lacking statewide smoke-free-air laws in public places...

Ann Smith quit going to her favorite breakfast spot in White Settlement because the cigarette smoke is simply too much for her.

The International House of Pancakes on Cherry Lane has a ventilation system and a separate area for smokers, but Smith said smoke drifts into the nonsmoking area, forcing her to go to Fort Worth for her morning coffee.

Smith said if she breathes secondhand smoke, she gets headaches and has difficulty seeing...

State Rep. Myra Crownover said she’ll continue pushing for a statewide ban on smoking in workplaces, after the effort failed again in the Legislature this year.

“I think we’ve passed the tipping point,” Crownover, R-Denton, said in an interview Friday. “Six years ago people thought secondhand smoke was maybe an inconvenience...

San Antonio has joined the ranks of more than 30 other Texas cities and most major cities across the country with a comprehensive ban on smoking in public. Changes to the smoking ordinance that take effect today will have a positive impact on public health.

The strengthened ordinance closes loopholes that permitted smoking in bars, pool halls, bingo parlors and a broad range of public places...

On the cusp of a tougher new smoking ordinance going into effect, health officials say San Antonio's smoking rates already have fallen by a third over the past decade — a public health success they hope to drive even further.

About 16 percent of San Antonio-area adults now identify themselves as cigarette smokers — down from almost a quarter in 2002. That's slightly higher than for all of Texas, but about a percentage point lower than for the nation as a whole.

Asked to explain the decline, experts point to several factors: San Antonio's first smoking ordinance, which began in 2004 and limited the places where people can light up; a series of price and tax boosts; workplace bans; greater public awareness; and an emphasis on medicines that reduce tobacco cravings to help people quit.

HOPKINS COUNTY, KY (7/30/11) - In a recent study published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, Ellen Hahn, professor in the University of Kentucky College of Nursing and Mark Pyles, assistant professor of finance in the School of Business at the College of Charleston, found smoke-free legislation does not negatively influence local economies in either rural or urban communities. This is true regardless of whether the law is enacted at the state or local level...

Smoke-free eateries, bars hit 5 years

Five years ago, on the eve of a statewide ban on indoor smoking, many restaurant and bar owners were in a fit of panic.

“Our people will go out of business in droves,” Chuck Ford, director the Colorado Licensed Beverage Association, which represents the state’s bar and tavern owners, told the Rocky Mountain News in 2006 after the smoking ban bill passed.

He said 70 percent of his membership would go out of business, adding that he was “both shocked and disgusted” at the new state law.

Looking back, it turns out it was not a big deal. In fact, most agree it was a good deal...

The Coalition continues its efforts to make Lufkin a healthier place to live by campaigning for a stricter smoke-free ordinance.

Executive Director Janet Taylor gave a short presentation Tuesday to the Interagency Coalition about those efforts and why Lufkin deserves to go smoke-free at all local businesses.

The nonprofit organization developed the Smoke-Free Lufkin campaign...