The issue has been dated for over a year, and last night the City Council in Irving, Texas passed an ordinance by a 6-3 vote that will ban smoking in all public places in the city with the exception of 8 restaurants and 1 bingo parlor. The board was pushing for a complete ban, with no exceptions and after the vote the chairman of the city’s Board of Health and 2 other colleague resigned at […]
On Wednesday, the Portland City Council voted 4-1 to ban smoking at parks and nature areas owned by the city. This also includes city owned golf courses. The measure passed by a vote of 4-1. The golf courses effects by the measure include Heron Lakes ,Rose City, Eastmoreland and RedTail even though the latter is in the city of Beaverton. The ban for the golf course, parks, and nature areas goes into effect on July […]
While there have been other municipalities that have considered banning tobacco users from employment there has never been one as large as Pima County in Arizona. On December 16 the Pima County Board of Supervisors will vote on a plan that would allow the county to demand a nicotine test on current employees if they suspect there are puffing or dipping and impose a surcharge on health insurance to those who test positive. Additionally, current […]
On Tuesday the Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson announced that the legislation to change the legal age for tobacco use to 21 passed the first step with a 12-3 vote in the House Care and Wellness Committee. The bill to change the legal age was announced on Jan. 21 in the form of two bills; Senate Bill 5954 and House Bill 1458 and has bipartisan support. The bill might not happen right away as one […]
Bill LB118 inched closer to becoming a law as the bill advanced on Wednesday. The bill would update the Nebraska Clean Indoor Air Act to allow smoking in cigar and tobacco shop. In the first round of debates, initial support was received. The bill which would modify the intent language of the original law, is in response to a Nebraska Supreme Court ruling that made the exemption unconstitutional. According to Senator Colby Coash of Lincoln, […]
You can add another municipality to the list of places in Massachusetts where you have to be 21 to smoke and purchase tobacco products. In South Hadley, Massachusetts the Board of Health met yesterday and passed the new measure with a unanimous vote. The new law will go into effect on April 1st. South Hadley, Massachusetts is home to 17, 500 residents over 17.4 square miles and was founded in 1659.
You can add Rhode Island to the growing list of states looking to raise the legal age to purchase tobacco to 21. State Representative Tereza Tanzi, a democrat from South Kingstown, Narragansett has introduced bill H-5225 which seeks to raise the purchase age from 18 to 21. A press release from the State House mentions that the American Lung Association believes that the average age a person begins smoking is 20.1 years. The proposal is […]
Smoking tobacco outdoors is a thing of the past in the city of Boulder, Colorado after the City Council voted unanimously to adopt an outdoor smoking ban. The latest smoking ban expands on an existing ban that prohibited smoking at the Pearl Street Mall in 2012 and included the Cigar Area and near Boulder High School last year. The new measure prohibits smoking in the downtown business district, city parks, open spaces, within 25 feet […]
Without much fanfare the Cambridge City Council last week passed new amendments to the Cambridge Tobacco Ordinance including an increase in the purchase age to 21. The also banned smoking in public parks. The new ordinance which goes into effect on June 1st is a modified version of the one that passed in 2003 and is a toned down version on which the Public Health Department sought a citywide ban on open spaces and parks. […]
In Providence at the State Capitol of Rhode Island, Senator Erin Lunch has introduced a bill that would ban smoking on all public beaches within the stare. According to Lynch, discarded cigarette butts, cigar butts and tobacco waste on beach sand is unsightly and unclean and can be particularly hazardous to children if they handle or ingest this material. She says the waste can also wash into the ocean and harm marine life. The legislation was […]