News

Bristol Smoking Ban Irks Some
Sunday's NASCAR race will draw roughly 160,000 stock-car racing fans to Bristol Motor Speedway, and there will be 400 ushers directing them to their seats and reminding them, if need be, that smoking is no longer allowed in the grandstands. Read more...

Smoking Blamed for Education-Related Mortality Gap
People with 12 years of education or more have seen their life expectancy rise faster than among those with less education, and researchers say that differences in smoking rates are an important reason for the disparity. Read more...

Moms who quit smoking have happier kids
Mothers who stop smoking while pregnant tend to have cheerier, more adaptable babies, British researchers reported on Wednesday. Read more...

Tobacco Control Bill Advancing in Congress
A House subcommittee on Tuesday approved a bill that would grant the U.S. Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products. Read more...

Beijing Seeks to Cut Smoking Ahead of Olympics
Beijing is using the Olympics to push an anti-smoking campaign.  China is a smoking haven, but the side effects of smoking-related illnesses are costing the nation an estimated $5 billion each year. Read more...

In Adolescents, Addiction to Tobacco Comes Easy
Dire warning to all adolescents: You can get “hooked from the first cigarette.” That is the headline in the December issue of The Journal of Family Practice. Read more...

Smokeless Tobacco Ads Continue To Target Youths
The Smokeless Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement (STMSA) has had a limited effect on the advertising of smokeless tobacco products to youth. Read more...

ETSU to become Tobacco-Free campus, limits tobacco use to private vehicles only, effective this August
A campuswide message today from East Tennessee State University  President Dr. Paul E. Stanton Jr. announces that ETSU is expanding its current Smoking and Tobacco-Free Workplace Policy, established in 1997, to limit all use of tobacco products to private vehicles. Read more...

Tennessee making the grade against smoking
Tennessee has made significant progress in efforts to reduce deaths and illness caused by tobacco use, according to the American Lung Association's "State of Tobacco Control 2007" report. The report credits Tennessee's efforts to enact the Non-Smokers Protection Act and increase cigarette taxes for the improved grades on this national report card. Read more...

Hospitals ban smoking outside, too
Nashville patients, visitors won't be able to step out for a cigarette on hospital groundsVirtually all Nashville-area hospitals plan to ban smoking outdoors on their property next year, citing health benefits for employees, patients and visitors. Read more...

Outdoor smoking bans become more common in Tennessee
Hospitals aren't the only Tennessee employers enacting total smoking bans. Read more...

Teacher smoking ban may be extended
Knox County Schools employees will no longer be allowed to smoke on school property, including the parking lot and in their cars, under a proposed school board policy change. School officials also are looking into programs for nicotine-addicted employees. Read more...

Cig You Later - State smoking ban in enclosed public places to take effect Oct. 1 Read more...

State Smoking Ban Takes Effect October 1
The Tennessee Departments of Health and Labor and Workforce Development are two weeks away from enforcement of the Non-Smokers Protection Act, which was signed into law by Governor Phil Bredesen on June 11 of this year. Read more...

Reasons to embrace smoking ban are near, dear to business owners
On Oct. 1, Tennessee will take a significant step toward better health when it joins 24 other states that have banned smoking in most public places. Thanks to Gov. Phil Bredesen and our legislators for their leadership in passing this important law. Read more...

Tennessee Smoking Ban Goes into Effect October 1
According to the Tennessee Department of Health news release, Tennessee residents will no longer be able to smoke anywhere they want, effective October 1. Read more...

$10 Million Added to Tennessee Stop Smoking Effort
Tennessee health officials hope an additional $10 million in the new fiscal year will bring more calls to the stop smoking hotline. The number 1-800-QUIT NOW is the state's primary smoking cessation effort. Read more...

Tenn. cracks down on smoking, gives little to efforts to quit
When Fred Worth, a semi-retired construction worker, decided to quit smoking last fall, he called a state-funded hotline and got a box of mints, putty and books in the mail. Read more...

House Panel Passes Workplace Smoking Ban
The Tennessee House Agriculture Committee Wednesday morning passed a proposed ban on most workplace smoking. The ban would include restaurants but it would allow smoking in private clubs and businesses with three or fewer employees. Read more...

Workplace smoking ban bill passes tobacco-friendly House panel
The Tennessee House Agriculture Committee passed a proposed ban Wednesday morning on most workplace smoking, including in restaurants.  The committee is traditionally friendly to tobacco interests. Read more...

No Smoking Bill Advances in Tennessee
The Tennessee House Agriculture Committee passed a proposed ban on most workplace smoking, including restaurants, this morning. The committee is traditionally friendly to tobacco interests. The version, adopted by the panel, includes several exemptions left out of the version that the Senate passed last week. Read more...

Smoking ban legislation moves forward in Tennessee
At the Hideaway in Downtown Johnson City, the air is clear, but once the bar opens for business, Manager Travis Smith says just about everyone inside lights up. "It's pretty much the norm here and that's what they want to do, drink beer and smoke," Smith said. If the Tennessee House Agriculture Committee's legislation is approved as is, customers at bars like this one will still be able to smoke inside. Read more...

House Committee Passes Smoke-Free Workplace Bill
A bill to make workplaces in Tennessee smoke-free finally crashed out of the House Agriculture Committee today. Despite significant grumbling from tobacco-friendly state representatives the measure was passed with a 12 to 2 vote. Read more...

Panel approves ban on smoking
Legislation to ban smoking in most places where people work in Tennessee, including most restaurants, finally won approval Wednesday in the House Agriculture Committee, the longtime killing field for anti-smoking bills. Read more...

House committee restricts indoor smoking
After months of delay, a House committee has approved a bill to restrict indoor smoking.  The bill, however, is less strict that the version that has already passed the Senate. Read more...

Agriculture panel backs less-stringent smoking ban
The House Agriculture Committee — long opposed to measures unfriendly to tobacco — approved a watered down version of a smoking ban bill Wednesday. Read more...

Smoking ban vote breaks with tobacco tradition in House committee
A proposal to ban most workplace smoking — including in restaurants — passed the House Agriculture Committee on Wednesday despite several members' background in tobacco farming. Rep. Bob Bibb said he supported the measure despite the significant role of tobacco farming in his native Robertson County. Read more...

A Fair Hearing For the Ban
To what extent would a workplace smoking ban in Tennessee affect the market for Tennessee-grown tobacco? Any reasonable person would conclude that the effect would be minimal. Read more...

Editorial: Show courage; pass smoke ban
Never in a tobacco state. With those words, a workplace smoking ban in Tennessee was brushed off as preposterous, impossible, mere tilting at windmills. And, yet the ban lives. Read more...

Smoking Ban Stirs Some Residents
A Tennessee Senate bill that seeks to restrict the places where smokers can light up has cleared its first hurdle with lawmakers but still has a way to go to win the favor of some local smokers. Read more...

State smoking ban draws mixed reactions
Most restaurant and bar owners as well as managers in Cookeville see nothing wrong with a statewide workplace smoking ban as long as no workplace is exempt and the ban is enforced equally. Read more...

Senate passes stringent workplace smoking ban
The state Senate passed a bill to ban smoking in most workplaces, including restaurants and bars, Thursday. Read more...

Senate OKs smoking ban inside most places
The state Senate voted Thursday to prohibit smoking "in all enclosed places within the state of Tennessee" except private homes, cars, tobacco stores, motel rooms and nursing homes. Read more...

Bulletin: Senate passes smoke-free workplace bill
This bill prohibits smoking in any enclosed area of any place to which the public is invited or in which the public is permitted (public place) ... Read more...

Smoking Ban Passes Senate
In a surprise move the state Senate passed a smoke-free workplace bill today. As amended, the bill looks a lot like the original, restrictive bill sought by Governor Phil Bredesen. Read more...

Bill Banning Smoking Passes Senate By Wide-Margin
The state Senate passed a bill Thursday that would ban smoking in Tennessee restaurants and most workplaces by a wide margin. Read more...

State Senate passes ban on smoking in restaurants, most workplaces
Smoking would be banned in most workplaces, including restaurants and bars, under a bill that passed the Senate by a wide margin today. Read more...

Smoking Ban Catches Fire
The smoky bar in Tennessee could be losing its key ingredient: the smoke itself. That institution, deeply imbued in the culture of Nashville's country songs and the blues of Memphis' Beale Street, is under assault at the state Capitol. Read more...

Guest Columnist: Secondhand smoke
I recently took my kids to a little mom-and-pop diner on Asheville Highway to get them an ice-cream cone in celebration of a scream-free lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant. Read more...

Editorial: A meaningless smoke ban
Smokers, 1; the majority of Tennessee residents, 0. That’s how the issue of workplace smoking stands in the state. The Senate Commerce Committee had an opportunity to stand up for health; it lacked the courage to do so. Read more...

Workplace Smoking Ban Nears Law Status
Bill Was One Of Governor's Initiatives Read more...

Smoke-Free Advocates Rally at State Capital
The places you or someone you know use for a smoke break may go away if advocates for a smoke-free workplace have their way. Read more...

No progress on workplace smoking ban in House
The House Agriculture Committee made little progress Tuesday in deciding the fate of several proposals to impose a workplace smoking ban in Tennessee. Read more...

House committee delays vote on smoking bills
Members look to consolidate legislation dealing with smoking in public places. Read more...

Smoking Bills Deferred
Several bills to outlaw smoking in the workplace continue to smolder in the Tennessee legislature as proponents ask for time to make more changes. Read more...

Senate votes to ban smoking in state-operated cars
Smoking would be banned in state-operated vehicles under a bill passed by the Senate on Thursday. Read more...

Ban on smoking sought
The smoky cloud around the Germantown Commissary comes from the sweet flavoring of hickory, not the unhealthy fog of tobacco. Read more...

Not even in the boys' room
No alcohol, no weapons, and -- if things play out like they should -- no smoking, either, on public school grounds throughout Tennessee. Read more...

Big Tobacco is selling misleading myths
The 13-year-old found his father unconscious on the floor. The cardiologist told the man's almost-widow that if he didn't quit three packs of Camels a day, he would not live to see his boys grow up. Read more...

Agricultural Committee scheduled to vote on smoking ban
Tennessee lawmakers are inching closer to a statewide ban on smoking in the workplace. Read more...

Lawmakers to talk with constituents before smoking bill vote
Tennessee state lawmakers say they want to talk with their constituents before voting on a bill that would expand the law prohibiting smoking on public school grounds. Read more...

Committee Hearings Begin on Statewide Workplace Smoking Ban
State legislators are set to begin hearings on a proposed workplace smoking ban (tomorrow/today,) and advocates are staging events across the state this week to sell the idea. Read more...

Tennessee's First Lady starts smoking ban
Tennessee's First Lady is working to stamp out smoking in the workplace. Her husband, Governor Phil Bredesen has been pushing a tax increase for months. He says it would raise much needed money for education. Read more...

First Lady Rallies For A Smoke Free Tennessee
First lady Andrea Conte kicked off a state wide rally Monday morning on the steps of Legislative Plaza urging support of a measure that would ban smoking in all public buildings, including bars and restaurants. Read more...

No Smoking, Except for Ribs
An article by WVLT-TV Knoxville outlines Tennessee First Lady Andrea Conte's plan to rally public support for a state-wide ban of smoking in the workplace. Read more...

Kid's artwork asks parents to stop smoking
For national Kick Butts Day, Wednesday, students at Schrader Lane Childcare Center will make and display anti-tobacco posters at the center. Read more...

Lt. Gov. Ramsey re-evaluates his stance on public smoking
Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, long a reliable vote for the tobacco industry, is turning over a new leaf. Read more...

Cigarette warning labels could grow, get graphic
A damaged brain. A clogged heart. Rotten teeth. Such startling images on cigarette packs in other countries are proving to be an effective way to combat smoking, according to two recent studies. Read more...

Lawmaker says colleagues flout smoking rules
State Rep. Brian Kelsey on Thursday berated fellow lawmakers on the House floor for flouting a smoking ban at the legislative office complex. Read more...

Maryland: Senate Passes State Smoking Ban
Maryland lawmakers voted yesterday to ban smoking in bars and restaurants statewide, express "profound regret" for the state's role in the slave trade and deny parole to child rapists in a burst of activity as they confronted a key deadline for moving legislation. Read more...

Kentucky Bans Sales of Traditional Smokes
Only cigarettes that extinguish themselves when dropped or left unattended will be allowed to be sold in Kentucky under a new law.
That means conventional cigarettes - which have been blamed for untold numbers of house fires over the years - essentially would be banned in one of the nation's top tobaccoproducing states, a move that could help propel a national push for safer cigarettes.
   "Kentucky, with its rich tobacco history, makes a statement that this is very much a public safety initiative," said Lorraine Carli, a spokeswoman for the National Fire Protection Association.
   Carli said at least 18 other states are considering similar legislation to require the special smokes, which are wrapped in thin bands of paper that work like "speed bumps" to slow the burning of cigarettes. They go out when the burning tobacco no longer is being puffed by smokers. (Chattanooga Times-Free Press)

As We See It: You can't debate fact; lawmakers must step up
It's time public officials in Tennessee confront the health risks posed by secondhand smoke. "The debate is over," former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Richard Carmona said during a visit to East Tennessee State University earlier this week. Read more...

Where Tobacco Ruled, Smoking Ban Gains Ground
Washington, D.C.; Puerto Rico; and 22 states have passed bans on smoking in bars, restaurants, or all workplaces Read more...

Second-hand smoke hits kids worst
During the past few years a trememdous amount of scientific research has made it clear that second-hand smoke is a major cause of cancer, heart disease, stroke and other major illnesses. Read more...

Sperry's goes smoke free
Beginning March 1, Belle Meade's Sperry's Restaurant will be smoke-free. Read more...

Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce announces support of smoke-free workplaces. Read more...

Bill Introduced To Eliminate Secondhand Work Place Smoke
Smoke-free workplace legislation was introduced Thursday in the General Assembly that proponents say will effectively eliminate secondhand smoke in all Tennessee work places.
Read more...

Bredesen Proposes Smoking Ban
If you think Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has launched a war against smoking, you are right and he's not apologizing. Read more...

Passage of smoking ban likely
House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh said Thursday that he won't stand in the way of proposals for a statewide workplace smoking ban - as long as there are certain exceptions. Read more...

Physicians support Bredesen's proposed smoking ban
The Tennessee Medical Association on Monday threw its full support behind plans by Gov. Phil Bredesen to ban smoking in the workplace, and to sharply raise taxes on cigarettes. Read more...

Passive smoke linked to heart precursors
Breathing in secondhand smoke has been linked to an increase in certain precursors of coronary heart disease, researchers at the University of Nottingham in Britain announced Monday. Read more...

Editorial: Smoking ban proposal: health over profit
When the Tennessee Legislature closed its 2006 session last spring, legislation that had passed included a bill to outlaw smoking in buildings owned and operated by the state. Read more...

Restaurant Association Supports Non-smoking Bill
The Tennessee Restaurant Association says it now supports smoke-free workplace legislation - as long as it doesn't single out just restaurants. Read more...

New no-smoking frontier: condos and apartments
Seniors are leading the way in the new battle to ban smoking from communal environments. Read more...

Va. Senate OKs Indoor-Smoking Ban
Smoking would be prohibited in restaurants and most other public, indoor places in Virginia under legislation the state Senate passed yesterday. Read more...

Schools benefit if levy gets OK
Gov. Phil Bredesen proposed nearly $250 million in new education spending Monday night, most of it paid for by a 40-cents-per-pack cigarette tax increase that he asked the state legislature to approve. Read more...

Bredesen wants to triple cigarette tax to boost education funding
Gov. Phil Bredesen on Monday proposed tripling the state's tax on cigarettes to 60 cents a pack to pay for the bulk of a $343 million education package. Read more...

Editorial: Increase Taxes on Cigarettes
Across our state capital this year, our lawmakers and other officials are discussing the possibility of raising taxes on cigarettes in Tennessee and other related issues which could help reduce smoking and its devastating impact on our health. Read more...

Workplace secondhand smoke ups cancer risk (Yahoo.com)
High levels of secondhand smoke on the job can double nonsmokers' risk of developing lung cancer, and those who inhale it at work long-term face a 50 percent higher risk, researchers said on Wednesday.Read more...

Allowing local smoking ban may require lawmakers to reverse votes (AP)
The sponsor of a proposal to rescind a state law that prevents local governments from enacting smoking bans hopes he isn't the only lawmaker who now views the measure differently than he did 13 years ago. Read more...

Blood Assurance And Health Department Campuses Go Tobacco-Free Feb. 1 (Chattanoogan.com)
Read more...

Bredesen plans to take on tobacco during legislative session, top advisor says (Nashville City Paper)
Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration plans to take on tobacco during the upcoming legislative session, possibly pushing for an overall workplace ban on smoking as well as likely proposing a cigarette tax increase, one of the governor's top advisors said. Read more...

Smoking ban has chance (Tennessean)
Banning smoking in bars and restaurants isn't just for California anymore. Even some traditional tobacco states are following suit, and Tennessee may be next. Read more...

Scores of readers say smoking in restaurants has to go (Tennessean)
A proposed ban on smoking in restaurants - outlined in Friday's Tennessean - has generated an avalanche of public response, most in favor of it. Read more...

Readers' letters urge lawmakers to support restaurant smoking ban (Tennessean)
Read more...

Secondhand smoke is life-threatening (Tennessean)
As a practicing physician, I have seen firsthand what secondhand smoke can do. I have cared for mothers and fathers, husbands, wives and grandparents, even children who have life-threatening illnesses because of secondhand smoke. Read more...

Restaurants ready if rules apply to all (Tennessean)
Read more...

Memo to lawmakers: Find the courage to ban public smoking (Bristol Herald Courier)
"All the world over, so easy to see; people everywhere just wanna be free." - The Rascals
Turns out, the people want to breathe free, too. Read more...

Smoking ban needs to pass (Tennessean)
In Nashville, it's happened voluntarily in such culinary contrasts as Elliston Place Soda Shop and Fattoush Cafe. Read more...