"FDA Legislation Advances Thanks to Your Efforts!"

(March 12, 2008) from "American Lung Association Action Network" <lungaction@lungusadc.org> -

"A heartfelt thank you for all of your letters and phone calls in support of the HR 1108, legislation that would give the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authority over manufactured tobacco products.  We heard from offices on Capitol Hill about the number of calls they received about this issue.  Thank you!

And we have great news to report!  Because of your great work, last night, the U.S. House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health passed HR 1108 out of committee and sent it to the full committee for action.  This historic action is the first time any committee in the House of Representatives has ever voted on this critical public health legislation. 

The American Lung Association appreciates all of your advocacy efforts and support for lung health issues. Our work is nowhere near complete and we know that we will continue to need your support as the bill moves to the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the entire House of Representatives. But we will celebrate today and thank you for making HR 1108 one step closer to being signed into law. This is long-overdue legislation that will protect children and promote public health.

We wouldalso like to share a report we recently released with our partner health organizations called Big Tobacco's Guinea Pigs: How an Unregulated Industry Experiments on America's Kids and Consumers. This report details how tobacco companies manipulate their products to recruit new youth users, create and sustain addiction, and discourages users from quitting. http://www.lungusa.org/site/pp.asp?c=dvLUK9O0E&b=3908213 "

Ban on smoking becomes Md. law
By Ruma Kumar
Sun reporter

May 18, 2007

Gov. Martin O'Malley signed into law one of the most restrictive smoking bans in the nation yesterday, putting to rest four years of wrangling between public health advocates concerned about secondhand smoke and restaurateurs who claimed the measure would hurt neighborhood mom-and-pop operations.

The law requires bars and restaurants, as well as private clubs such as American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars halls, to be smoke-free by Feb. 1. Some businesses eligible for financial hardship waivers from the state would get a three-year extension but must be smoke-free by 2011. With the law signed, tobacco shops are virtually the only public indoor places where smoking will be allowed in Maryland.

"It's no longer fashionable to be smoking," House Speaker Michael E. Busch said after yesterday's bill-signing ceremony, at which he and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller joined O'Malley. "When I was growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, it was a different thing - you were strange if you didn't smoke. But now there's no longer a question about the carcinogenic effect of tobacco. Jurisdictions around the state were already starting to do it. States around the country were already doing it. The time had come."

Maryland joins about 20 states that have enacted similar bans. Busch said the new law closes a loophole in a 1995 rule that banned smoking in indoor public spaces such as offices but exempted bars and restaurants.

Busch said the state law was "a natural step" after five counties - Charles, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's and Talbot - and the District of Columbia went smoke-free. Baltimore City decided to follow suit this year, and O'Malley then endorsed the statewide effort.

At his fourth and final bill- signing ceremony, the governor also signed measures to replace the state's voting machines by 2010 with machines that have a backup paper trail, to enhance penalties for gang members who commit certain crimes, and to prohibit parole for child sex offenders serving mandatory minimum sentences.

"I am proud to sign legislation that will increase penalties for child sex offenders through Jessica's Law, toughen penalties for gang members, reform the Department of Juvenile Services, protect our firefighters from smoking-related fires, and protect our work force from secondhand smoke," O'Malley said in a statement.

Supporters of various bills waited for a half-hour in a hot, cramped hallway leading to the reception room in the State House where the governor signed 164 bills.

Once the governor began his remarks, a member of his security detail shut the large door to the room, barring some reporters and even Business and Economic Development Secretary David W. Edgerley from entering. That left a crush of supporters and state officials alike straining to hear O'Malley laud the consensus that allowed the General Assembly to pass a bevy of bills on public health and safety.

Supporters of the smoking ban - including doctors, cancer survivors and a group of Eastern Shore anti-smoking activists - crowded behind the governor as he signed the Clear Indoor Air Act of 2007.

Del. Barbara A. Frush, a Democrat who represents Anne Arundel and Prince George's counties, brought both her daughters and three grandchildren to the bill-signing "because ultimately, that's why you do things - you want to create a better world for your family," she said.

"It's taken seven years of a lot of hard work and a lot of people who care about the welfare of the citizens of this state to get to this point," said Frush, lead sponsor of the House version of the ban. She said she was proud that the law had few loopholes.

"Once you start carving out exceptions, then the bill becomes meaningless," she said.

Ellicott City resident Carole Fisher was also there. A cancer and tuberculosis survivor, Fisher was a smoker for 25 years before she stopped in the 1970s. But doctors told her that she paid the price for her smoking when an aggressive strain of tuberculosis left her fighting for her life in 1997.

"I didn't want my seven grandchildren to go through what I did," Fisher said, wearing a bright yellow "I'd [heart] a smoke-free Maryland" sticker on her lapel. "And now they won't have to deal with secondhand smoke. They can live a healthy life."

Jane McConnel, Paula Lawry and Janet Pfeffer, health advocates from Talbot County who have canvassed the state over the past five years convincing Howard and Prince George's officials to adopt similar bans, were front and center at the signing too. The three women testified before the General Assembly about what a boon the ban could be for health - and commerce, despite businesses' protests.

"We have very successful businesses, the restaurants are doing just fine, and none of our residents have to worry about second-hand smoke," said Pfeffer, who works for a Talbot County nonprofit group that guards against substance addiction.

Several restaurant owners remain staunch critics of the law, which they say will strain business for small establishments that rely on foot traffic.

"For those restaurants that just have people stop by to watch an Orioles game and grab a beer, they're going to lose that business, because it's such a major, major inconvenience to not be able to smoke indoors anymore," said Del. Joseph J. "Sonny" Minnick, a Baltimore County Democrat who owns Minnick's Restaurant in Dundalk. "Some people put their whole life savings into opening some of these places and I heard this guy from Johns Hopkins testify and say, 'Yeah, I suppose some of these businesses would have to close,' so nonchalant, you know. Like, it's no big deal. But when it happens to you, it's devastating."

Minnick said restaurants have already begun bracing themselves for the ban, by adding outdoor patios and bars for smokers. He has seen it at the Charles Village Pub in Towson, and he and his brother are planning to do something similar at their restaurant in Dundalk.

"It's the law of the land now, so we have to make it work somehow," he said.

Both sides stepped up their lobbying efforts in the final days of the 90-day session as lawmakers ironed out the details of the ban.

During that time, lawmakers dropped a proposed exemption for private clubs, including fraternal organizations, and cobbled together a hardship waiver program that would develop rules on how to grant extensions to bars and restaurants that could prove the ban would hurt them financially. Local officials will be in charge of issuing the waivers, a source of anxiety for the state's restaurant association.

"We hope that the state health department and comptroller's office will develop criteria for economic hardship waivers that is fair and realistic," said Melvin R. Thompson, government affairs liaison for the group. "Those regulations have not been created yet, and we will be talking and working with the state about that."

ruma.kumar@baltsun.com

The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Copyright © 2007, The Baltimore Sun

By John Wagner and Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 28, 2007

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley announced his support yesterday for a statewide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, endorsing legislation that appears to be gaining momentum in the General Assembly.

O'Malley's announcement came a day after the Baltimore City Council passed a bill imposing a smoking ban in public places in the state's largest city. Montgomery, Prince George's, Howard and Talbot counties have prohibitions, and once Baltimore's ban takes effect Jan. 1, nearly half of Maryland residents will live in jurisdictions that restrict lighting up.

"He'll sign it if it reaches his desk," O'Malley spokesman Rick Abbruzzese said of the governor's response to the proposed statewide measure. "He believes the public health data is convincing, and a statewide ban would significantly improve the health of Maryland citizens."

Until yesterday, O'Malley (D) had never explicitly pledged his support for a statewide prohibition, allowing only that he was "willing to consider it" if a bill reached his desk.

Leaders of the state House and Senate, as well as the chairman of the Baltimore legislative delegation, said yesterday that the city's action significantly increases the chances of a statewide law. In past years, opposition from lawmakers in Baltimore, which has myriad corner bars, had been a stumbling block to a statewide ban.

Monday's 9 to 2 vote by the Baltimore council puts "the writing on the wall" for a statewide ban, said Del. Curtis S. Anderson (D-Baltimore), who heads the city delegation. "There's clear momentum."

Still, the chairman of two committees that will consider the legislation cautioned that passage is not certain.

"You can say smoking is banned in half the state, so let's go ahead," said Del. Dereck E. Davis (D-Prince George's), chairman of the House Economic Matters Committee. "But there's also sentiment that this is happening jurisdiction by jurisdiction, so why should the state get involved?"

Sen. Thomas M. Middleton (D-Charles) said yesterday that he is trying to gauge support for the bill in the Senate. "If I find there is not the vote for it, I will not let it out of my committee," Middleton said.

Sixteen states and the District have adopted bans. Some states, including New York and Massachusetts, adopted statewide bans after their largest cities prohibited smoking in public places.

O'Malley, who served seven years as Baltimore mayor before becoming governor last month, had said previously that a statewide ban would be preferable to a patchwork of local bans.

As mayor, O'Malley's opposition to a local ban led supporters of the Baltimore bill to put off voting until he left office, fearing that he would veto the legislation. O'Malley's successor, Mayor Sheila Dixon (D), plans to sign the measure this morning.

Melvin Thompson, lobbyist for the Maryland Restaurant Association, said O'Malley's support for a statewide ban "doesn't change our opposition."
"When you tell people they can't smoke, they will stop drinking in our establishments," Thompson said. "We believe this decision should be made by business owners based on what their customers prefer."

Prospects for a statewide ban have also increased in recent years with the waning influence of the state's tobacco lobby, which occurred as many tobacco farmers converted to other crops.

Advocates for a statewide ban said yesterday that they were within a handful of votes of securing passage in the House committee that will hold a hearing on the bill next week.

Bonita Pennino, a lobbyist for the American Cancer Society, cast the debate in economic terms, saying that Maryland pays hundreds of millions of dollars in health bills for damage from secondhand smoke.

"If the restaurant industry wants to talk about economics, that's our argument, too," Pennino said.

Staff writer Ovetta Wiggins contributed to this report.

Published February 21, 2007, The Capital, Annapolis, Md.
Copyright © 2007 The Capital, Annapolis, Md.

Fifteen states and Washington, D.C., already have banned smoking in taverns and restaurants. The excuse that smokers will travel elsewhere to light up, therefore destroying business, no longer holds up. Nor does the argument that a majority of tavern owners are opposed to the bans. Increasingly, the industry is divided. Many restaurants have instituted smoking bans on their own.

This paper has in the past called for the free market to reign on the issue of smoking in restaurants and bars. It called for bars and restaurants to make up their own minds. Such thinking is now outdated. The health effects of secondhand smoke are too blatant to ignore. Besides, the public attitude toward smoking is becoming less tolerant in public spaces. Smoking is now the exception, not the norm in most areas.

In the U.S., larger cities like New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., have made the change successfully. Sure, there were complaints at first but the response to the bans in those cities has been generally positive.

In Philadelphia, a city also known for its many neighborhood bars, the ban exempted outdoor cafes, private clubs and bars that derive at least 90 percent of their income from drinks. It might be the only way to appease Baltimore legislators who have battled against previous bans.
What makes a ban unpalatable to many opponents is that so many bars in Baltimore City exist only for smoking and drinking. No food is served. There is also the issue of the cigar bars, like Max's Taphouse in Fells Point, that have become destinations for people who enjoy cigars. Legislators may consider a special status for such places.

Regardless of the opposition, Maryland will likely follow other smoke-free states, including neighboring Pennsylvania, this year.

This is the year a statewide ban will pass despite aggressive ad campaigns and lobbying by the Restaurant Association of Maryland and its members.

Four counties already ban smoking in bars and restaurants. Lawmakers in Baltimore City, Annapolis and Anne Arundel County have all called for their own bans.

In a year that has been labeled as a transition year for a new legislature and governor, the smoking ban may be the one big issue that gets through.