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Some health-care policy experts and officials at anti-tobacco groups say Altria’s challenge to the FDA may be only the first in a series of battles between Big Tobacco and the government. “This is the beginning of a significant series of regulatory actions by the FDA,” says Gregg Haifley, a lobbyist for the American Cancer Society. “The industry will fight this hammer and tong. It will be a titanic fight.”
Tobacco czar Deyton says the industry so far has cooperated with the FDA. He adds,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], however, that if tobacco companies resist new cigarettes rules and policies, “the law gives [the] FDA quite broad and deep authority to enforce all provisions, everything from issuing warning letters to seizures, injunctions, civil money penalties, criminal investigation―the whole thing.”
Disagreements between Altria and the FDA panel in charge of regulating tobacco could erupt into a full-blown battle.[link widoczny dla zalogowanych].
In countries with no comprehensive smoke-free regulations,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], tobacco smoke is present in the majority of public places, most of which are also somebody’s workplace. In the case of children and adolescents, most of the exposure to tobacco smoke comes from parents and occurs in the home.
According to the latest Eurobarometer (May 2010):
* Smoking at home is allowed by 4 in 10 EU citizens (38%). The most permissive Member States are Greece,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],cheap newport cigarettes, Spain and Cyprus, where at least 1 in 4 allow smoking everywhere in the house. Finnish and Swedish respondents are the strictest about smoking in their homes,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], with 95% and 86% respectively not allowing smoking in the home at all.
* 16% of citizens allow smoking in the car all the time and 12% some of the time. This depends on whether they smoke themselves. About two thirds of smokers permit smoking in the car (65%) compared with 13% of non-smokers.
* Of those who visited bars and eating establishments in the past 6 months, 45% recall that people were smoking inside the bar and 30% said the same about an eating establishment.
* A quarter of citizens are exposed to tobacco smoke in the workplace. At work, about 1 in 10 are exposed to tobacco smoke for less than an hour a day, 1 in 20 for between one and five hours per day and the remaining one in 20 for more than 5 hours per day.
Smoker Andy Gomulinski was surprised recently when he didn’t see an ashtray at the upper-level bar at Sidelines in Lambertville.
That section of the restaurant went smoke-free Jan. 1 ― four months before Michigan’s statewide smoking ban is to take effect.
“I don’t like it,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych],” the 35-year-old Petersburg man said. “I guess I don’t have a choice.”
Gomulinski said he will continue to frequent the popular spot even after the lower level goes smoke-free when the statewide ban starts May 1. He just won’t stay as long.
Restaurants and bars in Michigan near the Ohio border hope smoking patrons like Gomulinski and those from Ohio ― who scoot across the state line because they can smoke in such establishments ― will continue to spend their money after Michigan’s smoking ban kicks in.
Some places in Michigan could have had a reprieve from the ban when Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said Thursday that he was going to file a lawsuit to block it because the county didn’t have enough money or people to enforce it. Hours later,[link widoczny dla zalogowanych], he did an about-face after he was flooded with phone calls and e-mails criticizing the idea.