Turkey Reports “Smoking – Ban Murder”

A restaurant owner in southwest Turkey was shot dead after he tried to prevent his customers from smoking to comply with a new law on the use of tobacco indoors, Hurriyet daily said Thursday.

A fight broke out after Hidir Karayigit, 46, ordered a group of customers to extinguish their cigarettes when they began smoking at his “meyhane,” a traditional restaurant that serves alcohol, in the town of Saruhanli, Hurriyet said.

One of the customers shot Karayigit four times after he took away the group’s cigarettes, said witness Hamza Havutcu, Karayigit’s business partner who was also shot and wounded.

Turkey’s government on July 19 introduced a nationwide ban on indoor smoking, including bars and restaurants, despite the fact that half of Turks aged between the ages of 15 and 49 smoke; one of the highest rates in the world.

Its really saddened that the first smoking-ban murder occurred at Turkey that taken action against smoking and creating a law to restricts public smoking, said by Saruhanli Mayor Veli Yalcin. “They either shouldn’t have outlawed smoking or they should have outlawed alcohol along with smoking.”

Smoking Banned Around Hospitals in New York

The New York City Council unanimously approved a bill on Wednesday to prohibit smoking within 15 feet of the entrance or exit to any hospital. Lawmakers said the measure was a logical and necessary extension of an existing ban on smoking in hospitals, in place since 1988, and the ban on workplace smoking, one of the Bloomberg administration’s key initiatives, which took effect in 2003.

Smoking Banned Around Hospitals in New York

“When visiting a hospital, the last thing patients should have to worry about avoiding second hand smoke,” the Council speaker, Christine C. Quinn, said before the vote. “Patients should not have to walk through plumes of smoke on their way to seeing their doctor.”

The legislation, introduced by Councilwoman Inez E. Dickens, a Manhattan Democrat, applies to general hospitals, diagnostic and treatment centers and residential health care facilities. The measure not only bans smoking within 15 feet of hospital entrances or exits, but also smoking within 15 feet of the entrance to or exit from a hospital’s outdoor grounds.

A coalition of antitobacco groups — including the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association, the American Heart Association and the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids — supported the legislation.

The city’s 1988 Smoke-Free Air Act already bans smoking in hospitals, clinics, psychiatric facilities, residential health care facilities, physical therapy facilities, convalescent homes and homes for the aged.

In a Monday hearing on the measure, staff members for the City Council reported that several states — Arkansas, Colorado and Hawaii — and municipalities — Buffalo; Duluth, Minn.; and Sioux City, Iowa — had passed similar measures restricting smoking around hospital entrances.

Racetrack asks health board for smoking ban exemption

Dan Adkins asks Health Board For Racetrack Smoking Ban

Representatives from the Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center asked the Kanawha-Charleston Board of Health to reconsider the county’s smoking ban at the racetrack, but health officials weren’t sympathetic.

Dan Adkins, the racetrack’s vice president, asked the health board to allow a partial exemption for the “one-of-a-kind” establishment that would designate smoking and nonsmoking areas within the casino and gaming area.

“We can handle smokers and nonsmokers. We have had total separation in the past and are asking for consideration again since we are a unique destination within the state,” Adkins said.

He said the racetrack has lost $15 million in revenue in the past year, more than half of which officials blame on the smoking ban.

“Nine million of that can be attributed to nonsmoking,” he said. “Yes, we’ve had an economic downturn but that can’t account for a full 24 percent drop in revenue.”

Members of the health board weren’t inclined to reconsider the ban.

“It’s hard in one year to make any determination on if the smoking ban has affected losses, especially because of the economic downturn,” said Brenda Isaac, the board’s president. “It will be discussed, but I would not be inclined to make an exception.”

Other board members felt the same, saying the racetrack was welcome to ask to be reconsidered, but the board shouldn’t go back on what it passed.

“It’s first and foremost a health issue. We are doing this because of the evidence against [smoking],” said board member Dr. Shannon Snodgrass.

The smoking ban has caused tourism revenue in the county and state to shrink, Adkins said.

“We track our players like any other casino and we know that our dollars are going out of state where people can smoke,” he said.

According to Adkins, Tri-State is the only one of the state’s three racetracks with table games to have a smoking ban, which he said makes the restriction to his business unfair.

“As long as the ban is fair and equal, we’ll cooperate,” he said. “We aren’t being treated fairly. We’re asking for a level playing field.”