KMOX.com - Shots fired outside Imperial Palace club

KMOX.com - Shots fired outside Imperial Palace club

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Is it really smart to put people out on the streets at night in North St. Louis with a smoking ban?

"The victims were all outside the nightclub when the suspects began shooting and assaulting them. A security guard drew his weapon and fired several shots at the ground. It's unclear if one of the shots ricocheted up and hit one of the suspects."

New Study of Smokers' Exposure to ETS

Is suspect the trick of this study is that the carcinogen measured is preferentially present in ETS. Hence the high cigarette equivalent numbers.

1476-069x-9-5

City Smoking Ban Exemption

Based on the RFT article this week, it looks like there will be a battle in St. Louis City over the meaning of the word "bar" and "incidental" in the St. Louis City Smoke Free Air Act of 2009.

But when the Health and Human Services Committee was about to vote on the bar exemption of the St. Louis City Smoke Free Air Act of 2009, the committee had someone, I believe it was Commissioner Robert W. Kraiberg himself, from the Excise Division of the City of St. Louis Department of Public Safety, come down to define what a bar is. The official said that a bar was any place not a restaurant by their definition. So the committee voted that day for the exemption based on the definition of a bar as an establishment that serves less than 50 percent food. Here is the definition of a restaurant put forth by the Excise Division:

"Restaurant" means any establishment where at least fifty percent (50%) of the gross income is derived from the sale of food consumed on the premises of the establishment or which has an annual gross income of at least two hundred seventy-five thousand dollars ($275,000.00) from the sale of prepared meals or food consumed on such premises. (Ord. 61289 § 2 (part), 1989.)
http://www.slpl.lib.mo.us/cco/code/title14.htm

RFT Article on City and County Smoking Ban

http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2010-01-27/news/smokeasies-loopholes-in-controversial-smoking-bans-in-st-louis-city-and-county/

Tuscany heart attack study

According to Dr. Michael Siegel:

"A peer-reviewed study published in the European Journal of Epidemiology has concluded that there was no significant effect of the smoking ban in Tuscany, Italy on heart attacks during the first year of implementation (see: Gasparrini A, Gorini G, Barchielli A. On the relationship between smoking bans and incidence of acute myocardial infarction. European Journal of Epidemiology 2009; 24:597-602).

Importantly, this published study was not considered by the Institute of Medicine committee which reviewed this issue and released its report in October of last year. It was also not considered in published meta-analyses on this topic. Because of the high sample size of this study, it is likely that inclusion of this study in the previous meta-analyses would have negated their results."
http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/01/published-study-finds-no-effect-of.html


Full Text

Barbara Fraser for State Senate

Where are the names of Barbara Fraser's smoking ban friends such as Pion, Gatton and Suozzi on this report? She could use their help against Sam Page right now.

Full Report

Kirkwood Smoking Ban Hurting Businesses

PLAN AMENDMENT TO OUTLAW TOBACCO

97110896

What's next in Michigan?

What’s Next? We have been made aware of several potential court cases that could affect the legality of smoking bans like the one passed today. Representatives of bar and restaurant interests in the city fo St. Louis, Missouri are actively persuing legal action against that city’s smoking ban, which similarly exempts several local casinos. The MLBA will be investigating possible legal challenges to this ban before it goes into effect.

http://mlba.org/page.cfm/17/?po=846&id=51

Deadheads, check out a very nice Ripple!

Blowing Smoke at a Ban

Six years after New York City passed a ban on smoking in bars and restaurants, it is easier than ever to find smokers partying indoors like it’s 1999, or at least 2002. In November, Eater.com called it “the worst kept secret in New York nightlife” that “smoking is now allowed in numerous nightspots, specifically just about any and every lounge and club with a doorman and a rope.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/fashion/03smoking.html