Smoking Ban in Parks Not Enough

An alderman proposing a ban on tobacco use in Spring Hill parks will now target smoking only. Alderman Keith Hudson’s proposal last month also made it a minor municipal offense to use smokeless tobacco in a park within the city. But he made clear at Monday night’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen work session that he wants to focus only on smoking and he’ll bring forward an amendment at the June 18 regular meeting.

Smoking During Pregnancy Very Bad

A new study lead by the University of Zaragoza evaluates the differences in body composition and proportional distribution of body mass between babies born to mothers who have or have not smoked during pregnancy. Published in the Early Human Development journal, the study reveals that children of woman who did not smoke during pregnancy weigh and measure more. Their corporal dimensions are also significantly higher compared to the children of mothers who did smoke during pregnancy. But, this is not the same as body weight index (the relationship between height and cubic weight).

Sleeping Pills More Harmful than Cigarettes

A recent study claims sleeping pills are as risky as cigarettes. NBC4 decided to look deeper into the issue and find out whether it's worse to take a pill or not sleep. The average adult should get at least seven hours of sleep a night. That's a lot tougher than it sounds, though. Dr. Michael Saribalas is a certified sleep specialist here in Columbus. He treats people for all kinds of sleep and psychiatric disorders. He said all sleeping pills, or hypnotics, come with a risk but this study should be taken with a grain of salt. He said the study was all about association, meaning the people taking sleeping pill might have had other underlying problems that led to death, not the pills themselves. Saribalas points out that a lot of important things happen during sleep so the benefit of taking a sleeping pill, for some, may outweigh the risk. Jennifer Mayle, a local hair stylist, is one of Saribalas' patients. She said she once suffered through 12 days of insomnia. She has been taking a sleep aid for many years and said she'd rather do that than walk around like a zombie. She said her life has improved drastically since finding help.

Smoking Ban Supported by Justices

Ohio's voter-initiated ban on indoor public smoking, the first enacted in the Midwest and among the strictest in the nation, is constitutional and enforceable, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Wednesday. The decision struck a blow against stubborn bars and their customers who smoked and then doused their cigarettes in plastic cups after ashtrays were removed. Opponents of the law argued that it amounted to an unconstitutional taking of their private property and unfairly targeted business owners while ignoring the smokers themselves. The high court called the Ohio Smoke-Free Workplace Act "a valid exercise of the state's police power" as it rejected a challenge from Zeno's Victorian Village, a Columbus tavern that has been cited 10 times and fined $33,000.

Stop Teens from Smoking, Ontario News

In its recent article, The Windsor Essex Community Health Centre provided some excellent information about keeping our teens smoke-free. But there was an important component missing - calling for a ban on youth possession of tobacco. Convenience stores play a vital role in keeping tobacco from teens. In fact, Ontario Convenience Stores Association (OCSA) members perform well over 100,000 age-checks every day. Our We Expect ID program technology allows stores to accurately verify the age of customers by reading data off the magnetic strip on driver's licences.