ND Health Dept. budget uses tobacco measure money

A budget bill for North Dakota's Health Department uses money that the state's voters wanted to be spent on anti-smoking measures.

The North Dakota House approved the budget Wednesday. It changes an initiated measure that voters approved in 2008.

The measure said 80 percent of money from the state's "community health trust fund" must be spent on reducing tobacco use.

The fund itself is financed by a state lawsuit settlement against the nation's largest tobacco companies.

The Health Department budget bill eliminates the 80 percent provision.

It uses trust fund money for women's breast cancer screening, a state stroke registry and a program to fight heart disease in women.

Rugby Rep. Jon Nelson says the change won't hurt anti-smoking efforts.

The Health Department budget now goes to the state Senate.

Smoking banned in Auburn city parks

Smokers in Auburn are now supposed to stay out of city parks. However, they won’t have any real consequences if they ignore that rule – at least not yet.
The Auburn City Council approved a resolution on Thursday establishing a smoke-free policy for all city parks. As part of the policy, smoking any cigarette, pipe, cigar, other tobacco items or any other plant will be prohibited. The city will likely post signs in city parks to inform visitors of the policy.
The proposal was put together with cooperation of city officials, the Cayuga County Tobacco Free Partnership and the local YMCA, which administers much of the youth programming in local parks.
The point of the rule is to “protect the health, welfare and safety of (Auburn’s) citizens,” the resolution reads.
John Rossi, the city’s chief attorney, said Thursday that the policy does not include any enforcement options like fines or citations at this time. For that to happen, the city council would likely have to change the city code, he said.
“This is basically going to be somewhat voluntary,” Rossi said.

Big tobacco using FOI to stall reforms: Roxon

British American Tobacco and Philip Morris have taken out a request for tens of thousands of documents relating to the Government's plan to introduce plain packaging laws.

If implemented, colours, brands, logos and promotional text on cigarette packets will all be banned and the packet will be covered by a graphic health warning.

The department initially quoted more than $2 million to process the FOI request, but under the laws the tobacco companies will not have to pay the full cost of processing.

Ms Roxon says it is clear what the tobacco companies are trying to do.

"The FOI applications are just another step in a long process that the tobacco [industry] has had a history of doing," she said.

"[They] will no doubt continue to try to tie up government resources and other resources in the hope of slowing down or putting off or reducing our determination to this cause."

British American Tobacco Australia has a 45 per cent stake in Australia's cigarette market and has vowed to fight the Government on the reforms.

The company says the plain packaging plan has not been properly thought through and the Government has not publicly released any of the information it used to develop the policy.

Company spokesman Mark Connell says the stand-off will end up in court.

He says plain packaging will also diminish their ability to compete against other brands.

Smoking rates stand at 17 per cent, but public health experts believe plain packaging will make cigarettes less appealing to young people.