Belmont, Mass. - The Board of Health will hold a public hearing from 7:30 to 8:30 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 5, in Conference Room 4 of the Town Hall, corner of Concord Avenue and Pleasant Street.
These changes were proposed by Belmont’s tobacco consortium director in response to changes being made in communities around Belmont. Only two small changes were accepted by the Board of Health in regard to the “Sale of Tobacco Products to Minors.” One is that a tobacco sales permit will not be renewed if the permit holder has failed to pay all fines issued. The other is that revocation of a tobacco sales permit will result if a permit holder sells tobacco products while the permit is under suspension.
The Board of Health has been enforcing the State’s smoke-free workplace law since its enactment in July, 2004. In order to make local changes, a new Belmont “Regulation Prohibiting Smoking in Workplaces and Public Places” is now being proposed by the Board of Health. This regulation will prohibit smoking bars and hookah bars in Belmont and will prohibit smoking in “all outdoor seating areas adjacent to food service establishments where food is consumed.” The popularity of outdoor dining in recent years has brought the smoking issue in these areas to the attention of Boards of Health as well as all of the tobacco consortiums around the State.
Sep 29, 2009
Sep 25, 2009
Four million cigarettes uncovered
A Hungarian lorry driver has been arrested after more than four million cigarettes were found at Dover.
Customs officers who stopped a Hungarian-registered lorry at the Kent port on Thursday found an estimated £708,000 worth of cigarettes.
The 35-year-old driver from Wekerle near Budapest, was arrested, questioned and bailed pending further inquiries.
Bob Gaiger of HM Revenue & Customs said: "We take a very serious view of cigarette and tobacco smuggling."
Customs officers who stopped a Hungarian-registered lorry at the Kent port on Thursday found an estimated £708,000 worth of cigarettes.
The 35-year-old driver from Wekerle near Budapest, was arrested, questioned and bailed pending further inquiries.
Bob Gaiger of HM Revenue & Customs said: "We take a very serious view of cigarette and tobacco smuggling."
Sep 23, 2009
NY judge blocks higher fees for tobacco dealers
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York's fee increases for cigarette-selling shops were temporarily blocked by a state judge, a retail association said on Friday, leaving the current $100-a-year charge in effect for now.
State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Feinman issued a temporary restraining order that prevents the state charging fees that could have climbed to as high as $5,000-a-year for stores with high volumes of sales, said James Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores.
The fee increases were designed to stop about 40 percent of the state's 24,000 licensed tobacconists from selling cigarettes in an effort to improve public health, he said.
"But that theory is all wet because most of the displaced smokers would merely shift their tobacco purchases to Indian reservations, the Internet and the black market, making things worse for small business, tax revenue and public health," Calvin said in a statement.
A spokesman for New York Governor David Paterson had no immediate comment.
The state's governors have for years failed to force Native American reservation stores to charge New York state taxes on sales of cigarettes and gasoline. The state claims it loses hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues as a result.
Non-reservation stores say they cannot compete with the lower prices the Native American stores can offer.
State Supreme Court Justice Thomas Feinman issued a temporary restraining order that prevents the state charging fees that could have climbed to as high as $5,000-a-year for stores with high volumes of sales, said James Calvin, president of the New York Association of Convenience Stores.
The fee increases were designed to stop about 40 percent of the state's 24,000 licensed tobacconists from selling cigarettes in an effort to improve public health, he said.
"But that theory is all wet because most of the displaced smokers would merely shift their tobacco purchases to Indian reservations, the Internet and the black market, making things worse for small business, tax revenue and public health," Calvin said in a statement.
A spokesman for New York Governor David Paterson had no immediate comment.
The state's governors have for years failed to force Native American reservation stores to charge New York state taxes on sales of cigarettes and gasoline. The state claims it loses hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenues as a result.
Non-reservation stores say they cannot compete with the lower prices the Native American stores can offer.
Sep 21, 2009
Rome woman charged with using stolen credit cards
A 29-year-old Rome woman is facing several charges after she allegedly used a stolen credit card to purchase cigarettes at Walmart earlier this month, New Hartford police said.
Scarlet Gies was charged Thursday with fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and second-degree forgery, both felonies, as well as misdemeanor petit larceny, Officer Shane Yoxall said.
According to police, Gies entered the Walmart store in Consumer Square on Sept. 3 and attempted to purchase two carts of Newport cigarettes using three different credit cards, Yoxall said. Gies was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a baseball cap.
After the first two credit cards were declined, Gies then used a third card to complete the transaction, Yoxall said. When Gies left the store, the Walmart employee followed Gies into the parking lot and wrote down her vehicle’s license plate number. The employee then reported the suspicious incident to New Hartford police.
Following a joint investigation by the New Hartford police, Rome police, and the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office, it was later determined that the credit card Gies used to buy the cigarettes had been stolen earlier that day from a vehicle in the outer district of Rome, Yoxall said.
Gies was arraigned and released, and she is due to appear in New Hartford Town Court on Oct. 1 to answer the charges.
Scarlet Gies was charged Thursday with fourth-degree criminal possession of stolen property and second-degree forgery, both felonies, as well as misdemeanor petit larceny, Officer Shane Yoxall said.
According to police, Gies entered the Walmart store in Consumer Square on Sept. 3 and attempted to purchase two carts of Newport cigarettes using three different credit cards, Yoxall said. Gies was wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a baseball cap.
After the first two credit cards were declined, Gies then used a third card to complete the transaction, Yoxall said. When Gies left the store, the Walmart employee followed Gies into the parking lot and wrote down her vehicle’s license plate number. The employee then reported the suspicious incident to New Hartford police.
Following a joint investigation by the New Hartford police, Rome police, and the Oneida County Sheriff’s Office, it was later determined that the credit card Gies used to buy the cigarettes had been stolen earlier that day from a vehicle in the outer district of Rome, Yoxall said.
Gies was arraigned and released, and she is due to appear in New Hartford Town Court on Oct. 1 to answer the charges.
Sep 17, 2009
Campus smoking ban eliminates student rights
Another smoking ban? Here we go again. Enough is enough. First came taxes, then came designated areas, and now here comes Bellarmine University with a smoking ban.
Nobody in their right mind denies the risks of smoking tobacco products. Smoking cigarettes undoubtedly causes lung cancer and other health problems. For this reason, I absolutely agree that this health risk should be combated with the full force of education.
In the same vein, secondhand smoke absolutely remains a considerable health risk for non-smokers. Given the risk of second-hand smoke, designated areas for smoking makes sense for the protection of non-smokers. But a campus-wide smoking ban is frankly ridiculous.
Are we supposed to believe that non-smokers do not have the sense to protect their own health by staying away from non-smoking areas? Do they have the sense to come out of the rain?
A campus-wide smoking ban takes a good idea and makes it oppressive. Smokers make up 25% of the population, which is the quarter of the American people whose rights no longer seem to be of any importance to the remaining 75% of our society*.
Already society regulates smokers to separate areas, and taxes them an arm and a leg for their cigarettes. Society has done enough to stop the effects of smoking. Now is the time to draw the line.
Smoking 15 feet away from the exits of all Bellarmine buildings does no one any harm except the smokers themselves.
When it comes to smokers' health as far as the University is concerned, if they are over 18 that is their business. To ban smoking from the entire campus implies the act of smoking is sinful.
Smoking cigarettes hurts health, but give me a break. We live in a society founded on the basis of individual rights.
The ability to smoke cigarettes is not a privilege it is a right. Citizens have the right to choose whether they want to smoke or not, and the University should not interfere so long as no innocents are hurt. The ban is excessive and I disagree with the University's decision to enact it.
Nobody in their right mind denies the risks of smoking tobacco products. Smoking cigarettes undoubtedly causes lung cancer and other health problems. For this reason, I absolutely agree that this health risk should be combated with the full force of education.
In the same vein, secondhand smoke absolutely remains a considerable health risk for non-smokers. Given the risk of second-hand smoke, designated areas for smoking makes sense for the protection of non-smokers. But a campus-wide smoking ban is frankly ridiculous.
Are we supposed to believe that non-smokers do not have the sense to protect their own health by staying away from non-smoking areas? Do they have the sense to come out of the rain?
A campus-wide smoking ban takes a good idea and makes it oppressive. Smokers make up 25% of the population, which is the quarter of the American people whose rights no longer seem to be of any importance to the remaining 75% of our society*.
Already society regulates smokers to separate areas, and taxes them an arm and a leg for their cigarettes. Society has done enough to stop the effects of smoking. Now is the time to draw the line.
Smoking 15 feet away from the exits of all Bellarmine buildings does no one any harm except the smokers themselves.
When it comes to smokers' health as far as the University is concerned, if they are over 18 that is their business. To ban smoking from the entire campus implies the act of smoking is sinful.
Smoking cigarettes hurts health, but give me a break. We live in a society founded on the basis of individual rights.
The ability to smoke cigarettes is not a privilege it is a right. Citizens have the right to choose whether they want to smoke or not, and the University should not interfere so long as no innocents are hurt. The ban is excessive and I disagree with the University's decision to enact it.
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