Tobacco.org

• Tobacco bill proponents push back  

Proponents of a bill to allow exemptions to the state smoking ban for over-21 establishments are pushing back against American Cancer Society claims that Big Tobacco is behind the effort.

Sheila Martin, an advocate of the bill who owns a Hutchinson club that is already exempt from the ban, took great exception to a ACS email encouraging supporters to "Help Turn Back New Assaults from Big Tobacco."

"Not one penny has been given to us from RJ Reynolds or Phillip Morris," she said. "This is a bald-faced lie."

Martin said she approached an RJ Reynolds official about supporting the bill, but he declined.

Christopher Masoner, the cancer society's chief lobbyist in Kansas, said RJ Reynolds testified at the same hearing in favor of another tobacco bill that would direct the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to explore whether smokeless tobacco is safer than cigarettes.

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Health groups pan committee's tobacco votes 

Representatives from the American Cancer Society and American Heart Association harshly criticized two tobacco-related bills passed by a House committee Tuesday.

Kevin Walker, of the heart association, said one bill would gut the state smoking ban by allowing businesses to establish smoking sections in which all patrons and workers would have to be 21 or older. He said the other bill is a House resolution that would ask the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to explore whether smokeless tobacco products are less harmful than cigarettes.

"Taken together, these would set us back 10 years, at least," Walker said.

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Bill seeks to allow smoking in Kansas bars  

Smokeless Tobacco Study Weighed By Kansas Lawmakers In R.J. Reynolds-Backed Resolution 

• Smokeless Tobacco Study Weighed By Kansas Lawmakers In R.J. Reynolds-Backed Resolution 

Kansas lawmakers are considering a resolution that would require state health officials to conduct a study about the health effects of smokeless tobacco, potentially allowing the state to market smokeless tobacco as a healthier alternative to cigarette smoking.

The Federal and State Affairs Committee of Kansas' House of Representatives has been debating a measure that would require the state's Department of Health and Environment to conduct a study of the health effects of using smokeless tobacco -- commonly known as chewing tobacco -- to determine if it is safer than cigarette smoking.

One goal of the resolution is for the state health department to ultimately make a recommendation to the legislature as to whether Kansas should promote smokeless tobacco over cigarette smoking. The Kansas proposal follows the passage of recent similar resolutions in Nebraska, Indiana and Kentucky -- all backed by R.J. Reynolds.

Richard J. Smith, a spokesman for R.J. Reynolds, confirmed that his company has been encouraging the state-based studies. Such studies are in keeping with the company's "tobacco harm reduction" strategy, he told HuffPost. R.J. Reynolds has found scientific evidence showing that chewing tobacco does not pose the same health risks as cigarette smoking, he said.

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LETTER: Cigarette rollers create revenue, jobs 

VIDEO: Kan. Fire Marshal forbids "Roll Your Own" cigarette machines  

• Smoking ban survives constitutional challenge 

The statewide ban on smoking in public places survived a constitutional challenge Friday when the Kansas Supreme Court ruled against a Tonganoxie bar that contested the 2010 law.

In a unanimous opinion authored by Chief Justice Lawton Nuss, the high court overturned a temporary injunction issued by Shawnee County District Court Judge Franklin Theis that blocked the state from enforcing the ban on the Downtown Bar and Grill of Tonganoxie, a Class B establishment that argued it should be exempt from the ban under terms of the statute.

In remanding the case to the district court, the Supreme Court ruled that Downtown Bar failed to establish “a substantial likelihood of eventual success on the merits (of its case).”

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State puts flame to roll-your-own tobacco stores 

• Kansas shuts down 'roll your own' cigarette shops  

In a move characterized as a fire safety issue, the Kansas Department of Revenue shut down around 20 operations that offer the use of 'roll your own cigarette' machines to customers, according to a KMBC news report.

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"Roll Your Own" Tobacco Shops Targeted 

• State shuts down roll-your-own cigarette machines  

Agents with the Kansas Department of Revenue have shut down the operations of about 20 businesses across the state that offer “roll your own cigarette” services, after state regulators determined the sites were operating as unlicensed manufacturers of tobacco products.

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Decline in Tobacco Use Among Children, Young Adults Stalled, According to Surgeon General Report  

story highlights

* U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, M.D., recently released a report on teen smoking that indicates the rate of decline for teen and young adult smoking has slowed during the past decade.

* Family physicians have an opportunity to stop teens and young adults from starting smoking.

* According to Benjamin, if physicians can convince their patients to remain smoke-free until they are 26 or older, less than 1 percent of them will ever start smoking.

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Seeing Through the Smoke 

Seeing Through the Smoke