Most buildings fail to comply with smoking ban

A majority of buildings in the capital have failed to comply with a gubernatorial decree banning smoking inside buildings, a city agency says.

The Jakarta Environmental Management Agency (BPLHD) found that out of 249 buildings monitored for their implementation of the smoking ban, only 21 buildings, or eight percent, could be categorized as “very good” in complying with the regulation.

Most of the buildings failed to comply with orders to remove smoking sections and mandate that smokers light up outside.

Lance Armstrong Tobacco Tax: Cyclist Endorses Measure To Fund Research

LOS ANGELES — Cycling champ and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong said Monday is backing a proposed tax on tobacco in California to fund research on cancer and tobacco-related illnesses.

The seven-time Tour de France winner joined Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to urge support for the California Cancer Research Act that would increase taxes on cigarettes by $1 a pack to raise more than $500 million a year.

Wearing a yellow bracelet made popular through Livestrong, the advocacy group that Armstrong founded after battling testicular cancer in 1997, the Texas resident said he had good reasons for co-chairing the California campaign.

Kansas House gives preliminary OK to extending smoking ban to casinos

TOPEKA — The House preliminarily agreed Tuesday to take the smoking ban passed into law last year a step further by prohibiting smoking in casinos.

Substitute House Bill 2340 revokes the section of the Kansas Indoor Clean Air Act that permits smoking in state-owned casinos.

A final vote is set for tdoay.

Many bar owners have protested that the law hurts their businesses.

As amendments were debated, many legislators argued that the effects of secondhand smoke merit government-imposed restrictions. Others contended that the state should not involve itself in peoples' private lives.

Smoking ban challenger fails

A pro-smoking campaigner has failed in a new legal challenge against Northern Ireland's ban on lighting up in public.

Senior judges threw out a bid by north Down man Chris Carter to quash his conviction for smoking at the front of Bangor Town Hall.

Mr Carter claimed his rights to privacy and freedom from torture and discrimination were breached by the prohibition.

He alleged that the ban was comparable to restrictions imposed by the Third Reich in Hitler's Germany.

But his case was dismissed because he was not held to have the status of a victim and as no breach of his human rights was established.