Smoking in bars banned in tobacco state

As more and more eating and drinking venues prohibited smoking inside at their own will, the latest Virginia Anti-smoking policy would not trigger much opposition in the state which is home to the most ancient traces of tobacco consumption originated in the Jamestown settlement more than four centuries ago.

Thus, beginning from December 1, Virginia became the 27th state to outlaw lighting up in restaurants and bars. The only exemptions make up those places where smoking sections are physically separated from non-smoking areas and having specialized ventilation system.

The ban is especially landmark for tobacco-loving Virginia, where tobacco plant is the most spread crop on source of huge revenue for the state coffins. The primary role of tobacco crop can be vividly demonstrated by seeing the roof of Virginia State Capitol located in Richmond, which is decorated by frescoes with golden tobacco leaves.

Moreover, the Capitol building is situated several blocks away from the largest manufacturing plant of Philip Morris USA, the maker of legendary Marlboros.

However, the proximity to cigarette industry did not stop City Councils of Richmond and North Carolina’s Raleigh, where leading tobacco companies, Philip Morris and Reynolds American reside, from implementing their own citywide bans on smoking in eateries.

For instance, North Carolina, the second largest tobacco state behind Virginia, also banned indoor smoking on January 2, 2010. The NC legislation permits smoking in cigar clubs, tobacco shops and patios, similar to Virginia law. However, in contrast to Virginian ban, NC legislation would not exempt any eatery, no matter whether it provides smoking section or not.

Thomas Hoselton, spokesman for Virginia Restaurateurs Coalition said that uniform legislation with no exemptions would be more beneficial for restaurant owners, because they would not have to spend thousands dollars on designating a smokers’ section.

Owners of several venues like Richmond-based Jazz Café opted for making his place smoke-free long before the statewide ordinance entered into effect. However, for other like Hisham Arazi the smoking ban appears to be an unfair jeopardy for his small hookah lounge in Richmond. The Palestinian immigrant has to spend huge sums of money to build a separate section and install expensive ventilation system there in order to allow his customers smoke hookah a traditional Arabian after lunch pastime that became very popular across the nation recently.

Arazi said that even upon making required changes he would not be sure his business would survive, as anti-smoking advocates are eager to convince the legislature to cancel all exemptions.

The American Heart Foundation reported that 27 states and the District of Columbia have already adopted legislations to prohibit smoking in restaurants, and few of them provided exemptions for hookah bars.

Economists state that a partial ban on smoking like that in Virginia is not good for restaurant industry as it provides competitive disadvantages for small venues that are not able to build separate sections and have to become completely smoke-free, while their larger rivals would establish such smoker-friendly sections and attract more customers. They admit that comprehensive ban on smoking in restaurants would be more fair.

Legendary cartoon banned due to smoking scenes

During more than a half of century Tom the cat and Jerry the mouse have been the best entertainment for millions of children around the world. However, today several organizations have found “unacceptable” scenes in this cartoon and are trying to censure it.

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) activists issued a complaint letter to the British Office of Communications (nicknamed as Ofcom) stating that several episodes of Tom and Jerry cartoon contained “absolutely unacceptable” scenes where the characters were showed smoking thus these episodes should be banned.

Anti-smoking activists were especially concerned with two episodes of the legendary cartoon named “Tennis Chumps” and “Texas Tom”. These episodes were shown several months ago by Boomerang – a digital channel for children. According to ASH members, these episodes contained several scenes absolutely inappropriate for a cartoon directed at minors. “Tennis Chumps” episode filmed back in 1949, Tom competes in a tennis match against his rival Butch, who is smoking a cigar with one hand and playing with another. In “Texas Tom” made in 1950, Tom is trying to attract a female cat by smoking a cigarette.

The regulation body has sent a warning to Boomerang administration, declaring that they should not broadcast cartoons where smoking is either “encouraged, promoted or glamorized”.

The Ofcom communication manager also issued a requirement, stating that channels directed for children would have to show a very high level of editorial censorship banning smoking scenes even form old cartoons filmed when cigarettes where habitual otherwise such channels would be stripped from their broadcasting license.

However, Boomerang administration was very prompt to react on the new regulation. After only two days from receiving the warning, Turner Broadcasting Corporation the holder of Boomerang’s license, declared that their editors have begun editing out the scenes where smoking is shown. According to Corporation’s estimations almost 2,000 episodes of cartoons courtesy of Hanna-Barbara studios had smoking scenes. Among such cartoons were the world-famous Tom and Jerry, Scooby Doo, The Flintstones and other.

Turner Broadcasting spokesperson said that the corporation has recognized that it has been unacceptable for children’s cartoons to encourage smoking or show it in a cool context. He added that the Boomerang editors would review all the cartoons produced at Hanna-Barbara studios in order to eliminate all the scenes that seem to glamorize or promote smoking.

The regulation of Ofcom has triggered mixed reactions.

One of the members of pro-smoking group Forest claimed that the situation with cartoons censorship is absolutely absurd. He said Forest members simply don’t understand why they are not trying to remove the scenes containing violence from Tom and Jerry cartoon. Probably the violence scenes are more acceptable for showing to children than those scenes that contain smoking.

Forest group activist urged that the situation could cause an extremely dangerous precedent in the field of censorship.

Irene Stanford, the Ash member supported the Ofcom initiative stating that many researches confirmed that children who had seen their favorite carton or movie character smoking were more likely to begin smoking themselves. Yet, the Ash group was not very happy to hear that historical legendary cartoons would be censured in order to cut smoking scenes.