Thumbs Down

MGM National Harbor Casino has requested a carve out exemption from the Maryland smokefree law to build a cigar bar that would expose over 3,000 workers and thousands of patrons to secondhand smoke. National Harbor opened as a smokefree casino, in December 2016. We’d reported last March how successful their smokefree casino was and even now they are breaking records.

Thumbs Up

Voters in St. Louis approved two measures showing their strong support and interest in smokefree venues.

Thumbs Down

Unfortunately, the measures passed in St. Louis are weak and filled with exemptions that will continue to allow smoking in restaurants, bars, and casinos, meaning thousands of workers and patrons won’t be protected.

Thumbs Up

The CDC reports the lowest U.S. adult smoking rate to date at 14%.

Thumbs Up

To the FDA for looking to take steps towards cracking down on flavored e-cigarette sales in places like convenience stores to address the growth in popularity of these products, like JUUL, among youth. On November 15, the FDA did release their proposal. Read our statement.

Thumbs Down
As many prepare for holiday travels, we must give a thumbs down to Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (ATL) for allowing indoor smoking. Smoking is permitted in 13 smoking rooms throughout the airport, as well as in selected food and beverage areas. The airport plans to convert 9 of the smoking rooms into cigar shops that will allow smoking.
 
Internal tobacco industry documents show that many of these rooms were designed, constructed, and financed by Philip Morris front groups as part of a sophisticated airport strategy to protect millions of dollars in annual profits by enabling product consumption. Promoting the social acceptability of smoking was also an important objective for the tobacco industry in the Hartsfield Airport: construction of the smoking rooms was completed in time for the 1996 Summer Olympics, held in Atlanta. This drew millions of passengers from around the world through Hartsfield and past its newly built smoking lounges.