Fifty years ago, a Surgeon General's report concluded tobacco causes lung cancer, launching a public health campaign that has cut smoking rates in half. Comments from Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:
Nothing
ticks me off more than people who try to tell others how to live. Yes,
there are health issues related to smoking, but we should have the
right to live our lives the way we see fit. Too many people want to
force what they consider to be "the right way to live" on others.
— Colin Yapp
Fewer
people smoking is better for them and for all of us. The tobacco
industry is still taking action to keep its business alive. Big Tobacco
companies will lie to hide the bad effects of their products and try
everything to increase the number of people hooked on them.
— Modesto Rodriguez Montes
Raising
taxes on tobacco successfully reduces consumption. A high tax may be
necessary to achieve that effect, but that would also help the
government imposing the tax. There are also follow-on effects from fewer
smokers: Fewer lost workdays due to illness and fewer cancer deaths.
Tobacco is addictive, but when confronted with higher prices, some will
quit, others will moderate their intake and fewer will begin. Very few
tax increases merit my support. This one does.
— Marvin McConoughey
Cigarettes
are a normal part of living for many Americans. And many people who do
smoke are the least financially well off. Taking more money from poor
people via a tax on tobacco is not the answer; it just hurts those
people on a day-to-day basis.
Monday, January 20, 2014
Thursday, January 16, 2014
Stop-smoking battle still raging 50 years after surgeon general published health risks
More than four in 10 American adults were smokers — and so were a lot of kids — 50 years ago when the surgeon general first announced that smoking kills. The report "Smoking and Health" said bluntly that smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer and is linked to other serious diseases.
In the half-century since that report came out on Jan. 11, 1964, an estimated eight million deaths have been prevented by stop-smoking efforts, according to a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
About 42 percent of American adults smoked in 1964, and that number has plummeted to about 18 percent. The reduction in tobacco use is believed to account for a substantial portion of gains made in life expectancy in America, which has risen by five years since that first report on tobacco dangers. But despite widespread knowledge of these dangers, along with increased taxes, advertising bans, warning labels on tobacco products and laws limiting smoking, some haven't quite managed to kick butts. That fact bothers a coalition of anti-tobacco nonprofits that this week called for renewed, vigorous efforts to reduce tobacco use. One of the groups, The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, points out that nearly 44 million American adults and 3.6 million adolescents and children smoke. The four conditions most linked to tobacco use — heart disease, cancer, lung ills and stroke — are still the top causes of death in the United States. There are two things blocking progress, said Dr. Les Beitsch, chairman of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences for the College of Medicine at Florida State University. First, nicotine is incredibly addictive to those who use the product. Second, corporations are addicted to the massive profits they make off that first addiction, he said. "We’ve made enormous progress, but we can’t declare victory when tobacco is still the No. 1 cause of preventable deaths in the United States," Vince Willmore, the spokesman for The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told the Deseret News. "We know how to win this, and it cannot take another 50 years. We cannot afford another 50 years of death and disease caused by tobacco." The toll The vast majority of smokers began at or before they were 18 years old. Tobacco-Free Kids notes that each day more than 3,000 American children try cigarettes for the first time. Recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics reported that about 443,000 Americans die prematurely each year from smoking-related causes. Tobacco use costs about $96 billion in the United States in health care bills and $97 billion in lost productivity. Worldwide, tobacco is believed to kill almost six million people a year. "Tobacco is, quite simply, in a league of its own in terms of the sheer number and varieties of ways it kills and maims people," Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC director, wrote in a JAMA Commentary. "Images of smoking in movies, television and on the Internet remain common; and cigarettes continue to be far too affordable in nearly all parts of the country." A coalition of organizations believes implementing proven programs and policies can end tobacco's stranglehold on smokers. In a joint statement Wednesday, they asked for "bold action" by government to achieve three goals: Reduce smoking rates to less than 10 percent within 10 years; protect all Americans from secondhand smoke within five years; and "ultimately eliminate the death and disease caused by tobacco use." The groups in the coalition are the American Academy of Pediatrics; American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network; American Heart Association; American Lung Association; Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights; and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Legacy. Experts would also like tobacco companies to cough up the money to fund anti-tobacco efforts, or at least stop contributing to the toll. The coalition highlighted Federal Trade Commission data showing that the tobacco industry will spend the equivalent of $1 million each hour this year to market cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products. The companies, it said, fight efforts to limit marketing, design their products to appeal to kids and aim to create and sustain addiction to nicotine.Glamour Super Slims Lilac
Some progress has been impressive, but efforts to curb tobacco use have been hampered by tobacco manufacturers, Beitsch said, adding that it earlier appeared the tobacco industry "was going to work with us, even with the master settlement of the 1990s. But they never really honored commitments to tell the truth and work in an honorable way." It is hard to make progress, he noted, when a "so-called partner doesn't really intend to collaborate." Bright patches Beitsch sees definite bright spots in anti-smoking efforts, though. Very few health practitioners smoke. Some states, including Utah, have already met goals set for 2020 in terms of reducing tobacco use. Florida is an example of a state that reached goals for reducing tobacco use in middle schools and high schools. The high school smoking rate peaked at 36.4 percent in 1997, but was down to 18.1 percent in 2011, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by CDC. The recent Monitoring the Future Survey found smoking among high school seniors cut in half since 1997, down to 16.3 percent in 2013. American adults have also cut the number of cigarettes they smoke. Adult per capita consumption has gone from a high of 4,345 in 1963 to 1,232 in 2011. A study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that without the anti-tobacco efforts of the past 50 years, per capita cigarette use would have been five times higher in 2011 than it was. Researchers say smoking by men declined an average of 25 percent in 187 countries from 1980 to 2012, and by 42 percent among women. But with population growth, the raw number of smokers globally has grown, and rates remain high in some countries. For men, smoking is very common in Russia, Indonesia and Armenia, for instance, while women smoke in higher-than-average numbers in Chile, France and Greece. While the United States was first to sound the alarm about tobacco dangers, it lags behind many countries, Beitsch said. Read more at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865594016/Stop-smoking-battle-still-raging-50-years-after-surgeon-general-published-health-risks.html#zr6tkQsqJguWoryP.99
About 42 percent of American adults smoked in 1964, and that number has plummeted to about 18 percent. The reduction in tobacco use is believed to account for a substantial portion of gains made in life expectancy in America, which has risen by five years since that first report on tobacco dangers. But despite widespread knowledge of these dangers, along with increased taxes, advertising bans, warning labels on tobacco products and laws limiting smoking, some haven't quite managed to kick butts. That fact bothers a coalition of anti-tobacco nonprofits that this week called for renewed, vigorous efforts to reduce tobacco use. One of the groups, The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, points out that nearly 44 million American adults and 3.6 million adolescents and children smoke. The four conditions most linked to tobacco use — heart disease, cancer, lung ills and stroke — are still the top causes of death in the United States. There are two things blocking progress, said Dr. Les Beitsch, chairman of Medical Humanities and Social Sciences for the College of Medicine at Florida State University. First, nicotine is incredibly addictive to those who use the product. Second, corporations are addicted to the massive profits they make off that first addiction, he said. "We’ve made enormous progress, but we can’t declare victory when tobacco is still the No. 1 cause of preventable deaths in the United States," Vince Willmore, the spokesman for The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told the Deseret News. "We know how to win this, and it cannot take another 50 years. We cannot afford another 50 years of death and disease caused by tobacco." The toll The vast majority of smokers began at or before they were 18 years old. Tobacco-Free Kids notes that each day more than 3,000 American children try cigarettes for the first time. Recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics reported that about 443,000 Americans die prematurely each year from smoking-related causes. Tobacco use costs about $96 billion in the United States in health care bills and $97 billion in lost productivity. Worldwide, tobacco is believed to kill almost six million people a year. "Tobacco is, quite simply, in a league of its own in terms of the sheer number and varieties of ways it kills and maims people," Dr. Thomas Frieden, CDC director, wrote in a JAMA Commentary. "Images of smoking in movies, television and on the Internet remain common; and cigarettes continue to be far too affordable in nearly all parts of the country." A coalition of organizations believes implementing proven programs and policies can end tobacco's stranglehold on smokers. In a joint statement Wednesday, they asked for "bold action" by government to achieve three goals: Reduce smoking rates to less than 10 percent within 10 years; protect all Americans from secondhand smoke within five years; and "ultimately eliminate the death and disease caused by tobacco use." The groups in the coalition are the American Academy of Pediatrics; American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network; American Heart Association; American Lung Association; Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights; and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Legacy. Experts would also like tobacco companies to cough up the money to fund anti-tobacco efforts, or at least stop contributing to the toll. The coalition highlighted Federal Trade Commission data showing that the tobacco industry will spend the equivalent of $1 million each hour this year to market cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products. The companies, it said, fight efforts to limit marketing, design their products to appeal to kids and aim to create and sustain addiction to nicotine.Glamour Super Slims Lilac
Some progress has been impressive, but efforts to curb tobacco use have been hampered by tobacco manufacturers, Beitsch said, adding that it earlier appeared the tobacco industry "was going to work with us, even with the master settlement of the 1990s. But they never really honored commitments to tell the truth and work in an honorable way." It is hard to make progress, he noted, when a "so-called partner doesn't really intend to collaborate." Bright patches Beitsch sees definite bright spots in anti-smoking efforts, though. Very few health practitioners smoke. Some states, including Utah, have already met goals set for 2020 in terms of reducing tobacco use. Florida is an example of a state that reached goals for reducing tobacco use in middle schools and high schools. The high school smoking rate peaked at 36.4 percent in 1997, but was down to 18.1 percent in 2011, according to the Youth Risk Behavior Survey conducted by CDC. The recent Monitoring the Future Survey found smoking among high school seniors cut in half since 1997, down to 16.3 percent in 2013. American adults have also cut the number of cigarettes they smoke. Adult per capita consumption has gone from a high of 4,345 in 1963 to 1,232 in 2011. A study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that without the anti-tobacco efforts of the past 50 years, per capita cigarette use would have been five times higher in 2011 than it was. Researchers say smoking by men declined an average of 25 percent in 187 countries from 1980 to 2012, and by 42 percent among women. But with population growth, the raw number of smokers globally has grown, and rates remain high in some countries. For men, smoking is very common in Russia, Indonesia and Armenia, for instance, while women smoke in higher-than-average numbers in Chile, France and Greece. While the United States was first to sound the alarm about tobacco dangers, it lags behind many countries, Beitsch said. Read more at http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865594016/Stop-smoking-battle-still-raging-50-years-after-surgeon-general-published-health-risks.html#zr6tkQsqJguWoryP.99
50 years of progress cuts smoking rates in half — but can we ever get to zero?
Smoking rates cut in half. Eight million lives saved. More than
800,000 fewer lung cancer deaths. Fifty years after the U.S. Surgeon
General first warned about the dangers of smoking, the benefits of
quitting have never been clearer.
Yet 18 percent of the population still smokes. Nearly 2,000 teenagers take up the habit every day and tobacco companies advertise candy-flavored tobacco products with impunity. Is it possible this is the best the United States will ever do?
Health experts are convinced it isn’t — and they point to maps that rank states and regions by smoking status as proof. A look at a county-by-county breakdown of who smokes and where makes it clear that there are opportunities to get smoking rates way down, they say.
Kentucky has the most smokers — more than 28 percent of the population smokes there, compared to just 11 percent in Utah, which has the lowest rates, and double the 14 percent in California. And when you overlay those smoking maps with details of rates of heart disease, stroke and cancer, it’s equally clear that there are still plenty of lives to be saved by trying.Rothmans Blue
How?
“(With) taxes, strong smoke-free laws and fully funding state tobacco prevention programs,” says Dr. Mariell Jessup, president of the American Heart Association. “These measures can reduce the number of adult smokers to less than 10 percent of the population in 10 years.”
Also, raising the legal age to buy tobacco products to 21 would go a long way to stopping kids from ever getting addicted in the first place, the Heart Association, American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other groups agree.
“We do it with booze yet we don’t do it with cigarettes, when cigarettes kill about 10 times more people than alcohol does,” says Dr. Michael Fiore of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.
Smoking is often just another marker for social and economic disparities, Fiore adds. “Fewer than 10 percent of college graduates smoke,” Fiore points out. But 35 percent of people who never graduated from high school do.
“Two things will solve this issue over time and eliminate tobacco use. One is hard-hitting public policy. At the same time, we need the ready availability of treatments for smokers.”
A 50 year public health battle
It was Jan. 11, 1964 when then-Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry held a news conference to announce that smoking causes cancer and probably heart disease, too. It was a time when close to half of Americans smoked — including Terry himself — and it set off a 50-year battle between regulators and the tobacco industry.
Yet 18 percent of the population still smokes. Nearly 2,000 teenagers take up the habit every day and tobacco companies advertise candy-flavored tobacco products with impunity. Is it possible this is the best the United States will ever do?
Health experts are convinced it isn’t — and they point to maps that rank states and regions by smoking status as proof. A look at a county-by-county breakdown of who smokes and where makes it clear that there are opportunities to get smoking rates way down, they say.
Kentucky has the most smokers — more than 28 percent of the population smokes there, compared to just 11 percent in Utah, which has the lowest rates, and double the 14 percent in California. And when you overlay those smoking maps with details of rates of heart disease, stroke and cancer, it’s equally clear that there are still plenty of lives to be saved by trying.Rothmans Blue
How?
“(With) taxes, strong smoke-free laws and fully funding state tobacco prevention programs,” says Dr. Mariell Jessup, president of the American Heart Association. “These measures can reduce the number of adult smokers to less than 10 percent of the population in 10 years.”
Also, raising the legal age to buy tobacco products to 21 would go a long way to stopping kids from ever getting addicted in the first place, the Heart Association, American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and other groups agree.
“We do it with booze yet we don’t do it with cigarettes, when cigarettes kill about 10 times more people than alcohol does,” says Dr. Michael Fiore of the University of Wisconsin’s Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention.
Smoking is often just another marker for social and economic disparities, Fiore adds. “Fewer than 10 percent of college graduates smoke,” Fiore points out. But 35 percent of people who never graduated from high school do.
“Two things will solve this issue over time and eliminate tobacco use. One is hard-hitting public policy. At the same time, we need the ready availability of treatments for smokers.”
A 50 year public health battle
It was Jan. 11, 1964 when then-Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry held a news conference to announce that smoking causes cancer and probably heart disease, too. It was a time when close to half of Americans smoked — including Terry himself — and it set off a 50-year battle between regulators and the tobacco industry.
Fewer Americans see cigarette smoking as a major public health problem
It’s been 50 years since the U.S. Surgeon General issued a groundbreaking report
on the dangers of smoking. The report opened the way for decades of
measures to curb tobacco use —measures that helped save an estimated 8
million lives over that time span, according to a study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association.Davidoff iD Ivory
About half (53%) of Americans still see cigarette smoking as an extremely or very serious public health problem, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted last November. But the public now sees it as less of a problem than a number of other public health issues like cancer and obesity, and less of a problem than it did in 2004 when 72% rated it as serious in an ABC News/Time poll.
Asked whether the U.S. is making progress in dealing with cigarette smoking in 2013, 45% said it was, while 39% said things were about the same. Just 13% saw the efforts to deal with smoking as losing ground. By comparison, 35% saw the country losing ground in dealing with mental illness and 34% said the same about the issue of obesity
About half (53%) of Americans still see cigarette smoking as an extremely or very serious public health problem, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted last November. But the public now sees it as less of a problem than a number of other public health issues like cancer and obesity, and less of a problem than it did in 2004 when 72% rated it as serious in an ABC News/Time poll.
Asked whether the U.S. is making progress in dealing with cigarette smoking in 2013, 45% said it was, while 39% said things were about the same. Just 13% saw the efforts to deal with smoking as losing ground. By comparison, 35% saw the country losing ground in dealing with mental illness and 34% said the same about the issue of obesity
Monday, December 16, 2013
University passes smoking ban
As students come back to campus, they may see information about a
new policy posted on sidewalks, doors and banners across campus.
The Clean Air Policy will go into effect Jan. 1 and states that students, faculty, staff and University visitors can only smoke in designated areas in parking lots or in their car.
“It’s asking people to really respect the rights of others,” said University President Mary Ellen Mazey.
Campus discussion of the policy began in July 2012, when the Ohio Board of Regents, a coordinating body for Ohio higher education, suggested all Ohio university campuses go tobacco free.
This summer, the University Board of Trustees approved the Clean Air Policy, after about a year of gathering opinions from five different representative groups, said Jill Carr, dean of students and senior associate vice president of Student Affairs.
Undergraduate Student Government President Alex Solis thinks the policy is a compromise of sorts.
“Students come from all walks of life,” he said. “If they choose to smoke, that’s why there’s designated areas.”
This policy won’t come without it’s problems, he said. Karelia cigarettes.
“There’s going to be problems with this policy— bring it to someone’s attention,” Solis said. “What I don’t want people to think is this is the end all, be all policy. We want this to be realistic.”
A potential “tricky” part of the policy may be enforcement, Solis said.
There won’t be specific people to enforce the designated areas, instead, it will be a community effort, Carr said.
“The whole community has to embrace this, we’re not going to have smoking police walking around,” Carr said.
The idea is that students, faculty and staff will go up to others and ask people to stop smoking.
Solis doesn’t think students will “go out of their way and confront someone.
“That’s an intimidating conversation, that’s uncomfortable,” he said.
If students don’t listen to their peers, an incident report may be filed and the student will be charged with a violation of the student code of conduct, which may lead to a hearing, said Michael Ginsburg, associate dean of students. There is also a process for faculty and staff through human resources, he said.
“I think some students will adapt and go to the nearest area,” Solis said. “I think other students will be frustrated that there is this newness. This transition is going to be challenging.”
So far, the University has spent $9,000 on materials to help educate students about the policy during the fall semester.
The campus is marked with signs, door clings, stress balls, banners and fliers about the policy and the designated areas— which are cigarette receptacles in parking lots— have information about programs to help them stop smoking and about the policy.
“Culture shift takes time and you need to educate people,” Ginsburg said.
The policy will be reviewed on an annual basis and could change as early as next year, Ginsburg said.
He said the goal of the policy “is not to encourage people to stop smoking, but to present them with choices.”
But Mazey said it has to be both.
“I think we want to help people,” she said, “because I think that tobacco is a health issue, it’s a health issue for them, it’s a health issue for their colleagues. You really don’t want to be around cigarette smoke.”
Solis said it’s not his place to tell students what to do, instead, he wants them to take away that the policy’s purpose is to strive to make BGSU a healthy campus.
The Clean Air Policy will go into effect Jan. 1 and states that students, faculty, staff and University visitors can only smoke in designated areas in parking lots or in their car.
Campus discussion of the policy began in July 2012, when the Ohio Board of Regents, a coordinating body for Ohio higher education, suggested all Ohio university campuses go tobacco free.
This summer, the University Board of Trustees approved the Clean Air Policy, after about a year of gathering opinions from five different representative groups, said Jill Carr, dean of students and senior associate vice president of Student Affairs.
Undergraduate Student Government President Alex Solis thinks the policy is a compromise of sorts.
“Students come from all walks of life,” he said. “If they choose to smoke, that’s why there’s designated areas.”
This policy won’t come without it’s problems, he said. Karelia cigarettes.
“There’s going to be problems with this policy— bring it to someone’s attention,” Solis said. “What I don’t want people to think is this is the end all, be all policy. We want this to be realistic.”
A potential “tricky” part of the policy may be enforcement, Solis said.
There won’t be specific people to enforce the designated areas, instead, it will be a community effort, Carr said.
“The whole community has to embrace this, we’re not going to have smoking police walking around,” Carr said.
The idea is that students, faculty and staff will go up to others and ask people to stop smoking.
Solis doesn’t think students will “go out of their way and confront someone.
“That’s an intimidating conversation, that’s uncomfortable,” he said.
If students don’t listen to their peers, an incident report may be filed and the student will be charged with a violation of the student code of conduct, which may lead to a hearing, said Michael Ginsburg, associate dean of students. There is also a process for faculty and staff through human resources, he said.
“I think some students will adapt and go to the nearest area,” Solis said. “I think other students will be frustrated that there is this newness. This transition is going to be challenging.”
So far, the University has spent $9,000 on materials to help educate students about the policy during the fall semester.
The campus is marked with signs, door clings, stress balls, banners and fliers about the policy and the designated areas— which are cigarette receptacles in parking lots— have information about programs to help them stop smoking and about the policy.
“Culture shift takes time and you need to educate people,” Ginsburg said.
The policy will be reviewed on an annual basis and could change as early as next year, Ginsburg said.
He said the goal of the policy “is not to encourage people to stop smoking, but to present them with choices.”
But Mazey said it has to be both.
“I think we want to help people,” she said, “because I think that tobacco is a health issue, it’s a health issue for them, it’s a health issue for their colleagues. You really don’t want to be around cigarette smoke.”
Solis said it’s not his place to tell students what to do, instead, he wants them to take away that the policy’s purpose is to strive to make BGSU a healthy campus.
Friday, November 29, 2013
Casino smoking lounge to be reconsidered
Sky City says it will work
to comply with smoke-free laws after a High Court judge ruled the
Ministry of Health can't use its calculator for deciding if a room can
be considered "open" for smoking.
The Cancer
Society, along with the Salvation Army and the Problem Gambling
Foundation, took health authorities and Sky City to court, arguing the
Auckland casino's Diamond Lounge broke the rules of the Smoke-free
Environments Act.
The lounge is a roofed area
ventilated by louvres and gamblers can smoke there because the
ministry's "open areas calculator" classes it as an open area.
Justice
Rodney Hansen said the Ministry of Health calculator, which takes into
account the room's area, openings and airflow to determine whether a
room is "substantially enclosed" or not, is contrary to the Act.
He
said the ministry cannot legally replace a simple factual question of
whether a space is substantially enclosed by an airflow calculation, and
asked it to reconsider the decision in this light.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Cigar aficionados get fired up for festival
One had only to follow the nose to find the 2013 Tampa Cigar Festival taking place beside the Hillsborough River this weekend. Stogie and cheroot aficionados from across the country gathered at Cotanchobee Fort Brooke Park, south of the Forum in downtown Tampa, to sit back and enjoy their passion. “When you clip a cigar, you have to smoke it, so you’ve given yourself permission to relax for an hour,” said Bill Snyder of Sarasota as he perused one of many smoke shops set up at the festival The consensus among this crowd was that cigar smoking is a lot more about relaxation and camaraderie than the actual act of smoking. Tampa remains Cigar City, a hotbed for cigars short, slim, long and fat, with such names as La Bamba, Romeo and Juliet, Diamond Crown and Cuesta-Rey Centenario Aristocrat. “It’s a celebration of cigars, and cigars are a celebration,” said festival organizer Vienna Fuente, whose father-in-law, Arturo Fuente, started his famous cigar company in Tampa in 1912. Fuente said the festival is all about bringing together people of like minds who enjoy the fellowship that cigars tend to offer. It also brings in support for local cigar retailers and means money in the bank for hotels and restaurants, she said. Fuente said she expected this year’s festival attendance to hit 5,000. Proceeds from a silent auction at the festival and a portion of the profits will go to Friends of Tampa Recreation, a nonprofit group that seeds new ideas, rewards initiative and promotes recreational programs offered by Tampa. For Roy Santarella of Hudson, the festival was a great excuse to party with friends from across the country. At his table he had gathered friends from Pittsburgh, San Francisco, Rochester, N.Y., Stamford, Conn., and Cleveland. “I’ve been smoking cigars for 20 years, and I find it very relaxing,” Santarella said as the nationally syndicated Cigar Dave radio show aired live from the festival and blared from nearby microphones. “It’s a fraternal kind of recreation.” One couple came all the way from Wasilla, Alaska, for the festival. Irma and Marcel Bijak found the cigar fest a great excuse to get away from minus-5 degree temperatures and into the sunny mid-80s weather on Saturday. “I was at the Smoke on the Water festival in Buffalo last year, and when I heard about this one I told Irma, ‘We need to go.’ And I’ve seen some of the same faces here I saw in Buffalo. It’s just a great way to socialize and vacation.”
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