The great Illinois smoke-out
Wednesday, Sep 24, 2014 - Posted by Rich Miller
* State Rep. Dan Brady doesn’t appear all that enthused about IDPH’s proposed new rules to ban smoking in outdoor beer gardens…
The Illinois Department of Public Health is preparing an administrative rule that could shut down tobacco smoking in patios and other outdoor places of public accommodation. These areas, often called “decks” or “beer gardens,” are allowed by the zoning rules of many Illinois municipalities and local governments. They are used by restaurants and taverns to accommodate smokers who are eating or drinking at places where food or alcohol is served. Rules are already in place to enforce the Smoke-Free Illinois Act prohibiting the smoking of tobacco at indoor locations where food or beverages are prepared or served. The proposed new rulemaking would expand this prohibition to cover outdoor ancillary locations also used by an establishment for serving.
The proposed rule change would affect the private property of small businesses throughout Illinois. Several owners of licensed establishments have told their legislators and the press that they had built or modified patios and beer gardens in response to specific assurances, including in at least one case an alleged written assurance, from the Department of Public Health that smoking in a covered outdoor location would be acceptable under State law if the smoking area was accessible to servers but not adjacent to an ingress/egress doorway or window.
* And, speaking of smoking, from Dick Durbin’s office…
Today U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined U.S. Representatives Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), John D. Dingell (D-MI), Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), Diana DeGette (D-CO), and Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) releasing a new report that found that hundreds of tobacco advertisements and images glorifying smoking and e-cigarettes appear in magazines with large teen readerships.
The report finds that “tobacco companies continue to glamorize smoking in advertisements in magazines with large youth readership” and that “magazines frequently contain alluring images of smokers in their editorial content.”
The report identified hundreds of advertisements, photos, and other images – many featuring alluring images of celebrities glamorizing smoking and e-cigarette use. These advertisements and images appeared most frequently in Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, US Weekly, People, and Time.
Um, Time has a “large teen readership”? I had no idea. Actually, I didn’t think anybody under 60 read that magazine any longer.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:32 pm:
I didn’t know that Time had any readership.
I think IDPH is over the line here. Rule-making isn’t good enough. They’ll need another law.
- Stooges - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:33 pm:
Fast Eddie’s in Alton has a sophisticated patio that houses a couple of hundred customers a day, I’m sure Eddie will be calling Senator Haine about the proposed patio rules.
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:35 pm:
===a sophisticated patio===
That thing is huge. They essentially just covered over a city street. Serious party time there.
- Jaded - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:38 pm:
If it is not in a text message, teenagers don’t read it.
- Just Observing - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:43 pm:
I doubt teens are reading any of those magazines. Maybe some older teen girls are reading People or US Weekly, but it’s a far stretch to say that e-cig companies are targeting teens in these ads.
- Mr. Big Trouble - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:45 pm:
I would love for my 14 year old to pick up his head and read any magazine, or newspaper for that matter. If its not on an electronic device, they generally don’t care.
- A guy... - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:49 pm:
We’re getting closer to requiring “hands-free” smoking in cars. Read that in Time magazine. lol.
- muon - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:56 pm:
I didn’t think anyone under 30 was reading paper magazines. /snark
- Jake From Elwood - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 4:57 pm:
I have two teenagers and neither one of them reads a newspaper or magazine, even in a doctor’s office. We only subscribe to one of each. They get their news from friends or TV, but mostly from their ever-present smartphones.
- ChrisB - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 5:05 pm:
When I was in high school, someone told me that people who had a Time magazine subscription had higher ACT/SAT scores or something. So we got one. And then I realized that it wasn’t very good, and went back to reading SI. That may explain the high readership. Then again, I haven’t been a teen in a long while.
Only story I can remember from Time was seeing that “Good Week, Bad Week” thing, and Osama Bin Laden had a good one in early 2001 when he evaded the CIA to attend his son’s wedding. A couple months later, their pithy joke wasn’t so funny.
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,999055,00.html
- Responsa - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 5:34 pm:
==Today U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined U.S. Representatives Henry A. Waxman (D-CA), John D. Dingell (D-MI), Frank Pallone Jr. (D-NJ), Diana DeGette (D-CO), and Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA), Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) releasing a new report that found that hundreds of tobacco advertisements and images glorifying smoking and e-cigarettes appear in magazines with large teen readerships.==
Yeah, look at the average age of these dudes. There’s your disconnect right there.
- a drop in - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 5:40 pm:
Judging from facebook, everyone seems to get their news from the Onion, the Daily Currant, or Colbert.
- sal-says - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 5:47 pm:
Here’s the real deal.
I’ve watched 2 men who smoked die from lung cancer & as it spread. This IS NOT pretty.
Most say 2nd hand smoke is no better.
Would I rather be safe than sorry about this?
YOU BET.
- Rob Roy - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 6:13 pm:
Ok Rich I’m back so you can delete me again. For God sakes we have a war on terror going on, illegals pouring across our borders, unfunded pensions and high unemployment and we are worrying about smoking outside. Love the love of God please leave us alone big brother. And I don’t even smoke. Hi Rich….
- Judgment Day - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 7:17 pm:
Being that the local health departments are going to get handed this little beauty to enforce, I’m looking forward to seeing how IDPH defines a “Beer Garden” in writing.
Can you say “I know it when I see it”….
Yeah, that will work. Wait till a State’s Attorney gets a hold of that one for enforcement….
Seriously, what is wrong with these people at IDPH? Do they ever think this stuff through?
Just as an aside:
Food, Drugs, and Dairy just dumped (are right in the middle of, actually) a whole new quarterly reporting update for Food Safety on all the chartered health departments, and these IDPH clowns made it retroactive for the first quarter of the new fiscal year (July, August, & September, 2014), and they just dropped the new expanded filing requirements on the Health Departments within the last 2 weeks. Surprise!
And there’s new reporting requirements & regs on geothermal. Another surprise.
Brady needs to ‘adjust’ IDPH’s budget with a 25% reduction, because these IDPH people are just driving everybody who actually has to do useful work absolutely crazy.
Maybe if they get some serious funding cuts at IDPH, they’ll actually start to focus on the stuff that is important.
- danray - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 7:27 pm:
Just renewed my subscription to TIME. Under 60.
#embarrassed
- Hickory - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 7:57 pm:
I backed Senator Durbin when he pushed for no smoking in airplanes but this is crazy.
- VanillaMan - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 9:18 pm:
These guys are like Puritans, but I think they are actually older than Cotton Mathers when Massachusetts put smokers in stocks and then flogged them for not thinking the right thoughts.
Yeah, progressives are real kill joys now a days.
Print media is so dead anyone placing ads in it isn’t reaching anyone breathing.
- Honest Abe - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:55 pm:
When is enough a enough. First they tell us we have to go outside. Which I agree with but, now they are telling us we can’t even smoke outside really I mean REALLY.
- Honest Abe - Wednesday, Sep 24, 14 @ 10:58 pm:
How about those that don’t like the smoke go back inside. Heck after all they are the ones that wanted us smokers to go outside.
- Demoralized - Thursday, Sep 25, 14 @ 7:36 am:
I’m pretty sure advertising was banned in the Tobacco Settlement Agreement
- Rayne of Terror - Thursday, Sep 25, 14 @ 11:02 am:
Teachers get cheap Time subscriptions for their classrooms. My 4th grader brings it home. I wouldn’t be surprised if every grade from fourth on up has a Time classroom subscription here.