China, the world's largest tobacco consumer, is aiming to ban indoor smoking in public areas by the end of the year.
About one in three cigarettes smoked in the world is in China, according to the World Health Organization. And more than half of Chinese men smoke, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey in 2010.
Although the nation's health ministry issued guidelines in 2011 to ban smoking in places like hotels and restaurants, they haven't been "strictly enforced," according to Xinhua, China's state-run news agency.
The China's National Health and Family Commission is now working on a tobacco control law with clear punishments, according to Xinhua.
The country's health authorities estimate over a million deaths from tobacco-related diseases every year. The WHO warns that if tobacco use is not decreased in China, these deaths will increase to 3 million by 2050.
Last month, Chinese government officials were told not to smoke in public places such as hospitals, public transport or schools to set a good example for the public.
The latest moves by the Chinese government on tobacco are "hopeful," said Dr. Judith Mackay, the senior adviser at the World Lung Foundation, who examines tobacco issues in China.
About 32 Chinese cities have passed their own rules to restrict public smoking, she added.
"China stands on its own in the magnitude of the problem," said Mackay. "Unless there is change in China, we won't proceed further in reducing the tobacco epidemic in the world."
Tobacco use in China has far-reaching consequences, she said.
"This isn't a health problem. It's a huge economic problem. There's all these things ranging from medical and health care costs, the costs to the families and there's the cost of secondhand smoke."
Showing posts with label laws. Show all posts
Showing posts with label laws. Show all posts
Friday, January 10, 2014
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Tea Party Groups Awaken From Holiday Slumber to Fight IRS Rules
After getting off to a slow start, conservative tea party groups are pushing back on the Internal Revenue Service’s new proposal to regulate tax-exempt groups.
It’s the latest chapter of a saga over the targeting of conservative groups throughout the 2012 election that exploded over the summer of 2013. And it comes nearly a month and a half after the IRS first revealed its proposed rules in late November.
The IRS’s Thanksgiving-week announcement of new rules to rein in tax-exempt groups that participate in political activities caught many by surprise — especially conservative groups.
Most of Washington left town for the holiday season as the clock ticked on the roughly 90-day window for public comment on the proposed rules.
“They seem hell bent to do whatever they’re setting out to do because of the way they issued the rules and the fact that the comment period happens during the holiday season,” said Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks.
“I think changing the rules in an election year is extraordinarily unfair and unprecedented,” he added.
Kibbe’s organization over the weekend urged its members and affiliates, which include tea party groups across the country, to submit comments opposing the proposed rules.
The comments would be considered by the IRS in crafting, or abandoning the final regulations.
The response was impressive, more than 10,000 people responded to the plea within 24 hours, Kibbe said. And as of Monday, more than 3,000 comments had been submitted.
On Monday, another tea party group, ForAmerica, launched its own push to oppose the IRS rules. Initially, it seemed that the two groups had launched an orchestrated rollout, but Kibbe said they didn’t coordinate with ForAmerica on the effort.
“The holiday season prevented what would typically have been a more coordinated response,” he noted.
ForAmerica has put six-figures behind its social media and digital ad effort, the group said.
Months after the IRS scandal first erupted, several other issues, and a largely fruitless congressional investigation by Republican lawmakers, has caused the issue to fade from prominence.
Tea party activists are still plenty angry at the IRS. But they are now forced to build public outrage in a very brief window of opportunity and at a time when the midterm elections are quickly heating up. And when the missteps by the Obama administration in implementing the health care law seems — at the moment — to be a more promising line of attack in the 2014 elections.
Yet Kibbe believes that if the IRS rules are allowed to go into effect, it could hamper the efforts of tea party groups seeking to operate in this cycle.
“I think it has to be about public opinion,” Kibbe said. “On any promulgation of regulations, it’s a very insider, complex, closed process by any definition.”
“We need to get people to pay attention to this in a very short period of time,” he said.
IRS officials say that they are proposing new rules to reduce or eliminate the guesswork that led some agency employees to unnecessarily stymie groups applying for tax-exempt status based on concerns that their political activity might exceed the legal limits for 501c(4) groups.
Among the rules are that a group’s primary activities cannot include voter registration drives, events with candidates that occur within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election.
Tea party groups believe the rules would do more to hurt small, “mom and pop” 501(c)4 groups, rather than the big players like Republican operative Karl Rove’s group, Crossroads GPS, which spent tens of millions of dollars in the 2010 election.
But others say the rules are finally establishing some basic guidance in a wild wild west of campaign finance uncertainty.
“The truth of the matter is that the current rules are a morass and many nonprofits are using that to their advantage,” said Ken Gross, an election lawyer and former associate general counsel of the Federal Election Commission.
“Anything that would add clarity that would make the laws more enforceable I think end up being something that the groups oppose because they have used the current morass of laws to their benefit,” he said.
It’s the latest chapter of a saga over the targeting of conservative groups throughout the 2012 election that exploded over the summer of 2013. And it comes nearly a month and a half after the IRS first revealed its proposed rules in late November.
The IRS’s Thanksgiving-week announcement of new rules to rein in tax-exempt groups that participate in political activities caught many by surprise — especially conservative groups.
Most of Washington left town for the holiday season as the clock ticked on the roughly 90-day window for public comment on the proposed rules.
“They seem hell bent to do whatever they’re setting out to do because of the way they issued the rules and the fact that the comment period happens during the holiday season,” said Matt Kibbe, president of FreedomWorks.
“I think changing the rules in an election year is extraordinarily unfair and unprecedented,” he added.
Kibbe’s organization over the weekend urged its members and affiliates, which include tea party groups across the country, to submit comments opposing the proposed rules.
The comments would be considered by the IRS in crafting, or abandoning the final regulations.
The response was impressive, more than 10,000 people responded to the plea within 24 hours, Kibbe said. And as of Monday, more than 3,000 comments had been submitted.
On Monday, another tea party group, ForAmerica, launched its own push to oppose the IRS rules. Initially, it seemed that the two groups had launched an orchestrated rollout, but Kibbe said they didn’t coordinate with ForAmerica on the effort.
“The holiday season prevented what would typically have been a more coordinated response,” he noted.
ForAmerica has put six-figures behind its social media and digital ad effort, the group said.
Months after the IRS scandal first erupted, several other issues, and a largely fruitless congressional investigation by Republican lawmakers, has caused the issue to fade from prominence.
Tea party activists are still plenty angry at the IRS. But they are now forced to build public outrage in a very brief window of opportunity and at a time when the midterm elections are quickly heating up. And when the missteps by the Obama administration in implementing the health care law seems — at the moment — to be a more promising line of attack in the 2014 elections.
Yet Kibbe believes that if the IRS rules are allowed to go into effect, it could hamper the efforts of tea party groups seeking to operate in this cycle.
“I think it has to be about public opinion,” Kibbe said. “On any promulgation of regulations, it’s a very insider, complex, closed process by any definition.”
“We need to get people to pay attention to this in a very short period of time,” he said.
IRS officials say that they are proposing new rules to reduce or eliminate the guesswork that led some agency employees to unnecessarily stymie groups applying for tax-exempt status based on concerns that their political activity might exceed the legal limits for 501c(4) groups.
Among the rules are that a group’s primary activities cannot include voter registration drives, events with candidates that occur within 30 days of a primary or 60 days of a general election.
Tea party groups believe the rules would do more to hurt small, “mom and pop” 501(c)4 groups, rather than the big players like Republican operative Karl Rove’s group, Crossroads GPS, which spent tens of millions of dollars in the 2010 election.
But others say the rules are finally establishing some basic guidance in a wild wild west of campaign finance uncertainty.
“The truth of the matter is that the current rules are a morass and many nonprofits are using that to their advantage,” said Ken Gross, an election lawyer and former associate general counsel of the Federal Election Commission.
“Anything that would add clarity that would make the laws more enforceable I think end up being something that the groups oppose because they have used the current morass of laws to their benefit,” he said.
RNC targets Democrats over Obama insurance pledge
There's no let-up in the new year in the GOP push to attack Democrats over Obamacare during the midterm elections.
Case in point: New radio ads announced Tuesday morning by the Republican National Committee that attack 12 Democratic senators and representatives, many of whom are in competitive races this November. The ads focus on President Barack Obama's broken pledge that people who liked their health insurance plans could keep them under the Affordable Care Act.
The RNC says their radio spots will target Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mark Udall of Colorado, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Mark Warner. Also in the party committee crosshairs are Reps. Bruce Braley of Iowa and Gary Peters of Michigan, who are both running for the Senate this year, and Reps. Tim Bishop of New York and Nick Rahall of West Virginia.
"So what's your New Year's resolution? Here's one you can keep. Resolve to keep [Senator/Representative] honest in 2014," says the announcer in the ad. "President Obama and [Senator/Representative] said if you like your insurance plan you can keep it under ObamaCare. They lied to you. Big time. PolitiFact called that the 'lie of the year'."
The ads are expected run Tuesday and Wednesday and the party committee says the spots will air in English, as well as in Spanish in Colorado and Virginia, Vietnamese in Louisiana and Korean in Virginia. The RNC did not disclose the buy behind the new commercials.
Republicans have vowed to make the flawed startup of the health care law, as well as the President's faulty pledge about keeping insurance plans, front and center as they try to win back control of the Senate and keep control of the House in the 2014 midterm elections.
The move by the RNC follows a multi-million dollar ad campaign by Americans for Prosperity targeting Hagan, Landrieu, and Shaheen, as well as some House Democrats, over the same pledge. AFP is a conservative group backed by the deep pockets of the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers.
Responding to the RNC spots, Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Michael Czin told CNN that "Today, more Americans have better, more affordable health care than before thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The GOP shut down the government trying to take it all away. The American people have a clear choice – and that’s a debate we’re eager to have."
Case in point: New radio ads announced Tuesday morning by the Republican National Committee that attack 12 Democratic senators and representatives, many of whom are in competitive races this November. The ads focus on President Barack Obama's broken pledge that people who liked their health insurance plans could keep them under the Affordable Care Act.
The RNC says their radio spots will target Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, Mark Udall of Colorado, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Mark Warner. Also in the party committee crosshairs are Reps. Bruce Braley of Iowa and Gary Peters of Michigan, who are both running for the Senate this year, and Reps. Tim Bishop of New York and Nick Rahall of West Virginia.
"So what's your New Year's resolution? Here's one you can keep. Resolve to keep [Senator/Representative] honest in 2014," says the announcer in the ad. "President Obama and [Senator/Representative] said if you like your insurance plan you can keep it under ObamaCare. They lied to you. Big time. PolitiFact called that the 'lie of the year'."
The ads are expected run Tuesday and Wednesday and the party committee says the spots will air in English, as well as in Spanish in Colorado and Virginia, Vietnamese in Louisiana and Korean in Virginia. The RNC did not disclose the buy behind the new commercials.
Republicans have vowed to make the flawed startup of the health care law, as well as the President's faulty pledge about keeping insurance plans, front and center as they try to win back control of the Senate and keep control of the House in the 2014 midterm elections.
The move by the RNC follows a multi-million dollar ad campaign by Americans for Prosperity targeting Hagan, Landrieu, and Shaheen, as well as some House Democrats, over the same pledge. AFP is a conservative group backed by the deep pockets of the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers.
Responding to the RNC spots, Democratic National Committee Press Secretary Michael Czin told CNN that "Today, more Americans have better, more affordable health care than before thanks to the Affordable Care Act. The GOP shut down the government trying to take it all away. The American people have a clear choice – and that’s a debate we’re eager to have."
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