Smoking

Long Beach is about to consider a rare step to ease anti-smoking rules. At a time when cities nationwide are banning smoking in public places from bars to beaches, the Long Beach City Council today will consider a proposed amendment to its no-smoking ordinance that would exempt cigar lounges and hookah bars.

Lighting up on the outdoor patios of cafes and coffee shops may soon be a thing of the past in Los Angeles. The city's arts and parks committee took a first step Wednesday toward a new ban on smoking on restaurant patios or within 10 feet of any outdoor establishment that serves food or beverages. Bars with outdoor areas and other over-18 venues would be exempt.

The Navajo Nation Council has voted to ban smoking and chewing tobacco in public places on the vast reservation, including such outdoor venues as rodeos and fairs. The council approved the ban on a vote of 42-27 at the end of its weeklong summer session in the Navajo capital of Window Rock, Ariz. Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley Jr. has 10 days to decide whether to sign or veto the law once it reaches his desk.

They've been coming to Urartu Coffee for months, and every day it's the same. They sit. They sip. They smoke. It's hard to explain, the men say -- there's just something about the taste of tar joining java. But Jack Kakoyan, 28, and his friends may soon stop meeting at their usual table, where they spend hours socializing in the sun.

Smoking a cigarette in a car makes the air inside 10 to 30 times more toxic than the air outdoors on one of Southern California's most polluted days. On Thursday, state officials put on a live demonstration of that health hazard to promote a new law that bans smoking in cars carrying minors. Neil Klepeis, a Stanford University environmental health scientist, attached sensors to the dashboard of a 1999 Toyota Corolla parked on the lot of the Hollywood United Methodist Church.

The news for smokers was bad. The question was how bad. Smokers and restaurateurs and other business owners in Mexico City on Wednesday were debating the ramifications of not one but two groundbreaking laws seeking to curb smoking. Some were scratching their heads over which they would have to obey, and many others expressed skepticism that either would be effectively enforced. "I'm sure that neither . . .

Like generations of family before him, Steven Bailey grew up with tobacco. The leafy plants thrive in Virginia's rich clay soil, and one of his earliest memories is of watching his mother work the fields, surrounded by plants as high as her shoulders.

One OF the biggest secrets of the fitness world has nothing to do with supplements, steroids or spandex. It is the almost implausible combination of exercise and smoking. There are people, it seems, who do both. We're not talking about mall walkers who light up once a week. These are men and women who compete in marathons and triathlons and go hiking and train at the gym -- who also have a pretty steady cigarette habit.

Sure, smoking is bad for you -- but what happens when you combine it with something really good -- like running eight miles a day? Do you get a healthier smoker? Or an unhealthy athlete? It's one of those is-the-cigarette-half-smoked-or-half-unsmoked conundrums. And there's no definitive answer. "If people can quit, that's the best thing," says Dr. Robert Sallis, director of sports medicine at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana.

A federal health panel for the first time has singled out smokers for vaccination because of their high risk of infection from a pneumonia-causing bacterium. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention already recommends the pneumococcal vaccine for children, adults over 65 and those with chronic illnesses and weakened immune systems. The panel's new recommendation, proposed Wednesday and expected to be formally adopted by the CDC, would expand the group to smokers ages 19 to 64.