New York lights fire under city’s smokers FEATURE 07/12/2010

New York lights fire under city’s smokers

FEATURE 07/12/2010 NEW YORK — New York’s smokers are puffing nervously in the face of new measures that leave them wondering how to afford their habit — and even where to light up. A tax increase earlier this month sent prices, already the highest in the United States, shooting to anything between $11 and $15 a pack, or as much as 75 cents a smoke. Then this week, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a passionate anti-smoking former smoker, for the first time gave public backing to an idea aired by health officials to outlaw smoking in parks and on beaches. Smokers — already banished from bars, restaurants, office buildings and other interior public spaces — are gasping with rage. “We’re under assault from all sides,” said film maker Tom Hruby, 50, as he pulled at a Pall Mall while chatting with a friend by Central Park. “Try to regulate the airspace of a park and you’re one step from a fascist state.” “It’s crazy,” his friend and fellow smoker Arron Williams, 52, echoed. “Where are we going to smoke?” City and state officials hope that soaring cigarette prices will replenish tax coffers and force many to quit, eventually lowering health costs.... MORE Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100712com5.html

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