![\"Cigarette\"](\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/media\/cigs_C_20090706180139.jpg\")
Public-health-related bans are set to take effect with the New Year in a bunch of states. Here’s a sampling:<\/p>\nPublic-health-related bans are set to take effect with the New Year in a bunch of states. Here’s a sampling:<\/p>\n
California restaurants will be banned from using trans fats<\/strong>. Starting tomorrow, restaurants won’t be able to use “oil, shortening, or margarine containing specified trans fats,” according to the text<\/a> of the legislation. In 2011, the bill will expand to prohibit restaurants from serving “any food containing artificial trans fat.” Certain exceptions will apply, and some school cafeterias will be exempt. Eating trans fats increases the risk<\/a> of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. California is the first state to ban restaurants’ use of trans fats, the San Francisco Chronicle says<\/a>, though some cities (including New York<\/a>) have similar bans in place.<\/p>\n Smoking will be banned in North Carolina bars and restaurants<\/strong> starting Saturday. Yes, dozens of states already have smoking bans in place. But this one’s noteworthy because North Carolina is a big tobacco state, and home to cigarette giants like R.J. Reynolds (Camel, Winston) and Lorillard (Kent, Newport). “Even as recently as a decade ago, this was unthinkable,” a UNC prof told the Charlotte Observer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Texting while driving will be banned<\/strong> in New Hampshire, Oregon and Illinois, the Associated Press reports<\/a>. That will bring the number of states that ban the practice to 19, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, which publishes this handy chart<\/a> of state laws that limit the use of cell phones while driving.<\/p>\n Astonishingly, the AP found a 42-year-old woman who said for the record that she didn’t plan to stop texting while driving in New Hampshire, where the fine for getting caught will be $100. “I’d better start saving my money,” she told the AP. Public-health-related bans are set to take effect with the New Year in a bunch of states. Here’s a sampling: California restaurants will be banned from using trans fats. Starting tomorrow, restaurants won’t be able to use “oil, shortening, or margarine containing specified trans fats,” according to the text of the legislation. In 2011, the bill […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":650,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-119921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/650"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119921\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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