Tougher smoking rules unveiled
VICTORIA (CP) -- British Columbia smokers will soon be required to butt out in and near any public buildings, including schools and hospitals, under new, tough anti-smoking legislation introduced Tuesday. "Some people will see it as intrusive, ot hers will say we didn't go far enough," said Health Minister George Abbott. "(But) I think we will have the great weight of public opinion supporting this." The amendments to B.C.'s Tobacco Sales Act will ban smoking in all indoor public spaces as well as in public doorways, and "near" the doors, windows and air intakes of any building accessible by the public. "This amendment bans smoking in restaurants, pubs and private clubs, offices, malls, conference centres, arenas, community halls, government buildings and schools," Abbott said. In addition, tobacco sales will be barred in public hospital and health facilities, universities and colleges, public athletic and recreational facilities and provincial buildings. Abbott said the law will also ban the display of tobacco and related products in stores accessible to anyone under the age of 19, putting an end to what he called "power walls" of cigarettes and tobacco advertising. "The aim of this get rid of all those inducements to purchase and to have a very plain setting in which tobacco products are sold," he said. While municipal bylaws in urban areas like Victoria and Vancouver have outlawed smoking in many indoor settings, many more remote communities have continued to allow designated rooms for smokers in restaurants and bars. Abbott acknowledged that he considered a pharmacy sales ban, but decided against it, even though it's a restriction in place in Ontario and every province eastward, plus the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. The legislation is expected to pass easily in the current session of the legislature, with even the Opposition sounding supportive. However, NDP health critic Adrian Dix said he would like to see Abbott change his mind and ban pharmacy sales. Smoking on school grounds in B.C. will be banned by September. The other measures are likely to take effect Jan. 1.

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7, 2007

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UNBC professor Matt Reid's development with terahertz technology could have immense practical applications for the forest industry, including Bruce Sutherland of Wolftek Industries.

Making waves
INSIDE

UNBC prof sets new mark with energy bursts
by BERNICE TRICK Citizen staff A UNBC professor has set a world record by producing bursts of electromagnetic waves with the largest energies ever recorded. Physics assistant professor Matt Reid, working with colleagues at the Advanced Laser Light Source in Montreal in January, used ultrafast lasers to produce the bursts of terahertz energy that shattered the previous world record set in 1993, putting him in competition with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His success could prove vital to the forest industry and has other uses for imaging technology. This achievement means they can see right through objects in real time. It means X-ray vision is yesterday's news and terahertz technology is the wave of the future. Terahertz waves have been the subject of research for about 20 years, but Reid's accomplishment opens up a whole new world for application of the technology. "Terahertz waves have many of the same benefits as X-rays without health dangers," said Reid, a graduate of D.P. Todd secondary school. "The applications of terahertz technology can range from airport security to detecting pollutants in the atmosphere, but I'm most interested in applying this technology to the forest industry." Reid intends to provide forest operations with the ability to see inside wood and determine the fibre quality of logs and processed wood products.

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More teens trying obesity surgery /15

This illustration shows where terahertz technology lies on the electromagnetic spectrum.
Reid, working with Bruce Sutherland and Wolftek Industries in Prince George, is using the technology to determine the fibre quality of wood, both as logs and processed wood products, so mill managers can extract the maximum value from each tree. "For example, one of the goals is to enable forest operations to better utilize logs affected by the mountain pine beetle," said Reid. Time is of the essence, thanks to the mountain pine beetle. Forest companies are scrambling for a way to see the insides of trees so that logs can be properly positioned in the mill for maximum efficiency. Just viewing the outside of a tree is no longer good enough, as pine beetle trees often have cracks inside that can greatly affect the wood quality and potential products. Terahertz technology would essentially give mill managers x-ray vision, says a press release. "The more we learn through this terahertz research, the more ideas we have to apply this technology in the field," says Sutherland, Wolftek president. "For the industry, the possibilities are worth millions of dollars." Terahertz waves are located on the electromagnet spectrum between gigahertz (used in microwave ovens and cell phones) and petahertz (used by lasers and fluorescent lights). Like infrared radiation or microwaves, terahertz waves usually travel in line of sight. Terahertz radiation is non-ionizing and has the capacity to pass through clothing, paper, cardboard, wood, masonry, plastic and ceramics. They can also penetrate fog and clouds, but not metal or water. T-waves have been the subject of research for 20 years, but the higher energies now available are key to many potential industrial applications. Reid's research interests are in the area of nonlinear optics of semiconductor surfaces including optical rectification and second harmonic generation from nanostructured surfaces.

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Seatbelt use saving growing number of lives
by FRANK PEEBLES Citizen staff More local lives are being saved by seatbelts every year, according to the latest RCMP statistics. The numbers show seatbelt use going up while death and serious injury are going down in the area for the third consecutive year. Sgt. Gord Flewelling of North District traffic services said he hopes everyone can see the correlation. "It means we are going in the right direction. People are starting to buckle up," said Flewelling. "But about half of those people in the last three years stood a good chance of being alive today if they had put their seatbelt on properly." Flewelling is still compiling some of the statistics on the latest seatbelt compliance data, but notes the trend in the area is that about 94 per cent of the area population uses seatbelts properly. "So do the math. Who is dying?" Flewelling said. "Less than five per cent of the population is driving up those death stats." He promises more RCMP resources than ever before will be rolled out onto the highways and side roads this year. Those officers will be assigned three lifesaving issues to focus on: seatbelts, impaired driving and speeding. "We know what causes death on the roads, by The percentage of people killed in area motor vehicle incidents who were not wearing seatbelts: 2004: 62 per cent 2005: 52 per cent 2006: 44 per cent and large," Flewelling said. "Those are the major factors, and you can see from the numbers just how important the seatbelt factor is. We are totally convinced that as seatbelt use goes up, death and injury is going down -- almost like a mirror image."

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