Posted by admin / Under Tobacco Smoking
RICHMOND The nation’s largest cigarette maker today secured a key victory when a Senate panel voted to classify as manufacturers Virginia retailers with machines that let customers roll their own cigarettes. Backed by several powerful lobbying allies, Philip Morris USA persuaded the Senate Finance Committee to approve a bill supporters claim will require shops with roll-your-own machines to pay some federal and state tobacco taxes they’re now avoiding. Imposing such standards will create a level playing field, industry officials have said. Opponents argue the measure, SB 74 [1] from Powhatan County Republican Sen. John Watkins, actually is an attempt by...
Published on Thursday 9th of February 2012 03:14:03 AM
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Posted by admin / Under Tobacco Smoking
Quitting smoking is never easy. However, when you're poor and uneducated, kicking the habit for good is doubly hard, according to a new study by a tobacco dependence researcher at The City College of New York (CCNY). Christine Sheffer, associate medical professor at CCNY's Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education, tracked smokers from different socioeconomic backgrounds after they had completed a statewide smoking cessation program in Arkansas.
Published on Thursday 9th of February 2012 03:14:03 AM
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Posted by admin / Under Tobacco Smoking
ANNAPOLIS — Maryland health advocates are lauding Gov. Martin O'Malley’s proposal to increase the state’s cigar tax, but critics say such an increase would create another financial burden for consumers and business owners. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, proposed a state budget Wednesday that would raise the 15-percent excise tax on cigars, smokeless tobacco and other noncigarette tobacco items — a group collectively known as other tobacco products (OTP) — to 70 percent. The OTP tax has gone unchanged since 1999 while the cigarette tax has gone from 36 cents to $2 a pack during that period. Health advocates argue raising...
Published on Thursday 9th of February 2012 03:14:03 AM
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Posted by admin / Under Tobacco Smoking
MARIN COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- A Marin County smoking ban is on hold while lawmakers consider weeding out marijuana from the measure. The ordinance as written would outlaw smoking in unincorporated county apartments and included marijuana and other herbs as well as tobacco. It was abruptly sent back to committee Wednesday when Supervisor Kate Sears said only tobacco should be banned...
Published on Thursday 9th of February 2012 03:14:03 AM
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Posted by admin / Under Tobacco Smoking
Health care provider announces that tobacco users will not get jobs. Smokers need not apply. That’s the message Geisinger Health System is sending to future job applicants. Starting Feb. 1, Geisinger will no longer hire applicants who use tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars and chewing or smokeless tobacco, the health system announced on Wednesday. “Geisinger is joining dozens of hospitals and medical organizations across the country that are encouraging healthier living, decreasing absenteeism and reducing health care costs by adopting strict policies that make smoking a reason to turn away job applicants,” Richard Merkle, chief human resources officer, said in...
Published on Thursday 9th of February 2012 03:14:03 AM
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Posted by admin / Under Tobacco Smoking
It sounds like one of those diseases that should have been wiped out long ago, but malaria, unfortunately, is alive and well, especially in Africa and other tropical, third world locations. Battling malaria is complicated for numerous reasons, among them the difficulty of creating drugs to battle the disease. Now, however, Hebrew University researchers have come up with a novel method of producing the medicine that can treat malaria – using common, everyday tobacco plants. Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted via mosquitoes. Symptoms of malaria include fever, headache, and vomiting, and usually appear between...
Published on Thursday 9th of February 2012 03:14:03 AM
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Posted by admin / Under Tobacco Smoking
Netherlands backpedaling on anti-smoking campaignThe Associated Press December 15 AMSTERDAM - It's getting surprisingly easy to light up in the Netherlands these days - cigarettes, that is. **SNIP** "There's no other country that's taking these backward steps," said Lies Van Gennip, director of the national tobacco control center, slated to be closed in 2013. "I'm ashamed of what's happening here." At a press briefing on Wednesday, several Dutch politicians and experts blasted the government for backtracking on tobacco control policies. Opposition lawmaker Renske Leijten of the Socialist Party said Health Minister Edith Schippers was making the wrong decision to cut...
Published on Thursday 9th of February 2012 03:14:03 AM
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Posted by admin / Under Tobacco Smoking
WASHINGTON — Baseball's new labor deal will limit the use of smokeless tobacco by players, but not ban it during games, as some public health groups had sought. A baseball union summary obtained by The Associated Press says that players have agreed not to carry tobacco cans in their back pockets or use tobacco during pregame or postgame interviews and at team functions.
Published on Thursday 9th of February 2012 03:14:03 AM
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Posted by admin / Under Tobacco Smoking
RALEIGH – Emergency room visits by North Carolinians experiencing heart attacks have declined by 21 percent since the January 2010 start of the state’s Smoke-Free Restaurants and Bars Law. State Health Director Dr. Jeffrey Engel reported the results to the Justus-Warren Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Task Force this morning. “We pushed for passage of this law because we knew it would save lives,” said Governor Bev Perdue, who signed the law into effect. “Our goal was to protect workers and patrons from breathing secondhand smoke and we are seeing positive results.” The N.C. Division of Public Health report cites...
Published on Thursday 9th of February 2012 03:14:03 AM
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Posted by admin / Under Tobacco Smoking
A U.S. judge sided with tobacco companies on Monday, granting a temporary injunction blocking rules requiring new warning labels that use graphic images like a man exhaling cigarette smoke through a hole in his throat.
Published on Thursday 9th of February 2012 03:14:03 AM
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