Tobacco Facts.

Epidemiologist James Enstrom’s appointment ended today because his research on air pollution did not align with the department mission and failed to reach funding requirements, according to a June 9 layoff notice from Richard Jackson, environmental health sciences department chair. Enstrom contended that the short explanation given for his nonreappointment is invalid and filed an [...]

CATTARAUGUS INDIAN RESERVATION – Smokers have been coming here in droves in recent days as they prepare for the possibility of the end of untaxed cigarettes. With the state scheduled to begin collecting taxes Wednesday on cigarettes sold to non-Indians, the pace of sales spiked over the weekend, several tobacco retailers said Monday. “We probably [...]

BUFFALO, NY – The Seneca Nation of Indians will withhold future revenue-sharing payments to New York State from its three Western New York casinos, Tribal Council members voted on Monday. J.C. Seneca, co-chair of the Tribal Council, claims the state has violated the terms of the 2001 Gaming Compact between the tribe and the state. [...]

About one in five American adults smokes, according to the 2009 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being survey. The smoking rate is highest in Kentucky and West Virginia, where nearly a third of adults (31 percent) smoke, and lowest in Utah, where just 13 percent of adults smoke. Click on the interactive map below to see smoking rates for [...]

WOOD DALE, Ill.—Scores of tobacco retailers in the U.S. are taking advantage of a federal tax loophole to offer deep discounts on roll-your-own cigarettes. But the practice is attracting scrutiny from regulators and cigarette manufacturers. At Smoke Zone, a store in this Chicago suburb, customers one recent afternoon flocked to two high-speed rolling machines that [...]

ELMHURST, Ill.—Victoria Vasconcellos, the petite founder of an Internet retailer in this Chicago suburb, is in the thick of a regulatory battle that could affect millions of American cigarette smokers. Ms. Vasconcellos imports electronic cigarettes from a Chinese manufacturer and sells them on her website, Cignot.com, to 14,000 customers. The 48-year-old is part of a [...]

The Oneida Indian Nation is moving its cigarette-manufacturing plant from Western New York to Nation land in the city of Oneida – bringing 15 jobs and continued controversy along with it. The decision is largely in response to a state law taking effect Sept. 1 that aims to collect taxes from cigarettes sold by Indian [...]

Tobacco companies have turned to video-sharing website YouTube to market their products, new research from Otago University has revealed. This is despite the obligation in 168 countries to ban all mainstream tobacco advertising, under a World Health Organisation (WHO) agreement which went into effect in 2005. The study looked at the video results for a [...]

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s advice to Gov. David Paterson on how to collect sales tax on cigarettes sold on Indian reservations was simple: “Get yourself a cowboy hat and a shotgun” and enforce the law. That comment on his weekly radio show has sparked outrage from Native Americans in Central New York and [...]

As states make it tougher to light up in public, tobacco manufacturers are rolling out new smokeless tobacco lines — some flavored, some spitless, prompting worries from public health officials about potentially unknown risks of these new products and their appeal to underage users. Among the new offerings in Michigan is Snus — tiny tea-bag-like [...]

A TOTAL of 15 students under the age of 18 had been caught smoking in public this year and ordered to undergo mandatory treatment at a smoking cessation clinic. This was disclosed during yesterday’s briefing on the hazards of smoking for Department of Youth and Sports officers, who routinely deal with youth and young athletes. [...]

Shortly after taking over as CEO of British Petroleum (BP), Tony Haywood said, “We have too many people [at BP] who want to save the world…we need to concentrate on our primary goal: creating value for our shareholders.” Similarly, a well known anti-tobacco advert features an actor playing a tobacco company executive saying to its [...]

ALBANY – In less than two weeks, the state plans to collect revenue from cigarettes sold to non-tribal members on Indian reservations. But as the Sept. 1 enforcement date approaches, the proposal is becoming an increasingly contentious one for Indian and New York officials. Tribes from across the state are mobilizing an effort to stymie [...]

After peaking in 2005, on-screen smoking in the top movies has declined by almost half to 1,935 recorded instances in 2009. All told, 51 percent of the top movies in 2009 didn’t show tobacco use at all, the first time a majority, albeit a thin one, of big films have been tobacco-free. For movies kids [...]

China – Chinese tobacco companies are targeting women and children as potential smokers as the market in men has peaked, health experts said on Thursday. Around 53 percent of Chinese men smoked, leading tobacco control activist Judith Mackay said, but only three percent of Chinese women. “Prevalence in men has peaked, but they are targeting [...]

With their enticing cool and minty flavor, menthol cigarettes have emerged as one of the most controversial products made by the tobacco industry. Kids are particularly drawn to them, with nearly 45 percent of smokers aged 12 to 17 using menthol cigarettes, according to a 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Most black [...]

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania By Michael Fisher, in his official capacity as Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Philip Morris, Inc; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation; B.A.T. Industries, P.L.C.; The American Tobacco Company, Inc. c/c Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation; Lorillard Tobacco Company; Liggett Group, Inc.; United States Tobacco Company; [...]

The Seneca Nation of Indians today called on New York Governor David Paterson and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to delay the State’s planned September 1 start of collection of tax on Native American-sold tobacco products, in order to allow legal actions to reach their conclusion. In a letter to Paterson and Cuomo, Nation President Barry [...]

Bans on alcohol and tobacco marketing are among the least effective tactics for combating underage drinking and smoking, according to a Penn State economist, who has studied the effects of advertising since 1985. “My conclusion is that the emphasis on advertising bans and similar regulations in the public health literature is misplaced,” said Jon Nelson, [...]

Blocking thoughts of cigarettes helps reduce smokers’ intake at first, but means they smoke more than usual when they stop suppressing, according to new research. The study was carried out by researchers at St George’s, University of London and the University of Hertfordshire. Co-author Dr James Erskine, a psychologist at St George’s, says the study [...]

Cancer is the world’s top “economic killer” as well as its likely leading cause of death, the American Cancer Society contends in a new report it will present at a global cancer conference in China this week. Cancer costs more in productivity and lost life than AIDS, malaria, the flu and other diseases that spread [...]

It looks like a cigarette, tastes like a cigarette, and provides the same nicotine buzz, but the electronic cigarette is a far cry from traditional smokes: for one thing, this battery-powered gadget is practically carcinogen-free. Battery-operated cigarette warms liquid nicotine that creates smokelike vapor. But while users call this product a “miracle” and a “lifesaver,” [...]

OTTAWA — Tobacco companies can breathe a sigh of relief thanks to the delay of Health Canada’s plan to force them to increase the size of health warnings to cover most of the surface of cigarette packages. Health Canada shared mock-ups of supersized new warning labels with public-health advocates more than a year ago — [...]

Syracuse, NY — Julie Squadrito has improvised since New York jacked up the cigarette tax from $2.75 to a nation-leading $4.35 per pack July 1. Squadrito, of Lyncourt, pools her money with co-workers at a communications company in downtown Syracuse, where she is a manager. Every other week, she said, one of them drives seven [...]

A Broward e-cigarette distributor gave up a legal fight with Oregon over the sale of its products there, as the industry waits to see if it will sell its products as a drug device or tobacco product. A leading distributor of electronic cigarettes, Weston-based Smoking Everywhere, has agreed to halt sales in Oregon, Attorney General [...]

Parents who smoke in cars in front of small children are “committing a form of child abuse”, a leading GP has said. Professor Steve Field, chairman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, has condemned society’s attitudes to food, alcohol and cigarettes. In a letter to the Observer newspaper, he said parents had to take [...]

GREENSBORO — Pierre Lorillard could hardly have imagined that the small tobacco company he started 250 years ago in New York City would ship 36.3 billion cigarettes a year in the 21st century, 87 percent of which would be flavored with menthol. But the little ingredient found naturally in mint oils poses a serious threat [...]

The Coalition has been exposed this week for its links to Big Tobacco. But Labor party heavyweights are certainly no clean-skins when it comes to accepting cash from the cigarette industry. On Wednesday ABC’s Lateline program revealed that the Alliance of Australian Retailers’ $5 million campaign against the government’s plain packet legislation is being spun [...]

Glen Allen, Virginia, Star Scientific, Inc. announced that CigRx™, a dietary supplement developed by the company’s Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals subsidiary, has been launched in the greater Richmond, Virginia area. CigRx™, a mint-flavored lozenge that dissolves in the mouth and is swallowed, contains neither nicotine nor tobacco and was developed for adult dependent smokers. CigRx™ temporarily [...]

WASHINGTON, – Three years after the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the National Association of Theatre Owners (NATO) announced they would include smoking when assigning ratings to films, a new report shows that more than half of widely released films showing tobacco were youth rated (that is, carrying a rating of G, PG [...]