Tobacco Facts.

The Irish Fiscal officials claim they have agreed with tobacco companies to establish minimal prices for tobacco products primarily in order to crack down the sales of low-cost cigarettes across the country. The government considers that assigning the bottom limit for retail price of a pack of 20 cigs would prevent sellers from the capability [...]

NIH and the FDA have announced a partnership to speed the development of new medicines and make them available to patients as quickly as possible. By increasing communication between the two and funding new research on the science behind product evaluations, officials from both agencies believe the initiative can shorten the time between discoveries in [...]

SALT LAKE CITY — Republican legislative leaders and GOP Gov. Gary Herbert settled their final budget issues Tuesday, and public education will take a small reduction next fiscal year.
House Republicans originally didn’t want the largest segment of state spending — public schools — to take any cuts.
And Herbert didn’t, either.
But Republican senators were adamant that [...]

Imperial Tobacco was a casualty yesterday as the FTSE 100 continued to flatline near its 18-month high.
The maker of Davidoff and Gauloises lost 2.5 per cent to £20.91, its sharpest fall in six weeks, after UBS said earnings growth was set to slow significantly and consensus forecasts for next year looked too high.
Imperial was [...]

As the debate over the electronic cigarette continues , the device has found at least three true believers in Jackson County.
Mildred “Mikay” Barrentine, 30, along with Pat Manning, 37, and 45-year-old Linda Lockwood, the latter two of Altha, are enthusiastic about the e-cigarette. All three are long-time heavy smokers who have given up traditional cigarettes [...]

State Senator Carl Kruger is still fired up about taxing tobacco.
The latest in the ongoing debate about taxing cigarettes sold on Native American lands, the Senate Finance Committee Chair issued “demand letters” Tuesday requiring that state agencies fork over everything they have about untaxed cigarettes coming into the state.
If the governor and state agencies don’t [...]

DATE: March 30-31, 0830/1230
LOCATION: National Transportation Safety Board Conference Center, 429 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Washington
CONTACT: Cristi Stark, 240-276-3992
On March 30, the committee will cover receive presentations on the background and overview of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act and the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee. The [...]

A Minnesota report on Southeast Asian cultural perceptions regarding tobacco use was released in February, producing data to better understand the prevalence of smoking in the Southeast Asian communities of Minnesota. Read the reports in their entirety at http://www.preventionminnesota.com/doing_page.cfm?oid=6678.”Tobacco use in Minnesota: A Quantitative Survey of Cambodian, Hmong, Lao and Vietnamese Community Members” was completed [...]

South Dakota lawmakers receive the final revenue report of the 2010 legislative session Monday morning.
Then they start swinging the ax.
That forecast serves as a marker for how much the Legislature will cut from next year’s budget. The session ends Friday, and all sides predict a frenzied, brutal week. A list of $52 million in potential [...]

Though the rigorous legislation banning smoking in all public places in the tobacco state of North Carolina, including bars, and therefore, prohibiting hookahs, went into force almost two months ago, several hookah lounges are still open offering patrons a chance to have a puff of fruit-flavored pipe.
Adam Bliss, proprietor of Hookah Bliss, the most [...]

According to the study, the particular content of tobacco marketing resonates with youth and that the vivid imagery in tobacco advertising captures their interest, although teens typically are more resistant to the promotional seduction of other products.
“Cigarettes have created a brand for every personality trait,” study lead author Reiner Hanewinkel, PhD, director of the Institute [...]

The Cuban cigar has historically been a status symbol among wealthy businessmen and, for Americans, forbidden fruit. But the recession has forced many to rethink their spending on amenities, and Cuban cigar sales plummeted last year. As a result, cigar producers and local cigar bars have begun targeting a new and perhaps unlikely segment of [...]

A year ago, General Electric Co. promised financial incentives to U.S. employees who kicked the smoking habit.
Now, the company is going a step further, launching a new policy that would make all the company’s work sites tobacco-free by this time in 2011.
There are some other differences between then and now.
For one thing, the Connecticut-based company, [...]

On Monday, as I walked to the White House for the daily press briefing, I bumped into a Canadian journalist who was heading there as well, and we engaged in a common practice: guessing what topic would dominate the questions for press secretary Robert Gibbs. Health care, I said, explaining that this was still the [...]

RICHMOND, Va. — General Snus, the original Scandinavian snus introduced more than two centuries ago in Sweden, is now commanding a promotional army in the United States. Swedish Match has launched a multi-million-dollar campaign aimed at introducing the refrigerated pouches to upscale audiences in key U.S. markets and at high-end events, including the Sundance Film [...]

A new group is hoping to use an old trail to promote area artists and tourism.
The newly formed Artisans of the South Carolina Tobacco Trail aims to bring together artists, artisans and retailers along the tobacco trail, which was one of several efforts established more than a decade ago to boost what’s known as heritage [...]

The organization that helped cut Virginia’s youth smoking rate almost in half hopes to duplicate that success by getting kids to choose apples and playing outdoors over potato chips and watching television.
The Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation last year took on an added mission and a new name — the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth.
“The General [...]

Hong Kong – According to the Thematic Household Survey conducted by the Census and Statistics Department between late 2007 and early 2008, the number of daily smokers aged 15 or above was 676,900 or 11.8% of the population in that age group (male: 20.5%, female: 3.6%). The number of daily smokers aged 15-19 was [...]

GENEVA, On March 01 representatives from the 168 ratifying countries of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) tobacco treaty gathered to celebrate its landmark fifth anniversary. As part of the convening, the treaty Secretariat released a comprehensive report on the history of the treaty, assessing its successes to date and the challenges that remain.
The civil society [...]

Several months ago, November 19th, a Jury Panel in South Florida decided that Philip Morris USA should pay $300 million in damages to an ex-smoker, ruling that the largest tobacconist in United States showed negligence that triggered the plaintiff’s emphysema.
However, last week, Jeffrey E. Streitfeld, a judge of a Broward Circuit Court overturned the highest-ever [...]

The White House physician gave President Obama a little advice the other day: Lay off the butts.
Dr. Jeffrey Kulhmann recommended that the president, who has acknowledged smoking the occasional cigarette, stick with nicotine patches. In fact, some smokers have been able to cut back or kick the habit with the help of cessation programs. But [...]

WASHINGTON – A U.S. scientific panel this month will weigh the controversial role of popular menthol flavoring in cigarettes in the first public meeting on tobacco products since a new law granted regulators power over the industry last year.
Over two days, the Food and Drug Administration’s panel of outside experts will look at the health [...]

While the proven negative health consequences of smoking and tanning are undeniable, tobacco and indoor tanning advertisers would like consumers to think otherwise. In fact, a new study comparing the tactics used in advertising tobacco and indoor tanning products found several similarities in how these two industries market unhealthy products.
In the report entitled, “Comparison of [...]

GENEVA – Governments must do more to protect workers in bars, restaurants and the entertainment sector from harmful smoke, and curb tobacco advertising and sponsorship, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
Developing countries are the new frontier for tobacco companies, which often target women and girls, and smoking rates remain high among poor people in [...]

It is not a big secret that UK Public Health Department lead by Andy Burnham has promised to make 50 percent of adult smokers across the nation give up their habit within a decade. Their plan includes requiring tobacco companies to pack their products in plain packages.
However, this daring initiative has many influential opponents, including [...]

MANILA, Philippines – The cigarette industry in the country has long been a showcase of how political economy works in the Philippines. While businessman Lucio Tan has been generally perceived to have perfected the art of influencing regulation and tax schemes to favor his Fortune Tobaco Corp., the expansion efforts of multinational player Philip Morris [...]

LONDON – British American Tobacco, the world’s second-biggest cigarette maker, reported signs global economies were starting to improve, as it met forecasts with a 19 percent rise in 2009 earnings on Thursday.
The London-based group, which makes Kent, Dunhill, Lucky Strike and Pall Mall cigarettes, gained a boost from price rises, acquisitions, and the weak pound [...]

Last summer Robert Proctor, a Stanford professor who studies the history of tobacco, was surprised to receive court papers accusing him of witness tampering and witness intimidation, along with a subpoena for his unfinished book manuscript. Then in January he got another subpoena, this one for three years of e-mails with a colleague, and also [...]

Ghana has been selected to host the second working group meeting on World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) in April this year.
The meeting is to, among other things, identify and develop opportunities for practical cooperation with competent intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations in the promotion of sustainable alternatives to tobacco growing.
It is [...]

The Pentagon’s after a better way to strike back against infectious diseases and bio-threats. Now, a team at Texas A&M may have come up with a way to turn tobacco plants into vaccine-making machines.

Darpa, the military’s risk-taking research agency, is investing $40 million into the Texas Plant-Expressed Vaccine Consortium, which will test the tobacco-based method [...]