THE GOVERNMENT must put anti-smoking services under a central body and provide training for all healthcare professionals, anti-smoking campaigner Prof Luke Clancy said. Prof Clancy, a leading advocate of the 2004 workplace smoking ban, said Ireland had underachieved in relation to tobacco addiction since the ban. He accused the last government of a misplaced concern for exchequer revenue in not increasing the price of cigarettes. He also critici ... Jump to full article >>

Almost four fifths of Irish smokers want to quit according to research released today. According to the Europe Quitting: Progress and Pathways Report Irish smokers come second only Luxembourg in their desire to give up. Some 79 per cent of smokers who were surveyed here claimed they wanted to quit compared with 83 per cent in Luxembourg. The figures are well above the European average of 67 per cent. The research among 2,482 healthcare professio ... Jump to full article >>

State Rep. Jennifer Weiss and Sen. William Purcell have introduced legislation that would address one of the nation’s largest public health issues: tobacco use. Tobacco-related illness remains the No. 1 preventable cause of death in the United States, claiming more than 440,000 American lives a year. The American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association in North Carolina applaud these legislators and ... Jump to full article >>

When Pueblo, Colo., decided in 2003 to become smoke free inside all workplaces, the hope was that the move would help with the city’s poor health conditions. Pueblo was a community much like our own. Smoking rates were high. Heart attacks and other smoking-caused illnesses were costing residents millions in lost productivity and medical expenses. The results were dramatic. Just 18 months later, heart attack hospitalizations declined by 41 ... Jump to full article >>

The Carroll County Health Department is busy preparing to become a tobacco-free campus April 20. Director of Health Education Kim Spangler said the policy will ban smoke and smokeless tobacco use on health department property, including in personal vehicles. “It was very much past due that the Health Department go tobacco-free,” she said. Spangler is chairwoman of the committee that was charged with discussing the creation of a tobac ... Jump to full article >>

From an ethical standpoint, it makes little sense that health care retailers — in the business of selling products that are supposed to make people healthier — would also sell products that are known to kill. So goes the thinking of Teens Against Drug Abuse, part of the BOLD Coalition, which has pushed for an ordinance that the city’s Law Department has drafted and is being considered by the Fall River City Council’s Committee on Ordinan ... Jump to full article >>

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The House of Delegates’ version of legislation to increase state tobacco taxes advanced in the Health and Human Resources Committee on a 13-10 vote Tuesday — after committee members rebuffed an attempt to insert mandatory drug testing for welfare recipients into the bill. Legislation to require random drug testing of recipients of food stamps or money from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program ... Jump to full article >>

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (AP) – St. Mary’s Medical Center is planning to ban tobacco use starting this summer. WSAZ-TV reports that the Huntington hospital plans to go tobacco-free on June 27. Tobacco use already is prohibited inside hospital buildings. St. Mary’s says it will eliminate three outside designated smoking areas. St. Mary’s says the tobacco-free initiative is a way to show its commitment to healthy living. At least ... Jump to full article >>

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department plans to ask a federal judge to make public the proposed statements the government wants tobacco companies to publish about the dangers of their products. Department spokesman Charles Miller said the agency planned to file the proposed statements in a Washington, D.C., court Thursday, but ran into resistance from cigarette makers about whether the information should be made public now. “It was our ... Jump to full article >>

A controversial bill that would essentially snuff out North Dakota’s tobacco control and prevention efforts to fund the expansion of UND’s School of Medicine and Health Sciences goes before its first committee hearing today. Not only would HB 1353 take tobacco settlement funds set aside by voters in 2008 for an anti-tobacco program, it would also eliminate the entire section of state law that allows for an agency to manage those funds. Anti- ... Jump to full article >>