Protesters have picketed an art world party as they called on Tate bosses to cut their ties with sponsor BP over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. A group of artists under the name The Good Crude Britannia was voicing its concerns as Tate Britain held its summer party. The event was organised jointly to launch a major new display by artist Fiona Banner and 20 years of support by BP. Figures such as playwright Caryl Churchill, cartoonist Martin Rowson ... Jump to full article >>

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Johnjoe McFadden correctly points out that molecular genetics has yet to deliver on its expensive promissory notes (Genes? Its complicated, 24 June). However, in citing heritability estimates of 80%-90% for diagnoses such as schizophrenia and autism, he perpetuates the misleading idea that these figures show the extent to which conditions are caused by genes. Heritability refers to the correlation between genes and a diagnosis in a given environ ... Jump to full article >>

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WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has rejected appeals by the Obama administration and the nation’s largest tobacco companies to get involved in a legal fight about the dangers of cigarette smoking that has stretched more than 10 years. The court’s action, issued without comment Monday, leaves in place court rulings that the tobacco industry illegally concealed the dangers of smoking for decades. But it also prevents the administration ... Jump to full article >>

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Indonesia has stopped the export of its clove cigarette to the United States following the ban imposed by U.S. agency on such a cigarette, local media reported here on Monday. “There was totally no clove cigarette export to U.S. as of mid this year after sharp drop of clove cigarette export to U.S. since the ban was imposed in September last year,” Frans Rupang, a deputy at Indonesia’s customs office said. According to Frans, th ... Jump to full article >>

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Tobacco growers from Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and India are up in arms over a World Health Organization (WHO) proposal that they claim would kill as much as 50 million jobs in the tobacco industry and related fields around the world. The first Asia Tobacco Forum, held in the Indonesian capital last week, discussed proposed guidelines under the WHO Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) that would ban the use ... Jump to full article >>

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Three years after the smoking ban controversially came into force in England, a substantial proportion of smokers want to see restrictions extended to children’s play areas and smoking in cars. Just under half of smokers support a ban in play areas, while 61% support a ban in cars with children. Surveys by YouGov, commissioned by the anti-smoking organisation Ash, suggest the ban is increasingly popular with the public as a whole. More than ... Jump to full article >>

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