When, more than a decade ago now, smoking bans began to take effect around the world, researchers and public health officials feverishly collected data demonstrating the health benefits: lower levels of respiratory illness were reported among bar workers from Dublin to San Francisco after indoor smoking bans took effect, saliva tests revealed lower levels of nicotine concentration in hotel and restaurant workers once smokers were chucked outside ... Jump to full article >>

MANILA – The proposal of Swiss firm SICPA Product Security SA to provide security stamps on cigarettes is not a done deal, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said yesterday, assuring lawmakers that there was nothing final yet. “It must be clarified that the SICPA (proposal) is merely an unsolicited proposal under the BOT (Build-Operate-Transfer) Law. It’s not a done deal yet,” Teves said. He said that even if the Bureau of Internal Re ... Jump to full article >>

Although many people suggest that life was easier in the past without all those gadgets, I think that the dramatic technical progress in the past decade provided a whole new world of pleasant options for web users. For instance, now we are able to communicate with our friends from other countries; we can check our bank accounts via e-banking services; we are able to pay bills from home and, one of the most pleasant things, is that now we can buy ... Jump to full article >>

When the federal government raised the tax on the loose tobacco people use to roll their own cigarettes a staggering 2,000 percent, companies stopped selling “loose tobacco.” Smokers stopped buying it. Very little of the projected tax revenue of $35 million per month appeared. Yet smokers still roll their own cigarettes and still legally buy the ingredients. Pipe tobacco is taxed at a rate of $2.83 per pound. Loose cigarette tobacco ... Jump to full article >>

Indoor smoking bans have forced smokers at bars and restaurants onto outdoor patios, but a new University of Georgia study in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that these outdoor smoking areas might be creating a new health hazard. The study, thought to be the first to assess levels of a nicotine byproduct known as cotinine in nonsmokers exposed to second-hand smoke outdoors, found levels up to 162 percen ... Jump to full article >>

State lawmakers are spouting so much hot air about the state’s budget crisis these days, it’s a wonder the Capitol hasn’t lifted off the ground like the old man’s house in the movie “Up.” If one more senator vows to block a spending cut or restore a benefit or roll back a tax hike – without offering a remotely plausible alternative for averting fiscal catastrophe – the entire Legislature will soon ... Jump to full article >>

After 505 days, West Burlington bar owner Larry Duncan got a judge to hear his constitutional concerns with the Iowa Smokefree Air Act. When the statewide smoking ban went into effect July 1, 2008, Duncan blatantly violated it with the hopes of going before a judicial magistrate within days. Instead, he received notices of potential violations until the state pursued him through the Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Division. “It astounds me that h ... Jump to full article >>

CUSTOMS officers have delivered a double blow to the finances of organised crime gangs shipping large hauls of smuggled cigarettes into the State. Officers seized almost 12 million cigarettes — worth nearly €5m — in two separate consignments after they had been brought into Dublin Port. Officers said last night that one of the latest hauls had been destined for the black market in the North. The Regal brand cigarettes arrived at th ... Jump to full article >>

European Union Finance Ministers have agreed to introduce a significant increase in the minimum level of excise tax on cigarettes from 2014 in an effort to reduce the bulk-buying of cigarettes in cheaper eastern European countries, in a move which has been led by the EU’s Swedish Presidency. In effect and from 2014, the minimum tax on a carton of 1,000 cigarettes (or loose packs to the same equivalent) across all 27 EU member states will ... Jump to full article >>

Smokers could soon break their habit with a jab that stops nicotine from being addictive by preventing it from entering the brain, scientists claimed. As a result the vaccine stops the smoker from deriving any pleasure from inhaling a cigarette. In human trials the vaccine proved successful in 50 per cent of cases. Help: Smokers could quit using the vaccine that stops nicotine entering the brain This would help relieve the NHS of the heavy burd ... Jump to full article >>