WIESBADEN – As the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) reports on the occasion of the Inter­national Trade Fair for Tobacco Products and Smoking Accessories, the prices of cigarettes, cigars, cigarillos and of fine-cut tobacco (tobacco products) rose by 7.0% in the two years between August 2007 and August 2009. Compared with the preceding year, the prices of tobacco products were up 5.2%. In contrast, the consumer prices of all goods and se ... Jump to full article >>

COLUMBUS — Ohio’s workplace smoking ban is unconstitutional because it is not equally enforced throughout the state, a bar owner claims in a lawsuit against the state’s top law official. Richard Allen, owner of Zeno’s, a bar facing $28,000 in fines for violating the smoking ban, is teaming up with a conservative policy group to fight the law after being sued by Attorney General Richard Cordray. In a counter-suit filed thi ... Jump to full article >>

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — If the city of Nitro can’t change the minds of Kanawha County health officials, then perhaps it can change the county where the health officials reside. That’s the latest option being considered by Nitro officials who want to make the city’s most prominent business exempt from a county smoking ban. Officials at Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center say the ban, which started in July 2008, is bad for bu ... Jump to full article >>

Smoking during pregancy increases the risk of a baby developing asthma up to sixfold, said a Swedish study published at the European Respiratory Society’s annual congress on Monday. The study by Professeur Anders Bjerg of the Sunderby central hospital in Norrbotten and his specialists showed that smoking leads to babies being born underweight, a fact that has an impact on the development of asthma. The Swedish doctors studied asthma in abo ... Jump to full article >>

PETERSBURG, Va., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Star Scientific, Inc. (Nasdaq: STSI) reported that the company’s counsel has received a notice of a first office action, or “Non-Final Detailed Action” from the US Patent & Trademark Office (PTO) as part of the patent reexamination process initiated by RJ Reynolds in January, 2009. As the company previously reported, RJR requested that the PTO find invalid Claims 4, ... Jump to full article >>

The researchers said their findings pointed to a need for a campaign to discourage smoking in cars. Sharing a ride with a smoker will give you a much heftier dose of nicotine than having a meal in a restaurant that allows smoking or hanging out at a smoky bar, according to new research. Even opening the window or switching on the air-conditioner when a smoker lights up leaves significant amounts of nicotine in the air, according to the study by ... Jump to full article >>

Board of health may vote on smoking ban next week MARTINSBURG – Pete Snow may have to breath with the assistance of an oxygen tank, but that didn’t stop the senior citizen and Berkeley County war veteran from joining scores of protesters Wednesday night in Martinsburg for a rally and march to show support for opposition to a proposed smoking ban. The ban, proposed by the Berkeley County Health Department, would eliminate smoking at ... Jump to full article >>

Last year the Palmetto Agribusiness Council released a study indicating that our agriculture and forestry industries had a combined $33 billion economic impact on South Carolina. As a farmer I’m proud to note that South Carolina agribusiness accounts for almost 200,000 direct and indirect jobs with payrolls totaling approximately $7.4 billion. Clearly, agribusiness is big business in our state and must be protected. As such, there is a poten ... Jump to full article >>

Call us geeks, but we’re more interested in who might win Nobel prizes next month instead of which Hollywood type may score an Oscar come spring. That’s one reason we pay close attention to the Lasker Awards for biomedical research, which often serve as a warm-up for the Nobels. This year’s winners, just unveiled, are John Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka for work important to the understanding of stem cells; a trio of scientists i ... Jump to full article >>

When it came to raising new sources of desperately needed revenue, stogies and chaw appeared to be the lowest-hanging fruit. Every other state imposes excise taxes on smokeless tobacco, and all but one other – Florida – do so on cigars. And the idea was widely popular in the Keystone State, public-opinion polls showed. So how did the ripe-for-the-picking products avoid being affected by the cornucopia of taxes that top lawmakers anno ... Jump to full article >>