The Health Bureau (SS) has plans to raise the tobacco tax prior to the anti-smoking law becoming effective on January 1, 2012. SS director Lei Chin Ion told reporters yesterday the bureau has proposed a rise in the tax to the Economic Services Bureau and is now working on several administrative regulations to accompany the anti-smoking law, according to TDM news. The anti-smoking law was published yesterday in the Official Gazette. The law will ... Jump to full article >>

UNIK Corporation have found that electronic cigarettes are more popular than ever as smokers turn to these miracle products to get their fix of nicotine without the health risks that are associated with tar and tobacco. The “smoke-like” vapour emitted by an electronic cigarette vaporises within a few seconds, the odour does not linger so your clothes will not smell of tobacco, neither will your car or home! It leaves no visual resid ... Jump to full article >>

RALEIGH, N.C. — House Republicans want to abolish two trust funds that receive half of North Carolina’s share of the national tobacco settlement and intercept money from the third – a direction health and economic development advocates contend will raise youth smoking rates and discourage economic recovery. The GOP-penned state budget proposal heading to floor debate Tuesday would eliminate by Dec. 31 the Health and Wellness Tr ... Jump to full article >>

BEIJING — China launches a ban on smoking in indoor public spaces Sunday but the effort is widely viewed as vague and half-hearted and few expect it to have much of an impact in the tobacco-addicted country. The nationwide prohibition is designed to bring China — which has more than 300 million smokers, roughly equal to the entire population of the United States — more in line with health regulations in developed countries. But it ... Jump to full article >>

Dinosaurs covered in ashtrays and a website targeting teenage smokers are the key components of Year 1 of a five-year provincial tobacco strategy released Wednesday. The strategy calls for other types of action later on. They include immediate penalties for retailers who sell cigarettes to minors, persuading the federal government to change tobacco packaging, legislation to back no-smoking policies on hospital and school grounds, and looking a ... Jump to full article >>

St. Cloud State University students approved a plan that could make their campus tobacco free by August 2012. The issue passed with 63 percent approving and 37 percent voting against the plan. The students voted Monday through Wednesday, and the results were announced today at a Student Government meeting. The approval of the tobacco-free campus plan essentially is a recommendation to President Earl H. Potter III, who has final say over whether ... Jump to full article >>

Senate budget writers voted Thursday afternoon to liquidate an endowment containing more than $400 million of Texas’ tobacco-settlement money and give the money to 10 academic health science centers, including the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. The centers would take a 15 percent cut in their state funding in the proposed two-year budget, said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan. He said the ... Jump to full article >>

If health officials and Major League Baseball prevail, this might be the last season a professional baseball player will be on the field with a wad of tobacco in his cheek. Health officials from 15 cities — including Seattle — signed a letter last week to Bud Selig, Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner, and Michael Weiner, executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association, calling for a ban on players and coaches using ... Jump to full article >>

Talks that legislation enforcing plain packaging for tobacco products would bring about a black market are absolute nonsense, says a leading health expert who is welcoming the proposed changes. Professor Mike Daube, deputy chair of the National Preventative Health Taskforce said it is possible to gauge the positive impact of the proposed legislation by the commotion the tobacco industry kicks up. Tobacco giants – as well as the Australian ... Jump to full article >>

BEIJING (AP) — Chinese health authorities are renewing a push to ban smoking in indoor public places, adding more venues like hotels and restaurants as of May 1, though still excluding many workplaces. The guidelines given on the Health Ministry’s website are the latest effort to curb tobacco use in the country with the world’s largest number of smokers and where experts say huge revenues from the state-owned tobacco monopoly hinde ... Jump to full article >>