SINGAPORE – The Health Minister will soon have the final say on what tobacco products and substitutes will be allowed here. Proposed changes to the law, which were introduced yesterday in Parliament, would give him flexibility to prohibit new or emerging products as well as existing ones. Mr Khaw Boon Wan had signalled his concern earlier this month that smokeless alternatives, which would include strips, lozenges, snus and nicotine candie ... Jump to full article >>

Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc. said Wednesday higher prices, gains in its cigarette, smokeless tobacco and wine business and cost cutting led its first-quarter profit to climb 38 percent. The owner of nation’s biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, also reaffirmed its guidance for the year but said the second quarter will be challenging for income growth. Altria, based in Richmond, Va., said it earned $813 million, or 39 cents per s ... Jump to full article >>

It’s one of the most old-fashioned taxes of all, but the question of what you measure to levy it is emerging as the latest skirmish in the never-ending battle for space on stores’ tobacco shelves. The stakes can be high — a change in the way Texas levied its excise tax on smokeless tobacco has just about driven old-fashioned, loose-leaf chewing tobacco out of the state. Now, in Virginia, the muted clash over the excise tax betw ... Jump to full article >>

FOR years, Altria, home to Philip Morris and its popular Marlboro cigarette brand, was a corporate pariah blamed for the deaths of millions of people and sued for hundreds of billions of dollars by attorneys general in every state. After eventually acknowledging, like others in its industry, that cigarette smoking was, indeed, addictive and caused disease, Altria went a step further. It broke from the Big Tobacco pack and began supporting legisl ... Jump to full article >>

A federal judge in Maryland has denied Star Scientific Inc.’s request for a new trial after the company lost a patent infringement case against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. Petersburg-based Star, a small firm that makes smokeless tobacco products, said yesterday that it will appeal a June jury verdict in Reynolds’ favor. The company, which had asked the federal district court to set aside the jury verdict, will now appeal to the U.S. Co ... Jump to full article >>

A law passed last week by the New Jersey Senate is raising the ire of public health experts, anti-smoking activists, and consumer advocacy groups. The bill, sponsored by Senators Bob Gordon and Joseph Vitale, prohibits the use of so-called electronic cigarettes where smoking is prohibited, making e-cigarettes subject to the provisions of the New Jersey Smoke Free Air Act. The problem? The devices don’t produce any smoke. Dr. David Baron, f ... Jump to full article >>

The number of tobacco smokers currently in Thailand has reached 14.3 million, the latest Global Adult Tobacco Survey revealed yesterday. Meanwhile, the Public Health Ministry is considering a proposal to the Finance Ministry to increase the tax level on hand-rolled cigarette products after finding over 7.4 million people smoke this style of cigarette. The remainder smoke manufactured cigarettes. The Global Adult Tobacco Survey is a national hous ... Jump to full article >>

When it became clear that the state budget was in crisis mode, three industries with much at stake in Harrisburg opened their wallets. Gambling interests, natural-gas drillers, and tobacco companies have since January spent more than $4.5 million combined on lobbying efforts, according to expense reports filed last week with the state. Those industries were among the few winners in a budget ravaged by the recession. Casinos are poised to introdu ... Jump to full article >>

A handful of players on both the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies have played this year’s World Series with a wad of tobacco in their mouths. Have baseball players always used smokeless tobacco? Yes. In the mid-19th century—baseball’s formative years—chewing tobacco was enormously popular in the United States. Early ballplayers likely chewed tobacco for the same reasons as other American men, but they soon discover ... Jump to full article >>

Is using smokeless tobacco just as harmful as smoking, or is it potentially a safer option? Getting a definitive answer to that question has proved elusive despite centuries of medical research. Resolving the issue, and providing clarity amid the heated rhetoric, has prompted a new series of medical studies sponsored by the National Cancer Institute. One set focuses on whether such smokeless products as snus and the dissolvable products from R.J ... Jump to full article >>