A statewide association of convenience store owners said the recently enacted taxes on cigarettes and tobacco have chased as much as one-third of that business into American Indian reservations, border states or other tax havens. The state cigarette tax rose July 1 to $4.35 a pack from $2.75 a pack. A tax increase on other tobacco products took effect Aug. 1. The increase brings the price of cigarettes in the state to the highest levels in the na ... Jump to full article >>

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It’s Saturday night. A few men and women stand outside on the street holding cigarettes between two fingers, their wrists bent at angles to allow the blue smoke to escape into the night air. Someone walks by and they lower their hands to hip-level. The image has become a familiar one since cigarettes were banned inside drinking establishments and restaurants. Forced onto the street, smokers will endure rain and icy winds. Anything. You may ... Jump to full article >>

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Alcoholics, drug addicts, smokers, and gamblers have their 12-step programs—could Tanners Anonymous be next? A new study suggests that 1 in 5 people who use tanning beds exhibit signs of clinical addiction, including feeling guilty about their artificial sun sessions and tanning more than they intended. “People have shown indirectly, in various ways, that tanning tends to be addictive,” says Darryl Rigel, MD, a clinical professor of dermato ... Jump to full article >>

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With a cigar smoldering and the smoke wafting throughout, O’Toole’s Irish Pub doesn’t hide the fact it serves smokers. “I’m okay with that. I’m not proud of it. I’m just okay with it. It’s an economic reality,” said Bill Comerford, President of E&J Lounge Operating Co. which runs O’Toole’s, Kelley O’Neil’s and the Irish Rose Saloon. Three years ago the state passed ... Jump to full article >>

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A group of Florida smokers asked a federal appeals court Tuesday not to force each of them to prove that smoking causes illness in the thousands of individual lawsuits moving through federal court. Such a ruling by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals would mean that the more than 4,000 plaintiffs wouldn’t need extensive — and costly — expert testimony to prove to each jury that their nicotine addiction caused lung cancer and other ... Jump to full article >>

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Babies of women who smoked during pregnancy have blood pressure problems at birth that persisted through the first year of life, a new study finds. “What is of concern is that the problems are present at birth and get worse over time,” said Gary Cohen, a senior research scientist in the department of women and child health at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and lead author of a report in the Jan. 25 online edition of Hypertension. “T ... Jump to full article >>

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