The price of a packet of 20 cigarettes could double as part of the UAE’s campaign to help smokers quit, it was reported on Thursday. A packet could rise to about AED14, the Ministry of Health (MoH) said, with further increases imposed in the future. The move is one of a number of anti-smoking restrictions being considered as part of a new law that came into effect on Wednesday, UAE daily The National reported. The new regulations will ban ... Jump to full article >>

In the absence of a federal ban on smoking in public places, individual emirates have introduced their own rules, leading to a somewhat disjointed approach to the problem of tobacco use. Since 2007, Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al Khaimah and Dubai have introduced partial or full smoking bans. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi and Umm al Qaiwain are waiting for federal legislation to be passed. The most recent draft, which went before the Federal National C ... Jump to full article >>

SHAME ON ROLLING STONE FOR TAKING TOBACCO MONEY The following is a statement by Betsy McCaughey: The October 1, 2009 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine includes the outrageous and fictional accusation that I worked for a tobacco company in writing my critique of the dangers of the Clinton Plan. I did not. I was a scholar at the Manhattan Institute, and did no fundraising or conferring with corporations. Absolutely none. My article was based on text ... Jump to full article >>

Any company selling products that addict and eventually kill 400,000 customers annually might well be reluctant to point out the health dangers. So the federal courts should be mighty skeptical when Big Tobacco screams about its First Amendment rights to keep peddling cigarettes without the oversize health warning labels ordered by Congress this year. With a free-speech lawsuit filed last week, the nation’s largest tobacco companies challe ... Jump to full article >>

New research has revealed international tobacco companies feared tobacco controls in Western Australia and closely monitored the state for more than 50 years. In 1998, a legal battle forced four of America’s biggest tobacco companies to release millions of confidential documents. Curtin University in Perth has spent the past two years sifting through more than 50 years of documents. The documents show the companies were deeply concerned a ... Jump to full article >>