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A Florida man got the shock of his life on Wednesday when an electronic cigarette he was using exploded in his mouth. Honestly, you try to do the right thing and it all blows up in your face. A Florida man who finally came around to the idea of giving up smoking decided to use an electronic cigarette to help him try to kick the habit. So far so good, you might think. The problem for 57-year-old Tom Holloway, however, was that while it was in his mouth the thing exploded. The explosion was so severe that it destroyed some...

He is the man with the mustache who takes a rebellious drag on a cigarette in the Herman Cain Internet ad gone viral. "We've run a campaign like nobody's ever seen," he says before taking a puff. "But then America's never seen a candidate like Herman Cain." Meet Mark Block, Cain's unorthodox campaign manager. Perhaps no one is more responsible for the Georgia businessman's meteoric rise in the presidential polls than Block, a Republican strategist and tea party leader who's left a trail of questionable campaign work behind him. Block has been accused of voter suppression and was banned from...

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s campaign says its overnight viral sensation is no joke. The quirky YouTube video showing chief of staff Mark Block taking a drag on a cigarette while asking supporters to “get involved” in the campaign is for real. “It was meant to tell supporters about the campaign,” campaign spokesman J.D. Gordon told The Daily Caller in an email. “It was a video with an edge — as the Chief of Staff says, just Block being Block,” Gordon told TheDC.

As states around the country continue to face ongoing projected budget deficits, many elected officials are advocating consumption tax hikes in an effort to close budget holes (see Dayton, Mark and Democrats, Minnesota). However, New Hampshire recently cut its cigarette tax in a move to increase revenue and now Michigan—the state generally regarded as having the worst economy in the country—may follow suit. Senate Bill 517 would roll back the $2 per pack cigarette excise tax, among the highest in the nation, and reset it at $1 per pack. It would be partnered with budget cuts including an option that...

Online cigarette buyers hit with taxes She lost her job. She lost her husband. She lost her home. And that's when the state Department of Revenue delivered yet another blow, a $9,876 lien on Judy Christy's assets for cigarettes she had bought and smoked years ago. Ms. Christy, of Butler County, was one of tens of thousands of Pennsylvanians caught up in the state's ongoing sweep of people who bought cigarettes by the carton online and failed to pay the state's sales and excise taxes. Similar sweeps have been carried out in other states. * * * * *...

Three Edmond men have been named in a 59-count federal indictment that accuses them of illegally profiting from the sale of more than $3 million in untaxed cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products. Khawer Saeed Ghill, 40, Ahsan Ullah, 41, and Asmat Ullah, 60, all were charged ... Some of the profits were transferred to Pakistan, the indictment claims.

Smokers across Rowan County are fired up about the possibility of the cost of a pack of cigarettes increasing by $1, and some even say they’ll start growing their own tobacco if North Carolina House Bill 341 is passed. “I’m going to do it regardless of what they do, even if I have to buy tobacco seeds and grow it myself,” Shane Allman said of the proposed increase. “I’ll cut it up as I need it, and roll it up as I need it. That way I can throw my middle finger up at the government.” Allman, a 33-year-old employee...

CONCORD, N.H. – Bucking a national trend of raising cigarette taxes, New Hampshire, New Jersey and Rhode Island have considered reducing theirs, hoping to draw smokers from other states and increase revenue. Supporters argue reducing the tax by a dime would make New Hampshire more competitive with Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts, while opponents say that even if the state experienced higher sales as a result it still would lose millions of dollars in revenue. It's very unusual for states to lower the tax, University of Illinois at Chicago economics professor Frank Chaloupka says. The increase in sales isn't enough to...

<p>BUFFALO, N.Y. — A New York appeals court on Tuesday lifted a temporary order blocking the state from collecting taxes on cigarettes sold by Native American stores to non-Indian customers.</p> <p>On Sept. 1, a state appellate judge in Rochester restored a restraining order that barred the state from collecting the $4.35-per-pack tax. But the court's five-judge panel, which took up the case last week, ruled that the state properly approved regulations for the levy.</p>

New York has the highest cigarette tax in the nation, but about a third of the cigarettes sold in the state aren’t taxed at all — they’re purchased over the Internet or at smoke shops run by the state’s American Indians on tribal land. Tribes in New York are supposed to collect sales tax from any nonnatives who come onto tribal land to buy cigarettes. But the tribes have long refused to collect the tax. When the state announced that it would begin collecting the money on Sept. 1, the two sides ended up in court. A state judge last...

Two-year-old Indonesian boy Ardi Rizal puffs on a cigarette in the yard of his family home in Sumatra. The chain-smoking toddler has cut back to 15 cigarettes a day thanks to "therapy focused on playing", a child welfare official has said. (AFP/Ahmad Naafi/SRIWIJAYA POST/File)

Teenage smoking is often thought of as kind of innocent experiment, but a drag on a friend's cigarette may be the beginning of something that will be hard to shake. A study of adolescent smokers in the journal Pediatrics tracks the course of addiction to nicotine among a group of sixth-graders. After following 1,246 middle-school children for four years, researchers say a pattern emerged of occasional smoking that led to an addiction to tobacco: A cigarette a month will do it. "When people are just wanting a cigarette, every now and then, they think they just enjoy smoking," says study...

And you thought you had a bad smoking habit. Ardi Rizal isn't even out of diapers, but he already smokes around 40 cigarettes every day,

Two-year-old smokes 40 cigarettes a day Indo Asian News Service Ardi Rizal is just a two-year-old boy, but is not less than a chain smoker. Rizal who lives in a fishing village Musi Banyuasin, Indonesia, smokes at least 40 cigarettes in a day. He got addicted to smoking after his father gave him a cigarette when he was just 18-months-old, reports thesun.co.uk. He weighs more than 25 kilograms and finds it almost impossible to run with other kids. "He's totally addicted. If he doesn't get cigarettes, he gets angry and screams and batters his head against the wall. He tells...

HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chemical extracts from cigarette butts -- so toxic they kill fish -- can be used to protect steel pipes from rusting, a study in China has found. In a paper published in the American Chemical Society's bi-weekly journal Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, the scientists in China said they identified nine chemicals after immersing cigarette butts in water. They applied the extracts to N80, a type of steel used in oil pipes, and found that they protected the steel from rusting. "The metal surface can be protected and the iron atom's further dissolution can be prevented,"...

THE tax on cigarettes will rise by 25 per cent from midnight as part of the Federal Government's crackdown on smoking. The Government will also force tobacco companies to use plain packaging from July 1, 2012. The changes will cut tobacco consumption by six per cent and the number of smokers by two or three per cent - about 87,000 Australians, the Government said. The 25 per cent tax increase will mean an increase of about $2.16 for a pack of 30, raising the cost to about $17.95.

A new pill that could cure one of the most lethal forms of cancer is being developed by scientists. British researchers have found that a drug destroys tumours in a form of inoperable lung cancer that kills more than nine out of 10 sufferers. The treatment works by blocking the growth of the cancer cells and eventually causing them to self destruct. In more than 50 per cent of the trials, the treatment, which appears to have no side affects, killed all traces of the disease. "We are very excited about it," said Professor Michael Seckl, the molecular oncologist who...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) – Swedish police have arrested two North Korean diplomats on suspicion of smuggling 230,000 cigarettes into the Nordic country, the Swedish Customs Office said Friday. The pair, a man and a woman who have diplomatic status in Russia, were stopped by Swedish customs officers Wednesday morning as they drove off a ferry from Helsinki, the Finnish capital. Customs officials discovered Russian cigarettes in the car driven by the couple, Swedish Customs spokeswoman Monica Magnusson told Reuters. The two North Koreans claimed diplomatic immunity. "They were accredited as diplomats in Russia, but had no accreditation in Sweden," she said....

More than £1 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes filled with rabbit droppings instead of tobacco have been confiscated by customs officials in Spain. The fake cigarettes - due to be sold on the black market as famous brands - were discovered after British holidaymakers in the Canary Islands smelled a rat whenever they lit up. "They stunk. They smell just as you'd imagine burning poo to smell," said one customs official in Tenerife. Police and customs staff arrested 12 smugglers in an undercover operation to intercept the cigarettes as they landed on a boat from China. "They not only smell...

Considering the name of this blog, we took great concern with the left Eye of Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, which appeared puffy on Wednesday while she testified to a Senate committee.

Mail Order Tobacco And the Global War On Terror The good news is that the Democrat-controlled Congress is finally taking the fight to Hamas, Hezballah and Al Qaeda! In a blow sure to bring these terrorist groups to their knees, the House overwhelmingly, yet quietly, passed H.R. 1676 on the 21st of May. This bill was sent to the Senate, where it is also likely to pass. There it is known as the “Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking Act of 2009” – that’s ‘PACT’ for short. The .pdf for this bill is here It’s a relatively small bill, at only 74...

After lighting up are you experiencing more headaches, stomach cramps or a coppery taste in your mouth? Does your new FSC (fire-safe cigarette) taste bad, cause dry mouth and are you coughing more? New York State was one of the first states to require that cigarettes be made with the new fire-safe paper. This paper is constructed by gluing two or three thin bands of less-porous paper together with an ethylene vinyl acetate copolymer emulsion based adhesive (carpet glue). These papers have bands (see image) that act as speed bumps so if the cigarette is left unattended it will self-extinguish....

Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) compares smoking tobacco with smoking lettuce.

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Friday largely agreed with a landmark ruling that found cigarette makers deceived the public for decades about the heath hazards of smoking. The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington upheld the major elements of a 2006 ruling that found the nation's top tobacco companies guilty of fraud and violating racketeering laws. The ruling said manufacturers must change the way they market cigarettes. It bans labels such as "low tar,""light,""ultra light" or "mild," since such cigarettes have been found to be no safer than others because of how people smoke them. It also...

The House on Thursday approved tougher enforcement measures against contraband cigarette sales that make money for criminals, but cost federal, state and local governments billions of dollars. The bill, which passed 397-11, is especially aimed at Internet sales. ~snip Cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products could no longer be mailed through the U.S. Postal Service except in limited cases. Private delivery companies already have agreed not to ship tobacco products while the Postal Service continues to deliver products purchased over the Internet. Misdemeanors under current law would be made felonies, and it would be a federal offense for any seller failing...

For the first time, consumers can actually take a look at how electronic cigarettes are produced in China. New Smoke has published pictures of it's production in Shenzhen. Will this be the future alternative to tobacco?

http://crosshairs.archangelsandwitticism.com/2009/04/15/the-smoking-lamp-is-out-well-maybe.aspx

The feds are taxing tobacco yet again. They say this is about getting people to quit, but we all know better. If smokers quit smoking where would the money for all those liberal social experiments come from? Tell DC to puff off, and put out your stinky cigarette, cigar, or pipe. E-cigs, the future of nicotine addicts :) All the nicotine and none of the cancer causing tars and chemicals. Pick your flavor: apple, coffee, Red Bull, etc. "Smoke" anywhere! No ashtrays, no lighters, no stink! I ordered mine two days ago, and I can't WAIT to get it. I'll...

Groups unveil plans for Cuyahoga County cigarette-tax grants to individual artists by Karen Sandstrom / Plain Dealer Reporter Wednesday November 12, 2008, 6:05 PM The diciest part of distributing Cuyahoga County's cigarette tax for the arts is about to start. Beginning in mid-February, individual artists will be able to apply for fellowships worth $20,000 each. The fellowship program -- details of which were hammered out this week by two nonprofit organizations involved in creating it -- is aimed at building a strong arts community in Northeast Ohio by helping individuals with their development as artists. Up to 20 fellowships will...

London, England (AHN) - As an alternative to lighting up cigarettes which has been banned in public dining and drinking establishments in the U.K., a British firm will introduce to the market in December liquid smoking. The drink, made of a South African herbal extract, mimics the sensation of puffing a cigarette, minus the cancer-causing smoke and nicotine. The manufacturer, United Drinks and Beauty Corporation, claims, quoted by Guardian Unlimited, "the drink has a slight energizing effect, followed by a euphoric sense of calming and relaxation, like the satisfaction of your cigarette." It will be available in a can similar...

Are the Dems offering the American people a "Snow Job?" I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though… (Dreams From My Father, paperback, page 93) http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/streetterms/ByAlpha.asp?strTerm=B, “Blow” = “Cocaine; to inhale cocaine; to smoke marijuana; to inject heroin." However, Obama's statement "not smack" rules out the latter, leaving either pot or cocaine. The context suggests that Obama was taking the white powder up his nose. Right. At the same age when our next President was at the U.S. Naval Academy and learning...

Cigarette Bill Treats Menthol With LeniencyBy STEPHANIE SAUL Published: May 13, 2008 Some public health experts are questioning why menthol, the most widely used cigarette flavoring and the most popular cigarette choice of African-American smokers, is receiving special protection as Congress tries to regulate tobacco for the first time. The legislation, which would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to oversee tobacco products, would try to reduce smoking’s allure to young people by banning most flavored cigarettes, including clove and cinnamon. But those new strictures would exempt menthol — even though menthol masks the harsh taste of cigarettes...

NAGOYA -- A man died after turning into a fireball after police supplied him with cigarettes and a lighter and his kerosene-soaked clothes exploded into flames while in a police interrogation room here, police said. The 45-year-old unemployed Nagoya man, whose name was not disclosed, died late Sunday night, about 21 hours after he burst into flames inside an investigation room at the Atsuta Police Station. A 54-year-old police sergeant who tried to extinguish the fire that claimed the man's life sustained minor burns to his right hand. Investigators said they are unsure whether the man set himself alight or...

I was just reading an article that referenced "sin taxes" cigarettes being one...Well, Many years ago, I used to smoke..and the last time I bought a pack of cigarettes, they cost $1.50 a pack. I was wondering if anyone knew offhand, what they are currently going for?

I suppose that you want to stop smoking and you want to know how. In this post I want to remind you of your power, the power of decision, the power of action and the power of your focus. Also I want to assure you that you know how to quit, you were born as a nonsmoker, right? The real problem is the decision process. That’s right, it’s a process. It’s not a simple decision. It’s a decision that you want to change your state and your behavior. You should replace, something you’ve enjoyed doing it, with absolute nothing. The...

According to three doctors at the KS Hegde Medical Academy in Mangalore, India, writing in the journal Medical Hypotheses, giving up smoking can kill you. Arunachalam Kumar, Kasaragod Mallya, and Jairaj Kumar were "struck by the more than casual relationship between the appearance of lung cancer and an abrupt and recent cessation of the smoking habit in many, if not most, cases." In 182 of the 312 cases they had treated, an habitual smoker of at least a pack a day, for at least a quarter-century, had developed lung cancer shortly after he gave up smoking. They surmised a biological...

WASHINGTON - Congress is taking new whacks at the cigarette industry, banning tobacco sales in Senate buildings and — more importantly — seeking a significant federal tax increase on cigarettes. House and Senate negotiators are trying to craft a veto-proof version of the bill. President Bush says he would veto it because it calls for a 61 cents-per-pack increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes, taking it to $1.

Ohio Department of Health Director J. Nick Baird, M.D., today issued the following statement to clear the air over confusion surrounding implementation of Ohio’s indoor smoking ban. “Despite rumors and some news reports to the contrary, the Ohio smoking ban is alive and well. The law took effect Dec. 7 and remains in effect today. Under the language of the law passed on Nov. 7, the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) is not able to levy any fines until the enforcement mechanisms are in place. During this implementation period, ODH will follow up on all notices of potential violations with...

DOUGLAS — A trick-or-treater in Douglas got a little more than he expected in his bag when he found a marijuana cigarette mixed in with his Milk Duds and Hershey’s Kisses. The boy was looking though his bag when he found the strange looking item wrapped in white paper. The boy told an adult about it and the adult called the Douglas police, said Marcus Gonzales, the public information officer for the Douglas Police Department. Police arrived to the area of Seventh Street and G Avenue. Since the boy had not been out for very long, officers were able to...

ALARM - Tobacco prohibited in public places at February 1, 2007 PARIS - the tobacco will be interdict in all the public places in France as from February 1, 2007, except for the coffees, tobaccos, restaurants and discotheques which will have until January 1, 2008 to adapt, announced to Sunday the Dominique de Villepin Prime Minister.

Fake smokes called big North cash cow August 18, 2006 ¤Ñ North Korea is believed to earn $500-700 million per year by making and selling fake American and Japanese cigarettes, a U.S. radio station reported Wednesday, quoting a former U.S. official. "Counterfeit tobacco is one of the largest, probably the largest, single source of income for the North Korean regime," David Asher said in an interview with the Washington-based Radio Free Asia. Mr. Asher, who until July 2005 worked for James Kelly, then the assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs at the State Department, said the...

A hospital patient died when he became engulfed in flames as he lit a cigarette after being treated with an inflammable gel for a skin complaint.Philip Hoe, 60, is believed to have sneaked out of a ward and on to a fire escape stairwell to get around a smoking ban. It is believed that as he lit the cigarette it ignited fumes from a paraffin and kerosene wax cream used on large areas of his body. The gel is thought to have soaked into his nightclothes which burst into flames, causing him to scream in agony. Staff at Doncaster Royal...

The owner of a Westland tobacco shop was arrested for trading cigarettes for sex with teenagers. Police set up a cyber sting and the man took the bait. A tipster told police Jonathan Nunoo, the owner of All Stars Mini Mart in Westland, was making deals for sex with underage girls.

BRITISH American Tobacco (BAT) is to launch a controversial “safer cigarette” designed to cut the risk of smoking-related diseases such as cancer and heart failure by up to 90%. The cigarettes use tobacco treated to produce lower levels of cancer-causing chemicals. They also incorporate a new type of filter said to remove more of the remaining toxins. The company wants to launch the cigarettes in 2006 but has kept the move secret, knowing it would infuriate anti-smoking groups. Campaigners will dismiss any attempt to reinvent cigarettes as a less harmful product as a cynical ploy to recruit more smokers when...

Okay, I've lurked for years and just yesterday went on a posting binge. I posted to everyone about everything, just hoping someone would read/talk to me. I've seen these vanities before, and I hope I aint breaking the FR rules or offending someone. I have got to do something or I am going to eat another pack of doughnuts. Posting is probably healthier and certainly not as fattening. Yesterday was DAY 1 of the first day I QUIT SMOKING CIGARETTES. I liked smoking cigerettes, and I was good at it. I enjoyed it. But recently I got to looking around...

N. Korean Cigarettes and Liquor Receive A Radical Facelift Inter-Korean Design Exchange Association (in S. Korea) suggested new designs for the a N. Korean cigarette package and a liquor bottle. The ones on the left are original N. Korean products, the Red Star Cigarettes and the Azalea Liquor, and the ones on the right are the newly designed package and bottle. They hope the new designs would help boost their sale abroad.

Sunday, June 26, 2005 Fuming over tax By KELLEY BOUCHARD, Portland Press Herald Writer Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. E-mail this story to a friend Benjamin Snow started smoking as a teenager. Now 49, he thinks about quitting every day, but he doesn't plan to do so anytime soon, even as Maine prepares to increase its excise tax from $1 per pack to $2 to help balance the state budget. Snow, who lives in Portland, smokes a pack a day and says he can afford the extra $7 a week, or $365 a year. But he wonders about...

No more smokers. Is the next step no more Democrats? So the CEO of a Michigan company announced a no-more-smokers policy. Employees of Weyco Inc. could not smoke at the office, in the parking lot, in an ally or even at home. Weyco founder Howard Weyers gave his employees who smoked 15 months warning and offered them smoking cessation courses. Weyco eventually fired or forced out workers who refused to take nicotine tests to show that they did not smoke. "We're not telling you, you can't smoke," said Weyco CFO Gary Climes. "We're telling you, you can't smoke and work...

Major credit card companies will refuse to participate in Internet sales of cigarettes under a government agreement made Thursday.

SACRAMENTO — An emerging new tale of age-old certainties — taxes and death — begins in California with the flip of a cigarette butt and ends in Iraq with a bullet hitting a U.S. soldier. Democratic legislators from the Bay Area and Los Angeles, focused on quality of life in the state, are pushing three bills that would increase cigarette costs for litter cleanup or easing deficit pressures. But federal terrorism investigators told the The Daily Review on Thursday that such seemingly innocent legislation, further increasing high cigarette costs in California, would fuel their already tough battle against terrorist groups'...