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Fumes from the University’s tobacco policy have ignited conversation over the future of the substance on UT grounds. Because of a new provision from one of the University’s top research funders, UT will need to enact a tobacco-free policy or risk losing millions of research dollars. The Cancer Prevention Research Institute of Texas, a voter-mandated organization that awards millions of research dollars each year to entities pursuing cancer research, released a statement on Feb. 2 stating it will now require all current and future grantees to create tobacco-free workplaces as a condition for accepting the Institute’s funds. UT currently receives...

On January 1, 2012, Maine became the first state to ban smoking in all low-income public housing. Twelve thousand poor people faced their New Year’s Day hangover without the solace of a Marlboro to accompany their aspirin and coffee. This, of course, was good. Just ask the high-minded, right-thinking progressive elites who, it’s safe to say, run Maine’s public housing authority. Progressive elites like to run things. They’d run the government, the media, and the entire U.S. economy if they could. Failing that, public housing authorities will do. The Detroit, San Antonio, and Portland, Oregon, housing authorities already ban smoking....

ANNAPOLIS — Maryland health advocates are lauding Gov. Martin O'Malley’s proposal to increase the state’s cigar tax, but critics say such an increase would create another financial burden for consumers and business owners. Mr. O'Malley, a Democrat, proposed a state budget Wednesday that would raise the 15-percent excise tax on cigars, smokeless tobacco and other noncigarette tobacco items — a group collectively known as other tobacco products (OTP) — to 70 percent. The OTP tax has gone unchanged since 1999 while the cigarette tax has gone from 36 cents to $2 a pack during that period. Health advocates argue raising...

The University of California is banning cigarettes and all other tobacco products from its campuses over the next two years, in a move designed to both protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke and prevent young people from developing the bad habit. Students and staff alike will be prohibited from smoking anywhere on a UC campus - including outdoor spaces, parking lots and private residences. There won't be any designated smoking areas. But a major benefit, they hope, will be an overall reduction in smoking among those who work or study on the campuses. "Our young students who come here as freshmen,...

A new study suggests cigarette smokers who quit after using over-the-counter medication such as nicotine patches are just as likely to relapse as smokers who go "cold turkey," casting fresh doubt on the effectiveness of such products. The finding, from a survey of several hundred smokers, could heighten U.S. smoking-policy debates at a time when the federal health-care overhaul is widening eligibility for cessation medication but states are slashing funding for public-service announcements and telephone quit lines. The study by researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health and University of Massachusetts Boston also coincides with slowing progress to get...

MARIN COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- A Marin County smoking ban is on hold while lawmakers consider weeding out marijuana from the measure. The ordinance as written would outlaw smoking in unincorporated county apartments and included marijuana and other herbs as well as tobacco. It was abruptly sent back to committee Wednesday when Supervisor Kate Sears said only tobacco should be banned...

INDIANAPOLIS— Anti-smoking advocates are on the verge of success in the Indiana General Assembly but must wait out House Democrats' boycott of a divisive labor bill. A bipartisan group of lawmakers in both the Senate and House is pushing to ban smoking in most public places and workplaces, including bars. The only exemptions it includes are the gambling floors of casinos and pari-mutuel betting parlors, private clubs and cigar and hookah bars.

Netherlands backpedaling on anti-smoking campaignThe Associated Press December 15 AMSTERDAM - It's getting surprisingly easy to light up in the Netherlands these days - cigarettes, that is. **SNIP** "There's no other country that's taking these backward steps," said Lies Van Gennip, director of the national tobacco control center, slated to be closed in 2013. "I'm ashamed of what's happening here." At a press briefing on Wednesday, several Dutch politicians and experts blasted the government for backtracking on tobacco control policies. Opposition lawmaker Renske Leijten of the Socialist Party said Health Minister Edith Schippers was making the wrong decision to cut...

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels says he will push for a statewide smoking ban and mild local government reforms in the 2012 legislative session. Those are among the priorities Daniels, a Republican who will begin his last year in office in January, plans to outline in a noon speech Friday at the downtown Skyline Club for the Kiwanis Club of Indianapolis. In an interview Thursday, he also hinted that he would support a proposal seeking legislative approval to let voters decide whether to increase local income taxes to expand mass transit in Marion County and surrounding counties. “My attitude is the...

CINCINNATI, OH (FOX19) - A new poll shows that a majority of Kentucky residents favor a smoking ban in public places, a law which the Kentucky legislature is considering. According to the 2011 Kentucky Health Issues Poll (KHIP), 54 percent of Kentuckians say they would support such a law; 43 percent are opposed to this law; and 4 percent had no opinion. This is an increase from 2010, when Kentuckians were split about the law at 48 percent in favor and 48 percent opposed. "Secondhand smoke exposure poses significant health risks, and smoke-free environments are the only way to fully...

TOKYO — Anti-smoking campaigners in Japan are accusing one of the world’s leading tobacco companies of marketing products to teenage girls at World Cup volleyball events here. Japan Tobacco’s logo (JT) is on the national team uniforms, court-side digital billboards, TV ads and “gift” packages handed out to schoolgirls, mothers and children entering Yoyogi National Stadium and arenas across Japan during the World Cup, which runs until Dec. 4. While the United States, European Union and other industrialized countries have long banned tobacco companies from sponsoring sporting events, Japan Tobacco has been a major promoter of volleyball, helping to make...

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, as Freud supposedly said, but when is a cigarette a cigarette? The city filed suit last week against a “roll your own” cigarette shop in Chinatown and a related one on Staten Island, where a pack of cigarettes can cost less than $5, because the stores are not collecting cigarette taxes. The stores, both called Island Smokes, do not sell packs of Marlboros and Newports. Instead, they sell loose tobacco and cigarette papers, and have machines that let customers fabricate their own cigarettes. Such stores operate in a legal gray area, arguing that...

Republican presidential frontrunner Herman Cain got a tongue lashing on Sunday from CBS’ Face the Nation moderator Bob Schieffer over a much-publicized Cain campaign ad showing Cain’s chief of staff, Mark Block, taking a drag from a cigarette. In a rare “editorial opinion” during the interview, Schieffer accused the former Godfather’s CEO of allowing his campaign to send a signal that “it’s cool to smoke.” “Let me just tell you, it’s not funny to me,” Schieffer told Cain. “I am a cancer survivor, like you. I had cancer that’s smoking-related. I don’t think its serves the country well – and...

While Herman Cain's viral Web ad — in which chief of staff Mark Block pointedly takes a drag from a cigarette after extolling the presidential candidate's virtues — might have raised eyebrows among political strategists and heckles in Internet comment sections, the ad seems to have also raised the rate at which the insurgent campaign is bringing in fundraising dollars. Cain has brought in nearly $2 million within the last week alone, nearly doubling his weekly returns earlier this month, his campaign told The Wall Street Journal. By contrast, Cain only brought in $2.8 million over the entire third quarter....

Ohio Supreme Court Oral Arguments In Smoking Ban Challenge streaming live

In January, I'm planning on having a major surgery and I cannot have this operation until I quit smoking. I've been trying to quit for the last 17 years and I haven't been able to make it for more than a month. I can get past the immediate horror of it all. I'm using Chantix to help me with that. (Chantix was the easiest way to quit that I've found so far.) But what always gets me are the 'crazies that don't go away. Even after the habit is broken - after the cravings are gone - I find myself...

BULLITT COUNTY, Ky. -- A proposed smoking ban in Bullitt County has been snuffed out. The Bullitt Circuit judge issued his ruling Thursday, saying the ban proposed by the health department is void and unlawful. The board of health had voted to enact a regulation to ban smoking in public places, but Wednesday's ruling stops the health department from implementing or enforcing the ban. In that ruling, Judge Rodney Burress said to allow the health department to regulate any matter relating to public health would "allow regulations prohibiting the consumption of candy because it is bad for a person's teeth,...

PLEASANT HILL -- To get a good deal, Paul Brodman used to buy cigarettes online. Little did he know, those smokes weren't the bargain they appeared to be. There's no getting out of paying state taxes simply by buying cigarettes online. Earlier this month, Brodman received a bill for $1,398 from the State Board of Equalization for back taxes and penalties he owes for 100 cartons of cigarettes he bought online from an out-of-state retailer in 2007 and 2008. Initially, Brodman thought it was a mistake. "We smoked them; we didn't resell them," he said. "I wasn't selling them on...

The intent is to shock smokers into quittingThe intent of the anti-smoking ads is to shock smokers into quitting. One ad shows fatty deposits oozing out of a 32-year-old dead smoker's aorta. "Every cigarette is doing you damage” proclaims the announcer at the end of the ad. They are definitely memorable, but are these ads simply turning smokers off? Vanessa Vargas of Pembroke Pines has never smoked, but her husband does. “They’re disgusting and hideous. He won’t change because of them. He just changes the channel. He thinks they’re gross,” she said of the ads. Researchers at the University of...

Legislature Approves Renter Smoking Ban Updated: Monday, 15 Aug 2011, 7:12 PM PDT Published : Monday, 15 Aug 2011, 7:12 PM PDT Sacramento - Landlords will be able to ban smoking on their properties, including inside rental units, if Gov. Jerry Brown signs a bill sent to him by the state Senate. Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of Los Angeles says his bill is designed to give families more smoke-free options. He says 86 percent of Californians don't smoke, yet smoke-free multifamily housing remains comparatively rare.

Actor Michael Douglas was photographed smoking on a yacht last week - less than a year after "beating" stage IV throat cancer. The Oscar winner appears on the new cover of Star Magazine and in photos inside puffing on what appears to be a hand-rolled cigarette July 21. He looks tanned and relaxed in the exclusive Star photos, leaning on the yacht's railing while traveling with his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones along the Italian Riviera. "Are you calling about the photos, because we have no comment," a rep for Douglas' spokesman Allen Burry told the Daily News. The Hollywood icon, 66,...

The perception by teenagers and young adults that heavy cigarette smoking is a high-risk activity has declined in many states, according to a U.S. study on substance abuse and mental health released on Thursday. The perceived risks of smoking one or more packs of cigarettes a day dropped between 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 in 14 states among youths aged 12 to 17, and in 31 states among those aged 18 to 25. Perceived smoking risks also dropped in nine states among those 26 and older, a statement from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said regarding the report. "No...

An airline passenger is accused of assaulting and intimidating flight attendants after he allegedly become furious when he was asked to put away his electronic cigarette. The incident happened Monday on a Southwest Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, according to a complaint filed this week in U.S. District Court in Utah. During the boarding process, Pogos Paul Sefilian brought out an electronic cigarette and began to smoke it on board, court papers say. Electronic cigarettes look like the real thing, but they're actually battery-operated devices that turn nicotine into a vapor that is inhaled by the...

A majority of Americans (59%) support a ban on smoking in all public places for the first time since Gallup initially asked the question in 2001. At the same time, fewer than 2 in 10 support the idea of making smoking totally illegal in this country. According to the American Lung Association, 27 states plus the District of Columbia have passed comprehensive smoke-free laws. A New York City law bans smoking in virtually all public places, including outdoor plazas and beaches. When Gallup first asked about a ban on public smoking in 2001, 39% were in favor, an attitude that...

It's not unusual for the federal government to provoke widespread retching among its citizens, but it rarely does so intentionally. The new warning labels required on cigarette packs, however, have that goal. Designed to evoke disgust with smoking, they may also induce revulsion at excessive uses of power. The old cigarette warnings inform consumers of straightforward facts, such as: "Smoking Causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema, And May Complicate Pregnancy" and "Quitting Smoking Now Greatly Reduces Serious Risks to Your Health." Thanks in part to such labels, Americans today fully grasp that smoking is unsafe. But the point of the...

The federal government has a growing interest in the eating habits of Americans for the same reason it has an interest in tobacco consumption, said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services. The reason is money, because three-quarters of medical-spending is driven by chronic diseases, such as obesity and tobacco-related diseases, she said. Sebelius’ comments came at the tail-end of Tuesday’s White House press conference where officials showcased nine new photos that must be carried on cigarette packs. Officials used a survey of 18,000 people to find the images that would have the most distressing...

TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio restaurant mentioned last week by President Barack Obama as an indirect beneficiary of the government's Chrysler bailout will go out of business Sunday after a more than 70-year history. Co-owner Richard Lawrence of New Chet's Restaurant in Toledo says business has fallen victim to the economy and the workplace smoking ban approved by Ohio voters in 2006.

On May 23rd the anti-smokers will celebrate conquering any idea the people have left that they are free. On May 28th -- during a most apt holiday weekend, *Memorial Day -- adults who choose to smoke will celebrate the time-honored tradition and civic duty of civilly disobeying unjust laws. JOIN C.L.A.S.H. for a "SMOKE-IN THE PARK" Date: *Saturday, May 28th Time: 2PM Place: On the Boardwalk at Brighton 6th St., (Brighton Beach, Brooklyn) (Otherwise known as the Riegelmann Boardwalk or Brighton Beach/Coney Island Boardwalk) *REVISION NOTICE: There will no longer be a Sunday (5/29) rain date. In case of rain...

No smoking signs may be driving more people to light up, a psychological study suggests. Scientists say the messages have an 'ironic effect' on smokers that increases their craving for tobacco. Without being aware of it, they react to the signs by thinking of and wanting cigarettes. 'You get ironic effects when you couple information that people perceive with negation,' said researcher Brian Earp, from Oxford University. 'When I say "don't think of a pink elephant", I've just put the thought of a pink elephant in your head. 'A lot of public health messages are framed in a negative way...

Smugglers are heroes of sorts. The essence of what a smuggler offers is: “Government tyrants want to either prevent or interfere with peaceable voluntary exchange among individuals. I can reduce the impact of that interference.” Let’s look at smuggling, keeping in mind that not everything illegal is immoral and not everything legal is moral. snip Not many Americans are aware of today’s big smuggling activity — cigarette smuggling. Confiscatory taxes that are as high as $7 a pack in New York City, making one pack of cigarettes sell for $13, have encouraged a thriving smuggling business across our country. Like...

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.

The American Lung Assoc. gives Santee a failing grade for tobacco control, the Mayor responds. I am writing in response to the American Lung Association's (ALA) March 4 letter (see the letter in the media box) regarding Santee's overall grade of "F" in their annual State of Tobacco Control Report Card. They may see it as a grade of "F" from their perspective, as our being graded a failure; I see this grade of "F" from our perspective as being the highest grade for "FREEDOM" we could earn. In Santee we believe in life liberty and the pursuit of happiness....

PITTSBURGH -- Channel 11 consumer reporter Robin Taylor spoke to a Hazelwood woman who said the state put a lien on her home after she purchased tax-free cigarettes online. While it's true you can buy some items online without paying taxes, cigarettes are not one of those items. The state of Pennsylvania said if they catch people buying cigarettes on the Internet without paying state taxes on them, they will issue fines. Rose Pitzarella said she smokes about three packs of cigarettes a day, a habit that has gotten so expensive that she has started to roll her own. For...

Three states, all in the northeast part of America where the states are small and crossing borders to shop is fairly convenient, are looking to stick it to their high-tax neighbors by luring tobacco shoppers in with lower taxes. CONCORD, N.H. – As some states look to tobacco tax increases to plug budget holes, a few are bucking the national trend and saying, “If you smoke ‘em, we got ‘em,” looking at dropping the rate to boost cigarette sales.In New Hampshire, supporters argue that reducing the tax by a dime would help the state compete with Maine, Vermont and Massachusetts,...

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...

A Democratic lawmaker in Nevada has introduced a bill that would outlaw air fresheners and candles in public places. But some critics said the proposed law goes too far – and would even prohibit priests from using candles in Mass. Democratic Assembly Paul Aizley, from Las Vegas, presented his bill Monday. It would set restrictions on pesticides, fragrances, and candles to accommodate people with “chemical sensitivities.”

Cancer survivor and seven-time Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong wants the tax on cigarettes in California raised from 87 cents per pack, to $1.87. Other tobacco products would also be taxed with an equally large increase. Mr. Armstrong is a co-founder of the California Cancer Research Act, proposed legislation estimated to generate over $800 million annually for cancer research, prevention, treament and education. Cancer survivor Don Perata is the bill’s sponsor. Perata was a California state legislator for four years ending in 2008, and currently is a lobbyist for a California prison guard union. Mr. Armstrong said, “The scale...

The cigarettes Audrey Silk used to smoke — Parliament Lights — are made at a factory in Richmond, Va. The cigarettes she smokes these days are made and grown in Brooklyn, at her house. Ms. Silk’s backyard is home to raspberry and rose bushes, geraniums, impatiens and 100 tobacco plants in gardening buckets near her wooden deck. Inside her house, around the corner from Flatbush Avenue, in Marine Park, she has to be careful stepping into her basement — one wrong move could ruin her cigarettes. Dozens of tobacco leaves hang there, drying on wires she has strung across the...

Smoking banned in New York City parks and on beachesBy Deborah Brunswick, CNN February 22, 2011 8:14 p.m. EST New York (CNN) -- Life just became more of a drag for New York City smokers after Mayor Michael Bloomberg signed a bill Tuesday banning smoking in many public places. The new law will make smoking illegal in New York City's 1,700 parks and on the city's 14 miles of public beaches. Smokers will also be prohibited from lighting up in pedestrian plazas such as Times Square. The ban, which the city council overwhelmingly approved earlier this month, is designed to...

Towson University first pushed its smokers out of campus buildings and into the great outdoors. Then, 30 feet away from buildings. Finally, last semester, it was off campus altogether. Between classes, smokers rush to the state- or county-owned roads edging the Baltimore County campus. Not stepping off school property before lighting up can mean a $75 fine. "On campus, it's a breath of fresh air - finally," said Steven Crudele, a former member of the student government who was part of the campus smoke-free task force. "When you are walking in and out of buildings, you don't have to walk...

Those first few puffs on a cigarette can within minutes cause genetic damage linked to cancer, US scientists said in a study released Saturday. In fact, researchers said the "effect is so fast that it's equivalent to injecting the substance directly into the bloodstream," in findings described as a "stark warning" to those who smoke. The study is the first on humans to track how substances in tobacco cause DNA damage, and appears in the peer-reviewed journal Chemical Research in Toxicology, issued by the American Chemical Society.~snip "The results reported here should serve as a stark warning to those who...

<p>When Lebrun was observed walking toward the bathroom he was again instructed not to smoke," the complaint said.</p> <p>"Lebrun appeared intoxicated and smelled of cigarettes and alcohol. Lebrun then approached a female flight crew attendant in an aggressive manner and pushed her away with both hands. When the airline attendant instructed Lebrun not to touch her, Lebrun pushed her away again with both hands."</p>

The city's campaign to scare smokers with grotesque images of decaying teeth or a diseased lung wherever tobacco products are sold was struck down Wednesday by a federal judge who concluded that only the federal government can dictate warnings that must accompany the promotion of cigarettes. U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff handed a victory to the nation's three largest tobacco manufacturers and the retailers who sell their products when he ruled on the legality of a 2009 city Board of Health code change requiring the display of smoking cessation signs where tobacco products are sold. "Even merchants of morbidity...

If you smoke or use tobacco products — even in the privacy of your own home — you need not apply for a job at two Central Florida hospitals. Florida Hospital Waterman in Tavares and Florida Hospital Fish Memorial in Orange City will no longer hire smokers starting Jan. 1 — the first in the Florida Hospital system to enact such a policy. The hospitals will join a number of health-care facilities nationwide recently creating policies to screen out job applicants who light up. "As a leading health-care provider in our community, we believe it important for all of our...

Five years after Washington residents voted to ban smoking cigarettes, cigars and pipes in public places, King County wants to add one more thing to the list: Electronic cigarettes.The 2006 state law banned smoking in bars and restaurants on the basis that second-hand smoke causes cancer and other diseases. King County's rationale for adding e-cigarettes, also known as battery-powered nicotine-delivery devices, to the list of forbidden acts is a little different. The fake cigs, from which users inhale vaporized nicotine, don't emit smoke. Rather, they produce a less-smelly, combustion-free mist.But public health officials say they're so similar to the real...

Even brief exposure to tobacco smoke — from, say, an occasional puff or secondhand smoke — can damage DNA in ways that lead to cancer, according to the U.S. Surgeon General’s first new report on tobacco in four years. “Tobacco smoke damages almost every organ in your body,” surgeon general Regina Benjamin said in the report released Thursday. In someone with underlying heart disease, Benjamin said, “One cigarette can cause a heart attack.” One in five deaths nationwide is attributed to cigarettes, according to the report — about the same percentage of adults and older teens who smoke. The 700-page...

[This has been edited to fit within the excerpting guidelines.] Think the occasional cigarette won't hurt? Even a bit of social smoking — or inhaling someone else's secondhand smoke — could be enough to block your arteries and trigger a heart attack, says the newest surgeon general's report on the killer the nation just can't kick. Thursday's report says there's no doubt that tobacco smoke begins poisoning immediately — as more than 7,000 chemicals in each puff rapidly spread through the body to cause cellular damage in nearly every organ. "That one puff on that cigarette could be the one...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Actor and singer Johannes Heesters has given up smoking for love -- at age 106. "I did it for love, for my wonderful wife," Heesters, who is better known as "Jopie" in Germany where he has spent most of his 90-year career, told the German entertainment magazine Bunte. "She should have me as long as possible." Dutch-born Heesters, who will turn 107 on Sunday, has been married to German actress Simone Rethel, 61, since 1992. Heesters said he quit smoking three weeks ago. Heesters, who in 2008 apologized for his cooperation with the Nazi regime, is known...

Second-hand smoke globally kills more than 600,000 people each year, accounting for 1% of all deaths worldwide, according to a new study. The alarming findings - published on Thursday in the British medical journal Lancet - are based on a survey of 192 countries in 2004. Researchers estimated that annually second-hand smoke causes about 379,000 deaths from heart disease, 165,000 deaths from lower respiratory disease, 36,900 deaths from asthma and 21,400 deaths from lung cancer. Children account for about 165,000 of the deaths, according to the researchers. "This helps us understand the real toll of tobacco," said Armando Peruga, of...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A top White House adviser says President Barack Obama and the leading House Republican would be good role models if both quit smoking, but he's leaving hazy whether the two would work together on such a campaign. Asked about such an effort Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation," White House aide David Axelrod said the administration wants to work constructively with Republicans on any issue.