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In Brief: The brain of an addicted smoker treats nicotine as if it is essential for survival. Genetic traits may predispose some smokers to stronger addiction. Most smokers try to quit unaided, resulting in a high failure rate. If you smoke, no one needs to tell you how bad it is. So why haven’t you quit? Why hasn’t everyone? Because smoking feels good. It stimulates and focuses the mind at the same time that it soothes and satisfies. The concentrated dose of nicotine in a drag off a cigarette triggers an immediate flood of dopamine and other neurochemicals that wash...

When Chris Fegley and his son, 4-year-old Gavin, venture out for a meal, their restaurant choice depends on the location's smoke level. "I can appreciate the people that argue for clearly defined and walled-off areas with ventilation, that if they want to smoke in their area, that's fine," the 34-year-old Jackson resident said. "But we avoid restaurants that are smoking for (Gavin's) well-being." With the Michigan Senate's approval of a bill Thursday prohibiting smoking in all bars, restaurants and workplaces, the Fegleys soon might not have to be picky about where to dine. The bill, which passed by a 25-12...

No puffing allowed at pipe convention The United States' largest gathering of pipe smokers is being held near Chicago but none are lighting up inside the convention center, aficionados lament. Illinois law requires pipe smokers attending the Chicagoland International Pipe & Tobacciana Show to retreat to a tent 15 feet away from the St. Charles convention center if they want to enjoy a puff or two, the Chicago Tribune reported Saturday. How would you like it if you went to a wine tasting and you couldn't taste the wine? asked Al Shinogle, 53, of Denver, who was smoking a hand-carved...

The Minnesota Department of Health wants the final curtain to close on "theater nights" at Bugg's Place. The department filed a lawsuit this week against the South St. Paul bar for holding the events, which attempt to skirt the state's new smoking ban. The department filed a similar injunction request in April against Bullseye Saloon in Elko; a hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. The bars have claimed they operate a Freedom to Breathe Act of 2007 exception allowing actors to smoke as part of a "legitimate theatrical performance." The law, which went into effect Oct. 1, prohibits smoking in several...

SAN FRANCISCO (Map, News) - San Francisco would become the first city in the nation to ban the sale of tobacco in pharmacies if legislation that was quietly introduced by Mayor Gavin Newsom is approved. If the Board of Supervisors adopts the legislation, hundreds of pharmacies in The City would have to stop selling tobacco products — including cigarettes, cigars, pipes and chewing tobacco — as soon as October. “This is a sensible measure to deal with health problems before they start, and it’s consistent with our prevention-focused efforts such as Healthy San Francisco and Shape Up SF,” Newsom said....

Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah. A 15-page report congressional report includes intelligence from law enforcement as well as New York State’s Department of Taxation and Finance. Cigarette smuggling is generating millions of dollars every year that can be reaching terrorist groups, including Hezbollah, Hamas and Al Qaeda, according to law enforcement sources. In a single case, $100,000 was sent to Hezbollah. One of the key issues... is a potential flaw...

Capping a battle that lasted more than a year, the Atlantic City Council voted 9-0 today to end the last major loophole to a tough statewide ban on smoking in public buildings that had conspicuously exempted gambling halls. As a result, smoking will be prohibited on the gambling floor at all 11 Atlantic City casinos as of Oct. 15. But patrons will still be able to light up in unstaffed smoking lounges away from the table games and slot machines, if the individual casinos choose to build them. Casino workers -- many wearing T-shirts with the slogan "Nobody deserves to...

Smoking ban, fitness tests for healthier nation By Sharri Markson April 20, 2008 01:36am SMOKING would be banned for everyone born next year, junk food would be taxed and everyone would be subjected to a fitness test by 2020. By comparison, the cost of healthy food, including fruit and vegetables, would be reduced to reflect its low environmental impact and obvious health benefits. These are just a few of the ideas from 100 of the nation's health experts who discussed the best way to combat obesity, reduce illness and promote a healthy lifestyle. Health Minister Nicola Roxon said one idea...

Melinda and Kenny Peterson wanted to kick their two-pack-a-day smoking habit. In early January, the Green Bay couple started taking three-month prescriptions of Chantix, a new anti-smoking pill. About six weeks later, they weren't smoking at all. But what the Petersons didn't know was that as they were weaning themselves off cigarettes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an alert: Some patients taking the powerful drug had experienced serious neuropsychiatric symptoms. And Pfizer, the maker of Chantix, had recently added a warning about these symptoms in a more prominent position in the drug's information packet, at the FDA's urging....

NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio -- A local community is breathing a little easier after a new crackdown on smoking is approved, NewsChannel5 reported. North Royalton has banned smoking in parks, fields, parking lots and outdoor seating areas or on any city-owned land. That means there's no smoking at places like the local ballpark, and the new ordinance takes place just in time for little league season. Council members said they were just exercising the will of the people who want to curb the amount of second-hand smoke they have to breathe. "We just don't like the cigarette butts laying all over...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Gov. Charlie Crist is extinguishing health care advocates' hopes for a dollar increase in the cigarette tax. A measure in the Legislature would boost the tax on a pack of smokes from 34 cents to $1.34, and was scheduled for a hearing Tuesday in the Senate Health Policy Committee. But asked earlier Tuesday whether he supported such an increase, Crist said simply, "No." Crist's Republican colleagues in the House aren't very supportive of the idea either, opposing tax increases of any kind even in the face of one of the deepest budget shortfalls in recent years. Increasing...

The funniest 20 minutes in TV History. It ranks right up there with Lucy trying to shove chocolates down her throat as they come off the conveyer belt in the 50's. Gabz, SheLion...a must see for anyone on your ping lists. So much depressing stuff from the nanny state out there that if we didn't laugh we would all go insane. Click on the link. Apologies to those "poor" Americans who can't afford broadband :-) SURGEON GENERAL WARNING: MAY CAUSE URINATION IN YOUR PANTS.

Do you smoke? Well, you better be careful where. I don't smoke, and I don't like the smell, but what some people are doing to smokers makes me say give me a break. For the last 12 years, Galila Huff has owned Caffé la Fenicé, a restaurant serving Italian food on the Upper West Side of New York City. Smoking there is forbidden. New York state bans it in all restaurants and bars. Huff's apartment is a few blocks away at The Ansonia, an ornate turn-of-the-century building that both Babe Ruth and Arturo Toscanini once called home. Huff lives there...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court tossed out an $800 billion class-action lawsuit against tobacco companies on Thursday brought by smokers who said they were deceived into believing "light" cigarettes were healthier. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said the smokers could not sue collectively. The decision means each individual smoker must prove that she or he had selected the product for perceived health benefits. The smokers had sued the tobacco companies under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization Act, contending they were misled by the industry's marketing and branding efforts into believing "light" cigarettes...

Enacting city smoking bans appears to increase drunken driving, a study of arrests conducted by Wisconsin researchers asserts. A national study to be released by the Journal of Public Economics found an increase of fatal accidents involving alcohol after communities prohibited smoking, compared to arrests in communities without a ban. The authors attribute that to people driving to places without a ban, and also to driving farther to find a place within a ban area that has an outdoor smoking accommodation, such as a patio. "The increased miles driven by drivers who wish to smoke and drink offsets any reduction...

Last August, I ran into Sen. Barack Obama, D-Illinois, outside the Senate chamber in the Capitol. This was before the Obama surge, before he had omnipresent Secret Service agents... Frankly, he reeked of cigarettes. Obama ran off before I could ask him if he'd just snuck a smoke, so I called his campaign. They denied it. He'd quit months before, in February, they insisted. They reported back that he had told them he hadn't had a cigarette since he quit. Except….last night on MSNBC's Hardball, Obama admitted that his attempt to wean himself from the vile tobacco weed had not...

WASHINGTON -- Why do some 90-year-old chain smokers avoid lung cancer, while other people who smoke far less wind up dying of the disease? How can some people light up now and then without getting hooked, while others are addicted practically from their first puffs? The answer, at least in part, may be in your genes. Scientists have identified certain genetic variations that appear to make people more likely to get hooked on cigarettes and more prone to develop lung cancer. The findings could someday lead to screening tests and customized treatments for smokers trying to kick the habit. The...

Barack Obama just told MSNBC's Chris Matthews on a special "Hardball" college tour edition on Wednesday that "I fell off the wagon a couple of times" when it comes to smoking. that after lapsing he "was able to get back on" the wagon right away. Obama quit smoking when he starting running for president last year, a condition laid down by wife Michelle.

Study: Cell Phones Could Be More Dangerous Than Cigarettes Sunday , March 30, 2008 A study by an award-winning cancer expert shows that cell phone use could kill more people than smoking, it is reported. According to the U.K.'s Independent newspaper, the study, headed by Dr. Vini Khurana, shows that there is a growing body of evidence that using handsets for 10 years or more can double the risk of brain cancer. Khurana — one of the world's top neurosurgeons — based his assessment on the fact that three billion people now use the phones worldwide. That is three times...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Young people who continue to smoke after a heart attack are three times more likely to have future heart problems than survivors who kick the habit, Greek researchers said on Saturday. People who are 35 or younger who keep smoking are far more prone to die from a heart-related event, have a repeat heart attack or need future treatments to clear blocked arteries compared to those who stopped smoking. The study makes clear that smoking not only promotes a first heart attack, but poses heart risks in younger patients who have survived one, researchers said. The report...

Initiative Would Exempt Cigar Bars From Indoor Smoking Ban By Austin JenkinsOlympia, WA  March 19, 2008 3:28 p.m. Washington State’s two-year-old indoor smoking ban is facing a challenge. Cigar shop owners have filed a citizen initiative to roll-back part of the law.Dale Taylor is with the newly formed Cigar Association of Washington. He says the initiative would allow smoking in cigar shops, cigar bars, private clubs and service organizations like the Elks.Dale Taylor: “What we’re asking for here is a fair and reasonable exemption to the law that allows a cigar store, for instance like the one I work in,...

A plan by Gov. Jim Doyle to get cash upfront to help fix the state's broken budget will cost the state $94 million in payments from tobacco companies over the long haul, an independent analysis has found. The Democratic governor is also asking lawmakers to use more of the money generated by the plan to pay for maintaining state health programs for the poor. Doyle has long criticized a decision by his predecessor, Scott McCallum, and a past Legislature to borrow against future payments by tobacco companies to help solve budget crises in 2001 and 2002. The analysis released by...

New 'snus' taking on smoking ban Monday, March 17, 2008 3:07 AM By James Nash THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH It might have a funny-sounding name, but snus is no laughing matter to activists who led the 2006 campaign to ban smoking from public places across Ohio. Snus, a nugget of tobacco wrapped in a porous tissue, will be under the lips of thousands of people in central Ohio this year if product launches by three tobacco companies are successful. The R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. started selling Camel Snus in central Ohio in July. Lorillard Tobacco Co. introduced its lower-cost Triumph brand...

Movie smoking ban that could see children's classics given an '18' certificate By COLIN FERNANDEZ - More by this author » Last updated at 16:04pm on 16th March 2008Films featuring smoking could be given an 18 certificate to stop children being encouraged to take up the habit. Many children's favourites would be hit by the proposed ban - including Disney classics such as 101 Dalmatians, Pinocchio and Peter Pan. The call for raising the age limit in children's films comes from a pressure group, SmokeFree Liverpool, which has received backing from Liverpool City Council. Scroll down for more ... Classic:...

Liberals get really testy when some folks, devout Christians for example, choose to live their lives under God’s laws; but have no compunction in compelling others to live under the tender mercies of the Nanny State where they make the rules. Five years ago, when the smoking ban in restaurants first went into effect in my home state of Connecticut, I told a few folks who were happy about it, that it was only a matter of time before the government came after their private property rights or other issues that were near and dear to their hearts. Most people...

All the world's a stage at some of Minnesota's bars. A new state ban on smoking in restaurants and other nightspots contains an exception for performers in theatrical productions. So some bars are getting around the ban by printing up playbills, encouraging customers to come in costume, and pronouncing them "actors." The customers are playing right along, merrily puffing away — and sometimes speaking in funny accents and doing a little improvisation, too. The state Health Department is threatening to bring the curtain down on these sham productions. But for now, it's on with the show. At The Rock, a...

BALTIMORE - Banished smokers taking nicotine breaks outside bars in one of Baltimore City’s trendy neighborhoods are being told to move or face fines and arrest for loitering, bar owners said. Hampden bar owners said they were shocked last week when police began warning patrons to move 150 feet away from the entrance of bars they were patronizing or face loitering charges. “Loitering has always been a legitimate problem in the neighborhood that we couldn’t get police to deal with,” said Benn Ray, owner of Atomic Books and head of the Hampden Village Merchants Association. “So why all of sudden...

Three sick children portrayed in City Hall's newest anti-cigarette ad may not be victims of tobacco smoke after all. The footage of the children came from photo-agency archives, the Health Department said in a statement. "The children pictured in this ad are real patients, suffering from conditions that have been clearly associated with exposure to secondhand smoke," the statement said. "The children are not presented as individual victims of environmental tobacco smoke. We do not know their individual medical histories." Paula Alex, CEO of the Advertising Educational Foundation, said, "That is not necessarily truthful advertising." Jan Wicks, a University of...

Michigan Prisons To Be Tobacco-FreePOSTED: 5:09 pm EST March 2, 2008 LANSING, Mich. -- The Michigan Department of Corrections plans to ban smoking and the use of other tobacco products by prisoners and staff early next year. State prison officials plan to extend an existing ban on smoking in prison buildings to outdoor property, the Detroit Free Press reported. Smoking cessation programs for inmates and staff are planned. "It won't happen overnight, but we should see healthier inmates long-term ... and that should translate into some health care savings" for taxpayers, Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said. Smoking currently is banned...

With just two weeks to go before the Legislature adjourns, Gov. Jim Doyle said it's time legislative leaders in both houses scheduled the smoking ban for a floor vote. "It's important for the leaders to allow it to come to a vote," Doyle said in a conference call Friday with reporters and bicycling star Lance Armstrong. Armstrong, a cancer survivor and advocate, is coming to Madison on Tuesday to appear at a rally at Monona Terrace Convention Center with Doyle and smoke-free advocates. Doyle noted that some lawmakers have indicated there is not enough legislative support to pass the proposal,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama said he has successfully quit smoking cigarettes despite the pressures of a closely contested and lengthy presidential campaign. "I've been chewing on this Nicorette, which tastes like you're chewing on ground pepper — but it does help," the Democratic candidate said in an interview that aired Thursday on "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." His wife, Michelle, had used his smoking as leverage when the two were discussing whether he should run for president. She would agree only if Obama agreed to give up smoking. "I had been sneaking three cigarettes, four cigarettes a day for a...

One of our own is facing a life and death struggle. Senior Reporter Bill Mitchell is dealing with a frightening wake-up call that's changing his life. We're going to go inside his head to see why he's trying to put down cigarettes. A doctor recently told Bill Mitchell cigarettes were trying to kill him. An MRI was done in December after he complained of numbness. An expert eye found disturbing evidence. "He said 'It looks like somebody took your brain, held it up and shot it with a shotgun'," Bill says. "'Look you've had six of these in your lifetime....

If it is indeed true, as George Bernard Shaw commented, that democracy ensures we get the government we deserve, then I have little sympathy for my neighbors who whine about the smoking ban as they puff their Camel filters in the parking lot outside the bowling alley in the freezing February rain. Besides -- I like to point out -- we voted for the shysters and party hacks who passed the ban. Or -- more likely -- we failed to vote at all. I then call attention to the fact that right next door in Missouri, where the Republican Party...

Should Illinois lawmakers lift the statewide indoor smoking ban at certain facilities, such as riverboat casinos, veterans' halls and private clubs? Yes 40.1% No 59.9% Total votes: 1964

DES MOINES, Iowa - The cartoonish plastic frog with bulging eyes could be a children's toy — but for the torch-like flame that bursts from the novelty lighter's head. "They look like something you would get in a McDonald's Happy Meal," said John Dean, president of the National Association of State Fire Marshals, who often shows off the device. "They're cute, they're little" — but they can be deadly. Dean's group is backing an effort to ban novelty lighters across the country, and a handful of states are considering it. In California, Washington and Arkansas, local ordinances have been passed...

A ban on the sale of cigarettes to anyone who does not pay for a government smoking permit has been proposed by Health England, a ministerial advisory board. The idea is the brainchild of the board's chairman, Julian Le Grand, who is a professor at the London School of Economics and was Tony Blair's senior health adviser. In a paper being studied by Lord Darzi, the health minister appointed to oversee NHS reform, he says many smokers would be helped to break the habit if they had to make a decision whether to "opt in".

We all know that many smokers are aware of health risks that come along with smoking cigarettes. We also know that that some of them are seeking support and help for their habit. I don’t want you to understand me as some kind of a guru who is making smart statements on how to quit smoking cold turkey in 15 hours for free. No no. My idea for smoking cigarettes is very similar to yours. You see, I’m aware that smoking is a nice hobby, in fact it’s irreplaceable, it can be your best friend, so why quit smoking anyway?...

Smokers could be forced to pay £10 for a permit to buy tobacco if a government health advisory body gets its way. No one would be able to buy cigarettes without the permit, under the idea proposed by Health England. Its chairman, Professor Julian Le Grand, told BBC Radio 5 Live the scheme would make a big difference to the number of people giving up smoking. But smokers' rights group Forest described the idea as "outrageous", given how much tax smokers already pay. Professor Le Grand, a former adviser to ex-PM Tony Blair, said cash raised by the proposed scheme...

Residents of a tony, high-rise condominium along the Mississippi River in Minneapolis are among the first to vote to make their building smoke-free, taking Minnesota's battle over smoking bans into private homes. The rule, at La Rive Condominiums near St. Anthony Main, covers individual units, common areas, garages and private balconies. Current owners who want to smoke will be grandfathered in, but future buyers will have to abide by the rule. Opponents say the ban is an intrusion into private property rights that could hurt resale prospects at a time when the market is already soft. Supporters counter that, not...

A judge said years of breathing secondhand smoke in an Atlantic City casino gave a dealer lung cancer. Kam Wong never smoked. But a state worker's compensation judge determined a decade of exposure to secondhand smoke at the former Claridge Casino Hotel caused her illness. She was awarded 60 percent disability pay and lost wages for time she missed before and after two surgeries. Her attorney said there was constantly smoke around Wong. Atlantic City passed smoking restrictions for its 11 casinos last April, limiting smoking to no more than 25 percent of the casino floor.

My February 2002 column, "They're Coming After You," warned that Americans who enthusiastically supported the anti-tobacco zealots' attack on smokers were, like decent Germans did during the 1920s and '30s, building the Trojan Horse that would one day enable a tyrant to take over. The whole issue of tobacco smoke nuisance is really a private property issue where the owner should decide how his private property shall be used, whether it's an office building, restaurant, bar or home. That's unless one group of people wishes to use the coercive powers of government, in the name of health or some other...

Initiatives to encourage people to live healthier, longer lives are just creating a different set of problems. A medical friend once told me that if everybody in the UK were to stop smoking, the NHS would collapse. I thought she was offering that old chestnut about smokers and drinkers handing over billions to the state in tax, but it was more subtle argument than that. Her point was that it's much cheaper to treat a 50-year-old who's taking 18 months to die of lung cancer than it is to treat a 90-year-old who's spent the last 20 years slowly fading...

A woman in her late teens died from an acute asthma attack triggered by secondhand cigarette smoke shortly after arriving at her job as a waitress in a bar in Michigan, researchers reported on Friday.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Illinois' statewide smoking ban is barely a month old and opponents already are trying to relight the debate. With the General Assembly scheduled to return to Springfield this week, various Illinois interests — casinos, bars, veterans' organizations — are preparing to push state lawmakers to carve out exceptions for various types of facilities from the sweeping ban that went into effect this year in all indoor public places. "I'm a dedicated nonsmoker, but the hair on the back of my neck stands up" at some of the freedom-of-choice issues created by the ban, said state Rep. Bill...

This spring the Legislature will review the Freedom to Breathe Act that swatted smokers out of warm Minnesota bars and onto freezing sidewalks. There smokers huddle and, hands shaking, try to light up. Meanwhile, the hands of small bar owners are shaking for different reasons. They worry over their balance sheets, awash in red ink, and lay off their part-time help. As the nation slides into recession, things can only get worse. It's a cliché in the Twin Cities that the backbone of our economy is the small-business owner, but not in Greater Minnesota where small business might be the...

METROPOLIS, Ill. -- Officials of Harrah's Metropolis riverboat casino claim Illinois' new smoking ban has resulted in the layoff of about 30 jobs at the casino. Casino officials claim guests are spending less on entertainment and making fewer trips because of the ban and the casino suffered a drop in visitation compared to the previous six-month average.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine recently announced that he'll renew his fight to ban smoking in all Virginia bars and restaurants. He defended this push by citing the dangers of secondhand smoke, saying, "The scientific evidence about the health risks associated with exposure to secondhand smoke is clear and convincing. Recognizing the negative health effects and high public costs of secondhand smoke, Virginia must act to protect the workers and consumers in its restaurants." We're pleased the governor has such command of the epidemiologic literature. Usually, when politicians make such statements, they have little if any familiarity with the scientific research....

Secondhand smoke is the Rodney Dangerfield of health care problems, said Dr. James Casanova, the vice president for medical affairs at St. Mary's Hospital. "It hasn't gotten enough respect," Casanova said. "People think, 'Oh yeah, it's probably bad.' But when you read the statistics it blows you away." Casanova recited the statistics Sunday afternoon during a town hall meeting at the Dry Bean Saloon in Fitchburg. The local event was one in a series of town halls being held around the state on Wisconsin's hotly debated smoke-free proposal. Excess deaths from lung cancer due to secondhand smoke number 3,400 annually,...

Former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt's famous fondness for tobacco has got him into trouble. The former leader lit up at a theater in Hamburg -- after the city introduced a smoking ban. Now an anti-smoking group has reported them to the police. Helmut Schmidt, former German chancellor, former minister of defense and co-publisher of the influential weekly newspaper Die Zeit, is being accused of breaking the law -- for violating Germany's new ban on smoking in public places. Committed smokers Helmut Schmidt and his wife Loki -- aged a lung-cancer-defying 89 and 88, respectively -- are being investigated by Hamburg...

As 19-year-old Jon Little crossed Magnolia Boulevard on Dec. 10, cigarette in hand, he failed to notice the police officer on Olive Avenue. As he crossed the street, Little, a student at Antelope Valley College, was cited and fined $200 for smoking in Downtown Burbank, a violation of the citywide smoking ban that bars smoking on all sidewalks, alleys and other pedestrian areas Downtown, as well as on city property, including Chandler Bikeway and in parks. “I was here to see a movie and had no idea there was a citywide ordinance,” he said. “This is an unreasonable law.” The...