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Six Arrested After Brawl Over Cigarettes Tue Jun 7, 4:58 PM ET CHARLESTON, S.C. - Four people were injured and six arrested following a brawl at a convenience store over a pack of cigarettes, authorities said. It happened Sunday when a 20-year-old woman walked into the store on Johns Island and tried to buy cigarettes. The 18-year-old clerk would not sell them to her because the woman's driver's license was damaged. The woman argued with the clerk, then left, returning a few minutes later with a friend who also started arguing. The friend then jumped over the counter and attacked...

Highland Park enacted Lake County’s first smoking ban Wednesday, a move local health officials say is something they hope all municipalities will soon consider.It means all indoor public areas, including restaurants, taxis and places of work, in the city are off limits to smokers. The ordinance was approved by the city council in April.“The second-hand smoke issue is becoming really big,” said Bill Mays, the county health department’s director of community health services. “Highland Park’s leadership in this regard is an important precedent.”Health department officials say the action is the most sweeping they’ve seen. That’s due, in part, because Highland...

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, 125 Worth St, Room 331, CN #28, New York, NY 10013. tfrieden@health.nyc.gov. OBJECTIVES: We sought to determine the impact of comprehensive tobacco control measures in New York City. METHODS: In 2002, New York City implemented a tobacco control strategy of (1) increased cigarette excise taxes; (2) legal action that made virtually all work-places, including bars and restaurants, smoke free; (3) increased cessation services, including a large-scale free nicotine-patch program; (4) education; and (5) evaluation. The health department also began annual surveys on a broad array of health measures, including smoking. RESULTS:...

Port of Call's general manager, Mike Mollere, has considered creating a no-smoking section in his Esplanade Avenue restaurant, but a bill scheduled to be debated today in the state Senate may force him to ban smoking entirely. Senate Bill 354, which is at the top of the Senate's agenda this morning, would ban smoking in virtually all indoor public places in Louisiana, including restaurants and bars, although they could still let smokers light up in outdoor areas, such as patios. Most businesses in the state that employ four or more workers would be required to adhere to the ban, including...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tobacco companies designed cigarettes to appeal to women's desires to be thin and healthy in ways that went "far beyond marketing and advertising," health researchers said on Monday. They said internal documents released by tobacco companies under a 1998 court settlement show the companies created cigarettes, including "slim" and so-called "light" brands, in part to attract women. "These internal documents reveal that the tobacco industry's targeting of women goes far beyond marketing and advertising," said Carrie Murray Carpenter of the Harvard School of Public Health, who led the study. Writing in the June issue of the journal...

The worldwide smoking rate among women is expected to rise 20 percent by 2025, the report says. BOSTON (May 31) - Tobacco companies did elaborate research on women to figure out how to hook them on smoking. Researchers at Harvard University's School of Public Health said they examined more than 7 million documents - some dating back to 1969, others as recent as 2000 - for new details about the industry's efforts to lure more women smokers. ''They did so much research in such a sophisticated way,'' she said. ''Women should know how far the tobacco industry went to exploit...

ALBANY, May 26 - As they move to thwart the illegal trade of cigarettes over the Internet, state officials have joined colleagues from around the nation in persuading the major credit card companies to stop processing payments for online cigarette sales. Additionally, the state has enacted a law prohibiting the shipment of cigarettes to its residents and banned private carriers, like FedEx, from shipping cigarettes. But as state officials fight illegal online cigarette sales, one operation is not falling into line - the United States Postal Service, which officials say delivers the bulk of illegally purchased cigarettes to New Yorkers....

A judge tossed out a lawsuit brought by a 115-year-old private club that sought to strike down no-smoking laws so it could continue to honor its members - who include Walter Cronkite and Carol Burnett - with ceremonies that include lighting up. The Players Club is no more entitled to special privileges with city and state health inspectors enforcing the laws than are pro-tobacco organizations that tried unsuccessfully to overturn them, U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero said Wednesday. "Individuals have no 'fundamental' constitutional right to smoke tobacco," the judge wrote.

State Collects $2.5 Million in Taxes on Tobacco Bought Online The Associated Press Published: May 25, 2005 LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The state Treasury Department has sent letters to about 2,800 residents ordering them to pay the $2-a-pack cigarette tax on their Internet tobacco purchases. The letters seek an average of $3,200 from each buyer, department spokesman Terry Stanton said. The crackdown, which started in February with about 500 letters, already has netted $2.5 million. The state eventually could target thousands more Michigan smokers as more vendors respond to subpoenas demanding information about online cigarette purchases made since 2001. Two...

States mails tax bills totaling $27,000 to 63 residents, including five from county. Per-pack levy of $1.35 still owed on Net sales. The beleaguered smoker, exiled to windy doorways, paying ever-increasing prices and now … getting hefty bills from the state? That’s what happened in February. With the winter winds still whipping through the Wyoming Valley, five Luzerne County residents opened their mail to find insult added to injury. The state Department of Revenue had sent letters asking them to pony up the taxes they hadn’t paid on cartons of cigarettes they had bought online. The letters were the ultimate...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Women whose mothers smoked while they were pregnant have a reduced likelihood of developing breast cancer, according to a new study. However, "This observation certainly does not suggest that smoking is beneficial," Dr. William C. Strohsnitter told Reuters Health. "The very small reduction in breast cancer would be offset by the large number of other diseases caused by cigarette smoking."The reason for the finding may be connected to estrogen, which is linked to breast cancer risk. "Clinical studies show that maternal cigarette smoking reduces pregnancy estrogen levels," Strohsnitter, of Tufts-New England Medical Center, Boston, and...

Michigan resident Julia Sidebottom inhaled sharply when she opened her mailbox earlier this year and was greeted with an unexpected and unwelcome bill from the state for $4,753.89 in unpaid cigarette and sales taxes.For several years, Sidebottom's boyfriend purchased cigarettes online at www.esmokes.com, one of 13 online cigarette retailers from which Michigan recently subpoenaed customer lists. She said the bill caught her completely off guard."It never even crossed our minds," said Sidebottom, whose 57-year-old boyfriend suffers from Alzheimer's and has granted her power of attorney. "I search the Web all the time for the best deals on everything. Never in...

State Rep. Barb Vander Veen, R-Allendale, said she recently attended a conference in California with her husband and immediately noticed the lack of smoke -- cigarette smoke that is. "It was so nice," she said this morning. "I realized it was time for Michigan to be a leader and join California and other states that are smoke-free states." Vander Veen is among a group of state lawmakers hoping to add Michigan to a growing list of states that prohibit smoking in places where people eat, drink and work. Vander Veen and State Sen. Ray Basham, D-Taylor, have sponsored bills to...

Calls to a consumer complaint line tipped Philip Morris USA to a problem that's costing the cigarette giant and states around the nation millions of dollars and may be providing terrorists and organized crime with easy money. The red-and-white cardboard packs customers were buying looked like Marlboros, but actually were made by counterfeiters profiting off one of the world's most recognizable trademarks. In one case last year, federal officials broke up a Texas-based ring and seized $18 million worth of counterfeit cigarettes. Now Philip Morris is going state to state asking lawmakers to pass bills that allow law enforcement to...