The Conservative government introduced legislation Tuesday aimed at clamping down on the sale and marketing of tobacco products to youths by making it illegal to add flavours to cigarillos and cigarettes. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq introduced an amendment to the federal Tobacco Act she called the Cracking Down on Tobacco Marketing Aimed at Youth Act. In addition to banning flavours — such as chocolate and bubble gum — for cigarillos, cigarettes and blunt wraps (sheets or tubes of tobacco), cigarillos and “blunts” must be sold in packages of 20. Cigarillos and blunts ... Jump to full article >>

Saskatchewan workers will be able to breathe a little easier this World No Tobacco Day. On May 31st, new regulations under the Occupational Health and Safety Act will ban smoking in all indoor workplaces, and health groups are elated. “The single most serious threat to the health of our patients is tobacco,” says SMA President Dr. George Miller. “Each step we take as individuals and as a community toward healthier lifestyles and healthier workplaces is a step toward a healthier province.” In 2005 the province banned smoking in all public places, but many workplaces not ... Jump to full article >>

State Sen. Jenny Oropeza’s ongoing campaign against smoking leaped another hurdle last Thursday, when the full Senate approved her bill to ban smoking at all state beaches and parks. Oropeza (D-Long Beach) is a cancer survivor and has made smoking bans a centerpiece of her legislative agenda. She authored a bill in 2006 (taking effect on Jan. 1, 2007) that banned smoking in common-use areas such as covered parking lots, stairwells, lobbies, etc. The following year, she successfully sponsored a bill to make it illegal to smoke in a car whenever there was a child younger than 18 present. H ... Jump to full article >>

Customs and Excise officers will investigate the possible involvement of cigarette producers in cases of fake tax stamps that have caused state losses of Rp 1 trillion (about US95 million), an official has said. Director General of Customs and Excise Anwar Supriadi said on Saturday his side would trace cigarette producers who allegedly used the fake stamps. “It is possible there are big, well-known producers that bought and used the fake stamps.” Anwar said cigarette producers found using fake stamps would be punished under the Criminal Code and have their licenses revoked, meaning ... Jump to full article >>

The Fourth National Anti-Smoking Campaign was launched here on Monday. The campaign was formally inaugurated by Prince Mish’al Bin Majed, Governor of Jeddah, in Crown Plaza Hotel. The campaign will officially start its activities Tuesday by having an anti-smoking symposium wherein professors, consultants, experts and representatives from government’s anti-smoking programs will participate. According to Dr. Abdurraheem Qari, the symposium president, this year’s campaign will concentrate on the doctors’ role in encouraging the smokers to quit the deadly habit. The campaig ... Jump to full article >>

Findings come as Wisconsin and North Carolina — America’s top tobacco producing state — pass smoke-free laws. Transcript of radio broadcast:26 May 2009 This is the VOA Special English Health Report. Smoking is the world’s leading preventable cause of death. In the United States, smoking rates are down from the past, but cigarettes still cause about one-fifth of all deaths. Nonsmokers are also affected. Thousands in the United States die each year from heart disease and lung cancer from breathing other people’s tobacco smoke. Secondhand smoke also causes breathing ... Jump to full article >>

Cigarette producer PT HM Sampoerna criticized the government plan to increase tax on cigarettes in a new regulation. “This will double taxes and will burden us because we have already paid tax,” Sampoerna communications director Niken Rachmad told journalist on Wednesday. She said that other cigarette producers had also expressed their objections to the plan. “The process takes time, but we have expressed our objections with the cigarette producer’s association,” Niken said. She said Sampoerna had yet to decide whether to increase cigarette prices if the new tax ... Jump to full article >>

They propose amendment to FDA tobacco bill to ban dissolvable smokeless products. Part of the debate focuses on whether the products are a less-harmful alternative to smoking. Two U.S. senators are aiming to snuff out dissolvable smokeless-tobacco products before they can get a toehold in the U.S. market. Their amendment to the proposed FDA regulation bill from Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., is stoking the debate regarding the viability and possible less-hazardous role of smokeless tobacco products. U.S. Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, have labeled as “tobacco candy&# ... Jump to full article >>

The Michigan House voted today to ban smoking in workplaces including bars and restaurants, but allow it on gambling floors at Detroit’s three casinos, cigar bars and specialty smoke shops. The 73-31 vote set up another face off with the Senate, which last year voted for a total smoking ban, no exceptions. The smoking ban remains a hot issue, led by anti-smoking advocates encouraged by smoking bans approved in recent weeks in Wisconsin and North Carolina, a tobacco industry state where a smoking ban was once unimaginable. But like last year, a stalemate looms again between Michigan’ ... Jump to full article >>

Consider this a prequel to this morning’s post about the Boca business dealings of Howard Needle. That post begged the question: Where did Needle get the original electronic cigarette that proved such a valuable tool for luring an investor like Richard Gladstone? It’s a story that Ron MacDonald can tell. As he explains in the comments field of that post, MacDonald is the founder of Crown7, an e-cigarette company based in Scottsdale, Arizona. Needle was still publishing the doomed luxury magazine, Cravings Palm Beach, when last September, MacDonald says he got a phone call from Need ... Jump to full article >>

Health experts have raised serious concerns about the growing number of women smoking shisha. They said they are seeing more and more cases of women with respiratory disorders because of the habit and urged smokers – especially those who are pregnant – to give up “hubbly bubbly”, as shisha is commonly known. The call comes as the UAE prepares for “World No Tobacco Day” on May 31, when people are being encouraged to stop smoking for 24 hours. Many smokers think shisha is healthier than cigarettes, but the UAE Ministry of Health said an hour of shisha was equi ... Jump to full article >>