Suspended Oak Forest baseball coach Ron Czarnecki on Friday said he indeed used a smokeless tobacco substitute during games in the past couple of years, a day after saying he didn’t. Czarnecki on Friday said he didn’t understand the question when he said Thursday that he’d never used the product during games. “I was under the impression you were asking me if I was chewing tobacco-related products the past two years on the field, which I haven’t,” Czarnecki told the SouthtownStar. “But I have used the non-nicotine, non-tobacco products very sparingly th ... Jump to full article >>

The City of Eagle was well on it’s way to becoming the first smoke-free city in Idaho, until last week, at least. Councilman Michael Huffaker put a stop to the city’s Clean Indoor Air Ordinance when he changed his vote on June 23. The ordinance would have prohibited smoking at all businesses with more than five employees, including standalone bars, and would limit where smokers could light up outside, within city limits. At the June 9 City Council meeting the ordinance was read for the first time and passed with a vote of 3 to 2. It seemed as if residents could soon breathe fresh ... Jump to full article >>

Tampa hasn’t been the Cigar City for many decades. The cigar-manufacturing plants that provided the community a national identity long before the Bucs, the Lightning or even MacDill Air Force Base have been closing or relocating from the area for more than a generation. Still, it’s sad to see the closing of Hav-A-Tampa’s Seffner plant, which produced the product so closely associated with a community that once hosted the Cigar Bowl. The company will continue to produce cigars in Puerto Rico. But close to 500 local jobs will be lost. Hillsborough’s sole cigar operation n ... Jump to full article >>

British American Tobacco Plc bought a majority stake in a top Indonesian cigarette firm on Wednesday, lifting its share in the world’s fifth-largest and fast-growing market as it looks to offset flat sales elsewhere. BAT, maker of Dunhill and Lucky Strike cigarettes, said it paid $494 million for an 85 percent stake in PT Bentoel Internasional Investama, Indonesia’s fourth-largest cigarette maker by volume, and would buy up the remaining shares by the end of August. London-based world number-two cigarette maker BAT, like other major players, is looking to expand in growing emerging ... Jump to full article >>

And you thought only Nebraska’s new law put the fire hose to workplace smoking. On June 1 ” the day the state’s ban on smoking inside workplaces went into effect ” the Omaha Public Power District banned the use of cigarettes and chewing tobacco on the job, even outside. In effect, none of the utility’s 2,400 workers ” not even the worker high atop a power pole ” can take a puff or pinch a snuff on the clock. Now, two of the utility’s major unions have filed a lawsuit that says the ban far exceeded state law and, therefore, violated the unions ... Jump to full article >>

Tobacco packaging serves as a critical link to consumers, both for the tobacco industry and for governments seeking to convey the health risks of smoking. The brand imagery of the package is the foundation upon which all other marketing is built and plays an even greater role in jurisdictions where traditional forms of advertising, promotion, and sponsorship are restricted. New international guidelines for tobacco packaging and labelling are being established under Article 11 of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC)—the first international ... Jump to full article >>

The ITC Policy Evaluation Project has produced many documents, including journal articles and final reports, on the results of the ITC surveys. The ITC Project has released the first in a series of FCTC policy-oriented reports focusing on Tobacco Warning Labels. The report was prepared for World No Tobacco Day, an annual event held on May 31, 2009, whose theme this year is pictorial warning labels. The report concludes from longitudinal studies of text and pictorial warnings across many countries that graphic pictorial warnings are more effective than text-only warnings. Specifically, graphic ... Jump to full article >>

GREENSBORO — Our airport was once known informally as having one of the more smoker-friendly terminals in the country. It’s a title that would seem to make sense; Piedmont Triad International Airport is arguably in the epicenter of tobacco country. If you have business at two of the nation’s largest tobacco companies — Lorillard in Greensboro, Reynolds American in Winston-Salem — PTI is your destination airport. But beginning today, a nod to the wealth that helped build this area — the airport smokers lounge — could be at risk of closing when G ... Jump to full article >>

HARRISON Ford got pulled into a wacky publicity stunt the other day when two hotties in black tank tops, shorts and high-heels sneaked past security on the set of his movie, “Morning Glory,” at 43rd Street and Sixth Avenue. “He was in between takes with Rachel McAdams when these girls came right out of the blue to present him with a $750 Gurkha cigar,” a spy told us. “He got a big kick out of it and thanked them.” Turns out the generous cuties were promoting a service called delivery.com. source: nypost.com ... Jump to full article >>

New smoking device promises the ability to light up anywhere without getting the heat Smokers, what if you could smoke a cigarette that didn’t contain any tobacco or carcinogens and didn’t stink? And nonsmokers, how would you feel about walking past a pack of smokers without coughing, or worrying your lungs were filling up with chemicals from secondhand smoke? A new product on the market, widely known as the electronic cigarette, is changing the rules of smoking for those wishing to puff wherever and whenever they want. Two businesses at Westfield Fox Valley mall in Aurora sell th ... Jump to full article >>

Debate over smokers’ habits. Higher cigarette prices do reduce consumption, coalition maintains Contentions that cigarette prices have no effect on tobacco consumption are wrong, says Louis Gauvin, co-director of the Coalition québécoise pour le contrôle du tabac. Léger Marketing conducted a study last month for the Canadian Convenience Stores Association. In its report, which was made public this month, association vice-president Michel Gadbois says cheaper cigarettes won’t influence the number of people who get hooked on tobacco. For months, dépanneur owners have c ... Jump to full article >>