We may associate pregnancy with weight gain and fatigue but mothers run best (and play harder) Stretch marks, weight gain and overwhelming fatigue are the side-effects of pregnancy with which most women are familiar. But for some, motherhood appears to leave the female body better able to cope with extreme physical demands than ever before. Kim Clijsters, the Belgian tennis player, became the latest elite sportswoman to add credence to the theory that, far from signalling the end of a woman’s athletic career, pregnancy can enhance her performance. Clijsters took a two-year break from tennis ... Jump to full article >>

More than one in four adult smokers now use pouch tobacco and roll-up cigarettes, with a particularly sharp rise in the proportion of women users, research shows. Analysis of smoking habits in England suggests a cultural shift in the use of tobacco, with one in five white-collar professionals who smoke now using roll-ups rather than conventional cigarettes. While roll-ups may once have been the habit of the working man and the spit and sawdust pub, their use among women has risen sharply in recent years. In 1990 just one in 50 female smokers used hand-rolled tobacco, compared with one in five ... Jump to full article >>

The Baltimore City Council is considering restricting where people smoke and how they buy tobacco. Suzanne Collins explains two bills debated Tuesday are aimed at preventing young people from smoking. The bills’ sponsors say flavored cigars and flavored cigarette papers are enticing to young people who get addicted to tobacco. A flavored cigar, which can be purchased for $1.25 at a Baltimore corner store, is a popular item with young people. It’s vanilla-flavored and a lot cheaper than a pack of cigarettes. The City Council heard a bill Tuesday that would only allow flavored cigar ... Jump to full article >>

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. – A year after the nation’s second-largest gambling resort scrapped a plan to go totally smoke-free in its 11 casinos, the issue remains as hazy as the cigarette smoke over the blackjack tables. Atlantic City was set to ban all smoking last October, but backed off when the recession hit, promising to reconsider in a year. But there’s still no consensus on whether to stick with the current arrangement, which permits smoking on 25 percent of the casino floor, or to try again for a total ban. “Right now, I don’t see where many minds have changed o ... Jump to full article >>

Smoke clouds billowed from the variety of patrons smoking at the Petra Café and Hookah Lounge on South Grand on Sept. 23. Scents of watermelon, lemon mint and “Threesome,” Petra Café’s original mix of tobacco, lingered in the air. However, the day was not just for the regulars of the café to converse and collude as usual. The day was set aside as a place for an event to bring awareness to the encroaching smoking ban the Missouri government is attempting to enforce. “The Hot Box of Freedom” event was created to rebel against the ban in which flavored tobacco wou ... Jump to full article >>

Hannah Waterman has vowed to give up the fags to run the London Marathon. The former EastEnders actress, who played Laura Beale on the BBC One soap, is adamant that she will give up the habit so she can complete the marathon in good time. “I’ve stopped drinking, and am not eating very much, so giving up cigarettes is next on my list of things to do before I die prematurely!” she wrote in her weekly column for Closer. “I’ve smoked for ages, but my trainer Adam wants me to run the London Marathon with him next year and says I’ll need to quit if I want to do a ... Jump to full article >>

Four hundred years ago this year, John Rolfe, an enterprising 24-year-old from Norfolk, arrived in the fledgling settlement of Jamestown in the English colony of Virginia. A canny businessman despite his tender years, he saw a chance to make a few bob on an old plant, genus Nicotiana, widely referred to at the time as “brown gold”. He bore no royal blessing for his enterprise; indeed, five years earlier, the King of England, James I, for whom the new settlement was named, had written an angry polemic, entitled A Counterblaste to Tobacco, in which he had condemned the “filthy ... Jump to full article >>

An NHS trust in Birmingham has recruited the photographer Rankin to help with a new hard-hitting viral anti-smoking ad, part of a multimedia campaign that launches today. Link to this video Rankin has co-directed the ad with Chris Cottam, which shows a smoker suffering an assault from an invisible assailant as he walks down the street. “Smoke and your body takes a beating,” a voiceover says at the end of the minute-long film. “Fight back. Quit now.” The video will be shown on a mobile exhibition unit that will tour parts of Birmingham and also offer tests of patients ... Jump to full article >>

I am writing to thank The Sun for the excellent editorial “Addicted at an Early Age” (Sept. 24) and to clarify a few points. First, while it is a good move for public health for the Food and Drug Administration to ban flavored cigarettes, The Sun is correct to point out that this ban does not include the extremely popular cheap cigars that come in a variety of enticing flavors and are available by the single for less than $1. Nor does the ban include smokeless tobacco products that also come in fruity flavors attractive to kids. Although Congress did not issue such a mandate for ci ... Jump to full article >>

Julie Woessner puffs on an electronic cigarette and feels a vapor full of nicotine wafting deep into her lungs. Woessner and thousands around the country are passionate in their belief that the battery-powered sticks that deliver nicotine without burning have been lifesavers. “If I hadn’t have had it, I’d still be smoking,’ said Woessner, 46, a homemaker living in Wildwood. People like Woessner call themselves “vapers” because they “vape” or inhale vapor that includes nicotine from e-cigarettes. They worry the government may try to take away som ... Jump to full article >>

BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 30 /PRNewswire/ — The Cigarette Store Corp. DBA Smoker Friendly and ECR Software Corporation (ECRS) have announced the successful completion of an 85-store point-of-sale (POS) implementation project. ECRS is an innovator in retail automation technology with thousands of successful installations since their 1989 introduction into the POS market. Smoker Friendly is an industry-leading cigarette and tobacco retailer, manufacturer and distributor. Smoker Friendly chose to implement CATAPULT(TM), ECRS’ core POS software product, in 85 of their privately-owned retai ... Jump to full article >>