The Board of Health will likely vote on whether or not to ban the sale of tobacco products in Walpole pharmacies at their next meeting. Walpole resident Dr. Joseph Dorsey first presented the tobacco prohibition to the board in February, arguing it didn’t make sense that pharmacies, which sell products to improve people’s health, would peddle cigarettes and tobacco products that clearly harm people. The measure would require a change in health regulations to forbid any store with a pharmacy from selling tobacco products. If the board did approve the rewrite, businesses that currently sell ... Jump to full article >>

Missouri City residents are headed for a smoke-free future, at least in public places, as a new smoking ban goes into effect on Friday. The ordinance banning smoking was passed by city council at the July 6 regular council meeting. Smokers will now be prohibited from lighting up in a most public places in the city. Per ordinance those places include restaurants, libraries, elevators, polling places, pool and billiard halls, bingo facilities and educational facilities. Guidelines of the ordinance also restrict smoking in outdoor areas within 25 feet of entrances to public places and workplaces ... Jump to full article >>

San Francisco supervisors today gave final approval to expand the city’s ban on tobacco sales at stores with pharmacies but postponed a vote on overturning a mayoral veto of a fee on alcohol wholesalers. An expansion of the city’s ban on tobacco sales at stores with pharmacies–which would include grocery and big-box stores such as Safeway, Lucky and Costco–was approved at a second board vote this afternoon, and Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office indicated the mayor will sign it. Supporters have said that cigarette sales at stores that also sell medicines sends a mixed me ... Jump to full article >>

Need a good cigar? We suggest you consult with Thomas Henry, the former commissioner of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association. According to an audit Henry spent $51,000 in association funds at cigar outlets from 2005-07, and may have violated state law. The audit also found that Henry didn’t properly document a total of 2,355 transaction that totaled $383,073, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. In his response to the state legislative auditor, Henry said he wasn’t a state employee, and that he followed association guidelines. The association’s response was that ... Jump to full article >>

It is a constant source of friction among workers – why are smokers allowed to pop out for a cigarette while non-smoking colleagues continue to toil? Now a local authority is planning to crack down on the breaks in an attempt to get better value from its employees. Breckland Council in Norfolk wants to make workers clock out and back in whenever they leave their desks for a puff. In what is believed to be the first move of its kind in the country, they will have to work extra to make up for the lost time and make sure they are pulling their weight as much as the non-smokers. The move will af ... Jump to full article >>

Harris Majeke, South Africa’s High Commissioner to India, said that a large snake had been found in a bedroom earmarked for one of the nation’s competitors. In a separate incident, an Indian newspaper reported that a cobra was found in the tennis centre. “That was really a threat to the lives of our athletes,” he said, complaining of filth in the living quarters. “When everything is done, then we will ask our teams to come.” The Times Now news channel said about 150 rooms meant for athletes were uninhabitable. As well as the threat from local wildlife, athl ... Jump to full article >>

Representatives from 45 organizations attending a seminar in Beijing on Saturday proposed a nationwide rejection of contributions from tobacco companies that are linked to sponsorship deals, and called for more efforts to control tobacco use. Nearly five years after the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control took effect in China in January 2006, many tobacco companies are still reluctant to follow the convention exactly, according to those attending the seminar. The companies are targeting new customers through sponsorship of special programs. For example, there at least 100 primary schools i ... Jump to full article >>

Aishwarya Rai exuberance of smoking that there is a lot of hum regarding Aishwarya’s smoking scene in her forthcoming movie Guzaarish. According to sources have also slated that the endorsement of the movie was postponed considering that the audiences and spectators might make a protestation to this smoking scene. The film portrays Ash holding a cigarette sandwiched between her fingers and then she puts it on her lips, takes a puff and rupture into a petit mal of cough. Co-producer of Guzaarish, Siddharth Roy Kapoor, stated that the sight makes fun of smoking in its place of spreading it. In ... Jump to full article >>

A local council in Tasmania has urged the state government to impose a total ban on smoking and the sale of tobacco products, in a likely Australian first. The Burnie City Council, on the island state’s northwest coast, has unanimously passed a resolution supporting a “complete ban on the sale and use of tobacco products in Tasmania”. And if total bans are not possible, the council says government should instead ban smoking inside private homes where a child or dependent person is present, plus in “any outdoor area attached to a personal living space”. Anti-tobacc ... Jump to full article >>

Part five of our five-part series on the contraband tobacco industry. As a young smoker, Jordan Anderson faced two major obstacles to his new habit: steep cigarette prices and laws barring retailers from selling to minors. The Toronto teenager skirted both barriers with ease, however, procuring bags of contraband smokes from a friend who regularly picked them up at an Ontario aboriginal reserve. To a 15-year-old, more than $80 for a carton of legal cigarettes was a small fortune; $10 per 200 contraband ones was quite affordable. “They were definitely a lot easier to come by than other cigare ... Jump to full article >>

CONWAY – Coastal Carolina University professor Sherer Royce has been awarded a $280,000 grant to help assess tobacco use in Horry County and evaluate the success of local prevention programs. The grant is part of a $2.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the Horry County BREATHE Coalition. Royce, an associate professor in the Department of Health Promotion, will also assist with countywide environmental and behavioral change activities regarding tobacco use prevention and dependence for Horry County residents. Horry and Florence counties were two of 44 ... Jump to full article >>