The 38-year-old Ada man says he doesn’t smoke cigarettes and avoids caffeine and alcohol. He’s even a marathon runner, despite having asthma and high blood pressure. But he knows his nightly habit could lead to lung disease or cancer. “I’m kind of stubborn,” Scrivner said. “I’m one of those people who thinks that won’t happen to me.” A new study finds that pipe and cigar smoke may be more harmful than once thought. While less harmful than cigarettes, researchers found pipe and cigar smoke decreases lung function and doubles the risk for chronic obstructive pulmonary d ... Jump to full article >>

Yesterday was International Pipe-Smoking Day. How did you let that one slip by? Probably because pipes, once the international symbol of sophisticated masculinity, slipped off the popular radar screen decades ago. Hugh Hefner, founder of the Playboy empire, and a ’60s male icon, might still wear a smoking jacket over those black silk pajamas, but he quit smoking back in 1985 after a stroke. And nobody really missed it. Thanks to the anti-tobacco campaign, based on concerns over public health, and waged on the federal, state and local levels, tobacco use of all kinds has dropped steadily ... Jump to full article >>

Cigar aficionados and pipe smokers often claim that their habit is safer than cigarette smoking because they don’t inhale. Even if they think they’re just harmlessly puffing away, they’re still damaging their lungs, a new study shows. People who smoke cigars and pipes, but have never smoked cigarettes, are more than twice as likely as people who never smoked to have decreased lung function, according to the study. Cigar and pipe smokers who smoke cigarettes (or used to) are at even greater risk; those smokers were nearly 3.5 times more likely than nonsmokers to have decreased lung funct ... Jump to full article >>

Water pipes are no safer than cigarettes for smoking tobacco, researchers say. A new study found that people who smoke tobacco with a water pipe inhale carbon monoxide and nicotine, which puts them at risk for heart disease and nicotine addiction. The study included 31 volunteers, aged 18 to 50, who smoked tobacco using a water pipe and a single cigarette. After each smoking session, researchers measured levels of nicotine and carbon monoxide in the participants’ blood, along with heart rate, puff number and puff volume. On average, participants had higher levels of carbon monoxide after smo ... Jump to full article >>

Have you heard something about herbal cigarettes? Can you imagine what is it and how it distinguishes from ordinary tobacco cigarettes? If you are not smoker, probably you don’t have any idea of this phenomenon. In distinction from non-smoking population, the smoking one is perfectly enlightened of this appearance. As they acknowledge the real scathe that natural tobacco, by means of its high nicotine content, inflicts people’s health, they tend to switch to its perfect alternative that doesn’t exert such an obvious negative influence. And this alternative is herbal cigarette. Herbal smo ... Jump to full article >>

Ministry of Health has directed the managements of hotels and restaurants to stop allocating designated areas for smokers in their premises to allow them using cigarettes, pipes, cigars and ‘Sheesha.’ According to official sources, they have been asked to implement anti-tobacco laws to protect the health of non-smokers, as there is no permission of allocating any designated area for smokers. While taking notice of open use of tobacco in the premises of hotels, restaurants and international food chains, the ministry has asked the chairman Pakistan Hotels Association and president Pakistan F ... Jump to full article >>

Tax avoidance scheme by small tobacco companies is legal but worrisome. The federal government should have known how small, independent tobacco companies would react when it disproportionately increased the tax on their primary product. These companies specialize in making tobacco for, whose sales had been growing because they are cheaper than packaged cigarettes. But Congress and President Barack Obama this year raised taxes on all tobacco products in order to expand a program that subsidizes children’s health insurance. Hardest hit were the companies in the roll-your-own industry. The tax ... Jump to full article >>

Some tobacco companies have pulled another one on the federal government. By relabeling their product, the companies are avoiding a punitive tax placed on roll-your-own tobacco products. Congress and the Obama administration raised taxes on tobacco products earlier this year, with taxes on tobacco for roll-your-own cigarettes skyrocketing from $1.10 per pound to $24.78 per pound. That’s more than a 2,000 percent jump. Ostensibly, the tobacco tax increases were to pay for expanding children’s health insurance programs. But such an increase on roll-your-own tobacco was obviously meant to do ... Jump to full article >>