he NHS is offering iPods, hotel breaks and helicopter trips as incentives to drinkers, smokers and drug users to adopt healthier lifestyles or undergo tests and treatment. Teenagers who agree to be tested for the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia are being entered in prize draws to win Nintendo Wii games consoles. Under a pilot scheme run by NHS Fife, smokers who give up cigarettes for three months are entered into a prize draw for a helicopter trip across the River Forth or an overnight stay for two in a luxury hotel. Other gifts on offer include iPods, toiletries and cinema vouchers. Be ... Jump to full article >>

The Canadian Quit&Win 2009 Challenge, a yearly smoking cessation competition, has chosen NicCheck I once again to be the test they used to confirm smoking cessation. [ClickPress, Fri May 15 2009] Mossman Associates, Inc., announced today that the Canadian Quit&Win 2009 Smoking Cessation Challenge, a yearly smoking cessation competition, has chosen NicCheck I once again to be the test they used to confirm smoking cessation among the potential contest winners. All contestants had smoked daily for at least one year and are 18 years of age or older. The contestants are required to abstain ... Jump to full article >>

In an article that ran on April 18 titled “Unfairly Tarred,” columnist Sandra Zummo wondered if we are being too hard on smokers? She referenced the new sobering ads that refer to the impact smoking has on those around us. Although these commercials present jarring images, they are certainly truthful and an effective aid to help smokers understand that they hurt not only themselves when they light up, but those around them as well. Miss Zummo noted that past ad campaigns showing the effects of smoking on a person’s health were “scary, but effective.” These new ads ... Jump to full article >>

A U.C. San Francisco study has revealed that young adults who deeply believe that the tobacco industry is composed of low-down, degenerate, gutless, slimy, watermelon-fucking sons of bitches are far less likely to smoke than their colleagues with less malevolent feelings toward Big Tobacco. While this seems like the ultimate no-brainer, UCSF scientists say the data reveals a lot; this, they claim, is the first study to ever link interviewees’ attitudes toward the tobacco industry to 18-to-25-year-olds’ actual behavior. Depending upon young adults’ responses to queries like & ... Jump to full article >>

Retailers have vowed to continue fighting the tobacco display ban, despite a crushing defeat in the House of Lords. This week the Lords voted 204 to 110 in support of a tobacco display ban in supermarkets from 2011 and in smaller… Retailers have vowed to continue fighting the tobacco display ban, despite a crushing defeat in the House of Lords. This week the Lords voted 204 to 110 in support of a tobacco display ban in supermarkets from 2011 and in smaller stores from 2013, as the Health Bill reached its second reading. It will have its third reading on Tuesday before passing to the Hous ... Jump to full article >>

Portsmouth’s public health tsar has hailed the House of Lords for taking a ‘big step’ towards preventing young people from smoking. Members overwhelmingly backed a bill to put tobacco out of sight in shops. Once the bill has passed through the Lords it will also need to be agreed by the House of Commons before becoming law. Now Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones, director of public health and wellbeing for Portsmouth, is calling for the fight to keep tobacco out of sight in shops to be stepped up. Last month Portsmouth City Teaching Primary Care Trust was among more than 100 organisatio ... Jump to full article >>

THE Jamaica Coalition for Tobacco Control is pushing to have graphic images highlighting the dangers of smoking, displayed on cigarette packages by next January as a way of deterring Jamaicans from lighting up. Under the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control treaty of which Jamaica is a signatory, tobacco manufacturers will be expected to have the graphics displayed on 50 per cent of the package. Dawn Williams (left) communications officer of the Caribbean Tobacco Control Project, which falls under the Heart Foundation of Jamaica/Jamaica Coalition for Tobacco ... Jump to full article >>

Cigarette smokers will start paying more for some popular brands of tobacco products as the increase in the Special Consumption Tax (SCT) takes effect. Carreras Limited, the country’s largest distributor of cigarettes, has announced that the price of a cigarette will move from $20 to $25. The price for a carton of Craven “A” and Matterhorn will now be $4,050 while the price for Dunhill and Rothmans will move to $4,250. The suggested retail prices of Craven “A” and Matterhorn will now be $480 while Dunhill and Rothmans will be $500 dollars per pack. Last week, Fi ... Jump to full article >>

One day after Finance Minister Audley Shaw announced a further increase in the Special Consumption Tax on tobacco products, Executives at the island’s largest cigarette distributor, Carreras Limited, are meeting to discuss the implications. Carreras markets and distributes the popular “Craven A” cigarette. Come Monday cigarette smokers will have to dig deeper in their pockets. The SCT on cigarettes will move from $6,000 per 1,000 sticks to $8,500. The Government is projecting to collect $1.4 billion from the tax measure. Mr. Shaw also a ... Jump to full article >>

Margaret Hamburg, President Obama’s nominee for FDA commissioner, on Thursday easily moved through a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee confirmation hearing, the New York Times reports (Harris, New York Times, 5/8). During the hearing, no senators expressed opposition to her nomination (Alonso-Zaldivar, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 5/8). Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) strongly endorsed Hamburg at the hearing, telling her, “I want you to know that I support you, and I intend to help you not only to get through this process but to do your job out there.” Hamburg als ... Jump to full article >>

The campaign against smoking, which kills close to 90,000 people a year in the Philippines – on a par with the number of deaths in natural disasters or conflicts – is becoming a losing battle. “My friends look so cool smoking,” Arnold Santos of Mandaluyong City said, who took up the habit out of peer pressure. “Now, I smoke 10 cigarettes a day,”the 17-year-old, who has no plans of quitting just yet, said. Despite the passage of the Tobacco Control Act, more Filipino youths are now smoking, “indicating that the law has not been effective”, Maricar ... Jump to full article >>