More than 301 million people are still smoking in China, despite efforts to curb tobacco use, according to the country’s Centre for Disease Control. A survey of more than 13,000 people earlier this year found no significant improvement in the country’s smoking rate since 2002, China’s CDC said in a joint statement released with the World Health Organization and the United States CDC. The survey also found that almost three quarters of nonsmokers reported being exposed to secondhand smoke. Though China has pledged to make indoor public places, workplaces and public transport smoke-free ... Jump to full article >>

Cigarette sales at traditional outlets have taken a serious tumble in the Rochester region and statewide since a sharply higher state tax took effect in July. “I’d say sales are down 30 percent,” Scott Hardenbrook, manager at Di Prima’s Fairport Mobil, 1311 Fairport Road, said Wednesday. “The drop began as soon as the tax took effect. Some people are going to the discount brands. Some are going to the cigarillos. Some are going to the reservations. But everybody is complaining.” On July 1, the excise tax on cigarettes increased from $2.75 to $4.35 a pack, th ... Jump to full article >>

All pregnant women should be breath tested to determine if they smoke, or if they are exposed to second hand smoke, so the NHS can intervene and help them quit, the Government’s public health watchdog has said. Currently pregnant women are asked if they smoke by midwives and GPs but the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) wants this to go further. The organisation has recommended that all pregnant women should have their breath measured for carbon monoxide levels when they book in with a midwife. This would establish which women smoke and provide an added ince ... Jump to full article >>

The smoking lamp is going out all across the Navy’s submarine fleet, where the mission to “run silent, run deep” now will be carried out by sailors ordered to run undersea operations without cigarettes, cigars or pipes. This is the latest front in the long war against tobacco declared by the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Their programs to help military personnel kick the smoking habit are intended to protect the health of the current force — and to save the government hundreds of millions of dollars a year in health care costs for those who have served, and smoked, i ... Jump to full article >>

A new city policy will try to save money by raising health-insurance premiums for municipal employees who use tobacco products, a change that has some workers upset. Starting in January, health-insurance premiums will go up by an undetermined amount for city employees unless they take a test to prove they are tobacco-free, defined as having no nicotine in their body. In addition, for the first time, people who smoke or use other tobacco products will be eligible only for the city’s basic health-coverage plan. They will not qualify for the city’s Basic Plus health plan, in which th ... Jump to full article >>

German researchers have linked headaches in high-school students to smoking and use of alcohol. Researchers at Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich also found coffee drinking and physical inactivity associated specifically with teen migraines. “Our study confirms, adolescents with any type of headache might benefit from regular physical activity and low consumption of alcoholic drinks,” study leader Dr. Astrid Milde-Busch said in a statement. “In teens suffering from migraine a low coffee consumption should also be suggested.” Milde-Busch and colleagues asked 1,260 ... Jump to full article >>

A tall nonfat caramel macchiato with extra foam, please. Just hold the smoke. Starting Monday, Starbucks customers are welcome to sit outside and sip a while — as long as they don’t light up. The international coffee giant is extending its ban on indoor smoking to outdoor patios and dining areas in California. The change was prompted by an increasing number of communities that have enacted smoking prohibitions in outdoor dining areas. Mid-Valley smokers say they are disappointed by the rule but understand its purpose. Brian Roberts, 33, was enjoying a cigarette with his venti coffee We ... Jump to full article >>

The High Court will consider removing a NSW Dust Diseases Tribunal judge from hearing a cancer compensation case which includes allegations of intentional document destruction by British American Tobacco Australia Services. On Friday the cigarette company received leave to appeal against a December 2009 judgment of the NSW Court of Appeal which held that Judge Jim Curtis would bring the required impartiality to the issue of document destruction. The High Court Chief Justice, Robert French, said a condition of leave was that British American Tobacco pay the costs of the plaintiff, Claudia Lauri ... Jump to full article >>

Teenage smoking is often thought of as kind of innocent experiment, but a drag on a friend’s cigarette may be the beginning of something that will be hard to shake. A study of adolescent smokers in the journal Pediatrics tracks the course of addiction to nicotine among a group of sixth-graders. After following 1,246 middle-school children for four years, researchers say a pattern emerged of occasional smoking that led to an addiction to tobacco: A cigarette a month will do it. “When people are just wanting a cigarette, every now and then, they think they just enjoy smoking,” ... Jump to full article >>

When Tristan Meyer was 16, he noticed the amount of times characters smoked cigarettes in Hollywood films, but didn’t agree with it. Now as an 18-year-old Pacifica High School senior, he has decided to do something about it by joining forces with the San Mateo County Tobacco Education Coalition to speak up about the influence characters in movies and mainstream media are having on young people. “Smoking was normalized,” he said, “and I wasn’t a fan of that.” For instance, Meyer said in the recent blockbuster hit “Avatar,” Sigourney Weaver’s character holds a cigarette for no ... Jump to full article >>

In Brief: The brain of an addicted smoker treats nicotine as if it is essential for survival. Genetic traits may predispose some smokers to stronger addiction. Most smokers try to quit unaided, resulting in a high failure rate. If you smoke, no one needs to tell you how bad it is. So why haven’t you quit? Why hasn’t everyone? Because smoking feels good. It stimulates and focuses the mind at the same time that it soothes and satisfies. The concentrated dose of nicotine in a drag off a cigarette triggers an immediate flood of dopamine and other neurochemicals that wash over the brain’s p ... Jump to full article >>