COLCHESTER, Vt. (AP) — Eating healthy can start in the checkout line. So Vermont officials are making a pitch to retailers in hopes of getting consumers to eat healthier food and avoid tobacco and alcohol. On Wednesday, the state Department of Health is holding a conference to launch its “Healthy Retailers” campaign, a training session involving 75 community health advocates. As part of it, store owners will be offered free point-of-sale materials including posters that show people involved in healthy activities. Dr. Harry Chen, the state health commissioner, says point-of-sale a ... Jump to full article >>

Smoking is linked with lung cancer, emphysema, and other diseases. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (each year about 443,000 people die prematurely from smoking or exposure to secondhand smoke, and another 8.6 million live with a serious illness caused by smoking. Despite these risks, approximately 46.6 million U.S. adults smoke cigarettes. And cigarette smoking costs more than $193 billion, $97 billion in lost productivity plus $96 billion in health care expenditures. Tobacco companies spend about $15.3 billion on tobacco marketing and promotion. Because they a ... Jump to full article >>

Cigarette companies are not allowed to market directly to the youth of America. The companies are also banned from advertising on television, radio and in newspapers. The only mainstream advertising they can pay for is in magazines catered toward adults. Somehow, though, four million underage Americans smoke, begging the question: what influences their decision to smoke? It’s a question without a definite answer. Do images in movies influence kids? How about all the stars in Hollywood smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee to curb hunger and keep the weight off? Perhaps, it’s the o ... Jump to full article >>

Anti-smoking campaigners have begun a television advertising campaign in the south west of England to highlight the risks of smoking hand-rolled tobacco. Smokefree South West wants to “dispel the myths” which they say have built up around roll-up cigarettes. Findings from the organisation’s research showed that smokers of hand-rolled tobacco believed it was “more natural” and a “real art form”. Smokefree South West is funded by the Department of Health and 14 local PCTs. Regional director of public health Gabriel Scally, who is also the spokesman for S ... Jump to full article >>

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reported that many of the most popular Facebook application developers, including Zynga Game Network whose apps include FarmVille, Texas HoldEm Poker and FrontierVille, “have been transmitting identifying information — in effect, providing access to people’s names and, in some cases, their friends’ names — to dozens of advertising and Internet tracking companies.” Smoking Gun? To some, it was the smoking gun proving Facebook is in the business of selling users’ personal information. But if you read the story closely, ... Jump to full article >>

A non-government group has taken to task nearly a dozen local government units to task for naming some of their streets after popular cigarette brands, products that “have consistently contributed to over 10 Filipino deaths a day.” The Quezon City-based Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP) also threatened to sue the LGUs should they persist in putting up the street signs. Doing so is a “blatant violation of Republic Act No. 9211,” otherwise known as the Tobacco Regulation Act of 2007. FCAP executive director Ma. Encarnita Limpin asked the ... Jump to full article >>

BRITISH American Tobacco of South Africa has applied to the Pretoria high court to overrule Parliament and allow it to keep advertising cigarettes to teenagers. In 2001, cigarettes companies were banned from advertising on billboards, in cinemas and on radio. Last year, Parliament amended the Tobacco Products Control Act to outlaw the “smoking parties” organised by the industry. These changes came into operation on August 21. National Council Against Smoking’s Dr Yussuf Saloojee said: “Since the early 2000s, the cigarette companies have reportedly employed ‘sexy twenty- somethings’ ... Jump to full article >>

The Association of National Advertisers, the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the American Advertising Federation, filed a “friend of the court” brief in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. Filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky on Monday (Nov. 30), the amicus brief contends that the Act violates the First Amendment by restricting free speech. Signed into law in June, the Tobacco Control Act restricts the sale, marketing and production of tobacco products. Nearly every ... Jump to full article >>

Pakistan has finally decided to stub it out, so to speak. Beginning next February, cigarette packs will have pictorial warnings to wean smokers away from, well, ending up in a smoke. Until now, any official attempt to check the menace was limited to observing the annual World No-Tobacco Day with sound and the odd fury but little action. Pakistan’s Ministry of Health has now mandated that cigarette packs will have picture-based health warnings that cover 40% of the principal display area on both the front and back of the packs. The decision has been hard-fought and hard-earned on the part of ... Jump to full article >>

Officials today rejected claims that the removal of point of sale advertising and display of tobacco products in shops has led to an increase in tobacco smuggling. The Office of Tobacco Control (OTC) has said that there is no evidence to back up the claims. “We have to stick with the facts and the facts are that there is no basis for any link between recent tobacco control measures and smuggling,“ said OTC Chief Executive Eamonn Rossi. “Smuggling of tobacco is in itself a serious problem and we congratulate the Revenue Commissioners and the gardaí on their recent successes in tackling ... Jump to full article >>

Health officials say they have a “golden opportunity” to head off an epidemic in tobacco use in Africa and prevent many cancer cases. While rich nations have taken action to reduce smoking, the World Health Organization says tobacco consumption in Africa is expected to grow by than four percent a year. That’s why cancer experts are holding a major conference this week in Tanzania (Nov 11– 14). Among those attending is Dr. Thomas Glynn, Director of International Cancer Control for the American Cancer Society and acting head of the Global Smokefree Partnership. “This i ... Jump to full article >>