OLYMPIA — Some state lawmakers are looking to carve out an exception to the state smoking ban by allowing customers to smoke cigars or pipes at some cigar lounges and tobacco shops. Under bills proposed in the state House and Senate, cigar lounges and retail tobacco stores could apply for a state endorsement that would allow patrons to smoke cigars or pipe tobacco in their shops. Cigarettes, however, would be banned, and the designated smoking area would be physically separated from other areas that prohibit smoking. No more than 100 cigar lounges and 500 retail tobacco shops in the state co ... Jump to full article >>

VIERA — Will Brevard County workers who light up have to pay up for health coverage? It’s part of a policy change the county is looking into, which would also restrict even where they smoke at work. Commissioners are considering a policy banning smoking and other tobacco use near county building entrances, where designated areas now exist, and also in county vehicles. The human resources department cites American Cancer Society statistics, saying smoking kills nearly 400,000 people in the U.S. each year, and it’s the No. 1 preventable death. Stats show smokers cost employers ... Jump to full article >>

SMOKERS could be limited to lighting up in their homes as the state government moves to ban smoking in alfresco dining areas, covered bus stops and taxi ranks and sports stadiums. In announcing the latest push to reduce smoking rates in NSW, the Assistant Health Minister, Frank Sartor, said yesterday laws could be tightened to prohibit smoking in most crowded public places. Mr Sartor published a discussion paper that says consideration should be given to toughening the law to ban smoking in outdoor eating areas and near children’s playgrounds, sporting grounds and public swimming pools. ... Jump to full article >>

Smokers will no longer be welcome at one American workplace as starting January 1. The Massachusetts Hospital Association, a health advocacy organization which represents about 90 hospitals, is implementing the tobacco-free hiring policy after a few months of deliberation. ‘Smoking is a personal choice, and as an employer I have a personal choice within the law about who we hire and who we don’t,’ CEO Lynn Nicholas said. Her father died from smoking. ‘The MHA,’ she said, ‘Is a spokesperson for hospitals across the commonwealth, and tobacco use is the leading ... Jump to full article >>

Despite the irritating presence of chain-smoking “environmental” scientist Grace Augustine in “Avatar,” the number of characters who smoke in a movies is on the decline, according to a new study. Companies routinely pay thousands of dollars to have their products placed in movies, but Avatar cause particular outrage. Sigourey Weaver’s Grace Augustine is a tough-talking, swear-like-a-sailor scientist who also chews up Marlboros. As an environmental scientist, no less, you would think Grace would know better. And, that’s what irked critics. The smoking scenes seem pretty gratuitous a ... Jump to full article >>

Tatiana Dyment found her 70-year-old mother sitting in the bathtub, her head leaning sideways and cold water from the showerhead still streaming down her back. “She could have been dead for two to three days, doctors suppose,” said the psychologist, who had rushed back to Moscow from vacation in Croatia after she couldn’t reach her mother by phone. “The windows in her apartment on the sixth floor were wide open and every piece of furniture in the apartment smelled of burning” from the thick white smoke hanging in the air outside. Doctors say her mother, Tatiana Be ... Jump to full article >>

Ferrari erased the bar code from their racing cars last night under pressure from British medical experts who accused the team of using the symbol as a “smokescreen for cigarette advertising”. The most successful team in Formula One acted quickly and dramatically to revelations in The Times a week ago that pressure was growing for a government inquiry into whether Ferrari’s famous livery broke laws on tobacco advertising, while their relationship, said to be worth $1 billion (about £670 million), with Philip Morris, the maker of Marlboro cigarettes, was held up to intense scrutiny. Fer ... Jump to full article >>

Australian Unity has been rewarding its members to butt out, and with more and more women taking up smoking it seems more puff is needed in quit smoking messages. Australian Unity’s head of Health Amanda Hagan said, the announcement of the federal governments plan to remove tobacco advertising and increase the price of cigarettes, couldn’t have come at a better time. “According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more Australian women each year are being diagnosed with smoking related diseases with tracheal and lung cancer overtaking breast cancer as the leading cause o ... Jump to full article >>

Children who begin smoking do not recognize that being irritable is an early sign of addiction, University of Massachusetts researchers said. “Previous studies have already shown that there is a strong correlation between symptoms of nicotine dependence and nicotine addiction,” Dr. Chyke Doubeni said in a statement. “This study shows that adolescents who start smoking, don’t appear to recognize the early signs of dependence.” Doubeni said other signs of early dependence on nicotine include a desire to smoke or craving for a cigarette. The study is based on data fr ... Jump to full article >>

An effort to extinguish the city’s ban on flavored chewing tobacco is up in smoke. The maker of Skoal and Copenhagen smokeless tobacco sued the city claiming only the feds can regulate the sale of tobacco products. Manhattan Federal Judge Colleen McMahon shot them down Wednesday, saying federal law allows communities to set their own policies about access to tobacco. “This decision … is not only a win for the children of New York City,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. “Our law is a good progressive law that will protect our youngest New Yorkers. If toba ... Jump to full article >>

Some 29.8 million Filipinos are exposed to cigarette smoke inside their homes, a national survey said, prompting health authorities to campaign against smoking even inside homes and in public places. The first Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) revealed that “almost half of Filipinos,” or 48.8 percent of those who were surveyed, are inhaling tobacco smoke inside their dwellings while 54 percent, representing 32.9 million of the population reported that someone smokes inside their homes. The GATS 2009 gathered a total of 9,705 individuals 15 years old and above living in rural and urban are ... Jump to full article >>