tobacco

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Hurricanes Smoke Cuban Cigar Biz

Double blow from Gustav, Ike to cost billions

(Newser) - Back-to-back blows from Hurricanes Gustav and Ike have the Cuban tobacco industry reeling, reports the Miami Herald. Hurricane Ike alone destroyed half of this year's tobacco plants, more than 3,000 tobacco-drying barns and nearly 9,000 homes for workers. The destruction occurred just days after Gustav had already wreaked...

Maker of Marlboros May Buy Skoal for $10B

(Newser) - The nation’s largest cigarette maker, Altria Group, is in talks to acquire UST, the producer of Skoal and Copenhagen smokeless tobaccos for a rumored $10 billion, the New York Times reports. Altria, a spinoff of Philip Morris, makes Marlboro cigarettes. Negotiators were poised to strike a deal over the...

Boston Bans Drugstore Cigarette Sales

Also outlawed at college campus convenience shops

(Newser) - Boston's health honchos have approved some of the country's toughest anti-tobacco rules by banning sales at some stores, the Boston Globe reports. The new rules forbid pharmacies and campus convenience stores from selling cigarettes. They also ban smoking on bar and restaurant patios. The city's cigar parlors, previously exempt, will...

Tobacco Could Treat Cancer
 Tobacco Could Treat Cancer 
Sep 4, 2008 12:00 PM CDT

Tobacco Could Treat Cancer

Plant's virus can carry therapeutic genes into damaged cells

(Newser) - Tobacco may be able to redeem itself. A modified virus from the plant can inject gene therapy into diseased cells to treat cancer, viruses, and genetic disorders, Wired reports. The virus’ tubular shape can be hollowed out and used like a tiny syringe to inject RNA molecules inside a cell....

House Votes to Let FDA Regulate Tobacco

Cigarettes would be controlled by FDA

(Newser) - The House passed landmark legislation yesterday to bring the tobacco industry under the regulatory control of the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA wouldn't have the power to ban cigarettes under the bill, but it could order nicotine levels in cigarettes reduced and restrict other harmful ingredients, reports the New ...

SF Votes Today on Tobacco Sales Ban

May be nation's first city to shut down drugstore sales

(Newser) - San Francisco's Board of Supervisors votes today on whether to ban the sale of cigarettes at the city's pharmacies. City and state legislatures across America—as well as giant pharmacy chains like CVS and Wal-Mart—are carefully watching the outcome of what could be a harbinger of things to come,...

Tobacco May Help Cure Cancer
 Tobacco May Help Cure Cancer 
Jul 22, 2008 5:39 PM CDT

Tobacco May Help Cure Cancer

Plant's robust immune system makes it a viable vaccine factory

(Newser) - Scientists are trying to use the tobacco plant to produce a cancer vaccine, Newsweek reports. Ironic though it may be, the plant could someday offer fast and cheap production of antibodies personalized for individual’s tumor cells. In the first study of its kind, scientists found that the plant-based vaccine...

Menthol Used to 'Hook' Young Smokers: Study

Menthol cigarettes go down easier with youngsters

(Newser) - Tobacco companies use menthol to make the taste of cigarettes more acceptable to young first-time smokers until they become addicted, a new study charges. Researchers found that 44% of child smokers used menthol cigarettes, reports Reuters. "Menthol stimulates the cooling receptors in the lungs," said an expert from...

Dutch Smoking Ban Leaves Pot Users in a Fog

Cannabis in coffee houses is fine, but take that butt outside

(Newser) - Effective tomorrow, the Netherlands bans smoking tobacco in public places, and the new law means big changes for Amsterdam's famously relaxed coffeehouses, reports USA Today. Because the law doesn't cover cannabis or hashish, users can continue to smoke them inside. But those who prefer their pot mixed with tobacco, as...

Percentage of Teen Smokers Holds Steady at 20%

Lack of progress in recent years worries health officials

(Newser) - The number of teens who smoke has stopped declining, and anti-smoking activists worry that complacency is setting in, the Washington Post reports. The latest survey shows that 20% of kids between the ages of 13 and 17 light up, a figure that has generally held steady since 2003. It remains...

Altria's 'Safer' Smokes Latest in Line of Flops

Marlboro Ultra Smooth can't beat declining demand in 3-year test

(Newser) - Altria is dropping its Marlboro Ultra Smooth cigarettes, the Wall Street Journal reports—the latest in a growing list of failures to sell Americans on so-called "safer" tobacco products. The cigarettes, which used special filters to block carcinogens, failed to attract consumer interest in a 3-year test, "presumably...

To Court Blue-Collar Vote, Light Up
To Court Blue-Collar
Vote, Light Up
OPINION
Jun 17, 2008 10:00 AM CDT

To Court Blue-Collar Vote, Light Up

Fellow Nicorette user urges Obama to take up smoking again

(Newser) - Everyone has ideas about how Barack Obama can attract the working-class white voters that eluded him in the primaries. Author Tony Horwitz goes for the throat: Start smoking again. West Virginia and Kentucky, where Hillary Clinton clobbered Obama, lead the nation in cigarette consumption among whites, and lighting up could...

Smoking Deaths Rocket in India
Smoking Deaths Rocket in India
Feb 14, 2008 11:05 AM CST

Smoking Deaths Rocket in India

Study predicts 1 million will die annually from tobacco-related illnesses

(Newser) - Tobacco use is the smoking gun in 900,000 deaths annually in India, and the numbers are on the rise as the nation grapples with its epidemic-scale cigarette addiction, reports the BBC. At least 1 million Indians will die annually from smoking-related illnesses in the next decade unless the nation...

WHO Pushes Governments to Battle Smoking

Developing countries most at risk, can least afford measures

(Newser) - Aiming to slash the 5.4 million tobacco-related deaths worldwide per year, the World Health Organization today called on governments everywhere to discourage smoking, the Wall Street Journal reports. As it stands, only 5% of countries have programs working to curb the habit, such as advertising bans and warning labels....

Smoking Pot Rots Your Teeth
Smoking Pot Rots Your Teeth
Feb 6, 2008 8:04 AM CST

Smoking Pot Rots Your Teeth

On the plus side, you'll feel pretty mellow about it

(Newser) - Smoking pot might give you the munchies—and then take away the pearly whites you need to satisfy them, a new study finds. New Zealand researchers have found that regularly smoking marijuana causes increasingly severe gum disease, with one in four heavy smokers with chronic periodontal disease by the age...

Germans to Ex-Chancellor: Yes, We Mind

Schmidt, 89, defies new smoking ban, lights up in public

(Newser) - German anti-smoking groups are fuming over photos of ex-chancellor Helmut Schmidt lighting up in a Hamburg theater in defiance of a ban on smoking in public places. Schmidt and his wife—"aged a lung-cancer-defying 89 and 88, respectively," Der Spiegel reports— face an investigation after an anti-smoking group...

Anti-Smoking Poster Boy Still Lights Up

'I'm afraid to quit' despite amputation, heart attacks, stroke

(Newser) - New Yorkers have grown to know Skip Legault's face well from anti-smoking ads in the subway and on TV over the past few weeks. A smoker since he was eight, Legault has lost a leg to blood clots, suffered two heart attacks in his twenties, and had a debilitating stroke....

Smoking Linked to Diabetes Risk
Smoking Linked to Diabetes Risk
Dec 12, 2007 1:13 PM CST

Smoking Linked to Diabetes Risk

Heavy puffers saw 61% risk increase

(Newser) - The list of ways smoking can kill you got a bit longer today, reports the BBC. Smokers have a 44% higher chance of developing type 2 diabetes, a new study shows, and that risk rises yet higher for heavy smokers, up to 61%. “The relevant question should no longer...

Joe Camel Ads Look Bad for Tobacco Giant

8 states sue over Rolling Stone insert; RJ Reynolds faces $100M in fines

(Newser) - Eight states are suing RJ Reynolds, alleging that an ad for Camel cigarettes in Rolling Stone last month violates a 1998 agreement not to use cartoons in advertising cigarettes. The states seek $100 for every magazine distributed and for every hit on the tobacco giant's associated website, the AP reports....

Smoking Rate No Longer Falling
Smoking Rate No Longer Falling
Nov 8, 2007 5:35 PM CST

Smoking Rate No Longer Falling

Activists say White House is asleep at the switch

(Newser) - After falling steadily for more than 40 years, smoking rates have steadied since 2004, according to CDC data released today. About 20% of Americans currently smoke, and experts are concerned. "Smoking is the biggest cause of preventable disease we have, and we need to bring down the rates as...

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