BAT-Imperial deal ‘likely’

Wells Fargo Securities believes a deal between British American Tobacco (BAT) and Imperial Tobacco Group (ITG) is “very probable,” based on a detailed market share and leverage analysis it performed.

The most likely scenario, according to the financial services firm, is that BAT acquires Imperial but divests its U.S. assets, ITG Brands, in a tax-free spin-off to shareholders, and sells some of the companies’ brands in certain markets to address anti-trust concerns.

Wells Fargo believes Philip Morris could play a key role in this transaction since it would likely be interested in brands such as Davidoff.

Neither PM nor JTI would be interested in buying ITG, according to Wells Fargo.

The firm believes ITG Brands could be valued at as much as $12 billion.

A BAT-Imperial deal would result in a stronger, more rational global competitive environment, according to the bank, ultimately driving better industry pricing.

Smoking Rates High in Lubbock and Amarillo Refions

Tobacco Prevention & Control Regional Coordinator for region 1 with the Texas Department of State Health Services Jennifer Hasty confesses that for several years she was starting a new day with a Winston Blue cigarette and a cup of coffee. She wanted to quit the habit but did not know how to do it. Soon

Kansas City Raised Tobacco Buying Age to 21

Kansas City and Wyandotte County decided to prohibit sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to young people under 21. The change aims to curb youth smoking by keeping teens and kids from picking up the habit Kansas was a leading city in the metro area and it with the majority of votes approved a

Boston Mayor Aims to Raise Smoking Age to 21

Boston could become the latest in a string of large U.S. cities to ban smoking and tobacco use by people under the age of 21 under a measure proposed on Wednesday by Mayor Marty Walsh.

The move to raise the minimum smoking age from 18 follows similar steps taken by some 90 U.S. cities and counties including New York. Hawaii in June became the first state to ban tobacco use by people under the age of 21.

"We know the consequences of tobacco use are real and can be devastating," Walsh said in a statement. "These proposed changes send a strong message that Boston takes the issue of preventing tobacco addiction seriously, and I hope that message is heard throughout Boston and across the entire country."

The proposal is subject to the approval of the city's Board of Health. Cigarette smoking is the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, accounting for more than 480,000 deaths annually, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Smoking has been on the decline among Boston teens, with just 7.9 percent reporting cigarette use in 2013, down from 15.3 percent in 2005, Walsh said. But use of e-cigarettes and inexpensive cigars has risen among teens over the past few years. The proposed ban would apply to e-cigarettes, cigars, snuff and all other tobacco products.

Walsh, a recovered alcoholic, earlier this year banned the use of chewing tobacco in public spaces in Boston, including the historic Fenway Park ballpark. The ban also applies to professional ballplayers, both the Red Sox and visiting teams.

Walsh has also been one of the most outspoken Democratic opponents of proposed statewide ballot initiatives that would legalize recreational marijuana use in Massachusetts. Proponents of those measures aim to put them to a vote in November 2016.

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Bellingham Bans Smoking in City Parks

New smoking ban in Bellingham to be adopted and smokers will no longer be allowed to use their tobacco or electronic cigarettes in any city park. The ban includes also cigars. The Council took the decision on November 9 with six votes for and one against. However, it needs a final voting before the rule

Councillor Disappointed after Smoking Ban Trial Fails to Gain Support

 The man proposing a 12 month trial smoking ban in Wagga Wagga's CBD says the business lobby is wrong to think the ban would cost trade.

On Monday, Wagga Wagga City Council (WWCC) rejected the proposed trial, instead voting to implement the state's July 2015 policy on managing outdoor smoking.

The meeting received a petition opposing the trial.

Councillor Greg Conkey says there was strong support for the ban, but he doubts there will be a change in the vote when it comes back to council in a fortnight.

"I don't think so unfortunately," he said.

"I think the business lobby got to a number of the councillors and a number of business groups approached certain councillors, and I think they were swayed by their arguments, and their argument was they believe they would lose business which I dismiss.

"I don't believe that's a strong argument whatsoever."

Councillor Conkey does not believe the new policy managing outdoor smoking, will stop offenders.

"People cannot smoke within, I think it's four metres of an entrance to a shopping mall," he said.

"People are no longer allowed to smoke in alfresco dining areas associated with hotels, already there's a ban in place about smoking within 10 metres of alfresco dining areas within the main street of Wagga.

"Problem is that people are smoking cheapest Camel Full Flavour http://www.cigarettestime.com/camel/full-flavour, and they walk straight past these areas, certainly within 10 metres, certainly within one or two metres.

"That's an issue which would have been resolved with this motion."

Councillor Conkey says Wagga Wagga City Council's missed an opportunity to take a lead on the issue in New South Wales.

He says the smoking ban proposal was to make the city safer, especially in Wagga, which he dubs the asthma capital of Australia.

Councillor Conkey says it is likely Wagga will eventually be forced by the state to enact a ban on smoking, when it could have been first.

"Wagga led the charge some years ago, in 2007 when Wagga City Council banned smoking within 10 metres of children's playgrounds," he said.

"The state government subsequently picked that up.

"The City Council also banned smoking within council controlled alfresco dining areas, and again the state government picked that up."

Teen Users Start Smoking with Flavoured Tobacco

A newest survey reveals that teenage smokers younger than the legal smoking age.  are attracted by flavoured tobacco products. These include especially cigarettes with menthol flavour and hookah with sweet fruit flavours. The author of the study is Bridget K. Ambrose of the Center for Tobacco Products at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in

Three Massachusetts Towns Increase Tobacco Purchase Age to 21

 The trio of Lee, Lenox and Stockbridge, Mass. have agreed to increase the minimum age to purchase tobacco products and electronic cigarettes to 21-years-old, as the Tri Town Boards of Health approved the proposal at its meeting on Monday night.

While each of the three towns maintains its own health department, they have had a collective organization since 1929 to oversee health-related issues within those communities. The TTBoH had considered two options for the increase, one that would gradually raise the age over three years and a second that would increase it in one fell swoop on Jan. 2, 2016.

After hearing testimony from several community members as well as Dr. Lester Hartman, noted pediatrician and advocate of raising the tobacco purchase age to 21, the board approved the latter option, according to the Berkshire Eagle.

In addition to the age increase, the TTBoH set new pricing minimums for cigars: $2.50 for a single cigar and $5 for any package containing multiple cigars. It also approved a cap on the number of tobacco retailer licenses in each town, with no new licenses to be issued other than what currently exists.

Lee has a population of nearly 6,000 people, while Lenox has a population of just over 5,000 people and Stockbridge is home to nearly 2,000 residents. All three towns are located in Berkshire County, approximately 130 miles west of Boston.

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Virginia Department of Health launches 31-day countdown to help tobacco users quit

The Virginia Department of Health is helping tobacco users get ready to quit by sharing tips and resources during Countdown to Quit Day. The countdown kicks off Oct. 20 and offers a different tip on VDH’s Facebook and Twitter platforms each day through Nov. 19.

Virginia Quit Day coincides with The Great American Smoke Out, Nov. 19, and celebrates the benefits of living tobacco free. “Quitting tobacco is difficult, but one of the best health decisions a person can make,” said State Health Commissioner Marissa J. Levine, MD, MPH, FAAFP. “The benefits of quitting begin almost immediately after a person quits and continue throughout life, not just for the tobacco user, but also for their family and friends.”

Tips cover topics such as preparing a quit plan, building social support, and understanding withdrawal symptoms. The Countdown is not just for people wanting to quit tobacco, but for their loved ones as well. The tips provided will help them support their loved ones when they decide to quit, making it more likely they will remain tobacco free.

One of the resources available year-round to tobacco users is the Virginia Quitline. This evidence-based model offers support for quitting, including free quit coaching, a free quit plan and free educational materials. Call 800-QUIT-NOW (800-784-8669). Deaf and hearing-impaired TTY is 800-332-8615.

“Last year during the Countdown, calls to the Quitline increased 70 percent over call volume the previous year,” said Jayne Flowers, Tobacco Use Control Program director. “Based on people’s feedback from last year’s Countdown we updated our tips and resources to encourage even more tobacco users to take this life-changing step this November.”

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New Anti-Smoking Legislation Proposed in Queensland

In Queensland, Australia, there were proposed new anti-smoking laws which will make it more difficult for smokers to light up. Cameron Dick,  Health Minister, told that there was proposed to prohibit smoking on city’s bas stations, children’s sporting events, in and around childcare centres and other public zones. The city already banned smoking in restaurants,

Smoking Ban Rises Debates in New Orleans

In New Orleans there was drafted a smoking ban which raised hot debates. According to proposal, smoking should be prohibited in Storyland and City Putt. However, park commissioners have different opinions on that — some want a 100% ban, and some do not want a ban at all. The proposal came from Susan Hess, the

Bluffton to Ban Smoking at Kids Playgrounds

Today smoking in parks in the town of Bluffton, South Carolina, is legal. However, things may change soon, because town council members are considering a law that would prohibit use of tobacco in public parks. In Bluffton, smoking is banned in all restaurants and now the ban is going to be expanded to more public

Smoking Ban in Cars with Children Campaign Launched

A campaign to raise awareness of a ban on smoking in cars carrying children has begun, in advance of the law coming into force in Wales on 1 October.

Billboards and posters will highlight the ban, intended to protect under 18-year olds from second-hand smoke. Parents buying Prefect cigarettes online say that the law is not needed because they do not light up in presence of kids.

Health Minister Mark Drakeford said the law was needed because "smoking in cars poisons children".

People breaking the ban, coming into force in England on the same day, will face a £50 on-the-spot fine.

Almost one child in 10 in Wales says smoking is allowed in their family car, according to recent research, although that proportion has halved since 2008.

"Children are particularly at risk from second-hand smoke, which has been linked to a range of health issues, from sudden infant death syndrome, lung and ear infections and asthma," Mr Drakeford said.

"This danger is heightened when they are in the confined space of a car and can't escape the fumes.

"There is evidence that even with windows open, the level of toxic chemicals remains high."

Jamie Matthews from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Wales said the ban was popular with the public.

"Together with the forthcoming regulations on standardised packaging these regulations will help to denormalise smoking and discourage children from taking up the deadly habit," he said.

The law does not apply to e-cigarettes or when an under-18-year old is the only person in the car.

It will be enforced by police and local authorities.

California Failed to Adopt Anti-Tobacco Laws

On their latest regular session, officials in California failed to adopt a package of anti-tobacco laws that aimed to restrict use of e-cigarettes, increase legal smoking age to 21 and raise the tobacco tax by $2 each pack. Officials told that there is no chance that this law will be voted till the end of

Smoke-free Workplace Laws May Decrease Youth Smoking

Although teens rarely spend time in offices, smoke-free laws affecting those venues may have a ripple effect that deters youth from taking up the habit, a new study suggests.

In an 11-year study, smoke-free workplace laws were tied to a decrease in the odds that adolescents and young adults would start to smoke, and smoke-free bar laws were tied to fewer days of smoking for youth who had already started. Young people prefer slim cigarettes and choose to buy Vogue Super Slims Arome online http://cigarette-deals.com/vogue-cheap-cigarettes/vogue-super-slims-arome

“There was an effect of both smoking restrictions and cigarette taxes, and independent and additive effects,” said senior author Stanton A. Glantz of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education of the University of California, San Francisco.

Smoke-free workplace laws had an effect on smoking initiation equivalent to a $1.57 tax on cigarettes, according to the analysis.

“You often hear people say the most effective thing you can do is raise taxes,” Glantz told Reuters Health by phone. According to this study, big tax increases have a bigger effect on smoking restriction, but smaller tax increases will be equal to or lesser than smoke-free laws.

Researchers used data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth from 1997 to 2007, following about 4,000 of the people in that study who were 12 to 18 years old when it began.

In 1997, the youth were asked if they had ever smoked a cigarette, and in later years were asked if they had smoked since the previous interview. Those who were smokers reported on how many of the previous 30 days they had smoked.

The researchers compared these answers to state level cigarette taxes, as well as smoke-free laws, which can be statewide, county-wide or city-wide.

Smoke-free bar laws did not seem to affect whether or not the youth would begin smoking, but smoke-free workplace laws decreased the odds of smoking initiation by 30 percent.

“When you pass workplace laws it sends a strong message that smoking is out,” Glantz said. “Teenagers are looking to adults, and see adults rejecting smoking.”

UK Preparing for Stoptober 2015

Smokers in the UK are invited to join national Stoptober campaign aimed to help them quit the habit. The campaign is organized each year in October. Data demonstrates that 20.3% of adult people across Yorkshire and The Humber are smokers. Thus Public Health England is encouraging them to participate in Stoptober, the quit smoking campaign

Hartford City Passed a Smoking Ban

City Council in Hartford, Connecticut, on August 11 with the majority of votes (19-2) passed an ordinance prohibiting smoking in city’s parks and recreational areas. However, this may be not last word on the subject, because there do exist questions on the ordinance enforcement. Resident Ed Burdick considers that the ordinance is poorly drafted, because

A Smoking Ban in Pub Beer Gardens? Stop Persecuting Smokers

It should now be clear to anyone who still needs confirmation that secondhand smoke was only ever the excuse, rather than the reason, for the 2007 smoking ban. Its real objective, indeed the objective of all anti-smoking policies, was to harass, stigmatise and inconvenience smokers.

This is a system known as ‘denormalisation’ in the field of tobacco control and as ‘fat-shaming’ in the field of obesity. Since passive smoking was only ever a cover story, it should be no surprise that the smoke-free crusade has continued long after nonsmokers were given the whole of the country’s interior.

Anti-smoking campaigners get annoyed when people accuse them of being prohibitionists. They don’t want smoking banned completely, they will protest, and in a way this is true. There are only two places they want smoking banned: indoors and outdoors. Apart from that, smokers can do whatever they want.

It was in this spirit of tolerance and liberalism that the Royal Society for Public Health yesterday called for parks, beer gardens and other outdoor places to be turned into ‘smoking exclusion zones’. They made no claims about passive smoking and nonsmokers’ health to justify this quest for lebensraum, but they did describe smoking as an 'abnormal activity' that people shouldn’t engage in if another person might see them, ie. nearly anywhere.

This is a profoundly worrying rationale. If you have a belief in anything approaching a free society, you will understand that it is not the job of government to decide what is normal, nor is it the job of the police to arrest those who deviate from the norm.

With one in five people still smoking OK black online, it is debatable whether smokers are more ‘abnormal’ than any other minority, such as people who join anti-smoking groups, but even if they were, being a member of a harmless, if self-harming, minority does not justify state persecution.

The Royal Society for Public Health is suggesting that unusual, unhealthy or minority pursuits should be criminalised in order to set a good example to others. They want people to be arrested, fined and possibly even imprisoned for being poor role models. In a liberal society, the only appropriate response can be made with two words or two fingers.

87% Hookah Tweets are in Positive Context

Researchers found that daily young people mention 12,000  times hookah use in a positive context on Twitter. It means that hookah becomes more popular among teenagers due to belief that hookah is less harmful than cigarettes. However, researchers say that hookah is not safe. The author of the study is Melissa Krauss who is a

Smoking Rooms in Airport in Salt Lake City

Joshua Lewis is a smoker who buys Prima Non-Filter says when he is at Salt Lake City International Airport he normally smokers cigarettes in the smoking room. He says that sometimes air travel is hard and it is a real crack-up when there is no smoking room in the airport and there is no possibility

The Borough Saw a 2.5% Fall with Only 6.7% of Pregnant Women Still Smoking

 The number of pregnant smokers in Bracknell has had the sharpest drop in the south east, new figures show.

Bracknell Forest saw a 2.5 per cent drop in the number of women smoking while pregnant in just one year, the biggest reduction out of all boroughs in the south east, something the council health team puts down to a general trend towards quitting and successful stop-smoking schemes.

Only 6.7 per cent of pregnant women in the borough are still smoking, down from 9.2 per cent in 2013/14.  Dr Lisa McNally, leader of the council’s public health team, said the drop in pregnant smokers was welcome news but more work was needed to reassure women they wouldn’t be judged if they asked for help. It was found that most pregnant women choose to smoke cheap Karelia cigarettes http://www.mydiscountcigarette.net/buy/karelia

She said: “It’s part of an overall trend. People are quitting at a faster rate in Bracknell Forest than they are in the rest of the south east.

"For every one person quitting in the region there are two people quitting in Bracknell Forest – twice as many.

“The second reason is our smoking cessation schemes. It’s surprising how many people aren’t aware of the effect smoking in pregnancy has on unborn babies.

"You think it’s common knowledge but in fact, nationally, only half of women who smoke quit when they’re pregnant.

 “A lot of it is done in private. I can’t remember the last time I saw a pregnant woman in public with a cigarette, so I think a lot of it is done in secret if they are finding it difficult to quit.

"Ironically, society’s distaste for smoking when you’re pregnant is maintaining it because it stops women coming forward for support because they’re worried they’ll be judged.

“We want to reassure women that they won’t be judged or told off if they come to us.”

Bracknell Forest also has twice as many people quitting smoking in total. For every one person quitting in the south east, two people are quitting in Bracknell according to Dr McNally who said there was "something different" happening in the borough.

She said: “I think it’s just a local culture.  "There’s something happening in Bracknell Forest where people are taking control of their health. I can’t completely explain it but there’s something different going on.”

UK: Smoe-Free Campaign Launched in Merseyside

Officials in Merseyside county, UK, will prohibit use of tobacco on most outdoor events in the course of smoke-free campaign that was launched this week. The campaign was launched by Tobacco Free Futures, a local social enterprise. The campaign targets youth in Merseyside and Cheshire and aims to discourage them from taking up the smoking

Cigarette Butts to be Recycled in Easton

Cigarette butts on the grounds in the cities and towns creates additional problems for  street cleaners. The Easton Ambassadors in Pennsylvania state launched a program which aims to keep sidewalks clean from cigarette butts and at the same time it will turn those butts into the money for local budget. The Easton Ambassadors placed a

Pascagoula City Wants a Smoking Ban in its Parks

Pascagoula city, Jackson County, Mississippi, is considering to pass an ordinance which prohibits smoking in its parks. In 2013 the city already banned tobacco use on workplaces, restaurants and indoor public places. Now local authorities want to make recreationa zones smoke-free. Soon lighting cigarettes up at Beach Park in Pascagoula city may be illegal and

Minneapolis City Council Restricts Flavored Tobacco Sales

Flavored cigars will no longer be sold in many Minneapolis stores starting in January.

The City Council voted Friday to ban flavored tobacco products at convenience stores, according to the Star Tribune

The federal government banned flavored cigarettes in 2009, but other tobacco products are still sold with fruit and candy flavors.

Council Member Elizabeth Glidden called the ban a "major policy change" that will have a significant effect on young people in the city. She said it is up to cities to fill in the gaps left from federal action aimed at curbing youth smoking.

"It seems like a challenge that we as local communities need to take action to address," she told the crowd at Friday's meeting. "You have come to us with proposals on how to make that happen."

Currently, cigars sold in flavors like grape, strawberry and chocolate can be sold at more than 300 locations. Starting in January that drops to fewer than two dozen adult-only tobacco shops.

The vote followed several weeks of debate between anti-tobacco advocates who argued that flavored products were designed to attract young smokers and shop owners who fear a significant hit to their businesses.

The measure passed on Friday also set minimum prices for both flavored and unflavored cigars at $2.60.

Minneapolis Passed Ban on Sale of Flavoured Tobacco

The City Council in Minneapolis passed new restrictions on sale of flavored tobacco products in order to prevent young people from tobacco use. The talk is about little cigars, hookah, smokeless tobacco. Sale of flavored tobacco products will be banned anywhere except specialty tobacco shops, where those product should be sold only to those over

The WHO Urges Countries to Increase Tobacco Tax

In is latest report the WHO concludes that few countires in the world use high tobacco taxes to discourage people from smoking or help them quit. The organization says that at least 75% of a pack of cigarettes should be tax. The report is called “The Global Tobacco Epidemic 2015″ and United Nations health agency

Plan to Enlarge Health Warning Labels

Tobacco Control Inspectors carrying out their duties. The government is making plans to enlarge warning signs on cigarette packaging in a bid to reduce the number of smokers.

Hong Kong’s tobacco industry was up in arms on Monday against a plan by the health authorities to enlarge health warning labels, saying it would not help lower the smoking rate and goes against the interests of tobacco companies.

Major industry players called on the government to withdraw the proposed measures.

The Food and Health Bureau submitted new tobacco control proposals to the Legislative Council (LegCo) in May, calling for the size of graphic health warnings on tobacco products to be enlarged from 50 percent of the two largest surfaces of cigarette packets to 85 percent.

Such a move, it said, would help lower the city’s smoking prevalence rate.

The Coalition on Tobacco Affairs (CTA) - made up of 90 percent of the city’s tobacco business associations - argued that the plan would not help reduce the number of smokers, based on a study it had commissioned earlier.

After studying statistics from the Census and Statistics Department, Kevin Tsui, an associate professor at the Department of Economics of Clemson University, found that the pre-existing trend of smoking rates did not change after health warning labels had been made bigger.

He had studied the change in the number of daily smokers in Hong Kong since 1982. Three rounds of health warning label enlargement were ordered by the government in 1994, 2000 and 2007, none of which led to a drop in the local smoking rate.

Compared with other places that have not imposed warning labels, no significant difference can be seen.

Tsui compared smoking prevalence data in Hong Kong with that of the United States where no warnings are required on the front or back of Marlboro cigarette packets. He found the smoking prevalence trends were almost parallel as percentages in both places had been lowered by only 2 to 3 percent in the past 15 years.

Owing to the promotion and education work conducted by the authorities since the 1980s, all Hong Kong residents are fully aware of the negative impact smoking has on health, the CTA saying that a bigger health warning won’t help further lower the smoking rate.

According to the latest statistics released in May, Hong Kong’s smoking rate now stands at 10.7 percent - 13 percent lower than in 1982.

Mississippi Awarded for Anti-Smoking Efforts

According to data obtained in 2014, Mississippi occupies the first place in the list of American states which adopted comprehensive municipal smoke-free ordinances. This made Americans for Nonsmokers Rights name Mississippi winner in  Smoke-free Challenge. Thus the state received an award due to its anti-smoking efforts. Totally14 cities in the state of Mississippi adopted in

Americans Buy Flavoured Cigarettes Online

New study made in the USA reveals that though flavoured cigarettes were banned by FDA in 2009 in the country, today remain very popular among smokers and they buy them online. One of authors of the study is Jon-Patrick Allem, a postdoctoral fellow with the university’s Tobacco Center of Regulatory Science. The study was funded

North Andover Raises Cigarette Age to 21

North Andover has joined a growing number of communities that prohibit people under the age of 21 from buying Davidoff cigarettes online and other tobacco products.

The Board of Health voted unanimously Thursday night to increase the minimum age for tobacco purchases from 18 to 21. Voting in favor of the change were Dr. Thomas Trowbridge, the chairman, Dr. Frank MacMillan, Larry Fixler and Joseph McCarthy.

Edwin Pease was absent.

The new minimum will take effect Sept. 1, Trowbridge said. Other cities and towns that have raised the tobacco purchase age to 21 include Lawrence, Methuen and Andover. Cambridge, Salem, Mass., Newton and Needham have also raised the minimum to 21.

New York City has raised the tobacco age to 21 and Hawaii became the first state to do so a couple of weeks ago.

Trowbridge said he and other board members did not want North Andover to become an "island" where young people under 21 could still buy cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products.

"We felt this was a way to help to reduce youth smoking," Trowbridge said. Sixty-five percent of adult smokers began the nicotine habit when they were between the ages of 18 and 21, Trowbridge said.

State and federal laws prohibit tobacco from being sold to minors under 18. Massachusetts boards of health have the authority to increase the minimum age.

The North Andover Board of Health voted last year to prohibit the sale of electronic cigarettes to people under 18. Electronic cigarettes are not made from tobacco – but they contain nicotine.

Smoking Ban in Parks Passed in Salem

On June 8, there was organized public meeting in Salem City Council to discuss subjects regarding smoking in parks. It was decided that there is a need to create a special comission on trees. Most Salem residents on the meeting showed their support for the creation of an urban tree commission.  Resident Brian Hines was

WHO: Anti-Tobacco Campaigns Responsible for Dropping Prices

 ANTI-TOBACCO campaigns being conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) are among factors to blame for the depreciating prices of the cash crop in both the local and world markets, the National Assembly heard.

Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives, Mr Godfrey Zambi, noted on the other hand that prices of tobacco in the world market have been fluctuating due to a number of other factors including competition among major producers of the crop and quality of produced tobacco. People looking for cheapest cigarettes, just enter the web and order them online from http://www.cigarettesplace.net/

Mr Zambi made the explanation while responding to a basic question by Mpanda Rural MP, Mr Moshi Kakoso (CCM), who had tasked the government to explain whether it had measures in place to compensate local tobacco farmers owing to declining prices of the cash crop in the world market.

In response, the deputy minister said there were a number of factors which were responsible for pushing down prices of the commodity.

He cited the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) by the WHO as among causes that have led to reduced use of tobacco products and eventually declining prices of the commodity.

“In the wake of these developments, the government will continue to look for markets in various countries to ensure our farmers are paid handsomely for their products,” Mr Zambi said in response to the question.

According to the deputy minister, owing to fluctuating prices of cash crop in the world market, including tobacco, the government will work with responsible stakeholders to establish a special fund to compensate farmers when prices fall in the world market.

Singapore Bans Alternative Tobacco Products

Singapore Ministry of Health announced last week that starting from December 15, 2015, in the country there will be prohibited use and sale of emerging tobacco products. The talk is not only about the existing tobacco products on the market but also about all new products that are not available in Singapore yet. As Ministry

Big Butt Cleanup in Titusville

On June 3, young people in Titusville, Pennsylvania, participated in Big Butt Cleanup organized for the second time since 2014. Cleanup was organized on the occasion of celebration of the World Health Organization’s World No Tobacco Day. The major aim of the No Tobacco Day is to remind people about the tobacco use risks and

Singapore to Ban Existing and Emerging Tobacco Products as Pre-emptive Measure

  Singapore's Ministry of Health has announced plans to ban existing and emerging tobacco products in two phases as a "pre-emptive measure to protect public health against the known and potential harms of such products".

Besides protecting the public from the health risks associated with the consumption of emerging tobacco products, the ban is aimed at ensuring that the targeted emerging tobacco products do not gain a foothold or become entrenched in the Singapore market," the statement said.

In addition to preventing these products from "stimulating demand for and thereby increasing the prevalence of tobacco consumption", it will also prevent such products from becoming "gateway" or "starter" products for non-smokers, it added.

In a statement released on 15 June, the ministry said under the first phase, tobacco products that are currently not available in Singapore will be banned with effect from 15 December 2015.

The second phase will cover a ban on products already available in the market and will take effect from 1 August 2016. The delay in the ban is to allow for businesses to "adjust their operating models and deplete their existing stocks of such products."

The products to be banned under the second phase include:

On 9 June, the Welsh government announced plans to put in place legislation to ban e-cigarettes in public places.

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UK: Fewer Kids Exposured to Secondhand Smoke at Homes

New study reveals that in the UK kids exposure to secondhand smoke was significantly reduced since 1998. The results of the study may be found in the scientific journal Addiction. In the new study the researchers found that in England, kid’s exposure to secondhand smoke has declined by around 80 percent since 1998. These are

New York Shows Decline in Smoking Rates

On Monday, state officials said that in New York there was reported lowering of smoking rates. In past four years smoking rates among high school students has reduced by 42% to 7.3%, while the adult smoking rate has reduced to 14.5%, below the national average of 17.8%. State authorities say that smoking rates reduction occured

Reynolds-Lorillard deal to close Friday

The historic purchase by Reynolds American Inc. of Lorillard Inc. has a closing date — Friday — after a federal judge signed off Monday on the manufacturers selling five brands to Imperial Tobacco Group Plc.

Judge Gladys Kessler’s decision was the final legal hurdle to a megadeal announced in July 2014 and valued at $29.1 billion Monday. Reynolds is essentially buying Newport, the top-selling U.S. menthol brand.

Under the terms of the federal District Court’s remedial order in 2006, the court had to enter an order finding that ITG Brands, Imperial’s U.S. subsidiary, intends to and is capable of complying with the order before Reynolds can transfer the four cigarette brands.

The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 on May 26 to give the deal preliminary approval.

Reynolds spokesman David Howard said Monday that the FTC’s 30-day public comment period “does not preclude the companies from proceeding with closing.” Howard expressed confidence Reynolds will be “ready to hit the ground running” with integration starting Friday.

The deal’s final value will be set at the close of market trading Thursday. Reynolds is projected to have more than $11 billion in annual revenues.

“We are very pleased to be able to proceed with this transformative acquisition,” Susan Cameron, Reynolds’ president and chief executive, said in a statement.

“With the addition of Lorillard’s strong Newport brand, Reynolds’ operating companies will have brand portfolios that reflect diversification and strength across product categories and across geographies.”

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. will have the No. 2-4 U.S. traditional cigarette brands in Newport, Camel and Pall Mall, respectively.

Livingston County Housing Authority Free of Smoke

Starting from June 1, Housing Authority Properties in Livingston County, Michigan, became totally smoke-free and it includes its both indoor and outdoor facilities. According to Dale Schrock, housing authority board chairman, they took the decision to make their housing free of tobacco smoke in order to protect residents, visitors and workers from harmful effects of

Australian National University in Canberra to go 'smoke-free' from July

The Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra has used World No Tobacco Day to announce the campus will go smoke-free from the middle of July. The university announced that the smoking ban would cover the entire ANU campus in Canberra as well as remote ANU campuses such as the Mt Stromlo Observatory and Kioloa coastal campus near Batemans Bay. Students from this university prefer slim cigarettes like Vogue http://www.buycigarettes.eu/vogue

Vice-chancellor Professor Ian Young said ANU would go smoke-free from the start of the second semester on July 20.

"The university is announcing our decision to go smoke-free on World No Tobacco Day because we believe it sends a strong message to staff and students about being healthy," he said.

"The university is committed to providing a safe and healthy campus environment for staff, students, contractors and visitors. We feel this will help to address that."

Professor Young said the university would also provide support to staff and students who wished to quit smoking. He said ANU would pay for QUIT courses for staff and PhD students.

Smoking is already prohibited inside ANU buildings and within 10 metres of building entrances. The new policy prohibits all smoking, including electronic cigarettes, in or around any of the university's campuses. But smoking will be allowed in special designated smoking areas around licensed venues and residential colleges. ANU chief operating officer Chris Grange said the university had been thinking about going smoke-free for two years.

"Buildings on campus have been smoke-free for 20 years now and it's time for us to update our treatment of cigarettes," he said.

"Tobacco is just not something that we should have consumed on university campuses.

"I don't necessarily expect 100 per cent support from every staff member and student, but certainly there's an enormous groundswell of support for this measure."

France Approved Smoking Ban on Playgrounds

France began a serious fight with tobacco use in the country. This summer comes into effect new anti-smoking measure which bans use of cigarettes and tobacco products in playgrounds. France is in top of countires in the EU with high smoking rates and the government introduces measures to reduce those rates in the entire country.

Winston is Top-Selling Brand in North Carolina

Brand Finance  is the world’s leading brand valuation consultancy company which for several years has been examining and ranking Top 500 brands in the USA and other counties of the world. Its offices are located in New York. Recently   Brand Finance  presented their valuation of this year. It should be said that its valuation is

Oklahoma Sees Significant Decline in Adults Smoking Rates

Oklahoma has seen a significant decrease in the number of adults who smoke cigarettes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday.

In 2011, 26 percent of Oklahoma adults 18 and older smoked cigarettes. By 2013, that number decreased to about 24 percent. Most popular cigarettes brand is Marlboro Micro http://www.mydiscountcigarette.net/buy/marlboro/micro

Oklahoma health officials celebrated this decline last year, when Oklahoma saw its smoking rate go from about 26 percent to 23 percent. (To be technical, the 2011 rate was 26.1 percent, the 2012 rate was 23.3 percent and the 2013 rate was 23.7 percent).

That said, Oklahoma still has one of the highest adult smoking rates in the U.S.

In 2013, only West Virginia (27.3 percent), Kentucky (26.5 percent), Arkansas (25.9 percent) and Mississippi (24.8 percent) had higher adult smoking rates.

For years, Oklahoma has struggled with high rates of smoking-related diseases, such as COPD, lung cancer, stroke and heart disease.

As the CDC report notes:

Current cigarette smoking ranged from almost 12 percent in Utah to 29 percent in Kentucky in 2011 and from about 10 percent in Utah to about 27 percent in West Virginia in 2013.

During 2011-2013, current cigarette smoking declined significantly in 26 states: Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin and Wyoming. No significant changes were observed in any other states.

Methuen Raises Tobacco Buying Age to 21

From September 1, 2015, in the city of Methuen, Massachusetts, people younger than 21 will no longer be alble to buy tobacco products and electronic cigarettes because the city raises legal age for buying tobacco. However, owners of local convenience stores do not welcome the change because they say that increase of age will lead

One Billion People on the Globe are Tobacco Users

Latest global survey demonstrates that alcohol and tobacco ramian two major causes of a number of health problems in people around the world. Researchers say that according to obtained data, nearly one billion people (more that 20% of adults) use tobacco regularly while 240 million people (5% adults) are dependent from alcohol. The author of

Broward College to Become Smoke-free Campus

 The Broward College Board of Trustees has approved a policy to make the college a tobacco and smoke free campus.

Beginning Monday, Aug. 24, smoking or use of tobacco products, objects or devices, including cigarettes, cigars, pipes, electronic cigars or smokeless tobacco products will be prohibited on all Broward College campuses and centers.

In a statement released by the college, Brenda Bordogna, Broward College's employee wellness program manager said, "Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disease in this country. Adopting a tobacco and smoke-free policy is our commitment as an institution of higher education to provide a safe and healthy environment for the college community to learn, work and visit," she said. Many sudents buy cigarettes online usa.

The ban includes spaces inside buildings, administrative facilities or anywhere on campus grounds, such as sidewalks, athletic fields and parking lots or garages.

To help staff and students through the transition, onsite tobacco cessation programs will be offered through a partnership with Nova Southeastern University's Area Health Education Centers program, which will train and use Broward College's RN-BSN nursing students as smoking cessation facilitators.

Eugene City Council to Discuss Smoking Ban in Downtown

Smoking in Oregon is already banned inside buildings, and smokers are forced out to light up outside. However, the city of Eugene wants to ban smoking on downtown sidewalks. The Eugene City Council  is going to discuss this week the idea of smoking ban on downtown sidewalks and a number of outdoor public spaces such

Smoking Banned in Martin Place

SMOKERS are banned from lighting up in Martin Place for 12 months from today.

City of Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore announced the new measure this morning, saying rangers would patrol the central pedestrian mall for 12 months.

“This trial ban will protect visitors including many children and families by reducing their exposure to harmful second-hand tobacco smoke,” Ms Moore said.

The City surveyed businesses and 757 smokers and non-smokers to gauge community opinion.

The majority of non-smokers said Martin Place was less pleasant because of passive smoke.

“We have asked the community what they think about this issue and more people showed a preference for Martin Place to be a smoke-free zone,” Ms Moore said.

“Thousands of people pass through Martin Place every day, so it’s important we make the right decision for our workers, residents, visitors and businesses.”

The ban applies to all public outdoor space in Martin Place.

The trial has the backing of the Cancer Council, Council Institute and Heart Foundation.

“Creating smoke free public outdoor spaces will not only reduce the harmful spread of second hand smoke, but will also support people who have quit or are trying to quit,” the Heart Foundation’s Julie Anne Mitchell said.

Smoking is already prohibited in some areas of Martin Place under state legislation, including within four metres of a public building doorway.

The government will also enforce smoking bans in outdoor dining areas from July.

The Martin Place rule comes into effect just days after the Wentworth Courier reported Town Hall was clamping down on littering smokers, fining 379 of them in three months. Now smokers will have to look for other places to smoke their Parker&Simpson cigarettes online.

China Increased Taxes on Tobacco

At the end of last week Ministry of Finance told that China increases the wholesale tax rate for cigarettes to 11% from current 5%. The law came into action on Sunday and it aims to reduce number of smokers in the entire country. In past several years the country implemented more anti-smoking measures despite strong

Tobacco tax initiative proposed for California

Stepping up pressure on the California Legislature to raise the tobacco tax, a coalition of health groups said Monday it will begin circulating petitions to put an initiative on the November 2016 ballot to hike the levy on cigarettes.

Two proposed initiative summaries, one including electronic cigarettes, were filed Monday with the state Attorney General’s Office, which provides a title and summary to be used on the petitions. The filing is by the group Save Lives California Coalition, which includes the American Heart Assn., American Lung Assn. in California, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the California Medical Assn., SEIU California, the California Dental Assn., Tobacco Free Kids and Health Access California.

The groups will decide later which of the two alternatives to put on the ballot.

Like the legislation, the initiatives would raise the tobacco tax by $2 per pack of cigarettes to raise $1.5 billion annually for smoking prevention and smoking-related medical costs now borne by taxpayers through Medi-Cal, the state's healthcare program for the poor.

One version is for combustible cigarettes and the other would also extend the tax to include electronic cigarettes if the state follows through with a current proposal to label them as tobacco products.

The legislation raising the tax needs a two-thirds vote to win legislative approval, which means the Democratic majority would need to secure some Republican votes.

“California doctors know that prevention is the best medicine when it comes to tobacco-related diseases,” said Luther F. Cobb, a physician and president of the California Medical Assn. “With the California Healthcare, Research and Prevention Tobacco Tax Act of 2016, California voters can restore our state’s leadership in research, cures and access to healthcare.”

Voters narrowly rejected a $1 tax increase on the 2012 ballot after tobacco interests spent $47.7 million to defeat the measure.

David Sutton, a spokesman for tobacco giant Altria, said "if the proposed increase went into effect, California’s cigarette tax would be significantly higher than all the surrounding states, which would likely fuel illicit trade and create a budget hole that would need to be filled with higher or additional taxes on Californians."

Michael Roth, a spokesman for the health coalition, said it is prepared to raise tens of millions of dollars to campaign for an initiative, but that it does not mean the group is giving up on the possibility of legislative approval of SB 591 by Sen. Richard Pan (D-Sacramento).

“It is still our top priority to work that bill as we are keeping all of our options open,” Roth said.

However, smokers do not get disappointed, because they will buy a carton of cigarettes online.

Ontario to Prohibit Flavoured Tobacco Products

Ontario, the Canadian city, soon will have the most restrictive tobacco rules in the country as it plans to outlaw all flavoured tobacco products including menthol cigarettes. The provincial government  is pushing “Making Healthier Choices Act” that will prohibit such flavoured tobacco products as menthol cigarettes, cigarettes with fruit tastes, chewing tobacco, “wine-dipped” cigars. Moreover,

Tobacco Tax Increase Approved in Louisiana

Smokers would pay 32 cents more per pack under a bill passed by the House Ways and Means Committee Monday morning. The measure, HB 119, after being approved 11-5, now goes to the House floor for consideration. The state Legislature is trying to raise revenue to close a projected $1.6 billion budget shortfall for the fiscal year that begins on July 1.

State Rep. Harold Ritchie, D-Bogalusa, who has been smoking for more than 50 years, sought a $1.18 per pack increase to put Louisiana’s rate at the national average. But state Rep. Joel Robideaux, R-Lafayette, the committee chairman, offered the lower 32-cent tax increase.

Ritchie said he didn’t like the lower amount but added that he didn’t want to oppose an amendment offered by the committee chairman. Once Ritchie signaled his acceptance, the amendment to approve the 32-cent tax increase passed without dissent.

Louisiana currently has the third lowest cigarette tax rate of 36 cents per pack. The 32-cent increase would give Louisiana the same tax rate as neighboring Mississippi. A parade of anti-tobacco advocates testified in favor of the $1.18 per pack increase.

“Raising the tobacco tax reduces tobacco consumption,” said B. Jay Brooks Jr., a cancer doctor at Ochsner Health Center in Baton Rouge.

“Seventy percent of people who smoke in the US try to quit,” said Stephen Kantrow, a cancer doctor at the LSU Health Sciences Center. “About 10 percent are successful. It’s very difficult to end the addiction. 80 percent start smoking before 18. Cigarette smoking is a childhood addition that they spend the rest of their lives trying to end.”

Fred Hoyt, who represents convenience stores, said the $1.18 per pack increase would cost jobs. He said that 30 percent of a convenience stores’ income generally comes from tobacco sales.

Smoker Riger says he knows where to buy cigarettes at discount prices and says will not refuse from smoking.

Senate in Hawaii Passed Bill Raising Smoking Age

Hawaii became first state in the USA to raise legal smoking age to 21. The lawmakers  adopted on Friday a new legislation which increases age for smoking. The law passed in state Senate with the majority of votes: 19 memebers voted for while 4 voted against. The law also regulates use, sale and purchase of

University Reevaluates Campus Smoking Policy

Vice Provost for Student Affairs Kevin Shollenberger has formed a committee to evaluate the smoking policy at the Homewood and Peabody campuses. The committee plans to either make the campuses smoke-free or to limit smoking to designated outdoor areas.

“We have heard loud and clear from students that they want us to examine this issue further – particularly with regard to the impact of secondhand smoke,” Shollenberger wrote in an email to The News-Letter. “It is standard practice throughout the United States for colleges and universities to ban smoking in buildings, including residence halls. Beyond that, a growing number of campuses have gone ‘smoke-free,’ banning smoking everywhere on campus. In fact, this past August, the School of Public Health began prohibiting all tobacco products in its facilities and vehicles and discouraging their use on all outdoor campus grounds.”

Shollenberger wrote that his committee will be drafting a report to be presented this summer to Robert C. Lieberman, the provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, and Daniel Ennis, the senior vice president for finance and administration.

Barbara Schubert, the associate director for the Center for Health Education & Wellness (CHEW), and Fran Stillman, an associate professor at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, serve as committee co-chairs. The rest of the committee is composed of faculty and staff from Homewood and Peabody, a graduate student and senior Danae Johnson, the president of Hopkins Kicks Butts (HKB), a student-led anti-tobacco coalition.

HKB initiated the push for a smoke-free campus by approaching the SGA with a proposal in 2013. In response, the University conducted a survey to determine student opinions on smoking. According to Erin Yun, the deputy to the vice provost for student affairs, the survey showed that although most undergraduates approved of going smoke-free, most graduate students at Homewood opposed the idea.

Freshman Robert Lee, a smoker of Plai cigarettes online http://www.buycigarettes.eu/plai , said he doesn’t think the campus needs to be smoke-free. “Quite frankly, no one has to smoke, and no one has to stand beside me while I smoke,” Lee said. Freshman Holly Tice does not smoke but said she would oppose a ban.

“I think smoking’s bad in general, but I think people have a right to smoke outside,” Tice said. “It is a private university, and I think smokers should be able to smoke outside on campus.”

According to Yun, the University does not currently have a standard policy regarding outdoor smoking. “The policies that I’ve seen… [say] that there’s no smoking whatsoever in any University buildings,” Yun said. “The president, deans and/or directors may also designate, with appropriate signage, certain outdoor areas, especially entranceways, smoke-free.”

Schubert does not believe the University enforces policies about smoking in designated areas. “It’s certainly not consistent, I don’t think, across the board,” Schubert said. Yun said the committee will examine enforcement policies at other schools for reference.

“One of the things that we’ll be working on is benchmarking against other universities that have gone smoke-free to look at what types of enforcement mechanisms they have in place,” Yun said.

Hammond City Wants to Eliminate Smoking in Public Places

This week in the city of Hammond, Louisiana, are taking place public hearings on the proposal to prohibit smoking in public spaces and all workplaces. The proposal to adopt such a smoking ban came on April 7 and aims to protect people from effects of secondhand smoke. The proposal includes smoking ban in private cluns,

New Bills Renew California's Anti-Smoking Effort

California has become a battleground between the tobacco industry and health groups as lawmakers push proposals that include increasing cigarette taxes by $2 a pack and raising the legal smoking age from 18 to 21. The state once led the nation in snuffing out smoking, but health activists say a strong tobacco lobby and a lack of political will have blocked new efforts in recent years.

"We used to be leaders, and we are not anymore," said Stanton A. Glantz, a professor of medicine at UC San Francisco. California lawmakers have responded to such criticism with a flood of legislation on the issue. In addition to making California the first state to raise the smoking age, the measures would ban electronic cigarettes from public places where smoking is prohibited, ban single-use filters on cigarettes and prohibit the use of chewing tobacco in pro baseball stadiums and recreational league games. It is a well-known fact that young people buy slim cigarettes because consider them safe.

The state has simultaneously launched a $7-million advertising campaign warning about the health hazards of e-cigarettes. The sweeping proposals are encouraging to Dr. Luther Cobb, a physician and president of the California Medical Assn.

"There is no question we can do a lot better, and we should," Cobb said. "This is a dangerous public health issue." Opposition from the tobacco and "vaping" industries is already building. Ninety people, many employees of vaping parlors, rallied at the Capitol last week to oppose a measure that would prohibit e-cigarettes in many public places.

The period of 2007-14 marked a resurgence in California for the tobacco industry, which spent $64 million on political activity in the state in those years. The spending included campaign donations and lobbying, according to UCSF's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. In the 2014 election, the tobacco industry made $556,665 in political contributions, including checks accepted by 32 members of the state Assembly and 15, or half, of state senators, according to Maplight, a nonpartisan organization that tracks political money.

The last 17 attempts to raise the tobacco tax in California — going back a decade and a half — have failed after heavy lobbying by the industry. Voters narrowly rejected a $1 tax increase on the 2012 ballot after tobacco interests spent $47.7 million to defeat the measure.

Richard J. Smith, a manager for tobacco giant Reynolds American Inc., said California policymakers "may best serve the public and public health by a comprehensive look at their tobacco laws and regulations rather than a multitude of bills addressing different aspects of policy in a piecemeal approach."

With Smoking Ban Seattle Moves Homeless People from Parks

Seattle wants to prohibit tobacco use in all its parks and with its move it would enter the list with next US big cities who already did this: New York, Boston, Portland, San Francisco. It is expected that parks in the city of Seattle would become smoke-free in summer 2015. The authorities of the city

The NIH is Spending $5 Million to Discourage Hipsters from Smoking

The federal government spent millions of dollars in recent years to discourage tobacco use among hipsters through a program that recommends “styling your sweet mustache” and listening to music “no one else has heard of” as good alternatives to smoke breaks.

The National Institutes of Health has awarded $5 million to the anti-smoking campaign since 2011, with the money going toward social events, ads, posters, T-shirts, social media and more. According to data, hipsters flavoured cigarettes buy online.

Some of the messaging knocks “neoconservative political candidates,” criticizing them for taking major donations from the tobacco industry. A 2004 NIH study found that Democratic and Republican lawmakers receive such contributions and that members of both parties are strong allies of the industry.

Pamela Ling, a medical professor at the University of California San Francisco and a former cast member on MTV’s “Real World” season three, directs the project. She worked with Rescue Social Change Group to create a “social brand” called Commune, which sponsors smoke-free events featuring local artists and alternative bands, in addition to paying artists to create anti-tobacco swag.

The campaign also involves quit-smoking groups for social leaders such as DJs and bartenders, who record their progress with kicking the habit on a blog.

The program specifically targets hipsters, defining the subculture as young adults who are “focused on the alternative music scene, local artists and designers, and eclectic self expression,” according to an abstract of the project.

The Washington Free Beacon first reported the campaign’s questionable messaging in an article last November, noting for instance that a statement on the Commune’s Web site condemns the tobacco industry for contributing to “things like world hunger, deforestation and neo conservative policies.”

Ling has concluded that hipsters need something more than scary health warnings to keep them from lighting up.

“Saying ‘Smoking is bad for you’ isn’t relevant to them,” she said in a 2010 article on the UCSF Web site. “But they do care about self expression and social justice.”

Sonoma County May Establish Price Floor on Cigarettes

Supervisors in Sonoma County. US state of California, are considering to adopt new anti-smoking regulations which would make it more difficult for teenagers to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products. County health officials push an anti-smoking campaign, which imposes new licensing fees on vendors who sell tobacco products in the unincorporated area. The new regulation

People Changing their Opinion About Smoking

Nearly 1,000 residents in Southern Tier, New York, showed a change in opinions about the habit of smoking. These are results of a survey in which participated residents from Steuben, Schuyler and Chemung Counties. The survey showed that the number of people with negative opinion on smoking in public places is getting increased. So what

Madison May Extinguish Smoking on Beaches and in Public Parks

 There are no ifs, ands or butts about it. Madison town leaders, and many residents, believe it’s time to extinguish smoking at town parks, ball fields and town beaches.

“It’s a great way of taking that out of the public’s eyes so that the youth doesn’t have to look at the smoking and think that that’s something that they may want to do in the future,” said Pete O’Hanlon of Madison.

Resident Peter smokes Doina Soft cigarettes for years and does not like the new move saying it is discriminating.

This evening, as part the 7 p.m. Board of Selectmen meeting, there is a public hearing scheduled where residents can comment on the a proposed measure to ban use of all tobacco products, including e-cigarettes.

“One of the rolls of recreation across the country is to promote healthy lifestyles,” said Scot Erskine, Madison’s director of recreation, whose commission recommended the measure after an annual statewide recreation conference.

“They thought that it would be a much more helpful situation to not have secondhand smoke around,” said First Selectman Fillmore McPherson.

James Repace, a secondhand smoke consultant, says smoking outdoors still creates a hazardous environment for all.

“Failure to ban smoking in outdoor public venues may expose nonsmokers to levels of secondhand smoke as high or higher than received in indoor spaces, where smoking is unrestricted,” wrote Repace, who contends wind blowing in the wrong direction, coupled with multiple cigarette sources, presents the worst outcome.

Eighty-one percent of all Connecticut adults do not smoke. If the Board of Selectmen adopts this measure, the ordinance would take effect 15 days from its passing.

“I know, if I’m sitting at a picnic table and someone is sitting in the next picnic table, smoking a cigar, smoking a cigarette, it can be very offensive,” said Rich Santanelli, a former smoker.

Seattle Commissioners to Ban Smoking in Parks

Park commissioners in Seattle, Washington state, want to prohibit use of cigarettes in all city parks. In case the law would be adopted, smoking is going to be banned in all public zones under the city’s parks’ jurisdiction. However, the law would not make part of the Seattle Municipal Code. On April 16 there would

New Cigarette Packaging Scares Smokers

 GOVERNMENT has introduced a new anti-smoking campaign that involves the use of hideous graphic images on cigarette packs to discourage smokers.

The health ministry's spokesperson Ester Paulus said the new cigarette packaging is part of the amended Tobacco Control Act of 2010.

She said the amended regulations call for all foreign companies that export cigarettes into the country to feature the images on their products to discourage smoking.

“All cigarettes packages should have the type of pictures that show types of diseases that come as a result of smoking so that people can stop smoking. People should stop smoking,” said Paulus.

Dunhill and Peter Stuyvesant are some of the companies that have put on their cigarette packets images of cancer-infected lungs, rotten teeth and all sorts of deformities that come as a result of smoking.

The graphic images have sent smokers squirming in fear of getting cancer and other smoking related diseases.

People who spoke to The Namibian yesterday said they were definitely scared and some made promises to quit when they saw the packaging while others say the addiction to smoking overrode their fear and they continue to buy the cigarettes anyway.

Thirty six-year-old John Karumba who has been smoking for the past seven years, said he changes the casing so that he doesn't have to look at those scary photos.

Another smoker Charlie who uses R1 Slim Ultra online said when he goes out to buy cigarettes, he makes sure that he asks for the ones in the old packages that do not have the graphic images.

“It is very discouraging to see those photos. But I will not stop smoking now, maybe next year,” said Charlie.

Smoking Ban in Rock Hill Parks Failed

Smokers in Rock Hill city, South Carolina, are delighted that smoking will be allowed in city parks, because City Council rejected proposed smoking ban on Monday. Totally there are 21 parks and recreation zones in Rock Hill city and the Council was discussing better ways to regulate tobacco use in public places of the city.

Standardised Packaging: Tobacco industry claims for compensation "blown out of the water"

On the day MPs are debating the Regulations prior to a vote, a Legal Opinion has been published which concludes that standardised (“plain”) packaging of cigarettes and other tobacco products is compatible with European law, and compensation would therefore NOT be due the tobacco industry. The talk is not about buying cigarettes online.

The Opinion was commissioned by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and Cancer Research UK from Alberto Alemanno, Jean Monnet Professor of Law at HEC Paris and Global Clinical Professor at NYU School of Law, and Amandine Garde, Professor of Law at Liverpool University. They conclude that: “In this Legal Opinion, we have focused on the compatibility of the UK draft Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations with EU law.

We concluded that all the packaging requirements they propose are compatible with both the EU TPD and, more generally, EU law.” They also state that: “Our analysis suggests that the UK Department of Health enjoys a broad margin of discretion to introduce a standardisation scheme of tobacco products… The evidence supporting standardised packaging keeps accumulating. The Chantler Review [3] adds to the calls for standardised packaging … The UK’s proposed regulations and its Impact Assessment draw on this evidence and present it is as clearly as possible [given] the conditions the TPD and the EU Treaties lay down to determine the validity of a national scheme standardising tobacco products.”

The Opinion also states that the Regulations are lawful under EU law relating to trademarks, and “fundamental rights”, both of which do not prevent Member States from introducing legislation to protect public health.

The tobacco industry has claimed that the industry would be due billions of pounds in compensation [4] if standardised packaging were to proceed in the UK, but this Opinion demonstrates these claims are not substantiated.

Professor Alemanno said:

“Our analysis demonstrates that under current EU law the UK Government is entitled to regulate the packaging of tobacco products well beyond what the EU prescribes. The UK government therefore enjoys considerable freedom of action in regulating the presentation of tobacco products, particularly given the overwhelming evidence of the harm that tobacco consumption causes. There is also a carefully established and strong evidence base supporting the introduction of standardised packaging. For these reasons, we believe that any challenge by the tobacco industry against standardised packaging under European law is unlikely to succeed.”

Oregon Discusses Benefits of Tobacco Tax Hike

Oregon’s State Legislature discusses cigarettes tax increase which is expected to help cover state’s budget deficit and encourage smokers quit. The bill under the name HB 2555 raises cigarette tax in Oregon by $1.00 per pack, and 20% of revenues from the tax will be used on quit smoking programs. Besides this, transportation programs for

Reynolds American’s CEO on Merging, Managing and Smoking

 Susan Cameron , chief executive of Reynolds American Inc., is skilled at bringing two companies together. She proved that in 2004 when she guided Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc. and Brown & Williamson through a $3 billion merger. She led the combined companies for seven years and retired in 2011.

Reynolds’s board asked Ms. Cameron to return last year to oversee the company’s $25 billion acquisition of Lorillard Inc. The deal is awaiting Federal Trade Commission approval, but she is pushing ahead with preparations to bring Lorillard’s top brand, Newport, into Reynolds, which will make the Winston-Salem, N.C.-based company a stronger rival to market-leading Altria Group , Inc., which makes Marlboro. If you want to know where to buy Marlboro cigarettes online, go to http://www.mydiscountcigarette.net/buy/marlboro

The Wall Street Journal talked to Ms. Cameron about the factors that go into a successful merger, the ability to recruit young workers to a tobacco company and the future profile of cigarette smokers. Here are edited excerpts from that interview.

 WSJ: What are the keys to combining two companies?

MS. CAMERON: Making sure you have a plan that all parties have agreed to is essential. We set up planning teams right after this transaction was announced.

A customer wants to order Newports from us, day one.

WSJ: How do you achieve that?

MS. CAMERON: You appoint people, and it’s their full-time job for two years. Somebody who is the project manager for the manufacturer integration—that is [his] job. You don’t leave it to chance.

WSJ: What mistakes have you made in previous mergers that you want to avoid?

MS. CAMERON: In the first merger, I was convinced we could create the new company’s culture in three years. That was ridiculous. I think it took seven or eight.

WSJ: Why does it take that long?

MS. CAMERON: It’s generational. If you have managed a certain way and you have been successful, by the time I get you to change, you’ve probably now retired. And the next group is excited and ready to manage people in the new way.

WSJ: How do you recruit employees to work in a stigmatized industry like tobacco?

MS. CAMERON: People in their 20s and 30s are different from people growing up in the ’90s who watched these clowns up there swearing nicotine was good for you. Ever since they have known about tobacco, it’s clear that it’s bad to smoke. For this generation, it’s either they will or they won’t. When we post a job, I felt much worse in the ’80s or ’90s than I do today. It’s different.

North Dakota Rejected Tobacco Tax Increase

House of Representatives in US state of North Dakota rejected an ordinance to raise taxes on tobacco products from $0.44 to $1.54 per package. Republican Vicky Steiner voted against the tax increase and explains that she did not support the bill because it affects vulnerable layers of society much more than layers with higher income.

Nottingham’s Old Market Square May Become Smoke-free

In English city of Nottingham there was proposed to prohibit smoking on Old Market Square, and if the idea gets necessary support it will be adopted in form of an ordinance. The proposal also includes smoking ban in city’s hospitals and playgrounds. In the UK, the first city to prohibit tobacco use on its two

Durbin, health advocates celebrate 25 years of no smoking on U.S. flights

It has been 25 years since American Airlines flight attendant Jena Olsen waded through clouds of cigarette smoke on an airplane.

"You would sit in the jump seat for takeoff, and you would see everybody poised with their cigarettes out and their lighters," she said. "And once that no-smoking sign went off, the cabin would fill up with smoke. It was just oppressive."

Passenger Michael is a smoker who knows where to buy cigarettes wholesale, and says that though he dislike the ban, he already got used to it.

Olsen stood alongside flight attendants, health advocates and U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin on Monday at O'Hare International Airport to celebrate 25 years without smoking on American flights. Beginning Feb. 25, 1990, nearly all domestic flights turned on their no-smoking signs permanently.

Although proud of the accomplishment, Durbin and health leaders said there is still work to be done to prevent people from breathing secondhand smoke. American Lung Association CEO Harold Wimmer said making skies smoke-free was a turning point in protecting Americans from the harmful effects of cigarettes.

"Now it is incomprehensible to millions of children and adults that people actually smoked on airplanes," Wimmer said.

More than 50 years ago, Surgeon General Luther Terry announced that smoking was a health hazard and that the government should take "remedial action." Since 1964, local and state governments have spearheaded efforts to ban smoking in public buildings, on college campuses and in businesses.

In Chicago, the Clean Indoor Air Ordinance banned smoking in public places and businesses in 2008. The ordinance was amended last year to include electronic cigarettes.

All major airlines have a voluntary ban on e-cigarette smoking, and Durbin is trying to federally prohibit it on airplanes.

Fewer Smoking Scenes in Movies Nominated for Oscar 2015

Would you like to know how much smokier are films nominated for Oscar this year in comparison with past years? Movies nominated for Oscar in 2014 are a kind of departure from past years when films nominated for Oscar awards normally had more smoking scenes than films as a whole. Generally, the persentage of Oscar-nominated

Growing Number of Smoke-Free Public Housing

Resident Carol Chatham moved in to her apartment in Vestal, New York, in spring 2009 and says that when she was opening her window she usually felt the smell of tobacco smoke. Carol, aged 71, was a regular smoker in her past. When she moved in her new apartment in a new building, she coulndn’t

Kate Toan: City's new vaping ban a mistake

 Reading the public agenda announcement for the Feb. 3 city council meeting, I saw the announcement of a proposed "expanded smoking ban" and thought to myself "OK, sure. Cigarettes are bad, secondhand smoke is dangerous." I decided to spend my evening otherwise engaged. Imagine my surprise to open up my favorite Boulder blog the next morning (Your Boulder) and find that the city had in fact extended not just the geographic reach of our downtown smoking ban, but also expanded the definition of "smoking" to include vaporizers.

The increasing opacity of the political process around numerous project approvals and policy changes is unacceptable. Agendas are not being honestly or fairly described, and the public is not being sufficiently informed of these proposed decisions ahead of time. Do I have an opinion about vaporizers? So happy you are interested — yes. They save lives.

I am a former smoker, who knew what were best cigarettes to buy, managed to quit with the help of these devices, which simulate the act of smoking itself in addition to delivering an optional dose of nicotine. I was never strongly "addicted" to nicotine, but enjoyed the physical act of smoking; therefore no other method (patch, gum, whatever) could satisfy the urge to smoke the way vaping did. It feels good to be smoke-free, to smell nice and have clean teeth and nails.

To be able to live the active Boulder lifestyle! Cigarettes are also deadly — they harm every organ in the human body and kill nearly 500,000 people a year in the U.S. alone. That's one in five deaths from any cause! Cigarette smoke contains 5,000 chemicals, hundreds of which are toxic. Nicotine, which can be lethal at high concentrations, is actually one of the less harmful substances in cigarette smoke.

In 2010, nearly half of all the smokers in the U.S. attempted to quit, but only 6 percent succeeded according to a CDC study (who knows how many re-started after the study!). Quitting smoking has been said to be more difficult than quitting drinking or using heroin. It might be almost as difficult as applying for a building permit in Boulder!

It is true that we probably do not have all the evidence surrounding potential harms from the use of vaporizing devices. Much alarm has been raised over their use however, and no wonder — they threaten both the finances of the traditional tobacco industry and alarm anti-smoking advocates who see immediate and total abstinence as the goal. Studies consistently show that vaping, while not completely benign, is far less harmful than smoking. Instead of hundreds of toxins, which act in concert to produce disease, there are at most two in vaping — nicotine and the artificial "smoke," which is the same kind used at rock concerts and Halloween parties.

Restrictions on smoking in public places were enacted in order to clean up the problem with secondhand smoke and provide social shame and isolation that would provide incentives to smokers to quit. However, after decades of efforts to reduce smoking, there are still millions of smokers who are currently unable to quit, despite knowing the health risks and despite penalties for smoking inside, outside, in cars, hotel rooms, or basically anywhere except huddled over a trash fire in the back alley.