While studies have linked cigarette smoking to deficits in attention and memory in adults, UCLA researchers wanted to compare brain function in adolescent smokers and non-smokers, with a focus on the prefrontal cortex, the area of the brain that guides “executive functions” like decision-making and that is still developing structurally and functionally in adolescents. Ream more »
Despite evidence that menthol cigarettes are a significant factor in the rise of smoking among adolescents, a federal advisory panel on Friday stopped short of recommending a ban on the cigarettes. Instead, it urged further study of the issue, which suggested that the Food and Drug Administration would ultimately pursue more modest action, such as marketing restrictions aimed at reducing access for the young.
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For more than a decade, Edie Adams appeared in magazine ads and television commercials as the pitch-lady for Muriel cigars. Clad in a sequined, low-cut dress, the blonde temptress taunted men with her scintillating come-on line, “Why don’t you pick one up and smoke it sometime?” More popular was the commercial in which Adams pitched the 10-cent cigars by breathily singing, “Hey, big spender, spend a little dime with me.”
At a time when consumerism was booming across the nation, the advertising industry persuaded Americans to purchase new products as a sign of status. Smoking was considered “sexy” and “fashionable,” and the sensual Adams used television to propel her career as a singer, Broadway, television and film actress and comedienne.
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Katherine Heigl just can’t seem to go anywhere without sparking up a cigarette.
Even in the back of a taxi, the 32-year-old can be seen puffing away on her trusty stick.
The actress is on holiday in Miami with her husband Josh Kelley, and cuts a rare sight on the non-smoking beaches with a cigarette elegantly protruding from those picture-perfect lips.
But all is not what it seems, because the Knocked Up star is using her handy ‘smokestick’ electric cigarette accessory. Ream more »
Nicotine is bad for your health, highly addictive, and might be available to your children.
“E-Cigarettes” are advertised as a better alternative to smoking because the nicotine is delivered through vapor, not smoke. Some cities have put age limits on buying the product, but the cities of Kennewick, Richland and Pasco have not.
And that has health officials and some parents worried.
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State Rep. Jennifer Weiss and Sen. William Purcell have introduced legislation that would address one of the nation’s largest public health issues: tobacco use. Tobacco-related illness remains the No. 1 preventable cause of death in the United States, claiming more than 440,000 American lives a year. The American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association in North Carolina applaud these legislators and their proposal to raise the tobacco tax.
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Two Republicans state senators on Thursday proposed that so-called “little cigars” should be taxed at the higher rate applied to cigarettes in Minnesota.
Little cigars along with normal-sized cigars are defined as “tobacco products” under state law and taxed at a lower rate than cigarettes. Various state taxes on cigarettes add up to almost two dollars a pack, and the Department of Revenue estimated that taxing little cigars like cigarettes would raise about $6 million in the 2012-13 budget cycle. Normal-sized cigars would not be affected.
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Pregnant women who don’t smoke but breathe the secondhand smoke of others have an increased risk for delivering stillborn babies or babies with birth defects, according to a new research review.
Children born to women who smoke during pregnancy have an increased risk for fetal death, premature birth, low birth weight, and birth defects.
Secondhand smoke exposure has been linked to lower birth weight, but it has not been clear if exposure during pregnancy influences other birth outcomes in nonsmoking women.
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Katherine Heigl is using an ‘electronic cigarette’ after quitting smoking.
Katherine Heigl, the American actress and star of ‘Knocked Up’, has been using an ‘electronic cigarette’ for the past nine months after giving up smoking, reports the UK’s Daily Mail. The actress discussed the smoking aid when she made an appearance on ‘The Late Show with David Letterman’ last September and she was photographed using the device at a Los Angeles restaurant last week.
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Phillip Gardiner started smoking after he quit his college basketball team. He soon switched from Winstons, then the country’s topselling brand, to Kool menthols.
“It was cool to smoke Kools,” Gardiner explains.
Over the more than 40 years since Gardiner – who is black – opted for Kools, menthol cigarettes have become increasingly popular with African-American smokers.
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