Tobacco News

When Jennifer Kovarik opens her black purse with the silver buckle, she fishes out items that she hopes teenagers never hide in their purses, pockets, lockers or gym bags: a line of smokeless tobacco products in the test-market stage.

That includes mint-flavored sticks, strips and orbs that can be popped like breath mints and carried in a container that looks like a slim-line cell phone — making it easier for minors to use the product illegally without getting busted.
Ream more »

New Zealand anti-smoking groups want to see the world become smoke free by 2040. Delegates from our National Tobacco Control Working Group are heading to Singapore next week to submit a proposal to the World Conference on Tobacco or Health.

The New Zealand delegation wants tobacco removed from trade agreements, and treated the same as the likes of arms, ammunition and asbestos. Ream more »

Madison County could soon be the first local government to push through a measure that would keep tobacco products out of children’s sight.

The measure would force stores to remove cigarettes from displays behind the counter and into some kind of enclosed or hidden location.

Caeli Faisst of Reality Check said the typical location of tobacco products as well as the products’ packaging make it hard for children to ignore. Ream more »

For smokers like Tavares Fox it’s a daily routine.

“I’m gonna smoke because I need my nicotine in the a.m. with my coffee,” said Fox.

But that habit or their extra cash could go up in smoke for some users if the price soars.

Smoker of twelve years, Tristan Jellerson says, “I would literally stop smoking because I couldn’t pay that.”
Ream more »

Exposure to tobacco smoke may predispose girls to developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as adults, a Norwegian study showed.

Women who said they were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke as children were nearly twice as likely to have COPD as those who were not exposed (OR 1.9, 95% CI 1.0 to 3.7), according to Ane Johannessen, PhD, of Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen, Norway, and colleagues.
Ream more »

TOBACCO sales this year are expected to rake in US$300 million, helped by firming prices and rising global demand for Zimbabwean tobacco, Finance minister Tendai Biti said.
Biti told journalists in the capital this week that prices of flue-cured tobacco were generally higher compared to last year when the tobacco auction floors opened, a development he attributed to the higher demand for Zimbabwean tobacco, following the reduction in global output by 200 million kgs this year.

By year end of February 2012, US$28, 9 million had been realised from the sale of 8,1 million kgs of the crop at an average price of US$3,6 per kg. Ream more »

Two community groups are working to reverse a rising trend in teen smoking.

Nearly 24 percent of Louisiana high school students smoke, according to a youth tobacco use survey conducted by the state Health and Hospitals Department in 2011. Smoking among that group increased from 19 percent in 2009, according to the survey.

“I don’t think they have the awareness about the effects,” Urina Holt said. “We’re trying to get the kids to understand the other effects, heart disease and emphysema. Ream more »

The Hypnosis Counseling Center, with offices in Bloomfield, Flemington and Frenchtown, will present a special set of workshops for Smoking cessation and weight loss starting at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, March 27 at Morristown High School, 50 Early St. sponsored by the Adult School of Morristown.
Each one-hour workshop includes hypnosis exercises, discussion and an optional compact disc for $18, which assists in reinforcing immediate results and long range success. Ream more »

The movement towards a tobacco-free campus is still in the waiting stage.

Until the Board of Trustees vote, which is planned to happen sometime this spring, the policy remains a proposal.

The current proposal is modeled after the Clark College smoking policy. The basic premise of the Clark policy is that all tobacco products, including smokeless and chewing, are prohibited on campus, as well as any distribution or sale of said products. Ream more »

Farmers and lawmakers are not convinced that vegetable crops being pushed by proponents of a bill seeking to impose a single tax rate on tobacco and alcohol will give them as much income as when they plant tobacco.

Unlike tobacco, shifting to vegetable crops does not guarantee a high and stable income, ready market, and adequate production assistance, lawmakers said.

They said with no alternative livelihood guaranteeing growers a steady income, farmers in tobacco-growing provinces stand to be the worst affected by the passage the proposed measure.  
Ream more »