North Carolina legislators have let down kids and taxpayers with a budget that drastically cuts funding for the state's very successful tobacco prevention and cessation programs. This budget will lead to more kids becoming addicted to tobacco, fewer tobacco users getting the help they need to quit, more lives lost and North Carolina taxpayers paying the bill for higher tobacco-caused health care costs.
A new segment broadcast by Australian Broadcasting Corporation highlights the alarming tobacco epidemic affecting Indonesia's most vulnerable population — its children. The story follows an eight year old boy who has been smoking cigarettes for nearly four years and illustrates how the tobacco industry targets young smokers in Indonesia
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that its landmark national media campaign, Tips from Former Smokers, generated almost 200,000 additional calls to toll-free telephone quitlines and more than 400,000 additional visitors to www.smokefree.gov, the federal website that provides help to smokers trying to quit.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych today signed life-saving smoke-free legislation into law, capping a year of significant progress in the country’s efforts to reduce the death and disease caused by tobacco use.
A growing number of states in India have banned or are considering bans on smokeless gutka, a cancer-causing cocktail of flavored smokeless tobacco and additives. Extremely cheap and easily purchased by children and teenagers, an estimated 5 million kids are addicted to the product.
Today is World No Tobacco Day, and the tobacco industry is doing exactly what the World Health Organization warns is a typical industry bullying tactic that must be stopped: Tobacco companies are spending more than $45 million to defeat a California ballot initiative that would raise the cigarette tax by $1 to reduce smoking, as well as fund cancer research and tobacco prevention programs.
Illinois lawmakers have enacted a $1-a-pack increase in cigarette taxes — more than doubling the current 98-cent tax. The life-saving measure will reduce smoking and raise revenues to help fund the state’s health care program for the poor.
Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley has signed a life-saving increase in the state's tax on little cigars and smokeless tobacco, products that the tobacco industry is marketing heavily in a bid to entice youth to use tobacco.
Lower tax rates on cigars and smokeless tobacco compared to cigarettes have helped fuel an increase in teen use of these products. While cigarette smoking among Maryland high school students has decreased nearly 40 percent since 2000, cigar use has increased by more than 11 percent during the same period.
I am so honored to have received this award from the Campaign for Tobacco-free Kids, and for the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. to accept it. It’s also been very exciting to be able to work with my fellow youth advocates, who have each done amazing things in their communities to prevent tobacco use and help save lives.
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids tonight honors leaders in the fight against tobacco at our Youth Advocates of the Year Awards Gala, an annual celebration of progress against the world's number one cause of preventable death. We will recognize the accomplishments of outstanding young people and U.S. and international leaders in combatting tobacco use.
Smokers are taking 'Tips from Former Smokers' seriously: Weekly calls to toll-free telephone quitlines are still running at about double the call volume recorded before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began running advertisements featuring the real stories of former smokers who are suffering the debilitating health effects of their tobacco use.
Confronted by activists – including youth who traveled to New York City to attend Philip Morris International’s annual shareholders meeting this week – Philip Morris CEO Louis Camilleri again played down the deadly consequences of his company’s products and claimed the company acts responsibly when the evidence shows otherwise.
At last year’s shareholders meeting, Camilleri minimized how addictive cigarettes truly are, stating that “it is not that hard to quit” (he backtracked under a torrent of criticism).
Health advocates and scientists in China have won a major victory by forcing the withdrawal of research by the China National Tobacco Company from consideration for a prestigious national science prize.
The Ministry of Science and Technology announced the withdrawal, which came after the nomination sparked outrage among Chinese and international scientific and public health leaders.
California’s newspapers aren’t fooled by tobacco industry lies about Proposition 29 – and they’re urging voters to beat back the scare tactics and support the measure to increase cigarette taxes, fund tobacco prevention programs and boost cancer research to save lives.
Major public health groups have joined forces in asking Family Dollar Stores to reverse the company’s recent decision to begin selling cigarettes and other tobacco products for the first time in its history.
The North Carolina-based discount chain has 7,100 stores nationwide. Its core customers are lower-income Americans, a group that already smokes at a higher rate than the population as a whole – and suffers more from smoking-caused diseases as a result.
Kids say the darndest things — and some of the smartest, too.
When Linda Kelsch’s third grade students at Linton Elementary School in Linton, North Dakota, were asked to express their opinions about a community issue, they chose to write about a proposal before the City Council to require smoke-free public places and work places.
The years-long effort to make Indianapolis smoke-free has finally succeeded. After a long campaign by health advocates, civic leaders and public officials – and multiple votes by the City-County Council – Mayor Greg Ballard has signed a new ordinance that will make all restaurants and bars and most other workplaces smoke-free.
China's health and scientific community is rallying to block the China National Tobacco Corporation from receiving a prestigious national science prize for a research project on cigarettes that are supposedly less harmful.
Pay packages for chief executives at the top three U.S. tobacco companies last year exceeded the amount of money being spent on tobacco prevention programs in all but three states.
A civil magistrate in Pakistan has found the head of marketing for Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd. guilty of violating Pakistan’s law that tightly restricts cigarette advertising, criticizing the executive’s excuse that he didn’t believe placing ads in magazines was the same as putting them in the 'press.'
The tobacco executive admitted that the company had run the ads, which included full-page, color advertising for Marlboro cigarettes in many of Pakistan’s leading magazines throughout November and December. But he claimed he didn’t realize these ads were subject to restrictions that limit their size and require pictorial warnings – because he believed the word 'press' did not include magazines.