More and more communities in South Carolina and Kentucky — states where tobacco used to be king — are helping reduce smoking and protect everyone from dangerous secondhand smoke by enacting local ordinances requiring workplaces and public places to be smoke-free.
In South Carolina, North Myrtle Beach became the latest Palmetto State municipality to clear the air when the City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting smoking in workplaces and public places. There are now 44 smoke-free communities in South Carolina.
The percentage of teens exposed to secondhand smoke in cars has declined significantly, yet more than a fifth of non-smoking middle and high school students are exposed to smoke in vehicles, putting them at risk of disease including acute respiratory and ear infections, delayed lung growth and more severe asthma attacks.
Seeing red? We certainly hope so.
Today is the American Heart Association’s National Wear Red Day, when women — and men and children — are asked to wear red to raise awareness that heart disease is the number one cause of death among American women.
Ready to take on Big Tobacco, California health advocates have launched a blockbuster campaign for a ballot measure to raise the state’s cigarette tax by $1 a pack and use the money to fund programs to prevent tobacco use and boost cancer research.
The effort to pass Proposition 29, a ballot initiative to be put to voters in June, brought public officials, health advocates, cancer survivors, students – and mattresses bearing the slogan “Let’s See Who’s In Bed with Big Tobacco” – to kickoff events in cities and towns all up and down the Golden State.
States around the country are getting wise to the tobacco industry's promotion of products such as sweet-flavored cigars and smokeless tobacco as a way to hook kids and offset the decline in cigarette smoking: Increasingly, governors and lawmakers are proposing higher taxes on 'other tobacco products' that too often have been left out when cigarette taxes are hiked.
Indiana voters overwhelmingly support a proposed law to make all workplaces smoke-free, with a broad coalition of Republicans, Democrats and Independents agreeing that employees and customers alike have a right to breathe clean air.
By a stunning margin of 70 to 27 percent, Indiana voters support a law that would prohibit smoking in indoor workplaces and public places, including restaurants and bars. Fully 73 percent of Republicans and Independents, as well as 66 percent of Democrats, support the legislation. Sponsored by Rep. Eric Turner, (R-Cicero), the measure is set for a vote in the Indiana House later this week.
Brightly colored packages for products labeled 'fresh,' 'wintergreen' and 'java' just aren't what they seem, youth tobacco-control advocate Judy Hou says.
'They're these little packages that you can stick in your pocket,' says Hou. 'They look like Tic Tacs.'
In fact, they're dissolvable tobacco products, and the subject of Food and Drug Administration hearings this week on whether these new smokeless products and the marketing used to promote them appeal to kids and pose a public health threat.
Most states are doing an 'abysmal' job in protecting children from tobacco and curbing tobacco-related diseases, a new report from the American Lung Association says.
In 2011, states drastically cut the prevention programs that keep kids from smoking and help smokers quit, while failing to enact the smoke-free laws and higher tobacco taxes that that are proven to reduce tobacco use — with New Hampshire even cutting its tax.
South Korea’s leading cigarette manufacturer, KT&G, has launched a new line of super-slim cigarettes and is directly targeting women around the globe in a marketing campaign that promotes the brand as smart and sophisticated.
'Love Smart' declares a Jakarta billboard for Esse, which pictures a slim woman in a sleek blue dress.
The turn of the calendar means Kick Butts Day 2012 will be here before you know it! March 21 is only weeks away, so start planning now to make your Kick Butts Day event bigger and better than ever.
All ten campuses of the University of California will be completely tobacco-free within the next two years, while on the other coast Nova Southeastern University is joining the University of Florida and other Sunshine State campuses in going smoke-free.
University of California President Mark G. Yudof this week directed chancellors to implement tobacco-free policies on their campuses within the next 24 months. Key elements include prohibiting all tobacco use in both indoor and outdoor spaces and stopping the sale and advertising of tobacco products in University-owned and occupied buildings.
Senegal’s health officials are outraged at a sudden price cut of nearly 40 percent in Philip Morris International’s top-selling Marlboro brand, saying that the deep discount puts profits over health.
The global tobacco giant stunned Senegal, which is already struggling with soaring adult and youth smoking rates, when it announced the price cut last month. AFP reports that officials and the public are alarmed.
Deaths from cancer continue to decline, pushed downward by critical prevention strategies, especially progress against smoking. The American Cancer Society’s annual report on cancer statistics says better screening and treatment also play a role.
Tonight's Orange Bowl game in Miami will kick off without the cloud of a tobacco sponsorship hanging over it: Bowl officials cancelled a planned three-year sponsorship by Camacho Cigars after public health groups, three U.S. senators and thousands of activists protested that the sponsorship would have helped market tobacco products to young fans.
Every year, 'quit smoking' is among the top 10 New Year's resolutions that Americans make, and for good reasons.
2011 was a year of tremendous progress in fighting tobacco use, but there were also many reminders that the tobacco industry has not changed and continues to market to children and challenge governments that take strong action.
Smoking rates in the United States dropped to historic lows, the movement for smoke-free air spread around the world and even Major League Baseball started dealing with its addiction to smokeless tobacco.
As we look ahead to 2012, we are more confident than ever that we can continue to beat back Big Tobacco’s continuing effort to hook a new generation of smokers by targeting kids.
Ten national public health and medical groups have called on the Orange Bowl Committee and the NCAA to cancel a cigar company sponsorship of the marquee college football game to prevent tobacco marketing at one of the nation’s premier sporting events.
Davidoff of Geneva, parent company of Camacho Cigars, last week announced that it has signed a three-year deal making Camacho Cigars a corporate sponsor of the Orange Bowl Festival, which includes the 2012, 2013, and 2014 Discover Orange Bowls, the 2013 Discover BCS National Championship game and related fan events. The 2013 Discover BCS National Championship game will draw particularly intense fan interest and media attention.
With Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff signing a comprehensive tobacco control law this week, Brazil has taken historic action to protect its more than 190 million citizens from the deadly toll of tobacco use and secondhand smoke.
The law makes Brazil the most populous country in the world to go smoke-free. It also bans tobacco advertising at point of sale, increases tobacco taxes and requires health warnings on both sides of cigarette packs (current law requires graphic warnings covering the entire back of the pack, but no warning on the front of the pack).
A study published today by the American Journal of Public Health provides some of the strongest evidence yet that tobacco prevention and cessation programs not only reduce smoking and save lives, but also save money by reducing tobacco-related health care costs.
The study found that from 2000 to 2009, Washington State’s tobacco prevention and cessation program saved more than $5 for every $1 spent by reducing hospitalizations for heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and cancer caused by tobacco use. Over the 10-year period, the program prevented nearly 36,000 hospitalizations, saving $1.5 billion compared to $260 million that was spent on the program.