March 20, 2004

Patients who currently smoke cigarettes or who have a history of heavy smoking experience significantly less improvement than do nonsmokers after surgical repair of the rotator cuff, reports a study from the United States.

Although it is known that patients who smoke have increased rates of nonunion and infections, the effect of smoking on the results of rotator cuff repair is not clear.

William J. Mallon, MD, Triangle Orthopaedic Associates, Durham, and colleagues retrospectively reviewed the charts of 224 patients . . . .

J Shoulder Elbow Surg 2004 Mar-Apr;13:2:129-32. "The impact of preoperative smoking habits on the results of rotator cuff repair"

The effectiveness of nicotine patches in women depends on their genotype, new research reveals.

UK researchers took blood samples from 752 people who had taken part in a trial of nicotine patches eight years earlier and tested for variants of the dopamine D2 receptor gene DRD2 32806.

A variant of the receptor gene (CT or TT) was found in 41 per cent of both men and women. The researchers then correlated the genotype with effectiveness of the patches, measured by abstinence at one week, 12 weeks, 24 weeks, 52 weeks and to follow-up.

A World Health Organization (WHO) report states that legal drugs such as alcohol and tobacco are more detrimental to society than illegal drugs like cocaine and crack, Reuters reported March 18.

The Neuroscience of Psychoactive Substance Use and Dependence report found that alcohol and tobacco addiction is more costly to societies, especially poorer countries, than illegal drugs.

According to the report, illegal drugs accounted for 0.8 percent of health problems worldwide, while alcohol contributed to 4.1 percent of illnesses and cigarettes 4 percent.

HEALTH campaigners called for further measures to combat smoking yesterday after the latest figures suggested that the drive to eradicate it had lost momentum.

The General Household Survey showed that 26% of over-16s in the UK smoked in 2002, a drop of one percentage point over the previous two years and two points down from 1998.

This compares with the years from 1974, when the prevalence was 45%.

Ash Scotland pointed out that the figures for Scotland have tended to be higher than the rest of the country, and concentrated in the poorest areas.

This was highlighted last week in a report which revealed that Shettleston in Glasgow had the lowest life expectancy in the country, with half its population smoking.

Commenting on the National Audit Office report on cancer published today [1], tobacco control pressure group ASH warned that tackling smoking must remain key to continuing progress on cutting cancer deaths. The report shows that despite a rise in the incidence of cancer, improvements in detection and treatment mean that more people are surviving.

But lung cancer, almost exclusively caused by smoking, is one of the most difficult cancers to treat, with fewer than a tenth of lung cancer victims surviving more than five years after diagnosis. Almost one third of all cancers are caused by smoking. These cancers could be prevented if more people were given the help they need to stop smoking or never took up the habit in the first place.

Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reported today that cancer patients are increasingly surviving the disease as a result of the new initiatives launched by the Department of Health and the NHS over the last decade. But the NHS needs to continue to do more to ensure all patients are treated swiftly and appropriately.

The incidence of cancer has grown by 31 per cent since 1971, in part owing to lifestyle factors such as the trend up to the late 1960s for a greater number of women to smoke . . .

Today's report highlights the fact that the most effective way of preventing cancer is for people to stop smoking. One contribution to this is that the NHS has encouraged hundreds of thousands of people to stop at least for a short period. An evaluation is underway to find out how many of those remain non-smokers in the long term. Strategic Health Authorities vary substantially in referral rates to stop smoking services and the number of patients quitting for at least four weeks. The NAO recommends that strenuous efforts be made to bring all services up to the level of the best.

The effectiveness of nicotine patches for smoking cessation appears associated with genotype in women but not in men, according to a randomised controlled trial conducted in the United Kingdom.

"Women with the variant T allele of the dopamine D2 receptor DRD2 32806 showed considerable benefit from patches, whereas those with the more common CC genotype did not," reports Patricia Yudkin, reader at University of Oxford, and colleagues, adding, "The increased effectiveness reflected a tendency to a higher quit rate with the active patches and a lower quit rate with placebo patches." . . . BMJ doi:10.1136/bmj.38050.674826.AE (published 19 March 2004).

Publicans tonight issued a stinging criticism of the final guidelines which detail how they are expected to implement the smoking ban.

With just 10 days to go before the ban is implemented in workplaces throughout the Republic, the Vinters' Federation of Ireland (VFI) claimed the guidelines published by the Government had merely increased their concerns.

After a meeting in Portlaoise, members said they had no further insight on how the ban should be effectively enforced, branding the guidelines "unhelpful, confusing and contrary to the law." . . .

"The smoker must be made responsible for his or her actions, not the publican, or anybody else," it read.

PORT ORANGE -- An ordinance banning smoking at all city-sponsored youth activities is "good for the community and good for the environment," in the view of Mayor Allen Green.

"This is 'Jackson's Law,' " Green said Tuesday night as the City Council voted unanimously to adopt the ordinance Green attributed to the efforts of a former councilman, John Jackson.

"I wish Mr. Jackson was here" to witness adoption of the ordinance, Green said, adding "special thanks are also due to (Parks and Recreation Director) Glenn Walker," who aided in its preparation.

A bench warrant was issued yesterday for the owner of a Toledo tavern as the city continues to have growing pains enforcing its ban on smoking inside bars, restaurants, and other public places.

Toledo Municipal Court Judge C. Allen McConnell issued the warrant after William Delaney, owner of Delaney's Lounge, 309 West Alexis Rd., failed to appear for a hearing on 15 notices of violations charging he failed to enforce the smoking ban.

Contacted afterward by The Blade, Mr. Delaney said it was news to him that he was supposed to be in court.

THE country’s largest publicans’ organisation is to provide funds to fight cases taken against colleagues they consider are unfairly prosecuted under the legislation imposing the workplace smoking ban.

The Vintners Federation of Ireland (VFI) will also reconsider a legal challenge to the legislation in the autumn after allowing time to gauge the impact of the ban on its members’ business.

Around 250 publicans met in Portlaoise yesterday to discuss the ban and the Office of Tobacco Control’s implementation guidelines, the final version of which was circulated to the industry this week.

In a statement issued afterwards, they complained the guidelines were still unhelpful and confusing, and claimed they were contrary to justice by making the publican guilty for the actions of customers.

“A publican can not and must not be held responsible for the actions of a customer over whom he has no control. To do so makes a mockery of civil and criminal law,” the statement said.

The state Health Department has granted one waiver from New York's tough anti-smoking laws, while rejecting the applications of 13 other bars, restaurants and businesses.

The department, which handles enforcement for 21 mostly rural counties, in December released guidelines designed to ease the smoking ban's effects on financially pressed businesses.

Health officials granted a waiver to Stella Luna, a restaurant in Oneonta. Another 13 requests were denied, including several out of Fulton and Herkimer counties and two from the Finger Lakes region, according to a report posted Saturday on the department's Web site.

"This is the first round of determinations and should not necessarily be viewed as a bellwether for applications still under review, since each application is reviewed individually," department spokesman William Van Slyke said. "Our objective is to enforce the Clean Air act to ensure clean indoor air, and give every consideration possible to those who seek a waiver. However, the determining factor must remain the protection of public health." . . .

Scott Wexler, executive director of the Empire State Restaurant & Tavern Association, said there are probably 100 waiver applications pending from business owners who can prove the financial hardship. He called it "astounding" that in almost a year the state has granted only one waiver, and said the guidance to applicants was vague.

"If public health is what was driving this administration, there would be consistency in their actions," Wexler said, pointing to the failure to tax Indian sales of cigarettes, a move that would cut smoking.

The controversial smoking bylaw could cost the city $5.6 million if a lawsuit filed in Yukon Supreme Court on Thursday is successful.

The suit, filed by Paul Douglas, owner of The Coffee Bar in Marwell, is against the city, Mayor Ernie Bourassa and council, city administration and the city’s bylaw enforcement department.

Douglas claims “an unfair operational implementation of ... the no-smoking bylaw.”

He argues the bylaw lets bars operate as restaurants or coffee bars. The bars let their clients smoke, whereas the restaurants and coffee bars must abide by the bylaw, the documents say.

“The argument is that restaurants/coffee bars cannot be competitive as the bylaw is unfair,” the document says.

It was only one sentence in the government's throne speech, but it has started a big debate in Saskatchewan.

The provincial government announced it will introduce legislation that will ban smoking in public places across Saskatchewan in 2005.

On Friday, Health Minister John Nilson expanded on the promise, saying that a "comprehensive package" will be introduced in the legislature "in the coming weeks."
. . .



But Tom Mullen of the Hotels Association of Saskatchewan views the ban as an economic issue, and not just a health issue.

"We know a 100 per cent smoking ban is going to be very detrimental to the majority of our members," he said on Friday.

The two are vying for the seat that U.S. Sen. John Edwards vacated to run for president. Friday's forum was organized by editorial writers from N.C. newspapers.

Bowles and Burr agreed on exploring alternative energy sources and continuing the Bush tax cuts on lower and middle income families. They both want a federal buyout of tobacco farmers, but Burr opposes giving the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate cigarettes and Bowles favors it.

"That's the price we have to pay whether you like government regulation or not," Bowles said of the legislation, currently locked up in Congress over the FDA dispute. Bowles said his experience forging a balanced budget agreement in 1997 shows that he can bring a consensus between the two parties on an issue like the buyout. [This graph only]

Actor George Clooney is drumming up support for his father's congressional campaign in Kentucky this weekend.

Nick Clooney, a longtime Cincinnati television personality, is the lone Democratic candidate for the 4th District seat . . .

Nick Clooney has cast himself as a "commonsense Democrat" stressing health care, jobs, veterans issues and a proposed buyout of tobacco quotas.

Adolescents who show a high level of aggression and hyperactivity may be at greater risk for smoking cigarettes than those who do not present these behavioral symptoms, according to a study by researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse's Intramural Research Program, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the National Institute of Mental Health.

The researchers recruited 59 adolescents ages 12 to 14 in the Baltimore-Washington, DC area, with no history of substance use, to participate in the study. At the beginning of the study, the adolescents and their parents completed standardized questionnaires to assess the adolescents' aggression, hyperactivity, conduct problems, inattention, impulsivity, anxiety/depression, and social problems.

Sudents from 11 schools statewide took in Oscar nominated films as well as popular teen movies and critiqued their messages on smoking, giving it an either a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Mona Lisa Smile got a thumbs down for it's high smoking content.

"I give Seabiscuit a thumbs up. Although there are scenes in which people are seen smoking in the film, I believe it only enhances the historical accuracy of the movie," Valdez said.

Health officials said the entertainment industry plays a significant role in influencing young people in terms of tobacco use.

A new report shows fewer Michigan teens have risky behaviors or unhealthy habits than in past years, but state officials say more should be done to combat smoking.

The Michigan Youth Risk Behavior Survey, released Friday and based on a survey done in 2003, found that 60 percent of teens have tried cigarettes. One in five tried smoking before age 13, according to the survey led by the national Centers for Disease Control.

Those numbers are improved from past surveys, but they still aren't good enough, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said. She has proposed raising Michigan's cigarette tax 75 cents a pack to discourage smoking and raise money for the state.

A program funded by a $1,500 grant from the American Lung Association of New Jersey will help 13 Hanover Park High School students quit smoking.

The "Not On Tobacco" (NOT) program began on Friday, Feb. 27, and will include ten 50-minute sessions. Hanover Park High School in East Hanover serves students in grades 9-12 from Florham Park and East Hanover.

The goals of the school-based voluntary program this year are to help seven Hanover Park females and six male students to reduce the number of cigarettes smoked, to stop smoking entirely, to increase healthy lifestyle behaviors, and to improve life management skills.

It was the annual "Thumbs Up" and "Thumbs Down" awards... recognizing the films for it's smoking or anti-smoking message.

It may have won an Oscar, but at Friday's Hackademy Awards "Lost In Translation" got a thumbs down for what students said was a glamorized message of smoking.

"It portrays tobacco as a connection with friendship and that's very wrong," Waipahu High School student Jonathan Valdez said. . . .


This is the sixth year high school students from 11 schools statewide took in Oscar nominated films as well as popular teen movies and critiqued their messages on smoking, giving it an either a thumbs up or thumbs down.

Mona Lisa Smile got a thumbs down for it's high smoking content.

scientists at the University of Pennsylvania and Georgetown University found that teens with high levels of the novelty-seeking trait may be more than twice as likely as those low in the trait to be moderately to highly receptive to tobacco promotional campaigns.

The research team, led by Dr. Janet Audrain-McGovern, collected survey data from 1,071 9th-graders at 5 Northern Virginia high schools. . . .

In a separate study, Drs. Kenneth Tercyak and Janet Audrain-McGovern administered standardized questionnaires to 1,136 10th-graders enrolled in Mid-Atlantic high schools to evaluate their tendencies for novelty-seeking, symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), lifetime cigarette smoking, and age of first cigarette.

They found that teens with high degrees of symptoms for ADHD who had smoked cigarettes during their lifetimes also rated highest for novelty-seeking compared with other teens.

FREMONT -- Police have cited four local businesses for selling tobacco products to youths younger than 18.

During the undercover operation last week, "decoy" teens were enlisted to try to purchase the products, while police officers posed as customers nearby.

In all, they visited 42 businesses, mostly liquor and convenience stores, police said.

Up to $1 million generated by a new tobacco tax could go for indigent care in Jefferson County if a judge decides the tax imposed by seven cities is illegal.

Circuit Judge Dan King on Friday granted a petition allowing Jefferson County to intervene in the lawsuit brought against the cities by state Sen. E.B. McClain and the Alabama Wholesale Distributors Association.

The county is seeking to use the money to care for indigent patients suffering from smoking-related illnesses. The judge has not indicated when he will rule, giving attorneys more time to submit briefs.

A JOBLESS family who lived like millionaires from a tobacco smuggling racket have been told to cough up £118,000 — or face more time in jail.


Neighbours were baffled when they bought their council house for £40,000 and two new 4x4 motors, then jetted off on luxury foreign holidays.

But Malcolm Barnes, 66, wife Georgina, 58, and son Mark, 37, made 100 cross-channel trips to smuggle cigs in their car.

FOUR million cigarettes that had been illegally imported into the country were discovered hidden in a lorry among a legitimate consignment of hold-all bags in Co Louth last night.

The seizure, just south of Dundalk, followed a covert operation by the customs investigation unit of the Revenue Commissioners.

It had been under surveillance as it made its way from Dublin port towards the border and was stopped as it came towards the end of the M1 motorway.

Four million cigarettes, that were illegally imported into the Republic, have been seized by customs officers close to the border.

The cigarettes were concealed amongst hold-alls in a 20 foot container lorry that was stopped just south of Dundalk.

ROANOKE RAPIDS - A man with dual addresses was jailed Thursday morning after a N.C. Highway Patrol trooper found cigarettes, moonshine and cocaine in the vehicle he was driving.

State Alcohol Law Enforcement Agent Brent Massey said Trooper C.E. Carroll, who could not be reached for comment, was on routine patrol on Interstate 95 when he saw a 1999 Lincoln Navigator being driven aggressively and erratically. . . .



The trooper found 4 grams of powdered cocaine, $12,000 worth of cigarettes and 28 gallons of moonshine.

POLICE assisting the Australian Tax Office have seized about 200kg of allegedly contraband tobacco in a raid overnight.

Two vehicles were intercepted by police about 9.50pm (AEDT) on the Kiewa Valley Highway, near Tangambalanga, north-east of Melbourne.

In a reprieve for non-smokers, the Union Health Ministry has declared smoking in all public places an offence from May 1.

The Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Rules, 2004, notified on February 26, also prohibits sale of tobacco to minors and reins in manufacturers from advertising cigarettes and other tobacco-based products.

A fire which led to the evacuation of two floors on the east wing of Southeast Alabama Medical Center Monday was caused by a patient smoking in a hospital room, according to Dothan Fire Department investigators.

Dothan Fire Marshal Glenn Temples said Wednesday "misuse of smoking materials" was the cause of a mattress fire which filled the fifth and sixth floors with smoke Monday. Dothan Fire Department Chief Sam Crawford said cigarette butts and a lighter were found at the scene of the fire and investigators had determined a patient was in the room smoking. Crawford declined to identify the patient due to confidentiality laws governing the release of hospital patient's identities.

The president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs says a fire-safe cigarette may soon help save lives.

Ken Kelly, chief of the Yarmouth, Nova Scotia fire department, says the cigarette would extinguish itself if left unattended.

a fire broke out in the home of Jim and Billie Laughter at 904 Diamondville Avenue in Diamondville, Wyoming. Mrs. Laughter and her children, a boy, 14, and a girl, 11, got out of the home safely. Law Enforcement, Emergency Management and the Fire Department were on the scene of the fully-involved fire in a short period of time. According to Fire Chief Shawn Whitmore, the cause of the fire was a juvenile smoking in the bedroom. Damage to the structure was extensive

A record 80 million kg of tobacco has been sold at auction platforms in Karnataka during the just-concluded season.

The purchase of tobacco from auction platforms across the State had fluctuated between 60 to 65 million kgs in previous years, Karnataka Virginia Fluke Cured (VFC) Tobacco Growers Association President Javere Gowda said today.

Talking to UNI here, he said though the Tobacco Board had put the sales figure at 75 million kg, tobacco scraps and bits accounted for an additional five million kg, taking the total to 80 million kg, which was a record.

Bernie Ecclestone resents the impending F1-ban on tobacco advertising.

'Maybe next the government will stop drinking,' a snarling race-impresario told the Daily Telegraph, 'so they'll take-away our drinks sponsorship too.'

To counter the looming problem, Formula One is racing out of Europe and breaking new ground in Bahrain and China, then possibly Korea, Turkey, India and Russia.

The second largest U.S. cigarette maker will cut its contract tobacco purchases by nearly half for the upcoming season, leaving growers worried about their income.

The move could be a boon for traditional tobacco warehouses, many of which have closed in recent years, as farmers with extra leaf may have no place else to sell it.

It is unclear how many farmers in the Carolinas will be affected by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company's reductions, but some growers will see their income nearly cut in half.

"The announcement was late, and that's really got some people upset," said Kyle Daniel, director of Georgetown County's Farm Service Agency.

Stocking up on Sin: How to Crush the Market with Vice-based Investing teaches readers to exploit their moral depravity for financial gain.

Author Caroline Waxler advises people to forget dreary socially responsible investing and profit from their nasty habits instead. . . .

Ms. Waxler says her basket of vice stocks outperformed the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index by 42 per cent for the five years to Dec. 31. . .

The book, published by John Wiley & Sons Inc., is due on bookstore shelves later this month. . .

And while lawsuits against the tobacco industry abound, she notes that the landscape is much different overseas. Tobacco investments are worth considering, she says, because they have what every product should have: customer loyalty and a recurring stream of revenue.

Among the tobacco stocks Ms. Waxler recommends are Altria Group Inc. and British American Tobacco PLC.

Fine wine, single malt scotch, performance audio, and cigars.

For those who enjoy the occasional stogie, the interplay of flavors, nation of origin, rolling techniques, and proper aging provide more than enough complexity for a lifetime of exploration. . . .


In the Winchester area, Murphy Beverage Company on the Loudoun Street Mall and Smokin Joe's on Berryville Pike are the local haunts of the cigar lover.

The popularity of cigar smoking has increased recently with several area establishments selling a variety of popular brands.

A Moody Road tobacco grower isn't the only company in town seeking to build a heliport.

According to records filed this week with the town planning office, the Springfield-based MassMutual Financial Group is seeking an amendment to existing zoning regulations that would allow the firm to install a heliport - essentially a large, square concrete pad on which to take off and land helicopters - at its business regional shopping district zone.

MassMutual could join Enfield Shade Tobacco, which last week filed an application requesting permission to install a helicopter staging pad on its property, following last year's state Supreme Court ruling that Enfield Shade must get town approval before doing so.

Japan Tobacco Inc, the world's third largest tobacco company, believes it would be difficult for rivals British American Tobacco PLC and Altria Group Inc's Philip Morris to mount a takeover of the Japanese tobacco giant.

Philip Morris and BAT, the first and second largest global players, have been aggressively expanding overseas to make up for shrinking sales at home and other mature markets.

Analysts think BAT is the likely predator for Japan Tobacco, maker of Camel, Mild Seven, Salem and Winston, as doing so will make it the biggest player in the world.

However, Ryosuke Tsuji, general manager of Japan Tobacco, told AFX News in an interview that that would not be easy.

For one, the government, through the Ministry of Finance, remains a majority shareholder of the company and is required under the law to keep its holdings to 50 pct

Douglas Watt is part of a most curious diaspora in Southern Africa: prosperous white farmers, vilified as greedy racists and driven out of Zimbabwe, looking for a home. . . .

Today Mr. Watt is one of about 140 white Zimbabwean farmers who have relocated to neighboring Zambia hoping, many say, for a mix of racial harmony and political stability that will enable them to prosper and contribute to black Africa. . . .

Mr. Watt has sunk $900,000 into his new farm, most of it borrowed from a bank and from the Universal Leaf Tobacco Company, based in Richmond, Va. "I have put every cent I have into this," Mr. Watt, 38, said, sitting in the dining room of his new ranch-style house. "I've got more invested here than I ever did in Zimbabwe. We will be an asset to the country."

Mr. Watt's move continues a long pattern of whites, increasingly uncertain of their welcome, who have hopscotched around the southern end of Africa in the last four decades. . . .


Aided by open government policies on leasing and investment — and by America's tobacco industry, which is underwriting much of the farm-building — farmers like Mr. Watt are already creating a more modest version of Zimbabwe's once mighty tobacco industry, which has been left in ruins after three years of land seizures. . . .

"We think we have benefited from the farmers who have come in," Mr. Kabaghe said. "We are very proud of them. Our tobacco industry is now booming."

At the same time, no official here wants the success of white farmers to be too visible, lest it engender the sort of racial backlash that has helped spur Zimbabwe's land takeovers and that is building in both South Africa and Namibia.

Nor do the tobacco companies want to be seen as the benefactors only of whites. Universal Leaf says it wants to develop 40 to 50 smaller, black-owned commercial farms on the periphery of the white-owned farms — a move Mr. Rusch says makes both political and economic sense.

It looks like $126 million in corporate incentives doesn't buy as much as it used to. Two months after state legislators decided to give R.J. Reynolds Tobacco a financial pat on the back for creating jobs, the company announced it will buy a lot less tobacco - 16 million pounds less - from its 300 contract growers, a decision that will reverberate in Lenoir and Greene counties. Now some state legislators, including Rep. Stephen LaRoque, R-Lenoir, want to rescind the incentives.

Better that they had not offered them in the first place. . . .

it's a business lesson - as in, the state has no business turning tax revenue into corporate welfare.

A big tobacco company coughed up the second of three $25,000 annual payments Thursday to help the local Boy Scout council deliver anti-smoking messages to San Bernardino County youth.

The California Inland Empire Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which serves San Bernardino and Riverside counties, will use the money in its Scoutreach program, said Pat Singer of Victorville, president of the executive board.

Theresa H. Burch, manager of Brown Williamson Tobacco's Youth Smoking Prevention program, flew in from Louisville, Ky., to present the check at the board's March lunch meeting. . . .

Burch said the local council was one of four in the nation to receive the grant.

She didn't say it was part of a court-ordered resolution of damage suits filed against tobacco companies, but I guess she really didn't have to.

Roger Bernard, the district executive who is the council's Scoutreach coordinator, said the program provides age-appropriate educational materials for boys and training for adult leaders in recognizing and preventing abuse of all kinds, not just substance abuse, which includes tobacco.

It may come as a surprise to some folks that the information gathered from advocacy sites on the Internet may have a peculiar bias and not be a reliable source of wisdom or scientific knowledge. In the past year of service on the Mayor's Task Force on Smoking, I have spent between 300-350 hours of research, some of it studying the advocacy sites so prominently available to us through common search engines.

The statistics and "studies" cited by many of these sources fall just shy of deceit and lies . . . .

one only needs to follow the articles in the Boston Globe to find dozens of accounts of sales declines of up to 30 percent at some restaurants and bars since that city's ordinance came into play last May.
. . .

--Chuck Magerl is a member of the Mayor's Task Force on Smoking and owner of Free State Brewing Co.

I am 13. My mom smokes, my dad doesn't, and I don't plan to be a smoker. When I watch a TV show or movie, I don't pay attention to who smokes or how much they smoke. I'm too busy watching the chase scenes, the fights and the girls.

On this date in history:

In 1997, the Liggett Group, the 5th-largest U.S. tobacco company, agreed to admit that smoking was addictive and caused health problems, and that the tobacco industry had sought for years to sell its products to children as young as 14.

The nominees:
. . .

Feature Photography: . . . Greg Southam of the Edmonton Journal for a haunting photo series of Barb Tarbox, the lifelong smoker, still smoking while on her deathbed.

Gov. John G. Rowland accepted expensive cigars from a contractor for three years then abruptly stopped in 2001, saying accepting such gifts violated state law, according to documents turned over to federal investigators and reviewed Friday by The Associated Press. . . .

Kurt Claywell, an electrical subcontractor, has told authorities that he gave the governor thousands of dollars worth of cigars and champagne over several years. The AP also reviewed handwritten notes from Rowland thanking Claywell for the gifts.

But in August 2001 the governor's office returned a box of cigars to Claywell and enclosed a letter saying such gifts were illegal.

"Under Connecticut law, public officials cannot accept gifts from members of the public if the value exceeds $100," Assistant Legal Counsel Amy Lazzaro wrote. "Since the cigars are valued at over $100, they are being returned."

FRENCH restaurants have been warned that they risk losing foreign custom unless they improve their manners, stamp out smoking and stop treating them as culinary heathens.

A report commissioned by the Ministry of Tourism denounces the condescending attitude adopted by many . . .

British customers denounced bad French table-manners, the Gallic habit of smoking between courses . . .

Restaurants hoping to attract Britons should translate their menus into English, and “have a non-smoking corner because they consider the cigarette to be a scourge”.