March 1, 2004

Conclusions: This method of inviting relatively young smokers selected a population of smokers with a high incidence of COPD, and may be one way of identifying smokers with COPD in the early stages.

Some area eye doctors are saying a pilot program to screen 5,000 Medicaid recipients in the next year for diabetic retinopathy is a waste of money, but proponents say the goal is to target patients who otherwise would not go to a doctor.

Nueces County commissioners recently approved the telemedicine program, which uses a laptop computer and camera to take a picture of the eye and would cost the county $107 per retinal screening. . .

Forty percent of the $107 retinal screenings would be funded by $120,000 from Nueces County Hospital District's tobacco settlement money and 60 percent by pending federal funds that will be distributed by the state.

Because the early signs of oral cancer — white spots or red areas in the mouth — are painless and difficult to detect, diagnosis usually occurs only after the disease has spread to the lymph nodes in the neck. Consequently, patients often need aggressive, disfiguring surgical treatments.

Half of those diagnosed will die of the disease. . .

Tobacco use is the culprit behind about 75% of oral cancer cases, and alcohol also is a major contributing factor.

Oral cancer is the leading cancer among men in India, and incidence rates can be as high as 40% in Southeast Asia, where people chew betel nuts, which contain lye, or tobacco laced with lime, both of which irritate mouth tissue.

British American Tobacco, whose outgoing chairman Martin Broughton last week attacked a Christian Aid report as "pathetic", has been invited by the charity to send its next chairman to tobacco farms in Brazil and Kenya to see conditions for himself.

Broughton, who takes up the chair at British Airways in June, on Tuesday attacked Christian Aid as "totally irresponsible" for its critical case study of BAT's operations in Kenya. The case study was part of a major report on corporate social responsibility called Behind the Mask, published by the charity last month.

Background: There is widespread belief that adding smoking status to the list of vital signs in medical practice will lead to an increased likelihood that physicians will offer more cessation support for smokers during office visits. This article evaluates the impact of introducing routine use of smoking status as a vital sign on clinician cessation support in a primary care setting.

Parents need to be reminded that second-hand smoke is a major trigger for childhood asthma, says Executive Director of the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand, Jane Patterson.

"Second-hand cigarette smoke triggers an estimated 20,000 asthma attacks in New Zealand children every year. Lately the spotlight's been on smoking in pubs and clubs, and the dangers of second-hand smoke in the home have been pushed into the background," she says. . . .

"It's not only asthma - cigarette smoke is also linked to more than 1000 cases of glue ear and 50 cot deaths in New Zealand children each year. Yet it's simple enough to protect children from second-hand exposure just take the smoke outside."

The president of the North Carolina Farm Bureau is calling on cigarette makers to work out differences over a tobacco buyout bill.

Last year's push to pass tobacco buyout legislation fell short due to differences over Food and Drug Administration regulation of cigarettes. Philip Morris, the nation's largest cigarette manufacturer, supports a buyout linked to FDA regulation. Other tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds, oppose FDA regulation. Reynolds mounted a campaign against a buyout last year.

"I urge cigarette manufacturers to work closely together to remove the impediments that prevented buyout legislation from being achieved in 2003," says Larry Wooten, president of the North Carolina Farm Bureau Federation.

Wooten said North Carolina tobacco farmers are in a "dire predicament."

Smokers who are passing over name-brand cigarettes such as Marlboros are inadvertently contributing to state budget deficits across the nation.

By switching over to generic cigarettes, smokers aren't contributing as much to the landmark 1998 tobacco settlement fund, which is intended to boost anti-smoking campaigns, cancer research and Medicaid programs...

According to a report by the Council of State Governments, payments to states are falling short of projections every year, sometimes by 20 percent. The annual shortfalls could reach $2.3 billion by 2010.

House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, is an ardent foe of higher taxes. But how does that mesh with the fact that a $100 million tax bill was recently approved by the House subcommittee on Trades, Professions and Regulated Businesses?

The bill (HB 405) would impose a 50-cent-a-pack cigarette tax on a group of tobacco manufacturers that were not part of the state's original settlement with the industry in 1997. The state reached the multi-billion settlement with the cigarette companies after filing a lawsuit alleging smoking was contributing to higher public health costs in programs like Medicaid.

A state wide anti-tobacco program is getting together in Tallahassee today to fight Governor Bush's budget for tobacco prevention.

Initially, Ignite Florida was formed to fight the tobacco industry but Florida budget cuts show what they are really fighting is our own state administration. Every year the govenor's recomendation for the budget has been passed by the legislature allowing less and less money for the Ignite Florida cause. Ignite Florida member Jacob Baime says the money from the tobacco settlement is being treated as general revenue and that's not really right.

House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, R-Plant City, is an ardent foe of higher taxes.

But how does that mesh with the fact that a $100 million tax bill was recently approved by the House subcommittee on Trades, Professions and Regulated Businesses?

The bill (HB 405) would impose a 50-cents-a-pack cigarette tax on a group of tobacco manufacturers that were not part of the state's original settlement with the industry in 1997. . . .

"It's a fairness issues," said Rep. Frank Farkas, R- St. Petersburg, the House sponsor of the legislation.

But he also concedes that he is already meeting resistance because some members consider the bill simply a tax measure.

The High Court will later hear 20 motions against the tobacco industry seeking damages related to alleged injuries from smoking.

The motions have been strongly resisted by cigarrette companies.

So intense and exclusive is the showdown between these two sworn enemies that it easy to forget what the ban is all about and what its true target is not the much-loved institution of the Irish pub, but tobacco.

The cigarette companies haven't helped clear the haze. They might have been expected to burst through the swinging doors to interrupt this private party but they haven't said a word since last summer when the Irish Tobacco Manufacturers Advisory Committee (ITMAC) issued a written submission refuting the scientific grounds on which the minister's campaign against environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), or passive smoking, is based. . . .

The minister is keenly aware that the point of his campaign may be getting lost and will tomorrow launch a series of television advertisements which will run up to the start of the ban emphasising (a) that it aims to save people from illnesses associated with ETS and (b) it is not only pubs that are affected but every type of workplace in the land. . . .

Several dozen cases taken by individuals against the tobacco companies have been making their way slowly through the courts, however, and today is a big day for them.

One group of about 20 plaintiffs are represented by Dublin firm Ward & Fitzpatrick who have asked for time in court today to apply to have judgement made against PJ Carroll and John Player & Sons on the basis that they have failed to file a defence or, alternatively and more realistically, have the companies ordered to file their defence within six weeks.

Rising workers' compensation and health care costs is prompting San Mateo County Sheriff Don Horsley to put a ban on hiring smokers.

"If your lifestyle contributes to a disability, I'm sorry about that. But I don't think the tax payers should pay," said Horsley.

Since smoking is known to cause numerous health problems, Horsley said the decision to not hire smokers is an economical move that could save the county a lot of money in workers' compensation costs each year.

Fourth-year studio arts major Kao Saephanh smokes a cigarette outside the Student Center. AB 846 prohibits smoking within 20 feet of any of the main exit, entrance or operable window of a state-owned building.

In hopes of overseeing the enforcement of AB 846, a state law that prohibits smoking within 20 feet of the main exit, entrance or operable window of a state-owned building, ASUCI is beginning to enforce and promote the new policy in an effort to respect both the rights of smokers and according to ASUCI officials, the rights of non-smokers at UCI as well.

The images typically elicit a gasp or "ugh" from youngsters. Yet they can't help looking more closely at the "Iowa Smoking Teens," altered images of two teens that show the effects of smoking -- from blackened lungs to a 20 percent increase in the risk of cataracts to "dead toes."

The innovative images of two teenagers, one male and one female, appear on life-sized cutouts and a poster (18" by 24") to illustrate how cigarette smoking and other nicotine use affects the human body, often causing disease. The visual materials are effective educational tools for the Thoracic Oncology Program within Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa. Online images allow viewers to click on each of the body parts or organs to learn more about the serious health risks associated with smoking cigarettes.The images can be seen at http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/cancercenter/patients/smokingteens/index.html.

To the more than 100 young people from 13 high schools involved in the county’s Nicotine Narc student organization, it appears the message is working.

The 2003 Macomb County Schools Alcohol and Other Drugs Survey, recently released by the Macomb Intermediate School District, backs them up. The survey found that from 1997 to 2003, smoking and other tobacco use declined 25 percent among eighth-graders and 15 percent among 10th-graders. Among 12th-graders, daily smoking was down 9 percent in the same period.

“I feel like part of the job is done,” said one “Nic Narc,” Dakota High School senior Amber LaValley, 17. “But there is still more to go. Because we got through to the middle schoolers, if we try harder we can maybe get freshman use down or high school use altogether down.

The Tobacco Education Group will offer a program for teen tobacco users at 4:30 p.m. Thursday in the Boone County Office Building, 116 W. Washington St.

Participants will get an in-depth view of the marketing practices used by tobacco companies, ingredients in tobacco, financial aspects of long-term tobacco use, long- and short-term health effects and the social norms of using tobacco.

In some ways, Florida legislators looking to craft this year's state budget have won the lottery.

That's because on Tuesday they will enter the 2004 session with plenty of cash when they put together the $55 billion budget. Without doing anything, they will have at least $2 billion extra to spend over last year. It's far better than what they have encountered the last two years, when a lumbering economy led them to raid reserves and use one-time fixes and fee hikes to balance the state budget.

But there's a hitch this year: Most of the money the legislators will be able to spend is a one-time windfall. Half comes from a nearly $1 billion federal economic stimulus package that Congress passed last year. . .

Other options for the legislators include: raiding reserve accounts or funds now dedicated to specific programs, such as affordable housing; refusing to grant large spending increases advocated by Gov. Jeb Bush in such areas as community colleges, universities, or the state's anti-smoking program for teens; or relying once again this year on fee increases.

Family pressure keeps many African-American teenagers from getting hooked on cigarettes, according to a new study.

The study found that even though most African-American teenagers try smoking cigarettes at a younger age than whites, they are less likely than whites to continue or escalate the habit.

The study, which was conducted on the West Coast, suggests that African-American teens are more willing than white teens to talk with their parents and other family members about lifestyle choices, said Phyllis Ellickson, a researcher with the Los Angeles-based Rand Corp. and lead author of the study.

The findings are "a success story for African Americans," . . .

The finding about family relationships is "very relevant" in Kentucky and Indiana because of the states' high smoking rates, said Anita Fernander, a smoking researcher at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine.

In Kentucky high schools, 16 percent of African-American students smoke, compared with 36 percent of white students, according to the 2002 Kentucky Youth Tobacco Survey. A similar survey in Indiana showed that 14 percent of African Americans and 24 percent of whites smoke in high school. . . .

After a recent smoking awareness class at a Louisville "Youth Alive" educational program, Fran'Neica Rhodes, who is African American and a freshman at Iroquois, said that despite having several friends who smoke, she decided not to. "My mother said it was up to me to choose what I wanted to do with my body."

BET you didn't see anyone lighting up during last night's Oscar ceremony.

And not just because it took place in California, where everything that's bad for you either is, or will be, illegal, thereby creating an outlaw subculture destined to grow larger than the general populace.

But I digress.

As always, Oscar planners insist on honing each detail of their telecast until they achieve an illusion of perfection.

The antithesis of perfection is lighting up, inhaling, then coughing for five minutes. That sort of thing would play poorly to audiences everywhere except in France.

CHILDREN as young as 14 are attending stop smoking sessions at school and some admit to starting smoking at 11.

Dorcan Technology College in St Paul's Drive, Covingham, is the first Swindon school to launch a Smoke Stop counselling service to support student smokers who want to quit...

Ashley Cox, 15, was smoking around 10 cigarettes a day before he joined the group. He said: "I started three years ago and have been wanting to give up for a while, but didn't know how. I'm sick of it." Ashley was encouraged to see his doctor, who prescribed Nicotine Replacement Therapy.

In an effort to reduce the sale of tobacco products to minors, area businesses are being inspected randomly by officials for this year.

The police, in conjunction with the state Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS) program, the Tobacco Prevention Enforcement Program (TPEP), conducted unannounced inspections of establishments that sell tobacco products, to pinpoint who is selling to minors. And, according to police, this is just the beginning.

If you want to get a message across, you have to speak the same language. Thats the idea behind the Question Why program, which trains high school students how to talk to their peers about the dangers associated with tobacco use.

Members of Watauga High Against Tobacco (WHAT) took the training Tuesday afternoon at the high school.

Melissa Hamlett, WHAT president and a three-year club member, said Students can relate to other students better, she said. Were one of their peers. Also, were not the teacher, so its a little out of the ordinary.

She said peers are more likely to pay attention if this message is tobacco use is not cool. . . .

The Question Why program is funded through the N.C. Health and Wellness Trust Fund Commission.

The Russian government has launched a national program to discourage minors from smoking, reported Nikolai Gerasimenko, deputy chair of the Health Care Committee in the State Duma, or parliament's lower house. The program kicks off in Yekaterinburg, to then extend to Novosibirsk, Rostov, Irkutsk, Vladivostok, Kazan and Volgograd, he said.

Gerasimenko is one of the architects of a Russian law on tobacco control. A one-time heavy smoker, he believes that anti-smoking campaigns targeting minors should start right at the tobacco stand.

According to sociological surveys, forty percent of Russia's high school students smoke . . .

Russia has become a real "tobacco power," ranking as the world's third largest tobacco producer, after China and the United States.

RICHMOND -- As the Virginia Senate debated the controversial $62 billion budget plan last week, discussions about health care, education and transportation spending were overshadowed by a raucous debate over a $6 million tax break for Richmond-based Philip Morris.

The proposal to give an income tax break to a financially healthy company reflects legislators' belief that it can help the state's struggling tobacco farmers by encouraging Philip Morris to export from the state. The commonwealth was founded on the cash crop, and lawmakers want Virginia to remain a key player in the dwindling domestic tobacco industry.

Asked whether prices of cigarettes would increase after the increase in special consumption tax, Unakitan said, ''we increased tax rates. Will both the private sector and TEKEL (Tobacco, Tobacco Products, Salt and Alcohol Enterprises) increase the prices of cigarettes? It depends on their sales policy.''

legislative committee that voted to eliminate sales tax exemptions for several major industries endorsed a $6 million tax break for tobacco giant Philip Morris.

The House Finance Committee voted 20-5 Monday to support Sen. Walter Stosch's bill to give Richmond-based Philip Morris a corporate tax credit on cigarettes it exports.

Stosch, R-Henrico, said the measure is necessary to compete with North Carolina, which already offers a similar tax credit. . . .

The bill's supporters also said it will help Virginia compete for tobacco production that Philip Morris expects to move from Japan to the United States after a contract expires next year.

"This is a vital, knockdown, drag-out battle for survival," said Del. Harry Purkey, R-Virginia Beach.

Del. Mitchell Van Yahres said he was worried that Virginia and North Carolina would get into a "bidding war" for tobacco jobs.

A raucous debate over a $6 million tax break for Richmond-based Philip Morris overshadowed talks about health care, education and transportation as the Virginia Senate discussed the controversial $62 billion budget plan last week, reported the Newport News, Va.-based Daily Press.

The proposal to give an income tax break to a financially healthy company reflects legislators' belief that it can help the state's struggling tobacco farmers by encouraging Philip Morris to export from the state. The commonwealth was founded on the cash crop, and lawmakers want Virginia to remain a key player in the dwindling domestic tobacco industry.

"This bill puts us on par with other states that can just as easily produce these cigarettes," said senate majority leader Walter A. Stosch (R-Henrico), who sponsored the bill. "It would tell them that we want to compete for their business."

That means competing with North Carolina

British American Tobacco, whose outgoing chairman Martin Broughton last week attacked a Christian Aid report as "pathetic", has been invited by the charity to send its next chairman to tobacco farms in Brazil and Kenya to see conditions for himself.

Broughton, who takes up the chair at British Airways in June, on Tuesday attacked Christian Aid as "totally irresponsible" for its critical case study of BAT's operations in Kenya. The case study was part of a major report on corporate social responsibility called Behind the Mask, published by the charity last month. . .


Christian Aid this week commented that it had never retracted its first report on Brazil, and Broughton's remarks were "disappointing".

BAT has been under intense pressure for its continuing activities in junta-controlled Myanmar. After a request from the UK government it announced three months ago that it was selling out of the country.

Significantly, this week the Association of British Insurers said it welcomed moves by some fund managers to examine a company's "non-financial risk management" before deciding how to vote at annual meetings.

SMOKERS will soon have to fight a tough battle against the Government's mind-game to help them get rid of the habit. It has now been made official that from May 1 onwards, warning messages `Tobacco Kills' or `Tobacco Causes Cancer' will stare you in the face at every point-of-sale of cigarettes and any other tobacco products.

And to get this message across loud and clear, the warning messages have to be in an Indian language and form part of the boards used for advertising at the points-of-sale or warehouse.

From May 1, advertisements of cigarettes and other tobacco products are permitted only at the point-of- sale or a warehouse.

A campaign is being started to tackle the number of fire deaths caused by smoking in Northumberland.

Figures show 28% of fire deaths and 29% of fire injuries that have happened since 2000 in the county have been caused by smoking materials.

Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service is backing a government campaign to warn people about the dangers of discarded cigarettes.

Blazes started by smoking materials account for one third of all accidental fire deaths, while only causing eight per cent of all fires. In 2002 - the year Holly and Ian Smith died - 120 lives were claimed by cigarette fires - that is one person every three days.

In the Humberside Fire and Rescue Service area, five people have perished in smoking-related fires in the past 14 months alone.

It is these shocking statistics that are behind the Government's Put it Out. Right Out! campaign which is being launched today by Lisa Smith, Ian's wife and Holly's mum.

THIS is the picture that proves smoking can kill - and not just through cancer and lung disease.

When a young local woman fell asleep in her flat near Poole she was oblivious to the cigarette smouldering down the back of her couch. The fire ran out of oxygen and burnt out but poisonous smoke seeped through to her bedroom.

She never woke up. . . .

Also among the tragedies are the deaths of three young children in a house-fire in Townsend . . .

Her story is just one of many fire deaths caused by smoking to have devastated families in the area. And it's being told by fire prevention officers to urge people to take care.

Today marks the launch of a national initiative - Put it Out. Right Out - to warn people of the dangers of smoking materials.

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has warned that the sport is headed for hard times without funds from tobacco advertising and suggested a ban on test driving to save money. . . .

"If we lose tobacco sponsorship in Formula One, that will be a turning point," Ecclestone said. "People just can't imagine how bad that will be. This money isn't replaceable, not even for Ferrari."

JT International Bhd (JTI) registered a group pre-tax profit of RM99.6 million for the year ended December 31 2003, up 44.3 per cent from RM69 million achieved in 2002. It posted a net profit of RM70.1 million for 2003.

The increase in pre-tax profit was attributed to lower marketing expenditure, write-back of impairment loss on shares under the Employees Share Option Scheme (Esos) and the absence of any significant restructuring charges. . .


The increase was driven by higher sales volumes and the increase in cigarette prices in September 2003, offset partially by an unfavourable product mix.

Twenty drivers will line up for Formula One's season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne on Sunday, one of the smallest fields since the 1960s, as teams struggle to raise sponsorship money and costs increase. . . .

Tobacco sponsors, which contribute $244 million a year to Formula One according to BusinessF1 magazine, will leave from August 2005 when a European Union ban on tobacco advertising begins. That may put the Jordan team, sponsored by Rothmans Inc.'s Benson & Hedges unit since 1996, under further pressure. Last year, Jordan unsuccessfully asked larger teams for $10 million to help complete the season.

Formula One chief Bernie Ecclestone warns that his sport is headed for hard times without funds from tobacco advertising, and he has a suggestion on how to save money: Ban test driving.

"We have to turn off the costs, we have to find a way to make it unnecessary for the top teams to invest crazy sums," Ecclestone said in an interview with the Sunday weekly Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung.

"Maybe we should forbid test driving -- that would certainly save a lot of money," he added.

Tobacco companies sponsor five of the 10 Formula One teams, and world champion Ferrari -- the richest team -- receives a reported $150 million annually from Marlboro.

Group operating profit, excluding goodwill and exceptional items, was 3 per cent higher at comparable rates of exchange, as the significant exchange movements during 2003 only had a small net effect. Group operating profit, after goodwill and exceptional items, was 20 per cent lower at GBP1,852 million.

Formula One supremo, Bernie Ecclestone, has warned that the series he has built so successfully over the years is in severe danger of collapsing should tobacco sponsorship become completely null and void, damaging some of the top more prominent teams who would be facing a severe slashing to their current budgets.

"If we lose tobacco sponsorship in Formula One there will be a breakdown,” Ecclestone told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. "People don't realise how bad it would be."

Four NYU trustees made it onto Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's billionaires, which was released on Friday.

Preston Tisch, 77, is the chairman of the board for the Loews Corporation, which owns hotels, insurance companies, the Bulova watch company, an oil drilling company and the Lorriland tobacco company. Tisch also co-owns the New York Giants. He has a net worth of $2.7 billion.

Last November, China, which will be the host to a race in September, signed the World Health Organization's anti-tobacco advertising Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Last month, less than three months before its inaugural race, Bahrain's track and facilities were so behind the construction schedule that the promoter called on a Formula One insider to ensure that the work is done.

Over the last year the anti-tobacco movement has closed in on Formula One as 12 of the 16 venue countries - as well as potential future venues such as India and Mexico - have signed the WHO convention. Another one, Japan, announced this week that it would probably sign by the end of the month. The European Union, where most of the races take place, has also decided to ban tobacco sponsorship starting in the summer of 2005, 18 months earlier than Formula One had anticipated.

The sport collects an estimated $350 million in tobacco money each season. But only five of the 10 teams still have tobacco sponsors. Tobacco is only part of a deeper problem.

Officiating at the Ncwala traditional ceremony of the Ngoni people in Eastern Province, President Mwanawasa . . . said government was also considering putting up a tobacco processing factory in Chipata to stop taking it outside the country as a raw material.
[This graph only]

Tobacco is sacred to most American Indians. We use it in ceremonies and individual prayer, and we believe it carries our words to the creator. My mother and I regularly use it in our prayers. We used it on the day my brother died of lung cancer. A heavy smoker, he died at age 56, just two years ago this spring.

My big brother was beautiful. . . .

Our ancestors never intended that tobacco be abused as it is today. With its chemical additives and ready availability, cigarettes have turned tobacco into a deadly substance. It is a dreadful irony, then, that native people have the highest percentage of cigarette smokers . . .

Fortunately, native communities are beginning to address the problem from the inside with programs such as "Keep Tobacco Sacred," a project sponsored by the University of Montana and created by native people to fight tobacco abuse.

One additional irony is that many tribes earn income from sales of tax-free tobacco products. Several tribes use income from tobacco sales to underwrite health programming. . . .

I will use tobacco today when I pray for a new warrior mystique to emerge, one like the warrior ideal of our ancestors who were brave enough to honor that most sacred gift -- our lives.

Regarding your Feb. 25 editorial "Smoking Out Tobacco Bills": The Monitor is correct in its call for Congress to enact comprehensive tobacco legislation - legislation that will provide the Food and Drug Administration with fair and effective oversight over tobacco and ensure the short-term and long-term prosperity of tobacco producing communities.

For the past 10 years, tobacco producers and the public-health community have worked together to find solutions to the problems associated with the use of tobacco. And we have done just that. . . .

it is time for Congress to stop playing politics with the tobacco issue and do the right thing. --Scott D. Ballin
Washington
Steering Committee Member, Alliance for Health Economic and Agriculture Development

The ninth annual Hackademy Awards rails against hypocrisy by spotlighting recent films that blew smoke and those that espoused clean lungs and air.

Voters are Sacramento teens who review films for their tobacco content. Last year, the group estimated that 80 percent of the movies aimed at teens -- those rated PG-13 -- featured "harmful depictions of tobacco use." They decided that this encouraged "young people to take up the habit."

Looking at this year's Academy Award slate, they concluded that the best-actor nominees deserved their Pink Lung award for being "virtually smoke-free."

How are American tobacco giants making cash now that Americans are smoking less? By selling cigarettes cheap in Egypt, where at least 40 percent of the men smoke. Many also smoke the water pipe, colloquially called hubble bubble, which is a hookah with tobacco that can be flavored with apple and other scents.

Shane Richie says he's given up smoking after being hypnotised.

The actor, who plays Alfie Moon in EastEnders, is said to have hired a top London hypnotherapist to help him. . .


The actor is trying to quit cigarettes on doctor's orders as part of a health drive, and so far he hasn't had one in nearly two weeks.

To add new products at a pace of 20 a week, 7-Eleven sometimes does not pause for market research.

Such is the case with Fresh Air, a 99-cent item the convenience store giant touts as the first FDA-approved, "intense flavored" mentholated chewing gum sold in the United States...

7-Eleven developed Fresh Air from scratch because U.S. manufacturers who make the gum sold in Asia didn't want their products associated with cigarette smoking. 7-Eleven, which generates more business from tobacco than any other item, had no such qualms.

An early morning argument over cigarettes nearly turned deadly Thursday as a man riddled a home with bullet holes before turning the gun on a woman and pulling the trigger. Fortunately, for 37-year-old Sheila Lotitia Hurst, the gun jammed and she was able to avoid injury.

This month, Schwab worked around-the-clock making retro-style cigar box purses for 20 Academy Award-nominated actors. . . .

Schwab's creations went into unofficial gift bags stuffed with luxury items given last week to celebrities nominated in the best actor/actress and best supporting actor/actress categories. . . .

The concept for the cigar box purses, Schwab's most well-received creation, came from her husband's and father's love of cigars.

The men have been frequent customers of the Tobacco Loft in Pleasanton, where area residents regularly get together to puff on fine cigars

Kairo Kafe is a new and experimental concept on the downtown restaurant and bar scene. The café serves Middle Eastern cuisine for lunch and dinner, but also offers a full bar and remains open until 4 a.m. as an after-hours hookah bar. The café's ambitious plan is to make a name for itself on the strength of its menu, while also providing downtowners with a laid back alternative to after hours clubs with the standard pounding techno music and tweaky, late-night crowds.

For the un-indoctrinated, the "hookah" is a water pipe that has been smoked in cafés and homes across the Mediterranean for centuries. Tobacco is bonded with dried fruit, which composes 97 percent of the mix, and the mixture is drawn into the lungs by inhaling from a hose connected to the hookah's dark blue glass base. Each hookah at the Kairo Kafe is handmade and imported from Egypt.

Smoking isn't a healthy habit for living things, yet many people continue to puff away. Smoking From All Sides, at smokingsides.com , offers you the opportunity to take a look at smoking from different perspectives. There are links to antismoking groups, the health aspects of the habit, smoking cessation, statistics and celebrities, mainly female, who partake.