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Tobacco Tax Increase Recommended  

A study group appointed by Gov. Haley Barbour is recommending that Mississippi increase its cigarette tax to 50 cents a pack.

The tax study commission met for several hours Tuesday at the state Agriculture Museum. The group is trying to release a final, comprehensive list of suggested changes for the tax code by next week.

The commission voted to recommend the current 28 cent tax be increased by 32 cents, to reach a total of 50 cents.

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• Industry to fight tobacco display ban 

Tobacco companies and retailers are preparing to fight proposals that would further restrict cigarette sales. They say there are more effective and cheaper ways to regulate the industry.

A consultation period on the Department of Health’s “future of tobacco control” document ends on September 8 and opponents are railing against some of the plans, which could see the end of vending machines and put tobacco products out of sight below shop counters.

“This is the real frustration – that the [document] is presented as an exhaustive look at the options when it’s not,” said James Lowman, chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores, which represents small grocers.

Using statistics from Canada, one of the countries to have banned displays of tobacco products, the association estimated that the cost of removing display gantries, redecorating and installing a replacement secure unit under the counter would cost retailers a minimum of £1,850 ($3,446) each, with the industry facing a total sum of £250m.

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• Senate opponents agree on tobacco  

Both major U.S. Senate candidates say they oppose regulation of tobacco by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration - though incumbent Sen. Elizabeth Dole goes further than challenger Kay Hagan.

Dole and Hagan argue that the FDA does not have the expertise or resources to regulate the tobacco industry, given the agency's focus on the safety of food and pharmaceuticals.

"The last thing on earth we need is to have tobacco added to that list," said Dole, a Salisbury Republican. "They don't have expertise in tobacco, and heaven knows they don't have the funding to do what they're doing now."

Hagan, a Greensboro Democrat, said much the same thing in an interview.

"I don't think FDA has the staff to do tobacco regulation at this point in time," she said. . . .

"This is a back-door way of simply shutting down the industry entirely," Dole said.

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• L’ÉVÊQUE: Anti-tobacco hysteria kills free choice  

they’ve surfaced in Rodrigues. Of late, anti-tobacco lobbyists are pressing for a blanket ban on all tobacco-growing on the island. Or more precisely, they want a right possessed and exercised by people throughout recorded human history, taken away from hand-to-mouth dirt farmers. Lobbyists reckon tobacco damages health, and growing it on their doorstep only encourages Rodriguans to smoke. . . .

Will our crusading idéologues also picket fast-food outlets and rally to outlaw rum, phoenix beer, and salt? . . .

Let’s zoom in on a few realities. Once harvested, tobacco is dried and cured, then sold and shipped to Mauritius. As there are no tobacco factories in Rodrigues, all cigarettes must be imported. Not exactly on our doorstep, is it? . . .

800,000 people in Brazil, 16 million in India, 22 million in China, countless millions in Russia, Europe, America, Malawi, and in 120 other countries produce 7 million tonnes of tobacco a year. But lo and behold, it is the poverty-stricken farmers of this small country that zealots want sacrificed on the altar of health evangelism. Simply put: Business as usual for Big Tobacco but bridle the little guy with chains of steel. . . .

The free individual is not accountable to society for his actions in so far as these concern the interests of no person but himself. Advice, instruction, persuasion and avoidance by other people, if thought necessary by them for their own good, are the only measures by which society can justifiably express its dislike or disapprobation of his conduct.

Education to dissuade children from taking up smoking, and support for smokers wanting to quit or manage their habits may help – stunts won’t.

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Committee to consider smoking ban changes  

Urban County Councilman David Stevens' proposed revisions to Lexington's smoke-free law will be heard by the council's services committee on Sept. 9.

Stevens introduced a proposal Tuesday that would close loopholes that exempt some workplaces and private organizations from complying with the law and would tighten the exemption for retail tobacco stores.

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Tobacco compliance laws broke locally  

The Reedsburg Police Department and agents from the Sauk County Tobacco-Free Coalition made several tobacco checks in the city over the weekend.

Officials checked 22 businesses that sell tobacco to ensure clerks were not selling to tobacco products to juveniles, eight of which were cited for selling to minors.

"We formed a partnership with the Tobacco-Free Coalition believing that we had an issue with tobacco sales to minors in Reedsburg," Police Chief Tim Becker said. "Although less than 50 percent of retailers sold to minors, it's evident that we still have quite a bit of work to do."

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5 W.Va. park lodges to become smoke free in 2009 

Five out of West Virginia's eight state-run park lodges are expected to be completely smoke free next year, a move that follows a trend in the nation's hospitality industry.

The initiative is "customer driven," says Blair Taylor, the lodge and resort parks administrator with the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources.

Smoking rooms are always the last to fill up and even some smokers are reluctant to book smoking rooms because of the lingering odor, he said. . . .

National hotel chains such as Westin and Marriott say they've been praised by guests since they decided to go completely smoke free two years ago.

State park guests will benefit greatly from West Virginia's decision to follow the trend, said Bruce Adkins, director of the state Division of Tobacco Prevention.

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• WACKY TABACKY 

Turns out, there are ways to get that nic fix that don't involve lighting up. Lindsay Lohan is apparently a big fan of one of the newest methods, a "dissolvable tobacco" pill called Ariva, made of powdered chewing tobacco. While such things might once have been the province of athletes and cowboys, it seems the new face of chew is pretty, young and even female.

None of these cigarette alternatives are safe - although they do have fewer toxins than regular smokes. The best alternative, of course, is not to be addicted to nicotine in the first place, but for most of us, that ship has sailed. Read on for the hippest in smokeless pleasure.

American snus . . .

Crown 7

Perhaps the most space-age cigarette replacement out there, this $80 battery-operated tube works by vaporizing nicotine-laced water. . . .

Swedish snus

There is a reason Sweden has the lowest smoking rate in Europe, and that reason is snus. . . .

Ariva

Unlike Nicorette and other synthetic products, little Ariva pills are made of real powdered tobacco. Dubbed "smokeless satisfaction" by manufacturer Star Scientific

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The Effects of Smoking on the Rate of Postoperative Hemorrhage After Tonsillectomy and Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty 

Conclusions

Smoking does appear to increase the rate of posttonsillectomy hemorrhage in patients who undergo uvulopalatopharyngoplasty with tonsillectomy, but not in those who undergo tonsillectomy alone. This modifiable risk factor may help clinicians further counsel their patients before surgery, but further study is needed to ascertain that these findings apply to a broader patient base.

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Smoking negatively affects sperm motility and semen antioxidant levels 

Results from a prospective study have confirmed that cigarette smoking reduces sperm motility, decreases the antioxidant capacity of the semen, and increases the risk forleukocytospermia.

"Numerous investigations have been conducted on the relationship between cigarette smoking and male infertility; however, the exact molecular mechanisms are not well understood," write Fabio FirmbachPasqualotto and colleagues from the University of Caxias do Sul in Brazil.

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Study examines association of smoking with hemorrhage after throat surgery 

Smoking appears to be associated with an increased rate of hemorrhage (bleeding) in patients who undergo uvulopalatopharyngoplasty (UPPP, a surgical procedure used to remove excess tissue from the throat) with tonsillectomy (a surgical procedure in which the tonsils are removed), but not in those who undergo tonsillectomy alone, according to a report in the August issue of Archives of Otolaryngology−Head & Neck Surgery, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Although indications for tonsillectomy have changed over the years, it remains a common surgical procedure with a substantial risk for complications, the greatest of which is post-operative hemorrhage, according to background information in the article. . . .

Awareness of the association between smoking and post-operative hemorrhage "may help clinicians further counsel their patients before surgery," the authors conclude. "Further investigation of this relationship is needed, with stratification of patients by the number of cigarettes smoked and attention to the length of time before and/or after surgery that patients refrain from smoking."

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BMX Makes Its Olympic Debut  

Landon Hooberry took a break outside the madness. Having come to these Olympics from Arizona, he found himself outside of the BMX site in the morning, long hair flowing from underneath an F.B.I. hat, looking for scalped tickets.

Once inside, he proclaimed victory despite the oppressive heat.

"I'm stoked," Hooberry said, clutching a United States flag in one hand, a cigarette in the other.

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Plastic bags and cigarette butts: new data from TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup finds perception "butts" reality 

Nearly half of Canadians (49%) believe plastic bags are the number one pollutant on our shorelines according to new survey findings from the TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, despite the fact cigarette butts are consistently the number one item recovered during the annual cleanup. The survey found only 18% of Canadians believe cigarette butts are the top culprit affecting our shorelines.

"Cigarette butts pose a significant danger to wildlife, yet for some reason many Canadians don't think of them as litter," said Eric Solomon, Vice President of Conservation, Research and Education, Vancouver Aquarium. During last year's TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, participants removed more than 270,000 cigarette butts from shorelines.

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Man beaten for not having cigarette  

Broken Britain victim Martin, 25, was waiting for a taxi after a night out when passing yobs demanded a fag.

When he explained he didn't smoke the three louts inexplicably tore into him - punching him to the floor and kicking his head like a football.

Martin was left dazed and drenched in blood by the frenzied attack in Stockport, Greater Manchester - the latest chilling example of the booze-fuelled yob violence blighting Britain's streets.

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Non-smoker fights for life after thugs attack him for failing to give them a cigarette 

A gas engineer is fighting for his life today after he was beaten and left for dead by a gang of thugs - over a cigarette.

Martin Bramhall suffered serious head injuries when he was attacked by three men as he waited for a taxi after a night out.

The assault is thought to have occurred after the men asked the 25-year-old non-smoker for a spare cigarette.

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