For those who drink and smoke, it’s no surprise that often, the more you smoke, the more you end up drinking, and vice versa. So it follows that when state taxes make cigarettes more expensive, you might be inclined to smoke less, and as such, you might end up drinking less beer and whiskey as a result. That’s the effect rising cigarette prices have on alcohol consumption (except for wine), say researchers in a new study that looks at consumption habits of smokers and drinkers. [More]
smoking
Oregon Proposes Smoking Ban For All 362 Miles Of Its Coastline
By 7.25.14
Any beachgoers that enjoy puffing away on a cigarette while they sit on the sand or frolic in the surf may have to get their nicotine fix elsewhere, as Oregon has proposed a ban on smoking that would include all 362 miles of beaches on its coastline. [More]
Proposed Regulations On E-Cigarettes Include Health Warning Label, Age Restrictions
By 4.24.14
It only took five years, but the Food and Drug Administration is ready to begin regulating electronic cigarettes. While the new rule covers a lot of ground with the never-before regulated devices, it doesn’t deal with some of critics’ more controversial concerns. [More]
E-Cigarettes: A Reliable Smoking Alternative Or Vials Of Toxic Poison?
By 3.25.14
For more than 50 years the Surgeon General has warned consumers of the risks associated with smoking cigarettes. Since that time, many products introduced as alternatives. One of the most recent, and popular options is the use of e-cigarettes. But poison control officials say the reusable sticks contain enough nicotine to be bad for your health. [More]
Colorado, Utah Propose 21 As Legal Age To Smoke; Florida Mulls E-Cig Ban For Minors
By 2.21.14
Following the lead of New York City’s former health cowboy — err, mayor Michael Bloomberg, two Western states changing how wild the West can be for anyone under 21: Colorado and Utah are both considering raising the legal age to smoke tobacco from 18 to 21. Meanwhile down in Florida, legislators are proposing banning e-cigarettes for minors. [More]
NYC Adds E-Cigarettes To The List Of Things You Can’t Smoke In Many Public Places
By 12.20.13
New York City has had a strict ban on smoking in many public places like bars, restaurants, workplaces, stores and since 2002, with the addition of parks and public plazas in 2011. But even if that smoke isn’t really smoke, and is vapor from an e-cigarette, well now you can’t do that either, after Mayor Michael Bloomberg helped push a measure through the city council that extends the smoking ban to e-cigs. [More]
New York City Council Votes To Raise Legal Smoking Age From 18 To 21
By 10.31.13
Any 17-year-olds in New York City ticking off the days until they come of legal age and can go out to buy cigarettes or other tobacco should probably know that the City Council just voted to move the legal age to buy tobacco products — and also e-cigarettes — from 18 to 21. Keep ticking those days off. [More]
Tobacco Companies Say Kids Shouldn’t Smoke — So What’s With Fruit-Flavored Cigars?
By 10.22.13
Tobacco companies have insisted in the past that they don’t think kids should smoke and aren’t marketing to them, but we can’t imagine as many adults go for fruity- or candy-flavored cigars as the younger set. Those are just as bad for your health as cigarettes, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and middle and high school kids just love’em. [More]
Can Kids Recognize Cigarette Logos Even Without Cartoon Camels Involved?
By 9.30.13
Long gone are the days of Joe Camel and his cartoon pals gamboling across cigarette ads and peering out from packages, but does that mean kids don’t recognize certain brands of smokes when they see them? Nope, says one study — even without blatant gimmicks to draw in the younger set, children can still tell cigarette logos apart from each other. [More]
Study: Anti-Smoking Messages Work Best On Youngsters If They’re On The Front Of The Pack
By 9.9.13
Seeing apparently only translates to the younger set believing when anti-smoking messages appear on the front of cigarette packages, says one study, and don’t have much effect when they’re displayed on the back. Researchers studied a set of British teenagers using both text warnings on the front and back as well as anti-smoking photos [More]
Australian Smokers Think Plain Packaging Makes Tobacco Taste Worse
By 7.12.13
Plain tobacco packaging is a global movement aimed at undoing decades of ads and branding messages. Tobacco products get sold in identical plain boxes with only plain letters on the front: no logos, no pictures. Well, that’s not true: there are gruesome pictures of smoking-related illnesses. Plain packaging is now the law in Australia, and smokers don’t like it. Because they say their tobacco tastes different now. [More]
Starbucks Bans Smoking Within 25 Feet Of Stores
By 5.31.13
Starting tomorrow, Starbucks customers who wish to smoke will need to head out to the parking lot or down the street, as the national coffee chain is enacting a ban on smoking within 25 of its stores. [More]
NYC Lawmakers Propose Raising Smoking Age To 21
By 4.22.13
The same morning that the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to the tobacco industry’s fight against new warning labels, lawmakers and regulators in New York City have proposed making it illegal for anyone younger than 21 to buy cigarettes. [More]
Why Does Target Need To Scan My Driver’s License To Sell Me Nicotine Patches?
By 3.18.13 — Updated: 3.19.13
Rodney’s son asked him to pick up some nicotine patches, so he did. Rodney, an ex-smoker himself, knows the agony of nicotine withdrawal, and was happy to help him out. Up to a point. He wasn’t happy enough to let Target scan his driver’s license and hold on to the information that he had bought nicotine patches when he hasn’t smoked in years. The thing is, his caution is entirely justified. He could very well land on a data broker’s list of recent smokers. [More]
City Government Busts Old-Timey Soda Fountain For Selling Old-Timey Candy Cigarettes
By 12.27.12
As a child of the ’80s raised by a pair of reformed smokers, I never had candy cigarettes. They weren’t common when I was growing up, and even if they had been, I wouldn’t have been allowed to have them. You may be surprised to learn that they still exist. Until recently, you could buy them at a retro old-timey soda fountain in St. Paul, Minnesota. Until Big Government swooped in and told the owner that the candy cigs had to go, because they’re illegal. [More]
San Francisco Suburb Bans Smoking In All Multi-Family Homes, Whether Rented Or Owned
By 10.16.12
In a move lauded by anti-smoking activists and destined to be fumed about by those who see it as an invasion of privacy, the San Francisco suburb of San Rafael has voted to ban smoking in any multi-family home. Doesn’t matter if you’re renting it or own it outright — the City Council voted unanimously to join nine other California municipalities who have outlawed smoking in such buildings. [More]
Would $81 For A Pack Of Cigarettes Put An End To Smoking?
By 4.24.12
While lawmakers here in the U.S. have developed a habit in recent years of raising taxes on cigarettes as a way to curb smoking while increasing tax revenue from those who continue to inhale, officials in New Zealand are giving some thought to what they would need to charge in order to make people quit smoking once and for all. [More]
Fewer Kids' Movies Featured Smoking Last Year
By 7.15.11
Anti-smoking groups have long pressured Hollywood to decrease smoking in kids’ movies, and studios have apparently listened. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report says there were 72 percent fewer smoking incidents in kids’ movies in 2010 than in 2005 levels, dropping from 2,093 instances to 595. Smoking in PG or G-rated films plummeted 94 percent (from 472 instances to 30) in that span. [More]
