The new Food and Drug Administration rule is an important step towards breaking the cycle of addiction and preventing children from developing a deadly habit. Too often, children are swayed by insidious marketing campaigns from the tobacco industry that encourage them to adopt a destructive lifestyle...

We're pleased that Congress has taken another significant step in reducing tobacco use in the U.S. with passage of the Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking (PACT) Act of 2009. This measure will support ongoing efforts to protect children and adults from heart disease, stroke and other chronic illnesses linked to tobacco use...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule containing a broad set of federal requirements designed to significantly curb access to and the appeal of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products to children and adolescents in the United States. Published March 19, 2010, the new rule becomes effective June 22, 2010, and has the force and effect of law...

Telephone counseling programs for smoking cessation, popularly known as "quitlines," are an increasingly common way for smokers to quit. Every state in the U.S. now has one. However, most of them provide counseling services in English and Spanish only. The only quitline so far to offer counseling in multiple Asian languages is the California Smokers' Helpline...

Researchers in Australia have demonstrated that blocking a certain protein can reduce or prevent cigarette smoke-induced lung inflammation in mice. Inflammation underlies the disease process of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and many other smoking-related ailments...

Babies born to mothers with obesity and exposed to passive smoking are more likely to have health problems than others. This conclusion is based on evidence of elevated levels of nucleated red blood cells in the umbilical cord reported in the International Journal of Food Safety, Nutrition and Public Health...

Older people who have never smoked benefit most from smoking bans, a study suggests. A study in New Zealand showed that, three years after a smoking ban on all workplaces was introduced, hospital admissions for heart attacks among men and women aged 55-74 fell by 9 per cent. This figure rose to 13 per cent for 55-74 year olds who had never smoked...

Although many smokers try to quit by selecting a "quit day" and going cold turkey, a new Cochrane review finds that quitting gradually might work just as well. The authors evaluated 10 studies with 3,760 participants and studies had a minimum six-month follow-up period...

Men and women with a history of alcohol abuse may not see long-term negative effects on their memory and thinking, but female smokers do, a new study suggests. In a study of 287 men and women ages 31 to 60, researchers found that those with past alcohol-use disorders performed similarly on standard tests of cognitive function as those with no past drinking problems...

The 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) prohibits tobacco industry advertising practices that encourage underage teenagers to smoke, yet new research out of the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego has found that a 2007 marketing campaign for Camel brand cigarettes was effective in encouraging young girls to start smoking. The study, led by John P...

A national study of 1,036 adolescent boys and girls tracked whether U.S. teens could report the brand of a favorite cigarette advertisement, using five surveys from 2003 to 2008. Prior studies have shown that teens who can report a favorite ad are 50 percent more likely to start to smoke, and also to become established adult smokers. As reported in the study, "Camel No...

The chair of the NHS Confederation, Bryan Stoten, has used National No-Smoking Day to warn against any complacency in the efforts to reduce smoking. Mr Stoten also said that, despite the financial pressures currently affecting public services, it was crucial for the NHS and society did not forget about the cost and harm of smoking...

A new iPhone app that helps people to stop smoking was launched yesterday by Public Health Minister Gillian Merron. To coincide with 'No Smoking Day' on the 10 March, the Department of Health has released the first official NHS 'Quit Smoking' app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Available from iTunes, http://www.smokefree.nhs...

Researchers have new insight into the relationship between Parkinson's disease and smoking. Several studies have shown that smokers have a lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease...

Helping a man to stop smoking after 43 years and supporting a woman to quit cigarettes following 15 previous relapses are just two examples where a local pharmacy made the difference of a life time...

An asthma program specifically tailored to teens could help those in rural areas manage their disease and avoid potentially fatal complications, Medical College of Georgia researchers say. Black males have a death rate from asthma that is six times greater than their white counterparts, and Dr...

Nicotine takes much longer than previously thought to reach peak levels in the brains of cigarette smokers, according to new research conducted at Duke University Medical Center. Traditionally, scientists thought nicotine inhaled in a puff of cigarette smoke took a mere seven seconds to be taken up by the brain, and that each puff produced a spike of nicotine...

Following an extensive economic evaluation of the benefits of increasing tobacco prices on the health of the nation, ASH has published its report The Effects of Increasing Tobacco Taxation...

PREGNANT SMOKERS WITH ASTHMA HAVE INCREASED HEALTH RISKS Pregnant women with asthma who smoke have an increased risk for asthma symptoms and fetal growth abnormalities. Researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina observed 2,210 pregnant women with asthma to determine the effect of active and passive household smoking on asthma severity and obstetric/neonatal outcomes...

Research published ahead of print in the journal Tobacco Control reports that young Britons see significantly more on-screen smoking in movies than their US peers. The authors comment that the UK film classification system is to blame. It rates more films as suitable for young people than its US counterpart...