NE is 'gateway' for tobacco smugglers

THE NORTHEAST of the State is “a gateway to the UK” for cigarette smugglers, according to the Irish tobacco manufacturers’ group.

Figures from the group show that of the 189 million cigarettes seized in the Republic and in Armagh in 2010, almost 70 million were found at locations in Louth and neighbouring Armagh.

The M1 motorway linking Dublin and Belfast runs through Louth, and the county also has three busy ports – Drogheda, Dundalk and Greenore.

BAT First-Quarter Sales Advance on Higher Cigarette Prices

British American Tobacco Plc (BATS), Europe’s largest cigarette maker, said first-quarter revenue rose as higher prices offset declining consumption.

Pricing helped boost sales as shipments declined 2.4 percent in the three months ended March 31, London-based BAT said in a statement today. Volume excluding acquisitions declined 1.8 percent. Organic revenue growth was 5 percent at constant exchange rates.

Former smokers have greater willpower

A study has found that former smokers have greater willpower than current smokers and non-smokers.

The study by researchers from Trinity College and the Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society, Dublin, Ireland, compared former smokers to current smokers and non-smokers.

Functional MRI images were obtained while current smokers, former smokers and never smokers performed tasks designed to assess specific cognitive skills that were reasoned to be important for smoking abstinence.

These included a response inhibition task to assess impulse control and the ability to monitor one's behaviour and an attention task, which assessed the ability to avoid distraction from smoking-related images, which tend to elicit an automatic attention response in smokers.

Don’t buy cheap cigs, car boot fans urged

A visitors to Easter car boot sales in South Yorkshire are being urged to be on the lookout for traders selling counterfeit and smuggled cigarettes and alcohol.

HM Revenue and Customs wants rogue traders to be reported to stop cut-price cigarettes and booze being sold.

Officers say the fake goods are often produced in back-street or underground factories and their content cannot be guaranteed.

Stuart Crookshank, Assistant Director for HMRC, said: “Low-cost tobacco and alcohol products can often seem very attractive to people who believe they are buying genuine products at a knock-down price.

Half of US states now have strict anti-smoking laws while nationwide ban is on track for 2020

Half of the states in the U.S. have banned smoking in restaurants, bars and the workplace since 2000, and federal health officials have predicted that cigarette smoking will be forbidden in all U.S. states by 2020.

In a new report, the CDC estimates that roughly 47.8 per cent of residents are now covered by comprehensive state or local indoor smoking bans.

Still, an estimated 88 million people age 3 or older are still exposed to second hand smoke, according to the office’s report.

‘It is by no means a foregone conclusion that we'll get there by 2020,’ said Dr. Tim McAfee, director of the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Office on Smoking and Health, in reference to the goal of a ban in 50 states.

Still he maintains that he is ‘relatively bullish we'll at least get close to that number.’

Russia: Putin's plan to invest £46bn to boost falling birth rate by 25%

Russia's population will plummet by 30 per cent in the next four decades due to a falling birth rate, Vladimir Putin warned today.

The Russian Prime Minister issued the warning as he announced plans to invest $53billion (£46.9billion) to help raise reproduction rates in the country by 2015.

Despite being the worlds largest country at over 6.5million square miles, high rates of smoking, alcoholism, pollution and poverty, together with falling rates, mean Russia's population will shrink to 116 million by 2050 from 143million last year.

Altria 1Q net rises on higher prices, cost cuts

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Marlboro maker Altria Group Inc.'s first-quarter net income increased 15 percent in on lower costs and higher prices, even though it sold fewer cigarettes.

The owner of the nation's biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, said Wednesday that it earned $937 million, or 45 cents per share, for the period ended March 31. That's up from $813 million, or 39 cents per share, last year.

Excluding one-time items, earnings were 44 cents per share, matching analyst estimates.

RED SUN Cigarettes: We Put the Fun Back Into Smoking!

Goodrich Tobacco Company, a subsidiary of 22nd Century Group, Inc. (OTCBB: XXII.ob), introduced RED SUN brand cigarettes to the tobacco trade at the NATO (National Association of Tobacco Outlets) trade show in Las Vegas. RED SUN is a super-premium specialty cigarette that challenges the anti-smoking establishment.

In response to consumer sentiment against the endless assault on tobacco usage, Goodrich Tobacco Company proclaims on RedSunCigarettes.com: “We put the Fun back into smoking!” RED SUN contains a rich, proprietary tobacco blend with relatively high natural nicotine content, and RED SUN utilizes the finest cigarette paper and filter creating an extraordinary tasting cigarette that smokers describe as “The Best Cigarette Ever Made.”

Electronic cigarettes still raising questions in public places

In a world of rapidly growing technology, with more facets of daily life becoming electronic, one device can still turns heads: the electronic cigarette.

"People give me weird looks for smoking inside," said Jeff Martin, a freshman criminal justice major. Martin, also a traditional smoker, enjoys his e-cigarette indoors where normal smoking is not allowed.

E-cigarettes are devices that simulate the appearance and sensation of smoking. While they can be disguised, they often look like normal cigarettes. Some e-cigarettes are smoking cessation devices, akin to nicotine gum. Others are supposedly safer alternatives to smoking a cigarette or hookah.

Charlie Sheen greet his devoted followers after Toronto show

With a crowd of adoring fans gazing up at him from below, there is little doubt that Charlie Sheen certainly felt like he was 'winning.'

The actor, with his goddesses, held court on a balcony outside The Massey Hall in Toronto last night after the first Canadian show on his Violent Torpedo Of Truth tour.

Smoking and clutching a red cup, and animated Sheen observed his fans who cheered and filmed him on their mobile phones.

The evening's show ended bizarrely with the 45-year-old toasting the ashes of an audience member's dead husband.

After an hour of frenetic conversation between the troubled actor and comedian Russell Peters during Sheen's My Violent Torpedo of Truth show, Sheen called out to the audience for a woman whose husband had died two years ago to come on stage. Sheen, 45, said he read about her in a newspaper article.

Hookah lounges thriving, three years after smoking ban

Three years after the state banned indoor smoking in public places, Chicago-area hookah lounges are hotter than ever, packing in a new crop of aficionados to puff on ancient communal water pipes.

Employing a loophole that allows patrons to light up inside tobacco shops, dozens of the exotic smoking dens have sprung up in the city and suburbs since the Smoke Free Illinois Act became law in 2008, much to the frustration of some health officials.

State bill would ban smoking at tobacco shops

State Senator Mark DeSaulnier wants California to enact even tougher smoking laws. In 1994 California became the first state to ban smoking in most indoor places but DeSaulnier says 25 other states have since adopted stronger laws to protect people from second-hand smoke. He's proposing a bill which would expand the statewide smoking ban to include employee break rooms, private residences that house day care, warehouses and tobacco shops.

The Sanctuary Tobacco shop has been in San Luis Obispo since 1973. As the city has enacted groundbreaking legislation over the years to ban smoking in public places, The Sanctuary has always gotten an exemption and patrons have been able to smoke at the shop. The proposed state law may put the smoke out.

Milla Jovovich: Smokin' On the Set

Getting down to business on her new project, Milla Jovovich was spotted on the set of “Bad Luck”.

The “Zoolander” actress looked to be taking a break from filming as she had a cigarette break outside on the lot.

Milla also enjoyed a surprise visit from her husband Paul W.S. Anderson, who ended up sticking around until she was off and taking her home.

“Bad Luck” is about a group of friends who find their lives changed when the superstitions they don’t believe in begin to come true.

Aussies Take on Big Tobacco With Plain Packaging Law

The Australian government is stepping up the fight against smoking by proposing laws to restrict cigarette packaging, replacing colorful logos and branding with graphic images of death and disease.

Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has proposed bigger and more graphic warnings on cigarette packaging in this country, Australia is aiming to impose even more extensive requirements to curb tobacco promotion. “This plain packaging legislation is a world first and sends a clear message that the glamour is gone,” Health Minister Nicola Roxon said in a news release. “Cigarette packs will now only show the death and disease that can come from smoking.”

Tobacco industry has much to fear

Plain packaging will slash smoking rates - and cigarette-makers know it.

In 1967, as a fresh-faced researcher looking to make an impression in my first real job, I conducted an experiment to assess the frequency of cigarette advertising on television. I was astonished when the study revealed Melburnians were shown at least one cigarette advertisement every 12 minutes. Thankfully, things have come a long way since then, with Australia leading the world in tobacco-control initiatives such as banning cigarette advertising, requiring health warnings on cigarette packs and prohibiting smoking in pubs and clubs.

Kate Middleton Smoking to Deal With Wedding Stress!

With the wedding just weeks away, royal insiders have been worried about Kate Middleton's shocking weight loss and now they are concerned that the future Queen of England is smoking again.

"Only Princess Diana could understand the amount of pressure this young girl is experiencing," a royal expert tells me. "It's been billed as the wedding of the century, when in realty it is just young kids that are at the center of it. No one should be put under this sort of pressure."

Cheryl Cole told to quit cigs for U.S.

They're proving to be her crutch as she makes the 'stressful' move to Los Angeles to pursue her American career.

Cheryl Cole has been told to stop smoking - or stub out any chance of cracking America.

The pop star is trying to land a US X Factor judging job, has spent weeks working with a voice coach to improve her speech.

But her voice coach has told Cheryl, 27, to kick her 20-a-day habit if she wants any chance of cracking America, according to The Sun today.

A source told the paper: 'Cheryl's teacher has advised her to stop smoking.

'But she says the move to LA and X Factor job is stressful enough without having to try and quit the cigs on top.

Hit a Home Run for Healthy Kids: Banish Chewing Tobacco from the Major Leagues

Jeff Short is a high school baseball coach now, but he used to be just another teenage ball player, dreaming of the Major Leagues. So he knows what his players are thinking when they watch their favorite players.

"When you look at a Major League dugout, and you see these players with tobacco," Short said, "First thing you think of - oh that's cool. Oh, I can do that."

A coalition of public health groups, including the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Smoke Free Texas, are trying to stop this cycle. They've started a petition on Change.org, trying to get Major League Baseball to ban smokeless tobacco, just like they did a few years ago in the minor leagues.

Addiction or fashion

Smoking Sheesha for an hour is as injurious as smoking 100 cigarettes, while the addiction is increasing in the name of fashion, said the health experts.

Pakistan Chest Society Sindh’s General Secretary Dr Mushataque Ahmed Memon informed that a recent research has revealed that smoking Sheesha is 10 times more injurious as compared to cigarette while smoking Sheesha for an hour is equivalent to smoking 100 cigarettes, adding that the impacts of cigarette smoking are not hidden from anyone.

He said after its induction in modern fads, a great misconception prevails that Sheesha is not injurious to health. He said Sheesha smoking leaves a bad impact on lungs, causes respiratory complications and asthma while it also castes a bad impact on a person’s mental health.

A Cigar for Japan

La Aurora S.A. has created a new cigar meant to help the people of Japan who are reeling from a March 11 earthquake and tsunami that left more than 10,000 dead.

La Aurora's Para Japón—which translates to "For Japan"—will be shipped to Aurora cigar distributors soon. A portion of proceeds from sales of the cigar will be donated to the Japan Earthquake and Tsunami Relief fund, via Japan Tobacco Imex Co. Ltd.

The cigar is going to be a robusto measuring 5 inches long with a 50 ring gauge. Aurora said the cigar would be medium to full bodied, made with aged leaves of undisclosed origin and wrapped in Nicaraguan wrapper.