Lance Armstrong Tobacco Tax: Cyclist Endorses Measure To Fund Research

LOS ANGELES — Cycling champ and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong said Monday is backing a proposed tax on tobacco in California to fund research on cancer and tobacco-related illnesses.

The seven-time Tour de France winner joined Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to urge support for the California Cancer Research Act that would increase taxes on cigarettes by $1 a pack to raise more than $500 million a year.

Wearing a yellow bracelet made popular through Livestrong, the advocacy group that Armstrong founded after battling testicular cancer in 1997, the Texas resident said he had good reasons for co-chairing the California campaign.

Tobacco tax hike talk stubbed out

HEALTH Minister Nicola Roxon has moved to extinguish any suggestion Labor could increase the tobacco excise in the May budget.

Ms Roxon was forced to stub out the speculation after the government's indigenous smoking coordinator, Tom Calma, said another tax hike had been "mooted".

Labor increased the excise by 25 per cent in April 2010, adding $2.16 to the price of a pack of 30 smokes.

The government's preventative health taskforce had recommended a 68 per cent increase in the excise.

But in responding to the taskforce's findings in May the government argued that while hiking prices could cause some smokers to quit "it can also induce financial stress among people who continue to smoke".

Oklahoma board OKs use of tobacco tax to abolish smoking rooms

The Oklahoma Board of Health cleared the way Tuesday for tobacco taxes to reimburse restaurants that eliminate smoking by Jan. 1.

The state Health Board cleared the way Tuesday for tobacco taxes to reimburse restaurants that clean up their smoking rooms and eliminate smoking throughout the restaurant by Jan. 1.

About 100 to 150 smoking rooms with special ventilation systems were built to comply with a 2003 state law. Last year, former Gov. Brad Henry signed the reimbursement measure into law.

About $1.2 million in tobacco taxes each year would be available to help pay for the room dismantling, with the rebate calculated at 50 percent of the cost of building smoking rooms, minus depreciation on those capital costs. But how many restaurants will apply for the rebate and eliminate smoking is unknown.