Group urges smokeless-tobacco ban for MLB teams

Televisions on Thursday will broadcast the usual iconic images of baseball's opening day: fans cheering from the stands, umpires making close calls at the plate, and players in the thick of the game, spitting tobacco juice.

With smokeless tobacco use spiking among high school boys - a reported 36% increase since 2003 - public health officials are targeting their role models to set a healthy example, and calling for a ban on tobacco at major league ballparks.

Children at risk from cigarette smoke in cars 'up to an hour' after parents light up

Drivers who smoke could be putting fellow passengers at risk for up to an hour after smoking.

Parents who light up in their cars could be putting their children at prolonged risk.

With the debate on smoking in vehicles garnering considerable attention, researchers have fuelled the concern that smoking in a car can put passengers at risk.

Young children are particularly vulnerable when it comes to smoke in such a confined space and research has suggested that they could be at risk for ‘up to an hour’ after their parent or guardian has lit a cigarette.

BAT aims for new markets as smuggling dents growth

BRITISH American Tobacco (BAT) yesterday said a rise in cigarette smuggling and the wider decline in smoking across the developed world continue to press down on growth.

Group sales by volume fell three per cent during 2010, though price rises more than offset the decline to deliver a five per cent revenue rise to £14.9bn, BAT said in its annual report.

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.

China maps out tobacco control plan

Following China's Health Ministry announcement of a smoking ban in most public places, which will come into effect on May 1, prominent tobacco control expert and reputed health activist Yang Gonghuan has mapped out a detailed plan for the next five years that aims to "fully ban smoking in public locations" yesterday.

She noted that to achieve the aim as a workable national plan, it is essential to legislate at a national level as well as to operate the guarantee mechanism and run the tobacco control programs at a local level, including building up a supervising and evaluating system over the control efficiency.