Some celebrities keep going with the smoking habit whatever the consequences and even if it impacts on their relationships. It’s well known that smoking was a bone of contention between Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston during their marriage. Brad Pitt is on record as saying how much he hated his ex-wife’s chain smoking. His disapproval didn’t cut much ice with Jennifer though – as recent paparazzi photos show. You have to ask why one of the worlds most loved and naturally attractive women would do this to themselves?

Employees of Rush and Anderson hospitals have been informed that both will soon be smoke-free and tobacco-free, and that smoking current areas will go away.Hospital officials say they understand this is going to be very difficult for the many smokers employed at the hospitals, so they are going to do their best to wean the smokers off tobacco products.”In conjunction with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi, they are going to help us by covering the cost of prescription medications, if that is the route an employee wants to take,” said Katie Chamblee of Anderson Hospital.

British Columbia and Manitoba are the only Canadian provinces to allow tobacco sales in pharmacies. On the week leading up to World No Tobacco Day, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada is calling on the government of British Columbia and Manitoba to bring their public health laws up to the standards of other Canadian provinces and to ban the sale of tobacco products in pharmacies.”Tobacco kills. Selling tobacco in pharmacies gives false and dangerous credibility to cigarettes,” states Dr. Milan Khara Clinical Director of the VCH Tobacco Dependence Clinic and member of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada “Tobacco is not compatible with health and the role of the pharmacist is not compatible with that of tobacco vendor.”

The theme of this year’s World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) is “Gender and tobacco with an emphasis on marketing to women.”  It is designed to draw particular attention to the harmful effects of tobacco marketing towards women and girls. Controlling the epidemic of tobacco among women is an important part of any comprehensive tobacco control strategy. Professor Judith Longstaff Mackay, Senior Adviser, World Lung Foundation, spoke to CNS in Hong Kong.She lamented that for decades women and adolescents have been a major target of opportunity for the tobacco industry, and more so now, when this industry needs to recruit new users to replace the nearly half of current users who will die prematurely from tobacco-related diseases. So it is an ongoing battle – longer than the 100 years war.

A new study has linked nicotine poisoning with weight gain, and concludes that active smokers put on more weight than non-smokers.Four years of analysis at the University of Navarra in Spain (UNAV) revealed that those who put on the least weight were those who had never smoked.Researchers from the department of preventative medicine at UNAV in Spain have evaluated the link between the two cardiovascular risk factors: the ‘nicotine habit’ and the increase in weight when smokers stop the habit and when they continue smoking.

Noted guitarist Slash refused to quit smoking while his mother was dying of lung cancer but he only kicked the habit after falling ill with pneumonia.
The former Guns N’ Roses guitarist, 44, has been a heavy smoker for most of his adult life and admits his addiction to cigarettes spiralled after his mother, Ola, was admitted to hospital last year.

Rocker Bon Jovi has quit smoking because he is not willing to pay the huge insurance premiums needed to cover a smoker. Bon Jovi picked up the habit while filming 1995 movie “Moonlight and Valentino”. But now he has decided to stay away from cigarettes. “I swore off them (cigarettes) before the tour and I’m happy to say that I have not picked them up again. I quit because of the cold hard truth. I tried to get life insurance and the price with smoking was so ridiculous that it was enough to make me angry and just throw them (cigarettes) in the garbage,” he said.

Singer Pink has asked family and friends to “ration” cigarettes to her so that she can cut her smoking habit. Pink is loved by millions of people , she has fans all over the world. She is considered one of the best singers of all times. The 30-year-old star has quit puffing at home and now wants to smoke less even when she is with friends. “Smoking isn’t cute at all… It’s awful. I hate the smell, the taste. I hate everything about it. I’m an asthmatic singing smoker! But, for some reason, I look at it as the last remaining bit of me,” Contactmusic quoted Pink, as saying.