Safiq Shaikh was 13 when he began chewing a blend of tobacco and spices that jolted him awake when his job at a textile loom got too dreary. Five years later, doctors in Mumbai lopped off his tongue to halt the cancer that was spreading through his mouth.Shaikh believed the fragrant, granular mixture he chewed, known in India as gutka, was a harmless stimulant and at first he ignored the milky lump growing inside his mouth. Now Shaikh is one of about 200,000 Indians diagnosed with a tobacco-related malignancy this year, says his surgeon, Pankaj Chaturvedi.

Cancer, lung disease, stroke, emphysema. Typically, any person would be able to connect these words to one culprit: Cigarettes. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration believes Americans are too uninformed to understand smoking cigarettes is a harmful habit. To further assist citizens in making the healthy choice not to smoke, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act has prompted a new law to include large graphic images and macabre writing on cigarette packages. Effective on June 22 next year, the images will cover 50 percent of the cigarette pack and portray a series of nine graphic photos illustrating the correlation of cigarette smoking and health related problems, according to fda.gov.

Clarksville, TN – On the 28th of November, a 20 year old man, later identified as Alex Lee Baker, called 911 on three separate occasions to report bogus emergencies. The first 911 call came in about 7:13pm from an unidentified male saying that he was a witness to a murder at 1804 Evans Road and gave a description of male subject in a white car before disconnecting the call.

Should all cigarette packets have plain packaging to make smoking less attractive to children?Cigarette packets should have plain packaging to make smoking less attractive, ministers have suggested.The government plans to ask retailers to cover up displays of cigarettes from next year to protect children.

The holiday season just gets better and better for customers at Totally Wicked E-Liquid! Amongst a sleigh full of special offers, the Christmas yo-yo Promo has just been announced. Beginning on November 30th and running until December 20th 2010, the Totally Wicked Yo-Yo Promo is set to provide festive fun for all visitors to the Totally Wicked websites in the build up to Christmas, but most importantly, yet more great opportunities to pick up bargains and gifts in time for the big day.

There is always a cause an effect for every action the government does outside the invisible hand of the free markets.  Before there was a green movement, there were the stop smoking advocates which led to the largest lawsuit payoff in US history, and a rash of taxes at both the state and federal levels on cigarettes.

Cigarette smoking appears to be significantly associated with autoantibody positive and negative rheumatoid arthritis in African-Americans with more than 10 pack-years of exposure, according to a study published online Aug. 18 in Arthritis & Rheumatism.

TOWN OF ROCHESTER – A Town of Rochester man has been charged with misdemeanor endangering the welfare of a child. Kevin Chronister, 46, allegedly tried to burn a nine-year-old girl with a cigarette while he was highly intoxicated, the Ulster County Sheriff’s Office said.  Chronister had a verbal argument with the girl around 3:30 Sunday morning when he allegedly grabbed her arm and attempted to burn it with a lit cigarette. She was able to pull away and Chronister left the scene.