A BAN on tobacco displays in shops has been delayed because of an ongoing legal challenge. MSPs voted last year to outlaw the open display of tobacco products to discourage a new generation of smokers. The ban was due to begin for “large retailers” on October 1. However, Public Health Minister Shona Robison said Imperial Tobacco’s appeal against an earlier decision dismissing its legal challenge meant that date was no longer realistic.

AN undercover operation to crackdown on local shopkeepers who sell tobacco products to under age smokers is being planned by Ballymoney Borough Council and their counterparts in Moyle.’If you sell today, then tomorrow you will pay’, is the warning issued by council officers.The exercise is an effort to combat teenage smoking and the Mayor of Ballymoney, Councillor Bill Kennedy, and the chairman of Moyle.

22nd Century Group, Inc. (OTCBB: XXII.ob) announced today that it completed a merger with 22nd Century Limited, LLC, a company focused on the development of a prescription smoking-cessation aid and tobacco harm reduction products. Shares of 22nd Century Group, Inc. are traded on the OTC Bulletin Board under the symbol XXII. The merger was effective as of January 25, 2011. Immediately prior to the merger, 22nd Century Limited, LLC completed a private placement of approximately $5.4 million of securities to accredited investors. These securities were exchanged in the merger for common stock and warrants of 22nd Century Group, Inc., and 22nd Century Limited, LLC is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of 22nd Century Group, Inc.

To the editor: I write this letter supporting the tobacco-free campus policy at Southwest Minnesota State University. Smoking is not only harmful to the person who chooses to smoke a cigarette, but it is equally if not more harmful to the people who are breathing in the toxicants released in secondhand smoke.

Matt Krimm and John Anderson, owners of the District’s oldest tobacco shop, W. Curtis Draper Tobacconist, had been considering a second store, just waiting for the right opportunity to come along.When it did, they offered to buy Michael Copperman’s Bethesda Tobacco. A longtime friend, Cooperman turned to the duo when he was ready to try his hand at manufacturing the kind of premium cigars sold at his store.

As one of the students involved in the Tobacco Free Yale Workgroup, I am deeply concerned by the News’ premature backlash against a nonexistent proposal. In its editorial, “News’ view: Kill the smoking ban,” the newspaper posits that “creating a ‘Tobacco Free Yale Workgroup’ before even surveying the student population shows a deep disregard of student opinion.” The group is in the midst of developing such a survey, with the hopes of incorporating student interests in any policy changes. A solid plan to implement a smoking ban does not yet exist, though the group’s slightly misleading name may indicate otherwise.

The health effects of tobacco are the circumstances, mechanisms, and factors of tobacco consumption on human health. Epidemiological research have been focused primarily on tobacco smoking,[1] which has been studied more extensively than any other form of consumption.[2] Tobacco use leads most commonly to diseases affecting the heart and lungs, with smoking being a major risk factor for heart attacks, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema, and cancer (particularly lung cancer, cancers of the larynx and mouth, and pancreatic cancer).

KANSAS CITY, MO. (kcur) – Kansas City’s smoking ban has had little, if any, impact on business at area eating and drinking establishments. That’s according to a new study, which looked at sales data before and after the ban was enacted in 2008. John Taurus, an economics professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, coauthored the study. He says any changes in sales that did take place were related to the overall economic climate.