Forget the Marlboro man: China is the world’s cigarette king. The mainland produces—and consumes—more tobacco products than any other country in the world. The China National Tobacco Corporation (CNTC), the state-run cash cow that holds an effective monopoly on the industry, is a source of good business for the party: in 2010, Big Tobacco paid 498.85 billion yuan (around $75 billion) in taxes to the Chinese government, according to the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration. More than 300 million Chinese adults smoke—among them more than half of all Chinese men. In 2009, the CNTC says, it produced a whopping 2.3 trillion cigarettes.

BUSINESSES in Sunbury and the Macedon Ranges are keeping cigarettes out of sight as new laws on displaying cigarette packaging come into effect. From January 1, Victorian businesses can not display tobacco products and packaging except at airport duty free shops and certified specialist tobacconists. Tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars and loose tobacco can’t be visible inside or outside stores as part of the tobacco reforms, which also apply to cigarette vending machines. The laws are aimed at reducing the high visibility of tobacco products, which the Department of Health says makes it more likely young people will take up the habit and makes it harder for smokers to quit.

Two weeks into the 2011 legislative session and the Oregon House and Senate face 1,600 pieces of proposed legislation. KVAL selected three bills to get a snapshot of what sorts of issues the legislature will face. All of the potential laws are health related. First up, tobacco: House Bill 3191 calls for increasing the minimum age for tobacco possession from 18 years of age to 21 years of age.

On April 14, 1994, Representative Henry Waxman, chair of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, presided over the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment’s Hearing on the Regulation of Tobacco Products. For the first time ever, the chief executive officers of the nation’s tobacco companies were testifying together before the U.S. Congress.

Public health advocates have squared off against retail business owners over a Senate bill that would ban the sale of some flavored tobacco products.  Advocates say flavored tobacco is a means of hooking young smokers. Washington tobacco retailers argue that they have enough regulations to cope with and that the state should focus on existing laws that prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from buying tobacco. They say a ban on flavored tobacco will cripple their businesses.

A group of Democratic lawmakers on Monday called for legislative action to further restricting the access to “dissolvable” nicotine products. They say such products look, smell and taste too much like candy and can be easily used by kids without parental knowledge or permission. “Iowans need to know that these products are addictive and loaded with nicotine, and they need to be kept away from children,” said Sen. Rob Hogg, D-Cedar Rapids, one of 13 Senate Democrats who are co-sponsoring the bill to restrict the sale of dissolvable products containing nicotine to businesses whose sales are at least 90 percent tobacco products.

In a state where more than half of the population smokes, the Mizoram government Friday intensified its efforts to make the state a ‘smoking-free’ zone.Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla said: ‘The state is slowly moving towards becoming a smoking-free state.’ According to state government records, Mizoram topped the country eight years ago in the consumption of tobacco.

The bill to ban the display of tobacco products in shops across Scotland has been delayed due to an appeal by market leader Imperial Tobacco, which will prevent the Scottish Government from introducing the bill later this year, as it was planned.