Sparrow Health System says that starting next month it won’t hire anyone who tests positive for nicotine or tobacco productsThe Lansing State Journal reports the policy takes effect Sunday and won’t affect the nonprofit Lansing-based health care provider’s current work force of about 7,500. The new policy says that job applicants who fail the tobacco test may reapply for work 90 days later.

Sparrow Health System says that starting next month it won’t hire anyone who tests positive for nicotine or tobacco products. The Lansing State Journal reports the policy takes effect Sunday and won’t affect the nonprofit Lansing-based health care provider’s current work force of about 7,500. The new policy says that job applicants who fail the tobacco test may reapply for work 90 days later.

Pictorial warnings on the packaging of tobacco products sold in Malta will be mandatory next Wednesday, although the authorities are concerned that non-compliant cigarette packets may still remain exposed for sale then.The warnings have been introduced through a legal notice which was issued in 2009 and which brings Malta in line with EU regulations. The new warnings may include colour photographs from a library compiled by the European Commission and have to cover at least 45% of the external area of the most visible surface of the packet. The warnings will be changed at least once a year to ensure their impact is not softened.

New York’s attorney general on Thursday said he sued six websites for illegally selling cigarettes online to New Yorkers, potentially costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars of tax revenue. Websites that sell cigarettes rarely charge taxes and almost always undercut the prices charged in retail stores. New York state has some of the country’s highest cigarette taxes.

The Connecticut Department of Revenue Services (DRS) today reminded cigarette and tobacco retailers that the use of commercial cigarette-making machines by unlicensed manufacturers is illegal. Commercial cigarette making machines require a Connecticut cigarette manufacturer’s license and compliance with fire-safety, packaging, and other requirements. Retailers that continue to offer the use of such commercial “roll-your-own” cigarette machines may be charged with a misdemeanor and subject to arrest.

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The current extreme drought has parched local parks so badly that the city is moving to ban grilling and cigarette smoking on all 16,000 acres of land in the Parks and Recreation system. That includes parks, playgrounds, city cemeteries, golf courses, and pretty much anything else you can find on this list.”It applies to the use of wood or charcoal barbeque pits, grills, or smokers,” Parks and Recreation Department spokesman Victor Ovalle told KUT News. “Propane stoves are allowed in designated picnic areas only. There’s also a smoking ban.”

They look like cigarettes and they have nicotine, but no smoke. Electronic cigarettes are gaining in popularity, though now there is a push in San Francisco to ban them, just like regular cigarettes. That is angering the e-cigarette industry.SFO banned electronic cigarettes earlier this month and now the city is in the first stages of banning them. The plan is to fold them into the current smoking ordinance, saying that anything that looks, feels or functions like a cigarette is a cigarette and has to be banned from public places. It is a blow to people who say e-cigarettes are a great substitute to regular cigarettes.