Warnings on cigarette packets about the dangers of tobacco push smokers to kick the habit, and graphic images depicting human suffering are the most effective, a study released Thursday shows.Nearly all adult smokers in countries where a World Health Organization (WHO) convention requires health warnings on tobacco products noticed the warnings, and more than half of smokers in six of 14 countries in the study said the warnings made them think about quitting, says the study.

British American Tobacco PLC (BATS.LN)Thursday said it has bought Colombia’s second-largest cigarette company by sales and market share, Productora Tabacalera de Colombia SAS, or Protabaco, for $452 million, filling a strategic gap in its operations in Latin America.The acquisition will enlarge BAT’s presence in the country, which is Latin America’s fourth largest cigarette market which had total industry sales of around 17 billion cigarettes last year.

The House voted Wednesday to insist on a 10-cent per pack cut in the state tobacco tax, something the Senate has eliminated from its budget package.By a vote of 272 to 108, the House put the tax cut proposal into a Senate bill that would make technical changes to the state’s tax on meals and rentals.House Finance Committee Chairman Rep. Kenneth Weyler, R-Kingston, said the loss of roughly $14 million in tax revenue under the proposed cut would be more than offset by a boost in cigarette sales.

Can smokeless tobacco products satiate a smoker’s nicotine craving while simultaneously serving as a smoking cessation aid? And if so, is it conceivable that such a transition might result in net harm, paradoxical as that seems? These are the pivotal questions that Matthew Carpenter, an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, aims to answer with his new year-long study on 1,250 smokers nationwide. In his upcoming research, funded primarily through the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Carpenter will provide half of the study participants with Camel Snus while the other half will not be given anything.

As of Wednesday, all military medical treatment facilities will become tobacco-free, eliminating designated smoking areas around the exterior of each building.The Air Force Surgeon General has advised that tobacco use is inconsistent with a fit and healthy force and continued use of tobacco products by airmen results in significant impact to the mission.

A University of South Carolina researcher is preparing to answer two questions with widespread implications for the tobacco industry and public-health community.Can a smokeless product, in this instance Camel Snus, contribute to a smoker quitting cigarettes — particularly one who doesn’t want to stop?If it does, could an increase in use of smokeless-tobacco products over cigarettes cause a net harm to the population?

Average lifespan of a Gujarat police official is barely 60 years, reveal studies conducted by medical experts. The reasons for the phenomenon range from lifestyle with no fixed schedule to bad eating habits and use of tobacco products.To help the middle-rung officials in the state police force quit the habit of tobacco use, an awareness campaign has been organised jointly by the city police and state tobacco control cell from Monday to Friday. 150 police sub-inspectors (PSIs) will get personal counseling by experts at Shahibaug police headquarters.

It’s a push in Albany County to keep tobacco products out of pharmacies and out of any retailer with a pharmacy inside, including grocery stores.A public hearing was held Tuesday night over the proposed law, with those in support saying tobacco should not be in a pharmacy, a place that is usually associated with good health.”It’s a sin to sell tobacco in pharmacies,” says Debbie Keefe. Keefe was a smoker for 27 years. By the time she decided to quit, she was smoking two and a half packs of cigarettes a day.