Students of the River Ridge High School in a working tobacco (SWAT), the club wanted to impress their peers about the dangers of smoking, so they brought in those who listened to the country on this issue for years.

In order to ensure a healthy learning and working for the students of Armstrong, faculty and staff, university president Linda Bleicken has announced plans for a tobacco-free campus beginning fall 2012. The decision has led many in the community of Armstrong on the issue of developing a new policy.

Everybody hates tobacco companies — except their shareholders.

Did the government again yield to industry pressure in delaying the printing of gory pictorial warnings on tobacco products? Yes, says an NGO that has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the government’s decision to postpone by a year the implementation of the warnings on cigarette packs. The Health for Millions Trust has also alleged that the government has little concern for public health.

Even as the health ministry dithers over harsher pictorial warnings on tobacco products, new evidence keeps mounting on the ill- effects of tobacco, particularly second hand smoke. Scientists at the ongoing Cancer Prevention Research conference have revealed that 90 percent of children who lived in a house where an adult smoked had evidence of tobacco- related carcinogens in their urine.

When it comes to the environment in this year’s election, most attention has focused on whether California voters will suspend the state’s landmark global warming law by approving Proposition 23.But a new battle is emerging in the final weeks before Nov. 2 on another ballot question that opponents contend would force ordinary citizens — rather than big corporations — to pay for environmental cleanup, public health problems, traffic and other harm industry can create.

Philip Morris International Inc., the world’s largest publicly traded tobacco company, reported a 1.3 percent increase in third-quarter profit, missing some analysts’ estimates, after raising cigarette prices.Net income advanced to $1.82 billion, or 99 cents a share, from $1.8 billion, or 93 cents, a year earlier, the New York- based maker of Marlboro cigarettes said today in a statement. Excluding some items, profit was $1 a share. Analysts projected $1.01, the average of 11 estimates in a Bloomberg survey.

Extra years of life are more a question of smoking than wealth, a study reported on Tuesday. Previous research in developed countries showed that disparities in income were significantly related to health and longevity.Whether one smokes tobacco or not has a greater impact on life span than being rich or poor, the largest study of its kind reported Tuesday.