Proposed Mississippi cigarette tax hikes nearly dead
With less than three weeks left in the 2018 regular session, an effort by Mississippi lawmakers to raise tobacco taxes is on its deathbed.
Mississippians not required to be 21 to buy tobacco products
A House committee doesn’t want to require Mississippians to be 21 to buy tobacco products.
The House Ways and Means Committee, on a split voice vote Wednesday, rejected House Bill 835.
Anti-smoking plan may kill cigarettes — and save Big Tobacco
Imagine if cigarettes were no longer addictive and smoking itself became almost obsolete; only a tiny segment of Americans still lit up. That’s the goal of an unprecedented anti-smoking plan being carefully fashioned by U.S. health officials.
Court overturns tobacco company victory over FDA on menthols
A federal appeals court has ruled that tobacco companies had no basis to challenge a Food and Drug Administration report on menthol cigarettes, which the industry alleged was written by experts with conflicts of interest.
Hood says Mississippi settles some tobacco claims for $15M
Mississippi’s attorney general says the nation’s largest tobacco company will pay the state $15 million to settle claims that it was underreporting the number of cigarettes it was shipping to the state.
Tobacco giants resist harsh admissions about smoking
Never underestimate the staying power of big tobacco.
Survey: E-cigs surpass regular cigarettes in teen use
Electronic cigarettes have surpassed traditional smoking in popularity among teens, the government’s annual drug use survey finds.
CVS tacks tobacco payment to prescription network
First, CVS Health pulled tobacco from its store shelves. Now, it plans to make some customers think twice about filling prescriptions at other stores that sell smokes.
Ebola puts focus on drugs made in tobacco plants
It’s an eye-catching angle in the story of an experimental treatment for Ebola: The drug comes from tobacco plants that were turned into living pharmaceutical factories.
Sweets makers work to keep names off e-cigarettes
Owners of brands geared toward children of all ages are battling to keep notable names like Thin Mint, Tootsie Roll and Cinnamon Toast Crunch off the flavored nicotine used in electronic cigarettes.
Report highlights child labor on tobacco farms
You may have to be at least 18 to buy cigarettes in the U.S., but children as young as 7 are working long hours in fields harvesting nicotine- and pesticide-laced tobacco leaves under sometimes hazardous and sweltering conditions, according to a report released Wednesday by an international rights group.
FDA proposes first regulations for electronic cigarettes
The federal government wants to ban sales of electronic cigarettes to minors and require approval for new products and health warning labels under regulations being proposed by the Food and Drug Administration.
Electronic cigarette industry awaits looming FDA regulation
Smokers are increasingly turning to battery-powered electronic cigarettes to get their nicotine fix. They’re about to find out what federal regulators have to say about the popular devices.
Experts increasingly contemplate end of smoking
Health officials have begun to predict the end of cigarette smoking in America.
They have long wished for a cigarette-free America, but shied away from calling for smoking rates to fall to zero or near zero by any particular year.
Request for full smoking ban tabled
The city of Columbus’ partial smoking ban is officially under review after councilmen tabled a request to make it a comprehensive ban.
Black media seek part of court-ordered tobacco ads
Black media outlets want the nation’s tobacco companies to run court-ordered advertisements in their publications as part of a lawsuit charging that the industry lied about the dangers of smoking.
Surgeon general urges new resolve to end smoking
One in 13 children could see their lives shortened by smoking unless the nation takes more aggressive action to end the tobacco epidemic, the U.S. Surgeon General said Friday — even as, astonishingly, scientists added still more diseases to the long list of cigarettes’ harms.
Tobacco whistleblower dies in Mississippi
Merrell Williams Jr., a one-time Kentucky paralegal who took on Big Tobacco as a whistleblower who leaked internal documents exposing health risks and the addictiveness of cigarettes, has died in Mississippi, decades after he joined the fight that forever changed perceptions of smoking.
NYC council votes to make tobacco-buying age 21
NEW YORK — Smoking may be a bad habit — but New York City lawmakers want their residents to be older and wiser before deciding
40 AGs urge tight regulation of e-cigarettes
BOSTON — Forty attorneys general sent a letter to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday urging the agency to meet its own deadline