Free Republic

I was supposed to have surgery on one of my ankles to reduce chronic pain. Eventually, I will need flatfoot corrective surgery on the right foot too. I've been ready for quite some time, and miss being able to walk without limping like an old man. The procedure would be a Sub-Talar Fusion. I have Veterans' Health Insurance only. I was less than 3 days away from the surgery date when I got a call from one of the Resident Surgeons. Apparently, he had been told that I use e-cigs and sometime actual cigarettes. My actual cig use is very...

Funny or offensive? Some over-the-top Halloween costumes are causing a stir, including the baby pot leaf and baby cigarette designs. These are the brainchild of a California company that’s known for making provocative costumes. …

"Says Frieden, who’s been fiercely vilified by the tobacco industry for his bluntly aggressive attack on cigarettes: “I was once quoted, accurately, as saying that during the years I spent fighting TB, my enemy was a micro-bacterial—tuberculosis—but now it’s an even lower form of life: tobacco executives! An executive from Phillip Morris actually wrote to me and complained, basically, that this was a form of hate speech, and I had to agree. So I no longer use that expression. Now I just stick to the facts and describe tobacco company executives as mass murderers.”

---SNIP--- What’s the draw at this Bensalem store? Cigarettes, some priced at under $6 a pack. No more than a mile away in Philadelphia, the same cigarettes cost more than $8. “We used to get between 300 and 400 cartons of cigarettes every other night. Now, we’re getting about 1,500 cartons. I would say sales have gone up from about 2,000 packs a day to between 4,000 and 4,500 packs daily,” inventory manager Jim Watson said. That adds up at least $24,000 a day in sales, an increase of $12,000-plus since nearby Philadelphia increased its tax on a pack of...

In a Trans-Atlantic debate over cigarette packaging, North Carolina’s governor poses a rhetorical question to the Irish and French governments: Would Guinness be recognizable labeled simply as “beer?” Or would champagne sell as well in a bottle lacking its distinctive curves? Gov. Pat McCrory has written letters to French and Irish officials decrying plans in those countries to force manufacturers to package their cigarettes in plain containers. McCrory argues farmers and manufacturers in the top U.S. tobacco-producing state would be hurt by the proposals to remove brand logos and colors from cigarette boxes. “Plain packaging laws are a direct assault...

CVS Caremark has followed through with its long-promised cigarette ban, as the tobacco-free pharmacy chain officially changed its name to CVS Health. "The sale of cigarettes and tobacco at CVS pharmacy stores ends today," said Larry Merlo, president and CEO of CVS, in a video statement on the company web site. "By eliminating the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products in our stores, we can make a difference in the health of all Americans." CVS (CVS) stopped selling cigarettes nearly a month earlier than expected, since the chain had previously announced the ban would go into effect by Oct. 1.

Eating too much protein could be as dangerous as smoking for middle-aged people, a study has found. Research which tracked thousands of adults for nearly 20 years found that those who eat a diet rich in animal protein are four times more likely to die of cancer than someone with a low-protein diet. The risk is nearly as high as the danger of developing cancer from smoking 20 cigarettes each day. Previous studies have shown a link between cancer and red meat, but it is the first time research has measured the risk of death associated with regularly eating too...

If you’re planning on heading up to the Cape Cod beaches this summer, leave your cigarettes at home. Massachusetts recently passed legislation banning smoking in all lifeguard-protected areas beginning June 19. The new smoking prohibition results from a number of complaints from visitors who have been affected by secondhand smoke in public areas, NBC News reports. “The smoking prohibition is the result of a number of complaints from visitors who have been affected by second-hand smoke on the guarded beaches,” park superintendent George Price, said in an issued statement. Price added that cigarettes on beaches are not only a health...

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Cigarette smuggling costs states an estimated $5.5 billion annually. Much of that traffic takes place on the East Coast along Interstate 95, as cigarettes from lower-tax states are being smuggled to states with higher taxes in the Northeast. A new website, sponsored by RAI Services Co., a subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc., calls the I-95 corridor "The New Tobacco Road."The website draws attention to the problem to encourage states to pass stiffer penalties for smuggling and devote more resources to enforcement.The website, www.thenewtobaccoroad.com, shows how I-95 has become a key transit route for cigarette smuggling from southern...

Environmental experts claim [cigarette] butts contain the same toxins found in cigarettes and cigars, and can contaminate the environment and water sources. … According to Thomas Novotny from the San Diego State University and environmentalist Elli Slaughter, an estimated 4.5 trillion of the annual 6 trillion cigarettes are flicked onto the roadside or on a pavement. And the researchers claim the ban on indoor smoking may have made this situation worse. Novotny and Slaughter … want the tobacco industry to be held legally responsible for clean-up costs associated with their products, as well as warning messages put on labels on...

Fox Host Bill O'Reilly on Wednesday claimed that he could have been the Marlboro Man. "While I was covering the News in Denver, I was approached by a modeling agency to be the Marlboro guy dressed as a cowboy," he said on the "O'Reilly Factor" while lamenting the lack of a public health campaign warning about the dangers of weed. He lauded the U.S. government's campaign against smoking tobacco, but said that the U.S. has taken the opposite approach to pot. "Smoking marijuana is quite the opposite. That’s on the rise, as pot use is considered cool in many...

A majority of the cigarettes for sale in New York are illegally smuggled into the state, according to a report out Wednesday from the conservative research group the Tax Foundation. According to the report, 56.9% of the cigarettes sold in New York—the highest importer of smuggled cigarettes—originated from out of state. Since 2006, cigarette smuggling in the state has risen sharply, by 59%, in tandem with a massive hike in cigarette taxes of 190%. New York state now has the highest cigarette taxes in the country, at $4.35 a pack. Residents of NYC must also pay an extra $1.50 per...

A handful of Democratic Senators are up in arms about the Golden Globe awards. No, they’re not upset that Breaking Bad beat out House of Cards for best Television Drama Series. Instead, they’re fuming about a few actors using electronic cigarettes during the award show broadcast. They’ve fired off a strongly worded letter to NBC Universal and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association for “glamorizing” the use of e-cigarettes. And now they’re going even further in advocating for a ban on these products in the U.S. Capitol. Banning consumption of electronic cigarettes in public has become a troubling trend of paternalistic...

Senate Democrats introduced legislation on Wednesday that would ban marketing electronic cigarettes to teens. Despite their admission that the health implications of electronic cigarettes “are not yet clear,” Senators Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), Dick Durbin (D., Ill.), Tom Harkin (D., Iowa), Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.), and Edward Markey (D., Mass.) introduced the bill to “protect children” from the smoking simulators.

A group of Democrats are urging Walmart to follow CVS Caremark and discontinue selling tobacco products. The seven Democrats said Walmart, the nation’s biggest retailer, is also the nation’s biggest seller of cigarettes. “We recognize the legality of selling and profiting from tobacco products; however, Walmart’s position as the nation’s largest retailer of any kind puts your company in a unique position to contribute to the health and well-being of all Americans<” the Democrats said in a letter to the company. The letter’s signatories included Sen. Dick Durbin (Ill.), the number two Democrat in the Senate. The letter stats that...

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. The power of tobacco companies and popularity of their products made such a goal seem like a pipe dream. But a confluence of changes has recently prompted public health leaders to start throwing around phrases like “endgame” and “tobacco-free generation.” Now, they talk about the slowly-declining adult smoking rate dropping to 10 percent in the next decade and to 5...

IT IS GREAT CVS is ending cigarette sales by October, and I know exactly what other dangerous products should go behind the counter when the wall of cancer sticks comes down: Coke, Pepsi, Gatorade, Red Bull, and all other sugary beverages. I say this because I take CVS’s new public health pronouncements seriously. In announcing the tobacco ban, CVS chief medical officer Troyen Brennan said the drugstore industry is positioning itself to offer more clinical services for chronic diseases. He wrote Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association that it is a “paradox” to sell cigarettes as pharmacies...

CVS, the country’s second-largest pharmacy chain, plans to stop selling all cigarettes and tobacco products, saying they have no place in a drugstore company that is trying to become more of a health-care provider. The White House released this statement from President Barack Obama on CVS’s decision: “I applaud this morning’s news that CVS Caremark has decided to stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products in its stores, and begin a national campaign to help millions of Americans quit smoking instead. As one of the largest retailers and pharmacies in America, CVS Caremark sets a powerful example, and today’s decision...

President Obama, an ex-smoker, released this statement applauding CVs for stopping the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products: "I applaud this morning’s news that CVS Caremark has decided to stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products in its stores, and begin a national campaign to help millions of Americans quit smoking instead. As one of the largest retailers and pharmacies in America, CVS Caremark sets a powerful example, and today’s decision will help advance my Administration’s efforts to reduce tobacco-related deaths, cancer, and heart disease, as well as bring down health care costs – ultimately saving lives and protecting untold...

When customers step up to make a purchase at a CVS store next fall, they won’t see rows of cigarette boxes and other tobacco products behind the counter. CVS Caremark announced Wednesday its decision to stop selling tobacco products by October 2014 in its more than 7,600 stores, making it the first large drugstore chain in the country to do so.