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Fidel Castro's plan to ban smoking in public places, due to come into force on Monday, appears to be a revolution too far for most Cubans. Mr Castro, 78, is clamping down on the island's Habano cigars and black tobacco cigarettes as part of a campaign to increase life expectancy to 80 years by 2010, up from the 75-76 average. But many doubt the “maximum leader” can make the law stick. Yuleisis Fonseca, a 27-year-old nurse, said Mr Castro would need an army of “extraterrestrials” to enforce the ban. “Where I work the doctors are the first to smoke and...

Employers have recently tried every carrot they can think of — including cash incentives and iPods — to persuade employees to quit smoking. Now some are trying the stick. Pointing to rising health costs and the oversized proportion of insurance claims attributed to smokers, some employers in California and around the country are refusing to hire applicants who smoke and, sometimes, firing employees who refuse to quit. "Employers are realizing the majority of health costs are spent on a small minority of workers," says Bill Whitmer, chief executive of the Health Enhancement Research Organization, an employer and healthcare coalition in...

The New York Times was impressed by Bloomington’s overreaching ban on smoking in public places. Libertarians are not so dazzled. The last thing Indiana cities should do is to copy Bloomington’s lead. Karla Sneegas, the executive director of Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation, told a New York Times reporter that “one way to start changing cultural norms on smoking is to institute new policies.” Only one problem. It’s not the government’s job to set cultural norms. Imagine if it were not something as maligned as smoking. Maybe these cities ought to ban coffee. It stains teeth a nasty shade, the...

NOT content with trampling smokers' rights, the New York State Dept. of Health has launched an insidious campaign to erase all traces of tobacco from the movies. The department's tobacco control program was behind the formation of Reality Check, a well-funded group supposedly started by and for teens against smoking. One of R.C.'s missions is to eradicate smoking from the movies, and their methods have put some noses out of joint. [snip] Insiders say Reality Check plans an even more outrageous campaign, however. In addition to pressuring studios to keep smoking and cigarettes out of new movies — beginning...

Like a lot of New York's straight-off-the-boat Irish barmen, Brian ("no surname, thanks") has a problem with authority, one that means keeping a weather eye on the door of the unfashionable watering hole where he slings suds from 6pm until closing time. As an undocumented alien with a tourist visa that expired more than three years ago, Brian's chief concern has always been the immigration authorities. These days, though, there is another threat to his livelihood: the Big Apple's smoking police. "It's a fookin' crime," he said, "the way those bastards behave." The regulars at Brian's bar agreed. The talk...

WASHINGTON — Chief movie lobbyist Jack Valenti defended smoking in Hollywood films, but senators insisted the industry must do more to stop the practice. "I don't believe that whatever the director does ought to incite the intervention of the government in any form," Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, told a Senate Commerce Committee hearing yesterday. "I've got to tell you I believe it is his right to tell the story as he chooses to tell it." Some lawmakers were dissatisfied by his answers. A study last year found that teens who watch movies with smoking in...

U.S. Joins Tobacco Treaty WASHINGTON - The United States signed the World Health Organization's anti-tobacco treaty yesterday, the 108th nation to join an accord that promises major advertising restrictions and other controls on it. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson signed the document at the United Nations late yesterday. The Senate still must ratify the treaty; it's not clear how quickly that could come.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California could be on its way to becoming the first U.S. state to outlaw smoking in cars or trucks that have children inside. A bill is being considered in the state Assembly to allow police to stop vehicles if a minor appears to be exposed to smoke from a pipe, cigar, cigarette, or "any other plant." The bill has the support of the American Lung Association, which points to research showing secondhand smoke can cause cancer, respiratory infections and asthma. Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh, a Democrat and author of the bill, has referred to a survey by...

Employees of the municipality of Levanger had to completely abstain from smoking during their working hours. The county administrator (Fylkesmann) claims such a strict ban contravenes human rights and has now repealed the controversial prohibition, newspaper Trønder-Avisa reports. "A good day for us. The Fylkesmann's ruling shows that democracy works. We have said all along that government or municipal rulings could not contravene Norwegian law. Now everyone must see that we are right," said Progress Party representatives Birger Meinhardt and Steinar Holten, who celebrated their victory for local smokers by lighting up cigars. Levanger's extremely strict anti-smoking law, which also...

<p>ALBANY, New York (Reuters) - Still steamed over a looming smoking ban, some New York bar and restaurant owners hit the state where it hurts -- in the pocketbook.</p> <p>They unplugged the lottery machines in their establishments.</p> <p>This week's coordinated cutting off of Quick Draw Lottery machines is costing the state $1 million in lost revenue, according to Scott Wexler, head of the Empire State Restaurant and Tavern Association, which represents more than 3,000 bars and eateries across the state.</p>

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The leading U.S. group of cancer physicians on Saturday urged an immediate $2-per-pack increase in taxes on cigarettes and other steps to curb smoking, which is projected to kill a billion people worldwide this century. "Oncologists see the end product from smoking. To see a preventable form of cancer is a tragedy," said Dr. Paul Bunn, president of the American Society of Clinical Oncologists at a news conference at the group's annual meeting. In a new policy statement, the group representing tens of thousands of cancer experts globally, recommended creation of a "blue-ribbon" panel to focus U.S....

Hey, Boston get your butts over here! By Deborah Eisner / Chronicle Staff Wednesday, December 18, 2002 Smokers upset about Boston's decision to ban smoking in all restaurants, bars and nightclubs, will only have to take a quick trip across the river if they want someplace to light up. That's because just three months after public health officials here were talking about making Cambridge a smoke-free city as if it were a done deal, the City Council appears to be unwilling to support the effort. Only four city councilors are poised to vote in favor of the proposed ordinance which...

The latest James Bond movie, "Die Another Day," follows the pattern of previous Bond films with scenes of glamorized violence including murder and mayhem, and titillating nudity with suggestive sex scenes. These, of course, garner no protest (nor am I advocating any such protest). But it is surely an illustration of the moral confusion of our times that while scenes of gratuitous violence and sex, whose only purpose is to titillate the viewer, not to mention scenes of alcohol drinking, arouse no controversy, one scene is seething with controversy: Pierce Brosnan as James Bond smokes a cigar! According to...

Access Laws Do Not Lower Rates of Teen Smoking Mon Jun 3,10:29 AM ET NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Laws that prohibit merchants from selling cigarettes to minors have not helped to reduce rates of teenage smoking in the US and should therefore be abandoned, researchers conclude. Their study found no association between laws that make it difficult for teenagers to buy cigarettes and the prevalence of smoking. There was no difference in rates of teenage smoking between communities with and without such laws, and no association between compliance with the laws and the incidence of smoking among teenagers, according...

NEW YORK –– A judge has ordered a smoker to stop lighting up at home or in her car if she wants continued visitation rights with her 13-year-old son who has complained about her pack-a-day habit. Justice Robert Julian, of Utica, issued the ban although the youth is not allergic to tobacco smoke and doesn't suffer from a health condition, such as asthma, that would be worsened by it. Click Here to rest the rest of the article.