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Electronic cigarettes, which do not require a flame but heat tobacco leaves to create a vapor that is inhaled, are so popular in Japan these days that demand cannot keep up with supply. The e-cigarette boom was triggered by iQOS, a product released by Philip Morris Japan K.K. Rather than burning tobacco leaves, the iQOS heats cigarettes in a small cylindrical device — all designed exclusively for each other — so that nicotine and vapors are inhaled together. Sales of iQOS began in Tokyo in September last year, before expanding nationwide in April. Even though the kit is priced as...

By now, there’s little doubt in anyone’s mind that smoking is dangerous both to smokers and those around them, though that doesn’t stop 40 million American adults from lighting up almost every day. Banning cigarettes outright might encourage people to kick the habit, but a blanket prohibition on smoking seems unlikely to happen any time soon. Rather than focusing on banning cigarettes themselves, states (along with cities and the federal government) have passed various tobacco laws making it more difficult for people to smoke. They’ve raised taxes on tobacco, banned smoking in many public and private spaces, and required warning...

IN HAWAII and California, the minimum age for buying cigarettes was raised recently to 21. Now Massachusetts lawmakers, addicted to the rush that comes from limiting other people's choices, are keen to jump on the bandwagon.A bill banning the sale of tobacco products to anyone younger than 21 — and, for good measure, making it a crime to sell cigarettes in drugstores — passed the state Senate by an overwhelming vote last month. The bill is now before a House committee; it could reach the full House for a vote in a matter of days. Soon after the Fourth of July, adults...

The minimum age in Chicago for buying cigarettes and other tobacco products goes up to 21 at the end of the week. […] Hawaii and California have raised the tobacco purchase age to 21 statewide. Illinois lawmakers are considering a similar measure. The Chicago City Council approved the age increase in March, along with higher taxes and other efforts to combat tobacco sales. …

On a cool spring day at the Capitol, Toni Atkins delivered a series of blows unlike anything the tobacco industry had ever felt in California. Then speaker of the Assembly, the San Diego Democrat had been a lame duck for the last six months since the house elected Anthony Rendon to replace her. It was a Thursday morning in March and her final session as speaker, a tenure that lasted just shy of a year and 10 months. In a series of quick votes, the Assembly passed six smoking bills, the most significant of which raised the age to buy...

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that the European Union can’t pursue a lawsuit accusing tobacco giant R.J Reynolds of taking part in a global money-laundering scheme that sponsored cigarette-smuggling in Europe. In a 4-3 ruling, the justices said the EU has no right to sue in U.S. courts because federal racketeering laws don’t allow recovery for injuries occurring outside the United States. The EU and 26 of its member states allege RJR coordinated the scheme with the help of Colombian and Russian criminal groups and laundered money through New York-based financial institutions. The EU claims the company’s actions hurt the...

Meet the strange bedfellows against vaping: drug and tobacco companies, health advocates and Democratic lawmakers. A convergence of interests among these four lies behind the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) announcement on May 5 that e-cigarettes will be regulated as rigorously as tobacco beginning in August. Vaping advocates say the cost of FDA approvals will bankrupt an industry that might vastly improve public health. This spring, a major study from the Royal College of Physicians, the British equivalent of the Office of the Surgeon General, found e-cigarettes to be 95 percent less harmful than cigarettes.

SAN DIEGO — Tony Gwynn's widow and two children filed a lawsuit Monday seeking to hold the tobacco industry accountable for the Hall of Famer's death. The suit was filed in San Diego Superior Court by Alicia Gwynn and her children, Tony Jr. and Anisha Gwynn-Jones. The suit says Gwynn started dipping as a 17-year-old freshman ballplayer at San Diego State. He died of cancer of the right parotid salivary gland on June 16, 2014, at 54.

Okay, your HIGH is really screwin’ up my LAWN!!! People are IDIOTS and will ingest ANYTHING to catch a BUZZ — the latest — FLOWER SEEDS?! That’s right, people are CHEWING the seeds of: Hawaiian Baby Woodrose Sleepy Grass Blue Morning Glory Because they’re LEGAL, and apparently, mimic the high of LSD.

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The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has launched a smoking prevention campaign aimed at young adult lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) persons who are occasional users of tobacco. Young adult LGBT persons are nearly twice as likely to use tobacco as other young adults, said Mitch Zeller, JD, director, Center for Tobacco Products (CTP), FDA, during a press briefing to announce the campaign, called This Free Life. Of the more than 2 million LGBT persons aged 18 to 24 years in the United States, more than 800,000 are occasional or so-called social smokers, according to Dr Zeller. "Unfortunately,...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today announced the launch of a historic public education campaign aimed at preventing and reducing tobacco use among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) young adults ages 18-24.

The Pentagon is looking to raise the price of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco sold on U.S. military installations worldwide, in an attempt to ween U.S. service members from tobacco use. Defense Secretary Ash Carter codified the policy in an April 8th department-wide memorandum, which also expanded smoke-free areas on American military bases, according to Reuters. The new tobacco policy would increase prices on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco sold at U.S. military commissaries and post exchanges to match the price of tobacco products sold off base, which are subject to state and local taxes. Currently, tobacco products sold on U.S. bases

Fans do not attend Major League Baseball games to enhance their physical health. Among their customary activities are eating hot dogs, drinking beer or sugary soda, sitting idly for hours on end and stressing terribly about inconsequential events on the field of play. But this season, those at Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field will have to forgo one vice. Chicago recently became the fourth city to outlaw smokeless tobacco in sports stadiums (followed shortly by New York). The law owes much to the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, whose president, Matthew Myers, says, "Our national pastime should be about promoting...

There was a time that chewing tobacco was as much a part of baseball as Louisville Slugger, Rawlings and Gatorade. Not anymore. This summer, Chicago will become the fourth American city to ban smokeless chewing tobacco at sports venues -- including Major League Baseball ballparks Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field. That means not only can't fans use the substance, but players and managers can't, either. And it's a law that has some members of the Chicago Cubs less than thrilled. <> Chicago follows Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston in implementing the ban at sporting venues. The entire state...

Researchers today announced in the journal Nature Plants the discovery of the first-ever fossil specimens of an "asterid" - a family of flowering plants that gave us everything from the potato to tomatoes, tobacco, petunias and our morning cup of coffee. But these two 20-30 million-year-old fossil flowers, found perfectly preserved in a piece of amber, came from the dark side of the asterid family - they belong to the genus Strychnos, which ultimately gave rise to some of the world's most famous poisons, including strychnine and curare. Poisons that would later find their way into blow-gun weapons, rat control,...

U.S. tobacco giant Altria Group Inc. MO, +2.48% on Thursday said it would cut roughly 5% of its workforce in an effort to reduce costs by $300 million annually as industry volumes decline. The Marlboro maker announced the layoffs on the same day it reported profit and revenue for the fourth quarter that missed Wall Street expectations as cigarette shipments slipped and earnings declined from its stake in SABMiller PLC's beer business. Altria's earnings rose slightly to $1.25 billion, or 64 cents a share, from $1.24 billion, or 63 cents a share, a year earlier. The results foreshadowed some of...

New York is reaping the whirlwind of sky-high cigarette taxes with a wave of smuggling decimating the state’s revenue. New York raised taxes on cigarettes to $4.35 in 2010 from $2.75. In total, cigarette taxes have increased by 190 percent since 2006. The sharp rise has resulted in a raft of unintended consequences which are dealing a significant blow to the state’s finances. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli reports New York’s revenue from cigarette taxes has plunged by $400 million over the past five years.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – The number of state-taxed cigarette packs sold in New York has plummeted by 54 percent in the past decade. That's far outpacing the 19 percent decline in New Yorkers who have quit smoking over the same time. Instead, more smokers are buying cigarettes in ways that avoid New York's $4.35 per pack tax, the highest in the nation. They cross state lines, shop from black market vendors and travel to Native American outlets to save $6 per pack or more, experts say. New York is losing big. In the past five years, the state's cigarette tax collections...

Archaeologists at Historic Jamestown have discovered the tenth Virginia-made pipe with a name inscribed on the stem. It’s the first new named pipe found at the site since 2009, and in contrast to most of the earlier discoveries, the name is complete: William Faldo. The stockholders of the Virginia Company were expecting to make a quick profit from their investment in the Jamestown settlement, but the struggling colonists could barely keep themselves alive, never mind send back the riches in minerals and trade goods the company had envisioned. They weren’t even self-sufficient, having clashed with the Powhatan tribes weeks after...