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Smokers who kick the habit before age 45 can nearly eliminate their excess risk of dying from lung or other cancers, a new study estimates. It's well-established that after smokers quit, their risk of tobacco-related cancers drops substantially over time. Researchers said the new findings underscore the power of quitting as early as possible. Among more than 400,000 Americans they followed, smokers died of cancer at three times the rate of nonsmokers. However, smokers who managed to quit by age 45 lowered that excess risk by 87%. And if they overcame the habit by age 35, their excess risk of...

The current brouhaha over smoking has made everyone painfully aware of tobacco's effects on the body, but it has also obscured a more profound reason for smoking’s popularity: its relation to the soul. As the heyday of smoking passes into the ashheap of history, it is meet that we reflect on this connection. The soul, of course, is a complex thing. Long ago Plato suggested that we consider it as divided into three parts—the appetitive, spirited, and rational—that correspond to the three basic kinds of human desires: the desire to satisfy physical appetites, the desire for recognition, and the desire...

The chief executive of the company that makes Marlboro cigarettes was quoted by Britain’s Mail on Sunday as saying that the tobacco company foresaw an end to its sales of traditional cigarettes in Britain within 10 years. “I want to allow this company to leave smoking behind,” Jacek Olczak, the CEO of Philip Morris International, was quoted in the paper saying. “I think in the UK, ten years from now maximum, you can completely solve the problem of smoking.” […] For years, Philip Morris has said that its future will not include Marlboro cigarettes as it shifts to electronic devices....

Biden claimed to regret how his drug warrior legacy led to mass incarceration. But the prohibition will lead to harsher policing in Black communities. It's like the president hasn't learned a thing from the failed and evil War on Drugs. This is an opinion column. The thoughts expressed are those of the author. Joe Biden clearly hasn't learned a thing from the failed and immoral War on Drugs - a disaster that he played a huge part in creating. The president on Thursday ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban menthol cigarettes, a plan first reported on Wednesday...

If it doesn't look like avocado toast, you can't have it. That's the message I get loud and clear from Uncle Sam when I read story after story about the Food and Drug Administration's latest foray into stopping ordinary Americans from doing what ordinary Americans like to do. Take the latest news that the FDA is thinking about requiring tobacco companies to lower the nicotine in all cigarettes sold in the United States. Its goal is to fight nicotine addiction. The paternalists at the FDA are also considering whether this proposal should be paired with a ban on menthol products....

The Food and Drug Administration appears likely to move to ban menthol in cigarettes this week — a step, experts say, that has been years in the making and that could have a significant positive impact on the health of Black Americans. The FDA's decision would not ban menthol immediately, but rather kick off the rule-making process to do so, which could take years. "The winds are definitely in our favor," said Delmonte Jefferson, executive director of the Center for Black Health & Equity, citing both the decades of data that show that the cooling flavor in cigarettes makes it...

Subheading: Policy could be paired with proposal to ban menthols; FDA must decide whether to pursue menthol ban by April 29 The Biden administration is considering requiring tobacco companies to reduce the nicotine levels in all cigarettes sold in the U.S. to levels at which they are no longer addictive, according to people familiar with the matter. Administration officials are considering the policy as they approach a deadline for declaring the administration’s intentions on another tobacco question: whether or not to ban menthol cigarettes. .... Nicotine itself doesn’t cause cancer, heart disease or lung disease, according to the FDA. But...

David McGee, an attorney with Beggs & Lane, is the man the Florida Republican named during an appearance Tuesday evening on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show in which he responded to reports that he is under federal investigation over a former relationship. McGee served for six years as the first assistant at the U.S. Attorney’s Office and for seven years as the lead attorney for a Justice Department's Organized Crime Task Force, according to his biography on the website of his law firm, which is based in Pensacola, Florida. (Cut) The New York Times reported Gaetz, 38, is being looked...

The end of televised cigarette ads changed everything from the entertainment industry to advertising itself. Tyler SageAt 11:50 PM on Jan. 1, 1971, the last television ad for cigarettes ran on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, signaling the end of an era and shifting the media world in ways that are still being felt today. You can see the minute-long spot below. It features Virginia Slims' controversial attempt to cash in on the women's liberation movement with the tag line "You've come a long way, baby." Tobacco has played a role in American life for almost as long as...

Robert Levinson, a former FBI special agent who disappeared while traveling on Iran’s Kush Island in 2007, has “died while in Iranian custody,” his family announced Wednesday. ---SNIP--- “Those who are responsible for what happened to Bob Levinson, including those in the U.S. government who for many years repeatedly left him behind, will ultimately receive justice for what they have done,” the announcement said. That’s a reference to President Barack Obama’s administration, which did not secure Levinson’s release despite years of negotiating with Tehran in the lead-up to the implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

A record-breaking ruling for the family of Bob Levinson, a former FBI Agent who vanished while in Iran 13-years ago. Thursday, a U.S. judge ruled Iran must pay Levinson's family $1.46 billion, the largest judgement for a case of this kind... Levinson disappeared in 2007 while working as a CIA contractor in Iran. His family immediately called on (Atty. David) McGee, who was Levinson's friend, to help bring him home... Earlier this year, Levinson's family announced they were convinced the husband and father of seven was dead. In a statement, they said the judgement was the "the first step in...

The ban - part of a European Union initiative to discourage young people from taking up smoking - will come into effect on Wednesday, May 20Menthol cigarettes will be banned in the United Kingdom from next week in a bid to discourage young people from taking up smoking. The ban - part of a European Union initiative - will come into effect on Wednesday, May 20. Under the new directive, flavoured rolling tobacco and "skinny" cigarettes will be outlawed. Experts believe youngsters use flavoured cigarettes as they relax airways and lower the severity of smoke. While it is commonly believed...

Zoo animals have been unable to kick their tobacco habit as the killer pandemic sweeps the globeStressed-out primates have taken to chain smoking cigarettes as the coronavirus crisis rages across the globe. Monkeys and chimps have failed to kick the habit as entertained visitors are seen to laugh as the animals spark up amid the pandemic. In Cambodia, one man took to social media to share a video, titled ‘By 2020 even monkeys can smoke’, which shows a tiny macaque in a pen smoking a cig as another looks on. The animal is seen to take repeated drags while...

Robert Norris, known as the original 'Marlboro Man' used in ads for the cigarette brand, has died at age 90. Norris passed away at his ranch in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Sunday. He is survived by his two sons and two daughters, 13 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. For 12 years, Norris graced billboards and magazines as the Marlboro Man, a rugged man wearing a cowboy hat in wild terrain - with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth or in his hand. But despite him pictured holding cigarettes for more than a decade, Norris never smoked and he eventually quit...

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — More than two dozen people were arrested last week in connection with a $12 million cigarette smuggling operation based in Fayetteville, authorities said Monday. U.S. Attorney Robert Higdon said Justin Brent Freeman and his wholesale business, FreeCo Inc., at 231 Williams St., served as a hub for the illegal operation. People would pay cash for large quantities of cigarettes at FreeCo and other retailers in North Carolina, including Sam's Club stores in Raleigh, Fayetteville and Goldsboro, and would then pack the cigarettes into rental cars for shipment to Virginia, Higdon said. In Richmond or Alexandria, Va., the...

Sen. Mitt Romney is pushing legislation to raise the federal legal age to buy tobacco to 21, an effort backed by the tobacco industry and that health advocates hope will curtail younger Americans from smoking. Romney, a Utah Republican, said the bill was the first step in addressing an avoidable health crisis of young Americans taking up e-cigarettes as well as traditional tobacco products. The legislation would raise the age to buy any tobacco product to 21 as well as allow the Health and Human Services Department to conduct undercover compliance checks, retail inspections and enforce the law with fines.

The smoke hasn’t cleared yet, but Beverly Hills is poised to become the first U.S. city to end most tobacco sales. The City Council in the world-renowned enclave of the rich and famous unanimously indicated Tuesday that it’s ready to snuff out most sales when it meets again on May 21. The proposal currently contains a loophole allowing cigarette-loving tourists to obtain smokes at hotels. Three plush cigar lounges would also be exempt from the ordinance. The city “has always taken the lead when it’s come to restricting smoking,” Mayor John Mirisch said. “Let us try to be a light...

We are just over a month into the new Disney/Fox status quo. The Mouse House has become the industry’s first mega-studio by absorbing one of its biggest competitors in a deal that has had massive repercussions, already, with thousands losing jobs and films suddenly finding themselves without a studio. But there is a lot more at play in the merger than what many were probably considering, such as Disney’s morals. Everyone knows that Disney doesn’t make films the same way that everyone else does. The films under the Disney banner have a certain limit on how far they can go....

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans to introduce legislation raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21 from 18, a move that public-health advocates and tobacco companies hope would curb the use of e-cigarettes among youths. More than a dozen states have passed or enacted laws raising the minimum age to 21 and others are considering doing so. Sen. McConnell’s announcement Thursday follows the introduction earlier this month of similar bills in the House. Altria Group Inc. and British American Tobacco PLC, the two biggest U.S. cigarette manufacturers, both support an increase of the minimum age to 21,...