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Environmental factors could play a large role in kids' attention deficit The Associated Press Updated: 9:02 p.m. PT Sept 18, 2006 CHICAGO - About one-third of attention deficit cases among U.S. children may be linked with tobacco smoke before birth or to lead exposure afterward, according to provocative new research. Even levels of lead the government considers acceptable appeared to increase a child’s risk of having attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, the study found. It builds on previous research linking attention problems, including ADHD, with childhood lead exposure and smoking during pregnancy, and offers one of the first estimates for how...

UC Davis researchers today described in unprecedented biochemical and anatomical detail how cigarette smoke damages the lungs of unborn and newborn children. The findings illustrate with increased urgency the dangers that smokers' families and friends face, said UC Davis Professor Kent Pinkerton, and should give family doctors helpful new insight into the precise hidden physical changes occurring in their young patients' lungs. "Smoke exposure causes significant damage and lasting consequences in newborns," Pinkerton said. "This research has a message for every parent: Do not smoke or breathe secondhand smoke while you are pregnant. Do not let your children breathe secondhand...

When tobacco control goes out of control Gloucester Daily Times The absurdities of tobacco politics have been with us for decades. But every few years, there is another burst of insanity that would be amusing if we didn't all have to take it seriously, because it has the force of government behind it. Such are the times in which we now live. First, the local example: In Peabody, Bruce Lerner is the most recent poster boy for the death of common sense. And the result, of course, is the death of a business that was paying taxes to a city...

Study conducted in Nevada casinos claims DNA risk from secondhand smoke ASSOCIATED PRESS RENO, Nev. (AP) - Five years of research led by a University of Nevada, Reno department head in Reno and Las Vegas casinos have concluded there is a direct correlation between exposure to secondhand smoke in the workplace and damage to the employees' DNA. "The more they were exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, the more the DNA damage, and that's going to lead to a higher risk of heart disease and cancer down the road," said Chris Pritsos. Funded by a $2.5 million grant from the National...

ROME - Smokers in Italy took their last puffs in smoky bars and trattorias Sunday, hours before the start of one of Europe's toughest laws against smoking in public places. The outdoors, private homes, and restaurants and bars with ventilated smoking rooms are the only places spared from the anti-smoking law. Enforcement begins at 12:01 a.m. Monday, when many bars and clubs still will be serving customers. In a restaurant near Viterbo, north of Rome, a dozen cigar aficionados reserved a table for a kind of farewell dinner, promising to puff away on Tuscan and Cuban cigars between courses before...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Smoking diplomats, especially those from Russia, Mexico and the Czech Republic, balked at a new ban against lighting up in U.N. headquarters and demanded Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) explain himself. At a meeting of the General Assembly's committee on budget and administration on Wednesday, several delegates questioned the legal basis for Annan to put out such an order without a vote from member states and demanded a legal ruling. A U.N. official promised one would be forthcoming after an earlier, similar request had been ignored. "I will make sure, because I am also...