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Scientists are reporting a significant milestone for cancer research after charting 21 major mutations behind the vast majority of tumours. The disruptive changes to the genetic code, reported in Nature, accounted for 97% of the 30 most common cancers. Finding out what causes the mutations could lead to new treatments. Some causes, such as smoking are known, but more than half are still a mystery. Cancer Research UK said it was a fascinating and important study. A tumour starts when one of the building blocks of bodies, a cell, goes wrong. Over the course of a lifetime cells pick up...

Most current smokers in the U.S. would like to give up smoking. Perhaps as a testimony to their desire to quit, 85% of smokers say they have in fact tried to quit at least once in their lifetime, including 45% who have tried at least three times. ~snip Smokers on average are engaging in a habit they wish they didn't have, and, in fact, the average smoker has attempted to quit at least three times in their lifetime. The difficulty in quitting is attested to by the fact that more than seven in 10 smokers say they are addicted to...

President Obama is apparently still privately fighting his own battle -- against smoking. Obama was spotted slyly putting a piece of Nicorette gum into his mouth Monday -- providing Americans with a rare glimpse into his on-again-off-again relationship with Nicotine.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Some smokers trying to get coverage next year under President Barack Obama’s health care law may get a break from tobacco-use penalties that could have made their premiums unaffordable. The Obama administration — in yet another health care overhaul delay — has quietly notified insurers that a computer system glitch will limit penalties that the law says the companies may charge smokers. A fix will take at least a year to put in place.

Summer has officially begun and for many, it's time for sun, sand and swimming. But don't count on lighting up a cigarette while you're at the beach. Over the last few years, you may have noticed more "no smoking" signs have cropped up on parks and beaches. They're part of a larger trend banning smoking at outside, public areas. In fact, smoking has been banned in 843 parks and more than 150 beaches in the last two decades. What beachgoers probably aren't thinking about is the ethics behind these bans, which began taking hold in the early 1990s. Public health...

The Kansas Health Foundation has awarded more than $830,000 in grants...

Smokers cost their employers nearly $6,000 a year more than staff who don’t smoke, researchers said on Monday in what they say is the first comprehensive look at the issue. And in what some might see as a dark twist, they’ve taken into account any savings that might come because smokers tend to die younger than non-smokers, drawing less in pension costs. The findings support a growing trend among employers to not only ban smoking in the workplace, but to refuse to hire smokers in the first place, argues Micah Berman of Ohio State University, who led the study.

Enlarge image i Don't sit down here and have a smoke with your coffee, Starbucks says. Mark Memmott/NPR Don't sit down here and have a smoke with your coffee, Starbucks says.Mark Memmott/NPR Starbucks is moving its smoking ban outdoors.Starting Saturday, according to signs posted in its more than 7,000 shops across the U.S. and Canada, "the no-smoking policy ... will include outdoor areas.""Smoking will be restricted within 25 feet of the store and within outdoor seating areas," the notices read.AdWeek says that "since smoking bans have swept the nation in the last decade, it's doubtful there will be a...

FOX NEWS: The Department of Health and Human Services has issued regulations for the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, which allow health insurance companies to raise premiums up to 50% for smokers and up to 30% for overweight individuals--unless they participate in "wellness programs" provided by HHS. Democratic lawmakers sold the controversial law to the public by claiming it would end discrimination by health insurers over pre-existing conditions and advanced age. The new regulations does allow for discrimination in these areas, including higher premiums for individuals with high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

<p>The City Council voted Tuesday to completely remove a proposed smoking ban from its agenda. After six months of debate, the issue appears to be snuffed, even after the City Council expressed its intent to take a comprehensive smoking ban to a vote of the people during the Nov. 5 election. The ordinance to place the issue on the ballot was up for first reading at the council’s regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday, which would have advanced it to a final vote at the June 10 meeting. Mayor Bill Falkner and council members Pat Jones, P.J. Kovac, Barbara LaBass, Jeff Penland and Joyce Starr voted on a motion to remove the item. Before the ordinance was read, Mr. Penland asked the rest of the council to consider leaving the decision to go smoke-free up to property owners. He said he believes the council needs to continue its discussion before making a decision, and perhaps provide incentives for bar owners to go smoke free. “I just can’t vote for an issue that treats the casino different,” he said, later adding that his decision was reinforced after hearing from casino manager Craig Travers, who spoke out against a ban because it would reduce gaming revenue for the city, county and state. Mr. Travers’ statement reinforced what many council members had questioned during the six-month process — whether a ban that excluded the gaming floor really was a matter of public health or of money. Mr. Travers warned the council that if the St. Jo Frontier Casino was forced to go smoke-free, the state would sell the parent company’s license to a community that had no ban in place. He also warned that a smoking ban would decrease revenues by at least 25 percent, and in turn would halt all discussions of moving Downtown. “The whole purpose of gaming is to provide tax revenue to the state,” he said. “ ... This is not a health issue when it comes to the casino. It’s a business issue.” Councilman Byron Myers presented the council with an alternative ordinance that would exclude the casino, but ban smoking in the rest of the community. It’s a compromise he said he is willing to do for the “financial health” of the city and the county. No motion was ever made to consider that ordinance, however. Proponents of a smoking ban said Tuesday the decision will not deter them from their fight for public health. Mary Attebury, a member of Clean Air St. Joe, said the council is damaging itself by flip-flopping on its decisions and not providing what the majority of the community wanted. “Certainly we’re disappointed that the council hasn’t taken and considered the feedback that they received over these past months and done what they should have done,” she said. “There will be a reaction from the community I’m sure. This is not over.” It’s unclear whether the council will take this issue under consideration again.</p>

1915: Anti-Smoking Sign, Zion, Illinois

Benghazigate: The lack of a timeline for what the commander-in-chief was doing the night terrorists murdered our ambassador to Libya and three others is an "irrelevant fact," according to a key White House aide. Playing the role Sunday of former U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, who last Sept. 16 went on all five talk shows to parrot the administration line that Benghazi was provoked by a video, was White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer. Following in Rice's footsteps, he announced that the details of where President Obama was and what he was doing that fateful night were an "irrelevant fact." "Fox...

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded more than $400,000 to a research project involving underwear that can detect when a person smokes cigarettes. The University of Alabama has received two grants totaling $402,721 for the project, which so far has produced a “very early prototype” of the monitoring system, which -- in its current state -- fits like a vest. The goal of the three-year study is to “develop a wearable sensor system comprised of a breathing sensor integrated into conventional underwear.” The Personal Automatic Cigarette Tracker (PACT for short) is intended to accurately measure when and...

I remember many years ago there was a machine on the market that (I think) was designed to reduce second-hand smoke. You inserted a real cigarette into the small device, and the device burned the cigarette for you and caught all the smoke that didn't come through the filter. Again, I think--I never used one. Does anyone recall the name of this product? Thanks in advance, FA

New York's proposal to ban purchases by those under 21 is off-base.As thoroughly awful as everyone knows cigarettes to be — still the No. 1 cause of premature death in this country — public officials walk a blurry line when they try to reduce smoking's terrible toll. As long as they lack the will to ban tobacco altogether, they face all sorts of ethical, legal and political problems in regulating a product that is, after all, perfectly legal. High tobacco taxes, critics say, unfairly punish smokers, who are disproportionately low income. Banning advertising of a legal product raises free-speech issues....

For the record, I tend to think that a cigarette ban for minors may be appropriate. While I oppose prohibition for adults, I think it makes sense to say that adults shouldn’t be permitted to entice children into certain unhealthy choices. Of course, if such a prohibition is put in place, it needs to be justified by banning a substance that is clearly dangerous, not just “unhealthy” by some statistic that we know doesn’t apply to all people. If the evidence qualifies tobacco as such a substance, then I can see restricting it from children.But recent news about a new...

The Obama budget is finally out and there are, to no surprise, a potpourri of new tax hikes proposed, many of which are aimed at the "wealthy" among us. Deep within the bowels of the colossal budget, however, lies a proposed tax that targets the poor among us and it is perhaps a precursor of other health-related taxes to come. President Obama proposes raising the tax on cigarettes from $1.01 to $1.95 per pack--a whopping 93% increase in taxes. The White House estimates that the tax would raise $78.1 billion, of which around $66 billion would be used to fund...

President's Obama's call for a 94-cent-a-pack hike on federal cigarette taxes to fund early childhood education programs is controversial. Anti-smoking groups applaud the proposal, but some tax experts and tobacco companies are against it. The case for the tax. The tax is being presented as way to fund education and reduce smoking rates. It would raise roughly $78 billion over 10 years. "The proposed tobacco tax increase would have substantial public health benefits, particularly for young Americans," the president's budget read. "Researchers have found that raising taxes on cigarettes significantly reduces consumption, with especially large effects on youth smoking." After...

Under ObamaCare, insurers have the option of charging smokers up to 50 percent more to cover the associated higher costs of providing them with health care — but the District of Columbia, along with several other states, have decided that any plans being sold within their exchange are prohibited from adding tobacco surcharges. That simply wouldn’t be fair, you see: On Monday, the D.C. exchange’s executive board voted to prevent insurers from charging higher premiums to smokers than to nonsmokers — meaning nonsmokers are likely to pay modestly higher rates than if smoking surcharges were permitted. The District joins three...

The District of Columbia’s Obamacare czars — the board that sets rules for the phony insurance marketplace, or “exchange,” that the law creates — have decided that henceforth insurers shall be forbidden by law to charge smokers higher rates than non-smokers. Smoking, as it turns out, “is a preexisting medical condition,” according to Dr. Mohammad Akhter, the chairman of the D.C. Health Exchange Board. Two liberal states, California and Connecticut, have decided likewise, while Colorado and Alaska have rejected the idea.