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AUDIO: Anti-smoking Campaign in Beijing & Tobacco Control 

Authorities in China's capital city are planning to launch a campaign to encourage families to give up smoking . . .

Join us live is Prof. Gregory Yingnien Tsang, an expert on anti-smoking.

Question:

1. Cigarettes as gifts during the Spring Festival

2. Smoking while visiting friends' homes

3. Promotion of smoking-free families in Beijing

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• Secondhand smoke raises TB risk: study 

Smoking has long been known to boost tuberculosis risk, and a new study from Hong Kong suggests that being exposed to someone else's tobacco smoke also increases the likelihood of contracting the disease.

Dr. Chi C. Leung of the Wanchai Chest Clinic in Wanchai and colleagues compared TB risk in older women living with at least one smoker to that of women living in smoke-free homes. The study included 15,486 non-smoking women 65 to 74 years old, all of whom lived with their husbands. All of the women had enrolled at one of the territory's 18 Elderly Health Centers between 2000 and 2003, and about one in four lived with a smoker.

During follow-up, which lasted through the end of 2008 (or until a person died or was diagnosed with TB), 117 women developed active TB and 69 of these cases were confirmed in a laboratory.

Leung's team found that women who had been exposed to secondhand smoke were 1.5 times more likely to develop active TB than women who didn't live with a smoker, while their risk of culture-confirmed TB was 1.7-fold higher. . . .

The findings appear in the latest issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

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Americans favor higher state taxes on tobacco, says poll by anti-smoking group 

Shelly Kiser, advocacy director for the American Lung Association in Ohio, said lobbyists from various non-profit groups will be approaching state legislators soon about increasing the cigarette tax.

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Cigarette tax dominates debate  

Five candidates for governor disagreed on whether to raise the state's lowest-in-the-nation cigarette tax - and how to spend the money - at a Friday debate

The debate, sponsored by the S.C. Hospital Association, was a focused, substantive discussion on issues ranging from tort reform, mental health care funding, health care agency restructuring and how to entice doctors to practice in rural areas.

The hospital association has for years lobbied to raise the state cigarette tax and use the revenue to pay for health care for low-income residents, and state schools Superintendent Jim Rex and state Attorney General Henry McMaster had a dust-up last weekend about the tax.

The three Democrats, attorney and former lobbyist Dwight Drake, Rex and state Sen. Vincent Sheheen, D-Kershaw, all favored raising the tax while Republican McMaster did not. Repulican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said he would like any cigarette tax increase to include an equal tax cut.

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ICA foils cigarette smuggling attempt 

The Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) on Wednesday foiled two separate cigarette smuggling attempts. Duties and taxes on the 1,900 cartons of cigarettes amounted to some $144,000.

In the first case, two Malaysians were caught at the Tuas Checkpoint for trying to smuggle contraband cigarettes hidden in a modified compartment within the floorboard of a consignment of hydrated lime.

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Smoking battle may hit House floor next week 

A tense legislative stand-off over a statewide indoor smoking ban may erupt next week.

House Democratic Leader Paul Davis of Lawrence said Friday that supporters of a ban may try to override a proposal in a House committee that contains numerous exemptions that would allow smoking in public, indoor places.

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EDITORIAL: Failing the tobacco test  

Indiana lawmakers who are worried about whether third-graders can read should take a look at their own report card: Their stubborn resistance to common-sense tobacco restrictions earns an "F," among the worst in the nation. . . .

Jessica Kelly of the American Lung Association in Indiana said Hoosier lawmakers continue to argue that businesses will be hurt by a comprehensive smoking ban. But Fort Wayne residents know that's not the case. The recession has claimed too many restaurants in recent months, but the city's strong smoking ban hasn't been cited as a cause.

If money is truly the reason lawmakers won't support smoke-free workplaces, they should look at the bottom line: $4.8 billion is Indiana's estimated annual cost resulting from smoking, according to the Lung Association. That's lots of money the state could use to help children learn to read.

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Four members of family plead guilty in cigarette scam 

Four members of the Swinomish Tribe pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to conspiracy to traffic in contraband cigarettes. They were accused of selling untaxed, or contraband, cigarettes and evading nearly $11 million in state and federal taxes.

Pleading guilty to charge were C. Marvin Wilbur, 71, and his wife, Joan C. Wilbur, 72, and their daughters-in-law, April M. Wilbur, 44, and Brenda R. Wilbur, 49.

The husband and wife also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.

The Wilburs owned and ran the Tranding Post at March Point on the Swinomish Reservation near Anacortes.

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Tribal members plead guilty to contraband cigarette charges 

Two members of the Swinomish Indian Tribe, Marvin Wilbur, 71, and his wife, Joan Wilbur, 72, and their daughters-in-law April Wilbur, 44, and Brenda WIlbur, 49, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to conspiracy to traffic in contraband cigarettes. Marvin and Joan Wilbur also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to launder monetary instruments.

The Wilbur family ran the Trading Post at March Point, near Anacortes, which was raided in May 2007. Agents seized nearly four million unstamped cigarettes and about $120,000 in cash and bank accounts. It all has been forfeited to the government. . . .

Prosecutors say the Wilburs didn't get a tribal license to sell cigarettes and didn't pay tribal tax.

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To quit, 'nicotine-free' smokes as good as lozenges  

Trying to quit smoking? So-called nicotine-free cigarettes may be as helpful as nicotine lozenges, hints a small study.

Smokers who used the nicotine-free cigarettes before quitting were as likely not to be smoking six weeks later as those who used nicotine lozenges, authors report in the journal Addiction. (Such cigarettes actually have a tiny amount of nicotine.)

And nicotine-free cigarettes and the lozenges both beat low-nicotine cigarettes, Dr. Dorothy K Hatsukami, at the University of Minnesota Tobacco Use Research Center in Minneapolis, and colleagues note.

Nicotine-free cigarettes have 0.05 milligrams of nicotine per cigarette, while low-nicotine cigarettes each have 0.3 milligrams. For comparison, light cigarettes have between 0.7 and 1.0 milligrams of nicotine.

While scientists have tried various ways to reduce the amount of nicotine smokers inhale to help them cut down, they have been concerned that smokers may just smoke more cigarettes to make up for what they're missing.

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VIDEO: Fire-Safe Cigarettes to be Required in SD in 2011 

South Dakota has adopted a law to only have fire safe cigarettes. It was signed into law March 30th of last year, but won't take effect until January 1st of next year. Minnesota and Iowa already have laws in effect

For John, the law going into effect will be a step in the right direction.

"The fire safe cigarettes aren't totally aren't totally safe, but they're a lot better than what we got now," said Wagner.

The news from other states has been good so far

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Woman burned in apartment fire  

A Sioux Falls woman was taken to a Minneapolis burn unit after a smoldering cigarette ignited a fire in her apartment.

The fire began just before 9:30 p.m. Wednesday in the upper level of a duplex at 1016 S. Norton Ave. The woman, who is in her mid-40s, fell asleep on the couch with a lit cigarette, Sioux Falls Fire Inspector John Wagner said.

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SD woman burned in apartment fire dies  

Police say 46-year-old Diane Smith-Avant suffered third-degree burns on 85 percent of her body. . . .

Authorities say the fire was caused by careless use of a cigarette.

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Schweitzer-Mauduit Clarifies Customer Contract  

Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc.'s (NYSE: SWM) contract with Philip Morris USA, Inc. (Philip Morris USA) specifies that Schweitzer-Mauduit will serve as the sole supplier of the co-developed, on-line banded cigarette paper technology (MOD) used to produce low ignition propensity (LIP) cigarettes. Schweitzer-Mauduit is, and has been for many years, a strategic partner with Philip Morris USA. Philip Morris USA is able to develop or explore alternatives to their MOD technology for their LIP needs and has informed us of their intent to do so on a volume of their requirements that is not material to SWM's ongoing supply of MOD product. The existing agreement does not address either party's rights to any technology beyond MOD.

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• Philip Morris decision hurts supplier's stock  

A few words about a giant -- Philip Morris USA, for instance -- can echo in unexpected corners of Wall Street.

After the company that supplies Philip Morris with its cigarette paper revealed the tobacco giant is buying a small amount of paper from another firm, its stock lost more than a third of its value.

Wall Street decided Thursday and yesterday that Georgia-based Schweitzer-Mauduit International was worth $315 million less than it had thought, as versions of the story hit traders' screens.

Philip Morris buys a bit more than $80 million a year of Schweitzer's papers, a patented design that feature tiny bands that extinguish cigarettes when they are left to smolder.

Still, Wall Street's reaction to Schweitzer's quiet mention that Philip Morris would buy small amounts of printed paper from an importer underscored the Henrico County-based cigarette-maker's dominance of the U.S. tobacco market.

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