Boston initiative aims to keep cigarette butts off the ground

Instead of scolding smokers for flicking their smoldering cigarettes onto the street, Boston officials are turning the act of discarding the unsightly butts into a game. The idea is to keep people from throwing the butts on the ground, while sparking their interest in being more environmentally aware. Now here’s the fun part: Each rectangular box will be see-through, and have two small holes for people to put their cigarettes in.

2016-02-12
bostonglobe.com

Emanuel says Big Tobacco can stall his plan to curb teen smoking, but they can't defeat it

Big Tobacco and its City Council allies can delay plans to raise Chicago’s smoking age from 18 to 21, slap a $6 million tax on cigars, roll-your-own tobacco and smokeless tobacco and ban coupons and discounts, but they won’t be able to stop it, a defiant Mayor Rahm Emanuel said Wednesday. Emanuel fired back at his critics after a handful of aldermen used a parliamentary maneuver to delay an ordinance that the mayor had amended.

2016-02-12
chicago.suntimes.com

The e-cigarette barn door is open

The health of America’s 42 million smokers, whose lives will be cut short an average of ten years by their continued use of combusted cigarettes, is being held hostage by government inaction. Public-health officials agree that e-cigarettes have a role in reducing the burden of illness; while e-cigarettes are not safe, they are a much less harmful way of delivering the nicotine to which smokers are dependent.

2016-02-12
rstreet.org

Why $1 bump in cigarette tax matters

An open letter to Gov. Mike Pence: As former Indiana state health commissioners we write to urge your support of the proposal pending in the state legislature that would increase the price of tobacco products by $1. Indiana is unhealthy. The United Health Foundation recently ranked Indiana as the ninth unhealthiest state in the union — a distinction that should concern all Hoosiers, especially our policymakers.

2016-02-12
jconline.com

Smoking Tobacco in Netherlands, 2015

The Netherlands has the second largest market for smoking tobacco in Western Europe after Germany, with more than 6,500 tonnes consumed in 2014, although in per capita terms it is by far the largest market. The cigarette tobacco sector, having seen a continuous decline in year-on-year volumes since 2002, remains dominant, accounting for 99.8% of the smoking tobacco consumed, with over 8,200 tonnes sold in 2014.

2016-02-12
prnewswire.com

Imperial Tobacco changes its name to Imperial Brands

The group's ticker on the London Stock Exchange will change to IMB with effect from Monday and its new web address, www.imperialbrandsplc.com, will also go live on that day. Imperial, which makes Davidoff and Lambert & Butler, announced back in December that it intended to drop the word "tobacco" from its name. The company said at the time: "Imperial Brands better reflects the dynamic, brand-focused business that we are now.

2016-02-12
poandpo.com