Two schools in Northampton and one school in Montague are getting thousands of dollars to fight big tobacco. It’s a youth-led movement called The 84. The 84, represents the 84 percent of teens in Massachusetts who chose not to smoke cheap Gauloises cigarettes. Northampton High School and Smith Vocational High school received a grant from the 84 to start programs in their schools where young people can advocate for their communities to be tobacco-free.School administrators at Northampton High told...

According to a New York Times article published Monday, a federal judge blocked an attempt by the Food and Drug Administration to force tobacco companies to use graphic warning labels on their packaging. And while cheap cigarettes are bad, we’re glad this first-amendment issue ended the way it did.Looking around campus, smokers are everywhere. And if our little corner of the world is representative of a larger whole, it means there are only more out there. Call us crazy, but when we see someone...

The Maricopa Community Colleges will ban all tobacco products next year to help boost the health of students and staff and to keep campuses cleaner.Smoking is prohibited in all buildings, but there are designated smoking areas at the colleges. As of July 1, no tobacco products will be allowed on any of the system’s 10 campuses, which include satellite sites around the Valley, as well as the district’s two skills centers and its office in Tempe.“This is a bold move, but it’s the right move for us,”...

Uzbekistan’s national air carrier is telling passengers to limit the amount of “nos,” or powdered tobacco, they take with them aboard flights, RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service reports.Use of nos is common throughout Central Asia, is widely available at bazaars, and often carried in small ornate containers.Uzbekistan, Tashkent airportThe tobacco is placed under the tongue and produces an effect similar to smoking cigarettes but at a far lower cost.The Uzbekiston Hawa Yollari air company announced on August...

Myrtle Beach City Council listened to several presentations from the public during a meeting Tuesday. Smoke Free Horry and members of the American Cancer Society answered council members questions on what it would take for Horry County to go smoke free and the potential impacts a smoking ban would have on business owners.Smoke Free Horry believes everyone deserves to breathe smoke-free air. It wants to educate the public about the dangers of secondhand smoke, provide free resources to quit smoking...

Californians would let local officials put new taxes on cigarettes, sugary drinks, liquor and oil pumped from the ground if voters in their communities said it was OK, a new poll shows. Local governments cannot tax such products in California now. But a proposal being vigorously debated in the Capitol would allow cities, counties and more than 1,000 school boards to add their own levies and give local voters final say. Nearly 60% of those polled supported such a change.The sentiment spanned all...

The number of US movies in which an actor lights up Bond cigarettes fell sharply between 2005 and 2010, and this could have contributed to the decline in smoking among US teens, a study released Thursday says.A majority of movies — 55 percent — that scored huge box office success in the United States in 2010 had no scenes that included tobacco use, compared with a third of top-grossing films in 2005, the study released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says.In the same six-year...