Andriy Skipalskyi was feeling proud, even triumphant, when he arrived last March at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Singapore. Ukraine’s parliament had just voted to approve a public smoking ban, and its president had just signed a bill to outlaw tobacco advertising and promotion. These were revolutionary steps in chain-smoking Eastern Europe.

A panel of global experts on health and economics are warning that the tobacco industry is having a devastating impact on productivity, trade, and the global economy. According to the new edition of The Tobacco Atlas, during 2000–2004, the value of cigarettes sold in the United States alone averaged $71 billion per year, while cigarette smoking was responsible for an estimated $193 billion in annual health-related economic losses.
 

A U.S. Appeals Court threw out “one of the best tools we have” to combat smoking when it struck down FDA requirements for large graphic warning labels on cigarette packages, according to American Heart Association CEO Nancy Brown.

A new poll of U.S adults shows that when it comes to concerns over kids’ health, insufficient exercise and obesity are at the top of the list.

By the year 2025, tobacco use will cause 10 million deaths per year, according to a new report published recently in the Lancet.

Tobacco use among American high school students declined from 2000 to 2011, but the decrease has slowed noticeably, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sharp increases in total adult consumption of pipe tobacco (used for roll-your-own cigarettes) and cigarette-like cigars since 2008 have offset declines in total cigarette consumption, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.