Maker of Marlboros May Buy Skoal for $10B

Proposed legislation would ban logos, colors

(NEWSER) - Australia is pushing for a new tool in its quest to cut smoking rates: really boring cigarette packages. The government has announced legislation that would ban logos, colors, brand imagery, and promotional text, while mandating that all packages be olive green—determined in studies to be the least appealing color. The move would “take away the tobacco industry’s final capacity to promote its product,” says a professor of public health. More»

The consensus: 'Ma Bell is back'

(NEWSER) - Reactions to the surprise AT&T-T-mobile merger are pouring in, and, not surprisingly, most conclude this isn't a good thing for consumers:

• The Bell telephone system—"aka AT&T"—was broken up in 1984 to increase competition, and the US telecommunications market was deregulated in 1996, again to increase competition. But this merger "effectively restores Ma Bell to her former girth yet allows the company to operate in a looser regulatory environment," writes David Lazarus in the Los Angeles Times . "Consumers might wonder if they've been played. ... Ma Bell is back," and the only thing left for federal regulators to do is instill "new rules that address the shortcomings of our failed experiment in deregulation."

And cigarettes today are designed to be more addictive

(NEWSER) - Even a single cigarette can cause immediate damage to your very DNA, while inflaming tissue and leading to illness and death, the surgeon general said today in the office’s first report on tobacco in four years. “Tobacco smoke damages almost every organ in your body,” Surgeon General Regina Benjamin warned, according to the USA Today , adding that to a person with heart disease, “One cigarette can cause a heart attack.” More»

Children absorb nicotine equivalent to 36 cigarettes a day

(NEWSER) - In the tobacco fields that supply a Philip Morris factory in Kazakhstan, child laborers as young as 10 encounter such high doses of nicotine that they feel dizzy, vomit, and develop rashes on their necks and stomachs, a condition known as "green tobacco sickness." Other migrant tobacco workers have only pesticide-contaminated water to drink and are forced to work without pay. These are some of the many allegations in a new report by Human Rights Watch that accuses the international tobacco giant of benefiting from child labor in Kazakhstan. More»

It's safer, but the government won't let manufacturers tell you that.

(NEWSER) - Chewing tobacco has its share of health risks, but it’s 10 to 1,000 times safer than cigarettes, according to one British Royal College of Physicians report. The reason is obvious: chewers are not actually inhaling smoke into their lungs. “The Royal College of Physicians can tell you that. I can tell you that. Alvin and the Chipmunks can tell you that,” writes Steve Chapman on Reason Online . But for some asinine reason, tobacco companies can't—legally. More»