Just weeks before Ontario implements a ban on the retail display of all tobacco products, new research from the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit at the University of Toronto shows that consumers have been bombarded by extensive tobacco promotion at point of sale.

Medical researchers have released a study that says one million people in India will die every year in the next decade from tobacco-related illnesses. Steve Herman in New Delhi reports the study's authors also made what they call a surprising discovery about the leading fatal illnesses among smokers in India.

A Swiss study suggests that teens who use only cannabis appear to function better than those who also use tobacco, and are more socially driven and have no more psychosocial problems than those who abstain from both substances, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

While in many Western countries there is public health pressure to stop smoking, the use of waterpipes (also known as hookahs, hubble-bubbles, narghiles, shishas, gozas or narkeelas) is increasing.

Smoking tobacco is no longer considered sexy, but it may prove a permanent turn on for some genes. Research published today in the online open access journal BMC Genomics could help explain why former smokers are still more susceptible to lung cancer than those who have never smoked.

Australia’s most prominent and long-standing tobacco control researcher has written a major new “no prisoners” book.

Increasing cigarette taxes is an effective strategy for reducing tobacco use but there may be negative consequences especially in disadvantaged minority communities. According to a study conducted by researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, a dramatic rise in illegal street sales of untaxed cigarettes was reported among minority low-income persons immediately after the price increase that reinforced smoking and undermined cessation efforts.

People who use Swedish moist snuff (snus) run twice the risk of developing cancer of the pancreas. This is the main result of a follow-up study conducted by Karolinska Institutet researchers amongst almost 300,000 male construction workers. The study is published today online in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet.

Tobacco consumption is hitting alarming rates in China. World Health officials estimate that one third of the population under the age of 29 is likely to die from tobacco-related illnesses. At the same time, officials in the communist government have publicly said the country cannot afford to stop smoking. China is the world's largest producer and consumer of tobacco products.