The Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday that they are planning to launch a study of 40,000 smokers ages 12 and older to determine how new tobacco regulations are affecting their lifestyle.

The FDA along with the National Institutes of Health plan to use the study to inform people about the risks associated with tobacco products.

According to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg:

“The results will strengthen FDA’s ability to fulfill our mission to make tobacco-related death and disease part of America’s past.”

The study comes after the FDA was put in charge of overseeing advertisements and product designs of the tobacco industry, a move that tobacco officials say has left the FDA overstepping their authority. According to RJ Reynolds and Lorillard Inc pictures of rotting teeth and diseased lungs have not been proven to stop people from smoking or understanding the dangers associated with smoking.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there has been little change in the number of Americans who smoke cigarettes since 2004.

Do you think the FDA has overstepped their bounds and is spending taxpayer money on this type of long-term smoking survey a smart move?

FDA Preparing To Study Effects Of Tobacco Rules On Smokers is a post from: The Inquisitr

Smokers in New York City have one more irritation to contend with, as the sweeping ban on smoking in parks, at beaches and even in some pedestrian thoroughfares has gone into effect today.

Under the new law, scofflaws could be fined $50 for their surreptitious smokes. However, Mayor Bloomberg says cops aren’t going to go hunting for renegade nicotine addicts, and will rely on other New Yorkers to enforce the law by being those people who ask you to put out your cigarette:

We expect that the new law will be enforced mostly by New Yorkers themselves, who will ask people to follow the law and stop smoking. This is how similar laws have worked in other places, including Chicago and Los Angeles… New Yorkers are encouraged to inform a Parks Department employee or a Park Enforcement Officer if one is available. Otherwise, complaints can be made by calling 311.

While it might make the city less smoky, the ban also stands to make New York a far crankier place. Disgruntled smokers may turn to smokeless products, such as Snus, or the relatively-newish electronic cigarette, which gives users a nicotine boost without smoke, tar or ash.

Will the smoking ban affect you? Have similar bans been enacting where you live?

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Outdoor smoking ban goes into effect in NYC today is a post from: The Inquisitr

Now just to clarify right off the top – there is no official word out about whether or not Apple is voiding the warranties of computers owned by smokers but if the news as being reported by the Technically Incorrect even approaches fact then Apple has definitely crossed a line.

Chris Matyszczyk tells of two separate people who have taken their machines in to an apple store in the case of Derek in Des Moines and an authorized Apple repair center in the case of Ruth. In both instances they were informed by staff that there would be no work done on the machines because they had come from homes where some-one was smoking and this voided the computer’s warranty.

One, named Derek, recounts the tale of his overheating black MacBook. He took it into the Apple store in Jordan Creek, West Des Moines.

He told The Consumerist: “Today, April, 28, 2008, the Apple store called and informed me that due to the computer having been used in a house where there was smoking, that has voided the warranty and they refuse to work on the machine, due to ‘health risks of secondhand smoke’.”

[...]

Then along came Ruth, who took her son’s iMac to an authorized repair center. After five days, they apparently told her they couldn’t work on it because it was contaminated with cigarette smoke and was therefore a bio-hazard.

When Ruth appealed to Jobs’ office, she said she was told by someone named Dena that nicotine was on OSHA’s list of hazardous substances.

Source: cnet News – Technically Incorrect

Now given that Ruth actually got someone in Apple itself to say this and confirm that the warranty was indeed void shows that even if the practice isn’t an official policy it sure seems to be a condoned one.

If this is indeed the case then I’m sorry but Apple is putting its nose in where it doesn’t belong and this is flat out wrong.

[image courtesy of anythingbutipod.com]

Apparently Apple is voiding warranties of smoker’s computers is a post from: The Inquisitr