Smoking Rihanna falls foul of farmer while filming video in Northern Ireland

The 23-year-old singer was spotted having the sneaky cigarette during a break in filming the video for We Found Love, her collaboration with dance music producer Calvin Harris.
And she also raised the ire of a local farmer, who deemed her choice of attire 'inappropriate' and said he'd never even heard of her.
The clip had been filmed in a field near Bangor, County Down, ahead of Rihanna's three concerts in Belfast later this week.
And she braved the autumn weather in some revealing outfits during the shoot - including a black cropped jumper and unbuttoned jeans, as well as a red bikini and oversized cowboy shirt plus a red and white striped bikini over a denim waistcoat with a US flag design.

Divorce, smoking may trigger hair loss in women

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As if the heartache of divorce wasn't hardship enough, it appears that women enduring marital break-up may also have to deal with hair loss.
New research reveals that, genetics aside, the next strongest predictor of midline (central) hair loss among women is their marital status, with the loss of a spouse (through either divorce or death) raising the risk for thinning hair above that of married or single women.
"Most likely, stress is the aspect of a troubling divorce that appears to lead to hair loss among women," noted study author Dr. Bahman Guyuron, chairman of the department of plastic surgery at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.
Excessive drinking and/or smoking also appear to boost the risk for hair loss among women, the study found.
Smoking and heavy drinking also contributed to thinning locks among men, the study found. But in other respects the two genders were affected differently, with various patterns of male hair loss sparked by overexposure to the sun, cancer history and having a "couch potato" lifestyle, among others.
"What we can say is that we identified factors that appear to both raise risk and lower risk, for both men and women, independent of genetic disposition," Guyuron said
He is slated to present the findings from two related studies on Sunday at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons' annual meeting, in Denver.
In the first study, the authors focused exclusively on a pool of 84 female identical twins, all of whom completed lifestyle questionnaires, followed by hormone blood level testing and an extensive photo analysis of their hair. Studies of identical twins can be useful because each twin carries the same genes as the other, ruling out genetic differences as a potential cause for a trait or illness.
Across the temporal area (near temples) of the head, the team found that the more years a woman had smoked the greater the hair loss. A history of skin conditions also contributed to hair loss in that area, while having just a couple drinks per week actually seemed to reduce the risk.
Hair loss in the coronal area (nearer the top) of the head among women was linked to being diabetic, having some form of skin disease and being a current smoker, while being overweight or obese was associated with lower risk of hair loss.
Guyuron said the findings indicate that female hair loss can also be sparked by excessive sleeping patterns, as well as situations commonly associated with stress such as having multiple children and/or getting married.
Women who drank coffee, used sun protection (such as a hat) and were happily married all faced a lower overall risk for hair loss, he added.
The team's second study similarly looked at hair loss among 66 male identical twins.
The results: in addition to smoking and sun exposure, having a history of dandruff also boosted midline hair loss risk, while cumulative sun exposure and a history of cancer elevated risk for both temporal and coronal hair loss.
Men who didn't exercise regularly and had high blood pressure also had a higher risk for coronal hair loss.
Men who exercised outdoors a lot also face a higher risk for hair loss, and Guyuron believes sun exposure could play a role there.

Extending smoking bans to the outdoors is worthwhile

The guest editorial overlooks the many functions of smoking bans.

First and foremost, of course, is the protection of non-smokers from noxious, toxic second-hand smoke.

But we should also remember that the fewer places people can smoke, the less they smoke, and the more people decide once and for all to quit. That improves everyone's health.

Smoking bans make it very clear to smokers that we don't want to be forced to breathe what they're inhaling because we don't want any of the more than 50 diseases caused by tobacco smoke. And we certainly don't want to die as young as most smokers die.

I, for one, have been forced out of transit shelters and queues by inconsiderate smokers. I have had to move away from smokers on beaches and in parks, only to have another smoker light up next to my new location.

Despite very clear and shocking warnings on cigarette packs, some smokers are still not getting the message.

If you've ever burned your foot on someone's discarded "cigarette" on the beach, you'd support a ban.

Millions of dollars will be saved by preventing the destruction of trees by fires caused every year by discarded cigarettes.

Smoking bans have to include outdoor public places, as well, if we are going to achieve all of the aforementioned objectives. A cigarette is no less deadly when it is being smoked outdoors.

Businesses targeted in underage tobacco sales sting

FIVE shops in Bassetlaw were caught selling tobacco to underage kids during a test purchase operation across the county.

Trading Standards officers from Notts County Council worked with volunteers aged 15 to 17 on the operation at newsagents, grocers, petrol stations and small supermarkets in Ashfield, Newark and Sherwood, Broxtowe and Bassetlaw.

Of the 57 premises checked during week commencing 22nd August, sales were made to the young volunteers in nine.

Two further sales took place in Newark and Sherwood and two in Broxtowe. No sales to under-18s were made at the premises tested in Ashfield.

Owners at the nine shops will now be interviewed by officers and a decision will be taken on what, if any, action will be taken against them.

Shops can be fined up to £2,500 if found guilty of selling cigarettes to under-18s.

If a premises, person or company sells tobacco or cigarette papers to under 18s twice in two years, the county council can apply to ban sales for a period of up to a year.

Coun Mick Murphy, cabinet member for community safety, said it was ‘disappointing’ so many premises in the county have been willing to sell tobacco products to children without challenge, despite clear guidance to the contrary.

“Trading Standards work closely with local businesses who want to ensure that they do not sell tobacco to under-18s by giving advice on their legal responsibilities as well as tips on how to avoid selling all age-restricted products to young people.”

“But whilst we recognise that the majority of retailers are responsible, we will come down hard on those who flout the law,” he said.

Meanwhile, from 1st October, the law will change to make it illegal to sell tobacco products directly to the public from vending machines, regardless of age.

Under the change in law, businesses will still be allowed to have tobacco vending machines but they cannot be accessible to the public.

Imperial Tobacco Plans Sterling Benchmark 15-Year Bond

Imperial Tobacco Group PLC (IMT.LN) plans to issue a sterling-denominated, 15-year, benchmark-sized bond, one of the banks hired to lead the deal said Wednesday.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Barclays Plc, BNP Paribas SA and Deutsche Bank are joint bookrunners on the bond, which is expected to price later Wednesday.
The issuer is rated Baa3 by Moody's Investors Service and BBB by Standard & Poor's Corp, both with stable outlooks.

Cigarette smuggling at Serbia-Bulgaria border

Cigarette smuggling at the Serbian-Bulgarian border is frequent, and the Bulgarian customs officers at the Kalotina-Gradina crossing have in the past two days confiscated over 5,500 cigarette packs with Serbian excise stamps on them.

The Bulgarian customs officers Monday found 4,150 cigarette packs in a minibus with Bulgarian licence plates trying to enter Bulgaria.

The cigarettes produced in Serbia were hidden in the roof of the vehicle, the Bulgarian Customs Administration has stated.

The vehicle was driven by a Bulgarian citizen H.M. (32) from Sofia.

A day earlier at the same crossing, the customs officers found 1,400 cigarette packs with Serbian excise stamps on them.

The vehicle was entering Bulgaria, and it was driven by a 40-year-old Srdjan V.

Bulgaria has the highest excise duties on tobacco in the Balkans. Smuggling therefore became a lucrative business for the unemployed Bulgarians, but also for the Serbian citizens who consider it an easy profit.

Cigarettes are mainly smuggled from Macedonia, Serbia, Moldova, Greece, Turkey and Romania.

WA State Dems Endorse Marijuana Legalization

The Washington state Democratic Central Committee Saturday endorsed a marijuana legalization initiative, throwing the party's weight behind the effort to put the measure on the ballot for the November 2012 election.

[image:1 align:left caption:true]The Central Committee voted 75-43 for a resolution supporting Initiative 502, which would legalize the possession of marijuana by adults and allow for its sale through pot-only stores regulated by the state liquor control authority. Initiative sponsors New Approach Washington estimate that marijuana legalization under its model would generate more than $200 a million a year in tax revenues, with more than half of that earmarked for public health programs.

The Democrats cited, among other things, law enforcement costs of marijuana prohibition and the revenues that could be gained with legalization. They noted that marijuana possession arrests, with mandatory 24-hour jail stays, accounted for half of all Washington drug arrests.

I-502 is controversial among some segments of the marijuana legalization and medical marijuana communities because it also includes a per se driving under the influence provision. The initiative sets a blood THC level of 5 nanograms per millileter above which drivers are presumed to be impaired, but some activists argue that such a provision will result in the arrest and conviction of pot-accustomed drivers who are not actually impaired.

That didn't seem to bother the Democratic Central Committee too much, though. The committee included that provision in its long list of "whereases" in support of the initiative, noting that "this per se limit will not apply to the non-psychoactive marijuana metabolite carboxy-THC that can appear in blood or urine tests for days or even weeks after last use."

I-502 is supported by the ACLU of Washington, whose Allison Holcomb has taken a leave of absence to spearhead the campaign, and has been endorsed by prominent Washington figures, including former US Attorney John McKay (the man who prosecuted Marc Emery), Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, and travel writer and TV show host Rick Steves.

Organizers have until next July to gather 241,000 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot. But I-502 is an initiative to the legislature, meaning that if it passes the signature-gathering hurdle, it would then go before the state legislature in the upcoming session. If the legislature refuses to act, the initiative would then go before the voters in November 2012.

Phillip Smith is a contributor to StoptheDrugWar.org. StoptheDrugWar.org articles are available for reprinting under a modified version of the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License. 489 views

Chief Huff gives high praise for marijuana seizure

A routine inspection of a tractor trailer rig this week in Hancock County led to the seizure of 7,000 pounds of marijuana.

Tuesday morning, Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT) Enforcement Officers stopped a 2005 Peterbilt tractor and van trailer at the east bound I-10 Hancock County inspection facility.

While conducting a routine cargo and trailer inspection, the officers discovered 126 plastic wrapped bundles of marijuana. Each bundle weighed about 55 pounds. Investigators said if all that pot had made it to the streets, it would have been worth about $7 million.

Also on board the trailer were 55 gallon barrels of mango puree.

"This is a significant seizure. I am very proud of our officers and their diligence," said Chief Willie Huff, MDOT's Director of Enforcement. "We must continue our vigilance for all types of contraband before it reaches our streets or impacts our Homeland Security."

MDOT Enforcement, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, and the federal Drug Enforcement Administrations are still trying to figure out where the drugs came from, and where they were headed. Until they know that, no charges have been filed against the driver.

Customs seize €3.1m worth of cigarettes

REVENUE’S CUSTOMS officers have made another multimillion-euro seizure of cigarettes after a 40ft container labelled “paper products” at Dublin Port was found to contain eight million cigarettes valued at €3.1 million.

The haul was found at the port in a container that had come from Spain on Monday. A truck and container registered in the North were also confiscated when Customs officers seized the haul.

The cigarettes were of the Regal, Richman and Hoop brands.

They were being smuggled into the State without any taxes or duties being paid and would have represented a loss to the exchequer of some €2.5 million had they been sold here at their recommended retail price.

The latest haul brings to about 87 million the number of cigarettes seized by Customs so far this year. These hauls have had a collective value of €33.2 million.

Many organised crime gangs involved in the drugs trade have moved into cigarette smuggling in recent years in a bid to replace the drug-related income they have lost since the recession began.

Garda sources believe gangs have lost money in the recession as people’s disposable incomes have fallen and demand for recreational drugs has decreased.

Smuggling cigarettes is seen as a lucrative activity because demand for contraband and counterfeit cigarettes is at an all-time high due to the recession.

Gang made a packet on duty-free cigarettes in boarding pass scam

Michael Pitt, from Islington, was the ringleader of the gang, who passed through boarding gates and security at Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Luton using fake boarding cards or one-way open tickets.

Once through, they stocked up on thousands of cigarettes at a time to sell on the black market in pubs and at car boot sales, often filling entire suitcases with popular brands. The total duty evaded between February 2009 and May last year was nearly £546,000.

After making their duty-free purchases, Pitt and his accomplices Kevin McGee, 28, and Mike Ewens, 38, both from Holloway, would leave through the domestic arrivals channel, or travel to another UK airport to buy more.

Boarding cards were forged to make it look as though they were going outside the EU so they had a higher duty-free allowance.

HM Revenue and Customs, which released pictures of the gang today, was alerted to their activities by the UK Border Agency.

During a three-month surveillance operation last year, two other men - John Cooper, 57, and Kenneth Chapman, 68, both from Essex - were seen leaving Pitt's house, apparently with bags full of cigarettes. Tracey Smith, a sales assistant at Manchester airport, was an "inside woman", selling Lucky Strike cigarettes to the gang, Hove Trial Centre heard.

All were charged with duty evasion. Pitt, 47, admitted the charge, and also fraud over the production and supply of the counterfeit boarding cards. He was jailed for five years.

McGee, who pleaded guilty, and Cooper, who denied the charge, each got 12 months. Ewens and Chapman pleaded guilty and each got a 12-month jail sentence, suspended for two years. Smith, who denied the charge, got 12 months.

After the case, Martin Brown, assistant director of criminal investigation for HMRC, said: "The effect of this type of criminal activity on legitimate retailers can be devastating and billions of pounds are lost in duty each year, money which should be available for public services."

Cops swoop on cigarette smugglers

The police dealt another major blow to crime syndicates smuggling contraband cigarettes into South Africa, when they swooped on three vehicles laden with more than R1m worth of counterfeit products.

Last month, 13 vehicles carrying contraband cigarettes were seized at the border between South Africa and Zimbabwe, while five have been seized so far this month.

The latest incident happened when a special police unit swooped as the vehicles, which were jam-packed with fake cigarettes, crossed into SA from Zimbabwe in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The unit was following up on intelligence about suspicious movement on the Beitbridge border crossing near Musina, when they came across two Toyota Quantum minibuses and a Toyota Hilux bakkie crossing to SA.

But as they moved in, some of the occupants fled and managed to escape back across the border into Zimbabwe.

Three Zimbabwean nationals were arrested and the three vehicles, as well as 229 boxes of counterfeit cigarettes, were seized. The street value of 57250 packets of cigarettes is estimated at R1.4m.

The men are expected to appear in the Musina Magistrate’s Court today.

Francois van der Merwe, CEO of The Tobacco Institute of Southern Africa, told The New Age that around 400 million contraband cigarettes were smuggled into SA each month.

“Tobacco smuggling causes tax losses of R3bn per year in unpaid taxes, excise duty and VAT,” he said.

Last month more than 10 million contraband cigarettes were destroyed in Mpumalanga, after being confiscated at the Lebombo border post between South Africa and Mozambique.

In August, custom officials from the South African Revenue Services seized six million cigarettes during raids on several distributors in the Musina area, said Van der Merwe. Eleven suspects were arrested.

In a similar operation the next day, custom officials recovered a further 750 000 illegal cigarettes from a retailer in Ventersdorp, in the North West Province.

Cigarette labels' effectiveness seriously in doubt

It is endlessly surprising that a newspaper whose very existence is protected by the First Amendment would so quickly brush off those same rights for an unpopular industry such as tobacco without even examining the facts. At the very least we would hope that our local paper would acknowledge that the company is entitled to a fair review of these facts in the court system, even if the News & Record is unwilling to do the same (Sept. 1 editorial, “A warning worth hearing”).

Many who support the emotionally charged new labels for cigarettes that were mandated by the Food and Drug Administration ignore one essential fact. Studies continue to show that graphic warning labels are ineffective. Even the FDA’s own regulatory impact analysis fails to show that the proposed warnings will have any impact on the rates of smoking behavior.

The FDA estimated that the labels would reduce U.S. smoking rates by 0.212 percent. This one-fifth of 1 percent reduction, the FDA concluded, was “not statistically distinguishable from zero.”

Michael Siegel, a prominent tobacco control professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, examined the issue by looking at the FDA’s analysis of the impact of graphic warnings in Canada, which the FDA relied on to justify its new labels. He concluded graphic warnings had no statistically significant impact on smoking rates in Canada. Furthermore, after conducting a series of analyses, Siegel estimated that labels in Canada could have actually increased smoking prevalence. On his blog, tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com, he called the FDA’s analysis “flimsy” and its conclusions “scientifically shaky” that graphic warning labels will reduce smoking prevalence in the United States.

For more than 45 years, cigarettes have been accompanied by Surgeon General’s warnings, and over those years Lorillard never brought a legal challenge to those warnings. But in its announcement, the FDA vastly exceeded the bounds of previous warnings by mandating labels that are not only ineffective but also unconstitutional.

Lorillard as a result filed a lawsuit along with other tobacco manufacturers. Our lawsuit marshals strong legal arguments that the requirement is damaging because it violates the First Amendment. The lawsuit sums it up best: “Never before in the United States have producers of a lawful product been required to use their own packaging and advertising to convey an emotionally charged government message urging adult consumers to shun their products.”

It appears the requirement is the latest step in the government’s plan of “rebranding of ... cigarette packs,” as Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, said at a news conference. The message was clear. Once the regulation is in effect, much of the current tobacco advertising and product displays will be replaced by the government’s graphic anti-smoking advocacy.

Certainly the government can require warnings. But in our view it is a clear violation of the First Amendment to require a package for a legal product to serve as a minibillboard to carry the government messages and the government pictures in order to advocate that consumers not buy the product.

It is doubly striking that the FDA wants to go down this unconstitutional road in light of its own studies demonstrating the ineffectiveness of the graphic warning labels.

Orangutan addicted to smoking cigarettes thrown to her by tourists is removed from 'appalling' zoo

A captive orangutan who would smoke cigarettes thrown to her by zoo visitors is being forced to kick the habit.
Malaysian authorities have seized adult orangutan Shirley from a state-run zoo in the southern Jahor state last week after she was deemed to be living in poor conditions.
The 25-year-old animal is now being quarantined at another zoo in a neighbouring state and is expected to be sent to a wildlife centre on Borneo within weeks.
Melaka Zoo director Ahmad Azhar Mohammed said that Shirley is not being provided with any more cigarettes because 'smoking is not normal behaviour for orangutans'.
The zoo where Shirley lived in Jahor hit the headlines earlier this year because of the appalling conditions animals were kept in.
The female orangutan competed with cage-mate Abu for cigarette butts thrown by tourists to satisfy her smoking habit.
A 'no smoking' sign was put up outside her cage, but authorities did nothing to stop people throwing the cigarettes inside.