A new survey finds that two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. should sign a tough new international treaty to protect the world against the spread of tobacco-related death and disease. The survey, released today by the American Cancer Society, found that 66 percent of Americans either "strongly" or "somewhat" favor the treaty while only 25 percent "strongly" or "somewhat" oppose it. While non-smokers are more likely to favor the treaty (73 percent to 18 percent), even current smokers favor it (53 percent to 41 percent). The treaty -- the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) -- would save millions of lives worldwide by promoting effective policies to help children reject tobacco use and to help adults quit smoking. ...

Fresh evidence of the health risk from passive smoking is revealed today. An Evening Standard investigation found that some drinkers in London pubs absorbed nicotine and other dangerous chemicals equivalent to smoking one cigarette every three hours. ...

Flavored Asian cigarettes, even more harmful than regular ones, are gaining a foothold among minority youth, according to a study of New Jersey middle- and high-schoolers appearing in the American Journal of Health Behavior. Called “bidis,” the exotic cigarettes from India and Southeast Asia are made of tobacco wrapped in a leaf and tied with a string. For the U.S. market, vanilla, cherry, root beer, or other flavors are added. ...

When you've already been called a liar, a death merchant, a corrupter of children, and a manipulator of science, it's hard to imagine that your public image could get much worse. And in one sense, the 39,000 tobacco industry documents released last week for all the world to see simply reinforced the impression of a business many Americans have come to despise. "It's like having four witnesses to an armed robbery instead of just two," said John Coale, a plaintiffs' lawyer specializing in tobacco litigation. But the latest cigarette papers, which were subpoenaed and posted on the Internet by Virginia Republican Rep. Thomas Bliley, reveal evidence of coverups and suppression of scientific research to an extent not previously detailed. Such revelations won't help the embattled business as it tries to fend off continuing attacks on both legal and legislative fronts. ...

Two Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center doctors are trying to go where few doctors have gone before. The Winston-Salem doctors have begun a program aimed at getting workers to stop smoking, betting that Triad businesses will jump at the chance to reduce their employees' smoking breaks, they said. ...

Children with asthma whose parents smoke at home are twice as likely to have asthma symptoms all year long than children of non-smokers, a new study shows. Overall, in a nationwide sample of children with asthma, about 13 percent of parents of asthmatic children still smoke -- even though second-hand smoke is known to trigger asthma attacks and symptoms in kids. ...

Smokers should not be offered a wide range of elective surgical procedures if they do not try or do not succeed in quitting, Dr. Matthew Peters wrote recently in the Medical Journal of Australia. Peters, a thoracic surgeon and chairman of action on smoking and health, based his argument on a Danish study which found that after joint replacement surgery, smokers could reduce their risk of post-operative wound infection from 27 per cent to zero if they quit smoking six weeks before the operation. ...

The West Virginia Supreme Court upheld yesterday a jury's decision that the tobacco industry should not have to pay for medical tests that could lead to the early detection of lung cancer and other health problems in about 270,000 healthy smokers. The court voted 3-1 to reject the smokers' appeal, which argued that they deserved free, routine medical monitoring because the cigarette companies sold a defective product with no regard for their customers' health. ...

Cuban health officials are trying to persuade at least 200,000 people to quit smoking in May as part of a stepped-up campaign against cigarettes. But it's a daunting task in a nation that has had a steamy love affair with tobacco for more than five centuries. Tobacco companies in Cuba sell cigarettes for as little as 8 cents a pack, cheaper than anywhere in the world. And as cigarettes have become more affordable over the last decade, the number of young smokers has climbed, surveys show. ...