For the thrifty smoker looking for deals on the Internet, the state has a message: There's no such thing as cheap cigarettes. The Illinois Department of Revenue is notifying hundreds of Illinois residents who purchased cigarettes on the Web that they must pay the state's 98-cent-per-pack tax. ...

On June 1, 2005, two more countries in Europe, Sweden and Denmark, will be tightening the noose on smokers. Sweden. Smoking tobacco indoors in restaurants, cafes and bars will be banned everywhere in Sweden. A provision in the law provides owners the option of catering to their smoking customers by creating a non-staffed smoking room or lounge. Considering the severity of Swedish winters, this is at least a form of consideration to smokers. ...

Tobacco companies did elaborate research on women to figure out how to hook them on smoking — even toying with the idea of chocolate-flavored cigarettes that would curb appetite, according to a new analysis. Researchers at Harvard University's School of Public Health said they examined more than 7 million documents — some dating back to 1969, others as recent as 2000 — for new details about the industry's efforts to lure more women smokers. ...

XM Radio, faced with the threat of legal action for violating federal law, has agreed to stop broadcasting cigarette commercials, but not commercials for many other products on music channels widely advertised as “100% Commercial-Free.” It has now conceded that “this type of programming is inappropriate on our service,” and that its personnel “have been instructed to cease any further broadcasts.” This reversal of policy followed a series of threatening letters from the lawyer Reader's Digest called “The Man Behind the Ban on Cigarette Commercials” for his role in passing a federal statute which bans cigarette advertising on “any medium of electronic communication subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Communications Commission.” ...

Long-term exposure to passive smoking may increase premenopausal breast cancer risk Breast cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers among women in Western countries. In North America, for example, there are an estimated 233,000 new cases every year and 45,000 deaths. Despite the well-characterized role of genetics and reproductive risk factors, as well as the suggested roles of physical activity and alcohol, more than half of breast cancer risk remains unexplained. A new study, published online May 31, 2005 in the International Journal of Cancer, the official journal of the International Union Against Cancer (UICC), suggests that long-term exposure to passive smoking (second-hand smoke) may increase premenopausal breast cancer risk. ...

After eight months, hundreds of witnesses, thousands of documents and hundreds of millions of dollars in costs, testimony in the government's conspiracy case against the nation's leading tobacco companies ended on Thursday as the defense called a final witness. Before leaving federal court for the day, government lawyers told Judge Gladys Kessler of Federal District Court that they would know on Friday whether they would seek to offer a short rebuttal, which might involve a few more witnesses. ...

In the classic formula, death and taxes have a direct relationship - both unavoidably go up together. But one industry in the United States has found a way to alter that formula, creating an inverse relationship that sends death rocketing skyward while avoiding the taxman. ...

Alleging health risk, Assembly votes to stub out governor's negotiation canopy. Sure, the governor and the Democrat-controlled Legislature are locked in the political battle of the ages, what with long-term school funding and the ability of labor unions to be political players at stake. ...

Doctors are discovering gender differences in lung cancer. Not only are women catching up to men in getting the disease, they are more likely to develop lung cancer before age 50, according to a comprehensive analysis of lung cancer in the United States. Yet women have a better chance of being free of cancer five years later, at every stage of diagnosis. ...

The government announced yesterday that it will further scale back its demands for penalties on the tobacco industry in a landmark civil racketeering case, saying it is no longer seeking to help 45 million American smokers quit their habit. ...