Hoping to combat a rise in tobacco sales to children under 18 and boost funding for antismoking programs, City Councilor Michael P. Ross wants to triple the cost of permits to sell tobacco products, eliminate counter displays, and make it harder for new merchants to sell tobacco. ...

MIAMI (Reuters) - America's biggest cigarette makers are still doing business the same old way and targeting teenagers as customers, a plaintiffs lawyer told jurors weighing potentially massive damages for sick Florida smokers, anticipating the industry's arguments for leniency. ...

SCHOOLS have begun to breath-test children for cigarette smoking as part of an attempt to reduce the numbers of pupils taking up the habit. ...

I am sitting on Cocoa Beach, the world's biggest ashtray. For every butt in a swimsuit, there are 500 butts in the sand. It amazes me how smokers toss these filthy little nuggets around as if they are exempt from the laws of littering and basic human etiquette. ...

Children from homes where family members smoke take more time off school with coughs and colds, according to research. A study of almost 2,000 pupils at schools in southern California showed some were up to four times more likely to miss classes due to respiratory illness than those from smoke-free homes. ...

As the school year comes to a close, there is one report card being handed out that may raise some eyebrows among adults. Because on this report card, adults don't give grades: they get them. ...

WASHINGTON -- The nation's largest smokeless tobacco company is violating a 1998 legal settlement by targeting children in its ads, lawmakers who cited a study by Massachusetts health officials said. U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. spent $9.4 million last year on advertising in magazines that have substantial number of young readers, up from $3.6 million in 1997, according to the report released Tuesday by the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program. ...

TWAIN HARTE -- A nonprofit, tobacco-eschewing organization from Twain Harte will visit major league stadiums in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego today with children, banners and "spititions" exhorting baseball players to lose the chew. ...

Teenagers are significantly more likely to start smoking if they watch movies featuring stars who smoke cigarettes, and teens whose parents don't smoke are the most likely to be swayed by actors lighting up onscreen. According to a study released yesterday in the journal Lancet, teens who watched the most movies with smoking were almost three times more likely to start smoking than those who watched the fewest number of movies with smoking. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Joe Camel may be gone, but cigarette makers are still coming up with ads that have a greater impact on young people than anti-smoking messages, said a study released Monday. ...