Smoking

The Bulgarian government has announced it will submit to Parliament amendments to tobacco legislation that will ban the sale of tobacco products "with specific flavor and aroma qualities" that mislead consumers.

At a cabinet meeting, ministers have added the changes will include new requirements for labeling and packaging tobacco products, including health warnings on the packages.

The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development’s report from “Health at a Glance 2015″ shows that how you feel depends on where you live? Charts show how factors are influenced depending on where you live.

Fruit eating habits

"Parks are among the few smoke-free places here," says Larisa Marinescu, 32, pushing a stroller with her eight-month-old girl round a park in Bucharest.

"It is very difficult to find a non-smoking place to eat with a child. This is not normal," she adds.

Marinescu is one of many Romanians who are strongly opposed to smoking.

Greeks are drinking less than they did in 2000 and have now dropped their alcohol consumption to beneath the OECD average.

Many of us have probably wondered at some point why it is that some heavy smokers never suffer from any lung related diseases and live to a ripe old age, while people who have never touched a cigarette in their lives die of cancer. The enigma has been solved by scientists who conducted a study on 50,000 people and concluded that it has to do with ‘good genes’.

Bulgaria's parliamentary committee on budget and finance will discuss Thursday a proposed increase in the excise duty on cigarettes.

The measure is envisaged in a set of amendments to the Excise Duties and Tax Warehouses Act, according to reports of the Bulgarian National Radio.

As of 2016, the excise duty on cigarettes will start increasing, pushing up cigarette prices.

According to a recent survey, the number of students of US Universities who smoke marijuana on a regular basis is higher than those who smoke cigarettes.

An official from the Turkish Presidency has shared images of cigarette boxes belonging to village heads (muhtars) who have reportedly quit smoking at the request of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, known as a fierce opponent of smokers.

The Greek state missed out on total taxes of 2.535 billion euros over the previous seven years (from 2008 to 2014) due to cigarette smuggling, according to an annual European survey on illegal tobacco trading by KPMG.

Last year alone cigarette smuggling grew by 2.8 percentage points of the market to account for 20.6 percent of domestic tobacco transactions.

A Canadian court has ordered tobacco firms to pay 15.5 billion Canada Dollars ($12.4 billion) to smokers in Quebec who claimed they were never warned about health risks linked to smoking.

Imperial Tobacco Canada, Rothmans, Benson & Hedges and JTI-MacDonald said they would appeal the award for moral and punitive damages, which is the largest in Canadian history.