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The expansion to Imperial Tobacco's factory in Petone, north of Wellington, took more than 18 months and includes the addition of hi-tech equipment including a machine which can produce up to 8000 cigarettes a minute. More than three billion cigarettes and 700 tonnes of roll-your-own tobacco will be manufactured at the plant.

The upgrade took place after Imperial Tobacco New Zealand won a worldwide tender to supply the Australian market. The contract was previously held by British American Tobacco in Sydney. The New Zealand Cancer Society has criticised the upgrade and the decision by Lower Hutt Mayor Ray Wallace to officially open the expansion on Monday.

"We believe long term that this is going to be more detrimental to the community and New Zealand," spokeswoman Skye Kimura told AAP. "It surprises me that he [Mr Wallace] would support this given the council has adopted so many smoke-free policies." The mayor, who does not smoke, told Fairfax he saw smoking as a personal choice and he would support legitimate businesses that invested in the city. "I'm here today as mayor to support one of our largest ratepayers, one of our biggest employers in this city," Mr Wallace said.

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) director Ben Youdan earlier told AAP that New Zealanders could be taking responsibility for a considerable number of deaths in Australia. The cigarettes would be smoked by about 100,000 Australians, about half of whom would die prematurely from tobacco, he said.

Imperial Tobacco's Petone site has been home to tobacco companies since 1929. It was owned by British American Tobacco before Imperial took it over in 1999. The factory employs about 200 people.

Indiana should increase its tax on tobacco from under a dollar to at least $2 a pack to match those of Illinois and Michigan. This would have three benefits:

1. It would decrease smoking, especially among young people not yet addicted. This would improve public health and decrease the cost of illness and fires caused by smoking.

2. It would increase state revenues (about $400 million in 2010), which could be applied to smoking cessation programs.

3. It would eliminate the smuggling of cigarettes from Indiana to neighboring states.

Crispin Porter’s ad campaign took the teenage desire for rebellion and turned it against the tobacco companies. The Truth brand would now compete with Marlboro and Camel(buy this cigarettes here). For one TV spot, Florida teenagers taped a road trip: they drove to Philip Morris headquarters in Richmond, Va., and asked the security guard at the compound gate if they could talk to the Marlboro Man. Sorry, he’s dead, the guard replied. (The model who played the Marlboro man had indeed just died — of lung cancer.) This all went on tape and on the air.

Other ads showed kids making prank phone calls to the tobacco-industrial complex. A group of girls called Lucky Strike’s advertising account coordinator. “What is the ‘lucky’ part about Lucky Strike cigarettes?” one girl asks. “Is it because… I might live?” After the executive hangs up, the girls laugh maliciously. Florida’s health department then organized SWAT — Students Working Against Tobacco — groups in every county.

“We never said ‘don’t smoke,’” said Perez, who was later hired to run SWAT. “We got a bunch of kids together to make a statement to the tobacco industry — to rebel against them.” The TV ads and the student groups amplified each other. The television spots made it look like teen rebellion against cigarette companies was sweeping the state. The SWAT groups made it look like the TV ads came from kids, not adults — which boosted their credibility.

In a bid to make its campuses tobacco free, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (IP University) has signed a MOU with World Lung Foundation, South Asia (WLF – SA) in the Capital.

According to Professor Anup Beniwal, director, students welfare of the university the overall objective of this MOU is to promote tobacco free environment in all three campuses of the University.

Registrar of the University Dr Bhaskar P Joshi said on the occasion that rampant usage of tobacco among the youth is a major social concern and it is urgent need to undertake measures to discourage it. Indeed a right step.

Ohio higher education officials unanimously voted Monday to urge the state's public campuses to ban all sales and use of tobacco products, including smoking outdoors. The Ohio Board of Regents' resolution comes after a review showed such policies bring health benefits to smokers and nonsmokers and cut costs for education institutions, Chairman James Tuschman said.

Tuschman said Ohio can set an example because it often serves as a test market for new tobacco products aimed at young people. "It is the right thing to do," he said. The Regents' recommendation extends to all Ohio's campuses, including Ohio State, one of the nation's largest universities. OSU bans only indoor smoking and some outdoor smoking around its health facilities. The university said Monday it will review the issue.

At least seven public colleges or universities in Ohio have tobacco bans, including Miami University, Hocking College and the health science campus of the University of Toledo. Regent Patricia Ackerman said she backed the resolution "as someone who smoked my first cigarette at age 14, as someone who went to college and viewed as a true act of liberation making that first official act of freedom purchasing a pack of cigarettes."

Statistics show Ackerman was not alone: 40 percent of smokers either begin or become regular smokers starting in college. The board is led by Chancellor Jim Petro, who picked up the smoking habit on campus. "I began smoking in college and continued to smoke for 40 years. It has adversely affected my health," said Petro, who was diagnosed in 2009 with laryngeal cancer that could have been caused by smoking. He is cancer-free now. "By approving this resolution and recommending that policies be implemented on our campuses, the Board of Regents can have a significant and positive effect on a student's life."

Ohio Health Director Ted Wymyslo said reaching young people is critical. Ohio, like many states, has cut funding to his smoking prevention programs amid several years of tight budgets. "It's particularly important to get to that younger age and stop that habit that we've seen," he said. "That means we have to have a culture change."

The state Health Department has prepared model policies and tips to help colleges and universities implement tobacco-free policies -- but the decision ultimately will be up to each institution's board of trustees. Such bans can include outdoor smoking, smoking in vehicles, use of chewing tobacco and candy-style products on campus and prohibitions against tobacco sales and advertising. Perhaps half of campuses nationwide have enacted or are considering going tobacco free, sometimes over the objections of student smokers, staff and faculty.

Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights said campus tobacco bans have risen from virtually zero a decade ago to 711 today. That includes four-year and two-year institutions both public and private. Bruce Johnson, executive director of the Inter-University Council representing Ohio's 14 public universities, said the institutions all are concerned about the health and safety of their students, but they have to weigh that against respect of the personal choices of students, faculty and staff.

"A university campus is a place that attracts a lot of different types of people from a lot of different cultures from all around the world," he said. "So they have to consider that when they do things that ban any type of activity on campus." Surveys have found that enrollment most often either remains flat or rises on campuses that impose tobacco bans.

Michael Roizen, director of wellness programs at The Cleveland Clinic, recommended participating institutions make free smoking prevention classes available to students and staff, hold campus contests to name the awareness campaign, and begin in three years to hire only nonsmokers.

Ohio higher education officials unanimously voted Monday to urge the state's public campuses to ban all sales and use of tobacco products, including smoking outdoors. The Ohio Board of Regents' resolution comes after a review showed such policies bring health benefits to smokers and nonsmokers and cut costs for education institutions, Chairman James Tuschman said.

Tuschman said Ohio can set an example because it often serves as a test market for new tobacco products aimed at young people. "It is the right thing to do," he said. The Regents' recommendation extends to all Ohio's campuses, including Ohio State, one of the nation's largest universities. OSU bans only indoor smoking and some outdoor smoking around its health facilities. The university said Monday it will review the issue.

At least seven public colleges or universities in Ohio have tobacco bans, including Miami University, Hocking College and the health science campus of the University of Toledo. Regent Patricia Ackerman said she backed the resolution "as someone who smoked my first cigarette at age 14, as someone who went to college and viewed as a true act of liberation making that first official act of freedom purchasing a pack of cigarettes."

Statistics show Ackerman was not alone: 40 percent of smokers either begin or become regular smokers starting in college. The board is led by Chancellor Jim Petro, who picked up the smoking habit on campus. "I began smoking in college and continued to smoke for 40 years. It has adversely affected my health," said Petro, who was diagnosed in 2009 with laryngeal cancer that could have been caused by smoking. He is cancer-free now. "By approving this resolution and recommending that policies be implemented on our campuses, the Board of Regents can have a significant and positive effect on a student's life."

Ohio Health Director Ted Wymyslo said reaching young people is critical. Ohio, like many states, has cut funding to his smoking prevention programs amid several years of tight budgets. "It's particularly important to get to that younger age and stop that habit that we've seen," he said. "That means we have to have a culture change."

The state Health Department has prepared model policies and tips to help colleges and universities implement tobacco-free policies -- but the decision ultimately will be up to each institution's board of trustees. Such bans can include outdoor smoking, smoking in vehicles, use of chewing tobacco and candy-style products on campus and prohibitions against tobacco sales and advertising. Perhaps half of campuses nationwide have enacted or are considering going tobacco free, sometimes over the objections of student smokers, staff and faculty.

Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights said campus tobacco bans have risen from virtually zero a decade ago to 711 today. That includes four-year and two-year institutions both public and private. Bruce Johnson, executive director of the Inter-University Council representing Ohio's 14 public universities, said the institutions all are concerned about the health and safety of their students, but they have to weigh that against respect of the personal choices of students, faculty and staff.

"A university campus is a place that attracts a lot of different types of people from a lot of different cultures from all around the world," he said. "So they have to consider that when they do things that ban any type of activity on campus." Surveys have found that enrollment most often either remains flat or rises on campuses that impose tobacco bans.

Michael Roizen, director of wellness programs at The Cleveland Clinic, recommended participating institutions make free smoking prevention classes available to students and staff, hold campus contests to name the awareness campaign, and begin in three years to hire only nonsmokers.

JTI, which owns the Camel silver and Silk Cut brands, said the Department of Health has refused to meet its representatives for eight years despite leading the consultation. As a result, Martin Southgate, UK managing director of JTI, fears the tobacco industry will not receive a fair hearing on the proposals. JTI believes the policy will simply drive more business into the hands of cigarette counterfeiters and fail to reduce overall smoking levels.

“There are worrying indicators that the Department of Health has already decided to introduce plain packaging despite the lack of evidence,” Mr Southgate said at the launch of a £2m advertising campaign flagging its concerns. JTI highlighted an impact assessment of unbranded packaging, published by the Government, which says it would be “impractical” to maintain complete “impartiality” on the issue.

Mr Southgate expressed concerns that emotions around the health consequences of smoking are clouding whether plain packaging would do anything to solve serious issues such as cigarettes falling into the hands of children. “The measures proposed in this case will not achieve its claimed goals. It is likely to have serious consequences, and sets a precedent in terms of government intervention that the UK public should think about very carefully,” Mr Southgate said, adding that the plans amounted to “commercial vandalism”.

He said he hoped “common sense” would prevail but said the industry would be prepared to take similar action in the UK as in Australia, where manufacturers have challenged similar proposals through the courts. A DoH spokeswoman insisted the Government is “open-minded” about the consultation, which closes next month. Imperial Tobacco has called for Business Secretary Vince Cable to intervene in the debate to ensure the potential economic impact is understood.

A New Brunswick judge has ordered several big tobacco companies to file their legal defences in a major lawsuit launched by the provincial government to recover health-care costs. In March 2008 New Brunswick became the second province — after British Columbia — to file a lawsuit against tobacco companies to recover the costs of treating people who smoked in the years the companies refused to reveal the health risks.

However, the companies have launched a series of procedural objections, slowing down the lawsuit, since 2008. They have not yet filed a statement of defence, a response to the government's claim. They have argued that the provincial government's lawyers have not been specific enough, and have not provided details requested by the companies.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Thomas Cyr said that there is no evidence that the companies need more detail and he has ordered them to file their defence by Aug. 20. Cynthia Callard, the executive director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, said that similar rulings in other provinces have been important.

“We’ve seen that they’ve put in objection after objection, motion after motion, each of which takes up court time and each of which takes months of preparation for court hearings, and each of which delays the final court decision,” Callard said. “When the judges are stepping in and saying, ‘No more of this nonsense, we’re going to get to a court date,’ then we find that things move forward a bit faster.”

No one from the provincial government was available to comment on the ruling, and none of the tobacco lawyers returned CBC’s calls. The companies named in the suit include: Carreras Rothmans Limited, British American Tobacco and British American Tobacco.

Four years have passed since the lawsuit was first introduced by the provincial government. Attorney General T.J. Burke launched the lawsuit, at the time predicting a financial windfall. “Those numbers of course are going to be substantial,” he said at the time. New Brunswick's government first announced in December 2006 that it would take legal action against the companies, but the Tobacco Damages and Health Care Cost Recovery Act was only proclaimed in March 2008.

A New Brunswick judge has ordered several big tobacco companies to file their legal defences in a major lawsuit launched by the provincial government to recover health-care costs. In March 2008 New Brunswick became the second province — after British Columbia — to file a lawsuit against tobacco companies to recover the costs of treating people who smoked in the years the companies refused to reveal the health risks.

However, the companies have launched a series of procedural objections, slowing down the lawsuit, since 2008. They have not yet filed a statement of defence, a response to the government's claim. They have argued that the provincial government's lawyers have not been specific enough, and have not provided details requested by the companies.

Court of Queen's Bench Justice Thomas Cyr said that there is no evidence that the companies need more detail and he has ordered them to file their defence by Aug. 20. Cynthia Callard, the executive director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, said that similar rulings in other provinces have been important.

“We’ve seen that they’ve put in objection after objection, motion after motion, each of which takes up court time and each of which takes months of preparation for court hearings, and each of which delays the final court decision,” Callard said. “When the judges are stepping in and saying, ‘No more of this nonsense, we’re going to get to a court date,’ then we find that things move forward a bit faster.”

No one from the provincial government was available to comment on the ruling, and none of the tobacco lawyers returned CBC’s calls. The companies named in the suit include: Carreras Rothmans Limited, British American Tobacco and British American Tobacco.

Four years have passed since the lawsuit was first introduced by the provincial government. Attorney General T.J. Burke launched the lawsuit, at the time predicting a financial windfall. “Those numbers of course are going to be substantial,” he said at the time. New Brunswick's government first announced in December 2006 that it would take legal action against the companies, but the Tobacco Damages and Health Care Cost Recovery Act was only proclaimed in March 2008.

The maximum price of Rs. 145.60 a kg was realised for virginia tobacco this season in Andhra Pradesh on the auction floors in West Godavari district on Wednesday, according to Mr. Kamala Vardhana Rao, the Chairman of the Tobacco Board. He said that so far 112.52 million kg of tobacco had been sold on the floors in the State at an average price of Rs. 98.51 a kg. He said the board had authorised 162 million kg of crop in the State and therefore roughly 50 million kg more needed to be sold.

"The auctions are going on at a faster pace this season. Last year, in the corresponding period only 78 million kgs of the crop could be sold at an average price of Rs. 107.67 a kg. In West Godavari, in the northern light soils (NLS), the maximum prices are realised. The exports have picked up of late and the performance has been encouraging in the first quarter. It has had a positive impact on the auction prices," he said.

He said there would not be any problem in concluding the AP auctions as per schedule and then starting the auctions in Karnataka. There is standing crop in Karnataka.

Cigarette smokers already smarting from George Osborne's price increases in this year's budget have more pain to endure. Imperial Tobacco has begun a new round of price rises, adding 25p a packet with effect from 10 July. This comes on top of the 37p budget increase.

Analysts at Societe Generale said it was an unusually large rise from the company, a significant step-up from last September's 14p rise led by Japan Tobacco. Soc Gen said the move would add 4% inflation on an average retail price of 680p a pack, which could put off more smokers. UK cigarette market volumes since the budget have slipped by around 5% to 6%, and Soc Gen estimated this could worsen by another 1% or so.

But overall the move could boost Imperial's UK profits, analyst Chas Manso said, by around 5% and its group profit by 1%, if the new price increases stuck.

Students and staff at the University of Oklahoma now have to leave campus if they want to smoke. The rule went into effect on Sunday and the ban does not include designated areas where smokers can light up. Smoking is also banned at all athletics venues.

The campus originally planned to have two areas set aside for smokers but Gov. Mary Fallin signed an executive order making the whole Norman campus smoke-free. The Norman Transcript reports ( ) that disciplinary actions range from warning to ticketing and fines.

OU offers a variety of free cessation classes and tools available through the university, Norman Regional Hospital and other offices.

A Chinese national is facing charges that he smuggled more than $1 million worth of counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes into the United States, federal authorities in Rhode Island said Friday. Lin Xiao Wei is scheduled to be arraigned on Monday in U.S. District Court in Providence. Federal prosecutors say Wei has been in federal custody since June 4, when he was arrested in Miami. He is charged with selling and dispensing a counterfeit tobacco product and fraudulently importing a counterfeit tobacco product.

An affidavit filed in court detailing the accusations against the 32-year-old Wei also alleges he discussed dealing in counterfeit Viagra and claimed that his associates purchased the mold for a soon-to-be released Nike sneaker. The affidavit says because of the purchase, counterfeit versions of the shoe would be available for sale before the sneaker made it to U.S. stores.

A message left Friday for Wei’s public defender wasn’t immediately returned. Federal agents began investigating Wei, who is also known as Marvin, in February, according to an affidavit signed by John A’Vant, a lieutenant with the Rhode Island state police who also serves on a task force organized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations.

Authorities used a confidential source who arranged a deal with Wei and met with him in Dubai and Miami, A’Vant wrote. On Feb. 10, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives used an undercover business entity to wire $56,150 to a bank account in Hong Kong tied to Wei, A’Vant wrote.

The money was a half payment for a 20-foot container of counterfeit Marlboro cigarettes(original marlboro here), A’Vant wrote. In total, the government paid more than $136,000 for the cigarettes, shipping and customs fees, the affidavit said. The cigarettes were shipped from China in a container that claimed to hold 696 cartons of leather products that were bound for Rhode Island, according to the office of Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Peter F. Neronha.

The container arrived on April 27 in Miami, where federal agents found 17 pallets of cigarettes inside labeled as Marlboro, A’Vant wrote. Investigators sent a sampling of cigarettes to the parent company of Marlboro cigarettes manufacturer Phillip Morris International Inc. of Richmond, Va., for testing. The testing found that the cigarettes weren’t real Marlboro cigarettes, A’Vant wrote.

Wei arrived in New York on May 28 and later met with the confidential source and an undercover law enforcement officer in a hotel room in Miami on June 3, A’Vant wrote. During the meeting, which was recorded without Wei’s knowledge, Wei said he was visiting the United States for the first time and was concerned about being discovered by the FBI, A’Vant wrote.

During the conversation, the undercover officer discussed buying more counterfeit cigarettes as well as counterfeit Viagra from Wei, A’Vant wrote. By the time Wei arrived in the U.S., federal agents had already wired him $9,450 to purchase about 900 counterfeit Viagra tablets, according to the affidavit. Wei told the officer he had previously shipped counterfeit Viagra to the U.S. and London, A’Vant wrote.

During that same meeting, Wei also said his associates spent $200,000 to purchase the mold of a Nike sneaker that was about to be released and planned to make a counterfeit version of the shoe available before it went up for sale in U.S. stores. Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Despite headlines saying that it lost Tuesday's vote, the fate of California's proposed $1-a-pack tax hike on cigarettes is still in limbo, and state officials said late Thursday that a final result is likely weeks away. The tax increase, known as Proposition 29, would raise an estimated $735 million a year, with roughly three-quarters of that money going to cancer research.

Initial results showed Prop 29 being rejected by a margin of roughly 65,000 votes, out of nearly 4 million cast -- a margin of 50.8% to 49.2%. However, the results don't yet include a vast number of mail-in ballots and provisional ballots. As of Thursday night, at least 829,863 votes were yet to be counted, according to figures posted by California's Secretary of State. The real figure is likely much higher, as the official "uncounted" number leaves out several counties that have yet to send their data.

"We've asked counties to report their number of unprocessed ballots, but it's voluntary, so there's no way to know the exact number," said Allie Schembra, a spokeswoman for the Secretary of State's office. State law requires county elections officials to report final vote tallies by July 6. California Secretary of State Debra Bowen then has until July 13 to certify the results.

As more results trickled in by Thursday night, the margin had shrunk to less than 53,000 votes. Or as one Bay Area Weekly joked, "Proposition 29 results are close enough to make you want to chain smoke." "Supporters of Prop 29 are not conceding defeat," vowed Doug Ulman, CEO of the Lance Armstrong-founded Livestrong organization. "We will closely monitor the counting of late absentee and provisional ballots... This race is still too close to call, and we remain hopeful that the victory will ultimately be ours." Proposition 29 was the subject of a fierce advertising campaign, playing out on Californians' television screens for weeks ahead of the vote.

Opponents of the tax spent nearly $47 million, most of it coming from tobacco companies. They argued that Prop 29 would create a large, unaccountable bureaucracy. Supporters, including Livestrong, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, spent about $12 million.

An Indian man was sentenced to prison and will be deported for his role in an illegal tobacco trafficking ring in Metro Atlanta. Sanjay Bector pleaded guilty June 13 in Gwinnett County Superior Court to one count of possession of cigarettes with counterfeit stamps.

Judge Ronnie K. Batchelor sentenced Bector to 10 years to serve 24 months, to be suspended upon his deportation. Earlier this year, an immigration court judge entered an order removing Bector to India. He was also ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $445,421.

The state said Bector was a key conspirator in an illegal tobacco trafficking ring that spanned several counties and resulted in 50 people being arrested for violations of Georgia law involving the illegal possession, sale and distribution of contraband cigarettes. Bector avoided the payment of state excise taxes on cigarettes by knowingly buying untaxed cigarettes that had counterfeit excise tax stamps.

Bector was associated with City South, a tobacco wholesaler located in Forest Park, Ga., where a number of illegal purchases are alleged to have been made. City South has closed since the arrests of Bector and his co-defendants in October 2011 and its tobacco license was voluntarily surrendered.