Tobacco production in Africa

Large-scale commercial (LSC) farmers dominate tobacco production. LSC farmers are characterized by their use of modern machinery, overhead and drip-line irrigation, and permanent wage labour. Holdings in the LSC sector can be very large and it has been estimated that fewer than 5 000 farmers occupy 21 percent of Zimbabwe’s total land area of 8,2 million hectares, including 3,7 million hectares in Natural Region II.

Obsession with Nicotine as Sole Component of Smoking Addiction

This month's issue of the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research is devoted to articles on the study of nicotine receptors in mice and rats.

The articles in the issue include:

    Nicotinic ACh Receptors in the Hippocampus: Role in Excitability and Plasticity
    Preclinical Evidence That Activation of Mesolimbic Alpha 6 Subunit Containing Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors Supports Nicotine Addiction Phenotype
    Nicotinic Regulation of Energy Homeostasis
   

DHHS Hides from Public the Fact that Chantix Has Been Associated with Hundreds of Suicides

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), on its new web site devoted to smoking, is hiding from the public the fact that Chantix (varenicline) has been associated with hundreds of suicides. It is also recommending Chantix - a drug that has caused hundreds of deaths - over electronic cigarettes, which have no known serious adverse side effects, because of its concern over potential unknown risks of electronic cigarettes.