A year-long study of bar workers in Dublin has found that Ireland's ban on smoking in pubs has significantly improved the workers' health and cut air pollution.

Published in the April 16 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the study - led by Dr. Luke Clancy, director of Dublin's Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society - included 42 pubs in Dublin and 73 male pub workers who received lung function tests before and after the smoking ban was put in place on March 29, 2004

In Singapore, the anti-smoking TV ads are making progress. However, apparently the ads are also too graphic for children and will now only be aired at night per government officials, according to an AP report.

After feedback to the government's Health Promotion Board, the ads were seen by many parents as disturbing to their children

Smokers struggling to find a way to increase their will power in order to stop smoking might be dismayed to learn that cigarerette manufacturers are thwarting them by increasing the amount of nicotine in cigarettes. Nicotine is the main addictive ingredient in cigarettes.That is troubling because new research shows that smoking increases the likelihood that a smoker, or someone who inhales second-hand smoke, might get tuberculosis.

"Cigarettes are finely-tuned drug delivery devices, designed to perpetuate a tobacco pandemic," Howard Koh, associate dean for public health practice at HSPH and a former commissioner of public health for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts said in a statement. "Yet precise information about these products remains shrouded in secrecy, hidden from the public. Policy actions today requiring the tobacco industry to disclose critical information about nicotine and product design could protect the next generation from the tragedy of addiction

After the City Council voted 6-3 in favor of an anti-smoking measure, Bangor, Maine will become the first city to ban smoking in a motor vehicle when children under the age of 18 are present.

Although similar statewide measures have been adopted in Arkansas and Louisiana, Bangor is the first city to adopt such an ordinance, which goes into effect next week

Stroke risks are lower among Americans, according to the findings of the famous Framingham Study in the latest issue of "The Journal of the American Medical Association."

However, the severity of the effects of a stroke suffered by its victims remains the same for women