The West Coast District Health Board has offered to pay up to $350 in petrol and fuel vouchers to smoking pregnant women in a bid to get them to quit the habit.

I know a slab of young people who find smoking abhorrent, and a total turn-off. But there is also sizeable chunk of people like me, who are wracked with guilt at finding it attractive.

Laurie Holmes has patches, Champix and lozenges to help him quit - but he's gone cold turkey without a hiccup.

Hundreds of smokers have joined a Stoptober campaign to give up the habit, and many more will try to quit on their own - with little chance of success.

France is on the verge of introducing some of the most stringent anti-smoking legislation in the world, following Australia's lead - and it could work.

Matt Heath writes: Soon parents will get in as much trouble for putting sugar in their coffee as I did for a tasty little cigarette.

Cigarette-style warnings should be placed on wine showing its health risks and the number of calories it contains, a group of British MPs has said.

Cigarette consumption has long been in decline in the US. But some states and demographics still seem to be clinging on to the habit - and keeping tobacco companies afloat.

The Cancer Society is appealing to Auckland suburbs with the city's highest rates of smoking for help to press for a smokefree bylaw and possibly fines.

Kiwi diners are being exposed to large amounts of secondhand smoke even when they choose to sit inside restaurants, a study shows.

A barber was "genuinely fearful" of remaining in the presence of an employer who regularly made fun of him and told him "I hate white people".

Women who smoke and are overweight are more likely to suffer a stillbirth than non-smoking women of a healthy weight, a report has found.

Why anyone would want to bring anything but fresh air into their lungs now that tobacco's damage has been well documented, is a mystery.

With appealing fruity flavours and an A-list celebrity fanbase, electronic cigarettes could lead young people into lifelong tobacco addiction, it's increasingly feared.

E-cigarettes with sweet flavours are being targeted at school children and could get them hooked on nicotine, it has been claimed.

Public health researchers say the Government's next step after introducing plain packaging for tobacco should be to make cigarettes ugly.

A photo of a young boy with a cigarette in his mouth and a can of pre-mix spirits in his hand has been slammed by the Children's Commissioner.

The days of bulk-buying cigarettes at the border are over after the Govt revealed its latest anti-smoking policy would cut the duty-free allowance.

The death rate from cancer has fallen over the past 25 years, but lung cancer will overtake breast cancer as the biggest killer among women within the next few years, said leading experts.

The tobacco industry has ramped up efforts to persuade New Zealand against plain packaging, by circulating research claiming to show the policy has not worked in Australia.

The number of Year 10 pupils who smoke every day has dropped, new figures released today show.

Roll-your-own tobacco is ''more dangerous'' than factory-made cigarettes and should be banned, says Professor Richard Edwards.

Police have warned against a "free-for-all" after a shipping container with a cargo of several million cigarettes washed ashore in Devon.

Future generations will look back with horrified incredulity at how we allowed a cartel of international drug pushers to promote and sell poison legally.