Nobody can deny it. Big tobacco is really good at reading between the lines. In the newest legal loophole used by big tobacco, the federal government is reporting a tax loss of up to $1.1 billion thanks to the increasing popularity of pipes and cigars.

Pipe tobacco and cigars gained quite a bit of popularity from 2009 through 2011. One of the biggest reasons for its growing popularity is the fact that pipe/cigar tobacco is taxed at a much lower rate than pre-rolled cigarettes. With taxes ever increasing on tobacco products, savvy smokers have discovered that they can still get their fix but for a much cheaper price.

From 2009 to 2011 the government estimates that they lost anywhere from $615 million to $1.1 billion in tax revenues that could have been collected if pipe/cigar tobacco was taxed at the same rate as pre-rolled.  The amount of pipe tobacco sold every month in the U.S. increased from 240,000 pounds in 2009 to over 3 million pounds in 2011. Furthermore, cigar sales have also skyrocketed from 411 pounds sold per month in 2009 to over 1 billion pounds per month in 2011.

This new data tells us two very important things. First, tax increases are noticed by smokers. They feel the pain of paying more per pack; so much so, in fact that they’re willing to switch their method of tobacco intake to make life easier on their collective wallets. Second and more troublesome, is that everyone making the switch to pipes and cigars has opted for an unfiltered form of smoking, which means they take in higher levels of dangerous chemicals found in tobacco.

Currently the Senate is working on legislation to level out the tax disparity but as with all political dealings, that could take a while.

Everyone knows that smoking isn’t safe. Even electronic cigarettes have their risks; while they contain fewer chemicals than a normal cig, they have higher amounts of nicotine per puff and make quitting tough even though they’re marketed as a “healthier” alternative to traditional smoking. But for one Florida man, the danger of smoking an E-cig took on a whole new shape.

While a man was attempting to kick the habit by switching to an e-cig, the habit kicked back. Thanks to a faulty battery, an E-cig blew up in a man’s mouth while he was using it. The explosion blew out some teeth and a chunk of his tongue and severely burnt his face. To give you an idea of the size of the explosion: when paramedics arrived at the man’s home they not only found damage to the smoker himself but found burnt carpet, chair cushions and office equipment. Furthermore, the faulty battery shot out of the E-cig during the explosion and set a nearby closet on fire as well.

“The best analogy is it was like trying to hold a bottle rocket in your mouth when it went off,” Joseph Parker, of the North Bay Fire Department explained. “The battery flew out of the tube and set the closet on fire.”

While exploding E-cigs aren’t a common occurrence, usage of them is on the rise. Last year, some 2.5 million Americans used an E-cig of some kind. In 2010, the FDA sent notices to some E-cig companies for “violations of good manufacturing practices, making unsubstantiated drug claims and using the devices as delivery mechanisms for active pharmaceutical ingredients.”

Despite the country being in a state of recession, funding is still allocated both federally and locally for healthy lifestyle promotions. The largest amount of money goes to anti-smoking advertising and has for some time now. With tough economic times upon us, we’ve seen the amount of money given to anti-smoking campaigns dwindle but never go away entirely because, despite there being less money to spend on making people aware of the dangers of smoking, data has proven that this money is well spent.

Between 1998 and 2005 the national smoking rate has dropped by 13% and the youth smoking rate dropped by 40%. In recent years, we’ve seen those numbers level out a bit (the national rate is sitting around 20% and the youth rate has slowed it’s rate of decline to 21%) and many are suggesting that the slowing can be directly attributed to decreased funding; given that funding began taking cuts around the same time the rates declined by smaller percentages.

Both the CDC and FDA will continue to roll out new awareness campaigns detailing and educating about the dangers associated with smoking. Money may be tight but you can’t ignore the data. Anti-smoking campaigns actually work. According to the CDC, anti-smoking advertising’s message is educational but the real power of persuasion comes in its ability to demoralize smoking. That is to say, people are less compelled to quit because of the health facts and more by advertising’s ability to make smoking a socially unacceptable practice. Dirty looks and overly-theatrical coughs will make any smoker feel like a jerk; just try to light up at a crowded bus stop plastered with anti-smoking posters and see how other people react.

As if the data showing a positive return on advertising investment wasn’t enough for agencies to continue funding these campaigns, newer data is emerging showing that every dollar spent on anti-smoking advertising shows up as savings somewhere else: health care costs. Many states have noted that with an increase in spending on preventative tobacco campaigns, they have seen a direct correlation to a decrease in health care costs as they relate to smoking-related illnesses.

Anti-smoking campaigns work and the more we put into them, the more we get out.

It’s estimated that some 4.5 trillion cigarette butts are thrown on the ground or in bodies of water each year. For the record, there are 12 zeros in a trillion, that’s a whole lot of litter.

We know that butts can be harmful to many animals if they happen to ingest them but a new study out of San Diego State University suggests that not all animals have to consume the butts to be harmed by them. Fish could very well be the most helpless animal when it comes to cigarette butts.

According to the SDSU study, one cigarette butt with traces of tobacco left on it can turn a single liter of water yellowish brown and kill 50% of any fish living in it. If the butts are free of any lingering tobacco, 4 butts will have the same effect on a liter of water. When immersed in water, butts become deadly because they emit poisonous toxins such as nicotine, carcinogens, metals and benzene.

Unlike land animals that have to eat the butts to be harmed, fish just have to breath the poison in through their gills. The poisonous effects of butts harm both freshwater and saltwater fish equally. Food for thought: in beach cleanups, cigarette butts are the number one item people find in the sand. Bad day to be a fish.

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