ADDICTION

The United States has all it needs to win the battle against oil addiction on home ground and help lead the rest of the world out of the same addiction. That's the message of NGV Global - the International Association for Natural Gas Vehicles - at an industry summit in Boston, Massachusetts.

Australian's problematic drinking rates are on par with New Zealand and the US, and well above other developed countries such as France, Spain and Germany.

A newly-organized group is launching this weekend an anti-Labor advertising campaign designed by Liberal Party strategists and funded by tobacco companies. The ad blitz set for the weekend will attack the said party's proposed law on packaging tobacco products.

Smokers often say they need a cigarette to calm their nerves, but a new study suggests that after a person kicks the habit, chronic stress levels may go down.

A new survey suggests even smokers themselves prefer dating partners who don't smoke.

On Monday, Hobart City Council aldermen have agreed unanimously to make Elizabeth Mall, the bus mall and Wellington Court smoke-free zones.

Senator Nick Minchin has encouraged smokers to keep up their habit, saying smokers who die early save the health system money.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Addicted to smoking and unable to quit? Your genes may be partly to blame, according to a trio of studies published Sunday in Nature Genetics that link several gene variants to a range of smoking habits, as well as increased risk for lung cancer.

Scientists recently found out in their genetic studies that smoking and nicotine addiction may be found in ones genetic make-up.

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Crackberry is no joke.

An Australian study reveals many long-term smokers struggled seven times to break the habit and quitting smoking has been compared with breaking a heroin addiction.

Thousands of young children are accidentally poisoned by tobacco products each year in the U.S., and new dissolvable tobacco products that resemble candy might pose an additional risk, according to researchers.

New measures are being introduced in South Korea seeking to combat the problem of internet addiction. The move follows the trial of a couple for negligent homicide. Their three-month old daughter died of malnutrition, allegedly because they were too busy raising a virtual child in a Second-Life-style game online known as Prius.

The results, published in the Spanish journal Psicothema, not only confirm the bifactorial structure of workaholism, in other words its two dimensions, but also relate the results with psychosocial wellbeing (perceived health and happiness), in order to highlight the negative features of addiction to work in Spain.

In the United States alone there are probably around 36 million Darryls, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), which created the character, played by an actor on its website to help train doctors.

As the economic downturn persists, lawmakers are increasing tobacco product taxes. This is changing the tobacco market, says 7 Leaf Trading Post CEO Ric Gardiner, and Native American and all-natural cigarettes may be a big beneficiary.

Teenagers who are addicted to the Internet are more likely to engage in self-harm behavior, according to an Australian-Chinese study.

Banks risk becoming addicted to cheap central bank cash used to fight the financial crisis and must prepare for its eventual withdrawal, the head of the ECB warned at a Frankfurt banking conference on Friday.

Efforts to help smokers kick the habit have stalled in the United States, with hardly any recent change in smoking rates, federal researchers reported on Thursday.

U.S. regulators warned 10 companies for violating a recently enacted ban on sales of flavored cigarettes, letters released on Friday showed.

Smokers who are trying to kick the habit may be able to turn to their cell phones to avoid temptation, a study published Tuesday suggests.