Health organisations are alarmed at how the internet is being used to promote smoking.

They might be Top Models, but a couple of the contestants on the top-rating television show have turned out to be anything but role models.

Demand for tobacco has fallen 15pc at supermarkets since the tax rise in April - a far greater reduction than expected.

British American Tobacco (BAT) has denied claims it uses video-sharing website YouTube to market its products, as research released today from Otago University claimed.

The health sector is overburdened by those who don't know how to look after themselves or don't give a damn, writes Gareth Morgan.

The majority of NZers support an end to commercial tobacco sales by 2020, a UMR Research survey finds.

A study shows a 30pc drop in the number of teens smoking - days after the Govt announced a $12m cut in funding for anti-tobacco initiatives.

The safety benefits from banning lighters in prisons would outweigh threats of violence over the planned smoking ban, a prison guard says.

A former smoker brought his diseased heart to Parliament for MPs to look at today, telling a select committee of his five heart attacks caused by smoking-related disease.

Threats to guards are already widespread as a result of the looming smoking ban, the Corrections Association says.

Squeeze on cigarettes is already causing fights, says a man just released from Waikato's Rangipo Prison.