Recently, International Agency for Research on Cancer researchers concluded a study which stated that 3.6 percent of all cancer cases worldwide are related to alcohol drinking. Today, the Centre of Public Health at Liverpool John Moores University published a report that alcoholism and binge drinking in the northern Britain cities of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Liverpool and Durham will shorten the lives of men and women who live there and create years of health-related illnesses.

The blame for the drinking problems focuses on the government's allowance of 24-hour drinking, inexpensive booze, a night-time economy of bars and clubs and a failure to educate the public on the dangers of excessive drinking, binge drinking and alcoholism. This report, along with political conservatives, are making a public statement against what they call irresponsible actions on the part of the British government that would create an environment that promotes excess drinking, binge drinking and alcoholism.

The report indicated almost three in ten people admit binge drinking. According to director of the Centre for Public Health Professor Mark Bellis, "We hope that making these statistics widely available will highlight that we are no longer a nation enjoying a harmless tipple but increasingly one developing a dangerous alcohol addiction."

The ban to not allowing smokers to smoke in public places is taking hold on a global scale. Finding a place to smoke is becoming increasing difficult, and as Georgina Pattinson of BBC News reports, there is an alternative to smoking cigarettes that appears to be gaining in popularity. Snuff. Like Pattinson, I knew nothing about snuff, so it is was with great interest that I followed her in her feature article to learn more about the resurgence in popularity of this everything old is new again nicotine habit. According to snuff merchants, the sale of snuff is on the rise, with more and more young people giving it a try. It seems snuff delivers far more of a nicotine hit than cigarettes do. Who knew? Not me.

So, what is snuff, and how does one use snuff? Pattinson explains. Snuff is tobacco ground into a fine powder. It can be scented with natural oils, including smells such as attar of roses, cinnamon and mint -- or with more exotic flavors such as whisky, wild mint and camphor. How do you partake of snuff? You insert a pinch up your nose and snort. Like cocaine users do. Oh, you have seen it done in the movies. Pattinson the reporter became part of the story when she gave snuff a try. She observed that sticking a wad of tobacco up your nose is hardly glamorous. But she predicts this snuff activity could catch on. Oh -- I hope not. Here is Pattinson's full reporting of snuffing out the smoking ban.