During this past National Non-Smoking Week many people have called up radio talk shows to talk about their successes and failures when they tried to quit. It seems that in the United States at least, making the effort to quit has been made just a bit more difficult. The Harvard School of Public Health’s report entitled “Trends in Smoke Nicotine Yield and Relationship to Design Characteristics Among Popular U.S. Cigarette Brands” shows that cigarette manufacturers have steadily increased the levels of this agent in cigarettes. This independent analysis is based on data submitted to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH) by the manufacturers.

• Dr. Anthony G. (Tony) Phillips, professor (Dept. of Psychology) at the University of British Columbia and Advisory Board Member of the CIHR (Canadian Institutes of Health Research) Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction and founding member of Neuroscience Canada.

  His CIHR based research focuses on brain-behavior function and the neural bases of addiction, including tobacco.