In a comparison of differently sized poultry farms, researchers at North Carolina State University found that rates of Salmonella in fecal and environmental samples were more prevalent on larger commercial farms than on smaller backyard farms.
Perhaps more importantly, multidrug resistance was found in Salmonella samples from both types of production systems, even though antibiotics are not used on backyard farms and are only used sparingly on commercial farms.
The findings could help small and larger farms understand more about the spread of Salmonella in their respective systems.
“We wanted to look at backyard broiler farms; broilers are chickens that are raised for meat consumption rather than egg consumption,” said Jessica Parzygnat, an NC State Ph.D. graduate and first author of a paper describing the research. “Broiler chickens are the top consumed meat in the U.S. and the world, but there’s not much research on backyard farms, which are growing in popularity in the U.S.
“The Centers for Disease Control has been issuing warnings on Salmonella outbreaks from backyard poultry farms in the last several years, so we wanted to see what pathogens are on backyard farms but also compare that to commercial farms.”
Researchers tested 10 backyard and 10 commercial flocks. The smallest backyard flock was 22 birds and the largest was 1,000 birds; all backyard farm birds lived outdoors. Commercial farms, meanwhile, had tens of thousands of birds that lived indoors.
The researchers tested bird fecal samples, as well as environmental conditions like litter, soil, and feeders, for the presence of Salmonella, in addition to other pathogens. Researchers also examined compost samples on backyard farms.

“We tried to examine where Salmonella is prevalent on farms through testing bird fecal samples and also the environment around them,” Parzygnat said. “We found less Salmonella on backyard farms (19.1% of samples) than commercial farms (52.3% of samples). We expected that, because previous studies had shown low rates of Salmonella on backyard farms. At the same time, our rates of Salmonella in samples on backyard farms were higher than in other studies looking at backyard poultry in the U.S.
“Both types of farm managers need to be careful with their birds,” Parzygnat continued. “There’s a feeling that backyard birds are safer than commercial birds, but even though we found less Salmonella, the proportion of Salmonella in backyard farms and commercial farms that were multidrug resistant — meaning that they showed resistance to three or more classes of antibiotics — was actually not significantly different.”
Parzygnat says that common-sense prevention measures can help consumers avoid Salmonella effects, including cooking chicken thoroughly and avoiding cross contamination while handling and preparing poultry.
“Salmonella can be natural inhabitants of the bird gastrointestinal tract and the birds won’t really show signs of illness,” she said. “I think one of the major concerns my research highlights is the antibiotic resistance associated with it because that really heightens the concern of infection.”
The paper appears in Foodborne Pathogens and Disease. NC State’s Sid Thakur is the paper’s corresponding author. Co-authors include Rocio Crespo, Mary Fosnaught and Lyndy Harden from NC State; Muhammed Muyyarrikkandy from South Dakota State University; and Dawn Hull from Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. Funding was provided by the USDA NIFA under SAS Grant 410553 and the FDA GenomeTrakr program under grant 5U19FD007113.

Bursts of brain rhythms with “beta” frequencies control where and when neurons in the cortex process sensory information and plan responses. Studying these bursts would improve understanding of cognition and clinical disorders, researchers argue in a new review.
The brain processes information on many scales. Individual cells electrochemically transmit signals in circuits but at the large scale required to produce cognition, millions of cells act in concert, driven by rhythmic signals at varying frequencies. Studying one frequency range in particular, beta rhythms between about 14-30 Hz, holds the key to understanding how the brain controls cognitive processes — or loses control in some disorders — a team of neuroscientists argues in a new review article.
Drawing on experimental data, mathematical modeling and theory, the scientists make the case that bursts of beta rhythms control cognition in the brain by regulating where and when higher gamma frequency waves can coordinate neurons to incorporate new information from the senses or formulate plans of action. Beta bursts, they argue, quickly establish flexible but controlled patterns of neural activity for implementing intentional thought.
“Cognition depends on organizing goal-directed thought, so if you want to understand cognition, you have to understand that organization,” said co-author Earl K. Miller, Picower Professor in The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT. “Beta is the range of frequencies that can control neurons at the right spatial scale to produce organized thought.”
Miller and colleagues Mikael Lundqvist, Jonatan Nordmark and Johan Liljefors at the Karolinska Institutet and Pawel Herman at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, write that studying bursts of beta rhythms to understand how they emerge and what they represent would not only help explain cognition, but also aid in diagnosing and treating cognitive disorders.
“Given the relevance of beta oscillations in cognition, we foresee a major change in the practice for biomarker identification, especially given the prominence of beta bursting in inhibitory control processes … and their importance in ADHD, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease,” they write in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Beta data
Experimental studies covering several species including humans, a variety of brain regions, and numerous cognitive tasks have revealed key characteristics of beta waves in the cortex, the authors write: Beta rhythms occur in quick but powerful bursts; they inhibit the power of higher frequency gamma rhythms; and though they originate in deeper brain regions, they travel within specific locations of cortex. Considering these properties together, the authors write that they are all consistent with precise and flexible regulation, in space and time, of the gamma rhythm activity that experiments show carry signals of sensory information and motor plans.

“Beta bursts thus offer new opportunities for studying how sensory inputs are selectively processed, reshaped by inhibitory cognitive operations and ultimately result in motor actions,” the authors write.
For one example, Miller and colleagues have shown in animals that in the prefrontal cortex in working memory tasks, beta bursts direct when gamma activity can store new sensory information, read out the information when it needs to be used, and then discard it when it’s no longer relevant. For another example, other researchers have shown that beta rises when human volunteers are asked to suppress a previously learned association between word pairs, or to forget a cue because it will no longer be used in a task.
In a paper last year, Lundqvist, Herman, Miller and others cited several lines of experimental evidence to hypothesize that beta bursts implement cognitive control spatially in the brain, essentially constraining patches of the cortex to represent the general rules of a task even as individual neurons within those patches represent the specific contents of information. For example, if the working memory task is to remember a pad lock combination, beta rhythms will implement patches of cortex for the general steps “turn left,” “turn right,” “turn left again,” allowing gamma to enable neurons within each patch to store and later recall the specific numbers of the combination. The two-fold value of such an organizing principle, they noted, is that the brain can rapidly apply task rules to many neurons at a time and do so without having to re-establish the overall structure of the task if the individual numbers change (i.e. you set a new combination).
Another important phenomenon of beta bursts, the authors write, is that they propagate across long distances in the brain, spanning multiple regions. Studying the direction of their spatial travels, as well as their timing, could shed further light on how cognitive control is implemented.
New ideas beget new questions
Beta rhythm bursts can differ not only in their frequency, but also their duration, amplitude, origin and other characteristics. This variety speaks to their versatility, the authors write, but also obliges neuroscientists to study and understand these many different forms of the phenomenon and what they represent to harness more information from these neural signals.

“It quickly becomes very complicated, but I think the most important aspect of beta bursts is the very simple and basic premise that they shed light on the transient nature of oscillations and neural processes associated with cognition,” Lundqvist said.”This changes our models of cognition and will impact everything we do. For a long time we implicitly or explicitly assumed oscillations are ongoing which has colored experiments and analyses. Now we see a first wave of studies based on this new thinking, with new hypothesis and ways to analyze data, and it should only pick up in years to come.”
The authors acknowledge another major issue that must be resolved by further research — How do beta bursts emerge in the first place to perform their apparent role in cognitive control?
“It is unknown how beta bursts arise as a mediator of an executive command that cascades to other regions of the brain,” the authors write.
The authors don’t claim to have all the answers. Instead, they write, because beta rhythms appear to have an integral role in controlling cognition, the as yet unanswered questions are worth asking.
“We propose that beta bursts provide both experimental and computational studies with a window through which to explore the real-time organization and execution of cognitive functions,” they conclude. “To fully leverage this potential there is a need to address the outstanding questions with new experimental paradigms, analytical methods and modeling approaches.”

Researchers deploy an array of microscopic coils to create a magnetic field and stimulate individual neurons. The magnetic field can induce an electric field in any nearby neurons, the same effect created by an electrode but much more precise. They used an array of eight coils, which combined can induce electric fields using much less current per coil, and employed soft magnetic materials, which boost the magnetic strength of the coils. The researchers constructed a prototype of their coil array, called MagPatch, and encapsulated it within a biocompatible coating.
Neural stimulation is a medical technique used to treat many illnesses affecting the nervous system. It involves applying energy to neurons to encourage them to grow and make connections with their neighbors. Treatments for epilepsy can often include neural stimulation, and similar treatments exist for Parkinson’s disease, chronic pain, and some psychiatric illnesses.
In the Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A, by AIP Publishing, researchers from the University of Minnesota deployed an array of microscopic coils — microcoils — to create a magnetic field and stimulate individual neurons.
Existing devices are effective, but lack the necessary precision needed for some applications, such as cochlear implants or vagus nerve stimulators.
“There are several neurostimulation devices on the market — some are already FDA-approved for patient trials, some are pending approval,” said author Renata Saha. “But each of them has one caveat — they stimulate a large population of neurons, including neighboring cells that are not supposed to be stimulated. The medical device industry is in search of a device or technique that can stimulate neurons at a single-cell resolution.”
Instead of using an electrode, Saha and her team turned to magnetic coils of wire. Over two centuries ago, physicist Michael Faraday described how electric current running through a coil of wire can create a magnetic field. This magnetic field can then induce an electric field in any nearby neurons — the same effect created by an electrode but much more precise. However, this technique comes with a major downside.
“To achieve the desired threshold of electric field capable of stimulating neurons, the amount of current these microcoils need to drive is extremely high,” said Saha. “It is almost three times the amount of current that needs to drive an electrode to achieve the same threshold.”
To solve this problem, the team made two improvements. First, rather than a single microcoil, they used an array of eight coils, which combined can induce electric fields using much less current per coil. The authors made further improvement to these microcoil arrays by employing soft magnetic materials, which boost the magnetic strength of the coils.

“Adding these soft magnetic materials at the core of the microcoils increases the electric field without the need to increase the current through the microcoils,” said Saha.
The researchers constructed a prototype of their coil array, called MagPatch, and encapsulated it within a biocompatible coating. They then tested it with human neuroblastoma cells to demonstrate its effectiveness. The cells were affected by the magnetic fields without being harmed by the coating, suggesting the potential to use this device in clinical settings.
The authors plan to continue developing and testing the MagPatch device to ensure its safety and utility. They hope it helps to improve the next generation of cochlear implants.

Body odor from the armpits comes from bacteria metabolizing sweat produced by the apocrine glands. These bacteria are native to our skin, but the odors produced differ among people. Generally, people use deodorants on their armpits, but perhaps there is a way to get rid of the bacteria.
To find out, a research team led by Osaka Metropolitan University Professor Satoshi Uematsu and Associate Professor Kosuke Fujimoto at the Graduate School of Medicine collected body fluid samples from the armpits of 20 men that were deemed healthy. In advance, a subjective olfactory panel classified them into two types of odors, with 11 having a more noticeable smell. The researchers analyzed the matter produced from bacterial metabolism and the DNA of the skin microflora and found an increased presence of odor-causing precursors in those 11 samples along with a proliferation of Staphylococcus hominis bacteria.
The team then synthesized a lysin from a bacteriophage, or virus that attacks bacteria, that infects S. hominis. During in vitro experiments, this lysin was found to target only S. hominis, not other bacteria normally present on the skin.
“We performed a large-scale metagenomic analysis of the skin microflora using the SHIROKANE supercomputer at the University of Tokyo and found that S. hominis is important in the development of odor,” said Assistant Professor Miho Uematsu in the Department of Immunology and Genomics. “The identification of the lysin that attacks S. hominis is also the result of the comprehensive genome analysis.”
Dr. Miki Watanabe, who is part of the Department of Immunology and Genomics and the Department of Dermatology added: “Axillary [armpit] odors are one of the few dermatological disorders in which bacteria are the primary cause. Although many patients suffer from axillary odors, there are few treatment options. We believe that this study will lead to a new therapy.”

As a malignant disease of the liver cells, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the main causes of cancer-related deaths. While the treatment options for this aggressive type of cancer remain limited, the incidence is increasing. A research team led by Latifa Bakiri and Erwin Wagner from MedUni Vienna’s Clinical Institute for Laboratory Medicine has now described a molecular signalling pathway that plays a key role in the development of liver cancer, thereby identifying a potential new starting point for the development of therapeutic treatments. The results of the study have just been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
In their research, the international team led by MedUni Vienna, built on earlier study results that had suggested the involvement of certain transcription factors (c-Fos and c-Jun) in the development of hepatocellular carcinomas. Transcription factors are proteins involved in numerous cellular processes, including the control of genes associated with the development of HCC. To advance these findings, the scientists developed a new mouse model.
The experiments carried out with these proteins showed that the combination with previously unexplored (Fra) proteins in this context triggers the cascade of tumour formation. Specifically, this involves the interaction between c-Jun and Fra-2, which the studies showed to be essential in the development of liver cancer. “It is remarkable that we were able to reverse tumour growth by switching off the protein combination of c-Jun and Fra-2,” reports the head of the study Erwin Wagner.
The study also showed that tumour growth can be stopped by blocking a specific gene (c-Myc). “Accordingly, our research results suggest that the molecular signalling pathway we have identified represents a promising starting point for further research into HCC and the development of new therapeutic measures,” concludes first author Latifa Bakiri.
Hepatocellular carcinoma is an aggressive tumour with rapid progression and limited therapeutic options. Even though the incidence has increased significantly in Western countries in recent decades, this type of cancer is still comparatively rare. However, due to its poor prognosis, HCC is one of the most common causes of cancer-related deaths. HCC occurs in particular in the context of advanced liver disease (cirrhosis, chronic hepatitis B) and is often only diagnosed at a late stage.

Using light pulses as a model for electrical defibrillation, Göttingen scientists developed a method to assess and modulate the heart function. The research team from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS) and the University Göttingen Medical Center thus paved the way for an efficient and direct treatment for cardiac arrhythmias. This may be an alternative for the strong and painful electrical shocks currently used.
Cardiac arrhythmias account for around 15-20% of annual deaths worldwide. In case of acute and life-threatening arrhythmias, defibrillators can be used to restart the regular beating of the heart. A strong electrical pulse brings cardiac activity to a brief standstill before it can be resumed in an orderly way. Whereas this treatment can save lives very effectively, the strong electrical pulses can also have negative side effects such as damage of the heart tissue or strong pain.
“We developed a new and much milder method which allows the heart to get back into the right rhythm,” says Stefan Luther, Max Planck Research Group leader at the MPI-DS and professor the University Göttingen Medical Center. “Our results show that it is possible to control the cardiac system with much lower energy intensity,” he continues.
To test their method, the scientists used genetically modified mouse hearts that can be stimulated by light. In this setting, a sequence of optical light pulses is triggered using a closed-loop pacing algorithm. Each pulse is triggered in response to the measured arrhythmic activity. With this pacing protocol, the team was able to effectively control and terminate cardiac arrhythmias even at low energy intensities that do not activate the heart, but only modulate its excitability.
“Instead of administering a single high-energy shock to restore normal heart rhythm, we use our understanding of the dynamics of cardiac arrhythmias to gently terminate them.” explains Sayedeh Hussaini, first author of the study. “This results in a subtle treatment method with far less energy per pulse, more than 40 times less compared to the conventional strategy” she reports.
The research team will also use these findings to improve the control of arrhythmias using electrical pulses. This may result in advanced defibrillators causing less pain and side-effects for patients.

Dengue infections in pregnant women may have a negative impact on the first years of children’s lives, new research has found.
Dengue fever is the most prevalent mosquito-borne disease globally and poses a threat to half of the world’s population. There has been a dramatic rise in cases over recent years, with cases in the Americas reaching more than three million cases in 2023. Since January 2024, Brazil has reported more than 3.5 million cases, marking the largest dengue outbreak on record.
The paper, co-authored by Dr Livia Menezes from the University of Birmingham and Dr Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner from the University of Surrey, has been published in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics.
The study looks at a large data set of dengue fever infections in expectant mothers from Minas Gerais, Brazil, and the resulting birth outcomes. It finds that babies born to women who were infected with dengue fever during their pregnancy had lower birth weights, increasing the risk of newborns being classed as having a very and extremely low birth weight by 67% and 133%, respectively.
Dr Livia Menezes, Assistant Professor in Economics at the University of Birmingham and co-author of the study said: “Even though dengue is a very common mosquito-borne disease, there has not been much attention given to the impact it has on birth outcomes and as a result, what can be done to improve them and protect pregnant women and their children.
“This paper sets out robust research which shows that being infected with dengue fever, even with a mild case, whilst pregnant can have a significant impact on the health of the child once born. These birth outcomes can even have longer-term impacts, for example, previous research has shown that low birth weight can negatively affect socio-economic outcomes and health in adulthood.”
The researchers also found that children whose mothers were infected with dengue fever whilst pregnant had a 27% increased risk of being hospitalised from birth to age three. The highest risk of hospitalisation for these children comes in their second year of life, where there is a 76% increase.

Dr Martin Foureaux Koppensteiner, Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Surrey said: “These negative birth outcomes are not only limited to the health of individual children and mothers, but they have a much wider impact for communities where dengue fever is common. Hospitalisations and ongoing health issues resulting from maternal infections all have a cost, and one that could be avoided, or at least minimised with increased awareness and improved policy.
“We strongly suggest that dengue fever should be considered alongside the TORCH infections to manage and avoid when pregnant, which currently include Toxoplasmosis, Rubella, HIV, syphilis, chicken pox, Zika, and influenza among others.”
The study also highlights the possible consequences of climate change expanding the reach of dengue fever. While the disease has historically been limited to tropical and subtropical regions, it now has an established presence in over 120 countries. Aedes mosquitoes, which carry and transmit dengue, have found breeding grounds in countries previously unaffected, including Croatia, France, Portugal, and the southern states of the USA.
Dr Menezes concludes: “As the planet heats, we can expect to see dengue fever become even more common in countries that have previously not had high infection rates. This is a problem that needs to be taken seriously, and quickly.
“Policy changes and things like vector control, updated risk communication with key groups and vaccine adoption can all reduce the risk of pregnant women being infected with dengue. Action needs to be taken by governments and health organisations to provide better protection for pregnant women and their children.”

Published33 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingBy Marie-Louise ConnollyBBC News NI health correspondent”I was frustrated, lonely and unhappy during lockdown.”That was the experience of Peter Livingstone during the pandemic, and he hopes the UK Covid-19 Inquiry will examine how people with learning disabilities coped.He was speaking during an event to mark the inquiry arriving in Northern Ireland next week.Peter, who is 35 and has disabilities, moved back to live with his parents during the pandemic.He said being isolated from his friends during lockdown was tough.”I was so lonely and when I had to go into hospital for treatment it depended on which matron was on if people were allowed in to visit me,” Peter said. Not being able to see family members was stressful and sad, he added.Peter hopes people with learning disabilities will be given a voice so lessons can be learned and views recorded for the future.What is the UK Covid inquiry and how does it work? The UK pandemic in numbersLISTEN: The Covid Inquiry PodcastSenior politicians, health officials and key decision makers who were charged with guiding Northern Ireland through the pandemic will appear before the UK Covid Inquiry from 30 April to give evidence. Secretary to the inquiry Ben Connah said he wanted local people to continue coming forward to tell their stories and help shape the final report’s recommendations.Speaking at the Ulster Museum, where an exhibition marks key moments of the pandemic, Mr Connah said the inquiry’s presence in NI was important.”The inquiry will be examining the core decision making in NI and hearing stories from members of the public to help the inquiry build a fuller picture of how the pandemic affected local people and the UK as a whole,” Mr Connah said. He said it was not too late for people to get in touch.Bereaved Families for Justice in Northern Ireland have said they are not satisfied with aspects of the inquiry and have called for Northern Ireland to have its own separate investigation. Mr Connah, who has met families on numerous occasions, said he had tried to reassure them that their stories and concerns were important and key to the inquiry’s overall findings. The UK Covid Inquiry was established in June 2022 to examine the UK’s response to and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and to learn lessons for the future. It was established as a direct result of campaigning from Covid Bereaved Families for Justice who had been calling for a wide-reaching statutory inquiry that would establish the truth about how so many people lost their lives and whether any deaths could have been prevented. Module 2c of the Inquiry will look at how the structures within NI responded and communicated with the UK government, decision-making, public health response, decisions made and by whom and how those decisions were informed. More on this storyWhat is the UK Covid inquiry and how does it work?Published31 JanuaryLack of ministers had ‘significant’ Covid impactPublished10 July 2023Stormont WhatsApp pandemic messages ‘wiped’Published12 December 2023Covid apology ‘worthless’, say bereaved familiesPublished6 December 2023

Some states with Republican-controlled legislatures want more data, while some controlled by Democrats want less, fearing it could be used to target patients or providers.In the fierce debate over abortion in the United States, the subject of data collection might seem wonky and tangential. But the information that state and city governments collect about abortion patients is becoming another flashpoint in the country’s bitter divide over the issue.Some states with Republican-controlled legislatures have moved to require more information about each abortion, while some states where Democrats dominate are reducing the information they collect, fearing that it may be used to identify patients or to prosecute abortion providers.“In a country that’s very divided, where abortion is legal in some places and illegal in others, giving where you live or where you’re born seems much more risky than in a country where abortion before viability is legal,” said Rachel Rebouché, the dean of Temple University Beasley School of Law and an abortion rights legal scholar. “Interstate conflict is only intensifying, and data is the first shot across the bow for how to actualize that conflict,” she added.Abortion rights supporters say they are especially concerned about the potential for anti-abortion states to use data to track patients who travel out-of-state for abortions or receive pills shipped from other states.Such concerns are also spurring action at the federal level. On Monday, the Biden administration announced a rule to protect information about abortion patients and providers and prevent it from being used to investigate or prosecute them. The rule is intended to keep law enforcement agencies in states that restrict abortion from obtaining information about patients who travel to states where abortion is legal and about abortion providers who treat them. It is also intended to protect health care providers in the patients’ home states who have given them unrelated medical care.“No one should have their medical records used against them, their doctor or their loved one just because they sought or received lawful reproductive health care,” Jennifer Klein, the director of the White House Gender Policy Council, said in announcing the rule.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

Published12 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesThe rising price of cigarettes is motivating more people – one in four adults in England – to give up smoking, research suggests.In a survey of nearly 6,000 people, health concerns were still the top reason for quitting. But highlighting the money that could be saved by stopping smoking could encourage even more quit attempts, the University College London study said.The average price of a packet of 20 is more than £14, rising to £16 in 2026.Dying earlyCigarettes are the number-one preventable cause of death and disease in the UK.The tobacco and toxins they contain can lead to lung cancer, lung disease and heart disease, with about half of all lifelong smokers dying early.Giving up smoking reduces these risks – and health experts say it is never too late. The study, which surveyed smokers every year between 2018 and 2023, found a continued rise in the proportion trying to quit since the start of the Covid pandemic – and that could have motivated others.Latest figures show 12.7% of adults in England smoke – down from nearly 20% in 2011.When people were asked why they had tried to stop:half said it was because they were worried about the effects on their health (both current and future) a quarter said it was down to the price of cigarettes – up from a fifth before the pandemicWriting in the journal BMJ Public Health, the researchers say the pandemic probably raised smokers’ awareness of the health dangers, leading to a rise in health-motivated quit attempts in 2020 and 2021.But Covid also led to the loss of jobs and income for many people, which has since been compounded by a cost-of-living crisis.”If you smoke, you can reduce your outgoings by switching to e-cigarettes,” Dr Sarah Jackson, from UCL, said.”This might be a helpful message in any future government campaign to get more people to stop smoking.”Previous research, from 2018-22, found smokers spent, on average, £20 on cigarettes each week, with e-cigarette users spending £6.30. As prices rose, smokers either reduced the number of cigarettes they smoked or switched to cheaper hand-rolled cigarettes – but at some point, there would have been a limit.Smoking lawsRecent research found a rise in the proportion of middle-class and richer women aged under 45 smoking in England.Last week, MPs voted to ban anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes in the UK.The Tobacco and Vapes Bill proposes some of the strictest smoking laws in the world.It also aims to make vapes less appealing to children, with restrictions on flavours and packaging.More on this storyMore young, affluent women may be smoking – studyPublished4 days agoWhat is the smoking ban and how will it work?Published4 days agoMPs back smoking ban for those born after 2009Published6 days agoA quick guide to smoking bans across the worldPublished27 November 2023