A new report says more than half of Americans still live in areas with unhealthy air, despite progress in reducing smog.

A new report says more than half of Americans still live in areas with unhealthy air, despite progress in reducing smog.

In early April, the Navy ordered its fleet of 71 submarines to snuff out smoking onboard by the end of 2010 — closing one of the last loopholes in an indoor smoking ban the U.S. military imposed in 1994.

In North Carolina, the nation's leading tobacco producer, limits on indoor smoking have lagged behind those in much of the country. That changes Saturday, when smoking in restaurants and bars is banned in the state that is home to two major tobacco companies.

From West Virginia to the West Coast, smokers are trying to fend off further restrictions on their habit, and local officials are starting to listen. In some cases, smoking bans have even been rescinded or postponed - including in the city of Spokane.

The ban on flavored cigarettes, which critics say appeal to teenagers, goes into effect at the end of September. "I certainly don't like to be forced into that choice," said Lake Isabella resident Terry Day, a clove smoker of 14 years.

In the half-century since the surgeon general issued his culture-changing report linking smoking to lung cancer, the tobacco industry has had little trouble defeating efforts to regulate cigarettes and other products. That could change this year.

The 84-11 Senate vote to consider the bill came a month after the House overwhelmingly passed a similar measure giving the Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products.

U.S. cities with the most year-round particle pollution or soot:

Sixty percent of Americans live in areas with unhealthy air pollution levels, despite a growing green movement and more stringent laws aimed at improving air quality, the American Lung Association said in a report released Wednesday.

Asthma patients using powerful acid reflux drugs even though they don't have heartburn should stop taking them, lung experts say. It turns out the medicine doesn't improve asthma symptoms, as had been thought.

The federal government would for the first time have regulatory powers over the tobacco industry under a bill the House approved Thursday after years of campaigning by anti-smoking forces.