Cigarette manufacturer snuffs out workplace smoking

Camel cigarette maker Reynolds American Inc has banned smoking in its offices and buildings.

Beginning in 2015, the use of cigarettes, cigars or pipes will no longer be permitted in the company's offices, conference rooms and lifts.

Lighting up already is prohibited on factory floors and in cafeterias.

Spokesman David Howard said Reynolds will still allow the use of smokeless tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, moist snuff and pouches of tobacco called snus (pronounced "snoose").

The nation's second-biggest tobacco company plans to build indoor smoking areas for those still wanting to light up indoors. The no-smoking policy will go into effect once those are built.

Through its subsidiaries, Winston-Salem, North Carolina-based Reynolds American also makes Pall Mall cigarettes, Grizzly smokeless tobacco and Vuse-branded electronic cigarettes.