The nation’s second-biggest tobacco company informed employees Wednesday that beginning next year, the use of traditional cigarettes, cigars or pipes will no longer be permitted at desks or in offices, conference rooms, hallways and elevators. First released in the mid-1990s, Eclipse is in limited distribution and one of the top-selling brands in the cafeteria at the company’s Winston-Salem, N.C., headquarters. Altria Group Inc., the Richmond, Va., owner of the nation’s biggest cigarette maker, Philip Morris USA, doesn’t allow smoking on factory floors and in places like elevators or hallways, said spokesman David Sylvia.