Tobacco.org Updates

THIS WEEK'S HOT SPOTS:

  • Feb. 4 is WORLD CANCER DAY
  • February is HEART MONTH

  • TODAY's MUST-READ: Dutch unease over cigarette lobbying BBC

    • It's all over but the remedying! The 12-year saga of the DOJ RICO suit was partially ended at the Supreme Court. The tobacco defendants were found guilty of racketeering, but will pay no monetary penalty. The case is back in Judge Kessler's DC District Court for implementation of court-ordered remedies in light of a number of new developments.
    Late-Breaking DOJ Trial News is here: http://www.tobacco.org/articles/lawsuit/doj/
    Visit: http://www.tobacco-on-trial.com.

    Latest Top Tobacco Headlines

    Latest Quotes

    • “The law aims to protect citizens from the danger of tobacco and reduce the number of smokers by taking measures to combat this plague.”
      Law passed by the Iraqi parliament on Thursday that bans smoking in gov. offices, hotels, restaurants and other indoor gathering places.
      » Iraq parliament bans smoking in public , Agence France Presse (AFP) (fr) (Thursday, February 2, 2012)
    • “When it was all over, I was relieved. Yet when I got home that final day, I sat down and cried for four hours straight. At first I thought it was just the release of stress, but now I'm not so sure. I know I cried for the lady who died, and for her children and grandchildren . . . I also cried for all the mothers and dads around the world who still smoke and want to quit . . . I also cried for my own brother who has smoked all his life and now suffers from severe heart disease, COPD, and recurring pneumonia. . . . Finally, I cried for the tobacco company executives and scientists, and their lawyers, who continue to make a lucrative living off the pain, suffering, and death of their fellow Americans. There is no justification for such callous, mercenary selfishness. Shame on them all. ”
      Hallgren juror Joyce Minor.
      » MINOR: Cigarette, anyone? Think twice , Tampa Bay (FL) Online (TBO.com) (Sunday, January 29, 2012)
    • “It's like walking into a crime scene.”
      Dr. Farrah Kheradmand, professor of medicine and immunology at BCM and a senior author of the report that tracks the destructive path of tobacco smoke through the body's tissues, as it activates genes and changes immune cells to create inflammation that results in emphysema.
      » Mapping the destructive path from cigarette to emphysema, EurekAlert (Wednesday, January 18, 2012)
    • “Smoking breaks cost employers money, and they hinder the working process.”
      Mario Ohoven, President of the German Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (BVMW).
      » German employers split over campaign to ban smoking breaks, DW World (Deutsche Welle) (de) (Saturday, January 14, 2012)
    • “But banning all smoking breaks during working hours in general would be a step toward a dictatorship of non-smokers.”
      Karl Lauterbach, a senior opposition Social Democrat health expert.
      » German employers split over campaign to ban smoking breaks, DW World (Deutsche Welle) (de) (Saturday, January 14, 2012)
    • “If you want to live longer and healthier than the average American, then come to New York City.”
      NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
      » MAYOR BLOOMBERG, DEPUTY MAYOR GIBBS, HEALTH COMMISSIONER FARLEY ANNOUNCE NEW YORKERS LIVING LONGER THAN EVER, OUTPACING NATIONAL TREND, New York City: NYC.gov (Tuesday, December 27, 2011)
    • “Plaintiffs have demonstrated a substantial likelihood that they will prevail on the merits of their position that these mandatory graphic images unconstitutionally compel speech. ”
      U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, who granted tobacco companies' request for a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of FDA warning labels.
      » ANA Applauds Court Decision Enjoining FDA’s Graphic Warnings Rule for Tobacco Products, Association of National Advertisers (Monday, November 7, 2011)
    • “Over forty years' experience with small, obscurely placed text-only warning labels on cigarette packs has demonstrated that they simply do not work. The warning labels reflect the unique magnitude of the problem they address, the deadly and addictive nature of the product, and the unparalleled threat this product and its marketing pose to America's youth.”
      24 attorneys general, in a friend of the court brief on Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington in support of the FDA's challenge of a lower court ruling in the case.
      » Several US states weigh in on cigarette label suit, Associated Press (AP) (Saturday, December 24, 2011)
    • “This agreement helps make sure that these documents will be accessible to researchers, journalists, students, lawyers, the government and the public at large — anyone who is interested in learning more about the defendants' efforts to mislead consumers about the effects of smoking.”
      Tony West, assistant attorney general for the civil division of the Department of Justice, on the agreement for UCSF to manage the secret document online database.
      » Justice Dept settles with tobacco cos on database, Associated Press (AP) (Wednesday, December 14, 2011)
    • “This book is a remarkable compendium of evil. It will keep you spinning from page one through the last. … It is the type of book that makes you wonder how, in God's name, this could have happened.”
      Columbia's David Rosner, on Robert Proctor's new book, the bombshell, "Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition."
      » Tobacco industry dying? Not so fast, says Stanford expert, Stanford Law & Policy Review (Monday, December 12, 2011)
    MORE QUOTES »