HEALTH

Lung Cancer Treatment Study
ETS & Arterial Plaques In Roosters
Advice Affects Low-birth Weight Rates
Heart Patients May Use Patch, Study Finds

FEDERAL

Low-nicotine Rating System
Clinton OKs Religious Use for Indians
Ex-PM Researcher Fired in 1992
Kennedy's Health Plan Tax
Secret Tobacco Papers Loose
National Smoking Ban Passes House Panel
Smoking: A $16B/Year Medicare Drain

LOCAL

NY: PM Pays NY $250g in Freebie Mailing
NJ: Co-op Smoking Truce
VA: Rep. Looking For Tobacco Alternative
Michigan Tax Goes to 75 Cents
CA: Enforcement Bill Stalls
CA: Battle of the Bans
1. Tobacco-opposed Ban Advances
2. Tobacco-backed Ban Gains
CA: Consumer Reports on Tobacco Wars
CA: Smoking Murders Result in Sentences

INTERNATIONAL

CANADA: Plain-packaging Furor
CUBA: No More Subsidized Cigs?
GERMANY: Pot, Tobacco in Same Class?
UKRAINE: Tobacco Monopoly Returns
RUSSIA: RJR, BAT Buy Factories
IRAQI KURDISTAN: Embargo Hits Plant
UZBEKISTAN: Bat Buys in
INDIA: B.A.T. Rebuffed
JAPAN: The Cigs Are Harleys
CHINA Urges Cig Ad Ban
TAIWAN Wishes China"Long Life" Cigs
HONG KONG Gets Tough on Smoking
SINGAPORE Bans Workplace Smoking
NEW ZEALAND: Fashion and Cigarettes
SOUTH AFRICA: Cig Tax To Double Cost

BUSINESS

Smokeless Nicotine Levels Unveiled
Knight-Ridder to Keep Tobacco Ads
Joe Camel on The Move
ETS Suit Changed to Wrongful Death
For-Export M'boros Wreck "Country Store"
Tobacco's Role as Genetic Factory
Cig Promotion in Movies

SOCIETY

Poll on Tobacco Attitudes
US Smoking Survey
The Weaning Question
Kid Makes Superheroes Quit Smoking
Amtrak Smokefree Routes

PEOPLE

Kesey Endorses Pot Over Tobacco
Timothy Leary Busted Smoking--Tobacco
Daynard Predicts . . .
Obit: George Peppard

HEALTH

LUNG CANCER TREATMENT STUDY

Houston, TX. May 5, 1994. Patients with the devastating "non-small cell" lung cancer who received both surgery and chemotherapy survived nearly 6 times longer than those who had surgery alone, according to a study in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center was canceled early because the survival results were so striking.

6 years after the start of the study of 60 patients, the group who received chemotherapy before and after surgery had a median survival period of 64 months, compared with 11 months for the surgery-only group.

Lung cancer is the most common form of cancer in the world. Non-small cell lung cancer is a particularly virulent form which is attributed primarily to cigarette smoking. It accounts for 130,000 of the 170,000 new cases of cancer diagnosed each year in the US. Cases are usually discovered too late for treatment, and the disease has proven particularly intractable to advances in medical science.

ETS AND ARTERIAL PLAQUES IN ROOSTERS

New York, NY. May 2, 1994. The early development of atherosclerosis may be significantly advanced in young children by exposure to second hand smoke, if sidestream smoke's effects on the arteries of roosters may be applied to humans, according to a recent study.

The study found that ETS exposure significantly exacerbated the development of plaques, an early stage of atherosclerosis, in the arteries of roosters.

Previous animal studies have shown that ETS builds up plaques, but the precise effects have often been inextricable from dietary factors. The author said this study kept the roosters on a low-cholesterol diet and exposed the roosters to relatively low smoke levels--similar to those found in bars.

"We did everything to minimize the possible development of plaques except give the animals sidestream smoke," Arthur Penn of the New York University Medical School said. He said the results suggest the same process could be at work in humans similarly exposed at an early age.

Roosters normally live about 12 years. Thirty 6 week-old roosters were exposed to cigarette smoke for 16 weeks at a rate of 6 hours a day, 5 days a week.

The plaques in the smoke-exposed roosters were on average 50% higher than those in a control group. Though the roosters examined were less than 6 months old, the plaques were at the level of a 2 year old rooster.

The study does not claim the results are directly applicable to human ETS exposure, but the study is considered significant because dietary factors were minimized and exposure to ETS was so brief--less than 1% of a roosters' normal life span.

ADVICE AFFECTS LOW-BIRTH WEIGHT RATES

Chicago, IL. May 5, 1994. The number of low birth weight babies were significantly reduced among women who were given routine pre-natal advice by their doctors, according to a survey of over 9400 women by the national Center for Health Statistics.

Women not receiving the advice were 40% more likely to have a baby weighing 5 1/2 pounds or less. Those at relatively high risk for low-birth weight babies-- those with low-incomes, teens and smokers--seemed to benefit most.

The survey considered standard advice:

--abstaining from tobacco and alcohol products
--abstaining from illegal drugs
--taking vitamins
--maintaining an appropriate weight

HEART PATIENTS MAY USE PATCH, STUDY FINDS

Omaha, NE. May 8, 1994. A recent study here found that use of the nicotine patch not only helped heart disease patients quit smoking safely, but actually seemed to reduce cardiovascular problems, possibly because the patch helped ease the stress of quitting smoking.

The study of 156 smokers with stable coronary artery disease used the Nicoderm patch, and was financed by Alza Corp., the company which developed Nicoderm.

36% of the smokers with the Nicoderm patch successfully quit smoking, compared to 22% with a placebo patch.

FEDERAL

LOW-NICOTINE RATING SYSTEM FAULTED

Washington, May 1, 1994. Amid charges that the "puffing machines" used to test for cigarette tar and nicotine levels are outdated and inaccurate in real-world conditions, the Federal Trade Commission is looking at alternative testing methods--possibly even shifting responsibility for the tests to the Food and Drug Administration or the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, according to an article by Philip J. Hilts in the New York Times.

The finding hits hard the low-tar, low-nicotine segment of the industry, which now accounts for 60% of the market in the US.

Hilts writes that scientists have found that the official tar and nicotine ratings for such cigarettes are virtually meaningless--smokers get the same amount of tar and nicotine no matter which brand they smoke. Surveys show most smokers think they will get less tar and nicotine from the low-nicotine brands.

The 1971-design puffing machines that tobacco companies use to conduct the ratings tests (under FTC supervision) draw air through a lit cigarette regularly once a minute in two second puffs.

But officially-rated low-tar and low-nicotine cigarettes are smoked by humans in far different ways:

--smokers will draw deeper, longer, or more often to obtain the amount of nicotine desired.

--in order to attain lower tar and nicotine levels, cigarette makers have used nearly-invisible air holes in the paper and filter. Smokers can consciously or unconsciously block these holes with their lips or fingers to draw in less air and higher concentrations of nicotine per puff. Cigarette makers deny the holes were deliberately designed to provide precisely this effect.

The nicotine in a cigarette is there for those willing to dig for it--an average of 7-9 milligrams of nicotine in each one.

"Smokers can get whatever they want in the way of nicotine," said Dr. Jack E. Henningfield, chief of clinical pharmacology research at the National Institutes on Drug Abuse. "A smoker can draw 3 milligrams of nicotine out of a cigarette that is rated as a 1 milligram yield by the FTC test."

On average, smokers receive about 1 milligram nicotine per cigarette, over a range of .5 to 3 milligrams. The levels do not correlate with brand of cigarette smoked. Studies have found levels of nicotine in the blood are indistinguishable between low-nicotine and high-nicotine cigarette smokers.

"There is simply no information to indicate that today's so-called lower tar and nicotine cigarette gives any health benefit," said a representative of the Coalition on Smoking or Health.

While tar levels have declined from 40 years ago (from 30-40 mg to 5-15 mg today) "nicotine levels have remained relatively stable since 1952," according to Hilts.

CLINTON OKS RELIGIOUS TOBACCO USE FOR INDIANS

Washington. April 29, 1994. President Clinton today gave governmental approval for the ceremonial and religious use of tobacco and peyote by American Indians.

During a 2 1/2 hour full-staff meeting with the leaders on the White House's South Lawn which celebrated Indian traditions, Clinton pledged a new partnership between the United States government and Indian governments.

"Today, I reaffirm our commitment to self-determination for tribal governments," President Clinton told 547 American Indian and Alaska native tribal leaders. "I pledge to fulfill the trust obligations of the federal government. I vow to honor and respect tribal sovereignty based upon our unique historic relationship. And I pledge to continue my efforts to allow you to fully exercise your faith as you wish."

EX-PM RESEARCHER FIRED IN 1992

New York, NY May 6, 1994. Philip DeNoble, the ex-Philip Morris scientist who gave Congress a chilling account of a suppressed and abandoned 1984 study that he said indicated nicotine was addictive, was fired from a job in 1992 for "allegedly falsifying scientific research," and has sued the company for wrongful termination and defamation, according to an article by Eben Shapiro in the Wall St. Journal today.

In 1992, DuPont Merck Pharmaceutical Co. fired DeNoble for "scientific incompetence" and "inappropriate and misleading research methods and activities," according to court documents from the Delaware suit, which claims that DuPont Merck's "defamation" has prevented DeNoble from getting another job in research.

Dr. DeNoble currently works for Delaware's Community Mental Retardation Program.

Philip Morris, which last week accused DeNoble of having "conveniently changed his opinions" on his 1984 nicotine research, had no comment on the DuPont Merck dismissal.

Most of DeNoble's congressional testimony on the Philip Morris study was confirmed by co-researcher Dr. Paul C. Mele.

KENNEDY'S HEALTH PLAN TAX

Washington, May 10, 1994. The alternate health-care plan proposed by Sen. Edward Kennedy is much the same as President Clinton's save in two respects:

1. It would open up to all Americans the same insurance choices enjoyed by federal workers, including members of Congress.

2. It would raise taxes on cigarettes by $1.25, as opposed to Clinton's proposed raise of $.75.

In addition, though it would lessen the burden on very small businesses, it would require more out-of-pocket payments by individuals. It would provide for more generous benefits for women's health care, mental health, drug and alcohol programs, and research.

SECRET TOBACCO PAPERS ON THE LOOSE

May 21, 1994.

THE BEGINNING

It was in Louisville, KY in 1988 that a 47-year old Ph.D. in literature took a $9 an hour paralegal job at the prestigious law firm of Wyatt, Tarrant & Combs.

WT&C was Kentucky's largest law firm--and counsel to Louisville-based tobacco company Brown & Williamson--when Merrell Williams began work as a document analyst.

Williams' assignment: help sort and analyze thousands of B&W papers which the company felt might affect product liability litigation.

Williams smoked himself--B&W brands Kool and Richland--but in examining the papers, he was so "shocked at the fraud and hoax being perpetrated on the government and the American people," according to his lawyer, that he not only stopped smoking, but also secretly made copies of some documents.

He was let go in 1992, and a short time later he had quintuple bypass heart surgery. Blaming his heart disease on his past smoking and on the stress of conspiring to defraud the public while at WT&C, Williams contacted a lawyer to bring suit, pointing out he had papers that would prove his case.

The lawyer refused to read the papers, but contacted B&W, and requested that when they get the papers they keep them ready, because he planned to call for them when the suit was filed.

B&W and WT&C didn't wait around for that suit--they immediately brought their own suits against Williams for theft and violation of his secrecy agreement. They quickly won an injunction against his use of the documents, and demanded the return of a summary he had made, along with all his knowledge of the papers. (Williams "would have to cut off his head and return his head in a basket," to meet this last condition, his lawyer said.)

In January of 1994, the judge in the case, who refused to read the papers, decided against granting Williams a crime-fraud exemption to the attorney-client privilege, ruling that Williams could use the papers neither for his own lawsuit, nor to defend himself from B&W's. Williams turned over the papers, his computer, and the summary.

Now it appears more copies of the papers have found their way to the offices of members of Congress, and to a number of news services. The New York Times' Philip J. Hilts first broke the story May 13, quoting liberally, damagingly--and controversially-- from the papers.

Merrell Williams failed to appear at a court-ordered deposition on Saturday, May 14, and has apparently fled to Mississippi, where he contacted another lawyer, and is in hiding.

WHAT THE PAPERS SAID

The papers date from the early sixties, and reflect the concern the industry had with the upcoming 1964 Surgeon General's report, the first one that found smoking caused cancer.

If the quotes by the media are correct, and not excessively out-of-context, B&W executives:

1. Commonly accepted that cigarettes were addicting 20 years before the surgeon general came to that conclusion.
2. Had evidence cigarettes were hazardous, but decided against sharing the research with the surgeon general.
3. Planned to produce a safer cigarette, but never released it.
4. Turned down a proposed idea from an executive that they should be open about their knowledge--in the face of the soon-to-be released surgeon general's report--in order to face the issue squarely and to devote the tobacco industry's considerable resources to solving the hazards of smoking.

THE YEAMAN QUOTES: NICOTINE ADDICTION, HEALTH CONCERNS AND CONTROVERSY

Much of the most damaging quotes are from Addison Yeaman, then B&W's general counsel.

In a July 17, 1963 memo, Yeaman says, "We are, then, in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug effective in the release of stress mechanisms."

Hilts characterized Yeaman's concerns about the health effects of cigarettes this way:

"In one document, the company's general counsel said Brown & Williamson's research had found that cigarettes caused or predisposed people to lung cancer, contributed to heart disease and might cause emphysema"

(Certain phrases about the health effects were quoted out of context in the Times article, and were actually describing what, according to Yeaman, "we will assume the Surgeon General's Committee to say", and not his own opinion. B&W protested strongly the Times' placement of its correction. The AP issued a correction on May 27. See below)

In a July, 1963 letter to an executive at B&W's parent company, London-based British American Tobacco PLC (BAT), Yeaman discussed being open with surgeon general Luther Terry--who was working on the first report on smoking and health--about the findings from BAT-sponsored research at Battelle Laboratories of Geneva. Researchers on a project code-named "Hippo" had found that nicotine had beneficial tranquilizer effects, and suppressed appetite, but was linked to cardiovascular problems.

The two executives apparently decided "it is too early" for such disclosure.

Also in the July memo, Yeaman criticized the Tobacco Research Council for functioning "as a public relations operation." In order to protect the industry's "present earnings position," Yeaman recommended industry-sponsored independent research. He envisioned "a massive and impressively financed" research project uninfluenced by the industry that would either establish or refute smoking's hazards. If the links to lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease were established, as Yeaman felt they would be, research would then move to "neutralize" suspected harmful elements in cigarettes. For the tobacco industry to "accept its responsibility would, I suggest, free the industry to take a much more aggressive posture to meet attack" with its own credible research.

Yeaman also added to the nicotine controversy when he alluded to the ideal cigarette, whose filters would remove disease-causing elements "while delivering full flavor--and incidentally--a nice jolt of nicotine."

"If we are the first to be able to make and sustain that claim (of having a 'safe' cigarette)," he added, "what price Kent?"

Barron's--in an in-depth article on FDA chief David Kessler--has provided the fullest quote from the memo, though again the larger context is unclear.

Yeaman's memo, the Barron's article says, talks of "the so-called 'beneficial effects of nicotine': 1) enhancing effect on the pituitary-adrenal response to stress; 2) regulation of body weight."

Yeaman then says, "Moreover, nicotine is addictive. We are, then, in the business of selling nicotine, an addictive drug effective in the release of stress mechanisms. But cigarettes -- we will assume the Surgeon General's Committee to say -- despite the beneficent effect of nicotine, have certain unattractive side effects: 1) They cause, or predispose to, lung cancer. 2) They contribute to certain cardiovascular disorders. 3) They may well be truly causative in emphysema, etc., etc. We challenge those charges and we have assumed our obligation to determine their truth or falsity by creating the new Tobacco Research Foundation. In the meantime (we say) here is our triple, or quadruple or quintuple filter, capable of removing whatever constituent of smoke is currently suspect while delivering full flavor -- and incidentally -- a nice jolt of nicotine. And if we are the first to be able to make and sustain that claim, what price Kent?"

THE HARROWGATE RESEARCH: CARCINOGENS & ADDING NICOTINE

Also of concern at the time was the turn research was taking in the Tobacco Research Council lab at Harrogate, England. The tobacco companies "may be losing control of the operation of this facility," according to B&W chief of research Dr. R.B. Griffith, reporting on a July 1, 1965 meeting about research there.

The Times said Griffith was worried results of research into the hazards of cigarettes could invite governmental regulation--scientists there, he said, believed their research was leading to the conclusion that tobacco smoke is "weakly carcinogenic."

In addition, adding to the fuel of the nicotine-manipulation controversy, Griffith frankly discusses the researchers attempts to lessen the "biological activity" of smoke. "Their approach seems to be to find ways of obtaining maximum nicotine for minimum tar." Griffith's memo describes four ways to do this, from adding nicotine to tobacco or paper to adjusting the blends of tobacco.

The Times article said that soon after this memo, research into the hazards of cigarettes was halted at Harrowgate.

The AP noted a 1974 memo that brought attention to the fact that government cigarette puffing machines would not measure nicotine delivery properly because ""the smoker adjusts his (smoking) pattern to deliver his own nicotine requirements."

THE WELLS QUOTES: BURYING DOCUMENTS

Two documents written by corporate counsel J.K. Wells III addressed research documents that might be used adversely in product-liability suits. A 1979 letter suggested setting aside such documents for "special handling." One option involved keeping them with a third party so as to be able to invoke attorney-client privilege, which "would afford some degree of protection against discovery."

In a 1985 memo, Wells said he discussed shipping research documents to Britain with Earl Kohnhorst of the B&W research department. "I suggested that Earl tell his people that this was part of an effort to remove deadwood from the files and that neither he nor anyone else in the department should make any notes, memos or lists," Wells wrote in the memo.

A SAFER CIGARETTE

Experts note that several tobacco companies were also working on "safe" cigarettes. RJ Reynolds released the smokeless "Premier" in 1988. It was a dismal failure, and papers released during the 1988 Cipollone trial revealed that Philip Morris worked on one also.

B&W's "safe" cigarette, code-named "Ariel" would heat, rather than burn the tobacco. It was patented in 1966. The cigarette would send the heated air over nicotine pellets and flavorings, giving the smoker a "vapor" rather than smoke, and would also cut down on sidestream smoke.

The Times claims the documents reveal B&W was afraid a product that cut down on suspected carcinogens would imply their others were unsafe, and that such a cigarette would not be fully satisfying to smokers. The AP, which also obtained copies of the documents, noted that B&W was concerned science had not proven the cigarette's "biological effect."

WHO KNEW?

The Yeaman documents, reports the Times, indicate health information was shared with at least R.J. Reynolds. Yeaman, who is now retired, has not spoken with the press. He lives now in Louisville, KY.

REACTION

B&W

When first asked about the material by the Times, a B&W spokesperson said, "From the description given to us, it appears you are basing your article on attorney-client privileged documents that were stolen by a former employee of a law firm that worked for Brown & Williamson. Anybody who knowingly uses stolen information is in fact contributing to an illegal act. We have no further comment."

By Monday, May 17, B&W released the actual "Hippo" research material, which the company said found that nicotine could reduce stress and help curb appetite, but that "the phenomenon of addiction" was still unresolved.

B&W counsel--and former Attorney General--Griffin Bell said the quotes from the papers are out of context, and that the company's position "should not be based on isolated remarks made by individuals in 30-year-old documents."

On May 16, B&W released the Battelle "Hippo" research--which it noted was commissioned by B&W's "sister company, British-American Tobacco Co., Ltc.". B&W said, "The purpose of the studies was not to establish or refute any claim that cigarette smoking or nicotine is or is not addictive. Thus, there is no conclusion reached in the reports that nicotine is addictive."

B&W VS. THE TIMES

Along with others, B&W protested the mischaracterization of Yeaman's views on health effects of smoking.

Hilts had written:

"In one document, the company's general counsel said Brown & Williamson's research had found that cigarettes caused or predisposed people to lung cancer, contributed to heart disease and might cause emphysema. The statements contradict the tobacco industry's contention over the last three decades that it has not been proved that cigarettes are harmful or that nicotine is addictive."

Later in the article Hilts wrote that Yeaman's memo said that:

"The (company's) research found that despite the beneficial effects of nicotine, cigarettes 'cause, or predispose, lung' cancer.'

"'They contribute to certain cardiovascular disorders,' the research found. 'They may well be truly causative in emphysema, etc. etc.'"

On May 21, the Times ran a correction.

In a letter to the Times, Thomas E. Sandefur, B&W's chariman, and recent congressional guest, said the story "demonstrates just how unbalanced and unobjective the Times has become on the issue of smoking and health.

"You published an excuse-me 'Editor's Note' buried deep among the display ads in the relatively littleread Saturday edition," Sandefur wrote.

Sandefur said the original article had "incorrectly concluded -- and led your readers to conclude through selective excerpting -- that Brown & Williamson believed that 'cigarettes contributed to lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema.'

"Then in a cavalier '0ops' sort of way, you published your Editor's Note on Saturday in the bowels of page two.

"Your readers would expect that the Times would take great care to ensure that all information contained in its coverage was factually accurate. Now it turns out that even this journalistic basic was ignored. Compounding this, you failed to openly and honestly admit a damaging error -- with no apology.

"What you did was too little too late," ," Sandefur concluded. "The damage is done."

On May 27, Brown & Williamson took out a full page ad of protest in the Wall St. Journal, USA Today, the Washington Post and the Times.

"Two weeks ago it was front page news," the ad stated, depicting the original article, alongside a depiction of the correction. "This week it's a minor Editors' Note."

The Times responded that the correction was "far from buried. It was prominently displayed where it always is on page two."

"The correction was over a very specific point of the story. The thrust of the story was accurate," said the Times.

Sandefur disagreed, calling the misleading segment of the story "an egregious mistake." regarding "a very important detail."

LIGGETT

The Times article had referred to a telephone interview with a retired Liggett & Myers scientist, Dr. Thomas Mold, who claimed Liggett had begun developing a safer cigarette in 1955. Dr. Mold said the cigarette was ready by 1979, but that company lawyers had advised Liggett not to produce it.

The Liggett Group immediately released a statement saying the company had not concealed its "palladium" work. Mold had testified about the "palladium cigarette additive" at the Cipollone trial, Liggett said, and "the claim (that Liggett concealed the work) was rejected by the court."

"The undisputed fact that Liggett not only disclosed but attempted to generate interest in the palladium additive as early as sixteen years ago as chronicled below completely contradicts Mr. Mold's accusation that Liggett purposely refused to market," Liggett said, but "Liggett has never received any encouragement with respect to it; in fact, the response has been either indifference or hostility."

Liggett details several 1977 presentations to scientific and health bodies, and refers to news agencies which covered Liggett's work with palladium in 1978.

ANTI-TOBACCO ADHERENTS

At hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, former Health, Education and Welfare Secretary Joseph Califano, who is now head of the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse of Columbia University testified on May 17, that if the tobacco companies had been forthright with their knowledge and research in the early 60s, the problem would have been dealt with then, possibly saving hundreds of thousands of lives and billions of taxpayers' dollars. (He also released a report saying in-patient Medicare costs from smoking related diseases will cost $16 billion this year alone.)

"If we had known in 1964 what we know now, we could have turned our best minds and energy then to arresting this killer," Califano said, claiming that both Jimmy Carter and then-surgeon general Julius Richmond agreed. "Now, 30 years and 9 million deaths later, we must move aggressively to stop the carnage."

Scott D. Ballin, head of the Coalition on Smoking OR Health, said the papers, along with those brought out in recent liability cases show "these are not isolated incidents. It's almost as if there were a concerted and coordinated effort by the industry to protect itself."

Lawyer Matt Myers, once head of the Coalition on Smoking or Health said the document-protection memos reveal "a consistent pattern of keeping this information outside of the United States solely to preserve their ability to deny its existence and their awareness of it."

Rep. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said, "If the tobacco industry withheld scientific evidence showing that cigarette smoking is harmful to the public, if the tobacco executives had reason to know that nicotine was addictive, and if the executives made decisions harmful to public health to insulate themselves from civil liability, that will provide fresh ammunition for the cause of sensible regulation of cigarettes."

THE CONTINUING SUBPOENA STORY

When B&W learned that Mr. Califano's planned testimony before Congress Tuesday "may include a discussion of one or more articles appearing recently in 'The New York Times," the company sent him a letter stating that "those articles included references to documents believed to have been stolen and which are subject to a state court injunction. A copy of that injunction is being provided to you with this letter."

Califano called the letter a crude attempt at "intimidation." In response, B&W released the full text of the letter, and said it had "merely informed him -- as we have done with Congressmen Waxman and Wyden -- that the documents at issue were stolen from the company and are currently protected by attorney-client privilege and a court-issued injunction." B&W accused Califano of attempting to "totally exaggerate the meaning of our communication to him."

More weightily, on May 18, B&W subpoenaed 2 members of congress and 6 newspaper reporters in an attempt to obtain the disputed papers. The company also cancelled chief executive Thomas Sandefur's scheduled appearance Tuesday, saying he could not respond to something he had not seen.

Waxman, one of those subpoenaed, said "the public has a right to know this information and this subcommittee will not be intimidated by the industry's cadre of lawyers and public relations specialists."

Waxman wrote to B&W attorneys that their request to review subcommittee files is "wholly inappropriate" in an investigation of "serious misconduct."

"Witnesses testifying at a congressional hearing have no right to review ... any documents obtained in the course of such an investigation," he said.

In a prepared statement, Waxman said the subcommittee "has been engaged in a lawful and important investigation into the actions of the tobacco industry. No one, not even the tobacco companies, can interfere with that investigation."

Waxman promised he would not question Sandefur about the documents, but limit his questions to published news items about them.

(Reuters' David Lawsky writes that congressional committees have generally been granted protection from such moves--even if by the executive branch--by the Supreme Court.)

Facing the subpoenas are: Rep. Waxman and Rep. Ron Wyden (D-OR); John Schwartz of The Washington Post, Philip J. Hilts of the New York Times, Doug Levy of USA Today, Linda Douglass of CBS News, Richard Harris of National Public Radio and Claudia MacLachlan of the National Law Journal.

The Times said their documents came from a government official, and are "protected under the shield law."

NATIONAL ANTI-SMOKING BILLS ADVANCE

THE HOUSE

May 12, 1994. By accepting a compromise that would exempt restaurants, the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment passed the Smokefree Indoor Air Act.

The bill as passed would ban smoking in all public buildings visited by more than 10 people a week, unless in separately-ventilated areas which would be closed to children. Bars, restaurants, private clubs, prisons and tobacco shops would be excepted.

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) said, "The issue before us today is not about the rights of smokers. The issue before us is the right of nonsmokers, especially vulnerable children, to be safe from involuntary exposure to a class A human carcinogen."

He said the bill would save "38,000 to 108,000 lives each year. This is an enormous savings in human life and illness . . . it would be achieved at minimal cost and with minimal bureaucratic involvement."

But subcommittee member Thomas Bliley (R-VA) said, "This bill is big brother government at its worst. Are you going to have dogs come in and sniff or is there going to be some sort of smoke police to enforce these provisions. . . It's too much government. It's too much intrusion into people's private lives."

The bill passed 14-11. It is the first smoking bill passed by the subcommittee in 10 years, as Health and Environment traditionally has been dominated by pro-tobacco adherents.

Waxman said he would attempt to remove some of the compromises--particularly in the case of family-oriented restaurants--during the legislative process (which promises to be long and difficult). The bill now must be passed by the full Energy and Commerce Committee. The committee, saddled as it is with massive issues of health care reform and telecommunications policy, among other things, is not likely to get to the bill this year.

THE SENATE

May 11, 1994. The Senate Environment subcommittee on clean air heard conflicting testimony on two similar bills by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ).

Carol Browner of the EPA favored an indoor smoking ban, saying that widespread exposure to second hand smoke is a "serious and substantial public health risk," especially to children with lung ailments.

But both Dr. Chris Coggins, an RJ Reynolds scientist, argued that the EPA classification of ETS as a Group A carcinogen was based on faulty and manipulated data., and the non-partisan Congressional Research Service said the EPA Jan., 1993 report overstated the number of deaths from ETS.

Jane Gravelle, an economic policy specialist at the CRS, said that the studies the EPA used of non-smoking spouses of smokers were based on interviews and thus were necessarily prone to subjective errors. She also said lifestyle factors were not included, and that two later reports found no evidence of widespread risk of cancer from ETS.

"Based on that evidence (the studies examined by the EPA) . . . our evaluation was that the statistical evidence does not appear to support a conclusion that there are substantial health effects from passive smoking,"

She said more objective tests measuring the absorption of tobacco chemicals in the urine lead to estimates of 600 lung cancer deaths a year from ETS exposure, rather than the EPA's 3,000 estimate.

Sen. Lauch Faircloth (R-NC) also attacked the EPA data, and raised questions about enforcement. He warned against a "feeding frenzy" on the tobacco industry.

Browner defended the EPA report, saying, "Our methodology has been reviewed and approved by people who are recognized experts in this field across the country."

SMOKING = $16B/YEAR MEDICARE DRAIN

Washington, May 17, 1994. Hospitalization expenses resulting from drug use--whether legal or illegal--will suck over $1 trillion out of Medicare funds over the next 20 years--and smoking related diseases alone will eat up $800 billion, according to a study by the Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University.

The study estimated that fully 1/4 of in-patient medicare money is spent to treat the results of substance abuse, and smoking alone will cost the system $16 billion in hospitalization this year.

"Key to preserving the viability of the Medicare trust fund for future generations is to mount a major national effort to make America smoke-free," said Joseph Califano Jr., head of CASA and former Carter Administration Health Education and Welfare secretary.

The report, funded by the Kaiser Foundation, found substance abuse diseases about 25% more expensive to treat. The report used 1991 hospitalization data, and identified 60 medical conditions wholly or partly due to substance abuse.

The Tobacco Institute said the report's figures are 4 times those previously released by the American Medical Association and the US Government, and that smokers more than pay their own way in the health care system. Thomas Lauria of the Institute said the Office of Technology Assessment found cigarette-related diseases cost Medicare $3.5 billion in 1990. That data, however, was based on surveys, not hospitalization records.

Califano called for action against tobacco, saying, "Treating the symptoms of smoking ... is closing the armory door after the deadly instruments of destruction have been let loose."

The report is the second in a kind of health care trilogy being released by CASA. A previous report looked at the cost of drug abuse to Medicaid (medical assistance for the poor; Medicare's fund aids the elderly and disabled), and found drug abuse to account for about 1/5 of all monies paid, an estimated $7 billion for 1994. A projected third report will look at the costs of drug abuse to the entire health care system.

The percentages of smoking-related diseases are higher for the elderly covered by Medicare because they are more at risk for tobacco-related diseases, which often take decades to manifest. 36% of medicare recipients are former smokers, and 20% are current smokers.LOCAL

NY: PM PAYS NY $250G IN FREEBIES MAILING

New York, NY May 18, 1994. Philip Morris agreed today to pay New York State $250,000 in connection with a mass mailing of free samples of Marlboro cigarettes.

"The New York State Legislature banned free distribution of cigarettes because it encourages tobacco use, particularly by adolescents," said New York Attorney General Oliver Koppell. "Philip Morris has openly flouted this law and must pay the consequences."

The prosecution marked the first enforcement of the 1992 law that prohibits free distribution of cigarettes.

During the summer of 1993, Philip Morris sent 44,000 5-packs out to New Yorkers. Philip Morris said it "admits no wrongdoing," and was sending the samples to survey respondents who said they were over 21 and would like to receive free samples and other promotional items.

The complaint was filed by a Long Island woman whose husband was at risk for emphysema and who had just celebrated his one-year smoke-free anniversary.

"This is like giving drugs to an addict," the husband said

NJ: CO-OP SMOKING TRUCE

Mountainside, NJ May 12, 1994. In an attempt to settle a dispute over second hand smoke seeping up from one resident's apartment into another's, the directors of a co-op have ordered cracks to be sealed between the two apartments.

The judge, in ordering the directors to work out a solution, had strongly suggested the plaintiffs, the Pentony's, get a smoke-eater. The directors have urged the smoking residents, the Conrads, to get one also.

Both parties seem to have agreed to a truce, for now.

VA: REP. LOOKING FOR ALTERNATIVES TO TOBACCO

Washington. May 1, 1994. As a junior member of the House Energy and Commerce committee, Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), is being pressured to join other democrats and vote for Clinton's health care bill, even if it means voting for a package that is sure to include a hefty tobacco tax--anathema to his constituents.

To increase the pressure, he faces a November election against a Republican challenger whose position on a tobacco tax is "no way, no how."

Yet Boucher believes in the basic goals of the Clinton bill.

So, according to an article by Michael Weisskopf in the Washington Post today, Boucher may well parlay a yes vote on a Health Care bill which includes a tobacco tax for a chance to influence where the tax monies will go.

"The only way I would have any effect on tobacco farmers is to have Energy and Commerce members in the process," he said. "If we don't report this bill, we're dealt out."

Boucher is hoping to lobby his vote with Energy and Commerce's chair John D. Dingell (D-MI) for a seat as part of the committee taking part in those future discussions--so that he can fight for a "reinvestment fund" for his 14,000 tobacco farmers.

Boucher has succeeded in convening the first meeting at which some tobacco growers openly discussed apportionment of such a reinvestment fund. But resistance to a tobacco tax among farmers is still strong.

The tobacco institute's Walker Merryman said, "It's far too obvious an attempt to drive a wedge between growers and manufacturers. The same people who are proposing this are trying to put the entire industry out of business. It's so blatant, so politically impossible, it shouldn't be taken seriously."

But Rep. Mike Synar (D-Okla.), an anti-tobacco activist and fellow Energy and Commerce member, said, "Tobacco farmers are the only people anyone wants to help."

MICHIGAN TAX GOES TO 75 CENTS

Detroit, MI. April 30, 1994. On May 1, Michigan smokers will pay the highest state tax in the nation--75 cents--as part of a $10 billion bailout of Michigan's troubled school finances.

The bill also raises the sales tax by 50% (from 4 to 6 cents) while cutting property taxes.

State police warned would-be smugglers bringing in cigarettes from neighboring Ohio, Indiana or Wisconsin that they could go to jail if caught.

Other state taxes:

65 cents -- D.C.
60 cents -- Hawaii
56 cents--New York
51 cents --Massachusetts
2.5 cents--Virginia

Also in Michigan, the House of Representatives is considering a bill that would put a data-stripe on driver's licences.

One of the benefits of such a stripe, which would be run through a reader, is that it would enable retailers to capture relevant information and quickly verify a person's age for cigarette and alcohol sales.

"We've been wanting something like this for years," said Linda Gobler, president of the Michigan Grocers Association.

CA: ENFORCEMENT BILL STALLS

Sacramento, CA April 20, 1994. A get-tough bill that would strengthen enforcement of laws regulating tobacco sales to minors has been stalled by objections in the senate health committee.

Sen. Tom Hayden's (D-Santa Monica) bill would require a state license to sell tobacco products. Sales to minors would result in fines of up to $200,000 and revocation of an outlet's tobacco license upon a fourth offense.

The license would cost $35 a year. Funds would go to an teen-decoy enforcement program.

The bill is opposed by tobacco companies, grocers and vending machine operators.

Health committee members Tim Leslie (R-Carnelian Bay) and Cathie Wright, (R-Simi Valley) said the bill would create a new bureaucracy and Charles Calderon (D-Montebello) said he wants the bill to require the state, not local governments be responsible for regulating the sale of cigarettes.

"I just want to make sure there are no contradictory regulations," Calderon said.

Anti-smoking advocates see state preemption of local enforcement as effectively gutting practical enforcement of the laws.

They point to the case of King County, Washington, whose health department had instituted a two-pronged (education and sting operations) anti-teen smoking campaign that was being studied as a model by other communities. Tobacco lobbyists spent $200,000, employing 9 outside lobbyists, 2 former lawmakers, and 3 in-house lobbyists to ensure that a preemptive measure subsequently enacted by the Washington State legislature was far weaker. Under the state measure, enforcement was given to the State Liquor Control Board--which added only 3 staff members, while localities like King County saw their enforcement programs dismantled.

CA: BATTLE OF THE BANS

1. TOBACCO-OPPOSED BAN ADVANCES

Sacramento, May 16, 1994. Meanwhile, a statewide anti-smoking bill opposed by the tobacco industry moved out of committee today and will soon be voted on in the Senate.

The bill would ban smoking in most workplaces in the state, including bars and restaurants. Assemblyman Terry Friedman (D-Encino), the bill's sponsor, said it would be the nation's strongest statewide ban. UPI reports that it is "supported by a broad coalition of service industry, environmental and labor groups."

The bill had been stalled in the Senate Appropriations Committee for months. At one time, it included a provision to make the bill "preemptive" of any stronger local bans.

The final bill as passed by the committee Monday removed the preemption provision, but picked up needed votes by providing exemptions for hotels and motels--the bill will allow smoking in 65% of rooms and 1/4 of lobby space.

2. TOBACCO-BACKED BAN GAINS SIGNATURES

Los Angeles, CA. May 9, 1994. In a major victory in a high-stakes war here in the most antitobacco state in the nation, the controversial Philip-Morris-sponsored California Uniform Tobacco Control Act has achieved the 600,000 signatures necessary for the measure to be put on the California ballot this November.

Despite promotional material which characterizes the statute's provisions as "strict" and "severe," the measure will override and preempt any stronger measures from being passed by local governments, including over 270 such measures now in effect, such as those in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

With the help of The Dolphin Group, a Los Angeles political consulting firm headed by Lee Stitzenberger, Philip Morris has run an intense $500,000 campaign using street canvassers and phone banks to amass signatures.

The proposal would allow businesses and building owners to decide where to allow smoking, so long as the areas are well-ventilated.

"All we seek is uniformity and to provide fairness for both smokers and nonsmokers," said Stitzenberger. "We say let businesses and building owners decide whether they want to allow smoking and whether that will bring in or run off customers.

Anti-smoking groups claim the drive for signatures misled people about the actual effects of the proposal, and hid the fact the drive was sponsored by Philip Morris.

"They've passed around a pro-smoking petition that they deliberately mislabeled a 'tobacco control' act. Control?" said Julia Carol, of the Berkeley, CA-based Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights.

But Stitzenberger said, "To our knowledge, there is no misrepresentation that has taken place at any level.

"Keep in mind that this initiative would extend smoking regulations to hundreds of places that currently don't have them. We're also proposing stricter rules on use of tobacco by youths."

Acting Secretary of State Tony Miller has received numerous complaints of misrepresentation by petition circulators

and has asked those who felt misled to file written accounts.

"We've had hundreds of calls and letters complaining about the tactic," said Melissa Warren, Chief Assistant Secretary of State.

"The proponents, by marketing this initiative as a measure to restrict smoking in California, have stepped over the line and in so doing, they have violated the spirit if not the letter of the law," Acting Secretary of State Tony Miller said.

"I will not certify any measure for any ballot that met the signature requirement only by breaking the law," Miller has said.

Miller has also requested written materials that guide petition circulators on what to say.

A press release from the Dolphin Group states, "The California Uniform Tobacco Control Act will: replace the patchwork quilt of some 270 local ordinances with one single, tough, uniform statewide law; be stricter than 90 percent of local ordinances currently on the books; double the fine for selling tobacco products to minors; severely limit vending machines in areas accessible to minors and place severe restrictions on smoking in restaurants and workplaces coupled with strict ventilation standards."

Signature verification will take several weeks; certification of the signatures must occur by June 30 for the measure to be placed on the November ballot.

Acting Secretary of State Tony Miller
Secretary of State's Office
1230 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
phone: 916-445-6371 fax: 916-324-4573

CONSUMER REPORTS ON CA TOBACCO WARS

The May 1994 Consumer Reports magazine covered the recent activities and noms-de-guerre of tobacco-industry-financed groups.

--Californians for Statewide Smoking Restrictions is heading the petition drive for the Philip-Morris-sponsored California Uniform Tobacco Control Act. Its campaign director is Lee Stitzenberger of the Dolphin Group, Philip Morris' main political action consultant and public relations firm in California.

--Californians Against Unfair Tax Increases fought against the 1988 ballot initiative that raised cigarette taxes by 25 cents. "Campaign finance documents show most of the group's money came from the tobacco industry," says CR, which also claims the industry spent 2.5 million trying to defeat the measure.

--The California Business and Restaurant Alliance fights local anti-smoking laws, and is run by Fred Karger, an executive with the Dolphin Group.

--Californians for Fair Business Policy spent $87,000 in 1991 funding a petition drive to overturn an anti-smoking ordinance in Long Beach. CR says, "According to its statement of organization, the group was a statewide political action committee sponsored by tobacco manufacturers, wholesalers, and restaurants."

--The Long Beach Business & Convention Coalition arose to fight a smoking ban on the April, 1994 ballot. CR says, "In campaign filings, the coalition said it was sponsored by 'hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, taverns, tobacco manufacturers and wholesalers.' But its $85,000 opening balance in September 1993 came from just two sponsors: the Tobacco Institute . . . and the Oregon Executive Committee, a political action committee managed by a lobbyist for R.J. Reynolds."

--The Los Angeles Hospitality Coalition, which fought the Los Angeles smoking ban, and continues to challenge it in court, has received $380,000 from tobacco interests, and about $9,000 from 80 non-industry-affiliated individuals and groups.

--Restaurants for a Sensible Voluntary Policy (RSVP), received substantial funding from the Tobacco Institute, and produced, with the Dolphin Group, a survey that found restaurateurs in the Los Angeles suburb of Bellflower estimated their business was off 30% since a local smoking ban was instituted.

CR took a close look at this and similar surveys in a sidebar titled "The 30% Myth." The sidebar emphasized that the 30% figures come from surveys of restaurateurs, not from verifiable data.

--Bellfower enacted a restaurant smoking ban in March of 1991. Restaurateurs quickly received a survey from Restaurants for a Sensible Voluntary Policy. RSVP listed "public-affairs consultant" Rudy Cole as its executive vice president. "The survey itself," says CR, "was prepared by an employee of the Dolphin Group."

Restaurateurs estimated business loss at 30%. A later analysis of actual sales receipts commissioned by the city of Bellflower found this not to be true--in fact, sales rose 2.4% during the 10 month period of the ban.

--The Beverly Hills Restaurant Association, "a group organized by . . . Rudy Cole," according to CR, took a survey of Beverly Hills restaurants which found business decreased 30% durng a 1987 smoking ban.

Again, a later study of Beverly Hills restaurants' taxable sales by the accounting firm of Laventhol & Horwath found business had decreased by only 6.7%

A study of such receipts in 13 communities with restaurant smoking bans by anti-smoking activist Stanton Glantz of the University of California, San Francisco "found no significant long-term drop anywhere."

CR says the anecdotal surveys were used in other communities considering anti-smoking regulations, and the Tobacco Institute cited the survey in paid ads in restaurant trade journals.

The survey results have been given the status of objective news items by the media--the 30% figure has been quoted by the LA Times and Time magazine.

CR said, "An informal survey of restaurateurs in Bellflower, Calif., . . . became a formal report showing the alleged economic impact of a smoking ban. . . Survey statistics were reported as news in Bellflower and other California towns considering smoking bans."

--Elsewhere, tobacco-backed groups such as Montana's Committee Against More Tax and Bureaucracy and the Arkansas Executive Committee waged successful fights to defeat cigarette tax raises in those states.

CR said, "Groups that pretend to represent the public interest when they really represent the interests of a company or an industry may be guilty of cynicism, but they do not appear to be breaking any laws. . . No Federal law requires advertising, telemarketing, or mail solicitations to identify their major sponsors.

"And," concludes the article, " . . . no such proposals are pending."

CA: SMOKING MURDERS RESULT IN SENTENCES

1. May 12, 1994. Ramon Coronado of the McClatchy News Service reports that tempers erupted in a crowded and heavily-secured courtroom during the sentencing of a man who killed a waiter who had asked him to put out his cigarette.

Toby Titus Wade, 30, had entered Lil Joe's restaurant with a lit cigarette, in violation of Sacramento's smoking laws. Waiter Sameh Rizk, 29, confronted him, and though Wade put out the cigarette, angry words peppered with racial epithets were exchanged by both men. According to previous reports, Rizk retreated to a back office. Wade followed him there, and after a scuffle stabbed him in the heart.

Wade pled provocation and self-defense. A mistrial was declared in December when the jury deadlocked over intent to kill, but at the latest trial he was convicted of second degree murder.

At the sentencing, when the judge told Wade, the son of a Baptist preacher, that he was going to get a long sentence, Wade's brother broke out in a hymn, and would not stop until he was "pulled from the courtroom" by several bailiffs.

Emotions ran high as family and friends protested as Wade himself also was removed at the same time.

Wade refused to return to the courtroom for the rest of the proceeding. He was sentenced to 16-years-to-life in prison.

2. May 6, 1994. Daphnye S. Luster, 22, has been convicted of second-degree murder in the killing of Rachelle Houston, 19, outside a Denny's restaurant.

Houston was killed by a shotgun blast to the head on Sep. 25, 1993, in the parking lot of a Denny's restaurant in San Pablo, a community about 15 miles north of San Francisco.

Houston was with 4 companions earlier when Luster, accompanied by 5 children, began smoking in the nonsmoking section of the restaurant. The women complained to the manager, who made Ms. Lustre extinguish her cigarette. One of the group said loudly that Ms. Luster shouldn't be out so late with her children, and called her an "old tramp."

Ms. Luster left but returned later with a 12 gauge shotgun, and a crossbow. She fired once at Houston's car as she drove from the restaurant, hitting her in the head.

Testimony at a pre-trial hearing last November indicated that Houston had not said anything to Ms. Luster.

Luster cried upon hearing the verdict. She was also convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and possessing a firearm (earlier reports said she had a prior felony conviction for narcotic sales). She faces 25-years-to-life in prison, and will be sentenced June 2.

Thomas Lauria of the Tobacco Institute said at the time of the incident, "While no one can condone that violence, a possible explanation of it is the kind of nasty, state-sponsored ads they bombard Californians with that ridicule smokers."

INTERNATIONAL

CANADA: PLAIN-PACKAGING FUROR

Ottawa, May 21, 1994. In a high-stakes battle that could have major world-wide repercussions, American tobacco companies are threatening to halt all Canadian investments and may seek "huge compensation claims"--possibly in the hundreds of millions of dollars--if forced to adhere to Canada's proposed "plain packaging" rules.

Canada's proposed generic packaging rules--which would strip cigarette packages of all company logos, colors and other traits, leaving behind only a brand name and a health warning in stark black and white--would in effect be an expropriation of property--in the form of trademarks--and would violate provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), argue the American companies.

Most of the cigarettes sold in Canada are brands protected by trademarks owned or controlled by US companies, said Julius Katz, a former deputy US Trade Representative and chief negotiator for NAFTA who is now president of' Hills & Co. International Consultants. The firm, established by former US trade representative Carla A. Hills, is representing Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco.

Katz said such an infringement of trademark rights and copyright law would violate provisions of NAFTA, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Uruguay Round Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

Katz said, "If such expropriation occurred, the Canadian government would be left to face huge compensation claims. I am told by the companies that these claims could amount to hundreds of millions of dollars."

NAFTA intellectual copyright rules hold trademarks as an investment, according to some analysts. "Intellectual property is an investment and if it is expropriated there should be compensation for its destruction," a Canadian trademark lawyer has said.

But Canadians traditionally maintain a fiercely independent attitude towards the United States. Health Minister Diane Marleau has said, "No U.S. multinational tobacco manufacturer or its lobbyists are going to dictate health policy in this country."

Federal Trade Minister Roy MacLaren has claimed that the NAFTA treaty contains public health provisions that would allow Canada's generic packaging law.

"It surprises me that the United States (industry) would take any position on this at all, which seems to me entirely a domestic matter for Canada to decide on its own health requirements and standards," MacLaren said.

Anti-smoking groups say similar provisions exist in the GATT treaty, and point to current regulations involving advertising restrictions, health warning labels, disclosure of ingredients and bilingual labeling. Analysts say the tobacco industry is worried Canada's plain packaging rules could become a model for other countries, especially in the third world.

But Katz has told the health committee, "You have an unquestioned right to regulate the product. What you don't have a right to do, under international agreements to which Canada is a party, is to use the impairment of trademarks as a way of indirectly affecting the consumption of a product."

On May 19, William Webb, president of the Philip Morris tobacco company wrote in a letter to the House of Commons health committee which is studying the proposal, "If Canada adopts legislation in total disregard of internationally recognized trademark rights, this would be a significant consideration in any new investment decisions."

Philip Morris owns:

--a Canadian subsidiary of PM.
--40% of Rothmans Benson & Hedges, Canada's second-largest cigarette producer.
--Kraft General Foods Canada, Inc., the largest maker of packaged foods in Canada, with 11 plants and 4,700 employees.
--part of Canada's largest brewer, Molson.

RJR Nabisco Holdings owns RJR-Macdonald Inc.

The plain-packaging measure is meant to reduce the attractiveness of smoking for young people. The tobacco industry has argued there is no evidence such packaging has an effect on sales.

Two packaging companies have announced they would have to suffer major plant shut-downs and hundreds of job-cuts if forced to adhere to the plain-packaging rules.

The health committee will issue recommendations by mid-June.

CANADA: ROTHMANS, IMPERIAL CHANGING PACKAGES

May 6, 1994. In related news, both Rothmans, Benson & Hedges Inc. and Imperial Tobacco have said that they will start phasing in new packaging that adheres to current amendments to Canada's Tobacco Products Control Act.

Manufacturers have until Sept. 12 to adhere to the proposals, but "the enormity of the task requires that phasing in of the new packaging start at this early date," Rothmans said.

Imperial alone must convert 139 brands and 320 "packaging commodities" to comply with the requirements. Imperial is challenging the constitutionality of the act; the Supreme Court of Canada is expected to rule on the case by the end of the year.

The amendments require health warnings that cover 25% of one side of a cigarette package and be positioned on the top portion in bold black and white. There are 8 warnings, including "Smoking can kill you," "Smoking During Pregnancy Can Harm Your Baby," and "Cigarettes Are Addictive."

CANADA: WOMEN'S LUNG CANCER RISING

Ottawa. May 16, 1994. Lung cancer will overtake breast cancer as the leading cause of cancer death in women this year, according to the government agency Statistics Canada.

"Men started quitting smoking in the 1960s, '70s and '80s. Women were taking it up during the 1960s and we are just starting to see that now," said the National Cancer Institute of Canada.

Lung cancer still remains the leading cancer death for men. Heart disease is the leading killer for both men and women, followed by cancer.

1991 1994 (est.)

Women:

Lung Cancer 4,562 5,600
Breast Cancer 4,653 5,400

Men:

Lung Cancer 9,693 11,000

CUBA: NO MORE SUBSIDIZED CIGS?

Havana. April 29, 1994. Wracked with financial woes and a growing underground economy since the fall of the Soviet Union, Cuba is considering a number of economic reforms--including abolishing or at least raising the price of its heavily-subsidized cigarette rations.

Each worker in Cuba is entitled to buy 4 packs of subsidized cigarettes a month, and nonsmokers can sell them on the black market for as much as 100 times their cost.

Although some cigarette traders are undoubtedly among the "macetas"--suspiciously high-livers during this period of austerity--who are the targets of a Cuban crackdown, some people claim the living they are able to eke out from the sale of their cigarette rations is the only way they can survive.

GERMANY: HEMP, TOBACCO IN SAME CLASS?

Bonn. May 5, 1994. The German supreme court upheld Germany's anti-hashish laws today, but ruled that possession of small amounts of hashish or marijuana should not be prosecuted, as such "soft" drugs are less harmful than once thought.

In addition, while 7 of the 8 judges rejected arguments to abolish anti-hemp laws as a whole, one of the eight judges dissented, shocking the nation by arguing that soft drugs were no different from alcohol and tobacco.

The decision has touched off a furor and national debate in Germany in regards to the complex relationships between the state and the entire range of drugs. It has also posed a dilemma for center-right Chancellor Helmut Kohl who is running for re-election on a law and order, anti-narcotics platform.

"We say NO" screamed a banner headline in Bild, the top-selling newspaper in Germany. Under the headline were over a dozen statements from politicians, sports stars and citizens.

"Hash for the people," ran a Der Spiegel headline over a cover photo of a joint-smoking young woman.

"Making a distinction between soft and hard drugs is the wrong way to go," the Interior Ministry state secretary, Eduard Lintner, said.

But some, especially in the opposition Social Democrat party (SPD), supported the decision, arguing such liberalization will allow more forceful and effective targeting of hard drugs by both educators and law enforcement bodies.

"If small consumers are no longer punished, that will lower the level of crime committed for money to buy drugs," said member of parliament Edith Niehuis.

Some questioned how different such soft drugs were from state-sanctioned alcohol and tobacco. "The constitutional judges decided that there is no right to get high, even though tens of thousands of people each year quite legally drink themselves to death, encouraged by advertising," editorialized the daily Frankfurter Rundschau

The issue arose from a drug dealer's constitutional challenge, in addition to a number of smaller cases appealed to the court. In one, a woman was arrested for trying to sneak a small amount of hashish in to her husband's jail cell. The court judge discontinued the trial saying hashish was no worse than alcohol, and threw the case to the supreme court.

Germany has a serious heroin and cocaine problem. 1,738 people died of drug overdoses in 1993.

The government estimates hashish and marijuana users at as many as 8 million of Germany's 80 million people. 33% of German adults smoke cigarettes.

UKRAINE: TOBACCO MONOPOLY RETURNS

Kiev, May 5, 1994. Former Soviet Republic Ukraine has taken additional steps to stabilize its economy. Ukraine's Acting Prime Minister announced that the government will reinstitute a state monopoly on the tobacco and alcohol industries. In addition, excise taxes were increased from 25 to 40% on cigarettes.

RJR BUYS RUSSIAN FACTORY

Yelets. May 3, 1994. RJ Reynolds Tobacco International, Inc. has bought controlling interest in the Yelets Experimental Tobacco Factory in central Russia. Present annual production capacity is 10,000 tons.

3 other factories in the former Soviet Union are controlled by RJR: the RJR-Petro factory in St. Petersburg--the largest in Russia--and factories in Kremenchuk and Lviv, Ukraine.

RUSSIA: BAT BUYING SPREE

London, May 20, 1994. Just a few days after the Uzbeckistan announcement, B.A.T Industries Ltd announced it had bought a majority stake in Russia's Saratov tobacco factory, and that it would invest $40 million over the next three years to improve its output.

BAT also said it was close to signing a deal with the Java cigarette factory. "The two factories together would provide production capacity for Russia of some 30 billion cigarettes," BAT said.

IRAQI KURDISTAN: EMBARGO HURTING CIGARETTE BUSINESS

Irbil May 10, 1994. Since the US-Iraqi war, 3.5 million Iraqi Kurds enjoy a limited autonomy under US-allied protection, and an elected government only dreamed of by Kurds in neighboring Turkey, Syria and Iran.

However, Kurdish businesses are severely hurt by:

--the UN embargo on Iraq
--the massively devalued Iraqi dinar (the Kurds' required currency)
--the lack of Bagdad-distributed humanitarian aid
--the hostility of neighboring countries, which can easily close off trade routes.

The economic deterioration is creating severe unrest and instability in a unique coalition government which is trying to function with both rival political powers in co-control.

An example cited by the Washington Post's Caryle Murphy in an article on May 10, is the Irbil Cigarette Factory, which, though it has tobacco for the next three years, cannot get filters because of the UN embargo.

The factory's 900 employees are still receiving a salary from the sale of cigarettes manufactured before filters ran out, but supplies are limited. To add to the pressure, the Kurdish government has assigned the factory 200 more workers as part of an attempt to curb unemployment.

UZBEKISTAN: BAT BUYS IN

London. May 17, 1994. B.A.T. Industries Ltd., the British tobacco company which recently announced plans to buy American Tobacco Co., has agreed to buy 51% of Uz Tobacco A.O., a new monopoly which has been created by the central Asian former soviet Republic of Uzbekistan.

BAT will spend $200,000 million over the next 5 years to develop Uzbekistan's cigarette industry and reduce its dependence on foreign cigarettes. BAT will immediately modernize an old plant and build at least one new one. By the end of the 5 years, BAT will own 90% of Uz.

BAT is the second largest tobacco company in the world, next to Philip Morris.

In a curious note on the matter, the Wall St. Journal said a BAT spokesman addressed "the antismoking point of view," by saying, "It's hardly as if we are introducing the habit of smoking cigarettes in these places. But what the consumers there would like to have is high-quality cigarettes."

INDIA: BAT REBUFFED

Bombay. May 13, 1994. Reuter's Moses Manoharan reports that Indian cigarette giant ITC Ltd. will not relinquish control to London-based B.A.T. Industries PLC by allowing BAT to raise its stake from 31% to 51%.

ITC Chairman Kishan Lal Chugh apparently dreams of making ITC--India's second-largest private-sector company--into a multinational enterprise. During discussions recently in London, Chugh said he'd told BAT, "you must respect my aspirations if you want to work with me."

JAPAN: THE CIGS ARE HARLEYS

May 20, 1994. Dow Jones reports that Carolina Cigarette's "Harley Davidson" brand are catching on in Japan.

The cigarettes, decorated with the Harley Davidson emblem licensed from the motorcycle maker, are "popular because the name of Harley-Davidson includes American taste and American spirit," claimed an importer. "This is an American authentic."

The cigarette's motto in Japanese, "Have you, Harley," means, according to an ad agency spokesperson, "if you smoke this, you can do anything."

CHINA URGING CIG AD BAN

Beijing. May 13, 1994. The Chinese government is urging the media to refuse tobacco advertising, according to a UPI report.

UPI says that the official Health News published a joint circular from the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Radio, Film and Television and the State News and Publication Commission that urged the media to report more news about tobacco and to shun tobacco advertising.

Though legislation in China restricts smoking and prohibits smoking by elementary and high school students, enforcement is lax, and anti-smoking messages weak, especially in rural areas with high illiteracy rates.

Many Communist leaders, including Mao Tse-Dong, have been heavy smokers, though it is said paramount leader Deng Xiaoping gave up his beloved "Panda" brand at the age of 85 several years ago.

China's 300 million smokers dwarfs the US's 46 million. In addition, the Chinese tobacco industry is a government monopoly with only a few foreign investors. Both Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco have struck up agreements.

Since 1987, UPI says, "China has earned more tax revenue from tobacco sales than from any other industry. In 1992, taxes on tobacco products generated $3.5 billion."

In other news, China opened its first wholesale cigarette market in Beijing this April 29, replacing an administrative distribution system in favor of a "socialist market economy."

The China Wholesale Cigarette Market--"the only market in the country where provincial-level tobacco production and trading companies can trade cigarettes," according to a trade newspaper--is expected to respond more realistically to the laws of supply and demand, and to trade US$1.15 billion in cigarettes a year.

TAIWAN WISHES "LONG LIFE" TO CHINA

Taipei. May 10, 1994. In a continuing relaxation of trade barriers between Nationalist and Communist China, Taiwan will begin exporting its popular "Long Life" and "Paradise" cigarettes to the mainland. A government spokesperson for the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Monopoly Bureau said the cigarettes are often brought back to the mainland as gifts. "We believe many mainlanders will prefer Taiwan cigarettes, which have filters and are milder," he said.

HONG KONG GETS TOUGH ON SMOKING

Hong Kong. May 3, 1994. In a broad effort to discourage smoking, the Government here plans to introduce new antismoking legislation to the colonial legislature June 8.. The legislation would:

--restrict sales of tobacco products to those 18 and over
--require restaurants to post signs saying if they have a non-smoking area
--require health warnings on cigarettes
--place restrictions on cigarette advertising.

SINGAPORE BANS WORKPLACE SMOKING

Singapore. May 17, 1994. Singapore has extended its ban on smoking to private workplaces.

Minister of Health George Yeo said at the opening of a new National Smoking Control Campaign, "This will protect all those who are non-smokers from having to breathe in harmful second-hand tobacco smoke."

Singapore's tough smoking restrictions helped reduce smoking from 23% in 1977 to 14% in 1987. However, rates climbed back up to 18% in 1992.

NEW ZEALAND: FASHION AND CIGARETTES

Wellington, May 12, 1994. New Zealand's 30th Annual New Zealand Fashion Awards, a light-hearted romp filled with weird and wild costumes--like a dress in the shape of an atom bomb--and co-hosted this year by Australian super-model Elle McPherson, came under heavy attack for its tobacco company sponsorship.

Anti-smoking groups claimed such sponsorship of the live event undercut New Zealand's laws against advertising tobacco products on TV.

SOUTH AFRICA: CIG $ TO DOUBLE?

Johannesburg. May 18, 1994. South Africa's newly-elected African National Congress (ANC) has proposed new cigarette taxes that would result in a 100% price hike.

The ANC's health department proposed steep tobacco and alcohol taxes and tough legislation to curb youth smoking as part of an overall national health plan presented to Health Minister Nkosazana Zuma. The plan also addresses the Aids crisis, provides for abortion on demand and provides free health care for children, pregnant women and the elderly. The increased health care costs of the program would be paid for partly by new sin taxes.

A pack of 20 US-made cigarettes now costs about US$1.60, and local brands cost about US$1.00.

BUSINESS

SMOKELESS NICOTINE LEVELS UNVEILED

Birmingham, AL May 4, 1994. University researchers here revealed to the public for the first time nicotine levels of smokeless tobacco by brand.

"It's an issue of consumer knowledge," said Dr. Brad Rodu, the University of Alabama-Birmingham author. "It's an issue because nothing is known at this point."

Both the AP and the New York Times said that Rodu claimed the study did not seek to influence debates over whether cigarette companies hope to see young people addicted to the nicotine in smokeless tobacco so that they will continue on to cigarettes.

10 million Americans use smokeless tobacco, and its use has been increasing rapidly among the young. 20% of high school students used smokeless tobacco in 1991.

The study was published in the Journal of the May Journal of the American Dental Association.

Dr. Dietrich Hoffmann, a nicotine researcher at the American Health Foundation in Valhalla, NY, said a 2% nicotine level was high, and that a level of 3% was very high.

Copenhagen, which has the second highest nicotine content (3.2%), is the best-selling smokeless tobacco.

Dr. Scott Tomar, a smokeless-tobacco specialist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said actual intake of nicotine levels are impossible to estimate without knowledge of pH levels. Researchers have questioned whether tobacco companies use additives to increase pH levels in smokeless tobacco to increase absorption of nicotine through mucous membranes.

Nicotine levels in a total dry weight:

MOIST SNUFF

--Skoal Wintergreen Long Cut, 3.35 %
--Skoal Long Cut Straight, 3.33 %
--Copenhagen, 3.2 %
--Kodiak, 2.99 %
--Skoal Bandits, 2.16 %
--Hawken, 0.59 %

PLUG

--Cannon-Ball, 2.16 %
--Day's Work, 1.63 %

LOOSELEAF

--Lancaster, 1.1 %
--Red-Man, 0.87 %
--Beech-Nut, 0.77 %

KNIGHT-RIDDER TO KEEP TOBACCO ADS

Miami, FL May 4, 1994. Knight-Ridder shareholders resoundingly rejected a proposal for the newspaper chain to consider "ethical and moral criteria" in its guidelines for acceptance of tobacco ads, Reuter reported today.

The proposal was suggested at Knight-Ridder's annual shareholders meeting by two health care providers which carry Knight-Ridder stock, Catholic Health Care West of San Francisco, and Mercy Health Services of Farmington Hills, Mich. The proposal did not call for a ban on the ads.

Management opposed the proposal on the following grounds:

--"It is a legal product."
--Knight-Ridder's newspapers carry numerous fair-minded stories on tobacco
--The only other major newspaper that bans cigarette ads is the Blethen-family-owned Seattle Times.

The measure failed 42 million to 1.7 million.

Knight Ridder owns major papers such as the Miami Herald, Philadelphia Inquirer, and Detroit Free Press..

JOE CAMEL ON THE MOVE

Washington. May 6, 1994. Joe Camel has moved from billboards to cigarette packs, spurring antismoking groups to urge the FTC to ban all cartoon characters from cigarette packages.

"This is a cooler thing than the packs with the 40-year-old picture of a real camel in front of a pyramid," said John Z. Banzhauf, of Action on Smoking and Health, which is preparing to petition the FTC. "To permit them to exploit a child's fascination with cartoon characters ... is wrong."

R.J. Reynolds spokesperson Maura Payne Ellis denied the graphic was meant to lure children. She said it is meant to appeal to adult collectors, and that Reynolds should not be held responsible for the sale of cigarettes to kids in violation of state laws--the retailers should.

"The person who is selling that pack of cigarettes, which is not us ... has to be held accountable for upholding that law," she said.

The five-pack collector's series went on sale in February. Joe Camel was also featured on cigarette packs in 1987 for Camel's 75th Anniversary.

In other Joe Camel news, a prominent Seattle lawyer has filed a class action lawsuit against RJ Reynolds, claiming that the ad campaign is deceptive and makes smoking attractive to kids. Lawyer Steve Berman has won class action suits against Seattle-based companies Nordstrom and Seafirst Bank.

ETS SUIT CHANGED TO WRONGFUL DEATH

Jackson, MI. May 13, 1994. After the death of barber Burl Butler, 60, from lung cancer last Saturday, his suit against 18 tobacco organizations has been re-filed as a $650 million wrongful death suit.

The suit charges that Butler, a nonsmoker, contracted lung cancer from inhaling 35 years of smoke from the cigarettes of his patrons at his barbershop in Laurel, Miss. The suit holds that had Butler known of the dangers of ETS he would have forbidden smoking. He did institute a no-smoking policy the day he was diagnosed with lung cancer in March of 1992.

Lawyer Ron Frazer said smoking at the shop was so heavy ceiling tiles turned brown.

"Mr. Butler was one of the first persons actually confirmed and identified to have died from second-hand smoke. There were no other environmental factors in his life that would have caused lung cancer," he said.

"We hope to set a precedent, holding the tobacco companies fully liable for peddling defective products and lying about them to the American people."

Butler's $125 million personal injury lawsuit is expected to be dropped. Lawyer Ronald Motley, who is joining the lawsuit, accused the tobacco industry of deliberately delaying the trial in that case until Bulter died.

"The tobacco companies effectively prevented Mr. Butler from stepping into a courtroom and telling a jury his story," he said at a press conference.

Also at the conference were members of Butler's family.

"My father wants very much for you to know, and he wants us to pursue this very vigorously (to show) that second-hand cigarette smoke is deadly. He wants everybody to know ... second-hand smoke will kill you," said one of his daughters.

"If you could see what my daddy went through -- all the chemotherapy, the needles, the nausea. We watched him go from a very strong, vibrant man, full of life -- a Christian man who loved everybody -- to a man who could not walk."

Philip Morris VP for smoking and health product litigation Chuck Wall said, "We don't believe there is any validity to the claim that environmental tobacco smoke causes lung cancer. That's been a position we've taken all along."

Dow Jones reports that the companies sued are: Philip Morris Inc.; Philip Morris Co.; Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.; Batus Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; RJR Nabisco Inc.; Liggett Group, Inc.; Liggett & Myers, Inc.; Brooke Group Ltd.; American Brands Inc.; American Tobacco Co.; Loews Corp.; Lorillard Corp.; the Council for Tobacco Research-U.S.A. Inc.; Tobacco Institute Research Committee; The Tobacco Institute, Inc.; Hill & Knowlton Inc.; and Laurel Cigar & Tobacco Co

Hill & Knowlton, the Council of Tobacco Research, and the Tobacco Institute were included in the suit for acting "in concert with the industry to misrepresent the nature of smoking," according to Reuters.

FOR-EXPORT MARLBOROS WRECK "COUNTRY STORE" PROMOTION

New York, NY May 13, 1994. Maria Mooshil of Dow Jones reports that Philip Morris is getting tough with retailers who sell for-export versions of their products.

Reports of the misdirection of cigarettes intended for export mainly concern the Marlboro brand, possibly because of customer complaints, because such packages do not carry the proper seal for PM's popular "Marlboro Country Store" promotion, whereby smokers trade coupons from cigarette packs for articles of clothing.

More important for federal and local governments is the possibility that such brands may not have been properly taxed.

Mooshil reports that Philip Morris has begun warning retailers they will be cut off from Philip Morris products if they knowingly accept and sell such for-export packs.

"We offer a promotion for certain reasons--to build loyalty and continuity of sales," said Karen Daragan of Philip Morris. "If consumers are unable to take advantage of a promotion we put out, it defeats the purpose of the promotion."

Philip Morris says it has received a "limited" number of complaints from customers. There is no indication the problem is more than sporadic and concentrated mainly in the Northeast.

The contraband cigarettes are identifiable by the lack of a "Country Store" bar code, and the presence of a tax-exempt stamp. In addition, the warning label is prefaced by "U.S. Surgeon General's" warning rather than the domestic "Surgeon General's" warning.

TOBACCO'S ROLE AS GENETIC FACTORY

Blacksburg, VA. May 12, 1994. In an article in the Wall St. Journal today, Kumar Naj described researchers at work to produce medicines, proteins, and anti-bodies through bio-engineered mixtures of tobacco and human genetic material.

Naj wrote that the tobacco plant is "one of the easiest to manipulate genetically. Immerse a piece of it in a soup of bacteria containing human or animal genes, and it easily draws in the foreign genes. Dr. Cramer calls it the 'laboratory mouse' of agricultural biotechnology."

In addition, tobacco's outsized leaves provide for larger "production" areas.

As a "transgenic" production factory, tobacco's main present rival is animals. However, animal proteins may be contaminated with viruses which are not a problem with plants. Plus, a tobacco plant can produce millions of seeds. Animals are not nearly so prolific.

Still, researchers estimate it will take 5 years of careful testing and close monitoring of tobacco generations before tobacco-produced human genetic material can even begin clinical testing.

Still, some farmers are offering a portion of their crops, hoping to such use will act as a hedge should the tobacco industry suffer a major setback in the next few years.

CIG PROMOTION IN MOVIES

Los Angeles, CA May 19, 1994. According to the Los Angeles Times, some of the disputed Brown & Williamson documents show that the tobacco company paid almost $1 million to pepper movies with images of its Kool and other cigarette brands between 1979 and 1983.

The practise, called "product placement," is legal but bitterly opposed by anti-smoking groups, who claim such placements glamorize smoking, defeat federal regulations requiring warning labels on ads, and subvert the prohibition of cigarette advertising on TV, where most of the movies end up being shown.

The industry itself officially halted all movie product placements in 1990, after Philip Morris shocked Congress when it revealed it had paid $350,000 to place a product in a James Bond movie.

Some of the recipients of Brown & Williamson's funds include:

--Sylvester Stallone. Mr. Stallone received $300,000 in exchange for an agreement to "use Brown & Williamson tobacco products in no less than five feature films." The films included "Rhinestone Cowboy," "Rocky IV" and "Rambo: First Blood Part II."

--Paul Newman. $42,307 was paid out for a "car for Paul Newman," according to the Times' documents.

--Sean Connery. $12,715 was paid out for "jewelry for Sean Connery," part of the $20,000 that was paid for product placement in "Never Say Never Again."

B&W apparently did not feel they were getting their money's worth. Though they paid for placement in "Body Heat," the stars William Hurt and Kathleen Turner smoked Marlboros. B&W's promotion consisted of a "blurred except for a few seconds" Kool poster on the wall of a restaurant, and a Kool Lights billboard appeared only for "a couple of seconds" in "First Blood."

SOCIETY

POLL ON TOBACCO ATTITUDES

New York, NY May 1, 1994. The following are results of a New York Times/CBS News telephone survey of 1,215 adults taken April 21-23, 1994.

91% of Americans believe cigarettes are addicting. The figure includes:

87% of smokers
91% of ex-smokers
93% of nonsmokers.

84% of all Americans (77% of smokers, and 90% of nonsmokers) were skeptical about tobacco companies' truthfulness in regards to the health risks of smoking:

--11% felt the companies told the whole truth about health.
--45% felt they were hiding something.
--38% felt they were mostly lying.

% of smokers in income brackets:

Below $15k/year: 32%
Above $75k/year: 19%
% of smokers who are:
College graduates: 12%
Educated only to High school: 30%

The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

US SMOKING SURVEY

Atlanta. May 19, 1994. New figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show smoking rates in the US leveled off in 1992 for the second straight year. The figures reflect growing numbers of young adults who smoke.

They also reflect a new category of occassional smokers. For the first time in the survey of 12,000 people, those who said they were nonsmokers were asked if they smoked on some days. Those who answered yes made up 15% of all smokers, and 4.4% of all Americans, skewing the totals upward somewhat.

"As we learn more about nicotine addiction, it's important to know who the some-day smokers are," Michael Eriksen of the CDC said. "Here we have a group of smokers that don't need to have it every day." He said the CDC is investigating the phenomenon.

The 18-24 year old group did not decrease for the first time since 1983. The CDC blamed the low cost of cigarettes along with advertising aimed at youth.

Smoking rates:

Year All Regular Occas. 18-24yrs

1965 42.4%
1991 25.6% 22.9%
1992 26.5% 22.1% 4.4% 26.4%

Below figures include occasional smokers:

Age 25-44: 30.8%
Age over 65: 14%
Men: 28.6%
Women: 24.6%
Those below poverty level: 37%
American Indians/Alaskan Natives: 39.4%
Blacks: 27.8%
Whites: 27.2%
Hispanics: 20.7%
Asian-Pacific Islanders: 15.2%

In other gross statistics news, Les Krantz reports in his book "America by the Numbers (Houghton Mifflin), that the #1 Supermarket purchase is a carton of Marlboros, part of the 1.5 billion cigarettes sold in the US every day.

THE WEANING QUESTION

May, 1994. Increasing attention is being paid by the media to the idea that American smokers might be "weaned" from nicotine addiction by a decades-long process of ever-decreasing nationally set levels of nicotine in cigarettes.

FDA commissioner David Kessler mentions the idea now whenever options for cigarettes--should they be classified as a drug--are discussed, and it has been the subject of recent articles in the New York Times, the Kansas City Star, and Anna Quindlen's syndicated column, "Public and Private."

The idea has been around for awhile, but was most recently put forth to the FDA and Congress by smoking researcher and professor of medicine Neal Benowitz of the University of California, San Francisco. Benowitz envisions a section of the FDA that would oversee the gradual decrease of nicotine over a period of 20 years, weaning one generation from the drug, while assuring the next never starts.

"After all, 80 percent of smokers say they want to quit," said Benowitz. "This would make it easier for them to do that,".

"Kids begin to smoke, and over two or three years they become addicted," Benowitz claims. "They say, 'Oh, I'll just smoke for a while and then I'll stop.' And then they discover that they can't. They start out smoking for social reasons but wind up smoking for pharmacological reasons. Low-nicotine cigarettes could change that."

One concern observers have is that smokers may, by inhaling more cigarettes to compensate for the lower nicotine-intake, receive more tar and harmful elements. Some research indicates such overcompensation may diminish after a few weeks, though more study is needed, says Benowitz.

There is no question nicotine can be completely extracted from tobacco. Philip Morris tried to market such a cigarette ("De-Nic"--a version of its "Next" brand) in 1989. It was a dismal failure.

In fact, the Kansas City Star reported last week that a plant geneticist in North Carolina succeeded in the early eighties in producing a virtually nicotine-free tobacco variety, but no one was interested.

"We didn't pursue it any further because there never seemed to be any interest," said the now-retired geneticist.

A LITTLE SOMETHING ABOUT NICOTINE

Though since the early 1950s, manufactures have added filters and provided smoother taste, The FDA says that nicotine levels since then have remained relatively constant.

Nicotine percentage of a cigarette was 1.5 to 1.8% in 1952.
Nicotine percentage of a cigarette is 1.5 to 2.5% today.
There is about 9 mg of nicotine in each cigarette.
Smokers take in an average of 1 mg of nicotine per cigarette, over a range of .5 to 3 mg.
Smokers take in an average of 25 mg of nicotine a day.

Benowitz claims withdrawal symptoms begin to show up when a smoker's intake of nicotine drops below 5 mg a day.

Within 10 to 15 seconds of each puff, levels of nicotine in the blood shoot up. Nicotine is flushed from the body within 8-10 hours, which makes the first cigarette in the morning particularly satisfying.

Most scientists consider nicotine addictive, while tobacco companies aver that nicotine's presence in cigarettes is not addictive, but is essential for tobacco's particular taste.

Walker Merryman of the Tobacco Institute has said, "I'm told by the companies that nicotine, like caffeine, imparts a very specific taste, or as the food scientists say, 'mouth feel'. . . If you remove it, you radically alter the taste."

Walker said he's not interested in nicotine-less cigarettes himself--"not based on my previous experience. . . I don't smoke low-nicotine or low-tar cigarettes. I don't find them very satisfactory."

The Star reports that apparently the major market for Philip Morris' "De-Nic" cigarettes was tobacco researchers, who ran out and bought them for use in studies in which it was found that though they tasted "very similar" to regular cigarettes, and were smoked in much the same way, smokers' brain waves did not change as they do with nicotine cigarettes.

Nicotine, claims smoke researcher Jed Rose of Duke University, is "a very minor contributor to taste;" he said it does produce a tingling sensation in the respiratory tract.

"In the short run, and to most smokers, (the "De-Nic" brand) seems to taste OK. To a fairly considerable degree, it provides satisfaction.

"But in a day or two they realize they're not getting what they're looking for. Probably, after a while, they realize they aren't getting enough nicotine."

Any claims for health benefits of a non-nicotine brand would make such a product subject to FDA approval, as occurred with 1992's tobacco-less "Jazz" cigarettes.

KID MAKES SUPERHEROES QUIT SMOKING

Houston, TX. May 4, 1994. A 7 year old boy has made some of Marvel Comics' toughest super-heroes and baddest villains stub out their cigars and cigarettes--at least in trading cards.

Sammy Blum, the 7 year old son of antismoking activist Dr. Alan Blum of Doctors Ought to Care, hand-wrote a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine, "I collect Marvel Masterpieces. So do some of my friends and my brothers. I found five out of 100 cards that were smoking!! . . . Why do they make cards for kids that show people smoking?" he wrote.

So Marvel has decided "to omit smoking materials from all future Marvel trading cards." The characters include Nick Fury, the Red Skull, Blaze, Gambit and Kingpin. The characters will apparently continue smoking in the comic books for realism, said a spokesperson.

AMTRAK SMOKEFREE ROUTES

May 1, 1994. 82% of Amtrak routes went officially smokefree today. The policy now covers all short and medium-distance daytime trains, as well as some long-distance overnight trains.

Famous routes include

--All regular trains in the Washington-Boston corridor, including Metroliner service

--The New York-Chicago Broadway Limited, --The New York-Jacksonville, Fla., Palmetto

--The 2-day routes out of Chicago to the West Coast--the California Zephyr (to Oakland), the Desert Wind (to LA), and the Pioneer (to Seattle)

--The Coast Starlight, from Seattle to LA

Smoking on such routes can now only be done on platforms at stations where the train stops long enough.

PEOPLE: COUNTER-CULTURE HEROES AT ODDS

--KESEY FOR POT, NOT TOBACCO

Springfield, OR May 6, 1994. Spirit-of-the-60s guru Ken Kesey angered officials at his old high school here when he seemed to endorse marijuana over tobacco.

In a talk with students, the 1953 graduate and author of "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest," and "Sometimes a Great Notion," was questioned about the drug use of musician Kurt Cobain, a nearby Seattle-based rock figure and noted heroin addict who recently committed suicide.

"I told them there are bad drugs and good drugs," Kesey later told reporters. "I told them 430,000 people died of cigarette smoke (last year) and asked them how many people died of marijuana smoke. The answer was none."

School officials also objected to Kesey's liberal use of profanity during the speech.

"We're not likely to invite him back," said Springfield High's principal.

Some students walked out, but Kesey had his supporters, too.

"He told students to listen to their hearts, follow their dreams and not be dissuaded by the voices of conformity," said Springfield's drama teacher

--TIMOTHY LEARY BUSTED FOR SMOKING--TOBACCO

Austin, TX May 11, 1994. In other baby-boomer-hero news, ex-LSD guru Timothy Leary, 73, staged a one-man protest of no-smoking rules at Austin's Robert Mueller Airport, and was ticketed for smoking (a cigarette) in the baggage claim area.

Airport police say they asked him to douse the cigarette several times, but he refused.

He lit the cigarette in front of an officer while a companion videotaped the proceedings.

Leary said he wanted to draw attention to the "demonization" of smokers.

"We were told by an official that smoke in the airport would get us a citation. So we did look for a policeman to check this out," Leary said.

"The law is one of many government attempts to control personal behavior . . . And we are proud to test this unconstitutional law."

He was detained for about an hour. His court hearing is set for May 18. He could receive a $500 fine.

Leary was in town to give a lecture, "How to Operate Your Brain."

DAYNARD PREDICTS . . .

Boston, MA May 2, 1994. The Boston Globe's John H. Kennedy today profiled anti-tobacco advocate Dick Daynard, who heads the Boston-based Tobacco Products Liability Project.

Though tobacco companies have never paid a cent in liability payments, Daynard, a 50-year old Northeastern University law professor who even his friends admit is prone to hyperbole, predicts:

--"The first check (paid out by a tobacco company in a liability claim) will be cut in April of '96."

--"The first (tobacco) company to go bankrupt will be in the summer of '96."

--The first tobacco executive to be jailed for killing Americans will be in the year 2000.

Marc Z. Edell, the lawyer who brought the Cipollone case to trial, said of Daynard, "He has helped focus lawyers' interest in tobacco litigation . . .He has helped develop and refine legal theories involved in tobacco liability. In his capacity as a clearinghouse, he has been a good source for people not only in litigation but in the legislative arena."

The Liability Project brings no suits itself, but acts as a clearinghouse for strategies for suing tobacco companies.

OBIT: GEORGE PEPPARD

Los Angeles, CA May 10, 1994. George Peppard, who starred with Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 classic "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and played the cigar-chomping leader of TV's "The A-Team," died of pneumonia today at age 65.

Peppard was once a two-pack a day smoker. He quit smoking in 1992 after doctors removed a cancerous tumor from his right lung. His cancer had been in remission.

END OF DOCUMENT