HEALTH
SMOKING AND BONE HEALING
Feb. 24, 1995. The bones of smokers take almost twice as long to heal as those of nonsmokers, according to a study from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School.
Researchers compared healing times of 76 tibia fractures and found nonsmokers' bones healed in an average of 146 days, while smokers' bones took an average of 276 days to heal.
Researchers said smoking likely affects the flow of blood to the bone.
Meanwhile, reports USA Today, a Emory University School of Medicine an animal study found that while control rabbits had 100% spinal fusion 14 days after surgery, rabbits given nicotine had no bone fusion.
SMOKING AND DIET
Feb. 22, 1995. A story on food cravings in the NY Times mentioned two interesting studies:
--A Duke University study found that people who quit smoking may have increased sudden cravings for sweets and fatty foods.
--A University of Michigan study found that students on low-sugar, low-fat diets "were at greater risk for cigarette smoking, alcohol and drug abuse."
FEDERAL
HOUSE PASSES HR 450
Washington. Feb. 24, 1995 The House of Representatives today passed HR 450, the bill that would halt federal regulatory activity for the rest of the year.
The vote was 276-146. The bill's outlook in the Senate is uncertain. President Clinton has threatened to veto the bill, saying it will cost lives.
The bill provides for emergency health and safety rules. What this provision means in practice is unclear.
EPA head Carol M. Browner said, "...the exemption only applies to situations that are immediately life-threatening. We couldn't take action on long-term health risks such as cancer. We'd have to stop rules to control dioxin from incinerators, lead poisoning and bacterial contamination of drinking water."
Who decides if a situation is an emergency? Sally Katzen, the director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, says the New York Times. The wrong decision by Ms. Katzen could lead to lawsuits from the affected industries.
Democratic attempts to introduce amendments were beaten down. The amendments were characterized by the bill's sponsor as attempts at "frightening women and children and the elderly."
LOCAL
INTERNATIONAL
MEXICO: TOBACCO UNDER PRESSURE
March 10, 1995. Over the last two years, Mexican tobacco companies have suffered a serious decline in sales, due partly to a vigorous anti-smoking campaign by the government and partly to a steady influx of contraband American cigarettes, according to an article by Leslie Moore in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Va. The devaluation of the peso has also been a factor.
In 1993, cigarette sales fell by 7% for the first time in over a decade; in 1994, sales fell again, by 4.5%.
While the two major Mexican tobacco companies, Cigarros La Tabacalera and Cigarrera La Moderna, have leasing deals with Philip Morris and RJ Reynolds to market some of their brands, Mexican Marlboros are not made in the same way as the US version, and the taste is considered inferior by some.
Tariffs on American cigarettes are presently 40%. By 1995, they will fall to only 5%. At that time US companies may simply decide to import their own brands.
Further dogging the Mexican companies is the government's years- old anti-tobacco campaign, which includes TV and radio ads, and features "anti-commercial" commercials. These TV spots attempt to deconstruct cigarette commercials.
"Sometimes commercials use tricks to try to get people into smoking. Well, our commercials tell people about the tricks and try to counter that message. It's a commercial with a specific message," said a spokesperson.
Moore writes, "One commercial features a group of striking Mexican women frolicking on a beach. A narrator talks about how smoking used to symbolize a liberated woman. But smoking actually becomes a dependency, the narrator says.
"In another spot, aimed at young men, a group of rugged-looking cowboys saddles up their horses. Other shots show them lassoing cattle and sitting around a campfire - the typical Marlboro ad setting. Then a narrator says that smoking once may have been a sign of virility, but today, everyone knows that it eventually leads to debility."
To counteract the campaign, La Tabacalera and La Moderna are considering joining forces and creating a Mexican version of the US manufacturers' Tobacco Institute.
BUSINESS
"X" CIGARETTES WITHDRAWN
March 16, 1995. Star Tobacco and Boston-based Stowecroft Brook Distributor have agreed to withdraw "X" cigarettes, a menthol brand packaged in red, green and black color which seemed to deliberately foster associations with revered black leader Malcolm X. It had been on sale in about 20 states, mostly on the East Coast, for about a year.
The move came in response to intense pressure from African American groups, angry newspaper editorials, and national public outcry.
In February, the Boston Globe's Derrick Z. Jackson wrote about the new cigarette, prefacing his column with the following quote: 'You are not a drug addict accidentally. Why, the white man maneuvers you into drug addiction." -- Malcolm X, 1963
Among Jackson's points:
--The package itself is black, with a large white "X" reminiscent of promotional materials for director Spike Lee's recent film biography of Malcolm X.
--The brand is a menthol, an additive favored by black smokers.
--A pack of "X" sells for only a few cents over $1, less than half what a premium brand sells for.
--The brand is the "brainchild" of Chris Duffy (what was then known as Duffy Distributors) who professed ignorance of possible connections to black culture. "I'm 28 years old. I don't remember a whole lot about Dr. Martin Luther King," he told Jackson. AP's story quotes Samuel Sears, head of Star Tobacco: ""It was just an X. . . Call us dense if you want, but it didn't occur to us."
Duffy told Jackson the "X" stood for "X-tra Menthol;" he said it also stood for the Roman numeral Ten, as there had been plans to market a ten-pack. When that plan fell through, it was too late to change the packaging.
"The only reason we used black was that no other brand used it. Green is for menthol, and I don't know why we chose red," AP quotes Duffy.
AP also reported that Star made the brand for Stowecroft, which had designed and marketed the cigarette.
AP uniquely referred to the brand as "Menthol X," and quotes Duffy: "It hasn't sold that great anyway."
The groups involved in forcing the removal of "X" are:
African-American Tobacco Education Network (California)
Churches Organized to Stop Tobacco (COST) The Medical Foundation 95 Berkeley Street Boston, MA 02116 617-451-0049, 617-451-0062 (fax)
Black Health Education Council 1721 2nd Street, Suite 101 Sacramento, CA 95814 916-556-3344, 916-446-0427 (fax)
National Association of African Americans for Positive Imagery Rev. Jesse W. Brown, Jr., President/Gladys Inman-Diawara, Project Director P.O. Box 18537 Philadelphia, PA 19129 215-477-4113, 610-617-9972 (fax)
Rev. Brown was also instrumental in forcing the removal of RJ Reynolds' "Uptown" cigarette in 1989. NAAAPI was formed as an outgrowth of that battle.
***
The manufacturer of "X", Star Tobacco, is an upstart 5-year-old company based in Petersburg, VA. Star has the daunting task of trying to break into a market dominated by the Big Five tobacco companies.
Star is presently the target of a trademark infringement lawsuit filed last January by Philip Morris. The suit claims Star's "Gunsmoke" cigarette marketing campaign draws on imagery imitative of PM's own "Marlboro" brand.
Besides using a cowboy image and typeface similar to Marlboro's, Gunsmoke's advertising uses slogans like, "New Man in Town," and ""Welcome to Gunsmoke Country."
The suit also states that Star's marketing vice president, Scott Feit, is a former Philip Morris employee.
SOCIETY
LAWSUITS
AMERICAN EXP. GIVES PM 7 YEARS OF RECORDS
Feb. 24, 1995. A major focus of Philip Morris' $10 billion dollar libel lawsuit against ABC has been the identity of "Deep Cough," the ex-RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. manager presented on ABC's "Day One" program.
Last October, in an effort to ferret out his or her identity, Philip Morris sent out subpeonas to credit card, telephone, airline and rental car companies, asking for the records of two Day One producers from the month of January, 1994, when PM believes meetings with "Deep Cough" took place.
ABC immediately won a delay. In support of ABC, several major news outlets, including the New York Times and the Wall St. Journal, traveled to Richmond, Va., and testified as friends of the court that such a proceeding would be in effect an "end run" around privacy and First Amendment rights.
But on January 26, the state circuit-court judge ruled PM could indeed gather the information. While other credit card companies took some time to process PM's requests. American Express had the records waiting for PM to pick up on January 27. In fact, AE gave far more than PM asked for--7 years worth of credit card history of the two producers, plus records of people uninvolved in the case. (This occured when AE gave out the records from a corporate card used by producer Walt Bogdanich at his previous job. That card had been shared by his colleagues at the Wall St. Journal.)
ABC quickly won a delay in the implementation of the court order, but American Express' records were already in Philip Morris' hands, and unaffected. PM returned them on Feb. 17.
"We believe it is an isolated incident, but are conducting a review to make sure it won't happen again and make adjustments in policy that are needed," said an American Express spokesperson.
American Express said it has received a few calls about the gaffe, but planned no mailings or advertisements about it.
Credit card companies are not bound by the Fair Credit Reporting Act, which prohibits the release of client information to unauthorized parties.
American Express Customer Service: 800-922-2839 ---------------------------------------------------------------- -
ABC & PM II
The Feb. 20th Philip Morris Corporate Forum at the PGA National Resort and Spa in West Palm Beach, Fla., featured the topic "Change in Washington: A Media Perspective with Cokie and Steve Roberts."
So reports James Warren writing in Sunday's Chicago Tribune; he read it on an internal pamphlet which included photos and biographies.
Cokie Roberts is a regular anchor and reporter for ABC news programs. Considering the pressures her fellow ABC news reporters are under from PM, Warren wondered how this could be.
A spokesperson denied Ms. Roberts' attendance; the PM forum participant was apparently her husband Steve, who works for US News and World Report.
Update: A week later, Warren repoted that a PM rep told him Cckie had been scheduled, but had taken ill that weekend.
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RJR SUES ABC Winston-Salem, NC Feb. 25, 1995. RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. also filed suit against ABC today. The Reynolds suit is very similar to PM's, and asks for over $10,000 in damages (amounts aren't specified in NC).
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STAKE-OUT AT MEDICAL LIBRARY
San Francisco, CA. Feb. 24, 1995. Brown & Williamson has been accused of sending agents to "stake out" the University of California at San Francisco medical library where copies of "secret" B&W papers--the object of a lawsuit in Louisville, KY--are open for public inspection.
John Schwartz of the Washington Post reports that B&W has filed a motion in San Francisco Superior Court asking for the papers, along with the names of those viewing them, and the substance of any resulting articles. UCSF has asked the court for protection from alleged B&W surveillance activities.
UCSF filed a court memorandum which read: "B&W apparently hired two or more private investigators to remain in the public areas outside the Archive Librarian's office to 'stake out' the library" in early February.
The agents left under threat of arrest, but have returned. The head of the archives believes the "only purpose" for the agents' presence "was harassment and intimidation."
USCF maintains that "the documents now are in the public domain and are extremely significant in terms of their academic value and their public interest. We believe it's appropriate that they remain in the library."
These are apparently duplicates of the same 4,000 pages of B&W documents allegedly copied by Merrell Williams, and disseminated to major news organizations. B&W has taken legal steps against most of those news organizations to retrieve the papers.
Anti-smoking activist and UCSF professor Stanton Glantz reportedly placed the papers in the university's tobacco-oriented archives.
UCSF has also requested a court order protecting Dr. Glantz from surveillance activities by B&W.