Tobacco News on the Web
Archive, April, 1997
Note: These articles wink in and out of existence with the frequency of sub-atomic particles. Many links will be dead. In that case, these pages can be approached as bibliographies, both noting the event, and showing where you might look for further information.
- 04/01/97 Liggett May Cut Jobs, Seek Bankruptcy Protection AP MSNBC
- 04/01/97 NORTH CAROLINA: Liggett may have to cut jobs, seek shelter from creditors The cigarette maker's precarious financial condition means it may never live up to its recent tobacco case settlements Raleigh News & Observer
- 04/01/97 Liggett Says Job Losses, Bankruptcy Possible AP NandoNet
- 04/01/97 CANADA: Molson Fights Tobacco Law Says it would lose its "Molson Indy" race because Andrew Craig, president of the U.S.-based Champion Auto Racing Teams Inc., or CART, which runs the Indy series, says he'll pull all the organization's cars out of Canada if the bill is passed in its present form. . . CART's argument is basically economic. The racing series takes place in 17 cities in the United States, Brazil and Canada; Toronto and Vancouver are the only ones that would ban tobacco signs. . . . The racing organization says it's not worthwhile to redecorate all the vehicles and paraphernalia to take off the Marlboro and Kool signs just for a couple of races. Toronto Star doesn't mention that Philip Morris' Miller Brewing distributes and markets Molson Ale in US.
- 04/02/97 House Panel Votes to Drop Liability Law Sarasota Herald Tribune
- 04/01/97 Despite Woes, Interest Builds for Philip Morris Offering . . . market players expect it to be snapped up despite the litigation woes plaguing the tobacco industry.. . . "Any company that throws off $6 billion to $7 billion in free cash flow is a good company." The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
- 04/06/97 LETTERS: Herschensohn on Tobacco Regulations An oncologist and others try patiently to explain to Bruce the difference between tobacco and food. LA Times
- Tobacco's Town
- BRAND $$$$$$ From out of the circus emerged the symbol of success in the race to market cigarettes The original Camel campaign
- Death of Smith Reynolds became a lasting mystery Newspapers struggled to keep up with twists and turns
- Strikeout: Breaking the union at Reynolds Tobacco is an unsightly skeleton in the Journal's closet
- The famous surgeon-general's report got plenty of coverage in the Journal
- 04/03/97 CANADA: Artists for Tobacco-Free Sponsorship Address Senate Cmte "I will say with respect to artists that it's very difficult to turn the money down," said Andrew Cash, a Juno-award- winning singer and song writer. "Tobacco sponsorship itself is as addictive as the product." . . . "Bill C-71 will lead to event cancellations, make no mistake," said Max Beck of the tobacco-funded Alliance for Sponsorship Freedom. The Daily News Worldwide
- 04/03/97 AP story The Ickes papers also showed that two major tobacco companies, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds, were asked to route donations to state parties even as Clinton was planning to push regulations to crack down cigarette sales to minors. The tobacco companies were just two of many donors who were asked to make donations that would escape federal campaign disclosure laws.AP POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/02/97 WEST VIRGINIA: Judge Allows Lawsuit Against Tobacco Cos to Proceed Kanawha County Circuit Judge Irene Berger. has allowed West Virginia's lawsuit against tobacco companies to proceed on charges the companies violated state consumer protection and antitrust laws,. With 2 out of 14 claims left after Berger's February decision, WV's Medicaid suit still breathes. AP POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/03/97 Documents Suggest Tobacco Firms Courted Kids In the early 1960s, the tobacco industry knew of nicotine's "severe toxicity," targeted potential smokers as young as 16 and marketed brands especially for black, Hispanic and Jewish smokers, documents show. Reuters Fox News
- 04/02/97 Documents Reveal Tobacco Marketing Strategies In the 1960s, the tobacco industry knew of nicotine's "severe toxicity," targeted potential smokers as young as 16 and marketed brands especially for blacks, Hispanics and Jews, documents released Tuesday show. AP Boston Globe
- 04/01/97 LIGGETT PAPERS: Industry Set Targets by Age, Race, Gender while knowing of the "severe toxicity" of nicotine. . . AP NandoNet Here's a digest of the Arizona Republic bombshell. Here's the Reuters story and here's the AP story from Fox News
- 04/01/97 Safe, but Addictive: Liggett Worried about Addiction MSNBC
- 04/02/97 Harnish Was Battling More than Padres NY Newsday
What makes the California settlement unusual is that unlike the other 22 states it never sued Brooke due to the state's Brown-Lockyer Civil Liability Reform Act of 1987. . . Lungren said the settlement would allow his office to pursue lawsuits against other tobacco companies but only if California's legislature overturns the act. . . . "It would truly be a shame if damning evidence were to come into our possesion only for us to be stymied by a special tobacco exemption deal cut some 10 years ago," Lungren said. Reuters
- 04/05/97 SF Examiner Item
- 04/04/97 SF Chronicle Item
- 04/04/97 Lungren, LIGGETT Reach Accord But skeptics say the attorney general is only seeking to defuse criticism for not suing. A nice lingering look at the "napkin deal" made at Fat Frank's--the Brown-Lockyer Law. LA Times
- 04/04/97 New York Times article
- 04/03/97 LIGGETT Settles with CALIFORNIA; Settles with SF, 10 Counties Separately SF & Counties get documents, no cash. Business Wire
- 03/16/97 CALIFORNIA Launches Aggressive New Anti-Smoking Campaign CA Dept. of Health Services Press Release
- 04/03/97 NORTH CAROLINA: House Proposal Would Reduce Teen Sales to Parking-Ticket Level, but Drop Intent Requirement "Knowingly" would be removed from 1891 law, but selling to minors would no longer be a crime, but an "infraction." Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/03/97 MISSISSIPPI Judge Delays Trial til July 7 Jackson County Chancery Judge William Myers nixes June 2 start. "Thirty days is not enough, but it's a great start," said tobacco industry attorney Joe Colingo Reuters
- 04/03/97 MISSISSIPPI: Judge to Announce Date of Tobacco Trial Today Jackson County Chancery Court Judge William Meyers will announce today whether Mississippi's lawsuit against the tobacco industry will go to trial June 2 or be delayed. Tobacco wants the delay because of the Liggett settlement, which means AG Mike Moore will have access to internal tobacco company documents. Biloxi Sun Herald
- 04/03/97 Judge to Rule on Tobacco Suit Reuters
- 04/02/97 MISSISSIPPI: Tobacco to Seek Medicaid Trial Delay til September AG Moore vows to fight to keep June 2 trial date. Reuters
Everyone from this president on down is susceptible to the temptation to get a "solution" to the problem of tobacco's legality, something he or she can put a name on and take credit for, something neater and more concrete than the spreading mess of consequences now starting to threaten tobacco in a way that might finally bring it to the table. Washington Post
Through all of this, the people in the trenches somehow have to stay focused on their mission to reduce drug use among children. LA Times
Dr Refshauge said . . . he did not believe the public wanted it. He claimed the task force - comprising representatives of the Health Department, the Cancer Council, the Heart Foundation, WorkCover and others - did not represent the community. . . The chief executive of the Restaurant and Catering Association . . . said a ban was the only way to protect public health and the welfare of the State's 120,000 hospitality workers. Sydney Morning Herald
Tobacco companies haven't put up any of their huge billboards in sleepy Saint-Césaire, a small town surrounded by apple orchards and dairy farms, 50 kilometres east of Montreal. They haven't had to. Smoking is so deeply ingrained in the farming community that no one, until recently, lifted an eyebrow when kids as young as age 11 started smoking en masse, just like their parents. In the local high school, more than 40 per cent of the teenage girls and 33 per cent of the boys smoke, and most of them started in elementary school. The kids can easily buy cigarettes in the local corner stores, sometimes one cigarette at a time. They can even smoke on high-school grounds between classes. The teachers don't complain; a lot of them smoke in the school's smoking room. Fascinating look at teens in Canada's most heavy-smoking province. Montreal Gazette
Urges the attorney general to file a lawsuit against tobacco companies to seek reimbursement for state costs incurred in treating people afflicted with smoking-related diseases; SCR4; Burton, D-San Francisco; 21-11 to approve Assembly amendments; to attorney general. SF Chronicle
Sen. Mike Connolly, D-Dubuque, applauded the bill but berated fellow senators for hypocritically setting smoking restrictions on young people when they do not abide by state laws prohibiting smoking in public buildings. Senators repeatedly have carved out exemptions to provide smoking areas within the area of the Capitol controlled by the Senate. "This smacks a little of `do as I say, not as I do.' I think it sets a very, very bad example for the young people of Iowa," he said. "They watch you and they know what you're doing. If you're not doing what you're preaching, they can see that in a New York minute." The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
Ashtrays, once commonplace, have entered a kind of twilight realm where they seem on the verge of becoming artifacts, as obsolete as 19th-century snuff bottles or champagne whisks. "It seems they are becoming relics of the 20th century and may not live on into the 21st." The Ottawa Citizen
"Our No. 1 priority is to motivate 68 million Americans under the age of 18 not to do three things: use illegal drugs, alcohol or cigarettes."--Drug Control Policy Director Barry R. McCaffrey. Chicago Sun-Times
- 04/04/97 FLORIDA: Republican Leaders Project Defeat on Bid to Overturn Liability Law
"I don't think the Senate president [Toni Jennings] or I want to spend a lot of time going down a dead-end street" -- House Speaker Daniel Webster. Chiles' Medicaid suit to scrape by again? Orlando Sentinel / POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
Artist Michael Deas, one of the U.S. Postal Service's most celebrated stamp artists, decided to use a pair of folded hands under the writer's chin instead of the cigarette that was in the photograph of Wilder on which Deas based his design. Washington Post
EDITOR'S NOTE -- In the midst of public battles over smoking, the private struggle of the person trying to quit is often overlooked. In October, The Associated Press interviewed one woman going through a first month without cigarettes. Six months later, the AP visited her again. . . . Five months after Lauretta Bambula quit smoking, her doctor called with a dreaded diagnosis -- lung cancer. Her first urge was to reach for a cigarette . . . AP Washington Post
Here a slightly abbreviated version at the Philadelphia Daily News
- 04/03/97 CONNOR: Wilner Looks for 2nd Win Jury selection begins Monday.
- 04/01/97 CONNOR: Judge Strikes Some Claims from Suit Circuit Judge Bernard Nachman ruled that lawyers for plaintiff Dana Raulerson will only be allowed to present claims of conspiracy to commit fraud pre-dating 1969, when federal cigarette package labelling laws were changed. . . "Here, Reynolds had no state law duty to disclose information to Ms. Connor other than the common law duty to warn," [Circuit Judge Bernard ]Nachman wrote. "Therefore, plaintiffs' concealment and non-disclosure theories are preempted." Reuters
- 04/05/97 Extracts from Labour Party's 1997 General Election Manifesto
A new minister for public health will attack the root causes of ill health, and so improve lives and save the NHS money. Smoking is the greatest single cause of preventable illness and premature death in the UK. We will therefore ban tobacco advertising. The Guardian
- 04/03/97 CANADA: Tobacco Firms Use Rock Music To Lure Youths: Singer Andrew Cash tells Senate cmte: "One of the most consistent and solid institutions of meaning for young people is rock and roll - as sad a statement as some here may think that is. . . Sponsorship works in selling cigarettes in a much larger way, creating a climate of acceptance. . . But in rock and roll there is a direct relationship. What you have is young people at a very vulnerable time in their lives - the exact age that most people start smoking - (and) advertisers are just drooling over themselves to capture the imagination of young people." Toronto Star
- 04/05/97 LIGGETT Documents Reveal Other Side
Here's a homemaking tip you'll never hear from Martha Stewart: Arrange cigarette cartons for display in the home, perhaps as a "decorative table dispenser." . . . These thoughtful tips and observations from the Liggett company . . . provide an intriguing, sometimes humorous inside look at the tobacco industry's internal view of the outside world. AP Washington Post - 04/04/97 LIGGET Targeted Minorities, Youth Boston Globe
In downtown San Jose, a place called Stogie's Martini Co. is neither. "On St. Patrick's Day, we were probably the deadest place in town," admits bartender Mark Jenkins. He keeps a chess set in the back of the bar "for slow nights." On the cigar/martini/red-beef trends in Silicon Valley. San Jose Mercury News
Anyone under 18 caught with tobacco products faces a fine or a sentence to community service. . . . After a third offense of selling tobacco to a minor, state officials can seize a store's license to sell cigarettes. AP Biloxi Sun Herald
Tobacco, the "golden leaf," truly is golden to Virginia, with a dollars-and-cents impact unmatched by almost any other state. But the few states with a critical economic stake in the health of the tobacco industry are dwarfed in number by states where the cost of smoking overshadows tobacco's benefits . . . In only four states do the benefits of tobacco outweigh the costs of smoking-related illness, . . . Virginia, North Carolina, Kentucky and Georgia. For every other state and for the nation as a whole, the analysis shows that the toll from smoking outweighs the benefit. Richmond Times-Dispatch
Common Cause/New York, the League of Women Voters, the New York Public Interest Research Group and United We Stand America have formed the "Take Back Democracy" campaign to urge that laws governing lobbyists' behavior be more universally applied. They want lobbyists to be required to register with the counties before plying their trade locally, for example. Capital District Business Review - Albany
The bill by Assemblywoman Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, would prohibit outdoor tobacco advertising within 1,000 feet of schools and public playgrounds. UPI
[P]residing Judge Braxton L. Kittrell Jr. gave preliminary approval to the unusual settlement, which would resolve all smokers' claims against Liggett and wouldn't allow individuals to pursue any separate claims against the company. . . Judge Kittrell's role in the case is now raising eyebrows among critics of class-action settlements, who say he is too willing to approve settlements, regardless of the terms.
. . . [Alabama Lawyer Steven A.] Martino had been an obscure figure in the tobacco wars. He had joined a national consortium of more than 60 plaintiffs' law firms that are pooling resources to battle the industry. . . . Leaders of the group say they asked Mr. Martino to help bring a suit on behalf of smokers in Alabama. Instead, they say, Mr. Martino veered off with other lawyers, including Norwood S. Wilner. . . "We consider it a rogue operation," says John Coale, a key member of the consortium. He adds that the group will oppose the settlement because it doesn't provide enough money for smokers and unfairly restricts the rights of future plaintiffs to sue. The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
- 04/08/97 PENNSYLVANIA: As State Sues, it reaps smoking money
PA., others sue cig makers while reaping investments Philadelphia Daily News
Tough prohibitions against smoking in public places, cigarette sponsorship of sporting events, tobacco advertising and cigarette sales to under-18 could take effect this year if the Tobacco Control Bill 1995 is passed by parliament The East African / Reuters Press Digest
- 04/08/97 Citizens for a Sound Economy Faults Republicans Backing Kennedy Health Plan US Newswire POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/06/97 HATCH, KENNEDY to Introduce Cigartte-tax-funded Children's Health Insurance Bill Tuesday Bill would increase federal tax by 43 cents/pack; 2/3 to go to childrens health insurance, 1/3 to reduce deficit.
"When it comes to health care for the American people, both of us have put politics aside. . . [tobacco] is the single most preventable cause of premature death and illness in America" -- Hatch (R-UT) NandoNet. Here's the AP Story Washington Post
Max Roland worries that he could be forced out of raising burley tobacco, something he has done all his life. Not because of blue mold. Nor because of the anti-smoking zeal sweeping the nation. But because the U.S. Department of Agriculture might close a tiny branch office in Ashe County. Roland then would have to drive to Wilkesboro to do his required paperwork. Like many Ashe County farmers, Roland makes four to 10 trips to the office a year. Winston-Salem Journal
If future juries should find cigarette companies guilty of fraud, deception, or failure to warn, the decisions could trigger a cascade of events--none of which would require government regulation--that could lead to a natural decline in the prevalence of smoking in America. The outcome could include higher cigarette prices (reflecting the industry's passing on its increased costs to consumers), as well as new and aggressive attempts to develop a safer cigarette and restrict advertising and sales to children--two courses cigarette manufacturers would surely embrace to shield themselves from more private litigation. Must reading from The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
This wave of lawsuits is about politics, not law, and money, not public health. The overwhelming majority of the lawsuits have been filed by Democratic attorneys general and politically connected, liberal trial lawyers. Their agenda is in line with the Clinton administration's and threatens the entire business community The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
In January, the Australian Medical Journal reported a case of lead poisoning by an electrician who chewed electrical cable to satisfy his nicotine urge when he was forced to work in no-smoking buildings. The man said he chewed almost a yard of cable a day for nearly 10 years because it had a sweet taste, especially near the center. Chuck Shepherd, News of the Weird
It is a tale of liars and lawyers, a great, spasmodic collision of greed and vengeance and ego. But scrape under the allegations of blackmail and sniper fire, and what you find is one deeply flawed man and his imperfect quest for redemption. Detailed, dramatic tale of the Williams saga. St. Petersburg Times
. . . industry leaders tell CNNfn that, behind closed doors, the administration actively solicited contributions from tobacco companies. According to recently released memos from the files of ex-White House aide Harold Ickes, the Democratic party bypassed federal disclosure requirements by keeping a secret set of books to track money the national organization solicited and sent to state parties. CNNfn
In a writ, lodged at the High Court in London, Rembrandt alleges that Philip Morris has broken an agreement precluding it from using tobacco trademarks -- including the Marlboro Man -- in the southern African region Times of London Rembrandt Refuses to Give Details Reuters
- 04/07/97 BROIN: PM CEO Geoffrey Bible Ordered to Answer Pretrial Questions PM: Dade County Circuit Court Judge Robert Kaye's order likely to be challenged by a New York Court. Reuters
Quitting cigarettes is hard. But giving up smokeless tobacco can be even more difficult. The reason, says the American Lung Association, is nicotine -- which is absorbed by the body much more rapidly via chewing than smoking. No mention of baseball--but this article is in the baseball section. (New York) Daily News
Manager Bobby Valentine said he spoke with [Dr. Allan] Lans, who told him Harnisch's symptoms were consistent with tobacco withdrawal. Harnisch attempted to quit smokeless tobacco March 12. NY Times
- 04/08/97 Pete Rx: Rest, Docs (New York) Daily News
- 04/08/97 More than Pete Can Chew Extensive look at Harnisch and chewing tobacco in baseball. NY Daily News
- 04/08/97 Pete's Perils Not Unusual, Docs Say Newsday
- 04/08/97 Phillies' Curt Schilling Has Gone Cold Turkey
"I went cold turkey for two weeks," he said. "I was waking up in the middle of the night, watching television and getting violently ill. Throwing up, sweating, everything." Schilling said he tried to quit again this past offseason. "I couldn't get out of bed for two days. I was physically drained. . . It's the hardest thing I've ever tried to do in my life. I have to do it." Pithy, moving article from the Philadelphia Daily News - 04/08/97 Phillies Backup Catcher Mark Parent Has Problem with Tobacco
"It's really a tough thing to do. . . I believe it's a serious enough addiction that if a player is trying to get off it he deserves the support of the club and the fans he's held accountable to. . . I saw the ballplayers doing it on TV -- that's how I started," he said. He was 12 at the time. It didn't help that Parent grew up in extreme Northern California, "rodeo country," as he calls. "If it wasn't the ballplayers, it was the cowboys," he said. "They were always chewing, too." Philadelphia Inquirer - 04/08/97 Tough Chaw for Harnisch
"When he talked about quitting [tobacco chewing]," Met catcher Todd Hundley said, "I said, 'Why now, man? Why not quit in the winter when you have less stress on you?' There's no way I'd do it now, that's for damn sure. I tried it four years ago in the winter, quit for about five months, so I know what he's going through. It gets to you. LA Times - 04/07/97 Harnisch Put on Disabled List AP POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly). Here's the Knight-Ridder item POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/07/97 SPORTS: BASEBALL: Mets Pitcher Harnisch Scratched after Suffering Nicotine Withdrawal Symptoms Bohanon goes in on 2 hours notice, Mets take Giants 4-2. AP Washington Post
- 04/07/97 Harnisch Having Rough Start SF Chronicle
- 04/07/97 Harnisch Suffering Breakdown NY Newsday
- 04/07/97 NY Daily News Item
Ubervixen Linda Fiorentino (as we lit up) told me she'd quit for seven years. But the more in demand she becomes in Hollywood, the more she smokes. . . Well, think of it this way: Being on a movie set is like being in prison . . . and prisoners like to smoke. . . If you wonder why so many people smoke on screen, it's 'cause tobacco firms happily ply film sets with cartons of cigarettes. You call it cancer; they call it product placement. Here in Atlanta, screenwriter- turned-director Ben Taylor (who just wrapped "In the Flesh") supplied the crew with cigarettes.
Names: Theodore Witcher, Ben Affleck, Jim Carrey, Holly Hunter, Angela Bassett, Whitney Houston, Irene Bedard, David Lynch, Kenneth Branagh, Jan Sverak, Shirley MacLaine, Robert Redford, Ralph Fiennes, Johnny Depp, Vincent Perez. Atlanta Journal and Constitution/Infoseek
More teens are using tobacco -- and watered-down laws aren't helping. PART 1 Laws got weaker as teen smoking rose. PART 2 Teens say why they smoke. PART 3 Smoking not a priority for schools. PART 4 Girding for battle in legislature. Jan-12-15, 1997 Series from the Charlotte Observer
Assemblywoman Carole Migden amended [the legislation] Monday to ban such advertising within 1,000 feet, which matches pending federal legislation, after Republicans voted to hold it up. . SF Examiner
Rep. David Etnier, D-Harpswell, argued the merits of his smoking ban bill before members of the Legislature's Health and Human Services Committee. Richard Grotton of the Maine Restuarant Association argued against it. Cmte agreed to reconsider it again, along with a separate restaurant smoking bill, April 18. Bangor Daily News
"Is anyone in America prepared to argue that Liggett's admission tells us something we didn't already know?" Apparently Jeff Jacoby has known all along that tobacco companies have been knowingly marketing an addicting, deadly drug to kids for decades. So what has he done about it? Attacked "anti-smoking Savonarolas." So? Boston Globe
"Almost 65 percent of the smokers surveyed believe cold turkey is the best way to quit. . . Yet nearly half agreed that one of the hardest things about quitting is not having anyone to support them during the tough times." MSNBC
The state of Minnesota asserted Tuesday that major tobacco companies hid volumes of sensitive and important scientific research on smoking and health by invoking the veil of attorney-client privilege. The state also produced more than 50 documents in Ramsey County District Court in an attempt to demonstrate that the industry's internal discussion regarding health matters differed from its public position that smoking was not addictive and did not cause disease. "Every manufacturer has a duty to keep informed of the scientific knowledge of the dangers of its products. . . The law does not countenance withholding of studies on the dangers of its products." Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune
The temporary restraining order was a first step in an industry lawsuit that accuses Liggett . . . of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and misuse of confidential information. Freeman said that his ruling preserves the status quo as the case proceeds. Freeman said that it is likely the four major tobacco companies suing Liggett could be irreparably harmed if the secret documents got out and that Liggett would not be harmed by the preliminary injunction. Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/09/97 LIGGETT: Judge Extends Block on Release of Documents
"Essentially what he [William Freeman] said was that the defendants in this case are not to produce publicly any documents or to allow those documents to be produced until courts either here or in other jurisdictions are allowed to conduct whatever hearings they want to conduct concerning whether the documents are privileged and concerning whether those documents should be released by those courts." UPI - 04/02/97 LIGGETT: Cig Firm Targeted New York Jews NY Daily News
- 04/08/97 LIGGETT Weeded Out Troublesome Slogans "Because You Enjoy Smoking Too Much" nixed. AP Washington Post.
- 04/08/97 CONNOR Trial is First Since LIGGETT Admission Knight Ridder analysis POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/08/97 6 Jurors Selected Part 2: 2 Alternates to be Picked Wed. Dow Jones (Pay Registration).
- 04/08/97 CONNOR: Jury Selection Continues Reuters
- 04/08/97 CONNOR: Jurors Asked about Smoking Habits, Addiction
"Any of you ever swipe your daddy's cigarettes? 'Fess up," asked Ron Motley, a lawyer from Charleston, S.C., working for Jean Connor's attorneys. AP Winston-Salem Journal - 04/08/97 Jury Selection to Continue Today Reuters
- 04/07/97 CONNOR: Jury Selection Under Way Reuters
- 04/07/97 Jury Selection Begins MSNBC
- 04/07/97 Jury Selection Ends for Day Reuters
- 04/08/97 Jury Selection Begins The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
- 04/07/97 Wilner Preps for RJR Trial CNNfn
- 04/07/97 Grisham's Runaway Jury Overhangs Tobacco Trial
"We are up here and having to defend against a fictitious novel, and I don't know why," attorney Ed Moss of Brown & Williamson said on Monday at a Miami hearing before a class-action suit against cigarette makers. "This is ridiculous. We have not and will not go out and investigate the jurors.". Reuters - 04/07/97 CONNOR Trial Could Signal Anti-Tobacco Trend
Dana Raulerson recalls looking up to her older sister . . . who took up cigarettes in her teens so that she could be like glamorous movie stars. John Schwartz, Washington Post - 04/07/97 All Eyes on CONNOR Trial
The stakes are higher this time around as the RJ Reynolds Tobacco Co. readies for a trial this week . . . Investors, tobacco companies, lawyers and politicians will be watching Raulerson vs. RJ Reynolds to see if plaintiff attorney Norwood "Woody" Wilner can win two in a row. Reuters - 04/06/97 CONNOR Suit to Test Strength of LIGGETT Revelations Shankar Vedantam, Knight Ridder POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/11/97 Smoker Testifies from Beyond the Grave AP/Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/11/97 Jury Hears Late Smoker's Deposition Reuters
- 04/10/97 CONNOR: Expert Says Smoking Caused Death Dow Jones (pay registration)
- 04/10/97 CONNOR Opening Arguments AP, Winston-Salem Journal
- "'There was always misleading advertising about cigarettes suggesting they are not harmful. . . There's no evidence that Reynolds cared about its customers in any of their statements or documents." -- Wilner
- "I submit when the day is done, there is only one issue in this case: whether someone who chose to smoke despite more than 27 years of warnings on every pack of cigarettes she smoked ... and despite a barrage of media attention, should be awarded monetary damages because of that decision." -- Crist, RJR. Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/10/97 Tobacco Trial II NY Newsday
- 04/10/97 CONNOR Opening Statements: Case Hangs on Choice vs. Addiction Reuters.
- 04/10/97 Trial Opens AP Washington Post
- 04/09/97 Liability Suit Under Way UPI
- 04/09/97 CONNOR Begins Motley waves 1962 RJR report about, says it will prove RJR knew but didn't share knowledge of harm. Also shows SnackWells; promises to reveal "Secrets of Salem." Reuters
- 04/09/97 CONNOR: 6-Person Jury Seated 4 men, 2 women (+ 2 alternates) set to hear opening statements in Raulerson vs. R.J. Reynolds this afternoon. Reuter
- 04/11/97 150 Voice Opinions at Hearing Maine Grocers Assn. argues tax would hurt small retailer, boost smuggling. Portland Press Herald
- 04/11/97 OPINION: Tax Won't Both Cut Smoking and Raise Funds Portland Press Herald
Am I stupid, or what? (Don't answer that.) I just find it hard to understand the mathematical formula that allows a tax on goods that is aimed at reducing demand to produce a sustainable growth in revenue. Someone patiently explain, please.
Though House Speaker Gail Phillips firmly opposes an increase in the state tobacco tax, most members of her majority coalition want to take the bill up on the House floor, said Rep. Con Bunde, sponsor of the bill to raise the tax by $1 a pack.
Verner, Liipfert, Bernhard, McPherson and Hand is one of 2 Washington, DC firms recently hired by tobacco companies to help them work out settlement issues. The February, 1997 news links on this story are all gone now, but you can see the March 13, 1997 news item from ASH
- 04/09/97 Federal Judge Says New Documents Allow PM Suit to be Reinstated
U.S. District Judge Michael B. Mukasey, who threw out the suit in 1995, writes, "Reasonable minds could find that all of this non-public information would have been important to the reasonable investor as tending to indicate the company's own belief that its products could be subject to FDA regulation or restriction." AP - 04/09/97 Tobacco Suit Reinstated Reuters/CNNfn
- 04/09/97 Federal Securities Suit Reinstated Against Philip Morris Plaintiffs allege new evidence shows that Philip Morris artifically inflated the price of the stock by suggesting to the public "through their statements that nicotine is not addictive (and) that smoking is entirely a matter of 'choice." Reuters
- 04/10/97 BAT Dips on News of PM Shareholders Suit Reuters. BAT Confident on Nicotine Documents Doesn't feel danger from an investors' suit. Reuters
- 04/09/97 8 Republican Senators Co-Sponsor Bill to Raise Cig Tax Hatch/Kennedy bill may actually have a chance to pass. NY Times. Here's the article at the Lexington Herald-Leader Here's the AP item from FoxNews.
- 04/11/97 OPINION: Would $4.23 cents a Pack Dissuade Teenagers from Smoking? My Guess is Yes Greensboro (NC) News and Record
- 04/11/97 OPINION: Tobacco Tax Will Cut Addiction Rate Wills, Austin American-Stateman
- 04/09/97 OPINION: Tobacco Tax for Kids a Good Idea Marianne Means, Austin American-Stateman
- 04/09/97 Opening a Pack of Paradoxes Kansas City Star
- 04/10/97 A Plan for Health Care for All Kids Atlanta Journal & Constitution
New York State Professional Fire Fighters Association distributed a written statement of opposition to lawmakers and almost killed the measure. The union . . . argued there is no proof a fire-safe cigarette can be produced so the money should instead be spent on public education. "We need to make people aware and responsible for their actions," the union said. . . .
"I have seen a lot in Albany, but this one was inexplicable. . . They should either check the facts on the bill or hang their heads in shame."
- 04/10/97 CANADA: Senate Will OK Tobacco Sponsorship Bill Ottawa Sun
- 04/10/97 Becoming Harder to Chew Bill Tuttle, others come forward. Knight-Ridder POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
Purchase represents a new strategy of buying longer-term securities to diversify its portfolio, which consists mainly of mortgages, officials . . . said . . . Such deals allow the company to profit by using its government ties to borrow at favorable rates in the capital markets and use the funds to buy higher-paying corporate debt, a process known as arbitrage. The strategy, coupled with earlier disclosure of Freddie Mac's use of a tax-avoidance device known as fast-pay preferred stock, suggests the company has adopted a "push-envelope culture," said Rep. Jim Leach
"There are cynical people on the opposing side who are going to attempt to raise fake issues. We need to work to restore people's confidence in government, whether it's necessary to do these things or not." --Republican gubernatorial candidate Gilmore
If warnings of the health effects don't stop them, maybe they'll think twice if they knew how animals suffered in tobacco-company laboratories, [Jenny Woods] said. Winston-Salem Journal
Is tobacco losing the war?
- 04/11/97 RYDER Tires of Smoking Image AP Washington Post (a basic precis of USA article)
- 04/14/97 RYDER Urged to Kick Butts Petaluma, CA teens write star on smoking in films. USA Today
The committee wants "transitional compensatory funding for those who are now dependent upon the tobacco companies for the sponsorship of their events." -- Liberal Senator Sharon Carstairs. Conservative senators expected to attempt amendments as bill now heads for third hearing before full Senate. The Edmonton Journal
Early March, with Canada's newspapers full of stories about Ottawa's tobacco advertising legislation and Toronto's smoking ban, little attention got paid to a strong new production agreement for the province's flue-cured growers.
An electronics and plastics company in Somero . . . first tried limiting the space where workers could have a smoke and gave out nicotine patches for free, but to little effect. About 100 of its 300 workers still ducked out for a cigarette. Then it decided to pay workers who stopped smoking -- $60 a month. Most of them have now quit.
- 04/12/97 Court Puts Off Ruling on FDA Regulations AP/Bloomberg/Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/11/97 LeBow Says Settlement Was Right AP Washington Post
"I think it's the right thing to do. I'm the grandfather of five small children, and I don't want them smoking," LeBow said in a news conference with Gov. Lawton Chiles.
- 04/11/97 Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel item
- 04/10/97 LIGGETT: Additives, Pesticides Mixed in Tobacco Since the 1940s 1967 study notes herbicide maleic hydrazide could increase tar, nicotine. UPI
"There is evidence that the defendants utilized attorneys in carrying out and planning fraudulent activities and undertook to misuse the attorney-client relationship to keep secret research and other activities related to the true health dangers of smoking." -- Rutter
The (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel reported the documents show that Liggett kept careful inventory of pesticides and additives it had mixed with tobacco since 1940. . . . Circuit Judge Harold Cohen will hold a hearing Monday on the special master's findings before the documents would be released. AP POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/11/97 LIGGETT: Another Legal Setback for Tobacco Firms Judicial officer finds evidence that companies made use of lawyers in planning fraudulent activities. . . R. William Rutter, a Florida attorney who is serving as the special master for pretrial document disputes in Florida's massive $2.4-billion suit against the tobacco industry, made that finding as part of a ruling late Wednesday that sensitive Liggett Group documents should be released.
- 04/10/97 Arizona Daily Star item.
Rutter said the documents the tobacco companies want to keep secret could lead a jury to conclude that they "misled and defrauded the public and public health officials regarding the relationship between smoking and health." - 04/10/97 The Sun-Sentinel article costs $1.95(!)
- 04/10/97 Freddie Mac Probe Sought on Philip Morris Investments
Rep. James Leach (R-IW), chairman of the House Banking and Financial Services Committee Thursday called for a probe into the investment practices of Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp . . . after he learned that Freddie Mac has reportedly bought $340 million in Philip Morris Companies Inc bonds. . . "Freddie Mac was established by an act of Congress for a specific purpose - to advance home ownership, not to facilitate tobacco sale." Reuters - 04/11/97 Leach Asks GAO to Probe Freddie Mac Washington Post
- 04/11/97 NY Times item
- 04/11/97 Probe of Tobacco Investments Sought AP Washington Post
- 04/15/97 Tobacco Cos Fight Suit UPI
- 04/15/97 Law Means "Unquantifiable" Loss for Tobacco Reuters
[T]he departments of health and alcoholic beverage control say they plan to submit a proposal to the FDA by early May for authority to carry out the rules
Backers now contend ASSIST, an unusual joint project between the government and the American Cancer Society, has proven so successful in attacking smoking in the 17 test states that its model should be expanded nationwide. Foes from the tobacco industry disagree, and say ASSIST has been made into a anti-tobacco lobbying effort. A look at the program and the tobacco industry's use of Freedom of Information Requests.
"When you think about it, what they want is to be sure there's not cheap tobacco out there for the companies to buy."
- 04/13/97 Activist RJR Shareholders to Press Change Winston-Salem Journal
"They preferred that it go to the state organizations," Reynolds spokeswoman Maura Ellis said of $50,000 in donations the company gave to four Democratic state parties and another party committee. "That was at their request."
"Contrary to popular thought, almost half of all new cases of lung cancer strike former smokers," says Dr. John Minna. . . . Even those who quit 20 years ago have double the risk. . . and it stays there for a lifetime. Interesting article on statistics, prevention techniques and treatments, including experiments with a p53 gene-oriented "cancer vaccine."
The conservative, free-markets crowd is already claiming the tobacco companies have made out like bandits again and this just proves government can't or shouldn't regulate anything, that this is all about welfare for trial lawyers. They have a point. The sheer silliness of this war seems at times appalling. On the other hand, we haven't done a very complete job of eradicating violent crime or fire ants, but liberals argue you should keep trying new things. That's their hopeless addiction. It would seem that smoking is enough of a national nuisance that no great nation can just give up on eradicating it.
- 04/16/97 LEACH Revives Debate over FREDDIE MAC's Status American Banker
- 04/14/97 BUSINESS: "All-Natural" Cigarettes Are Hot Despite Their Tar and Nicotine American Spirit, etc. The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration). Here's the article in the 04/16/97 Lexington Herald-Leader
Maternal smoking, either during pregnancy or lactation, is associated with the development of atopic eczema in the offspring Study by Dr. T. Schafer of Munich Technical University and associates found a 2.3-fold increase in risk of atopic eczema associated with maternal smoking during pregnancy or lactation. . . . J Am Acad Dermatol 1997;36:550-556.
- 04/15/97 RJR Document Says Smoking Caused Cancer Here's Part 2 Dow Jones (pay registration)
- 04/15/97 Tobacco Cos Knew in 1953 of Cancer Link Reuters
- 04/16/97 RJR Knew Cancer Link in 1953--Doctor AP Chicago Tribune
- 04/15/97 CONNOR: Smoking Risks Widely Known in 1964--Lung Specialist Dr. Alan Feingold, head of pulmonary medicine at South Miami Hospital, admits many people quit after Surgeon General's report. Dow Jones (pay registration)
- 04/14/97 RJR Papers Introduced Reuters
- 04/15/97 RJR Papers Say Nicotine Delivery Most Important Dow Jones (pay registration)
"Tobacco products alone provide nicotine satisfaction. Therefore, that is the primary reason smokers smoke. . . In designing nicotine products the dominant specification should be nicotine delivery." --Teague, 1972. "If we uniquely accept the allegations of our critics and move toward the reduction or elimination of nicotine from our products, then we shall eventually liquidate our business." -- uncited1972 Memo - 04/15/97 Expert: RJR Document Draws Cancer Link Reuters
An internal R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. document told company executives 44 years ago that cigarette smoking caused cancer, an expert witness said Tuesday at the trial of a wrongful death lawsuit against Reynolds. The document, written by Reynolds' researcher Claude Teague and dated February 1953, summarized statistical studies of the day and noted concurrent increases in cigarette smoking and lung cancer in the first half of the century. - 04/15/97 Juror Excused for Ill Health Alternate fills in for juror with kidney trouble. Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/15/97 CONNOR: Lawyers at Trial Glean Tips for Wave of Tobacco Suits This is the 2nd Part Dow Jones (pay registration)
"New documents released by the Liggett Group show that in the '50s and '60s its cigarettes contained hazardous substances including something called 'Toxikil.' Who would name something that? Was the name 'Deathgel' already taken?" LA Times
"With one exception (a Yale University researcher), the individuals whom we met believed that smoking causes lung cancer if by `causation' we mean any chain of events which leads finally to lung cancer and which involves smoking as an indispensable link." --1958 report filed in Ramsey County District Court. Authors H.R. Bentley, D.G.I. Felton and W.W. Reid met with 35 industry scientists; said the only question was whether smoking caused lung cancer directly or indirectly. David Shaffer, St. Paul Pioneer Press The link may not be working. Here's the item at POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/15/97 FLORIDA: Tobacco Cos Fight to Keep Documents Sealed Miami Herald POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
In the current ruling in Scott v. American Tobacco Co., Judge Richard Ganucheau of the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans held that a class be certified of Louisiana smokers who want to participate in medical monitoring and smoking cessation programs. The judge also reserved the class members' rights to assert any claims for damages they may have suffered as a result of smoking. Reuters
"His smoking is more than a bad habit; it intrudes on many areas of our life. . . I sometimes feel like smoking is more important than his family." When one partner smokes and the other doesn't, the relationship may be destroyed, says Donna Gordon . . . "In most cases, nonsmokers try to be tolerant, but the smoking ends up bothering them. Then they may start nagging, particularly if they have never been addicted to cigarettes and don't understand how difficult it is to quit."
Three new print ad executions that broke last week show only the cigarettes--giving them a human-like look, reclining on a porch swing, lying back in a hammock or playing chess.
- 04/16/97 AP Item Washington Post
- 04/16/97 Tobacco Firms in Talks with Plaintiffs Lawyers Reuters has its own source.
- 04/16/97 Report: Tobacco Firms Working on Settlement Reuters
- 04/16/97 RJR's BLIXT on WSJ Report: "We're Willing to Listen to Any Reasonable Proposal." Reuters
- 04/16/97 RJR's GOLDSTONE: Settlement "in Our Interests" Reuters
- 04/16/97 BUSINESS: The MOTLEY FOOL: When a Huge Settlement is Welcome
- 04/16/97 BAT Up on New Settlement Rumors Wall St. Journal article buoys London stock.
- 04/16/97 WALL ST: Tobacco Stocks Rise on Settlement Talk Rumors "The tobaccos are definitely the main excitement for today"--trader. Reuters
- 04/16/97 Bipartisan Panel Urges Clinton Not to Relinquish FDA Oversight of Nicotine for Settlement LA Times
The Congressional Task Force on Tobacco and Health urged President Clinton on Tuesday not to strip the Food and Drug Administration of any of its new regulatory powers over tobacco products as part of any future "global settlement" of tobacco litigation. . . Congressmen Martin Meehan (D-Mass.) and James V. Hansen (R-Utah) acted in response to a recent National Journal interview in which White House Deputy Counsel Bruce R. Lindsey suggested that the Clinton administration might agree to limits on how much control the FDA would have over the tobacco industry as part of a settlement. - 04/15/97 OPINION: No Global Settlements with the Tobacco Industry Americans for Nonsmokers Rights
- 04/10/97 Stan Glantz on LIGGETT Settlement Science writer Andrew Skolnik has posted "Re: The Liggett Settlement Agreements and Their Policy Implications for Public Health," Stan Glantz & Brian Fox's memo to the attorneys general.
The connection between smoking and health has been so thoroughly studied and reported over the past 40 years that the tobacco industry has not concealed knowledge of hazards in a manner that would constitute criminal fraud, [David Bernick, representing Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp] said Tuesday. Industry lawyers plead attorney-client privilege on documents.
- 04/16/97 PM Profit Up 13% Reuters
- 04/17/97 NY Times Item
- 04/17/97 Deal Could be Reached This Year Gail Appleson, Reuters
- 04/17/97 KENTUCKY Tobacco Farmers Say it's Too Soon to Worry About Tobacco Deal Lexington Herald Leader POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/17/97 CALIFORNIA Leaps into Settlement Fray
- 04/16/97 Attorneys General Confirm Settlement Talks Reuters Here's MISS. AG Mike Moore's Statement
- 04/17/97 Tobacco Cos May Disclose Research The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration) Here's the Reuters article
- 04/17/97 Tobacco Offers Documents CNNfn
- 04/17/97 Boston Globe Item/Series of Articles
- 04/17/97 AP Item Fox News
- 04/17/97 Washington Times Item The conservative DC newspaper reports.
- 04/17/97 Tobacco War Nearing Truce St. Petersberg Times
- 04/17/97 NY Times Item, plus Tobacco Suits Offer Bargaining Chips for Negotiators, Durbin audio clips, smoking forum. NY Times
- 04/17/97 Washington Post Item
- 04/17/97 St. Paul Pioneer Press Item
- 04/17/97 LA Times Item
- 04/17/97 Irish Times Item
- 04/17/97 MSNBC Item
- 04/16/97 CLINTON Monitoring Tobacco Talks Closely
"We are making our views very well known to the parties, and what our interests are in protecting the public health, we're fulfilling that responsibility.". -- White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry. Reuters - 04/17/97 Clinton Continues to Push Tobacco Issue AllPolitics
- 04/17/97 CONGRESS Reacts Warily The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
- 04/16/97 Senators DURBIN, LAUTENBERG Want Congress to Have Say in Tobacco Deal
Tobacco opponents are promising a rigorous review to ensure that any settlement is "fair" and prevents, in Lautenberg's words, "the seduction of 3,000 kids a day" to replenish a market depleted as customers die of smoking-related illness." UPI - 04/16/97 Transcript of Senators' Press Conference Federal News Service
- 04/17/97 Tobacco Talks Fuel Worries Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/17/97 Immunity for Tobacco Firms Criticized Washington Post
- 04/17/97 Immunity for Tobacco Firms Faulted AP Washington Post
- 04/17/97 Ex-Surgeon General Koop Denounces Tobacco Deal Reuters
"I think it's unconstitutional." He scoffed at reports that the tobacco companies were offering $300 billion over 25 years to settle law suits brought against them for deaths of smokers. "That's $28,000 per life lost. . . I think that's a paltry sum." - 04/16/97 AMA on Settlement Talks: Let Public Health Come First PR Newswire
- 04/17/97 MINNESOTA: Blue Cross/Blue Shield Not a Party to Talks Business Wire
- 04/16/97 MASSACHUSETTS Says Tobacco Settlement Not Imminent Reuters
- 04/16/97 CHILES Says Tobacco Issue a Long Way from Settlement Reuters 04/16/97 CHILES Says FLORIDA Suit Key to Talks UPI
- 04/17/97 ADVERTISING: Tobacco Pact May Send Marlboro Man Riding Into Sunset
Madison Ave. bracing for shock The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
- 04/17/97 Talks a Healthy Sign for Tobacco Cos LA Times
- 04/17/97 WALL ST. Wants Settlement Chicago Tribune
- 04/17/97 Investors Buy Tobacco Stocks, in Hopes Pact Won't Die Out $300B payout brings hope for end to tobacco troubles. The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
- 04/16/97 BOND MARKET: Tobacco Debt Tightens on Settlement Talks Reuters
- 04/17/97 EDITORIAL: Tobacco Gets Smoked NY Times
- 04/17/97 OPINION: Smoke Alarm Sounds Times of London
- 04/17/97 CANADA: Senate Ignores Warning of Rothmans Chair Liberal Senator William Kelly, chairman of Rothmans Inc., says bill is constitutionally flawed. Ottawa Citizen
- 04/19/97 Senate Votes to Strip Tobacco of Immunity in Liability Cases Sacramento Bee
- 04/17/97 Senate Paves Way for State Tobacco Suit Kopp bill must now be passed by Assembly Judiciary Cte and signed by Gov. Pete Wilson. Reuters
- 04/18/97 Senate Backs Repeal of Tobacco Shield LA Times
- 04/15/97 HEALTH: Smoking Increases Risk of Dementia "The risk of smokers to develop dementia was twice as high as compared to those who had never smoked" -- study author Dr. Alewijn Ott, from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Study followed almost 7,000 men & women over 55 for 2 years. Study which contrasts with many on smoking and Alzheimer's was announced at American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Boston. Reuters Health eLine
- 04/16/97 NABISCO Spin-off Spins Out CNNfn
- 04/17/97 RJR Shareholders Reject Tobacco Split AP Fox
- 04/16/97 INFACT Says "Shame on You" at RJR Shareholder Meeting New corporate influence-peddler's Hall of Shame gets first inductee. PR Newswire
- 04/16/97 CONNOR: RJR Enters Papers to Show 1950s Medical Experts Were Divided on Cancer/Smoking Risk 1954 NY Times article among papers presented. Reuters
Sales of Glaxo Wellcome's Zyban, a [non-nicotine] pill to help smokers quit that is awaiting regulatory approval, are likely to lag behind the leading stop-smoking products because it will be available only by prescription, analysts say. Glaxo PR
The Jefferson Islands Club, a low-key but high-powered group consisting mostly of lobbyists and lawmakers who share a rustic clubhouse on their very own island in the Potomac River, 90 miles south of the Capitol. 30 lawmakers known as "Friends of the Club." Some mention of tobacco issues. MSNBC
News of Dole's loan stunned Democrats, and several rushed to the House floor to attack Gingrich. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., asked aloud whether the money was a true loan or a gift from "the chief lobbyist of the tobacco industry." Dole is not a lobbyist, and according to the documents made public, the loan would revert to a commercial lender if he becomes one. At the same time, the law firm he recently joined is involved in lobbying. MSNBC
- ("The Public Relations Industry's Secret War on Activists," CovertAction Quarterly, Winter 1995/1996, and "Public Relations, Private Interests," Earth Island Journal, Winter 1995/1996, both by John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton.)
Orders documents remain sealed until appellate ruling. Cohen . . . asked that any appeals be quickly handled by a higher court since he was intent on going ahead with an August trial.
- 04/18/97 FLORIDA: Judge Rules LIGGETT Documents Constitute Fraud Reuters
In a stunning blow to the tobacco industry, Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Harold J. Cohen ruled today that eight Liggett documents reflect industry-wide crime-fraud. . . . Judge Cohen ratified and affirmed the report and recommendations of Special Master R. William Rutter, Jr. [that] " ... Defendants engaged in extensive efforts to hide from and misrepresented to the public, the health hazards associated with cigarettes and that Defendants misled and defrauded the public and public health officials regarding the relationship between smoking and health. There is also evidence that the Defendants utilized attorneys in carrying out and planning fraudulent activities and undertook to misuse the attorney/client relationship to keep secret research and other activities related to the true health dangers of smoking. It is therefore determined that the (eight) Liggett documents directly relate to and are involved with the ongoing crime-fraud and the Defendants' assertion of privilege to the following documents must fail as a result of the crime-fraud exception to such privilege." Florida AG/PR Newswire - 04/19/97 Secret LIGGETT Papers OK'd for Trial CNNfn
- 04/18/97 CALIFORNIA: Judge Rules LA County Lawsuit May Proceed San Diego County Superior Court Judge Robert May gives green light to first CA entity to sue tobacco. PR Newswire
- 04/19/97 U.S. and Pa. Officials Eye Tobacco Taxes for Funds to Aid Poor Children Allentown (PA) Morning Call
- 04/18/97 Tobacco Duo Plots 241 Challenge Twice as long, filter in middle, splits in two. 2-4-1, get it? ETC's BJ Cunningham and Sten Bertelsen go to market with a smoke they claim should be taxed on the basis of 20 cigs, not 40. Inside glimpse of the makers of "Death Cigarettes." Times of London
Joseph Bruce Hybl, 41, and his girlfriend, Julie Ann Chatard, 35, were arrested Thursday while allegedly attempting to burn boxes of cigars in her fireplace. Each faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
"R.J. Reynolds in a court of law under oath made this statement while Jean Connor was still Smoking Reynolds cigarettes," said Ronald L. Motley. . . Separately, Circuit Judge Bernard Nachman allowed a 1974 booklet, called "The Cigarette Controversy," to be admitted as evidence in the trial. The booklet was an advertisement for the Tobacco Institute. . .
- 04/18/97 Pathologist: R.J. Reynolds Part Of Scientific Coverup Dow Jones (pay registration)
Dr. Victor L. Roggli, a professor at Duke University Medical School, testified that Reynolds knew in 1962 that cigarettes had caused cancer in animals. But, an internal Reynolds document containing that finding, written by Alan Rodgman, a former researcher at the company, was never published or given to government officials. The document referred to several studies by independent researchers in which mice developed cancer after exposure to materials contained in cigarettes. Rodgman wrote: "Such data might affect adversely the company's economic status." - 04/17/97 CONNOR Died of Lung Cancer--Pathologist Dr. Victor Roggli of Duke University says he's certain "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Connor's cancer began in lung. Reuters
- 04/18/97 Plaintiff In RJ Reynolds Trial Died Of Lung Cancer: Doctor Dow Jones (pay registration)
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said on Friday it had written to major tobacco firms seeking an explanation about recent media reports of industry co-operation on tobacco product pricing. The commission said the letters followed articles in three Australian papers which quoted the chief executive of Phillip Morris Inc . . . Henry Goldberg as saying that other tobacco firms had been irresponsible in terms of blowing up 'industry co-operation' in the context of discussing product pricing. Violation of the Trade Practices Act feared.
Judge Alberto Bucci ruled that the [Italian cigarette monopoly] "had no legal obligation before 1989 [when warning labels were mandated] to inform consumers about the risk of smoking." Family of lung cancer victim Mario Saltieri vows to appeal. "We are sure that other judges ... will know how to confirm and defend a right which has found tangible recognition in the United States."
No astrologer could ever have predicted such an improbable alignment of stars. . . Despite the wide chasm that separated them, all the parties at the table had hidden reasons to come to the table -- and extraordinarily, they all came into line in the spring of 1997. Here's a look at what's motivating the players on each side. --Milo Geyelin And Suein L. Hwang, The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
- 04/18/97 Tobacco Foes Worry over Settlement Kansas City Star
- 04/18/97 Health Leaders Urge Against Immunity for Tobacco Firms LA Times
- 04/18/97 Big Tobacco's About Face Analysis by The Economist
- 04/18/97 The World to Play For Analysis by The Economist
- 04/18/97 FITCH Says SETTLEMENT Could Mean Split, Tax Dow Jones (pay registration)
- 04/17/97 States Rethinking Tobacco Divestiture CNNfn
"When you look at Phillip Morris' stock price going up 50 percent over the next year if the settlement goes through, according to some analysts, that makes it really hard for folks to think beyond the dollars," said Thomas Houston of the American Medical Association. - 04/18/97 OPINION: Money Isn't The Only Measure LA Times
- 04/18/97 OPINION: Green Light for Lawyers: It's Not Just the Tobacco Cos Who Seem Vulnerable to Consumer Claims The Guardian
[T]he law is proving to be a most eloquent if unexpected societal reformer. Where governments hesitate to legislate against the corporations which have so handsomely paved their way for so long, and the public have no resources, citizen groups are increasingly employing m'learned friends. - 04/18/97 LETTERS: Tobacco Deal Will Leave Other Nations at Risk NY Times
- 04/19/97 FREDDIE MAC to Continue Buying Bonds
- 04/18/97 Lawmakers Spar over Tobacco Tax Reuters
"We're not going to let this developer exploit the land at the expense of the community."
Cohen is urging the 4th District Court of Appeal to act quickly as possible after his ruling Friday because he does not want to delay the trial, scheduled for Aug. 1
The business of tobacco may not be pure, but the case for the stock is iron-clad
A printout of the speeches ‹ year-by-year, sponsor-by-sponsor ‹ is 7 feet long. Every major trade group is on it. So are big agribusinesses, tobacco companies, etc. MSNBC
Editor's note: In a seasonlong examination of tobacco's importance to Virginia, this periodic series will follow grower C.D. Bryant and his Southside community. Part two will return to Pittsylvania County for the tobacco planting.
- 04/20/97 Tobacco Bids to Stub Out Legal Blackmail Times of London
- 04/19/97 SETTLEMENT Will Come in 4-8 Weeks--Analyst GARY BLACK Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/19/97 SETTLEMENT Talks Expected to Resume Sunday in Chicago Non-cash issues to dominate. Reuters
- 04/20/97 SETTLEMENT Talks Focus on Regualtory Issues Reuters Fox News
- 04/19/97 SETTLEMENT Could Allow PM to Spin Off Tobacco Unit? Chip Jones, Richmond Times-Dispatch
- 04/19/97 Fair Trade? PBS News Hour
- 04/18/97 CT AG BLUMENTHAL: $300B Too Cheap AP Washington Post
- 04/19/97 OPINON: Tobacco Zealots' Dubious Victory New York Post
- 04/21/97 Cig makers' self-imposed limits on ads may be tougher than FDA's Ad Age
- 04/19/97 ADVERTISING: Admen Vow to Fight SETTLEMENT AP Washington Post
`We base our arguments not on a particular product, but on the constitutional issue at stake," said Ruth Segal of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America in Washington. - 04/19/97 ADVERTISING: To Battle--Advertisers Serve Notice Winston-Salem Journal
Advertisers say they will still fight the restrictions on First Amendment grounds no matter what their tobacco allies decide
In March 1970, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. shut down the "Mouse House" research lab where rabbits, mice and rats were exposed to smoke, said Joseph Bumgarner, who worked as a scientist for Reynolds from November 1967 to March 1970.
- 04/18/97 CONNOR: 1974 RJR Booklet "The Cigarette Controversy" Admitted
The booklet asked the question "Does it (smoking) cause illness -- even death? No one knows." It concluded that there was no definitive scientific research proving smoking caused cancer. Nachman says booklet can only be used to assess punitive damages. Reuters
The program's success suggests it is preventing hundreds of thousands of premature deaths from smoking, federal officials say. They say the program has cost tobacco companies sales of 800 million packs of cigarettes, worth hundreds of millions of dollars. So it's only natural that the tobacco industry and its allies attack the program, called the American Stop Smoking Intervention Study (ASSIST). The industry has used lawsuits and public records laws to divert health workers' energies, say anti-smoking crusaders. Some Republicans in Congress have said they want to derail the project, run by the National Cancer Institute (NCI), because they believe it is improper.
Furious Democrats latched on to Mr Dole's recent appointment to a law firm representing the tobacco industry in an attempt to reach a $300 billion deal to settle anti-smoking lawsuits, announced on Wednesday. Congressman George Miller, one of Mr Gingrich's chief Democratic tormentors, said in the House: "We now have the speaker in hock to the tobacco industry. It raises serious ethical issues."
The insurance industry could soon face massive claims from tobacco manufacturers seeking to spread the $300bn cost of settling an avalanche of lawsuits in US courts.
- 04/21/97 TEXAS AG MORALES Opposes Immunity Reuters Here's the UPI Item
- 04/21/97 UNIVERSAL OUTDOOR Sees No Immediate Impact Reuters
"We do not expect any immediate impact upon our business from the rumored negotiations for settlement of the tobacco litigation," Daniel Simon, president of the outdoor advertising company, said in a statement. - 04/21/97 Tangled Web of Factors Led to Tobacco Talks The New York Times (Free Registration)
Dec. 23, as President Clinton made a Christmas visit to the Marine Corps base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., that state's governor, Jim Hunt, had a peace message for the president: The time might be ripe for the White House to help bring together cigarette makers and their adversaries in settlement talks. . . The important players in those events included Steven Goldstone, the chief executive of RJR Nabisco Corp., whose subsidiaries include R.J. Reynolds Tobacco; Bruce Lindsey, the deputy White House counsel, and J. Phil Carlton, a longtime political ally of Hunt's. - 04/21/97 Clinton's holiday visit led to tobacco talks Same Barry Meier story at the Lexington Herald Leader
- 04/20/97 SETTLEMENT Talks Continue in Chicago Reuters
- 04/20/97 KENTUCKY: Settlement Could Benefit Burley Farmers Lexington Herald Leader
- 04/21/97 Talks Weigh Wide Limits on Cigarettes Washington Post
The tobacco industry is so eager to strike a deal with opponents that it has already agreed to a stunning array of demands, including letting the government regulate nicotine and agreeing to put cigarettes behind counters with no advertising or logos anywhere in stores, according to people familiar with settlement discussions . . . - 04/21/97 Carolina Lawyer Helps Smooth Tobacco Talks The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
As the cigarette industry's landmark settlement talks resumed Sunday in a Chicago law office, a surprisingly important role fell to a little-known 59-year-old lawyer [J. Philip Carlton] from Pinetops, N.C. People close to the talks say he was the man who performed the astonishing feat of delivering the top two cigarette makers' chief executives to the table. Now he is playing an instrumental part in the complex negotiations as the tobacco industry's behind-the-scenes point man and backchannel message carrier. - 04/21/97 WSJ article from PostNet POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/21/97 N.C. lawyer plays key role in tobacco talks - WSJ Reuters
- 04/21/97 Ifs, Ands or Butts of Tobacco SETTLEMENT Christian Science Monitor
- 04/21/97 ADVERTISING: Cigarette Ads May not be so Easy to Replace The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
Keywords: Penske Motorsports President Patrick Brady, Winston Cup Series, Penske Racing, Wenner Media, Rolling Stone, Time Warner, Lamar Advertising, Universal Outdoor Holdings, Clear Channel Communications, Eller Media, Clear Channel, Lowry Mays, Outdoor Systems - 04/21/97 WSJ Article from PostNet POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/20/97 MN AG HUMPHREY: Getting the Right Deal Article by Hubert Humphrey III. Washington Post
- 04/21/97 REP. WAXMAN: Don't Hand Victory to Tobacco Cos Take immunity from future liability out of settlement talks. LA Times
- 04/21/97 OPINION: No Deal Bob Herbert, The New York Times (Free Registration)
- 04/20/97 OPINION: Dealing with Tobacco Washington Post
One disturbing aspect of any agreement is that it could free the companies to aggressively wage the same kind of marketing campaigns around the world that they might be barred from practicing here. . . And any agreement would have to include a clear statement from the tobacco industry on the dangers of smoking and real access to the firms' research. This process is under way and far from over. - 04/20/97 OPINION: Don't Sell Out to Big Tobacco SF Examiner
- 04/20/97 OPINION:Industry Snubbing Out Suits? Zealots: Tobacco Giants' Action Won't Clear The Air George Gunset, Chicago Tribune
"Unlimited campaign spending violates free speech. The din of money has drowned out the voice of the people."
From the mountains of Montana to the plains of Oklahoma, Cheyenne people soon may be celebrating the discovery and return of "The Pipe," the long-missing ceremonial pipe of tribal lore. A pipe that has been housed at the Oklahoma State Museum since 1911 recently was identified by a group of Northern and Southern Cheyenne traditionalists as the pipe of tribal legend.
- The CME also overreaches in its criticism of several pro-smoking sites. Since the tobacco companies tactfully maintain dull corporate Web pages, the center is forced to highlight The Smoker's Homepage ( xochi.tezcat.com/~smokers/), with its vast compendium of no-apologies articles ("Secondhand Smoke: The Big Lie") and links. But this private site can't be, nor should it be, regulated. That may not be true of Smokin' Joe's (www. smokinjoes.com), a Tennessee store that allows you to order cigars online without consistently checking for proof of age . . .
- The 565-page monograph . . . contains newly analyzed data from five of the world's largest epidemiologic studies on smoking and health. . . According to the new monograph, the risks for all smoking-related causes of death, including lung cancer, other cancers, heart disease, stroke, and chronic obstructive lung diseases have increased among both men and women. . . The increase in mortality risk occurred during a time when significant declines in machine-measured tar and nicotine yields of cigarettes were being reported. The average tar level per cigarette has declined nearly 70 percent since 1955, from approximately 38 mg to 12.5 mg today. Similarly, nicotine levels fell from an average of 2.6 mg per cigarette to under 0.9 mg over the same time period. Yet the relative risks for all major smoking-related causes of deaths increased. David M. Burns, M.D., the monograph's senior editor, of the University of California, San Diego, said the increase in relative risk was due to a greater lifetime dose of cigarette smoke received by smokers in the more recent studies compared with smokers included in the studies from the 1950s and early 1960s. For example, women in the contemporary studies started smoking in their teens, while many of those in the older studies began smoking later in life.
- 04/21/97 Chew on This!!! Tobacco Gnaws at Player Health LA Times
- 04/22/97 BUSINESS: RJR Q1: Tobacco, Food Sales Fell Reuters
- 04/25/97 RJR Net up 7%, but Sales Fell The New York Times (Free Registration)
When Attorney General Michael C. Moore of Mississippi filed the first lawsuit by a state against the tobacco industry, in May 1994, it was considered an act of supreme political courage, if not self-immolation. Moore was warned by friends that his career would never survive the financial and political retribution of the big tobacco companies.
- 04/22/97 Tobacco Firms Mull Price BoostThe tobacco industry is hammering out an unusual provision in its landmark settlement talks that could commit the nation's cigarette makers to raising prices in lockstep as they subsidize a payment that could reach $300 billion or more.
- 04/22/97 Lawyers Split on Pact Plaintiffs' lawyers are having trouble presenting a united front in the effort to secure a landmark tobacco settlement. And the fissure could spell trouble for any deal.
- 04/22/97 Final Approval May be Difficult Getting an agreement between tobacco companies and antismoking forces won't be easy. But getting Congress to approve a deal could be a lot tougher.
- 04/22/97 Range of Immunities May be Possible Whatever immunity might ultimately be agreed to by tobacco and plaintiffs' lawyers inevitably would face political and legal challenges. A settlement, says John Coffee, a Columbia University law professor, "won't be the end, but the beginning."
- 04/22/97 TEXAS AG MORALES Opposes Immunity Reuters
- 04/22/97 Total Immunity Seen as "Hot Button" in Talks Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/22/97 Talks Hit a Snag over Immunity LA Times
- 04/22/97 Smoking Out a Deal
Big Tobacco Is Willing To Pay Billions In Exchange For Immunity--But Not Everybody Is Ready To Buy. . . "No one is prepared to give the industry blanket immunity," says Matthew Myers, executive vice president of the National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids, "this is a movie in mid-plot." Time Magazine - 04/22/97 Health Advocates Fear Money, Politics are Pushing Life Issues Aside Boston Globe
- 04/22/97 Tobacco Industry Faces Struggle to Convince Congress
Their task would be to persuade lawmakers that the public health benefits of increased tobacco regulation, less advertising and payments of billions of dollars are worth letting the cigarette makers off the hook for future lawsuits. AP Washington Post - 04/22/97 Smokers May Foot The Bill Uniform pricing provision may be part of pact. CNNfn
- 04/22/97 Smokers Expected to Foot Bill AP Washington Post
- 04/22/97 Tobacco Lawsuits Hold Key to companies' stock values. "The fundamentals are better than Coca-Cola." The Financial Post
- 04/22/97 OPINION: Calculating the Individual's Cost of Smoking Christian Science Monitor
But the logical fallacy is to leap from the idea that the smoker is responsible to the conclusion that therefore the industry is free of responsibility. Responsibility is not an all-or-nothing thing. . . In a morally sound society, people must pay the consequences of their own bad decisions. But that includes not only those who foolishly make self-destructive choices. It also includes those who selfishly - for their own profit - manipulate other people to do such foolish and self-destructive things. - 04/22/97 OPINION: The Market is Smokin'
I have a proposal of my own. When at last an agreement is reached with the cigarette companies, the government should announce it -- and then wait a day to see what the stock market does. If tobacco stocks go up, it's a sure sign of a rotten deal. No agreement that's good for the tobacco companies can be good for the rest of us. Richard Cohen, Washington Post
While it is open to suggestions about helping the blind cope with the rules, the law is the law, according to the FDA.
Scientists make the analogy with morphine. On the street, morphine is available in the form of the illegal addictive drug heroin. In the hospital, morphine is prescribed as a narcotic painkiller. Perhaps the same will be true of nicotine. Washington Post
The state Assembly voted yesterday to urge RJR/Nabisco to drop the cartoon character Joe Camel in marketing Camel cigarettes.. . . [o]n a vote of 53 to 9. . . Seems to be a discrepancy with the UPI story below.
- 04/21/97 CALIFORNIA: Assembly Defeats Anti-Joe Camel Measure Reuters
The California Assembly has defeated a resolution asking [RJR] to discontinue use of the Joe Camel character in Camel cigarette advertising. The resolution by Assemblyman Don Perata of Alameda failed to win passage today (Monday) on a 35-to-41 vote.
Until six months ago, Michael Schindler was an ironworker who could balance on a rail in the sky. That is far less risky than what he is doing now, people in Seneca territory in western New York said. Since he was elected president of the Seneca Nation of Indians in November, he has been trying to hold his fractured tribe together while it is in a bitter confrontation with Gov. George Pataki over sales taxes.
- 04/20/97 NEW YORK, SENECA NATION: A Standoff on Cigarettes, Gas, & Taxes The New York Times (Free Registration)
Rae (Agnes) v Glasgow City Council and Another Before Lord Bonomy. Judgement March 7, 1997
Section 7 of the Offices Shops and Railway Premises Act 1963 was plainly directed at the mischief of foul air in the atmosphere of the workplace. Cigarette smoke which fouled the atmosphere clearly fell within that mischief. . . His Lordship considered that the risk and the materiality thereof were adequately pled as "a risk of injury or disease to the lungs or respiratory system"; but that it could not be concluded from the pleadings that the defenders knew or ought to have known of those risks arising from passive smoking. There were no averments of when the risks of passive smoking had been discovered or when and by what means the defenders ought to have known of it. While the pursuer had pled details of certain documents pointing out the hazards, there was no indication of the materiality of the risk or of how the terms of those documents should have come to the attention of the defenders. Accordingly tha common law case failed. . . . The pursuer's pleadings did not address the real issue, namely what would have been effective and suitable provision in the circumstances and what difference that would have made to the inhalation of impurities from smoke by the pursuer. Therefore the statutory case also failed.
Adding Prozac to a standard stop-smoking program raises the six-month quit rate, shows the largest study yet of how the anti-depressant affects cigarette use. "It's got potential, but we need a lot more study of this," psychologist Raymond Niaura of Brown University Medical School told the Society of Behavioral Medicine. Niaura led the study of 989 smokers at 16 sites in the United States. It was funded by Eli Lilly Co., maker of Prozac.
Dr. Amanda Lee, an investigator at the Medical School in Edinburgh, UK, and colleagues . . . analyzed data collected on almost 1,600 subjects enrolled in the prospective Edinburgh Artery Study. Over a 5-year period, 40 subjects had an abdominal aortic aneurysm. . . . "...these subjects had over three times the risk of aneurysm than the combined group of those who gave up smoking more than 5 years ago or who had never smoked cigarettes."
But nowhere does the report address an aspect of these sites that may be even more depressing. Mainly that they're incredibly stupid. Well, I guess that's my job. . .
Since the tobacco companies tactfully maintain dull corporate Web pages, the center is forced to highlight The Smoker's Homepage (xochi.tezcat.com/~smokers/), with its vast compendium of no-apologies articles ("Secondhand Smoke: The Big Lie") and links. But this private site can't be, nor should it be, regulated. That may not be true of Smokin' Joe's (www.smokinjoes.com), a Tennessee store that allows you to order cigars online without consistently checking for proof of age . . No mention of Brown & Williamson's circuit-breaker.
Even as Gov. Lawton Chiles battles cigarette makers, proposing a new 10-cent-per-pack levy and suing for millions in smoking-related medical bills, the state allows cigars to go virtually untaxed. . . Opponents of the cigar exemption say they tried and failed to draw attention to it during this year's legislative session, scheduled to end May 2. But they say their quest is not over.
. . [I]t sometimes seems as if every citizen smokes, and there are no age restrictions to buy tobacco -- nor are there likely to be anytime soon. There are close to 43 million smokers in Russia . . . "Among our men, especially about men in productive age, we have about 70 percent smoking," said professor Yuri Komarov, director of the Public Health Research Institute. The number of teenagers smoking is rising, especially among girls.
Schindler . . . once took his father to the doctor. His father smoked three packs a day. He had circulation problems. "The doctor told him . . . 'You can either stop smoking or I can cut off your hands and feet some day,'" Schindler testified behind closed doors last week. His father later died from a stroke. Nevertheless, Schindler raised his right hand last Monday, took the oath and said he does not believe tobacco to be deadly or conclusively linked to any illness. He does not mind whether his adult children smoke. He does not believe tobacco is any more addictive than coffee or carrots. "Carrot addiction?" a lawyer asked incredulously. . .
Miami Herald scores a home run. Also avaialble:
- 04/21/97 Sarcasm, Sparks Sometimes Fly During Adversarial Questioning
- 04/21/97 Andrew Schindler (RJR) Testimony
- 04/21/97 Alexander W. Spears (Lorillard) Testimony
- 04/21/97 Execs Deny Smoking Can Kill Rosenblatt talked to James Morgan, president of Philip Morris; Andrew Schindler, president of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco; Nick Brookes, chief executive of Brown & Williamson; and Alexander Spears, chairman of Lorillard Tobacco Co. AP MSNBC Here's the same story at Fox News
- 04/21/97 Tobacco Execs Deny Danger AP Washington Post
Virginia Gov. George Allen cancelled a speech to tobacco growers [Concerned Friends of Tobacco] because of threats from callers who objected to his declaration of April as Confederate history month. . . callers said they were upset with Allen because he endorsed a special proclamation last month designating April as Confederate Heritage and History Month. Allen later apologized to people who took offense at the declaration.
- 04/22/97 Cig Burns RJR Exec's Home Reuters/CNNfn
Fire officials said inspectors had not made a final determination of what caused the accidental blaze. But they said it likely was caused by a cigarette butt left by a worker who told inspectors he had smoked near where the fire started about half an hour before the crew left. - 04/22/97 Tobacco Exec's Home Burns AP Washington Post
- 04/23/97 Cigarette Butt is Suspected in $1M Fire Washington Post
U.S. Rep Rod Blagojevich, who made declining tobacco money a cornerstone of his campaign, just received an unsolicited check for $1,000 from Phillip Morris--and returned it with this comment: "I wasn't blowing smoke."
"He actually didn't even say they were in negotiations," said another analyst. "He said, 'It's been rumored that we are in talks, but we're not going to comment about it.'" Reuters
INFACT activists dressed as Marlboro and Virginia Slims cigarettes doled out cash to "Uncle Sam" and greeted shareholders entering the Philip Morris Annual Meeting today in Richmond, Virginia with chants of "SHAME, SHAME, SHAME."
Biosource Technologies Inc. of Vacaville has been working on the procedure for only a year and is already seeing promising results in laboratory mice, according to Vice President of Pharmaceutical Development Dr. Daniel Tuse. . . The treatment would work by taking a naturally occurring virus from the tobacco plant -- the tobacco mosaic virus -- and genetically altering it to carry antibody genes taken from a tumor belonging to a specific person.
- That's where Bob Dole and Newt Gingrich come in: Congress must pass special legislation to grant the tobacco companies the immunity they seek. To that end, Big Tobacco hired Verner, Liipfert, which in turn bought the former Senate majority leader, who in turn made the sweetheart loan to the speaker of the House. It is a thankful Newt who could finally push tobacco's agenda through his Congress.
"It does have a certain aroma to it. It might be cigarette smoke you're smelling, but it might be something more putrid." -- Richard Kluger, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Ashes to Ashes. . .
- "Washington Watch," hosted by Fred Graham . . . will be telecast on Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 9 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., and Sunday at 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
- New Jersey Gov. Christine Whitman on Thursday said that the attorney general filed a statement of damages against two tobacco companies, Philip Morris Companies Inc , and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. . . "The purpose of the filing is to provide all parties involved in the litigation with a sense of our claims against Phillip Morris and R.J. Reynolds," she said.
- State Treasurer Barbara Hafer said Thursday she is divesting tobacco stocks from investments under her control and calling on the state's pension and workers' compensation funds to do the same.
- 04/24/97 PA Treasurer Dumps Tobacco Stocks PR Newswire
- 04/24/97 PA Tuition Fund to Sell Off Tobacco Stocks Knight-Ridder POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/24/97 PA Attorney General Fisher Sues Tobacco Industry On Behalf of Pennsylvania PR Newswire
- 04/22/97 PA to Sue Tobacco Reuters
- 04/22/97 PA to Announce Lawsuit
Pennsylvania Attorney General Mike Fisher will announce the details of Pennsylvania's lawsuit against the tobacco industry at a news conference on Wednesday, April 23, at 10 a.m. in the East Wing Media Center at the State Capitol in Harrisburg, Pa. PR Newswire
- A bill that would criminalize the possession of cigarettes or other tobacco products by minors has cleared the Texas Senate. The measure by state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, would also enhance the penalties against stores that sell tobacco products to people under age 18.
- Stanton A. Glantz and Lisa R.A. Smith, the authors of a widely cited study of the economic impact of smoking bans on restaurants, misrepresented data and reached an unwarranted conclusion that has misled public officials and the restaurant industry for several years. Dr. Michael K. Evans, clinical professor of economics at the Kellogg School, Northwestern University, reaches his conclusions in a formal review commissioned by the National Smokers Alliance.
- The survey is aimed at rebutting the Massachusetts Restaurant Association's argument that the smoke-free policies enacted in more than 100 communities have badly damaged its members' business. The Legislature's Committee on Health Care is holding a hearing today on an association-sponsored bill challenging local governments' power to impose such bans. The [MA Dept. of Health] hired the Waltham-based Center for Health Economics Research to conduct the study. It found that 31 communities that imposed no-smoking policies in restaurants saw meal-tax receipts rise by 5 percent in the first six months after the smoking bans were adopted. In contrast, there were no increased meal receipts in a "control group" of 222 communities that had no significant smoking restrictions.
- 04/24/97 Adding Up the Tobacco Profit MSNBC
What neither side is talking about in public is that a settlement offers significant financial benefits to tobacco company stockholders -- who include both the corporate executives and the states that are suing them. - 04/24/97 Health Groups Criticize Settlement The New York Times (Free Registration)
- Major public health organizations Wednesday stepped up their criticism of proposals that could give cigarette makers immunity from liability suits. They demanded a greater role in negotiations to end tobacco-related litigation, further complicating the prospects for any such deal. By rejecting outright some of the main elements that have been under negotiation, the powerful health groups implied that some of their own allies who have played a role so far might have taken too lenient a stance.
- A dream team of public health advocates lined up on Capitol Hill to condemn the idea of giving tobacco companies immunity from personal lawsuits. In a news conference today (Thursday), former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. David Kessler and executives from four major medical societies joined congressmen in calling for a tough stance in ongoing negotiations with tobacco companies. . . . The American Medical Association, the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association all took stands against immunizing tobacco companies from law suits.
Lincoln - Atty. Gen. Don Stenberg said the state should get a share of a potential $300 billion settlement in a multi-state tobacco suit even though it has not joined 24 states that filed suit against Philip Morris and RJR Nabisco.
Attorneys general suing the tobacco industry have told cigarette makers they will not get blanket immunity from future lawsuits as part of a proposed settlement, according to people familiar with the ongoing talks.
State Supreme Court Justice Charles E. Ramos, in an interim order made public Tuesday, said the main issue in the lawsuits is whether tobacco is addictive. "Any proposed compromise must address this issue," he said.
The ambitious effort at a global tobacco settlement comes at a time when courts are at a crossroads over whether massive settlements of injury cases are legal or even desirable.
"Big Tobacco . . . is poised to slip into the 21st century immune from damages and largely unregulated," says the ad, set to run in two Washington newspapers Thursday.
Such a truce would have the industry voluntarily surrender most (or all) of its right to advertise. It might also finance a modest education program for teenagers on the dangers of smoking. In return, it would receive immunity from legal liability.
- Here's the right way to settle the issue: Let cigarette companies sell their products to willing adults, and pass a law barring them from having to pay damages to individuals or states for the normal, foreseeable health consequences of smoking.
- "Jesse Helms is against it. And the chemicals covered by the treaty aren't even in tobacco," says the Cutler Daily Scoop.
U.S. settlement may threaten growing sales in international markets
Officials in the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledged yesterday that the federal government could be held liable for medical care and compensation to potentially millions of veterans who used tobacco while on active duty and subsequently became ill from tobacco-linked diseases. The acknowledgment was made as VA Secretary Jesse Brown appealed to Congress to support legislation that effectively would overturn a 1993 opinion by senior VA lawyers that concluded the government could be held responsible for such illnesses.
- Health Care Company Contributes $2 Million, 50 Thousand Volunteer Hours. Humana Inc. (NYSE:HUM) and The Humana Foundation have promised $2 million and 50,000 employee volunteer hours by the year 2000 to the creation of a "Kids Helping Kids" program intended to halt tobacco use by children.
- Despite Virginia's ties to tobacco, Sen. Charles S. Robb says he's willing to consider raising cigarette taxes to extend health insurance to more children and to trim the federal budget deficit
- 04/25/97 KENNEDY & HATCH: Strange Bedfellows SF Examiner
- What unites the pair is a set of grim statistics. Cigarettes kill 400,000 Americans a year. Each year, 10 million American youth 18 and under go without health insurance. So why not pay for the kids' health insurance by raising the cigarette tax?
- Republican lieutenant governor hopeful John H. Hager, whose roots are deep in tobacco, has vowed to defend the industry against federal encroachments.
- 04/23/97 CONNOR: Plaintiffs About to Rest Reuters
- 04/23/97 CONNOR: Uncut Video of Cancer Victim Not Allowed Video of Connor's daily life ruled so emotionally affecting as to prejudice the jury. Dow Jones/Barron's (free registration)
The video . . had played for less than a minute before Nachman shielded his face with his hands. "To watch even that much of it is emotionally overwhelming to me." - 04/24/97 Tape Ruled "Emotionally Overwhelming" CNNfn
- 04/22/97 Most People Misunderstood Smoking's Danger in 1970, Papers Suggest Dow Jones/Barron's (free registration)
"Is cigarette smoking in moderation safe?" Roughly 41% answered true, 29% said false, and 30% didn't know, the 1970 study found. - 04/21/97 Smoking Began with Pose, Sister Says Dow Jones/Barron's (free registration)
- 04/23/97 TV, Print Ads Admitted Chicago Tribune
The six-member jury watched in rapt attention as Fred Flintstone and his sidekick, Barney Rubble, broke into a song during a 1962 Flintstones episode in which they took a much-needed "Winston break" and sang the famous line, "Winston tastes good like a cigarette should." - 04/22/97 Children Said to be Swayed by 60s Ads The Flintstones take a singing, dancing Winston break. Dr. Richard W. Pollay, a marketing professor at University of British Columbia, testified that the programs were watched by a large number of children. Pollay also addresses the creation of the Tobacco Industry Research Committee and "The Frank Statement." The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
- 04/22/97 CONNOR: Reynolds Memo Addressed Teen Smoking
A 1980 R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. memo [by Claude Teague] introduced into evidence . . . detailed the smoking habits of teen-agers but said the information was not to be used to market cigarettes to them. Reuters - 04/23/97 AP Item Fox News
On the streets of Senegal, billboards for L&M cigarettes show well-dressed, smiling white young people with the caption, "Go For It!" An American flag and a red, white and blue color scheme support the ad's most explicit claim: "real American taste." . . American cigarette companies are cashing in on Senegalese youths' fascination with American culture. The Marlboro Man is a popular figure in Africa, where the cowboy with a cigarette in his mouth is not just a symbol of the Wild West but of the West itself. The advertising campaigns of Philip Morris, R. J. Reynolds and Liggett & Myers appear to be aimed at convincing Africans that Marlboros, Camels and L & M's are tickets to America.
"It will probably be the largest cigarette factory in Russia," said Kursat Kocdag, the company's managing director for Russia. Last week, Philip Morris signed an agreement with the Leningrad Oblast government for 50 hectares near Lomonosov
Ask Corey Gordon, an attorney in Minnesota's smoking-and-health lawsuit, and he'd probably swear the tobacco industry has its own witness protection program. Getting witnesses tied to the tobacco industry into court for depositions or testimony is proving to be tough.
- 04/23/97 Reuters Item
- 04/23/97 Nixon to Sue PR Newswire
- 04/23/97 Dow Jones Item from Barron's (free registration)
- 04/26/97 Tobacco Firms Fail to Halt Law Globe & Mail
- . . . by accident, another high-school classmate, Heather (the divine Janeane Garofalo), while picking up her Jag, brings news of their 10th reunion. Garofalo was a grungy, chain-smoking science dweeb at school; now she¹s rich after patenting the paper for a fast-burning cigarette: "Twice the Taste in Half the Time for the Gal on the Go."
- Altered States: Alcohol and Other Drugs in America," a new exhibit at the Chicago Historical Society, plunges visitors into a historic overview of America's passion for a quick fix. WHEN: Through Sept. 21 WHERE: Chicago Historical Society, Clark Street at North Avenue MUSEUM ADMISSION: $5, $3 seniors and students, $1 children 6-12. Mondays are free days. For hours, call (312) 642-4600.
- Antismoking lawmakers are intent on cutting off millions of dollars a year in government-subsidized crop insurance for the nation's tobacco growers. At the same time, the Department of Veterans Affairs is trying to persuade Congress to limit the government's potential liability for million
- By the end of next week -- assuming an amendment to the Commercial Law is passed by the National Assembly as scheduled -- the country will be rolling back what had been some of the world's strictest restrictions on promotion of tobacco.
- Already, antitobacco forces in Britain, Australia and some Asian countries are clamoring to sue the U.S. makers of tobacco products. And although such suits would face formidable obstacles in courts around the world, legal experts in the U.S. and abroad expect a foreign litigation drive against the industry, particularly if the American talks result in a landmark settlement.
- 04/25/97 Tension Rising, AGs to Meet on Tobacco Suit Attorneys general to convene in Chicago Monday to plan strategy, iron out differences The New York Times (Free Registration)
- 04/25/97 CLINTON Keeps his Distance from Any Tobacco Deal for Now The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
- 04/25/97 What a Deal Could Mean for Big Tobacco April 28, 1997 US News
- 04/25/97 Health Groups Wage 2-Tiered Effort The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
- 04/25/97 Smoking Foes Pan Immunity Request Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/25/97 No Immunity in Any Deal, Foe Says Rep. Waxman on Settlement Talks
- 04/24/97 LOUISIANA AG Ieyoub: No Blanket Immunity AP Chicago Tribune
- 04/24/97 Tobacco Talks Are Family Affair AP Washington Post
- The lineup for landmark tobacco talks is a family affair: The first lady's brother, the Senate majority leader's brother-in-law and the president's best pal are big players in negotiations. And the White House, which may be the final arbiter of any deal between tobacco interests and plaintiffs, is filled with aides linked to the industry.
- 04/24/97 McCurry Grilled on President & Tobacco White House Press Briefing POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/24/97 Tobacco Litigation Lawyers Met Secretly at White House USA Today
- Lawyers on both sides of landmark tobacco litigation, including the first lady's brother, met secretly at the White House with President Clinton's top aide, officials said Thursday. The officials, who are intimately involved in the negotiations, spoke on condition of anonymity but said the small gathering Wednesday was designed to bring White House aide Bruce Lindsey up to date on settlement negotiations that begin anew next week.
- 04/24/97 Tobacco Lawyers Held White House Meet AP Washington Post
- 04/24/97 White House: CLINTON Key to Tobacco Deal Reuters
- Stock Rises After Chairman's Remarks at Annual Shareholders Meeting in Richmond
- 04/25/97 PM Official Backs Regulation Bloomberg/Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/25/97 PM CEO BIBLE Hints He'll Take Compromise Richmond Times-Dispatch
- 04/24/97 PM Faces Anti-Tobacco Groups at Shareholders Meet UPI
- 04/24/97 PM Chief Walks Tightrope of Guilt & Govt Regulation Knight-Ridder POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/24/97 Bible Open to "Reasonable Measures" Reuters
- 04/24/97 Despite Shareholder Pressure, Joe Camel, Marlboro Man Live On Reuters
- 04/24/97 PM CEO Won't Talk about Suits AP Fox News
- 04/24/97 Tobacco Regulation Possible: CEO AP Washington Post
- 04/24/97 Tobacco Strategy Richmond Times-Dispatch. PM CEO Bible to address the troops today at shareholder's meeting
"I wouldn't miss it," said Guy P. Chance, managing director of market strategy at Scott & Stringfellow Inc. "It's theater."
- 04/26/97 Ruling Opens Door to Firms' Deepest Fear Analysis by long-time tobacco reporters Myron Levin & Henry Weinstein. LA Times
- 04/26/97 Federal Judge Upsets the Status Quo in Tobacco Land 04/27/97 Chicago Tribune POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/26/97 Now How Many Concessions Will the Industry Make? AP Washington Post
- 04/25/97 How Will Ruling Affect Manufacturers? PBS Newshour transcript with David Kessler, tobacco analyst Roy Burry.
- 04/28/97 Osteen's Decision Changes Foes' Tune Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/27/97 FDA to Move Ahead with Plan to Help States Cut Teen Access 10 states to be chosen for initial assistance. Atlanta Journal & Constitution.
- 04/27/97 Anti-Tobacco Forces Get New Clout in Talks AP Detroit News
- 04/26/97 Tobacco to Be Regulated as a Drug Greensboro News & Record
- 04/26/97 Judge Upholds Power of FDA to Regulate Tobacco The New York Times (URL usually good for current date ONLY)(Free Registration)
- 04/26/97 Cigarette Makers May Have Lost Leverage in SETTLEMENT Talks Greensboro News & Record
- 04/26/97 FDA Can Regulate Tobacco Raleigh News & Observer
- 04/26/97 Judge OKs FDA Regulation Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/26/97 Judge Rules to Regulate Cigarettes St. Paul Pioneer-Press
- 04/26/97 Feds Can Treat Nicotine as a Drug Deborah Orrin, New York Post
- 04/26/97 Nicotine Hit NY Newsday
- 04/26/97 Decision May Tip Scale in Favor of AGs Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/26/97 Tobacco Firms Dealt Big Setback Chip Jones, Richmond Times-Dispatch
- 04/26/97 Tobacco Firms Hit by Ruling Reuters
- 04/26/97 Adult Smokers Can Light Up as Usual MSNBC
- 04/26/97 Cigarettes to be Classed as Drugs Times of London
- 04/26/97 Tobacco Stocks Drop Washington Post
- 04/25/97 Fund Managers Not Joining Rush to Sell Tobacco Stocks. Here's Part 2 Dow Jones (pay registration)
- 04/25/97 Tobacco Stocks Soar on Ruling, Then Drop AP POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 04/26/97 Judge OKs Federal Regulation AllPollitics
- 04/25/97
OSTEEN Allows Cigarette Labeling, Access Rules, Nixes Ad Limits AP Washington Post
- "In conclusion, although FDA has the authority ... to impose access restrictions and labeling requirements on tobacco products, FDA lacks the authority to restrict their advertising and promotion." . . . Osteen based his ruling supporting access restrictions and labeling requirements on two points. "First, the access restrictions imposed by FDA, unlike its advertising and promotion restrictions, directly restrict the sale or distribution of tobacco products within the meaning of (federal law). Second, the court finds that such conditions on the sale or distribution of tobacco products fit within what Congress intended for FDA to impose pursuant to its authority to impose 'other conditions." The decision pleased the federal government. "We are immensely pleased with the court's historic decision today that the FDA has the authority to regulate tobacco products to protect our children's health."
- 04/25/97 Ruling Hits Big Tobacco Firms Reuters
- 04/25/97 FDA Has Some Authority over Tobacco--Judge Reuters
- 04/25/97 FDA Wins Some Authority to Regulate Tobacco Clinton, tobacco cos to appeal. CNNfn
- 04/25/97 Tobacco Cos May Pay More After Ruling--Analysts Reuters
- 04/25/97 Ruling Keeps Joe Camel on the Prowl AP Washington Post
- 04/25/97 Ruling Snuffs Out Tobacco Stocks MSNBC
- 04/25/97 Ruling Spurs Stock Slide USA
- 04/25/97 FDA Can Regulate Tobacco, Judge Says MSNBC
- 04/25/97 Cigarette Advertising Can Continue MSNBC
- 04/25/97 Ruling Allows Winston Cup to Continue USA
- 04/25/97 Court Knocks Down Advertising Regulations Bozell, PR Newswire
- 04/26/97 Ad Execs Laud Ruling on Cig Limits Advertising Age
- 04/25/97 Advertisers Tout Freedom UPI
- The Association of National Advertisers says the ruling suspending FDA restrictions on tobacco "voids the Clinton Administration's unprecedented plan for imposing a crushing censorship regime."
- "Senior attorneys from the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services and the Food and Drug Administration have carefully reviewed the District Court's opinion. On the basis of that review, the Solicitor General has informed me that an appeal would be appropriate for that part of the rule not upheld, and I have be directed that an appeal be filed."
- "It's a great day. The tobacco industry can't even win on their home court"
- FDA can regulate cigarettes in such a way that will make them more expensive and difficult to obtain in the U.S., an independent trade publication says in its upcoming May issue. Medical Device Approval Letter, which monitors FDA review of medical devices, lists a series of regulatory moves FDA can make, short of taking cigarettes off the market as unsafe drugs, if Judge William Osteen's decision stands.
- However, POPAI is concerned with the Court's prohibition of self-service displays. . . tobacco products selected from such displays are purchased at check-out, at which point proof of age is checked for all who appear to be under 27 years of age.
- Tobacco companies and smokers are culpable
- 04/25/97 OSTEEN to Announce Decision by 11AM Bozell / Business Wire. Tobacco Cos ready to make statement on courthouse steps shortly after.
- 04/25/97 FDA: Judge to Rule on Teen Smoking Lauran Neergaard, AP Washington Post
- 04/24/97 FDA: Tobacco Industry to Issue Joint Response to Judge Osteen's Ruling Bozell/PR Newswire
- 04/24/97 FDA: Tobacco Cos Plan Courthouse Steps Response Reuters
- 04/23/97 FDA: Judge Expected to Throw Out Regulations Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/22/97 FDA: Osteen Ready to Rule on Constitutionality of Rules Friday. AP Washington Post
- A COMMUTER last night defied a High Court injunction and carried out his threat to continue smoking, despite a train company's ban. Peter Boddington . . . smoked contentedly in his usual spot in the buffet car. As smoke curled past the No Smoking signs, he contemplated the prospect of a prison term for breaking the terms of the injunction gained by the French-owned train company yesterday. It acted after Mr Boddington, who owns Tooting Market in south London, where he has a cut-price tobacco stall, refused to stop lighting up. He is standing for Parliament in Tooting to highlight his cause. He is a 60-a-day smoker and averages six cigarettes on each journey.
- Ron Motley, an attorney for the family of deceased smoker Jean Connor, asked David Townsend if smoking had ever harmed "a single human being." "I don't know," said Townsend, who as chief scientist for Reynolds is in charge of product development. "I don't know if cigarette smoking causes cancer. It may."
- 04/28/97 RJR Chemist: RJR Knew in '55 of Cigarette Smoke Carcinogens Dow Jones (pay registration)
- Harnisch said his withdrawal from using chewing tobacco "possibly precipitated it or brought it on."
- 04/26/97 Harnisch Says He's Being Treated for Depression The New York Times (URL usually good for current date ONLY)(Free Registration)
- 04/26/97 HARNISCH Still is a Puzzle (New York) Daily News
- Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods told reporters the discussions would most likely resume next Thursday, but said he did not know where.
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"We've addressed every hypotheses that's been placed on the table by the scientific community," said David Townsend, a chemist who has worked at Reynolds for 20 years. "We've examined very carefully and we've sought ways to reduce every one of those compounds that are thought to be a problem."
- 04/25/97 Juror Excused; No Alternates Left Winston-Salem Journal
- 04/24/97 CONNOR: Juror Dismissed Reuters
- The juror, Sandra Grant, told Reuters that her mother-in-law was dying as she rushed from the courthouse. She said she had asked Nachman if she could be off on Friday and Monday, but he told Grant he did not want to hold up the trial, and excused her.
- I am perplexed by the op-ed article ("Smoking and quitting are matters of free will," April 1) and even more so that the author had some unspecified teaching position at a major academic institution. Perhaps a primer on basic psychopharmacology or biochemistry might clarify things. The author, Jeffrey A. Schaler, creates false dichotomies merely to knock them down. Humans are neither creatures of pure, unfettered will (remember that next time you have a cold!) nor mindless automatons, at the mercy of the last substance they have consumed. . .
- Ms. Connor, a faithful R. J. Reynolds customer, died six weeks after the video was made, the victim of a product that was no more dangerous to her health than applesauce, and no more addictive than your average carrot.
- Don Beyer [Gubernatorial candidate and current Democratic lieutenant governor] . . . has broken sharply with political tradition here by embracing the Clinton administration's plan to regulate tobacco as a drug and forswearing contributions from the industry. By contrast, his November opponent, Republican Attorney General James Gilmore, has allied himself with an industry lawsuit against the proposed Food and Drug Administration regulations and proudly accepted tobacco money.
- A bill before the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee received five votes but needed six to pass. It would have kept such establishments open to smokers for another three years . . . Passage would have meant victory for the bill's author, Assemblyman Dick Floyd (D-Wilmington), who has championed the rights of smokers and gamblers as a personal mission during his several years in public office. . . But opponents argued that, with the cancer-causing effects of secondhand smoke widely known, those who frequent and work in such establishments, even if nonsmokers, were being put at risk by Floyd's bill.
- 04/24/97 Risk of Heart Attack Increases Dramatically For Smoking Women Who Take Oral Contraceptives After Age 35 AP Washington Post
- 04/24/97 Death Risk From Cigarettes Higher Than Ever, Study Finds SF Chronicle
- 04/23/97 Cigarette Smoking Risk Rises, Especially For Women Reuters
The risk of dying from smoking cigarettes has risen significantly since the first Surgeon General's report in 1964, particularly for women, the National Cancer Institute reported on Wednesday. In a new analysis of five long-term studies on smoking and health, the institute found the risks for all smoking-related causes of death increased for both men and women -- but rose more steeply for women. The diseases included lung and other cancers, heart disease, strokes and chronic obstructive lung diseases. Overall, before the 1964 report, about 30 percent of smokers could expect to die early because of their tobacco use, the institute's Dr. Donald Shopland said by telephone. - 04/24/97 Smoking More Dangerous Now than 30 Years Ago Reuters Medical News
- 04/24/97 Smoking Risks Greater Reuters Health eLine
- House Speaker Gail Phillips acknowledged Friday an increase in the tobacco tax would pass if it got to the House floor, but she says she won't let a bill get there unless most members of the Republican-led majority agree in a closed-door meeting that that's what they want. "It depends on the vote of the caucus," Phillips, R-Homer, said. She later retracted the term "vote."
- Modifying the deadliest of all legal products, rather than holding out for a huge sum of conscience money payable to the families of smokers and state health agencies, should be at the crux of any negotiated settlement with the tobacco companies. Instead of fighting to the bitter end, perhaps well into the next century, the industry should be forced to accept tough restraints on what it can put into its cigarettes and how it can market them if it hopes to win immunity from further lawsuits as part of a settlement.
- While some of your scummier Democrats have taken to calling Bob Dole the chief lobbyist for the tobacco industry, it appears the title more fittingly applies to George Mitchell. . . For sheer adeptness in the arts of hypocrisy, tobacco's enemies give tobacco a run for its money.
- BAT INDUSTRIES, whose chairman, Lord Cairns, has hinted that it could demerge its tobacco and insurance businesses, has revealed it spent $827,000 last year on political donations in the US. The figure is not disclosed to shareholders in its annual report despite a requirement to detail any payments made to UK political parties. Brown & Williamson . . . spent $600,000 supporting candidates ahead of the US presidential elections last year. The majority of these payments were to Republican candidates. . . . Farmers, the California-based insurance group owned by BAT, paid $227,725 to over 400 candidates . .
- 04/28/97 SETTLEMENT Talks Near Critical Phase--Moore Reuters
- "I think in the next two or three weeks we'll know if we're going to be able to work this thing out," said Mississippi Attorney General Michael Moore.
- [S]tate attorneys general and other tobacco foes have put forth an unusual plan that would allow smokers to sue the tobacco industry but limit how much they can recover, people familiar with the matter say. . . the proposed settlement would allow individual smokers to sue -- although there would be strong incentives for them to settle their claims and caps on the size of their potential awards.
- "I think everyone needs to slow down and analyze [Osteen's ruling]"
- Clinton, in the CBS interview, also said it would be "very difficult" to envision endorsing a settlement in which tobacco companies would set up a huge trust fund but be immune from future lawsuits in connection with health problems. . . . But he said any agreement they reach would have to be submitted to public health experts before a decision is made on future immunity from litigation.
- "I think we ought to see what kind of agreement they come up with and let me submit it to the
public health experts and see what they say,"
- 04/28/97 Ruling Arms FDA to the Hilt--Law Journal On the Medical Device Approval Letter article
- 04/28/97 CLINTON Optimistic on Tobacco Appeal UPI
- 04/28/97 Ruling Puts Tobacco Under FDA Thumb The tobacco landscape has changed. Christian Science Monitor
- 04/28/97 KESSLER Claims Tobacco Win Says real battle is to prevent youth smoking. CNNfn
- 04/28/97 Court Ruling Gives Muscle to Tobacco Foes The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
- "The way we view tobacco products has changed forever ... . It is indisputable that these drugs fall within the purview of the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act. It is an enormous victory. It is historic."
- So how do deeply religious Amish and Mennonites justify their work? "There is some division in the church," he said. "They're showing it more all the time. . . . The consensus is: It's a legal crop to grow; they're going to grow it as long as there's a demand for it."
- ONS Congress will be held in New Orleans at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center from May 1-4. More than 5,000 oncology nurses are expected to attend the event. The celebration of Oncology Nursing Day will take place on May 1.
- I know it's going to be pure hell to part with my best friend of nearly 20 years, but I'm determined.
- Philip Morris Cos. Inc. is big. Really big. The size and scope of the tobacco, beer and food giant was vividly displayed at last week's annual stockholders' meeting in Richmond. After he dealt with the ongoing legal and political disputes facing the company, Geoffrey C. Bible, chairman and chief executive officer, started talking big. At times, he sounded like the Carl Sagan of corporate America, touting the "billions and billions" of dollars in sales Philip Morris posts each year. The grand total for 1996: $68.9 billion in revenues, for net earnings of $6.3 billion.
Astronomical wealth like that allows Philip Morris to consider setting up a $300 billion smokers compensation fund along with other cigarette makers to gain some legal cover going into the 21st century. . .
- "Any settlement for the U.S. alone is ethically unacceptable for the rest of the world," said Judith MacKay, director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control, an anti-tobacco group based in Hong Kong. "The reality is that the more the noose tightens in the U.S., the more the industry looks to foreign markets."
- Cancer Research Campaign wants politicians to indemnify cigarette firms from legal action in exchange for a profit tax that could raise L3 billion for the health service.
- "It's more than just the liability issue," said Gregory Connolly, a longtime industry critic who heads the Massachusetts Tobacco Control Program. "The companies also face big state and federal tax increases and ingredient disclosure laws and all kinds of other restrictions. It's almost becoming a political feeding frenzy. They want to put this debate to an end."
- Robert Hadad . . . remembers how skeptical he was the first time he saw lettuce plants floating in a tobacco greenhouse.
- Last week marked the third anniversary of that incredible TV moment - the Zapruder film of the cigarette wars - in which top executives of the seven leading tobacco companies raised their right hands before Congress and God and then swore that they didn't believe cigarettes to be addictive. . . Big Tobacco's ability to lie to the public without consequences emboldens other corporations to do the same. Anheuser-Busch, which seduces potential young drinkers with its own answer to Joe Camel, Budweiser frogs, now just follows the cigarette purveyors' script. "We do not target our advertising toward young people, period," its spokesman said this month . . .
- U.S. District Judge William L. Osteen demonstrated his independence from an industry he once represented with a ruling against tobacco on its own turf.
- 04/26/97 Colleagues Express No Shock at Verdict Raleigh News & Observer
- 04/26/97 Don't Be Too Quick in Judging the Judge LA Times
- A number of major advertisers are wielding their economic clout and changing the rules of magazine publishing. Many are demanding advance warnings about stories that they deem offensive or objectionable.
- For several years, tobacco and alcohol advertisers have demanded warnings about articles that have anything to do with people who abuse their products. After People magazine warned advertisers that it was putting the hard-living rocker Jerry Garcia on its cover after his death in 1995, several cigarette companies and virtually every alcohol advertiser pulled their ads from the issue, says Publisher Nora McAniff. The publisher says concern for the sensibilities of tobacco advertisers has even crept into People's editorial practices. "We would try not to mention the brand" favored by a heavy smoker who died of cancer, she says.
- 04/30/97 NEW YORK: Ban on Cigarette Ads near Schools Proposed The New York Times (Free Registration)
- 04/30/97 NYC Mayor Backs Tobacco Ad Ban Reuters
- 04/29/97 NEW YORK: NYC Wants to Curb Tobacco Ads Near Schools City Council to get bill Wed. Reuters
- "It appears the proposal goes far beyond the issue of youth access to severely restricting the rights of manufacturers and storeowners to truthfully advertize a legal product."
- Attorneys for many of the states became aware of [Leonard Miller] and his work in 1994, when he wrote an article in a Centers for Disease Control publication estimating smoking-attributable expenditures at $50 billion a year nationally. He began to apply his national model to individual states. Eventually, lawyers for Minnesota hired him to work specifically with their state's numbers.
- At a hearing Tuesday in West Palm Beach, tobacco lawyers pushed their state adversaries for more information about how Florida roots out Medicaid cheats; verifies the delivery of products and services; and recovers accidental overpayments. "We're not responsible for improper payments made by the state," tobacco lawyer Stephen Krigbaum said.
- A measure that would have banned smoking in state prisons failed 45-71 Tuesday after lawmakers worried about corrections officers faced with killers and rapists in the throes of nicotine withdrawal.
- 04/30/97 British BAT Reports Flat First Quarter Dow Jones, POSTNet ("hot off the wires"--expires quickly)
- 05/01/97 BAT 1Q Earnings Held Back by Stronger Pound, Lackluster Performance The Financial Post
- 04/30/97 BAT Quarterly Report to 3/31/97 PRNewswire
- [T]he Georgia Spit Tobacco Education Program (GSTEP) would like to remind the public, particularly Little League coaches, parents, students and teachers, that spit tobacco is not a safe substitute for smoking cigarettes.
- 04/30/97 AIRLINES Target Tough Passengers like 2 Swedish smokers AP Washington Post
- [Dan Miller of "Miller's" magazine] said he "heard indirectly" that Mattel was displeased with a photo spread in the winter edition that showed Barbie in tennis garb with a pack of Virginia Slims cigarettes. An accompanying story said Mattel excised the unauthorized photo from an approved Barbie guide written by Los Angeles Barbie dealer Joe Blitman. "They never told me, but I heard that upset them," Miller said.
- A court ruling declaring that tobacco can be regulated as a drug could shake up the industry. North Carolina officials need to consider how to keep the ruling from shaking the state's economy.
- Canadian tobacco makers said on Tuesday that they would comply with a new federal law limiting tobacco advertising, after failing to get a court order blocking the measure. Michel Descoteaux, a spokesman for Montreal-based Imasco Ltd. IMS.TO unit Imperial Tobacco, Canada's largest cigarette maker, told Reuters that the company was moving quickly to remove tobacco advertising from all retail outlets across Canada. "We have already begun and are continuing as fast as we can."
- "We know you have been considering options for legal action in this area. We urge you to act promptly to have the federal government join the states in taking action."
- 04/29/97 Lawmakers Urge Justice to Sue Tobacco AP Fox News
- Swedish investigators followed a cohort of 642 men who were about 55 years of age at the time of baseline examination. After 25 years, Dr. Bo Hedblad and colleagues at Malmo University Hospital and Lund University in Malmo, Sweden evaluated factors associated with total and cardiac mortality in the group. . . "Smokers who at 55 years of age were engaged in regular vigorous physical activity during leisure time had a cardiovascular mortality rate that was 40% lower...than those who were sedentary or slightly active."
- 04/30/97 Still Smoking? Exercise May Help Reuters Health eLine
- 04/29/97 AGs Debate Whether to Raise SETTLEMENT Stakes Bloomberg/LA Times
- 04/29/97 AGs Press for "Safer Smoke" CNNfn
- 04/29/97 White House Official Meets SETTLEMENT AG Reuters
- White House deputy counsel Bruce Lindsey received an update on the settlement talks from [Mississippi AG Mike] Moore, said a White House official who asked to remain unidentified.
- "We're not going to cut off access (to the courts) to victims."
- Louisiana Attorney General Richard Ieyoub said Tuesday he believes Congress will draft legislation acceptable to states that will regulate the tobacco industry once the companies settle suits filed by individual states. To be accepted by the states, Ieyoub said federal legislation must end the marketing tobacco products to children, require tobacco companies to fully disclose the health effects of smoking and establish federal regulatory oversight of the tobacco industry. "These guys are slippery. We've got to make sure we nail them down in a legislative act," he said.
- If the federal government wants to begin regulating a widely used and legally accepted substance that has never before been regulated as a drug, it should do so at the behest of a democratically elected Congress--not a bureaucratic agency. Letting the FDA simply seize such authority is an affront to the notion that here, the people rule. The billboard ban similarly defies the Constitution's protection of free speech, which the Supreme Court has often said includes commercial speech.
- [W]ith the price of cigarettes soaring, it might be time to cultivate other vices. If it ain't the smooth-burning, fine-tasting lure of Virginia weed, try sex, drugs, and working out. What's your pleasure?
- On the heels of an economic study that confirmed that University of California Professor Stanton A. Glantz and Lisa R.A. Smith used Prop. 99 taxpayer dollars for a research project that misrepresented data, the National Smokers Alliance (NSA) has asked U.C. President Richard Atkinson to investigate the matter and demand the authors return any misused tax dollars.
- Its Virginia Slims brands alone sold 47 million packs in the three-month period -- 34 percent of all foreign cigarettes sold and 4 percent of all cigarettes sold. Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corp. of the United States, Rothmans Benson and Hedges Inc. of Canada and Japanese brands all reported sharp drops in sales -- between 21.6 and 26.6 percent. South Korea's overall cigarette market shrank 7%
- Eleven other members reported going to the affair without their spouses but with half a dozen aides, leaving the Tobacco Institute an average tab of $1,000 a day for each. The total bills exceeded $50,000.
- Former Sen. George Mitchell of Maine, who championed clean-air and health-care reforms when he was in office, is representing five large tobacco companies as they negotiate a settlement of lawsuits against the industry.
- "The negotiations are more like peace talks than class-action settlement talks," said Coale, who practices in Washington, DC. "People are there to solve problems. The tobacco industry came in good faith and so far, after two or three weeks, they¹ve remained dealing in good faith." . . . "We're not total do-gooders," said Coale. "Sure, if there¹s money we can make out of this, we're going to make it. But it's not the driving motivation behind this."
- Cigarette vending machines would be banned and smokers under age 27 would have to show IDs to buy tobacco products under a bill OK'd on first vote in the Senate.
- Player's Ltd. says it will cancel its auto racing sponsorship immediately if Canada's Tobacco Act becomes law next week without amendment. . . Players sponsors drivers on the CART Indy-car circuit, the Indy-Light circuit and the Toyota-Atlantic series.
- "Billboard advertising of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products is a constant blight," said Councilman Michael Feuer. "Unlike advertising in other media, the public has no choice in being confronted with these messages."
- 04/29/97 Supreme Court Upholds Ban on Tobacco, Liquor Billboards The Wall Street Journal (Pay Registration)
- 04/28/97 Court Upholds Baltimore Ban on Tobacco, Alcohol Billboards AP/USA Today.
- The justices, without comment, turned away arguments that the city's twin bans on such ads violate free-speech rights.
- The decision to let stand the Baltimore ban was taken without any comment or dissent from the justices and does not create a nationwide precedent.
- Armed with a promise of $5 million over five years from Philip Morris USA, the Kentucky Farm Bureau yesterday launched the Farm Income Improvement Foundation to try to encourage farmers to grow more burley tobacco and to improve farm income in the Burley Belt. The idea is to help farmers, who have underproduced in recent years, gear up to meet surging demand for American leaf, Farm Bureau President William Sprague said. "Simply put, tobacco farmers have a chance in the next few years to make more burley income than ever."
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