Tobacco.org

• ‘Land of the Lost’ Haunts Universal in Unexpected Way  

"Land of the Lost" is the gift that just keeps on taking for Universal Pictures.

The American Medical Association Alliance, a volunteer arm of the powerful health organization that focuses on family issues, on Friday released its scorecard for the depiction of smoking in mass-appeal summer movies. Universal was the biggest offender because of "Land of the Lost," the big-budget failure that helped cost the co-chairmen of the studio their jobs this month.

The alliance said it counted 18 shots of Will Ferrell smoking a pipe in the movie, resulting in about 124 million tobacco impressions. (The industry generally calculates an "impression" by multiplying the number of incidences by the film's total gross, then dividing by the average ticket price.)

" 'Land of the Lost' wasn't just a flop at the box office, it was also a real loser for public health," said Nancy Kyler, president of the American Medical Association Alliance.

The group did not name the second- and third-place offenders. A Universal spokeswoman declined to comment.

Jump to full article »

• Anti-smoking billboards draw fire 

As a debate rages in Cheyenne over statewide smoke-free legislation, opponents are questioning the timing of a state-sponsored billboard campaign targeting second-hand smoke.

Top Department of Health officials, meanwhile, insist that the billboard campaign and an accompanying print advertising blitz are appropriate, and were not purposely timed to influence the vote.

"This is part of our mission is to educate the public on the dangers of tobacco use and second-hand smoke," said Department of Health Deputy Director Roger McDaniel.

Jump to full article »

• Geographical Information Systems as a Tool for Monitoring Tobacco Industry Advertising 

Background: Although the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) approach is usually applied to epidemiological disease outbreaks and environmental exposure mapping, it has significant potential as a tobacco control research tool in monitoring POP tobacco advertising. . . .

Results: The GIS approach identified 133 POP and 44 billboards within 300m of the school gates of Heraklion schools. On average 13 POP (range: 4 - 21) and 4.4 billboards (range: 1 - 9) were located per school, and all had at least one POP within 20m of the school gate. On average 9 ± 6 tobacco advertisements per POP (range: 0 - 25) were noted, and 80% of them were below child’s height. The GIS protocol identified that kiosks, that were excepted from the Greek ban on tobacco advertising, in comparison to other POP were found not only to be closer and visible from the school gates (44.1% vs. 10.8%, p<0.001) but were also found to have more external advertisements (8 ± 5 vs. 5 ± 3, p<0.001).

Conclusions: This study demonstrates the effectiveness of a GIS system in monitoring tobacco industry advertising on a large population based scale and implies its use as a standardised method for monitoring tobacco industry strategies and tobacco control efforts.

Jump to full article »

• Remembering Ron Davis 

Ronald Davis, MD, aged 52, passed away on 6 November 2008 after a courageous 10-month battle with pancreatic cancer. Ron’s star shone very brightly, albeit too briefly in the medical community. . . .

At the world conference in Perth in April 1990, Ron convened a meeting of 25 leaders in tobacco control, from a variety of countries, where the concept for a new scientific journal devoted solely to tobacco control was hatched.1 Ron and others helped pitch the idea to the British Medical Journal Publishing Group which accepted the concept idea and later appointed Ron as the founding editor of Tobacco Control: an International Journal. Ron served as the editor of Tobacco Control between 1992 and 1998. . . .

During his career, Ron served as an expert witness to Congress on public health issues and in litigation against the tobacco industry. His encyclopaedic mind made him a perfect editor and spokesperson on medical and public health issues. Ron had the ability to recall virtually everything in tobacco control, often producing obscure forgotten facts and papers that would perfectly frame an issue. As just one example of Ron’s uncanny ability to illuminate the obvious before the rest of us had seen it, he conducted a study to test whether people could read the warnings on tobacco advertisements shown on billboards littering the highway.4 Of course, they couldn’t as they were speeding by, which only helped to illustrate the stupidity of the government policy that permitted tobacco companies to advertise on billboards. We will surely miss his insight and vision. . . .

Ron’s legacy is much deeper than can ever be expressed in the many prestigious awards that chronicle his career accomplishments. As one of his many friends noted, Ron, in Buddhist terminology was a bodhisattva, an enlightened being who sacrificed his own ultimate nirvana for the benefits of others. Ron’s legacy is the example he set for all of us to follow through the strength of his character, impeccable integrity, graciousness and style, and his dedication to serve his fellow man.

On behalf of all whose lives you’ve touched, Ron, all we can say is we love you, and we thank you for allowing us to share your life’s journey. It’s been a privilege. You graced this earth.

Jump to full article »