Tobacco.org

• PepsiCo Unions Seek NLRB Help to Combat Company’s $50 Tax on Fat, Smoking  

Teamster union members at PepsiCo (PEP) Inc. in upstate New York are seeking National Labor Relations Board help to fight the company’s health-care policy that charges employees $50 a month when they smoke or have medical issues that may trigger weight gain.

Three International Brotherhood of Teamsters locals, representing about 300 drivers, sales agents and warehouse workers in Binghamton, Latham and Syracuse, complained to the labor board in October. PepsiCo is hindering the union’s effort to shop for a health plan without a “sin tax,” said Ozzie Martucci, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 669.

“We’re against that type of tax, frankly,” Martucci said yesterday in a phone interview. “It feels wrong to tax workers if they are overweight or happen to have diabetes or smoke, and we wanted to look elsewhere for different insurance.”

PepsiCo (PEP) workers can avoid the fee if they join programs to stop smoking or lose weight, said Dave DeCecco, a company spokesman. “These programs enable our associates and their families to live a healthier lifestyle,” he said.

The fee is applied to smokers, as well as to workers who have diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure or asthma, conditions that often lead to being overweight, he said.

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Aurora group targeting underage smoking wants to license some tobacco sales  

AURORA -- A group determined to prevent minors from using tobacco is asking the city to issue licenses to sell tobacco products other than cigarettes.

Tobacco-Free Aurora has in recent weeks urged City Council members to adopt a licensing policy.

State statutes place financial penalties on communities that license cigarette sales, allowing the state to withhold funds collected from tobacco taxes. But other tobacco products are free to be licensed without penalty.

By licensing the noncigarette products, including chewing tobacco and cigars, cities may better track who is selling those items and can enforce laws, similar to the way communities regulate alcohol sales to minors.

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• BBC lobbying to weaken Welsh smokefree regulations: Yes, this is real. 

The Welsh Government has launched a consultation to amend the smokefree premises legislation to create an exemption that would allow allow performers to smoke in enclosed and partially enclosed spaces when filming for television or film. The moving force behind this is the BBC, which has lobbied the first minister in Wales, Carwyn Jones, to create this exemption claiming that productions have stayed in England where there is currently such an exemption in the smokefree regulations.

Of all the crazy economic arguments I have heard for exposing people to secondhand smoke, this one takes the cake.

Are we really to believe that the BBC has ignored the fact that it just opened a major new production center in Cardiff, Wales to take advantage of lower labor costs that exist in London just so they can favor actors generate secondhand smoke? I think not.

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Cigar Bars Make A Comeback At Luxury Hotels 

Following worldwide bans on smoking in public places, cigar bars have become something of an endangered species. But we’ve spotted a few of the clubby, usually dimly lit dens making appearances once more—this time ensconced in luxury hotels. And in some of the new iterations, they’ve got technology on their side—advanced air filtration systems make spending time in one a breath of fresh air. Here are a few of the best cigar lounges around the globe. . . .

On the other side of the world, The Ritz-Carlton, Beijing’s swanky Davidoff Lounge welcomes guests nightly until 2 a.m. For those set to impress, the bar’s VIP rooms (which are equipped with everything from card tables to Wii stations and karaoke machines) are available for business meetings and private parties. Davidoff cigars from the Dominican Republic are the top choice here, but you can also puff away on hand-rolled Cubans.

U.S hotels have picked up on this old-school tradition, too—Florida (given its proximity to Cuba) hosts some of the grandest smoking rooms in the nation

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No punishment for cigarette violations in Ashland  

Two local gas stations that sold cigarettes to minors last year faced the Board of Health Tuesday night, but left with virtually no punishment for the violations.

That is because the Board of Health only two weeks ago found out that the Marathon Mobil on West Union Street and Shell Station on Union Street sold cigarettes to minors in September.

"I just wish we had known in September," Board of Health Chairman Leslie Githens said.

The board two weeks ago learned the results of a federal Food and Drug Administration sting operation, members said Tuesday night.

As a result, officials missed the 10-day window to fine the gas stations.

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Cricket Australia pulls 'tobacco' ad 

Cricket Australia has pulled a mouth freshener advertisement amid complaints it promoted a company that also sells tobacco products.

It says it will withdraw the ads that were displayed on the boundary rope during seven matches between Australia and India after learning they could be promoting tobacco.

Spokesman Peter Young said Cricket Australia had sought a translation of the ads, which are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, from the Indian government and had been reassured that they promoted mouthwash.

But the majority of Indians who saw the ad would immediately associate it with tobacco, said Dr Nevin Wilson, who heads the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease's Southeast Asian office in New Delhi, India.

Dr Wilson said direct or indirect advertising of tobacco products was illegal in India, where there were 900,000 deaths each year related to tobacco.

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Cricket chiefs duped by smoking ads 

CRICKET Australia has banned an advertising campaign which appeared in the recent Test series against India after discovering they may have unknowingly been promoting a tobacco brand.

The sport's governing body faces losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue after pulling the ads from future one-day games.

The Health Department launched an investigation into the Hindi advertisements on the boundary rope for Australia-India Test matches in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide.

The ads for a company that makes chewing tobacco and mouthwash were aimed at the massive TV audience in India. They also featured at the twenty20 games in Sydney and Melbourne and were due to be shown during the on- going one-day internationals this month.

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Cricket Australia chiefs draw line on ads 

CRICKET Australia will surrender hundreds of thousands of dollars in boundary line advertising after it emerged it may have been illegally promoting tobacco.

The snap backdown last night came after the federal Health Department launched an investigation into advertisements in Hindi on the boundary rope for Australia-India Test matches in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide.

The ads for a company that makes chewing tobacco and mouth-wash were aimed at the massive TV audience in India.

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• Indian Affairs Secretary Faces Scrutiny Over Cigarette Sales 

Gov. Susana Martinez’s nominee to lead the Indian Affairs Department is under scrutiny from lawmakers over possible illegal sales of cigarettes at a store operated by the Cabinet secretary’s family.

The Senate Rules Committee agreed Monday to postpone a vote on the confirmation of Indian Affairs Secretary Arthur Allison because of questions about the sale of untaxed cigarettes at the Star Ranch Store, near Farmington on the Navajo Nation.

At issue are sales to non-Indians of cigarettes without New Mexico’s tax and the sale of certain cigarettes that the Attorney General’s Office contends are prohibited in New Mexico.

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Cricket Australia in India tobacco ad row 

Cricket Australia has pulled Hindi adverts displayed during the series with India after being alerted that they could be promoting tobacco, which would attract big fines for breaching local laws.

Cricket bosses said they were assured by the Indian government that the signage was advertising a brand of mouthwash, but decided to take them down due to their apparent similarity to a brand of chewing tobacco.

"We asked (the Indian government's) advice because we are not familiar with the Hindi language," a Cricket Australia spokesman told reporters on Tuesday.

"They came back and said it's an Indian mouthwash -- or at least they said it's not a tobacco product. We don't have one million percent certainty about all of the detail.

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RI governor wants to add tobacco tax investigators  

Nearly three months after police busted a cigarette-smuggling ring that authorities say cost Rhode Island $5.7 million in tax revenue, Gov. Lincoln Chafee wants to increase the number of investigators working on a tobacco enforcement task force from one to five.

Chafee's budget plan estimates that spending $156,220 to add four investigators would boost tobacco tax collections by $2.9 million. Chafee is also calling on lawmakers to increase the state's cigarette tax from $3.46 per pack to $3.50 per pack to boost revenues by $1.6 million. The state has the second-highest tobacco tax in the nation.

All together, the plan would increase tobacco revenue by $7.1 million to nearly $136 million in the fiscal year that starts on July 1.

The proposal for more investigators comes as administrative hearings are being scheduled for 17 stores where authorities allege contraband cigarettes tied to a smuggling ring were being resold. The Division of Taxation says it is prohibited by law from identifying the stores or specifying what action it wants to take against them.

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Tobacco ban in Pittsfield may broaden  

City health officials are considering a ban on tobacco sales at stores with pharmacies, one of several proposals aimed at keeping youths from buying cigarettes and other tobacco-related products.

The Board of Health is reviewing the potential revisions to its tobacco control regulations, put forth by Tri-Town Health Department director James J. Wilusz. The board will further discuss the changes at its March meeting and eventually at a public hearing before taking a vote, according to Dr. Philip Adamo, chairman of the five-member panel.

Tri-Town, the primary public health agency for Lee, Lenox and Stockbridge, administers the state-funded, local tobacco awareness program to nine other communities, including Pittsfield, North Adams and Great Barrington. Aside from Pittsfield and North Adams, the four other municipalities will formally receive the proposed revisions to their tobacco regulations over the next two months, according to Wilusz.

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Cricket chiefs draw line on ads 

CRICKET Australia will surrender hundreds of thousands of dollars in boundary line advertising after it emerged it may have been illegally promoting tobacco.

The snap backdown last night came after the federal Health Department launched an investigation into advertisements in Hindi on the boundary rope for Australia-India Test matches in Melbourne, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide.

The ads for a company that makes chewing tobacco and mouth-wash were aimed at the massive TV audience in India.

They also featured at the Twenty20 games in Sydney and Melbourne and were due to be shown during a series of one-day internationals this month.

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Aurora group targeting underage smoking wants to license some tobacco sales 

A group determined to prevent minors from using tobacco is asking the city to issue licenses to sell tobacco products other than cigarettes.

Tobacco-Free Aurora has in recent weeks urged City Council members to adopt a licensing policy.

State statutes place financial penalties on communities that license cigarette sales, allowing the state to withhold funds collected from tobacco taxes. But other tobacco products are free to be licensed without penalty.

By licensing the noncigarette products, including chewing tobacco and cigars, cities may better track who is selling those items and can enforce laws, similar to the way communities regulate alcohol sales to minors.

For example, cities could have the power to suspend or revoke a license if a retailer sells tobacco to minors.

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Interview: Lord Hanson's cigarette king is still smoking out the takeovers 

When the going gets tough, nip outside for a ciggie. It's the only way Gareth Davis knows to deal with the stresses and strains of corporate life.

He might have retired from his day job two years ago, but now the former chief executive of Imperial Tobacco has three chairmanships on the go. How will he cope if they all hit a crisis at the same time? "I'll pull hard on a fag, I suppose," he says, after a moment's thought. "Have a couple of pints and reflect on it."

It's a no-nonsense style that has endeared Davis to the City over a 40-year career. Even the trio of jobs - at a bookie, a builders' merchant and a cardboard-box maker - are suitably blokeish for someone who has just jetted back from an "all-inclusive piss-up in Morocco" for a pal's 60th birthday.

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