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Amazon.com: Global Tobacco Control: Power, Policy, Governance and Transfer 

The first major book by political scientists explaining global tobacco control policy. It identifies a history of minimal tobacco control then charts the extent to which governments have regulated tobacco in the modern era. It identifies major policy change from the post-war period and uses theories of public policy to help explain the change.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This is an excellent case study in which the authors provide a thorough account of global tobacco control issues using political and public policy analysis. The book is clearly written, accessible and will be of great interest to students of politics, policy analysis and public health."

- Rob Baggott, Professor, Health Policy Research Unit, De Montfort University, UK

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Professor’s new book takes political, cultural look at tobacco policies  

West Virginia University political science Professor Donley Studlar has published a new book that evaluates tobacco policies around the world.

"Global Tobacco Control: Power, Policy, Governance and Transfer," explores the history of the tobacco industry and major concerns in the market.

The book focuses on the gap between policy problems in the industry and government response across the globe, in addition to the vast changes in the system over the past 60 years, Studlar said.

"Smoking is a very culturally and economically embedded practice in many countries. One of the most remarkable things is how much change there has been," he said. "While policies still vary in Western, industrialized countries, there's been a convergence of policies as information has diffused concerning the dangers of cigarette smoking, as well as how different countries have dealt with them."

Studlar said the modern view on smoking in the United States has contributed to economic shifts in the marketplace.

"In the 1950s, cigarette smoking was just normal and no one really objected to the situation. Today, smoking is denormalized, and there are restrictions on tobacco," he said. "What we're trying to do in this book is explore that shift - how it came about and the differences across countries."

"Smoking is usually thought of as a public health issue, but it's also a very political issue, and the fact that it is perceived differently in different countries indicates that."

Smoking is the number one cause of preventable death in the world, but many countries do not possess any laws regulating smoking, he said.

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No cigar: Embargo on Cuba turns 50 

The world is much changed since the early days of 1962, but one thing has remained constant: The U.S. economic embargo on communist-run Cuba, a near-total trade ban that turned 50 on Tuesday. . . .

In the White House, the first sign of the looming embargo came when President John F. Kennedy told his press secretary to go buy him as many H. Upmann Cuban cigars as he could find. The aide came back with 1,200 stogies.

Kennedy announced the embargo on Feb. 3, 1962, citing “the subversive offensive of Sino-Soviet communism with which the government of Cuba is publicly aligned.”

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• New book examines public health, cultural, off-shoring impact of U.S. tobacco industry  

What has been neglected is research on tobacco production in the United States, and specifically on the people who work and live in the rural, traditional tobacco-growing areas of North Carolina.

Benson’s new book, Tobacco Capitalism (Princeton University Press, 2011), examines the impact of the transformation of the tobacco industry on farmers, workers and the American public. It reveals public health threats, the impact of off-shoring, and the immigration issues related to tobacco production.

The book also examines the new public relations strategies of the tobacco industry and its recent corporate social responsibility “makeover”.

“There are whole groups of people — farmers and farm workers — in our society who dedicate themselves to growing a crop that is vilified,” says Benson, assistant professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences.

“But this book is not just about good people doing a bad thing. What I found was, in going to North Carolina and going to these farms, that the story becomes much more complex.”

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JFK ordered 1,200 Cuban cigars hours before authorising them as illegal  

John F Kennedy ordered an aide to buy him as many Cuban cigars as possible just hours before he authorised the U.S. trade embargo, which subsequently made them illegal, it has been revealed.

The 34th President of the United States asked his head of press and fellow cigar smoker Pierre Salinger to obtain "1,000 Petit Upmanns" on February 6, 1962, so he could have them in his hands before they were deemed contraband.

Merely seconds after he was told the next morning that 1,200 of Cuba's finest export had been bought for him, he signed the decree to ban all of the communist state's products from the U.S.

The re-surfacing of the story, initially recounted by Salinger to Cigar Aficionado magazine in 1992, comes with the passing of the 50th anniversary of the embargo on Tuesday.

According to him, JFK called him into his office and said he needed "some help" to find "a lot of cigars". He wanted "1,000 Petit Upmanns" and needed them by "tomorrow morning".

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100 years ago: Law against cigarette sales spelled out  

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Feb. 8, 1912: . . .

* "Who is selling cigarettes in Lawrence? Following a brief item in the Journal-World concerning the selling of cigarettes in Lawrence a number of Lawrence dealers in tobacco have come out with very emphatic statements that they are not law transgressors. They are Griggs, Hilliard and Carroll and 'Swede' Wilson's pool hall. The protest against the violation of the cigarette law does not apply alone to the High School boys who can be seen smoking them almost any morning coming from the High School, but against any one buying such a contraband article in Kansas. The law is very strict on the matter. It reads 'Sale of cigarettes prohibited . . .

This is the law on the matter and yet any day in Lawrence boys much under age may be seen walking up and down Massachusetts puffing a cigarette."

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Omaha Time Capsule: Cigarette tax stamps here  

What happened in the Midlands on this day? Here's a sampling from the World-Herald archives.

CIGARETTE TAX STAMPS HERE

Feb. 7, 1946: Four million cigarette tax stamps arrived at the City Hall. Finance Commissioner Carl Jensen and Comptroller Charles Stenicka announced, "Cigarette tax stamps are now on sale." The 2-cent-per-package question, however, was: Would the stamps make their debut in Omaha February 15th as scheduled? Messrs Jensen and Stenicka said there was nothing at present to prevent the proposed tax from going into effect. In the week to come, however, there was to be a court hearing on whether the city should be prevented from placing the tax in effect.

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• Bobbie DeRamus recalls helping to pass first indoor smoking ban 

Bobbie DeRamus doesn't remember things as well as she did. She's been diagnosed as being in the early stage of Alzheimer's disease, a neurological disorder devastating to short-term memory. So she thinks about the distant past. One memory that keeps coming back is when she spoke up for a ban on indoor smoking.

DeRamus, 86, of Roseburg suffered severely from the secondhand cigarette smoke she inhaled at work in the 1970s and '80s. She testified several times in front of a state Senate committee when legislators were considering what became the Oregon Indoor Clean Air Act.

The ban on indoor smoking in public buildings except in designated areas went into effect in 1983, the same year DeRamus left her job as a bookkeeper for Children's Services Division in Roseburg due to the damage secondhand smoke had done to her body.

The ban provoked strong feelings. In a Gallup poll in 1983, 55 percent of smokers agreed they should refrain from smoking around nonsmokers. But 39 percent disagreed, and about 30 percent did not believe that secondhand smoke was hazardous to nonsmokers.

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A History of the World - Object : Miners tobacco tins 

Tobacco tins were very common among miners. Unable to smoke down the mines, due to obvious fire risks, the miners would instead chew 'twist' tobacco. 'Twist' is made from dark- fired leaf, which is then twisted or spun into a long lengths. It was the cheapest tobacco available. Chewing tobacco also prevented the miners mouths from drying out from breathing in the dust-laden air of the mine.

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Collectors Ask, ‘Gotta Light?’ 

Called “vestas,” after a Roman goddess, pocket match safes held were designed to fit snugly in a pocket. Some were fitted with a ring, as two of them here, so they could be attached to a fob or a chatelaine.

Once there was a romance about lighting someone’s cigarette: hands cupped around a flame, the electricity of a first touch. Even if you didn’t smoke, you carried a light. You never knew when someone might come up and ask you, “Gotta light?” It was a great icebreaker.

In the realm of antiques, matches haven’t been around all that old, just about 150 years.. An English chemist, John Walker, created a concoction of antimony sulfide, potassium chlorate, starch and gum and coated the tips of wood splinters. He sold the first batch to a local lawyer, a Mr. Hixon, on April 7, 1877.

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Research examines tobacco ads  

A recent School of Medicine study chronicles the intricate advertising campaign crafted by cigarette companies using doctors' endorsements to promote their products as healthful, starting in the 1920s and continuing for half a century.

Senior author Robert Jackler, professor of otolaryngology, called the advertisements uncovered by the study “outrageous.”

“Tobacco science used pseudoscientific experiments to arrive at a preordained conclusion,” he said.

The advertisements used endorsements by celebrities-Mickey Mantle for Viceroys, John Wayne for Camels and even Santa Claus for Marlboro and Lucky-and throat doctors to validate their claims.

“At that time, people weren’t so concerned about lung cancer,” Jackler said. “People were concerned about throat irritation. So throat doctors would endorse their products.”

Memos from companies such as Philip Morris reveal that tobacco companies recruited doctors from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania to promote their product. They also used slogans such as Lucky Strike’s, “the Finest Flavor and protects the throat,” and Old Gold’s, “ask your dentist why Old Golds are better for the teeth.”

The study, published in the January issue of The Laryngoscope, also determined that physicians were paid about $11,000 annually, making an additional $5,000 in endorsements a substantial incentive to comply with industry rhetoric. In addition, companies funded extravagant dinners for those throat doctors willing to comply. . . .

The Journal of the American Medical Association stopped publishing tobacco advertisements in 1953, but “a number of state and local medical journals continued advertising cigarettes into the late 1960s,” wrote Robert Proctor, professor of history, in an email to The Daily.

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Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, heiress to Duke tobacco fortune and philanthropist, dies at 91 

Mary Duke Biddle Trent Semans, heiress to a vast Gilded Age fortune built on tobacco and member of the family that endowed Duke University, has died. She was 91.

Her daughter, Rebecca Trent Kirkland, said the Durham, N.C., resident died Wednesday at Duke Hospital.

She was the great-granddaughter of Washington Duke, a Confederate soldier who returned home after the Civil War and planted a crop of tobacco. With his sons, Duke helped build the worldwide popularity of cigarettes. He also endowed a small Methodist college that would become Duke University."

"She was our principal link to Duke's founding generation and continued her family's tradition of benevolence throughout her life," Duke University President Richard H. Brodhead said. "She supported every good thing at this university, and she was a powerful force for good in Durham and the Carolinas."

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KIRBY: Ten years later, we're healthier  

Ten years ago, one of the hottest issues in the Attleboro area was smoke bans.

The Norton Board of Health led the way, voting 10 years ago next month to become the area's first community to ban the use of tobacco in workplaces, bars and restaurants. Wrentham, Norfolk, Plainville and North Attleboro followed suit later in the year.

Other communities, including Attleboro, took a slightly different approach, prohibiting children from entering a restaurant where smoking was allowed.

Smoke bans seemed like a radical idea at the time. . . .

But common sense won out. There really is no way to escape the cloud of second-hand cigarette smoke. More and more communities prohibited smoking until, in July 2004, Massachusetts ended the patchwork enforcement by imposing a statewide ban on smoking. . . .

In retrospect, why were there such protests? How could the public have not seen that smoking should not be allowed in public? We're never going back on this issue.

And this is not just a Massachusetts thing. As of the end of 2011, 27 states encompassing roughly half of America's population of more than 300 million people had complete smoking bans. Nearly 80 percent of Americans live in states with at least some smoking restrictions.

In my view, this is one of our society's greatest signs of progress. While I still see too much smoking - especially among young people - tobacco use in general is down, and illnesses related to second-hand smoke are diminishing.

Ten years later, we are healthier.

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Xu Bing Tobacco Project 

Xu Bing, one of China's most acclaimed contemporary artists, is known especially for his exploration of language. In Tobacco Project he furthers that interest, presenting the culture of tobacco as a far-reaching system of signs and symbols. Using tobacco as both subject and object, the exhibition includes Xu Bing's adaptations of historical texts and graphics: a book made of whole tobacco leaves and printed with an early-seventeenth-century account of Jamestown, Virginia; a poem composed from historical tobacco brand names and printed on cigarette paper; and Chinese cigarettes printed with selections from Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung (the "Little Red Book").

Tobacco engages Xu Bing on many levels simultaneously, allowing him to raise questions, make new discoveries, and expand the viewers' awareness. Above all, he sees it as a medium of cross-cultural exchange—one that first linked Virginia and the American colonies to Europe and other parts of the world in the age of discovery and which continues to provide a connective thread in the age of globalism. Tobacco engages Xu Bing on many levels simultaneously, allowing him to raise questions, make new discoveries, and expand the viewers' awareness. Above all, he sees it as a medium of cross-cultural exchange—one that first linked Virginia and the American colonies to Europe and other parts of the world in the age of discovery and which continues to provide a connective thread in the age of globalism. In addition, he appreciates tobacco's unique formal properties. Tobacco Project appeals to the sense of smell as well as sight, and Xu Bing is conscious of permeating the gallery with the rich, sweet odor of tobacco. . . .

Tobacco Project contains elements of sociology, history, politics, and personal narrative, but ultimately it is an artist's take on tobacco—a subject that fascinates Xu Bing for its history of innovation as much as for its exploitation and self-contradiction.

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• Xu Bing on His Plans to Light a Giant Cigarette at the Aldrich Museum, Even Though He Doesn't Smoke 

At the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, Chinese artist Xu Bing is showing some highly addictive work. His installation, called “Tobacco Project,” uses the eponymous poisonous leaf as its muse and medium, turning the material into maps, books, and printed poems that confront the omnipresent ills of a nicotine-dependent culture.

At the exhibition’s opening this coming Sunday, January 29, Xu will light a 42-foot-long cigarette for his piece “Traveling Down the River.” The sculpture will slowly burn on top of a replica of a famous Chinese scroll painting by Song dynasty artist Zhang Zeduan, commenting on the relentless spread of smoking across China: studies have shown that the country has the largest number of smoking-related deaths in the world, yet two thirds of Chinese people think smoking does little or no harm to their health.

In this Q&A, BLOUIN ARTINFO asked Xu Bing what made him choose tobacco as a medium, and what cigarettes mean to him. He also explained his own personal history with tobacco. . . .

l issues.

Why did you choose cigarettes as the dominant medium for the show?

In 1999 I visited Duke University to give a lecture. When I entered Durham I was immediately aware of the scent of tobacco in the air. Friends explained to me that the Duke family was built on a tobacco fortune, and thus Durham had come to be called “Tobacco City.” Moreover, because the Duke University School of Medicine excelled in treating cancer, Durham has also come to be known as the “City of Medicine.” A multifaceted connection exists there between tobacco and cultural history. . . .

Since the initial show at Duke, I went on to expand the show to the Shanghai Gallery of Art in 2004 — there is a deep historical connection between Shanghai and Durham as a result of the tobacco trade that flourished at the beginning of the 20th century — and then to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond in 2011, where collectors Carolyn Hsu-Balcer — whose family has a long-standing connection to tobacco — and her husband, René Balcer, encouraged me to pursue the history of tobacco in Richmond. The Aldrich contemporary art museum in Ridgefield will be the project’s only venue in the New York area. . . .

When I treat tobacco as a material and come into close contact with it, I realize that it should not be the object of further subjective judgment. It has already taken on the burden of too much social significance. I don't want my work to function as little more than a contribution to the body of tobacco-related propaganda. There is no reason for me to spend my energy saying something that everyone already knows. By viewing tobacco as something neutral, by returning to its innate qualities, I am simply engaging the material in a discussion, in an exchange. If the material is approached with a sense of moral or ethical judgment, then its true aspect will never be visible.

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