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Tobacco donations blasted 

Alberta's Liberal Opposition is criticizing the governing Progressive Conservatives for taking political donations from a tobacco firm.

The Liberals point to public documents that show the Alberta PC party received three donations last year worth a total of $5,125 from the National Smokeless Tobacco Co.

But PC party spokesman Jim Campbell says he sees nothing wrong with taking such donations, which in this case were tickets to leaders' dinners in Calgary and Edmonton.

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• Tobacco dollars still in politics, but few go to Clinton, McCain or Obama 

Among candidates still standing or running...

... Sen. Hillary Clinton has taken the most -- $46,300 from executives and employees of tobacco companies.

Sen. John McCain, himself a cancer survivor, has taken $27,400.

Sen. Barack Obama, who famously has tried to quit smoking with off-and-on success, has taken $22,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

These remaining candidates have not been particularly kind to the tobacco industry, according to Stanton Glantz, an anti-tobacco advocate, researcher and medical school professor at University of California, San Francisco.

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Contrary imaginations. 

This is the final installment of a three-part series on radical skepticism and the rise of conspiratorial thinking about science. . . . .

Thus far, the strategy of the creationists has been one of radical skepticism: They look for signs of uncertainty, gaps in the fossil record. Like the tobacco companies, the drug manufacturers, and the environmentalists, they need only the shadow of a doubt to make their case: . . .

Like the producers of Expelled, Farber portrays mainstream, government-funded science as a repressive regime intolerant of dissent.

Harper's has shown a peculiar affinity, over the years, for contrarian science: In addition to the Farber piece, the magazine has run repeated attacks on the theory of evolution from former Washington editor Tom Bethell, not to mention last month's excerpt from David Berlinski. But it's also the place where Richard Hofstadter laid out his seminal thesis on "the paranoid style in American politics"—an analysis of the conspiracy-minded, radical right that might just as well describe today's radical skeptics of science. The essay first appeared in November of 1964, the same year as the first surgeon general's report on the dangers of smoking, and not long before the tobacco companies geared up the machines of manufactured uncertainty.

The paranoid style, Hofstadter wrote, "is nothing if not scholarly in its technique."

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• R.J. Reynolds Expands Advocacy Web Site 

The second largest U.S. cigarette maker, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. (RJRT), recently expanded its tobacco advocacy Web site for retailers and wholesalers -- NoCigTax.com -- to include materials on state-level excise tax legislation, as well as the original issue covered: the federal excise tax (FET) increase on cigarettes, company representatives told CSNews Online.

In a meeting earlier this week with CSNews Online, Dave Riser, vice president of government relations and trade marketing for RJRT, emphasized the original site saw more than 30,000 visits and generated more than 120,000 contacts to legislators on the FET between June and December 2007. Moreover, more than 1,100 tobacco-related bills -- including anti-smoking efforts and state tax increases -- were introduced in 2007. Due to the continued targeting of cigarettes for tax increases, and the impact it had on the company's retail and wholesale partners, RJRT saw a need to expand its Web site to cover cigarette legislation both on the state and federal level, he said.

"This is a commitment to our trade partners who face the challenges of the industry," he said. "This is less about R.J. Reynolds, than letting them know their opinion counts, it does matter, and it can make a difference." .. . he No. 1 ongoing issue is H.R. 1108, a bill that would allow the FDA to regulate the sale and manufacture of tobacco products, said Riser.

To that end, the NoCigTax.com Web site also has a microsite dedicated to fighting that legislation

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Officials, big tobacco 'too close' ($$) 

Senior government officials are being chummy with tobacco industry insiders who have infiltrated the administration, even using the industry's stock phrases to rationalise why Hong Kong has not increased tobacco duties, international experts said yesterday.

David Simpson, former director of Action on Smoking and Health UK who recommended the setting up of the Hong Kong Council on Smoking and Health, said his main concern for Hong Kong was "that tobacco industry people have taken positions in influential places where in my view they should not be permitted to be".

He pointed to government officials using the phrase "people who choose to smoke".

"For example, we heard that at quite senior level in a private conversation, a senior government official was saying it is difficult to ask taxpayers to foot the bill when people choose to smoke," Dr Simpson, director of the International Agency on Tobacco and Health, said.

"Why should taxpayers have to pay for the cost of enticing them to quit?" he said, adding: "There is only one source of the phrase `choose to smoke'."

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Philip Morris Joins Fight Against Massachusetts's Cigarette Tax Hike 

Philip Morris USA has joined the fight against Massachusetts's $1 per pack cigarette tax hike, the Boston Herald reports.

Through fliers posted at local convenience stores, the tobacco company is asking smokers to oppose raising the tax by calling their legislators to stop the plan. The increase already passed the House and now the Senate is considering the plan.

Philip Morris also set up a "Massachusetts Legislative Hotline" for smokers to phone for tips on what to tell lawmakers. "Enough is enough," the Philip Morris hotline recording says of the proposed tax hike. The "hotline" can automatically transfer calls to legislators' State House offices.

Bill Phelps, a spokesman for Altria, Philip Morris' parent company of Philip Morris, confirmed that the company is "providing materials" to retailers that stock cigarettes.

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Boris: wants local authorities to have discretion to allow smoking in pubs and clubs 

Boris Johnson was plunged into a row over the smoking ban today after it emerged he had taken upto £10,000 from the tobacco industry.

The Tory mayoral candidate triggered criticism when he declared he wanted an "online referendum" to give Londoners a say on whether they wanted the ban overturned.

But Mr Johnson came under further fire when it was revealed that he had pocketed "between £5,000 and £10,000" for a speech to the Association of Tobacco last year. The payment is listed in the MPs' Register of Interests for June 2007.

Mr Johnson's new policy was revealed in an online webchat with The Sun today. . . .

Ken Livingstone said: "Boris Johnson's minders are again desperately scrabbling to conceal his real positions. The smoking ban represents one of the biggest health improvements we have seen, and Boris Johnson's admission that he wants to give boroughs the power to overturn the ban on smoking to pubs and clubs, shows he is hopelessly out of touch to be the Mayor of a modern, forward looking city like London.

"It is made even worse by the fact that it follows a donation from a tobacco group. The smoking ban has been hugely successful and is very popular with Londoners." . . .

The Boris Johnson campaign said that he "was engaged to deliver a speech to the Tobacco Association on June 20th 2007 as part of his JLA Speakers Agency work".

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• Do You Know Who's Behind Anti-Cigarette Tax Push? 

; Do you know who's behind the campaign to stop the cigarette tax hike in Massachusetts?

Signs across the state are urging smokers to call a number for information and it's not an anti-tax grass roots campaign.

WBZ called the number on the ads to find the source.

It turns out the sign and the hotline are courtesy of cigarette giant Phillip Morris.

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Campaign Contributions and Lobbying Expenditures of Tobacco Interests in California (PDF) 

The key highlight for lobbying expenditures is that Philip Morris USA Inc. greatly increased its quarterly lobbying spending to lobby the health care reform bill (ABX1-1) authored by Speaker Fabian Núñez (D-46). Part of the financing for the health care reform plan would have been a $1.75 tobacco tax increase. During the fourth quarter of 2007, when the bill was introduced and passed by the Assembly, Philip Morris USA Inc. spent more than $340,000 on lobbying expenditures, which is $150,000 more than they have spent in any other quarter on lobbying expenditures this decade. The only bill listed on their lobbying disclosure report for the fourth quarter was the health care reform bill.

In addition to lobbying expenditures, tobacco interests contributed nearly $600,000 to campaigns in 2007. A little more than half of this total was contributions to political committees, while roughly $275,000 was contributions to legislators, constitutional officers and candidates. Tobacco interests made contributions to forty-four percent of the Members of the Legislature (37 Assembly Members and 16 Senators) and to five candidates who are running for legislative office. The amount of contributions and number of Members and candidates that have accepted contributions is nearly identical to the figures after one year of the 2005-2006 election cycle. This indicates that tobacco interests are continuing to maintain a strong financial presence in the Capitol through contributions to Members and future Members of the Legislature.

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• Tobacco Money & Politics 

Tobacco interests maintain a strong presence in California policymaking through spending millions of dollars on campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures. All of this information is public information and is required to be reported to the California Secretary of State.

The Database of Campaign Contributions of Tobacco Interests is a searchable database of contributions from tobacco interests to Members of the California Legislature. It contains data from the 2001-2002 election to the present and is searchable by Legislator name, legislative district and county.

Quarterly updates on tobacco interests’ spending are produced every three months to provide information about how much money tobacco interests spend, who they make contributions to and what bills they lobby on. Every two years, a comprehensive report for the complete election cycle is produced. Below are the reports organized by election cycle.

2007-2008 Election Cycle

Campaign Contributions and Lobbying Expenditures of Tobacco Interests in California: January- December 2007

Lobbying Expenditures of Tobacco Interests in California: January-September 2007

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Constructing “Sound Science” and “Good Epidemiology”: Tobacco, Lawyers, and Public Relations Firms 

The tobacco industry has attacked “junk science” to discredit the evidence that secondhand smoke—among other environmental toxins—causes disease. Philip Morris used public relations firms and lawyers to develop a “sound science” program in the United States and Europe that involved recruiting other industries and issues to obscure the tobacco industry's role. The European “sound science” plans included a version of “good epidemiological practices” that would make it impossible to conclude that secondhand smoke—and thus other environmental toxins—caused diseases.

Public health professionals need to be aware that the “sound science” movement is not an indigenous effort from within the profession to improve the quality of scientific discourse, but reflects sophisticated public relations campaigns controlled by industry executives and lawyers whose aim is to manipulate the standards of scientific proof to serve the corporate interests of their clients.

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• Report Shows Tobacco Money Flows to Campaigns, Lobbying 

Tobacco interests spent nearly $2 million to influence California elections and legislative policy in 2007, according to a new report by the American Lung Association of California's Center for Tobacco Policy & Organizing (the Center).

"Campaign Contributions and Lobbying Expenditures of Tobacco Interests" shows which legislators and how much money was accepted from tobacco interests in 2007, as well as which bills the tobacco interests lobbied. This report for 2007 is one of a series of quarterly reports produced by the Center for the 2007-2008 election cycle. Highlights from the 2007 report include:

- Philip Morris USA, Inc., maker of Marlboro cigarettes, spent nearly $345,000 in the fourth quarter (September - December) of 2007 to lobby on ABX1-1, the health care reform bill authored by Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-46) and supported by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The health care reform legislation would have increased the state tobacco tax by $1.75 per pack.

- Tobacco interests are making campaign contributions to legislators and candidates at the same rate they contributed in the previous election cycle. . . .

In addition to this report, the Center unveiled an expanded online database of campaign contributions from tobacco interests to members of the Legislature. The public can use the database to see if their legislator accepted tobacco money. Additionally, the database contains contributions information for both current and past legislators and you can search by name, legislative district or county. . . .

A full copy of "Campaign Contributions and Lobbying Expenditures of Tobacco Interests" is available at http://www.Center4TobaccoPolicy.org/tobaccomoney .

The searchable database can be accessed at http://www.Center4TobaccoPolicy.org/database .

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Report Shows Tobacco Companies Spent $2 Million to Lobby Calif. Lawmakers  

A new report issued by the American Lung Association of California shows tobacco companies have spent $2 million to lobby state lawmakers during the past year. Association spokesman Paul Knepprath says 37 Assembly-members and 16 Senators received contributions from tobacco companies.

Knepprath: The most important thing about the report that we are issuing is that Philip Morris spent more in the last part of 2007 lobbying against the governor and speaker's health reform bill. They spent about $345,000 and ultimately that bill went down to defeat.

That health care reform measure killed by lawmakers included plans to hike the state cigarette tax by $1.75.

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• Fired up over cigarette tax  

Philip Morris USA is trying to light up opposition to the state's proposed $1-a-pack cigarette tax hike.

The huge tobacco company is posting fliers at local convenience stores urging customers to oppose the tax increase and to call their legislators to block the plan - which has already passed the House and is now before the Senate.

The company has also started a "Massachusetts Legislative Hotline" for smokers to call to get tips on what to say to lawmakers. The "hotline" even automatically transfers calls to lawmakers' State House offices.

"Enough is enough," the Philip Morris hotline recording says of the proposed tax hike.

Bill Phelps, a spokesman for Altria, the Richmond, Va.-based parent company of Philip Morris, declined to say how much Philip Morris is spending on its campaign.

But he confirmed Philip Morris is "providing materials" to retailers that sell cigarettes.

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Tobacco lobby has infiltrated Hong Kong government, campaigner says 

Anti-smoking legislation in Hong Kong has been weakened over the past decade partly because of the links between officials and the tobacco industry, a campaigner alleged Thursday. Judith Mackay, World Health Organization advisor and director of the Asian Consultancy on Tobacco Control, claimed industry influence has caused a "recession" in smoking controls.

She said the tobacco industry had become more influential with the government over the past 10 years, resulting in the watering down of long-awaited anti-smoking legislation.

Mackay complained about continuing delays to a full ban on smoking in pubs and nightclubs in the former British colony, and low taxes on cigarettes.

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