Tobacco.org

REECE: Imperial Tobacco profits are still booming, but is that a cause for celebration?  

Since October 1996 – shortly after Davis took the job on the company’s split from Hanson – shareholders have seen the FTSE All Share double . . .

Alcohol consumption, and gambling likewise, show no signs of dramatically abating. Arguably such habits are eventually encouraged by overly nannying states that set out to curb them, either through tax or regulation.

The worst expression of this unintended consequence is the rise of smugglers. High taxes make smuggling worthwhile. Illicit trade in cigarettes robs governments of expected income and creates an illegal market that trades outside regulations supposed to protect sections of society, such as children.

Having quit the weed several years ago, I’m not going to celebrate Imperial or its peers. But their continuing success shows just how ineffectual the current invasive style of government, that we tolerate, really is.

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BAUERS: Toxic butts 

I always knew cigarette butts were nasty, but now it seems they're even worse than I thought. New research -- albeit funded by anti-cigarette groups -- suggests they could qualify as toxic hazardous waste.

The research comes from San Diego State University (SDSU); the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and consulting groups Oxford Outcomes and the Varda Group. It's part of the Cigarette Butt Pollution Project funded by the California Tobacco Related Disease Research Program of the University of California.

Their findings are being presented Monday at the 137th annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, held in Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, here's a preview of the findings and project activities, provided by San Diego State University:

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CAMPBELL: Golden Leaf Foundation has never lived up to its promise 

When the Golden Leaf Foundation was formed to receive 50 percent of North Carolina's portion of tobacco settlement funds, there were great hopes this organization would make a significant impact on a state affected by the decline of the golden leaf. The foundation has never lived up to its promise and a recent audit by State Auditor Beth Wood indicates more than a few serious issues.

Golden Leaf's problems were obvious from the beginning. . . .

Residents are justified to ask what we have received for the $800 million this organization has received to date. A strong case can be made that the benefits don't justify the expenditures, that inadequate management controls and undue political influence might indicate we go back to the drawing board and come up with a new approach that does not have so many inherent problems. At a minimum we need more accountability, better controls, less political influence and a new vision. We don't often get the chance to receive $2.5 billion. It is imperative that we get maximum benefit from the remaining $1.5 billion projected to be received in this fund between now and 2025.

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• SANDFORD: Forget what the tobacco industry says 

There are many reasons why children take up smoking but youth exposure to tobacco marketing is a key factor. Although most forms of tobacco promotion were outlawed in the UK by the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002, the tobacco industry has continued to use its marketing muscle to lure children to its products through elaborate displays and fancy packaging. . . .

Naturally, the tobacco industry disputes the evidence because of its need to recruit and maintain new customers. The industry has an established track record of contesting research evidence to delay regulation. Tactics include challenging the evidence in order to create uncertainty and using apparently 'independent' researchers to do its dirty work. Such allies include the Cato Institute, for example. . . .

Furthermore there is simply no evidence to support the claim that putting tobacco out of sight at the point of sale leads to an increase in illegal sales. The vast majority of retailers are law-abiding and would not be tempted to try and sell illicit products. The rise in smuggling in both Ireland and Canada predates the implementation of display bans and there is no evidence of any causal association. Tobacco smuggling is clearly a huge problem that requires a strategic response but abandoning a policy that would stop tobacco being promoted to young people is not the answer.

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Robert Moran: Smoking — legal and smoky environments  

Nov. 19 is the American Cancer Society's 32nd annual Great American Smokeout. In support, "Thinking about Salem" will address smoking in three columns highlighting significant developments and research findings published from September 2008 through August 2009.

Legal environment

It was a momentous year. On June 22, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act became law. It gave the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) extensive authorities to regulate tobacco for public health purposes. . . .

The industry took a knee to its pocketbook just before Christmas. The Supreme Court ruled smokers could sue manufactures who advertised cigarettes as “light” for fraud. At trial, plaintiffs successfully argued manufactures knew people smoking reduced tar and nicotine cigarettes would alter their smoking habits to extract as much tar and nicotine from “lights” as they got from full-strengths. This ruling bodes badly for tobacco in an ongoing racketeering case. In July, a three-judge panel from the Federal Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a 2006 conviction of tobacco companies for conspiring to suppress evidence smoking is harmful. Along with huge fines ($280 billion), the trial court prohibited advertising any cigarette as “light.” If tobacco appeals its racketeering conviction to the Supreme Court, as the financial press reports it will, court-watchers think it will fare badly.

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Ingrid Newkirk: Using Dollar Bills to Light Cigarettes 

With the national debt in the trillions, the U.S. government is still letting money go up in smoke.

For decades now, we’ve known that those men in the white coats who were employed by tobacco companies to appear on TV and tell us that smoking soothed a scratchy throat were not telling us the whole truth. In the 1970s, epidemiology conclusively linked smoking in pregnant women to fetal harm. Since then, every medical organization, the U.S. Surgeon General, and even tobacco companies themselves have advised us to stay away from the smokes, and most strongly warned that women should not smoke during pregnancy.

The federal government, meanwhile, is still funding studies in which stressed monkeys are locked inside metal cages, impregnated, and injected with nicotine; have their babies taken away from them after birth; have lung function tests performed on them; and are then killed. And should you think this is the government foolishly trying to prove for the umpteenth time what we already know - in this case about tobacco and nicotine - it is not. It is to see if women can keep on smoking and have babies too! . . .

The money is considerable. Spindel’s recent NIH grants include $1.3 million to test fetal nicotine exposure in rhesus monkeys, $1.8 million to study the mechanisms that nicotine uses to harm the fetuses of mutant mice, and his share of the $11 million annual support grant for the primate center. Meanwhile, only three states—Maine, Delaware, and Mississippi—fund tobacco prevention programs at the minimum levels recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia fund such programs at less than half the CDC minimum or provide no state funding at all.

The expense is not only borne by us taxpayers and the animals who pay with their lives in such disgusting tests, but by the women and children who are ill served by foolish funding priorities.

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Opposing view: A much-needed alternative 

By the time you're done reading this column, combustible tobacco smoking will claim four more American lives — and a total of 440,000 lives this year.

Electronic cigarettes — battery-operated products that deliver an inhalable nicotine vapor — offer a much needed alternative. . . .

Electronic cigarettes are not drugs, nor are they sold to cure any disease or affliction. Therefore, the FDA has no authority to regulate or ban them as drug-delivery devices.

But by attempting to mislabel them as medical devices, the FDA wants to force manufacturers to spend as much as $1.5 billion on clinical research, drug trials and FDA fees for potential marketplace approval. We are not large drug companies capable of this type of investment, and the FDA knows it.

President Obama just signed a landmark law giving the FDA authority to regulate virtually all aspects of tobacco products. We understand that to protect the public, some form of regulation may be necessary and would welcome regulation under the new and more reasonable authority. This process wouldn't take us off the shelf or cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and would still provide necessary safeguards. Our goal is to guarantee access for committed smokers who want the freedom of the clear alternative that e-cigarettes offer and ensure that minors do not have access to our products.

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ABOUHALKAH: Voters make good calls while lawyers whine  

•Liberty voters approved a tough smoke-free law that will protect residents.

The decision to ban smoking in all restaurants and bars overruled the City Council’s weak ordinance from early 2009, which allowed smoking in too many places. Give credit to a dedicated group of residents who hustled to get this initiative on the ballot.

Now, Raytown shamefully becomes the largest area city whose elected leaders have refused to approve smoke-free legislation, mostly because of a few bar owners’ objections. The Board of Aldermen should change that position.

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FREELAND: Climate Change and Cigarettes 

I smoke cigarettes. I'm not proud of it, but it's a fact. At least I don't throw my butts on the ground. My favorite brand of cigarette is Newport™ brand cigarettes. I'm fully aware of the reasons why I should quit. The studies on carcinogenic pesticides used in the Lorillard fields in Greensboro, NC and their toxic effects is alarming. The pictures of smoker's lungs hanging about in schools other constant advertisements remind me that it's not good for my health. But all these facts mean absolutely nothing to me when I hear the soothing click of a lighter, smell the faint tinge of toasted paper as the tip turns red, as my cheeks pucker with a savory draw of cool mentholated smoke dancing over my tongue as I inhale that first puff deeply with a calming sigh.

I will quit someday, that is known. But whether I quit because I contract cancer and die, or because I take a conscientious effort to stop smoking is the true unknown. Draw all the parallels you like.

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TORT: Support from big tobacco 

The planned use of additional cigarette taxes for targeted spending on children’s health care is a perfect example of how smokers themselves, through their support for additional taxes on their vice, can contribute to public welfare. A recent study by the government think tank Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) indicates that the proposed restructuring of local taxes on cigarettes and liquor can prospectively raise up to P60 billion in additional revenues for the government every year.

Simulations by the government also show that the proposed increase in “sin” taxes, now pending in Congress, can have the biggest impact on revenue collection—an estimated P22 billion in the first year of implementation, another P30 billion to P40 billion in the second year, P40 billion to P50 billion in the third year, and P60 billion to P70 billion annually thereafter. And while Congress contemplates this proposal, the Executive should likewise move to make efficient, transparent, and accountable the collection of taxes on cigarettes and perhaps liquor.

If only smokers can support the noble aims of efficient taxation of their vice, then there shouldn’t be any reason for cigarette makers and importers, and even tobacco farmers as well as their representatives in Congress, to fight efforts for better—if not higher—tax collection and cigarettes and tobacco products. How can any of them begrudge or fight efforts to improve health care particularly for children?

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Sadie Nardini: Mr. President: I Challenge You To Quit! 

So before all you smokers brush off the "healthy" chick, let's be clear that I'm talking to the sometime smoker in my own mirror, too.

And I don't think I accept my friends' offers to join them outside because movies and the media make it so inviting. I, like the president, am not easily swayed by advertising executives marketing to my target group. I also have a sneaking suspicion that if Barack Obama wants to smoke, it's not because he wants to be just like Joe Camel.

So, Mr. President, and readers, I invite you to do what I promise to do this month--own our proclivity for bumming smokes (and smoking) and stop this nonsense together. In so doing, I will teach you, readers, how to get all the benefits of a cigarette--without ever smoking another one again.

Because really, we're after the ritual, the alone time, the sense of calm and space and camaraderie and relationship we get with this often-deadly lover. None of us want to be codependent, but, dysfunctional or not, we are. They might be hurting us, but cigarettes are always there for us when we need them, and we keep going back for more.

Though cigarettes are quite the stimulant, smokers most often cite the sense of calm, and centering as their primary reason to reach for one. . . .

Mr. President, if anyone in this country needs a freakin' ciggy, it's you. I get it. But let's get all of us that moment of Zen--and the buzz, too--without all the carcinogenic accoutrements. . . .

THE BUTT-KICKING BREATH:

Use this technique any time you would normally choose to smoke, or any time stress or anxiety gets the better of you.

This breath has been shown to slow your brain waves down, switching your central nervous system from the fight-or flight of anxiety to the still waters of the parasympathetic, and release endorphins that give you that same glad-to be alive buzz without, oh, say, the carbon monoxide. . . .

It's just this bad habit of yours has been fooling you into thinking you're handling your stress. In fact, the smokes are managing you.

Yoga and mindful breathing is all about taking control, real control, of your life. I know you can get the relief and peace you're looking for in another, more life-affirming way. And I'm all for trading up.

In fact, Mr. President, and readers...I'm starting today.

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IDRIS: Cigarettes: Charge 'em RM30 for twenty 

The Consumers Association of Penang lauds the move mooted by Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai that with effect from January 2010, a minimum price will be fixed for a 20-sticks pack of cigarettes at RM6.20.

However, it is disappointing to note that the price fixed is so low that this will be a futile move if the government is really serious about addressing the fight against the growing smoking epidemic.

In a recent survey carried out by CAP, we found that the sale of 'value brand' cigarettes had increased. We found various brands - some of which were duty-free from Langkawi - being sold and easily available in outlets which sell cigarettes. Some of the brands were imported from Vietnam, Bangladesh and India. Most of these value brands do not even carry the health picture warning.

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WILLIAMS: Ban and advocates need something stronger for support 

The question on many minds these days is, what’s up with Purdue’s proposed campus-wide smoking ban? To me, it’s just showing a dog (Purdue and secondhand-smoke opponents) that’s all bark and no bite. . . .

Let’s be honest, though: how many of you secondhand-smoke-on-campus complainers actually inhale smoke and not just the scent left behind from a cigarette? Don’t know the difference? Well, smoke is defined as a visually present cloud of gas particles produced from burning something; scent is the residual smell the dissipated smoke leaves behind.

Do you know how fast smoke dissipates in the open, outside air? . . .

The long and short of it is the University can’t back up the proposed (or current) policy with enforcement, and policy advocates can’t legitimately back up their secondhand smoke claims. Both entities should stop blowing smoke instead of trying to demonize actual smoke-blowing.

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St. Louis County Voters Embrace Future; Vote "Yes" for Smoking Ban 

That crisp, clean air you're smelling this morning? Ladies and gentlemen, that's progress!

That's (dare we say it?) the future! . . .

Oh, and that Kirkwood vote also won somebody a bet with anti-smoking-ban crusader Bill Hannegan. (I'll take that case of Schlafly Pale Ale whenever you get a chance.)

One last note: The city and county smoking bans don't go into effect for another 14 months -- January 2011. So, smoke 'em while you can.

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Pete Robinson: Smoke signals from Ireland 

To get a glimpse of things to come we need look no further than a few miles across the water to Ireland, where a number of new reports have surfaced. Curiously they've all failed to appear in the ASH Daily News.

The worst of these is pub closures which, over the last five years, have reached a depressing 1,500 outside Dublin. . . .'' On the contrary Irish smoking rates have RISEN yet again! New figures from the EU show they are now at 33% - the highest for 11 years. That's up 6% since the inception of their smoking ban.

However as I've argued before bans increase smoking numbers, forbidden fruits and all that. So had the pre-ban trend been allowed to continue Irish smoking rates would today be below 22%.

Meanwhile Ireland has witnessed an epidemic of grand-scale cigarette smuggling so there's not even any revenue gains. The EU survey also revealed that today the largest group of smokers - 45% - is aged between 16 and 30, significantly the main target group of the original de-normalisation program. . . .

Yet still the health fascists trumpet Ireland's smoking ban as some kind of 'success', being held up as a model all over the world. Ireland's ASH-equivalent, the Research Institute for a Tobacco Free Society, insist that bar workers health has 'improved' and are calling for even heavier taxes and legislation.

So there you have it. The only reason your livelihood is under threat is to feed the spiteful, insatiable arrogance of these nannying do-gooders. You've already had your behaviour 'corrected' by the hate-mob and lost vital trade as a result.

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