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John Luik - SourceWatch 

John Luik is a Canadian philosopher with a history of vocally opposing government agency efforts to warn people about the health dangers of secondhand tobacco smoke. Luik was involved in a tobacco industry-coordinated attack on United States Environmental Protection Agency’s 1992 Risk Assessment on secondhand tobacco smoke.[1]

In 1993, the Confederation of European Community Cigarette Manufacturers (CECCM) hired Luik to write a paper attacking the EPA’s influential 1992 risk assessment, The Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking - Lung Cancer and Other Disorders. [2] (CECCM is a coordinating body for European tobacco manufacturers similar to the Tobacco Institute, and like the Institute, helped European cigarette manufacturers fight public health efforts to reduce smoking. tobacco.) [3][4].

Luik gave several tobacco companies editorial capacity over the content of the paper. . . .

Luik taught philosophy at Nazarene College in Winnipeg, Canada from 1977 to 1985, after which time he was fired for misrepresenting credentials on his resume. In 1985 he was accepted at Brock University where he taught applied professional ethics. In 1990 Brock discharged Luik citing "misrepresentation of his credentials" and saying he was unable to fulfill his duties there "since he has apparently engaged in a series of misrepresentations of his professional and/or academic qualifications to three separate employers, and had done so again, on several occasions, to Brock University." Luik has worked at several conservative Canadian think tanks including the Niagara Institute and the Fraser Institute.

In 1994 Luik was invited to a meeting at Rothmans Tobacco to discuss a proposal he had submitted to serve as managing editor for the book about plain packaging for cigarettes. [14] In 1995 Luik was commissioned to produce and edit the book.

The book, entitled Plain Packaging and the Marketing of Cigarettes, was published in 1998 by Admap Publications in Oxfordshire, England. It concluded that public health assumptions about the beneficial effects of plain packaging were defective, that plain packaging would cause problems with smuggling and threaten the values of a democratic society. It wasn't until June 21, 2001 that a report emerged (in the Montreal Gazette) that Luik was paid US $155,000 to edit the book. [Montreal Gazette, June 21, 2001] The total cost of the book project to the participating tobacco companies was US $240,000.

Luik also served the industry as an associate of the tobacco industry-funded group, Associates for Research in the Science of Enjoyment (ARISE), that was publicly active between 1991 and 1999.

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Attorney O'Quinn killed in car wreck  

Prominent Houston attorney John O'Quinn was one of two men who died this morning when their speeding SUV slammed into a tree on Allen Parkway after the driver apparently lost control, police said.

"I'm stunned. The community lost one of its biggest assets," said Rick Laminack, who worked with O'Quinn from 1987 until 2006. "He was a great lawyer who shared a lot of his wealth with people who needed help."

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Profile: John O'Quinn  

This story originally ran Jan. 11, 1998

. . .

Texas' lawsuit against the major tobacco companies, in which O'Quinn is serving as lead attorney, went on hold for several months, then added another major player, South Carolina tobacco specialist Ron Motley, with whom O'Quinn would have to share the stage. . . .

The great cases and big victories will return, one expects, assuming he does not lose his license. The tobacco case reportedly is on the verge of settling, leaving the plaintiff lawyers with $1 billion or more to split up. But the weight of the accusations and the headlines they've generated has been great.

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• VIDEO: Balloon Dad Forced Cigar on Infant Son  

Ten years before the Balloon Boy hoax, Richard Heene pulled an equally unfunny stunt -- only this time his kid really was in danger.

We've obtained footage of Richard Heene from 10 years ago -- trying to shove a cigar into his then infant son Bradford's mouth -- while posing him with an empty bottle of beer ... and it's all for the cameras.

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Morning Links: Schocking video shows Balloon Boy dad pushing cigar, beer on infabt son 

Just when you thought you couldn't have a lower opinion of Balloon Boy Dad Richard Heene, a video surfaces from 10 years ago in which he puts a cigar in the mouth of his infant son, Bradford, and lets the kid mouth an open bottle of beer.

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LETTER: Obama blowing smoke?  

Maybe I missed it, but is President Obama still smoking cigarettes?

He seems to be very involved with wanting to invoke change in the country’s health care system, but if he hasn’t yet invoked a change in personal nicotine addiction, I urge members of Congress and the citizens of the U.S. to take another look at his pleas.

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Amy Winehouse misses her cue at Q awards  

Lily Allen also attended the awards, which are voted for by readers of Q magazine.

She defied the smoking ban by lighting up a cigarette during the ceremony, and went on stage clutching a pint of lager to accept the Best Track award for her single The Fear.

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• Lily Allen flouts French smoking ban in Paris as she performs in a plunging leotard 

Lily Allen showed her rebellious side last night as she flouted France's smoking ban on stage in Paris.

In between verses, Lily puffed away on a cigarette as she performed in a skimpy leotard at the City of Light's Le Zenith venue.

But the 24-year-old singer provided a distraction from her smoking with her slashed-to-the-navel leotard. . . .

Lily has publicly declared her love of smoking, so it's unlikely she'll be quitting any time soon.

She said: 'I love smoking… I don't really want to say it, but I do.' . . .

While Lily doesn't appear to be too worried about the health affects of smoking, she admitted she suffers from mild arthritis.

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BEATO: E-cigs: politically correct political incorrectness? 

In 1961, G.D. Searle & Company gave us the Pill. And in 2004, a Chinese company called Ruyan created electronic cigarettes.

Over the last year, these devices, which deliver nicotine to their users in the form of vapor instead of smoke, have grown increasingly prominent. In July, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it had concerns about the safety of these products, citing the “detectable levels of known carcinogens and toxic chemicals” it found when testing two popular brands. In September, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have made it illegal to sell electronic cigarettes there. Leo DiCaprio, Tom Petty and everyone’s favorite style icon, Kevin Federline, have all been photographed “vaping” in public.

Unlike other cigarette alternatives, e-cigarettes don’t just retain the nicotine of the original article, but also the prop value. . . .

For all its virtues, however, the e-cigarette is still the tobacco equivalent of a toupee. From across a room, or even from across a medium-sized table if the room is dark enough, it may be fairly convincing. But it’s still silly. That people are currently buying them so readily only proves just how effectively anti-smoking advocates have glamorized cigarettes in recent years. . . .

Still, a potential vaping epidemic is not without an enormous upside. As smoking declined, people needed something to do with their hands, and not everyone wanted to be a heroin addict or knit sweaters. Nature abhors a vacuum, however, and to fill the void in our lives, we took to texting and tweeting. Now look where we are. We spell “are you” RU. We apprehend the world in 140-character lifebites. Whatever trace amounts of diethylene glycol may lurk within the cartridges of your favorite e-cigarette, they can’t be any less healthy than spending hours each day trading quips about Balloon Boy with a handful of virtual strangers.

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I'm smoking on Strictly 

STRICTLY Come Dancing star Craig Kelly has resorted to acupuncture to help him keep off the cigarettes.

The Coronation Street actor stopped smoking four years ago but the pressure of appearing on Strictly drove him back to the deadly habit.

However all the puffing sent his heart racing and left him fighting for breath - so he turned to the Chinese needle treatment to help kick the habit and steady his nerves.

Craig, 38, saw a specialist before last week's Foxtrot and had tiny needles stuck into specific points of his body to relieve stress.

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Star Craig is smokin  

CRAIG Kelly has revealed being on Strictly has heated up his SEX life - but also made him take up SMOKING.

The Coronation Street star said: "My wife Camilla is very impressed with my new hip movements. She will kill me for saying that."

But the down side is Craig, 39, partnered with Flavia Cacace, took up smoking again to calm his nerves.

He said: "I was smoking four or five cigarettes before we went out - and I don't smoke.

"I smoked for about 14 years and finally quit four years ago after trying for ages. Then suddenly I was smoking again. I was so nervous . . .

So he went for acupuncture last week and has now managed to kick the cigs once more.

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VIDEO: Anna Kournikova Smoke Break  

Despite recent rumors of pregnancy, Anna Kournikova was spotted on the balcony of her beleaguered home smoking a cigarette and looking at her figure in the reflection of a glass door while chatting with a female friend in Miami, FL.

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Rhys Ifans sparks smoking scare  

Rhys Ifans caused a mid-air panic by appearing to smoke a cigarette on a plane.

The 'Notting Hill' actor was jetting from London to Los Angeles when he began puffing on the white stick - smoking on planes is banned - causing furious passengers to complain to staff on the Virgin Atlantic flight.

The 41-year-old star caused further concern when he twisted the cigarette around and pressed the burning red ember into his lip - until staff realised it was a fake cigarette.

Rhys was using a SmokeStik, a new invention which allows smokers to get their nicotine hit without having to puff on a cigarette.

The version Rhys was using, the SmokeStik Royale, was designed by socialite Lady Victoria Hervey and features her family's crest.

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Yao joins China anti-smoking drive 

China's biggest sports star Yao Ming has joined a high profile anti-tobacco campaign aimed at persuading around 350 million Chinese smokers to kick the habit.

Named as an ambassador to the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control (CATC), the Houston Rockets' centre is expected to appear in new TV and poster adverts pushing the anti-smoking message, state media said.

Yao will reportedly appear in the campaign alongside popular singing star Peng Liyuan, who is also the wife of China's vice president, Xi Jinping.

"We hope the celebrities would inspire more people to join in anti-smoking activities," Xu Guihua, deputy director of the CATC, was quoted as saying.

"The public should be advised to lead a healthier life without the influence of tobacco use."

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Can Yao Ming help China kick the habit? 

NBA superstar Yao Ming has been tapped to help encourage Chinese citizens to stop smoking. The 7'6 Houston Rockets player will be an ambassador on behalf of the China Tobacco Control Association. . . .

One thing is certain: curbing smoking in China will take the efforts of someone of Yao Ming's stature.

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