Tobacco.org

LETTER: PAYNE: Clarification on tobacco 

Some points made in your recent article, "Agency warns of candy-like tobacco" (Oct. 26) need to be clarified and corrected. The dissolvable tobacco products made and marketed by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. -- Camel Orbs, Sticks and Strips -- are not "tobacco candy." In fact, these are tobacco products and are sold on the same store shelves as other tobacco products. They carry the same health warnings as other smokeless tobacco products. Their sale is age-restricted and their packaging is child-resistant.

Dissolvable tobacco products have been sold in the U.S. for a number of years.

R.J. Reynolds will work closely with the FDA's Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee and provide any information needed in its analysis of dissolvable tobacco products.

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• Cancer institute studies smokeless tobacco 

Is using smokeless tobacco just as harmful as smoking, or is it potentially a safer option?

Getting a definitive answer to that question has proved elusive despite centuries of medical research.

Resolving the issue, and providing clarity amid the heated rhetoric, has prompted a new series of medical studies sponsored by the National Cancer Institute.

One set focuses on whether such smokeless products as snus and the dissolvable products from R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., provide "a truly less-harmful alternative to conventional tobacco products, both at the individual and population level," according to the institute's grant application.

Another set, including one that was started Sept. 1 at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, is aimed at developing strategy to encourage reduced use or even quitting smokeless-tobacco products. Wake Forest is receiving a $2.9 million grant for its study.

Maura Payne, a spokeswoman for Reynolds, said that the company supports "well-designed studies" that could help develop science-based, tobacco-harm-reduction strategies." Payne said that Reynolds does not promote its new smokeless products as a way to quit smoking.

The institute said that the studies are necessary because "previous tobacco-use reduction efforts pursued by the public-health community were disadvantaged by incomplete knowledge and methods for evaluating the health impact of modified tobacco products."

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• Ban on Flavored Tobacco Products Becomes City Law  

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg signed legislation on Wednesday to prohibit the sale of most forms of flavored tobacco products in New York City. The new law is more extensive than the federal Food and Drug Administration's ban on candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes, which took effect last month.

The City Council approved the bill on Oct. 14. The legislation covers "chocolate, vanilla, honey, candy, cocoa, dessert, alcoholic beverage, herb or spice flavors," but exempts "tobacco, menthol, mint or wintergreen flavors."

The city ban includes cigars and smokeless tobacco, while the federal ban is limited to cigarettes. That ban prohibits the sale of cigarettes with "an artificial or natural flavor (other than tobacco or menthol) or an herb or spice, including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry, or coffee."

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• Doctor presses the case against tobacco scholarships 

A San Luis Obispo doctor is continuing to speak out against Cal Poly for allowing students to accept scholarships from the smokeless tobacco industry as prize awards in collegiate rodeo events.

University officials say Cal Poly has no basis to deny students scholarship funds from a legal source, and university officials note that no tobacco-related advertising is allowed at school events under a campus policy. Five years ago, Cal Poly officials supported creating a fund that could be an alternative to tobacco-industry scholarships, but that idea was rejected by tobacco opponents.

Stephen L. Hansen, a physician and representative of the county Tobacco Control Coalition, said he's outraged that the chewing tobacco industry lures students to a cancer-causing product through scholarships

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Agency warns of candy-like tobacco 

Parents: Beware of nicotine posing as candy and alcohol that tastes like punch.

That's the combined heads-up given this week by the state Department of Health and a grass-roots parents group trying to quell underage drinking and tobacco use.

Smoking and other uses of tobacco products continue to decline, but nicotine is coming at children in breath mints, candy and toothpicks, said Amy Sands, program manager for the health department's Tobacco Prevention and Control Program.

"The products are designed to make tobacco addiction more accessible as well as to promote the dual use of cigarettes and smokeless products, creating an even stronger addiction," she said.

ParentsEmpowered.org kicked off the fourth year of its ongoing public awareness campaign against underage drinking Thursday with some good news.

Statewide averages for underage drinking are down across all grade levels for lifetime use, including use within a 30-day time frame and binge drinking in general, according to the Student Health and Risk Prevention survey.

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SAPAKOFF: Tobacco still stains the majors 

For my couch time, Major League Baseball does its postseason almost as well as "The Office" does body language.

Brilliant. Except for all the spittin' and chewin' or, worst of all, both in one quick camera shot.

How does that look in HD? . . .

But MLB holds fast to a disgusting tradition, something not allowed in most workplaces or public buildings throughout America.

You don't see it in the NBA, NFL, NHL or college sports. You don't see it at bookstores or restaurants. Even stodgy NASCAR got rid of its Cup race tobacco sponsorship.

Only big league baseball, thanks to a stubborn union and inept owners bent on ruining all their good publicity with close-up shots of outfielders stuffing bad stuff into their mouths. . . .

Francona is not the only one.

One of your favorite players, maybe someone you know or have met, might have trouble with this image-ruining habit.

Next time you meet such a player, instead of spewing praise, remind them that doctors and the American Dental Association have weighed in. . . .

Too bad it's too late for some.

Jack Krol was the manager of our Charleston Rainbows for three seasons, 1988-1990, and briefly served as interim manager of the St. Louis Cardinals in 1978 and 1980. In 1993, the same year minor league baseball banned smokeless tobacco, the long-time chewer had part of his tongue removed.

Krol, a great guy, died of oral cancer in 1994. He was 57.

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• Where smokers are a menace 

MAZENGO Madanga, a 55-year-old peasant from Chilonwa Village in Dodoma Rural District, who came into the municipality to beg recently, says he took up tobacco smoking nearly 20 years ago. He admits with resentment that tobacco is so addictive that abusers fail to kick the habit.

He says a friend with who he tended cattle introduced him to tobacco smoking. Initially, he says, he found it difficult to inhale the smoke that appeared to assail not only his chest and lungs but his nostrils too. What he was smoking was crushed, sun-dried tobacco leaves rolled in paper.

Twenty years down the road, today, Madanga can no longer kick the habit. In fact, apart from smoking raw tobacco, he sniffs snuff as well. He tucks some of it inside his lower lip, a practice that increased the foul smell that invariably emanates from his mouth.

A medical doctor with the municipality's Regional Hospital, who prefers anonymity, says that health complications, especially respiratory impairments, take many lives in Dodoma Region. . . .

. But the government has a good rule of thumb that requires warning signs posted on each cigarette advertisement saying it has been determined that "cigarette smoking is dangerous to your health."

The same advert is displayed on cigarrete packs and is designed to warn smokers and potential smokers against the habit. But the advert does not seem to have much impact on the fraternity of smokers. One reason is that smoking takes its tall after twenty or more years.

So, the law makes it imperative for tobacco companies to warn consumers of their products on underlying dangers of smoking. A former Deputy Minister in the Ministry of Health, Mr Hussein Mwinyi, told the National Assembly last June, 2006 that smoking in public places is a crime.

He says smokers sometimes pass problems to non-smokers around them through what is known as passive smoking and that parents who smoke near infants unwittingly put the child's health at risk. He also says a spouse who smokes endangers his or her non-smoking partner.

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LETTERS: Use snus, you lose 

Funding cut for Franklin County stop-smoking program  

The Healthy Communities Partnership of Greater Franklin County has had to eliminate its classes to help people with their efforts to quit smoking. Grant Coordinator McCole said she had to tell about 10 people that an eight-week class that was to start in a couple of weeks was being canceled, and to turn away a handful of people looking for help in kicking the habit.

"We had classes scheduled, but they're all gone now," she said.

Last year the organization conducted about 10 classes that were completed by about 60 people. . . .

McCole said the most frustrating part of the financial cuts is not being able to assist people who are looking for help to better their health. McCole said that she comes from a family of smokers and that if a relative of hers were to come to her now looking for a class to help them quit, she doesn't have any to offer.

"To turn them away is heart-breaking," she said.

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Form 8-K Current Report  

Third Quarter and Nine Months 2009 — At a Glance

• Adjusted EPS: third quarter at $1.24, down 3.9 percent; nine months at $3.54, up 0.6 percent

o Excludes non-cash trademark impairments in both years, and prior-year restructuring charges and gain from joint-venture termination

• Reported EPS: third quarter at $1.24, up 72.2 percent; nine months at $2.56, down 30.2 percent

• RAI increases 2009 guidance: Adjusted EPS range of $4.60 to $4.70

• R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company posts additional margin gains

• Conwood captures 29.9 percent share of moist-snuff market

• RAI again recognized as a leader in corporate sustainability

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Review of epidemiologic data on the debate over smokeless tobacco's role in harm reduction 

Leading authorities in the USA have firmly stated that there is no safe tobacco - a message which does not allow for any discussion of comparative tobacco risks. This commentary is intended to review the origin of the controversy over Swedish 'snus', to examine briefly the meta-analysis on cancer risks by Peter Lee and Jan Hamling (published in July in BMC Medicine) and to discuss the anticipated direction of the debate on tobacco-harm reduction in the USA.

We anticipate that much of the debate will shift from the discussion of epidemiologic data to the discussion of the marketing, health communication and economics of smokeless tobacco. While the Food and Drug Administration's newly approved authority over tobacco will undoubtedly affect the smokeless products, it may not be the sole determinant of harm reduction's fate in the USA.See associated research article by Lee and Hamling: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/7/36

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New York City to ban flavored cigars, says they tempt kids to start puffin' 

The city that led the country in banning smoking in bars, restaurants and most public spaces is about to ban the sale of flavored tobacco products.

A long-debated bill authorizing the flavored-tobacco ban was finally approved by the City Council last Wednesday, by a 46-to-1 vote. Mayor Bloomberg - who instigated the city's smoking crackdown in 2002 - said he will sign the bill into law soon.

The ban will likely kick in around February, and cost the city up to $2 million a year in lost sales tax revenues.

Advocates argued that although cigarette smoking continues to decrease, the sales of cigars and cigarillos have been rising, including those with candy-like flavors. The flavored smokes can lure teens into becoming addicted, Council Speaker Christine Quinn (D-Manhattan) said during the vote, and the ban is needed "to protect the children of New York City."

Michele Bonan, regional director of advocacy for the American Cancer Society, one of the groups pushing the ban, said flavored tobacco is "Big Tobacco's version of training wheels" to attract young smokers.

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STIER: Council votes to boost butts 

THE City Council this week voted 46-1 to ban many flavorings in a variety of tobacco products, and Mayor Bloomberg is likely to sign it into law. Speaker Christine Quinn justified it as an effort to protect children -- but the main effect will be to make it harder for adult smokers to quit.

The ban also covers many flavors of snus -- a smokeless, and thus far less harmful, tobacco. . . .

But sales of all tobacco products to minors are already illegal. The city should enforce the law on the books rather than stymie adults' switch to a less harmful product.

Ironically, the city ban exempts flavored hookah tobacco and menthol -- both of which are popular among younger tobacco users and which, unlike the banned flavored snus, have no redeeming public-health value. They certainly don't help people quit cigarettes.

New York City is not alone in banning the wrong products. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal recently called for a ban on e-cigarettes. . . .

The federal government is getting into the act as well. The Food and Drug Administration, now tasked with regulating tobacco, in July warned about tiny levels of carcinogens in e-cigarettes, telling smokers to stay away -- in effect telling them to stick with deadly cigarettes.

These government actions will do nothing to protect kids. The only effect is to promote the most dangerous form of tobacco use, smoking cigarettes.

If the advocates get their way, the only thing addicted smokers will be able to buy are mostly ineffective nicotine gums and patches -- and, of course, cigarettes.

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Road rage features tobacco chew 

An Augusta man said he had chewing tobacco thrown in his face after he blew his horn at a driver on Wrightsboro Road Thursday night.

The 51-year-old victim said he honked at a woman who was blocking the intersection of Wrightsboro Road and Marks Church Road so that she would move and turn, a Richmond County Sheriff's report said.

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Tobacco companies scoping younger crowd with social networking, smokeless products  

Tobacco companies have started advertising on social networking Web sites such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

Jeffrey Wigand, a former tobacco executive who operates the nonprofit organization Smoke-Free Kids, said while it is hard to tell how successful the Web site advertising is, it has to make sense for the companies.

Tobacco company marketing strategies - Social networking sites such as Facebook - Camel Orbs, tobacco and nicotine pellets - Camel Strips, comparable to breath strips - Camel Sticks, similar to toothpicks

“It’s happening — we haven’t been able to quantify it,” Wigand said. “They wouldn’t be doing it if they weren’t reaching somebody. They don’t do things without studying it for a while.” . . .

Social networking Web sites are not the only way tobacco companies are marketing to youth.

Camel cigarettes designed smokeless products intended to be a gateway to cigarettes, Wigand said.

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