Tobacco.org

• MEYER: Right tax, wrong measure 

Like every other state, Pennsylvania has a tax on cigarettes. Unlike most other states, Pennsylvania does not tax other tobacco products - including cigars, bidis, snus, and snuff.

Fortunately, Gov. Rendell has taken a huge step in the right direction by proposing to close this loophole and start taxing these other tobacco products.

Unfortunately, the proposal is flawed. In his 2009-10 budget, the governor has proposed a tax based on the weight of the products. But the weight-based tax could actually boost profits for some of these products. Is that the goal of a tobacco tax? Not so much.

Fortunately, Rendell can fix this flaw easily. Instead of taxing such tobacco products based on their weight, the state should base the tax on a percentage of the wholesale price.

Some tobacco companies are pushing for a weight-based tax to help wipe out their competition and get kids addicted to a whole new generation of smokeless tobacco products. That's because they are now selling ultralight tobacco products that are smokeless, spitless, and able to dissolve in the mouth like candy.

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• RJR plans to appeal Florida jury's ruling on damages from smoker's lawsuit 

But it's clear from a jury's ruling this week that tobacco manufacturers, particularly R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., are facing significantly higher potential awards than had been projected.

A jury in Pensacola, Fla., on Monday awarded $5 million in compensation damages and $25 million in punitive damages from Reynolds to the family of Benny Martin.

Reynolds said it will appeal the decision.

"It is our position that the trial proceedings were unconstitutional and otherwise inconsistent with law," Reynolds spokesman David Howard said. "We believe the verdict will ultimately be reversed on these and other grounds." . . .

Edward Sweda, a senior attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project in Boston, said he believes the $30 million jury award is another major blow to the tobacco industry.

"The unmistakable message from this jury is that the tobacco industry's reprehensible misconduct must not be minimized or excused," Sweda said.

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• House rejects smoking ban, 29-71  

Citing the potential for harming businesses, the House today overwhelmingly rejected a move to broaden the state's indoor smoking ban to include bars and gambling establishments.

The 29-71 vote on House Bill 844 by Rep. Gary Smith followed more than an hour of debate and several attempts to change the bill, most of which were turned away.

Supporters of the measure said it was a public health measure designed to protect patrons and workers in bars and casinos from the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, and would create a level playing field between restaurants, bars and casinos.

Smoking has been banned in restaurants since 2007.

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• As Movies Portray Fewer Smokers, Are Fewer Real-Life Teens Lighting Up?  

Blockbuster movies are less likely to portray smokers than they have in the past, according to a new study. What’s more, this decline in on-screen smoking may have occurred in tandem with a drop in the number of adolescents who have lit up in real life.

While the study can’t prove that one is related to the other, the findings would seem to support what critics have long said: Smoking by glamorous (or even not-so-glamorous) people on the silver screen is like free advertising for cigarettes. . . .

“Reducing smoking in movies probably helped to reduce rates of smoking in kids,“ says study author James D. Sargent, MD, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School and the codirector of the Cancer Control Research Program at Norris Cotton Cancer Center, both in Lebanon, N.H. “We are on the right track aiming at movies, yet half of movies still contain smoking and more work needs to be done.” . . .

If you want to know what movies do or do not portray smoking, check out this list of films (including current releases and DVDs) provided by Smoke Free Movies.

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