Tobacco.org

Editorial: FDA folly - Regulation wrong remedy for tobacco  

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may be charged with promoting and protecting the public health, but it may soon be obligated to regulate an inherently unhealthy product if Congress approves legislation giving the agency oversight of tobacco. The bill reached the floor of the Senate on Tuesday, despite the best efforts of North Carolina's senators, and seems poised for approval.

Though well-intentioned, the legislation would be the wrong remedy for the ills caused by tobacco. The Senate should listen to U.S. Sens. Richard Burr and Kay Hagan, who have offered workable alternatives that avoid inflicting tobacco regulation on an ill-prepared federal agency.

Only weeks after North Carolina, once the capital of tobacco production, approved a ban on smoking in restaurants and bars, the industry appears poised to take another hit in Washington, D.C. . . .

North Carolina should eagerly support efforts to reduce the number of smokers and to dissuade children from adopting the deadly habit. But it should do so only in an appropriate manner that limits harm to the state, two measures by which this legislation falls short.

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As movies portray fewer smokers, fewer teens light 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.

Teenage smoking and the number of smoking scenes in movies have declined, according to a study.

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. . . .

* Critics say showing smoking in movies is free advertising for cigarettes

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With No Challenger, Burr's In No Trouble 

By any number of metrics, North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr could be the most vulnerable Republican incumbent in the country. His once Republican-leaning state looks rather blue after the 2008 elections, and recent polls show Burr anything but safe.

Still, Burr is likeable -- nothing like his distant relative, Vice President Aaron Burr -- and he lacks the kind of issues that doomed former senator Elizabeth Dole's re-election bid last year. Perhaps most important to the first-term senator's survival prospects, though, is that no top-tier Democrat has stepped forward to challenge him. . . .

Stepping up his visibility, Burr is leading the fight this week against a bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco, which is an important piece of the state's economy. He's also joined forces on a health care plan with Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Reps. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Devin Nunes (R-Calif.).

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Senate begins debating FDA tobacco bill  

The U.S. Senate yesterday began debating legislation that would give the federal government the power to regulate tobacco products.

"Passing this bill would be an historic victory for our nation's children," Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., said on the Senate floor.

But Sen. Richard Burr, N.C., who represents the nation's top tobacco-producing state, said the legislation was flawed and would do little to reduce smoking rates. . . .

Kentucky Sens. Mitch McConnell and Jim Bunning, both Republicans, were among the minority early yesterday as senators voted 84-11 to proceed with the bill.

McConnell opposed the procedural move, according to spokesman Robert Steurer, "because he's concerned about the legislation's impact on Kentucky's farmers and their communities, as well as the burden of additional regulatory responsibilities on FDA that could prevent the agency from meeting its core mission."

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PRASAD: Tobacco: are pictorial warnings effective? 

Pictorial warnings are an extremely cost-effective public health measure

67 per cent of smokers in Brazil wanted to quit smoking after pictorial warnings were introduced

They attract attention and make it difficult to ignore the harmful effects of tobacco . . .

In the case of India, pictorial warnings are very likely to create greater awareness, especially among the illiterates. The awareness created can jump many fold within a very short span of time, provided the government ensures compliance by companies.

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• Burr stands tall for tobacco  

Walk into U.S. Sen. Richard Burr's office, and you'll notice the framed tobacco leaves on the wall. Sit down for a chat, and he's likely to tuck a pinch of dip under his lip before settling into his favorite chair, spit cup at his side.

Burr, a first-term Republican, isn't as well-known as some of his Senate colleagues. But Burr is raising his profile this week with a gloves-off fight in the Senate chamber to defend one of the most vilified industries in the country: tobacco.

Burr has long pledged to do everything in his power to stop legislation being debated in the Senate this week that would allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. He has threatened to filibuster, to offer procedural motions, to gum up the works for as long as he can.

"What we're getting ready to do in the United States Senate is the worst thing we can do," Burr said Tuesday.

Burr hails from Winston-Salem, home to R.J. Reynolds, the nation's second-largest tobacco manufacturing company and maker of Camel. Burr is the Senate's second-highest recipient of campaign contributions from the tobacco industry -- after Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

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• RP loses P148 B a year to smoking-related diseases, deaths 

The health and social cost of smoking is six times more than government revenues from cigarettes

The government's failure to impose higher taxes on tobacco products in the past four years has widened the gap between government earnings and the cost, borne by citizens, of treating diseases and of losing productivity due to premature deaths linked to smoking.

Government data showed that from 2000 to 2002, government excise tax from tobacco products averaged P18.92 billion a year. In those years, smoking's health and economic cost to the population was at P46 billion a year, according to estimates made by epidemiologist Dr. Antonio Dans of the University of the Philippines. It was more than double the amount of tobacco excise taxes collected.

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Smoking Cessation Clinics Show the Way to Stub It Out 

Nearly 32 per cent of the over 10,000 smokers registered with smoking cessation clinics under the Ministry of Health (MoH) have successfully given up smoking, while 10,000 more smokers have pledged to quit the habit this year as part of a nationwide anti-tobacco campaign.

Providing details to Khaleej Times, Dr Wedad Al Maidoor, who heads the National Tobacco Control Committee, said 10,549 smokers had enrolled with five smoking cessation clinics under MoH ever since they
were set up.

"So far, 3,370 of them have successfully quit smoking. This reveals that we are above the international standards in terms of success rate of smoking cessation clinics."

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Tobacco kills over 5m People globally 

The World Health Organization in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation commemorated World No Tobacco Day on the 31st May, 2009 at Atlantic hall, National Stadium Freetown.

The programme was chaired by the Chief Medical Officer Dr. Dao with the Minister of Health and Sanitation, and the Country Representative of the World Health Organization in attendance. The Chief Medical Officer in his statement noted that the purpose of the occasion was to act as a reminder of the health hazards in smoking tobacco. He presented statistics that over 5,000,000 people die globally as opposed to death rate for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, adding that 32% of men smoke tobacco and less than 1% for women.

In his speech, the country representative of the World Health Organisation Dr. Wondimagegnehu Alemu mentioned that tobacco is a leading preventable cause of death in the world.

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Province slashing anti-smoking funding  

The Grey Bruce Health Unit expects smoking rates among local youth to rise as the province cuts funding for tobacco-prevention programs at area high schools.

Money will no longer flow to the health unit to employ two full-time youth advisors and 20 part-time student peer leaders, who educate their schoolmates about the harmful effects of cigarettes and second-hand smoke and the importance of healthy living.

The province has also cut a program that provides $1,000 to each of the area's 14 high schools to finance smoking-prevention initiatives.

"We think it's a no-brainer. Without education, smoking rates will go up," said health unit youth advisor Jason Cranny, who has been employed at the agency for four years.

The health unit will be forced to cancel its Youth Action Alliance Program on Aug. 31 due to the cuts by the provincial Ministry of Health Promotion.

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• Smoking Hits Poor Families Hardest  

More money is spent on cigarettes than on rice in low-income families that include a smoker, a former health minister said on Tuesday.

“A smoker in the family can mean that up to 17 days of the family income is spent on cigarettes,” Farid Anfasa Moeloek, who now heads the National Commission on Tobacco Control, said during a health discussion on smoking.

“This means that only 13 days of their income is left for food and other household necessities,” Farid said. “This increases the likelihood of children suffering learning difficulties and other problems due to malnutrition.”

“Given that 70 percent of the country’s smokers come from low-income families, Indonesia faces losing a generation of children,” Farid said, adding that the data came from research conducted in 2007 by the University of Indonesia’s Demographic Institute.

This, he said, made it important that the government finalize the law on tobacco control, which has been languishing in the House of Representatives since 2004. He said that by adopting the law, Indonesia could better protect its citizens, especially the poor and the young.

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County allocates $8.2 million in tobacco funds 

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to spend $8.2 million on a variety of healthcare programs, funded by the county’s share of the money paid by tobacco companies in a lawsuit settlement with state governments.

Under the terms of the late-1990s settlement, the county gets an annual payment from the tobacco companies to reimburse it for the costs that smokers impose on the healthcare system. The total gets smaller every year, and this year’s allocation is about $170,000 less than last year’s.

The biggest chunk of money, about $4 million, will go to Ventura County Medical Center, the county’s network of public hospitals and clinics. It will help keep the clinics open so people without insurance will go to them instead of to the emergency rooms, where their care is much more expensive.

The next biggest allocation, about $2.6 million, will go to the county’s residential programs for the mentally ill.

The tobacco settlement money will also fund public health and disease prevention, anti-smoking programs, a private free healthcare clinic in the east county, and services for people with HIV and AIDS.

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Governments need graphic warnings on tobacco packets - WHO 

The World Health Organisation has called for governments to require all tobacco packets to have pictures showing the dangers of tobacco use.

According to the WHO website tobacco is the only legalised product that kills when consumed as the manufacture intended. Tobacco has lead to more than five million preventable deaths every year - making tobacco a far worse killer than HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

WHO warns that all smokers will die from a tobacco related illness and that second hand smoking harms all those exposed to it.

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Lincoln: Congress Must Act to Protect Children from Tobacco Products 

In a speech on the Senate floor today, U.S. Senator Blanche Lincoln urged her colleagues to support legislation that will implement much-needed marketing restrictions on tobacco companies that target children.

"The tobacco industry has a long and disturbing history of marketing its products to appeal to young people," Lincoln said. "While tobacco companies claim they do not target our children, their advertisements--such as a Camel ad that includes the words 'Back to School Specials' written on a chalkboard--tell us otherwise. Tobacco companies know that almost all new smokers begin as kids, so they carefully design their products--through advertising, brightly colored packaging, and fruity flavors and other chemical additives to appeal to kids' tastes--in order to make them more attractive to young people. Targeting our children like this is unacceptable."

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Smoking ban irritating for some 

Lawmakers added another exemption this year: cigar bars, which will be exempt Sept. 1. A pool hall with locations in Omaha and Lincoln has filed a lawsuit challenging the ban as unconstitutional and the exemptions as arbitrary.

If history is any sort of indicator, that lawsuit will be unsuccessful, as many hospitality businesses in Nevada, Montana, Colorado, New York and Iowa, among others, have attempted lawsuits against state and local governments for what many regard as an American right.

"I think it should be up to the individual businesses," said Shelby Forrester, an employee at the Box Bar in Lexington.

While Forrester said it was too early to tell, she didn't think the ban would hurt business. After all, she pointed out, it's not like the bar's customers are going to be allowed to smoke elsewhere.

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