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House * Senate 2009-06-09 To view video in the Flash Player simply click on a segment or a member's name. The sections on the timeline highlighted in yellow do not yet have video available for viewing
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According to the Department of Health commissioned Survey of Lifestyles, Attitude and Nutrition (Slán), rates of smoking among the Irish populace have declined over the period 1998-2007 from 33 per cent to 29 per cent.
However, it is estimated that close to 7,000 people die each year in Ireland from smoking-related illnesses, and tobacco has been identified by the WHO as the leading cause of death and disability in the world.
Introducing an effective tobacco control strategy, including the use of graphic pictorial images on cigarette boxes, is seen as a crucial step in reducing tobacco-related deaths.
In May 2005, the European Commission bolstered the existing EU Tobacco products Directive of 2002 by recommending that member state governments adopt 14 graphic pictorial health warnings from a library of 42 colour photographs and other illustrations for inclusion on cigarette cartons.
According to the HSE, pre-testing of the EU library has been carried out and the images for use on the Irish market have been selected. Proposals have already been submitted to Government to amend the existing tobacco legislation, and one of these amendments will allow the Minister for Health to introduce combined text and photo warnings on tobacco products. It is anticipated that this will be enacted before the Dáil summer recess.
A survey conducted by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) has indicated that 50 out of 1000 pupils surveyed smoke cigarette every day, a Principal Health Research Officer of GHS, Mrs Edith Wellington, has said.
Mrs Wellington said though the numbers might not be that huge the rate at which pupils were taking to smoking was alarming and drastic measures were needed to address the problem.
In an address to mark the post World No Tobacco Day in Accra last Saturday, Mrs Wellington said the measures were needed because children who smoked at their early stages stood the risk of many harmful effects of the smoke and were likely to get addicted at an adult age.
The event was organised by Coalition of Non-governmental Organisations in Tobacco Control (CNTC)
Cigarette vending machines should be banned and manufacturers forced to use 'plain packaging', as the British Medical Association urge drastic moves to prevent children smoking.
When Florida's new $1 tax on cigarettes takes effect in about three weeks, it should discourage at least marginal and cost-conscious smokers from lighting up as often and dissuade youngsters from getting hooked in the first place.
At least in theory. . . .
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration spent several months investigating e-cigarettes. FDA spokeswoman Karen Riley told me the agency has determined e-cigarettes, as well as e-cigars and e-pipes, are "drug device combustion products." So far, the FDA has "refused entry" at U.S. borders to the products. Most e-cigarettes are made in China.
Seventeen shipments have been stopped since March, Riley says. But beyond border patrols, the FDA offers no stance on whether a device that vaporizes liquid nicotine for inhaling is a yea or a nay. And if any e-cigarettes are made in the good ol' U.S. of A., a border ban seems pointless, or even protectionist.
Some e-cigarette companies, arguing the FDA has no jurisdiction over the products, have sued the federal agency in federal court.
One South Florida provider of e-cigarettes, Smoking Everywhere Inc., says you can buy its $100 e-cigarette kit and flavor cartridges ($10 apiece) at the Sawgrass Mills Mall in Sunrise or at more than 100 resellers. It's even available on Amazon.com. . . .
In this recession, we may have discovered one of Florida's new growth industries.
Seven Republicans joined 52 Democrats on the 61-30 roll call to cut off debate on the measure, which authorizes the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the industry with a mandate to reduce teenage smoking by restricting advertising aimed at young audiences.
To win over hesitant Republicans on the cloture vote, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pledged that he would work to ensure that tobacco state lawmakers still have a chance this week to present their alternative regulatory scheme -- which is now technically out of order. The narrowness of Reid's margin -- a supermajority of 60 was required -- reflects the dicey politics of the Senate. But going forward, proponents of the bill are in the driver's seat, and passage is all but assured in the next few days.
Amid the greater focus on Obama's larger health care reform agenda, the FDA's new authority can get lost in the shuffle. But it reflects a sea change in tobacco politics over the past decade and is the latest in a series of incremental steps by the new White House and Democratic Congress this year that would, in another time, receive more attention.
Congress is poised to approve the most sweeping effort ever to regulate tobacco products.
The Senate could pass a bipartisan bill as early as today that would require larger health warnings on cigarette packs, ban candy flavorings, ban the use of claims such as "light," "mild" and "low tar," and further restrict tobacco advertising.
On Monday, the Senate voted to end debate, a crucial step toward passage. In April, the House approved a similar bill giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) the authority to regulate tobacco. President Obama, who has struggled to quit smoking, has said he'll sign the legislation.
"It's historic in that we're finally saying tobacco needs to be regulated," said Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who co-authored a bill in 1990 to ban smoking on airplanes. He said the bill will save millions of lives and protect children, but he lamented that "it breaks my heart it took us 20 years."
"It is a dream come true for Philip Morris," Michael Siegel, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, told me. "First, they make it look like they are a reformed company which really cares about reducing the toll of cigarettes and protecting the public's health; and second, they protect their domination of the market and make it impossible for potentially competitive products to enter the market." Other tobacco companies have taken to calling the bill the "Marlboro Monopoly Act of 2009."
It's hard to fathom where Congress is finding the political cover necessary to pass an industry-sponsored love letter like this one. But it's coming from Philip Morris' partner in crafting the legislation: a nonprofit anti-smoking organization called Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. . . .
So, as Roll Call recounts, Philip Morris executives made a huge shift in tactics. Rather than beat back every attempt at industry regulation, they initiated the secret Project Sunrise, an effort to help craft those regulations. Part of the strategy was to work with the very anti-smoking groups they had fought for years. Big Tobacco decided to sue for peace in order to win at the negotiating table.
Philip Morris found a willing partner in the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. . . .
In other words, the United States will have two choices in the above scenario, both hairy: protect the FDA's independence by admitting it banned cloves but not menthols only to protect Philip Morris' market share or let the FDA manufacture an explanation, contrary to recent studies, by which menthol cigarettes, which are used to lure children to smoke, are just as safe as unflavored cigarettes.
"The fact that the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids negotiated this bill with Philip Morris has created a very strange situation," says Siegel. . . .
The marketing and advertising restrictions in the bill also seem targeted primarily at Philip Morris' competitors. But even so, Philip Morris, with either towering disingenuousness or a wicked sense of humor, has signaled it will fight those very restrictions, which it used as a chip with legislators and the Campaign to get the bill written. With nary a mention of its role in co-writing the bill, a statement from the company called it "imperfect."
Matthew Myers, the Campaign For Tobacco-Free Kids' director, continues to play the fool. He told ABC News, "Our hope is that the Senate HELP committee will resist all of those efforts to weaken the legislation." It's hard to even understand what Myers means—the doublespeak surrounding the bill is so great its passage will surely be hailed as a victory for anti-tobacco forces. And if Congress could find a way to make the bill any weaker, even the Marlboro Man himself couldn't help but crack a smile.