Tobacco.org

• Jury Hears Closing Arguments In Tobacco-Patent Case 

Lawyers for Star Scientific Inc. (STSI) and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. made their final bid Monday to sway jurors in a high-stakes case involving Star's patent claim to a new tobacco-curing method that substantially reduces the formation of certain cancer-causing toxins.

Star, which is seeking several hundred million dollars from RJR for patent infringement, said its patented method for reducing certain toxins in cured tobacco, known as tobacco specific nitrosamines, was a revolution in the tobacco industry.

"Nobody could believe it," Star lawyer Richard McMillan said in his closing argument to jurors. "It was completely surprising to the industry."

McMillan said RJR, a unit of Reynolds American Inc. (RAI), "got wind" of the small company's patent and encouraged its farmers to practice Star's invention without permission.

Jump to full article »

• Health research agencies form global alliance to curb humanity's most fatal diseases 

Six of the world's foremost health agencies, collectively managing an estimated 80% of all public health research funding, today announced formation of a landmark alliance to collaborate in the critical battle against chronic, non-communicable diseases: cardiovascular diseases (mainly heart disease and stroke), several cancers, chronic respiratory conditions, and type 2 diabetes.

The health impact and socio-economic cost of these largely-preventable diseases is enormous and rising, potentially derailing efforts at poverty reduction.

The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (Alliance) is being created to support clear priorities for a coordinated research effort that will address this growing health crisis, now reaching world epidemic proportions. Experts estimate that, unless action is stepped up, 388 million people worldwide will die of one or more such diseases within the next decade.

Work of the Alliance will focus in particular on the needs of low and middle income countries, and on those of low income populations of more developed countries.

Jump to full article »

• Kretek Industry Faces Big Losses as US Moves to Ban Clove Cigarettes 

Indonesia’s kretek cigarettes are almost certain to be banned in the United States after the US Senate passed a strict antismoking bill aimed at cutting the attraction of cigarettes to children.

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, voted through by a Senate committee late on Thursday, has a raft of new measures but includes the kretek prohibition because a US study found they helped to hook children on smoking.

If the bill is signed into law by President Barack Obama — as the White House says it will be — US authorities will have the power to impose strict new controls on the making and marketing of tobacco, including banning cloves as a cigarette flavoring along with such flavors as cherry and chocolate.

For Indonesian clove cigarette makers, who export about 20 percent of the $500 million worth of kretek sold overseas every year to the United States, this means $100 million a year is likely to go up in smoke. It is especially likely to affect Indonesia’s biggest kretek exporter, Gudang Garam, which has a factory in South America for the continental market.

Menthol cigarettes will not be included in the ban, however, which has angered Indonesian trade officials who point out that a ban on kretek but not menthol is discriminatory and are threatening to complain to the World Trade Organization. Government officials’ comments on the ban make it likely that WTO action will now proceed.

Jump to full article »

• Nicotine Receptors Could Be Lung Cancer Treatment Target 

In a study of mice with lung cancer, a treatment that targeted nicotine receptors more than doubled the animals' survival time, Italian researchers say.

Nicotine plays a dual role in lung cancer. Changes in genes encoding nicotine receptors not only drive the urge the smoke, but also increase susceptibility to lung cancer. Exposure to nicotine boosts the expression of nicotine receptors, which leads to increased cell proliferation and inhibits the programmed cell death known as apoptosis.

In the new study, published in the June 15 issue of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the compound α-CbT dampened the expression of nicotine receptors and increased apoptosis, prolonging the lives of the mice.

"This research clearly has profound clinical implications regarding the role of nicotine in stimulating lung cancer and nicotine receptor antagonists in treating the disease," said Dr. John Heffner, past president of the American Thoracic Society, in a news release from the society. Heffner, who was not involved in the research, added, "The highly addictive nature of nicotine, however, complicates patients' ability to quit smoking and avoid ongoing nicotine exposure."

Previous research has shown that it's possible to dampen the response of nicotine acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) using an antagonist called d-tubocurarine/α-Cobratoxin (α-CbT), which specifically targeted the area most linked to increased cell growth.

Jump to full article »

• Smoke-free advocate: Minister can restrict tobacco products  

Israeli anti-tobacco activists are divided over whether the government should initiate a law to regulate the manufacture and marketing of tobacco products. Such a law is about to be signed by US President Barack Obama - 45 years after the US Surgeon General officially declared that smoking was dangerous to health. . . .

Amos Hausner, Israel's leading smoke-free advocate, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that the US legislation was "very controversial" and that he had "mixed feelings about it."

"The danger to health is inherent to tobacco products. But if there is regulation by the authorities, smokers could think they're not so bad," he explained.

He added, though, that if Israel wanted to implement a similar policy, " we don't need the US law, because since 1993, Israel has had pharmaceutical regulations that give the health minister the power to issue regulations regarding consumer products that endanger health - and cigarettes are included. The health minister can demand changes by the manufacturer and even prohibit sale." . . .

The ministry executive briefly discussed the US law during its weekly Sunday morning meeting. It has not yet released its official policy. But the ministry fears that the Treasury would not give it funding for a unit to supervise and regulate tobacco products, even if a law to this effect were passed.

Dr. Lea Rosen, a former Health Ministry public health official who now does research on tobacco cessation at Tel Aviv University's School of Public Health, told the Post that in general, she would favor such a law here.

Jump to full article »

• How and why taxes go up, in smoke  

One of the few state taxes that politicians have talked about raising is the tobacco tax. California's is currently set at 87 cents a pack (and hasn't been raised in a decade); this year, the Legislature will consider raising it to $2.97 a pack, which would bring the cost of a pack of cigarettes to more than $7.00. Sponsors of the bill estimate that the tax hike would raise about $2 billion.

How does the tobacco tax work? Who does it help and who does it harm? Below, some questions and answers to help frame the debate. . . .

So this is a no-brainer, right? Raise the tax. Solve the budget crisis. End smoking. It's that easy.

It's not quite that simple.

For one thing, there's a fundamental conflict in the tobacco tax: The more effective it is at discouraging smoking, the less revenue it brings in. Theoretically, if prices get pushed up high enough, so many people will stop smoking that revenues would decrease, eventually to zero if everyone were to quit.

Is it possible to predict what the effect of a price hike will be?

Surprisingly, it is. . . .

Is that a reasonable objection?

It's certainly true that tobacco taxes are regressive. On the other hand, poor smokers are also more likely to benefit, because they are more likely to quit as a result of the tax.

What if people are too addicted to quit?

In most cases, they'll just pay the higher cost. But opponents warn that tobacco taxes create incentives for black markets, especially if there are large price differentials in nearby areas. In some cases, people will cross state borders, or even national borders, to buy or smuggle cheaper cigarettes. As taxes go up, it makes economic sense to purchase cigarettes on Indian reservations, where the taxes often do not apply.

So what's the bottom line?

There aren't that many taxes that do good while raising money. The gas tax, which discourages driving, is another example. Don't rule them out!

Jump to full article »