Tobacco.org

• Cigarette Ban Being Implemented in Va. State Prisons 

Virginia corrections officials have quietly begun banning cigarettes in some state prisons and plan to make the entire system tobacco-free by February 2010. The health measure follows a national trend but has left public-safety advocates worried that inmate control could become more difficult.

The policy represents the latest in a series of anti-smoking steps taken in a state where tobacco has dominated the economy and politics for generations. A ban on smoking in restaurants goes into effect Dec. 1, and Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) began the process in late 2006 of banning smoking in most state office buildings.

"We've all seen the writing on the wall, all around the country and over the past several years," said Larry Traylor, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Corrections. He said prisoners and employees of Virginia's 32,600-inmate system were notified this year that tobacco would be banned completely after a one-year implementation period.

Already, eight of 40 prisons are either smoke-free or allow employees to smoke only in designated areas away from inmates . . .

Virginia follows the federal prison system, as well as states including California, Texas, Michigan and Colorado, in instituting smoking bans in prisons over the past few years. Maryland has banned tobacco products at all 24 state prisons, inside and out, since 2001.

As in other states, the effort in Virginia has raised concerns about maintaining safety in state prisons.

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EDITORIAL: Big win over big tobacco 

The landmark tobacco regulation legislation Congress passed last week is a public health victory over an industry that has been willing to do almost anything to keep people addicted to its product. . . .

We were glad to see Republicans and Democrats, as well as faith- based organizations and public health advocates, standing together to support the measure.

Evidence about the harm of cigarette smoking has been known for awhile, and the treachery of the tobacco industry has been dribbling out little by little for years. Cigarette makers manipulated the design of cigarettes to increase the nicotine "kick" that a smoker got.

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Virginia prison facilities going tobacco-free  

Virginia's roughly 40 state prisons, correctional field units and work release centers aim to be smokeand tobacco-free by Feb. 1 for staff and inmates.

Inmates were notified in January by a memo from Gene M. Johnson, director of the Virginia Department of Corrections. "Even when change is for the better, it can be difficult, and I appreciate your cooperation," wrote Johnson, who made the decision.

"Eliminating tobacco products has many positive outcomes including improved personal health, longer [life] and increased sanitation and safety in our facilities," he said.

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Cigarette caused fatal Bethesda town house fire 

A town house fire that killed two people in Bethesda was started by a cigarette, Montgomery County fire officials said. William Purcell, 79, and his wife, Patricia, 64, died at their home on Arizona Circle on Sunday night. William Purcell, in invalid, may have been smoking in bed, said fire department spokesman Pete Piringer. The couple's daughter, who also lived at the town house, tried to wake her parents but was driven out by the fire, Piringer said.

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Opinions voiced as Shorewood smoking ban looms 

To hear Elias Chedid and Sam Triscari talk about them, smoking bans are about love and war.

Chedid, the non-smoking part-owner of Harry's Bar & Grill, initially opposed a smoking ban in Shorewood when it was proposed several years ago. But as the percentage of smoking customers continued to decline, he enacted a ban of his own at Harry's about a year ago.

The smoking regulars still come "and I've had a lot of hugs and kisses from everybody else," Chedid said.

Some folks at the American Legion, however, are downright combative about bans on an otherwise legal activity.

Triscari, one of the veterans who runs the bar and restaurant at the Shorewood post, says it's fine for business proprietors - but not the government - to prohibit smoking.

"These guys fought for choice and we won the war, and it's not illegal," said Triscari, 79, a Navy veteran and 60-year smoker. "You can't tell us we can't do this."

But that's what governments are doing.

Starting July 1, smoking in Shorewood will be prohibited not only in restaurants, taverns and other buildings open to the public, but also in parks. Bars and restaurants will be able to allow smoking outside their establishments.

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Social Smoking: Implications for Public Health, Clinical Practice, and Intervention Research (PDF) 

Conclusion

Tobacco industry research indicates that social smoking includes stable patterns of chronic low-level consumption and comprises about one quarter of all smokers (and growing) of varying age, ethnicity, SES, and educational background. More important, industry research suggests that social smokers will probably not respond to current cessation strategies that are based on personal health risk and treatment of nicotine addiction. Social smokers may be more responsive to messages focused on the dangers associated with their secondhand smoke.

Given the increasing prevalence of nondaily smoking, there is a need for more assessments of smokingcessation programs designed to identify and treat these smokers. In the absence of any formal clinical trial, we propose that based on the tobacco industry’s extensive marketing research, clinicians can: (1) identify social smoking behavior by asking patients focused clinical questions that detect social smoking, such as Have you smoked any cigarettes or used any tobacco products in the past month? as opposed to Are you a smoker? (2) recognize that pharmacotherapy, support groups, and cognitive– behavioral therapy have not yet been proven to be effective in this population, (3) emphasize the dangers of secondhand smoke, (4) emphasize separating tobacco use from social activities such as attending bars or parties, and (5) support personal or societal smoke free policies which prevent tobacco use in social settings, to decrease the social acceptability of smoking, and to facilitate self-motivated cessation. Counseling that is tailored to address social cues or social contexts of smoking may be useful to treat social smokers. Educating healthcare professionals to better counsel their patients may improve cessation rates and tobaccorelated health outcomes.

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Can Tobacco Industry Research Help ‘Social’ Smokers Quit? 

The tobacco industry knows exactly what makes social smokers tick. Now, researchers want to use that once-secret information to help them quit.

Focusing on the effects of secondhand smoke, not on personal health, might be a better tactic with social smokers, who tend to deny that they are at-risk or even smokers, but do care about others.

The landmark state litigation against the tobacco industry — known as the Master Settlement Agreement — forced tobacco companies to open confidential industry documents to the public; so far, they have released 10 million documents spanning more than 80 years.

Researchers at the University of California at San Francisco mined this mother lode of information, focusing on social smokers. Their study appears in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

“Tobacco companies probably spent hundreds of millions of dollars for this research,” said co-author Stanton Glantz, Ph.D., at the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research. “They indentified this group as a large, stable part of the tobacco market way before public health did.”

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• GASPING FOR BREATH: After battling lung disease for six years, Corrie's Liz Dawn terrible legacy of her life-long smoking habit  

When Vera Duckworth, one of Coronation Street's most loved characters, passed away 18 months ago, there was barely a dry eye among the soap's 12.5million viewers.

But for actress Liz Dawn, who played Vera for an astonishing 34 years, it was a significant personal moment - not only because it was the end of the role, but also because she'd been building up to it since being diagnosed six years earlier with the lung disease, emphysema.

The condition leaves sufferers struggling for breath.

'My last years in the Street were increasingly stressful,' Liz says, talking about living with emphysema for the first time. . . .

Concern that others avoid the same problem is why she has agreed to be the celebrity ambassador for the British Lung Foundation (BLF) and is heading the organisation's Love Your Lungs campaign, launched this week.

Its aim is to encourage people with symptoms such as a persistent cough, breathlessness or wheezy chest to ask their doctor for a lung test. . . .

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• 10 characters who know smoking is cool  

For too long, political correctness has choked expression much like smoking might choke someone’s lungs. Back in the good old days, it was common for prominent pillars of society to be seen smoking: baseball players, gangsters, Popeye. Now it’s incredibly frowned upon, because “smoking may slowly kill you,” if you believe “proven medical facts.” But there are a proud few in gaming who celebrate their freedom to poison themselves, even if it means a T-rating and a lower life expectancy. Plus they offer helpful hints on the lesser known positives of tobacco. . . .

• ‘Smokers are now treated like lepers’  

David Goerlitz was a star of cigarette ads until he turned against Big Tobacco. Now, however, he thinks the anti-smokers have gone too far. . . .

The 'Winston man' had one particular tale to tell that quickly went global. On the set of a photo shoot, Goerlitz, then a heavy smoker, discovered that none of the tobacco executives present was a smoker. He asked one of them why that was and was told: 'We reserve that right for the poor, the young, the black and the stupid.' (See the YouTube clip below.)

On television, Goerlitz's later straight-talking criticisms of the tobacco industry helped turn public opinion against it. In court, his revelations helped seal a $246billion settlement between the industry and the US government - a deal that explicitly 'prohibits direct or indirect targeting of youth in advertising'.

When that settlement was signed in 1998, it was supposed to represent a fresh start in the campaign against smoking. Instead, says Goerlitz, it led to the anti-smoking movement becoming 'criminal and corrupt'. Out of loyalty to the anti-smoking cause, he has held his tongue for 10 years in the hope that the movement could reform itself. No more. Now, he tells me, he feels 'kind of like the guy who built the atom bomb and then regretted it later. I helped create this monster.' . . .

Goerlitz believes smokers and non-smokers can get along just fine with a little give-and-take and common sense. 'There's none of that in the tobacco control movement, and there hasn't been for the last 10 or 12 years that I'm aware of. In every other [tobacco control] programme, smokers are offended, they're harassed, they're treated like lepers and second-class citizens and child abusers.'

Incredibly, since he has not smoked for over 20 years, Goerlitz has recently felt the prejudice against smokers first-hand. Every December for seven years, he toured schools in the eastern US state of Maryland. In the eighth year, he was not invited. The reason? The state of Maryland no longer uses 'former addicts' in their tobacco programmes. . . .

What about the right to smoke in a bar? 'Absolutely they should have the right to smoke in a bar! . . .

To this end, Goerlitz plans to set up his own tobacco control programme for kids on YouTube. He will continue to tour schools, but is cutting the cord with the mainstream tobacco control movement.

Finally, I ask a question that would have seemed absurd 20 years ago. Who is more honest, the tobacco companies or the anti-smoking movement? 'There's not much of a difference, but I would say the tobacco companies.'

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• FDA law could affect punitive and equitable tobacco claims 

A bill that will give the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco products could make it harder for plaintiffs to obtain punitive and equitable remedies in tobacco cases.

The measure is expected to be signed by President Barack Obama soon.

“I’m sure companies will try to wrap themselves with the cloak … of being regulated by the FDA, and given that fact, punitive damages might be minimized,” said Edward Sweda, senior attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston.

The law, which was passed by Congress last week, will allow the FDA to regulate - but not ban - cigarettes. . . .

“The impact of the bill will be relatively subtle and quite modest on a whole,” Sweda said.

Adam Trop, an attorney at the Hollywood, Fla.-based firm Paige, Trop & Ameen, said the bill’s express non-preemptive language, coupled with a recent Supreme Court ruling upholding plaintiffs’ right to file state law claims over tobacco companies’ deceptive marketing of “light” or “low tar” cigarettes, protect civil claims.

“I don’t have any concerns that regulation of the tobacco industry will have a negative impact on consumers’ right to file a lawsuit for their injuries or for the loss of a loved one,” Trop said.

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• Canadian Tobacco Bill Comes Under Fire From US Congress  

A move by the Canadian parliament to keep flavored cigarettes away from children is coming under fire from members of the U.S. Congress amid charges it essentially bans certain tobacco exports to Canada and violates trade laws.

A bill pending in Canada's House of Commons seeks to ban companies from selling tobacco products with cherry, milk and chocolate flavorings amid concerns the ingredients are added to lure children and teens to smoke.

U.S. Senators and Representatives as well as business lobbies say the bill would essentially ban the export of burley tobacco, grown in states such as Kentucky and Tennessee. Burley tobacco contains flavoring ingredients that mask tobacco's harsh taste. The tobacco industry says the flavoring in burley tobacco isn't detectable by smokers and is different from the candy-flavored cigarettes that carry names such as "Twista Lime" and "Chocolate Mocha."

A delegation of Senators and Representatives from Kentucky wrote to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asking her to help stop the bill, which they see as an "unfair assault" on U.S. tobacco growers, according to a letter the group sent Monday to Clinton.

"This is a delicate situation that merits your attention," the letter says. "The stakes involved for American tobacco growers could not be higher." . . .

Melisa Leclerc, a spokeswoman for Stockwell Day, Canada's Minister of International Trade, said Day is aware of the concerns expressed by U.S. congress members. She said the bill responds to an "important public health objective" of the Canadian government over concerns with tobacco products.

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Jury Verdict Announced in Star Scientific Patent Infringement Lawsuit Against RJ Reynolds 

Scientific Inc. (NASDAQ: STSI) announced today that the jury in the trial of the company's patent infringement lawsuit concluded its deliberations. The jury found that the two Star patents at issue in the case were not valid, and were not infringed. The company issued the following statement:

Our counsel will file a motion with the US District Court for Judgment as a Matter of Law or a New Trial within the next ten days. If that motion is not granted, our appellate counsel then will file a notice of our intent to appeal the verdict with the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit as soon as practically possible.

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• Blowing Smoke: A lawsuit over tobacco patents goes to the jury  

There are dozens of lawyers attached to the court case Star Scientific v.. R.J. Reynolds tobacco company, and it is possible that all of them are packed into courtroom 5C at the Baltimore federal courthouse on Monday, June 15. . . .

The attraction of the day is a patent-infringement lawsuit brought by Star, a small, Virginia-based tobacco company, against Reynolds, one of the giants of the industry.

"It's not the patent law that makes the case interesting, though," says Lawrence Sung, the director of the University of Maryland Law School's Intellectual Property Law Program. "It's the technology."

Star claims that Reynolds has infringed on a process developed by Star inventor Jonnie Williams, which reduces the amounts of harmful nitrosamines in cured tobacco. Reynolds denies this, and further alleges that Star's patents should never have been granted in the first place. The Wall Street Journal has reported that the U.S. Patent Office is re-examining Star's patents, but a request by Reynolds to stay the trial until that examination was complete was denied. . . .

"I don't even want to think about the number of witnesses," Garbis tells the jury. "There were enough witnesses. . . . I'm sure somewhere in this case, they've agreed on something. I have a hard time remembering what it is."

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Call to ban child-in-car smoking 

Adults should be banned from smoking in cars when children are passengers, the new head of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has said.

In a BBC News website Scrubbing Up column, Professor Terence Stephenson, said children deserved protection.

"You can't inflict this on your colleagues any more. Why should we treat our children's health as a lower priority?" he said.

A Department of Health spokesman said it would review smoking laws next year.

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