Tobacco.org

Smoker's Lawsuit up in Smoke  

Just yesterday, we learned that ex-smoker Jerome Cohen dropped his lawsuit against Philip Morris. Any time someone—a former smoker—drops their lawsuit against a tobacco company you begin to wonder why. Well, in this instance, Cohen’s lawyer, Philip Gerson, was quoted in the Associated Press as saying that Cohen’s health was the issue—he has lung cancer.

But other reports bring up another little-known—or little publicized—issue: in Florida, if a plaintiff refuses a settlement offer, continues on with their case and loses—or, according to smokersinfo.net, wins a judgement of at least 25 percent less than the defendant’s original offer, the defendant may seek attorney fees and costs from the plaintiff. . . .

Having said that, to have a little “procedural rule” in place that makes it possible for a plaintiff to have to pay exorbitant legal costs should they lose their claim against a major corporation inherently and effectively handcuffs the process. Undoubtedly, there are cases out there in which, after much consideration and soul-searching, the plaintiffs chose to not pursue litigation against Philip Morris—or at the very least they accepted the initial settlement offer. Who wants to risk more when they’ve already risked their health?

And so now what does Jerome Cohen do? Well, he in fact took a $1,000 settlement from Philip Morris. Yeah, that’ll make up for things.

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Whitman fire caused by smoking near oxygen 

Investigators say a fire at Whitman home that took the life of a 73-year-old resident was caused by smoking around home oxygen equipment.

State Fire Marshal Stephen Coan and Whitman Fire Chief Timothy Grenno said in a joint statement that only the quick thinking of a babysitter caring for the victim's four grandchildren prevented the blaze in the early morning hours of May 16 from becoming a worse tragedy. The babysitter tried going back in for 73-year-old Helena Drass, but was beaten back by the intense flames.

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• Act Now: Reform State Subsidies 

Who is bankrolling all those kid-rated movies with smoking? It turns out that almost every taxpayer in America, Canada, the UK and Europe help finance US film productions with smoking.

In a special report released in November 2009, UCSF researchers documented $1.4 billion in state taxpayer subsidies for film producers, including $500 million for PG-13 movies with smoking and $330 million for R-rated smoking films.

These taxpayer-subsidized movies help deliver thousands of kids to Big Tobacco every year, many of whom will die early as a result. (Health impacts by state.)

How to stop subsidizing kids' films with smoking

Together, taxpayers in 41 states (see map) are underwriting nearly 25 percent of Hollywood's domestic production costs. The report proposes two changes:

• Make future kid-rated film projects with smoking ineligible for public subsidies. . . .

• Write letters to the editor and op-ed articles spotlighting these subsidies and linking them to the policy debates over health costs, youth smoking, and cuts in tobacco prevention programs.

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Taxpayers Subsidize Smoking in "Avatar," Other Youth-Rated Movies 

Smoke Free Movies, a project that aims to "reduce the U.S. film industry's usefulness to Big Tobacco's domestic and global marketing" has started running advertisements in the Hollywood Reporter and Variety about the movie Avatar. The ads state that,

For every $100 million it earns at the box office, Avatar ... will deliver an estimated forty million tobacco impressions to theater audiences. By the time it reaches Blu-Ray, VOD and broadband, Avatar's smoking scenes could be worth the equivalent of $50 million in broadcast cigarette ads. Of course, the United States outlawed cigarette commercials forty years ago. Did Big Tobacco pay for this? Taxpayers did. ... Avatar's tobacco imagery scored $30 million in public subsidies, according to the L.A. Times. The public is not only charged for 3D glasses to watch tobacco promotion, it pays for it again at tax time.

The information about taxpayers subsidizing smoking in big-screen movies comes from a November, 2009 report by the University of California San Francisco titled "Taxpayer Subsidies for US Films with Tobacco Imagery" that examined taxpayer subsidies for youth-rated films (G, PG and PG-13).

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• “Who’s got my goddamn cigarette? Guys? What’s wrong with this picture?” 

Smoking in kid-rated movies. Now in 3D.

For every $100 million it earns at the box office, Avatar (News Corp, Dune, Ingenious) will deliver an estimated forty million tobacco impressions to theater audiences. By the time it reaches Blu-Ray, VOD and broadband, Avatar’s smoking scenes could be worth the equivalent of $50 million in broadcast cigarette ads. Of course, the United States outlawed cigarette commercials forty years ago.

Did Big Tobacco pay for this? Taxpayers did.

James Cameron’s 1990s blockbuster Titanic gave Marlboro a spot on screen and showed a young woman declaring independence by taking up cigarettes — an anachronism in 1912. Avatar’s smoker in 2154, equally implausibly, is a mature scientist. Yet Avatar’s tobacco imagery scored $30 million in public subsidies, according to the LA Times. Today, the public is not only charged for 3D glasses to watch tobacco promotion, it pays for it again at tax time. . . .

In real life, lung cancer kills more US women than breast cancer, thanks in part to decades of deals between the tobacco and film industries. In the US, New Zealand and other countries, more girls than boys aged 13-15 now smoke cigarettes. And study after study worldwide finds that US movies are the main recruiter of new young smokers.

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FYI: Petition would need to be filed for smoking ban 

Q: What are the chances for Lufkin to have a citywide smoking ban since they did it at the parks?

A: A city ordinance banning smoking in all city parks was enacted in May 2009.

There is another ordinance that requires restaurants to have designated smoking areas with specialized ventilation systems to keep smoke away from other patrons, according to assistant city manager Keith Wright.

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Thompson's embraces state smoking ban 

Whether the public is on board or not with the Michigan smoking ban passed by the state Legislature in December, it's going to be illegal to light up in bars and restaurants beginning in May.

Local resident Lynda Collins, owner of Thompson's Pizzeria, decided that she would go ahead and start enforcing the policy now so her customers have time to ease into the fresh new reality.

"We were going to do this before the state mandates it in May," Collins said.

Her daughters and many other family members work at Thompson's. Three co-workers became pregnant last year, which required a temporary moratorium on smoking at the Thompson's bar.

"People were very kind and did not smoke because of that fact," Collins said.

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• Tobacco prices to rise in bid to curb smoking 

The UAE will make smoking more expensive as it plans to increase the price of tobacco and tobacco products, a senior health official said yesterday.

Dr Wedad Al Maidour, head of the tobacco control team, said it is coordinating with the ministry of finance to make the habit costlier for smokers. A pack of cigarettes on average currently costs Dh7 across the emirates.

She said it will be difficult to impose an additional levy on tobacco, but that the team hopes to make it more expensive for smokers at the check-out counters of shops. Studies have shown that whenever there is an increase in cigarette price there is a drop in smoking among teenagers.

Packaging messages

Another deterrent to smoking is that half of cigarette packets will be covered with graphic images

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DU becomes smoke free, almost 

DU joins some 365 campuses around the nation to become smoke free starting on the first daty of the winter quarter.

The smoke-free measure, signed by Chancellor Robert Coombe last spring, bans students, faculty, staff and visitors from smoking on campus, including a 25 foot zone around the campus perimeter.

The ban includes not only cigarettes, but any tobacco products, such as cigars, pipes and hookahs.

The Newman Center and the Ritchie Center, where many public events are held, are exceptions to the rule. There are designated areas outside each building, at least 25 feet away from entrances and exits, for smoking.

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Report: NC Still Gets Mostly Fs On Tobacco Control 

North Carolina no longer has all failing grades on discouraging tobacco use - but don't attribute the change to the new ban on smoking in restaurants and bars.

The American Lung Association gave a "C" and three "Fs" to North Carolina in its annual State of Tobacco Control report of the 50 states and federal government released Tuesday.

North Carolina had all "Fs" one year ago.

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Careless smoking cited in fire fatal to couple  

Fire investigators blame careless smoking for starting a blaze that killed a Southern Indiana couple in their home.

The Jasper fire chief said the deaths Sunday of Wallace Wilms, 73, and his wife, Barbara, 67, were the city's first fire-related deaths since 1977.

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Matthew L. Myers: Healthcare Reform Can Close the Smoking Gap 

As the Massachusetts experience shows, the gains to health are immediate. The benefits to state budgets materialize quickly as fewer expensive hospitalizations and other treatments are required.

Tobacco use continues to be the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, killing more than 400,000 people each year--more than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined. It imposes staggering costs on society, including $96 billion in health spending.

Helping Medicaid beneficiaries quit will help spread the gains the country has made in reducing smoking to those who suffer disproportionately from the adverse health affects of tobacco, a killer we know how to defeat.

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Tobacco use prevalence, knowledge, and attitudes among newly diagnosed tuberculosis patients in Penang State and Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia  

There is sufficient evidence to conclude that tobacco smoking is strongly linked to tuberculosis (TB) and a large proportion of TB patients may be active smokers. In addition, a previous analysis has suggested that a considerable proportion of the global burden of TB may be attributable to smoking.

However, there is paucity of information on the prevalence of tobacco smoking among TB patients in Malaysia. Moreover, the tobacco-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of TB patients who are smokers have not been previously explored.

This study aimed to document the prevalence of smoking among newly diagnosed TB patients and to learn about the tobacco use knowledge and attitudes of those who are smokers among this population. . . .

Conclusion: Smoking prevalence rate is high among patients with TB in Malaysia. These patients generally had deficiencies in knowledge of tobacco use and its health dangers, but had positive attitudes against tobacco use.

Efforts should be geared towards reducing tobacco use among this population due to its negative impact on TB treatment outcomes.

Author: Ahmed AwaisuMohamad Haniki Nik MohamedNoorizan Abd. AzizSyed Azhar Syed SulaimanNoorliza Mohamad NoordinAbdul Razak MuttalifAziah Ahmad Mahayiddin Credits/Source: Tobacco Induced Diseases 2010, 8:3

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• Outdoor Smoking Bans Spread Without Science  

Half a dozen LA County municipalities have banned smoking near their outdoor dining facilities, with a few banning it from publicly-owned property - sidewalks, medians etc. - across their city entire.

All did so citing public health concerns, but none did so based on scientific evidence that second hand smoke (SHS) near an outdoor area poses a health risk, because no such peer reviewed study existed.

The first scientific study on detecting outdoor second hand smoke levels, published by University of Georgia Athens (UGA) researchers in November, 2009, found increased levels of SHS in their subjects, but not levels considered to be risky.

The Athens-Clarke, Georgia, County Commission sought to extend their 2004/5 indoor smoking bans to outdoor areas in late 2009.

By chance, UGA happens to contain a world class environmental health sciences department that works alongside the United Nation's World Health Organization (WHO) to study indoor smoke and other contaminants around the world.

Environmental health science professor Luke Naeher told WeHo News that he conducted the study (in Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene November 2009) because of the indoor ban - he wondered if allowing it in outdoor areas simply moved the risks associated with SHS in employees outdoors. . . .

After hearing the science, Athens-Clarke officials said they have no plans to revive talk of an outdoor smoking ban.

According to the Athens Banner Herald, "the county commission and the state legislature both considered extending the ban to 25 feet outside doorways but abandoned the idea.

"County commissioners," they wrote, "said they would either not support an outdoor ban or are waiting for more evidence before tackling the issue.

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Smoking defended by Quebec doctor 

A Quebec psychiatrist has sparked controversy with a new book that comes to the defence of smokers and even promotes some benefits of smoking.

In Écrasons la cigarette, pas le fumeur, which translates as "Crush the cigarette, not the smoker," Dr. Jean-Jacques Bourque said there is too much pressure put on smokers to quit.

In the book, to be released Wednesday, Bourque, a smoker himself, is critical of the warning labels that must be printed on tobacco packaging, saying they go too far.

The former president of the province’s Association of Psychiatrists said smoking can be helpful for those suffering from deep depression.

"Sometimes antidepressants aren’t enough — it is an individual approach for everyone," Bourque said in an interview with Radio-Canada.

Bourque said the concerns about the dangers of second-hand smoke are overblown.

"The idea that is promoted by the Quebec government, that second-hand smoke is more dangerous than the smoke inhaled by someone who is smoking, is completely off the rails," Bourque said. . . .

Anti-smoking activists are calling the book irresponsible.

"Smokers are indeed the victims here — they are the victims of an industry, of its products, they need to be made aware of the harms that smoking does," said Flory Doucas, co-director of the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control.

The decision to release the book right after the new year, when people are often trying to change their lifestyle for the better, is especially unfortunate, said Doucas.

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