Tobacco.org

• Taking Aim at the Professional Rodeo Circuit's Drug of Choice 

At a time when cigarette use has fallen and tobacco's ties have been severed with most major sports - including, this year, the former Winston Cup of Nascar - rodeo is one of tobacco's last entertainment refuges. And smokeless tobacco, which delivers nicotine when placed between a user's lip and gum, is the only growing segment of the industry, gaining new users in rural America. Rodeo, watched by about 23 million people in North America last year, is the rare sport where many, if not most, athletes are regular users of tobacco, which is as routine as rawhide.

"I'll chew till my lip falls off," said Matt Burch, a 27-year-old Wyoming cowboy who owns a rodeo company and took up tobacco as a young boy. "It's part of the code of the West - let a guy do what he damn well wants to do."

Ms. Smith and her 9-year-year-old son, Will Cooper, are suing the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, which makes Copenhagen and Skoal, the leading brands, each accounting for more than $1 billion in sales annually in the United States. The company is owned by UST Inc. of Greenwich, Conn. The suit was filed in April in federal court in southern Idaho, where Mr. Cooper lived.

Copenhagen sponsored Mr. Cooper and gave him free tobacco for much of his professional life. . . .

When his rodeo days were over in the mid-1990's and he was broke, Mr. Cooper sometimes bought tobacco instead of diapers, Ms. Smith said. She is seeking an unspecified amount of money from the tobacco company, but says she does not expect to win any. What she wants is to see chew driven out of rodeo.

In the suit, the family says that Copenhagen, with its high nicotine content, "is far more addictive than almost any other brand" and "has a high concentration of those components of spit tobacco that carry the greatest risk of causing cancer."

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The Kent Cooper case is going to blow the doors open on the relationship between this drug and this sport.
Cowboy Ted Hallisey, who has been setting up booths at rodeo grounds where he warns children of the dangers of smokeless tobacco.

We all need the money. We're not hypocritical. We'd take beer money if we could get it.
John Smith, commissioner of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association, on smokeless tobacco sponsorship.

Our product is a legal product for adults only, and it's part of the Western way of life.
Jon Schwartz, a spokesman for UST.

LETTER: SWEDA: Tobacco lawsuit holds executives responsible 

Your recent editorial (Personal choice plays a part in tobacco case, April 16) claims that the lawsuit filed against the makers of Copenhagen on behalf of the 9-year-old son of rodeo cowboy Kent Cooper "ignores personal responsibility."

Not so. . . .

The complaint also states that the company falsely stated for many years that its product was not addictive and that there was no proof that it harmed those who used it.

Mr. Cooper's ex-wife, Susan Smith, has filed a lawsuit designed to hold the executives of U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. responsible for their conduct. Thus, this lawsuit upholds the principle that all people, including those who sell, glamorize and profit from a deadly and addictive product, should be held accountable for their actions.

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LETTER: Risks of chewing tobacco were well known 

As a retired dentist, I must say you are absolutely correct when you write, "A tobacco lawsuit involving the death of a local rodeo star ignores personal responsibility." Manufacturing oral tobacco does not cause oral cancers. Using oral tobacco does. Kent Cooper knew this and fought to kick the habit.

The truth that use of oral tobacco, snuff, snoose, Copenhagen -- whatever name you choose to use -- is a cause of cancer has been known for many years. I learned that truth in the 1940s as a dental student doing hospital rounds. Later, I saw its ravages amongst rodeo beginners and rodeo veterans while practicing dentistry in Idaho. . . .

Kent Cooper's family has a chance to leave a wonderful legacy for Kent and do his profession a great service. They can tell his story to the present generations of rodeoers. Who knows how many lives Kent's legacy might save?

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• Late rodeo cowboy's ex-wife sues snuff company ... She seeks damages for their son; claims Copenhagen use killed his father 

Like many aspiring rodeo cowboys, Kent Cooper began chewing tobacco at a young age -- 13, to be exact.

For close to 30 years -- most of those while he was on the pro rodeo circuit -- Copenhagen was his brand of choice, until friends say he dropped the habit four or five years ago.

But the lifestyle change came too late for one of Idaho's most successful rodeo cowboys, attorneys for his ex-wife say. The Albion resident, a 13-time qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo in saddle bronc riding, was diagnosed with throat cancer in April 2002 and died later that year in Burley at the age of 47.

Now, Cooper's ex-wife, Susan Smith, on behalf of their son, Will, 9, is suing the manufacturer of Copenhagen. The lawsuit contends that the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. and its predecessors "hooked" Cooper on the product, and that they falsely stated for years that chewing tobacco wasn't addictive and there was no proof that it caused harm to people.

What's particularly intriguing about the case is the close relationship between the smokeless tobacco industry and the sport of rodeo.

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EDITORIAL: Personal choice plays a part in tobacco case 

But just as no one forced Cooper to mount wild broncos, neither did anyone force him to chew tobacco. By the time Cooper died, consumers had been aware of chewing tobacco's dangers for nearly two decades, and many had quit.

No one would deny that tobacco producers have profited from a dangerous product that kills its users. But a consumer's personal choice to use a product should play a significant part in determining whether a company is guilty for the consumer's death.

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• Late cowboy's ex-wife sues tobacco co. 

ALBION, Idaho -- The ex-wife of a rodeo cowboy who died of throat cancer has sued a chewing tobacco company, claiming that it caused his death by getting him hooked on its product.

Susan Smith contends U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Co. targets the sport of rodeo, enticing aspiring cowboys to take up the habit the way her ex-husband did when he was 13.

Kent Cooper, a 13-time qualifier for the National Finals Rodeo in saddle bronc riding, used Copenhagen chewing tobacco for nearly 30 years, most of which he spent on the pro rodeo circuit. The Albion resident dropped the habit about four years before he died in 2002, at age 47.

Smith filed the federal lawsuit this month in Boise on behalf of the couple's 9-year-old son. The suit claims U.S. Smokeless, the nation's largest maker of smokeless tobacco, falsely stated for years that its product was not addictive and that there was no proof it harmed users.

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