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Cheryl G. Healton, head of the American Legacy Foundation, told 150 scientists and public health advocates the success of menthol cigarettes is no accident.
Many hundreds of tobacco industry documents conclusively establish that the tobacco industry has for decades systematically developed and marketed menthol products to attract "starter" and youth smokers, Healton said. . . .
"Congress did ban a wide array of other flavors including strawberry, grape, orange, clove, cinnamon, pineapple, vanilla, coconut, licorice, cocoa, chocolate, cherry and coffee, based on the common sense logic that flavored cigarettes make smoking more attractive to kids," Healton told the meeting.
However, menthol flavors are still permitted, Healton pointed out. Forty-seven percent of Hispanic smokers in high school usually smoke menthol cigarettes, while 76 percent of African-American smokers, 62 percent of Asian-American smokers and 29 percent of white smokers prefer menthol cigarettes.
Conference sponsors and supporters included the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Legacy Foundation, the American Lung Association, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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The American Legacy Foundation®'s Schroeder Institute for Tobacco Research and Policy this week received a $977,346 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Institute will use the funds to study the effectiveness of Internet-based mobile phone support for the D.C. Tobacco Quitline.
"The competition for these awards is fierce, with only about two percent of all applications receiving funding," said Dr. David Abrams, Executive Director of the Schroeder Institute. "This award helps to fulfill the mission of the Schroeder Institute to translate our research discoveries into effective interventions to improve individual and community health."
The American Legacy Foundation® applauds Speaker Nancy Pelosi and all those in the U.S. House of Representatives who have worked tirelessly to protect Capitol Hill staff and visitors from the dangers of second-hand smoke.
On Thursday, the House's last two indoor smoking rooms are being cleaned and converted to smoke-free dining areas. It is no secret that secondhand smoke is dangerous - it causes 50,000 deaths per year in the U.S. Our halls of government should be playing a leadership role in ensuring clean indoor air for their staff and the visiting public and setting a positive example for other work places and public spaces nationwide.
Students looking for a smoke break outside may soon have to take their cigarettes elsewhere if a recent D.C. Council proposal to ban smoking cigarettes on sidewalks outside of storefronts passes. Another proposal to ban single-sale cigars, commonly used for smoking marijuana, is also pending.
The proposals would require stores to post warning signs about smoking, and allow property owners to post no smoking signs for up to 25 feet away.
The smoking ban, proposed by D.C. Councilmember Phil Mendelson and Councilmember Yvette Alexander, and the single-sale cigar ban, sponsored by Alexander, were debated last week before the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary. A part of the legislation, the "Blunt Wrap Prohibition," would make it unlawful for "blunt wraps," rolling materials intended to encase substances like marijuana, to be sold, and demands they be classified as drug paraphanelia.
Freshman Steven Landis expressed support for the bill, saying smoking was unhealthy and unwelcome on campus. "I think the ban should happen," Landis said.
If the lung cancer doesn't kill D.C. smokers, the traffic might.
The D.C. Council is considering allowing residential and commercial property owners to ban smoking within 25 feet from their walls, the Washington Examiner reported. This could extend across city sidewalks, sending smokers into the street to be in compliance.
Yeah, we'd love to see such a provision enforced. We envision fanatical anti-smoking proprietors flailing their limbs at smoking pedestrian passersby and gesturing emphatically at their precious "no smoking anywhere near this building" signs.
The D.C. City Council is considering legislation that would push smokers away from buildings.
Currently, indoor smoking in generally prohibited in the nation's capital. Smokers typically take cigarette breaks outdoors at building entrances. That might be a lot harder if Councilman Phil Mendelson gets his way.
Legislation that Mendelson has proposed would grant authority to building owners to post signs prohibiting smoking on sidewalks within 25 feet of the structure.
"We've been getting complaints about smoke coming into buildings from people who are hanging out front of the buildings, smoking," explained the at-large Democrat.
2 (2) A new paragraph (1) is added to read as follows:
3 “(1) “Single cigar product” means an individual cigar, cigar leaf wrapper,
4 flavored or non-flavored cigar that is referred to as a blunt, blunt wrap, or any
5 other tobacco product that may be used in the ingesting, inhaling, or introduction
6 of marijuana to the human body.”.
Sidewalk smokers, beware: The D.C. Council might be coming after you.
And people who buy cheap cigars -- whether for legal or illegal purposes -- you, too, should be on guard.
Three years after the council approved a ban on smoking indoors at bars and restaurants, the council is now considering a proposal to give business owners the right to ban smoking within 25 feet of the front door of an establishment.
The legislation, which also makes it a crime for anyone younger than 18 to possess tobacco, represents another step in the District's efforts to curb smoking.
"I think it is reasonable to say to a proprietor you can put up no smoking signs if you've got a problem with people standing on the sidewalk in front of your establishment," said council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), a sponsor of the bill.
In addition to Mendelson's bill, council member Yvette D. Alexander (D-Ward 7) is proposing to ban the sale of single, cheap cigars, which she says are increasingly being used to roll marijuana. . . .
Several advocates for health organizations, including the American Lung Association, testified in support of Mendelson's bill. Altria, the parent company of Richmond-based Philip Morris, also announced its support for the legislation, even though it would be the city's first effort to allow restrictions on smoking in outdoor public spaces.
The largest tobacco manufacturer in the United States is supporting a D.C. Council proposal that would limit the sale of some tobacco products and regulate where people can smoke.
Representatives from Altria Group Inc., owner of tobacco giant Philip Morris, testified at a council hearing Tuesday that they were backing a bill that contained a slew of provisions.
In fact, Altria lobbyist Mary Eva Candon drafted the majority of the legislation, at-large Councilman Phil Mendelson told The Examiner. And the day he introduced the bill, Mendelson received a $500 campaign contribution from Candon.
"That's the problem when you work with friends and they have suggestions," Mendelson said. "It all gets into the mix."
Among its 10 provisions, the bill would:
-- ban the sale of single cigars, except in tobacco shops;
-- set weight-based requirements for the number of cigars per package;
-- and require all tobacco products be sold from behind the counter.
But the head of the Cigar Association of America said Altria would benefit while those provisions would leave the rest of the cigar industry suffering.
Altria's Black and Mild are the nation's top-selling cigars and control almost a quarter of the market. Because they're sold in five-packs, CAA President Norman Sharp said the ban on single cigars would boost Black and Mild sales.
The D.C. Council is eyeing an extension of the city's anti-tobacco prohibitions into public space, allowing all private property owners to ban smoking outside their buildings -- including the public sidewalk.
The proposed legislation, a major expansion of the District's smoke-free law, sets 18 as the legal age to purchase or possess tobacco products, requires retailers to post signs warning of the dangers of smoking, ramps up enforcement of sales to minors and authorizes smoking bans up to 25 feet from the wall of any private property -- residential or commercial.
The goal of that last provision is to disperse packs of smokers who congregate outside office buildings, said Councilman Phil Mendelson, who introduced the bill with Councilwoman Yvette Alexander. A 25-foot ban, under the measure, could encompass an adjacent sidewalk.
"I want the owner of the property to be able to say 'no' if he wants to," Mendelson said. "We're not prohibiting smoking. We're saying the owner can say no, even if it's on the sidewalk."
But property owners are unclear whether they could legally boot smokers off the sidewalk and into the street, said W. Shaun Pharr, senior vice president of government affairs with the D.C. Apartment and Office Building Association. . . .
Also under the bill, retailers nabbed selling tobacco products to minors face fines and possible jail time plus mandatory license suspension or revocation. Minors caught attempting to purchase cigarettes, or in possession of a tobacco product, face fines as high as $500, up to 25 hours of community service and forfeiture of their smokes.
The American Legacy Foundation(R) applauds Speaker Nancy Pelosi and all those in the U.S. House of Representatives who have worked tirelessly to protect Capitol Hill staff and visitors from the dangers of second-hand smoke.
On Thursday, the House's last two indoor smoking rooms are being cleaned and converted to smoke-free dining areas. It is no secret that secondhand smoke is dangerous - it causes 50,000 deaths per year in the U.S. Our halls of government should be playing a leadership role in ensuring clean indoor air for their staff and the visiting public and setting a positive example for other work places and public spaces nationwide. . . .
The closing of the smoking rooms in the Longworth and Cannon House office buildings is one more indication that we're moving in the right direction and toward a smoke-free America.
District public health and faith leaders today called on the DC Council to immediately renew funding for the DC Tobacco Free Families (DCTFF) Campaign, the District's highly successful tobacco prevention and cessation program.
Health advocates are urging the Council to maintain funding for DCTFF at its current level of $3.6 million annually so it can continue its effective work to prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit. Unless the Council quickly renews funding, DCTFF will be forced to eliminate most of its activities by the end of the month - just as a 50-cent increase in DC's cigarette tax, which takes effect October 1, will encourage more smokers to seek help in quitting.
The Washington D. C. Council has scheduled a public hearing on Bill 18-124, called the "Single Sale of Cigar Products Prohibition Amendment Act of 2009." The open ended Bill would ban the sale of individual cigars or cigar products that might be used to introduce marijuana into the human body. The hearing is scheduled for 10:00 a.m. on September 29 in the John A. Wilson building at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Washington DC 20004. Local cigars shops - members of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association (IPCPR) - are furious and frightened.
The D.C. Council already came for your single beers, now they want your cigars, as well.
In 2004, a bill championed by then Councilmember Adrian Fenty, banned the sale of single bottles and cans of beer. Its passing drew protests from owners of small grocers and their poorer customers. Now Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander wants to do the same for single cigar sales at gas stations and convenience stores.
Her reasoning is that some customers frequently buy single cigars so that they can hollow them out and pack them with marijuana to create blunts. . . .
While presumably well-meaning, the bill would only ban one of several ways that pot smokers go about getting high, while punishing business at the same time. Expect some backlash from this one, as well.
Opponents of a Washington, D.C., bill that proposes a ban on single-cigar sales will get the chance to voice their concerns at a hearing scheduled for the end of the month.
The bill's intention is to reduce marijuana use by amending the Drug Paraphernalia Act of 1982 to ban the selling of "single cigar products." These products are broadly defined as an "individual cigar, cigar leaf wrapper, flavored or non-flavored cigar that is referred to as a blunt, blunt wrap, or any other tobacco product that may be used in the ingesting, inhaling, or introduction of marijuana to the human body."
In essence, the bill looks to combat the act of "blunting," or replacing the tobacco filler in a cigar with marijuana. However, to the chagrin of cigar store shop owners, the bill's language does not attempt to distinguish cheap blunts from premium, handmade cigars.