Tobacco.org

• Bladder cancer risks increase over time for smokers 

Risk of bladder cancer for smokers has increased since the mid-1990s, with a risk progressively increasing to a level five times higher among current smokers in New Hampshire than that among nonsmokers in 2001-2004, according to a new study published online November 16 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Furthermore, researchers found that among individuals who smoked the same total number of cigarettes over their lifetime, smoking fewer cigarettes per day for more years may be more harmful than smoking more cigarettes per day for fewer years.

It is well known that cigarette smoking causes bladder cancer, but the influence of various parameters of smoking history, including trends in risk over time, is unclear.

Dalsu Baris, M.D., Ph.D., of the Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, National Cancer Institute, in Bethesda, Md., and her colleagues from NCI, Dartmouth Medical School, and the departments of health for the states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, examined bladder cancer risk in relation to smoking practices based on data from a large, population-based case-control study conducted in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont from 2001 to 2004.

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• Court rules against tobacco shop 

Customers are still rolling their own smokes at Tobacco Haven, despite a superior court ruling Monday that says the Brookline shop is a cigarette manufacturer that hasn’t been paying either the mandatory Tobacco Settlement tax, or making escrow payments.

Merrimack County Superior Court Judge Larry Smukler issued a temporary injunction against Tobacco Haven on Monday, ordering the shop on Route 13 to either ensure that its supplier has paid the required tax or escrow payment, pay itself, or stop operating its two high-speed cigarette-rolling machines.

The machines take loose tobacco and roll 200 cigarettes in a matter of minutes. A carton costs $25.99, while cartons of many name brand cigarettes can cost twice as much. Customers have flocked to the store, often lining up to use the machines.

What’s at stake here is a lot more than where people can buy cheap smokes. The state filed suit against the company in August because New Hampshire stood to lose about $50 million in tobacco settlement money.

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• Much at stake in roll-your-own suit 

Customers from near and far line up daily at the Route 13 smoke shop with the roll-your-own cigarette machines that can spit out 200 cigarettes in 10 minutes. They buy by the carton, for less than half the price of many name brands.

But state officials say the machines are making an end run around the landmark 1998 settlement with major tobacco companies, which were required to pay yearly contributions to the states. In a lawsuit filed last week, New Hampshire's attorney general contends Tobacco Haven's cigarette machines violate terms of the agreement and could jeopardize the $50 million in settlement money New Hampshire receives each year.

"At $50 million a year, we have a rather inescapable incentive here,'' said David Rienzo, an assistant attorney general.

Rienzo, along with smoking industry specialists and antismoking groups, say that higher cigarette taxes have spurred a burgeoning roll-your-own market. But until now, it has been largely confined to individuals who buy small, hand-operated rolling machines for personal use. The machines at Tobacco Haven, by contrast, are more akin to high-powered vending machines that spit out cartons of cigarettes in a matter of minutes. Such machines have cropped up across the country, and in New Hampshire prosecutors worried that they could emerge as powerful competitors to commercial cigarettes.

New Hampshire's suit, believed to be the first of its kind, argues that Tobacco Haven is essentially manufacturing cigarettes and therefore should be making contributions to the state. Tobacco Haven counters that they are strictly a retail outfit and that customers are paying to use the machines for personal use.

State officials say that by allowing a shop to make cigarettes without contributing some proceeds, they risk lawsuits from competing manufacturers angry over unequal treatment.

"At face value, this tobacco shop is in the business of making cigarettes,'' Rienzo said. "It's roughly a pack a minute, so it's not an insignificant number of cigarettes, and it really could cause us some heartburn.''

Under state law, Tobacco Haven would have to contribute about 2 cents for each cigarette sold to a set-aside fund, he said.

This week, the state ordered the shop to shut down the machines, but the two machines rolled on as usual on a recent morning, with a lengthy line of smokers from New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. . . .

Sweda had never heard of a similar lawsuit, but Burd said there are plenty of other shops that have machines like Tobacco Haven's.

Doug Kennedy, editor of Roll Your Own Magazine, which caters to custom-made cigarette smokers, said the publication has "aggressively recommended shops to walk away from making cigarettes for their customers.''

"You make a cigarette for someone, then sell it to them, you are a tobacco manufacturer,'' he said.

Kevin O'Flaherty, director of advocacy in the Northeast for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, said many states are fueling the growth of roll-your-own cigarettes by taxing loose tobacco at a lower rate than store-bought cigarettes.

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• State sues tobacco shop over cigarette-making machines 

The state of New Hampshire is suing a Brookline businessman who is charging customers $20 for a carton of cigarettes they roll themselves.

According to Assistant Attorney General David Rienzo, Joseph Correia Jr. of Tobacco Haven in Brookline has two machines customers use to make their own cigarettes. Customers buy tobacco and other cigarette components and then are directed to the machines and taught how to operate them, according to Rienzo.

Each machine can churn out about 200 cigarettes -- a carton -- in about 10 minutes. Customers pay $26 a carton, about $30 less than the going price of a pre-packaged carton.

Atty. Jeffrey Burd of Cincinnati, Ohio, who represents Correia, said Tobacco Haven disputes it is a manufacturer.

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• Study examines movie smoking exposure and team sport participation in youth established smoking 

Participating in team sports is associated with a reduced likelihood of youths becoming established smokers, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. However, exposure to movie smoking appears to be associated with an increased risk of established smoking in both team sport participants and nonparticipants.

Past studies suggest that there is a direct association between movie smoking exposure and youth smoking initiation, with 30 percent to 50 percent of adolescents' smoking initiation attributed to movie smoking exposure, according to background information in the article. "Movie smoking exposure appears to increase the risk of smoking initiation by enhancing adolescents' perceived benefits of smoking and making them more susceptible to peer influences," the authors write.

Anna M. Adachi-Mejia, Ph.D., of Hood Center for Children and Families, Dartmouth Medical School, Lebanon, N.H., and colleagues analyzed data from school- and telephone-based surveys

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• SHORT CHANGED: BROKEN PROMISES ON TOBACCO CONTROL PLACE MILLIONS OF KIDS ACROSS NEW ENGLAND AT RISK FOR ADDICTION AND EARLY DEATH (PDF) 

Ten years after the November 1998 state tobacco settlement, we find that most of the New England states have failed to keep their promise to use a significant portion of the settlement funds to reduce tobacco’s terrible toll on America’s children, families and communities.

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• Report: NE states fall short on tobacco prevention 

Health advocates said Monday that New England states have failed to deliver on a pledge to use settlement money from tobacco companies to pay for prevention programs, with most states funding programs at just one fifth of recommended levels.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids released a report detailing how New England states will spend only 2.3 percent of the $1.8 billion in tobacco settlement and tax revenue on tobacco prevention programs this year when these programs save both lives and money by containing health care costs by preventing tobacco-related illness.

"We know for a fact that these programs save lives and reduce health care costs," said Don Gudaitis, CEO of the American Cancer Society's New England Division. "As more and more Americans face a threat of lack of access to health care and lack of access to health insurance, underfunding the most proven way to reduce health care costs is all the more intolerable."

Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island are funding tobacco prevention programs at less than 20 percent of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's recommendations, according to the report.

The report also said Maine and Vermont are the only New England states funding tobacco prevention at half the CDC's recommended levels.

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• Parents can still smoke while driving 

House lawmakers yesterday voted down a bill that would ban adults from smoking cigarettes in cars in which children are riding. The bill failed on a narrow vote of 184-167.

On a busy session day, the House also overwhelmingly backed a bill that would ban text-messaging while driving . . .

The debate on the smoking-in-the-car bill pitted medical evidence on the dangers of secondhand smoke against philosophical questions about the rights of individuals to partake in legal activities and practical concerns about how police officers would enforce such a law.

Sponsor Mary Griffin said she took issue with the idea that the bill represented "undue intrusion into parental privacy."

"On the contrary, there is a long-established legal prohibition against endangering the welfare of a child," said Griffin, a Windham Republican. She reeled off a list of ailments associated with inhaling cigarette smoke, such as asthma and cancer, and she cited a 2006 Harvard School of Public Health study that found cigarettes smoked in cars can generate hazardous levels of smoke in only a few minutes. She said that other states, including Arkansas and Louisiana, have banned smoking in cars with young children.

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• Fatal Fires Associated with Smoking During Long-Term Oxygen Therapy --- Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma, 2000--2007 

Approximately 1 million persons in the United States receive long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) annually through the Medicare program, most often for smoking-related lung disease (1,2). At 2:10 a.m. on December 14, 2007, a fire occurred in a public housing project for the elderly in Westbrook, Maine. Approximately 60 residents were evacuated; six were transported to a hospital for smoke inhalation. The fire was caused unintentionally by a woman aged 57 years who was an overnight guest of a relative who lived in the housing project. The visitor had ignited the fire while simultaneously smoking and using an oxygen concentrator.* After this incident, the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, in collaboration with three other states, attempted to determine 1) how often this type of event results in fatalities and 2) factors common to these incidents that might be amenable to prevention. This report describes the results of that study, which found that, during 2000--2007, of the 38 deaths identified in the four states, 37 occurred in private residences, and the median age of the decedents was 67 years. Prevention of this type of fatality is dependent on smoking cessation, careful assessment of the need for LTOT, and strategies to prevent injuries from fires, such as smoke alarms and sprinklers.

Three other states (Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Oklahoma) agreed to join Maine in the study.

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• After initial fuss, ban on smoking a non-factor  

One year after New Hampshire banned smoking in public places, businesses and state health officials are seeing good compliance and little criticism.

Derry health officer Paul Raiche has received only one complaint since the smoking ban went into effect and said he has received little positive or negative response as of March of this year.

"We get a lot of complaints of various sorts to do with restaurants, but almost none with regard to the smoking ban," he said.

As the health inspector for Derry, Raiche is required to check each restaurant in town twice a year and said he has not seen any violations. If establishments were found in violation where smoking is prohibited, however, he said the fines would be at least $100.

"Personally, from a health point of view and as a health officer, I think the ban is a good thing for the public," Raiche said.

Josh Chaput, manager of AppleBee's Bar and Grille in Derry, said the ban hasn't had an impact

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• Cigarette tax goes up by 25 cents a pack 

The price of smoking in New Hampshire just went up.

State tax officials said the tobacco tax is going up by 25 cents a pack beginning today.

Acting Revenue Administration Commissioner Margaret Fulton issued an advisory just after 2 p.m. saying that tobacco sales between July and September failed to produce the $50 million in revenue that would have allowed her to leave the tax on hold.

New Hampshire's tax is now $1.33 a pack, still well below the $2.51 a pack, plus sales tax, that Massachusetts imposes.

The higher tax, which retailers are to start collecting immediately, will raise an extra $18 million a year for the state budget, by recent estimates.

The increase does not affect the price of cigars, pipe, smokeless and loose tobacco.

The Legislature voted in June to give convenience markets and grocers three-months to press a marketing campaign that would help the state take in $50 million in tax revenue. If they fell short, the tax was to take effect.

On the last day of September, a tobacco wholesaler complained that it ran into red tape when trying to make a $3 million wire transfer for tobacco stamps that would have put tax revenues over the threshold and avoided the tax increase. The wire transfer, which revenue administrators had never accepted before, created accounting problems for the state, because it did not go through the usual channels.

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• Cigarette tax stays same for now but shortfall still looms 

Last-minute tax receipts may have kept the price of a pack of cigarettes from going up 25 cents, but they haven't kept the state budget from falling further in the red.

The state's revenue shortfall due to the sluggish economy is twice as large as feared, Gov. John Lynch said Wednesday, adding that a third round of budget cuts before the Nov. 4 election is "certainly possible."

Lynch told reporters he is meeting with department heads and legislative leaders in the wake of September revenue receipts that came up $46.3 million shy of forecast. The two-term Democrat said he was not ruling out layoffs.

"It is certainly possible that we will be exploring further cuts over the next month or so," Lynch said.

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• New Hampshire ups tax on cigarettes  

New Hampshire's cigarette tax rose 25 cents to $1.33 a pack at midnight.

Legislators voted in the spring to make the increase automatic on Oct. 1 - today - unless the tax brought in $50 million during the quarter. The quarter ends at midnight, and state revenue official Peter Boisvert said the tally yesterday afternoon was $47.6 million.

"It doesn't look like we're going to make it," Boisvert said minutes before his Department of Revenue Administration office closed.

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• Co-Op Stores May Follow DHMC's Lead on Total Tobacco Ban  

Officials who run the Co-Op Food Stores are considering no longer selling tobacco products and prohibiting smoking at their six locations.

The changes are being contemplated a month after Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center made its campus smoke-free. Local anti-smoking crusaders also want smoking banned on the Dartmouth College campus, and even in the entire town of Hanover.

“My hope is that this will crystallize other parts of the community … to follow suit,” said cardiologist John Butterly, the executive medical director at DHMC who led the medical center's 18-month process to go smoke-free.

The college isn't considering a smoking ban, said a school spokeswoman. Neither is the town, said Town Manager Julia Griffin. . . .

The two Co-Op Food Stores are the only markets among the 109 stores in the National Cooperative Grocers Association to sell tobacco products, said spokesman Eric Davis. Rochester, N.Y.-based Wegmans, with 71 stores primarily in New York State, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, is the only chain supermarket to stop selling tobacco, he said.

Dumais said that with the Co-Ops' “health conscious” clientele, “it makes sense for them” to stop selling tobacco.

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• Taxing Tobacco 

Smokers in Vermont and New Hampshire are bracing for another hit to the pocketbook this year as both states plan on raising taxes on tobacco.

But as the tax rates per pack go even higher -- and the number of smokers gradually declines -- tobacco may eventually burn out as a reliable revenue source for cash-strapped states.

In Vermont, the tobacco tax rate is slated to rise by 20 cents to $1.99 per pack on July 1, the second-part of a two-step increase in the tobacco tax to help pay for the Catamount Health program. State taxes went up 60 cents per pack in 2006 in Vermont when the Catamount Health program was first passed into law.

And Vermont also applies its 6 percent sales tax to tobacco, while New Hampshire has no sales tax.

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