http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/category/federal.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Obit-Helms.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=tobacco&st=nyt&oref=slogin http://tobacco.org/news/268251.html Former Sen. Jesse Helms, who built a career along the fault lines of racial politics and battled liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during 30 conservative years in Congress, died on the Fourth of July. . . . Helms served as chairman of the Agriculture Committee and Foreign Relations Committees over the years at times when the GOP held the Senate majority, using his posts to protect his state's tobacco growers and other farmers and place his stamp on foreign policy. AP Fri, 04 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www2.journalnow.com/content/2008/jul/01/lorillard-asks-users-to-help-fight-menthol-ban/?news-nation-world http://tobacco.org/news/268087.html Lorillard Inc., the maker of the top-selling menthol cigarette in the U.S., is enlisting its customers' help in defeating a proposal supported by former health officials to include menthol in a ban of flavored tobacco. The company, based in Greensboro, N.C., sent e-mail to smokers of its Newport cigarette, urging them to speak out against efforts to add menthol to a list of flavors that would be banned under legislation to regulate the $89 billion-a-year U.S. tobacco industry, spokesman Michael W. Robinson said yesterday. Winston-Salem Journal webstaff@journalnow.com (JOURNAL WIRE REPORT) Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.newsweek.com/id/91171 http://tobacco.org/news/267950.html IT WAS THE LAST DAY OF AUGUST, AND Bill Clinton, vacationing on Martha's Vineyard, ran into C. Everett Koop, the former surgeon general. Each man had come to the island for the Labor Day weekend. But Koop wasn't taking a holiday. He used the chance meeting at a quaint general store to lobby Clinton on tobacco. ""Be firm on getting the documents,'' said Koop . . . Meanwhile, Koop and Kessler are spending much of their time working the Capitol. Koop speaks first in meetings and has better ties to the GOP, even though both are Republicans. As former FDA boss, Kessler is better versed in the minutiae of regulation. (For their part, supporters of the original settlement, which favored the industry, charge that the duo are grandstanders who keep upping their demands.) But many members agree with the assessment of Sen. John McCain, Republican of Arizona, who has the lead on tobacco in the Senate, that the two are ""very significant'' to a final deal. Now McCain and Congress must figure out the doctors' bottom line. Will they hew to their gold standard or, in the end, make an accommodation that the industry can accept? Newsweek Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/business/01menthol.html http://tobacco.org/news/267859.html The Congressional Black Caucus is calling for changes to a House tobacco-regulation bill, demanding that the legislation place restrictions on menthol cigarettes, the type heavily favored by African-American smokers. Representative Donna M. Christensen, head of the black caucus’s health task force, is helping to lead a challenge to a House bill that fails to address the marketing of menthol cigarettes. The 43-member caucus is taking aim at a provision in the bill that would ban candy-, fruit- and spice-flavored cigarettes but that specifically exempts menthol. . . . “We are very aware and gravely concerned about the disproportionate incidence of lung cancer in the African-American community and, along with so many minority health experts, have long been concerned about the role menthol may play,” Ms. Christensen said in an e-mail response to a reporter’s query. . . . On the other side of the debate, Lorillard, the cigarette company that would stand to lose the most from a ban on menthol, is mounting a counteroffensive. In e-mail messages sent on June 22 to smokers of its leading menthol brand, Newport, the company urged them to call their Congressional representatives. “Urgent! Urgent!,” the message said. “Congress wants to make it illegal to smoke Newports and other menthol cigarettes. New York Times Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-26-2008/0004839664&EDATE= http://tobacco.org/news/267701.html An article in this week's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows, alarmingly, that the decline in smoking rates among high school students seen from 1997 to 2003 continues to stagnate. These results are an ominous sign as an overwhelming majority of smokers begin their deadly addiction during this critical stage of development in their lives. "Ninety percent of smokers start before their 21st birthday, and tragically up to one-half of them will eventually die from a tobacco-related disease," said Bernadette A. Toomey, President and CEO of the American Lung Association. "This is a clear warning sign that our leaders must summon the political will to implement lifesaving policies we know will work to end our nation's tobacco epidemic." PR Newswire Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-26-2008/0004839683&EDATE= http://tobacco.org/news/267699.html The good news in the 2007 Youth Risk Behavior Survey is that the high school smoking rate declined by 45 percent between 1997 and 2007, from 36.4 percent to 20 percent. The high school smoking rate is now at the lowest level since this survey was first conducted in 1991. Smoking has declined significantly among both boys and girls and among all populations surveyed. Since 1997, smoking has declined by 42 percent among white students, 49 percent among African-American students and 51 percent among Hispanic students. In 2007, high school smoking rates were 23.2 percent for white students, 16.7 percent for Hispanic students and 11.6 percent for African-American students. The dramatic decline in youth smoking since 1997 is powerful proof that scientifically proven measures, implemented primarily at the state and local level, are working. These include higher cigarette prices resulting from state cigarette tax increases and the 1998 state tobacco settlement; a growing number of state and local laws requiring smoke-free workplaces and public places; and effective, well-funded tobacco prevention programs run by the states and nationally by the American Legacy Foundation. Thanks to these efforts, the country has made great progress over the last decade in reducing youth smoking. Unfortunately that decline has stalled in recent years. From 2003 to 2005, high school smoking rates rose by just over one percentage point, from 21.9 percent to 23 percent. While there was a small improvement from 2005 to 2007 -- rates declined to 20 percent last year -- the reduction was not statistically significant. This recent stall in progress coincides with aggressive efforts by tobacco companies to discount cigarette prices and undermine state cigarette tax increases, cuts in tobacco prevention programs, and huge increases in tobacco marketing PR Newswire Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/1964/jun/25/cigarettes.cancer http://tobacco.org/news/267604.html * Thursday June 25, 1964 The Federal Trade Commission today announced its decision to require all tobacco companies to indicate on cigarette packages and in their advertising the health hazard in cigarette smoking. There is considerable doubt whether the commission has the power to impose such rules without new legislation. Indeed, that seems to be the position of the Administration itself. Several members of the House Commerce Committee clearly indicated today that they too believe this to be the case. The Guardian reader@guardian.co.uk Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=agw_QehJg7Kc http://tobacco.org/news/267493.html U.S. Representative Henry Waxman, a Democrat from California, speaks at the National Press Club in Washington about the oversight responsibilities of Congress, the administration of President George W. Bush and Waxman's priorities as chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. (Source: Bloomberg) 00:00 Oversight responsibility of Congress: tobacco 03:33 Bloomberg News Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://adage.com/article?article_id=127913 http://tobacco.org/news/267426.html Faced with rising taxes for cigarettes -- in New York the price of a pack hit $9 -- and ever-tightening smoking bans in places such as Los Angeles, where a bill threatens to force smokers out of all outdoor eating areas, Big Tobacco is trying a new approach to keep America's dwindling 45 million smokers in the fold. The solution: snus (they are always curiously plural), a pinch of steam-cured tobacco nestled in a tiny tea-bag-like pouch. Snus don't need to be spit out like traditional fermented dipping tobacco; they simply remain under your upper lip until you've gotten your nicotine fix. U.S. Smokeless Tobacco is testing Skoal Dry, a snus version of its moist, fermented Skoal dipping tobacco. Spokesman Andrew Lee said the company was encouraged to find out that some 6 million of America's smokers have tried smokeless tobacco, and fully half of all smokers -- more than 22 million -- have expressed an interest in finding a smokeless-tobacco alternative. But given that pending legislation takes aim at flavored cigarettes, tobacco companies might need to be worried about snus, too. Both the House and Senate versions of a bill to give the Food and Drug Administration jurisdiction over tobacco contain a rule to eliminate flavored cigarettes. Advertising Age cbrodesser@adage.com (Claude Brodesser-Akner ) Mon, 23 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5206386&page=1 http://tobacco.org/news/267330.html Responding to an ABC News/Washington Times investigation, the Veterans Administration plans to inform 32,000 veterans that they are using a drug linked to suicide or violent behavior. The investigation revealed that the VA waited three months to notify veterans in a VA experiment of the possible side effects from the anti-smoking drug Chantix. All of the veterans enrolled in the Chantix study suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and had been recruited, with monthly $30 payments, for a behavioral study with the drug. ABC News Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/20/va-chief-sees-room-to-improve-warnings/ http://tobacco.org/news/267321.html Veterans Affairs Secretary James B. Peake sought Thursday to quell a growing controversy over his agency's failure to quickly notify veterans about psychotic and suicidal side effects from the anti-smoking drug Chantix, vowing that his department will improve its communication process to ensure patients are alerted more quickly when dangerous side effects emerge. Mr. Peake also said the letter the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA) sent to veterans in February - three months after learning about new complications from Chantix - should have identified suicidal behavior as one of the risks. "It could have been stronger," Mr. Peake said in an interview with The Washington Times. Washington Times Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://washingtontimes.com/news/2008/jun/19/va-reports-more-chantix-effects/ http://tobacco.org/news/267318.html War veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder suffered a total of 26 serious adverse events while participating in a Veterans Affairs study of the anti-smoking drug Chantix, a VA official said Wednesday night. "Based on current data 26 Serious Adverse Events (SAE) occurred in patients while on Chantix," VA spokesman Matt Smith said in a statement e-mailed to The Washington Times, adding that 10 of the adverse events "were of a psychiatric nature." His e-mail also said, under a listing of "Adverse Events," that there were two cases of suicidal thoughts. Washington Times Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080619/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/veterans_anti_smoking_drug_1 http://tobacco.org/news/267295.html The Veterans Affairs Department is sending letters to about 33,000 veterans who are taking the anti-smoking drug Chantix, warning them about possible side effects, including thoughts of suicide. VA Secretary James Peake told reporters in a conference call Thursday that agency doctors will continue to prescribe the drug because they are seeing no serious problems or trends with its use. He defended the VA's use of the drug to treat some of the veterans with stress disorders who were participating in a study to stop smoking. AP Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20080618/pl_usnw/major_associations_band_together_to_urge_congressional_action_on_tobacco_legislation http://tobacco.org/news/267226.html The American School Health Association, the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the National School Boards Association today joined together to create one voice to urge Congress to pass H.R. 1108, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which would give the FDA authority to regulate the tobacco industry. These three associations, each formed to assist the Nations youth, agree that H.R. 1108s restrictions on advertising, marketing and sales of tobacco products to children would dramatically improve the protection of youths health. U.S. Newswire Wed, 18 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://obama.senate.gov/press/080617-obama_demands_v_2/ http://tobacco.org/news/267158.html U.S. Senator Barack Obama today sent the following letter to Veterans Affairs Secretary James Peake, calling on him to immediately investigate reports that the VA failed to notify veterans about severe side effects from drug testing after the FDA issued a serious warning last November. According to a Washington Times/ABC News investigation, more than 1,000 veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) participated in a study to examine ways to end smoking. 143 of the study participants took the anti-smoking drug Chantix, which the FDA found lead to side effects, including hallucinations, suicide attempts, and psychotic behavior. Study participants were not notified about the FDA warning until three months later, and were not warned about the drug's most severe side effect - suicide. In the letter Obama calls on Peake to conduct a full and thorough investigation of the process by which VA conducts clinical trials and to take immediate corrective action to address the problems that were first identified by GAO eight years ago. The text of the letter is below: Barack Obama US Senator for Illinois Tue, 17 Jun 2008 04:00:00 GMT