http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/category/gay.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.theonion.com/content/video/new_anti_smoking_ads_warn_teens http://tobacco.org/news/297976.html The Onion Sun, 07 Mar 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.queersighted.com/2010/02/24/the-french-anti-smoking-ad/ http://tobacco.org/news/297493.html Thanks to The New York Times for highlighting this story. But even they can't answer this question: why does the dominant person have his jacket on for the guys but off for the girl? . . . Finally, to spare the models unpleasantness, they have the proper end of the cigarette in their mouth, which means the lit end is being pressed into the man's crotch. The ad may not stop young people from smoking, but it will certainly stop older men from dating them. QS France Wed, 24 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.insidebayarea.com/opinion/ci_14434884 http://tobacco.org/news/297311.html Berkeley's current proposal for smoking restrictions in multiunit housing is so full of loopholes that it reads like a tobacco industry dream. . . . When the tobacco industry targets the gay community or the African-American community, people object. Targeting homeless and mentally disabled people gets little such reaction. Tobacco industry rhetoric is prevalent in the discussions of Berkeley's recent, embarrassing proposal. Berkeley deserves to lose its leadership role in public health policy if it thinks a smoking section in multiunit housing can still be called "smoke-free." And "90 percent smoke-free" is a contradiction. The tobacco industry once created cigarettes targeting homeless and mentally disabled people. Perhaps it's time to launch a special Berkeley brand called "irony." Inside Bay Area Sat, 20 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://interact.stltoday.com/blogzone/fit-bits/smoking/2009/09/gay-and-lesbian-missourians-more-likely-to-smoke/ http://tobacco.org/news/297188.html About 36 percent of the state's gay, lesbian and transgendered community smoke, compared to nearly 25 percent of the general population. And the gay community has less desire to stop -- 37 percent say they'll quit in the next six months, compared to 64 percent of all smokers in Missouri. The stats come from a new survey from the nonprofit Missouri Foundation for Health. The foundation wanted to figure out who's smoking, so prevention and cessation programs can be targeted at them. To read the report, visit www.mffh.org/LGBT2009.pdf St. Louis Post-Dispatch Thu, 24 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.minnpost.com/healthblog/2010/02/11/15845/tobacco_industry_constantly_reinvents_its_marketing_efforts_report_points_out http://tobacco.org/news/296815.html Unless you’re in one of their target demographics, you may be oblivious to these marketing efforts. Have you ever met a “Cigarette Fairy” in a bar? Or heard of the “Welcome to the Brotherhood” campaign? Or seen a peach-, strawberry-, grape- or chocolate-flavored “little cigar”? Or played a video game that rewards you with imaginary cigarettes and that mocks health-warning labels? These marketing efforts and more are described in a disturbing new report released Wednesday by ClearWay Minnesota, the nonprofit group that was funded by a small percentage of Minnesota’s 1998 tobacco settlement. Its mission is to “improve the health of Minnesotans by reducing the harm caused by tobacco.” The report, “Unfiltered: A Revealing Look at Today’s Tobacco Industry,” is part of the organization’s new statewide campaign to shine a light on how the industry has continued to shapeshift — and thrive. “We hope this is going to be a wake-up call for Minnesotans,” said David Willoughby, ClearWay Minnesota’s chief executive officer, in a phone interview on Wednesday. Parents, health care professionals, community leaders, politicians — all of us — “need to realize that the tobacco industry continues to reinvent itself and sell an addictive product to millions of Americans,” he added. . . . Here are some of the highlights: * In 2007, in an effort to reach more young women, R.J. Reynolds launched a new product, Camel No. 9s (reminiscent of Chanel No. 9 perfume — get it?). The marketing campaign had a kind of “Sex in the City” flair, with such slogans as “Light and Luscious” and “Now Available in Stiletto.” Nightclubs, including one in Minneapolis, held Camel No. 9 “launch parties,” with free gift bags. * R.J. Reynolds also sends “Cigarette Fairies” — attractive and usually female individuals — into local bars to talk with young people about their tobacco preferences and to offer free samples or coupons. Here’s how one Minnesota “Cigarette Fairy” described her job: “I get paid to hand out cigarettes, go to free gigs and to smoke. Camel [is] clever about the smoking ban. We’re all over the place … all over America. It’s a sweet job.” * With the actor who played the hunky Marlboro Man dead from lung cancer, the tobacco industry had to rethink its marketing approach to men. The idea that tobacco makes men strong and sexually attractive had to be retained, however. For a 2008 campaign — for Skoal smokeless tobacco — marketers teamed up with Playboy magazine and invited guys to vote for one of a dozen Skoal models. The Skoal slogan: “Welcome to the Brotherhood.” * Free cigarettes and other tobacco products continue to be distributed to our soldiers stationed overseas. . . . * Although the tobacco industry claims that it stopped paying to place its products in movies back in the 1980s, an astonishing number of youth-rated films feature smoking. In fact, a study by the National Cancer Institute found that as late as 2002, 74 percent of all movies depicted smoking (a greater percentage of films than in 1950). Another study found that there was more smoking going on in G, PG, and PG-13 movies that year than in adult-rated ones. MinnPost.com Thu, 11 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.wcpn.org/WCPN/news/29255/ http://tobacco.org/news/295319.html A chilling statistic about local teen smoking is the reason for a new program that's being rolled out across Ohio Wednesday, starting in Cleveland. Ideastream®'s Rick Jackson reports. Nationally, about 25% of High School aged kids smoke. The figure is a bit lower in Ohio, where 19 percent of High School students use cigarettes. But there's a pocket of teens much more likely to light up. Surveys show that Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender youth have smoking rates about "60% higher" than their straight peers. And in Cleveland, the percentage of gay and lesbian smokers is considerably higher. That's what's behind a new campaign being waged by the Ohio Department of Health, targeting LGBT teens with specific anti-smoking messages. The new program, called Butt-Out, will be administered through local organizations like the Metro Pride Clinic, PFLAG, and others that have experience working with Lesbian-Gay youth. WCPN 90.3 NPR Tue, 12 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/ohio-hopes-to-stop-smoking-by-gay-youth-others-487379.html http://tobacco.org/news/295198.html Ohio is beginning a pilot project in northeast Ohio aimed at preventing tobacco use by the state's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth. Ohio health officials say the Centers for Disease Control estimates the rate of tobacco use among that youth demographic is 60 percent higher than in the general youth population. Dayton Daily News Mon, 11 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.sfbaytimes.com/index.php?sec=article&article_id=11877 http://tobacco.org/news/292993.html “BUTT OUT! Ending Tobacco Industry Exploitation of the LGBT Community” will mark the Gay American Smokeout by staging a public spectacle to draw attention to the impact of Big Tobacco on the LGBT community, on Nov. 19 from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Harvey Milk Plaza. BUTT OUT!, a local LGBT advocacy group that works against the tobacco companies, and dozens of local concerned citizens dressed in black and wearing skull makeup to represent those who have died from tobacco, will chase out of the Castro the tobacco company’s proxy, the Grim Reaper, standing close to 10-feet tall while wielding a three-foot cigarette. State Senator Mark Leno, who has pledged to refuse campaign donations from tobacco companies, will be speaking at the event. San Francisco Bay Times Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.outintulsa.com/home/news.asp?articleid=33699 http://tobacco.org/news/292484.html The University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) will host an event for the 34th Annual Great American Smokeout on November 17, 2009. The event will be in the Pegasus Theatre in the Liberal Arts building from 8:00 PM to 9:30 PM. The Great American Smokeout is a day to encourage smokers to quit as well as inform them of tools offered to help them quit. The event on UCO's campus will include watching a section of the movie "Scene Smoking" with discussion and questions to follow. There will be booths available outside the theatre with resources and tools to help people quit smoking, as well as information on other tobacco related topics. One of the booths at the event will focus on the tobacco industry marketing towards college-age adults. This is an ideal group for the tobacco industry to target because they are of legal age to smoke, yet they are vulnerable to being influenced because they are exploring new freedom living away from home. These young adults also have a desire to fit in to their new environment and the tobacco industry works to make it appear that the norm on campus is to be a smoker. Tobacco companies help make smoking "cool" by sponsoring fraternity and sorority events, bar nights, concerts, as well as other events that appeal to this age group. They give out free gifts and free cigarettes, and also host popular concerts. Tobacco companies hire attractive individuals to attend these events to ask these students to let them scan their driver's license to enter them in a drawing or in exchange for a free gift. They use the information that was scanned to begin sending direct marketing to the student in the form of coupons and cigarette offers. These and other techniques for marketing will be shared at the Great American Smokeout event. Out in America Cities Network Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.healthday.com/Article.asp?AID=631409 http://tobacco.org/news/290548.html Workplace wellness programs are an effective way to reduce major risk factors for heart disease, such as smoking, obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes, says a new American Heart Association policy statement. Each year, heart disease costs the United States about $304.6 billion, the association says. Companies spend 25 to 30 percent of their annual medical costs on employees with significant health risks, mainly because of their increased likelihood of experiencing heart disease and stroke, it says. But the financial burden also falls on workers, it says, in the form of higher premiums, co-pays and deductibles, reduction or elimination of coverage and trade-offs between insurance benefits and wage or salary increases. . . . Keys to a successful program, according to the policy statement, include: * Smoking/tobacco cessation and prevention * Regular physical activity HealthDay [HealthScout] Wed, 30 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=37604 http://tobacco.org/news/289965.html Affirmations has partnered with Tobacco Free Michigan to establish a statewide coalition of LGBT and ally organizations that will focus on statewide tobacco use and secondhand smoke in the LGBT community. Tobacco Free Michigan is a network of more than 200 organizations aimed at reducing the harmful effects of tobacco use and second hand smoke in the state of Michigan. It is funded by the Michigan Department of Community Health. Affirmations is metro Detroit's LGBT community center, located in Ferndale. It offers programming, workshops and fun events for local LGBTs and allies. Pride Source Media Group editor@pridesource.com Thu, 17 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/9/317/abstract http://tobacco.org/news/289427.html Conclusions LBW appear to use alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs at higher rates than women generally, indicating that mainstream health promotion messages are not reaching this group or are not perceived as relevant. There is an urgent need for public health practitioners working in the area of substance use to recognise that LBW drug consumption and use patterns are likely to be different to the wider population and that special considerations and strategies are required to address the unique and complex needs of this population. BioMed Central Australia Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://broughton.ca/bob-broughtons-blog-mainmenu-26/67?task=view http://tobacco.org/news/288429.html At this year's US Open tennis tournament, the National Tennis Center on Long Island, New York was renamed to Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. I think that this is totally inappropriate, and not just because it waters down the recognition extended to the late Arthur Ashe when the stadium on the same site was named after him. And no, I'm not sorry for being a party-pooper. "The Philip Morris executives I know... are enlightened people who understand and acknowledge the possible hazards of smoking." Billie Jean King, December 2,1993 King was a member of the Philip Morris (renamed to Altria) board of directors from 1999 through 2003. . . . Philip Morris/Altria's record on this sort of thing is mixed. They certainly like to sell cigarettes to women and gays. However, they have a lot of friends in Washington. (If they didn't, they would have been legislated out of business years ago.) One of these friends was Jesse Helms, a senator from North Carolina who used the Senate floor to say all sorts of unkind things about the “homosexual lifestyle”, and even introduced legislation to prohibit the use of Federal money to combat anti-gay discrimination. Philip Morris did more than contribute several million dollars to Helms' re-election campaigns (thus effectively paying for his microphone); they even gave $200,000 to a dubious charity, the Jesse Helms Citizenship Center. (See From adversary to target market, from the British Medical Journal.) Bob Broughton's Site Canada Thu, 14 Sep 2006 04:00:00 GMT http://www.stoppingthehate.com/News-Article16805_Fire_Safe_Cigarettes_Whats_Making_People_Sick_By_Meghan_Chavalier.htm http://tobacco.org/news/288243.html I began coughing about a week after the great cigarette switch. I thought I had lung cancer until I started talking to other smokers, and then talking to owners of cigarette stores. 100% of smokers I talked to are experiencing the same problems I am. Young or old, they all have the same chronic cough that just doesn't seem to go away. I want to know what is in the new paper that is causing this reaction in so many people in the 21 states where fire safe cigarettes are now sold? What isn't the government telling us about these new cigarettes that we need to know? . . . Smokers were always told not to re-light a cigarette once it's gone out completely because the chemicals are much harsher than they were when you first lit your cigarette. Now, the government is telling us that if you're cigarette goes out it's okay to light it back up and keep smoking? Something is rotten, and I intend to find out what it is. Now, before you get into your email and start writing me letters saying this has nothing to do with the LGBT Community, I just want to tell you, that many people in the LGBT Community are smokers and I'm sure they have the same questions I am having about fire safe cigarettes. . . . Also, if you are one of the many people experiencing illness after smoking the new fire safe cigarettes please share your story with our readers by emailing the address above. Stopping The Hate administrator@stoppingthehate.com (Meghan Chavalier) Fri, 07 Aug 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/booster_shots/2009/07/gays-lesbians-smoking-study-.html http://tobacco.org/news/287765.html Among homosexuals: 37% of women smoke; 33% of men smoke. Among heterosexuals: 18% of women smoke; 24% of men smoke These figures come from researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Published in the August issue of Tobacco Control, they're based on a review of 42 studies about tobacco use among sexual minorities. (The heterosexual numbers are from the National Health Interview Survey.) It's not that the finding that gays and lesbians are more likely to smoke is new. According to the summary of an earlier report from the CDC, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine in 2001: Los Angeles Times blogs Fri, 24 Jul 2009 04:00:00 GMT