Quotes
Latest quotables from tobacco newsThe law aims to protect citizens from the danger of tobacco and reduce the number of smokers by taking measures to combat this plague.
— Law passed by the Iraqi parliament on Thursday that bans smoking in gov. offices, hotels, restaurants and other indoor gathering places. / Iraq parliament bans smoking in public / Agence France Presse (AFP) (fr), Thursday, February 2, 2012.
When it was all over, I was relieved. Yet when I got home that final day, I sat down and cried for four hours straight. At first I thought it was just the release of stress, but now I'm not so sure. I know I cried for the lady who died, and for her children and grandchildren . . .
I also cried for all the mothers and dads around the world who still smoke and want to quit . . .
I also cried for my own brother who has smoked all his life and now suffers from severe heart disease, COPD, and recurring pneumonia. . . .
Finally, I cried for the tobacco company executives and scientists, and their lawyers, who continue to make a lucrative living off the pain, suffering, and death of their fellow Americans. There is no justification for such callous, mercenary selfishness.
Shame on them all.
— Hallgren juror Joyce Minor. / MINOR: Cigarette, anyone? Think twice / Tampa Bay (FL) Online (TBO.com), Sunday, January 29, 2012.
It's like walking into a crime scene.
— Dr. Farrah Kheradmand, professor of medicine and immunology at BCM and a senior author of the report that tracks the destructive path of tobacco smoke through the body's tissues, as it activates genes and changes immune cells to create inflammation that results in emphysema. / Mapping the destructive path from cigarette to emphysema / EurekAlert, Wednesday, January 18, 2012.
Smoking breaks cost employers money, and they hinder the working process.
— Mario Ohoven, President of the German Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (BVMW). / German employers split over campaign to ban smoking breaks / DW World (Deutsche Welle) (de), Saturday, January 14, 2012.
But banning all smoking breaks during working hours in general would be a step toward a dictatorship of non-smokers.
— Karl Lauterbach, a senior opposition Social Democrat health expert. / German employers split over campaign to ban smoking breaks / DW World (Deutsche Welle) (de), Saturday, January 14, 2012.
If you want to live longer and healthier than the average American, then come to New York City.
— NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. / MAYOR BLOOMBERG, DEPUTY MAYOR GIBBS, HEALTH COMMISSIONER FARLEY ANNOUNCE NEW YORKERS LIVING LONGER THAN EVER, OUTPACING NATIONAL TREND / New York City: NYC.gov, Tuesday, December 27, 2011.
We would again like to state that there is no biological proof that smoking is causally related to the diseases and conditions claimed to be statistically associated with smoking ... no proof that the tar and nicotine levels in smoke are significant in relation to health.
— 1967 Philip Morris statement made on behalf of the Board of Directors"--including soon-to-be-Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell. / The Real History of 'Corporate Personhood': Meet the Man to Blame for Corporations Having More Rights Than You / AlterNet.org, Tuesday, December 6, 2011.
Plaintiffs have demonstrated a substantial likelihood that they will prevail on the merits of their position that these mandatory graphic images unconstitutionally compel speech.
— U.S. District Court Judge Richard Leon, who granted tobacco companies' request for a preliminary injunction blocking implementation of FDA warning labels. / ANA Applauds Court Decision Enjoining FDA’s Graphic Warnings Rule for Tobacco Products / Association of National Advertisers, Monday, November 7, 2011.
Over forty years' experience with small, obscurely placed text-only warning labels on cigarette packs has demonstrated that they simply do not work. The warning labels reflect the unique magnitude of the problem they address, the deadly and addictive nature of the product, and the unparalleled threat this product and its marketing pose to America's youth.
— 24 attorneys general, in a friend of the court brief on Friday in the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington in support of the FDA's challenge of a lower court ruling in the case.
/ Several US states weigh in on cigarette label suit / Associated Press (AP), Saturday, December 24, 2011.
Tobacco is the only industry that produces products to make huge profits and at the same time damage the health and kill their consumers. How can we as an international community allow big tobacco to harass countries?
— WHO Director-General Margaret Chan at a public health meeting in Geneva.
/ WHO chief slams tobacco firms that ‘harass’ governments to prevent anti-smoking measures / Associated Press (AP), Wednesday, November 23, 2011.
This agreement helps make sure that these documents will be accessible to researchers, journalists, students, lawyers, the government and the public at large — anyone who is interested in learning more about the defendants' efforts to mislead consumers about the effects of smoking.
— Tony West, assistant attorney general for the civil division of the Department of Justice, on the agreement for UCSF to manage the secret document online database. / Justice Dept settles with tobacco cos on database / Associated Press (AP), Wednesday, December 14, 2011.
This book is a remarkable compendium of evil. It will keep you spinning from page one through the last. … It is the type of book that makes you wonder how, in God's name, this could have happened.
— Columbia's David Rosner, on Robert Proctor's new book, the bombshell, "Golden Holocaust: Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for Abolition." / Tobacco industry dying? Not so fast, says Stanford expert / Stanford Law & Policy Review, Monday, December 12, 2011.
[Smoke detectors] did not go off on Friday as some doctors and hospital staffers, during their night duty on Thursday, turned off the main switch connecting all smoke alarms so that they could light up indoors.
— Unidentified investigator of the Kolkata hospital fire that killed 93. / Smokers turned off detectors at AMRI hospital / Hindustan Times, Monday, December 12, 2011.
This decision is grossly unfair and contrary to the language and spirit of the Master Settlement Agreement.
— Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services senior vice president and associate general counsel, speaking for Philip Morris USA on the OR Supreme Court decision requiring PMUSA to pay the state 60% of a $79.5 million punitive damages award plus interest in the 14-year-old Williams case. / Oregon Supreme Court Overturns Lower Court’s Decision in Long-Running Williams Case / Business Wire, Friday, December 2, 2011.
Let there be no mistake, big tobacco is fighting against the government for one very simple reason - because it knows, as we do, that plain packaging will work. While it is fighting to protect its profits, we are fighting to protect lives
— Australian Health minister Nicola Roxon, in a statement on BAT's lawsuit. / Big tobacco launches High Court challenge / AAP (Australian Associated Press) (au), Thursday, December 1, 2011.
We are left with no option. The Government has passed this legislation despite being unable to demonstrate that it will be effective at reducing smoking and has ignored the widespread concerns raised in Australia and internationally regarding the serious legal issues associated with plain packaging.
— Philip Morris Asia Limited (PMA) spokesperson Anne Edwards. / Philip Morris Asia Files Lawsuit Against the Australian Government Over Plain Packaging / Philip Morris International (ch), Monday, November 21, 2011.
Plain packaging means that the glamour is gone from smoking.
— Australia’s health minister, Nicola Roxon. / Australia stubs out tobacco packaging / Financial Times (uk), Monday, November 21, 2011.
The fact is, quitting smoking is hard," he says. "Believe me, I know.
— US President Barack Obama, in a new White House web video on the Great American SMokeout. / Obama scolds tobacco firms for fighting new labels / Associated Press (AP), Thursday, November 17, 2011.
Appropriating the top 50% of the front and back of all cigarette packages manufactured and distributed in the United States is hardly a directive narrowly designed to achieve the Government's purpose (whatever it might be). To the contrary, the dimensions alone strongly suggest that the Rule was designed to achieve the very objective articulated by the Secretary of Health and Human Services: to "rebrand our cigarette packs," treating "every single pack of cigarettes in our country" as a "mini-billboard." A "mini-billboard," indeed, for its obvious anti-smoking agenda!
— Some very odd verbiage in Judge Leon's FDA verdict. / LORILLARD v. FDA (PDF) / United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Monday, November 7, 2011.
While the line between the constitutionally permissible dissemination of factual information and the impermissible expropriation of a company’s advertising space for government advocacy can be frustratingly blurry, here -- where these emotion-provoking images are coupled with text extolling consumers to call the phone number ‘1-800-QUIT’ -- the line seems quite clear.
— U.S. District Judge Richard Leon, in his ruling Monday on FDA's warning labels. / Tobacco Health-Warning Labels Blocked by U.S. Judge on Free-Speech Grounds / Bloomberg News, Monday, November 7, 2011.
Look at the power of the cigarette . . . Remember this face and that smoking killed me.
— Barb Tarbox quote, accompanying a near-death picture of her, on one of Canada's new warning labels. / Warnings on cigarette packs getting bigger, more graphic / Toronto (Ont) Star (ca), Friday, October 28, 2011.
Young people of America, all people, do not smoke. It is hazardous and it's dangerous to your health. Don't smoke. I've never smoked and I have encouraged people not to smoke.
— Republican presidential hopeful Herman Cain, to Bob Schieffer on
CBS' "Face the Nation." / Cain defends ad with smoking campaign manager / Associated Press (AP), Sunday, October 30, 2011.
Plant operations are no longer viable [in Uruguay] because of the broad availability and presence of illegal products in the market, combined with a reduction in demand and fiscal and regulatory measures that limit our capacity to commercialize our products profitably.
— Philip Morris' Abal Hermanos local unit, in a statement. / Philip Morris says closes plant in Uruguay amid lawsuit / Reuters, Friday, October 21, 2011.
He is a wonderful speaker, and would be an effective and charismatic candidate. He is also good on our issues. . . .
Bottom line: Herman Cain is certain, in one form or another, to be a political factor for a number of years to come. We have a good relationship with him, and that will certainly be to our benefit.
— 1999 RJR memo on then-National Restaurant Association President and COO (and current presidential candidate) Herman Cain. / N. R. A. BOARD MEETING / Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, Friday, January 22, 1999.
[Cytisine] is so cheap that even in developing countries, if you can afford to smoke, you can afford to stop.
— Robert West of University College London, who led the study published in today's NEJM of a pill developed in Bulgaria during the Soviet era. / Smokers' aid faces hurdle / Winston-Salem (NC) Journal, Thursday, September 29, 2011.