Quotes
Latest quotables from tobacco newsFor the average smoker, those under-the-table, tax-free packs might seem like a bargain. But as the recent history of cigarette smuggling vividly illustrates, when you buy black-market smokes, you never know whose paycheck you're signing.
— Text from yet another trenchant, well-researched and well-written article on cigarette smuggling, this time from a small South Florida paper. The big mainstream media orgs are getting drubbed on this subject. / South Florida Cigarette Smuggling Funds Terrorism / Broward-Palm Beach (FL) New Times, Thursday, July 2, 2009.
In the end, we will join the ranks of civilised nations. What are we, the idiots of Europe?
— Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, on Greece's smoking ban. / Greece fires up anti-smoking ban amid confusion / Agence France Presse (AFP) (fr), Wednesday, July 1, 2009.
These troops are essentially putting their lives at risk twice: once in service to their country and once in service to tobacco. Tobacco is a long-term engagement — it kills slowly and insidiously.
— Stuart Bondurant, chair of the Committee on Smoking Cessation in Military and Veteran Populations, on the IOM report that found about half of smoking US troops returning from Iraq or Afghanistan will eventually die from a smoking-related illness. / Health officials to military: Ban smoking / Navy Times, Tuesday, June 30, 2009.
All litter creates unnecessary costs for the city and its taxpayers. Cigarette butts are a big part of the problem.
— San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, whose plan to levy a unique fee on cigarettes to help pay for the city's cleanup of discarded butts received backing from a Board of Supervisors committee Monday.
/ SF Supes Committee Approves Cigarette Fee / cbs 5 (San Francisco, CA), Monday, June 29, 2009.
We locals would like to see Yunxiao start its own legal cigarette factory someday.
— Unidentified cigarette broker, in an unprecedented look into the multi-billion $ counterfeit trade in China's Yunxiao county. / The strange, underground world of Chinese counterfeit cigarettes / Slate, Monday, June 29, 2009.
While the tobacco industry spends billions of dollars every year to glamorize smoking, we will show New Yorkers the harsh realities. These warning signs will help persuade smokers to quit and show children why they shouldn't start smoking.
— NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley, on the Board of Health proposal to put graphic anti-smoking warnings wherever tobacco products are sold. / Public Opinion Sought For New Anti-Smoking Measure / WPIX-TV (New York, NY), Thursday, June 25, 2009.
I don't know what to tell you, other than the fact that, like folks who go to AA, once you've gone down this path, then it's something you continually struggle with, which is precisely why the legislation we signed was so important, because what we don't want is kids going down that path in the first place. Okay?
— President Barack Obama, on his smoking. / Press Conference by the President, 6-23-09 / The White House, Tuesday, June 23, 2009.
I would say that I am 95 percent cured.
— President Barack Obama, measuring with a cessation yardstick no one's ever heard of. / Press Conference by the President, 6-23-09 / The White House, Tuesday, June 23, 2009.
It's hard to know for sure, because everyone at the White House acts like a kid caught smoking when the subject comes up, but it appears that Obama is the first president in decades to smoke cigarettes while in office.
— A risible sense of irony suffuses this WP item on Obama's smoking. / Obama and The Burning Question / The Washington Post, Tuesday, June 23, 2009.
When Henry Waxman opened that first hearing back in '94 on tobacco with the industry CEOs, he began by quoting an ancient proverb: 'A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.'
— President Barack Obama. / REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT AT THE SIGNING OF THE FAMILY SMOKING PREVENTION AND TOBACCO CONTROL ACT / The White House, Monday, June 22, 2009.
The precise reasons for Americans' lack of support for anti-smoking policies are unclear. However, it may be that Americans place a higher value on allowing people the freedom to choose to smoke over the public health benefits that would come from reducing smoking even further.
— Gallup seems to have fully absorbed the tobacco industry's 50-year "choice" mantra. / Majority Disapproves of New Law Regulating Tobacco / Gallup Organization, Monday, June 22, 2009.
The decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of smoking has finally emerged victorious. . . .
I know — I was one of these teenagers. I know how difficult it is to break this habit.
— President Barack Obama, as he signed the FDA bill Monday during a Rose Garden signing ceremony. / Obama signs anti-smoking bill, cites own struggle / AP, Monday, June 22, 2009.
Many have fought against regulation and continue to resist the changes it will bring, claiming some companies will gain a unique competitive advantage from this legislation. To the contrary, the legislation establishes a level playing field for all industry players.
— Philip Morris exec Martin J. Barrington offers more of the company's traditional straight-talk, this time on the FDA bill. / BARRINGTON: Tobacco Regulation Benefits Industry, Consumers, and the Public / Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch, Sunday, June 21, 2009.
— Email exchange last week between former Philip Morris exec Steve Parrish and former FDA commisioner Dr. David Kessler. / Talking Business - A Few Men Helped Usher a Shift in Tobacco Policy / New York Times, Saturday, June 20, 2009.
Harm reduction, particularly when it comes to tobacco products, is an
important public health issue. If harm reduction products
are to be pursued and be effective, we need to look at how best to regulate
this new category in a way that makes people aware of their choices and
accurately reflects the risk reduction potential and the remaining health
risks. To do so we need the input of all stakeholders such as the government
and the scientific community.
— Benjamin Kemball, president and CEO of Imperial Tobacco
Canada, which has announced that Ottawa will be the site of the
Company's next test market for its snus
product. / Imperial Tobacco Canada expands harm reduction program with start of SNUS test market in Ottawa / Canada Newswire (CNW) (ca), Thursday, January 24, 2008.
The health risks associated with smoking tobacco products are wellunderstood, the prices are high and restrictions are strict, yet about five million adults in Canada smoke. Imperial Tobacco Canada believes that it is the right thing to provide people products that are potentially less harmful
than smoking.
— Benjamin Kemball, president and CEO of Imperial Tobacco
Canada, which has announced that Ottawa will be the site of the
Company's next test market for its snus product. / Imperial Tobacco Canada expands harm reduction program with start of SNUS test market in Ottawa / Canada Newswire (CNW) (ca), Thursday, January 24, 2008.
We are pleased to have resolved this issue. Today's events give our
business the stability it needs to move forward to address, with clarity and
focus, the issues, opportunities and challenges it faces today and will face
in the future.
— Benjamin Kemball, president and CEO of Imperial Tobacco Canada, on its settlement of smuggling charges. / Imperial Tobacco Canada, federal government and provinces reach resolution on contraband tobacco investigation / Canada Newswire (CNW) (ca), Thursday, July 31, 2008.
These devices [e-cigs] combine the appeal of an iPod with that of candy cigarettes. But they also have the potential to create a life-long addiction to nicotine. They’re just too dangerous to be left unrestricted.
— Suffolk County (NY) Legislative Majority Leader Jon Cooper (D-Lloyd Harbor) whose bile would prohibit the sale of e-cigs to anyone under the age of 19. and place the same public usage restrictions on e-cigs that are already in effect for traditional forms of smoking. If enacted it would be the nation's first such legislation. / PERILLIE: Legislator takes aim at electronic cigarettes / (Long Island, NY) Newsday, Tuesday, June 16, 2009.
We've stayed away from it [the e-cig] because it doesn't have the (FDA) approval. We have no idea what it is. It's a cartridge filled with whatever they tell you.
— Joseph Allen, general manager of the "Puff N Stuff" in Columbus, OH. / The controversy over e-cigarettes / Columbus (OH) Dispatch, Saturday, June 13, 2009.
[Ashley Greene and Nikki Reed] know they are role models for little kids. If there are a ton of paparazzi photos of them smoking, that’s not a positive image.
— Unnamed insider on why the tween-fave "Twilight" stars are trying (if in a weird way) to quit smoking. Maybe there really is a sea change going on. . . / Ashley Greene and Nikki Reed Quit… Smoking / ShowBiz Spy (uk), Friday, June 12, 2009.
As a result of these negative developments, the ratings on both domestic tobacco companies, Altria and Reynolds American, were lowered to a Sell.
— Zacks. When was the last time there was a sell rating on tobacco stocks? / Zacks Industry Outlook Highlights: Altria and Reynolds American / Business Wire, Friday, June 12, 2009.
Counterintuitively, a reduction in smoking might add to the government’s costs in many cases by enabling some people to live longer and to incur health care costs over longer periods. In those cases, government spending for Social Security, Medicare, and other retirement and mandatory spending programs, would increase.
— CBO Director Douglas W. Elmendorf, in his blog on the FDA bill. / Director’s Blog: H.R. 1256, the Family Smoking and Tobacco Control Act / Congressional Budget Office (CBO), Friday, June 12, 2009.
[H]opefully too this will mark a new beginning for lung cancer research and early detection. Already over half of new cases are being diagnosed in former smokers and another 15% have never smoked at all. We have to stop blaming and start addressing the disease of lung cancer in its entirety. I believe that President Obama understands this and will start moving public health policy in this direction.
— Lung Cancer Alliance President Laurie Fenton Ambrose, on the FDA bill. / Lung Cancer Alliance Issues Statement on FDA Tobacco Regulation Bill / PR Newswire, Friday, June 12, 2009.
States can reduce death and disease by reducing smoking prevalence. It's that simple.
— Gary G. Giovino, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Health Behavior in the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions and principal investigator on the RWJ report. / Major Report on U.S. Tobacco Control Policies and Use Finds Stark Contrasts in Progress Among States / University of Buffalo, Wednesday, June 10, 2009.
[T]his kids tobacco bill would be the fourth piece of bipartisan legislation that I've signed into law over the last month that protects the American consumer, and changes the way Washington works and who Washington works for.
— President Obama, on House passage of the FDA bill. / Remarks on Passage of Kids Tobacco Legislation, an Answer on Iranian Elections / The White House, Friday, June 12, 2009.