Quotes
Latest quotables from tobacco newsTo be brutally frank Mr Speaker, I’d like to lynch these #$^&** tobacco company executives.
— Hone Harawira, MP for Te Tai Tokerau. Tobacco companies seem to have roused New Zealand's famously war-like Maori. / Harawira: To Smoke or to Choke / Scoop (nz), Wednesday, September 23, 2009.
We do not advertise cigarettes in print right now and have not done that for a couple years, but Camel Snus is not a cigarette. This is a different product, and if ultimately you want your adult tobacco consumers to be aware of the product and its attributes, clearly you have to advertise.
— David Howard, an R. J. Reynolds spokesman.
/ A Different Camel Is Back in the Glossies / New York Times, Tuesday, September 22, 2009.
Camel clearly is not marketing snus as a replacement product -- it's a complementary product. [With dual use] you have two forms of nicotine addiction, and if that's the future, then we have a real problem, because that's going to be very difficult to treat.
— Gregory N. Connolly, a professor and tobacco researcher at the Harvard School of Public Health, on "dual users." / A Different Camel Is Back in the Glossies / New York Times, Tuesday, September 22, 2009.
Yet another first for Ryanair – now it’s also the smokers’ favourite airline.
— Similar Smokeless Cigarettes Director Chris Parsons. / Ryanair to allow passengers to 'smoke' onboard with Similar Smokeless Cigarettes / Ryanair, Sunday, September 20, 2009.
As these cigarettes are smokeless they cause no discomfort to other passengers and can ensure a more enjoyable and stress-free flight for all passengers, as non-smokers will no longer have to cope with moody smokers in need of nicotine.
— Stephen McNamara, spokesman for Ryanair, which will begin selling the new "Similar Smokeless Cigarettes" on its flights. / Ryanair to introduce smokeless 'cigarettes' / Irish Times (ie), Monday, September 21, 2009.
[Tobacco] is so hurtful and dangerous to youth that it might have the pernicious nature expressed in the name, and that it were as well known by the name of Youths-bane as by the name of tobacco.
— Recently-found letter by Dr Eleazar Duncon which was published in Scotland in 1606. / Tobacco warning from 17th Century / BBC Online, Saturday, September 19, 2009.
I smoked because Betty Davis said it was very glamorous. I smoked because it was seen everywhere and done everywhere. I got addicted because the tobacco companies add additives to their tobacco to make it more addictive. I'm damned mad at all of them.
— TV star Kathryn Joosten. / 'Desperate Housewives' actress Kathryn Joosten diagnosed with recurrence of lung cancer / Los Angeles Times blogs, Monday, September 14, 2009.
Forget conventional PR! If some bratty journalist gives you a whack, whack back with obscene, jaw dropping disproportion: knee him in the groin, pull what's left of his hair out, tell him he writes in clichés, and misuses the semicolon, and stomp on his iPhone! . . . For the tough cases, go Dada. . . . Defending the brand means exacting respect and that will come from fear not charm.
— Trevor Butterworth, editor of STATS, who combs the Internet for stories that raise concern about BPA, even on the most obscure blogs, and chastises those who claim BPA can be harmful.
According to a stellar series of Journal-Sentinel articles, secret tobacco documents reveal that STATS' parent organization is the Center for Media and Public Affairs--paid for in the 1990s by Philip Morris to pick apart stories critical of smoking.
Even today, tobacco-related message boards across the country seem vulnerable to this and other techniques that may be deployed by tobacco companies and/or their hirees in this, the new world of Internet PR. / 'Watchdog' advocates for BPA / Milwaukee (WI) Journal-Sentinel, Saturday, August 22, 2009.
After hearing weeks of improper arguments and evidence that violated state and federal law on punitive damages, the jury still managed to reject plaintiff's patently unreasonable request. Even so, we believe that any punitive damages award is unwarranted based on the facts in this case and that this award is unconstitutionally excessive.
— Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services senior vice president, speaking on behalf of Philip Morris, on the $13.8 M Bullock judgment. / Jury awards punitive damages to smoker's daughter / AP, Monday, August 24, 2009.
Some of us looked at it as an opportunity to deter this behavior. I don't find $13.8 million to be much of a deterrent.
— Matt Reed, 37, of Burbank one of the three dissenting Bullock jurors, who believed Philip Morris should pay a higher amount than the verdict. / Jury awards punitive damages to smoker's daughter / AP, Monday, August 24, 2009.
The combination of direct health threats from smoking coupled with the potential loss of [food] consumption among children linked to tobacco expenditure presents a development challenge of the highest order.
— Steven A. Block and Patrick Webb. Up in Smoke: Tobacco Use, Expenditure on Food, and Child Malnutrition in Developing Countries. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 58:1. (October 2009) / Smoking May Worsen Malnutrition In Developing Nations / ScienceDaily, Monday, August 24, 2009.
[Clove-flavored cigars] are the size of 100-type cigarettes, with a filter, but it's cigar tobacco instead of cigarette tobacco. They're cheaper per cigar than the cigarettes were, because they are taxed at the cheaper cigar rate. So it's actually become cheaper to smoke cloves.
— Jason Ballou, co-owner of Main Street Tobacco in Kansas City, MO, on the FDA ban on clove cigarettes--but not clove cigars. / Smoke 'em if you got 'em: Ban on clove and flavored cigs is coming / The Pitch Weekly (Kansas City, MO), Monday, August 17, 2009.
Just because there's a new technology, why would you make nicotine available to young people when you don't normally?
— CA State Sen. Ellen Corbett, who has introduced Senate Bill 400 to allow only adults to purchase e-cigarettes. / California lawmaker seeks adults-only restriction on smokeless 'cigarettes' / Sacramento (CA) Bee, Friday, August 14, 2009.
I just think it's common sense that you don't want kids hooked on nicotine.
— Matt Salmon, a former Arizona congressman who runs the Electronic Cigarette Association, representing about a dozen e-cig firms. / California lawmaker seeks adults-only restriction on smokeless 'cigarettes' / Sacramento (CA) Bee, Friday, August 14, 2009.
We want Saddam back. You could do anything during Saddam's time.
— Tobacco store patron Ala al-Kanini, on Iraq's proposed smoking ban. / Nicotine-Loving Iraqis Deride Smoking-Ban Plan / The Washington Post, Friday, August 7, 2009.
When I began smoking, about 80 percent of men were smokers. The advertising phrase was, 'You're healthy when a cigarette tastes so good.'
— Masanobu Mizuno, one of the plaintiffs in the 4 1/2 year old suit against Japan Tobacco. Arguments have concluded; a decision is due by Jan. 20, 2010.
/ Japan's tobacco habit runs into court challenge / AP, Thursday, July 30, 2009.
We are a military police force. The escorting of cigarettes is not a military function. It never should have been.
— Col. Daniele Benvenuti, head of the Gruppo Carabinieri Southern European Task Force, which has stopped escorting cigarette shipments from Italian ports to US military bases. / Involuntary cold turkey: Tobacco in short supply at bases in Italy / Stars & Stripes, Friday, July 31, 2009.
I'm deeply saddened that the first smoking-ban murder occurred in our town. They either shouldn't have outlawed smoking or they should have outlawed alcohol along with smoking.
— Saruhanli, Turkey, Mayor Veli Yalcin. / Turkey reports first "smoking-ban murder" / Yahoo! New Zealand News, Friday, July 31, 2009.
This company has never asked me to do one thing that would be contrary to the health, safety or welfare of the people of Utah or my religion.
— Utah Altria lobbyist Sue Ferry. / Lobbyists told to pick one: Intermountain Healthcare or tobacco companies / Salt Lake Tribune, Thursday, July 30, 2009.
Any effect of ST [Smokeless Tobacco] may relate mainly to products used in the past in the USA.
— Somehow, tobacco consultant PN Lee finds that smokeless tobacco cancer risk in the US exists just for products used _before_ Philip Morris got into the smokeless market. / Systematic review of the relation between smokeless tobacco and cancer in Europe and North America (PDF) / BioMed Central (uk), Wednesday, July 29, 2009.
I'm no cowboy and I don't ride horseback, but I like to think I have the freedom the Marlboro man exemplifies. He's the man who doesn't punch a clock. He's not computerized. He's a free spirit.
— George Weissman, who helped transform Philip Morris from a midlevel tobacco company to a diversified conglomerate known for contributions to the arts, and who then led Lincoln Center for nearly a decade. / George Weissman, Leader at Philip Morris and in Arts, Dies at 90 / New York Times, Tuesday, July 28, 2009.
We wanted to demonstrate to our own employees that we were an open-minded company seeking creativity in all aspects of our business. And we were determined to do this by sponsoring things that made a difference, that were really dangerous.
— Former Philip Morris exec George Weissman, on the company's extensive arts donations. / George Weissman, Leader at Philip Morris and in Arts, Dies at 90 / New York Times, Tuesday, July 28, 2009.
Goddammit! I'm an addict!
— Dr. Howard A. Engle, the veteran Miami Beach pediatrician who lent his name to the landmark class action suit, in 2006. The revered pediatrician died Wednesday at 89. / Pediatrician led anti-tobacco lawsuit / Miami (FL) Herald, Friday, July 24, 2009.
What's Love Got to Do With It?
— Australian study that found that relationships in which one partner smoked and the other didn't saw their risk of separation shoot to more than 75 percent of those in which neither partner smoked. / Looking for love? Australian study suggests finding a partner who shares your smoking habits / AP, Wednesday, July 15, 2009.