Tobacco.org

• Vt. suit against tobacco company resumes today 

After a two-month break, trial resumes today in a lawsuit in which the state of Vermont charges that R.J. Reynolds claimed a new cigarette was safer for smokers without scientific data to back the claim.

Vermont, which is suing the tobacco company for itself and 35 other states, has taken aim at Reynolds' marketing statements that say its Eclipse cigarettes, which heat rather than burn tobacco, are safer than regular cigarettes.

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• Judge tosses suit challenging tobacco settlement 

A federal judge has dismissed a challenge to the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement between the states and 19 tobacco product makers saying there's no legal basis for attacking the compact.

U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman ruled Tuesday that the lawsuit, brought by General Tobacco, failed on all fronts because the company couldn't prove the settlement amounted to either a conspiracy or anti-competitive behavior by the government. . . .

General Tobacco, the sixth-largest tobacco company in the U.S. and maker of GT-One brand cigarettes, sued 52 attorneys general and the tobacco makers, seeking more than $1 billion in damages. It also asked the court to stop states from penalizing the company for not making payments while the lawsuit was pending in U.S. District Court in Louisville.

The company argued that the Master Settlement Agreement between tobacco companies and states is more expensive for new entrants to the industry.

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• Skoal product placement in Playboy magazine 

Skoal—the manufacturers of “smokeless tobacco”—will have a 12-page section in Playboy’s 55th anniversary edition, which will be hitting magazine stands in January.

To bolster the campaign, Skoal selected playmate Kara Monaco and rodeo/football star Walt Garrison for the lead interviews in the company’s co-branded segment. Skoal, which is owned by US Smokeless Tobacco Co., also invited consumers to visit Skoalbrotherhood.com to present ideas as to what should appear in the special issue—including joke, models, etc.

The partnership marked Playboy’s first venture with a brand that produces user-generated content. It’s also the first time Playboy will produce additional issues for non-subscribers—those who participated in the “Skoal builds Playboy” promotion.

Skoal will also be presenting a promotion that will give web site visitors the chance to go in an all-expense-paid trip for four to Playboy’s VIP Players Pajama and Lingerie Party in March.

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Smokes alarm as fashion outlets targeted 

CIGARETTES are being sold at high-end Adelaide clothing stores and at least one hair salon, in a "tricky and desperate" tactic to lure new young smokers.

A Sunday Mail investigation has discovered smoke company Imperial Tobacco is lavishing trendy stores with cash incentives and corporate entertainment in return for stocking Peter Stuyvesant brand cigarettes in specially designed cigarette dispensers.

They sell from $9.95 to $11.70 for a pack of 20 cigarettes.

The tobacco giant's targeting of fashion-savvy outlets to push the trendy brand has prompted calls for a State Government crackdown to ban the practice.

Marketing kits distributed by the tobacco giant to fashion retailers describe cigarettes as being safe and fashionable: "It used to be extremely dangerous. Now the only danger is you're not the coolest cat on the block."

Quit SA and Independent Senator Nick Xenophon are appalled

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AP, Karnataka tobacco farmers told to regulate production 

Tobacco farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka should stick to the crop size fixed by the board and not grow surplus, even though they have been getting record prices for the past two seasons, according to Mr J. Suresh Babu, Chairman of the Tobacco Board.

At the Tobacco Board Formation Day celebrations here on Friday, he sounded the note of caution to farmers in both the principal tobacco-growing States.

He said the board had fixed the crop size at 170 million kg in Andhra Pradesh and 100 million kg in Karnataka and it would not be possible to revise it upwards anymore.

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Tobacco players back in action  

GUNTUR: Murky politics among the tobacco traders' lobby has brought the auctions in Karnataka to a grinding halt. Though the prices soared to an alarming level, the Tobacco Board did not intervene to avoid antagonising the farmers, averred highly-placed sources.

According to insiders in the board, a giant cigarette manufacturer has unleashed the price war on the Mysore floors with a view to cornering other competitors. "It is an open secret that the lead purchaser has kicked off the murky game to make the others either face huge losses by picking up stocks at high rates or run away from the scene," confirmed a senior board official here.

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SMOKIN'! How The American Tobacco Industry Employs PR Scum To Continue Its Murderous Assault On Human Lives 

Brill's analysis inspired Bernays to stage a legendary publicity event that is still taught as a model in PR schools. To sell cigarettes as a symbol of women's liberation, he hired beautiful women to march in New York's prominent Easter parade, each waving a lit cigarette and wearing a banner proclaiming it a "torch of liberty." Bernays made sure publicity photos of his smoking models appeared world-wide.

Decades of saturation cigarette advertising and promotion continued into the 1950s via billboards, magazines, movies, TV and radio. Thanks to Bernays and other early pioneers of public relations, cigarettes built a marketing juggernaut upon an unshakable identification with sex, youth, vitality and freedom. The work for the tobacco industry, in turn, earned PR widespread credibility and launched the rise of today's multi-billion dollar public relations industry.

The Truth Hurts

IN 1952, READER'S Digest ran an influential article titled "Cancer by the Carton." A 1953 report by Dr. Ernst L. Wynder heralded to the scientific community a definitive link between cigarette smoking and cancer. Over the next two years, dozens of articles appeared in The New York Times and other major public publications: Good Housekeeping, the New Yorker, Look, Woman's Home Companion. Sales of cigarettes went into an unusual, sudden decline.

The tobacco czars were in a panic. . . .

AT HILL'S SUGGESTION, the industry created a group called the Tobacco Institute Research Committee (TIRC), and ran a full-page ad, titled "A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers," in more than 400 newspapers. The ad acknowledged tobacco companies had a "special responsibility" to the public, and promised to sponsor "independent research" aimed at "learning the facts about smoking and health."

This pretense of honest concern from a respected figure worked its expected magic. Opinion research by Hill & Knowlton showed only 9 percent of the newspapers expressing opinions on the TIRC were unfavorable, whereas 65 percent were favorable without reservation. . . .

After all, as PR pro Kirk Hallahan recently observed, new technology has already made you superfluous. "Today, with many more options available, PR professionals are much less dependent upon mass media for publicity," Hallahan stated in the Summer 1994 Public Relations Quarterly. "In the decade ahead, the largest American corporations could underwrite entire, sponsored channels. Organizations such as Procter & Gamble might circumvent public media altogether and subsidize programming that combines promotional and otherwise conducive messages--news, Talk Shows, infomercials, or sponsored entertainment or sports.... Channel sponsors will be able reach coveted super-heavy users...with a highly tailored message over which they exert complete control."

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My Smokers Rights 

TAKE ACTION

--Have you wanted to contact your elected officials but didn't know how to go about it?

--Are you interested in protecting your hard-earned money from additional smoker taxes?

--Do you want to hear about smoking issues in your area?

--Are you tired of fighting the fight alone?

Well, step inside! Click Here to register on mysmokersright.com, and you'll have access to your own personalized page, with contact information for your state and federal representatives.

And we'll keep you informed of issues affecting smokers in your area.

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What to Expect from the Tobacco Industry  

This document is intended to provide you, the smokefree advocate, with a realistic overview of the strategies, tactics, and messages that are frequently used by the tobacco industry and its allies to oppose smokefree indoor air laws. This should provide you with more questions than answers, as there are more in-depth resources available from ANR and other organizations relating to the various topics covered herein.

By educating yourself and others about what to expect from the tobacco industry, you can more effectively anticipate and counter the misinformation and noise that will surface in your campaign for smokefree air. Inoculating policymakers, media, coalition members, and the public about what to expect will help them take Big Tobacco misinformation with a healthy grain of salt. . . .

Front groups are generally business coalitions or associations funded by the tobacco industry, which appear in opposition shortly after a proposed law becomes public knowledge. These groups approach the local business community, predicting dire consequences from enactment of the law, such as by citing undocumented figures of loss of business in cities that have already passed laws.

The groups often hold meetings with local businesses, encouraging them to organize against the proposed law and providing assistance, such as posting flyers, circulating petitions, and sponsoring mail-in postcard campaigns. Representatives may testify at public hearings, but more often will attend without speaking, avoiding lawmakers' questions about their local membership, length of existence, and funding sources.

These groups have names like "Committee to Preserve Property Rights" (in Montrose, CO); "Valley Business Owners Inc." (in Mesa, AZ); and "Citizens Against Government Interference" (in Texas). Search the ANR Foundation's Tobacco Industry Tracking Database(c) at www.tidatabase.org for possible relationships between the tobacco industry and a new front group in your community.

Advocates should carefully study local campaign laws and seek to shine the light on the funding of these groups and their connections to the tobacco industry.

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• Tobacco Industry Efforts to Undermine Policy-Relevant Research  

The tobacco industry, working through third parties to prevent policy-relevant research that adversely affected it between 1988 and 1998, used coordinated, well-funded strategies in repeated attempts to silence tobacco researcher Stanton A. Glantz. Tactics included advertising, litigation, and attempts to have the US Congress cut off the researcher's National Cancer Institute funding. Efforts like these can influence the policymaking process by silencing opposing voices and discouraging other scientists from doing work that may expose them to tobacco industry attacks. The support of highly credible public health organizations and of researchers' employers is crucial to the continued advancement of public health.

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• Bars take hit as noose tightens on smoking in public 

When Alberta's Tobacco Reduction Act kicked in last year, the new law transformed the province from a smoker's haven to a leader in limiting where people can smoke.

The legislation's final phase took effect Thursday. Stores that sell prescription drugs will no longer be allowed to sell cigarettes, unless they have gas bars, erected mall kiosks or created separate enclosed spaces for smoke sales.

Tobacco sales have also been outlawed at health-care facilities and post-secondary schools.

While many bars, bingos and casinos contend they've taken a significant financial hit because of the smoking ban, it's been business as usual at some restaurants.

Okotoks' In Cahoots Bar and Grill welcomed the provincial law forcing it and its competitors to go smoke-free, said manager Esther Vanderermeulen.

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• Electronic Clearing House, Inc., Agrees to Stop Enabling Online Tobacco Sales 

An electronic payments processor has agreed to stop handling transactions for the illegal online sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Attorney General Lawrence Wasden and the attorneys general of New York and California reached the settlement with Electronic Clearing House, Inc. (ECHO), of Los Angeles, California.

"Online tobacco retailers are a major source for young people to buy cigarettes illegally," Attorney General Wasden said. "Stopping the illegal sale of cigarettes, especially to minors, is a major step in protecting public health. ECHO has acted responsibly in agreeing to stop processing payments for these illegal sales, and we hope other companies and banks involved in online tobacco sales will follow their lead."

The three states began an investigation of ECHO following a lawsuit Wasden brought against Scott Maybee, one of the highest volume Internet cigarette sellers. Maybee was ordered to pay Idaho more than $160,000 for illegal Internet sales of millions of cigarettes into Idaho.

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• Tribes triumph tobacco tax 

Driving onto the Allegany Indian Reservation from the west, Ron's Smoke Shop makes an inviting first stop.

It's just one tax-free tobacco shop on Seneca Nation territory. And with state cigarette taxes on the rise, more Southern Tier smokers are making the trip to the reservation.

"Everyone I know goes down there," says Jill, a smoker from Olean. "A lot of people do."

Cars bustle in the shop's parking lot. A stream of people makes its way into the store, eager to pick up some Saturday morning smokes.

Stacks of cigarette cartons sit on several rows of shelves. Winstons. Unions. Markets. The works.

The cheapest brand? Seneca Cigarettes - $13.60 for 100 smokes.

Drive across the street. Next stop: M & M Smoke Shop.

Cigarette billboards plaster the store's exterior. Camels. Kools. Dorals also available.

Another vendor of Seneca Cigarettes. Big Flavor. Small Price. Huge Selection.

Piles of cigarette cartons add color to the store's pure white interior. . . .

Cigarettes off-territory have never been more expensive. June's cigarette tax increase bumped New York state's tax to the highest in the nation.

But not everyone is forking over the extra cash. Twenty percent of New York smokers buy tax-free cigarettes from Indian reservations on a regular basis.

"The incentive for them to do that has just gotten a lot bigger in the form of this tax increase," says Jim Calvin, president of the New York Association Convenience Stores.

And New York is left losing cash. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says that the state's reluctance to enforce cigarette taxation laws is costing it more than $500 million a year.

"I think the governor should go to the reservations and say, 'As of tomorrow morning, stop this practice,'" Mayor Bloomberg said in the New York Times. "And if it requires law enforcement, that's what the governor has the State Police for �?" to enforce the law."

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Victoria bans battery powered cigarettes 

Battery powered cigarettes that give pseudo smokers a hit of nicotine vapour have been banned in Victoria.

The devices resemble a traditional cigarette and contain nicotine cartridges that create puffs of vapour through an atomiser, like smoke.

From Thursday, the sale and use of nicotine cartridges will be illegal in Victoria and the advertising of battery powered cigarettes banned.

Health Minister Daniel Andrews said nicotine was highly addictive and toxic and was rapidly absorbed through the skin, inhalation and ingestion.

He said users of battery powered cigarettes were in danger of nicotine poisoning, with acute exposure causing possible damage to the mouth, eyes and nervous, digestive and musculoskeletal systems.

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• Ban on battery-powered smokes 

A battery-powered device touted as the "healthy alternative to smoking" has been banned by the State Government.

Health Minister Daniel Andrews today said it would be illegal to sell the nicotine cartridges necessary to use the device.

The device, which resembles a traditional cigarette, does not contain tobacco but delivers nicotine through an atomiser that creates puffs of vapour similar to cigarette smoke.

Health organisations were outraged earlier this year when the cigarettes were promoted as a way to beat smoking bans in pubs, offices and on public transport.

Mr Andrews said the pharmacology of nicotine had been well studied.

"It is addictive and produces a characteristic abstinence withdrawal syndrome," he said in a statement. . . .

The new regulation, which comes into effect tomorrow, outlaws the manufacture, sale, supply, purchase, possession or use of unregulated nicotine delivery systems.

The decision will have no effect on the sale of nicotine replacement therapies, which are used to assist people stop smoking.

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