Tobacco.org

• MAC'S A $INNER WINNER  

John McCain has replaced Rudy Giuliani as the favored candidate of the "sin" industries - raking in far more dough from booze, gambling and tobacco interests than Barack Obama, The Post has learned.

McCain has raised a combined $673,401 from those industries, 68 percent more than the $400,407 generated by Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

And McCain has raised even more from peddlers of booze, betting and butts through a joint fund-raising account with the Republican National Committee - McCain Victory 2008 - which can collect up to $65,500 per individual, rather than the $4,600 limit for his personal kitty. . . .

The Padron family of Miami, which manufacturers the famous Padron cigar, has pumped $18,000 into McCain's coffers. Overall, McCain's campaign has raised more than $100,000 from tobacco interests, compared to $28,495 for Obama.

Meanwhile, McCain and Obama are appealing to more religious-minded "values" voters who frown on betting, booze and butts.

Jump to full article »

• Healthy Monday and About.com Health Launch Quit Smoking Monday 

About.com Health (http://www.about.com/health), the second-largest consumer health Web site in the United States (June 2008 Nielsen Online), announced it will expand its successful relationship with Healthy Monday, a project of Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Syracuse University Newhouse School of Public Communications, which invites people to make health behavior changes each and every Monday. Through About.com Health's Quit Smoking Monday -- the Smoking Cessation blog (http://quitsmoking.about.com/od/tipsforquitting/a/HM.htm), readers will be encouraged to take the Monday pledge to quit smoking. The blog will also use Monday as a day to deliver new tips and motivational messages and help users create quit strategies that will trigger continuous efforts to stop smoking.

"By choosing Monday as your preferred quit date, you are building 52 opportunities into the year to commit to quitting smoking and celebrating your progress as you move ahead with your quit program," . . .

Healthy Monday (http://www.healthymonday.org) introduces the idea of Monday as the weekly day of health.

Jump to full article »

• Warner Center Homeowners Demand Smoke-Free Living 

Homeowners at The Met, a popular condominium located at the Warner Center in Woodland Hills have begun a process of petitioning to restrict smoking in both private and common areas at the complex. The campaign to make The Met smoke-free began after multiple claims of unwanted secondhand smoke coming into units went unresolved by the HOA.

Brian Meert, a homeowner at The Met stated, "The homeowner below me had a medical marijuana license and when he smoked, the unwanted secondhand smoke would rise into my condo. I tried working with the HOA multiple times to find a solution, but their response was that it is just the way the building was designed."

"The issue of smoke traveling to other units has been one of the major concerns at The Met," states Meert. "If the buildings are unable to restrict smoke from traveling between units, I believe the smoking policy should be a decision that the homeowners make as it directly affects their health and potential property value."

An official website for The Met Smoke-Free campaign has been posted online at http://www.TheMetSmokeFree.com.

Jump to full article »

America's Beauty Obsession Poses Serious Consequences for Women and Girls, Report Reveals 

YWCA USA today released a new report that reveals the impact of idealized, airbrushed beauty and body image obsession on the economic well-being, health and interpersonal relationships of American women and girls. The report, Beauty at Any Cost, shows alarming new trends and money spent on cosmetic surgery alterations, including dramatic increases among young women, and other serious health risks.

Young women and girls are increasingly spending more money and going to unhealthy extremes to achieve an unattainable image of physical perfection, according to Tracy Lakatua, YWCA USA Board Chair. The costs include physical harm, including risks posed by smoking to maintain a low weight

Jump to full article »

Federal Government Concludes Media and Movies Influence Youth Smoking 

A comprehensive report released today from the National Cancer Institute - the leading federal agency on cancer research - provides the government's strongest conclusion to date on the media's powerful and causal effect on tobacco use. The report, Monograph 19 - The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use, concluded what we in public health have known for many years: depictions of smoking in movies and tobacco marketing promote youth smoking. These facts are nonetheless illuminating because they are now recognized for the first time as fact by our federal government.

The report provides the ammunition to tobacco control advocates around the world who are fighting to keep movies smoke-free. . . .

The report also lends further credibility to existing media campaigns that have been proven to curb youth smoking, such as the foundation's award-winning truth(R) campaign. . . .

Obviously, in a rapidly changing digital landscape, understanding the role of media in reducing or promoting tobacco use is critically important as we continue working to fight the tobacco epidemic. With limited resources, the truth(R) campaign is reaching teens from big cities to rural towns in ways we didn't imagine 10 years ago. Youth get a dose of truth(R) on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, on the road at popular teen concerts throughout the summer and through ads on television and in theaters prior to movies.

Jump to full article »

Lorillard, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend on Common Stock 

Lorillard, Inc. (NYSE: LO) announced today the declaration of a quarterly dividend on its common stock, in the amount of $0.92 per share, payable September 12, 2008 to stockholders of record as of September 2, 2008.

Jump to full article »

UST Participation in Lehman Brothers Consumer Conference Available Via Web 

UST Inc. (NYSE: UST) Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Murray S. Kessler will present at the Lehman Brothers Consumer Conference on Sept. 4, 2008 at 1:30 p.m. Eastern time. The audio portion of the presentation will be webcast live at http://www.ustinc.com.

Jump to full article »

$5,000 Up For Grabs in QUITPLAN(R) Services QuitCash Challenge 

It's time to cash in on quitting. To urge more Minnesota tobacco users to kick the habit, ClearWay Minnesota(SM) is introducing its first-ever, statewide QuitCash Challenge at the Minnesota State Fair. Minnesotans can win big with this challenge -- a grand-prize of $5,000 cash will be awarded to one Minnesotan who quits tobacco use by Oct. 1, 2008, and remains tobacco-free for the entire month of October. The winner will be announced at the Minnesota Wild hockey game on Nov. 24, 2008.

Jump to full article »

Major NCI Report Concludes Tobacco Marketing Causes Kids to Smoke, Underscores Need for U.S. Senate to Pass FDA Tobacco Regulation This Year 

The comprehensive report released today by the National Cancer Institute provides the government's strongest conclusion to date that tobacco marketing causes kids to smoke and that anti-tobacco advertising campaigns prevent smoking. The 684-page report, The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use, is an exhaustive review of more than 1,000 scientific studies and presents definitive conclusions that a) tobacco advertising and promotion are causally related to increased tobacco use, and b) exposure to depictions of smoking in the movies is causally related to youth smoking initiation. The report also concludes that mass media campaigns can reduce smoking, but so-called "youth smoking prevention campaigns" sponsored by the tobacco industry have been generally ineffective and may actually have increased youth smoking.

Jump to full article »

• Monograph 19: The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use 

The National Cancer Institute presents this 19th monograph in the Tobacco Control Monograph Series, The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use. Monograph 19 provides a critical, scientific review and synthesis of the current evidence regarding the power of the media, both to encourage and to discourage tobacco use. It is the most current and comprehensive summary of the scientific literature on media communication in tobacco promotion and tobacco control. Research included in the review comes from the disciplines of marketing, psychology, communication, statistics, epidemiology, and public health. All are vital to understanding how exposure to the media influences tobacco use.

Jump to full article »

Vote: Does Smoking Hurt Your Career?  

Over at Jobacle today, Andrew G.R. details "the perils of smoking at work":

• Smoking can be a sign of weakness to management.

• It creates a certain perception at work. Smoking is a controversial topic these days, and it depends which person is making the perception whether it is good or bad. Regardless, there is always a stigma attached to the title of "smoker."

• You smell. Sorry, I don't have a nice way to say it.

Jump to full article »

Vic may ban smoking in cars with kids 

Victoria is likely to become the fourth state to ban smoking in cars carrying children.

But the Victorian government denies it's lagging behind the rest of the country in introducing legislation to cut the smoking rate.

The proposal to ban smoking in cars was one of several outlined in the government's tobacco control strategy, released Thursday. . . .

Victoria's smoking rate is now at 17 per cent - nearly half the number who smoked in 1987, when the Tobacco Control Act was introduced.

Jump to full article »

• Major Government Report Concludes That Tobacco Marketing and Smoking in Movies Promote Youth Smoking 

Leaders from the federal government and the nation's public health community today announced the release of an authoritative National Cancer Institute report that reaches the government's strongest conclusion to date that tobacco marketing and depictions of smoking in movies promote youth smoking. The 684-page report, The Role of the Media in Promoting and Reducing Tobacco Use, presents definitive conclusions that a) tobacco advertising and promotion are causally related to increased tobacco use, and b) exposure to depictions of smoking in movies is causally related to youth smoking initiation.

The report also concludes that mass media campaigns can reduce smoking, especially when combined with other tobacco control strategies. However, youth smoking prevention campaigns sponsored by the tobacco industry have been generally ineffective and may actually have increased youth smoking.

This report provides the most current and comprehensive analysis of more than 1,000 scientific studies on the role of the media in encouraging and discouraging tobacco use. The report is Monograph 19 in the National Cancer Institute's Tobacco Control Monograph series . . .

The editors of the monograph outline several steps that have been proposed to reduce use of the media in promoting tobacco use and increase its use in discouraging tobacco use, including:

-- Impose a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising and promotion;

-- Adequately fund mass media campaigns and protect them from tobacco industry efforts to impede them;

-- Monitor tobacco industry activities including public relations and advertising expenditures in a changing media environment;

-- Use research to inform tobacco control policy and program decisions;

-- Place anti-tobacco advertisements before films to partially counter the impact of tobacco portrayals in movies; and

-- Increase public awareness of tobacco industry attempts to shut down public health campaigns.

Jump to full article »

• Survey finds drug use down among Ind. teenagers  

Overall drug use by Indiana middle and high school students continued to decline this year, according to an annual survey.

Alcohol and cigarette use decreased or held steady for students in 6th through 12th grades, according to the Indiana Prevention Resource Center at Indiana University's School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation.

The survey released this week also found an increased average age of first-time use of so-called "gateway" drugs -- tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana. The average age of first use for cigarettes was 12.7, 13 for alcohol and 13.8 for marijuana.

Jump to full article »

• Smoking Rate Falling 

The smoking rate among adults is steadily falling, but remains above the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to a report released Thursday.

Those over age 19 accounted for 21.9 percent of smokers in the first half of the year, down from 23 percent in last year's second half. The smoking rate dropped more for males (1.6 percentage points) than for females (0.9 percentage points), the Health, Welfare and Family Affairs Ministry, and the Korean Association of Smoking and Health said.

``Since a woman's menstrual period causes extreme stress, a smoking female is less inclined to quit than men. Cigarettes have also wrongfully become known as dietary tools,'' said Choi Jin-sook, secretary general of the association.

The ministry said it will cut the national smoking rate to the mid-30 percent level by 2010, but still has long way to go to catch up with developed countries.

Jump to full article »