Tobacco.org

• Tobacco Bill Likely Off US Senate's Agenda For Now 

With bipartisan support for an effort to give the Food and Drug Administration sweeping new authority to regulate tobacco and recent House passage of a tobacco regulation bill, the stars once seemed aligned for Senate action on tobacco legislation this year.

But a key senator has pledged to block the bill, and with a crowded Senate schedule, that may be enough to scuttle it until next year.

Sen. Richard M. Burr, R-N.C., has repeatedly threatened to veto the bill if it comes up on the Senate floor in September, when members return from their summer recess for a three-week work period. A filibuster would likely push the bill off the agenda in September, leaving it for a lame-duck session or consideration when Congress returns next year.

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Tobacco companies hide hazard 

While communities around the country prepare for more tobacco-free measures, new research has shown that the tobacco industry has not only manipulated menthol to enhance addiction but also hidden what it knew about tobacco smoke containing radioactive polonium-210.

Mayo Clinic and Stanford University research has revealed recently that tobacco companies knew tobacco smoke actually exposed smokers and those around them to 300 times the radiation from an annual chest X-ray.

Published in the American Journal of Public Health, the study shows that tobacco companies suppressed their own internal research finding significant levels of Polonium-210 in tobacco. . . .

Federal legislation passed the U.S. House of Representatives recently to allow the FDA limited authority over tobacco. . . .

Area Representative John Boozman voted for the bill. Senators Lincoln and Pryor have yet to vote on the Senate's version.

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Letter: Tobacco Continues To Seduce Children  

I’m appalled at the number of youth, clearly under the age of 18, I see smoking cigarettes. Joe Camel might be a scheme of the past, but the tobacco industry continues to find ways to seduce our children into becoming smokers. Just visit the local 7-11 store and you will find candy-flavored cigarettes. . . .

I urge Senators Webb and Warner to do their part and work to pass S 625 this year.

We need to stop protecting Big Tobacco and start protecting our children.

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Drawcard for puff daddies 

In 1900 smoking was seen as a predominantly upper-class pursuit. Edward, Prince of Wales, was among the first public figures to champion the fad - after dinner, of course, in the drawing room.

By this time most tobacco - including more than 85 per cent in England - was sold in tins for pipe smoking. Gentlemen of distinction could order a personal blend to be kept in one's humidor at home.

It wasn't until World War I that packaged cigarettes began to outsell pipe tobacco. . . .

This brief history, courtesy of the Benson and Hedges One Hundred Years booklet, seems almost fanciful today. Yet, against increasing public pressure, there are still those who enjoy a pipe even if they can no longer do it in public.

Prolific puffers have included Albert Einstein . . .

Pipe collectors and smokers can join clubs or online forums such as the Australian Pipe Smoking Forum.

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Iowa City council to vote tonight on smoking ban 

Iowa City officials will vote tonight on expanding the statewide ban and limiting smoking on city property.

The plan would ban smoking in municipal parking ramps; a section of the downtown pedestrian mall and the Iowa City Municipal Airport.

The ordinance would also outlaw smoking in several sections of parks in the city.

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• More smokers since ban in pubs, clubs  

SMOKING bans in NSW pubs and clubs have coincided with a rise in the number of smokers in the state, rather than pushing smoking rates down as has been the trend overseas.

The increase has been blamed on lax enforcement of smoking bans - not a single fine has been issued for breaching the new rules - and the loose definition of an outdoor smoking area, where patrons can smoke as long as 25 per cent of the space is open.

Research by the NSW Department of Health found there was a 0.9 per cent increase in the prevalence of smoking in the state last year, despite the new laws being introduced in July 2007.

The results reversed a long-term trend in which the number of smokers has fallen by almost 6 per cent since 1997. . . .

Simon Chapman, a professor of public health at Sydney University, said the Australian figures might have been affected by smaller sample sizes.

He said both the number of people smoking and how much they smoke should be measured. "[The bans] just don't discourage people from taking up smoking," he said. "For people who already do smoke, studies show they are likely to cut down by three to four cigarettes a day if it is banned in public places."

But Professor Chapman said that loopholes in the state's legislation - such as outside smoking areas - had diluted the effects of the ban.

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Tobacco Bill Might not See Light until 2009 

Due to an upcoming busy Senate calendar and a possible veto, the bipartisan support for the Food and Drug Administration’s authority to regulate tobacco might be put on hold until next year, Dow Jones Newswires reported.

If the bill became a law, it would have a dramatic effect on publicly traded companies such as Reynolds American Inc. (RAI), Lorillard Inc. (LO) and Altria Group Inc. (MO), the report stated.

Provisions in the bill would give the FDA limited authority to monitor smoking products and ban flavored cigarettes, with an exemption for menthol-flavored cigarettes. Dow Jones Newswires reported if passed, the legislation could impose controls on advertising that restrict companies to plain, black and white "tombstone" advertisements and stop the use of the terms “low tar" and "mild."

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• Shell, Illinois Team to Halt Tobacco Sales to Minors 

Shell Oil Products and its parent, Motiva Enterprises, are taking proactive steps in Illinois to reduce cigarette sales to minors at 14,000 independent retail outlets in the state.

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan said in a statement that Shell also agreed to pay $100,000 to cover costs incurred by the states’ investigation and negotiation.

To date, this marks the 12th agreement Madigan’s office signed with national retailers, including CVS, 7-Eleven, Wal-Mart and Walgreen’s stores, and gas stations and convenience stores operating under the Conoco, Phillips 66 or 76, Exxon, Mobil, BP and Amoco brand names, according to the statement. . . .

Madigan explained this agreement came as a result of an ongoing, multi-state enforcement effort. In total, the agreements cover more than 90,000 retail outlets across the nation.

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W.Va. saga sandwiched by tobacco for plaintiffs firm 

The past and future of a prominent Pensacola plaintiffs firm may be tied litigation against large tobacco companies, but its present is in a small town in West Virginia.

Levin, Papantonio, Thomas, Mitchell, Eschner & Proctor is in a fight to preserve a $382 million jury verdict against industrial giant DuPont . . .

Levin Papantonio earned a state contract to sue tobacco companies in the 1990s.

The State of Florida's $13 billion settlement resulted in an estimated $275 million for Fred Levin's attorneys. . . .

Levin's work began at the mansion of then-Gov. Lawton Chiles in 1994. He and a state senator visited Chiles, a Democrat, to encourage him to change existing state laws in order to give a lawsuit against tobacco companies a better chance.

Chiles agreed . . .

A Dec. 2006 decision by the state Supreme Court will allow tobacco companies to be held liable for individual smoking-related deaths and injuries. The Engle decision also overturned a $145 billion punitive damages award.

Before a Jan. 21 deadline, 4,500 suits were brought on behalf of those who died from a tobacco-related disease or suffered from one before Nov. 21, 1996. The site noted, "Whether you have a right to bring an individual Engle suit, or some other suit, against Big Tobacco is an extremely complicated legal question that should be answered by a competent who is familiar with the Engle litigation."

Levin Papantonio also ran television ads to drum up business. . . .

Papantonio, who has his own radio show that he co-hosts with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., says a recent round of Freedom of Information Act requests will show that West Virginia state agencies are being influenced by business associations.

Aside from showing that the Democrat Manchin met with DuPont officials and received draft briefs from them, Papantonio did not offer any proof.

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More cigarette butts found on north coast beaches 

Keep Australia Beautiful says litter volumes are down across New South Wales, but they are finding more cigarette butts on north coast beaches.

The organisation spokesman, Peter Maclean, says small litter and butts make up more than half of individual litter items.

He says all levels of government and the community need to work together on the problem.

Mr Maclean says anyone tossing away a cigarette faces prosecution but that does not seem to stop people doing it.

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• Star Scientific Surges After Reynolds Suit Is Revived (Update2)  

Star Scientific Inc. rose the most in seven years after a U.S. appeals court revived the company's patent lawsuit against Reynolds American Inc.'s R.J. Reynolds Tobacco over a formula for reducing carcinogens in tobacco.

Star climbed $1.09, or 65 percent, to $2.76 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading, valuing the Petersburg, Virginia-based company at $254 million. The gain was the biggest since April 2001 and the closing price was the highest since Jan. 18, 2007. More than 7.25 million shares changed hands, 20 times the three-month daily average.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington ruled today that a judge was wrong to find two Star patents unenforceable and invalid, saying the decision was ``based on factual findings that we deem clearly erroneous.'' The panel sent the case back for review to determine whether the patents are infringed or invalid on other grounds.

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China to Combine Two Tobacco Companies, Business Herald Says  

Hongyun Group and Honghe Group will merge, forming China's largest cigarette maker, the 21st Century Business Herald reported, citing a tobacco bureau official.

The two companies, both based in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan, signed a merger agreement yesterday, the Chinese-language newspaper said on its Web site today, citing Li Weidong, a tobacco bureau official in the province.

The combined company will have annual production of more than 4 million boxes of cigarettes, making it the world's fifth- biggest behind Philip Morris International Inc., British American Tobacco Plc, Japan Tobacco Inc. and Imperial Tobacco Group Plc

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• Citigroup Sued by Brokers It Fired Over Tobacco-Settlement Fund  

Citigroup Inc. was sued by two former brokers who invested billions of dollars in tobacco- settlement money and who claim they were fired to protect the bank when it charged the fund excessive fees.

The brokers, Peter Dunn and Alan Kirman, claim that Citigroup, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, wrongly blamed them for overcharging the tobacco-settlement trust, which holds money paid by the major U.S. tobacco companies as part of a $206 billion settlement with 46 states in 1998.

Dunn and Kirman, in a suit filed July 17 in state court in Florida, claim they were unaware of any fee limits on the settlement money. They claim senior executives, who also were unaware of the limits, blamed them to avoid losing the account when the excessive fees were discovered. . . .

The case is Dunn v. Citigroup Global Markets Inc., 08-CV-80926, U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida (West Palm Beach).

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Barnstable, MA considers smoking ban on beaches 

The town of Barnstable, Massachusetts is considering a plan that would make its beaches smoke-free.

The town's recreation commission has submitted a proposal to the town manager to ban smoking at all 16 beaches.

Town officials say they've gotten many complaints from residents who are finding a large number of cigarette butts in the sand.

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Maine praised for efforts to curb substance abuse 

Former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, chairman of a national study commission on substance abuse, met with Gov. John Baldacci on Tuesday and praised Maine’s prevention efforts. . . .

Maine has used tobacco settlement funds for a variety of health-related programs, with more than $17 million allocated this year for smoking cessation and prevention efforts. About $6.7 million is allocated to substance abuse programs. The total expected in the Fund for a Healthy Maine this budget year is nearly $64 million.

“We have had a 50 percent reduction in smoking because of the programs we have funded,” Baldacci said. “We know prevention efforts work.”

He said there has to be a “sharing” of the resources in the fund for broader substance abuse efforts. He said the infrastructure the state has developed to address tobacco addiction can be used to address alcohol and other drug abuse.

“We have community-based programs throughout the state already,” Baldacci noted. “We need to take advantage of that.”

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