Tobacco.org

EDITORIAL: Our Views: A resolution to kick habit  

Every year, tobacco use costs Louisiana $1.15 billion in direct medical expenditures, according to a report from the CDC.

The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living offers free advice to those who want to quit smoking though its toll-free number, (800) 784-8669.

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Stoddard brings anti-tobacco crusade to Cenla schools 

Rick Stoddard speaks from experience.

He knows the pain of losing someone to lung cancer.

Stoddard lost his 46-year-old wife to cancer eight years ago.

From his loss, he launched an anti-tobacco campaign and brought his message earlier this month to Central Louisiana students.

Stoddard, who has been featured in television and radio ads talking about the loss of his wife, travels in his pickup truck to bring his message to students, according to The Rapides Foundation, which air Stoddard's advertisements as part of its tobacco prevention and control campaign and brought him to Cenla to speak to students.

"Rick Stoddard's story is powerful, and he tells it in a way that captures the attention of young people," said Joe Rosier, president and CEO of The Rapides Foundation. "During his two-week visit in Central Louisiana, he delivered his message to nearly 8,500 people."

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House fire kills Shreveport woman 

A house fire killed an Ark-La-Tex woman and left her family to cope with the tragedy just days before Thanksgiving.

Fire fighters say it was an accident and it all likely started with a cigarette.

Flames flew fifteen feet into the air on Jefferson Paige road in west Shreveport early Tuesday morning.

The blaze killed 53-year-old Patty Easom after fire fighters say her cigarette caught a couch on fire.

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UPDATED: Family identifies victim of fatal house fire 

The woman killed this morning in a fire that gutted her west Shreveport home is 53-year-old Patricia Easom, according to family members. . . .

Relatives told firefighters they last saw Easom about 11 p.m. on the couch, smoking a cigarette. The victim was home alone. Her husband works offshore.

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Smoking on campus still not enforced  

The faculty senate approved the Student Government Association's smoking policy, after Robert Gerlich, S.J. voted in favor, breaking the tie.

"I voted in favor because I support SGA's right to set a policy," Gerlich said.

But, the controversy now lies in how University Police will enforce the policy.

"They're being asked to enforce a policy that has not come from the board and has not come from the administration; therefore, I don't think that they think that it has much weight," Gerlich said.

The senate agreed that SGA has to work within the parameters of the university to make sure that a measure like this one can be enforced.

SGA President Cade Cypriano said the smoking policy is still in a formative process and is scheduled to be in effect starting Nov. 20. The policy consists of a number of designated smoking areas in different regions of the campus, Cypriano said.

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LETTER: Hookah smoke has negative effects  

Hookah cafés and lounges may be one of the hottest college fads to pop up in New Orleans, but smoking hookah tobacco pipes has many health consequences.

Hookah smokers are subject to the same negative health effects as cigarette smokers: lung cancer, heart and respiratory disease and other deadly illnesses. . . .

Passing off hookah smoking as a positive college past time is irresponsible and deadly.

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City-Parish Council snuffs smoking ordinance  

The Lafayette City-Parish Council defeated an introductory ordinance Tuesday night that would have prohibited smoking on the property of health-care facilities, including hospitals.

The only council members voting for the ordinance were Brandon Shelvin and Kenneth Boudreaux. Councilman Keith Patin was absent.

City-Parish President Joey Durel said the ordinance came at the request of Lafayette hospitals, and that one of hospital officials' main issues is that people are smoking near entrances, including near the emergency room, and can cause additional problems for those coming to the hospital with breathing difficulties.

But some council members questioned if it was appropriate for government to regulate activity on the property of businesses.

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Hookah Hysteria  

Hookah smoking, one of the latest trends to hit Loyola, is sweeping across campuses and lounges nation-wide and increasing in popularity and usage.

Halfway across the world and nearly 1,000 years later, the Middle Eastern hookah smoking tradition has puffed up on Loyola's campus proving to be an increasingly smokin' trend. . . .

If you haven't been directly involved in the hookah movement, it's likely you've witnessed a hookah rendezvous in passing. Usually taking place in grassy areas surrounding the J. Edgar and Louise S. Monroe Library or the sidewalks around the dorms at night, you've probably shimmied your way through a group of smokers and questioned the legality of the bong-like structure of the hookah, but nonetheless found the exotic, musty smells and bubbly sound effects intriguing. . . .

Whether smoking for relaxation, concentration or sheer entertainment, the reasons for hookah usage varies among smokers. However, the general consensus among hookah smokers seems to be the same - hookah really is all it's puffed up to be.

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Smoking ban faces criticism 

Last May, Tulane's campus-wide smoking policy was altered significantly and extended to reflect the passage of the Louisiana Smoke-Free Air Act. The policy is now tougher on the enforcement of smoking violations and makes progress toward a tobacco-free Uptown campus. Under the new policy, smoking is only permitted in designated areas around campus. Students caught smoking in other areas can be ticketed by Tulane police officers. The designated smoking areas, which were selected by the Office of the University Architect and Campus Planning and by representatives of the Student Health Center and Health Promotion, will mostly be situated on the perimeter of campus, with many near parking areas. The areas will be well-lit, so that they can be utilized safely at night, said James Farrow, director of student health services. Farrow said that the areas were placed closer to residential areas and further from areas where people work each day. . . .

Under the new policy, enforcement of these violations has been intensified. In residence halls, Housing and Residence Life staff members will patrol for smoking violations and warn offending smokers. After this warning, senior HRL staff and Tulane police officers can issue tickets or citations to anyone smoking in non-designated areas.

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BAKER: Campaign takes aim at cigarette butts 

I pulled into my driveway the other day and spotted a renegade cigarette butt.

There are no smokers in my family, so where did it come from? Probably carried by the wind, the rain or the dog.

It reminded me of Keep Covington Beautiful's latest anti-litter attempt, which is focused on cleaning up cigarettes.

"They're everywhere," said Priscilla Floca, executive director of Keep Covington Beautiful.

Indeed, they seem to be. I was behind a car on Boston Street waiting for the light to turn green when I saw a cigarette butt fly out of the window and land on the street. .. .

The grant money will be used to buy cigarette ash receptacles and put them where it is determined they are needed most.

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Tobacco companies using legal loopholes to target kids in outdoor ads  

Tobacco companies have failed to keep a promise they made a decade ago to eliminate ads for alcohol and tobacco within 500 feet of schools, playgrounds and churches, say researchers.

In 1998, tobacco industry moguls like Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, Lorillard and Liggett had agreed to support the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement as a part of anti-smoking efforts, and stop targeting children with glossy ads featuring cartoon characters and removing tobacco billboards and bus bench ads.

However, Rand Corporation researchers have found that kids still remain a part of the industry's advertising strategy.

The researchers evaluated compliance by observing outdoor advertisements for one year during 2004 and 2005, in 106 census tracts in pre-Katrina New Orleans, as well as 114 census tracts in Los Angeles County.

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Louisiana Court Enters Judgment In Scott Case; Philip Morris USA Plans Further Appeal 

The state's appellate court, in a 2007 opinion, found that individuals whose claims arose after Sept. 1, 1988 could not participate in the smoking cessation program. The company contends a trial is necessary to determine what smokers, if any, are eligible for the program and its costs if the case is to proceed.

"The company believes the trial court has disregarded the state appellate court's mandate to conduct further trial proceedings to determine how many persons may participate in the cessation program and the total cost of the program," said Murray Garnick, Altria Client Services senior vice president and associate general counsel, speaking on behalf of PM USA.

The amount awarded today is less than a quarter of the amount awarded for the program's funding in the 2004 trial because the appellate court deemed much of the earlier award legally improper. Philip Morris USA is one of four tobacco companies responsible for the judgment, plus interest since June 30, 2004.

In its order, the trial court acknowledged the multimillion-dollar award "may be too large" for the number of persons who will qualify for smoking cessation services, but insisted that eligibility could be determined administratively rather than by conducting further trials.

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Tobacco Companies Find Loophole in Settlement Stance on Outdoor Ads 

new research suggests that children remain in the crosshairs of the industry’s advertising strategy.

Tobacco advertisers use multiple posters, banners and fliers, often in close proximity, to get the message out, according to a study in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

About a decade ago, the Outdoor Advertising Association of America pledged voluntarily to eliminate ads for alcohol and tobacco within 500 feet of schools, playgrounds and churches.

In 1998, tobacco industry giants accepted the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement to support antismoking efforts, cease use of cartoon characters in cigarette ads and eliminate tobacco billboards and bus bench ads. The agreement ultimately involved five leading tobacco companies — Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, Lorillard and Liggett. It changed the way those five makers operated, but it did not stop the ads altogether.

“You have these small media, posted multiple times in multiple locations,” said Molly Scott, lead study author and a Rand Corporation researcher. “These are not huge billboards, so they [tobacco companies] are complying. But in the big sense of things, not so much.” . . .

Scott MM, et al. Alcohol and tobacco marketing: evaluating compliance with outdoor advertising guidelines. Am J Prev Med 35(3), 2008.

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• Tobacco companies ordered to pay up  

Now that higher courts have, for the most part, upheld a 2004 New Orleans jury verdict that the nation's biggest tobacco companies should pay to help thousands of Louisianians kick the smoking habit, the time has come for the companies pay up, a Civil District Court judge decreed Monday.

Refusing pleas from tobacco companies for a new trial in the case, Judge Richard Ganucheau ordered the companies to put $263.5 million in the court registry for a statewide, 10-year stop-smoking program that the jury ordered after deciding that the firms had put out distorted information about tobacco's effects on health. . . .

Ganucheau's Monday ruling, the latest in a class-action case that has dragged out for 12 years, was greeted by the plaintiffs' lead lawyer, Russ Herman, as a long-overdue step that will finally get justice for eligible smokers who haven't been able to quit. Some people who needed the help have died while the case has been hung up so long in appeals, he said.

But New Orleans lawyer Phil Wittmann, attorney for one of the defendants, Philip Morris USA, said the companies will ask Ganucheau to hold off requiring them to put up any money until they can ask higher courts to review the matter.

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• STILL SMOKING 

Louisiana's 40-acre tobacco trade seems a speck on the agricultural map.

Even at its height in 1922, farmers planted just 1,100 acres of Louisiana's only breed of tobacco, known as perique. Its home in Grand Point, a remote outpost in St. James Parish, is too small to merit its own ZIP code.

Yet perique has achieved fame as far afield as Europe and Asia among connoisseurs who prize the plant's pungent, fruity taste.

"I kind of equate that product with a cognac," said Mike Little, vice president of operations for Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., which has become perique's biggest customer. "It's a little sweeter and heavier in the way it smokes."

For all its charms, perique has struggled to survive as tobacco farmers nationwide have slowed production of the plant now synonymous with cancer and corporate corruption. But perique has staged a surprising comeback since 2005, with the state's seven tobacco farms nearly doubling the crop's footprint and tripling production to more than 58,000 pounds last year.

Santa Fe started using the leaf in a special blend of its Natural American Spirit cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco pouches. . . .

Located in two barns along historic River Road in Convent, L.A. Poche has been the parish's main perique processor since the 1930s.

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