Only two businesses out of 26 tobacco retailers sold tobacco products, it is supposed to be cigarettes Winston cigarettes or Camel cigarettes to an under-age decoy during an unannounced sting operation carried out by the Atascadero Police Department on Thursday, Dec. 9, according to Atascadero Police Detectives/Community Response Officers Keith Falerios and Nick Coughlin. That was down from eight violations reported during a similar sting on Aug. 9. Employees at Walgreens and Chevron on Morro Road sold tobacco to the underage decoy.
The heat generated by that sting prompted the Atascadero City Council to consider a licensing ordinance for local tobacco retailers.
“The Tobacco Compliance Plan is a step in the right direction for more consistent accountability where tobacco and minors are concerned,” said Christina Lefevre, a health education specialist for the county’s tobacco control program.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Cigarette verdict may be felt across US
It was hardly only Marie Evans. The Rev. Michael E. Haynes, retired pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Roxbury, said he saw attractive young women in green outfits handing out cigarettes to people 50 years ago in Frederick Douglass Square, the heart of the city’s black community.
Leroy M. Jenkins, 73, who grew up in Roxbury’s Orchard Park near Evans and her family, said he received some of the cigarettes as a teenager after finishing classes for the day at Dearborn Middle School.
“They’d be out there waiting for us,’’ Jenkins said in an interview.
The family of Evans, who died of lung cancer in 2002, more than 40 years after she was induced to smoke Newport cigarettes as a teenager, won an individual lawsuit last week against Lorillard Inc., but the groundbreaking case has exposed an industrywide marketing strategy that began a half-century ago to promote cigarettes to youngsters. In Evans’s case it was Newport, a brand particularly popular among young smokers and the black community. Tobacco companies deny targeting youngsters in the campaigns.
But with the unprecedented, $152 million jury judgment in favor of Evans’s family, the case could have a ripple effect on court decisions and public policy decisions across the country, as smokers weigh whether to file their own lawsuits and federal officials consider a ban on menthol cigarettes.
“This is an important decision, in that it shows that tobacco litigation is still alive and well,’’ said Michael Siegel, a tobacco control specialist with the Boston University School of Public Health. “There’s kind of a perception that tobacco companies have paid their dues, and we’re moving forward, but this shows from the public perception that we’re not done yet, and that the public wants justice.’’
The judgment, $71 million in compensatory damages for Evans’s estate and her son, and $81 million in punitive damages for her estate, is among the largest in the country from a tobacco wrongful death suit, and the largest for any trial in a Massachusetts court, industry analysts said. And it’s not over yet: Judge Elizabeth Fahey, who presided over the trial in Suffolk Superior Court, is considering whether to award more money under the state’s consumer protection laws.
Lorillard,producer of Kent cigarettes based in Greensboro, N.C., acknowledged a sampling strategy a half-century ago but denied ever passing out cigarettes to youngsters or targeting minorities. The company, which never lost a lawsuit brought by an individual until Dec. 14, plans to appeal the jury’s decision.
The Evans case was based in large part on the tobacco industry’s internal documents that exposed a misinformation campaign, and an effort to specifically market to youngsters.
One letter filed with the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, an archive of millions of industry documents released under lawsuits and kept by the University of California at San Francisco, shows that Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, wrote the Tobacco Institute in 1988 raising concerns with the distribution of Newports to minors during a Fourth of July fair in New York City.
Leroy M. Jenkins, 73, who grew up in Roxbury’s Orchard Park near Evans and her family, said he received some of the cigarettes as a teenager after finishing classes for the day at Dearborn Middle School.
“They’d be out there waiting for us,’’ Jenkins said in an interview.
The family of Evans, who died of lung cancer in 2002, more than 40 years after she was induced to smoke Newport cigarettes as a teenager, won an individual lawsuit last week against Lorillard Inc., but the groundbreaking case has exposed an industrywide marketing strategy that began a half-century ago to promote cigarettes to youngsters. In Evans’s case it was Newport, a brand particularly popular among young smokers and the black community. Tobacco companies deny targeting youngsters in the campaigns.
But with the unprecedented, $152 million jury judgment in favor of Evans’s family, the case could have a ripple effect on court decisions and public policy decisions across the country, as smokers weigh whether to file their own lawsuits and federal officials consider a ban on menthol cigarettes.
“This is an important decision, in that it shows that tobacco litigation is still alive and well,’’ said Michael Siegel, a tobacco control specialist with the Boston University School of Public Health. “There’s kind of a perception that tobacco companies have paid their dues, and we’re moving forward, but this shows from the public perception that we’re not done yet, and that the public wants justice.’’
The judgment, $71 million in compensatory damages for Evans’s estate and her son, and $81 million in punitive damages for her estate, is among the largest in the country from a tobacco wrongful death suit, and the largest for any trial in a Massachusetts court, industry analysts said. And it’s not over yet: Judge Elizabeth Fahey, who presided over the trial in Suffolk Superior Court, is considering whether to award more money under the state’s consumer protection laws.
Lorillard,producer of Kent cigarettes based in Greensboro, N.C., acknowledged a sampling strategy a half-century ago but denied ever passing out cigarettes to youngsters or targeting minorities. The company, which never lost a lawsuit brought by an individual until Dec. 14, plans to appeal the jury’s decision.
The Evans case was based in large part on the tobacco industry’s internal documents that exposed a misinformation campaign, and an effort to specifically market to youngsters.
One letter filed with the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, an archive of millions of industry documents released under lawsuits and kept by the University of California at San Francisco, shows that Senator Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, wrote the Tobacco Institute in 1988 raising concerns with the distribution of Newports to minors during a Fourth of July fair in New York City.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Feds spend millions on cigarette pack labels
Health Canada spent more than $3.6 million developing new warning labels for cigarette packages, newly released documents show.The warning labels will be on all of the brands, no matter it is the best brand like Marlboro cigarettes or is Astra cigarettes.
There's a dispute over whether the new labels will even make it onto the packs, with critics saying the government has scrapped the plan and Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq insisting it will go ahead.
From 2004 to 2010, Health Canada spent almost $1.9 million on public opinion research, like focus groups, about the warnings. The department doled out $945,090 in contracts for mock-up cigarette packs, literature reviews, text revisions and organizing meetings, according to documents provided to the House of Commons health committee.
But in September, then-B.C. health minister Ida Chong said Aglukkaq told the provincial and territorial ministers the labels wouldn't go ahead because the department wanted to focus on contraband cigarettes.
Last week, Aglukkaq denied the project was dead.
“I don't think there's anything wrong with taking a step back to re-examine whether we are making the investment in the right place,” she said.
Aglukkaq said more people are smoking contraband cigarettes, which come in plastic bags and don't have warning labels, and that the department's trying to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to get its message out.
In a statement Wednesday, Aglukkaq said the department is still looking at the research on how to best reach smokers.
“To ensure that we communicate our anti-smoking messages effectively, we are examining innovative options including social media,” she said, adding the feds spend $15.7 million a year to cut smoking rates.
A spokesman for the Canadian Cancer Society said the government could still move ahead with the labelling even if Health Canada wants to design a social media plan. It takes six months to a year to get through the regulatory process with the labels.
“The current warnings have been on packages for 10 years, unchanged, and are stale,” said Rob Cunningham.
Opposition MPs say Aglukkaq has being influenced by the tobacco industry.
“Why aren't we moving ahead with this? The evidence is there. We know that it works. It doesn't make any sense except for caving to the tobacco lobby,” NDP health critic Megan Leslie said.
“The labels were introduced in 2000, There was a dramatic drop in the number of smokers and a dramatic increase in the number of quits. That has flatlined.”
Liberal health critic Ujjal Dosanjh said ads have to be updated to have any impact.
“It's absolutely shameful. Reprehensible,” to let the campaign drop, he said.
There's a dispute over whether the new labels will even make it onto the packs, with critics saying the government has scrapped the plan and Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq insisting it will go ahead.
From 2004 to 2010, Health Canada spent almost $1.9 million on public opinion research, like focus groups, about the warnings. The department doled out $945,090 in contracts for mock-up cigarette packs, literature reviews, text revisions and organizing meetings, according to documents provided to the House of Commons health committee.
But in September, then-B.C. health minister Ida Chong said Aglukkaq told the provincial and territorial ministers the labels wouldn't go ahead because the department wanted to focus on contraband cigarettes.
Last week, Aglukkaq denied the project was dead.
“I don't think there's anything wrong with taking a step back to re-examine whether we are making the investment in the right place,” she said.
Aglukkaq said more people are smoking contraband cigarettes, which come in plastic bags and don't have warning labels, and that the department's trying to use social media like Facebook and Twitter to get its message out.
In a statement Wednesday, Aglukkaq said the department is still looking at the research on how to best reach smokers.
“To ensure that we communicate our anti-smoking messages effectively, we are examining innovative options including social media,” she said, adding the feds spend $15.7 million a year to cut smoking rates.
A spokesman for the Canadian Cancer Society said the government could still move ahead with the labelling even if Health Canada wants to design a social media plan. It takes six months to a year to get through the regulatory process with the labels.
“The current warnings have been on packages for 10 years, unchanged, and are stale,” said Rob Cunningham.
Opposition MPs say Aglukkaq has being influenced by the tobacco industry.
“Why aren't we moving ahead with this? The evidence is there. We know that it works. It doesn't make any sense except for caving to the tobacco lobby,” NDP health critic Megan Leslie said.
“The labels were introduced in 2000, There was a dramatic drop in the number of smokers and a dramatic increase in the number of quits. That has flatlined.”
Liberal health critic Ujjal Dosanjh said ads have to be updated to have any impact.
“It's absolutely shameful. Reprehensible,” to let the campaign drop, he said.
Surgeon general says a whiff of cigarette smoke can hurt you
Any exposure to tobacco smoke can cause immediate damage to your body, according to a report set to be released Thursday by the U.S. surgeon general.
Coming out 46 years after the groundbreaking surgeon general's report that first alerted the public to the dangers of smoking, the new study focuses on the changes that tobacco smoke causes to the body — not just of smokers, but also those who breathe secondhand smoke.
"There is no safe level of exposure to cigarette smoke," Surgeon General Regina Benjamin said. "The chemicals in tobacco smoke reach your lungs quickly every time you inhale, causing damage immediately. Inhaling even the smallest amount of tobacco smoke can also damage your DNA, which can lead to cancer."
One finding: Tobacco smoke leads to inflammation and injury of tissues throughout the body and, experts say, that leads to many diseases.
"Having a state of chronic inflammation not only increases your risks of heart attacks and strokes, but it's also implicated in cancer and pulmonary disease," said Dr. Stanton Glantz, a cardiologist and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UC San Francisco.
Many people smoke brands like Lucky Strike cigarettes or Camel cigarettes , but they do not realise what effects they have on their health.
The report also finds that, though quitting smoking can reduce your risk of heart attacks and strokes, cutting back doesn't have much of an effect.
"If you're a light active smoker, that's almost as bad as being a heavy active smoker," Glantz said. "That's because of the inflammatory processes occur at very, very low doses."
The report, which gathered research from scientists around the country, comes to six conclusions:
•There is no risk-free level of exposure to tobacco smoke. Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can cause cardiovascular disease and could trigger acute cardiac events, such as heart attack.
•Inhaling the complex mixture of compounds in tobacco smoke can cause cancer, cardiovascular disease and lung disease because of damage to the body's DNA. Massive amounts of free radicals in cigarette smoke cause inflammation and oxidative stress, damaging cells, tissues and organs.
•How likely it is that you'll get a smoking-related disease — and how severe the disease will be — is directly related to how long you smoke and your level of exposure to tobacco smoke.
•Tobacco products are powerfully addictive, because of the many types of nicotine receptors in the brain and the complex ways that other chemicals react with nicotine.
•Even low levels of exposure to smoking or secondhand smoke can damage and inflame the lining of blood vessels, which contributes to blood clots, heart attacks and strokes.
•There isn't enough evidence to prove that changing cigarette designs to lower the emissions of certain toxic ingredients will reduce the risk of major disease to smokers.
Coming out 46 years after the groundbreaking surgeon general's report that first alerted the public to the dangers of smoking, the new study focuses on the changes that tobacco smoke causes to the body — not just of smokers, but also those who breathe secondhand smoke.
"There is no safe level of exposure to cigarette smoke," Surgeon General Regina Benjamin said. "The chemicals in tobacco smoke reach your lungs quickly every time you inhale, causing damage immediately. Inhaling even the smallest amount of tobacco smoke can also damage your DNA, which can lead to cancer."
One finding: Tobacco smoke leads to inflammation and injury of tissues throughout the body and, experts say, that leads to many diseases.
"Having a state of chronic inflammation not only increases your risks of heart attacks and strokes, but it's also implicated in cancer and pulmonary disease," said Dr. Stanton Glantz, a cardiologist and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UC San Francisco.
Many people smoke brands like Lucky Strike cigarettes or Camel cigarettes , but they do not realise what effects they have on their health.
The report also finds that, though quitting smoking can reduce your risk of heart attacks and strokes, cutting back doesn't have much of an effect.
"If you're a light active smoker, that's almost as bad as being a heavy active smoker," Glantz said. "That's because of the inflammatory processes occur at very, very low doses."
The report, which gathered research from scientists around the country, comes to six conclusions:
•There is no risk-free level of exposure to tobacco smoke. Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can cause cardiovascular disease and could trigger acute cardiac events, such as heart attack.
•Inhaling the complex mixture of compounds in tobacco smoke can cause cancer, cardiovascular disease and lung disease because of damage to the body's DNA. Massive amounts of free radicals in cigarette smoke cause inflammation and oxidative stress, damaging cells, tissues and organs.
•How likely it is that you'll get a smoking-related disease — and how severe the disease will be — is directly related to how long you smoke and your level of exposure to tobacco smoke.
•Tobacco products are powerfully addictive, because of the many types of nicotine receptors in the brain and the complex ways that other chemicals react with nicotine.
•Even low levels of exposure to smoking or secondhand smoke can damage and inflame the lining of blood vessels, which contributes to blood clots, heart attacks and strokes.
•There isn't enough evidence to prove that changing cigarette designs to lower the emissions of certain toxic ingredients will reduce the risk of major disease to smokers.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
MSU to become tobacco-free
Morehead State University announced today (Nov. 18) that it will become tobacco-free July 1, 2011, joining more than 400 colleges and universities throughout the country that have similar polices.
Based on the recommendations of a committee composed of students, faculty and staff, the University will extend its current policies prohibiting the use of all tobacco products in its buildings to the entire campus, according to President Wayne D. Andrews.
Chewing and smokeless tobacco products also will be included in the ban.
“It is the policy of this University to promote the health, well-being and safety of our students, faculty and staff, as well as visitors to the campus. The University has an opportunity to dramatically impact the health and welfare of the members of our community and guests by making a change in the current campus tobacco practices,” said Dr. Andrews.
The announcement coincides with the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout held annually on the third Thursday in November. According to the American Cancer Society, tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the U.S. It is estimated that the annual cost of tobacco use to an employer averages $3,783 per smoker per year.
Students, faculty and staff will be offered help to quit smoking before the new policy goes into effect. Students can contact the Caudill Health Clinic to begin a cessation program while faculty and staff will be able to receive information on smoking cessation assistance from MSU’s Office of Human Resources.
Based on the recommendations of a committee composed of students, faculty and staff, the University will extend its current policies prohibiting the use of all tobacco products in its buildings to the entire campus, according to President Wayne D. Andrews.
Chewing and smokeless tobacco products also will be included in the ban.
“It is the policy of this University to promote the health, well-being and safety of our students, faculty and staff, as well as visitors to the campus. The University has an opportunity to dramatically impact the health and welfare of the members of our community and guests by making a change in the current campus tobacco practices,” said Dr. Andrews.
The announcement coincides with the American Cancer Society’s Great American Smokeout held annually on the third Thursday in November. According to the American Cancer Society, tobacco use is the single largest preventable cause of disease and premature death in the U.S. It is estimated that the annual cost of tobacco use to an employer averages $3,783 per smoker per year.
Students, faculty and staff will be offered help to quit smoking before the new policy goes into effect. Students can contact the Caudill Health Clinic to begin a cessation program while faculty and staff will be able to receive information on smoking cessation assistance from MSU’s Office of Human Resources.
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