150-plus nations agreed this weekend to cut lobbyists’ ties to government.
from the November 24, 2008 edition
JOHANNESBURG, south africa -
One hundred sixty nations, many of them in the developing world, have vowed to stand up to the tobacco industry and its efforts
to water down antitobacco laws.
Bolstered by a 2005 global treaty, sponsored by the World Health Organization – the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control
Read the rest of this entry »

Walgreen Co.
spokesman Michael Polzin said his company feared that the tobacco ban would have consequences beyond the sales of cigarettes.
“Many times, a person who smokes will come in and buy a package of cigarettes and some other items,” Polzin said in an interview, “so we lose not only the tobacco sale, but those other items they also pick up on the same shopping trip.”
The most fervent opposition to the regulations emerged from the owners Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON-A proposal to give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products appears dead for the year, but anti-smoking advocates say they expect it to pass in 2009.
The measure passed the House this summer with overwhelming support, but a threat from Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., to block it and a veto threat from the White House helped stall it in the Senate.
The Senate left town last week without bringing it up for a Read the rest of this entry »

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 — Democrats are planning a new initiative to give the FDA the power to regulate tobacco.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) , chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said today he will introduce the legislation next month to give the agency regulatory control over tobacco.
following a Families USA briefing on healthcare issues facing the new congress.
A bill authorizing the FDA to regulate labeling, marketing, transport, Read the rest of this entry »

Editorial: Shining example for use of tobacco money? Right here
Monday, November 24, 2008
It’s obscene. Of the $61.5 billion paid by Big Tobacco in a 1998 class-action lawsuit, only one-third has gone to health care and only 4 percent to anti-smoking efforts.
An Associated Press analysis finds money going to such things as a museum in Alaska, a Niagara, N.Y., golf course and a dog catcher in Lincoln, Neb.
It’s a black eye Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re selling a product known to kill people, you face
a knotty marketing problem: You must somehow persuade your customers to keep paying for it, and often pay more, but never exactly admit just how deadly it is. If you’re the tobacco companies, the solution is simple: You lie.
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has dealt a sharp legal blow to the nicotine fibmasters, clearing the way for a bunch of potentially costly lawsuits, the next logical Read the rest of this entry »

A pack-a-day smoker for 30 years, Teri James, of Midvale, was ready to kick her habit. Her timing was serendipitous: a trip to the doctor’s office to get Wellbutrin and nicotine patches revealed a tumor in her right lung.
“When my doctor called and said you’ve got a spot, I thought: ‘Oh my gosh. I’ve gone and done it,’” she said.
The face of the Utah Department of Health’s TRUTH anti-tobacco campaign, James, 54, has been cancer-free for four years Read the rest of this entry »

Federal tobacco policy could soon be in for some big changes. High on the list: increasing cigarette taxes to fund health insurance for children, and giving the FDA the power to regulate cigarettes.
has an update that says Democrats’ control of the White House and Congress will likely be enough to push the changes through.
Sen. Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.) has long been pushing a
(cosponsored by then-Senator Obama) that would give the FDA power Read the rest of this entry »

Even Barack Obama — he of the compulsive exercise regimen and workout-video-worthy physique — hasn’t been able to escape the clutches of nicotine. The president-elect, whose struggle to give up cigarettes is well documented, still sneaks an occasional smoke. That cigarettes can ensnare someone as disciplined as Obama speaks to their potency. It is inconceivable, then, that the most deadly product legally sold in the United States is exempt from Read the rest of this entry »

,
Feb. 18
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The tobacco industry has unleashed its most aggressive marketing campaigns aimed at women and girls in over a decade, according to a report issued today by a coalition of public health organizations. The report warns that these new marketing campaigns are putting the health of women and girls at risk and urges Congress to regulate tobacco marketing by passing legislation granting the U.S. Food and Drug Read the rest of this entry »