Smokers should get graphic warnings of their risks

It’s one of the most addictive and lethal drugs that humans abuse, killing far more Americans every year – 440,000-plus – than all illegal drugs combined.

Tobacco – specifically in its most popular delivery system, cigarettes – also plays a major role in rising health costs. Lawmakers and health officials know they can’t outlaw tobacco; about 20 percent of American adults are addicted to it. So they’re trying to do the next best thing: Prevent as many young people from getting hooked and persuade as many smokers as they can to stop.

The best way to do that is to make cigarettes expensive; smoking rates drop a little every time cigarette taxes go up. But another strategy has been found effective in more than 20 countries: graphic health warnings on cigarette packages – ones so big, colorful and disturbing that smokers can’t miss them.

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed nine such graphic warning labels to be placed on cigarette packages beginning this fall, along with a stop-smoking hotline number.

But the tobacco industry is fighting that requirement in a federal appeals court, saying it goes beyond factual information into anti-smoking advocacy. An earlier court had ruled in Big Tobacco’s favor.

As the federal agency tasked with regulating tobacco products, the FDA should advocate for less smoking. Even nonsmokers pay for smoking, through higher health care costs and lost economic productivity – an estimated $193 billion per year. It’s the leading preventable cause of disease, disability and death, and this addictive, lethal drug certainly would not be legal if it were just coming on the market today.

The images on graphic warning labels vary from country to country, but the result is the same: They work. Take Thailand, for instance. After it started running the labels, the percentage of smokers who said that the warnings made them more likely to quit rose from 31 percent to 46 percent.

During that same period in Malaysia, which ran small labels similar to ones that appear in the United States, smokers reported they were actually less likely to quit. The FDA estimates the new labels would discourage more than 200,000 U.S. smokers in the first few years after they appear.

Some critics say that the labels don’t tell people anything they don’t already know, that smokers are aware that they risk lung cancer and as consenting adults don’t need the government playing nanny.

But studies show that many people aren’t aware of all of smoking’s health risks, which include oral cancer, heart disease, stroke and fetal damage. Graphic labels can provide more information than small written messages and make cigarette packages less attractive. Every time a smoker picks up the package, the health-risk message is reinforced. For at least some smokers, that can lead to reduced smoking or quitting.

Commercial speech has never enjoyed the same level of constitutional protection as individual speech. The court hearing this case should rule in favor of Americans’ health, not Big Tobacco’s profits.

CN helps launch Tobacco Free campaign in Pryor

The Cherokee Nation has joined with the Pryor city and school officials to launch a 24/7 Tobacco Free campaign to prevent students and residents from smoking or dipping.

“It takes communities working together to ensure the next generation will enjoy a health life and Pryor is an examples of what it takes to truly make a difference in the health of our families and communities,” CN Healthy Nation Director Lisa Pivec said.

The campaign coincides with this year’s National Public Health Week theme – “A Healthier American Begins Today: Join the Movement.” Communities all over the country, including Pryor, have take action against tobacco use and other preventable diseases. The public health week is observed as a time to recognize the contributions of public health and highlight issues that are important to improving individual communities.

CN Healthy Nation helped Pryor develop a policy that took the schools and the city to a tobacco-free environment 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The tribe also provided signs, money and technical training to help facilitate the project.

“We have partnered with Cherokee Nation on several projects and they have been great to work with,” said Laura Holloway, Pryor’s health and wellness director. “Both Pryor Schools and Health Nation really work hard to better the overall health of the community and going tobacco free has just been one of the many successes.”

Holloway said smoking and dipping were issues in Pryor schools that needed to be addressed.

“Like other schools in the state, dipping is really a big area of concern because of the sporting aspect,” Holloway said. “Tobacco education has been the key in teaching kids about the health effects of tobacco.”

Court overturns $79.2M award in R.J. Reynolds smoking case

A Florida state appeals court overturned a $79.2 million jury award to the daughter of a deceased smoker, saying that the damages to be paid by Winston-Salem-based R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. were excessive, according to The News Service of Florida.

The 2010 jury award was part of thousands of lawsuits against cigarette makers stemming from a 2006 Florida Supreme Court decision that established findings about the health dangers of smoking and past misrepresentation by the tobacco industry.

The jury had awarded $7.2 million in compensatory damages and $72 million in punitive damages to Dianne Webb, the daughter of James Cayce Horner, who began smoking as a teen in the 1930s and smoked RJR cigarette brands before dying of lung cancer in 1996, according to the News Service.

The 1st District Court of Appeal based in Tallahassee overturned the award, saying that the damages assessed by the jury were excessive, and sent the case back to the lower court to determine a reduced amount of damages.
In a statement, RJR said that the decision limits the amounts a Florida jury can award for pain and suffering, and that the trial courts are obligated to exclude evidence and arguments "that are meant to inflame the jury."

The News Service of Florida reports that this is the second time in less than two months that the appeals court ordered the reduction of a large judgment against RJR, noting a $40.8 million award of punitive damages was overturned as excessive.

Bulgaria's largest cigarette maker Bulgartabac plans to increase exports to Middle East

Bulgaria's largest cigarette maker Bulgartabac plans to export a total of 15.5 billion cigarettes to the Middle Eastern market this year and achieve a further 7% export growth to the region in 2013.

The company has pointed out in a statement that it has achieved a double digit growth in its exports to the Middle East since 2008 – by 45% in 2008 and 2009, by 115% in 2010 and by a further 25% in 2011.

Bulgartabac recently took part in the World Tobacco Middle East event in Dubai together with some 100 other producers, Novinite.com reports.

Tobacco exec says he destroyed research

Imperial Tobacco's general counsel was involved in destroying research documents written by the cigarette industry on the health risks of their products, Quebec Superior Court heard Monday.

Testifying at the $27-billion class-action trial against the industry, retired lawyer Roger Ackman, 73, said he also hired Montreal lawyer Simon Potter "to help him."

Potter is defending Rothmans Benson & Hedges in the class action, one of three companies being sued. Strangely, he is also to testify about his role in destroying documents.

His name also appears in a 2006 United States Federal Court judgment that found U.S. cigarette companies guilty of fraud. The judge in the case noted that lawyers, Potter among them, played a key role in deceiving the public by putting in place, then carrying out, a policy of destroying documents.

Ackman, who went all the way to the Quebec Court of Appeal to get out of testifying at this trial but lost, dodged several questions Monday and when he did answer, favoured Imperial Tobacco, said Superior Court Justice Brian Riordan.

Ackman, who left the company in 1999 after about 29 years on the job, said an agreement existed between Imperial Tobacco and its major shareholder, British American Tobacco, "to destroy documents on condition we were given access to the documents."

Gordon Kugler, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, asked Ackman how he would know what documents were available if theirs were destroyed.

"I don't know, it was a long time ago," Ackman replied.

"Why were lawyers involved in the destruction of research documents?" Kugler asked.

"I don't have an answer for that," Ackman said. "That was the way it was done."

Ackman, who was a member of the company's management committee, said he never read any of the research documents. They stemmed from studies conducted in the industry's own laboratories that showed smoking was addictive and caused cancer and other diseases. The research was kept secret.

The trial, which began last month and is expected to last at least two years, involves about two million Quebec smokers and is the largest claim in Canadian history. The plaintiffs allege the cigarette industry made and sold a product it knew was dangerous.

They also allege the companies stirred up a scientific controversy about the effects of tobacco products while playing up the alleged benefits associated with their use, built a common front against revealing the risks and hazards related to the consumption of tobacco products and specifically targeted youth to buy tobacco products.

MP becomes 1st state to ban Gutka products containing tobacco

With increasing number of mouth cancer cases in the country, Madhya Pradesh has become the first state to ban all Gutka products which contain tobacco or nicotine under a new law governing food safety standards.
The ban came into effect from April 1.

The state food secretary has also called for initiating action under the rules against all those indulging in sale and manufacture of Gutka products containing Tobacco and Nicotine.

Madhya Pradesh is the first state to ban Gutka under the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition & Restrictions on sales) Regulation 2011 notified by the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

Goa was the first state to ban Gutka under Public Health Act earlier.

The Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) notification effective August 5, 2011, called as Food Safety & Standards (Prohibition & Restrictions on sales) Regulation 2011, wherein Rules 2.3.4 states that no food article shall contain tobacco or nicotine in the products.

Under the Food Security and Standard Assessment Act, the food and drug administration can impose a penalty of Rs 25,000 on any person found selling Gutka.

India has the highest prevalence of oral cancer globally, with 75,000 to 80,000 new cases of a year. Gutka sold in small pouches across the country has become a very serious health hazard and its easy availability and low prices make it popular among youth and women.

Its flavoured taste, easy availability and low price as well as the attractive marketing ploy by companies also attracts children.