Everyone knows the dark and dangerous side of the tobacco industry. The ill effects of cigarettes on the health of smokers, non-smokers, and the environment are well established. So is it fair or ethical for such a heinous and disgusting product to promote eco-friendly improvements to its packaging?

This is precisely what has happened recently with one of Canada’s leading cigarette brands, du Maurier. Du Maurier is using a more sustainable grade of paper for the outer cardboard packaging and they have removed the traditional inside foil liners with ones made of paper. To promote these green initiatives, du Maurier invested in a full-page color advertisement in a major Canadian magazine.

While it seems laughable that a tobacco company would be trying to paint itself with a shade of green, does this constitute greenwashing?

Gideon Forman of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment said: “Is it green washing? Yes.” According to the ‘Seven Sins of Greenwashing’, the closest sin that du Maurier might be guilty of is the Sin of Lesser of Two Evils. This is where an environmental claim makes consumers feel ‘green’ about a product that is lacking in environmental benefits.

Obviously cigarettes are lacking in environmental benefits. But was the intent of the advertisement to trick people into thinking they were improving the environment by smoking du Maurier cigarettes? Doubtful. My guess is that they are trying to convince existing smokers to try their brand because of their green actions, basically saying ‘if you are going to partake in this senseless habit you might as well use one with green packaging’. Maybe they did some research and found there are enough smokers out there with an environmental conscience to warrant this advertisement.

If they truly are just promoting their recent green packaging without trying to pass off cigarettes as a green product, the greenwashing angle might be unfounded. Yet all of these issues may soon become irrelevant, as wheels are in motion to close the Canadian tobacco advertising loophole that allows ads like this to continue to be published.

© Redgreenandblue

Don’t fret smokers. There are alternative ways that tobacco smokers can save money and avoid the price hike of cigarettes. At least, this is what the Portsmouth Herald raved on the front page of their Sunday edition this morning.

With the increase of 45 cents per pack which will take effect this Wednesday, many individuals are scrambling to stock up while the prices are low. But, the media just took on a new “low” by providing solutions to offset the taxes. They propose: rolling your own cigarettes.

First of all, these taxes are meant for us to improve our standard of living. They were designed to bill people who are choosing to smoke at the cost of their lives and the lives around them. Our country is flooded with enough problems for the people who make healthier choices of living, yet are still scraping to pay bills.

Further more, much of the community that reads the Portsmouth Herald are parents of children in the school systems. These systems strive to help children make smart choices about drugs and alcohol. Every opinionated article has its place, but this front page “helpful hint” overstepped the boundaries of its devoted readers.

So, when a minor is caught rolling tobacco at Portsmouth High School, will that be reported on the front page, too?


Copyright © Examiner

Walking through the door of Sky Hookah Lounge is like entering another world.

One passes from the bustling pavement of commercial Kings Highway in Fairfield into a dim, curtained room carpeted with oriental rugs, where smoke that smells of fruit and honey hangs in the air.

Middle Eastern and American music mingles with the smoke, as people sit around the edges of the small room on cushioned booths, chattering and luxuriously inhaling from large, ornate water pipes. Two young women dance in the center of the room.

Sky is apparently the first hookah lounge in Fairfield County and one of two in the region that opened this month. Trying to brew a new, culturally diverse pastime, the lounges unintentionally stoked up controversy and confusion among local and state officials who are mulling where they fit in with the state ban on smoking in public places.

The confusion is evident in the reactions of Fairfield and Milford’s health departments — both of which initially told the lounges not to serve food or alcohol on the premises but didn’t bar them from opening. Fairfield approved the opening after an inspection.

Milford’s department forced The Olive Tree Hookah Lounge to close June 19, about two weeks after it opened in a small shopping plaza on Bridgeport Avenue, citing state law and city ordinance.

However, the department rescinded that order on Friday, following an appeal by Olive Tree owner Sammer Karout and his attorney.

“Since this is somewhat precedent setting … since there are implications here, we have to approach this in as objective a way as we can,” said Dr. A. Dennis McBride, Milford health director, who’d deemed the lounge “a public health nuisance” earlier in the week.

McBride said his department would inspect the business “promptly” following its opening. “Once we have an inspection … we will be able to make decisions based on that,” he said.

Karout’s Milford attorney, Steve Leo, said his client’s business is not a “public place” as defined by state statute. “I just didn’t see how the city was going to win on that,” he said. “He (Karout) put a lot of time and money into that, so I’m glad it’s not down the drain.”

Hookahs are 3-foot-tall water pipes with charcoal-heated mixtures of tobacco, fruit and/or herbs smoked through hoses. In the case of Sky Hookah, the tobacco-free mixture includes molasses, honey and sugar, owners said.

Karout said there are different types of hookahs, and the ones he serves contain no tar, .05 percent nicotine and about 5 percent tobacco. He planned to reopen Friday night.

Hookah, or “shisha” smoking is a popular pastime in the Middle East — typically accompanied by tea or coffee — as well as in clubs, bars and coffee shops in major U.S. cities and college towns.

But in Connecticut, where smoking in public places — not in private clubs — was outlawed in 2004, there are few hookah lounges, and it is unclear where they fit into the law. The owners of Sky said they knew of other lounges in New Haven, Hartford, Waterbury and Woodbridge, but those establishments weren’t common knowledge.

“No one knows what a hookah is,” said 25-year-old Jimmy Azhari, of North Haven, who co-owns Sky with his cousin, Anwar Malas. “If you go to New York or New Jersey, they’re like grocery stores — they’re on every corner.”

“It’s the social life of it,” said 23-year-old Malas, a Fairfield resident and native of Syria. “The tradition is for people to go relax. It’s not about the hookah.”

Sky patrons said they used to drive long distances, from Stamford to New Haven or even to other states, to smoke communal hookahs, and are happy to have a lounge close by.

“The location has a lot to do with it,” said Ahmed Shilleh, of Stamford. “There’s not really anything like this around. It’s something new to try for everyone.”

Not everyone greeted the concept so happily, however.

McBride indicated Wednesday he wouldn’t be sad if the Olive Tree disappeared in a puff, saying he was concerned about public access.

Karout, who holds dual American and Syrian citizenship and owns the deli next door, said he’d thought he’d jumped through the appropriate hoops and borrowed roughly $150,000 to outfit the lounge, which he runs as a private club.

The Fairfield Health Department looked into state and local regulations and determined that “you can’t have smoking and food service in the same enterprise,” but — sans food and beverage — the hookah lounge could open, said Sands Cleary, Fairfield health director.

Health officials in both towns cited “gray areas” in the law, when it’s applied to hookah lounges.

“This particular type of thing doesn’t fall directly within the language of the regulation,” Cleary said. “These hookah lounges and hookah bars are new to this area, and I bet in a couple of years there will be some legislation proposed to address any public health concerns. I guess it’s the rage in college towns and New York City — it’s very popular there.”

Both area lounges feature belly dancing on weekends. Owners of both said they are typically packed on weekends and screen patrons to ensure they’re at least 18.

State law defines “smoking” as “the lighting or carrying of a lighted cigarette, cigar, pipe or similar device” and makes exemptions from the ban, such as workplace smoking rooms and grandfather provisions for tobacco bars.

Jennifer Squires, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Public Health, said the department issues no special permit or policy for hookah lounges and views hookahs “as dangerous as smoking cigarettes” because smokers inhale more smoke with them.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said his office wasn’t consulted regarding the lounges and he’d been unaware of them until contacted by a reporter last week.

They seem “problematic” under state law, but he’d need to know all the details to know whether they’re within legal boundaries, he said, adding that the smoking ban is typically enforced by local police.

Movies which portray characters who smoke could soon be controlled by an automatic 18 rating while showing in Liverpool.
The main effect of films is to enroll new smokers from among young adults. Movies encourage them to experiment, and once they start experimenting with cigarettes other factors take hold. Movies create the expectation that smoking will turn out okay.

Liverpool Primary Care Trust (PCT) wants to prohibit young people from exposure to smoking actors because they can attract children in starting smoking.
The researchers analyzed the data on 5,300 participants, under 18 years old which smoke in Liverpool, half of whom were influenced by films.
If this legislation will be approved, then the council could urge 18 classifications under the Licensing Act 2003.
The city council decided to approve this new low, and people in the city have been urged to engage in a consultation, which starts in August.
Under the new plan, classic films which portray smoking characters would be unaffected and the policy would only be related new dismisses.
Nevertheless, films about historical figures and those which show a “clear and unambiguous description of the dangers of smoking” would be exempt.
Councilor Malcolm Kelly, chair of the patenting and gambling committee, said: “We were given a presentation earlier this year by the PCT in which they spoke about the high level of young people who smoke in Liverpool and that study showed that young people are more likely to smoke if they were influenced by seeing their favorite stars smoking in films. However, we want to get the views of a wide range of organizations and the public in general before we decide whether to go ahead with this idea.”
Government guidance said that the authorities should only cancel the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) if there are “very good local reasons”.
In its report to the council, Liverpool PCT said the city’s smoking influence was “excessively high” at 29%. The national level is 22%.
It added that research from several countries suggested that smoking in movies was “the most effective of the social influences which lead young people into smoking”.
British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) spokeswoman Sue Clark told, “We have done our own consultation with the public and we specifically asked them about whether smoking in films should be a classification issue – we were told it shouldn’t”.

A club owner is fighting the city of Milford because he said he wants to open a private, hookah club and they are not allowing it due to health concerns.

Since the “customer is always right,” Sam Karout, who owns “Olive Tree Middle Eastern” restaurant in Milford, decided to take a chance on a new business idea.

“Many customers stop by asking about the hookah, if they could smoke a hookah, so the idea crossed my mind,” he said.

“Hookah” is a unique process to smoke flavored tobacco through a water pipe with a long flexible tube. But Sam’s venture is, for now, up in smoke thanks to a visit from the Milford City Health Department.

“Determined that it was unsafe. An unsafe practice, a public health nuisance. No different than cigarette smoking,” said Milford Health Director Dennis McBride.

“I was very angry because I worked so hard since the opening, May 15th, doing lot of complimentary invitations, opening night, cost me a lot of money, working very hard,” Sam said.

Sam contends that he has done nothing wrong since he claims his club is private. Now, his more than $150,000 investment sits as empty as the hookah’s on the countertop waiting to be used.

“Unfortunately, there was a misunderstanding by the Health Department by misinterpreting the law. They thought it was for public, it’s just for members,” he said.

But Sam’s lawyer has already filed an appeal with the city and he is hoping the aromatic flavor of his many tobaccos will fill the room with happy customers, since he still believes they were right in the first place.

“We are not harming society in anyway,” said Sam.

Sam said he hopes he can open this weekend because he is under the assumption that during the appeals process, he can serve his club members.

Dr. Dennis McBride, Milford’s Health Director, said he hopes the action taken today sets a precedent to shutting down other “Hookah” clubs in the interest of public health.

© Wtnh

John McLellan, the lead singer and guitarist of the band The Clintons, doesn’t like smoking, nor does he like to play gigs in bars that allow smoking.

“I like to write fun, goofy songs,” he told a group of students Wednesday at the reACT Teen Summit at Carroll College.

With guitar in hand, he sang them a tune from The Clintons’ recent album “Have Another,” called “She’s a Chimney.”

The song portrays the songwriter’s crush on a woman who smokes – “sucks on heater” – and has a “second-hand accessory.”
McLellan is one of dozens of speakers at the three-day event, which aims to educate students about corporate tobacco companies’ marketing tactics. His session was about songwriting.

“If you want to be a songwriter, actively listen to songs you like and ones you don’t, so you can identify what it is you like or don’t,” he said.

McLellan told the students that writing music is about telling stories about how we relate: to each other, to the environment, to ourselves.

Dani Smith, 17-year-old from Columbus, attended the session on American Indian tobacco use. “We talked about their culture and how it’s manipulated and exploited,” she said.

Smith was upset by the way corporate tobacco uses images of young children in American Indian settings to sell their products.

Tobacco companies use children at powwows, for example, in their advertising campaigns, she said. “It was disturbing.”

Smith said she learned that tobacco is used in American Indian culture for traditional purposes only.

“(Corporate tobacco companies) reach into their private lives and exploit them,” she said. “Now they don’t know it’s only used from traditional purpose, and instead it’s a part of the lifestyle.”

Smith is a member of the teen group and serves on the state board of the Montana Tobacco Use Prevention Program, of which reACT is a part.

Erin Kintop, reACT youth empowerment coordinator, said the entire event was planned and organized around teen suggestions.

“They give us topics and we make it happen,” she said.

Kintop said reACT itself is a completely teen-led movement. What works to reach youths is peer mentoring, she said.

She said if MTUPP can provide a cool outlet, take a different focus on messaging beyond, for example, health risks, it effectively reaches teenagers.

“They aren’t thinking about getting cancer at 40 right now,” Kintop said.

This is Zachary Dieziger’s second year with the core team. A high school junior from Kalispell, Dieziger enjoyed the session about new tobacco products.

He said many girls at his school use the Virginia Slim purse pack. “It’s a box of 20 cigarettes that fit perfectly into a purse,” he said. “A lot of girls at school have them to get them past watching eyes.”

The session also touched on the latest tobacco products – pellets, twisted sticks and film strips that are made from finely ground, flavored tobacco and melt in the mouth.

“It’s how they are responding to the Clean Indoor Air Act,” Dieziger said. “And they are making it easier for teens to use.”

Dieziger admitted she once tried a cigarette.

“I hated it,” he said. “I have no clue why they do it.”

Dieziger believes the summit will make a difference.

“The idea is we can pull away ideas from here and take them back to our communities,” he said.

© Billingsgazette

Despite the recession, global candy consumption is growing. In many countries, the industry giants must battle small players for market share

If you’ve ever tried to find a Snickers bar in Saigon or Hershey’s Kisses in Paris, you were out of luck. While such American favorites as Coca-Cola (KO), Big Macs, and Marlboros can be bought in just about every major city in the world, Americans looking to satisfy a sweet tooth overseas must choose from among such exotic brands as Flake, Freddo, and Curly Wurlys.

The global confectionery market accounted for $150 billion in retail sales in 2008, according to international market researcher Euromonitor. And it’s a market that has grown steadily over the past five years at a 5% compound annual rate. The U.S. is the world’s largest candy consumer, spending more than $8.8 billion on various sweets last year, a 2% increase over 2007. On average, Americans consume about 25 lb. of candy per capita annually, according to the Census Bureau.

The rest of the world likes its sweets, too. As industry experts will tell you, confectionery is broken up into three categories: chocolate, nonchocolate, and chewing gum. Chocolate is by far the largest, with a 55% of the total, while gum holds only a 14% stake but is the fastest-growing segment.

Switzerland is the reigning chocolate champ, where per capita consumption is 25 lb. a year. Britain comes in second, eating 19.4 lb., and Belgium third at 19.1.

Chewing away cravings

So what are the chocolates and candies that people like to eat most around the world? As June is national candy month, BusinessWeek in celebration collaborated with Euromonitor to compile a list of the world’s top 25 best-selling candy brands by country. The results were fascinating. For example, did you think that truffes au chocolat were the most popular candy in France? If you did, you were wrong. The winner is Hollywood chewing gum.

One of the reasons behind the surge in gum sales is the tough anti-tobacco stances that many governments around the world are taking, especially in countries such as France and Italy where smoking remains widespread. Increasingly unable to smoke indoors or looking for a cigarette alternative, many smokers are taking up chewing gum.

The global economic downturn may have caused many consumers to cut discretionary spending, but candy proves to be an exception. Nielsen categorizes candy as among the top five recession-proof foodstuff categories, alongside seafood, dry pasta, beer, and pasta sauce. “People have a special relationship with candy, especially those who have grown up with it,” says Michael Allured, publisher of Manufacturing Confectioner, a trade magazine. “It’s comforting and relatively inexpensive.”

Sweets skirmishes

The candy business is dominated by global giants. For years Britain’s Cadbury (CBY) battled it out for the top spot with Nestlé (NSRGY) based in Vevey, Switzerland. But the April 2008 acquisition by privately held Mars of Chicago chewing gum maker Wm. Wrigley Jr. for $23 billion propelled Mars from No. 5 in 2001 to No. 1 in 2008.

Emerging markets have seen particular growth in recent years, leading some multinationals to more aggressively penetrate these markets in an effort to increase their market share. Yet while the biggest companies and brands enjoy supremacy in multiple markets—Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate bar, for example, is the best-seller in Australia, Britain, and India—they still enjoy only a 42% market share worldwide. That leaves smaller, local manufacturers like Hsu Fu Chi International in China and Tiger Brands (TBSJ.DE) in South Africa to enjoy dominant market share in their home countries.

© Businessweek

Cigarettes are now under federal control and maybe that will cut down on the incidence of smoking. The Food and Drug Administration will be able to reduce – but not eliminate – nicotine content, further constrain advertising, and prohibit flavorings that attract young smokers.

Yet no one I know who smokes, or smoked, was ever seduced into the habit by advertising or candy-flavored cigarettes. I didn’t even know there were candy-flavored cigarettes, a concoction as appealing to me as candy-flavored coffee.
Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesU.S. President Obama speaks about tobacco legislation in the Rose Garden at the White House on June 12, 2009 in Washington, DC.

“Kids today don’t just start smoking for no reason,” said President Obama when he signed the bill.

“They’re aggressively targeted as customers by the tobacco industry. They’re exposed to a constant and insidious barrage of advertising where they live, where they learn and where they play.”

Maybe that was Obama’s experience; It wasn’t mine. I smoked for 43 years before quitting in 2002. I was addicted, and I’m sure that was the intent of the people who made Marlboros, but the Marlboro Man didn’t exist at the time — and I certainly didn’t relate to him. The first and only time I was on a horse I was scared silly; I’ve never had a tattoo and think Stetsons are silly.

It started with my parents. They smoked until long after I was an adult. Chesterfields. Unfiltered. I know advertising didn’t lead me to smoking because, back then, television advertising of cigarettes was permitted and Chesterfields were represented by a pair of dancing girls in cigarette pack costumes.

You could only see their legs. Long, beautiful legs — and they certainly had an impact on me, but not what ad folks expected. My pre-teen imagination reacted in horror to the idea the lovely contents of those dancing cigarette packs would be set afire and turned into smoke. I could barely watch. I could never smoke Chesterfields.

But to see the two most important adults in my life smoke regularly in our home conditioned me — not necessarily to smoke — but not to think odd the idea of sticking stuffed paper in my mouth and setting it aflame.

So, when the real Seducer finally got to me, I had no problem at all with trying my first cigarette.

His name was Chip, the tallest, best-looking kid in eighth grade. Girls were attracted to Chip the way politicians are attracted to cameras. He also had a gorgeous, artistic sister, and parents straight out of “Father Knows Best” — and they didn’t smoke.

Mostly in hope of meeting girls, I became Chip’s friend. We’d roam the neighborhood and invariably he would attract a knot of admirers. One day, a small group of pre-teeners started to follow us and I bet that, if we split up, they would follow me, not him. We agreed to meet back at my house.

I arrived alone and unfollowed. Chip showed up later, gracious in triumph. The girls, he said, were not very interesting. But then he reached into his pocket, took out a pack of cigarettes, deftly flicked his wrist to pop one up from the pack, took it in his mouth and lit it with a shiny flame-thrower I would later learn was a Zippo lighter.

“Here,” he said, repeating the wrist flick but, this time, in my direction.

All the FDAs on Earth could not have stopped me from sliding that cigarette the rest of the way out of Chip’s pack, putting it into my mouth and lighting it up. It didn’t taste like candy; It was awful. I choked, but I was an immortal young boy irrevocably crossing one more line into adulthood, with Chip as my Virgil.

No advertising persuaded me. No flavoring. Just parents who set a bad example and good old-fashioned peer pressure.

I finally quit because of a different sort of pressure. Not from those who exiled me outside to smoke. Nor those who banned smoking in my office or in restaurants. But from my kids. They nagged me and my son — whose birthday is Friday — even devised a bizarre plan to interrupt his doctoral studies to become a weight lifter if I didn’t quit.

When I began smoking, I was 13. The Surgeon General’s report hadn’t yet been published and, even if it had, I would have ignored it. Teenagers live forever and, since Byron, believe there is romance in a short life.

But, when I quit, I was 55, and I knew I wasn’t going to live forever, I knew there is nothing romantic about death – and I had a lot more to live for than I had 42 years earlier. That was a far greater incentive to quit than anything dreamed up in Trenton or Washington.
© Nj

It’s been almost 12 years since Joe Camel retired. A legal settlement in 1998 prohibited the cool iconic cartoon character from being used in packaging and advertising. It turns out that Joe Camel was becoming as recognizable to kids as Mickey Mouse.

On Monday, President Obama signed into law sweeping legislation that puts the FDA in charge of the marketing and sale of tobacco products. The new law also gives the FDA the power to regulate what’s put in those products, including not only nicotine, but also candy and fruit flavorings marketed toward young people.

In 2006, R.J. Reynolds, the makers of Camel cigarettes, agreed to stop selling flavored cigarettes with names like “Twista Lime” and “Mocha Taboo.” Now, all tobacco companies will have to put an end to the subtle practice of luring new, mostly young smokers, with flavorings and fancy packaging. Keeping tobacco out of the hands of young people is the most important part of the new bill.

On Monday, when Obama signed the bill, he said: “The decades-long effort to protect our children from the harmful effects of smoking has emerged victorious.” The most important issue in the new legislation, he said, is to reduce the number of new smokers in the future.

On Tuesday, however, in a White House press conference, Obama admitted that he was struggling with kicking the habit himself, saying “I’m 95% cured.” He was responding to a reporter’s question on the subject.

The reporter, Margaret Talev of McClatchy Newspapers, framed her question like this: “As a former smoker, I understand the frustration and the fear that comes with quitting. But with the new law that you signed … regulating the tobacco industry, I’d like to ask you a few questions … How many cigarettes a day do you smoke? Do you smoke alone or in the presence of other people?” She then went on to ask Obama if the new law that he signed on Monday “should help you quit. If so, why?”

Obama’s response: “The new law that was put in place is not about me. It’s about the next generation of kid’s coming up.”

The new law that gives the FDA the authority to ban all cigarettes from having candy and fruit flavors takes effect this October. The law will also put an end to marketing practices by tobacco companies such as sponsoring sporting and entertainment events using tobacco logos or brand names, or giving away clothing or promotional items bearing the logo or brand name of a tobacco company.”

Years ago, Camel had a T-shirt promotion. I still have the shirt with a giant picture of Joe Camel on the front. It was pretty cool at the time. President Obama, like Joe Camel, is a cool and iconic character. We don’t need images of him smoking. He’s a role model to kids, and it’s counterproductive. And yet, after yesterday’s news conference, in between talking about the economy, health care, nuclear proliferation and global warming, Obama was talking about his own nicotine habit.

He admitted that although he has backtracked on the smoking issue, he does so in private. So why bring it up in the first place? Most news sources, however, ran with the story. That seems fair. After all, once it was brought up, it was a legitimate news story. However, some Web sites ran photos of Obama smoking.

There’s the famous one from the Time magazine college photos of a young Obama looking cool with a cigarette dangling from his mouth. Then there’s the undated one that ran as part of a story at Examiner.com, with the caption, “Obama takes a Presidential smoke break.”

Other photos have surfaced from the past, and although some are obviously photo-shopped, some are real. The one that popped up yesterday in the Examiner looks real and it looks recent. Is there really a good reason to run it? Images of the President smoking should not be made public.

Barack Obama is bigger than Joe Camel ever was. Maybe even bigger than Mickey Mouse.

© Tothecenter