Almost all the countries banned smoking in public places. One of these countries is Japan. It has banned smoking from most public places, including many city streets, but one company has given shelter to the decreasing ranks of tobacco smokers, by opening smokers-only cafes.

Today thick cigarette smoke flies through the ‘Cafe Tobacco’ shops in the heart of Tokyo which is filled with office workers and shoppers looking to take a quick puff, a habit increasingly scowled upon in a country long seen as a smokers’ paradise.
Tadashi Horiguchi, a board director of the coffee shop operator Towa Food Service Co, said: “Nowadays smoking is considered an evil. That’s why we want to provide an oasis for smokers”.
Outside, a red sign with a picture of a smoking cigarette attracted more clients, approximately 600 a day.
In such cafes, smokers don’t have to feel guilty because they smoke and they feel freer because they are surrounded by other smokers, all of them aged over 20 as stipulated by a sign outside.
Not everyone, especially non-smokers, is as enthusiastic about the new tobacco-friendly cafes as are smokers. They reported that it is not healthy to extend smoking places.
For example, Yosuke Hagimori, a health ministry official, said that: “Tobacco contains toxic substances and increases health risks”.
However Japan’s smoking rate is on the decline but still higher than in other developed countries, with some 40 percent of men and 13 percent of women lighting up.
Instead many local governments and institutions have taken anti-smoking measures themselves. Central Tokyo districts have prohibited or strongly discouraged smoking on the streets except for designated areas.
Smoking has also been banned in most Tokyo taxis since last year and in railway stations as of earlier this year. Many bars, cafes and restaurants, however, still have smoking sections, to the annoyance of health campaigners.
Japanese law still stipulates the goal of a “healthy development” of the tobacco industry to evolve income and for stable tax revenue.
Cigarettes now carry warning labels, but they remain much cheaper in Japan than in most other developed countries, with a pack of 20 cigarettes selling for about three dollars.
In general smokers-only cafes help protect the health of those around the smokers but would it help smokers?

Some coal miners’ rights to chew tobacco while working deep underground are on the line Wednesday.
That’s when an arbitrator is scheduled to hear a United Mine Workers of America challenge of a new policy that forbids employees of the Deer Creek mine and the Castle Dale preparation plant from having a pinch between their cheek and gum on the job.

The policy became effective July 1 at the Emery County operations by Energy West Mining Co., the unionized coal mining subsidiary of Rocky Mountain Power, at the behest of its parent companies, PacifiCorp and MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co.

“It is a policy consistent across MidAmerican Energy,” said Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen. “The company is concerned about the health and safety of its employees. A tobacco-free workplace is healthier and safer for everyone.”

Dave Maggio, the union’s international representative from Price-based District 22, which includes Utah, spit on that argument, while acknowledging that some miners are addicted to the product.

“We have guys dying of black lung [disease]. We have guys inhaling diesel fumes on a daily basis. We have guys who suffer back, knee and ankle injuries up the kazoo,” he said. “But we’ve seen no ill effects from chewing tobacco. None. And I’ve been in this industry 30 years.

“Nobody can point to a guy and say, ‘He missed a shift because of chewing tobacco.’ [Company] time and money could be better spent trying to
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alleviate things causing a lot more problems.”

Neither of Utah’s other large coal-mine employers, Arch Coal Inc. nor Murray Energy Corp., have similar prohibitions on smokeless tobacco, which is required to carry labels on its containers that include the warning the product might cause cancer.

The dispute began last December when the company’s director of labor relations informed Deer Creek’s local union president of the tobacco-free policy at all workplaces, effective July 1.

Union officials quickly filed a grievance, contending the policy would violate the collective bargaining agreement covering 276 Deer Creek miners and 17 prep plant workers.

The policy was not a reasonable revision of the agreement, the union said, contending that more than 100 miners — many of whom work eight to 12-hour shifts up to 14 miles underground — are addicted to smokeless tobacco.

Although the policy did make provisions for the remote locations where miners work, designating areas underground where they could chew during breaks and before and after shifts, Maggio dismissed the allowances as impractical.

“Chewing is not like smoking a cigarette,” he said. “You put it in your mouth and keep it all day. It’s not like, ‘Did you take a two-minute chew break?’ That’s not how it works. And there’s just three [designated areas] in the mine, which has 100 miles of tunnel. The odds of making it to one of these is stupid.”

According to court documents, Energy West and the union agreed April 20 to retain arbitrator Fred Butler to hear the matter. The union contends the company pledged not to implement the policy until after Wednesday’s arbitration session in Price, but that on June 18, Energy West officials informed Maggio that corporate higher-ups insisted the policy go into effect July 1.

The union went to federal court, but its efforts to delay policy implementation through a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction were denied.

However, in rejecting the preliminary injunction request, U.S. District Judge Dale Kimball noted that “while Energy West argues that it will succeed at arbitration, the court concludes that the union has sufficiently demonstrated grounds for success on its arguments.”

Kimball ruled against the UMWA motion, in part, because the union could not show that any employees would lose their jobs or face severe discipline before the arbitrator determined whether the policy violated the collective-bargaining agreement.

But he also observed “it is not clear to the court which party will prevail in arbitration … It would be improper for the court to encroach upon the role of the arbitrator,” adding later that if a disciplinary case arises before the arbitrator rules, “the court is willing to revisit the motion.”

© Sltrib

“Business has never been better,” reports Anto Mahroukian, president of JM Tobacco Company, producer of premium cigars and recently, JM’s Hookah tobaccos. According to Mahroukian, “With the economic downturn, everyday cigar smokers are buying three or four value-priced cigars like our JM’s Dominican line, instead of one super-premium cigar.

After they try a few of ours, they tell us and our retailers, ‘Why haven’t I been smoking these all along?’ Our cigars are made of top-quality tobaccos, but their Cuban sandwich bunching … combining long- and short-filler leaves, reduces their price and still delivers a surprisingly opulent smoke.”

The latest product from JM Tobacco is their new JM’s Dominican Honeys line, offered in a 5.5″ x 42 Corona, with a Sumatran wrapper. (Regular JM’s Dominican cigars come in eight sizes and in Sumatran, Connecticut and Maduro wrappers.) Three selections are available, all with popular honey-dipped heads … the Honey, Honey Vanilla, and Honey Rum. Like the regular JM’s Dominican line, the cigars’ heads are pre-cut as a convenience to the smoker. JM’s Dominican Honeys are presented 24 to the box, opposed to the standard 50/box packaging for the JM’s Dominican line. (The latter’s Gordo and Gordo Grande have 24 cigars to the box, due to their 62-ring gauge.) Pricing for JM’s Dominican Honeys follows the company’s philosophy of offering top-quality hand-rolled cigars at value pricing … MSRP is $60 per box of 24, or $2.50 per cigar. Mahroukian says retailers are reporting these new cigars, introduced earlier this year, are already becoming popular with their customers.

Instead of cutting back during the present hard times, JM Tobacco has expanded their factory in Licey, Santiago, Dominican Republic, by 10%, to 15,000 square feet. Mahroukian explains, “The new area will be mainly used for tobacco storage. We can now also ferment leaves there, which gives us extra latitude in our manufacturing process.”

JM Tobacco is showing the new JM’s Dominican Honeys, as well as their other cigar lines and hookah tobacco, at August’s annual tobacco trade show. All products are currently available from the company.

© Examiner

Premium Cigar Store Owners Unite to Fight Proposed St. Louis County Smoking Ban Vote

A countywide smoking ban may be on the November ballot if some St. Louis County council members have their way, over the objections of premium cigar store owners, members of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association.

Clayton, Missouri (PRWEB) July 26, 2009 — A countywide smoking ban may be on the November ballot if some St. Louis County council members have their way, over the objections of premium cigar store owners, members of the International Premium Cigar & Pipe Retailers Association.

“We want to go on record as being against this proposed ban and any legislated smoking ban, for that matter. Government should stay out of private business decisions like this. If a business owner decides to prevent smoking on the premises, that’s fine. It’s his individual right to do so. If government gets involved, pretty soon you’ll have bureaucrats running whole industries like banking and finance, automobile, energy and healthcare,” said Chris McCalla, legislative director of the IPCPR.

St. Louis County council members are expected to continue discussing the issue at their meeting on Tuesday, July 28. Council member Barbara Fraser has proposed putting the issue to a referendum. McCalla makes the point that minorities have rights and smokers are a minority.

“The only thing a smoking ban would do is lead the way in increased unemployment, failed businesses and deprivation of individual rights,” said McCalla.

McCalla says anti-smoking forces often use misinformation and biased research based on junk science provided by organizations that are rarely challenged regarding the source, quality and truth of that research.

“For example, they say there are no safe levels for secondhand smoke. Not true. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is the federal agency charged with maintaining a healthy and safe work environment. OSHA has set safe levels for secondhand smoke that are exponentially higher than the air quality found in average restaurants and bars,” he said.

McCalla explained that IPCPR members are, by and large, small, family-owned businesses who make or sell premium, hand-made cigars, pipes and premium loose tobacco and related accouterments and whose businesses comprise less than five percent of tobacco sales. Nearly 40 of the more than 2,000 IPCPR members live and operate businesses in Missouri.

“Our members pay millions in sales, payroll and excise taxes. Their neighborhood businesses employ thousands of people. Not only would these businesses be put at risk, but employment and businesses like restaurants and bars will suffer, as well, when patrons go to smoker-friendly establishments elsewhere. If smoking is banned – and we certainly are not saying it should be – then fattening foods, drinks and snacks must be banned because obesity is America’s number one health problem,” McCalla said.

Prweb

New Zealand researchers are clashing with US health officials over a new anti-smoking aid, after a world-first trial was run by Auckland University.

The US Food and Drug Administration wants the electronic cigarette banned, but experts here say it does more good than harm.

It looks like the real thing, puffs out a mist that looks like smoke and most importantly, it provides the nicotine kick that smokers crave – but the e-cigarette has one big difference.

“They’re not going to die from an e-cigarette,” says Dr Murray Laugesen. “But they could die tomorrow from a heart attack due to their smoking.”

The FDA, which regulates medical products in the US, isn’t so sure. It says its tests found cancer-causing chemicals in e-cigarettes and wants them banned from sale until more studies are done.

“What’s remarkable actually is the lack of evidence that these products are any better than standard smoking cessation treatments, and secondly the inadequate testing for their toxins,” says Dr Michael Thun, American Cancer Society.

Auckland University has run the first ever trial of the e-cigarettes. It looked at withdrawal symptoms after using one compared to a nicotine inhaler and a regular cigarette.

Researchers can’t reveal the results until they are published in a medical journal, but they told 3 News the FDA is getting unnecessarily alarmed over one ingredient – propalene glycol. It is a chemical used in antifreeze, and can be seen drifting across the stage at rock concerts – but there is no evidence it is harmful.

But that’s not all.

“The carcinogens that we have found have been in very, very small quantity, just above the level of detection,” says Dr Laugesen.

In contrast, every time you take a drag on a cigarette you breathe in 4000 toxins.

At this stage, New Zealanders have to go online and import e-cigarettes, but Dr Laugesen would like to see them more readily available here and says he would not hesitate to recommend e-cigarettes to anyone wanting to quit.

3 News

Irving banker Keith Temple says he wants to quit smoking before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration bans the product helping him beat traditional cigarettes.

After smoking for nearly 40 years and building a two-pack-a-day habit, Temple said he has cut back to about 10 tobacco cigarettes a day by “vaping” electronic cigarettes when he gets the urge to light up. For the past month, Temple said, he has been using the so-called e-cigarettes in his office. They mimic tobacco cigarettes by giving off a vapor.

“I got some looks [from co-workers] the first time,” he said. “But once I explained it, they were fine with it. They thought that anything that would keep me from smoking was a good thing.”

The FDA isn’t so sure.

The agency said Wednesday that an analysis of 19 e-cigarette components distributed by two of the products’ leading marketers show that there are dangers to using them. The analysis found that half the samples contained cancer-causing agents and at least one contained diethylene glycol, an ingredient in antifreeze.

It’s unclear whether the announcement will bring a broader crackdown against e-cigarette distributors, which have been selling the products to U.S. smokers for about four years. The FDA has intercepted 50 shipments of e-cigarettes and product components, 17 of them since March. Most of the products are made in China.

“I think the bottom line here is simple,” said Jonathan Samet, director of the University of Southern California’s Institute for Global Health, during a news teleconference Wednesday. “These are devices of delivering nicotine through unknown magnitude into the body with no proven benefit for cessation and some indication that there may be risks.”

Kyle Newton, president of SS Choice Llc., an online e-cigarette marketer in Colleyville, said he worries that he will run out of stock and not be able to supply his customers because of the FDA’s actions.

“We’d like to get a fair opportunity to market our product and stay in business,” Newton said. “They may not be 100 percent safe, but they are way safer than a tobacco cigarette, according to lab studies. You shouldn’t just slam the hammer down on this product because it’s affecting your tax revenue.”

The FDA has labeled e-cigarettes as unapproved drug-delivery devices. Regulators say the products must be evaluated for safety and go through the same approval process as other nicotine-delivery devices, such as patches, inhalers and gums.

Some distributors have not submitted their products to the FDA for approval because they do not agree that e-cigarettes should be regulated as though they are new pharmaceutical inventions, according to the Electronic Cigarette Association. Some product advocates say the government is acting as a proxy for corporations that see e-cigarettes as a competitor to their smoking-cessation products.

“This appears to be less about public health than it is about public relations,” said Matt Salmon, president of the Washington, D.C.-based group. “I believe there are some special interests that are motivating this. There is a pending lawsuit. I wonder if they are playing to the judge.”

The FDA’s analysis, dated May 4, reviewed products from Njoy and Smoking Everywhere, e-cigarette distributors that are suing the FDA to prevent the government from seizing their products.

FDA officials say they’ve been unable to conclude whether e-cigarettes are safer or deadlier than traditional tobacco cigarettes. Some health experts are concerned about the nicotine dose delivered by the devices and whether the products might be attractive to children because many include flavorings.

Nicotine can raise blood pressure, cause strokes and harm those with underlying health conditions. People cannot go into the store and buy nicotine, said Barry Johnson, a Fort Worth respiratory therapist and a volunteer with the American Lung Association.

“The FDA is not sure these things do what they say, and we want to make sure we know before we release these things to the public,” Johnson said. “This is done with all types of medical devices. When you deal with the government, you deal with them on their terms, not yours.”

E-cigarette marketers also worry that the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, signed by President Barack Obama on June 22, could put the industry out of business by expanding government authority over tobacco products.

If the FDA decides to regulate e-cigarettes by the same standard it has set for new medical devices, that could involve clinical trials costing millions of dollars.

“If the FDA tries to make us go through the same process that drug devices go through, it will probably kill the industry,” Salmon said.

By the numbers The e-cigarette industry is expected to generate more than $100 million in revenue this year.

Texas has 53,000 tobacco-related deaths each year at a cost of $3.5 billion.

Tobacco cigarettes contain tars and about 4,000 other chemicals; about 60 are known carcinogens.

In the U.S., cigarettes directly cause 400,000 deaths annually and 30,000 more by secondhand smoke.

Sources: American Cancer Society, Electronic Cigarette Association

It’s easy enough to buy a smoke at Isa Yakubu’s grocery store on a busy street in Lagos, Nigeria. Never mind if you don’t have much money. Most local merchants are happy to break open a pack and sell cigarettes one at a time — single sticks, as they’re known — for about 10 Nigerian naira, or 7 cents. “St. Moritz is the most popular brand,” says Yakubu. “But [people] also like Rothmans and Benson & Hedges.”

Single sticks go fast at 7 cents each — an especially good price point for kids. And while Yakubu says he doesn’t sell to children, other shopkeepers do. About 25% of teens — some as young as 13 — use tobacco in some parts of Nigeria, double the smoking rate of Nigerian men, and many pick up the habit by age 11. That’s a demographic powder keg, one that means big trouble if you’re a health expert and big promise if you’re a tobacco executive. Both sides agree on one thing, though: across all of Africa, cigarettes are set for boom times. (See pictures of vintage pro-smoking propaganda.)

In recent years, the world has increasingly been cleaving into two zones: smoking and nonsmoking. In the U.S. and other developed countries, Big Tobacco is in retreat, chased to the curbs by a combination of lawsuits, smoking bans, rising taxes and advertising restrictions. Fewer than 20% of adult Americans now smoke — the lowest rate since reliable records have been kept — and a tobacco crackdown is under way in Europe, Canada and elsewhere. In April, Congress boosted federal cigarette taxes threefold, from 32 cents a pack to $1. In June, President Barack Obama signed a law giving the FDA the power to regulate cigarettes like any other food or drug.

But the West is not the world, and elsewhere smoking is exploding. In China, 350 million adults are hooked on tobacco, which means the country has more smokers than the U.S. has people. Smoking rates in Indonesia have quintupled since 1970. In Russia, boys as young as 10 start lighting up. This year, tobacco companies will produce more than 5 trillion cigarettes — or 830 for every person on the planet.

It’s in Africa, however, that the battle for the hearts, minds and lungs of new smokers is being waged most aggressively — and Nigeria offers a telling look at how the fight is unfolding. For all the woes that beset the continent, Africa still enjoys the lowest smoking rates in the world, largely because most people just can’t afford it. In Ghana, the male smoking rate (which in most places in the world is higher than the female rate) is only 8%; in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it’s 14%; in Nigeria, it’s 12%. Compare that with 31% in India, 56% in Malaysia and a whopping 61% in China. But the tobacco industry abhors a vacuum, and in recent years, industry players — principally London-based British American Tobacco, Switzerland-based Philip Morris International and the U.K.’s Imperial Tobacco — have been working hard to fill it. “We’ve done this before,” says Allan Brandt, a professor of the history of science at Harvard University and the author of The Cigarette Century. “When something gets regulated here, we move the risk offshore.” Says Michael Eriksen, a former policy adviser for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “Africa is in play.” (See how many people smoke around the world.)

Spreading the Scourge
Big Tobacco’s footprint in Africa has been hard to miss for a while. British American markets its wares — which include Dunhill and Pall Mall — in a vast crescent sweeping from South Africa to Congo and west to Ghana, as well as throughout North Africa. In 2003 the company planted its stakes deeper, building a $150 million factory in Nigeria. Philip Morris, whose brands include Marlboro and Chesterfield, has a smaller presence on the continent. “We are a minor, minor player,” says spokesman Greg Prager. But that could change. The company does no business in Nigeria, but it controls about 15% of the market across North Africa and has a scattered 10% share elsewhere. It has also built a new factory in Senegal.

That expansion increasingly happens through the single-stick model, and that’s the traffic that causes the most worry. People who buy cigarettes by the stick are typically the poor, the uneducated or the young — all groups less likely to have learned of the perils of smoking. “[A single stick is] much more affordable, and for young people, it’s easier to conceal,” says Babatunde Irukera, an antismoking lawyer working with the Nigerian government.

Tobacco’s younger, shinier cousin – the electronic cigarette – is gearing up for a battle with federal regulators, just as the fledgling industry is getting a foothold in a state built on smoking.

Electronic cigarettes, machines that turn liquid nicotine and flavoring into a vapor, have been sold in the U.S. for two years, and their popularity is surging. But the Food and Drug Administration signaled Wednesday that it might seek to stamp out e-cigarettes in their infancy.

The FDA said it plans to address safety issues, and that could include product recalls or criminal sanctions.

The industry is made up of small firms around the country that mainly sell online. Only one is based in North Carolina, still the country’s No. 1 tobacco producer.

The Charlotte company, Blu Cigs, is already branding itself as “E-Cigarettes 2.0” – and sees its product as a symbol for North Carolina’s changing economy.

Jason Healy, a native Australian with no prior background in the cigarette industry, launched Blu Cigs in May after seeing an electronic cigarette in a Charlotte bar.

Because no burning is involved and no tobacco is used, e-cigarettes are allowed in places their old-school brethren aren’t. In light of North Carolina’s impending smoking ban, Healy said this is the main draw.

The main differences between Blu and its competitors include a carrying case that will recharge the battery and a tip that lights blue instead of red – which Healy says keeps customers out of trouble.

“Before it was ‘Hey! He’s smoking,’” he said. “With the blue light, it’s more, ‘What the hell is that?’”

The FDA, however, found that e-cigarettes contain several toxic chemicals, including an ingredient in antifreeze. Scientists said they tested 19 varieties of electronic cigarettes, many of which contained fruit and candy flavors.

The FDA has blocked importation of electronic cigarettes in some cases, but this hasn’t affected Blu. Currently, the FDA is asking the courts to give it regulatory authority over e-cigarettes.

Health advocates say e-cigarettes are potentially unsafe and can lead kids toward traditional tobacco smoking. Because e-cigarettes are not covered by federal tobacco laws, they are often easier for young people to buy.

Blu Cigs doesn’t market its product as a healthier version of tobacco. Healy mainly promotes Blu as a cheaper alternative to cigarettes. Each nicotine and flavor cartridge costs about $1.

In general, one e-cigarette provides as many puffs as six or seven traditional cigarettes.

With the costs of the battery and other expenses, Healy estimates Blu Cigs costing about $1.25 to $1.50 per the equivalent of a pack of traditional cigarettes, which runs about $4 or $5.

The “starter kit” costs about $60, and has the equivalent of about 350 cigarettes. Target audience: ages 25-35, upwardly mobile and tired of going outside to smoke.

“You’re not a leper anymore,” said Healy, who looks younger than his 34 years. “Who wants to go outside, especially in the winter?”

From tobacco to technology

For 300 years, tobacco was the primary economic driver of North Carolina, and the state is still the top producer of tobacco in the U.S. The second- and third-largest U.S. cigarette companies, R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard Tobacco, are based in North Carolina.

But in 1959, the Research Triangle Park near Durham opened, and technology began to rise as the state’s prominent industry. Soon after, tobacco began a long, steady decline in popularity and importance.

Blu Cigs embodies the change from tobacco to technology, spokesman Steve Goldberg said.

The company says it has been successful in its two months of operation. The main product is the starter kit, which contains a carrying case, batteries, chargers and flavor cartridges. Healy said the company has sold more than 50,000 starter kits and had to stop taking orders for two weeks this month to keep the backlog from piling up.

Blu Cigs employs eight people in Charlotte and more than 200 in the Chinese factory where the product is manufactured. Healy said he expects the Charlotte office – on Archdale Drive – to have more than 20 workers by the end of the year.

The Electronic Cigarette Association, a new trade group, estimates electronic cigarette sales will reach $100 million this year. The group was created three months ago, so it doesn’t have figures for last year. Spokeswoman Amy Linert said the ECA expects sales to continue to grow quickly, as long as the FDA doesn’t shut them down.

Despite the growth, the industry is still small potatoes compared to the tobacco companies.

Altria, which owns Philip Morris USA, brought in nearly $3.9 billion in cigarette sales over the first three months of this year.

But the big three tobacco companies also are losing their customer base. Between 1996 and 2006, annual consumption fell 24 percent, to 371 billion cigarettes.

While tobacco firms aren’t looking to e-cigarettes as their future, they are counting on technology to face the expected consistent decreases in domestic cigarette consumption and declining public approval of smoking.

Philip Morris USA, the largest tobacco company in the country, built a 300,000-square-foot research and development facility in 2007, which sits in the center of a biomedical research park in Richmond, Va.

Winston-Salem-based R.J. Reynolds created a product that heats tobacco instead of burns it, but the company has focused its attention on making products that don’t produce secondhand smoke, don’t require spitting and don’t create a lot of trash. The result has been finely milled tobacco that’s made to be discreet – similar to mints or chewing gum, spokesman David Howard said.

The company also got a patent last year for a machine that inserts a smoker-controlled menthol capsule into regular cigarettes.

Lorillard, based in Greensboro, uses “advanced scientific equipment” to analyze tobacco properties and develop cigarettes with less smoke, according to its annual report.

While the big companies are trying to hold on to profits, Blu Cigs plans to expand. The next step is to distribute abroad, primarily in Europe and the Middle East. Blu Cigs might begin selling in retail stores, but Healy said he wants to see what action the FDA takes before starting that.

Hazardous or healthier?

Federal guidelines prevent the company from marketing the product as a safer alternative to cigarettes, though Healy points out that Blu Cigs don’t have the tar or carcinogens that traditional cigarettes have.

Still, the health effects of e-cigarettes are unknown. Some politicians, like Sen. Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey, have called for the product to be taken off the market until the FDA has approved it.

Dr. Adam Goldstein, director of UNC Chapel Hill’s Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program, said he’s “cautiously worried” about e-cigarettes.

While it’s possible that they’re healthier than regular cigarettes, they’re still a source of addiction and could appeal to younger people. And a new study implied that nicotine could itself be carcinogenic.

“You don’t encourage anyone to develop use of one nicotine product,” Goldstein said. “If a smoker tells me they’re using this instead of smoking, I’ll say, ‘Great, now let’s talk about quitting.’”

There are countries which have pharmacies that sell cigarettes. One of these countries is Needham. But starting with this October, Needham’s pharmacies will no longer be selling cigarettes and other tobacco products to local residents.

It is the third Massachusetts community to do so. For example, Boston voted to ban sales last year, followed by Uxbridge, according to a local anti-tobacco activist. State legislation has also been filed.
Russet Breslau, executive director of Tobacco Free Mass. referring to the ban passed in Needham, said: “We certainly are supportive of it. We think there’s a contradiction for pharmacies benefiting from tobacco sales.”
For those who would debate that such restrictions won’t prevent people from smoking, she said, “It’s a step in the right direction.”
The Needham Board of Health voted to ban cigarette sales in local health-care institutions, saying that the sale of tobacco products conflicts with their mission to promote health and well-being, said Board of Health Chairman Dr. Stephen Epstein.
He added: “It’s a comprehensive tobacco control regulation. We’re not just regulating sale of cigarettes but all tobacco products in town.”
The ban primarily affects the three pharmacies in Needham, though these stores were not singled out in the new regulations, Dr. Stephen explained.
The new rules are firm with state regulations allowing pharmacies with in-store clinics to be considered health-care institutions, and are modeled after initiatives to ban cigarette sales in Boston and San Francisco.
The rules are also in addition to local regulations that prohibit the sale of tobacco products to people under the age of 21.
Epstein reported: “We looked at the regulations and were interested with the marketing of new tobacco based products containing nicotine to minors, blunt papers in particular. Many of many of these products are flavored, packaged attractively and don’t taste like tobacco.”
The Needham vote comes after several months of public hearings and deliberations. The new Needham regulations take effect on October 1st.
Most of people, even smokers consider that the new law in Needham is a right step because in general people go to a pharmacy for to maintain or increase their health. And there are no other products in pharmacies that have a detrimental impact to a person’s health the way tobacco does.