Famed cigarmaker Ernesto Perez-Carrillo is still a few months away from debuting the inaugural cigar from his newly formed company, but the legendary cigarmaker is providing a taste of his unique approach with the launch of an innovative “Coming Soon” website that mashes up Google Maps with real-time short messaging service Twitter.

The new site (www.epcarrillo.com) offers the first look at his new company, E.P. Carrillo, and is constructed in such a way as to celebrate and propagate the passion that people all over the world have for cigars. The temporary website, which acts as placeholder until the full website launches late next month, “scrapes” Twitter to capture and display any “Tweets” that mention the word “cigar” or its euphemisms in real-time anywhere in the world. By using Google Maps, the site then layers the Twitter information over a map to show exactly where that person is located.

Considered one the world’s premier cigarmakers, based mainly on his success in creating the famed La Gloria Cubana cigar, Perez-Carrillo announced recently that he would forego retirement to start his own boutique brand of cigars under his newly formed company. His limited-edition inaugural cigar is expected to be available for sale in December.

Until then, his newly unveiled website will serve to inform, update and engage cigar lovers while they await the introduction of E.P. Carrillo Edicion Inaugural 2009.

“The making of cigars is still rooted in old-school techniques, but the marketing of a cigar brand has evolved tremendously to the point where our creativity and communications are not constrained by any means,” said Perez-Carrillo. “We wanted to launch this brand with a website that was truly unique — one that not only would capture the essence of this brand, but to somehow capture the passion that cigar smokers have for cigars.”

The main website which launches in October will be the first brand site to be entirely built using the Google Maps interface. Ernesto and DeVito Verdi felt an interactive map would be a great way to share the story behind this new brand. The Google Maps API also lets us include some interactive features that support the larger cigar community. One example is a “Places To Smoke” this page allows cigar fans to upload their favorite spots for enjoying cigars.

Fans can also partake in a geographic journey, as they follow the path from the tobacco farms in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras and Ecuador (where the E.P. Carrillo tobacco is grown), to the factory in the Dominican Republic where the cigars are rolled. Cigar retailers also benefit from this format because the platform pulls in live data from Google, keeping the information current and correct.

“Cigar smokers have such a strong connection to Ernesto that we felt it necessary to create a site that strengthened that passionate bond,” said Tyler DeAngelo, digital creative director at DeVito/Verdi, the agency that created the site. “This is not your typical site to support a cigar brand — or any brand — but then again, this not a typical cigarmaker, or cigar.”

Source: DeVito/Verdi

The Food and Drug Administration’s recent nationwide ban on flavored cigarettes has many USM students questioning the government’s judgment.

The ban went into effect at midnight on September 21 and applies to all types of flavored cigarettes, with the exception of menthol cigarettes. The FDA hopes to prevent minors from getting hooked on cigarettes by removing products that they believe target the younger crowd in the market.

Many students have mixed feelings about whether the ban will be effective in accomplishing its goal of keeping minors from smoking. Rachel Ross, a junior graphic communications major from Vicksburg, Miss., said, “I figure if someone’s going to smoke, they’re going to do it regardless. But I don’t support smoking, so it doesn’t hurt me at all to see flavored cigarettes banned.”

Anna Beth Rowe, a freshman from Hattiesburg majoring in microbiology, has similar sentiments. “I agree that something should be done about cigarette’s appeal to minors and the availability of cigarettes to minors,” she said, “but I don’t necessarily see how this will help anything.”

Other students feel that the government is overstepping its bounds by banning a specific type of cigarette. “I don’t think the government should have control over what we as citizens smoke,” Rob Miller, a senior speech pathology major from Fairhope, Ala., said.

“A flavored cigarette is no more dangerous than a regular cigarette, so they shouldn’t ban one type and not another.”

Jonathan Nowacki, a junior from Biloxi, Miss., agrees. “As a smoker, I wholeheartedly disagree with the decision to ban flavored cigarettes,” the religion major said.

“Flavored cigarettes present no more threat than other cigarettes.”

“It makes even less sense that they ban them since there’s been so much talk about the legalization of marijuana.”

Some students agree that the ban on specific types of cigarettes is not helpful, but think that other considerations should be taken into account. Zach Mansell, a junior economics major, said, “I don’t think the government should be making that kind of decision for us, but since we’re looking at nationalizing healthcare, I think we should prevent preventable diseases.”

K-J Lockley, a junior entrepreneurship major, considered other factors and formed a considerably different opinion. “I don’t believe that interfering with a major industry is a good idea during a major economic crisis,” the Hattiesburg native said.

Ruth Poe, a junior history and psychology double major from Vicksburg, may have summed up student feelings on the issue best: “It doesn’t really make any sense to me. I don’t really smoke cigarettes at all, but I don’t see the point of banning the flavored ones.”

Cell phones are used by an estimated 275 million people in the United States and 4 billion worldwide.

A recent review of studies assessed whether there was epidemiologic evidence for an association between long-term cell phone usage and the risk of developing a brain tumor.

In order to be included in the analysis, studies were required to have been published in a peer-reviewed journal, included participants who had used cell phone for 10 or more years, and analyzed the side of the brain tumor relative to the side of the head preferred for cell phone usage. Eleven long-term epidemiologic studies fit the criteria.

The results indicated that using a cell phone for 10 or more years approximately doubles the risk of being diagnosed with a brain tumor on the same side of the head as that preferred for cell phone use.

Iowa senator Tom Harkin, newly empowered to investigate health matters as chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, has promised to probe deeply into any potential links between cell phone use and cancer.

Harkin, who took over the committee after the death of Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy, said he was concerned no one has been able to prove cell phones do not cause cancer. A staffer said the senator became concerned by a report from the Environmental Working Group showing that radio wave emissions vary from one cell phone brand and model to another, as well as some reports suggesting there might be a link.

September 29 2009

ANAND: Three partners of a tobacco trading firm from Umreth town of the district has been accused of Rs 85 lakh graft. As per a complaint at
Umreth police station on Sunday, the traders, all of one family, have left the country after the fraud.

Police said, that partners of Ashabhai Gopalbhai and Sons, a tobacco trading firm in Umreth, had taken a loan of Rs 85 lakh from Central Bank of India branch of the town against an equally valued stock of tobacco on March 23, 2006.

However, after paying a few instalments, the firm stopped making repayments. Partners Dinesh Amba Patel, Kashi Patel and Sunil Patel allegedly sold off the stock without telling the bank and fled to a foreign country.

As notices sent by the bank went unanswered for a long time, present manager Kalpana Vaidya registered a case of cheating against all three partners at Umreth police station.

source: sandesh

Government’s move to increase to cost of alcohol and tobacco will help save lives, says Minister in the Ministry of Finance Mariano Browne.

Browne defended the increases at the Senate sitting yesterday saying that Government intends to promote healthy living and in effect reduce the amount of money it spends on health care.

He also said this measure would prevent young adults from consuming too much alcohol and tobacco.

“We are acutely aware and we are sensitive to the fact that cheap booze puts it in easier reach of young adults and in some instances children. On this basis alone we consider that the new rates on excise duties on alcoholic beverages and tobacco are indeed long overdue and well justified,” he said.

He said this initiative will steer young smokers and drinkers away from these habits as they tend to be more responsive to price.

“Raising the duties on alcoholic beverages and on cigarettes is justified because the $1.6 billion on tobacco and alcohol tax revenue over the past three years does not even come close to off-setting the staggering public health and safety cost of alcohol and tobacco consumption,” he added.

Browne stressed that alcohol consumption causes a number of diseases to the heart, stomach and liver.

With respect to smoking, Browne said people who stop the habit even well into middle age avoid the risk of lung cancer. He said those who stopped smoking before avoid 90 per cent of the risks related to tobacco consumption.

“It is in fact this Government’s objective to reduce the financial budget of the State for health care treatment of medicinal or medical conditions associated with lifestyle health risks that emanate from alcohol and tobacco consumption,” said Browne.


© September 29th 2009 Trinidadexpress

UTICA, New York – A strong majority of Americans want to see electronic cigarettes regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (59%), but nearly half (47%) say the smokeless devices should be an option available to people trying to quit smoking, similar to patches, gum and lozenges currently on the market, and that number increases to 57% among those who have heard about ecigarettes prior to taking the poll.

The Zogby Interactive poll of 4,611adults was conducted August 28-31 and carries a margin of error of +/- 1.5 percentage points. Margins of error are higher in sub groups.

In the hunt for a safer cigarette, electronic cigarettes, often referred to as ecigarettes, are becoming a popular option among those either trying to quit or who are looking to replace standard tobacco smokes with an alternative that manufacturers claim to be safer. Ecigarettes vaporize a solution often containing nicotine, but there is no smoke, just odorless water vapor, and produce almost no dangerous carcinogens.

Almost half of all respondents (48%) say they have heard of electronic cigarettes. About a third of those polled (35%) say that because electronic cigarettes produce no smoke, they should be allowed in places where smoking is currently prohibited, while about half (46%) say they should not.

Men who have heard of ecigarettes are far more likely than women who have heard about them to say they should be an option available to people trying to quit smoking (65% vs. 49%), and only one percent of those polled say they have used an ecigarette, but 16% overall say they would try one if they were given a chance, and 81% say they would not. First GlobalsTM those age 18-29, are the most likely age group to say they would try an ecigarette if given the chance (25%) compared to just 8% of those 65 and older who say the same. Respondents who are single (23%) are almost twice as likely as those who are married (12%) to say they would try it.

The D.C. Council is eyeing an extension of the city’s anti-tobacco prohibitions into public space, allowing all private property owners to ban smoking outside their buildings — including the public sidewalk.

The proposed legislation, a major expansion of the District’s smoke-free law, sets 18 as the legal age to purchase or possess tobacco products, requires retailers to post signs warning of the dangers of smoking, ramps up enforcement of sales to minors and authorizes smoking bans up to 25 feet from the wall of any private property — residential or commercial.

The goal of that last provision is to disperse packs of smokers who congregate outside office buildings, said Councilman Phil Mendelson, who introduced the bill with Councilwoman Yvette Alexander. A 25-foot ban, under the measure, could encompass an adjacent sidewalk.

“I want the owner of the property to be able to say ‘no’ if he wants to,” Mendelson said. “We’re not prohibiting smoking. We’re saying the owner can say no, even if it’s on the sidewalk.”

But property owners are unclear whether they could legally boot smokers off the sidewalk and into the street, said W. Shaun Pharr, senior vice president of government affairs with the D.C. Apartment and Office Building Association.

“We have nothing but good feelings for the intent here, but it’s public space,” Pharr said. “We don’t really have the right or the authority or control over that public space between the wall of the building and the sidewalk. I just think there’s some legal ambiguity we’ll still need to clear to up.”

John Banzhaf, a George Washington University law professor and longtime anti-smoking activist, said the District was legally in the right.

“This is aimed at the so-called congregation around the door,” the professor said. “That’s the real problem. I don’t see people zigzagging down the street.”

Also under the bill, retailers nabbed selling tobacco products to minors face fines and possible jail time plus mandatory license suspension or revocation. Minors caught attempting to purchase cigarettes, or in possession of a tobacco product, face fines as high as $500, up to 25 hours of community service and forfeiture of their smokes.

The provision will be difficult to enforce, said Pete Fisher of the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids.

“We think the burden should primarily be on the people who sell tobacco,” Fisher said, “not on the people who are addicted and buy the tobacco products.”

By: Michael Neibauer
mneibauer@washingtonexaminer.com
© September 28, 2009 Washingtonexaminer

At what point will we finally be safe? I ask because, despite federal and state penal codes that address every imaginable crime — and some that most could never conceive — and regulations drummed up to address the latest hazards of society, it appears that there is still room for more. Yes, we and our children could be much safer, if only we could be made to be safer.

Thankfully, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has taken a bold new step in protecting our children from themselves and preventing the creation of a whole new race of addicts. It banned flavored cigarettes.

Now, I’m an unlikely person to be defending cigarettes in any way, and I’m not defending cigarettes. I was a smoker beginning in my teens until I was about 29 when I replaced the habit with an exercise fixation. It was one of the best things I ever did.

I started smoking the old-fashioned way, with a pack of Winston’s. So did most of my friends. It didn’t take a peppermint smoke to get me hooked. Nonetheless, I can understand that kids with more of a sweet tooth than me could be initially drawn to choke down a smoke if it’s got a little something to mask the gag of tobacco. Some kids are more drawn to smoke than they would be if it they were just straight-up, ordinary butts.

That may be true, and there are few things more encouraging than having fewer young people smoking. It is a genuine scourge. But the banning of flavored cigarettes is a prime example of trying to
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regulate every ill out of society. It seems absurd that, with the majority of Americans over 18 years old, people won’t be able to buy a flavored smoke on the premise that kids will have to smoke the unflavored variety if they want to get hooked.

Believe me, some kids will smoke flavored or unflavored cigarettes, until the dwindling young social groups that still see it as cool finally fade out of existence. It’s why education — and not just the kind handed down from bureaucrats — is the answer. It doesn’t try to remove the choice, it aims to have people make better choices.

While there are hundreds of dangers we’ve regulated, many of which we’ve regulated straight into criminal enterprises, there are a thousand more dangers that lie ahead. The question is not the flavored cigarette. The question is whether we will try to restrict access to every ill, even for people perfectly able to choose for themselves, in an effort to protect everyone.

Because if we should regulate all of those ills, let me recommend the next target: Sugary cereals that make kids fat and rot their teeth. Then we can tackle soda and fast food. And boyfriends. And skateboards.

Or we can go the slow road and continue to show kids how to choose wisely — presuming they will still be able to choose at all.


John Driscoll/The Times-Standard
09/28/2009

RICHMOND, Va. – The new federal ban on flavored cigarettes took effect last week, marking one of the first visible signs of the Food and Drug Administration’s new authority to regulate tobacco.

The ban on manufacturing, importing, marketing and distribution includes candy-, fruit- and clove-flavored cigarettes, which health and federal authorities say are more appealing to youths. It does not include a ban on menthol or other flavored tobacco products such as cigars – which the FDA is studying.

“Candy- and fruit-flavored cigarettes are a gateway for many children and young adults to become regular tobacco users,” said Dr. Law-rence R. Deyton, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products.

Citing research studies, Dey-ton said 17-year-old smokers are three times as likely to use flavored cigarettes as smokers older than 25. FDA officials also said almost 90 percent of adult smokers start smoking as teenagers and the ban will help stop more than 3,600 young people who start smoking daily.

The FDA sent a letter to the industry last week discussing the ban and its plans for enforcement, including the definition of a cigarette under the ban. Officials are encouraging consumers to notify authorities of any potential violations of the ban.

Executives from leading health groups urged the FDA last month to take a closer look at attempts to sidestep the ban by making superficial changes that turn a cigarette into a small cigar in order to keep selling flavored products.

The move came after word that the nation’s top distributor of clove cigarettes – California-based Kretek International Inc. – began offering small, filtered, spice-flavored cigars that are close to the size of a cigarette but are wrapped in tobacco rather than paper.

Officials did not address any specific products in a conference call with reporters.

In June, President Barack Obama signed the law that allows the FDA to regulate the industry. Its authority includes the ability to ban certain products, reduce nicotine in tobacco products and block labels such as “low tar” and “light.” Tobacco companies also will be required to cover their cartons with large, graphic warnings.

The law won’t let the FDA ban nicotine or tobacco outright, but the agency will be able to regulate what goes into tobacco products, make public the ingredients and prohibit marketing campaigns, especially those geared toward children.