Barred from advertising cigarettes on television, tobacco companies still spend $12.8 billion a year marketing a new generation of tobacco products.

Some $190 million of that is spent in Minnesota, Adam Kintopf, communications manager for ClearWay Minnesota, said Tuesday.

Tobacco companies are still doing traditional marketing, such as targeting minorities and women and sending free boxes of tobacco products to servicemen and women in the Middle East, he said.

“But we also found that they’re doing some really remarkable new things that we have not seen before,” Kintopf said. “They include some new products as far removed as you can imagine from traditional cigarettes.”

He pulled a number of new products out of a small bag to show a reporter, including Snus, small pouches of tobacco placed between gum and lip.

“Snus is sold right now in Minnesota and around the country,” said Molly Moilanen, ClearWay intervention program manager. “It’s a new tobacco product that is a smokeless product and spitless.”

It’s being marketed to traditional chewers and also to young people, she said, “so when you’re at the club, when you’re in class, places where you can’t smoke you can use this. Their slogan is ‘Boldly go anywhere.’”

Kintopf showed other products being tested in some states but have not yet reached Minnesota. They include tobacco sticks shaped like a toothpick, orbs that look like small breath mints and strips that look like breath-freshening strips. All contain finely milled tobacco that dissolves when placed in the mouth.

“They have a lot of nicotine,” Moilanen said. “Right now they’re being tested in Portland, Ore., Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio.”

New products for the 21st century by the tobacco industry is highlighted in a report, “Unfiltered: A Revealing Look at Today’s Tobacco Industry,” issued earlier this year by ClearWay Minnesota, an independent non-profit funded by tobacco settlement funds and which operates smoking cessation programs.

“What we’re doing right now here in Minnesota in anticipation of this, is we’ve put together some legislation that would get our tobacco laws ready if and when these come to Minnesota,” Moilanen said.

Products would be regulated under youth access laws so teens under age 18 couldn’t purchase the product, she said. Also, the new products would be put within state legal definitions of tobacco products.

“Right now, our definitions don’t even cover these dissolvable products,” she said. “We want to make sure that they are taxed properly.”

Other new products include the e-cigarette which are electronic nicotine delivery systems that simulate smoking and produce steam, not smoke. “The Freedom to Breathe Act bans smoking indoors, and that is not covered. We’re trying make sure this year that youth can’t purchase these.”

At Christmas, e-cigarettes were being sold in kiosks in malls in the metro area, she said. “They were prolific in the malls in the Twin Cities area.”

“Almost literally every day there is a new press release that appears from anew e-cigarette retailer saying this is the way either to quit smoking or this is the way to smoke when you can’t smoke,” Kintopf said.

The Tobacco Modernization and Compliance of 2010 would ensure that new tobacco products are covered by existing regulation, such as not allowing them to be sold on the counter next to candy and gum.

It would also prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to youth, and fund a Minnesota Department of Revenue feasibility study on how best to collect taxes and fees on all tobacco products which would increase collections and reduce evasion.

It would also cover another product, “little cigars,” as what they really are — cigarettes, subjecting them to existing regulations applicable to cigarettes such as tax stamps.

“Little cigars,” such as Swisher Sweets and Camel, come in flavors such as grape, chocolate and peach. They look, feel and smoke like cigarettes but have tobacco in the rolling paper which allows them to be called cigars, Moilanen said, thus avoiding cigarette tax and other regulation.

The bill is carried in the Senate by Sen. Scott Dibble, DFL-Minneapolis, and in the House by Rep. Jim Davnie, DFL-Buffalo.

“It is a piece of legislation that will get our definitions and our laws modernized and in step with these new products and with the new tactics,” Moilanen said.

By Brad Swenson, Bemidji Pioneer

Tobacco has seen better days, but current research may breathe new life into the age-old cash crop.
Scientists have learned how to genetically modify tobacco to increase the oil in the leafy plant by as much as 20-fold, according to a report published in the Plant Biotechnology Journal.

Vyacheslav Andrianov, the report’s co-author and a researcher at the Biotechnology Foundation Laboratories at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, calls tobacco an attractive alternative “energy plant” (with potential similar to algae and switchgrass) since it can produce large amounts of oil and sugar more efficiently than other crops and does not compete with food supplies, unlike corn and soybeans.

Globally, the tobacco industry has been getting burned in this age of increased awareness of smoking-related health problems (causing a fall in cigarette demand), high-figure lawsuits and tax hikes. But major players like Altria Group, Inc. (NYSE: MO), the parent company of Philip Morris USA, which makes Marlboro, the world’s top-selling brand, have managed to shrewdly manage shrinking markets such as the United States by increasing prices and make inroads into booming markets like Russia where consumption is rising and the tax climate is attractive.

Tobacco farmers have been less fortunate. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations says tobacco production has fallen about 1.5% worldwide over the past 10 years.

The number of tobacco farms in the U.S. fell by 72% between 2002 and 2007, according to the U.S. Census of Agriculture. Large tobacco-growing states like North Carolina and Virginia have been particularly hard hit, seeing as many as 90% of farms in some areas either close down or be forced to turn to other crops to survive to downtrend.

Although commercial use of tobacco as a biofuel is conceivably five or more years away, farmers are hopeful about the prospects. “I got a lot of response from farmers that would like to grow tobacco in fields that are not being used right now,” Andrianov told the Associated Press.

Only time will tell if tobacco’s fortunes will rebound, but the possibilities are encouraging. If all goes as planned, the results could give smokeless tobacco a new meaning and ultimately leave any tobacco biofuel-related companies that emerge flaming hot.

By Shannon Roxborough, Energyboom

Smoking is more deadly than alcohol, suicide, car accidents, AIDS and illegal drugs combined, according to the American Cancer Society.

On July 1, 2008, OSU established its policy for a tobacco-free campus. This policy prohibits the use of all tobacco products on campus and affects any person who works, attends or visits Oklahoma State.

Recently, the amount of smoking still happening on campus has bothered some students.

“I hate being around smoke,” said Lauren Hinchey, a nutritional sciences freshman. “If there was a way to somehow better enforce the no-smoking policy more effectively, that would be great.”

Some students are concerned the policy is not enforced enough.

This policy has helped create a healthier environment for the campus and has “drastically decreased the use of tobacco products,” said tobacco health educator Yvon Fils-Aime. “But we still have a few who don’t comply.”

“We believe that educating violators could lead to making a better decision to not smoke in the future,” Fils-Aime said.

Fines aren’t typically imposed, but police will take action if an individual is smoking within 25 feet from a building.

“I like the idea of it, but it doesn’t really work because every time I turn around, someone’s lighting up,” said Bryan Stump, a pre-law freshman.

Kick-smoking classes and quit kits are available at the Seretean Wellness Center.

Fils-Aime said now is a “good time for students to quit smoking before graduation; we want to help.”

“We have many student tobacco users and we want our students to take benefit of our programs we have to offer.”

According to www.SoonerPoll.com, 94 percent of Oklahomans believe secondhand smoke is a health hazard.

Recently, a bill has passed in Oklahoma regarding banning all smoking indoors.

The bill authorizes the creation of the Oklahoma Certified Healthy Schools Act, which the Department of Health plans to run with a program for the voluntary certification of schools that would promote wellness and encourage healthy lifestyles. The act would provide monetary awards for further funding and enrichment of the program to schools that successfully certify.

With this addition to our campus’s tobacco-free policy, “we are rapidly expanding ways to help promote healthier decisions on campus, especially concerning this new bill,” Fils-Aime said. “Now it’s up to each individual to turn these healthy decisions into lifelong choices — it’s never too late to quit.”

By Megan Silvey, Ocolly

After four months of talking about cutting South Dakota’s budget, lawmakers actually took action on it Tuesday. So far, South Dakota school districts and smoking prevention programs have taken the brunt of the cuts.

Schools were slated to get a 1.2 percent increase this year, which state law requires, but the funding didn’t get cut without a fight.

“These dollars are promised to school districts per statute. We set a terrible precedent and terrible example as a legislature when we continually break those promises and create an atmosphere of distrust with our constituents,” Senator Dan Ahlers of Dell Rapids said.

Legislators who didn’t want to give districts the annual funding increase argued that the schools need to share in the state’s cost cutting moves.

“We’re not faced with closing schools. There are states that are closing schools, districts across the nation. So, the responsible thing to do at this time is to try and do as little damage as possible to our K-12 system while maintaining the spending within state government,” Senator Jeff Haverly of Rapid City said.

But it wasn’t just school districts that felt the pain Tuesday. Lawmakers cut the state’s $5 million budget for tobacco prevention in half. It’s a program supporters say has produced results.

“The percent of adult smokers in South Dakota is at an all-time low,” Department of Health Secretary Doneen Hollingsworth said.

Lawmakers realize the program has been successful but say tough times require tough cuts.

“Are we shooting our foot on this particular one? Yeah, we are shooting ourselves in the foot but we’re not shooting ourselves in the heart, and we’ll have to go forward with some of these,” Representative Tom Deadrick of Platte said.

The Joint Appropriations Committee is hoping to finish the budget late Tuesday night.

By Ben Dunsmoor, Keloland

Federal officials began grappling Tuesday with one of the thorniest issues surrounding the regulation of tobacco: whether to ban menthol, the most popular cigarette flavoring, which is smoked by millions of Americans every day.

The issue carries great importance for public health advocates and tobacco executives. But it also has racial implications, since menthol cigarettes are overwhelmingly popular among African Americans.

A scientific advisory panel that will advise the Food and Drug Administration on regulating tobacco opened a two-day meeting Tuesday and began reviewing hundreds of published studies on menthol cigarettes. The panel, largely made up of scientists, physicians and public health experts, has a year to make a recommendation to the FDA on menthol cigarettes, which are used by about 26 percent of smokers and make up almost one-third of the $70 billion U.S. cigarette market.

Menthol cigarettes are especially popular among young smokers. According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 62 percent of middle-school students who smoke begin with menthol cigarettes, whose minty taste can mask the harshness of tobacco.

About 75 percent of African American smokers use menthol brands, and tobacco companies heavily advertise menthol products in black communities and media.

Many African American smokers view menthol cigarettes as “soothing” and “smooth,” and less harsh and dangerous than regular cigarettes, according to a 2008 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But there is no evidence that menthol cigarettes are less lethal than regular cigarettes. Although African Americans smoke fewer cigarettes compared with white smokers, they have higher rates of lung cancer, stroke and other tobacco-related diseases.

“When you peel away the layers, this is an economic issue for the tobacco industry,” said William S. Robinson, executive director of the National African American Tobacco Prevention Network, which wants the FDA to ban menthol cigarettes. “We’re talking about $18 billion a year; that’s a serious hit for them,” Robinson said in an interview.

When Congress passed a historic law last year that gave the FDA the power to regulate tobacco, it also banned candy and spice flavorings such as chocolate and clove, saying cigarette makers used those products to hook youngsters into a lifetime addiction. But it exempted menthol from the ban, saying it wanted the FDA to study the issue and report by 2012 whether restrictions on it would serve the public health.

That prompted a letter of protest to Congress from seven former U.S. health secretaries, who said that allowing menthol-cigarette sales to continue would “trample the health” of African Americans. They called it a “loophole big enough for a herd of wild animals to romp through.”

Lorillard, which makes Newport, the country’s most popular brand of menthol cigarettes, said in a statement Tuesday that menthol cigarettes are no more dangerous to health than standard cigarettes. “Menthol, obviously, has been used for decades in food, drink, cosmetics and other products,” the company said. “And the science is clear and compelling that there is no differing health risk between menthol and non-menthol products. With respect to public health, using the best methods available to science, it is clear a menthol cigarette is just another cigarette and should be treated no differently.”

But the scientific advisory panel has not yet reached that conclusion, and it spent Tuesday listening to FDA staff members present their review of 343 research papers on menthol cigarettes, published between 1921 and 2009.

Under the law passed last year, the FDA can demand for the first time internal studies and data from the tobacco industry. One of the advisory panel’s goals during its first meeting is to determine what additional information it will request from the industry.

Robinson said that could be key in settling the debate about whether menthol poses a particular danger to public health.

“We still have questions about the role of menthol, regarding initiation of smoking and continued addiction and difficulty in quitting,” he said. “Under this new law, the industry has to turn over documents at a level that’s unprecedented. They have to share their scientific information. When we begin to know what they know, hopefully that will lead to a ban on menthol products.”

By Lyndsey Layton, Washingtonpost

If you watch your step closely enough when entering Mauston High School in the coming weeks, you might just learn something.

More than a dozen Mauston High School students joined forces with students from Richland Center Thursday morning to decorate the pathways leading into the front entrance of the school building with anti-smoking messages as part of training for a new anti-tobacco activist group.

The students, many of whom are participants in Mauston High School teacher Mike Taake’s existing anti-smoking group NOT, are the newest addition to the statewide FACT program.

Luke Witkowski, a representative of the state-funded youth-based anti-tobacco initiative, was on hand to explain the purpose of the organization.

“FACT is a youth led empowerment movement that allows Wisconsin youth to learn about, take a stand and fight back against the tobacco industry,” he said.

Mauston High School juniors David Linsmeyer and Tiffany Schumer use spray chalk and stencils to promote Wisconsin going smoke free July 5. Linsmeyer and Schumer are two of over a dozen students from Mauston participating in Fight Against Corporate Tobacco, or FACT, a statewide youth-based anti-tobacco activism group.

FACT, or Fight Against Corporate Tobacco, focuses its youth initiative around “factivism,” highly visible marketing campaigns facilitated by local groups.

The recently reorganized South Central Wisconsin Tobacco Free Coalition coordinated getting students in Adams, Juneau, Richland and Sauk counties involved with FACT as part of the requirements for the grant funding the coalition.

According to Blair Weyer, Coalition Coordinator, FACT would have been a likely addition regardless of the requirements.

“We really wanted youth initiative to be a focus,” she said. “It’s really our target audience.”

With initial training behind them, the students will now be tasked with continuing FACT’s campaign against the tobacco industry, beginning with promoting Wisconsin’s July 5 statewide ban on smoking in bars and restaurants.

After witnessing the response of those participating in the training, Weyer hopes the coalition will be able to find similar programs to collaborate with around the state while continuing to foster the creation of new groups.

“We’re really looking to link on with existing groups like this,” she said. “The Mauston group is completely new, which is exciting.”

By Chris Walker, Star-Times

Saskatchewan is working with other provinces as the government heads towards a decision on joining a lawsuit against tobacco companies, Sask. Party Health Minister Don McMorris said Monday.

And while no final decision has been made, McMorris said it is likely the province will take part in the legal action.

NDP justice critic Frank Quennell slammed the government on the weekend for dragging its heels on a lawsuit decision six months after Ontario announced it would sue for tobacco-related health costs.

Enabling legislation allowing the province to take part in such a lawsuit dates back to 2006 and the then-NDP government. But both the NDP and Sask. Party had agreed such a suit was not feasible without large provinces — specifically Ontario — taking part.

When Ontario announced last September it had reversed itself and would sue “Big Tobacco” for $50 billion, McMorris said the Sask. Party government would likely make a decision about participation within a month.

But on Monday he suggested “it hasn’t all come together yet” on issues such as timing and what law firms would be involved as provinces discussed a potential lawsuit.

“We have been talking with the other provinces. They haven’t really been asking us to move forward at this point. As it kind of forms up and other provinces are sure they’re moving forward, we’ll make that decision,” McMorris said in an interview.

“We have talked about it but we don’t feel it’s a time yet to announce any direction that our government is going on in consultation with other provinces.”

Last week’s provincial budget saw the provincial tax on cigarettes increase from $4.50 to $5.25 a pack while the number of cartons that can be bought tax-free by First Nations individuals was reduced from three a week to one.

Both moves were highly-praised by anti-smoking advocates.

Last fall, the Sask. Party government also introduced a law banning smoking in vehicles carrying children but backed away from a proposed crackdown on smoking on bar and restaurant patios.

British Columbia had already launched a lawsuit at the time Saskatchewan introduced its legislation in 2006. All provinces except Prince Edward Island have either passed or introduced laws that would allow them to sue for both past and future health-care costs.

At the weekend NDP convention Quennell suggested the government does not have the appetite for a court battle with tobacco companies despite the potential for a major financial return, which have been seen in similar court cases in the United States.

But the NDP has “thrown down the gauntlet” on the issue, he said.

“We’re not going to let them back away from what they said they were going to do on the tobacco legislation,” said Quennell.

By James Wood, Saskatchewan News Network

A tobacco shop that opened late last year in Cloverdale alongside Highway 101 is selling contraband cigarettes and making dubious claims that it is operated by an Indian tribe, according to state authorities.

The state attorney general’s office has notified Native Tobacco 101 that most of the brands it sells are untaxed, not approved for sale in California, and do not meet fire safety standards.
“These cigarettes they are selling don’t have a tax stamp on them,” Senior Assistant Attorney General Dennis Eckhart said.

While the business claims it is exempt from state taxes because it only sells cigarettes manufactured on Indian land, Eckhart said, “We don’t agree.”
In a letter dated March 18, he asked the store to stop selling the cigarette brands and to confirm the “illegal conduct” has ceased.
The manager of the store on Friday said he was not aware of the letter, but requested a copy.
“We are on native land. We are a tribally operated, sovereign nation,” said Tony Speer, manager of Native Tobacco 101.
“One side believes we should pay state taxes, the other that we should not – only federal (taxes). It’s been going back and forth,” he said.
There are complicated issues of Indian law and restrictions on state enforcement procedures involving tribes and Indian lands. But legal experts said the U.S. Supreme Court made it clear tribes have an obligation to collect and remit state tax on the sale of cigarettes to non-tribal members.
When the Cloverdale store opened in December, it drew immediate complaints from other tobacco retailers in Cloverdale who said its American Indian owners enjoyed an unfair advantage by not charging sales tax.
It also touched on a controversy that has played out in other states involving American Indian smoke shops and the taxes they sometimes avoid.

In New York, for example, state officials claim bootleg sales of tobacco products on reservations or through the Internet have resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in lost state revenues.
When Native Tobacco 101 opened, the then-store manager confirmed he charged no state taxes on his products. But he said the tobacco products were mostly manufactured by Indians on Native American lands and had been subjected to federal taxes.
Eckhart on Friday said the shop is unlawfully avoiding an estimated $1.50 per cigarette pack in state excise and sales taxes, and other levies.
Some of the revenue from the state taxes on cigarettes goes to children health care services, tobacco control and cessation efforts, he said.

Local officials have also expressed consternation that Native Tobacco 101 has put other retailers at a disadvantage.
“They are not paying taxes and I’m not sure that’s appropriate,” Cloverdale Mayor Carol Russell said Friday. “I’m a firm believer in one set of rules for everybody.”
Russell said she also was “shocked” to learn the brands sold at Native Tobacco 101 allegedly do not comply with cigarette safety provisions, which are designed to ensure they don’t keep burning when not being puffed.

Many tribes in California sell cigarettes that are authorized on a state directory and also pay state taxes.
But the attorney general’s office has recently gone after some shops in Southern California that were alleged to have sold illegal tobacco products on reservations, or failed to collect state taxes.
Earlier this month, four of the retail tobacco stores on Indian lands in Riverside County voluntarily closed after the state filed an injunction seeking compliance.
The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians agreed that the tobacco products on the reservation were being sold illegally and they were not in partnership with the retailers.

Native Tobacco 101, located on a frontage road next to the freeway, is on a remnant of the former Cloverdale Rancheria, owned by survivors of John Santana, a Pomo elder and postmaster who was allotted the land more than 40 years after the rancheria was dissolved.
When it opened several months ago, the then-manager of the shop said the owners are working with a Native American company licensed to use the land and operate the tobacco business. But he declined to provide more detail.

Speer, the current manager, referred questions about the attorney general’s allegations to the owners, who could not be reached for comment.
The restored Cloverdale Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, who are proposing a casino on adjacent lands, have said they have no connection to the tobacco business, and it is not on land belonging to the tribe.
In his letter, Eckhart said a sign posted in the shop is misleading.

It states that the store is located on Indian land and operated by a federally recognized Indian tribe.
“We believe that the posted sign may falsely represent to your customers a fact about the shop’s ownership and/or management,” he said.

By CLARK MASON, Yourtown.pressdemocrat

HOUMA — Have you ever heard of third-hand smoke?Published findings from a number of studies, including a recent one published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describe third-hand smoke as a by-product of the nicotine-laden vapor that’s released from tobacco-based products when burned.

One local doctor said the new study is possibly another concern non-smokers should have about their surroundings.

Another thing discovered in the study is the vapor emitted from cigarettes that eventually collects and condenses on indoor and outdoor surfaces.

In other words, it becomes a residue that clings to everything.

“While there’s no real hard data or conclusions shown in this study, it poses some interesting questions on how dangerous this dust or residue can be to humans over time,” said Dr. James Schweitzer, a local medical oncologist who treats cancer patients at Thibodaux Regional Medical Center and Ochsner St. Ann General. “We notice the incidence of lung cancer in non-smokers who live with spouses who smoke is higher,

so it’s possible this is yet another problem to worry about.”

Schweitzer doesn’t necessarily understand calling the phenomena “third-hand smoke.”

“It seems like it should just be a sub-category of second-hand smoke,” Schweitzer, 61, said. “The biggest issue I see is how someone can constantly be exposed to it.”

The danger could potentially be greatest among children and toddlers and smokers themselves, Schweitzer said.

“Kids are always touching things and placing their hands on their face and mouth,” he said. “Even a smoker could be making their situation worse because they walk around with this residue on their body all the time.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web site, there are more deaths annually in the U.S. by tobacco use than by deaths from illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle fatalities, suicides and murders combined.

While the study was new to Schweitzer, he didn’t want to make any rash judgements about the dangers of third-hand smoke.

However, he said he doesn’t discount a potential connection between third-hand smoke and an increased risk to someone’s health.

The CDC says one in five deaths in the U.S. is linked to smoking.

“I’d like to see more of the research, but it certainly sounds like it could be a real threat based on what I know about tobacco products,” Schweitzer added.

By Thad Angelloz, Houmatoday