The FDA has banned flavored cigarettes from the market as its first act since being given the authority to monitor and regulate the marketing and manufacturing of tobacco products. It is widely viewed that flavored cigarettes serve as a draw to usher teenagers into smoking, eventually leading to a regular habit with studies showing that almost one in every three teenagers who start smoking become daily smokers.

The New York times reported in its article “Flavors Banned from Cigarettes to Deter Youths” that “In 2004, 17-year-old smokers were more than three times as likely as those over the age of 25 to smoke flavored cigarettes, and they viewed flavored cigarettes as safer.” The ban will hopefully have a butterfly effect in the number of smokers it decreases, as well as the potential millions of dollars in health care costs it may eliminate down the line.

One of the problems with the new legislation is that the law does not clearly denote what constitutes a cigarette.

The most common distinction between a cigar and a cigarette is in the way each is wrapped, with cigars being rolled in tobacco leaves and cigarettes being cased in paper. Officials have been “deliberately vague” in letting the public know whether the ban would apply to flavored small cigars and cigarillos.

In a letter to tobacco manufacturers the agency noted that the ban applied to all “cigarette-like” products, regardless of how they are packaged and/or marketed.

Part of the confusion is due to the strict deadline that the agency had to meet. It only had 90 days to put the ban on flavored cigarettes into effect.

Catherine Lorraine, a lawyer in the agency’s tobacco center, said, “We will be looking at products on an individual basis to determine if it meets that aspect of the legislation.”

For some customers, the ban has been an education on switching from flavored cigarettes to flavored small cigars. Brian M. Mulholland, general manager of Georgetown Tobacco in Washington, said customers are “making the transition.”

The ban does not include menthol cigarettes, as the new law makes specific note that menthol cigarettes are to be researched and dealt with independently. USA Today’s article “FDA: Sweet-flavored cigarettes cannot be sold” cites a study published earlier this year that found that menthol cigarettes “make smoke less harsh, so smokers can take in more nicotine and carbon monoxide per cigarette.” Jonathan Foulds, director of the Tobacco Dependence Program at the Unviersity of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey-School of Public Health, is not surprised that the agency went after flavored cigarettes before menthol cigarettes.

Menthol cigarettes are “far bigger sellers” and would have likely lead to a “pretty major revolt from industry.”

Posted by Greg WebbOctober 04, 2009

Lynchburg, VA – At the end of this month, flavored cigarettes, excluding menthol, will no longer be sold in the United States. It’s part of a new law signed into effect in June by President Barack Obama which gives the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco. The FDA is putting a ban on clove and flavored cigarettes because they say, they appeal and target children and teenagers.

Clove cigarettes represent less than 1% of cigarettes sold in the United States, yet sales bring in about $140 million annually. Some who sell cigarettes are concerned. “I don’t like it personally. It’s giving the government more control over cigarettes and tobacco.” Says David Wood. The nation’s top distributor of clove cigarettes is fighting back against the new federal laws. They’re now offering clove cigars.

It could be a scene from a Hollywood movie: Sofas and tables lining the walls of a dimly lit establishment, with hookah pipes stationed at intervals throughout the room, as shadowy figured puff away into the night.

These days, the scene could be acted out in a hookah bar on the corner of any Oklahoma college town. Smoking tobacco from hookah pipes has gained popularity over the past five years, mainly among students and soldiers returning from overseas tours of duty.

Jeremy Meigs, retail sales manager for Evolution in Tahlequah, stocks his store with hookahs of all sizes, along with “shisha” – raw, leaf, flavored tobacco products – and charcoal discs for heating the tobacco.

“Hookah is a time-honored tradition in the Middle East,” said Meigs. “It seems like new [American] traditions are brought about by war. With Vietnam, it was heroin; with Iraq, it’s hookah.”

Meigs said part of what makes shisha attractive is the cost and the purity of the product.

“Shisha isn’t ground up and treated with chemicals,” he said. “It’s raw leaf tobacco and molasses. In the Middle East, they have molasses left over from making sugar, and basically is used as a preservative for the tobacco. It pickles it.”

The charcoal discs are used to heat the shisha, because it cannot be lit with an ordinary flame.

“The molasses prevents the shisha from burning when using a regular lighter,” said Meigs, as he assembled a hookah to demonstrate. “The bowl that holds the shisha is usually made from either clay or glass, and is vented on the bottom.”

Shisha is loosely loaded in the bowl, then covered with a censure – a wire mesh screen. The charcoal disc is placed on top of the censure to heat the shisha. The body of the hookah is filled with water, so when a person draws smoke from the bowl, it is filtered and delivered in a vaporized form.

Most hookahs have one or more hoses and stems, so it can be enjoyed by either one person or a group. Meigs stocks hookahs ranging in price from $50 to $300, and the sizes range anywhere from 6 inches tall to around 3 feet.

“They make an eight-hose hookah floor model that’s set on wheels so it can be wheeled around from table to table,” said Meigs.

Matthew Lacey, a Tahlequah High School graduate who was in the store Wednesday, said he loved smoking from a hookah.

“I tried it when I was working as a Department of Defense contractor for KBR in Iraq,” said Lacey. “They had cigar and hookah bars all over the place in Dubai [United Arab Emirates]. The flavors in the shisha are great, and the nicotine rush you get from the concentration of tobacco is astounding.”

Lacey has even seen small hookahs used in cars overseas.


© Tahlequahdailypress

Ingredients
* 2 sheets filo pastry
* 25g butter, melted
* 3/4 cup dry roasted hazelnuts, finely chopped
* 2 tablespoons honey, warmed
* 100g dark chocolate, chopped

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place 1 sheet pastry on work surface. Brush with butter. Top with remaining sheet. Brush with butter. Cut pastry into quarters. Cut each piece in half to make 8 pieces. Combine nuts and honey in a bowl. Spoon 1 tablespoon nut mixture over each piece. Brush pastry edges with butter. Starting from 1 long side, roll up pastry to enclose filling, folding in edges to make cigar shapes.
2. Place cigars on prepared tray. Brush with remaining butter. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden and crisp. Cool.
3. Place chocolate in a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on high (100%) for 1 to 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds, or until melted and smooth.
4. Pour chocolate into a small jug. Dip half of each cigar in chocolate. Place on a wire rack to set. Serve.

Notes & tips

* Nutrition data is per cigar.

Winter cooking is well and truly here at Taste.com.au! We’ve got casserole recipes and crumbles, puddings and shortcuts, as well as thousands of cooking tips!

Source: Super Food Ideas

Not even a year ago, Hollywood Hookah came into our lives and oh what joy it brought. There was no better example of just how singularly-focused and dedicated our team was to perfecting the game of football then to see two of its players open their own tobacco-smoking bar during the season and get photographed inside it smoking from a pipe. Greg Robinson didn’t have much of a problem with it, and you can understand why. He didn’t seem too concerned on the players’ conditioning in the off-season, so surely inhaling smoke during the actual season wasn’t going to make a difference.

But what has become of poor Hollywood Hookah? It’s already survived a fire and numerous building code violations, there doesn’t seem to be anything that can stop the lounge that will “change the landscape of the Marshall Street social life” as its website proclaims.

Except maybe Doug Marrone.

First off, one of the bar’s owners is currently lacing them up for the Orange Spirit of the Collegiate Developmental Football League. Second, the other owner remains on the team only after agreeing to ceasing his involvement with the smokeshop altogether, according to Donnie Webb.

Heard Syracuse defensive end Mikhail Marinovich is getting out of the hookah bar business as a condition for playing football with the Orange. There was an infamous picture from The Daily Orange last year which later ran in The New York Times and came to symbolize a program that had gone, “up in smoke?” Don’t even know if the smoke shop is still open. Number I called was disconnected.

The website doesn’t seem much updated either. Anyone been by lately for an Appletini tobacco fix lately to confirm?

I wouldn’t say the Hookah Bar epitomizes the Greg Robinson Era or stands as the singular thing that you can point to in order to sum it up, other than his 10-37 record. But let me put it this way…the only things Syracuse players will be opening under Doug Marrone’s reign are books, classroom doors and the heads of UConn quarterbacks.


© Nunesmagician

The National Association of Tobacco Outlets (NATO) is responding to tough New York City proposed ordinances on tobacco.

NATO sent each New York City Council member a letter opposing a proposed ordinance that would ban the sale of flavored tobacco products, including flavored cigarettes, flavored cigars and flavored chewing tobacco. NATO also followed up the letters by submitting a commentary letter-to-the-editor to the New York Times regarding the prohibition-style proposal. Because each New York City newspaper has a policy of publishing commentary letters on an exclusive basis, if the New York Times declines to print the commentary letter, then the letter will be submitted successively to the New York Daily News, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post.

In the letter, NATO stated, “On June 22, 2009, a bill was signed into law by President Obama authorizing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to regulate the manufacture, distribution and sale of tobacco products. Specifically, the new law bans the sale of flavored cigarettes nationwide (except menthol cigarettes) as of September 22, 2009. That is, the proposed New York City ban of flavored cigarettes is moot since the federal law will supercede any city or state regulation. The report cites an American Lung Association study from 2006 which claims that ‘teenagers ages 17 to 19 were more than three times more likely to smoke flavored cigarettes than smokers over the age of 25.’ Then, in the next sentence, the report extrapolates the findings of this study to assert that ‘thus, flavored tobacco is a serious public health issue because of its appeal to youth.’ To claim that a study regarding flavored cigarette smoking rates results in all flavored tobacco products like cigars being a serious health issue is an illogical and unsubstantiated extrapolation of the study’s findings and cannot support the underlying intent of the proposed regulation to reduce youth smoking.”

NATO also is fighting the New York City Department of Health’s proposal that health warning signs with pictures of the health impact of smoking cigarettes be prominently displayed at each cash register and at each cigarette display in stores that sell cigarettes.

The proposed signs would be provided by the Department of Health and measure at least 18 inches by 18 inches up to 36 inches by 36 inches. NATO has submitted a set of comments to the New York City Department of Health opposing this sign proposal.


© Csdecisions

Hookah lounges and bars are popular around the world and in big cities across the United States. Rusty Pachev is bringing the hookah experience to Ocean City.

The 23-year-old said he knows about hookahs after spending many years using them while growing up in southern Russia.

“Everybody in Russia smokes. But you’re not getting addicted to it. It’s not like cigarettes,” Pachev said. “You want to smoke the next time just because you like it and you want to try another flavor.”

While working in the downtown Ocean City area the last two years, Pachev said many people inquired about cigar and tobacco stores and hookah lounges, so, he decided to open his own shop.

Smoky Shop opened on the corner of Talbot Street on South Baltimore Avenue about five weeks ago.

“In Europe, hookah bars and lounges are very popular,” Pachev said. “There are even restaurants where you order your food, eat and then order hookah.”

Customers can sit in front of Smoky Shop, on the corner of Talbot Street on South Baltimore Avenue, and smoke a variety of flavored tobacco out of hookahs rented and sold at the store.
Pachev sells hookah (a single or multi-stemmed glass water pipe for smoking), but customers can also borrow them to smoke any of the 20-plus flavored tobaccos at the shop. Some of the flavors available include double apple, strawberry, melon, banana, pineapple, coconut, cherry, mint, vanilla, cola, caffe latte and cappuccino. The most popular flavor is pomegranate.

The tobacco contains less nicotine (0.05 percent) than regular cigarettes and has no tar. Customers, who must be at least 18 years old to smoke, can smoke just one flavor or mix different ones. Pachev has hookahs with one, two, three or four heads and hoses. The cost to use them is $15, $18, $21 and $24, respectively.

The smoke is blended to give people a full flavor of each tobacco, he said. It takes about five minutes to prepare the hookah and tobacco for smoking. Heated with charcoal, it lasts about 35- 40 minutes. Customers can sit outside in front of the shop and smoke. Pachev offers a discount for those who smoke once then want to try another flavor.

“A lot of people try one flavor, then they want to try others,” Pachev said. “Some people were in here for hours the other day and tried every flavor.”

“It’s very, very relaxing,” added Alan Gastiger of smoking the tobacco. Gastiger works at the shop and has more than 10 years experience in the cigar business.

Since opening, business has increased daily, Pachev said. He has also developed a regular customer clientele. About 70 percent of Pachev’s customers have smoked before. Many who have tried it for the first time at his shop often purchase a hookah afterward. Pachev can custom order hookahs not sold in his store. Anything sold in the shop can be shipped to customers as well.

Pachev sells the different hookah pieces (heads, tops, hoses and charcoal) and has a variety of cigars, pipes, cigarettes and smoking accessories. The electronic cigarettes used to help people quit smoking are available there as well.

A 10-percent-off coupon good for any purchase at the shop is available in Ocean City Today.

Smoky Shop, which Pachev said is a walk-in humidor, is open daily from 10 a.m. to 3 a.m. As popularity increases, Pachev hopes to open a full hookah lounge in the area.
Oceancitytoday

In June, President Barack Obama signed strong legislation aimed at preventing a new generation of smokers from getting hooked. The law, in part, limits flavorings for cigarettes that are all but certainly targeted to young smokers. Hey, once the nicotine addiction kicks in, they can be flavored like the nether end of a skunk, and most folks will still keep smoking them.

Our current president has fought a quiet and personal war against nicotine addiction. It was supposed to be a campaign promise , to his wife, no less , that were he to run for president, he’d put the Marlboro Man out to pasture.

Though there’s no official word from the White House, we suspect that the lack of information speaks volumes. We don’t believe Obama has entirely kicked his long-standing habit.

Obama is an effective model for just how difficult a nicotine addiction is to defeat. He certainly has a high degree of stress in his job, and any smoker will tell you that, whatever the actual physiological effects of smoking might be, the act has a calming effect. That wouldn’t be the case for a nonsmoker; it is inarguably the case if one smokes.

The decision to quit smoking must be a personal one, and it must be stronger than the addiction itself. Even then, it doesn’t always work. We know of people scared into quitting due to health crisis. We know others who risked death in more than one way by inhaling cigarette smoke and oxygen simultaneously. We know of one recent case where the motivation was the recent tax increase that raised the price of the least-expensive cigarettes beyond the $4 mark. That was the breaking point , the anger at the cost (and the taxation) that put one smoker over the line and into the ranks of former smokers. Nine days on nicotine gum and then cold turkey. So far, so good for the last 11 weeks.

It’s not unusual , at least historically , for presidents to smoke. It was a different world a few generations ago. Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, Dwight Eisenhower and Franklin Roosevelt all smoked. Nor is it unusual among other world leaders of the past. Try to imagine Winston Churchill without his cigar; it’s almost impossible to do so.

But this is a world in which we’re supposed to know better. It’s also a world in which a lot of programs are underwritten by the spiraling amount of taxes collected on the products. It’s a world of mixed messages as well.

Just because the wise and the powerful of the past did it, and just because our current president might (well, likely does) do it, doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. You know all the warnings; all the reasons not to do so. As adults, we make our own choices. We certainly support legislation to prevent those who are underage from being more easily seduced into an addictive, expensive and potentially deadly lifestyle choice.

We can say that Obama would be better off to get completely away from cigarettes, but we can’t fault him greatly if he occasionally hits up one of his staffers for a coffin nail. Many of us have been there.

After years of relentless struggles against smoking addiction in America, The FDA recently was entitled to regulate tobacco products, meaning that menthol cigarettes, preferred by the overwhelming majority of African Americans and in general almost 12 US smokers, could be outlawed like other flavorings in tobacco products.

The Senate approved the legislation providing the Food and Drug Administration with the authority to oversee tobacco products, and President Obama pledged to sign it into law within next weeks.

In conformity to the bill, flavorings, including, chocolate, vanilla and cherry would be prohibited as they are claimed to lure teenagers to pick up the pernicious habit. However, menthol flavor was exempted from that list. It needs to be mentioned here that menthol cigarettes account for almost 30 percent of all cigarette sales across the nation.

The FDA would have to perform numerous researches on menthol cigarettes and the impact on the consumers’ health and especially on African and Hispanic Americans. The research results should be published at least within a year. After performing the tests, the FDA could theoretically prohibit menthol flavoring, however, many anti-smoking advocates are pessimistic about that.

Prof. Jeffrey Wilkin of the American Cancer Foundation said he has been skeptical that menthol would be outlawed.

Jon Fredericks of the National Smoking Prevention Program said they sought to prohibit menthol flavoring but legislators promised to vote against such bill.

Fredericks added that tobacco companies managed to impact on some lawmakers to get a compromise concerning menthol cigarettes.

According to a reliable source of the upper Chamber of Congress, the FDA could prohibit menthol flavoring shortly after completing all the corresponding tests.

The source said the legislators outlawed other flavorings because they appealed to minors seducing them into smoking.

However the FDA wanted more time to investigate the consequence of outlawing menthol-flavored products, stated Larry Cohen of the American Heart Institute.

He said the legislators were worried that smokers addicted to menthol cigarette would switch to black market to obtain precious menthol smokes.

Nevertheless, whether The Food and Drug Administration ban menthol cigarettes or impose other restriction, it would inevitably hit Lorillard Inc, the leading menthol cigarette maker in the US, whose top brand Newport is the best-seller among menthol cigarettes.

Lorillard spokesman has already named the latest tobacco regulation bill as the “Altria Protection Act” stating that it protects Altria dominance on the cigarette market and prohibits invention of new reduced-harm tobacco products.

However, Lorillard promised to give the FDA all the necessary information to help investigating menthol features.

According to annual statistics by the Department of Public Health, almost 20 percent of adult African American population is regular smokers, with the majority of them preferring menthol cigarettes.

African American smokers are more likely to suffer from health complications related to smoking than other groups, yet it could be explained by fewer possibilities to access good health care.

There is almost no scientific prove that menthol cigarettes are more hazardous than regular-flavored cigarettes, but anti-smoking advocates claim menthol flavor conceals the strength of tobacco, what makes smoking them more difficult to give up.