A North Carolina-based tobacco company tried to entice African-American children to become smokers by handing out free cigarettes in Boston during the 1950s and 1960s, a jury ruled on Dec. 14, awarding $71 million in compensatory damages to the estate and child of a woman who died of lung cancer in 2002.

According to the Associated Press, the Suffolk Superior Court in Boston announced the guilty verdict against Lorillard Tobacco following weeks of testimony in the case. The plaintiff, Willie Evans, alleged that Lorillard gave his mother, Marie Evans, free cigarettes when she was just a child in the late 1950s outside her housing project home, setting her on the path to developing a smoking habit. Evans said his mother smoked for more than 40 years before dying of lung cancer at age 54.

Willie Evans was awarded $21 million, and the jury awarded $50 million in compensatory damages to Marie Evans’ estate.

Lawyers for the Greensboro, N.C.-based company said they gave out free cigarettes in decades past to adults to try to persuade them to change brands, but claimed that they never gave free products to Black children and deemed the allegation “disturbing.”

The company also claims that it was Evans’ decision to start smoking and said that she continued to do so even after she had a heart attack in 1985. Lorillard intends to appeal the verdict.

“Lorillard respectfully disagrees with the jury’s verdict and denies the plaintiff’s claim that the company sampled to children or adults at Orchard Park in the early 1960s,” Gregg Perry, a company spokesman told the AP. “The plaintiff’s 50-year-old memories were persuasively contradicted by testimony from several witnesses. The company will appeal and is confident it will prevail once the Massachusetts Court of Appeals reviews this case.”

During the trial, jurors were shown a 2002 video of Evans, in which she claimed that the cigarette giveaways had a large impact on her, and said she couldn’t stop smoking once she was addicted. Her lawyers said that although she acquired free cigarettes as early as nine years old, she didn’t start smoking them until she was 13.

Many believe this groundbreaking verdict will generate similar cases across the country, as many Blacks can recall a time when they were given free cigarettes when they were children.

“We’re hopeful that with the word of this verdict that it will not only help educate the public about this particular company and their history but may encourage other people who have gone through similar experiences in their lives to contact a lawyer,” Edward A. Sweda, a senior attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Boston’s Northeastern University School of Law, told the AP.

According to the American Heart Association, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health estimates that more than 4,000 people under 18 try their first cigarette each day. Also, the Final Report of the National Commission on Drug-Free Schools found that children and adolescents consume more than one billion packs of cigarettes per year. The Heart Association also found that although Blacks generally smoke fewer cigarettes per day and begin smoking later in life than Whites, their smoking-related disease mortality is considerably higher.

Mountain View earned top marks for keeping tobacco away from kids and ensuring that tobacco retailers follow regulations, according a county “report card” released Monday.
Mountain View, Saratoga and Milpitas received “A” grades in the “2009-2010 Community’s Health on Tobacco Report Card,” an annual report developed by the Tobacco Free Coalition of Santa Clara County, Community Advocate Teens of Today and the Santa Clara County Public Health Department. Last year, no city earned an “A.”

Cities receive points for complying with window advertising regulations, enforcing underage tobacco sales laws and creating policies that require a license for tobacco retailers, according to a statement from the coalition.
Mountain View nabbed an “A” because of its “strong tobacco-related policies and a best-practice tobacco retailer responsibility program,” the statement said. The Mountain View Police Department conducted decoy operations earlier this year involving almost every tobacco retailer in the city.
“We were happy to see a low number of our retailers selling tobacco to minors,” said police Chief Scott Vermeer. “Only three out of 59 tobacco retailers sold tobacco to a minor. We credit this to ongoing compliance checks and education that are conducted by police volunteers with all of the tobacco retailers in our city.”

From mercurynews.com, June 22, 2010

I lost my dear dad to lung cancer due to cigarettes. He became addicted at age 12. It breaks my heart to know that in 2010, there are stores in my city that are making cigarettes and other tobacco products readily available for youth. Earlier this year our coalition, the Azusa Youth Against Smoking, targeted 48 tobacco retailers in Azusa to identify how many were willing to sell to minors without asking for proper identification. Guess what? Twenty retailers out of 48 were willing to sell smokes to minors. That’s an alarming rate of 41.7 percent.

I don’t think 5 percent, 10 percent or even 15 percent is an acceptable number, but almost half of our city’s tobacco retailers are illegally selling tobacco products to our kids. This is shocking!

Our coalition has been encouraging the city to adopt a tough ordinance that would crack down on tobacco retailers selling to minors. In response, the City Council passed a toothless, unenforceable law that won’t keep one child in Azusa from becoming addicted to cigarettes.

That ordinance includes fines for those retailers who willfully sell to minors, but it does not require enforcement or compliance checks. Without compliance checks retailers are free to continue selling to children.

Our coalition wants the city to require an annual permit that requires tobacco retailers to obtain a license to sell tobacco, and include an annual fee that would raise funds to pay for an enforcement officer.
Financial deterrents through fines and penalties, including the suspension and revocation of the license, are what make retailers pay attention and follow the law. Using this approach, as dozens of other cities in Los Angeles county already do, really works.

Apparently the city staff doesn’t think keeping kids from buying cigarettes is important. One staffer said, “the PD doesn’t have time.” Another staffer said the city wants to “avoid imposing another fee” on business. These statements don’t stand up under examination.

Azusa businesses have not come out in opposition to a strong ordinance, and the Azusa PD does have time if funds are available to pay the officers. A license fee could be that funding source.

Clearly, we believe something more should be done. And so do 500 petition signers.

Two hundred children become addicted to tobacco in our state every day, joining the nearly 4 million current smokers in California. How many more kids have to become addicted before our city leaders step up and do their job?

Shirley Manzo has lived in Azusa for 45 years and is the chair of Azusa Youth Against Smoking, a local coalition of residents, parents, volunteers, students and community organizations committed to protecting the youth of Azusa from the dangers of tobacco use.

June 7, 2010, pasadenastarnews.com

The typical electronic cigarette looks no different than a traditional smoke at a distance, only it weighs about as much as a heavy pen. The devices have been available for years, but haven’t been noticed much until the beginning of this year, said Rebecca Ryan, director of health promotion for the American Lung Association in Vermont. Currently few, if any, regulations govern the devices, she said. Megan Surdam, 21, of Woodford, who works at the Beverage Den & Smoke Shop on North Street said the den has sold about 100 PureSmoke starter kits. The kits sell for a little over $50 and come with an “atomizing cartridge,” an “atomizing device” and battery components. The cartridge looks like a filter and screws into the battery pack, which is painted white to look like the paper wrapping on a traditional cigarette.

The cartridges deliver a dose of nicotine, the addictive chemical found in tobacco smoke, when the user inhales off it, said Surdam. With the PureSmoke variety, the tip lights up to simulate a lit cigarette. The cartridges sell for $30 and are roughly equal to a carton of normal cigarettes.

Most people who buy them have heard about them someplace else, she said, and are trying to use them as a quitting device.

“They work really good if you are committed to it,” she said.

The e-cigarette’s role as a quitting tool and its status as a tobacco product are the root of the questions. “Our position is we are with the Food and Dug Administration’s (FDA) position that the product is a drug delivery device, not a tobacco product,” said Ryan.
In April, the lung association, the American Heart Association, Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids, and the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network sent a letter to the FDA urging it to ban the sale of e-cigarettes until regulations could be imposed on their safety and restriction their availability to children. The letter accused e-cigarette manufacturers of making false claims as to the product’s safety.

Sheri Lynn, Tobacco Control Program Chief for the Vermont Department of Health, said there are no FDA regulations of e-cigarettes, which raises concerns about consumer safety. She said carcinogenic substances have been found in some of the e-cigarettes, especially the ones manufactured overseas, and while the risk to others from second hand smoke may be negated, there is still concern over the person using the product.

The PureSmokes at the Smoker’s Den don’t contain tobacco, and legally could be sold to those under 18.

“Store policy for us is we wouldn’t sell it to anyone under 18, just like we wouldn’t sell a non-alcoholic beverage to anyone under 21,” said Jim Brown, manager of the Smoker’s Den.

Brown said the e-cigarettes are not designed to be smoking cessation devices, but are cheaper than traditional smoking and because they only produce a light vapor when the user exhales, can be used in places where smoking isn’t allowed.

“They are growing in popularity,” he said.

Brown first heard of them from customers who were interested, then read up them in trade magazines. He said his current supplier deals with PureSmoke, LLC, a California company, which was part of the reason he ordered that brand after doing some research. Brown said he heard of concerns about ones made overseas and wanted an American company that would back the product.

Tina Zuk, of the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Vermont, said her organization has not approached any lawmakers about legislation regarding the e-cigarettes but is keeping a close eye on them. She said the fear is children will use them and move on to cigarettes.

How prevalent their use has become is difficult to determine, said Lynn. They are new enough not to have been added yet to surveys asking youths and adults about their tobacco usage.

Gwen Hannan, who runs the Quit-in-Person branch of the Vermont Quit Network at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, said a few of her clients have mentioned the product to her. “It’s wishful thinking that this is something that will give them all of the joy, but none of the pain,” she said.

She said there have been no studies on the effectiveness of the e-cigarette as a quitting tool, and added that there are multiple methods of getting free products such as patches, gum, and lozenges if a person wants to quit smoking. She said the e-cigarettes feed the addiction but appear to do nothing to treat it.

June 7, 2010, benningtonbanner.com

Britain’s Channel 4 programme “Unreported World” has highlighted the ongoing use of child labour in tobacco harvesting in Malawi. Presenter Jenny Kleeman went to tobacco growing areas of the country to see for herself the use of child labour. Filmed in an area of the country near the Zambia border, Kleeman spoke to a group of women and children, some just toddlers, sorting tobacco leaves at the side of the road. One woman with three children helping her said that she would earn around 80 pence for the day’s work. A group of tenant farmers harvesting tobacco in the fields lived in pitiable conditions. One woman with several children explained how the farm’s owner would insist on a quota of one and half carts of tobacco leaves being harvested each day. The only way she could meet the quota was by having her children help in the harvest. She told Kleeman that as a tenant farmer her income was about £18 a year. Such low wages mean many tenant farmers have to borrow money from the farm owners and end up in debt, becoming bonded labourers.

A common problem of those harvesting and sorting the tobacco leaves was green tobacco sickness. This is brought about by nicotine absorption through the skin and results in severe headaches and racking coughs, leading to chest problems. In developed countries such as the United States, workers on tobacco farms are provided with protective clothing.

Kleeman interviewed one farmer asking why he paid such low wages and provided no protective clothing. He said that it was because he was paid such low prices for his tobacco at the leaf auctions. The prices paid at such auctions were being pushed down and the government gave them no price protection, he said.

Half of the child labourers in Malawi are under nine years old. Kleeman spoke to the head teacher of one primary school, who said that around a third of his pupils were absent as they were helping with the tobacco harvest. The absences would mean the children would fail their exams and not be able to go on to secondary school, giving them no chance of breaking out of the circle of poverty associated with tobacco farming.

Kleeman examined claims of child trafficking associated with tobacco harvesting, visiting one charity that had been able to rescue such children from tobacco farms. The children told of being recruited by farm owners touring villages. The dire levels of poverty suffered by their families left them open to such practices.

Child labour is illegal in Malawi, but is tolerated by the authorities. The programme heard of one case of a farmer who was also a politician, who employs children. Although he was reported to the authorities by a charity, he was let off with a caution. There is a penalty of five years jail and fines, but no one had been prosecuted.

The programme filmed the auction of the harvested tobacco in the city of Lilongwe. Last year at such auctions 232 million kilograms of tobacco were sold throughout Malawi. At the Lilongwe auctions leaf buying companies will spend US$2.5 million a day buying up the tobacco brought in by the farmers. The Malawi anti-corruption bureau has accused the companies of colluding to keep prices low. A government minimum price level is ignored. Last year Malawi deported four executives from leaf buying companies for offering low prices.

The leaf buying companies sell on the tobacco to the big companies such as British American Tobacco and Phillip Morris. The tobacco picked and sorted by child labour ends up being sold on to these big companies.

After pointing this out to the big tobacco companies, Kleeman explained that the local fixer the programme had employed was detained for 10 hours by the Ministry of Labour, who questioned him about where they had filmed, etc. The tobacco companies told the programme they were opposed to the use of child labour and had supported projects to help sanitation and education within Malawi. The companies had in fact spent around US$6.5 million over eight years and in only two out of the 28 districts that make up Malawi.

Commercial tobacco was first grown in Malawi in 1889, when US settlers from the State of Virginia introduced the crop. From the 1960s onward the growing of tobacco began to be switched from the Americas to Africa and Asia. Malawi today is amongst the top 10 tobacco producing countries and earns 70 percent of its foreign exchange from tobacco.

Tobacco production used to be highly controlled by the government, but following IMF structural adjustment directives brought in at the end of the 1980s production by small-scale farmers on rented land has increased rapidly.

This process has locked these small farmers and their families into a circle of poverty. A February 25, 2008 Corp Watch article, “Playing with Children’s Lives: Big Tobacco in Malawi”, explained:

“The Malawi Tobacco Control Commission (TCC), a local government watchdog for the tobacco market, estimates that it takes $1 for farm workers to produce a kilogram of tobacco, which they usually sell at $0.70 for a loss of $0.30 per kilo. Hard working farmers who cannot make a living turn to child labour.”

Around a f ifth of Malawians rely on tobacco production for their income. The vast majority of these are extremely poor.

The use of child labour in Malawi is entrenched. A report by the Norwegian base Institute for Applied Social Science, FAFO, published in October 2000 explained:

“While accurate systematic data is lacking, some work has been done indicating that child labour in Malawi is widespread and increasing… Studies indicate that child labour is much higher on the tobacco estates. Malawi is generally regarded as one of the countries in the region with the highest incidence of child labour.”

Like other impoverished countries, Malawi has suffered terribly from the global economic crisis. While some mineral exporting countries have experienced continuing demand for their commodities, most of the former colonial countries have seen a decline in exports, falling commodity prices, disinvestment and reduced aid. The result is that their debt levels are increasing once again. Poverty is worsening as a result, with children suffering most.

By Barry Mason
3 June 2010 wsws.org

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

A day after Muhammadiyah issued a fatwa banning its followers from lighting up, both the organization and antitobacco campaigners have targeted cigarette advertising as one of the main culprits behind a generation of new smokers.

“We issued the fatwa because we believed those advertisements were targeting children and teenagers. This could ruin the country’s future generations,” Ahmad Zaenuddin, who heads the Jakarta office of Muhammadiyah, Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic organization, said on Wednesday.

He added that it was common knowledge that tobacco companies used prominent celebrities in their advertising to convince young people across the nation that smoking was fashionable.

“The children will follow the lifestyle of their favorite public figures and TV stars,” he said. “This is one of the dangers of tobacco advertising, because they use actors who can capture the young people’s attention.”

Aside from issuing the fatwa on smoking, Muhammadiyah is also expected to lobby the government to immediately ratify the World Heath Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which mandates that signatories implement methods to reduce tobacco use.

Adam Aliyyi, 15, a senior high school student in the capital, told the Jakarta Globe that he started smoking when he was 11 years old.

“I was able to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day,” he said. “But I have cut down somewhat because I am not so healthy anymore. I only smoke on Saturday nights now.”

Adam said that he had started smoking because cigarettes were heavily advertised and promoted at concerts and events, which are often sponsored by tobacco companies.

“I love attending youth events. Some are even held at my school and they discreetly offer us free cigarettes there,” he said.

Dr. Kartono Muhammad, a leading antitobacco campaigner and former chairman of the Indonesian Medical Association (IDI), confirmed that cigarette advertising had a significant impact on children.

“Children are the best imitators and they want to be like their role models,” he said. “Children are exposed to these advertisements on the streets and at musical performances where their idols light up.”

Kartono also said smoking could act as a gateway to hard drugs. “Once children are addicted to cigarettes, they tend to try other, stronger addictive substances. They will want more.”

A survey by the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak) in 2007 revealed that almost half of teens polled had taken up smoking because of advertising. The study also found that tobacco companies had sponsored 1,350 youth-oriented events from January to October in 2007.

By Nurfika Osman, Thejakartaglobe

The 2008 WI Youth Tobacco Survey found that 7 percent of high school students and 3 percent of middle school students use chewing tobacco. Its use is more common among boys than girls.
With the numbers doubling in the years from middle school to high school, it is very important that our youths are educated about chewing tobacco, its effects on their bodies, and the products and advertising aimed at them by the tobacco companies.

Many people have the incorrect assumption that because chewing tobacco is smokeless, it is also harmless, since the poisons and chemicals are not released into the air. However, that is not the case. Chewing tobacco contains 28 cancer-causing agents, all of which are absorbed into the bloodstream during its use. In fact, chewing tobacco is more addictive and harder to quit than cigarettes. Using spit tobacco eight to 10 times a day can put as much nicotine into the body as smoking 30 to 40 cigarettes, since the nicotine content of spit tobacco is two to three times greater than a single cigarette. Nicotine is more addictive than cocaine or heroin (“About Spit Tobacco,” ETR Associates, 2007).

With the smoking bans that are being implemented around the nation, tobacco companies are changing the focus of their advertising — turning more to promotion of smokeless products as discreet alternatives to cigarettes in places where smoking is not allowed (www.cancer.org). This is creating a new tobacco user — one who smokes in their home, and uses smokeless products in public, posing even more serious health threats to their bodies.

Additionally, the smokeless products that the tobacco companies are advertising have an increasing appeal to teenagers, due to the variety of candy flavors that are available. A recent study by Portland State University Chemistry Professor James Pankow found that smokeless tobacco products have up to 700 percent more flavor additives than candy! The high levels of flavorings are used to cover the taste of the tobacco, luring kids into using it because of the good taste, and not forcing them to think about the health risks associated with its use.
Anti-tobacco advocates state that parents who don’t smoke are not aware about the new threat coming from smokeless flavored tobacco, as they simply have no idea that such products exist. The landmark Tobacco Control act adopted last June, and put into effect in November, prohibits the sales of cigarettes with any flavoring besides menthol; however, the ban doesn’t cover other flavored tobacco products.

Chewing tobacco users face a multitude of health risks, including cancers of the lip, tongue, cheeks, gums and floor and roof of the mouth, nicotine addiction, oral leukoplakia, gum disease and gum recession, heart attack and stroke . According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, oral cancer is the sixth-leading cancer in men, and almost 75 percent of people diagnosed with oral and pharyngeal cancer use tobacco. Additionally, only 56 percent of people diagnosed with mouth or throat cancers live longer than five years.

Feb. 14 to 20 was Through With Chew Week. Established in 1989 by the American Academy of Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery Inc., the week serves as an educational campaign to decrease spit tobacco use and increase awareness of the negative health effects of using these products . Locally, our Youth Initiatives group organized a number of events to increase awareness of the dangers associated with chewing tobacco. These kids have taken a stand to not use tobacco products, to educate their peers about the risks associated with the use of tobacco and to fight against the tobacco companies and their deceptive marketing practices. Join the kids in their efforts: Educate yourself about the dangers of chewing tobacco, and consider developing an action plan to quit if you are a current user.

Wendy Young is a Marshfield Clinic AmeriCorps Member serving the Inner Wisconsin Coalition for Youth (IWCFY), working on prevention activities with students in the local schools, including Wisconsin Rapids public and parochial, Immanuel Lutheran, Nekoosa, Pittsville and Auburndale. IWCFY is a network of community members promoting and facilitating healthy lifestyles.

RICHMOND, Va. — The Food and Drug Administration is saying in letters to two tobacco companies that flavored, dissolvable tobacco products — that the agency compares with candy and says contain a lot of nicotine — could be particularly appealing to kids and young adults.

The FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products wrote to R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., maker of Camel cigarettes, and the smaller Star Scientific Inc. on Feb. 1 voicing concern over smokeless products that are consumed like breath mints but made from finely milled tobacco.

“CTP is concerned that children and adolescents may find dissolvable tobacco products particularly appealing, given the brightly colored packaging, candy-like appearance and easily concealable size of many of these products,” Dr. Lawrence Deyton, director of the Center for Tobacco Products, told the companies.

Deyton said regulators are worried the products’ nicotine content and rapid dissolution could cause nicotine dependence and addiction and be especially dangerous to children and young adults.

He asked the two best known makers of dissolvable tobacco products to provide their research and marketing information on how people under age 26 perceive and use the products.

Exercising new power to regulate tobacco that the FDA was granted in June, Deyton also requested research on misuse of the products, including potential accidental nicotine poisoning.

Regulators also want a summary of user demographics, including at what age “tobacco-naive consumers” start using the products.

The products are available in few markets and account for a small share of the tobacco industry.

Star Scientific, based in Petersburg, Va., markets its Ariva and Stonewall tablets in wintergreen, coffee and tobacco flavors. The first versions appeared about nine years ago.

R.J. Reynolds, which is owned by Reynolds American Inc. in Winston-Salem, N.C., is test-marketing dissolvable tablets, strips and a toothpick shape under the names Camel Orbs, Camel Strips and Camel Sticks in mint and other flavors.

The Orbs last about 15 minutes, the strips dissolve in five minutes or less and the sticks, which are slightly bigger than toothpicks, last 15 to 20 minutes.

The FDA is seeking the information as its Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee prepares to study the issue later this year.

Reynolds spokesman David Howard said that company is reviewing the FDA’s request and plans to help regulators evaluate the products.

“Our products are made for, and marketed to, adult tobacco consumers,” Howard said. He said dissolvable items are sold on the same shelves as other tobacco products and carry the same warnings and age restrictions.

Star Scientific, which has been involved in a patent dispute over some of the technology behind its dissolvable products, disagrees with the FDA’s characterization of them and looks forward to speaking with regulators, spokeswoman Sara Troy Machir said.

“The challenge that we have faced in attempting to meet the needs of adult smokers … is to develop a product that is palatable to the customer while at the same time not making it attractive to the non-tobacco user,” she said

Machir said flavors are added to the products to make them taste less harsh.

Tobacco companies are focusing on cigarette alternatives — such as cigars, snuff and chewing tobacco, as well as other forms of nicotine replacement — for future sales growth as demand for cigarettes continue to decline.

By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM