Don’t tell David Neville that those grape-flavored mini-cigars behind the counter at every local convenience store are aimed at mature smokers.

“They’re already hooked,” Neville says of longtime smokers. Instead, tobacco companies are targeting “the kid with the grape Slurpie that comes to the counter,” wondering if the sweetened nicotine will complement his drink, Neville says. Or whether the chocolate-mint flavored chew — packaged to look like chewing gum — will boost his reputation with peers.

As state legislators prepared to open debate on a perennially proposed tobacco tax hike, a lot of Utah parents may be unaware of the “mainstream” ways their children are being targeted by nicotine marketers, said Neville, director of the Utah Department of Health’s Tobacco Prevention and Control program.

While it’s difficult to compare addictions between tobacco, alcohol and hard drugs because they have different effects on the brain, quitting tobacco, once someone is addicted, “is as difficult as quitting heroin or cocaine,” he said.

Utah recently got an “F” from the American Lung Association for its lack of tobacco prevention and control spending — something controlled exclusively by state legislators, many of whom take money either directly or indirectly from tobacco companies. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says Utah legislators only provide about 35 percent of the recommended funding for tobacco control efforts.

Neville said 90 percent of people who begin using tobacco do so before the legal age of 19 — and the variety of tobacco products that appeal directly to children and teens continues to grow, along with the flavors used to disguise its taste.

The Lung Association also gave Utah a “D” for its relatively small tobacco tax -— currently 69.5 cents per cigarette pack — and an “F” for tobacco cessation programs. Neville said the latter focus “more on policy and less on services provided,” including the free Utah Tobacco Quit Line, 1-888-567-TRUTH. The confidential help line provides free nicotine patches or gum to those working to quit, and up to five free counseling sessions. The state also offers a free Web site at www.UtahQuitNet.com to help connect people with others trying to quit and to answer questions.

The Lung Association did give Utah an “A” in the smoke-free air category, noting improvement in laws that restrict smoking in public places.

Though the state has the lowest percentage of smokers in the nation, Neville said, more than 190,000 Utahns are still addicted, “and 80 percent of them don’t want to be.” Tobacco usage causes $369 million in annual smoking-attributable medical expenses and $294 million in lost productivity each year, Neville said.

Though retailers, in particular, have voiced opposition to the tax, Neville believes it’s simply a usage fee, like the gas tax. “If you don’t want to pay the gas tax, you don’t drive a car. You take public transit. It’s the same with tobacco. If you don’t want to pay it, then quit.”

He’s convinced that if the tax increase is approved, more people will stop smoking. He cited a 200 to 300 percent spike in calls to quit lines last year after a national tobacco tax increased last year.

“A lot of people want to quit,” he said. “They just need that final impetus to push them to where they really want to go.”

Young people continue to purchase smoking products. For example, nearly one-third of minors are still able to buy cigarettes from retailers illegal. This is the main cause why anti-tobacco researchers call for a new legislation which will reduce the sale of cigarettes to minors.

Researchers found that almost one-third of shopkeepers were violating laws that prohibit the sale of cigarettes to minors.

More than a third of licensed premises were ready to sell tobacco to minors according to the survey, while compliance levels among these premises increased 28 percent from 37 percent in 2008 to 65 percent this year.
The research found that compliance was higher among premises with token-operated cigarette vending machines where 70 percent prevented children from buying cigarettes, compared to 37 percent of premises with coin-operated machines.

But the compliance among retailers was up 8 percent, from 60 percent in 2008 to 68 percent in 2009. Some 61 percent of shops and licensed premises asked children for identification.
Ninety-seven percent of minors who were asked for ID were rejected the sale of cigarettes, the researchers added.

Office of Tobacco Control chief executive Éamonn Rossi said although a clear amelioration in compliance culture which had arose among retailers.

Mr. Rossi said: “While we welcome the increase, still one-third of minors can buy cigarettes.”
Áine Brady TD, Minister of State with responsibility for Older People and Health Promotion, said staff watchfulness was necessary to assure young people don’t have access to cigarette vending machines.
However all retailers know that selling tobacco to a child, they continue to launch them a journey to addiction, disease and death.

Researchers concluded that if the new legislation which will prohibit selling cigs to minors will be accepted then the smoking among kids will decrease too.

The Cabell-Huntington Health Department is heading down a path that is sure to be lined with controversy, but nevertheless it is a direction that should be taken.

The department is working on a proposal that would expand the county’s current ban on smoking in public places to include bars and video lottery parlors. It likely will conduct a public hearing on the plan within the next month, and the department’s board may act on it in late January, according to Dr. Harry Tweel, the health department’s executive director.

As demonstrated in other counties, most recently in Kanawha, many smokers and people who operate bars and clubs are likely to oppose the proposed ban. They argue that such bans violate personal liberties and, in the case of bar and club operators, hurt their businesses.

But, as Tweel told The Herald-Dispatch reporter Bryan Chambers, “from a health standpoint,” implementing a ban is “the right thing to do.” Considering the evidence regarding the health dangers from smoking and secondhand smoke, his point is difficult to dismiss.

Under Cabell County’s existing regulation, smoking is banned in all restaurants and workplaces. So people who frequent or work in those places are safe from the hazards of secondhand smoke.

But bingo halls, personal care homes and establishments where alcohol represents more than 80 percent of sales are exempt from the regulation. What about patrons and employees of those establishments? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Office of the Surgeon General, they face exposure to serious health risks from secondhand smoke.

Nonsmokers who are exposed to secondhand smoke at home or at work have a 25-30 percent higher risk of developing heart disease and a 20-30 percent higher risk of developing lung cancer.

Concentrations of many cancer-causing and toxic chemicals are higher in secondhand smoke than in the smoke inhaled by smokers.

Breathing secondhand smoke for even a short time can have immediate adverse effects on the cardiovascular system and interferes with the normal functioning of the heart, blood, and vascular systems in ways that increase the risk of a heart attack.

Eliminating smoking in indoor spaces is the only way to fully protect nonsmokers from secondhand smoke exposure. Separating smokers from nonsmokers, cleaning the air and ventilating buildings cannot eliminate all the dangerous particles and gases from secondhand smoke exposure.

Those who argue against a ban on the basis of “smokers’ rights” really have no argument, because nowhere is it written in U.S. or state constitutions that people have a right to smoke. And when it comes to such so-called rights, those end when they harms others. There is no justifiable reason for laws that protect workers and patrons of some public places and not others. This double standard should be eliminated, and the Cabell-Huntington Health Department should act to do just that.
December 04, 2009
The Herald-Dispatch

QUEENSLAND has banned smoking in cars carrying children under the age of 16.

Deputy Premier and Health Minister Paul Lucas said the new laws would start from January next year and apply on all public roads.

“These new laws are about reducing the exposure children have to tobacco smoke,” Mr Lucas said yesterday.

The legislation was passed in Queensland parliament yesterday as part of measures contained in the Health and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 2009.

The Government described its anti-smoking laws as being the toughest in the country, including smoking bans for indoor and outdoor public places as well as restrictions on retail advertising, display and promotion of tobacco products.

In Queensland alone there are 276,000 smokers with children aged under 16, the Government said.

“The level of tobacco smoke inside a vehicle is very high, and we know young children involuntarily exposed to tobacco smoke in confined environments have significantly increased health risks, including bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, ear infections and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome,” Mr Lucas said.

Other states are also introducing bans on smoking in cars with children.

October 30, 2009

HONOLULU – Some hopeful news in the fight against illegal tobacco sales to Hawaii’s youth – a state survey shows a significant drop in the number of stores selling tobacco products to minors.

This year’s survey released by the Hawaii State Department of Health’s Alcohol and Drug Abuse Division shows the number of tobacco sales to minors has almost been cut in half compared to last year’s survey.

Much of the credit goes to some undercover teens. At the capitol on Monday, they displayed the cigarettes from actual packs they bought from stores across the state. Some were even sold, after the teens told the clerks their age.

“I guess because they have that mentality of, ‘I know where you’re coming from, here i’ll just give it to you. I’ve done it when I was young’, so I’m totally against that,” said Victoria Milo, a KATS volunteer.

Milo is with Kruisin Against Tobacco Sales, or KATS. It’s a program that sends teens on stings. They scout out stores that fail to check their ID’s and sell them tobacco products. At the capitol, Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona praised their work. New numbers show Hawaii is now below the national average in illegal tobacco sales.

“My father has lung cancer because of this so due to that and knowing I have friends going in the wrong direction and I’m trying to gear them towards the right direction, being a part of this program means a lot to me,” said Milo.

One tobacco retailer was recognized for his zero-tolerance for sales to minors. He says he fires guilty clerks on the spot and implements a 100% ID check policy.

“The big issues my clerks have when they check somebody like your age or somebody with gray hair that that person gets totally ipset, and that happens quite often,” said Al Gustavson, owner of Goose’s Edge convenience stores.

But with more stores adopting a ‘No ID, no sale’ policy, Hawaii is on its way to snuffing out violators who cater to young smokers.

First offenders caught selling tobacco to minors get a $500 citation. That fine jumps to $2,000 for second offenders.

By Mari-Ela David, Oct 06, 2009 Khnl

Suck down the last sickly sweet puffs of your precious Warm Winter Toffee Camels, kids, because as of today, flavored cigarettes are illegal in America. Time to move up to the real stuff!

Can we simply state the obvious here by saying: Don’t cry, kids. “Flavored cigarettes,” what the fuck, really? “Camel Exotic Blends by R. J. Reynolds, which had flavors like Twista Lime, Kauai Kolada and Warm Winter Toffee.” How many other, more potent drugs did you have to be on for those flavors to sound appealing when mixed with tobacco, and set on fire?

Tobacco is nasty. It’s supposed to be nasty. It is not supposed to taste like various flavors of pie. “Flavored tobacco” is for hookah smokers who spend all day lounging around cafes rather than blazing trails and building railroads and slaughtering native populations.

In other words, good old-fashioned unflavored cigarettes helped make this country great. You can smoke them on a horse (obv.) without everyone for the next ten miles downwind wondering where that distinct Kahlua aroma is coming from. And cloves? Don’t even start with that. “Cloves.” Come on.

The point is, now kids will go straight to the unfiltered Luckies, and save their “flavoring” for the weed, and for mixing with Everclear. Your health is the most important thing, next to maintaining America’s badass rep.

© Sep 23 2009 Gawker

America’s biggest tobacco companies voluntarily stopped advertising cigarettes in magazines, because they care about you, the tobacco consumer. But hey, have you tried this new “Snus?” Try it, in your mouth! Check out the magazine ad for it!

They’re advertising this “Snus” all over magazines, the NYT reports, because, hey: it’s not a cigarette, it’s a pouch filled with nasty tobacco that you put in your gums and you don’t even have to spit, like a redneck! Does Big Tobacco have any more flavorful additions to our national tobacco consumption repertoire in the pipeline? They’re happy you asked!

R. J. Reynolds is also now test-marketing “dissolvables,” which include Camel Orbs, finely ground tobacco in the form of small mint pellets like Tic Tacs, and Camel Strips, which resemble Listerine breath-freshening strips and melt on the tongue.

Nasty tobacco mouth pouches and tobacco-flavored breath strips: taste the flavor. Of tobacco.


© Gawker

Sharing a ride with a smoker will give you a much heftier dose of nicotine than having a meal in a restaurant that allows smoking or hanging out at a smoky bar, according to new research.

Even opening the window or switching on the air-conditioner when a smoker lights up leaves significant amounts of nicotine in the air, according to the study by four researchers at Johns Hopkins University.

In fact smokers who put their windows down all the way averaged more nicotine in the air, perhaps because they tended to be heavier smokers or perhaps because the air whipping around inside their cars distributed smoke and nicotine more widely, said Dr. Ana Navas-Acien, one of the researchers and an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins’ School of Public Health.

“In any case it is clear that ventilation is insufficient to eliminate tobacco smoke,” she said.

Nicotine, which is toxic, is the addictive substance in tobacco.

The Hopkins team believes its research, using air samplers placed in 22 drivers’ cars last summer, is the first to measure nicotine concentrations in actual driving conditions rather than in laboratory simulations. Their results were published in the medical journal Tobacco Control.

The Hopkins team found nicotine in the air averaged 8.3 micrograms per cubic meter when a driver smoked one to three cigarettes during a commute, and 12.5 micrograms per cubic meter when drivers smoked four or more cigarettes. The highest concentration, 128 micrograms, was recorded in a small car in which the driver smoked eight cigarettes while keeping the air-conditioner running.

A benchmark 2005 European survey of nicotine, cited by the Hopkins study, in the air of restaurants that allow smoking reported median levels of 9.3 micrograms in Paris; 7.8 in Barcelona; 7.1 in Orebro, Sweden; and 4.7 in Athens. Only Vienna, at 17 micrograms, reported a higher average than the average for a driver smoking four or more cigarettes. Nicotine in the air of smokers’ cars was higher than the averages recorded in a 31-nation survey of 1,284 smokers’ homes, according to a 2008 report also cited in the Hopkins study.

The eight-cigarette driver’s car had more nicotine in the air than 28 of the 40 European discos and bars that the 2005 the European survey examined.

Each cigarette smoked roughly doubled the amount of nicotine in the air in the cars, the study found.

The researchers said their findings pointed to a need for a campaign to discourage smoking in cars, noting that nicotine from secondhand smoke can affect asthmatic children’s breathing, while studies have shown it can affect the cardiovascular system in ways similar to actual smoking.

A handful of states, including Arkansas, California and Louisiana, ban smoking in cars when children are passengers. So does Puerto Rico. Beginning next month, Avis Budget Group Inc. will ban smoking in all of its rental cars, citing customers’ complaints about tobacco odors and residues.

The Hopkins researchers said their findings were generally in line with recent studies suggesting that smoking two cigarettes a day inside a car leaves the air with about 20 percent more particulate matter than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s ceiling for what it considers unpolluted air.

They said the drivers they studied all agreed that smoking posed a health risk to passengers, and that 15 percent would only smoke when they had no passengers in their cars.

Timesdispatch

Republic Tobacco, a provider of roll-your-own and make-your-own cigarette tobacco, entered the cigar category with the introduction of Gambler Cigars. Made with fine cigar tobacco and boasting a low per-pack price, Gambler cigars provide a genuine smoking experience to those customers within a modest budget, the company stated. The filter-tip cigars will initially be available in 100mm Full Flavor, Light Flavor and Menthol Flavor, and will be packaged in 20-cigar packs and cartons of 10 packs of each flavor. Cases contain 30 cartons, and a floor display of 48 assorted cartons is also available.

Republic Tobacco LP, Glenview, Ill.
(800) 288-8888; info@rpbtob.com