With cigarette bans in full force in restaurants, the appeal of a hookah bar gains popularity in younger crowds. Appeal among young people has been increasing since the 1990’s, and more bars are popping up in the United States. Smoking herbal tobacco, called shisha, from at a hookah bar could pose health risks, but is currently the subject of some debate.

Research about the health risks of smoking shisha at hookah bars seems to be lacking, leaving consumers uninformed.

Smoke inhaled from a hookah is believed to be less addictive and toxic than tobacco smoke, but that may not be the case. Smoking fruit flavored tobacco, called shisha, from a hookah is becoming a fad among college students. There is some debate about the potential harm from shisha.

Hookah bars have been popular in the UK, and are spreading across the United States as college age youth seek the ambience of hookah lounges complete with soft cushions and low stools that create an atmosphere of relaxation and increased socialization.

Hookah bars are gaining appeal, but young people should be warned of the potential health risks, at least until more studies are done.

According to a report from the BBC, smoking shisha from a hookah pipe is much more dangerous to health than smoking cigarettes. That notion has been challenged by Dr Kamal Chaouachi, a tobacco expert who teaches at Paris IX University. Chaouachi says there is no research evidence that smoking shisha at hookah bars pose health risks to youth.

Until more studies are done, it may be wise to avoid hookah bars, or at least exercise caution about inhaling too much shisha from a hookah pipe. Though the ambience of a hookah bar is appealing, it is important to know that more research about the health risks of smoking shisha at a hookah bar are needed.

© Examiner

LINCOLN — The after-work regulars at Nickleby’s smoke shop soon could be returning to an old tradition.
If all goes as manager Tim Vanderpool hopes, customers will be able to start sipping scotch while smoking their cigars and discussing the world’s problems.

The Omaha shop is among a handful of businesses around Nebraska that plan to take advantage of a new state law.

The law, which takes effect Aug. 30, creates an exemption from the statewide public smoking ban for specially licensed cigar bars.
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But it might be a couple of months before the first match is lit in any cigar bar.

The Nebraska Liquor Control Commission will hold a hearing Thursday on rules and regulations to implement the new law. Hobert Rupe, the commission’s executive director, said he doesn’t expect to be ready to take applications before the end of September.

Under the new law, such bars cannot sell food or allow cigarette smoking.

They must have walk-in humidors — special rooms with temperature and humidity controls for storing and displaying cigars.

They also must get at least 10 percent of their gross revenue from selling tobacco products other than cigarettes and cannot boost tobacco revenue by offering drink specials with tobacco purchases.

The law will let Nickleby’s, once again, offer alcohol with its cigars.

Vanderpool said the business was a smoking lounge until last year. When the Omaha smoking ban was broadened, the business dropped its liquor license and stuck with tobacco sales.

Other businesses, such as Jake’s Cigars and Spirits in Omaha, chose to keep their liquor licenses and move smoking outdoors.

Jake’s owner John Larkin pushed hard to get the cigar bar exemption passed. He said his business took a big hit under the smoking ban.

“For us, it’s going to be awesome, but it’s definitely a niche thing,” he said of the new law.

Larkin plans to allow indoor smoking again at his Omaha location, at least for those smoking cigars or pipes. He is expanding his Lincoln smoke shop and opening a cigar bar there for the first time.

Nebraska’s smoking ban applies to all public buildings and workplaces. It exempts tobacco shops, some hotel rooms, laboratories used for research on smoking and home-based businesses.

The law faces a pending legal challenge. Big John’s Billiards, an Omaha pool hall, argued in Lancaster County District Court that exemptions to the smoking ban are arbitrary and amount to special legislation in violation of the state constitution.

402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com

August 19, 2009

Jonathan Russell’s trusty Marlboro Gold were letting him down. They didn’t taste quite right. There was a metallic flavor.

The smokes made his throat itchy, too.

“It tasted like a cheaper brand, like a generic brand,” the 29-year-old IT specialist said. “Everything’s different about it. It’s bad.”

A convenience store clerk who had been hearing similar complaints let Russell in on what was happening:

Russell was smoking fire-safe cigarettes.

Spreading rapidly nationwide, these cigarettes are engineered to put themselves out in most cases when a smoker isn’t actively puffing on them.

The goal is to prevent the conflagrations that claim hundreds of lives each year when careless smokers let unattended cigarettes drop onto a bed or couch.

Fire safety and consumer advocates fought the tobacco industry for decades to get fire-safe cigarette legislation before Big Tobacco finally relented.

And with little hoopla, every state but Wyoming has passed laws that mandate fire-safe cigarettes.

But as fire-safe cigarettes have spread nationwide, complaints from smokers have followed. An online petition calling for the repeal of fire-safe cigarette laws now has more than 7,400 signatures.

Smokers from across the country fill Internet sites with complaints about headaches, coughing fits, nausea and other maladies they attribute to the new cigarettes.

They point to a 2005 study from the Harvard School of Public Health that found the smoke from fire-safe cigarettes contained on average 11 percent more carbon monoxide and 14 percent more naphthalene _ the ingredient in mothballs _ than conventional cigarettes. The Harvard researchers consider the differences negligible, however.

Discontented smokers also claim the new cigarettes are laced with more chemical additives, most notably ethylene vinyl acetate, an adhesive used to glue cigarettes together.

“They’re horrible. I’ve been waking up with headaches, body aches, coughing like I’m hacking up a lung,” said Jamie Bartlett, 21, of Grandview, Mo. “I just thought I was getting sick until someone pointed (the fire-safe cigarettes) out to me.”

The new cigarettes have no additional ethylene vinyl acetate or other chemicals, said David Sutton, a spokesman for Philip Morris USA.

“We don’t add any other ingredients not found in traditional cigarette manufacturing,” Sutton said. “They’re just like traditional cigarettes.”

The only difference is in the design of the cigarette paper. Fire-safe cigarettes have two or three rings of thicker paper spaced out along the length of the tube. The rings make the cigarette paper less porous, so less oxygen reaches the burning tobacco.

Unless a smoker takes a drag when the cigarette reaches one of the paper rings, it’s likely to go out.

Sutton said Philip Morris has gotten comments from smokers about their cigarettes going out faster, but those calls tend to die down as smokers get used to the difference.

The company hasn’t heard much about issues like increased coughing or changes in the way cigarettes taste, he said.

“I’ve smoked both types of Marlboro Gold product, and they taste the same to me,” Sutton said.

Philip Morris plans to phase out conventional cigarettes by the first half of next year. R.J. Reynolds cigarettes could all be fire-safe by the end of this year.

But it may take years before we see the full effect of the new cigarettes on fire deaths.

With people smoking less, tobacco-related fire deaths already had dropped dramatically before fire-safe cigarettes were introduced.

In 1980, about 1,980 deaths occurred in fires started by lighted tobacco products. By 2005, there were only about 800.

Since then, the death rate seems to have stabilized, said Lorraine Carli, spokeswoman for the National Fire Protection Association.

“We anticipate (fire-safe cigarettes) will create the next drop in the number of fire deaths,” she said. “We think it will have a significant effect.”

A hopeful sign comes from New York, Carli said. In 2004, it became the first state to switch to fire-safe cigarettes.

During a 12-month period in 2002 to 2003, 38 cigarette-related fire deaths were reported in New York, Carli said. During the same period in 2006-2007, there were 24 deaths.

Experts say New York’s experience made it easier for other states to adopt similar regulations.

New York laid the groundwork, developing tests and standards for the cigarettes. And cigarette companies found smokers weren’t switching brands or cutting back on consumption.

With good evidence that sales weren’t being affected, the tobacco industry shifted from fighting the laws to making sure the states adopted uniform regulations.

“They went from opposing federal legislation to opposing the state legislation, then to an interest in having the standard be the same in every state,” Carli said.

While some smokers like Russell may sense big changes in their favorite cigarettes, they’ve really been quite small, said Harvard tobacco researcher Gregory Connolly. It’s just that smokers are acutely sensitive to any changes.

“The cigarette for many people is their best friend. They know it intimately,” Connolly said. “The smoker is so cued in to the sensory stimuli that any change can drive a smoker crazy.”

Connolly led the 2005 Harvard study circulating on the Web that found higher levels of some toxins in fire-safe cigarette smoke. He said these differences were insignificant.

There’s actually more variation in toxin levels among the different cigarettes within a brand than between fire-safe and conventional cigarettes, he said.

“The cigarette is the most lethal, toxic product in the marketplace,” Connolly said. Fire-safe cigarettes, he said, are “no more or less lethal.”

Despite the recession, global candy consumption is growing. In many countries, the industry giants must battle small players for market share

If you’ve ever tried to find a Snickers bar in Saigon or Hershey’s Kisses in Paris, you were out of luck. While such American favorites as Coca-Cola (KO), Big Macs, and Marlboros can be bought in just about every major city in the world, Americans looking to satisfy a sweet tooth overseas must choose from among such exotic brands as Flake, Freddo, and Curly Wurlys.

The global confectionery market accounted for $150 billion in retail sales in 2008, according to international market researcher Euromonitor. And it’s a market that has grown steadily over the past five years at a 5% compound annual rate. The U.S. is the world’s largest candy consumer, spending more than $8.8 billion on various sweets last year, a 2% increase over 2007. On average, Americans consume about 25 lb. of candy per capita annually, according to the Census Bureau.

The rest of the world likes its sweets, too. As industry experts will tell you, confectionery is broken up into three categories: chocolate, nonchocolate, and chewing gum. Chocolate is by far the largest, with a 55% of the total, while gum holds only a 14% stake but is the fastest-growing segment.

Switzerland is the reigning chocolate champ, where per capita consumption is 25 lb. a year. Britain comes in second, eating 19.4 lb., and Belgium third at 19.1.

Chewing away cravings

So what are the chocolates and candies that people like to eat most around the world? As June is national candy month, BusinessWeek in celebration collaborated with Euromonitor to compile a list of the world’s top 25 best-selling candy brands by country. The results were fascinating. For example, did you think that truffes au chocolat were the most popular candy in France? If you did, you were wrong. The winner is Hollywood chewing gum.

One of the reasons behind the surge in gum sales is the tough anti-tobacco stances that many governments around the world are taking, especially in countries such as France and Italy where smoking remains widespread. Increasingly unable to smoke indoors or looking for a cigarette alternative, many smokers are taking up chewing gum.

The global economic downturn may have caused many consumers to cut discretionary spending, but candy proves to be an exception. Nielsen categorizes candy as among the top five recession-proof foodstuff categories, alongside seafood, dry pasta, beer, and pasta sauce. “People have a special relationship with candy, especially those who have grown up with it,” says Michael Allured, publisher of Manufacturing Confectioner, a trade magazine. “It’s comforting and relatively inexpensive.”

Sweets skirmishes

The candy business is dominated by global giants. For years Britain’s Cadbury (CBY) battled it out for the top spot with Nestlé (NSRGY) based in Vevey, Switzerland. But the April 2008 acquisition by privately held Mars of Chicago chewing gum maker Wm. Wrigley Jr. for $23 billion propelled Mars from No. 5 in 2001 to No. 1 in 2008.

Emerging markets have seen particular growth in recent years, leading some multinationals to more aggressively penetrate these markets in an effort to increase their market share. Yet while the biggest companies and brands enjoy supremacy in multiple markets—Cadbury’s Dairy Milk chocolate bar, for example, is the best-seller in Australia, Britain, and India—they still enjoy only a 42% market share worldwide. That leaves smaller, local manufacturers like Hsu Fu Chi International in China and Tiger Brands (TBSJ.DE) in South Africa to enjoy dominant market share in their home countries.

© Businessweek

They’re the newest smoke-free tobacco products — dissolvable pellets or strips that don’t require users to chew or even spit. Sold in shiny plastic cases, the products melt in your mouth like breath mints.

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company is test-marketing dissolvable products in three cities and says they are designed for adults.

Some lawmakers disagree. They call the products tobacco candy and say they are designed with one thing in mind: to get kids hooked on nicotine. They want to give the government power to restrict sales.

“Tobacco candies are clearly designed to appeal to children through both packaging and taste,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore. “This is not a safe product. This is not safe tobacco. It is a product that, like cigarettes, causes cancer and kills.”

Merkley and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, have co-sponsored a provision in the Senate tobacco bill requiring the government to study health effects of dissolvable tobacco. The Food and Drug Administration would be given authority to restrict how the products are marketed and sold.

The Senate is expected to vote this week on legislation giving the FDA sweeping controls over cigarettes and other tobacco products. The bill would give the agency power to regulate the content of tobacco products, order the removal of hazardous ingredients, restrict the marketing and distribution of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, clamp down on sales to young people and require stronger warning labels.

“For years, tobacco companies have deceived consumers and marketed products to children — continually trying to replace the 400,000 customers they lose each year to tobacco-related deaths and illnesses,” Brown said. “There is no doubt that smokeless tobacco products are aimed squarely at children. We have a responsibility to protect children from suggestive marketing and dangerous products.”

A spokesman for North Carolina-based R.J. Reynolds accused Merkley and other lawmakers of intentionally distorting the nature of the dissolvable products, which are being test-marketed in Portland, Ore., Columbus, Ohio, and Indianapolis.

“It’s not tobacco candy. That terminology is their terminology,” said David Howard, a Reynolds spokesman. “These are tobacco products. They are made from finely milled tobacco. All the packaging says dissolvable tobacco, they are sold side-by-side with other tobacco products and their sale is age-restricted.”

But Merkley and other critics said the packaging makes some of the products look like cell phones, while others look like breath mints. Words like “mellow” and “fresh” are prominently displayed.

Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, an advocacy group that has pushed for FDA regulation of tobacco, says dissolvables are likely to appeal to children because they are flavored and packaged like candy and are easy to conceal, even in a classroom. They also carry the Camel brand, popular with many teens.

“The last thing kids need is another product to start them on the road to nicotine addiction,” Myers said.

Howard, the Reynolds spokesman, said smoke-free products eliminate the problem of second-hand smoke — and dissolvable products go one step further.

“There’s no spitting and there is no litter. They literally dissolve” in a user’s mouth, he said. “We believe this is a positive. And we’ll see what adult consumers think.”

New York City’s anti-smoking crusaders are out to snuff out two more sources of lung pollution: candy-flavored tobacco like Kiss super Slims and smoking outside of hospitals.

The city that began the you-can’t-smoke-here movement doesn’t want to be left behind by the likes of Maine and New Jersey, which already have banned exotically flavored cigarettes and cigars.

“We need to send a message that New York City is a healthy city, and we’re going to do everything we can to keep it that way,” said Councilman Joel Rivera (D-Bronx) before presiding over a public hearing yesterday on two bills. One bill would ban flavored tobacco and the other would ban smoking outside hospitals.

Both measures were enthusiastically supported by the city Health Department and a number of anti-smoking advocates.

Predictably, the bills drew opposition from tobacco industry representatives. No vote was taken by the committee, although Rivera and other sponsors said the bills have strong support.

The prime sponsor of the ban on smoking outside hospitals is City Councilwoman Inez Dickens (D-Manhattan), who said the idea was proposed to officials at Harlem Hospital. Her bill would ban smoking on the grounds of a hospital, sidewalks adjacent to a hospital and within 15 feet of any hospital entrance.

Rivera is the prime sponsor of the bill to ban flavored tobacco products, which he said are particularly attractive to teens. It would outlaw the sale of exotically flavored tobacco cigarettes and cigars, with the exception of menthol, mint or clove flavors.

Tobacco makers have used a wide array of flavors for cigarettes and cigars, including with such names as Kauai Kolada, Caribbean Chill, Mintrigue, Mocha Taboo, Twista Lime, Peach Freezer and even rum-dipped Al Capone Slims.

Health Department counsel Anne Pearson said the agency supports both bills, although she expressed concern that the ban on flavored tobacco exempts tobacco intended to be used in hookahs (water-filtrated pipes) that have become a trend with young people in neighborhoods such as the East Village and the lower East Side.

A representative of Altria’s tobacco companies, which includes Philip Morris, said regulation of tobacco products should be left to the federal government. And Audrey Silk of Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment (CLASH) said adults are being punished in the name of restricting tobacco sales to minors.

Source: Nydailynews

Oregon’s junior senator is taking a stand against “tobacco candy” – smokeless, dissolvable tobacco. RJ Reynolds is test-marketing “Camel Orbs” in candy tobaccoPortland, as well as Indianapolis, Ind., and Columbus, Ohio. The Orbs come in two flavors: “mellow” (similar to cinnamon or caramel) and “fresh” (mint). RJ Reynolds plans to introduce “Sticks” and “Strips” later this year.
Merkley and fellow Democrat Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio carried the amendment. The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions approved the amendment Tuesday as part of the landmark legislation to allow the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco.

According to a news release from Merkley’s office, the Indiana Poison Control Center estimates dissolvable tobacco products such as the Camel Orbs contain between 60-300 percent of the nicotine in one cigarette.

The Merkley-Brown amendment would require the new Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee to immediately study the public health effects of tobacco candy and report to the FDA on its findings in less than two years. The committee will provide the FDA with all the information it needs about the public health impact of these tobacco candy products, particularly the risks to children, so it can make sure tobacco companies aren’t able to use them to hook a new generation of kids on deadly products.

R.J. Reynolds is test-marketing another smokeless tobacco product in Central Indiana, and this one really has opponents worried. It’s a dissolvable tablet that opponents believe resembles candy.

Convenience store clerk Raj Kumar says he’s been giving the samples away for a month, but nobody has returned to buy the product. It’s called Orbs.

R.J. Reynolds markets its new product as “the best tobacco you never smoked.”

Store customer Keith Young tried Orbs. He said, “It’s not very tasteful. I don’t like it at all.”

Karla Sneegas, Executive Director of Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation hopes the product test fails miserably. She worries the colorful; cell-phone sized packaging with the highly visible Camel brand will be an enticement to young people. She believes cigarette smokers could be tempted to pop two or three of them at a time like breath mints. The Indiana Poison Center said dissolvable tobacco products contain between 60% to 300% of the nicotine found in one cigarette.

“It’s really not encouraging them to quite smoking and switch, it’s encouraging them to keep on smoking and just use this in places where you can’t smoke,” said Sneegas.

Mark Zaiger doesn’t smoke but said Orbs could benefit him if people use it instead of cigarettes.

“Just as long as it eliminates the smoke and stuff because when I go out with my girlfriend and we go out to dinner and it just makes our food taste a little different.”

Store Customer Kristin Duckett looked at the product and said, “It’s going to make kids think that its candy and then it’s going to make them think its ok to use smokeless tobacco or cigarettes.”

Although Kumar has failed to sell a single pack of Orbs, he says cigarettes still make up a big part of his convenience store sales.

R. J. Reynolds spokesman David Howard responded to criticism of dissolvable tobacco saying, “These products meet society’s expectations. There’s no second hand smoke. There’s no spitting and there’s no litter. They are marketed specifically to adult consumers who make informed decisions about tobacco.”

Copyright © Wishtv

Legislation the Senate is considering to regulate tobacco products under the Food and Drug Administration includes a measure that would mandate the study of a new product: tobacco candy.

Made by the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., the lozenge-like Camel Orb is being test-marketed in Portland, Ore., Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio.

The Orb is part of a booming market in smokeless alternatives to cigarettes that has emerged as smoking bans have swept the nation.

An amendment to the tobacco legislation recently passed by a Senate panel would require the new Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee to study the public health effects of tobacco candy — particularly the risks to children — and report its findings to the Food and Drug Administration within two years.

Orbs come in two flavors — “mellow” and “fresh” mint — and are sold in containers designed to look like cell phones, according to a statement by Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., who helped write the amendment.

The Indiana Poison Control Center estimates that dissolvable tobacco products like the tobacco candy contain half to three times the nicotine of a cigarette.

“Tobacco candies are clearly designed to appeal to children through both packaging and taste,” Merkley said. “Congress and the FDA must act quickly to ensure our children do not become victims of the tobacco companies’ latest efforts to hook new generations of Americans on deadly products.”

Calls to R.J. Reynolds were not returned today.

Several months ago, Rob Dunham of R. J. Reynolds told USA Today that Orbs were “meeting the needs of smokers,” implying that the product is not aimed at children.

R.J. Reynolds plans to introduce two similar products — Sticks, in “mellow” flavor, and Strips, in “fresh” flavor — later this year, according to Merkley.

The sweeping tobacco legislation under consideration by the Senate would for the first time give the FDA legal authority to regulate the content of cigarettes and other tobacco products to make them less toxic, set rules governing warning labels and marketing, review previous tobacco industry research and decide whether new tobacco products may be sold in the United States.

The full Senate will probably take up the legislation next month.

Earlier this month, the House overwhelmingly approved a bill to give the FDA regulatory authority over tobacco.