Flavored Cigar Ban Inches Forward?

Apr 30
Durbin, Lautenberg encouraging FDA action
CSP Daily News

WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said that the Senate Appropriations Committee, of which they are members, approved report language that would urge the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) to issue regulations asserting its regulatory authority over tobacco products–including cigars–as part of the 2013 appropriations bill for Agriculture, Rural Development, FDA & Related Agencies. The measure now moves to the full Senate for its consideration.

In 2009, President Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention & Tobacco Control Act, which expanded the authority of the FDA to regulate all tobacco products. The law banned flavored cigarettes, but not flavored cigars.

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Big E-Cig Move

Apr 27
Analyst breaks news, breaks down Lorillard’s blu ecigs buy
 
CSP Daily News |

 

LAS VEGAS — Bonnie Herzog, senior analyst and managing director of tobacco, beverage and consumer research at Wells Fargo Securities LLC, had more than just industry insight to share with those in attendance of her “U.S. Tobacco Trends & Insights” talk Wednesday at the NATO Show in Las Vegas–for many in the audience, she had breaking news. “There was an announcement this morning: Lorillard has bought blu ecigs for $135 million,” Herzog said, who had only just heard the news herself (see full story in this issue of CSP Daily News).

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FDA Strengthens International Collaboration to Ensure Quality, Safety of Imported Products

Apr 25

Editor’s Note: It is only appropriate that CRE restate its concern that the FDA in its entirety should be  concerned about the safety of imported products  and continues to challenge the  failure of the FDA to addess the adverse health effects of counterfeit tobacco products.

 

Pharmalive.com

New report presents FDA’s focus on global cooperation for product safety

 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg, M.D. today released the agency’s “Global Engagement Report1,” detailing the many activities and strategies FDA is using to transform from a domestic to a global public health agency.

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The Health Effects of Counterfeit Cigarettes

Apr 23

Progress comes one small step at a time.  Numerous researchers, including those as at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), have warned that counterfeit cigarettes contain far higher leads of lead, cadmium and other metals compared with legally produced products. 

To study the health effects of contraband, researchers need to conduct two types of studies:

  1. Research on the levels of toxic metals in counterfeit cigarettes compared with genuine brand products; and
  2. Research on elevated health consequences of consuming counterfeit products.

 

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Judges seem wary of overruling tobacco judgment

Apr 22

 Written by  Frederic J. Frommer  Associated Press

Companies argue against corrective advertising mandate

WASHINGTON — A bid by tobacco companies to overrule a court judgment that they must do corrective advertising about the dangers of smoking received a chilly response from a federal appeals court Friday.

The companies want U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler’s order overturned because a 2009 law gave the Food and Drug Administration authority over the industry, including power to require graphic cigarette warnings. In 2006, Kessler ruled that America’s largest cigarette makers concealed the dangers of smoking for decades, in a civil case the government had brought under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, law.

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Study: Obesity Surpasses Smoking in Employee Health Care Costs

Apr 19
By Laura Walter
Penton Business Media

James P. Moriarty, MSc, and colleagues of theMayo ClinicinRochester, Minn., analyzed the incremental costs of smoking and obesity amongMayo Clinicemployees and retirees who had continuous health insurance coverage between 2001 and 2007. They found that both obesity and smoking were associated with excess health care costs.

Smokers, for example, carried average health costs that were $1,275higher than those for non-smokers. But the incremental costs associated with obesity were even higher: $1,850more than for normal-weight individuals. For those with morbid obesity, the excess costs added up to $5,500per year. (According to the Mayo Clinic, individuals with a body mass index, or BMI, of 30 or higher are obese; those with a BMI of 40 and higher suffer from extreme, or morbid, obesity.)

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Ryan Pushes Legislation to Ban the Sale of Flavored Tobacco

Apr 17

Editor’s Note:  Unilateral actions by one state is another step in ensuring the  sale of contraband products whose toxicty has been demonstrated to exceed allowable norms.  The State of  Virgina recognized the harmful effects of contraband cigarettes and took the responsible approach passing legislation to address the public health implications to prevent – not accelerate- contraband cigarette trade.  See the attachment below.

By WKBW News

Ryan Pushes Legislation to Ban the Sale of Flavored Tobacco
(WKBW release) Monday, at Roswell Park Cancer Institute, New York State Assemblyman Sean Ryan called for legislation to be passed immediately that would ban the sale of flavored tobacco products in New York State.

According to a news release:

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Anti-Smoking Campaign: Good Public Policy Or Heavy Handed Propaganda

Apr 15

National Public  Radio

by Alva Noë

Can the federal government require tobacco companies to put scary pictures on cigarette packs? At least one federal district judge has said “no.” You can regulate commercial speech to protect consumers. This means you can punish tobacco companies for making false claims, denying the health risks associated with smoking. And you can even require cigarette packaging to contain labels disclosing those risks. But you can’t compel makers of cigarettes to participate in a campaign against smoking. That crosses the line, wrote Judge Richard Leon.

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FDA’s Graphic Cigarette Warnings: Going Up in Smoke?

Apr 13

By

FOXBusiness

  • FDA Smoking Ad
    U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Everyone knows that smoking is bad for you, but the government has decided the situation is so dire that consumers who want to light up need to be greeted with a dead man on an autopsy table.

A federal appeals court heard arguments on Tuesday and is considering the constitutionality of the government’s requirement that cigarette packs carry graphic warning labels, which include diseased lungs and gums and a cadaver on an autopsy table.

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Hoppy’s Commentary for Tuesday

Apr 11

Talkine Host Hoppy Kercheval

West Virginai Metro  News

 

 

Smoking is bad for you.  It causes a litany of health problems, including cancer, lung and heart disease.  Pregnant women who smoke can harm their unborn child.  Smoking is addictive.

We know these things because we have been told over and over.   Anti-smoking groups run campaigns to discourage kids from starting to smoke and to try to get people to stop.  Cigarette companies must include health warnings on each pack.

But should cigarette makers be forced to do even more to prevent people from buying their product?

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Another health law faces court challenge

Apr 09

The  Hill

By Julian Pecquet

Two weeks after fighting for the survival of its signature healthcare reform law before the Supreme Court, the Obama administration will be back in court Tuesday to defend another part of the president’s agenda to make Americans healthier.

 

The D.C. Court of Appeals is scheduled to hear oral arguments in a case brought by five tobacco companies challenging regulations requiring graphic warning labels on cigarette packs and advertisements starting in September. Once again, the administration is finding itself accused of overstepping its constitutional authority, this time on First Amendment grounds.

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Congress Contemplates Action on Rolling Machines

Apr 05

 

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP on 4/4/2012

author: Seth A. Mailhot]

As part of Sheppard Mullin’s monthly blog on tobacco retailer issues, we are taking a look at the possible future of retailer-operated rolling machines. On March 8, 2012, the U.S. Senate adopted an amendment to the federal highway bill “Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act” (MAP–21) that included a provision impacting retail establishments that offer rolling machines for use to customers. The provision would have changed the definition of “manufacturer of tobacco products” in section 5702(d) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to “include any person who for commercial purposes makes available for consumer use . . . a machine capable of making cigarettes, cigars, or other tobacco products.”[1]

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Criminologist: Crime will flow from tobacco rules

Apr 03

From: EurActiv

A new report on the crime effects of smoking demonstrates that there would be an increase in counterfeit cigarettes, smuggling, and hard-line new rules could be counter-productive, argues Milan-based professor Ernesto Savona.

Savona is professor of criminology at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and the director of Transcrime, a joint research centre with the Università degli Studi di Trento. He spoke from Milan to EurActiv’s Jeremy Fleming.

In your work as a criminologist, have you conducted these criminal proofings of policy proposals before, and if so what types?

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Two Significant Actions to Advance Tobacco Regulation

Apr 02

Baynet. com

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released two separate draft guidance documents to help fight the tobacco epidemic and stop children from using tobacco. The draft guidance documents implement provisions of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act that will ultimately provide the public with previously unknown information about the chemicals in tobacco products and help prevent misleading marketing about the risks associated with tobacco products.

The first document provides guidance on how companies will comply with the requirement to report on the quantities of potentially harmful chemicals in tobacco products. The second document provides guidance to companies that seek to advertise or market a tobacco product as less harmful or associated with reducing the risk of tobacco-related disease.

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