July 22nd, 2012

AWMA & Merchants Grocery Co. Host FDA Plant Tour

 

AWMA

Merchants Grocery Co. plant tour aims to help FDA better understand the distributor’s role in the tobacco distribution process.

A group of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulators visited AWMA member Merchants Grocery Co. in Culpeper, Va., on Wednesday, July 18, and viewed the company’s tobacco processing operation at the invitation of AWMA and Merchants. 

The purpose was to help the FDA officials charged with regulating tobacco clearly understand the distributor’s role in the tobacco distribution process.

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July 17th, 2012

Court: NY can’t scare smokers with gruesome images

9WSYR.com

NEW YORK (AP) – An appeals court says New York City cannot try to scare smokers by requiring grotesque images of diseased lungs and decaying gums at stores that sell cigarettes. It says the federal government gets to decide how to warn people about the dangers of smoking tobacco.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan issued its ruling Tuesday. It rejected a 2009 city Board of Health resolution requiring tobacco retailers to display signs bearing graphic images showing the adverse health effects of smoking.

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July 12th, 2012

Health Fraud at FDA.gov

 
 Tobacco Truth
 
 
                                                                                                                                                 The FDA Center for Tobacco Products on June 27 launched a new consumer web page entitled “Health Fraud” (here).  The page implies that statements about comparative risks among tobacco products are inherently fraudulent:

 
“Claiming less harm or reduced risk of disease from using tobacco products misleads consumers to think that these products are safe to use.  FDA considers these kinds of claims to be health fraud.”
 
Is the FDA suggesting that my 18 years of peer-reviewed work, and the findings of many other respected academicians and various U.S. and international medical societies are fraudulent?  
 
In 1994, epidemiologist Philip Cole and I published a study in Nature, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific journals (citation here), concluding that “…the average remaining life expectancy of a 35-year old smokeless tobacco user is 45.92 years, only 0.04 year less than that of a non-user.  This 15-day reduction in life expectancy is in sharp contrast to the 7.8 years lost by smokers.”  We noted, “…abstinence is not the only approach to reducing tobacco-related mortality: for smokers addicted to nicotine who would not otherwise stop, a permanent switch to smokeless tobacco could be an acceptable alternative to quitting.”
 
In the nearly two decades since, the scientific foundation for tobacco harm reduction has expanded enormously.  How, then, can the FDA justify its new post:
 
“To date, no tobacco products have been scientifically proven to reduce risk of tobacco-related disease, improve safety or cause less harm than other tobacco products.” (emphasis in original)
 
FDA take note: The above statement is demonstrably false and intentionally misleads consumers.  It should be removed, immediately.

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July 3rd, 2012

Pressure to disqualify tobacco study for award

China  Daily   News

BEIJING – Pressure is mounting on China’s Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) to refuse to consider a tobacco research program for a top science award, after the World Health Organization (WHO) stepped into the debate.

 China Tobacco (China National Tobacco Corporation), affiliated to the State Tobacco Monopoly, has applied to have its research into supposedly less harmful cigarettes included on a list of initiatives up for the 2012 National Award for Science and Technology. Its application is open to appeals until early May.

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June 29th, 2012

Feds burned by cigarette smuggling

Politico

 By REP. PETER KING

 

As the U.S. economic downturn continues, no government budget across the nation, at any level, has been spared from cuts. New York state recently had to slash spending by billions. At the federal level, Congress has been forced to make historic cuts in spending. Increasingly, we are working to maintain security with fewer resources.

These challenging fiscal times demand that governments operate efficiently, in part by collecting taxes owed and cutting wasteful spending. Yet every day, the failure to strongly combat the growing crime of contraband cigarette smuggling deprives governments of billions of dollars in tax revenues — siphoned off by terrorist and criminal organizations.

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