World News

KLEIN: Smoking while Iraq burns

Its idolisation of 'the face of Falluja' shows how numb the US is to everyone's pain but its own

Source: The Guardian (uk), 2004-11-26

Author: Naomi Klein Friday November 26, 2004 The Guardian

A few days later, the LA Times declared that its photo had "moved into the realm of the iconic". In truth, the image just feels iconic because it is so laughably derivative: it's a straight-up rip-off of the most powerful icon in American advertising (the Marlboro man), . . . For a country that just elected a wannabe Marlboro man as its president, Miller is an icon and, as if to prove it, he has ignited his very own controversy. "Lots of children, particularly boys, play army, and like to imitate this young man. The clear message of the photo is that the way to relax after a battle is with a cigarette," wrote Daniel Maloney in a scolding letter to the Houston Chronicle. Linda Ortman made the same point to the editors of the Dallas Morning News: . . . Yes, that's right: letter writers from across the nation are united in their outrage - not that the steely-eyed, smoking soldier makes mass killing look cool, but that the laudable act of mass killing makes the grave crime of smoking look cool.

9/11 terror used to sell cigarettes in Israeli papers

Source: Jerusalem Post, 2004-11-12

Author: JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH

A local advertising agency that claims there are "almost no holy cows" is using the image of a jet aiming at the doomed Twin Towers to sell cigarettes imported from Holland. The ad for Max cigarettes, which appears in the Hebrew tabloids and was prepared by the Zarmon-Goldman agency, uses two cigarettes standing vertically, with the top quarter of one looking like it's about to fall as a jet heads for it. "The Dutch [one] that put the Americans into shock [helem, in Hebrew] and took them out of LM," says the full-page ad for Max cigarettes. The LM refers to the best-selling US brand L&M, while a slangy pronunciation of the Hebrew word for shock sounds like LM. "There's no arguing about taste; everyone has his own opinion," said Eilon Zarmon, an owner of the ad agency who was asked to say whether he thought the promotion was vulgar

Dimon to buy N.C. dealer

Source: Winston-Salem (NC) Journal, 2004-11-09

Dimon Inc., the world's second-largest tobacco-leaf dealer, agreed yesterday to buy smaller competitor Standard Commercial Corp. of Wilson, N.C., for about $255 million in stock. The transaction values Standard Commercial's 13.7 million outstanding shares at $18.66 each, a 13.8 percent premium, according to the companies' joint statement. Including Standard Commercial's debt minus its cash as of June 30, the transaction is valued at about $670 million. Dimon shareholders will control 52 percent of the new DimonStandard Inc., which will be headed by Brian Harker, Dimon's chief executive.

US tightens ban on Cuban cigars

Source: Jamaica Observer (jm), 2004-10-07

Author: AFP

US President George W Bush's administration has tightened a ban on Americans importing Cuban cigars. "There is now an across-the-board ban on the importation of Cuban-origin cigars," said a notice released this week by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control. Previously, the rules allowed Americans licenced to travel to Cuba to bring back to the United States up to 100 dollars' worth of Cuban goods, including cigars. That loophole was closed in the latest regulations. The anti-Cuban cigar rules were already strict.

EDITORIAL: Ratification of tobacco treaty needed now

Source: The Lancet, 2004-10-01

On Sept 21, the mother of all tobacco trials began in Washington DC. After a 5-year gestation, and US$135 million of public money spent so far in gathering evidence, the US Government is once again taking on big tobacco. . . . . . .But the Government winning this case is far from certain, and even if it does, the effect success would have on marketing cigarettes is unclear, despite Ashcroft's words. What is clear is that millions of taxpayers' dollars are being spent in what is more a battle about money than about public health. If the Bush administration were genuinely interested in protecting the health of the American people over and above the health of the US tobacco industry, giving the Food and Drug Administration regulatory authority over tobacco products would be a start. However, to prove the USA's commitment to global tobacco control, nothing short of ratifying the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and ensuring that Congress passes the Convention's recommended or required legislation will do. . . . The UK Government, too, is dragging its heels over ratifying the FCTC. The long-awaited white paper on public health, expected next month, should, at the very least, include the UK's schedule for FCTC ratification. Instead, John Reid, the UK health secretary, is reluctant to even commit to a complete ban on smoking in the workplace, including bars and restaurants. Restrictions, or voluntary bans, may be all that the white paper will contain, belying its title, and indicating that the UK Government continues to put the tobacco industry ahead of its public.

Tobacco lawyers try to suppress secret, possibly harmful memo

Source: Bradenton (FL) Herald, 2004-09-28

Author: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tobacco industry lawyers asked an appeals court Monday to keep a potentially damaging memo out of the federal government's ongoing racketeering trial against cigarette makers. Justice Department lawyers have been seeking the 1990 memo for two years, believing it could strengthen their argument that tobacco companies committed fraud by lying about the dangers of smoking and hiding that information from the public. The memo by London-based lawyer Andrew Foyle advises an Australian subsidiary of British American Tobacco Co., PLC., on whether the company should keep or destroy internal paperwork in light of increasing litigation.

EDITORIAL: The US' biggest exposé, RP's biggest cop-out

Source: Manila Times, 2004-09-27

LAST week the United States government began uncovering what it calls a 50-year-old lie perpetrated by the tobacco industry, as the US justice department haled into court the makers of Philip Morris, Winston, Camel and other popular cigarette brands for concealing evidence pointing to the health hazards of tobacco use. At about the same time, the Philippine Congress started what may turn out to be the biggest cop-out for the benefit of cigarette makers. Lawmakers have started debate on the pros and cons of ad valorem as against specific taxation of tobacco products-all to the exclusion of the Department of Finance's proposal to peg tax rates to inflation. . . For while the US government is uncovering the biggest lie told the American public, Philippine legislators are instigating the biggest con on the Filipino consumer. And this is something the public should not only know, but more importantly do something about.

I helped tobacco firm destroy documents: lawyer

Source: The Age (au), 2004-09-26

Author: William Birnbauer

A senior American lawyer has confirmed he helped an Australian tobacco company in preventing sensitive company documents being uncovered in smoking and health litigation. Tobacco industry lawyer Robert Northrip outlined his activities while being questioned by lawyers for the United States Department of Justice in the lead-up to one of the biggest civil suits filed in the United States. Mr Northrip agreed with Victorian Supreme Court judge Geoffrey Eames that British American Tobacco's Australian subsidiary destroyed thousands of sensitive documents. Questioned by Department of Justice lawyers, he said the destroyed documents included those rated by British American Tobacco (BAT) as "knockout blow" documents for plaintiffs suing the company. . . . Robert Northrip is a partner with law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon and has represented tobacco companies since the early 1970s. He is expected to appear soon before US hearings as an adverse witness. Under questioning, he said his Kansas city firm took over the responsibility for British American Tobacco's interests in Australia in the mid-1990s. W.D. & H.O. Wills, an Australian tobacco company, was part of the huge BAT conglomerate. Mr Northrip agreed that part of Shook, Hardy & Bacon's role involved "trying to prevent BAT Group smoking and health documents from becoming public in Australia", to the possible detriment of the company's subsidiaries in the United States. "We also advised Wills in relation to document management to ensure that damaging documents would not be discovered in litigation in Australia or elsewhere," he said. Study finds Europeans still smoke after heart trouble

Programs to help patients quit have failed in U.S., too

Source: AP, 2004-09-12

Author: EMMA ROSS Associated Press

Study group: European researchers studied the smoking habits of 5,551 people in 15 countries after suffering a heart attack or undergoing heart surgery or balloon angioplasty. o Non-stop: About 40 percent of the patients smoked before their heart scare; 52 percent of them continued afterward. . . . Experts at the American Heart Association say the situation among U.S. smokers isn't much different. Neither the government nor health insurance companies in the United States pay for drugs or programs aimed at helping people quit smoking, both of which help, said Dr. Rose Marie Robertson, chief science and medical officer at the American Heart Association. All that is left is for doctors to advise their patients to quit.

Swiss e-commerce start-up takes on Philip Morris

Source: swissinfo (Swiss Radio International), 2004-09-09

A small Swiss cigarette retailer with an eye for legal loopholes has found a simple - and apparently legal - way of bypassing United States customs duties. Chiasso-based Yesmoke has hit on a simple and lucrative business model: worldwide retailing of tobacco brand names for prices up to one-fifth of what shops charge. The virtual firm, which was set up four years ago by Italian brothers Gianpaolo and Carl Messina, already has annual revenues totalling an enviable $100 million (SFr126 million). The Swiss Post Office is not complaining either - it benefits to the tune of 20,000 parcel deliveries per day. . . . But US customs obviously allow the parcels through in large number, despite the fact that goods ordered by internet are not exempt from import duties. "We have told the American customs attaché here in Bern about this, but so far no action has been taken," adds Weber. . . . Messina retorts that it is "laughable" to be given a "moral sermon" by the world's number one tobacco company.

LETTER: Scare tactics and the smoking ban

Source: Irish Examiner (ie), 2004-09-04

Author: John Mallon

Medical science has not yet discovered what causes a cancerous tumour to grow in the first place. However, there is evidence of a correlation between smoking and lung cancer. But correlation does not prove causation. . . . John Brignell recently wrote a book called The Epidemiologists in which he calls their assertions on ETS "the greatest scientific fraud ever". The reason these smoking bans are being promoted arise from an epidemiological study by the US Environmental Protection Agency . . . In reality, scientists have not watched ETS enter the lungs of any non-smoker and cause lung cancer anywhere in the world. In fact, such a study has not even been done on smokers. Instead, convenient conclusions have been made around carefully manipulated statistical evidence to arrive at a default conclusion that ETS causes harm.

MORRIS: An Ode to Cuban Cigars

Source: Mens News Daily, 2004-08-24

Author: Jonathan David Morris

From what I can tell, though--after visiting Aruba--Cuban cigars aren't that much better than others. They're better; just not that much. But you'd never know this based on the way Americans savor them. Here, they're seen as deliciously wicked forbidden fruit. And that's just the thing: The Cubans I smoked in Aruba weren't more enjoyable because they were better; they were more enjoyable because I wasn't supposed to be enjoying them. It was an act of civil disobedience, and this gave me great satisfaction. Smoking a Cuban was like smoking the plank in Big Brother's eye. It served him right. And it tasted good. So if, by conventional wisdom, this makes me a Castro supporter--so be it. Guilty as charged. If I'm going to give up some freedoms, it's going to be to my wife. She's at least earned it. Our government--under the reigns of such men as Jim McGreevey, whose actions are despicable no matter who the hell he sleeps with--has not.

NFPA Fact Sheet: Smoking material-related fires

Source: NFPA (National Fire Protection Association), 2003-06-01

* In 1999, there were 167,700 fires associated with smoking materials, resulting in 807 deaths, 2,193 injuries and $559.1 million in property damage. Of the fire deaths, 776 occurred in residential properties.

* In Canada there were 3,800 fires in 1999 associated with smoking materials. These fires caused 119 civilian deaths, 258 civilian injuries and direct property damage of $58.3 million Canadian ($39.2 million U.S.).

People who breach smoke ban 'may be denied entry to US'

Source: online.ie (ie), 2004-07-16

The Department of Health has reportedly claimed that smokers prosecuted for breaching the workplace smoking ban risk not being permitted entry to the US or Australia. Reports this morning said a spokesman for the department said a conviction for breaching the ban could adversely affect a person's chances of gaining entry to the US or Australia.

DOGGETT, WYDEN COMMENT ON EU TOBACCO SMUGGLING DEAL, URGE CONGRESS TO CONSIDER 'STOP ACT' [Item not online]

Source: U.S. House of Representatives, 2004-07-09

"This significant agreement should spur Congress into acting against the international tobacco smuggling threat," Rep. Doggett said. "Big Tobacco cannot justify doing less to reduce smuggling here than it has now committed to doing in Europe. The United States should adopt the strongest possible laws to keep cheap, smuggled cigarettes out of the hands of the world's youth and keep the profits from smuggled cigarettes out of the hands of international terrorists." . . . The SToP Act would require unique serial numbers on all tobacco packages manufactured in or imported to the U.S. to facilitate tracking by enforcement officials. The bill, which has 100 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives, would require each package of tobacco products manufactured for export be marked to identify the nation of final destination country to prevent illegal reentry into the U.S. or other nations. Tobacco manufacturers, wholesalers, importers and export warehouse proprietors would also be required to apply for a permit to distribute tobacco and to comply with the requirements of the Contraband Cigarette Trafficking Act and Jenkins Act. The SToP Act also provides whistleblower protections for those who provide information relating to violations of federal contraband tobacco laws.

UPDATE - EU, Philip Morris reach $1.25 bln legal settlement

(Adds payment details paras 2-3, 6-7, U.S. reaction final para)

Source: Reuters, 2004-07-09

Author: Patrick Lannin

The world's top tobacco company, Philip Morris, agreed on Friday to pay $1.25 billion to the European Union over 12 years to fight contraband cigarettes and end legal disputes with the EU over smuggling charges. The deal between Philip Morris, part of food and tobacco group Altria (NYSE:MO), involved no admission of liability, but ended all legal battles between the two sides. . . . "Big Tobacco cannot justify doing less to reduce smuggling here than it has now committed to doing in Europe," Representative Lloyd Doggett, a Democrat from Texas, and Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, said in a statement. They said in a statement they would soon launch bipartisan legislation in the House to curb tobacco smuggling and tax evasion.

Smoking stars influence teen girls, study finds

Source: Globe and Mail (ca), 2004-06-30

Author: ANDRÉ PICARD

Teen girls' propensity for swooning over movie stars may cause a lot more long-term damage than the marks left by the cheesy pinups on their bedroom walls. New research suggests that being star-struck can be bad for their health, as they tend to take up smoking to emulate their Hollywood heartthrobs. "If movie stars smoke, especially in romance films, they are effectively encouraging young girls to smoke," said John Pierce, director of the cancer prevention and control program at the University of California at San Diego Cancer Center. He said even girls who have never even taken a puff on a cigarette are far more prone to do so once they have seen a romantic lead, male or female, do so. The worst influences on teen girls, according to the article in today's edition of the American Journal of Public Health are Brad Pitt, Sandra Bullock, Leonardo DiCaprio, Winona Ryder, and Demi Moore. Researchers found that girls who listed these stars -- all of whom smoke frequently on screen -- as their favourites were twice as likely to smoke as girls who were drawn to Hollywood stars who staunchly refuse to smoke, such as Julia Roberts, Michelle Pfeiffer and Tom Cruise.

Cigars cost man 3 years in prison

Source: AP, 2004-06-09

A lawyer was sentenced Wednesday to more than three years in federal prison for smuggling thousands of fine Cuban cigars into this country and selling them for a fat profit. Richard "Mick" Connors, 54, was also fined $60,000 and placed on three years' probation. . . . Witnesses testified that in the early 1990s, as the cigar fad was building in the United States, Connors traveled to the communist island by way of Canada and Mexico almost monthly, bought cigars at $25 to $60 a box and sold them in the United States for up to $400 a box. He was arrested at the Canadian border in 1996 with 1,150 cigars.

Australian former tobacco company employee to give evidence in U.S. lawsuit

Source: AP, 2004-05-18

Author: Associated Press

An appeals court on Tuesday ordered a former tobacco executive from Sydney to testify about allegations that he destroyed sensitive documents while working for a tobacco company being sued by the U.S. government. The New South Wales state Court of Appeal rejected a bid by Nicholas Basil Cannar to overturn a court ruling last year forcing him to give evidence as part of the U.S. Justice Department's $280 billion lawsuit against the top cigarette makers in America.

US firm strikes secret tobacco-for-maize deal

Source: The Observer (uk), 2004-05-16

Author: Antony Barnett and Patrick Smith Sunday May 16, 2004 The Observer

A US financial firm has emerged as central to a secret multi-million dollar plan by Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to bail the country out of a food shortage and prepare the way for his election victory later this year. Last week Mugabe forced the UN's World Food Programme crop assessment team to leave the country fearing that it would expose the dire harvest. Such a disaster would fly in the face of Mugabe's claims of a bumper harvest and prove that his controversial land reforms have failed. There has been a huge drop in production caused by land seizures from white farmers with much of the land lying fallow. Sources claim that Mugabe has struck the secret deal with a group of US firms to provide thousands of tonnes of grain in exchange for tobacco and minerals. Insiders allege one of the US companies involved is Sentry Financial International in Salt Lake City, Utah. Details of hugely profitable tobacco-for-maize swaps, leaked to The Observer, involve Sentry and the state-controlled Grain Marketing Board.

Fury as airport ban goes up in smoke

Aer Rianta accused of double standards after lucrative US military flout law

Source: eircom.net (ie), 2004-04-30

SHANNON airport had to be evacuated because US troops set off alarms by flouting the smoking ban. Angry workers have claimed that Aer Rianta is being soft on the offenders because it is afraid of losing lucrative US military contracts... On at least six occasions US soldiers have been found packed into airport toilets claiming to be unaware of the smoking ban. After one recent fire alarm activation, the airport was evacuated when fire crews failed to locate the source of the emergency within the 10 minutes allowed before an automatic evacuation procedure is initiated... Airport workers angry at the blatant flouting of the smoking regulations have only spoken out because the ban has been hugely successful with the public and worker

Windsor customs officer charged in alleged tobacco-smuggling operation

Source: Windsor (Ont) Star, 2004-05-08

Author: Doug Williamson Windsor Star

A Windsor customs officer faces charges of breach of trust, smuggling and conspiracy in an alleged tobacco-smuggling operation from the United States into Windsor and extending to Toronto. Jennifer M. Grdic, 35, faces several charges along with Khoshaba Binjamin, 31, also of Windsor. They were arrested overnight Wednesday after police executed search warrants at two city residences. They were arraigned in court Thursday morning. A third man, Bishir Bhupendra Mehta, 43, was arrested and charged Thursday in Mississauga after police executed "at least one" search warrant in the Toronto area. He was to be brought to Windsor to appear in court this morning, federal prosecutor Richard Pollock said Thursday.

Albor Ruiz: Feds' priorities win no cigars

Source: New York Daily News, 2004-05-02

Hard as it is to believe, for Washington, seizing rum and cigars from American citizens who travel to Cuba is a greater national security priority than tracking Osama Bin Laden. At a time when the administration's measures to defend the country from terrorism are being questioned, the White House spares no effort to try to stop those "dangerous" people who go to Cuba and bring back a bottle of Havana Club and a couple of Cohibas. "This outrageous misallocation of resources clearly demonstrates the absurdity of the Bush administration's policy toward Cuba," said Sarah Stephens, director of the Freedom to Travel Campaign of the Center for International Policy in Washington. It certainly does.

Shannon being 'smoked' by American troops

Source: Irish Echo, 2004-05-05

Author: Ray O'Hanlon

Airport workers have complained that the troops should be held to the same non-smoking rules as everyone else. But Aer Rianta has declined to say whether the smoking ban is under siege from the soldiers. The Irish Independent reported that the management agency had refused to answer a list of questions regarding the smoking reports. . . . The report pointed to "airport sources" citing fear that lucrative U.S. military business could be in jeopardy from the smoking ban as being a reason for Aer Rianta not taking the offensive against the breaches. Ireland's smoking ban in public places is near absolute. But Frankfurt airport in Germany, another major transiting hub for U.S. military personnel and a clear alternative to Shannon, does not operate a blanket ban. U.S. troops have been transiting through Shannon airport in increasing numbers in recent months.

UK growth helps fire Imperial Tobacco to £454m profit

Source: The Scotsman, 2004-04-29

Author: MARTIN FLANAGAN CITY EDITOR

MARKET-share gains in the UK and a total lack of exposure to the United States helped Imperial Tobacco more than offset a drop in demand in Germany to deliver a 20 per cent rise in underlying first-half pre-tax profits yesterday. Imperial, the worlds fourth-biggest tobacco firm, saw pre-tax profits before goodwill and exceptional items rise to 454 million - the same figure bigger rival British American Tobacco announced on Tuesday as a headline pre-tax profit for the first three months of the year. BAT, which has a big US presence, saw its results hit by the weakness of the dollar, but Imperial said the impact of currency fluctuations had had no material effect on its performance. An Imperial spokesman said: "We have no presence in the US. We have steered clear of there because of the litigation issues."

Tobacco's giant fight to stop one man talking

Source: Sydney Morning Herald (au), 2004-03-30

Author: Ben Hills March 31, 2004

What is Nick Cannar's dark secret? Why would the US Government spend several hundred thousand dollars in a two-year legal battle to try to force a retired lawyer living in Lane Cove to answer a few questions ? And why would Mr Cannar and his former employer, British American Tobacco, the world's second-largest tobacco company, fight tooth and nail for his right to keep his mouth shut ? Yesterday, in Sydney's Banco Court, the latest chapter in the saga of Sharon Y. Eubanks v Nicholas Basil Cannar unfolded before three justices of the NSW Supreme Court - an appeal against a ruling by a judge in 2002 that Mr Cannar give sworn evidence before a court-appointed "examiner". Sharon Eubanks is head of the US Justice Department's tobacco litigation team that has spent the past four years preparing for the mother of all cases against Big Tobacco - a $US289 billion ($387 billion) action against BAT and four other companies. . . . The tobacco companies have thrown colossal resources into fighting the case. "We will not succumb to politically correct extortion," said Gregory Little, a lawyer for Phillip Morris. "We will not settle this lawsuit. We will defend this case vigorously . . . " In a Melbourne case involving a woman who died of tobacco-caused cancer, it emerged that when BAT was becoming engulfed in litigation from dead and dying smokers in the 1980s, the company devised a strategy with the Orwellian name of "document retention policy". . . . Although the Justice Department has given Mr Cannar an indemnity against prosecution, his counsel, Stephen Gageler, SC, argued yesterday that complying with the order would "potentially subject him to criminal sanctions and civil liability on three continents". The appeal continues today.

AP Investigation: Mexican worker deaths rise sharply

Source: AP, 2004-03-13

Author: JUSTIN PRITCHARD / Associated Press

The jobs that lure Mexican workers to the United States are killing them in a worsening epidemic that is now claiming a victim a day, an Associated Press investigation has found. Though Mexicans often take the most hazardous jobs, they are more likely than others to be killed even when doing similarly risky work. The death rates are greatest in Washington and Colorado, as well as Southern states where a Mexican worker is four times more likely to die than the average U.S.-born worker. . . . Urbano Ramirez died picking tobacco in the North Carolina summer. There was no drinking water in the field, though his crew boss sold beers on the side. That supervisor told investigators Ramirez suffered a nose bleed, so he told him to rest. Ramirez's body was found 10 days later reclined against a magnolia tree, the only shade around.

Study: No-Smoking Areas Offer Partial Protection

Source: Reuters Health, 2004-02-23

Author: Patricia Reaney

Designated no-smoking areas in restaurants and clubs provide only partial or no protection against second-hand smoke, Australian researchers said on Tuesday. Less than a week after Ireland announced it would become the first country in Europe to outlaw smoking in pubs, bars and restaurants, Professor Bernard Stewart of the South East Sydney Public Health United in Australia said that, at best, restricted smoking areas halve levels of environmental tobacco smoke. "No-smoking areas may provide some reduction in the level of exposure of individuals to environmental tobacco smoke. However, the reduction may be marginal or trivial," Stewart said in a report in the journal Tobacco Control. . . . The Australian scientists measured atmospheric nicotine in 17 social and gaming clubs in and around Sydney. They found levels varied but, on average, if a person moved from a smoking to a non-smoking area it would reduce the amount of nicotine inhaled by about 53 percent. In a separate study in the magazine, scientists in the United States said smoking outdoors reduces toddlers' exposure to tobacco smoke but it does not completely protect them because environmental smoke lingers in dust and on household surfaces.

Blue collar workers more likely to smoke, less able to give up

Source: Medical News TODAY(UK), 2004-02-21

Americans working in blue collar and some service jobs are more apt to smoke and less likely to quit, a new study suggests. In white and black populations, rates of smoking are highest among people with low incomes, little education and blue collar jobs. Smoking rates follow a similar trend in Hispanic, Asian and American Indian populations, although the effects of income and occupation are less clear-cut in these groups, say Elizabeth Barbeau, Sc.D., M.P.H., and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health. Their findings are published in the American Journal of Public Health. "Taken together, these groups at high risk for smoking made up approximately 60 million adults, or nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population," Barbeau says. After analyzing health data gathered on 24,276 Americans in 2000, the researchers found that smokers from all socioeconomic backgrounds were likely to try quitting. Successful quitters, however, tended to come from wealthier, white collar backgrounds. In a second study published in the same issue, Barbara Jefferis, M.Sc., of the Institute of Child Health in London and colleagues conclude that socioeconomic status affects British smokers in a similar way.

Indonesia Fumes Over Possible US Kretek Ban

Source: Laksamana.net (id), 2004-02-07

The Industry and Trade Ministry says US Congress is considering a bill that would ban imports of Indonesia's distinctive kretek (clove flavored) cigarettes, which have become a fad among American youths. Director general for industry and trade cooperation Pos M. Hutabarat was on Friday (7/2/04) quoted by Asia Pulse as saying Indonesia could lose $20 million to $30 million worth of annual kretek imports to the US if the bill is passed into law. . . . Hutabarat met earlier this week in Jakarta with the visiting US Commerce Department's assistant secretary of commerce for market access and compliance William H. Lash III. Following the meeting, he said the Industry and Trade Ministry would lobby the US government to drop the bill. But Lash reportedly expressed doubt that lobbying would deter Congress from enacting the bill.

Crime gangs get free roam on Canada Indian reserves

Source: Boston (MA) Globe, 2004-02-01

Author: Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff, 2/1/2004

The "Hells" are the Hells Angels, who with other motorcycle gangs have become deeply entrenched on dozens of Indian reserves from Nova Scotia to British Columbia. Several Mohawk settlements in Quebec, including Kanesatake and the Akwesasne reserve, are considered the worst cases by law officials. Police and other specialists say these tribal realms have become critical "safe zones" for large-scale criminal activity, including marijuana production, cigarette bootlegging, and the smuggling of narcotics, guns, and illegal aliens to and from the United States. "Because aboriginal issues are such a hot potato, no politician wants to push for normal policing [of reserves]," said Staff Sergeant Jean-Pierre Levesque of the Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada. "So organized crime, mainly biker gangs, has moved onto reserves where they can operate without interference. They have outdoor pot plantations and hydroponic labs" for growing marijuana indoors. "They do a big business in smuggling -- people, cigarettes, weapons, drugs. In some cases, the criminals are controlling reserves through intimidation." A Royal Canadian Mounted Police intelligence study last year described the Akwesasne Mohawk territory straddling Quebec and Ontario along the upstate New York border as "a primary portal for illegal goods moving in and out of Canada, including narcotics, firearms, illegal migrants, alcohol, and tobacco." Some analysts say Canada's "hands-off" policy toward Indians is largely to blame.

TTM links up with US firm to make premium cigarette

New brand to be sold locally and abroad

Source: Bangkok Post (th), 2004-02-02

Author: Wichit Chantanusornsiri

The Thailand Tobacco Monopoly has joined hands with US tobacco growers in a programme aimed at producing premium grade cigarettes to compete with leading international brands. Suchon Watanapongvanich, TTM managing director, said the state agency would launch its new premium-brand cigarette in the fourth quarter, priced at 50 baht per pack and available in ``American'' and ``Virginia'' flavours. Tobacco leaf imported from Virginia will be the main raw material for the new cigarette, to be positioned for both the local and export markets. . . . Mr Suchon said on Feb 10, an association of US growers would bring a cigarette made from Virginia leaf grown in Thailand and blended with US leaf for testing by the TTM. If approved, the TTM would then begin preparations to produce the cigarette locally, with a market launch planned by the end of the year.

Lung cancer affects fewer Hispanics

Source: El Paso Times / Borderland News, 2004-01-14

Author: Diana Washington Valdez El Paso Times

El Paso reported fewer lung cancer cases for Hispanic women than for Anglo women in 2002 and 2000, according to the American Cancer Society's El Paso chapter. "Even though Hispanics make up more than 70 percent of the El Paso population, they seem to have proportionately fewer smokers when compared to Anglos," said Kathrin Berg Pettit, government relations director for the American Cancer Society. "Based on surveys, the decision by Hispanics not to smoke is based on family values ... (they) tell us, 'I don't smoke because Mom and Grandma don't want me to smoke,' " she said. "We find this more so on the U.S. side of the border. In Mexico, the information we have is that smoking is more acceptable, and so more Hispanics there smoke than on the U.S. side."

Cigars For Charity

Source: Cigar Aficionado, 2003-11-03

Author: David Savona

It's time to light up a Fuente for a very good cause. On November 22nd, the Fuente and Newman cigar families hope to have 5,000 cigar aficionados simultaneously light up, creating the world's largest cigar toast. The event aims to raise more than $250,000 for the children of El Caribe, where Fuente grows wrapper tobacco in the Dominican Republic. "We wanted to see if we could help the children in the surrounding communities," said Eric M. Newman, president of the J.C. Newman Cigar Co. as he described the project at a recent lunch at New York City's Grand Havana Room. He held up photographs of children. "These are our kids. We're happy that cigars can be the catalyst to help make dreams come true." . . . On November 22, more than 100 smoke shops will host the event

Swedish firm determined to smoke out competition

Makers of Scandinavian-style of snuff are hoping to take their product overseas and across Europe with claims that it's a safer form of tobacco

Source: Chicago Tribune, 2004-01-02

Snus(pronounced snoos)--a Scandinavian form of moist snuff--has been banned elsewhere in the European Union for more than a decade, but its popularity has rebounded in its country of origin, where 1 of every 9 Swedes uses it. And the top snus maker, Swedish Match, now is targeting world markets with claims that its blend of tobacco, water, salt and flavoring is a safer alternative to smoking... As protruding upper lips replace smoke rings in Swedish bars and offices, scientists are debating the ethics of replacing cigarettes with another tobacco product--less harmful, perhaps, but just as addictive because of the nicotine it contains. . . . Swedish Match is lobbying for an end to the EU ban and has two legal challenges before the European Court of Justice. "It's illogical and discriminating," says Gelkner, head of the company's northern Europe division. "All other tobacco products are allowed, while snus, which is considered the least damaging to health, is prohibited." Swedish Match is exploring other markets with traditions of smokeless tobacco, including North America, South Africa and India. Export products are modified to local tastes: American snus is flavored with wintergreen oil, Indian products have traces of eucalyptus, licorice and cardamom.

The tobacco net tightens still further

Source: grandprix.com, 2003-12-29

Although there has been little happening in racing circles during the Christmas holidays, the anti-tobacco forces continue to tighten the net on tobacco advertising, with three more countries committing themselves to the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. Admittedly, the signatures of Slovakia, Bulgaria and Burkina Faso may not be of any particular importance but they bring to 83 the number of countries now committed to the treaty... At the moment the treaty is being reviewed by various US agencies and after that is completed President George W. Bush will have to decide whether to sign it and send it on to the Senate for ratification. There is much argument as to whether or not the treaty would conflict with the US Bill of Rights, the first amendment

Babies and Smoking [Source: Pediatrics for Parents]

Source: B&W NewsReal, 2003-01-01

The Brits have the right idea about spreading the word on the dangers to children of secondhand smoke. The British government recently started a $1.6 million ad campaign illustrating the dangers of secondhand smoke. One ad shows a baby in a car safety seat inhaling cigarette smoke. Another shows a child playing with toys and breathing in a cloud of smoke. . . . Don't hold your breath waiting to see such ads on US television.

Free tobacco trade opposed

Source: The Nation (th), 2003-12-12

Author: ARTHIT KHWANKHOM, THE NATION

Fearing that relaxed trading rules would raise tobacco sales, Thai and US health advocacy organisations yesterday called on the government to exclude tobacco products from the planned free-trade agreement between the two countries. "We believe it would be disastrous to provide tobacco companies with the ability to directly challenge national or sub-national tobacco control laws in Thailand," said a statement by US and Thai anti-tobacco groups. The organisations included Action on Smoking and Health - Thailand; the Thailand Health Promotion Institute; the American Cancer Society; the American Heart Association; the American Lung Association; Action on Smoking and Health - USA; the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids; and Essential Action.

Canadian, U.S. smuggler hunters join forces to snare people, pot and smokes

Source: CANOE Columnists, 2003-12-03

The police boat hisses to a stop near where the Ontario, Quebec and New York state borders intersect through Akwesasne. The name is Mohawk for "land where the partridge drums," a reference to how the male birds beat their wings in mating season. In total, the territory sprawls over 10,000 hectares on land, water and scenic islands. It straddles the Canada-U.S. border which, on maps, cuts the St. Lawrence in half. A network of international bridges, roads and waterways strings the islands and mainland together. It's a jurisdictional quagmire of woods and riverside terrain ideal for smuggling of all kinds -- including people. A small portion of the native community has forged ties with organized crime in recent decades, helping to ferry cargo through their land for cash. Using night vision goggles and a device that detects heat, police watch the shoreline. Their suspect, likely in a boat much faster than they can match, has disappeared into the night. But it won't be long before the next chase begins. It's business as usual for these members of the International Border Enforcement Unit. The team, formed after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, regularly seizes illicit goods as they chip away at a monumental smuggling industry. . . . It's not unusual for reserve residents on shopping trips to be surrounded by officers, he said. Vehicles that ride low are routinely pulled over by the "Marlboro Gang" searching for cases of cigarettes, he said. "The whole community is portrayed to be part of the smugglers. We're not."

Jones: Tobacco Tax Breaks Off The Table

Source: St. John Source (vi), 2003-11-30

Author: Molly Morris

Senate President David Jones addressed two thorny issues Sunday. He said that he will withdraw his highly controversial tobacco amendment in Monday's full Senate session . . . The amendment, which would give tobacco importers a 90-percent excise-tax break,has been objected to by some of his colleagues, by taxpayers on radio talk shows and by Samuel Morch, AARP Virgin Islands president. . . . "I think misunderstanding and misinformation got out," Jones said. "It is not designed to promote smoking, but to stimulate sales for a visitor who comes here to shop. Tobacco traditionally has been the benchmark for determining whether a destination is pricey or you can get good bargains."

EDITORIAL: French smoking mad at us

Source: Memphis (TN) Commercial Appeal, 2003-11-23

FRENCH do-gooders have gotten serious about smoking and health. It has been uphill going; typical of the resistance is the spokesman for the French tobacco industry, who dismissed the threat of secondhand smoke as an "American fabrication." But smoking-related illnesses claim 66,000 French lives each year. . . . America must shoulder its share of blame for popularizing smoking around the world. But the addictive ingredient in cigarettes, nicotine, is named after a Frenchman, Jean Nicot, who in 1559 introduced tobacco to Paris.

Lighting Up A Community

Source: Tampa (FL) Tribune, 2003-11-22

Author: DAVE SIMANOFF

Cigar smokers in the United States are planning to puff away tonight to help out cigarmakers and their families in the Dominican Republic. The families behind J.C. Newman Cigar Co. and Tabacalera A. Fuente y Cia hope to raise $250,000 tonight with its Toast Across America, an event that should have 5,000 cigar smokers, in all 50 states, lighting up simultaneously at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. The smokers will pay $50 a pop and will receive two commemorative cigars . . . Newman is based in Tampa, and Fuente's headquarters are in Santiago, Dominican Republic. The companies are raising money for the Cigar Family Charitable Foundation, which is planning to build a 23-acre community center with education facilities for children and adults, a clean water supply, a modern health care center and a youth sports center for the people who live in villages outside the Dominican town of Caribe. The charity is trying to raise $1 million, and has received $400,000 so far.

Nose for a new trend and a fix of nicotine

Source: The Scotsman, 2003-10-29

Author: SARAH HOWDEN

while few non-smokers will be shedding any tears over the industrys struggles, tobacco giants have been donning their thinking caps to devise ingenious ways of reaching their market. Although it hardly enjoys the most glamorous of images, the answer they have come up with is snuff. Tobacco giant the US Smokeless Tobacco Company (USSTC) is busy trying to attract young professionals to its newly packaged product. . . And now it is young professionals who are being targeted in a new snuff advertising campaign, to be launched in the New Year in the US by the USSTC, in a bid to change the perceptions of what is traditionally considered a somewhat unsophisticated habit and make it a fashionable fix. Indeed, the USSTC is hoping to dispel the myth that only old men use snuff and stylise the product for the 21st century consumer. So, will young, successful professional adults who smoke swap to snuff? Or will they stick with what they know best?

F1 faces cloudy future in North America

Source: Agence France Presse (AFP), 2003-09-29

With attendance falling at the United States Grand Prix and the Canadian Grand Prix already dropped from the lineup, Formula One faces the prospect of no North American races after next year. Attendance for Sunday's US Grand Prix here was estimated below 150,000, continuing a trend of steady decline . . . Tobacco sponsorship, which brings 415 million dollars a season to F1 teams, is also an issue. The Canadian Grnd Prix, a June staple on the F1 calendar, was wiped out because of government bans on tobacco advertising. "Canada, it's a bit of a pity it's not on the calendar because it's a huge market," said Toyota motorsport director Ange Pasquali. Advertisements for the cigarette brand which sponsors Schumacher were not visible on his car here this week as he won for the sixth time this season and virtually clinched a record-breaking sixth F1 championship. The ads were gone because of a 1998 legal settlement between states and US tobacco companies allowing only one US sport sponsorship for a tobacco brand

Smoke-free successes in North America provide a lesson for the UK

Source: ASH London, 2003-09-23

Smoke-free bars and restaurants are a hit with customers and staff, new research from the United States shows. And gloomy forecasts about loss of trade from the tobacco industry and some in the hospitality trades have been proven false. But, as a Canadian study also shows, the tobacco industry is still spending heavily to try to stop or wreck smoke-free laws. . . . Deborah Arnott, Director of the anti-tobacco campaigning group ASH, said: "These studies show that smoke-free laws are popular with both public and staff, and that compliance increases over time. Voluntary smoking restrictions measures are not enough to protect people from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke. [4] The tobacco industry has been trying to con people into believing that smoke-free laws are bad for business, peddling stories that takings were down by as much as a half in New York, for example. But the truth is very different. Eliminating tobacco smoke pollution from bars and restaurants is good for business and good for the health of customers and staff. It's time we in the UK followed the US example."

More graphic cigarette warnings sought for labels

Source: The Arizona Republic, 2003-08-26

Author: James R. Carroll / (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal

Cigarettes sold in the United States could soon take a similar approach. Stronger health warnings on packages are one of the goals of a Justice Department lawsuit against the tobacco industry, and some members of Congress, including Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have introduced legislation that McConnell acknowledges could open the door to Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco products. . . . Johnnie Obeid, 62 and a barber shop owner in Leamington, Ontario, avoids the gruesome pictures by putting his cigarettes in a well-worn metal container and throwing out the packs. Obeid said he's tried to quit his pack-a-day habit "about 600 times. I can't do it." Canada's smoking rate was 35 percent as recently as 1985. In 1999, the government set a goal of 20 percent by 2011. But the decline in smokers has been so steep that Canada's smoking rate already has dropped to 21 percent, just 1 percent above the goal, with eight years to go. By comparison, the smoking rate in the United States in 2000, the latest year for which figures were available, was 23 percent.

Shock value / Momentum builds to follow Canada's tough anti-smoking campaign

Source: Louisville (KY) Courier-Journal, 2003-08-24

Author: JAMES R. CARROLL The Courier-Journal

From 2000 to 2002, the year after Canada implemented its new warning system, the number of smokers in the country declined by 600,000, according to Health Canada, the nation's government health agency. Nearly half said in a Canadian Cancer Society survey last year that they were motivated by the startling images on the packs every time they had the urge to light up. Others who've stopped smoking cite the high cost of cigarettes - $10 Canadian a pack in some provinces - and efforts there to stop public smoking. Now tougher warnings on U.S.-sold cigarettes are gaining momentum. In June, the American Medical Association decided at its annual convention to push for Canadian-style cigarette labels in the United States. In Congress, Reps. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., and James Hansen, R-Utah, proposed such warnings for cigarette packs last year. But despite figures that show the effort was effective in Canada, the U.S. bill didn't pass. Stronger health warnings on packages are one of the goals of a Justice Department lawsuit against the tobacco industry. And Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. and others in Congress have introduced tobacco buyout legislation that McConnell acknowledges could open the door to Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco products - regulation that might include tougher warning labels.

BAT defends dealings with 'thugs'

Source: This is London (Associated Newspapers) (uk), 2003-06-12

Author: Jake Lloyd-Smith in Singapore, Evening Standard

TOBACCO giant BAT has defended its joint venture with Myanmar's military rulers, denounced today as 'thugs' by US Secretary of State Colin Powell. As pressure mounted on the government to release detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, a BAT spokeswoman said: 'Although the current situation...is very difficult, we are totally committed to our 500-plus employees and our business.' The joint venture - Rothmans of Pall Mall Myanmar - is the country's leading tobacco company. It is 60% held by Rothmans Myanmar, a BAT unit, with the balance held by a company controlled by the country's military rulers. The government of Myanmar - formerly known as Burma - is among the most reviled administrations in Asia . . . Powell today took the unusual step of denouncing the regime in a newspaper article, calling for more pressure against the regime. . . BAT says private companies should not dabble in politics, but says they can make contributions to workplace rights.

Cigarette Burns

Source: Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) (au), 2003-05-29

Author: Antony Balmain

In a few weeks, New York State will have the world's first laws making it compulsory for cigarettes to meet new fire safety standards. The move reflects the fact that fires started by cigarettes kill more people than any other type of blaze. Now there are calls for Australia to follow the US lead and force cigarette companies to produce a more fire-safe product. . . . The first patent for a self-extinguishing cigarette - Bristol 11.409 - was issued in the United States 149 years ago. Since then, about 100 patents have been registered for fire-safe cigarettes. One man who knows this issue well is Jim Shannon. He's President of the National Fire Protection Association, or NFPA, in the United States. As a conservative member of the United States Congress, he backed new laws on the question of fire-safe cigarettes 25 years ago. . . The NFPA's Jim Shannon recently met up with his Australian counterpart Ross Hodge at this international fire conference and exhibition in Hong Kong. Back in Australia, Ross Hodge has, since last year, been the chief executive officer of the Australian Fire Protection Association, a peak industry body which works with governments on fire safety standards. For the first time, he's voicing his concerns about the fire risk of cigarettes and the behaviour of the tobacco companies.

Littered with butts

As we force smokers outdoors, more smoked cigarettes are ending up in the environment

Source: Halifax (NS) Daily News (ca), 2003-06-01

Author: Chris Lambie / The Daily News

They're small, and they're light, and they're not that noticeable, but cigarette butts are piling up into one of Nova Scotia's ugliest litter problems. And the more we force smokers outside, the bigger the problem is becoming. Organized litter sweeps in Nova Scotia don't count cigarette butts because the numbers would be overwhelming. But the ubiquitous little filters could be a huge white elephant hanging over our heads. . . Kathleen Register, a researcher at Virginia's Longwood University, found the compounds in discarded cigarette butts are lethal to daphnia, better known as water fleas. Daphnia are "a critical part of the aquatic food chain," Register said. Cigarette butts get into lakes, rivers and the oceans through storm sewers, Register said.

UK firms under fire for contribution to US parties

Source: The Peninsula (qa), 2003-05-18

Schroders and Morley, two of London's most influential fund managers, have hit out at British companies that have spent millions on donations to American political parties. Morley has called for an end to handouts from Britain's biggest donors, including Glaxo Smith Kline, British American Tobacco and Allied Domecq. British companies and their employees are active donors, spending more than $12.5m supporting politicians over the past four years, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP) . . . Anita Skipper, head of corporate governance at Morley, said: "Companies, whether in the US or Europe, shouldn't make political donations in any guise. It is not an appropriate use of shareholders' money." Schroders has demanded greater detail in company reports about the donations - few businesses reveal the amounts.

U.S. Should Follow European Union's Lead and Adopt the Tobacco Treaty

Source: Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, 2003-05-16

We applaud the decision by the European Union to adopt and ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the recently negotiated tobacco control treaty. The EU's decision to support the treaty leaves the United States isolated in its efforts to reopen negotiations on the treaty and significantly weaken it. We urge the United States to join the vast majority of nations in signing the treaty, which holds such potential for improving health and saving lives around the world. If the United States decides not to sign the treaty, it should give up its efforts to reopen the negotiations and let other nations get on with the important work of protecting the health of their citizens. The treaty is scheduled to be adopted at the World Health Assembly, the meeting of health ministers from around the world that begins May 19 in Geneva, Switzerland. Germany had been the lone EU nation expressing objections to the treaty, which could have held up ratification by the EU, which operates by consensus. On Thursday, at a meeting of EU health ministers, Germany agreed not to block EU ratification

Last Gasp For Tobacco Ads

With the ban in Britain, one less avenue for creative tobacco work

Source: Ad Week, 2003-05-05

Author: Noreen O'Leary

When tobacco marketing was virtually eliminated in Britain in February, the country's mainstream media eulogized a sector that had produced some of the most iconic work in U.K. advertising of the past 30 years. Collett Dickenson Pearce put packs of Benson & Hedges in bizarre but artful situations in posterlike print. Then came Silk Cut's beautifully photographed images of cut purple silk, often featured in surreal scenarios without a cigarette in sight, out of Saatchi & Saatchi and later M&C Saatchi. "In the U.K. you could have produced some of the best ads of your career working on tobacco," says Tim Delaney, creative founder of London's Leagas Delaney (which itself has avoided tobacco work). If tobacco advertising disappeared in the U.S. tomorrow, who would even notice? The category has never inspired the kind of breakthrough creative seen in the U.K. Other than the Marlboro Man, created by Leo Burnett in 1955, few campaigns have carved out a lasting impression. And few are likely ever to achieve that as the increasingly stigmatized industry fades from view in the mass media, slipping into a price- driven world of promotions. . . Account execs working on tobacco adopt a libertarian position about marketing it. It's a legal product, they say, and the same governments attacking cigarettes are only too happy to pocket the taxes earned off them. And they ask, where does regulation stop? What's next, fatty foods? But if Gyro has injected some creative influence into the category, some say the better the work, the worse for impressionable consumers new to the product. Many copywriters and art directors believe tobacco poses a complex dilemma for those asked to develop a creative strategy for a product with serious health risks. . . "There are creative directors in this country who see tobacco ads in your book and won't even look at it," observes Jeff Johnson, president and CEO of Atlanta-based WestWayne, which used to work on RJR's Salem. "There's a blacklisting that goes on that doesn't seem to happen in account management."

Key to childhood smoking

Source: Glasgow Herald (uk), 2003-01-02

Author: CATE DEVINE

Schoolchildren should get cognitive therapy classes as part of the curriculum of every school in Britain to prevent them smoking. This is the controversial advice to government from leading psychologist Oliver James, who believes smokers smoke because of being let down by their parents. James cites the surprising results of a study of 9000 Americans which proved that their smoking could have been caused by adverse childhood experiences - like parental divorce, physical or verbal abuse, or neglect. He is convinced a cognitive analytic therapy programme in schools would tackle the similar situation in this country. "This would be aimed at all 16-year-olds whether they smoked or not," he told the Herald, claiming that it would not be difficult to train a specialist team of therapists, and would cost the same as it currently does to run "nonsensical" personal social education classes. "By helping children examine their early life experiences and come to terms with them, you could change the electro-chemistry that made them smoke in the first place." But would therapy work for children in the elusive battle against smoking? . . James's argument is reinforced by figures showing that of the one in four adult cigarette smokers in Britain, half are depressive, 16% are anxious and a further 14% are angry and irritable due to the psychological effects of early infantile deprivation. It is this group of people who most crave the euphoric sensation a cigarette gives them - a rush of dopamine and the raising of anti-depressant serotonin levels - not because they are addicted to nicotine, but because they are insecure and need a cloud of smoke to hide behind. They are jumpy if they're kept waiting, neurotic, and can't take the risk of depending on others, and all because their mums didn't give them enough attention when they were babies.

'David went through hell - I want justice'

Gabrielle Van der Velde is determined to make a tobacco company pay for her husband's death.

Source: Electronic Telegraph (uk), 2002-11-22

Author: Judith Woods

Doctors at the London hospital where he was treated blamed smoking for his death, at the age of 46, in 2000. As a result, Van der Velde is launching the first UK action against the American tobacco industry through the US courts. She is seeking unlimited damages from Philip Morris, the makers of Marlboro, the brand her husband smoked from the age of 12. If successful, she could be awarded upwards of £25 million. "People have told me I'm disgusting, that I'm trying to profit from my husband's death," says Van der Velde, 42. "But they have no idea of the torture he endured, or the hell we've been through as a family. It was my husband who started this court action, but I have to follow it through. I'm not putting a price on his life - I simply want justice." Sitting in her north London home, surrounded by framed family photographs, Van der Velde cuts a forlorn figure. She was hospitalised with a nervous breakdown shortly after her husband's death and, although she is still on anti-depressants, recently had a relapse. Her eyes frequently cloud over with tears and she seems woefully ill-cast as the heroine at the centre of this David and Goliath clash. . . Van der Velde's anger is as raw as her grief. Yet the fact remains that her husband smoked of his own free will, despite health warnings about just how much damage cigarettes could do. . . Philip Morris has stated that if her case is successful, it could open the floodgates for smokers in the UK - and worldwide - to launch legal action in the American courts. A preliminary hearing is due in eight weeks, when a decision will be taken on whether litigation can take place in the US. . . In Britain, the picture is more complex. In Scotland, the wife of a deceased smoker is taking legal action against Imperial Tobacco. But in England, litigation on behalf of more than 50 lung cancer victims collapsed in 1999. . . "Should the American courts accept the case, I'm very confident that Mrs Van der Velde will succeed," says Alan Care, who is handling the British side of her case, also on a no-win, no-fee basis.

Report: U.S. judge in tobacco smuggling case had industry ties

Source: AP, 2002-09-09

federal judge who helped hand the tobacco industry one of its biggest legal victories in recent years represented a tobacco company as a private attorney, a newspaper reported Monday. The 2-1 ruling last October by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals derailed Canada's billion-dollar cigarette smuggling case against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings Inc., leading to the dismissal of similar suits against cigarette makers by the European Union and Colombia. Internal documents disclosed in tobacco litigation show that U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan participated in high-level meetings discussing how to prevent government action on tobacco smuggling when he was an attorney for Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp. in the 1970s and '80s, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Fancy Boots and Homey Events Lure Smokers

Philip Morris Drops Magazine Ads, Refocuses on Customer Interaction

Source: Advertising Age, 2002-08-12

Author: Cara B. DiPasquale

Philip Morris USA has not run a single magazine ad for Marlboro this year. But while relinquishing the only mass-media venue available for its biggest brand, the tobacco leader continues to aggressively promote brands at retail through discounts and other offers. Philip Morris plans to invest $350 million in the second half of this year on price promotions for premium brands including Marlboro, and continues programs and events that facilitate customers' interaction and reward their loyalty. . . Price promotions remain the biggest marketing tactic for major cigarette companies trying to compete against deep-discount smoke manufacturers. "Magazines are somewhat of an effective venue for them to advertise, but some of the more effective advertising or promotions are at point-of-sale," said Bonnie Herzog, a tobacco analyst at Salomon Smith Barney. Brand-building programs and events, however, remain constant. This month Philip Morris launched a "Boot Up" sweepstakes giving smokers who buy a two-pack of Marlboro a free CD-ROM containing clip art to design their own cowboy boots. In January, 250 winners will A June Philip Morris newspaper ad announced an antique appraisal fair in southern New Jersey. It said "Enjoy free food, games, antique displays, live entertainment and loads of fun. Admission is free and restricted to adult smokers and their guests." . . In addition, Philip Morris is giving smokers more ways to cash in their Marlboro Miles -- a 9-year-old program in which consumers redeem "currency" included in each pack of smokes for goods from the yearly "Marlboro Cowboy Chronicles" catalog. Since 1998, Philip Morris has held live auctions in bars across the country, enabling consumers to bid on items such as CD players and tents using their miles. It broadened the event in May by adding a "trading post" -- a store within bars where smokers can use their Marlboro Miles to purchase items. That program rolls out nationally this fall.

EDITORIAL: Instant billionaires * Lawyers win big on tobacco settlement

Source: San Diego (CA) Union-Tribune, 1999-01-04

But as Rice's remarks reveal, the legal jihad against Big Tobacco was hardly borne out of pathos for the thousands of Americans suffering from smoking-related illnesses. No, the trial lawyers were motivated by personal avarice; by the lure of billions of dollars in fees. This is the new-fashioned way to generate great fortunes in America today. You don't invent. You don't build. You don't produce. You don't even invest. You just sue the pants -- preferably with deep pockets -- off those who do.

LETTER: A tobacco addict decries paying to fund public infrastructure

Source: San Francisco (CA) Examiner, 1998-12-11

Apparently, as the most villainized segment of the population, smokers now have the duty to pay for the collapsing infrastructure that the irate, irresponsible taxpaying public at large has refused to fund. I saw absolutely nothing about funding of research to find a cure for tobacco addiction or remediation of health problems resulting from tobacco addiction. . . Why bother to help those whose lives are being ruined by this menace? Let 'em suffer, right? Weaklings deserve to die in this brave new world of social Darwinism that we're supposed to accept as modern society.

LETTER: Smokers, easy tax target

Source: Arizona Daily Star, 1998-12-09

I wonder why there has not been one mention of helping smokers to quit other than stupid commercials aimed at and insulting the intelligence of teen-agers. I am a smoker and have been for more than 40 years. I have tried to quit often. . . Could it be governments want the money more than they want us to stop smoking?

LETTER: Tobacco and freedom

Source: Kansas City (MO) Star, 1998-12-05

Author: Calvin L. Oyler Parkville

Give me back the country I once had. A country in which I, the individual, could decide for myself what I, not a collection of lawyers, considered to be foolish or stupid. I am only 39 years old and I do remember a time like that.

LETTER: Butt out, government

Source: Raleigh (NC) News & Observer, 1998-11-21

Obviously, to suggest that it is the government's job to protect us from ourselves leads to an endless list of ways we need saving. This brings up the second point. To quote Thomas Jefferson: "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts as are only injurious to others."

Johnny Depp is passionate about his smoking !

Source: New Kerala.com (in), 2004-11-30

Johnny Depp is so very addicted to smoking thathe reportedly ignored a woman who asked him to quit smoking during dinner at a posh London restaurant.

According to New York Post, he was chain-smoking at the Scalini restaurant when an American woman at the next table leaned over and complained to him. At this Depp, smiled and politely replied, "I'm sorry, but we're not in LA anymore."

The quit coke, smoke jab

Source: Sydney Morning Herald (au), 2004-11-24

Jabs to help addicts give up cocaine and cigarettes could be available in just four years, it was predicted today.

Trials on vaccines to combat the addictive effects of cocaine and nicotine on the brain have so far yielded positive results, a seminar in London was told.

Dr Campbell Bunce, of Xenova Group, was among those speaking at the meeting organised by the Royal Society of Chemistry.

Delegates, who included MPs, academics and members of the media, looked at the scientific basis of drug addiction and heard about possible new treatments for the nation's problem.

WXZZ Pulls Morning Crew from Air After Smoking Ban Prank

Source: WKYT-TV CBS 27 (Lexington, KY), 2004-11-12

Action is taken against three radio disc jockeys who lied to listeners and caused a disruption to city services.

Wednesday, DJ's on WXZZ told listeners that a new smoking ban had passed that prohibits smokers from lighting up in their cars.

WXZZ's Morning Crew was pulled off the air at 8:20 this morning. The three disc jockeys are suspended indefinitely.

Originally, Cumulus' General Manager said he didn't see anything wrong with the hoax, but in a meeting early Thursday morning, the station decided to pull the morning crew until this matter with the city is resolved.

Several hundred calls went into the city's 911 Call Center and to the city's information number after the prank. The city plans to file a letter of complaint with the station's owner, Cumulus Broadcasting and with the FCC. The radio station's management says it was aware of the prank before it aired, but had no idea it cause this much of a problem.

Licensed to Kill Lauds Western Michigan University for its Tobacco-Friendly Career Services Program

Source: Licensed to Kill, Inc., 2004-10-14

It is getting harder and harder these days to recruit people to work for our industry. On many college campuses, tobacco company representatives have been made most unwelcome by rowdy students, indignant faculty, and moral-minded administrators. It's refreshing to hear that that's not the case at Western Michigan University!

It takes a special kind of person to work for the tobacco industry. Some of the qualities we look for in prospective employees include: a disregard for human life; a passion for targeting the young, the poor, the black, and the stupid; the ability to rationalize the work, as in "If I didn't do it, someone else would"; the propensity to miss the forest for the trees, as in "Lung cancer may have killed over 70,000 women last year, but what a pro-woman company Philip Morris is for helping out with employees' daycare costs!"; and a burning desire to make lots of money. That a whopping 30 Western Michigan University alumni are employed by Philip Morris indicates that your university must be doing something right! . . .

Granted, our industry may kill more people than we employ, but hey, a company's gotta do what a company's gotta do! . . .

In conclusion, our company looks forward to the day when our partnership with your university bears fruit and we too have the honor of being named WMU's Employer of the Year.

GLOVER: You can puff but you can't hide

Source: Sydney Morning Herald (au), 2004-10-15

The authorities smashed in the door, and, pistols raised, entered the flat. It was empty. A few half-stubbed cigarettes sat in an ashtray, still puffing out their little coughs of smoke. The back door swung open in the breeze. Fiona Sweetbreath, the detective in charge, swore silently. Again they had escaped. The last group of smokers still on the loose in Sydney had slipped her net.

They called themselves The Newtown Freemen - a shadowy movement made up of smokers' rights activists from the days of the pub smoking bans, and a couple of old dames who just couldn't give up. How they had survived so long without capture was anybody's guess. Fiona guessed they must have support: people in the normal community who'd given up smoking themselves, but still had their sympathies.

I LIVE WITH A DRAGON... and it wants a cigarette bad

SORDID TALES by Edwin Decker

Source: San Diego City Beat, 2004-10-15

There's a dragon in my living room.

I've been trying to work on this column all week but it's difficult to concentrate with a dragon tearing up your house. . . .

The dragon, incidentally, wasn't always a dragon. She was once a young and gorgeous woman named W., who lived with me in a cottage by the sea. But she quit smoking three days ago and has since metamorphosed into this lizardy, winged creature that flies through the house, slashing or crushing anything in her path. Even our cats don't recognize her anymore. . . .

Here's how it all started: a couple of weeks ago we had something of a scare. At about midnight, W. was stricken with an excruciating chest pain. She had been suffering flu-like symptoms for about a week without any improvement, so when the chest pains hit, I took her to the emergency room. It turned out she was suffering from pneumonia and pleurisy, which isn't bad compared to what might have been wrong with her. She's a smoker and we had some really bad thoughts. So later that night, while lying in bed, it was decided that, come Hell or Mt. St. Helens, W. was going to quit smoking.

CARTER: Let's quit smoking

Source: Rivals.net, 2004-09-30

To paraphrase the wordsmith that is Ian McNabb 'I smoke cigarettes I say it's much too late for me to stop now'. Or maybe it isn't, but I am bracing myself for the mother of all struggles in order to give up. . . .

The thing is of course that fags are, by all accounts, quite bad for you and contain traces of all manner of shite like ammonia, benzene and shellac - wood varnish not the Steve Albini rock band. Judging from the posters on Stanley Road they also appear to fill your arteries with what could possibly be rice pudding. . . .

I think we might be able to see some sort of pattern emerging here, because I haven't really felt the need to sit in an Embassy N°1 induced fog so far this season. In short when Everton are cack I smoke like a chimney. I really should knock them on the head now before it all goes boobs up shouldn't I?

So come on boys let's keep this run going my health is riding on it for fuck's sake. Oh and Bill could you at least ban smoking in the ground that would be a great help, well for me anyway. Now where did I put those Nicorrettes?

JOKE: Nuthouse

Source: Nuthouse, 2004-08-09

2 Lab rats, Buddy and Holly, in a cage:

"Buddy: [Koff Koff] Oh great. They've moved a smoker next door. Buddy: Hey! Can't you put that thing out?

"Next-door Lab Rat: Sorry, Man. They've got me on 5 packs a day. I can't go 3 minutes without a smoke or I'll get the shakes somethin' awful.

"Buddy: I don't remember signing up for the effects of second-hand smoke.

"Holly: I don't remember signing up for anything.

PURCELL: The Free-to-Smoke Irish Pub

Source: Mens News Daily, 2004-07-09

When I read about Fibber Magee's Irish pub, I raised my pint high and toasted civil disobedience.

Fibber Magee's is located in Ireland, the world's first country to ban smoking in all workplaces, including pubs. Since the ban went into effect last March, Fibber Magee's suffered a 60 percent drop in business, and with good reason.

One of the great pastimes in Ireland is stopping by the pub for a pint and a smoke. In between sips and puffs, you're likely to partake in entertaining conversation, have a hearty laugh, and, after a few hours, head home relaxed and primed for a good night's sleep...

Here's to the Irish and here's to their beer. Here's to smoke-filled pubs every year. You fought them hard, Paddies, for a lot is at stake. I wish more folks would blow smoke in their face.

White House: Smoking Fights Terror

Source: TheSpoof, 2004-07-07

The White House announced a new program today in the fight against terror: smoking. The government says that smoking can help to eliminate terror targets and drive terrorists from the US's borders.

Virginia Senator Pat Clarendon was named by the White House to head a new agency, the Tobacco Anti-Terror Agency. At a press conference he said, "There is clear and compelling scientific evidence that smoking can combat terror in the US. Careless smoking results in thousands of fires every year. If one of those fires burns down the kind of target that draws terrorists, then by definition we've reduced their scope of action. And if someone dies of a smoking-related illness, then that person obviously cannot be a victim of terror." . . .

The agency's motto in a coming media campaign will be "Light Up to Fight Terror."

Top Doc Declares Smoking Okay

Dr. Geldofson claims smoking is fine.

Source: TheSpoof, 2004-06-27

Dr. Stan Geldefson, the top doctor in Smackeyville, Iowa, announced this week that smoking is "okay, I guess."

"I've thought about it for quite some time and did extensive research in my personal medical library," said the doctor who sees an average of two patients a month in a town of 73 people, "and I just don't think it could be that bad for you."

Geldefson spent six months reading every article in his more than 7,400 journals, the largest collection of pre-18th-century medical journals and textbooks in the country. What he found was nothing zero mention of smoke related illnesses. "I think that speaks for itself," he said.

Irish to lift smoking ban

Irish say smoking is good for you!

Source: TheSpoof, 2004-06-26

In a dramatic U-turn that has stunned the world, the Irish Government today announced it intends to repeal the smoking ban it introduced less than six months ago.

Hopes that the controversial ban would improve drinkers' health and turn the streets of Dublin into havens of tranquillity have been cruelly dashed as street violence, date rapes, and potentially fatal diseases such as cirrhosis of the liver, gastroenteritis and projectile vomiting continue to rise among Irish pub-goers.

Dr Shaun O'Malley, the Irish Minister of Health admitted to The Spoof that health professionals were completely baffled by the phenomenon until they realised that all the affected people had stopped smoking in compliance with the ban. "It's clear to us now," explained Dr O'Malley, "that banning smoking has left Irish drinkers wide open to a range of health problems and injuries they never suffered before."

Tobacco Execs: New Cigarette Pacifier Not Targeting Kids

The new cigarete pacifier will come in a variety of pastel and neon colors

Source: TheSpoof, 2004-06-13

In a press conference held on the steps of Congress, Representatives for tobacco giant Philip Morris refuted claims that the new cigarette pacifier is aimed towards a younger market. Jon Stifler, head of public relations for the tobacco company, said the pacifiers are to tap into the new adult fad of carrying pacifiers. . . .

Stifler also commented on the criticism of the packaging saying "the only reason we're using Sponge Bob Square Pants and the Power Puff Girls on the box is because we have data those shows are aimed for a mature audience". There will be a special edition of the packaging which will feature purple dinosaurs and a large yellow bird, but have no connections to Barney or Sesame Street, both shows recently acquired by Philip Morris. A campaign to prevent underage smoking, sponsored by Philip Morris, will kick-start next week with the slogan "Smoking is Only for the Bad Teens".

Rockall Times fights anti-smoking jihad

Source: The Register, 2004-06-08

Those cheeky chappies down at UK satire website The Rockall Times have decided to reprint their campaigning smoking t-shirts following Tony Blair's announcement that he intends to ban smoking in all London's public areas, pubs and clubs.

A spokesman for the website - which has just released an official policy permitting smoking in all of Rockall's bars and lap-dancing establishments - said: "While we do not endorse smoking in any way, and would prefer our children to indulge in healthy teen activities - like binge drinking and fighting - we cannot endorse the New Labour jackboot stamping once again on the flag of freedom."

So, if you missed 'em the first time round, you have a choice of messages available to express your support for The Rockall Times' campaign to put a gasper in every baby's mouth by 2008:

Toronto's top 5 column

Source: Toronto (Ont) Sun (ca), 2004-05-31

Top five things you'll notice in bars or clubs after the anti-smoking bylaw takes effect.

5. People violently chewing gum -- and their nails -- and pulling out their hair. And other people's hair.

4. The other side of the room -- you can actually see it. . . .

1. There's nobody in the place.

THE RANT: Fuming about smoking ban

Source: The Scotsman, 2004-05-24

Brace yourself: a smoking ban is hurtling inevitably this way - and sooner rather than later.

The moronic masses who can't tell a paedophile from a paediatrician are slowly getting whipped up into an outraged frenzy by reporting dubious 'research' claims as fact, such as: "One bartender, waitress or club worker dies in the UK almost every week because of breathing in second-hand cigarette smoke, new research has revealed."

New research has revealed no such thing.

All new research has done - at best - is to claim to have provided a slightly better educated guess than the last guess. But don't let that stop 'em - one thing leads inevitably to another, and so headlines such as "Passive smoking killing hundreds" appear, leading to the conclusion that all this unnecessary suffering can be "completely prevented by making all indoor public places and workplaces smoke-free." And who said that? "Doctors". Well, if "doctors" day so, it must be true. My doctor told me I was tall, but at only 5'7" (HA! It's cos I SMOKE!) this is clearly a lie.

HEPBURN: The true benefits' of smoking

Source: Longview (WA) Daily News, 2004-05-18

Some say that smoking is detrimental. Hogwash!! Frankly I can think of many reasons that smoking benefits both the smoker and society in general.

LAZAR: Mother huffed and puffed and blew old age away

Source: The Star (za), 2004-05-11

I wanted to find a special present this Mothers' Day for my little mother. But it wasn't easy for at the age of 90, she has enjoyed her fair share of Mothers' Day presents...

I should explain that my mother is a chain smoker. As everybody knows, it is distinctly non-U to smoke. Of course it's unhealthy and unsociable and it pollutes the atmosphere. But you try telling that to a 90-year-old who has been smoking for at least 70 years.

That said, since she's come to live with us, my mother is meticulous and will only smoke in her room, which is attached to the main house by a short passage...

In an instance, I thought of the perfect present for Mothers' Day - a cigar.

I would find a magnificent Cuban cigar.

LETTER: Your Views: Smokers and Minister

Source: Idaho State Journal, 2004-04-07

They were once "shunned," politically incorrect and therefore "unacceptable," once segregated in public places or even put (out of their own apartments!) like old dogs with a bladder problem! They are taxed more than others, yet not represented as others are - and now they are "nonexistent."

Who are they? Are they the blacks in the South? The Jews of Nazi Germany? The Christians of ancient Rome or of 18th-century England?

No, Mr. Kempthorne, they are the taxpaying, voting smokers who are being ostracized for being different.

Surprise Swedish Find: Smoking Cure for Alzheimer's

"Take one pack of these and call me in the morning if your memory hasn't improved."

Source: TheSpoof, 2004-03-26

The ground-breaking study, which trailed 100 individuals from age 45 until their deaths, included 50 smokers and 50 non-smokers. The non-smokers lived to ripe ages, suffering from a variety of geriatric illnesses near the end of their lives, including Alzheimer's. Only seven of the smokers developed the illness.

The study, funded by Phillip Morris USA, opens the doors for "Tobacco is Medicine," a campaign that will push for new regulations forcing health insures to pay for cigarettes as a preventative treatment for Alzheimer's.

How not to give up not smoking [Source: Daily Mail; London (UK)]

Source: B&W NewsReal, 2004-03-08

The first of the month comes and goes. By now you have a new target date - why not Shakespeare's birthday, April 23? Or Oliver Cromwell's birthday, April 25? It doesn't matter which - you are never going to keep your date with destiny.

YOU see what we're doing, don't you? We are moving the goalposts. You should have started smoking again a good month ago by now but that packet of 20 remains untouched. Why?

Because you haven't got the willpower to start up smoking again, have you?

For years now you have meant to give up smoking one of these days but you've always been too weak-willed to do so. Now the boot is on the other foot. You are too weak-willed to light that first cigarette. You have transferred your pathetic lack of willpower and self-control into a positive force rather than a negative one. . . .

It works, believe me. It is now well over 30 years since the weed last touched my lips. Yet never for an instant have I ever accepted that I have given up smoking. It is the other way round - smoking has given up on me

Pope Quits Smoking

Source: TheSpoof, 2004-02-26

Pope John Paul has kicked his chain smoking habit in just three days thanks to the help of rising cigarette prices in the EU. His success story has prompted his Cardinals, all heavy smokers, to consider quitting the habit.

I smoke 40 a day George Bush Tells Koreans

Source: Random Perspective, 2004-01-10

George W. Bush has told the people of North and South Korean that he heavily endorses the smoking of cigarettes and has advised them all to do the same. The US President has claimed that the pastime is so great that he now smokes between 40 and 50 cigarettes a day. . . .

George Bush insists that his endorsement is not an effort to prevent a collapse in a market sector that is heavily support by US industry.

The President gave an informal press conference, during which Laura came in and presented him with a packet of cigarettes.

"Ah Marlboro's. My favourite cigarettes." The President announced . . . .

Following the incident, the White House has released a statement explaining that the coughing incident had nothing to do with the cigarette the President was smoking and had been caused by partially digested pretzel.

They later added that they did not believe Koreans, or anyone else, should stop buying Pretzels which, whilst not as vital to the US economy as the cigarettes manufacturers, are still an important US industry.

Terror suspects granted full access to US courts, immediately sue McDonalds, 'Big tobacco'

Source: TheSpoof, 2003-12-24

Members of California's 9th Circuit Court deliberate before issuing a rulingImmediately following California's 9th Circuit Federal Appeals Court ruling that suspected terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba should have access to lawyers and the American court system, all hell broke loose. . . .

46 claims against Phillip Morris and other tobacco companies claiming that chemicals in cigarettes dramatically shorten the life expectancy of suicide bombers.

Cure for Death found

Source: TheSpoof, 2003-11-03

This morning the team of brains from Boston University were found smoking ten cigarettes at a time, shooting themselves in the head and jumping off the top of the building after discovering the magical medicine that allowed them to do pretty much anything to themselves and survive. Proffesor Ted McGinley laughed, "We can do anything now! With death cured the whole world can benefit."

The research was funded by tobacco giants Malboro, and was followed by a statment from the company this morning, read by chairman Nick B. Elzebub. "Due to our discoveries we can safely say that smoking does not cause fatalities. Death causes fatalities, and now its cured everyone can enjoy the sweet smoky teet of a Malboro 1."

Government introduces explosive new anti-smoking measures

Source: DeadBrain (uk), 2003-08-06

Britain's smokers were wheezing in a semi-animated state yesterday at the Department of Nannying's latest way of scaring them off their beloved cigarettes. In what is described as a "kill or cure" approach, the Department is planning to install explosive charges in every tenth packet of cigarettes. A spokesman refused to be drawn on the amount of explosives they were intended to use but hinted that it would "do you no favours at all when it goes off in your face". . . .

Other tactics include increasing the tax on cigarettes from its present level of 99 percent and banning all anecdotes about "my granddad" who "smoked 100 a day and lived to be 150 years old".

DALY: Joe Frazier will smoke no more

Source: Washington Times, 2003-07-06

Not only did the Supreme Court uphold the ban on smoking in restaurants in bars, I hear it also -- and this sounds a bit extreme -- ordered "Smokin'" Joe Frazier to change his nickname.

City Approves Safe Inhalation Sites

Source: The Toque (ca), 2003-06-04

City smokers will be pleased by the decision of city council approving the creation of controversial "safe-inhalation" sites for nicotine addicts. Despite opposition from non-smoking residents, the new sites will be built for cigarette smokers using public funds.

The three new safe-inhalation sites in Vancouver will be providing clean and sterile paraphernalia for nicotene users.

The city is planning on funding three locations in downtown Vancouver, where smokers will be able to light-up in a clean, supervised, and safe environment. . .

"It's an unfortunate but sad truth that most smokers light up in wet, unsafe conditions, increasing their chances of catching colds, getting soaked by passing buses or breathing second-hand smoke from their fellow smokers," continued Walter.

McCALL: Shouts and Murmurs / PERSONALS

Source: The New Yorker, 2003-05-19

"Lonely ex-barfly in severe withdrawal needs to mooch smokes, preferably off ex-bartender. You bring the bar nuts, cocktail napkins, and swizzle sticks, I'll tell the dirty jokes until the coffin nails run out or I fall off the stool.

"Lady deep inhaler, haggard, jumpy, no appetite, yearns to be totally hooked on a tobacco baron who's into monogrammed silver cigarette cases and gold Dunhill butane lighters. Let's share the joy of flying off on your personal Gulfstream jet to some paradise where the government runs the tobacco business

Mike O'Keefe's Cartoon: Today's Topic Denver Smoking Ban

Source: Denver (CO) Post, 2003-04-30

DINER: I'd like to be seated in the smoking section.

Maitre d': Right this way...

[The Maitre d' is gesturing toward a bus; its destination sign reads: "WYOMING."]

BOSTON: Or Is It All Just Smoke & Mirrors?

Source: Santa Clarita (CA) Signal, 2003-04-19

The Surgeon General's office today released a controversial 1,346-page report outlining the dangers of third-hand smoke.

"We have decades of well-documented evidence on the dangers of smoking," announced Health Department spokesman Moe Gadeeshu at a Washington press conference. "The costs in health care, missed work and shorter life spans is horrendously high. Just recently, we discovered the dangers of just being in the same room with a smoker and labeled that as second-hand smoke. Now, it is a historic day in American health care. We have pinpointed yet another smoke-related disease: THS."

According to the World Health Organization, which co-authored the study, Third-Hand Smoke, or, THS, is a malady that strikes 99 out of 100 people daily.

"Due to several decades of political correctness and an egocentric sensitivity bordering on the pathological," Gadeeshu noted, "just the very mentioning of cigarettes, smoke, smoking or people who smoke can cause increased risk of depression, anxiety, heart attack and sexual dysfunction."

MULLEN: Village Idiot

Source: Vernon (BC) Morning Star (ca), 2003-04-21

I quit smoking 11 years ago. I quit again 10 and a half years ago. Then I quit once more about 10 years ago. I didn't think it was possible, but I kicked the habit. It's been nine and a half years since my last cigarette. If I can do it, anyone can do it. Part of the reason I quit was that there were very few places where I could smoke anymore. Oh sure, the heart disease, the coughing, the shortness of breath, and the doctor's refusal to treat me unless I quit all helped, but when I tried to start my three-pack-a-day habit again eight and a half years ago, I couldn't. There was no place to start. . .

Taking a vacation to a distant land is now a good first step to quitting. A nice 24-hour-long flight to Australia ought to break anyone's habit. Of course, when you get there you'll find that everyone smokes.

LELAND: When Smoke Gets in Your Pies (and Other Delectables)

Source: New York Times, 2003-03-26

New York is not a town for quitters, and it is defeatist to believe that one regulation will change that. If diners and drinkers can't smoke, there are other ways to get a fix.

For starters, there are alternative sources. Tobacco, or Nicotiana tabacum, belongs to the nightshade family, which includes potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant and red peppers. All contain nicotine. . . "You'd have to eat well over 100 pounds of eggplant or tomatoes to get a meaningful dose," . .

Then there is the weed itself. Pre-Columbian societies, which cultivated tobacco centuries before Europeans, brewed it in a tea that induced visions. Jacques Torres, who runs Jacques Torres Chocolate in Brooklyn, advised caution in trying to revive the tradition. "It can become very unpleasant on your throat," . .

Paul Liebrandt, a chef who has worked at Atlas and Chez Es Saada in Manhattan, has experimented with several tobacco recipes, including a foie gras and a granita, in dosages too low to allay the beast but enough to add a smoky, nutty flavor. "It can be really disgusting if you do it wrong,"

True fiction / This is your last warning

Smoking: you've got to laugh

DOWLING: The fat lady's encore

Tim Dowling hears plans on new ways to promote tobacco

Source: The Guardian (uk), 2003-02-17

We here at FlipSide PR have been examining some of their latest innovations. They include:

"The Marlboro Light Young Offender of the Year Award

We want to target young people where they hang out - places such as prisons. Initiatives like this pilot youth scheme reward good behaviour with cigarettes . . .

"Children's pyjamas

Branded clothing is a proven way to maintain awareness, so Camel's new flame-retardant sleepwear combines fun and safety with the simple message that Camel Cares. Of course little kids shouldn't smoke in bed, but it's nice to know their PJs won't catch fire if they feel like experimenting.

"Philip Morris University

Scheduled to open in autumn 2005, this new private educational institution, dedicated to the inculcation of traditional Conservative values and individual rights, will boast the most smoker-friendly campus in North America.

Tobacco Company To Sue Lifelong Smoker

Source: BBspot, 2003-01-14

R.J. Reynolds, maker of cigarettes such as Camel and Winston, announced it will take legal action against Otis Bauer. Bauer's physician recently informed him that he is suffering from lung cancer, which is causing R.J. Reynolds, according to company spokesperson Milos Labrou, "irreparable damage to the company's image."

"We feel very betrayed," said Labrou. "It's publicity like this which has cost our company billions of dollars in sales losses, legal tangles and printing fees for health disclaimers on the product itself. Ink does not grow on trees, you know."

When asked why the company had singled out Mr. Bauer when thousands of smoking related cancer diagnoses are reported every year in the US, Labrou responded, "We have to make an example out of someone.

DURAI: The Lighter Side - So hard to kick the habit

Source: INDOlink, 2002-12-11

As a nonsmoker, Ive often wondered why people smoke, why they endanger their health, why they dont just quit. Ive heard, of course, that smoking is addictive, but until reading the results of a European survey, I didnt realize how strong the addiction can be. The survey found that most smokers would find it easier to give up sex for a month than cigarettes.

Having barely made it through my wifes recent pregnancy, Im finally beginning to understand how hard quitting smoking must be. . .

Ninety-year-old man: "Yes! After all these years, Ive finally kicked the habit. Im a free man. From now on, no more sex. Im going to be celibate for the rest of my life!"

Friend: "Wow! What happened? Are you concerned about your declining health?"

Ninety-year-old: "No, Im concerned about my declining wealth. That darn Viagra was so expensive, I couldnt afford cigarettes."

CRAIG: Cigarette commercials for an enlightened era?

Source: Contra Costa (CA) Times, 2002-11-18

The Marlboro man and his pals had a profound effect on my upbringing.

I grew up during the golden age of TV cigarette advertising -- something I had forgotten until I ran across a CD-ROM featuring the best of ciggie ads from the '50s and '60s. . .

Since smoking is now the scourge of society, the beleaguered cigarette companies will probably have a little more difficulty selling the positive aspects of their product. However, the concepts of being virile, popular, smart, sexy and even a little mysterious might be enhanced by a product with an outsider image.

Picture a lone cowboy, seen in profile silhouetted against a campfire. He's smoking some distance away from a group of fellow cowpokes laughing and chowing down on beans.

"Sure," says a deep, mellow voice as the lone cowboy takes a deep drag and smiles, "you're a loner, perhaps even a troubled loner, following his own drummer, far from the crowd. You're the new Marlboro man -- alone, liking it ... and with little burn holes in your chaps."

Astronaut with cigarette in his lips cut a sorry figure.

Source: Asian Tribune, 2002-10-29

NASA planned a mission that involved three astronauts spending two years in space. . .

The first astronaut decided to take along his wife, the second decided to take along books to learn how to speak German, while the third astronaut decided to take along cigarettes.

Two years later, when the space shuttle landed, . .

Suddenly out came the third astronaut with a cigarette in his mouth.

He walked up to the podium and snarled to the crowd and asked, "Anyone got a light?"

Chuck Shepherd: News of The Weird

Source: Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune, 2002-10-03

Cats whose guardians smoke are up to three times likelier to develop lymphoma, according to a Tufts University Veterinary School researcher (August). Yvonne Stubbs told a reporter she was trying hard to quit smoking because her Jack Russell terrier, Patch, has developed a 20-butt-a-day chewing habit from raiding her ashtrays; Stubbs said she was considering nicotine patches (for Patch, not for herself) (Middlesborough, England, July).

What Do You Think?

Johnny Carson / Classic Carson Jokes

Source: Modern Maturity, 2002-07-05

"I know a man who gave up smoking, drinking, sex, and rich food. He was healthy right up to the day he killed himself."

BARRY: In War On Tobacco, money goes up in smoke

Source: Miami (FL) Herald, 2002-09-15

Originally, the states claimed that they would use the tobacco-lawsuit money to . . . well, to do something about tobacco. But that of course makes no economic sense: To actually stop smokers from smoking would be to kill the goose that is coughing up the golden loogies.

So the states, according to the Government Accounting Office, are using less than a tenth of the tobacco-settlement money on anti-smoking programs. Meanwhile, they are spending bales of it on all kinds of unrelated projects . . .

But as comical as all this is, it is not the zaniest development in the War On Tobacco. For that, we must look to North Carolina. According to an article by Liz Chandler in the Charlotte Observer, North Carolina officials have so far given $41 million of their tobacco settlement to -- I swear I am not making this up -- tobacco growers. Yes! . .

So that's your update on the Wacky, Wonderful War On Tobacco. It is now essentially a partnership between politicians and tobacco companies to make money by selling cigarettes. It's only a matter of time before some shrewd state cuts out the middleman and starts funding the War On Tobacco by making cigarettes and selling them directly to the public

On Two

Source: Houston (TX) Chronicle, 2002-08-20

A woman walked up to a little old man rocking in a chair on his porch. "I couldn't help noticing how happy you look," she said. "What's your secret for a long happy life?"

"Well, I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "I also drink a case of whiskey a week, eat fatty foods and never exercise."

"That's amazing," the woman said. "How old are you?"

"Twenty-six," he replied.

Gag Bag

Source: The Times of India, 2000-03-05

A travelling salesman rings the doorbell and 10-year-old Little Johnny answers, holding a beer and smoking a fat cigar. The salesman says, ``Little boy, is your father home?'' Little Johnny taps his ash on he carpet and says, ``What do you think?''

Onion HealthBeat Presents: Stop Smoking Tips

Source: The Onion, 2000-02-23

Avoid doing things you associate with smoking, such as drinking, eating, walking, and being awake.

Get thrown in jail, where cigarettes can only be acquired in exchange for painful sexual favors.

Lobby your elected representatives to pass a $6,913 sales tax on packs of cigarettes. . . Kissing a smoker is like licking an ashtray. If a loved one quits smoking, keep an ashtray around as a handy substitute.

Attractive people smoke because it makes them look cool. Acknowledge that you are neither attractive nor cool.

JIM RAGSDALE, LICENSED JOURNALIST

Source: Saint Paul (MN) Pioneer Press, 1999-10-17

The Phillip Morris Co. recently admitted on its Web site that ``there is overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and other serious diseases,'' and that cigarettes are ``addictive, as that term is most commonly used today.'' This will surely open the way for ...

Other overdue admissions . . . A number of prominent politically active ministers admitted that God speaks to them no more frequently than He speaks to people holding other political views. . . Manufacturers of cellular telephones and sport utility vehicles admitted that the two products, when used at the same time by the same person, ``constitute a severe health hazard to everyone else on the roadway.''

LAUGH LINES

Source: Los Angeles Times, 1999-04-23

The tobacco industry is being forced to strike cigarette billboards. "Big tobacco is shrugging off this defeat, claiming its real target market isn't even old enough to read anyway."

You know it's real ... science backs it up

Source: Baltimore (MD) Sun, 1999-03-27

Tired of jogging? Take up smoking.

Researchers have found that smoking three packs of cigarettes a day has the same effect on the cardiovascular system as jogging two miles.

"It's the most amazing thing," said Dr. Hugh Foole, who conducted the research for Those Truth-Spewing Tobacco Folks. "As soon as somebody lights up, their heart starts racing like a bunny rabbit's. So it's a way to get the ticker pumping without hurting your feet." . . Foole was paid $5 million for his work, but he said that did not influence his findings. "You don't understand," he said, lighting up. "I'm a scientist. And a scientist can't be bought."

Popeye's prenuptial physical

Source: Minneapolis (MN) Star Tribune, 1999-02-05

Popeye to wed longtime sweetheart Olive Oyl in February. . . Health habits: Patient holds a pipe in his mouth throughout the interview. He states it "ain't never lit," although he admits that it does produce smoke during fights, displays of anger, or during his closing theme music.

Laugh Lines: Smoke Rings

Source: Los Angeles Times, 1998-12-27

The R.J. Reynolds tobacco company has announced it is eliminating 1,000 jobs. "They've modernized to the point where they can kill people with a lot fewer workers." (Jay Leno)

STEVEN LEVINGSTON: A commitment to his Marlboros

DOLLARS & NONSENSE

Source: Boston (MA) Globe, 1998-12-08

Philip Morris has done nothing but right by me. It makes a fine product, a good puff, and I'll defend the company till the day I die - probably earlier than most. . . That settlement the tobacco companies signed recently with 46 states is the biggest test yet of my commitment to my Marlboros. Under the agreement, the companies will have to cough up $206 billion over 25 years. That money isn't going to come from nowhere. Tobacco firms have never meant me any harm. And so I feel obligated to do my part in return for the many years of pleasure they have given me. In other words, I gotta get puffing.