Laurel Hill urges stores to stop selling flavored tobacco

The City Council has unanimously adopted a resolution that urges local retailers to stop selling flavored tobacco following a presentation by two students.

Students Working Against Tobacco members Shania Weekley, 15, and Gage Bailey, 16, gave a PowerPoint presentation opposing the products that particularly attract younger customers. Teens think bidis — Indian hand-rolled cigarettes — and hookahs taste better and seem safer than cigarettes, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration studies.

The FDA also reports that some tobacco companies’ internal memos indicate marketing efforts for youth-targeted cigarettes.

A clerk at Laurel Hill’s Tom Thumb said the store sells about 40 types of flavored tobacco.

A popular chewing tobacco brand can offer several flavors, Bailey said.

“It can be found in peach, apple and even chocolate flavors,” he said.

Flavored tobacco acts as a “starter” product that can lead to tobacco addiction, according to the FDA’s website.

“Almost all of Florida has a city or county with a resolution” discouraging the sale of such products, Weekley said.

The city of Crestview approved a similar resolution last year.

Following the students’ presentation, the Laurel Hill City Council adopted a resolution that urges local retailers to stop selling flavored tobacco products, informs nwfdailynews.com.

Students Working Against Tobacco is a statewide youth organization that opposes tobacco use and aims its message at youths, according to the Florida Department of Health’s website.

More smokers in the Netherlands

The number of smokers in the Netherlands will have risen to 26.2% of the adult population by the end of this year, anti-smoking lobby Stivoro says on its website.

In 2011, the percentage of over-18s who smoke was 25%, but that will go up by 170,000 people this year, research by TNS Nipo shows.

The organisation blames the increase on the relaxation of the smoking ban in small cafes and the removal of help with stopping smoking from the basic health insurance package, reports DutchNews.nl.

‘Government policy appears to have directly influenced the number of smokers,’ Stivoro director Dewi Segaar, said in a statement.

NGO concerned over tobacco scenes in films

Five months after the Union ministry of health and family welfare notified the rules for cigarettes and other tobacco products (Prohibition of advertisement and Regulation of trade and commerce, production, supply and distribution), the Voluntary Health Association of Assam (VHAA) on Thursday demanded proper implementation of the prohibitory order for the sake of Gen X.

The VHAA, an NGO that is continuously pressing the state government to make the state a tobacco-free zone, rued that the authorities concerned are running a scroll with anti-tobacco health warnings at the bottom of the screen during smoking scenes. "The young generation watches movies very closely and if they see a film star smoking, they too will want to smoke. We are concerned about the non-implementation of the prohibitory orders in Assam," said Ruchira Neog, executive secretary of the association. "We are deeply concerned and disappointed to learn that the Union ministry of information & broadcasting has issued directives to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to defer the implementation of the rules on the grounds of practical difficulties, overlooking public health benefits.

This stand of the ministry is unfortunate, especially when there can be no difficulty in implementing the rules," she noted. India is the world's largest producer of movies where more than 1,000 movies a year are released in several languages. Neog stated that movies have a deep influence on kids and teens. Studies in developed countries have already established that exposure to smoking in Hollywood movies leads to increased risk of smoking among adolescents.

A recent study, 'Tobacco use in Bollywood movies, tobacco promotional activities and their association with tobacco use among Indian adolescents', conducted among 4,000 students from 12 schools across New Delhi revealed that the odds of using tobacco once or more in a lifetime among students who were highly exposed to tobacco-use scenes in Bollywood films were more than twice as compared to those with low exposure.

The rules prohibit display and placement of brand names and logos of tobacco products in old as well as new films and TV programmes. Display of brands either through close-ups of products, packages or product placements amounts to 'advertising' a particular brand and this is a violation of Section 5 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003.

Channel 7 breaches licence with tobacco ad

Channel Seven in Adelaide has been found to be in breach of its licence conditions by advertising tobacco. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found the channel breached its licence conditions by broadcasting a tobacco advertisement in July 2010. It says the advertisement was contained in a Channel Seven News report about the importation of budget cigarettes for sale by a major supermarket.

The ACMA investigation found the segment contravened the Tobacco Advertising Prohibition Act 1992 because it gave publicity to the purchase or use of tobacco products and was not covered by any of the allowable exceptions under that legislation. Channel Seven Adelaide has began proceedings in the Federal Court seeking a judicial review of the ACMA finding. It argues in its submission to the ACMA that the segment did not promote or encourage smoking and any references to cigarette names or images were brief.

Colchester supports illegal tobacco crackdown

A CRACKDOWN on illegal tobacco is being supported in Colchester. More than 500 people have pledged to help combat the problem with more than 8,000 across the east of England. Campaigners, including councillors and NHS and trading standards staff have been out on the streets talking to the people of Colchester about the campaign since its launch last month. The cheapest cigarettes online cigarettesonline.noahblog.com

Campaigner Graham Seward, the NHS public health specialist for tobacco control in north Essex, said: ‘The campaign has received a fantastic response from the people of Colchester so far and this is just the start. “With the number of local organisations now involved and more and more people, businesses and retailers pledging their support every day, we hope the drive to keep illegal tobacco out of Colchester will continue to grow.”

One shareholder's lonely pro-smoking battle

This time of year, shareholders bombard corporations with suggestions about executive pay, governance and other arcana. But once in a while, an idea comes along that truly stands out. This year's prize may go to Daniel Morrison, who asked Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris USA, to resurrect TV and radio ads for its cigarettes and smokeless tobacco.

His logic? It's the only way that potential customers will find out about new products, or be lured to switch brands. He also asked Altria to examine how it could advertise online, on smartphones, by text message and on satellite radio. In a letter to Altria's board, Morrison wrote that "hundreds of millions" of Americans have never heard slogans like "Come to where the flavor is" or "You get a lot to like with a Marlboro: filter, flavor, pack or box."

"This proposal is not about selling more cigarettes," he wrote. "This is about freedom." Morrison described himself as a retired city employee who owns about $9,500 worth of stock in Altria, which held its annual meeting Thursday in Richmond, Va. The Securities and Exchange Commission, which catalogued his letter along with other shareholder proposals, isn't allowed to release details about Morrison, including contact information. Altria asked the government for permission to exclude Morrison's proposal from its shareholder ballot. For one thing, the company points out, Morrison didn't send a written notice that he intends to hold his shares through the meeting, as the SEC requires, or even proof that he is a shareholder. More important, his proposal would require breaking the law: Tobacco companies have been banned from advertising cigarettes on TV for more than four decades.

They're also forbidden from any marketing that could be construed as youth-oriented, and the government is considering more restrictions on advertising tobacco products via new media and technology, such as the Internet, email and smartphones. The SEC almost certainly would have granted Altria's request, but as it turns out, it never had to. The day after Altria sent the SEC and Morrison a letter with its objections, the company's legal department received a brief email. "To whom it may concern," it said. "Please withdraw my proposal dated 11-29-11....Thank you, Daniel Morrison." An Altria spokesman declined to comment beyond the company's filings.

Fullerton is first Cal State to ban all tobacco use

Starting in summer 2013, anxious Cal State Fullerton students wanting to puff a post-final exam cigarette will have to leave campus to do it. This week, the university's interim president signed an order banning use of all forms of tobacco(http://www.freetobacco.info/) on campus, the first school in the California State University system to do so. The ban will take effect in August next year, allowing the university an educational campaign about the prohibition and get students accustomed to it. The way the new rule is written, smokers puffing in their cars with the windows up would be violating the rule if they were in a campus parking lot or street.



"If you're on campus, you're on campus," said John Bedell, a sociology professor. Bedell also heads the university's Academic Senate, a 48-member body comprised of faculty, staff and students. Earlier this year, the Senate voted unanimously to back the ban. "We can hardly get unanimity that it's Friday," Bedell said. "To pass this is huge." The professor said he's received e-mails from people who not only support the ban, but wish it went into effect much sooner. Punishments for violating the new rule have yet to be determined. The sweeping ban didn't come about overnight. Bedell said the proposal has been mulled over for a couple of years.

Sakae Nishida, who will transfer to Fullerton as a business major in the fall, said she understands many people's aversion to smoke. "I avoid places where people are smoking," she said. But, she added, she believes the campus should have designated areas for smokers. "People who smoke cigarettes have rights in open air," Nishida said. The school's previous policy prohibited smoking inside buildings and within 20 feet of their entrances, but allowed smoking in open-air areas unless otherwise posted. Walking around campus, it's not difficult to find discarded butts, which seem to be more numerous in campus planters than in the ashtrays located around the quad.

"The campus is filthy with cigarette butts," Bedell said. Another reason, Bedell said, was universal disdain for the 20-foot rule. Often smokers congregate in front of some buildings' ventilation intakes. To some faculty on say, the fifth floor, "It would smell like they were smoking in their offices," Bedell said. "Besides, shouldn't the university be about health?"