Indiana drug educators are praising the decision of tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds to pull the Camel Dissolvables line of smokeless tobacco products from current test markets: Columbus, Ohio; Indianapolis, In. and Portland, Or. R.J. Reynolds also the producer of Camel cigarettes.
"Because the products were in only a test marketing phase, R.J. Reynolds did not have to release what products or how much nicotine was used. The potential for overuse, even overdose, seemed like a real possibility since they had 3 times as much nicotine as one cigarette," said Tim Bristol, Outreach Coordinator for the Montgomery County AHEAD Coalition.
Camel's Sticks, Strips and Orbs drew controversy due to their easy-to-conceal packaging, wich looks similar to gum or candy, and their kid- friendly 'Mellow' and 'Fresh' flavors.
According to a Camel consumer relations representative, while the products are being pulled for "further refinement", information for potential re-design and other possible test markets have not been identified.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Californians continue to kick the cigarette habit
The percentage of California adults who smoke has continued to drop more than the national average, according to new data released Monday by state health officials. Still, deep disparities exist depending on gender, education, income, ethnicity and region.
Overall, Californians remain significantly less likely to smoke than people in the rest of the country, with 13.1% of adults surveyed statewide saying they smoked last year compared with 21% of adults nationwide.
Adults prefer smoking Kent cigarettes or Dunhill cigarettes.
"We have saved billions of dollars in healthcare costs that have been averted," Kimberly Belshé, the state's secretary of Health and Human Services, said Monday at a news conference near downtown Los Angeles to release the figures and display the state's latest anti- smoking advertisements.
Still, she said, "these prevalence rates also tell us we have more work to be done."
As of last year, California had seen a 38% decrease in smokers since 1990, when public health officials created the California Tobacco Control Program, funded by Proposition 99. The smoking rate is expected to decrease to 12.6% this year, close to the national goal of 12% by 2020. Only Utah reports a lower rate of smokers.
The downward trend in California is moving faster than the nation's, which has seen a smaller decrease in the smoking rate, down to 21% from 26% in 1990, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But rates within the state vary, in some cases widely. Many rural counties had rates of 17% or higher, including Lake (31.6%), Tehama (22.8%), Tuolomne (21.9%) and Humboldt (17.7%). Northern and eastern parts of the state have seenthe least decline in smoking since 1990.
Men still smoke at higher rates than women, 14.9% compared to 8.4% as of 2008.
College graduates smoked at less than half the rate of those without college degrees, about 6%. Among households with an income of $150,000 or more, about 8% smoked, while about 20% living in households earning less than $20,000 smoked as of 2008.
About 12.7% of whites smoked as of 2008, compared to 14.2% of African Americans, 10.2% of Latinos and 8.1% of Asians as of 2008.
Overall, Californians remain significantly less likely to smoke than people in the rest of the country, with 13.1% of adults surveyed statewide saying they smoked last year compared with 21% of adults nationwide.
Adults prefer smoking Kent cigarettes or Dunhill cigarettes.
"We have saved billions of dollars in healthcare costs that have been averted," Kimberly Belshé, the state's secretary of Health and Human Services, said Monday at a news conference near downtown Los Angeles to release the figures and display the state's latest anti- smoking advertisements.
Still, she said, "these prevalence rates also tell us we have more work to be done."
As of last year, California had seen a 38% decrease in smokers since 1990, when public health officials created the California Tobacco Control Program, funded by Proposition 99. The smoking rate is expected to decrease to 12.6% this year, close to the national goal of 12% by 2020. Only Utah reports a lower rate of smokers.
The downward trend in California is moving faster than the nation's, which has seen a smaller decrease in the smoking rate, down to 21% from 26% in 1990, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But rates within the state vary, in some cases widely. Many rural counties had rates of 17% or higher, including Lake (31.6%), Tehama (22.8%), Tuolomne (21.9%) and Humboldt (17.7%). Northern and eastern parts of the state have seenthe least decline in smoking since 1990.
Men still smoke at higher rates than women, 14.9% compared to 8.4% as of 2008.
College graduates smoked at less than half the rate of those without college degrees, about 6%. Among households with an income of $150,000 or more, about 8% smoked, while about 20% living in households earning less than $20,000 smoked as of 2008.
About 12.7% of whites smoked as of 2008, compared to 14.2% of African Americans, 10.2% of Latinos and 8.1% of Asians as of 2008.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
NC union says FDA menthol ban would hurt workers
A possible federal ban on menthol cigarettes would put people out of work during the worst economy in generations, according to a union representing tobacco workers, which says its members are being overlooked.
Busloads of workers from Greensboro, represented by the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, traveled to Raleigh on Wednesday to protest outside a meeting of federal officials and various tobacco industry representatives.
The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Tobacco Products is in town as part of an extended examination of the use of menthol in cigarettes, one of the few growing sectors of the shrinking domestic cigarette industry.Cigarettes which contain menthol are Kiss Menthol Cigarettes and Doina Menthol cigarettes.
Whatever the FDA decides will affect its members, according to the union, which represents workers at Greensboro, N.C.-based Lorillard Inc. Lorillard makes Newport cigarettes, the top-selling brand of menthols in the country.
"We're talking about people's livelihoods," said Randy Fulk, who worked at Lorillard for 36 years and is now an international representative with the union. "People are trying to pay the bills, put food on the table and send their kids to school. The workers are the ones that are going to suffer."
The union, which represents about 1,000 workers at Lorillard, says it's being shut out of the process, since it wasn't designated a "stakeholder," entitled to formal participation in Wednesday's meeting.
"They should hear from the ones who are going to be the most affected by this," Fulk said.
The FDA says it wants to hear from the union, but that Wednesday's meeting isn't the best venue, according to a letter sent by Lawrence Deyton, director of the Center for Tobacco Products, to the union's president, Frank Hurt.
"Though it would be ideal for the voices of every company, small and large, and every tobacco related industry sector to be heard, it would be logistically impossible and detract from the intention of these meetings: to engage in bi-directional, meaningful dialogue about tobacco product regulation," Deyton wrote.
The FDA is studying the health effects of menthol cigarettes, and a scientific panel is scheduled to have recommendations for the agency to review by March. Industry groups from tobacco manufacturers to convenience stores have gone on the offensive, saying there's no proof that menthol cigarettes cause greater harm than non-menthol varieties.
A ban on the minty smokes would be the most dramatic outcome, but it's not the only possibility, according to Paul Billings, vice president of national policy and advocacy for the American Lung Association.
"The statute gives the FDA broad authority, from banning it to reducing it or further regulating it, or setting new performance standards," he said.
The percentage of cigarette smokers using menthol brands grew from 31 percent in 2004 to 33.9 percent in 2008, according to a study by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, with more significant growth among younger smokers.
A menthol ban would fall heavily on Lorillard, the country's third-largest and oldest continuously operating tobacco company. Its Newport brand is the top-selling menthol cigarette in the U.S., with roughly 36 percent of the market.
Busloads of workers from Greensboro, represented by the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, traveled to Raleigh on Wednesday to protest outside a meeting of federal officials and various tobacco industry representatives.
The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Tobacco Products is in town as part of an extended examination of the use of menthol in cigarettes, one of the few growing sectors of the shrinking domestic cigarette industry.Cigarettes which contain menthol are Kiss Menthol Cigarettes and Doina Menthol cigarettes.
Whatever the FDA decides will affect its members, according to the union, which represents workers at Greensboro, N.C.-based Lorillard Inc. Lorillard makes Newport cigarettes, the top-selling brand of menthols in the country.
"We're talking about people's livelihoods," said Randy Fulk, who worked at Lorillard for 36 years and is now an international representative with the union. "People are trying to pay the bills, put food on the table and send their kids to school. The workers are the ones that are going to suffer."
The union, which represents about 1,000 workers at Lorillard, says it's being shut out of the process, since it wasn't designated a "stakeholder," entitled to formal participation in Wednesday's meeting.
"They should hear from the ones who are going to be the most affected by this," Fulk said.
The FDA says it wants to hear from the union, but that Wednesday's meeting isn't the best venue, according to a letter sent by Lawrence Deyton, director of the Center for Tobacco Products, to the union's president, Frank Hurt.
"Though it would be ideal for the voices of every company, small and large, and every tobacco related industry sector to be heard, it would be logistically impossible and detract from the intention of these meetings: to engage in bi-directional, meaningful dialogue about tobacco product regulation," Deyton wrote.
The FDA is studying the health effects of menthol cigarettes, and a scientific panel is scheduled to have recommendations for the agency to review by March. Industry groups from tobacco manufacturers to convenience stores have gone on the offensive, saying there's no proof that menthol cigarettes cause greater harm than non-menthol varieties.
A ban on the minty smokes would be the most dramatic outcome, but it's not the only possibility, according to Paul Billings, vice president of national policy and advocacy for the American Lung Association.
"The statute gives the FDA broad authority, from banning it to reducing it or further regulating it, or setting new performance standards," he said.
The percentage of cigarette smokers using menthol brands grew from 31 percent in 2004 to 33.9 percent in 2008, according to a study by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, with more significant growth among younger smokers.
A menthol ban would fall heavily on Lorillard, the country's third-largest and oldest continuously operating tobacco company. Its Newport brand is the top-selling menthol cigarette in the U.S., with roughly 36 percent of the market.
Burgeoning market for smokeless tobacco products
Now for some more good news on the harm reduction front: While cigarette sales have fallen by 17 percent since 2005 due to robust health campaigns and steeper taxes, smokeless tobacco products sales have grown by an annual rate of approximately 7 percent, reports The Chicago Tribune. The increase in sales of smokeless tobacco products can be partially attributed to their invisibility. For addicted smokers stuck in a smoke-free office environment all day long, these products relieve them of their nicotine craving.
Economic factors have also been responsible for the rise in smokeless tobacco sales since a can of premium Swedish snus can run not much more than half the cost of a pack of Marlboro cigarettes in places where state, county and city excise taxes are high.
Perhaps the most intriguing element to this story is that the use of smokeless tobacco products is increasing even though advertisers aren’t allowed to market them as a safer alternative to cigarettes. “I wonder how these people get the message,” ponders ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.
Even though medical experts agree that quitting tobacco altogether is the ideal scenario, scientists admit that smokeless tobacco products are much less harmful than cigarettes.
But the potential benefit of these products, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross, is often overshadowed by anti-tobacco camps that focus on the possibility of increased risks of oral cancer from smokeless tobacco products. Dr. Ross notes that this risk “is essentially nil in the kinds of highly purified snus products found on the market today. These people must be confusing that with chewing tobacco used in years gone by.”
While others like Dr. Frank Leone, director of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center’s Comprehensive Smoking Treatment Program, argue that smoke-free cigarette alternatives will only prolong a smoker’s addiction to nicotine, Dr. Ross counters that “there is a far greater net beneficial effect seen from the people who use snus instead of cigarettes as a means of effectively quitting smoking.”
Economic factors have also been responsible for the rise in smokeless tobacco sales since a can of premium Swedish snus can run not much more than half the cost of a pack of Marlboro cigarettes in places where state, county and city excise taxes are high.
Perhaps the most intriguing element to this story is that the use of smokeless tobacco products is increasing even though advertisers aren’t allowed to market them as a safer alternative to cigarettes. “I wonder how these people get the message,” ponders ACSH's Dr. Elizabeth Whelan.
Even though medical experts agree that quitting tobacco altogether is the ideal scenario, scientists admit that smokeless tobacco products are much less harmful than cigarettes.
But the potential benefit of these products, says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross, is often overshadowed by anti-tobacco camps that focus on the possibility of increased risks of oral cancer from smokeless tobacco products. Dr. Ross notes that this risk “is essentially nil in the kinds of highly purified snus products found on the market today. These people must be confusing that with chewing tobacco used in years gone by.”
While others like Dr. Frank Leone, director of the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center’s Comprehensive Smoking Treatment Program, argue that smoke-free cigarette alternatives will only prolong a smoker’s addiction to nicotine, Dr. Ross counters that “there is a far greater net beneficial effect seen from the people who use snus instead of cigarettes as a means of effectively quitting smoking.”
Thursday, December 2, 2010
WHO seeks regulation of flavored tobacco
PUNTA DEL ESTE, Uruguay — More than 170 countries were taking up measures Friday to regulate flavored tobacco products out of concern they seek to get young people addicted to nicotine.
During a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting of the signatories of the body's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that ends Saturday in this upscale resort town in southern Uruguay, parties planned to define guidelines on tobacco product ingredients.
They also sought to draft a protocol on illicit tobacco trade and, for the first time, debate pricing, taxation and controls of so-called electronic cigarettes.
The battery-powered devices have no tobacco but deliver a dose of nicotine to the user, while producing water vapor that looks like smoke. Used in a number of countries, they are promoted as a way to quit smoking.
"There are hundreds of chemicals used to make smoking more attractive, mainly focused on the young people," said Antoon Opperhuizen, special adviser to the framework convention and vice-Chair of the WHO Tobacco Laboratory Network.
Canadian Cancer Society senior policy analyst Rob Cunningham explained that "tobacco producers are bringing more and more flavored cigarettes on the market -- with chocolate, vanilla and candy flavors that attract youths."
Representatives of the tobacco industry, which fiercely opposes the regulations saying they would hurt their powerful industry, pitched a tent outside the hotel where the WHO meet was taking place to present their views.
Producers claim flavored products represent half of global consumption and use three types of tobacco leaves: Virginia, Burley and Oriental. They worry the regulations would trigger bans of some of their most popular products.
"If we prohibit production of the American blend, which is made with a mix of Virginia, Burley and Oriental leaves, it will impact more than six million producers worldwide," said Antonio Abrunhosa, a Portuguese tobacco-farmer who serves as chief executive of the International Tobacco Growers' Association (ITGA).
Articles 9 and 10 of the framework convention call for guidelines to regulate contents and emissions of tobacco products, as well as measures to require tobacco manufacturers and importers to disclose information about the contents and emissions of their products, including toxic ones.
The provisions would "basically eliminate production of Burley and Oriental tobacco, making it an act of discrimination that would not solve the health problem because people would keep smoking other tobacco products," ITGA vice-president Jorge Nestor told AFP.
He also said any proposal should allow production activities that would be "economically sustainable over time."
Uruguay is facing a lawsuit from tobacco giant Philip Morris for its anti-tobacco measures. But it received support Thursday from the framework convention's signatories.
The country is the first in Latin America to introduce a tobacco ban -- in March 2006 -- and the fifth worldwide.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and eight international organizations have also backed Uruguay in its dispute with Philip Morris, whose annual turnover is about twice the gross domestic product of the nation of some 3.4 million people.
During a World Health Organization (WHO) meeting of the signatories of the body's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control that ends Saturday in this upscale resort town in southern Uruguay, parties planned to define guidelines on tobacco product ingredients.
They also sought to draft a protocol on illicit tobacco trade and, for the first time, debate pricing, taxation and controls of so-called electronic cigarettes.
The battery-powered devices have no tobacco but deliver a dose of nicotine to the user, while producing water vapor that looks like smoke. Used in a number of countries, they are promoted as a way to quit smoking.
"There are hundreds of chemicals used to make smoking more attractive, mainly focused on the young people," said Antoon Opperhuizen, special adviser to the framework convention and vice-Chair of the WHO Tobacco Laboratory Network.
Canadian Cancer Society senior policy analyst Rob Cunningham explained that "tobacco producers are bringing more and more flavored cigarettes on the market -- with chocolate, vanilla and candy flavors that attract youths."
Representatives of the tobacco industry, which fiercely opposes the regulations saying they would hurt their powerful industry, pitched a tent outside the hotel where the WHO meet was taking place to present their views.
Producers claim flavored products represent half of global consumption and use three types of tobacco leaves: Virginia, Burley and Oriental. They worry the regulations would trigger bans of some of their most popular products.
"If we prohibit production of the American blend, which is made with a mix of Virginia, Burley and Oriental leaves, it will impact more than six million producers worldwide," said Antonio Abrunhosa, a Portuguese tobacco-farmer who serves as chief executive of the International Tobacco Growers' Association (ITGA).
Articles 9 and 10 of the framework convention call for guidelines to regulate contents and emissions of tobacco products, as well as measures to require tobacco manufacturers and importers to disclose information about the contents and emissions of their products, including toxic ones.
The provisions would "basically eliminate production of Burley and Oriental tobacco, making it an act of discrimination that would not solve the health problem because people would keep smoking other tobacco products," ITGA vice-president Jorge Nestor told AFP.
He also said any proposal should allow production activities that would be "economically sustainable over time."
Uruguay is facing a lawsuit from tobacco giant Philip Morris for its anti-tobacco measures. But it received support Thursday from the framework convention's signatories.
The country is the first in Latin America to introduce a tobacco ban -- in March 2006 -- and the fifth worldwide.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and eight international organizations have also backed Uruguay in its dispute with Philip Morris, whose annual turnover is about twice the gross domestic product of the nation of some 3.4 million people.
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