Tag: United States

Groups exploited
People with mental health conditions (depression, ADHD for example) and substance use disorders are estimated to account for 40 percent of the cigarettes smoked in the US, according to a press note issued by the Truth Initiative.
Meanwhile, it says that 38 percent of military smokers start after enlisting.
‘The much higher than average prevalence of tobacco use among these two groups is not a coincidence,’ the press note said. ‘For decades, the tobacco industry has exploited these, and many other populations, including African-Americans, low-income communities and LGBTQ individuals, to sell its products.
‘While the industry positions this as targeting and consumer choice, the facts reveal a darker pattern of exploitation.’
Truth, which the note described as one of the largest and most effective youth smoking prevention campaigns, is reportedly teaming up with correspondents Ryan Duffy and Kaj Larsen on a new, documentary-styled campaign that will premiere on August 27 during the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards.
The campaign aims to engage, motivate and activate young people to end ‘this history of exploitation and finish tobacco for good’.
Titled Business or Exploitation?, the campaign is said to expose the tobacco industry’s exploitation of individuals with mental health conditions and members of the military, with startling facts, such as:
- Big Tobacco has given away free cigarettes to psychiatric facilities.
- In the past, a major tobacco company saw the military as an attractive marketing opportunity because of its young adult servicemen that the company described as ‘classic downscale smoker’, ‘less educated’, ‘part of the wrong crowd’, ‘in trouble with authorities’ and having ‘limited job prospects’.
“The tobacco industry makes $37 billion a year selling cigarettes to people with mental illness,” said Robin Koval, CEO and president of the Truth Initiative. “This is a prime example of how the industry sees certain populations solely as business opportunities and exploits individuals with mental health conditions and members of the military. The consequences of these targeting practices are horrendous, killing more than 540,000 people each year, hindering the recovery of those battling mental health conditions and putting the health and safety of our military service men and women at risk. It’s simply shameful.”
August 25, 2017
Altria announces dividend
The Altria Group said yesterday that its Board of Directors had voted to increase Altria’s regular quarterly dividend by 8.2 percent to $0.66 per common share versus the previous rate of $0.61 per common share.
The quarterly dividend is payable on October 10 to shareholders of record as of September 15. The ex-dividend date is September 14.
‘The new annualized dividend rate is $2.64 per common share, representing a yield of 4.1 percent based on Altria’s closing stock price of $63.69 on August 18, 2017,’ the company said in a note posted on its website.
‘Today’s dividend increase reflects Altria’s intention to return a large amount of cash to shareholders in the form of dividends and is consistent with Altria’s dividend pay-out ratio target of approximately 80 percent of its adjusted diluted earnings per share.
‘Altria has increased its dividend 51 times in the past 48 years.’
August 25, 2017
Judge IQOS on science
The chief operating officer at the Truth Initiative, Dave Dobbins, has said the US Food and Drug Administration should review Philip Morris International’s toxicology tests and replicate them before approving its IQOS heated-tobacco system, according to a story by Lydia Wheeler for The Hill.
PMI has two applications before the FDA. One is a Premarket Tobacco Application that was submitted on March 31 for its IQOS system with Marlboro Heatsticks, Marlboro Smooth Menthol Heatsticks and Marlboro Fresh Menthol Heatsticks; the Heatsticks comprising the consumable item. The FDA must approve the application before the products can be legally marketed and sold in the US.
The other is a Modified Risk Tobacco Product application that was submitted in December to market the products as lower-risk.
Dobbins said the tobacco industry had a history of questionable scientific practices over the years.
“For example, the tobacco industry knew for years tobacco was addictive and deadly before they would admit it,” Wheeler quoted him as saying. It’s not impossible they could do something good; I’m more saying it’s important to verify their data.”
Meanwhile, Corey Henry, a spokesman for PMI, said in an e-mail to The Hill that his company welcomed scrutiny of the product.
‘You don’t have to trust or believe us,’ he said. ‘You don’t have to take our word for it. But what we ask is that people have an open mind.’
Wheeler’s piece is at: http://thehill.com/regulation/healthcare/347546-tobacco-giant-asks-the-fda-to-approve-less-risky-cigarette.
August 24, 2017
Altria to host webcast
The Altria Group is due to host a live audio-only webcast of its business presentation at the Barclays Global Consumer Staples Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, US, starting about 09.45 Eastern Time on September 6.
The webcast will feature remarks by CFO Billy Gifford, and executive vice president and general counsel, law and regulatory affairs, Murray Garnick.
The webcast, which will be in a listen-only mode, requires pre-event registration at www.altria.com/webcasts.
An archived copy of the webcast will be available on altria.com or through the Altria Investor App. The free app is available for download at www.altria.com/irapp or through the Apple App Store or Google Play.
August 24, 2017
PMI supports FDA proposal
The chief executive of Philip Morris International has said he is “extremely encouraged” by the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) recent proposal to lower nicotine levels in cigarettes and nudge smokers toward less harmful alternatives such as e-cigarettes, according to a story by Toni Clarke for Reuters.
The FDA’s announcement was “one of the best articulated positions in many years”, Andre Calantzopoulos was quoted as saying during an interview on Monday.
Calantzopoulos challenged the view of some tobacco control experts that the industry would fight the FDA’s proposal, in court if needed.
He said that lowering nicotine levels was only one part of the proposed policy. The agency had acted also to make life easier for e-cigarette manufacturers.
“I don’t think the issue requires litigation or anything of this nature,” Calantzopoulos said.
“It requires dialogue in order to see what the feasibility is, and most importantly, how all these measures are phased in.”
Clarke’s piece is at: http://www.euronews.com/2017/08/22/philip-morris-international-ceo-cheers-us-fda-tobacco-proposal.
August 23, 2017
FDA urged to ban menthol
Eight US senators have urged the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to ban sales of menthol cigarettes, according to a MassLive.com story relayed by the TMA.
In a letter to the FDA, the senators urged the agency to ‘act on the substantial scientific data’ available by exercising its authority under the Tobacco Control Act to prohibit menthol-cigarette sales.
The lawmakers praised the FDA for its work on discouraging youth smoking and raising public awareness of its harms.
But they said menthol cigarettes were a ‘starter product for youth’ and that they posed ‘a public health risk above that seen with non-menthol cigarettes’.
‘Continued delay on this issue will only further worsen this public health crisis, as a new generation of smokers are initiated and become addicted to menthol cigarettes …,’ the senators said.
‘We urge the FDA to use its authority to expediently remove menthol as a flavor additive.’
August 23, 2017
US urged to probe BAT
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids (CfTFK) is urging the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission to investigate British American Tobacco and its subsidiaries for possible violations of the anti-bribery and accounting provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).
The CfTFK) said in a note posted on its website that it had requested the investigation following new allegations about the conduct of BAT in Africa published on Friday by the UK-based newspaper, The Guardian.
‘British American Tobacco has faced mounting allegations that the company engaged in widespread bribery and corruption in Africa to gain advantage over competitors and stifle government efforts to curb smoking,’ the CfTFK note said. ‘Earlier this month, the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) formally launched an investigation of BAT on suspicions of corruption.
‘An investigative report published today [Friday] by The Guardian revealed new allegations that, for years, BAT secretly and possibly illegally moved millions of US dollars in cash across international borders into the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) allegedly to support the company’s tobacco leaf operations in that country. The new allegations indicate BAT’s operations included engaging with armed rebels involved in the long-standing DRC conflict in order to make secret cash drops used to pay for tobacco leaf from farmers in Auzi, an unmapped town BAT built in the 1950s, according to The Guardian.
‘In addition to possible violations of the FCPA, The Guardian report raises questions about whether BAT’s conduct in moving US dollars during the DRC conflict also violates federal anti-money laundering laws, especially as the US has had sanctions in place against the DRC since 2006.’
Later in its note, the CfTFK said the growing allegations about BAT’s conduct were particularly alarming following the July 2017 merger of BAT and Reynolds American in the US. ‘The recent merger places BAT in a leading position in the US market and, according to BAT, created the largest tobacco company in the world by operating profits,’ the note said.
Meanwhile, BAT said on August 1 that it intended to co-operate with the UK Serious Fraud Office investigation.
‘As previously announced, we are investigating, through external legal advisers, allegations of misconduct,’ the company said in a note posted on its website.
‘We have been co-operating with the Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) and British American Tobacco (“BAT”) has been informed that the SFO has now opened a formal investigation.
‘BAT intends to co-operate with that investigation.’
The CfTFK note is at: http://www.tobaccofreekids.org/press_releases/post/2017_08_18_bat.
The Guardian story, by Sarah Boseley, is at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/aug/18/british-american-tobacco-cigarettes-africa-middle-east.
August 21, 2017
Movie smokescreen
For many people, removing smoking scenes from movies is like removing scenes where people take a bus. Smoking or taking a bus are two of the things that people do and therefore in showing these actions film makers are merely depicting life. The trouble is that the evidence indicates that showing teenagers such scenes makes them start to smoke and, presumably, take buses. But in an opinion piece on the washingtonexaminer.com website, Guy Bentley, who is a consumer freedom research associate at the Reason Foundation, disputes that there is any such evidence.
Some public health myths, he writes, no matter how absurd or consistently refuted, just refuse to die a dignified death.
One of the most pervasive is the claim that the more teens see tobacco in movies the more likely they are to pick up smoking. Every time a new study comes out documenting tobacco use on the big screen, a minor panic ensues.
Such a report, released last month, showed the use or implied use of tobacco in top-grossing movies rose 72 percent from 2010 to 2016. In PG-13 movies these “tobacco incidents” rose 43 percent, and there was a 90 percent increase for R-rated movies. (It should be noted the researchers decided to include e-cigarettes in their category of tobacco incidents, despite e-cigarettes containing zero tobacco).
The study garnered extensive media coverage, with almost all outlets taking it as gospel that this was an issue of public concern. Claims there is a wealth of strong evidence suggesting scenes featuring tobacco in movies actually cause teens to smoke went repeated without question.
Later in his piece, Bentley says that the fundamental problem with the research underpinning this evidence is that it is impossible to establish a causal relationship between seeing tobacco on screen and smoking while controlling for other factors.
Bentley’s piece is at: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/a-myth-that-wont-die-movies-cause-teen-smoking/article/2631562.
August 18, 2017
Social smokers warned
A new study has found that those who enjoy an occasional cigarette in social situations risk developing similar levels of heart-disease precursors as a person who smokes a pack or more a day, according to a Times Leader (Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania) piece by Dr. Bernadette Melnyk of the Department of Nursing, Ohio State University.
Melnyk said that the study she conducted with other nursing and health services researchers was the first population health study to compare the blood pressure and cholesterol levels of people who self-identified as current versus social smokers.
The study of nearly 40,000 people conducted over a four-year period as part of the Ohio State University’s Million Hearts educational program identified non-smokers, current regular smokers and those who said they were ‘social smokers’, meaning they didn’t have a cigarette every day.
The researchers collected deidentified data from volunteers who completed Million Hearts cardiovascular screenings. After taking into account demographic and physical differences between the regular and social smokers, they found there was virtually no difference in their risk of experiencing hypertension or high cholesterol, conditions that frequently lead to heart disease.
‘I believe that this is one of the most important findings in tobacco-related health in years, and it brings to light an issue, like e-cigarettes and second-hand smoke, that we in the health care field must address with urgency,’ Melnyk said.
‘We now know that once people start opening packs of cigarettes, whether it’s for daily use or just to socialize at a party, they’re entering the same on-ramp toward serious health problems.’
The study is at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0890117117706420.
The Times Leader story is at: http://timesleader.com/features/671692/ohio-state-study-shows-social-smokers-at-same-risk-as-daily-tobacco-users.
August 16, 2017
‘Smoking fee’ ruled out
A law passed by the Oklahoma legislature with the dual purpose of raising revenue while serving as a smoking-cessation tool has been ruled unconstitutional by the state Supreme Court, according to a story by Richard Craver for the Winston-Salem Journal.
The court’s ruling said, in part, that the smoking-cessation tax was part of an attempt by the Oklahoma legislature to generate new revenue streams to help meet the constitutional mandate to balance the state budget. The state has been dealing in recent years with a declining recurring tax revenue.
Four bills were introduced in the Oklahoma House that listed the $1.50-per-pack levy as a tax.
Their insertion into Senate Bill 845, however, switched the terminology from tax to smoking-cessation fee even though just $1 million of the $225 million in revenue would have been used to discourage tobacco usage among your people.
SB845, which was passed on May 26, was pitched as a way of encouraging smokers to lower, if not eliminate, their consumption of traditional cigarettes by making cigarettes more expensive.
Legislators sought the $225 million in revenue from SB845 as a last-minute strategy to meet the state Constitution’s balanced budget mandate, the court said. It would have been the largest amount of new recurring revenue passed by the legislature during the 2017 session.
The court said the legislature faced a ‘constitutional conundrum’ of whether to violate the constitution with passage of SB845 or violate the balanced budget mandate.
‘None of this is to say that the legislature cannot choose this particular sort of regulatory tool – a sin tax – to further its goal of reducing smoking,’ the court said.
‘But the enormity of the revenue generated by SB845, when contrasted with the (minimal) sums earmarked for smoking cessation programs, and the scant inclusion of any other regulatory function in the bill, compels the conclusion that the generation of revenue for the support of state government was the measure’s primary purpose,’ the justices said.
The approval of the $1.50-per-pack increase was challenged by Reynolds American Inc, Philip Morris USA and several convenience stores, wholesalers and smokers.
The law was set to go into effect in late August.
The state has until Thursday to file a petition for rehearing.
Craver’s story is at: http://www.journalnow.com/business/business_news/local/oklahoma-supreme-court-rejects-per-pack-smoking-cessation-fee/article_49d41e75-6171-58a5-80fb-b0566b37b077.html.
August 15, 2017