Efforts are under way around the state to limit the placement of candy-flavored tobacco products that might entice young people to pick up the smoking habit. On Tuesday, the Safe Climate Coalition of Lake County will get an update on the issue from Melaine Chin, health-education program consultant for the Lake County Health Department’s Tobacco Prevention Program. Ream more »
There is a new spin on traditional chewing tobacco, and it’s being sold to area minors. You can find it in cherry, root beer and cool mint flavors and the city of Fort Myers wants it banned.
Despite the label’s disclaimer, the Lee County Health Department says dissolvable tobacco – called Snus – is showing up in the lockers, backpacks and pockets of kids in Lee County.
It’s bright colored, candy flavored and smells just like minty or fruity gum.
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Retailers in Escambia County are being urged to stop the sale and marketing of flavored tobacco.
Escambia County commissioners recently passed a resolution to that effect through the efforts of Students Working Against Tobacco, the Tobacco Prevention and Control Program of the Escambia County Health Department, and the Healthy Environments are Tobacco-Free Partnership.
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Critics of the tobacco industry long have accused cigarette makers of trying to hook black youths on smoking by marketing menthol brands intensively in African-American neighborhoods. And now a study led by Stanford University medical researchers backs up that contention.
The researchers focused on how Newport cigarettes, the leading menthol brand, have been marketed by Lorillard Inc. at 407 stores within walking distance of 91 California high schools.
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A menthol cigarette independent review is part of the Food and Drug Administration’s latest investigation into the public health impact of cigarettes.
The FDA said Monday that members of its Center for Tobacco Products will gather menthol studies and then submit its review to an external peer review panel next month. The cycle should be completed by fall of 2011, at which point the results of the review will be available for public comment.
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Teens, minorities and low-income populations are more likely to purchase menthol cigarettes, according to a Stanford study reported Friday.
A study published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research by the Stanford School of Medicine revealed increased tobacco company advertisements and lowered prices of menthol cigarettes in areas highly populated with young African American students.
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Finding that the availability of menthol cigarettes increases the number of children and African Americans who smoke, the Food and Drug Administration’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee has concluded, “Removal of menthol cigarettes from the marketplace would benefit public health in the United States.”
The agency’s Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee stopped short of recommending an outright ban of menthol cigarettes. Ream more »
The Food and Drug Administration is considering a ban on menthol cigarettes. That decision could cost tobacco makers millions and affect millions of menthol smokers.
The minty smokes are heavily marketed in urban areas and particularly popular among African Americans. Opponents say a ban robs black smokers of a perfectly legal preference. Supporters say the prohibition could boost public health. Ream more »
The issue of ban on menthol cigarettes has become a bone of contention for the US government. As the news of possible ban on the sale of menthol cigarettes by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is hitting the corners of the society, clan of tobacco companies like Lorillard, Reynolds and Altria Group’s Philip Morris USA has pushed their efforts to oppose the stipulated action.
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A federal panel ruled on Friday that the removal of menthol cigarettes from sale would be beneficial to United States public health, but fell short of recommending such action.
The chairman of the panel, Dr. Jonathan Samet, professor of medicine at the University of Southern California, said there was a scientific basic to support the proposition that menthol cigarettes were more deleterious than regular ones. The risk, the panel said, was not that menthol smokers had an increased risk of disease, but that menthol cigarettes made smoking more attractive because the flavor is less harsh.
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