Tobacco News

A federal judge has upheld a $28 million judgment against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in the case of a Connecticut smoker who developed larynx cancer, one of the first jury awards against a cigarette maker in New England.

U.S. District Judge Stefan Underhill has denied the company’s motion for a new trial in the case of 51-year-old Barbara Izzarelli of Norwich. Ms. Izzarelli developed cancer at age 36 after having smoked Salem Kings cigarettes for 25 years. She survived, but doctors had to remove her larynx. Ream more »

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company is ramping up marketing for dissolvable tobacco products in Colorado and North Carolina test markets, meanwhile the FDA is still reviewing whether and how it can control the new substances.

In a February 2010 letter to the president of R.J. Reynolds, the FDA requested detailed information regarding research conducted that relates to the “risk of accidental nicotine toxicity through the use of dissolvable tobacco products, Ream more »

The lawsuit that cigarette makers are filing against the U.S. government probably won’t hold up in court, but it will mean delaying the day cigarette packs carry pictures conveying the dangers of smoking. According to the Associated Press, the estimated year-long delay the lawsuit will cause could end up saving the tobacco industry millions of dollars in lost sales and increased packaging costs.

Four of the five largest U.S. tobacco companies joined together to sue the federal government Tuesday, saying the new requirement violates their free speech. Ream more »

THE two MPs for Northampton have been given free tickets to some of Britain’s poshest social events, by one of the world’s largest tobacco firms.

Both the Conservative MP for Northampton North, Michael Ellis, and his colleague for Northampton South, Brian Binley, were given tickets worth £1,132 to this year’s Chelsea Flower Show by Japan Tobacco International – which sells brands such as Benson & Hedges and Camel cigarettes.

Mr Binley also received two tickets worth £1,132 to the Glyndebourne opera festival from the firm.
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Tobacco use remains the No. 1 preventable cause of disease and death in the United States, resulting in more than 430,000 deaths a year from personal use and more than 50,000 deaths annually from secondhand smoke exposure. Additionally, in recent years, the surgeon general determined there is no safe level of exposure. We now know that young children not only are at risk from secondhand smoke exposure, but also thirdhand smoke exposure from the numerous toxic particles, emitted from a cigarette or cigar, that fall and accumulate on common surfaces such as clothes, furniture and carpet. Ream more »

Jim Gibbs fears the days may be numbered for his South Salt Lake tobacco shop.

His business at The Tobacco Store has dropped sharply — a trend he blames on the long-running recession and a sharp increase in Utah’s tobacco tax. He’s already had to lay off one part-time worker and is probably going to have to cut his own salary in half.

“I might be on a slow decline of going out of business,” Gibbs said. “I’m just barely hanging on.”
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Domestic cigarette manufacturers led by ITC Limited have come to the rescue of tobacco farmers in Andhra Pradesh during the current year by procuring more quantity of flue cured tobacco (FCT) than what they needed so as to stabilise the falling prices.

Around 50,000 tobacco farmers in the state are stated to have been benefitted by the supporting role played by ITC, Godfrey Phillips India (GPI) and VST. Ream more »

Tobacco growers are opposing any move to reduce the crop size for the coming season. They met Tobacco Board executive director Ch Subba Rao in the light of the Indian Tobacco Association (ITA) sending a proposal to the board suggesting cut in the crop size.

The ITA had recently written to the board to reduce the crop size to 121.55 million kg for the 2011-12 season as against the 165 million kg permitted for 2010-11. ITA president Bellam Kotaiah informed the board that the tobacco prices in the international market had declined forcing the ITA to bring down the prices and slash the purchase volume. Ream more »

The tobacco growers have said that their hard earned labour was going up in smoke due to the exploitation of the tobacco companies and the apathy of the local bureaucracy that fixes the rates of the commodity.

The Pakistan Tobacco Board has fixed the price of the commodity below its cost of production, Ikramullah Khan, president of the representative body of the growers, the Anjuman-e-Kashtkaran Tobacco Khyber Pakhtunkhwa said in its meeting held the other day at Charsadda.
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Over P220 million worth of production assistance will be provided by the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) to tobacco farmers so they plant rice during the rainy season.

NTA administrator Edgardo D. Zaragoza said the program will boost the drive to become self-sufficient in rice 2013. Zaragoza recently distributed checks to 1,484 farmer co-operators in La Union, Pangasinan, Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Abra and Mindoro who are scheduled to plant rice in over 1,242 hectares of land previously planted to tobacco. Ream more »