At Halloween and all year-long, kid-friendly flavors, colorful packaging and scheming marketing campaigns target young people, while masking the harmful tendencies of tobacco.
Believe it or not tobacco companies are still selling candy-flavored tobacco products. Even though candy flavored cigarettes have been banned by the FDA, our local youth are still trying flavored cigars, cigarillos and smokeless tobacco products.
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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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Public health advocates have squared off against retail business owners over a Senate bill that would ban the sale of some flavored tobacco products. Advocates say flavored tobacco is a means of hooking young smokers.
Washington tobacco retailers argue that they have enough regulations to cope with and that the state should focus on existing laws that prohibit anyone under the age of 18 from buying tobacco. They say a ban on flavored tobacco will cripple their businesses. Ream more »
Lawmakers in Olympia have proposed a ban on flavored tobacco products, but barring such items could cost the state millions of dollars.
Bills in the House and Senate would ban flavored tobacco products such as cigarillos, and smokeless tobacco products like pouches, pills or capsules.
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Just in time for New Year’s resolutions, a new poster promoting smoking as a glamorous, sexy, lifestyle choice. Showing a svelte woman in a party dress, the poster for Vogue cigarettes was distributed to provincial tobacco retailers and depicts smoking as something trendy done by beautiful people, an anti-smoking coalition said yesterday.
“You can’t get more ‘lifestyle’ than the popular fashion magazine, Vogue,” said Flory Doucas of the Coalition quebecoise pour le controle du tabac. Ream more »
Santa Claus took a break from his holiday duties Monday to teach children at the Sandy Club about the dangers of “sweetened” tobacco products.
To prove the point, representatives of the Utah Department of Health and the Salt Lake Valley Health Department staged a “smell test” to demonstrate how flavored cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products have been manufactured to smell like candy — and encourage youths to use them.
“The guys who sell cigarettes are sneaky, sneaky guys. They want to trick kids and teenagers into buying cigarettes,” Santa said.
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Friday saw the congregation of 170 countries to regulate the sale of flavored tobacco products. The governments are developing ways to regulate such products because they feel that flavored tobacco products incite youngsters to start smoking, especially as they taste good as well.
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The “African Americanization” of menthol cigarettes may be coming to a halt as the Food and Drug Administration considers what, if anything, to do about menthol flavoring in efforts to reduce cigarette smoking.Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death in America.According to researcher Phillip Gardiner, in the 1960s “through the use of television and other advertising media, coupled with culturally tailored images and messages, the tobacco industry ‘African Americanized’ menthol cigarettes. The tobacco industry successfully positioned mentholated products, especially Kool, as young, hip, new, and healthy,” he explained. Ream more »
Chrysler announced that it has fired 13 employees who were caught drinking and smoking pot during their lunch hour by a local Detroit TV station. Two other employees have been suspended for a month without pay.
(Earlier story is here.) “As is evidenced by the swift action taken in this matter, it should be clear that Chrysler Group will not tolerate such behavior and will continue to evaluate its protocols to ensure that something like this does not happen again,” the company said in a statement. Ream more »
Reason TV takes a look at a new effort by the FDA to bar menthol cigarettes in the US. It follows an already-imposed ban on menthol flavored cigarettes, including clove, chocolate, and other flavors used in some brands. No one doubts that cigarette smoking is not a healthy pastime and can be terribly addictive, but do menthols represent a larger danger than regular cigarettes? Are they really a “gateway smoke” to hook teens, or just a consumer choice that carries the same risks that have always been present? Reason argues that this is just another tactic in a larger plan to impose a Prohibition on tobacco use altogether: Ream more »