18 mai 2009
John Player Cigarettes
Old magazine ad for John Player Special brand cigarettes.
18 juillet 2008
Cigarette menthol levels manipulated?
WASHINGTON — Tobacco companies deliberately changed the
menthol levels in cigarettes depending upon whom they were marketing them to —
lower levels for young smokers who preferred the milder brands and higher
levels to "lock in lifelong adult smokers," researchers at the
Harvard School of Public Health concluded.
Their finding is based on a review of more than 500 internal
tobacco-industry documents from 1985 through 2007.
Researchers said the documents showed that tobacco companies
studied how controlling levels of menthol could increase brand sales. They
concluded new and young smokers liked mild menthol that masked the harshness of
tobacco smoke. Veteran smokers, the companies are said to have concluded,
favored stronger doses of menthol for its cooling effects on their throats.
The findings come as Congress weighs whether to grant the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate tobacco products, including
additives, at the national level. The bill would allow the FDA to ban all
cigarette flavorings except menthol. If FDA tests of menthol showed it added to
the health risks of smoking, the agency could ban menthol, too.
No conclusive evidence shows menthol cigarettes to be more
harmful than conventional ones, said Terry Pechacek, the associate director of
the Office of Smoking and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention.
Pechacek said there was evidence that menthol smokers had a
harder time quitting.
Menthol has proven appeal to young people and is popular among
African-American smokers, two-thirds or more of whom smoke mentholated brands,
according to Gregory Connolly, a co-author of the report and the director of
Harvard's Tobacco Control Research Program.
According to the program's lab tests of menthol concentrations
in cigarettes since 2000, menthol went down in brands the young preferred and
went up in brands that were aimed at older smokers.
According to the Harvard researchers' report, the "rapid
introduction" of new milder menthol brands violates a provision in the
Master Settlement Agreement of 1998 between tobacco companies and state
governments that prohibits them from targeting youths.
30 juin 2008
Over 90% of county businesses comply with tobacco laws
During a recent tobacco enforcement “sting” in Delta County, slightly more than 90 percent of Delta County businesses passed with flying colors — refusing to sell cigarettes or chewing tobacco without proper identification.
On July 1, a
The new legislation clarifies previous regulations which stated that anyone who
“knowingly” sells tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18 could be held
criminally liable.
According to Larry Mullen, a criminal investigator with the state
liquor/tobacco enforcement unit, a Palisade woman who was cited for unlawfully
selling tobacco to a minor claimed she did not do so “knowingly” because she
never asked the customer for identification.
The employee who violates the law can be fined for the sale, as well as the
failure to ask for ID, Mullen said.
Mullen was a speaker at a Delta County Tobacco Education Coalition meeting on
Friday, June 20.
Earlier in the meeting, Karen O’Brien, tobacco education coordinator for Delta
County, gave an overview of the many incentives offered to teens, new moms and
adults who want to quit smoking.
“Those are the carrots,” Mullen said. “My job is the stick side.”
During the course of his career with the Colorado Department of Revenue, the
former cop has visited virtually every store on the Western Slope which sells
tobacco products. He uses teens under the legal age of 18 as decoys in his
“sting” operations. In Delta County, he sent females into the stores to try to
purchase cigarettes.
“Delta County did much better than I expected,” he said, adding that females
tend to be turned down more than males.
As a state, Colorado has to demonstrate that 80 percent of the time underage
purchases of tobacco products are denied. The requirement stems from the
tobacco litigation which resulted in billions of dollars targeted for tobacco
education and cessation. The states involved in the settlement, including
Colorado, must demonstrate that a significant portion of the settlement funds
are being used to attack the public health problem posed by tobacco use.
Mullen says his enforcement team visits every store in Delta County at least
once year, and returns in 90 days to re-check violators.
According to the Healthy Kids survey conducted in Delta County last fall, 50
percent of middle and high schoolers find it’s pretty easy to purchase tobacco.