Research

Tobacco industry uses judicial seminars to influence rulings
A study published in the journal Tobacco Control exposes a practice by which judges attend tobacco company-sponsored seminars that consist of curricula dealing with litigation issues that are central to tobacco litigation. The biased seminars are sponsored by tobacco companies who may be potential litigants in every jurisdiction, state or federal. Click here to view the abstract.

Study reveals litigation strategies by tobacco companies
Researchers at Temple University have revealed a new litigation strategy used by tobacco companies to fight successful tobacco control media programs. Lawsuits have been brought against the California Tobacco Control Media Campaign and the American Legacy Foundation’s truth® campaign by RJ Reynolds and Lorillard, who claim alleged violation of the vilification clause of the Master Settlement Agreement. The article can be found in the February 2006 issue of Tobacco Control. Click to view the abstract.

Ineffective ventilation system promoted by tobacco industry
A research article appearing in the British Medical Journal has revealed that British American Tobacco promoted technologies to the hospitality industry that they knew were ineffective. As an attempt to prevent legislation, BAT encouraged the installation of air filtration units that were only 34% efficient at removing particulate matter from tobacco smoke. Click to read the full article.

Industry-sponsored ads ineffective at proventing youth smoking
An article in the February 2006 issue of Tobacco Control demonstrates that industry sponsored anti-smoking ads do more to promote corporate image than to prevent youth smoking. The researchers found that exposure to Philip Morris and Lorillard ads resulted in more favorable attitudes toward tobacco companies and that adolescents’ intention to smoke did not differ as a function of ad exposure. Click to view the abstract.

Tobacco documents reveal Kraft and Philip Morris shared flavor research
A Chicago Tribune examination of tobacco lawsuit documents reveals that Kraft Food Inc. and Philip Morris USA shared expertise in their search for making alluring foods and cigarettes, including an investment in brain scans to study how the brain processes taste and smell. This finding contradicts the companies’ claims that, despite being owned by the same parent company, the individual companies themselves do not interact. Click for more information.

British American Tobacco concealed toxicity of low-tar cigarettes
According to a research article in the journal Lancet, the cigarette maker British American Tobacco concealed the toxicity of their low-tar cigarettes. The company relied on testing protocols that don’t reflect real-life smoking, and thus produced yields of nicotine and tar lower than when the cigarettes are actually smoked. The documents demonstrate that BAT knowingly tried to increase the discrepancy in the yield, promoted the cigarettes to health-concerned smokers, and ignored ethical concerns raised by senior scientists. Click for more information.

Industry lobbying tab now at record levels
According to PoliticalMoneyLine, a nonpartisan organization that tracks lobbying expenditures, spending on lobbying in the U.S. Congress rose $85 million, compared with the preceding six-month period. Altria Group, Inc. was one of the top lobbying organizations, spending $6.7 million during the time period. Click to access PoliticalMoneyLines's website.

Exposure to tobacco advertising exceeds anti-tobacco campaigns
A study published in the December 2005 issue of Addiction demonstrates that exposure to public health-sponsored anti-tobacco campaigns in the U.S. is matched or exceeded by both tobacco company advertising and ads for pharmaceutical cessation products. The authors call for research to examine whether such advertising may dilute or undermine the benefits of anti-tobacco campaigns. Click for the abstract.

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CDC countermarketing manual available online
The CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health’s manual, Designing and Implementing an Effective Tobacco Counter–Marketing Program, is now available online. Designed primarily for tobacco control program staff in state health departments and national organizations, this comprehensive 450–page document takes the reader step–by–step through the process of developing and implementing a tobacco counter–marketing campaign. A compilation of information about what has worked successfully in tobacco control and prevention media campaigns over the last dozen years, this resource will help health officials learn from the experiences of others. In addition to providing examples from successful campaigns, the manual also includes samples of key documents used throughout the process of developing those campaigns. Click to access the manual.

New national project to restrict spit tobacco sponsorship of rodeos
To arm rodeo organizers with the knowledge and tools to reject spit tobacco sponsorship, the Public Health Institute has launched the National Tobacco-Free Rodeo Project (NTFRP) with funding from the American Legacy Foundation Small Innovative Grants Program. The project provides technical assistance, written materials, and conference calls to support advocates’ efforts and build a sustainable national alliance to restrict tobacco sponsorship, advertising, and the distribution of free product samples at rodeos. Project staff are also working to involve cowboys, rodeo queens, and others who have not traditionally participated in tobacco control efforts. Click for more information and access to NTFRP resources, email Andrea Craig Dodge, project director, at info@bucktobacco.org.

'Follow the Signs’ Training Program
The “Follow the Signs” training program provides an insider’s look at Big Tobacco’s marketing strategies and selling tactics as well as looks at how they train and evaluate their employees. Topics covered include:

• Retailer roles in the sale and advertising of tobacco, and their complaints about Big Tobacco's "own the store" mentality
• Merchandising priority, contract decisions, promotions, brands, and payments depending on demographics, as well as comparison of chain and independent marketing
• Examination of interior/exterior signage and display placement guidelines depending on demographics
• Selling techniques and discount programs

This training is appropriate for individuals, community groups and coalitions, and could also be shared with an interested state Attorney General's office. For more information, contact the Network at thenetwork@naatpn.org or 1-888-4NAATPN.

Tobacco Ad Teardown Project
The Tobacco Ad Teardown Project is a statewide youth-based cleanup effort to educate communities about how tobacco is being promoted, and promote efforts to reduce in-store advertising. Programs work with local youth groups to approach stores that have tobacco advertising. Youth request that stores teardown their storefront tobacco ads, in exchange the youth help clean and beautify the store property. Click for more information, including a downloadable pdf version of the project manual.

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National

Reynolds American enters smokeless tobacco category
Reynolds American, parent company of RJ Reynolds Tobacco Company, has agreed to acquire a holding company that owns Conwood, the nation’s second largest manufacturer of smokeless tobacco products, for $3.5 billion. The acquisition still needs to be approved by the Federal Trade Commission. Reynolds American has indicated that it doesn't plan to become a signatory to the smokeless tobacco settlement agreement with the states, which protects youth from the marketing of smokeless tobacco products, funds American Legacy Foundation's tobacco control programs, and was signed by UST, the largest smokeless tobacco company. Click here for more information - and here to view the press release from the Reynolds American website.

Altria Group may split into three separate companies
Altria Group, the parent company of Kraft, Philip Morris USA and Philip Morris International (PMI), the world's largest multinational tobacco company, has announced that it is considering breaking up into three separate companies in the near future. Decisions that an independent PMI makes will have major global public health ramifications. Click here for more information.

FedEx latest to join companies prohibiting delivery of cigarettes to individuals
FedEx Express and FedEx Ground are changing their business practices to prohibit the delivery of cigarettes to individual consumers in the U.S. They join both UPS and DHL in the effort to end the delivery of contraband cigarettes purchased on the internet, leaving just the U.S. Postal Service as courier for shipments of cigarettes obtained illegally online or via mail order. Click for more information.

Philip Morris agrees to stop supplying cigarettes to illegal dealers
Philip Morris USA has agreed to stop supplying cigarettes to illegal Internet and mail order dealers, ending shipments of its products to customers, Indian tribes and enterprises that the states deem illegal. The action is the third prong of the states' efforts to curb the sale of cigarettes to minors over the Internet and by mail order, often to avoid substantial state sales taxes. In March, major credit card companies agreed to stop processing payments from Internet retailers. Delivery companies DHL, UPS, and FedEx have agreed to stop shipping packages from the vendors. Click to view the statement from the New York Attorney General’s Office.

Cigarette companies moving to smokeless tobacco to compensate for decreased sales
It appears that Philip Morris USA and Reynolds American Inc. are considering entering the smokeless tobacco market soon, either through an acquisition or with their own new product(s). According to the USDA, U.S. consumption of cigarettes has fallen almost every year since hitting a peak of 640 billion cigarettes in 1981, partially due to smoking bans. At the same time, consumption of smokeless tobacco is increasing. Click for more information.

Examination of tobacco industry’s opposition to E-code classification of ETS-related death
An article in the Journal of Public Health Policy examines the tobacco industry’s opposition to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 1993 designation of a new external cause of injury code, or E-code, for environmental tobacco smoke-related causes of death. The tobacco industry fought the E-code, stating that it wasn’t needed because of a lack of conclusive evidence linking ETS with pulmonary and cardiovascular deaths. Click for the complete article.

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States

Illinois

Chicago smoking bar backed by big tobacco
A bar in Chicago owned by RJ Reynolds has licensed itself as a tobacco manufacturer instead of a restaurant or bar in order to take advantage of a loophole in the city’s newly enacted smoke-free air ordinance. Click here for more information.

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