Research

Phillip Morris continues to profit from selling cigarettes to kids
According to two recent studies, Phillip Morris has spent millions of dollars convincing the public the company has changed, including an ad campaign on how to help parents prevent their children from smoking. However, an article in the journal Tobacco Control reports that between 1997 and 2002, the tobacco company earned more revenue from cigarettes smoked by American children than all other tobacco companies combined. A total of $1.2 billion in revenue was earned in 2002 alone from these sales. In another study included in the same journal issue, researchers at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute found that Marlboro cigarettes have killed more than 2.3 million Americans since 1955 and will cause another 1.6 million deaths over the next ten years should current trends continue. Click here for a press release from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids on these findings.

Tobacco companies make $4.1 billion from Hollywood films depicting smoking
According to the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California-San Francisco, the 390,000 teens who take up smoking every year by watching U.S. movies are worth $4.1 billion in lifetime sales to the tobacco industry. Hollywood movies containing smoking generate $894 million per year in lifetime tobacco profits. Click here for more information.

Incomplete disclosure of tobacco industry funding of studies on secondhand smoke
Researchers examined studies of the health effects of secondhand smoke funded by the tobacco industry, finding that they have failed to fully disclose the financial ties between the industry and the authors of the study. Meeting the requirements for financial disclosure established by the journal did not provide the reader with a full picture of the tobacco industry’s involvement with the study authors, as many had long standing financial and other working relationships with the tobacco industry. Click here for the abstract.

Sharp declines in smoking in U.S.
The Association of State Attorneys General has reported that Americans smoked fewer cigarettes in 2005 than in any year since 1951. Using data from the federal government on cigarette sales taxes collected, the group found a 4.2% drop in smoking in 2005 alone and a drop of 20% since the Master Settlement Agreement in 1998. They believe the drop is due to a variety of factors instigated by the MSA, including higher cost of cigarettes, advertising restrictions, and shifting public views on the dangers of smoking. Click here for more information.

Advertising for low nicotine cigarettes gives smokers false sense of safety
A study by researchers at the Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that many smokers make false inferences about the safety of new low nicotine Quest® cigarettes. This research appears in the March issue of Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Click here for more information on the study.

Tobacco companies increase point-of-purchase promotions since MSA
An article in the March 2006 issue of Tobacco Control finds that the interventions and tax increases implemented since the 1998 Master Settlement Agreement (MSA) may have been offset by a significant increase in point-of-purchase promotions for cigarettes. Click here to view the abstract.

Cigarette company coupons reach targeted groups, especially young adults
An article in the March 2006 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine demonstrates that cigarette promotional offers are effectively reaching industry-targeted price-sensitive groups. Of particular concern is that young adults, who have the greatest long-term customer potential, are responding. Click here to view the article.

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.

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Briefing available on tobacco industry payment to former head of the National Academy of Sciences
The National Environmental Trust hosted a press conference on April 13th to discuss new revelations in the May issue of Vanity Fair linking one of the most prominent scientific skeptics on global warming and his tactics to the three-decade tobacco industry conspiracy to hide the connection between smoking and lung ailments — an effort that has led to billions of dollars in court judgments and legislation against the industry. Dr. Frederick Seitz, a former president of the National Academy of Sciences and one of the most often-quoted skeptics on global warming, was paid over half a million dollars by the tobacco industry to obfuscate the connection between smoking and cancer. To listen to the briefing, click here.

New protocol developed to track media coverage of tobacco-related issues
An article in the January 2006 issue of Health Promotion Practice shows how a new media tracking protocol provides greater breadth and depth of analysis and more sensitivity to the nuances of newspaper coverage of tobacco-related issues. To view the abstract, click here.

Roswell Park Cancer Institute releases birthday podcast for Marlboro
A video podcast commemorating the 50th birthday of the Marlboro brand, which Philip Morris recently celebrated, features a group of laryngectomy patients singing “Happy Birthday” to Marlboro. The podcast was produced by Roswell Park Cancer Institute. Click here to access the podcast.

2005 Tobacco Yearbook Data Tables
This yearbook from the U.S. Department of Agriculture includes U.S. and world data on production, supply, trade, disappearance, and price data for tobacco products. View the report: here.

Report on global tobacco use
The National Center for Biotechnology Information has released its report on the burden of tobacco use worldwide. According to the report, cigarette smoking and other forms of tobacco use impose a growing global public health burden. Worldwide, tobacco use in all forms is estimated to kill about 5 million people annually, and accounts for 1 in every 5 male deaths and 1 in every 20 female deaths for people over the age of 30. By the year 2030, annual tobacco deaths will rise to 10 million. While most of the 200 million tobacco deaths of the 20th century occurred in Western countries and former socialist economies, most of the one billion tobacco deaths in the 21st century will occur in low-income countries. For more information, click here.

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RJ Reynolds associated with Miss America
RJ Reynolds has been sending Miss America hopefuls into schools for anti-smoking programming. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids is concerned that the association is taking the attention off of the need for changes from the nation’s second-biggest cigarette maker. Click here for a press release from the Campaign as well as a copy of the letter the organization sent to the National Association of Miss America State Pageants.

NASCAR drivers speak out against smoking
Tobacco sponsorship used to go hand-in-hand with NASCAR racing, but now six drivers are speaking out against the damaging effects of smoking. Click here for more information.

WebMD drops Philip Morris advertising
The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids was successful in its grassroots effort to convince WebMD to drop its advertising for Philip Morris. WebMD had been placing ads for Philip Morris's "quit-smoking program" on its website. The Campaign’s E-Champions send the CEO of WebMD over 5,000 e-mails urging him to remove the ads, which he did as of April 1st, stating that the ads will never be run again in the future. Click here for more information on the effort.

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.

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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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