Key industry chiefs are paid more than 47 states and DC are spending on prevention
Editor
Apr 12, 2012
Pay packages for chief executives at the top three U.S. tobacco companies last year exceeded the amount of money being spent on tobacco prevention programs in all but three states.
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posted April 12, 2012
Landmark case sets precedent for strict enforcement of tobacco-control laws
Editor
Apr 11, 2012
A civil magistrate in Pakistan has found the head of marketing for Philip Morris Pakistan Ltd. guilty of violating Pakistan’s law that tightly restricts cigarette advertising, criticizing the executive’s excuse that he didn’t believe placing ads in magazines was the same as putting them in the "press."
The tobacco executive admitted that the company had run the ads, which included full-page, color advertising for Marlboro cigarettes in many of Pakistan’s leading magazines throughout November and December. But he claimed he didn’t realize these ads were subject to restrictions that limit their size and require pictorial warnings – because he believed the word "press" did not include magazines.
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posted April 11, 2012
As U.S. appeals court weighs case, Canada forges ahead
Editor
Apr 10, 2012
As an appeals court in Washington heard arguments today on the tobacco industry's lawsuit to block graphic cigarette warnings in the United States, an editorial in The New York Times called the suit a "bogus challenge" that is all too typical of tobacco industry tactics.
"The tobacco industry has never been bashful about fighting back against attempts to regulate the promotion of its deadly, addictive products," the Times wrote. "The latest is an effort to derail new regulations requiring large health warnings on cigarette packages by making baseless First Amendment claims."
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posted April 10, 2012
Enforcement is key to new smokeless tobacco limits
Editor
Apr 4, 2012
Major League Baseball players who take the field tonight and tomorrow for the opening games of the 2012 season must do so without a tin of tobacco in their uniform pockets — one of the ground-breaking restrictions on smokeless tobacco included in the new contract.
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posted April 04, 2012
Smokers also seek help online after seeing hard-hitting media campaign
Editor
Apr 2, 2012
Calls to the toll-free number that provides help to smokers trying to quit more than doubled in the first week after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention unveiled new anti-smoking ads, which depict former smokers coping with devastating diseases and disabilities caused by their tobacco use.
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posted April 02, 2012
Rural areas previously uncounted show heavy toll
Editor
Mar 30, 2012
The first nationwide study of cancer in India shows the clear link between the nation’s urgent tobacco problem and cancer rates. The study published in The Lancet is the first to document the burden of tobacco use in India’s rural areas, where 70 percent of Indians live.
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posted March 30, 2012
China’s state-run tobacco company profits may outpace Wal-Mart, HSBC
Editor
Mar 27, 2012
The global tobacco industry has long put profits before public health. Now China National Tobacco Corporation has taken this cynical formula to a new level: It appears to be the world's 30th largest company by sales, with profits that may rival those of the giant retailer Wal-Mart and the international financial conglomerate HSBC.
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posted March 27, 2012
Initiative counters an industry called "ruthless and devious" by WHO chief
Editor
Mar 22, 2012
New York City Mayor and philanthropist Michael R. Bloomberg has pledged an additional $220 million to the global fight against tobacco use, bringing his total commitment to more than $600 million.
Mayor Bloomberg made the announcement at the 15th World Conference on Tobacco or Health in Singapore, where public health leaders from around the world are gathered to intensify their efforts against tobacco use, the world’s number one cause of preventable death.
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posted March 22, 2012
From Hawaii to New Hampshire, to military bases and beyond, kids take action against Big Tobacco
Editor
Mar 21, 2012
Thousands of young people at more than 1,100 events around the country – and even overseas – are taking action against tobacco today, the 17th annual Kick Butts Day.
In all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and on U.S. military bases at home and abroad, youth have planned creative, high-impact activities to promote proven solutions to tobacco use.
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posted March 21, 2012
Loophole keeps kids working in tobacco industry and out of school
Editor
Mar 20, 2012
Sagira Ansari suffers from coughs, colds, fever and persistent headaches. But her ailments do not shorten her workday or slow her as she drops flakes of tobacco into square-cut leaves, rolls them deftly and ties the ends of a bidi cigarette with twists of red thread.
"I can't play around," she laments in a story by the Associated Press.
At age 11, Sagira, is surrounded by dust as she works eight-hour shifts producing bidis, a popular form of tobacco smoked mostly by men in India — but made by women and children.
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posted March 20, 2012