With Indonesia in the grip of what it calls an 'uncontrolled tobacco epidemic,' ABC’s 20/20 turns its cameras beyond the shocking images of smoking babies and schoolchildren to spotlight the role of lax government regulation and Philip Morris International’s marketing to youth.
After the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new data this week showing the rate of adult smoking nationwide declined to 19.3 percent in 2010, CBS News decided to look at what it calls a 'cigarette tax shocker' — the stunningly low rate of cigarette taxes in the 15 states that rank near the bottom in taxing cigarettes.
Though lots of pizza and late nights still make college life a health challenge, exposure to secondhand smoke is becoming less of a threat: More than 500 campuses around the country are now completely smoke-free.
Prohibitions on smoking in residence halls, classrooms and other indoor spaces have long been common, but increasingly, students and faculty have advocated for — and won — smoke-free policies that apply anywhere on campus, including outdoor spaces such as athletic stadiums and parking lots. Among the smoke-free venues are all 33 campuses in the Arkansas state university system, and the 23 campuses of the City University of New York.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius takes on the tobacco companies that filed suit to block new graphic warning labels from appearing on cigarette packs, saying this would be 'a huge setback for our children’s health.'
The World Health Organization has issued urgent warnings about the growing health threat from non-communicable diseases — such as heart disease, cancer, chronic lung diseases and diabetes — that now cause three out of five deaths around the globe. Tobacco use is a risk factor for all of these diseases, and the WHO says effective tobacco control is a 'best buy' that governments can take to save lives, prevent disease and reduce health care costs.
From Philip Morris International’s Indonesian subsidiary Sampoerna comes a new billboard with a jaw-dropping slogan: 'Dying is better than leaving a friend. Sampoerna is a cool friend.'
See it in the full post.
Newspapers around the country have reached their own verdict on the latest tobacco companies' lawsuit challenging the new, graphic cigarette pack warning labels required under the 2009 law giving the Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate tobacco.
The decision: Big Tobacco is guilty again.
Last week, major tobacco companies again showed their aversion to the truth when they filed yet another lawsuit to block the FDA from implementing new, graphic warning labels on cigarettes.
The new warnings show and tell the truth about cigarettes — that they are addictive and deadly, causing cancer, heart disease and other serious illnesses. But the tobacco companies claim that being forced to tell the truth would violate their First Amendment rights.
Thanks to CBS's '60 Minutes,' we have a timely reminder of just how far Big Tobacco will go to suppress the truth.
As the Little League World Series rolls along and Major League Baseball pennant races heat up, the Knock Tobacco Out of the Park coalition is hitting championship stride.
More than 120 national, state and local organizations — including baseball insiders, youth leagues and dozens of health groups — are urging the players union to agree to Commissioner Bud Selig's call for a ban. More are signing up every week.
Over the past decade, Indiana has reduced the smoking rate among adults by nearly a quarter, reaching an historic low for the state of 21.2 percent in 2010.
Indiana was in the forefront of tobacco control efforts following the 1998 settlement of state lawsuits against the tobacco industry. It established an independent agency—Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation—and initially provided robust funding for programs to prevent kids from starting to smoke and help smokers quit.
But political will has waned, and funding has dropped steadily, threatening continued progress.
California recently reported that its aggressive tobacco control programs had reduced adult smoking to just 11.9 percent in 2010 — an historic low for the state.
That got us thinking: What would happen if the United States as a whole reduced smoking among adults from the current national rate of 20.6 percent to 11.9 percent?
David Kessler, the path-breaking former Food and Drug Administration commissioner who began the push for FDA regulation of tobacco during the mid-1990s, reflected recently on progress in the struggle against the tobacco industry, and the critical changes in social attitudes toward smoking that have taken hold in just the past 15 years.
The upside-down logic that prompted New Hampshire lawmakers to cut the state's cigarette tax by 10 cents already has backfired: State revenues dropped by $6.6 million in July compared with July 2010 due in part to the falloff in revenues from the misguided cigarette tax cut.
Eleven-year-old Louie Lafakis has seen the unhealthy relationship between baseball and smokeless tobacco up close and personal. His father, John, started using it in high school, when his baseball teammates told him he wouldn't make the varsity squad if he didn't dip.
What started as a youthful effort to fit in turned into a harmful addiction for John Lafakis, who is now 44 and still has been unable to quit.
When the New Hampshire Legislature cut the state's cigarette tax by 10 cents a pack, effective July 1, it was touted as a way to boost the state's economy by reducing cigarette prices and attracting smokers from neighboring states.
It's outrageous enough that a state would encourage sales of a deadly and addictive product — one that kills 1,700 New Hampshire residents and costs the state $564 million in health care bills each year.
Cigarettes kill and pollute. There's nothing healthy or environmentally friendly about them.
So it's truly outrageous that the Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company, owned by Reynolds American, is running magazine ads promoting its Natural American Spirit cigarettes as 'eco friendly.' It's called greenwashing — making deceptive environmental claims to improve the image of a controversial product or company.
It's not just the sunny climate that gives the Golden State its healthy glow: The rate of smoking among California adults has just hit a record low, dropping to 11.9 percent.
California now joins Utah as one of two states in the nation to achieve the federal Healthy People 2020 target of reducing the prevalence of adult smoking to 12 percent. Nationally, the adult smoking rate is 20.6 percent, a level that's remained essentially unchanged since 2004.
Hundreds of fans, coaches, and families — as well as current players and baseball legends — at the MLB FanFest in Phoenix are joining the campaign to get Major League Baseball players to stop using smokeless tobacco at games and on camera, where their chewing and spitting creates the image that tobacco use is cool and athletic.
More than a billion people in 19 countries are now protected by laws requiring large, graphic health warnings that cover at least half of cigarette packs — nearly double the number that were exposed to these warnings in 2008.
The World Health Organization's Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2011, finds that nations are making significant progress in implementing warning labels and other measures to reduce tobacco use. But progress must be accelerated to reverse a tobacco epidemic that will otherwise kill one billion people worldwide this century.
Several states are celebrating anniversaries of their smoke-free laws this week, and they’re demonstrating once again that these laws protect health, don’t hurt business and are very popular with the public.
Colorado is celebrating the fifth anniversary of its smoke-free law that includes all restaurants and bars. According to The Gazette of Colorado Springs, 'Business at Colorado restaurants is up considerably. The only statewide downward trends are in numbers of smokers, heart attacks and lung problems.'