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Tobacco Tax Increase Hits France

The French government has raised the tax by 6.5%, the first bump in the country since 2004. PARIS – French smokers are now paying more for their cigarettes and other tobacco products, including roll-your-own, as the country’s first tax hike in eight years went into effect Oct. 1, Radio France

New Website Tracks Tobacco Contributions

A website has been launched that features searchable databases of all campaign contributions and gifts from tobacco lobbyists to state legislators. The website, www.tobacco.money.com, also encourages lawmakers and legislative candidates in Oklahoma to sign a pledge to not accept campaign contributions, meals or other gifts from any tobacco company political

Top 5 Recipients @ tobaccomoney.com

New website tobaccomoney.com highlights campaign contributions and gifts from tobacco lobbyists to members of the Oklahoma State Legislator. Here is a listing of some of the websites top 5 recipients: Top Recipients of Tobacco Lobby Money in the Oklahoma House of Representatives* State Repre sentative Campaign Contributions from Tobacco Lobbyists

Smoking Makes People Poorer

A new report comes to some startling conclusions about the up-front economic costs of smoking. Nationwide, the average smoker spends 14% of income on cigarettes. In New York, where taxes are among the highest, low-income smokers spend a staggering 25% of their money on their addiction! Cigarette costs add up

CDC Studying Anti-Smoking Ad Outcome

The CDC is trying to find out how well a $54 million campaign of emotional ads to scare smokers into quitting worked, researchers said. During the 3 months that the ads aired on TV, radio, and social media, calls to a national quit line more than doubled and hits on

Swiss Reject Full Ban on Smoking in Public Spaces

Voters in Switzerland have rejected a total ban on smoking in enclosed public places at a referendum. Although Geneva voted slightly in favour, results from the country’s other 25 cantons showed a majority of voters rejected a full ban. Hotels, restaurants and bars are allowed rooms for smokers but critics

Holy Smokes! Some People Spend 25% of Their Income on What?!

As far as money-draining (and life-shortening) habits go, smoking is a popular example of one to give up. Now there’s a new report that makes an even more dramatic financial case for quitting: In New York State, which levies some hefty taxes on tobacco, low-income smokers are spending roughly one-quarter

More Resources Needed to Decrease Tobacco Dependence Prevalence

In the decade since the adoption of the FCTC, we have seen significant progress in the area of tobacco control policies that have helped decrease smoking prevalence. We have also seen increased demand in cessation support, in the form of a short intervention by a health care provider, counselling, or

Plain Cigarette Packaging: Australia’s Victory

“We have taken on big tobacco… and we have won”, said Australia’s Attorney-General Nicola Roxon, hailing the judgement from Australia’s High Court that the country’s tobacco companies had failed in their challenge to the Australian Government’s plans to introduce plain packaging for all cigarettes from Dec 1, 2012. From this

FCAP Protests Tobacco Industry-Backed Party-List Group

A NETWORK of anti-tobacco advocates is asking the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disqualify a party-list organization, accusing it of being a front group for the powerful tobacco industry In a letter addressed to Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP), an umbrella organization

Big Tobacco Warning at Free-Trade Talks

Delegates attending trans-Pacific free-trade negotiations in the United States are being warned their countries could end up like Australia if they agree to allow corporations to sue governments in international courts. Australia is fending off a challenge to its plain cigarette packets legislation from Philip Morris International under the terms

Tobacco A Big Issue Among TPP Negotiators

At yesterday’s TransPacific Partnership stakeholder event – a bit of political theater set up by the United States Trade Representative to demonstrate the “transparency” of the highly-secretive negotiations – negotiators from other countries eagerly sought us out to hear about how tobacco regulation is threatened by trade law. ASH’s Chris

Does Cigarette Marketing Count as Free Speech?

Historians of free expression will one day write that early 21st century America was a place where the Supreme Court held that schools could punish kids who make a dumb joke that some humorless prig might think advocated drug use, but that tobacco companies could not be stopped from marketing

Business Representatives Working on TPP Issues Start New Jobs This Fall

A handful of business representatives that are closely following the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have taken new jobs over the last few months. Linda Menghetti, an expert on investment issues who formerly served as vice president of the Emergency Committee for American Trade, left that position at the end of

Plain Package Cigarettes Reduce Smoking Appeal: Study

A new study has discredited the tobacco industry’s assertion that there is no proof plain packaging on cigarette packs reduces the appeal of smoking. Scientists from Canada, the United States and Brazil conducted a study of 640 young Brazilian women to determine if cigarettes had the same appeal when presented

What is ISDS and What Does it Mean for Tobacco Control

ISDS stands for Investor State Dispute Settlement. I know, spelling it out doesn’t help comprehension much. It is a term of art for trade law policy wonks. Unlike most unnecessarily long bits of lingo, this one is dangerous, especially for tobacco control. The United States is insisting that it be

Unleashing the Campaign Contributions of Corporations

Way back in February of this year, more than two-thirds of Californians believed raising more money from tobacco companies to finance cancer research was a good idea. That was before industry money kicked in. Don Blankenship, former chief of Massey Energy, supported Brent Benjamin. In just over three months, opponents

Smoke Signals: Plans of Big Tobacco Plain to See

IT’S easy to laugh at Big Tobacco. Fresh from defeat in Australia’s High Court, it has taken its fight against plain cigarette packets to New Zealand where British American Tobacco warns such legislation could expose the nation to legal challenges (no kidding), and to Hong Kong where Philip Morris moved

Two Silver Linings to Graphic Warnings Decision

As anyone who follows tobacco-related news now knows, last Friday an appeals court upheld a lower court ruling striking down the FDA’s proposed graphic warnings for cigarette packages. In a 2-1 decision, the court found that the warnings violated “corporate speech” rights. The finding places the rights of tobacco companies

Reynolds Adds Aids to Stop Smoking

Reynolds American Inc. is taking a bold — perhaps audacious — approach to entering the nicotine-replacement therapy marketplace, analysts say. With the Zonnic gum of its Niconovum pharmaceutical subsidiary, Reynolds is asking consumers, particularly smokers, to trust the company that got smokers hooked on nicotine to have the expertise to

States Urge USTR To Seek Tobacco Carve Out from TPP

Two state governments have called on the USTR to carve tobacco out of the TransPacific Partnership Agreement over well-grounded concerns that their own state and local tobacco control initiatives will be threatened by international trade tribunals. Maine and Vermont, both leaders among U.S. states in protecting their people’s health, sent

U.S. Court Strikes Down Graphic Warnings on Cigarettes

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Friday struck down a law that requires tobacco companies to use graphic health warnings, such as of a man exhaling smoke through a hole in his throat. The 2-1 decision by the court in Washington, D.C., contradicts another appeals court’s ruling in