Gas prices have fallen signifiantly in the last year or so, which is great news for consumers, if not necessarily for gas stations. There’s another hidden winner in this situation: tobacco companies. Customers who are spending less on gas have more money to spend on cigarettes, and gas stations happen to be a convenient place to buy them. [More]
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Tobacco Companies Sue FDA Over Cigarette Packaging Guidelines
By 4.14.15
For more than 5 years, the FDA has had authority to regulate tobacco products, and last month, the agency issued guidance to the tobacco industry about when cigarette makers must seek FDA approval on changes to packaging. The country’s largest tobacco businesses now believe the FDA is overstepping its authority and violates their rights to free expression. [More]
Study: Raising Legal Age To Buy Cigarettes To 21 Would Result In Fewer Smokers
By 3.12.15
By this point everyone can agree that smoking is harmful to your health, and yet there are still new smokers starting up the habit year after year. A new study from the Institute of Medicine says that swell in numbers could be curbed by raising the legal age to buy cigarettes to 21. [More]
Tobacco Giants To Pay $100 Million To Settle Hundreds Of Lawsuits In Florida
By 2.25.15
After more than two decades of a legal roller-coaster that at one point had the tobacco industry hit with $145 billion in damages, hundreds of federal lawsuits in Florida are close to being settled after three tobacco giants reached a deal to pay a total of $100 million. [More]
Will The FDA Ever Get Around To New Warning Labels For Cigarettes?
By 2.18.15
In June 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act became law, directing the Food and Drug Administration to not only create larger health warnings, but to include graphic images in the labels. And when the U.S. Supreme Court shot down a tobacco-industry fight against these labels in April 2013, it was supposed to get the ball rolling again on these new warnings. But in the years since, there’s been no apparent movement on the matter and the FDA won’t say when, or even if, these Congressionally mandated labels will become a reality. [More]
New York Seeking $180M In Lawsuit Accusing UPS Of Shipping Untaxed Cigarettes
By 2.18.15
A new lawsuit filed by the state of New York and New York City is accusing United Parcel Service of shipping more than 136 million contrabands cigarettes across the state in the last five years. Those smokes are worth a lot of tax dollars — about $5 million for NYC and $30 million for the state — and as such, the lawsuit is seeking $180 million in damages and penalties. [More]
Philip Morris Does Horrible Job Of Defending Itself After John Oliver Mocking
By 2.17.15
On Sunday night, John Oliver called out the tobacco industry, and particularly Philip Morris, for the practice of threatening small and poor countries with complicated, expensive international trade lawsuits if they try to strictly regulate cigarette marketing. But while Big Tobacco has the coffers to pay for costly legal battles, it does a really poor job of trying to defend its actions. [More]
Meet The New Marlboro Spokesman: Jeff, The Diseased Lung In A Cowboy Hat
By 2.16.15
On Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver took an in-depth look at how the tobacco industry uses expensive lawsuits and byzantine international trade agreements to keep countries from pushing for stronger regulation on cigarettes. But rather than just call Big Tobacco out for its bad behavior, Oliver also offered a helpful solution that might make all sides happy. [More]
California Officials Declare Electronic Cigarettes A Public Health Risk
By 1.29.15
California has taken a stance in the debate over electronic cigarettes, and it is coming down squarely on the side that says e-cigarettes are potentially harmful. In a new report released this week by the California Department of Public Health, officials declare e-cigarettes as a threat to public health. [More]
Washington Could Become First State To Raise Smoking Age To 21
By 1.23.15
The era of walking into a store and buying that first nudie magazine and pack of cigarettes upon turning 18 might soon be a thing of the past for presidents of Washington State, as legislators there are proposing a new age threshold for those who want to light up. [More]
Sorry Camel, Fewer People Than Ever Are Smoking Between Every Thanksgiving Course
By 11.26.14
It’s been 78 years since Camel rans its full-page Thanksgiving ad encouraging smokers to enjoy a cigarette after every course of their holiday meal to aid with “good digestion.” Since then, food has apparently gotten a lot easier to digest — and people aren’t so keen about dying of lung cancer, emphysema and heart disease — as a new CDC report finds that fewer Americans than ever are aiding their digestion with cigarettes. [More]
Massachusetts Town Decides Against Banning Tobacco Sales After Outcry
By 11.20.14
After floating the idea of possibly banning all tobacco sales within city limits, a Massachusetts town’s Board of Health has decided to give up the proposal after some residents protested the effort, saying they should be able to buy cigarettes and other products in their own town. [More]
Massachusetts City Considering Banning Tobacco Sales Completely
By 11.10.14
While most cities have banned smoking indoors in public places, and companies like CVS have decided to stop selling cigarettes outright, no U.S. town has actually banned the sale of tobacco… yet. One Massachusetts city is considering taking tobacco off the shelves, a choice that would make it the first town to do so. [More]
Study: Raising Cigarette Prices Means People Drink Less Beer & Booze
By 9.24.14
For those who drink and smoke, it’s no surprise that often, the more you smoke, the more you end up drinking, and vice versa. So it follows that when state taxes make cigarettes more expensive, you might be inclined to smoke less, and as such, you might end up drinking less beer and whiskey as a result. That’s the effect rising cigarette prices have on alcohol consumption (except for wine), say researchers in a new study that looks at consumption habits of smokers and drinkers. [More]
CVS Yanks Tobacco Products From Its Shelves A Month Earlier Than Planned
By 9.3.14
Earlier this year, CVS Caremark announced it would stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products in its drugstores across the country by October 1. It’s not October yet, but CVS has decided to pull those items early. As in, today. And it’s got another change in the pipeline, too — its new corporate name is CVS Health. [More]
Jury Smacks Tobacco Company R.J. Reynolds With $23 Billion Verdict
By 7.21.14
The bill has arrived for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco company in a lawsuit brought by a Florida woman whose husband smoked cigarettes and later died from lung cancer, and the company is not pleased: The jury returned one of the largest verdicts ever against a tobacco company, smacking Reynolds with $23.6 billion in damages. [More]
Proposed $27.4B Marriage Between Camel And Newport Cigarette Makers Worries Health Advocates
By 7.15.14
A $27.4 billion merger between the No. 2 and No. 3 cigarette companies in the United States might might cut down the number of players on the tobacco industry playing field, but it’s also cause for concern for health advocates. [More]
CDC Unleashing Another Barrage Of Terrifying Anti-Smoking Ads
By 6.24.14
Two years ago, the Centers for Disease Control launched a series of ads featuring horror stories from former smokers who got cancer, lost organs, teeth, and whose children suffered from the ill effects of being exposed to cigarette smoke. Some of these ads have been viewed millions of times online and the CDC claims they are helping to get people to quit or to never start smoking; that’s why a new series of TV spots will soon start hitting the TV airwaves in July. [More]
