If you’ve seen ads promising to set you up with payments from the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement — a Nov. 1998 accord that requires tobacco companies to pay $10 billion annually to 46 states and Washington, D.C. — don’t fall for it. These ads are just a big, fat scam. [More]
tobacco
WHO: Tobacco Isn’t Just Bad For Humans, It’s Also Killing The Environment
By 5.30.17
From cancer to heart disease and many things in between, the health effects of smoking tobacco are well known. But a new report from the United Nation’s World Health Organization tries to show how all this smoke has affected the environment. [More]
FDA Quietly Delays Stricter Rules On E-Cigarettes, Cigars
By 5.3.17
The Food and Drug Administration has handed a temporary victory to e-cigarette and cigar companies, quietly deciding to delay enforcement on some recently finalized rules that impose stricter oversight on these tobacco and nicotine products. [More]
Federal Appeals Court: After 11 Years, There’s No More Reason For Big Tobacco To Delay Warning Ads
By 4.25.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
It’s been more than a decade since a federal court ruled against the tobacco industry and ordered the nation’s largest cigarette producers to produce a new series of warning ads. Those warnings have yet to happen, as Big Tobacco has repeatedly appealed just about every aspect of the ruling. Today, one federal appeals panel handed the industry some very minor concessions while basically telling the companies to quit it already with all the legal butt-dragging. [More]
Skoal, Copenhagen & Other Smokeless Tobaccos Recalled For Containing Metal Fragments
By 2.1.17
Putting smokeless tobacco in your mouth is one thing, putting smokeless tobacco containing metal fragments in your mouth is another. After receiving several reports of customers finding metal objects in their tobacco cans, tobacco giant Altria is recalling several of its most popular brands. [More]
Walgreens Still Not Kicking Cigarette Habit, But Makes Some Products Less Visible
By 1.26.17
Three years after Walgreens said it would evaluate whether or not to continue selling cigarettes, and a year after it said it needed a bit more time to come to a resolution, shareholders for the drugstore chain are questioning the company’s choice to continue selling these cancer-causing products. [More]
Are Cigarette Warnings That Show Actual Harm More Effective At Getting People To Quit?
By 12.13.16
Imagine you’re holding a package of cigarettes you’re thinking about buying. Which would encourage you to quit: a label with a written warning, or a label with a photo of a throat cancer patient and former smoker who’s had a larygnectomy? According to a new study, labels with photos that show the harm done by smoking are more effective at dissuading people from lighting up. [More]
We Have Sugar To Thank For The American Tobacco Industry
By 12.9.16
If you’ve ever tried to give up eating sugar, you know that the sweet stuff has a strong hold on our brains. What you may not realize, though, is that sugar’s addictive and delicious power also is part of another common addiction that we’ve perfected and exported: tobacco. [More]
Philip Morris Applies To Bring Heated-Up Tobacco Sticks To U.S.
By 12.6.16
You might remember that a few months ago, we shared some interesting smoking news: that Philip Morris was working on a new product that’s somewhere between an e-cigarette and an old-fashioned tobacco one. Instead of lighting tobacco on fire, users would heat it up in a special device, inhaling a vapor instead of smoke. The company plans to apply for FDA approval for the system, seeking approval to sell it as a healthier alternative to cigarettes. [More]
Big Tobacco Opening Stores To Teach People How To Vape
By 12.1.16
While millions of people remain hooked on traditional cigarettes, the tobacco industry knows that its future is increasingly becoming smokeless. Just yesterday, the CEO of Philip Morris admitted that his company could someday cease making cigarettes altogether. So it makes sense that some tobacco giants are now opening stores to promote and teach people how to use these new products. [More]
Pediatricians, American Cancer Society Take FDA To Court Over Delayed Graphic Warning Labels On Cigarettes
By 10.4.16
It’s been more than seven years since the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act became law, directing the Food and Drug Administration to bolster warnings on tobacco labels and to create graphic warning images to be printed on cigarette packaging. Even though the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the tobacco industry’s challenge to these labels in 2013, they have yet to materialize. In an attempt to force the FDA’s hand, a coalition of doctors, public health advocates, and anti-smoking groups have filed a lawsuit against the government. [More]
FDA Warns Dozens Of Retailers Caught Selling E-Cigs, Liquid Nicotine To Minors
By 9.16.16
The Food and Drug Administration recently finalized rules making it clear that e-cigarettes and liquid nicotine are, just like traditional cigarettes, not to be sold to people under the age of 18. Now the FDA is putting dozens of retailers on notice that they were caught allegedly selling these products to minors. [More]
Makers Of E-Cigarettes And Pricey Cigars Want To Avoid FDA Approval And Regulation
By 9.2.16
Until earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration didn’t have authority to regulate some new or unusual smokeable products that have been growing in popularity, like premium cigars, hookah tobacco, vaping products, and e-cigarettes. However, the industries behind these products are fighting regulation with lobbyists, hoping to do away with the new rule. [More]
Could Using The “World’s Ugliest” Color Stop People From Smoking?
By 6.21.16
Opaque Couché, described as looking like “death,” “filth,” and “lung tar,” is widely considered the world’s ugliest color. With a reputation like that you wouldn’t expect the hue to be used much, but it is — as a way to deter consumers from purchasing cigarettes in some areas of the world. [More]
This Tobacco Store Doesn’t Want Your Sweaty Bra Or Sock Money
By 5.5.16
We get it: in the summer, you want to be free and unencumbered, without a purse on your shoulder or a heavy wallet in your pocket. However, a tobacco store in Kentucky has an important seasonal rule that they want their customers to keep in mind: they do not want your crumpled, sweaty dollar bills that you’ve just pulled from your sock or your bra. [More]
FDA Bans Sale Of E-Cigarettes To Minors; Requires Health Warnings
By 5.5.16
After a prolonged, seven-year process of drafting regulations for e-cigarettes, the Food and Drug Administration has finalized rules that treat e-cigs, hookah tobacco, pipe tobacco, and premium cigars the same as traditional cigarettes and cigars. [More]
California Becomes Second State To Raise Smoking Age To 21
By 5.5.16
Starting on June 9, California will officially be the second state — after Hawaii — to bar most people under the age of 21 from smoking, buying, or possessing traditional cigarettes. [More]
Is It Inevitable That Big Tobacco Will Shift To Big Marijuana?
By 4.20.16
Four states and Washington, D.C., have already legalized recreational marijuana use, while medical marijuana use is currently legal (or about to become legal) in around 20 states — not to mention the many states that have decriminalized the drug. At the same time, tobacco use continues to decline and the few remaining cigarette giants can only merge with each other so many times. So is Big Tobacco destined to become Big Marijuana? [More]
