Yesterday, the Chicago City Council voted to approve a pair of hot-button measures: One that raises the minimum age for buying cigarettes in the Windy City, and another that does away with the so-called “pink tax” or “tampon tax” on feminine hygiene products. [More]
tobacco
Tobacco Companies Criticized For Lax Age-Verification On E-Cigarette Websites
By 3.7.16
Putting an age-verification gate on an adults-only website is arguably as helpful in keeping curious kids away as putting a cardboard cutout of a burly bouncer outside of a nightclub. But if a tobacco company is going to have a strict age-block on its cigarette site, shouldn’t its e-cigarette website have the same restrictions? [More]
Judge Rips Big Tobacco For “Ridiculous… Waste Of Precious Time” In Drafting Warning Ads
By 2.9.16
Seventeen years after federal prosecutors sued the tobacco industry, a full decade after a court ruled that Big Tobacco’s biggest players had maintained an illegal racketeering enterprise in violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization [RICO] Act, and nearly seven years since they lost their appeal in that case, these companies are still dragging their feet creating the public warning ads they were ordered to make many, many years ago. The judge who has had to preside over this drawn-out ordeal has had enough. [More]
Walgreens Refuses To Kick Its Cigarette Habit
By 1.27.16
Nearly two years ago, CVS announced it would finally be giving up tobacco once and for all, leading Walgreens to say it was “evaluating” its future with the cancer-causing products. Now that the country’s biggest drugstore chain has had some time to kick back and ruminate on the matter, it’s decided… well, it’s decided to continue selling cigarettes while it thinks some more. [More]
10+ Things Consumers Should Know About The New Federal Spending Bill
By 12.16.15
This morning, after months of slapping on, then removing, then replacing pork barrel riders on the federal Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, we finally know exactly which add-ons made it into the omnibus spending bill and which ones didn’t. [More]
Fourth Largest Cigarette Maker Imperial Tobacco Drops “Tobacco” From Its Name
By 12.15.15
Imperial Tobacco Group, the fourth largest cigarette company in the world, is the latest company to distance itself from its bread and butter by dropping the “tobacco” part of its name. [More]
Man Says E-Cigarette Exploded In His Hand, Pieces Of Metal Pierced Wall
By 10.26.15
While it’s been several years since we reported on an e-cigarette exploding while charging or being used by a consumer, that doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened. Case in point: A Wichita, KS, man says the device he used to try to beat his nicotine habit erupted, burning his hands and damaging nearby walls. [More]
Pediatricians: Raise Smoking Age To 21, Ban Flavored Tobacco, Restrict E-Cig Sales
By 10.26.15
Even though the percentage of smokers in the U.S. has been slashed by more than half over the last 50 years, smoking is still the leading preventable cause of death in the country. The American Academy of Pediatrics believes there are a number of steps that should be taken in order to prevent people from picking up the habit in the first place. [More]
Settlement Between New York, Tobacco Companies Provides $550M For Smoking-Related Health Costs
By 10.20.15
A decades-long dispute between the New York Attorney General’s Office and major tobacco firms over payments the companies were required to make for smoking-related public-health costs, but refused to dish out, has come to an end. A new settlement between the parties directs the tobacco companies to deliver $550 million to the state, New York City and other counties. [More]
Health Group Challenges E-Cig Makers After Tests Find High Levels Of Toxic Chemicals In Most Products
By 9.3.15
A health watchdog group took legal action against some of the country’s largest e-cigarette manufacturers for failing to properly warn consumers about the risk of such products after tests show that most produce high levels of toxic chemicals. [More]
California Senate Approves Bill To Regulate E-Cigarettes Like Traditional Tobacco Products
By 8.28.15
Eight months after the California Department of Health declared that e-cigarettes were a threat to public health, the state’s lawmakers are taking steps to ensure the devices are regulated much like their traditional counterparts. [More]
Costco Joins In Virginia Crackdown On Bulk Cigarette Buyers
By 7.28.15
Following reports of Costco shoppers loading up entire trucks full of large boxes of cigarettes, presumably with the purpose of reselling them on the black market in other states, the wholesale club is now posting signs indicating that these customers will face much more scrutiny going forward. [More]
CVS Health Resigns From U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Over International Tobacco Advocacy
By 7.7.15
You may remember last fall when CVS removed tobacco products from its stores, maybe realizing that selling medicine in the back of the store and addictive carcinogen sticks in the front is kind of a confusing message. However, CVS Health is also a member of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an organization doing its best to lobby for America’s tobacco industry in other countries. CVS resigned from the Chamber today for that reason. [More]
U.S. Chamber Of Commerce: Lobbying Hard For Big Tobacco Worldwide
By 6.30.15
The term “Chamber of Commerce” plants visions of a quaint, local organization helping hang banners in the town square at Christmas time, or sponsoring youth groups in a Fourth of July parade during warmer seasons. Realistically, however, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the nation’s largest business and commerce trade group. And among all their other lobbying work, the Chamber of Commerce has become one of the world’s biggest advocates for Big Tobacco, pushing that industry’s interests globally. [More]
Tobacco Company Credits Falling Gas Prices With Rising Sales
By 4.17.15
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]
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]
