Campaign contributions, which once totaled more than $10 million in a single election cycle, added up to a mere $3.2 million during the 2010 election cycle. And federal-level lobbying expenditures in 2010 represented less than a quarter of what they were a dozen years before, in 1998, the Center for Responsive Politics' research indicates.

The industry, which includes employees and political action committees associated with tobacco companies, has taken to channeling money through harder-to-track organizations connected to candidates. These include leadership PACs, which members of Congress may sponsor, and 527 groups, which are barred from donating to candidates but may campaign and advertise on their behalf.

As contributions to candidates and committees declined by more than $6 million between the 2002 and 2010 election cycles, contributions to leadership PACs remained fairly consistent, totaling more than $600,000 each year, the Center's research indicates. During the 2010 cycle, the industry gave more than $740,000 to leadership PACs -- nearly a quarter of the amount it gave to all candidates and committees.

The industry has also been generous to 527 committees. During the 2010 election cycle, the tobacco industry gave about $5.4 million to such organizations, according to the Center's research, while its contribution to candidates and other political committees totaled $3.2 million.

And in the wake of last year's Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission ruling, which made it legal for corporations to make unlimited independent expenditures to support or oppose political candidates, critics of the industry believe it will become even harder to track the tobacco companies' political involvement.
Tobacco companies, like corporations in general, may now contribute unlimited amounts of money to non-profit organizations that in turn may advertise for or against political candidates without revealing their source donors.

"One thing the tobacco industry has done is stay out of the public view and disguise its efforts in politics," Stanton Glantz, professor of medicine at the University of California-San Francisco and director of the Center for Tobacco Research and Control told OpenSecrets Blog. "With the rise of this undisclosed money, it is hard to know what they're doing."

Danny McGoldrick, vice president of research for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, told OpenSecrets Blog that tobacco companies' campaign contributions to candidates and federal lobbying expenditures may have declined, but they are dispatching their resources to other places.

"They are always looking for creative ways to exert their influence," McGoldrick said. "The Citizens United decision opened avenues for many groups. You can expect them to take any opportunity they can to influence the legislative process."

Two of the largest tobacco companies in the country, Altria Group and Lorillard Tobacco, declined to comment on their political involvement. Dosal Tobacco declined to comment on the company's campaign contributions and others such as Reynolds American, Cigar Association of America and Commonwealth Brands did not return OpenSecrets Blog's messages.

The tobacco industry's political influence also has geographic significance, as some of the top tobacco producing and manufacturing states including, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio, are considered swing states as the 2012 election cycle revs up.

Many of the top recipients of donations from the tobacco industry have been congressmen from these states and the leadership PACs sponsored by the congressmen.

The two highest ranking leaders in the House of Representatives -- Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) -- are among top tobacco industry recipients. During the 2010 election cycle, Boehner received nearly $50,000 from people and PACs associated with the tobacco industry and Cantor received $27,850. The two lawmakers' leadership PACs together received more than $158,000 from the industry.

Boehner, a smoker himself, reportedly called the regulation of the tobacco industry by the Food and Drug Administration, which was approved in 2009, a "boneheaded idea" and voted against it, while Cantor voted in favor of the bill. One of the largest contributors to Cantor's campaign was Virginia-based tobacco company Altria Group, which was one of the only tobacco companies that favored the regulation.

Although the leader of Republican Party has close ties to tobacco companies, a spokesman for Boehner, Michael Steel, told OpenSecrets Blog in an email that "Rep. Boehner makes public policy decisions based on what he believes is best for his constituents and the American people."

The offices of both Cantor and Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), who received the most in contributions from tobacco interests during the 2010 election cycle, did not return repeated phone calls and emails.

Although it's clear that tobacco interests usually support members [of] the Republican Party, they also donate to Democrats. And by funding leadership PACs of Democrats instead of their campaigns, they have been able to make it seem like they are maintaining their Republican leanings.

During the 2010 election cycle, the industry contributed only $4,700 to the campaign of Rep. [sic. -- Senator] Mark Warner (D-Va.), but it gave $54,500 to his leadership PAC -- near the top among all leadership PACs in terms of money received from the tobacco industry.

"The tobacco industry has a very strong Republican bias, but they give the Democrats enough to keep them shut and keep it from becoming a campaign issue," Glantz said. "They go with who's in power, but they are nicer to the Republicans when they are in power than the Democrats."

Besides campaign contributions, many congressmen have other personal interests in the success of tobacco companies. About 23 members of Congress hold assets in three of the biggest tobacco companies, the Center's research of 2009 financial disclosure reports indicates.

Rep. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-Wis.) holds between $100,001 to $250,000 in Altria Group stock. Most members of Congress who have investments in Altria are Republicans, but Democrats such as Kay Hagan (N.C.) and Carolyn McCarthy (N.Y.) each reported tobacco company assets valued at more than $2,000. Federal lawmakers will release their 2010 disclosure reports later this month.

And the industry's political influence is far from restricted to the federal level.

With more regulation and tax hikes proposed on the state level in recent years, tobacco companies have been directing their lobbying resources to the states, McGoldrick told OpenSecrets Blog.  Their state lobbying expenditures have been rising as federal lobbying efforts are now a fraction of what they were in the late 1990s.

"They are all over the place," McGoldrick said. "They are (at state capitols) in good numbers and frequently."

A lawyer representing the small Florida-based tobacco company, Dosal Tobacco, told OpenSecrets Blog he has seen the bigger tobacco companies change their focus from the federal to the state level to lobby against a tax hike.

"We have seen an increase -- in Florida at least -- in lobbying by the major tobacco companies," said Mike Huey, government counsel for Dosal.

The companies might be increasing their presence at state legislatures, but many of the federal lobbyists hired by the tobacco industry are Washington insiders. About 78 percent of the lobbyists worked for the federal government prior to becoming lobbyists, according to the Center's research.

And one of the biggest battles facing the industry today remains on the federal level.

The Food and Drug Administration, now responsible for regulating the tobacco industry, is debating a ban on menthol cigarettes, which make up about 90 percent of sales for the third-largest tobacco company, Lorillard.

The industry is ramping up its lobbying efforts in response. In the first quarter of 2011 alone, Lorillard spent $900,000 -- nearly half of its lobbying expenditures during the 2010 cycle -- in what may foreshadow a broader lobbying expenditure uptick throughout the year.

EXCERPTS from Reuters, June 3, 2011, "U.S. judge declines to shut tobacco racketeering case", no writer listed.

The West now consumes fewer and fewer of the world's cigarettes: richer countries have changed – from smoking 38 per cent of the world total in 1990, they cut down to 24 per cent in 2009. Meanwhile, the developing world's share in global cigarette sales has increased sharply, rising to 76 per cent in 2009.

An investigation by The Independent on Sunday reveals that tobacco firms have taken advantage of lax marketing rules in developing countries by aggressively promoting cigarettes to new, young consumers, while using lawyers, lobby groups and carefully selected statistics to bully governments that attempt to quash the industry in the West.

In 2010, the big four tobacco companies – Philip Morris International, British American Tobacco, Japan Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco – made more than £27bn profit, up from £26bn in 2009.

The price of their profits will be measured in human lives. In the 20th century, some 100 million people were killed by tobacco use. If current trends continue, tobacco will kill a billion people in the 21st century.

In striving for greater profits, the big tobacco firms have pushed the average price of cigarettes up in rich countries such as Britain – where 20 cigarettes now cost more than £6 a pack – while hammering down the price paid to tobacco growers in poorer countries such as India and Malawi. Although around 77 per cent of the price of a pack is tax, the amount charged by tobacco companies has also increased.

A major investigation by the Office of Fair Trading last year found that a dozen tobacco manufacturers and retailers in the UK had colluded in price fixing, ensuring that packs remained at higher prices to maximise profits. The largest fine was one of £115m for Imperial Tobacco, makers of Lambert & Butler and Golden Virginia. The fine made a minimal dent in its profits for 2010, which topped £4.39bn.

Meanwhile in Malawi, where tobacco farming is heavily relied upon for the economy, the country's anti-corruption bureau has accused tobacco companies of colluding to keep prices paid to farmers for the raw product low. Tobacco auction rooms have become a battleground between government and industry, as a kilo of leaves plummeted from an average of £1.06 per kg in April 2009 to 47p per kg this year. The knock-on effect of this on farms is near-slave wages for workers and a temptation to use cheap (or free) child labour.

Anna Gilmore, professor of public health at the University of Bath, said: "What most people don't realise is that, although sales are falling in the West, industry profits are increasing. These companies remain some of the most profitable in the world. This is thanks in part to their endless inventive ways of undermining and circumventing regulation. They're trying to reinvent their image to ingratiate themselves with governments, but behind the scenes it's business as usual."

This year's World No Tobacco Day [May 31] is focusing on persuading more countries to sign a global treaty drawn up by the World Health Organization to ensure public health protection from smoking. Although 172 countries have signed up to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control since it was produced six years ago, 20 per cent of them have still done nothing at all to implement its recommendations, and major countries, including the US and Indonesia, are still not even signatories.

In Indonesia alone there are 21 million child smokers. There is little to stop companies promoting cigarettes to young people. In countries such as Nigeria, Ukraine and Brazil, tobacco companies have sponsored club nights or parties aimed at attracting new young users. In Russia, attempts to entice women smokers have included packaging made to look like jewel-encrusted perfume bottles and even selling cigarettes branded by the fashion house Yves Saint Laurent.

Dr Armando Peruga, programme manager for the WHO's tobacco free initiative, said: "We need to do more. We need to stop the tobacco industry promoting themselves as normal corporate citizens when they are killing people every day. We are lagging behind in establishing comprehensive bans on advertising, marketing, promotion and sponsorship."

When countries in these emerging markets try to clamp down on tobacco, the battle often ends up in the court room. In Uruguay, for example, the government had been leading the way under President Tabaré Ramón Vázquez Rosas, a former oncologist. In 2006 it became the first in the region to ban smoking in public places and now it wants 80 per cent of every pack of cigarettes to be taken up with health warnings.

In response, Philip Morris has sued the government. It is thought that the company will demand at least $2bn in damages if Uruguay loses.

Courtroom bullying like this has a broader intimidatory effect on other governments in the region, which were already less inclined towards legislating further against smoking.

Laurent Huber, director of the Framework Convention Alliance on tobacco control, said: "In countries like Uruguay, the tobacco industry uses its vast wealth to tie up public health measures in court battles. Win or lose, this has a chilling effect on other governments."

These tricks are by no means confined to the less-regulated emerging countries. In Australia, which will become the first country to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes by law, the industry has been accused of scaremongering against the measures by threatening to flood the market with cheap fags.

In Britain, the industry is also prone to taking any measures necessary to keep regulation at bay. This autumn a group of tobacco companies is taking the Government to court over its proposals to ban cigarette displays in all shops.

More often in the UK, though, Big Tobacco's attempts to alter public opinion are more subtle. A study from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), out this week, scrutinises the credibility of economic arguments used by the industry to fight back against legislation. For example, when Christopher Ogden, chief executive of the Tobacco Manufacturers Association, said in 2010 that the smoking ban had severely threatened the pub and bingo industry because of lost jobs and livelihoods, the reality was a little different. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows a net increase in the number of people visiting pubs since the smoking ban. When England went smoke-free in 2007, the number of premises licensed for alcohol increased by 5 per cent, and it has continued to grow every year since.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said: "In line with our international treaty obligations, the UK government has not only banned advertising and put health warnings on packs, but also committed to protect public health policies from the commercial and vested interests of the tobacco industry. To get round this, the industry uses front groups to covertly lobby politicians, arguing that smoke-free legislation has destroyed the pub trade, and that putting tobacco out of sight in shops will both be ineffective and put corner shops out of business.

"The next big battle is over putting cigarettes in plain packs. Already the same arguments are being used. The evidence is thin or non-existent, but no matter, the danger is that policy makers will be misled that where there's smoke, there's fire."

"... SHS [Secondhand Smoke] is composed of more than 4,000 chemicals, such as nicotine, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), aromatic amines, and carbon monoxide, and many of these substances are known to cross the placenta and reach the fetus. Although SHS exposure is a diluted form of exposure, certain toxic chemicals are present at higher proportions in SHS than in mainstream smoke. Furthermore, it has been reported that tobacco smoke can affect the developing fetal nervous system by reducing oxygen and nutrient flow to the fetus, and that prenatal nicotine exposure alters neurotransmission systems and causes structural and functional changes in the central nervous system."

"In this study, we found that prenatal SHS exposure is associated with a significant decrease in cognitive function in 6-month infants. This finding provides evidence of the adverse effect of maternal SHS exposure during pregnancy on child neurodevelopment."

"This study shows that the exposure of non-smoking mothers to SHS [secondhand smoke] has a significant deleterious effect on infant cognitive ability."

Of the 35 Engle Progeny trials that have reached a jury verdict since February 2009, 24 have been plaintiff verdicts (69%).

Mr. Huish, who died of small-cell lung cancer in 1993 at the age of 64, had started smoking two decades before warning labels appeared on cigarette packs. He started smoking Lucky Strikes, followed by Camel, Chesterfield, Marlboro and then Marlboro Lights. Mr. Huish’s widow, Anna Louise Huish, brought the lawsuit and is represented by the West Palm Beach firm of Searcy, Denney, Scarola, Barnhart & Shipley.

Senior Attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project at Northeastern University School of Law (TPLP), Edward L. Sweda, Jr. was delighted with the verdict: “This jury was justifiably appalled by what it learned about the tobacco companies’ outrageous misconduct during the decades that John Huish was an addicted customer. Someone who is not addicted would not have smoked two or more packs per day for 46 years, as Mr. Huish did before succumbing to lung cancer.”

TPLP Director Mark Gottlieb noted that, “Jury after jury of ordinary folks have found the way that cigarette makers conduct their business is deserving of punishment. With thousands of these cases in the pipeline in Florida, it’s going to be a long slog for Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds.”

Contact: HHS Press Office
(202) 690-6343
EXPOSURE TO TOBACCO SMOKE CAUSES IMMEDIATE DAMAGE, SAYS NEW SURGEON GENERAL’S REPORT

Report focuses on how tobacco smoke causes disease

Exposure to tobacco smoke – even occasional smoking or secondhand smoke – causes immediate damage to your body that can lead to serious illness or death, according to a report released today by U.S. Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin.  The comprehensive scientific report - Benjamin’s first Surgeon General’s report and the 30th tobacco-related Surgeon General’s report issued since 1964 - describes specific pathways by which tobacco smoke damages the human body and leads to disease and death.

The report, How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease, finds that cellular damage and tissue inflammation from tobacco smoke are immediate, and that repeated exposure weakens the body’s ability to heal the damage.

“The chemicals in tobacco smoke reach your lungs quickly every time you inhale causing damage immediately,” Benjamin said in releasing the report.  “Inhaling even the smallest amount of tobacco smoke can also damage your DNA, which can lead to cancer.”

"Over the last two years we have stepped up efforts to reduce tobacco use, including implementing legislation to regulate tobacco products, investing in local tobacco control efforts and expanding access to insurance coverage for tobacco cessation" said Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. "This will remain a key priority of this Administration."

The report also explains why it is so difficult to quit smoking. According to the research, cigarettes are designed for addiction. The design and contents of current tobacco products make them more attractive and addictive than ever before. Today’s cigarettes deliver nicotine more quickly and efficiently than cigarettes of many years ago.

Tobacco smoke contains a deadly mixture of more than 7,000 chemicals and compounds, of which hundreds are toxic and at least 70 cause cancer. Every exposure to these cancer-causing chemicals could damage DNA in a way that leads to cancer. Exposure to smoke also decreases the benefits of chemotherapy and other cancer treatments. Smoking causes more than 85% of lung cancers and can cause cancer almost anywhere in the body. One in three cancer deaths in the U.S. is tobacco-related.

The report describes how the delicate lining of the lungs becomes inflamed as soon as it is exposed to the chemical mixture in cigarette smoke. Over time, the smoke can cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Even brief exposure to secondhand smoke can cause cardiovascular disease and could trigger acute cardiac events, such as heart attack. The report describes how chemicals from tobacco smoke quickly damage blood vessels and make blood more likely to clot. The evidence in this report shows how smoking causes cardiovascular disease and increases risks for heart attack, stroke, and aortic aneurysm.

Smoking causes many other harmful effects throughout the body, including making it harder for diabetics to control their blood sugar.  Smoking makes it harder for women to get pregnant and can cause a miscarriage, preterm delivery, low birth weight, as well as damage to fetal lungs and brain tissue. Babies who are exposed to secondhand smoke are more likely to die from sudden infant death syndrome, the report finds.

 “This report makes it clear – quitting at any time gives your body a chance to heal the damage caused by smoking,” the Surgeon General said. “It’s never too late to quit, but the sooner you do it, the better.”

Fortunately, there are now more effective ways to help people quit than ever before. Nicotine replacement is available over the counter and doctors can prescribe medications that improve the chances of successful quit attempts. Smokers can also call 1-800-QUIT-NOW for help.

To help communicate the report findings as widely as possible, the Surgeon General unveiled an easy-to-read guide with practical information about how tobacco smoke causes disease, A Report of the Surgeon General: How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: What It Means to You.

Copies of the full report, executive summary, and the easy-to-read guide may be downloaded at http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/tobaccosmoke/index.html.To order printed copies of these documents, go to http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco and click the Publications Catalog link under Tools & Resources.

    Tallahassee, FL:  Attorney James Gustafson has just finished up a huge and historic wrongful death suit against R.J. Reynolds. A Florida jury awarded $8 million in compensatory damages and another $72 million in punitive damages to Diane Webb, whose father, James Cayce Horner, smoked up to two packages of cigarettes a day until he died of lung cancer. ...

    And maybe it’s because Gustafson’s own father also died of lung cancer that he speaks so clearly and eloquently about the damage done by big tobacco. "These smokers were part of our greatest generation," says Gustafson. "They made it through the Depression, they fought and won World II, they created a giant of an industrial nation and it was on their backs that this country was built."

    "These are people who started smoking decades before there were warning labels on cigarettes," says Gustafson. "James Horner, Diane Webb’s dad, started smoking as a teenager in 1934 and smoked for 32 years before there was ever a warning label put on these packages."

    "James Horner watched his wife die of lung cancer, his son-in-law had a heart attack because of cigarettes and then finally he died," says Gustafson.

    And although smoking killed Gustafson’s father, he says he never really knew just how deplorable big tobacco’s conduct has been until he started working on this trial. "The depth of their deceit is just unfathomable—it is just bottomless," says Gustafson.

    "My dad smoked unfiltered Lucky Strikes and then switched to filtered cigarettes," says Gustafson. "But I now know that filters are a fraud. If anything they make cigarettes more dangerous because they make the smoker puff harder."

    "The R.J. Reynolds internal documents are spectacular in their deceit," says Gustafson. "Sometimes juries are skeptical about wrongful death suits for smokers, they wonder why you’re doing this," says Gustafson. "But in these cases, the conduct of big tobacco is so bad you can literally see the jury turning against the company."

    "We are not proving these cases with our own documents, we’re proving these cases with their own documents," adds Gustafson.

Mexican women who do not smoke but are exposed to smoking, known as environmental smoke exposure, are at three times higher risk for breast cancer than non-smoking women not exposed to passive smoking, according to findings presented at the Third AACR [American Association for Cancer Research] Conference on The Science of Cancer Health Disparities, being held Sept. 30-Oct.3, 2010.

"Everyone should avoid secondhand smoke," said Lizbeth López-Carrillo, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology, at the National Institute for Public Health, Mexico City, Mexico.

... "We have found that environmental exposure to tobacco increases a woman's risk for breast cancer in the same way that active smoking does."

More than 6 million Mexican women between the ages of 12 and 65, who have never-smoked, are being exposed to environmental tobacco smoke, according to background information from the National Surveys of Addictions. Previous research has shown that active smoking is linked to a 20 percent increase in the risk for breast cancer — the leading cause of cancer in women in Mexico — with the highest incidence among those women in the Mexican states bordering the United States. However, the association between environmental tobacco smoke and breast cancer risk, particularly among postmenopausal women, is less established.

Therefore, López-Carrillo, and colleagues conducted a study to estimate the risk for breast cancer due to lifetime exposure to passive smoking among pre- and postmenopausal women residing in Mexican states bordering the United States.

They examined 504 women with confirmed breast cancer and compared them with 504 healthy women of similar age. During direct interviews, the women were asked about their active and passive lifetime smoking exposure at the home and the workplace. Women with either active or passive tobacco exposure were compared to those women who had never smoked and had no passive smoking exposure.

Compared with women who had never smoked and had no passive smoking exposure, women with passive smoking exposure had a threefold higher risk for breast cancer. The link between passive smoking and breast cancer remained regardless of menopausal status.

Among women who actively smoked, the researchers found an increased breast cancer risk; however, this association was only significant if women began smoking between puberty and the birth of their first child.

"Active and passive smoke exposure is a modifiable risk factor for breast cancer," López-Carrillo said. "Reducing not only active smoking, but also passive smoking, will prevent new breast cancer cases in this population."

Photo caption: Even a single cigarette produces enough smoke to alter genes in the lungs, according to a new study.

... “How many cigarettes can I smoke before I start to do some damage?”

The sobering answer: Zero.

That’s the conclusion of a new study from researchers at Weill Cornell Medical College and Cornell University in New York.

The researchers recruited 121 healthy volunteers to pee into a cup and submit to a bronchoscopy, a procedure that included removing cells from the lining of the part of the airway that would first come into contact with inhaled smoke.

Smoking status was determined based on levels of nicotine and cotinine (a chemical produced in the body as nicotine is metabolized) found in their urine. The 40 people with undetectable levels of nicotine and cotinine were classified as nonsmokers; those with low levels were considered occasional smokers or people exposed to secondhand smoke; and those with high levels were considered regular smokers.

By comparing the lung biopsies from regular smokers to those from nonsmokers, the researchers identified 372 genes whose expression was triggered by tobacco smoke. Then they checked to see what those genes were doing in the occasional smokers. It turned out that 128 of those genes (34%) had been activated -- presumably by cigarettes -- including 41 (11%) that were “significantly modified,” according to the study.

Next, the researchers checked to see how much nicotine and cotinine had to be in the urine before changes in the lung cell genes were noticeable. For nicotine, that level was a mere 1.8 nanograms per milliliter -- too low to be picked up in tests. In other words, “there was no detectable level” of nicotine that was considered harmless, the researchers wrote. For cotinine, the threshold was 11 ng/ml, only slightly higher than the amount that the most sensitive tests can detect.

Digging further, the researchers found that the two groups of genes that responded most strongly in the occasional smokers were the same two groups that are most active in regular smokers. “These changes in gene expression are likely the earliest biologic abnormalities in the small airway epithelium that lead to clinically detectable lung disease,” they wrote.

Considering that so many people are exposed to secondhand smoke or partake in an occasional cigarette, the findings are significant, they concluded.

The study was published online this month in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

EXCERPTS from The Richmond Times-Dispatch, August 19, 2010, 13 charged with violating Va. restaurant-smoking ban, Staff reports, including contributions form John Reid Blackwell, and The Associated Press.

Falls Church, Va. -- ... Responding to months of complaints, police charged nine smokers with lighting up in several Vietnamese restaurants in Eden Center. Four more people were charged with allowing smoking in their establishments.

Falls Church officials said those arrested were issued citations and fines.

They are first known citations since the state limited smoking in restaurants. Violators can face $25 fines.

Gary Hagy, director of the Virginia Department of Health's division of food and environment services, said yesterday that he is aware of no other citations issued for violations of the restaurant smoking law in Virginia.

Spokesmen for the Richmond, Chesterfield County and Henrico County police departments said yesterday that those departments have not issued any citations.

The law [amendment to the Virginia Indoor Clean Air Act passed in 1990], which took effect Dec. 1, generally prohibits smoking in restaurants but allows certain exceptions. For example, restaurants may allow smoking indoors only if they have separately enclosed and vented smoking and nonsmoking rooms with a public entrance into the nonsmoking area.

Hagy said about 92 percent of full-service and fast-food restaurants in the state have indicated that they are nonsmoking since the law took effect.

Since Dec. 1, health inspectors have visited more than 23,000 restaurants, and 97 percent of them have been in compliance with the law, Hagy said.

"Several months ago, we issued a policy . . . to our people that restaurants should know the law by now," he said. "If they have one that has not complied, then they [local health officials] should report that information to their local law enforcement."

EXCERPTS from EurekAlert, August 18, 2010, "Berkeley study shows ozone and nicotine a bad combination for asthma", based on Atmospheric Environment, Article in Press, Corrected Proof, Available online 29 July 2010.

Another reason for including asthma on the list of potential health risks posed by secondhand tobacco smoke, especially for non-smokers, has been uncovered. Furthermore, the practice of using ozone to remove the smell of tobacco smoke from indoor environments, including hotel rooms and the interiors of vehicles, is probably a bad idea.

A new study by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) shows that ozone can react with the nicotine in secondhand smoke to form ultrafine particles that may become a bigger threat to asthma sufferers than nicotine itself. These ultrafine particles also become major components of thirdhand smoke - the residue from tobacco smoke that persists long after a cigarette or cigar has been extinguished.

"Our study reveals that nicotine can react with ozone to form secondary organic aerosols that are less than 100 nanometers in diameter and become a source of thirdhand smoke," says Mohamad Sleiman, a chemist with the Indoor Environment Department of Berkeley Lab's Environmental Energy Technologies Division (EETD) who led this research.

"Because of their size and high surface area to volume ratio, ultrafine particles have the capacity to carry and deposit potentially harmful organic chemicals deep into the lower respiratory tract where they promote oxidative stress," Sleiman says. "It's been well established by others that the elderly and the very young are at greatest risk."

Results of this study have been reported in the journal Atmospheric Environment in a paper titled "Secondary organic aerosol formation from ozone-initiated reactions with nicotine and secondhand tobacco smoke." Co-authoring this paper with Sleiman were Hugo Destaillats and Lara Gundel, also with EETD's Indoor Environment Department, and Jared Smith, Chen-Lin Liu, Musahid Ahmed and Kevin Wilson with the Chemical Dynamics Group of Berkeley Lab's Chemical Sciences Division. The study was carried out under a grant from the University of California's Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program.

The dangers of mainstream and secondhand tobacco smoke, which contain several thousand chemical toxins distributed as particles or gases, have been well documented. This past February, a study, also spearheaded by Sleiman, Destaillats and Gundel, revealed the potential health hazards posed by thirdhand tobacco smoke which was shown to react with nitrous acid, a common indoor air pollutant, to produce dangerous carcinogens. Until now, however, in terms of forming ultrafine particles, there have been no studies on the reaction of nicotine with ozone.

Released as a vapor by the burning of tobacco, nicotine is a strong and persistent adsorbent onto indoor surfaces that is released back to indoor air for a period of months after smoking ceased. Ozone is a common urban pollutant that infiltrates from outdoor air through ventilation that has been linked to health problems, including asthma and respiratory ailments.

Says co-author Gundel, "Not only did we find that nicotine from secondhand smoke reacts with ozone to make ultrafine particles – a new and stunning development – but we also found that several oxidized products of ozone and nicotine have higher values on the asthma hazard index than nicotine itself."

Says co-author Destaillats, "In our previous study, we found that carcinogens were formed on indoor surfaces, which can lead to exposures that are likely to be dominated by dermal uptake and dust ingestion. This study suggests a different exposure pathway to aged secondhand or thirdhand smoke through the formation and inhalation of ultrafine particles. Also, our group had previously described the formation of secondary organic aerosols in reaction of indoor ozone with terpenoids, commonly present in household products. But this is the first time that nicotine has been tagged as a potential candidate to form ultrafine particles or aerosols through a reaction with ozone."

To identify the products formed when nicotine in secondhand smoke is reacted with ozone, Sleiman and his co-authors utilized the unique capabilities of Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS), a premier source of x-ray and ultraviolet light for scientific research. Working at ALS Beamline 9.0., which is optimized for the study of chemical dynamics using vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) light and features an aerosol chemistry experimental station, the researchers found new chemical compounds forming within one hour after the start of the reaction.

"The tunable VUV light of Beamline 9.0.2's custom-built VUV aerosol mass spectrometer minimized the fragmentation of organic molecules and enabled us to chemically characterize the secondhand smoke and identify individual constituents of secondary organic aerosols," says Sleiman. "The identification of multifunctional compounds, such as carbonyls and amines, present in the ultrafine particles, made it possible for us to estimate the Asthma Hazard Index for these compounds."

... Says Sleiman, "In addition, we need to do further investigations to verify that the formation of ultrafine particles occurs under a range of real world conditions. However, given the high levels of nicotine measured indoors when smoking takes place regularly and the significant yield of ultrafine particles formation in our study, our findings suggest new link between asthma and exposure to secondhand and thirdhand smoke."

Uganda’s tobacco industry is spawning an environmental disaster, as farmers turn to fruit trees for wood fuel to cure the tobacco leaves.

Driving through tobacco growing areas, outside the Murchison Falls National Park one barely encounters natural forests.

The native trees have been cut down and no efforts have been made to replace them.

Occasionally, one sees smaller manmade forests of eucalyptus trees that belong to a few individuals who, after growing food crops still have land to spare.

Larger manmade forests belong to the leading tobacco company British American Tobacco Uganda Ltd. The company sells the wood to the tobacco farmers.

Caught between the short term need for revenue and employment opportunities that the tobacco industry presents, the government has turned a blind eye to the unfolding environmental impact of the plant.

In 2009, the country exported 32,000 tonnes of tobacco leaves that fetched $57 million in revenue.

The previous year, the industry exported 29,042 tonnes fetching $66 million.

Also, over 90 per cent of Uganda households rely on wood fuel as a source of energy, which adds to the challenge of redeeming the forest cover.

In addition, there is increased demand for timber for the construction and furniture making industries.

A 1992 Panos study on deforestation in developing countries revealed that 69 per cent of wood consumed by tobacco companies goes to fuel used in curing tobacco, and 15 per cent to poles and sticks for constructing barns.

The most affected countries include Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Brazil and Uganda. Zimbabwe is the only country in Africa that uses the flue method — which makes use of coal, petrol or oil — to cure tobacco leaves.

Despite tobacco being an industrial crop with a considerable number of farmers producing it, the National Agricultural Research Organisation, Uganda’s lead research body, cannot regulate the crop as it is outside its mandate.

This leaves the sector in the hands of private multi billion dollar companies.

Julius Mukalazi, director of research at the Zonal Agricultural Research and Development Institute in West Nile, said the effect is disastrous as these companies have exhausted the natural forest trees and are now cutting down mango trees.

“In future we may not have fruits,” said Dr Mukalazi. “Batu and other companies need to come up with mitigating programmes such as agroforestry, growing woodland for firewood and fodder for livestock, which should be integrated under Naro.”

However, when asked about their plan for reforestation, Batu was unresponsive.

The British American Tobacco Company introduced tobacco to the farmers in West Nile in 1927 as a cash crop.

As supply grew, the British built a factory in Jinja in the east in 1928.

The region is also suitable for growing fruits like mangoes, avocados, citrus and passion fruits, which also have industrial uses.

Cereals, cassava, sweet potatoes, Irish potatoes and pumpkins can also be grown in the area to boost food security.

The surplus can be sold in ready markets in DR Congo and Southern Sudan.

The region is also suitable for apiary and cash crops like coffee and cotton, but the farmers prefer growing tobacco because of the incentives that the tobacco companies provide. ...

Unlike other environmental control efforts, the problem in this case is a multibillion dollar industry.

For example, while Uganda’s activists fight tobacco advertisements in the mass media, tobacco companies are offering scholarships, contracts to farmers who are assured of payment after harvest, besides taking part in corporate social responsibility projects that portrays them favourably in the public eye.

According to the Forestry Policy of 2001, Uganda’s natural forest cover stands at 4.9 million hectares which is 24 per cent of the total land area, out of which government owns 1.9 million hectares either under the Forestry Department or in national parks that fall under the Uganda Wildlife Authority.

Incidentally, only 740,000 hectares of forests stands today.

It is estimated that 800,000 cubic metres of logs are cut each year.

An Alachua County [Florida] jury has awarded a total of $17.5 million in damages to Amanda Jean Hall, who sued the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. after the death of her husband.

It was, attorneys said, the largest single civil verdict in the county, topping the previous high award of $10 million.

Arthur Lamar Hall began smoking at 14 and continued until one year before his death of lung cancer in 1995, family members testified in the case. Despite several attempts, he had been unable to quit smoking.

Jurors were asked to determine whether Hall was addicted to cigarettes containing nicotine and if that was the cause of his death.

After seven hours of deliberation Thursday, they delivered a verdict that said Jean Hall and her family should be awarded $5 million in compensatory damages. When they returned to the courtroom at about 10:30 p.m., jurors also said they planned to award punitive damages against Reynolds Tobacco.

Friday morning they resumed deliberations to decide how much the company should pay for what the plaintiff's attorneys said was half a century of deceiving the American people about the health dangers of cigarette smoking.

Attorney Mark Avera asked jurors to consider the net worth of R.J. Reynolds in determining punitive damages. In fiscal year 2007, it was $8.88 billion; in fiscal year 2008 it was $7.9 billion.

"Send a message to RJR's boardroom that they will be held accountable for their poor choices," he said.

Speaking in behalf of the tobacco company, attorney Dennis Murphy said RJR's corporate management "has heard your message and we accept your verdict on compensation."

The "old guard" of the firm is now gone, he said, and message being put out by R.J. Reynolds has changed.

"Don't punish the company just for making profits," he asked.

Six jurors spent four hours determining how much the tobacco company should be assessed in punitive damages. The sum they settled on was $12.5 million.

When they returned to the courtroom and their verdict was announced, Jean Hall began to cry.

The widow of 15 years said she'd done a lot of crying since the first part of the verdict came in last night.

"I'd hand every bit back to them (the tobacco company), if I thought it would bring Lamar back for just one day," she said.

Attorney Rod Smith of the law firm Avera & Smith, representing the Hall family, said he fully expects R.J. Reynolds to appeal the verdict, as the tobacco company has done in other civil litigation.

Of a dozen cases tried since the Florida Supreme Court threw out a class action suit brought in behalf of all Florida smokers in 2006, ten of the verdicts have come in behalf of the plaintiffs.

In the 2006 ruling, the court held that each smoker's case against a tobacco company had to be decided individually.

...  Jean Hall said that the past two weeks of the trial represent the only time she has been inside a courtroom.

She had been getting ready for church one Sunday about three years ago and saw an ad on TV about bringing suit against a tobacco company. That's when she decided to step forward.

"She is one of the most courageous women I know," Smith said.

"I believe this verdict tells Big Tobacco that North Central Florida is not tobacco country," he added. "This case sets the precedent for the many individual cases to come."
Web Editor's Note:  RJR's attorney claimed "the message" from RJR management has changed -- Question, but they're still manufacturing and marketing addiction and death -- right?

A six-person Tampa, Florida state court jury on Wednesday [March 10, 2010] awarded $5 million in damages to the widower of a longtime smoker who died of lung cancer at the age of 62.  The jury apportioned responsibility for Charlotte Douglas’ death at 18% for Philip Morris, 5% for R.J. Reynolds, 27% for Liggett, and 50% for Ms. Douglas.   If the verdict is upheld on appeal, the plaintiff will receive $2.5 million. 

Ms. Douglas, who died in 2006, approximately two years after being diagnosed with cancer, smoked various brands.  She also made multiple quit attempts, including the use of nicotine patches and nicotine gum.

Edward L. Sweda, Jr., Senior Attorney for the Tobacco Products Liability Project (TPLP), based at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston, welcomed the victory for the Douglas family, noting that the “verdict brings the total number of plaintiff victories in ‘Engle progeny’ cases in Florida to 9 out of 11 trials that have gone to a jury verdict over the past 13 months.  We anticipate even more victories for plaintiffs in these Florida lawsuits in the coming weeks and months.”

 The Douglas family was represented by Attorneys Howard Acosta, Kent Whittemore, Bruce Denson and Hutch Pinder.

The Board of Directors of Altria Group, Inc. ... today announced the election of John T. Casteen III to the Board of Directors. With the addition of Mr. Casteen, the Altria Board increases from nine to ten directors.

Mr. Casteen has served as the President of the University of Virginia since 1990. He will step down from that position on August 1, 2010 and become President Emeritus at that time.

"I am delighted to welcome John Casteen to our Board of Directors," said Michael E. Szymanczyk, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Altria. "With his broad public and private sector experience, I know he will make significant contributions."

Mr. Casteen previously served as the Dean of Admission at the University of Virginia from 1975 to 1982, Virginia Secretary of Education from 1982 to 1985, and president of the University of Connecticut from 1985 to 1990.

Mr. Casteen's business career has included service as a director of the following companies: Connecticut Bank and Trust Company; New England Education Loan Marketing Corporation (Nellie Mae); Sallie Mae; Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Connecticut, Inc.; College Construction Loan Insurance Association (Connie Lee); Allied Concrete Company; Jefferson Bank Shares, Inc.; Jefferson National Bank; and Wachovia Corporation. He currently serves as director at Sage Publications, Inc.; Jefferson Science Associates, LLC; and the Virginia University Research Partnership, Inc.

Mr. Casteen has been a director of the American Council on Education, a director of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, trustee and chair of the College Entrance Examination Board, commissioner of the Education Commission of the States, member of the Board of Control for the Southern Regional Education Board, commissioner of the New England Board of Higher Education, and chair of the Association of Governing Boards' council of presidents. From 1991 to 1993, he chaired the National Board on Oceans and Atmosphere. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation.

Smoking has long been known to boost tuberculosis risk, and a new study from Hong Kong suggests that being exposed to someone else's tobacco smoke also increases the likelihood of contracting the disease.

Dr. Chi C. Leung of the Wanchai Chest Clinic in Wanchai and colleagues compared TB risk in older women living with at least one smoker to that of women living in smoke-free homes. The study included 15,486 non-smoking women 65 to 74 years old, all of whom lived with their husbands. All of the women had enrolled at one of the territory's 18 Elderly Health Centers between 2000 and 2003, and about one in four lived with a smoker.

During follow-up, which lasted through the end of 2008 (or until a person died or was diagnosed with TB), 117 women developed active TB and 69 of these cases were confirmed in a laboratory.

Leung's team found that women who had been exposed to secondhand smoke were 1.5 times more likely to develop active TB than women who didn't live with a smoker, while their risk of culture-confirmed TB was 1.7-fold higher.

Secondhand smoke exposure accounted for about 14 percent of active TB cases and about 18 percent of culture-confirmed TB cases.

The researchers also found that the women who lived with a smoker were significantly more likely to have some type of obstructive lung disease, such as emphysema, as well as diabetes, at the study's outset.

The findings appear in the latest issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine [February 8, 2010]

In a written commentary published with the study, Dr. Neal L. Benowitz of the University of California San Francisco notes that secondhand smoke has many known harmful effects, including increasing the risk of lung cancer and heart disease in adults and promoting asthma and lower respiratory illness in children. And smoking can promote respiratory infections, such as TB, by impairing the ability of the lungs to fight off infection, he adds.

In China, 60 percent of men smoke, but only 4 percent of women do, Benowitz notes, so secondhand smoke disproportionately affects women.

"Secondhand smoke exposure is another health problem of particular concern for women in less developed countries," he adds. "Therefore, smoking bans should be part of the international women's health advocacy agenda."

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said yesterday that it has agreed to pay $150,000 to Maryland as part of a settlement with that state's attorney general regarding a former Camel marketing campaign.

The settlement is the latest development involving claims that Reynolds violated the Master Settlement Agreement with a four-page pullout in the Nov. 15, 2007, issue of Rolling Stone.

On Jan. 15, an appellate court in Ohio ruled that Reynolds cannot be blamed for the content of a Camel advertisement in the magazine being placed around a five-page pullout containing cartoon images. The magazine ran four pages of Camel cigarette ads as bookends to five pages of editorial content about indie-rock music.

The day after the filing of the lawsuits in December 2007, Reynolds voluntarily stopped promotions for the campaign.

David Howard, a spokesman for Reynolds, said that Reynolds admitted no wrongdoing. ... the company chose not to spend time or resources "to defend a program that ended two years ago."

There aren't many local musicians who've been able to earn a good, full-time living in Hampton Roads. Guys like Joe Maniscalco are the creative, industrious and fortunate minority.

However, more than 30 years in a workplace clouded with secondhand smoke that curled its way into his lungs has taken a toll. Smoking-related pneumonia and other illnesses have kept Maniscalco off the stage for nearly a year. Ironically, his health plummeted just as the smoking ban that took effect in December was well on its way to being passed.

This Sunday, Maniscalco's fellow musicians and entertainers will come together to raise the roof, raise awareness about the issue of secondhand smoke, and raise some money to help Joe and his family.

The past year has been "the most traumatic financial and emotional roller coaster you could imagine," Maniscalco said.

He was admitted to the hospital about a year ago with pneumonia and a fever of 104 degrees. He stayed in the hospital for a week. Once he was released, he was treated with steroids, but the cure was nearly worse than the disease. The steroids led to skin irritation and retinal tears that caused his eyes to haze over. All this meant more time away from the stage.

Fran Piggott Harding, Maniscalco's longtime business partner and friend, decided it was time to bring the musical community together to help him out. Using Facebook, she started a "Friends of Joe" page and went to work organizing a benefit concert. One of the first people she turned to was another full-time local musician, Warren Seaburg. He was able to relate to what Maniscalco is going through.

"Since about 1991, I've been a cancer survivor, and the cancer was brought on by the same thing," he said.

Seaburg has worked to bring health care benefits to working musicians and said he still has to take off four to five weeks a year because of lasting effects of the cancer. He will be one of the emcees at the benefit concert, and he helped schedule the hours of musical entertainment.

"For me, there wasn't even a second thought. I knew I wanted to help. The support of local musicians has been overwhelming, and it reminds me of when they had a benefit for me when I had cancer and couldn't work. It's hard to describe how emotional it is," he said.

Piggott Harding said the benefit concert is really all about the music that has been Joe's life. The all-day event features 17 entertainers, all donating their time. ...

"The brotherhood of musicians is mind-blowing," Maniscalco said. "Hampton Roads is coming together with an amazing outpouring of love."

And at the end of the evening, the most love of all will be coming directly from Maniscalco. The benefit will end with him taking to the stage to get back to doing what he does best.

Tobacco industry lawyers met secretly with Solicitor General Elena Kagan in an effort to avoid the government's last-ditch attempt to extract billions from companies that illegally concealed the dangers of cigarette smoking, The Associated Press has learned.

Four cigarette makers that control nearly 90 percent of U.S. retail cigarette sales have until Feb. 19 to persuade the government not to go to the Supreme Court and ask the justices to step into a landmark 10-year-old racketeering lawsuit.

In 2006, a judge ruled that the industry concealed the dangers of smoking for decades. Despite that finding, lower courts have said the government is not entitled to collect $280 billion in past profits or $14 billion for a national campaign to curb smoking.

As part of any effort to convince the government that it should skip a trip to the Supreme Court, the tobacco companies may have to drop plans to ask the justices to overturn the ruling that the industry engaged in racketeering.

On behalf of the industry, Washington lawyers Michael Carvin and Miguel Estrada made their pitch against seeking Supreme Court review in a mid-December meeting at the Justice Department with Kagan, according to two Washington attorneys outside the government who are familiar with the meeting in her office.

In the meeting, Carvin and Estrada left the impression the industry might be willing to end plans to seek a high court appeal of its own, if the Justice Department would do the same, said the Washington attorneys, who spoke on condition of anonymity so that they could discuss the private meeting with Kagan.

The discussion with Estrada and Carvin resulted in an internal department meeting a few days later. At this meeting, department lawyers discussed the possibility of seeking billions of dollars from the industry as part of a possible negotiated settlement of the suit, according to one of the private attorneys who learned about this second meeting from participants.

The department, the industry or both could request that the Supreme Court take the case, while at the same time asking that the case be delayed while the two sides try to work out a deal.

If the companies also agreed not to seek an appeal, they would be accepting the findings of U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler that they engaged in a scheme to defraud the public by falsely denying the adverse health effects of smoking, concealing evidence nicotine is addictive and lying about their manipulation of nicotine in cigarettes to create addiction. Last May, a federal appeals court upheld the findings. The companies then pledged to appeal to the Supreme Court.

Kessler ordered the companies to make corrective statements about the adverse health effects of smoking, the addictiveness of smoking and nicotine, the companies' manipulation of cigarette design and composition to ensure optimum nicotine delivery and the adverse health effects of exposure to secondhand smoke. These statements must appear on company Web sites, cigarette packages and newspaper and television ads.

If Kessler's findings stand, they will set a precedent that other plaintiffs can use for future suits against the tobacco companies.

...  Charles Miller, a Justice Department spokesman, declined comment, as did Carvin. Estrada didn't return telephone calls to his office.

Tobacco company defendants in the lawsuit are Philip Morris USA Inc. and its parent company, Altria Group Inc.; R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.; British American Tobacco Investments Ltd.; and Lorillard Tobacco Co. Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds and Lorillard account for nearly 90 percent of U.S. retail cigarette sales. A former U.S. subsidiary of British American Tobacco, Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., merged with Reynolds in 2004.

The way the federal suit has played out contrasts sharply with state action against the tobacco industry.

The companies have agreed to pay $246 billion over 25 years to settle suits states brought to recover their costs of treating smoking-related illnesses in the Medicaid program, which serves the poor and disabled.

  Updated 13 December 2011