Cigarette Fires

 In beloved memory of John Slade, 1949-2002
        Thank you, and be at peace, beloved, gentle warrior, John Slade.

"The scientific evidence indicates that there is no risk-free level of exposure to secondhand smoke."  The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke:  A Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, June 2006

4,000+ Chemicals in smoke 
Ad Campaign features chemicals in secondhand smoke

        James Repace, researcher, Fact Sheet

Abstract from that fact sheet:  Breathing secondhand-smoke causes morbidity and mortality from cancer, heart disease, and respiratory disease, as well as acute sensory irritation. It causes the premature death of hundreds of thousands of nonsmokers worldwide. Smoke-free buildings are the only remedy.  Secondhand smoke cannot be controlled by ventilation, air cleaning, or spatial separation of  smokers from nonsmokers.

-- a causal link between secondhand smoke exposure and pre-term delivery;
-- asthma induction in adults;
-- breast cancer in younger, primarily premenopausal women; and
-- altered vascular properties.

Canada -- Provinces and Territories that are smoke-free:

States in the USA -- smoke-free restaurant laws, most have far more than restaurants smoke-free:

Additionally:  Washington, D.C.; Guam, Puerto Rico

 Action on Smoking and Health (USA)

• An April 7, 2006 study, British Medical Journal, reveals that secondhand smoke increases the risk of diabetes among young people.

• The death of Dana Reeve, widow of Christopher Reeve, saddened the world.  A lung cancer victim, she was likely also a victim of the secondhand smoke in the nightclubs and other venues where she sang.  We still have a long way to go to make it safe to breathe in public places, including the workplace.  Witness the objections raised over the world by the tobacco cartel and their supporters whenever people wish to make casinos, nightclubs, bingo halls, and other workplaces no-smoking.  How much is one life worth?
  

• In a March 2006 study reported in The American Journal of Medicine, the authors noted that aluminum in tobacco and cannabis smoke, whether actively (drawn) or passively inhaled, was shown to accumulate significantly in surrogate lung fluids, thus demonstrating its potential biological availability.   Active and passive smoking of tobacco or cannabis will increase the body burden of aluminum and thereby contribute to respiratory, neurological and other smoking-related disease.  Other poisons , carcinogens , chemicals are discussed in this web site.
  

• The World Health Organization's  (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control  became effective Sunday, 27th February, 2005.  See their web site for more information on tobacco vs. health and other health issues.

• Secondhand Smoke Lawsuits continue -- Flight Attendant lawsuits against the tobacco cartel to continue; court ruling in late 2005 opened the way.
  

       2008 Legislation in Virginia requires cigarettes to be RIP -- Reduced Ignition Propensity,
BUT allows Philip Morris, who wrote the bills apparently, to sell continually burning cigarettes to North Carolina and other states without such RIP laws, and to ANY NATION without such laws.  Arrogance!

        Further references on cigarette fires; articles

Fact Sheet

Massachusetts has joined New York, California, Vermont, Illinois, New Hampshire, and several other states in requiring only Reduced Ignition Propensity (RIP)  or self-extinguishing cigarettes to be sold, ones which extinguish themselves when left unattended.

A fire on a cruise ship could have been prevented if the tobacco industry produced only self-extinguishing cigarettes.

Reynolds American (formerly RJR) -- Schindler's vacation home was destroyed, and other nearby homes damaged, due to a cigarette fire, costing $1 million.  This could have been avoided first of all if he had made his home and the outside area a NO SMOKING zone, and secondly if the tobacco industry made cigarettes that self-extinguish.

See also, shareholder resolutions on this topic at the Philip Morris, Altria, 2005 meeting, and the Reynolds American 2005 meeting, which the companies opposed, and a question on this at the 2007 Reynolds American meeting.

The western tobacco industries, with declining tobacco consumption in parts of the west, are now targeting Asian and eastern European markets intensively. This part of the world is fast approaching a "tobacco holocaust". 

Tobacco kills more people than AIDS, alcohol, cocaine, homicide, suicide, motor vehicle crashes, and fires combined. It has already killed 70 million people since 1950. Annual global tobacco related deaths are about 3 million (one third in developing nations) and is expected to rise to more than 10 million by the 2020s.  By 2030, 70% of all deaths due to tobacco will occur in developing nations (presently it is 50%). Tobacco related diseases are responsible for one in 10 adult deaths worldwide.

Tobacco Industry "Secret" Documents
The Legacy Tobacco Documents Library at the University of California, San Francisco contains more than 36 million pages of tobacco industry documents. The digital library was opened to the public on January 31, 2002, and is a freely available online resource.
Visit the LTDL at http://legacy.library.ucsf.edu.  Recently collected industry documents are added to the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library periodically.

Philip Morris fined for deleting e-mails

Tobacco Company Shareholder Meetings
Philip Morris/Altria
Reynolds American

        Philip Morris, April, 2004, New Jersey
        Media articles on April, 2004 meeting

         Philip Morris, April 26th, 2001, Richmond, VA
        Bible's Prepared Introduction
             6 Shareholder Proposals
        Speeches in support of these Proposals
        News Reports 2001 PM meeting

         "Image" Speech by CEO Bible
        Letter to Philip Morris from GASP requesting
                no-smoking in auditoriums, Answered
              Bible gives up smoking

        Tobacco Shareholders' Meetings, Held in April, 2001
        RJR, April 25th, Winston-Salem, NC
                 While there were no resolutions regarding tobacco
                 vs. health in 2001, several people did come to
                 ask serious questions of management, on smuggling,
                 fire-safe cigarettes, and the "Frank Statement"

  General information about Virginia GASP
  Virginia law - Indoor Clean Air Act, passed in 1990
    2008 legislative events and news coverage

    Recent history -- 2007 and earlier legislative history
  Virginia law - on tobacco sales and gifts to youth
  Virginia's past actions to protect tobacco companies against lawsuits
   Virginia author, Roman Richards, has released an eBook on smoking cessation, May 2007

History -- VIRGINIA -- TAX & PM Tax Break --
        Virginia legislative session was extended because legislators could not agree on a budget.
        Philip Morris agreed not to oppose a 30 cent cigarette tax, and now has been rewarded with a $6 million tax break to export death to the world.  The deal ends in 2016, giving Philip Morris lots of time to make money, addict, and kill.
 

SUPPOSE I contributed $1,000 to my church or some other worthy cause and then paid $2,000 for newspaper and television ads to advertise this fact. Most people would consider this to be a rather hypocritical act.

In an attempt to change their image, this is exactly what the major  tobacco manufacturers are doing with their barrage of media ads touting their largess to needy organizations. They are spending more on the ads than they are contributing to the causes.

One of their television ads concerning battered women ends with the phrase, "After all, no one has the right to hurt you." Give me a break.  Apparently, Big Tobacco has convinced itself that giving people cancer, heart disease and strokes, and causing infants to die from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is not hurting these victims.

  Updated 2 May 2008