Breathing is still a very
popular thing to do!
No one
should be forced into
smoking secondhand. No one.
No
one has the right to hurt another person. No one.
And secondhand smoke hurts, and kills!
The words of Ralph
Waldo
Emerson, an American writer and also an asthmatic, summarize our
commitment:
"
...
to
know
that
even
one
life
has
breathed
easier
because
you
have
lived
-
this
is
to
have succeeded."
We hope this general information will be a help to those seeking
information on these topics.
Updated 13 June 2013
Contents
Page
& Links
2013,
2012,
2011 Newest
Entries
2013
Justice
Ralph Gants, writing, in decision, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial
Court
“We decline to place
addictive chemicals outside the reach of product liability and give
them special protection akin to immunity based solely on the strength
of their addictive qualities,” the court wrote. “To do so would
eliminate any incentive for cigarette manufacturers to make safer
perhaps the most dangerous product lawfully sold in the market through
reasonable alternative designs."
Honoring C. Everett Koop, and noting strategies
to
end
smoking.
Big
Victory
at
Florida Supreme Court
is Bad News for Cigarette Manufacturers
Florida smokers
and their families who are suing tobacco companies won a resounding
victory on March 14, 2013 when the Supreme Court of Florida upheld its
landmark 2006 ruling in Engle v. Liggett Group, Inc., 945 So.2d 1246
(Fla. 2006).
By a vote of 6 to 1, Florida’s highest court ruled in favor of the
plaintiff in Philip Morris USA, Inc., et al. v. Douglas, 2013 Fla.
LEXIS 440, upholding a $2.5 million award in the death of Charlotte
Douglas and explicitly rejecting industry arguments that the Florida
Supreme Court’s ruling seven years ago violated the Due Process rights
of the companies. ...
2013 tobacco company shareholder
meetings
Philip Morris International, PMI, May 8, 2013
Reynolds American, RAI, May 9, 2013
Altria [Philip Morris], May 15, 2013
2012 tobacco company shareholder
meetings of the Big Three:
Reynolds American, RAI
Philip Morris International, PMI
Altria Group, Inc., Altria
including questions
from shareholders, text of the shareholder proposals and the company
opposition, and more.
Newest
Entries -- including:
**Electronic
cigarette vapor causes
terrorist alert --
smoke is dangerous in many ways!
**
Altria funding American
Legislative Exchange Council and its model legislation sent to Virginia
and other states, on voting, and other issues.
** Candy flavored
snus poisonous to
children, addiction starter to teenagers and student athletes.
**
Reynolds American and
other tobacco companies may soon be paying billions ...
"As Reynolds’ own lawyers have concluded,
denial [by the U.S. Supreme Court] of its
cert petition is a very big deal indeed,” [Edward L.] Sweda said.
** Dr. Margaret
Chan speaking on tobacco
versus health at the 15th World Conference on the subject
**
Costa Rica has sweeping
new laws on not smoking in public
History
of
No-Smoking
legislation
in
Virginia
-- it all
began with Virginia GASP
TOBACCO INDUSTRY dollars supporting top
political figures
Excerpt from The Center for Responsive
Politics, June 2011
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.
2011 -- including:
** Excerpts from Stanford University Report, December
12, 2011
about
Robert Proctor, author
of the new bombshell study,
Golden Holocaust:
Origins of the Cigarette Catastrophe and the Case for
Abolition, in which he
asks,
"How
many people know that tobacco is a major cause
of blindness, baldness and bladder cancer, not to mention cataracts,
ankle fractures, early onset menopause, ectopic pregnancy, spontaneous
abortion and erectile dysfunction?" And,
The hefty book
has not only won him accolades, but it's personally cost
Proctor $50,000 in legal fees to defend himself against the industry,
which subpoenaed his email and unpublished manuscript.
** Excerpts from Reuters, June 3, 2011:
Judge Gladys Kessler, who
had ruled in 2006 that Philip Morris and other tobacco companies were
guilty of racketeering because of years of deception about tobacco's
safety, insisted on Wednesday that she retain jurisdiction over the
case. ... "Defendants' contention that
no reasonable likelihood of future RICO violations exists due to the
FDA's
regulation is particularly unconvincing when defendants are simultaneously
and vigorously challenging, both in a separate lawsuit and in
administrative proceedings, many of the provisions of the Tobacco
Control
Act," she wrote in Wednesday's ruling.
** Excerpts from The Japan Times,
March
28,
2011:
"For
the
past
several
years, corporations such
as Philip Morris, RJ
Reynolds, and British-American Tobacco have been expanding
rapidly in
Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.
Tobacco-provoked
deaths can only add to the inequities in health of ethnic and minority
populations.
Since the early
1980s, American trade officials, with help from the
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, have led a sustained campaign
to open markets in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand among the
Asian nations.
In Taiwan, U.S.
officials' efforts to force Taiwan to open its markets
to U.S. tobacco products have resulted in increased smoking,
particularly among women and children. Talking about U.S. government
support for American tobacco companies, a corporation executive
remarked: "We expect such support. That's why we vote them in."
These actions
have prompted the Asia-Pacific Association for the
Control of Tobacco to protest strongly against what they consider an
invasion of their countries by U.S. companies targeting Asian women and
children."
** Secondhand Smoke impacts the fetus and later the infant,
decreasing cognitive ability; study in Environmental
Research,
March
2011.
** Secondhand
Smoke impacts the brains of children and
teenagers; study in Archives
of
Pediatrics
and
Adolescent
Medicine,
April 2011.
**Press Release from the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General,
December
9,
2010
**"The R.J. Reynolds
internal
documents are spectacular in their deceit," says [Attorney, James]
Gustafson ...
**
"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."
**Tobacco companies -- greedy drug
dealers --
are reported to be accelerating the disappearance of fruit trees and
forests in Uganda,
in
order
to
grow
and
cure
tobacco,
an
addictive
and
lethal
drug.
How
much
is
a
life
worth,
an
entire
society,
an
entire
world
worth
to
the
tobacco
executives?
** A recent study revealing that even one cigarette, including
the secondhand smoke from it, changes the genes of the lungs, reported
in The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care
Medicine.
** Altria's (aka
Philip Morris) increasing the
number of people on their board of directors in order to include the
appointment
of the current President of the University of
Virginia, who is also director of the
University Research Partnership. Makes you have lots of
faith in that "research" group.
From the press
release issued by The Office of the U.S. Surgeon General,
December 9, 2010
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.”
** Virginia:
2012: Similar to 2011, the no-smoking in public law was passed in
1990, a major milestone for those who dare to breathe in many public
places.
2012 Virginia --
Legislation
Several
bills
were
entered
in
both
the
House
and
Senate
of
the
Virginia
General
Assembly
to
amend
the
Virginia
Indoor
Clean Air Act, including
ones regarding no-smoking in vehicles when children are present, and
also bills on cigarette litter, and on cigarette taxes, but all bills,
including two Senate bills which passed the Senate, were killed, most
by a small subcommittee in the House. The legislative list is
provided at the state legislative site, click on
Legislative Information, click on Bills, click on Subject, select
Tobacco, etc. This subject listing includes some non-health
related bills.
2011 -- Several
legislative
measures
on
tobacco
vs. health were before the Virginia General Assembly which recently
concluded the
"short" session this year, January 12 -- February 26, 2011.
The general legislative web site
gives a list of the bills offered on no-smoking, amendments to the
Virginia Indoor Clean Air Act. All of these failed to be heard by
the committee, in most cases the House General Laws Committee.
Earlier in 2011, a small subcommittee in the House once again
eliminated cigarette
taxes, including the right of any county to impose a cigarette tax, as
a way for local and state officials to gain funds. A memorable quote is from Delegate Bobby Orrock (R) who cautioned
that Virginia should beware of taxing tobacco so much that people stop
smoking, and said, "You don't want to restrict the chicken so much that
she doesn't lay any more eggs." [The Virginian-Pilot Jan. 24,
2011]
Virginia's
Governor Robert
McDonnell
Information Secondhand Smoke, and links
below
SECONDHAND, THIRDHAND SMOKE:
** Children and teens exposed to secondhand
smoke are more likely to
develop symptoms for a variety of mental health problems,
including
major depressive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and
others, according to a study published in Tuesday’s edition of the
journal Archives
of
Pediatrics
and
Adolescent
Medicine.
... The new study is believed to
be the first that looks at how secondhand
smoke exposure – as measured by the presence of a nicotine metabolite
in the blood – is associated with mental health in a nationally
representative sample of American kids and teens.
** Secondhand
Smoke
impacts
the fetus and later the infant, decreasing
cognitive ability, study, Environmental
Research, March 2011.
**
Nicotine
in secondhand
smoke can react with ozone, including that used to clean the
air of hotel rooms and cars, to form secondary organic aerosols that
are less than
100 nanometers in diameter and become a source of thirdhand
smoke. Study reported in Atmospheric Environment
[online July 2010]
** Dr. Chi
C. Leung and others have discovered secondhand
smoke is a risk
factor for obstructive lung disease and tuberculosis.
Study
reported
in
the
Archives of Internal Medicine
[February 8, 2010]
** Breast
Cancer linked --
again -- and again -- to
2ndhandsmoke
** Virginia musicians Joe
Maniscalco and Warren Seaburg have suffered from cancer
brought on by the secondhand smoke where they have performed.
**
Heather Crowe died from secondhand
smoke in the restaurant where she worked; another waitress collapsed
and died after coming to work in a smoky bar.
**
Also, please see the Contents page.
Virginia's restaurants/bars must be
no-smoking. This amendment to the no-smoking
law, as of December 1, 2009 includes prohibiting smoking in all
restaurants unless there is a separately ventilated room preferably
with an outdoor
entrance, and no staff should be required to work there.
A 2010 review of Virginia restaurants revealed that most are obeying
the law. Let's all hope those not obeying the law are not picking
and choosing other health rules to obey and which to ignore.
An expensive separate smoking room
would still expose
employees to deadly secondhand and even
thirdhand (particulate
matter, nicotine residue, etc.) smoke, and the potential for secondhand
smoke related diseases such as cancers, heart disease including
strokes, and serious respiratory disease.
Additionally, Please see links on the rest of the
no-smoking law
in Virginia
, on the 2009 Legislative efforts,
Legislative News Excerpts
during
2009 legislative session, and recent articles on the restaurant/bar
amendment, two quotations from that recent article page are below.
August 2010: It took 20 years, from the 1990 passage of the
original Virginia Indoor Clean Air Act, to get an agency assigned to
check on compliance with this law. In
2010, 13 were issued
citations for violating the law. Later in 2010, a
state survey revealed most restaurants were in compliance with the law,
and most did not have a separate smoking room.
Background on the
restaurant amendment, From The Richmond
Times-Dispatch, December 13, 2009:
... In
an interview with The News & Advance
of Lynchburg, [former Governor Tim] Kaine said that earlier this year
he deliberately pressed
for higher cigarette taxes -- aware they would fail -- to force
Republicans to make tough choices and seek compromise in a bill to ban
smoking in restaurants.
"There was some 'strategery'
involved," said Kaine, quoting a phrase from a 2000 debate sketch on
"Saturday Night Live." Kaine said he knew federal stimulus money to
cover the shortfall would be forthcoming from Washington.
"By putting the cigarette tax on the
table, too, I gave every legislator one way to make Philip Morris
happy, by voting against the cigarette tax. A lot of [legislators]
voted against the cigarette tax and then they voted for the smoking
ban."
From The Richmond
Times-Dispatch, December 2, 2009:
[Governor
Timothy] Kaine said he was not concerned that a
subsequent legislative session would repeal the law. If anything, he
believes it would be made more strict.
Still the
incoming governor does not approve of the law the current governor
helped enact.
"The
governor-elect does believe this is a matter best left to the free
market, and he did not support this measure as it was debated in the
General Assembly," said Tucker Martin, a spokesman for Gov.-elect
Bob
McDonnell.
Most Virginia
restaurants already are smoke-free by choice, Martin said. "However,
the legislation passed, and the new law is now in effect. As governor,
he will uphold and enforce all Virginia laws." [more excerpts
at this page.]
Philip Morris loses
--
Reynolds loses --
Other Big Tobacco Companies lose --
Their customers have been losing their health and lives for long
decades.
For up to date information on litigation
involving tobacco companies, please see
The Tobacco
Product Liability Project.
For background information, also
see Newest
Entries for 2012,
and Newest Entries for 2009
,
and Newest Entries
2009, 2008 ,
and individual listings such as
Patricia Henley and others,
as well as the cases related to the Engle class action suit in Florida.
Worth Repeating:
October 19, 2009
Massachusetts' high court today
rewrote state law and ruled that cigarette maker Philip Morris may have
to pay for diagnostic chest exams so smokers can get early warning they
have developed lung cancer. ...
Justice Francis X. Spina of the Massachusetts Supreme
Judicial Court in allowing a 2006 lawsuit filed against Philip Morris
to move forward, noted,
"Our
tort
law
developed
in
the
late
19th
and
early
20th
centuries
…We
must adapt to the growing
recognition that exposure to toxic substances and radiation may cause
substantial injury which should be compensable even if the full effects
are not immediately apparent."
And:
Judge Sarokin comments on
tobacco company lawsuit so they can tell the truth to customers:
Judge H.
Lee Sarokin, The Irony in the Tobacco Companies Suing
So That They Can Tell the "Truth" , Excerpt from, The Huffington Post,
September 4, 2009
... the nation's largest tobacco companies
have sued to stop a federal
law which curtails their marketing and forces them to print graphic
warnings on their packages. (NYTimes, 9/1/09) The companies are
insisting on their right to communicate truthful information about
their products to adults who have the right to receive such
information. It is the industry's desire to protect its right to speak
the "truth" under the protection of the First Amendment that I find so
ironic.
First, I think some disclosures are in
order. I was the presiding judge over the first two major tobacco cases
-- Cippolone and Haines. After numerous tries, the cigarette companies
were finally successful in having me removed from the cases because of
the following, single paragraph in one of my many opinions in these
cases:
All too often in the choice between
the physical health of consumers and the financial well-being of
business, concealment is chosen over disclosure, sales over safety and
money over morality. Who are these persons who knowingly and secretly
decide to put the buying public at risk solely for the purpose of
making profits and who believe that illness and death of consumers is
an appropriate cost of their own prosperity! As the following facts
disclose, despite some rising pretenders to the throne, the tobacco
industry may be the king of concealment and disinformation.
The history of tobacco advertising and
public relations demonstrates that it was aimed at getting people to
smoke by making it appear fashionable and safe; encouraging them to
continue by debunking its risks; asserting the ease of quitting and
denying the existence of addiction and finally encouraging the young to
take it up to replace those who were quitting (with great difficulty)
or dying from the product or other unrelated causes.
The companies decry their right to
discuss and publicize their potential "reduced harm" products. Most of
you are too young to remember when cigarette advertisements proclaimed,
by way of someone posing as a doctor, that a particular brand was good
for your "T Zone" -- somewhere, as I recall, around your chest and
lungs. I don't consider anyone to be a greater advocate of free speech
than I. Furthermore, I note that Floyd Abrams represents some of the
companies. There is no greater expert nor anyone for whom I have
greater respect in this field. I make no prediction as to the outcome
of the litigation. But if history is any teacher, I can think of no
industry more deserving of scrutiny and strict government regulation
consistent with their free speech rights guaranteed by the First
Amendment.
Limits on free
speech in the
commercial world must be narrowly construed and directly advance a
substantial government interest. Those limits should be imposed with
great hesitancy, but if ever an industry deserves them based upon prior
conduct, it is the tobacco industry.
And:
Ohio judge
-- no constitutional right to smoke in public!
What a surprise --
Philip Morris opposed
to health care reform? According to a national article
based on PM's own confidential documents, PM apparently masterminded
the defeat of the 1990's health care reform, and may be working to
defeat current proposals in the USA.
Review of selected entries
-- health vs. tobacco -- for recent years:
Entries for 2010 - 2011
Entries for 2009
2008 Entries
Entries for 2007
The Face
of Evil
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Updated
13
June
2013