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!



GASP® Virginia Group to Alleviate Smoking in Public, Inc.

Updated 16 March 2010

[Virginia GASP    logo]


Contents Page & Links

History of No-Smoking legislation in Virginia -- it all began with Virginia GASP


2010 Newest Entries -- including 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.

and smokers winning against tobacco companies.  A bad week for the evil empire.



SECONDHAND, THIRDHAND SMOKE:


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]


Virginia musicians Joe Maniscalco and Warren Seaburg have suffered from cancer brought on by the secondhand smoke where they have performed.




Virginia's restaurants/bars must now 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.  Hopefully, most restaurant owners will prefer to have no-smoking rather than construct an expensive separate smoking room where employees would still be exposed 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.

From The Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 13, 2009:
... In an interview with The News & Advance of Lynchburg, 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.]


TOBACCO ATTORNEYS -- Trying to escape Justice, reduce payments, racketeering decision?  Excerpts  AP article, January 16, 2010
... On behalf of the [tobacco] 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 [Solicitor General Elena] 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. ...


Philip Morris loses -- November 20, 2009:  Florida jury says Philip Morris must pay $300 million for addicting ex-smoker who has severe respiratory problems from smoking.  This is a case from the spin off of the Engle trial.
Web editor's note:  It would seem that the least Philip Morris could do is to pay immediately for the lung transplant and all associated medical costs of the woman who is suffering from being addicted to and smoking Philip Morris products.  She may or may not not live through the appeals.

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.


Information Secondhand Smoke


Virginia -- 2009 Election for Governor -- Big Tobacco backed the winner  Robert McDonnell, Virginia's Governor accepted $376,636 from Big Tobacco, 59.18% of that was from Altria, Philip Morris, PMI, including the $30,000 from Altria to the Opportunity Virginia PAC of McDonnell.

Additionally, for the January 2010 Inauguration, McDonnell accepted $30,370 from tobacco companies:   $20,000 from Altria, $10,000 from Universal Leaf.  You may follow the money at the Virginia Public Access Project which uses the reports filed with the state government.

EXCERPTS
from The Richmond Times-Dispatch, November 4, 2009, headlined, "
Analysis: GOP sweep shows policies, not parties, are paramount in Va. politics", writer, Jeff E. Schapiro.
A year after tipping Democratic for president for the first time since 1964, Virginia fell to Republicans in a dramatic statewide sweep that is a historic reminder of its enduring competitiveness -- but may not be a model for a national GOP comeback.

"It's not a red state," said Jay Timmons, chief of staff in the governorship of George Allen, whose victory in 1993 led the last Republican resurgence.

"It's a highly competitive state, where voters expect those they elect to be in tune with pocketbook issues, create jobs, and promote growth in the economy. Party is not an issue -- it's who they believe will support the right policies."

Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell easily dispatched the lackluster R. Creigh Deeds, pulling in Republicans for lieutenant governor and attorney general and padding the party's majority in the House of Delegates, by playing to voters' economic anxiety.  ...

In the first Republican sweep since 1997, the double-digit wins by McDonnell; Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, who sought a second term; and Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli suggest that independents shunned their time-honored practice of ticket-splitting.

To Paul Goldman, former state Democratic chairman, this is a reminder of a constant in Virginia politics: wooing conservative-to-moderate independents. They narrowly favored Barack Obama last year in his successful presidential campaign.

"Back out the Obama votes, and this is basically a 50-50 state," Goldman said.

... McDonnell's triumph came in a comparatively thinly attended election. With yesterday's turnout hovering at 39 percent -- down from a record 74 percent last year, when 3.7 million of nearly 5 million voters cast ballots ...

"They have not expanded the party," said Larry J. Sabato, an analyst at the University of Virginia who has followed the state's politics for four decades. "They have just motivated their base to show up."

Deeds, outspent about 2-to-1 in television advertising by McDonnell and his allies, had no such luck with Democrats.

His emphasis on McDonnell's law-school thesis in 1989, in which McDonnell made observations about working women, unmarried couples and gay people that 20 years on would seem politically incorrect, proved an ineffective parry to the Republican's economic thrust.

In a stunning reversal from 2008, Democratic turnout fell sharply -- a consequence of party fatigue after a long winning streak and Deeds' inability, despite two visits by the president, to harness the more than 500,000 new voters, many of them young or minorities, who flocked to Obama.

"This was always a big task that lay in front of them; it was always going to be hard," said Kristian Denny Todd, communications director for Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., in his 2006 upset of GOP incumbent Allen.

"It was a personal vote for Obama," she said of last year's win.


 BIG TOBACCO and Republican Robert McDonnell,
Governor of Virginia --
  Robert McDonnell, Virginia's Governor accepted $376,636 from Big Tobacco, 59.18% of that was from Altria, Philip Morris, PMI, including the $30,000 from Altria to the Opportunity Virginia PAC of McDonnell.

Big Tobacco poured far more money into Republican Robert McDonnell's 2009 campaign, than to that of opponent, Democrat Creigh Deeds.  McDonnell supported Big Tobacco in 2009, opposing legislation to require restaurants to be no-smoking.  But Deeds  supported Health in 2009, voting for the legislation which passed.

In January 2009, McDonnell said he would NOT support Virginia legislation to require restaurants to be totally no-smoking.  Philip Morris agreed, and apparently has rewarded him.  Will McDonnell listen to the people or to Philip Morris, when he considers continuing Gov. Timothy Kaine's (Democrat) executive order requiring all state workplaces to be no-smoking? 

Big Tobacco gave Creigh Deeds, the Democrat, and a Virginia state senator who voted for Health,  $72,092. 
In the January and February 2009 Virginia legislative session, Deeds voted for health, supporting legislation to make all restaurants no-smoking, and voting with the majority of Senators to reject House amendments which were tobacco industry sponsored ones.  The no-smoking legislation passed and was signed into law by the current governor.  Big Tobacco had lobbied against this legislation.

The no-smoking in restaurants legislation will ultimately save lives,  and save money at all levels.


Here's the latest information from vpap.org Virginia Public Access Project, on the tobacco related finances.


Robert McDonnell, Virginia's Governor -- $376,636 from Big Tobacco, 59.18% of that from Altria, Philip Morris, PMI, including the $30,000 from Altria to the Opportunity Virginia PAC of McDonnell.
TOBACCO'S GIFT -- Strings attached?

$155,000      Altria, including $30,000 given to Opportunity Virginia PAC = $155,000
$49,377     S & M Brands Inc
$28,584     Star Scientific Inc
$25,000     Michael E Szymanczyk, CEO Altria
$25,000     Universal Corp
$17,400     Bruce A Gates, Altria
$12,000     Reynolds American
$10,500     US Tobacco
$10,000     Malcolm L Bailey, S&K
$10,000     David R Beran, Philip Morris
$10,000     Allen B King, Universal Leaf
$3,000     John R Nelson, Philip Morris
$2,500     Harold W Hamlett, Jr., Universal Leaf
$2,500     Howard A Willard, III, Philip Morris
$1,500     Denise F Keane, Philip Morris
$1,000     Preston Baldwin, US Tobacco
$1,000     Nancy Brennan, Altria
$1,000     James Dillard, Cos Cob CT
$1,000     Henry H Harrell, Universal Leaf
$1,000     Craig Johnson, Philip Morris
$1,000     Edward Kratovil, US Tobacco
$1,000     Miguel Martin, Philip Morris
$1,000     Peter P Paoli, Philip Morris
$1,000     Jacqueline Walker, Altria
$1,000     Charles Whitaker, Altria
$500     Wallace L Chandler, Universal Leaf
$500     Cigar Assn of Va
$500     Everett W Gee, III, S & M Brands
$500     John Hoel, Altria
$350     Michael Mathisen, Philip Morris
$250     Brandie Davis, Philip Morris International
$250     David H Driver, Philip Morris
$250     Kristin Reif, Altria
$250     Kristin Reif, Altria
$225     Walter P Hempfling, Philip Morris
$200     Joseph Amado, Altria
$200     Gary Ruth, Philip Morris
$200     James H Starkey, III, Universal Leaf
$100     Stuart Shumate, US Tobacco



Virginia 2009 Legislative efforts to free people from the deadly tyranny of secondhand smoke, and  2009 News items about the legislation.

March 9, 2009 -- Governor Timothy Kaine signed the no-smoking in restaurants, bars legislation, 2 pm at Croc's 19th Street Bistro in Virginia Beach, Va.
Governor Kaine noted that when he signed an executive order in 2006 banning smoking in state buildings and vehicles, he did not hear a single complaint.

Delegate David Englin (D) said:  "Knowing that workers in restaurants that allow smoking are twice as likely to develop lung cancer, this new law is a real victory for public health."

Dr. Thomas Eppes, Medical Society Virginia remarked:  "The knock in pediatrics is children exposed to secondhand smoke get sick at twice the rate."

On the passage of a restaurant, bar smoking ban in Virginia, to be effective December 1, 2009:
[Governor] Kaine ... called passage Thursday “a very significant accomplishment” .... He said he ranks it alongside the administrative ban on smoking he imposed on all state buildings in 2006, shortly after he took office.  Associated Press article.



** Breast Cancer linked -- again -- to 2ndhandsmoke


How Much is a Life Worth, to the tobacco companies, to society?
March 11, 2010Florida state court jury
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.
October 15, 2009:  Appeals Court Upholds California Jury’s Multi-Million Dollar Verdict against R.J. Reynolds and Philip Morris.
The family of Leslie Whiteley, a smoker who smoked her first cigarette in 1972 at age 13, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1998 and who died in July 2000 at the age of 40, won a major victory on Wednesday when the Court of Appeal of the State of California, First Appellate District, Division Two, upheld the jury’s awards, rendered in 2007, for her estate:  $225,000 (for past economic damages); $2,345,964 (on wrongful death claims); and $250,000 (in punitive damages against R.J. Reynolds on the false promise cause of action).  The jury also awarded Leonard Whiteley, Leslie’s widower, $30,000 for pre-death loss of consortium.

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."



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.



Second Jury fnds against tobacco companies for addicting & killing customer -- this time it is the Vector Group (Chesterfield cigarettes) --
No other manufacturer treats their consumers this way -- addicting them, killing them, blaming the victim for becoming addicted and dying, and the tobacco companies have never apologized, never repented, never agreed to stop doing this.  If the FDA legislation passes, tobacco companies will be able to expand their nicotine cartel to put nicotine in almost everything.


 Jury finds against Philip Morris in smoker's death -- PM must pay  $8 million -- how much is a life worth to the nicotine cartel?
From news articles:  "The jury that decided a 40-year chain-smoker was helplessly addicted to nicotine must now decide whether tobacco giant Philip Morris owes his family potentially millions of dollars for his death from lung cancer. ..."
and
"They are co-conspirators with other major corporations regarding the health effects and dangerous nature of smoking," another of Hess' attorneys, Gary Paige, said. "There's no more of a sinister act than that."
and
"It certainly is a very bad sign for Altria that this first of the potentially up to thousands of cases has gone against them so dramatically and so emphatically," [Edward] Sweda said.
and
Alex Alvarez, an attorney for Elaine Hess, said, "She's a 110-pound elementary school teacher, and she went up against Philip Morris, one of the most powerful companies in the world, and won."

March 16, 2009:  Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court allows trial to go forward in Aspinall, et al. v. Philip Morris, et al. regarding light cigarette scam


Ohio judge -- no constitutional right to smoke in public!

Review of selected 2008 Entries -- health vs. tobacco
Review of the selected entries for 2007

The Face of Evil

Tobacco Shareholder Meetings
**2009 Philip Morris International, Tues., May 5, 2009, New York, NY
      
Activsts inside and outside the meeting protested the nicotine carel's continued production and marketing of products which addict and kill when used as intended.  Louis Camilleri is the CEO, earning millions for his work.

**2009 Reynolds American, Wed., May 6, 2009, Winston-Salem, NC
        Activsts inside the meeting protested the nicotine carel's continued production and marketing of products which addict and kill when used as intended.  Susan Ivey is the CEO, earning millions for her work.

**2009 Altria/Philip Morris USA, Tuesday, May 19, 2009, Richmond, Va

Historical
**2008 Philip Morris/Altria, held Wed., May 28

Richmond, Virginia, in the Ballroom of the Richmond Convention Center
No Smoking in meeting
Four health resolutions (PM/Altria opposed):
**Apply Globally Practices Demanded by the Master Settlement Agreement
**Stop Youth-Oriented Ad Campaigns
**"Two Cigarette" Approach to Marketing
**Endorse Health Care Principles
Additionally, two resolutions on executive pay and cumulative voting were on the agenda.

REPORT on
2007 PM/Altria meeting

**2008 Reynolds American held Tues., May 6, 9 am
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, in the
    Reynolds American Plaza Building Auditorium
No Smoking in meeting
Three health resolutions considered (Reynolds opposed):
**Human Rights Protocols for the Company and its Suppliers
**Endorsement of Health Care principles
**Two Cigarette Approach to Marketing
The text of the resolutions and the text of the company's opposition is given at the linked web page.

REPORT on 2007
Reynolds meeting
       
And, earlier Tobacco Shareholder meetings

AndLitigation, and links including updates on the spin off lawsuits from the Engle trial.
 


General information on Virginia GASP®
is in this web site, including the original purpose,
the accomplishments, and that this group
does not solicit funding.
From the beginning, this has been a non-profit organization, all volunteers. 

Literary references -- Virginia
GASP®
was featured in
    The Passionate Nonsmokers' Bill of Rights, by Bill Adler, Jr. & Steve Allen;
and mentioned in
    Dr. David A. Kessler's, A Question of Intent:  A Great American Battle With A Deadly Industry.

Virginia Group to Alleviate Smoking in Public, Inc., GASP
®

   .
Contact information:
4856 Haygood Road, #102
Virginia Beach, Virginia 23455, USA

1-757-490-0126
"... to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived --
           this is to have succeeded."

           R. W. Emerson


[VirginiaGASP]  Updated 16 March 2010


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