Florida jury awards $23.6 billion verdict in big tobacco lawsuit

By Jacob Passy, NBC News

R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company must pay $23.6 billion to the estate of a man who died of lung cancer in what may be the largest verdict for a single plaintiff in Florida state history, according to attorneys.

A state jury awarded the punitive damages Friday to the estate of Michael Johnson Sr., who died in 1996 from lung cancer after years of smoking cigarettes, attorney Christopher Chestnut told NBC News. Johnson’s estate previously won a $17 million verdict as compensation for his family’s loss.

“This jury sent a message and gave 23.6 billion reasons why you can’t lie to consumers,” said Chestnut, who along with attorney Willie Gary represent 400 cases in Florida against big tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds.

The Johnson case stems from a class-action lawsuit involving Miami Beach pediatrician Howard Engle, who sued the tobacco companies for misleading the public and government as to the dangers of smoking. He was awarded $145 billion in a landmark verdict in July 2000 — the largest punitive damage ever awarded in U.S. history at the time.

It was overturned in 2003 after an appeals court ruled that it shouldn’t have gone forward as a class-action suit. J. Jeffery Raborn, vice president and assistant general counsel for R.J. Reynolds, said the latest verdict of $23.6 billion was “far beyond the realm of reasonableness and fairness.” Raborn said the company plans to file post-trial motions to appeal the decision and verdict.

This story originally appeared on NBCNews.com.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/florida-jury-awards-236-billion-verdict-big-tobacco-lawsuit

Smoking may increase suicide risk, study says

By MONTE MORIN, Los Angeles Times

It’s well known that cigarettes are bad for your health, but does smoking make you more likely to kill yourself too?

In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, authors argued that smoking and suicide may be more closely related than previously thought.

The researchers analyzed suicide rates in states that aggressively implemented anti-smoking policies from 1990 to 2004 and compared them to suicide rates in states that had more relaxed policies.

Those states that imposed cigarette excise taxes and smoke-free air regulations had lower adjusted suicide rates than did states with fewer anti-smoking initiatives, authors wrote.
“There does seem to be a substantial reduction in the risk for suicide after these policies are implemented,” said lead study author Richard Grucza, a psychiatric epidemiologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

“For every dollar in excise taxes there was actually a 10% decrease in the relative risk for suicide,” Grucza told Washington University BioMed Radio. “The smoke-free air policies were also very strongly associated with reduced suicide risk.”

Study authors said that states with lower taxes on cigarettes and more lax policies on public smoking had suicide rates that were up to 6% greater than the national average.

This is not the first study to document a correlation between cigarette smoking and suicide, but it is among the first to suggest smoking and nicotine may be specific factors.

Up until now, researchers believed smoking coincided with suicide because people with psychiatric problems or substance abuse problems were more likely to smoke as well as to commit suicide.
“Markedly elevated rates of smoking are found among people with anxiety disorders, alcohol and drug dependence, schizophrenia and other diagnoses, in both clinical and general studies,” authors wrote. “However, it is also possible that smoking is not merely a marker for psychiatric disorders, but rather directly increases the risk for such disorders, which in turn increases the risk for suicide.”

Grucza said that the imposition of anti-smoking rules presented the researchers with a naturally occurring experiment. However, the authors did note that there were limitations on their research.

In particular, they said that since they considered state-imposed anti-smoking efforts only, their research would not account for local-level policies aimed at smoking behavior.

“While further studies may be required to establish a compelling weight of evidence, this study provides strong epidemiological support in its favor of the proposition that smoking is a casual risk factor for suicide,” authors wrote.

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-smoking-suicide-20140716-story.html

PLAYERS MAY CONSIDER TOBACCO BAN DISCUSSION IN '16

By RONALD BLUM, Associated Press

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Major League Baseball players say they may consider whether to discuss a possible ban on chewing tobacco when they negotiate their next labor contract in two years. For now, they hope individuals decide on their own to stop dipping.

Players’ union head Tony Clark said Monday that several of his members have quit cold turkey following the death of Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn on June 16 from oral cancer.

While the use of smokeless tobacco was banned for players with minor league contacts in 1993, it is permitted for players with major league deals. The labor agreement covering 2012-16 says players may not carry tobacco packages and tins in their back pockets when fans are permitted in ballparks, and they may not use tobacco during pregame and postgame interviews and at team functions.

“I think what we have been doing thus far has been a positive, and although I’m not going to offer you a bargaining proposal today on chewing tobacco, we could have that conversation,” Clark said Tuesday before the All-Star game.

“Then we will see where the guys are and continue the education and their appreciation for or against, or what the many considerations that need to be made in the area even look like, and we’ll have that conversation with Major League Baseball,” he said.

Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig, who plans to retire in January, promised “it will be a subject that they’ll discuss at the next collective bargaining” but acknowledged “I understand that individuals have the right to make their own decisions.”

Gwynn, 54 at his death, attributed his cancer to years of chewing tobacco.

“We believe that the numbers suggest that the usage has declined significantly, declined in the minor leagues, declined in the majors,” Clark said during a question-and-answer session with the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. “Our hope is that we continue to educate guys on that the damage that dipping can do, that they will continue to decide not to dip and chew.”

Clark, a former All-Star first baseman who never dipped, said Gwynn’s death “really smacks you between the eyes, and it’s unfortunate sometimes, that an event like that brings that decision instead of that decision being made beforehand.”

No change is planned during the current labor contract.

“We give the players the opportunity to make the decision that they’re going to make against the backdrop of it being legal,” Clark said. “We don’t condone it. They know we don’t condone it. … So at the end of the day, yes, we will continue to educate guys, and yes, the players will continue to have a decision that they make in that area.”

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/players-may-consider-tobacco-ban-discussion-16

Tony Gwynn's death renews call for MLB to ban chewing tobacco

(CNN) – At Tuesday’s All-Star game in Minnesota, it will be hard not to think of Padre great Tony Gwynn.

He was an all star 15 times, a man who lived to play and teach and talk baseball, and a man who died way too early because of a habit associated with it – chewing tobacco, a known cause of cancer.

Now, after more than 100 years, there’s a renewed push to get rid of it on the field.

Gwynn died last month of cancer in his salivary gland, a diagnosis the hall of famer blamed on chewing tobacco.

Baseball great Babe Ruth, also a longtime tobacco chewer, died of oral cancer

Now nine major public health organizations are pushing Major League Baseball to ban all tobacco use by players and staff at games, and on camera, to honor Gwynn’s memory

They sent a letter to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig and Players Association chief Tony Clark, calling on them to “set the right example for America’s kids.”

“Kids see their heroes on the field, and they want to emulate and be just like their favorite slugger, or their favorite pitcher,” said Erika Sward, with the American Lung Association.

A June CDC report found that while smoking rates for high school students have fallen by more than half since 1999, smokeless tobacco use by students has held steady.

Groups have been waging this battle over baseball and health for years. Similar letters in 2011 and 2012 pushed the league to act, as did a tobacco-free kids PSA ad.

Selig pushed for a total ban in 2011, but the players union instead called for restrictions, opting to let players keep their habit, as long as it was out of the public’s eye.

The 2011 labor contract bans smokeless tobacco use during TV interviews and club appearances, orders players and staff to hide tobacco products when fans are around, and bans carrying them in their uniforms or on their bodies.

“You can’t go through a three-hour game, and not see players with a big wad of chaw in their jaws,” said Sward. “It’s clear that the 2011 agreement did not go far enough ,and what we really need to have with the agreement starting in 2017 is an end of smokeless tobacco use in general on the field.”

Advocates are hoping that if they build awareness for it, their dream of tobacco free fields comes true.

Read more or watch the video: http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/15/tony-gwynns-death-renews-call-for-mlb-to-ban-chewing-tobacco/

 

Military's tobacco discount: Up in smoke

DONNA CASSATA, The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) – The familiar image of a battle-hardened member of the military smoking a cigarette may become a little less common.
The Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee on Tuesday approved a $549.3 billion defense spending bill that would eliminate the 25 percent discount that members of the armed services enjoy when buying tobacco products at commissaries and elsewhere, including cigarettes and chewing tobacco.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the subcommittee, said studies show that tobacco use is higher in the military. He said that translates into more illnesses and health care costs of $1.6 billion a year.
“There is no reason these deadly products are subsidized,” Durbin said.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she was surprised that the subsidy was so high.
The defense bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 would do away with the discount.
The move is controversial and certain to generate disagreements in Congress.
The House version of the defense policy bill would thwart any Navy efforts to restrict access to tobacco. In May, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., described smoking as one of the few pleasures for a member of the military, and he easily convinced his colleagues on the House Armed Services Committee to back his measure.

http://www.philly.com/philly/business/20140715_ap_94954c617fa642af84a1e8e0b7a6e73d.html#BkjokdzS2RZ315xC.99

Washington Post: Raise the smoking age

The Washington Post

New Jersey’s Senate approved a raise in the legal smoking age from 19 to 21 last week, pushing the groundbreaking experiment in public health one step closer to fruition. The bill, which the General Assembly will consider in the fall, would make New Jersey the first state to prohibit the sale of tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, to anyone younger than 21. It is designed to cut teenage exposure to tobacco, since about 90 percent of regular smokers have their first cigarette before turning 18. A few localities, such as New York City and the island of Hawaii, already raised the age.

Raising the smoking age eventually could cause a decline of 30 percent in adult smokers, according to one estimate, but whether it will have such a large effect in New Jersey remains to be seen. New Jersey’s current smoking age already prohibits virtually all high schoolers from buying cigarettes. Very few extensive case studies exist now, but the Food and Drug Administration is due to release a report on the effect of a 21- or 25-year-old smoking age next year.

There is no harm in trying. The experiment’s success could spur on the District of Columbia, which has a similar bill in committee, and other states that are contemplating the move. The only way the measure can hurt is if it distracts policymakers from implementing more proven prevention strategies, such as higher taxes.

Despite New Jersey’s campaign against smoking, some key areas still need work. E-cigarettes, many of which contain known carcinogens and whose popularity has skyrocketed, are taxed at a low rate. The cigarette tax has not been raised in five years; New Jersey’s $2.70-per-pack tax lags behind that of eight states. Most troubling, none of the revenue from the tobacco tax goes to tobacco prevention efforts. One good start would be to pass a bill that would equalize the tax between tobacco products.

In early June, when the smoking-age bill was still in committee, state Sen. Ronald Rice Sr., D, cast one of only two votes against it. “I’m getting tired of folk trying to tell adults what to do,” he said. But cigarettes, unlike some alcoholic drinks, have no health benefits and are destructive even in small doses. Exactly what New Jersey would be depriving its citizens of, besides a slow poison, is unclear.

Mr. Rice also argued that it was unfair to ban smoking for 19- and 20-year-olds who “can buy real estate, pay state and sales taxes” and join the military. There he has a point; there is no societal consensus about when a citizen reaches adulthood. Yet when urgent practical needs are balanced with theoretical inconsistencies, initiatives that save lives should take precedence. As New Jersey and other states battle their smoking crises, they should undertake initiatives both innovative and tested.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/58169701-82/smoking-age-jersey-tobacco.html.csp

Secondhand smoke as harmful to pets as people

By SUE MANNING, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ten years ago, Shirley Worthington rushed Tigger to the vet when the dog’s mouth started bleeding. When she was told he had cancer, she knew to blame her heavy smoking, an addiction she couldn’t kick until after her pet died.

Secondhand smoke can cause lung and nasal cancer in dogs, malignant lymphoma in cats and allergy and respiratory problems in both animals, according to studies done at Tufts University’s School of Veterinary Medicine in Massachusetts, Colorado State University and other schools.

The number of pets that die each year from tobacco exposure isn’t available, but vets know from lab tests and office visits that inhaling smoke causes allergic reactions, inflammation and nasal and pulmonary cancers in pets, said Dr. Kerri Marshall, the chief veterinary officer for Trupanion pet insurance.

Despite Worthington’s certainty about the cause of her dog’s death, more research needs to be done before veterinarians can definitively say whether a dog’s cancer was caused by secondhand smoke or something else, said Dr. Liz Rozanski, whose research at Tufts College focuses on respiratory function in small animals.

Worthington, 52, of Brooklyn, New York, said she was a teenager when she started smoking and she had always smoked around Tigger, who was 8 when he died in 2004. A year later, Worthington, her mom and sister all quit in honor of the bichon frise.

Then, in 2007, Worthington’s mom died while suffering from cancer.

“Cigarettes took my mother,” she said. “And they took my dog.”

Pets aren’t mentioned in this year’s surgeon general’s report, but in 2006, it said secondhand smoke puts animals at risk. The Legacy Foundation, the nation’s largest nonprofit public health charity, encouraged smokers to quit for the sake of their pets, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals urged making homes with pets smoke-free.

It’s even more important to safeguard cats, which are more susceptible to tobacco smoke than dogs.

Lymphoma is one of the leading causes of feline death. The Tufts research showed that repeated exposure to smoke doubled a cat’s chances of getting the cancer and living with a smoker for more than five years increased the risk fourfold. It can also cause a fatal mouth cancer.

Tobacco companies acknowledge the risks of smoking in people but haven’t taken the same stance with dogs and cats. Philip Morris USA says on its website that it believes cigarettes cause diseases and aggravates others in non-smokers and that the problems warrant warnings.

But “we haven’t taken a stand on the potential impact on pets,” said David Sylvia, a spokesman for Altria Group Inc., the parent company of Philip Morris.

Symptoms of cancer in animals include coughing, trouble eating or breathing, drooling, weight loss, vomiting, nasal discharge, bleeding and sneezing. Cancer kills more dogs and cats than any other disease, according to Denver-based Morris Animal Foundation, which has been funding pet cancer research since 1962.

In addition, the recent surge in the use of electronic cigarettes has raised questions about their impact on pets. The greatest danger is the trash, where dogs can find nicotine cartridges from e-cigarettes, said Rozanski, the Tufts veterinarian.

“You wouldn’t think dogs would eat such things, but they do,” she said.

___

Online:

Tufts University: www.tufts.edu/vet

ASPCA: www.aspca.org

Legacy Foundation: www.legacyforhealth.org

Morris Animal Foundation: www.morrisanimalfoundation.org

http://bismarcktribune.com/news/national/secondhand-smoke-as-harmful-to-pets-as-people/article_8a132d3e-e45d-53ed-8ca8-cb831ca46390.html#.U8VrjqFboDM.facebook

Faces of the Boom: Smoke shop angles for return customers

By Amy Dalrymple, Forum Communications
ALEXANDER, N.D. – New Yorker Phil Hamda came to North Dakota to scout for real estate opportunities, but his plans changed after paying nearly $8 for a pack of cigarettes in Williston.

Hamda, whose father owned tobacco shops in New York City, noticed that tobacco prices in the Bakken varied widely.

“In New York, if you don’t like the prices, there’s a store right next door,” Hamda said.

Instead of trying to develop housing, Hamda took lessons he learned from his father and opened the Tobacco Depot in Alexander in February. He says his niche is fair, consistent prices that earn him repeat customers.

“Everybody’s nuts about our prices,” Hamda said. “We’re not extortionists.”

He initially struggled to find retail space and planned to operate from a trailer in Watford City. But when that location didn’t work out, he discovered a space for rent along the heavily traveled U.S. Highway 85 in Alexander, between Williston and Watford City.

“You couldn’t ask for better visibility than this,” Hamda said as a steady stream of oilfield traffic goes by his shop.

The North Dakota Department of Transportation is constructing a bypass that will take Highway 85 traffic around Alexander. Hamda said he expects the bypass will actually help his business because the traffic is often so heavy that customers can’t get into his parking lot.

“A lot of guys say they’ve been trying to get in here for a week,” Hamda said.

Hamda said he wasn’t prepared for the demand for electronic cigarettes and personal vaporizers. They account for about half of his business, primarily because smoking isn’t allowed on many oilfield locations and housing camps where workers live, Hamda said. He also sells a lot of chewing tobacco and cigarettes by the carton.

Hamda, who spent 20 years self-employed as a contractor, was in the middle of developing two six-unit condominium buildings in Jersey City, N.J., when the recession hit. He still wants to finish the buildings, and his success in North Dakota will help him do that.

He plans to sell the buildings once they’re complete and make North Dakota his home.

“After I’m done with them, I’m bringing that money here,” said Hamda, who has plans to expand his tobacco business. “There’s plenty of opportunity out here and I think it’s safe to invest.”

http://www.inforum.com/content/faces-boom-smoke-shop-angles-return-customers-0

Further Review: Hey, baseball, time to quit the spit

By Steve Hummer

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Tony Gwynn, hitter nonpareil, died in mid-June of the kind of cancer that should have sent a chill through every clubhouse in baseball. A member of the dip-and-spit set when he played, Gwynn suffered salivary gland cancer. He was only 54 at his death.
In a story looking at baseball’s and the Braves’ reaction to Gwynn’s death — to appear in Sunday’s print edition of the AJC, as well as on myajc.com — it was necessary to include the disclaimer that there was no precise science connecting Gwynn’s cancer to his past use of smokeless tobacco.
But, c’mon, a little common sense here. Gwynn had said the cancer begin very near the area of his mouth where he once loaded his dip. He blamed his fate on his tobacco use. Even without the seal of definitive medical proof, that should be good enough for the third of baseball that still spews foul brown juice.
The use of chewing and dipping tobacco has been a stain on baseball, literally, since forever. Trying it is a rite of passage for every young player — the nausea and the dizziness that the first-timer experiences, that’s just all good fun. Staying with it is a sort of concession, a player admitting he can figure no better way to spend his many idle hours than to stuff a caustic weed in his mouth and spit it out one dirty dribble at a time.
And once they get hooked, good luck trying to get off the nicotine dragon.
An athlete faces so many risks that he or she is powerless to avoid. Each sport takes its own kind of toll on joint and organ. Why in the name of Nike — the winged goddess of victory, not the shoe — would anyone willingly add to the potential harm by taking up such a frivolous, filthy habit?
Not as many in baseball use the stuff now as 20 years ago. And some have been forced to a reckoning by the news of last month. Braves closer Craig Kimbrel for one seemed genuinely motivated to quit his dipping when the season is done.
But I fear too many players will put off the hard work of quitting until the season passes, gradually set aside the lesson of this summer and stay with the slow, comfortable slide that smokeless tobacco provides. Then it will be just the same ol’ spit from there.
Gwynn’s legacy deserves so much more than that.
http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/further-review-hey-baseball-time-to-quit-the-spit/ngYZ5/

Letter: Time for state to update, increase tobacco taxes

By Jay Taylor, Durbin, ND

The state of North Dakota just recently unveiled newly designed license plates that will be used and distributed over the coming months/years.

The total cost to the taxpayers of North Dakota for this update was $7 million. The last time the license plate was changed was more than two decades ago.

During the 2013 legislative session, North Dakota lawmakers also passed a bill that increased fees for many hunting and fishing licenses. This legislation passed with overwhelming support from legislators, hunters and anglers. This was the first comprehensive license fee adjustment in nearly two decades.

Do you know what else in our state hasn’t been updated in the last two decades? The cost of tobacco products. One of the best ways to prevent young people from ever entering a life of addiction to tobacco —something nearly everyone (except the tobacco industry, of course) can agree is a good thing —is to make the product more expensive.

Does the North Dakota Legislature agree that our state’s tobacco tax of 44 cents per pack —the 46th lowest in the nation —is also outdated?

The effects of North Dakotans’ tobacco use also impacts the wallets of those who don’t use tobacco. North Dakota’s annual health care costs directly caused by smoking is $326 million. The portion covered by state Medicaid is $47 million.

As the price of tobacco increases, more people quit and fewer young people start the addiction.

If it was time to update our state’s license plates to the tune of $7 million and raise the fees on hunting and fishing at the expense of the taxpayers, I think it’s time to engage in the long-overdue discussion about the costs of cheap tobacco to the health of our state.

Jay Taylor, Durbin

http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/content/letter-time-state-update-increase-tobacco-taxes