Reynolds Launches E-Mail Alert Feature

Published in Tobacco E-News
Melissa Vonder Haar, Tobacco Editor
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. —Today, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. has announced a new feature on its Transform Tobacco website to immediately notify retailers, wholesalers and adult tobacco consumers when a tobacco-related issue arises in their state.
Instead of checking the website, individuals can now sign up to receive electronic notifications via email when an alert in their area is issued.
“This new feature will make it much easier for people to stay informed and take action on tobacco-related issues that affect them,” said Bryan Hatchell, Reynolds’ director of communications. “We are continuously searching for ways to transform the tobacco industry, and making it easier for people’s voices to be heard will certainly help achieve that goal.”
The Transform Tobacco site also features regularly updated information on tobacco issues, including an interactive state-by-state map that provides key points on important tobacco-related matters, links to Transform Tobacco’s Twitter and Facebook pages and an easy outlet for visitors to the site to connect to their legislators by phone or via email.
Reynolds has previously used the site in conjunction with the Save Our Stores Coalition to educate and encourage retailers to fight back against a series of anti-smoking bills being considered by the New York City Council. While the City Council did raise the minimum age to purchase tobacco products to 21, the proposal to ban tobacco displays was dropped from the bill.
Winston-Salem, N.J.-based R.J. Reynolds Tobacco, an indirect subsidiary of Reynolds American Inc., is the second-largest tobacco company in the United States.
http://www.cspnet.com/category-management-news-data/tobacco-news-data/articles/reynolds-launches-e-mail-alert-feature

FDA: cigarette of the future could be non-addictive

By Deborah Kotz |  GLOBE STAFF

The US Food and Drug Administration submitted plans several weeks ago to increase regulation of tobacco products including chewing tobacco, cigars, and likely electronic cigarettes — which produce a nicotine vapor that’s inhaled. While the agency hasn’t announced what those restrictions will be — since they’re being reviewed by the White House budget office — Mitch Zeller, the director for the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, sat down for an interview Monday to discuss efforts to help people stop smoking and to keep kids from starting in the first place.
Here’s a run-down of some of the things on his agenda, with a few wrinkles that still need to be ironed out.
1. Create a non-addictive cigarette. We have the authority given to us by Congress to reduce nicotine in cigarettes down to nearly zero,” Zeller said. Since nicotine is the addictive chemical in cigarettes, teens who start smoking products that are almost nicotine-free could, in theory, never get hooked in the first place. Researchers now have access to 9 million cigarettes with varying amounts of nicotine to start testing whether products with lower amounts will lead to less addiction among new smokers. But don’t expect an ultra-low-nicotine product for at least a few years, Zeller added, since the studies are just beginning.
The wrinkle: Smokers already hooked on nicotine might find the new products seriously lacking, and they might need better nicotine replacement products than those currently on the market to help them overcome their cravings.

2. Run ads to scare teens away from smoking. Teens may think they already know about the dangers of smoking, but that doesn’t prevent 3,000 12- to 17-year-olds every day from lighting up for the first time. The FDA is planning an ad campaign for early next that is intended to make the thought of smoking turn teens’ stomachs. Expect, Zeller hinted, to see an anti-glamour campaign: ugly photos of smokers with rotting yellow teeth, wrinkles, and tar-stained fingernails.

The wrinkle: Teens still see their favorite movie stars — yes, you, Nicole Kidman, and you, Jennifer Aniston — glamourously smoking in photos and on the silver screen, so it may be tough for a government public safety announcement to effectively counter those influences.
3. Loosen warning labels on nicotine-replacement products. Zeller said the FDA might want to consider loosening the labeling on over-the-counter nicotine patches and gum, which currently state that users should not use them for longer than 8 to 12 weeks without consulting a doctor. “We need to look at how other Westernized nations, like Great Britain, are looking at nicotine,” he said. Other countries take the tack that smokers may always be addicted to nicotine and may need to be on some replacement product for life — which is far safer for them than continuing to inhale cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco.
The wrinkle: The FDA hasn’t determined how e-cigarettes should fit into the array of smoking-cessation products. Some smokers have told Zeller that the battery-operated devices are the only things that work to get them to stop smoking tar-filled cigarettes. But scant research has been done on the products to determine first, whether the vapor they release is safe to inhale, and second, whether e-cigarettes deliver the same quick nicotine rush to the brain that smokers seek. Those nicotine bursts aren’t delivered by FDA-approved nicotine replacement products.
4. Ramp up enforcement. The FDA has been making vigorous efforts to crack down on retailers who are selling cigarettes to minors. More than 10,000 stores throughout the U.S. have received warning letters since 2010, Zeller said, after minors serving as undercover agents were able to purchase cigarettes without an ID check. Hundreds of stores in Massachusetts were also warned that they would be fined if they didn’t change their practices.
The wrinkle: It’s tough to know how well the efforts have worked. The decline in smoking rates among teens has largely leveled off and many are still getting their hands on tobacco products.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2013/11/05/fda-cigarette-future-could-non-addictive/sEZZVH2vR9JJ6OKviItX4J/story.html

Hike in city cigarette tax will cut smoking, save lives, health chief says

BY FRAN SPIELMAN, City Hall Reporter, Chicago Sun-Times
Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s controversial plan to raise the city’s cigarette tax by 75-cents-a-pack will persuade 5,500 adults to quit smoking and 6,400 kids not to take their first puff, a top mayoral aide claimed Tuesday.
Health Commissioner Dr. Bechara Choucair went on the offensive for the most controversial element of Emanuel’s 2014 budget, armed with what he called an “independent analysis” conducted by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.
It concluded that the 75-cents-a-pack tax that would leave Chicago with the nation’s highest combined state and local tax rate would persuade 6,400 kids “not to light up their first cigarette” and 5,500 adults to quit smoking.
The study further concluded that the tax would “save 3,500 lives long-term from premature death related to tobacco” and save the city $235 million in long-term health care costs.
Choucair and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids are hardly unbiased observers.
But the commissioner’s impassioned defense of the $10 million-a-year sin tax that Emanuel wants to use to expand health care for kids was aimed at persuading aldermen to think twice before attempting to snuff out the tax.
“The cigarette tax is a proven public policy approach to save lives, to save health care dollars and add revenue,” Choucair said Tuesday during testimony at City Council budget hearings.
A veteran family physician, Choucair added, “I saw a lot of patients here in Chicago. I also saw patients in Houston. I saw patients in Rockford, Lebanon, Iraq Guatemala and Mexico. And the No. 1 reason as to why people are dying in all of these places is related to smoking. So we have the responsibility to act.”
South Side Ald. Toni Foulkes (15th) said she’s concerned that the added 75-cents-a-pack will drive up the use of unfiltered, roll-up cigarettes.
“A lot of seniors—mostly male—[who] can’t afford cigarettes and wouldn’t go out and purchase loose cigarettes go for the roll-ups,” Foulkes said.
“They’re already at high-risk. They already have pre-existing issues. What are some of the health risks because I think more people, now younger, would probably go to the roll-ups because it’s much cheaper to buy the tobacco.”
Choucair noted that people who live in low-income communities are four times more likely to quit because of higher taxes.
He added, “When it comes to tobacco—whether it’s with filter or without filter—poison is poison. … We really need to be aggressively addressing this. Big Tobacco tries to give us the impression that, if we have a filter, that it’s safer. The reality is, tobacco is tobacco and people will die from smoking tobacco.”
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/23553833-418/hike-in-city-cigarette-tax-will-cut-smoking-save-lives-health-chief-says.html
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Downtown Ald. Brendan Reilly (42nd), a smoker, said expanding the eye-care program for kids is a “noble cause” he wholeheartedly supports.
 
But Reilly said he remains concerned about the “potential unintended negative consequences” for Chicago retailers.
 
“I wouldn’t encourage anyone to pick up smoking. It’s a stupid thing to do. I’m just concerned this could pose a potential boon for suburban retailers who are literally across the street from the city of Chicago and put some of our, especially gas station owners, at a competitive disadvantage,” Reilly said.
 
Reilly noted that politicians at all levels love to link an unpopular tax to a feel-good program to make the bitter pill easier to swallow.
 
But he noted that the eye-care program is likely to “grow over time” while the cigarette tax has a history of going in the opposite direction.
 
“The higher the tax, the expectation is fewer people will purchase cigarettes. My concern is that we may not have a stable revenue source to support a very good program that helps lots and lots of kids,” the alderman said.
 
Choucair replied, “Keep in mind that we’re investing $2 million for this vision program. Expected revenue from the cigarette tax is around $10 million. So, we’ll keep an eye definitely on the expected revenue from the cigarette tax.”
 
Emanuel’s plan to raise the city’s cigarette tax by 75-cents-a-pack remains a key sticking point in a relatively non-controversial budget.
 
Critics contend it will encourage people to stand on street corners hawking loose cigarettes, exacerbating a black market that’s already worse than the ones for marijuana, cocaine and heroin.
 
“The human costs are devastating. It creates an underground economy,” Ald. Roderick Sawyer (6th) said when City Council budget hearings opened last week.
 
Ald. Leslie Hairston (5th) warned that the nation’s highest combined state and local tax would “disproportionately impact communities of color” by “creating a very large black market” for smokes.
 
“The loose sale of single cigarettes. The sale of cigarettes without tax stamps, which leads to increased loitering. Which means people who might be involved in illegal activity are visible and on the street. If I’m in a rival gang, then I’m going to come by and then we have another shooting,” she said.
 
Emanuel has a history of tinkering at the margins of his budgets to appease aldermen. But if the $10 million cigarette tax hike was thrown in as a bargaining chip to be dealt away, the mayor has not yet tipped his hand.
 
“Two years ago, the state increased the cigarette tax by $1. Last year, the county increased it by $1. We’ve increased it 75 cents and we’re putting it towards improving the health care of our children. That’s the right type of investment. And I think it’s the right step, because it also reduces health care costs for those associated with smoking,” the mayor said last week.

Legislation would add e-cigarettes to Minn. smoking ban

State Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, wants to clear up confusion about the use of electronic cigarettes by adding the so-called vaping devices to the statewide cigarette ban.
She plans to introduce legislation in the 2014 session that would add e-cigarettes to the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act.
“Right now, we’ve got a patchwork system where local governments and even individual businesses make their own rules,” Kahn said in a press release. “It’s creating a lot of confusion. My bill removes any doubt as to where e-cigarettes can be used by applying the same regulations we have for traditional tobacco products.”
Kahn joins The Daily Circuit to discuss the issue.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/11/04/daily-circuit-e-cigarette-ban-kahn

E-cigarettes Turn Up in Schools

BY LAURIE WELCH – lwelch@magicvalley.com
BURLEY, ID • Students have been sneaking off to the boys’ room to smoke since the advent of schools and the discovery of tobacco. But use of harder-to-detect electronic cigarettes is causing some educators and parents to worry.
“Any parent should be worried about this. It’s one more thing out there to distract our children from a healthy lifestyle,” said mother Jolene Graham, who serves on a parent advisory committee at Burley High School.
The Cassia County Sheriff’s Office cited five underage students at the school in October for possession, use or distribution of tobacco or e-cigarettes.
The battery-powered e-cigarettes provide aerosol doses of nicotine and other additives. The devices emit a vapor but no telltale smoke.
Depending on the brand, the cartridges can contain nicotine, a component to produce the aerosol and flavorings such as fruit, mint, candy and beer, reports the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The products resemble cigarettes, cigars, pipes or everyday items such as pens and USB memory sticks.
E-cigarettes not marketed for therapeutic purposes are unregulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
FDA studies show “significant quality issues that indicate control processes used to manufacture these products are substandard or non-existent.”
The FDA found cartridges containing nicotine but labeled as no nicotine as well as three different e-cigarette cartridges with the same label but that emitted markedly different amounts of nicotine with each puff.
Sheriff’s Cpl. Terry Higley responded to the incident at the high school.
“If someone doesn’t know about them, they would just think they were some type of marker or highlighter pen,” Higley said about the devices he confiscated.
E-cigarettes are available at stores, but a person must be 18 or older to buy them.
“Most of the kids are saying they just buy them online. All they have to do is check the box that asks if they are 18,” Higley said.
He said one student told him he was using the e-cigarettes to help him quit smoking, and one girl admitted she had used the e-cigarette in class.
Four of the five students’ parents said they did not know their children were using the products, Higley said.
Twin Falls High School hasn’t had any e-cigarette incidents since students were caught smoking them on campus a couple of summers ago, said Principal Ben Allen.
The school then had no policies to deal with the electronic “smokes.” Now e-cigarettes are in school policy for paraphernalia to encompass any changes in the devices, Allen said.
“I’m not saying that eliminated it,” he said. “We just haven’t had to deal with it lately.”
No students at Jerome High School have been caught with e-cigarettes, said Vice Principal Victor Arreaga.
“I guess our kids settle for the real thing or nothing,” Arreaga said. “The problem here at our school is chew (chewing tobacco), not cigarettes.”
Nonetheless, said Jerome High Principal Eric Anderson, the school staff will have to get educated on the product because it is sure to filter into the school at some point.
The Cassia County School District board intends to revisit the district’s policy on nicotine and tobacco to include the devices, said Superintendent Gaylen Smyer.
If students are caught with nicotine oils or tobacco, law enforcement is called and the school can discipline the student up to suspension.
“As an educator, my concern is that nicotine is a habit-forming drug. Sometimes students at that age want to experience things that may have lifelong consequences,” Smyer said. “When adults make a decision to smoke, I support that. But I hate to see young people dabble with something that may have a lifelong effect.”
District teachers will be taught to recognize the objects, he said.
Higley said he plans to use the confiscated paraphernalia as a teaching tool.
“The biggest issue here is, parents need to educate themselves on this. You can’t put the blinders on,” said Graham. “Parents need to have frank discussions with their children at home about these products.”
http://magicvalley.com/news/local/e-cigarettes-turn-up-in-schools/article_cba6a692-5b14-5f73-ab27-b74850525c67.html

Don't believe e-cigarette hype

By: Janie Heath
Several weeks back, “Saturday Night Live” spoofed the increasing ubiquity and purported safety of e-cigarettes by touting its own fictitious product — “e-meth.” The skit, which included “Breaking Bad’s” Jesse Pinkman (actor Aaron Paul), offered e-meth as a sensible smokeless alternative to crystal meth itself — a completely far-fetched and ridiculous claim.
It was also quite laughable — until you realize that e-cigarette companies are hawking their product as a “safe cigarette” in much the same way.
It’s no joke. And e-cigarettes are uniquely poised at the moment to either be regulated by the government as tobacco products should be or to enjoy looser, less strict regulation.
Companies that make e-cigarettes — battery-operated sticks made of plastic or metal that release vapor, rather than smoke, to deliver nicotine in a warmed mist of diethylene glycol, propylene glycol and carcinogenic nitrosamines — are counting on the latter. These companies hope that e-cigarettes — already a $2 billion a year endeavor — might just save a dying U.S. tobacco industry.
Using the swaying power of actors Stephen Dorff and Jenny McCarthy, companies such as Blucigs — which offers nicotine delivered in flavors from pina colada to peach schnapps, sure to appeal to youngsters who gravitate toward the exploding market of flavored cigarettes — these companies are ramping up for a fight. Promises like “You can smoke at a basketball game if you want to” and “We’re all adults — it’s time we take our freedom back” offer smokers and would-be e-cigarette buyers a chance to tap into the bygone era when smoking was cool and its deadly health effects were not known.
The thing is, today we know better.
What we don’t know is the science as to whether e-cigarettes are a safer alternative or just more of the same. As a professional nurse, I wager the latter.
The American Lung Association is very concerned about the potential health consequences of electronic cigarettes, as well as claims that they can be used to help smokers quit.
There is no government oversight of these products. And, absent oversight by the Federal Drug Administration, there is no way for the public health and medical community or for consumers to know what chemicals are actually contained in e-cigarettes — or what the short- and long-term health implications of using them or being around them might be.
It’s why the American Lung Association is calling on the Obama administration to propose meaningful regulation of these products to protect to public health.
There are roughly 250 different e-cigarette products on the market today. Based on evidence so far, there’s nothing safe about them —not even as a gateway to cessation. In the FDA’s own research on e-cigarettes from 2009, lab tests revealed detectable levels of toxic cancer-causing chemicals, including an ingredient used in anti-freeze, in two leading brands of e-cigarettes and 18 various cartridges. Other analyses have found formaldehyde, benzene and tobacco-specific nitrosamines, a carcinogen, in e-cigarettes’ emissions, pointing out the poisons in secondhand exposure.
This why it’s urgent for the FDA to immediately begin its regulatory oversight of e-cigarettes, which would include ingredient disclosures by manufacturers. While there is certainly more to learn, it’s clear there is a great deal to be concerned about — especially in the absence of any sort of oversight.
As a former smoker myself, I understand all too well the hope for a safe and evidence-based way to break the habit — but e-cigarettes just are not the way. There is no magic bullet; quitting smoking is incredibly hard to do. Nicotine’s the reason. And at present, there is no evidence supporting e-cigarettes as the best way to kick the habit.
Americans have the freedom to decide, of course, what they do with their bodies — and knowing what we know about the debilitating diseases and deaths faced by many former smokers, I think we will choose to kick the e-cigarette habit before it garners a foothold. E-cigarettes might seem to tout a pathway to tobacco-less freedom, but they entangle individuals in the same poisons as their smoke-filled grandfathers.
We’re all adults here: It’s time to take back our freedom — and choose health for ourselves, our children and communities.
Janie Heath, PhD, is the Thomas A. Saunders III Professor of Nursing and associate dean for academic programs at the University of Virginia School of Nursing.
http://www.dailyprogress.com/opinion/guest_columnists/don-t-believe-e-cigarette-hype/article_be688534-4491-11e3-a58b-001a4bcf6878.html

Maryland should hike tobacco taxes again

By , Washington Post

BOOSTING TAXES on cigarettes is an effective way to cut smoking rates among adults and, even more, among those college-age and younger, along with tobacco-related disease and death. A case in point is Maryland, where the incidence of smoking fell by a third from 1998 to 2010, a period during which the state more than quintupled its cigarette tax.
By the same token, states that have allowed cigarette levies to remain low, under the sway of Big Tobacco or anti-tax sentiment, generally suffer from higher smoking rates and the resulting impact on public health. Virginia’s cigarette tax is second-lowest in the nation, after Missouri’s; it is an example of a state that extends its smokers a license to kill — themselves.
Pleased with the results in Maryland, anti-
tobacco advocates want to build on their success. On the merits, they have an easy case to make. After the state doubled its levy in 2008, to $2 per pack, cigarette sales dropped sharply. Now advocates want to raise the per pack tax again, to $3. Lawmakers should take note.
Higher taxes are particularly effective in cutting tobacco use among younger smokers, whose habits are less entrenched and who are more sensitive to price. As a direct result of the 2008 tax increase, youth smoking rates plummeted by almost a third in two years. In 2009, just 12 percent of Maryland youths were smokers, compared with a national rate of almost 20 percent.
And while adult smokers are somewhat less sensitive to price increases, Maryland’s 2008 tax hike helped cut the number of adult smokers by about 13 percent.
Complacency is the wrong course of action. Anti-tobacco advocates point out that following the big drop after 2008, smoking rates in Maryland have started to inch up again over the past few years. That coincides with an 80 percent cut in spending on the state’s main anti-smoking program, which aims to help people to quit or not start in the first place. Despite its relatively high tax rate on cigarettes, Maryland ranks just 34th nationally among the states in spending on its anti-smoking program.
Each of the three increases in Maryland’s cigarette tax over the past dozen years has been followed immediately by a sharp drop in sales. True, some Maryland smokers may simply cross the border to buy their cartons in low-tax Virginia. But more have quit or cut back, as state-by-state smoking rates suggest.
The tobacco lobby remains strong enough to push back against further increases. In Annapolis, a bill this year to raise the state’s per-pack tax to $3 died in committee. A similar effort in the legislative session starting in January may suffer the same fate. Anti-smoking advocates are focusing their efforts on the next year or two in the legislative calendar. They should be helped both by the counter-example of Virginia — and by the facts.
Washington Post Editorials –  Editorials represent the views of The Washington Post as an institution, as determined through debate among members of the editorial board. News reporters and editors never contribute to editorial board discussions, and editorial board members don’t have any role in news coverage.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/maryland-should-hike-tobacco-taxes-again/2013/11/03/820e5ffc-433b-11e3-a624-41d661b0bb78_story.html

Look at e-cigarettes with a questioning eye

By: Erin Hill-Oban, Executive Director, Tobacco Free North Dakota
There’s been a lot of buzz lately regarding electronic cigarettes and the rise in popularity (and sales) they’ve seen all across the country, including right here in North Dakota.  Whether news and opinions have come from the mouths of trusted news sources, Big Tobacco (which now manufactures e-cigarettes), health professionals, or e-cigarette users themselves, we should all stay informed.
Tobacco Free North Dakota (TFND) would like to add the voice of our organization and our members to the conversation.  We have no interest in scaring the public; rather, we feel education and information is important.  What we know about e-cigarettes for certain, unfortunately, is pretty minimal.
As of today, there is not enough data collected nor studies conducted to determine how safe or unsafe these products are OR to prove e-cigarettes are effective cessation devices.  Tobacco companies are promoting e-cigarettes as a means to help users quit, but until science backs up that claim, TFND cannot and will not endorse it.  NDQuits provides excellent (and free) services – both counseling and access to FDA-approved nicotine replacement therapy – to North Dakotans who wish to quit.
In addition, e-cigarettes are not regulated by the FDA as a tobacco product, and therefore, are neither taxed as such nor have age restrictions placed on their sales.  That does, in fact, mean your 10-year-old child or grandchild could legally purchase these devices.  Though we hope many retailers in our state would deny their purchase based on morals, it’s irresponsible not to have laws in place to prevent our kids from that kind of access.
TFND is genuinely concerned about reports of e-cigarette explosions, studies that show youth use of e-cigarettes doubling in just one year, and the knowledge that adolescents have found ways to alter these devices to smoke other drugs, like marijuana, without a detectable scent.
TFND wants answers and common sense protections put in place by both the FDA and our state policymakers, a goal we will be working toward leading up to the next state legislative session in 2015.  In the meantime, we encourage the public to stay informed, proceed with caution, and visit with your district legislators about any shared concerns you may have.
http://www.thedickinsonpress.com/content/look-e-cigarettes-questioning-eye
http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/277311/group/homepage/
http://www.jamestownsun.com/content/letter-editor-e-cigarettes-should-be-regulated-state
http://www.inforum.com/event/article/id/417138/

E-Cigarettes A Blast From The Past, In A Bad Way

By Erica Sebastian and Jonathan Chaffee Special to the Olean Times Herald
Youth love to trick-or-treat on Halloween. Unfortunately, there is one product that is more trick than treat: e-cigarettes look and taste like a treat, but contain a nicotine solution that is turned into a vapor that users inhale.
The U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Youth Tobacco Survey states that e-cigarette use among middle and high school students has doubled since 2011. This growth can be attributed to the variety of flavors of e-cigarettes, such as chocolate, vanilla, cookies and cream and fruit flavors that appeal to teens and young adults.
E-cigarette advertisements are also appearing on television and in magazines. E-cigarettes’ formula for success is not that much different from how the tobacco industry marketed cigarettes.
Stanton Glantz, who directs the Center For Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California-San Francisco, says, “They’re making health claims. They’re using celebrities, movies, television. It’s just like getting into a time machine.”
In 2009, the FDA tested e-cigarettes from two leading manufacturers and found detectable levels of toxins and carcinogens (cancer-causing agents) in their cartridges.
Any product designed to deliver more than trace amounts of nicotine can lead to addiction. As such, the sale and distribution of these products should only occur after these products are appropriately regulated by the FDA.
The FDA has not approved e-cigarettes as smoking-cessation devices. To date, there are no well-controlled studies that test the efficacy of e-cigarettes as a smoking-cessation device despite industry ads to the contrary.
New York has made great strides in reducing youth smoking rates. High school youth smoking rates are down nearly 60 percent from 2000 to 2012. The introduction of e-cigarettes threatens the substantial gains made in reducing youth smoking in New York.
(Ms. Sebastian is the Cessation Center coordinator for Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua and Wyoming counties; Mr. Chaffee is the Reality Check Program coordinator for Allegany, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties.)
http://www.oleantimesherald.com/editorial/article_779e64d0-4300-11e3-92ff-001a4bcf887a.html

NYC Council gets tough on tobacco, approves raising purchase age to 21

By Rande Iaboni, CNN
New York (CNN) — The New York City Council voted on Wednesday night to approve an anti-tobacco law that will raise the tobacco-purchasing age from 18 to 21.
In addition to the “Tobacco 21” bill, which includes electronic cigarettes, the council also approved a second bill, “Sensible Tobacco Enforcement.” It will prohibit discounts on tobacco products and increase enforcement on vendors who attempt to evade taxes.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg has 30 days to sign the bills into law. Given his previous support, that is likely to happen soon.
“By increasing the smoking age to 21, we will help prevent another generation from the ill health and shorter life expectancy that comes with smoking,” Bloomberg said in a statement on Wednesday.
“Tobacco 21” will take effect 180 days after it is enacted, according to the council’s news release.
New York City has now become the largest city to have an age limit as high as 21. Needham, Massachusetts, raised the sale age to 21 in 2005, according to the New York City Department of Health.
Neighboring states and counties have raised the tobacco sale age to 19, including New Jersey in 2005, the Department of Health said.
Raising the sales age “will protect teens and may prevent many people from ever starting to smoke,” Health Commissioner Thomas A. Farley, said in a statement after the vote.
While many lawmakers appeared to be applauding the bills, some younger New Yorkers were not so pleased.
“You’re an adult; you should be able to buy a pack of cigarettes,” one New Yorker told CNN affiliate NY1. “I mean, you can think for yourself.”
“I think it’s ridiculous,” another New Yorker said, “Let us be, let us live.”
This is another step in Bloomberg’s mission for healthier NYC lifestyles.
In September 2012, the Board of Health voted to ban the sale of sugary drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces in restaurants and other venues, a measure Bloomberg spearheaded.
The ban was later repealed by a New York State Supreme Court judge.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/10/30/us/new-york-city-tobacco-age/