Tag Archives: tobacco

The Washington Post reports: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected government effort to narrow options for challenging Food and Drug Administration denials of applications to market e-cigarettes, including flavored products that health officials say have led to a youth vaping epidemic. In a case that centered on questions of venue-shopping, the justices ruled 7-2 that tobacco giant R.J. Reynolds was …

The Associated Press reports: Under a Massachusetts law signed in 2018, the age to buy any tobacco product — including cigarettes, cigars and e-cigarettes — was raised to 21. Massachusetts also has banned the sale of all flavored tobacco products in an effort to reduce youth interest in nicotine. The new proposal, which lawmakers plan to file next year, would …

The New York Post reports: “What is your opinion about a policy that would end the sale of all tobacco products in New York within 10 years?” were among the questions asked last week in the “New York Local Opinion Leaders Survey,” examined by the Post. Another asks: “What is your opinion about a policy that would ban the sale …

Gothamist reports: For years, New York City and state lawmakers have been working to make it harder and more expensive for residents to smoke. A public health group is now laying out an ambitious goal: Ending the sale of smokable tobacco products altogether. The New York State Public Health Association is among 148 organizations worldwide that signed onto a statement …

Axios reports: New data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey show that 6.2 million middle school and high school students use tobacco, the highest level since 2000. Why it matters: Tobacco use among middle schoolers and high schoolers remains high thanks to the popularity of e-cigarettes. Health advocates and some states are blaming misleading advertising, media and inconspicuous vape devices …

CNBC reports: The Food and Drug Administration called out 15 retailers on Monday for allegedly selling tobacco products to minors and requested information from more than 40 e-cigarette companies the agency thinks may have illegally introduced new products onto the market. The agency named corporate-owned and franchise retailers who were allegedly found selling tobacco products to minors more than 15 …

The Hawaii Herald-Tribune reports: Rep. Richard Creagan wants Hawaii to be the first state to ban the sale of cigarettes. The Hawaii Island lawmaker said he doesn’t think taxes or regulations are doing enough to stem their use. He wants to see them off store shelves all together. His bill, HB 1509, seeks to halt the sale of cigarettes by …

The New York Times reports: It has been one of the most pressing unanswered questions in public health: Do e-cigarettes actually help smokers quit? Now, the first, large rigorous assessment offers an unequivocal answer: yes. The study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that e-cigarettes were nearly twice as effective as conventional nicotine replacement products, like …

CNBC is reporting that CDC head Dr. Brenda Fitzgerald resigned this morning. Yesterday multiple outlets reported that she purchased stock in a global Big Tobacco company after Trump appointed her to the post. After assuming the CDC leadership July 7, Fitzgerald bought tens of thousands of dollars in new stock holdings in at least a dozen companies later that month as …

Politico reports: The Trump administration’s top public health official bought shares in a tobacco company one month into her leadership of the agency charged with reducing tobacco use — the leading cause of preventable disease and death and an issue she had long championed. The stock was one of about a dozen new investments that Brenda Fitzgerald, director of the …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration has drafted plans to strip key authorities from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, senior administration officials said on Friday, an acknowledgment that the agency has all but abandoned its legacy of fighting liquor and tobacco smugglers. The A.T.F. traces its roots to Eliot Ness and the Prohibition-era federal agents …

The Norwegian Medical Association is pressuring the government to ban all tobacco sales to anyone born after 2000. The Independent reports: Marit Hermansen, the president of the NMA, told Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten that access to cigarettes was not a basic human right. “We have long had the policy of phasing out smoking by 2035. This is a measure to achieve …

Via the Associated Press: The cartons of Marlboros, cans of Skoal and packs of Swisher Sweets are hard to miss stacked near the entrance of Vincent’s Country Store, but maybe not for much longer: All tobacco products could become contraband if local health officials get their way. This sleepy central Massachusetts town of 7,700 has become an improbable battleground in …

Earlier this month CVS announced that it would stop selling cigarettes, a move that will take a $2B chunk out of the company’s annual grosses, at least until they decide how to fill those shelves behind the chain’s few remaining staffed check-out stations. And now there’s a petition for Walgreens, the nation’s largest drugstore chain, to do the same. (Walgreens …

CVS Caremark, the nation’s second largest drugstore chain with over 7600 locations, has announced that they will phase out all tobacco sales by the end of the year. The company declined to say what will take tobacco’s prominent shelf place behind cash registers at the front of its stores. CVS Caremark will test some items and may expand smoking cessation …

Christian Science Monitor notes: “Sarah Palin chewing tobacco? Speaking at the NRA annual meeting, Sarah Palin pulled out a tin of chewing tobacco to tweak NYC Mayor Bloomberg for his proposed ban on displaying tobacco products.” At the 6:00 mark.

The Pentagon is considering banning the use and sale of tobacco products for U.S. soldiers. Pentagon health experts are urging Defense Secretary Robert Gates to ban the use of tobacco by troops and end its sale on military property, a change that could dramatically alter a culture intertwined with smoking. Jack Smith, head of the Pentagon’s office of clinical and …