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Saturday, July 09, 2005
Several Contraband Cigarette Seizures Made in June by Regional Task Force -ON
Cornwall, June 28, 2005 – Since June 15, 2005, the members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Cornwall-Valleyfield Detachment, have seized more than 4,369 cartons of cigarettes, $45,060.00 in U.S. currency, 5 vehicles and arrested 8 subjects near the Canada/US border.
On June 24, 2005, the Akwesasne Mohawk Police observed a vehicle leaving Cornwall Island heading north to Cornwall. Akwesasne Mohawk Police intercepted a 1997 Dodge Caravan in Cornwall on Brookdale Avenue. As a result of a vehicle search, the vehicle and 25 cases of cigarettes in zip lock bags were seized.
A male (40) Cornwall resident is charged with unlawfully having a tobacco product in his possession that was not stamped in accordance with the provisions of the Excise Act. He is scheduled to appear in Cornwall Provincial Court on August 8, 2005.
On June 23, 2005, the Ontario Provincial Police conducted a traffic stop on the 401 westbound off ramp at Exit 750, when the officer observed cases of contraband cigarettes inside the vehicle. As a result of a vehicle search, a 1999 GMC Savana as well as 44 cases of cigarettes were seized. The Cornwall Valleyfield Regional Task force were called to assist.
A male (34) resident of Cornwall, Ontario is charged with unlawfully having a tobacco product in his possession that was not stamped in accordance with the provisions of the Excise Act. He is scheduled to appear in Morrisburg Provincial court on August 2, 2005.
A male (21) passenger, resident of Long Sault, Ontario is charged with unlawfully having a tobacco product in his possession that was not stamped in accordance with the provisions of the Excise Act. He is scheduled to appear in Morrisburg Provincial Court on August 2, 2005.
On June 21, 2005, Cornwall/Valleyfield Regional Task Force along with their law enforcement partners intercepted a vehicle on Highway 401 east of Lancaster, Ontario. As a result of a vehicle search, $45,060.00 in U.S. currency was seized. A male (20) resident of Saint-Eustache, Quebec was held for detention and later released.
On June 15, 2005, members of the Cornwall/Valleyfield Regional Task Force along with their law enforcement partners intercepted a 2003 Pontiac Van on Avonmore Road, north of Harrison’s Corners. As a result of a vehicle search, the vehicle, 300 cartons of white filtered cigarettes packaged in ziplock bags were seized.
A male (51) resident of Ottawa, Ontario is charged with unlawfully having a tobacco product in his possession that was not stamped in accordance with the provisions of the Excise Act. He is scheduled to appear in Cornwall Provincial Court on August 8, 2005.
The same day, while patrolling the St. Lawrence River west of Cornwall Island members of the Joint Investigative Team of Akwesasne Mohawk Police observed a vessel unloading boxes into a Van. As they approached the shore the vessel departed. As a result of a search, the vehicle and 3500 cartons of DK cigarettes were seized. The Cornwall/Valleyfield Regional Task Force was called in to assist.
A male (40) resident of Akwesasne, New York was charged with unlawfully having a tobacco product that was not stamped in accordance with the provisions of the Excise Act. He is scheduled to appear in Cornwall Provincial Court on July 9, 2005.
A male young offender (18) of Cornwall Island was also charged with unlawfully having a tobacco product that was not stamped in accordance with the provisions of the Excise Act. He is scheduled to appear in Cornwall Provincial Court on July 25, 2005.
Also on June 15, 2005, Akwesasne Mohawk Police intercepted a 1995 Chevrolet Lumina van after it turned into the parking lot at Peace Tree Trade Center. As a result of a search, the vehicle and 500 cartons of DK cigarettes were seized. The Cornwall/Valleyfield Regional Task Force was called in to assist
A male (39) resident of Akwesasne, Ontario is charged with unlawfully having a tobacco product in his possession that was not stamped in accordance with the provisions of the Excise Act. He is scheduled to appear in Cornwall Provincial Court on July 25, 2005.
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/qc/comm/2005/juin05/050629_e.htm
Full house at new casino -MB
By Elizabeth Soto and Marc Zienkiewicz Friday July 01, 2005
South Beach Casino drawing in North Eastman residents
Beausejour Review — The South Beach Casino is betting on a full house, and residents of Lac du Bonnet are its fifth biggest asset.
The new Brokenhead First Nation casino officially opened its doors for gaming business on May 28 and staff say they are pleasantly surprised with the customer demand.
“We’re really overwhelmed with the turnout. It’s fantastic and we hope it continues,” said Barry Denesiuk, table games director for South Beach Casino.
The casino, which is owned by seven aboriginal communities in a consortium partnership, features 300 slot machines and 12 gaming tables offering up blackjack, poker and baccarat.
And as it turns out, folks from LdB are showing up in pretty significant numbers.
The casino’s marketing consultant, who goes by the name Fish, told the Leader June 28 that the latest stats just came in, and LdB residents make up approximately 3.5 per cent of the casino’s business, going by the scores of people who have been purchasing the casino’s Players’ Club membership cards.
LdB is ranked fifth on the list, behind Winnipeg (which sits at Number 1), and followed by Selkirk, Beausejour, and Powerview-Pine Falls.
Smoking permitted
One of the significant differences between this casino and most others in the province is the exemption from the smoking ban allowing gamblers to smoke while they play. The first nation is on federal land, meaning the provincial smoking ban doesn’t come into play. Critics of the exemption say it gives the casino an unfair business advantage.
Tina Leveque, Brokenhead Chief, doesn’t agree with the criticism.
“I’m making no apologies,” Leveque said. “We didn’t make the provincial laws and now that we’re in a position to benefit from them we’re being lambasted and criticized.”
Leveque added the casino has been 20 years in the making and is significant in the reserve’s plans for its future success.
“This casino means a big boost to our economy, it means long-term sustainability. It’s also going to be a part of our foundation on which to lay our economic future,” she said.
Reaction is mixed among LdB bar owners so far. Bill Juba, owner of Casey’s Inn, said he has noticed a sizeable drop-off in the amount of VLT revenue in his bar.
“Definitely it’s affecting us,” Juba said. “It’s something new for people. It’s affected us, yes. But it will wear out after awhile.”
On the other hand, Lakeview Motor Hotel owner John Enright said he hasn’t noticed much of a drop-off at all.
No vacant machines
As optimistic as Leveque is about the future of the casino, she is also realistic about the demands it will put on the reserve’s current infrastructure.
Some of these demands include excess traffic, shortage of space in daycares and schools for the children of casino workers moving to the area.
She’s also concerned about a shortage in housing to meet this expected influx as well as other issues such as gambling addiction.
“No matter what the project, there’s always going to be a negative impact especially for us as the hosting community for the casino. We just have to deal with it and in our negotiations we negotiated under that premise.”
One problem quickly identified through customer demand is there isn’t a single vacant slot machine in the entire building.
Kevin Boulet, a local paper mill employee stopped in on his work break to check out the new casino but left soon after arriving.
“There aren’t any machines available and I don’t have time to wait for one,” Boulet said.
The casino currently employs approximately 160 people.
Denesiuk says that the current staff was hired at a time when the casino was unsure of what kind of traffic to expect. The casino is now prepared to do more hiring for all departments and has job postings in local papers to meet the high customer demand.
This demand could lead to expansion efforts in the future, such as a hotel, lakefront housing developments and a boardwalk in the area’s wetlands.
Leveque says that all communities and municipalities should get ready to benefit from the new casino.
“We are currently sitting on the edge of an economic boom,” she said.
http://www.beausejourreview.com/story.php?id=170121
Burty Bob’s shutting down -ON
By Times-Journal Staff Wednesday July 06, 2005
It was a last hurrah, the Vote Aaron party last night at Burty Bob’s.
Last call for the once-popular downtown St. Thomas club is Saturday, manager Ray Daniels said last night.
Daniels blamed inequitable enforcement of the city’s smoking ban.
He named another bar which he says openly defies the ban, and which has attracted his business as a result.
“We’re the ones abiding by it, and we’re the ones closing down,” he said.
“I call that ironic.”
Daniels said the club has a staff of 23 employees, mostly part-time.
They were told of the closure last week.
http://www.stthomastimesjournal.com/story.php?id=171006
The Government of Canada reaffirms its commitment to combat Canada's rising obesity levels
OTTAWA, July 6 /CNW Telbec/ - In response to Statistics Canada's release of the latest number of overweight and obese Canadians, Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh and Minister of State (Public Health) Dr. Carolyn Bennett recognized the need to take action to address the significant public health threat caused by obesity in Canada.
Data confirms that obesity rates in Canada have nearly doubled among adults and nearly tripled among children over the past 25 years. Serious health risks are associated with overweight and obesity including high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2005/06/c9108.html
Commercial Marijuana Research Gets Green Light
VANCOUVER ISLAND, BC, July 6 /CNW/"Health Canada recognizes the need for research into marihuana to determine the safety and efficacy of its use. The Government of Canada will continue to support this research."
PhytoCan is using exclusive patented technology to produce standardized organic cannabis medicines. After second phase of research, a product will be ready for clinical trials.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2005/06/c8953.html
New Well Tests Being Considered by Grey-Bruce-Owen Sound Health Unit -ON
The Grey-Bruce-Owen Sound Health Unit could soon be peering into your well.
The health unit and Grey County are discussing a new initiative to monitor the quality of private wells in the county.
It's a follow-up on stringent new drinking-water regulations issued by the province.
Medical Officer of Health Dr. Hazel Lynn says she's interested in the idea.
However, she wants assurances as to whether the province or the county will pay for the checks before proceeding further. http://www.945thebull.ca/news.php?artID=7824
The federal government is providing $71 million to tobacco farmers, while implementing funding cuts to Health Canada's tobacco control programme.
Part of the threatened cuts are due to the government's reducing and reorganizing of all its mass media advertising (including smoking) in light of the sponsorship scandal.
Contact MPPs in your province/riding to ask that funding be restored to Health Canada's tobacco control programme prior to funding being given to tobacco farmers. (* emphasis added)
http://www.ocat.org/whatsnew.html
Smoky haze moves outside pubs -AB
By AJAY BHARDWAJ, EDMONTON SUN Thu, July 7, 2005
Bar patrons are moving their butts outdoors, thanks to Edmonton's new smoking bylaw.
And some of them may have taken the last of the ashtrays at one city pub.
"Some people took a few as mementoes," said Ronnie Tallman, a waitress at Ceili's Irish Pub, 10338 109 St. She's not sure where the other ones have disappeared to.
Smokers are drifting out of the bar to take drags on their cancer sticks, she said. The bar has obliged them by putting out sand boxes that serve as ashtrays, Tallman said.
The bylaw, which took effect July 1, prohibits smoking in all Edmonton pubs, clubs and restaurants, including patios.
Critics said the bylaw would drive smokers away and hurt business. Proponents said the ban would create healthier atmospheres for patrons and workers.
At Overtime Broiler and Taproom, 10304 111 St., bartender John Miok said it's too early to say if patrons are staying away in droves because they can't smoke.
"Some regulars, they're smokers, I didn't see them around Saturday," said Miok.
Ashtrays at that bar have also disappeared, he said.
"The staff took some of them," he said. "Most were thrown away."
Most of the ashtrays were promotional items from a cigarette company, he said.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2005/07/07/1120869-sun.html
Royal Alex clearing the air-AB
By MAX MAUDIE, EDMONTON SUN Thu, July 7, 2005
The Royal Alexandra Hospital is going smoke-free next week, and that's sparking concern for how patients will cope, particularly psychiatric patients.
Stephen Jenuth, the president of the Alberta Civil Liberties Association, said he's not a big fan of smoking, but he doubts a hospital is the best place to quit.
"Usually you're in the hospital for things that are quite serious," he said.
It's hardly the time to compound medical hardships with nicotine withdrawal, Jenuth said.
Capital Health has announced plans for all of its facilities to go smoke-free, including all grounds and parkades, effective Oct. 3.
The Royal Alex is the first to go smoke-free because it worked in well with their current renovations, an official said.
"There still will be the option for (patients) to go outside, off the property to smoke," said Glenda Coleman-Miller, senior operating officer of patient care at the hospital.
Due to the special needs of psychiatric patients in some Capital Health hospitals, the region will phase in the elimination of smoking areas for the patients over the next year.
"They're people who are there because of a court order. Because of an illness which they have," Jenuth said.
Capital Health will keep the smoking room in the Royal Alex's mental-health ward when the rest of the hospital butts out on Wednesday, but it will eventually be phased out, too.
Psychiatrist Charl Els - who specializes in addiction - has been contracted by Capital Health to oversee the process of going smoke-free.
He said the driving force behind the move is employee safety - protecting staff from having to work in an environment with second-hand smoke in it.
"The science also tells us (the mentally ill) often want to quit smoking."
Patients will be monitored closely to ensure the process of going smoke-free is as smooth as possible.
And if they are desperate to smoke, they can always go outside, off the property, escorted by a guard or guardian.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2005/07/07/1120870-sun.html
Resistance is futile -MB
By TOM BRODBECK Thu, July 7, 2005
There's little you can do to fend off Public Trustee
One of the most frequent questions I've been asked after my series on how Manitoba's Public Trustee can so easily take over people's lives is how to protect yourself from them.
Unfortunately, I've talked to some lawyers and I'm sad to report there's not a hell of a lot you can do to protect yourself from this totalitarian regime.
Unless you've got some money and a good lawyer experienced in the field, that is -- something not everyone has. Even then it can be a difficult battle.
"It's one of those sad situations where, as the law stands, you are at the mercy of the bureaucracy," said Gary Burnside, a Swan River lawyer with experience fighting Public Trustee orders. "If they say 'Yea' or 'Nay,' there's not much one can do -- it's a very frustrating and difficult situation."
FIRESTORM
The story of Thomas Hanaway, the 80-year-old Winnipeg man whose life was taken over by the Public Trustee recently, has triggered a firestorm of controversy.
The Winnipeg Sun stories have resulted in a government audit of the Hanaway case and a review of the legislation that governs the office, Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh announced last week.
The series has raised serious questions about the arbitrary nature of the Public Trustee, including how easy it is for them to quash a person's enduring power of attorney.
"The act is clear that it supersedes the existing power of attorney," said Burnside. "It's up to the Public Trustee to decide if it's in the person's best interest or not (to continue the power of attorney), and that's it."
The only avenue of appeal is to fight the order in court, he said.
And most lawyers I've talked to say that can cost $3,000 to $4,000, with no guarantee of success.
"It smacks of the potential for Orwellian, paternalistic, governmental abuse," said Ian Restall, a Winnipeg lawyer who has also had clients fighting the Public Trustee.
One of the main problems with the process is that the province's director of psychiatric services can appoint the Public Trustee to take over someone's affairs -- including seizing his or her bank account and pension cheques -- without conducting a thorough investigation, said Restall.
The director has no obligation to consult with the family or the person's family doctor, he said.
"The director is really in some ways both prosecutor, judge and jury," said Restall.
And once the Public Trustee is called in, they take over immediately.
There are a few things you can do that may help protect you from the Public Trustee, said Restall.
Make sure someone in the family has enduring power of attorney over you. It does often help, he said. And get what's known as a "health-care directive" -- a living will that allows someone, usually a family member, to make medical decisions on your behalf, said Restall.
"Both are evidence that you've made individual choices and might be used in an argument against the Public Trustee if they go ahead and intrude," he said.
Also, maintain long-term relations with a family doctor and stay in close contact with family members, said Restall.
PUT MONEY ASIDE
And just in case you ever have to fight the Public Trustee, put a few thousand dollars aside, if you can, to pay the legal bills, he said.
"Ironically you'd want it in the hands of another family member because the public trustee would have control of your funds," said Restall.
Mind boggling, isn't it?
This isn't bulletproof by any means. But it may help, said Restall.
The real solution is to change the law to ensure there is due process before government can take away someone's freedom.
Want your voice heard on this issue?
Call Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh's office at 945-3728 and your MLA, listed in the back of telephone book.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2005/07/07/1120531-sun.html
First Nations children face grim health conditions
Over one half of First Nations children on-reserve are overweight or obese, according to the First Nations Regional Longitudinal Health Survey (RHS)
OTTAWA, ON, July 7 /CNW Telbec/ - A clearer picture of the health and well-being of First Nations children (on-reserve) has been revealed in the preliminary results of the RHS Children's Survey, released nationally today.
"The RHS will fill the information gap on the determinants of health that affect the health and well-being of our children. RHS is the most comprehensive study done on the health and living conditions of our First Nations children," said Jane Gray, RHS National Coordinator. "It's the only national research project under complete First Nations control."
The preliminary RHS Children Survey results indicate that:
- Over half (55.2%) of First Nations children on-reserve are either overweight (22.3%) or obese (36.2%). First Nations children between the ages of 3 to 5 are more likely to be obese at 48.7%.
- First Nations children were 70% more likely than Canadian children to report one or more injuries in the previous year (17.2% vs. 10.2%). The most common causes were falls/trips (7.6%), bicycle and bicycle/motor- vehicle accidents (3.9%), and sports injuries (2.1%).
- Chronic bronchitis, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADD/ADHD) and fetal alcohol syndrome/fetal alcohol effects (FAS/FAE) are all more common among First Nations boys.
- Nearly one in three (31.2%) of 9 to 11 year olds understood one or more First Nations languages "fluently" or "relatively well". 83.2% of First Nations children considered traditional cultural events to be "somewhat important" or "very important".
- Over two-thirds of First Nations children are reported in 'very good' or 'excellent' health. The following factors are associated with those better ratings: living with parent(s), always or almost always eating a nutritious and balanced diet, having a mother with a university degree, and living in a non-crowded home.
"The results from the Survey will support First Nations communities in their planning and addressing health care needs, and the creation of preventative programs for First Nations children. We need to use this data to plan for a better future for our children," added Gray.
The Survey was conducted in 238 First Nations on-reserve and other communities between August 2002 and November 2003, with more than 22,000 participants across the country. The RHS includes three questionnaires designed for adults (18 years and over), adolescents (12 to 17 years), and children (0 to 11 years). The RHS preliminary report on the First Nations youth will be released in the Fall.
The RHS final national and regional reports on First Nations children, youth and adults will be released at the upcoming First Nations research conference ,"Doing Research Our Way - Celebrating 10 Years of RHS" will be held on November 13, 14 & 15, 2005 in Ottawa.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2005/07/c9803.html
Jobs Are In Decline - StatsCan Top-Lines Mask Reality
TORONTO, July 8 /CNW/ - In stark contrast to the top-line employment numbers from StatsCan today, the tables reveal a troubling trend: private sector job growth is even lower than last year, the worst since 2001.
"We've been fooling ourselves about this disturbing reality by focusing on the unemployment rate, not job creation," says Mark Swartz, a Canadian careers specialist, author and speaker. He adds that Canada is relying too heavily on government jobs, which are funded by our own taxes. There has also been an unexplained jump in self-employment that has increased the incidence of precarious labour.
While the overall unemployment rate is 6.7%, year to date the economy has added just 104.2M new jobs, DOWN 8% from the same period in 2004. This year's statistics break out as follows:
- Public Sector Employees: + 23.6M
- Private Sector Employees: + 80.7M
"The illusion of growth is most evident in the private sector, which misleadingly counts self-employment as full-time, private sector jobs," says Swartz. This grossly distorts the employment picture. Of this year's 80.7M new private sector positions, fully 51.2M, nearly 2/3rds, are self-employment, not real jobs. He notes "Historically self-employment has hovered around 15% of total employment. Recent statistics suggest a growing deficit in genuine jobs masked by inflated rates of self-employment."
This trend should be cause for concern given that conditions for producing better jobs have been ideal for years: historically low interest rates and a cheaper Canadian dollar; peaks in corporate profits; record high spending by consumers; and depletion of the national savings rate to levels not seen since the Great Depression.
Swartz concludes "We need to look beyond the summary provided by Statistics Canada and put increased effort into assisting our ailing economy immediately."
About Mark Swartz, MBA, M.Ed.
Mark is a Toronto-based career consultant, speaker and author. His best seller, "Get Wired, You're Hired" (Prentice Hall Canada) sold in the tens of thousands. From there he became Career Advisor on Canada's leading internet portal, Sympatico.ca. Today Mark is a regular contributor to a national newspaper. In addition, he consults with individuals and organizations on issues related to the world of work and careers.
For further information: Phone: (905) 886-1993, Fax: (905) 886-8151, E-Mail: mark@careeractivist.com, Web: www.careeractivist.com
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/July2005/08/c9719.html
| Employment by industry (based on NAICS) and class of worker for both sexes, aged 15 and over |
| |
May 2005 |
June 2005 |
May to June 2005 |
June 2004 to June 2005 |
May to June 2005 |
June 2004 to June 2005 |
| seasonally adjusted figures |
'000 |
% |
| Accommodation and food services |
987.9 |
995.9 |
8.0 |
-14.7 |
0.8 |
-1.5 |
| Private sector |
13,025.7 |
13,045.1 |
19.4 |
173.8 |
0.1 |
1.4 |
| Self-employed |
2,496.1 |
2,504.6 |
8.5 |
49.3 |
0.3 |
2.0 |
http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/050708/d050708a.htm
Iqaluit racquet club serves up challenge to smoking bylaw
CBC NewsLast updated Jul 8 2005 11:36 AM MDT
A private club in Iqaluit is going to court to fight efforts to shut down its smoking room.
Earlier this year, the Workers' Compensation Board ruled that the room at the Frobisher Racquet Club was illegal under its new regulations which ban smoking in all workplaces and prohibits smoke rooms, except in places such as elders' centres which are residences.
The racquet club is appealing the compensation board's decision.
"It's our view that it's a violation of the regulations in that it is a workplace and the employer is permitting smoking in the workplace which is contrary to the regulations," says Michael Triggs, with Yellowknife's WCB.
He says the law allows smoking rooms outside of a building such as an airport
But Triggs says that's not what the racquet club has built.
The racquet club has not yet commented on the case.
It will be heard in the Nunavut Court of Justice in September.
http://north.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=smoking-challenge08072005
Court upholds casinos' cigarette rewards plan
By PAUL WALDIE
Friday, July 8, 2005 Page A15
Health Canada has lost a battle in its continuing war against cigarette smoking.
Federal health officials have been in a legal tussle with two of Canada's largest casinos over a rewards program they use called Players Advantage Club.
The program allows patrons to use points they've accumulated to buy a variety of goods, including cigarettes. Health officials said that amounted to giving away smokes, which is a violation of the Tobacco Act, which forbids retailers to furnish tobacco products "without monetary consideration."
Last year, the department ordered the casinos -- Casino Niagara and Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort -- to change the points plan and exclude tobacco products.
The owner of the casinos, Falls Management Co., refused and argued that they are not giving away cigarettes. The company said club members paid for them with points, which served as "monetary consideration."
The case ended up at the Federal Court of Canada and in a decision released this week, the court sided with the casinos and threw out Health Canada's order.
"The evidence reveals that the Rewards Program does not promote the sale or use of tobacco products in any way and makes no direct or indirect representations that would influence and shape attitudes, beliefs or behaviour with respect to tobacco products," Mr. Justice Yves de Montigny said.
"The reward value that is removed from the member's account is akin to cash and has real monetary value with a direct relationship to the value of the tobacco products. The value debited from the account is a proxy for 'money.' "
Bruce Caughill, a lawyer at Falls Management, said the company was pleased with the decision. He declined further comment.
Paul Duchesne, a spokesman for Health Canada, said the department is reviewing the ruling and considering its options.
The club program has not attracted huge interest for the casinos, which are both in Niagara Falls, Ont. The company said of the six million people who visited Casino Niagara in 2002, about two million were club members.
Club members must be 19 years old or older and they earn points every time they play slot machines or other games. Every 100 points is worth $6. The company said only 5,000 members used points to buy cigarettes.
The two casinos boast more than 5,000 slot machines and 289 table games. Fallsview Casino opened a year ago at a cost of roughly $1-billion.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory
/LAC/20050708/SMOKES08/TPNational/Canada
Posted at 1:50 pm by looped_ca
Current needs in environmental risk management
Steve E. Hrudey
Abstract: Risk assessment and management have become central to many health and environmental issues in recent years.
Despite high expectations for the applications of science to identify and manage risks, many of these issues remain controversial. Some of the foundations of risk assessment and management are explored and needs for improvement are identified. Inputs from models, data, and uncertainty analyses are reviewed and goals for risk assessment, management, and communication are considered. Ultimately a better understanding of the strengths and limitations of these processes, primarily by the specialists and decision makers, is a prerequisite to more effective involvement of affected stakeholders in risk management. Unless some better basic understanding is achieved, public expectations and demands for risk management are likely to remain unachievable.
http://article.pubs.nrc-cnrc.gc.ca/ppv/RPViewDoc?_handler_=HandleInitialGet&journal=er&volume=5&calyLang=eng&articleFile=a97-006.pdf
ABC Flips: To Now Air 'Killed' Robert Kennedy Jr. Interview. ABC Responds ...
Huffington Post | READ STORY | permalink
ABC News will now air the 'killed' Robert Kennedy Jr. interview after all.
ABC statement: “Had anyone called us about your unsourced posting I would have been glad to tell you that ABC News is hard at work on that report. We will air when and if we deem it ready, as our audience would expect. As for the rest of the post, at least as it pertains to ABC and ABC News, there isn't a shred of truth. I think your source is using you to try and influence us. That's ineffective, not to mention, dishonest.”
HuffPost responds: 1) Our post is based only on people involved first hand. 2) We stand behind our original story.
Previously, ABC corporate executives at the network's highest levels ordered three interviews with Robert Kennedy Jr. pulled from ABC News programming.
The interviews all centered around Mr. Kennedy's investigation of thimerosal, a mercury based preservative, used in vaccines given to children and believed to be responsible for increasing cases of neurological diseases including autism.
Mr. Kennedy's interviews were slated for prime shows ABC World News Tonight, 20/20, and Good Morning America. Salon.com and Rolling Stone Magazine have exclusive rights to Mr. Kennedy’s article and they embargoed his story on other networks because of his arrangement with ABC.
Mr. Kennedy’s article was published today only in Rolling Stone and on Salon.com. The article links the CDC, FDA and Bill Frist to major drug companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Wyeth, and Aventis Pasteur that continued to include thimerosal in their vaccines despite studies showing the damage – and death – it caused in humans. In the 1990s the CDC and FDA recommended three additional children's vaccines laced with thimerosal, totaling twenty two federally recommended immunizations.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who has received $873,000 from pharmaceutical companies, tacked on the "Eli Lilly Protection Act" as a rider to a 2002 homeland security bill. The protection act was later repealed by Congress after a public outcry. Senator Frist is making another attempt to harbor big pharmaceuticals from families with infected children. He is appropriating the war on terror again by attaching a provision to the "Protecting America in the War On Terror" bill introduced to Congress this past January.
A 2001 Emory University Study watched ABC, CBS, and NBC in the Atlanta area for one week and found 907 advertisements for over-the-counter drugs and 428 advertisements for prescription drugs.
Posted June 16, 2005 04:30 PM
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New state law may stiffen Princeton University's ban on smoking in dorm rooms -NJ
By: David Campbell, Staff Writer 07/08/2005
School prepares to prohibit smoking in graduate as well as undergraduate housing
When Princeton University's new dorm-room smoking ban goes into effect this fall, it will likely have to be expanded to include graduate housing in order to comply with pending new state legislation.
Last month, the state Assembly and Senate both approved a bill that would ban smoking in dormitories in all public and private colleges and universities statewide. The proposed ban, which reportedly has the support of acting Gov. Richard J. Codey, places responsibility for enforcement largely on the schools.
Regina Carlson, executive director of New Jersey GASP, an organization that lobbies for smoke-free public spaces, said the acting governor is expected to sign the measure into law in August. It will take effect 60 days later.
New Jersey's pending new legislation is the strongest in the nation to prohibit smoking in college residential housing, covering both private and public institutions of higher education, Ms. Carlson said.
Only two other states have enacted specific legislation banning smoking in college dorms. Wisconsin requires student housing at the University of Wisconsin to be smoke-free, and Connecticut imposes a smoking ban for all public college dormitories, the NJGASP executive director said.
Ms. Carlson said New Jersey's measure will protect students and others from secondhand smoke and from fire hazards stemming from smoking. She said it will also help create an environment at schools where nonsmokers are more likely to remain so.
Janet S. Dickerson, Princeton University's vice president for campus life, said this week that a new policy taking effect at Princeton in September that will prohibit smoking in all undergraduate dormitory rooms will likely be expanded to include the university's graduate housing to comply with the pending new statewide measure.
Ms. Dickerson said university housing officials are expected to meet in the coming weeks to discuss the specifics of enforcement as well as extending the ban in the likelihood the state bill is signed into law by acting Gov. Codey. She said a finalized policy will be in place at Princeton by this fall.
Currently, smoking is prohibited in all common areas of Princeton's undergraduate dormitories and residential colleges. It also is prohibited in classrooms and offices on campus.
However, smoking has been permitted in residential rooms, but smokers can be asked to stop smoking or move from the area if the smoking draws complaints from fellow students living in the dorm.
The smoking ban for undergraduate housing was recommended by the Undergraduate Life Committee. The advisory committee is a group of students, faculty and administrators with the goal of improving the quality of life for undergraduates at Princeton.
The group examined the possibility of smoke-free housing last fall, and its recommendations were accepted by Ms. Dickerson's office, which announced its decision early this year. Ms. Dickerson has said a dorm-room smoking ban has been under consideration for several years at Princeton.
In making its recommendation, the Undergraduate Life Committee cited a study by the Harvard School of Public Health that found that college students who live in smoke-free residence halls are 40 percent less likely to take up smoking than their counterparts who live in housing where smoking is permitted.
About 35 fire alarms annually are set off on campus due to smoking, and there have been fires caused by smoking in rooms, including a 1993 fire that caused minor injuries to a student, the evacuation of 150 students and $350,000 in damage, the committee found.
The committee also cited a 2004 health survey at the university showing that less than 17 percent of undergraduates smoke, and that of those, about 85 percent said they hope to stop smoking before they graduate. A Web survey with 275 respondents showed that 63 percent of undergraduates supported smoke-free housing.
However, the university's undergraduate student government voted against the Undergraduate Life Committee's recommended ban in December.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14827321&BRD=1091&PAG=461&dept_id=425695&rfi=6
Full Appeals Court Agrees To Rehear Part Of Smoke Shop Lawsuit -NY
Attorney General Says Ruling 'Contradictory'
POSTED:10:13 pm EDT July 8, 2005
UPDATED: 10:22 pm EDT July 8, 2005
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A federal appeals court has agreed to rehear a lawsuit over the Narragansett Indian tribe's tax-free smoke shop.
Last month, the state asked the full 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the case after a panel of judges ruled in May that the state can require the Narragansett to collect taxes on cigarette sales, but violated the tribe's sovereignty when state troopers executed a search warrant on tribal lands and forced their way into the smoke shop.
The state was trying to stop the sale of tax-free cigarettes.
Attorney General Patrick Lynch said the ruling was contradictory, and did not answer the question of how the state could enforce its laws.
The appeals court's decision Friday vacates the part of the ruling dealing with enforcement so all the court's judges can rehear arguments on that issue.
Lynch said he was pleased with the court's decision to rehear the case.
"Both the state of Rhode Island and the Narragansett Indian tribe seek more clarity than the earlier ruling provided. The people of Rhode Island want more clarity, too," he said.
A message left with the tribe's chief sachem was not immediately returned.
State police raided the shop in July 2003. It had operated for two days on tribal lands in Charlestown.
http://www.turnto10.com/news/4701948/detail.html
Take steps to minimize cancer risk
By Karen Collins, R.D. Special to MSNBC.com Updated: 8:00 a.m. ET July 8, 2005
To grill or not to grill?
Many Americans still do not know that grilling can be unhealthy. The cancer risk from grilling, however, is real, but it changes dramatically with what you grill and how you do it.
The problem with traditional grilling comes from the combination of meat with intense heat. Whether you are using red meat, poultry or seafood, substances in the muscle proteins of these foods react under high heat to form carcinogenic compounds called heterocyclic amines (HCAs). HCAs can damage the DNA of our genes, beginning the process of cancer development.
Consumption of HCAs is mostly clearly linked to cancers of the colon and stomach. One study found that people who eat the most barbecued red meat (beef, pork and lamb) almost doubled their risk of colon polyps, compared to those who did not eat these foods. Colon polyps can develop into colon cancer. Some evidence also suggests that these carcinogenic compounds can travel through the bloodstream to other tissues. This would explain why HCAs could be a factor in breast cancer and other cancers.
Cook at lower temperature
A simple way to decrease formation of carcinogenic HCAs is to cook your meat at lower temperatures, like roasting it in the oven and stewing it. If you still want to grill, turn the gas down or wait for charcoal to become low-burning embers. By raising the grilling surface from the heat source, you can also reduce black char that can form on meat. This char has a high carcinogen content.
Pan-frying is another method of cooking that you should do at a lower temperature. Research shows that frying meat at a higher pan temperature, which saves only two minutes of cooking time, produces three times the HCA content of meat cooked at medium temperatures.
Two more ways to reduce HCAs when grilling are flipping meat every minute and marinating. Marinating can decrease HCA formation by up to 96 percent, although studies are still underway to determine which ingredients help the most.
To avoid a different class of cancer-causing compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), grill leaner meat cuts that will drip less and cause fewer flare-ups and smoke. PAHs form in smoke and are deposited on the outside of meat.
Although it is a good idea to use an instant-read thermometer to be sure meat is thoroughly cooked, the further you cook meat past that point, the more HCAs will form. A higher consumption of well-done meat is linked with two to five times more colon cancer and two to three times more breast cancer. Risk of cancers of the stomach, pancreas and prostate may also increase.
Try fish, chicken or veggies
Since the American Institute for Cancer Research recommends limiting all red meat to no more than three ounces a day, another way to reduce your cancer risk when grilling is to change what you grill. Fish and marinated skinless chicken are both great on the grill, although HCAs can still form on them. If you still want to eat red meat, make kabobs. The small pieces of meat cook quickly, and you can add lots of vegetables.
The best choice for grilling, however, is vegetables and fruits, because they don’t form HCAs. These foods also supply a whole range of cancer-fighting nutrients and phytochemicals. In fact, the natural phytochemicals in vegetables stimulate enzymes that can convert HCAs to an inactive, stable form that is easily eliminated from the body.
Even during barbecue season, your health will benefit by following AICR’s model of healthy eating called the New American Plate that makes vegetables, fruits, whole grains and beans the centerpieces of the meal.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8499202/
Insured Who Told Agent She Had Smoked, but Wrote Otherwise on Application, Did Not Conceal Fact—S.C.
By a MetNews Staff Writer
Friday, July 8, 2005
A suit by the surviving spouse of a woman whose life insurance policy was dishonored because she allegedly lied by denying having smoked in the 36 months before she applied for the policy should not have been dismissed on that ground, the California Supreme Court ruled yesterday.
Patrick O’Riordan raised a triable issue of material fact by alleging that his wife told the agent who procured the policy that she had shared a couple of cigarettes with her sister in the three-year period to which the application referred, Justice Joyce L. Kennard wrote in the 6-0 decision.
If the allegation is true, Kennard explained, then Amy O’Riordan did not, as a matter of law, conceal the fact of her having smoked from Federal Kemper Life Assurance. The case was sent back to the Third District Court of Appeal to consider other issues.
Patrick O’Riordan explained that his wife had smoked for many years but quit in 1991, five years before submitting her application. When they explained the situation to independent insurance agent Robert Hoyme, O’Riordan said, he told them that the company was only looking to screen out those who smoked regularly and there would be no problem in answering “no” if blood and urine tests conducted in connection with the insurance physical showed no traces of nicotine—which they did not.
Kemper issued the policy in June 1996 at the preferred nonsmoker rate, paying Hoyme a commission each month.
Amy O’Riordan was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 1997 and died in June 1998, two days before the policy would have become incontestable. After its claim investigation resulted in the disclosure that O’Riordan had received a nicotine patch in 1995, and that her doctor reported her having begun “to smoke a little bit again,” Kemper denied the claim and rescinded the policy.
Patrick O’Riordan sued in Sacramento Superior Court, but the judge granted summary judgment to Kemper and the Court of Appeal affirmed.
But Kennard wrote for the high court:
“[E]ven if, as Kemper insists, [the application] required disclosure of even a single cigarette smoked during the period at issue, Amy did not conceal that information from Kemper, because she did mention it to Hoyme when she applied for the life insurance. Although Hoyme was not Kemper’s agent when he assisted Amy in responding to Kemper’s medical questionnaire, he became one when his request to be so appointed—submitted with Amy’s application—was granted....Once he became Kemper’s agent, Hoyme had a duty to disclose to Kemper any material information he had pertaining to Amy’s life insurance policy, and Kemper is deemed to have knowledge of such facts.”
The case is O’Riordan v. Federal Kemper Life Assurance, 05 S.O.S. 3378.
http://www.metnews.com/articles/2005/orio070805.htm
Smoking Ban Initiative Sponsors Turn In Signatures-WA
POSTED: 7:48 am PDT July 8, 2005
OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Had Cecilia Izzo been told 25 years ago that she would lose a lung to cancer, she wouldn't have believed it.
The 51-year-old Seattle woman smoked as a teen, but didn't smoke after that, she said.
She told a Thursday news conference for smoking ban Initiative 901 that the second-hand smoke she inhaled during 10 years as a waitress gave her lung cancer.
Initiative sponsors turned in more than 325,000 signatures Thursday, well over the roughly 225,000 required to place the measure on the November ballot. The secretary of state's office still must verify whether the measure has sufficient valid signatures.
Michael O'Sullivan, an American Cancer Society spokesman, said the numbers show that people in Washington want to see the measure passed.
"We're one step closer to being smoke free," he said.
I-901 would prohibit smoking in and near bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, minicasinos, most hotel rooms and most other nontribal businesses. Violations would be punishable by a maximum $100 fine.
Izzo said she was speaking on behalf of the waiters and bartenders who face second-hand smoke in their workplaces.
"No one should ever have to choose between their health and their job," she said.
A law banning indoor smoking in public places would prevent needless suffering, said Dr. Chris Covert-Bowlds of Bellingham, a family doctor and I-901 proponent.
"Being a bartender or a waitress is not a crime and shouldn't carry the death penalty," he said.
Waiters and waitresses can inhale the equivalent of two packs of cigarettes a day, he said.
Initiative opponents predict that a ban would drive many customers to tribal casinos and other exempt operations.
"It gives a group of people in Washington, namely the tribes, a monopoly in having a venue that allows smoking where our businesses just down the street have an unfair environment," said Gary Murrey, who oversees operations at the Great American Casinos in Lakewood, Kent, Tukwila and Everett.
He filed a rival measure, Initiative 911, which would have banned indoor smoking in public places accessible by children but allowed it in bars, minicasinos and a few other businesses.
He ended his campaign recently after concluding he wouldn't be able to collect sufficient signatures.
Murrey said he suffered a 40 percent drop in his business in Pierce County when it imposed a smoking ban that covered bars, restaurants, bowling alleys, casinos, hotels, private clubs and most other nontribal businesses. The state Supreme Court eventually struck that ban down, saying it conflicted with state law. The state's less-restrictive Clean Indoor Air Act prohibits smoking in most public places, but specifically exempts restaurants, bars, bowling alleys and casinos.
Healthy Indoor Air for All Washington, the group promoting I-901, says independent economic studies show smoking bans are either beneficial to businesses or have a neutral effect
http://www.kirotv.com/health/4698767/detail.html
Bingo Mania -CO
By Valerie Singleton The Daily Times-Call Friday, July 08, 2005
LONGMONT — The glue stick is open, and the daubers are in starting position.
On the table: $24 worth of bingo cards, all split between husband-and-wife team Joe and Shirley Fowler, a Thornton couple who have called this bingo alley home away from home for two months.
“We like it because it’s not smoky,” Joe Fowler says of Longmont Bingo Alley. Shirley Fowler, an asthma sufferer, nods in agreement.
By all appearances, the Fowlers are methodically plotting a game plan. Joe has glued the edges of several yellow bingo cards together. Shirley, meanwhile, looks over a sheet of paper outlining the different games and bingo patterns on tonight’s agenda.
In reality, the mood in Longmont Bingo Alley is much less tense than it appears. Tonight’s crowd of 140 is simply preparing and waiting for announcer Shelley Besaw to begin calling out letters and numbers.
Tonight’s $10,196 jackpot — accumulated over time — ranks second to the week’s other big prize: a $26,100 jackpot.
On June 26, after 270 people packed in for a chance to win the money, one lucky Tri-Town woman matched the right numbers and walked away with the $26,100.
Some of them have returned tonight. Among the evening’s guests: Frank, a longtime player who once won a $7,000 jackpot here; Mary Lou Nuoci, the life of the party; Carson Bright, a Loveland man who prefers the trek to this Longmont bingo hall to a Loveland one; and Irene Pineda, an 8-year-old girl who has been attending these bingo nights since she was in her mother’s womb.
Behind the cards
Longmont Bingo Alley’s mission is two-fold, according to owners Max and Cindy Martinez.
For nearly 14 years, the Martinezes have aimed to please patrons with an evening of low-maintenance, inexpensive entertainment.
The player with his or her eye only on the prize may not realize the second goal: supporting local nonprofit organizations.
“Nonprofits are able to keep their businesses going,” Max Martinez says. “This is a very profitable thing for them.”
Seven local nonprofit organizations currently rent out Longmont Bingo Alley for games: Longmont High School Music Boosters; Longmont Academy; Longmont Humane Society; St. Vrain Youth Soccer Association; Longmont VFW and Auxiliary; Skyline High School Music Boosters; and Lyons Middle/Senior High School’s Lions Booster Club.
Bingo nights have proven to be a successful fundraising tool for the Longmont Humane Society, which has been participating in Longmont Bingo Alley sessions for more than a decade, according to Bob Olsen, a local, licensed bingo manager who helps oversee some of the games.
“When they first got involved in it, it was because it was so lucrative, and for a number of years ... it was the largest single fundraiser for the (Longmont) Humane Society,” Olsen says.
As of May, the organization had grossed $27,000 from the bingo sessions for its fiscal year, according to Longmont Humane Society executive director Linda Tyler.
The sessions remain the largest single fundraising effort for the Longmont High School Music Boosters, which uses the proceeds to purchase equipment and fund projects and trips for the school’s band, choir, orchestra, drum line and color guard, according to boosters President Janeil Walter.
“We have 150 sessions a year ... $275 to $300 a session is what we give back to the group,” Walter says. “It’s a huge fundraiser.”
The Longmont High School Music Boosters does not hold progressive bingo games, sessions at which monetary prizes increase when no one claims a win.
That’s what led up to the June 26 Bingo Alley game, at which the Lions Booster Club wrote one lucky woman a hefty check.
By the same token, state law requires each organization to pay its dues to participate. A nonprofit group must first be in existence for at least five years before being approved to hold games.
Longmont Bingo Alley’s seven member organizations each pay $350 in rent per bingo session as well as an annual $62 bingo licensing fee.
Additionally, state law requires that the entity hosting bingo games have at least $1,500 in prizes at hand during each session. State law also requires that a progressive bingo game — and consequently, its increasing jackpot — cannot continue past 30 successive bingo sessions. At that point, bingo managers must find a winner.
It’s a heavily regulated process, one that would not be possible without each organization’s volunteers, Olsen says.
Rae Buchanan has spent several years volunteering her evenings for the Longmont Humane Society’s bingo nights.
She helps sell bingo packets — six bingo cards — and “pickles,” which are bingo tickets with pull tabs revealing rows of images not unlike those on electronic slot machines. She does her best to accommodate bingo patrons. But some requests can’t be satisfied.
“I always hear, ‘Give me the good (card),’” Buchanan says.
A steady decline
The last few years haven’t been too kind to Colorado’s commercial bingo halls.
“When we had 170 people, it was a slow night when we first started,” Max Martinez says. “Today, if we have 100, it’s a good day.”
That trend has extended across the nation, according to industry insiders.
In Colorado, the amount of bingo sessions dropped roughly 14 percent from 1996 to 2002, according to a 2003 study by the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.
Additionally, bingo participation decreased by about 16 percent from 2002 to 2004, according to a 2004 report by the office.
Since that report was released, the success of Colorado’s bingo halls has continued to steadily decline, according to Mike Shea, director of licensing with the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office.
“He said in the last three or four months, halls here in the Denver area have gone out of business,” says office spokeswoman Dana Williams.
Shea identifies the following reasons for the trend: competition from casinos in Black Hawk and Central City; smoking bans enforced in many municipalities; the loss of the game’s traditionally elderly participants; and the inability of some organizations to attract volunteers to work the games.
Olsen adds Internet gambling and a poor economy to that list.
“I think all of those things combined have taken their toll on the bingo group,” Olsen says.
In Longmont, where smokers comprised a significant portion of Longmont Bingo Alley’s clientele, a January 2004 no-smoking ordinance threw the Martinezes a curve ball.
Before the ban, the owners designated a smaller, window-filled room a smoke-free zone. Within days of the ordinance’s enforcement, longtime smokers and Longmont Bingo Alley patrons vowed never to return should they be denied indoor-smoking rights.
They kept their promises.
As a result, faithful bingo players have felt the hit, Olsen says.
“Back in its heyday, all you had to do was show up and you could make $1,000 and $1,500 a day,” Olsen says. “Then I saw it go to the point where you could do anything you wanted and you couldn’t make any money.”
In fact, Williams says the average bingo-game payout — once in the $1,000 to $2,000 range — is now generally $100 to $200 per occasion.
“Overall, the decline is an unfortunate trend,” Williams says. “But the groups that are still operating seem to be still doing well, and they seem to still be doing the same kind of business.”
And as long as there is money to be won, the faithful will continue to keep commercial bingo halls alive, Max Martinez says.
Keeping bingo alive
“People have been coming here for a long, long time,” Max Martinez says. “They have their own special chairs.”
There’s the gals who play 36 cards at one time, even the folks who simultaneously juggle paper cards and electronic bingo portables. The generous share the cookies they routinely bring to the games.
Pauline Varela brings her troll dolls, multi-colored dauber tops inscribed with her lucky pairing, “B13,” and a dauber bottle with a picture of her grandchildren pasted to the front.
The regulars have become one big extended family, a figurative and literal statement for the Martinezes.
“I’ll tell you what — there’s been a few people who have met their spouses here,” Max Martinez says, referring in part to his daughter, Amy, who met and later married Longmont Bingo Alley patron Jared Follweiler.
The social dimension of the Martinezes’ bingo hall has been a great asset, a means for it to resist the industry’s downward shift.
As long as Longmont Bingo Alley stays in business, Mary Lou Nuoci will be there in her favorite chair, making new friends.
“This is our social life,” Nuoci says.
http://www.longmontfyi.com/entertainment/entertainment-story.asp?id=2555
Posted at 1:10 pm by looped_ca
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Why cervical precancers disappear in some women and not in others
Women's Health News Published: Wednesday, 6-Jul-2005
New research sheds light on why cervical precancers disappear in some women and not in others. Scientists at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center report in the July 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research that the reason many of these lesions persist is an unlikely mix of human papilloma virus (HPV) strain and a woman's individual immune system.
For decades, scientists have known that HPV causes nearly all cases of cancer in the neck of the womb. Most sexually active women - some reports say up to 80 percent - are exposed to HPV and more than half of these women are infected with strains of the virus that could likely turn a precancerous lesion to cancer. But only a small percentage of precancers progress to full-blown cancer, a process that takes years.
To find out why, gynecologic oncologist Cornelia Trimble, M.D., closely monitored 100 women with high-grade, precancerous cervical lesions before standard surgery to remove the abnormal tissue. Some of the lesions - about 28 percent -- regressed by themselves before surgery within a time period considered within the bounds of care standards. But among patients whose pre-cancers lingered, Trimble discovered that women were three times less likely to resolve their lesions if they carried a certain immune system gene and did not have HPV16, the most common strain of the virus.
Trimble was particularly interested in these molecular differences because she is using HPV-targeted vaccines in related studies to treat early cervical lesions before they turn into cancer. "It's important for us to know the immunologic fingerprint of women who may best benefit from our vaccine," she says. "Some lesions are on the brink of resolving, but may need the vaccine to push them over."
Lesions containing HPV16 alone are the most troublesome and difficult to resolve. In the subset of 44 patients with HPV16 only, their type of immune system made no impact on whether or not their lesion resolved. But in 30 women with non-HPV16 lesions, those who carry a gene called HLA*A201 were three times less likely to clear up their lesions than those without the gene (14.3 percent vs. 42.3 percent). According to Trimble, 40 percent of people carry the HLA*A201 gene, which codes for certain white blood cell proteins.
None of the lesions got worse during the study period, and all unresolved lesions were surgically removed when the observation period ended. "Since none of the lesions progressed after 15 weeks, we can be reasonably assured that this window of time is safe for vaccine treatments," she said.
Trimble is studying a larger group of patients to confirm her results and rule out other potentially confounding factors such as age, smoking status, and contraceptive method, which may influence how these lesions clear. Trimble recently published results linking second-hand cigarette smoke to cervical cancer progression. She also is looking for additional immune system characteristics that could predict mechanisms of immune responses to HPV. This may provide more information on which women have lesions more likely to regress and potentially avoid surgery, plus provide the opportunity to treat early-stage disease.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 20 million people in the United States are infected with HPV and up to three-quarters of these have viral strains that are linked to cervical, oral and anal cancers. More than 10,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed in the United States annually.
http://www.hopkinskimmelcancercenter.org/
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=11523
KY
New Study Released On Effects Of Secondhand Smoke
7/5/2005 11:06:47 PM
Reported by: AP/ 9News Web produced by: Neil Relyea Photographed by: 9News
As many Tri-state communities consider public smoking bans, a new study released on Tuesday provides new encouragement.
By using hair as a measure of nicotine exposure, University of Kentucky researchers have found that Lexington's smoking ban has halved exposure to secondhand smoke in three months.
Researchers took hair samples from 106 bar and restaurant workers and tested them.
It showed the amount of nicotine in their hair dropped by 56% three months after the ban went into effect.
The study shows hair samples are an indicator of exposure to secondhand smoke.
It also found that workers reported having fewer colds after the ban went into effect.
http://www.wcpo.com/news/2005/local/07/05/nicotine_study.html
Study to learn about metabolic syndrome -AU
AAP 11:37 AEST Mon Jul 4 2005
More than 4,000 people in Adelaide are taking part in a study to help researchers learn more about a little known but common medical condition, metabolic syndrome.
The condition affects almost one in four people in South Australia and is defined as central obesity, in which the fat is concentrated around the abdomen, usually accompanied by high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes or elevated blood sugar levels.
"Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of heart attack and stroke and it is also largely contributing to the dramatic increase in the number of people with type two diabetes," said Health Minister Lea Stevens.
The Adelaide study has already conducted initial tests with the participants about to have their second health assessment.
It has found that metabolic syndrome is more prevalent among males than females and is also associated with increasing age.
Ms Stevens said the best way to avoid the condition is through physical activity and healthy eating.
"Increasing activity levels, such as daily walking and maintaining healthy eating habits play a major role in reducing risk factors," she said.
Those suffering the condition are urged not to smoke, to maintain a healthy body weight and to reduce stress levels.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=54355
Study To Determine If Air Pollution Accelerates Development Of Cardiovascular Disease
Piggybacking on a major national study, scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine and several other centers will try to determine the degree to which air pollution accelerates development of cardiovascular diseases.
Winston-Salem, NC -- "The results of this new study, called MESA Air, can be used in future efforts to better define air pollution standards on both an individual and community basis," said Gregory L. Burke, MD, MS, professor and chairman of the Department of Public Health Sciences at Wake Forest.
With $30 million in funding from the US Environmental Protection Agency, the researchers will incorporate air pollution assessments in ongoing efforts that are following 6,814 participants from the six-city Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a 10-year study that began in 1999. Participants from the ancillary MESA Family study and three new MESA Air study sites will bring the total number followed to 8,700.
Forsyth County is one of six MESA study sites. The others are Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Baltimore and St. Paul. In Los Angeles, in addition to the existing site, additional participants will be recruited from coastal parts of the city that have less pollution, and from a more central area with more pollution. Additional participants from New York will be recruited from an area with more pollution.
In atherosclerosis, also called hardening of the arteries, deposits of fatty substances, cholesterol, calcium and other substances build up in the inner lining of an artery. The narrower arteries are susceptible to blockages, which are related to heart attacks and most strokes.
The researchers will be measuring the effect of repeated exposure over a 10-year period to six major air pollutants: particulate matter (smoke, soot, airborne dirt and dust), sulfur dioxide, ozone, carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and lead. They will be measuring air pollution levels both outside participants' homes and at fixed monitoring stations in each community.
"Forsyth County has some of the highest ozone levels in the whole study," Burke said.
In MESA, researchers are using sophisticated imaging devices to detect atherosclerosis before there are symptoms, which they call sub-clinical atherosclerosis, including CT scanning to find calcification of coronary arteries and ultrasound measurements of the wall thickness of carotid arteries in the neck.
But the researchers also will be monitoring heart attacks and strokes and other cardiovascular "events," trying to determine whether long-term exposure to air pollution accelerated development of atherosclerosis, progressively increasing the likelihood of heart attack or stroke, or whether relatively recent exposure to air pollution triggered the event.
MESA Air is called a prospective study, because the researchers will make initial measurement of sub-clinical atherosclerosis and chart the progression of atherosclerosis against actual measurements of the air pollution over a 10-year period.
Burke noted the health effects caused by two catastrophic pollution events in the Meuse Valley in Belgium on Dec. 1-5, 1930, where several thousand people experienced an acute pulmonary attack and 60 people died in two days, and the Dec. 5-9, 1952 London smog, where as many as 12,000 deaths were attributed to pollution. In both cases, sulfur dioxide was a key ingredient.
"This study seeks to better understand the importance of more moderate longer-term elevations of air pollution on cardiovascular diseases," said Burke, principal investigator for the Forsyth County portion of the study. The national principal investigator for MESA Air is Joel Kaufman from the University of Washington in Seattle.
MESA is multi-ethnic because it includes white, black, Hispanic and Asian participants selected from populations in the six sites. Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center
Rosemary Plybon , Web Producer
created: 7/6/2005 8:50:15 AM Last updated: 7/6/2005 8:50:27 AM
http://www.wfmynews2.com/news/health/health_article.aspx?storyid=44403
Snuff, Chew Tobacco Raise Heart Death Risk
Study suggests oral cancer not the only threat to users' health.
Study suggests oral cancer not the only threat to users' health
By Randy Dotinga HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, June 24 (HealthDay News) -- Besides raising the risk of oral cancer, smokeless tobacco -- also known as snuff, dip or chewing tobacco -- appears to boost the odds male users will die from heart disease, according to the largest study of its kind ever conducted.
The findings contradict earlier research, finding instead that people who chew or "dip" tobacco are 20 percent more likely to be killed by a heart attack or stroke than nonusers.
It isn't clear why smokeless tobacco might contribute to cardiovascular problems, and the study isn't the final word on the issue, said co-author Jane Henley, an epidemiologist with the American Cancer Society. Even so, the research, released this month in the journal Cancer Causes and Control, should give users another reason to kick their habit, she said.
Some chew users are ex-smokers who turn to smokeless tobacco to "tide them over" as they try to kick the smoking habit. But "any form of tobacco is harmful to your health," Henley said. "We should be encouraging smokers who want to quit to use nicotine-replacement and other safe therapies."
In their study, Henley and her colleagues examined two U.S. surveys of American adults, one spanning the years 1959-1972 and another from 1982-2000. Together, nearly 1 million men filled out questionnaires, including almost 10,000 smokeless tobacco users.
The studies encompassed both chewing tobacco, found in pouches and kept between the cheek and gums, and "dip," also known as "snuff," which comes in small tins and is "pinched" between the lower lip and gums.
Those who reported using smokeless tobacco when first surveyed were 20 percent more likely to die of cardiovascular diseases compared to those who never used any form of tobacco. They were also 20 percent more likely to die from all diseases combined.
The researchers adjusted the statistics in the study in an attempt to remove the influence of other factors such as age, race, occupation and diet.
Previous studies have both supported and debunked the link between smokeless tobacco and heart disease, said Henley, who believes more research needs to be done to confirm the findings.
Why would smokeless tobacco pose a risk to the heart? According to Henley, oral use of tobacco may increase heart rate and contribute to clots, which can block blood flow in the body.
Since nicotine replacement therapy seems to be safe, "tobacco itself is probably more harmful than just pure nicotine," she said.
An estimated 7.7 Americans, almost all male, use smokeless tobacco, Henley said. Part of its appeal is the rush delivered to users.
Also, "it's really easy to get hold of, and it's often sold in convenience stores right by the candy," said Elizabeth Rogers, spokeswoman for Oral Health America.
Smokeless tobacco now comes in several flavors, like wintergreen and cherry, that attract children, she said. Another key to its appeal is the ease of hiding the habit from adults.
Cigarettes, of course, leave telltale signs of smoke, while smokeless tobacco can disappear in an instant. "If the kid is swallowing instead of spitting, they could get away with it a lot easier," Rogers said.
http://www.drkoop.com/newsdetail/93/526450.html
Original Study: http://www.springerlink.com/app/home/contribution.asp?wasp=5c6fc59c06734c85a6b5e37c10bb1ad6&referrer=parent&backto=searcharticlesresults,2,2;
Bone mineral density, body mass index and cigarette smoking among Iranian women: implications for prevention
Azam Baheiraei , Nicholas A Pocock , John A Eisman , Nguyen D Nguyen and Tuan V Nguyen
BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders 2005, 6:34 doi:10.1186/1471-2474-6-34
Published 24 June 2005
Abstract (provisional)
Background
While risk factors of osteoporosis in Western populations have been extensively documented, such a profile has not been well studied in Caucasians of non-European origin. This study was designed to estimate the modifiable distribution and determinants of bone mineral density (BMD) among Iranian women in Australia.
Methods
Ninety women aged 35 years and older completed a questionnaire on socio-demographic and lifestyle factors. BMD was measured at the lumbar spine (LS) and femoral neck (FN) using DXA (GE Lunar, WI, USA), and was expressed in g/cm2 as well as T-score.
Results
In multiple regression analysis, advancing age, lower body mass index (BMI), and smoking were independently associated with LS and FN BMD, with the 3 factors collectively accounting for 30% and 38% variance of LS and FN BMD, respectively. LS and FN BMD in smokers was 8% lower than that in non-smokers. Further analysis of interaction between BMI and smoking revealed that the effect of smoking was only observed in the obese group (p = 0.029 for LSBMD and p = 0.007 for FNBMD), but not in the overweight and normal groups. Using T-scores from two bone sites the prevalence of osteoporosis (T-scores < -2.5) was 3.8% and 26.3% in pre- and post-menopausal women, respectively. Among current smokers, the prevalence was higher (31.3%) than that among ex-smokers (28.6%) and non-smokers (7.5%).
Conclusion
These data, for the first time, indicate that apart from advancing age and lower body mass index, cigarette smoking is an important modifiable determinant of bone mineral density in these Caucasians of non-European origin.
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2474/6/34/abstract
Better to Die Young Than Get Fat
By Sandy Szwarc Published 06/30/2005
The UN's World Health Organization has declared obesity a crisis of "epidemic proportions" in the developing world, with 300 million people globally deemed "obese." The UN has listed it among the world's top ten 'preventable risks,' along with unsafe sex. The reality of life in the developing world makes this agenda nothing short of genocidal.
Daniel J. Hoffman of Columbia University plotted rising BMIs in selected countries over the past fifty years and found a parallel with urbanization in the report "Obesity in developing countries: causes and implications" done for the UN's FAO. He also found higher healthcare expenditures as economies increased in developed countries. Lumping those correlations, with projections that in "less than 25 years it is anticipated almost two-thirds of world's population will be living in cities," formed the basis for claiming obesity economically threatened the developing world.
While admitting the lack of research for any economic impact of obesity in developing countries, he wrote "speculations ... can be made using data from developed countries." He cited studies finding associations between obesity and reduced productivity, including one claiming "obese" people were half as productive as "healthy" people. Hoffman opinioned that while fat people contribute less to the world economy, they require more food and health care costs because they are chronically ill. "Historically, health care systems in developing countries have been designed to treat and manage only acute diseases," he wrote. He questioned whether they could accommodate the burden of obesity-related chronic diseases.
This UN report used calculations of the "costs of obesity" to support that "obese" people were unhealthy drains on developed countries. Those studies, however, were stretches of creativity. They included indirect costs from reduced wages as a result of discrimination in employment, education and insurance coverage. They also piled on the costs for weight loss treatments and used computer modeling to project the costs for treating all of the conditions found in literature searches to be associated with obesity. As computer modeling is apt to do, errors can be built in that aren't apparent. In the cited study by Canadian researchers led by C. Laird Birmingham, for example, 80% of the "obesity-related" costs were just for heart disease, type-2 diabetes and hypertension, which are actually found in people of all weights and increase with aging. They further inflated medical costs attributable to the "obese" by defining obesity as BMIs of 27 and above - which is actually most of the population deemed "overweight."
Hoffman has predicted weight gains limit work capacity and will stagnate or send economic development backwards, although he admits "this idea has not been explored extensively."
Actually it has, but it appears Hoffman and the UN continue to ignore the positive realities in developed countries. When people have access to more food and the prevalence of starvation is reduced, average weights and heights of a population increase, but so does productivity, educational opportunities, prosperity and life expectancies. While one-third of Americans are deemed "obese," the Commerce Department just announced that U.S. incomes are rising at the fastest pace so far this year, outpacing growth in spending. A U.S. child has a life expectancy of 77 years, compared to just 33 years for a child in sub-Saharan Africa.
The UN has focused its objections on globalization and the spread of Western influences on diet. "The influx of multi-national supermarkets is creating unknown changes in the diets of populations," the FAO report stated. "It is important to prevent [developing countries] from succumbing to the dangers of processed foods and Western diets" including fats, meats, sweets and refined grains. To impede or reverse the trend of overweight and obesity, WHO advocates more fruits and vegetables, and public policies to "increase the surveillance of mildly overweight people in poor populations ... and guide social attitudes towards health weights and body sizes."
This is a debauched agenda for an organization whose mission since its foundation in 1945 is to "lead international efforts to defeat hunger" with a special focus on developing countries, home to most of the world's poor and hungry people. A study of more than 140,000 children in 34 countries in the May issue of Obesity Review found that only one-fifth of the countries had rates of childhood "obesity" of even at least 3%. Obesity is not a world crisis.
Contrast that 3% with a FAO report in 2000 which found an average of 33.2% of children in developing countries were malnourished. UNICEF's State of the World's Children 2005, reported 30 to 32% of babies are born with low birth weight. Among children under five years of age, 17 to 46% are moderately to severely underweight, with over 16% severely malnourished. Hunger is leaving millions of children developmentally delayed and vulnerable to diseases.
Compare the 300 million people around the globe WHO claims are "obese" and consider just the world's children. In developing countries, one in three children (more than 500 million) has no access to sanitation facilities; 1 in 5 (400 million) has no access to safe water; more than 640 million are without shelter; and 270 million have no access to healthcare services. Compared to hypothetical hand-wringing about obesity, these health risks kill for real. According to UNICEF, most of the 10.6 million deaths of children before their fifth birthday could have been prevented.
Equating fatness with sexually-transmitted diseases is especially heinous. Ninety percent of HIV/AIDS cases are in developing countries and 2.9 million people died of the virus in 2003, with another 4.8 million more newly diagnosed. And it left 15 million children orphaned, to starve.
For those who find "overweight to be just plain ugly" and "unacceptable from a moral point of view," most people would consider it immoral to focus on the small numbers who have enough to eat while letting hundreds of millions more suffer and die of starvation and disease.
http://www.techcentralstation.com/063005F.html
Canadian discovery has near-term potential for patients suffering from deadly cancers
MONTREAL, June 27 /CNW/ - Researchers at Montreal-based Supratek Pharma Inc. have discovered a new drug target that is expected to be useful in the fight against many of the most dangerous types of cancer.
Dr. Valery Alakhov, Chief Scientific Officer of the company, and his team have identified a new biological mechanism involved in the spread of cancer and the progression of the disease. They also demonstrated that blocking this process may prevent cancer from spreading.
"This is very exciting news in cancer research," says Dr. Francis Bellido, President of Supratek. "Ultimately, the cause of death for most cancer patients is metastasis, the spread of cancer from primary to distant sites. This is the first step towards developing drugs capable of halting this deadly process."
The research results were published in the May issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The article describes how a protein secreted by cancer cells, known as Metastasis Associated Protein, induces the formation of blood vessels that nourish cancer cells. This process is thought to play a major role in the spread of cancer.
Metastasis Associated Protein is associated with extremely aggressive forms of cancer of the breast, colon, rectum, bladder, lung, pancreas and stomach. Many advanced tumours over-express and secrete the protein which was suspected to be involved in cancer progression. It was not previously considered a target for drug discovery, because the mechanism underlying is effects was not understood.
"The protein has been studied for years, but its role in cancer progression eluded scientists until now," said Dr. Bellido. "Our research team has been working diligently to translate this new knowledge into new antimetastatic therapies."
Scientific discoveries typically require years of additional research to benefit patients. This may not be the case for this discovery. According to Dr. Bellido, the research team at Supratek has identified a number of drug candidates that appear to be effective against the new target. He expects Supratek to commence clinical development of the candidates in the near future.
"Our lead candidate is already prepared to enter human clinical trials," said Dr. Bellido.
About Supratek Pharma
Supratek Pharma is a pharmaceutical company focused on fighting metastatic cancers with innovative therapeutics. Our scientists are recognized leaders in the fields of polymer-based therapeutics and are at the forefront of the next generation pharmaceutical technology known as nanomedicine. In addition, Supratek Pharma's anti-metastasis research program led to the ground-breaking discovery of a new pathogenic pathway responsible for metastases formation and cancer progression.
Additional information on Supratek Pharma is available at http://www.supratek.com/. http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2005/27/c6216.html
State-Sponsored Anti-Tobacco Ads Linked to Reduced Youth Smoking
Posted by: laurakujawski on Wednesday, July 6, 2005
Youths who view anti-smoking television ads sponsored by states are less likely to smoke, according to a study published in the July 2005 issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Researchers from Bridging the Gap, a policy research program based at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) and the University of Michigan, found "strong associations" between state-sponsored anti-smoking media campaigns and the amount of youth smoking, as well as youth attitudes and beliefs about smoking. This is the first study to explore the impact of state-sponsored anti-tobacco advertising while controlling for other tobacco-related advertising. The National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funded the study.
“Our research shows that kids reached by state-sponsored anti-smoking TV ads are less likely to smoke or believe their friends smoke, and more likely to perceive a risk of addiction and harm from smoking,” said Sherry Emery, a UIC researcher and the study’s lead author. “These findings lead us to believe that state-sponsored anti-tobacco ads have played an important role in reducing youth smoking and that cutting support for these ads, as so many states recently have, is a step in the wrong direction.”
To arrive at their findings, Emery and her colleagues combined two sets of data. First, they gathered Nielsen commercial ratings of network and cable television audience exposure to anti-tobacco advertising across the largest 75 U.S. media markets in 1999-2000. They merged that information with survey data from samples of school students in the contiguous 48 states taken in the same timeframe. The youth data, collected by the University of Michigan Monitoring the Future study, measured student characteristics, smoking-related attitudes and beliefs, and self-reported tobacco use by 8th, 10th and 12th graders. The final sample size for the report was 51,085 students.
Researchers used Targeted Ratings Points (TRPs) to determine the average reach and frequency of smoking-related advertisement among 12- to 17-year-olds for each of the 75 markets. They found that students from media markets with higher TRPs, or greater ratings, for state-sponsored anti-tobacco ads were significantly less likely to have smoked in the past 30 days than students from markets with lower TRPs. Additionally, adolescent smokers in markets with the higher TRP measure smoked fewer cigarettes per day compared to adolescent smokers in markets with lower TRPs.
The data also revealed that students from media markets with higher TRPs for the state-sponsored ads tended to have stronger attitudes and beliefs about the risks of tobacco use and the benefits of not starting smoking than students from markets with lower TRPs. Higher TRP students were more likely to perceive great harm from smoking one or more packs of cigarettes per day and less likely to report that most or all of their friends were smokers compared to their counterparts in lower TRP areas. Students in areas with higher TRPs also were more likely to report that they would not be smoking in five years’ time, indicating a reduced intention to smoke.
Bridging the Gap, which is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is a joint project of ImpacTeen, a program of the University of Illinois at Chicago's Institute for Health Research and Policy, and Youth Education and Society (YES!), a program of the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. Bridging the Gap improves understanding of the role of policy and environmental factors in youth alcohol, illicit drug, and tobacco use, as well as diet and physical activity, to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing substance use and obesity among youth.
For more information, visit the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Web site.
http://www.pnnonline.org/article.php?sid=6057&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
You might as well smoke; the misleading and harmful public message about smokeless tobacco
Carl V Phillips , Constance Wang and Brian Guenzel
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/5/31
Patterns of lung cancer mortality in 23 countries: Application of the Age-Period-Cohort model
Yung-Po Liaw1 , Yi-Chia Huang2 and Guang-Wen Lien
Dietary fat consumption has been found to be positively related to lung cancer mortality [18-20]. Our data from Japan, Taiwan and Cuba women (on Tables 2 and 5) also indicated that the percent increase of fat consumption was positively related to the percent increase of ASMR by using the Spearman's rank correlation coefficient. Further study of factors other than smoking, like fat intake, on lung cancer mortality seems warranted, especially for women in Asian countries (Japan and Taiwan).
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/5/22
RICHMOND, Va. -- A decade ago, a car salesman turned entrepreneur began cooking tobacco leaves in a microwave with the lofty goal of creating less toxic products.
"I was in a race against myself to try to fix the tobacco industry," Jonnie R. Williams testified in a pending case over his patents. "And so I tested everything under the sun. When I ran out of tobacco, when the tobacco season was over, I switched to cabbage and to lettuce and to flowers."
Williams had little background in tobacco or science. But that didn't discourage the colorful venture capitalist, whose earlier adventures in business earned him several black marks along with riches.
Many failures and microwaves later, Williams claimed he had discovered how to substantially reduce a cocktail of cancer-causing toxins known as tobacco-specific nitrosamines, or TSNAs, which develop during the curing process. By 1998, he was also trying to limit the carcinogens by quickly drying leaves with high temperatures and increased air flow, according to court documents.
His company, Star Scientific Inc. of Chester, said in 1999 that Brown and Williamson had agreed to buy its "StarCured" tobacco. But shortly after learning of Star's innovation, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco announced a similar system to decrease nitrosamines, Star claims.
In May 2001, Star Scientific sued RJR for patent infringement in a case that could have enormous repercussions for the industry. Any day now, a federal judge in Baltimore could issue rulings that will determine whether the dispute goes before a jury.
Analysts say RJR, owned by Reynolds American Inc., conceivably could be forced to pay billions of dollars in royalties and damages. For Star Scientific, the stakes are even higher. Without additional capital or financial improvements, the company may have difficulty funding its operations next year, according to Star's financial reports.
Already, Star's regulatory filings paint a dismal picture of a company grappling with high litigation costs, industry woes and competitive issues. Last year, the company, which also sells discount cigarettes and spit-free hard tobacco pellets, lost $16.6 million on $66.7 million in sales.
In the fall of 2003, Star's worst nightmare occurred: RJR and Brown and Williamson announced plans to merge. Not surprisingly, Brown and Williamson's contract to buy StarCured tobacco, which had resulted in more than $100 million in revenue for Star over three years, was not renewed. That was followed by more bad news. A year later, RJR informed Star of the unsuccessful market test of a hard smokeless tobacco product that Star had made for Brown and Williamson.
If Star wins the lawsuit, though, it could collect money not only from RJR but also from other tobacco companies that might have infringed on patents licensed to Star, said Mike Niehuser, an analyst with The Robins Group. A Star victory would hand Williams, the company's chief executive officer, a resounding success.
Whatever the outcome, anti-smoking advocates caution that government regulation and independent research are needed to evaluate claims of low TNSA tobacco.
Danny McGoldrick, research director for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, says cigarettes contain toxins other than nitrosamines. And even if Star has managed to knock out the TSNAs, he says, there's no way to tell whether its processes influence levels of other dangerous agents.
"In an unregulated environment, we have no idea what the impact of the changes are," McGoldrick said.
Philip Morris clearly has a vested interest in the Star-Reynolds dispute.
William Phelps, a spokesman for Philip Morris USA, said Star had threatened to sue the company over its use of low TSNA tobacco _ a claim that Star has denied. Perhaps as a pre-emptive strike, Philip Morris sued Star in federal court in Richmond in 2002, seeking to invalidate the smaller company's patents. A judge dismissed the lawsuit, noting that the Maryland case involved the same issue.
Star and RJR declined to comment on the litigation.
In the Maryland lawsuit, a bench trial was held earlier this year on RJR's inequitable conduct defense, which essentially alleges that Star failed to disclose all necessary information when it filed for two patents in the late '90s. U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis is expected to rule on that issue and two motions for summary judgment.
It has been difficult for outsiders to analyze the companies' arguments because of the number of sealed court documents. But in general, inequitable conduct is a common defense that rarely gets past a judge, said Alexander Raring, an intellectual property attorney in Richmond.
"It's raised in almost every patent infringement case, because it's an easy defense to raise," said Raring, who is unfamiliar with the Star case. "A successful inequitable conduct defense means you never get to the question of infringement. And that's why you raise it."
The two motions involve whether the invention was already in the public domain and whether the patents made distinct claims. Rulings on these motions, as well as the inequitable conduct defense, could render the patents invalid, Raring said.
Of course, what Garbis decides may depend on whether he believes the 50-year-old Williams, who is perhaps better known for his charisma and salesmanship than some of the failed startups and irate investors in his past.
Early in his career, Williams, a native of Fredericksburg, established himself as a brilliant car and real estate salesman in his hometown. By the time he was 24, he drove a gold Mercedes, owned two homes and had started a local optical shop, according to articles in The Free Lance-Star from the '70s and '80s.
In 1979, a Spotsylvania County judge fined him $100 for fitting contact lenses without a license, the newspaper reported. The optical business collapsed, leaving tens of thousands of dollars in debts. As the shop's equipment was auctioned off, one person remarked to the paper: "If the auctioneer really wanted to make some money, he'd auction off Jonnie's address and phone number."
Williams, in a later interview with The Free Lance-Star, blamed the situation on his lack of business knowledge.
But similar reactions followed him after he invested in a business that provided medical training and then in Spectra Pharmaceutical Services Inc., a Hanover, Mass., company that touted an ointment that could possibly cure eye diseases, The Boston Globe reported in 1988. Both companies failed.
The Securities and Exchange Commission accused Williams of carrying out a publicity campaign to promote Spectra's stock by using research reports that included false claims. In 1994, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled against Williams and two others. Williams, without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations, agreed to the disgorgement of alleged ill-gotten gains, plus interest, totaling $295,000.
Williams has had several successes, including his large investments in the companies LaserVision and Visx Inc., a maker of laser vision-correction systems.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Williams said his early business mistakes could have been avoided if his reading skills were better and if he had the legal counsel he has today.
Supporters of Williams say he is a classic entrepreneur who managed to outthink a well-heeled industry.
"One of the things I like about Jonnie Williams is he approached solving the problem of TSNAs in the curing process of tobacco in a way that appears to be unlike anybody informed in the industry," analyst Niehuser said. "He came in with an entirely new approach. That's how the world advances."
http://www.wkyt.com/Global/story.asp?S=3492825
Polymorphisms in signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 and lung function in asthma
Augusto A Litonjua , Kelan G Tantisira , Stephen Lake, Ross Lazarus, Brent G Richter, Stacey Gabriel, Eric S Silverman and Scott T Weiss
Respiratory Research 2005, 6:52 doi:10.1186/1465-9921-6-52
Published 3 June 2005
http://respiratory-research.com/content/6/1/52
Discovery will lead to more effective treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension
Medical Research News Published: Sunday, 5-Jun-2005
A University of Alberta research team has discovered important new information they hope will lead to more effective treatments for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)--a deadly form of high blood pressure in the pulmonary arteries caused by uncontrolled cell growth. Therapies are currently limited for a disease that can lead to heart failure and death within a few years.
The researchers have shown that Survivin, a protein almost exclusively expressed in cancer, is also heavily expressed in both human and animal lung arteries with PAH. Survivin is an inhibitor of apoptosis--or programmed cell death--which promotes cancer by suppressing the body's ability to limit excessive cell growth.
Armed with this new information and using animal models, the researchers developed a nebulized and inhaled gene therapy to deliver an inactive Survivin-mutant via a virus--known in science as a "dominant negative construct"--effectively inhibiting endogenous Survivin. The therapy reversed PAH in rats and improved their heart function and their survival, thus holding out some promising avenues of treatment for human PAH. The team members believe that as in cancer, Survivin drives excessive cell growth in the PAH lung blood vessels.
"The most intriguing aspect," explains principal researcher Evangelos Michelakis, "is we've shown for the first time that this cancer protein is also expressed within the blood vessels of the lung in patients suffering with PAH, but not in normal human blood vessels, making survivin a very attractive target for selective intervention.
"This makes the proliferation of lung blood vessels in this disease a 'form of cancer' or a form of neoplasia to be more precise, first proposed by Drs. Voelkel and Tuder from the University of Colorado. We've demonstrated for the first time that, like cancer, apoptosis is suppressed in the lung blood vessel wall in this disease."
"Our biggest challenge in treating PAH is the fact we don't know what makes the cells in the lung blood vessel wall grow excessively," says the University of Alberta cardiology professor and Canada Research Chair holder. "And therapies also have to target the lung blood vessels and spare the normal cells in the rest of the body."
The paper is entitled Gene therapy targeting survivin selectively induces pulmonary vascular apoptosis and reverses pulmonary arterial hypertension. It's published in the June issue of The Journal of Clinical Investigation. In an accompanying editorial entitled Lessons learned from cancer may help in the treatment of pulmonary hypertension, written by French researcher Serge Adnot, the journal stated: "These findings raise important issues regarding the role of survivin in the pathogenesis of PAH, its value as a prognostic indicator, and its use as a target for new therapeutic strategies."
Other authors include: Sean McMurtry, Pulmonary Hypertension Program; Stephen Archer, Canada Research Chair in Translational Cardiovascular Research; Dario Altieri, Department of Cancer Biology and the Cancer Center, University of Massachusetts Medical School; Sebastien Bonnet, Alois Haromy, Gwyneth Harry and Sandra Bonnet, the Vascular Biology Group and Pulmonary Hypertension Program; and Lakshmi Puttagunta, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, U of A.
The latest research builds on previous work by the group, published a few months ago in Circulation Research, showing that an orally available drug, Dichloroacetate, selectively enhances apoptosis in PAH and thus reverses PAH, prolonging the survival of rats. Because this oral therapy has already been tried in humans with congenital mitochondrial diseases, the team is initiating a clinical trial in human PAH. Similarly, newer drugs that inhibit Survivin, currently in trials in oncology, might also be directly applicable to PAH patients, Dr. Michelakis explains.
The researchers are supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Canada Research Chair Program, the Alberta Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the National Institutes of Health, and the Alberta Cardiovascular and Stroke Research Centre (ABACUS). Dr. McMurtry is supported by the University's clinician investigator program and TORCH, a CIHR-sponsored multidisciplinary training program in cardiovascular disease, and a training grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb Company.
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=10704
Smoking ban prosecution stubbed out -NZ
The first prosecution under legislation banning smoking in bars and pubs will not be going ahead.
Bank's Peninsula publican John van Buren was accused of breaching the act by allowing patrons to smoke at the Wheatsheaf Tavern. He was planning to defend the charge.
However, at the Christchurch District Court the prosecution said while the proceedings were alive, the company, which has gone into liquidation, is not.
The prosecution has asked that the charges be stayed but not withdrawn and has made an application for costs.
Judge Couch said it may be more appropriate for the matter to be withdrawn entirely and said he would make a decision on this and on costs later.
Van Buren is also head of the WIN political party formed to fight the law banning smoking in bars and restaurants.
The WIN party includes two other publicans who are facing charges under the Smoke-free Environments Amendment Act
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411319/595810/
Kangaroo Court and Bush Justice -NZ
Tuesday, 5 July 2005, 3:32 pm Press Release: WIN Party
Ministry of Health Public Health Programmes Manager Graeme Gillespie has stated he could not understand why former Wheatsheaf Tavern owner John van Buren liquidated his company to avoid prosecution under the Smokefree Environments Amendment Act when he was ‘only facing fines of a few thousand dollars if convicted’.
“Gillespie understated the penalties for breaches of the Act’, says WIN Party spokesperson Dave Clarke, “as he is well aware his department actively seeks liquor licence suspension for any alleged breaking of the smoking ban in bars, prior to any charges being heard in court”.
On 14 June 2005, the Liquor Licensing Authority suspended Cambridge hotel owner Dean Risi’s liquor on-licence for three weeks. The Authority took into account Risi’s alleged breaches of the Smokefree Environments Amendment Act when determining the length of suspension.
“Risi has never been convicted of any offence under the Smokefree Environments Amendment Act”, says Clarke, “but in Paragraph [61] of their decision (No. PH 430 - 432/2005), the Authority clearly states the period of suspension reflects Risi's misguided attitude to his responsibilities to the Smoke-free Environments Act”.
“The Ministry of Health sought to have Risi’s licence suspended for alleged breaches of the Act and the LLA delivered, dealing out punishment for yet to be proven offences”, says Clarke,” which can be likened to nothing more than a kangaroo court hearing and bush justice”.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0507/S00042.htm
First prosecution under smokefree laws halted -NZ
04 July 2005
The first prosecution under laws banning smoking in bars is not going ahead.
Former Banks Peninsula publican John van Buren's company Wheatsheaf Tavern (2004) Ltd was to be the first in New Zealand to defend a criminal charge for breaching the Smokefree Environments Amendment Act.
But he placed the company into voluntary liquidation on Friday.
In Christchurch District Court today the prosecution sought to have the charge stayed, but not withdrawn, Mr van Buren told NZPA.
Judge Tony Couch was expected to decide later today whether to stay or withdraw the charge.
Putting the company into liquidation was something that had only been considered last week, as a certain way of getting off the charge, Mr van Buren said.
"To us that was going to be the certain way of having a win...obviously when you go to court, by any means you try and get off with those charges."
Despite that, he had been looking forward to arguing the case in court but had not been looking forward to the costs that would have incurred.
"I walked out of the pub with quite a bit of debt, that I've now got to work to pay off. Obviously liquidation helps that as well."
He was sure that without the smokefree law he would have stayed in business, rather than walking out of the pub in March.
"Even though I allowed smokers in my bar it got down to a stage later on where I was being given a hard time by the authorities and that affected my custom," he said.
While he could have fought the case, his personal circumstances with the amount of debt he had from the pub weren't "that flash".
"So I was a bit worried financially about how we were going to chase it, or how long we could chase it for.
"Ultimately we felt we had a pretty good chance of getting off anyway," Mr van Buren said.
With the court case dealt with he now had more time to work on the WIN political party, set up in the wake of the smokefree law, of which he is the leader.
He would also be working as a fencing contractor, truck driving and gorse spraying in season to pay off some debt.
Party deputy leader Timaru publican Geoff Mulvihill is himself due in court in August to defend six charges under the smokefree legislation against his Carlton Hotel.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3334547a10,00.html
Posted at 11:27 am by looped_ca
Remarks by André Calantzopoulos, President and Chief Executive Officer, PMI at JP Morgan Conference
London, UK June 29, 2005
Good morning everyone. It is a pleasure to be here today. Before I begin, let me say that my remarks today contain projections of future results. I direct your attention to the Forward Looking and Cautionary Statements section at the end of today’s news release for a review of the various factors that could cause actual results to differ from projections. A copy of my remarks will be posted later today to the Altria Web site.
This morning, I will cover first-quarter 2005 results for Philip Morris International Inc. (PMI), including a region-by-region review. Thereafter, I will discuss the global strategies we have in place for driving long-term growth. I will conclude with an outlook for our 2005 full-year results.
In the first quarter of 2005, PMI volume rose 2.1% to 201 billion units. This performance was driven by higher volume in Italy as a result of a one-time inventory sale to our new distributor, volume recovery in France and gains in many Central European, Eastern European and Asian markets, partially offset by lower shipments in Germany. Excluding the inventory sale in Italy, PMI first quarter volume was 197 billion units, essentially flat versus the same period a year ago.
Operating companies income (OCI) rose 13.1% to $2.1 billion. The increase was generated by higher pricing, favorable currency and the inventory sale in Italy, partially offset by unfavorable mix, expenses related to the European Community (EC) agreement and a one-time charge for a factory closure in Hungary. Excluding the one-time charges and inventory sales, underlying OCI was up 8% to $2.0 billion.
Now, let me review our business on a regional basis. PMI volume in Western Europe rose 0.6% during the first quarter of 2005. However, excluding the one-time inventory sales in Italy, our regional volume declined 7.2%, principally due to the continuing contraction of the overall cigarette market in Western Europe.
In 2004, the total cigarette market in Western Europe declined 45 billion units, or 8%, mainly due to sharp drops in Germany and France following tax-driven price increases. A portion of the German decline was also due to consumer switching from cigarettes to lower-taxed and lower-priced tobacco portions. In the first quarter of 2005, aggregate market volume fell 9%.
In Germany, cigarette sales declined 20%, reflecting one less selling day, the impact of tax-driven price increases in March and December 2004, and down trading to the tobacco portions segment, which almost tripled versus the first quarter of 2004 to over five billion units. The decline in Italy is attributable to December 2004 tax-driven price increases and to recently enacted smoking restrictions. In Spain, the decrease reflects declines in smoking incidence and some down trading to roll-your-own products. The notable exception to these trends was France, where the market was flat, reflecting recent price stability.
While these market declines impaired our shipment volume performance in the first quarter, we nevertheless increased our leading share of this high-margin region. Our overall regional share grew 0.1 percentage point to 38.6% and we held or added share in seven of 10 Western European markets.
As I mentioned earlier, the total market in France has stabilized, after declining more than 20% in 2004 following tax and price increases that raised the Marlboro retail price from 3.80 euros to 5.00 euros.
Another important development in France has been the government’s introduction in July 2004 of a minimum reference price law, which prohibits pricing below a certain level. Overall price gaps are currently reasonable, and we have been able to generate share gains for Marlboro and for our overall portfolio. We also successfully entered the roll-your-own segment with Chesterfield in mid-2004. Despite the sharp tax-driven retail price increases, the gap between the lowest price in the market and Marlboro is 50 euro cents or 10%. With the minimum reference price set by government at 4.46 euros per pack of 20 cigarettes, gaps should remain at or near current levels. In the context of higher prices and lower consumption, we have nevertheless continued to gain market share. Driven by Marlboro, we have added more than two share points since the first quarter of 2004, to attain a leading 41.5% share of the market.
We also continue to gain share in Spain. Our share in the first quarter improved 0.1 point to 36.7%, with three of our key brands, Marlboro, Chesterfield and Philip Morris, each contributing to this growth. More recently, we have witnessed the rapid emergence of an ultra low-price segment in Spain. Facing significant tax revenue losses, the Spanish government has announced it will undertake a full review of tobacco fiscal and regulatory policies. We are hopeful that this review will lead to the introduction of a minimum excise tax.
Clearly, our biggest challenge in Western European today is Germany. The cigarette market is in severe decline, prompted by both tax-driven price increases and significant down trading to other tobacco products, mainly tobacco portions, which benefit from lower taxation. Since September 2001, cigarette excise taxes have increased four times, and are scheduled to increase further this coming September.
A look at the relative retail prices and tax levels clearly illustrates the issue posed by other tobacco products. Tax represents 75% of the retail price of Marlboro cigarettes, but just 51% of the price of Marlboro portions. As a result, portions sell at a much lower price but generate similar net manufacturers’ selling prices and margins as cigarettes.
The impact on tobacco consumption patterns has been dramatic. Last year, the cigarette segment lost over 20 billion units, while cigarette portions volume more than doubled to 14 billion units. This trend continued during the first quarter. Cigarette volumes were down 20% versus the first quarter of 2004 and the volume of portions almost tripled to five billion units.
While the European Commission has started proceedings to challenge Germany’s application of the excise law on portions, this process will be lengthy. Consequently, we entered the portions segment last April with Marlboro and Next. We held 13% of the segment in the first quarter.
Despite the challenging operating environment, Marlboro remains by far the leading brand in Germany. To broaden its appeal, we introduced Marlboro Blend 29 in October last year. Marlboro Blend 29 is a new American blend of high-quality tobaccos that provides a new mix of flavor, new and fresh packaging and a novel way of presenting Marlboro’s core values and imagery. The launch focused on legal age meeting places in selected cities. First results have been encouraging and we have since extended Marlboro Blend 29’s distribution.
In Italy, we have witnessed a number of positive developments. Following the government’s implementation of a minimum excise tax in mid-2004, retail price gaps have narrowed and we have begun to increase market share for the first time since early 2002. The wide gap of 1.10 euros between Marlboro and super low-price brands fuelled the emergence of this segment, which contained competitive international brands such as Pall Mall, Winston and Benson & Hedges American Blend. After the government’s implementation of the minimum excise tax, retail prices of the super low-price brands increased and their price gap to Marlboro narrowed to 80 euro cents in September.
With closer price gaps, our market share began to improve and we have added a full percentage point since July of 2004. Importantly, Marlboro remains vibrant and relevant for legal-age to 24-year-old smokers, with a 47% smoker share of this group versus its total smoker share of 22%. In addition, we have entered into new distribution arrangements that provide better service levels, lower costs and improved cash flow.
In summary, tax increases have become a fact of life in Western Europe, but fiscal structures have and should improve with the implementation of minimum excise tax or reference prices in many regional markets. While overall consumption has declined sharply in recent years, we expect the decline rates to ease. Importantly, PMI is gaining share overall in the region and in most individual markets. We are also improving our total profitability in the region through selective price increases, which have more than offset the impact of volume declines this year.
In Central Europe, our volume was up 5.2% in the first quarter of 2005, including gains in Poland and Romania. While industry volume declined in the region, we gained share. Regionally, we added 1.7 share points, to reach a leading 37.3%. We recorded share gains of two percentage points or better in Slovakia, Poland, Romania and Hungary. However, we lost share in the Czech Republic, due to intense price competition at the bottom of the market.
In Poland, our first quarter volume and share were up significantly versus 2004, aided by the November 2004 introduction of a minimum excise tax and the May 2004 reduction of the tax differential between cigarettes and other tobacco products. PMI also entered the sizeable roll-your-own segment last year, and garnered 35% of this segment in the first quarter of 2005.
Low-price Red & White, launched in July 2004, has driven our recent share improvement of nearly five points. Our overall share of 40.1%, achieved in the first quarter, was a new record for PMI in Poland.
In the Czech Republic, our share erosion is principally due to competitive launches in the ultra low-price segment. In response, we have launched Clea, Next and Bond Street into the segment, and we presently hold a segment share of nearly 70%. We also are supporting the government’s consideration of an increase in the level of minimum excise tax or the introduction of a minimum reference price mechanism to protect government revenues and avert a debilitating tax increase. While we have not yet reversed the share loss, the success of Clea and Next have served to moderate the share decline.
The 10 new EU member states within our Central Europe region are undergoing significant change. The gradual harmonization with EU tax norms has forced tax-driven price increases and has led to a decline in industry volumes, some down trading to low-price brands and increased inflow of contraband and counterfeit product. We are successfully addressing these challenges by leveraging our comprehensive brand portfolio, supporting improved fiscal structures and working with governments to fight illicit trade. As a result, we continue to add volume and share in the overall Central Europe region.
In the markets of Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa (EEMA), PMI volume grew 7.8% in the first quarter. Our estimated share of the vast EEMA region increased 2.5 percentage points in the first quarter, to reach 22.7%. Among individual markets, we added share in Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, our four most important income contributors in the region.
In Russia, we increased our leading share position to 27.2% in the first quarter. One of our priorities this year is to improve distribution of our brands in major urban areas through direct store delivery. We have also improved the presentation of L&M, the leading international brand on the Russian market, through pack upgrades.
Since 2000, our share of the Russian market is up a cumulative 10.5 points. While we have a broad portfolio in Russia, L&M has been a particularly important contributor to our share gains, super premium-price Parliament has captured nearly 2% of the Russian market, and Marlboro volume is growing steadily.
In addition to holding a leading 27.2% share of volume in Russia, we are by far the most profitable competitor in the market, and generated an estimated 50% share of industry income in the first quarter.
In Turkey, PMI achieved record market shares last year and in the first quarter of 2005. This performance has been achieved despite frequent changes to the cigarette excise tax system that have encouraged the launch of new brands and blends.
Since January 2004, the government has enacted five different excise tax regimes in Turkey in an effort to support the privatization of Tekel, including a fully ad valorem system, a mixed system with a multi-tiered specific component based on retail price levels, and a mixed system with a multi-tiered specific component based on blend inclusion rates of Turkish oriental tobacco. In response, we have made significant changes to our blends and portfolio, including increases in the Turkish oriental tobacco component for L&M, and launches of new brands such as Bond Street and a fully oriental blend brand, Turku. However, the current ill-conceived tax regime has regretfully put pressure on both industry profitability and government revenues, and we are actively pursuing revisions to the fiscal structure.
As a result of timely PMI responses to these frequent tax changes, our overall share has continued to increase during this period of market instability. Bond Street has been an important contributor to our share performance, while Marlboro share growth has resumed. Notably, PMI has recently surpassed Tekel as the leading cigarette company in Turkey.
In Ukraine, our portfolio has benefited from general consumer up trading and we continue to record strong volume and share gains in this sizeable market of over 100 billion units. In order to meet the increased demand for our products, we are in the process of completing a new manufacturing facility near Kharkiv that will be fully operational in the fourth quarter.
Ukraine has been one of PMI’s strongest growth markets over the past several years. This is reflected in our share performance since 2002, as we have added more than eight share points with gains generated by L&M, Marlboro and Bond Street.
In the EEMA region, PMI is generating outstanding volume and share opportunities with the prospect of margin improvements over the longer term. While we are working to improve the excise tax situation in Turkey, this will remain a short-term challenge. Finally, there are plentiful opportunities for geographic expansion to markets where PMI is currently not present or is under-represented. Recent market entries have included South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Iraq and Libya.
In the Asia Pacific region, our volume was down 1.1% in the first quarter, due to lower industry volume in Korea, Japan and Malaysia. We recorded share gains in our key Asian markets in the first quarter and our regional share was up by 0.7 percentage points to 12.7%. While our Malaysia share was up in the quarter, the situation there has become more volatile due to increased price competition.
Please note that these statistics exclude Sampoerna, a leading kretek manufacturer in Indonesia, which we acquired in the second quarter. This was the largest acquisition PMI has ever made, and the combination of Sampoerna’s business with our existing Marlboro business makes us the number two company in the world’s fifth-largest cigarette market.
In 2004, Sampoerna was the third-largest tobacco company in the growing and profitable Indonesian market. It held a 19.4% market share, recorded volume of 41 billion units and generated operating income equivalent to U.S. $351 million. The company’s strong portfolio, its premium focus, proven Low Tar and Nicotine (LTN) kretek brands and strong business performance provide excellent platforms to accelerate PMI growth in the region.
In Japan, a major change this year has been the take back of the Marlboro brand from Japan Tobacco (JT) on May 1. In anticipation of this change, we have made significant vending machine investments to ensure optimal consumer availability of our products. We have also improved our Marlboro merchandising materials, upgraded outdoor signage and prepared a range of exciting promotions. Our recent performance in Japan was also marked by the very successful launch last year of Virginia Slims Rosé, which captured a 0.6% share of market in the first quarter of 2005.
The vending machine channel in Japan accounts for over 40% of total cigarette sales. Consequently, we have substantially increased our machine pool and vending columns. We have improved the quality of the Marlboro presentation by consistently merchandising the brand family in the machine. We have also introduced unique Marlboro-only vending units in selected high-quality locations.
In the increasingly competitive Japanese market, PMI was the only company to have gained market share in 2004 and our share reached a record 24.8% in the first quarter of 2005. Cumulatively, our share has grown more than four points since 1999.
We are well positioned demographically for continued share growth in Japan. Our share among smokers in their early twenties greatly exceeds our overall share and is larger than the JT share of this critical consumer group.
In summary, tax-driven price increases are driving declines in several regional markets, particularly Korea and Malaysia. However, the Marlboro take back in Japan will significantly improve Asia Pacific profitability and we are strengthening our regional position via acquisitions. In particular, recently purchased Sampoerna offers outstanding growth prospects.
In the Latin America region, PMI volume was down 3.7% in the first quarter. This was due primarily to lower volume in Argentina and Brazil, resulting from a market decline in Argentina and consumer down trading to ultra low-price brands of small manufacturers in both markets. As a result of Argentina and Brazil, our regional market share decreased by one point to 30.4% during the first quarter of 2005.
However, we continued to extend our leadership position in Mexico, adding 2.5 share points in the first quarter. The continued share growth momentum in Mexico was supported by a number of important line extensions. We launched two new variants of Marlboro and introduced a filter version of Delicados in the low-price segment. Marlboro Medium and Marlboro Mild Flavor achieved a combined share of 1.6 points in the first quarter, while Delicados Filter had a 2.7% share of market in April. Driven by the outstanding performance of Marlboro, we have added more than 10 share points in Mexico since 1998 and achieved a record share of 61.6% in the first quarter.
In Argentina, we have improved our profitability, but tax-driven price increases have resulted in overall market contraction and down trading to the ultra low-price segment. As an initial response, we introduced Bond Street in the low-price segment last October. We also understand the minimum reference price and minimum tax concepts are currently under discussion by the Argentine authorities.
Our second 2005 acquisition was the purchase of Coltabaco. We now own 98% of the largest tobacco entity in Colombia, the fourth-largest market in Latin America. The company holds approximately half of the Colombian market, led by its key brands, Boston, Caribe and Green. The acquisition also strengthens our overall presence in the Andean Pact zone.
In summary, we have improved profitability in our two Latin America strongholds, Mexico and Argentina, and have substantially improved our Andean presence through the Coltabaco acquisition.
Globally, PMI is focused on three key long-term strategies. First, we actively promote harm reduction to address the regulatory and societal issues of our products. Next, we strive to build and maintain an agile and winning organization that is talented, diverse, responsive, decisive and cost-effective. Finally, we continually pursue profitable business growth, both organically and through acquisitions and other new business development activities.
Harm reduction can be accomplished through three related approaches: fiscal measures, regulatory measures and the development of potentially less harmful products. We seek to work closely with regulators and we encourage and support regulation of our industry, including licensing of the supply chain to support the fight against counterfeit and contraband. In this regard, we are delighted with the actions taken to date under our wide-ranging agreement with the EU to combat illicit trade and with the agreement’s impact on our relationships with relevant EU and member state institutions.
Second, we pursue fiscal policies that provide equal, non-discriminatory treatment of all tobacco products and that address both harm reduction and government revenue objectives. These include minimum excise taxes, minimum reference prices and fully specific tax structures, elements of which have been implemented in 17 of our top 20 income markets thus far.
Third, we continue to invest in research and development to improve our understanding of smoking-related disease mechanisms and to develop potentially reduced exposure products.
Finally, we have and will transparently communicate the health effects of smoking. In this regard, we have a worldwide program to provide relevant information through cigarette pack onserts and other communications, including our Internet Web site. We also continue to support Youth Smoking Prevention initiatives with 100 programs in almost 70 markets.
Our ability to succeed in an increasingly competitive operating environment will also depend on an agile, winning and cost-effective organization. Our people are the cornerstone of our current and future success. Consequently, we are committed to hiring and retaining the best talent. We have a wide range of programs to assess and develop our current and future leaders. We also keep a close eye on our organizational structure and processes to ensure they are efficient and cost effective.
Our productivity efforts are targeted to generate annual cost reductions of at least $100 million. Part of these savings is invested in product quality improvements. We have a wide range of productivity initiatives to address direct materials and leaf, our two largest cost components, and to optimize our manufacturing base. Recently, these have included the repatriation of PMI brand volume from third-party manufacturers, and PMI factory closures in Belgium and Hungary. A current productivity initiative will streamline our support organization.
Our third global strategy is the pursuit of profitable business growth. This strategy has three principal components: organic growth through the strengthening of our existing brand portfolio, new business development and investments to support this growth. For example, we increased our spending behind marketing, field forces and research and development a cumulative 15% between 2001 and 2004.
Our growth strategy is focused on improving our share of all profitable segments and markets. These include the premium, blended, LTN and menthol segments, where we are relatively well represented. More recently, we have increased our focus on areas where we are under-represented and where it makes sense to participate, including mid- and low-price segments in various individual markets and the kretek segment in Indonesia.
Within our portfolio, our focus remains on Marlboro, the world’s best-selling cigarette. In an increasingly restricted marketing environment, Marlboro is the greatest asset in the industry, and we will use all means to enhance its equity and expand the appeal of the brand through new offerings.
The Marlboro marketing strategy is built on strong support behind superior products and innovative line extensions, the selective use of special packaging, outstanding advertising, exciting equity-building promotional programs, and a leading presence at the point of sale.
We continue to develop innovative line extensions and special packaging that provide a wider range of blends and formats that are true to the Marlboro spirit. These initiatives include the launch of Marlboro Blend 29 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland last October.
In the UK, we introduced Marlboro Blend 28, a full-flavor offering that addresses consumer taste preferences in a predominantly Virginia market. The distinctive and modern pack incorporates the Marlboro red rooftop design and initial distribution has focused on high-end bars and clubs.
Smooth tasting Marlboro Mild was successfully launched in Mexico and has been introduced more recently in Brazil. The unconventional advertising under the copy line, “Born Blue,” reinforces the novel character of the product and the innovative use of the electric blue color within the Marlboro family.
We also make selective use of innovative Marlboro packaging. This year, we are expanding the availability of the racing edition pack, which complements our sponsorship of the world champion Ferrari Formula 1 team.
We continue to add depth and vitality to the unique Marlboro Country advertising campaign with strong, fresh executions. Our latest print advertising uses a variety of new backgrounds and shapes to present the traditional themes of Marlboro Country.
We are also strengthening Marlboro’s appeal through a variety of promotional platforms. Our successful Marlboro Adventure Team program features summer and winter programs and will run in 32 markets this year. Our sponsorship of the Ferrari and Ducatti racing teams provides us with exciting promotional opportunities, such as this ad for the Marlboro Red Racing School promotion, which offers a consumer or retailer the chance to ride in a specially adapted three-seater F1 Ferrari. For legal-age meeting points, we have developed specific Marlboro materials for age-controlled venues, such as bars and discotheques. Among our Marlboro activities at the point of sale, we are building a premium brand environment in the high-end trade with Marlboro Experience Outlets in 19 markets around the world.
While the most significant part of our marketing activities is behind Marlboro, we also support the growth of L&M, the world’s third-largest cigarette brand. L&M has generated outstanding growth over the last four years, more than doubling its volume. A contributing factor to this growth has been L&M’s geographic expansion from 59 to 76 markets between 2001 and 2004. L&M has established significant shares in diverse markets throughout the world and is the number one international brand in key markets such as Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Poland and Romania. We are continually evolving L&M advertising with visuals such as this one from the latest campaign created around the theme, “Our taste, our world.”
We also seek to develop a wide range of differentiated brands to tap particular segments and markets. We have a formidable and diverse portfolio to work with. In addition to Marlboro and L&M, we have five other brands among the world’s top 20: Philip Morris, Chesterfield, Lark, Bond Street and Parliament.
We have also developed our value brand portfolio in order to capture down traders or address competitive products in all price segments. For example, we have expanded the international presence of Next and Basic, and they are now available in 25 and 13 markets, respectively. Both Next and Basic have performed well, and their combined volume was up over 62% in 2004.
In the other tobacco products category, we are present in various segments and markets. In some cases, the segments offer interesting income opportunities. In other cases, our entry may be more defensive, particularly when these segments unfairly benefit from discriminatory taxation versus cigarettes.
In order to supplement organic growth generated by our existing portfolio, we pursue all new business development opportunities that offer strategic fit, strong trademarks, strong growth potential, attractive returns and entry into new markets or segments. There are a myriad of markets where we have less than 15% share and that consequently offer substantial development opportunities.
PMI has been particularly active in the business development area over the past three years. The most significant recent events include the acquisition of Sampoerna in Indonesia, Coltabaco in Colombia, DIN in Serbia, Papastratos in Greece, the tobacco assets of Amer Tobacco in Finland, the cigarette trademarks of Sterling Tobacco in the Philippines and market entry in South Africa, Nigeria, Algeria, Libya and Iraq.
Clearly, one of our greatest long-term opportunities is China, a growing market of 1.8 trillion cigarettes, or about one third of the world’s consumption. We are currently exploring different opportunities for this market.
In conclusion, I would like to share our current outlook for PMI total-year performance in 2005. We expect volume growth to be approximately 5% this year, including the acquisitions of Coltabaco and Sampoerna. Excluding acquisitions, we project volume growth of approximately 1%, reflecting the adverse impact of the excise tax increase scheduled for this September in Germany and continuing changes to the tax system in Turkey. In addition, we project double-digit operating companies’ income growth for the full year 2005, including the benefit of the Sampoerna acquisition, and despite challenges in Germany and Turkey and the recent strengthening of the U.S. dollar.
Longer term, PMI continues to have outstanding growth prospects. With only a 15% share of world cigarette consumption, the world’s leading brands, the strongest international infrastructure, the best people and a host of business development opportunities, I believe that PMI is very well placed to continue to add volume, share and profitability in the years ahead.
Thank you very much
http://www.altria.com/media/press_release/03_02_pr_2005_06_29_02.asp
email addys list for world media http://ghostchild.com/modules/xfsection/
AU
Smoking row lit a legal bushfire
Natalie Gregg 20jun05
WHAT began as a minor argument about smoking in a shopping centre car park snowballed into a $40,000 dispute in Queensland's highest court.
Before the dispute even reached court, it was the subject of two reports – one a 72-page investigation.
The situation has angered judges who are tired of "trivial" cases wasting their time.
The bureaucratic and legal storm in a cigarette packet began in September two years ago when three members of a fire ant crew argued with a security guard about their right to smoke in the car park at Toombul Shopping Centre, in Brisbane's north.
The crew later complained to their superior, David John Ivers, and a letter was sent to the shopping centre management.
Mr Ivers, who was not present during the car park argument, detailed the complaints in what was supposed to be a private letter.
But the letter was sent in a Department of Primary Industries envelope, which is the State Government body overseeing the fire ant eradication program.
Four fire ant employees signed the letter, including a female relieving supervisor.
When shopping centre management replied to the DPI, the relieving supervisor made a complaint against Mr Ivers.
Other complaints, including allegations of bullying, were made against Mr Ivers and a private consultant was employed to investigate.
The DPI prepared a 72-page report which had some adverse findings about Mr Ivers's behaviour and recommended he show cause why he should not face disciplinary action.
Unhappy with the turn of events, Mr Ivers decided to take the State Government and five fire ant employees to court, applying for a judicial review against the show-cause notice.
In that time, Mr Ivers developed anxiety as a result of the dispute. He believed the report had "an adverse affect on his reputation" and he made a claim for HealthCover.
Independent investigators the LKA Group produced the second bureaucratic report – "a detailed investigation" – examining Mr Ivers's claim and medical condition. His application for WorkCover was rejected.
When the Supreme Court refused him leave to argue the matter he went to the highest court in the state – the Court of Appeal.
Mr Ivers won his application for leave in the Court of Appeal, but the drawn-out legal saga led Court of Appeal Justices Bruce McPherson, John Jerrard and Margaret Wilson to express concern about the process of handling public service complaints.
Justice McPherson said the case had "engendered ill-feeling and consequences well beyond the relative triviality of the original incident".
Justice White said the matter could have been better managed and was a "troubling snowballing" of events.
Additional reporting Mark Oberhardt
http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,15665914%255E36399,00.html
Community action in the field of public health (2003-2008) Work plan 2005
The priorities identified for 2005 are the following: 2.3.1. Supporting key Community strategies on addictive substances (1) In support of further developing the Community’s strategy on tobacco, proposals should focus on: • Mapping, assessment and evaluation of recent developments in Member States including measures and actions inter alia on preventing sales to children and adolescents, pricing and taxation, prohibiting advertising and environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), in line with the Council Recommendation on the prevention of smoking and on initiatives to improve tobacco control31; • The impact of health warnings and colour photographs on tobacco packages on consumer habits in particular of young people, including recommendations for improvement and adaptation of the warnings; • Providing scientific basis to progress the measurement methods for tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide and other substances and the marking for identification and tracing purposes of tobacco products; • Develop and network prevention activities, focussing on specific settings, de-normalisation, encouraging health professionals’ involvement, and reducing exposure to ETS. Collect and disseminate information and best practice on tobacco control to the general public; • Develop and network activities on best practice regarding tobacco cessation strategies.
The global budget for 2005 is therefore estimated at € 61,460,4117 8.
http://www.ensp.org /files/workplan2005_en.pdf
Norway smoking ban survey.
http://www.sirus.no/cwobjekter/SmokefreebarsandrestaurantsinNorway.pdf
WI
Appleton's Neighboring Towns See New Business After Smoking Ban
July 6, 2005, 08:39 AM
By Jason Zimmerman
Bar owners just outside of Appleton say they saw plenty of new faces this weekend. Those in Grand Chute and Greenville say many people are simply crossing the city line to their businesses where smoking is still allowed.
Mr. G's Bar and Restaurant in Grand Chute is right on the city line of Appleton. If you go across the street, there is Appleton's citywide workplace smoking ban. Take a few steps back and it's not only okay to light up but it's being advertised.
At Mr. G's, city boundaries have never been so clear. The signs are meant to welcome smokers who may have been shown the door in neighboring Appleton. So far, it's attracting attention.
"We saw eight, ten new faces on Friday and probably another 15 to 20 on Saturday," Guy Wanta of Mr. G's said.
Dean Parkin was there from Appleton. He said, "I haven't seen it this busy on a Tuesday afternoon forever."
He consciously made the trip to get outside the smoke-free zone. "I won't go downtown after work. That's just the way I feel about it," Parkin said.
Even a few miles out from Appleton, in Greenville, at Spectator's Bar, smokers are showing up in numbers larger than expected.
Kevin Geurts of Spectator's Bar said, "We notice a little bit of difference already. Our sales are up in June from last year. Whether it's to do with the smoking ban is tough to say but sales are a little bit better."
"I'm hoping it just keeps growing," Wanta said.
Wanta said he doesn't support the smoking ban, and says it's now giving his bar a competitive edge just being on the right side of the road.
"I believe it's going to increase because, come wintertime, people are not going to be outside to smoke. I mean, they're going to find your local pubs to go to, and where they can sit down, have a soda and beer, brat and beer-- whatever they want to have-- and a cigarette."
Appleton police say they responded to only one smoking complaint during the past weekend, and the city health department has yet to issue any citations. Bar owners say so far most people have been complying -- or at least traveling to places where it's okay to light up.
AL
New Law To Cost Governor More In Health Insurance
POSTED: 12:11 pm CDT July 6, 2005
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Gov. Bob Riley is literally paying for one of his successes in the Alabama legislature.
The governor helped pass a law to require state employees to pay more for insurance if they smoke.
A spokesperson for the governor says Riley is an "occasional" smoker. So he'll have to fork over an extra $20 per month for insurance, starting in November.
http://www.nbc13.com/health/4689355/detail.html
NY
Judge Tosses LI Smoking-Cancer Lawsuit
(1010 WINS) Jun 21, 2005 7:06 am US/Eastern
MINEOLA, Long Island A State Supreme Court Judge has thrown out a tobacco suit brought by a woman who claimed that her lung cancer was caused by decades of smoking. Justice Ute Wolfe Lallly said there was no proof that the 61-year-old woman's cancer was caused by the company she was suing.
Selma Rosen of East Norwich was suing Brown and Williamson - the company that made Lucky Strike cigarettes. Rosen claimed that was the first brand she smoked and she got hooked on tobacco.
But Justice Lally ruled that by the time the woman was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1995 she had stopped and started smoking a couple of times and switched brands.
Lally's decision came after Rosen's attorneys rested their case and the lawyers for the tobacco company asked for a dismissal because of lack of evidence.
The company's attorney - Harold Gordon - says smokers should not be suing tobacco companies anymore than alcoholics should be suing beer companies.
http://1010wins.com/topstories/local_story_172070950.html
Some question propriety of accepting donation
(Stamford-AP, June 19, 2005 10:55 AM)_ Some anti-smoking advocates say Norwalk and Stamford hospitals should have refused million dollar donations from the chief executive of a Connecticut-based cigar company.
William Ziegler the Third's company, Swisher International, makes cigars and smokeless tobacco.
The Darien man donated a million dollars to each hospital to be used for information technology to improve patient care.
John Banzhaf, of Action on Smoking and Health, says the hospitals should have refused the donations.
Other anti-smoking advocates, however, say it's not so black-and-white.
Julia Cartwright of Washington, D-C-based American Legacy Foundation, which helps young people quit smoking, says because this was a personal donation, it was different than one provided by his company.
http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=3492709&nav=3YeXbCX1
US
An Excess of Power
Posted by Radley Balko - Cato Institute on Sunday July 3, 2005 at 11:54 pm MST
This past term, the Supreme Court handed down two rulings that will have a catastrophic effect on our personal freedom. In Raich v. Gonzaelez, the Court ruled that the Constitution's provision to regulate interstate commerce permitted federal agents to raid the home of a sick woman and confiscate the six marijuana plants she was growing for her own medication -- all in a state whose population had overwhelmingly voted to make medical marijuana legal. In Kelo v. New London, the Court found that the phrase "public use" in the Fifth Amendment allows local governments to snatch land from law abiding people, and sell it off to wealthy developers.
Both cases will have negative repercussions for liberty that reach far beyond their specific facts. The founding fathers understood that every right we have emanates from our right to private property. In this sense, "private property" means not only the right to one's home and land, but also the right to own the product of one's labor. James Madison, the father of the U.S. Constitution, wrote in 1789, "A man is said to have a right to his property, he may be equally said to have a property in his rights. Where an excess of power prevails, property of no sort is duly respected. No man is safe in his opinions, his person, his faculties, or his possessions."
Every right we have stems from government's recognition that we, the people, are born with our rights intact. We own them. We have property in them. We voluntarily forfeit some of these rights to government, in exchange for protection from outside threats, the administration of justice, and the rule of law. The purpose of the U.S. Constitution, then, is not to tell us what rights we have. We're born with the right to do as we please, so long as we don't harm others. The Constitution's purpose is to outline what rights we give to the government, and to firmly define the limits of government power.
Unfortunately, this isn't widely understood. Commonly, we hear people say things like, "where in the Constitution does it say you have the right to smoke a cigarette?" Or, "where in the Constitution does it say you're allowed to look at pornography?" James Madison worried about questions like these. He feared that if we included a Bill of Rights in the Constitution, people would eventually come to assume the rights it listed would be the only rights we have. Others felt some rights -- speech, arms, etc. -- were so vital as to merit explicit mention. As a compromise, they included the Ninth Amendment, which says that the enumeration of some rights should not be construed to exclude rights not enumerated. So to answer the questions above, your right to smoke a cigarette or consume pornography are both in the Ninth Amendment.
This is why the decision in Raich is so important, and so devastating. While the Supreme Court has ignored the Ninth Amendment for decades, Raich may serve as its obituary. If the Ninth Amendment doesn't protect a man's right to consume whatever medicine might give him relief from pain -- or that in some cases could save his life -- what's left that it could possibly protect?
If the Supreme Court killed off the Ninth Amendment with Raich, Kelo in many ways represents the culmination of its complete disregard for even our explicitly enumerated rights.
Go back to Madison's quote above. A government that doesn't respect the title to your land is in all likelihood a government that will in time lose respect for your property in your right to speech, arms, and due process. And indeed in recent years, with help from the Supreme Court, government at all levels has run roughshod over even our explicitly enumerated rights.
With increasingly restrictive campaign laws, for example, we've lost the most important of our First Amendment protections -- the right to criticize the people who govern us at election time. The Second Amendment has been trampled by gun control legislation. In our nation's capital, for example, guns of any kind have been all but outlawed. The PATRIOT Act and a spate of Supreme Court Drug War decisions have rendered our Fourth Amendment protections from warrantless searches meaningless. Our Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination has been diluted in many contexts, and outright suspended in others (drunk driving cases, for example). Many prosecutors treat its grand jury provision not as a criminal protection, but as an invitation to abuse. And, of course, Kelo wrecked the Fifth's takings protections. There are only cursory examples. There are many more.
In this sense, Kelo's symbolic significance is probably more damaging than its practical application. By deferring to state and local governments, who may now seize property for virtually any reason at all, the Supreme Court has announced its complete disregard for private property. Which means that America may have finally achieved Madison's dim vision: "An excess of power" now prevails, and we're now living under a government that neither respects our right to property, nor acknowledges the property we own in our rights.
Perhaps this isn't the cheeriest of columns to write for Independence Day. But it's certainly appropriate. Thomas Jefferson famously wrote that, "eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." We obviously haven't been vigilant enough. Coincidentally, July 4 marks not only the birth of America, but the death of two of its founders -- Jefferson, and John Adams died on this day in 1826. Perhaps we should mark the date not only by celebrating America's independence, but by working to insure that this July 4 doesn't also mark the death of the ideas that animated its founding.
http://www.phxnews.com/fullstory.php?article=22846 or http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=3974
NY
Employers act to curb costs associated with smoking
From the July 1, 2005 print edition
Barbara Pinckney The Business Review
At Farm Family Holdings Inc., smoking is forbidden anywhere on the property.
MVP Health Plan allows smoking, but only in two designated, and not so attractive, spots in the company's parking garage.
The American Cancer Society's Loudonville office will not even hire someone who smokes.
There was a time, not long ago, when smoking was an issue few employers wanted to tackle. It was considered a personal matter, and a personal liberty.
"They'd think 'it's their business, not my business,' " said Michael Seserman, director of cancer prevention strategies for the Eastern division of the American Cancer Society.
Then employers began to realize it was very much their business. Clearing the smoke out of the workplace has a direct, and significant, impact on the bottom line.
"I think we're going through a societal paradigm shift," Seserman said. "We're seeing smoking less as a personal wellness thing and more as what it is."
First, there is the matter of health insurance, and the skyrocketing premiums businesses have struggled to control. According to the Centers for Disease Control, the average company loses $1,600 a year in direct medical costs for each smoking employee. Smokers use 50 percent more health services than nonsmoking employees, and 19 percent of health care expenses for the children of smokers are directly related to second-hand smoke inhalation.
Then there are the indirect costs associated with smoking employees, costs the CDC has put at an average of $1,700 a year.
"Smokers are absent more than non-smokers--some studies show 50 percent more," Seserman said. "And that doesn't even include the fact that 8 percent of the employee's time is spent in the whole smoking ritual. When you add that all up, smokers are getting an extra three weeks of vacation each year."
Taking action
The July 2003 passage of the Indoor Clean Air Act provided the impetus many companies needed. The state law prohibited smoking in nearly all workplaces. Although employers could comply by merely asking smokers to step outside to light up, many seized the opportunity to encourage workers to kick the habit.
For most, this took the form of on-site smoking-cessation programs.
"There was a lot of enthusiasm," said Peggy Keigley, director of the Center for Smoking Cessation at Seton Health, the parent of St. Mary's Hospital in Troy. The center used a grant from the state Department of Health to offer free classes at area businesses.
"We were conducting hundreds of classes at worksites," Keigley said. "We did 150 in one year."
Cathi Sawchuk, director of human resources for Comfortex Corp., a Maplewood-based manufacturer of decorative window coverings, was among the employees of that company to go through a six-week smoking cessation program. About half of the 40 employees to sign up for the program completed it and are still smoke free a year later.
Sawchuk was unable to say how much the company has saved by turning these workers into non-smokers, but based on the CDC's figures, the total could be as much as $66,000 a year.
"I haven't calculated that, but I do think we are all healthier, happier, more productive employees," Sawchuk said.
Smoking cessation programs appear to be increasing in popularity all over the country. In an October survey by the New York City-based American Management Association, 49 percent of companies polled offered such classes, up from 41 percent a year earlier.
The next step
Many companies now are looking for other ways to help employees quit, including expanding their benefit packages to cover cessation aids, such as Zyban, the nicotine patch and gum. The CDC said this adds $1.20 to $4.80 per employee to the cost of health insurance, but that this investment can yield a return of as high as 300 percent.
Some businesses have decided to encourage quitting by making the smoke break less appealing.
"They are saying 'why are we making it comfortable for people to smoke when we know it is hurting our bottom line?'" Seserman said. "You're seeing the butt huts come down."
This was part of the plan for MVP. The Schenectady-based health insurer took four parking spaces in its garage, on two floors, put cones around them, set up benches and called it the smoking area.
"We're not saying you can't smoke, but you have to go here, and here is not a very nice place," said Gary Hughes, spokesman for MVP.
In contrast, MVP employees who want to adopt a healthier lifestyle have a fancy in-house gym to work out in.
Just say no
For some businesses, even the parking garage is off-limits. When the Society for Human Resource Management, an Alexandria, Va.-based trade group, asked its members about smoking policies in an online survey in December, 19 percent joined Farm Family in banning smoking anywhere on company property.
Vandy Veeder, director of human resources for Farm Family, said the Glenmont-based group of insurance companies has been a smoke-free workplace for about five years.
"I know some people get in their cars at lunch time and drive somewhere to smoke, but they can't smoke here," Veeder said. "We're not trying to push our views on them, but we think we should have a healthier workplace."
Other companies have gone even further. Nationwide, more than 6,000 companies, including Union Pacific Corp., Alaska Airlines, and the Fortunoff department store chain, refuse to hire smokers.
The law in New York, as well as 16 other states, allows some companies to receive a waiver allowing them to hire only non-smokers.
"We have a waiver because smoking is inconsistent with our mission," Seserman said of the Cancer Society. "We inform people during the interview, and they take themselves out of the process if they so choose."
Common ground
In a competitive environment, it can be difficult for one employer to prohibit smoking while a rival allows it. The area's hospitals have decided to work together to develop a plan to encourage employees to quit. It is not yet known if their efforts will extend to an outright ban.
"You really have to be thoughtful in how you roll these policy changes out," said Kathleen Occhiogrosso, vice president of human resources for Seton Health. "It's a very sensitive topic."
http://albany.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2005/07/04/story1.html
Posted at 11:25 am by looped_ca
Sunday, June 26, 2005
Canadian Cancer Society Applauds Support for Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control
OTTAWA, June 7 /CNW/ - The Canadian Cancer Society applauds a motion passed today by the House of Commons calling on the Federal Government to fund and implement the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control.
"This is great news for Canadians," says Dr. Barbara Whylie, CEO, Canadian Cancer Society. "A well-funded national Strategy means we have the potential to save the lives of more than 420,000 Canadians and save more than $39 billion in direct healthcare costs associated with cancer over the next 30 years."
Whylie adds that she was heartened to see parties come together to support the motion tabled today by Steven Fletcher, Conservative Party Health Critic. "Cancer touches so many people and causes immeasurable suffering.
"The Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control is ready to go and now the government needs to step up and provide the $260 million needed over five years. The Parliament of Canada has been clear; the government must now act."
Implementing the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control will mean, over the next 30 years:
- preventing over 1.2 million Canadians from developing cancer;
- preventing the loss of more than $101 billion in wage-based
productivity;
- preventing the loss of more than $34 billion in total government tax revenues.
The Canadian Cancer Society has been a leader in the development of the Canadian Strategy for Cancer Control and has been advocating for federal funding to implement it since 2002.
The Canadian Cancer Society is a national community-based organization of volunteers whose mission is to eradicate cancer and to enhance the quality of life of people living with cancer. When you want to know more about cancer, visit our website at www.cancer.ca or call our toll-free, bilingual Cancer Information Service at 1 888 939-3333.
For further information: Until 8 p.m., June 7, Rebecca Finlay, Canadian Cancer Society, Communications, (416) 312-0524; On June 8 contact: Kerstin Ring, Canadian Cancer Society, Communications, (416) 934-5664
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/June2005/07/c8993.html
Police Reports - Monday June 13, 2005
Break and Enter - The Hasty Market on Downey Road was broken into on Saturday morning. The culprit(s) had smashed the front glass door with a rock and made off with a quantity of cigarette packages.
http://www.thefountainpen.com/cgi-bin/showstory?id=3717
Police Reports June 15
Web posted on June 15, 2005
A Break, Enter and Theft occurred on June 15 at about 4:53 am to the Hasty Market, 115 Downey Road in Guelph. Entry was g
ained by smashing the glass out of the front door with a rock. Several cartons of cigarettes were taken. The suspects are described as two males, one 5'l1" the other around 6', both with thin builds, wearing work gloves, The first suspect had on a red hooded sweatshirt. The second suspect had a black hooded sweater with a blue and green plaid work jacket.
Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Guelph Police or CRIMESTOPPERS 1-800-222-8477.
http://www.thefountainpen.com/cgi-bin/showstory?id=3734
Are we done dithering on smoking bans? -ON
By Lloyd Mack Miner and News Wednesday June 22, 2005
You’ll read a lot in Canadian newspapers these days about dithering. Most, if not all the commentary -- until now -- has been aimed at Prime Minister Paul Martin. For my purpose -- and the issue I want to raise -- Martin has a lot of company in the field of indecisive politicians.
Few jurisdictions have been able to get smoking bans on the books without first pointing a finger in another direction and claiming it was someone else’s responsibility to accomplish the dirty deed. Kenora city council, for one, had no intestinal fortitude for the matter when it was raised a few years back.
Council left Dr. Pete Sarsfield, chief medical officer of health at the Northwestern Health Unit, to become the martyr if he felt strongly enough about banning smoking from the workplace for health reasons. Sarsfield’s authority was challenged by the Freedom of Choice Coalition, a group of local restaurant and bar owners who sought a reprieve from possible business loss more than anything else.
The coalition won a stay of execution -- if you accept the picture of doom and gloom painted by the pessimistic when it comes to banning smoking in public places -- but will return to court in September for a provincial appeal of the ruling that said the medical officer of health overstepped his authority. And, win or lose, the provincial government earlier this month passed anti-tobacco legislation banning smoking in public places beginning in June 2006.
Ontario is a Johnny-Come-Lately among the growing number of provinces finally taking responsibility for prohibitions on smoking in public places. Three provinces and two territories have banned smoking 100 per cent in bars and restaurants since the Northwest Territories and Nunavut did so on May 1, 2004, and three others -- beginning with B.C. on May 1, 2002 -- have legislation requiring designated smoking rooms in bars and restaurants.
Newfoundland will become the fourth province to force bars and bingo halls to tell customers to butt out on July 1 -- just seven weeks after passing legislation, while Quebec and Ontario’s respective provincial legislation takes effect May 31, 2006 on World No-Tobacco Day.
Alberta, which just likes to be different, passed a watered-down anti-smoking bill this spring which originally would have banned smoking in all workplaces, but instead now limits the ban to public facilities in which children are permitted. Bars and casinos are among the places where smoking may continue, subject to municipal bylaws. Edmonton, for one, has a tough new ordinance taking effect July 1.
Personally, I think it is time that Ontario adopts provincewide no smoking regulations in the workplace. Sure, I would have liked the city to have been on the cutting edge on the issue a few years ago as a dozen or more municipal jurisdictions have passed legislation since the Capital Regional District (Victoria, B.C.) on Jan. 1, 1999. But bigger -- and more extensive -- is better in this case.
The dangers of smoking are well documented, but a few statistics are worth mentioning again. Premier Dalton McGuinty, who boasted Ontario’s new anti-tobacco legislation is the most aggressive in North America, also noted tobacco is the No. 1 cause of preventable illness in the province, killing 16,000 Ontarians a year and costing the provincial economy $2.7 billion annually in lost productivity. “It costs the health-care system alone $1.6 billion,” he said.
I don’t want to concentrate on numbers too much and I’ll explain why in a minute. But I don’t think there are many who will argue with the Canadian Lung Association or the Canadian Cancer Society about the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke and the deaths from lung cancer, heart disease and other cancers the two cause.
Even Human Resources Development Canada has been unable to argue two Employment Insurance claims to date based on second-hand smoke. The latest case came this spring when a non-smoking Ontario casino worker quit and qualified for EI benefits because second-hand smoke was making him ill. You can bet there will be more.
There is also at least one television ad which drives home the point of the dangers of working in the hospitality industry and being put at risk by second-hand smoke. There is the argument that says individual business owners should decide whether or not to allow smoking, but that idea ignores the fact the people who have to work in those businesses are at risk. We don’t allow businesses to willfully pose a health risk to employees with other toxins. We should not be allowing it from cigarettes.
After the tired-old freedom-of-choice argument, the first and only argument opponents to a smoking ban raise is that a ban will hurt business. Much of the opposition to workplace smoking bans comes from owners of restaurants and bars who say that many of their customers enjoy smoking a cigarette after a meal or while socializing over drinks.
This is where numbers would be useful if not for concern numbers can -- and are often -- manipulated by those wanting to favour their position. For example, look at New York City, where the International Communication Industry conducted a survey with 300 hospitality businesses to learn the effects of the smoking ban passed in March, 2003. The survey reported that 100 of the businesses laid off serving staff, noting the ban as the reason.
About 200 said they had fewer customers but only 77 of the 300 provided monthly sales figures. Comparing the month before the ban with the month after the ban, the report found an eight per cent decrease in liquor sales.
Yet the president of the Staten Island Restaurant and Tavern Association told the New York Times in February the two-year-old New York City ban had not plunged restaurants and bars into the doldrums, as some expected. “I have to admit I’ve seen no fall-off in business in either (restaurants or bars).”
Critics say the predictions of widespread devastation in the hospitality industry are nothing more than Chicken Little crying that “the sky is falling.” They warn that people should realize where the message is coming from and not to believe it just because it is oft repeated.
In fact, a study released in April by the Harvard School of Public Health found that the smoke-free law in Massachusetts hasn’t affected sales or employment in the state’s restaurants, bars and nightclubs.
Patronage went up slightly after the law came into effect and there were no statistically significant changes in meals tax collections or alcoholic beverage excise tax collections.
“These study findings underscore the importance of comprehensive smoke-free policies,” the authors conclude.
Research cited by the tobacco industry that suggests smoking bans have a negative effect on the hospitality sector are based on “invalid and weak evaluation approaches” and are, therefore, misleading, the report says.
Granted, recovery may be slow or stagnated if, as I experienced on a trip to Saskatchewan two weeks ago, the smell of stale cigarettes hangs in the air of small-town hotel lobbies five months after a ban is implemented. Sure, this wasn’t a tourist town and the core business in the coffee shop and pub that sandwich the lobby is retired farmers who gather for coffee and tales of yesteryear or oilfield workers, but no one was lighting up.
In Saskatoon, the bar patrons were noticeable in respecting the law in that a group of smokers held to the covered veranda along the hitching rail of the western-themed pub adjoined to our hotel in order to keep out of the light rain.
From my own perspective, people are still going to eat and drink. I wish I could have added my voice to the federal government survey released on World No-Tobacco Day which suggests most Canadians would more often visit eating and drinking establishments if a smoking ban was in effect. That is where my business goes already -- particularly if we are dining out as a family.
http://www.kenoradailyminerandnews.com/index.php?id=858
Ontario smoking ban to boost Detroit gaming
Casino officials, analysts expect law will discourage many who now cross border to play.
By Joel J. Smith and Tenisha Mercer / The Detroit News June 22, 2005
http://www.detnews.com/2005/business/0506/22/D01-224023.htm
Canada Day will see city smoke-free
Brooke Hogemann Staff Writer Wednesday June 22, 2005
Airdrie Echo — Canada Day might have to be celebrated a little differently for some people this year in Airdrie, as that is the day the city goes smoke-free.
As of July 1, all public establishments and all workplaces, including restaurants, bars and gaming establishments, will be smoke-free.
"Anywhere the public has access to is non-smoking, whether children are there or not," said Tara Richards, the communications coordinator for the City of Airdrie.
The smoke-free bylaw does not apply to home-based businesses, but it does apply to all public places and city property, such as Nose Creek Park.
"Smoking will not be allowed in bus shelters either," Richards said.
Members of private clubs will not be allowed to smoke in the clubhouse during meetings, even though no public is present, since the definition of a public building under the smoking bylaw means any enclosed building or structure – as defined in this bylaw – to which the public can and does have access to or by invitation, regardless of whether or not:
• all classes of the public are invited;
• the proprietor has the right to exclude any particular person;
• payment, membership or the performance of some formality is required prior to access;
• the public has access to the building only at certain times, or from time to time; or
• a member of the public has access only if they are a member or if they are accompanied by a member.
If the public has access only to a portion of a building or structure – such as a building including a private residence – the entire building or structure will be deemed to be a public building, under the smoke-free bylaw.
"Under this definition, the Royal Canadian Legion and Woodside Senior’s Club, will be smoke-free buildings," Richards said.
Since the bylaw also requires smokers to be three metres, or 10 feet, from the entrance or exit of a business building, all outdoor ashtrays will be required to be that far away from the doors, as well. Signage must also be posted at entrances to workplaces, public buildings, city buildings, washrooms and in the vicinity of any seating area where food or beverages are sold, declaring these places to be smoke-free.
"I think there will be a lot of warnings (from bylaw officers), because this is very new," Richards said.
Non-complying businesses and individuals can be fined – individuals $250 and businesses $1,000 – if they do not follow the bylaw regulations. If the fine is not paid, it could be determined through a court appearance that the individual pays up to $1,000 or the business up to $10,000.
For more information on the smoke-free bylaw, go to the City of Airdrie Web site at: www.airdrie.ca
http://www.airdrieecho.com/story.php?id=168603
Illegal bars spring up in Saskatoon homes -SK
Booze cans' attract attention of police, new provincial agency
Darren Bernhardt The StarPhoenix Thursday, June 23, 2005
Every Saturday at 8 a.m., a new black Ford truck pulls up at a house on Avenue P South.
A man gets out, opens the door for his wife, and they spend the day drinking and smoking at an illegal drinking establishment operating out of the home, according to Karen, who lives on the block.
Other regulars include the driver of a carpet cleaning van belonging to a major retailer and the operator of a City of Saskatoon truck. Those vehicles both park at the end of the street, but Karen said she watches the drivers walk to the house.
"The final straw for me was (June 10) when my son, who is in Grade 12, was with his friends out front. These people from the house paid my son and his friends to get more beer," Karen said. "I flipped. I went over there to complain, but they don't care."
Illegal "booze cans" operating covertly in some private Saskatoon homes have attracted the attention of police, the province and residents who want to reclaim their neighbourhoods.
The booze can harkens to the days of prohibition and bootlegging, but now it's the smoking bylaw that is driving people to secret locations where they can drink and smoke at the same time, some frustrated neighbours say.
"I'm fed up. It's like watching Jerry Springer or Cops but instead of it being on TV it's outside our window," said Karen (not her real name). "These guys come out and they're drunk -- and it doesn't matter what time of day it is. Occasionally, there's yelling and fights and there's little kids on the street watching this."
The booze can across her Holiday Park street is a tiny, nondescript wartime bungalow with an aluminum awning over the front entrance and a refrigerator at the side near the back patio. A half-ton truck regularly pulls up and unloads 20 cases of beer, says Karen, who watches as people load them onto trolleys and disappear into the home.
A man at the house refused to talk to The StarPhoenix, insisting nothing was going on.
Drugs and prostitution are also on the menu at some residences, according to Justice Minister Frank Quennell, whose department recently established a government-funded agency to deal with booze cans. The Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) legislation was passed in spring 2004 and began operating that fall.
SCAN investigators will look into complaints from residents about questionable activities at other houses or apartment buildings. Evidence is gathered from observing the goings-on. The property owner or landlord will then be contacted and ordered to halt the activity or have the property locked up by court order.
"You get a lot of co-operation from landlords because they don't want their properties shut down," said Quennell.
The legislation is applauded by Const. Debbie Altrogge of the Saskatoon Police Service's organized crime and vice-unit. About three months ago, her unit was assisted by SCAN in shutting down a booze can on Avenue I.
"They (SCAN) don't replace us, they work with us," she said.
Police action on such complaints might take a long time because there must be undeniable evidence to secure a search warrant. Then a lengthy investigation and charges would follow, Altrogge said
By pressuring the property owner, SCAN works a lot faster. And it puts the power back in the hands of communities because all tips are anonymous and investigated, said Quennell.
Prior to the legislation, buildings could only be condemned for fire or health-related reasons. Someone had to be convicted of a criminal offence to be forcibly removed from a premises where an illegal business was operating.
"Even then, someone else could just step into their place and carry on the business," said Quennell. "So the activities continued despite the best police efforts. We felt there was a need for stronger legislation to fill that gap. If a child doesn't have to live in a fire trap, a child shouldn't have to live next to a drug house."
The initial office and investigators were based in Regina but a Saskatoon office and two more investigators were added through funding in the 2005 budget, as the breadth of the problem was larger than expected. But Quennell doesn't agree booze cans are being stoked in part by the provincial smoking ban.
"A lot of the houses we're shutting down are where people go to abuse solvents, to drink alcohol in illegal, unlicensed establishments, to use intravenous drugs or sell drugs from, or they are using it as a brothel. But I don't think a desire to smoke is contributing to it," he said, adding he hopes SCAN can also help prevent crystal meth labs from developing.
BOOZE CAN SHUT DOWN
Karen says she's been told of similar booze cans in the north end, off 20th Street and downtown.
Altrogge hadn't heard of these cases, but noted one on Avenue G was shut down a few years ago.
There used to be a lot more of them before city bars began staying open later and on Sundays. The 24-hour wine and beer stores have also helped alleviate them, "but you can't totally eliminate illegal activity," Altrogge said.
Icicle-style Christmas lights on the exterior of the Avenue P house are used year-round as a signal to customers that the liquor is flowing, Karen has deduced from her observations. She has lived in the tidy, treed neighbourhood for 13 years and insists it is a nice community "except for this."
Although she has spoken to police, it's hard to lay a charge. It's not illegal to have people over for drinks. The police would need an undercover officer to be sold some beer, "but they're pretty careful about who goes in," Karen said.
"They keep saying they'll watch but it seems the second I call police or try to do something about it, it's quiet. I'm sure the police think I'm crazy."
Altrogge has promised to look into Karen's situation and inform SCAN about it.
http://www.canada.com/fortstjohn/story.html?id=9c179b8e-95ea-4399-9d14-727829808f04
RE: LINDA Duguay's June 22 letter on Mindelle Jacobs' June 21 column. If Duguay actually read the study, she would see that there are proposals for both public sector and private sector tobacco manufacturers. Of course it's easier to rant when you don't bother with such details. Meanwhile, Big Tobacco kills 47,000 Canadians per year.
David Thompson
(It's a staggering figure.)
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L. POLSOM'S June 22 letter about alcohol being the driving force behind the murder of that man in a small town was a poor example of alcohol being much more dangerous than cigarettes. Look at the shooting of the Mac's store clerk last week. What was the robber demanding besides cash? He was trying to steal the worst drug of all: cigarettes. Both deaths were tragic and should never have happened.
S. Thomas
(On that we can agree.)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
RE: SMOKING bylaw. What's next? Banning smoking in our homes, and telling drunks how, when and what they can drink? Then they'll tell us when to have sex and how many children to have. When will people wake up and do something about these crazy bylaws? The smoking ban on patios is ridiculous! We have to smell the exhaust from vehicles and refineries. Isn't that worse than a little cigarette? Cigarettes are a legal product. But, hey, communism rules.
Sandi Martin
(The patio ban is odd.)
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/Letters/2005/06/24/1102079.html
Max attacks feared -AB
Overcrowding, smoke-free policy may combine to make jail more of a hell
By AJAY BHARDWAJ, EDMONTON SUN Fri, June 24, 2005
Overcrowding at the Edmonton Max has guards and inmates fearing bloodshed, days after 25 prisoners rioted in the jail's gymnasium.
And the situation is only going to get worse when the north Edmonton maximum-security facility goes tobacco-free later this year, fears the Prairie regional president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.
"I guess it's going to be a very hot summer for the institution," Kevin Grabowsky said yesterday.
"We're probably looking at a lot of incidents if we don't get a handle on managing this inmate population."
On Monday night some 25 inmates rioted in the jail's gymnasium.
Two correctional officers, caught inside an office at the gym, had to use an escape door to get out before inmates got to them.
A guard on a catwalk fired two warning shots in the air. Guards also used gas and percussion grenades to put down the uprising.
Nine other prisoners negotiated for two cigarettes apiece before surrendering.
Damage is estimated between $15,000 and $20,000.
Guards and the institution's emergency response team went cell to cell searching for a homemade zip gun - used to fire needles, pieces of lead or a shell casing - and other contraband after the riot, Grabowsky said.
The institution was under lockdown.
The Max's segregation unit is full and other prisoners requiring solitary confinement are being housed on regular ranges, creating tension between inmates.
"There's a lot of guys down here that are scared. They're not eating. They're not doing their laundry," one prisoner said.
"We'd probably get killed or hurt if we were in the population. I'm down in (segregation) right now because they received information that I would be seriously harmed or murdered because I won't get involved with bringing in drugs ..."
Prison spokesman Gary Sears said while the Max houses prisoners deemed a risk to the public, the prison workers can handle the situation.
"If you're asking if there is an increased risk at Edmonton Institution, I'd say the population profile is similar to the past and that officers at the institution are well-trained professionals who are capable of managing these individuals," he said.
Sears agreed that the situation has to be watched carefully.
Problems could worsen when the institution goes smoke-free, likely later this year.
"There's going to be lots of blood over that," he said.
Another inmate, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said guards have been staging incidents to build statistics so they can procure stab-proof vests, pepper spray and handcuffs.
But Grabowsky said that's bunk.
"How do we stage something?" he said, adding prisoners don't seem to respect each other, their property or guards like they did in the past.
"When I walked the ranges 15 years ago I didn't need all that stuff.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Edmonton/2005/06/24/1102595-sun.html
Police Reports
Monday June 20, 2005
Break and Enter – The Victoria Variety on Speedvale Ave was broken into at about 4:00 this morning. The building was entered through a forced door, and some cigarettes and lottery tickets were stolen. The first suspect is described as male, white, 5'10" and was wearing baggy jeans and a green hoodie. The second suspect is described as male, white, 5'6" - 5'8" and was wearing a black jacket, blue jeans and a hat. The final suspect is male, white, 5'8", wearing a grey hoodie, jeans and a baseball hat. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Guelph Police or CRIMESTOPPERS 1-800-222-8477.
http://www.thefountainpen.com/cgi-bin/showstory?id=3751
Big Tobacco can be put on trial: court
Camille Bains Canadian Press June 23, 2005
VANCOUVER (CP) -- A judge has dismissed an application by at least nine foreign tobacco manufacturers to remove them as defendants in British Columbia's lawsuit aimed at recovering medicare costs.
The big tobacco companies, mostly based in the United States and Britain, argued the province couldn't recover billions of dollars in health-care costs from them because provincial legislation applies only to local matters.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Ronald Holmes ruled on Thursday there was a connection between the companies and the sale of cigarettes in the province.
Philip Morris had argued it would be better to have the case tried in the United States, something Holmes dismissed.
"The factual underpinning of the (B.C. government's) action clearly identifies British Columbia as the jurisdiction most closely connected to the action," the judge said in his written decision.
Another company said the case was a violation of NAFTA, an argument Holmes also quashed.
In May 2004, an appeals court judge ruled the province's Tobacco Damages and Health Care Costs Recovery Act was constitutional.
Last December, the Supreme Court of Canada agreed to hear an appeal by three tobacco companies fighting the B.C. legislation. It gave the province the green light to proceed with a lawsuit seeking $10 billion from the tobacco industry.
Health Minister George Abbott said he's pleased with the ruling. "Obviously, it is a very important clarification of British Columbia's jurisdiction in relation to foreign tobacco companies," Abbott said.
"We look forward now to continuing our aim of securing some accountability from the tobacco industry for the harm that is caused by its products."
Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society, said the fact that multinational tobacco companies can now be named as defendants is a victory for British Columbia.
"It's a big one for B.C. in terms of the allegations of the worldwide conspiracy by the tobacco companies to deny the health effects of smoking and to engage in wrongful behaviour," Cunningham said from Ottawa.
"It's a big blow for tobacco companies because now they can be put on trial."
Dave Laundy, vice-president of the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Council, said three Canadian companies are named among the various foreign cigarette manufacturers in the ruling released on Thursday.
He said B.C. taxpayers have been on the hook for millions of dollars for the government's legal proceedings to seek damages that tobacco companies can't afford to pay.
This has been a long, drawn-out, very expensive process," Laundy said.
"The government of British Columbia is saying it's going to seek an award of $10 billion and we've been saying all along that there's no way that these companies could withstand the settlement, even a fraction of that magnitude," he said.
"We'd be happy to work with the government and support them in some of their programs that they launch for discouraging youth smoking and that kind of thing."
As defendants, the tobacco companies' internal documents must be produced as evidence, making them potentially liable for damages, Cunningham said
"The tobacco industry has a history of seeking to avoid accountability anywhere and everywhere," he said. "This court has said that they have to be ready to stand trial in British Columbia."
The B.C. government has previously said it is trying to recover costs from cigarette manufacturers because medical costs for smoking-related illnesses have spiralled to beyond $500 million a year.
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/globaltv/story.html?id
=68ffc779-8d65-4edd-930f-8fdbf7e27b52
Canada Court keeps foreign firms in tobacco suit
By Allan Dowd Thu June 23, 2005 6:04 PM GMT-04:00
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A Canadian judge ruled on Thursday that British Columbia can include foreign-based tobacco firms in a lawsuit seeking damages for the health costs of smoking.
http://www.reuters.ca/locales/c_newsArticle.jsp?type=topNews&localeKey=en_CA&storyID=8875869
In 2005, an estimated 22,200 Canadians will be diagnosed with lung cancer; 19,000 will die of the disease. It is the leading cause of cancer death for women and men.
Lung cancer is also the most preventable of all cancers. Most cases are due to smoking. But even if everyone stopped smoking, there would still be lung cancer.
A significant number of cases -- between 6 and 15 per cent of the total, according to research -- are caused by exposure to radon, a natural radioactive gas that emanates from the ground into the air.
"Radon is all around us," said Dr. Mike Repacholi, co-ordinator of the radiation and environmental health unit at the World Health Organization. "Radon in our homes is the main source of exposure." (High concentrations can be found in caves, mines and water-treatment centres, so workers toiling in those settings need to be particularly aware.) The concentration of radon in a home depends on the amount of uranium that is producing the radon in the underlying rocks and soils, and in the clay used in bricks, and in the aggregate used in concrete.
The concentration also depends on the routes available for the radioactive gas to seep into the home. Radon gas enters houses through openings -- cracks at concrete floor/wall junctions, gaps in the floor, small pores in hollow-block walls, sump pumps, drains. Consequently, radon levels are usually higher in basements, cellars or other structural areas in contact with soil. Concentrations can vary widely from one house to another.
Earlier this week, the WHO launched a global campaign to raise awareness about radon, a common carcinogen that has sometimes been described as a silent monster lurking in the basement. The issue should be of particular interest in Canada because radon exposure is highest in cold climates, where people huddle indoors, with doors and windows shut. It's a potential problem in every home -- depending on the soil on which it's built. There have been scares all over the country at various times.
"Radon accumulates within the house, so people are breathing this radioactive gas, which is tasteless, colourless," Dr. Repacholi said.
The good news is that high household exposure to radon can be easily prevented by improving construction regulations and, for existing housing, by increasing under-floor ventilation and sealing cracks and gaps in floors. This is particularly important in radon-rich areas like those that exist across northern Canada.
Radon can also be found in drinking water. A significant number of Canadians get their water from groundwater sources such as wells, springs and boreholes. Underground water can become contaminated with radon.
The problem is Canadians know virtually nothing about radon. The issue made headlines three decades ago, but has faded from the public consciousness.
Canada also has quite lax standards about acceptable radon levels, particularly compared to other Nordic countries. (But, unlike some European countries and Japan, Canada does not have radon spas, where people deliberately expose themselves to radiation in the belief it stimulates the immune system.) Radon radioactivity is measured in becquerels per cubic metre of air (Bq/m3) -- a measure of the disintegration of one radioactive atom per second.
The Canadian standard for acceptable exposure to radon is 800 Bq/m3. By contrast, in Sweden and the U.S., the standard is 160 Bq/m3. The WHO hopes, in coming years, to establish an international standard.
What is most important, however, is individual exposure. For those who are concerned about the soil under their home, there are radon detectors.
Because radon can build up over time, single measures are not that useful; the level of gas needs to be measured over a substantial period, several months.
It should be noted, too, that smokers are at greatest risk from radon exposure, because the radiation works in concert with the toxins in tobacco. According to the WHO, even moderate exposure to radon can increase the risk of lung cancer in a smoker 25-fold.
According to the WHO, among people exposed to the acceptable Canadian level of radon of 800 Bq/m3, about 15 per every 1,000 would develop lung cancer. By contrast, among smokers exposed to radon at that level, about 350 per 1,000 would develop cancer.
Like tobacco, we know the risks of radon. We also know how to mitigate those risks. The missing element is public education and, perhaps, regulation. "Radon poses an easily reducible health risk to populations all over the world," Dr. Repacholi said. "But it has not, up to now, received widespread attention."
A little awareness, and a little action could prevent tens of thousands of lung-cancer deaths worldwide each year.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC
/20050623/PICARD23/TPHealth/
The right to smoke
National Post Friday, June 24, 2005
Re: Finally, A Smart Regulation, Rachel Marsden, June 18.
I am glad Ms. Marsden took the time before writing her column to visit the Web site of Canada's largest smokers' rights association, mychoice.ca, which has gained more than 22,000 registered members since being launched nine months ago. But I am disappointed that she already had her mind made up before doing so and did not pay closer attention.
For the record, any references on our site to veterans are made in support of the veterans themselves. Perhaps Ms. Marsden would like to lecture Windsor Legion president Dennis Holmes when he said this about his members: "When you consider 112,000 of their friends were killed, you can understand why they need to go out once in a while and have a cigarette and reminisce with their buddies."
Ms. Marsden also mentions references on our site to the impact on businesses, and scoffs at the idea that smokers will avoid going out just because of the ban. She might want to check with Ontario's own Ministry of Economic Development and Trade. I would be happy to share a report obtained under Freedom of Information that confirms that smokers will stay home more and spend less time and money when they do go out.
Ms. Marsden says she opposes excessive government intervention, except when it comes to smokers. She apparently has bought into the government denormalization of smokers, and the portrayal of second-hand smoke as the number-one public health enemy. If Ms. Marsden believes the claims and estimates of second-hand smoke, what actions would she deem appropriate to protect us from killer smog, which is estimated to cause over 800 deaths annually in Toronto. I suppose banning gas guzzling vehicles and factories would be justified in her world.
Perhaps Ms. Marsden doesn't care about the real facts, and simply accepts the most dangerous argument of all -- that if the bans force smokers to quit then the infringement on their rights is justified. Where will this end? For example, there is at least as strong, if not an even greater argument to be made that our overweight, under-exercised population needs saving from itself. Does Ms. Marsden really think that now that it has established a huge precedent with this new law, the nanny state will stop at smokers?
Nancy Daigneault, president, mychoice.ca, Aurora, Ont.
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/comment/letters_
story.html?id=b48c87c4-2788-4df3-a732-82456c4c6d42
Charity bingo revenues take massive drop
Frank Matys Published: Fri, Jun 24th, 2005
Orillia's mayor is standing firmly behind a city-wide smoking ban that some are blaming for a dramatic drop in charity-bingo revenues.
"It was a decision that had to be made, and we made it," Ron Stevens said.
"Do I regret it? No. It is very clearly a health issue."
More than 30 non-profit groups share in funds raised at the Gates of Orillia Bingo Hall each month, relying on the money for a range of programs and services benefiting children, seniors and others.
Results for the first five months of 2005 show a marked decline in revenues, with local groups bringing in just $209,000 compared with the $385,000 collected during the same period last year.
"It is having an impact on our program," said Martine Quin, office manager at Big Sisters Association of Orillia and District. "We have had to become more creative as to how we raise funds and less dependent on bingo." Bingo representatives last year asked council to extend the hall's exemption from Orillia's stringent smoking bylaw until Dec. 2007.
That request that was defeated in a tie vote.
"I have a problem with fund-raising in that type of (smoking) environment," Stevens added.
Neither does he buy the argument that a ban in Orillia is driving bingo players from the downtown hall into the hands of communities where smoking is still allowed.
City staff in Barrie and Penetanguishene have reported no increase in revenues at halls located in their respective municipalities, said Lori Bolton, Orillia's chief lottery licensing officer.
"If they are not coming to Orillia because of the no-smoking, and they
are
not going to Barrie and Penetanguishene where there is smoking, then where are they going?" asked Stevens.
Overall attendance at the local hall was down 23 per cent between January and May of this year, while revenues fell by 45 per cent over the same period in 2004.
The situation has led organizers to eliminate two late-night sessions and three afternoon sessions, general manager Andy LaCroix confirmed in a letter to the city.
"Our goal is to hopefully last until the provincial government passes a provincial smoke-free bylaw in June 2006," he said.
Added Quin of the Ontario-wide ban: "It will put us all on a level playing field."
Council in October agreed to reduce the bingo licensing fee for each bingo event held in 2005.
http://www.simcoe.com/sc/orillia/v-scv2/story/2875756p-3331038c.html
Stripped of rights -MB
Public trustee takes control of man's life without consent
By TOM BRODBECK Sat, June 25, 2005
Thomas Hanaway, 80, never asked the government to take over his life.
But that's exactly what they've done to the Second World War veteran, cleaning out his bank account, seizing his pension cheques and assuming complete control over his life -- without even asking him or his family.
Hanaway was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease last year but lives with his wife Grace Hanaway, 79, and their son Thomas Hanaway Jr., 47, who care for him in their two-storey North End home.
Hanaway, a bit of a surly old guy with a good sense of humour, can walk and carry on a conversation. He eats on his own. He receives daily visits from home care workers, who bath and care for him.
He appears clean and well taken care of and he likes to watch TV in his living room.
For an 80-year-old man, he seems relatively lucid.
Despite that, the province's chief provincial psychiatrist has deemed him unfit and has appointed the Office of the Public Trustee to take over all of his affairs.
His family can no longer make medical decisions on his behalf. And if he wants to spend his money, he has to get permission from the Public Trustee, which has stripped him of some of his most basic rights.
"I never asked for this," he told me, after I spent a couple of days with the family this week. "I don't want to be under their wing."
Should scare families
This is a story that should scare the living hell out of anyone approaching old age. And it should scare their families, too.
This isn't just a story about our nanny state overstepping its bounds a little.
This is about state control of our lives. It's about the arbitrary loss of your freedom.
"It's not like he's living alone and not being taken care of," said Tom Hanaway, Jr., who says he's in disbelief over what's happened the past two months. "We look after him."
Hanaway attends a day program for geriatric people. Staff recommended he undergo a psychiatric assessment, which took place in April. The assessment concluded Hanaway was not capable of managing his affairs due to "health problems."
The assessment was forwarded to the chief provincial psychiatrist, according to documents obtained by The Sun.
And on May 24, the director of psychiatric services, Dr. Donald Rodgers, wrote Hanaway stating he planned to issue an "order of committeeship" that would allow the Public Trustee to take over his affairs.
Amazingly, this is all legal.
The order was made June 6 and the Public Trustee immediately seized Hanaway's bank account -- without the consent of him or his family -- and began taking over all of his financial affairs. They took $900 out of a joint account shared by him and his wife Grace, even though some of the money came from Grace's pension cheques.
"I can't believe something like this is possible," said Louise Lamaga, 57, Hanaway's daughter, an elementary school teacher living in Hadashville, about 100 km east of Winnipeg. "This is too ridiculous to even be believable."
Lamaga is in close contact with her father and visits the family home regularly. She says he's cared for, he's fed and his affairs are all taken care of by family.
The decision to take over Hanaway's life appears to revolve entirely around the psychiatric assessment. It's unknown what Hanaway did or said that triggered the Public Trustee order.
Lamaga said she has asked the chief provincial psychiatrist for her father's file but they refused, saying it was "confidential medical information."
Lamaga says if her father is incompetent, then why would the chief provincial psychiatrist base his decision to take over her father's affairs solely on what he said without investigating further?
No home visit or face-to-face interviews were conducted with Hanaway's family before the order was made, the family says.
Dr. Rogers was unavailable for comment yesterday.
To add insult to injury, the Public Trustee is now charging Hanaway to take care of him.
They charge $60 an hour for inspection visits and $40 an hour for travel time. They take a 3% cut of his income -- in his case, Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security cheques -- and if there are any legal fees, Hanaway has to pay those, too.
They even charge him GST on the fees.
I sat in on the first face-to-face meeting between the family and the Public Trustee this week at Hanaway's home, unbeknownst to the bureaucrats in the room.
It was shocking to say the least.
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2005/06/25/1103871-sun.html
RE: SANDI Martin's June 24 letter. Martin thinks the ban on smoking on the patio is wrong. Well, then, my mother who had half of a lung removed and who doesn't smoke shouldn't be able to sit in the sun and enjoy her lunch while breathing?
S. Hamelin
(There are worse things in outdoor air.)
http://www.edmontonsun.com/Comment/Letters/2005/06/25/1103845.html
Smog kills 260 locally each year
Brian Cross Windsor Star
Death rate 35% higher here than Ontario average: OMA Saturday, June 25, 2005
Two hundred and sixty people will die here from smog this year, at a rate 35-per-cent higher than the provincial average, the Ontario Medical Association reported Friday.
The smog death figures clearly show the southwestern tip of Ontario -- Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia-Lambton -- is paying the largest human toll, primarily because this is the point of entry for prevailing winds that carry the pollution from coal-fired power plants in the Ohio Valley. Just last week, the Ontario Environment Ministry revealed that on bad air days, 90 per cent of Windsor's air pollution comes from the U.S. midwest.
Elsewhere in the province, transborder pollution accounts for 55 per cent of the bad air.
"We are the front-line troops in the invasion of bad air from the Ohio Valley," said Ron Elliott, co-ordinator of the Windsor Essex County Environment Committee.
Friday's OMA report follows up on one released last week in which the doctors' association forecast that 5,800 Ontarians -- about 48 per 100,000 population -- will die this year prematurely due to air pollution. If nothing is done, the death toll will hit 10,000 by 2026, the OMA says. In many cases, these are people whose pre-existing health problems are exacerbated by pollution.
Windsor's death rate of 65 per 100,000 population is higher than Toronto's 55, Hamilton's 56, London's 53 and Ottawa's 35. The report estimates that bad air will annually result locally in: 900 hospital admissions, 2,750 emergency room visits, 1.3 million sick days, health-care costs of $23 million and lost productivity for employers equal to $17 million.
"It impacts everyone," said Dr. Deborah Hellyer, a Windsor respirologist who sits on the OMA board.
"Yes, it impacts children and the elderly, but smog really does impact everyone's health."
People with asthma, heart disease and chronic lung diseases like emphysema tend to get sicker on bad air days, and these problems become more difficult to control, Hellyer said.
But smog affects more than people who are already sick. The fine particles that come primarily from diesel truck fumes and coal-fired plants are absorbed by the lungs of healthy people, too. Over a long time, they can lead to a dramatic decline in health, Hellyer said. "It can result in elevated blood pressure, heart disease such as heart attack, congestive heart failure, asthma, chronic lung disease."
Friday's information reinforces the need to take action against the smog days that have become so commonplace this time of year, Hellyer said. They lead to lost days at work and school. Even when people get in to work they're not performing at their optimum level.
"People have to start taking these smog alert days seriously," she said.
"We don't need to barbeque on days like (Friday). We don't need to mow our lawns. We can take public transit or drive others to work."
Although the biggest culprit may be cross-border pollution, "that's not to say we shouldn't be doing things locally to reduce our impact, because that stuff sticks around here," Elliott said. "If you can smell your neighbour's lawnmower, you know you're getting it."
Because cross-border pollution is such a big local contributor to bad air, Elliott's group has been taking its fight to Michigan and Ohio in recent years, fighting applications for new Michigan incinerators and a new coke plant in Toledo.
MP Brian Masse (NDP -- Windsor West) said the federal government must become more forceful in opposing the firing up of more U.S. coal-powered plants and other operations that affect our quality of life.
"It's a major international problem for our country that has to be put to the front of our priority list, and I don't think (Prime Minister Paul) Martin has done that," Masse said.
POLLUTANTS:
Ground-level ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide are the four pollutants examined by the OMA for their effect on health and longevity.
Ran with fact box "Pollutants" which has been appended to the story.
http://www.canada.com/windsor/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=
d738c6d9-bca5-4f02-bac7-f923a923a90e
Posted at 12:46 am by looped_ca
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